Vector field as a quintessence partner

We derive generic equations for a vector field driving the evolution of flat homogeneous isotropic universe and give a comparison with a scalar filed dynamics in the cosmology. Two exact solutions are shown as examples, which can serve to describe an inflation and a slow falling down of dynamical ``cosmological constant'' like it is given by the scalar quintessence. An attractive feature of vector field description is a generation of ``induced mass'' proportional to a Hubble constant, which results in a dynamical suppression of actual cosmological constant during the evolution.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX file, iopart class, discussion extended, reference adde

Se mobiliser sur les effets transgénérationnels : le cas du Distilbène en France

International audienc

When Replication is Prohibited

International audienc

Transformative Agreements to Achieve Open Access - a First Systematic Analysis of Available Consortium-Publisher Documents

International audienc

Contracting in The Open Access Age: Unboxing ‘Big Deals’ In Academic Publishing

International audienceSince the digitalization of academic publications, subscription to journals had taken the form of access rights to content platforms for users. Despite almost 20 years of open access policies, paywalled papers and subsequently subscriptions are still paramount for the oligopoly of publishing industry in its relations with ever-growing consortia of universities and libraries. Nevertheless, in the last five years, new forms of agreement have been signed, notably including paying open access publishing options. The range of names given to these "Big Deals" underlines their complexity and diversity: offset agreements, read and publish, publish and read, transformative agreements. Whereas previously subscription agreements included confidentiality clauses on their content, the transparency requirements of some consortia have led to their availability. Thanks to this publicity, we will present a first systematic comparison of more than 50 agreements between "big" or "medium" publishers (ACS, Elsevier, Sage, Springer, Wiley, etc.) and European or North American consortia. Drawing on STS approaches, we will first describe the various content of these agreements and the material effects of the reciprocal obligations they define (system of recognition of authors and rights holders, financial payment circuits, monitoring of actual costs, etc.). We will then analyze the expected, hoped for or feared effects of these agreements (tipping point effect for open access, reinforcement of publishers oligopoly, stabilization of APC or subscription prices…) from contrats themselves, monitoring reports and grey literature. Finally, we will discuss how the interactions between agreements as a container vs papers and journals as content are conceived

Ces écrits qui peuplent la ville

https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/articles/ces-ecrits-qui-peuplent-la-vill

The Precariousness of Public Health. On Tuberculosis Control in Contemporary France

Through an ethnographic exploration of tuberculosis control in one of France’s poorest regions, Seine-Saint-Denis, I interrogate the relationships between public health planning and interventions in conditions of multiple precarity. I show that the encounter between the feasible and the fantastic in the realm of public health generates feelings of absurdity and futility among medical professionals, characteristic of disease control in the precarious present. Precarity is neither a social and economic condition per se, nor is the link between disease and precarity static. It is a dynamic process of political inclusions, exclusions, and inequalities, which differ substantially within the unequal spheres of precarious lives. The contradictions in tuberculosis control that I describe are thus not only characteristic of French public health but of global public health today, where illusions in disease control encounter the exclusionary realities of social life

Food Chain Security and Vulnerability

peer reviewedIn our contemporary societies, the food chain could be defined as a macro-technical system, which depends on a wide variety of actors and risk analysis methods. In this contribution, risks related to the food chain are defined in terms of "modern risks" (Beck, 1992). The whole national economic sector of food production/distribution is vulnerable to a local accident, which can affect the functioning of the food chain, the export programs and even the political system. Such a complex socio-technical environment is undoubtedly vulnerable to intentional act such as terrorism