L’outre-mer français et l’euro.

Le paysage institutionnel de l’outre-mer français a connu des évolutions significatives ces dernières années, tant en droit français qu’en droit européen. Ces évolutions ont un impact sur le régime monétaire et des paiements des territoires ultra-marins.outre-mer, euro, DOM, COM, RUP, PTOM, régime monétaire.

Perception and prediction of simple object interactions

For humans, it is useful to be able to visually detect an object's physical properties. One potentially important source of information is the way the object moves and interacts with other objects in the environment. Here, we use computer simulations of a virtual ball bouncing on a horizontal plane to study the correspondence between our ability to estimate the ball's elasticity and to predict its future path. Three experiments were conducted to address (1) perception of the ball's elasticity, (2) interaction with the ball, and (3) prediction of its trajectory. The results suggest that different strategies and information sources are used for passive perception versus actively predicting future behavior

The Public Good of Internet Usage and its Social Impact: A Business Ethics Approach

Public goods are indispensable for producing value in an economy and their usage is part of resource consumption in by any business. Of the two types of public goods , natural ones and social ones, it has mainly been the natural resources, which caught the attention of politicians, academics and business alike. And it is only the natural public goods like, e.g., air and water, for which attempts have been made to develop monetary valuation. This is changing as the Internet gets into focus. The various concerns taken up increasingly by policy makers on many issues of the Internet lead to a discussion that is increasingly questioning whether Internet provision really is a public good, if it really is for free, how it can be governed, whether Internet provision can be monetized and how this monetization changes the public goods character of the Internet. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss these topics. One outcome that is sought is to define the societal mandate of the parties involved, which would be to create private economic gain and public welfare. This social mandate must encompass the topic of business accountability − otherwise there will be no social effect from including as many users in Internet access as possible or feasible. Developing a society that is inclusive would be one major objective of conducting stakeholder relations in an ethical manner

Weighing externalities of economic recovery projects: an alternative to green taxonomies that is fairer and more realistic

Natural and man-made crises and disasters often cause untold destruction, but also provide multiple opportunities for economic redevelopment post the crisis. Like other crises the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred public and private entities to become engaged in significant redevelopment efforts. Policymakers in some countries view these efforts as an opening for not only including other issues such as deficits in infrastructure and the social systems, but also for redefining their political priorities towards a “green economy”. While pursuing various policy objectives at the same time is a prudent undertaking, it seems rather questionable that politicians, under the pressure of ecological activism, would evaluate all crisis policy measures by their effect on environmental outcomes. We are seeing this in the European Union (EU) as it is about to couple its Recovery and Resilience Facility (financed through the “Next Generation EU Recovery Fund”) with its Green Deal. In the U.S., so far, the Build Back Better package and the American Rescue Plan seem to seek separate evaluation schemes for their different policy fields. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the wide-ranging opinions that exist on the intention to make recovery support contingent on ecological effects: For example, there is the classic Tinbergen Rule which states that for each policy target there must be at least one policy tool; thus, if there are fewer tools than targets, then some policy goals will not ultimately be achieved. Likewise, long-term climate change mitigation can only be achieved with long-term policies that consider and weigh out all externalities. Moreover, embarking on long term recovery plans cannot solely be formulated and implemented on ex-ante definitions of ecological impacts. The paper raises the question whether requesting ecological effects from all recovery programs is just and fair. It contrasts the various options of coupling recovery efforts and climate mitigation with state-of-the-art approaches of valuating multiple externalities: weighing the diverse externalities of policy projects can determine which policy tools to choose. It also demonstrates the downside of a policy that are solely focuses on granting financial support, if not, a project can effectively meet a pre-specified ecological and energy goal as set up by the EU and which ranks recovery projects according to their arbitrary effect on climate change. A wider scope of decision criteria will produce more effective ways to “build back bette

Collective Action on Public Goods for Sustainable Development: Ethics in Action

Maintaining and expanding public goods is synonymous to promoting sustainable development but discussions are needed to clarify how policies need to be coordinated to enable collective action on public goods. Collective action for Public Goods will only be successful if all who partake in such actions can gain complementary benefits that would be either more costly or impossible to achieve without the collective effort

Epistasis between the MHC and the RCAα block in primary Sjögren syndrome

ObjectiveThe RCA alpha block (Regulators of Complement Activation, 1q32) contains critical complement regulatory genes such as CR1 and MCP. This study examined RCA alpha block haplotype associations with both disease susceptibility and diversification of the anti-Ro/La autoantibody response in primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS).Methods115 patients with pSS and 98 controls were included in the study. 93 of 109 (85%) of the patients with pSS were seropositive for Ro/La autoantibodies. The Genomic Matching Technique (GMT) was used to define RCA alpha block ancestral haplotypes (AH).ResultsRCA alpha block haplotypes, AH1 and AH3, were both associated with autoantibody-positive pSS (p = 0.0003). Autoantibody associations with both HLA DR3 and DR15 have been previously defined. There was an epistatic interaction (p = 0.023) between RCA alpha AH1 and HLA DR3, and this genotypic combination was present in 48% of autoantibody-positive patients with pSS compared with 8% of controls. This epistasis is most simply attributable to an interaction between C4 and its receptor, CR1, encoded within the RCA alpha block. Both DR3 and a relative C4 deficiency are carried on the major histocompatibility complex 8.1 ancestral haplotype. Only four of 92 (4%) autoantibody-positive patients with pSS did not carry any risk RCA alpha or HLA haplotype, compared with 36 of 96 (38%) controls, and there were differences in haplotype frequencies within autoantibody subsets of pSS.ConclusionsNormal population variation in the RCA alpha block, in addition to the major histocompatibility complex, contributes genetic susceptibility to systemic autoimmune disease and the autoantibody response. This finding provides evidence for the role of regulation of complement activation in disease pathogenesis.S. Lester, C. McLure, J. Williamson, P. Bardy, M. Rischmueller, R. L. Dawkin

Soft Skills and Job Opportunities of Migrants: Systemic Relationships in the Labor Market

The skills of migrants, the skills of existing workers, and the characteristics of the host economy are critical factors that impact the labor market in any country. Studying these effects is a critical area of research with much of the research being specific to time and place. There are studies on the UK which look into the wage effects of immigration and the impact on unemployment A study on Denmark found that an increase in the supply of refugee-country immigrants pushed less educated native workers (especially the young and low-tenured ones) to pursue less manual-intensive occupations. So, immigration had positive effects on unskilled wages, employment and occupational mobility. This has led to critical assessments of the skills brought in by migrants who have a higher level of education. This is occurring to quite an extent in present-day immigration to Europe. This paper draws on a study performed by the authors on African nationals with an academic background and who study, live and work in Germany. They were asked to complete an online questionnaire on management soft skills. The results revealed that the African migrants appear to be quite aware of the specific soft skills they owe to their cultural background, which ultimately might make them well equipped for better job opportunities when they actively apply them in their work environment. In continuance, this paper contrasts those findings with the results of a large European survey of migrants’ soft skills conducted with companies’ heads, personnel managers and business associations. Mirroring the results of both studies provides an insight into the extent in which the opinions on migrants’ soft skills align and where they differ. This leads to infer that while migrants’ skills enhance their ability to enter into the labor market, the skills also shape the market by creating niches for employment and this in turn changes how migrants deploy their skills. There are various conclusions to be drawn: One is that integrating migrants into the labor market requires creative leadership and ethically founded decision-making: Both employers and employer associations must seek to fully utilize all the skills provided by the new entrants to the labor market. From a theoretical perspective, the two sets (of data but of interviewees as well) represent two distinct agglomerations of elements that are interrelated within each set, and they are also relating the sets to each other. This embeds a variety of systems-thinking constructs. Co-creation is one, and it regards to building a new set of information from not only the observations on skills offered and required but also from the developments that are triggered when offer and demand meet. One other is coalescing of equi-finality and multi-finality to arrive at a balance between needs of job-seekers and the job offers that can be satisfied short-term or for which long-term solutions are required. A third one is conjoining self-organization and relationality where skills development and labor market conditions enter into a systemic relation. For applying this concept, a parallel can be drawn to the innovation deployment projects that are run within the European Commission’s Framework Programs (Kapsali, 2011). With regard to generating new opportunities in the job market, a systems-thinking interpretation would be that of an auto-poietic system (the development of skills) that interacts with the environment (the job market) and processes self-reference and other-reference. The paper evaluates the applicability of these concepts to the phenomenon of migrants in the labor market

Record RF performance of standard 90 nm CMOS technology

We have optimized 3 key RF devices realized in standard logic 90 nm CMOS technology and report a record performance in terms of n-MOS maximum oscillation frequency f/sub max/ (280 GHz), varactor tuning range and varactor and inductor quality factor

A transcriptional switch controls sex determination in <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i>

Sexual reproduction and meiotic sex are deeply rooted in the eukaryotic tree of life, but mechanisms determining sex or mating types are extremely varied and are only well characterized in a few model organisms(1). In malaria parasites, sexual reproduction coincides with transmission to the vector host. Sex determination is non-genetic, with each haploid parasite capable of producing either a male or a female gametocyte in the human host(2). The hierarchy of events and molecular mechanisms that trigger sex determination and maintenance of sexual identity are yet to be elucidated. Here we show that the male development 1 (md1) gene is both necessary and sufficient for male fate determination in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. We show that Md1 has a dual function stemming from two separate domains: in sex determination through its N terminus and in male development from its conserved C-terminal LOTUS/OST-HTH domain. We further identify a bistable switch at the md1 locus, which is coupled with sex determination and ensures that the male-determining gene is not expressed in the female lineage. We describe one of only a few known non-genetic mechanisms of sex determination in a eukaryote and highlight Md1 as a potential target for interventions that block malaria transmission

Identification and Characterization of the Unique N-Linked Glycan Common to the Flagellins and S-layer Glycoprotein of Methanococcus voltae*

The flagellum of Methanococcus voltae is composed of four structural flagellin proteins FlaA, FlaB1, FlaB2, and FlaB3. These proteins possess a total of 15 potential N-linked sequons (NX(S/T)) and show a mass shift on an SDS-polyacrylamide gel indicating significant post-translational modification. We describe here the structural characterization of the flagellin glycan from M. voltae using mass spectrometry to examine the proteolytic digests of the flagellin proteins in combination with NMR analysis of the purified glycan using a sensitive, cryogenically cooled probe. Nano-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis of the proteolytic digests of the flagellin proteins revealed that they are post-translationally modified with a novel N-linked trisaccharide of mass 779 Da that is composed of three sugar residues with masses of 318, 258, and 203 Da, respectively. In every instance the glycan is attached to the peptide through the asparagine residue of a typical N-linked sequon. The glycan modification has been observed on 14 of the 15 sequon sites present on the four flagellin structural proteins. The novel glycan structure elucidated by NMR analysis was shown to be a trisaccharide composed of beta-ManpNAcA6Thr-(1-4)-beta-Glc-pNAc3NAcA-(1-3)-beta-GlcpNAc linked to Asn. In addition, the same trisaccharide was identified on a tryptic peptide of the S-layer protein from this organism implicating a common N-linked glycosylation pathway