Two-round elections, one-round determinants? Evidence from the French municipal elections

Using a new database of French municipalities that covers 821 towns and 2 elections (2001 and 2008), we examine how the budget structure, degree of electoral competition and the economic context affect the share of votes for the incumbent. We assess the specicities created by the two-round process under French electoral rule (a dual ballot under plurality rule). We show that in the first round of the electoral process, spending on equipment can influence the voter, and that electoral competition has a strong impact on the incumbent's score. In the second round, the incumbent's vote is affected more by national considerations and local budget variables have no effect. We show that the dynamics between the first and the second rounds are intense. The results suggest that the determinants of each round in a two-round electoral process are different.Economic voting; Local elections; Plurality rule; Visible expenditures

Central bank independence and ageing

We contrast the influence of demography and central bank independence on inflation. The recent demographic trends in developed countries are shown to weight more on inflation than central bank independence, while the contrary stands for the period from 1960 to 1979.Demography ; Central Bank Independence ; Inflation

Budget structure and reelection prospects: Empirical evidence from French local elections

This paper is a study of the influence of economic and political conditions on the results of incumbent parties' candidates in local elections in France. The large sample used covers 586 towns and two elections (2001 and 2008). It explicitly deals with the specificities induced by the tworound process of the French electoral rule, and results are provided for both the reelection probability and the share of votes. It is shown that the budget structure, and notably equipment expenditures, has a strong impact on the incumbent party's share of votes. Political variables also play a role, as do the number of candidates, and national partisan waves. --Local elections,Visible expenditures

Sudden change detection in turbofan engine behavior

International audienceSnecma, as a turbofan manufacturer, needs to deal with a wide eet of more than thousands of engines. Every day, data from aircraft engines are broadcas- ted to the ground. Some airlines companies rely on their engine manufacturer to control the engines' behavior and help prepare for maintenance scheduling. The goal of the manufacturer is to detect abnormalities to help schedule main- tenance operations. The advantage of the manufacturer as MRO operator is the registered memory of all past events that appears on its eet of engines. If one opens the possibility to look in this huge amount of data for corresponding similar behaviors, which may have append in the past (for all engines of all customer companies), it becomes possible to make some targeted statistics of the future

Visual Mining and Statistics for a Turbofan Engine Fleet

International audienceSnecma, as a turbofan manufacturer, needs to deal with a wide eet of more than thousands of engines. Every day, data from aircraft engines are broadcas- ted to the ground. Some airlines companies rely on their engine manufacturer to control the engines' behavior and help prepare for maintenance scheduling. The goal of the manufacturer is to detect abnormalities to help schedule main- tenance operations. The advantage of the manufacturer as MRO operator is the registered memory of all past events that appears on its eet of engines. If one opens the possibility to look in this huge amount of data for corresponding similar behaviors, which may have append in the past (for all engines of all customer companies), it becomes possible to make some targeted statistics of the future

Détermination du niveau des prix et finances publiques : le cas du Liban, 1965-2005

La théorie budgétaire du niveau des prix distingue deux types de régimes pour les politiques économiques : Ricardien et Non-Ricardien. Nous analysons dans quelle mesure ces deux régimes peuvent s'appliquer à des sous-périodes dans l'histoire économique d'un pays. Le cas du Liban, passé de la prospérité à la guerre puis à la reconstruction, offre une application de cette théorie, et montre sa pertinence empirique

Development of a miniaturized motion sensor for tracking warning signs of low-back pain

Low-back pain (LBP) is a widespread disease which can also be highly disabling, but physicians lack of basic understanding and diagnosis tools. During this study, we have designed and built a new wearable device capable of detecting features helpful in LBP follow-up while being non-invasive. The device has been carefully validated, and shows good metrological features, with small noise level ($\sigma$ = 1{\textdegree}) and no observable drift. Two simple exercises were proposed to two young volunteers, one of them with LBP history. These exercises are designed to target two characteristics: the lumbar lordosis angle and the hip \& shoulder dissociation. Even if no general rules can be extracted from this study, we have shown that Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) are able to pick up those characteristics and the obtained values are meaningful refereeing to LBP disease. Henceforth, we are confident in going to clinical studies to investigate the link between back related feature and LBP, in particular the hip \& shoulder dissociation which is poorly documented

A photosynthetic rotating annular bioreactor (Taylor–Couette type flow) for phototrophic biofilm cultures

In their natural environment, the structure and functioning of microbial communities from river phototrophic biofilms are driven by biotic and abiotic factors. An understanding of the mechanisms that mediate the community structure, its dynamics and the biological succession processes during phototrophic biofilm development can be gained using laboratory-scale systems operating with controlled parameters. For this purpose, we present the design and description of a new prototype of a rotating annular bioreactor (RAB) (TayloreCouette type flow, liquid working volume of 5.04 L) specifically adapted for the cultivation and investigation of phototrophic biofilms. The innovation lies in the presence of a modular source of light inside of the system, with the biofilm colonization and development taking place on the stationary outer cylinder (onto 32 removable polyethylene plates). The biofilm cultures were investigated under controlled turbulent flowing conditions and nutrients were provided using a synthetic medium (tap water supplemented with nitrate, phosphate and silica) to favour the biofilm growth. The hydrodynamic features of the water flow were characterized using a tracer method, showing behaviour corresponding to a completely mixed reactor. Shear stress forces on the surface of plates were also quantified by computer simulations and correlated with the rotational speed of the inner cylinder. Two phototrophic biofilm development experiments were performed for periods of 6.7 and 7 weeks with different inoculation procedures and illumination intensities. For both experiments, biofilm biomasses exhibited linear growth kinetics and produced 4.2 and 2.4 mg cm-2 of ash-free dry matter. Algal and bacterial community structures were assessed by microscopy and T-RFLP, respectively, and the two experiments were different but revealed similar temporal dynamics. Our study confirmed the performance and multipurpose nature of such an innovative photosynthetic bioreactor for phototrophic biofilm investigations

Présentation d'un nouvel élément fini de contact

International audienceThis paper will present a new way to deal with contact within a finite element code. The detection of contact is realised with an analytical method using B-spline functions, and the analysis of the contact is done with a special finite element using a modified penalty method.Cet article présente une élément de contact spécifique, destiné à être implémenté dans un code de calcul par éléments finis implicite. La détection du contact est réalisée par mise en œuvre d'une méthode analytique basée sur l'utilisation des fonctions B-spline. Le traitement du contact est fait par la méthode des pénalités par élément de contact avec une raideur spéciale