Totalitarianism and geography: L.S. Berg and the defence of an academic discipline in the age of Stalin

In considering the complex relationship between science and politics, the article focuses upon the career of the eminent Russian scholar, Lev Semenovich Berg (1876–1950), one of the leading geographers of the Stalin period. Already before the Russian Revolution, Berg had developed a naturalistic notion of landscape geography which later appeared to contradict some aspects of Marxist–Leninist ideology. Based partly upon Berg's personal archive, the article discusses the effects of the 1917 revolution, the radical changes which Stalin's cultural revolution (from the late 1920s) brought upon Soviet science, and the attacks made upon Berg and his concept of landscape geography thereafter. The ways in which Berg managed to defend his notion of geography (sometimes in surprisingly bold ways) are considered. It is argued that geography's position under Stalin was different from that of certain other disciplines in that its ideological disputes may have been regarded as of little significance by the party leaders, certainly by comparison with its practical importance, thus providing a degree of ‘freedom’ for some geographers at least analogous to that which has been described by Weiner (1999. A little corner of freedom: Russian nature protection from Stalin to Gorbachev. Berkeley: University of California Press) for conservationists. It is concluded that Berg and others successfully upheld a concept of scientific integrity and limited autonomy even under Stalinism, and that, in an era of ‘Big Science’, no modernizing state could or can afford to emasculate these things entirely

Towards implementing artificial intelligence post-processing in weather and climate: Proposed actions from the Oxford 2019 workshop

The most mature aspect of applying artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) to problems in the atmospheric sciences is likely post-processing of model output. This article provides some history and current state of the science of post-processing with AI for weather and climate models. Deriving from the discussion at the 2019 Oxford workshop on Machine Learning for Weather and Climate, this paper also presents thoughts on medium-term goals to advance such use of AI, which include assuring that algorithms are trustworthy and interpretable, adherence to FAIR data practices to promote usability, and development of techniques that leverage our physical knowledge of the atmosphere. The coauthors propose several actionable items and have initiated one of those: a repository for datasets from various real weather and climate problems that can be addressed using AI. Five such datasets are presented and permanently archived, together with Jupyter notebooks to process them and assess the results in comparison with a baseline technique. The coauthors invite the readers to test their own algorithms in comparison with the baseline and to archive their results

A silent cry for leadership : organizing for leading (in) clusters

Leadership research so far has neglected clusters as a particular context for leadership, while research on networks and clusters has hardly studied leadership issues. This paper fills this dual gap in the abundant research on leadership on the one hand and on networks/clusters on the other by investigating leadership in photonics clusters from a structuration perspective. Apart from giving an insight into the variety and patterns of leadership practices observed, the paper addresses the dilemma that regional innovation systems such as clusters usually have a critical need of some kind of leadership, but that neither individual nor organizational actors wish to be led. This dilemma can only be ‘managed’ by organizing for leading (in) clusters in a certain way

Gravitational Collapse and Disk Formation in Magnetized Cores

We discuss the effects of the magnetic field observed in molecular clouds on the process of star formation, concentrating on the phase of gravitational collapse of low-mass dense cores, cradles of sunlike stars. We summarize recent analytic work and numerical simulations showing that a substantial level of magnetic field diffusion at high densities has to occur in order to form rotationally supported disks. Furthermore, newly formed accretion disks are threaded by the magnetic field dragged from the parent core during the gravitational collapse. These disks are expected to rotate with a sub-Keplerian speed because they are partially supported by magnetic tension against the gravity of the central star. We discuss how sub-Keplerian rotation makes it difficult to eject disk winds and accelerates the process of planet migration. Moreover, magnetic fields modify the Toomre criterion for gravitational instability via two opposing effects: magnetic tension and pressure increase the disk local stability, but sub-Keplerian rotation makes the disk more unstable. In general, magnetized disks are more stable than their nonmagnetic counterparts; thus, they can be more massive and less prone to the formation of giant planets by gravitational instability.Comment: Chapter 16 in "Magnetic Fields in Diffuse Media", Springer-Verlag, eds. de Gouveia Dal Pino, E., Lazarian, A., Melioli,

Genomic comparisons reveal biogeographic and anthropogenic impacts in the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus): a dietary-specialist species distributed across heterogeneous environments

The Australian koala is an iconic marsupial with highly specific dietary requirements distributed across heterogeneous environments, over a large geographic range. The distribution and genetic structure of koala populations has been heavily influenced by human actions, specifically habitat modification, hunting and translocation of koalas. There is currently limited information on population diversity and gene flow at a species-wide scale, or with consideration to the potential impacts of local adaptation. Using species-wide sampling across heterogeneous environments, and high-density genome-wide markers (SNPs and PAVs), we show that most koala populations display levels of diversity comparable to other outbred species, except for those populations impacted by population reductions. Genetic clustering analysis and phylogenetic reconstruction reveals a lack of support for current taxonomic classification of three koala subspecies, with only a single evolutionary significant unit supported. Furthermore, similar to 70% of genetic variance is accounted for at the individual level. The Sydney Basin region is highlighted as a unique reservoir of genetic diversity, having higher diversity levels (i.e., Blue Mountains region; AvHe(corr)-0.20, PL% = 68.6). Broad-scale population differentiation is primarily driven by an isolation by distance genetic structure model (49% of genetic variance), with clinal local adaptation corresponding to habitat bioregions. Signatures of selection were detected between bioregions, with no single region returning evidence of strong selection. The results of this study show that although the koala is widely considered to be a dietary-specialist species, this apparent specialisation has not limited the koala's ability to maintain gene flow and adapt across divergent environments as long as the required food source is available

Identification of 12 new susceptibility loci for different histotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer.

To identify common alleles associated with different histotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), we pooled data from multiple genome-wide genotyping projects totaling 25,509 EOC cases and 40,941 controls. We identified nine new susceptibility loci for different EOC histotypes: six for serous EOC histotypes (3q28, 4q32.3, 8q21.11, 10q24.33, 18q11.2 and 22q12.1), two for mucinous EOC (3q22.3 and 9q31.1) and one for endometrioid EOC (5q12.3). We then performed meta-analysis on the results for high-grade serous ovarian cancer with the results from analysis of 31,448 BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers, including 3,887 mutation carriers with EOC. This identified three additional susceptibility loci at 2q13, 8q24.1 and 12q24.31. Integrated analyses of genes and regulatory biofeatures at each locus predicted candidate susceptibility genes, including OBFC1, a new candidate susceptibility gene for low-grade and borderline serous EOC

Landscape-scale conservation planning in a changing climate : a koala case study

ABSTRACT The extinctions of species and the decline of biodiversity due to human-induced habitat loss and landscape fragmentation continue globally. Compounding these threats is rapid anthropogenic climate change, which will cause many species and their habitats to experience shifts in their distributions and even extinctions. For effective conservation planning, it is critical we understand where these climate change-induced range shifts are likely to occur, which are co-occurring with existing stressors and what we can do to try and help solve this problem. There are now many modelling techniques and conservation planning tools that can provide quantitative and robust information to support conservation planning decisions under future climate change. The aim of this thesis was to advance the understanding of how the distributions of species and their essential habitats will shift in response to climate change, so that conservation planning resources can be invested most effectively. This was achieved by using the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) as a case study species. I chose the koala because it is a wide-ranging endemic specialist folivore that is vulnerable to land clearing and anthropogenic climate change. The koala family (Phascolarctidae) has an ancient history of adaptation to the Australian landscape and climate that has spanned tens of millions of years and incorporated numerous genera and species. Today, P. cinereus is the only remaining member of this ancient family and its future survival in the wild is becoming increasingly tenuous. This project applied landscape-scale species distribution modelling techniques and a conservation prioritisation framework to explore the past, present and future distribution of the koala. Firstly, I investigated the fossil records of koalas to ascertain their historical distribution and found that in the past, koalas have inhabited areas of Australia such as Central and Western Australia, where they no longer occur. Using bioclimatic modelling, I developed a ‘climate envelope’ for koalas and found that modern koalas occur at a temperature range of -4 oC to 37.7 oC (mean annual 16.4 oC) and an annual precipitation range of 234 to 2480 mm (mean annual 863 mm). I then examined their potential distribution, or climate refugia, at the Last Glacial Maximum and showed that their core range contracted significantly to small areas of southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales. Secondly, species distribution modelling was undertaken for koalas throughout their modern range in eastern Australia and under a range of future climate change scenarios. I found that their distribution will contract progressively eastwards and southwards under climate change and koalas will disappear from their western regions. The highest probability of koala presence occurred between mean maximum summer temperatures of 23 oC and 26 oC and mean annual rainfall of between 700 and 1500 mm and the most important variable was mean maximum summer temperatures. Finally, for the state of Queensland, a prioritisation analysis was applied to identify the local government area districts that are the highest priority for conservation resources. To do this I used species distribution models predicting the probability distributions of koalas and their critical food and habitat resources in Queensland, under current and future climate change scenarios. These probability models were used as habitat layers to identify priority local government areas, using the conservation planning software Zonation for four scenarios based on: 1) koalas predicted distribution under the current climate, 2) koalas and their major food trees predicted distributions under the current climate, 3) koalas and their major food trees predicted distributions under current, 2030 and 2050 climates and 4) koalas and their major food trees predicted distributions under the 2050 climate. It was important to use this combination of scenarios so that the effects of including the koala food trees in the prioritisation analysis could be ascertained. By 2050, the potential overlaps between predicted koala distributions and their critical food trees were reduced, with koalas in western regions contracting further eastwards than their key food tree E. camaldulensis (river red gum). By 2070, the koala and two key food trees, E. tereticornis, (forest red gum) and E. crebra, (narrow-leaved ironbark) were limited to a narrow zone of coastal southeast Queensland. By 2050, there was a decrease in priority western areas and a general concentration of priority areas in the more costly and rapidly urbanising southeast Queensland regions, therefore posing significant conservation investment challenges. This thesis makes an important contribution to furthering the understanding of the impact of climate change on species and their habitats, by simultaneously modelling a specialist folivore and its essential eucalypt food trees. It demonstrates a novel quantitative approach to deciding where conservation planning resources should be invested, for a species dependent on a specialised habitat requirement, to gain the most effective conservation planning outcomes, particularly under climate change

Koalas, people and climate change: not a good mix

The koala is an iconic Australian native marsupial that has a very limited diet. It can only eat certain trees – predominantly eucalypts – that contain particular leaf chemistry (such as high levels of nitrogen) and moisture. The koala’s habitat and food trees have been relentlessly cleared since European settlement. Koalas were also hunted to near extinction in many parts of eastern Australia for the fur trade. On 22 September, a Senate inquiry released its report, The koala - saving our national icon. The inquiry made 19 recommendations, and called for more funding for koala research. The environment minister is now considering whether to list the species as threatened