Degradation mechanism of tributyl phosphate by UV/H2O2 treatment and parameters optimization towards the design of a pilot reactor

While activated sludge treatment is currently the preferred process for the removal of tributyl phosphate (TBP) at the mg.L−1 level, it is well known that this recalcitrant molecule is incompletely degraded, stimulating research into alternative approaches, such as advanced oxidation. The aim of this study was to characterize the degradation mechanism of TBP during ultraviolet/H2O2 treatment using 31P NMR, ionic chromatography and total organic carbon analysis. The effects of initial pH, amount of oxidant and pollutant concentration were also assessed using an experimental design approach. The results of this parametric study show that ultraviolet/H2O2 photo-oxidation efficiently degrades TBP at concentrations up to 600 mg.L−1, with >90% phosphate release and up to 95% removal of total organic carbon within 1 h. The data also show that the main reaction intermediates are short carboxylic acids, resulting from the released alkyl groups, meaning that an interesting application of this process may be to rapidly pre-treat industrial effluent upstream of activated sludge reactors

A Map of the Nanoworld: Sizing up the Science, Politics, and Business of the Infinitesimal

Mapping out the eight main nodes of nanotechnology discourse that have emerged in the past decade, we explore how various scientific, social, and ethical islands of discussion have developed, been recognized, and are being continually renegotiated. We do so by (1) identifying the ways in which scientists, policy makers, entrepreneurs, educators, and environmental groups have drawn boundaries on issues relating to nanotechnology; (2) describing concisely the perspectives from which these boundaries are drawn; and (3) exploring how boundaries on nanotechnology are marked and negotiated by various nodes of nanotechnology discourse.Comment: 25 page

Changing Fields of Solidarity in France: A Cross-field Analysis of Migration, Unemployment and Disability

AbstractThis chapter evaluates the implications of recent crises for solidarity organisations in France. The main aim is to assess whether solidarity remains nationally bounded or otherwise follows some consistent pattern of transnationalisation. By focusing on the fields of migration, unemployment and disability, the chapter examines the main attributes of solidarity organisations; in particular, the analysis aims to evaluate how transnational features relate to endogenous characteristics, such as activities, roles and networks affecting their particular experiences within changing fields of solidarity. Crucially, findings show that the economic crisis and welfare retrenchment in France have well served the purpose of governments willing to pre-empt strong political challenge by potential solidarity movements

Smaïn Laacher, Croire à l’incroyable. Un sociologue à la Cour nationale du droit d’asile

Dans son essai Croire à l’incroyable. Un sociologue à la Cour nationale du droit d’asile, Smaïn Laacher propose « une ethnographie de l’univers de l’asile » (p. 23) à partir de son expérience de juge assesseur au sein de cette institution. Éminent spécialiste de l’immigration, il y représente en effet, de 1999 à 2014, le Haut commissariat des Nations-Unies pour les réfugiés (UNHCR, et plus couramment HCR). Est ici décrit le théâtre ritualisé de la Cour nationale du droit d’asile (CNDA), jurid..

L'histoire de l'aspirine à travers la publicité

LILLE2-BU Santé-Recherche (593502101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Les épreuves de l'asile (de la politique du soupçon à la reconnaissance des réfugiés)

Dans le contexte actuel de forte sélectivité des demandes d'asile, dans quelles conditions, de quelle manière et au prix de quels arrangements pratiques et éthiques les acteurs d'un militantisme institutionnel sont-ils devenus un rouage des politiques d'accueil et de sélection des exilés? Cette thèse s'intéresse au rôle que jouent les associations dans la procédure d'asile et à la manière dont leurs membres négocient la tension entre la mission d'assistance que l'État leur confie et la résistance aux mécanismes dissuasifs développés par ce même État quant à l'accès au droit d'asile. Elle s'inscrit dans la lignée du décloisonnement des refugee studies, à la croisée de plusieurs domaines d'études: une sociologie politique du droit, une sociologie de l'action collective et une sociologie morale. Ce travail ethnographique montre comment les politiques d'asile actuelles et l'inégale répartition des ressources chez les exilés produit une configuration propice à l'émergence de services délivrés par des acteurs de solidarité. Deuxièmement, il examine les pratiques de justice locale des membres des associations, qui déterminent partiellement les modes de qualification des requérants dans la procédure d'asile. Enfin, il analyse comment les membres des associations -conseillers juridiques, médecins, psychologues - participent au travail de justification de la demande d'asile -non sans résistance ou subversion de la part des exilés. Il restitue les différents positionnements moraux et politiques d'acteurs confrontés dans leur activité à des injonctions paradoxales, le travail de réflexion, de renégociation et de justification de leurs pratiques quotidiennes auprès des exilésSince asylum policies of deterrence have been implemented, in which conditions and according to which practical and ethical settlements, actors of an institutional activism have become a cog of the policies of assistance and selection? This PhD dissertation tackles the role that NGOs are playing in legal asylum process and the manner its members negotiate the tension between a task of assistance granted by State and their will to stand up to the strategies of the State that undermine asylum right. This works defends the current trend in the refugee studies that promotes their decompartmentalization. The research is at a crossroads between several fields: a political sociology of law, a sociology of mobilization and a moral sociology. First, we demonstrate how the current asylum policy and the inequality between the resources asylum seekers are endowed with are two elements encouraging the development of NGO's services. Secondly, we examine "local justice" exercised by the members of NGOs. This local justice has become a part of the qualifying mechanisms in the legal asylum process. Finally, we analyse how the members of NGOs sector (legal advisors, physicians, psychologists and psychiatrists) take part in the work of justification necessary to obtain the refugee status, not without facing the resistance or the subversive tactics of asylum seekers. This ethnographic study pays attention to the various moral and political stands of the activists facing a double bind syndrome. It insists on their reflexivity and on the evolution of their practices and their modalities of justificationPARIS3-BU (751052102) / SudocSudocFranceF