Olivier Chesneau's work on low mass stars

During his too short career, Olivier Chesneau pioneered the study of the circumstellar environments of low mass evolved stars using very high angular resolution techniques. He applied state of the art high angular resolution techniques, such as optical interferometry and adaptive optics imaging, to the the study of a variety of objects, from AGB stars to Planetary Nebulae, via e.g. Born Again stars, RCB stars and Novae. I present here an overview of this work and most important results by focusing on the paths he followed and key encounters he made to reach these results. Olivier liked to work in teams and was very strong at linking people with complementary expertises to whom he would communicate his enthusiasm and sharp ideas. His legacy will live on through the many people he inspired.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of the conference: "The Physics of Evolved Stars: A Conference Dedicated to the Memory of Olivier Chesneau"

A New Cosmology of Risks and Crises: Time for a Radical Shift in Paradigm and Practice

Crises in the 21st century differ—structurally— from those we had to deal with in the last century. Those were traditionally defined and handled as a combination of “threat, urgency and uncertainty”. Today, they are better described in terms of a destruction of vital references and a dynamic of systemic implosions. If crises were a type of severe, dynamic accident , they are becoming the essential mode of life of our hypercomplex systems. These transboundary crises mark a watershed between mindsets and tools of the past, and the new strategic landscape which we are now in. The intellectual and governance challenges are extreme. But looking backwards is not an option. It is vital to forge new routes into Terrae Incognitae. The goal of this article is to help build a) a renewed understanding of the emerging challenges we face; b) a better strategic response to these systemic dislocations which are now the name of the game.

A new cosmology of risks and crises time for a radical shift in paradigm and practice

Crisis management theory and practice was in the main elaborated in the late 70s and 80s and developed and implemented in the 90s. We now have a rich knowledge of crisis intelligence and best practices. But, even if we can be proud of that advance, a further challenge remains: crises in the 21st century differ?structurally? from those we had to deal with in the last century. By way of example, the disparity between now and then is equivalent to that which existed between the end of the Second World War and the beginning of the First. Thus, if we stick to former paradigms ?we are bound to be defeated in every battle?. Even if it is extremely difficult to forge new routes into Terrae Incognitae, it is vital to do so ? or at least to try.Crises, emerging crises, discontinuity, decision-making

Crisis management in the 21st century "unthinkable" events in "inconceivable" contexts

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THE MEGACRISIS UNKNOWN TERRITORY - In Search of Conceptual and Strategic Breakthroughs

The nature of major crises has dramatically evolved over the past fewyears: Megcrises become the name of the game. The goal of this contribution is to capture the evolving notion of crisis, and to prepare new references to deal with the new crisis landscapes. The first section aims at building a renewed understanding of the emerging challenges we face – a combination of rogue events made of severity, speed, ignorance, hypercomplexity, inconceivability, and liquefaction-prone contexts that no longer guarantee the “back to normalcy” comforting rule. The second develops the components of a strategic response which includes: a seminal paradigm shift; a switch from management to leadership, and from “Command and Control” to decisive empowerment; and a whole new approach in education and training.Mega-crises, Critical Thinking, Strategic Approach

Stellar intensity interferometry over kilometer baselines: Laboratory simulation of observations with the Cherenkov Telescope Array

A long-held astronomical vision is to realize diffraction-limited optical aperture synthesis over kilometer baselines. This will enable imaging of stellar surfaces and their environments, show their evolution over time, and reveal interactions of stellar winds and gas flows in binary star systems. An opportunity is now opening up with the large telescope arrays primarily erected for measuring Cherenkov light in air induced by gamma rays. With suitable software, such telescopes could be electronically connected and used also for intensity interferometry. With no optical connection between the telescopes, the error budget is set by the electronic time resolution of a few nanoseconds. Corresponding light-travel distances are on the order of one meter, making the method practically insensitive to atmospheric turbulence or optical imperfections, permitting both very long baselines and observing at short optical wavelengths. Theoretical modeling has shown how stellar surface images can be retrieved from such observations and here we report on experimental simulations. In an optical laboratory, artificial stars (single and double, round and elliptic) are observed by an array of telescopes. Using high-speed photon-counting solid-state detectors and real-time electronics, intensity fluctuations are cross correlated between up to a hundred baselines between pairs of telescopes, producing maps of the second-order spatial coherence across the interferometric Fourier-transform plane. These experiments serve to verify the concepts and to optimize the instrumentation and observing procedures for future observations with (in particular) CTA, the Cherenkov Telescope Array, aiming at order-of-magnitude improvements of the angular resolution in optical astronomy.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures; Presented at SPIE conference on Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, June 2014. To appear in SPIE Proc.9146, Optical and Infrared Interferometry IV (J.K.Rajagopal, M.J.Creech-Eakman, F.Malbet, eds.), 201

Electoral Control when Policies are for Sale

This article analyses the dynamics of electoral promises, building on an electoral competition model with endogenous policies. It extends the Grossman-Helpman (1994) model [Grossman G., Helpman E. [1994], "Protection for sale", American Economic Review, 84, 4, 833-850] to include sanctions from the electorate and lobbies when the incumbent does not satisfy the expected performance she promised to deliver. This framework allows to deal with the intertemporal dimension needed to understand the prevalent cycle of promises, disappointment, new promises, new disappointment ….lobbies, promises, elections, electoral competition, lies

Too close for comfort? Politician - interest group relations under voters' supervision

This article analyzes the dynamics of electoral promises towards the population and interest groups, focusing on the reaction of voters to the proximity of a candidate to interests groups. In a two-period electoral competition model, we show that a (re)election seeking politician must consider the inherent characteristics of voters whilst making announcements and seeking financial support or implementing policies, not to be penalized by strategic voters.Interest groups, Promises, Elections, Campaign

Divided boards: Partisanship through delegated monetary policy

While monetary policy decisions are mainly taken by Committees (as is the case for the ECB, or for the Federal Reserve), the literature largely stands on the …ction of a single central banker, be it (or not) a conservative one. The purpose here is to consider explicitly the plural dimension of monetary policy Boards, and to investigate the consequences of such a decision structure for monetary policy rules. --Partisan Theory,Policy Boards,Monetary Union

Participatory Plant Breeding for Organic Farming in France, the cauliflower experience at the PAIS

The availability of organic seeds is a great problem for organic farmers. The private sector of plant breeding meets difficulties to answer to the organic farming (OF) demand, characterized by small quantities and a great diversity of criteria and by breeding methods which respect the natural species characteristics (see IFOAM Draft Standard on organic seeds and plant breeding). So, the organic sector is organizing breeding and seed production by itself In France, since 2001, a Brittany regional organic umbrella (IBB, Inter Bio Bretagne), and some researchers from the national institute for agronomical research (INRA) have initiated a breeding program for organic production and a participatory plant breeding (PPB) program for organic cabbages and cauliflowers in Brittany, from the evaluation of genetic resources of several European gene Banks. In the PPB, the farmers are taking in charge breeding and seed production of open pollinated varieties. Several types were kept and bred, depending on the way of production and commercialization for each farmer. In the northern Brittany, farmers have not forgotten the traditional production of cauliflower seeds. PAIS, the agrobiological experimental station of IBB on the organic site of an agricultural school (Suscinio, Morlaix), is the meeting point for all the involved actors (farmers, traders, trainers, researchers…). There, the farmers and traders can find technical and scientific information, and they can share their experiences from the plant selection to seed production. Today, other French PPB initiatives involve several species and organic farmers groups, to promote biodiversity and a best adaptation to a local production: durum wheat in the Mediterranean area, bread wheat with the “paysan-boulangers”, maize and sunflower in the South-West of the country, tomato in the South-East, radishes, parsnip and summer cauliflower, in Pays de Loire. From these experiences, the PPB for organic farming consists in the constitution of the organic farmers group with the creation of exchange space for researchers and others organic actors, the definition of the priority in matters of crops, the discovering and selection of genetic resources in the farmers fields, the exchange of experiences and genetic resources through formal and informal, regional, national or international, farmer and organic professional meetings (accompanied by researchers and often enlarged to gardeners and trainers). The seed distribution has been depending on the French legislative evolution. By nature, the varieties issued from PPB could not fill the DUS (Distinction, Uniformity, Stability) characteristics for registration. And mainly, by ethics, the organic way of development should enhance the ancestral link between the plant and the farmers, link which needs exchanges to allow the evolution of the crops and the conservation of a living biodiversity