Rendre accessible par les données

Introduction En 2013, Transilien, filiale de la SNCF en région Île-de-France, fait de l’accessibilité une des thématiques centrales de sa politique d’innovation ouverte au travers d’un programme nommé « Hackcess Transilien ». Le but est « d’accélérer la création de services connectés (sites web, applications mobiles, objets connectés) spécifiquement centrés sur les besoins des personnes à mobilité réduite ». Ces services doivent être conçus lors d’un événement particulier, un « hackathon ». O..

Du mythe de l’automatisation au savoir-faire des petites mains : une histoire des datacenters par la panne

Cet article se propose de mettre au jour le processus historique de concentration des serveurs, initié dans les plus anciennes salles informatiques et aboutissant au nec plus ultra des centres de données (datacenters) sécurisés contemporains. Dans un univers pourtant conçu pour les supprimer, les pannes persistent de façon paradoxale en raison d’un phénomène de récursivité sécuritaire. Enfin, la permanence de l’action technique et du savoir-faire humain dans un univers industriel prétendument automatisé est frappante, à tel point que l’article rattache cette sociographie des infrastructures du numérique à une histoire globale de l’industrialisation, visant à montrer que loin des discours lénifiants sur l’innovation disruptive, les petites mains qui réparent et effectuent la maintenance quotidienne sont au cœur du déploiement des macro-systèmes techniques contemporains, offrant l’illusion d’une technique par nature fiable et disponible en permanence.This article aims to uncover the historical process of server concentration, initiated in the oldest computer rooms and leading to the ultimate contemporary secure datacenters. In a world designed to eliminate them, failures persist paradoxically due to a phenomenon of security recursion. Finally, the permanence of technical action and human know-how in an allegedly automated industrial world is striking, to such an extent that the article links this sociography of digital infrastructures to a global history of industrialization, aiming to show that far from soothing discourses on disruptive innovation, the small hands that repair and carry out daily maintenance are at the heart of the deployment of contemporary large technical systems, offering the illusion of reliable and permanently available technologies

Cooling, quick fix et spaghetti cloud dans l’univers du datacenter

Les datacenters mettent en œuvre des transformations techniques, spatiales et organisationnelles pour accompagner la massification des échanges informatiques. Comment une salle informatique devient-elle un datacenter ? Les datacenters appartiennent-ils au secteur tertiaire ou industriel ? Quels sont les seuils permettant de trancher ces dilemmes ? En s’intéressant aux problématiques rencontrées par les acteurs des datacenters (gestionnaires d’infrastructures, directeurs des systèmes d’information, consultants, mais aussi élus locaux et fournisseurs d’électricité), cet article met en évidence les conséquences matérielles de l’essor du numérique et les conflits de catégories qui résultent de l’industrialisation de ces infrastructures. Plutôt que de définir l’industrie par un ensemble de critères, il s’agit de saisir la centralité du changement d’échelle dans la conduite d’activités techniques.Datacenters are implementing technical, spatial and organizational transformations to accompany the massification of computer exchanges. How does a computer room become a datacenter? Do datacenters belong to the service or industrial sector? What are the thresholds that allow these dilemmas to be resolved? By looking at the problems encountered by datacenter stakeholders (infrastructure managers, IT directors, consultants, but also local elected officials and electricity suppliers), this article highlights the material consequences of the digital boom and the category conflicts that result from the industrialization of these infrastructures. Rather than defining industry by a set of criteria, the aim is to understand the centrality of the change of scale in the conduct of technical activities

Technologies d’accessibilité et ajustements socio-spatiaux

En France, la notion d’accessibilité a d’abord servi à problématiser l’accès à l’espace physique (l’habitat, l’espace public, les transports) avant d’être mobilisée in extenso dans la reconnaissance des droits et d’égalité des chances. Elle s’étend désormais à plusieurs domaines de la vie sociale tels que l’éducation, la culture ou le travail et est sollicitée afin de mettre à l’épreuve des espaces matériels et immatériels de plus en plus variés dans leur capacité à accueillir la diversité de..

Data Platforms and Cities

This section offers a series of joint reflections on (open) data platform from a variety of cases, from cycling, traffic and mapping to activism, environment and data brokering. Data platforms play a key role in contemporary urban governance. Linked to open data initiatives, such platforms are often proposed as both mechanisms for enhancing the accountability of administrations and performing as sites for 'bottom-up' digital invention. Such promises of smooth flows of data, however, rarely materialise unproblematically. The development of data platforms is always situated in legal and administrative cultures, databases are often built according to the standards of existing digital ecologies, access always involves processes of social negotiation, and interfaces (such as sensors) may become objects of public contestation. The following contributions explore the contested and mutable character of open data platforms as part of heterogeneous publics and trace the pathways of data through different knowledge, skills, public and private configurations. They also reflect on the value of STS approaches to highlight issues and tensions as well as to shape design and governance

Comparative Evaluation of Microbiota Engraftment Following Fecal Microbiota Transfer in Mice Models: Age, Kinetic and Microbial Status Matter

The intestinal microbiota and its functions are intricately interwoven with host physiology. Colonizing rodents with donor microbiota provides insights into host-microbiota interactions characterization and the understanding of disease physiopathology. However, a better assessment of inoculation methods and recipient mouse models is needed. Here, we compare the engraftment at short and long term of genetically obese mice microbiota in germ-free (GF) mice and juvenile and adult specific pathogen free (SPF) mice. We also tested the effects of initial microbiota depletion before microbiota transfer. In the present work, donor microbiota engraftment was better in juvenile SPF mice than in adult SPF mice. In juvenile mice, initial microbiota depletion using laxatives or antibiotics improved donor microbiota engraftment 9 weeks but not 3 weeks after microbiota transfer. Microbiota-depleted juvenile mice performed better than GF mice 3 weeks after the microbiota transfer. However, 9 weeks after transfer, colonized GF mice microbiota had the lowest Unifrac distance to the donor microbiota. Colonized GF mice were also characterized by a chronic alteration in intestinal absorptive function. With these collective results, we show that the use of juvenile mice subjected to initial microbiota depletion constitutes a valid alternative to GF mice in microbiota transfer studies

Impairment of gut microbial biotin metabolism and host biotin status in severe obesity: effect of biotin and prebiotic supplementation on improved metabolism

Objectives Gut microbiota is a key component in obesity and type 2 diabetes, yet mechanisms and metabolites central to this interaction remain unclear. We examined the human gut microbiome\u27s functional composition in healthy metabolic state and the most severe states of obesity and type 2 diabetes within the MetaCardis cohort. We focused on the role of B vitamins and B7/B8 biotin for regulation of host metabolic state, as these vitamins influence both microbial function and host metabolism and inflammation. Design We performed metagenomic analyses in 1545 subjects from the MetaCardis cohorts and different murine experiments, including germ-free and antibiotic treated animals, faecal microbiota transfer, bariatric surgery and supplementation with biotin and prebiotics in mice. Results Severe obesity is associated with an absolute deficiency in bacterial biotin producers and transporters, whose abundances correlate with host metabolic and inflammatory phenotypes. We found suboptimal circulating biotin levels in severe obesity and altered expression of biotin-associated genes in human adipose tissue. In mice, the absence or depletion of gut microbiota by antibiotics confirmed the microbial contribution to host biotin levels. Bariatric surgery, which improves metabolism and inflammation, associates with increased bacterial biotin producers and improved host systemic biotin in humans and mice. Finally, supplementing high-fat diet-fed mice with fructo-oligosaccharides and biotin improves not only the microbiome diversity, but also the potential of bacterial production of biotin and B vitamins, while limiting weight gain and glycaemic deterioration. Conclusion Strategies combining biotin and prebiotic supplementation could help prevent the deterioration of metabolic states in severe obesity

Crisis at the Appellate Body: Towards More or Less Consent in WTO Adjudication?

The WTO is facing difficult times as the renewal of the members of its Appellate Body seems to be in a deadlock. The opposition of some Members of the Organization to the process means the number of adjudicators is slowly dwindling. In this paper, we put this problem in context, by linking it to the greater concerns about consent in international adjudication. Consent amounts to the effective transfer of adjudicative power to a given tribunal. It is therefore argued that the non-renewal of AB members amounts to a withdrawal of consent by the parties concerned, be it legal or not. Should the problem persist, the WTO's dispute settlement system could be profoundly impacted, transforming it into a mere conciliatory body

A Forbidden Fruit? The European Court of Justice’s Case Law before the World Trade Organization

This paper sets out to evaluate the extent to which the WTO Dispute Settlement System takes the case law of the European Court of Justice into account. The ECJ is in a particular position from the WTO jurisdictions’ point of view, because the EU is a fully-fledged member of the organization. This entails that referring to the ECJ as a regular international court would lead to an issue of impartiality. For this reason, we will first establish that the WTO Panels and the Appellate Body regularly look for guidance or confirmation in the case law of other international jurisdictions. We will then compare those elements to the way the ECJ is referred to, both by the parties to WTO disputes, and by the WTO “judges”. The comparison will allow us to conclude that the ECJ is mainly seen as a domestic court, and not as a fellow international one, even when its case law is taken into account by the WTO’s Panellists and AB Members. We will finally put this vision in the broader context of the interaction of law regimes