Louis-Ferdinand Céline, literary genius or national pariah? Defining moral parameters for influential cultural figures, post- Charlie Hebdo

In January 2011 the French Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, withdrew Louis-Ferdinand Céline from a list of famous French authors specifically selected for a national celebration of culture. This bold decision polarized opinion: while many welcomed Mitterrand’s intervention, a number of prominent writers, some of them Jewish, opposed it on the grounds that Céline’s abhorrent political beliefs – expressed in three anti-Semitic pamphlets and his flirtation with Nazism- should in no way detract from his literary genius. In the light of this controversy, and of the rise in anti-Semitism following the Charlie Hebdo attacks of January 2015, this paper proposes Céline as a vital case study of the moral parameters a democratic nation should apply to a culturally important figure whose political views are deemed unacceptably reactionary

Performance Of A Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber Exposed To The WANF Neutrino Beam

We present the results of the first exposure of a Liquid Argon TPC to a multi-GeV neutrino beam. The data have been collected with a 50 liters ICARUS-like chamber located between the CHORUS and NOMAD experiments at the CERN West Area Neutrino Facility (WANF). We discuss both the instrumental performance of the detector and its capability to identify and reconstruct low multiplicity neutrino interactions.Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures. Submitted for publication to Physical Review

Towards global spaceborne lidar biomass: Developing and applying boreal forest biomass models for ICESat-2 laser altimetry data

Space-based laser altimetry has revolutionized our capacity to characterize terrestrial ecosystems through the direct observation of vegetation structure and the terrain beneath it. Data from NASA's ICESat-2 mission provide the first comprehensive look at canopy structure for boreal forests from space-based lidar. The objective of this research was to create ICESat-2 aboveground biomass density (AGBD) models for the global entirety of boreal forests at a 30 m spatial resolution and apply those models to ICESat-2 data from the 2019–2021 period. Although limited in dense canopy, ICESat-2 is the only space-based laser altimeter capable of mapping vegetation in northern latitudes. Along each ICESat-2 orbit track, ground and vegetation height is captured with additional modeling required to characterize biomass. By implementing a similar methodology of estimating AGBD as GEDI, ICESat-2 AGBD estimates can complement GEDI's estimates for a full global accounting of aboveground carbon. Using a suite of field measurements with contemporaneous airborne lidar data over boreal forests, ICESat-2 photons were simulated over many field sites and the impact of two methods of computing relative height (RH) metrics on AGBD at a 30 m along-track spatial resolution were tested; with and without ground photons. AGBD models were developed specifically for ICESat-2 segments having land cover as either Evergreen Needleleaf or Deciduous Broadleaf Trees, whereas a generalized boreal-wide AGBD model was developed for ICESat-2 segments whose land cover was neither. Applying our AGBD models to a set of over 19 million ICESat-2 observations yielded a 30 m along-track AGBD product for the pan-boreal. The ability demonstrated herein to calculate ICESat-2 biomass estimates at a 30 m spatial resolution provides the scientific underpinning for a full, spatially explicit, global accounting of aboveground biomass

Implementaion of Regional Burnt Area Algorithms for the GBA2000 initiative

Technical Report - Global Burnt Area 200

Biomass burning fuel consumption rates: a field measurement database

Landscape fires show large variability in the amount of biomass or fuel consumed per unit area burned. Fuel consumption (FC) depends on the biomass available to burn and the fraction of the biomass that is actually combusted, and can be combined with estimates of area burned to assess emissions. While burned area can be detected from space and estimates are becoming more reliable due to improved algorithms and sensors, FC is usually modeled or taken selectively from the literature. We compiled the peerreviewed literature on FC for various biomes and fuel categories to understand FC and its variability better, and to provide a database that can be used to constrain biogeochemical models with fire modules. We compiled in total 77 studies covering 11 biomes including savanna (15 studies, average FC of 4.6 t DM (dry matter) ha 1 with a standard deviation of 2.2),tropical forest (n = 19, FC = 126 +/- 77),temperate forest (n = 12, FC = 58 +/- 72),boreal forest (n = 16, FC = 35 +/- 24),pasture (n = 4, FC = 28 +/- 9.3),shifting cultivation (n = 2, FC = 23, with a range of 4.0-43),crop residue (n = 4, FC = 6.5 +/- 9.0),chaparral (n = 3, FC = 27 +/- 19),tropical peatland (n = 4, FC = 314 +/- 196),boreal peatland (n = 2, FC = 42 [42-43]),and tundra (n = 1, FC = 40). Within biomes the regional variability in the number of measurements was sometimes large, with e. g. only three measurement locations in boreal Russia and 35 sites in North America. Substantial regional differences in FC were found within the defined biomes: for example, FC of temperate pine forests in the USA was 37% lower than Australian forests dominated by eucalypt trees. Besides showing the differences between biomes, FC estimates were also grouped into different fuel classes. Our results highlight the large variability in FC, not only between biomes but also within biomes and fuel classes. This implies that substantial uncertainties are associated with using biome-averaged values to represent FC for whole biomes. Comparing the compiled FC values with co-located Global Fire Emissions Database version 3 (GFED3) FC indicates that modeling studies that aim to represent variability in FC also within biomes, still require improvements as they have difficulty in representing the dynamics governing FC

Food security through translational biology between wheat and rice

Wheat and rice are the most important food crops in agriculture providing around 50% of all calories consumed in the human diet. While both are C3 species, the evolution and domestication of wheat and rice occurred in very different environments, resulting in diverse anatomical and metabolic adaptation. This review focuses on the current understanding of their adaptation in an agronomic context. The similarities and differences between wheat and rice are discussed, focusing on traits related to phenology, photosynthesis, assimilate partitioning, and lodging resistance, these being the main abiotic drivers of yield expression in most agro‐ecosystems. Currently, there are significant knowledge gaps in the major biological processes that account not only for differential adaption among cultivars within each species, but even between the two species. By addressing what is known as well as where gaps exist in a comparative context, this review aims to highlight translational research approaches that could provide insights into the genetic improvement of both crops

Housing Arrangement and Location Determine the Likelihood of Housing Loss Due to Wildfire

Surging wildfires across the globe are contributing to escalating residential losses and have major social, economic, and ecological consequences. The highest losses in the U.S. occur in southern California, where nearly 1000 homes per year have been destroyed by wildfires since 2000. Wildfire risk reduction efforts focus primarily on fuel reduction and, to a lesser degree, on house characteristics and homeowner responsibility. However, the extent to which land use planning could alleviate wildfire risk has been largely missing from the debate despite large numbers of homes being placed in the most hazardous parts of the landscape. Our goal was to examine how housing location and arrangement affects the likelihood that a home will be lost when a wildfire occurs. We developed an extensive geographic dataset of structure locations, including more than 5500 structures that were destroyed or damaged by wildfire since 2001, and identified the main contributors to property loss in two extensive, fire-prone regions in southern California. The arrangement and location of structures strongly affected their susceptibility to wildfire, with property loss most likely at low to intermediate structure densities and in areas with a history of frequent fire. Rates of structure loss were higher when structures were surrounded by wildland vegetation, but were generally higher in herbaceous fuel types than in higher fuel-volume woody types. Empirically based maps developed using housing pattern and location performed better in distinguishing hazardous from non-hazardous areas than maps based on fuel distribution. The strong importance of housing arrangement and location indicate that land use planning may be a critical tool for reducing fire risk, but it will require reliable delineations of the most hazardous locations

T cell subpopulations in lymph nodes may not be predictive of patient outcome in colorectal cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The immune response has been proposed to be an important factor in determining patient outcome in colorectal cancer (CRC). Previous studies have concentrated on characterizing T cell populations in the primary tumour where T cells with regulatory effect (Foxp3+ Tregs) have been identified as both enhancing and diminishing anti-tumour immune responses. No previous studies have characterized the T cell response in the regional lymph nodes in CRC.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Immunohistochemistry was used to analyse CD4, CD8 or Foxp3+ T cell populations in the regional lymph nodes of patients with stage II CRC (n = 31), with (n = 13) or without (n = 18) cancer recurrence after 5 years of follow up, to determine if the priming environment for anti-tumour immunity was associated with clinical outcome.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The proportions of CD4, CD8 or Foxp3+ cells in the lymph nodes varied widely between and within patients, and there was no association between T cell populations and cancer recurrence or other clinicopathological characteristics.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data indicate that frequency of these T cell subsets in lymph nodes may not be a useful tool for predicting patient outcome.</p