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International audience; Thermal treatments can be considered as an accelerated ageing, bringing partly similar changes in properties as naturally aged wood. Thermal treatment was applied on white mulberry (Morus alba L.), a dominant species for making musical instruments from middle-East to Far-East, to investigate the effects on the vibro-mechanical and physical properties of this wood, and the results compared to previously published data on spruce (Picea abies Karst.) as a reference for the soundboard of Western string instruments. Thermal treatment (TT) at 150 °C and 0% of relative humidity was applied to five analogous groups of specimens with five different durations (2.5, 8, 24, 72, 261 hours). Humidity reconditioning of specimens was done to explore the reversibility of TT effects. Physical and vibrational properties such as specific gravity (γ), equilibrium moisture content (EMC), CIELab colorimetric values, specific modulus of elasticity (E'/γ) and damping coefficient (tanδ) in longitudinal (L) and radial (R) directions, have been measured after stabilisation of samples in standard conditions (20 °C, 65% RH), before and after TT and then after reconditioning. Untreated mulberry had a low EMC, very low L/R anisotropy and low E'L/γ, and relatively low tanδ. Weight loss (WL) and CIELab values evolved similarly during TT for mulberry and for previous results on spruce, however, their EMC and vibrational properties were affected differently. This could be explained in part by the low anisotropy of mulberry, and in part by its particular extractives. The parts of irreversible effects, linked to chemical modification or degradation, and of reversible effects, linked to physical configuration, were different between mulberry and spruce. The applied treatments did not bring permanent "improvements" in vibrational properties of mulberry, yet its colour appearance was enhanced.

International audience; BACKGROUND: There is very little epidemiological evidence on the effects of ambient air pollution on brain tumor risk. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between exposure to air pollution and the incidence of brain tumors. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search in five international databases, including PubMed/Medline, ProQuest, Scopus, Embase, and ISI/WOS on April 15, 2019, was conducted. The methodology of the present study was based on the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) statement. The Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Form was used to evaluate the quality of the selected papers. RESULTS: Five studies that measured adult brain tumors as well as their long-term exposure to at least one of the pollutants criteria for air pollution, PM(2.5) absorbance, and proximity to traffic (Trafnear) were reviewed. The results showed that the pooled relative risk (RR) for incidence of brain tumor and long term exposure to Trafnear, PM(2.5), PM(2.5) absorbance, O(3) and NOx were RR = 1.07, (95% CI 0.99-1.16), P = 0.079, for Trafnear; RR = 0.90, (95% CI 0.80-1.00), P = 0.064 for PM(2.5); RR = 1.63, (95% CI 1.04-2.55), P = 0.031 for PM(2.5) absorbance; RR = 1.3, (95% CI 1.03-1.6), P = 0.023 for O(3); and RR = 1.16, (95% CI 0.93-1.45), P = 0.173 for NOx. Exposure to other air pollutants had no statistically significant association with brain tumor incidence. CONCLUSION: The results showed that exposure to air pollutants, such as O(3) and PM(2.5) absorbance, had the highest correlation with brain tumor incidence. They also showed an absence of correlation between exposure to certain pollutants (SO(2), CO, NO(2), PM(10), PM(2.5)) and brain tumor incidence.

Purpose Cement as one of the major components of construction activities, releases a tremendous amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, resulting in adverse environmental impacts and high energy consumption. Increasing demand for CO2 consumption has urged construction companies and decision-makers to consider ecological efficiency affected by CO2 consumption. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a method capable of analyzing and assessing the eco-efficiency determining factor in Iran’s 22 local cement companies over 2015–2019. Design/methodology/approach This research uses two well-known artificial intelligence approaches, namely, optimization data envelopment analysis (DEA) and machine learning algorithms at the first and second steps, respectively, to fulfill the research aim. Meanwhile, to find the superior model, the CCR model, BBC model and additive DEA models to measure the efficiency of decision processes are used. A proportional decreasing or increasing of inputs/outputs is the main concern in measuring efficiency which neglect slacks, and hence, is a critical limitation of radial models. Thus, the additive model by considering desirable and undesirable outputs, as a well-known DEA non-proportional and non-radial model, is used to solve the problem. Additive models measure efficiency via slack variables. Considering both input-oriented and output-oriented is one of the main advantages of the additive model. Findings After applying the proposed model, the Malmquist productivity index is computed to evaluate the productivity of companies over 2015–2019. Although DEA is an appreciated method for evaluating, it fails to extract unknown information. Thus, machine learning algorithms play an important role in this step. Association rules are used to extract hidden rules and to introduce the three strongest rules. Finally, three data mining classification algorithms in three different tools have been applied to introduce the superior algorithm and tool. A new converting two-stage to single-stage model is proposed to obtain the eco-efficiency of the whole system. This model is proposed to fix the efficiency of a two-stage process and prevent the dependency on various weights. Converting undesirable outputs and desirable inputs to final desirable inputs in a single-stage model to minimize inputs, as well as turning desirable outputs to final desirable outputs in the single-stage model to maximize outputs to have a positive effect on the efficiency of the whole process. Originality/value The performance of the proposed approach provides us with a chance to recognize pattern recognition of the whole, combining DEA and data mining techniques during the selected period (five years from 2015 to 2019). Meanwhile, the cement industry is one of the foremost manufacturers of naturally harmful material using an undesirable by-product; specific stress is given to that pollution control investment or undesirable output while evaluating energy use efficiency. The significant concentration of the study is to respond to five preliminary questions.

International audience; Aim: The effects of nutrition and exercise on autophagy are not well studied. This study aimed to investigate the combined effects of high-fat diets (HFD) and exercise training (ET) on autophagy in white adipose tissue of mice.Materials and methods: Male C57BL/6 mice were assigned into four groups of 7 mice per group: (1) Control, (2) high-fat diet-induced obesity (HFD-Ob), (3) exercise training (ET), and (4) high-fat diet with exercise training (HFD-ET). The HFD-Ob group was fed a high-fat diet for 14 weeks, while the ET group continuously ran on a treadmill for five sessions per week for seven weeks, and the HFD-ET group had both HFD and exercise training. qReal-time-PCR and western blot were used to measure the mRNA and protein levels of autophagy markers in white adipose tissue.Results: Mice from the HFD group showed higher levels in autophagy-related gene5 (ATG5, p = 0.04), ATG7 (p = 0.002), cathepsin B (CTSB, p = 0.0004), LC3-II (p = 0.03) than control. Mice in the ET group displayed higher levels of genes for ATG7 (p = 0.0003), microtubule-associated protein1-light chain 3 (LC3, p = 0.05), lysosome-associated membrane protein 2 (LAMP2, p = 0.04) and cathepsin L (CTSL, p = 0.03) than control. Mice from the HFD-ET group had higher levels of genes for ATG7 (p = 0.05) and CTSL (p = 0.043) and lower levels of genes for CTSB (p = 0.045) compared to the HFD group and lower levels of LAMP2 (p = 0.02) compared to the ET group.Conclusion: There were increases in autophagosome formation in the white adipose tissue from mice in the HFD and ET groups. A combination of HFD and ET enhances autophagosome formation and modulates lysosomal degradation in white adipose tissue.

The usage of single-photon avalanche diode arrays is becoming increasingly common in various domains such as medical imaging, automotive vision systems, and optical communications. Nowadays, thanks to the development of microelectronics technologies, the SPAD arrays designed for these applications has been drastically well-facilitated, allowing for the manufacturing of large matrices. However, there are growing challenges for the design of readout circuits with the needs of reducing their energy consumption (linked to the usage cost) and data rate. Indeed, the design of the readout circuit for the SPAD array is generally based on synchronous logic, the latter requires synchronization that may increase the dead time of the SPADs and clock trees management that are known to increase power consumption. With these limitations, the long-neglected asynchronous (clockless) logic proved to be a better alternative because of its ability to operate without a clock. In this paper, we presented the design of a 16-to-1 fixed-priority tree arbiter readout circuit for a SPAD array based on asynchronous logic principles. The design of this circuit was explained in detail and supported by simulation results. The manufactured chip was tested, and the experimental results showed that it is possible to record up to 333 million events per second, no reading errors were detected during the data extraction test.

International audience; Background: The aim of this study was to compare the effects of 8 weeks resistance training (RT) with two sessions versus four sessions per week under volume load-equated conditions on body composition, maximal strength, and explosive actions performance in recreationally trained men. Methods: Thirty-five healthy young men participated in the study and were randomly divided into a two sessions per-week RT (RT2, n = 12), four sessions per-week RT (RT4, n = 13) or a control group (CG, n = 10). All subjects were evaluated for thigh, chest and arm circumference, countermovement jump (CMJ), medicine ball throw (MBT), 1-repetition maximum (1RM) leg press, bench press, arm curl, muscular endurance (i.e., 60% of 1RM to failure) for leg press, and bench press at pre, mid (week 4) and post an 8-week training intervention. Results: A two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures (3 [group] x 3 [time]) revealed that both training groups increased chest and thigh circumferences, strength and explosive actions performance tests in comparison to CG following 8 weeks of training (p = 0.01 to 0.04). Group x time interactions were also noted in 1RM bench press (effects size [ES] = 1.07 vs. 0.89) and arm curl (ES = 1.15 vs. 0.89), with greater gains for RT4 than RT2 (p = 0.03). Conclusion: RT improved muscle strength, explosive actions performance and markers of muscle size in recreationally trained men; however, four sessions of resistance training per week produced greater gains in muscular strength for the upper body measures (i.e., 1RM bench press and arm curl) when compared to two sessions per week under volume-equated conditions.

International audience; The characteristic summer aridity of the region has significant implications in several socioeconomic sectors. Cyprus is facing its worst ever water shortage in the last few decades. Climate models are widely used to project present and future changes of climate variables. Although the ability of models has improved, systematic biases can be found in model simulations. Therefore, it is recommended the accuracy of model simulations of past or contemporary climate to be evaluated by comparing the results with observations. Therefore, with the monthly rainfall data of TRNC six meteorological regions for the hydrologic years from September 1975 to August 2014 period, the homogeneity tests were as well carried out. The results show that P-value=0.38>0.05. Therefore, the Central Mesaria time series is normally distributed. In addition, it can be understood the number of wet spells is 18 (means 47%), number of Dry spells is 21 (means 53%). Therefore, the Central Mesaria is in dry spell during the studied period.

International audience; Nowadays, polyamide 12 (PA-12) is considered as an interesting polymer in the rotomolding process to manufacture different pieces like the liner part in the storage hydrogen tank (type IV). In this study, the pure polyamide-12 and PA12 pieces, incorporated with 0.5%, 1% and 3% wt Nano Carbon Black (NCB), were manufactured by the rotomolding process. Different rotomolding parameters such as heating temperature, time of heating, and cooling rate have been optimized to obtain the ideal piece. The effect of volume fraction of NCB in terms of physicochemical and mechanical properties has been studied. Afterward, the optimal volume fraction of NCB is revealed using different characterization methods. The tensile results specified the addition of NCBs until 0.5% improved the tensile behavior. The addition of NCBs more than 0.5% decreases the mechanical properties in terms of failure stress and strain, while it has no significant effect on the elastic modulus of PA-12. The bi-parabolic the Perez model has been used to study the viscoelastic behavior of PA-12 using the Cole-Cole method. The constants of the Perez model indicate a good correlation between viscoelastic experimental results and the model used.

The autophagy-related genes (ATGs) play important roles in plant growth and response to environmental stresses. Brassica napus (B. napus) is among the most important oilseed crops, but ATGs are largely unknown in this species. Therefore, a genome-wide analysis of the B. napus ATG gene family (BnATGs) was performed. One hundred and twenty-seven ATGs were determined due to the B. napus genome, which belongs to 20 main groups. Segmental duplication occurred more than the tandem duplication in BnATGs. Ka/Ks for the most duplicated pair genes were less than one, which indicated that the negative selection occurred to maintain their function during the evolution of B. napus plants. Based on the results, BnATGs are involved in various developmental processes and respond to biotic and abiotic stresses. One hundred and seven miRNA molecules are involved in the post-transcriptional regulation of 41 BnATGs. In general, 127 simple sequence repeat marker (SSR) loci were also detected in BnATGs. Based on the RNA-seq data, the highest expression in root and silique was related to BnVTI12e, while in shoot and seed, it was BnATG8p. The expression patterns of the most BnATGs were significantly up-regulated or down-regulated responding to dehydration, salinity, abscisic acid, and cold. This research provides information that can detect candidate genes for genetic manipulation in B. napus.

International audience; Preferential water flow in soil macropores such as underground channels formed by worm activity and plant root growth, can move a large volume of water and contaminants to groundwater resources in a short time. To describe these types of water flow in soil, Di Pietro et al. (2003) developed and proposed kinematic-dispersive wave (KDW) model. They suggested this model by adding a dispersive term to the kinematic wave (KW) model that was severely convective and was presented by Germann in 1985. The fundamental assumption of this model is that the water flux (u) is exclusively a function of the mobile water content, but in the KDW model, considering its additional dispersive term, it is assumed that the water flux is a non-linear function of the mobile water content and its first-time derivative. The first term of this assumption is a power function where the water flux depends on the mobile water content. This equation is just a mathematical equation and has no significant physical meaning. In this research, this power function is substituted by the shape of van Genuchten model that has an acceptable physical meaning, and thus the kinematic-dispersive wave van Genuchten (KDW-VG) model is introduced for the first time as the innovation of this research. The models were calibrated and validated with observations of four different rainfall intensities that were applied on the surface of a soil column with artificial preferential pathways. The output water fluxes from the bottom of the soil column versus the soil mobile volumetric water content in the column were recorded at set times. First, both the KDW and KDW-VG models were calibrated and their indefinite coefficients were determined by minimizing the error function between the observed and modelled water fluxes versus mobile volumetric water content using particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Next, both models, which are second-degree non-linear partial differential equations, were solved using numerical finite difference method with the MAMAS programming language, and were validated by experimental observations of rainfall hydrograph that was passed through the preferential routes of a physical model and was recorded from the bottom of the soil column. Root-mean-square error (RMSE) comparison of the models predictions and observations indicated that the proposed model (KDW-VG) could predict the observations more accurately compared with the KDW model, and also had better performance in the calibration stage.

International audience; GnRH is a neuropeptide known to regulate reproduction in vertebrates. The purpose of this study was to design and produce recombinant gonadotropin-releasing hormone associated peptide (rGnRH/GAP) as an alternative of the previous GnRHs and native extracted hormone from tissue, to induce final maturation in fish. Decapeptide as well as GAP area sequences were compared between GnRH1, GnRH2, and mGnRH from Acipenser sp and Huso huso, respectively. Considering the conserved amino acids and the replacement of un-stable amino acids with those that were more stable against proteolytic digestion as well as had a longer half-life, the sequence was designed. The sequences of decapeptide and GAP region were synthesized and then cloned on pET28a expression vector and transformed into expression host Escherichia coli BL21(DE3). The supernatant of cultured recombinant bacteria was used for purification using TALON Metal affinity resin. The purity of the GnRH/GAP was confirmed by single 8 kDa band on SDS-PAGE and Western blot. Bioinformatics studies were performed for evaluation of homology between GnRH protein sequences and prediction of 3D protein structure using Swiss Model. The result showed that the structure prediction of the recombinant GnRH decapeptide was relatively similar to decapeptide of GnRH2 from Beluga (Huso huso). The GAP structure was similar to GAP1 of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and sturgeon and GnRH2 of Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis). The mass analysis showed that the sequence was exactly the same as designated sequence. Biology activity of rGnRH/GAP was tested in mature goldfish (Carassius auratus) and results showed that rGnRH/GAP had a positive effect in final maturation. Indeed 17α, 20β-dihydroxy-4-pregnen-3-one (DHP) was increased 17 h and 24 h after injection with rGnRH/GAP and spawning stemmed from that injection. These novel findings introduce the potential of utilizing rGnRH/GAP in aquaculture.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the acute to chronic workload ratio (ACWR), based upon participant session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE), using two models [(1) rolling averages (ACWRRA); and (2) exponentially weighted moving averages (ACWREWMA)] and the injury rate in young male team soccer players aged 17.1 ± 0.7 years during a competitive mesocycle. Twenty-two players were enrolled in this study and performed four training sessions per week with 2 days of recovery and 1 match day per week. During each training session and each weekly match, training time and sRPE were recorded. In addition, training impulse (TRIMP), monotony, and strain were subsequently calculated. The rate of injury was recorded for each soccer player over a period of 4 weeks (i.e., 28 days) using a daily questionnaire. The results showed that over the course of the study, the number of non-contact injuries was significantly higher than that for contact injuries (2.5 vs. 0.5, p = 0.01). There were also significant positive correlations between sRPE and training time (r = 0.411, p = 0.039), ACWRRA (r = 0.47, p = 0.049), and ACWREWMA (r = 0.51, p = 0.038). In addition, small-to-medium correlations were detected between ACWR and non-contact injury occurrence (ACWRRA, r = 0.31, p = 0.05; ACWREWMA, r = 0.53, p = 0.03). Explained variance (r 2) for non-contact injury was significantly greater using the ACWREWMA model (ranging between 21 and 52%) compared with ACWRRA (ranging between 17 and 39%). In conclusion, the results of this study showed that the ACWREWMA model is more sensitive than ACWRRA to identify non-contact injury occurrence in male team soccer players during a short period in the competitive season., Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe, 666

Garra roseae, new species, is described from the stream Tang-e-Sarhe in the Iranian Makran region. It is distinguished from its congeners in the Middle East by lacking barbels, having a small mental disc, 42-58 total scales along the lateral line, 24-30 scales along the predorsal midline, and 20-24 circumpeduncular scales. It is further characterised by having five diagnostic nucleotide substitutions and a minimum K2P distance of 5.39% to G. rossica and 5.49% to G. nudiventris in the mtDNA COI barcode region. Garra phryne from eastern Iran is considered to be a synonym of G. nudiventris., We are pleased to thank the University of Guilan for financial support.

International audience; Statistical parsers are trained on treebanks that are composed of a few thousand sentences. In order to prevent data sparseness and computational complexity, such parsers make strong independence hypotheses on the decisions that are made to build a syntactic tree. These independence hypotheses yield a decomposition of the syntactic structures into small pieces, which in turn prevent the parser from adequately modeling many lexico-syntactic phenomena like selectional constraints and subcategorization frames. Additionally, treebanks are several orders of magnitude too small to observe many lexico-syntactic regularities, such as selectional constraints and subcategorization frames. In this article, we propose a solution to both problems: how to account for patterns that exceed the size of the pieces that are modeled in the parser and how to obtain subcategorization frames and selectional constraints from raw corpora and incorporate them in the parsing process. The method proposed was evaluated on French and on English. The experiments on French showed a decrease of 41.6% of selectional constraint violations and a decrease of 22% of erroneous subcategorization frame assignment. These figures are lower for English: 16.21% in the first case and 8.83% in the second.

International audience; Gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) is a neuropeptide known to regulate reproduction in vertebrates. Different analogues of synthetic GnRH are used to induce final sexual maturation in fish breeders. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the expression of recombinant GnRH (rGnRH) in Escherichia coli BL21 to produce recombinant hormone. In the present research, the sequence of DNA related to designed fish GnRH was cloned in pET28a+. The cloning was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and specific primers. Recombinant vector pET28a+/GnRH was transformed into the expression host, E.coli BL21 (DE3). The transformation was confirmed using colony PCR. The transformed bacteria were cultured in LB medium containing kanamycin antibiotic at 37° C at overnight then, induced with 1 mM IPTG. After induction, the bacteria were cultured in two different times and temperatures including 37° C for 6 h and 20° C for 24 h. The protein expression was determined by SDS-PAGE analysis. A band of expected size (186 base pair) of amplification from the gene transmitted to the bacteria was detected on the agarose gel. The 8-kD band of peptide expression was observed in the SDS-PAGE gel and the expression level in 20° C for 24 h was higher than 37° C for 6 h. The result showed that GnRH from fish had the possibility of producing in the prokaryotic expression system and after optimization, it can be introduced as a specific homologous for the treatment of reproductive disorders in fish.

In Safragashteh forest of Fuman in north of Iran, there is a hazel stand, which has grown naturally. The aim of this research was to evaluate the plant communities and soil characteristics in the area. This study included 50 ha of hazel protected area. A selective sampling method was utilized to record 30 400 m2 for tree and shrub layers, and sub-plots of 100 m2 for herbaceous species. Soil samples were collected at the 30 plots. We found three ecological species groups in the study area. Corylus avellana and Epimedium pinnatum in first group, Fagus orientalis, Asperula odorata, Euphorbia amygdaloides, Carex sp., Fragaria vesca and Viola sylvestris in second group, and Crataegus microphylla, Ilex spinigera, Primula heterochroma, Sedum stoloniferum and Vicia crocea in thirth group were the indicator species. Sand percent was significantly highest in Corylus avellana group, while clay, nutrients elements, pH and SP were significantly highest in the other groups. Biodiversity indices in Corylus avellana group were significantly less than other stands. We recommend to provide comprehensive conservation and management programs in order to protect of common hazel, associated plant species, and to prevent of human activities such as recreational use and livestock.

Study of phenotypic variation is essential for identifying discrete phenotypic stocks. We sampled immature Persian sturgeon from the eastern and western portion of the southern Caspian Sea to test for morphological differences that could predict the ecophenotypic variation of Persian sturgeon. Geometric morphometric methods were used to quantify body shape. Configuration of landmark coordinates of fish body were scaled, translated and rotated using generalized Procrustes analysis, followed by univariate analysis of variance of resulting shape coordinates to evaluate potential morphological differences between regions. A principal component analysis was carried out to reduce the number of dimensions without the loss of information. The discriminate function analysis was performed to determine the efficacy of body landmarks for discrimination by geographic variants. Within-group linkage was inferred for dendrogram clusters using Pearson correlation distance on the basis of the average linkage method as a complement for discriminate analysis. Principle component analysis revealed that the largest differences were in body size. Most notable were differences in distance between head landmarks and the dorsal fin between eastern and western regions. Fish from the western region exhibited a longer distance from head landmarks to the dorsal fin than fish from the eastern region. Furthermore, the ventral portion of fish from the western region was longer than that of the eastern individuals. These findings show that juvenile Persian sturgeon already possess morphological traits that can be used to discriminate fish from different regions. Furthermore, these differences are discernible in spite of the volume of artificially-inseminated sturgeon larva that have been released during the past 40 years., El estudio de la variación fenotípica es esencial para la identificación de estirpes fenotípicas concretas. Con el fin de identificar diferencias morfológicas que permitan predecir variaciones eco-fenotípicas en el esturión persa, individuos inmaduros de esta especie se muestrearon en diferentes regiones del este y el oeste del sur del mar Caspio. Se utilizaron métodos morfométricos geométricos para cuantificar la forma del cuerpo. La configuración de coordenadas referenciadas del cuerpo del pez fueron escaladas, trasladadas y rotadas utilizando el análisis generalizado Procrustes, seguido del análisis Univariante de la Varianza de las coordenadas de forma resultantes, con el fin de evaluar posibles diferencias morfológicas entre diferentes zonas. Se utilizó un análisis de componentes principales para reducir el número de dimensiones sin perder información. Los scores de los componentes del cuerpo se sometieron a análisis discriminante, con el objeto de determinar la eficacia de las coordenadas referenciadas en la discriminación de las variantes geográficas. Las relaciones entre grupos para clusters de dendrograma se infirieron usando la correlación de distancias de Pearson, tomando como base el método de relación media como complemento del análisis discriminante. El análisis de componentes principales reveló que las mayores distancias fueron en la talla. Destacaron las diferencias encontradas en la distancia entre las referencias de cabeza y aleta dorsal entre las regiones del Este y Oeste. La distancia relativa entre las referencias de cabeza y aleta dorsal fue mayor en los peces de la región Oeste que en los de la región Este. Además, la porción ventral de los peces de la región Oeste fue mayor que la de los individuos del Este. Estos resultados indican que los juveniles de esturión persa ya muestran características morfológicas que pueden utilizarse para la discriminación de individuos de diferentes regiones. Además, estas diferencias son discernibles a pesar de la cantidad de larvas de esturión que, obtenidas por inseminación artificial, han sido liberadas al medio natural durante los últimos 40 años.

International audience; Nutritional quality during early life can affect learning ability and memory retention of animals. Here we studied the effect of resourcequality gained during larval development on the learning ability and memory retention of 2 sympatric strains of similar genetic backgroundof the parasitoid Trichogramma brassicae: one uninfected and one infected by Wolbachia. Wolbachia is a common arthropodparasite/mutualistic symbiont with a range of known effects on host fitness. Here we studied, for the first time, the interaction betweenresource quality and Wolbachia infection on memory retention and resource acquisition. Memory retention of uninfected wasps wassignificantly longer when reared on high quality hosts when compared to low quality hosts. Furthermore, uninfected wasps emergingfrom high quality hosts showed higher values of protein and triglyceride than those emerging from low quality hosts. In contrast, thememory retention for infected wasps was the same irrespective of host quality, although retention was significantly lower than uninfectedwasps. No significant effect of host quality on capital resource amount of infected wasps was observed, and infected waspsdisplayed a lower amount of protein and triglyceride than uninfected wasps when reared on high quality hosts. This study suggeststhat the nutritional quality of the embryonic period can affect memory retention of adult wasps not infected by Wolbachia. However, bymanipulating the host’s obtained capital resource amount, Wolbachia could enable exploitation of the maximum available resourcesfrom a range of hosts to acquire suitable performance in complex environments.

The lime tree is one of the rare and valuable species that found in the Hyrcanian moist forests with economic as well as ecological value. Identification of the quantitative and qualitative features of this species is important. In order to investigate the stem form of this species in the Shafaroud forests of Guilan Province, 141 lime trees in 39 plots were analyzed during the four stages of small pole, pole, saw-timber, and maturity. In each plot, stem-diameter at different heights was measured by using the Spiegel Relaskop. Measurements and analyses included diameter at breast height( d.b.h.) and total height. Same parameters was calculated: stem form factor based on diameter, stem form factor based on volume, form quotient, slenderness factor, ratio of stem height to total height, ratio of stem volume to total volume, correlation, and coefficient of determination to describe stem form factor. The results showed that the average stem form factor based on diameter was 0.554. The average stem form factor based on volume was 0.576, average form quotient was 2.32 and slenderness factor was 35.04%. The average ratio of stem height to total height was 82.45. In addition the results indicated a strong relationship between diameter at breast height and trunk coefficient. The ratio of stem volume to total volume revealed that 64.44 of lime volume is located in the bottom half of the trunk. The value of the parameters described here is towards a better description of stand characteristics. Obtained results indicating stability for natural lime tree in Iran.

The formaldehyde to urea molar ratio (F/U) plays an important role on the properties of urea formaldehyde (UF) resins and of the medium density fiber board (MDFs) bonded with them. This work presents a hypothesis that besides the final F/U molar ratio in UF resin preparation, the initial F/U affects both the formaldehyde emission levels and the physico-mechanical properties of the boards. Three initial molar ratios F/U of 1.9, 2.1 and 2.3 in resin synthesis have been examined in this work. The structural changes and thermal curing behavior of UF resins were tracked by 13C NMR and DSC, respectively. At parity of final F/U molar ratio, the resin with initial F/U = 2.1 yielded the highest proportion of linear methylol groups, resulted in the best internal bond strength and lowest thickness swelling of the board. A resin synthesized with the initial F/U = 1.9 provided the highest proportion of total methylene linkages, most methylene ether linkage and lowest free formaldehyde, consistently yielding the lowest formaldehyde emission. These results partially explained why UF resins with lower F/U molar ratios showed relatively poor adhesion when used to manufacture wood-based composites. MDFs bonded with a UF resin having the initial F/U = 2.3 had a relatively good performance with the exception of free formaldehyde, but also showed the best storage stability compared to the other resins having lower initial F/U molar ratios.

By increasing the changes in the last years of the second millennium, relying on the planning methods, which are based on forecasting, cannot meet the needs of management of countries at large scale. The heavy burden of uncertainties and emergence of interrupted and wild card events have changed the conditions in a way that future forecasting is not possible for planners. On the other hand, in regional and urban planning it is necessary to change the attitude from forecasting to foresight. Considering this, the paper attempts to introduce the approach of foresight as well as having a critical view of the current process of planning in foreseeing and future studies. Moreover, this study emphasizes the necessity of employing the foresight approach in the process of urban and regional studies.

International audience; For about 10 000 years, farmers have been managing cattle, sheep, and goats in a sustainable way, leading to animals that are well adapted to the local conditions. About 200 years ago, the situation started to change dramatically, with the rise of the concept of breed. All animals from the same breed began to be selected for the same phenotypic characteristics, and reproduction among breeds was seriously reduced. This corresponded to a strong fragmentation of the initial populations. A few decades ago, the selection pressures were increased again in order to further improve productivity, without enough emphasis on the preservation of the overall genetic diversity. The efficiency of modern selection methods successfully increased the production, but with a dramatic loss of genetic variability. Many industrial breeds now suffer from inbreeding, with effective population sizes falling below 50. With the development of these industrial breeds came economic pressure on farmers to abandon their traditional breeds, and many of these have recently become extinct as a result. This means that genetic resources in cattle, sheep, and goats are highly endangered, particularly in developed countries. It is therefore important to take measures that promote a sustainable management of these genetic resources; first, by in situ preservation of endangered breeds; second, by using selection programmes to restore the genetic diversity of industrial breeds; and finally, by protecting the wild relatives that might provide useful genetic resources.

Background The current extensive use of the domestic goat (Capra hircus) is the result of its medium size and high adaptability as multiple breeds. The extent to which its genetic variability was influenced by early domestication practices is largely unknown. A common standard by which to analyze maternally-inherited variability of livestock species is through complete sequencing of the entire mitogenome (mitochondrial DNA, mtDNA). Results We present the first extensive survey of goat mitogenomic variability based on 84 complete sequences selected from an initial collection of 758 samples that represent 60 different breeds of C. hircus, as well as its wild sister species, bezoar (Capra aegagrus) from Iran. Our phylogenetic analyses dated the most recent common ancestor of C. hircus to ~460,000 years (ka) ago and identified five distinctive domestic haplogroups (A, B1, C1a, D1 and G). More than 90 % of goats examined were in haplogroup A. These domestic lineages are predominantly nested within C. aegagrus branches, diverged concomitantly at the interface between the Epipaleolithic and early Neolithic periods, and underwent a dramatic expansion starting from ~12–10 ka ago. Conclusions Domestic goat mitogenomes descended from a small number of founding haplotypes that underwent domestication after surviving the last glacial maximum in the Near Eastern refuges. All modern haplotypes A probably descended from a single (or at most a few closely related) female C. aegagrus. Zooarchaelogical data indicate that domestication first occurred in Southeastern Anatolia. Goats accompanying the first Neolithic migration waves into the Mediterranean were already characterized by two ancestral A and C variants. The ancient separation of the C branch (~130 ka ago) suggests a genetically distinct population that could have been involved in a second event of domestication. The novel diagnostic mutational motifs defined here, which distinguish wild and domestic haplogroups, could be used to understand phylogenetic relationships among modern breeds and ancient remains and to evaluate whether selection differentially affected mitochondrial genome variants during the development of economically important breeds. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-2342-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

A faunal study was carried out on plant bugs (Heteroptera: Miridae) from different sites and habitats in Sabzevar and its counties (Razavi Khorasan Province, IRAN) on various host plants. In total 20 species belonging to 16 genera were collected and identified from different host plants and localities.

This chapter presents the actual status and the perspectives of development for Eurasian perch and pikeperch in different countries, mainly in Europe (Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, The Netherlands, France, Czech Republic and Hungary) but also in Iran and Tunisia. For each country, main culture techniques are summarized and production types are specified, according to the local or international markets.

1 Animal Genetic Resource Department, Institute of Biodiversity Conservation, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2 Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, CNRS UMR 5553, Universite Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France 3 Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy 4 Natural Resources Faculty, University of Guilan, Guilan, Iran 5 Environmental Sciences Department, Gorgan University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran 6 Centro de Investigacao em Biodiversidade e Recursos Geneticos (CIBIO-UP), Universidade do Porto, Vairao, Portugal 7 Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA 8 Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Trondheim, Norway

International audience; In no-tillage (NT) system, precedent crop residue retains on the soil surface to preserve soil water for crop growth. In response to the negative impact of soil degradation under conventional tillage (CT) system based on soil tillage, NT system without tillage practice and with protective cover of crop residue is being developed in many parts of the world. However, NT is a successful system especially in the South of America, but the impacts of this system on the Mediterranean climate especially in the southeast (SE) of France is less known; therefore, this study has been carried out within the scope of a European project. Durum wheat and corn were sown under CT and NT. Time requirement and fuel consumption in these two systems were measured. The results showed that durum wheat and corn yields were the same in both systems except of 2008, while work duration and energy requirement were 87% and 83% lower in NT system, respectively. Furthermore, NT could mitigate CO2 emission up to 50% as compared with CT. These results show that NT can be considered as a relevant alternative for CT regarding economical and environmental advantages.

Applying models to interpret soil, water and plant relationships under different conditions enable us to study different management scenarios and then to determine the optimum option. The aim of this study was using Water and Agrochemicals in the soil, crop and Vadose Environment (WAVE) model to predict water content, nitrogen balance and its components over a corn crop season under both conventional tillage (CT) and direct seeding into mulch (DSM). In this study a corn crop was cultivated at the Irstea experimental station in Montpellier, France under both CT and DSM. Model input data were weather data, nitrogen content in both the soil and mulch at the beginning of the season, the amounts and the dates of irrigation and nitrogen application. The results show an appropriate agreement between measured and model simulations (nRMSE < 10%). Using model outputs, nitrogen balance and its components were compared with measured data in both systems. The amount of N leaching in validation period were 10 and 8 kgha–1 in CT and DSM plots, respectively; therefore, these results showed better performance of DSM in comparison with CT. Simulated nitrogen leaching from CT and DSM can help us to assess groundwater pollution risk caused by these two systems.

International audience; Treebanks are not large enough to adequately model subcategorization frames of predicative lexemes, which is an important source of lexico-syntactic constraints for parsing. As a consequence, parsers trained on such treebanks usually make mistakes when selecting the arguments of predicative lexemes. In this paper, we propose an original way to correct subcategorization errors by combining sub-parses of a sentence S that appear in the list of the n-best parses of S. The subcategorization information comes from three different resources, the first one is extracted from a treebank, the second one is computed on a large corpora and the third one is an existing syntactic lexicon. Experiments on the French Treebank showed a 15.24% reduction of erroneous subcategorization frames (SF) selections for verbs as well as a relative decrease of the error rate of 4% Labeled Accuracy Score on the state of the art parser on this treebank.

Fire usually causes changes in the composition and diversity of herbaceous species. The present paper aimed to study the effect of repeated fire incidents on understory species diversity in the Saravan forests of Guilan Province located in the north of Iran. To do so, three 50-hectare areas with identical physiographical conditions and overstory (hand-planted softwood Pinus taeda) were selected. Seven fire incidences occurred for the 10-year period in one of the areas and the other area experienced three fire incidents within the same period. The area with no fire incidents was considered as the control area. All the fire incidents were surface ones. The systematic random method with a sample size 100 × 200 m was used for collecting data. Based on the above, 25 samples were determined in each area. The whole coverage of the understory was taken into consideration using Whittaker’s method and the Domain criterion so as to calculate species diversity indices. The results showed that Shannon-Wiener diversity and Menhinick’s richness in the regions which experienced 3 and 7 fire incidents were maximum and minimum, respectively, whereas no significant difference was seen between the regions with regard to Smith and Wilson’s evenness index.