Le schéma local de gestion cynégétique : un outil de gestion et de concertation des chasseurs de Concors-Sainte-Victoire.

Face à la fermeture des milieux, à un manque de connaissance des espèces, ou encore à la pression humaine de plus en plus forte sur les espaces naturels, le monde de la chasse a pris conscience de la nécessaire concertation des différents acteurs à l'échelle d'un massif. Cela s'est concrétisé, sur Sainte-Victoire, par la mise en place d'un Schéma local de gestion cynégétique. Concertation, diagnostic, approche multiusage, sont les points forts de cette expérience originale et réussie

The status of the coral reefs of French Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean

Together with La Réunion and Mayotte Islands, Scattered Islands make up French Indian Ocean Territories (FIOT) which all possess highly ecologically sensitive natural habitats of major value for migrant species (turtles, seabirds, mammals). As a contribution to the national action plan of IFRECOR (French initiative on coral reefs) we set up during the period 2002-2005 a survey and monitoring program in order to increase the knowledge of the still poorly known coral reefs of these islands scattered from North to South in the Mozambique Channel and in central Indian Ocean. Results were particularly focused on the geomorphological mapping of shallow marine habitats and on a structural and functional approach of fish, coral and mollusc communities. Additional approaches with rapid assessment methods remained non exhaustive but nevertheless allow a first integrated diagnosis of the patrimonial value of the coral sanctuaries of Scattered Islands and to propose decision-making tools for identifying applied and fundamental axes of research as well as actions of monitoring adapted particularly to vulnerability factors and global warmingAvec l'île de la Réunion et Mayotte, les îles Éparses constituent les îles Françaises de l'océan Indien, lesquelles possèdent toutes des milieux naturels à sensibilité écologique forte et d'intérêt majeur pour des espèces migratrices (tortues, oiseaux marins, mammifères). Dans un contexte de mauvaise connaissance des récifs coralliens de ces îles éparpillées du Nord au Sud du canal du Mozambique et au centre de l'océan Indien occidental, nous avons réalisé de 2002 à 2005 un programme axé sur la connaissance et la surveillance des récifs, en vue de contribuer au plan d'action national de l'Initiative Française sur les Récifs Coralliens (IFRECOR). Les résultats concernent tout particulièrement la cartographie géomorphologique des milieux marins peu profonds ainsi qu'une approche structurelle et fonctionnelle des peuplements de poissons, coraux et mollusques. Les approches complémentaires menées selon des protocoles d'évaluation rapide restent non exhaustives mais permettent aujourd'hui de disposer d'un premier diagnostic intégré de la valeur patrimoniale des sanctuaires coralliens des îles Éparses et de proposer une aide à la décision pour identifier des axes de recherche appliquée et fondamentale, des mesures de gestion adaptées notamment aux facteurs de vulnérabilité tel que le réchauffement global

Internal and external cooling methods and their effect on body temperature, thermal perception and dexterity

© 2018 The Authors. Published by PLOS. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191416© 2018 Maley et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Objective The present study aimed to compare a range of cooling methods possibly utilised by occupational workers, focusing on their effect on body temperature, perception and manual dexterity. Methods Ten male participants completed eight trials involving 30 min of seated rest followed by 30 min of cooling or control of no cooling (CON) (34C, 58% relative humidity). The cooling methods utilised were: ice cooling vest (CV0), phase change cooling vest melting at 14C (CV14), evaporative cooling vest (CVEV), arm immersion in 10C water (AI), portable water-perfused suit (WPS), heliox inhalation (HE) and ice slushy ingestion (SL). Immediately before and after cooling, participants were assessed for fine (Purdue pegboard task) and gross (grip and pinch strength) manual dexterity. Rectal and skin temperature, as well as thermal sensation and comfort, were monitored throughout. Results Compared with CON, SL was the only method to reduce rectal temperature (P = 0.012). All externally applied cooling methods reduced skin temperature (P0.05). Conclusion The present study observed that ice ingestion or ice applied to the skin produced the greatest effect on rectal and skin temperature, respectively. AI should not be utilised if workers require subsequent fine manual dexterity. These results will help inform future studies investigating appropriate pre-cooling methods for the occupational worker.This project is financially supported by the US Government through the Technical Support Working Group within the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office.Published versio

Effects of lowering body temperature via hyperhydration, with and without glycerol ingestion and practical precooling on cycling time trial performance in hot and humid conditions

Background: Hypohydration and hyperthermia are factors that may contribute to fatigue and impairment of endurance performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of combining glycerol hyperhydration and an established precooling technique on cycling time trial performance in hot environmental conditions.Methods: Twelve well-trained male cyclists performed three 46.4-km laboratory-based cycling trials that included two climbs, under hot and humid environmental conditions (33.3 ± 1.1°C; 50 ± 6% r.h.). Subjects were required to hyperhydrate with 25 g.kg-1 body mass (BM) of a 4°C beverage containing 6% carbohydrate (CON) 2.5 h prior to the time trial. On two occasions, subjects were also exposed to an established precooling technique (PC) 60 min prior to the time trial, involving 14 g.kg-1 BM ice slurry ingestion and applied iced towels over 30 min. During one PC trial, 1.2 g.kg-1 BM glycerol was added to the hyperhydration beverage in a double-blind fashion (PC+G). Statistics used in this study involve the combination of traditional probability statistics and a magnitude-based inference approach.Results: Hyperhydration resulted in large reductions (-0.6 to -0.7°C) in rectal temperature. The addition of glycerol to this solution also lowered urine output (330 ml, 10%). Precooling induced further small (-0.3°C) to moderate (-0.4°C) reductions in rectal temperature with PC and PC+G treatments, respectively, when compared with CON (0.0°C, P\u3c0.05). Overall, PC+G failed to achieve a clear change in cycling performance over CON, but PC showed a possible 2% (30 s, P=0.02) improvement in performance time on climb 2 compared to CON. This improvement was attributed to subjects\u27 lower perception of effort reported over the first 10 km of the trial, despite no clear performance change during this time. No differences were detected in any other physiological measurements throughout the time trial.Conclusions: Despite increasing fluid intake and reducing core temperature, performance and thermoregulatory benefits of a hyperhydration strategy with and without the addition of glycerol, plus practical precooling, were not superior to hyperhydration alone. Further research is warranted to further refine preparation strategies for athletes competing in thermally stressful events to optimize health and maximize performance outcomes

Phylogeography of Ostreopsis along West Pacific Coast, with Special Reference to a Novel Clade from Japan

BACKGROUND: A dinoflagellate genus Ostreopsis is known as a potential producer of Palytoxin derivatives. Palytoxin is the most potent non-proteinaceous compound reported so far. There has been a growing number of reports on palytoxin-like poisonings in southern areas of Japan; however, the distribution of Ostreopsis has not been investigated so far. Morphological plasticity of Ostreopsis makes reliable microscopic identification difficult so the employment of molecular tools was desirable. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDING: In total 223 clones were examined from samples mainly collected from southern areas of Japan. The D8-D10 region of the nuclear large subunit rDNA (D8-D10) was selected as a genetic marker and phylogenetic analyses were conducted. Although most of the clones were unable to be identified, there potentially 8 putative species established during this study. Among them, Ostreopsis sp. 1-5 did not belong to any known clade, and each of them formed its own clade. The dominant species was Ostreopsis sp. 1, which accounted for more than half of the clones and which was highly toxic and only distributed along the Japanese coast. Comparisons between the D8-D10 and the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) region of the nuclear rDNA, which has widely been used for phylogenetic/phylogeographic studies in Ostreopsis, revealed that the D8-D10 was less variable than the ITS, making consistent and reliable phylogenetic reconstruction possible. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This study unveiled a surprisingly diverse and widespread distribution of Japanese Ostreopsis. Further study will be required to better understand the phylogeography of the genus. Our results posed the urgent need for the development of the early detection/warning systems for Ostreopsis, particularly for the widely distributed and strongly toxic Ostreopsis sp. 1. The D8-D10 marker will be suitable for these purposes

Le schéma local de gestion cynégétique : un outil de gestion et de concertation des chasseurs de Concors-Sainte-Victoire.

International audienceFace à la fermeture des milieux, à un manque de connaissance des espèces, ou encore à la pression humaine de plus en plus forte sur les espaces naturels, le monde de la chasse a pris conscience de la nécessaire concertation des différents acteurs à l'échelle d'un massif. Cela s'est concrétisé, sur Sainte-Victoire, par la mise en place d'un Schéma local de gestion cynégétique. Concertation, diagnostic, approche multiusage, sont les points forts de cette expérience originale et réussie

Time course of the hemoglobin mass response to natural altitude training in elite endurance cyclists

To determine the time course of hemoglobin mass (Hbmass) to natural altitude training, Hbmass, erythropoietin [EPO], reticulocytes, ferritin and soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) were measured in 13 elite cyclists during, and 10 days after, 3 weeks of sea level (n=5) or altitude (n=8, 2760 m) training. Mean Hbmass, with a typical error of ∼2%, increased during the first 11 days at altitude (mean ± standard deviation 2.9 ± 2.0%) and was 3.5 ± 2.5% higher than baseline after 19 days. [EPO] increased 64.2 ± 18.8% after 2 nights at altitude but was not different from baseline after 12 nights. Hbmass and [EPO] did not increase in sea level. Reticulocytes (%) were slightly elevated in altitude at Days 5 and 12 (18.9 ± 17.7% and 20.4 ± 25.3%), sTfR was elevated at Day 12 (18.9 ± 15.0%), but both returned to baseline by Day 20. Hbmass and [EPO] decreased on descent to sea level while ferritin increased. The mean increase in Hbmass observed after 11 days (∼300 h) of altitude training was beyond the measurement error and consitent with the mean increase after 300 h of simulated live high:train low altitude. Our results suggest that in elite cyclists, Hbmass increases progressively with 3 weeks of natural altitude exposure, with greater increases expected as exposure persists