Women's view on sexual intercourse and physical abuse : results from a cross-sectional survey in villages surrounding Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso

Our objective is to understand what do verbal and physical interactions within the couple as declared by women tell us about their related autonomy regarding sexual intercourse with their regular partner. Data were gathered thanks to a baseline KABP survey in 8 villages in Burkina Faso. Overall, 591 women aged 15 to 49 living in a stable union constitute our analysis sample. A low percentage (18.2%) of respondents declares that a woman can refuse to have sex with her partner. However, a large part (77.3%) considers this refusal as an unacceptable reason for wife beating. Multivariate logistic regression shows that the belief in a possibility to refuse sex is higher among women in polygamous union and among those who have their own resources. In contrast, disapproval of wife beating as a reaction to this refusal increases with age. It is also higher among women not denying that their partner has multiple sexual partners. Surprisingly, it is lower among women who have their own economic resources. These findings suggest that programs should work on strong beliefs, which are the result of internalization of gender roles as they may, in patriarchal societies such as Burkina Faso, facilitate acceptance of domestic violence

Ovarian Activity and Oestrous Signs among Group-Housed, Lactating Sows: Influence of Behaviour, Environment and Production

Animal welfare concerns require the development of housing systems that allow the animals to express their natural behaviour. One example of this is the group-housing system for lactating sows. The present study aimed at exploring ovarian activity in such a system. Thirty-eight sows farrowing individually outdoors during spring and summer, and indoors during autumn and winter, and group-housed in groups of four during weeks 3–7 of the lactation period, were monitored regarding reproductive functions, behaviour and production during their first to fourth lactation period. Average ovulation frequency during lactation was 47%. Only 50% of these ovulating cases were accompanied by a standing oestrus. Lactational ovulation frequency was higher in later parities (p < 0.001). Ovulation frequency was higher (p < 0.05) during winter (74%) and spring (69%), than during summer (10%) and autumn (23%). Occurrence of lactational ovulation was associated with some aspects of suckling behaviour and also with litter weight gain (p < 0.05). Forty-nine per cent of the lactational ovulations occurred during the seventh week of lactation. Timing of ovulation seemed positively (p = 0.08) associated with weight loss during lactation. Compared with the sows that were anoestrus during lactation, oestradiol-17β values were higher (p < 0.05) only in the week before occurrence of lactational ovulation. Weaning-to-oestrous interval was prolonged (p < 0.05) among the sows that ovulated during lactation. The present study identifies several factors influencing ovarian activity among group-housed sows, thereby providing tools for the control of lactational ovulation in group-housing systems

Assessing learning and memory in pigs

In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in (mini) pigs (Sus scrofa) as species for cognitive research. A major reason for this is their physiological and anatomical similarity with humans. For example, pigs possess a well-developed, large brain. Assessment of the learning and memory functions of pigs is not only relevant to human research but also to animal welfare, given the nature of current farming practices and the demands they make on animal health and behavior. In this article, we review studies of pig cognition, focusing on the underlying processes and mechanisms, with a view to identifying. Our goal is to aid the selection of appropriate cognitive tasks for research into pig cognition. To this end, we formulated several basic criteria for pig cognition tests and then applied these criteria and knowledge about pig-specific sensorimotor abilities and behavior to evaluate the merits, drawbacks, and limitations of the different types of tests used to date. While behavioral studies using (mini) pigs have shown that this species can perform learning and memory tasks, and much has been learned about pig cognition, results have not been replicated or proven replicable because of the lack of validated, translational behavioral paradigms that are specially suited to tap specific aspects of pig cognition. We identified several promising types of tasks for use in studies of pig cognition, such as versatile spatial free-choice type tasks that allow the simultaneous measurement of several behavioral domains. The use of appropriate tasks will facilitate the collection of reliable and valid data on pig cognition

Dynamics of dormancy and phenology in apple tree with different chilling requirements

International audienc

EFFECTS OF FRUIT LOAD AND INTRA-INFLORESCENCE COMPETITION OF FRUITS ON APPLE GROWTH DURING FRUIT DEVELOPMENT

Ecophysiological sink-strength models, developed to explain/predict fruit growth at the fruit/shoot level, considered each fruit as one sink. Models have been developed for several fruits but not for apple. The variable number and size of apple fruit, developing within each inflorescence, needed therefore some attention. It is assumed in this study that inflorescence sink strength, which we supposed depends on its own global attributes, could interact with the growth of each individual fruit by modulating global influx into the inflorescence and by regulating the nutrient fraction available for each fruit. The aim of this study was to validate these hypotheses using the average daily growth rate of each inflorescence (AGR) as a quantitative measure of inflorescence growth rate and the temporal dynamic of fruit drop as the factor of variability. In an experimental orchard, anthesis dates and fruit diameters were collected for 'Elstar' apple from early growth stage to maturity. From our data and the literature, we defined five growth periods: the first characterized by cell division, the next three by cell expansion and the last one by fruit maturation. Without fruit drop, there was no significant difference between the AGR of single-fruit and two-fruit inflorescences. However, single-fruit exhibited a greater AGR from the first stage of cell expansion known to be critical for nutrient availability. Besides, after an early drop or hand-thinning of fruit per inflorescence in periods 2 and 3, the AGR values attained those of inflorescences which always maintained one or two fruits and for some cases were significantly greater than two-fruit. Such a positive tendency in growth rate induced by unloading was sustained during the following periods. It seemed therefore that the regulation process depended mainly on the history of the previous developmental events

Effects of Fruit Load and Intra-Inflorescence : Competition of Fruits on Apple Growth during Fruit Development

Effects of nutrient restriction on mammary cell turnover in lactating dairy cow

Complementary measurements for apple texture discrimination : mechanical tests

International audienc

Thermo-mechanical fatigue evaluation of a thermal barrier coating bond-coatless system

International audienceThermal barrier coating systems are often subjected to complex thermo-mechanical loading involving a combination of mechanical stresses under complex thermal gradients, in addition to the contribution of oxidation to the damage processes. Recently, a thermal-barrier coating bond-coatless system has been developed using prior-surface treatments. Atmospheric plasma spray (APS) Yttria-Stabilized-Zirconia (YSZ) is deposited on the AM1 nickel-based single crystalline superalloy substrate. The substrate has been either grit-blasted or laser textured before thermal spraying. The durability of these systems are investigated performing out-of-phase load controlled thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) tests in the 500–1100 °C and 120–700 MPa temperature and stress ranges. The contribution of a prior thermal over-aging of 200 h at 1100 °C has also been investigated. The damage mechanisms during out-of-phase TMF of the different TBC bond-coat-less systems have been studied and compared to the ones obtained during isothermal creep at 1100 °C/120 MPa. It is shown that a prior thermal over-aging favors cycling ratcheting during TMF cycling due to the degradation of the substrate microstructure. In addition, the coating damage mechanisms are observed to depend on the prior-surface treatment and thermal over-aging. Cracks perpendicular to the interface in the top coat have been observed whatever the specimens and microstructural state. Top coats are debonded for grit-blasted substrates while crack bifurcation above key holes is observed for laser textured substrates, leading to a better top coat TMF durability