What Type Of Enterprise Forges Close Links With Universities And Government Labs? Evidence From CIS 2

This paper tries to uncover some of the economic factors that encourage firms to seek information from universities and government labs or to collaborate with these institutions. We exploit the information contained in the second Community Innovation Surveys (CIS2) for France, Germany, Ireland and Spain. We estimate an ordered probit model on the importance of knowledge sourcing from universities and government labs controlling for selection bias, and a trivariate probit model explaining the innovation, collaboration in innovation, and collaboration with universities and government labs decisions with twice censored data. R&D-intensive firms and radical innovators tend to source knowledge from universities and government labs but not to cooperate with them directly. Outright collaborations in innovation with universities and government labs is characteristic of large firms, firms that patent or those that receive government support for innovation. Members of an enterprise group tend to cooperate in innovation but not directly with universities or government labs. Cette étude essaye de découvrir quels sont les facteurs économiques qui poussent les entreprises à chercher de l'information pour innover auprès des universités et des laboratoires publics de recherche ou à coopérer avec ces deux institutions. Nous nous servons des données de la seconde vague d'enquêtes communautaires d'innovation européennes (CIS2) pour l'Allemagne, la France, l'Espagne et l'Irlande. Nous estimons, d'une part, un modèle probit ordonné pour les universités et les laboratoires publics de recherche comme sources d'information, en contrôlant pour un biais de sélection et, d'autre part, un modèle probit trivarié pour les décisions successives d'innover, de collaborer et en particulier de collaborer avec les universités et les laboratoires publics de recherche, avec deux censures des données. Nous trouvons que les entreprises intensives en recherche et les innovateurs radicaux vont chercher de l'information auprès des universités et les laboratoires publics mais ne collaborent pas eux. Ces collaborations sont le fait de grandes firmes, d'entreprises breveteuses, et de celles qui reçoivent du support gouvermental pour innover. Des entreprises qui font partie d'un groupe ont tendance à collaborer mais pas nécessairement avec les universités et les laboratoires publics re recherche.Innovation, industry-university collaborations, knowledge sourcing, government labs, CIS2, Innovation, collaborations universités-entreprises, laboratoires publics de recherche, sources d'information pour innover, CIS2

Taxonomic revision and phylogeny of the Ophiocoma brevipes group (Echinodermata, Ophiuroidea) : with description of a new subgenus (Breviturma) and a new species

The taxonomy of the genus Ophiocoma was last revised by Devaney in 1970. Recent discoveries of new species and re-instatement of previously synonymized names suggest that we still do not fully understand the species limits in this genus. A recent biodiversity survey of the SW Indian Ocean shallow reefs strongly suggested an unrecognised species in the genus, closely related to O. brevipes/O. dentata. This study examined both the molecular phylogenetic relationships and the morphological characteristics of several species in the genus in order to characterise the unrecognised species. The focal species clusters with O. brevipes, O. dentata, O. doederleini within a monophyletic clade supported by molecular data for the first time. The name Breviturma subgen. nov. is proposed for this clade, previously known as brevipes group. Type material of nominal species that have been synonymized with O. dentata was examined and re-assessed. Ophiocoma marmorata proved not conspecific with O. dentata. A rarely used character, dorsal disc granule density, was tested and showed differences between the examined species at similar sizes. In combination with colour pattern, disc granule density, arm spine sequence and maximum disc size, the new species was delimited morphologically and described as Ophiocoma krohi sp. nov

Does deliberation matter?: the impact of the Bologna process on attitudes and policies in European higher education

This research analyses the impact of deliberative governance mechanisms on policy reforms. This mode of governance involves the direct participation of state and non-state actors in meetings, during which participants are open to the exchange of arguments about a particular policy space and to reaching an agreement which can be non-binding. This research develops the theoretical claim that deliberative governance has a significant impact on the cognitive aspect of domestic policies and in particular individual attitudes. It focuses on the Bologna process that has been at the heart of European-wide reforms of higher education and investigates three aspects. First, a survey of participants in the Bologna process shows how their attitudes have changed. Secondly, case studies of the Sorbonne and Bologna agreements of the 25th of May 1998 and the 19th of June 1999 investigate how those changes of attitudes and policies fit participants’ interests. Thirdly, a comparison between reforms in England and France (mid-1980s-2007) discusses how changes of attitudes relate to domestic policy changes. The study explores two mechanisms that have been widely held to facilitate reforms, namely ‘learning’ and ‘strategic use’. The study finds that participants are open to changing their perceptions and receiving information on policy options in deliberations if it fits their interests. Deliberations also help diffuse paradigms which facilitate domestic reforms. More importantly, deliberative governance obeys a certain hierarchy when influencing individual attitudes. It starts by changing the most instrumental attitudes. However, all attitudes are connected, leading to a spiralling effect toward attitude change concerning more fundamental domestic reforms. Deliberative governance therefore has the potential to create some convergence in certain policy areas. This research contributes to the relevant European integration literature on deliberative governance and policy change by drawing on theoretical insights from the wide literature on cognitive theories. It also adds to the specialist field of studies concerning the European higher education area

Caractérisation fonctionnelle des ARN nucléolaires U8 et U13 et des microARN du cluster miR-379/410

Ces dernières années, le monde du non-codant a connu une formidable expansion grâce à la découverte de nouveaux petits ARNnc régulateurs chez les mammifères. Certains d'entre eux présentent des caractéristiques encore jamais observées puisqu'ils peuvent être tissu-spécifiques, répétés en tandem ou soumis à l'empreinte génomique parentale. Cependant, la fonction de beaucoup d'entre eux reste à ce jour inconnue. Nos travaux ont porté, par des approches de perte de fonction, sur la caractérisation fonctionnelle d'ARN appartenant à deux grandes familles de petits ARNnc : les ARN nucléolaires à boîtes C/D (snoARN C/D) et les microARN. Les snoARN C/D sont connus pour participer à la biogenèse des ARN ribosomiques (ARNr) et du petit ARN du spliceosome U6 (snARN U6). Afin d'étudier la fonction de deux snoRNP humaines, U8 et U13, nous avons développé une nouvelle technique d'inactivation de ces ARN C/D dans des cellules en culture, basées sur l'utilisation d'oligonucléotides antisens modifiés appelés LNA (Locked Nucleic Acids). Nous avons ainsi pu démontrer, pour la première fois, l'importance de snoRNP humaines pour la croissance cellulaire ainsi que leur rôle éventuel de chaperon dans des conditions de stress cellulaire. De plus, nous avons montré pour U8 une implication dans la biogenèse des ARN ribosomiques. Ces travaux constituent donc une première étape dans l'étude systématique des nombreux snoARN de mammifères dont la fonction est encore inconnue. Les microARN sont des régulateurs de l'expression des gènes à un niveau post-transcriptionnel. Nos travaux portent sur le cluster de microARN murin miR-379/410, codant pour 54 microARN et représentant près de 10% des microARN murins identifiés à ce jour. Il est situé au locus Dlk1-Dio3, une région ayant la particularité d'être soumise à l'empreinte génomique parentale, un mécanisme épigénétique qui conduit à une expression monoallélique des gènes, et ce de manière strictement dépendante de l'origine parentale du chromosome qui porte les allèles. Afin d'étudier la fonction des microARN du cluster miR-379/410, nous avons généré une lignée de souris knockout pour ce cluster. Nos premiers résultats montrent que ces microARN sont importants pour la viabilité post-natale des souris ainsi que pour leur croissance. Ces travaux constituent une avancée importante dans la compréhension du rôle des miARN chez les mammifères.In the past few years, non-coding world has greatly expanded thanks to the discovery of new small regulatory ncRNAs in mammals. Some of them have particular features, as they may be tissue-specific, repeated in tandem or subjected to genomic imprinting. However, the function of many of them remains unknown. Our work has focused, using loss of function approaches, on the functional characterization of RNAs from two large families of small ncRNAs: C/D box small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) and microRNAs. C/D snoRNAs are known to participate in the biogenesis of ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) and small spliceosome U6 RNA (U6 snRNA). To investigate the function of two human snoRNPs, U8 and U13, we developed a new inactivation technique of C/D RNAs in cultured cells, using modified antisense oligonucleotides called LNA (Locked Nucleic Acids). We were able to demonstrate, for the first time, the importance of human snoRNPs for the cell growth and their possible role as a chaperone under conditions of cellular stress. Furthermore, we showed the involvement of U8 in the biogenesis of ribosomal RNAs. Thus, this work is a first step in the systematic study of many mammalian snoRNAs whose function is still unknown. MicroRNAs are regulators of gene expression at a posttranscriptional level. Our work focused on the cluster of murine microRNAs miR-379/410, encoding 54 miRNAs that represent nearly 10% of murine miRNAs identified to date. It is located in the DLK1-DIO3 locus, a region subjected to genomic imprinting, an epigenetic mechanism that leads to monoallelic expression of genes dependent on the parental origin of chromosome that carries the alleles. To study the function of microRNAs cluster miR-379/410, we generated a knockout mouse line for that cluster. Our first results show that these miRNAs are important for mice postnatal viability as well as for their growth. This work represents an important advance in understanding miRNAs roles in mammals

Propagative Deployment of Hierarchical Components in a Dynamic Network

International audienceThis paper addresses the distribution and the deployment of hierarchical components on heterogeneous dynamic networks. Such networks may include fixed and mobile resource-constrained devices and are characterized by the volatility of their hosts and connections, which may lead to their fragmentation. We propose a propagative, hierarchically-controlled deployment process for such networks and an ADL extension allowing the specification of this context-aware deployment

Effect of catalytic conditions on the synthesis of new aconitate esters

Sugar cane is a crop which generates large amounts of biomass and a juice rich in highvalue natural molecules. After extracting sugar from the juice, the recovering of various compounds such as organic acids contained in molasses could contribute to increase the competivity of the sugar industry. Therefore, according to the biorefinery approach, we propose to study the chemical conversion of one of these acids, the aconitic acid, by esterification reactions. A new series of aconitate esters have been synthesized by combining aconitic acid and alcohols from natural origin. The effects of experimental conditions have been investigated and have shown that the type of catalysis has a significant effect on the selectivity. Kinectics have thus been performed to determine the best conditions to synthetize enriched compositions in esters. Homogeneous catalysis generates the highest yield in triester. Heterogeneous catalysis(macroporous resins) is prefered for the production of monoesters while catalysis assisted by ionic liquid is adapted to prepare mainly diesters. Green indicators have been discussed according to the calculations performed. The resulting polyfunctional esters are totally biosourced molecules and have a great potential as bioproducts for different applications

Toward fluid-structure-piezoelectric simulations applied to flow-induced energy harvesters

The subject deals with the simulation of flow-induced energy harvesters. We focus in particular on the modelling of autonomous piezo-ceramic power generators to convert ambient fluid-flow energy into electrical energy. The vibrations of an immersed electromechanical structure with large amplitude have to be taken into account in that case. One challenge consists in modelling and predicting the nonlinear coupled dynamic behaviour for the improved design of such devices. The set of governing equations is expressed in integral form, using the method of weighted residuals, and discretized with finite elements using the open source package FEniCS. Preliminary results of separated problems using FEniCS will be detailed and discussed (e.g. Navier-Stokes with or without moving meshes, nonlinear elasticity, aeroelasticity and electromechanical coupling). The objective is to validate each problem independently before coupling all the phenomena in a monolithic framework. Those simulations involve nonlinearities at many levels of modeling. The perspective of using reduced order models to limit the computational cost (in time and memory) will be discussed in an outlook to this work