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BackgroundGroundnut is one of the major legume crops grown as food and cash crop across the different agroecological zones of Burkina Faso. It is ranked the 2nd important legume crop for household food, nutrition, and income generation for both rural and urban zones, contributing significantly to food supply and economy of the country. Despite its importance and breeding efforts to develop improved varieties, groundnut productivity remains low. Assessing and describing the present groundnut cropping system and production constraints as well as gender dynamics in the main production areas will help in defining the groundnut breeding priorities.MethodsA participatory rural appraisal study was conducted in three groundnut production regions (central-eastern, central-northern, and central-western). In each region, 4 villages were selected with a total of 124 farmers interviewed to collect data on socio-demographics, farming systems, cropping practices, and production constraints. Data analysis was carried out for qualitative and quantitative variables using STATA 14. Analysis of variance was conducted across regions and gender, and also between and within regions. Kendall’s coefficients were determined for qualitative variables across regions for the constraints using the pairwise rank. Pearson’s correlation was carried out to assess the relationship between variables, and the chi-square test was used to assess the difference in farmer preferences.ResultsThe study revealed a cropping system of groundnut in an environment largely affected by climate change and in a subsistence and extensive agriculture. There is a variation in the groundnut cropping system across the regions. Gender plays a key role in the production of the groundnut, and 48.39% of women are engaged in groundnut cropping with less access to land and production resources. A yield gap between men and women was observed with men achieving more yield than women. There was a strong correlation between the use of improved varieties and technical assistance. A strong correlation was observed between farm size and production, and farm size and sex denoting an extensive production. Production constraints, although similar, were perceived and ranked differently between regions. The lack of improved varieties, absence of agricultural credit, lack of production tools, the high price of seeds, the high price of fertilizer, drought, and disease are some of the important constraints affecting groundnut productivity.ConclusionThis study provides a recent view of groundnut cropping, allowing a good understanding of the farmers’ situation. The result will contribute to the refining of breeding priorities and guide further activities in groundnut breeding in Burkina Faso.

The non-indictment of Michael Brown's killer in fall 2014, the castigation of Blacks during the Baltimore uprising following Freddie Gray's death in police custody, and the death of Sandra Bland in a Texas jail further solidified the notion of the expendability of Black life in the United States. But while larger urban areas like Cleveland, Ferguson, and Staten Island mobilized around anti-Black police brutality, African Americans in smaller rural towns struggled to manifest their opposition to anti-Black violence in ways that were meaningful to their communities. Many turned to the Black church, which emerged once again as a site of struggle and resistance. This essay charts the rise of an anti-racist, interfaith organization created to combat anti-Black racism in the South: Blount County United (BCU) organized by Reverend Dr. Willa Estell, head pastor of Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Maryville, Tennessee. Our focus on BCU renders problems that Blacks face in non-urban contexts visible and demonstrates the systemic nature of racism in the 21st century as it is articulated in rural contexts thereby highlighting the hidden transcripts of anti-Black violence.

International audience

Osborne developed an interest in the burgeoning anthropological subdiscipline of medical anthropology and conducted his dissertation research in Nigeria, focusing on traditional African health care systems and their relationship to Western biomedical systems. Osborne studied in the Nigerian village of Ibara Orile and explored how Yoruba villages serve as therapeutic communities for the mentally ill. His research interests brought him back to Nigeria several times, and during one of these visits his Yoruba research consultants made him Chief Adila of Ibara, associating his visits with preserving peace during times of violent unrest.

International audience; Context. Almost 20% of the ~200 different species detected in the interstellar and circumstellar media present a carbon atom linked to nitrogen by a triple bond. Of these 37 molecules, 30 are nitrile R-CN compounds, the remaining 7 belonging to the isonitrile R-NC family. How these species behave in their interactions with the grain surfaces is still an open question. Aims. In a previous work, we have investigated whether the difference between nitrile and isonitrile functional groups may induce differences in the adsorption energies of the related isomers at the surfaces of interstellar grains of various nature and morphologies. This study is a follow up of this work, where we focus on the adsorption on carbonaceous aromatic surfaces. Methods. The question is addressed by means of a concerted experimental and theoretical approach of the adsorption energies of CH3CN and CH3NC on the surface of graphite (with and without surface defects). The experimental determination of the molecule and surface interaction energies is carried out using temperature-programmed desorption in an ultra-high vacuum between 70 and 160 K. Theoretically, the question is addressed using first-principle periodic density functional theory to represent the organised solid support.Results. The adsorption energy of each compound is found to be very sensitive to the structural defects of the aromatic carbonaceous surface: these defects, expected to be present in a large numbers and great diversity on a realistic surface, significantly increase the average adsorption energies to more than 50% as compared to adsorption on perfect graphene planes. The most stable isomer (CH3CN) interacts more efficiently with the carbonaceous solid support than the higher energy isomer (CH3NC), however.

International audience; SINAPS (Earthquake and Nuclear Plants Improving and Sustaining Safety) is a five-year research project starting in 2013 and financially supported by the French government. This project was motivated by the need of characterizing the potential seismic margins of existing nuclear facilities. SINAPS conducts critical analysis at each step of the seismic risk assessment, from seismic hazard, to site effects, interactions between the wave field the soil and structures, structural and nuclear components vulnerabilities current French practices are challenged against site data and innovative methods more adapted to model complex nonlinear processes that occurred during the seismic loadings transfer. The seismic margins are appreciated through all assumptions and the epistemic/aleatory uncertainties treatment during the analysis. The present contribution expose some lessons learned from SINAPS in the area of the seismic hazard assessment. Among them, we present recent published strong motions databases and associated ground motion prediction equations that should be considered as references for SHA in France; SINAPS also investigated Bayesian approach and clearly showed their betterment in the GMPE's selection and weighting process with respect to the classical and less objective expert's advices practice. We also discuss recent progress in the site-specific SHA as the host-to-target and kappa corrections.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), tumors characterized by c-KIT mutations, are the most frequent mesenchymal tumors of the digestive tract. The stomach is the most commonly involved site. Localization, size and mitotic rate are reliable predictors of survival and the two milestones of GISTs treatment are surgery and imatinib. This article is aimed to report the data of an audit, carried out on the morphological and clinical aspects of the disease and to review the present knowledge on GISTs. A total of 172 patients with GISTs (M : F=1 : 1; mean age 65 years) were recruited. The stomach was the most frequently involved site. In 50% of the cases the tumor was smaller than 5 cm, whereas major symptoms were observed in 43% of the cases. Predictors of progressive disease were present only in a small percentage of cases but the disease was in the metastatic phase in over 25% of the cases at diagnosis. Familial aggregation was rare but a consistent share of the patients (21%) had other synchronous or metachronous cancers. The most frequent mutations were in-frame deletions and point mutations of c-KIT exon 11. This report confirms in part the available data on GIST in a consecutive series of patients recruited in Italy and shows that only large collaborative multicenter studies provide data sound enough to enable making reasonable clinical and therapeutic choices, and suggests that, as a measure of secondary prevention, a diagnostic definition should be obtained in all submucosal lesions of the GI tract and that GIST patients should be screened for second tumors.

Within Haiti’s growing transnational Protestant community, there are different types of churches and adherents that practice traditional forms of Protestant Christianity (such as the Adventist, Methodist and Baptist faiths) and Pentecostal/Charismatic forms of Protestant Christianity. Using Michèle Lamont’s work on symbolic boundaries, I explore how Haitian Protestants living in New Providence, Bahamas, differentiate these two major Haitian Protestant church cultures through the use of denigrating terms about differing religious traditions. Churches which practice traditional forms of Haitian Protestantism, for example, are sometimes called touloutoutou churches. Churches where Pentecostal/Charismatic forms of Haitian Protestantism are practiced are sometimes referred to as tet mare churches by some Haitian Protestants. In addition, practitioners’ descriptions reflect issues of social class and contested notions of Christian authenticity among Haitian Protestants in the Bahamas. Dans la communauté haïtienne protestante transnationale, il existe différents types d’églises et de fidèles qui forment une pratique traditionnelle du christianisme protestant (comme les adventistes, méthodistes et les religions Baptiste) et pentecôtiste / charismatique qui forment le christianisme protestant. Avec l’utilisation du travail de Michèle Lamont sur les frontières symboliques, j’explore comment les protestants haïtiens vivant à New Providence, Bahamas, peuvent faire la différence entre ces deux grandes cultures haïtiennes grâce à l’utilisation des termes dénigrants au sujet de traditions religieuses différentes. Les églises haïtiennes qui pratiquent les formes traditionnelles du protestantisme, par exemple, sont parfois appelées « églises touloutoutou ». D’autre part, les églises où les formes pentecôtiste / charismatique du protestantisme haïtien sont pratiquées sont parfois dénommés « églises tèt mare » pour certains protestants haïtiens. En outre, les descriptions des praticiens reflètent les questions de classe sociale et les notions d’authenticité chrétienne attaquée chez les protestants haïtiens aux Bahamas.

Crossing the Water and Keeping the Faith: Haitian Religion in Miami. By Terry Rey and Alex Stepick. New York: New York University Press, 2013. ISBN 9780814777091. 280 pp. $26.00.Review by Bertin M. Louis, Jr.Crossing the Water and Keeping the Faith: Haitian Religion in Miami, by Terry Rey and Alex Stepick, is an engaging and fascinating ethnography about religious practice in the Haitian diaspora in Miami, Florida. Miami and its surrounding areas are home to the largest population of Haitians outside the Caribbean. Haitians in Miami are also very religious as compared to others in the city who can trace their roots to the Caribbean, such as Cubans and Jamaicans. Approximately 90 percent of Haitians in Miami attend church at least monthly, which demonstrates that religion plays an important and central role in their lives.Important themes in the text are transnationalism (specifically transnational religious practice), diasporic religious practice, healing, and the effects of US racism on Haitians. Crossing the Water and Keeping the Faith has two main arguments: (1) that there is a unifying Haitian religious collusio that unifies Haitian religious difference and (2) that Haitian diasporic religious practice can be explained through a quest for "salvation goods" "in the form of luck (chans), magic imaji), protection, health, prosperity, and especially, worthiness" (5). The text contains a foreword, acknowledgments, an introduction, five chapters, a conclusion and three appendices. Borrowing a term from anthropologist Drexel Woodson, the book covers the "religious triangle of forces" in Haitian society: Catholicism, Vodou, and Protestantism (3).The first three chapters cover the internal diversity within the practice of Catholicism. Most of the adherents described in these chapters can be considered Katolikfran (strict Catholics) who do not mix their observance of Catholicism with Vodou practice. Through study at Miami's Notre Dame d'Haiti Catholic Church, Rey and Stepick remind us of the important role the church played in serving the religious and political needs of its adherents. Out of the Haitian "religious triangle of forces," Catholicism in Miami has had the most political connection to some of the moments in Haitian history that have troubled its diaspora recently (Jean-Claude Duvalier's exile, Duvalierism without Duvalier, and the 2010 earthquake, for example). The authors also shed light on the religious practices of Miami Haitians of the upper classes through their practice of Catholicism as well discussing the practice and impact of Haitian Charismatic Catholicism (Catholic Pentecostalism in Haitian Miami), which is sweeping Latin America and, among others, immigrant Catholics in the United States. The authors also attend to some of the transnational dimensions of the practice of Haitian Catholicism.The next chapter covers the practice of Haitian Vodou in Miami and reveals "a decline in Vodouist devotion among Haitians in Miami in general" (126). The authors opine that this decline has several reasons, including the stigma attached to practicing Vodou by US racism and the "taxing financial expenses" of Vodou devotions in Haiti, which some avoid by converting to Protestantism (120). Nevertheless, Rey and Stepick provide ethnographic detail about the syncretic religion created on the plantations of Saint-Domingue centuries ago and its adaptations to fit the conditions of the United States. Through their research we find that Haitian Vodou in the United States is still malleable in the sense that it relies on the practice of other African-derived religions, like Cuban Santeria, to exist. The authors use the example of Saint Lazarus, who is central to Santeria and has recently become integral to diasporic Haitian Vodou. …