Les frontières de la mobilisation scientifique, entre recherche et administration: Démarcation et alignement de la recherche finalisée face à l'introduction de pathogènes agricoles

À partir du suivi des mobilisations accompagnant l'introduction de deux pathogènes agricoles de quarantaine, cet article explore l'articulation des activités de recherche et des activités administratives sur les risques collectifs hors des arènes formalisées de l'expertise. Il montre que les postures d'expertise légitimes font, au sein d'un organisme de recherche finalisée (INRA), l'objet de débat au cours même du travail scientifique, qui exerce une influence sur les orientations de recherche privilégiées. L'article met également en évidence que ces débats sont influencés par le positionnement des pouvoirs publics vis-à-vis des objets de recherche, c'est-à-dire par la manière dont l'administration constitue ces objets comme " problèmes " sanitaires. Ce faisant, l'article montre que la formalisation des relations entre monde scientifique et monde administratif n'empêche pas certaines formes d'alignement des orientations de recherche sur des objectifs de gestion publiqu

Becoming a Victim of Pesticides:Legal Action and Its Effects on the Mobilisation of Affected Farmworkers

This article analyses the effects of legal action on the mobilisation of farmworkers suffering from illnesses they link to the use of pesticides. It draws on a qualitative survey conducted with members of the Phyto-Victims Association, a protest organization comprised of sick farmworkers, their families, and the legal professionals who support them. Using this material, we retrace the paths taken by these farmworkers to obtain recognition for their status as pesticide “victims”. We describe the ambiguous effects of the law on this process at both individual and collective levels. We show how the law helps farmworkers to see their illness as an injury requiring compensation and to consider themselves as “occupational victims”. We also suggest that legal action prevents a full exploration of the responsibilities involved, and may trap farmworkers in a reductive face-off with pesticide producers

Les dispositifs publics de gestion des risques, entre continuité et transformation

La sociologie et les sciences politiques ont mis l’accent sur les transformations qu’ont connues les dispositifs publics de gestion du risque sanitaire ces dernières décennies (Gimbert, 2006). Le constat partagé par l’ensemble des observateurs est que l’avènement des risques comme enjeu de politique publique se traduit par la formalisation croissante de l’action publique (Besançon et Benamouzig, 2005) et par le développement de stratégies d’évitement du risque (Rothstein et Hood, 2001) ou de gestion de réputations (Power et al., 2009). Les travaux étudiés dans cette note permettent d’interroger la réalité de ces transformations, en les replaçant à la fois dans une perspective à long terme et dans la réalité des pratiques des acteurs (...)

Influence of rotation on axisymmetric plasma equilibria: double-null DTT scenario

We study the dependence of some relevant tokamak equilibrium quantities on the toroidal plasma rotation. The Grad-Shafranov equation generalised to the rotating case is analytically solved employing two different representations for the homogenous solution. Using an expression in terms of polynomials, we describe the separatrix shape by a few geometrical parameters, reproducing different plasma scenarios such as double-null and inverse triangularity. In this setting, the introduction of toroidal rotation corresponds to variations on relevant plasma quantities, most notably an enhancement of the poloidal beta. Using a more general expression in terms of Bessel functions, we reconstruct the full plasma boundary of the double-null configuration proposed for the upcoming DTT experiment, demonstrating how said configuration is compatible with different values of the plasma velocity.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to PPC

Nathalie Dedessus-Le-Moustier, Florence Douguet (coord.), La santé au travail à l’épreuve des nouveaux risques

Les vingt-deux articles qui composent La santé au travail à l’épreuve des nouveaux risques se présentent à la fois comme un état des lieux des évolutions de l’encadrement des enjeux de sécurité et de santé au travail ces dernières années et comme une réflexion collective et pluridisciplinaire sur la manière dont ces évolutions peuvent être analysées. Une première partie regroupe des contributions sur plusieurs facteurs d’évolution récents des conditions de travail : Yves Roquelaure (chapitre ..

Governing by Ignoring:The Production and the Function of the Under-reporting of Farm-workers' Pesticide Poisoning in French and Californian Regulations

Large areas of uncertainty still surround the relationship between environmental exposure to toxic materials, on the one hand, and human health, on the other. Several historical accounts have recently shown that this state of ignorance is not only due to the complex nature of the interactions between toxic agents and human bodies. Most of these accounts cast light on the strategies set up by big corporations to hide the dangers of the toxic materials they use, sell or dispose of in the environment. The cases of tobacco smoke (Proctor 2012), global warm-ing (Oreskes and Conway, 2010) and toxic chemicals (Markowitz and Rosner, 2003) provide evidence of these strategies contributing to the “social production of ignorance” over environ-mental health issues. Until now, these accounts have tended to focus on how industry draws on specific networks of scientists, politicians and experts in regulating agencies to produce doubts about the harmfulness of their products. These approaches tend to limit the role of governing bodies to that of organizations “captured” by private interests (McGarity and Wagner 2008). In so doing, they overlook the fact that for governing bodies, ignorance can have a value in and of itself. For instance, it helps the contemporary state to reduce complex issues (Scott 1998) so as to make them “governable” (Foucault 2004). Recent environmental health studies support this thesis. The cases of indoor air pollution (Murphy 2006), of pesticides’ effects on bees (Kleinman and Suryanarayanan 2013), and of the consequences of human exposure to chemicals in the soils of post-Katrina New Orleans (Frickel and Vincent 2007), show that ignorance is a useful resource for the control of toxic chemicals in the environment. [First paragraph

Identifying Critical Use Cases for a Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Battery Pack from Thermal and Ageing Perspectives

The current trend towards an increasing electrification of road vehicles brings to life a whole series of unprecedent design issues. Among these, the ageing process that affects the lifetime of lithium-ion based energy storage systems is of particular importance since it turns out to be extremely sensitive to the variation of battery operating conditions normally occurring especially in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). This paper aims at analyzing the impact of operating conditions on the predicted lifetime of a parallel-through-the-road plug-in HEV battery both from thermal and ageing perspectives. The retained HEV powertrain architecture is presented first and modeled, and the related energy management system is implemented. Dedicated numerical models are also discussed for the high-voltage battery pack that allow predicting its thermal behavior and cyclic ageing. A wide variety of operating conditions is subsequently simulated including different driving scenarios, ambient temperatures, vehicle payloads, and battery state-of-charge (SOC) conditions. Obtained results highlight considerable impacts of the HEV operating conditions on the battery lifetime even in the advised operating temperature interval ranging from 15°C to 35°C. Moreover, charge-depleting HEV operation and high ambient temperature are identified as the most influencing conditions concerning the criticality of the use case. On the other hand, vehicle payload and specific driving scenario appear to have a reduced impact. Presented results might help engineers to improve the effectiveness of current high-voltage battery temperature control systems to extend the battery lifetime while ensuring improved energy economy

Evolutionary Grad-Shafranov Equation for a Toroidal Plasma

We describe the evolution of a plasma equilibrium having a toroidal topology in the presence of constant electric resistivity. After outlining the main analytical properties of the solution, we reproduce the essential features of a scenario for the upcoming Italian experiment Divertor Tokamak Test Facility, with a good degree of accuracy. Although the theoretical lifetime is of the order of $10^4\,$s, we observe a macroscopic change in plasma volume on a timescale comparable to the predicted duration of the plasma discharge. In the final part of the work, we compare our self-consistent solution to the more common Solov'ev one, and to a family of nonlinear configurations.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Detection and Imaging with Leak Microstructures

Results obtained with a new, very compact detector for imaging with a matrix of leak microstructures (LM) are reported. Spatial linearity and spatial resolution obtained by scanning and the detection of alpha particles with 100% efficiency, when compared with a silicon detector, are stressed. Preliminary results obtained in detecting single electrons emitted by the heated filament (Ec < 1 eV) at 1–3 mbar of propane are reported

INVESTIGATION ACTIVITY ABOUT A COLLAPSED STEEL STRUCTURE SUBJECTED TO A REAL FIRE, Fire scenarios and structural behaviour of a real steel structure

The paper describes the behaviour ofa real steel structure collapsed under a fire event. 3D structural analyses were performed with SAFIR program (J-M Franssen, 2005). Different modellingare implemented with some fire load models and analyses of thebehaviour of the whole structure. The main purpose of this work was to investigate the failure types of a warehouse structure under fire conditions. Different fire conditions were applied to the steel frame sections, with ISOcurve (ISO EN 834-8:2002) and zone model approach. The analyses show that with unprotected steel sections, horizontal structures are more critical than columns. Trough applying a performance basedapproach,structure has 30 minutes of fire resistance