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Abstract Background Genetic diversity is a necessary condition for populations to evolve under natural adaptation, artificial selection, or both. However, genetic diversity is often threatened, in particular in domestic animal populations where artificial selection, genetic drift and inbreeding are strong. In this context, cryopreserved genetic resources are a promising option to reintroduce lost variants and to limit inbreeding. However, while the use of ancient genetic resources is more common in plant breeding, it is less documented in animals due to a longer generation interval, making it difficult to fill the gap in performance due to continuous selection. This study investigates one of the only concrete cases available in animals, for which cryopreserved semen from a bull born in 1977 in a lost lineage was introduced into the breeding scheme of a French local dairy cattle breed, the Abondance breed, more than 20 years later. Results We found that this re-introduced bull was genetically distinct with respect to the current population and thus allowed part of the genetic diversity lost over time to be restored. The expected negative gap in milk production due to continuous selection was absorbed in a few years by preferential mating with elite cows. Moreover, the re-use of this bull more than two decades later did not increase the level of inbreeding, and even tended to reduce it by avoiding mating with relatives. Finally, the reintroduction of a bull from a lost lineage in the breeding scheme allowed for improved performance for reproductive abilities, a trait that was less subject to selection in the past. Conclusions The use of cryopreserved material is an efficient way to manage the genetic diversity of an animal population, by mitigating the effects of both inbreeding and strong selection. However, attention should be paid to mating of animals to limit the disadvantages associated with incorporating original genetic material, notably a discrepancy in the breeding values for selected traits or an increase in inbreeding. Therefore, careful characterization of the genetic resources available in cryobanks could help to ensure the sustainable management of populations, in particular local or small populations. These results could also be transferred to the conservation of wild threatened populations.

The creation of art in peripheral spaces is a process of artistic colonization of rural and natural spaces in the world through site-specific artworks grouped in artistic sites, and initiated by a recurring triptych of stakeholders: artist, sponsor (elected official, institutional, artistic curator) and manager (local authority, artistic institution, protected space). Within peripheral spaces, such an artistic investment is often a costly process which responds to somewhat political priorities on the field. Artistic production therefore tends to create specific territories, between land privatization and supply of cultural public services. Several treatments in MCA (multiple correspondence analysis) and HAC (hierarchical ascending classification) are mobilized in this article to account for the diversity and the stakes of a database of more than 210 artistic sites described by about forty variables. The results of the CAH show that, on a global scale, the sites fall into three main categories: artwashing sculpture parks, territorial art of peripheral spaces and the eco-artistic fronts of project-works.

Notre étude ne cherche pas à démontrer qu’un enseignement de l’intercompréhension entre les langues slaves est possible et potentiellement accessible à tous. En effet, nous partons du principe que cela est déjà démontré, ne serait-ce que par la multitude de méthodes efficaces consacrées à la pédagogie de l’intercompréhension entre les langues romanes et par les multiples travaux réalisés en matière de slavistique. Notre but est au contraire de profiter de l’expérience romane de l’enseignement de l’intercompréhension afin de proposer une approche parmi de nombreuses autres possibles adaptées aux langues slaves. Nous sommes convaincu de la grande utilité de telles approches, d’autant plus que les langues de l’Union Européenne sont, dans leur grande majorité, issues de trois grandes familles particulièrement propices à l’intercompréhension (les langues romanes, slaves et germaniques). Un tel apprentissage n’est pas forcément long ou compliqué à mettre en place et peut constituer un plus non négligeable à l’apprentissage des langues classiquement enseignées telles que l’anglais.

This study analyzes the spatial evolution of the port of Dakar over a little more than a century (1900-2009) and considers its linkages with political, economic and territorial issues since its inception. Spatial analysis was used to follow the transformation of the port area at a micro-local scale; it provides a few cues about how the port is linked to other scales.The space-time analysis showed that port management could somehow adapt to changing maritime traffic through spatial management and logistic arrangements. The extension phase which was initially linked to the port’s call function, then to the country’s commercial and industrial development, involved an extension of the port’s domain over the sea, because of an urban influence that had soon become a major spatial constraint. The specialization phase focusing on containerization occurred only in 2000, 25 years after the first container shipments to West Africa.But the port is now at a critical point. Indeed, if the space has been occupied at more than 90% capacity over the last decade, its current configuration does not allow it to support the future growth of maritime flows. The option of embankments, which has been the response to the congestion of terminals, doesn’t offer guarantees for the security of naval operations. This announces a dissociation phase, with the displacement of the ore terminals out of the city and reuse of the freed space. But this costly option calls for a strategy that is coherent with the country’s economic development, and the involvement of a diversity of investors.

Transhumance in the Sahel has been described and mapped extensively because it represents an essential pillar for securing pastoral systems. However, very few quantifiable indicators exist to guide decision makers and policy makers for taking transhumance into account. Through a case study in the Senegalese Ferlo we propose novel indicators (spatial and not) to analyze and monitor pastoral territories as defined by the long transhumance of Ferlo’s pastoralists. We propose two indicators, computed from recorded itineraries followed by pastoralists and herds, which show the intensity of transhumance in space and time (transhumant.day.km-2), during the journey and at destination. Crossing these indicators with rainfall data indicate that transhumance is more structural and strategic than opportunistic, while somehow climate-dependent with partial correlation with total yearly rainfall. Through origin-destination matrices that summarize fluxes between departure areas (“home zones”) and destination zones (“foster zones”), we build two other indicators that are aggregated at administrative levels, i.e. the emissivity index which shows the fraction of herders that initiate transhumance from a given residency zone, and the attractivity index which shows the fraction of herders that end-up in a given foster zone. A complementary indicator shows the connectedness of these zones through transhumance, and therefore is useful for highlighting the set of zones where coordination of pastoral policies would be desirable. All these indicators based on pastoral mobility also help grasp dimensions of local interactions (such as access to resources and opportunities for trade) and regional interactions (territorial supply and demand).