Why are women smaller than men? When anthropology meets evolutionary biology

There are large variations of size among humans but in all populations, men are larger on average than women. For most biologists this fact can be easily explained by the same processes that explain the size dimorphism in large mammals in general and in apes in particular. Due to fights between males for the possession of females, sexual selection has favoured bigger males. Indeed, this factor certainly explains why males are selected for being large but lets aside the question of selection on the female side. Actually, it has been shown that larger females are also favoured by natural selection. This is particularly relevant for women because their probability of dying when giving birth is then reduced. In this paper, the common view that size dimorphism in humans results from the fact that the advantage of being big is stronger for men than for women is challenged by another hypothesis, namely that the difference results from a difference of cost rather than from a difference of benefits. The cost of being big would be higher in women simply because, under gender hierarchical regimes found in all cultures, men are allocated the best food. The interaction between evolutionary forces and cultural practices could then lead to this disadaptive situation

Déplacer les frontières conceptuelles du genre

La distinction classique entre sexe et genre dans les sciences sociales a été trop rapidement calquée sur les représentations communes qui dictent implicitement les frontières du biologique et du social. L’annulation récente de cette distinction dans les études de genre, initiée par Judith Butler, résulte paradoxalement d’une adhésion non reconnue à ces frontières. La critique constructiviste du concept de sexe issue de l’épistémologie féministe dans les sciences de la vie n’a pas la rigueur que les sciences sociales lui accordent. Il faut déplacer les frontières du genre vers le biologique, non les annuler en faisant du sexe quelque chose d’aussi « construit culturellement » que le genre. Le sexe, au singulier, n’est pas la même chose que les sexes, au pluriel. Les corps définis par leurs caractères sexuels (mâles, femelles) ne sont pas des réalités biologiques, mais du genre. Les caractères du sexe, en revanche, doivent être définis comme une réalité résultant de mécanismes génétiques précis.The classical distinction between sex and gender in the social sciences has been modelled, too quickly, on shared representations that implicitly dictate the borders between the biological and the social. The recent abolition of this distinction in gender studies, initiated by Judith Butler, is paradoxically the consequence of an unacknowledged adherence to those borders. The constructivist critique of the concept of sex arising out of feminist epistemology in the life sciences does not have the rigour that the social sciences give to it. We have to shift the borders of gender toward the biological, not annul them by making sex something that is as « culturally constructed » as gender. Sex, in the singular form, is not the same thing as sexes, in the plural. Bodies defined by their sexual characteristics (males, females) are not biological realities, but gender. The characteristics of sex, on the other hand, must be defined as a reality resulting from specific genetic mechanisms

Sensory profiles of breast meat from broilers reared in an organic niche production system and conventional standard broilers

BACKGROUND: Breast meat from broilers produced in very different production systems may vary considerable in sensory profile, which may affect consumer interests. In this study the aim was to evaluate differences in the sensory profiles of breast meat from five broiler products: two conventional standard products (A and B) and three organic niche genotypes (I657, L40 and K8) reared in an apple orchard. RESULTS: Thirteen out of 22 sensory attributes differed significantly between the products. The aroma attributes ‘chicken’, ‘bouillon’ and ‘fat’ scored highest and the ‘iron/liver’ aroma lowest for the niche products. The meat was more ‘tender’, ‘short’ and ‘crumbly’ and less ‘hard’ and ‘stringy’ in the standard products than in one or more of the niche products. Product ‘I 657’ was less ‘juicy’ than the rest. Products ‘I 657’ and ‘L 40’ were more ‘cohesive’ and tasted more ‘sourish’ and less of ‘sweet/maize’ than the standard products. The ‘overall liking’ score was significantly higher for the ‘K 8’ product than for the ‘Standard A’ and ‘L 40’ products. The ‘overall liking’ score was significantly correlated with the scores for aroma and taste of ‘chicken’, ‘umami/bouillon’, ‘iron/liver’ and ‘fat’ aroma. CONCLUSION: The sensory profiles differed particularly between conventional standard broilers and organic niche broilers, although differences were also found between breeds. The present study indicates that aroma and taste attributes were more important for the assessors than meat ‘tenderness’ for the overall liking of broiler meat. �c 2011 Society of Chemical Industry

On the Interoperability of DEVS components: On-Line vs. Off-Line Strategies

During the last years, the DEVS community provides many contributions towards the realization of a world-wide platform for collaborative Modeling & Simulation. The goal of such a platform would be to enable the sharing and reuse of models between scientists, as well as the seamless simulation of distributed and heterogeneous models. Therefore, one of the major research fields is the definition of architectures for integrating heterogeneous DEVS components, meaning simulators and/or models written in different frameworks and programming languages. In this work, we present three different strategies for providing such interoperability between DEVS components. The first focuses on standardizing exchanges between simulators, and has been explored in previous works. The two others strategies are more prospective; in keeping with Model-Driven Engineering, they place the model at the center of their architecture and make extensive use of model transformations. To make this possible, we defined a platform and language-independent format for describing and sharing DEVS models, called DEVS Markup Language

Caractérisation expérimentale de la résistance latérale des murs de brique traditionnelle pour l'analyse de la fragilité

Les structures en maçonnerie non armée (MNA) sont reconnues pour être les plus vulnérables aux séismes. Cependant, leur utilisation est largement répandue dans l’Est du Canada, que ce soit pour la réalisation de murs porteurs ou non porteurs dans les bâtiments résidentiels, les bâtiments industriels, les églises, etc. Nombre de ces bâtiments furent construits avant l’établissement de normes et codes parasismiques, ce qui tend encore à augmenter leur vulnérabilité vis-à-vis des séismes. Le travail de recherche présenté ici a pour finalité de mieux évaluer la résistance de ces bâtiments face aux charges latérales. Il consiste ainsi en un projet expérimental dont l’objectif principal est de caractériser le comportement de murs de MNA de brique traditionnelle soumis à un chargement cyclique. Cela permettra d’une part, d’évaluer plus précisément la résistance sismique de ce type de mur, et d’autre part, d’établir un plan efficace de renforcement de ces bâtiments. Le programme expérimental comprend la caractérisation de la MNA de brique et de ses constituants. Les murets mis à l’essai sont composés de deux épaisseurs de briques d’argile pleines séparées par un joint de mortier de ciment et de chaux, reproduisant les caractéristiques d’un mur porteur de MNA traditionnelle. La première phase du programme experimental consiste à réaliser des essais de traction diagonale sur six murets (459 mm x 459 mm x 204 mm et 861 mm x 861 mm x 204 mm), avec en parallèle, des essais de compression et de cisaillement sur respectivement 18 et 54 échantillons de maçonnerie. Les résultats obtenus permettent de paramétrer la deuxième phase du programme expérimental. Celle-ci consiste à réaliser des essais de sollicitation cyclique sur trois murets (861 mm x 660 mm x 204 mm) afin de déduire la courbe de capacité bilinéaire sous différents niveaux de contrainte normale. En parallèle, des essais de compression et de cisaillement sont respectivement réalisés sur 9 et 27 échantillons de MNA. Tous les échantillons de MNA sont construits à partir des gâchées de mortier utilisées pour les murets. Les murets présentent une résistance moyenne à la traction diagonale de 0,79 ± 0,03 MPa et un module d’élasticité en cisaillement moyen de 2,08 ± 0,17 GPa. Les échantillons quant à eux livrent les caractéristiques suivantes : résistance à la compression moyenne du mortier, de la brique, de la MNA de 5,35 ± 1,0 MPa, 26,3 ± 4,8 MPa et 14,8 ± 2,1 MPa, respectivement; module d’élasticité moyen de la brique et de la MNA de 3,6 ± 1,1 GPa et de 3,18 ± 0,82 GPa; coefficient de friction de 0,94 et une cohésion de 0,29 MPa, obtenus lors des essais en cisaillement. À l’issu du programme expérimental, les propriétés mécaniques déterminées sont ensuite utilisées pour calibrer des modèles issus de la littérature ainsi qu’un modèle numérique de muret de MNA en macro-élément sur le logiciel spécialisé 3-Muri©. Les résultats obtenus sont comparés avec ceux des essais de sollicitation cyclique ce qui permet ainsi une analyse de la validité de ces différents modèles quant à la prédiction du comportement de la MNA sous certaines conditions

Activity Regions for the Specication of Discrete Event Systems

International audienceThe common view on modeling and simulation of dynamic systems is to focus on the specification of the state of the system and its transition function. Although some interesting challenges remain to efficiently and elegantly support this view, we consider in this paper that this problem is solved. Instead, we propose here to focus on a new point of view on dynamic system specifications: the activity exhibited by their discrete event simulation. We believe that such a viewpoint introduces a new way for analyzing, modeling and simulating systems. We first start with the definition of the key notion of activity for the specification of a specific class of dynamic system, namely discrete event systems. Then, we refine this notion to characterize activity regions in time, in space, in states and in hierarchical component-based models. Examples are given to illustrate and stress the importance of this notion

Refounding of Activity Concept ? Towards a Federative Paradigm for Modeling and Simulation

Journal : Simulation, Transactions of the Society for Modeling and Simulation InternationalInternational audienceCurrently, the widely used notion of activity is increasingly present in computer science. However, because this notion is used in specific contexts, it becomes vague. Here, the notion of activity is scrutinized in various contexts and, accord-ingly, put in perspective. It is discussed through four scientific disciplines: computer science, biology, economics, and epis-temology. The definition of activity usually used in simulation is extended to new qualitative and quantitative definitions. In computer science, biology and economics disciplines, the new simulation activity definition is first applied critically. Then, activity is discussed generally. In epistemology, activity is discussed, in a prospective way, as a possible framework in models of human beliefs and knowledge