Proteomics as a tool to develop molecular indicators of nutritional condition in farmed gilthead seabream

Gilthead seabream is the main aquaculture species produced in Portugal, as well as in the Mediterranean. However, the winter disease syndrome, a series of metabolic and immune system disorders caused by low temperatures, affects seabream culture, leading to important industrial losses, either as mortalities or growth decreases during spring. These effects can be minimized through dietary optimisation, either improving diets for the end of summer season, or feeding seabream with a fortified diet during autumn/winter. However, the development of a fortified diet for autumn/winter is hindered by the lack of tools to evaluate fish metabolic and physiological condition. Nevertheless, the recent development of new generation molecular tools provides good perspectives to supply molecular indicators of condition that would support this task

Quels enjeux pour la gestion des eaux urbaines ? Contribution à la formulation des services attendus par le système de gestion des eaux urbaines

International audienceLe système d'assainissement dont nous héritons s'est développé en couches successives, répondant chacune à des enjeux différents, et qui présentent une valeur patrimoniale très importante. Ces systèmes doivent aujourd'hui répondre à des enjeux de plus en plus diversifiés. Les techniques mises en ½uvre deviennent également de plus en plus diversifiées. Cette multiplication des fonctions et des dispositifs concourt à accroître le nombre d'organisations concernées et actives dans la gestion du système. Se pose alors la question de la coordination d'une pluralité d'organisations, gérant une pluralité d'ouvrages dans une grande diversité d'objectifs et d'intérêts. L'enjeu principal devient donc le développement d'un système durable de gestion des eaux urbaines qui se compose de dispositifs techniques et spatiaux, d'organisations en charge de ces dispositifs, et du bassin versant naturel correspondant au domaine d'influence. Cependant, pour gérer ce système, il faut dans un premier temps identifier les enjeux liés aux eaux urbaines. La multiplication des dispositifs et organisations, et le changement d'échelle pour considérer le système (ville + bassin versant naturel) nécessite en effet de repenser les services qu'il doit rendre. Cette communication propose une réponse sous forme de " marguerite des fonctions ". Les fonctions de service liées à la gestion des eaux urbaines et le mode d'obtention de la marguerite sont détaillés

Strengthening the community health worker programme for health improvement through enhancing training, supervision and motivation in Wakiso district, Uganda

Objective: The objective of the project was to strengthen the community health worker (CHW) programme in Ssisa sub-county, Wakiso district, Uganda by providing a coherent, structured and standardized training, supervision and motivation package so as to enhance their performance. Results: The project trained all 301 CHWs who received non-financial incentives of t-shirts, gumboots and umbrellas, and 75 of them received solar equipment to support lighting their houses and charging phones. Twenty-four of the CHWs who had coordination roles received additional training. Three motorcycles were also provided to enhance transportation of CHW coordinators during their work including supervision. By end of the project, the CHWs had conducted 40,213 household visits, carried out health education sessions with 127,011 community members, and treated 19,387 children under 5 years of age. From the project evaluation, which used both quantitative and qualitative methods, 98% of the CHWs reported having improved competence in performance of their roles. In addition, the CHWs were highly motivated to do their work. The motorcycles were instrumental in supporting the work of CHW coordinators including monthly collection of reports and distribution of medicines. The project demonstrated that by improving training, supervision and motivation, performance of CHW programmes can be enhanced

The development of arable cultivation in the south-east of England and its relationship with vegetation cover: A honeymoon period for biodiversity?

The onset of prehistoric farming brought unprecedented changes to landscapes and their biodiversity. Past biodiversity patterns are broadly understood for different parts of Europe, and demonstrate trajectories that have been linked to prehistoric and historic demographic transitions, and associated land-use practices. To our knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to directly link evidence of agricultural practice from the archaeological record to biodiversity patterns. Records of fossil pollen are used to estimate plant and landscape diversity patterns, and novel approaches are employed to analyse 1194 harmonised archaeobotanical samples (plant macrofossil remains) spanning the prehistoric and Roman periods, from southern England. We demonstrate changes in the use of crops and gathered edible plants and non-linear trends in cultivation practices. Whilst, overall, cereal production is characterised by ever larger and extensive regimes, different trajectories are evident for most of early prehistory, the Middle Iron Age and the Late Roman period. Comparisons with the Shannon diversity of fossil pollen records from the same region suggest a positive relationship between developing agricultural regimes and landscape scale biodiversity during the prehistoric period. The Roman period represents a tipping point in the relationship between expanding agriculture and pollen diversity, with declining pollen diversity evident in the records from the region

Middle Neolithic farming of open-air sites in SE France: new insights from archaeobotanical investigations of three wells found at Les Bagnoles (L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Dépt. Vaucluse, France)

Previous reviews of Middle Neolithic agricultural practice (4400–3500 cal bc) in southern France have highlighted a change in crop assemblages after 4000 cal bc, with a reduction of naked wheat and an increase of emmer and partly of einkorn. The recent investigation of three wells from the site of Les Bagnoles (4250–3800 cal bc) in the periphery of the southern Rhône valley yielded an unprecedented amount of waterlogged uncharred and charred plant macro remains that offer new insights into crop diversity and its changes over time. The results from the wells at Les Bagnoles were compared with other dated sunken features from open-air sites (in contrast to caves and rock shelters), with the aim of identifying patterns sug-gesting changes in the crop spectra between the early (MN1) and late (MN2) Middle Neolithic phases from taphonomically comparable contexts. The results from Les Bagnoles demonstrate that oil crops and pulses are underrepresented in dry sites and that they were a significant part of Middle Neolithic agriculture. They also indicate an increase in the representation of einkorn (instead of emmer) during MN2 that is also visible in other open-air sites. The comparison of the archaeobotani-cal results with silo storage capacity values as a proxy for average production capacity per household leads us to propose a possible drop in naked wheat productivity and opens new questions in factors affecting crop choice at the beginning of the 4th millennium cal bc