Confrontés au succès du concept de « cluster », les gouvernements du monde entier mettent aujourd'hui en œuvre des politiques de cluster. Cependant, l'écart entre la recherche et la pratique ne cesse de grandir. Tandis que les chercheurs élaborent des théories présentant les clusters comme des entités permettant de susciter efficacement innovation et compétitivité, les praticiens des clusters – gouvernements, animateurs de pôles de compétitivité et entreprises membres – semblent se débattre dans la gestion de ces objets particulièrement entremêlés. Notre thèse porte sur ce « relevance gap ». Une étude systématique de la littérature (SLR) est menée sur les politiques de cluster : elle démontre que les animateurs de clusters font constamment face à une multitude de dilemmes organisationnels, c'est-à-dire un ensemble de décisions et de choix pour lesquels il n'existe pas une réponse rationnelle unique. Ces dilemmes portent sur la mise en œuvre de la politique, sur la gestion des membres des pôles de compétitivité, et sur l'adaptation structurelle du pôle aux réalités locales. Apporter des réponses à ces dilemmes est évidemment du ressort des pôles de compétitivité, mais cela génère des effets secondaires et pathologies, qui doivent être pris en compte et évalués. Dans cette thèse, nous développons une étude de cas qualitative d'un pôle de compétitivité situé en région parisienne : nous analysons en détail dilemmes et pathologies. Quatre pathologies sont identifiées : l'inefficacité (suscitée par des dilemmes de leadership), la méfiance (suscitée par les dilemmes autour des subventions), la non-conformité (suscitée par des dilemmes structurels) et le pragmatisme (suscité par des dilemmes managériaux et de collaboration). Cette pathogénèse peut contribuer à améliorer la mise en œuvre et l'évaluation des politiques de cluster. Enfin, la thèse invite les chercheurs à passer de l'étude de l' « anatomie des clusters » à celle des « pathologies des clusters». / As “cluster” became a new buzzword, governments around the world increasingly implement cluster policies. However, a relevance gap is growing between cluster research and practice. Scholars build theories about the roles of clusters as powerful entities fostering innovation and competitiveness. Meanwhile, governments and policy-driven cluster organizations struggle to manage these highly entangled objects. This thesis addresses such a relevance gap. A systematic literature review (SLR) is conducted on cluster policy research, which demonstrates that governments and policy-driven cluster managers constantly face a multitude of organizational dilemmas, i.e. a set of decisions and choices for which there is no “one best choice”, in matters such as how to implement cluster policy (political dilemmas), how to manage policy-driven cluster members (managerial dilemmas) and how to adapt the policy-driven cluster to the local reality (structural dilemmas). Answering these dilemmas is constitutive of the management of policy-driven clusters, but it generates side-effect pathologies that need to be monitored and evaluated. In this thesis, we conduct a qualitative empirical investigation of a French policy-driven cluster located in the Paris Region: we analyse in detail the organisational dilemmas and their related side-effect pathologies. Four different pathologies are identified: inefficiency (driven by leadership dilemmas), distrust (driven by subsidies dilemmas), non-conformity (driven by structural dilemmas), and pragmatism (driven by managing innovation and collaboration dilemmas). The deeper knowledge of these pathologies contributes to improve cluster policy implementation and cluster evaluations. Finally, this thesis argues that academics need to shift from studying the “anatomy of clusters” to studying the “pathology of clusters”.

There was an increase in a number of applications for a master degree program with the growth in time. It takes huge time to process all the application documents of each and every applicant manually and requires a high volume of the workforce. This can be reduced if automation is used for this process. In any case, before that, an analysis of the complete strides required in preparing was precisely the automation must be utilized to diminish the time and workforces must be finished. The application process for the applicant is actually participating in several steps. First, the applicant sends the complete scanned documents to the uni-assist; from there the applications are received by the student assistant team at the particular university to which the applicant had applied, and then they are sent to the individual departments. At the individual sections, the individual applications will be handled by leading an intensive study to know whether the applicant by their past capabilities scopes to satisfy the prerequisites of further study system to which they have applied. What's more, by considering the required points of interest of the applicant without investigating every single report, and to pack the information and diminish the preparing time for the specific division, by this postulation extend a solitary web apparatus is being produced that can procedure the application which is much dependable in the basic leadership procedure of application.

Die Acetyl-CoA Synthase (ACS) beinhaltet ein einzigartiges Metallcluster (Cluster A) in seinem aktiven Zentrum, welches wichtig für ein autotrophes Wachstum von Bakterien und Archaeen ist, die den reduktiven Acetyl-CoA-Weg nutzen. Der letzte Schritt dieses Syntheseweges wird von der ACS am proximal zum [4Fe-4S] Cluster liegenden Ni ion katalysiert (Nip). In meiner Arbeit wurde die ACS von Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans (ACSCh) auf seine Ligandenbindung untersucht und in verschiedenen Konformationen kristallisiert. Zuerst wurde die ACSCh in einer neuen Konformation (ACSCh-closed) kristallisiert und deren Struktur mit einer Auflösung von 2.1 Å bestimmt. Diese wies einen geringeren Kontakt zur Solventumgebung auf als die vorher bekannte Struktur der ACSCh (ACSCh-open, PDB-ID: 1RU3). Das Cluster A der ACSCh-closed unterscheidet sich von der ACSCh-open in der Koordination des Nip, welches verzerrt tetraedrisch koordiniert in ACSCh-closed vorliegt und quadratisch planar in ACSCh-open. Eine Analyse des Modells wies einen molekularen Tunnel auf, der nur in ACSCh-closed vorhanden ist, welcher als CO-Kanal zur Substratversorgung dienen könnte. Zweitens wurde die Kristallstruktur einer CO gebunden ACSCh-closed mit einer Auflösung von 2.0 Å gelöst. Darin wurde eine Elektronendichte am Nip identifiziert, die als CO überzeugend modelliert werden konnte. CO bindet am ebenfalls verzerrt tetraedrisch koordinierten Nip. Die Konformationsänderung von ACSCh-open zu ACSCh-closed scheint der entscheidende Schritt zu sein, um CO zur Bindungsstelle zu leiten. Die dritte Struktur zeigt eine CoA gebundene ACSCh Struktur mit einer Auflösung von 2.3 Å. CoA bindet am Nip, wobei Nip quadratisch planar koordiniert wird. Die Gegenwart von CoA wurde mit Berechnungen verschiedener Elektronendichte-Karten für CoA validiert. Die Bindung von CO und CoA an ACSCh wurde zudem mittels isothermaler Titrationskalorimetrie weiter charakterisiert. Dabei bindet CoA enthalpisch getrieben mit einem KD von 3.1 µM und CO entropisch getrieben mit einem KD von 9.4 µM an ACSCh. / The acetyl-CoA synthase (ACS) harbors a unique metal cluster (cluster A) in its active site, which is important for bacteria and archaea to survive in autotrophic growth using the reductive acetyl-CoA. The last step of this pathway is catalyzed by ACS at the Nip, the Ni ion proximal to the [4Fe-4S] cluster. In my study, the monomeric ACS of Carboxydothermus hydrogenoformans (ACSCh) was studied in its ligand binding and crystallized in different forms. At first, an ACSCh structure was solved in a new conformation at dmin of 2.1 Å and less solvent exposed (called ACSCh-closed) than the known structure of ACSCh (called ACSCh-open, PDB-ID:1RU3). The cluster A of ACSCh-closed differs to that of ACSCh-open in the coordination of the proximal Ni, which is distorted tetrahedrally coordinated in ACSCh-closed and square planar coordinated in ACSCh-open. Analysis of the model revealed a molecular tunnel that is only present in ACSCh-closed, which might act as CO channel for substrate delivery. Secondly, a CO-bound ACSCh-closed crystal was obtained and solved at a resolution of 2.0 Å. An electron density fitting with a diatomic ligand at the Nip site was clearly identified and modeled as a CO molecule. CO binds at the Nip site completing the tetrahedral coordination geometry of Nip. The conformational switch between open and closed is responsible for CO migration and binding to the catalytic site. A third crystal structure depicts a CoA bound ACSCh structure at 2.3 Å resolution. CoA binds at the Nip which shows a square planar geometry. This was further supported by calculating different electron density maps for CoA. The binding of CO and CoA to ACSCh has been characterized by isothermal calorimetry experiments. While CoA binding is enthalpically driven with a KD of 3.1 µM, CO binds to ACSCh by entropic contribution with a KD of 9.4 µM.

Statistics / M. Sc. (Statistics)

A range of computational and experimental techniques have been applied to the study of four metal cluster systems. Decorated rhodium clusters Rh n O m (N 2 O) + ( n = 4 − 8, m = 0 − 2) have been investigated both experimentally by IR-MPD and computationally using DFT. The effect of cluster size as well as oxygen coverage on the spectroscopy of the N 2 O bend are analyzed. The infrared-induced decomposition of N 2 O on Rh n O + m is observed on all cluster sizes, with marked differences as a function of size and oxygen coverage, particularly in the case of Rh 5 (N 2 O) + . The oxidation of CO was studied on the surface of small platinum cluster cations Pt n O + m ( n = 3 − 7, m = 2 , 4) by IR-MPD at 400 – 2100cm −1 . Spectroscopically, oxygen is found to be bound both dissociatively and molecularly on the cluster surface, while the CO band is found to red shift in cluster size, and blue shift with oxygen coverage. Oxidation of CO proceeds on all cluster sizes, with a constant branching ratio of 40% : 60% . DFT calculations identified key stationary points and barriers on the Pt 4 O 2 CO + reaction pathway. The one-colour Ta 2 photodissociation is studied by photoionization and VMI in the range 23500 – 24000cm −1 , finding clear evidence of a fragmentation process producing Ta , which is interpreted as fragmentation of cationic Ta + 2 at the two photon level. A majority of the observed channels produce either atomic ( Ta( 4 F 3/2 ) ) or cationic ( Ta + ( 5 F 1 ) ) ground state. An improved value for the dissociation energy D 0 ( Ta + 2 ) is obtained, in agreement with computational predictions. The anisotropies observed show weak evidence of a perpendicular transition being involved in the photodissociation process. Finally, the photodissociation dynamics of Cu 2 are studied by spectroscopy in the range 36000 – 38200cm −1 as well as VMI. Clear evidence for resonant photolysis of Cu 2 is obtained, as a result of both direct dissociation of the Cu + 2 2 Π ion state as well as dissociation of doubly excited Cu 2 states, which leads to a determination of dimer dissociation energies. Finally, the production of Cu + 2 is interpreted as evidence of photolysis of Cu 3 , from which a Cu 3 dissociation energy is derived.

In cluster randomized trials (CRTs), groups are randomized to treatment arms rather than individuals while the outcome is assessed on the individuals within each cluster. Individuals within clusters tend to be more similar than in a randomly selected sample, which poses issues with dependence, which may lead to underestimated standard errors if ignored. To adjust for the correlation between individuals within clusters, two main approaches are used to analyze CRTs: cluster-level and individual-level analysis. In a cluster-level analysis summary measures are obtained for each cluster and then the two sets of cluster-specific measures are compared, such as with a t-test of the cluster means. A mixed model which takes into account cluster membership is an example of an individual-level analysis. We used a simulation study to quantify and compare power and bias of these two methods. We further take into account the effect of missing data. Complete datasets were generated and then data were deleted to simulate missing completely at random (MCAR) and missing at random (MAR) data. A balanced design, with two treatment groups and two time points was assumed. Cluster size, variance components (including within-subject, within-cluster and between-cluster variance) and proportion of missingness were varied to simulate common scenarios seen in practice. For each combination of parameters, 1,000 datasets were generated and analyzed. Results of our simulation study indicate that cluster-level analysis resulted in substantial loss of power when data were MAR. Individual-level analysis had higher power and remained unbiased, even with a small number of clusters.

The aim of the project presented in this paper was to investigate the possibility toautomatically sub-classify the superfamily of Short-chain Dehydrogenase/Reductases (SDR).This was done based on an algorithm previously designed to sub-classify the superfamily ofMedium-chain Dehydrogenase/Reductases (MDR). While the SDR-family is interesting andimportant to sub-classify there was also a focus on making the process as automatic aspossible so that future families also can be classified using the same methods.To validate the results generated it was compared to previous sub-classifications done on theSDR-family. The results proved promising and the work conducted here can be seen as a goodinitial part of a more comprehensive full investigation

published_or_final_version / abstract / Computer Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Mathematics / Master / Master of Philosophy

The current research project examines the performance of a group of high functioning young adult males with autism spectrum disorders on standardized measures of neurocognitive functioning to determine whether distinct cognitive profiles of strengths and weaknesses emerge. Neuropsychological test data across various domains: general cognitive ability, visuospatial processing, verbal learning and memory, visual learning and memory, working memory, reasoning, cognitive flexibility, attention, receptive language, expressive language, social and emotional processing, and fine motor skills was examined. Data were analyzed using cluster analysis to assess for the presence and nature of unique clusters/subgroups based on neuropsychological test performance. Three unique clusters were derived from the analyses. This study highlights the well-documented heterogeneity across the spectrum of autism and suggests a method for parsing a heterogeneous sample of ASD subjects into smaller and more meaningful homogeneous groups using standardized neuropsychological assessments. / text