Analysis of normal and osteoarthritic canine cartilage mRNA expression by quantitative polymerase chain reaction

The molecular basis to mammalian osteoarthritis (OA) is unknown. We hypothesised that the expression of selected proteases, matrix molecules, and collagens believed to have a role in the pathogenesis of OA would be changed in naturally occurring canine OA cartilage when compared to normal articular cartilage. Quantitative (real-time) reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assays were designed measuring the expression of selected matrix molecules (collagens and small leucine-rich proteoglycans), key mediators of the proteolytic degradation of articular cartilage (metalloproteinases, cathepsins), and their inhibitors (tissue inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases). All data were normalised using a geometric mean of three housekeeping genes, and the results subjected to power calculations and corrections for multiple hypothesis testing. We detected increases in the expression of BGN, COL1A2, COL2A1, COL3A1, COL5A1, CSPG2, CTSB, CTSD, LUM, MMP13, TIMP1, and TNC in naturally occurring canine OA. The expression of TIMP2 and TIMP4 was significantly reduced in canine OA cartilage. The patterns of gene expression change observed in naturally occurring canine OA were similar to those reported in naturally occurring human OA and experimental canine OA. We conclude that the expression profiles of matrix-associated molecules in end-stage mammalian OA may be comparable but that the precise aetiologies of OA affecting specific joints in different species are presently unknown

Clarification on protected area management efforts in Madagascar during periods of heightened uncertainty and instability

In early May 2022, Eklund and colleagues published an article in Nature Sustainability in which they attempted to demonstrate that the early 2020 lockdown imposed in Madagascar by the emerging COVID-19 pandemic had a direct impact on Protected Areas (PAs), with an increase in the number of fires, which then stabilized once the lockdown was over. The authors, undoubtedly in good faith but based on an incomplete understanding of the situation on the ground, were attempting to draw the attention of the international community and donors to the need to maintain and strengthen PA management efforts. Their contribution, while highlighting a real and urgent need, does not, however, do justice to Madagascar’s PA managers, who, in collaboration with the populations living in the vicinity of parks and reserves, maintained and in some instances increased efforts to ensure the integrity of parks and reserves during the COVID-19 period. Following the publication of this paper, we contacted the authors as well as the editors of Nature Sustainability in a collegial effort to draw their attention to the errors identified in the analysis and to point out how this led to a misinterpretation of what actually transpired during the lockdown. We submitted a carefully worded and argued rebuttal for possible publication in Nature Sustainability, which we regarded as justified given the nature and significance of the considerations we had carefully presented

A cross-national study on the antecedents of work–life balance from the fit and balance perspective

Drawing on the perceived work–family fit and balance perspective, this study investigates demands and resources as antecedents of work–life balance (WLB) across four countries (New Zealand, France, Italy and Spain), so as to provide empirical cross-national evidence. Using structural equation modelling analysis on a sample of 870 full time employees, we found that work demands, hours worked and family demands were negatively related to WLB, while job autonomy and supervisor support were positively related to WLB. We also found evidence that resources (job autonomy and supervisor support) moderated the relationships between demands and work–life balance, with high resources consistently buffering any detrimental influence of demands on WLB. Furthermore, our study identified additional predictors of WLB that were unique to some national contexts. For example, in France and Italy, overtime hours worked were negatively associated with WLB, while parental status was positively associated with WLB. Overall, the implications for theory and practice are discussed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Decrease of deforestation in Protected Areas of Madagascar during the Covid-19 years

Deforestation poses a significant threat to global biodiversity and ecosystem services. This study focuses on estimating the deforestation within Protected Areas (PAs) in Madagascar over a 21-year period from 2001 to 2022. A novel methodology utilizing remote sensing data and specific thresholds of tree canopy density is employed to estimate annual deforestation rates and identify trends and patterns within PAs. The analysis reveals significant deforestation in the PA network over the last decade, particularly in 2014, 2017, 2018, and 2019. Notably, the lowest annual deforestation rates were estimated during the Covid-19 years of 2020 (0.66%), 2021 (0.62%), and the subsequent year in 2022 (0.67%) when considering the entire network of 103 PAs with natural forests from 2013 to 2022.   Résumé La déforestation constitue une menace importante pour la biodiversité mondiale et les services écosystémiques. Cette étude se concentre sur l'évaluation de l'efficacité des aires protégées (AP) pour lutter contre la déforestation à Madagascar sur une période de 21 ans, de 2001 à 2022. Une méthodologie novatrice utilisant des données de télédétection et des seuils spécifiques de densité du couvert arboré est employée pour estimer les taux annuels de déforestation et identifier les tendances et les modèles au sein des AP. Au cours de la dernière décennie, l'analyse révèle une déforestation significative dans le réseau des AP au cours de certaines années, notamment en 2014, 2017, 2018 et 2019. En revanche, il est intéressant de noter qu'entre 2013 et 2022, les taux annuels de déforestation les plus bas ont été estimés pendant les années de Covid-19 en 2020 (0,66 %), 2021 (0,62 %) et l'année suivante en 2022 (0,67 %) sur l’ensemble du réseau des 103 AP avec des forêts naturelles

Thresholds : Gesture, idea and action in the Performance Art of Andrew Drummond, Di ffrench and David Mealing

This thesis examines the work of three New Zealand artists who engaged with processes of performance art during the 1970s and 1980s. David Mealing, Andrew Drummond and Di ffrench integrated performance gestures that mutated into object or conceptual based practices in the 1980s and 1990s. An analysis of their work reveals both similarities and differences, all adjacent to corporeal, political and aesthetic issues and ideas that stem from international and national events particular to the milieu in which they worked. The three artists stand apart from their contemporaries due to their focussed positions as socio-political commentators during a turbulent time in New Zealand history. A large body of written and oral research on their work provides an historical view of the period from 1969 - 1999 that will focus specifically on their aesthetic experimentation and concerns with the fragmentation of the body, self and identity, and, importantly, their intended use of art to effect change. Performance art in New Zealand underwent a burst of energy from 1969 as time-based activity offered an alternative to the static painterly or totemic art practices, as found in much international late modernism. Mealing, Drummond and ffrench explored a notion of performance art that resided in and beyond the margins of mainstream activity. A concept of the limen or the margin, the threshold and the littoral zone - a metaphorical place of creativity is applied to this analysis of their work. These individuals expressed through ritual and symbol found in notions of the-limen, socio-political beliefs that reflected a view of artistic responsibility toward pressing issues of identity, freedom of expression, ecological wellbeing and the human condition. Each artist concentrated on phenomenological themes surrounding the body, explored alternative sculptural material and enjoyed instances of imaginative communication. The body trace that evolved from the temporal moment, their relationship to the land and the urban environment, and an intersubjective exchange with the audience were all engaged with. This is articulated in their practices of socio-political interaction, as expressed through Mealing's interventions, a spatial/kinetic continuum, as seen in Drummond's sculptures, and a performative materialisation of difference as evident in the cibachromes of Di ffrench. Historical international precedents of performance art will interweave with this specific New Zealand study in order to further highlight the diversity of performance art that these artists employed in their idiosyncratic journeys along the borderlands of art making

Exploring the performance of the spectrometer prisma in heavy zirconium and xenon mass regions

We present results from two recent runs which illustrate the performance of the PRISMA spectrometer in the proximity of the upper limit of its operational interval, namely 96Zr + 124Sn at Elab = 500 MeV and 136Xe + 208Pb at Elab = 930 MeV. In the latter run, the γ array CLARA also allowed us to identify previously unknown γ transitions in the nuclides 136Cs and 134I

Colony-colony interactions between highly invasive ants

Among invasive species, ants are a particularly prominent group with enormous impacts on native biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Globalization and on-going climate change are likely to increase the rate of ant invasions in the future, leading to simultaneous introductions of several highly invasive species within the same area, Here, we investigate pairwise interactions among four highly invasive species, Linepithema humile,Lashis neglectus, Pheidole megacephala and Wasmannia auropunctata, at the whole colony level, using a laboratory set-up. :Each colony consisted of 300 workers and one queen. The number of surviving workers in the competing colonies was recorded daily over 7 weeks. We modelled the survival of each colony during pairwise colony interactions, using a nonlinear model characterizing the survival dynamics of each colony individually. The least dominant species was P. megacephala, which always went extinct. Interactions among the three other species showed more complex dynamics, rendering the outcome of the interactions less predictable. Overall, W auropunctata and L neglectus were the most dominant species. This study shows the importance of scaling up to the colony level in order to gain realism in predicting the outcome of multiple invasions

Rémy Ollier And Imperial Citizenship

This essay discusses Rémy Ollier’s (1816–45) journalism. As an early claimant of citizenship through (rather than against) the British Empire during the 1840s, Ollier attempted to redress a gap that he perceived between the institutionalization of rights in Britain and Mauritius. Established accounts of Ollier’s political intervention provide a rich narrative of how his efforts are implicated in the development of rights in Mauritius and broader postcolonial nationalisms. However, I argue that facets of his expression of imperial citizenship reside apart from this genealogy. To explore how Ollier uniquely created imperial citizenship, an “acts”-influenced approach to citizenship is adopted. By analyzing his writings in La Sentinelle de Maurice, I reveal how imperial citizenship is generated through a subversive loyalism to Britain and an orientalist portrayal of indentured labourers. I conclude by mobilizing Ollier’s struggle as a challenge to the notion that citizenship realizes itself in teleological fashion