Birds as bio-indicators and as tools to evaluate restoration measures

Within the RIPIDURABLE Project*, birds were used to characterize ecosystems*, to monitor environmental changes and to assess results of restoration measures. Bird surveys were carried out at different space and time scales using standardised point count methods on 8 watercourses in Portugal and France. Several aspects of riparian breeding bird community variation were assessed: along a decreasing gradient of vegetation complexity, along and upstream-downstream gradient, with different surrounding landscapes, with time, with management status, with time and management status, before and after river rehabilitation. Birds appear to be new and reliable indicators for assessing restoration of riparian ecosystems, complementary to those traditionally used

BIRDS AND SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT IN MEDITERRANEAN RIPARIAN AREAS: Bird studies in the RIPIDURABLE project

RIPIDURABLE is an INTERREG IIIC European Program involving 10 partners from Portugal, Spain, France and Greece. Scientists, technicians and local/regional authorities worked together to integrate knowledge, knowhow and practice, towards a rational conservation management of riparian zones. Birds can be used to characterize ecosystems, to monitor environmental changes or to assess results of restoration measures. We have conducted field surveys in order to assess breeding bird communities associated to riparian galleries in several watercourses, including issues as the relation with natural vegetation profiles, the influence of the surrounding matrix, the evolution with time or with habitat degradation, the effects of rehabilitation measures, and/or the importance of riparian galleries as ecological corridors for birds. Surveys at different space and time scales were carried out using standardised point count methods, on 8 watercourses in Portugal and France. We focused on different aspects of riparian breeding bird community variation: along a decreasing gradient of vegetal complexity (Tagus Basin), along an upstream-downstream gradient (Allier), with different surrounding landscapes (Sado, Guadiana and Tagus Basin), with time (Alcáçovas at a 10 years interval, Allier at 16 years interval), with management status (Vidourle), with time & management status (Rhône delta at a 12 years intervals), before & after river rehabilitation (Gandum). In addition we studied the dispersal of Barn Owls from upper Tagus Estuary along riparian corridors (TytoTagus Project), and also the importance of riparian habitats of the Guadiana basin on the autumn migration of trans-Saharan birds across the Iberian Peninsula. The RIPIDURABLE project offered the opportunity for further research currently included in national programs such as the Plan Loire Grandeur Nature which allows long term studies on riparian birds. Herein we briefly present some of the preliminary results of the bird studies carried out by partners from Portugal and France

The Resilience of Democracy in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic:Democratic Compensators in Belgium, the Netherlands and France

Since January 2020, European countries have implemented a wide range of restrictions to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet governments have also implemented democratic compensators in order to offset the negative impacts of restrictions. This article aims to account for the variation of their use between Belgium, the Netherlands and France. We analyse three drivers: the strength of counterpowers, the ruling parties’ ideological leanings and political support. Building on an original data set, our results distinguish between embedded and ad hoc compensators. We find that ad hoc compensators are championed mainly by counterpowers, but also by ideology of the ruling coalitions in Belgium and the Netherlands and used strategically to maintain political support in France. Evidence on the link between embedded compensators and counterpowers is more ambiguous.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Epidemiological modelling of the 2005 French riots: a spreading wave and the role of contagion

As a large-scale instance of dramatic collective behaviour, the 2005 French riots started in a poor suburb of Paris, then spread in all of France, lasting about three weeks. Remarkably, although there were no displacements of rioters, the riot activity did travel. Access to daily national police data has allowed us to explore the dynamics of riot propagation. Here we show that an epidemic-like model, with just a few parameters and a single sociological variable characterizing neighbourhood deprivation, accounts quantitatively for the full spatio-temporal dynamics of the riots. This is the first time that such data-driven modelling involving contagion both within and between cities (through geographic proximity or media) at the scale of a country, and on a daily basis, is performed. Moreover, we give a precise mathematical characterization to the expression “wave of riots”, and provide a visualization of the propagation around Paris, exhibiting the wave in a way not described before. The remarkable agreement between model and data demonstrates that geographic proximity played a major role in the propagation, even though information was readily available everywhere through media. Finally, we argue that our approach gives a general framework for the modelling of the dynamics of spontaneous collective uprisings

Efficacy of neoadjuvant bevacizumab added to docetaxel followed by fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide, for women with HER2-negative early breast cancer (ARTemis): an open-label, randomised, phase 3 trial

Background: The ARTemis trial was developed to assess the efficacy and safety of adding bevacizumab to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy in HER2-negative early breast cancer. Methods: In this randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial, we enrolled women (≥18 years) with newly diagnosed HER2-negative early invasive breast cancer (radiological tumour size >20 mm, with or without axillary involvement), at 66 centres in the UK. Patients were randomly assigned via a central computerised minimisation procedure to three cycles of docetaxel (100 mg/m2 once every 21 days) followed by three cycles of fluorouracil (500 mg/m2), epirubicin (100 mg/m2), and cyclophosphamide (500 mg/m2) once every 21 days (D-FEC), without or with four cycles of bevacizumab (15 mg/kg) (Bev+D-FEC). The primary endpoint was pathological complete response, defined as the absence of invasive disease in the breast and axillary lymph nodes, analysed by intention to treat. The trial has completed and follow-up is ongoing. This trial is registered with EudraCT (2008-002322-11), ISRCTN (68502941), and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01093235). Findings: Between May 7, 2009, and Jan 9, 2013, we randomly allocated 800 participants to D-FEC (n=401) and Bev+D-FEC (n=399). 781 patients were available for the primary endpoint analysis. Significantly more patients in the bevacizumab group achieved a pathological complete response compared with those treated with chemotherapy alone: 87 (22%, 95% CI 18–27) of 388 patients in the Bev+D-FEC group compared with 66 (17%, 13–21) of 393 patients in the D-FEC group (p=0·03). Grade 3 and 4 toxicities were reported at expected levels in both groups, although more patients had grade 4 neutropenia in the Bev+D-FEC group than in the D-FEC group (85 [22%] vs 68 [17%]). Interpretation: Addition of four cycles of bevacizumab to D-FEC in HER2-negative early breast cancer significantly improved pathological complete response. However, whether the improvement in pathological complete response will lead to improved disease-free and overall survival outcomes is unknown and will be reported after longer follow-up. Meta-analysis of available neoadjuvant trials is likely to be the only way to define subgroups of early breast cancer that would have clinically significant long-term benefit from bevacizumab treatment

Les oiseaux nicheurs des cours d’eau du bassin de la Saône : étude écologique des peuplements le long du gradient amont-aval

Roché Jean. Les oiseaux nicheurs des cours d’eau du bassin de la Saône : étude écologique des peuplements le long du gradient amont-aval. In: Revue d'Écologie. Supplément n°4, 1987. p. 253

Les associés des sociétés d'exercice libéral

Roché Jean-Dominique. Les associés des sociétés d'exercice libéral. In: Revue juridique de l'Ouest, 1996-3. pp. 287-326

Impact of uncertainty on cost-effectiveness analysis of medical strategies: The case of high-dose chemotherapy for breast cancer patients

International audienceObjectives: The object of this study was to determine, taking into account uncertainty on cost and outcome parameters, the cost-effectiveness of high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) compared with conventional chemotherapy for advanced breast cancer patients.Methods: An analysis was conducted for 300 patients included in a randomized clinical trial designed to evaluate the benefits, in terms of disease-free survival and overall survival, of adding a single course of HDC to a four-cycle conventional-dose chemotherapy for breast cancer patients with axillary lymph node invasion. Costs were estimated from a detailed observation of physical quantities consumed, and the Kaplan–Meier method was used to evaluate mean survival times. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were evaluated successively considering disease-free survival and overall survival outcomes. Handling of uncertainty consisted in construction of confidence intervals for these ratios, using the truncated Fieller method.Results: The cost per disease-free life year gained was evaluated at 13,074€, a value that seems to be acceptable to society. However, handling uncertainty shows that the upper bound of the confidence interval is around 38,000€, which is nearly three times higher. Moreover, as no difference was demonstrated in overall survival between treatments, cost-effectiveness analysis, that is a cost minimization, indicated that the intensive treatment is a dominated strategy involving an extra cost of 7,400€, for no added benefit.Conclusions: Adding a single course of HDC led to a clinical benefit in terms of disease-free survival for an additional cost that seems to be acceptable, considering the point estimate of the ratio. However, handling uncertainty indicates a maximum ratio for which conclusions have to be discussed