Japanese Aid as a Prerequisite for FDI : The Case of Southeast Asian Countries

This study investigates the nexus between Japans official development assistance and foreign direct investment inflows in Southeast Asian countries. An analysis of the geographical and sectoral decomposition of aid flows reveals that assistance programs were mainly allocated in the form of loans for economic infrastructure projects. This orientation attests that the needs of the recipient country are taken into account but also reveals that it is in keeping with a return on investment. Conditional logit analysis shows that Japanese aid flows did have a significant positive impact on private investors location choice even though other profit-maximising factors such as agglomeration effects or the quality of infrastructure had a leading spill-over effect. In a context of growing scarcity of aid funding, the study concludes by asserting the importance of a complementary process in which foreign aid is directed towards the development of infrastructure, acting as a pre-requisite for future direct investments. Finally, Japan providing an interesting case study, we will stress the need for a better cooperation between the public and private sectors in development assistance programs.Japan, official development assistance, Aid, investment, Infrastructure

Monitoring and Surveillance in the Workplace: Lessons Learnt? – Investigating the International Legal Position

When considering the legal implications of monitoring and surveillance in the workplace, the question may be asked why companies deploy computer surveillance and monitoring in the first place. Several reasons may be put forward to justify why more than 80% of all major American firms monitor employee e-mails and Internet usage. However, what most companies forget is the fact that the absence or presence of monitoring and surveillance activities in a company holds serious legal consequences for companies. From the discussion in this paper it will become apparent that there is a vast difference in how most countries approach this subject matter. On the one hand America does not afford any employee a reasonable expectation of privacy when it comes to the use of corporate computer resources and systems, while in contrast to this position the United Kingdom goes out of its way to protect each employee’s reasonable expectation of privacy. This paper will not only investigate the different approaches followed by some of the world-leader, but will also investigate the legal consequences embedded in each approach. This paper will ultimately enable the reader to judge for himself/herself which approach his/her country should follow while being fully informed of the legal consequences attached to the chosen approach. Keywords: information security, legal issues, monitoring and surveillance, privac

Monitoring and Surveillance in the Workplace: Lessons Learnt? – Investigating the International Legal Position

When considering the legal implications of monitoring and surveillance in the workplace, the question may be asked why companies deploy computer surveillance and monitoring in the first place. Several reasons may be put forward to justify why more than 80% of all major American firms monitor employee e-mails and Internet usage. However, what most companies forget is the fact that the absence or presence of monitoring and surveillance activities in a company holds serious legal consequences for companies. From the discussion in this paper it will become apparent that there is a vast difference in how most countries approach this subject matter. On the one hand America does not afford any employee a reasonable expectation of privacy when it comes to the use of corporate computer resources and systems, while in contrast to this position the United Kingdom goes out of its way to protect each employee’s reasonable expectation of privacy. This paper will not only investigate the different approaches followed by some of the world-leader, but will also investigate the legal consequences embedded in each approach. This paper will ultimately enable the reader to judge for himself/herself which approach his/her country should follow while being fully informed of the legal consequences attached to the chosen approach

Catégorisation séquentielle des énoncés enchâssés en discours direct et relations interdiscursives

Cet article s’interroge sur la triple interaction entre (i) le choix du verbe recteur de discours rapporté direct par l’énonciateur enchâssant, (ii) le type séquentiel du contenu ainsi enchâssé et (iii) le type de la séquence où celui-ci s’insère. On met en avant l’importance de deux classes d’emplois : ceux où le verbe fonctionne comme catégorisant séquentiel, dont raconter fournit le meilleur exemple, et ceux où il fonctionne comme spécificateur de relation interdiscursive, à l’instar de souligner ou ajouter. Ces derniers, en positionnant l’énoncé enchâssé au fil du discours et/ou dans une hiérarchie de l’information, combinent leur signification dialogique propre au marquage de l’hétérogénéité énonciative.The purpose of this paper is to show the role played by three variables in direct reported speech in the written mode: (i) the choice of verbal process used by the writer in order to insert a direct speech quote in his text (e.g. to tell, to emphasize), (ii) the quotation’s type of sequence (e.g. narrative, argumentative), (iii) the type of factual writing in which this sequence is embedded (e.g. description, explanation...). The analysis focuses on the two predominant categories of verbs used for this purpose : those which specify the kind of sequence being introduced (such as to tell) and those which indicate a type of textual relation (such as to emphasize or to add). The latter are shown to add their own dialogical significance (cf. Bakhtine) to the text through the hierarchy of information they establish and the indication of the particular point at which the quotation is inserted into the discourse

Gérard Joan Barceló & Jacques Bres, Les temps de l’indicatif en français

Dans leur introduction, les auteurs revendiquent un travail systématique mais sans dogmatisme, accessible, qui n’appauvrisse pas pour autant les explications en langue, et synthétique tout en se gardant de simplifier les faits de discours... La gageure est ambitieuse sur un objet aussi polymorphe, aussi abstrait et aussi documenté que l’actualisation temporelle/aspectuelle des procès à l’indicatif. Elle est globalement tenue grâce à quatre caractéristiques de l’ouvrage : un plan très progress..

Usons de la dimension vocale jusqu’à la corde : la voix du locuteur enchâssé dans le discours rapporté direct à l’oral

Le concept de voix a été élaboré pour rendre compte du dialogisme (ou de la polyphonie) des textes écrits, dans lesquels il se trouve le plus souvent mis en relation avec les énonciateurs en tant qu’instances de prise en charge du contenu sémantique et pragmatique des énoncés. Or, dans l’interaction orale, la voix reste avant tout une propriété du locuteur comme instance d’actualisation matérielle de l’énoncé, et la prise en charge énonciative se marque parfois uniquement grâce à l’intonation dans des configurations aussi répandues que l’interrogation totale sans inversion, l’injonction sans verbe ou le discours rapporté direct sans proposition rectrice. La vocalité des citations directes, qu’elles soient ou non explicitement introduites, constitue à l’oral un champ encore peu défriché, dont l’apparente trivialité ne doit pas masquer la grande complexité. Les quelques travaux existants sur ce point parvenant à des conclusions incompatibles entre elles, on propose de faire de la dimension vocale, comprise littéralement et dans tous les sens, une catégorie de marqueurs interagissant de manière plus ou moins saillante avec les autres marqueurs (syntaxiques et lexicaux) de l’hétérogénéité énonciative montrée. On dégage ensuite, à partir d’exemples authentiques, quelques contraintes à prendre en compte pour progresser dans sa description.The concept of voice was initially put forward as a tool for the analysis of dialogisme (or polyphony) in written texts : in this context, it is usually connected with the énonciateur, i. e. the speaker responsible for the semantic and pragmatic content of the utterance. However, in oral interaction, the voice remains first and foremost the property of the utterer as the physical means used to deliver the message. The prosodic features may be the only clue by which a speech act can be interpreted. This is often the case, for example, with yes/no questions without verbsubject inversion, injunctions without a verb or direct reported speech without an introductive clause. The vocality of direct quotations (explicitly introduced or not) remains a field barely explored so far, but, underneath its apparent everyday banality, this is a complex phenomenon that deserves further investigations. In the first part of this paper, an overview of the few studies dealing with this topic to date reveals a series of contradictory conclusions. Secondly, the author argues that the vocal dimension should be seen as a class of markers which interacts to varying degrees with other syntactical and lexical markers signalling enunciative heterogeneity (cf. Authier-Revuz). Finally, using the analysis of authentic examples of spoken language, he points out some of the constraints that must be taken into account in order to make headway in the description of vocality

Les amyloses, un modèle de maladie du repliement des protéines

Longtemps considérée comme une maladie unique, l'amylose est aujourd'hui reconnue comme la marque histologique d'un ensemble de maladies, les amyloses. L'amylose est la voie finale commune, chez l'homme et dans de nombreuses espèces animales, de l'agrégation pathologique de plus de vingt protéines appartenant à des familles dénuées de relation fonctionnelle ou structurale. Les mécanismes de formation de ces agrégats commencent à être mieux connus. L'étape centrale, que l'on peut artificiellement reproduire in vitro, est un changement de conformation d'une protéine native en une protéine apte à l'auto-agrégation, sous une forme essentiellement formée de feuillets β. Le traitement actuel des amyloses, qui consiste à réduire la disponibilité en protéine amyloïde, n'est pas pleinement satisfaisant. La reconnaissance progressive des différentes étapes de ce phénomène pathologique a conduit à la conception de cibles thérapeutiques nouvelles : stabilisation de la protéine native, désagrégation des structures déjà β-plissées ou, encore, inhibition des liaisons avec certains composants du tissu conjonctif. Différentes approches, pharmacologiques et immunologiques, sont à l'étude sur des systèmes cellulaires et des modèles animaux, et certaines molécules sont parvenues au stade de l'essai clinique chez l'homme.Amyloidosis bears many characteristics of orphan diseases. Its diagnosis is difficult and often delayed. The main reasons thereof are its quite various clinical presentation: amyloidosis behaves as a new great masquerader, and the need to get a tissue sample to submit to specific dyes. Although we have been able for a long time to recognize amyloid, its intimate nature has remained quite completely enigmatic until recently. In fact, major advances in this way have appeared only in the last decade and it is now possible to consider the mechanisms of amyloidosis as a multistep phenomenon. Amyloidosis is no more thought only as a « storage disease » of the extracellular space. This archaic viewpoint has shifted to the emerging paradigm of misfolded protein disorders. Amyloid proteins thus appear as a subgroup of misfolded proteins, where misfolding leads to subsequent aggregation. This aggregation may be a generic property of polypeptide chains possibly linked to their common peptide backbone that does not depend on specific amino acid sequences. And, in fact, many proteins can in vitro form amyloid-like aggregates, while in vivo, only 20 amyloid proteins have been so far identified. Although misfolding and aggregation are quite well studied in vitro, the last step of amyloid deposition, i.e. anchorage to the extracellular matrix, can not be so easily approached. Proteoglycans and serum amyloid P component have nevertheless been identified as key elements involved in extracellular deposition of amyloid proteins. These advances have opened new avenues in the therapeutic of amyloid disorders. Current treatment consists of support or replacement of impaired organ function and measures to reduce the production of amyloidogenic precursor proteins. Potential novel therapeutic strategies include stabilisation of the native fold of precursor proteins with targeted small molecules, reversion of misfolded proteins to their native state with « beta-sheet breakers », inhibition of amyloid fibril propagation and enhancement of amyloid clearance either through immunotherapy or by reducing the stability of deposits through depletion of serum amyloid P component, and breaking the anchorage to the extracellular matrix with glycosaminoglycan analogs

Gérard Joan Barceló & Jacques Bres, Les temps de l’indicatif en français

Dans leur introduction, les auteurs revendiquent un travail systématique mais sans dogmatisme, accessible, qui n’appauvrisse pas pour autant les explications en langue, et synthétique tout en se gardant de simplifier les faits de discours... La gageure est ambitieuse sur un objet aussi polymorphe, aussi abstrait et aussi documenté que l’actualisation temporelle/aspectuelle des procès à l’indicatif. Elle est globalement tenue grâce à quatre caractéristiques de l’ouvrage : un plan très progress..