Les forêts sacrées de Guinée : entre écologie et conservation

Guinea has very little ecological data available regarding its sacred forests. This study shows the important conservation role of these forests in a local context of strong human impacts. We present four representative case studies from the Sudano-Guinean zone in Upper Guinea. Our phytoecological inventories recorded a total of 431 species, 312 genera, and 87 families including 242 species, 187 genera, and 64 families in the forests. Twelve plant groups have been identified, including five in forests and seven in the surrounding vegetation. Geomorphology, texture, soil hydromorphism, microclimate, and human impacts are significant in explaining the spatial distribution of plant groups. The study reveals that in these Sudano-Guinean savannas, vegetation is dominated by micro-phanerophytes. The Guinean-Congolese flora is better represented in gallery forests.     

Des gènes à la culture : réflexions finales

Imagination pushes humanity well beyond its natural biological capacities. An approach of co-evolution, between molecular biology and behaviour, is thus required to explain these combined processes. Technological performances define spiritual conquests and formulas whose sole function is cultural. Humanity operates according to intentional social modes defined by the group, but these immediately become conditions for their own evolution. These choices are the motor for the history of humanity, and thus humanity can itself choose its own path. Anatomic modernisation is only a distant reflection of bipedalism, but freeing the hands leads to the development of abstract thought. The relationship between anatomy and awareness allows infinite variations in the harmonious adaptation to nature, animals and other societies. In Europe, humanity arrived in abrupt bursts because it was the result of external evolution, continuous and distant, dispersed across Asia. By its unceasing audacity, humanity combats biological determinism, imposing “moral” rules, or imperatives. The balance between biology and culture is reflected in the rules for sharing food: the biological life itself is coded by social sharing. These systems take on ternary values as soon as they include animal behaviours. Built shelters integrate societies with the cosmos because they delimit cultural spaces within natural chaos. Mastery of cognitive mechanisms gives humanity an entirely new responsibility, that of being able to define its destiny. Our united disciplines are transformed into ethical requirements.     

Modeling Proximal Tubule Cell Homeostasis: Tracking Changes in Luminal Flow

During normal kidney function, there are routinely wide swings in proximal tubule fluid flow and proportional changes in Na⁺ reabsorption across tubule epithelial cells. This “glomerulotubular balance” occurs in the absence of any substantial change in cell volume, and is thus a challenge to coordinate luminal membrane solute entry with peritubular membrane solute exit. In this work, linear optimal control theory is applied to generate a configuration of regulated transporters that could achieve this result. A previously developed model of rat proximal tubule epithelium is linearized about a physiologic reference condition; the approximate linear system is recast as a dynamical system; and a Riccati equation is solved to yield the optimal linear feedback that stabilizes Na⁺ flux, cell volume, and cell pH. The first observation is that optimal feedback control is largely consigned to three physiologic variables, cell volume, cell electrical potential, and lateral intercellular hydrostatic pressure. Parameter modulation by cell volume stabilizes cell volume; parameter modulation by electrical potential or interspace pressure act to stabilize Na⁺ flux and cell pH. This feedback control is utilized in a tracking problem, in which reabsorptive Na⁺ flux varies over a factor of two, in order to represent a substantial excursion of glomerulotubular balance. The resulting control parameters consist of two terms, an autonomous term and a feedback term, and both terms include transporters on both luminal and peritubular cell membranes. Overall, the increase in Na⁺ flux is achieved with upregulation of luminal Na⁺/H⁺ exchange and Na⁺–glucose cotransport, with increased peritubular Na⁺–3HCO₃⁻ and K⁺–Cl⁻ cotransport, and with increased Na⁺, K⁺–ATPase activity. The configuration of activated transporters emerges as a testable hypothesis of the molecular basis for glomerulotubular balance. It is suggested that the autonomous control component at each cell membrane could represent the cytoskeletal effects of luminal flow.     

Halyomorpha halys (Stål 1855) en Île de France (Hemiptera : Pentatomidae : Pentatominae) : surveillons la punaise diabolique

Le Pentatomidae (Insecta : Hemiptera) d’origine asiatique Halyomorpha halys (Stal 1855) a été trouvée en Ile de France (Paris intra muros et Lardy, Essonne) à la fin de l’année 2013. Ces occurrences font suite à celle de l’été 2013 dans l’agglomération de Strasbourg, près de la frontière allemande. Il s’agit de la 5^e mention de cette espèce en Europe après la Suisse, l’Allemagne, et l’Italie. Il serait nécessaire de surveiller l’expansion de cette espèce polyphage et dommageable à des nombreuses cultures, dont l’expansion en Europe est très rapide, et qui peut être un agent allergénique.     

Le Plio-Pléistocène de Camerota(Italie méridionale): Géomorphologie et Paléoflores

Geomorphological investigations have been carried out in Camerota surroundings where marine microfaunas have been discovered. So, we can separate the Late Pliocene deposits from Calabrian and post-Calabrian levels. Preliminary palynological results show a vegetational evolution in relation with the climate. Leaf-remains give informations on the structure of the vegetation.     

La larve du genre Cyanothemis Ris, 1915 (Odonata: Anisoptera: Libellulidae). Conséquences phylogénétiques

La larve du genre Cyanothemis Ris, 1915 est décrite et illustrée pour la première fois. L’étude des adultes et des larves des genres Lepthemis Hagen, 1861, Rhodothemis Ris, 1911 et Cyanothemis Ris, 1915 suggère qu’ils sont étroitement apparentés, comblant ainsi une lacune phylogénétique vieille de presque un siècle. Le genre Acisoma Rambur, 1842, bien que plus dérivé, doit également être considéré appartenir au clade (Cyanothemis + Lepthemis + Rhodothemis). Les genres Nannophya Rambur, 1842 et Nannothemis Brauer, 1868 placés traditionnellement dans les Brachydiplacinae et non dans les Sympetrinae pourraient être les adelphotaxons du clade (Acisoma + Cyanothemis + Lepthemis + Rhodothemis). Lutilisation de la nervation alaire, jusqu’alors prépondérante, montre certaines limites dans la systématique et la phylogénie des Libellulidae.     

Ultrastructure de l'épithélium tégumentaire de Glossiphonia complanata (L.) (Hirudinée): cellules épithéliales et organes sensoriels de Bayer

Résumé Le tégument de Glossiphonia complanata comprend, outre les cellules épithéliales banales, de nombreux organes particuliers ou organes de Bayer, regroupés essentiellement sur la face dorsale de l'animal. Ils sont formés par une cellule apicale saillante enchassée dans une cellule musculaire en anneau.L'ensemble de ces formations est étudié du point de vue ultrastructural. Des cellules épithéliales partent des fibres nerveuses afférentes, sans doute vecteur des perceptions de stimuli mécaniques de pression au niveau du tégument; la réponse se faisant sans doute par la contraction de la cellule basale de chaque organe de Bayer, innervée par des fibres nerveuses efférentes, entrainant la saillie de la cellule apicale. Le hérissement de ces nombreuses papilles du tégument dorsal pourrait être un signal perçu par le partenaire sexuel, chez cette Hirudinée à fécondation hypodermique.

---

Ultrastructure of the integumentary epithelium of Glossiphonia complanata (L.) (hirudinea): Epithelial cells and sensory organs of bayer

Summary The integument of Glossiphonia complanata, built up by epithelial cells, contains numerous particular organs (Bayer organs), mainly on the dorsal side of the animal. They consist of a protuberant apical cell, which is surrounded by a ring-shaped muscle cell. All the integumentary formations are studied from an ultrastructural point of view. From the epithelial cells issue afferent nerve fibres, considered as vectors of the perception of mechanical stimuli of pressure at the level of the integument; the response no doubt operating by the contraction of the basal muscle cell of each Bayer organ, innervated by efferent nerve fibres, bringing forth the protrusion of the apical cell. The erection of these numerous papillae of the dorsal integument might be a signal perceived by the sexual partner, fecundation occurring in this group of leeches under the integument.

     

Les cyprinodontiformes (Poissons téléostéens) oligocènes de Ronzon,Le Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire): Anatomie et signification paléoécologique

The revision of the fossil fishes from the Lower Oligocene of Ronzon, Le Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire, France), leads one to give a more precise account of their main anatomical and meristic features. According to the rules of zoological nomenclature, the unique fish species known from this locality must be named Prolebias aymardi (Sauvage). Some palaeoecological characters of these fishes are specified.