La Flore Ptéridologique de Quelques Endroits Humides de la Région de Kédougou (Sénégal)

The study of the Pteridophyte flora of some wetlands in the Kedougou region of the Senegal Republic is the subject of this study. This analysis is based on the herbarium material of the pteridological flora harvested in this region and preserved in the herbaria of various institutions of IFAN, Dakar and Paris (P) also on the bibliographic data. This leads to a field mission to re-evaluate pteridophyte flora in this region. The results obtained show that the diversity of pteridophyte in the region of Kedougou is 11 species except for the very young species whose identification could not be made. These species grouped into 7 genera belong to 5 families of which the best represented are the Pteridaceae with 4 species. All the harvested and identified species were encountered in the Herbarium visited. Thus, in order to facilitate access to their identification, it is necessary to propose the tool which means that the document conforms to the identification key on the paper and the vegetative characters have been favored. Most of the pteridophyte were harvested at the Dindefelo cascade with an abundance of the species Adiantum philippense L. which is a species with large distribution because it is found in almost all the prospected places. All of these species are restricted to wetlands and shaded areas with occupation of all habitats (terrestrial, aquatic, saxicolous and epiphytic)

Impact of Using Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction on Student’s Academic Achievement and Satisfaction in an Online English Course for French Speakers

This dissertation explored the effect of Gagne\u27s nine events of instruction on student academic achievement and satisfaction during an online English class for French speakers. A group of 30 Facebook users from French-speaking countries in North and Sub-Saharan Africa participated in the research. They were divided randomly into two groups: one receiving traditional instruction through an asynchronous online lecture with PowerPoint presentation, and the other using instruction utilizing Gagne\u27s nine events of instruction integrated with an LMS designed for this purpose. This mixed methods study explored several hypotheses related to academic achievement and satisfaction in the two groups. While the quantitative data did not show significant differences between the two groups, a highly significant difference was noted in Event 7 (providing feedback) indicating that feedback was mentioned more frequently in the treatment group. Qualitative data showed that participants from both groups enjoyed the course, felt satisfied, and experienced improvements in their English abilities. Although the study had some limitations, such as the small sample size and specific focus of assessment tools, the findings offer important insights that can enhance the design of future courses and help educators better understand their students\u27 preferences in online English courses for French speakers in the African context. While no significant statistical differences were observed, it is still worth considering the potential value of Gagne\u27s nine events of instruction for specific learners. This research contributes to improving online language xi education for French speakers and empowers educators to make informed decisions regarding course design and teaching methods to enhance the effectiveness of online instruction

Evolution Science and Imago Dei: A Richer and More Robust Treatment of Theological Anthropology

In my thesis, Evolution Science and the Imago Dei: A Richer and more Robust Treatment of Theological Anthropology, the first chapter demonstrates, from the historical analysis of the content attributed to the concept imago Dei over the centuries, that different ages in the Church have interpreted the content of that expression in different ways. From this historical analysis that the imago Dei assumes different meanings at different points in history, I justify my expectation that the term is open to ever new meanings. With the second chapter, by exploring the evolutionary contribution to the emergence of modern human, I establish the similarity and divergence between humans and nonhumans, genetically and phenotypically. In the third chapter, I criticize the exclusive reference of the imago Dei to only humans. Even though humans continue to be special and distinct from other species, human species has a lot in common with nonhuman species. Evolutionary science helps demonstrate that what our ancestors in faith thought was unique to humans is not so. My claim is that every living species is imago Dei in different ways. Every time that there is similarity between species, there is imago Dei, and every time that there is divergence, there is imago Dei in a different way. The divergence is not a difference between members of the same species, or else there would be in the same species so many imago Dei in different ways. Rather, the divergence is the speciation, that is, the difference between species. Because we are all imago Dei, we have a purpose which is not only individual, self-centered, or universal but which is divine; therefore, the meaning of our life does not end in this life but is opened to eschatology. Because we are imago Dei, we are called to be in solidarity and to live in sincerity with each other. Solidarity, rather than having anything to do with pity or charity, affirms that as imago Dei, we all have value in the eyes of our God

Open Data Explorer:An End-to-end Tool for Data Storytelling using Open Data

Enabling users to better understand government actions is one reason why governments have sought to open their data to the public. Data storytelling tools help to achieve this goal by facilitating users to turn data into stories. However, existing tools are not able to provide the necessary features to overcome the barriers users face at different data storytelling stages. This paper provides findings regarding the features in the design of these data storytelling tools in the open data context and also presents a generic and end-to-end tool called ODE, which helps users through the different data storytelling stages. To achieve the paper’s objectives, a literature review was first conducted to collect the features needed for the different data storytelling stages. Then, the identified features were integrated into ODE and its effectiveness in helping users to easily turn data into stories was demonstrated through an evaluation involving 11 users

Open Data Explorer: An End-to-end Tool for Data Storytelling using Open Data

Enabling users to better understand government actions is one reason why governments have sought to open their data to the public. Data storytelling tools help to achieve this goal by facilitating users to turn data into stories. However, existing tools are not able to provide the necessary features to overcome the barriers users face at different data storytelling stages. This paper provides findings regarding the features in the design of these data storytelling tools in the open data context and also presents a generic and end-to-end tool called ODE, which helps users through the different data storytelling stages. To achieve the paper’s objectives, a literature review was first conducted to collect the features needed for the different data storytelling stages. Then, the identified features were integrated into ODE and its effectiveness in helping users to easily turn data into stories was demonstrated through an evaluation involving 11 users

Diversification économique territoriale : enjeux, déterminants, stratégies, modalités, conditions et perspectives

Cette thèse traite de la diversification de l'économie gabonaise comme un impératif pour répondre aux nombreux enjeux de développement économique auxquels le pays est confronté depuis plusieurs décennies. Doté des nombreuses ressources naturelles renouvelables (forêts, ressource en eau, etc.) et non renouvelables (pétrole, manganèse, fer, uranium, etc.), le Gabon est l'une des économies les plus rentières d'Afrique subsaharienne. Cette économie est fortement dépendante de la rente pétrolière qui représente depuis au moins trois décennies plus de 80 % des exportations du pays et près de 60 % des recettes budgétaires de l'État. Encouragé par la forte demande de pétrole dans les échanges commerciaux mondiaux, le Gabon s'est malheureusement confiné dans un modèle extraverti de développement caractérisé par une spécialisation dans l'exploitation des ressources naturelles, le pétrole en tête. Cette spécialisation est de nature à renforcer, d'une part, la vulnérabilité de l'économie gabonaise aux chocs externes (crise économique, financière, alimentaire, etc.) et, d'autre part, à accentuer la détérioration des termes de l'échange du Gabon vis-à-vis de ses partenaires commerciaux. Sur le plan national, l'exploitation des ressources naturelles a causé des disparités territoriales et spatiales entre les zones où ces ressources sont exploitées et celles où elles ne le sont pas. La manne pétrolière n'a pas non plus réussi à réduire les inégalités sociales, puisque l'incidence de pauvreté au Gabon atteignait les 33 % en 2005. Eu égard à ces enjeux, cette thèse analyse dans quelle mesure la diversification économique peut être une stratégie à développer au Gabon pour le sortir de sa dépendance de la rente pétrolière. Quatre objectifs ont été poursuivis à cette fin : 1- analyser l'évolution de la diversification du Gabon de 1980 à 2010, 2- identifier les déterminants endogènes et exogènes de l'évolution de ce phénomène, 3- définir une stratégie de diversification économique territoriale et 4- identifier les acteurs, les modalités et les conditions pour mettre en oeuvre cette stratégie de diversification. Ainsi, après avoir mobilisé les fondements théoriques sur la diversification et les études empiriques sur ces déterminants, un cadre conceptuel contenant huit variables explicatives (niveau de développement, investissement public, investissement direct étranger, inflation, cours du change, gestion des finances publiques, ouverture commerciale et entrepreneuriat) et une variable expliquée (Indice de Hirschman- Herfindalh normalisé) a été retenu. La méthode des moindres carrés ordinaires (MCO) a été mise à contribution pour trouver les déterminants de la diversification économique du Gabon de 1980 à 2010. Il ressort de l'inférence statistique et de l'analyse descriptive que la diversification économique du pays a été influencée par l'ouverture commerciale, le cours du change et l'inflation. Si l'évolution du contexte économique mondial a contribué à bien saisir l'impact de ces variables sur la diversification économique du Gabon, le contexte territorial gabonais l'a été davantage. En effet, l'intégration de la dimension territoriale dans l'étude du phénomène de la diversification économique a donc permis de constater que les éléments contextuels propres au Gabon (pays côtier peu peuplé et riche en ressources naturelles) ont joué un rôle dans l'explication de l'évolution de ce phénomène. Après avoir déterminé les potentialités de développement du Gabon dans divers secteurs d'activités, une stratégie de diversification capable d'insuffler un développement territorial à long terme du pays a été définie. Cette diversification économique territoriale s'articule autour de cinq piliers : « Le Gabon minier », « Le Gabon énergie », « Le Gabon bleu », « Le Gabon vert » et « Le Gabon gris ». Ces piliers ont chacun quatre composantes. Les filières retenues sont : la Mine de fer de Belinga, l'exploitation d'autres ressources minières et géologiques, l'industrie pétrochimique et l'industrie métallosidérurgique pour « Le Gabon minier », le gaz naturel, l'hydroélectricité, l'énergie solaire et la biomasse forestière pour « Le Gabon énergie », l'aquaculture, la pêche artisanale, la pêche industrielle et l'industrie marine pour «Le Gabon bleu», l'agriculture agroécologique, l'industrie du bois, l'industrie des biotechnologies et le géotourisme pour «Le Gabon vert», et les technologies de l'information et de la communication, les services financiers et bancaires, les services professionnels pour entreprises et la formation et recherche scientifique pour « Le Gabon gris ». La mise en oeuvre effective des filières choisies stimulerait l'industrialisation du Gabon par la substitution des exportations (ISE), la substitution des importations (ISI) et les industries industrialisantes (III). Pour mettre en oeuvre cette stratégie de diversification, nous avons mobilisé deux modalités de l'action publique, à savoir le partenariat public-privé et l'ingénierie territoriale dont les principes de fonctionnement encouragent non seulement la collaboration entre plusieurs parties prenantes (Etat central, collectivités locales, secteur privé, société civile et partenaires au développement), mais également une logique d'action « bottom-up » au détriment de la logique « top-down » qui a prévalu jusqu'ici au Gabon. En revanche, pour que cette stratégie de diversification impulse un développement territorial du Gabon à long terme, trois conditions au moins doivent être remplies. La réforme de la Loi de la décentralisation doit être effective pour renforcer les responsabilités des acteurs territoriaux. Un renforcement des capacités institutionnelles et humaines aussi bien techniques que fonctionnelles est nécessaire pour réussir à mettre en oeuvre cette stratégie de diversification économique territoriale. L'aménagement du territoire en infrastructure de télécommunication et de transports est une condition sine qua non pour que cette stratégie de diversification aboutisse à terme à un développement territorial du pays. Une volonté politique et un changement de mentalités sont des exigences fondamentales auxquelles il faut répondre pour que les conditions sine qua non du succès de la diversification soient réunies. Le financement de la diversification devra se faire par une utilisation judicieuse des fonds propres et des fonds contractés. - This thesis examines the diversification of the Gabonese economy as a requirement to deal with the challenges of economic and social development that the country has faced for the last three decades. With many renewable natural resources (forest, water resources, etc.) and non-renewable (oil, manganese, iron, uranium, etc.), Gabon is one of the most rentier economy in Sub-Saharan African (SSA). The Gabonese economy is heavily dependent on oil revenues that account for more than 80% of country exports and nearly 60% of state budget revenues for at least the last three decades. Boosted by the strong demand of oil in the world trade, Gabon is unfortunately confined to an extrovert model of development characterized by a specialization in natural resources. This specialization strengthens on the one hand, the vulnerability of the Gabonese economy to external shocks (economic crisis, financial crisis, food crisis...), and on the other hand, to accentuate the deterioration of Gabon's terms of trade to its trading partners. At the national level, the exploitation of natural resources has caused territorial and spatial disparities between areas where these resources are mined and those where they are not. Oil wealth has not managed to reduce social inequalities since the Gabonese index of poverty was estimated at 33% in 2005. Given these challenges, this thesis analyzes how territorial economic diversification can be the strategy to implement in Gabon in order to reduce its dependence on oil revenues? Four objectives are pursued in this thesis: 1) analyze the evolution of the Gabonese economic diversification from 1980 to 2010, 2) identify endogenous and exogenous factors of the evolution of this phenomenon 3) define a strategy of territorial economic diversification and 4) determine the stakeholders, the terms and the conditions to implement this diversification strategy. Thus, having mobilized theoretical foundations on diversification and empirical studies on factors of economic diversification, a conceptual framework has been designed. It contained eight independent variables (level of development, public investment, foreign direct investment, inflation, exchange rate, trade openness, and entrepreneurship) and one dependent variable (Hirschman-Herfindalh-Standardized Index). The method of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) has been used to find out factors of the Gabonese economic diversification from 1980 to 2010. It appears from the statistical inference and the descriptive analysis that Gabonese economic diversification was affected by trade openness, the exchange rate and inflation. Even though, the evolution of the global economy context has contributed to understanding the impacts of these variables on Gabonese economic diversification, the national and territorial context has helped even more. Indeed, the integration of the territorial dimension in the study of the phenomenon of economic diversification has shown that Gabonese specific context (coastal country, sparsely populated and rich in natural resources) has played a huge role in the explanation of the evolution of this phenomenon. A review of the Gabonese development potential in various economic sectors has led to define a diversification strategy that can boost territorial development of the country in the long term. This strategy of territorial economic diversification consists of five pillars that are: « Green Gabon », « Gabon energy », « Mining Gabon », « Blue Gabon » and « Gray Gabon ». Each pillar has four components. To implement this diversification strategy, we mobilized two forms of public action: The public-private partnership and territorial engineering whose operating principles encourage, not only the collaboration between several stakeholders (central government, local authorities, private sector, civil society, political party and development partners), but also a logical action « bottom up » at the expense of the « top-down» logical or policy that has prevailed in Gabon so far. However, at least three conditions must be met to make sure this economic diversification strategy could give a boost to Gabonese territorial development in the long term. Decentralization reform has to be achieved to increase the power and the accountability of local authorities. Institutional, functional, technical and human capabilities are required to successfully implement this strategy of territorial economic diversification. Finally, the planning in telecommunication and transport infrastructures is a prerequisite for this diversification strategy to lead to a territorial development of Gabon in the future. A political will and a change in attitudes are fundamental requirements in order to achieve the successful conditions of this diversification strategy. The funding of the diversification strategy should be done by a judicious use of Gabon's own capital and borrowed funds