Cardiovascular risk under electromagnetic exposure in physiotherapy

The aim of the study was to assess the long-term effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) on cardiovascular system of medical staff in physiotherapy. A number of 52 exposed subjects (4 male and 48 female; aged 47.3 ± 8.7 years), and a control group of 52 subjects, matched by sex and age, with similar job characteristics without EMR exposure were studied. The EMR exposure from devices emitting at 50 Hz, 150 kHz, 27.12 MHz, 2.45 GHz, and optical radiation was assessed. The relative values of EMR for the whole frequency range in each physiotherapy were calculated and the obtained quota was much larger than 1. The workload and psychosocial factors were evaluated, too. The cardiovascular risk factors arterial pressure, lipid profile, body mass index, waist/hip ratio, smoking, alcohol consumption, nutrition, family history of cardiovascular disease were studied. The incidence of hypertension was moderate with the studied physiotherapists (26.9% v.s. 23.8% control group). The total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were significantly higher in the exposed group. The odds ratios indicate higher possibility of becoming dyslipidemic for the exposed to EMR subjects [for TC OR (95% CI) = 1.570 (1.048–2.351) and for LDL-C OR (95% CI) = 1.840 (1.158–2.924)]. In conclusion, our data show that the EMR exposure of the medical staff in physiotherapy could be associated with the adverse effects on cardiovascular system.     

Degradation of 14C-glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) in three agricultural soils

Glyphosate (N-phosphonomethyl glycine) is the most used herbicide worldwide. The degradation of 14C-labeled glyphosate was studied under controlled laboratory conditions in three di erent agricultural soils: a silt clay loam, a clay loam and a sandy loam soil. The kinetic and intensity of glyphosate degradation varied considerably over time within the same soil and among di erent types of soil. Our results demonstrated that the mineralization rate of glyphosate was high at the beginning of incubation and then decreased with time until the end of the experiment. The same kinetic was observed for the water extractable residues. The degradation of glyphosate was rapid in the soil with low adsorption capacity (clay loam soil) with a short half-life of 4 days. However, the persistence of glyphosate in high adsorption capacity soils increased, with half-live of 19 days for silt clay loam soil and 14.5 days for sandy loam soil. HPLC analyses showed that the main metabolite of glyphosate, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) was detected after three days of incubation in the extracts of all three soils. Our results suggested that the possibility of contamination of groundwater by glyphosate was high on a long-term period in soils with high adsorption capacity and low degrading activities and/or acid similar to sandy loam soil. This risk might be faster but less sustainable in soil with low adsorption capacity and high degrading activity like the clay loam soil. However, the release of non-extractable residues may increase the risk of contamination of groundwater regardless of the type of soil.     

Geometric morphometrics as a tool for improving the comparative study of behavioural postures

Describing postures has always been a central concern when studying behaviour. However, attempts to compare postures objectively at phylogenetical, populational, inter- or intra-individual levels generally either rely upon a few key elements or remain highly subjective. Here, we propose a novel approach, based on well-established geometric morphometrics, to describe and to analyse postures globally (i.e. considering the animal’s body posture in its entirety rather than focusing only on a few salient elements, such as head or tail position). Geometric morphometrics is concerned with describing and comparing variation and changes in the form (size and shape) of organisms using the coordinates of a series of homologous landmarks (i.e. positioned in relation to skeletal or muscular cues that are the same for different species for every variety of form and function and that have derived from a common ancestor, i.e. they have a common evolutionary ancestry, e.g. neck, wings, flipper/hand). We applied this approach to horses, using global postures (1) to characterise behaviours that correspond to different arousal levels, (2) to test potential impact of environmental changes on postures. Our application of geometric morphometrics to horse postures showed that this method can be used to characterise behavioural categories, to evaluate the impact of environmental factors (here human actions) and to compare individuals and groups. Beyond its application to horses, this promising approach could be applied to all questions involving the analysis of postures (evolution of displays, expression of emotions, stress and welfare, behavioural repertoires…) and could lead to a whole new line of research.     

A finite element method to solve a population dynamics stage-structured model of intertidal barnacles

Many marine organisms are fixed or highly sedentary as adults but the adult population may be strongly dependent on the oceanic transport of planktonic larvae. In order to assess interactions between oceanographic and biological processes that determine the population dynamics of marine organisms with a sessile adult phase restricted to the coastline and a planktonic larval phase, we present a stage-structured finite element model for the barnacle Balanus glandula that inhabits the rocky intertidal zone of central California, USA.     

A new technique for ordering asymmetrical three-dimensional data sets in ecology

The aim of this paper is to tackle the problem that arises from asymmetrical data cubes formed by two crossed factors fixed by the experimenter (factor A and factor B, e.g., sites and dates) and a factor which is not controlled for (the species). The entries of this cube are densities in species. We approach this kind of data by the comparison of patterns, that is to say by analyzing first the effect of factor B on the species-factor A pattern, and second the effect of factor A on the species-factor B pattern. The analysis of patterns instead of individual responses requires a correspondence analysis. We use a method we call Foucart's correspondence analysis to coordinate the correspondence analyses of several independent matrices of species x factor A (respectively B) type, corresponding to each modality of factor B (respectively A). Such coordination makes it possible to evaluate the effect of factor B (respectively A) on the species-factor A (respectively B) pattern. The results obtained by such a procedure are much more insightful than those resulting from a classical single correspondence analysis applied to the global matrix that is obtained by simply unrolling the data cube, juxtaposing for example the individual species x factor A matrices through modalities of factor B. This is because a single global correspondence analysis combines three effects of factors in a way that cannot be determined from factorial maps (factor A, factor B, and factor A x factor B interaction) whereas the applications of Foucart's correspondence analysis clearly discriminate two different issues. Using two data sets, we illustrate that this technique proves to be particularly powerful in the analyses of ecological convergence which include several distinct data sets and in the analyses of spatiotemporal variations of species distributions.     

A Mathematical Framework for Resilience: Dynamics,Uncertainties, Strategies,and Recovery Regimes

Resilience is a rehashed concept in natural hazard management—resilience of cities to earthquakes, to floods, to fire, etc. In a word, a system is said to be resilient if there exists a strategy that can drive the system state back to “normal” after any perturbation. What formal flesh can we put on such a malleable notion? We propose to frame the concept of resilience in the mathematical garbs of control theory under uncertainty. Our setting covers dynamical systems both in discrete or continuous time, deterministic or subject to uncertainties. We will say that a system state is resilient if there exists an adaptive strategy such that the generated state and control paths, contingent on uncertainties, lay within an acceptable domain of random processes, called recovery regimes. We point out how such recovery regimes can be delineated thanks to so-called risk measures, making the connection with resilience indicators. Our definition of resilience extends others, be they “à la Holling” or rooted in viability theory. Indeed, our definition of resilience is a form of controllability for whole random processes (regimes), whereas others require that the state values must belong to an acceptable subset of the state set.     

Competitive Markets for Pollution Permits: Impact on Factor Income and International Equilibrium

We are interested in the impact of pollution permits on wages and profits. We analyze important consequences of introducing a market of pollution permits. A fundamental issue concerns the initial allocation of such permits: should they be allocated freely by grandfathering or be auctioned. The international symmetric case allows us to capture the essence of the problem on income factor. We show that allocating permits to factors in proportion of their contribution to production leads to an efficient (neoclassical) distribution. Considering the international asymmetric case, we show that a permit market does not modify the competitive world equilibrium without permits when the total allocation is large enough. When it is not, if allocation of permits is not proportional to the emissions in the world without permits, there is a reduction factor of emissions that results from the equilibrium allocation of capital.