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In a globalizing word, cities are under pressure and have to face an increasing competition. Territories are considered as strategic places using public marketing and branding processes. Indeed, city brand strategy defined by internal stakeholders (i.e. managers) can improve attractiveness by affecting the representation of external stakeholders (i.e. residents, companies and visitors). In a broad evolutionary shift, we consider the city brand in a progressive approach, and the city brand co-ownership as a collaborative and participatory process. The gap identified in the literature refers to the differences and the matches between the city brand strategy and the city brand perceptions. Indeed, the research question of this paper is: how city brand strategy from internal stakeholders is linked with city brand perceptions from external stakeholders? We opted for an exploratory and qualitative research design with a multiple case study targeting three European metropolises: Amsterdam, Lyon, and Metz. Public reports (i.e. secondary data) and 200 answers from a French representative sample about the city brand perceptions (i.e. primary data) are analyzed with a thematic content analysis. We propose a dynamic city brand co-ownership model within the relationship between the city brand strategy and the city brand perceptions are moderated by structuring factors.

World ecosystems are suffering from anthropogenic and natural pressure. The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) has developed analogous criteria for the Red List of Threatened Species in order to perform similar risk assessments on ecosystems, creating the Red List of Ecosystems (RLE) methodology. One of the most significant challenges for the construction of these lists is gathering the available information to apply the criteria. By applying IUCN RLE criteria B (the extent of restricted geographic distribution of an ecosystem), we analyzed the threat level of 64 forest ecosystems of the Ecuadorian mainland. According to the results, limited distribution is the key risk to threatened ecosystems, which are associated with anthropogenic pressures. Our study showed that 22% of forest ecosystems are classified as threatened. This evaluation of the forest ecosystem status at a national level could lead to public awareness towards ecosystem conservation and provide reasonable strategies to managers.

Membrane association with mother centriole (M-centriole) distal appendages is critical for ciliogenesis initiation. How the Rab GTPase Rab11–Rab8 cascade functions in early ciliary membrane assembly is unknown. Here, we show that the membrane shaping proteins EHD1 and EHD3, in association with the Rab11–Rab8 cascade, function in early ciliogenesis. EHD1 and EHD3 localize to preciliary membranes and the ciliary pocket. EHD-dependent membrane tubulation is essential for ciliary vesicle formation from smaller distal appendage vesicles (DAVs). Importantly, this step functions in M-centriole to basal body transformation and recruitment of transition zone proteins and IFT20. SNAP29, a SNARE membrane fusion regulator and EHD1-binding protein, is also required for DAV-mediated ciliary vesicle assembly. Interestingly, only after ciliary vesicle assembly is Rab8 activated for ciliary growth. Our studies uncover molecular mechanisms informing a previously uncharacterized ciliogenesis step, whereby EHD1 and EHD3 reorganize the M-centriole and associated DAVs before coordinated ciliary membrane and axoneme growth. Westlake and colleagues discover that membrane shaping EHD proteins participate in ciliogenesis by taking part in ciliary vesicle formation and transition zone protein recruitment.

Forest conservation is of particular concern in tropical regions where a large refuge of biodiversity is still existing. These areas are threatened by deforestation, forest degradation and fragmentation. Especially, pressures of anthropogenic activities adjacent to these areas significantly influence conservation effectiveness. Ecuador was chosen as study area since it is a globally relevant center of forest ecosystems and biodiversity. We identified hotspots of deforestation on the national level of continental Ecuador between 1990 and 2018, analyzed the most significant drivers of deforestation on national and biome level (the Coast, the Andes, The Amazon) as well as inside protected areas in Ecuador by using multiple regression analysis. We separated the national system of protected areas (SNAP) into higher and lower protection levels. Besides SNAP, we also considered Biosphere Reserves (BRs) and Ramsar sites. In addition, we investigated the rates and spatial patterns of deforestation in protected areas and buffer zones (5 km and 10 km outwards the protected area boundaries) using landscape metrics. Between 1990 and 2018, approximately 4% of the accumulated deforestation occurred within the boundaries of SNAP, and up to 25.5% in buffer zones. The highest rates of deforestation have been found in the 5 km buffer zone around the protected areas with the highest protection level. Protected areas and their buffer zones with higher protection status were identified as the most deforested areas among SNAP. BRs had the highest deforestation rates among all protected areas but most of these areas just became BRs after the year 2000. The most important driver of deforestation is agriculture. Other relevant drivers differ between the biomes. The results suggest that the SNAP is generally effective to prevent deforestation within their protection boundaries. However, deforestation around protected areas can undermine conservation strategies to sustain biodiversity. Actions to address such dynamics and patterns of deforestation and forest fragmentation, and developing conservation strategies of their landscape context are urgently needed especially in the buffer zones of areas with the highest protection status.

It is well established that antibiotic treatment selects for resistance, but the dynamics of this process during infections are poorly understood. Here we map the responses of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to treatment in high definition during a lung infection of a single ICU patient. Host immunity and antibiotic therapy with meropenem suppressed P. aeruginosa , but a second wave of infection emerged due to the growth of oprD and wbpM meropenem resistant mutants that evolved in situ. Selection then led to a loss of resistance by decreasing the prevalence of low fitness oprD mutants, increasing the frequency of high fitness mutants lacking the MexAB-OprM efflux pump, and decreasing the copy number of a multidrug resistance plasmid. Ultimately, host immunity suppressed wbpM mutants with high meropenem resistance and fitness. Our study highlights how natural selection and host immunity interact to drive both the rapid rise, and fall, of resistance during infection. Here, following a patient with severe acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, the authors combine comprehensive isolate characterization from lung and gut samples (>100 isolates) and patient clinical data to provide insights into bacterial responses to antibiotic therapy.

Natural ecosystems are declining and fragmenting globally at unprecedented rates. Fragmentation of natural ecosystems leads to decline in functions and services with severe impact on people. In Ecuador, despite establishment of the nationwide ecosystem classification, this baseline information has not been fully exploited to generate a monitoring system for ecosystem changes. Forest ecosystems are altered daily in Ecuador by human impact, but the relationship between forest fragmentation and human land use has not been adequately explored. To provide an overview of how recent forest fragmentation at the national and ecosystem level was affected by practices in human land use, we quantified the degree of forest fragmentation using the forest fragmentation index (FFI). The relationship between the degree of forest ecosystem fragmentation and human land use of 64 natural forest ecosystems was analyzed during the time period 1990 to 2014. At the national level, the expansion of pasture and inhabited area significantly increased forest fragmentation. The regression models based on the FFI value indicated that the forest fragmentation was highly correlated to pastures in forest ecosystems with low, moderate, and high fragmentation in 2014 due to a progressive increase in pastures. This study showed the critical gaps between forest conservation strategies and actual practices in human land use.

MicroRNAs control the differentiation and function of B cells, which are considered key elements in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). However, a common micro(mi)RNA signature has not emerged since published data includes patients of variable ethnic background, type of disease, and organ involvement, as well as heterogeneous cell populations. Here, we aimed at identifying a miRNA signature of purified B cells from renal and non-renal severe SLE patients of Latin American background, a population known to express severe disease. Genome-wide miRNA expression analyses were performed on naive and memory B cells and revealed two categories of miRNA signatures. The first signature represents B cell subset-specific miRNAs deregulated in SLE: 11 and six miRNAs discriminating naive and memory B cells of SLE patients from healthy controls (HC), respectively. Whether the miRNA was up or down-regulated in memory B cells as compared with naive B cells in HC, this difference was abolished in SLE patients, and vice versa. The second signature identifies six miRNAs associated with specific pathologic features affecting renal outcome, providing a further understanding for SLE pathogenesis. Overall, the present work provided promising biomarkers in molecular diagnostics for disease severity as well as potential new targets for therapeutic intervention in SLE.

Nat. Cell Biol. 17, 228–240 (2015); published online 16 February 2015; corrected after print 12 March 2015 In the version of this Article originally published Fig. 3g was incorrectly labelled. The top right panel should have been labelled 'EHD1' in red and the entire of 3g should have been labelled 'Rab8a+8b siRNA' in black.