Disaster Risk Management by Communities and Local Governments

This study refers to disaster risk management at the local level. The topic was selected by the members of the Natural Disasters Network of the Regional Policy Dialogue, and was presented during its 3rd Meeting, on March 6 and 7, 2003. The goal of this document is to achieve a better knowledge of the best practices and benefits that disaster risk management represents for Latin America and the Caribbean. Included are comparative case studies of the Philippines, Colombia, Guatemala and Switzerland. Also discussed are strengths and weaknesses of local organizations in decentralized systems and financial services for disaster risk management.Disasters, Financial Risk, Decentralization, Civil Society, Environment, disaster risk management

Fermentability of whole oat flour, PeriTec flour and bran by Lactobacillus plantarum

4 páginas, 2 tablas, 1 figuraWhole oat flour obtained by hammer milling was fermented with Lactobacillus plantarum along with white flour and bran in order to compare the suitability of these substrates for the production of a probiotic beverage. The three substrates show a viable cell concentration at the end of fermentation above the minimum required in a probiotic product. The highest cell concentration was observed in white flour (9.16 Log10 CFU/mL) and the lowest in the bran sample (8.17 Log10 CFU/mL)Peer reviewe

Radiative rotational lifetimes and state-resolved relative detachment cross sections from photodetachment thermometry of molecular anions in a cryogenic storage ring

Photodetachment thermometry on a beam of OH$^-$ in a cryogenic storage ring cooled to below 10 K is carried out using two-dimensional, frequency and time dependent photodetachment spectroscopy over 20 minutes of ion storage. In equilibrium with the low-level blackbody field, we find an effective radiative temperature near 15 K with about 90% of all ions in the rotational ground state. We measure the J = 1 natural lifetime (about 193 s) and determine the OH$^-$ rotational transition dipole moment with 1.5% uncertainty. We also measure rotationally dependent relative near-threshold photodetachment cross sections for photodetachment thermometry.Comment: Manuscript LaTeX with 5 pages, 3 figures, and 1 table plus LaTeX supplement with 12 pages, 3 figures and 3 tables. This article has been accepted by Physical Review Letter

Intracellular lumen extension requires ERM-1-dependent apical membrane expansion and AQP-8-mediated flux

SUMMARY Many unicellular tubes such as capillaries form lumens intracellularly, a process that is not well understood. Here we show that the cortical membrane organizer ERM-1 is required to expand the intracellular apical/lumenal membrane and its actin undercoat during single-cell C.elegans excretory canal morphogenesis. We characterize AQP-8, identified in an ERM-1 overexpression (ERM-1[++]) suppressor screen, as a canalicular aquaporin that interacts with ERM-1 in lumen extension in a mercury-sensitive manner, implicating water-channel activity. AQP-8 is transiently recruited to the lumen by ERM-1, co-localizing in peri-lumenal cuffs interspaced along expanding canals. An ERM-1[++]-mediated increase in the number of lumen-associated canaliculi is reversed by AQP-8 depletion. We propose that the ERM-1-AQP-8 interaction propels lumen extension by translumenal flux, suggesting a direct morphogenetic effect of water-channel-regulated fluid pressure

Search for additional heavy neutral Higgs and gauge bosons in the ditau final state produced in 36 fb−1 of pp collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for heavy neutral Higgs bosons and Z′ bosons is performed using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1 from proton-proton collisions at √s=13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2015 and 2016. The heavy resonance is assumed to decay to τ+τ− with at least one tau lepton decaying to final states with hadrons and a neutrino. The search is performed in the mass range of 0.2-2.25 TeV for Higgs bosons and 0.2-4.0 TeV for Z′ bosons. The data are in good agreement with the background predicted by the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in benchmark scenarios. In the context of the hMSSM scenario, the data exclude tan β > 1.0 for mA= 0.25 TeV and tan β > 42 for mA=1.5 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the Sequential Standard Model, ZSSM′ with mZ′< 2.42 TeV is excluded at 95% confidence level, while Z NU′ with mZ ′ < 2.25 TeV is excluded for the non-universal G(221) model that exhibits enhanced couplings to third-generation fermions