NATMAP – Canada’s National Geoscience Mapping Program: 1991 – 2003

The National Geoscience Mapping Program (NATMAP) was developed by the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) in 1991 to support Canada’s natural resources industry by filling gaps in the fundamental geoscience database, and to respond to emerging environmental and societal issues. The 12-year, multi-million dollar program operated through close collaboration between the GSC and the provincial and territorial geoscience agencies; it also incorporated participation from universities and some support from industry. Projects ranged from mapping and assessing the surficial geology of the Oak Ridges Moraine in Greater Toronto, documenting the geological framework of the Slave Province in the Northwest Territories, to research on the evolution of oil and gas in the Magdalen Basin off Canada’s east coast. The program, whose thirteen projects included components in nine provinces and three territories, came to a successful end in 2003. Now, almost twenty years after fieldwork began on the first of the NATMAP projects, impacts of this major contribution to Canada’s geoscience realm have been recognized from several perspectives. As expected, a wealth of new, high-quality geoscience knowledge was acquired for various areas across Canada, knowledge that became and remained readily accessible. Early socio-economic impacts from applying this knowledge can now be recognized and documented. In addition, NATMAP’s legacy must also include recognition of how it led to establishing an important and effective framework under which cooperative and collaborative geoscience is designed and conducted by GSC and provincial and territorial geoscience agencies, and also how the organization of NATMAP became the first step in the evolution of the way in which the GSC plans and undertakes the whole of its geo-science program in response to meeting the varied geoscience needs of Canadians. Perhaps a final testament to the success of NATMAP resides with many of this country’s young geologists, now following professional careers in the public and private sectors, who received invaluable training as student participants in one or another of the NATMAP projects. SOMMAIRE Le Programme national de cartographie scientifique (NATMAP) a été développé en 1991 par la Commission géologique du Canada (CGC) en appui à l’industrie des richesses naturelles en comblant les lacunes de la base de données géoscientifiques, et pour être en mesure de répondre aux problèmes sociaux et environnementaux émergeants. Ce programme de plusieurs millions de dollars étalé sur 12 ans a été mise en œuvre en étroite collaboration entre la CGC, les services géoscientifiques des provinces et des territoires; il y a également eu participation d’universités ainsi qu’une certaine collaboration du secteur privé de l’industrie. Les projets allaient de la cartographie et de l’étude de la géologie des dépôts meubles de la moraine d’Oak Ridge dans la région du Grand Toronto, à la documentation de la structure géologique de la Province des Esclaves dans les Territoires du Nord-Ouest, à la recherche sur l’évolution du pétrole et du gaz dans le bassin de la Madeleine au large de la côte Est du Canada. Ce programme dont les treize projets comportaient des composantes dans neuf provinces et trois territoires s’est terminé avec succès en 2003. Maintenant, près de vingt ans après le début des premiers travaux de terrain des premiers projets, les retombées dans le domaine géoscientifique sont reconnues et ce de différents point de vue. Comme il fallait s’y attendre, une abondance de nouvelles connaissances géoscientifiques de haute qualité ont été ainsi acquises de diverses régions du Canada et sont désormais disponibles. On peut déjà mesurer et documenter les premières retombées socio-économiques découlant de l’application de ces connaissances. C’est aussi NATMAP qui a permis l’édification d’un important et efficace réseau de collaboration et de coopération permettant la planification et la réalisation de projets géoscientifiques menés par la CGC et les services géoscientifiques des provinces et des territoires. Il faut aussi reconnaître comment l’organisation de NATMAP a été la première étape de l’élaboration de la façon dont la CGC planifie et défini l’ensemble de sa programmation géoscientifique afin de répondre aux divers besoins géoscientifiques de la population. Finalement, un dernier aspect des retombées positives de NATMAP sont tous ces jeunes géoscientifiques au pays qui poursuivent une carrière dans le domaine et qui ont été formés par leur participation en tant qu’étudiants aux projets de NATMAP

DNMT3B Oncogenic Activity in Human Intestinal Cancer Is Not Linked to CIMP or BRAFV600E Mutation

Summary: Approximately 10% of human colorectal cancer (CRC) are associated with activated BRAFV600E mutation, typically in absence of APC mutation and often associated with a CpG island methylator (CIMP) phenotype. To protect from cancer, normal intestinal epithelial cells respond to oncogenic BRAFV600E by activation of intrinsic p53 and p16-dependent tumor suppressor mechanisms, such as cellular senescence. Conversely, CIMP is thought to contribute to bypass of these tumor suppressor mechanisms, e.g. via epigenetic silencing of tumor suppressor genes, such as p16. It has been repeatedly proposed that DNMT3B is responsible for BRAFV600E-induced CIMP in human CRC. Here we set out to test this by in silico, in vitro, and in vivo approaches. We conclude that although both BRAFV600E and DNMT3B harbor oncogenic potential in vitro and in vivo and show some evidence of cooperation in tumor promotion, they do not frequently cooperate to promote CIMP and human intestinal cancer

A multicomponent intervention for the management of chronic pain in older adults: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Studies have shown that physical interventions and psychological methods based on the cognitive behavioral approach are efficacious in alleviating pain and that combining both tends to yield more benefits than either intervention alone. In view of the aging population with chronic pain and the lack of evidence-based pain management programs locally, we developed a multicomponent intervention incorporating physical exercise and cognitive behavioral techniques and examined its long-term effects against treatment as usual (i.e., pain education) in older adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain in Hong Kong. Methods/design: We are conducting a double-blind, cluster-randomized controlled trial. A sample of 160 participants aged ≥ 60 years will be recruited from social centers or outpatient clinics and will be randomized on the basis of center/clinic to either the multicomponent intervention or the pain education program. Both interventions consist of ten weekly sessions of 90 minutes each. The primary outcome is pain intensity, and the secondary outcomes include pain interference, pain persistence, pain self-efficacy, pain coping, pain catastrophizing cognitions, health-related quality of life, depressive symptoms, and hip and knee muscle strength. All outcome measures will be collected at baseline, postintervention, and at 3 and 6 months follow-up. Intention-to-treat analysis will be performed using mixed-effects regression to see whether the multicomponent intervention alleviates pain intensity and associated outcomes over and above the effects of pain education (i.e., a treatment × time intervention effect). Discussion: Because the activities included in the multicomponent intervention were carefully selected for ready implementation by allied health professionals in general, the results of this study, if positive, will make available an efficacious, nonpharmacological pain management program that can be widely adopted in clinical and social service settings and will hence improve older people’s access to pain management services

Enzymatic Mechanisms Involved in Evasion of Fungi to the Oxidative Stress: Focus on Scedosporium apiospermum

The airways of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) are frequently colonized by various filamentous fungi, mainly Aspergillus fumigatus and Scedosporium species. To establish within the respiratory tract and cause an infection, these opportunistic fungi express pathogenic factors allowing adherence to the host tissues, uptake of extracellular iron, or evasion to the host immune response. During the colonization process, inhaled conidia and the subsequent hyphae are exposed to reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) released by phagocytic cells, which cause in the fungal cells an oxidative stress and a nitrosative stress, respectively. To cope with these constraints, fungal pathogens have developed various mechanisms that protect the fungus against ROS and RNS, including enzymatic antioxidant systems. In this review, we summarize the different works performed on ROS- and RNS-detoxifying enzymes in fungi commonly encountered in the airways of CF patients and highlight their role in pathogenesis of the airway colonization or respiratory infections. The potential of these enzymes as serodiagnostic tools is also emphasized. In addition, taking advantage of the recent availability of the whole genome sequence of S. apiospermum, we identified the various genes encoding ROS- and RNS-detoxifying enzymes, which pave the way for future investigations on the role of these enzymes in pathogenesis of these emerging species since they may constitute new therapeutics targets

The Physics of the B Factories

This work is on the Physics of the B Factories. Part A of this book contains a brief description of the SLAC and KEK B Factories as well as their detectors, BaBar and Belle, and data taking related issues. Part B discusses tools and methods used by the experiments in order to obtain results. The results themselves can be found in Part C