Timeframework, diversity and etiquette: Fostering collective Knowledge creation in conferences through design and practice

Open peer commentary on the article “Designing Academic Conferences as a Learning Environment: How to Stimulate Active Learning at Academic Conferences?” by Johan Verbeke. Upshot: This commentary supports the author’s statement of the value of the design of a loose and solid timeframework for conferences in order to facilitate the collective development and consolidation of knowledge. It also points out the importance of the selection of a diverse range of attendees for the formation of communities of research. The main aspect that is added is the fundamental role of fostering a culture of generosity and trust to allow for honest and in-depth discussions. This is done through the encouragement of an etiquette of constructive behaviour during these events

Letter from the soils I have designed with

In my practice and recently completed PhD, I have been investigating possible relationships between humans and their ecosystems that nurture the resilience of both, with a specific focus on plant communities. The methodology is a reflective process integrated within the practice of built and grown architectures. It defined an ecological practice as a secular form of architectural animism that conceives of places as beings with agency, that we garden with. Soils, although not in the foreground, were regularly mentioned for the definition of a site’s propensity through defining the levels of nutrients and water, and structural capacity... This paper reflects on a selection of the same case studies but this time from the point of view of soils. Soils are analysed as characters, persons, connecting the life and rhythms of humans, as well as other animals and plants, to geological and climatic temporalities. Of particular interest is how we can transfer to the future the varied forms of heritage embedded in the rituals of soil care, the biological (genetic), the ecological, the cultural. Simultaneously, the lens of “new materialism” is applied on this practice. The fields previously connected in the research were other architectural and art practices, ecology, landscape conservation, systems theory, as well as Taoist and Zen philosophies. The form of this reflection will grow into a weave of multiple letters, within which artefacts are embedded. It is conceived as much as a work of art as an academic piece of writing

Rituals of Architecture: Using Ecosystems as Co-Designers

This body of works brings New Materialist theories and sensibilities into working architectural design practice. Eric Guibert’s ‘gardener architect’ approach re-frames architectural practice as a form of co-design, in which the architect collaborates with different types and scales of ecosystems, including clients, users, climates, landscapes, plants, soils and other agents to propose a new ecological and cosmopolitical approach to architecture. The research focuses on ‘rituals’ for engaging in architecture with an emphasis on time, maintenance, care, and co-creativity in a New Materialist framework for what architectural practice could be. This offers an alternative to conventional design approaches which focus primarily on humans and prioritise a ‘finished’ final design product. The research considers what ‘useful’ rituals as architecture could be, as well as the tangible and intangible elements that constitute them. Projects were developed through Guibert’s work as a sole practitioner, especially through projects which ran over extended periods of time, unusual in such practice. The renovation and rewilding of a rural landscape and farm buildings acts as an effective laboratory for testing these ongoing methodologies over time, another key project being the redesign of the building and landscape of a charitable organisation in central London. Other projects allowed further aspects of this ‘gardener’ architecture to be tested and developed. Guibert argues that, where most design approaches block the creative capacity of ecosystems and focus primarily on humans, these projects nurture complex capacities of resilience and agency as a central architectural aim and investigate ecological ways of design using emergent capacities of ecosystems. The research has been presented in lectures, exhibitions and debates in various international research and practice forums, and will be published in Geohumanities, and the ‘Modern Animism’ lecture being co-organised with the Garden Museum in London, both delayed by Covid-19 into 2021

Atomic transfers between implanted bioceramics and tissues in orthopaedics surgery

We study transfers of ions and debris from bioceramics implanted in bone sites. A contamination of surrounding tissues may play a major role in aseptic loosening of the implant. For these reasons, bioceramics require studies of biocompatibility and biofunctionality . So, in addition to in vitro studies of bioceramics, it is essential to implant them in vivo to know body reactions. We measured the concentration of mineral elements at different time intervals after implantation over a whole cross-section. We found a discontinuity of the mineral elements (Ca, P, Sr, Zn, Fe) at the interface between the implant and the receiver. The osseous attack is not global but, on the contrary, centripetal. Moreover, the fit of the concentration time course indicates that the kinetics of ossification is different for each atomic element and characterizes a distinct biological phenomeno

A photometric catalogue of galaxies in the cluster Abell 85

We present two catalogues of galaxies in the direction of the rich cluster \a85. The first one includes 4,232 galaxies located in a region $\pm 1^\circ$ from the cluster centre. It has been obtained from a list of more than 25,000 galaxy candidates detected by scanning a Schmidt photographic plate taken in the \bj band. Positions are very accurate in this catalogue but magnitudes are not. This led us to perform CCD imaging observations in the V and R bands to calibrate these photographic magnitudes. A second catalogue (805 galaxies) gives a list of galaxies with CCD magnitudes in the V and R bands for a much smaller region in the centre of the cluster. These two catalogues will be combined with a redshift catalogue of 509 galaxies (Durret et al. 1997; astro-ph/9709298) to investigate the cluster properties at optical wavelengths (Durret et al. in preparation), as a complement to our previous X-ray studies (Pislar et al. 1997, Lima-Neto et al. 1997).Comment: accepted for publication in A&AS; 7 pages, including 8 figures, Tables are only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5

A reduced-order modeling for efficient design study of artificial valve in enlarged ventricular outflow tracts

A computational approach is proposed for efficient design study of a reducer stent to be percutaneously implanted in enlarged right ventricular outflow tracts (RVOT). The need for such a device is driven by the absence of bovine or artificial valves which could be implanted in these RVOT to replace the absent or incompetent native valve, as is often the case over time after Tetralogy of Fallot repair. Hemodynamics are simulated in the stented RVOT via a reduce order model based on proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), while the artificial valve is modeled as a thin resistive surface. The reduced order model is obtained from the numerical solution on a reference device configuration, then varying the geometrical parameters (diameter) for design purposes. To validate the approach, forces exerted on the valve and on the reducer are monitored, varying with geometrical parameters, and compared with the results of full CFD simulations. Such an approach could also be useful for uncertainty quantification

Properties of two biological glasses used as metallic prosthesis coatings and after an implantation in body

présentation faite par Y. Barbottea

Climate changes and farmers’ endogenous adaptation strategies: Socio economic analysis of the dynamic use of agricultural lands in central region of Benin

There is an increasing consensus that in the next decades climate changes will generate yield decrease in low income countries. So will it be in Benin. It has been claimed that climate changes impact studies often assumecertain adaptations and little explicit examination of how, when, why, and under what conditions they occur. This research aims at analysing the endogenous strategies developed by farmers in agricultural land and crop management. With random stratified sampling, 70 farmers of two villages were selected according to their level of vulnerability. Actors based mapping and R-coefficients of Ruthenberg were used to analyse the evolution of existing farming systems. This paper shows that poor farmers of the central region of Benin are developing many endogenous coping strategies: adopting new crops and cultivating more waterlogged ecologies. Though, adaptation options are determined by vulnerability level of farmers. Management and valorisation skills of farmers in low land are to be enhanced for a sustainable agriculture in the future

Efficient blood flow simulations for the design of stented valve reducer in enlarged ventricular outflow tracts

Tetralogy of Fallot is a congenital heart disease characterized over time, after the initial repair, by the absence of a functioning pulmonary valve, which causes regurgitation, and by progressive enlargement of the right ventricle and pulmonary arteries. Due to this pathological anatomy, available transcatheter valves are usually too small to be deployed in the enlarged right ventricular outflow tracts (RVOT). To avoid surgical valve replacement, an alternative consists in implanting a reducer prior to or in combination with a transcatheter valve. We describe a computational model to study the effect of a stented valve RVOT reducer on the hemodynamics in enlarged ventricular outflow tracts. To this aim, blood flow in the right ventricular outflow tract is modeled via the incompressible Navier--Stokes equations coupled to a simplified valve model, numerically solved with a standard finite element method and with a reduced order model based on Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD). Numerical simulations are based on a patient geometry obtained from medical imaging and boundary conditions tuned according to measurements of inlet flow rates and pressures. Different geometrical models of the reducer are built, varying its length and/or diameter, and compared with the initial device-free state. Simulations thus investigate multiple device configurations and describe the effect of geometry on hemodynamics. Forces exerted on the valve and on the reducer are monitored, varying with geometrical parameters. Results support the thesis that the reducer does not introduce significant pressure gradients, as was found in animal experiments. Finally, we demonstrate how computational complexity can be reduced with POD