Observations palynologiques dans le Couvinien (Emsien terminal et Eifelien) du bord oriental du synclinorium de Dinant, Belgique

The Couvinian (a chronostratigraphical unit equivalent to the Uppermost Emsian and to the Eifelian) was made the object of palynological studies concentrating as much on acritarchs as on spores in the eastern flank at the synclinorium of Dinant. The samples are located in a lithological sequence, certain of the units in which are new and defined here for the first time. Their biostratigraphical relations with the type sequence on the south side of the basin were established on the bases of brachiopods. Twenty-three spore species are recorded. Grandispora velata and hystricospores make their first appearance whithin the sequence studied, the first in the Upper Couvinian, the second probably in the Upper Emsian (pre-Couvinian). Their absence permits to date also part of the conglomerate beds which characterize the base of these sequences. Thirty-five species of acritarchs were recognized. Certain are reworked from sediments as ancient as the Cambra-Ordovician, the majority are ubiquitous and already known from the Lower Devonian and even from the Silurian. Some correspond to species already described from the Middle or Upper Devonian. On the basis of the latter, a subdivision of the Couvinian into 4 zones is proposed

Miospores et acritarches de la formation d'Hydrequent (Frasnien superieur à Famennien Inferieur, Boulonnais, France)

The upper part of the Hydrequent Shales, which are inserted between the last dolomite layer and the Ste Godeleine Sandstone, consists of at least 20 m of shaly sediments with thin sandy partings. The 44 samples studied have yielded numerous spore and acritarch species which permit a very detailed palynological zonation to be established, mainly corresponding to the upper Frasnian. The highest samples, 0.5 m below the Ste Godeleine Sandstone, can be correlated with the lower Famennian of the Belgian stratotype. The Frasnian-Famennian boundary thus falls within the Hydrequent Shales between 0.5 and 2.5 m below the Ste Godeleine Sandstone

Fammenian

The name of the Famennian stage originated in the 19th century from the Famenne region in southern Belgium. After the pioneering work of Dumont, d'Omalius d'Halloy, Gosselet and Mourlon, a renewed interest in the 1960’s focused mainly on the lithological, sedimentological, paleontological and palynological characteristics of the Famennian. This resulted in a refined litho- and biostratigraphical framework for the Lower Famennian Famenne Shales and the Upper Famennian Condroz Sandstones in Belgium. The most obvious finding was the distinct diachronous character of the Condroz Group. The present review paper extends this stratigraphical framework into the neighbouring Avesnois (Northern France) and Aachen (Northwestern Germany) areas: it proposes a lithostratigraphical correlation between the units identified within the individual tectonic units. An overview is given of the main lithological-sedimentological characteristics, depositional environments (for both the siliciclastics and the carbonates) and prevailing paleogeographical-paloeclimatological conditions, during the Famennian stage in Belgium and adjacent areas

Foramiminifères, spores et coraux du Famennien superieur et du Dinantien du Massif de l'Omolon (extreme-orient sovietique)

Faunal assemblages allowing biostratigraphical Upper Famennian and Dinantian correlations between the Omolon Massif and Western Europe were recorded by Simakov in 1979. New investigations in 1981 allowed to improve the correlations using forams, corals and also palynological material from one shaly sample

Een 18de-eeuwse wraksite op de Buiten Ratel-zandbank (Belgische territoriale wateren): 1. Multidisciplinair onderzoek van het vondstenmateriaal

In 1996 werd op de Buiten Ratel-zandbank, op 9 mijl van de kust, ter hoogte van Koksijde, een houten scheepswrak gelokaliseerd. Het werd onderzocht door een groep sportduikers, met de naam NATA. Jarenlange verkenning van de wraksite leverde talrijke vondsten op. In 2003 zochten de duikers steun bij het toenmalige IAP (Instituut voor het Archeologisch Patrimonium), nu Vlaams Instituut voor het Onroerend Erfgoed (VIOE), om het onderzoek en de conservatie op wetenschappelijke basis verder te zetten. Het VIOE ontfermde zich over het onderzoek van de tot nu toe geborgen materiële resten van de wraksite. Het eerste hoofdstuk van het artikel geeft een overzicht van de observaties van de wraksite via duikonderzoek en via gespecialiseerde technieken vanop een onderzoeksschip. In hoofdstuk 2 worden de objecten beschreven, hun betekenis aan boord van het schip besproken, evenals hun datering en herkomst. Hoofdstuk 3 brengt alle informatie samen en geeft aan wat er in de toekomst nog aan onderzoek kan gebeuren

Hair-Derived Exposome Exploration of Cardiometabolic Health: Piloting a Bayesian Multitrait Variable Selection Approach.

peer reviewedCardiometabolic health is complex and characterized by an ensemble of correlated and/or co-occurring conditions including obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus. It is affected by social, lifestyle, and environmental factors, which in-turn exhibit complex correlation patterns. To account for the complexity of (i) exposure profiles and (ii) health outcomes, we propose to use a multitrait Bayesian variable selection approach and identify a sparse set of exposures jointly explanatory of the complex cardiometabolic health status. Using data from a subset (N = 941 participants) of the nutrition, environment, and cardiovascular health (NESCAV) study, we evaluated the link between measurements of the cumulative exposure to (N = 33) pollutants derived from hair and cardiometabolic health as proxied by up to nine measured traits. Our multitrait analysis showed increased statistical power, compared to single-trait analyses, to detect subtle contributions of exposures to a set of clinical phenotypes, while providing parsimonious results with improved interpretability. We identified six exposures that were jointly explanatory of cardiometabolic health as modeled by six complementary traits, of which, we identified strong associations between hexachlorobenzene and trifluralin exposure and adverse cardiometabolic health, including traits of obesity, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. This supports the use of this type of approach for the joint modeling, in an exposome context, of correlated exposures in relation to complex and multifaceted outcomes

New morphological information on, and species of placoderm fish Africanaspis (Arthrodira, Placodermi) from the Late Devonian of South Africa

Here we present a new species of placoderm fish, Africanaspis edmountaini sp. nov., and redescribe Africanaspis doryssa on the basis of new material collected from the type locality of Africanaspis. The new material includes the first head shields of Africanaspis doryssa in addition to soft anatomy for both taxa. Hitherto Africanaspis was entirely described from trunk armour and no record of body and fin outlines had been recorded. In addition the first record of embryonic and juvenile specimens of Africanaspis doryssa is presented and provides a growth series from presumed hatchlings to presumed adults. The presence of a greater number of juveniles compared to adults indicates that the Waterloo Farm fossil site in South Africa represents the first nursery site of arthrodire placoderms known from a cold water environment. The preservation of an ontogenetic series demonstrates that variation within the earlier known sample, initially considered to have resulted from ontogenetic change, instead indicates the presence of a second, less common species Africanaspis edmountaini sp. nov. There is some faunal overlap between the Waterloo Farm fossil site and faunas described from Strud in Belgium and Red Hill, Pennsylvania, in north America, supporting the concept of a more cosmopolitan vertebrate fauna in the Famennian than earlier in the Devonian