Absolutely Continuous Compensators

We give sufficient conditions on the underlying filtration such that all totally inaccessible stopping times have compensators which are absolutely continuous. If a semimartingale, strong Markov process X has a representation as a solution of a stochastic differential equation driven by a Wiener process, Lebesgue measure, and a Poisson random measure, then all compensators of totally inaccessible stopping times are absolutely continuous with respect to the minimal filtration generated by X. However Cinlar and Jacod have shown that all semimartingale strong Markov processes, up to a change of time and space, have such a representation

Tableau des textes juridiques sur les armes à feu et leurs munitions : 1834 à 1958

La réglementation relative aux armes à feu, munitions, explosifs et poudrières en Afrique occidentale française fait l’objet de textes si nombreux et si divers qu’il devient très difficile au chercheur d’en suivre les prescriptions avec toute la précision désirable. Aussi, avons nous eu l’idée de réunir, dans un but d’utilité générale, les références des différents conventions, décrets, arrêtés, décisions, circulaires et actes et qui se rapportent à cette question. Cependant, nous avons estimé préférable de regrouper les textes en un travail conçu d’après un plan d’ensemble défini et logique de manière à éviter au lecteur de longues recherches. Le tableau ci-dessous comporte trois rubriques. Dans la première rubrique, nous mettons la nature, le n° s’il y a lieu et la date du texte. Dans la deuxième rubrique, nous indiquons la source et s’il s’agit d’une source archivistique, nous ne mettons que le code. L’intitulé de chacun des codes se trouve dans la partie « Source et Bibliographie » qui suit le tableau. Celle-ci est constituée de l’ensemble des sources portant sur le contrôle de la circulation des armes à feu et de leurs munitions en Afrique occidentale française : 1834-1958. Dans la troisième rubrique du tableau, nous signalons les objets du texte et dans la quatrième, nous mettons les territoires où était appliqués le document

Spatial analysis of diarrhoea and environmental risk factors in an urban context in Senegal, West Africa

Background: Diarrhoeal diseases continue to be a major public health concern globally, associated with high childhood mortality and morbidity, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Although the number of deaths due to diarrhoea decreased considerably over the past 25 years, morbidity has declined only moderately. In 2015, diarrhoea was responsible for nearly half a million deaths (9%) among children under the age of 5 years. Most of the diarrhoea-related deaths were attributable to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and lack of hygiene. In 2015, an estimated, 844 million and 2.3 billion people around the world still lack access to basic drinking water service and sanitation facilities, respectively, mainly in LMICs, and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In Senegal, diarrhoea is the leading cause of childhood deaths and about 14% of the burdens, as expressed by of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), were due to diarrhoeal diseases in children below the age of 5 years. While diarrhoea is among the leading infectious diseases, most studies were conducted in capital cities or rural areas, while little information is available for “secondary cities” so-called “medium-sized cities”. Secondary cities in many African countries, including Senegal, are faced with a lack of epidemiological data at small scale (e.g. neighbourhood level): prevalence and incidence, aetiologies and exposure factors. Data at small scale, as well as spatially and explicit assessment of disease risk like diarrhoea are lacking in secondary cities for effective guidance and planning of interventions. Against this background, data at small scale are needed in such urban settings to establish the local epidemiology and implement appropriate preventive measures. To address this research gap, the work undertaken in the current PhD thesis was conducted in a context of secondary cities, characterized by rapid urbanization, where control of infectious diseases, including diarrhoea, is a challenge. Goal and objectives: The overarching goal of this PhD thesis was to provide disaggregated evidence on diarrhoeal diseases prevalence and incidence among children under the age of 5 years, including risk factors, in order to improve the control of the disease through the implementation of targeted preventive measures in the secondary city of Mbour, located in the south-western part of Senegal. To achieve this goal, the PhD thesis pursued the following five specific objectives: (i) to provide an overview of the urbanization trends of the secondary city of Mbour and its effects on water supply, sanitation, wastewater and solid waste management systems; (ii) to determine the prevalence of diarrhoea among children under the age of 5 and associated risk factors in four different zones of the city; (iii) to investigate the association between childhood diarrhoeal incidence and climatic factors, such as temperature and rainfall; (iv) to describe the spatial pattern of diarrhoeal disease risk and to estimate the spatially varying association between diarrhoea risk and potential risk factors or covariates; and (v) to assess the knowledge and management practice of diarrhoea among mothers and caregivers of enrolled children. Methods: The methodology developed in this thesis combines several types of data collection and analytical approaches. We collected data from readily available secondary sources from local services (e.g. routine health facility data on diarrhoeal incidence, demographics and mapping data), available remote sensing sources for the climatic data (e.g. temperature and rainfall), and obtained primary data from combined field surveys conducted in Mbour: cross-sectional epidemiological household surveys, drinking water sampling and analysis, mapping of environmental risk factors at city and household level and direct observations. Two cross-sectional household surveys were conducted in Mbour. The first survey was carried out in the dry season, between February and March 2014 among 600 children under the age of 5 years in eight randomly selected neighbourhoods located in four urban zones in Mbour namely: (i) Urban Central Area (UCA); (ii) Peri-Central Area (PCA); (iii) North Peripheral Area (NPA); and (iv) South Peripheral Area (SPA). The second survey was conducted in the rainy season between September and October 2016 among 800 children and covered all 25 neighbourhoods of the city, including the eight neighbourhoods sampled in the first survey. In both surveys, households were randomly selected using a spatial multi-stage cluster sampling approach, adopted within each zone and neighbourhood. The presence of a mother with at least one child under the age of 5 years was the primary household inclusion criterion. Questionnaires were administered to children’s parents/ caregivers to assess basic household socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conditions, and to determine their knowledge, attitudes and management practices of diarrhoea (KAP). Water samples from children’s households and community sources (public taps and wells) were analysed for contamination with faecal coliform bacteria and Escherichia coli by using the membrane filtration technique. A hand-held global positioning system (GPS) device was used in the field to locate the interviewed households and the major environmental risk factors for diarrhoea (solid waste dumping, stagnant wastewater points, flood-prone areas and stagnant rainwater points in the city). Results: The findings of this study showed that childhood diarrhoea had a varying spatial pattern across the city. The findings from the cross-sectional household surveys showed that 26% and 34% of the children surveyed in 2014 and in 2016 respectively were suffering from diarrhoea during the two weeks preceding the survey. The prevalence was higher among children living in the UCA in 2014 and in 2016 (36.3% and 38.3%) and in the PCA in 2014 and in 2016 (44.8% and 34.8%). In UCA, the highest prevalence was observed in the neighbourhood near coastal area, namely Tefess (57.1%), Zone Résidentielle (54.3%) and Golf (31.4%). In PCA, the highest prevalence was observed in the neighbourhood Baye Deuk (57.1%). Diarrhoeal prevalence were significantly associated with household sociodemographic characteristics, such as unemployment of mothers, use of open bags for storing household waste, evacuation of household waste in public streets, and use of shared toilets. Untreated stored drinking water and stored water contaminated with E. coli were associated with diarrhoea infections in children while drinking water source did not appear as a significant risk factor for diarrhoea. Results from the time-series analysis showed a seasonal pattern of diarrhoeal cases in Mbour with two annual peaks: one peak in the cold dry season (December-March) and one peak in the rainy season (July-October). The study revealed that diarrhoeal cases were more clustered around urban settings compared to rural settings, and temperature and rainfall were associated with diarrhoeal incidence in Mbour. Conclusion: Diarrhoeal diseases constitute an important public health problem among children under the age of 5 years in the secondary city of Mbour, Senegal. Our findings call for specific public health measures to tackle diarrhoea at the more affected areas, through the implementation of WASH intervention programmes, including promotion of solid waste and wastewater management, health education programmes for mothers of young children and family members about water treatment and storage, handwashing, the use of oral rehydration salt (ORS) and zinc supplementation and its preparation at household level, for a successful diarrhoea management

Completeness for domain semirings and star-continuous Kleene algebras with domain

Due to their increasing complexity, today’s computer systems are studied using multiple models and formalisms. Thus, it is necessary to develop theories that unify different approaches in order to limit the risks of errors when moving from one formalism to another. It is in this context that monoids, semirings and Kleene algebras with domain were born about a decade ago. The idea is to define a domain operator on classical algebraic structures, in order to unify algebra and the classical logics of programs. The question of completeness for these algebras is still open. It constitutes the object of this thesis. We define tree structures called trees with a top and represented in matrix form. After having given fundamental properties of these trees, we define relations that make it possible to compare them. Then, we show that, modulo a certain equivalence relation, the set of trees with a top is provided with a monoid with domain structure. This result makes it possible to define a model for semirings with domain and prove its completeness. We also define a model for -continuous Kleene algebras with domain as well and prove its completeness modulo a new axiom

L’usage Du Wolof En Milieu Urbain : Évolution Vers De Nouvelles Règles Ou Perte D’authenticité?

A l’instar de beaucoup de pays d’Afrique, le Sénégal se distingue par une diversité linguistique se caractérisant par la présence de nombreuses langues nationales18 qui coexistent avec des langues étrangères comme le français, l’anglais, le portugais et l’arabe. Ce contact linguistique a fait que les langues nationales subissent l’influence des langues étrangères. Ainsi le wolof, langue véhiculaire du pays, est au centre de ce rendez-vous du donner et du recevoir. En effet, cela a favorisé chez les locuteurs wolof, particulièrement ceux des milieux urbains, la présence de phénomènes tels que l’emprunt, le code-switching, le code-mixing, etc. Cette situation n’est pas sans conséquences dans la mesure où, comme l’a affirmé Moussa DAFF19, la majeure partie des locuteurs wolof ont du mal à soutenir une conversation en langue wolof sans commettre des écarts ou bien sans employer des termes empruntés aux autres langues. Cet article vise à démontrer, dans une démarche empirique, combien cette influence a eu un impact sur l’usage du wolof de nos jours en milieu urbain. Avec la méthode d’observation participante, les données recueillies par enregistrement sont analysées selon les cadres théoriques de la linguistique descriptiviste fonctionnaliste. Les résultats révèlent que l’impact ne s’arrête pas aux emprunts ou au mélange de codes observés dans le « wolof urbain ancien », mais va au-delà et conduit à l’existence d’un « wolof urbain contemporain » comportant non seulement les interférences avec les langues étrangères mais aussi et surtout le non-respect des règles d’usage de la langue témoignant de l’écart considérable par rapport au parler « authentique ». Like many African countries, Senegal is distinguished by a linguistic diversity characterized by the presence of many national languages that coexist with foreign languages such as French, English, Portuguese and Arabic. This linguistic contact has meant that the national languages are influenced by foreign languages. Thus Wolof, the lingua franca of the country, is at the center of this meeting of giving and receiving. In fact, this has favored in Wolof speakers, particularly those from urban areas, the presence of phenomena such as linguistic borrowing, code-switching, code-mixing and so on. This situation is not without consequences since, as stated by Moussa DAFF, the majority of Wolof speakers find it difficult to sustain a conversation in Wolof without committing language differences or using terms borrowed from other languages. This article aims at demonstrating, in an empirical approach, how much this influence has had an impact on the use of Wolof today in urban areas. With the participatory observation method, the data collected by recording are analyzed according to the theoretical frameworks of functionalist descriptivist linguistics. The results reveal that the impact does not stop with borrowing or the mixture of codes observed in the "old urban Wolof", but goes beyond and leads to the existence of a "contemporary urban Wolof" comprising not only the interferences with foreign languages but also and above all the non-respect of the rules of use of the language testifying to the considerable difference compared to the "authentic" speech

Designing Tuftsin Conjugate for Directing Antimicrobial Ionophores to Macrophages

For all microorganisms, acquisition of metal ions is essential for survival in the environment or their infected host. Metal ions are required in many biological processes as cofactors for proteins or structural elements for enzymes. These ions play a role in chemotaxis, phosphorylation, transport of sugars and proteins, and initiation of DNA replication, among other things. It is critical for bacteria to ensure that metal uptake and availability meet its physiological needs; too little can impede these important biological processes, while too much can be toxic leading to radical formation which can cause damage to proteins and cell structures (Porcheron, Gaelle. et al. 2013). Host defense strategies against infection consist of metal starvation by sequestration using chelators or metal overload with concentrated amounts of metals using ionophores (Norris, V et al. 1996). Ionophores are lipid-soluble molecules that transport ions across a cell membrane. Pyrithione, an ionophore, is a well-known antimicrobial used to control the symptoms of dandruff and dermatitis. It inhibits fungal and bacterial cell division and is active against different bacterial systems such as E. coli and C. neoformans; it has also been found to be toxic to mammalian cells (Helsel, M et al. 2012). The aim of this research project is to target pyrithione to the site of infection - in macrophages. Tuftsin (Thr-Lys-Pro-Arg) is known to be responsible for activation of macrophage cell lines. It is internalized through a receptor- mediated mechanism by macrophages and conjugates can be made without affecting this recognition (Feng, J et al. 2010). Attaching pyrithione to tuftsin would target the ionophore to macrophages, allowing for specificity to pathogens.https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/u_poster_2015/1039/thumbnail.jp

Artificial Intelligence and Fact Checking in Africa: Between the Logic of Dependency and the Limits of Automation

This article focuses on fact-checking initiatives in the context of the rise of artificial intelligence. With reference to theories of the political economy of communication and platform studies, this study sheds light on the very confusing evolution of initiatives in Africa. The approach combines content analysis and distanced observation of two fact-checking platforms, chosen on the basis of their local roots and the experimentation of smart tools: Africa Check and Check4Decision. The results highlight the economic and technological dependencies of African platforms on GAFAM via factchecking services and an automation process that is far from complete with regard to local realities. It appears that the African context provides a different perspective with structural constraints and “cultural” algorithmic biases

Artificial Intelligence and Fact Checking in Africa: Between Logic of Dependency and the Limits of Automation

This article focuses on fact-checking initiatives in the context of the rise of artificial intelligence. With reference to theories of the political economy of communication and platform studies, this study sheds light on the very confusing evolution of initiatives in Africa. The approach combines content analysis and distanced observation of two fact-checking platforms, chosen on the basis of their local roots and the experimentation of smart tools: Africa Check and Check4Decision. The results highlight the economic and technological dependencies of African platforms on GAFAM via fact-checking services and an automation process that is far from complete with regard to local realities. It appears that the African context provides a different perspective with structural constraints and "cultural" algorithmic biases

PAC-Bayesian Generalization Bounds for Adversarial Generative Models

We extend PAC-Bayesian theory to generative models and develop generalization bounds for models based on the Wasserstein distance and the total variation distance. Our first result on the Wasserstein distance assumes the instance space is bounded, while our second result takes advantage of dimensionality reduction. Our results naturally apply to Wasserstein GANs and Energy-Based GANs, and our bounds provide new training objectives for these two. Although our work is mainly theoretical, we perform numerical experiments showing non-vacuous generalization bounds for Wasserstein GANs on synthetic datasets