Transformation et diffusion des anneaux en schiste du Pissot dans le Néolithique ancien de la moitié nord de la France : de l’affleurement aux habitats en passant par les occupations productrices de la Plaine de Sées/Alençon

Ce projet de recherche collectif et pluridisciplinaire a débuté en 2009 avec le concours des Drac de Basse-Normandie et des Pays de la Loire ainsi que de l’Inrap. Il se poursuivra en 2010 et sera finalisé par une publication monographique. Son but est d’étudier l’organisation des populations du « Villeneuve-Saint-Germain » à travers la chaîne opératoire de la transformation d’un matériau affleurant au sein de la Plaine de Sées/Alençon et mis à contribution pour réaliser un élément emblématiqu..

Impact of cardiac resynchronization therapy optimization inside a heart failure programme : a real‐world experience

Aims: This study sought to describe and evaluate the impact of a routine in‐hospital cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) programme, including comprehensive heart failure (HF) evaluation and systematic echo‐guided CRT optimization. Methods and results: CRT implanted patients were referred for optimization programme at 3 to 12 months from implantation. The program included clinical and biological status, standardized screening for potential cause of CRT non‐response and systematic echo‐guided atrioventricular and interventricular delays (AVd and VVd) optimization. Initial CRT‐response and improvement at 6 months post‐optimization were assessed with a clinical composite score (CCS). Major HF events were tracked during 1 year after optimization. A total of 227 patients were referred for CRT optimization and enrolled (71 ± 11 years old, 77% male, LVEF 30.6 ± 7.9%), of whom 111 (48.9%) were classified as initial non‐responders. Left ventricular lead dislodgement was noted in 4 patients (1.8%), and loss or ≤90% biventricular capture in 22 (9.7%), mostly due to arrhythmias. Of the 196 patients (86%) who could undergo echo‐guided CRT optimization, 71 (36.2%) required VVd modification and 50/144 (34.7%) AVd modification. At 6 months post‐optimization, 34.3% of the initial non‐responders were improved according to the CCS, but neither AVd nor VVd echo‐guided modification was significantly associated with CCS‐improvement. After one‐year follow‐up, initial non‐responders maintained a higher rate of major HF events than initial responders, with no significant difference between AVd/VVd modified or not. Conclusions: Our study supports the necessity of a close, comprehensive and multidisciplinary follow‐up of CRT patients, without arguing for routine use of echo‐guided CRT optimization

"It was my own decision": the transformational shift that influences a woman's decision to use contraceptives covertly.

BACKGROUND: Family planning (FP) is an important element of sexual and reproductive health and rights, but socio-cultural barriers and unbalanced gender relations often limit women's decision-making about contraceptive use. Covert contraceptive use (CCU) exemplifies the limits on women's decision-making and represents a way in which some women overcome constraints to achieve their reproductive goals. This study explores the decision-making process through which women choose to use contraceptives covertly. METHODS: A qualitative synthesis was conducted using data from women, health providers, community members, health administrators, and intervention implementers (n = 400) to explore the decision-making process through which women choose to use contraceptives covertly. Interviews and focus group discussions were conducted at two time points as part of an evaluation of interventions integrating FP and childhood immunisation services at sites in Benin, Kenya, Malawi and Uganda. The sexual and reproductive health empowerment framework by Karp et al. (2020) was adapted and used to guide the analysis. RESULTS: Women recognised that although they suffered the negative consequences of frequent pregnancies and of raising large families, they lacked overt decision-making power over their fertility. Women were confident to engage in CCU because they believed their husbands did not understand these consequences nor acknowledged their suffering, which justified not informing them. CCU was a difficult choice however, women felt comfortable voicing their reproductive preferences in settings where health providers were supportive. CONCLUSIONS: Women chose to use contraceptives covertly when they questioned the unfairness of their situation and recognised their own power to act in accordance with their reproductive preferences. This represented an important shift in a woman's perception of who is entitled to make decisions about contraceptive use. Importantly, health providers can play a key role in supporting women's autonomous decision making about contraceptive use and should be careful not to undermine women's confidence

L’Indice de Biodiversité Potentielle (IBP) dans les SLDF. Synthèse de 12 projets

Les 7 et 8 avril 2015 à Paris, le ministère de l'Ecologie a organisé, avec l'appui de la Fédération nationale des Communes forestières et en lien avec la Fédération des Parcs naturels régionaux, le séminaire de clôture de l'appel à projet sur « la prise en compte de la biodiversité dans les Stratégies locales de développement forestier (SLDF) ». Les SLDF désignent des outils de développement tels que les Chartes forestières de territoires (CFT) et les Plans de Développement de Massif (PDM). Animatrice du réseau des CFT, la Fédération nationale des Communes forestières a suivi l'appel à projet depuis son lancement en 2012, dans le cadre de la Stratégie nationale de la Biodiversité (SNB). En présence des ministères en charge de la biodiversité (MEDDE) et de la forêt (MAAF), ce séminaire a d'abord présenté un panorama des projets réalisés. Les objectifs: évaluer les résultats, les facteurs de réussites et les difficultés rencontrées, valoriser les expériences menées et en tirer des enseignements pour une diffusion des méthodes et des pratiques pour d'autres territoires. Ont ainsi témoigné des porteurs de démarches territoriales forêt-bois, des élus et des acteurs de l'environnement et de la recherche. La qualité des projets en termes de partenariat, de sensibilisation sur le terrain et de dialogue entre les différents acteurs a été unanimement soulignée. Les collectivités locales ont été identifiées comme cheffes de file de ces initiatives pionnières. L'accent a été mis la première journée sur les moyens de connaissance de la biodiversité et sa prise en compte dans la gestion forestière : production de données, d'informations et appropriation par les acteurs concernés. Mais aussi la diffusion de cette connaissance, notamment auprès des professionnels de la filière comme les Entrepreneurs de Travaux forestiers (ETF) et sa concrétisation dans les documents de gestion forestière: plans simples de gestion, documents d'aménagement. Pour poursuivre ces démarches, un lien plus fort doit être créé entre les territoires forestiers et la recherche qui dispose de méthodes et de connaissances approfondies, notamment sur les questions climatiques. Les retours d'expériences ont confirmé la nécessité d'intégrer la biodiversité dans des démarches plus transversales. Elle ne doit pas être "sacralisée" en forêt mais "socialisée", ont rappelé plusieurs intervenants. De plus, ces démarches doivent être incitatives plutôt que prescriptives et règlementaires. Il faut "donner envie" et même proposer des outils "ludiques", adaptés à un public large de propriétaires. Les projets ont aussi montré que la biodiversité apporte une vraie plus-value économique sur les territoires: résilience des forêts, respect des sols et qualité de l'eau, meilleure adaptation aux changements climatiques. Un bon exemple : les Projets Sylvicoles Territoriaux (PST) de la région Rhône-Alpes vise, au-delà de la production de bois d'œuvre, à optimiser les services écosystémiques rendus par la forêt et à décloisonner les approches : prise en compte dans les actions sylvicoles du carbone, de l'eau, de la biodiversité, des paysages ou encore des besoins économiques de la filière locale. La dernière journée était consacrée à la présentation des outils et des financements européens ainsi que les politiques publiques menées en France en faveur de la biodiversité. Les participants ont souligné que les actions pionnières menées sur le terrain nécessitent une animation importante et demande des moyens. Dans ce domaine, les Régions apparaissent comme les pilotes des futures politiques publiques de la biodiversité en cohérence attendue avec la politique nationale. Michaël Weber, vice-président de la Fédération des Parcs Naturels Régionaux et président de l'association des Communes forestières de Moselle, a ajouté que "les communes forestières, en tant que propriétaires de forêts et acteur indispensable des territoires, étaient au carrefour de ces préoccupations et force de concertation"

Introduction to the French GEOTRACES North Atlantic transect (GA01): GEOVIDE cruise

© 2018 Author(s). The GEOVIDE cruise, a collaborative project within the framework of the international GEOTRACES programme, was conducted along the French-led section in the North Atlantic Ocean (Section GA01), between 15 May and 30 June 2014. In this special issue (https://www.biogeosciences.net/special-issue900.html), results from GEOVIDE, including physical oceanography and trace element and isotope cyclings, are presented among 18 articles. Here, the scientific context, project objectives, and scientific strategy of GEOVIDE are provided, along with an overview of the main results from the articles published in the special issue

Viral to metazoan marine plankton nucleotide sequences from the Tara Oceans expedition

A unique collection of oceanic samples was gathered by the Tara Oceans expeditions (2009-2013), targeting plankton organisms ranging from viruses to metazoans, and providing rich environmental context measurements. Thanks to recent advances in the field of genomics, extensive sequencing has been performed for a deep genomic analysis of this huge collection of samples. A strategy based on different approaches, such as metabarcoding, metagenomics, single-cell genomics and metatranscriptomics, has been chosen for analysis of size-fractionated plankton communities. Here, we provide detailed procedures applied for genomic data generation, from nucleic acids extraction to sequence production, and we describe registries of genomics datasets available at the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA, www.ebi.ac.uk/ena). The association of these metadata to the experimental procedures applied for their generation will help the scientific community to access these data and facilitate their analysis. This paper complements other efforts to provide a full description of experiments and open science resources generated from the Tara Oceans project, further extending their value for the study of the world's planktonic ecosystems

Altimetry for the future: Building on 25 years of progress

In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the ‘‘Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion

Altimetry for the future: building on 25 years of progress

In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of development of radar altimetry, and the progress achieved by this methodology in the fields of global and coastal oceanography, hydrology, geodesy and cryospheric sciences. Many symbolic major events have celebrated these developments, e.g., in Venice, Italy, the 15th (2006) and 20th (2012) years of progress and more recently, in 2018, in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, 25 Years of Progress in Radar Altimetry. On this latter occasion it was decided to collect contributions of scientists, engineers and managers involved in the worldwide altimetry community to depict the state of altimetry and propose recommendations for the altimetry of the future. This paper summarizes contributions and recommendations that were collected and provides guidance for future mission design, research activities, and sustainable operational radar altimetry data exploitation. Recommendations provided are fundamental for optimizing further scientific and operational advances of oceanographic observations by altimetry, including requirements for spatial and temporal resolution of altimetric measurements, their accuracy and continuity. There are also new challenges and new openings mentioned in the paper that are particularly crucial for observations at higher latitudes, for coastal oceanography, for cryospheric studies and for hydrology. The paper starts with a general introduction followed by a section on Earth System Science including Ocean Dynamics, Sea Level, the Coastal Ocean, Hydrology, the Cryosphere and Polar Oceans and the “Green” Ocean, extending the frontier from biogeochemistry to marine ecology. Applications are described in a subsequent section, which covers Operational Oceanography, Weather, Hurricane Wave and Wind Forecasting, Climate projection. Instruments’ development and satellite missions’ evolutions are described in a fourth section. A fifth section covers the key observations that altimeters provide and their potential complements, from other Earth observation measurements to in situ data. Section 6 identifies the data and methods and provides some accuracy and resolution requirements for the wet tropospheric correction, the orbit and other geodetic requirements, the Mean Sea Surface, Geoid and Mean Dynamic Topography, Calibration and Validation, data accuracy, data access and handling (including the DUACS system). Section 7 brings a transversal view on scales, integration, artificial intelligence, and capacity building (education and training). Section 8 reviews the programmatic issues followed by a conclusion