Systèmes de production mixtes agriculture pluviale et élevage en zones humide et sub-humide d'Afrique

Ce travail s'inscrit dans une étude générale sur les interactions entre les systèmes de production d'élevage et l'environnement. L'évolution récente des systèmes pastoraux traditionnels africains, vers des systèmes mixtes agriculture et élevage, a des conséquences nouvelles pour l'environnement qui sont d'autant plus profitables que l'association entre l'élevage et l'agriculture est bien maîtrisée

Platform emergence in double unknown: Common challenge strategy

International audienceThe proposed paper deals with platform emergence in double unknown situations when technology and markets are highly uncertain. The interest in technological platform development to enable creation of products and processes that support present and future development of multiple options is widely recognized by practitioners and academics The existing literature considers already existing platforms and the development is based on exploiting this common platform core to build future markets and technological derivatives. However, when we are in double unknown situations, markets and technologies are highly uncertain and neither options, nor platform core are known. Thus, how can one ensure platform emergence in double unknown?The history of innovation promotes mostly singular challenge strategy to guide innovative development. But in certain sectors, like semiconductors, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, the success of common challenge strategy applicable to several markets is more important than singular project success. Thus, which strategy to choose for innovative technological platform emergence? Why common challenge strategy appears to be so challenging and risky? The objective of the paper is to define what are the precise market and technological conditions that in certain situations lead to 1) develop common building block (common core) that facilitate all the others projects but don't provide access directly to the market 2) launch singular project exploration to emerge future platform core consequently. We attempt to address our research questions by formally describing each strategy and fabricating simple economical model to compare them. For simulation the data was created by taking into account specifics of real management situations and parameters were chosen based on the literature review. Then we illustrate the insights of the model through a case study of innovative technology development in semiconductor industry. The in-depth empirical case study was conducted in STMicroelectronics, one of the leaders in the semiconductor industry. The data for case study was gathered from advanced technology platform with several interdependent modules developed by company and introduced to the several markets after all. This paper contributes to existing work on platform emergence by introducing the strategy of platform core construction in double unknown based on future common challenge investigation

Why aren't they locked in waiting games? Unlocking rules and the ecology of concepts in the semiconductor industry.

International audienceIn a multi-level perspective, regimes can be clearly described as long as they remain stable. To understand how regimes and niches interact during transition, the article contrasts two models of regimes in transition(s). The classical model of evolutionary niches suggests misalignments between rules and competition between niches. Transition management, technological innovation systems and works on transition pathways suggest a second model based on "unlocking rules", which support collective work on a structured set of emerging technologies. The latter model is illustrated with a case study on the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS)

Concevoir les outils du Bureau d'Etudes : Dassault Systèmes une firme innovante au service des concepteurs.

International audienceEntretien avec Pascal Daloz, Directeur Général Adjoint de Dassault Systèmes en charge de la Stratégie et du Marketin

Advanced R&D for prepositioning strategies: the economics of platform shift in high technological velocity environments

International audienceThis paper addresses the design of platform, and more precisely the economics of platform shift in industries with high technological velocity. A platform consists in fixing some design dimensions (such as basic components, modules or processes) to get better performance on some other dimensions (flexibility of alternative development, enhanced variety, lower costs). Platform design consists in using a stock of design rules to find the right balance between fixed parameters and to be defined parameters for a certain time period. In high technological velocity (HTV) environment this time period can become very short so that platform renewal becomes critical. Moreover in this HTV environment, the stock of design rules becomes obsolete so that platform renewal can take several forms: this can range from "adaptation" (development activity makes the optimal use of existing stock) to "anticipation" (research activity produces new design rules to prepare the development of the next platform). In this paper we propose an economic model of platform renewal to compare these strategies, depending on the technological velocity. We show where anticipation and adaptation are relevant and what is the optimal level of research compared to development. Moreover we show that an alternate strategy, called "prepositioning", based on advanced R&D (ARD) and consisting in renewing the stock of design rules for several generations, would be interesting in case of HTV. We then illustrate its insights through a case study in a typical HTV industry, semiconductor industry. This enables us to propose an explanation of complex platform renewal strategies. The article closes with managerial implications and directions for further research in platform renewal

A structured annotation frame for the transposable phages: A new proposed family “Saltoviridae” within the Caudovirales

AbstractEnterobacteriophage Mu is the best studied and paradigm member of the transposable phages. Mu-encoded proteins have been annotated in detail in UniProtKB and linked to a controlled vocabulary describing the various steps involved in the phage lytic and lysogenic cycles.Transposable phages are ubiquitous temperate bacterial viruses with a dsDNA linear genome. Twenty-six of them, that infect α, β and γ-proteobacteria, have been sequenced. Their conserved properties are described. Based on these characteristics, we propose a reorganization of the Caudovirales, to allow for the inclusion of a “Saltoviridae” family and two newly proposed subfamilies, the “Myosaltovirinae” and “Siphosaltovirinae”. The latter could temporarily be included in the existing Myoviridae and Siphoviridae families

Innovation et compétition entre plateformes technologiques : vers une stratégie basée sur la pervasivité des technologies

International audienceL’objectif de cette communication est de mettre en évidence un nouveau cadre théorique pour penser la stratégie de compétition entre plateformes technologiques, indépendamment des logiques de marchés. Nous démontrons que la compétition ne se joue pas seulement sur le marché ; et qu’un des défis majeur de l’innovation technologique est d’être capable de subvertir les systèmes techniques des autres acteurs industriels (concurrents, fournisseurs, partenaires, clients, etc.). Nous présentons ensuite un nouveau critère de performance stratégique pour illustrer l’effet systémique d’une technologie sur l’espace des techniques : la pervasivité d’une technologie. Ce concept permet d’exprimer la faculté d’une invention technique à transformer et à réorganiser d’autres systèmes techniques ainsi que sa capacité à se diffuser à travers un large ensemble de technologies. Aussi, mener une stratégie de pervasivité technologique suppose de contrôler le degré de transformation des différents systèmes techniques, tout en augmentant le nombre de relations entre différents systèmes. Afin de tester nos hypothèses et en raison du caractère exploratoire de cette recherche, nous avons opté pour une étude de cas unique basée sur une approche qualitative. Nous illustrons notre modèle à travers l’étude de l’activité de conception et de développement de la technologie FD-SOI (Fully Depleted Silicon On Insulator) chez STMicroelectronics, leader européen dans l’industrie du semi-conducteur

ViralZone: a knowledge resource to understand virus diversity

The molecular diversity of viruses complicates the interpretation of viral genomic and proteomic data. To make sense of viral gene functions, investigators must be familiar with the virus host range, replication cycle and virion structure. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive resource bridging together textbook knowledge with genomic and proteomic sequences. ViralZone web resource (www.expasy.org/viralzone/) provides fact sheets on all known virus families/genera with easy access to sequence data. A selection of reference strains (RefStrain) provides annotated standards to circumvent the exponential increase of virus sequences. Moreover ViralZone offers a complete set of detailed and accurate virion picture

ViralZone: recent updates to the virus knowledge resource

ViralZone (http://viralzone.expasy.org) is a knowledge repository that allows users to learn about viruses including their virion structure, replication cycle and host-virus interactions. The information is divided into viral fact sheets that describe virion shape, molecular biology and epidemiology for each viral genus, with links to the corresponding annotated proteomes of UniProtKB. Each viral genus page contains detailed illustrations, text and PubMed references. This new update provides a linked view of viral molecular biology through 133 new viral ontology pages that describe common steps of viral replication cycles shared by several viral genera. This viral cell-cycle ontology is also represented in UniProtKB in the form of annotated keywords. In this way, users can navigate from the description of a replication-cycle event, to the viral genus concerned, and the associated UniProtKB protein record

Human-Phosphate-Binding-Protein inhibits HIV-1 gene transcription and replication

The Human Phosphate-Binding protein (HPBP) is a serendipitously discovered lipoprotein that binds phosphate with high affinity. HPBP belongs to the DING protein family, involved in various biological processes like cell cycle regulation. We report that HPBP inhibits HIV-1 gene transcription and replication in T cell line, primary peripherical blood lymphocytes and primary macrophages. We show that HPBP is efficient in naïve and HIV-1 AZT-resistant strains. Our results revealed HPBP as a new and potent anti HIV molecule that inhibits transcription of the virus, which has not yet been targeted by HAART and therefore opens new strategies in the treatment of HIV infection