In beef cattle, reactivity to humans or handling by humans is considered a safety issue for farmers and to impact on productivity. Several testing procedures, associated with potential risks for both ...humans and animals, have been developed, involving simple human approach, free animals individually handled, or restraint in handling facilities. We investigated how such tests may be related to each other and which dimensions they reveal. Of particular interest is the tolerance towards human approach or handling involving human or chute restraint, and whether they could be linked to the daily activity of animals and their growth, potentially enabling this activity to be used as a proxy for evaluating this reactivity to humans and handing. We observed 498 Limousin breeding bulls, of up to 14 months of age, at a bull testing station during standardised behavioural tests involving humans and handling: human approach at the feed barrier or out of the home pen during individual morphological evaluation, docility test where the experimenter attempts to maintain the bull in the corner of a test pen, and during restraint in a chute for weighing. Routinely collected on farm at approximately 8 months of age, bulls' reaction scores to human approach were also available. The animals wore MEDRIA collars with 3D-accelerometers that continually monitored their daily activities (ingestion, rumination, rest, etc.). Three 2-week periods spanning 4 months were analysed. We conducted a varimax-rotated principal component analysis (PCA) on behavioural tests: the first component (23.63% of the variability) summarised scores during restraint in the chute, and the second component (19.36% of the variability) summarised avoidance distance score at the feed barrier, score during morphological evaluation, and docility score. The daily activity of the bulls was consistent across the three 2-week periods that were analysed and was not related to the PCA dimensions (P > 0.1). Animals that could be approached at a closer distance reached a heavier weight at the age of 400 days (P < 0.001). In conclusion, within the limits of the test used, breeding bulls' reactivity to humans or handling comprised at least two dimensions: reactivity to human approach and reactivity to restraint (in the chute); which cannot be predicted from the animal's daily activity. A bull's acceptance of being approached by humans was positively related to its growth. (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Animal Consortium. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
The GALAXIES beamline at the SOLEIL synchrotron is dedicated to inelastic X‐ray scattering (IXS) and photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) in the 2.3–12 keV hard X‐ray range. These two techniques offer ...powerful complementary methods of characterization of materials with bulk sensitivity, chemical and orbital selectivity, resonant enhancement and high resolving power. After a description of the beamline components and endstations, the beamline capabilities are demonstrated through a selection of recent works both in the solid and gas phases and using either IXS or HAXPES approaches. Prospects for studies on liquids are discussed.
Group A rotavirus is a major cause of acute gastroenteritis in young children worldwide. A prospective surveillance network has been set up in France to investigate rotavirus infections and to detect ...the emergence of potentially epidemic strains.
From 2014 to 2017, rotavirus-positive stool samples were collected from 2394 children under 5 years old attending the paediatric emergency units of 13 large hospitals. Rotaviruses were genotyped by RT-PCR with regard to their outer capsid proteins VP4 and VP7.
Genotyping of 2421 rotaviruses showed that after a marked increase in G9P8 (32.1%) during the 2014–2015 season, G9P8 became the predominant genotype during the 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 seasons with detection rates of 64.1% and 77.3%, respectively, whereas G1P8 were detected at low rates of 16.8% and 6.6%, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis of the partial rotavirus VP7 and VP4 coding genes revealed that all of these G9P 8 strains belonged to the lineage III and the P 8-3 lineage, respectively, and shared the same genetic background (G9-P8-I1-R1-C1-M1-A1-N1-T1-E1-H1) as did most of previously detected G9P8 strains and particularly the emerging G9P8 strains from the 2004–2005 season in France.
G9P8 rotaviruses have become the predominant circulating genotype for the first time since their emergence a decade ago. In the absence of rotavirus immunization programmes in France, our data give an insight into the natural fluctuation of rotavirus genotypes in a non-vaccinated population and provide a base line for a better interpretation of data in European countries with routine rotavirus vaccination.
The potential for disease transmission at the interface of wildlife, domestic animals and humans has become a major concern for public health and conservation biology. Research in this subject is ...commonly conducted at local scales while the regional context is neglected. We argue that prevalence of infection at local and regional levels is influenced by three mechanisms occurring at the landscape level in a metacommunity context. First, (1) dispersal, colonization, and extinction of pathogens, reservoir or vector hosts, and nonreservoir hosts, may be due to stochastic and niche‐based processes, thus determining distribution of all species, and then their potential interactions, across local communities (metacommunity structure). Second, (2) anthropogenic processes may drive environmental filtering of hosts, nonhosts, and pathogens. Finally, (3) phylogenetic diversity relative to reservoir or vector host(s), within and between local communities may facilitate pathogen persistence and circulation. Using a metacommunity approach, public heath scientists may better evaluate the factors that predispose certain times and places for the origin and emergence of infectious diseases. The multidisciplinary approach we describe fits within a comprehensive One Health and Ecohealth framework addressing zoonotic infectious disease outbreaks and their relationship to their hosts, other animals, humans, and the environment.
A metacommunity framework can help explain the occurrence patterns of diseases by linking the spatial, ecological, and evolutionary relationships between pathogens, hosts (including vectors), and non‐host species.
The problem of the stabilization of the flow in a reach is investigated. To study this problem, we consider the nonlinear Saint-Venant equations, written as a system of two conservation laws ...perturbed by non-homogeneous terms. The non-homogeneous terms are due to the effects of the bottom slope, the slope's friction, and also the lateral supply. The boundary actions are defined as the position of both spillways located at the extremities of the reach. It is assumed that the height of the flow is measured at both extremities. Assuming that the non-homogeneous terms are sufficiently small in C 1 -norm, we design stabilizing boundary output feedback controllers, i.e., we derive a new strategy which depends only on the output and which ensures that the water level and water flow converge to the equilibrium. Moreover, the speed of the convergence is shown to be exponential. The proof of this result is based on the estimation of the effects on the non-homogeneous terms on the evolution of the Riemann coordinates. This stability result is validated both by simulating on a real river data and by experimenting on a micro-channel setup.
This paper provides an extensive vertical and longitudinal description of the biogeochemistry along an East-West transect of 3000 km across the Mediterranean Sea during summer 2008 (BOUM cruise). ...During this period of strong stratification, the distribution of nutrients, particulate and dissolved organic carbon (DOC), nitrogen (DON) and phosphorus (DOP) were examined to produce a detailed spatial and vertically extended description of the elemental stoichiometry of the Mediterranean Sea. Surface waters were depleted in nutrients and the thickness of this depleted layer increased towards the East from about 10 m in the Gulf of Lion to more than 100 m in the Levantine basin, with the phosphacline deepening to a greater extent than that for corresponding nitracline and thermocline depths. We used the minimum oxygen concentration through the water column in combination with 2 fixed concentrations of dissolved oxygen to distinguish an intermediate layer (Mineralization Layer; ML) from surface (Biogenic Layer; BL), and deep layers (DL). Whilst each layer was represented by different water masses, this approach allowed us to propose a schematic box-plot representation of the biogeochemical functioning of the two Mediterranean basins. Despite the increasing oligotrophic nature and the degree of P-depletion along the West to East gradient strong similarities were encountered between eastern and western ecosystems. Within the BL, the C:N:P ratios in all pools largely exceeded the Redfield ratios, but surprisingly, the nitrate vs. phosphate ratios in the ML and DL tended towards the canonical Redfield values in both basins. A change in particulate matter composition has been identified by a C increase relative to N and P along the whole water column in the western basin and between BL and ML in the eastern one. Our data showed a noticeable stability of the DOC:DON ratio (12–13) throughout the Mediterranean Sea. This is in good agreement with a P-limitation of microbial activities but in contradiction of the accepted concept that N is recycled faster than C. The western and eastern basins had similar or close biological functioning. Differences come from variability in the allochtonous nutrient sources in terms of quantity and quality, and to the specific hydrodynamic features of the Mediterranean basins.
GALAXIES is an in‐vacuum undulator hard X‐ray micro‐focused beamline dedicated to the study of the electronic structure of materials with high energy resolution using both photoelectron spectroscopy ...and inelastic X‐ray scattering and under both non‐resonant (NR‐IXS) and resonant (RIXS) conditions. Due to the penetrating power of hard X‐rays and the `photon‐in/photon‐out' technique, the sample environment is not a limitation. Materials under extreme conditions, for example in diamond anvil cells or catalysis chambers, thus constitute a major research direction. Here, the design and performance of the inelastic X‐ray scattering end‐station that operates in the energy range from ∼4 keV up to 12 keV is reported, and its capabilities are highlighted using a selection of data taken from recently performed experiments. The ability to scan `on the fly' the incident and scattered/emitted X‐ray energies, and the sample position enables fast data collection and high experimental throughput. A diamond X‐ray transmission phase retarder, which can be used to generate circularly polarized light, will also be discussed in the light of the recent RIXS–MCD approach.
The GALAXIES beamline, an in‐vacuum undulator hard X‐ray micro‐focused beamline at Synchrotron SOLEIL dedicated to the study of the electronic structure of materials with high energy resolution using both photoelectron spectroscopy and inelastic X‐ray scattering and under both non‐resonant and resonant conditions, is described
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![Predominance of G9P[8] rota...](http://api.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/image/issn/XR4PS5YY4K/1198-743X_1469-0691/small "Predominance of G9P[8] rotavirus strains throughout France, 2014–2017")
