
Université Pierre Mendès France
UniversitySaint-Martin-d'Hères, France
Research output, citation impact, and the most-cited recent papers from Université Pierre Mendès France (France). Aggregated across the NobleBlocks index of 300M+ scholarly works.
Top-cited papers from Université Pierre Mendès France
Although the word ‘globalization’ is widely used, its sociological meaning needs clarification. The aim of this article is to achieve that, while returning to the basic premise that sociology is the primary discipline that charts changes within the world-society. Two typical subjects for the sociology of globalization can be distinguished: defining what is ‘global’ at first sight and the identification of similar changes in (almost) all countries. However, can national-born concepts help to explain these subjects? This is debated by considering the sociology of social movements (Touraine) and the sociology of the elite (Aron and Rocher) to explain power in the study of alterglobalist movements. The authors conclude that in order to understand world metamorphosis, there is an urgency to make available accurate and reliable data and match universally recognized definitions. Both of these suggestions bring us to the broader yet fundamental issue of the specific principles required within the social sciences.
The European Space Agency’s Planck satellite was launched on 14 May 2009, and has been surveying the sky stably and continuously since 13 August 2009. Its performance is well in line with expectations, and it will continue to gather scientific data until the end of its cryogenic lifetime. We give an overview of the history of Planck in its first year of operations, and describe some of the key performance aspects of the satellite. This paper is part of a package submitted in conjunction with Planck’s Early Release Compact Source Catalogue, the first data product based on Planck to be released publicly. The package describes the scientific performance of the Planck payload, and presents results on a variety of astrophysical topics related to the sources included in the Catalogue, as well as selected topics on diffuse emission.
Abstract. An integer‐valued analogue of the classical generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic (GARCH) ( p , q ) model with Poisson deviates is proposed and a condition for the existence of such a process is given. For the case p = 1, q = 1, it is explicitly shown that an integer‐valued GARCH process is a standard autoregressive moving average (1, 1) process. The problem of maximum likelihood estimation of parameters is treated. An application of the model to a real time series with a numerical example is given.
Our goal was to apply a statistical approach to allow the identification of atypical language patterns and to differentiate patients with epilepsy from healthy subjects, based on their cerebral activity, as assessed by functional MRI (fMRI). Patients with focal epilepsy show reorganization or plasticity of brain networks involved in cognitive functions, inducing 'atypical' (compared to 'typical' in healthy people) brain profiles. Moreover, some of these patients suffer from drug-resistant epilepsy, and they undergo surgery to stop seizures. The neurosurgeon should only remove the zone generating seizures and must preserve cognitive functions to avoid deficits. To preserve functions, one should know how they are represented in the patient's brain, which is in general different from that of healthy subjects. For this purpose, in the pre-surgical stage, robust and efficient methods are required to identify atypical from typical representations. Given the frequent location of regions generating seizures in the vicinity of language networks, one important function to be considered is language. The risk of language impairment after surgery is determined pre-surgically by mapping language networks. In clinical settings, cognitive mapping is classically performed with fMRI. The fMRI analyses allowing the identification of atypical patterns of language networks in patients are not sufficiently robust and require additional statistic approaches. In this study, we report the use of a statistical nonlinear machine learning classification, the Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithm, to identify atypical patterns and classify 55 participants as healthy subjects or patients with epilepsy. XGBoost analyses were based on neurophysiological features in five language regions (three frontal and two temporal) in both hemispheres and activated with fMRI for a phonological (PHONO) and a semantic (SEM) language task. These features were combined into 135 cognitively plausible subsets and further submitted to selection and binary classification. Classification performance was scored with the Area Under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Our results showed that the subset SEM_LH BA_47-21 (left fronto-temporal activation induced by the SEM task) provided the best discrimination between the two groups (AUC of 91 ± 5%). The results are discussed in the framework of the current debates of language reorganization in focal epilepsy.
The purpose of the current study is to address the distinctive roles of cognitive style and risk preference on four types of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions. More specifically, we examine how both cognitive style and risk preference separately and interactively contribute to an individual's assessment of his/her own skills and abilities as well as to his/her own entrepreneurial intentions. This study investigated these relationships using an international sample of 528 entrepreneurial students across three universities. Results indicated that individuals with a high risk preference had higher levels of entrepreneurial intentions and opportunity-identification efficacy, whereas individuals with a low risk preference had higher levels of relationship efficacy, and tolerance efficacy. Individuals with an intuitive cognitive style were also found to have lower perceived self-efficacy concerning the establishment of relationship with investors, the economic management of the new venture, and their capacity to tolerate ambiguity. However, intuitive individuals who had a high preference for risk exhibited higher levels of opportunity identification efficacy. Finally, contrary to our final hypothesis, analytic individuals with a low preference for risk had higher levels of relationship and tolerance self-efficacy than intuitive individuals with a high risk preference. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.
An all sky map of the apparent temperature and optical depth of thermal dust emission is constructed using the Planck-HFI (350μm to 2 mm) andIRAS(100μm) data. The optical depth maps are correlated with tracers of the atomic (Hi) and molecular gas traced by CO. The correlation with the column density of observed gas is linear in the lowest column density regions at high Galactic latitudes. At high NH, the correlation is consistent with that of the lowest NH, for a given choice of the CO-to-H2 conversion factor. In the intermediate NH range, a departure from linearity is observed, with the dust optical depth in excess of the correlation. This excess emission is attributed to thermal emission by dust associated with a dark gas phase, undetected in the available Hi and CO surveys. The 2D spatial distribution of the dark gas in the solar neighbourhood (|bII| > 10°) is shown to extend around known molecular regions traced by CO. The average dust emissivity in the Hi phase in the solar neighbourhood is found to be τD/NHtot = 5.2×10-26 cm2 at 857 GHz. It follows roughly a power law distribution with a spectral index β = 1.8 all the way down to 3 mm, although the SED flattens slightly in the millimetre. Taking into account the spectral shape of the dust optical depth, the emissivity is consistent with previous values derived fromFIRAS measurements at high latitudes within 10%. The threshold for the existence of the dark gas is found at NHtot = (8.0±0.58)×1020 H cm−2 (AV = 0.4mag). Assuming the same high frequency emissivity for the dust in the atomic and the molecular phases leads to an average XCO = (2.54 ± 0.13) × 1020 H2 cm-2/(K km s-1). The mass of dark gas is found to be 28% of the atomic gas and 118% of the CO emitting gas in the solar neighbourhood. The Galactic latitude distribution shows that its mass fraction is relatively constant down to a few degrees from the Galactic plane. A possible explanation for the dark gas lies in a dark molecular phase, where H2 survives photodissociation but CO does not. The observed transition for the onsetof this phase in the solar neighbourhood (AV = 0.4mag) appears consistent with recent theoretical predictions. It is also possible that up to half of the dark gas could be in atomic form, due to optical depth effects in the Hi measurements.
BACKGROUND: The relationship between phoneme awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), verbal short-term/working memory (ST/WM) and diagnostic category is investigated in control and dyslexic children, and the extent to which this depends on orthographic complexity. METHODS: General cognitive, phonological and literacy skills were tested in 1,138 control and 1,114 dyslexic children speaking six different languages spanning a large range of orthographic complexity (Finnish, Hungarian, German, Dutch, French, English). RESULTS: Phoneme deletion and RAN were strong concurrent predictors of developmental dyslexia, while verbal ST/WM and general verbal abilities played a comparatively minor role. In logistic regression models, more participants were classified correctly when orthography was more complex. The impact of phoneme deletion and RAN-digits was stronger in complex than in less complex orthographies. CONCLUSIONS: Findings are largely consistent with the literature on predictors of dyslexia and literacy skills, while uniquely demonstrating how orthographic complexity exacerbates some symptoms of dyslexia.
We present the first all-sky sample of galaxy clusters detected blindly by the Planck satellite through the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect from its six highest frequencies. This early SZ (ESZ) sample is comprised of 189 candidates, which have a high signal-to-noise ratio ranging from 6 to 29. Its high reliability (purity above 95%) is further ensured by an extensive validation process based on Planck internal quality assessments and by external cross-identification and follow-up observations. Planck provides the first measured SZ signal for about 80% of the 169 previouslyknown ESZ clusters. Planck furthermore releases 30 new cluster candidates, amongst which 20 meet the ESZ signal-to-noise selection criterion. At the submission date, twelve of the 20 ESZ candidates were confirmed as new clusters, with eleven confirmed using XMM-Newton snapshot observations, most of them with disturbed morphologies and low luminosities. The ESZ clusters are mostly at moderate redshifts (86% with z below 0.3) and span more than a decade in mass, up to the rarest and most massive clusters with masses above 1 10 15 M .
There is strong converging evidence suggesting that developmental dyslexia stems from a phonological processing deficit. However, this hypothesis has been challenged by the widely admitted heterogeneity of the dyslexic population, and by several reports of dyslexic individuals with no apparent phonological deficit. In this paper, we discuss the hypothesis that a phonological deficit may not be the only core deficit in developmental dyslexia and critically examine several alternative proposals. To establish that a given cognitive deficit is causally related to dyslexia, at least two conditions need to be fulfilled. First, the hypothesized deficit needs to be associated with developmental dyslexia independently of additional phonological deficits. Second, the hypothesized deficit must predict reading ability, on both empirical and theoretical grounds. While most current hypotheses fail to fulfil these criteria, we argue that the visual attentional deficit hypothesis does. Recent studies providing evidence for the independence of phonological and visual attentional deficits in developmental dyslexia are reviewed together with empirical data showing that phonological and visual attentional processing skills contribute independently to reading performance. A theoretical model of reading is outlined in support of a causal link between a visual attentional disorder and a failure in reading acquisition.
A connectionist feedforward network implementing a mapping from orthography to phonology is described. The model develops a view of the reading system that accounts for both irregular word and pseudoword reading without relying on any system of explicit or implicit conversion rules. The model assumes, however, that reading is supported by 2 procedures that work successively: a global procedure using knowledge about entire words and an analytic procedure based on the activation of word syllabic segments. The model provides an account of the basic effects that characterize human skilled reading performance including a frequency by consistency interaction and a position-of-irregularity effect. Furthermore, early in training, the network shows a performance similar to that of less skilled readers. It also offers a plausible account of the patterns of acquired phonological and surface dyslexia when lesioned in different ways.
Abstract Extensive channel narrowing in southeastern France provides an illustration of geomorphic response to land‐use changes. The study region comprises a range of environments, from large piedmont and intramountain gravel‐bed rivers, to small mountain streams. Field measurements and analysis of historical data demonstrate two distinct periods of channel change. From 1850 to 1950, channel narrowing is interpreted to be the result of a recovery process in response to widespread channel destabilization induced by major floods during the second half of the 19th century. At the time, the largely deforested basins were highly responsive to flooding, whereas the recovery process was accelerated by floodplain and basin‐scale land use changes (afforestation) and torrential control works, which in turn reduced sediment delivery and enabled vegetation development in channels. From 1950 to 1970, channel narrowing accelerated in most of the studied rivers. This recent phenomenon is considered as a human‐induced fluvial adjustment, directly related to forest development on river margins and human abandonment of intensive floodplain land uses. At the same time, long‐profile degradation occurred as a result of long‐term bedload supply decrease. In small mountain streams, channel narrowing is mainly explained by channel incision which seems to progress from upstream where sediment sources are progressively stabilized by afforestation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Although Alzheimer's disease (AD) involves visual association cortex, previous studies have not systematically investigated complex visual disturbances in AD. We examined 30 community-based AD patients, 13 (43%) of whom had complex visual complaints, and compared them with 30 controls on 7 types of complex visual tasks. Despite preserved visual acuity and color recognition, the AD patients were impaired in the visual evaluation of common objects, famous faces, spatial locations, and complex figures. In the AD patients, we found that all 30 had disturbances in figure-ground analysis; 17 (57%) had difficulties visually recognizing actual objects ("agnosia"); those with worse dementia disability had the most complex visual disturbances; and a subgroup (6) with Balint's syndrome performed the most poorly on the complex visual tasks. This study demonstrates that a range of complex visual disturbances are common in AD and suggests that they may result from the known neuropathology in the visual association cortex.
This paper reviews current information regarding the (non-gluten) proteins which are naturally located in and on starch granules, and which are termed starch granule associated proteins (SGAPs). At least ten major SGAPs can be extracted from most starches and have molecular weights in the range of approximately 5 to 149 kDa. A substantial number of these proteins are located at the starch granule surface, where their presence in association with that of other minor granule components (such as lipids), appears to significantly influence the overall properties of both starch granules and starchy products. The different extraction conditions which can be exploited to selectively remove SGAPs are detailed. Although some SGAPs may serve as supplementary storage proteins, the majority of SGAPs are believed to be starch biosynthetic enzymes, a proportion of which remain trapped within the growing granule structure. The identity and quantities of the biosynthetic enzymes varies with botanical source, genetic variety and even with time. Current knowledge regarding the identities, compositions, locations, properties and functions of several of the more common SGAPs (e.g. the ∼15 kDa friabilin/puroindoline proteins, the ∼30 kDa protein, and the ∼60 kDa starch granule-bound starch synthase (SGBSS) protein) are reviewed in detail.
Peer- and teacher-reported prosocial behavior of 339 6th-grade (11-12 years) and 8th-grade (13-14 years) students was examined in relation to prosocial goals, self-processes (reasons for behavior, empathy, perspective taking, depressive affect, perceived competence), and contextual cues (expectations of peers and teachers). Goal pursuit significantly predicted prosocial behavior, and goal pursuit provided a pathway by which reasons for behavior were related to behavior. Reasons reflected external, other-focused, self-focused, and internal justifications for behavior; each reason was related to a unique set of self-processes and contextual cues. Associations between prosocial outcomes and sex and race (Caucasian and African American) were mediated in part by self-processes and contextual cues. The implications of studying prosocial behavior from a motivational perspective are discussed.
Cognitive neuroscience relies on two sets of techniques to map the neural networks underlying cognition in humans: recordings of either regional metabolic changes (fMRI or PET) or fluctuations in the neural electromagnetic fields (EEG and MEG). Despite major advances in the last few years, an explicit linkage between the two is still missing and the neuroimaging community faces two complementary but unrelated sets of functional descriptions of the human brain. Such an explicit framework, linking the two approaches in potentially complex cognitive tasks and in a variety of brain regions would permit to combine them into fine spatio-temporally-grained human brain mapping procedures. We combined fMRI and intra-cranial EEG recordings of the same epileptic patients during a semantic decision task and found a close spatial correspondence between regions of fMRI activations and recording sites showing EEG energy modulations in the gamma range (>40 Hz). Our findings further support previous findings that gamma band modulations co-localize with BOLD variations and also indicate that fMRI may be used as a constraint to improve source reconstruction of gamma band EEG responses.
Abstract In this overview of a new database and approach to measuring distance among historical and contemporary independent nation-states, we review the utility of space to theory and empirical research in international studies. We identify weaknesses in existing empirical data on distances and contiguity among nations. Categorical data on distance treat proximity as an either-or issue and do not permit identifying degree of proximity among states. Continuous measures of distances between midpoints, such as capital cities, often overstate the actual distances between state borders and suffer for large states and irregular territories. We outline a new alternative approach, based on measuring the minimum distance for pairs of polities in the international system, which remedies some of these shortcomings. The current implementation of the minimum-distance database includes the minimum distances for all polities within 950 km of each other from 1875 to the present. We demonstrate the enhanced flexibility of the new minimum-distance approach relative to existing alternatives. Moreover, we illustrate how variables constructed from distance measures, combined with spatial statistical techniques, can contribute substantively to international relations and cross-national comparative research. We demonstrate the importance of dependence among geographical neighbors by examining the link between levels of economic wealth and prospects for democracy in the context of regional interdependence among states.
We examine the relationship between the coherence of the knowledge base and the innovative performance of U.S. pharmaceutical firms during the 1990's. We develop measures of the coherence and scope of the firms' knowledge base. Count data regression models show a strong link between these two properties and the firms' innovative performance. Firms experience decreasing returns to scale in research but larger firms enjoy a significant size advantage in innovation. Knowledge flows are necessary in knowledge production but not sufficient to secure its quality. Over time, the contribution of the scope and coherence of the knowledge base is increasing.
ABSTRACT We investigate the effect of various audit quality dimensions (i.e. auditor reputation and tenure, audit committee existence and independence) on earnings management in France. We thus contribute to the empirical audit quality literature in a Continental European environment that markedly differs from the USA in terms of auditing and corporate governance. The main findings are that: (1) the presence of an audit committee (but not the committee's independence) curbs upward earnings management; and (2) the presence of a Big Five auditor makes no difference regarding earnings management activities. Implications of these findings are discussed with regard to the specificities of the French auditing and governance settings. In particular, although the audit committee acts as a device to control the more egregious (i.e. income-increasing) forms of earnings management, the monitoring incentive of outside directors may be hampered by the collective board responsibility for financial reporting quality. Second, the lack of differentiation among Big Five auditors in terms of accounting conservatism is consistent with the lower litigation risk offered by the French Civil Code (vs. the US Common Law system), which is likely to eliminate the deep pockets incentive for investors.
A brief description of the methodology of construction, contents and usage of the Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC), including the Early Cold Cores (ECC) and the Early Sunyaev-Zeldovich (ESZ) cluster catalogue is provided. The catalogue is based on data that consist of mapping the entire sky once and 60% of the sky a second time by Planck, thereby comprising the first high sensitivity radio/submillimetre observations of the entire sky. Four source detection algorithms were run as part of the ERCSC pipeline. A Monte-Carlo algorithm based on the injection and extraction of artificial sources into the Planck maps was implemented to select reliable sources among all extracted candidates such that the cumulative reliability of the catalogue is 90%. There is no requirement on completeness for the ERCSC. As a result of the Monte-Carlo assessment of reliability of sources from the different techniques, an implementation of the PowellSnakes source extraction technique was used at the five frequencies between 30 and 143 GHz while the SExtractor technique was used between 217 and 857 GHz. The 10 photometric flux density limit of the catalogue at |b| > 30 is 0.49, 1.0, 0.67, 0.5, 0.33, 0.28, 0.25, 0.47 and 0.82 Jy at each of the nine frequencies between 30 and 857 GHz. Sources which are up to a factor of 2 fainter than this limit, and which are present in "clean" regions of the Galaxy where the sky background due to emission from the interstellar medium is low, are included in the ERCSC if they meet the high reliability criterion. The Planck ERCSC sources have known associations to stars with dust shells, stellar cores, radio galaxies, blazars, infrared luminous galaxies and Galactic interstellar medium features. A significant fraction of unclassified sources are also present in the catalogs. In addition, two early release catalogs that contain 915 cold molecular cloud core candidates and 189 SZ cluster candidates that have been generated using multifrequency algorithms are presented. The entire source list, with more than 15 000 unique sources, is ripe for follow-up characterisation with Herschel, ATCA, VLA, SOFIA, ALMA and other ground-based observing facilities.
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