scholarly journals Desertification risk fuels spatial polarization in ‘affected’ and ‘unaffected’ landscapes in Italy

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samaneh Sadat Nickayin ◽  
Rosa Coluzzi ◽  
Alvaro Marucci ◽  
Leonardo Bianchini ◽  
Luca Salvati ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Degradation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Landscape Fragmentation ◽  
Intrinsically Disordered ◽  
Italian Regions ◽  
Downward Spiral ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Landscape Transformations ◽  
Desertification Risk

AbstractSouthern Europe is a hotspot for desertification risk because of the intimate impact of soil deterioration, landscape transformations, rising human pressure, and climate change. In this context, large-scale empirical analyses linking landscape fragmentation with desertification risk assume that increasing levels of land vulnerability to degradation are associated with significant changes in landscape structure. Using a traditional approach of landscape ecology, this study evaluates the spatial structure of a simulated landscape based on different levels of vulnerability to land degradation using 15 metrics calculated at three time points (early-1960s, early-1990s, early-2010s) in Italy. While the (average) level of land vulnerability increased over time almost in all Italian regions, vulnerable landscapes demonstrated to be increasingly fragmented, as far as the number of homogeneous patches and mean patch size are concerned. The spatial balance in affected and unaffected areas—typically observed in the 1960s—was progressively replaced with an intrinsically disordered landscape, and this process was more intense in regions exposed to higher (and increasing) levels of land degradation. The spread of larger land patches exposed to intrinsic degradation brings to important consequences since (1) the rising number of hotspots may increase the probability of local-scale degradation processes, and (2) the buffering effect of neighbouring (unaffected) land can be less effective on bigger hotspots, promoting a downward spiral toward desertification.

scholarly journals EGCG binds intrinsically disordered N-terminal domain of p53 and disrupts p53-MDM2 interaction

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Zhao ◽  
Alan Blayney ◽  
Xiaorong Liu ◽  
Lauren Gandy ◽  
Weihua Jin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Epigallocatechin Gallate ◽  
Cancer Drug ◽  
Dynamic Interactions ◽  
Cancer Drug Discovery ◽  
Intrinsically Disordered ◽  
Terminal Domain ◽  
Cancerous Cells

AbstractEpigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) from green tea can induce apoptosis in cancerous cells, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Using SPR and NMR, here we report a direct, μM interaction between EGCG and the tumor suppressor p53 (KD = 1.6 ± 1.4 μM), with the disordered N-terminal domain (NTD) identified as the major binding site (KD = 4 ± 2 μM). Large scale atomistic simulations (>100 μs), SAXS and AUC demonstrate that EGCG-NTD interaction is dynamic and EGCG causes the emergence of a subpopulation of compact bound conformations. The EGCG-p53 interaction disrupts p53 interaction with its regulatory E3 ligase MDM2 and inhibits ubiquitination of p53 by MDM2 in an in vitro ubiquitination assay, likely stabilizing p53 for anti-tumor activity. Our work provides insights into the mechanisms for EGCG’s anticancer activity and identifies p53 NTD as a target for cancer drug discovery through dynamic interactions with small molecules.

Concrete Monsters of the Welfare State: Discussions of Brutalist Architecture on Social Media

2021 ◽  
pp. 120633122110193
Author(s):  
Max Holleran
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Welfare State

Brutalist architecture is an object of fascination on social media that has taken on new popularity in recent years. This article, drawing on 3,000 social media posts in Russian and English, argues that the buildings stand out for their arresting scale and their association with the expanding state in the 1960s and 1970s. In both North Atlantic and Eastern European contexts, the aesthetic was employed in publicly financed urban planning projects, creating imposing concrete structures for universities, libraries, and government offices. While some online social media users associate the style with the overreach of both socialist and capitalist governments, others are more nostalgic. They use Brutalist buildings as a means to start conversations about welfare state goals of social housing, free university, and other services. They also lament that many municipal governments no longer have the capacity or vision to take on large-scale projects of reworking the built environment to meet contemporary challenges.

Dryland Degradation and Expansion: Implications for Mexican Policies from the Earth System Perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Gabriel Lopez Porras
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Science Policy ◽  
Land Degradation ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Sustainable Land Management ◽  
System Perspective ◽  
The Earth

Despite international efforts to stop dryland degradation and expansion, current dryland pathways are predicted to result in large-scale migration, growing poverty and famine, and increasing climate change, land degradation, conflicts and water scarcity. Earth system science has played a key role in analysing dryland problems, and has been even incorporated in global assessments such as the ones made by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. However, policies addressing dryland degradation, like the ‘Mexican programme for the promotion of sustainable land management’, do not embrace an Earth system perspective, so they do not consider the complexity and non-linearity that underlie dryland problems. By exploring how this Mexican programme could integrate the Earth system perspective, this paper discusses how ’Earth system’ policies could better address dryland degradation and expansion in the Anthropocene.

scholarly journals The Mysterious Unfoldome: Structureless, Underappreciated, Yet Vital Part of Any Given Proteome

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir N. Uversky
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Intrinsically Disordered Proteins ◽  
Biologically Active ◽  
Disordered Proteins ◽  
Unfolded Proteins ◽  
Intrinsically Disordered ◽  
Proteome Level ◽  
Natively Unfolded ◽  
Natively Unfolded Proteins

Contrarily to the general believe, many biologically active proteins lack stable tertiary and/or secondary structure under physiological conditions in vitro. These intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are highly abundant in nature and many of them are associated with various human diseases. The functional repertoire of IDPs complements the functions of ordered proteins. Since IDPs constitute a significant portion of any given proteome, they can be combined in an unfoldome; which is a portion of the proteome including all IDPs (also known as natively unfolded proteins, therefore, unfoldome), and describing their functions, structures, interactions, evolution, and so forth. Amino acid sequence and compositions of IDPs are very different from those of ordered proteins, making possible reliable identification of IDPs at the proteome level by various computational means. Furthermore, IDPs possess a number of unique structural properties and are characterized by a peculiar conformational behavior, including their high stability against low pH and high temperature and their structural indifference toward the unfolding by strong denaturants. These peculiarities were shown to be useful for elaboration of the experimental techniques for the large-scale identification of IDPs in various organisms. Some of the computational and experimental tools for the unfoldome discovery are discussed in this review.

scholarly journals Co-Evolution of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins with Folded Partners Witnessed by Evolutionary Couplings

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (11) ◽  
pp. 3315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Pancsa ◽  
Fruzsina Zsolyomi ◽  
Peter Tompa
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Intrinsically Disordered Proteins ◽  
Protein Structures ◽  
Disordered Proteins ◽  
Cellular Interaction ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Protein Residues ◽  
Intrinsically Disordered ◽  
Evolutionary Changes ◽  
Folded Proteins

Although improved strategies for the detection and analysis of evolutionary couplings (ECs) between protein residues already enable the prediction of protein structures and interactions, they are mostly restricted to conserved and well-folded proteins. Whereas intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) are central to cellular interaction networks, due to the lack of strict structural constraints, they undergo faster evolutionary changes than folded domains. This makes the reliable identification and alignment of IDP homologs difficult, which led to IDPs being omitted in most large-scale residue co-variation analyses. By preforming a dedicated analysis of phylogenetically widespread bacterial IDP–partner interactions, here we demonstrate that partner binding imposes constraints on IDP sequences that manifest in detectable interprotein ECs. These ECs were not detected for interactions mediated by short motifs, rather for those with larger IDP–partner interfaces. Most identified coupled residue pairs reside close (<10 Å) to each other on the interface, with a third of them forming multiple direct atomic contacts. EC-carrying interfaces of IDPs are enriched in negatively charged residues, and the EC residues of both IDPs and partners preferentially reside in helices. Our analysis brings hope that IDP–partner interactions difficult to study could soon be successfully dissected through residue co-variation analysis.

Italian Regional Evolutions

10.1068/a3489 ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 657-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Dunford
Keyword(s):  
Employment Growth ◽  
Regional Economies ◽  
Comparative Performance ◽  
The Third ◽  
Italian Regions ◽  
Convergence And Divergence ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Contemporary Development ◽  
Demographic Growth ◽  
Comparative Evolution

The aim of this paper is to examine the evolution of Italy's territorial inequalities from 1952 to 1996 and to consider what the Italian record tells us about the utility of theories of convergence and divergence. After outlining the scale and nature of contemporary development gaps in Italy, the author explores the way these inequalities have changed, showing that convergence in the 1960s and early 1970s gave way to divergence, and identifying the respective roles of productivity, employment, and demographic growth in shaping the overall trend in inequality. To examine what underlay the aggregate trends attention is paid to the comparative evolution of twenty Italian regions, indicating clearly the changing relative fortunes of the metropolitan northwest, the Mezzogiorno, the Third Italy, and the Adriatic coastal regions. In the final sections several decompositions are employed to identify the contribution of productivity and employment growth across a range of sectors to the comparative performance of Italy's regional economies.

scholarly journals Organizations and national culture

Sociologija ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 347-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dusan Mojic
Keyword(s):  
National Culture ◽  
Organizational Theory ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Multicultural Organizations ◽  
Organizational Study ◽  
The 1960S

The paper deals with the most important contributions in studying cultural influences on organizations. The interest of social scientists in this topic began in the 1960s, based on the belief that it was necessary to overcome the dominant parochialism of US researchers in organizational theory and practice. Increasing internationalization of business activities, especially in the 1970s, imposed the need for large-scale studies and for finding practical solutions to the completely new problems encountered by multicultural organizations whose number was constantly rising. In spite of numerous and serious difficulties in every cross-cultural organizational study, several decades of development in this field have produced important theoretical and empirical contributions, enabling further advances in this scientific and practical discipline.

scholarly journals Forward: There Are Still Plenty of Opportunities On the Boundaries

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yijun Liu
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Anisotropic Elasticity ◽  
Boundary Integral ◽  
Stress Concentrations ◽  
Modeling Tools ◽  
Hypersingular Integrals ◽  
Solid Foundation ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The One ◽  
Local Integral Equations

<table width="530" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <a name="abstract"></a> <span class="subtitle" style="font-weight:bold">Abstract</span><br /> <p><img src="http://ejbe.libraries.rutgers.edu/files/rizzo.gif" align=left HSPACE=20>This is the second of the two special issues of Electronic Journal of Boundary Elements in honor of Professor Frank Rizzo. There are thirteen technical papers in this issue, contributed by Professor Rizzo’s colleagues, friends and former students. These papers cover a broad range of topics in the boundary integral equation and boundary element method (BIE/BEM), including Galerkin BEM for anisotropic elasticity (Gray, Griffith, et al.), evaluations of hypersingular integrals in Galerkin BEM (Bonnet and Guiggiani), Green’s function BEM for bimaterials (Denda), new 3-D Green’s functions for piezoelectric bimaterials (Pan), new formulations using local integral equations (Sladek and Sladek), BEM in sensitivity analysis with stress concentrations (Burczynski and Habarta), fracture of thermopiezoelectric materials (Qin), BEM for 3-D gradient elastodynamics (Polyzos, Tsepoura and Beskos), time-domain large-scale elastodynamic analysis (Yoshikawa and Nishimura), acoustic BEM for analyzing mufflers and silencers (Wu and Cheng), analysis of solids with randomly distributed inclusions (Yao, Kong and Zheng), thermal and stress analyses of thermal barrier coatings (Lu and Dong), and finally, modeling of carbon nanotube-based composites (Liu and Chen). These authors are gratefully acknowledged for their excellent contributions, and for their patience and cooperation in the process of preparing this special issue. It is interesting to note that the wide applications of the elasticity BIE/BEM in engineering all started with a simple idea. That is, boundary-value problems can be solved by boundary-only methods. The first result in this direction is also amazingly concise. During a recent trip to Urbana, Illinois, I checked out Professor Rizzo’s Ph.D. dissertation from the UIUC library. The thirty-page dissertation is without doubt a masterpiece that many current and future Ph.D. candidates may like to follow, for its originality and succinct writing. The dissertation laid a solid foundation for what is now called the BEM for elasticity and many other problems, and eventually led to the seminal paper of 1967. Behind this masterpiece are Professor Rizzo’s affection and conviction in the BIE/BEM and his willingness to explore a different route in research. This spirit of exploration and his serious attitude in research have inspired and influenced many of his former students and colleagues in the last forty years. Researchers in the pursuit of boundary-only methods can be described as explorers in a Flatland (see Professor Rizzo’s article in Issue No. 1). They can have different perspectives, but can also discover treasures that others could not uncover. As younger researchers come into this playground, new breakthroughs, just like the one made by Professor Rizzo in the 1960s, may not be far away. There will certainly be more innovative boundary-only methods emerging in the near future. More special numerical tools will be developed and more emerging problems will be solved by these new modeling tools. The fields of computational mechanics will be further diversified and thus prosperous. There are still plenty of opportunities on the boundaries! <br /><br /><br /> </td> </tr> </table>

scholarly journals HOLISTIC PARAMETRIC RECONSTRUCTION OF BUILDING MODELS FROM POINT CLOUDS

2020 ◽  
Vol XLIII-B2-2020 ◽  
pp. 689-695
Author(s):  
Z. Li ◽  
W. Zhang ◽  
J. Shan
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Point Clouds ◽  
Airborne Lidar ◽  
Reconstruction Method ◽  
Optimization Strategy ◽  
Building Roof ◽  
Building Model ◽  
Building Models

Abstract. Building models are conventionally reconstructed by building roof points via planar segmentation and then using a topology graph to group the planes together. Roof edges and vertices are then mathematically represented by intersecting segmented planes. Technically, such solution is based on sequential local fitting, i.e., the entire data of one building are not simultaneously participating in determining the building model. As a consequence, the solution is lack of topological integrity and geometric rigor. Fundamentally different from this traditional approach, we propose a holistic parametric reconstruction method which means taking into consideration the entire point clouds of one building simultaneously. In our work, building models are reconstructed from predefined parametric (roof) primitives. We first use a well-designed deep neural network to segment and identify primitives in the given building point clouds. A holistic optimization strategy is then introduced to simultaneously determine the parameters of a segmented primitive. In the last step, the optimal parameters are used to generate a watertight building model in CityGML format. The airborne LiDAR dataset RoofN3D with predefined roof types is used for our test. It is shown that PointNet++ applied to the entire dataset can achieve an accuracy of 83% for primitive classification. For a subset of 910 buildings in RoofN3D, the holistic approach is then used to determine the parameters of primitives and reconstruct the buildings. The achieved overall quality of reconstruction is 0.08 meters for point-surface-distance or 0.7 times RMSE of the input LiDAR points. This study demonstrates the efficiency and capability of the proposed approach and its potential to handle large scale urban point clouds.

scholarly journals Magnetosheath-cusp interface

2004 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Savin ◽  
L. Zelenyi ◽  
S. Romanov ◽  
I. Sandahl ◽  
J. Pickett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Solar Wind ◽  
Magnetic Fields ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Qualitative Difference ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Nonlinear Phenomena ◽  
Solar Wind Interaction ◽  
Linear Superposition

Abstract. We advance the achievements of Interball-1 and other contemporary missions in exploration of the magnetosheath-cusp interface. Extensive discussion of published results is accompanied by presentation of new data from a case study and a comparison of those data within the broader context of three-year magnetopause (MP) crossings by Interball-1. Multi-spacecraft boundary layer studies reveal that in ∼80% of the cases the interaction of the magnetosheath (MSH) flow with the high latitude MP produces a layer containing strong nonlinear turbulence, called the turbulent boundary layer (TBL). The TBL contains wave trains with flows at approximately the Alfvén speed along field lines and "diamagnetic bubbles" with small magnetic fields inside. A comparison of the multi-point measurements obtained on 29 May 1996 with a global MHD model indicates that three types of populating processes should be operative: large-scale (∼few RE) anti-parallel merging at sites remote from the cusp; medium-scale (few thousandkm) local TBL-merging of fields that are anti-parallel on average; small-scale (few hundredkm) bursty reconnection of fluctuating magnetic fields, representing a continuous mechanism for MSH plasma inflow into the magnetosphere, which could dominate in quasi-steady cases. The lowest frequency (∼1–2mHz) TBL fluctuations are traced throughout the magnetosheath from the post-bow shock region up to the inner magnetopause border. The resonance of these fluctuations with dayside flux tubes might provide an effective correlative link for the entire dayside region of the solar wind interaction with the magnetopause and cusp ionosphere. The TBL disturbances are characterized by kinked, double-sloped wave power spectra and, most probably, three-wave cascading. Both elliptical polarization and nearly Alfvénic phase velocities with characteristic dispersion indicate the kinetic Alfvénic nature of the TBL waves. The three-wave phase coupling could effectively support the self-organization of the TBL plasma by means of coherent resonant-like structures. The estimated characteristic scale of the "resonator" is of the order of the TBL dimension over the cusps. Inverse cascades of kinetic Alfvén waves are proposed for forming the larger scale "organizing" structures, which in turn synchronize all nonlinear cascades within the TBL in a self-consistent manner. This infers a qualitative difference from the traditional approach, wherein the MSH/cusp interaction is regarded as a linear superposition of magnetospheric responses on the solar wind or MSH disturbances. Key words. Magnetospheric physics (magnetopause, cusp, and boundary layers) – Space plasma physics (turbulence; nonlinear phenomena)

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