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Due to increasing vulnerability to complex global changes, there is a growing need to promote resilient food systems. While food systems operate across scales from local to global, processes of change are rooted in local and regional contexts. In Sweden, the interest in food resilience has increased over the last decade. The aim of this study is to explore the state of Swedish municipalities' work on food system planning in the context of resilient local food systems and food contingency planning. A survey was conducted, with responses received from 73% of Sweden's 290 municipalities. The data were analysed using an established categorisation of municipalities to enable comparison across categorises. Main results show that the majority of municipalities support work to develop local food systems and that there is a local political will to do so. However, political will was reported to be weaker in both very sparsely populated rural municipalities and large city municipalities. The main barriers identified were a lack of clear regulations, insufficient national-level support, and limited resources (funding/staff), particularly regarding how to work with food contingency planning. A lack of resources was more frequently reported by rural municipalities compared to others, potentially indicating a lower capacity to respond to crises in these municipalities. Additionally, few municipalities had developed a local food strategy. Overall, the study highlights that municipalities have been engaged with local food systems for a longer time, while work on food contingency planning has recently begun for the majority.
The use of electronic nicotine delivery systems, such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products (HTPs), is increasing, but knowledge of their short and long-term toxicological effects remains limited. Here, aerosols generated from an e-cigarette using a flavour-free e-liquid base, both with and without nicotine, an HTP, and a conventional cigarette were characterised for the production of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), carbonyls and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Furthermore, extracts from vapour and smoke were generated, and their acute toxicity was assessed in human lung epithelial cells and fibroblasts. Cigarette smoke contained significantly more toxic compounds and induced the highest degree of toxicity in all the tested cell lines, followed by the HTP, and then the nicotine containing e-cigarette. Notably, the nicotine containing e-cigarette produced similar levels of formaldehyde as the HTP and cigarette smoke, and caused a greater decrease in cell viability in primary lung fibroblasts compared to the nicotine-free e-cigarette. Although the HTP aerosol contained lower levels of toxicants than cigarette smoke, some VOCs specific to HTPs were detected. More independent research is needed to identify toxicant-specific production in emerging nicotine delivery systems and their potential health impacts to better inform policy makers, health care providers and the general public.
Choline O-acetyltransferase (ChAT) catalyzes the biosynthesis of acetylcholine and is a cysteine-rich enzyme that has been investigated using a range of biochemical, biophysical and structural approaches. Existing ChAT ligands rely on electrophilic or unstable scaffolds that limit their suitability for biological systems. Prior work established that arylvinylpyridiniums (AVPs) are substrate mimics that undergo ChAT-catalyzed hydrothiolation with CoA to form covalent AVP-CoA adducts. Here, we applied a structure-guided strategy to design nonreactive ligands intended to mimic key features of the AVP-CoA binding pose while avoiding covalent reactivity. Nineteen analogs were synthesized and evaluated across complementary biochemical, structural, and biophysical assays. X-ray crystallography confirmed that the new ligands bind within the ChAT tunnel similar to AVP-CoAs. Importantly, the high cysteine content of ChAT, especially within a reactive CXCXXC motif, rendered the enzyme susceptible to modification by the widely used 7-diethylamino-3-(4'-maleimidylphenyl)-4-methylcoumarin (CPM) reagent used for measuring ChAT activity, leading to confounding results in thiol-dependent activity assays. Enzyme-free counter-screens demonstrated that all apparent inhibitory activity arose from interference with assay readout rather than true enzymatic inhibition. Surface plasmon resonance measurements established that none of the designed ligands display detectable reversible affinity for ChAT, despite their crystallographically validated poses, and no selectivity over the related enzyme carnitine O-acetyltransferase (CrAT) was observed. These findings demonstrate that confirmed binding with X-ray crystallography is insufficient to establish functional interaction with ChAT and highlight the susceptibility of this enzyme to thiol-reactive assay artefacts. More broadly, this work underscores the necessity of integrating orthogonal biophysical validation when studying ligand binding to cysteine-rich enzymes.
This paper describes Skade, a web-based system used to expose technical challenges in a cyber range to trainees, without the involvement of instructors or cyber range engineers. Skade has been evaluated by 45 prospective trainees (e.g., junior threat hunters), each spending 2–5 h on one of three different threat hunting challenges. The trainees’ assessed Skade to be acceptable on the System Usability Scale. Skade is designed to manage difficulty and learning using optional clues, but contrary to our hypotheses, the availability of clues did not affect trainees’ satisfaction with difficulty or perceived learning. Meanwhile, many trainees reported feedback concerning the difficulty level and getting stuck on details. It is concluded that managing the difficulty level of technical educational cyber challenges is important, and remains to be solved.
Underwater radiated noise from small recreational vessels can have significant ecological impacts on near-shore habitats, yet it is often overlooked in soundscape assessments. The objective of this study is to present measured source levels for small recreational vessels and to evaluate an existing source level model (JOMOPANS-ECHO model). The existing model was developed based on data from larger vessels, and the current study focuses on how to modify it for smaller vessels with different hull types. Errors associated with shallow water measurements are also discussed; more specifically, existing methods for accounting for propagation loss are evaluated. Controlled measurements were conducted at five coastal sites for 25 vessels spanning different hull forms, propulsion systems, and operational speeds. Frequency-dependent source level spectra were derived and categorised by hull class (planing, semi-displacement, displacement). The results show clear speed-dependent increases in source level for planing and semi-displacement vessels at higher frequencies (>250 Hz), whereas data for displacement vessels were insufficient to establish statistical trends. The JOMOPANS-ECHO model consistently overestimates the speed dependence. The parameterisations developed here provide class- and speed-specific models suitable for integration into soundscape mapping and cumulative impact assessments.
