The LHeC Detector

The Large Hadron Electron Collider (LHeC) is a proposed upgrade to the LHC, to provide high energy, high luminosity electron-proton collisions to run concurrently with Phase 2 of the LHC. The baseline design of a detector for the LHeC is described, driven by the requirements from the projected physics programme and including some preliminary results from first simulations.Comment: 6 pages, proceedings of parallel talk at Deep Inelastic Scattering 2013, 22-26 April 2013, Marseilles, Franc

Start-ups, firm growth and the consolidation of the French biotech industry

Based on an original dataset, we analyze empirically the determinants of firm growth in the French biotech industry during two periods, 1996-1999 and 1999-2002. We have two main results. First, Gibrat's law is violated. The growth of annual turnover is influenced by teh initial size of the firm. The effect is non-linear, negative for small firms. Second, location has a significant impact on growth. We use different sets of dummies to characterize location and different measures of firm growth. As a whole, our results point at Marseilles (and its region) and Nanterre (but not Paris and Evry) as favorable places for the growth of firms between 1999 and 2002. For the 1996-1999, the favorable places are Strasbourg (and Alsace) and Rh“ne-Alpes (Lyon/Grenoble). Our analysis thus suggests that the changes in the (notably legal) environment of French biotech firms that took place in 1999 had a drastic effect of the comparative advantages of locations for biotech firms.BIOTECHNOLOGY; INDUSTRIAL CLUSTERING; FIRM GROWTH; FRANCE

Historical tsunami database for France and its overseas territories

A search and analysis of a large number of historical documents has made it possible: (i) to discover so-far unknown tsunamis that have hit the French coasts during the last centuries, and (ii) conversely, to disprove the tsunami nature of several events referred to in recent catalogues. This information has been structured into a database and also made available as a website (<a ref="http://www.tsunamis.f/" target="_blank">http://www.tsunamis.fr</a>) that is accessible in French, English and Spanish. So far 60 genuine ("true") tsunamis have been described (with their dates, causes, oceans/seas, places observed, number of waves, flood and ebb distances, run-up, and intensities) and referenced against contemporary sources. Digitized documents are accessible online. In addition, so as to avoid confusion, tsunamis revealed as "false" or "doubtful" have been compiled into a second catalogue. <br><br> Both the database and the website are updated annually corresponding to the state of knowledge, so as to take into account newly discovered historical references and the occurrence of new tsunamis on the coasts of France and many of its overseas territories: Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia, Réunion, and Mayotte

Molecular Phylogeny Restores the Supra-Generic Subdivision of Homoscleromorph Sponges (Porifera, Homoscleromorpha)

Homoscleromorpha is the fourth major sponge lineage, recently recognized to be distinct from the Demospongiae. It contains <100 described species of exclusively marine sponges that have been traditionally subdivided into 7 genera based on morphological characters. Because some of the morphological features of the homoscleromorphs are shared with eumetazoans and are absent in other sponges, the phylogenetic position of the group has been investigated in several recent studies. However, the phylogenetic relationships within the group remain unexplored by modern methods.Here we describe the first molecular phylogeny of Homoscleromorpha based on nuclear (18S and 28S rDNA) and complete mitochondrial DNA sequence data that focuses on inter-generic relationships. Our results revealed two robust clades within this group, one containing the spiculate species (genera Plakina, Plakortis, Plakinastrella and Corticium) and the other containing aspiculate species (genera Oscarella and Pseudocorticium), thus rejecting a close relationship between Pseudocorticium and Corticium. Among the spiculate species, we found affinities between the Plakortis and Plakinastrella genera, and between the Plakina and Corticium. The validity of these clades is furthermore supported by specific morphological characters, notably the type of spicules. Furthermore, the monophyly of the Corticium genus is supported while the monophyly of Plakina is not.As the result of our study we propose to restore the pre-1995 subdivision of Homoscleromorpha into two families: Plakinidae Schulze, 1880 for spiculate species and Oscarellidae Lendenfeld, 1887 for aspiculate species that had been rejected after the description of the genus Pseudocorticium. We also note that the two families of homoscleromorphs exhibit evolutionary stable, but have drastically distinct mitochondrial genome organizations that differ in gene content and gene order

Fluorescence and absorption properties of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) in coastal surface waters of the northwestern Mediterranean Sea, influence of the Rhône River

International audienceSeawater samples were collected monthly in surface waters (2 and 5 m depths) of the Bay of Marseilles (northwestern Mediterranean Sea; 5 • 17 30 E, 43 • 14 30 N) during one year from November 2007 to December 2008 and studied for total organic carbon (TOC) as well as chro-mophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) optical properties (absorbance and fluorescence). The annual mean value of surface CDOM absorption coefficient at 350 nm [a CDOM (350)] was very low (0.10 ± 0.02 m −1) in comparison to values usually found in coastal waters, and no significant seasonal trend in a CDOM (350) could be determined. By contrast, the spectral slope of CDOM absorption (S CDOM) was significantly higher (0.023 ± 0.003 nm −1) in summer than in fall and winter periods (0.017 ± 0.002 nm −1), reflecting either CDOM photobleaching or production in surface waters during stratified sunny periods. The CDOM fluorescence, assessed through excitation emission matrices (EEMs), was dominated by protein-like component (peak T; 1.30-21.94 QSU) and marine humic-like component (peak M; 0.55-5.82 QSU), while terrestrial humic-like fluores-cence (peak C; 0.34-2.99 QSU) remained very low. This reflected a dominance of relatively fresh material from biological origin within the CDOM fluorescent pool. At the end of summer, surface CDOM fluorescence was very low and strongly blue shifted, reinforcing the hypothesis of CDOM photobleaching. Our results suggested that unusual Rhône Correspondence to: R. Sempéré ([email protected]) River plume eastward intrusion events might reach Mar-seilles Bay within 2-3 days and induce local phytoplank-ton blooms and subsequent fluorescent CDOM production (peaks M and T) without adding terrestrial fluorescence signatures (peaks C and A). Besides Rhône River plumes, mixing events of the entire water column injected relative aged (peaks C and M) CDOM from the bottom into the surface and thus appeared also as an important source of CDOM in surface waters of the Marseilles Bay. Therefore, the assessment of CDOM optical properties, within the hydrological context, pointed out several biotic (in situ biological production , biological production within Rhône River plumes) and abiotic (photobleaching, mixing) factors controlling CDOM transport, production and removal in this highly urbanized coastal area

Customer Discrimination and Employment Outcomes: Theory and Evidence from the French Labor Market

The paper investigates the link between the over-exposure of African immigrants to unemployment in France and their under-representation in jobs in contact with customers. We build a two-sector matching model with ethnic sector-specific preferences, economy-wide employer discrimination, and customer discrimination in jobs in contact with customers. The outcomes of the model allow us to build a test of ethnic discrimination in general and customer discrimination in particular. We run the test on French individual data in a cross-section of Employment Areas. Our results show that there is customer discrimination in the French labor market for contact jobs; a decrease in discrimination intensity by one standard deviation would reduce the raw unemployment rate of African immigrants by 4.3 percentage points.Customer Discrimination; Matching frictions; Jobs in contact; Ethnic Unemployment

Evaluation of the Population and Poverty Research Initiative (PopPov)

Since 2005, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, with collaboration and co-funding from research councils in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, and Norway and from the World Bank, has invested in a portfolio of social science research on the relationship between population dynamics and micro- and macroeconomic outcomes. It is known as the Population and Poverty Research Initiative (PopPov), and its geographic focus is on subSaharan Africa (SSA). The starting premises that led to the development of PopPov were that evidence showing that population dynamics could affect economic outcomes might increase the interest of ministers of finance in funding population policies and that they might be most convinced by rigorous research done by respected economists. The core aim of the program has been to build (or, in some cases, rebuild) and advance the field of economic demography, orienting the work toward research that would be relevant for policy and would increase recognition by economic policymakers of the value of lowering the rate of population growth and investing in family planning (FP). The program also aimed to strengthen the capacity of researchers in SSA. The PopPov initiative tried to achieve these aims through four main components: (1) grants to support research on PopPov core topics of interest, (2) fellowships to support graduate students preparing their doctoral dissertations, (3) conferences and workshops to support the development of networking opportunities, and (4) other dissemination activities. PopPov has funded 56 doctoral fellows and, together with its partners, has supported 61 research projects. Seven international conferences and additional workshops have been held, and there have been several other dissemination activities. The Population Reference Bureau (PRB) and the Center for Global Development (CGD) have been the secretariats for PopPov. Since 2008, the Institute of International Education (IIE) has administered the fellowship program.In November 2012, to help guide its decisions about both the substance and means of future investments, the foundation issued a request for proposals (RFP) for an evaluation of PopPov. The RAND Corporation was selected to conduct the evaluation

European Regional Convergence in a Human Capital Augmented Solow Model

In this paper, the process of productivity convergence is investigated for the enlarged European Union using regional (NUTS-2) data. The Solow model extended by human capital is employed as a workhorse. Alternative strategies are proposed to control for spatial effects. All specifications confirm the presence of convergence with an annual speed between 3 and 3.5 percent towards regional steady states. Furthermore, a geographically weighted regression approach indicates a wide variation in the speed of convergence across the regions, where a higher speed is striking in particular in France and the UK. Clusters of convergence can be identified, where regions with high convergence also have high initial income levels.Solow model, regional convergence, spatial lags, spatial filtering

The great melting pot. Common sole population connectivity assessed by otolith and water fingerprints

Quantifying the scale and importance of individual dispersion between populations and life stages is a key challenge in marine ecology. The common sole (Solea solea), an important commercial flatfish in the North Sea, Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, has a marine pelagic larval stage, a benthic juvenile stage in coastal nurseries (lagoons, estuaries or shallow marine areas) and a benthic adult stage in deeper marine waters on the continental shelf. To date, the ecological connectivity among these life stages has been little assessed in the Mediterranean. Here, such an assessment is provided for the first time for the Gulf of Lions, NW Mediterranean, based on a dataset on otolith microchemistry and stable isotopic composition as indicators of the water masses inhabited by individual fish. Specifically, otolith Ba/Ca and Sr/Ca profiles, and delta C-13 and delta O-18 values of adults collected in four areas of the Gulf of Lions were compared with those of young-of-the-year collected in different coastal nurseries. Results showed that a high proportion of adults (>46%) were influenced by river inputs during their larval stage. Furthermore Sr/Ca ratios and the otolith length at one year of age revealed that most adults (similar to 70%) spent their juvenile stage in nurseries with high salinity, whereas the remainder used brackish environments. In total, data were consistent with the use of six nursery types, three with high salinity (marine areas and two types of highly saline lagoons) and three brackish (coastal areas near river mouths, and two types of brackish environments), all of which contributed to the replenishment of adult populations. These finding implicated panmixia in sole population in the Gulf of Lions and claimed for a habitat integrated management of fisherie