Oregon transect: Comparison of leaf-level reflectance with canopy-level and modelled reflectance

The Oregon Transect Ecosystem Research (OTTER) project involves the collection of a variety of remotely-sensed and in situ measurements for characterization of forest biophysical and biochemical parameters. The project includes nine study plots located along an environmental gradient in west-central Oregon, extending from the Pacific coast inland approximately 300km. These plots represent a broad range in ecosystem structure and function. Within the OTTER project, the sensitivity of the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) signal to absorption by foliar biochemicals is being examined. AVIRIS data were acquired over all plots in conjunction with the four OTTER Multi-sensor Aircraft Campaigns spanning the growing season. Foilage samples were gathered during each campaign for biochemical determination (at Ames Research Center), to estimate stand-level constituency at each plot. Directional-hemispheric leaf reflectance throughout the 400-2400nm region was measured in the laboratory as an aid to interpreting concurrent AVIRIS data. Obtaining leaf spectra in this manner reduces or eliminates the confounding influences of atmosphere, canopy architecture, and reflectance by woody components, understory, and exposed soils which are present in airborne observations. These laboratory spectra were compared to simulated spectra derived by inverting the PROSPECT leaf-level canopy reflectance derived from AVIRIS data by use of the LOWTRAN-7 atmospheric radiative-transfer model

Identification d'une nouvelle proie du Busard de Maillard (Circus maillardi) : observation d'une capture de poisson au niveau du site de Grand-Étang sur l'île de La Réunion (Accipitriformes : Accipritidae)

Le Busard de Maillard ou Papangue, est la seule espèce nicheuse de rapace de l'île de La Réunion, dont il est endémique. Il est classé en danger d'extinction par l'IUCN. De ce fait de nombreuses actions de connaissances sont encore nécessaires afin de mettre en œuvre et au mieux les actions de conservation. Dans ce cadre, toutes informations complémentaires sur la biologie et l'écologie de cette espèce s'avèrent importantes. L'observation faite ici est donc intéressante puisqu'elle permet de confirmer que les poissons, préférentiellement de couleurs vives, font partie du régime alimentaire de ce rapace. Il sera donc important de tenir compte de cette nouvelle information, pour les sites potentiels de colonisation de l'espèce, mais aussi pour les risques d'impact sur l'oiseau dont les nouvelles sources d’empoisonnement, notamment si les rivières sont polluées

Gigantism among Late Jurassic limulids: New ichnological evidence from the Causses Basin (Lozère, France) and comments on body-size evolution among horseshoe crabs

International audienceAn abundant ichnological material composed of xiphosuran trackways and isolated traces was discovered in Upper Jurassic limestones from the Causses Basin (Causse Méjean, Lozère, France). The morphology of the imprints supports their identification as Kouphichnium isp. In contrast to the most frequent case, the trackways are composed of omnipresent pusher imprints sometime associated with leg traces, but with no telson mark. We argue that this pattern reflects actual surface traces rather than an incomplete set of undertracks. The size distribution of the sampled ichnites is broadly bimodal. This is best explained by sexual dimorphism, a phenomenon frequently observed in modern xiphosurans. Analysis of the trace fossils further suggests that several growth stages are recorded and that the horseshoe crabs were walking in a protected and flat environment like a lagoon. This area, certainly close to a mating ground, was occasionally affected by a continental influence. The biometric study of the tracks suggests a gigantic size for the trackmakers whose body may have reached 84 cm in length. This discovery complements the few reports on other gigantic horseshoe crabs in the Jurassic of Western Europe, thus casting doubt on the postulated increase in body size from the Palaeozoic to the Recent. Furthermore, a literature review shows that there are still major gaps in the record of limulid body-fossils and tracks. Thus, neither of these archives can be taken at face value for quantifying the body-size evolution of horseshoe crabs

Geological subsidence and sinking islands: the case of Manono (Samoa)

W.R. Dickinson, as part of his wide study of the geological history of the Pacific islands, has linked the unique case of the deeply submerged Lapita site of Mulifanua in western Upolu (Samoa) to the slow subsidence of Upolu island. Recent archaeological research on the neighbouring small island of Manono has yielded new and detailed data on this geological process. A series of new dates has allowed us to define the speed of the subsidence and demonstrate the massive environmental changes to which the local population has had to adapt over the past 2000 years

Contribution à l’archéologie du « séjour paisible » kanak : étude et mise en valeur du hameau de Tipéhéne, Pombeï (Nouvelle-Calédonie)

Malgré les résultats multiples obtenus par le Pr José Garanger dans les années 1960-1970 lors des programmes de recherches liant traditions orales océaniennes et données archéologiques, peu de travaux ont été depuis menés en Mélanésie insulaire sur ce thème. Cet article souhaite contribuer à ce sujet, en présentant la première étude archéologique d’un hameau kanak ancien de la Grande Terre calédonienne. Le relevé du site de Tipéhéne, la fouille des différentes structures d’habitat dans le cadre d’un programme de mise en valeur touristique et culturelle du lieu, ainsi que la réalisation d’une série de datations C14, ont permis de montrer une chronologie d’occupation confirmant dans ses grandes lignes les données des traditions orales. La mise au jour de structurations variées des seuils des tertres, dont certaines de formes non répertoriées jusqu’à ces fouilles, souligne également la diversité des aménagements traditionnels des espaces d’habitat kanak. Ce type d’étude demande à être multiplié afin de répondre aux questions adressées par la population autochtone du pays aux archéologues sur son passé traditionnel.Even if Pr José Garanger obtained a great number of results in the 1960s-1970s through research programs associating Pacific oral traditions and archaeological data, few research projects have since been conducted in Island Melanesia on this theme. This paper wishes to contribute to the topic, by presenting the first archaeological study of an old kanak settlement of New Caledonia’s Grande Terre. The mapping of the site of Tipéhéne, the excavation of a number of the house structures as part of a rehabilitation program linked to a touristic and cultural project on this site, as well as the fulfilling of a number of C14 dates, have allowed to show a settlement and occupation chronology following in its main points the data presented by oral traditions. The uncovering of various types of house entrances, some never identified prior to these excavations, enhances the diversity of traditional structuring of the kanak households. This type of study needs to be multiplied, to help answer the questions asked to archaeologists by the indigenous population of the country on its traditional past.

Global Wheat Head Detection (GWHD) dataset: a large and diverse dataset of high resolution RGB labelled images to develop and benchmark wheat head detection methods

Detection of wheat heads is an important task allowing to estimate pertinent traits including head population density and head characteristics such as sanitary state, size, maturity stage and the presence of awns. Several studies developed methods for wheat head detection from high-resolution RGB imagery. They are based on computer vision and machine learning and are generally calibrated and validated on limited datasets. However, variability in observational conditions, genotypic differences, development stages, head orientation represents a challenge in computer vision. Further, possible blurring due to motion or wind and overlap between heads for dense populations make this task even more complex. Through a joint international collaborative effort, we have built a large, diverse and well-labelled dataset, the Global Wheat Head detection (GWHD) dataset. It contains 4,700 high-resolution RGB images and 190,000 labelled wheat heads collected from several countries around the world at different growth stages with a wide range of genotypes. Guidelines for image acquisition, associating minimum metadata to respect FAIR principles and consistent head labelling methods are proposed when developing new head detection datasets. The GWHD is publicly available at http://www.global-wheat.com/ and aimed at developing and benchmarking methods for wheat head detection.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, Dataset pape

Prioritization of candidate causal genes for asthma in susceptibility loci derived from UK Biobank

Kim Valette et al. perform a genomic study on asthma integrating genome-wide association study, functional mapping using lung and blood transcriptome-wide profiles, as well as Mendelian randomization. They show candidate causal genes expressed in lung and blood tissues that are putative therapeutic targets for asthma

Architecture and performance of the KM3NeT front-end firmware

The KM3NeT infrastructure consists of two deep-sea neutrino telescopes being deployed in the Mediterranean Sea. The telescopes will detect extraterrestrial and atmospheric neutrinos by means of the incident photons induced by the passage of relativistic charged particles through the seawater as a consequence of a neutrino interaction. The telescopes are configured in a three-dimensional grid of digital optical modules, each hosting 31 photomultipliers. The photomultiplier signals produced by the incident Cherenkov photons are converted into digital information consisting of the integrated pulse duration and the time at which it surpasses a chosen threshold. The digitization is done by means of time to digital converters (TDCs) embedded in the field programmable gate array of the central logic board. Subsequently, a state machine formats the acquired data for its transmission to shore. We present the architecture and performance of the front-end firmware consisting of the TDCs and the state machine