How do Craftsmen in the Building Industry Move Around the City? An Exploratory Survey in the Paris region

International audienceCraftsmen and small businesses in the building industry hold a significant place in the French economy (98,000 businesses in the Paris region only). Craftsmen also have an intensive use of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, as moving around tools and materials is a prerequisite of their core activity, though it can be costly and time-consuming. Parking unavailability and traffic congestion have been identified as major obstacles to the preservation of the activity of craftsmen and small businesses in the building industry in the City of Paris. Yet, existing policy support might fall short of meeting the challenges of craftsmen’s mobility, partly due to a lack of data and knowledge available to public policy-makers about craftsmen’s mobility in the Paris region. This study analyzes the mobility of craftsmen and small businesses in the building industry in the Paris region. It is based on a dedicated exploratory survey of the mobility patterns and experience of 81 managers and employees of small businesses that was initiated in early 2017. The survey used an interview guide, which included closed questions, a cartographic component, and some open questions that were recorded and transcribed for content analysis. Basic facts about the geographical organization of activities and the mobility of businesses in the building industry are highlighted. The main constraints to mobility are identified, as well as the strategies that craftsmen implement to adapt to such constraints. Finally, some innovative mobility practices are highlighted

How do Craftsmen in the Building Industry Move Around the City? An Exploratory Survey in the Paris region

International audienceCraftsmen and small businesses in the building industry hold a significant place in the French economy (98,000 businesses in the Paris region only). Craftsmen also have an intensive use of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, as moving around tools and materials is a prerequisite of their core activity, though it can be costly and time-consuming. Parking unavailability and traffic congestion have been identified as major obstacles to the preservation of the activity of craftsmen and small businesses in the building industry in the City of Paris. Yet, existing policy support might fall short of meeting the challenges of craftsmen’s mobility, partly due to a lack of data and knowledge available to public policy-makers about craftsmen’s mobility in the Paris region. This study analyzes the mobility of craftsmen and small businesses in the building industry in the Paris region. It is based on a dedicated exploratory survey of the mobility patterns and experience of 81 managers and employees of small businesses that was initiated in early 2017. The survey used an interview guide, which included closed questions, a cartographic component, and some open questions that were recorded and transcribed for content analysis. Basic facts about the geographical organization of activities and the mobility of businesses in the building industry are highlighted. The main constraints to mobility are identified, as well as the strategies that craftsmen implement to adapt to such constraints. Finally, some innovative mobility practices are highlighted

Moving and parking to build the city: How craftsmen and small businesses in the building industry cope with parking constraints in Paris

International audienceCraftsmen and small businesses in the building industry hold a significant place in local economies and account for a significant share of car trips in the cities, yet their mobility has received little attention from researchers and public policy-makers so far. This study analyses mobility patterns in the building industry and the effects of parking constraints on the basis of a dedicated survey of 81 managers and employees of small businesses operating in the Paris region. The survey used a questionnaire combining quantitative and qualitative, open questions, and included a cartographic component.The study reveals that most craftsmen are highly mobile, that they face significant road traffic and parking constraints, and that mobility and parking parameters are an integral part of their activity planning tasks. Parking appears as a particularly acute problem in the Paris region as craftsmen are faced with the lack of dedicated (or else) parking areas, the limited size of parking spaces, the risk of incurring parking fines for inadequate parking, and the risk of having the vehicle towed away. In anticipation of such constraints and risks, the professionals tend to adopt a diverse set of strategies, including: adaptation of schedules, on-site delivery of supplies by a third party, use of ICT-based solutions for driving and parking assistance, use of other modes of transport for a subset of their trips, revised pricing for core business activities, decline of business opportunities in most constrained areas. The study further reveals that existing parking permits (or stickers) granted to the professionals only partially address the parking problems of craftsmen and small businesses in the building industry and lack proper dissemination with their target audience. Finally, the study reveals that craftsmen still have a very limited use of smartphone-based solutions to avoid or deal with parking constraints

Étude de faisabilité de la création d’une entreprise ayant pour objet la production et la distribution d’une prothèse transtibiale low-cost pour les pays en voie de développement.

Aujourd'hui 2 personnes sur 1000 de la population mondiale sont victimes d'une amputation. Cela représente 15 millions de personnes et la majorité de ces victimes d'une amputation. Cela représente 15 millions de personnes et la majorité de ces victimes se trouvent dans les pays en voie de développement. Seulement 5% de ces gens ont accès à toute forme de prothèse ou d'assistance médicale. Notre projet est de créer des prothèses de pied low-cost à l'aide de l'impression 3D.Master [120] en sciences de gestion, Université catholique de Louvain, 2018Master [120] en droit, Université catholique de Louvain, 2018Master [120] : ingénieur civil biomédical, Université catholique de Louvain, 201

A new multimodal device for atrial fibrillation detection: ECG quality analysis in healthy volunteers

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Structural study of bioisosteric derivatives of 5-(1 H-indol-3-yl)-benzotriazole and their ability to form chalcogen bonds

Recently, inter­est in the isosteric replacement of a nitro­gen atom to selenium, sulfur or oxygen atoms has been highlighted in the design of potential inhibitors for cancer research. In this context, the structures of 5-(1H-indol-3-yl)-2,1,3-benzotriazole derivatives [5-(1H-indol-3-yl)-2,1,3-benzo­thia­diazole (bS, C(14)H(9)N(3)S) and 5-(1H-indol-3-yl)-2,1,3-benzoxa­diazole (bO, C(14)H(9)N(3)O)], as well as a synthesis inter­mediate of the selenated bioisostere [5-[1-(benzensulfon­yl)-1H-indol-3-yl]-2,1,3-benzoselena­diazole (p-bSe, C(20)H(13)N(3)O(2)SSe)] were determined using single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) analyses. Despite being analogues, different crystal packing, torsion angles and supra­molecular features were observed, depending on the substitution of the central atoms of the benzotriazole. In particular, chalcogen inter­actions were described in the case of p-bSe and not in the bS and bO derivatives. An investigation by ab initio computational methods was therefore conducted to understand the effect of the substitution on the ability to form chalcogen bonds and the flexibility of the compounds

Highlighting the impact of shear strain on the SiO 2 glass structure: From experiments to atomistic simulations

International audienceSiO 2 glass structure has been permanently modified by uniaxial compression. Within such a loading, the structure is supposed to be affected both by densification and shear flow. We propose to compare recovered silica samples with similar densities, initially deformed plastically under a hydrostatic compression or under a uniaxial compression. From micro-Raman spectroscopy experiments, the shear strain effects have been highlighted on the structural modifications of the glass and have been confirmed from molecular dynamic simulations. In particular , medium range order depends on the mechanical history in plastically deformed glasses. Indeed, both experiments and simulations demonstrate that small rings are favored when permanent shear strain acts with densification, thus allowing a structural signature identification of the densification process

Genome-wide analysis in the mouse embryo reveals the importance of DNA methylation for transcription integrity

DNA methyltrasferases play important role during mouse embryo development. Here the authors reveal the consequences of genetic inactivation of Dnmt1, Dnmt3a and Dnmt3b on the methylome and transcriptome of mouse embryos genome-wide

A Polymer Prodrug Strategy to Switch from Intravenous to Subcutaneous Cancer Therapy for Irritant/Vesicant Drugs

Chemotherapy is almost exclusively administered via the intravenous (IV) route, which has serious limitations (e.g., patient discomfort, long hospital stays, need for trained staff, high cost, catheter failures, infections). Therefore, the development of effective and less costly chemotherapy that is more comfortable for the patient would revolutionize cancer therapy. While subcutaneous (SC) administration has the potential to meet these criteria, it is extremely restrictive as it cannot be applied to most anticancer drugs, such as irritant or vesicant ones, for local toxicity reasons. Herein, we report a facile, general and scalable approach for the SC administration of anticancer drugs through the design of well-defined hydrophilic polymer prodrugs. This was applied to the anticancer drug paclitaxel (Ptx) as a worst-case scenario due to its high hydrophobicity and vesicant properties (two factors promoting necrosis at the injection site), whereas polyacrylamide (PAAm) was chosen as a hydrophilic polymer for its biocompatibility and stealth properties. A small library of Ptx-based polymer prodrugs was designed by adjusting the nature of the linker (ester, diglycolate and carbonate), and then evaluated in terms of rheological/viscosity properties in aqueous solutions, drug release kinetics in PBS and in murine plasma, cytotoxicity on two different cancer cell lines, acute local and systemic toxicity, pharmacokinetics and biodistribution, and finally their anticancer efficacy. We demonstrated that Ptx-PAAm polymer prodrugs could be safely injected subcutaneously without inducing local toxicity while outperforming Taxol, the commercial formulation of Ptx, thus opening the door to the safe transposition from IV to SC chemotherapy