straight nose, queer mouth

Image 1 Image 2 Fin 2017, Wang et Kosinski publiaient une étude sur l’orientation sexuelle, qui fit polémique dans les milieux universitaires et sur les réseaux sociaux. En utilisant un réseau neuronal permettant d’extraire les caractéristiques de plus de 35 000 images de profil sur un site de rencontres américain, ils ont formé une intelligence artificielle de reconnaissance faciale à identifier et classer l’orientation sexuelle de leurs sujets. L’algorithme pourrait, grâce à l’analyse de ..

Ülevaade Tartu linna laste hambaravi korraldusest ja hambahaiguste levimusest 5–7aastastel lastel

Aastatel 2005 ja 2006 uuriti Tartu eelkooliealiste ja esimese klassi laste hammaste tervist. Tulemustest selgus, et kuigi laste hambaravi üldine kättesaadavus oli paranenud, oli piimahammaste kaariesest haaratus siiski suur, viidates sellele, et vanemad ei pea piimahammaste ravi oluliseks. Suuhügieeni näitajad osutusid halvemaks neil, kel esines enam piimahammaste kaariesekahjustusi. Samas oli jäävhammaste kahjustatus selles vanuserühmas veel väike, mistõttu jätkuv aktiivne hambahaiguste profülaktika on äärmiselt oluline. Eesti Arst 2008; 87(5):342−34

Coup in the coop: Rank changes in chicken dominance hierarchies over maturation.

Chicken dominance hierarchies or pecking orders are established before maturation and maintained by consistent submissive responses of subordinate individuals, leading to stable ranks within unchanged groups. We observed interactions of 418 laying hens (Gallus gallus domesticus) distributed across three small (20) and three large (~120) groups. The observations were performed before sexual maturation (young period) and additionally after onset of maturation (mature period) to confirm stability of ranks. Dominance ranks were estimated via the Elo rating system across both observation periods. Diagnostics of the ranks revealed unexpected uncertainty and rank instability for the full dataset, although sampling appeared to be adequate. Subsequent evaluations of ranks based on the mature period only, showed more reliable ranks than across both observation periods. Furthermore, winning success during the young period did not directly predict high rank during the mature period. These results indicated rank changes between observation periods. The current study design could not discern whether ranks were stable in all pens before maturation. However, our data rather suggested active rank mobility after hierarchy establishment to be the cause for our findings. Once thought to be stable, chicken hierarchies may provide an excellent system to study causes and implications of active rank mobility

Tracking performance in poultry is affected by data cleaning method and housing system

Sensor-based behavioural observation methods improve our understanding of individual behaviour and welfare in large commercial groups, including poultry. Validating automatically generated data is essential to account for potential sources of error. Our study aimed to validate a sensor-based tracking system for broiler breeders (BB) and laying hens (LH) in commercially relevant housing systems. The BB study was conducted in 10 pens with 33 females and three males (Ross 308) per pen. Half of the pens contained a raised slatted area and two raised group nests (Raised), while in the remaining five pens, the nests and slats were on the floor (Floor). For the LH study, six pens with a commercial aviary were used, with 225 Dekalb White hens housed per pen (Aviary). Focal hens (BB, 10/pen; LH, 18/pen) were equipped with backpacks containing tracking devices that registered transitions between four (BB) or five (LH) resource-related zones covering all accessible areas within each housing system. The tracking data was compared against video observations for 20 focal BB on two days and 18 focal LH on three days (3 × 20 min/day). Three data cleaning methods tested with 30 values of a duration parameter were evaluated for reliability and stability with a cross-validation approach. Initial and post-cleaning performance were assessed with accuracy, precision, and sensitivity of recorded transitions and by calculating the reliability for two aspects of movement: total transitions (Lin’s Concordance Correlation Coefficient) and locations (mean proportion of matching duration). A mixed model was applied to evaluate the duration of stay after false and true tracking registrations. Initial location reliability was high (> 0.949) in all housing systems, while reliability of total transitions was low ( 0.832) while reliability of locations remained high (> 0.949) in Aviary and Raised. The duration between registrations was affected by housing system (p < 0.001) and was longer for true compared to false registrations (p < 0.001). Initial tracking performance varied between movement aspects and housing systems. The difference in duration between true and false registrations allowed for the application of simple yet effective data cleaning in Aviary and Raised, ensuring that the generated data better represented the animal's actual movement with reduced error associated with the tracking system

The Final Count Down: A Review of Three Decades of Flight Controller Training Methods for Space Shuttle Mission Operations

Operations of human spaceflight systems is extremely complex; therefore, the training and certification of operations personnel is a critical piece of ensuring mission success. Mission Control Center (MCC-H), at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, manages mission operations for the Space Shuttle Program, including the training and certification of the astronauts and flight control teams. An overview of a flight control team s makeup and responsibilities during a flight, and details on how those teams are trained and certified, reveals that while the training methodology for developing flight controllers has evolved significantly over the last thirty years the core goals and competencies have remained the same. In addition, the facilities and tools used in the control center have evolved. Changes in methodology and tools have been driven by many factors, including lessons learned, technology, shuttle accidents, shifts in risk posture, and generational differences. Flight controllers share their experiences in training and operating the space shuttle. The primary training method throughout the program has been mission simulations of the orbit, ascent, and entry phases, to truly train like you fly. A review of lessons learned from flight controller training suggests how they could be applied to future human spaceflight endeavors, including missions to the moon or to Mars. The lessons learned from operating the space shuttle for over thirty years will help the space industry build the next human transport space vehicle

Severe depletion of mitochondrial DNA in spinal muscular atrophy

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neuromus- cular disorder in childhood leading to a dramatic loss of muscle strength. Functional investigations with high-reso- lution polarography and enzyme measurements of the res- piratory chain revealed lowered activities in muscle tissue of SMA patients. To gain a better understanding of this low energy supply we analyzed the amount of mitochon- drial DNA (mtDNA) in skeletal muscle of 20 unrelated children with genetically proven SMA and 31 controls. Quantitative Southern blot analysis revealed a severe and homogeneous decrease in the content of muscle mtDNA in relation to nuclear DNA in SMA patients (90.3±7.8%), whereas by immunofluorescence no decrease in the num- ber of mitochondria was detected. In addition, a two- to threefold reduction of the nuclear-encoded complex II (succinate dehydrogenase) activity was detected in SMA muscle tissue. Western blot analysis showed a significant reduction of both mitochondrial- and nuclear-encoded cy- tochrome c oxidase subunits. Our results indicate that mtDNA depletion in SMA is a consequence of severe at- rophy, and has to be differentiated by measurement of complex II from an isolated reduction of mtDNA as found in patients with mitochondriocytopathies and the so- called mtDNA depletion syndrome

Examining the stability of membrane proteins within SMALPs

Amphipathic co-polymers such as styrene-maleic acid (SMA) have gained popularity over the last few years due to their ability and ease of use in solubilising and purifying membrane proteins in comparison to conventional methods of extraction such as detergents. SMA2000 is widely used for membrane protein studies and is considered as the optimal polymer for this technique. In this study a side-by-side comparison of SMA2000 with the polymer SZ30010 was carried out as both these polymers have similar styrene:maleic acid ratios and average molecular weights. Ability to solubilise, purify and stabilise membrane proteins was tested using three structurally different membrane proteins. Our results show that both polymers can be used to extract membrane proteins at a comparable efficiency to conventional detergent dodecylmaltoside (DDM). SZ30010 was found to give a similar protein yield and, SMALP disc size as SMA2000, and both polymers offered an increased purity and increased thermostability compared to DDM. Further investigation was conducted to investigate SMALP sensitivity to divalent cations. It was found that the sensitivity is polymer specific and not dependent on the protein encapsulated. Neither is it affected by the concentration of SMALPs. Larger divalent cations such as Co2+ and Zn2+ resulted in an increased sensitivity

Styrene maleic-acid lipid particles (SMALPs) into detergent or amphipols: An exchange protocol for membrane protein characterisation.

Membrane proteins are traditionally extracted and purified in detergent for biochemical and structural characterisation. This process is often costly and laborious, and the stripping away of potentially stabilising lipids from the membrane protein of interest can have detrimental effects on protein integrity. Recently, styrene-maleic acid (SMA) co-polymers have offered a solution to this problem by extracting membrane proteins directly from their native membrane, while retaining their naturally associated lipids in the form of stable SMA lipid particles (SMALPs). However, the inherent nature and heterogeneity of the polymer renders their use challenging for some downstream applications - particularly mass spectrometry (MS). While advances in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) have enhanced our understanding of membrane protein:lipid interactions in both SMALPs and detergent, the resolution obtained with this technique is often insufficient to accurately identify closely associated lipids within the transmembrane annulus. Native-MS has the power to fill this knowledge gap, but the SMA polymer itself remains largely incompatible with this technique. To increase sample homogeneity and allow characterisation of membrane protein:lipid complexes by native-MS, we have developed a novel SMA-exchange method; whereby the membrane protein of interest is first solubilised and purified in SMA, then transferred into amphipols or detergents. This allows the membrane protein and endogenously associated lipids extracted by SMA co-polymer to be identified and examined by MS, thereby complementing results obtained by cryo-EM and creating a better understanding of how the lipid bilayer directly affects membrane protein structure and function

Search for the Pair Production of Dark Particles XX with KL0→XXK_L^0 \to XX, X→γγX \to \gamma\gamma

We present the first search for the pair production of dark particles $X$ via $K_L^0\to XX$ with $X$ decaying into two photons using the data collected by the KOTO experiment. No signal was observed in the mass range of 40 - 110~MeV/c$^2$ and 210 - 240 MeV/c$^2$. This sets upper limits on the branching fractions as $\mathcal{B}(K_L^0 \to XX)$ $<$ (1-4) $\times$ 10$^{-7}$ and $\mathcal{B}(K_L^0 \to XX)$ $<$ (1-2) $\times$ 10$^{-6}$ at the 90% confidence level for the two mass regions, respectively

Quels sont les obstacles rencontrés par les médecins généralistes concernant la détection et la prise en charge de la souffrance des aidants dits « naturels » de patients dépendants ? Étude qualitative auprès de médecins généralistes...

Médecine généraleL’allongement de l’espérance de vie et la politique de maintien à domicile ont pour corollaire une augmentation du nombre de personnes dépendantes à domicile, nécessiteuses de proches pour les aider au quotidien. L’engagement en tant qu’aidant peut avoir des répercussions négatives tant morales que physiques, sociales ou financières. L’objectif de cette étude est d’étudier les pratiques des médecins généralistes, souvent en première ligne du fait de leur rôle de proximité auprès du couple aidant-aidé, concernant le dépistage et la prise en charge de la souffrance liée au rôle d’aidant. Cette étude qualitative a été effectuée via des entretiens semi-dirigés individuels, auprès des treize médecins généralistes d’Alsace. Il a pu être mis en exergue l’absence de standardisation du dépistage ou même de la prise en charge de la souffrance de ces aidants, standardisation non souhaitée par les médecins car ne correspondant pas à une prise en charge au cas-par-cas jugée plus efficace. Ce travail a, de plus, mis en lumière la méconnaissance des médecins sur les attentes réelles des aidants, pouvant être à l’origine d’une inefficacité des thérapeutiques entreprises ainsi qu’une majoration du sentiment de frustration décrit par les médecins. La mise en place, idéalement précoce, d’un partenariat médecin traitant- aidant apparait donc comme une évidence pour que le contexte de cette dépendance puisse être optimal pour chacun des trois acteurs