Changements organisationnels, traçabilité, technologies de l'information et de la communication : le cas des caves coopératives viti-vinicoles du Languedoc-Roussillon

In order to implement and comply with food safety and traceability regulations, companies may use a number of methods, including specialized information and communications technologies developed for this express purpose. As a result, compliance with regulatory obligations, and the use of techniques for collecting, processing and managing information, have triggered various changes both at the company and at the industry level. These changes highlight the question of how such factors affect the relationship between company actors -- in particular, how the growing importance of the challenge posed by information technology impacts the functioning and development of companies and their industry sectors. The current report is the result of research conducted in the wine industry in the region of Languedoc Roussillon in Southern France, focusing in particular on six wine cooperatives which both reflect the diversity of this type of commercial entity and constitute the dominant type of industry actor in the region's wine trade. This research, using case studies, centers on the hypothesis which states that he who possesses the means of capturing, managing and leveraging data used in the implementation of food safety regulations can shift the balance of power within an organization, as well as in its external relations with vendors and clients. This shifting power balance further incites organizational change. The results of the research contained in this report validate the hypothesis in two ways : The use of information and communications technology in the implementation of food safety and traceability regulations increases the power of the producer-distributor group within the wine co-op over the group that produces the grapes, represented by the winegrower-members. The winegrowers in fact tend to become subcontractors of the producer-distributor unit. At the same time, as regards customer relations, the use of information and communications technology in the implementation of food safety and traceability regulations by wine cooperatives was not found to give the cooperatives greater leverage or influence over their clientele. The power of the cooperatives is in fact subordinate to the needs of their clients who, in fact, often play in various ways with health and food safety regulations during commercial negotiations. ...French Abstract : Pour la mise en œuvre de la réglementation sur la sécurité/traçabilité alimentaire, nombre d'entreprises ont recours à différentes méthodes et utilisent divers moyens parmi lesquels les technologies d'information et de communication (TIC) dédiées à cette fonction. Dès lors, le respect des obligations réglementaires et l'usage de techniques de collecte, de traitement et de gestion d'information engendrent divers changements au sein des entreprises et des filières. Ils posent en particulier la question de savoir en quoi les rapports entre les acteurs des entreprises sont affectés par la combinaison de ces facteurs du fait, notamment, de l'importance croissante de l'enjeu informationnel dans le fonctionnement et le développement au sein des entreprises et des filières. Le présent rapport rend compte d'une recherche effectuée dans la filière vini-viticole de la région Languedoc-Roussillon en l'occurrence six caves coopératives reflétant la diversité des organisations économiques de ce type et constituant l'acteur majeur de la filière vini-viticole régionale. Plus précisément, cette recherche, réalisée à travers des études de cas, a été centrée sur l'hypothèse selon laquelle celui qui détient les moyens de saisie, de gestion et de traitement des informations utilisés dans la mise en œuvre de réglementation sur la traçabilité/sécurité des aliments, détient une partie du pouvoir susceptible de peser dans les relations internes à l'entreprise et externes avec ses fournisseurs ou ses clients et favoriser ainsi les changements organisationnels. Les résultats de cette recherche valident l'hypothèse de deux manières : l'utilisation des TIC dans la mise en œuvre de la réglementation sur la sécurité/traçabilité des aliments augmente le pouvoir de l'unité de production - commercialisation du vin sur les viticulteurs - adhérents qui produisent les raisins, ces derniers tendant à devenir les sous-traitants de l'unité de production - commercialisation du vin. Mais simultanément, dans les relations avec la clientèle, l'utilisation des TIC dans la mise en œuvre de la réglementation sur la sécurité/traçabilité des aliments par les caves ne donne pas à ces dernières un ascendant suffisant à l'encontre de leur clientèle. Le pouvoir des caves est en effet subordonné aux exigences de la clientèle qui joue, par ailleurs, de manière variable avec les réglementations sanitaires dans les négociations commerciales.IT; INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY; ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE; TRACEABILITY; NORMALIZATION OF INFORMATION; TIC; TECHNOLOGIES DE L'INFORMATION ET DE LA COMMUNICATION; TRACABILITE; NORMALISATION DE L'INFORMATION; CHANGEMENTS ORGANISATIONNELS

A Probabilistic Assessment Approach for Wind Turbine-Site Matching

This article provides a new methodology for wind turbine-site matching by using a probabilistic approach. The random behavior of the wind speed climate and the uncertainties of wind turbine characteristics are important to take into account in models used to evaluate the performance of the wind turbine. The proposed formulation of the wind turbine-site matching is derived based on the probabilistic reliability assessment approach. It was experimented using different power curve approximation models, for different random conditions, using time series of wind speed in two sites in Morocco: Dakhla and Essaouira. A comparison based on methods used in literature for the estimation of two-parameter of the Weibull function to fit the wind speed distribution is also carried out. The results revealed that the introduced performance indicators are less sensitive to the models used to approximate the wind power curves compared to the deterministic conventional indicator that leads to different rankings and problems of over-sizing or under-sizing. However, those performance indicators are more sensitive to the variation of the wind speed distribution parameter’s and can help on accurately estimate the wind power. Moreover, the proposed formulation allows a global sensitivity analysis using Sobol’s indices to observe the influence of each input parameter on the observed variances of the performance of a wind turbine. A numerical application illustrates the interpretation of sensitivity indices and shows the impact of the wind speed and the rated wind speed on the variance of the wind turbine performance. This method can help wind energy developers and manufacturers to optimally select WTGs for their future project and accurately forecast the performance of their WTGs for monitoring and maintenance scheduling under uncertainty

A Bayesian Regularized Artificial Neural Network for Up-Scaling Wind Speed Profile

Maximizing gains from wind energy potential is the principle objective of the wind power sector. Consequently, wind tower size is radically increasing. However, choosing an appropriate wind turbine for a selected site requires having an accurate estimation of vertical wind profile. This is also imperative from the cost and maintenance strategy point of view. Installing tall towers or other expensive devices such as LIDAR or SODAR raises the costs of a wind power project. In this work, we aim to investigate the ability of a Neural Network trained using the Bayesian Regularization technique to estimate wind speed profile up to a height of 100m based on knowledge of wind speed at lower heights. Results show that the proposed approach can achieve satisfactory predictions and prove the suitability of the proposed method for generating wind speed profile and probability distributions based on knowledge of wind speed at lower heights

Genetic identification, origin and sanitary status of grapevine cultivars (Vitis vinifera L.) grown in Babar, Algeria

This research focused on present grapevine biodiversity of neglected cultivars grown in 'Babar' region, Northeastern Algeria. The obtained results demonstrate the complex, rich, and even surprising inheritance of grapevine biodiversity in such a small region, with currently residual viticulture practiced only for direct consumption. Babar is one of the oldest inhabited areas in Algeria and part of the Atlas Mountains, considered very favorable for wild and cultivated vine growing since protohistoric times. Thirty-seven vines from the traditional growing area were analyzed using nuclear microsatellite (SSR) markers for cultivar identification and RT-qPCR analysis for virus detection and sanitary status evaluation. As a result, thirteen different genotypes were found, most of them showing a very good sanitary status, then constituting a valuable biological source for clonal selection. A close relatedness was evidenced with some Mediterranean varieties, resulting from previous exchanges of grapevine cultivars in the past. Furthermore, the present study highlighted the existence of three new genotypes, highly probably autochthonous of Babar region, with proposed names 'Babari', 'Babar-Algeria', and 'Amesski-Babar'. They could represent unique Algerian varieties, probably preserved over time. The conservation of these endangered genotypes is highly recommended

Applied Bayesian regularized artificial neural network based approach for up-scaling wind speed profil and distribution

International audienc

Comparative analysis for wind resource assessment : Bayesian Regularization and Levenberg-Marquardt Training Algorithm for Neural Network

International audienc

Les facteurs pronostiques de survie sans récidive chez les patientes atteintes de tumeur du col de l’utérus

La radiochimiothérapie est le traitement de référence des tumeurs du col localement avancées, et plusieurs études ont montré l'importance des facteurs pronostiques sur le contrôle local de la tumeur et la survie des malades. L'objectif de cette étude est d'évaluer l'impact des facteurs pronostiques, en particulier de l'étalement sur la survie sans récidive des patientes suivies pour cancer du col utérin. Il s'agit d'une série rétrospective portant sur 177 femmes suivies en 2011 pour tumeur du col utérin de stade IB à III selon la classification de FIGO 2009 ayant bénéficié d'une radiothérapie à la dose de 46 Grays sur le pelvis et une surimpression sur les paramètres envahis associée à du cisplatine 40mg/m² par semaine suivie de curiethérapie réalisée selon le mode haut débit de dose (HDR) ou bas débit de dose (LDR). La moyenne d'âge était de 53ans, la médiane de l'étalement total était de 65 jours, 75% des patientes ont reçu 4 cures de chimiothérapie, et les patientes ont été suivies après le traitement pendant une durée médiane de 34 mois. La récidive locale et métastatique était de 33,3% chez les patientes ayant des adénopathies pelviennes, contre 16,3% chez celles qui en étaient indemnes (p= 0,031), elle était de 26,3% chez les patientes ayant un étalement supérieur à 65 jours contre 11% chez celles dont l'étalement en était inférieur (p= 0,01). La présence d'adénopathies pelviennes et l'étalement total de la radiothérapie apparaissaient respectivement comme les seuls facteurs pronostiques indépendant de survenue de récidive, p= 0,04 OR= 2,6 IC95% (1,05 6,3) et p= 0,01 OR= 2,9 IC95% (1,26 6,7). En analyse multivariée, la technique de curiethérapie p = 0,003 OR= 0,25 IC95% (0,1 0,6) et l'étalement total du traitement p= 0,0001 OR= 4,7 IC95% (2 10,8) apparaissaient comme les seuls facteurs pronostiques indépendant de survie sans récidive. L'étalement supérieur à 65 jours et la technique de curiethérapie LDR semblent être les facteurs de mauvais pronostic de survie sans récidive dans notre étude

Derivation of dual horizon state-based peridynamics formulation based on euler-lagrange equation

The numerical solution of peridynamics equations is usually done by using uniform spatial discretisation. Although implementation of uniform discretisation is straightforward, it can increase computational time significantly for certain problems. Instead, non-uniform discretisation can be utilised and different discretisation sizes can be used at different parts of the solution domain. Moreover, the peridynamic length scale parameter, horizon, can also vary throughout the solution domain. Such a scenario requires extra attention since conservation laws must be satisfied. To deal with these issues, dual-horizon peridynamics was introduced so that both non-uniform discretisation and variable horizon sizes can be utilised. In this study, dual-horizon peridynamics formulation is derived by using Euler–Lagrange equation for state-based peridynamics. Moreover, application of boundary conditions and determination of surface correction factors are also explained. Finally, the current formulation is verified by considering two benchmark problems including plate under tension and vibration of a plate

Lichenological exploration of Algeria: historical overview and annotated bibliography, 1799-2013

yesDespite more than two centuries of almost uninterrupted surveys and studies of Algerian lichenology, the history and lichen diversity of Algeria are still poorly understood. During the preparation of a forthcoming checklist of Algerian lichens it was considered necessary to provide the present historical overview of lichenological exploration of the country from 1799 to 2013, supported by a reasonably comprehensive annotated bibliography of 171 titles