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International audience; Néré (Parkia biglobosa) is a wild species preferred and overexploited for its multiple uses by rural populations in Sub-Saharan Africa. The study of its germination and seedlings could constitute a prerequisite for its domestication, necessary for its conservation. This study aimed to assess the germination and morphology of seedlings taking into account distinct habitats from its natural environment.A total of 2160 seeds from different mother plants and 540 seedlings from germination were selected and evaluated. The trials were conducted on three sites (two nurseries in Côte d'Ivoire vs one greenhouse in France) with different microclimates. The results showed that the larger the mother trees are, the larger the seeds they produce, which in turn generate more vigorous seedlings. This study showed that the species grows better in a milder environment that is different from its region of origin (fertile soil with a stable or humid tropical climate: Montpellier greenhouse and Daloa nursery). Overall, parent trees did not statistically influence each germination and seedling development parameter for the three sites combined (P > 0.05). However, analysis of variance showed that germination and seedling development parameters differed between experimental sites (P < 0.05). These results are useful and could be used as decision support tools to guide conservation (domestication) and agroforestry programmes based on Parkia biglobosa. This study could be extended to other endangered species in order to preserve biodiversity.

Published in 1992, Marc Augé study, Non-places, determined a rather negative way of considering a number of contemporary environments. This thesis argues that the criticism of Augé’s work has been rather timid. For the main, thinking place remains tributary to an urban model which, resistant as it may be, is in various respects, outdated. To this way of thinking, one can oppose thinking spaces. The latter do not come under a single typology but involve all the qualities of modern experience. This experience is unrelated to “value” and should not have to be submitted to so-called “revaluation” programs. It belongs to everyday life and concerns everybody. Differing from current critical works that tackle the question from a solely social angle, this thesis examines the terms of the debate from a perspective that, though not quite aesthetic, is already visual. It states that design, that comes before architecture and goes against urbanism, may here find its place., L’ouvrage de Marc Augé, Non lieux, paru en 1992, a déterminé une façon plutôt négative d’envisager un certain nombre d’environnements actuels. Quelques critiques en ont été formulées, que la thèse juge plutôt timides. La pensée du lieu reste pour l’essentiel soutenue par un modèle citadin qui, aussi endurant soit-il, est à divers égards dépassé. À cette pensée, on peut opposer celle d’espaces. Ceux-là ne relèvent pas d’une unique typologie, mais impliquent tous les qualités d’une expérience moderne. Cette expérience n’a pas rapport à la « valeur » et ne devrait pas avoir à souffrir de programmes dits de « revalorisation » : elle tient à quelque chose d’un ordinaire et concerne tout un chacun. À la différence des critiques existantes qui font un état de la question seulement social, la thèse examine les termes du débat depuis un enjeu non pas tout à fait esthétique mais déjà visuel. Elle pose que peut être ici impliqué un design qui devance l’architecture et va contre l’urbanisme.

Freshwater scarcity and other abiotic factors, such as climate and soil salinity in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region, are affecting crop production. Therefore, farmers are looking for salt-tolerant crops that can successfully be grown in these harsh environments using poor-quality groundwater. Barley is the main staple food crop for most of the countries of this region, including Tunisia. In this study, the AquaCrop model with a salinity module was used to evaluate the performance of two barley varieties contrasted for their resistance to salinity in three contrasted agro-climatic areas in Tunisia. These zones represent sub-humid, semi-arid, and arid climates. The model was calibrated and evaluated using field data collected from two cropping seasons (2012&ndash, 14), then the calibrated model was used to develop different scenarios under irrigation with saline water from 5, 10 to 15 dS m&minus, 1. The scenario results indicate that biomass and yield were reduced by 40% and 27% in the semi-arid region (KAI) by increasing the irrigation water salinity from 5 to 15 dS m&minus, 1, respectively. For the salt-sensitive variety, the reductions in biomass and grain yield were about 70%, respectively, although overall biomass and yield in the arid region (MED) were lower than in the KAI area, mainly with increasing salinity levels. Under the same environmental conditions, biomass and yield reductions for the salt-tolerant barley variety were only 16% and 8%. For the salt-sensitive variety, the biomass and grain yield reductions in the MED area were about 12% and 43%, respectively, with a similar increase in the salinity levels. Similar trends were visible in water productivities. Interestingly, biomass, grain yield, and water productivity values for both barley varieties were comparable in the sub-humid region (BEJ) that does not suffer from salt stress. However, the results confirm the interest of cultivating a variety tolerant to salinity in environments subjected to salt stress. Therefore, farmers can grow both varieties in the rainfed of BEJ, however, in KAI and MED areas where irrigation is necessary for crop growth, the salt-tolerant barley variety should be preferred. Indeed, the water cost will be reduced by 49% through growing a tolerant variety irrigated with saline water of 15 dS m&minus, 1.

Nowadays, information and communication technologies (mobile phones, connectedobjects) strongly occupy our daily life. The increasing use of these technologies and the complexity ofnetwork infrastructures raise issues about radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (Rf-Emf) exposure.Most previous studies have assessed individual exposure to Rf-Emf, and the next level is to assesspopulational exposure. In our study, we designed a statistical tool for Rf-Emf populational exposureassessment and mapping. This tool integrates geographic databases and surrogate models tocharacterize spatiotemporal exposure from outdoor sources, indoor sources, and mobile phones.A case study was conducted on a 100 x 100 m grid covering the 14th district of Paris to illustratethe functionalities of the tool. Whole-body specific absorption rate (SAR) values are 2.7 times higherthan those for the whole brain. The mapping of whole-body and whole-brain SAR values showsa dichotomy between built-up and non-built-up areas, with the former displaying higher values.Maximum SAR values do not exceed 3.5 and 3.9 mW/kg for the whole body and the whole brain,respectively, thus they are significantly below International Commission on Non-Ionizing RadiationProtection (ICNIRP) recommendations. Indoor sources are the main contributor to populationalexposure, followed by outdoor sources and mobile phones, which generally represents less than 1%of total exposure., info:eu-repo/semantics/published

10 pages; International audience

This thesis studies the evolution of environments and agricultural systems in Languedoc during the last ten millennia through the paleo-vegetation. Reassessing old research, this work refines the temporal resolution of the landscape changes and provides vision at the western Languedoc scale, by the study of Aude and Hérault rivers watershed. From the pollen analyzes of cores drilled in lagoons close to Agde and Narbonne, this work highlights the coevolution between agricultural systems and environments, both long time and Man time, analyzing particularities and dynamic connections between these two watersheds like the territorial exploitation strategies developed by humans, the use of specific plant resources and the types and areas of crops and pastures, in coastal areas and in the Languedoc hinterland., Cette thèse se propose d’étudier l’évolution des milieux et des agrosystèmes en Languedoc durant les derniers dix millénaires grâce à l’étude des paléo-végétations. Tout en réévaluant les recherches anciennes, ce travail affine la résolution temporelle des mutations paysagères enregistrées et apporte une vision à l’échelle du Languedoc occidental, par l’étude des bassins versants de l’Aude et de l’Hérault. À partir de l’analyse palynologique de carottages effectués dans des zones lagunaires proches d’Agde et de Narbonne, ce travail met en exergue la coévolution entre milieux et agrosystèmes, tant sur le temps long que sur le temps de l’Homme, en analysant les particularités et les rapprochements entre dynamiques de ces deux bassins versants comme les stratégies d’exploitation du territoire développées par l’Homme, l’utilisation de ressources végétales spécifiques ainsi que les types et zones de cultures et de pâturages, au niveau des aires littorales, mais aussi dans l’arrière-pays languedocien.

International audience; For the first time, a mm-wave personal exposure meter (mm-PEM) for the 5th generation of mobile networks (5G) exposure assessment in indoor diffuse fields is presented. The design is based on simulations and onphantom calibration measurements in a mm-wave reverberation chamber (RC) at 60 GHz. The mm-PEM consists of an array of nine antennas on the body. Using the mm-PEM, the incident power density (IPD) is measured in the unloaded RC, for the antenna(s) on the phantom and RC loaded with phantom. The uncertainty of the mm-PEM is then determined in terms of its response, which is defined as the ratio of antenna aperture for the above measurement scenarios. Using nine antennas, the designed meter has a response of 1.043 (0.17 dB) at 60 GHz which is very close to 1 (0 dB), the desired ideal responsevalue. The mm-PEM measured an IPD of 96.6 W.m − 2 at 60 GHz in the RC, for an input power of 1 W. In addition, the average absorption cross section of the phantom is determined as 225 cm 2, which is an excellent agreement with its physical dimensions.

A multi-band Body-Worn Distributed exposure Meter (BWDM) calibrated for simultaneous measurement of the incident power density in 11 telecommunication frequency bands, is proposed. The BDWM consists of 22 textile antennas integrated in a garment and is calibrated on six human subjects in an anechoic chamber to assess its measurement uncertainty in terms of 68% confidence interval of the on-body antenna aperture. It is shown that by using multiple antennas in each frequency band, the uncertainty of the BWDM is 22 dB improved with respect to single nodes on the front and back of the torso and variations are decreased to maximum 8.8 dB. Moreover, deploying single antennas for different body morphologies results in a variation up to 9.3 dB, which is reduced to 3.6 dB using multiple antennas for six subjects with various body mass index values. The designed BWDM, has an improved uncertainty of up to 9.6 dB in comparison to commercially available personal exposure meters calibrated on body. As an application, an average incident power density in the range of 26.7-90.8 muW.m - 2 is measured in Ghent, Belgium. The measurements show that commercial personal exposure meters underestimate the actual exposure by a factor of up to 20.6.

The use of technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) is more and more widespread in our everyday life and is now mature enough to be used in critical medical or aerospace applications. The main issue is then to provide more adaptive abilities to VR/AR applications in developing them using human concerns as primary element. To that way, beyond the classical HITL concept this paper proposes an integrative point of view for virtual environment design based on the concept of Bio-CPS. The goal of this paper is to present Bio-CPS related concepts and to sketch some guidelines for future virtual environments design focusing on specific application fields.

Mapping the pleasantness of an urban environment is an alternative approach, closer to the city dweller's perception, than standardized sound levels cartography. This study reports on modeling pleasantness in urban context using perceptual assessments and sound measurements for specific locations during an urban walk. These assessments have been collected from four groups of approximately ten participants on 19 different assessment locations, along a 2.1 km-long path traveled in both directions. Simultaneously, 1/3-octave band sound levels and audio were recorded. Perceptual and physical models of pleasantness are proposed for specific locations based on multiple linear regressions. A multilevel analysis was performed, and it is shown that a perceptual model that includes perceived loudness joined to the perceived time of presence of traffic, voices and birds explains 90% of the pleasantness variance due to the sound environment variations. Physical models that include the original acoustic indicators that are most correlated with perceptual variables explain 85% of this variance. Thanks to these models, a unique averaged pleasantness value is defined for each assessment location from the perceptual or physical collected assessments. The Pearson's correlation coefficient between the averaged perceived pleasantness and the modeled values from perceptual assessment reaches r(19) = 0.98, and r(19) = 0.97, with the modeled values from physical measurements. These results make it possible to consider the use of this kind of models in a cartographic context. As the path was traveled in both directions, the presentation-order effect has also been assessed, and it has been found that path direction did not have a significant impact on the pleasantness assessment at specific locations, except when very strong sound environment changes occurred. Finally, the study gives some insights about the retrospective global pleasantness assessment for urban walks. For very short walks between two assessment locations, a recency effect is shown. Nevertheless, this effect doesn't seem to be significant when longer routes are assessed.

International audience; The knowledge of the exploitation of resources by past hunter-gatherer societies are of utmost importance when studying regional archaeology, in order to understand between humans and the environments they inhabits. The Aisén region, at Central Western Patagonia is particular in this topic since it shows biomes ranging from evergreen forest (W) to steppes (E), providing us a good case for assessing differential procurement of resources. The Cisnes river valley, located in this ideal area connects the ecological diversity and has yielded human occupations starting at the onset of the Holocene at "El Chueco 1" archaeological site (950 masl). This is a key site for understanding the differential firewood resource selection, considering its evidences connectvity networks with other siter within this river basin, and the local contemporaneous palaeoenvironmental data available. The anthracological scope contributes to this research throurgh defining" chaînes opératoires", wheere both the procurement of raw materials and the knowledge of the environment and its natural resources, are considered major components of human decision-making. These approach include taxonomic identification, taphonomy, and observations on wood development and economic attributes of the species represented in the archaeological record and traditional firewood species.

Grain yield variations in bread wheat and two-row barley are better explained by changes in grain number (GN) than mean grain weight. However, the strategies for building GN are different in both species because in two-row barley the variations in GN are more frequently related to the number of spikes m−2, due to its higher tillering capacity than wheat, whereas in bread wheat both grain number spike−1 and the number of spikes m−2 contribute to the establishment of GN. The higher tillering capacity and leaf area index at the beginning of the crop cycle in two-row barley allows a higher radiation accumulation than in bread wheat. We hypothesize that the higher early vigor of two-row barley, associated with its greater leaf area exposure relative to wheat, represents an initial advantage that is capitalized at the end of the cycle as higher biomass accumulation driven by a larger GN and consequently higher grain yield. The main objective of this work was to compare different physiological traits of bread wheat and two-row barley growing together under different temperature and radiation conditions. We evaluated two genotypes of each species, with similar phenology, growing under four different environments without water or nutritional deficiencies. Numerical yield components, biomass, radiation interception and harvest index were measured. Despite no differences being observed between genotypes of bread wheat and two-row barley in terms of total grain yield and total grain number when exposed to different environments, each species had a different strategy for establishing the final yield. Although two-row barley showed initial advantages in radiation interception, bread wheat genotypes accumulated more intercepted photosynthetic active radiation (iPAR) and used it in a more efficient way than two-row barley, thus allowing a higher biomass accumulation. Both species showed a reduction in grain weight due to increases in mean night and high temperatures. Grain weight reductions were higher in bread wheat than in two-row barley, and were directly associated with shortening of the duration of grain filling without consequences for the grain-filling rate. This suggested a direct effect of temperature on grain development rather than a growth limitation due to a lack of source. Fil: Alvarez Prado, Santiago. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Producción Vegetal. Cátedra de Cerealicultura; Argentina Fil: Gallardo, Jose M.. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Producción Vegetal. Cátedra de Cerealicultura; Argentina Fil: Kruk, Betina Claudia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Producción Vegetal. Cátedra de Cerealicultura; Argentina Fil: Miralles, Daniel Julio. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Producción Vegetal. Cátedra de Cerealicultura; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía; Argentina

International audience; The transect is presented as a device between the section and the sensible route, hybridizing both techniques; the transect is constructed by drawing, photography, text, video, just as it is practiced in situ. Rehabilitating the atmospheric dimension in urban representations, enabling the registration of stories and discussion among disciplines, the transect can become a way of questioning and expressing the sensitive space as well as practices that articulate the analysis and design .; El transecto se presenta como un dispositivo situado entre la sección y el recorrido sensible, hibridando ambas técnicas; el transecto se construye mediante el dibujo, la fotografía, el texto, el vídeo, del mismo modo que se practica in situ. Rehabilitando la dimensión atmosférica en las representaciones urbanas, haciendo posible la inscripción de los relatos y el debate entre las disciplinas, el transecto puede convertirse en una forma de cuestionamiento y de expresión del espacio sensible así como de las prácticas que articulan el análisis y la concepción.

WOS:000389320800002; International audience; One of the first airmail services in the world, the Aeropostale, was located at the Montaudran airport of Toulouse, France. This landmark and its surroundings will be refurbished in the years to come and will be transformed into a mixed-use development, the Aerospace Campus, with residential buildings, and commercial, sports, educational and cultural facilities. This new district has been planned mostly on the basis of heritage and functional rules. The UCI project (from "Urban Cool Islands") is a French national research project that discusses procedures aiming at incorporating a set of reasoned measures for local climate adaptation into this new urban area that will be set as a landmark development. This research aims to analyse and compare various suitable, resilient urban design strategies to provide support for their application in the Montaudran district, focusing on mitigating urban heat island effects in summer conditions. Three main methodological steps were undertaken: (1) the initial urban plan was assessed relative to a set of well-known urban morphology parameters and a microclimate analysis; (2) a set of urban design variations was established based on important microclimate adaptation measures as well as on the constraints and opportunities of the original plan; (3) the microclimate was modelled and the thermal comfort of pedestrians analysed. Results pointed out the major influence of water and green features on the mitigation of urban heat islands, notably in daytime. Besides creating an important urban cool island for pedestrians, the results showed great opportunities for supporting decision makers on specific integrated actions towards a truly sustainable neighbourhood. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This research explores the emerging conditions and the successful scholastic results of those covered by the Protection for Children, through an approach grouping social and relational position and dynamics, and individual mobilisation. It took place in two sectors of the social action in the Ain department and concerned two phases of field work. The first one, quantitative, was achieved with a questionnaire for adults (the welcoming committee, social workers and teachers) in charge of the 229 youths in these 2 zones and consisted of a recording of facts relevant to their experience of placement, scholarity, specifications and their possible links or ties with their birth family. The second one, qualitative, resulted from meetings with those who appeared to be in academic achievement through the questionnaires (N=83). Thus, we were able to record interviews with 39 adolescents combined with those of 7 adults, themselves "ex-children of the Ddass". The contents of these meetings were analysed using the Chartier Method (a code of information units), in addition to an extensive amount of literal work about the used strategies. The results of the quantitative analysis confirm the traditional foundations of scholastic adaptation and, in particular, the socio-cultural impact of the family. In addition, it brings out the resources which the adolescents specifically use in their unexpected course as well as the anchorages and supports they may experience. These meetings allow us to define both these opportunities. Moreover, this shows in a particularly specific way the personality of the adolescent with successful scholastic results, shown by a strong determination, an increased maturity, an aptitude for positive thinking about his/her life, with a confident outlook to the future, the role of the close environment, looked after by a certain number of influential figures and the ability to distant himself/herself from events or people likely to hinder his/her progress. These specific features shape and form processes and experiences of resilience, where certain weaknesses are present - their motivations are varied, not all results are excellent as their past regularly reappears in their lives - but which above all bring into play learning and knowledge as sources of perspectives and as mediators to express and realise their reconstruction.; Cette recherche explore les conditions d’émergence et d’exercice de la réussite scolaire chez des jeunes relevant de la Protection de l’enfance, au travers d’une approche conjuguant positionnement et dynamique sociaux et relationnels et mobilisation individuelle. Elle a été réalisée, à partir de 2009, sur deux circonscriptions d’action sociale du département de l’Ain et alimentée par deux phases de travail de terrain. La première, quantitative, a été réalisée par questionnaire auprès des adultes (accueillants, travailleurs sociaux référents, enseignants) en charge des 229 jeunes confiés de ces deux zones et a consisté en un recueil de données relatif à leur parcours de placement, leur scolarité, leurs spécificités, leurs liens avec leur famille d’origine. La seconde, qualitative, a pris la forme d’entretiens auprès de ceux que l’exploitation des questionnaires avait permis d’identifier comme étant en réussite scolaire (N=83). Ont ainsi été recueillis 39 entretiens d’adolescents, auxquels ont été adjoints 7 apports d’adultes, « ex-enfants de la Ddass ». Le contenu de ces entretiens a été traité par la méthode Chartier (codage des unités d’informations), complétée d’un travail littéral approfondi autour des stratégies mises en œuvre. Les résultats des analyses quantitatives confirment les soubassements traditionnels de l’adaptation scolaire et, en particulier, l’impact socio-culturel du milieu familial. Ils mettent, de plus, en évidence les ressources que ces jeunes déploient spécifiquement, dans leur parcours inattendu, ainsi que les ancrages et étayages qu’ils expérimentent. Les entretiens permettent d’affiner ces deux atouts. Apparaissent ainsi particulièrement discriminants au regard de la réussite scolaire la personnalité du jeune, marquée par une profonde détermination, une grande maturité, une aptitude à positiver son vécu et à envisager l’avenir avec confiance, le rôle de relations de proximité, entretenues avec un certain nombre de personnes marquantes, la capacité à se distancier d’événements ou de personnes susceptibles d’entraver la progression. Ces traits dessinent des processus et des expériences de résilience, où les fragilités ne sont pas absentes - leurs motivations sont diverses, leurs résultats ne sont pas tous excellents, leur passé ressurgit régulièrement - mais où l’école et le savoir apparaissent comme espaces de perspectives et comme médiateurs à l’expression et à la réalisation de leur reconstruction.

A comprehensive polarimetric distance-dependent model of the power delay profile (PDP) and path gain is proposed. The model includes both specular multipath components (SMCs) and dense multipath components (DMC), the latter being modeled with an exponential and power law. The parameters of the model were estimated from polarimetric measurements of a large hall radio channel under line-of-sight (LOS) conditions at 1.3 GHz with a dedicated procedure. The validity and robustness of the proposed approach are provided by the good agreement between the polarimetric data and models for the investigated transmitter-receiver distance range. Furthermore, the description of the radio channel with path loss models is discussed for cases where the DMC is included, and a two-step method to compute the path loss characteristics directly from the measured data is developed. The results of this contribution highlight the fact that a complete polarimetric description of all propagation mechanisms and related path loss models is desired to design faithful polarimetric radio channel models.

International audience; Mortality of young Pacific oysters Crassostrea gigas associated with the ostreid herpesvirus 1 (OsHV-1) is occurring worldwide. Here, we examined for the first time the effect of salinity on OsHV-1 transmission and disease-related mortality of C. gigas, as well as salinity-related effects on the pathogen itself. To obtain donors for OsHV-1 transmission, we transferred laboratory-raised oysters to an estuary during a disease outbreak and then back to the laboratory. Oysters that tested OsHV-1 positive were placed in seawater tanks (35%, 21 degrees C). Water from these tanks was used to infect naive oysters in 2 experimental setups: (1) oysters acclimated or non-acclimated to a salinity of 10, 15, 25 and 35% and (2) oysters acclimated to a salinity of 25%; the latter were exposed to OsHV-1 water diluted to a salinity of 10 or 25%. The survival of oysters exposed to OsHV-1 water and acclimated to a salinity of 10% was \textgreater 95%, compared to only 43 to 73% survival in oysters acclimated to higher salinities (Expt 1), reflecting differences in the levels of OsHV-1 DNA and viral gene expression (Expts 1 and 2). However, the survival of their non-acclimated counterparts was only 23% (Expt 2), and the levels of OsHV-1 DNA and the expression of 4 viral genes were low (Expt 1). Thus, OsHV-1 may not have been the ultimate cause of mortality in non-acclimated oysters weakened by a salinity shock. It appears that reducing disease risk by means of low salinity is unlikely in the field.

International audience; Past fuel management strategies at central western patagonian environments: anthracology at el chueco 1 site (11500-2500 cal. B.P.).

International audience; Past fuel management strategies in central western Patagonia environments: anthracology at El Chueco 1 site (11500-2500 cal. B.P.)

International audience; In the field of multi-agent based simulation (MABS), the concept of environment is omnipresent, though poorly defined. We argue here that depending on the modeling of space and of relations between agents, only a few efficient implementations can be set up. We aim at formalizing the core functions of environments, so as to highlight the computational answers to possible modeling choices. This unifying approach leads to the identification of four paradigmatic Design Patterns, associated with specific atomic environments, which can be composed in order to tackle complex situations.

The authors also would like to thank Prof. T. Filleter from the NanoMechanics and Materials Laboratory, University of Toronto, for his review of the paper and his comments during the redaction process.; International audience; MoS2 is a well-known lubricant for vacuum application. However, the role of contamination in achieving low friction and long wear life in industrial applications remains unclear as the literature presents some contradictions. A former study performed in ultrahigh vacuum showed that in a sliding macro contact, the origin of low friction was primarily due to the formation of a 3rd body layer, its trapping and its ability to flow plastically inside the contact. The study showed a homogenisation of the chemical elemental composition of the material and the internal coating contaminants throughout the contact and the 3rd body. To study that homogenisation and to verify if a chemical rearrangement occurred at a molecular level under friction, Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy analyses are performed. Firstly, they show that the MoS2 coating made by Physical Vapour Deposition is not a "MoS2" but is a complex MoxSyOz structure. Secondly, they show that a chemical rearrangement of the material with the internal contaminants effectively occurs in ultrahigh vacuum and leads to the formation of a unique MoSxOy phase. Such a phase shows the beneficial role of reasonable contamination on the tribological behaviour.

International audience; Background :The increase in prevalence of asthma and atopic diseases in Western countries has been linked to aspects of microbial exposure patterns of people. It remains unclear which microbial aspects contribute to the protective farm effect. Objective :The objective of this study was to identify bacterial groups associated with prevalence of asthma and atopy, and to quantify indoor exposure to some of these bacterial groups. Methods :A DNA fingerprinting technique, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), was applied to mattress dust samples of farm children and control children in the context of the GABRIEL Advanced study. Associations between signals in DGGE and atopy, asthma and other allergic health outcomes were analyzed. Quantitative DNA based assays (qPCR) for four bacterial groups were applied on the dust samples to seek quantitative confirmation of associations indicated in DNA fingerprinting. Results :Several statistically significant associations between individual bacterial signals and also bacterial diversity in DGGE and health outcomes in children were observed. The majority of these associations showed inverse relationships with atopy, less so with asthma. Also, in a subsequent confirmation study using a quantitative method (qPCR), higher mattress levels of specifically targeted bacterial groups - Mycobacterium spp., Bifidobacteriaceae spp. and two different clusters of Clostridium spp. - were associated with a lower prevalence of atopy. Conclusion :DNA fingerprinting proved useful in identifying bacterial signals that were associated with atopy in particular. These findings were quantitatively confirmed for selected bacterial groups with a second method. High correlations between the different bacterial exposures impede a clear attribution of protective effects to one specific bacterial group. More diverse bacterial flora in mattress dust may link to microbial exposure patterns that protect against development of atopic diseases.

The research undertaken in this thesis project was to study the possible effects of differentcomponents of the architectural framework on the adaptation of adults with autism, and theclinical expression of their symptoms associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Theresearch consisted of an inventory of the main points known on the issue at this time, bothfrom a theoretical point of view (description of the concepts and literature review of existingstudies) and practical (exploratory methodology applied to the field). As our goals were toestablish specific assumptions about the impact of architectural features of the environmenton the clinical condition of people with ASD, a clinical component and an architecturalcomponent were carried out jointly to represent the inter-disciplinarity necessary to meet thecommon and complementary objectives of this research. This manuscript presents themethodology used in the clinical evaluation of adults with ASD who live in healthcare andmedico-social institutions (in France, “Foyers d’Accueil Médicalisé” and “Maison d’AccueilSpécialisée”) and the architectural characterizations protocol of the spaces/time everyday lifein these institutions. We report, in the first instance, the description of the studied populationand the characteristics of the living spaces that are dedicated to it. In a second step, we presentthe results obtained by the conceptualization of multilevel analysis models/multivariate interdisciplinaryof the collected data (N = 21 care institutions, N = 148 residents). We discuss thepossible interpretations formulated in the forms of exploratory hypotheses betweenarchitectural characterization parameters and behavioral and sensory evaluations of adultswith ASD. Finally, we discuss avenues for further research in order to refine ourunderstanding of the environmental factors that can generate and/or attenuate behavioral andsensory processing disorders observed in individuals with ASD., La recherche engagée dans ce travail de thèse se propose d’étudier les effets que peuventavoir différentes composantes du cadre architectural sur l'adaptation des personnes adultesavec autisme, et l'expression clinique des symptômes inhérents aux Troubles du SpectreAutistique (TSA). Pour ce faire, la recherche menée a consisté en un inventaire concernantcette problématique, tant d’un point de vue théorique (description des concepts abordés etrevue de littérature des études existantes) que pratique (méthodologie exploratoire appliquéeau terrain). Nos objectifs étant d’établir des hypothèses spécifiques concernant l’impact descaractéristiques architecturales de l’environnement bâti sur l’état clinique des personnesatteintes de TSA, un volet clinique et un volet architectural ont été menés conjointement afinde représenter l’inter-disciplinarité nécessaire pour répondre aux objectifs communs etcomplémentaires de cette recherche. Ce manuscrit présente la méthodologie utilisée lors del’évaluation clinique des personnes adultes atteintes de TSA qui résident et sont prises encharge au sein d’institutions sanitaires et médico-sociales (Foyers d’Accueil Médicalisés etMaison d’Accueil Spécialisée) et le protocole de caractérisations architecturales desespaces/temps de vie quotidienne de ces établissements. Nous présentons, dans un premiertemps, le descriptif de la population étudiée et les caractéristiques des lieux de vie qui leursont dédiés. Puis, nous présentons, dans un second temps, les résultats obtenus par laconceptualisation de modèles d’analyses multi-niveaux / multi-variées des données interdisciplinairesainsi recueillies (N=21 établissements/unités, N=148 résidents). Nous endiscutons les interprétations possibles formulables sous forme d’hypothèses exploratoiresentre les paramètres de caractérisations architecturales et les évaluations comportementales etsensorielles des adultes atteints de TSA. Nous présentons également les perspectives decontinuité de ce projet de recherche, tant pour les questionnements exploratoires émergents,que pour les possibilités expérimentales qu’il incite afin d’affiner notre compréhension desfacteurs environnementaux susceptibles de générer et/ou d’atténuer les troublescomportementaux et sensoriels observés chez les personnes atteintes de TSA.

Canal through time: a technological answer to socio-environmental variability in constraining environments? Application to constraining environments

Calcareous tufas are continental carbonates from open-air conditions, specific to wet and warm periods. They contain abundant remains of fauna and flora fossilised in situ and may accumulate regularly over thousands of years offering high stratigraphic resolution for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. As they are mainly comprised of calcite, tufas allow direct and precise dating as well as geochemical reconstructions of past climates. Additionally, recent investigations have highlighted their strong potential for archaeology as several studied sequences provided high quality record of in situ prehistoric levels. Tufas are thus a unique archive in continental areas for development of synergic multidisciplinary investigations of past human societies and associated environmental and climate evolution. We emphasise that calcareous tufa are key-deposits to investigate human–environment–climate interactions during interglacial periods, from Lower Palaeolithic to Antiquity, in Europe.

International audience; In the field of multi-agent systems, the concept of environment is omnipresent, though poorly defined. We argue here that depending on the modeling of space and of relations between agents, only a few efficient implementations can be set up, especially in simulation. The aim of this article is to formalize the core functions of environments, so as to highlight several possible implementations and their computational features (runtime efficiency, relevance of the knowledge representation, memory usage...). This unifying approach leads to the identification of elementary environments patterns. Thus, instead of the usual monolithic approach to "the environment" of a multi-agent system, we propose a decomposition based on these patterns, which allows to handle several environments if needed.; Dans le domaine des systèmes multi-agents la notion d'environnement est omniprésente, quoique fort mal définie. Nous défendons ici l'idée que la façon dont on modélise l'espace ou les relations entre agents dans un SMA, notamment en simulation, conduit pour leur implémentation à la mise en œuvre d'un nombre réduit de solutions efficaces. Cet article a pour objectif de formaliser les fonctions fondamentales de l'environnement et de recenser différentes familles d'implémentations possibles, selon les objectifs visés (efficacité d'exécution, pertinence de la représentation des connaissances, gain mémoire...). Cette démarche unificatrice permet d'identifier des patterns d'environnements élémentaires : dès lors, en lieu et place de l'approche monolithique habituelle de "l'environnement" d'un SMA, nous prônons une décomposition sur la base de ces patterns permettant de combiner plusieurs environnements.

International audience; Anthracology as means for assessing human-environment relation at the extreme environments during the Holocene: the case of the hunters-gatherers at central western Patagonia

This paper presents experimental results and a successful model for zinc removal from Acid Rock Drainage by adsorption on clinoptilolite. The experiments were conducted in a slurry bubble column of 0.09 m inner diameter and 1.4 m height, loaded with 100 g of clinoptilolite particles of diameter 0.3-1.4 mm/kg liquid. Aqueous zinc ion concentrations were determined before and during the adsorption tests. Zeolite was then regenerated by a sodium chloride solution, whose zinc concentration was determined against time. The Langmuir isotherm model was fitted to the experimental results under batch conditions to characterize the adsorption capacity of the solid surfaces. A global kinetic model with mass transfer to the particles and uptake on adsorption sites facilitates interpretation of the ARD slurry bubble column adsorption-desorption results. Due to air injection, perfect mixing could be assumed. The effect of particle size on the forward rate constant k(f) of the adsorption process is important. The model is also applied to the sorbent regeneration by zinc desorption to provide a complete description. Consistent with the model, external mass transfer is not rate-limiting in this adsorption-desorption process. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The aim of this study is to describe the environments where the cercopithecid Mesopithecus was found during latest Miocene in Europe. For this purpose, we investigate the paleoecology of the herbivorous ungulate mesofauna of three very rich late Miocene fossil localities from southwestern Bulgaria: Hadjidimovo, Kalimantsi and Strumyani. While Mesopithecus has been found in the two first localities, no primate remains have yet been identified in Strumyani. Comparison between localities with and without primates using the herbivore mesofauna allows the cross-corroboration of paleoenvironmental conditions where this primate did and did not live. A multi-parameter statistical approach involving 117 equid and 345 bovid fossil dental and postcranial (phalanges, metapodia, astragali) remains from these three localities provides species to generic-level diet and locomotor habit information in order to characterize the environment in which Mesopithecus evolved. The analysis of dental mesowear indicates that the bovids were mainly mixed feeders, while coeval equids were more engaged in grazing. Meanwhile, postcranial remains show that the ungulate species from Hadjidimovo and Kalimantsi evolved in dry environments with a continuum of habitats ranging from slightly wooded areas to relatively open landscapes, whereas the Mesopithecus-free Strumyani locality was in comparison reflecting a rather contrasted mosaic of environments with predominant open and some more closed and wet areas. Environments in which Mesopithecus is known during the late Miocene were not contrasted landscapes combining open grassy areas and dense forested patches, but instead rather restricted to slightly wooded and homogeneous landscapes including a developed grassy herbaceous layer.

explicit eco-evolutionary model of multi-species responses to climate change. We demonstrate that both dispersal and evolution differentially mediate extinction risks and biodiversity alterations through time and across climate gradients. Together, high genetic variance and low dispersal best minimized extinction risks. Surprisingly, high dispersal did not reduceextinctions,becausetheshiftingrangesofsomespecies hastened the decline of others. Evolutionary responses dominated during the later stages of climatic changes and in hot regions. No extinctions occurred without competition, which highlights the importance of including species interactions in global biodiversity models. Most notably, climate change createdextinctionandevolutionarydebts,withchangesinspecies richness and traits occurring long after climate stabilization. Therefore, even if we halt anthropogenic climate change today, transient eco-evolutionary dynamics would ensure centuries of additionalalterationsinglobalbiodiversity. Mostmodelsofspecies’responsestoclimatechangeexplorehow dispersal alone affects communities through shifting geographic ranges and ignore species interactions and evolutionary adaptation. However, species interactions often influence responses to climate 6 and climate-related traits can evolve rapidly 7,8 . Adaptation to new climates could moderate the direst predictions of biodiversity loss 9 whereas species interactions could enhance or diminish extinction risks depending on interaction type 10,11 . The available data do not yet permit the incorporation of these processes into quantitative estimates of extinction risk, but given the massive effort required to collect such data, a critical need exists for new theory to identify circumstances under which different processes may be particularly influential. Here we evaluate how ecological and evolutionary processes will interact in mediating species responses to climate change. To persist despite climate change, species need to disperse rapidly enough to track moving climate conditions, adapt to local conditions, or respond through plasticity 12 . These mechanisms interact with each other and with community dynamics through

Multi-agent systems (MASs) can be used to model phenomena that can be decomposed into several interacting agents which exist within an environment. In particular, they can be used to model human and animal societies, for the purpose of analysing their properties by computational means. This thesis is concerned with the automated analysis of a particular kind of such social models, namely, those based on behaviourist principles, which contrasts with the more dominant cognitive approaches found in the MAS literature. The hallmark of behaviourist theories is the emphasis on the definition of behaviour in terms of the interaction between agents and their environment. In this manner, not merely reflexive actions, but also learning, drives, and emotions can be defined. More specifically, in this thesis we introduce a formal agent architecture (specified with the Z Notation) based on the Behaviour Analysis theory of B. F. Skinner, and provide a suitable formal notion of environment (based on the pi-calculus process algebra) to bring such agents together as a MAS. Simulation is often used to analyse MASs. The techniques involved typically consist in implementing and then simulating a MAS several times to either collect statistics or see what happens through animation. However, simulations can be used in a more verification-oriented manner if one considers that they are actually explorations of large state-spaces. In this thesis we propose a novel verification technique based on this insight, which consists in simulating a MAS in a guided way in order to check whether some hypothesis about it holds or not. To this end, we leverage the prominent position that environments have in the MASs of this thesis: the formal specification of the environment of a MAS serves to compute the possible evolutions of the MAS as a transition system, thereby establishing the state-space to be investigated. In this computation, agents are taken into account by being simulated in order to determine, at each environmental state, what their actions are. Each simulation execution is a sequence of states in this state-space, which is computed on-the-fly, as the simulation progresses. The hypothesis to be investigated, in turn, is given as another transition system, called a simulation purpose, which defines the desirable and undesirable simulations (e.g., "every time the agent does X, it will do Y later"). It is then possible to check whether the MAS satisfies the simulation purpose according to a number of precisely defined notions of satisfiability. Algorithmically, this corresponds to building a synchronous product of these two transitions systems (i.e., the MAS's and the simulation purpose) on-the-fly and using it to operate a simulator. That is to say, the simulation purpose is used to guide the simulator, so that only the relevant states are actually simulated. By the end of such an algorithm, it delivers either a conclusive or inconclusive verdict. If conclusive, it becomes known whether the MAS satisfies the simulation purpose w.r.t. the observations made during simulations. If inconclusive, it is possible to perform some adjustments and try again.In summary, then, in this thesis we provide four novel elements: (i) an agent architecture; (ii) a formal specification of the environment of these agents, so that they can be composed into a MAS; (iii) a structure to describe the property of interest, which we named simulation purpose; and (iv) a technique to formally analyse the resulting MAS with respect to a simulation purpose. These elements are implemented in a tool, called Formally Guided Simulator (FGS). Case studies executable in FGS are provided to illustrate the approach.; Les systèmes multi-agents (SMA) peuvent être utilisé pour modéliser les phénomènes qui peuvent être décomposés en agents qui interagissent et qui existent au sein d'un environnement. Ils peuvent être utilisés pour modéliser les sociétés humaines et animales, aux fins de l'analyse de leurs propriétés par des moyens de calcul. Cette thèse est consacrée à l'analyse automatisée d'un type particulier de ces modèles sociaux, celles qui sont fondées sur les principes comportementalistes, qui contrastent avec les approches cognitives plus dominantes dans la littérature des SMAs. La caractéristique des théories comportementalistes est l'accent mis sur la définition des comportements basée sur l'interaction entre les agents et leur environnement. Non seulement des actions réflexives, mais aussi d'apprentissage, les motivations, et les émotions peuvent être définies. Nous introduisons une architecture formelle d'agent basée sur la théorie d'analyse comportementale de B. F. Skinner, ainsi que une notion appropriée et formelle de l'environnement pour mettre ces agents ensemble dans un SMA. La simulation est souvent utilisée pour analyser les SMAs. Les techniques consistent généralement à simuler le SMA plusieurs fois, soit pour recueillir des statistiques, soit pour voir ce qui se passe à travers l'animation. Toutefois, les simulations peuvent être utilisées d'une manière plus orientée vers la vérification si on considère qu'elles sont en réalité des explorations de grandes espaces d'états. Nous proposons une technique de vérification nouvelle basé sur cette idée, qui consiste à simuler un SMA de manière guidée, afin de vérifier si quelques hypothèses sur lui sont confirmées ou non. À cette fin, nous tirons profit de la position privilégiée que les environnements sont dans les SMAs de cette thèse: la spécification formelle de l'environnement d'un SMA sert à calculer les évolutions possibles du SMA comme un système de transition, établissant ainsi l'espace d'états à vérifier. Dans ce calcul, les agents sont pris en compte en les simulant afin de déterminer, à chaque état de l'environnement, quelles sont leurs actions. Chaque exécution de la simulation est une séquence d'états dans cet espace d'états, qui est calculée à la volée, au fur et à mesure que la simulation progresse. L'hypothèse à étudier, à son tour, est donnée comme un autre système de transition, appelé objectif de simulation, qui définit les simulations désirables et indésirables. Il est alors possible de vérifier si le SMA est conforme à l'objectif de simulation selon un certain nombre de notions de satisfiabilité très précises. Algorithmiquement, cela correspond à la construction d'un produit synchrone de ces deux systèmes de transitions (i.e., celui du SMA et l'objectif de simulation) à la volée et à l'utiliser pour faire fonctionner un simulateur. C'est-à-dire, l'objectif de simulation est utilisé pour guider le simulateur, de sorte que seuls les états concernés sont en réalité simulés. À la fin d'un tel algorithme, il délivre un verdict concluant ou non concluant. Si c'est concluant, il est connu que le SMA est conforme à l'objectif de simulation par rapport aux observations qui ont été faites lors des simulations. Si c'est non-concluant, il est possible d'effectuer quelques ajustements et essayer à nouveau. En résumé, dans cette thèse nous fournissons quatre nouveaux éléments: (i) une architecture d'agent; (ii) une spécification formelle de l'environnement de ces agents, afin qu'ils puissent être composés comme un SMA; (iii) une structure pour décrire les propriétés d'intérêt, que nous avons nommée objectif de simulation, et (iv) une technique pour l'analyse formelle du SMA résultant par rapport à un objectif de simulation. Ces éléments sont mis en œuvre dans un outil, appelé Simulateur Formellement Guidé (FGS, de l'anglais Formally Guided Simulator).Des études de cas exécutables dans FGS sont fournies pour illustrer l'approche.

SSCI+PDE; International audience; A surface treatment to modify passive film properties formed on 316L stainless steel has been designed for bipolar plate application in PEMFC systems. This one is based on cerium insertion from electrochemical technique. The effect of this element addition on the composition of the passive films was evaluated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and low energy ion spectroscopy (LEIS). Potentiodynamic and potentiostatic curves, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used for the characterisation of the corrosion protection in simulated PEMFC media. Interfacial contact resistance (ICR) was also evaluated. Results highlight an increase of the polarisation resistance of the cerium treated sample at ambient temperature, and a good corrosion resistance in anodic and cathodic simulated media. An important diminution of the IRC is obtained (80% with respect to the reference), which is attributed to the enhancement of the passive layer conductivity of the processed sample. Surface analyses show a great enrichment of cerium in first atomic layers of the films, which explains the better conductivity observed by an increase of charge carrier density in the passive film.

[Departement_IRSTEA]Eaux [TR1_IRSTEA]QUASARE; International audience; Numerous models have been designed to understand how dispersal ability evolves when organisms live in a fragmented landscape. Most of them predict a single dispersal rate at evolutionary equilibrium, and when diversification of dispersal rates has been predicted, it occurs as a response to perturbation or environmental fluctuation regimes. Yet abundant variation in dispersal ability is observed in natural populations and communities, even in relatively stable environments. We show that this diversification can operate in a simple island model without temporal variability: disruptive selection on dispersal occurs when the environment consists of many small and few large patches, a common feature in natural spatial systems. This heterogeneity in patch size results in a high variability in the number of related patch mates by individual, which, in turn, triggers disruptive selection through a high per capita variance of inclusive fitness. Our study provides a likely, parsimonious and testable explanation for the diversity of dispersal rates encountered in nature. It also suggests that biological conservation policies aiming at preserving ecological communities should strive to keep the distribution of patch size sufficiently asymmetric and variable.

International audience; The increasing breadth and complexity of information about product features available in the marketplace, especially online, has increased the difficulty of many purchase decisions. In order to assist consumers with these decisions, many websites provide electronic recommendation agents that ask users questions about individual factors and their preferences for product attributes and then rate and rank order the available products on the basis of their responses. In an era in which consumers often feel overwhelmed by the complexity of choice, previous research has hailed electronic recommendation agents as coming to the rescue by offering a quick and efficient means for consumers to form their consideration sets. However, in this article we report the results of an experiment in which use of an electronic recommendation agent negatively impacted participants' choice satisfaction, attitudes, and purchase intentions over a period of between one and two weeks. The data support our hypothesis that use of an electronic recommendation agent leads consumers to overweight utilitarian product attributes and underweight peripheral and trivial hedonic attributes in choice.

International audience; Model Driven Engineering has shown the feasibility to generate tools (editors, analyzers ...) from models and for a domain. Unfortunately these generated tools are much focused while a large application spans different domains and different activities; currently these tools do not support concurrent engineering, and incomplete life cycle support. In a similar way we developed a technology capable of generating a complete Computer Aided Domain Specific Environment (CADSE) from a set of model and metamodels describing the specific domain and the environment behavior. Our technology solves the above two problems, allowing defining a number of CADSE addressing specific activities, as extensions and adaptation of a core CADSE; and relying on workspaces. CADSEs workspaces are model driven; they contain tools, models and usual artifacts (code, documents...); they support different activities by switching from an activity to another one, and concurrent engineering is supported through import/commit applied to models, metamodels and artifacts.

RA2007ACL09-RIV; International audience; Salmonella is a well-documented pathogen known to occur in a wide range of foods, especially poultry products. The most frequently reported food-sources of human infection are eggs and egg products. In this study, in order to describe Salmonella contamination of egg products, 144 liquid egg samples were collected from 3 different egg-breaking plants during the 3 sampling periods. Salmonella detection was performed on raw samples stored at 2 degrees C for 2 days (D+2) and on pasteurised samples stored at 2 degrees C at D+2 and at shelf-life date. Salmonella was detected in 130 of the 144 raw egg samples collected and in 11 of the 288 pasteurised egg samples analysed. 740 Salmonella isolates were collected and serotyped: 14 serovars were demonstrated. A great diversity, particularly during summer, was noted. The dominant serovars were S. Enteritidis, S. Typhimurium and S. Infantis, mainly found in whole raw egg products. Typing of 325 isolates of S. Enteritidis, 54 isolates of S. Typhimurium and 58 isolates of S. Infantis was carried out by macrorestriction of the genomic DNA with XbaI and SpeI enzymes followed by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The Salmonella Enteritidis isolates could be grouped into 3 clusters. Cluster 1 was predominant at all 3 egg-breaking companies during the different sampling periods. This cluster seemed to be adapted to the egg-breaking plants. Cluster 2 was linked to plant 1 and cluster 3 to plant 3. Two main clusters of Salmonella Typhimurium were demonstrated. Cluster A was mainly found at plant 2 during autumn. Plant 3 was contaminated by all the Salmonella Typhimurium genotypes but in a more sporadic manner during the three seasons studied. Plant 1 seemed to be less contaminated by Salmonella Typhimurium than the others. Three clusters and 2 genotypes of Salmonella Infantis were shown. The main cluster, cluster alpha, consisted of 75% of the S. Infantis isolates and was mainly found during summer at plants 1 and 3. Plant 2 seemed to be less contaminated by S. Infantis. In this study, molecular typing demonstrated that, although certain clusters were common to all three companies, specific clusters, notably of S. Enteritidis were present at each plant.

International audience; Expression of plant resistance to diseases varies according to the prevalent pathotypes and climatic conditions at different locations. This variability in partial resistance expression across locations must be known to elucidate the disease status of crop plants in field conditions. We report on the field assessment of partial resistance in wheat to yellow rust, studied at six locations in 37 wheat varieties along with the susceptible control 'Morocco' during the yellow rust season of 2007. The high disease severity of 'Morocco' revealed considerable disease pressure at all locations. The field resistance of these varieties varied across locations, with no variety being immune at all locations. Based on the average coefficients of infection, representing overall partial resistance expression, the tested varieties were grouped into high (27 varieties), moderate (9 varieties) and low levels of partial resistance (one variety). Stability in the expression of leaf tip necrosis, a marker of partial resistance to yellow rust, was recorded for the varieties Suleman-96 and Sindh-81. Kohsar-93, Bakhtawar-93, Saleem-2000, Fakhre-Sarhad, Tatara, Frontana and Karwan had an overall good level of partial field resistance across the locations. There was also considerable variation in the expression of partial resistance to yellow rust resistance across the locations.

International audience; 1. Reproductive biomass (RB) is a key component of plant life history. Because RB is allometric, it remains unclear whether the observed variations of RB in response to land use are driven only by a size dependency effect or if the partitioning of plant biomass may also shift independently of plant size. This question has not been addressed for all the main component species of a given plant community. 2. Here, we report the results of a 3-year experimental study conducted in Tibetan alpine grass-lands. The above- ground vegetative biomass (VB) and the RB of 32 species were measured during 2 years in control, grazed and fertilized plots. We estimated the allometric slope and intercept for 301 VB-RB bivariates, using type II regression analyses in order to disentangle size-dependent and size-independent effects of treatment on RB. 3. Our results indicate significant changes in the VB-RB allometric slope for 26 out of 102 cases in grazed plots, and 16 out of 88 cases in fertilized plots. Moreover, in cases where slopes were not affected by treatment, a significant change in the allometric intercept was found in 50% of the models. For these cases, intercepts which are indicative of the biomass invested in reproductive parts for a given VB - generally increased in grazed plots and decreased in fertilized plots. 4. Grazing and fertilization triggered a significant decreases or increases in the plant size for species, especially graminoids. However, we found no relationship between changes in allometric coefficients and magnitude of the biomass response. 5. At the interspecific level, the intercept, but not the slope, of the allometric VB-RB relationships was significantly affected by land use. Graminoids and forbs responded similarly to treatment. 6. Synthesis. We conclude that (i) size-dependent effects did not explain all the changes observed in RB following grazing and fertilization in alpine grasslands, and that (ii) changes in allometric intercept explained most of the size-independent variations both at the intra- and interspecific level. We discuss why size-independent changes in RB could be important for plant performance in changing environments.

International audience; As now very few studies have been carried out on deep-sea marine fungi, this field remains relatively unknown. However, their presence inside benthic microbial eukaryotes at deep-sea vents was recently pointed out from molecular microbial ecology studies. We report here an attempt to describe the culturable part of mycological communities in deepsea vent ecosystems that is an important step in understanding their diversity, abundance and function. Physiological characterization revealed strains that are more or less adapted to deep-sea conditions. Those results suggest the presence of true marine organisms and other more ubiquitous. Phylogenetical characterization highly correlated to physiological data revealed the presence of fungi that have been previously described and unknown ones until now, belonging to new taxonomic groups. This survey encourages for further work in order to complete descriptions and also to describe the ecological role of these organisms in such extreme environments.

International audience; The Brittany region corresponds to the largest peninsula of France, including hundreds of isles and small islands. Almost all of these islands contain remains of ancient human occupation dating from Prehistoric times and historical periods: megalithic monuments, Neolithic and Metal Ages settlements, Stone Age tool deposits, pre-Roman salt production workshops, early Christian hermitages and chapels, fish traps built at various periods, and so on. This paper aims to present a collaborative research project dedicated to island archaeological research in Western France. The geographical, cultural and historical background throws light on the genesis and development of the collaborative research carried out over the past two decades by the AMARAI Association 1 ; the objectives, methods, content and main results of the research projects are summarised, along with a short presentation of the plans and prospects that aim at opening up new perspectives on coastal and island archaeology in Western France.

International audience; Ambrosia artemisiifolia (Asteraceae) is an invasive annual plant introduced from North America to Europe over 100 years ago. This plant species is now widespread in numerous countries all over the world, causing damages to agricultural crops and human health. Ambrosia artemisiifolia is spreading as a weed in many field crops but is also able to invade a wide range of areas such as various human disturbed habitats or riverbanks (Figure 1). A considerable variability of the life history traits of A. artemisiifolia was previously observed among and within different populations (Fumanal et al., 2007). Since the success of colonization of some invasive plant species may result from their high phenotypic plasticity (Hassel et al., 2005), we addressed some specific questions : 1) are the invasive populations of A. artemisiifolia introduced in France locally adapted to their habitats or are they highly plastic according to their life history traits? 2) do detectable genotype*environment interactions exist? and 3) do their capacity of response to contrasted environments explain their invasive success?

Environmental and economical constraints in Europe will favour low nitrogen (N) input systems and wheat varieties adapted to moderate N deficiency. In this context, we studied the dynamics of genetic parameters according to N stress intensity and characterized the genetic determinants for plant tolerance to N deficiency. Thus, we combined N stress modelling with a genetic approach. Two hundred and twenty-two doubled haploid lines were experimented in the field for a range of nitrogen conditions. Those conditions were characterized by the Nitrogen Nutrition Index (NNI) of Recital. Grain Yield (GY) and Kernel Number (KN) were assessed. For GY and KN, and for each line, factorial regressions using NNI of Recital as environmental index were performed. In addition, we assessed the sensitivity to N stress (slopes of the regression) and the performances under low N conditions (predicted values for a NNI of 0.5). QTL detection was performed on these parameters as well as on KN and GY measured in each environment. G x N variance increased with N stress intensity whereas heritability and genetic variance decreased. 11 QTL regions were detected: 3 were N supply-specific QTL (on linkage groups 2A2, 3A and 4B) while 4 contained QTL detected under N+ and under N- (2D1, 4B and 5A1). Out of these four, 2 coincided with QTL for factorial regression parameters (2D1 and 4B). Finally, 4 QTL were specific for factorial regression parameters (3B, 5A2 and 7B2). The role of genes commonly used in breeding programs (rht-B1 on 4B, and Ppd1 on 2D1) in plant adaptation to nitrogen constraint was highlighted. Future studies should focus on grain protein yield, another target for low-N breeding scheme.

Mouquet, N., Miller, T. E., Daufresne, T. and Kneitel, J. M. 2006. Consequencesof varying regional heterogeneity in source sink metacommunities. Oikos 113:481 488.Although the influence of dispersal on coexistence mechanisms in metacommunitieshas received great emphasis, few studies have addressed how such influence is affectedvarying regional heterogeneity. We present a mechanistic model of resourcecompetition in a metacommunity based on classical models of plant competition forlimiting resources. We defined regional heterogeneity as the differences in resourcesupply rates (or resource availabilities) across local communities. As suggested byprevious work, the highest diversify occurred at intermediate levels of dispersal amonglocal communities. However our model shows how the effects of dispersal depend onthe amount of heterogeneity among local communities and vice versa. Both regionaland local species richness were the highest when heterogeneity was intermediate. Wesuggest that empirical studies that found no evidence for source sink or mass effects atthe community level may have examined communities with limited ranges of dispersaland regional heterogeneity. This model of species coexistence contributes to a broaderunderstanding of patterns in real communities.N. Mouquet, UMR 5554, ISEM, Univ. Montpellier II, Place Euge`ne Bataillon, CC 065,FR-34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France (nmouquet@univ-montp2.fr). T. E. Miller,Dept of Biological Science, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL 32306-1100, USA. T.Daufresne, Dept of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ08544, USA. Present address: INRA Centre d’Etude de la Faune Sauvage, Chemin deBorde 16, Rouge-Auzeville, FR-31326 Castanet-Tolosan, France. J. M. Kneitel,Washington Univ., Campus Box 1137, St. Louis, MO 63130. Present address: Dept ofBiological Sciences, California State Univ., 6000 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95819-6077,USA.

International audience; A high-resolution palynological study has been performed on late Miocene (Messinian) and early Pliocene (Zanclean) sediments cored at DSDP Site 380A (Leg 42B). A late Miocene coastal vegetation has been identified in association with a delta environment. The Pliocene is characterised by competition between the two most important vegetation components, namely humid thermophilous forests and dry steppes, with changes driven by large amplitude climatic variations. These variations are linked to other European reference pollen records and to the global temperature evolution for the early Pliocene, and result in climatostratigraphic relationships at large geographic scale. An orbital tuning is proposed with respect to new data clarifying time control on the section. The Black Sea appears to have dried up in response to the Messinian salinity crisis in the Mediterranean with which it might have been connected during periods of high sea level.

International audience; We studied a population of the alpine newt, Triturus alpestris, living at the upper limit of its altitudinal range (2200 m in the northwestern Alps) during the aquatic activity period. Age was estimated by skeletochronology applied to phalanges and body size was measured. Age structures were similar between sexes, with age at maturity at 9-11 years and longevity up to 20 years. Annual survival was 0.81. Females were significantly larger than males. Growth, modelled according to van Bertalanffy's growth model, was higher in females during the juvenile period. A comparative analysis of age and size at maturity, mean size, and longevity in several European populations distributed from sea level to high altitudes shows a significant increase in these phenotypic variables with the decrease of the duration of the activity period. The growth coefficient IC indicating the shape of the curve, is smaller in highland than in lowland populations, and the asymptotic size is smaller in the plain than at higher altitude. If adult size increases with altitude, age at maturity is extensively delayed in short activity period environments. The discussion is focussed on the patterns of variation of these traits. However, age and size of newts can also depend on traits of the previous stages of the life cycle, and larval stages in response to environmentalgradients.

The revision of classic stratigraphie sections of the Mamora region (Northwestern Morocco) and the study of new exposures located in the same area show that the first two continental stages of the Moroccan Quaternary are incorrectly identified and that the terms of «Moulouyan» and «Saletian» must be rejected. Deposits used for their definition are in fact in situ Pliocene sediments which are weathered ( = »Moulouyan») and locally ferruginised ( = »Saletian>>). In contrast, the upper part of the «Mamora Formation», consisting of colluvial and eolian deposits, is of Pleistocene age and has recorded several morpho-pedological events. Two main stratigraphie units can be distinguished: 1) a sheet of light brown eolian sands («sables beiges» of the terminology) dated between 28 and 10 Ky, and 2) a sedimentary complex of streaked red sands and clays. This last unit can be approximately dated between the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene and the upper part of the last climatic cycle., La révision des coupes-types et l'étude de nouvelles stratigraphies de la «Formation de la Mamora» (Maroc nord occidental) nous conduisent à rejeter l'existence du néo-stratotype du Moulouyen et du stratotype de Salétien, considérés comme les deux premiers étages continentaux du Quaternaire marocain. En effet, les dépôts ayant servi à leur définition correspondent en grande partie à des altérites non remaniées, pédogénisées (Moulouyen) et localement ferruginisées (Salétien) de formations pliocenes. En revanche, la partie supérieure de cette formation, constituée de dépôts colluviaux et éoliens, a enregistré toute une série d'événements morpho-pédo-sédimentaires pléistocenes. Deux unités principales peuvent y être distinguées: des sables beiges de couverture, d'origine éolienne et datés de 28 à 10 Ka; un complexe de sables et argiles rouges panachés dont l'âge peut aller du début du Pléistocene moyen à la partie supérieure du dernier cycle climatique., Texier Jean Pierre, Lefèvre David, Raynal Jean Paul. La Formation de la Mamora. Le point sur la question du Moulouyen et du Salétien du Maroc Nord-Occidental . In: Quaternaire, vol. 3, n°2, 1992. pp. 63-73.