Is Senegal on the right track to achieve its NDC commitments?

This paper assesses the extent to which Senegal’s macroeconomic policy actions both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic have been in line with its commitments to its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets. For the past decade the country has developed various policies to address the effects of climate change. Access to finance has played an instrumental role in developing bankable projects, mainly through international funding support. However, the available funds are insufficient, given the needs of the country and the complexity of funding mechanisms. To date, the implementation of Senegal’s NDC has been largely unsatisfactory. A comprehensive national measurement reporting and verification and supportive monitoring and evaluation system could increase transparency and strengthen efforts made in terms of climate adaptation and mitigation

Past, present, and future trends in boar taint detection

peer reviewedBackground: Boar taint is an unpleasant smell found in the meat of some uncastrated male pigs. This taint is often prevented by surgical castration without anesthesia or analgesia. However, this practice is an animal welfare concern. Production of entire males and immunocastration were suggested as alternatives. Ensuring that meat is untainted remains a priority for slaughterhouses. This has initiated research about the development of new boar taint detection methods. Most focus on detecting skatole and androstenone, two major contributors to boar taint. Scope and approach: This review aims to describe past methods and recent advances made in rapid boar taint detection, and provide leads for future research. The main findings of past methods such as the use of insect behavior-based sensors, e-noses, and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, are presented. Recently developed methods based on mass spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy, and sensors are also discussed. Finally, biosensors showing promising results and potential for boar taint detection are presented. The advantages and drawbacks of these techniques, cost analysis, and possible challenges encountered during their application to on-line detection are addressed. Key findings and conclusions: This review presents numerous techniques that were developed for boar taint detection. Some methods, such as laser diode thermal desorption combined with tandem mass spectrometry, proved their on-line/at-line efficiency as they are fast and accurate. However, initial investment and difficulty of implementation could lead to reluctance in applying these. Further research could focus on testing new sensor materials whereas sensory evaluation remains the most practical method used in slaughterhouses

Use of experimental sensors for discrimination of artificial breath mixtures in a lung cancer screening context

peer reviewedThe Pathacov project [3] aims at creating an electronic nose to detect lung cancer in the population at risk. Metal oxide sensors are being developed within the project to better detect cancer biomarkers, which are identified within a large-scale clinical study in university hospitals in the north-east of France. Before long and costly clinical trials, the performance of the prototype electronic nose has to be evaluated. In order to do this, a novel approach has been implemented. Real breath samples from healthy and available volunteers are collected in Teflon FEP sampling bags. The results of the electronic nose are processed through a principal component analysis (PCA) in order to evaluate the contribution of each sensor to the separation of the group’s clusters (healthy and cancer). This enables the selection of the best performing sensors to be included in the final prototype.Pathaco

Ammonia Sensor Based on Vapor Phase Polymerized Polypyrrole

peer reviewe

Characterization of a new simian immunodeficiency virus strain in a naturally infected Pan troglodytes troglodytes chimpanzee with AIDS related symptoms

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Data on the evolution of natural SIV infection in chimpanzees (SIVcpz) and on the impact of SIV on local ape populations are only available for Eastern African chimpanzee subspecies (<it>Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii</it>), and no data exist for Central chimpanzees (<it>Pan troglodytes troglodytes</it>), the natural reservoir of the ancestors of HIV-1 in humans. Here, we report a case of naturally-acquired SIVcpz infection in a <it>P.t.troglodytes </it>chimpanzee with clinical and biological data and analysis of viral evolution over the course of infection.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A male chimpanzee (Cam155), 1.5 years, was seized in southern Cameroon in November 2003 and screened SIV positive during quarantine. Clinical follow-up and biological analyses have been performed for 7 years and showed a significant decline of CD4 counts (1,380 cells/mm³in 2004 vs 287 in 2009), a severe thrombocytopenia (130,000 cells/mm³in 2004 vs 5,000 cells/mm³in 2009), a weight loss of 21.8% from August 2009 to January 2010 (16 to 12.5 kg) and frequent periods of infections with diverse pathogens.</p> <p>DNA from PBMC, leftover from clinical follow-up samples collected in 2004 and 2009, was used to amplify overlapping fragments and sequence two full-length SIVcpz<it>Ptt</it>-Cam155 genomes. SIVcpz<it>Ptt</it>-Cam155 was phylogenetically related to other SIVcpz<it>Ptt </it>from Cameroon (SIVcpz<it>Ptt</it>-Cam13) and Gabon (SIVcpz<it>Ptt</it>-Gab1). Ten molecular clones 5 years apart, spanning the V1V4 gp120 <it>env </it>region (1,100 bp), were obtained. Analyses of the <it>env </it>region showed positive selection (dN-dS >0), intra-host length variation and extensive amino acid diversity between clones, greater in 2009. Over 5 years, N-glycosylation site frequency significantly increased (p < 0.0001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Here, we describe for the first time the clinical history and viral evolution of a naturally SIV infected <it>P.t.troglodytes </it>chimpanzee. The findings show an increasing viral diversity over time and suggest clinical progression to an AIDS-like disease, showing that SIVcpz can be pathogenic in its host, as previously described in <it>P.t.schweinfurthii</it>. Although studying the impact of SIV infection in wild apes is difficult, efforts should be made to better characterize the pathogenicity of the ancestors of HIV-1 in their natural host and to find out whether SIV infection also plays a role in ape population decline.</p

Ammonia Sensor Based on Vapor Phase Polymerized Polypyrrole

The detection of ammonia is an important issue for a lot of applications: leak detection in industry, agriculture, cooling systems, and medical diagnosis (breath biomarker for non-invasive diagnostic of renal disease). Among the possible sensing technologies, chemosensors based on conducting polymers show interesting characteristics. Polypyrrole (PPy) is well known for its sensitivity to ammonia. In the present work, PPy was synthesized by vapor phase polymerization (VPP) and treated with three different reductants. The ammonia sensing performance was investigated. The response of sodium sulfite Na2SO3 treated PPy was found to be much more pronounced when exposed to ammonia, it was twice as high as the grown PPy. A response of 15% at 500 ppb was obtained with an excellent selectivity towards ammonia compared to ethanol, acetone, and isopropanol. The role of chemical reduction of PPy in ammonia gas sensing was studied using different methods such as Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and ultra-violet, visible, near-infrared (UV&ndash;Vis&ndash;NIR) spectroscopy

Boar taint detection - Development of sensors for rapid on line slaughterhouse detection of boar taint an approach based on the analysis of VOC profiles

Boar taint is a unpleasant smell found in the meat of some entire male pigs. Skatole and androstenone stored in fat are mainly responsible of this smell. They are emitted when the meat is cooked, releasing a urine and fecal like odor. Currently, detection of tainted carcasses is performed in slaughterhouses with the human nose or a colorimetric method. Fast, cheap and accurate VOCs sensor based methods are being developed to replace them.Elevated temperature VOC profiles are examined to -facilitate new sensor development , -gain the understanding of VOCs perceived during current boar taint sensory evaluations, -help in understanding which VOCs perceived by the consumers during the cooking of pork meat are lipid derived.AGROSENSO

Belgique

L’odeur de verrat est une odeur très désagréable (odeur d’urine et d’excrément) relâchée lors de la cuisson de la viande de certains porcs. Cette odeur est dûe à l’accumulation à des concentrations importantes de molécules telles que l’androsténone (AEON), le scatole (SKA) et l’indole (IND) dans les tissus adipeux de porcs mâles entiers. Afin de s’assurer qu’une telle viande n’est pas mise sur le marché, la détection et exclusion de carcasses odorantes sont effectuées en abattoir. De nouvelles méthodes de détection, rapides, peu coûteuses et permettant une classification des carcasses correcte à 100% sont en cours de développement pour remplacer la détection à l’aide du nez humain ou à l’aide d’un spectrophotomètre utilisées actuellement. Cette étude vise à déterminer quels COVs pourraient être ciblés par des capteurs détectant l’odeur de verrat lors de la chauffe du gras et à comprendre si certains COVs présents dans l’air ambient de l’abattoir pourraient interférer avec le bon fonctionnement des capteurs.AGROSENSO