Anne Boesch - EPFL (original) (raw)

Papers by Anne Boesch

Europe-wide cooperation and coordination in the study of the health and environmental impact of nanomaterials

Indicators for Assessing the Sustainability of Cities

Sustainability Assessment of Urban Systems, 2020

Sustainability assessment initiatives at the local level have been increasing in number since the... more Sustainability assessment initiatives at the local level have been increasing in number since the mid-1990s and are now plentiful. The definitions of sustainable development used in sustainability assessment instruments, however, vary widely. This chapter illustrates the diversity of sustainability assessment tools available at the local level by presenting two indicator-based instruments developed in Switzerland. The first one, Cercle Indicateurs, is an all-encompassing sustainability assessment tool; the second one, Swiss City Statistics, focuses on the well-being and quality of life dimensions of sustainability. The two instruments are presented and analysed according to the Bellagio Sustainability Assessment and Measurement Principles (Bellagio STAMP), which have been grouped into five categories: (1) conceptual framework, (2) time and spatial scale, (3) participation, (4) transparency and communication, and (5) continuity and capacity. We suggest that transparency about the rationale for setting up a sustainability assessment instrument and about its actual implementation is crucial, because these aspects influence how ‘sustainability’ is operationalised and therefore the result of the assessment

Ecological Indicators, 2020

Today, the centrality of cities in the global sustainability challenge is widely acknowledged, an... more Today, the centrality of cities in the global sustainability challenge is widely acknowledged, and numerous initiatives have been developed worldwide for monitoring and comparing the sustainability performance of urban areas. However, the escalating abundance of indicators makes it difficult to understand what really counts in urban sustainability and how to properly select the most suitable indicators. By methodically collecting and mapping the diversity of available indicators, our work aims to elucidate the emphases, as well as the gaps, that exist in the way urban sustainability is currently translated into metrics, and to draw instructive lessons to support the development of future indicator sets. Representing the most comprehensive study ever performed in the field, this analysis relies on both an innovative research approach entailing multi-and cross-typological systematic analysis of indicators and an extensive data sample comprising 67 indicator sets (for a total of 2847 indicators) from academia and practice. The findings highlight the most frequent indicators in urban sustainability measurement initiatives, and demonstrate the prominence of social issues (e.g., quality of life, access to services, consumer behaviour, employment) and to a lesser extent, of environmental stakes. In contrast, urban sustainability indicator sets generally pay marginal attention to political questions (e.g., participation, policies, institutional settings), gender issues and distributional concerns. From a systemic point of view, the analysis reveals the strong emphasis placed on the status of actual and potential resources as well as the satisfaction of current needs. The study further highlights seven key lessons on how to deal with three typical tensions faced during indicator selection processes: (i) parsimony vs. comprehensiveness; (ii) context-specificity vs. general comparability; and (iii) complexity vs. simplicity. The directly implementable recommendations proposed herein will support both scholars and practitioners in the design of future urban sustainability measurement initiatives.

Towards Key Sustainable Development Indicators: The Swiss Approach

Conversion of poplar plantations and biodiversity

Reconversion de populicultures et biodiversité | Conversion of poplar plantations and biodiversity

Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur Forstwesen, 2007

Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2006

Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) are neuronal Na ؉ channels that are members of the epithelial N... more Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) are neuronal Na ؉ channels that are members of the epithelial Na ؉ channel/degenerin family and are transiently activated by extracellular acidification. ASICs in the central nervous system have a modulatory role in synaptic transmission and are involved in cell injury induced by acidosis. We have recently demonstrated that ASIC function is regulated by serine proteases. We provide here evidence that this regulation of ASIC function is tightly linked to channel cleavage. Trypsin cleaves ASIC1a with a similar time course as it changes ASIC1a function, whereas ASIC1b, whose function is not modified by trypsin, is not cleaved. Trypsin cleaves ASIC1a at Arg-145, in the N-terminal part of the extracellular loop, between a highly conserved sequence and a sequence that is critical for ASIC1a inhibition by the venom of the tarantula Psalmopoeus cambridgei. This channel domain controls the inactivation kinetics and co-determines the pH dependence of ASIC gating. It undergoes a conformational change during inactivation, which renders the cleavage site inaccessible to trypsin in inactivated channels. . 2 The abbreviations used are: ASIC, acid-sensing ion channel; BAPNA, N ␣ -benzoyl-DLarginine-4-nitroanilide; ENaC, epithelial Na ϩ channel; IpH 6.5, peak current amplitude induced by acidification to pH 6.5; pH 0.5, pH for half-maximal activation; pH In0.5, pH for half-maximal inactivation; SSIN, steady-state inactivation; TLCK, 1-chloro-3-tosylamido-7-amino-2-heptanone; wt, wild type.