Cultures of transformation: An integrated framework for transformative action

The challenges posed by climate change have generated many initiatives that seek to implement societal transformations. In most cases, these focus on technology developments, adoption and diffusion but neglect the social and cultural dimensions of a transformation. Insights from systems and behavioural sciences can provide valuable guidance on these aspects, but the utility of this literature is limited by two factors. Firstly, the literature on the intersection between social transformation and psychological processes of behaviour change by individuals is limited. Secondly, the complex technical nature of much of the transition relevant literature limits its accessibility by stakeholders outside academia. We seek to address these challenges through the development of a transdisciplinary Transformation Process Framework for use as a ‘knowledge integration’ tool as part of a co-design process for transformative change. The Framework: (1) develops a systematic narrative of the transformational changes that need to be triggered at multiple scales (from individual to society), (2) generates a map to identify key variables, drivers, and blockers in a transformation process integrating different knowledge from fragmented disciplines; (3) serves as a tool to support the exploration of relevant academic (and other) literature to collate and utilise relevant knowledge. © 2022Suggestion H.P., A.H.S. and A.A.K was supported by the H2020 European Commission Project ‘PARIS REINFORCE’ under grant agreement no. 820846 . This work also originated in, and benefited from, discussions with multiple research and non-governmental organisations. We acknowledge and thank all involved in helping us develop and refine our ideas. We also thank two anonymous referees who provided valuable and insights comments that significantly helped in improving the original manuscript. We also grateful for the constructive and thoughtful comments provided by two anonymous referees

Evaluación del comportamiento a macro-fisuración por fatiga de mezclas bituminosas modificadas con polvo de neumático

The use of crumb rubber modified bitumen (CRMB) in asphalt mixes is a road engineering technology that has become increasingly important in recent years. Given the many economic and environmental benefits of this type of binder, the goal is to give CRMB the same level of performance as conventional polymermodified bitumen. The appearance and propagation of cracks due to fatigue phenomena is one of the most common distresses affecting road pavements. Since crumb rubber enhances the mechanical properties of asphalt mixes, it can provide a viable solution for fatigue cracking. This paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of the fatigue-cracking behavior of asphalt mixtures manufactured with crumb rubber modified bitumen and polymer-modified bitumen.El empleo de betunes modificados con polvo de neumático usado en la fabricación de mezclas bituminosas es una de las técnicas que mayor auge está teniendo en los últimos años en la ingeniería de carreteras. Dadas sus grandes ventajas económicas y ambientales, este tipo de ligantes pretende conseguir prestaciones similares a la de los betunes modificados con polímeros utilizados habitualmente. La aparición de fisuras debido a fenómenos de fatiga es una de las patologías más comunes en firmes de carretera. Debido a las mejoras de las propiedades mecánicas del betún aportadas tras la incorporación de polvo de neumático, las mezclas fabricadas con estos ligantes se postulan como una posible solución a dicho problema. En este artículo se lleva a cabo un análisis comparativo del comportamiento a fisuración por fatiga realizado sobre mezclas bituminosas fabricadas con betún modificado con polvo de neumático y con polímeros.This research was carried out within the framework of the R + D + i project entitled Proyecto Integrado de Investigación, Desarrollo y Demostración de Tecnologías para la aplicación de neumáticos fuera de uso en firmes de carretera resistentes a la propagación de grietas (ref. IDI-20091076), funded by the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) of the Ministry of Science and Innovation in Spain

SMOS soil moisture product validation in croplands

A validation campaign has been carried out to evaluate the Level 2 Soil Moisture (SM) product (version 5.51) given by the European Space Agency (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite in the Pampean Region of Argentina. The study region was selected because it is a plain, avoiding topography problems, with an SMOS nominal land use class (low vegetation crops, 1-2m height). Transects of ground SM measurements were collected at 5-cm and 6-cm depth using Delta-T ThetaProbe ML2x and Stevens Hydra Probe II SM sensors, respectively. The volumetric measurements were calibrated using gravimetric and bulk density data collected at the same time as the SM sensor measurements. The SM transects covered ISEA-grid SMOS nodes over four extensive agricultural areas with prevalence of soy crops (site 1: -32.982N, -62.505E; site 2: -32.510N, -62.788E; site 3: -32.024N, -63.692E; and site 4: -37.315N, -58.868E, WGS84). The validation sites were selected taking as reference the locations of permanent SM stations property of the Argentinean Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE, National Commission of Space Activities), Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA, National Institute of Farming Technology) and Instituto de Hidrología de Llanuras (IHLLA, Plain Hydrology Institute). Therefore, additionally to validate the SMOS SM product with the ground data collected during the experimental campaign, the measurements are useful to evaluate the station SM data reliability at the SMOS spatial resolution with the aim of using station data series as reference to test different versions of the SMOS SM product. Previously to the campaign, SMOS SM data variability, ESA Globcover land use classification, soil edaphic properties, water bodies and topography were analyzed around the station locations to select the best sites and the experimental methodology. Temperature vegetation dryness index (TVDI) temporal and spatial variability was also studied at the sites. Additionally, transects of land surface temperature were carried out with Cimel Electronique CE312 6-band radiometers concurrently with thermal-infrared (TIR) satellite overpasses. In previous works, we studied the dependence of land surface emissivities on SM. The analysis of concurrent TIR and SM data make possible to evaluate the utility of the SMOS SM product to improve land surface emissivities and temperature determinations from satellite, giving an added value to the research

Clinical relevance of monitoring serum levels of adalimumab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in daily practice

[Objectives]: We aimed to assess the usefulness of measuring serum levels of adalimumab (ADL) and anti-ADL antibodies in 57 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated with ADL for at least 3 months in daily practice. [Methods]: All patients received concomitant disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD). Receiver-operator characteristics (ROC) analysis was used to obtain the cut-off value of ADL for low disease activity (DAS28-ESR ≤3.2). [Results]: Anti-ADL antibodies were detected in 4 (7%) patients with a mean (SD) DAS28 score of 4.6 (0.9). Patients with positive anti-ADL antibodies had significantly lower levels of ADL and higher DAS28 scores than those with negative antibodies. Patients with DAS28 ≤3.2 as compared with patients with DAS28 >3.2 showed significantly better SDAI score, higher serum concentrations of ADL and none of them showed anti-ADL antibodies. The cut-off of serum level of ADL for DAS28 11.3 mg/L. Patients in the medium group were closed to clinical remission (median DAS28 2.7) and patients in the high group were on clinical remission (DAS28 2.1). [Conclusion]: Serum levels of ADL should be maintained >4.3 mg/L. In patients with ADL levels >11.3 mg/L, a decrease of the dose of ADL or an increase in the interval between doses may be planned. The presence of anti-ADL antibodies was associated with a loss of clinical efficacy of ADL.Peer Reviewe

Transcriptional correlates of the pathological phenotype in a Huntington’s disease mouse model

Huntington disease (HD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder without a cure that is caused by an aberrant expansion of CAG repeats in exon 1 of the huntingtin (HTT) gene. Although a negative correlation between the number of CAG repeats and the age of disease onset is established, additional factors may contribute to the high heterogeneity of the complex manifestation of symptoms among patients. This variability is also observed in mouse models, even under controlled genetic and environmental conditions. To better understand this phenomenon, we analysed the R6/1 strain in search of potential correlates between pathological motor/cognitive phenotypical traits and transcriptional alterations. HD-related genes (e.g., Penk, Plk5, Itpka), despite being downregulated across the examined brain areas (the prefrontal cortex, striatum, hippocampus and cerebellum), exhibited tissue-specific correlations with particular phenotypical traits that were attributable to the contribution of the brain region to that trait (e.g., striatum and rotarod performance, cerebellum and feet clasping). Focusing on the striatum, we determined that the transcriptional dysregulation associated with HD was partially exacerbated in mice that showed poor overall phenotypical scores, especially in genes with relevant roles in striatal functioning (e.g., Pde10a, Drd1, Drd2, Ppp1r1b). However, we also observed transcripts associated with relatively better outcomes, such as Nfya (CCAAT-binding transcription factor NF-Y subunit A) plus others related to neuronal development, apoptosis and differentiation. In this study, we demonstrated that altered brain transcription can be related to the manifestation of HD-like symptoms in mouse models and that this can be extrapolated to the highly heterogeneous population of HD patients

Mean field theory for global binding systematics

We review some possible improvements of mean field theory for application to nuclear binding systematics. Up to now, microscopic theory has been less successful than models starting from the liquid drop in describing accurately the global binding systematics. We believe that there are good prospects to develop a better global theory, using modern forms of energy density functionals and treating correlation energies systematically by the RPA.Comment: RevTex, 17 pages, 5 eps figures. To be published in Yadernaya Fizika, special edition for the 90th birthday of Professor A.B. Migda

Systematics of collective correlation energies from self-consistent mean-field calculations

The collective ground-state correlations stemming from low-lying quadrupole excitations are computed microscopically. To that end, the self-consistent mean-field model is employed on the basis of the Skyrme-Hartre-Fock (SHF) functional augmented by BCS pairing. The microscopic-macroscopic mapping is achieved by quadrupole-constrained mean-field calculations which are processed further in the generator-coordinate method (GCM) at the level of the Gaussian overlap approximation (GOA). We study the correlation effects on energy, charge radii, and surface thickness for a great variety of semi-magic nuclei. A key issue is to work out the influence of variations of the SHF functional. We find that collective ground-state correlations (GSC) are robust under change of nuclear bulk properties (e.g., effective mass, symmetry energy) or of spin-orbit coupling. Some dependence on the pairing strength is observed. This, however, does not change the general conclusion that collective GSC obey a general pattern and that their magnitudes are rather independent of the actual SHF parameters.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figure

Physics demos for all UVEG degrees: a unique project in Spain

The Physics Demo Project at the University of Valencia (www.uv.es/fisicademos) has developed a collection of physics demonstrations to be used during lectures. It consists of more than 130 experimental demos about different physics topics. More than 30 professors borrow them whenever they lecture on physics in any of our 40 courses in 17 different science or technical degrees, involving 246 ECTS and more than 3500 students. Each demo kit with a simple experimental set displays a particular physics phenomenon. An on-line user guide highlights the main physics principles involved, instructions on how to use it and advices of how to link it to the theoretical concepts or to technical applications. Demo lectures (and collections) are a usual and widespread practice in many countries but not in Spain. This unique initiative aims at the recovery of this practice by involving a growing collaborative team of users and with the aid of educational innovation projects. Here we explain the project content, organization and recent developments. Our experience, together with the positive students comments, allows us to draw the following conclusions: demos introduce the real sensible world in the lecture hall, providing the necessary link between concepts and everyday life, and becoming, again, something more than "chalk and talk"