La crisis del Canal de Beagle

This Christmas we commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the Beagle Channel crisis. This contributíon reconstructs this piece of history, from its beginning in 1977 to the menace of war, the Vatican mediation and finally the ratification of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship by Argentina in 1984. Dismissing simplistic analogies with the Falklands war, the reduction of the crisis to a populist manoeuvre of the Argentine Military Junta is refuted and the hypothesis of a bluff called by Chile with the support of the Vatican is proposed. The treaty is approached intertwining the mediation's dynamics with the broader context of the Argentine transition and the economic conjuncture. This reconstruction is based on puhlished material as well as on hitherto unpublished interviews.En esta Navidad, se cumplen treinta años de la crisis del Canal de Beagle. La presente contribución reconstruye esta historia, desde sus comienzos en 1977 a la amenaza de guerra, la mediación vaticana y fundamentalmente la ratificación por Argentina del Tratado de Paz y Amistad, en 1984. Rechazando fáciles analogías con la guerra de las Malvinas, se refuta la reducción de la crisis a una maniobra populista de la Junta Militar argentina, proponiendo la hipótesis de un bluff llamado por Chile con el concurso del Vaticano. Llegamos al tratado enlazando las dinámicas propias de la mediación con el contexto más amplio de la transición argentina y de la coyuntura económica. Esta reconstrucción se funda tanto en material publicado como en entrevistas inéditas

Trajectoires d’adaptation face au changement climatique : analyse et transformation du système de gouvernance du massif ardennais

Les Ardennes sont un massif forestier au cœur de l’Europe. Il est fondamental pour ce massif de pouvoir anticiper le changement climatique et ses impacts prévus. Dans cet article, nous nous intéressons particulièrement au système de gouvernance des Ardennes. Nous mobilisons d’abord les méthodes de recherche transformationnelle en matière de durabilité par le biais d’un cadre méthodologique qui intègre différentes méthodes. Dans ce contexte, nous procédons avec une analyse diagnostique de la durabilité du système de gouvernance ardennais. Cette analyse a été développée à partir d’une version du cadre général pour l’analyse de la durabilité des systèmes socio-écologiques développé par Ostrom. Elle a été adaptée à un système de grandes dimensions et appliqué dans le cadre d’un processus de recherche participative. Cela a permis d’identifier trois vulnérabilités principales : l’absence d’un observatoire du système socio-écologique dans son ensemble, l’absence d’un dialogue intersectoriel structuré et la capacité d’agir limitée des collectivités territoriales et de la société civile. Nous suggérons donc de mettre en place des analyses prospectives et rétrospectives afin d’identifier des trajectoires d’adaptation du système de gouvernance par rapport au changement climatique. Cela devrait permettre de concevoir et expérimenter des interventions pour transformer la gouvernance de ce système socio-écologique de grandes dimensions vers une plus grande durabilité.The Ardennes are a mountain forest area in the heart of Europe. It is fundamental for this mountain area to be able to anticipate climate change and its expected impacts. In this article, we are particularly interested in the Ardennes governance system. We first use transformational sustainability research methods through a methodological framework that combines different methods. In this context, we proceed with a diagnostic analysis of the sustainability of the Ardennes governance system. This analysis was developed from a version of the general framework for the analysis of the sustainability of socio-ecological systems developed by Ostrom. It was adapted to a large system and applied as part of a participatory research process. This identified three main vulnerabilities: the absence of an observatory of the socio-ecological system as a whole, the lack of a structured intersectoral dialogue, and the limited capacity to act of local authorities and civil society. We therefore suggest conducting prospective and retrospective analyses to identify adaptation paths of the governance system in relation to climate change. This should make it possible to design and experiment interventions to transform the governance of this large socio-ecological system towards greater sustainability

Parallel Scientific Computing with Applications in Material Science and Metallurgy

A new software tool for the solution of complex time-dependent systems of partial differential is presented. High levels of parallelization are achieved in a framework that allows the developer to implement ad-hoc solvers for computationally challenging problems on a higher abstraction level without the need to understand in the low-level parallel implementation. Moreover, thanks to this new implementation, advanced numerical methods, such as mesh adaptivity, implicit time stepping, and multigrid methods can be employed with ease. Here the implementation of this new tool is presented and validated against simple elliptic and more complex phase-field models. Its parallel performance is then assessed

On The Sustainability Of Urban Institutional Dynamics: Capitalization, Decentralization, And The Case Of Two Alpine Cities

L’objet de cet article, qui s’appuie sur une étude comparative des processus de capitalisation – compris comme la transformation d’une localité en chef-lieu – et de décentralisation, porte sur la dimension institutionnelle des dynamiques urbaines. Observée dans plusieurs contextes urbains, la concomitance de ces deux processus nous conduit à nous interroger sur le degré de durabilité des configurations spécifiques générées par ces dynamiques. Une exploration mentale des conséquences potentielles de la prédominance de l’une sur l’autre a été menée afin de vérifier cette hypothèse. À partir d’une étude de cas réalisée sur deux villes alpines italiennes – Turin et Bolzano – nous avons recueilli des données empiriques et établi une comparaison entre les deux cadres théoriques. Les résultats des analyses montrent que les processus de capitalisation et de décentralisation trop extrêmes ne favorisent pas la durabilité. Par conséquent, des mesures politiques doivent être prises par les institutions urbaines pour parvenir à contrôler ces processus de sorte à éviter les extrêmes et réduire les problèmes qu’ils entraînent.The focus of this article is on the institutional dimension of urban dynamics, particularly on the twin processes of capitalization – defined as the transformation of a place into a capital city – and decentralization. We observe that they co-exist in several urban contexts. A study was conducted addressing the inherent level of sustainability for each configuration produced by the dynamics. This hypothesis was tested by performing a mental experiment to assess the consequences of the prevalence of one dynamic over the other. To do so, a case study was undertaken on two Italian Alpine cities – Turin and Bolzano – in order to empirically ground the experiment and compare the two conceptual models. From our analysis, both extreme centralization and decentralization seem unsustainable. The broader policy implications are clear: urban institutions must seek to control these processes by avoiding the extremes and mitigating their impacts

Recording temporal data with minutes resolution into DNA

Recording complex biological signals is a crucial application of synthetic biology and essential for a deeper understanding of biological processes. An ideal “biorecorder” would have the ability to record biological signals over a wide spatial distribution of cells with high temporal resolution. However, the genetically encoded biorecording tools available have very good spatial resolution (cellular level), but currently rely on turning on and off transcription and translation of a protein (e.g., Cas9 or a recombinase) to record the biological signal, making their temporal resolution on the order of hours. Here we introduce a DNA polymerase based biorecorder that can record cationic concentration fluctuations into DNA sequence with a resolution of ~1 minute. We use a template independent DNA polymerase; terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) that randomly incorporates bases onto a single strand of DNA. The preference of base incorporated by TdT changes with the concentration of cations in TdT’s environment. Therefore, by analyzing a strand of DNA that was extended in fluctuating cation concentrations, we can determine the temporal profile of cation concentration from the bases added. Using this method, we can measure a change in Co2+ concentration during a one hour period with an accuracy of 1 min. We also show the approach works for Zn2+ and Ca2+. We will present our methods for optimizing this biorecorder and characterize its performance in vitro. Recording data onto DNA with minutes time resolution could solve many challenging data acquisition problems in neuroscience and developmental biology, and could aid in the use of DNA as a data storage medium

Spaying and urinary incontinence in bitches under UK primary veterinary care: a case-control study

Objectives To evaluate associations between spaying and urinary incontinence in bitches under primary veterinary care in the UK. Materials and Methods A case–control study was nested within the study population of 333,910 bitches, which included all bitches within the VetCompass database with an electronic patient record in 2016 or in both 2015 and 2017. The electronic records were searched automatically for urinary incontinence cases, which were manually reviewed for inclusion. All non‐cases were included as controls. Additional demographic and clinical information was extracted on cases and controls. Results The study included 427 incident cases and 1708 controls that were presented between November 1, 2014 and October 31, 2017. Prior spaying was associated with increased odds of urinary incontinence (odds ratio: 3.01; 95% CIs: 2.23 to 4.05). Increased odds of urinary incontinence were additionally associated with increasing age and increasing bodyweight. Age at spay was not associated with urinary incontinence. Clinical Significance The findings support spaying as a major risk factor associated with urinary incontinence, but age at spay appears to be of less clinical importance. These results will help assist clinicians in making evidence‐based recommendations on spaying while taking other considerations for urinary incontinence into account

Tau isoform-specific enhancement of L-type calcium current and augmentation of afterhyperpolarization in rat hippocampal neurons

Accumulation of tau is observed in dementia, with human tau displaying 6 isoforms grouped by whether they display either 3 or 4 C-terminal repeat domains (3R or 4R) and exhibit no (0N), one (1N) or two (2N) N terminal repeats. Overexpression of 4R0N-tau in rat hippocampal slices enhanced the L-type calcium (Ca(2+)) current-dependent components of the medium and slow afterhyperpolarizations (AHPs). Overexpression of both 4R0N-tau and 4R2N-tau augmented Ca(V)1.2-mediated L-type currents when expressed in tsA-201 cells, an effect not observed with the third 4R isoform, 4R1N-tau. Current enhancement was only observed when the pore-forming subunit was co-expressed with Ca(V)β3 and not Ca(V)β2a subunits. Non-stationary noise analysis indicated that enhanced Ca(2+) channel current arose from a larger number of functional channels. 4R0N-tau and Ca(V)β3 were found to be physically associated by co-immunoprecipitation. In contrast, the 4R1N-tau isoform that did not augment expressed macroscopic L-type Ca(2+) current exhibited greatly reduced binding to Ca(V)β3. These data suggest that physical association between tau and the Ca(V)β3 subunit stabilises functional L-type channels in the membrane, increasing channel number and Ca(2+) influx. Enhancing the Ca(2+)-dependent component of AHPs would produce cognitive impairment that underlie those seen in the early phases of tauopathies

Hypohidrotic Ectodermal Dysplasia and Immunodeficiency with Coincident NEMO and EDA Mutations

Ectodermal dysplasias (ED) are uncommon genetic disorders resulting in abnormalities in ectodermally derived structures. Many ED-associated genes have been described, of which ectodysplasin-A (EDA) is one of the more common. The NF-κB essential modulator (NEMO encoded by the IKBKG gene) is unique in that mutations result in severe humoral and cellular immunologic defects in addition to ED. We describe three unrelated kindreds with defects in both EDA and IKBKG resulting from X-chromosome crossover. This demonstrates the importance of thorough immunologic consideration of patients with ED even when an EDA etiology is confirmed, and raises the possibility of a specific phenotype arising from coincident mutations in EDA and IKBKG