Hierarchical Pressure In The Cockpit: An ERP Study

Many accident reports have stressed the fact that first officers sometimes follow risky choices made by captains, resulting in the mitigation of flight safety. While this tendency is well known in the field of aviation, few studies have examined the impact of captains’ influence on first officers’ decision-making and the associated neural correlates. The present study aimed to investigate the extent to which first officers are influenced by captains when the latter adopt a risky behavior. Student pilots who were about to complete their training participated in this study. In the first part of the experiment, they were presented with 50 different landing situations (i.e., pictures of Primary Flight Display, PFD)

Phenology of wood formation: data processing, analysis and visualisation using R (package CAVIAR): Data processing, analysis and visualisation using R (package CAVIAR)

Studies of intra-annual dynamics of cambial activity and wood formation share very similar data because they are based on classic concepts of xylem development and well-documented techniques of sample preparation. However, the way the data are produced is specific to each study or group of authors because there is not a real agreement or consensus about critical variable definitions and data processing. The consequence is that despite very similar data, these studies are difficult to compare. In order to improve this point, we proposed objective definitions of the main phenological events (critical dates) occurring during wood formation, i.e. the beginning and ending of the cell enlarging and maturing phases and the beginning of the cell mature phase. The beginning of a given phase was defined as the date at which 50% of the observed radial files show at least one first cell in this phase, while the end of a given phase was defined as the date at which 50% of the observed radial files show at most one last cell in this phase. Dedicated R package CAVIAR was developed in order to apply these definitions to the computation of critical dates, as well as to their visualisation and analysis. Several statistical tests (Student's t-test, Wilcoxon's rank sum test and bootstrap tests on means and medians) were evaluated for comparing critical dates between two groups. Based on theoretical considerations and on study case analyses, it was shown that the bootstrap test on median is the best-suited statistical test for comparing critical dates when considering the peculiarities of the data at hand. Finally, the application of the presented definitions and methods was illustrated by the study of a real dataset obtained from five silver firs and five Scots pines grown under the same conditions and sampled weekly during the 2006 vegetation period. The results of this application showed that wood formation in pines started earlier, finished later and lasted longer than in firs, as documented by previous studies. We believe that the development of such objective definitions accompanied by ready-to-use tools for data processing, analysis and visualisation will reinforce the discipline by contributing efficiently to standardise concepts and methodologies

Phenology of wood formation: Data processing, analysis and visualisation using R (package CAVIAR)

International audienceStudies of intra-annual dynamics of cambial activity and wood formation share very similar data because they are based on classic concepts of xylem development and well-documented techniques of sample preparation. However, the way the data are produced is specific to each study or group of authors because there is not a real agreement or consensus about critical variable definitions and data processing. The consequence is that despite very similar data, these studies are difficult to compare. In order to improve this point, we proposed objective definitions of the main phenological events (critical dates) occurring during wood formation, i.e. the beginning and ending of the cell enlarging and maturing phases and the beginning of the cell mature phase. The beginning of a given phase was defined as the date at which 50% of the observed radial files show at least one first cell in this phase, while the end of a given phase was defined as the date at which 50% of the observed radial files show at most one last cell in this phase. Dedicated R package CAVIAR was developed in order to apply these definitions to the computation of critical dates, as well as to their visualisation and analysis. Several statistical tests (Student's t-test, Wilcoxon's rank sum test and bootstrap tests on means and medians) were evaluated for comparing critical dates between two groups. Based on theoretical considerations and on study case analyses, it was shown that the bootstrap test on median is the best-suited statistical test for comparing critical dates when considering the peculiarities of the data at hand. Finally, the application of the presented definitions and methods was illustrated by the study of a real dataset obtained from five silver firs and five Scots pines grown under the same conditions and sampled weekly during the 2006 vegetation period. The results of this application showed that wood formation in pines started earlier, finished later and lasted longer than in firs, as documented by previous studies. We believe that the development of such objective definitions accompanied by ready-to-use tools for data processing, analysis and visualisation will reinforce the discipline by contributing efficiently to standardise concepts and methodologie

Decision support tool for establishing an action plan aiming to decrease the discharge of micro pollutants into sewage system networks

The innovative decision support tool assists in ranking pollution sources and different urban watersheds, based on potential local emissions and the sensibility of the receiving water bodies. The potential local emissions are calculated by coupling characteristics of pollution sources to data bases containing potential emission coefficients of micro pollutants:, 1) Industrial/artisanal activities: APE (principal activity code) - emission (kg/year) by substance and by APE (mean values from national and local data bases): 2) Stormwater runoff: surface type (from national data bases and interpretation of satellite pictures) - emission (kg/year) by substance and by type of surface (literature data) and dependent on typical local rainfall: 3) Domestic: number of habitants - emission (kg/year) by substance and by habitant (literature data). The level of (eco) toxicity of each substance allows to transform potential emissions in potential pressures (PP). The hydraulic model of the sewage system network allows to affect parts of the local potential pressures to the water body. For each water body, a sensibility index (SI) is calculated based on its physico-chemical characteristics and its functions. The ratio PP/SI allows for ranking pollution sources. The coupling to a data base describing solutions for emission reduction for different pollution sources (substitution, treatment, education,..) will allow elaborating an action plan associated to a socio-economic evaluation

Familial hypocalciuric hypercalcemia: the challenge of diagnosis

International audienceNo abstract availabl

Xenoxylon, a boreal fossil wood in the Mesozoic redbeds of Southeast Asia: Potential for the stratigraphy of the Khorat group and the palinspatic reconstruction of Southeast Asia

International audienceThe fossil wood genus Xenoxylon is reported in-situ for the first time in the Indosinian terrane, from the Mesozoic continental redbeds of the Phu Kradung Formation (Khorat Group). Palinspatic recontruction, palaeobiogeography and correlation with other occurences of the genus, in southern China as well as in Vietnam, suggest a middle Jurassic age for the Phu Kradung Formation level yielding the fossil wood. As the dating of this formation is still controversial, our data is an important step towards a better understanding of southeast Asia Mesozoic continental redbeds geological history, palaeoecology and significance for the evolution of the vertebrates

Genetic diversity of simian immunodeficiency viruses from west African green monkeys : evidence of multiple genotypes within populations from the same geographical locale

High simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) seroprevalence rates have been reported in the different green monkey (AGM) subspecies. Genetic diversity of these viruses far exceeds the diversity observed in the other lentivirus-infected human and nonhuman primates and is thought to reflect ancient introduction of SIV in the AGM population. We investigate here genetic diversity of SIVagm in wild-living AGM populations from the same geographical locale (i.e., sympatric population) in Senegal. For 11 new strains, we PCR amplified and sequenced two regions of the genome spanning the first tat exon and part of the transmembrane glycoprotein. Phylogenetic analysis of these sequences shows that viruses found in sympatric populations cluster into distinct lineages, with at least two distinct genotypes in each troop. These data strongly suggest an ancient introduction of these divergent viruses in the AGM population. (Résumé d'auteur