Agri-chains and evaluation of sustainability

International audienc

Filières et évaluation de la durabilité

National audienceLa partie 4 de cet ouvrage s’attache aux instruments à disposition des chercheurs et des praticiens pour évaluer les filières agricoles et agroalimentaires en termes de contribution au développement durable. Suivant les cas, une filière peut être un excellent vecteur de développement durable ou bien un catalyseur de catastrophes humaines et écologiques. C’est pourquoi il est indispensable d’évaluer les véritables impacts (conséquences) de l’activité des filières, sans se limiter à leurs performances dont les relations aux véritables conséquences ne sont pas connues. L’évaluation aide à concevoir ou à repenser une filière. Pour la réaliser, il est nécessaire de délimiter correctement les périmètres et de choisir avec pertinence les impacts à évaluer

LCA application in France

International audienceDuring the last two decades, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been increasingly used in the agri-food sector with a shift from focused applications in industrial eco-design to a broader range of products. In France, publications of LCA studies on agricultural feedstock started in the late 90s focusing on bioenergy production. With environmental assessment close to become a prerequisite in most sectors, the number of LCA practitioners in France has rapidly increased with a diversification of actors, such as researchers, consultants or governmental agencies. Research actors in LCA work in research institutes such as INRA1, CIRAD2 or IRSTEA3. The collaboration platform ELSA4, created in 2008, brings together numerous actors from these institutes in Montpellier as well as researchers form the universities Supagro and Les Mines of Alès. It is currently the biggest French team on LCA of agro-bioprocesses. Experts on industrial eco-design, agricultural and social sciences work together on several projects that aim to both provide expertise and develop knowledge on LCA. Activities within ELSA also consist in disseminate scientific knowledge on LCA or industrial ecology through Ph.D. thesis supervision, educational and vocational training. Lately, scientists within the team have been working specifically on four scientific challenges: 1) modeling the complex agro-bioprocesses, 2) dealing with uncertainty in LCA, 3) building causal chains related to specific environmental or social impacts, and 4) refining life cycle inventories (LCIs). Further information on ELSA and possible collaboration ways can be found under www.elsa-lca.org. Researchers from CIRAD actively contribute to activities within ELSA. They are particularly involved in researches dealing with tropical crops. Specific challenges in the tropics concern notably methodological developments and data collection to better account for very diverse cropping systems such as perennials or agro-forestry cropping systems

L'application de l'analyse de cycle de vie (ACV) aux systèmes biotechniques complexes : quels fronts de science ?

Actes du colloque organisé par l'AFITE, 2011/11/17National audienceLa dernière décennie a vu l’analyse du cycle de vie (ACV) s’imposer comme cadre méthodologique de référence pour l’évaluation quantitative des impacts environnementaux d’un produit ou d’un système de production. Bien que déjà largement utilisés dans les sphères économiques (éco-conception, responsabilité sociale des entreprises) et politiques (éco-étiquetages), le cadre méthodologique et les outils de l’ACV sont toujours un vaste objet d’étude pour la communauté scientifique. Cet article décrit un grand nombre de fronts de sciences de cette communauté et la manière dont le pôle de recherche français Elsa les aborde

Identification of 1088 new transposon insertions of Caenorhabditis elegans: a pilot study toward large-scale screens.

We explored the feasibility of a strategy based on transposons to generate identified mutants of most Caenorhabditis elegans genes. A total of 1088 random new insertions of C. elegans transposons Tc1, Tc3, and Tc5 were identified by anchored PCR, some of which result in a mutant phenotype

Transapical aortic valve implantation in Rouen: Four years’ experience with the Edwards transcatheter prosthesis

SummaryBackgroundThe first French transapical transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) was performed in July 2007 in our department.AimsTo report 4-year outcomes of transapical implantation with the Edwards transcatheter bioprosthesis.MethodsWe prospectively evaluated consecutive patients who underwent transapical implantation with an Edwards transcatheter bioprosthesis between July 2007 and October 2011. Patients were not suitable for conventional surgery (due to severe comorbidities) or transfemoral implantation (due to poor femoral access).ResultsAmong 61 patients (59.0% men), mean logistic EuroSCORE was 27.5±14.9% and mean age was 81.0±6.8years. Successful valve implantation was achieved in 59/61 patients (96.7%) of patients. The other two patients required conversion to conventional surgery due to prosthesis embolization and died. Six additional patients died in the postoperative period. Causes of perioperative death were two septic shocks (one of peritonitis), two multi-organ failure, one ventricular fibrillation and one respiratory insufficiency. Intraprocedural stroke was not observed in any patient. The actuarial survival rates at 1, 2 and 4years were 73.8%, 67.2% and 41.0%. During this 4-year period, four patients died of cardiovascular events, but no impairment of transprosthesis gradient was observed.ConclusionOur series of 61 patients who underwent transapical implantation of the Edwards transcatheter bioprosthesis shows satisfactory results, similar to other reports, considering the high level of severity of patients referred for this method. Transapical access is a reliable alternative method for patients that cannot benefit from a transfemoral approach

BCL-XL directly modulates RAS signalling to favour cancer cell stemness

In tumours, accumulation of chemoresistant cells that express high levels of anti-apoptotic proteins such as BCL-XL is thought to result from the counter selection of sensitive, low expresser clones during progression and/or initial treatment. We herein show that BCL-XL expression is selectively advantageous to cancer cell populations even in the absence of pro-apoptotic pressure. In transformed human mammary epithelial cells BCL-XL favours full activation of signalling downstream of constitutively active RAS with which it interacts in a BH4-dependent manner. Comparative proteomic analysis and functional assays indicate that this is critical for RAS-induced expression of stemness regulators and maintenance of a cancer initiating cell (CIC) phenotype. Resistant cancer cells thus arise from a positive selection driven by BCL-XL modulation of RAS-induced self-renewal, and during which apoptotic resistance is not necessarily the directly selected trait