La construction d’une citoyenneté environnementale au sein des programmes d’insertion socioprofessionnelle de jeunes en grandes difficultés d’apprentissage ou d’adaptation

Cet article porte sur l’importance du développement d’une citoyenneté environnementale comme facteur d’insertion sociale pour les jeunes qui terminent leur parcours scolaire sans diplôme d’études secondaires ou de formation professionnelle, afin d’éviter que leur exclusion scolaire ne se transforme en exclusion sociale. Des résultats de recherche portant sur un programme d’insertion sociale et professionnelle des jeunes (ISPJ) qui fait place aux préoccupations environnementales et au développement durable, le programme des Centres de formation en entreprise et récupération (CFER), y sont présentés et discutés. Ces résultats tendent à montrer que l’engagement des élèves envers une cause environnementale augmente leur sentiment de pouvoir agir sur des enjeux sociaux complexes.This article is about the importance of environmental citizenship as a factor of socio-professional insertion for students who terminate their schooling without a secondary or professional training diploma, in order to prevent that their school exclusion leads to a social exclusion. Results of a research on a socio-professional insertion program for youth that integrates environmental and sustainable development issues and the Corporate Training and Recuperation Centres Network (CFER) are presented and discussed. Those results tend to demonstrate that the students’ involvement in an environmental cause increases their empowerment towards complex social issues.Se trata en este artículo de la importancia del desarrollo de una ciudadanía medioambiental como factor de inserción social para los jóvenes que terminan su recorrido escolar sin diploma de escuela secundaria o de formación profesional, con la finalidad de evitar que su exclusión escolar se transforme en exclusión social. Se presentan y analizan algunos resultados de investigación acerca de un programa de inserción social y profesional de los jóvenes (ISPJ) que toma en cuenta las preocupaciones medioambientales y el desarrollo duradero, el programa de los Centros de formación en empresa y recuperación (CFER). Estos resultados tienden a demostrar que el compromiso de los alumnos hacia una causa medioambiental aumenta su sentimiento de poder actuar en asuntos sociales complejos

RNA interference : a promising biopesticide strategy against the African sweetpotato weevil Cylas brunneus

The African sweetpotato weevil Cylas brunneus is one of the most devastating pests affecting the production of sweetpotatoes, an important staple food in Sub-Saharan Africa. Current available control methods against this coleopteran pest are limited. In this study, we analyzed the potential of RNA interference as a novel crop protection strategy against this insect pest. First, the C. brunneus transcriptome was sequenced and RNAi functionality was confirmed by successfully silencing the laccase2 gene. Next, 24 potential target genes were chosen, based on their critical role in vital biological processes. A first screening via injection of gene-specific dsRNAs showed that the dsRNAs were highly toxic for C. brunneus. Injected doses of 200ng/mg body weight led to mortality rates of 90% or higher for 14 of the 24 tested genes after 14 days. The three best performing dsRNAs, targeting pros alpha 2, rps13 and the homolog of Diabrotica virgifera snf7, were then used in further feeding trials to investigate RNAi by oral delivery. Different concentrations of dsRNAs mixed with artificial diet were tested and concentrations as low as 1 mu g dsRNA/mL diet led to significant mortality rates higher than 50%. These results proved that dsRNAs targeting essential genes show great potential to control C. brunneus

Identification of T-DNA structure and insertion site in transgenic crops using targeted capture sequencing

The commercialization of GE crops requires a rigorous safety assessment, which includes a precise DNA level characterization of inserted T-DNA. In the past, several strategies have been developed for identifying T-DNA insertion sites including, Southern blot and different PCR-based methods. However, these methods are often challenging to scale up for screening of dozens of transgenic events and for crops with complex genomes, like potato. Here, we report using target capture sequencing (TCS) to characterize the T-DNA structure and insertion sites of 34 transgenic events in potato. This T-DNA is an 18 kb fragment between left and right borders and carries three resistance (R) genes (RB, Rpi-blb2 and Rpi-vnt1.1 genes) that result in complete resistance to late blight disease. Using TCS, we obtained a high sequence read coverage within the T-DNA and junction regions. We identified the T-DNA breakpoints on either ends for 85% of the transgenic events. About 74% of the transgenic events had their T-DNA with 3R gene sequences intact. The flanking sequences of the T-DNA were from the potato genome for half of the transgenic events, and about a third (11) of the transgenic events have a single T-DNA insertion mapped into the potato genome, of which five events do not interrupt an existing potato gene. The TCS results were confirmed using PCR and Sanger sequencing for 6 of the best transgenic events representing 20% of the transgenic events suitable for regulatory approval. These results demonstrate the wide applicability of TCS for the precise T-DNA insertion characterization in transgenic crops

Harnessing datafication for improved market access by farmers' organisations: a case of Cameroon

Marc Ghislain Bappa Se and Nestor Ngouambe discuss opportunities for farmers' organisations to harness data-driven agriculture to facilitate market access for smallholder farmers in Cameroon. Taking the PIDMA project as an example, they argue that supporting farmers' organisations' capacity to capitalise on data is crucial for farmers to efficiently and effectively tap into the ‘data value chain' sphere

Beyond CPU Frequency Scaling for a Fine-grained Energy Control of HPC Systems

International audienceModern high performance computing subsystems (HPC) - including processor, network, memory, and IO - are provided with power management mechanisms. These include dynamic speed scaling and dynamic resource sleeping. Understanding the behavioral patterns of high performance computing systems at runtime can lead to a multitude of optimization opportunities including controlling and limiting their energy usage. In this paper, we present a general purpose methodology for optimizing energy performance of HPC systems consid- ering processor, disk and network. We rely on the concept of execution vector along with a partial phase recognition technique for on-the-fly dynamic management without any a priori knowledge of the workload. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our management policy under two real-life workloads. Experimental results show that our management policy in comparison with baseline unmanaged execution saves up to 24% of energy with less than 4% performance overhead for our real-life workloads

DNA-inspired Scheme for Building the Energy Profile of HPC Systems

International audienceEnergy usage is becoming a challenge for the design of next generation large scale distributed systems. This paper explores an inno- vative approach of profiling such systems. It proposes a DNA-like solution without making any assumptions on the running applications and used hardware. This profiling based on internal counters usage and energy monitoring allows to isolate specific phases during the execution and enables some energy consumption control and energy usage prediction. First experimental validations of the system modeling are presented and analyzed

Exploiting Performance Counters to Predict and Improve Energy Performance of HPC Systems

International audienceHardware monitoring through performance counters is available on almost all modern processors. Although these counters are originally designed for performance tuning, they have also been used for evaluating power consumption. We propose two approaches for modelling and understanding the behaviour of high performance computing (HPC) systems relying on hardware monitoring counters. We evaluate the effectiveness of our system modelling approach considering both optimising the energy usage of HPC systems and predicting HPC applications' energy consumption as target objectives. Although hardware monitoring counters are used for modelling the system, other methods -- including partial phase recognition and cross platform energy prediction -- are used for energy optimisation and prediction. Experimental results for energy prediction demonstrate that we can accurately predict the peak energy consumption of an application on a target platform; whereas, results for energy optimisation indicate that with no a priori knowledge of workloads sharing the platform we can save up to 24\% of the overall HPC system's energy consumption under benchmarks and real-life workloads

L'écologisation des pratiques en arboriculture et maraichage. Enjeux et perspectives de recherches

Les systèmes horticoles (arboriculture et maraîchage) sont parmi les plus intensifs en main d'oeuvre et en intrants ; la production conventionnelle repose sur un usage intense des produits phytosanitaires, pour satisfaire les critères d'accès aux circuits commerciaux des grandes et moyennes surfaces, et en particulier le « zéro défaut visuel ». Le secteur des fruits et légumes est extrêmement concurrentiel du fait de la faible part des aides (européennes, nationales) et souffre d'une forte distorsion des coûts de production entre états membres. Ces dernières années, la problématique de l'écologisation de l'agriculture, pour une meilleure préservation de l'environnement mais aussi de la santé des consommateurs, a particulièrement accru la pression sur le secteur des fruits et légumes, notamment à travers le lancement du programme Ecophyto 2018 qui vise à réduire de 50% les intrants chimiques à horizon 2018, ou encore avec les incitations au développement de l'agriculture biologique. Mais l' écologisation des systèmes horticoles est particulièrement contrainte sur un plan technique et économique. Il s'agit en effet de trouver des systèmes alternatifs qui soient à la fois performants sur le plan agronomique et écologique, mais aussi économiquement et socialement acceptables. Sur la base de plusieurs travaux de recherche en sciences techniques et sciences sociales réalisés à l'unité Ecodéveloppement de l'INRA depuis une dizaine d'années, nous proposons une analyse des enjeux et des perspectives d'écologisation despratiques dans ces systèmes. Nous développerons dans cet article trois thèmes principaux : les performances que doivent viser les nouveaux systèmes écologisés, les moyens d'action et les leviers à mobiliser pour les concevoir, et les dispositifs d'acteurs dans lesquels s'insère la recherche de nouveaux systèmes. À ces trois questions, nous apportons des éléments de réponse appuyés par des exemples concrets issus de nos travaux en arboriculture et en maraîchage, en production intégrée ou en agriculture biologique

A Runtime Framework for Energy Efficient HPC Systems Without a Priori Knowledge of Applications

International audienceThe rising computing demands of scientific endeavours often require the creation and management of High Performance Computing (HPC) systems for running experiments and processing vast amounts of data. These HPC systems generally operate at peak performance, consuming a large quantity of electricity, even though their workload varies over time. Understanding the behavioural patterns i.e., phases) of HPC systems during their use is key to adjust performance to resource demand and hence improve the energy efficiency. In this paper, we describe (i) a method to detect phases of an HPC system based on its workload, and (ii) a partial phase recognition technique that works cooperatively with on-the-fly dynamic management. We implement a prototype that guides the use of energy saving capabilities to demonstrate the benefits of our approach. Experimental results reveal the effectiveness of the phase detection method under real-life workload and benchmarks. A comparison with baseline unmanaged execution shows that the partial phase recognition technique saves up to 15% of energy with less than 1% performance degradation

Quelle place l’enseignement a-t-il parmi les motivations et projets professionnels des étudiants en Education physique?

peer reviewedIl est commun de considérer que les études en éducation physique conduisent exclusivement à une carrière dans l’enseignement. Toutefois, les recherches portant sur les aspirations professionnelles des étudiants entrant dans ce type de formation sont relativement rares et il n’est pas possible actuellement de déterminer si tous les étudiants possèdent réellement cette vocation «pédagogique». En Communauté française de Belgique, la présence et le succès de 12 établissements de formation en éducation physique a incité le Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche scientifique à commander une étude portant sur les motivations des jeunes qui s’engagent dans cette orientation de formation