A genetic analysis of variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphism in the horse

Restriction fragment length polymorphism detected with the 33.6 minisatellite probe (Jeffreys et al, 1985) was analysed in 3 horse families of paternal half-sibs and in a sample of stallions from 4 breeds. Among the bands detected on Hae III genomic DNA digests, it was found that strongly hybridizing fragments behaved as alleles at 2 different loci. These 2 loci, showing 7 and 3 detectable alleles, were not closely linked to each other nor to informative blood groups and protein markers. No neo-mutation in allele length was observed at these 2 loci ip the 3 families. In the stallion sample, 8 alleles were detected at the first locus and no differences were found between their frequencies in the 4 breeds. Heterozygosity and polymorphism information content (PIC) values estimated in the 4 breeds show that the Thoroughbred is the least variable breed and the Arab the most. In the whole population the PIC values were 0.73 and 0.70 respectively.Le polymorphisme de longueur de fragment de restriction détecté par la sonde minisatellite 33.6 (Jeffreys et al, 1985) a été analysé chez le cheval dans trois familles de demi-germains paternels et dans un échantillon d’étalons de quatre races. Parmi toutes les bandes révélées à partir d’ADN génomique digéré par Hae III, les fragments donnant un signal intense se comportent comme des allèles ségrégeant à deux locus différents. Ceux-ci, qui possèdent respectivement sept et trois allèles détectables, ne sont pas étroitement liés entre eux ni avec les locus informatifs des groupes sanguins et des protéines du sang. Aucune néo-mutation de longueur des allèles n’a été détectée dans les trois familles. Dans l’échantillon des étalons, huit allèles ont été observés au premier locus et aucune différence de fréquence n’apparaît entre les quatre races. Les valeurs d’hétérozygotie et les valeurs informatives des polymorphismes (PIC) estimées sur cet échantillon montrent que la race de Pur-sang est la moins variable à l’opposé de la race Arabe. Les valeurs estimées sur la population totale sont respectivement de 0,73 et de 0, 70

Subgraph spotting in graph representations of comic book images

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record Graph-based representations are the most powerful data structures for extracting, representing and preserving the structural information of underlying data. Subgraph spotting is an interesting research problem, especially for studying and investigating the structural information based content-based image retrieval (CBIR) and query by example (QBE) in image databases. In this paper we address the problem of lack of freely available ground-truthed datasets for subgraph spotting and present a new dataset for subgraph spotting in graph representations of comic book images (SSGCI) with its ground-truth and evaluation protocol. Experimental results of two state-of-the-art methods of subgraph spotting are presented on the new SSGCI dataset.University of La Rochelle (France

L'Expérimentation sur le porc chinois en France. II. – Performances de production en croisement avec les races européennes

International audienc

Early-onset ventilator-associated pneumonia incidence in intensive care units: a surveillance-based study

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) within the first 48 hours of intensive care unit (ICU) stay has been poorly investigated. The objective was to estimate early-onset VAP occurrence in ICUs within 48 hours after admission. METHODS: We analyzed data from prospective surveillance between 01/01/2001 and 31/12/2009 in 11 ICUs of Lyon hospitals (France). The inclusion criteria were: first ICU admission, not hospitalized before admission, invasive mechanical ventilation during first ICU day, free of antibiotics at admission, and ICU stay >=48 hours. VAP was defined according to a national protocol. Its incidence was the number of events per 1,000 invasive mechanical ventilation-days. The Poisson regression model was fitted from day 2 (D2) to D8 to incident VAP to estimate the expected VAP incidence from D0 to D1 of ICU stay. RESULTS: Totally, 367 (10.8%) of 3,387 patients in 45,760 patient-days developed VAP within the first 9 days. The predicted cumulative VAP incidence at D0 and D1 was 5.3 (2.6-9.8) and 8.3 (6.1-11.1), respectively. The predicted cumulative VAP incidence was 23.0 (20.8-25.3) at D8. The proportion of missed VAP within 48 hours from admission was 11% (9%-17%). CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicates underestimation of early-onset VAP incidence in ICUs, if only VAP occurring [greater than or equal to]48 hours is considered to be hospital-acquired. Clinicians should be encouraged to develop a strategy for early detection after ICU admission

Drawing firmer conclusions: autistic children show no evidence of a local processing bias in a controlled copying task

Drawing tasks are frequently used to test competing theories of visuospatial skills in autism. Yet, methodological differences between studies have led to inconsistent findings. To distinguish between accounts based on local bias or global deficit, we present a simple task that has previously revealed dissociable local/global impairments in neuropsychological patients. Autistic and typical children copied corner elements, arranged in a square configuration. Grouping cues were manipulated to test whether global properties affected the accuracy of reproduction. All children were similarly affected by these manipulations. There was no group difference in the reproduction of local elements, although global accuracy was negatively related to better local processing for autistic children. These data speak against influential theories of visuospatial differences in autism

Improvement of the Trivalent Inactivated Flu Vaccine Using PapMV Nanoparticles

Commercial seasonal flu vaccines induce production of antibodies directed mostly towards hemaglutinin (HA). Because HA changes rapidly in the circulating virus, the protection remains partial. Several conserved viral proteins, e.g., nucleocapsid (NP) and matrix proteins (M1), are present in the vaccine, but are not immunogenic. To improve the protection provided by these vaccines, we used nanoparticles made of the coat protein of a plant virus (papaya mosaic virus; PapMV) as an adjuvant. Immunization of mice and ferrets with the adjuvanted formulation increased the magnitude and breadth of the humoral response to NP and to highly conserved regions of HA. They also triggered a cellular mediated immune response to NP and M1, and long-lasting protection in animals challenged with a heterosubtypic influenza strain (WSN/33). Thus, seasonal flu vaccine adjuvanted with PapMV nanoparticles can induce universal protection to influenza, which is a major advancement when facing a pandemic

Cryptic Diversity in Indo-Pacific Coral-Reef Fishes Revealed by DNA-Barcoding Provides New Support to the Centre-of-Overlap Hypothesis

Diversity in coral reef fishes is not evenly distributed and tends to accumulate in the Indo-Malay-Philippines Archipelago (IMPA). The comprehension of the mechanisms that initiated this pattern is in its infancy despite its importance for the conservation of coral reefs. Considering the IMPA either as an area of overlap or a cradle of marine biodiversity, the hypotheses proposed to account for this pattern rely on extant knowledge about taxonomy and species range distribution. The recent large-scale use of standard molecular data (DNA barcoding), however, has revealed the importance of taking into account cryptic diversity when assessing tropical biodiversity. We DNA barcoded 2276 specimens belonging to 668 coral reef fish species through a collaborative effort conducted concomitantly in both Indian and Pacific oceans to appraise the importance of cryptic diversity in species with an Indo-Pacific distribution range. Of the 141 species sampled on each side of the IMPA, 62 presented no spatial structure whereas 67 exhibited divergent lineages on each side of the IMPA with K2P distances ranging between 1% and 12%, and 12 presented several lineages with K2P distances ranging between 3% and 22%. Thus, from this initial pool of 141 nominal species with Indo-Pacific distribution, 79 dissolved into 165 biological units among which 162 were found in a single ocean. This result is consistent with the view that the IMPA accumulates diversity as a consequence of its geological history, its location on the junction between the two main tropical oceans and the presence of a land bridge during glacial times in the IMPA that fostered allopatric divergence and secondary contacts between the Indian and Pacific oceans