OPTIMIZATION OF A SELECTION SCHEME FOR MILK COMPOSITION AND YIELD IN MILKING EWES : Example of the Lacaune Breed

Management of the genetic improvement of milking ewes depends: on the obvious fact that they are both dairy animals and sheep. This paper deals with the Lacaune breed situation in France. It paints out the way to build the selection scheme,on two particular aspects:the need to rationalize and simplify milk recording both for milk composition and milk yield, and the concurrent use of AI and natural mating, within the scope of a pyramidal management of the population. We sum up the main results of studies on these different aspects in this paper. In the course of the last twenty years,phenotypic and genetic improvement for the nucleus and base flocks agrees with these theorical studies

Study on consumers’ attitudes towards Terms and Conditions (T&Cs): Final Report

This report was produced under the EU Consumer Programme (2014-2020) in the frame of a service contract with the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (Chafea) acting under the mandate from the European Commission.Previous research has shown that when buying products and services online, the vast majority of consumers accept Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) without even reading them. The current research examined effects of interventions aimed at making consumers aware of the quality of such T&Cs. This was done by 1) shortening and simplifying the T&Cs and 2) adding a quality cue to an online store, such as the presence of a logo of a national consumer organisation accompanied by the statement “these terms and conditions are fair”. The main study consisted of three experiments and was conducted in 12 Member States with 1000 respondents in each Member State. In each experiment, consumers visited an online store and went through all the steps of an ordering process. One of these steps was accepting the T&Cs. Key findings are that shortening and simplifying the terms and conditions results in improved readership of the T&Cs, a slightly better understanding of the T&Cs, and a more positive attitude towards the T&Cs. Moreover, adding a quality cue to an online store increases trust and purchase intentions. Which quality cue is trusted the most depends on what type of online store consumers are visiting. For domestic online stores, a quality cue by a national consumer organisation is trusted most; for foreign online stores, a quality cue by a European consumer organisation is trusted most. The patterns were similar across Member States

CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING A SELECTION SCRENE: SOME PROPOSALS

It is possible to describe a realized selection by means of an indicator, f(x): probability for an individual of value x to be selected. Various models for this indicator are proposed, in the univariate case, and on the assumption that individuals are ranked on a linear index of measured variables. Estimators are defined on the basis of these models for rating traits controlled during selection. A numeric example with ewes is given

Structural analysis of Salmonella enterica effector protein SopD

Salmonella outer protein D (SopD) is a type III secreted virulence effector protein from Salmonella enterica. Full-length SopD and SopD lacking 16 amino acids at the N-terminus (SopDDeltaN) have been expressed as fusions with GST in Escherichia coli, purified with a typical yield of 20-30 mg per litre of cell culture and crystallized. Biophysical characterization has been carried out mainly on SopDDeltaN. Analytical size exclusion chromatography shows that SopDDeltaN is monomeric and probably globular in aqueous solution. The secondary structure composition, calculated from the CD spectrum, is mixed (38% alpha-helix and 26% beta-strand). Sequence analysis indicates that SopD contains a coiled coil motif, as found in numerous other type III secretion system-associated proteins. This suggests that SopD has the potential for one or more heterotypic protein-protein interactions. Limited trypsin digestion of SopDDeltaN, monitored by both one-dimensional proton NMR spectroscopy and SDS-PAGE, shows that the protein has a large, protease-resistant core domain of 286 amino acid residues. This single-domain architecture suggests that SopD lacks a cognate chaperone. In crystallization trials, SopDDeltaN produced better crystals than either full-length SopD or trypsin-digested SopDDeltaN. Diffraction to 3.0 Angstrom resolution has so far been obtained from crystals of SopDDeltaN