Determination of potential habitat suitability for the European Otter (Lutra lutra) in geographical sectors of metropolitan France

Après une longue période de régression (de 1930 à 1990), la Loutre d’Europe est aujourd’hui en phase de recolonisation en France. Afin de favoriser sa reconquête, un des objectifs du plan national d’action en faveur de ce mustélidé est de déterminer et localiser les habitats potentiellement favorables à cette espèce. Pour cela, pour chaque sous-secteur hydrographique, nous avons renseigné des facteurs indispensables à la présence de la Loutre : disponibilité et qualité du milieu aquatique et des zones humides, disponibilité de la ressource alimentaire, dérangement humain et caractéristiques générales de l’écosystème (type d’occupation du sol, relief) afin de pouvoir créer un modèle Maxent. D’après ce modèle, 30 % des sous-secteurs de France métropolitaine sont peu favorables à la Loutre, 68 % sont assez favorables à l’implantation de cette espèce et 2 % peuvent être considérés comme très favorables à l’installation de la Loutre d’Europe.After a long period of decline, the European Otter is now in the process of recolonizing the French territory. In order to facilitate its expansion, one of the objectives of the National Action Plan is to define and locate the habitat suitability for this mustelid in France. For each river sub-sector we gathered all available information about the factors (availability and quality of aquatic habitat, availability of food resources, human disturbances and general characteristics of the ecosystem) essential to the presence of the otter in order to create a Maxent model. According to this model, 30 % of the sub-sectors in metropolitan France are unlikely to offer favourable habitats for the Otter, 68 % should contain favourable habitats and 2 % could be considered as very favourable for the settling of European otters

Control of COVID-19 Outbreaks under Stochastic Community Dynamics, Bimodality, or Limited Vaccination

Reaching population immunity against COVID-19 is proving difficult even in countries with high vaccination levels. Thus, it is critical to identify limits of control and effective measures against future outbreaks. The effects of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and vaccination strategies are analyzed with a detailed community-specific agent-based model (ABM). The authors demonstrate that the threshold for population immunity is not a unique number, but depends on the vaccination strategy. Prioritizing highly interactive people diminishes the risk for an infection wave, while prioritizing the elderly minimizes fatalities when vaccinations are low. Control over COVID-19 outbreaks requires adaptive combination of NPIs and targeted vaccination, exemplified for Germany for January–September 2021. Bimodality emerges from the heterogeneity and stochasticity of community-specific human–human interactions and infection networks, which can render the effects of limited NPIs uncertain. The authors' simulation platform can process and analyze dynamic COVID-19 epidemiological situations in diverse communities worldwide to predict pathways to population immunity even with limited vaccination.Peer Reviewe

Cartografía en Francia, para el proyecto “Trame verte et bleue”, de las continuidades ecológicas de importancia nacional que constituyen los setos

Maintaining a dense ecological network for different habitats is a challenge to guarantee persistence of ecological processes at national scale. As cultural landscape favourable for biodiversity, bocage represents an important stake in terms of connectivity. In the context of the “Trame verte et bleue” project and the definition of its guidelines, we carried out a survey to propose a map of bocage ecological continuities of national significance. The process is based on a cartographic crossing between three data sources: two existing maps of land use and crop diversity, and an indicative map of ecological quality. The latter was produced representing specific richness of 11 bocage-dependent species in a grid. When the three criteria were visually satisfied in the manual cartographic crossing, structural and functional continuity was identified. The obtained map highlights 9 main indicative continuities. The results were confronted to local data and expertise to assess map relevance. The main objective of this work is to facilitate national coherence of regional ecological networksLa conservación de una red nacional de corredores ecológicos que sea lo suficientemente densa y que incluya diferentes tipos de sistemas naturales es un gran desafío a la hora de asegurar la perennidad de los procesos ecológicos que se desarrollan a gran escala. Entre estos corredores ecológicos, destacan por su importancia los setos y otras formaciones vegetales que aparecen en los paisajes cultivados. Estas formaciones vegetales permiten conciliar la actividad agrícola con la conservación de la biodiversidad. Para el proyecto “Trame verte et bleue” y la definición de sus grandes orientaciones, proponemos un mapa de Francia que incluye continuidades ecológicas importantes a nivel nacional. Para ello, hemos combinado manualmente tres fuentes cartográficas: un mapa de la densidad de setos, otro con la diversidad de cultivos y otro mapa que indica la presencia en una cuadrícula de once especies habituales de los setos y que tienen requerimientos ecológicos estrictos. Los grupos vegetales que destacaban visualmente siguiendo estos tres criterios cartográficos se han considerado como continuidades ecológicas nacionales relevantes desde un punto de vista funcional y estructural. El mapa obtenido presenta nueve grandes corredores a la escala nacional. Estos resultados han sido confrontados con estudios regionales y con cuestionarios a expertos. Esperamos que este mapa permita favorecer la coherencia de las tramas regionales de redes ecológicas en FranciaLe maintien d'un réseau suffisamment dense de continuités écologiques à l'échelle nationale couvrant différents types de milieux est un enjeu majeur pour assurer la pérennité des processus écologiques qui se déroulent à large échelle. Les bocages, milieux agricoles favorables à la biodiversité, sont concernés par ce défi. Dans le cadre du programme « Trame verte et bleue » et de la définition de ses orientations nationales, nous avons mené une réflexion afin de proposer une carte de grandes continuités écologiques bocagères. La démarche repose sur un croisement cartographique manuel entre: une carte de la densité de haies, une carte de la diversité des assolements et une carte indicatrice d'une certaine qualité écologique. Cette dernière carte représente la richesse spécifique par maille pour un ensemble de 11 espèces associées aux bocages et écologiquement exigeantes. Les ensembles présentant visuellement un fort intérêt selon ces trois critères cartographiques ont été considérés comme des continuités à la fois structurelles et fonctionnelles. Le résultat obtenu se présente sous la forme d’une carte indiquant 9 grandes continuités à l’échelle nationale. Une confrontation à l’expertise et à des études locales et régionales a permis de valider la pertinence de cette carte destinée à favoriser la cohérence nationale des trames écologiques régionales

Variation in diabetes care by age: opportunities for customization of care

BACKGROUND: The quality of diabetes care provided to older adults has usually been judged to be poor, but few data provide direct comparison to other age groups. In this study, we hypothesized that adults age 65 and over receive lower quality diabetes care than adults age 45–64 years old. METHODS: We conducted a cohort study of members of a health plan cared for by multiple medical groups in Minnesota. Study subjects were a random sample of 1109 adults age 45 and over with an established diagnosis of diabetes using a diabetes identification method with estimated sensitivity 0.91 and positive predictive value 0.94. Survey data (response rate 86.2%) and administrative databases were used to assess diabetes severity, glycemic control, quality of life, microvascular and macrovascular risks and complications, preventive care, utilization, and perceptions of diabetes. RESULTS: Compared to those aged 45–64 years (N = 627), those 65 and older (N = 482) had better glycemic control, better health-related behaviors, and perceived less adverse impacts of diabetes on their quality of life despite longer duration of diabetes and a prevalence of cardiovascular disease twice that of younger patients. Older patients did not ascribe heart disease to their diabetes. Younger adults often had explanatory models of diabetes that interfere with effective and aggressive care, and accessed care less frequently. Overall, only 37% of patients were simultaneously up-to-date on eye exams, foot exams, and glycated hemoglobin (A1c) tests within one year. CONCLUSION: These data demonstrate the need for further improvement in diabetes care for all patients, and suggest that customisation of care based on age and explanatory models of diabetes may be an improvement strategy that merits further evaluation

Anti-inflammatory effect of rosiglitazone is not reflected in expression of NFκB-related genes in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Rosiglitazone not only improves insulin-sensitivity, but also exerts anti-inflammatory effects. We have now examined in type 2 diabetic patients if these effects are reflected by changes in mRNA expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to see if these cells can be used to study these anti-inflammatory effects at the molecular level <it>in vivo</it>.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Eleven obese type 2 diabetic patients received rosiglitazone (2 × 4 mg/d) for 8 weeks. Fasting blood samples were obtained before and after treatment. Ten obese control subjects served as reference group. The expression of NFκB-related genes and PPARγ target genes in PBMCs, plasma TNFα, IL6, MCP1 and hsCRP concentrations were measured. In addition, blood samples were obtained after a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Rosiglitazone reduced plasma MCP1 and hsCRP concentrations in diabetic patients (-9.5 ± 5.3 pg/mL, <it>p </it> = 0.043 and -1.1 ± 0.3 mg/L <it>p </it> = 0.003), respectively). For hsCRP, the concentration became comparable with the non-diabetic reference group. However, of the 84 NFκB-related genes that were measured in PBMCs from type 2 diabetic subjects, only RELA, SLC20A1, INFγ and IL1R1 changed significantly (<it>p </it> < 0.05). In addition, PPARγ and its target genes (CD36 and LPL) did not change. During the clamp, insulin reduced plasma MCP1 concentration in the diabetic and reference groups (-9.1 ± 1.8%, <it>p </it> = 0.001 and -11.1 ± 4.1%, <it>p </it> = 0.023, respectively) and increased IL6 concentration in the reference group only (23.5 ± 9.0%, <it>p </it> = 0.028).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In type 2 diabetic patients, the anti-inflammatory effect of rosiglitazone is not reflected by changes in NFκB and PPARγ target genes in PBMCs <it>in vivo</it>. Furthermore, our results do not support that high insulin concentrations contribute to the pro-inflammatory profile in type 2 diabetic patients.</p