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Six decades of global crop yield increase and cropland expansion from 1960 to 2020
Get PDFPopulation growth, changing consumption preferences, technological advances, globalised trade and environmental influences have all shaped global agriculture. An increasing demand for agricultural commodities has led to greater production through land area expansion and/or intensification (represented here as increasing yields). Yet, the interlinkages between global agricultural expansion and intensification, remain unclear. Here we (1) analyse the spatiotemporal patterns of global cropland changes and crop yield changes at a spatial resolution of 1 km during six decades (1960-2020) and (2) explore the relationship between yield increases and cropland expansion across agroecological country zones by applying a temporal cross-correlation and a Granger causality test. We find that high-income countries have followed a trajectory of yield increase and land contraction on croplands, in accordance with the concept of land sparing and mediated by policy. Conversely, low-income countries have increased yields less but substantially expanded cropland area over time. However, emerging countries in tropical regions (e.g. Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Colombia, and Malaysia), had both the highest crop yield increases and cropland expansion rates. By analysing the relationship of annual crop yield and cropland area changes, we see potential rebound effects of yield increases in tropical lowlands of low- to middle-income countries. Our results suggest that high-profit crops such as soybean, oil palm and sugar cane have triggered further agricultural expansion into natural ecosystems. Increasing tree crops is the underlying cause of more than half of the global deforestation for cropland expansion. Overall, the relationship between yield increases and expansion on cropland differs by region and is likely affected to varying degrees by political intervention, global trade, technology transfer and climate change.</p
Constructing and contesting industry’s role in multistakeholder governance:A qualitative analysis of responses to WHO consultations
Get PDFBackgroundMultistakeholderism as a norm stating that global public issues should be addressed by all those who affect or are affected by this issue, has become increasingly institutionalised in global governance, including the United Nations (UN) system. Despite an increasing body of evidence showing the risks of corporate capture of multistakeholder governance (MSG) and its related inability to deliver effective public health outcomes, this approach is increasingly common. While research shows that industry actors have pushed for MSG, and others have questioned its legitimacy, how MSG is constructed, legitimised and contested by different actors has not been systematically studied. Analysing responses to World Health Organization (WHO) consultations related to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and associated risk factors, this study examines how actors construct or contest the legitimacy of MSG to address these public health issues.ResultsOur analysis of 135 responses to 10 consultations revealed significant differences in how actors justified or contested MSG. Proponents of MSG, primarily industry-affiliated organisations, often cited industry expertise and resources as key justifications for a multistakeholder approach, in which they invariably included industry as a key stakeholder. Conversely, non-profit and academic respondents often argued against industry inclusion in MSG, referring to conflicts of interest, corporate capture of the policy process and the associated risks that MSG with industry actors poses to democratic and effective policymaking. While actors commonly invoked the same values (e.g., participation, effectiveness, fairness), they interpreted these differently, to argue for or against the inclusion of industry in MSG.ConclusionOur findings underscore the contested nature of MSG, with actors calling on similar values and terminology to support fundamentally opposing positions. The ambiguity of concepts like participation, accountability and conflicts of interest may risk creating an opportunity for private sector interests to promote MSG as an ambiguous governance concept to fit their agenda. Given the normative role of WHO and other UN agencies in shaping what is considered ‘good governance’, it is essential for the WHO and other UN agencies to critically examine the evidence on multistakeholder approaches before deciding on its appropriateness and use unambiguous terminology when discussing their interpretation of the approach
COSIS’ quest for climate justice:A brief history of the ITLOS advisory opinion
Get PDFThis article provides a brief history of the origins of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS) and its request for an ITLOS advisory opinion. In doing so, it will position COSIS’ journey and the unanimous 2024 ITLOS Advisory Opinion in a broader context of climate justice. Against a backdrop of long-standing frustrations with the failings of the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement COP process to abate dangerous climate change and keep global warming below 1.5 °C, small island States are aware that existing obligations under international law already support their fundamental demands. They have thus taken the reins in a turn to international courts and tribunals in an attempt to level the playing field against major emitters. This brief history and case analysis will reflect on this historic move, discussing the relationship between the parallel proceedings before ITLOS and the ICJ, as well as the procedural and substantive significance of the 2024 ITLOS Advisory Opinion
R-loops acted on by RNase H1 influence DNA replication timing and genome stability in Leishmania
Get PDFGenomes in eukaryotes normally undergo DNA replication in a choreographed temporal order, resulting in early and late replicating chromosome compartments. Leishmania, a human protozoan parasite, displays an unconventional DNA replication program in which the timing of DNA replication completion is chromosome size-dependent: larger chromosomes complete replication later then smaller ones. Here we show that both R-loops and RNase H1, a ribonuclease that resolves RNA-DNA hybrids, accumulate in Leishmania major chromosomes in a pattern that reflects their replication timing. Furthermore, we demonstrate that such differential organisation of R-loops, RNase H1 and DNA replication timing across the parasite’s chromosomes correlates with size-dependent differences in chromatin accessibility, G quadruplex distribution and sequence content. Using conditional gene excision, we show that loss of RNase H1 leads to transient growth perturbation and permanently abrogates the differences in DNA replication timing across chromosomes, as well as altering levels of aneuploidy and increasing chromosome instability in a size-dependent manner. This work provides a link between R-loop homeostasis and DNA replication timing in a eukaryotic parasite and demonstrates that orchestration of DNA replication dictates levels of genome plasticity in Leishmania
Reversible host cell surface remodelling limits immune recognition and maximizes survival of Plasmodium falciparum gametocytes
Get PDFAuthor summary Malaria remains a major global health problem and elimination of this global killer is a top priority. Parasite transmission from human to mosquito is critical for disease spread and hence a major target of interventions. Transmission stages (or gametocytes) develop within red blood cells in the immune protected extravascular spaces of the bone marrow and undergo a series of morphological and biophysical changes. Immature gametocytes are rigid and expose antigens on the red blood cell (RBC) surface, presumably to keep the parasite out of circulation during its maturation. In contrast, mature gametocytes are immunologically silent while they passage through the peripheral circulation in preparation for uptake during a mosquito bite. Here we show that reversible surface antigen exposure during gametocyte maturation coincides with transient flipping of phosphatidylserine (PS), a major component of the RBC membrane, onto the RBC surface. This process depends on a parasite scramblase, while the later PS removal requires a host scramblase. Both antigen and PS exposure can induce parasite clearance by macrophages. When blocking host scramblase activity with inhibitors, PS remains on the RBC surface of mature gametocytes providing a rationale for novel transmission blocking interventions
SV2A Synapse Diversity Project
No full textAn analysis of the expression of SV2A in human and mouse brain synapsesSynapse pathology is a feature of most brain diseases and there is a pressing need to monitor the onset and progression of this pathology using brain imaging in living patients. A major step toward this goal has been the development of small-molecule radiotracers that bind to synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A) for use in positron emission tomography (PET). Changes in SV2A radiotracer binding in PET are widely interpreted to report differences in the density of all synapses throughout brain regions. Here, we analyse the expression of SV2A at single-synapse resolution across regions of adult mouse and human brain. We find that SV2A is expressed in fewer than 50% of excitatory and inhibitory synapses and that the density of SV2A-positive synapses differs between brain regions. Furthermore, individual synapses differ in their amounts of SV2A. These findings have important implications for the interpretation of PET imaging studies in a clinical setting and point to the need for a detailed understanding of SV2A synaptome architecture in both healthy brain and disease cases where PET imaging is being applied
Dataset related to article: "Regulatory T cell depletion promotes myeloid cell activation and glioblastoma response to anti-PD1 and tumor-targeting antibodies"
No full textThis record contains raw data related to article "Regulatory T cell depletion promotes myeloid cell activation and glioblastoma response to anti-PD1 and tumor-targeting antibodies" Abstract: Glioblastoma is invariably lethal and responds poorly to immune checkpoint blockade. Here, we examined the impact of regulatory T (Treg) cell depletion on glioblastoma progression and immunotherapy responsiveness. In human glioblastoma, elevated Treg cell signatures correlated with poorer survival outcomes, with these cells expressing high CD25 levels. In Nf1⁻/⁻Pten⁻/⁻EGFRvIII⁺ glioblastoma-bearing mice, a single dose of non-interleukin-2 (IL-2) blocking (NIB) anti-CD25 antibodies depleted Treg cells and promoted CD8⁺ T cell clonal expansion and partial tumor control, further enhanced by PD1-blockade. Treg cell depletion induced interferon-γ-dependent tumor microenvironment remodeling, increasing Fcγ receptor expression on intratumoral myeloid cells and enhancing phagocytosis. Combining anti-CD25ⁿⁱᵇ with anti-EGFRvIII tumor-targeting antibodies resulted in complete tumor control. Anti-human CD25ⁿⁱᵇ treatment of glioblastoma patient-derived tumor fragments effectively depleted Treg cells and activated CD8⁺ T cells. These findings underscore the therapeutic relevance of Treg targeting in glioblastoma and unveil potent combination strategies for anti-CD25ⁿⁱᵇ based on innate cell activation.Galvez-Cancino, F., Navarrete, M., Beattie, G., Puccio, S., Conde-Gallastegi, E., Foster, K., Morris, Y., Sahwangarrom, T., Karagianni, D., Liu, J., Lee, A. J. X., Garyfallos, D., Simpson, A. P., Mastrokalos, G.-T., Nannini, F., Costoya, C., Anantharam, V., Cianciotti, B. C., Bradley, L., … Quezada, S. A. (2025). Dataset related to article: "Regulatory T cell depletion promotes myeloid cell activation and glioblastoma response to anti-PD1 and tumor-targeting antibodies" [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1524031
Supplementary material for "Robust directional analysis of magnetic microscopy images using non-linear inversion anditerative Euler deconvolution"
No full textThis repository contains the data and source code used to produce the results presented in: Souza-Junior, G. F., Uieda, L., Trindade, R. I. F., Fu, R. R., Bellon, U. D., and Castro, Y. M. (2025). Robust directional analysis of magnetic microscopy images using non-linear inversion and iterative Euler deconvolution. EarthArXiv. doi:10.31223/X5N42F Abstract Scientists often study entire samples to understand their overall properties, but this approach can miss important details. To get a clearer picture, researchers are improving methods that focus on smaller regions of a sample. In paleomagnetism, a field that studies the Earth's ancient magnetic field, magnetic microscopy allows scientists to examine tiny areas with high precision. In this study, we use magnetic microscopy data to determine the direction of magnetization in samples. To do this, we apply a mathematical method called Euler deconvolution, which helps solve complex calculations and reduce uncertainty. We also refine our results with an additional step that improves accuracy and removes unwanted signals. We tested this approach on both simulated and real data. Our results show that this new method can detect weaker magnetic sources and accurately determine the direction of magnetization. When applied to real samples, it successfully identified their original magnetic direction. This represents an important step in using magnetic microscopy for paleomagnetic research. License All Python source code (including .py and .ipynb files) is made available under the MIT license. You can freely use and modify the code, without warranty, so long as you provide attribution to the authors. See LICENSE-MIT.txt for the full license text. The manuscript text (including all LaTeX files), figures, and data/models produced as part of this research are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC-BY). See LICENSE-CC-BY.txt for the full license text.Souza-Junior, G. F., Uieda, L., Trindade, R., Fu, R. R., Donardelli Bellon, U., & Moreira Castro, Y. (2025). Supplementary material for "Robust directional analysis of magnetic microscopy images using non-linear inversion anditerative Euler deconvolution" [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1513265
Ryan-Riggs/RivRetrieve: v0.1.6
No full textUpdated vignetteRyan Riggs, & Simon Moulds. (2025). Ryan-Riggs/RivRetrieve: v0.1.6 (v0.1.6). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1511422
xdslproject/xdsl: v0.32.0
No full textChanges This release brings the Marimo notebooks to the xDSL documentation website: https://xdsl.readthedocs.io/stable/ xDSL framework core: add flag for whether op attributes were printed @superlopuh (#4107) core: fix spacing in print_func_op_like @superlopuh (#4108) Dialects dialects (arm): Add vector with arrangement @emmau678 (#4117) dialects (arm): add arrangement specifier attribute @emmau678 (#4116) dialects: (arm) add helper to print register SSAValues in ARM assembly @superlopuh (#4113) dialects: (csl-module-wrapper) Add target arch param @n-io (#4103) Transformations transforms: Add csl-stencil-set-global-coeffs pass @n-io (#4114) Backend backend: (riscv_func) move p2align to property of riscv_func @superlopuh (#4109) backend: add emit_section helper to AssemblyPrinter @superlopuh (#4106) Documentation documentation: embed marimo notebooks in docs website @superlopuh (#3778) documentation: Fix HTML markup for URL links in docstrings @compor (#4115) Bug Fixes misc: loosen type restriction in dialect_codegen out parameter @superlopuh (#4098) Installation pip prod(deps): bump marimo from 0.11.28 to 0.11.30 @dependabot (#4121) pip prod(deps): bump textual from 2.1.2 to 3.0.0 @dependabot (#4120) pip prod(deps): bump marimo from 0.11.26 to 0.11.28 @dependabot (#4104) pip prod(deps): bump pytest-asyncio from 0.25.3 to 0.26.0 @dependabot (#4105) pip prod(deps): bump ruff from 0.11.1 to 0.11.2 @dependabot (#4100) pip prod(deps): bump marimo from 0.11.23 to 0.11.26 @dependabot (#4099) Miscellaneous misc: lint some markdown files in project @superlopuh (#4118) documentation: Fix HTML markup for URL links in docstrings @compor (#4115) misc: catch DiagnosticExceptions thrown in xDSLOptMain targets @superlopuh (#4110) pip prod(deps): bump pytest-asyncio from 0.25.3 to 0.26.0 @dependabot (#4105) misc: Add explicit key check in ScopedDict. @jumerckx (#4102) misc: loosen type restriction in dialect_codegen out parameter @superlopuh (#4098)Sasha Lopoukhine, Fehr Mathieu, Emilien Bauer, Anton Lydike, Nicolai Stawinoga, Alex Rice, Michel Weber, Chris Vasiladiotis, Dalia Shaaban, George Bisbas, kingiler, Tobias Grosser, kayode-gif, Joren Dumoulin, Nick Brown, Théo Degioanni, David K, KGrykiel, Prathamesh Tagore, … George Mitenkov. (2025). xdslproject/xdsl: v0.32.0 (v0.31.1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1510670
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