Le général de Gaulle vu par André Malraux - héros national ou européen ?

A partir du portrait de Charles de Gaulle brossé par André Malraux dans Les Chênes qu’on abat (1971), l’article cherche à analyser et à évaluer le statut de ce héros national français afin de déterminer dans quelle mesure le général peut être considéré comme un grand homme de l’Europe. Le statut et le destin du général étant étroitement liés à ceux de la France, l’article tente de caractériser la place de ce grand homme ainsi que celle de la France dans l’Europe d’après la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. Les deux perspectives temporelles de la durée, d’une part, et des événements, de l’autre, contribuent ici à nuancer le portrait de ce grand homme à la fois profondément engagé dans l’histoire de son temps et pourtant représentant d’une continuité historique. Mots-clé: de Gaulle, Malraux, France, Europe, héros, nation

"Out of sync": The breakdown of economic sentiment cycles in the E.U.

We present empirical evidence about the properties of economic sentiment cycle synchronization for Germany, France and the UK and compare them with the `crisis' countries Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. Instead of using output data we prefer to focus on the economic sentiment indicator (ESI), a forward-looking, survey-based variable consistently available from 1985. The cyclical nature of the ESI allows us to analyze the presence or not of synchronicity among country pairs before and after the onset of the financial crisis. Our results show that ESI movements were mostly synchronous before 2008 but they exhibit a breakdown after 2008, with this feature being more prominent in Greece. We also find that, after the political manoeuvring of the past two years, a cycle re-integration or re-synchronization is on the way. An analysis of the evolution of the synchronicity measures indicates that they can potentially be used to identify sudden phase breaks in ESI co-movement and they can offer a signal as to when the EU economies are getting “in” or “out of sync”.

PROCÉDÉ DE DÉTECTION DE BIOPRODUITS À L'AIDE D'UN DÉTECTEUR PAR RÉSONANCE PLASMONIQUE DE SURFACE LOCALISÉE DE NANOPARTICULES D'OR

L'invention porte sur un procédé consistant à détecter des bioproduits à l'aide d'une résonance plasmonique de surface localisée (LSPR) de nanoparticules d'or. Ledit procédé peut diagnostiquer des bioproduits sur la base de changements de la longueur d'onde maximale produite par une réaction antigène-anticorps après immobilisation des nanoparticules d'or sur un panneau en verre. Un détecteur utilisant un tel procédé présente une sensibilité élevée, est peu coûteux, permet un diagnostic rapide, et il peut ainsi être appliqué à divers domaines biologiques associés aux contaminants environnementaux, pathogènes et similaires, ainsi qu'au diagnostic de maladies. L'invention porte en outre sur une technologie pour fabriquer un détecteur dont la sensibilité est élevée, le prix faible et la performance rapide, par comparaison avec des procédés classiques utilisant SPR.

Carrefours de la sociocritique. E´ dite´ par ANTHONY GLINOER. (¼ Texte: revue de critique et de the´orie litte´raire, 45/46). Toronto: E´ ditions Trintexte, 2009. 227 pp. Pb CAD $35.00

French Studies (2012) 66 (1): 125-126 doi:10.1093/fs/knr208

Preliminary analysis of organic Rankine cycles to improve vehicle efficiency

This paper presents the background rationale and key findings for a model-based study of supercritical waste heat recovery organic Rankine cycles. The paper’s objective is to cover the necessary groundwork to facilitate the future operation of a thermodynamic organic Rankine cycle model under realistic thermodynamic boundary conditions for performance optimisation of organic Rankine cycles. This involves determining the type of power cycle for organic Rankine cycles, the circuit configuration and suitable boundary conditions. The study focuses on multiple heat sources from vehicles but the findings are generally applicable, with careful consideration, to any waste heat recovery system. This paper introduces waste heat recovery and discusses the general merits of organic fluids versus water and supercritical operation versus subcritical operation from a theoretical perspective and, where possible, from a practical perspective. The benefits of regeneration are investigated from an efficiency perspective for selected subcritical and supercritical conditions. A simulation model is described with an introduction to some general Rankine cycle boundary conditions. The paper describes the analysis of real hybrid vehicle data from several driving cycles and its manipulation to represent the thermal inertia for model heat input boundary conditions. Basic theory suggests that selecting the operating pressures and temperatures to maximise the Rankine cycle performance is relatively straightforward. However, it was found that this may not be the case for an organic Rankine cycle operating in a vehicle. When operating in a driving cycle, the available heat and its quality can vary with the power output and between heat sources. For example, the available coolant heat does not vary much with the load, whereas the quantity and quality of the exhaust heat varies considerably. The key objective for operation in the vehicle is optimum utilisation of the available heat by delivering the maximum work out. The fluid selection process and the presentation and analysis of the final results of the simulation work on organic Rankine cycles are the subjects of two future publications.

Origin of double dinitrogen release feature during fast switching between lean and rich cycles for NOx storage reduction catalysts

The performance of NOx storage and reduction over 1.5 wt% Pt/20 wt% KNO3/K2Ti8O17 and 1.5 wt% Pt/K2Ti8O17 catalysts has been investigated using combined fast transient kinetic switching and isotopically labelled (NO)-N-15 at 350 degrees C. The evolution of product N-2 has revealed two significant peaks during 60 s lean/1.3 s rich switches. It also found that the presence of CO2 in the feed affects the release of N-2 in the second peak. Regardless of the presence/absence of water in the feed, only one peak of N-2 was observed in the absence of CO2. Gas-phase NH3 was not observed in any of the experiments. However, in the presence of CO2 the results obtained from in situ DRIFTS-MS analysis showed that isocyanate species are formed and stored during the rich cycles, probably from the reaction between NOx and CO, in which CO was formed via the reverse water-gas shift reaction. 

Super suburbia: developing resilience by closing resource cycles in North Belfast

Sustainability can be described as having three interlinked strands, known as the ‘trias energetica’, without which resilience is difficult to achieve. These strands are environmental, social and economic: and if taken as indicators, the suburbs of North Belfast are very poorly performing indeed. Places such as Ligoneal and Glen Cairn have poor housing stock energetically, and also little economic activity. This paper describes propositional work completed by Queens University and Belfast City Council as part of the UK’s Technology Strategy Board’s Future Cities Programme, which aimed to develop new synergies in these neighbourhoods by the insertion of closed cycle economies.

By utilising a research by design methodology, the paper develops a process-based and phased design to develop a new emergent form to these neighbourhoods, one in which new productive systems are embedded into the city, at a small-scales. These include a peak-load hydro-electric project in Ligoneal; a productive landscape in Glen Cairn and a city-wide energy refurbishment utilising neighbourhood waste streams.

These designs allow for a roadmap for development to be created that could change the modus operandi of an area over a relatively short period of time, and show that even modest investments of productive technologies at a local scale could fundamentally change the form and the economic and environmental operation of the city in the future, and create a new resilient city, one that can be less externally dependent and more socially just.

New suburbia: designing in urban resilience by closing resource cycles

By utilising a research by design methodology, the paper develops a process-based and phased design to develop a new emergent form to these neighbourhoods, one in which new productive systems are embedded into the city, at a small-scales. These include a peak-load hydro-electric project in Ligoneal; a productive landscape in Glen Cairn and a city-wide energy refurbishment utilising neighbourhood waste streams.

The three projects illustrate different ways in which place-based solutions can enact urban transformation through a process of rigorous visualisation of process, and its attendant changes in content and form of the neighbourhood, These designs, based around a process-based strategy plan, allow for a roadmap for development to be created that could change the modus operandi of an area over a relatively short period of time,. The paper demonstrates that even modest investments of productive technologies at a local scale can fundamentally change the form and the economic and environmental operation of the city in the future, and create a new resilient city, one that can have resilience built-in. This resilience allows the neighbourhood to be less externally dependent on resources, economically active and more socially just.