Assessment of the pelagic fish populations using CEN multi-mesh gillnets: consequences for the characterization of the fish communities

The contribution of CEN standard pelagic nets to the assessment of fish communities is tested by comparing three metrics (species composition, species abundance, and size structures) measured in accordance with the standard (i.e. using benthic nets only) to those calculated from the total effort (i.e. including pelagic nets). Hydroacoustic surveys were used simultaneously to assess fish densities in the pelagic habitat. The results show that in most cases the pelagic nets did not provide any extra information about these three metrics. However, their inclusion in the calculation of CPUE and size structures may affect the picture of the fish communities, especially in lakes containing salmonid populations. This study highlights the need to sample pelagic fish when assessing fish communities in order to determine lake quality

Origin of compositional differences in organic matter abundance and oil potential of cherty and clayey Cenomanian black levels in the Umbria-Marche basin (Italy).

International audienceRock-Eval pyrolysis of a large set of Cenomanian samples, collected from the black levels (clayey, cherty and mixed) in three sections of the Umbria-Marche basin, showed large differences in organic matter (OM) quantity and quality. The chert samples systematically exhibit much lower TOC contents, markedly lower HI and higher OI. This reflects the extensive oxidative destruction of the initial kerogen that occurred upon the chertification of some clayey sediments. A comparative study, by a combination of microscopic, spectroscopic and pyrolytic methods, was performed on kerogens of the chert and clay layers of a representative mixed level. The various fractions of the initial kerogen underwent differential destruction or alteration during chertification, resulting in (i) relative enrichments of microfossils and woody debris although lignin was altered by demethoxylation and (ii) extensive destruction of the amorphous fraction while it remained predominant. The amorphous fraction retained in the chert kerogen showed large changes in composition related to oxygen incorporation and probably escaped complete destruction owing to oxidative reticulation. The above features account for the pronounced systematic differences in OM abundance and oil potential between the chert and clay layers in the black levels

Impact of a Community Pharmacist-Delivered Information Program on the Follow-up of Type-2 Diabetic Patients: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Study.

Low-quality communication between patients and care providers and limited patient knowledge of the disease and the therapy are important factors associated with poor glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes. We conducted a multicenter study to determine whether structured and tailored information delivered by pharmacists to type 2 diabetic patients could improve patient treatment adherence, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels and knowledge about diabetes. One hundred seventy-four pharmacies were randomized to deliver an educational program on diet, drug treatment, disease and complications during three 30-min interviews over a 6-month period, or to provide no intervention, to type 2 diabetic patients treated with oral antidiabetic agents. Medication adherence was assessed by measuring the medication possession ratio and diabetes control by collecting HbA1c values. Levels of patient treatment self-management and disease knowledge were assessed using self-questionnaires. Three hundred seventy-seven patients were analyzed. The medication possession ratio, already very high at baseline in the intervention (94.8%) and control (92.3%) groups, did not vary significantly after 6 months with no difference between the two groups. Significant decreases in HbA1c were observed in both groups at 6 months (p < 0.001) and 12 months (p < 0.01), with significantly greater changes from baseline in the intervention group than in the control group at 6 months (- 0.5% vs. - 0.2%, p = 0.0047) and 12 months (- 0.6% vs. - 0.2%, p = 0.0057). Patients in the intervention group showed greater improvement in their ability to self-manage treatment (+ 4.86 vs. + 1.58, p = 0.0014) and in the extent of their knowledge about diabetes (+ 0.6 vs. + 0.2, p < 0.01) at 6 months versus baseline compared with the control group. Tailored information provided by the pharmacist to patients with type 2 diabetes did not significantly improve the already high adherence rates, but was associated with a significant decrease in HbA1c and an improvement of patient knowledge about diabetes. ISRCTN33776525. MSD France

How is the economic crisis socially assessed?

Based on the Social Representation Theory, the purpose of this article is to explore how lay-people consider both the economic crisis and risk, and to link these social representations to behavior. The article offers an original approach with the articulation of two studies about the social construction of risk and crises. It also contributes to the development of research methods for studying the connections between representations and practical implications. Based on this, the impact of the social representation of the crisis on the perceived ability to act is approached. The first study focuses on free-association tasks, with two distinct target terms: ‘risk’ and ‘crisis’. The structural approach, with a prototypical analysis, allowed the identification of two different representations: (1) for risk, ‘danger’ is the central element; (2) for crisis, ‘economy’ and ‘money’ constitute the main components of the representation. The second study investigates the links between the two previously detected structures and their relations with the perceived ability to act in a financial crisis context. Some aspects of social knowledge were found to have an impact on perceived ability to act

In plane reorientation induced single laser pulse magnetization reversal in rare-earth based multilayer

Single Pulse All Optical Helicity Independent Switching (AO-HIS) represents the ability to reverse the magnetic moment of a nanostructure using a femtosecond single laser pulse. It is an ultrafast method to manipulate magnetization without the use of any applied field. Since the first switching experiments carried on GdFeCo ferrimagnetic systems, single pulse AO-HIS has been restricted for a while to Gd-based alloys or Gd/FM bilayers where FM is a ferromagnetic layer. Only recently has AO-HIS been extended to a few other materials: MnRuGa ferrimagnetic Heusler alloys and Tb/Co multilayers with a very specific range of thickness and composition. Here, we demonstrate that single pulse AO-HIS observed in Tb/Co results from a different mechanism than the one for Gd based samples and that it can be obtained for a large range of rare earth-transition metal (RE-TM) multilayers, making this phenomenon much more general. Surprisingly, in this large family of (RE-TM) multilayer systems, the threshold fluence for switching is observed to be independent of the pulse duration, up to at least 12 ps. Moreover, at high laser intensities, concentric ring domain structures are induced, unveiling multiple fluence thresholds. These striking switching features, which are in contrast to those of AO-HIS in GdFeCo alloys, concomitant with the demonstration of an in-plane reorientation of the magnetization, point towards an intrinsic precessional reversal mechanism. Our results allow expanding the variety of materials with tunable magnetic properties that can be integrated in complex heterostructures and provide a pathway to engineer materials for future applications based on all-optical control of magnetic order

Internal delensing of cosmic microwave background polarization B-Modes with the POLARBEAR experiment

International audienceUsing only cosmic microwave background polarization data from the polarbear experiment, we measure B-mode polarization delensing on subdegree scales at more than 5σ significance. We achieve a 14% B-mode power variance reduction, the highest to date for internal delensing, and improve this result to 22% by applying for the first time an iterative maximum a posteriori delensing method. Our analysis demonstrates the capability of internal delensing as a means of improving constraints on inflationary models, paving the way for the optimal analysis of next-generation primordial B-mode experiments

Critérios de construção e relato da análise prototípica para representações sociais

A análise prototípica é uma convenção de apresentação bastante difundida para caracterizar a estrutura de uma representação social a partir de dados de evocações livres. O presente texto visa a sistematizar e indicar algumas dessas informações que deveriam estar presentes na descrição de resultados da análise prototípica, discutindo brevemente os prós e contras de algumas opções de realização da análise. Para tanto, é feita uma breve introdução da análise e posteriormente passa-se a considerações técnicas, finalizando com um exemplo de relato