Analyse du discours environnemental véhiculé par les influenceurs québécois

Il est important de mobiliser l’opinion publique, grâce à tous les outils de communication disponibles, sur l’importance d’agir pour limiter les effets de la crise environnementale. Les médias sociaux et les acteurs présents sur ceux-ci font partie de ces outils et, compte tenu de leur popularité croissante, doivent être utilisés pour sensibiliser la population. C’est pourquoi l’objectif de cet essai est d’analyser la teneur et de brosser le portrait des différents discours environnementaux tenus par des influenceurs québécois prônant le respect de l’environnement. Ce type de discours est généralement produit par des parties prenantes qui souhaitent contribuer à protéger l’environnement. Avec l’apparition des médias sociaux, les influenceurs arrivent plus récemment dans l’histoire et certains véhiculent des discours avec ce même objectif. Les influenceurs font partie des stratégies marketing de plusieurs compagnies et, ainsi, les objectifs de marketing et de sensibilisation à l’enjeu environnemental peuvent se côtoyer sur leur plateforme Instagram. Les mouvements environnementaux utilisent les médias sociaux dès leur apparition et, aujourd’hui plus que jamais, les influenceurs peuvent aider ces mouvements à atteindre une certaine notoriété. Pour atteindre l’objectif de cet essai, une analyse de discours multiméthode, à la fois quantitative et qualitative, est effectuée. L’analyse porte sur un corpus composé de 269 discours produits par quatre influenceuses représentatives des influenceurs québécois. Les résultats montrent qu’environ 20 % des discours des influenceurs impliqués dans le mouvement environnemental abordent l’environnement, soit 55 publications Instagram du corpus. Une analyse plus spécifique de ces 55 publications montre que les textes des discours sont courts et non scientifiques. La problématique environnementale la plus abordée par les influenceurs québécois est les matières résiduelles et l’objectif le plus récurrent de ces discours est celui de faire connaître une compagnie. Finalement, l’analyse montre également que l’objet principal le plus fréquent des images du discours est l’influenceur. Les recommandations basées sur ces résultats s’adressent donc aux scientifiques en environnement, aux influenceurs et aux citoyens québécois. Les scientifiques doivent s’aider des influenceurs pour mobiliser l’opinion publique, mais les influenceurs doivent également s’aider des scientifiques en environnement pour élever la qualité de leur discours. De plus, les influenceurs doivent accorder une part plus importante à l’environnement sur leur plateforme s’ils veulent être des vecteurs de changements. Finalement, les citoyens québécois doivent s’assurer que l’information véhiculée par les influenceurs est véridique et ils peuvent eux-mêmes créer du contenu de qualité sur l’enjeu environnemental. L’aspect récent des phénomènes étudiés dans cet essai permet à de futures recherches de s’intéresser à l’évolution du portrait des discours environnementaux des influenceurs québécois

Fast and slow shifts of the zonal-mean intertropical convergence zone in response to an idealized anthropogenic aerosol

Previous modeling work showed that aerosol can affect the position of the tropical rain belt, i.e., the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). Yet it remains unclear which aspects of the aerosol impact are robust across models, and which are not. Here we present simulations with seven comprehensive atmosphere models that study the fast and slow impacts of an idealized anthropogenic aerosol on the zonal-mean ITCZ position. The fast impact, which results from aerosol atmospheric heating and land cooling before sea-surface temperature (SST) has time to respond, causes a northward ITCZ shift. Yet the fast impact is compensated locally by decreased evaporation over the ocean, and a clear northward shift is only found for an unrealistically large aerosol forcing. The local compensation implies that while models differ in atmospheric aerosol heating, this does not contribute to model differences in the ITCZ shift. The slow impact includes the aerosol impact on the ocean surface energy balance and is mediated by SST changes. The slow impact is an order of magnitude more effective than the fast impact and causes a clear southward ITCZ shift for realistic aerosol forcing. Models agree well on the slow ITCZ shift when perturbed with the same SST pattern. However, an energetic analysis suggests that the slow ITCZ shifts would be substantially more model-dependent in interactive-SST setups due to model differences in clear-sky radiative transfer and clouds. We also discuss implications for the representation of aerosol in climate models and attributions of recent observed ITCZ shifts to aerosol

Learning at a distance : Student guide, Express 2020

Ressources éducatives libresOpen educational resourcesAbstract : As a result of the exceptional situation brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, universities wishing to continue to fulfil their educational mission have had to act quickly. Distance education has emerged as the main alternative to face-to-face instruction, allowing students to continue studying in their program under better conditions than would have been the case under other potential alternatives.Everyone on the virtual starting line! -- Key terms in distance learning -- 1. Technological tools and DL -- 2. What a DL course looks like? -- 3. Conditions for successful DL

Adjustments in the forcing-feedback framework for understanding climate change

The traditional forcing-feedback framework has provided an indispensable basis for discussing global climate changes. However, as analysis of model behavior has become more detailed, shortcomings and ambiguities in the framework have become more evident and physical effects unaccounted for by the traditional framework have become interesting. In particular, the new concept of adjustments, which are responses to forcings that are not mediated by the global mean temperature, has emerged. This concept, related to the older ones of climate efficacy and stratospheric adjustment, is a more physical way of capturing unique responses to specific forcings. We present a pedagogical review of the adjustment concept, why it is important, and how it can be used. The concept is particularly useful for aerosols, where it helps to organize what has become a complex array of forcing mechanisms. It also helps clarify issues around cloud and hydrological response, transient vs. equilibrium climate change, and geoengineering

The INDC counter, aggregation of national contributrions and 2°C trajectories

Rapport du groupe interdisciplinaire sur les contributions nationalesConsidering that limiting global warming to below 2°C implies a CO2 budget not to be exceeded and near-zero emissions by 21OO (IPCC), we can assess global 2030 greenhouse gas emissions implied by INDCs in comparison to long-term trajectories. Ahead of the COP21, we estimate that submitted INDCs would bring global greenhouse gas emissions in the range of 55 to 64 GtC02eq in 2030.Under this assumption,global emissions in 2030 are thus higher than the level of 51GtC0 2eq for the year 2012. However, this is not in contradiction with a peaking of global emissions that can only be expected after 2020, given in particular the projected dynamics of emissions in China and other developing countries.The published INDCs represent a significant step towards trajectories compatible with the 2°C goal,but remain insufficient to join trajectories presenting a reasonable probability of success.ln order to increase the chance of meeting the 2°C objective, the ambition of the short-term contributions needs to be strengthened in future negotiations.ln order to sustain a high pace in emissions reductions after 2030,structural measures are also needed, which, in order to have a rapi impact, should be prepared as early as possible. Continued efforts are needed to accelerate the development of low carbon solutions on the one hand,and demonstrate the feasibility of negative emissions on the other hand

Experimental Infection of Captive Red Foxes (Vulpes vulpes) with Mycobacterium bovis

[EN] In Europe, animal tuberculosis (TB) due to Mycobacterium bovis involves multi-host communities that include cattle and wildlife species, such as wild boar (Sus scrofa), badgers (Meles meles) and red deer (Cervus elaphus). Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) infections have also been recently reported in some TB endemic regions in the Iberian Peninsula and France, with some of the infected animals shedding M. bovis in urine and feces. In order to understand the pathogenesis of M. bovis infection in foxes and the associated risk of transmission, 12 captive foxes (6 females and 6 males) were inoc-ulated orally with 2 × 107 colony-forming units of a French field isolate of M. bovis. Clinical samples (urine, feces and oropharyngeal swabs) were collected every four weeks and tested for molecular diagnosis and bacteriology. Serological responses were measured by IDEXX M. bovis Ab Test and Multi Antigen Print Immunoassay (MAPIA). At a post-mortem examination performed 12 weeks post infection (wpi), tissues were tested for the presence of M. bovis and associated gross and microscopic TB-like lesions. M. bovis was detected by PCR in bladder swabs of 3 animals at 12 wpi. It was also detected pre-mortem at different time points of the experiment in the oropharyngeal mu-cus of three individuals and in the feces of nine foxes, with two of them confirmed by bacteriology. All 12 foxes had at least 4 PCR positive samples (out of the 23 tested), and all but 1 fox had at least 1 culture positive sample. The culture negative fox was PCR positive in both retropharyngeal and mesenteric lymph nodes, in line with the results of the other animals. Seroconversion was observed in all foxes except one during the experiment, and in nine at the final time point. No gross visible lesions were found in any animal at the post-mortem examination. The histology showed small granulomas within the lymph nodes, tonsils, liver and lungs from eight animals, with the presence of few acid-fast bacilli. These results confirmed that all orally-infected foxes developed mild TB lesions but they were able to shed mycobacteria in about 75% of cases, 1 month post-infection (9 out 12 foxes). These results show that it is possible to induce typical TB infection experimentally in captive foxes, with measurable M. bovis excretion; such an experimental system could be useful for future evaluations of diagnostics and vaccines in this speciesSIThe French Ministry of Agriculture mainly financed the sampling and the analyses in the framework of the RFSA call on TB projects (Anses-DGAl credit agreement RFSA 2017-326). The animals and the running cost of the BSL3 facilities and technical resources were financed by the European Commission in the context of Horizon 2020?Vetbionet Transnational Access Activities (TNA) call. This work is also partially the result of the I+D+i research project RTI2018-096010-B-C21, funded by the Spanish MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ Ministry of Science, Innovation and the European Regional Development Funds (FEDER Una manera de hacer Europa), and of PCTI 2021? 2023 (GRUPIN: IDI2021-000102) funded by Principado de Asturias and FEDE

Apprendre à distance : guide d'accompagnement pour les personnes étudiantes. Express, été 2020

Ressources éducatives libresOpen educational resourcesLa situation exceptionnelle entraînée par la pandémie du coronavirus oblige les universités qui désirent continuer à remplir leur mission d’enseignement à agir très rapidement. L’enseignement à distance s’est imposé comme la principale solution de remplacement à l’enseignement en présentiel, car elle permet aux étudiants et étudiantes de poursuivre leur programme d’études dans de meilleures conditions que les autres solutions envisageables. Ce guide s'adresse aux personnes étudiantes qui feront leur première expérience pédagogique en formation à distance.Tous sur la ligne virtuelle de départ ! -- Termes clés de l’apprentissage à distance -- 1. Les outils technologiques et la FAD -- 2. À quoi ressemble un cours en FAD -- 3. Mes conditions gagnantes en FAD

Two integrated and highly predictive functional analysis-based procedures for the classification of MSH6 variants in Lynch syndrome

Purpose: Variants in the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) gene MSH6, identified in individuals suspected of Lynch syndrome, are difficult to classify owing to the low cancer penetrance of defects in that gene. This not only obfuscates personalized health care but also the development of a rapid and reliable classification procedure that does not require clinical data. Methods: The complete in vitro MMR activity (CIMRA) assay was calibrated against clinically classified MSH6 variants and, employing Bayes’ rule, integrated with computational predictions of pathogenicity. To enable the validation of this two-component classification procedure we have employed a genetic screen to generate a large set of inactivating Msh6 variants, as proxies for pathogenic variants. Results: The genetic screen-derived variants established that the two-component classification procedure displays high sensitivities and specificities. Moreover, these inactivating variants enabled the direct reclassification of human variants of uncertain significance (VUS) as (likely) pathogenic. Conclusion: The two-component classification procedure and the genetic screens provide complementary approaches to rapidly and cost-effectively classify the large majority of human MSH6 variants. The approach followed here provides a template for the classification of variants in other disease-predisposing genes, facilitating the translation of personalized genomics into personalized health care

CO or no CO? Narrowing the CO abundance constraint and recovering the H2O detection in the atmosphere of WASP-127 b using SPIRou

Precise measurements of chemical abundances in planetary atmospheres are necessary to constrain the formation histories of exoplanets. A recent study of WASP-127b, a close-in puffy sub-Saturn orbiting its solar-type host star in 4.2 d, using HST and Spitzer revealed a feature-rich transmission spectrum with strong excess absorption at 4.5 um. However, the limited spectral resolution and coverage of these instruments could not distinguish between CO and/or CO2 absorption causing this signal, with both low and high C/O ratio scenarios being possible. Here we present near-infrared (0.9--2.5 um) transit observations of WASP-127 b using the high-resolution SPIRou spectrograph, with the goal to disentangle CO from CO2 through the 2.3 um CO band. With SPIRou, we detect H2O at a t-test significance of 5.3 sigma and observe a tentative (3 sigma) signal consistent with OH absorption. From a joint SPIRou + HST + Spitzer retrieval analysis, we rule out a CO-rich scenario by placing an upper limit on the CO abundance of log10[CO]<-4.0, and estimate a log10[CO2] of -3.7^(+0.8)_(-0.6), which is the level needed to match the excess absorption seen at 4.5um. We also set abundance constraints on other major C-, O-, and N-bearing molecules, with our results favoring low C/O (0.10^(+0.10)_(-0.06)), disequilibrium chemistry scenarios. We further discuss the implications of our results in the context of planet formation. Additional observations at high and low-resolution will be needed to confirm these results and better our understanding of this unusual world.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures, Submitted for publication in the Monthly Notice of the Royal Astronomical Societ

Clouds, circulation and climate sensitivity

Fundamental puzzles of climate science remain unsolved because of our limited understanding of how clouds, circulation and climate interact. One example is our inability to provide robust assessments of future global and regional climate changes. However, ongoing advances in our capacity to observe, simulate and conceptualize the climate system now make it possible to fill gaps in our knowledge. We argue that progress can be accelerated by focusing research on a handful of important scientific questions that have become tractable as a result of recent advances. We propose four such questions below; they involve understanding the role of cloud feedbacks and convective organization in climate, and the factors that control the position, the strength and the variability of the tropical rain belts and the extratropical storm tracks