Evidence for coeval Late Triassic terrestrial impacts from the Rochechouart (France) meteorite crater

High temperature impact melt breccias from the Rochechouart (France) meteorite crater record magnetization component with antipodal, normal and reverse polarities. The corresponding paleomagnetic pole for this component lies between the 220 Ma and 210 Ma reference poles on the Eurasian apparent polar wander path, consistent with the 214 $\pm$ 8 Ma 40Ar/39Ar age of the crater. Late Triassic tectonic reconstructions of the Eurasian and North American plates place this pole within 95% confidence limits of the paleomagnetic pole from the Manicouagan (Canada) meteorite impact crater, which is dated at 214 $\pm$ 1 Ma. Together, these observations reinforce the hypothesis of a Late Triassic, multiple meteorite impact event on Earth

Bioaccumulation and toxicity of oxaliplatin in fresh water: A study with Lemna minor

open access articleOxaliplatin is the newest platinum-based drug to be used widely in chemotherapy. However, very little is known about its behaviour and toxicity once discharged to the environment. In this study, the freshwater macrophyte, Lemna minor, has been exposed to three concentrations of the drug (low, medium and high; 0.4, 10 and 100 μg mL−1, respectively) for seven days according to OECD guidelines and the growth rate, biochemical changes and extent of membrane damage determined. The stability of oxaliplatin was also monitored during the exposures and the accumulation, as both adsorbed and internalised fractions, evaluated by chemical extraction and digestion at the end of the experiment. Oxaliplatin appeared to remain intact throughout, with no measurable metabolite formation in the growth medium, and bioconcentration factors were < 100 mL g−1. The majority of oxaliplatin taken up by L. minor (about 66 to 84%) was internalised, presumably through passive diffusion and, possibly, uptake through transporters. Among the end-points tested, only relative growth rate of frond area and ion leakage were adversely affected at the medium and/or high concentrations employed. These observations suggest that oxaliplatin is unlikely to be phytotoxic at concentrations typically encountered in the environment and that L. minor is not a suitable biomonitor or phytoremediator of contaminated waters

Genetic divergence of rubber tree estimated by multivariate techniques and microsatellite markers

Genetic diversity of 60 Hevea genotypes, consisting of Asiatic, Amazonian, African and IAC clones, and pertaining to the genetic breeding program of the Agronomic Institute (IAC), Brazil, was estimated. Analyses were based on phenotypic multivariate parameters and microsatellites. Five agronomic descriptors were employed in multivariate procedures, such as Standard Euclidian Distance, Tocher clustering and principal component analysis. Genetic variability among the genotypes was estimated with 68 selected polymorphic SSRs, by way of Modified Rogers Genetic Distance and UPGMA clustering. Structure software in a Bayesian approach was used in discriminating among groups. Genetic diversity was estimated through Nei's statistics. The genotypes were clustered into 12 groups according to the Tocher method, while the molecular analysis identified six groups. In the phenotypic and microsatellite analyses, the Amazonian and IAC genotypes were distributed in several groups, whereas the Asiatic were in only a few. Observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.05 to 0.96. Both high total diversity (HT' = 0.58) and high gene differentiation (G st' = 0.61) were observed, and indicated high genetic variation among the 60 genotypes, which may be useful for breeding programs. The analyzed agronomic parameters and SSRs markers were effective in assessing genetic diversity among Hevea genotypes, besides proving to be useful for characterizing genetic variability

Eruptive history of the Karoo lava flows and their impact on early Jurassic environmental change:

This paper reports new paleomagnetic and geochronologic data from a ~1500 m thick composite section belonging to the Drakensberg group, the thickest remnant of the Karoo lavas in Northern Lesotho. Flow‐by‐flow analysis of paleomagnetic directions reveals 21 magnetic directional groups, corresponding to single eruptive events, and 16 individual lava flows. The new age determinations of lava flows range from 180.1 ± 1.4 to 182.8 ± 2.6 Ma. These data, combined with previous results, allow us to propose that the main part of the Drakensberg group and the Karoo intrusive complex dated around 181–183 Ma may have been erupted over a period as short as 250 kyr and may have coincided with the two main phases of extinction in the Early Toarcian. This scenario agrees well with the discontinuous rhythm of environmental and biotic perturbations in the Late Pliensbachian‐Toarcian interval

The impact of scarce natural resources predictions and policies on consumer behaviour

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to evaluate consumers believability and their behaviour in two situations: first when they are exposed to a natural resource depletion prediction and secondly when they learn that a future government policy restricting their access to the resource is due to be implemented. While previous studies have only considered commodity as products that are transformed and manufactured such as classical products, luxury products, no past study examined the commodity as natural resources. This study also analyses the findings of environmental literature and the limitations of predictions and policies due to barriers such as psychological distance or emotions leading to denial for instance. Basically, as there are some discrepancies between the findings of marketing and green research, our goal is to understand if consumers would behave according to the scarcity marketing theories and behave in a competitive and selfish way or if they would not change their behaviour because of denying processes or a lack of trust. Academic background: Overall, the marketing literature states that when a consumer is exposed to a scarcity context, he is more likely to behave in a selfish and competitive way (Roux, Goldsmith, & Bonezzi, 2015). On the other side, many environmental studies highlighted the environmental messages limits: there are many barriers that would lessen the message effect on the consumer such as collapse porn (Stoknes, 2014), the psychological distance (Spence, Poortinga, & Pidgeon, 2012)... T’he point is to understand which of these two kinds of behaviours would eventually get the upper hand. Methodology scope: The study has been conducted through a long survey measuring the natural resources depletion prediction credibility, the consumer’s reaction and changes in behaviour when facing depletion prediction and policies implementation. This questionnaire was also structured in four conditions randomly presented aiming at measuring both the impact of the source between a pro-environmental and proindustry source and the effect of time as a psychological distance for the prediction. There has been a total amount of 186 participants to the study and the sample was located in Europe, with most respondents coming from France. After cleaning the data, there were still 181 participations for the survey, which means that each of our four conditions consisted in more than 30 participants. Findings: Overall people tend to be quite neutral towards water depletion predictions and tend to believe oil depletion predictions a bit more. When natural resources depletion predictions’ believability increases, then more sustainable behaviours are said to be adopted by people, especially when it comes to basic water related actions (flushing toilets, taking showers or baths, watering the garden). Feeling an emotion toward a water depletion prediction has a more positive impact on the prediction’s believability than feeling no emotion at all. When it comes to feeling an emotion towards an oil depletion prediction, more sustainable behaviours are adopted by the participants especially when those behaviours are linked with transportation modes or buying local products. The influence of time on on people’s believability towards predictions or change of behaviour in response to policies implementation forecast cannot be depicted. The source of the prediction also has an influence. Overall, predictions implementation forecast about oil are more impactful when they come from NGOs than when they come from industry groups. NGOs predictions increase people’s believability and make them adopt more sustainable behaviours. Overall when it comes to policies and behaviours ahead of the policies implementations, we cannot depict any variable between time, emotion or source which is statistically significant and could explain the influence of a variable on the behaviours. Contribution: This research, unlike prior studies, examines natural resources depletion predictions and futures policies implementation. In order to make people adopt more sustainable behaviours, they should first believe in the natural resource depletion prediction they are facing. We cannot depict a change of behaviour between the time the people hear about a future policy implementation and the actual implementation. Keywords: scarcity; natural resources; consumer behaviour; predictions; policies

The impact of scarce natural resources predictions and policies on consumer behaviour

Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to evaluate consumers believability and their behaviour in two situations: first when they are exposed to a natural resource depletion prediction and secondly when they learn that a future government policy restricting their access to the resource is due to be implemented. While previous studies have only considered commodity as products that are transformed and manufactured such as classical products, luxury products, no past study examined the commodity as natural resources. This study also analyses the findings of environmental literature and the limitations of predictions and policies due to barriers such as psychological distance or emotions leading to denial for instance. Basically, as there are some discrepancies between the findings of marketing and green research, our goal is to understand if consumers would behave according to the scarcity marketing theories and behave in a competitive and selfish way or if they would not change their behaviour because of denying processes or a lack of trust. Academic background: Overall, the marketing literature states that when a consumer is exposed to a scarcity context, he is more likely to behave in a selfish and competitive way (Roux, Goldsmith, & Bonezzi, 2015). On the other side, many environmental studies highlighted the environmental messages limits: there are many barriers that would lessen the message effect on the consumer such as collapse porn (Stoknes, 2014), the psychological distance (Spence, Poortinga, & Pidgeon, 2012)... T’he point is to understand which of these two kinds of behaviours would eventually get the upper hand. Methodology scope: The study has been conducted through a long survey measuring the natural resources depletion prediction credibility, the consumer’s reaction and changes in behaviour when facing depletion prediction and policies implementation. This questionnaire was also structured in four conditions randomly presented aiming at measuring both the impact of the source between a pro-environmental and proindustry source and the effect of time as a psychological distance for the prediction. There has been a total amount of 186 participants to the study and the sample was located in Europe, with most respondents coming from France. After cleaning the data, there were still 181 participations for the survey, which means that each of our four conditions consisted in more than 30 participants. Findings: Overall people tend to be quite neutral towards water depletion predictions and tend to believe oil depletion predictions a bit more. When natural resources depletion predictions’ believability increases, then more sustainable behaviours are said to be adopted by people, especially when it comes to basic water related actions (flushing toilets, taking showers or baths, watering the garden). Feeling an emotion toward a water depletion prediction has a more positive impact on the prediction’s believability than feeling no emotion at all. When it comes to feeling an emotion towards an oil depletion prediction, more sustainable behaviours are adopted by the participants especially when those behaviours are linked with transportation modes or buying local products. The influence of time on on people’s believability towards predictions or change of behaviour in response to policies implementation forecast cannot be depicted. The source of the prediction also has an influence. Overall, predictions implementation forecast about oil are more impactful when they come from NGOs than when they come from industry groups. NGOs predictions increase people’s believability and make them adopt more sustainable behaviours. Overall when it comes to policies and behaviours ahead of the policies implementations, we cannot depict any variable between time, emotion or source which is statistically significant and could explain the influence of a variable on the behaviours. Contribution: This research, unlike prior studies, examines natural resources depletion predictions and futures policies implementation. In order to make people adopt more sustainable behaviours, they should first believe in the natural resource depletion prediction they are facing. We cannot depict a change of behaviour between the time the people hear about a future policy implementation and the actual implementation. Keywords: scarcity; natural resources; consumer behaviour; predictions; policies

Impact and Lessons Learned from Mass Drug Administrations of Malaria Chemoprevention during the Ebola Outbreak in Monrovia, Liberia, 2014

Background: In October 2014, during the Ebola outbreak in Liberia healthcare services were limited while malaria transmission continued. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) implemented a mass drug administration (MDA) of malaria chemoprevention (CP) in Monrovia to reduce malaria-associated morbidity. In order to inform future interventions, we described the scale of the MDA, evaluated its acceptance and estimated the effectiveness. Methods: MSF carried out two rounds of MDA with artesunate/amodiaquine (ASAQ) targeting four neighbourhoods of Monrovia (October to December 2014). We systematically selected households in the distribution area and administered standardized questionnaires. We calculated incidence ratios (IR) of side effects using poisson regression and compared self-reported fever risk differences (RD) pre- and post-MDA using a z-test. Findings: In total, 1,259,699 courses of ASAQ-CP were distributed. All households surveyed (n = 222; 1233 household members) attended the MDA in round 1 (r1) and 96% in round 2 (r2) (212/222 households; 1,154 household members). 52% (643/1233) initiated ASAQ-CP in r1 and 22% (256/1154) in r2. Of those not initiating ASAQ-CP, 29% (172/590) saved it for later in r1, 47% (423/898) in r2. Experiencing side effects in r1 was not associated with ASAQ-CP initiation in r2 (IR 1.0, 95%CI 0.49–2.1). The incidence of self-reported fever decreased from 4.2% (52/1229) in the month prior to r1 to 1.5% (18/1229) after r1 (

Surface compositional variation on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by OSIRIS data

Since the Rosetta mission arrived at the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67/P C-G) on July 2014, the comet nucleus has been mapped by both OSIRIS (Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System, [1]) NAC (Narrow Angle Camera) and WAC (Wide Angle Camera) acquiring a huge quantity of surface’s images at different wavelength bands, under variable illumination conditions and spatial resolution, and producing the most detailed maps at the highest spatial resolution of a comet nucleus surface. 67/P C-G’s nucleus shows an irregular bi-lobed shape of complex morphology with terrains showing intricate features [2, 3] and a heterogeneity surface at different scales

Updated Incidence of Thymic Epithelial Tumors (TET) in France and Clinical Presentation at Diagnosis

International audienc

Updated Incidence of Thymic Epithelial Tumors (TET) in France and Clinical Presentation at Diagnosis

International audienc