LE CONSEIL AGRICOLE, UNE DEMARCHE PORTEUSE A L'EPREUVE DES REALITES : PREMIERES LEÇONS D'UNE EXPERIENCE DE CHANGEMENT D'ECHELLE AU NORD CAMEROUN

N° ISBN - 978-2-7380-1284-5International audienceManagement advice for family farms (MAFF), a promising extension approach facing challenges of field realities: preliminary lessons from an experience of scaling up in North Cameroon. In Sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural extension approaches based on prescription are no more effective. The evolution towards agricultural advice that uses listening and dialogue is restrained by the lack of knowledge on its extension. The objective of this research was to study the advance process from prescription to dialogue from the analysis of the implementation of agricultural advice by the Cotton development company of Cameroon (SODECOTON). Characteristics of its advice device were studied and its performance evaluated by surveys on the level of assimilation and application of the advice by farmers and extension agents. Determinants of the performance of the device were analyzed with a SWOT matrix. SODECOTON is using agricultural advice as a tool to reform its extension approach and empower farmer. Despite the enthusiasm of farmers and extension agents, the weak performances of the device due to the inadequate profile of extension workers, the low education level of farmers and the cotton crisis, show that the shift from directive to listening is a long run process. Agricultural advice generates tensions of technical, organizational, economic and social nature which increase with the level of appropriation of approach. Influence of the environment of the device on its performance is very high. The implementation of Agricultural advice in North Cameroun must be conceived as a component of an agricultural innovation system with the involvement of other actors with more strategic roles (the State, agricultural training and research and service providers)

Diet-Related Metabolites Associated with Cognitive Decline Revealed by Untargeted Metabolomics in a Prospective Cohort

Scope: Untargeted metabolomics may reveal preventive targets in cognitive aging, including within the food metabolome. Methods and results: A case-control study nested in the prospective Three-City study includes participants aged &65 years and initially free of dementia. A total of 209 cases of cognitive decline and 209 controls (matched for age, gen- der, education) with slower cognitive decline over up to 12 years are contrasted. Using untargeted metabolomics and bootstrap-enhanced penalized regression, a baseline serum signature of 22 metabolites associated with subsequent cognitive decline is identified. The signature includes three coffee metabolites, a biomarker of citrus intake, a cocoa metabolite, two metabolites putatively derived from fish and wine, three medium-chain acylcarnitines, glycodeoxycholic acid, lysoPC(18:3), trimethyllysine, glucose, cortisol, creatinine, and arginine. Adding the 22 metabolites to a reference predictive model for cognitive decline (conditioned on age, gender, education and including ApoE-ε4, diabetes, BMI, and number of medications) substantially increases the predictive performance: cross-validated Area Under the Receiver Operating Curve = 75% [95% CI 70-80%] compared to 62% [95% CI 56-67%]. Conclusions: The untargeted metabolomics study supports a protective role of specific foods (e.g., coffee, cocoa, fish) and various alterations in the endogenous metabolism responsive to diet in cognitive aging

CITY AUTOMATED TRANSPORT SYSTEM (CATS): THE LEGACY OF AN INNOVATIVE EUROPEAN PROJECT

CATS is a collaborative European project promoting driverless vehicles that ended in December 2014. This contribution explains how the project evolved, including the handling of unexpected events and concentrating on lessons learned. The constructor and vehicle had to be changed for economic reasons in the middle of the project timeline. A second constructor went bankrupt, although access to his vehicles could be secured. For security and legal reasons, part of the final demonstration was relocated at short notice to the EPFL campus in Lausanne, Switzerland, where around 1600 people were transported during 16 days of vehicle operation. Reactions to the driverless vehicle concept were overwhelmingly positive. Implications for the acceptability of driverless vehicles in Europe and elsewhere are discussed

Les composites dans le transport: Etude de la filtration des charges ignifugeantes par le renfort textile lors de la fabrication de pièces

International audienc

Zooplankton community structure, biomass and role in carbon fluxes during the second half of a phytoplankton bloom in the eastern sector of the Kerguelen Shelf (January-February 2005)

International audienc

Theorical and experimental study of the in-plane 1D-flow of particle-filled resin through a fibrous preform

International audienc

Investigation on the flow of particle-filled resin through a fibrous preform in LCM processes

International audienc

Theorical and experimental study of the in-plane 1D-flow of particle-filled resin through a fibrous preform

International audienc