Les comités de citoyens, une transformation « par le bas » du système démocratique ? L’exemple des groupes québécois et marseillais

Se démarquant tant des analyses françaises, qui contestent la contribution des comités de citoyens à la démocratie, que des analyses québécoises, qui jugent cette contribution à l’aune du changement social, notre propos entend montrer comment ce type de regroupement peut concourir à un élargissement par le bas du système démocratique. Par le biais de l’exemple du Comité de citoyens Saint-André à Marseille et du Comité de citoyens du quartier Saint-Sauveur à Québec, nous soulignons que ces groupes contribuent non seulement à un ancrage local de la citoyenneté, mais aussi à un élargissement de la sphère publique en favorisant une montée en généralité des discours et des actions des habitants.French analysis contest the citizens committees’ contribution to democracy, whereas Quebec analysis mainly focus on their contribution to social change. We rather insist on the contribution of citizens’ committees to the enlargment of the public sphere. Through the examples of two citizens committees, one from Marseille and the other from Quebec, we show that these groups contribute to the transition between particular interests and the general, one which is necessary to the formulation of politics

Groupes de quartier et pratiques citoyennes : Les leçons d’une comparaison franco-québécoise ou de la différence entre mouvements associatif et communautaire

À partir de l’étude des pratiques citoyennes de deux comités, au Québec et en France, notre analyse met en relief la différence entre mouvements communautaire et associatif, différence significative d’un rapport particulier au politique.From the study of two citizen committees, in France and in Quebec, our analysis brings out the difference between communautary and associative movements, the difference being significant of a particular relationship to politics

Civilité et comités de citoyens marseillais et québécois : des réactions à l’insécurité aux fondements des politiques publiques

À partir de l’exemple de deux groupes de citoyens en France et au Québec, cet article examine les réactions et les mobilisations des habitants de quartiers « populaires†» face à des situations qu’ils jugent peu sécuritaires. L’analyse souligne combien les revendications en matière de sécurité publique questionnent les fondements du vivre-ensemble. Ce questionnement est pourtant appréhendé très différemment en France et au Québec. Les divergences constatées entre les politiques de sécurité publiques ne relèvent pas tant de demandes différentes que de structuration particulière d’espaces politiques nationaux. L’analyse insiste ainsi sur l’importance des médiations entre société civile et État.This article draws on cases studies of two citizen groups, one in France and one in Quebec. It follows the reactions and mobilisations of the residents of two low-income neighbourhoods in situations where they consider their safety at risk. Reminding us that demands for security raise issues about how to live together, the analysis finds that the issues are understood differently in France and Quebec. This divergence is more due to the structuration of national political space than the result of differences in the demands themselves. The article calls, therefore, for attention to state-civil society relations

Numerical predictions of the anisotropic viscoelastic response of uni-directional fibre composites

Finite Element (FE) simulations are conducted to predict the viscoelastic properties of uni-directional (UD) fibre composites. The response of both periodic unit cells and random stochastic volume elements (SVEs) is analysed; the fibres are assumed to behave as linear elastic isotropic solids while the matrix is taken as a linear viscoelastic solid. Monte Carlo analyses are conducted to determine the probability distributions of all viscoelastic properties. Simulations are conducted on SVEs of increasing size in order to determine the suitable size of a representative volume element (RVE). The predictions of the FE simulations are compared to those of existing theories and it is found that the Mori-Tanaka (1973) and Lielens (1999) models are the most effective in predicting the anisotropic viscoelastic response of the RVE

Parallel Computing with a Bayesian Item Response Model

Item response theory (IRT) is a modern test theory that has been used in various aspects of educational and psychological measurement. The fully Bayesian approach shows promise for estimating IRT models. Given that it is computationally expensive, the procedure is limited in practical applications. It is hence important to seek ways to reduce the execution time. A suitable solution is the use of high performance computing. This study focuses on the fully Bayesian algorithm for a conventional IRT model so that it can be implemented on a high performance parallel machine. Empirical results suggest that this parallel version of the algorithm achieves a considerable speedup and thus reduces the execution time considerably

Cuerpos femeninos enfermos, cuerpos que importan: 'Las primas' de Aurora Venturini

En la presente tesis, se realiza un análisis exhaustivo de la novela Las primas (2007) de la escritora argentina Aurora Venturini. Sustento que la novela propone modelos de género alternativos a la matriz heterosexual hegemónica como válidas en sí mismas y que van contra la noción de lo normado, generando posibilidades para la existencia de los sujetos. Teniendo en cuenta la biografía y trayectoria de Venturini, Las primas configura un relato innovador y único, además de relevante en cuanto a sus propuestas de reivindicación del cuerpo femenino y los cuerpos considerados ‘disidentes’, en una sociedad que los construye como abyectos y grotescos. La narración plantea a la protagonista como una wounded storyteller (Frank 1995) dentro del marco narrativo del Künstlerroman. Como herramientas teóricas, empleo la teoría de Mikhail Bakhtin sobre lo grotesco y lo abyecto de Julia Kristeva, así como lo propuesto por Judith Butler en El género en disputa (2015 [1990]) y Cuerpos que importan (2002 [1993]) en relación a la performatividad y la matriz heterosexual. Analizo la construcción de los cuerpos, la sexualidad y la maternidad en la novela y la manera en la que la protagonista los considera peligrosos. Asimismo, demuestro cómo el mandato patriarcal actúa de manera velada en la vida de los personajes e impide la sororidad entre las mujeres de la novela, aunque finalmente el patriarcado es subvertido por la protagonist

Novel parametric reduced order model for aeroengine blade dynamics

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The work introduces a novel reduced order model (ROM) technique to describe the dynamic behavior of turbofan aeroengine blades. We introduce an equivalent 3D frame model to describe the coupled flexural/torsional mode shapes, with their relevant natural frequencies and associated modal masses. The frame configurations are identified through a structural identification approach based on a simulated annealing algorithm with stochastic tunneling. The cost functions are constituted by linear combinations of relative errors associated to the resonance frequencies, the individual modal assurance criteria (MAC), and on either overall static or modal masses. When static masses are considered the optimized 3D frame can represent the blade dynamic behavior with an 8% error on the MAC, a 1% error on the associated modal frequencies and a 1% error on the overall static mass. When using modal masses in the cost function the performance of the ROM is similar, but the overall error increases to 7%. The approach proposed in this paper is considerably more accurate than state-of-the-art blade ROMs based on traditional Timoshenko beams, and provides excellent accuracy at reduced computational time when compared against high fidelity FE models. A sensitivity analysis shows that the proposed model can adequately predict the global trends of the variations of the natural frequencies when lumped masses are used for mistuning analysis. The proposed ROM also follows extremely closely the sensitivity of the high fidelity finite element models when the material parameters are used in the sensitivity

A novel hybrid Neumann expansion method for stochastic analysis of mistuned bladed discs

The paper presents a novel hybrid method to enhance the computational efficiency of matrix inversions during the stochastic analysis of mistuned bladed disc systems. The method is based on the use of stochastic Neumann expansion in the frequency domain, coupled with a matrix factorization in the neighbourhood of the resonant frequencies. The number of the expansion terms is used as an indicator to select the matrix inversion technique to be used, without introducing any additional computational cost. The proposed method is validated using two case studies, where the dynamics an aero-engine bladed disc is modelled first using a lumped parameter approach and then with high-fidelity finite element analysis. The frequency responses of the blades are evaluated according to different mistuning patterns via stiffness or mass perturbations under the excitation provided by the engine orders. Results from standard matrix factorization methods are used to benchmark the responses obtained from the proposed hybrid method. Unlike classic Neumann expansion methods, the new technique can effectively update the inversion of an uncertain matrix with no convergence problems during Monte Carlo simulations. The novel hybrid method is more computationally efficient than standard techniques, with no accuracy loss

Impact hammer-based analysis of nonlinear effects in bolted lap joint

This work presents an experimental investigation into the dynamic behavior of a bolted joint beam configuration. The impact hammer is chosen as an alternative to classical harmonic excitation methods. The structural responses are explored for a range of the joint tightening toques and various levels of impulse hammer excitations. A symmetric beam assembly made of two nominally identical steel beams is studied. Symmetric modes are found to be sensitive to the test parameters. For given torque, impact-based varying joint loading conditions are used to induce the nonlinear joint effects. A linear data processing strategy is used to observe the nonlinear behavior indirectly. The dynamic joint behavior is described in the form of the modal frequency-damping ratio performance maps represented by the two-parametric approximating quadratic response surface models. This model maps the joint conditions on the corresponding dynamic characteristics of interest and it will serve as a basis for the parametric linear joint model developmen