Recension : Les pédagogies de ré-imagination et de désapprentissage : Les dommages du décolonialisme au sein/contre les tenants du colonialisme au Canada

This book review is a close reading of three book-length works by key, contemporary scholars in the field of settler colonial studies: Walter Mignolo and Catherine Walsh's On Decoloniality; Adam Dahl's The Empire of the People; and Emma Battell Lowman and Adam Barker's Settler: Identity and Colonialism in 21st Century Canada. This review provides a critical account of the significance of navigating the complexities of modern settler colonial practices and frameworks within Western settler societies to better inform and navigate our own decolonizing processes. We identify settler logics, perspectives and foundational frameworks as key factors in our current educative practices. Through this, we debate the significance of unsettling our/selves to consider extensions of our identities through a decolonial lens and how we, as a society, contribute to ongoing colonial processes. The review also provides approaches to how these resources may be used to deepen our anti-colonial lens by considering these texts as an underlying basis to reflect upon current educative curricula.Ce travail est une analyse minutieuse sur les critiques des trois ouvrages écrits par des universitaires contemporains de référence dans le domaine des études décoloniales : La Décolonisation (On Decoloniality) de Walter Mignolo et Catherine Walsh; L’Empire du Peuple (The Empire of the People) de Adam Dahl; et Les Colons : Identité et colonialisme en 21ème siècle au Canada (Settler: Identity and Colonialism in 21st Century Canada) de Emma Battell Lowman et Adam Barker. Cette étude fournit un compte rendu critique de l’importance d’explorer les éléments complexes constituant les structures et les pratiques du système colonialisme moderne à l’intérieur des sociétés occidentales coloniales afin de mieux nous informer et nous diriger dans nos propres processus de décolonisation. Nous identifions les logiques, les perspectives et les cadres référentiels des colons qui sont des facteurs clés de nos pratiques éducatives actuelles. A travers cette analyse, nous discutons de l’importance de nous défaire nous-mêmes en considérant les héritages de nos identités sous un angle décolonial et comment nous, en tant que société, contribuons aux processus du système colonialisme actuel. L’analyse fournit aussi une approche sur la façon dont ces ressources peuvent être utilisées pour approfondir notre vision anticoloniale en considérant ces écrits comme un fondement sur lequel se reposent les curricula actuels

Structural effects of a sustained rise in the terms of trade

While previous terms of trade booms have tended to be short lived, there are reasons to believe that the current boom could be more enduring. This paper considers the implications for the Australian economy in the event that recent rises in the terms of trade are sustained, with a focus on labour market, industry and regional implications. Thus far, the economy’s reactions to the terms of trade boom have largely matched the predictions of economic theory: incomes have risen, as have employment and investment, in particular for the mining industry and regions where mining is concentrated. However, we have not seen so called ‘Dutch disease’ effects associated with a higher exchange rate flowing through as strongly as could be expected in the manufacturing industry and other traded parts of the economy. Adjustments to the boom have thus far taken place in a position of less than full employment, so the resources sector has to date been able to utilise previously unemployed factors of production rather than simply attract factors from other sectors of the economy. Going forward, expanding labour supply in the resource rich regions of the country will be a central policy challenge. If well managed, the transition to a higher terms of trade presents an opportunity to raise Australian living standards. But the challenges in ensuring a successful transition are significant and will test our policy frameworks in ways they have not been tested before

New constraints on equatorial temperatures during a Late Neoproterozoic snowball Earth glaciation

Intense glaciation during the end of Cryogenian time (∼635 million years ago) marks the coldest climate state in Earth history – a time when glacial deposits accumulated at low, tropical paleolatitudes. The leading idea to explain these deposits, the snowball Earth hypothesis, predicts globally frozen surface conditions and subfreezing temperatures, with global climate models placing surface temperatures in the tropics between −20 °C and −60 °C. However, precise paleosurface temperatures based upon geologic constraints have remained elusive and the global severity of the glaciation undetermined. Here we make new geologic observations of tropical periglacial, aeolian and fluvial sedimentary structures formed during the end-Cryogenian, Marinoan glaciation in South Australia; these observations allow us to constrain ancient surface temperatures. We find periglacial sand wedges and associated deformation suggest that ground temperatures were sufficiently warm to allow for ductile deformation of a sandy regolith. The wide range of deformation structures likely indicate the presence of a paleoactive layer that penetrated 2–4 m below the ground surface. These observations, paired with a model of ground temperature forced by solar insolation, constrain the local mean annual surface temperature to within a few degrees of freezing. This temperature constraint matches well with our observations of fluvial deposits, which require temperatures sufficiently warm for surface runoff. Although this estimate coincides with one of the coldest near sea-level tropical temperatures in Earth history, if these structures represent peak Marinaon glacial conditions, they do not support the persistent deep freeze of the snowball Earth hypothesis. Rather, surface temperatures near 0 °C allow for regions of seasonal surface melting, atmosphere–ocean coupling and possible tropical refugia for early metazoans. If instead these structures formed during glacial onset or deglaciation, then they have implications for the timescale and character for the transition into or out of a snowball state

Local spinfoam expansion in loop quantum cosmology

The quantum dynamics of the flat Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker and Bianchi I models defined by loop quantum cosmology have recently been translated into a spinfoam-like formalism. The construction is facilitated by the presence of a massless scalar field which is used as an internal clock. The implicit integration over the matter variable leads to a nonlocal spinfoam amplitude. In this paper we consider a vacuum Bianchi I universe and show that by choosing an appropriate regulator a spinfoam expansion can be obtained without selecting a clock variable and that the resulting spinfoam amplitude is local.Comment: 12 page

Isotopic signals in an agricultural watershed suggest denitrification is locally intensive in riparian areas but extensive in upland soils

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Sigler, W. A., Ewing, S. A., Wankel, S. D., Jones, C. A., Leuthold, S., Brookshire, E. N. J., & Payn, R. A. Isotopic signals in an agricultural watershed suggest denitrification is locally intensive in riparian areas but extensive in upland soils. Biogeochemistry, 158, (2022): 251–268, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-022-00898-9.Nitrogen loss from cultivated soils threatens the economic and environmental sustainability of agriculture. Nitrate (NO3−) derived from nitrification of nitrogen fertilizer and ammonified soil organic nitrogen may be lost from soils via denitrification, producing dinitrogen gas (N2) or the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). Nitrate that accumulates in soils is also subject to leaching loss, which can degrade water quality and make NO3− available for downstream denitrification. Here we use patterns in the isotopic composition of NO3− observed from 2012 to 2017 to characterize N loss to denitrification within soils, groundwater, and stream riparian corridors of a non-irrigated agroecosystem in the northern Great Plains (Judith River Watershed, Montana, USA). We find evidence for denitrification across these domains, expressed as a positive linear relationship between δ15N and δ18O values of NO3−, as well as increasing δ15N values with decreasing NO3− concentration. In soils, isotopic evidence of denitrification was present during fallow periods (no crop growing), despite net accumulation of NO3− from the nitrification of ammonified soil organic nitrogen. We combine previous results for soil NO3− mass balance with δ15N mass balance to estimate denitrification rates in soil relative to groundwater and streams. Substantial denitrification from soils during fallow periods may be masked by nitrification of ammonified soil organic nitrogen, representing a hidden loss of soil organic nitrogen and an under-quantified flux of N to the atmosphere. Globally, cultivated land spends ca. 50% of time in a fallow condition; denitrification in fallow soils may be an overlooked but globally significant source of agricultural N2O emissions, which must be reduced along-side other emissions to meet Paris Agreement goals for slowing global temperature increase.National Institute of Food and Agriculture, 2011–51130-31121, S. A. Ewing, 2011, S. A. Ewing, 2016–67026-25067, S. A. Ewing, Montana State University Extension, Montana Fertilizer Advisory Committee, Montana Agricultural Experiment Station, Montana State University Vice President of Research, Montana State University College of Agriculture, Montana Institute on Ecosystems, NSF EPSCoR, OIA-1757351, S. A. Ewing, OIA-1443108, S. A. Ewing, EPS-110134, S. A. Ewing

Nanopore Sequencing Enables Comprehensive Transposable Element Epigenomic Profiling

Transposable elements (TEs) drive genome evolution and are a notable source of pathogenesis, including cancer. While CpG methylation regulates TE activity, the locus-specific methylation landscape of mobile human TEs has to date proven largely inaccessible. Here, we apply new computational tools and long-read nanopore sequencing to directly infer CpG methylation of novel and extant TE insertions in hippocampus, heart, and liver, as well as paired tumor and non-tumor liver. As opposed to an indiscriminate stochastic process, we find pronounced demethylation of young long interspersed element 1 (LINE-1) retrotransposons in cancer, often distinct to the adjacent genome and other TEs. SINE-VNTR-Alu\ua0(SVA) retrotransposons, including their internal tandem repeat-associated CpG island, are near-universally methylated. We encounter allele-specific TE methylation and demethylation of aberrantly expressed young LINE-1s in normal tissues. Finally, we recover the complete sequences of tumor-specific LINE-1 insertions and their retrotransposition hallmarks, demonstrating how long-read sequencing can simultaneously survey the epigenome and detect somatic TE mobilization

Multiscale imaging of basal cell dynamics in the functionally mature mammary gland

The mammary epithelium is indispensable for the continued survival of more than 5,000 mammalian species. For some, the volume of milk ejected in a single day exceeds their entire blood volume. Here, we unveil the spatiotemporal properties of physiological signals that orchestrate the ejection of milk from alveolar units and its passage along the mammary ductal network. Using quantitative, multidimensional imaging of mammary cell ensembles from GCaMP6 transgenic mice, we reveal how stimulus evoked Ca oscillations couple to contractions in basal epithelial cells. Moreover, we show that Ca-dependent contractions generate the requisite force to physically deform the innermost layer of luminal cells, compelling them to discharge the fluid that they produced and housed. Through the collective action of thousands of these biological positive-displacement pumps, each linked to a contractile ductal network, milk begins its passage toward the dependent neonate, seconds after the command

Arginine to glutamine variant in olfactomedin-like 3 (OLFML3) is a candidate for severe goniodysgenesis and glaucoma in the Border Collie dog breed

Goniodysgenesis is a developmental abnormality of the anterior chamber of the eye. It is generally considered to be congenital in dogs (), and has been associated with glaucoma and blindness. Goniodysgenesis and early-onset glaucoma initially emerged in Border Collies in Australia in the late 1990s and have subsequently been found in this breed in Europe and the USA. The objective of the present study was to determine the genetic basis of goniodysgenesis in Border Collies. Clinical diagnosis was based on results of examinations by veterinary ophthalmologists of affected and unaffected dogs from eleven different countries. Genotyping using the Illumina high density canine single nucleotide variant genotyping chip was used to identify a candidate genetic region. There was a highly significant peak of association over chromosome 17, with a -value of 2 × 10 Expression profiles and evolutionary conservation of candidate genes were assessed using public databases. Whole genome sequences of three dogs with glaucoma, three severely affected by goniodysgenesis and three unaffected dogs identified a missense variant in the olfactomedin like 3 () gene in all six affected animals. This was homozygous for the risk allele in all nine cases with glaucoma and 12 of 14 other severely affected animals. Of 67 reportedly unaffected animals, only one was homozygous for this variant (offspring of parents both with goniodysgenesis who were also homozygous for the variant). Analysis of pedigree information was consistent with an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance for severe goniodysgenesis (potentially leading to glaucoma) in this breed. The identification of a candidate genetic region and putative causative variant will aid breeders to reduce the frequency of goniodysgenesis and the risk of glaucoma in the Border Collie population