Reflections on a Decentralised Approach to Transitional Justice in the DR Congo. Egmont Africa Policy Brief No. 33 April 2021.

After decades of conflict, state violence and widespread impunity, recent political changes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo seem to be creating renewed prospects for the establishment of transitional justice processes. President Tshisekedi has signalled his interest in creating such processes, while local activists and the UN mission in the DRC are using this opportunity to further press their long-standing demands in this area. This policy brief is inspired by discussions that took place at a workshop organised in January 2021 in Kinshasa by civil society groups to outline what transitional justice in the DRC should look like. While many important points were discussed on this occasion, one interesting question that was raised was whether it might be feasible and appropriate to engage in decentralised approaches to transitional justice. This brief aims to contribute to this reflection by outlining the three forms that such a decentralisation could take – minimal, maximal and grounded – and how this may be put into practice in the DRC

Regrets, apologies and repair for Belgium’s colonial harms. Egmont Commentary 14 July 2020.

Former colonial countries appear increasingly willing to engage in processes akin to transitional justice in order to confront the legacies of their colonial past. In this blog post, Valerie Arnould discusses recent initiatives in Belgium meant to address and repair its colonial harms in Central Africa. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s independence from Belgian colonial rule, King Philippe expressed his “deepest regrets for the wounds from the past” in a letter addressed to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi. A few days earlier, the Belgian parliament the Belgian parliament agreed to the principle of setting up a ‘truth commission’ that will investigate Belgium’s colonial past. While these initiatives could signal a genuine willingness to transform Belgium’s relations with its colonial past, this will only happen if they are not treated as expedient measures to close the door on the past but instead are mobilised as a means to commit to a profound societal transformation

Genetic parameters of stearoyl coenzyme-A desaturase 9 activity estimated by test-day model

peer reviewedDairy and beef products account for a large part of fat intake in human nutrition and therefore can be linked to dietary diseases. The stearoyl Coenzyme-A desaturase 9 (delta-9) gene was identified as a potential functional candidate gene affecting milk fat composition in dairy cattle. The objective of this research was to estimate the genetic parameters of delta-9 activity indicator traits and to study the relationship between delta-9 activity as described by these indicator traits and common milk production traits. A total of 126,331 test-day records were obtained from 14,259 Holstein (> 84% Holstein gene) heifers belonging to 105 herds. The studied traits were milk yield, percentages of fat and protein, content of monounsaturated fatty acids, and 3 ratios reflecting the delta-9 activity (C14:1/ C14:0; C16:1/C16:0 and C18:1/C18). The used model was a multiple-trait random regressions test-day model and included as fixed effects: herd x date of test, class of age, and month x year. Random effects were herd x year of calving, permanent environmental, additive genetic, and residual effects. The fatty acid contents were estimated by mid-infrared spectrometry. Delta-9 activity varied within year and lactation. The obtained heritability estimates of delta-9 as well as the genetic and phenotypic correlation varied also through lactation. This study suggests potential improvements of delta-9 activity and subsequently milk fat composition can be achieved by animal management but also by breeding and animal selection

Variability of major fatty acid contents in Luxembourg dairy cattle

Common human health concerns and imminent needs for more sustainable nutrition patterns require from dairy industry and farmers a. o. a closer look at milk fatty acid (FA) profile. Therefore up to date calibration equations using mid-infrared (MIR) spectrometry were developed permitting the estimation of FA contents in bovine milk. The aim of this study was to estimate the variability of the major FA from data collected during the Luxembourg routine milk recording. A total of 148,296 milk samples with MIR-spectra were collected from October 2007 to January 2009 on 36,522 cows belonging to 5 breeds in 718 herds and scanned by Foss MilkoScan FT6000. The contents of saturated FA, monounsaturated FA, omega-9, short chain FA, medium chain FA, and long chain FA were obtained using Belgian MIR calibration equations. Analyzes were done by a multi-trait multi-lactation animal mixed models. Fixed effects were herd*test date, lactation stage lactation number, age*lactation number, and breed effect. Random effects were herd*year of calving, permanent environment within and across lactation, animal effect, and residual effect. Breed differences as well as lactation effects were observed. Our results showed moderate heritability values suggesting the existence of a FA genetic variability. The variability of the first Luxembourg breeding values was large enough to develop selection tools for improving the nutritional quality of bovine milk fat.Peer reviewe

Estimating daily yield and content of major fatty acids from single milking

Reducing the frequency of milk recording and the number of recorded samples per test-day could be a solution in order to reduce costs of official milk recording. However, fewer samples lead to a decrease in the accuracy of predicted daily yields. Unfortunately, the current published equations use the milking interval that is often not available and/or reliable in practice. The first objective of this study was to propose models using easily available traits. Therefore the milking interval was replaced by a combination of data easily recorded by milk recording. The second objective of this study was to enlarge the previous investigations to milk fatty acids (FA) in order to propose a practical method for estimating accurate daily milk, fat and major FA yields from single milking. The fit goodness of proposed models was evaluated based on the correlation values between the estimated and observed daily yields in addition to the calculation of the mean square error. Obtained results are promising. Correlation values were comprised between 96.4% and 97.6% when daily yield were estimated from morning milking, and from 96.9% to 98.3% when daily yield were estimated from evening milking. The combination of records related to lactation stage, month of test, milk yield, and fat could replace the milking interval effect. Because of their simplicity, proposed models would be easy to implement

Genetic variability of lactoferrin content estimated by mid-infrared spectrometry in bovine milk

The effects of lactoferrin (LF) on the immune system have already been shown by many studies. Unfortunately, the current methods used to measure LF levels in milk do not permit the study of the genetic variability of lactoferrin or the performance of routine genetic evaluations. The first aim of this research was to derive a calibration equation permitting the prediction of LF in milk by mid-infrared spectrometry (MIR). The calibration with partial least squares on 69 samples showed a ratio of standard error of cross-validation to standard deviation equal to 1.98. Based on this value, the calibration equation was used to establish an LF indicator trait (predicted LF; pLF) on a large number of milk samples (n = 7,690). A subsequent study of its variability was conducted, which confirmed that stage of lactation and lactation number influence the overall pLF level. Small differences in mean pLF among 7 dairy breeds were also observed. The pLF content of Jersey milk was significantly higher than that in Holstein milk. Therefore, the choice of breed could change the expected LF level. Heritability estimated for pLF was 19.7%. The genetic and phenotypic correlations between somatic cell score and pLF were 0.04 and 0.26, respectively. As somatic cell score increases in presence of mastitis, this observation seems to indicate that pLF, or a function of observed pLF, compared with expected LF might have potential as an indicator of mastitis. The negative genetic correlation (−0.36) between milk yield and pLF could indicate an undesirable effect of selection for high milk production on the overall LF level

Impact of geocoding methods on associations between long-term exposure to urban air pollution and lung function

Background: Errors in address geocodes may affect estimates of the effects of air pollution on health.Objective: We investigated the impact of four geocoding techniques on the association between urban air pollution estimated with a fine-scale (10 m × 10 m) dispersion model and lung function in adults.Methods: We measured forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) in 354 adult residents of Grenoble, France, who were participants in two well-characterized studies, the Epidemiological Study on the Genetics and Environment on Asthma (EGEA) and the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS). Home addresses were geocoded using individual building matching as the reference approach and three spatial interpolation approaches. We used a dispersion model to estimate mean PM10 and nitrogen dioxide concentrations at each participant's address during the 12 months preceding their lung function measurements. Associations between exposures and lung function parameters were adjusted for individual confounders and same-day exposure to air pollutants. The geocoding techniques were compared with regard to geographical distances between coordinates, exposure estimates, and associations between the estimated exposures and health effects.Results: Median distances between coordinates estimated using the building matching and the three interpolation techniques were 26.4, 27.9, and 35.6 m. Compared with exposure estimates based on building matching, PM10 concentrations based on the three interpolation techniques tended to be overestimated. When building matching was used to estimate exposures, a one-interquartile range increase in PM10 (3.0 μg/m3) was associated with a 3.72-point decrease in FVC% predicted (95% CI: -0.56, -6.88) and a 3.86-point decrease in FEV1% predicted (95% CI: -0.14, -3.24). The magnitude of associations decreased when other geocoding approaches were used [e.g., for FVC% predicted -2.81 (95% CI: -0.26, -5.35) using NavTEQ or 2.08 (95% CI -4.63, 0.47, p = 0.11) using Google Maps].Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the choice of geocoding technique may influence estimated health effects when air pollution exposures are estimated using a fine-scale exposure model.Citation: Jacquemin B, Lepeule J, Boudier A, Arnould C, Benmerad M, Chappaz C, Ferran J, Kauffmann F, Morelli X, Pin I, Pison C, Rios I, Temam S, Künzli N, Slama R, Siroux V. 2013. Impact of geocoding methods on associations between long-term exposure to urban air pollution and lung function. Environ Health Perspect 121:1054-1060; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1206016

Développement d’outils de gestion innovatifs et utiles aux éleveurs soucieux d’améliorer leur système de production et la qualité de leurs produits

In the current complex economical context, novel strategies are needed to help local dairy farmers to face the European dairy sector crisis. This thesis was initiated in the framework of ManageMilk project and was globally aimed to investigate the possibility to develop some innovative and practical management tools helping dairy farmers in their daily decisions. To develop such management tools, several conditions must be fulfilled. Firstly, used data must be relevant. According to the literature, the milk composition, and in particular, the milk fatty acid (FA) profile, appears to be a suitable trait allowing useful information about the dairy cow’s health status or about the management system efficiency. These data must also be easily available at low cost from milk recording organization. Recently, the MIR spectrometry offers the possibility to build routinely cheaper and more important databases. To develop management tools, milk samples have to be collected using comparable sampling methods. Unfortunately, in order to decrease the milk quality control costs, the International Committee for Animal Recording allows alternative sampling schemes including the collection of samples from morning or evening only milkings. This alternative sampling scheme can interact with phenotypic and genetic parameters. Therefore, additionally to the development of conversion equations, this thesis is establishing if morning or evening only milkings are genetically different traits. Last condition concerns a useful phenotypic and genetic variability. Milk FA profile is, among others, altered by genetics. So, one paper of this thesis concerns the setup of a useful genetic evaluation model able to estimate accurately the genetic part of milk fat composition variations. Routine genetic evaluation of production traits in dairy cattle commonly uses random regression model (RRM). Recently, “splines” have been advocated as a good alternative to Legendre polynomials (LP) for analyzing test-day yields in RRM. Therefore, several models are compared. Obtained results show the possibility to propose a practical and robust method for estimating accurate daily major FA production from single milking, useful for a further development of practical management tools helping dairy farmers in their daily decisions

Blind vertrouwen op het Internationaal Strafhof helpt niet in de strijd tegen straffeloosheid = Blind faith in the International Criminal Court does not help in the fight against ????????. Egmont Commentary, 9 July 2018

The ICC’s acquittal on 11 June 2018 of Jean-Pierre Bemba, former DRC Vice-President and leader of Congolese rebel group turned political party, the Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo (MLC), has kicked up a veritable storm. The ICC Appeals Chamber overturned the 21 March 2016 conviction of Bemba by the ICC Trial Chamber for crimes against humanity and war crimes for acts of murder, rape and pillaging committed by MLC troops in the Central African Republic between October 2002 and March 2003