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International audience; During the Late Pleistocene, an ice cap temporarily rested on the highest summit of the Black Forest, Feldberg, and on the surrounding region. Moraines inside the last glaciation maximum ice extent document subsequent glacial standstills and/or re-advances, but the chronology of the deglaciation remains largely unknown. In Sankt Wilhelmer Tal, moraines were mapped, and suitable moraine boulders were sampled for 10 Be cosmic ray exposure (CRE) dating. Equilibrium line altitudes (ELAs) during moraine formation were reconstructed to evaluate whether these can be used for local stratigraphical correlations. Geomorphological mapping revealed numerous icemarginal positions in the main valley and in two tributary valleys. CRE ages and ELAs indicate two discrete phases of glacial standstills and/or re-advances by 17-16 ka at the latest and no later than 14 ka, respectively. Differing ELAs across the study area preclude the use of ELAs for local stratigraphical correlations. Recalculated 10 Be CRE ages from other localities in Central Europe indicate similar periods of moraine formation, thus raising the question of a common climatic forcing. Additional sets of CRE ages are needed to answer this question. In addition, future studies should concentrate on determining the age of the last glaciation maximum in the Black Forest.

Cosmic-ray exposure (CRE) dating of boulders on terminal moraines has become a well-established technique to reconstruct glacier chronologies. If topographic obstructions are present in the surroundings of sampling sites, CRE ages need to be corrected for topographic shielding. In recent years, geographical information system (GIS)-based approaches have been developed to compute shielding factors with elevation data, particularly two toolboxes for the ESRI ArcGIS software. So far, the output of the most recent toolbox (Li, 2018) has only been validated with a limited number of field-data-based shielding factors. Additionally, it has not been systematically evaluated how the spatial resolution of the input elevation data affects the output of the toolbox and whether a correction for vegetation leads to considerably more precise shielding factors. This paper addresses these issues by assessing the output of the toolbox with an extensive set of field-data-based shielding factors. Commonly used elevation data with different spatial resolutions were tested as input. To assess the impact of the different methods on CRE ages, ages of boulders with different 10Be concentrations at sites with varying topography and 10Be production rates were first recalculated with GIS-based shielding factors and then with field-data-based shielding factors. For sampling sites in forested low mountainous areas and in high Alpine settings, the shielding factors were independent of the spatial resolution of the input elevation data. Vegetation-corrected elevation data allowed more precise shielding factors to be computed for sites in a forested low mountainous area. In most cases, recalculating CRE ages of the same sampling sites with different shielding factors led to age shifts between 0 % and 2 %. Only one age changed by 5 %. It is shown that the use of elevation data with a very high resolution requires precise x and y coordinates of sampling sites and that there is otherwise a risk that small-scale objects in the vicinity of sampling sites will be misinterpreted as topographic barriers. Overall, the toolbox provides an interesting avenue for the determination of shielding factors. Together with the guidelines presented here, it should be more widely used.

International audience

Objectives Globally, norovirus (NoV) is the leading cause of gastroenteritis infection among all ages. The development of prevention strategies in the field of occupational health requires a detailed knowledge about the impact of the disease on employees. This review article aims not only at evaluating the burden of NoV outbreaks on staff but also at discussing implications for future prevention strategies. Methods Published NoV outbreaks in Central and Northern Europe were identified via a systematic literature search. Additionally, published NoV outbreaks in Germany were detected via a manual literature search. Key epidemiological data, as the number of symptomatic staff, was then extracted. The proportion of affected employees was calculated for each dataset (single NoV outbreaks or aggregated data of multiple outbreaks). Results Overall, 116 datasets were extracted from 72 relevant articles. 144,852 persons were affected by NoV gastroenteritis, 25,408 out of them (17.5%) were employees. 23,874 (94.0%) of them fell sick during outbreaks in hospitals and related settings. NoV cases among personnel in food establishments were reported only sporadically (mean ratio: 0.01). Conclusions Employees in hospitals and community facilities seem quantitatively to be most vulnerable towards NoV epidemics. Therefore, high quality of prevention measures in these settings, respective compliance with prevention strategies should have the highest priority. The disease can be considered as an occupational disease, even regularly without long-term consequences. Following work safety rules, a vaccination for vulnerable groups should be recommended if the vaccine development turns out to be successful.

(1) Background: Hazardous substances in surgical smoke that is generated during laser or electrosurgery pose a potential health hazard. In Germany, the Technical Rules for Hazardous Substances (TRGS 525) have included recommendations for appropriate protective measures since 2014. Up to now, no empirical data has been available on the extent to which recommendations have been implemented in practice. (2) Methods: In 2018, 7089 surgeons in hospitals and outpatient practices were invited by email to participate in an online survey. In addition, 219 technical assistants were interviewed. The questionnaire dealt with knowledge of, and attitudes toward, the hazard potential of surgical smoke, as well as the availability and actual use of protective measures. Furthermore, manufacturers and distributors of smoke extraction devices were asked to give their assessment of the development of prevention in recent years. (3) Results: The survey response rate was 5% (surgeons) and 65% (technical assistant staff). Half of all surgeons assumed that there were high health hazards of surgical smoke without taking protective measures. Operating room nurses were more often concerned (88%). Only a few felt properly informed about the topic. The TRGS recommendations had been read by a minority of the respondents. In total, 52% of hospital respondents and 65% of the respondents in outpatient facilities reported any type of special suction system to capture surgical smoke. One-fifth of respondents from hospitals reported that technical measures had improved since the introduction of the TRGS 525. Fifty-one percent of the surgeons in hospitals and 70% of the surgeons in outpatient facilities &ldquo, mostly&rdquo, or &ldquo, always&rdquo, paid attention to avoiding surgical smoke. The most important reason for non-compliance with recommendations was a lack of problem awareness or thoughtlessness. Twelve industrial interviewees who assessed the situation and the development of prevention in practice largely confirmed the prevention gaps observed, only slight developments were observed in recent years. (4) Conclusions: The low response rate among surgeons and the survey results both indicate a major lack of interest and knowledge. Among other measures, team interventions with advanced training are needed in the future.

Les fluctuations glaciaires dans le bassin versant amont du Drac Blanc (massif des Écrins, Alpes françaises) n’ont pas encore fait l’objet d’une étude détaillée. Pour combler cette lacune, nous proposons une chronologie relative des dépôts morainiques du glacier du Drac Blanc. Notre étude se base sur l’observation morphométrique des dépôts morainiques dans le vallon de Rougnoux. Nous avons réalisé un modèle numérique de terrain en appliquant l’approche « Structure-from-motion ». Le modèle numérique de terrain a permis de préciser la chronologie relative. De plus, il a rendu possible un calcul du volume potentiel du glacier à partir de l’équation établie par BAHR et al. (1997). Grâce à l’analyse des dépôts d’origine glaciaire et du modèle numérique de terrain, nous avons identifié quatre stades et un sous-stade morainiques dans le vallon de Rougnoux. Glacier fluctuations in the Drac Blanc catchment (Massif des Écrins, French Alps) are not well understood. To fill this gap, we propose a relative chronology of the Drac Blanc glacier's retreat. Our study is based on a morphometric investigation of the glacial deposits in the Rougnoux valley. We developed a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the Rougnoux valley using over 20 aerial photographs based on the 'Structure from motion' approach. The DEM enabled us to improve the relative chronology and estimate the glacier's volume based on a power law established by BAHR et al. (1997). In the Rougnoux valley, we identified four moraine stages and one sub-stage through the interpretation of the DEM and the morphometric investigation of the glacial deposits.