Fatigue during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence of social distancing adherence from a panel study of young adults in Switzerland

In this paper we analyze panel data (N = 400) to investigate the change in attitudes towards the Covid-19 measures and the change in compliance behavior between the first and second lockdowns in a sample of young adults from the University of Bern, Switzerland. We find considerable fatigue. While respondents expressed high acceptance of and compliance with the Covid-19 measures during the first lockdown, both acceptance and compliance behavior decreased substantially during the second lockdown. Moreover, we show via a structural equation model that respondents’ compliance behavior is largely driven by the perception of how others behave and by the acceptance of the Covid-19 measures. All other effects scrutinized e.g., individual and social risk perception, trust in politics, and pro-social orientations affect compliance behavior via the acceptance of Covid-19 measures. We also conduct two tests of causality of the estimated relation between attitudes towards the measures and social distancing behavior. The first test incorporates the effect of compliance behavior reported during the first lockdown on attitudes during the second lockdown. The second test involves estimating a first difference panel regression model of attitudes on compliance behavior. The results of both tests suggest that the effect of Covid-19 attitudes on social distancing behavior can be interpreted causally.

First person – Mariana De Niz

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Mariana De Niz is first author on ‘Hijacking of the host cell Golgi by Plasmodium berghei liver stage parasites’, published in JCS. Mariana conducted the research described in this article while a PhD student in Volker T. Heussler's lab at Institute of Cell Biology, University of Bern, Switzerland. She is now a Postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Luisa M. Figueiredo at Instituto de Medicina Molecular, University of Lisbon, Portugal, where she is interested in understanding cell and biophysical properties of host–pathogen interactions mediating parasite invasion of mammalian hosts.

First person – Mariana Castro Dias

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Mariana Castro Dias is first author on ‘Brain endothelial tricellular junctions as novel sites for T cell diapedesis across the blood–brain barrier’, published in JCS. Mariana conducted the research described in this article while a PhD student in Britta Engelhardt's lab at the Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern, Switzerland. She is now an Associate Scientific Communications Manager working for Roche Diagnostics International. She is utterly fascinated by the brain, particularly the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathology of neurodegenerative disorders.

Coping with religious conflicts

This article presents conceptual results from the Interfaculty Research Cooperation “Religious Conflicts and Coping Strategies” at the University of Bern. Since 2018, researchers from various academic disciplines—theology, psychology, law, religious studies, social anthropology, jewish studies, islamic studies, political sciences, history, communication studies, philosophy, gender studies and german studies—have been comparatively investigating past and present conflicts with religious dimensions.Conflicts involving religion often intensify, elude resolution or lose their constructive and socializing potential, because strong emotional, factual and interpretive aspects are interwoven. Established strategies of conflict resolution therefore often reach their limits in such conflicts. We show that the concept of coping has the advantage of focusing on the process rather than on the resolution of conflicts. It does not aim at solving a conflict that may not be solved, but it aims at looking for ways to shape and manage conflicts with religious dimensions. Coping as a concept originates from psychologists, who describe individuals as active beings who are able to deal with stressful situations on emotional, factual and interpretative-evaluative levels. The different types of coping correlate with three essential dimensions of religion. Therefore, coping as a travelling concept can be particularly fruitful for the interdisciplinary study of conflicts with religious dimensions. It fosters a context-sensitive and differentiated analysis of the dynamics of religious conflicts and may therefore contribute to develop the approach of conflict transformation. First, this paper presents guiding questions for such a context-sensitive conflict analysis; second, it presents an analytical model that visualizes the relevant conflict factors, dimensions of religion and types of coping and facilitates questions about their interactions.

Disentangle Kinetic From Equilibrium Fractionation Using Primary (δ17O, δ18O, δD) and Secondary (Δ17O, dex) Stable Isotope Parameters on Samples From the Swiss Precipitation Network

Since 1971 water isotope measurements are being conducted by the Climate and Environmental Physics Division at the University of Bern on precipitation, river- and groundwater collected at several places within Switzerland. The water samples were stored in glass flasks for later analyses with improved instrumentation. Conventional isotope ratio measurements on precipitated water from all stations of the network are well correlated as expected. However, Δ17O as well as dex is anticorrelated to these isotope ratio. The combination of these parameters allow to investigate dependencies on temperature, turbulence factor, and humidity of these values as well as to look into the importance and relative contributions of kinetic to equilibrium fractionations. We used published temperature dependent fractionation factors in combination with a simple Rayleigh model approach to investigate the importance of the meteorological parameters on the isotope ratios. A direct comparison of measured and modeled isotope ratios for primary (δ17O, δ18O and (δD) as well as secondary isotope parameters (Δ17O and dex) is shown.

Viscous Flows Formed The Branched Ridges Of Antoniadi Crater, Mars

<p>Antoniadi basin is a 330 km diameter Noachian basin localized in the East of Arabia Terra that contains a network of ridges with a tree-like organization. Branched ridges, such as these can form by a variety of processes including the inversion of fluvial deposits, thus potentially highlighting aqueous processes of interest for understanding Mars’ climate evolution. Here, we test this hypothesis by analyzing in details data from Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS), High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) and High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC).</p><p>Branched ridges are up to 10 km long and from 10 to 200 m wide without obvious organization in width. The branched ridges texture is rubbly with the occurrence of blocks up to ~1 m in size and a complete lack of layering. A HiRISE elevation model shows the local slope is of 0.2° toward South, and thus contrary to the apparent network organization (assuming tributary flows). There is no indication of exhumation of these ridges from layers below the current plains surface. Our observations are not consistent with the interpretation of digitate landforms such as inverted channels: (i) The rubbly texture lacking any layering at meter scale is distinct from inverted channels as observed elsewhere on Mars. (ii) Heads of presumed inverted channels display a lobate shape unlike river springs. (iii) There is no increase in width from small branches toward North as expected for channels with increasing discharge rates downstream. (iv) The slope toward South is contrary to the inferred flow direction to the North. The detailed analysis of these branched ridges shows many characteristics difficult to reconcile with inverted channels formed by fluvial channels flowing northward. Subglacial drainages are known to locally flow against topography, but they are rarely dendritic.<strong> </strong>Assuming that deposition occurred along the current slope, thus from North to South, the organization of the network requires a control by distributary channels rather than tributary ones. Distributary channels are possible for fluvial flows, but generally limited to braiding regimes or deltaic deposits, of which no further evidence is observed here. The lobate digitate shapes of the degree 1 branches are actually more in line with deposits of viscous flows, thus as terminal branches. Such an interpretation is consistent with lava or mudflows that formed along the current topography. The next step in this study will be to determine more precisely the rheology of these unusual flows.</p><p><strong>Acknowledgments:</strong> French authors are supported by the CNES. The authors wish to thank the spacecraft and instrument engineering teams. CaSSIS is a project of the University of Bern and funded through the Swiss Space Office via ESA’s PRODEX. The instrument hardware development was also supported by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) (agreement no. I/018/12/0), INAF/Astronomical Observatory of Padova, and the Space Research Center (CBK) in Warsaw. Support from SGF (Budapest), the Univ. of Arizona (Lunar and Planet. Lab.) and NASA are gratefully acknowledged.</p>

The seasonal evolution of ices on the gullied slopes of Sisyphi Cavi on Mars using CaSSIS and HiRISE orbital images

<p>Gully systems on Mars were first reported by Malin and Edgett (Science, 2000) and because of their similarity to gullies on Earth were attributed to the action of liquid water. They are generally kilometre-scale systems where tributary alcoves lead into channel(s), which terminate in digitate deposits and/or fans. They are found on almost all steep slopes polewards of 30°N/S and are oriented towards the pole in the interval 30-40°, then occur on all slope-orientations >40° (e.g. Conway et al. 2019). Their latitudinal distribution and trends in orientation are strong indicators of a climatic factor playing a pivotal role in their formation. Repeat orbital observations have revealed changes in up to 20% of monitored gully systems (Dundas et al. 2019). When the timing of the changes can be constrained, they occur at the end of the seasonal defrosting period when carbon dioxide ice is present at the surface rendering the temperatures too cold for liquid water to be involved (Dundas et al. 2015, 2019; Pasquon et al., 2016, 2019a,b; Raack et al. 2015, 2020). Some changes involve resolvable quantities of sediment, including motion of metre-scale boulders and erosion of new channels (Dundas et al. 2015; de Haas et al. 2019; Pasquon et al., 2019a).</p><p>Here, we exploit an exceptional time series to monitor the evolution of gullies and the seasonal frost deposits in Sisyphi Cavi (68-74°S, 345°-5°E). We use image data from HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment; 0.25-1 m/pixel), CaSSIS (Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System; 4.5 m/pixel) and CTX (Context; 6 m/pixel). CaSSIS has four colour filters: BLU, PAN, RED and NIR (centred on 500, 675, 836 and 937 nm respectively); where the BLU filter is particularly useful for picking up surface frosts (Tornabene et al. 2019). We find that gullies and dunes are the last surfaces to defrost in the area. Independent of slope-orientation the alcoves of the gullies defrost first, followed by their channels then their fans. A surprising result considering that intuitively defrosting should progress from the equator-facing alcoves to the equator-facing fans, then from the pole-facing fans to the pole-facing alcoves. We infer that this is a consequence of a) fans and alcoves having contrasting thermal inertia and b) alcoves having slope-facets with a range of local orientations (with some proportion being equator-facing independent of overall orientation).</p><p>We observe dark spots, dark flows and dark fans at the metre-to-ten-metre-scale. These features occur when a continuous solid slab of translucent CO2-ice is penetrated and warmed by sunlight at its base. The sublimation drives gas build-up under the slab, ruptures it, entraining dust and then depositing the dust on the surface (e.g. Kieffer et al. 2006) to form spots, flows and/or fans, depending on the context. We find that the recent activity of gullies promotes the formation of dark spots/flows/fans and are investigating the inverse relationship.</p><p>Acknowledgement: CaSSIS is a project of the University of Bern, with instrument hardware development supported by INAF/Astronomical Observatory of Padova (ASI-INAF agreement n.2020-17-HH.0), and the Space Research Center (CBK) in Warsaw.</p>

SemantiX: a cross-sensor semantic EO data cube to open and leverage AVHRR time-series and essential climate variables with scientists and the public

<p>Long time series of essential climate variables (ECVs) derived from satellite data are key to climate research. SemantiX is a research project to establish, complement and expand Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) time series using Copernicus Sentinel-3 A/B imagery, making them and derived ECVs accessible using a semantic Earth observation (EO) data cube. The Remote Sensing Research Group at the University of Bern has one of the longest European times series of AVHRR imagery (1981-now). Data cube technologies are a game changer for how EO imagery are stored, accessed, and processed. They also establish reproducible analytical environments for queries and information production and are able to better represent multi-dimensional systems. A semantic EO data cube is a newly coined concept by researchers at the University of Salzburg referring to a spatio-temporal data cube containing EO data, where for each observation at least one nominal (i.e., categorical) interpretation is available and can be queried in the same instance (Augustin et al. 2019). Offering analysis ready data (i.e., calibrated and orthorectified AVHRR Level 1c data) in a data cube along with semantic enrichment reduces barriers to conducting spatial analysis through time based on user-defined AOIs.</p><p>This contribution presents a semantic EO data cube containing selected ECV time series (i.e., snow cover extent, lake surface water temperature, vegetation dynamics) derived from AVHRR imagery (1981-2019), a temporal and spatial subset of AVHRR Level 1c imagery (updated after Hüsler et al. 2011) from 2016 until 2019, and, for the later, semantic enrichment derived using the Satellite Image Automatic Mapper (SIAM). SIAM applies a fully automated, spectral rule-based routine based on a physical-model to assign spectral profiles to colour names with known semantic associations; no user parameters are required, and the result is application-independent (Baraldi et al. 2010). Existing probabilistic cloud masks (Musial et al. 2014) generated by the Remote Sensing Research Group at the University of Bern are also included as additional data-derived information to support spatio-temporal semantic queries. This implementation is a foundational step towards the overall objective of combining climate-relevant AVHRR time series with Sentinel-3 imagery for the Austrian-Swiss alpine region, a European region that is currently experiencing serious changes due to climate change that will continue to create challenges well into the future.</p><p>Going forward, this semantic EO data cube will be linked to a mobile citizen science smartphone application. For the first time, scientists in disciplines unrelated to remote sensing, students, as well as interested members of the public will have direct and location-based access to these long EO data time series and derived information. SemantiX runs from August 2020-2022 funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) under the Austrian Space Applications Programme (ASAP 16) (project #878939) in collaboration with the Swiss Space Office (SSO).</p>

Preferential flows and the legacy of Peter F. Germann (1944-2020)

<p>Peter Germann died on December 6<sup>th</sup> 2020 in Bern, Switzerland. Known for a wide range of contributions to the physics of soil-water interactions and flow, his name (along with Keith Beven, his career-long collaborator and fiend) is recognized by an entire generation of soil physicists and hydrologists who studies macropore and preferential flows. They both co-authored the classic, and highly cited 1982 review paper in Water Resources Research on Macropores and Water Flow in Soils. Peter’s PhD work between 1976-1980 was a study of soil-water relations based on maintaining a network of 35 nests of tensiometers at 10 different depths down to 3m. At that time, these were still manual tensiometers coupled to mercury manometers that were read every 2 to 3 days for 3 years. One of the features that this remarkable data set revealed was that during infiltration, wetting in some cases occurred at depths, apparently by-passing the tensiometers above. This is what we all now know as preferential flow. Another was the large heterogeneity in responses between sites and between wetting events. For the major part of his research career, Peter was a strong advocate for a reconsideration of the physics of water flow through soils and, in particular, for the limitations of the Darcy-Buckingham-Richards flow theory. Peter later developed the kinematic wave approach into a theory of viscosity (rather than capillarity) dominated film flows subject to Stokes’ law during infiltration. He summarised his research work in his 2013 book on the subject published by the University of Bern. Peter held academic positions at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, at Rutgers University, and at the University of Bern back in Switzerland where he stayed until he retired in 2009, and held an Emeritus position until 2015.   He continued to publish papers until shortly before his death which followed 2 major strokes. In this talk, we will go over Peter’s main contribution and research highlights in the area of macropores and preferential flows. Peter was no stranger to EGU, and many know him and have met him in this session or others. For those who knew Peter, they will miss his enthusiasm, his critical mind, his genuine care for the state of soil physics, his thoughtful responses, and his humour. He was a great source of inspiration to us and many others. Peter will be missed by many in soil science.</p>