The Dual Function of Judgment Devices: Why Does the Plurality of Market Classifications Matter?

This article aims to advance understanding of the dual function of judgment devices (Karpik 2010) in markets. First, these devices support the construction of markets and their segmentation into classes of products, each segment being associated with different procedures for judging the quality or value of goods. Second, they organize classifications and a ranking of the things traded in the same market segment. The fragmentation of markets, understood as the cohabitation of several types of judgment devices, each one associated with different configurations of actors and practices, can then be seen as a welcome source of diversity, preventing the standardizing effects that would result from over-similar judgment devices. This article studies the classification operations that accompany changes in the French market that provides funding for social-sector organizations through financial and banking channels. We observe the arrival on this market of impact investing, the name given since the end of the 2000s to a set of venture capitalism-inspired financing methods that originated in the USA and the UK. We study these classification operations at three levels: the boundary-building work needed to create the idea of a new financing market (the impact investing (II) market), the fragmentation of the existing market for financing social organizations into sub-spaces governed by different assessment and classification regimes, and the effect of these classifications on the organizations being judged

Des hommes pour prendre soin des machines : étude de l’activité de maintenance de l’agent de lubrification au sein des industries de flux

This thesis sets out to analyse maintenance work in process manufacturing based on the study of sensory attention. It draws on an immersive field study at an industrial lubrication contractor. The worker taking care of lubrification is at the crossroad of two work organisations, continuous production and discrete interventions. These two organisations proceed from opposite sensory engagements : reflex attention, and active attention. This divergence will structure the appreciation of the activity of lubrification workers as a professional group. Paradoxically, it is the interventions during production shutdowns, which is both physically more taxing and less frequent, that are instituting this identity, as opposed to the monitoring of the machinery. These sensory activities of the maintenance worker, whether spontaneous or ordered, are closely linked with the degree of automation of the production system because they extend its sensory-motor mechanism.L’entretien des industries de flux est généralement étudié sous les angles du chantier annuel, du travail en urgence ou des risques au travail. Ces évènements sur lesquels s’accrochent ces recherches, c’est-à-dire la rupture organisée du flux de production, l’aléa mécanique et l’accident de travail, ne rendent pas compte de l’activité de maintenance au quotidien. Cette thèse se propose d’adopter le point de vue du maintenancier. Elle rend compte de l’activité d’entretien des industries de flux, et plus particulièrement de celle de l’agent de lubrification. Ce maintenancier assure la lubrification des mécanismes de transmission et de transformation du mouvement rotatif, il met de l’huile dans les rouages. Son activité est liée au processus d’automatisation des systèmes productifs. Cette recherche s’appuie sur une enquête en immersion d’une durée de six ans reposant sur la méthode de l’observation participante au sein d’une entreprise prestataire de services, spécialisée en lubrification industrielle. L’étude de l’activité de l’agent de lubrification permet de différencier trois temporalités de travail : le Grand arrêt, le Stop and Go et En marche. Chacune de ces temporalités renvoie à un état du système productif automatisé et se concrétise par des organisations spécifiques de « chasse à la panne ». L’agent de lubrification, en valorisant différemment ces temporalités de travail, cherche à déterminer son bon boulot et former sa propre identité professionnelle. Cette identité est renforcée par le phénomène de fluidité secondaire, qui consiste en la mise en circulation de cette main-d’œuvre spécialisée au sein de clusters industriels, au gré des commandes des entreprises utilisatrices. Les besoins en maintenance des industries de flux varient en fonction du type d’infrastructure du flux nécessaire au processus productif. Plus ces infrastructures conjuguent un travail mécanique et une concentration spatiale importants, plus on remarque une fragilité technique, et donc une organisation complexe de la maintenance

Des hommes pour prendre soin des machines : étude de l’activité de maintenance de l’agent de lubrification au sein des industries de flux

This thesis sets out to analyse maintenance work in process manufacturing based on the study of sensory attention. It draws on an immersive field study at an industrial lubrication contractor. The worker taking care of lubrification is at the crossroad of two work organisations, continuous production and discrete interventions. These two organisations proceed from opposite sensory engagements : reflex attention, and active attention. This divergence will structure the appreciation of the activity of lubrification workers as a professional group. Paradoxically, it is the interventions during production shutdowns, which is both physically more taxing and less frequent, that are instituting this identity, as opposed to the monitoring of the machinery. These sensory activities of the maintenance worker, whether spontaneous or ordered, are closely linked with the degree of automation of the production system because they extend its sensory-motor mechanism.L’entretien des industries de flux est généralement étudié sous les angles du chantier annuel, du travail en urgence ou des risques au travail. Ces évènements sur lesquels s’accrochent ces recherches, c’est-à-dire la rupture organisée du flux de production, l’aléa mécanique et l’accident de travail, ne rendent pas compte de l’activité de maintenance au quotidien. Cette thèse se propose d’adopter le point de vue du maintenancier. Elle rend compte de l’activité d’entretien des industries de flux, et plus particulièrement de celle de l’agent de lubrification. Ce maintenancier assure la lubrification des mécanismes de transmission et de transformation du mouvement rotatif, il met de l’huile dans les rouages. Son activité est liée au processus d’automatisation des systèmes productifs. Cette recherche s’appuie sur une enquête en immersion d’une durée de six ans reposant sur la méthode de l’observation participante au sein d’une entreprise prestataire de services, spécialisée en lubrification industrielle. L’étude de l’activité de l’agent de lubrification permet de différencier trois temporalités de travail : le Grand arrêt, le Stop and Go et En marche. Chacune de ces temporalités renvoie à un état du système productif automatisé et se concrétise par des organisations spécifiques de « chasse à la panne ». L’agent de lubrification, en valorisant différemment ces temporalités de travail, cherche à déterminer son bon boulot et former sa propre identité professionnelle. Cette identité est renforcée par le phénomène de fluidité secondaire, qui consiste en la mise en circulation de cette main-d’œuvre spécialisée au sein de clusters industriels, au gré des commandes des entreprises utilisatrices. Les besoins en maintenance des industries de flux varient en fonction du type d’infrastructure du flux nécessaire au processus productif. Plus ces infrastructures conjuguent un travail mécanique et une concentration spatiale importants, plus on remarque une fragilité technique, et donc une organisation complexe de la maintenance

Glucose homeostasis is impaired in mice deficient in the neuropeptide 26RFa (QRFP)

International audienceSignificance of this study What is already known about this subject? ► 26RFa is a biologically active peptide produced in abundance in the gut and the pancreas. ► 26RFa has been found to regulate glucose homeo-stasis by acting as an incretin and by increasing insulin sensitivity. What are the new findings? ► Disruption of the 26RFa gene induces substantial alteration in the regulation of glucose homeostasis, with in particular a deficit in insulin production by the pancreatic islets, assessing therefore the notion that 26RFa is an important regulator of glucose homeostasis. How might these results change the focus of research or clinical practice? ► Identification of a novel actor in the regulation of glucose homeostasis is crucial to better understand the general control of glucose metabolism in physiological and pathophysiological conditions, and opens new fields of investigation to develop innovative drugs to treat diabetes mellitus. AbStrAct Introduction 26RFa (pyroglutamyl RFamide peptide (QRFP)) is a biologically active peptide that has been found to control feeding behavior by stimulating food intake, and to regulate glucose homeostasis by acting as an incretin. The aim of the present study was thus to investigate the impact of 26RFa gene knockout on the regulation of energy and glucose metabolism. Research design and methods 26RFa mutant mice were generated by homologous recombination, in which the entire coding region of prepro26RFa was replaced by the iCre sequence. Energy and glucose metabolism was evaluated through measurement of complementary parameters. Morphological and physiological alterations of the pancreatic islets were also investigated. Results Our data do not reveal significant alteration of energy metabolism in the 26RFa-deficient mice except the occurrence of an increased basal metabolic rate. By contrast, 26RFa mutant mice exhibited an altered glycemic phenotype with an increased hyperglycemia after a glucose challenge associated with an impaired insulin production, and an elevated hepatic glucose production. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional immunohistochemical experiments indicate that the insulin content of pancreatic β cells is much lower in the 26RFa −/− mice as compared with the wild-type littermates. Conclusion Disruption of the 26RFa gene induces substantial alteration in the regulation of glucose homeostasis, with in particular a deficit in insulin production by the pancreatic islets. These findings further support the notion that 26RFa is an important regulator of glucose homeostasis

Regulation and impact of cardiac lymphangiogenesis in pressure-overload-induced heart failure

International audienceAims: Lymphatics are essential for cardiac health, and insufficient lymphatic expansion (lymphangiogenesis) contributes to development of heart failure (HF) after myocardial infarction. However, the regulation and impact of lymphangiogenesis in non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy following pressure-overload remains to be determined. Here, we investigated cardiac lymphangiogenesis following transversal aortic constriction (TAC) in C57Bl/6 and Balb/c mice, and in end-stage HF patients.Methods and results: Cardiac function was evaluated by echocardiography, and cardiac hypertrophy, lymphatics, inflammation, oedema, and fibrosis by immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry, microgravimetry, and gene expression analysis. Treatment with neutralizing anti-VEGFR3 antibodies was applied to inhibit cardiac lymphangiogenesis in mice. We found that VEGFR3-signalling was essential to prevent cardiac lymphatic rarefaction after TAC in C57Bl/6 mice. While anti-VEGFR3-induced lymphatic rarefaction did not significantly aggravate myocardial oedema post-TAC, cardiac immune cell levels were increased, notably myeloid cells at 3 weeks and T lymphocytes at 8 weeks. Moreover, whereas inhibition of lymphangiogenesis did not aggravate interstitial fibrosis, it increased perivascular fibrosis and accelerated development of left ventricular (LV) dilation and dysfunction. In clinical HF samples, cardiac lymphatic density tended to increase, although lymphatic sizes decreased, notably in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. Similarly, comparing C57Bl/6 and Balb/c mice, lymphatic remodelling post-TAC was linked to LV dilation rather than to hypertrophy. The striking lymphangiogenesis in Balb/c was associated with reduced cardiac levels of macrophages, B cells, and perivascular fibrosis at 8 weeks post-TAC, as compared with C57Bl/6 mice that displayed weak lymphangiogenesis. Surprisingly, however, it did not suffice to resolve myocardial oedema, nor prevent HF development.Conclusions: We demonstrate for the first time that endogenous lymphangiogenesis limits TAC-induced cardiac inflammation and perivascular fibrosis, delaying HF development in C57Bl/6 but not in Balb/c mice. While the functional impact of lymphatic remodelling remains to be determined in HF patients, our findings suggest that under settings of pressure-overload poor cardiac lymphangiogenesis may accelerate HF development