Spatially Explicit Analysis of Metal Transfer to Biota: Influence of Soil Contamination and Landscape

Concepts and developments for a new field in ecotoxicology, referred to as “landscape ecotoxicology,” were proposed in the 1990s; however, to date, few studies have been developed in this emergent field. In fact, there is a strong interest in developing this area, both for renewing the concepts and tools used in ecotoxicology as well as for responding to practical issues, such as risk assessment. The aim of this study was to investigate the spatial heterogeneity of metal bioaccumulation in animals in order to identify the role of spatially explicit factors, such as landscape as well as total and extractable metal concentrations in soils. Over a smelter-impacted area, we studied the accumulation of trace metals (TMs: Cd, Pb and Zn) in invertebrates (the grove snail Cepaea sp and the glass snail Oxychilus draparnaudi) and vertebrates (the bank vole Myodes glareolus and the greater white-toothed shrew Crocidura russula). Total and CaCl2-extractable concentrations of TMs were measured in soils from woody patches where the animals were captured. TM concentrations in animals exhibited a high spatial heterogeneity. They increased with soil pollution and were better explained by total rather than CaCl2-extractable TM concentrations, except in Cepaea sp. TM levels in animals and their variations along the pollution gradient were modulated by the landscape, and this influence was species and metal specific. Median soil metal concentrations (predicted by universal kriging) were calculated in buffers of increasing size and were related to bioaccumulation. The spatial scale at which TM concentrations in animals and soils showed the strongest correlations varied between metals, species and landscapes. The potential underlying mechanisms of landscape influence (community functioning, behaviour, etc.) are discussed. Present results highlight the need for the further development of landscape ecotoxicology and multi-scale approaches, which would enhance our understanding of pollutant transfer and effects in ecosystems

Ceriodaphnia dubia Chronic Toxicity Tests

Crustaceans are considered an important part of the soft water zooplankton community. Therefore they represent water organisms in the test set for the ecotoxicological characterization of wastes. Following ISO/CD guideline 20665, the chronic Ceriodaphnia dubia test was performed with three waste types: INC, SOI, and WOO. All the ten tests performed were classified as acceptable. Methodologically, almost no problems occurred. The min-max factors (2.08-2.54) between individual EC50 values and the CVs (31-33%) were low for waste eluates, showing that the chronic Ceriodaphnia dubia test is a robust method. These results are in agreement with the few data on substances known from the literature. The obtained data show that the test is able to discriminate different toxicity levels: INC = 4.8%, SOI > 90%, WOO = 0.08%. The sensitivity of the Ceriodaphnia chronic test is equivalent to the rotifer chronic test and slightly higher than the Algae test for the wood eluate. Therefore it is recommended for the toxicity assessment of waste

La cohérence intermusculaire (IMC) révèle que les images émotionnelles affectives modulent les mécanismes de contrôle neuronal lors de l'initiation des mouvements de pointage des bras

Several studies in psychology provided compelling evidence that emotions significantly impact motor control. Yet, these evidences mostly rely on behavioral investigations, whereas the underlying neurophysiological processes remain poorly understood. Using a classical paradigm in motor control, we tested the impact of affective pictures associated with positive, negative or neutral valence on the kinematics and patterns of muscle activations of arm pointing movements performed from a standing position. The hand reaction and movement times were measured and electromyography (EMG) was used to measure the activities from 10 arm, leg and trunk muscles that are involved in the postural maintenance and arm displacement in pointing movements. Intermuscular coherence (IMC) between pairs of muscles was computed to measure changes in patterns of muscle activations related to the emotional stimuli. The hand movement time increased when an emotional picture perceived as unpleasant was presented as compared to when the emotional picture was perceived as pleasant. When an unpleasant emotional picture was presented, beta (β, 15-35 Hz) and gamma (γ, 35-60 Hz) IMC decreased in the recorded pairs of postural muscles during the initiation of pointing movements.Moreover, a linear relationship between the magnitude of the intermuscular coherence in the pairs of posturo-focal muscles and the hand movement time was found in the unpleasant scenarios. These findings demonstrate that emotional stimuli can significantly affect the content of the motor command sent by the central nervous system to muscles when performing voluntary goal-directed movements

The combination of deep breathing and mental imagery promotes cardiovascular recovery in firefighters

International audienc

Impacts du contexte émotionnel sur le contrôle du mouvement lors d’une tâche de pointage complexe : étude de cohérence intermusculaire

International audienc

Contributions à l'inventaire de la bryoflore française de l'année 2017

National audienceLes observations sont classées par région et par département et sont présentées de la façon suivante, pour chaque espèce : Nom de la commune (code insee), lieu-dit, précision de localisation (et altitude si précisée), date d'observation, vérification d'identification le cas échéant. Les espèces nouvelles pour le département sont suivies de [Ndep], nouvelles pour la région [Nreg], nouvelles pour l'ancienne région [NexReg]. p. 91 : découvertes d'espèces inconnues dans des départements de la région Centre-Val de Loire dans le cadre des projets Défiforbois et BioMareau I

Contributions à l'inventaire de la bryoflore française : année 2018

National audienceLes observations sont classées par région et par département et sont présentées de la façon suivante, pour chaque espèce : Nom de commune (code Insee), lieu-dit, précision de localisation (et altitude si précisée), date d'observation, vérification d'identification le cas échéant. Les espèces nouvelles pour le département sont suivies de [Ndep], nouvelles pour la région [Nreg], nouvelles pour l'ancienne région [NexReg] Découvertes d'espèces inconnues dans des départements de la région Centre-Val de Loire dans le cadre des projets BioMareau II et collaboration dans un inventaire de maille avec le CBNBP (p. 32

Antioxidant and Antiglycation Activity of Selected Dietary Polyphenols in a Cookie Model

Dietary polyphenols have been proposed to be promising functional food additives for their potent antioxidant capacity and other health-beneficial bioactivities. The current study prepared cookies fortified with five selected dietary polyphenols (naringenin, quercetin, epicatechin, chlorogenic acid, and rosmarinic acid). Results indicated that the enhancement of the antioxidant capacity was not as obvious as expected because the phenolics' antioxidant activity was seriously lowered by the baking process due to thermal degradation and transformation. Meanwhile, the tested polyphenols, especially quercetin, showed inhibition against formation of both reactive carbonyl species and total fluorescent advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs). Polyphenol fortification could also induce colorimetric changes and alterations in selected quality attributes. Overall, the findings support dietary polyphenols as functional food ingredients in the purpose of health benefits associated with a higher intake of antioxidants and a lower load of reactive carbonyls and AGEs. The polyphenols' stability and reactivity during thermal processing should be an important consideration.Agriculture, MultidisciplinaryChemistry, AppliedFood Science & TechnologySCI(E)[email protected]