Learning from the history of disaster vulnerability and resilience research and practice for climate change

Humanity has long sought to explain and understand why environmental processes and phenomena contribute to and interfere with development processes, frequently through the terms and concepts of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘resilience’. Many proven ideas and approaches from development and disaster risk reduction literature are not fully considered by contemporary climate change work. This chapter describes the importance of older vulnerability and resilience research for contemporary investigations involving climate change, suggesting ways forward without disciplinary blinkers. Vulnerability and resilience as processes are explored alongside critiques of the post-disaster ‘return to normal’ paradigm. The importance of learning from already existing literature and experience is demonstrated for ensuring that complete vulnerability and resilience processes are accounted for by placing climate change within other contemporary development concerns

Participatory Action Research for Dealing with Disasters on Islands

Much disaster research has a basis in non-island case studies, although mono-disciplinary disaster-related research across past decades has often used case studies of individual islands. Both sets of work contribute to contemporary ‘participatory action research’ which investigates ways of dealing with disasters on islands. This paper asks what might be gained through combining disaster research, island studies, and participatory action research. What value does island studies bring to participatory action research for dealing with disasters? Through a critical (not comprehensive) overview of participatory action research for dealing with disasters on islands, three main lessons emerge. First, the island context matters to a certain degree for disaster-related research and action. Second, islandness has much more to offer disaster-related research than is currently appreciated. Third, more studies are needed linking theory to evidence found on the ground on islanders’ terms. Limitations of the analyses here and future research directions are provided

On Symmetries of Extremal Black Holes with One and Two Centers

After a brief introduction to the Attractor Mechanism, we review the appearance of groups of type E7 as generalized electric-magnetic duality symmetries in locally supersymmetric theories of gravity, with particular emphasis on the symplectic structure of fluxes in the background of extremal black hole solutions, with one or two centers. In the latter case, the role of an "horizontal" symmetry SL(2,R) is elucidated by presenting a set of two-centered relations governing the structure of two-centered invariant polynomials.Comment: 1+13 pages, 2 Tables. Based on Lectures given by SF and AM at the School "Black Objects in Supergravity" (BOSS 2011), INFN - LNF, Rome, Italy, May 9-13 201

Rmi1 stimulates decatenation of double Holliday junctions during dissolution by Sgs1-Top3

double Holliday junction (dHJ) is a central intermediate of homologous recombination that can be processed to yield crossover or non-crossover recombination products. To preserve genomic integrity, cells possess mechanisms to avoid crossing over. We show that Saccharomyces cerevisiae Sgs1 and Top3 proteins are sufficient to migrate and disentangle a dHJ to produce exclusively non-crossover recombination products, in a reaction termed "dissolution." We show that Rmi1 stimulates dHJ dissolution at low Sgs1-Top3 protein concentrations, although it has no effect on the initial rate of Holliday junction (HJ) migration. Rmi1 serves to stimulate DNA decatenation, removing the last linkages between the repaired and template DNA molecules. Dissolution of a dHJ is a highly efficient and concerted alternative to nucleolytic resolution that prevents crossing over of chromosomes during recombinational DNA repair in mitotic cells and thereby contributes to genomic integrity

Ang Paglikha ng Kalamidad

Parang sentido komun na ngayon sa Pilipinas at sa iba’t ibang lugar sa mundo na ang mga kalamidad ay isa lamang “social construct” sa wikang Ingles. Samantala, ang ginagamit natin upang magsaliksik tungkol sa mga kalamidad ay isang uri lang ng konsepto, teorya, at metodolohiya na galing sa Kanluran. Layunin ng artikulo na ito na tutulan ang kabalintunaang epistemolohikal na ito. Ipakikita natin na ang mismong konsepto ng kalamidad ay likha lamang ng Kanluran na walang matatag na batayan. Nais din nating tuklasin ang pagpapatunay at institusyonalisasyon ng konseptong ito. Sa ikalawang bahagi ng artikulong ito, imumungkahi natin ang isang agenda upang magpalitaw ng ibang pagkakaintindi sa tinatawag na kalamidad sa kasalukuyan. Ang mga pagkakaintinding ito ay dapat salamin ng iba’t ibang kultura at pananaw sa mundo ng Pilipinas. Napapanahon na ngayon upang buuin muli ang ating larangan ng pananaliksik mula sa ganitong postcolonial at pluralistic na punto de bista

Balat, Maskara, at Wika: Karanasan ng isang Dayuhan sa Pilipinas

Ang punang ito ay tungkol sa karanasan ng may-akda na dayuhan at kung bakit naging abnormal siya dahil marunong siyang mag-Filipino at Kapampangan sa bansang Pilipinas. Samakatwid, ang pinakatanong ng artikulong ito ay ano ba talaga ang pamantayan at normal sa relasyon ng Pilipinx at dayuhang puti pag dating sa wika? Sa karanasan ng may-akda, naging sentido kumon na normal ang mag-Ingles at abnormal ang mag-Filipino at mag-iba pang katutubong wika. Ganito kalalim ang internalisasyon at normalisasyon ng Ingles bilang wika ng Pilipinx sa harapan ng dayuhang puti sa Pilipinas. Kaya pag dating sa wika, kayumanggi ang balat pero puti ang maskara sa salita ni Franz Fanon. Ayon kay Fanon, ang ganitong internalisasyon at normalisayon ng mga pagpapahalaga ng mga coloniser sa kamalayan ng mga colonised ay ang pinakamatinding naiwang pamana ng kolonisasyon. Matinding pamana ito pero hindi ibig sabihin na ganap na nawala ang diwa at pagpapahalaga ng Pilipinx. Sa katunayan, madaling tanggalin ang maskara pag dayuhang asyano (halimbawa Intsik o Indian) ang kausap ng Pilipinx. Sa katapusan, ang punang ito ay tungkol sa wika bilang daluyan ng kamalayan bilang Pilipinx, Kapampangan at iba pang pagkakakilanlan. Kamalayan na kailangang lumabas sa dialektikang kolonyal upang umusad at umunlad

De novo mutations in SMCHD1 cause Bosma arhinia microphthalmia syndrome and abrogate nasal development

Bosma arhinia microphthalmia syndrome (BAMS) is an extremely rare and striking condition characterized by complete absence of the nose with or without ocular defects. We report here that missense mutations in the epigenetic regulator SMCHD1 mapping to the extended ATPase domain of the encoded protein cause BAMS in all 14 cases studied. All mutations were de novo where parental DNA was available. Biochemical tests and in vivo assays in Xenopus laevis embryos suggest that these mutations may behave as gain-of-function alleles. This finding is in contrast to the loss-of-function mutations in SMCHD1 that have been associated with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) type 2. Our results establish SMCHD1 as a key player in nasal development and provide biochemical insight into its enzymatic function that may be exploited for development of therapeutics for FSHD

Préface

Dans bien des régions du monde, les montagnes ont longtemps été marginalisées dans les discours populaires, du seul fait qu’elles restent souvent inaccessibles et éloignées des centres majeurs de décision (par exemple Funnel et Parish, 2001 ; Cosgrove et Della Dora, 2009). Cette idée de marginalité a été renforcée par la réputation d’extrême dangerosité de l’environnement montagnard, frappé par de spectaculaires séismes, des glissements de terrains, des crues rapides, des sécheresses, des ava..

Foreword

In many parts of the world, mountains have long been marginalised in popular discourses on the sole basis that they are often inaccessible and remote from the major centres of power (e.g. Funnel and Parish, 2001; Cosgrove and della Dora, 2009). This picture of marginality has been accentuated by the alleged “extreme” hazardousness of mountainous environments struck by spectacular earthquakes, landslides, flash floods, droughts and avalanches, amongst others, which are often embedded in local ..

Préface

Dans bien des régions du monde, les montagnes ont longtemps été marginalisées dans les discours populaires, du seul fait qu’elles restent souvent inaccessibles et éloignées des centres majeurs de décision (par exemple Funnel et Parish, 2001 ; Cosgrove et Della Dora, 2009). Cette idée de marginalité a été renforcée par la réputation d’extrême dangerosité de l’environnement montagnard, frappé par de spectaculaires séismes, des glissements de terrains, des crues rapides, des sécheresses, des ava..