Financial services for resilience: how to assess the impacts

This is the final version. Available from BRACED via the link in this recordkey messages • Niger is a least developed country prone to recurrent drought, which affects a large share of the population and results in severe food security issues. • Support mechanisms, including access to adequate financial resources, are important for individuals and communities to better prepare for and cope with climate extremes. • Village savings and loan associations (VSLAs) are implemented as a means to support rural communities, address livelihood shocks and strengthen social capital. • Two innovative research methods – financial diaries and serious games – have been carried out in Niger, to help support a better understanding of VSLAs’ contribution to climate resilience. • These innovative tools reveal behavioural changes that help complete our understanding of how VSLAs can contribute to resilience-building in dimensions that are often unexplored, including (i) gender empowerment; (ii) social trust; and (iii) natural resource management. • This paper paves the way for further analysis of the role of VSLAs in building communities’ resilience by documenting the linkages between financial inclusion and resilience to climate extremes. • These methods, based on community participation, provide a complementary alternative to traditional monitoring and evaluation methods. They contribute to the ‘monitoring–evaluation–learning’ trinity by blending evaluation and learningDFI

Femoral and tibial bone torsions associated with medial femoro-tibial osteoarthritis. Index of cumulative torsions

AbstractFrontal plane varus deviation is one of the mechanisms hypothesized to be involved in the pathogenesis of medial compartment osteoarthritis of the knee. But only a few authors have suggested a role for tibial and femoral torsion. In the current study, CT scan was used to measure bone torsion. The torsional morphology of the lower limb was defined by the “index of cumulative torsions” (ICT). The resulting values were compared to the frontal angular deviation data. The effects of tibial and femoral torsion on the position of the lower limb during the stance phase of walking and the consequences for the knee are discussed

Electromechanical characterization of piezoelectric actuators subjected to a variable preloading force at cryogenic temperature

A dedicated apparatus was designed and constructed for studying the electromechanical behavior of prototype piezoelectric actuators subjected to a variable preloading force at cryogenic temperatures. This device was successfully used for testing a piezoelectric actuator of PICMA type from PI™, for T in the range 2 K-300 K. The dielectric properties as well as dynamic properties were measured including the actuator characteristics when used as force sensor. The corresponding data are reported and discussed

Developing and assessing a new web-based tapping test for measuring distal movement in Parkinson's disease: a Distal Finger Tapping test

Disability in Parkinson's disease (PD) is measured by standardised scales including the MDS-UPDRS, which are subject to high inter and intra-rater variability and fail to capture subtle motor impairment. The BRadykinesia Akinesia INcoordination (BRAIN) test is a validated keyboard tapping test, evaluating proximal upper-limb motor impairment. Here, a new Distal Finger Tapping (DFT) test was developed to assess distal upper-limb function. Kinetic parameters of the test include kinesia score (KS20, key taps over 20 s), akinesia time (AT20, mean dwell-time on each key) and incoordination score (IS20, variance of travelling time between key taps). To develop and evaluate a new keyboard-tapping test for objective and remote distal motor function in PD patients. The DFT and BRAIN tests were assessed in 55 PD patients and 65 controls. Test scores were compared between groups and correlated with the MDS-UPDRS-III finger tapping sub-scores. Nine additional PD patients were recruited for monitoring motor fluctuations. All three parameters discriminated effectively between PD patients and controls, with KS20 performing best, yielding 79% sensitivity for 85% specificity; area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) = 0.90. A combination of DFT and BRAIN tests improved discrimination (AUC = 0.95). Among three parameters, KS20 showed a moderate correlation with the MDS-UPDRS finger-tapping sub-score (Pearson's r = - 0.40, p = 0.002). Further, the DFT test detected subtle changes in motor fluctuation states which were not reflected clearly by the MDS-UPDRS-III finger tapping sub-scores. The DFT test is an online tool for assessing distal movements in PD, with future scope for longitudinal monitoring of motor complications

Volunteering in a hybrid institutional and organizational environment: an emerging research agenda

Traditionally, volunteers are core participants in classic voluntary associations; however, the organizational context of volunteering has changed significantly in recent decades through the proliferation of new and hybrid settings of participation that mingle roles and rationalities of civil society, state and market. In this chapter, I examine the consequences of this organizational change for the nature and functions of volunteering by means of a literature review

SIRT7 mediates L1 elements transcriptional repression and their association with the nuclear lamina

Altres ajuts: La Marató de TV3.Long interspersed elements-1 (LINE-1, L1) are retrotransposons that hold the capacity of self-propagation in the genome with potential mutagenic outcomes. How somatic cells restrict L1 activity and how this process becomes dysfunctional during aging and in cancer cells is poorly understood. L1s are enriched at lamin-associated domains, heterochromatic regions of the nuclear periphery. Whether this association is necessary for their repression has been elusive. Here we show that the sirtuin family member SIRT7 participates in the epigenetic transcriptional repression of L1 genome-wide in both mouse and human cells. SIRT7 depletion leads to increased L1 expression and retrotransposition. Mechanistically, we identify a novel interplay between SIRT7 and Lamin A/C in L1 repression. Our results demonstrate that SIRT7-mediated H3K18 deacetylation regulates L1 expression and promotes L1 association with elements of the nuclear lamina. The failure of such activity might contribute to the observed genome instability and compromised viability in SIRT7 knockout mice. Overall, our results reveal a novel function of SIRT7 on chromatin organization by mediating the anchoring of L1 to the nuclear envelope, and a new functional link of the nuclear lamina with transcriptional repression

Magnetoelectric MnPS3 thiophosphate as a new candidate for ferrotoroidicity

We have revisited the magnetic structure of manganese phosphorus trisulfide MnPS3 using neutron diffrac- tion and polarimetry. MnPS3 undergoes a transition toward a collinear antiferromagnetic order at 78 K. The resulting magnetic point-group breaks both the time reversal and the space inversion thus allowing a linear magnetoelectric coupling. Neutron polarimetry was subsequently used to prove that this coupling provides a way to manipulate the antiferromagnetic domains simply by cooling the sample under crossed magnetic and electrical fields, in agreement with the nondiagonal form of the magnetoelectric tensor. In addition, this tensor has, in principle, an antisymmetric part that results in a toroidic moment and provides with a pure ferrotoroidic compound

SIRT7 mediates L1 elements transcriptional repression and their association with the nuclear lamina

Long interspersed elements-1 (LINE-1, L1) are retrotransposons that hold the capacity of self-propagation in the genome with potential mutagenic outcomes. How somatic cells restrict L1 activity and how this process becomes dysfunctional during aging and in cancer cells is poorly understood. L1s are enriched at lamin-associated domains, heterochromatic regions of the nuclear periphery. Whether this association is necessary for their repression has been elusive. Here we show that the sirtuin family member SIRT7 participates in the epigenetic transcriptional repression of L1 genome-wide in both mouse and human cells. SIRT7 depletion leads to increased L1 expression and retrotransposition. Mechanistically, we identify a novel interplay between SIRT7 and Lamin A/C in L1 repression. Our results demonstrate that SIRT7-mediated H3K18 deacetylation regulates L1 expression and promotes L1 association with elements of the nuclear lamina. The failure of such activity might contribute to the observed genome instability and compromised viability in SIRT7 knockout mice. Overall, our results reveal a novel function of SIRT7 on chromatin organization by mediating the anchoring of L1 to the nuclear envelope, and a new functional link of the nuclear lamina with transcriptional repression