The Tordera Delta, a hotspot to storm impacts in the coast northwards ofBarcelona (NW Mediterranean)

The Catalan coast, as most of the developed Mediterranean coastal zone, can be characterized as a high-risk area to the impact of storms due to the large concentrationof values together with the dominance of eroding shorelines. In consequence, any long-term coastal management scheme must include a risk analysis to permitdecision makers to better allocate resources. This can be done in a nested approach in which hotspots are first identified along the coast at a regional scale andsecondly, they are further analysed to produce dedicated risk reduction strategies. In this work, we apply the methodology developed within the RISC-KIT project foridentifying and analysing coastal hotspots in the Catalan coast as a test for applying it to Mediterranean conditions. Obtained results show that this methodology isvery efficient in identifying hotspots of storm-induced flooding and erosion at a regional scale. The adoption of the response approach resulted in the direct assessmentof the hazards' probability distributions, which allowed for the selection of the severity of the hotspots to be identified. When a given coastal stretch behaves as ahotspot for both hazards, it is identified as a very highly-sensitive area to storm impacts. In the study area, the Tordera Delta possesses this condition of very high“hotspotness.” This has been demonstrated by the large and frequent damages suffered by the site during the past decades. The paper analyses different aspects related to the risk management of this area, including stakeholder actions

Centre report:\ua0 México City, En "Programme on Substance Abuse: Project on identification and management of alcohol-related problems. World Health Organization". p.129-142. Geneve, OMS.

Artícul

Loss of postnatal quiescence of neural stem cells through mTOR activation upon genetic removal of cysteine string protein-α

Neural stem cells continuously generate newborn neurons that integrate into and modify neural circuitry in the adult hippocampus. The molecular mechanisms that regulate or perturb neural stem cell proliferation and differentiation, however, remain poorly understood. Here, we have found that mouse hippocampal radial glia-like (RGL) neural stem cells express the synaptic cochaperone cysteine string protein-α (CSP-α). Remarkably, in CSP-α knockout mice, RGL stem cells lose quiescence postnatally and enter into a high-proliferation regime that increases the production of neural intermediate progenitor cells, thereby exhausting the hippocampal neural stem cell pool. In cell culture, stem cells in hippocampal neurospheres display alterations in proliferation for which hyperactivation of the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway is the primary cause of neurogenesis deregulation in the absence of CSP-α. In addition, RGL cells lose quiescence upon specific conditional targeting of CSP-α in adult neural stem cells. Our findings demonstrate an unanticipated cell-autonomic and circuit-independent disruption of postnatal neurogenesis in the absence of CSP-α and highlight a direct or indirect CSP-α/mTOR signaling interaction that may underlie molecular mechanisms of brain dysfunction and neurodegeneration.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (Grants BFU2013-47493-P and BFU2016-76050-P, Juan de la Cierva Contract, and Fellowships BES2008-002858 and BES2014-070405), the Junta de Andalucía (Grants P12-CTS-2232 and CTS-600), and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III.Peer reviewe

Sensitivity of the landslide model LAPSUS_LS to vegetation and soil parameters

The influence of vegetation on slope stability is well understood at the slope level but scaling up to the catchment level is still a challenge, partially because of a lack of suitable data to validate models. We tested the physical landslide model, LAPSUS_LS, which models slope stability at the catchment scale. LAPSUS_LS combines a hydrological model with a Limit Equilibrium Method model, and calculates the factor of safety of individual cells based on their hydrological and geomorphological characteristics. We tested two types of vegetation on slope stability: (i) coffee monoculture (Coffea arabica) and (ii) a mixed plantation of coffee and deep rooting Erythrina (Erythrina poeppigiana), trees. Using detailed data from Costa Rica, we performed simulations to test the response of LAPSUS_LS to root reinforcement, soil bulk density, transmissivity and depth of shear plane. Furthermore, we modified the model to include biomass surcharge effect in the calculations. Results show that LAPSUS_LS was most sensitive to changes in additional cohesion from roots. When the depth of the shear plane was fixed at 1.0 m, slopeswere not unstable. However, when the shear plane was fixed to 1.5m, the mixed crop of coffee and trees stabilized slopes, but the coffee monoculture was highly unstable, because root reinforcement was low at a depth of 1.5 m. Soil transmissivity had a limited impact on the results compared to bulk density. Biomass surcharge did not have any significant effect on the simulations. In conclusion, LAPSUS_LS responded well to the soil and vegetation input data, and is a suitable candidate for modeling the stability of vegetated slopes at the catchment leve

Cluster Randomized Trial of a Multicomponent School-Based Program in Mexico to Prevent Behavioral Problems and Develop Social Skills in Children

Background There is a signifcant gap between the prevalence of child and adolescent mental illness in Mexico and access to mental health services, especially those that are evidence-based. School-based interventions can signifcantly narrow this gap. Objective The study evaluated the efectiveness of the interventions Dejando Huellitas en tu Vida (Leaving Traces on Your Life [Huellitas]) and Criando con Amor, Promoviendo Armonía y Superación en México (Raising Children with Love, Promoting Harmony and Self-Improvement [CAPAS-Mx]). Methods Participants were 215 caregivers (Mage=38.4 years, SD=8.9, 82.9% women) and 202 children (Mage=8.6 years, SD=1.3, 44.06% girls) from four public schools randomly assigned to four experimental conditions (Huellitas, CAPAS-Mx, Huellitas-CAPAS-Mx, and Control) with pre-test and post-test assessments. Results Caregivers in the multicomponent condition reported signifcantly lower scores in child externalizing problems and higher scores in discipline, skills encouragement, social adaptation, emotional control and prosocial behavior than caregivers in the control group. There were also improvements in parents’ use of efective discipline and skills encouragement in the CAPAS-Mx group over the control group. Among the children, only those in the Huellitas condition showed a decrease in mediation. Conclusions Findings support the implementation of the multicomponent intervention in public school settings. Registry ID ISRCTN11345846, at https://www.isrctn.com