An integrated research program was initiated to evaluate if the European shagPhalacrocorax aristotelis can be used as a robust indicator of themarine environment in Mor Braz, Brittany, France. This program focuses on aspects of theecology of the shag including its abundance, demography, diet and at-sea distributionmeasured at three breeding colonies. The annual population growth rate was estimated at1.01 for the period 1987–2009. The number of breeding pairs (mean: 565) was highlyvariable from year to year. Part of this interannual variation was explained by variationsin sea surface temperature and sea surface height in winter and spring: the number ofbreeding pairs was negatively related to sea surface temperature and sea surface height.First year, second year and adult survival probabilities were 0.44, 0.76 and 0.81,respectively. Juvenile survival rate varied between colonies, despite the short distancesseparating these islets. Average productivity was one young fledged per nest, but itvaried between years and islets. Density of individuals at sea varied between 1.40ind.km-2 during the breeding season and 3.08 ind.km-2 after thebreeding season had ended. Individuals foraged up to 7 km from the nest and performed onaverage 2.7 foraging trips per day. The average number of dives deeper than 5 m variedfrom 126 to 400 per day. Mean diving depth, dive duration and time spent at bottom were 13m, 28 s, and 19 s respectively. Regurgitated pellets were collected regularly. Four fishfamilies (Gadidae, Gobiidae, Atherinidae and Labridae) represented more than 65% of thepreys throughout the year, a percentage reaching more than 95% of the prey from May toOctober. The other fish in the diet were Cottidae, Ammodytidae, and Clupeidae. The diet ofthe European shag consisted of benthic fish throughout the year, and also included pelagicfish more frequently between June and October. The synchronous variations of productivitybetween colonies suggest that some common environmental factors affect this demographicparameter at the regional scale. Thus, the European shag has a good potential for being areliable ecological indicator of the state of this marine environment. Finally, improvedknowledge on the foraging ecology of shags will be useful in the process of designingMarine Protected Areas in the Mor Braz to help ensure sustainable management of marineresources and biodiversity conservation.

The continuous advances in the aircraft and nuclear industry demand the development of new materials that among other properties offer a good resistance at elevated temperatures. For this reason, Ni super alloys were developed from a simple Ni-Cr matrix to multi-element, multi-phase systems. These new super alloys are specially favored for their exceptional thermal resistance and ability to retain mechanical properties at elevated temperatures. They are classified as difficult-to-machine materials due to their high shear strength, work hardening tendency, content of abrasive carbide particles within the microstructure, strong tendency to weld and to form built-up edges. Their low thermal conductivity leads to elevated temperatures during machining. Consequently, their tendency to maintain a high strength at elevated temperatures leads to elevated cutting forces. On this account, the development of an adequate coating for machining Ni alloys is today an important challenge. Nowadays, TiAlN is well known because of its excellent overall cutting performance. However, Al2O3 possesses better chemical and thermal properties than TiAlN, especially regarding hot hardness, oxidation resistance, diffusion resistance. Motivated by the advantages offered by PVD-Technology, γ-Al2O3 was synthesized by reactive bipolar pulsed magnetron sputtering in previous works. PVD-Processes allow the deposition of insulating coatings such as alumina at reduced temperatures, which implies a lower substrate thermal load. At the same time using PVD-Technology it is possible to produce high compressive stresses in the coatings (high alternating thermal stress resistance), keep sharp cutting edges, synthesize pure structures and deposit various coating combinations such as multilayer multilayer TiAlN + γ-Al2O3. Therefore, a PVD-multilayer coating TiAlN + γ-Al2O3 is very promising for machining of Ni alloys such as Inconel 718. However, due to the very different characteristics of the nitrides and oxides, particularly the good coating cohesion of this coating concept constitutes a challenge. In this work different multilayer combinations were deposited on cemented carbide cutting inserts. In order to improve the adhesion between the nitride and oxide layers and consequently the coating cohesion, a special gradation was developed. The reactive gas flows (N2 and O2) was gradually changed during the coating deposition. The result was a soft gradation consisting of different nitrides and oxides species synthesized in very thin layers. Tribological tests demonstrated that the developed soft gradation offers an important improvement of the coating cohesion and fatigue resistance. For the evaluation of the coating adhesion and cohesion calo-, Rockwell- and scratch-tests were carried out. Mechanical properties were investigated by impact.

The wetland site of Verrebroek “Dok” situated in northern Belgium is one of the largest and best dated locations of Mesolithic material in northwestern Europe. Salvage excavations organized since 1992 at this large, unstratified open-air settlement have revealed more than 50 spatially independent artifact concentrations with traces of numerous fireplaces. Single entity dating of charred hazelnut shells from surface-hearths and charcoal from hearth-pits was used to obtain information not only on the sites duration, but also on the relation between the surface hearths and the hearth-pits. The dates were also used to look at discrepancies between the radiocarbon chronology and the typo-chronology of the lithic artifacts.

Adult, healthy Manila clams, Ruditapes philippinarum, were inoculated in the laboratory with different, possibly pathogenic bacteria species to study the cellular immune responses. Challenging the clams with Vibrio P1, the causative agent of brown ring disease, induced significant increased total hemocyte counts three days post-challenge. The triggering role of the number of bacteria in the inoculum suggested a threshold for inducing the host response. In addition, a significant decrease of hyalinocytes and an increase of granulocytes revealed a modification in hemocyte population balance. No response was observed in individuals that received either heat killed-Vibrio P1, V. anguillarum or V. pelagius. These experiments demonstrate in R. philippinarum the influence of bacterial parameters on the selective induction of host immunodefence mechanisms. The biological processes by which intra-pallial inoculation of Vibrio P1 stimulates the internal defence system of the host has not yet been identified but the role of some bacterial factors (toxins, adherence capacity) is discussed.