This thesis studies the influence of US Supreme Court judgement in Feist Publications Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co on Directive 96/9/EC. It primarily looks at the implications of Feist decision, and the influence that it had on European legislation. The decision in Feist Publications led the Commission to believe two things: Feist created a new-line of jurisprudence in US in the context of copyright protection of factual databases, and the decision will be detrimental for future production of electronic databases. This thesis shows that the Feist decision was a clarification of existing copyright law. As an example, the thesis observes that the US database market did not react to any apprehended negative impact of Feist. In the US, where there was no specific Database Right, Feist has had negligible practical and doctrinal impact. The Feist decision also left an indelible mark on the overall structure of the Database Directive. While Article 3 represented the positive impact, Article 7 was surrounded by uncertainties and ambiguities. This Article represents the outcome of apprehending negative impact of Feist. This has resulted in an imbalance which must be rectified and only a limited amount of protection should be offered to producers in absence of evidence.

The hydrothermal vent environment, in its extreme spatial and temporal variability, offers the opportunity to study habitats that are naturally fragmented and unstable. The vestimentiferan tubeworm Ridgeia piscesae is a foundation species inhabiting hydrothermal vent habitat in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. R. piscesae is a phenotypically plastic species and is arranged in a metapopulation spatial structure, with each local population displaying one of a range of morphotypes. Ridgeia piscesae participates in an obligate symbiosis that is dependent on hydrogen sulphide in the hydrothermal vent fluid that supplies each local population. Hydrothermal fluid flow is highly variable in the hydrothermal vent environment and hydrogen sulphide flux is a limiting nutrient for R. piscesae; this variability may create differences in habitat quality. The objective of this study is to determine whether local populations of R. piscesae centered on high and low flux hydrothermal fluid outputs are similar in body condition, reproductive condition, and juvenile recruitment. Using the submersibles ROPOS and Alvin, I collected high flux and low flux sample pairs from within meters of each other at multiple sample sites on Axial Seamount and the Endeavour segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. I used morphological measurements, histology and lipid analysis to assess physiological and reproductive condition. I also determined the relative abundances of new and older recruits in high and low flux local populations. I found that low flux habitat was inferior in its ability to support Ridgeia piscesae at all stages in the tubeworm’s life cycle. In terms of body condition, local populations in low flux habitat had lower body weight, greater body length, smaller anterior tube diameter, lower trophosome volume, lower total lipid volume, and lower branchial plume condition. With respect to reproductive condition, local populations in low flux habitat had lower proportions of reproductive individuals, less sperm transfer, lower gonad volume, and fewer mature oocytes; there was no difference in sperm development stages between high and low flux habitat. From the perspective of the individual, low flux tubeworms live longer, and lifetime reproductive output may be comparable to high flux tubeworms. However, turnover is higher in the high flux habitat, so reproductive output of high flux populations is greater than that of low flux populations. Juvenile recruitment was biased toward high flux habitat, although this trend was not significant and recruitment to low flux habitat was still notable. The differences between reproductive output and juvenile recruitment between these habitats support a source-sink model of population dynamics. From the perspective of the metapopulation, low flux habitat is inferior in its ability to support Ridgeia piscesae at all stages in the tubeworm’s life cycle. This distribution of relative contributions to the overall population of a key species in a Marine Protected Area (MPA) should factor into management decisions affecting MPA boundaries and use. / Graduate

Prokaryotic microorganisms, which are at the base of deep-sea hydrothermal vent food webs, adapt rapidly to environmental fluctuations. This study aimed at comparing bacterial communities in contrasting hydrothermal habitats to better understand compositional adaptations to local conditions. I first used small subunit (SSU) ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequences to compare mat-forming bacterial communities associated with iron oxides at two hydrothermal vent sites on the Tonga Arc, southwest Pacific. Operational taxonomic units (OTUs), defined at 97% sequence similarity, were affiliated to a great diversity of autotrophic and heterotrophic groups. Metabolically diverse Gammaproteobacteria dominated the sample from Volcano 19, collected at 992 m depth. The sample from Volcano 1, collected at 197 m depth, was dominated by iron-oxidizing bacteria from the class Zetaproteobacteria. The depth of the sampling sites was proposed to explain clone library dissimilarities. In the following studies, I compared bacterial communities associated with the vestimentiferan tubeworm Ridgeia piscesae, a foundation species at the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Samples of the polychaete were collected from tubeworm habitats in contrasting flow regimes that influenced temperature and hydrogen sulphide concentrations. Free-living bacteria were analyzed using both sequencing and 454 pyrosequencing of the SSU rRNA gene. Statistical analyses suggested a predictable pattern of bacterial community composition for the two habitats, with higher proportions of sulphur and hydrogen oxidizers in High Flow and more heterotrophic groups in Low Flow environments. Temperature, available energy for metabolism, and stability of the habitat were suggested to explain these distinctive bacterial communities. Symbiotic assemblages were investigated using the same sequencing methods together with catalyzed reporter deposition-fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH). Gammaproteobacteria dominated all sequence libraries, followed by Epsilonproteobacteria. CARD-FISH confirmed the co-occurrence of these groups within R. piscesae trophosomes. Statistical analyses indicated distinctive membership and structure of trophosome assemblages between sampling sites. Analysis of R. piscesae juvenile showed distinctive structural properties when compared to adult individuals, but similar membership, within sampling sites. These results suggested that the composition of trophosome assemblages might be affected by specific physical and chemical conditions at each vent site and that a selection process might occur during R. piscesae’s development. / Graduate / 0410 / 0416 / 0329 / nathalieforget@gmail.com

This study explores the internal and external views of entrepreneurship among students from various fields of study, including medicine, law, business, engineering and humanities. It investigates the likelihood of students engaging in entrepreneurial activities within their respective fields and identifies target groups with less positive perceptions and lower inclinations towards entrepreneurship. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, including a literature review and an interview with an entrepreneur from the medical field, we found that students in medicine show the least interest in entrepreneurship, while students in business show the highest, with other fields of study falling in between. These insights highlight the need for comprehensive entrepreneurship education and courses tailored to the specific fields of study to foster an entrepreneurial mindset among students by exposing them to its possibilities. By promoting innovation and entrepreneurial thinking, such initiatives hold significant potential for creating valuable opportunities within different academic domains.