Tourisme et mondialisation

La croissance annoncée du tourisme international présage une croissance exponentielle pour les premières décennies du XXIe siècle, laquelle se combinera avec une croissance des mobilités touristiques nationales. De nos jours, tout se passe comme si s\u27opérait une transition touristique, avec le passage d\u27un régime d\u27habiter le monde non touristique à un autre, où le tourisme devient une composante de l\u27existence humaine. Dès lors, si l\u27on considère que la transition touristique se déploiera à l\u27égale de la transition urbaine (généralement, la transition urbaine s\u27achève avec des taux voisins à 80 % de la population vivant en ville), on pressent la marge de manœuvre qu\u27il reste à conquérir aux tourismes international et national. Nous serions au début d\u27un phénomène dont le développement et les implications restent à venir. Finalement, à l\u27exception des pays occidentaux, anciens foyers touristiques dont la démographie est limitée, le tourisme reste à construire ailleurs dans le monde pour plusieurs milliards d\u27individus.  Ce constat va de pair avec une nouvelle étape dans le développement du tourisme, qui est l\u27avènement d\u27un tourisme de masse mondialisé. Admettre que le tourisme est aujourd\u27hui un phénomène mondialisé n\u27est plus une originalité. Poser qu\u27il est mondialisé et mondialisant, c\u27est franchir un pas supplémentaire.  Face à cette mise en tourisme mondiale, survient une autre question, importante pour les destinations et les lieux touristiques : comment survivre face à la concurrence accrue ? Cette concurrence n\u27est pas forcément produite par une fréquentation réelle du monde touristique, mais est induite par l\u27évolution et l\u27amélioration de la connaissance des individus-touristes de ce qui se passe dans le monde.  Le tourisme, qui fut longtemps une affaire européenne puis occidentale, est aussi, depuis trente années, une affaire asiatique. Et il apparaît de plus en plus clairement aux chercheurs que les touristes asiatiques, au-delà des apparences, n\u27agiraient pas tout à fait comme les touristes occidentaux. Certes, ils se reposent, visitent, jouent et font du shopping, mais pas de la même façon que les touristes occidentaux…  La recherche scientifique a considérablement progressé ces dernières années en reconnaissance et en connaissance de ces écarts aux modèles praticiels. Par touches successives, d\u27autres attitudes émergent, des subtilités pointent au-delà des importantes différences.  Dès lors, nous vivons un autre moment important dans la constitution du monde touristique ; celui où, peut-être, d\u27autres modèles se forgent. Ainsi le refus de bronzer est-il temporaire ou définitif, instillant un nouveau rapport au soleil ? Si tel est le cas, comment cette posture évoluera-t-elle et influencera-t-elle les Occidentaux ? La question de la circulation des modèles est posée ; la réflexion sur la diffusion de la pratique est engagée. Le présent ouvrage privilégie trois thématiques qui croisent mondialisation des modèles et tourisme : le durable, la culture et la gastronomie.  Cet ouvrage collectif est issu des Troisièmes Rendez-vous Champlain sur le tourisme, qui se sont tenus en juin 2010 à Angers.

An ERP Investigation on Visuotactile Interactions in Peripersonal and Extrapersonal Space: Evidence for the Spatial Rule

The spatial rule of multisensory integration holds that cross-modal stimuli presented from the same spatial location result in enhanced multisensory integration. The present study investigated whether processing within the somatosensory cortex reflects the strength of cross-modal visuotactile interactions depending on the spatial relationship between visual and tactile stimuli. Visual stimuli were task-irrelevant and were presented simultaneously with touch in peripersonal and extrapersonal space, in the same or opposite hemispace with respect to the tactile stimuli. Participants directed their attention to one of their hands to detect infrequent tactile target stimuli at that hand while ignoring tactile targets at the unattended hand, all tactile nontarget stimuli, and any visual stimuli. Enhancement of ERPs recorded over and close to the somatosensory cortex was present as early as 100 msec after onset of stimuli (i.e., overlapping with the P100 component) when visual stimuli were presented next to the site of tactile stimulation (i.e., perihand space) compared to when these were presented at different locations in peripersonal or extrapersonal space. Therefore, this study provides electrophysiological support for the spatial rule of visual–tactile interaction in human participants. Importantly, these early cross-modal spatial effects occurred regardless of the locus of attention. In addition, and in line with previous research, we found attentional modulations of somatosensory processing only to be present in the time range of the N140 component and for longer latencies with an enhanced negativity for tactile stimuli at attended compared to unattended locations. Taken together, the pattern of the results from this study suggests that visuotactile spatial effects on somatosensory processing occur prior and independent of tactile–spatial attention

Duverger, semi-presidentialism and the supposed French archetype

The concept of semi-presidentialism was first operationalised by Maurice Duverger. There are now 17 countries with semi-presidential constitutions in Europe. Within this set of countries France is usually considered to be the archetypal example of semi-presidentialism. This article maps the main institutional and political features of European semi-presidentialism on the basis of Duverger’s original three-fold schema. The most striking feature is the diversity of practice within this set of countries. This means that semi-presidentialism should not be operationalised as a discrete explanatory variable. However, there are ways of systematically capturing the variation within semi-presidentialism to allow cross-national comparisons. This diversity also means that France should not be considered as the archetypal semi-presidential country. At best, France is an archetypal example of a particular type of semi-presidentialism. Overall, Duverger’s main contribution to the study of semi-presidentialism was the original identification of the concept and his implicit insight that there are different types of semi-presidentialism. In the future, the study of semi-presidentialism would benefit from the development of theory-driven comparative work that avoids a reliance on France as the supposed semi-presidential archetype

Effect of chromophore-chromophore electrostatic interactions in the NLO response of functionalized organic-inorganic sol-gel materials

In the last years, important non-linear optical results on sol-gel and polymeric materials have been reported, with values comparable to those found in crystals. These new materials contain push-pull chromophores either incorporated as guest in a high Tg polymeric matrix (doped polymers) or grafted onto the polymeric matrix. These systems present several advantages; however they require significant improvement at the molecular level - by designing optimized chromophores with very large molecular figure of merit, specific to each application targeted. Besides, it was recently stated in polymers that the chromophore-chromophore electrostatic interactions, which are dependent of chromophore concentration, have a strong effect into their non-linear optical properties. This has not been explored at all in sol-gel systems. In this work, the sol-gel route was used to prepare hybrid organic-inorganic thin films with different NLO chromophores grafted into the skeleton matrix. Combining a molecular engineering strategy for getting a larger molecular figure of merit and by controlling the intermolecular dipole-dipole interactions through both: the tuning of the push-pull chromophore concentration and the control of TEOS (Tetraethoxysilane) concentration, we have obtained a r33 coefficient around 15 pm/V at 633 nm for the classical DR1 azo-chromophore and a r33 around 50 pm/V at 831 nm for a new optimized chromophore structure.Comment: 10 pages, 11 figures, 1 tabl

Diet-Induced Alterations in Gut Microflora Contribute to Lethal Pulmonary Damage in TLR2/TLR4-Deficient Mice

SummaryChronic intake of Western diet has driven an epidemic of obesity and metabolic syndrome, but how it induces mortality remains unclear. Here, we show that chronic intake of a high-fat diet (HFD), not a low-fat diet, leads to severe pulmonary damage and mortality in mice deficient in Toll-like receptors 2 and 4 (DKO). Diet-induced pulmonary lesions are blocked by antibiotic treatment and are transmissible to wild-type mice upon either cohousing or fecal transplantation, pointing to the existence of bacterial pathogens. Indeed, diet and innate deficiency exert significant impact on gut microbiota composition. Thus, chronic intake of HFD promotes severe pulmonary damage and mortality in DKO mice in part via gut dysbiosis, a finding that may be important for immunodeficient patients, particularly those on chemotherapy or radiotherapy, where gut-microbiota-caused conditions are often life threatening

Ultra-frequent HRAS p.Q61R somatic mutation in canine acanthomatous ameloblastoma reveals pathogenic similarities with human ameloblastoma

Ameloblastoma is a locally aggressive odontogenic tumour that occurs in humans and dogs. Most ameloblastomas (AM) in humans harbour mutually-exclusive driving mutations in BRAF, HRAS, KRAS, NRAS or FGFR2 that activate MAPK signalling, and in SMO that activates Hedgehog signalling. The remarkable clinical and histological similarities between canine acanthomatous ameloblastoma (CAA) and AM suggest they may harbour similar driving mutations. In this study, aimed at characterizing the mutational status of SMO, BRAF, HRAS, KRAS, NRAS and FGFR2 in CAA, we used RNA sequencing, Sanger sequencing and restriction fragment length polymorphism assays to demonstrate that 94% of CAA (n = 16) harbour a somatic HRAS p.Q61R mutation. The similarities in MAPK-activating mutational profiles between CAA and AM implicate conserved molecular mechanisms of tumorigenesis, thus, qualifying the dog as a potentially useful model of disease. Given the relevance of RAS mutations in the pathogenesis of odontogenic tumours and other types of cancer, the results of this study are of comparative, translational, and veterinary value

Distinct dissolved organic matter sources induce rapid transcriptional responses in coexisting populations of Prochlorococcus, Pelagibacter and the OM60 clade

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2013. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of John Wiley & Sons for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Environmental Microbiology 16 (2014): 2815-2830, doi:10.1111/1462-2920.12254.A considerable fraction of the Earth's organic carbon exists in dissolved form in seawater. To investigate the roles of planktonic marine microbes in the biogeochemical cycling of this dissolved organic matter (DOM), we performed controlled seawater incubation experiments and followed the responses of an oligotrophic surface water microbial assemblage to perturbations with DOM derived from an axenic culture of Prochlorococcus, or high-molecular weight DOM concentrated from nearby surface waters. The rapid transcriptional responses of both Prochlorococcus and Pelagibacter populations suggested the utilization of organic nitrogen compounds common to both DOM treatments. Along with these responses, both populations demonstrated decreases in gene transcripts associated with nitrogen stress, including those involved in ammonium acquisition. In contrast, responses from low abundance organisms of the NOR5/OM60 gammaproteobacteria were observed later in the experiment, and included elevated levels of gene transcripts associated with polysaccharide uptake and oxidation. In total, these results suggest that numerically dominant oligotrophic microbes rapidly acquire nitrogen from commonly available organic sources, and also point to an important role for carbohydrates found within the DOM pool for sustaining the less abundant microorganisms in these oligotrophic systems.This work was supported by a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center Award EF0424599 (E.F.D and D.M.K.), grants to D.M.K., D.J.R and E.F.D from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, a gift from the Agouron Institute (to E.F.D.) and a fellowship (202180) to A.K.S. from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

Treillis à complexité réduite pour le décodage de codes à longueur variable

De nombreux algorithmes ont été proposés pour le décodage souple de données codées à l'aide de codes à longueur variable (CLV), la plupart travaillant avec des treillis. Pour un code réaliste, ces treillis sont très complexes à cause du nombre de mots de code à considérer. Cet article présente un algorithme de regroupement de mots de code à longueur variable en un nombre minimal de classes, ce qui permet de réduire significativement la complexité du décodage souple. Un exemple sur les CLV de la norme H263+ ainsi qu'une d'application à la localisation des frontières de blocs de texture H263+ sont présentés

Biases in the perceived timing of perisaccadic perceptual and motor events

Subjects typically experience the temporal interval immediately following a saccade as longer than a comparable control interval. One explanation of this effect is that the brain antedates the perceptual onset of a saccade target to around the time of saccade initiation. This could explain the apparent continuity of visual perception across eye movements. Thisantedating account was tested in three experiments in which subjects made saccades of differing extents and then judged either the duration or the temporal order of key events. Postsaccadic stimuli underwent subjective temporal lengthening and had early perceived onsets. A temporally advanced awareness of saccade completion was also found, independently of antedating effects. These results provide convergent evidence supporting antedating and differentiating it from other temporal biases