Contextual analysis in two villages of the Niger River Inner Delta

The Community-based Fish Culture in Seasonal Floodplains and Irrigation Systems (CBFC) project is a five year research project supported by the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF), with the aim of increasing productivity of seasonally occurring water bodies through aquaculture. The project has been implemented in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Mali and Vietnam, where technical and institutional options for community based aquaculture have been tested. The project began in 2005 and was completed in March 2010. The objective of the study was to improve our knowledge of mare management and the livelihoods of two villages of the Niger Inner Delta, Severi and Komio. We wanted to understand mare access and fishery management and to highlight the different stakeholders involved in mare management as well as the different rules regulating access to the various mare resources. We implemented a series of Focus Group Discussion with the different socio-economic groups of the villages (fisherfolk, farmer-fishers, and herders) and a series of semi-structured interviews with key informants and stakeholders involved in mare management took place in July 2008.Fishing rights, River fisheries, Livelihoods

Strong anisotropic influence of local-field effects on the dielectric response of {\alpha}-MoO3

Dielectric properties of {\alpha}-MoO3 are investigated by a combination of valence electron-energy loss spectroscopy and ab initio calculation at the random phase approximation level with the inclusion of local-field effects (LFE). A meticulous comparison between experimental and calculated spectra is performed in order to interpret calculated dielectric properties. The dielectric function of MoO3 has been obtained along the three axes and the importance of LFE has been shown. In particular, taking into account LFE is shown to be essential to describe properly the intensity and position of the Mo-N2,3 edges as well as the low energy part of the spectrum. A detailed study of the energy-loss function in connection with the dielectric response function also shows that the strong anisotropy of the energy-loss function of {\alpha}-MoO3 is driven by an anisotropic influence of LFE. These LFE significantly dampen a large peak in {\epsilon}2, but only along the [010] direction. Thanks to a detailed analysis at specific k-points of the orbitals involved in this transition, the origin of this peak has not only been evidenced but a connection between the inhomogeneity of the electron density and the anisotropic influence of local-field effects has also been established. More specifically, this anisotropy is governed by a strongly inhomogeneous spatial distribution of the empty states. This depletion of the empty states is localized around the terminal oxygens and accentuates the electron inhomogeneity.Comment: Supplemental Material include

Optoelectronic properties of calcium cobalt oxide misfit nanotubes

We report on the optoelectronic properties of a recently discovered nanotubular phase of misfit-layered calcium cobalt oxide, CaCoO2-CoO2. Individual nanotubes are investigated by spatially resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy experiments performed in a transmission electron microscope, and complementary first-principles, time-dependent hybrid density-functional theory calculations are performed to elucidate the electronic structure and optical spectra. We find that the band gap is independent of the geometry of the nanotubes, and experimental and calculated results independently confirm an optical gap of 1.9-2.1 eV for the CaCoO2-CoO2 nanotubes. The time-dependent hybrid density-functional theory calculations also suggest the existence of strongly bound intralayer excitons (up to 0.5 eV binding energy), which could allow for optoelectronic applications of these nanotubes at near-infrared to visible (~1.5-2 eV) wavelengths

Time-Frequency characterisation for electric load monitoring

Electric utilities and consumers are increasingly interested in energy monitoring for economic and environmental reasons. A non-intrusive solution may rely on information extracted from the electric consumption measured at a centralized part of a distribution network. The problem at hands consists in the separation of the electric load into its major components. This problem of source separation from one sensor is quite tractable under certain conditions. In this work, the focus is made on the most consuming household appliance in France: the space-heating. It is a sum of an unknown number of pseudo-periodic signals embedded in the global active power. An unsupervised algorithm to determine the space-heating schedule from the global consumption based on the interpretation of the spaceheating signature in the time-frequency domain is proposed. The proposed method conjoins a time-frequency detector and a frequent itemsets extraction. First results on real data are quite satisfying

Biodiversity targets, SDGs and health : a new turn after the coronavirus pandemic?

In light of the coronavirus pandemic, we invite readers to a reflection over the aim and use of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the determination of the new biodiversity targets in relation to health issues. Starting with a brief overview of the initiatives to consider health and the environment in the international arena before the adoption of SDGs, we show how the pandemic shed a new light on the need for research on the interlinkages of human and animal health and environmental changes. We examine underlying elements of the dialogue between science and policy, then we suggest considering SDGs as tool for the service of the environment, wellbeing and justice. We advocate for the translation of planetary health principles into action, together with the consideration of planetary boundaries, to redefine an adaptive environmental law for the sake of social justice and the health of the planet

L’approche One Health : l’Asie du Sud-Est comme lieu privilégié de sa mise en œuvre

The One Health approach has been once again highlighted during the covid-19 pandemic, notably with the One Health High-Level Experts Panel, created jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Organisation for Animal Health, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the World Health Organization (WHO). These organisations decided to mainstream One Health, to be better prepared for prevention, prediction, detection, and response to infectious diseases, all while considering interactions between humans, wildlife and domestic animals and ecosystems. We look at the history of the One Health approach, as defined in 2004, and show how Southeast Asia, a hotspot of the emergence of infectious diseases, played a leading role in the international adoption of this approach. We highlight how the region established the forerunner and the favourable elements of One Health. We finally present the tools and mechanisms of its implementation in the region and the evolution of its practices since OHHLEP’s creation