Agroecology has been proposed as a key building block for food sovereignty. This article examines the meaning, practices and potentials of ‘
transformative agroecology learning
’ as a collective ...strategy for food system transformation. Our study is based on our qualitative and action research with the European Coordination of Via Campesina to develop the European Agroecology Knowledge Exchange Network (EAKEN). This network is linked to the global network of La Via Campesina and builds on the strong experiences and traditions of popular education in Latin American peasant movements. Rather than focusing on agroecology education as a process of individual learning, we analyse how a transformative agroecology education can be strengthened as a critical repertoire of action used by social movements to advance food sovereignty. Our analysis contributes a new theory of transformative agroecology learning based on four key characteristics or qualities: horizontalism;
diálogo de saberes
(wisdom dialogues); combining practical and political knowledge; and building social movement networks. While these different elements of transformative agroecology learning were present across EAKEN, they were unevenly developed and, in many cases, not systematized. The framework can help to strategically and reflexively systematize and strengthen a transformative agroecology learning approach as a key building block for food sovereignty.
A model based on Rayleigh–Gans–Debye light‐scattering theory has been developed to describe the light transmission properties of fine‐grained, fully dense, polycrystalline ceramics consisting of ...birefringent crystals. This model extends light transmission models based on geometrical optics, which are valid only for coarse‐grained microstructures, to smaller crystal sizes. We verify our model by measuring the light transmission properties of fully dense (>99.99%), polycrystalline α‐Al2O3 (PCA) with mean crystal sizes ranging from 60 to 0.3 μm. The remarkable transparency exhibited by PCA samples with small crystal sizes (<2 μm) is well explained by this model.
Randomized controlled trials evaluating real-time continuous glucose monitoring (RT-CGM) patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) show improved glycemic control, but limited data are available on ...real-world use.
To assess impact of RT-CGM in real-world settings on glycemic control, hospital admissions, work absenteeism, and quality of life (QOL).
Prospective, observational, multicenter, cohort study.
A total of 515 adults with T1D on continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) therapy starting in the Belgian RT-CGM reimbursement program.
Initiation of RT-CGM reimbursement.
Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) evolution from baseline to 12 months.
Between September 1, 2014, and December 31, 2016, 515 adults entered the reimbursement system. Over this period, 417 (81%) patients used RT-CGM for at least 12 months. Baseline HbA1c was 7.7 ± 0.9% (61 ± 9.8 mmol/mol) and decreased to 7.4 ± 0.8% (57 ± 8.7 mmol/mol) at 12 months (P < 0.0001). Subjects who started RT-CGM because of insufficient glycemic control showed stronger decrease in HbA1c at 4, 8, and 12 months compared with patients who started because of hypoglycemia or pregnancy. In the year preceding reimbursement, 16% of patients were hospitalized for severe hypoglycemia or ketoacidosis in contrast to 4% (P < 0.0005) the following year, with decrease in admission days from 54 to 18 per 100 patient years (P < 0.0005). In the same period, work absenteeism decreased and QOL improved significantly, with strong decline in fear of hypoglycemia.
Sensor-augmented pump therapy in patients with T1D followed in specialized centers improves HbA1c, fear of hypoglycemia, and QOL, whereas work absenteeism and admissions for acute diabetes complications decreased.
Aims. We investigate the possibility that the observed sea-otter shape of the asteroid Itokawa, associated with the presence of big boulders on its surface, originates from the reaccumulation process ...that may have formed this asteroid, assuming that it consists of reaccumulated fragments from a catastrophically disrupted parent body. Methods. We computed the gravitational phase of an asteroid disruption, during which fragments can reaccumulate and form aggregates, using a version of the N-body code pkdgrav that includes a model of rigid aggregates. This new model allows the formation of non-idealized rubble piles as a result of reaccumulation that are made up of irregular, competent pieces. Shape and spin information of reaccumulated bodies are thus preserved by allowing fragments to stick on contact (and optionally bounce or cause further fragmentation, depending on user-selectable parameters), instead of merging into growing spheres. Results. We find that the reaccumulation process of an asteroid disruption can produce aggregates whose form is similar to that of Itokawa, and can lead to the deposit of big boulders on the surface, as observed on Itokawa.
Management of acute lateral ankle ligament injury in the athlete van den Bekerom, Michel P. J.; Kerkhoffs, Gino M. M. J.; McCollum, Graham A. ...
Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA,
06/2013, Letnik:
21, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Purpose
Inversion injuries involve about 25 % of all injuries of the musculoskeletal system and about 50 % of these injuries are sport-related. This article reviews the acute lateral ankle injuries ...with special emphasis on a rationale for treatment of these injuries in athletes.
Methods
A narrative review was performed using Pubmed/Medline, Ovid and Embase using key words: ankle ligaments, injury, lateral ligament, ankle sprain and athlete. Articles related to the topic were included and reviewed.
Results
It is estimated that one inversion injury of the ankle occurs for every 10,000 people each day. Ankle sprains constitute 7–10 % of all admissions to hospital emergency departments. Inversion injuries involve about 25 % of all injuries of the musculoskeletal system, and about 50 % of these injuries are sport-related. The lateral ankle ligament complex consists of three ligaments: the anterior talofibular ligament, the calcaneofibular ligament and the posterior talofibular ligament. The most common trauma mechanism is supination and adduction (inversion) of the plantar-flexed foot.
Conclusion
Delayed physical examination provides a more accurate diagnosis. Ultrasound and MRI can be useful in diagnosing associated injury and are routine investigations in professional athletes. Successful treatment of grade II and III acute lateral ankle ligament injuries can be achieved with individualized aggressive, non-operative measures. RICE therapy is the treatment of choice for the first 4–5 days to reduce pain and swelling. Initially, 10–14 days of immobilization in a below the knee cast/brace is beneficial followed by a period in a lace-up brace or functional taping reduces the risk of recurrent injury. Acute repair of the lateral ankle ligaments in grade III injuries in professional athletes may give better results.
Level of evidence
IV.
The Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission will be the first space experiment to demonstrate asteroid impact hazard mitigation by using a kinetic impactor to deflect an asteroid. AIDA ...is an international cooperation, consisting of two mission elements: the NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission and the ESA Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) rendezvous mission. The primary goals of AIDA are (i) to test our ability to perform a spacecraft impact on a potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid and (ii) to measure and characterize the deflection caused by the impact. The AIDA target will be the binary near-Earth asteroid (65803) Didymos, with the deflection experiment to occur in late September, 2022. The DART impact on the secondary member of the binary at ~7km/s is expected to alter the binary orbit period by about 4 minutes, assuming a simple transfer of momentum to the target, and this period change will be measured by Earth-based observatories. The AIM spacecraft will characterize the asteroid target and monitor results of the impact in situ at Didymos. The DART mission is a full-scale kinetic impact to deflect a 150m diameter asteroid, with known impactor conditions and with target physical properties characterized by the AIM mission. Predictions for the momentum transfer efficiency of kinetic impacts are given for several possible target types of different porosities, using Housen and Holsapple (2011) crater scaling model for impact ejecta mass and velocity distributions. Results are compared to numerical simulation results using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics code of Jutzi and Michel (2014) with good agreement. The model also predicts that the ejecta from the DART impact may make Didymos into an active asteroid, forming an ejecta coma that may be observable from Earth-based telescopes. The measurements from AIDA of the momentum transfer from the DART impact, the crater size and morphology, and the evolution of an ejecta coma will substantially advance understanding of impact processes on asteroids.
•AIDA will be the first space mission to demonstrate asteroid impact hazard mitigation.•AIDA will use a kinetic impactor to deflect an asteroid and measure the deflection.•AIDA is an international cooperation between ESA and NASA.•AIDA will study asteroid strength, surface physical properties and internal structure.
Summary Every year, more than 2 million women worldwide are diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer, yet where a woman lives, her socioeconomic status, and agency largely determines whether she will ...develop one of these cancers and will ultimately survive. In regions with scarce resources, fragile or fragmented health systems, cancer contributes to the cycle of poverty. Proven and cost-effective interventions are available for both these common cancers, yet for so many women access to these is beyond reach. These inequities highlight the urgent need in low-income and middle-income countries for sustainable investments in the entire continuum of cancer control, from prevention to palliative care, and in the development of high-quality population-based cancer registries. In this first paper of the Series on health, equity, and women’s cancers, we describe the burden of breast and cervical cancer, with an emphasis on global and regional trends in incidence, mortality, and survival, and the consequences, especially in socioeconomically disadvantaged women in different settings.
We investigate the quantum Heisenberg model on the pyrochlore lattice for a generic spinSin the presence of nearest-neighborJ1and second-nearest-neighborJ2exchange interactions. By employing the ...pseudofermion functional renormalization group method, we find, forS=1/2andS=1, an extended quantum-spin-liquid phase centered aroundJ2=0, which is shown to be robust against the introduction of breathing anisotropy. The effects of temperature, quantum fluctuations, breathing anisotropies, and aJ2coupling on the nature of the scattering profile, and the pinch points, in particular, are studied. For the magnetic phases of theJ1−J2model, quantum fluctuations are shown to renormalize phase boundaries compared to the classical model and to modify the ordering wave vectors of spiral magnetic states, while no new magnetic orders are stabilized.
Contestations over knowledge – and who controls its production – are a key focus of social movements and other actors that promote food sovereignty, agroecology and biocultural diversity. This book ...critically examines the kinds of knowledge and ways of knowing needed for food sovereignty, agroecology and biocultural diversity. ‘Food sovereignty’ is understood here as a transformative process that seeks to recreate the democratic realm and regenerate a diversity of autonomous food systems based on agroecology, biocultural diversity, equity, social justice and ecological sustainability. It is shown that alternatives to the current model of development require radically different knowledges and epistemologies from those on offer today in mainstream institutions (including universities, policy think tanks and donor organizations). To achieve food sovereignty, agroecology and biocultural diversity, there is a need to re-imagine and construct knowledge for diversity, decentralisation, dynamic adaptation and democracy. The authors critically explore the changes in organizations, research paradigms and professional practice that could help transform and co-create knowledge for a new modernity based on plural definitions of wellbeing. Particular attention is given to institutional, pedagogical and methodological innovations that can enhance cognitive justice by giving hitherto excluded citizens more power and agency in the construction of knowledge. The book thus contributes to the democratization of knowledge and power in the domain of food, environment and society.
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