Elements of methodology for designing Participative Document Spaces

International audienceThis paper presents the first elements of a methodology for designing Participative Document Spaces (PDS), as well as the initial results produced by this methodology within an industrial project aiming at designing a radioactive waste disposal. We define PDS as networked digital settings (such as blogs, forums, wikis) which enable their users to build documents and converse at the same time. Designing a PDS in a given situation thus implies modeling the links between existing settings for building documents and conversing, as well as the costs generated by replacing all or parts of these settings with a PDS. The analysis of our model project shows (a) that numerous settings, both for building documents and conversing, are being used to discuss document content, (b) that improving tracking those discussions could improve the “memory” of the project evolution. In this context, a wiki seems an appropriate tool in the extent that it would allow to directly attach to the documents most of the conversations related to them, thus fostering readability of those conversations and the “memory” of the project. Further studies remain to be conducted to determine the proper functions of the wiki, the rules applying to its use and the diverse costs generated by its deployment within this particular project

Re-understanding CBD: a landscape perspective

The CBD is an urban model which emerged from the 19th century capitalist United States and then was diffused to the rest of the Western world, supported by the functionalist architectural ideal and state-led urban planning. Its demise began in the United States from the first half of the 20th century and it was threatened in Europe by the reconfiguration of the neoliberal state. However, there was a resurgence of CBDs in global cities, where they are directly embedded in the flows of global financial capitalism, embodying the new topographies created by the urbanisation of global capital. The planning of contemporary CBDs has been branded as a strategic tool to foster growth, but they have often been built in isolation from their local surroundings, leading to the development of two-tier cities, were inequalities are growing, reinforced by the neo-liberal approach to planning. The risks and, for some, the innate unfairness of this model has been clearly highlighted by numerous critical approaches of the city. In this essay, we have tried to follow a common thread running through these studies and show how CBDs are at the forefront of the demise of public realm and public ownership of space. Through what their private owners allow and forbid, as well as through their "ambient qualities" they do not sustain a democratic experience of the city, or a common social and spatial project. The photographic essay gives an account of the extent of these processes in the main "global cities" but it also displays some processes of CBDisation in secondary cities, especially in the European context. We have illustrated how the landscapes found in central areas of globalisation became a standard for the design of cities, large or small, central or standing on the margins of globalisation. Thus, the pictures show not only the branding of major cities around the urban forms produced within the CBD but also how some distinctive features of the contemporary CBD, such as iconic architecture or tall buildings, are instrumented by secondary or minor cities to convey images of urban dynamism. In doing so, those distinctive features act as powerful cultural norms on the production of the current built environment.Le CBD est un modèle urbain qui a émergé à partir du 19ème siècle et s'est diffusé depuis les villes Nord-Américaines dans le reste du monde Occidental, soutenu par l'architecture et l'urbanisme fonctionnaliste et l'urbanisme de l'Etat centraliste. Son déclin a commençé dans la première moitié du 20ème siècle aux Etats-Unis, alors qu'en Europe, il fut provoqué par la reconfiguration de l'Etat, dans sa forme néolibérale. Cependant, nous avons assisté à une résurgence du CBD dans les villes globales, où ces quartiers s'inscrivent dans les dynamiques de circulation du capitalisme financier globalisé, figurant de nouvelles topographies et paysages de l'urbanisation de ces capitaux. L'aménagement des CBDs contemporains a été publicisée comme un outil stratégique pour stimuler la croissance économique, mais au prix d'un isolement morphologique des quartiers adjacents, amenant à la création de villes duales, où les inégalités s'intensifient, accentuées par une approche néolibérale de l'aménagement. Les CBDs sont devenus des modèles très profitables pour les promoteurs immobiliers et des systèmes très efficaces pour les firmes multinationales du secteur des FIRE (finance, immobilier, assurance). Dans cet article, nous avons essayé de suivre un fil conducteur commun aux différentes publications relatives à ce sujet et de montrer comment les CBDs sont à l'avant-poste de la disparition de l'espace public et de son appropriation collective. A travers l'étude de ce que les propriétaires privés autorisent et interdisent, mais également à travers les "ambiances" qu'ils créent ces espaces ne permettent plus une expérience démocratique de la ville ou un projet socio-spatial commun. L'essai photographique rend compte de l'extension de ces projets dans les principales "villes mondiales" mais montre également des exemples de CBDisation dans des villes secondaires, en particulier en Europe. Il illustrent comment les paysages construits dans les centres urbains de la mondialisation contemporaine sont devenus un standard pour la conception des villes, y compris des villes moyennes situées en périphéries des dynamiques du capitalisme globalisé. Ainsi, les photographies montrent à la fois la reconstruction identitaire des principaux centres urbains autour des formes urbaines propres aux CBDs et comment certains traits distinctifs de ce CBD contemporain, comme l'architecture iconique et les tours sont instrumentalisés par ces centres urbains secondaires ou mineurs pour transmettre une image de dynamisme urbain. Ce faisant, ces traits distinctifs agissent comme des normes culturelles puissantes pesant sur l'actuelle production de l'environnement urbain

S'enfouir. Cartographie, imaginaires et ménagement des espaces en volume

« Une mine pour la recherche », c’est ainsi que Sabine Barles et André Guillerme qualifient les espaces souterrains dans un article des Annales de la recherche urbaine publié en 1994. Affirmant l’importance des espaces souterrains dans la compréhension des dynamiques territoriales, les deux auteurs soulignaient également leur relative invisibilité dans les travaux académiques. Exposant les questionnements des universitaires et des professionnels qui se sont intéressés aux usages et à la gesti..

Gender and Entrepreneurship in the Renewable Energy Sector of Rwanda

Until recently, women have not been seen as having the potential for entrepreneurial success. Yet women’s engagement in the energy sector could substantially improve energy access for those most underserved. This article examines the role of women as energy entrepreneurs from the perspective of gender inequality within the energy industry. Data from Nuru Energy, a social business focused on providing solar lighting to the ultra‑poor, provide insights on how the inclusion of women sales agents can increase sales and how strategic modifications to the social business model can further support female-led businesses. Observational data from over 1,000 rural enterprises show that women, on average, sold significantly more units than men. Women operating in solo firms and leading groupbased teams consistently outsold men-led solo and group‑based enterprises. Findings further suggest that, when operating in groups, women tend to outperform men even more than when operating sole proprietorships

Tissue-specific actions of Pax6 on the balance of proliferation and differentiation in developing forebrain are Foxg1-dependent

Summary: Differences in the growth and maturation of diverse forebrain tissues depend on region-specific transcriptional regulation. Individual transcription factors act simultaneously in multiple regions that develop very differently, raising questions about the extent to which their actions vary regionally. We found that the transcription factor Pax6 affects the transcriptomes and the balance between proliferation and differentiation in opposite directions in the diencephalon versus cerebral cortex. We tested several possible mechanisms to explain Pax6's tissue-specific actions and found that the presence of the transcription factor Foxg1 in the cortex but not in the diencephalon was most influential. We found that Foxg1 is responsible for many of the differences in cell cycle gene expression between the diencephalon and cortex and, in cortex lacking Foxg1, Pax6's action on the balance of proliferation versus differentiation becomes diencephalon like. Our findings reveal a mechanism for generating regional forebrain diversity in which one transcription factor completely reverses the actions of another. : Neuroscience; Molecular Neuroscience; Developmental Neuroscience Subject Areas: Neuroscience, Molecular Neuroscience, Developmental Neuroscienc

Une approche des raisonnements émergents de l’interlocution : la logique interlocutoire

Les auteurs exposent une méthode d’analyse du dialogue (logique interlocutoire) censée représenter sa « forme logique » à partir de ses propriétés phénoménales. Tout dialogue étant considéré de ce point de vue comme formé d’un ensemble de communications ordonnées temporellement et distribuées sur plusieurs agents, les auteurs élaborent pour en décrire les séquences un langage dont les éléments empruntés à la sémantique générale sont combinés selon les méthodes de la déduction naturelle et de la dialectique.La méthode d’analyse des interlocutions qui en résulte est supposée permettre de rendre compte de la collaboration inter-agents dans les situations de résolution de problèmes, des produits de cette collaboration et des bénéfices cognitifs que les agents participant à l’interaction en retirent. Plutôt que de se livrer à un exposé abstrait de la logique interlocutoire, les auteurs utilisent ici cette méthode pour comprendre comment deux enfants « inventent » collaborativement la solution d’un problème arithmétique de division qui leur est proposé dans un cadre quelque peu déroutant

The transcription factor Foxg1 regulates telencephalic progenitor proliferation cell autonomously, in part by controlling Pax6 expression levels

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The transcription factor Foxg1 is an important regulator of telencephalic cell cycles. Its inactivation causes premature lengthening of telencephalic progenitor cell cycles and increased neurogenic divisions, leading to severe hypoplasia of the telencephalon. These proliferation defects could be a secondary consequence of the loss of Foxg1 caused by the abnormal expression of several morphogens (Fibroblast growth factor 8, bone morphogenetic proteins) in the telencephalon of <it>Foxg1 </it>null mutants. Here we investigated whether Foxg1 has a cell autonomous role in the regulation of telencephalic progenitor proliferation. We analysed <it>Foxg1^+/+</it>↔<it>Foxg1^-/-</it>chimeras, in which mutant telencephalic cells have the potential to interact with, and to have any cell non-autonomous defects rescued by, normal wild-type cells.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our analysis showed that the <it>Foxg1^-/-</it>cells are under-represented in the chimeric telencephalon and the proportion of them in S-phase is significantly smaller than that of their wild-type neighbours, indicating that their under-representation is caused by a cell autonomous reduction in their proliferation. We then analysed the expression of the cell-cycle regulator Pax6 and found that it is cell-autonomously downregulated in <it>Foxg1^-/-</it>dorsal telencephalic cells. We went on to show that the introduction into <it>Foxg1^-/-</it>embryos of a transgene designed to reverse Pax6 expression defects resulted in a partial rescue of the telencephalic progenitor proliferation defects.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We conclude that Foxg1 exerts control over telencephalic progenitor proliferation by cell autonomous mechanisms that include the regulation of Pax6, which itself is known to regulate proliferation cell autonomously in a regional manner.</p

Mixed Integer Linear Programming for Feature Selection in Support Vector Machine

International audienceThis work focuses on support vector machine (SVM) with feature selection. A MILP formulation is proposed for the problem. The choice of suitable features to construct the separating hyperplanes has been modelled in this formulation by including a budget constraint that sets in advance a limit on the number of features to be used in the classification process. We propose both an exact and a heuristic procedure to solve this formulation in an efficient way. Finally, the validation of the model is done by checking it with some well-known data sets and comparing it with classical classification methods

Pax6 lengthens G1 phase and decreases oscillating Cdk6 levels in murine embryonic cortical progenitors

Pax6 is a key regulator of the rates of progenitor cell division in cerebral corticogenesis. Previous work has suggested that this action is mediated at least in part by regulation of the cell cycle gene Cdk6, which acts largely on the transition from G1 to S phase. We began the present study by investigating whether, in addition to Cdk6, other Pax6-regulated cell cycle genes are likely to be primary mediators of Pax6’s actions on cortical progenitor cell cycles. Following acute cortex-specific deletion of Pax6, Cdk6 showed changes in expression a day earlier than any other Pax6-regulated cell cycle gene suggesting that it is the primary mediator of Pax6’s actions. We then used flow cytometry to show that progenitors lacking Pax6 have a shortened G1 phase and that their Cdk6 levels are increased in all phases. We found that Cdk6 levels oscillate during the cell cycle, increasing from G1 to M phase. We propose a model in which loss of Pax6 shortens G1 phase by raising overall Cdk6 levels, thereby shortening the time taken for Cdk6 levels to cross a threshold triggering transition to S phase