A propos de quatre palmiers spontanés d'Amérique Latine

A côté des cultures oléagineuses à haut rendement couramment pratiquées existent certaines richesses végétales naturelles, souvent mal connues et difficilement accessibles, mais dont le potentiel de production paraît considérable. En Amérique latine, quatre genres de palmiers spontanés présentent, à des degrés divers, un certain intérêt. Il s'agit de Oenocarpus, Acrocomia, Orbignya et Mauritia, qui produisent soit une huile de pulpe à caractère fluide comparable à l'huile d'olive, soit des huiles d'amande concrètes du type de l'huile de palme ou du coprah. De nombreuses recherches restent à entreprendre afin de mieux connaître les peuplements existants et la biologie de ces plantes car, malgré les difficultés actuelles d'exploitation, on ne peut négliger le rôle qu'elles pourraient avoir dans le développement des contrées qui les abriten

Occurrence of Salmonella spp. in flies and foodstuff from pork butcheries in Kampala, Uganda

Food-borne diseases such as salmonellosis are a major cause of human gastroenteritis worldwide, especially in the developing world due to poor sanitary conditions. Flies feed on food and breed in feces and other organic material. As such they are known vectors of Salmonella spp. Given that pork consumption in Uganda is rapidly increasing while good food safety practices remain absent, this study aims to assess the occurrence of Salmonella spp. in pork butcheries as a contribution to improve hygiene. Seventy-seven pork butcheries out of 179 mapped in a previous survey in Kampala were randomly selected. From June–October 2014, samples of house flies, foodstuff and equipment were collected from all butcheries. Cultural isolation of Salmonella spp. was performed according to ISO 6579:2002. Among 693 samples, 64 (9%) tested positive for Salmonella enteritidis. Among the positives, 32% were samples of raw pork (25), 25% flies’ midguts (19), less than 9% water (7), tomatoes (6), cabbage (4), onions (2) and one case on roasted pork1, respectively. Positive flies coincided with contaminated foodstuff in 29% of the butcheries. All 154 samples from either butchers’ hands or their equipment were negative for Salmonella spp. The prevalence of S. enteritidis, especially on raw pork and in flies, illustrates the need for improving food safety in pork butcheries. Further research is required clarifying the gaps; especially the role of flies as microbiological carriers. In this context investigations are ongoing to identify Salmonella serotypes and their antimicrobial drug-resistance situation. However, these findings merit increased attention and can be used to improve knowledge, attitudes and practices amongst butchers. The research was carried out with the financial support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany, and the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, led by the International Food Policy Research Institute, through the Safe Food, Fair Food project at ILRI. Martin Heilmann got a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

Antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella enterica in pork and vegetable servings at pork joints in Kampala, Uganda

The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovars including the presence of shared plasmids in pork and related fresh vegetables served in pork joints in Kampala, Uganda. Pork butcheries in three of the five administrative divisions of Kampala were included for the survey. Samples included raw pork, roasted pork, water, onions, tomatoes, cabbage, butcher’s hands (swabs), utensils (swabs) and fly midgut extracts. A total of 693 samples were collected from 77 pork butcheries from June- October 2014. Overall 53.2% pork joints had samples positive for Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovars. Isolation rates ranged from 31.2% (24/77) for raw pork, 1.3% (1/77) for roasted pork, 7.8% (6/77) for tomatoes, 2.6% (2/77) for onions, 5.2% (4/77) for cabbage, 9.1% (7/77) in water, and 22.1% (17/77) from fly midguts. Swab samples taken from utensil and butcher’s hands swabs were found negative (Heilmann et al., 2015). In the isolates obtained, resistance towards 22 antibiotics was tested. Resistances were found towards 11 out of the 22 antibiotics tested. High resistances were found to Cephazolin (97%), Cefotixime (93%), Gentamicin (88%), and Ceftazidime (86%). Intermediate resistance was found to Ciprofloxacin (59%) and Amoxicillin-Clavulanic acid (57.6%). Most isolates (85%) were susceptible to Levofloxacin, Ofloxacin, Sulfamethoxazole and Trimethoprim. Identification of plasmids by PCR-based replicon typing was performed recognizing FIA,FIB,FIC,HI1,HI2,I1- 1ᵞ,L/M,N,P,W,T,A/C,K,B/O,X,Y,F and FIIA. Six incompatibility groups were identified: FIA, W, FIC, FIB, P, Y with more than one incompatibility group existing among different isolates. A high resistance rate among Salmonella strains was found while the total number of incompatibility groups detected was with approximation 2.4. Thus, even though the total number of plasmids per strain is low, resistance rates detected remain high. The high resistance rates are probably resulting from intensified food animal production driving a greater use of antibiotics, which is a crucial aspect of public health concern

Experimental Control and Characterization of Autophagy in Drosophila

Insects such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, which fundamentally reorganize their body plan during metamorphosis, make extensive use of autophagy for their normal development and physiology. In the fruit fly, the hepatic/adipose organ known as the fat body accumulates nutrient stores during the larval feeding stage. Upon entering metamorphosis, as well as in response to starvation, these nutrients are mobilized through a massive induction of autophagy, providing support to other tissues and organs during periods of nutrient deprivation. High levels of autophagy are also observed in larval tissues destined for elimination, such as the salivary glands and larval gut. Drosophila is emerging as an important system for studying the functions and regulation of autophagy in an in vivo setting. In this chapter we describe reagents and methods for monitoring autophagy in Drosophila, focusing on the larval fat body. We also describe methods for experimentally activating and inhibiting autophagy in this system and discuss the potential for genetic analysis in Drosophila to identify novel genes involved in autophagy

Magnetic-field dependence of electron spin relaxation in n-type semiconductors

We present a theoretical investigation of the magnetic field dependence of the longitudinal ($T_1$) and transverse ($T_2$) spin relaxation times of conduction band electrons in n-type III-V semiconductors. In particular, we find that the interplay between the Dyakonov-Perel process and an additional spin relaxation channel, which originates from the electron wave vector dependence of the electron $g$-factor, yields a maximal $T_2$ at a finite magnetic field. We compare our results with existing experimental data on n-type GaAs and make specific additional predictions for the magnetic field dependence of electron spin lifetimes.Comment: accepted for publication in PRB, minor changes to previous manuscrip

Inhomogeneous Magnetism in La-doped CaMnO3. (II) Mesoscopic Phase Separation due to Lattice-coupled FM Interactions

A detailed investigation of mesoscopic magnetic and crystallographic phase separation in Ca(1-x)La(x)MnO3, 0.00<=x<=0.20, is reported. Neutron powder diffraction and DC-magnetization techniques have been used to isolate the different roles played by electrons doped into the eg level as a function of their concentration x. The presence of multiple low-temperature magnetic and crystallographic phases within individual polycrystalline samples is argued to be an intrinsic feature of the system that follows from the shifting balance between competing FM and AFM interactions as a function of temperature. FM double-exchange interactions associated with doped eg electrons are favored over competing AFM interactions at higher temperatures, and couple more strongly with the lattice via orbital polarization. These FM interactions thereby play a privileged role, even at low eg electron concentrations, by virtue of structural modifications induced above the AFM transition temperatures.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Plausibility functions and exact frequentist inference

In the frequentist program, inferential methods with exact control on error rates are a primary focus. The standard approach, however, is to rely on asymptotic approximations, which may not be suitable. This paper presents a general framework for the construction of exact frequentist procedures based on plausibility functions. It is shown that the plausibility function-based tests and confidence regions have the desired frequentist properties in finite samples---no large-sample justification needed. An extension of the proposed method is also given for problems involving nuisance parameters. Examples demonstrate that the plausibility function-based method is both exact and efficient in a wide variety of problems.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, 3 table

Constraints on the Charged Higgs Sector from the Tevatron Collider Data on Top Quark Decay

The top quark data in the lepton plus $\tau$ channel offers a viable probe for the charged Higgs boson signal. We analyse the recent Tevatron collider data in this channel to obtain a significant limit on the $H^\pm$ mass in the large $\tan\beta$ region.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX file; 2 figures included (PS files

SUSY_FLAVOR v2.5: a computational tool for FCNC and CP-violating processes in the MSSM

We present SUSY_FLAVOR version 2.5 - a Fortran 77 program that calculates low-energy flavor observables in the general $R$-parity conserving MSSM. For a set of MSSM parameters as input, the code gives predictions for: 1. Electric dipole moments of the leptons and the neutron. 2. Anomalous magnetic moments (i.e. $g-2$) of the leptons. 3. Radiative lepton decays ($\mu\to e\gamma$ and $\tau\to \mu\gamma, e\gamma$). 4. Rare Kaon decays ($K^0_L\to \pi^0\bar\nu\nu$ and $K^+\to \pi^+ \bar\nu\nu$). 5. Leptonic $B$ decays ($B_{s,d}\to l^+ l^-$, $B\to \tau \nu$, $B\to D \tau \nu$ and $B\to D^\star \tau \nu$). 6. Radiative $B$ decays ($B\to\bar X_s \gamma$). 7. Rare decays of top quark to Higgs boson ($t\to ch,uh$). 8. $\Delta F=2$ processes ($\bar K^0-K^0$, $\bar D-D$, $\bar B_d-B_d$ and $\bar B_s-B_s$ mixing). SUSY_FLAVOR performs the resummation of all chirally enhanced corrections, i.e. takes into account the effects enhanced by $\tan\beta$ and/or large trilinear soft mixing terms to all orders in perturbation theory. All calculations are done using exact diagonalization of the sfermion mass matrices. Comparing to previous versions, in SUSY_FLAVOR v2.5 parameter initialization in SLHA2 format has been significantly generalized and simplified, so that program accepts without modifications most of the output files produced by other codes calculating MSSM spectra and processes. In addition, the routine calculating branching ratios for rare decays of top quark to Higgs boson has been included. The program can be obtained from www.fuw.edu.pl/susy_flavor.Comment: Updated from arXiv:1003.4260 [hep-ph] (SUSY_FLAVOR v1 manual), 61 pages; updated sections on modified user interface and on newly added processes. SUSY_FLAVOR code available at http://www.fuw.edu.pl/susy_flavo