Freie Szene und Stadttheater – ein kongeniales Miteinander?

Gespräch mit Tomas Schweigen und Philipp SchulteInterview with Tomas Schweigen and Philipp Schult

Does it make a difference? Examining consumers´ attitude towards sustainability efforts within the fast fashion industry through trust and perceived consumer effectiveness

In the context of environmental sustainability in the fashion industry, developing positive consumer perceptions and attitudes about efforts of companies to take responsibility, as well as trust is vital in terms purchase intention. Furthermore, perceived consumer effectiveness, a feeling of empowerment in consumers to contribute to solving environmental problems, is found to be a strong predictor of environmentally conscious consumer behavior. It remains yet unanswered, if these concepts apply to the setting of two well-known fashion brands, ZARA and H&M, and their sustainable clothing lines, and if favorable perceptions about these brands could enhance perceived consumer effectiveness. To answer these questions, we developed a framework that depicts the relationships between perceptions of social responsibility, consumer attitude, trust, purchase intention, and perceived consumer effectiveness. An online survey was conducted with an internationally diverse sample of 216 consumers, and the data was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results indicated that perceptions of social responsibility directly affect consumers’ attitudes towards ZARA and H&M, as well as trust and perceived consumer effectiveness. Trust was found to be a direct predictor of purchase intention. Consumer attitude and perceived consumer effectiveness, however, did not predict purchase intention. Results are discussed, and theoretical and practical implications are presented

Implication de la région C-terminale du variant d'histone H2A.Z dans sa localisation génomique et dans le contrôle de la transcription génique

H2A.Z, un variant de l'histone canonique H2A, est conservé chez divers organismes eucaryotes, de la levure aux mammifères, et son incorporation dans la chromatine permet de créer des domaines de chromatine spécialisés. Des analyses de la localisation de H2A.Z à l'échelle du génome ont démontré que H2A.Z se trouve préférentiellement dans les régions promotrices et régulatrices des gènes. De plus, il a été démontré que H2A.Z a une importance dans la régulation positive et négative de la transcription des gènes. H2A.Z est trouvé dans les promoteurs de gènes inactifs ou très peu transcrits et on pense que les nucléosomes contenant H2A.Z forment une structure de la chromatine spéciale qui prépare les nucléosomes à être désassemblés suite à l'activation de la transcription de ces gènes. La divergence principale entre les protéines de H2A.Z et H2A réside dans leurs régions C-terminales contenant le domaine d'amarrage, qui contacte le tétramère H3-H4 et possède une extension de résidus acidiques de l'hélice αC continuant sur l'histone H2B et qui forment une surface d'interaction. On pense que le domaine d'amarrage de H2A.Z pourrait représenter une plateforme de liaison à des partenaires d'interaction afin de moduler les activités de remodelage de la chromatine. Dans le but d'étudier le rôle fonctionnel de la région C-terminale du variant d'histone H2A.Z dans sa localisation génomique et dans le contrôle de la transcription génique, nous avons utilisé des protéines de fusion dérivées de H2A.Z exprimées dans l'organisme modèle Saccharomyces cerevisiae. En comparant les distributions de H2A.Z et des protéines de fusion à l'échelle du génome, nous démontrons que la localisation de H2A.Z au niveau des promoteurs, ainsi qu'à d'autres régions précises des chromosomes et d'autres éléments transcrits, est dépendante de sa région C-terminale. Nous avons observé que les gènes associés à H2A.Z sont impliqués dans plusieurs processus biologiques tels l'organisation du cytosquelette, la transcription des promoteurs reconnus par l'ARN polymérase II, le cycle cellulaire, la réparation de l'ADN, la ségrégation des chromosomes et l'épissage de l'ARN. De manière intéressante, nous démontrons que l'expression des gènes impliqués dans les processus enrichis pour les gènes associés à H2A.Z est dérégulée lorsque la région C-terminale de H2A.Z est modifiée. De plus, nous observons qu'environ le quart des gènes essentiels chez la levure sont des gènes associés à H2A.Z et que la modification de la région C-terminale de H2A.Z affecte également leur expression. Bien que le mécanisme d'action de H2A.Z dans le contrôle de la transcription ne soit pas tout à fait établi, cette étude permet de faire un rapprochement entre la localisation spécifique de H2A.Z aux promoteurs et son implication dans la régulation de la transcription. Dans cette étude, nous démontrons que la modification de la région C-terminale de H2A.Z entraîne des changements d'expression génique pouvant affecter plusieurs processus biologiques, tels que la réparation de l'ADN, la progression et régulation du cycle cellulaire et la mitose, souvent débalancés dans la carcinogenèse. Pour la première fois, nos résultats mettent en évidence un potentiel rôle transcriptionnel global pour la région C-terminale de H2A.Z chez Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The 2013/14 Thames basin floods: do improved meteorological forecasts lead to more skilful hydrological forecasts at seasonal timescales?

The Thames basin experienced 12 major Atlantic depressions in winter 2013/14 leading to extensive and prolonged fluvial and groundwater flooding. This exceptional weather coincided with highly anomalous meteorological conditions across the globe. Atmospheric relaxation experiments, whereby conditions within specified regions are relaxed towards a reanalysis, have been used to investigate teleconnection patterns. However, no studies have examined whether improvements to seasonal meteorological forecasts translate into more skilful seasonal hydrological forecasts. This study applied relaxation experiments to reforecast the 2013/14 floods for three Thames basin catchments with different hydrogeological characteristics. The tropics played an important role in the development of extreme conditions over the Thames basin. Greatest hydrological forecasting skill was associated with the tropical Atlantic and less with the tropical Pacific, although both captured seasonal meteorological flow anomalies. Relaxation applied over the north-eastern Atlantic produced confident ensemble forecasts, but hydrological extremes were under-predicted; this was unexpected with relaxation applied so close to the UK. Streamflow was most skilfully forecast for the catchment representing a large drainage area with high peak flow. Permeable lithology and antecedent conditions were important for skilfully forecasting groundwater levels. Atmospheric relaxation experiments can improve our understanding of extratropical anomalies and the potential predictability of extreme events such as the Thames 2013/14 floods. Seasonal hydrological forecasts differed to what was expected from the meteorology alone, thus knowledge is gained by considering both components. In the densely populated Thames basin, considering local hydrogeological context can provide an effective early alert of potential high-impact events, allowing for better preparedness

Thermal stability test of sugar alcohols as phase change materials for medium temperature energy storage application

Sugar alcohols are potential phase change materials candidates as they present high phase change enthalpy values, are non-toxic and low cost products. Three promising sugar-alcohols were selected: D-mannitol, myo-inositol and dulcitol under high melting enthalpy and temperature criterion. Thermal cycling tests were performed to study its cycling stability which can be determining when selecting the suitable phase change material. D-mannitol and dulcitol present poor thermal stability. Myo-inositol shows almost no decrease in thermal properties after 50 cycles for the heating process, however in the solidification part a decrease of 20 % of enthalpy and 11 % of temperature values is observed.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement 296006

Postwar Bargains? German Librarians and the Abandoned Collections of Nazi Loot

Ce colloque s’est tenu les jeudi et vendredi 23 et 24 mars 2017, à la Bibliothèque universitaire des langues et civilisations et à la Bibliothèque nationale de France, Il a été organisé par le Centre Gabriel Naudé de l\u27Ecole nationale supérieure des sciences de l\u27information et des bibliothèques (ENSSIB), l\u27Institut d\u27histoire du temps présent (IHTP, UMR CNRS Paris 8) et l\u27Université Paris Diderot (EA Identités, cultures, territoires), avec le soutien de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, de la Bibliothèque universitaire des langues et civilisations (BULAC), de la Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, de la Claims Foundation, de la Fondation Maison des Sciences de l\u27Homme et du Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. Au cours de ce colloque, une douzaine de livres, datant du XVIIe siècle et retrouvés dans ses collections par la Bibliothèque centrale et régionale de Berlin (Zentral -und Landesbibliothek) ont été restitués à trois ministères français (ministère des Affaires étrangères, ministère de l\u27Intérieur, ministère de la Justice) auxquels ils avaient été spoliées en juin 1940. Un registre manuscrit d\u27état civil des années 1751-1771, spolié à la commune de Verpel (Ardennes) lui sera également restitué. Associé à ce colloque en ligne, les Presses de l’Enssib proposent Où sont les bibliothèques françaises spoliées par les nazis ? ouvrage coordonné par Martine Poulain qui a rassemblé les contributions, enrichies, concernant particulièrement l’histoire d’environ 14 000 livres spoliés et déposés dans une quarantaine de bibliothèques françaises entre 1950 et 1953, et leurs caractéristiques. https://presses.enssib.fr/catalogue/ou-sont-les-bibliotheques-francaises-spoliees-par-les-nazi

Can seasonal hydrological forecasts inform local decisions and actions? A decision-making activity

While this paper has a hydrological focus (a glossary† is included) the concept of our decision-making activity will be of wider interest and applicable to those involved in all aspects of geoscience communication. Seasonal hydrological forecasts (SHF) provide insight into the river and groundwater levels that might be expected over the coming months. This is valuable for informing future flood or drought risk and water availability, yet studies investigating how SHF are used for decision-making are limited. Our activity was designed to capture how different water sector users, broadly flood and drought forecasters, water resource managers and groundwater hydrologists, interpret and act on SHF to inform decisions in the West Thames, UK. Using a combination of operational and hypothetical forecasts, participants were provided with 3 sets of progressively confident and locally tailored SHF for a flood event in 3 months’ time. Participants played with their ‘day-job’ hat on and were not informed whether the SHF represented a flood, drought or business-as-usual scenario. Participants increased their decision/action choice in response to more confident and locally tailored forecasts. Forecasters and groundwater hydrologists were most likely to request further information about the situation, inform other organisations and implement actions for preparedness. Water resource managers more consistently adopted a ‘watch and wait’ approach. Local knowledge, risk appetite and experience of previous flood events were important for informing decisions. Discussions highlighted that forecast uncertainty does not necessarily pose a barrier to use, but SHF need to be presented at a finer spatial resolution to aid local decision-making. SHF information that is visualised using combinations of maps, text, hydrographs and tables is beneficial for interpretation and better communication of SHF that are tailored to different user groups is needed. Decision-making activities are a great way of creating realistic scenarios that participants can identify with, whilst allowing the activity creators to observe different thought-processes. In this case, participants stated that the activity complemented their everyday work, introduced them to ongoing scientific developments and enhanced their understanding of how different organisations are engaging with and using SHF to aid decision-making across the West Thames

Ziviles Krisenmanagement der EU: den Ambitionen müssen Taten folgen

Europas Sicherheitsumfeld verändert sich drastisch. Damit steht auch das zivile Krisenmanagement der EU an einem Scheideweg. Die aktuellen Herausforderungen können weder von einzelnen Mitgliedstaaten noch mit ausschließlich militärischen Mitteln bewältigt werden. Ein neuer Prozess auf EU-Ebene bietet den Mitgliedstaaten die Möglichkeit, das zivile Krisenmanagement zu verbessern und zentrale Fragen auf konzeptioneller und institutioneller Ebene zu beantworten

Skilful seasonal forecasts of streamflow over Europe?

This paper considers whether there is any added value in using seasonal climate forecasts instead of historical meteorological observations for forecasting streamflow on seasonal timescales over Europe. A Europe-wide analysis of the skill of the newly operational EFAS (European Flood Awareness System) seasonal streamflow forecasts (produced by forcing the Lisflood model with the ECMWF System 4 seasonal climate forecasts), benchmarked against the Ensemble Streamflow Prediction (ESP) forecasting approach (produced by forcing the Lisflood model with historical meteorological observations), is undertaken. The results suggest that, on average, the System 4 seasonal climate forecasts improve the streamflow predictability over historical meteorological observations for the first month of lead time only (in terms of hindcast accuracy, sharpness and overall performance). However, the predictability varies in space and time and is greater in winter and autumn. Parts of Europe additionally exhibit a longer predictability, up to seven months of lead time, for certain months within a season. In terms of hindcast reliability, the EFAS seasonal streamflow hindcasts are on average less skilful than the ESP for all lead times. The results also highlight the potential usefulness of the EFAS seasonal streamflow forecasts for decision-making (measured in terms of the hindcast discrimination for the lower and upper terciles of the simulated streamflow). Although the ESP is the most potentially useful forecasting approach in Europe, the EFAS seasonal streamflow forecasts appear more potentially useful than the ESP in some regions and for certain seasons, especially in winter for almost 40% of Europe. Patterns in the EFAS seasonal streamflow hindcasts skill are however not mirrored in the System 4 seasonal climate hindcasts, hinting the need for a better understanding of the link between hydrological and meteorological variables on seasonal timescales, with the aim to improve climate-model based seasonal streamflow forecasting

Ontologies for increasing the FAIRness of plant research data

The importance of improving the FAIRness (findability, accessibility, interoperability, reusability) of research data is undeniable, especially in the face of large, complex datasets currently being produced by omics technologies. Facilitating the integration of a dataset with other types of data increases the likelihood of reuse, and the potential of answering novel research questions. Ontologies are a useful tool for semantically tagging datasets as adding relevant metadata increases the understanding of how data was produced and increases its interoperability. Ontologies provide concepts for a particular domain as well as the relationships between concepts. By tagging data with ontology terms, data becomes both human and machine interpretable, allowing for increased reuse and interoperability. However, the task of identifying ontologies relevant to a particular research domain or technology is challenging, especially within the diverse realm of fundamental plant research. In this review, we outline the ontologies most relevant to the fundamental plant sciences and how they can be used to annotate data related to plant-specific experiments within metadata frameworks, such as Investigation-Study-Assay (ISA). We also outline repositories and platforms most useful for identifying applicable ontologies or finding ontology terms.Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, 1 supplementary tabl