A Tale of Old and Young Volcanoes in Monts d'Ardèche UNESCO Global Geopark (South-Eastern France)

The Regional Natural Park of the Monts d'Ardèche, located in south-eastern France, became the Monts d’Ardèche UNESCO Global Geopark in September 2014. This territory possesses significant volcanic features dating from the Miocene to the late Pleistocene. The UNESCO Global Geopark label helped to formalize a long-standing partnership with the University of Clermont Auvergne which includes support for scientific research, establishing conservation and protection priorities, establishing geosites for the public and involvement of local people and communities in geotouristic initiatives. Here we focus on some peculiar geosites that allow us to question magmatic processes, eruptive dynamics, morphological evolution of landscapes, the chronology of eruptions, relationships between humans and volcanoes during the Pleistocene, and highlight the delicate alliance between economic pressures, heritage conservation, and scientific tourism

Revisiting and exploring Middle-Late Triassic vertebrate tracksites in Ardèche (southern France)

.

Property (T) and rigidity for actions on Banach spaces

We study property (T) and the fixed point property for actions on $L^p$ and other Banach spaces. We show that property (T) holds when $L^2$ is replaced by $L^p$ (and even a subspace/quotient of $L^p$), and that in fact it is independent of $1\leq p<\infty$. We show that the fixed point property for $L^p$ follows from property (T) when 1. For simple Lie groups and their lattices, we prove that the fixed point property for $L^p$ holds for any $1< p<\infty$ if and only if the rank is at least two. Finally, we obtain a superrigidity result for actions of irreducible lattices in products of general groups on superreflexive Banach spaces.Comment: Many minor improvement

NEXMIF encephalopathy:an X-linked disorder with male and female phenotypic patterns

Purpose Pathogenic variants in the X-linked gene NEXMIF (previously KIAA2022) are associated with intellectual disability (ID), autism spectrum disorder, and epilepsy. We aimed to delineate the female and male phenotypic spectrum of NEXMIF encephalopathy. Methods Through an international collaboration, we analyzed the phenotypes and genotypes of 87 patients with NEXMIF encephalopathy. Results Sixty-three females and 24 males (46 new patients) with NEXMIF encephalopathy were studied, with 30 novel variants. Phenotypic features included developmental delay/ID in 86/87 (99%), seizures in 71/86 (83%) and multiple comorbidities. Generalized seizures predominated including myoclonic seizures and absence seizures (both 46/70, 66%), absence with eyelid myoclonia (17/70, 24%), and atonic seizures (30/70, 43%). Males had more severe developmental impairment; females had epilepsy more frequently, and varied from unaffected to severely affected. All NEXMIF pathogenic variants led to a premature stop codon or were deleterious structural variants. Most arose de novo, although X-linked segregation occurred for both sexes. Somatic mosaicism occurred in two males and a family with suspected parental mosaicism. Conclusion NEXMIF encephalopathy is an X-linked, generalized developmental and epileptic encephalopathy characterized by myoclonic-atonic epilepsy overlapping with eyelid myoclonia with absence. Some patients have developmental encephalopathy without epilepsy. Males have more severe developmental impairment. NEXMIF encephalopathy arises due to loss-of-function variants

Transcriptomic analysis of the late stages of grapevine (Vitis vinifera cv. Cabernet Sauvignon) berry ripening reveals significant induction of ethylene signaling and flavor pathways in the skin

Background: Grapevine berry, a nonclimacteric fruit, has three developmental stages; the last one is when berrycolor and sugar increase. Flavors derived from terpenoid and fatty acid metabolism develop at the very end of thisripening stage. The transcriptomic response of pulp and skin of Cabernet Sauvignon berries in the late stages ofripening between 22 and 37 \ub0Brix was assessed using whole-genome micorarrays.Results: The transcript abundance of approximately 18,000 genes changed with \ub0Brix and tissue type. There were alarge number of changes in many gene ontology (GO) categories involving metabolism, signaling and abioticstress. GO categories reflecting tissue differences were overrepresented in photosynthesis, isoprenoid metabolismand pigment biosynthesis. Detailed analysis of the interaction of the skin and pulp with \ub0Brix revealed that therewere statistically significantly higher abundances of transcripts changing with \ub0Brix in the skin that were involved inethylene signaling, isoprenoid and fatty acid metabolism. Many transcripts were peaking around known optimalfruit stages for flavor production. The transcript abundance of approximately two-thirds of the AP2/ERF superfamilyof transcription factors changed during these developmental stages. The transcript abundance of a unique clade ofERF6-type transcription factors had the largest changes in the skin and clustered with genes involved in ethylene,senescence, and fruit flavor production including ACC oxidase, terpene synthases, and lipoxygenases. The transcriptabundance of important transcription factors involved in fruit ripening was also higher in the skin.Conclusions: A detailed analysis of the transcriptome dynamics during late stages of ripening of grapevine berriesrevealed that these berries went through massive transcriptional changes in gene ontology categories involvingchemical signaling and metabolism in both the pulp and skin, particularly in the skin. Changes in the transcriptabundance of genes involved in the ethylene signaling pathway of this nonclimacteric fruit were statisticallysignificant in the late stages of ripening when the production of transcripts for important flavor and aroma compoundswere at their highest. Ethylene transcription factors known to play a role in leaf senescence also appear to play a role infruit senescence. Ethylene may play a bigger role than previously thought in this non-climacteric fruit

Soft shadow computation using precomputed line space visibility information

Shadows are one of the most important effects to create realism in rendering. Most real-time applications use some sort of image based technique like shadow mapping. While these techniques are quite fast, they often struggle at rendering realistic and accurate shadows of area lights. To produce correct shadows it is therefore often necessary to use ray tracing with some sort of acceleration method, nowadays mostly GPU based BVH which have their downsides in real-time rendering. We present a novel approach in calculating approximated but fast shadows using the line space as precomputed data structure for visibility information. With that it is possible to skip intersection tests with scene geometry and completely rely on the line space data structure for the shadow computations of area lights. Our approach is therefore almost scene-independent and is able to produce accurate shadows with better performance in comparison to typical ray tracing data structures

Jurassic Marine Crocodiles in the Monts d’Ardèche UNESCO Global Geopark

Located in France on the eastern edge of the Massif Central, the Parc naturel regional des Monts d’Ardèche, inscribed as a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2014, presents great geological diversity. This includes a sedimentary boundary between the Jurassic and Cretaceous, represented by limestone and marl. Fossils of crocodilians have been discovered in these layers, highlighting the diversity of past marine environments. Sites of interest and their fossils are today protected and valorized by different public and private actors working in synergy, notably through the UNESCO Global Geopark label

Inventory and conservation of Triassic vertebrate tracks in the Monts d’Ardèche UNESCO global Geopark, France.

13 pagesInternational audienceThe Regional Natural Park (RNP) of the Monts d'Ardèche, located in south-eastern France, became the Monts d’Ardèche UNESCO Global Geopark in September 2014. This territory possesses significant geological structures, including numerous and rich Middle-Late Triassic vertebrate tracksites. The UNESCO Global Geopark label helped to formalize a long-standing partnership for the study of this ichnological patrimony between the RNP of the Monts d'Ardèche and the University of Burgundy. Developing scientific research, protection, training and outreach are the main lines of the agreement signed in 2015. The strategy is to make a detailed and sedimentologically contextualized inventory of vertebrate tracks in the Geopark and its surroundings, establish conservation and protection priorities, set up geosites for the public and involve local people in all these activities. To date, 15 tracksites and nearly a thousand individual tracks have been inventoried. The locality “Le Sartre” stands out as being the first recognized geosite amongst the remarkable tracksites in Ardèche. After four years of scientific investigations and fitting out works, it was inaugurated in October 2020. This geosite is the first equipped locality in France to show Late Triassic dinosaur tracks and to be freely accessible to the public. This success was made possible by the intellectual, logistic and social involvement of local people throughout, by acknowledgement of these contributions, and by the capacity of all actors to collaborate efficiently with each other. With more than 1000 fossil vertebrate tracks still awaiting to be valorized in Ardèche, the designation as a UNESCO Global Geopark clearly marked a turning point from academic-only to articulated research, conservation and geotouristic initiatives involving local communities