Why do students leave school early in OECD countries? The role of regional labor markets and school policies

This paper examines the determinants of early school leaving (ESL) in a panel of 371 regions of OECD countries observed between 1998 and 2019. The empirical analysis includes both local factors previously emphasized by micro-economic studies and national-level factors such as education policies. We find that labor market opportunities for young people, as captured by the youth unemployment rate or the size of low-skill sectors, can pull students out of school. Conversely, late access to a large number of vocational education tracks, high preprimary enrollment and continuous training for teachers are strongly and negatively correlated with ESL rates.     

Extinct species identification from late middle Pleistocene and earlier Upper Pleistocene bone fragments and tools not recognizable from their osteomorphological study by an enhanced proteomics protocol

Ancient preserved molecules offer the opportunity of gaining a deeper knowledge on their biological past. However, the development of a proteomic workflow remains a challenge. The analysis of fossils must involve a low quantity of material to avoid damaging the samples. In this study an enhanced proteomic protocol was applied to 5-milligram samples of about 130,000-year-old mammalian bones ranging from the end of the Middle Pleistocene up to the earlier Upper Pleistocene, excavated from Scladina Cave (Sclayn, Belgium). Using sequence homology with modern sequences, a biological classification was successfully achieved and the associated taxonomic ranks to each bone were identified consistently with the information gained from osteomorphological studies and palaeoenvironmental and palaeodietary data. Amino acid substitutions on collagens were identified, thus providing new information on extinct species sequences and helping in taxonomy-based clustering. Considering samples with no osteomorphological information, such as two fragments of bone retouchers, proteomics successfully identified the families providing paleontologists new information on these objects. Combining osteomorphology studies and amino acid variations identified by proteomics, one of the retouchers was potentially identified as belonging to the Ursus spelaeus species.     

Le retard de l'archéologue. L'interprétation historienne face à l'oeuvre de Michel Foucault

Partant des termes très tranchés de la polémique qui s'est récemment élevée autour du cas Pierre Rivière, jeune parricide du XIXème siècle, révélé en 1973 par l'équipe de chercheurs réunis auprès de Michel Foucault au Collège de France, il s'agit de considérer une difficulté majeure posée à la discipline historique par l'oeuvre du penseur disparu : les conditions et les limites d'une activité interprétative. La méthode archéologique professée par Foucault prétendait surmonter les impasses évidentes de l'histoire des idées, traditionnellement entendue, sa naïve confiance en la continuité apparente des vocables, notamment ; elle ne parvient cependant à ses fins qu'au seul prix de l'oubli de ses propres conditions de possibilité, s'exposant ainsi au scepticisme qu'elle a elle‐même suscité. La question récurrente—et pourtant jamais abordée de front—du pouvoir atteste l'impossibilité ultime de la méthode foucaldienne de dépasser le point aveugle de sa propre légitimité. Loin qu'il faille tenir ses interpellations pour nulles et non avenues, “l'archéologie du savoir” ne peut, à ce compte, que fonctionner comme un puissant stimulant de l'opération historienne.