Sur un occipital néandertalien des Pradelles (Marillac-le-Franc, Charente) : étude morphométrique préliminaire

In 2001 and 2003, several occipital fragments of a single mature skull were unearthed on the site of les Pradelles (Marillac-le-Franc, Charente). The archaeological context of the deposit allowed us to provisionally assign the remains to the Neandertal taxon. A morphometric study of this piece was conducted in order to confirm its placement in this lineage. Some features observed on this specimen and commonly described among Neandertals (e.g. the presence of a suprainiac fossa) as well as dimensional data locate the les Pradelles occipital within the morphological variability of Neandertals.     

Les associations des calpionelles du Berriasien et du Valanginien inférieur de la Tunisie septentrionale. Comparaison avec les associations du Rif externe (Maroc)

The study of ten thin sections from outcrops from Lower Cretaceous deposits and several thin sections obtained from three petroleum wells, allow us to better characterize the associations of calpionellid zones and subzones of the Berriasian and Lower Valanginian in northern Tunisia. The B and C zones, respectively, show three and two levels with calpionellid associations corresponding to B1, B2, B3 and C1, C2 subzones. In the D zone, associations of the D1 and D2 subzones were identified. The E zone has been characterized for the first time in Tunisia and in southern-Tethyan margin of North Africa, on the basis of its index specie and associated species.     

Right handedness of Homo heidelbergensis from Sima de los Huesos (Atapuerca, Spain) 500,000 years ago

Handedness is a product of brain specialization, which in turn seems to be responsible for the higher cognitive capabilities of humans, such as language and technology. Handedness in living humans is well established and shows the highest degree of manual specialization. Studies on hand laterality in nonhuman primates, particularly in chimpanzees, remain a matter of controversy as results tend to vary depending on factors such as the tasks performed and the environment in which the individuals live. Studies in several disciplines have attempted to determine where in the course of human evolution handedness established itself, with evidence collected from sources such as paleoneurological analyses, stone tool flaking, zooarchaeological studies and dental wear analyses, the last one of which have proven the most reliable source of information. Here we report an experimental and paleoanthropological study on hand laterality of a sample of 28 hominids from Sima de los Huesos (Atapuerca, Spain), dated at about 500,000 years ago, and compare our results with dental microwear analysis in other fossil samples such as that from Krapina (Croatia), as well as modern traditional societies. Our results indicate that European Middle Pleistocene Homo heidelbergensis was already as right-handed as modern populations.     

Le gisement acheuléen de plein air de La Garde (Loire). Remarques sur une série lithique acheuléenne entre Rhône et Loire

The lithic assemblage of La Garde offers the opportunity to observe a Final Acheulean series located in the Loire department (south-east France). The site was probably a multi-activity place asking large tools and flakes, according to the strategies used by humans. Three main categories of large bifacial tools mainly made of flint can be described, with a triangular or oval shape and with a transversal cutting edge. These tools are more bifacial-tools than bifaces through the kind of shaping and the retouches on the cutting edges. The Levallois flaking is associated to various other types of knapping. The site, located along a small valley, suggests a human circulating between the Saône-Rhône corridor and the interior basins of the Massif Central Mountains. The Rhodanian corridor yielded little evidence of Acheulean settlements while in the Centre of France, they are numerous. La Garde proves that systematic prospecting in this area will permit in future to complete the map of the Acheulean occupations in south-east France.     

Perturbateurs endocriniens et troubles du comportement : non, nous n’avons pas encore tiré toutes les leçons de l’histoire du DES

Synthetic oestrogens such as diethylstilbestrol (DES) or 17-alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE) administered to pregnant women during numerous years were demonstrated as responsible of severe ravages for children. Regarding behavior disorders, works on mice or rat have shown the effects of these xeno-hormones used even at very weak dose, time of fetal exposition being crucial. Works are less numerous for humans but recent analysis of the spontaneous Hhorages cohort brings demonstrative data. Analogy between animal and man is discussed as well as the effects of bisphenol A and organophosphate pesticides.     

Apport de la fusion d’images tomoscintigraphiques avec la tomodensitométrie X ou l’imagerie par résonance magnétique en pathologie osseuse : expérience du service de médecine nucléaire de Sfax

The aim of our study was to assess the contribution of image fusion of SPECT combined with computed tomography (SPECT-CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (SPECT-MRI) in our daily practice of bone scintigraphy. Seventeen patients underwent a SPECT image fusion, SPECT-CT or MRI in addition to conventional bone scintigraphy. These acquisitions are made separately with images stored in DICOM format. The fusion was operated after a manual coregistration of the images. Results show that in 35.29% of cases, the image fusion allowed to pinpoint the exact location of increased uptake seen on the whole body scan and/or on static images. In 35.29% of cases, the fusion has confirmed a diagnosis doubtful in planar imaging. In five patients, representing 29.41% of cases, the fusion has corrected a diagnosis. In one patient (5.88% of cases), the fusion has eliminated a false positive related to increased uptake visualized on the whole body scan. In two patients (11.11% of cases), the fusion has eliminated false negative of bone scan in one case and of MRI in the other case. Finally, in nine patients (50% of cases), the fusion has influenced the therapeutic management.     

Le Paléolithique ancien de l’Europe orientale et du Caucase

Currently, only Tréhougol’naya Cave has reliably dated evidence for human settlement in Eastern Europe and Caucasus, from the beginning through the middle of the Middle Pleistocene. In Eastern Europe, assemblages from Khriatchi and Mikhailovskoé, and possibly Darvagchai I, appear to be the only stratified locations that tentatively can be compared (despite problems with these materials) with Tréhougol’naya. In the eastern limits of Central Europe, layer VI in Korolevo I is the only stratified assemblage that may be compared with Tréhougol’naya. All these Lower Paleolithic occupations yielded the Pre-Mousterian small tool industries with some pebble tools, but without Acheulean bifaces and Levallois technique. These data suggest that Eastern Europe lies outside the distribution range of the Acheulean techno-complex demarcated with the “Movius Line”. In the Southern Caucasus, the Dmanissi hominine and lithic records document the fact that the earliest small-brained humans – probably later H. habilis-rudolfensis or earlier H. ergaster-erectus hominids bearing Pre-Oldowan technology – initially left Africa and appeared in Western Asia as early as 1.8 Ma ago. However, in the Southern Caucasus, the available chronological data indicate that the Acheulean complex has a later temporal appearance here compared to the Upper Acheulean or Acheulo-Yabrudian in Western Asia. Two main Upper Acheulean industrial variants currently can be recognized in the Southern Caucasus. The first, called the Kudarian by the author (from the caves of Kudaro I, Kudaro III, and Azyk), is characterized by lithics made from mostly siliceous rocks, rare Acheulean bifaces, and non-Levallois flaking technique. The second variant is characterized by lithics made from volcanic rocks, numerous Acheulean bifaces, and often more laminar or Levallois debitage. It can be suggested that there are independent origins for these Southern Caucasus Upper Acheulean industrial variants. Possible roots of the Acheulean assemblages of Kudarian variant might be in the local earlier Lower Paleolithic small tool assemblages with some pebble tools but without Acheulean bifaces. The other Caucasus variant of the Upper Acheulean appears to be related to the Levantine Upper Acheulean.     

Intérêt du dosage de la thyroglobulinémie chez les sujets porteurs du goitre en zones de déficience iodée au Bénin

In the present study, we analyze the results of thyroid hormones and thyroglobulinemia of 162 patients with goiter living in the departments of Collines and Donga, known to be areas of iodine deficiency in Benin. These results are compared with those of 85 healthy subjects living in the same departments. This study is a cross-sectional analytical study carried out from 1st July 2009 to 30th June 2010. The population of patients consisted of seven males and 155 females. The average age was of 45.7 years. Most of the patients were suffering of simple goiter. Only six of them had thyroid nodules. The diagnosis of biological hyperthyroidism was positive for 20 patients; 16 of them had subclinical hypothyroidism and four clinical hyperthyroidism. One case of clinical hypothyroidism was found. All other 141 patients were biologically normal (euthyroidism). Seventeen of the patients (including six patients presenting a thyroid nodule) had a normal thyroglobulin rate. Hyperthyroglobulinemia was observed in all other 145 patients. These results suggest that patients with goiter in zone of iodine deficiency are biologically euthyroid with hyper-thyroglobulinemia. Thyroglobulin dosage is then recommended, especially when nodules are perceptible.     

Radioactivité résiduelle avant vidange des cuves de décroissance de déchets liquides : bilan annuel d’un service de médecine nucléaire hospitalier au Luxembourg

Residual radioactivity within decay tanks in an in-hospital clinical nuclear medicine unit reflects the specific typology of the concerned unit. To learn how to improve management of emptying the tanks, measures of residual radioactivity over the year 2009 have been compared to prevailing legal norms in Luxembourg. Legal norms have in no case been outpassed. A minimal residual radioactivity, below legal thresholds, has been often found (84%). It concerned ¹³¹I, ^99mTc and ¹¹¹In. This is why management of radioactive decay tanks may be continued unchanged.     

Le site des Vachons : étude de la partie gravettienne de la collection de l’IPH

This article firstly summarizes the process of study of an old collection, which had not been considered since the excavations at the site Les Vachons, started before 1914 and completed around 1939. The studied collection of J. Coiffard, both excavator and inventor of this site, includes four-fifths of the artefacts because, in 1940, he donated approximately one fifth to the Eyzies Museum. For his part, J. Bouyssonie who participated in the excavations for 3 years gave the major part of his own collection to the Archaeological Society of Charentes Angouleme where its condition makes it difficult to analyze. Despite these restrictions, based on statistical comparisons with counts many other sites, I came to the conclusion that the top three layers of Les Vachons are a confirmation of the Gravettian model, developed by B. Bosselin and F. Djindjian through their factor analysis. This model seems much better suited to the stratigraphy of Les Vachons, than all assumptions made by previous analysts in their attempt to bring the industries from the three layers in what remains from the Peyrony model.     

Fixations extra-osseuses du Tc MDP dans le cas d’un cancer du sein métastatique à l’os

Aim

To report and discuss an unusual visceral uptake on bone scan in a case of breast cancer with bone metastases.

Patient and methods

A 40-year-old woman, with untreated bilateral breast cancer was referred to our department for a bone scan.

Results

The bone scan evidenced multiple metastases over the axial skeleton. Uncommonly, visceral uptake was noted associating diffuse bilateral lung uptake and intense myocardium, stomach and kidneys uptakes. Serum calcium level was high: 4.08 mmol/L (normal: 2.38–2.70 mmol/L).

Conclusion

The incidental observation of metastasic calcifications on bone scan is often related to severe hypercalcemia. Such pattern should alert the physician on the existence and the severity of calcium metabolism disturbances that had not been suggested before.     

Étude préliminaire des industries archaïques de faciès Oldowayen du site de Hummal (El Kowm, Syrie centrale)

The spring site of Hummal is located in Central Syria, near the village of El Kowm between the Euphrates basin and the desert steppe stretching from Palmyra to Deir-ez-Zor. In 1966 the well was noted in a survey as Bir Onusi and a short preliminary study was carried out at the beginning of the 1980s. Since 1997, the Institute for Prehistory and Archaeological Science of the University of Basel has undertaken a complete interdisciplinary research program of this major site under the direction of J.M Le Tensorer, supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and associated with the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums of Syria under the direction of S. Muhesen. The site of Hummal is a prominent mound at an artesian spring built out of the sediments, which piled up during the whole Quaternary. Tectonic faults in the bed rock enabled the underlying water in a karstic system to flow out into a dolina, which trapped lacustrine, limnic and aeolian sediments since the Oldest Pleistocene. The impressive stratigraphy – 20 m high – comprises 23 geological units preserving a great number of archaeological levels. It covers an extremely long period of time ranging from the Oldest Palaeolithic (Oldowan) to Upper Palaeolithic (Aurignacian) over more than a million years. This impressive Old and Middle Palaeolithic sequence comprises several layers of Oldowan-like assemblage (23-16), an Acheuleo-Tayacian complex (14-13), five layers of Yabrudian (12-8) at least four levels of Hummalian (7, 6c, 6b, 6a) and a thick sediment complex with 8 Mousterian layers, each of them liable to be subdivided into several sublayers. The lithic industry in the lowest levels of the Hummal sequence, associated with abundant remains of large mammals, can be characterized by non-modified, quite fresh flakes, with, once in a while, traces of use but never bearing intentional retouches. Theses flakes are found with pebble-tools: choppers, chopping-tools, polyhedrons, bolas and core-like artifacts. This assemblage is typical in a broad sense of archaic Palaeolithic whose debitage corresponds to mode 1. From a techno-typological point of view, this industry tallies quite well with the so-called Oldowan stage. It shows remarkable similarities with the oldest assemblages at Ubeidiya but, so far, with no occurrence of bifacial knapping. If the layers 17 and 18 of Hummal relate to this period dating back to 1.6 to 1.2 million years, these levels would be the oldest ones ever found in central Syria. However, as we have no absolute dating at our disposal so far, we will remain careful in assigning a chronological time span for these layers. For this area, from a stratigraphic point of view, the Oldowan levels of Hummal occur before the Acheulean and certainly before the Acheulean sequence of El Meirah (region of El Kowm) which is itself related to the period before Matuyama-Brunhes paleomagnetic reverse. Dating of the lowest sequence of Hummal is underway. If we take into account stratigraphic and techno-typological observations, we assume that the Oldowan-like levels of the site should be older than one million years at least. The sequence of Hummal is one of the largest in the Near-East. Therefore, it can be regarded as a key-site for world prehistory.     

Données stratigraphiques, archéologiques et insertion chronologique de la séquence de Longgupo

The site of Longgupo is located north of the subtropical zone and is part of the domain of eastern fauna. The large number of mammal species identified at this site enables clarification of the broad pattern of paleoenvironmental change for the three assemblages from the first stratigraphic sequence (Huang W.-B. excavations). The different species have been classified in four biogeographic groups: subtropical (moderate monsoon), tropical forest (hot and humid climate), montane (cold climate) and prairie (cold and dry climate). Variation in the representation rate of each of these groups enables general reconstruction of the paleoenvironments for the three assemblages identified at Longgupo: a lower assemblage in a hot and humid climate with cold and dry episodes, an intermediate assemblage in a rather cold and dry climate in the lower part, becoming progressively warmer and humid toward the top of the sequence with a monsoon influence more marked than the present day, and an upper assemblage in a rather cold and dry climate. This biochronology and general paleoenvironmental reconstruction are clearly important, but as mentioned above, the stratum by stratum correspondence between the old and new stratigraphic sequences has been quite difficult because the position of material recovered during the early excavations was not recorded.     

Les relations entre les prairies du Triseto-Polygonion et les mégaphorbiaies de l''Adenostylion: l''analyse flavonique d''espèces communes aux deux groupements

Relationships between two plant communities in the south-western Alps, high-altitude manured meadows (Triseto-Polygonion) and lower tall grass prairies (Adenostylion) have been examined by means of the flavonoid analysis of specimens belonging to six species common to those two associations. The species, collected at eight stations of the Ligurian Alps and the Ubaye valley, are: Trollius europaeus (Ranunculaceae), Chaerophyllum aureum (Umbellifereae), Silene cucubalus (Caryophyllaceae), Polygonum bistorta) (Polygonaceae), Alchemilla vulgaris (Rosaceae) and Centaurea montana (Compositae). In every species, factorial analysis of correspondence was applied to the distribution of flavonoid glycosides. This led to the partition of the populations into two groups according to the two sectors (Ligurian Alphs Ubaye valley) of the collection area. Secondly, populations of two species, Alchemilla vulgaris and Centaurea montana, exhibited further correlation of their flavonoid pattern with their phytosociological origin.     

Segmentation d’images synchronisées à la respiration en TEP/TDM : étude sur fantôme

The aim of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of segmentation method by adaptive threshold in gated respiratory PET/CT and to deduce their indications and limits. Different acquisitions with phantom allow to study effect of movement, size and tumor activity compared to environment. The validity domain of these techniques, based on optimal threshold, is accurate if the tumor size is superior to 17 mm and the amplitude in a cycle is inferior or equal to 7.5 mm. For patient exams, an acquisition synchronized allows, even in the worst case, to freeze enough displacement in a cycle in which the relative amplitude is the lowest. Threshold adaptive method are validated for gated acquisitions for homogeneous tumors and not subjected to partial volume effect. If tumor size is inferior to three times the spatial resolution of the system, a more complex approach has to be employed.     

Procédures de ventilation pulmonaire par aérosol Tc-DTPA : contamination aérienne, contaminations interne et cutanée externe des manipulateurs

Efficiency of an optimization procedure of radiation protection measures with lung ventilation by ^99mTc-DTPA aerosol was evaluated by measuring airborne radioactivity and by looking for external and internal contaminations of technologists. Despite numerous precautions, small amounts of radioactivity were airborne in 71.4% of procedures and a small internal contamination of technologists (1.6–881 Bq; median: 36.3 Bq) was found. The latter was highest in case of deficient patient collaboration and with technical incidents. A very low external contamination (0.1-29.1 Bq; median: 0.1 Bq) was demonstrated with 82% of procedures. Estimated effective doses by internal contamination (0.01-6.2 nSv; median 0.3 nSv) was minimal compared with the maximal legally admissible doses for professionally exposed workers (10 mSv/year); it does not represent an excessive irradiation risk.     

Étude du site de Longgupo – Synthèse

If the hominids are of African origin, as data support, we can hypothesize that the date of the first population diffusion must be moved back to 2.5–2.6 mya, and that the first populations in central China were oriented toward new technological options, which are only found in Africa much later. In the present state of research, it appears that we should abandon our old paradigms, which have over time become “truths”, because instead of a unifying view–monolithic–of these periods, we advocate recognition of the existence of spatial and temporal cultural otherness.     

La frontière entre le Châtelperronien et l’Uluzzien : analyse comparative des typologies lithiques sur la base des dernières découvertes

The end of the Middle Paleolithic sees the appearance of “transitional” industries, which emerge at the same moment as anatomical modern humans enter Europe. All these transitional industries come from a Mousterian background and are closely connected to late Neanderthals. Among these industries we find two traditions characterized by backed blade pieces in Western Europe: the Châtelperronian and the Uluzzian. Two big conditions have been defined to allow a comparison between these industries: a chronological continuity and a geographic link. The recent data allows a new comparison.     

Tumeur du scalp : mode révélateur rare de carcinome vésiculaire thyroïdien

Cutaneous metastases of thyroid follicular carcinoma are rare. A scalp metastasis revealing a thyroid cancer is exceptional. We report the case of a 70 year-old women who presented with a scalp tumor progressively increased. Morphological imaging disclosed an important cutaneous tumor in occipital region with osteolysis. Surgical resection of this tumor was performed and pathology identified a cutaneous metastasis of a thyroid follicular cancer. This case report illustrates a rare presenting sign of thyroid follicular cancer. Cutaneous metastases coexists with other metastases (bone or lung) and means and ominous prognostic factor for the evolution of thyroid follicular cancer.