Supporting diamond open access journals: Interest and feasibility of direct funding mechanisms

As Article Processing Charges (APC) has been a growing concern in academia and policy making, the need for a model where both authors and readers do not pay – the so-called Diamond, or non-APC model – is regularly called for. However, this call is often combined with questions about its sustainability, particularly in financial terms. To answer this concern, this article explores the practical conditions to implement a direct funding mechanism to Diamond open access journals, that is recurrent money provided by funders to support the publication process. Based on a questionnaire survey sent to more than 1,000 Diamond OA journals, it investigates their financial needs, as well as their capacity to interact with research funding organizations (RFOs). The results are structured around four issues regarding the implementation of a direct funding model. First, most Diamond OA journals already make use of money rather than exclusively relying on support and volunteering. Second, those needs would be fulfilled in the eventuality of a regular income from research funders. Third, under this hypothesis, a vast majority of Diamond OA journals can receive and spend money. Finally, most of these journals could develop funding acknowledgments for each article with the promise of regular income through a direct funding mechanism. The conclusion addresses the challenges that such a recurrent financial stream would spur

Hommage à André Vanoli : praticien, réformateur et historien de la comptabilité nationale

André Vanoli est né le 22 octobre 1930 à Portel (Pas-de-Calais), et mort le 20 février 2022 à Paris. Comptable national dès la fin des années 50, historien de sa propre discipline, il a été un acteur de premier plan dans le développement de la comptabilité nationale tant en France qu’au niveau des institutions internationales. Il a également produit des travaux théoriques et historiques dont l’influence s’étend au-delà des praticiens de la comptabilité nationale, notamment en économie, en hi..

Convergence of Fourier-based time methods for turbomachinery wake passing problems

The convergence of Fourier-based time methods applied to turbomachinery flows is assessed. The focus is on the harmonic balance method, which is a time-domain Fourier-based approach standing as an efficient alternative to classical time marching schemes for periodic flows. In the literature, no consensus exists concerning the number of harmonics needed to achieve convergence for turbomachinery stage configurations. In this paper it is shown that the convergence of Fourier-based methods is closely related to the impulsive nature of the flow solution, which in turbomachines is essentially governed by the characteristics of the passing wakes between adjacent rows. As a result of the proposed analysis, a priori estimates are provided for the minimum number of harmonics required to accurately compute a given turbomachinery configuration. Their application to several contra-rotating open-rotor configurations is assessed, demonstrating the practical interest of the proposed methodology

Supporting diamond open access journals. Interest and feasibility of direct funding mechanisms

De plus en plus d’universitaires et de gouvernements considèrent que le modèle de libre accès basé sur l’article est problématique, non seulement en raison des inégalités qu’il génère et renforce, mais aussi parce qu’il est devenu insoutenable et même opposé aux valeurs de libre accès

Donar: Anonymous VoIP over Tor

International audienceWe present DONAR, a system enabling anonymous VoIP with good quality-of-experience (QoE) over Tor. No individual Tor link can match VoIP networking requirements. DONAR bridges this gap by spreading VoIP traffic over several links. It combines active performance monitoring, dynamic link selection, adaptive traffic scheduling, and redundancy at no extra bandwidth cost. DONAR enables high QoE: latency remains under 360 ms for 99% of VoIP packets during most (86%) 5-minute and 90-minute calls

Prevalence of macular complications related to myopia – Results of a multicenter evaluation of myopic patients in eye clinics in France

Purpose: Uncorrected refractive errors are the first cause of vision impairment worldwide. High myopia is a frequent cause of sight‐threatening chorioretinal complications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of macular complications, visual impairment and blindness in patients with myopia. Methods: A cross‐sectional multicenter study carried out in French eye clinics mainly dedicated to refractive errors. Myopia severity was defined as mild (−0.5 to −3 D), moderate (−3 to −6 D), high (−6 to −10 D) and very high (more than −10 D). Macular complications related to myopia included lacquer cracks, myopic choroidal neovascularization, chorioretinal atrophy and retinoschisis. The prevalences of macular complications, blindness and vision impairment were estimated with respect to degree of myopia and age. Eligibility criteria were myopia on the left eye of −0.5 D or more. Exclusion criteria included any missing data related to subjective refractive error, age, gender and any history of cataract or refractive surgery. Results: Data files from 198 641 myopic individuals with a mean age of 34 years (SD: 15 years) were analysed. The prevalence of mild, moderate, high and very high myopia was, respectively, 65.95%, 26.14%, 6.72% and 1.19%. The prevalence of macular complications in the high and very high myopia groups was 0.5% [0.39–0.64] and 4.27% [3.49–5.17]. The prevalence of blindness or vision impairment was observed in 10.10% [8.91–11.39%] of the very high myopic group. At 60 years old or over, the prevalences of blindness or vision impairment were, respectively, 9.75% [7.91–11.85%] and 25.71% [21.00–30.87%] in the high and very high myopia groups. Conclusions: This multicenter cross‐sectional study provides new insights in terms of prevalence of macular complications related to myopia. To our knowledge, this is one of the largest European studies focusing on individuals with myopia, particularly on the macular complications and the functional consequences in relation to myopia

Total and Parity-Projected Level Densities of Iron-Region Nuclei in the Auxiliary Fields Monte Carlo Shell Model

We use the auxiliary-fields Monte Carlo method for the shell model in the complete $(pf+0g_{9/2})$-shell to calculate level densities. We introduce parity projection techniques which enable us to calculate the parity dependence of the level density. Results are presented for $^{56}$Fe, where the calculated total level density is found to be in remarkable agreement with the experimental level density. The parity-projected densities are well described by a backshifted Bethe formula, but with significant dependence of the single-particle level-density and backshift parameters on parity. We compare our exact results with those of the thermal Hartree-Fock approximation.Comment: 14 pages, 3 Postscript figures included, RevTe

A New Population of Planetary Nebulae Discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud (III): The Luminosity Function

Our previous identification and spectroscopic confirmation of 431 faint, new planetary nebulae in the central 25 deg^2 region of the LMC permits us to now examine the shape of the LMC Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function (PNLF) through an unprecedented 10 magnitude range. The majority of our newly discovered and previously known PNe were observed using the 2dF, multi-object fibre spectroscopy system on the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope and the FLAMES multi-object spectrograph on the 8-m VLT. We present reliable [OIII]5007 and H-beta flux estimates based on calibrations to well established PN fluxes from previous surveys and spectroscopic standard stars. The bright cutoff (M*) of the PNLF is found by fitting a truncated exponential curve to the bright end of the PNLF over a 3.4 magnitude range. This cutoff is used to estimate a new distance modulus of 18.46 to the LMC, in close agreement with previous PNLF studies and the best estimates by other indicators. The bright end cutoff is robust to small samples of bright PNe since significantly increased PN samples do not change this fiducial. We then fit a truncated exponential curve directly to the bright end of the function over a 6 magnitude range and test the curve's ability to indicate the position of M*. Because of the significant increase in the number of LMC PN, the shape of the PNLF is now examined in greater detail than has previously been possible. Through cumulative functions, the new LMC PNLF is compared to those from the SMC and a new deep local Galactic sample revealing the effects of incompleteness. The new [OIII]5007 LMC PNLF is then compared to our new H-beta LMC PNLF using calibrated and measured fluxes for the same objects, revealing the effects of metallicity on the [OIII]5007 line.Comment: 28 pages, 24 figures. Accepted MNRA

In Vitro Recombination Catalyzed by Bacterial Class 1 Integron Integrase IntI1 Involves Cooperative Binding and Specific Oligomeric Intermediates

Gene transfer via bacterial integrons is a major pathway for facilitating the spread of antibiotic resistance genes across bacteria. Recently the mechanism underlying the recombination catalyzed by class 1 integron recombinase (IntI1) between attC and attI1 was highlighted demonstrating the involvement of a single-stranded intermediary on the attC site. However, the process allowing the generation of this single-stranded substrate has not been determined, nor have the active IntI1•DNA complexes been identified. Using the in vitro strand transfer assay and a crosslink strategy we previously described we demonstrated that the single-stranded attC sequences could be generated in the absence of other bacterial proteins in addition to IntI. This suggests a possible role for this protein in stabilizing and/or generating this structure. The mechanism of folding of the active IntI•DNA complexes was further analyzed and we show here that it involves a cooperative binding of the protein to each recombination site and the emergence of different oligomeric species specific for each DNA substrate. These findings provide further insight into the recombination reaction catalyzed by IntI1