Retail location and freight flow generation: proposition of a method estimating upstream and downstream movements generated by city center stores and peripheral shopping centers

International audienceThis paper aims, via an analysis of the literature, to propose a first modelling and assessment framework to estimate the impact of retail location and characteristics on the environment. The contribution at this point remains conceptual and methodological, but the proposed framework is able to be applied if suitable assessment tools are available. The framework combines a freight trip flow and a shopping trip flow models for vehicle and transport distance estimation, and a life cycle analysis method to convert those vehicles and distances into environmental impacts, taking into account both direct and indirect impacts. First, an overview on retailing location and the motivation of the proposed framework is presented. Second, the general methodology is described. Third, the different modelling schemes are proposed, relating them to what is proposed currently in literature. Finally, future developments are presented

MPI Applications on Grids: A Topology-Aware Approach

Large Grids are build by aggregating smaller parallel machines through a public long-distance interconnection network (such as the Internet). Therefore, their structure is intrinsically hierarchical. Each level of the network hierarchy gives performances which differ from the other levels in terms of latency and bandwidth. MPI is the de facto standard for programming parallel machines, therefore an attractive solution for programming parallel applications on this kind of grids. However, because of the aforementioned differences of communication performances, the application continuously communicates back and forth between clusters, with a significant impact on performances. In this report, we present an extension of the information provided by the run-time environment of an MPI library, a set of efficient collective operations for grids and a methodology to organize communication patterns within applications with respect to the underlying physical topology, and implement it in a geophysics application

MPI Applications on Grids: A Topology-Aware Approach

Large Grids are build by aggregating smaller parallel machines through a public long-distance interconnection network (such as the Internet). Therefore, their structure is intrinsically hierarchical. Each level of the network hierarchy gives performances which differ from the other levels in terms of latency and bandwidth. MPI is the de facto standard for programming parallel machines, therefore an attractive solution for programming parallel applications on this kind of grids. However, because of the aforementioned differences of communication performances, the application continuously communicates back and forth between clusters, with a significant impact on performances. In this report, we present an extension of the information provided by the run-time environment of an MPI library, a set of efficient collective operations for grids and a methodology to organize communication patterns within applications with respect to the underlying physical topology, and implement it in a geophysics application

Communication models insights meet simulations

International audienceIt is well-known that taking into account communications while scheduling jobs in large scale parallel computing platforms is a crucial issue. In modern hierarchical platforms, communication times are highly different when occurring inside a cluster or between clusters. Thus, allocating the jobs taking into account locality constraints is a key factor for reaching good performances. However, several theoretical results prove that imposing such constraints reduces the solution space and thus, possibly degrades the performances. In practice, such constraints simplify implementations and most often lead to better results. Our aim in this work is to bridge theoretical and practical intuitions, and check the differences between constrained and unconstrained schedules (namely with respect to locality and node contiguity) through simulations. We have developped a generic tool, using SimGrid as the base simulator, enabling interactions with external batch schedulers to evaluate their scheduling policies. The results confirm that insights gained through theoretical models are ill-suited to current architectures and should be reevaluated

Developing a distributed electronic health-record store for India

The DIGHT project is addressing the problem of building a scalable and highly available information store for the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) of the over one billion citizens of India

Institutionalizing cultural Europeanism: between transnationalism and national identity (1948-1954)

Cultural Europeanism is a variant of the process of European integration attested within the framework of the Cold War. It will be mostly anti-communist, although it will couch elements favouring West-East dialogue. The governments will promote an intergovernmental model based on multilateral cooperation and national identity, and put into practice in institutions such as the Western Union or the Council of Europe. Non-governmental organizations, such as the European Movement, will be committed to a more transnational model based on the affirmation and promotion of the idea of Europe through institutions such as the College of Europe, the European Centre for Culture or the European Cultural Foundation. Within cultural Europeanism, networks of secondary institutionalization, such as educational seminars, ended up having as much or more impact than the primary entities from which they emerged.El europeísmo cultural es una variante del proceso de integración europea que se vive en el marco de la Guerra Fría. Será mayoritariamente anticomunista, aunque habrá experiencias partidarias del diálogo Oeste-Este. Los gobiernos promoverán un modelo intergubernamental basado en la cooperación multilateral y la afirmación nacional, y desarrollado desde instituciones como la Unión Occidental o el Consejo de Europa. Las organizaciones no gubernamentales, como el Movimiento Europeo, apostarán por un modelo más transnacional basado en la afirmación y promoción de la idea de Europa a través de instituciones como el Colegio de Europa, el Centro Europeo de la Cultura o la Fundación Europea de la Cultura. Dentro del europeísmo cultural, las redes de institucionalización secundaria, como los seminarios del ámbito educativo, acabaron teniendo tanto o más impacto que las entidades primarias de las que emergieron

Costs, demand, and producer price changes.

We estimate an ordered probit model in order to explain the occurrence and magnitude of producer price changes in the French manufacturing sector. We use data consisting essentially of the Banque de France monthly business surveys, pooled over the years 1998-2005. Our results show that changes in the price of intermediate inputs are the main driver of producer price changes. Firms also appear to react significantly to changes in the producer price index of their industry. Variations in labor costs as well as in the production level also appear to increase the likelihood of a price change but their influence seems to be of a lesser importance. We also show that estimating an unconstrained dynamic model allows improving the estimation results as compared to those associated with a standard state-dependent model. Finally, our results point to an asymmetry in price adjustments. When they face a change in their costs, firms adjust their prices upward more often and more rapidly than they do it downward.Price stickiness, frequency of price changes, price setting-behavior, survey data, ordered probit model.

La storia agraria dal medioevo all’età moderna : una rassegna sulla storiografia degli ultimi venti anni in alcuni paesi europei

The paper aims to concisely present the trends of the rural and agrarian history of Middle Ages and Early Modern period in Europe during the last twenty years. After a brief introduction, the first three paragraphs analyze the recent research paths of the British, French, Belgian and Dutch historiographies, among the most lively on those themes. The fourth paragraph explains the general trends of European research through the analysis of the most active networks, international conferences and book series in refreshing literature and spreading new debates.L’articolo è una sintesi delle tendenze principali della storia rurale e dell’agricoltura in Europa degli ultimi venti anni, in particolare per l’ambito medievistico e modernistico. Dopo una breve introduzione nei primi tre paragrafi sono ricostruiti i recenti percorsi di ricerca della storiografia inglese, francese e belga-olandese, tra i più innovativi su questi temi. Nel quarto sono analizzate le tendenze storiografiche diffuse a livello europeo, osservando i network, le conferenze internazionali e le collane editoriali più attive nel rinnovamento degli studi e nella loro diffusione