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Compares the training and activity of scientists and engineers in France and the United States. Describes the French higher education system including the features and curriculum design of the "grandes ecoles." Discusses the differences in the role of government to research and development between the two nations. (YP)

The habitat heterogeneity hypothesis states that increased habitat heterogeneity promotes species diversity through increased availability of ecological niches. We aimed at describing the local-scale (i.e. nest and adjacent substrate) effects of nests of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus L.) as ecosystem engineer on macroinvertebrate assemblages. We hypothesized that increased streambed physical heterogeneity caused by sea lamprey spawning would modify invertebrate assemblages and specific biologic traits and promote reach-scale diversity. We sampled thirty lamprey nests of the Nive River, a river of the south western France with a length of 79.3 km and tributary of the Adour River, in three zones: the unmodified riverbed (upstream) and zones corresponding to the nest: the area excavated (pit) and the downstream accumulation of pebbles and cobbles (mound). The increased habitat heterogeneity created by lamprey was accompanied by biological heterogeneity with a reduced density of invertebrates (3777 ± 1332 individuals per m2 in upstream, 2649 ± 1386 individuals per m2 in pit and 3833 ± 1052 individuals per m2 in mound) and number of taxa (23.5 ± 3.9 taxa for upstream, 18.6 ± 3.9 taxa in pit and 21.2 ± 4.5 taxa for mound) in the pit compared to other zones. However the overall taxa diversity in nest increased with 82 ± 14 taxa compared to the 69 ± 8 taxa estimated in upstream zone. Diversity indices were consistent with the previous results indicating a loss of α diversity in pit but a higher β diversity between a pit and a mound than between two upstream zones, especially considering Morisita index accounting for taxa abundance. Trait analysis showed high functional diversity within zones with a reduced proportion of collectors, scrapers, shredders, litter/mud preference and small invertebrates in mound, while the proportion of "slabs, blocks, stones and pebbles" preference and largest invertebrates increased. Pit presented the opposite trend, while upstream had globally intermediate trait proportions. Our results highlight important effects on species and functional diversity due to habitat heterogeneity created by a nest-building species, what can ultimately influence food webs and nutrient processes in river ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeoseismology is one of the four issues usually involved to increase the knowledge of seismic risk. The three other issues are seismic records, historical seismicity, and palaeoseismicity. Archaeoseismology was founded as a discipline in the 1980s. It was developed and methodologically defined during the 1990s and 2000s, and its new developments and perspectives are based on two procedures. First, the numerical field, with tools like the database OPUR (Outil Pour Unités de Réparation), “Tool For Reparation Units”, conceived as a sort of atlas, to collect and index all the types of repairs identified in the Roman site of Pompeii, in Italy. Second, the focus on the evolution of ancient buildings and their pathologies, serves as a basis for the structural modelling, carried out by engineers. It allows to understand the behaviour of ancient buildings during seismic motion, to quantify the impact of seismic effects on cultural heritage and to propose a method of preservation. Major studies conducted in France as well as recent developments in this field are presented, in order to illustrate this collaboration between archaeoseismologists and engineers for the preservation of cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on ‘First Job’ surveys conducted six months after graduation among graduates from 2000 to 2007 and semi-structured interviews, this paper examines the recruitment and workplace integration of women and men graduates from EPF Ecole d’Ingenieurs. The study’s findings show that women engineering graduates from EPF generally have more favourable recruitment and workplace integration experiences than men from the same school, in terms of job search time, unemployment, access to managerial posts and obtaining permanent employment contracts. However, female graduates from this school still face discrimination linked to access to positions of responsibility, or to stereotypes associated with work–family balance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Expanding on existing turnover models, this research examines the relationship between satisfaction with work and satisfaction with supervisor on turnover intentions, exploring the moderating impact of both positive organizational support (POS) and perceptions of external employment opportunities on this relationship for knowledge workers (engineers). Based on a sample of 481 engineers in France, the research identifies a significant and negative correlation between satisfaction with work and turnover intentions, as well as satisfaction with supervisor and turnover intentions. Both moderators affect only the relationship between satisfaction with supervisor and turnover intentions. This suggests that for knowledge workers, job satisfaction is a multifaceted variable that should be disaggregated in turnover models. The results also indicate that engineering managers should focus on managing perceptions of external opportunities and attempting to maximize POS in order to strengthen the impact of their efforts on retention activities. In the context of the knowledge workers selected for this study, it is clear that job satisfaction is an important variable in knowledge workers' decisions to stay with or leave a firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how running waters were governed and constructed in France in the 19th century. The author focuses on topics including the regulation of water that was dealt with between administration and judiciary, waters as common property from the point of view of the engineers, and information on the Code Civil and the jurisdiction of protected historical rights to waters. Also included are different interpretation of watercourses, and conflicts around the water measurements between the government and the judiciary.

The article sets out to examine the mergers of corps of top technical civil servants in France from two angles: their institutional and material dimensions. Its findings are based on archive material relating to the negotiations that marked the reform processes and on interviews with the protagonists of the reform within the ministries, cabinets, professional associations and trade unions of the corps in question. Rather than consider the top civil servants simply as the instruments of change, affected (or otherwise) by it, or even as obstacles to the reforms under examination, the article looks at their capacity to take action, to defend their interests and their privileges and to accompany the reform in order to ensure their long-term survival. One of the central questions raised by this study into the mergers is whether they make it possible to maintain and reproduce the models of domination of the great corps on the machinery of government. Continuity in and through change is at the heart of the debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are now celebrating one hundred years from the test of the world first jet aircraft. This aircraft was designed, built and tested in France by the Romanian inventor and engineer Henri Coanda, at the age of only 24 years. The moment we consider that attests the first run of this jet aircraft, seems to be the test of the aircraft from the 16th of December 1910, from Issy les Moulineaux, near Paris, France. It wasn't really a controlled certified flight, because Henri Coanda didn't intend to fly in that day, but we believe that the plane left the ground for a moment, before it hit the wall around Paris, and caught fire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 1990s, several studies pointed out a significant gap in earnings between engineers in private firms working in Research and Development (R&D) and those in other activities. The purpose of this article is to assess, from conventional Mincerian models, to what extent these findings are still valid. The different levels of responsibility and job satisfaction of engineers in both types of activities are also analysed. The results clearly suggest a lower remuneration for engineers working in R&D in comparison to other activities, all things being equal. On the other hand, engineers involved in R&D activities have a greater dissatisfaction about the remuneration they receive, but also concerning many aspects of their work. These results lead to questions about the place of R&D within companies, in a knowledge-based economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eiffel is best remembered for engineering the tower that is a Paris landmark and bears his name. However, Eiffel has many other firsts to his credit. He was one of the first to experimentally obtain material properties of wrought iron that permitted him to proportion structural members in bridges and buildings that he built to sustain the service loads experienced by them. Having struggled to get a good estimate of wind forces on the many tall structures that the designed and constructed during his career, Eiffel was among the first to experimentally obtain data on fluid flow around an object and establish accurately the drag on a body dropped in air in his later years. He developed one of the earliest versions of the 'wind tunnel' that today plays a pivotal role in aerodynamic studies. This article traces the evolution of Alexandre Gustave Eiffel as an engineer and scientist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a study of professional relationships in the 1960s between French consulting engineers in the field of architecture and their East European colleagues, focused particularly on the German Democratic Republic and Poland. It is demonstrated, using the cases of Rene Sarger and Stephane du Chateau, that isolated and unofficial exchanges were succeeded by technical exchanges at an institutional level, as sought by the governments concerned. The conditions in France affecting the immigration and professional establishment of qualified persons from Eastern Europe at a time of growing movement by individuals are also examined. An increasing number of international colloquia held in Eastern Europe enabled consulting engineers to spread knowledge of technical processes, counteracting the principles underlying a major emphasis on prefabrication in the countries involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of European Review of Applied Psychology is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper investigates the decision-making procedures in a technical assembly, the assemblée des Ponts et Chaussées, at the turn of the 19th century. The assemblée was the central institution of a French public-works administration, in which projects were discussed and adopted. The paper describes the transformations of this institution, its routine functioning, and focuses especially on a very controversial case during the Consulate, the Saint-Quentin canal, where conflicting opinions about the use of the vote emerged. The paper studies the engineers' preference for a consensus procedure and their mistrust for the vote. It analyses the epistemological justifications of such a consensus, especially the references to different forms of 'obviousness', and its practical social forms, especially the importance (and ambiguous meaning) of silence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the second half of the 20th century, at the time of the foundation of the Fifth Republic, French engineers endorsed enthusiastically technocratic ideals. Their attitude was not only the product of a specific context. It was rooted in a long tradition of connection between French engineering and social preoccupations. This connection emerged at the time of the creation of the first corps of State engineers in the 17th and 18th centuries. Indeed, State Weber engineers were from the start convinced that they had a social mission. Subsequent episodes, like the Saint-Simonian reflections on the eve of industrialization, or the discussions held in the think tank X-Crise in the aftermath of the 1929 economic crisis contributed also to shape the engineers' sensitivity to social issues. Dwelling on these episodes, but also trying to go beyond their standard assessment, we would like to propose here a more general interpretation of the complex set of relations between French engineering and social thought. In this perspective, the Post-World War II French engineers' technocratic concerns come at the end of a long and complex evolution. This case study should enable a better understanding of the more general connivance between engineering culture and technocratic ideals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the world of French State engineers in the first half of the 19th century and it aims to present an overall perspective of its most marked features. After briefly examining the different engineering corps of the Ancien Régime and their training institutes, it goes on to deal with the foundation of the Ecole Polytechnique in 1794, which gave French State engineers a unity and a collective identity that had heretofore been lacking, and transformed them into members of a technocratic milieu. The core of the article consists of exploring the professional aspects of this 'technocracy' (its internal organization, the values and self-image of its members, etc.), its cultural and intellectual features, especially the idea of systematically 'applying' scientific knowledge to the practical problems encountered by engineers, and the profile of the technocratic intellectual elite, i.e. the engineer-savant, the proponent and 'implementer' of the 'application' ideal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the engineering profession. Information is presented on engineers' greatest job satisfaction. Examples of how engineers are clever problem solvers are given, as well as unintentional problems created by engineering projects. The importance of engineers to the waging of war is discussed. The development of engineering education in England and France is explored.

This article provides information on the Bordeaux Nuclear Research Center or the Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires at Bordeaux-Gradignan in France. It is composed of permanent researchers, engineers and technicians, and medical students. The center's scientific program covers a broad range of topics in nuclear physics, such as astroparticle physics. The center will play a key role in the construction of SPIRAL2 project.

Emerging engineers need to rely on a whole body of scientific and technical knowledge, but also on a wide set of competencies. For engineering schools a competency objectives approach requires specific pedagogical methods. Some competencies based on skills and attitudes are difficult to develop through traditional teaching, so in 2003 our institution implemented a project-oriented framework combining pedagogical methods such as project-based learning, active pedagogy and traditional teaching paradigms. In practice, each semester students work in groups on a competency-controlled project lasting over 100 hours per student. Although comparisons between various pedagogical methods are difficult and sensitive, numerous internal signals confirm the validity of several aspects of our mixed option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the proceedings of the the 66th European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers Conference and Exhibition held in Paris, France. Compilation and presentation of papers which reflected differing interests and disciplines in the association; Corporations and organizations who participated in the exhibit; Speakers and lectures.

Discusses the methods of statistical research employed by Lucien March (1859-1933), a French engineer involved in statistics and economic measurement. Contribution to the history of statistics in France; March's approach to statistics; Statistical methods and their application to economics.

Recognition at the full professional level of engineers coming from two different countries with totally different systems is a very difficult task. However, in the context of globalization of all human activities, particularly engineering services, it is essential that well-developed countries take very serious efforts using an open-minded approach to establish the parameters that will permit the ultimate objective of international recognition to be achieved. While there are many ways to move toward this objective, one recognized method of making very important steps is certainly the signature of mutual recognition agreements by major players in the trade of engineering services. In this context, this paper presents the features of a bilateral agreement that has been signed between France and Canada for the recognition of engineers at the full professional level from both countries. This agreement is the first of its kind for Canada. Many features of the agreement are worthy of note for others trying to identify the parameters to achieve an agreement between two countries having very different systems. How this success was achieved is explained, giving full attention to those factors that contributed to the conclusion of this agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the interactions between intellectuals, human scientists, and engineers in France in the year 1930 by studying the example of engineer Jean Coutrot. Analysis of the history of modernization in France; Discussion on the effects of Malthusianism in the country's modern historiography; Social role of the engineers.

Focuses on the role of engineers as military spies in Great Britain. Visits of the French engineers in the British Isles; Disclosure of report on the foreign relations between France and England; Participation of both countries in the American War of Independence.

Paper makes a comparative analysis of the distinct engineering cultures France and the United States in the nineteenth century. The object is to explain why French engineers characteristically excelled in theoretical analysis while tending to neglect empirical research, whereas just the opposite was true of American engineers. Toward this end, the paper considers difference in the structure and organization of the engineering community in each country. It also looks at difference in the French and American systems of technical education, in their reward systems, and in their ideologies of engineering (especially the way they conceptualized the relation between theory, experiment and practice in engineering research). Finally, the paper attempts to show, in a specific case, how these social institutional and ideological differences led to distinct paths of technological development - that is, to the elaboration of distinct bodies of knowledge and design tradition. The paper closes with some more general reflections on the methodological value of comparative analysis for social studies of technology. Brief attention is also given to the possible influence of engineering cultures on rates technological and economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the validity of the myth surrounding the development of steam railroads in France. Role of engineers in the delay of railroad construction; Influence of the State in capitalist society; Problems associated with the attempt to resolve the myth.

Copyright of Revue Française de Sociologie is the property of Presses de Sciences Po and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

During the later 19th century the rapid spread of iron and steel building technology created an engineers' architecture in which technical problems frequently took priority over traditional concerns of architectural style. Perhaps no other structure represents a more dramatic statement of this new spirit in architecture than the Eiffel Tower. Yet while the controversy surrounding the building of the Eiffel Tower is well known, the almost immediate attempts on the part of American and British engineers and architects to build a taller tower are not. This article concentrates particularly on two ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to outdistance the Eiffel Tower: Sir Edward Watkin's Wembley Park Tower in London and a monumental tower for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. These efforts were well documented in any number of architectural and engineering journals of the period. They were also frequently reported and debated in popular magazines and newspapers, reflecting the strong general interest and national pride involved in the prospect of claiming the tallest structure in the world. This article is based primarily on such period sources, not only because of the liveliness of the reportage, but because, in some cases, they provide the only accessible information on some of the proposed tower projects. The most striking fact about the ultimately futile efforts of British and American builders to construct, a taller tower is that, while they certainly had the technical expertise to do so, economic considerations overcame them. Doubts as to the profitability of another tall tower as a public attraction on either a temporary or permanent basis doomed both the London and Chicago tower projects to failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers the skills of engineers and managers in large firms in France. The large firm, through its ability to generate new products, its capacity to mobilize or even create fresh knowledge and its control over consumer practices, is emerging as a new partner in a political, economic, and social system that unites public and private power. Definition of the job content of engineers and managers entails a theory of the functioning and development of firms, a theory that describes the work of these professional groups, incorporating it into the production function of the firm, into its capacity to transform the socio-economic universe, but also redefining its system of internal power. Although the production is often consciously planned, even organized, it is also occasionally the unexpected outcome of combined action by different groups. And even when production is planned, the firm is no better able than any other collective actor to effect the transformations it desires with complete autonomy and by dint of its own free judgment.

Summarizes the proceedings of a special session of the European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers in Paris, France. Focus of the session on the challenges of multi-disciplinarily and integration facing the present-day oil and gas industries; Value of integration; Management of subsurface uncertainty; Retention of technical people.

The article focuses on the 2004 fib Symposium on Concrete Structures: The Challenge of Creativity, held from April 26-28, 2004 in Avignon, France. The event combined a magnificent, historically rich venue--the fourteenth century Popes' Palace in the heart of Avignon's old town; over 100 papers and keynote addresses; an excellent level of organisation and coordination of the entire event; and a number of interesting and highly relevant technical visits, including high-speed railway structures and the well-known Millau Viaduct. The closing session looked back on the three days of conference and exchanges and reflected on lessons learned, innovations discovered, challenges ahead for today's engineers.

The article focuses on the translation of the mémoire "Proposal for an Iron Tower: 300 Metres in Height," by engineer Gustave Eiffel delivered to the French Civil Engineering Society in 1885. The translation is said to result from efforts to understand the physics underlying the construction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. Eiffel considers his construction as the product of nature. The authors cite the fact that Eiffel had written the text himself as an appeal of translating it.

Ringleaders of a nationwide protest earlier this week spurned a government bid to meet their demands for cash and jobs. Hundreds of lab directors have vowed to stop carrying out administrative duties beginning on March 9, if the French government does not pony up € 200 million owed to science agencies and reinstate 550 permanent research jobs abolished in favor of short-term contract positions. On 27 February, research minister Claudie Haigneré unveiled a raft of measures, including a promise to unfreeze € 294 million from the 2002 and 2003 budgets. The government plans to create 120 permanent posts for scientists, engineers, and technicians, add 30% to contract salaries, and provide grants for 300 additional doctoral students and increase their value by 4%.

This article reports that the French Council of Ministers gave its approval to an ambitious plan developed by the Minister of Industry and Research, Laurent Fabius, aimed at giving a substantial boost to the nation's industrial research. At present, France spends only 1.2 percent of its gross national product on research related directly to industrial needs, compared to 1.8 percent in the United States and West Germany. Fabius's proposals fall into three categories. The first are aimed at improving the research training of engineers, and will include a doubling in the number of government awards made to researchers working on topics of industrial interest, particularly to small and medium-sized firms. The second set of measures are intended to strengthen the links between industry and the research community. An extra $75 million, for example, will be made available for funding industrially oriented research projects through the government's basic research agencies. Finally, various steps will be taken to orient the activities of other government departments toward industry's research needs.