LE STUDIUM Multidisciplinary Journal

The project addresses a fundamental problem of forest reaction forecast to the climate change and increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases for the terrestrial ecosystems of the Earth. The main target is to produce a retrospective assessment and a short-term forecast of annual tree-ring productivity (seasonal cell production) of the major conifer plant species in terrestrial forest ecosystems around Eurasia forced by climate and non-climatic factors. The analysis is based on an Interactive Information platform “Global Tree-Ring Growth Evolution Neural Network” (www.vs-genn.ru) and datasets available for the European and Asian dendroecological test-polygons. To achieve the goal of the project, we testified the Vaganov-Shaskin model and its parametrization, as a part of the developing IT system, based on direct long-term field observations for the tree-ring sites in Europe and Asia. As a result of the fellowship four papers were published in high impacted ISI journals. Moreover, a special issue of the ISI journal “Annals of Forest Science” is prepared.

The relationship between the early musical works of Guillaume Dufay (1397-1474) and their affective context in the world of his time is evaluated. To this end, technical elements of his musical compositions are assessed in light of key philosophical, theological, literary, sociological, historical, and theoretical evidence in the early 15th century, which allow the constitution of an affective environment around him. Amid this evidence, the late writings of theologian Jean Gerson plays a particular role in its emphasis on musical accidentals as a means to project emotional transformation. In related research domains, the relationship between music and architecture of the late Gothic period is analyzed, and a book of essays on medieval music will be published

The elucidation of three-dimensional structures of molecular machines that control cellular physiology is necessary for the understanding of the mechanisms of life and for the development of rational screening tests for pharmaceutical applications. Due to the large size of these biological entities and the high resolution which is sought, X-ray crystallographic structure determination is the method of choice. Obtaining crystals of biological complexes however remains difficult and is the bottleneck to this method. In this project, we have applied sophisticated crystallization strategies to a hitherto intractable problem: crystallising a molecular motor, namely the bacterial transcription termination factor Rho from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Rho is a ring-shaped hexameric helicase targeting transcriptional complexes and R-loops, and regulating RNA metabolism in a variety of ways. The first crystals of M.tub. Rho have been obtained, which however should now be optimised to reach an X-ray diffraction resolution sufficient for full three-dimensional structure determination. In addition, we have developed a theoretical model describing the varying usefulness of ions at different positions in the Hofmeister series, according to thermodynamic properties of the crystallizing protein.

Climate change is influencing population dynamics of several pest insect species leading to the expansion of their range. Range expansion can be driven also by human-mediated dispersal, with the establishment of new insect populations in suitable areas far from their native range. In this process, interactions between insects and their natural enemies can change due to new environmental conditions or to different rate of dispersion. In recent years, pine processionary moth (PPM), one of the main forest pests in the Mediterranean region, is expanding its range favored by both higher winter mean temperatures and accidental human-mediated transportation. Here we outlined the genetic structure of PPM along its range in France using 23 microsatellites loci, characterizing the main patterns of expansion of this species and identifying the source populations of new colonies in the expansion areas. These data can be employed for developing assignment tools to genetically characterize PPM for a quick identification of their origin area. Finally, we developed a new set of microsatellite primers for the PPM specialist egg-parasitoid in order to track its dispersion following its host in the expanding areas. The low genetic variability found, not directly useful for tracking parasitoid expansion, shed light on the role of bacterial endosymbionts in the population genetic structure of this species.

This project focus on the molecular basis of a peculiar class of conformational diseases, called Serpinopathies, with a special emphasis to glycosylation, an important post-translational modification which rules the functional and pathological behaviour of the proteins responsible for the diseases. The authors exploited their expertise on protein biophysics and glyco-biochemistry to set up a long-term program for the studies on the role of glycosylation in the functional activity and pathological consequences of serpin proteins. An experimental work was accomplished to start the expression and production of two serpins, neuroserpin and C1-inhibitor, in a novel eukaryotic expression model. Further, the program was given a wider scope by consolidating a European network of researchers working on closely related issues.

This project analysed 1968 as a watershed moment in children’s culture and its related disciplines, following Marwick’s (1998) now canonical definition of 1968 as the crystallisation of the cultural revolution of the ‘long sixties’ (c.1958-c.1974). We pursued this objective with specialists from cognate fields within childhood studies, including children’s history and media, children’s culture, heritage and art education, and bring them into dialogue with historians of 1968. This new collaboration brought together researchers and practitioners from Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the UK. By thinking about children’s culture as a site for artistic and intellectual experimentation, at the centre of ideological activity across disciplinary boundaries and national borders, this project opened up new ways of understanding the 1968 liberation movements and their legacies. Culminating in a series of public events and exhibitions in 2018 for the fiftieth anniversary of 1968, it brought the children’s perspective into scholarly debate and public commemorations.

This project aimed at reassessing the views about the “Renaissance”, both by some leading representatives and in emblematic environments related to this cultural movement. The project reappraised their attitudes towards the Middle Ages, focusing on a critical, revealing cultural domain: the vernacular one. It investigated the context in which a selection of Medieval vernacular models were brought during the Italian Renaissance, testing the potential of the following three new interrelated approaches: 1. analysis of the late fifteenth-early sixteenth century tradition of medieval lyrical poems in connection with different perspectives on the poets transmitted through it; 2. comparative analysis of different relevant passages evaluating the medieval vernacular Italian tradition and proposing paradigms of historical development; 3. assessment of the effective influence on Renaissance poets of the early medieval lyrical authors/texts, taking into account the results of the above-mentioned analyses of the tradition of these texts.

The paper investigates the interaction between the trade and business cycle synchronization, using an extended wavelet approach. The analysis is conducted in several Eurozone countries, for the period 1960Q1-2016Q2. We show that the trade promotes economic synchronization in the considered Eurozone countries, on medium and long terms. The key ingredients are economic integration and monetary union. A reversed connection is also distinguished. On medium and long terms, a low degree of synchronization accelerates trade only if the given country has an ascending growth trend. Several different scenarios are found on short term, for particular economic contexts.