Quelques grammes d'histoire pour des tonnes de riz: Produire plus suffira-t-il à éradiquer la faim dans le monde?

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Responsible Leadership in Disaster Reduction : A Global Perspective

"We would like to propose the following twelve ‘big questions’ as a filter and run the events, statements and outcomes of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (Kobe, Japan, 18-22 January 2005) through them" (p. 336): Governance and respect for people's rights; Globalisation and disasters; War and disasters; Climate change; Urbanisation; Local initiatives and innovations; Meaningful and effective local participation; Knowledge and communication; Merging risk reduction and development; Global alliances of disaster concerned and disaster affected people; Women's crucial role in disaster reduction; Full national accountability and transparency

Quelques grammes d’histoire pour des tonnes de riz : produire plus suffira-t-il à éradiquer la faim dans le monde ?

Cet article interroge les conclusions de la récente conférence de Rome sur la sécurité alimentaire mondiale tenue en juin 2008. Il remet en cause les stratégies qui visent à accroître les investissements dans le domaine de l'agriculture pour faire face à la faim dans le monde. La discussion s'appuie sur des exemples africains et asiatiques.This article questions the conclusions of the recent world food security conference held in Rome in June 2008. It challenges the strategy which aims at increasing investments in the agricultural sector as a response to widespread hunger. The discussion relies on examples from Africa and Asia

Petites catastrophes et réduction des risques

Les grandes catastrophes humanitaires et médiatiques suscitent, et à raison, une attention internationale et des interventions d’ampleur. Cependant, par un « effet d’ombre » (shadow effect), elles peuvent occulter de « petites catastrophes », souvent imputables au changement climatique, qui affectent des pans entiers de la population mondiale. C’est ce que nous expliquent trois chercheurs réputés qui, ce faisant, attirent l’attention des ONG humanitaires sur ces événements silencieux, possibl..

Alternatives for sustained disaster risk reduction

The daily media is filled with images of catastrophic events which seem increasingly frequent and violent In parallel there are a large range of scientific studies debates in the policy arena, and a growing number of international institutions focused on disaster reduction. But a paradox remains that despite advances in technology, disasters continue to increase, affecting many individuals in rich as well as poor countries

Video?Mediated Approaches for Community?Level Climate Adaptation

There is a need to facilitate the dissemination of information and ideas that can accelerate community-based adaptation to climate change. Increasingly affordable communication technologies may allow for extending the benefits of available knowledge to those who most need it. Audiovisual media, when combined with participatory processes for adaptation, offers potentially effective ways to raise awareness, scale-up capacity building, support community-level planning and develop innovative approaches to advocacy and institutional partnerships. Importantly, video-mediated approaches can be designed to tackle the complex poverty-related aspects of adaptation in the work of humanitarian organisations, addressing the heterogeneity of vulnerable communities and giving a voice to the most marginalised members, This article outlines lessons learned from the use of audiovisual tools in health risk management, discusses recent and ongoing video projects by the Red Cross addressing climate change in Argentina, the Bahamas, Indonesia and Malawi, and recommends practical applications for organisations supporting pro-poor adaptation

Cryo Electron Tomography of Herpes Simplex Virus during Axonal Transport and Secondary Envelopment in Primary Neurons

During herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV1) egress in neurons, viral particles travel from the neuronal cell body along the axon towards the synapse. Whether HSV1 particles are transported as enveloped virions as proposed by the ‘married’ model or as non-enveloped capsids suggested by the ‘separate’ model is controversial. Specific viral proteins may form a recruitment platform for microtubule motors that catalyze such transport. However, their subviral location has remained elusive. Here we established a system to analyze herpesvirus egress by cryo electron tomography. At 16 h post infection, we observed intra-axonal transport of progeny HSV1 viral particles in dissociated hippocampal neurons by live-cell fluorescence microscopy. Cryo electron tomography of frozen-hydrated neurons revealed that most egressing capsids were transported independently of the viral envelope. Unexpectedly, we found not only DNA-containing capsids (cytosolic C-capsids), but also capsids lacking DNA (cytosolic A-/B-capsids) in mid-axon regions. Subvolume averaging revealed lower amounts of tegument on cytosolic A-/B-capsids than on C-capsids. Nevertheless, all capsid types underwent active axonal transport. Therefore, even few tegument proteins on the capsid vertices seemed to suffice for transport. Secondary envelopment of capsids was observed at axon terminals. On their luminal face, the enveloping vesicles were studded with typical glycoprotein-like spikes. Furthermore, we noted an accretion of tegument density at the concave cytosolic face of the vesicle membrane in close proximity to the capsids. Three-dimensional analysis revealed that these assembly sites lacked cytoskeletal elements, but that filamentous actin surrounded them and formed an assembly compartment. Our data support the ‘separate model’ for HSV1 egress, i.e. progeny herpes viruses being transported along axons as subassemblies and not as complete virions within transport vesicles