Extreme fire weather in Chile driven by climate change and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

A string of fierce fires broke out in Chile in the austral summer 2023, just six years after the record-breaking 2017 fire season. Favored by extreme weather conditions, fire activity has dramatically risen in recent years in this Andean country. A total of 1.7 million ha. burned during the last decade, tripling figures of the prior decade. Six of the seven most destructive fire seasons on record occurred since 2014. Here, we analyze the progression during the last two decades of the weather conditions associated with increased fire risk in Central Chile (30°-39° S). Fire weather conditions (including high temperatures, low humidity, dryness, and strong winds) increase the potential for wildfires, once ignited, to rapidly spread. We show that the concurrence of El Niño and climate-fueled droughts and heatwaves boost the local fire risk and have decisively contributed to the intense fire activity recently seen in Central Chile. Our results also suggest that the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean variability modulates the seasonal fire weather in the country, driving in turn the interannual fire activity. The signature of the warm anomalies in the Niño 1 + 2 region (0°-10° S, 90° W-80° W) is apparent on the burned area records seen in Central Chile in 2017 and 2023.

How to protect privacy in a datafied society? A presentation of multiple legal and conceptual approaches.

The United Nations confirmed that privacy remains a human right in the digital age, but our daily digital experiences and seemingly ever-increasing amounts of data suggest that privacy is a mundane, distributed and technologically mediated concept. This article explores privacy by mapping out different legal and conceptual approaches to privacy protection in the context of datafication. It provides an essential starting point to explore the entwinement of technological, ethical and regulatory dynamics. It clarifies why each of the presented approaches emphasises particular aspects and analyses the tensions that arise. The resulting overview provides insight into the main strengths and limitations of the different approaches arising from specific traditions. This analytic overview therefore serves as a key resource to analyse the usefulness of the approaches in the context of the increasing datafication of both private and public spheres. Specifically, we contrast the approach focusing on data subjects whose data are being 'protected' with others, including Fair Information Practice Principles, the German right to 'informational self-determination', and the South American 'habeas data' doctrine. We also present and contrast emerging approaches to privacy (differential privacy, contextual integrity, group privacy) and discuss their intersection with datafication. In conclusion, we put forth that rather than aiming for one single solution that works worldwide and across all situations, it is essential to identify synergies and stumbling blocks between the various regulatory settings and newly emerging approaches.

Cérebros, mapas e o novo território da psicologia

Na última década, tem-se visto o crescimento do interesse no uso dos métodos de imageamento funcional do cérebro em pesquisas. A variedade das condições e comportamentos estudados usando esses métodos também tem se expandido. Esses desenvolvimentos têm alterado o perfil dos subcampos da psicologia e da neurociência. Enquanto esses acontecimentos são criticados como movimentos reducionistas, eu argumento que eles podem ser melhor caracterizados como processos produtivos. Esse tipo de caracterização torna visível a expansão e reorganização do objeto de estudo e de domínios de investigação; ele destaca novas relações com outras disciplinas e instituições e problematiza o subseqüente incremento na visibilidade social. Uma abordagem reflexiva para o mapeamento das práticas é proposto para ajudar as pesquisas de imageamento funcional no direcionamento das questões de segregação e responsabilidade metodológicas.(AU)

The past decade has seen growing interest in the use of functional brain imaging methods in research. The range of conditions and behaviours studied using these methods has also been expanding. These developments have changed the profile of subfields in both psychology and neuroscience. While these events have been critiqued as reductionist moves, I argue that they can better be characterized as productive processes. Such a characterization makes visible the expansion and reorganization of the object of study and of domains of investigation; it highlights new relations with other disciplines and institutions, and it problematizes the subsequent increased social visibility. A reflexive approach to mapping practices is proposed to help functional imaging research address issues of methodological isolation and accountability.(AU)

Agent Orange: management of patients exposed in Vietnam.

Since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, numerous studies have been conducted to determine if an association exists between Agent Orange exposure and certain disabling conditions specifically cancer. Although a definite causal relationship has not yet been established, sufficient data associate Agent Orange with certain conditions. Because of their advancing age similar to other baby boomers, Vietnam veterans are at a higher risk of developing malignancies. However, their exposure to Agent Orange also may increase their risk for cancer and other associated diseases. This article examines the latest findings of scientific research sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs and discusses the importance of well-informed oncology nurses when providing care for patients with cancer exposed to Agent Orange.

A space for measuring mind and brain: interdisciplinarity and digital tools in the development of brain mapping and functional imaging, 1980-1990.

Brain mapping is said to have opened up the possibility of a new collaboration between the sciences of mind and the sciences of the brain, potentially leading to a new kind of scientist, sometimes called "cognitive neuroscientist." This article traces the recent history of brain mapping and analyzes the processes that have led to a new "close working relationship" between the sciences of mind and brain. A key part of the working relationship is shown to be constituted through the development of the Talairach system, a digital space in which to measure structure and function. The development of meaningful brain mapping data involves the creation of measurement spaces that allow interdisciplinary collaboration and is not the result solely of theoretical developments or of the application of a technology.