Dynamiques spatiales de la Cité scientifique Paris sud : innovation, compétitivité, territoire. De l'atome au photon, ou d'une dynamique de "complexe militaro-industriel et nucléaire" vers une dynamique de "cluster

L'histoire de la constitution de la technopole Île-de-France sud, l'organisation du système d'innovation francilien, sont rappelés dans ce rapport qui est centré sur l'émergence et le fonctionnement d'un nouveau pôle dans une région métropolitaine, le pôle optronique de l'Île-de-France sud ; l'analyse de ces processus peut relever de trois types d'approches : une approche de type industriel, une approche de type urbain et une approche de type territorial. Si les trois approches ont chacune leur pertinence, la première s'en tient essentiellement aux facteurs génériques de localisation et d'organisation industrielle, tandis que la seconde voit dans la grande ville un contexte général favorisant l'innovation. La troisième enfin permet de préciser plus finement de quels territoires est constituée la métropole et si des logiques territoriales d'innovation apparaissent en certains d'entre eux. C'est cette dernière approche en termes de constitution de réseaux d'innovation, d'émergence de logiques d'apprentissage et de création d'une identité collective au sein du " micro-milieu innovateur " de l'optique qui est développée dans ce rapportterritoire;économie urbaine;innovation;optique, Ile-de-France;Ile-de-France sud;Cité scientifique Paris sud; Paris;dynamique

Evaluation of a Commercial Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) for the Determination of the Neurotoxin BMAA in Surface Waters

The neurotoxin ß-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) is suspected to play a role in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Because BMAA seems to be produced by cyanobacteria, surface waters are screened for BMAA. However, reliable analysis of BMAA requires specialized and expensive equipment. In 2012, a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for determination of BMAA in surface waters was released. This kit could enable fast and relatively cheap screening of surface waters for BMAA. The objective of this study was to determine whether the BMAA ELISA kit was suitable for the determination of BMAA concentrations in surface waters. We hypothesised that the recovery of spiked samples was close to 100% and that the results of unspiked sample analysis were comparable between ELISA and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis. However, we found that recovery was higher than 100% in most spiked samples, highest determined recovery was over 400%. Furthermore, the ELISA gave a positive signal for nearly each tested sample while no BMAA could be detected by LC-MS/MS. We therefore conclude that in its current state, the kit is not suitable for screening surface waters for BMAA

Autism Spectrum Traits in the Typical Population Predict Structure and Function in the Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are typically characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, narrow interests, and repetitive behaviors. The heterogeneity in the severity of these characteristics across individuals with ASD has led some researchers to suggest that these disorders form a continuum which extends into the general, or “typical,” population, and there is growing evidence that the extent to which typical adults display autistic traits, as measured using the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ), predicts performance on behavioral tasks that are impaired in ASD. Here, we show that variation in autism spectrum traits is related to cortical structure and function within the typical population. Voxel-based morphometry showed that increased AQ scores were associated with decreased white matter volume in the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), a region important in processing socially relevant stimuli and associated with structural and functional impairments in ASD. In addition, AQ was correlated with the extent of cortical deactivation of an adjacent area of pSTS during a Stroop task relative to rest, reflecting variation in resting state function. The results provide evidence that autism spectrum characteristics are reflected in neural structure and function across the typical (non-ASD) population

Rotation of planet-harbouring stars

The rotation rate of a star has important implications for the detectability, characterisation and stability of any planets that may be orbiting it. This chapter gives a brief overview of stellar rotation before describing the methods used to measure the rotation periods of planet host stars, the factors affecting the evolution of a star's rotation rate, stellar age estimates based on rotation, and an overview of the observed trends in the rotation properties of stars with planets.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures: Invited review to appear in 'Handbook of Exoplanets', Springer Reference Works, edited by Hans J. Deeg and Juan Antonio Belmont

Challenges in the implementation of responsible research and innovation across Horizon 2020

In the last decade, the European Commission (EC) developed an ambitious strategy to promote RRI across the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (H2020). This effort resulted in a significant number of European-funded projects that substantially expanded the available knowledge of the theory, methods and implementation of RRI. However, various evaluations and studies revealed a limited and diffuse implementation of the concept. In this article, we aim to shed some light on this matter with a study covering eight programme lines of H2020 (ERC, MSCA, LEIT, FOOD, ENV, SEC, WIDENING and EURATOM). We employ an extensive policy document analysis and 112 semi-structured interviews carried out with various stakeholders. We argue that the limited implementation of RRI in H2020 is the result of conflicts with existing values, science cultures, economic objectives, restricted resources for its implementation and a lack of clarification around what RRI means

Science Impacts of the SPHEREx All-Sky Optical to Near-Infrared Spectral Survey: Report of a Community Workshop Examining Extragalactic, Galactic, Stellar and Planetary Science

SPHEREx is a proposed SMEX mission selected for Phase A. SPHEREx will carry out the first all-sky spectral survey and provide for every 6.2" pixel a spectra between 0.75 and 4.18 $\mu$m [with R$\sim$41.4] and 4.18 and 5.00 $\mu$m [with R$\sim$135]. The SPHEREx team has proposed three specific science investigations to be carried out with this unique data set: cosmic inflation, interstellar and circumstellar ices, and the extra-galactic background light. It is readily apparent, however, that many other questions in astrophysics and planetary sciences could be addressed with the SPHEREx data. The SPHEREx team convened a community workshop in February 2016, with the intent of enlisting the aid of a larger group of scientists in defining these questions. This paper summarizes the rich and varied menu of investigations that was laid out. It includes studies of the composition of main belt and Trojan/Greek asteroids; mapping the zodiacal light with unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution; identifying and studying very low-metallicity stars; improving stellar parameters in order to better characterize transiting exoplanets; studying aliphatic and aromatic carbon-bearing molecules in the interstellar medium; mapping star formation rates in nearby galaxies; determining the redshift of clusters of galaxies; identifying high redshift quasars over the full sky; and providing a NIR spectrum for most eROSITA X-ray sources. All of these investigations, and others not listed here, can be carried out with the nominal all-sky spectra to be produced by SPHEREx. In addition, the workshop defined enhanced data products and user tools which would facilitate some of these scientific studies. Finally, the workshop noted the high degrees of synergy between SPHEREx and a number of other current or forthcoming programs, including JWST, WFIRST, Euclid, GAIA, K2/Kepler, TESS, eROSITA and LSST.Comment: Report of the First SPHEREx Community Workshop, http://spherex.caltech.edu/Workshop.html , 84 pages, 28 figure

New HoRRIzon: D2.5 Actions and Activities to Realize RRI in Excellent Science

This Deliverable tells about the journey of the Social Labs from their very beginning, in which we struggled to first get an understanding of the particular Funding Line of H2020 and tried to “diagnose” its uptake of RRI, continuing with the identification of our stakeholders and our attempt to incentivize them to participate in the Social Labs. In this Deliverable, we explain which methods we used in our Social Lab Workshops to raise and discuss the question of responsibility in research and innovation and to generate ideas for Pilot Actions, which experiences we made with these group methods and, most importantly, which Pilot Actions the Social Lab participants created, developed, changed and implemented in order to realize their ambitions of RRI and a responsible research and innovation system