Impact of Alliances on Technological Performance of Local Companies in Emerging Markets: Case of Tunisian Firms.

The evolution of co-operations between firms has permitted a plentiful literature around the conception of the firm and its frontiers and has placed the specificity of competencies and innovation in the heart of the firm analysis. The evolution of the firm is observed according to the technological opportunities and the quality of its own competencies. In this context, the international joint ventures (IJV), between firms belonging to different levels of development, can be considered as a dynamic channel for acquisition new knowledge and improvement of existent competencies. The contractual relation is a challenge for the developing partner to reach a platform of knowledge and improve its competencies. However, the transfer inherent from IJV is not systematic. It is conditioned by the existence of prior core knowledge that could influence the success and the quality of the transfer. Considering this, we propose to measure the performance of the transfer inherent from international joint ventures on the recipient partners in the case of Tunisian firms. For that purpose we based the analysis on responses to a questionnaire sent to the managers in the different sectors in year 2005 and including two types of firms, those being engaged in an IJV and those not. We describe in the first section, the sample selection and the methodology of the analysis. Then we measure the effects of the IJV that are appreciated at two levels: the level of the perception of the managers and the level of the type of supports made by the foreign parent. Empirically we obtain five main effects declined in the evolution of knowledge and learning, the evolution of the tangible asset, the improvement of organizational capacities, the development of the technical learning and finally the tangible capacities. In the section 2, we test the potential absorptive capacity (PACAP), which could have an influence in terms of improving the performance effects of the IJV. The results show a correlation between the considered dimensions of the potential ACAP- the evolution of the R&D expenditure, the R&D unit and the qualifications- and the evolution of knowledge and learning. In section 3, we measure, the influence of the profiles characteristics of the firms, on moderating the IJV’ effects. The results are significant only on “the evolution of the knowledge and learning”. We extend the analysis by testing the influence of each control parameter on improving the previous results. We operate the same analysis by measuring the influence of each profile characteristic separately. We note the significant results for the parameter: Service sector. The other profile characteristics have not an exclusive and direct influence on the improvement of the alliance performance. Finally, we conclude and we underline the limits of this study.transfer; platform of knowledge; international joint ventures;

Corporate Finance: The Role of the Private Equity Funds in Restructuring of the Economic Productive Tissue.

The question of financing innovative small business is determinant in the current context. Giving the share that they represent in the market, they contribute to increase productivity of the economy. The problems of financing the SME’s are related to the almost intangible specificity of their assets that give them only a limited access to the traditional financing channels. Moreover, the financing becomes risky as the decision maker has no history to assess the potential of development on the basis of previous results. The traditional funding channels are incompatible with the context of a value creation based on innovation. Private equity activity is in this regard a better mode of financing innovative enterprises added to the advantage of assuming the risk associated with their specific characteristics. From an economic point of view, private equity funds can boost and contribute to the value creation process.Small Business; Innovation; Financing; Private Equity; Specific Assets;

User-centric Privacy Engineering for the Internet of Things

User privacy concerns are widely regarded as a key obstacle to the success of modern smart cyber-physical systems. In this paper, we analyse, through an example, some of the requirements that future data collection architectures of these systems should implement to provide effective privacy protection for users. Then, we give an example of how these requirements can be implemented in a smart home scenario. Our example architecture allows the user to balance the privacy risks with the potential benefits and take a practical decision determining the extent of the sharing. Based on this example architecture, we identify a number of challenges that must be addressed by future data processing systems in order to achieve effective privacy management for smart cyber-physical systems.Comment: 12 Page

Genome-wide CRISPR screens for the interrogation of genome integrity maintenance networks

Le matériel génétique (l’ADN) d’un organisme contient l’information nécessaire à sa survie, sa croissance et sa reproduction. La perte de cette information affecte grandement la santé de l’organisme et cette altération est l’un des facteurs les plus courants dans le vieillissement ou le cancer. Quasiment toutes les cellules d’un organisme contiennent une copie de ce matériel génétique, communément appelé le génome, et font usage de plusieurs mécanismes pour en réparer les sections endommagées ainsi que pour le copier avec précision lors de la division cellulaire. Nous avons cherché à étudier les processus cellulaires qui maintiennent la stabilité génomique en inactivant systématiquement chacun des gènes avec la technique de criblage par CRISPR afin d’en étudier les rôles. Nous avons effectué ces criblages à l’échelle du génome dans des lignées cellulaires humaines en combinaison avec des perturbations chimiques dans le but d’identifier l’effet du traitement chimique ou le rôle de gènes qui exacerbent ou atténuent la perturbation. Nous nous sommes d’abord concentrés sur le resvératrol, une molécule initialement extraite de plantes qui a démontré des propriétés antivieillissement dans certains organismes modèles ainsi que la capacité d’inhiber la prolifération cellulaire. Notre criblage génétique a révélé que le resvératrol inhibait la réplication de l’ADN. En comparant les effets cellulaires du resvératrol à l’hydroxyurée, un agent connu pour causer du stress réplicatif, nous avons montré que ces deux traitements menaient à une diminution similaire de la progression de la fourche de réplication ainsi qu’à une activation de la signalisation en réponse au stress réplicatif. Nous avons également démontré que l’inhibition de la réplication de l’ADN dans les cellules humaines par le resvératrol est l’un des effets principaux de la molécule sur la prolifération cellulaire et ne requiert pas la présence de la déacétylase d’histone Sirtuin-1, protéine qui a été suggérée comme étant la cible principale du resvératrol pour son effet antivieillissement. Nous avons également étudié la perturbation d’un second processus cellulaire, soit le maintien des télomères. Ces séquences spéciales aux extrémités des chromosomes sont indispensables à la protection du génome et leur érosion graduelle est contrebalancée par l’activité enzymatique de la télomérase. Nous avons effectué un crible génétique par CRISPR à l’échelle du génome dans une lignée cellulaire dont nous avons inhibé la télomérase en utilisant BIBR1532, un inhibiteur spécifique de la télomérase. Nous avons découvert une forte interaction génétique entre la télomérase et C16orf72, un gène non-annoté que nous avons nommé TAPR1. Nous avons montré que les cellules déficientes en TAPR1 possèdent des niveaux élevés de la protéine p53, un facteur de transcription central à la réponse cellulaire aux dommages télomériques et aux dommages à l’ADN. Nous suggérons que TAPR1 agit comme un inhibiteur de la stabilité protéique de p53. En somme, ces travaux mettent en évidence la capacité des cribles génétiques CRISPR à approfondir nos connaissances sur le fonctionnement des processus de maintien de la stabilité génomique chez l’humain.The genetic material (DNA) of an organism contains the necessary information for survival, growth and reproduction. Loss of this information strongly impacts the health of the organism and is the leading factor in aging and cancer. Almost all cells in an organism contain a copy of said genetic material (genome) and employ several mechanisms to repair any damaged section of the genome and to accurately copy it during cell division. We sought to understand the cellular processes by which cells maintain genome stability by systematically inactivating individual genes to uncover their role using pooled CRISPR-Cas9 screening. We employed genome-wide CRISPR screening in human cell lines in combination with specific chemical perturbations to identify gene deletions that enhance or suppress the phenotype of the chemical treatment, thereby shedding light on the effect of the treatment or the role of said enhancer/suppressor genes. We first focused on resveratrol; a small molecule first discovered in plants that has been suggested to extend lifespan in model organisms while also inhibiting cell proliferation ex vivo. Chemical-genetic screening pinpointed a role of resveratrol in inhibition of DNA replication. When we compared the cellular effects of resveratrol to hydroxyurea, a known inducer of replicative stress, we found that both treatments led to slower replication fork progression and activation of signaling in response to replicative stress. Importantly, we showed that the inhibition of DNA replication by resveratrol in human cells is a primary effect on cell proliferation and independent of the histone deacetylase Sirtuin-1, which has been implicated as the primary target in lifespan extension by resveratrol. We then studied the perturbation of a second cellular process, namely telomere maintenance. These specialized sequences at the termini of chromosomes are critical for the protection of chromosome ends and their erosion is counteracted by the enzymatic activity of telomerase. We performed a genome-wide CRISPR screen in cells that were concomitantly treated with a specific telomerase inhibitor, BIBR1532. We uncovered a strong genetic interaction between telomerase and a previously unannotated gene, C16orf72, which we named TAPR1. We found that TAPR1-depleted cells led to elevated p53 levels, a transcription factor central for the cellular response to telomeric and global DNA damage. We propose that TAPR1 is a negative regulator of p53 protein levels by promoting its turnover. Altogether, these studies highlight the power of CRISPR-Cas9 in genetic screening to uncover novel insight into the human genome stability maintenance network

Cardinality heterogeneities in Web service composition: Issues and solutions

Data exchanges between Web services engaged in a composition raise several heterogeneities. In this paper, we address the problem of data cardinality heterogeneity in a composition. Firstly, we build a theoretical framework to describe different aspects of Web services that relate to data cardinality, and secondly, we solve this problem by developing a solution for cardinality mediation based on constraint logic programming

New working model process implementation - DALOOP

ABSTRACT It is undeniable that the new reality, after Covid-19 pandemic, has an impact on people, organizations, processes, and especially on the way of working. As a result, many companies became more flexible through hybrid forms of work and repositioned themselves to do so (Kniffin et al., 2021). Nowadays, the transition to this new work reality can pose some challenges to companies and Human Resource Management (HRM) in adapting processes and finding a perfect balance between employees and the company’s well-being. Baring on this, the implementation of a new work model from the perspective of HRM is the subject of this report. Specifically, with the research we aimed to study and understand the new work model process phases implemented by Daloop and its impact on the employee-related dimension and HRM practices. Using a qualitative approach and combining diverse data collection methods (observation, organizational documents, and one-to-one interviews), analyzed through content analysis with NVivo software, the results obtained show that the implementation of a hybrid work model may be the best balance for the new work reality. This new process can, on the other hand, be challenging for HRM practices and the employees-related dimension, if it is not well designed and implemented. However, the study has some limitations in terms of evaluation and monitoring after the implementation of the new work model, due to the short duration of the internship, which can be an opportunity for further research

Smart attacks based on control packets vulnerabilities with IEEE 802.11 MAC

International audienceIn this paper, we show new smart attacks which were not dealt with in the solutions proposed recently. We focus on the Medium Access Control (MAC), particularly the IEEE 802.11 and we study some hidden vulnerabilities based on the control packets. The malicious nodes can exploit these vulnerabilities to reduce the network's performance, to disturb the monitoring, routing processes and to escape the Intrusion Detection System (IDS). Furthermore, we show how vulnerabilities can be exploited and how these attacks can be implemented by the attacker. Moreover, attacks' algorithms and the security analysis are presented. We investigate on the effect of these attacks with the simulations and the experimentations. The simulations' results and their analysis illustrate the negative impact of these attacks on the network. In addition, the experimentation results demonstrate the feasibility to real exploitation of these attacks and they confirm the simulation's results

Towards owl ontologies from relational databases: An HTML-form driven approach

The use of ontologies and ontology languages like OWL has attracted much attention, mainly in the Semantic Web research field. In this paper we focus on the problem of automating the generation of domain ontologies, at least partially, by applying reverse engineering technique. We present the complete details of the process of semi-automatically creating an OWL ontology that corresponds to the content of a relational database based on the analysis of its related HTML-forms. The main reason for this construction is to make the relational database information that is available on the Web machine-processable and reduce the time consuming task of ontology creation. Copyright © 2007 by the International Society for Computers and Their Applications (ISCA)

Exceptions in a Web services environment

This paper presents a policy-based approach to compose Web services with emphasis on exceptions. Three types of policies denoted as engagement, mediation, and deployment regulate composition and are specified with WSPL. To support the exception handling strategy, context comes into play. Context oversees and keeps track of the execution outcomes of policies that took place and are now taking place. © 2008 IEEE