Clearing Up Some Conceptual Confusions About Conspiracy Theory Theorising

A reply to Gérald Bronner, Véronique Campion-Vincent, Sylvain Delouvée, Sebastian Dieguez, Nicolas Gauvrit, Anthony Lantian, and Pascal Wagner-Egger's piece, '“They” Respond: Comments on Basham et al.’s “Social Science’s Conspiracy-Theory Panic: Now They Want to Cure Everyone”

Festival Brings Music, Restoration

Jill Timmons understands the healing power of music. Timmons, professor of music at Linfield College, along with her husband, Sylvain Frémaux, the founding director of the Linfield Chamber Orchestra, are bringing music and restoration to the tiny hamlet of Herbilly in central France. And their work is paving the way for Linfield student pianists to study there

From life force to slimming aid : exploring views on the commodification of traditional medicinal knowledge.

The commodification of traditional knowledge is a lively topic for academic debate, with opinions ranging from categorical rejection of this process, to views that it could be a liberating act. This debate is often characterised by generalisations and a lack of empirical engagement. This paper presents a case study of the commercialisation of traditional medicinal knowledge of the San in Southern Africa. A scenario survey in 3 communities reveals a range of different views amongst individuals and communities, much of which could be linked to differing local and historic socio-economic factors. Although the survey indicates that commodification is widely accepted, the subsequent use of a ‘life story’ approach to examine the actual commercialisation of the Hoodia (Hoodia Gordonii—a plant with appetite suppressant properties), shows that this acceptance is problematic. San informants reflect on it as a pragmatic choice informed by experiences of deprivation and economic hardship, resulting in a process which changes the cultural meaning of the plant and undermine its traditional healing power for the San themselves

The winding path to a PhD in veterinary education

Masters and PhD degrees specific to veterinary education are relatively novel, but the number of students in this area is growing. As two current students, Tierney Kinnison and Sylvain Dernat, explain, those undertaking these degrees have vastly different backgrounds and are researching a variety of topics. By sharing the experiences of those involved, they hope to encourage the next generation of veterinary educators to begin their research careers

Socio-economic impacts of alternative GIN control practices. Project deliverable 11 (WP4)

This report is a deliverable (WP4) from the EU-funded PrOPara project. The PrOPara project aspires to i) assess existing knowledge from research, development and benchmarking studies on alternatives to parasite control on organic ruminant farms, ii) collecting novel data on disease prevalence, risk assessment analysis and parasite control measures, through monitoring (farm surveys and stakeholder participation studies), iii) performing cost-benefit analysis on alternative parasite control measures and iv) developing and delivering technical innovation to facilitate implementation of sustainable parasite control strategies. A combined approach of modelling and focus groups for feedback was employed to assess the economic impacts of alternative GIN control strategies in South West France and North East Scotland. This two step method allowed results from the survey and farm modelling to be used during workshops, which also addressed social factors explaining the uptake and acceptance of GIN practices to control parasites. An existing excel based farm model was adapted in order to estimate the economic impacts of a range of alternative GIN practices. The model was adapted using data from a typical farm for organic goat system in France (Occitanie and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions) and two organic sheep systems (lowland and upland) in Scotland. A structured workshop approach was utilised to address both the social and economic factors related to adoption of alternative GIN practices by farmers. To this purpose, we adapted the Structured Decision Making (SDM) approach commonly used for decisions taking (Gregory and Keeney 1994, Conroy, Barker et al. 2008, Ogden and Innes 2009, Gregory 2012, Johnson, Eaton et al. 2015, Fatorić and Seekamp 2017). Overall, the modelling and farmer feedback showed that control of GIN needs to be farm specific, to suit the individual characteristics of both the farm but also the beliefs of the farmer. The extension of withdrawal periods combined with resistance issues in France have led to the adoption of TST by some farmers, but others are less convinced of its efficiency. The farmers in Scotland seem to have adopted multiple strategies such as use of arable land and mixed grazing to keep GIN levels from severely affecting their profits. However, the diversity of opinions and calls by the French farmers in particular for more trials, shows there is still further work to understand this problem and develop more effective, sustainable solutions

Overseas Property: An Answer to the Pensions Crisis

Two centuries ago the founding father of rigorous economic analysis, David Ricardo, argued that land is unique type of asset, subject to forces quite different from those determining other prices; and he sought to show that these forces make land a uniquely good long-term investment. In life, he even practised what he preached, using the profits that he had accumulated as a London banker to buy a large estate in Norfolk. In modern economic, Ricardo has often been deride for his theory. The theory of ‘efficient markets’ tells them that the underlying returns on all kinds of assets, adjusted for risk, will tend to equate; so land is just one asset amongst many. But most modern English men and women, inexpert in economics, seem to be closet Ricardians in their behaviour, believing that money tied up in ‘bricks and mortar’ is especially secure and profitable. And they too practise what they preach, regarding property investment as the best way of providing for their old age. Thus in the past decade growing numbers of people on quite modest incomes have purchased second properties within Britain , using the rental income to cover the mortgage payments; and even greater numbers have purchased houses for their own use which are far larger than they would otherwise want or require, believing that they can provide for their retirement by ‘trading down’. In addition, perhaps two or three millions – the exact number is unknown – have bought properties abroad, not only as holiday homes, but as long-term investments. This paper will argue that Ricardo and his present-day disciples are right. More particularly, it will propose that overseas property offers one answer – and perhaps the only answer – to the crisis that now confronts UK pensions. The first part will analyze the underlying causes of the pensions crisis, pointing to five paradoxes in which retirement saving is trapped. The second part will show how overseas property offers an escape from these paradoxes. The final part will describe a particular way in which the current law relating to pensions can be used to facilitate such an escape

Identifiability and consistent estimation of nonparametric translation hidden Markov models with general state space

This paper considers hidden Markov models where the observations are given as the sum of a latent state which lies in a general state space and some independent noise with unknown distribution. It is shown that these fully nonparametric translation models are identifiable with respect to both the distribution of the latent variables and the distribution of the noise, under mostly a light tail assumption on the latent variables. Two nonparametric estimation methods are proposed and we prove that the corresponding estimators are consistent for the weak convergence topology. These results are illustrated with numerical experiments

Sylvain Delouvée, Patrick Rateau et Michel-Louis Rouquette (dir.), Les peurs collectives

Compte-renduCompte rendu de l'ouvrage : Sylvain Delouvée, Patrick Rateau, Michel-Louis Rouquette (dir.), Les peurs collectives, Toulouse, Erès, 2013, 211 p., ISBN : 978-2-7492-3853-1.Maël Dieudonné, " Sylvain Delouvée, Patrick Rateau et Michel-Louis Rouquette (dir.), Les peurs collectives ", Lectures [En ligne], Les comptes rendus, 2013, mis en ligne le 14 novembre 2013. URL : http://lectures.revues.org/1267

PrOPara project workshop Focus Group Manual: Step-wise Approach (Project deliverable 10.(WP4))

This handbook is a deliverable (WP4) from the EU-funded PrOPara project. The PrOPara project aspires to i) assess existing knowledge from research, development and benchmarking studies on alternatives to parasite control on organic ruminant farms, ii) collecting novel data on disease prevalence, risk assessment analysis and parasite control measures, through monitoring (farm surveys and stakeholder participation studies), iii) performing cost-benefit analysis on alternative parasite control measures and iv) developing and delivering technical innovation to facilitate implementation of sustainable parasite control strategies. This handbook serves as a baseline to conduct workshops with stakeholders in France and Scotland. It provides the organisers with a structured approach on 8 steps. The implementation of this approach will allow identification of main alternative GIN practices according to stakeholders’ views, as well as analysing economic impacts and reasons for adopting them or not