Dynamic similarity promotes interpersonal coordination in joint-action

Human movement has been studied for decades and dynamic laws of motion that are common to all humans have been derived. Yet, every individual moves differently from everyone else (faster/slower, harder/smoother etc). We propose here an index of such variability, namely an individual motor signature (IMS) able to capture the subtle differences in the way each of us moves. We show that the IMS of a person is time-invariant and that it significantly differs from those of other individuals. This allows us to quantify the dynamic similarity, a measure of rapport between dynamics of different individuals' movements, and demonstrate that it facilitates coordination during interaction. We use our measure to confirm a key prediction of the theory of similarity that coordination between two individuals performing a joint-action task is higher if their motions share similar dynamic features. Furthermore, we use a virtual avatar driven by an interactive cognitive architecture based on feedback control theory to explore the effects of different kinematic features of the avatar motion on the coordination with human players

LA DISTANCE OBJECTIF-INDICATEUR EXPLIQUEE PAR L'AMBIGÜITE DANS LA GESTION PUBLIQUE. CAS DE LA LOI ORGANIQUE RELATIVE AUX LOIS DE FINANCES (LOLF)

En partant de l'exemple des budgets de l'État établis en mode L.O.L.F (Loi organique relative aux lois de finances) cette recherche se centre sur le passage des objectifs affichés aux indicateurs qui les mettent sous contrôle. En s'appuyant sur un test statistique. Ce travail vise à valider l'hypothèse de l'existence d'une contrainte paradoxale dans la pratique actuelle du management public : la recherche proclamée de la performance nécessite la mise sur pied d'indicateurs alors même que la logique politique dont l'empreinte est décisive sur la gestion publique s'accommode mal de la précision. Les données analysées trouvent leurs sources dans les projets annuels de performance qui regroupent les objectifs et les indicateurs de mesure de la performance de l'action de l'État pour 2009.Mesure de la performance, management public, rationalité politique, ambigüité, distance objectif-indicateur.

Le management par objectifs met-il fin à l’ambiguïté dans la gestion publique ?

En partant de l’exemple des budgets de l’État établis en mode LOLF (Loi Organique relative aux Lois de Finances), cette recherche se focalise sur le passage des objectifs affichés aux indicateurs qui les mettent sous contrôle. Elle entend explorer l’hypothèse de l’existence d’une contrainte paradoxale dans la pratique actuelle du management public : la recherche proclamée de la performance nécessite la mise sur pied d’indicateurs alors même que la logique politique dont l’empreinte est décisive sur la gestion publique s’accommode mal de la précision. Les données analysées trouvent leurs sources dans les projets annuels de performance qui regroupent les objectifs et les indicateurs de mesure de la performance de l’action de l’État pour 2009.The french financial “constitution” case. Based on the example of budgets established according to LOLF (Loi Organique relative aux Lois de Finances), this research focuses on the transition from the stated goals to indicators. Using a statistical test, this study aims to explore the hypothesis of the existence of a double bind in the current practice of public management : explicit search of performance needs measures to be implemented while “political rationality”, which govern public administration functioning is not precision-friendly. This study data come from the 2009 annual performance project

Le management par objectifs met-il fin à l’ambiguïté dans la gestion publique ?

En partant de l’exemple des budgets de l’État établis en mode LOLF (Loi Organique relative aux Lois de Finances), cette recherche se focalise sur le passage des objectifs affichés aux indicateurs qui les mettent sous contrôle. Elle entend explorer l’hypothèse de l’existence d’une contrainte paradoxale dans la pratique actuelle du management public : la recherche proclamée de la performance nécessite la mise sur pied d’indicateurs alors même que la logique politique dont l’empreinte est décisive sur la gestion publique s’accommode mal de la précision. Les données analysées trouvent leurs sources dans les projets annuels de performance qui regroupent les objectifs et les indicateurs de mesure de la performance de l’action de l’État pour 2009.The french financial “constitution” case. Based on the example of budgets established according to LOLF (Loi Organique relative aux Lois de Finances), this research focuses on the transition from the stated goals to indicators. Using a statistical test, this study aims to explore the hypothesis of the existence of a double bind in the current practice of public management : explicit search of performance needs measures to be implemented while “political rationality”, which govern public administration functioning is not precision-friendly. This study data come from the 2009 annual performance project

Unravelling socio-motor biomarkers in schizophrenia

We present novel, low-cost and non-invasive potential diagnostic biomarkers of schizophrenia. They are based on the ‘mirror-game’, a coordination task in which two partners are asked to mimic each other’s hand movements. In particular, we use the patient’s solo movement, recorded in the absence of a partner, and motion recorded during interaction with an artificial agent, a computer avatar or a humanoid robot. In order to discriminate between the patients and controls, we employ statistical learning techniques, which we apply to nonverbal synchrony and neuromotor features derived from the participants’ movement data. The proposed classifier has 93% accuracy and 100% specificity. Our results provide evidence that statistical learning techniques, nonverbal movement coordination and neuromotor characteristics could form the foundation of decision support tools aiding clinicians in cases of diagnostic uncertainty

High Therapeutic Efficacy of a New Survivin LSP-Cancer Vaccine Containing CD4+ and CD8+ T-Cell Epitopes

The efficacy of an antitumoral vaccine relies both on the choice of the antigen targeted and on its design. The tumor antigen survivin is an attractive target to develop therapeutic cancer vaccines because of its restricted over-expression and vital functions in most human tumors. Accordingly, several clinical trials targeting survivin in various cancer indications have been conducted. Most of them relied on short peptide-based vaccines and showed promising, but limited clinical results. In this study, we investigated the immunogenicity and therapeutic efficacy of a new long synthetic peptide (LSP)-based cancer vaccine targeting the tumor antigen survivin (SVX). This SVX vaccine is composed of three long synthetic peptides containing several CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell epitopes, which bind to various HLA class II and class I molecules. Studies in healthy individuals showed CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell immunogenicity of SVX peptides in human, irrespective of the individual's HLA types. Importantly, high frequencies of spontaneous T-cell precursors specific to SVX peptides were also detected in the blood of various cancer patients, demonstrating the absence of tolerance against these peptides. We then demonstrated SVX vaccine's high therapeutic efficacy against four different established murine tumor models, associated with its capacity to generate both specific cytotoxic CD8+ and multifunctional Th1 CD4+ T-cell responses. When tumors were eradicated, generated memory T-cell responses protected against rechallenge allowing long-term protection against relapses. Treatment with SVX vaccine was also found to reshape the tumor microenvironment by increasing the tumor infiltration of both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells but not Treg cells therefore tipping the balance toward a highly efficient immune response. These results highlight that this LSP-based SVX vaccine appears as a promising cancer vaccine and warrants its further clinical development

Kallikrein-related peptidase 5 contributes to H3N2 influenza virus infection in human lungs

Hemagglutinin (HA) of influenza virus must be activated by proteolysis before the virus can become infectious. Previous studies indicated that HA cleavage is driven by membrane-bound or extracellular serine proteases in the respiratory tract. However, there is still uncertainty as to which proteases are critical for activating HAs of seasonal influenza A viruses (IAVs) in humans. This study focuses on human KLK1 and KLK5, 2 of the 15 serine proteases known as the kallikrein-related peptidases (KLKs). We find that their mRNA expression in primary human bronchial cells is stimulated by IAV infection. Both enzymes cleaved recombinant HA from several strains of the H1 and/or H3 virus subtype in vitro, but only KLK5 promoted the infectivity of A/Puerto Rico/8/34 (H1N1) and A/Scotland/20/74 (H3N2) virions in MDCK cells. We assessed the ability of treated viruses to initiate influenza in mice. The nasal instillation of only the KLK5-treated virus resulted in weight loss and lethal outcomes. The secretion of this protease in the human lower respiratory tract is enhanced during influenza. Moreover, we show that pretreatment of airway secretions with a KLK5-selective inhibitor significantly reduced the activation of influenza A/Scotland/20/74 virions, providing further evidence of its importance. Differently, increased KLK1 secretion appeared to be associated with the recruitment of inflammatory cells in human airways regardless of the origin of inflammation. Thus, our findings point to the involvement of KLK5 in the proteolytic activation and spread of seasonal influenza viruses in humans

Supramolecular behaviour and fluorescence of rhodamine-functionalised ROMP polymers

Inherently fluorescent polymers are of interest in materials and medicine. We report a ring-opening metathesis polymerisation (ROMP) platform for creation of amphiphilic block copolymers in which one block is formed from rhodamine B-containing monomers. The polymers self-assemble into well-defined micelles which are able to sequester molecular dyes and further interact with them by energy transfer. Despite incorporating a cationic dye known to bind DNA, the polymer micelles do not interact with DNA, indicating that they are potentially safe for use in bioanalytical applications