ALBERT

Description: This paper describes the rationale and the protocol of the first component of the third simulation round of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP3a, http://www.isimip.org, last access: 2 November 2023) and the associated set of climate-related and direct human forcing data (CRF and DHF, respectively). The observation-based climate-related forcings for the first time include high-resolution observational climate forcings derived by orographic downscaling, monthly to hourly coastal water levels, and wind fields associated with historical tropical cyclones. The DHFs include land use patterns, population densities, information about water and agricultural management, and fishing intensities. The ISIMIP3a impact model simulations driven by these observation-based climate-related and direct human forcings are designed to test to what degree the impact models can explain observed changes in natural and human systems. In a second set of ISIMIP3a experiments the participating impact models are forced by the same DHFs but a counterfactual set of atmospheric forcings and coastal water levels where observed trends have been removed. These experiments are designed to allow for the attribution of observed changes in natural, human, and managed systems to climate change, rising CH4 and CO2 concentrations, and sea level rise according to the definition of the Working Group II contribution to the IPCC AR6.

Description: The BEST PATHS project is focused on the development and demonstration of grid equipment suitable for bulk power transmission across Europe. This work summarises the different cable conductor designs envisioned during the first 2.5 years of the superconducting demonstrator, taking benefit of the improved performance of MgB2 wires produced by Columbus Superconductors. The results of extensive validation tests carried out at CERN on two cables manufactured by Nexans are also presented.

Description: The European project BEST PATHS was initiated with the aim of developing state-of-the-art high-power transmission technologies. In this work, the AC losses in a superconducting MgB2 cable are estimated for various operating conditions. Based on the analysis of the most important parameters, recommendations are given to significantly reduce the AC losses of the cable and consequently decrease the operating cost for long lengths.

Description: The advantages of superconductivity have been acknowledged by the European Commission with its funding of Best Paths, a collaborative project on energy transmission that includes a superconducting power transmission line as one of its five constituent demonstrators. In addition to the design, development, optimisation, manufacturing and testing activities, special attention will be devoted to studying the integration of a superconducting link into the future transmission grid and to assessing the availability and economic viability of the system. Here an overview of the project is presented, including the main tasks and challenges ahead as well as preliminary results after the first year of activity.

Description: Human development has made remarkable social and economic progress possible for most of us but has also entailed a range of serious impacts on natural resources, local communities and the economy at multiple scales. Thus, achieving sustainable territorial management that combines healthy and prosperous societies with the long-term maintenance of biodiversity and productive ecosystem services remains the biggest challenge of our modern world. This Special Issue seeks to collect a coherent set of studies on techniques and experiences (case studies) aimed at increasing the environmental, social, economic &/or institutional sustainability of landscapes and seascapes from a range of geographic and socioeconomic contexts. Ten case studies representing urban areas, rural areas (chiefly protected areas) and coastal areas from four countries in Europe and Asia by internationally renowned authors are shown.

Description: The image is so well known it is practically iconic: The reclusive poet, feminine and fragile, weaving verse of beguiling complexity from the room in which she kept herself sequestered from the world. The Belle of Amherst, the distinctive American voice, the singer of the soul’s mysteries: Emily Dickinson. Yet that image scarcely captures the fullness and vitality of Dickinson’s life, most notably her many connections—to family, to friends, to correspondents, to the literary tastemakers of her day, even to the unnamed, and perhaps unknowable, “Master” to whom she addressed three of her most breathtaking works of prose. Through an exploration of a relatively small group of items from Dickinson’s vast literary remains, this volume—an accompaniment to an exhibition on Dickinson mounted at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York—demonstrates the complex ways in which these often humble objects came into conversation with other people, places, and events in the poet’s life. Seeing the network of connections and influences that shaped Dickinson’s life presents us with a different understanding of this most enigmatic yet elegiac poet in American letters, and allows us more fully to appreciate both her uniqueness and her humanity. The materials collected here make clear that the story of Dickinson’s manuscripts, her life, and her work is still unfolding. While the image of Dickinson as the reclusive poet dressed only in white remains a popular myth, details of Dickinson’s life continue to emerge. Several items included both in the exhibit and in this volume were not known to exist until the present century. The scrap of biographical intelligence recorded by Sarah Tuthill in a Mount Holyoke catalogue, or the concern about Dickinson’s salvation expressed by Abby Wood in a private letter to Abiah Root, were acquired by Amherst College in the last fifteen years. What additional pieces of evidence remain to be uncovered and identified in the attics and basements of New England? Published to accompany The Morgan Library & Museum’s pathbreaking exhibit I’m Nobody! Who are You? The Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson—part of a series of exhibits at the Morgan celebrating and exploring the creative lives of significant women authors—The Networked Recluse offers the reader an account of the exhibit itself, together with a series of contributions by curators, scholars of Dickinson, and poets whose own work her words have influenced.

Description: Proteinopathy is a collective term used to classified neurodegenerative diseases associated with the progressive accumulation of toxic protein molecules in specific brain regions. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a well-known proteinopathy characterize by the accumulation of A peptides and tau proteins. The accumulation of these toxic molecules in the brain starts many years before any clinical presentation, being the onset in the range of 65 to 72 years of age. Therefore, age is considered a risk factor due, in part, to the loss of molecular competence to clear the brain from these toxic protein molecules. This fact, supported by years of research, demonstrates that brain cells activate a neuroprotective mechanism upon detection of a pathobiological signal that (if the detrimental conditions persist) precedes the activation of the neurodegeneration pathway. The progressive brain region specific neuronal death in neurodegenerative diseases also indicates that the transition from neuroprotection to neurodegeneration is individually triggered in cells of the affected brain region. Thus, molecular understanding of the pathophysiology associated with proteinopathies needs to take in consideration this intricate transition process, especially when genomics and proteomics approaches are used. Research directed to understand the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases uncovered the putative role of different molecular mechanisms associated with neurodegeneration. Among the molecular mechanisms identified are proteolysis, epigenetics, microRNA, transcriptional regulation, innate and adaptive immune system, phagocytosis and autophagocytosis, exo/endocytosis, unfolded protein response, cytoskeleton defects, unregulated signaling molecules (i.e. kinases and phosphatases), trafficking molecules, cell cycle, neurogenesis/neurodevelopment, among others. Interestingly, all these molecular mechanisms have been identified through the analysis of tissue from animal models or human post-mortem pathologically confirmed cases, but their specific role in neurodegeneration is still unclear. Thus, it is plausible to consider that all these pathways play a role at a particular phase of the neurodegeneration process or, simply, are drive by the agonal state of the tissue examined. Hence, an important conundrum that researchers face today is the use of heterogeneous brain tissue samples in the quest to identify biomarkers associated with the pathogenesis or pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases. At this junction of the neurodegeneration field, this research topic aim to critically assess the current literature on molecular mechanisms associated with neurodegeneration and the approaches used to dissect their putative pathophysiological role. The studies could include the interplay between neuroprotective and neurodegenerative signals in neurodegeneration, dissecting the molecular role of identified biomarkers, bioinformatics tools that facilitate data mining, dissecting pathways or molecular mechanisms, stages of protein aggregation (oligomers vs tangles; who did it?), aging brain and brain fitness (A natural selection process), adaptive protein response to environmental insults and cellular signals, expression profile associated with neurological disorders and health. Therefore, this Research Topic is expected to cover a wide range of subjects related to unravel the interplay between neuroprotective and neurodegenerative signals in neurodegeneration.

Description: The image is so well known it is practically iconic: The reclusive poet, feminine and fragile, weaving verse of beguiling complexity from the room in which she kept herself sequestered from the world. The Belle of Amherst, the distinctive American voice, the singer of the soul’s mysteries: Emily Dickinson. Yet that image scarcely captures the fullness and vitality of Dickinson’s life, most notably her many connections—to family, to friends, to correspondents, to the literary tastemakers of her day, even to the unnamed, and perhaps unknowable, “Master” to whom she addressed three of her most breathtaking works of prose. Through an exploration of a relatively small group of items from Dickinson’s vast literary remains, this volume—an accompaniment to an exhibition on Dickinson mounted at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York—demonstrates the complex ways in which these often humble objects came into conversation with other people, places, and events in the poet’s life. Seeing the network of connections and influences that shaped Dickinson’s life presents us with a different understanding of this most enigmatic yet elegiac poet in American letters, and allows us more fully to appreciate both her uniqueness and her humanity. The materials collected here make clear that the story of Dickinson’s manuscripts, her life, and her work is still unfolding. While the image of Dickinson as the reclusive poet dressed only in white remains a popular myth, details of Dickinson’s life continue to emerge. Several items included both in the exhibit and in this volume were not known to exist until the present century. The scrap of biographical intelligence recorded by Sarah Tuthill in a Mount Holyoke catalogue, or the concern about Dickinson’s salvation expressed by Abby Wood in a private letter to Abiah Root, were acquired by Amherst College in the last fifteen years. What additional pieces of evidence remain to be uncovered and identified in the attics and basements of New England? Published to accompany The Morgan Library & Museum’s pathbreaking exhibit I’m Nobody! Who are You? The Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson—part of a series of exhibits at the Morgan celebrating and exploring the creative lives of significant women authors—The Networked Recluse offers the reader an account of the exhibit itself, together with a series of contributions by curators, scholars of Dickinson, and poets whose own work her words have influenced.

Description: Actually, we face a very conservative political wave around Western world, with conservatives parties on main governments positions with a conservative agenda on refugees, (im)migration and asylum seekers. In USA, President Trump won national elections with a hard discourse closing USA frontiers to “illegal” immigration and he already forbidden immigrants from some Eastern nations like: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan and Yemen, arguing that national security is more important now and that those countries could have some terrorists born there having as referee that 09/11 attacks. But, most people on those seven countries are Muslims – targeting as “born” terrorists.

Description: Published

Description: Actually, we face a very conservative political wave around Western world, with conservatives parties on main governments positions with a conservative agenda on refugees, (im)migration and asylum seekers. In USA, President Trump won national elections with a hard discourse closing USA frontiers to “illegal” immigration and he already forbidden immigrants from some Eastern nations like: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan and Yemen, arguing that national security is more important now and that those countries could have some terrorists born there having as referee that 09/11 attacks. But, most people on those seven countries are Muslims – targeting as “born” terrorists.

Description: Published