A new web-based system to improve the monitoring of snow avalanche hazard in France

International audienceSnow avalanche data in the French Alps and Pyrenees have been recorded for more than 100 years in several databases. The increasing amount of observed data required a more integrative and automated service. Here we report the comprehensive web-based Snow Avalanche Information System newly developed to this end for three important data sets: an avalanche chronicle (Enquete Permanente sur les Avalanches, EPA), an avalanche map (Carte de Localisation des Phenomenes d'Avalanche, CLPA) and a compilation of hazard and vulnerability data recorded on selected paths endangering human settlements (Sites Habites Sensibles aux Avalanches, SSA). These data sets are now integrated into a common database, enabling full interoperability between all different types of snow avalanche records: digitized geographic data, avalanche descriptive parameters, eyewitness reports, photographs, hazard and risk levels, etc. The new information system is implemented through modular components using Java-based web technologies with Spring and Hibernate frameworks. It automates the manual data entry and improves the process of information collection and sharing, enhancing user experience and data quality, and offering new outlooks to explore and exploit the huge amount of snow avalanche data available for fundamental research and more applied risk assessment

Chronological study of archaeological sites and environmental change around 2600 BP in the Eurasian steppe belt (Uyuk valley, Tuva Republic)

The main attention of the article presented focuses on the connection between the development of archaeological cultures and environmental changes during the 9th-4th centuries BC (2700-2400 BP). Environmental changes around 2600 BP can be observed by the character of the radiocarbon calibration curve. The region under study is the Uyuk depression in the Tuva Republic which is the part of the Eurasian steppe belt. To reconstruct environmental changes pollen and geochemical analyses of the lake deposits from the Uyuk depression were used. The main feature that made this territory more attractive for settling, is the humidity that promoted nomadic economy. The chronology of the archaeological sites corresponds to a period with a complicated shape of the calibration curve, and a special approach (wiggle-matching dating) is required. The famous Scythian time monuments Arzhan-1 and Arzhan-2 are located in this region and the wiggle matching method was used to establish the time of their construction. The Arzhan-1 is the oldest among the Scythian time monuments of all Eurasia. The chronology of other Scythian time monuments located in the western and eastern neighbouring territories of Tuva is considered and compared.

Nut directs p300-dependent, genome-wide H4 hyperacetylation in male germ cells

Nuclear protein in testis (Nut) is a universal oncogenic driver in the highly aggressive NUT midline carcinoma, whose physiological function in male germ cells has been unclear. Here we show that expression of Nut is normally restricted to post-meiotic spermatogenic cells, where its presence triggers p300-dependent genome-wide histone H4 hyperacetylation, which is essential for the completion of histone-to-protamine exchange. Accordingly, the inactivation of Nut induces male sterility with spermatogenesis arrest at the histone-removal stage. Nut uses p300 and/or CBP to enhance acetylation of H4 at both K5 and K8, providing binding sites for the first bromodomain of Brdt, the testis-specific member of the BET family, which subsequently mediates genome-wide histone removal. Altogether, our data reveal the detailed molecular basis of the global histone hyperacetylation wave, which occurs before the final compaction of the male genome. A transcription-independent histone hyperacetylation is associated with near-total histone replacement during mouse spermatogenesis. Shiota et al. show the oncogenic factor Nut is expressed in post-meiotic male germ cells, where it recruits p300 and/or CBP and enhances histone H4K5 and H4K8 acetylation, leading to histone-to-protamine replacement