Search

In this paper, we examine market-shaping literature that investigates how markets evolve over time. We focus on how controversial innovations gain acceptance as the result of the intentional strategies put into place by companies. We've carried a qualitative research based on secondary data collected from several online sources. Our study describes how a new packaging, can, had been introduced to the highly conservative market of wine in France. Our findings shed light on the opportunity for practitioners to implement controversial innovation in conservative markets and introduce a set of strategies to achieve such purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: One of the fundamental pillars of integrating a palliative approach in nursing home care is increasing professional competencies and institutional capacity. However, conventional training designs have been proven to fall short of supporting this integration. This paper details the results of a practice development intervention that used critical companionship as a learning design to facilitate the integration of a palliative approach in the care of nursing home residents in France. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the perceived outcomes of Padi-Palli critical companionship in supporting the integration of a palliative approach in the care of residents in nursing homes in France. Design: Qualitative multiple case study situated within a constructivist theoretic lens. Methods: This qualitative multiple case study is part of a larger interventional mixed-method study. Nurses with palliative care clinical expertise facilitated experiential learning with nursing home professionals for 10 months spread across three phases. At the end of the intervention, a purposive sampling method was used to select professionals from six nursing homes that participated, including leaders and critical companions. Focus groups and individual interviews were used to collect data between February 2023 and March 2024. Data analysis followed Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Four interrelated themes explained how Padi-Palli critical companionship enhanced the palliative care competencies of professionals, improved nursing home palliative care practices, supported organisational practices for palliative care and facilitated collaborative learning at the bedside. The collaborative and co-creative principles that informed the delivery of the Padi-Palli critical companionship program facilitated a culture shift towards integrating a palliative approach in resident care at individual, team and organisational levels. Conclusion: Critical companionship offers an innovative practice development approach that can support the delivery of timely palliative care for residents in nursing homes. Trial registration: ID-RCB 2020-A01832-37. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Auctions are increasingly used to support renewable energy sources (RES). The choice of the remuneration scheme is one of the major design challenges policymakers face. This paper analyzes the effects of remuneration schemes on RES auctions' success in markets with imperfect competition. I develop a game-theoretical auction/operation framework to model the feedback effects between the spot market's strategic behavior and the auction stage's bidding behavior. The analysis indicates that policymakers concerned about true-cost bidding, allocative efficiency, spot price, total payments to RES, and non-realization risk may prefer feed-in-tariff (FIT) remuneration. However, feed-in-premium (FIP) remunerations may outperform FIT ones from a social welfare perspective, particularly in markets with dirty technologies at the margin. A machine-learning-based simulation strategy is also presented, indicating that, for an auction for 14 GW of onshore wind in France, FIP auction with a winning incumbent leads to 1.40% higher prices than FIT ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dam removal has become one of the most widespread tools for river restoration; however, these projects can be conflictual. Our aim in this paper is to question the disconnection between the ecological project and the territorial project and to evaluate its role in the emergence of conflicts. Conceptually, we draw on a hydrosocial territory perspective to link the sociopolitical and economic context to the production of a new materiality sustained by power relationships. We focus on the removal of two large dams on the Sélune River in Normandy, France, which has fueled a conflict that has lasted for a decade. By combining multiple data sources (semi-directive interviews, focus group, archives), we highlight five successive and overlapping phases since the dams' construction at the beginning of the 20th century. Each of these periods are characterized by the (dis)empowerment of certain stakeholders, the evolution of the material environment, and the fluctuation of the hydrosocial territory scales. The case of the Sélune highlights the importance of including long-term historical perspectives in the concept of hydrosocial territory, i.e. thinking about hydrosocial heritages. Hydrosocial heritages constitute a new way to approach non-human actors by taking the historical and contemporary relationships between humans and non-humans into account. It also helps situate the dynamics of a conflict in a deeper historical process, revealing how past dynamics shape contemporary situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fractions are challenging for both typically achieving children and adults. Although some prior research has focused on fraction difficulties of children with mathematics difficulties (MD), persistent difficulties encountered by adults with MD remain unknown. It is possible that these adults may be able to compensate for some deficits. In this study, we administered an un-timed, paper-based fraction achievement test to French adults with and without MD to compare their knowledge of fractions. Compared with controls, adults with MD performed worse in fraction number lines, fraction concepts, fraction arithmetic, and word problems. However, no difference in performance between the two groups was observed on symbolic representations. This suggests that adults with MD might be able to perform rote procedures such as transcoding from a verbal to a symbolic representation but are severely impaired for fraction number line, fraction concept, and fraction arithmetic. Exploratory error pattern analyses for fraction number line and fraction arithmetic further revealed mistakes similar to those observed in prior studies on children with MD, indicating core deficits in fraction understanding in individuals with MD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper charts the space of lifestyles in Germany in order to assess whether its structure resembles that famously uncovered in France by Bourdieu. Mobilising multiple correspondence analysis and using data from a bespoke national survey of tastes and lifestyles fielded in 2017–18 (n = 2244), it unveils a two-dimensional system defined by tastes for the culturally exclusive and the economically exclusive. These dimensions are strongly associated with indicators of cultural capital and economic capital, and reveal differences by both capital volume and capital composition, but they are also structured by age and ethnic origin. While age is indicative of Bourdieu's concept of trajectory, the effects of ethnicity underscore the relative autonomy of the space of lifestyles and suggest its determination by more than one structural force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an investigation into the prominence of hysteria in Lacan's work and the enduring significance of the diagnosis for contemporary practice. Beginning with Lacan's theory of neurosis, the importance of language, and symbolic functions, we will begin to understand why the hysterical symptom is the symptomatic structure par excellence. Lacan lauds hysteria as the neurosis in direct dialogue with a given historical moment, teaching the psychoanalyst where we are in the unfolding struggle between neurosis and civilization. He returned to the case of Dora throughout his twenty-eight years of teaching to refine his work. He even saw psychoanalysis as the progressive "hystericization" of the patient and depicted himself as an hysteric walking around on a stage, not knowing what he was saying, while attempting to teach the psychoanalysts. Lacan's reading of Dora seems to mark important shifts in his own life, from his beginning to write as a psychoanalyst, to being thrown out of the IPA, to struggling with his own school and the ensuing political eruptions in France in 1968. By tracking his elaboration of Dora we can witness the evolution of Lacan's work and how he uniquely positions the analyst in the transference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the end of an industrial era in which Nantes was the busiest shipping and slave-trading port in France, a giant, mechanical elephant became an animating force in the city's reanimation of the neighborhood left behind. In this paper, I consider the Grand Éléphant de Nantes as a case study of urban enchantment. The elephant occupies the boundary between artwork, machine, and animal, allowing it to captivate spectators and encourage the communal creation of a place in a public urban space. It simultaneously turns away from, rather than grappling with, the site's historical role in the transatlantic slave trade. Following Jane Bennett's conception of enchantment as a method of commodity fetishism, this paper shows that enchantment is a force of placemaking that draws spectators from urban stupor and in doing so, raises the potential for ethical engagement with space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population aging has led to the establishment of Healthcare Real Estate Investment Trusts (HC-REITs) to boost the supply of nursing homes, but these initiatives have met with contrasting success in different countries. This paper bridges two strands of research on financialization, social welfare and the built environment, to explain the uneven geography of HC-REIT development in France, the UK and Japan. It argues that nation-specific processes of nursing home securitization are shaped by the interrelationships between three crucial factors: (i) the regime of retirement income, (ii) public policies dedicated to long-term institutional care and (iii) the power relations between the REITs and care providers themselves. Drawing on discussions with experts in these sectors, the paper demonstrates that liberal welfare states such as the UK have an especially attractive profile for Healthcare REIT investors due to the advanced state of financialized pension reforms, significant state disengagement in the provision of long-term care and REIT-friendly regulations that facilitate investment operations and leases. On the one hand, these tendencies are driving financial investors to satisfy a growing demand for retirement savings in niche markets such as Healthcare REITs. On the other hand, value extraction is being increasingly sought through the capture of care-dependent residents' home equity. By linking social benefit provisioning to later life housing accommodation, this article casts important light on current debates on the political economy of real estate financialization, while also emphasizing the need for continued state support for long-term institutional care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has indicated how diverse books contribute to a more culturally responsive pedagogy, allowing children to identify themselves in the stories they read and gain an appreciation for others whose lives are different from theirs. Moreover, a sensitive discussion of and critical responses to diverse picturebooks is found to positively influence a child's social and emotional learning competecies, apart from increasing a child's cultural knowledge and serving as a catalyst for social justice. This paper is meant to broaden early childhood educators' repertoire of picturebooks that can be used in the classroom to also include international titles (translated into English from their original languages) and multicultural titles to facilitate affective engagement with these narratives and introduce social and emotional learning skills (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship management and responsible decision-making). This paper provides a list of diverse books (from the Netherlands, Japan, Lithuania, Spain, Germany, France, Argentina – among others) for students in early childhood (from preschool to third grade) thematically organized across the five social and emotional learning competencies. Strategies such as book-bonding and literacy bags for family engagement will be shared while using the framework of culturally responsive teaching in an early childhood setting. Recommendations for how family members can be more involved are included, along with critical literacy strategies that include conversations, multiple perspectives and the sharing of authentic experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Previous research in various countries has found that employment–family trajectories characterized by early or single motherhood, or weak ties to employment, are associated with poor well-being among older women. Our paper explores whether this differs (1) in France, characterized by a high female employment rate and supportive family policies; (2) across dimensions of well-being. Method: We used the Health and Occupational Itinerary survey to identify 10 common patterns of employment–family trajectories (derived from multi-channel sequence analysis) and analysed their association with six indicators of well-being in 2010 (N = 2882 50–78 years old women). Results: Continuous full-time employment is associated with better well-being, except for women who had a first child around 24 years old, who reported increased anxiety and lack of support. Discussion: Employed mothers' well-being seems to be protected in a context of family friendly policies, but we identified one group with lower well-being, which merits further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is some indication that discrimination as well as low levels of life satisfaction render young people at risk of cyberhate victimization. Adopting a socio-ecological perspective, this paper examines whether supportive family, peer and school environments may buffer against the effects of perceived discrimination and low life satisfaction on cyberhate victimization. Data from four countries (N = 3396) of the EU Kids Online IV survey on children aged 11–17 (51% girls) revealed a positive association between perceived discrimination and cyberhate victimization, but this impact was moderated by supportive family and peer environments. A negative association between life satisfaction and cyberhate victimization was mitigated by peer support. However, no associations with the school context were found. The current study provides new insights on how social support on different levels of the social environment may buffer against potential risk factors for cyberhate victimization and can inform decision-makers towards intervention and prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many urban development projects (UDPs) in Europe take place on lands belonging to public bodies and administrations, and publicly owned firms. Yet, the literature has failed to explain why a substantial proportion of the remaking of European cities is shaped on public properties, and with what outcomes. My underlying hypothesis is that the redevelopment of such properties depends primarily on the restructuring of the state. Firstly, this paper provides evidence of the relationships between three dynamics of state restructuring and the disposal of public land and real estate properties owned by one sector of the French state, that is, the railways. Secondly, the paper focuses on two UDPs of railway sites, respectively located in Paris and Nantes, in order to disclose the specificity of the redevelopment process associated with public railway properties, due to the socio-legal infrastructure of railway land disposal stemming from these dynamics. The paper demonstrates that (i) state restructuring impels various levels and organisations of the state to redevelop public land and real estate properties; and (ii) the effects of state restructuring can be explained only by analysing the mediating role of the socio-legal infrastructure of these properties, which frames the processes and outcomes of the redevelopment projects. In so doing, the paper offers a specific account of the explanatory factors, processes and outcomes of the relationship between state restructuring and a significant proportion of the restructuring of urban areas in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reconstruction of the History of the Resistance in France, the memories of former combatants and their relatives, and an important culture industry have all been developed within a national context, thereby hiding the transnational character of this resistance over the years. This paper shows first how the French State came to "Frenchify" this Resistance and, decades later, civil society and that culture industry tried to "Spanishise" the Liberation of Paris through the construction of the legend of "la Nueve". With this in mind, the current paper focuses mainly on a historical and memorial analysis of the French infantry company la Nueve, through the recollections and experiences of numerous transnational soldiers, in order to stress the "a la carte" reconstruction of its history, and highlighting the particular role played by the French-Spanish collective memory over the last twenty years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, for the first time, whether the next day's consumption of natural gas can be accurately forecast using a simple model that solely incorporates the information contained in day-ahead market data. Hence, unlike standard models that use a number of meteorological variables, we only consider two predictors: the price of natural gas and the spark ratio measuring the relative price of electricity to gas. We develop a suitable modeling approach that captures the essential features of daily gas consumption and, in particular, the nonlinearities resulting from power dispatching and apply it to the case of France. Our results document the existence of a long-run relation between demand and spot prices and provide estimates of the marginal impacts that these price variables have on observed demand levels. We also provide evidence of the pivotal role of the spark ratio in the short run which is found to have an asymmetric and highly nonlinear impact on demand variations. Lastly, we show that our simple model is sufficient to generate predictions that are considerably more accurate than the forecasts published by infrastructure operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is dedicated to the memory of Jean Rösch, a great figure in astronomy in the years 1947–1981 who designed, among several innovative devices, a 15-cm spectro-coronagraph. This instrument was installed at Pic du Midi observatory (south-west France), was in use during the mid-60s, fully dedicated to the observation from the ground of the coronal highly ionized iron lines, which was a true challenge at that time. This program is here reconsidered in the context of the time, at Pic du Midi observatory, which has been the cradle of routine visual coronal observations initiated by Bernard Lyot. We take advantage of this review to underline that the goals and objectives of this ground-based coronal program are taken over since 2008, by an Indian team from Bangalore (Indian Institute of Astrophysics), through a space mission (ADITYA-L1 or Sun in Sanskrit), showing a-posteriori the very innovative aspects developed with the help of this 15-cm spectro-coronagraph and thanks to the skills of J. Rösch's collaborators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Younger and older generations are differently motivated in relation to news consumption and online political expression. In this paper, we suggest that different modes of citizenship characterize younger and older generations. To test the differential role of political interest in news consumption and online political expression, we use a survey of 3,210 people from the United States, 3,043 from the United Kingdom, and 3,031 from France. Our findings suggest that young citizens are more frequent users of online news overall and that the rank order of different news activities replicates cross-nationally. The frequency of online political expression is negatively related to age, with older people less likely to post online. Age moderates the relationship between political interest and news consumption as well as news consumption and online political expression. The correlations of these sets of variables are stronger for younger respondents compared to older respondents. These findings hold across the three countries under study. We explain these patterns in terms of changing citizenship norms and discuss the implications for democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the moral work of journalism as displayed and enacted in the reporting practices used in news coverage of scandalous talk by right-wing populist (RWP) politicians. Using a qualitative discourse-analytic approach, we analyze a set of cases of journalistic framing of RWP talk recently circulating in Sweden, Greece, France and the UK, and examine ways in which anti-democratic or racist talk is represented within print, online and broadcast news media. We show how the complex dynamics of different kinds of discursive framing of scandalous talk construct boundaries between right and wrong which contribute to processes of normalising populist discourses and agendas. Moreover, we call attention to the challenge that this poses for contemporary journalism both within public service and commercial networks, as reporting on right-wing populism involves a balancing act between disparate constraints and exigencies of journalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the effect of recognizing co-firing coal with biomass as renewable electricity. We provide simulations for the French and German electricity mix. Results indicate that, if co-firing is recognized as a renewable, coal may crowd-out traditional renewables with increased generation and additional investments. Regarding CO2 emissions, we find surges when co-firing is recognized as a renewable. The rise is more significant in Germany due to greater coal capacity. In France, the magnitude depends on the share of nuclear with a lower increase when old nuclear plants are prolonged. Finally, we find that recognizing co-firing as a renewable reduces the overall costs for electricity. We balance the cost saving with the increased social cost from higher CO2 emissions. Results show that the cost saving is lower than the increased carbon cost for society with carbon valuation around 100 Euros/tCO2, except in France when old nuclear plants are not decommissioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in economic geography has provided a critical examination of securitization's role in the recent global financial crisis. Building on earlier studies which interrogated the development of US securitization, contemporary research has explored how securitization has been adopted in different political economies. Although these novel studies have begun to highlight the geographies of securitization, our knowledge of the historical spread of securitization remains underdeveloped. This paper seeks to address this issue by exploring how securitization emerged within different European financial spaces. In doing so, the paper examines the cases of France, Spain and Italy to identify how securitization circulated through space and across communities of practice, facilitating the co-creation of new knowledge. The paper provides deeper insight into how securitization became established within European financial centres throughout the 1990s, shaping contemporary financial networks and the spread of the credit crunch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of renewable energy paid off-market disrupts the demand-price relationship in wholesale electricity markets. Drawing on 2015 hourly data from France's electricity transmission network operator (RTE) and the French dayahead spot market, this paper attempts to quantify the disturbance observed and the transfers of revenues among consumers, producers and providers. This study calculates, through a modeling of the day-ahead market, the impact on conventional electricity producers in France in terms of the loss of economic value owing to the introduction of renewable energies. In the same time consumers benefit from lower electricity prices but have to pay for feed-in tariffs. Renewable electricity producers and electricity providers are also the winners. An estimation of the cross-subsidies induced by the injection of renewable electricity is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

James Baldwin's concept of racial innocence is, at its core, a tool for examining the process whereby a dominant group subjugates another while prominently, proudly maintaining an egalitarian self-image. Rather than merely point to the existence of such a seemingly untenable paradox, Baldwin uses his concept of racial innocence to interrogate how that paradox persists; how it is consciously and unconsciously maintained. In this paper, racial innocence is used to explain the process whereby Muslim political critique based on lived experiences of discrimination and marginalisation in France is rejected – and, specifically, rejected in a way that supposedly reinforces French norms of liberty, equality, and fraternity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does providing nontransferable months of parental leave earmarked for fathers, as mandated by the European Union to its member countries since 2019, increase their participation? To answer that question, the authors investigate the consequences of a 2015 French reform that designated up to 12 months of paid leave for fathers while simultaneously reducing the maximum paid leave for mothers by the same number of months. Although the benefits were low, parental leave could be taken on a part-time basis, which can be more attractive to fathers. Using administrative data and comparing parents of children born before and after the reform, the authors find that in response to a 25 percentage point (pp) decline in mothers' participation rate triggered by the reform, fathers' participation increased by less than 1 pp, primarily through part-time leave. The reform increased mothers' labor earnings, but it had no significant impact on fathers' earnings. Overall, the substitutability of parental leave between parents appears to be low and, as a result, earmarking alone does not substantially increase fathers' participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

France and South Korea have implemented voucher programs to counter energy poverty. In contrast to goods that traditional voucher programs target, the market structure that dominates energy supply is the oligopoly. In this paper, we study the price impact of vouchers in this market structure. We first state conditions on demand elasticities that make the choice of vouchers consistent with the regulator's objective of eliminating energy poverty. We then model a game between energy suppliers and the regulator, where suppliers maximize profit while the regulator ensures that no consumer spends more than a given share of income on energy. From a benchmark case without vouchers, we show that vouchers reduce the energy price under simultaneous decision making or when the regulator moves first. However, the price impact of vouchers is ambiguous if firms move first. This scenario's price is above the price of the simultaneous decision scenario's price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between immigration and populist radical right (PRR) support, based on an analysis of the contextual effects of immigrant presence on Front National vote in France in 2017. Using a unique set of survey data geolocalising respondents at the subcommunal level, it finds evidence for the existence of a curvilinear "halo effect," with substantial increases in the probability of PRR vote in areas surrounding communities with significantly higher-than-average immigrant populations, and independent of other socio-economic context, as well as individual socio-demographic characteristics. Most importantly, a path analysis confirms the presence of individual attitudinal mediators of this halo effect on PRR vote, thus testing the foundation of the halo, namely that the contextual effects of immigrant presence act on attitudes which drive PRR support. These findings provide a significant step forward in understanding the mechanisms linking subjective experience of immigration with voting for the populist radical right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pluralist norms, which prescribe certain attitudes of openness and mutual respect for diverging views, have long been considered a central pillar of liberal democracy. While democratic theorists have championed these values, they have been conflicted as to the capacity of political parties to carry them. Partisanship is widely recognized as an essential institution of democratic regimes but it has also been traditionally associated with intransigence rather than tolerance. This paper investigates this theoretical debate from an empirical standpoint, asking whether partisans can be carriers of pluralist values. It relies on focus-group methodology and software-assisted textual analysis to evaluate the extent to which the discourse of 117 party members in two different national contexts, France and Hungary, resonates with the pluralist worldview. The results of this study provide key empirical insights into the nature of partisanship, demonstrating wide variations in the extent to which partisans uphold pluralist principles, but also their capacity to do so at a stringent level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gendered divisions and representations can be especially problematic issues underpinning participation in water-based lifestyle and sporting activities. Sailing has particularly been found to be dominated by male participants who tend to dictate everyday codes of practice and symbolic representation. Female sailors are therefore regularly portrayed as inauthentic members of this activity and their participation also typically reflects much lower rates than males. In this paper, we develop these critical ideas about gendered sailing in the context of an 18 months comparative qualitative study involving 24 interviews and 113 hours of ethnographic field observations with five coaches, three physical education teachers, and 16 sailors. This study examined school sailing programmes in Western France and California in terms of the gendered practices and relationships that developed amongst young sailors and supporting adults. Bourdieu's theory of embodied power reproduction and masculine domination is used to analyse how school sport sailing programmes often benefited male participants. Within both Western French and Californian sailing contexts, young men were viewed as being more legitimate participants and regularly took up the lead role of skipper – young women were considered secondary participants and were typically positioned as crew members. Notions of embodied agency are subsequently developed to illustrate how young women sometimes contested the male-dominated gender order found within Franco-American school-based sailing programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a larger European Union (EU)-funded project, this paper investigates the coverage of corruption and related topics in three European democracies: France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Based on Freedom House data, these countries are characterized by different levels of press freedom. A large corpus of newspaper articles (107,248 articles) from the period 2004 to 2013 were analyzed using dedicated software. We demonstrate that freedom of press is not the only dimension that affects the ability to and the way in which news media report on corruption. Because of its political partisanship, the Italian press tends to emphasize and dramatize corruption cases involving domestic public administrators and, in particular, politicians. The British coverage is affected mainly by market factors, and the press pays more attention to cases occurring abroad and in sport. The French coverage shares specific features with both the British and the Italian coverage: Newspapers mainly focus on corruption involving business companies and foreign actors, but they also cover cases involving domestic politicians. Media market segmentation, political parallelism, and media instrumentalization determine different representations preventing the establishment of unanimously shared indignation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the profound effect that metropolitan France has had on the contours of the global literary marketplace (or 'littérature-monde') has figured prominently in much recent scholarship, the similarly central role that Paris plays in the nebulous domain of world cinema remains ripe for scrutiny. The status of the Cannes Festival is well known as perhaps the single most powerful gatekeeper to a filmmaker's international circulation, but the broader relationship between France's administration of film culture and the international art-house circuit is not widely understood. This paper engages with competing definitions of 'world cinema' on both sides of the Atlantic and lays the groundwork for a historical inquiry into the Aide aux cinémas du monde, a production grant that the Centre national du cinéma established in 2012 to replace its long-running Fonds Sud, a fund for film projects originating in the southern hemisphere and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Insufficient physical activity (PA) is one of the largest public health challenges of our time and requires a multisectoral public-health response. PA recommendations state that all children and adolescents should accumulate at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) daily and carry out vigorous PA (VPA) three times weekly. While participation in sports club activities is known to enhance the probability of reaching the recommended overall PA level, less is known about the contribution of sports club participation to VPA, and few cross-national comparisons have been carried out. The purpose of this paper is to study whether participation in sports club activities is associated with meeting the overall PA and VPA recommendations among children and adolescents across six European countries, namely Belgium (Flanders), Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ireland and Sweden. Methods: Analyses were carried out on existing self-reported national data sets using descriptive statistics and logistic regression. Results: Results indicate that approximately two-thirds of children and adolescents take part in sports club activities in the given countries. Sports club participants were more likely to meet the overall PA recommendations (OR 2.4–6.4) and VPA recommendation (OR 2.8–5.0) than non-participants. Conclusions: The extent to which overall PA and/or VPA is gained through sports club participation versus other settings needs to be further studied. Nonetheless, it can be argued that sports clubs have an important position in PA promotion for younger populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Project organization is used extensively to promote creativity, innovation and responsiveness to local context, but can lead to precarious employment. This paper compares European Social Fund (ESF)-supported projects supporting 'active inclusion' of disadvantaged clients in Slovenia and France. Despite many similarities between the two social protection fields in task, temporality, teams and socio-economic context, the projects had different dynamics with important implications for workers. In Slovenia project dynamics have been precarious, leading to insecure jobs and reduced status for front-line staff; in France, by contrast, projects and employment have been relatively stable. Our explanation highlights the transaction, more specifically, the capacity of government agencies to function as intermediaries managing the transactions through which ESF money is disbursed to organizations providing services. We find that transnational pressures on the state affect its capacity as a transaction organizer to stabilize the organizational field. In Slovenia, transnational pressures associated with austerity and European Union integration have stripped away this capacity more radically than in France, leading to precarious project dynamics and risk shifting onto project workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discipline of comparative political economy (CPE) relies heavily on aggregate, country-level economic indicators. However, the practices of multinational corporations have increasingly undermined this approach to measurement. The problem of indicator drift is well documented by a growing critical literature and calls for systematic methodological attention in CPE. We present the case for a rocky but ultimately rewarding middle road between indicator fatalism and indicator faith. We illustrate our argument by examining two important cases—Sweden's recent export success and the financialization of non-financial corporations in France. A careful parsing of the data suggests corrections to common characterizations of the two cases. Swedish exports have been reshaped by intragroup trade among foreign subsidiaries of domestic corporations. The growth of financial assets held by French firms is attributable to the growth of foreign direct investment and to cumulative revaluation effects, while what remains of financialization is concentrated among the very largest firms. Based on these findings, we propose a methodological routine that parses data by zooming in on the qualitative specifics of countries, sectors, and firms, while using all available options for disaggregation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relying on the (classic interactionist) notion of "career," this paper attempts to explore the alcohol trajectories of a sample of young adults in France. To reconstruct each career, we conducted 30 in-depth interviews with young adults from 19 to 25 years of age. Three distinct stages were identified. The first consists of trying the product; the second involves experimenting with the physical and sensory effects of drinking; the third sets the person on a course toward diversifying consumption patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines empirically the role of emotion in owning a new build apartment, derived from its representation through mental imaging ('visualization') from marketing techniques, in influencing off-plan purchases in France, and how its effect on satisfaction evaluations of the apartment purchased affects buyer ratings of developer performance. Through structural equation modelling we show that psychological measures of perceived values influence buying decisions via satisfaction with the apartment purchased. Buyer evaluations are cognitively dominated by the assessment of utilitarian benefits, but emotion plays a significant role among homebuyers as well as investors. Our analysis also sheds light on how buyer satisfaction could potentially augment the reputation of a developer to achieve off-plan sales targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the urban transformation of Nice in the early nineteenth century. It does so using the papers of the Consiglio d'Ornato (1832-1860), an urban planning committee charged with overseeing the development of the city at a time of demographic and economic growth brought about by tourism. This article argues that the Consiglio cooperated with private speculators to create a city rooted in a series of myths—Orientalist, Greco-Roman, and early Christian—that both shaped and were shaped by the expectations of world-wearied tourists. Nice was turned into a commodity whose purpose was to provide tourists with a feeling of fleeing a modern world characterized by instability and inauthenticity. Paradoxically, as a direct result, Nice became one of the earliest cities to experience a modern form of consumer capitalism in which people, places, cultures, and nature itself were packaged and peddled to the leisured classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global debate on food security and the kinds of farming systems that could prove economically and ecologically sustainable has focused overwhelmingly on small family farms versus large commercial farms, with little attention being given to alternative models based on farmer cooperation. France offers a significant but under-researched and internationally little-recognized model of group farming – the GAEC (Groupement Agricole d'Exploitation en Commun) – based on farmers pooling land, labour and capital. This model is of considerable contemporary interest for both France and other countries. Catalysed by a 1962 law, GAECs accounted for 7.6% of farms and 15% of agricultural adult work units in 2010, but their incidence varied greatly across regions. Using data from the French agricultural census and other sources, this paper identifies the factors – economic, ecological, social and demographic – underlying this regionally uneven development of GAECs (and comparatively of EARLs – Exploitations Agricoles à Responsabilité Limitée – another type of group farm introduced in 1985). Regions with a higher incidence of group farms are found to be those that were historically dominated by middle-sized farms, had a local ecology favouring labour-intensive animal breeding, especially pastures, a higher proportion of agricultural graduates, greater economic equality and social institutions that promote community cohesion, among other factors. These results illuminate not only the conditions favourable to the emergence of group farming in France, but also the conditions under which such farmer cooperation could take root in other (including developing) countries, subject to context-specific modifications of the French model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Patients with cancer have an elevated risk of venous thromboembolism. Importantly, patients with cancer, who have metastatic disease, renal insufficiency, or are receiving anticancer therapy, have an even higher risk of a recurrent event. Similarly, the risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism is higher than the risk of an initial event. To reduce the risk, extended duration of prophylaxis for up to six months with low-molecular-weight heparins such as dalteparin, enoxaparin, nadroparin, and tinzaparin is recommended by international guidelines. In this paper, the clinical and economic literature is reviewed to provide evidenced based recommendations based on clinical benefit and economic value. Methods A systematic review of major databases was conducted from January 1996 to October 2016 for randomized controlled trials evaluating the four distinct low-molecular-weight heparins against a vitamin K antagonists control group for the prevention of recurrent venous thromboembolism in patients with active cancer. This was then followed by the application of the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence guidance to assess the quality of all trials that met the inclusion criteria. Finally, the cost-effectiveness literature supporting the value proposition of each product was reviewed. Results Six randomized trials met the inclusion criteria. There were one, two, and three trials that compared dalteparin, tinzaparin, and enoxaparin to a vitamin K antagonists control group. However, there were no trials for nadroparin in the setting of secondary venous thromboembolism prevention. In addition, only the dalteparin and one of the tinzaparin trials were of high quality and adequately powered. Of the two studies, only the dalteparin trial reported a statistically significant benefit in terms of venous thromboembolism absolute risk reduction when compared to a vitamin K antagonists control group (HR = 0.48; p = 0.002). In addition, there was robust pharmacoeconomic data from Canada, the Netherlands, France, and Austria supporting the cost-effectiveness of dalteparin for this indication. There were no such studies for any of the other agents. Conclusions The totality of high-quality clinical and cost-effectiveness data supports the use of dalteparin over other low-molecular-weight heparins for preventing recurrent venous thromboembolism in patients with cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies that measure journalists’ detachment from the object of their investigation generally predefine ‘detachment’ as professionalism. This is challengeable when it comes to French journalism, which is rooted in political and literary traditions, especially in fields such as war correspondence. Interviews with 13 French war correspondents help us grasp their own conceptions of detachment/commitment. The study shows that this crucial issue refers to the journalists’ self-perceptions of their own role and place in society. Three roles appear to be close to the journalistic profession: the righter of wrongs, the storyteller and the educator. The first part of the paper examines the degree of involvement implied by each of these roles. The second part analyses the journalists’ place in society defined in terms of distance from other actors: whereas political detachment is endorsed as a professional attitude, emotional involvement is considered unavoidable and sometimes mandatory. The paper examines the difficulties posed by these conceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As scientific understanding of the heritable aspects of cancer deepens, the need to effectively communicate genetic information within the families of cancer patients becomes more acute. In the palliative care context, the question of when and how to disclose a patient's genetic information raises a host of ethical, legal, and social issues, including the challenges of communicating during the end-of-life stage and complex familial and cultural dynamics. In this paper, the authors outline the legal components of these issues in three civil law jurisdictions with similarly comprehensive approaches to healthcare and palliative care - Quebec, Belgium, and France - and provide insights from bioethics literature and normative documents on the disclosure of genetic information at the end of life. From this research, the authors propose a strategy for palliative care providers who are considering available options to communicate hereditary health information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article concentrates on the funding of green transition policies implemented in France during the 2010s. Instead of examining the emerging European Investor State through its "new" public investment policies, such as loans, equity, investment banks, and funds, this article examines the transformations of "older" public investment policies, specifically investment subsidies. We contend that the European Investor State is currently marked by a paradox: while public resources for investment, particularly for green transition investments, are increasing, the means to distribute these resources are diminishing. Austerity measures and new public management policies are undermining territorial administrations, thereby limiting their ability to accurately identify and support beneficiaries. This bureaucratic weakness within the European Investor State significantly affects the effective distribution of subsidies, because they tend to be increasingly concentrated among larger communities and companies, as well as a broad spectrum of private intermediaries. Consequently, the European Investor State appears multifaceted and occasionally contradictory, lacking long-term continuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article delves into the paradoxical nature of post-2008 fiscal policies, where there is a simultaneous emphasis on valuing public investment on the one hand, and maintaining austerity on the other. It sheds light on this paradox through the concept of "Investor State," which refers to contemporary states' ambition to redefine their role in the economy by no longer limiting themselves to a regulatory role but rather seeking an active role as "investor." We argue that this redefinition of the state's role is of piece with the elevation of investment as a new standard for legitimizing state actions. On the flipside, by making investment the main criteria of public policy legitimacy, it simultaneously delegitimizes spending that is not deemed an investment. Because the adopted economic definition of investment is limited to traditional "productive investment" related to industrial policy, other policy sectors—that is the majority of state intervention—are subject to spending cuts. Thus the Investor State suggests an evolution of the fiscal order that Streeck described as the "consolidation state": the primary goal is no longer to reduce public debt and deficits. But the neoliberal objective to reduce the "size" of the public sector in the economy absolutely remains. Drawing on the case of France, the article shows how the right-wing government started placing investment at the core of its fiscal policy after 2008. The article then highlights the continuation of this dual fiscal policy discourse to date despite changes in government leadership and the pandemic crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Epidemiological data reveal that 45% of persons with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) in France are more than 50 years. This population more than 50 is more susceptible to cancer, and this risk may be increased by frequent use of immunosuppressive drugs. Consequently, concerns have arisen about the potential increased risk of cancer in PwMS and how patients should be screened and managed in terms of cancer risk. Objective: To develop evidence-based recommendations to manage the coexistence of cancer and multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: The French Group for Recommendations in MS collected articles from PubMed and university databases covering the period January 1975 through June 2022. The RAND/UCLA method was employed to achieve formal consensus. MS experts comprehensively reviewed the full-text articles and developed the initial recommendations. A group of multidisciplinary health care specialists then validated the final proposal. Results: Five key questions were addressed, encompassing various topics such as cancer screening before or after initiating a disease-modifying therapy (DMT), appropriate management of MS in the context of cancer, recommended follow-up for cancer in patients receiving a DMT, and the potential reintroduction of a DMT after initial cancer treatment. A strong consensus was reached for all 31 recommendations. Conclusion: These recommendations propose a strategic approach to managing cancer risk in PwMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous work suggested a method that makes use of the Zwicker's loudness value of transmitted sound to validate single number quantities (SNQs) determining the airborne sound insulation of walls in dwellings. The correlation between the ranking of walls based on a SNQ, and the one based on transmitted sound loudness was used to qualify the adequacy of that SNQ. The underlying idea is that Zwicker's loudness adequately represents people's perception of loudness and that evaluations based on calculated loudness can substitute listening tests. The current work compares 16 SNQs: eight standardized or proposed in past studies, and eight new ones. The results are more robust, since more (56) walls were included, among which also highly isolating ones. SNQs are assessed for the indoor noise stimulus recently suggested by CSTB, France, and also for four filtered variants, and for two levels, the 'usual' or 'normal' level (as reported by CSTB), and that level increased by 10 dB, expressing the less common but psychologically and socially relevant situation of excessive neighbour noise. The adequacy of SNQs is analysed per wall category, (1) lightweight, (2) heavyweight, (3) CLT-based and (4) combined walls and per stimulus type. Three approaches are used to quantify the correlation between SNQ-based wall insulation performance rankings and Loudness based ones: (i) Spearman's correlation coefficient, (ii) correlation and (iii) inverse RMS residual of fitting with a parametrized function that has been empirically conceived so as to describe as good as possible the correlation SNQ-Loudness correlation behaviour for the considered population of walls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper shows that Tuning Project has generated indifference more than resistance within the French academic community. It proposes an analysis of the reasons of this situation: difficulties arising from Tuning itself, the resistance of the French academic tradition, the institutional inhibitors and facilitators. The impact of Tuning on French teaching history has not perhaps been as profound as it might have been. On the one hand, the national competence framework for the first cycle studies has been designed from the Tuning model based on both subject specific and generic competences and is a success, due in part to the perseverance of the French Bologna experts. On the other hand, the fact that today very few French academic programs are described in terms of learning outcomes signals the continued reluctance to embrace student-centred teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over three centuries after the 1711 discovery in the choir of Notre-Dame in Paris of a square-section stone bas-relief (the Pillar of the Boatmen) with depictions of several deities, both Gaulish and Roman, the blocks comprising it were analyzed as a symbol of Parisian power, if not autonomy, vis-à-vis the Roman Empire. Variously considered as local, national, or imperial representations, the blocks were a constant object of admiration, interrogation, and speculation among antiquarians of the Republic of Letters. They were also boundary objects – products of the emergence of a Parisian archeology dated from 1711. If this science reflected the tensions and ambiguities of a local regime of knowledge situated in a national context, it also helped to coordinate archeological work between different institutions and actors. This paper would like to assess the specific role played by the Pillar of the Boatmen as a fetish object in this process. To what extent could an archeological artifact influence this reshaping of urban representation, this change of scales? By following the three-century career of the pillar’s blocks as composite objects, which some have identified as merely stones or a column, it is possible to understand the multiple dimensions that defined the object as archeological – as an artifact that contributed to the relocating of the historical city center – and the multiple approaches that transform existing remains into knowledgeable objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical researchers are often interested to investigate the relationship between explicative variables and times-to-events such as disease progression or death. Such multiple times-to-events can be studied using multistate models. For chronic diseases, it may be relevant to consider semi-Markov multistate models because the transition intensities between two clinical states more likely depend on the time already spent in the current state than on the chronological time. When the cause of death for a patient is unavailable or not totally attributable to the disease, it is not possible to specifically study the associations with the excess mortality related to the disease. Relative survival analysis allows an estimate of the net survival in the hypothetical situation where the disease would be the only possible cause of death. In this paper, we propose a semi-Markov additive relative survival (SMRS) model that combines the multistate and the relative survival approaches. The usefulness of the SMRS model is illustrated by two applications with data from a French cohort of kidney transplant recipients. Using simulated data, we also highlight the effectiveness of the SMRS model: the results tend to those obtained if the different causes of death are known. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semicompeting risks and interval censoring are frequent in medical studies, for instance when a disease may be diagnosed only at times of visit and disease onset is in competition with death. To evaluate the ability of markers to predict disease onset in this context, estimators of discrimination measures must account for these two issues. In recent years, methods for estimating the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curve and the associated area under the ROC curve have been extended to account for right censored data and competing risks. In this paper, we show how an approximation allows to use the inverse probability of censoring weighting estimator for semicompeting events with interval censored data. Then, using an illness-death model, we propose two model-based estimators allowing to rigorously handle these issues. The first estimator is fully model based whereas the second one only uses the model to impute missing observations due to censoring. A simulation study shows that the bias for inverse probability of censoring weighting remains modest and may be less than the one of the two parametric estimators when the model is misspecified. We finally recommend the nonparametric inverse probability of censoring weighting estimator as main analysis and the imputation estimator based on the illness-death model as sensitivity analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how French signals prominence in prosody in the post-verbal domain of sentences with two objects or two adjuncts that vary in information status and prosodic length. The information status of particular interest here is dual focus, defined as the presence of two foci in a mono-clausal sentence, but other information states are investigated as well. The controlled production experiment we report on allows for a detailed examination of prosodic prominence. High boundary tones at the end of non-final prosodic phrases are pervasive, as has been documented in many studies before the present one. An important but less documented result is the variation in different prosodic curs, in particular in the number and position of high tones, as well as the particular scaling relationship between them, providing a powerful tool for the expression of (dual) focus. We also report on a perception experiment with our data, showing a clear tendency for French listeners to select the intended context question, recognizing dual focus better than other information states. Overall, this article provides elements of answers as to why French prosody is so difficult to pin down, and why contradictory results and analyses have been proposed for this language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Next-generation sequencing liquid biopsy (NGS-LB) for colorectal cancer (CRC) detection and surveillance remains an expensive technology as economies of scale have not yet been realized. Nevertheless, the cost of sequencing has decreased while sensitivity has increased, raising the question of whether cost-effectiveness (CE) has already been achieved from the perspective of European healthcare systems. Objectives: This health economic (HE) modeling study explores the CE of NGS-LB for CRC based on direct treatment costs compared to standard care without liquid biopsy in Spain, France, and Germany. Methods: A structured literature search was used to collect evidence from 2009 to 2020 on the stage-dependent quality of life (quality-adjusted life-years, QALY), efficacy, and total direct treatment costs (TDC) of NGS-LB. A decision-analytic Markov model was developed. Over the remaining lifetime, cumulative life expectancy (LE), TDC, and QALYs were calculated for 60-year-old men and women in CRC stage III with different assumed effects of NGS-LB of 1% or 3% on improved survival and reduced stage progression, respectively. Results: The use of NGS-LB increases LE by 0.19 years in Spanish men (France: 0.19 years, Germany: 0.13 years) and by 0.21 years in Spanish women (France: 0.21 years, Germany: 0.14 years), respectively. The 3% discounted cost per QALY gained was 35,571.95 € for Spanish men (France: 31,705.15 €, Germany: 37,537.68 €) and 35,435.71 € for Spanish women (France: 31,295.57 €, Germany: 38,137.08 €) in the scenario with 3% improved survival and reduced disease progression. Compared to the other two countries, Germany has by far the highest TDC, which can amount to >80k euros in the last treatment year. Conclusion: In this explorative HE modeling study, NGS-LB achieves generally accepted CE levels in CRC treatment from the health system perspective in three major European economies under assumptions of small improvements in cancer recurrence and survival. Confirmation of these findings through clinical trials is encouraged. Plain language summary: Is it worthwhile to use next generation liquid biopsy for cancer recurrence detection on patients with colorectal cancer? Colon cancer is common. Worldwide, almost one million people die from it every year. Next Generation Sequencing Liquid Biopsy is a very sensitive technology for detecting cancer cells and their genetic information in the blood. Therefore, it is a good way to detect cancer and to detect early recurrence of a previously treated tumor. This test procedure is not yet used very often. Therefore, it is still expensive. Furthermore, there are still no studies that have demonstrated that and how liquid biopsy can aid doctors and patients after initial treatment. The research team of this study has developed an analytical model to investigate what performance liquid biopsy should have to demonstrate an affordable patient benefit in terms of quality of life, survival and cost per additional quality-adjusted life year gained. To do this, they studied the existing medical literature and many cost studies on colorectal cancer for the countries of Spain, France and Germany to feed their model. Then, they made different assumptions about the performance of liquid biopsy and did calculations. In the process, they also particularly examined the significance of specific influencing factors such as costs or disease progression in so-called sensitivity analyses. As a result, the authors found that there are large differences in treatment costs for colorectal cancer between the three countries Spain, France and Germany. Furthermore, even small improvements in the progression of cancer and the survival of cancer patients lead to the economic efficiency of liquid biopsy for the health care system. However, these are still thought experiments, so the research team of this study says that there should be further clinical trials to assess the impact of liquid biopsy on cancer progression and patient survival by using this technology. By this, one could confirm or contradict the authors' educated assumptions and possibly pave a new way towards medical progress for people with colorectal cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]