Preserving Corn

Corn is not only a favorite vegetable, but it is also the source of corn starch, cornmeal, corn oil, corn syrup, bourbon, and laundry starch

Louis Émile Durandelle (1839-1917) : un photographe au service des architectes

« Photographe du nouvel opéra et des élèves de l’École des Beaux-arts », comme il se désignait lui-même dans les annonces publicitaires, Louis Émile Durandelle collabora entre 1860 et 1890 avec de nombreux architectes comme Charles Garnier, Édouard Corroyer, Ambroise Baudry, Paul Abadie, Edmond Guillaume, Juste Lisch ou Jean Louis Pascal. Il produit ainsi une documentation photographique des chantiers parisiens de construction et de restauration. On lui doit entre autres un important corpus p..

Les archives du ministère des Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones (1945-1991) aux Archives nationales : une source pour la connaissance de l’architecture

Créé en 1879 et supprimé en 1991, le ministère des Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones (P.T.T.) assurait le bon fonctionnement des communications matérielles et immatérielles en France. L’administration des P.T.T. disposait sur tout le territoire, de plus de 14 000 bâtiments qui, malgré leur apparente banalité, étaient immédiatement identifiables dans le paysage urbain et rural. Leur programme répondait à des considérations aussi bien techniques qu’administratives et esthétiques tout en s’inscrivant le plus souvent dans les caractéristiques stylistiques propres à l’époque de leur construction. Consciente du symbole que représente l’édifice postal, l’administration des Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones, a souhaité dès la fin du xixe siècle exercer un contrôle sur son patrimoine immobilier. La création d’un cadre des architectes des P.T.T. ainsi que d’un service dévolu à la construction et à la gestion des bâtiments ont permis la réalisation d’édifices riches de sens, véritables témoignages de l’ère de l’information et de la communication. Les archives de l’administration des Postes, Télégraphes et Téléphones, aujourd’hui conservées aux Archives nationales à Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, sont une source précieuse pour qui s’intéresse à un édifice postal ou de télécommunication en particulier ou plus généralement à cette typologie architecturale. L’article se propose d’en montrer les principales caractéristiques.Founded in 1879 and finally dissolved in 1991, the French Ministry of Posts, Telegraphs and Telecommunications guaranteed the smooth running of material and immaterial communications in France. It was the owner of some 14,000 buildings across the country, which, in spite of their ordinariness, were immediately recognisable in the urban and rural landscape. Their programmes met the technical, administrative and aesthetic requirements of their time, in keeping with stylistic characteristics appropriate to their period of their construction. From the end of the nineteenth century, aware of the symbolic significance of the post office building, the Ministry of Posts, Telegraphs and Telecommunications exercised full control over the design of its properties. The creation of a group of postal architects as well as a service dedicated to the construction of buildings allowed the conception of buildings rich in sensibility, buildings that became true testimonies of an era of information and communication. The archives of the administration of the Posts, Telegraphs and Telecommunications, housed today at the French National Archives in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine (north of Paris), are a precious source for research in postal architecture, telecommunications, or architectural typology in general. This article aims to demonstrate the main characteristics of these archives

Conclusion de la journée d’études

Charlotte Leblanc conclut la journée d’études en résumant les nombreuses questions soulevées au cours des différentes interventions.Charlotte Leblanc ends up the study day and summarizes the various speeches. By doing so, she puts emphasis on all the questions that aroused and would need to be further discussed.Zum Abschluss des Studientages fasst Charlotte Leblanc die zahlreichen Diskussionspunkte der Tagung noch einmal zusammen und zeigt gemeinsame Fragen und Aussagen der verschieden Vorträge auf

Electric field dependent spectroscopy of single nanocrystal systems

A suite of single molecule spectroscopic techniques and data analysis methods were implemented to explore the complex role of electric fields in single semiconductor nanocrystal photophysics. This dissertation spans the synthesis, characterization, biological applications, and photophysics of semiconductor nanocrystals. The core single molecule techniques employed in the current work include time-resolved fluorescence, time-correlated single photon counting, single molecule spectroscopy, and photon correlation spectroscopy. Various electrode devices were patterned to investigate the optical properties of single nanocrystal systems under an applied electric field. Electric field dependent spectroscopy and data analysis have revealed distributed kinetics and multiple charging of nanocrystals. In addition, interactions of nanocrystal excited states with plasmonic gold films have revealed strong enhancement of multiple exciton emission from single nanocrystals, and control by an applied electric field. The broader implications of this work can be extended to bioimaging, light harvesting, electro-optics, and lasing technologies

Invited review: Completeness of reporting of experiments: REFLECTing on a year of animal trials in the Journal of Dairy Science

Reproducibility is an essential element of the scientific process, and it requires clear and complete reporting of study design, conduct, and analysis. In the human and animal health literature, incomplete reporting is associated with biased effect estimates. Moreover, incomplete reporting precludes knowledge synthesis and undervalues the resources allocated to the primary research. The Reporting Guidelines for Randomized Controlled Trials for Livestock and Food Safety (REFLECT) statement, published in 2010, is a checklist developed by expert consensus to provide guidance on what study elements should be reported in any intervention trial (designed experiment) involving livestock. The Journal of Dairy Science (JDS) has recently endorsed the use of reporting guidelines. To assess the status of reporting of controlled experiments in JDS and to provide a baseline for future comparison, we evaluated the reporting of 18 items from the REFLECT statement checklist in a sample of 137 controlled trials published in JDS in 2017. Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts for relevance and then evaluated a sample of 120 papers reporting controlled trials (experimental studies involving at least one intervention and one comparison or control group), using yes or no questions. Although some items, such as treatment details and statistical analysis, were well reported, other areas, including sample size justification, allocation concealment, blinding, study flow, baseline data, and ancillary analyses, were often not reported or were incompletely described. This work highlights the need for authors and reviewers to take advantage of guidelines and checklists for reporting. Adherence to reporting guidelines can help improve the completeness of reporting of research, expedite and better inform the peer-review process, increase clarity for the reader, and allow for knowledge synthesis, such as meta-analysis, all of which serve to increase the value of the work conducted

A practice-related risk score (PRS): a DOPPS-derived aggregate quality index for haemodialysis facilities

Background. The Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS) database was used to develop and validate a practice-related risk score (PRS) based on modifiable practices to help facilities assess potential areas for improving patient care. Methods. Relative risks (RRs) from a multivariable Cox mortality model, based on observational haemodialysis (HD) patient data from DOPPS I (1996-2001, seven countries), were used. The four practices were the percent of patients with Kt/V >= 1.2, haemoglobin >= 11 g/dl (110 g/l), albumin >= 4.0 g/dl (40g/l) and catheter use, and were significantly related to mortality when modelled together. DOPPS II data (2002-2004, 12 countries) were used to evaluate the relationship between PRS and mortality risk using Cox regression. Results. For facilities in DOPPS I and II, changes in PRS over time were significantly correlated with changes in the standardized mortality ratio (SMR). The PRS ranged from 1.0 to 2.1. Overall, the adjusted RR of death was 1.05 per 0.1 points higher PRS (P < 0.0001). For facilities in both DOPPS I and II (N = 119), a 0.2 decrease in PRS was associated with a 0.19 decrease in SMR (P = 0.005). On average, facilities that improved PRS practices showed significantly reduced mortality over the same time frame. Conclusions. The PRS assesses modifiable HD practices that are linked to improved patient survival. Further refinements might lead to improvements in the PRS and will address regional variations in the PRS/mortality relationship

The efficacy of teat sealants in dairy cows at dry-off to prevent new intra-mammary infections during the dry-period or clinical mastitis during early lactation: A protocol for a systematic review

Rationale: The majority of antibiotic use in the dairy industry is for intramammary infections (IMI), with a large portion of this aimed at treating and preventing IMI during the dry period (Lam et al., 2102). During dry off, formation of the teat-canal keratin plug plays an important role in susceptibility to IMI (Huxley et al., 2002), but there is wide variation between cows on time to complete closure of the teat-canal, or indeed if closure occurs at all (Dingwell et al., 2003). In heifers, pre-partum IMI is an important risk factor for the development of clinical mastitis in early lactation, and the impact of this disease on future udder health and productivity is far greater than in multiparous animals (Piepers et al., 2009). Moreover, the incidence of clinical mastitis at freshening in heifers is roughly double that of multiparous cows (Ali Naqvi et al., 2018). Teat sealants provide a non-antibiotic strategy to prevent IMI in the pre-calving period, which is of increasing importance due to concern for antimicrobial use and its relationship with the development of antimicrobial resistance (WHO, 2015). Understanding the efficacy of these products is essential to optimizing their use in order to decrease reliance on antibiotics for both treatment and prevention. Systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials in these areas will yield the highest level of evidence for efficacy of treatment under field conditions (Sargeant and O’Connor, 2014). Establishing the efficacy of teat sealants at dry-off, and pre-partum in heifers, to reduce the incidence of both clinical mastitis and/or IMI, will serve to improve decision makers’ ability to engage in effective stewardship of antibiotics thorough the strategic use of non-antibiotic alternatives

The efficacy of antibiotic treatments in dairy cows at dry-off to prevent new intramammary infections during the dry-period or clinical mastitis during early lactation: A protocol for a systematic review

Rationale: The majority of antibiotic use in the dairy industry is for the treatment and prevention of intramammary infections (IMI); in the Netherlands, approximately 60 % of all antimicrobial use in dairy is for this purpose, with two-thirds being dry cow therapy (Lam et al., 2012). In the United States, over 90 % of dairy cows receive dry cow therapy after every lactation (USDA-APHIS, 2016), with the goal of treating or preventing IMI during the dry period. These infections are strongly associated with risk of development of clinical mastitis in the first two weeks post-calving, which represents the highest risk period for this disease (Green et al., 2002). To combat this, blanket dry cow therapy (intramammary antimicrobial treatment of all quarters of all cows after the last milking of the lactation) was recommended for decades as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce IMI in the dry period (Neave et al., 1969), and has been widely adopted in North America and the United Kingdom (Ruegg, 2017). Although cow2 level selective dry cow therapy has been in use in some regions for several decades (Schultze, 1983), interest has more recently increased worldwide, in part driven by concern for antimicrobial use and its relationship with the development of antimicrobial resistance between species (WHO, 2015), including nation-specific regulations (Santman-Berends et al., 2016). Selective dry cow therapy has been employed because it is a means to rapidly reduce the amount of antimicrobials used in dairy cattle (Vanhoudt et al., 2018), rather than because it is known to contribute importantly to antimicrobial resistance (Oliver et al., 2011). With a greater concern for prudent antibiotic use in the dairy industry, it is important that decision making with regards to dry cow therapy at both the cow and herd levels be evidencebased. Choosing ineffective antibiotics, or using antibiotic when not warranted, unnecessarily contributes to use while having little impact on controlling disease, which has substantial bearing to both profitability and animal welfare (Leslie & Petersson-Wolfe, 2012). Systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials yield the highest level of evidence for efficacy of treatment under field conditions (Sargeant and O’Connor, 2014), and comparative efficacy can be examined using network meta-analysis for multiple comparisons. Establishing the efficacy of both cow-level antibiotic therapy and herd-level dry cow antibiotic protocols for the prevention of IMI will serve to improve decision makers’ ability to engage in effective stewardship of antibiotics