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The change of scale and potential reconfiguration of decision-making powers make the French context of reterritorialization of food seem favorable to the transition of agri-food systems in certain areas. However, it also includes a movement towards normalization and integration into the dominant system, which may lower the goals of transition, through the norm conveyed by actors and systems. Based on the example of a rural territory in the Vosges and a multi-actor agri-food dynamic in which the authors of this article are stakeholders, our analysis shows that a territorialized agri-food dynamic can actually create new narratives and new ways of doing and thinking that are necessary for the transition. This is achieved by at least partially standing back from this context and drawing on different resources. The search for otherness, both in the content and in the form of the project, is an advantage for a real transition of the agri-food system, without however guaranteeing it. Periods of reassurance shielded from the dominant regime and allowing for collective experimentation with alternative initiatives, as well as the reflexivity of the actors involved throughout the simultaneous processes of reflection and action, afford some distance from the normalizing context while taking advantage of the resources it can offer. The living-lab approach constitutes an inspiring methodology to achieve this. It allows for the implementation of an otherness of content and supports an otherness of form by facilitating the emergence of a niche in the food governance of the territory. At the same time, it also promoted a collective reflexivity among the stakeholders involved. • The agri-food systems transition seems to be necessary at different scales. • It is part of a re-territorialisation of these issues. • Normalization and integration to the dominant system presents a risk of reducing the ambitions of the transition. • Norms conveyed by actors and devices contribute to this process. • An alterity, both on the project substance and form, is an advantage for a true transition of the agri-food system. • Times of reinsurance that are protected from the dominant regime are therefore needed. • These times allow for collective experimentation with alternative initiatives and reflexivity. • Living-lab approach provides an inspiring methodology to achieve this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystems are complex and data-intensive systems, and the ecologists still struggle to understand them in an integrated manner. Models that miss key dynamics can possibly lead to fallacious conclusions about the ecosystem fate. To address these limits and encompass whole and realistic ecosystems, we develop here a qualitative model with the help of discrete-event models. This model, based on formal Petri nets, was able to integrate biotic, abiotic and human-related components (e.g. grazing) along with their processes into the same interaction network. The model was also able to grasp ecosystem development, as defined by sharp changes of the interaction network structure itself. Furthermore, the model was possibilistic and thus rigorously computed all possible ecosystem states reached after a specific (present-day) initial state. This innovative approach in ecology then allows to rigorously and exhaustively identifying all possible ecosystem trajectories and to study their impacts and outcomes. For the first time in a realistic ecosystem, we illustrated such discrete and qualitative models in the case study of temporary marshes in the Mediterranean part of France, the Camargue delta. The model demonstrated that when marshes are exposed to extensive grazing the presence of marsh heritage species (i.e. with a conservation value) is facilitated by opening up the vegetation through various trajectories. This supports the commonly used management practices of extensive grazing to conserve certain protected habitats. The detailed analysis of the computed ecosystem trajectories allows exploring a range of recommendations for management strategies. Unlabelled Image • We developed discrete-event and qualitative models of (socio-)ecosystems. • We integrated biotic, abiotic, anthropic components into a single representation. • We modeled exhaustive ecosystem trajectories with sharp structural changes. • As a first realistic application for ecosystem functioning and development. • Modeled temporary marshes confirmed beneficial effects of extensive grazing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Waste captured by a recovery system in an urban river were characterized. • 83% of the 3147 anthropogenic items characterized were made of plastic. • Plastic fluxes are 1.1–5.7 mt/yr, equivalent to a leakage of 2.1–11.1 g/cap/yr. • 65% are returned to the waste management system and 35% bypassed to the sea. • This residual leakage calls for regulations of the plastic production at its source. Small urban rivers are thought to be major sources of riverine litter, especially macroplastics, into the ocean. In well-developed countries, waste management infrastructures and recovery systems are sometimes implemented to prevent their emission into the sea meeting environmental and economic goals. The Huveaune River in Marseille, South of France, is a typical case study showing a non-negligible and uncontrolled leakage of riverine litter remains, despite all recovery systems implemented. Giant bar screens are settled over the river to collect riverine litter from the whole water column before water is released into the Sea. In this paper, screened material was characterized during a dry, wet and heavy rainfall period and annual macroplastic mass flows were estimated. The plastic fraction represented 83% by count of the 3147 items sorted and counted. Mass flow of plastic debris ranged between 1.1 and 5.8 mt/yr (equivalent to 2.1–11.4 g/cap/yr), in which 0.4–2.1 mt/yr (equivalent to 0.8–4.1 g/cap/yr) are bypassed to the sea during heavy rainfall periods. Giant bar screens across the Huveaune River prevent 65% of the mass flow to reach the sea annually, but 35% remain uncontrolled. When compared to the Seine River and other European Rivers, macroplastic leakage into the ocean per capita may range between 1 and 10 g/cap/yr. This suggests that end-of-pipe solutions are not enough and further supports urgent regulations of the plastic production on local to global scales to tackle the plastic pollution at its source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To respond to the social challenge of medical knowledge democratisation, numerous initiatives have been developed: information, training or consultation of patients or research applications funded by associations of patients. Only a few numbers of collaborations are initiated by the persons directly involved (patients and relatives) or fulfill association research need. We have adopted and tested such an approach with the French fibromyalgia association (Fibromyalgie France). Our work demonstrates the interest to use data collected by associations of patients to answer to their questioning or to rise further relevant research questions. Such participative approach will have a pertinent and significant impact on the knowledge of diseases and on the development of collaborative actions of research, providing a better answer to patient needs, while being methodologically rigorous., (© 2021 médecine/sciences – Inserm.)