Governing food security globally - stakeholders` opinions

Scientific conference (2013, April 27)

While more than 850 million people are starving (FAO, 2012) around the world, agricultural production grew at about 2.3% per year in the past 50 years and access to food increased with an even higher rate ... [more ▼]

While more than 850 million people are starving (FAO, 2012) around the world, agricultural production grew at about 2.3% per year in the past 50 years and access to food increased with an even higher rate. By 2012, almost 65% of all implemented agricultural policies (focused at national, regional and global level) that have a reference on food security only aim on solving present day crisis, without integrating policies for preventing future ones. While the League of Arab States (LAS) called for an integrated Arab approach to agricultural policy to the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development (AOAD), the League of African Nations did not yet agree on common objectives in matters regarding agriculture and rural development despite AGRA Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, a network of US based iNGOs` who`s board is chaired by Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, took on the challenge of reforming this continent`s agriculture. Although the European Union has the Common Agricultural Policy that works on a 7 years framework with a wide budgetary support from the European Commission and all 27 Member States and China has an agricultural policy working under the ridged 5-years system, food security and food quality are becoming the main concerns in the world leaders minds with the population reaching 7 billion on October 31st 2011 and resources becoming scarce. This paper analyses the stakeholders` opinions on the possibility of changing the policy instruments status quo that would enable a coherent exchange of good practices and information throughout the world to a global approach to food security and food quality that is necessary for overcoming problems like famine in Africa, obesity in North America and high risk and vulnerability for human health and the environment. The key questions that are answered in this paper are: What are the common elements of agricultural policies with regional reach that can constitute objectives for a Global Agricultural Policy (GAP)? Which organization could manage a GAP and what would be its main driving mechanisms? What kind of impact would have a global mechanism in agriculture and rural development acting at different levels? What are the determinants for the successful creation and implementation of a GAP? [less ▲]

Epargne sanguine en chirurgie cardiaque : Etude rétrospective des pratiques

Report (2013)

Cette étude rétrospective s’inscrit dans le cadre des recherches de la thèse de doctorat sur l’épargne sanguine à travers l’itinéraire clinique du patient opéré cardiaque. Son objectif est de dresser un ... [more ▼]

Cette étude rétrospective s’inscrit dans le cadre des recherches de la thèse de doctorat sur l’épargne sanguine à travers l’itinéraire clinique du patient opéré cardiaque. Son objectif est de dresser un état des lieux de la prise en charge des patients opérés cardiaques au CHU de Liège, des pratiques d’épargne sanguine qui y sont employées et de leur impact sur le recours à la transfusion, les durées de séjour et la mortalité. Cet audit devrait permettre de 1) mettre en évidence les éléments pouvant être améliorés dans l’organisation actuelle de la prise en charge de ces patients afin de concourir aux objectifs d’épargne sanguine 2) servir de base à l’élaboration d’un itinéraire clinique du patient opéré cardiaque. [less ▲]

La pratique de la Cour pénale internationale à l’épreuve des droits fondamentaux : tentative de transposition d’une contrainte nationale à un contexte globalisé

Conference (2013, April 26)

Cette présentation Power Point a servi de support à une communication orale effectuée dans le cadre de l'édition 2013 de la Conférence des Assistants en droit de Belgique (ACCA), organisée le 26 avril ... [more ▼]

Cette présentation Power Point a servi de support à une communication orale effectuée dans le cadre de l'édition 2013 de la Conférence des Assistants en droit de Belgique (ACCA), organisée le 26 avril 2013 par l'Université Libre de Bruxelles. [less ▲]

Critique et idéologie. La conception althussérienne de la philosophie

Scientific conference (2013, April 26)

Modified TiO2-based Photocatalytic Films and Powders produced by Aqueous and Non-Aqueous Sol-Gel Processes for Water Purification

Doctoral thesis (2013)

Summary Two major research goals have been proposed for this thesis. The first goal concerns the development of photocatalysts in the shape of thin films coated on glass substrates which includes (i) the ... [more ▼]

Summary Two major research goals have been proposed for this thesis. The first goal concerns the development of photocatalysts in the shape of thin films coated on glass substrates which includes (i) the development of a sol-gel chemistry suitable for the production of stable colloidal suspensions of TiO2 particles, (ii) the optimization of the deposition method and (iii) the development of an experimental device to measure the photocatalytic activity of the films. The second objective is the development of innovative non-aqueous and aqueous sol-gel routes, including the development of new methods for the introduction of dopants as well as the photocatalytic testing of the resulting materials. Two original non-aqueous sol-gel processes involving respectively, an in situ production of water and the controlled addition of a small amount of water, have been developed to produce a series of stable colloidal suspensions of TiO2 particles (sols). From those sols, transparent, adherent, homogeneous thin films have been produced using an optimized dip-coating deposition method and have been proven to be photocatalytically active for the degradation of an organic pollutant in aqueous solution. The photocatalytic activity of the films has been improved through an increase of their roughness thanks to the addition of an organic additive into the sol, leading to an increased active surface involved into the photocatalytic reaction. A mathematical model allowing the rigorous evaluation of the kinetic parameters of the photocatalytic reaction taking into account the influence of the variation of the volume inside the batch photoreactor has been developed. The equations have been established in the case of a photocatalytic powder homogeneously dispersed in the pollutant solution, and in the case of a photocatalytic thin film placed at the bottom of the reactor. The particular case of a first order reaction has been treated and the error on the reaction rate constant induced by neglecting the volume variation has been quantified. An environmentally-friendly aqueous sol-gel process for producing undoped and Cu2+, Ni2+, Zn2+, Pb2+, Fe3+, Cr3+, La3+ or Eu3+ single-doped as well as La3+- Fe3+ and Eu3+- Fe3+ co-doped TiO2 bulk photocatalysts composed of nanocrystallites of anatase and exhibiting a remarkably high photocatalytic activity without requiring any calcination step has been developed. Different effects of the metal ion dopant on the photocatalytic activity have been observed and discussed according to the dopant nature and content. A kinetic study of the photocatalytic degradation of a model pollutant (4-nitrophenol) in aqueous solution under UV-Visible light (330 nm < λ < 800 nm) has been performed over a promising TiO2-Zn2+ doped catalyst. Statistical validations have confirmed the suitability of the phenomenological reaction rate model developed to represent the 4-nitrophenol photocatalytic degradation over time. [less ▲]

À la limite de l’orthodoxie, aux confins de l’imperium christianum

Conference (2013, April 26)

Echanges transfrontaliers et déplacements de la population rwandaise pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale

Conference (2013, April 25)

Nourishing the body, crafting the self, facing the other. Subjectivities and encounters through Moroccan food in Italy

Scientific conference (2013, April 25)

Each individual is composed of material objects and practices that witness one’s personal life history and everyday life and which shape one’s same subjectivity (Julien and Rosselin 2009). Subjectivity ... [more ▼]

Each individual is composed of material objects and practices that witness one’s personal life history and everyday life and which shape one’s same subjectivity (Julien and Rosselin 2009). Subjectivity that is fulfilled through material culture, the performing of which turns out to be a technology of the self (Martin, Gutman, Hutton 1988). Considering the subject as the result of praxeological activities and of the incorporation of objects belonging to one’s meaningful universe of reference and action, my paper aims at exploring the construction of the self of Moroccan female migrants through their body techniques exerted while cooking. Specific gestures are performed to adhere to a cultural heritage which needs to be preserved while living abroad. An essentialized bodily tradition, relying on a set of specific objects, becomes the place where, on the one hand, the members of a community share knowledge. On the other hand, such tradition lets an encounter with otherness take place. As a matter of fact, in the context considered, food is a frequent object of intercultural policies and practices, giving migrants a controlled opportunity to express themselves while producing material culture. A locally held Arabic cooking class, for example, provides the occasion to perform cultural differences (or similarities) by means of corporeal languages. My presentation will consider the body both in its private and public dimensions, since constantly intertwined. Through images and videos I will show what such embodied material knowledge consists of and in which ways it is the object of social dynamics and interactions. [less ▲]

Ecriture: marqueurs de la représentation. Le cas de l'Egypte ancienne. 1. La naissance de l'écriture

Scientific conference (2013, April 25)

Les allergies alimentaires : point de vue du biologiste

Conference (2013, April 25)