Spatial pattern and process at the plant neighbourhood scale: insights from communities dominated by the clonal grass Elymus repens (L.) Gould.

Question: How do clonal traits of a locally dominant grass (Elymus repens (L.) Gould.) respond to soil heterogeneity and shape spatial patterns of its tillers? How do tiller spatial patterns constrain seedling recruitment within the community?Locations: Artificial banks of the River Rhone, France.Material and Methods: We examined 45 vegetation patches dominated by Elymus repens. During a first phase we tested relationships between soil variables and three clonal traits (spacer length, number of clumping tillers and branching rate), and between the same clonal traits and spatial patterns (i.e. density and degree of spatial aggregation) of tillers at a very fine scale. During a second phase, we performed a sowing experiment to investigate effects of density and spatial patterns of E. repens on recruitment of eight species selected from the regional species pool.Results: Clonal traits had clear effects - especially spacer length - on densification and aggregation of E. repens tillers and, at the same time, a clear response of these same clonal traits as soil granulometry changed. The density and degree of aggregation of E. repens tillers was positively correlated to total seedling cover and diversity at the finest spatial scales.Conclusions: Spatial patterning of a dominant perennial grass responds to soil heterogeneity through modifications of its clonal morphology as a trade-off between phalanx and guerrilla forms. In turn, spatial patterns have strong effects on abundance and diversity of seedlings. Spatial patterns of tillers most probably led to formation of endogenous gaps in which the recruitment of new plant individuals was enhanced. Interestingly, we also observed more idiosyncratic effects of tiller spatial patterns on seedling cover and diversity when focusing on different growth forms of the sown species.

La politique régionale : entre compétitivité et respect de l'environnement

Aujourd'hui plus que jamais, le développement économique ne peut se faire au détriment de notre environnement naturel. Dès lors se pose la question de savoir comment parvenir à maintenir la compétitivité d'une économie, tout en tenant compte de l'impact qu'elle a sur révolution du cadre naturel. La présente recherche propose d'investiguer sur la question en se penchant sur les politiques publiques de promotion économique, et plus spécifiquement sur la politique régionale. Faut-il maintenir la confiance dans les courants néoclassiques, comme le laisse supposer la situation actuelle, renforcer la position d'une économie s'inscrivant au sein d'un cadre socio-environnemental ou encore repenser notre mode de fonctionnement économique quant à son développement ? Dans le cas présent, la politique régionale suisse est évaluée à la lumière de trois stratégies de développement économique. D'une part, il y a l'économie fondée sur la connaissance. Cette dernière est à la base de la philosophie actuelle en matière de politique régionale. Ensuite, il y a l'écologie industrielle, qui pour sa part fait la promesse d'un développement économique éco-compatible. Enfin, la troisième stratégie est celle de l'économie de fonctionnalité, qui propose de maximiser l'efficience d'une unité de matière première en limitant notamment la notion de propriété. Au travers d'une grille d'analyse construite sur le modèle des géographies de la grandeur, les trois stratégies sont confrontées aux objectifs de la nouvelle politique régionale suisse (NPR) ainsi qu'à ses modalités de mise en oeuvre. Il en ressort qu'en l'état actuel, la stratégie misant sur l'économie de la connaissance est la plus à même de relever le défi d'un développement économique durable. Toutefois, moyennant adaptations, les autres stratégies pourraient également se révéler être pertinentes. On constate notamment que les éléments clés sont ici l'innovation, ainsi que les dimensions spatiale et temporelle des stratégies. Nous recommandons dès lors d'adopter une approche territorialisée du développement économique, selon une logique de projet au sens de Boltanski & Chiapello. A notre sens, seules les propositions à même de fédérer les acteurs et disposant d'une vision intégrée du développement ont une chance de permettre un développement économique en harmonie avec notre cadre environnemental. - Today more than ever, economic development can't go ahead without consideration for our natural environment. This lays us with the question of how to maintain the competitiveness of an economy, and at the same time to manage the impact of it on the natural frame. This research aims to investigate this question through public policies fostering economy, more specifically through the regional policy. Must one trust the neo-classical way, as the actual situation let's think about it, reinforce the position of an economy within a socio- environmental frame or moreover reinvent our economical modus regarding development? In this case, an assessment of the Swiss regional policy is lead through three strategies of economic development. First, there is the knowledge economy. It is the core concept of the actual philosophy regarding regional policy. Second, there is the industrial ecology which aims to promote an eco-compatible economic development. Last, there is the functional economy, which proposes to maximize the efficiency of every used unit of natural resources by limiting in particular the notion of propriety. Through an analytic frame built on the model of geographies of greatness (géographies de la grandeuή, the three strategies are confronted to the objectives of the Swiss new regional policy (NRP) as well as its implementation. It turns out that actually, the strategy laying on the knowledge economy happens to be the best solution in order to promote a sustainable economic development. Nevertheless, with few adaptations, the other strategies could be pregnant as well. What we can see is that key- elements are here the innovation, as well as the spatial and temporal dimensions of these strategies. We recommend therefore to adopt a territorialised approach of economic development, with a project-based logic as meant by Boltanski & Chiapello. We are convinced that only propositions which are able to unit actors, and with an integrated point of view, have a chance to promote economic development in harmony with our environmental frame.

The co-evolution of social institutions, demography, and large-scale human cooperation.

Human cooperation is typically coordinated by institutions, which determine the outcome structure of the social interactions individuals engage in. Explaining the Neolithic transition from small- to large-scale societies involves understanding how these institutions co-evolve with demography. We study this using a demographically explicit model of institution formation in a patch-structured population. Each patch supports both social and asocial niches. Social individuals create an institution, at a cost to themselves, by negotiating how much of the costly public good provided by cooperators is invested into sanctioning defectors. The remainder of their public good is invested in technology that increases carrying capacity, such as irrigation systems. We show that social individuals can invade a population of asocials, and form institutions that support high levels of cooperation. We then demonstrate conditions where the co-evolution of cooperation, institutions, and demographic carrying capacity creates a transition from small- to large-scale social groups.

The Impact of Cooperation on R&D, Innovation andProductivity: an Analysis of Spanish Manufacturing and Services Firms

This paper investigates relationships between cooperation, R&D, innovation and productivity in Spanish firms. It uses a large sample of firm-level micro-data and applies an extended structural model that aims to explain the effects of cooperation on R&D investment, of R&D investment on output innovation, and of innovation on firms’ productivity levels. It also analyses the determinants of R&D cooperation. Firms’ technology level is taken into account in order to analyse the differences between high-tech and low-tech firms, both in the industrial and service sectors. The database used was the Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) for the period 2004-2010. Empirical results show that firms which cooperate in innovative activities are more likely to invest in R&D in subsequent years. As expected, R&D investment has a positive impact on the probability of generating an innovation, in terms of both product and process, for manufacturing firms. Finally, innovation output has a positive impact on firms’ productivity, being greater in process innovations.

The co-evolution of culturally inherited altruistic helping and cultural transmission under random group formation.

Limited migration results in kin selective pressure on helping behaviors under a wide range of ecological, demographic and life-history situations. However, such genetically determined altruistic helping can evolve only when migration is not too strong and group size is not too large. Cultural inheritance of helping behaviors may allow altruistic helping to evolve in groups of larger size because cultural transmission has the potential to markedly decrease the variance within groups and augment the variance between groups. Here, we study the co-evolution of culturally inherited altruistic helping behaviors and two alternative cultural transmission rules for such behaviors. We find that conformist transmission, where individuals within groups tend to copy prevalent cultural variants (e.g., beliefs or values), has a strong adverse effect on the evolution of culturally inherited helping traits. This finding is at variance with the commonly held view that conformist transmission is a crucial factor favoring the evolution of altruistic helping in humans. By contrast, we find that under one-to-many transmission, where individuals within groups tend to copy a "leader" (or teacher), altruistic helping can evolve in groups of any size, although the cultural transmission rule itself hitchhikes rather weakly with a selected helping trait. Our results suggest that culturally determined helping behaviors are more likely to be driven by "leaders" than by popularity, but the emergence and stability of the cultural transmission rules themselves should be driven by some extrinsic factors.

The Impact of Cooperation on R&D, Innovation and Productivity: an Analysis of Spanish Manufacturing and Services Firms

This paper investigates relationships between cooperation, R&D, innovation and productivity in Spanish firms. It uses a large sample of firm-level micro-data and applies an extended structural model that aims to explain the effects of cooperation on R&D investment, of R&D investment on output innovation, and of innovation on firms’ productivity levels. It also analyses the determinants of R&D cooperation. Firms’ technology level is taken into account in order to analyse the differences between high-tech and low-tech firms, both in the industrial and service sectors. The database used was the Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) for the period 2004-2010. Empirical results show that firms which cooperate in innovative activities are more likely to invest in R&D in subsequent years. As expected, R&D investment has a positive impact on the probability of generating an innovation, in terms of both product and process, for manufacturing firms. Finally, innovation output has a positive impact on firms’ productivity, being greater in process innovations. Keywords: innovation sources; productivity; R&D Cooperation

Psychopathologie chez les enfants de patients souffrant de troubles liés à une substance ou de troubles de l'humeur

L'objectif principal de cette thèse est d'exposer les résultats des premières évaluations psychopathologiques menées, dans le cadre d'une étude familiale, sur une cohorte d'enfants de patients souffrant de troubles liés à des substances ou de troubles de l'humeur. Plus précisément, nous avons examiné des enfants de patients souffrant de dépendance à l'alcool et à l'héroïne, de troubles bipolaires et unipolaires, ainsi qu'un groupe d'enfants témoins, dont les parents étaient des patients contrôles recrutés dans des départements d'orthopédie. Nous nous sommes ainsi proposé d'étudier de façon précise le risque de psychopathologie chez des enfants de parents malades en menant une étude longitudinale prospective au moyen d'évaluations standardisées. Ces enfants ainsi que leurs parents-patients (probands) sont actuellement évalués chaque trois ans. Nous avons aussi effectué une évaluation des co-parents biologiques de ces enfants afin de tenir compte également de l'impact de leurs éventuels troubles psychiatriques sur les manifestations psychopathologiques de leurs enfants. Le volet longitudinal-prospectif de ces familles est actuellement en cours, et les deux articles contenus dans cette thèse, publiés dans des revues à politique éditoriale, exposent les résultats obtenus lors de l'évaluation initiale de ces enfants et de leurs deux parents. Nous résultats montrent que les enfants de patients, pourtant encore très jeunes (moyenne d'âge d'environ 11 ans), présentent déjà de plus hauts taux de manifestations psychopathologiques que les enfants de parents contrôles. Nous avons également pu démontrer le rôle joué par le co-parent, en plus de celui du parent-patient, dans le développement de psychopathologie chez ces enfants. Ces résultats soulignent la nécessité d'une identification et d'une prise en charge très précoce de ces enfants, et indiquent également l'importance de porter un intérêt clinique non seulement au parent-patient, mais également au co-parent de ces enfants. - This thesis presents the baseline results of psychopathological assessments conducted in a prospective longitudinal cohort study of children whose parents have substance use disorders or mood disorders. More specifically, we examined children of alcohol- and heroin- dependent patients, children of patients with bipolar or unipolar disorders, and, as a control group, children whose parents were recruited in orthopedics departments. Using standardized assessments, we conducted this study to accurately assess the risk of psychopathology in children of parents with these substance use or mood disorders. The prospective longitudinal study of these families is currently ongoing, with the children and their parent-patients (probands) being followed up every three years. We also assessed the biological co-parent in order to determine the impact of their possible psychiatric disorders on the risk of mental disorders in offspring. The two articles of this thesis, which have been published in peer-reviewed journals, present the results of baseline assessments of the children and their two parents. Our results show that the children of patients who are still very young at baseline assessment (mean age about 11 years) already have higher rates of psychopathological manifestations compared with children of control parents. We also demonstrate the effect of the co-parents, in addition to that of the parent-patients, on the development of early psychiatric manifestations in these children. These results emphasize the importance of prompt identification and treatment of these children and highlight the need for clinical care not only of the patient, but also of the co- parent, in order to optimize the prevention of mental disorders in their offspring.

A New Approach for the Carbon Monoxide (CO) Exposure Diagnosis: Measurement of Total CO in Human Blood Versus Carboxyhemoglobin (HbCO).

The aim of the study is to present the application of a headspace-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-GC-MS) method for the determination of the carbon monoxide (CO) blood concentration and to compare it with carboxyhemoglobin (HbCO) saturation. In postmortem cases, the HbCO measured by spectrophotometry frequently leads to inaccurate results due to inadequate samples or analyses. The true role of CO intoxication in the death of a person could be misclassified. The estimation of HbCO from HS-GC-MS CO measurements provides helpful information by determining the total CO levels (CO linked to hemoglobin (HbCO) and CO dissociated from hemoglobin). The CO concentrations were converted in HbCO saturation levels to define cutoff blood CO values. CO limits were defined as less than 1 μmol/mL for living persons, less than 1.5 μmol/mL for dead persons without CO exposure, and greater than 3 μmol/mL for dead persons with clear CO poisoning.

L'emprenedoria femenina i la immigració a Osona. El suport dels serveis municipals

En la literatura sobre creació d’empreses, les dones empresàries són considerades un re· servori de desenvolupament econòmic i un model de gestió empresarial alternatiu. D’al· tra banda, els immigrants posseeixen un fort esperit emprenedor. El paper de les adminis· tracions locals per donar suport a aquests col· lectius en la creació d’empreses és rellevant. L’intens procés migratori viscut a Osona en els darrers anys mereix una anàlisi des de la perspectiva de l’emprenedoria de gènere. Aquest estudi fa una comparació de les em· presàries autòctones i immigrades de la co· marca, així com de les polítiques de suport realitzades pels ajuntaments.

Aplicació del Value Stream Map (VSM) en un sistema de producció de feltres insonoritzants per a l'automòbil

Actualment en el sector industrial, les organitzacions tenen el repte d'optimitzar els seus sistemes productius per a millorar en quant a preu, qualitat i nivell de servei i poder adaptar-se a les exigències dels clients (excel·lència productiva). El present anàlisi, es basa en l'optimització d'una cadena de producció de feltres insonoritzants per a l'automòbil a través de l'eliminació de les pèrdues existents (operacions que no aporten valor afegit al producte final). Per dur-ho a terme, la metodologia emprada és el Value Stream Map (VSM). El VSM és una tècnica desenvolupada sota el model de gestió de la producció Lean Manufacturing, molt visual i entenedora, permet visualitzar i entendre l'estat actual d'un procés. Aquesta, abarca a tota la organització, i te per objectiu recolzar-la en el procés de redisseny dels seus entorns productius per assolir un estat futur millor que possibiliti obtenir resultats en un periode curt de temps. L'objectiu principal de l'estudi, és aplicar l'eina VSM com a mètode per a l'eliminació de les mudes o malbarataments que impedeix la consecució d'una cadena Lean amb el cas concret d'un sistema productiu de feltres insonoritzants. En la primera part del projecte s'introdueix al lector en la teoria del pensament Lean (quins principis té i quins són els objectius) com a marc teòric. Aquí es detalla el procediment, així com les característiques per a la correcta elaboració del VSM actual, per al seu corresponent anàlisi i per a la seva representació del estat futur. En una segona part del projecte, s'exposen les etapes que constitueixen la cadena de producció d'estudi i es duu a terme l'elaboració del Value Stream Map, on es posen de manifest les ineficiències del flux que conformen la línia de producció. Per últim s'analitzen els fluxes, s'identifiquen les pèrdues de la cadena, i a partir d'aquests, es dissenyen i es proposen projectes i accions que permitin establir línies d'actuació per a un millor estat futur. L'estudi ha permés demostrar la validesa del VSM com a eina per a facilitar la consecució i assoliment de millores en la productivitat, competitivitat i rendibilitat dels diferents processos de l'organització en la línia de fabricació de feltres insonoritzats.

L'empresa xarxa a Catalunya : TIC, productivitat, competitivitat, salaris i rendiment a les empreses de Catalunya. Informe final de recerca (volum II)

El projecte de recerca L'empresa xarxa a Catalunya. TIC, productivitat, competitivitat, salaris i beneficis a l'empresa catalana té com a objectiu principal constatar que la consolidació d'un nou model estratègic, organitzatiu i d'activitat empresarial, vinculat amb la inversió i l'ús de les TIC (o empresa xarxa), modifica substancialment els patrons de comportament dels resultats empresarials, en especial la productivitat, la competitivitat, les retribucions dels treballadors i el benefici. La contrastació empírica de les hipòtesis de treball l'hem feta per mitjà de les dades d'una enquesta a una mostra representativa de 2.038 empreses catalanes. Amb la perspectiva de l'impacte de la inversió i l'ús de les TIC no s'aprecia una relació directa entre els processos d'innovació digital i els resultats de l'activitat de l'empresa catalana. En aquest sentit, hem hagut de segmentar el teixit productiu català per a buscar les organitzacions en què el procés de coinnovació tecnològica digital i organitzativa és més present i en què la intensitat de l'ús del coneixement és un recurs molt freqüent per a poder copsar impactes rellevants en els principals resultats empresarials. Això és així perquè l'economia catalana, avui, presenta una estructura productiva dual.

L'empresa xarxa a Catalunya : TIC, productivitat, competitivitat, salaris i rendiment a les empreses de Catalunya. Informe final de recerca (volum I)

El projecte de recerca L'empresa xarxa a Catalunya. TIC, productivitat, competitivitat, salaris i beneficis a l'empresa catalana té com a objectiu principal constatar que la consolidació d'un nou model estratègic, organitzatiu i d'activitat empresarial, vinculat amb la inversió i l'ús de les TIC (o empresa xarxa), modifica substancialment els patrons de comportament dels resultats empresarials, en especial la productivitat, la competitivitat, les retribucions dels treballadors i el benefici. La contrastació empírica de les hipòtesis de treball l'hem feta per mitjà de les dades d'una enquesta a una mostra representativa de 2.038 empreses catalanes. Amb la perspectiva de l'impacte de la inversió i l'ús de les TIC no s'aprecia una relació directa entre els processos d'innovació digital i els resultats de l'activitat de l'empresa catalana. En aquest sentit, hem hagut de segmentar el teixit productiu català per a buscar les organitzacions en què el procés de coinnovació tecnològica digital i organitzativa és més present i en què la intensitat de l'ús del coneixement és un recurs molt freqüent per a poder copsar impactes rellevants en els principals resultats empresarials. Això és així perquè l'economia catalana, avui, presenta una estructura productiva dual.

Hypertension. Angio-oedème sous inhibition de l'enzyme de conversion de l'angiotensine et de la dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 [Angioedema during ACE and DPP-4 inhibition]

Angioedema is a rare side effect of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. Its cause is probably related to the accumulation of bradykinin and substance P, i.e. two proinflammatory peptides normally inactivated by ACE. Angioedema occurs most of the time at the early phase of treatment, but may also develop during long-term treatment. It might involve the gastro-intestinal tract, leading to abdominal pain, vomiting and/or diarrhea, as well as pancreatitis. Dipeptidyl-ptidase-4 (DPP-4) is another enzyme allowing the degradation of bradykinin and substance P. Co-administering an ACE inhibitor and a DPP-4 inhibitor (as an antidiabetic agent) increases significantly the risk of angioedema.

Detection of metabolite induction in fungal co-cultures on solid media by high-throughput differential ultra-high pressure liquid chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry fingerprinting.

Access to new biological sources is a key element of natural product research. A particularly large number of biologically active molecules have been found to originate from microorganisms. Very recently, the use of fungal co-culture to activate the silent genes involved in metabolite biosynthesis was found to be a successful method for the induction of new compounds. However, the detection and identification of the induced metabolites in the confrontation zone where fungi interact remain very challenging. To tackle this issue, a high-throughput UHPLC-TOF-MS-based metabolomic approach has been developed for the screening of fungal co-cultures in solid media at the petri dish level. The metabolites that were overexpressed because of fungal interactions were highlighted by comparing the LC-MS data obtained from the co-cultures and their corresponding mono-cultures. This comparison was achieved by subjecting automatically generated peak lists to statistical treatments. This strategy has been applied to more than 600 co-culture experiments that mainly involved fungal strains from the Fusarium genera, although experiments were also completed with a selection of several other filamentous fungi. This strategy was found to provide satisfactory repeatability and was used to detect the biomarkers of fungal induction in a large panel of filamentous fungi. This study demonstrates that co-culture results in consistent induction of potentially new metabolites.