Neonatal Handling Affects Durably Bonding and Social Development

The neonatal period in humans and in most mammals is characterized by intense mother-young interactions favoring pair bonding and the adaptation of neonates to their new environment. However, in many post-delivery procedures, human babies commonly experience combined maternal separation and intense handling for about one hour post-birth. Currently, the effects of such disturbances on later attachment and on the development of newborns are still debated: clearly, further investigations are required. As animals present good models for controlled experimentation, we chose domestic horses to investigate this issue. Horses, like humans, are characterized by single births, long lactating periods and selective mother-infant bonds. Routine postnatal procedures for foals, as for human babies, also involve intense handling and maternal separation. In the present study, we monitored the behavior of foals from early stages of development to “adolescence”, in a normal ecological context (social groups with adults and peers). Experimental foals, separated from their mothers and handled for only 1 hour post-birth, were compared to control foals, left undisturbed after birth. Our results revealed short- and long-term effects of this unique neonatal experience on attachment and subsequent social competences. Thus, experimental foals presented patterns of insecure attachment to their mothers (strong dependence on their mothers, little play) and impaired social competences (social withdrawal, aggressiveness) at all ages. We discuss these results in terms of mother-young interactions, timing of interactions and relationships between bonding and subsequent social competences. Our results indicate that this ungulate species could become an interesting animal model. To our knowledge, this is the first clear demonstration that intervention just after birth affects bonding and subsequent social competences (at least until “adolescence”). It opens new research directions for studies on both humans and other animals

Emploi de méthodes classiques pour calculer les sections efficaces d'attachement dissociatif

The dissociation of the transitory ion AB- and the auto-detachment of the electron are classically described ; the initial distribution in coordinates and momenta is chosen in order to closely reproduce the results of quantum mechanics : the probability function given by Wigner [9] is used for this purpose. We thus obtain the cross-section σc(E) as a function of the transition energy E; it is compared to the quantum cross-section σq(E). σc and σ q are in good agreement if the autoionization width Γ of the transitory negative ion has values ranging between 0,2 and 1 eV. If Γ is smaller than 0.2 eV, σq exhibits an oscillatory behaviour as a function of E, but σc does not.On représente classiquement la dissociation de l'ion transitoire AB- et la rééjection de l'électron ; la distribution en position et en vitesse à l'instant initial est choisie de façon à représenter au mieux les résultats de la mécanique quantique : on utilise pour cela une distribution de probabilité donnée par Wigner [9]. On obtient ainsi la section efficace σc(E) en fonction de l'énergie E de la transition, et on la compare avec la section efficace calculée quantiquement, σ q(E). Quand la largeur d'autoionisation Γ de l'ion négatif transitoire est comprise entre 0,2 et 1 eV, σc(E) et σ q(E) sont en bon accord. Quand Γ est inférieur à 0,2 eV, σ q(E) présente des oscillations en fonction de l'énergie qui n'existent pas dans σc(E)

Effets isotopiques dans la formation de H- et D- par attachement dissociatif sur H2S, HDS, D2S et H2O, HDO, D2O

We measured the cross sections ratio for the H- and D- formation in H 2S, in H2O and the corresponding isotopes, with a mass spectrometer. We obtained : [FORMULA] This isotope effect is a consequence of the small mean autoionization width, of the negative resonant ion state. We observed a new isotope effect : This effect is understood by the HDX- negative ion dissociation on a saddle-point potential surface.Nous avons mesuré les rapports des sections efficaces de formation des ions H- et D- au moyen d'un spectromètre de masse, au maximum du pic d'attachement, dans H2S et ses homologues deutérés à 5,35 eV, ainsi que dans H2O et ses homologues deutérés à 6,5 eV. Nous obtenons : [FORMULE] Ce petit effet isotopique est dû à la faible largeur moyenne d'autodétachement des états de l'ion négatif résonnant conduisant à H-. Nous mettons en évidence un nouvel effet isotopique. Cet effet est interprété en considérant la dissociation de l'ion négatif transitoire HDX- sur une surface de potentiel à point selle

Peritonitis Due to Blastobotrys proliferans in a Patient Undergoing Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis▿

Blastobotrys proliferans is an ascomycetous yeast never previously reported as a human pathogen. Here we report a case of peritonitis due to Blastobotrys proliferans in a 46-year-old man undergoing peritoneal dialysis

Up-Link Capacity Derivation for Ultra-Narrow-Band IoT Wireless Networks

International audienceThanks to its low energy consumption and very long range (upto 50 km in free-space), ultra-narrow-band transmission (UNB) represents apromising alternative to classical technologies used in cellular networks to servelow-throughput wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and the Internet of things(IoT). In UNB, nodes access to the medium by selecting their frequency ina random and continuous way. This randomness leads to new behavior inthe interference which has not been theoretically analyzed, when consideringthe pathloss of nodes randomly deployed around the receiver. In this paper, inorder to quantify the system performance, we derive and exploit two theoreticalexpressions of the outage probability in a UNB based IoT network, accountingfor both interference due to the spectral randomness and path loss due to thepropagation (with and without Rayleigh fading). This enables us to estimatethe network capacity as a function of the path-loss exponent, by determiningthe maximum number of simultaneous supported nodes. We highlight that thebandwidth should be chosen based on the propagation channel properties