L'objectif de cette étude est d'évaluer à l'aide des techniques de phylogénie moléculaire la diversité bactérienne non cultivable dans le manteau neigeux du Mont Blanc (MtBl) contenant de la poussière saharienne déposée au cours de quatre événements pendant la période de 2006 à 2009. Le but final est de découvrir les bactéries qui pourraient être impliquées dans l'établissement du microbiote neigeux.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, June, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until December 1, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 96-99)

The European Union has been a discussed subject for many years. The conversed areas have been everything from special state interests, refugee crisis, sizes of cucumbers and if the European Union has a sense of community. One of the most debatable fields has been the agricultural policy; control of goods by the union and influence on other markets. This study illustrates what the union controls in form of agricultural production, although mostly aspects around the international agency of the EU, illustrated by the common agricultural policy.   In the liberalised decade of 2010, the rich and powerful European Union still continues to maintain protectionism and customs, and at the same time conduct an aggressive expansion policy. Their current actions in this political area appear abnormal when observed from an analytical perspective. The nations within the EU are all in front line when it comes to everything from technical to democratic perspectives. They are all advocates of freedom, human rights and openness, but are at the same time part of this controlled and restrictive policy regarding their food.   The aim of this essay is not only to illustrate the relationship between the EU and its member states in question of agricultural policies. Also how less fortunate parts of the globe, in particular sub-Saharan African countries, are affected by the contemporary agricultural policies. The presented empirical material will be analysed through three political ideologies, which will represent conservatism, socialism and liberalism within the international political economy. The ideologies combined with the empirical material together with ideology analysis and qualitative text analysis will discuss the question of the essay, which will end up in the final analysis and conclusion.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (DPhil (Zoology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

Over one billion of the world’s population are smokers, with increasing tobacco use in low-and middle-income countries. However, information about the methodology of studies on tobacco control is limited. We conducted a literature search to examine and evaluate the methodological designs of published tobacco research in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) over the past 50 years. The first phase was completed in 2015 using PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. An additional search was completed in February 2017 using PubMed. Only tobacco/smoking research in SSA countries with human subjects and published in English was selected. Out of 1796 articles, 447 met the inclusion criteria and were from 26 countries, 11 of which had one study each. Over half of the publications were from South Africa and Nigeria. The earliest publication was in 1968 and the highest number of publications was in 2014 (n = 46). The majority of publications used quantitative methods (91.28%) and were cross-sectional (80.98%). The commonest data collection methods were self-administered questionnaires (38.53%), interviews (32.57%), and observation (20.41%). Around half of the studies were among adults and in urban settings. We conclud that SSA remains a “research desert” and needs more investment in tobacco control research and training.

Promotion of cycling is important to reach the goals for climate mitigation of the Paris Agreement and Goals ofthe Agenda 2030. Sustainable transport, both rural and urban, could contribute to at least seven of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (ITDP 2015). There is relatively little research on cycling in Africa, and there is also much less research on cycling at night. Some studies show the importance of road lighting for minimising the reduction in the numbers of cyclists after-dark and suggest 'only a minimal amount of lighting can promote cycling after-dark, making it an attractive mode of transport year-round' (Uttley at el. 2020). So far, these studies have little relation to the situation in developing countries, which is why a first study in Nairobi, Kenya, is carried out here as an example. ... [From: Introduction]

Urban quality of life is measured by how clean the environment is, how safe people feel, how close they are to green spaces, and in general by the quality of outdoor space. Good quality public spaces are spaces that reduce road accidents through managing appropriately different transport modes, especially walking and cycling [1]. Cycling is healthy, economical, and environmentally sound form of mobility that is fundamental to life. More than one billion of the people in African cities walk or cycle for more than 55 minutes every day - to reach work, home, school, and other essential services [2]. One-third of the population of the African continent uses active mobility as a daily means of transport. This reveals that there is a potential of using cycling as a daily mode of travel in Africa. However, the poor quality of infrastructure for cycling sends a message that cyclists are not welcome in the urban environment. Despite the widespread use of non-motorized modes, transport planning and the provision of infrastructure in most of the cities in Africa have become carcentered, undermining the importance of cycling and walking. While the majority in the global south are active mobility users, they are not being respected by the public policies and experience 93% of the world's traffic fatalities and injuries [3]. Road traffic accidents are a major shes are not different in Africa. The World Health Organization Global Status report on Road Safety 2018 showed that the African region had 26.6 deaths per 100,000 populations, which is the highest among all regions [5]. Sub-Saharan Africa still has the highest per capita rate of road fatalities of any region in the world. Unfortunately, in most cases, the victims of traffic casualties are primarily pedestrians and cyclists [6]. Much of that is linked to the neglect of the infrastructure needs for pedestrians' and cyclists' safety. [From: Introduction]

Den afrikanska kontinenten beräknas att drabbas mer än någon annan region av klimat-förändringarnas direkta effekter. Samtidigt är anpassningsmöjligheterna här begränsade och ekonomin särskilt beroende av klimatrelaterade sektorer. Samband mellan ekonomisk svaghet och sårbarhet är relativt kartlagda i det internationella klimatarbetet. Dessa kopplingar belyser inte minst kvinnors utsatta position i utvecklingsregioner, eftersom kvinnor utgör majoriteten av världens fattiga befolkningar. Sårbarhet inför ett förändrat klimat grundas dock inte enbart på ekonomiska och finansiella tillgångar. Traditionella, könsdifferentierade levnadssätt ålägger kvinnor ett särskilt ansvar över hem och familj, medan fördomar om kvinnors olämplighet begränsar deras politiska inflytande. Denna uppsats understryker de implikationer som kön och könsroller ger upphov till, i fråga om anpassningsmöjligheter till försämrade klimatförhållanden och minskad vatten- och mattillgång. / The African continent is reckoned to be the region most affected by direct impacts of climate change. At the same time, here, adaptation possibilities are scarce and the economy particularly dependent on climate-related sectors. International climate research has identified connections between economic weakness and vulnerability. These relations shed light – not the least – on the exposed position of women in developing regions, since women constitute the majority of the world’s poorest populations. Nevertheless, vulnerability due to climate change is not only founded on economic and financial assets. Traditional, gender differentiated ways of living impose certain responsibilities on women for household duties and family life, while prejudices about women’s unsuitability limit their political authority. This essay underlines the implications of gender and gender roles, regarding adaptation possibilities to deteriorated climatic conditions and reduced access to water and food.

Dust is a critical component of the Earth System. The central and western Sahara (CWS) is the dustiest place on Earth during the northern hemisphere summer. Understanding patterns and causes of spatial and temporal variability of dust presence here is essential for its reliable simulation in numerical models of weather and climate. Four papers in this thesis contribute to that objective, utilising a combination of high temporal resolution satellite data and global atmospheric reanalyses for June – August 2004 – 2010 inclusive. The first paper develops an objective dust detection scheme for the CWS using data from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI), which are available every 15 minutes around the clock. These data have shed valuable insight on CWS dust processes, but their subjective application has to date limited their range of applications. The SEVIRI dust flag (SDF) developed here is evaluated against other widely used surface and satellite derived indicators of dustiness and it is found to reliably detect the presence of moderate-heavy dust loadings. The distribution of dust each summer is presented, revealing a high degree of interannual variability in overall dust coverage. The second paper utilises SDF to create an objective, high spatial resolution dust source map, based on the automated tracking of individual dust plumes. The most active sources are associated predominantly with palaeo-lakes and outwash plains, typically around the Saharan mountains. There is a clear intraseasonal progression of active source areas, controlled by regional climatology. The tracking scheme describes the transport trajectory of dust events following their initiation and the spatial association with deep convection at this time, revealing a clear regional divide in the relative importance of known meteorological mechanisms that drive dust emission from the dominant sources. The third paper uses an unsupervised clustering algorithm to classify maps of daily dust presence frequency and identify patterns of intraseasonal variability in CWS dust coverage. The resulting idealised dust states vary according to frequency of dust occurrence and its location, demonstrating a clear progression in preferred dust location from June – August and preferred state transitions from one day to the next. High daily dust occurrence frequency corresponds to an advanced West African Monsoon flow and low daily dust occurrence frequency corresponds to a Harmattan-dominated CWS. The overall location of the dust is linked to the location of the Sahara Heat Low, which changes as the summer progresses. The final paper addresses interannual variability in summertime dust presence frequency by comparing the 2 years with highest (2005) and lowest (2008) dust presence. The key difference is the occurrence of 3 multi-day periods in 2005 characterised by anomalously high dust presence. Case study comparison with the 3 periods of highest dust presence in 2008 identifies the anticyclonic circulation of the midtroposphere as a key control on dust duration over the CWS, dictating whether emitted dust is efficiently transported away from the CWS or whether it remains in suspension over the region for prolonged periods of time, up to several days in the anomalously dusty periods of 2005.

Je conseille aujourd'hui de se reporter à l'ouvrage qui reprend les idées de cette thèse, paru en 2005 aux éditions IRD, en libre accès à cette adresse:<br />http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00004609/<br />------------------------<br />L'objectif de ce travail portait sur les relations entre les sociétés et leur milieu naturel. Plusieurs éléments m'incitèrent à travailler sur un modèle de la vie oasienne plus complexe. Ce fut d'abord l'ubiquité d'un déconcertant exotisme dans l'analyse scientifique et ce fut par ailleurs une tendance simplificatrice à concevoir l'oasis comme un « point fertile dans le désert » facile à saisir et comme définie exclusivement par une approche essentialiste de l'élément rare, l'eau.<br /><br />Mes études antérieures en biologie m'encouragèrent à consacrer spécialement mon travail aux palmeraies des oasis. J'ai surtout travaillé sur une région du Sud tunisien, le Jérid, mais aussi sur Djanet, dans le sud de l'Algérie, et Zagora au Maroc.<br /><br />Pour saisir ces relations entre les sociétés oasiennes et leur environnement, j'ai évité le dualisme nature / culture, en fusionnant ces catégories et poursuivant le projet d'établir une socioécologie oasienne.<br /><br />La construction de la nature oasienne fut analysée en se basant sur sa structure spatiale à trois niveaux, du large (l'oasis en général) au restreint (le jardin). Selon leur localisation dans l'espace, trois niveaux de possibilités de praxis oasienne sont différenciés. Dérivant de l'organisation de l'espace, les niveaux correspondants de temporalités peuvent être distingués ; ils autorisent ces différentes praxis.<br /><br />S'il est toutefois illusoire de définir une « norme oasienne » (ethnographique) pour les procès socioécologiques. Les praxis varient selon les différentes catégories d'acteurs. Ou plutôt, les acteurs du monde oasien usent de ressources variées selon la situation dans laquelle ils sont engagés et ces ressources sont certes des ressources naturelles, mais tout aussi des ressources d'ordre conceptuel ou idéel : ce que tel ou tel ensemble d'idées de la nature (de la nature) permet et facilite comme type de relation à l'environnement.<br /><br />Les jardiniers des oasis, on le vérifie, n'agissent pas sur leur environnement selon une norme dont la praxis serait déterminée strictement par le milieu ou la société. Il n'y a pas de préséance de la société ou du milieu comme facteur déterminant. Il y a conjugaison des deux et on peut évaluer leurs influences relatives selon la trame oasienne d'espace et de temps. Cette approche circonspecte de la complexité oasienne éclaire les relations équivoques du chercheur à son objet (méthodologie), de l'individu à sa société (sociologie) et de la société à son milieu (écoanthropologie).