The California coast is a worldwide biodiversity hotspot with a long and rich history of prehistoric and colonial migration, contacts and peopling processes. However, little is still known about the role that these processes played in the configuration of Californian landscapes over time. MeSCAL is designed to fill in this gap in current research by examining the role that past cultural interactions and human mobility played in the configuration of Southern California (SoCal) landscapes during the last 4000 years. Main goals are to analyse the spatial distribution of land-uses and plants following migratory and colonial processes, and to assess their impact into native terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, particularly in terms of floristic richness, landscape structure, and impact on native flora, wetlands and soilscapes. This ambitious interdisciplinary project proposes a novel approach based on the coupling of 1) high temporal resolution multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental analyses –i.e. pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP), fire history analysis, diatoms, sedimentology, geochemistry- in continental wetlands and marine records, respectively providing local and regional information on vegetation and land-use changes and their impact in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems; 2) calibration of fossil palaeoenvironmental datasets with modern pollen and NPPs analogues of vegetation and land-uses; 3) archaeobotanical analyses furnishing direct information on past consumption and use of plants in relation to migratory and colonial processes; and 4) coupling of paleoenvironmental results with archaeo-historical and ethnographic datasets to gauge landscape changes following prehistoric and colonial settling. Selected study areas are located in coastal (San Diego city and Santa Barbara region) and nearby backcountry (San Emigdio Hills, Kern County) areas. This transect of records will allow us to track differences in landscape changes following colonial settling between coastal areas under direct colonial control and hinterland areas exposed to a lesser colonial influence that may have served as refuge for native populations and landscapes. MeSCAL will contribute to a better understanding of the long-term shaping of SoCal Mediterranean landscape heritages, identities and cultures, and will provide Californian societies and land-management agencies with important historical and cultural information on their landscapes and wetlands that can help promote culturally conscious and sustainable landscape management tools and mitigate current degradation and over-exploitation of SoCal landscapes and wetlands. It will also provide local SoCal Native tribes with historical information on their ancestral landscapes and traditional land-uses that will enrich their cultural identities and help to protect their landscape heritage and traditional lifeways. MeSCAL will surely be a springboard for the candidate’s young career as it will 1) broaden her competences as project manager; 2) help her build an international network of palaeoenvionmentalists and archaeologists working on a ground breaking research topic; 3) foster her visibility at the national and the international spheres; and 4) consolidate her scientific independence.

The worldwide emergence of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria relies on both the ability of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) to spread antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), and the capacity of successful clones to disseminate. Evidence for the environmental origin of AMR in human and veterinary clinics highlights the mandate for the surveillance of emerging AMR. The objective of the PRE-EMPT project is to identify, and quantify the reservoir of mobile ARGs in different environments, and characterize the potential of these genes to be transferred to pathogens by combining high-throughput based techniques connecting the genes, the MGEs, and the bacterial communities. We will target three environmental sites, from urban, animal and littoral contexts, combine metagenomic techniques with enrichment methods (targeted PCR, hybridization capture, Hi-C), characterize the functional properties of the identified ARGs, and evaluate the dissemination of these ARGs in bacterial communities

-OMe-Glucuronoxylane is the main hemicellulose in hardwoods. Although it is very abundant (20 to 25% of the mass of dry wood), this polymer with particularly interesting chemical properties remains little valorised today. For several years, the LABCiS laboratory (UR22722) has been developing eco-extraction processes and exploring innovative ways to recover this polymer. The LABCiS laboratory is also an expert in phototherapy, in particular applied to the treatment of cancer or microbial infections. The Polymers, Biopolymers, Surfaces laboratory (PBS, UMR CNRS 6270) federates numerous skills around polymers and their interactions with living organisms in order to develop macromolecular chemistry strategies, coupled or not with physical, physicochemical and biological approaches, for the elaboration of innovative high-performance polymers. By joining forces within the framework of the HydroXyl-PACT project, the two laboratories LABCiS and PBS are pooling their expertise at the frontiers of several disciplines (organic chemistry, physics, biology) to develop new hydrogels based on 4-OMe-Glucuronoxylane. The challenges are twofold: - to develop, through eco-responsible chemistry approaches, innovative hydrogels with a wide range of applications based on a xylan that is very abundant and has great potential but is not very well valorised. - to propose an innovative multifunctional bioactive platform opening the way to new effective dressings for multi-resistant bacteria, a major public health problem. Indeed, the hydrogels will be functionalized by photosensitizers of natural or synthetic origin and by natural antibiotic molecules (phenols, polyphenols, aminosides...), which can be released under the effect of external stimuli, to lead to new materials studied for applications in photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapy (PACT). Such hydrogels could be advantageously used in the manufacture of new generation dressings for the treatment of open wounds, combining photo-induced antimicrobial action on the surface, chemo-induced action in the core of the wound and improved healing power, as the hydrogel can absorb exudate and thus maintain a moist environment. Fine characterisation of the structures and rheological behaviour of the hydrogels will be carried out and a detailed study of the in vitro and in vivo antimicrobial activity will also be conducted on different bacterial strains and on open wound models.

This project will deliver the first in-depth examination of the cross-national rural geographies of both the concept and phenomenon of gentrification, through an integrated comparative study of the theory, forms and dynamics of gentrification across rural France, UK and USA. The project aims to investigate the salience of rural gentrification as a concept that is capable of explaining rural change in France, the UK and the USA. As a starting point, the project draws upon the concept of 'sociologies of translation' to understand past and current differential meanings and uses of the term rural gentrification within academic, policy and popular discourses in France, UK and USA. An asset-based theorisation of rural gentrification will be developed to create empirical indicators of the presence and use of social assets within rural gentrification. Using these empirical indicators and comparable measures of rural, urban and peri-urban spaces, census and other national datasets will be mapped to analyse the geographies of gentrification in rural France, UK and USA, and to develop a typology of rural gentrification. Using this typology, detailed comparative studies of rural gentrification spanning a contrasting range of rural regions and rural settlement areas within France, UK and USA will be undertaken using comparable interviews, surveys, and focus groups.