Human populations in the world's mountains: Spatio-temporal patterns and potential controls.

Changing climate and human demographics in the world's mountains will have increasingly profound environmental and societal consequences across all elevations. Quantifying current human populations in and near mountains is crucial to ensure that any interventions in these complex social-ecological systems are appropriately resourced, and that valuable ecosystems are effectively protected. However, comprehensive and reproducible analyses on this subject are lacking. Here, we develop and implement an open workflow to quantify the sensitivity of mountain population estimates over recent decades, both globally and for several sets of relevant reporting regions, to alternative input dataset combinations. Relationships between mean population density and several potential environmental covariates are also explored across elevational bands within individual mountain regions (i.e. "sub-mountain range scale"). Globally, mountain population estimates vary greatly-from 0.344 billion (31%) in 2015. A more detailed analysis using one of the population datasets (GHS-POP) revealed that in ∼35% of mountain sub-regions, population increased at least twofold over the 40-year period 1975-2015. The urban proportion of the total mountain population in 2015 ranged from 6% to 39%, depending on the combination of population and urban extent datasets used. At sub-mountain range scale, population density was found to be more strongly associated with climatic than with topographic and protected-area variables, and these relationships appear to have strengthened slightly over time. Such insights may contribute to improved predictions of future mountain population distributions under scenarios of future climatic and demographic change. Overall, our work emphasizes that irrespective of data choices, substantial human populations are likely to be directly affected by-and themselves affect-mountainous environmental and ecological change. It thereby further underlines the urgency with which the multitudinous challenges concerning the interactions between mountain climate and human societies under change must be tackled

Human microglial cells as a therapeutic target in a neurodevelopmental disease model

Although microglia are macrophages of the central nervous system, their involvement is not limited to immune functions. The roles of microglia during development in humans remain poorly understood due to limited access to fetal tissue. To understand how microglia can impact human neurodevelopment, the methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MECP2) gene was knocked out in human microglia-like cells (MGLs). Disruption of the MECP2 in MGLs led to transcriptional and functional perturbations, including impaired phagocytosis. The co-culture of healthy MGLs with MECP2-knockout (KO) neurons rescued synaptogenesis defects, suggesting a microglial role in synapse formation. A targeted drug screening identified ADH-503, a CD11b agonist, restored phagocytosis and synapse formation in spheroid-MGL co-cultures, significantly improved disease progression, and increased survival in MeCP2-null mice. These results unveil a MECP2-specific regulation of human microglial phagocytosis and identify a novel therapeutic treatment for MECP2-related conditions

On-site monitoring for better selection of stone repairs: a case study

Weathering of clay-bearing sandstones does not only depend on material properties but also on the environmental conditions they are exposed to. The same is true for repaired stones, in which the compatibility of the repair mortar should be studied not only in terms of material properties, but also in terms of the climatic conditions it will be sub- jected, in order to maximize this compatibility. This paper proposes a methodology to quantify the thermal and hygric stresses in clay-bearing sandstones and their repair, based on the measurement of temperature and relative humidity at the surface and at several depths in a repaired and a non-repaired stone, as well as wind-driven rain and absorbed water. This is illustrated by a case study in an historical building. The data are used to quantify the stresses in the mate- rials and to propose possible degradation mechanisms.ISSN:2050-744

BioScore: A tool to assess the impacts of European Community policies on Europe's biodiversity

BioScore offers a European biodiversity impact assessment tool. The tool contains indicator values on the ecological preferences of more than 1000 species of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish, butterflies, dragonflies, aquatic macro-invertebrates and vascular plants. These values are linked to policy-related pressures and environmental variables