Cabiakman et la suspension pour fins d’enquête en rapports collectifs

La suspension pour fins d’enquête est une mesure administrative qui permet à l’employeur de suspendre la prestation de travail d’un salarié le temps de faire enquête sur des actes qui lui sont reprochés et qui sont susceptibles d’entacher la réputation ou l’image de l’entreprise. Les principes applicables en la matière ont été précisés par la Cour suprême en 2004 dans l’arrêt Cabiakman c. Industrielle-Alliance, Compagnie d’assurance sur la vie, qui traite d’un contrat individuel de travail. Notre mémoire porte sur les circonstances justifiant une suspension pour fins d’enquête en rapports collectifs. Afin de vérifier le traitement de cette mesure administrative, nous avons effectué une analyse qualitative de la jurisprudence arbitrale québécoise en matière de suspension pour fins d’enquête avant et après Cabiakman. D’abord, nous avons vérifié la compatibilité des principes formulés dans Cabiakman et des principes issus de la jurisprudence arbitrale québécoise antérieure à cet arrêt. Ensuite, nous avons analysé l’influence de cet arrêt en rapports collectifs en examinant si la jurisprudence arbitrale québécoise qui lui est postérieure s'y réfère et en applique les principes. Finalement, nous avons tenté de corréler l’influence ou l’absence d’influence de Cabiakman sur la jurisprudence arbitrale à l’adhésion des arbitres à la thèse de la coexistence ou à la thèse de l’autonomie. Nos résultats ont démontré que Cabiakman n’est pas parfaitement compatible avec la jurisprudence arbitrale qui lui est antérieure puisque des principes différents de ceux énoncés par la Cour suprême s’y retrouvent. Aussi, nous avons remarqué que la jurisprudence arbitrale postérieure à cet arrêt s’y réfère souvent et en applique certains principes. Toutefois, nous ne considérons pas que l’influence de cet arrêt sur la jurisprudence arbitrale soit entièrement corrélée au rattachement des sentences arbitrales à l’une ou l’autre des deux thèses. En effet, d’autres hypothèses pourraient expliquer les résultats que nous avons obtenus.A suspension for investigation purposes is an administrative measure which allows the employer to suspend an employee for alleged acts that may damage the reputation or the image of the company. The principles which apply to this administrative suspension were established by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2004 in Cabiakman v. Industrial Alliance Life Insurance Co., which deals with an individual contract of employment. Our research focuses on the circumstances justifying a suspension for investigation purposes in collective labour relations. In order to study the treatment of this administrative measure, we conducted a qualitative analysis of the decisions of arbitration tribunals from Quebec regarding the suspension for investigation purposes before and after Cabiakman. We initially verified the compatibility of the principles established in Cabiakman and the principles of the arbitration decisions from Quebec rendered prior to this judgment. Subsequently, we analyzed the influence of this judgment in collective labor relations by examining if the arbitration tribunals from Quebec referred to Cabiakman and implemented its principles. Finally, we attempted to correlate the influence or lack of influence of Cabiakman on the arbitration decisions to the adhesion of the arbitrators to the coexistence thesis or to the autonomy thesis. Our results indicated that Cabiakman is not entirely consistent with the previous arbitration decisions because their principles are different from those expressed by the Supreme Court. In addition, we noticed that the posterior arbitral decisions often referred to Cabiakman and implemented some of its principles. However, we do not consider that the influence of this judgment on the arbitration decisions is entirely correlated to the linking of the arbitral decisions to one of the theses. Indeed, other hypotheses could explain the results of our research

La « querelle des vernis », une controverse sur le nettoyage des peintures au milieu du XXe siècle

La « querelle des vernis » s’inscrit dans une longue tradition de controverses sur le nettoyage des peintures, débats qui réapparaissent encore ponctuellement de nos jours. Fréquemment perçue comme un conflit entre deux pratiques de nettoyage, le dévernissage total et l’allègement de vernis, elle est également le cadre de profondes réflexions sur des notions telles que la prudence des interventions, la documentation, la formation des restaurateurs et l’importance du dialogue. Elle a en effet beaucoup contribué au développement de la coopération internationale et interdisciplinaire en matière de conservation et de restauration des biens culturels. Datant du milieu du XXe siècle et précédant directement la théorisation de la restauration moderne, cette polémique se présente comme un moment fort de l’élaboration des principes et des pratiques actuels.The “cleaning controversy” is part of the long tradition of controversies over the cleaning of paintings, debates that still reoccur from time to time. Frequently perceived as a conflict between two cleaning practices, complete cleaning and partial cleaning, it is also the context for profound reflection on concepts such as the prudence des interventions, documentation, the training of restorers and the importance of dialogue. It greatly contributed to the development of international and interdisciplinary cooperation in the domain of the conservation and restoration of cultural goods. Dating from the mid-twentieth century and directly preceding the theorisation of modern restoration, the polemic was a moment fort in the elaboration of current principles and practices

Implementing X-ray for single use systems sterilization

Sterilization/decontamination by gamma irradiation is a standardized process for some medical devices, drugs and in the food field and has many advantages due to its significantly low toxicity. Many worldwide industrial sites offer gamma irradiation as a means of sterilization, and in the last decade, new irradiation modality such as X-rays or electron-beam raises. These methods make also possible the sterilization of products without significant heating and to handle them directly in their final packaging, to overcome the challenges encountered e.g., due to sterilization capacity constraints. All irradiation modalities are reliable and reproducible processes and ensure sterility over time by avoiding any possible risk of contamination. It will thus reflect on post-pandemic world solutions to build capacity with high flexibility, while looking forward to anticipating future increase in sterilization demand without negative implications/repercussions in all industries where sterilization is needed. Unfortunately, these radiation processing also present disadvantages of inducing modifications for exposed materials. Some factors could affect the observed changes, such as their chemical composition, additives, or the presence of oxygen in the environment. X-ray industrial units are beginning to emerge, and the question of a comparative study between the effects of different types of radiation and their health impact on the materials/products studied arises. This current lack of data represents a hurdle for medical device and biopharmaceutical manufacturers desiring to transition from gamma-ray sterilization modalities to X-ray or electron-beam. Communicating to the industry our approach and polymer effects results can support medical device and biopharmaceutical manufacturers to perform their own risk assessment when piloting the transition to alternative irradiation modalities. In an effort to help fill these data gaps previously enounced, physicochemical testing, mechanical testing, extractables testing, etc. will be performed on products including their polymer components previously irradiated by the different irradiation modalities (gamma and X-ray). Highlights: - Support biomanufacturers to perform their own risk assessment when piloting the supplementing of alternative irradiation modalities to ensure business continuity during sterilization processes - Comparative study between the effects at materials/components & sub-assemblies/products of different types of ionizing radiations - Understanding the parameters inducing modifications for exposed SUS to irradiation - Physicochemical testing, mechanical testing, extractables testing, functional testing, activation, etc. will be performed on products and their polymer components previously irradiated (gamma and X-ray)

Inter-comparison and evaluation of Arctic sea ice type products

oai:publications.copernicus.org:tc102910Arctic sea ice type (SITY) variation is a sensitive indicator of climate change. However, systematic inter-comparison and analysis for SITY products are lacking. This study analysed eight daily SITY products from five retrieval approaches covering the winters of 1999–2019, including purely radiometer-based (C3S-SITY), scatterometer-based (KNMI-SITY and IFREMER-SITY) and combined ones (OSISAF-SITY and Zhang-SITY). These SITY products were inter-compared against a weekly sea ice age product (i.e. NSIDC-SIA – National Snow and Ice Data Center sea ice age) and evaluated with five synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The average Arctic multiyear ice (MYI) extent difference between the SITY products and NSIDC-SIA varies from -1.32×106 to 0.49×106 km2. Among them, KNMI-SITY and Zhang-SITY in the QuikSCAT (QSCAT) period (2002–2009) agree best with NSIDC-SIA and perform the best, with the smallest bias of -0.001×106 km2 in first-year ice (FYI) extent and -0.02×106 km2 in MYI extent. In the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) period (2007–2019), KNMI-SITY tends to overestimate MYI (especially in early winter), whereas Zhang-SITY and IFREMER-SITY tend to underestimate MYI. C3S-SITY performs well in some early winter cases but exhibits large temporal variabilities like OSISAF-SITY. Factors that could impact performances of the SITY products are analysed and summarized. (1) The Ku-band scatterometer generally performs better than the C-band scatterometer for SITY discrimination, while the latter sometimes identifies FYI more accurately, especially when surface scattering dominates the backscatter signature. (2) A simple combination of scatterometer and radiometer data is not always beneficial without further rules of priority. (3) The representativeness of training data and efficiency of classification are crucial for SITY classification. Spatial and temporal variation in characteristic training datasets should be well accounted for in the SITY method. (4) Post-processing corrections play important roles and should be considered with caution.</p

A new tracking algorithm for sea ice age distribution estimation

A new algorithm for estimating sea ice age (SIA) distribution based on the Eulerian advection scheme is presented. The advection scheme accounts for the observed divergence or convergence and freezing or melting of sea ice and predicts consequent generation or loss of new ice. The algorithm uses daily gridded sea ice drift and sea ice concentration products from the Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility. The major advantage of the new algorithm is the ability to generate individual ice age fractions in each pixel of the output product or, in other words, to provide a frequency distribution of the ice age allowing to apply mean, median, weighted average or other statistical measures. Comparison with the National Snow and Ice Data Center SIA product revealed several improvements of the new SIA maps and time series. First, the application of the Eulerian scheme provides smooth distribution of the ice age parameters and prevents product undersampling which may occur when a Lagrangian tracking approach is used. Second, utilization of the new sea ice drift product void of artifacts from EUMETSAT OSI SAF resulted in more accurate and reliable spatial distribution of ice age fractions. Third, constraining SIA computations by the observed sea ice concentration expectedly led to considerable reduction of multi-year ice (MYI) fractions. MYI concentration is computed as a sum of all MYI fractions and compares well to the MYI products based on passive and active microwave and SAR products

Toward a common approach for assessing the conservation status of marine turtle species within the European marine strategy framework directive

[EN] Environmental policies, including the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), generally rely on the measurement of indicators to assess the good environmental status (GES) and ensure the protection of marine ecosystems. However, depending on available scientific knowledge and monitoring programs in place, quantitative GES assessments are not always feasible. This is specifically the case for marine turtle species, which are listed under the Biodiversity Descriptor of the MSFD. Relying on an expert consultation, the goal of this study was to develop indicators and a common assessment approach to be employed by European Union Member States to evaluate the status of marine turtle populations in the frame of the MSFD. A dedicated international expert group was created to explore and test potential assessment approaches, in coherence with other environmental policies (i.e. Habitats Directive, OSPAR and Barcelona Conventions). Following a series of workshops, the group provided recommendations for the GES assessment of marine turtles. In particular, indicators and assessment methods were defined, setting a solid basis for future MSFD assessments. Although knowledge gaps remain, data requirements identified in this study will guide future data collection initiatives and inform monitoring programs implemented by EU Member States. Overall this study highlights the value of international collaboration for the conservation of vulnerable species, such as marine turtles.This study was funded by the French Ministry of Environment (MTES-MNHN Conventions n degrees 2102636187 (2019) and n degrees 2102994526 (2020)). DM acknowledges support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement n degrees 794938. The work of ADM was supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.) under the "First Call for H.F.R.I. Research Projects to support Faculty members and Researchers and the procurement of high-cost research equipment grant" (Project Number: 2340). FV was supported by the Investigator Programme of the Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT, CEECIND/03469/2017, CEECIND/03426/2020).Girard, F.; Girard, A.; Monsinjon, J.; Arcangeli, A.; Belda, E.; Cardona, L.; Casale, P.... (2022). Toward a common approach for assessing the conservation status of marine turtle species within the European marine strategy framework directive. Frontiers in Marine Science. 9:1-22. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.790733122

Thin ice and storms: Sea ice deformation from buoy arrays deployed during N-ICE2015

Arctic sea ice has displayed significant thinning as well as an increase in drift speed in recent years. Taken together this suggests an associated rise in sea ice deformation rate. A winter and spring expedition to the sea ice covered region north of Svalbard – the Norwegian young sea ICE 2015 expedition (N-ICE2015) - gave an opportunity to deploy extensive buoy arrays and to monitor the deformation of the first- and second-year ice now common in the majority of the Arctic Basin. During the 5-month long expedition, the ice cover underwent several strong deformation events, including a powerful storm in early February that damaged the ice cover irreversibly. The values of total deformation measured during N-ICE2015 exceed previously measured values in the Arctic Basin at similar scales: At 100 km scale, N-ICE2015 values averaged above 0.1, day−1, compared to rates of 0.08 day −1 or less for previous buoy arrays. The exponent of the power law between the deformation length scale and total deformation developed over the season from 0.37 to 0.54 with an abrupt increase immediately after the early February storm, indicating a weakened ice cover with more free drift of the sea ice floes. Our results point to a general increase in deformation associated with the younger and thinner Arctic sea ice and to a potentially destructive role of winter storms

Capacity of deep‐sea corals to obtain nutrition from cold seeps aligned with microbiome reorganization

Cold seeps in the deep sea harbor various animals that have adapted to utilize seepage chemicals with the aid of chemosynthetic microbes that serve as primary producers. Corals are among the animals that live near seep habitats and yet, there is a lack of evidence that corals gain benefits and/or incur costs from cold seeps. Here, we focused on Callogorgia delta and Paramuricea sp. type B3 that live near and far from visual signs of currently active seepage at five sites in the deep Gulf of Mexico. We tested whether these corals rely on chemosynthetically-derived food in seep habitats and how the proximity to cold seeps may influence; (i) coral colony traits (i.e., health status, growth rate, regrowth after sampling, and branch loss) and associated epifauna, (ii) associated microbiome, and (iii) host transcriptomes. Stable isotope data showed that many coral colonies utilized chemosynthetically derived food, but the feeding strategy differed by coral species. The microbiome composition of C. delta, unlike Paramuricea sp., varied significantly between seep and non-seep colonies and both coral species were associated with various sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (SUP05). Interestingly, the relative abundances of SUP05 varied among seep and non-seep colonies and were strongly correlated with carbon and nitrogen stable isotope values. In contrast, the proximity to cold seeps did not have a measurable effect on gene expression, colony traits, or associated epifauna in coral species. Our work provides the first evidence that some corals may gain benefits from living near cold seeps with apparently limited costs to the colonies. Cold seeps provide not only hard substrate but also food to cold-water corals. Furthermore, restructuring of the microbiome communities (particularly SUP05) is likely the key adaptive process to aid corals in utilizing seepage-derived carbon. This highlights that those deep-sea corals may upregulate particular microbial symbiont communities to cope with environmental gradients

Satellite Observations for Detecting and Forecasting Sea-Ice Conditions: A Summary of Advances Made in the SPICES Project by the EU’s Horizon 2020 Programme

The detection, monitoring, and forecasting of sea-ice conditions, including their extremes, is very important for ship navigation and offshore activities, and for monitoring of sea-ice processes and trends. We summarize here recent advances in the monitoring of sea-ice conditions and their extremes from satellite data as well as the development of sea-ice seasonal forecasting capabilities. Our results are the outcome of the three-year (2015–2018) SPICES (Space-borne Observations for Detecting and Forecasting Sea-Ice Cover Extremes) project funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. New SPICES sea-ice products include pancake ice thickness and degree of ice ridging based on synthetic aperture radar imagery, Arctic sea-ice volume and export derived from multisensor satellite data, and melt pond fraction and sea-ice concentration using Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) radiometer data. Forecasts of July sea-ice conditions from initial conditions in May showed substantial improvement in some Arctic regions after adding sea-ice thickness (SIT) data to the model initialization. The SIT initialization also improved seasonal forecasts for years with extremely low summer sea-ice extent. New SPICES sea-ice products have a demonstrable level of maturity, and with a reasonable amount of further work they can be integrated into various operational sea-ice services.</jats:p

Active ecological restoration of cold-water corals: techniques, challenges, costs and future directions

Cold-water coral (CWC) habitats dwell on continental shelves, slopes, seamounts, and ridge systems around the world's oceans from 50 to 4000 m depth, providing heterogeneous habitats which support a myriad of associated fauna. These highly diverse ecosystems are threatened by human stressors such as fishing activities, gas and oil exploitation, and climate change. Since their life-history traits such as long lifespan and slow growth rates make CWCs very vulnerable to potential threats, it is a foremost challenge to explore the viability of restoration actions to enhance and speed up their recovery. In contrast to terrestrial and shallow-water marine ecosystems, ecological restoration in deep marine environments has received minimal attention. This review, by means of a systematic literature search, aims to identify CWC restoration challenges, assess the most suitable techniques to restore them, and discuss future perspectives. Outcomes from the few restoration actions performed to date on CWCs, which have lasted between 1 to 4 years, provide evidence of the feasibility of coral transplantation and artificial reef deployments. Scientific efforts should focus on testing novel and creative restoration techniques, especially to scale up to the spatial and temporal scales of impacts. There is still a general lack of knowledge about the biological, ecological and habitat characteristics of CWC species exploration of which would aid the development of effective restoration measures. To ensure the long-term viability and success of any restoration action it is essential to include holistic and long-term monitoring programs, and to ideally combine active restoration with natural spontaneous regeneration (i.e., passive restoration) strategies such as the implementation of deep-sea marine protected areas (MPAs). We conclude that a combination of passive and active restoration approaches with involvement of local society would be the best optimal option to achieve and ensure CWC restoration success