Background: Neck vessel imaging is often performed in hyperacute stroke to allow neurointerventionalists to estimate access complexity. This study aimed to assess clinician agreement on catheterization strategies based on imaging in these scenarios. Methods: An electronic portfolio of 60 patients with acute ischemic stroke was sent to 53 clinicians. Respondents were asked: (1) the difficulty of catheterization through femoral access with a regular Vertebral catheter, (2) whether to use a Simmons or reverse-curve catheter initially, and (3) whether to consider an alternative access site. Agreement was assessed using Fleiss’ Kappa statistics. Results: Twenty-two respondents (7 neurologists, 15 neuroradiologists) completed the survey. Overall there was slight interrater agreement (κ=0.17, 95% CI: 0.10–0.25). Clinicians with >50 cases annually had better agreement (κ=0.22) for all questions than those with fewer cases (κ=0.07). Agreement did not significantly differ by imaging modality: CTA (κ=0.18) and MRA (κ=0.14). In 40/59 cases (67.80%), at least 25% of clinicians disagreed on whether to use a Simmons or reverse-curve catheter initially. Conclusions: Agreement on catheterization strategies remains fair at best. Our results suggest that visual assessment of pre-procedural vessels imaging is not reliable for the estimation of endovascular access complexity.

Weaning is a critical transition phase in swine production in which piglets must cope with different stressors that may affect their health. During this period, the prophylactic use of antibiotics is still frequent to limit piglet morbidity, which raises both economic and public health concerns such as the appearance of antimicrobial-resistant microbes. With the interest of developing tools for assisting health and management decisions around weaning, it is key to provide robustness indexes that inform on the animals’ capacity to endure the challenges associated with weaning. This work aimed at developing a modelling approach for facilitating the quantification of piglet resilience to weaning. A total of 325 Large White pigs weaned at 28 days of age were monitored and further housed and fed conventionally during the post-weaning period without antibiotic administration. Body weight and diarrhoea scores were recorded before and after weaning, and blood was sampled at weaning and 1 week later for collecting haematological data. A dynamic model was constructed based on the Gompertz–Makeham law to describe live weight trajectories during the first 75 days after weaning, following the rationale that the animal response is partitioned in two time windows (a perturbation and a recovery window). Model calibration was performed for each animal. Our results show that the transition time between the two time windows, as well as the weight trajectories are characteristic for each individual. The model captured the weight dynamics of animals at different degrees of perturbation, with an average coefficient of determination of 0.99, and a concordance correlation coefficient of 0.99. The utility of the model is that it provides biologically meaningful parameters that inform on the amplitude and length of perturbation, and the rate of animal recovery. Our rationale is that the dynamics of weight inform on the capability of the animal to cope with the weaning disturbance. Indeed, there were significant correlations between model parameters and individual diarrhoea scores and haematological traits. Overall, the parameters of our model can be useful for constructing weaning robustness indexes by using exclusively the growth curves. We foresee that this modelling approach will provide a step forward in the quantitative characterisation of robustness.

Reproductive success is a key component of lifetime performance in dairy cows but is difficult to predict due to interactions with productive function. Accordingly, this study introduces a dynamic model to simulate the productive and reproductive performance of a cow during her lifetime. The cow model consists of an existing productive function model (GARUNS) which is coupled to a new reproductive function model (RFM). The GARUNS model simulates the individual productive performance of a dairy cow throughout her lifespan. It provides, with a daily time step, changes in BW and composition, fetal growth, milk yield and composition and food intake. Genetic-scaling parameters are incorporated to scale individual performance and simulate differences within and between breeds. GARUNS responds to the discrete event signals ‘conception’ and ‘death’ (of embryo or fetus) generated by RFM. In turn, RFM responds to the GARUNS outputs concerning the cow’s energetic status: the daily total processed metabolizable energy per kg BW (TPEW) and the net energy balance (EB). Reproductive function model models the reproductive system as a compartmental system transitioning between nine competence stages: prepubertal (PRPB), anestrous (ANST), anovulatory (ANOV), pre-ovulating (PREO), ovulating (OVUL), post-ovulating (PSTO), luteinizing (LUTZ), luteal (LUTL) and gestating (GEST). The transition from PRPB to ANST represents the start of reproductive activity at puberty. The cyclic path through ANST, PREO, OVUL, PSTO, LUTZ and LUTL forms the regime of ovulatory cycles, whereas ANOV and GEST are transient stages that interrupt this regime. Anovulatory refers explicitly to a stage in which ovulation cannot occur (i.e. interrupted cyclicity), whereas ANST is a pivotal stage within ovulatory cycles. Reproductive function model generates estradiol and progesterone hormonal profiles consistent with reference profiles derived from literature. Cyclicity is impacted by the GARUNS output EB and clearance of estradiol is impacted by TPEW. A farming system model was designed to describe different farm protocols of heat detection, insemination, feeding (amount and energy density), drying-off and culling. Results of model simulation (10 000 simulations of individual cows over 5000 days lifetime period, with randomly drawn genetic-scaling parameters and standard diet) are consistent with literature for reproductive performance. This model allows simulation of deviations in reproductive trajectories along physiological stages of the cow reproductive cycle. It thus provides the basis for evaluation of the relative importance of different factors affecting fertility at individual cow and herd levels across different breeds and management environments.

The flora of Laos remains one of the least known within the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot. A floristic inventory was carried out in Phou Hin Poun National Biodiversity Conservation Area, an under-explored area of the Khammouane Limestone. This study provides a list of 27 taxa that are additions to the most recent country checklists. The Ebenaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Myrtaceae are the families with the highest species number. In this list, four species are endemic to Indochina (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam): Cynometra dongnaiensis Pierre, Jasminum vidalii P.S.Green, Memecylon chevalieri Guillaumin and Pothos gigantipes Buchet ex P.C.Boyce. These results illustrate the paucity of our knowledge of the region surveyed and of the flora of Laos in general.

As the environments in which livestock are reared become more variable, animal robustness becomes an increasingly valuable attribute. Consequently, there is increasing focus on managing and breeding for it. However, robustness is a difficult phenotype to properly characterise because it is a complex trait composed of multiple components, including dynamic elements such as the rates of response to, and recovery from, environmental perturbations. In this review, the following definition of robustness is used: the ability, in the face of environmental constraints, to carry on doing the various things that the animal needs to do to favour its future ability to reproduce. The different elements of this definition are discussed to provide a clearer understanding of the components of robustness. The implications for quantifying robustness are that there is no single measure of robustness but rather that it is the combination of multiple and interacting component mechanisms whose relative value is context dependent. This context encompasses both the prevailing environment and the prevailing selection pressure. One key issue for measuring robustness is to be clear on the use to which the robustness measurements will employed. If the purpose is to identify biomarkers that may be useful for molecular phenotyping or genotyping, the measurements should focus on the physiological mechanisms underlying robustness. However, if the purpose of measuring robustness is to quantify the extent to which animals can adapt to limiting conditions then the measurements should focus on the life functions, the trade-offs between them and the animal’s capacity to increase resource acquisition. The time-related aspect of robustness also has important implications. Single time-point measurements are of limited value because they do not permit measurement of responses to (and recovery from) environmental perturbations. The exception being single measurements of the accumulated consequence of a good (or bad) adaptive capacity, such as productive longevity and lifetime efficiency. In contrast, repeated measurements over time have a high potential for quantification of the animal’s ability to cope with environmental challenges. Thus, we should be able to quantify differences in adaptive capacity from the data that are increasingly becoming available with the deployment of automated monitoring technology on farm. The challenge for future management and breeding will be how to combine various proxy measures to obtain reliable estimates of robustness components in large populations. A key aspect for achieving this is to define phenotypes from consideration of their biological properties and not just from available measures.

The objective of the Apollon 10 PW project is the generation of 10 PW peak power pulses of 15 fs at $1~\text{shot}~\text{min}^{-1}$. In this paper a brief update on the current status of the Apollon project is presented, followed by a more detailed presentation of our experimental and theoretical investigations of the temporal characteristics of the laser. More specifically the design considerations as well as the technological and physical limitations to achieve the intended pulse duration and contrast are discussed.

The objective was to study milk production, body reserve mobilization, metabolic and hormonal profiles, and ovarian cyclicity of Holstein-Friesian (HOLS) and Montbéliarde (MONT) cows under two low-input dairy production systems with seasonal spring calving: an extensive (EXT; 12 HOLS and 12 MONT) based on permanent diversified grasslands and zero concentrate, and a semi-extensive (SEMI; 12 HOLS and 10 MONT) based on established temporary grasslands and up to 4 kg/day of concentrate. Individual measurements were performed between −4 and 12 weeks of lactation. Cows in EXT secreted less milk (22.1 v. 24.4 kg/day), protein (660 v. 755 g/day) and energy (67.7 v. 74.4 MJ/day), had greater plasma β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA) (0.97 v. 0.69 mM), lower glucose (59.0 v. 62.0 mg/dl) and IGF-1 (62 v. 71 ng/ml), lower milk fat concentration in fatty acids originating from de novo synthesis (e.g. ∑ 10:0 to 15:0) and greater concentration of those derived in part from mobilization of fat reserves (e.g. 18:0 and ∑>C16), and showed greater frequency of abnormal ovarian cycles compared with SEMI. Across production systems, HOLS produced more milk (24.7 v. 21.8 kg/day), protein (738 v. 674 g/day) and fat (939 v. 819 g/day), secreted more energy (75.1 v. 67.0 MJ/day), lost more body condition score (BCS) (1.41 v. 1.03) and reached a lower BCS nadir (1.12 v. 1.43), had greater plasma BHBA (0.91 v. 0.75 mM), lower insulin (15.9 v. 17.2 µIU/ml) and tended to have lower glucose (59.6 v. 61.4 mg/dl), had lower milk fat concentration in ∑ 10:0 to 15:0, tended to have higher ∑>C16 and tended to show more abnormal estrous cycles compared with MONT. Ultrasound measurements did not differentiate fat mobilization and were confounded by breed differences of skin thickness. The greater nutrient allowance in SEMI improved indicators of physiological status and ovarian function during early lactation compared with EXT, but did not attenuate body reserve mobilization because cows prioritized milk secretion. HOLS secreted more nutrients than MONT but lost more BCS, which negatively affected nutritional balance and tended to affect ovarian cyclicity during early lactation. Breed by system interactions were not observed except for a few variables.

The objective of the Apollon project is the generation of 10 PW peak power pulses of 15 fs at 1 shot/minute. In this paper the Apollon facility design, the technological challenges and the current progress of the project will be presented.

We study the feeding and feedback of the nucleus of M51 by considering gravitational torques, responsible for gas inflow, in relation to the local distribution of dense gas.

L’acier inoxydable 304L est utilisé dans de nombreux domaines. Cependant, il peut, dans certaines conditions, être sensible à la corrosion par piqûration. Dans cette étude, nous nous sommes intéressés aux potentialités du traitement de fusion superficielle par laser nanopulsé pour l’amélioration de la résistance à la corrosion de cet acier. Ce traitement consiste à focaliser un faisceau laser sur la surface du matériau, provoquant sa fusion quasi instantanée sur quelques microns, immédiatement suivie d’un refroidissement ultra-rapide allant jusqu’à 1011 K/s. Les paramètres laser impliquent des modifications des propriétés physico-chimiques. Nous avons notamment étudié l’influence du recouvrement des impacts d’un laser à fibre ytterbium sur la résistance à la corrosion de l’acier inoxydable 304L dans des conditions d’une solution aérée, agitée de NaCl (concentration de 30 g/L). Nous avons obtenu une augmentation du potentiel de piqûration de l’ordre de 220 mV, traduisant une amélioration de la résistance à la corrosion. L’étude approfondie des modifications chimiques et structurales ne suffisent pas à elles seules à expliquer l’amélioration de la résistance à la corrosion. D’autres phénomènes doivent être pris en compte, comme la qualité de la couche d’oxyde, tant en terme de propriétés physico-chimiques, que mécaniques.

Yttrium iron garnet (YIG) film made as a magneto-optical medium suffers from the problem of crack formation, caused by the heating process. YIG thin film is deposited by radio frequency rf magnetron sputtering; the obtained layer is amorphous and it needs annealing to be crystallized. After heat-treatment at 740 ○C of the sample realized on quartz substrate, we observe cracks on the entire film surface. This is due to the large difference between the thermal expansion coefficient (5.5 ×10-7 K-1 for quartz and 10 ×10-6 K-1 for YIG). In this paper we present a new fabrication method to reduce this problem, we make a multilayer to obtain at the end a uniformly unique layer with excellent crystalline structure. Such films have the possibility to reach a thickness of 500 nm. YIG films have been studied by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), optic ellipsometry and the scan electron microscope. The RBS spectra were collected in channelling geometry with incident particles energy 2 MeV and 3.5 MeV. The thickness and the stoichiometric value of the thin films have been evaluated. Simulation of all spectra indicates a constant composition. Ellipsometry method is well adapted to model the thin film structure layers, and to measure the thickness of the film and the complex index of refraction. The theoretical ellipsometric value of the index of refraction is (2.22) while the experimental value is ranging from 2.2 to 2.3 for a wavelength of 1550 nm.

The analyses of the performance of a complete photovoltaic system require precisemeasuring equipment in order to obtain reliable comparative results. This paper presents acomputer-based instrumentation system suitable for a characterization of photovoltaicconversion chains. Consisting in a data acquisition stage, a data processor, photovoltaicgenerators and power conditioners, the system evaluates the respective efficiency ofmaximum power point tracker (MPPT) and power conditioner. The efficiency of unknown MPPTfunctions is estimated with great accuracy by means of an extremum control-based MPPT usedas a reference. Efficiency evaluations of two photovoltaic battery chargers during 4 daysillustrate the estimation procedure and the system test facilities.

A review of several studies examining the lay concept of successful ageing and related concepts leads to the conclusion that elders from different cultures appear to agree on most of the components identified in the literature. From the research emerges a multidimensional conceptualisation of ‘successful ageing’ that is described on the basis of physical, emotional, cognitive and social domains, and which coincides with most theoretical and empirical definitions. The main goal of the present research is to study similarities and differences between concepts of ‘successful ageing’ in several Latin American and European countries and in two different age groups, and also to examine whether a similar structure of the lay concept can be found across both continents. The results show minor differences at item levels among countries, continents and age groups, and a similar internal structure across them.