Genetic and Physiological Characterisation of Oenococcus oeni Strains to Perform Malolactic Fermentation in Wines

Malolactic fermentation (MLF) is a process that is increasingly conducted by Oenococcus oeni industrial strains.Recently, studies of the diversity of O. oeni strains have developed some potential genetic tools to characterise theabilities of the strains. During this work, a mutation on a partial sequence of the rpoB gene and the presence ofsome genes previously established to be present in the most performing strains were tested on some strains thatare already marketed and some potential new strains. These tests were compared with a physiological test neverpreviously taken into account: the tolerance to octanoic and decanoic acid, important inhibitory compounds in wines.Our objectives were to compare the relevance of the genetic tests currently available, that of resistance to mediumchain fatty acids and the results of winemaking. Ultimately, it is clear that, as far as current knowledge is concerned,genetic tests are not yet sufficient to completely characterise the strain potential, and physiological tests thereforeare always needed. The resistance to medium chain fatty acids is an interesting point to be considered to explain thedifficulty that some strains have to resist inoculation in wine. But other criteria should also be characterised better,such as the duration of the latent phase between inoculation and the beginning of MLF, and the rate of degradationof malic acid by the different strains

How can large-scale twisted magnetic structures naturally emerge from buoyancy instabilities?

We consider the three-dimensional instability of a layer of horizontal magnetic field in a polytropic atmosphere where, contrary to previous studies, the field lines in the initial state are not unidirectional. We show that if the twist is initially concentrated inside the unstable layer, the modifications of the instability reported by several authors (see e.g. Cattaneo et al. (1990)) are only observed when the calculation is restricted to two dimensions. In three dimensions, the usual interchange instability occurs, in the direction fixed by the field lines at the interface between the layer and the field-free region. We therefore introduce a new configuration: the instability now develops in a weakly magnetised atmosphere where the direction of the field can vary with respect to the direction of the strong unstable field below, the twist being now concentrated at the upper interface. Both linear stability analysis and non-linear direct numerical simulations are used to study this configuration. We show that from the small-scale interchange instability, large-scale twisted coherent magnetic structures are spontaneously formed, with possible implications to the formation of active regions from a deep-seated solar magnetic field

Less is more? Package design simplicity and brand perception. An application to champagne labels

This article investigates the impact of the package design complexity on brand perception. 3 Champagne labels, representative of 3 graphic design styles observed on the market, were created and then tested among 305 consumers according to a between-subjects experiment. These 3 labels contain the same text but different graphic designs in order to manipulate the level of simplicity/complexity of the package design. The results allow the verification of different proposals from the literature. They demonstrate a significant impact of the package design\u27s level of simplicity on brand perception as well as on consumer\u27s buying choices. Is using ornaments still a crime? Package design complexity and brand perception with application to Champagne labels (PDF Download Available). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318012343_Is_using_ornaments_st... [accessed Feb 22 2018]

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

Langual : un langage international pour la description structurée des aliments = Langual : an international language for the structured description of foods

L'article traite de l'organisation des nouvelles banques de données sur la composition des aliments en s'appuyant sur l'exemple de la banque française REGAL développée au CIQUAL. La codification des nutriments et les principes de standardisation des formules de calcul de certains nutriments sont évoqués. L'identification précise des aliments grâce à une description claire, complète, scientifique et se prêtant à des vérifications automatisées de similitude, est indispensable pour assurer de façon cohérente des transferts de données entre banques de différents pays. Langual, système international de codification descriptive des aliments permet une telle identification. Chaque aliment à coder est décrit par un ensemble des descripteurs standardisés, eux-mêmes regroupés en facettes. Chaque facette représente un sous-ensemble de caractéristiques comme l'origine biologique, les traitements technologiques, les méthodes de conservation et de cuisson, qui spécifient la qualité nutritionnelle et/ou hygiénique d'un aliment. (Résumé d'auteur

Les lipides

L'exploitation d'une banque de données informatisées sur la composition des aliments permet de présenta la répartition des lipides sous différents aspects et selon divers modes : dispersion des teneurs en lipides au sein de chaque famille d'aliments, classement et regroupement des aliments en fonction de leurs teneurs ou de leurs densités en lipides, représentation de ces observations par différents types de tableaux, diagrammes et histogrammes. Ces mêmes modes d'exploitation permettent également d'étudier et de représenter la qualité nutritionnelle des lipides alimentaires en fonction de la proportion des divers acides gras : saturés, monoinsaturés, polyinsaturés, acides gras de configuration trans, acides gras à chaîne courte, moyenne ou longue. (Résumé d'auteur

Validated data banks on food composition : concepts for modeling information

L'intérêt croissant pour la composition des aliments a conduit plusieurs pays à se doter de banque de données sur la composition des aliments. Ces banques sont des outils pour le contrôle de la qualité des aliments et pour la conduite des politiques alimentaires. L'article traite de la conception, de la structure, de la gestion et du fonctionnement de la banque de données française REGAL. Le système de description codifiée des aliments LANGUAL est, en particulier, présenté. Comme REGAL, les banques de données peuvent également prendre en compte la réglementation relative aux aliments ; il est aussi possible de leur incorporer des systèmes-experts. (Résumé d'auteur

A reliability assessment of physical vulnerability of reinforced concrete walls loaded by snow avalanches

Snow avalanches are a threat to many kinds of elements (human beings, communication axes, structures, etc.) in mountain regions. For risk evaluation, the vulnerability assessment of civil engineering structures such as buildings and dwellings exposed to avalanches still needs to be improved. This paper presents an approach to determine the fragility curves associated with reinforced concrete (RC) structures loaded by typical avalanche pressures and provides quantitative results for different geometrical configurations. First, several mechanical limit states of the RC wall are defined using classical engineering approaches (Eurocode 2), and the pressure of structure collapse is calculated from the usual yield line theory. Next, the fragility curve is evaluated as a function of avalanche loading using a Monte Carlo approach, and sensitivity studies (Sobol indices) are conducted to estimate the respective weight of the RC wall model inputs. Finally, fragility curves and relevant indicators such a their mean and fragility range are proposed for the different structure boundary conditions analyzed. The influence of the input distributions on the fragility curves is investigated. This shows the wider fragility range and/or the slight shift in the median that has to be considered when a possible slight change in mean/standard deviation/inter-variable correlation and/or the non-Gaussian nature of the input distributions is accounted for

Inverse cascade and symmetry breaking in rapidly-rotating Boussinesq convection

In this paper we present numerical simulations of rapidly-rotating Rayleigh-B\'enard convection in the Boussinesq approximation with stress-free boundary conditions. At moderately low Rossby number and large Rayleigh number, we show that a large-scale depth-invariant flow is formed, reminiscent of the condensate state observed in two-dimensional flows. We show that the large-scale circulation shares many similarities with the so-called vortex, or slow-mode, of forced rotating turbulence. Our investigations show that at a fixed rotation rate the large-scale vortex is only observed for a finite range of Rayleigh numbers, as the quasi-two-dimensional nature of the flow disappears at very high Rayleigh numbers. We observe slow vortex merging events and find a non-local inverse cascade of energy in addition to the regular direct cascade associated with fast small-scale turbulent motions. Finally, we show that cyclonic structures are dominant in the small-scale turbulent flow and this symmetry breaking persists in the large-scale vortex motion