International field workshop on "The Triassic of Eastern France", october 2-7, 2006

Mémoire de Géosciences-Rennes, Hors-série n°5Excursion géologique organisée à l'occasion du congrès international "The triasic of Eastern France", du 2 au 7 ocrobre 200

Rôle et place du non-verbal dans la rationalisation des projets multimédias

Introduction Communiquer fait intervenir deux types de signaux : verbaux et non verbaux. Dans le cas d’une communication médiatisée (comme par exemple par le biais du document multimédia) ces deux dimensions se confrontent. Alors que jusqu’à présent les différents médias se marquaient par une prédominance d’une dimension sur l’autre, le multimédia les associe pratiquement à part égale. Cela ne va pas sans créer des problèmes de création et de rationalisation de l’organisation dans les projets..

Identification of hotspots in the European Union for the introduction of four zoonotic arboviroses by live animal trade

Live animal trade is considered a major mode of introduction of viruses from enzootic foci into disease-free areas. Due to societal and behavioural changes, some wild animal species may nowadays be considered as pet species. The species diversity of animals involved in international trade is thus increasing. This could benefit pathogens that have a broad host range such as arboviruses. The objective of this study was to analyze the risk posed by live animal imports for the introduction, in the European Union (EU), of four arboviruses that affect human and horses: Eastern and Western equine encephalomyelitis, Venezuelan equine encephalitis and Japanese encephalitis. Importation data for a five-years period (2005-2009, extracted from the EU TRACES database), environmental data (used as a proxy for the presence of vectors) and horses and human population density data (impacting the occurrence of clinical cases) were combined to derive spatially explicit risk indicators for virus introduction and for the potential consequences of such introductions. Results showed the existence of hotspots where the introduction risk was the highest in Belgium, in the Netherlands and in the north of Italy. This risk was higher for Eastern equine encephalomyelitis (EEE) than for the three other diseases. It was mainly attributed to exotic pet species such as rodents, reptiles or cage birds, imported in small-sized containments from a wide variety of geographic origins. The increasing species and origin diversity of these animals may have in the future a strong impact on the risk of introduction of arboviruses in the EU. (Résumé d'auteur

Qualité de l’évaluation en multimédia : vers un espace de classification des procédés d’interactivité

La qualité désigne la capacité d’une entité à répondre aux besoins de son client potentiel. L’élément-clef d’une communication/produit de qualité doit permettre au client d’évaluer, avant achat, la capacité du produit à satisfaire ses attentes. S’agissant des produits multimédia, peu d’informations fiables sont fournies sur les caractéristiques de l’objet proposé. Celles-ci définissent au mieux un nombre de fragments inertes sans estimation des capacités d’interaction. Cet article propose un principe de classification des procédés d’interactivité. Il se fonde sur la nature des données, une forme de structure supportant leur architecture et les unités d’information du document. Il permet de classer une application interactive. Des exemples d’applications illustrent les résultats de la méthode pour un ensemble de titres significatifs du marché.Quality refers to the ability of an entity to meet potential customer needs. The key element of a quality-based communication/product is its ability to allow a customer to evaluate its capacity to satisfy his needs prior to its purchase. Regarding multimedia products, very little information is given concerning the specifications of the object in question. These details define, at best, only a certain number of passive fragments without evaluating its interactive capacities. This article proposes a system of classification regarding interactive processes. It is based on the nature of the data, the pattern of the structure underlying its architecture and the units of information of a given document. This facilitates the classification of multimedia documents. Some examples illustrate the method by using some major products currently available

Bridging gaps in the molecular phylogeny of the Lymnaeidae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata), vectors of Fascioliasis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Lymnaeidae snails play a prominent role in the transmission of helminths, mainly trematodes of medical and veterinary importance (<it>e.g</it>., <it>Fasciola </it>liver flukes). As this family exhibits a great diversity in shell morphology but extremely homogeneous anatomical traits, the systematics of Lymnaeidae has long been controversial. Using the most complete dataset to date, we examined phylogenetic relationships among 50 taxa of this family using a supermatrix approach (concatenation of the 16 S, ITS-1 and ITS-2 genes, representing 5054 base pairs) involving both Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our phylogenetic analysis demonstrates the existence of three deep clades of Lymnaeidae representing the main geographic origin of species (America, Eurasia and the Indo-Pacific region). This phylogeny allowed us to discuss on potential biological invasions and map important characters, such as, the susceptibility to infection by <it>Fasciola hepatica </it>and <it>F. gigantica</it>, and the haploid number of chromosomes (n). We found that intermediate hosts of <it>F. gigantica </it>cluster within one deep clade, while intermediate hosts of <it>F. hepatica </it>are widely spread across the phylogeny. In addition, chromosome number seems to have evolved from n = 18 to n = 17 and n = 16.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study contributes to deepen our understanding of Lymnaeidae phylogeny by both sampling at worldwide scale and combining information from various genes (supermatrix approach). This phylogeny provides insights into the evolutionary relationships among genera and species and demonstrates that the nomenclature of most genera in the Lymnaeidae does not reflect evolutionary relationships. This study highlights the importance of performing basic studies in systematics to guide epidemiological control programs.</p

Physico-chemical characterisation of sago starch

The physico-chemical characteristics of various sago starch samples from South East Asia were determined and compared to starches from other sources. X-ray diffraction studies showed that all the sago starches exhibited a C-type diffraction pattern. Scanning electron microscopy showed that they consist of oval granules with an average diameter around 30 μm. Proximate composition studies showed that the moisture content in the sago samples varied between 10.6% and 20.0%, ash between 0.06% and 0.43%, crude fat between 0.10% and 0.13%, fiber between 0.26% and 0.32% and crude protein between 0.19% and 0.25%. The amylose content varied between 24% and 31%. The percentage of amylose obtained by colourimetric determination agreed well with the values obtained by fractionation procedures and potentiometric titration. Intrinsic viscosities and weight average molecular weight were determined in 1M KOH. Intrinsic viscosity for amylose from sago starches varied between 310 and 460 ml/g while for amylopectin the values varied between 210 and 250 ml/g. The molecular weight for amylose was found to be in the range of 1.41×106 to 2.23×106 while for amylopectin it was in the range of 6.70×106 to 9.23×106. The gelatinisation temperature for the sago starches studied varied between 69.4°C and 70.1°C. The exponent ‘a’ in the Mark–Houwink equation and the exponent ‘α’ in the equation Rg=kMα was found to be 0.80 and 0.58, respectively for amylose separated from sago starch and these are indicative of a random coil conformation. Two types of pasting properties were observed. The first was characterised by a maximum consistency immediately followed by sharp decrease in consistency while the second type was characterised by a plateau when the maximum consistency was reached