Les particularités géographiques des établissements urbains au bord de la Mer Noire, situés au Sud du Cap Midia (Roumanie)

Le littoral roumain de la Mer Noire s’étend sur une distance de 245 km, du Delta du Danube, plus spécifique du bras Musura du delta sec ondaire du bras Chilia, au nord, et jusqu’à la localité Vama Veche, dans le sud, à la proximité de la frontière avec la Bulgarie. Le territoire à laquelle nous faisons référence s’é tend sur une distance d’environ 80 km, comprenant la région côtière haute entre le Cap Midi a et la localité Vama Veche connue comme la deuxième région touristique de la Roumanie due à son potentiel balnéaire. On considère les centres urbains : Constan ţ a, Eforie, Techirghiol, Mangalia, N ă vodari et Ovidiu. Le littoral est une région avec un fort caractère urbain, la région rur ale étant moins représentée

Special Issues Related to the Landslides of Romania

On Romanian territory, landslides are encountered i n all relief units; the existing differences being related to several factors, among which important roles are played by rock, slope, relief fragmentation density, clearing s, moisture degree of deposits. The importance of landslides within prese nt-day processes is very different from one region to another. Landslides play a determinant role in the slopes’ modeling of the Carpathians, the Subcarpathians, the Moldavian Tableland or the Transylvanian Tableland

The Impact of Snow Avalanches on the Tourist Activities in the Upper Area of the Piatra Craiului Massif

This paper aims at presenting the tourist activities that have impact by the snow avalanches occurring in the upper area of the Piatra Craiului Massif (The Southern Carpathians, Romania). The local features of this mountain unit are given by the presence of a calcareous ridge rising to over 2200 m, having clearly defined and steep slopes, dissected by a stream network. Climatic and vegetal elements specific for this region encourage the accumulation of a thick snow cover and consequently avalanches are common. Their occurrence has a negative impact on the winter tourist activities going on in this area. Starting from this observation, we undertook a general analysis both of the avalanches and the different components of tourist activities. The paper presents a series of data regarding the present situation, which are synthesized in a map of tourist infrastructure showing the tourist paths and mountain shelters in the avalanche prone areas. The study is intended to be a follow up and a deepening of the pioneer studies dealing with the avalanches that occur in this massif. The ultimate goal is to understand the natural hazards and their impact on the tourist activities going on in an area that is part of the most famous natural protected areas in Romania – The Piatra Craiului National Park

A digital platform for university education on geomorphosites

International audienceThe working group on Geomorphosites of the International Association of Geomorphologists (IAG) is active since 2001 and has developed research activities on issues related to the geomorphological heritage (geomorphosites) (Reynard and Coratza, 2013). In parallel to the research activities, several intensive courses for Ph.D. and Master students have been organized since 2006 in various universities (Lausanne, Lesvos, Minho, Savoie, Beni Mellal) and a textbook for students was edited in 2009 (Reynard et al., 2009). The platform INTERGEO is prepared as a way to disseminate knowledge on geomorphological heritage, in particular in universities of developing countries where access to scientific papers and textbooks is not easy. It aims at improving students' autonomy by the reduction of frontal teaching and increasing autonomous learning as well as promoting international interactions between students interested in geomorphosite topics. The course, developed with the Learning Management System Moodle, is a completely free-access course. It is divided into four parts: (1) Generalities – definitions, links with heritage and landscape studies, active geomorphosites, the IAG working group; (2) Methods – selection and assessment, mapping issues, geomorphosite visualization, technical and digital tools in geomorphosite studies; (3) Conservation and promotion – example of geomorphosite studies related to geoconservation, geoparks, protected areas, World Heritage Sites, geotourism and interpretation, and natural hazards; (4) Examples – cultural, karstic, coastal, mountainous, fluvial, volcanic and anthropogenic geomorphosites. Each chapter contains a short description, a list of references, selected publications, as well as other educational material, e.g. videos, virtual fieldtrips, etc. In particular, several videos allow presenting in a very dynamic way concepts and examples. The content of the course will evolve and will be completed in the future. Most of the content is now ready and is tested by the six universities involved in the project during the academic year 2015–2016. Each university is using INTERGEO as a support for the specific courses on geoconservation and geomorphological heritage. Each team will then carry out fieldwork and will exchange on the results during a virtual international conference to be organized in Summer 2016 (the various teams will interact by video-conferences). The course will then be fully open-access by September 2016

INTERGEO – A DIGITAL PLATFORM FOR EDUCATION TO GEOMORPHOSITES

International audienceThe working group on Geomorphosites of the International Association of Geomorphologists (IAG) is active since 2001 and has developed research activities on issues related to the geomorphological heritage (geomorphosites) [1]. In parallel to the research activities, several intensive courses for Ph.D. and Master students have been organized since 2006 in various universities (Lausanne, Lesvos, Minho, Savoie, Beni Mellal) and a textbook for students was edited in 2009 [2]. The platform INTERGEO is prepared as a way to disseminate knowledge on geomorphological heritage, in particular in universities of developing countries where access to scientific papers and textbooks is not easy. It aims at improving students' autonomy by the reduction of frontal teaching and increasing autonomous learning as well as promoting international interactions between students interested in geomorphosite topics. The course, developed with the Learning Management System Moodle, is a completely free-access course. It is divided into four parts: (1) Generalities – definitions, links with heritage and landscape studies, active geomorphosites, the IAG working group; (2) Methods – selection and assessment, mapping issues, geomorphosite visualization, technical and digital tools in geomorphosite studies; (3) Conservation and promotion – example of geomorphosite studies related to geoconservation, geoparks, protected areas, World Heritage Sites, geotourism and interpretation, and natural hazards; (4) Examples – cultural, karstic, coastal, mountainous, fluvial, volcanic and anthropogenic geomorphosites. Each chapter contains a short description, a list of references, selected publications, as well as other educational material, e.g. videos, virtual fieldtrips, etc. The content of the course will evolve and will be completed in the future. The content is currently being prepared and will be tested by the six universities involved in the project during the academic year 2015–2016. Each university will use INTERGEO as a support for the specific courses on geoconservation and geomorphological heritage. Each team will then carry out fieldwork and will exchange on the results during a virtual international conference to be organized in Summer 2016 (the various teams will interact by video-conferences). The course will then be fully open-access by September 2016

MammaPrint Molecular Diagnostics on Formalin-Fixed, Paraffin-Embedded Tissue

MammaPrint, a prognostic 70-gene profile for early-stage breast cancer, has been available for fresh tissue. Improvements in RNA processing have enabled microarray diagnostics for formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue. Here, we describe method optimization, validation, and performance of MammaPrint using analyte from FFPE tissue. Laboratory procedures for enabling the assay to be run on FFPE tissue were determined using 157 samples, and the assay was established using 125 matched FFPE and fresh tissues. Validation of MammaPrint-FFPE, compared with MammaPrint-fresh, was performed on an independent series of matched tissue from five hospitals (n = 211). Reproducibility, repeatability, and precision of the FFPE assay (n = 87) was established for duplicate analysis of the same tumor, inter-laboratory performance, 20-day repeat experiments, and repeated analyses over 12 months. FFPE sample processing had a success rate of 97%. The MammaPrint assay using FFPE analyte demonstrated an overall equivalence of 91.5% (95% confidence interval, 86.9% to 94.5%) between the 211 independent matched FFPE and fresh tumor samples. Precision was 97.3%, and repeatability was 97.8%, with highly reproducible results between replicate samples of the same tumor and between two laboratories (concordance, 96%). Thus, with 580 tumor samples, MammaPrint was successfully translated to FFPE tissue. The assay has high precision and reproducibility, and FFPE results are substantially equivalent to results derived from fresh tissue