Microwave spectra of van der Waals complexes of importance in planetary atmospheres

The Fourier-transform Fabry-Perot pulsed-molecular-beam microwave spectrometer at NIST was used to study the microwave spectra of a number of molecular dimers and trimers that may be present in planetary atmospheres. The weak van der Waals bonds associated with these species usually give rise to rotational-tunneling splittings in the microwave spectra. The microwave spectrum of the water dimer species was used to illustrate the complications that can arise in the study of the rotational spectra of these loosely bound species. In addition to the water dimer species, the microwave spectra of the following hydrogen-bonded and van der Waals complexes were studied: (CO2)2-H2O, CO2-(H2O)2, CO2-H2S, N2-H2O, CO-H2O, SO2-H2O, and O3-H2O

De Broyer C., Koubbi P., Griffiths H.J., Raymond B., Udekem D’Acoz C. d’, Van de Putte A.P., Danis B., David B., Grant S., Gutt J., Held C., Hosie G., Huettmann F., Post A., Ropert-Coudert Y. (eds). 2014. Biogeographic Atlas of the Southern Ocean

Book review of: De Broyer C., Koubbi P., Griffiths H.J., Raymond B., Udekem D’Acoz C. d’, Van de Putte A.P., Danis B., David B., Grant S., Gutt J., Held C., Hosie G., Huettmann F., Post A., Ropert-Coudert Y. (eds). 2014. Biogeographic Atlas of the Southern Ocean.Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, Cambridge, XII, 498 pp. ISBN: 978-0-948277-28-3.-- 2 pagesPeer Reviewe

Effect of mannan oligosaccharides on rabbit performance, digestibility and rectal Bacterial anaerobic populations during an episode of epizootic rabbit enteropathy

[EN] The effect of three levels of mannan oligosaccharides (MOS at 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 g/kg diet) compared to dietary antibiotic supplementation (ANT, colistin sulphate 144, tylosin 100 and oxytetracycline 1000 ppm) and to a diet without MOS or medication (control group) were studied on 5 groups of rabbits (n=342 cages/group and 2 rabbits/cage) from weaning (35 d) to 60 d of age in a farm with an anamnestic history of Epizootic Rabbit Enteropathy (ERE). Mortality rate was recorded daily. Thirty two cages per group were randomly chosen to record growth performance and rectal anaerobic microbial population. Live weight and feed intake were recorded weekly. At 49 d of age rectal swabs were collected with cotton swabs from 8 rabbits per group and the anaerobic microbial population was counted. Feed digestibility was determined per cage using acid insoluble ash as an internal marker, collecting faeces from 57 to 59 d of age. An episode of ERE occurred during the second and the third week of the trial. The control group showed a high mortality rate during the fattening period (78%) and was not considered for further measurements. Total mortality rate was higher (P<0.05) for rabbits fed antibiotics (34.2%) than for those fed MOS (17.7, 7.75 and 17.1 %, for MOS at 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 g/kg diet, respectively), with the lowest mortality rate being for those with a 1.0 g MOS/kg diet. Medicated rabbits showed similar growth rates compared to the average of those fed MOS diets (38.6 g/d on average), but impaired feed conversion ratio (FCR) and nutrient digestibility (P<0.003). Rabbits fed MOS at 1.0 g/kg showed better growth rates, FCR and nutrient digestibility (P<0.01) than those fed 1.5 g/kg MOS. Total anaerobic and Clostridium spp. counts were higher in medicated animals compared to those fed MOS, with those fed 1 g/kg MOS showing the lowest value (P<0.001). Under critical conditions due to an episode of ERE, a concentration of 1.0 g/kg MOS in the diet, could reduce rabbit mortality and improve growth performance.Bovera, F.; Nizza, A.; Marono, S.; Mallardo, K.; Piccolo, G.; Tudisco, R.; De Martino, L.... (2010). Effect of mannan oligosaccharides on rabbit performance, digestibility and rectal Bacterial anaerobic populations during an episode of epizootic rabbit enteropathy. World Rabbit Science. 18(1):9-16. doi:10.4995/wrs.2010.18.0291618

Metabolic adaptations in neonatal mother-deprived rabbits

[EN] In order to study the metabolic adaptation in response to 48 h transient doe-litter separation (DLS) in young rabbits (5 rabbits/d group) between postnatal 9 and 11 d, plasma concentrations of thyroid hormones T3 and T4, insulin, leptin, glucose, triglycerides (TG), and free fatty acids (FFA) were examined before (6-8 d), during (9-11 d), and after separation (12-16 d). T3 concentrations in newborn control rabbits gradually increased from 0.6 ng/mL at postnatal 6 d to 1.0 ng/mL at postnatal 16 d, whereas those of T4 remained fairly constant (25 ng/mL) up to postnatal 14 d, when T4 gradually declined to 8 ng/mL. T3 values of DLS newborn rabbits did not differ from those of controls at postnatal 10 and 11 d, but were lower (P<0.05) at postnatal 12 d, while T4 concentrations in DLS animals increased, although not significantly, between postnatal 10 and 12 d compared to controls. Insulin concentrations in young control rabbits ranged between 0.6 and 1.0 mg/L in the early postnatal days, whereas those for leptin averaged 2-3 ng/mL. Insulin and leptin values in DLS newborn rabbits were lower (P<0.05) at postnatal 10 and 11 d, but thereafter rebounded to levels close to those of controls. Glycaemia showed a comparable trend in both groups, ranging between 170 and 190 mg/dL up to postnatal 14 d, but thereafter decreased (P<0.05) to values of 120-130 mg/dL independently of treatment. Concentrations of TG varied greatly from day to day around a mean value of 300 mg/dL, whereas those of FFA remained at approximately the same steady-state levels from postnatal 6 to 16 d, averaging 0.8 mM without any significant differences between groups. In conclusion, these findings confirm that newborn rabbits can cope with the metabolic stress of starvation associated with DLS by lowering insulin and leptin concentrations while maintaining those of thyroid hormones, an overall endocrine response which, together with temporary increase of glucorticoids, successfully maintains an adequate energy balance.This work was partially supported by a grant from the Italian “Ministero Istruzione Università e Ricerca” (Progetto Ricerca Interesse Nazionale – Prot. 2001072484 and 2003074002) and by generous donations from the BC Red-water Trust (Perugia, Italy). Procedures conformed to animal care guidelines and were approved by the Bioethical Committee of the University of Perugia in accordance with the current laws of Italy. The authors gratefully acknowledge the revision of the English text by Sheila Beatty.Brecchia, G.; Zerani, M.; Bonano, A.; Boiti, C. (2010). Metabolic adaptations in neonatal mother-deprived rabbits. World Rabbit Science. 18(4):229-236. doi:10.4995/wrs.2010.78022923618

Foraging movements of emperor penguins at Pointe Géologie, Antarctica.

International audienceThe foraging distributions of 20 breeding emperor penguins were investigated at Pointe Ge´ologie, Terre Ade´lie, Antarctica by using satellite telemetry in 2005 and 2006 during early and late winter, as well as during late spring and summer, corresponding to incubation, early chick-brooding, late chick-rearing and the adult pre-moult period, respectively. Dive depth records of three post-egg-laying females, two post-incubating males and four late chick-rearing adults were examined, as well as the horizontal space use by these birds. Foraging ranges of chick-provisioning penguins extended over the Antarctic shelf and were constricted by winter pack-ice. During spring ice break-up, the foraging ranges rarely exceeded the shelf slope, although seawater access was apparently almost unlimited. Winter females appeared constrained in their access to open water but used fissures in the sea ice and expanded their prey search effort by expanding the horizontal search component underwater. Birds in spring however, showed higher area-restricted-search than did birds in winter. Despite different seasonal foraging strategies, chick-rearing penguins exploited similar areas as indicated by both a high ‘Area-Restricted-Search Index' and high ‘Catch Per Unit Effort'. During pre-moult trips, emperor penguins ranged much farther offshore than breeding birds, which argues for particularly profitable oceanic feeding areas which can be exploited when the time constraints imposed by having to return to a central place to provision the chick no longer apply

Krill-feeding behaviour in a chinstrap penguin compared to fish-eating in Magellanic penguins: a pilot study.

Inferring feeding activities from undulations in diving depth profiles is widespread in studies of foraging marine predators. This idea, however, has rarely been tested because of practical difficulties in obtaining an independent estimate of feeding activities at a time scale corresponding to depth changes within a dive. In this study we attempted to relate depth profile undulations and feeding activities during diving in a single Chinstrap Penguin Pygoscelis antarctica, by simultaneously using a conventional time-depth recorder and a recently developed beak-angle sensor. Although failure in device attachments meant that data were obtained successfully from just a part of a single foraging trip, our preliminary results show a linear relationship between the number of depth wiggles and the number of underwater beakopening events during a dive, suggesting that the relative feeding intensity of each dive could be represented by depth-profile data. Underwater beak-opening patterns of this krill-feeding penguin species are compared with recent data from three fish- and squid-feeding Magellanic Penguins Spheniscus magellanicus

Production/maintenance cooperative scheduling using multi-agents and fuzzy logic

Within companies, production is directly concerned with the manufacturing schedule, but other services like sales, maintenance, purchasing or workforce management should also have an influence on this schedule. These services often have together a hierarchical relationship, i.e. the leading function (most of the time sales or production) generates constraints defining the framework within which the other functions have to satisfy their own objectives. We show how the multi-agent paradigm, often used in scheduling for its ability to distribute decision-making, can also provide a framework for making several functions cooperate in the schedule performance. Production and maintenance have been chosen as an example: having common resources (the machines), their activities are actually often conflicting. We show how to use a fuzzy logic in order to model the temporal degrees of freedom of the two functions, and show that this approach may allow one to obtain a schedule that provides a better compromise between the satisfaction of the respective objectives of the two functions

Editorial of the Special Section: Anticipation of risks impacts and industrial performance evaluation in distributed organizations life cycles

No abstrac

Body-Worn Cameras: Reducing Citizen Complaints and Improving Relationships

Video recordings of police-citizen interactions, most notably those obtained from the dashboard cameras (dashcams) of police cars, have been successful in objectively capturing police-citizen exchanges. However, since police-civilian interactions do not solely occur in front of police cars, dashcams present significant limitations. Off-camera violent, and sometimes fatal, encounters (such as the notorious Ferguson case) have fueled increased public support for body-worn cameras. This is especially true in cases with conflicting accounts from the officer(s), victim(s), and witness(es). Requiring officers to wear bodycams may reduce incidents of force and citizen complaints, and increase officer accountability. This paper will present peer-reviewed research to help create an understanding of officer perceptions about the device, and will evaluate the effects of bodycams on both police officers and the communities they serve. Although bodycams have the potential to improve behaviors of both officers and civilians, its efficacy is dependent on its implementation (i.e., policies). Additionally, this paper will present suggestions for police agencies adopting the use of bodycams. Since bodycams hold promise for helping to rebuild relations between officers and the community, more research and feedback can help address the growing privacy and retention concerns