Academic literature on the topic 'Thomas le Forestier'

Afin de contribuer à la mise au point de mé- thodes de gestion durable des écosystèmes forestiers en Afrique centrale, la question de recherche suivante a été posée : l’analyse de l’évolution de la couverture végétale per- met-elle de comprendre et de documenter l’organisation spatiale et les mécanismes de la dégradation des forêts tropicales ? Pour cela, en République démocratique du Congo, le projet Makala a cartographié les arbres et les ressources forestières du bas- sin d’approvisionnement en bois-énergie de Kinshasa et a essayé de prédire son évolu- tion future. La carte a été réalisée à quatre périodes (1984, 2001, 2006 et 2012) avec une mosaïque de quatre images Landsat. L’estimation de la biomasse aérienne a été faite en 2012, par l’inventaire forestier de 317 parcelles (4 337 arbres de 44 espèces) dans les quatre types de couverture végétale, sur le plateau Batéké. Entre 2000 et 2012, le volume moyen de bois-énergie a chuté de plus de 50 % et les stocks de carbone de 75 % en 28 ans. La réduction drastique du couvert forestier, la baisse significative des périodes de jachère, l’augmentation des surfaces de savane, le déclin des stocks de biomasse et de carbone, constituent des signaux particulièrement forts. Mais ces premières estimations sont dérivées des données d’un petit échantillon, extrapolées au bassin d’approvisionnement. Il serait très utile d’augmenter l’échantillonnage, pour approcher des valeurs plus justes et concrètes. L’expérience du projet Makala montre clairement que l’analyse de l’évo- lution de la couverture végétale permet de comprendre et de documenter l’organisa- tion spatiale et les mécanismes de la dégra- dation des forêts. Mais seules une politique consciente et une gestion durable des terres des communautés, combinées avec une réintroduction des arbres dans les terres agricoles, peuvent initier un processus de restauration durable.

The ways that Thomism has historically thought about knowledge and habit in Thomas Aquinas's ethics have become increasingly destabilised. This article briefly documents this destabilisation before considering three images that have emerged in recent engagements with the ethics of Aquinas on moral knowledge and action. The three images are brought to bear on a discussion of what Aquinas may have meant by calling synderesis a ‘natural habit’. The first image is John Milbank's and Catherine Pickstock's image of God as country bumpkin and it follows Aquinas's own description of the way God knows particulars out of divine simplicity. They argue that human knowledge of particulars comes from participation in the mind of God. This is participation in eternal law from which natural law is derived and so natural law cannot constitute a separate, sufficient system of moral knowledge. With the second image, the bricoleur, Jeffrey Stout argues that system-building was far from the kind of work that Aquinas was about, despite appearances that have disguised how freely Aquinas himself made use of the moral resources at his disposal. The third image, the forester, is deployed by Charles Pinches intentionally to improve on some of the problems with Stout's image. The Christian moral agent develops habits of mind that both aid in right perception, and hence right knowledge, and depend on right perception for right action. A discussion of this apparent paradox reveals something of the complexity of theoretical knowledge and practical skills that are involved in moral reasoning for Aquinas.

Abstract This article focuses on the physician Thomas Le Forestier’s French vernacular plague tract published in Rouen in 1495, to explore how medical advice on epidemic illness was consumed and disseminated in Normandy and further afield in the later fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. While plague was an urgent issue facing all people at this time, and the publication of this text in the vernacular ostensibly made its advice more accessible than material in Latin, the article finds that it was probably read above all by physicians or other medical practitioners, including those from a monastic or ecclesiastical context, rather than by a more diverse range of readers. These medical readers sometimes assembled personalised Sammelbände (volumes in which separately produced printed and/or manuscript works were bound together), gathering together a range of health-related texts that could be read alongside each other. Although the extant copies of Le Forestier’s tract do not appear to have travelled beyond France, continental plague printings in Latin were annotated by English readers, indicating the transnational dissemination of such material in the scholarly language shared across Europe.

Background:In knee osteoarthritis (KOA) recommendations, the first pharmacological analgesic line is paracetamol. However, its low efficacy, frequently leads to the use of weak opioids (WO) despite their poor tolerance, especially in elderly patients.Objectives:The primary objective was to compare analgesic efficacy and safety of a new wearable transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (W-TENS) to those of WO in the treatment of moderate to severe, nociceptive, chronic pain in KOA patients.Methods:ArthroTENS study was a phase 3, non-inferiority, multicentric, prospective, randomized, single-blinded for primary efficacy outcome, controlled, in 2-parallel groups, clinical study comparing W-TENS versus WO on two periods: a 3-month controlled period and an additional, optional, non-controlled, 3-month follow-up for patients in W-TENS group.Eligible participants were KOA patients, ≥55 years old, at Kellgren-Lawrence radiographic grade ≥2, with moderate to severe nociceptive chronic (≥3 months) mean 8-day pain ≥4 on a 11-point numerical rating scale, and in treatment failure with non-opioid analgesics, including NSAIDs. Patients with neuropathic pain were excluded.Co-primary endpoints were, for efficacy, mean pain intensity (PI), assessed at M3 and, for safety, the number of adverse events (AE) during the 3-month follow-up period.In W-TENS group, an advanced, mobile app enabled, wearable TENS was used. High (100 Hz) and low (2 Hz) frequency stimulations were delivered via electrodes with standardized positioning (Figure 1).Figure 1.Electrode’s positioningIn WO group, investigators chose, for each patient, the best suitable WO and its daily dose, and could switch to another WO, and/or adapt its daily dose if necessary.A non-inferiority analysis was performed on the primary efficacy endpoint using a pre-defined non-inferiority margin (0.825 point) on PI, below the minimal clinically significant improvement.Results:Demographic and baseline characteristics were balanced across both groups.110 patients (55/group) were randomized and 48/55 (87.3%) and 44/55 (80.0%) patients completed the 3-month follow-up in W-TENS and WO groups, respectively. WO’s prescriptions were balanced between codeine, opium-powder, tramadol and WO-paracetamol combinations.Non-inferiority of W-TENS was demonstrated in the PP and ITT populations (Table 1). Since the 95% confidence interval (CI) of the between-treatments difference was below 0 in the ITT population, a planned superiority analysis was performed showing that W-TENS was significantly superior to WO at M3 (p=0.0124) on PI. Additionally, the number of AEs was significantly lower (p<0.001) in W-TENS (n=7) group than in WO (n=36) group. In WO group, AEs were systemic AEs usually reported with WO while AEs in W-TENS group were local, related to the technique used, such as local cutaneous reaction (erythema).Table 1.Non-inferiority analyses on pain intensity at M3. ITT and PP populations. Least squares means for each study group and study group difference estimate and corresponding 95% CIGroup PopulationWithin-group changeBetween-group differenceW-TENSWOW-TENS - WOITT Population (n)5555Non inferiorityMean (SD)3.83 (0.28)<0.0014.74 (0.28)<0.001-0.92 (0.40)Non inferiority‡ demonstrated95% CI[3.27, 4.40][4.18, 5.30][-1.71, -0.12]PP Population (n)5247Mean (SD)3.87 (0.30)<0.0014.66 (0.32)<0.001-0.79 (0.44)Non inferiority‡ demonstrated95% CI[3.28, 4.46][4.03, 5.28][-1.65, 0.08]‡ Noninferiority was demonstrated when 95% CI < 0.825Thirty-nine (70.9%) patients wished to extend W-TENS treatment for 3 additional months. Only one patient discontinued this additional period and results obtained at M3 remained stable at M6.Conclusion:In this study, W-TENS was more effective and better tolerated than WO in the treatment of nociceptive KOA chronic pain and should represent an interesting non-pharmacological alternative to WO.Acknowledgements:We gratefully thank P. Fardellone (Amiens), E. Coudeyre (Clermont-Ferrand), Y. Donazzolo (Gieres), A. Amouzougan (Saint-Etienne), L. Grange (Grenoble), T. Conrozier (Belfort), E. Senbel (Marseille), J.P. Sanchez (Billere), R. Forestier (Aix-les-Bains), H. Bard (Paris) and E. Gibert (Ivry-sur-Seine) for their active contribution throughout arthroTENS studyDisclosure of Interests:Emmanuel Maheu Speakers bureau: TRB chemedica, Consultant of: SUBLIMED, Moirans, FRANCE; Sandrine Soriot-Thomas Speakers bureau: Grunenthal, Consultant of: SUBLIMED, Moirans, FRANCE;GrunenthalKyowa Kirin pharma, Grant/research support from: GrunenthalSanofiTevaMylanTherable, Eric Noel Consultant of: SUBLIMED, Moirans, FRANCE; Eric Lespessailles Consultant of: SUBLIMED, Moirans, FRANCE; Bernard Cortet Consultant of: SUBLIMED, Moirans, FRANCE;

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in 1805 wrote the first substantial details of an arid-land fox. It was not until 1823, however, that Thomas Say described this same species of fox scientifically, and gave it a Latin name. Since then several other arid-dwelling foxes have been discovered. It almost seems that each south-western state in the United States and northern Mexico had its own fox, neatly described and named. But with the advent of modern biology and genetics, and the re-thinking of the “species concept”, has the rich history of arid-land fox discoveries become just a footnote? In this paper I bring the work of nineteenth- and twentieth-century explorers and naturalists to the modern reader, providing the historical accounts that can only be found in library archives. I focus only on foxes that occur in North American desert and prairie habitats, excluding those fox species that occur in woodland and forested communities.

Abstract Ansorge’s cusimanse, Crossarchus ansorgei Thomas, 1910, has until recently been known in Angola only from a single specimen collected in 1908, the holotype. During a camera trap survey conducted in Quiçama National Park (Angola) in 2017, we recorded the presence of the species 115 km south-west of the type locality – 40 km from the edge of the current known distribution range, – extending it south of the Cuanza river and possibly following the woodlands along the Angolan Escarpment. We combine our records of Ansorge’s cusimanse with the available published and unpublished records from Angola and compare with other vertebrate taxa that follow a similar pattern, in which Central African species extend their southern distribution into Angola, through the more forested areas in northwestern Angola and further south along the Escarpment. Furthermore, we discuss the urgent need for more research on this species and the impact bushmeat harvesting may have on its conservation.

Riparian ecosystems are among the most productive biological systems providing food, water, shade, and cover for wildlife (Thomas et al. 1979a). Furthermore, they may display a greater diversity of plant and animal species and vegetative structure than adjacent ecosystems (USDI 1986). Thomas et al. (1979a) provide a descriptive definition which characterizes riparian ecosystems by the presence of trees, shrubs, or herbaceous vegetation that require free or unbound water, or conditions that are more moist than those of the surrounding areas. They suggest that more wildlife species depend entirely on or spend disproportionally more time in riparian habitat than any other. Although the importance of riparian vegetation to wildlife has been apparent since the 1970's, its overall importance to vertebrate species has not been widely studied, especially in the western United States (Patton 1977). Elsewhere, there is a paucity of information on the ecological role of small mammals in riparian areas. Because small vertebrate species may serve as an especially important link in the food chain of threatened, endangered, or reintroduced species, and because small mammal species seem to be compacted in environmentally diverse areas, analysis of riparian vertebrate communities should provide important insights in mechanisms of habitat subdivision and utilization. Clearly, riparian areas contain a greater variety of species than adjoining forest or upslope habitats (Cross 1985). The effect of patch shape on the number of species occupying riparian habitats also has received limited attention (Patton 1975). Because riparian habitat consists of a narrow patch, the elongated shape of riparian areas produces a low interior-to­high-edge ratio which may facilitate or enhance ecological processes, especially the production and dispersal of small mammals. Unfortunately, no documentation exists about patterns of mammalian movement along stream corridors (Forman and Godron 1986). Thus, the importance of the relative use of the edge, riparian, and upland areas by small mammals needs to be investigated, especially in forested mountain land, where riparian areas tend to have smaller areal extent and economic value than upslope vegetation (Swanson et al. 1982). The principle objective of our study was to determine if consistent environmental and landscape features could be found in western riparian, edge, and upland communities, and if these features affected residency of small mammals in Grand Teton National Park. Three independent study sites were studied from June, 1991 through October, 1991 in preparation for a proposed long-term analysis of the role of riparian areas in production of small mammals.

Box turtles (Terrapene carolina) are widely distributed but vulnerable to population decline across their range. Using distance sampling, morphometric data, and an index of carapace damage, we surveyed three-toed box turtles (Terrapene carolina triunguis) at 2 sites in central Missouri, and compared differences in detection probabilities when transects were walked by one or two observers. Our estimated turtle densities within forested cover was less at the Thomas S. Baskett Wildlife Research and Education Center, a site dominated by eastern hardwood forest (d= 1.85 turtles/ha, 95% CI [1.13, 3.03]) than at the Prairie Fork Conservation Area, a site containing a mix of open field and hardwood forest (d= 4.14 turtles/ha, 95% CI [1.99, 8.62]). Turtles at Baskett were significantly older and larger than turtles at Prairie Fork. Damage to the carapace did not differ significantly between the 2 populations despite the more prevalent habitat management including mowing and prescribed fire at Prairie Fork. We achieved improved estimates of density using two rather than one observer at Prairie Fork, but negligible differences in density estimates between the two methods at Baskett. Error associated with probability of detection decreased at both sites with the addition of a second observer. We provide demographic data on three-toed box turtles that suggest the use of a range of habitat conditions by three-toed box turtles. This case study suggests that habitat management practices and their impacts on habitat composition may be a cause of the differences observed in our focal populations of turtles.

The fires of 1988 in Yellowstone National Park burned 1.1 million acres (1719.4 square miles) within the park boundaries, about 44.5% of the park. Six per cent of the area burned was meadow­grassland and 94% was forests. Most of the forested areas that burned were dominated by lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud), with smaller tracts of Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirbel) Franco)), Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii Parry) and whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.). The burns were mosaic in nature, leaving different sizes of areas severely burned, moderately burned and unburned, and adjacent patches of mostly ground fires, mostly canopy fires, both ground and canopy fires or unburned stands (Rothermel et al., 1994). Many park projects have documented recovery of vascular plants, especially lodgepole pine and the understory perennials (Anderson & Romme, 1991; Baskin, 1999; Foster, et al, 1999; Reed, et al ,1999; Tomback, et al, 2001; Turner et al, 1994, 1997). The conclusions were that lodgepole pine has regenerated itself, as expected, from seed sources in adjacent unburned patches. Herbaceous and shrubby understory regeneration has depended primarily on the plants that were present at the study sites before the fires, with regrowth from surviving underground parts as well as from nearby seed sources. This study investigates the initial return of non-vascular vegetation, lichens and mosses, all of which were presumably destroyed when their substrates were burned. None of the other Yellowstone studies included cryptogam observations. Studies concentrating on recolonizing cryptogamic crusts, including mosses, algae and lichens, on dryland soil after fires, have occurred in Utah (Johansen, et al, 1984) and Australia (Eldridge & Bradstock, 1994). Algae tended to return before lichens and mosses, especially during wet years, and after five years the lichens and mosses were recovering but not yet to pre-burn cover. Researchers have found that, on limestone, two lichen species colonized after four years. Thomas, et al. (1994) found that Ceratodon purpureus appeared to be insensitive to pH differences of burned peat surfaces and readily colonized ashed surfaces within one year after fire; Polytrichum piliferum was dominant after three years.

This thesis examines whether and how historians’ reliance on medical treatises has limited the historiography of contagion as it relates to fourteenth through sixteenth century England. It analyses the context, contents, audience, and codicology of six English tractates, four on the plague and two on the sweating sickness. Before the early seventeenth century, most English tractates were translations/adaptations of Continental works, with ‘uniquely English’ content added. Although the plague dominates studies of pre-modern disease, focusing on the plague hinders comparative analyses that can reveal much about contemporary understanding of contagion. The socio-political-professional contexts in which the tractates were written and disseminated affected their contents, circulation and, ultimately, audiences. Although largely ignored by historians, the tractates’ prefatory dedications, together with their codicology, reveals that the texts were likely accessible to non-elite audiences. Rather than being limited to its medical sense, contagion formed part of the larger discourse about the human condition.