Maîtrise des risques dans le processus de réponse à appel d’offres

Un appel d'offres (AO) permet à un client d’émettre une demande de travaux ou de services envers des prestataires potentiels et de faire ensuite, par analyse des réponses reçues, le choix de celui qui sera retenu. Du point de vue du soumissionnaire, il existe plusieurs risques au moment de répondre car il doit élaborer une réponse sur un développement futur. De nature différente, ces risques peuvent être regroupés en catégories. Nous proposons une typologie des risques sur laquelle nous nous appuyons afin d'assister le prestataire lors du processus de réponse à appel d’offre (PRAO) via une méthodologie d'aide à la décision fondée sur l’expérience acquise dans le déroulement des projets passés pour détecter, rendre compte et minimiser les risques du PRAO en cours

Superoxide Dismutase in Songbirds: Effects of Mercury, Exercise, and Sex on an Enzymatic Antioxidant

Anthropogenic activities such as burning of fossil fuels, mining, and industrial processes continue to increase the levels of mercury circulating in the environment. Once methylated, mercury can be incorporated into animal tissues, causing it to biomagnify up the food web. Deleterious fitness impacts are commonly associated with increased mercury content in birds. The mechanistic pathway to those effects on fitness needs further research in order to develop appropriate remediation efforts and predict future harm on bird populations. Oxidative stress is proposed as one of the primary ways though which mercury causes accumulation of cellular damage. Well-documented cases of mercury induced oxidative stress indicate an increased level of reactive oxygen species along with a depletion of protective antioxidant molecules. We assessed the relationship between dietary mercury exposure and activity levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) isozymes to evaluate the ability of SOD to serve as a non-lethal biomarker of oxidative stress. We approached this goal in two ways. First, we monitored levels of extracellular SOD in the blood throughout the lifetime of zebra finches exposed to mercury only during development. We found no effect of developmental mercury exposure on SOD3 activity levels, but found significant effects of age and sex. Second, we examined the effect of lifetime mercury exposure and acute exercise on adult zebra finches. Again, mercury did not induce significant changes in SOD3 activity levels, however, sex did play a role in dictating SOD3 activity levels in the blood. We detected a small non-significant effect of mercury on liver, similar to that reported in Henry et al. (2014). This suggests that blood SOD3 activity levels may not be a viable option for quantifying mercury-induced oxidative stress, mammalian models suggest that this is because mercury interacts with each SOD isozyme differently. Mitochondrial SOD seems to be more susceptible to decreased activity levels from mercury than extracellular SOD. We found that sex is playing a crucial role in dictating SOD3 activity levels, likely due to estrogen’s role as an antioxidant, as previously demonstrated in mammalian models. This is the first in-depth analysis of the mercury, sex, exercise, and age activity levels as predictors of SOD3 in the plasma of songbirds. Because SOD3 activity sampled simultaneously in the liver and plasma of individuals did not correlate, SOD3 is not useful as a biomarker for Oxidative stress in zebra finches

E-Mentoring Across National Boundaries

Computer-based mentorship, or e-mentorship, is a beneficial mentoring technique that promotes independence and self-efficacy among the individuals being mentored, with and without a disability(1) (McDonald, Balcazar & Keys, 2005; Smith, 2008; Stumbo et al., 2010). E-mentorship increases and broadens the individual's communication and social skills and increases knowledge about overcoming community participation barriers. It also increases the visibility of individuals with disabilities by integrating them with the non-disabled, and allowing both sides to share views and experiences. Before introducing face-to-face programs, introducing an e-mentoring program will help build and empower youth(2) with disabilities in one country by using an existing mentor group based in a different country and the active resources of a traditional mentorship program committed to these activities. E-mentoring has the potential to expand mentorship programs from more economically developed western industrialized countries (such as UK or USA) to developing countries: across boundaries

Review of the genus Hovorestenia Santos-Silva (Coleoptera: Disteniidae)

Hovorestenia Santos-Silva, 2007 is a disteniid genus differentiated from other Neotropical Disteniini by the metatarsomeres II and V subequal in length, in contrast with the metatarsomere V distinctly longer than II in the other genera. So far, the genus is known only from male specimens. The discovery of new Hovorestenia species, represented by both sexes, shows that such current diagnostic character is sexually dimorphic, with metatarsomere V distinctly longer than II in female. The genus Hovorestenia is therefore reviewed and redescribed and two new species are described: H. cleideae, from Colombia and Ecuador, and H. espilota, from Colombia. It allowed to describe the hitherto unknown females and to appoint out sexually dimorphic characters for the first time in the genus. The genus is now composed of four species distributed from the central region of Colombia to Ecuador. Photographs of Hovorestenia species are included and a key to differentiate them is provided

Integration of experience feedback into the product lifecycle: an approach to best respond to the bidding process

Bidding process allows a client to choose a bidder to realize an embodiment of work, supply or service. From the bidder point of view, there are several obvious risks when responding because he bets on a future development that hasn’t been yet realized. We propose to assist the bidder with decision support tools based on past experiences to detect, report and minimize these potential risks. In this paper, we present the definition of a conceptual architecture to integrate experience feedback into the product lifecycle taking into account all stages of product lifecycle to best respond new bidding processes

La volatilidad de la tasa de interés a corto plazo : un ejercicio para la economía colombiana, 2001–2006

Este artículo utiliza y analiza, diversas metodologías para la modelación de la volatilidad de la tasa de interés a corto plazo. Específicamente se analizarán los resultados que se obtienen a través de la especificación CKLS, Heteroscedasticidad Condicionada y Mixta. Los hechos estilizados enseñan que la mejor especificación para describir el proceso generador de la tasa de interés interbancaria en la economía colombiana para el período 2001–2006 es el modelo EGARCH. Se encuentra que las innovaciones positivas en la tasa de interés ocasionan una volatilidad 22,3% mayor que innovaciones negativas de la misma magnitud. Además el proceso converge a una media no condicionada de 7,11% con una corrección diaria del 1,2%. Finalmente se corrobora la estabilidad de los parámetros del modelo seleccionado y se analizan los pronósticos estimados a partir de éste tomando como punto de referencia el histórico y el mercado. Se encuentra que el modelo ofrece pronósticos relativamente sensatos a un plazo de tres meses.26 p.In this paper we analyze different methodologies that are used to handle the short term interest rate volatility. Specifically, we shall analyze the outcomes that are obtained through three specifications: CKLS, Conditional Heteroscedastic and BHK. The evidence shows that the better specification is reached through the EGARCH model. It is found that positive shocks in the short term interest rate cause a volatility 22,3% higher than negative shock of the same size. Also, the process converges to an unconditioned mean of 7,11% with a correction factor of 1,2% daily. Finally, it is analyzed the stability of the parameters associated to the selected model and the model’s forecast. It is found that the model offers good forecast in a period of three months

Study, evaluation and contributions to new algorithms for the embedding problem in a network virtualization environment

Network virtualization is recognized as an enabling technology for the future Internet. It aims to overcome the resistance of the current Internet to architectural change and to enable a new business model decoupling the network services from the underlying infrastructure. The problem of embedding virtual networks in a substrate network is the main resource allocation challenge in network virtualization and is usually referred to as the Virtual Network Embedding (VNE) problem. VNE deals with the allocation of virtual resources both in nodes and links. Therefore, it can be divided into two sub-problems: Virtual Node Mapping where virtual nodes have to be allocated in physical nodes and Virtual Link Mapping where virtual links connecting these virtual nodes have to be mapped to paths connecting the corresponding nodes in the substrate network. Application of network virtualization relies on algorithms that can instantiate virtualized networks on a substrate infrastructure, optimizing the layout for service-relevant metrics. This class of algorithms is commonly known as VNE algorithms. This thesis proposes a set of contributions to solve the research challenges of the VNE that have not been tackled by the research community. To do that, it performs a deep and comprehensive survey of virtual network embedding. The first research challenge identified is the lack of proposals to solve the virtual link mapping stage of VNE using single path in the physical network. As this problem is NP-hard, existing proposals solve it using well known shortest path algorithms that limit the mapping considering just one constraint. This thesis proposes the use of a mathematical multi-constraint routing framework called paths algebra to solve the virtual link mapping stage. Besides, the thesis introduces a new demand caused by virtual link demands into physical nodes acting as intermediate (hidden) hops in a path of the physical network. Most of the current VNE approaches are centralized. They suffer of scalability issues and provide a single point of failure. In addition, they are not able to embed virtual network requests arriving at the same time in parallel. To solve this challenge, this thesis proposes a distributed, parallel and universal virtual network embedding framework. The proposed framework can be used to run any existing embedding algorithm in a distributed way. Thereby, computational load for embedding multiple virtual networks is spread across the substrate network Energy efficiency is one of the main challenges in future networking environments. Network virtualization can be used to tackle this problem by sharing hardware, instead of requiring dedicated hardware for each instance. Until now, VNE algorithms do not consider energy as a factor for the mapping. This thesis introduces the energy aware VNE where the main objective is to switch off as many network nodes and interfaces as possible by allocating the virtual demands to a consolidated subset of active physical networking equipment. To evaluate and validate the aforementioned VNE proposals, this thesis helped in the development of a software framework called ALgorithms for Embedding VIrtual Networks (ALEVIN). ALEVIN allows to easily implement, evaluate and compare different VNE algorithms according to a set of metrics, which evaluate the algorithms and compute their results on a given scenario for arbitrary parameters

Ethics and ethical dilemmas: some implications for psychologists

When we ask people what they understand by ethics, many definitions and concepts are mentioned. Usually, people use the word moral as a synonym, they associate it with the things people can or cannot do, the right thing, what is allowed or forbidden, what society wants people to do, laws to follow (called “ethical code”) and so on. Are these ideas right