La recherche au sein des organismes publics de l’Outaouais : survol des publications récentes

Depuis 1983, suite au dévoilement des politiques du gouvernement québécois en matière de planification régionale, l'Outaouais a connu une réorganisation de sa structure régionale de développement socio-économique et d'aménagement du territoire. Dans le cadre de ces changements, il y a eu une production considérable de documents de planification et de définitions des directions du développement. Plusieurs des organismes publics impliqués ont ainsi accordé une certaine importance à la recherche appliquée mais celle-ci demeure mal connue des milieux universitaires. Cette note est un aperçu bibliographique des activités de recherche des principaux organismes régionaux de planification et de développement.Since 1983, following the disclosure of the Québec governement's policies regarding regional planning, the Outaouais region has undergone a reorganization of its socio-economic development and regional planning structure. In the course of these modifications, a great number of documents were produced on the objectives and strategies of development. This research remains relatively unknown to academies. This paper provides a bibliographical outline of the research activities of the main agencies of regional planning and development concerned

Evaluation of the Equalising Performance of Central Government Financial Assistance to the Communes

The 36,600 French communes are far from able to offer their residents and businesses the same level of local public services for a given tax burden. Tax wealth is concentrated in a small number of communes while the costs of providing services differ considerably from one commune to the next. The purpose of the regional equalisation policy is to smooth out these disparities. It concerns an annual sum of approximately ¬20 billion in transfers. The 2003 constitutional reform, which set a target for the system to move towards greater equality, steps up the need for an evaluation of equalisation today. A preliminary overall and commune-by-commune evaluation is presented here. The overall analysis shows that the equalisation mechanisms are relatively effective and that this effectiveness increases over time. They reduced purchasing power inequalities by some 40% in 2001 as opposed to 34% in 1994.Equalisation, Fiscal Federalism, Inequalities, Public Finance

Les facteurs influençant le choix de fréquenter un collège privé ou public [rapport final]

Rapport final d'un projet de recherche financé par l'Association des collèges privés du Québec (ACPQ) dans le cadre du programme de recherche et d’expérimentation pédagogique (PREP) et appuyé par la Fédération des établissements d'enseignement privé (FEEP)

Étude comparative des facteurs influençant les élèves du secondaire privé à choisir un collège privé ou public pour la suite de leurs études

Rapport final d'un projet de recherche financé par l'Association des collèges privés du Québec (ACPQ) dans le cadre du programme de recherche et d’expérimentation pédagogique (PREP) et appuyé par la Fédération des établissements d'enseignement privé (FEEP).Comprend des références bibliographiques

Analyses of six homologous proteins of Protochlamydia amoebophila UWE25 encoded by large GC-rich genes (lgr): a model of evolution and concatenation of leucine-rich repeats

BACKGROUND: Along the chromosome of the obligate intracellular bacteria Protochlamydia amoebophila UWE25, we recently described a genomic island Pam100G. It contains a tra unit likely involved in conjugative DNA transfer and lgrE, a 5.6-kb gene similar to five others of P. amoebophila: lgrA to lgrD, lgrF. We describe here the structure, regulation and evolution of these proteins termed LGRs since encoded by "Large G+C-Rich" genes. RESULTS: No homologs to the whole protein sequence of LGRs were found in other organisms. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that serial duplications producing the six LGRs occurred relatively recently and nucleotide usage analyses show that lgrB, lgrE and lgrF were relocated on the chromosome. The C-terminal part of LGRs is homologous to Leucine-Rich Repeats domains (LRRs). Defined by a cumulative alignment score, the 5 to 18 concatenated octacosapeptidic (28-meric) LRRs of LGRs present all a predicted alpha-helix conformation. Their closest homologs are the 28-residue RI-like LRRs of mammalian NODs and the 24-meres of some Ralstonia and Legionella proteins. Interestingly, lgrE, which is present on Pam100G like the tra operon, exhibits Pfam domains related to DNA metabolism. CONCLUSION: Comparison of the LRRs, enable us to propose a parsimonious evolutionary scenario of these domains driven by adjacent concatenations of LRRs. Our model established on bacterial LRRs can be challenged in eucaryotic proteins carrying less conserved LRRs, such as NOD proteins and Toll-like receptors

Using the pea aphid Acrythociphon pisum as a tool for screening biological responses to chemicals and drugs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Though the biological process of aphid feeding is well documented, no one to date has sought to apply it as a tool to screen the biological responses to chemicals and drugs, in ecotoxicology, genotoxicology and/or for interactions in the cascade of sequential molecular events of embryogenesis. Parthenogenetic insect species present the advantage of an anatomical system composed of multiple germarium/ovarioles in the same mother with all the intermediate maturation stages of embryos from oocyte to first instar larva birth. This could be used as an interesting model to visualize at which step drugs interact with the cell signalling pathway during the ordered developmental process.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>We designed a simple test for screening drugs by investigating simultaneously zygote mitotic division, the progression of embryo development, cell differentiation at early developmental stages and finally organogenesis and population growth rate. We aimed to analyze the toxicology effects of compounds and/or their interference on cellular signalling by examining at which step of the cascade, from zygote to mature embryo, the developmental process is perturbed. We reasoned that a parthenogenetic founder insect, in which the ovarioles shelter numerous embryos at different developmental stages, would allow us to precisely pinpoint the step of embryogenesis in which chemicals act through specific molecular targets as the known ordered homeobox genes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Using this method we report the results of a genotoxicological and demographic analysis of three compound models bearing in common a bromo group: one is integrated as a base analog in DNA synthesis, two others activate permanently kinases. We report that one compound (Br-du) altered drastically embryogenesis, which argues in favor of this simple technique as a cheap first screening of chemicals or drugs to be used in a number of genotoxicology applications.</p

A genomic island present along the bacterial chromosome of the Parachlamydiaceae UWE25, an obligate amoebal endosymbiont, encodes a potentially functional F-like conjugative DNA transfer system

BACKGROUND: The genome of Protochlamydia amoebophila UWE25, a Parachlamydia-related endosymbiont of free-living amoebae, was recently published, providing the opportunity to search for genomic islands (GIs). RESULTS: On the residual cumulative G+C content curve, a G+C-rich 19-kb region was observed. This sequence is part of a 100-kb chromosome region, containing 100 highly co-oriented ORFs, flanked by two 17-bp direct repeats. Two identical gly-tRNA genes in tandem are present at the proximal end of this genetic element. Several mobility genes encoding transposases and bacteriophage-related proteins are located within this chromosome region. Thus, this region largely fulfills the criteria of GIs. The G+C content analysis shows that several modules compose this GI. Surprisingly, one of them encodes all genes essential for F-like conjugative DNA transfer (traF, traG, traH, traN, traU, traW, and trbC), involved in sex pilus retraction and mating pair stabilization, strongly suggesting that, similarly to the other F-like operons, the parachlamydial tra unit is devoted to DNA transfer. A close relatedness of this tra unit to F-like tra operons involved in conjugative transfer is confirmed by phylogenetic analyses performed on concatenated genes and gene order conservation. These analyses and that of gly-tRNA distribution in 140 GIs suggest a proteobacterial origin of the parachlamydial tra unit. CONCLUSIONS: A GI of the UWE25 chromosome encodes a potentially functional F-like DNA conjugative system. This is the first hint of a putative conjugative system in chlamydiae. Conjugation most probably occurs within free-living amoebae, that may contain hundreds of Parachlamydia bacteria tightly packed in vacuoles. Such a conjugative system might be involved in DNA transfer between internalized bacteria. Since this system is absent from the sequenced genomes of Chlamydiaceae, we hypothesize that it was acquired after the divergence between Parachlamydiaceae and Chlamydiaceae, when the Parachlamydia-related symbiont was an intracellular bacteria. It suggests that this heterologous DNA was acquired from a phylogenetically-distant bacteria sharing an amoebal vacuole. Since Parachlamydiaceae are emerging agents of pneumonia, this GI might be involved in pathogenicity. In future, conjugative systems might be developed as genetic tools for Chlamydiales