OBJECTIVES The biomechanical properties of standard plates and recently designed locking plates were compared in torsion. We hypothesized that titanium (Ti) constructs would have the greatest deformation, and String of Pearls (SOP) constructs the greatest strength and stiffness. METHODS Dynamic compression plates (DCP), stainless steel (SS) limited contact (LC)-DCP, Ti LC-DCP, locking compres...

Wolves in Italy strongly declined in the past and were confined south of the Alps since the turn of the last century, reduced in the 1970s to approximately 100 individuals surviving in two fragmented subpopulations in the central-southern Apennines. The Italian wolves are presently expanding in the Apennines, and started to recolonize the western Alps in Italy, France and Switzerland about 16 y...

Past climatic changes and especially the ice ages have had a great impact on both the distribution and the genetic composition of plant populations, but whether they promoted speciation is still controversial. The autopolyploid complex Biscutella laevigata is a classical example of polyploidy linked to glaciations and is an interesting model to explore migration and speciation driven by climate...

Background: Autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome (ALPS) is a disorder of lymphocyte homeostasis and immunological tolerance due primarily to genetic defects in Fas (CD95/APO-1; TNFRSF6), a cell surface receptor that regulates apoptosis and its signaling apparatus. Methods: Fas ligand gene mutations from ALPS patients were identified through cDNA and genomic DNA sequencing. Molecular and bioc...

Citation: Thomazo C, Buoncristiani J-F, Vennin E, Pellenard P, Cocquerez T, Mugnier JL and Gérard E (2017) Geochemical Processes Leading to the Precipitation of Subglacial Carbonate Crusts at Bossons Glacier, Mont Blanc Massif (French Alps). Front. Earth Sci. 5:70. doi: 10.3389/feart.2017.00070 Geochemical Processes Leading to the Precipitation of Subglacial Carbonate Crusts at Bossons Glacier,...

Five herbivorous introduced mammals are sympatric in the central Southern Alps. All of these species have the potential to affect conservation values, yet the Department of Conservation at present monitors and mitigates the impacts of only one. We outline ecological arguments for multi-species management of sympatric herbivore pest impacts and use the two-species system of sympatric thar and ch...

Alternative Legendre polynomials (ALPs) are used to approximate the solution of a class of nonlinear Volterra-Hammerstein integral equations. For this purpose, the operational matrices of integration and the product for ALPs are derived. Then, using the collocation method, the considered problem is reduced into a set of nonlinear algebraic equations. The error analysis of the method is given an...

Analyses of Ps and Sp receiver functions from datasets collected by permanent and temporary seismic stations, image a seismic discontinuity, due to a negative velocity contrast across the entire Eastern Alps. The receiver functions show the presence of the discontinuity within the upper mantle with a resolution of tens of kilometers laterally. It is deeper (100-130 km) below the central portion...

Natural timberlines are remarkable indicators of climate conditions. Although potential shifts of climate-driven natural borderlines are discussed in the recent climate change debate, maps of natural timberline elevation in the European Alps are rare and not concordant. Problems are caused primarily by the strong human impact on timberline positions in the Alps. In this paper, approaches for de...

The aim of the New Zealand Southern ALPs EXperiment (SALPEX) was to study chiefly, but not exclusively, how the Southern Alps promote precipitation on the upwind side of the mountain chain in pre-frontal northwesterly airstreams. The third and most extensive field phase of the experiment ran for three weeks during October 1996, and documented two events in considerable detail. The present paper...