Hawks and doves in segmented markets : a formal approach to competitive aggressiveness

Competitive aggressiveness is analyzed in a simple spatial oligopolistic competition model, where each one of two firms supplies two connected markets segments, one captive the other contested. To begin with, firms are simply assumed to maximize profit subject to two constraints, one related to competitiveness, the other to market feasibility. The competitive aggressiveness of each firm, measured by the relative implicit price of the former constraint, is then endogenous and may be taken as a parameter to characterize the set of equilibria. A further step consists in supposing that competitive aggressiveness is controlled by each firm through its manager hiring decision, in a preliminary stage of a delegation game. When competition is exogenously intensified, through higher product substitutability or through larger relative size of the contested market segment, competitive aggressiveness is decreased at the subgame perfect equiibrium. This decrease partially compensates for the negative effect on profitability of more intense competition

Hawks and doves in segmented markets: a formal approach to competitive aggressiveness

Competitive aggressiveness is analyzed in a simple spatial oligopolistic competition model, where each one of two firms supplies two connected market segments, one captive the other contested. To begin with, firms are simply assumed to maximize profit subject to two constraints, one related to competitiveness, the other to market feasibility. The competitive aggressiveness of each firm, measured by the relative implicit price of the former constraint, is then endogenous and may be taken as a parameter to characterize the set of equilibria. A further step consists in supposing that competitive aggressiveness is controlled by each firm through its manager hiring decision, in a preliminary stage of a delegation game. When competition is exogenously intensified, through higher product substitutability or through larger relative size of the contested market segment, competitive aggressiveness is decreased at the subgame perfect equilibrium. This decrease partially compensates for the negative effect on profitability of more intense competition.

Cumul de mandats d’administrateur et risques anticoncurrentiels: Un vide juridique en Europe?

Souvent occultée par les situations de prises de participations minoritaires, la pratique des cumuls de mandats d’administrateur entre concurrents n’est pas sans susciter un risque d’effets anticoncurrentiels. Cette contribution s’attache, à partir d’une analyse systématique des instruments existants, à déterminer si le droit des sociétés et les principes de gouvernance d’entreprise peuvent efficacement suppléer le droit de la concurrence dans le traitement des effets négatifs induits par les cumuls, et à mettre ainsi en lumière l’existence d’un vide juridique en Europe. = Interlocking directorates between competitors may raise significant anti-competitive risks, which attract little attention in comparison to that posed by other structural links, such as minority shareholdings. This article provides a systematic analysis of the ability of current legal tools of competition law, as well as of company law and corporate governance to address those anti-competitive risks, and thereby, highlights the existence of an enforcement gap in Europe

Market power and gatekeepers: complements or substitutes?

Although they are distinctive instruments, Article 102 TFEU and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) commonly target undertakings with high degrees of economic power. In Article 102TFEU, market power assessment, including market definition has been considerably challenged by specific features of digital markets. With the use of thresholds-based presumptions to designate gatekeepers, the DMA thus purportedly moves away from Article 102 TFEU analytics. This article questions the extent to which market power and gatekeeper powers are substitutes, or complements, regarding the analytical tools used, and regarding the purposes to which they contribute. While market power methodology moves away from quantitative methods, for greater accuracy, the DMA reinjects a great dose of quantitative-based tools. Yet, as the DMA decisional practice shows, both analyses comprise, with varied intensity, an assessment of qualitative factors, revolving around barriers to entry. In addition, issues of boundaries’ delineation feature in both methodologies. The tools on which they rely are substitutes, but with complementary scope and outcomes. Finally, market and gatekeeper powers may be both substitutes in how they contribute to contestability of markets, albeit with a complementary twist: respectively with access to a user base for the DMA, and in a relevant market for Article 102 TFEU

Decitabine encapsulation in nanovector to improve acute myeloid leukemia treatment

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) mainly affects adult patients, and for older ones unfit for intensive chemotherapy only few therapies are available. Hypomethylating agents, as decitabine, is a labeled option but its plasma half-life is short whereas a long cell exposure time improves response rate. Only intravenous administration is available, whereas an oral route is generally preferred by patients. Consequently, to enhance plasma half-life and to develop an oral decitabine formulation, in this work decitabine was encapsulated in nanoparticles. Two different strategies were tested: decitabine loaded into lipid nanocapsules (DAC-LNC), and a decitabine-prodrug synthesis [3’(OH)-5’(OH)-(lauroyl)2-modified DAC] encapsulated into LNC (DAC-(C12)2-LNC). DAC-LNC and DAC-(C12)2-LNC particles were obtained with sizes of 26.5 ± 0.5 nm and 27.45 ± 0.05 nm respectively, and drug payloads of 0.47 ± 0.06 mg/mL and 5.8 ± 0.5 mg/mL (corresponding to 2.3 ± 0.2 mg/mL of decitabine). Both formulations were able to increase in vitro human plasma half-life by protecting decitabine from degradations. Compared to free-decitabine solutions, both nanoparticle formulations were able to preserve decitabine cytotoxicity on an AML cell line (HEL). Moreover, permeability studies across an adenocarcinoma cell model (Caco-2 cells) demonstrated that DAC-LNC improve decitabine’s intestinal permeability whereas DAC-(C12)2-LNC decreased it. However, this drawback could be countered by the enhanced decitabine’s stability in gastrointestinal fluids thanks to DAC-(C12)2-LNC, leading to more available drug for absorption. Globally, both formulation have demonstrated their ability to improve DAC plasma half-life in vitro and their potential for oral administration. In vivo pharmacokinetics evaluations may now confirm interests of such strategies

Cumul de mandats d’administrateur et risques anticoncurrentiels: Un vide juridique en Europe?

Souvent occultée par les situations de prises de participations minoritaires, la pratique des cumuls de mandats d’administrateur entre concurrents n’est pas sans susciter un risque d’effets anticoncurrentiels. Cette contribution s’attache, à partir d’une analyse systématique des instruments existants, à déterminer si le droit des sociétés et les principes de gouvernance d’entreprise peuvent efficacement suppléer le droit de la concurrence dans le traitement des effets négatifs induits par les cumuls, et à mettre ainsi en lumière l’existence d’un vide juridique en Europe. = Interlocking directorates between competitors may raise significant anti-competitive risks, which attract little attention in comparison to that posed by other structural links, such as minority shareholdings. This article provides a systematic analysis of the ability of current legal tools of competition law, as well as of company law and corporate governance to address those anti-competitive risks, and thereby, highlights the existence of an enforcement gap in Europe

Genetic diversity, linkage disequilibrium and power of a large grapevine (Vitis vinifera L) diversity panel newly designed for association studies

UMR-AGAP Equipe DAVV (Diversité, adaptation et amélioration de la vigne) ; équipe ID (Intégration de Données)International audienceAbstractBackgroundAs for many crops, new high-quality grapevine varieties requiring less pesticide and adapted to climate change are needed. In perennial species, breeding is a long process which can be speeded up by gaining knowledge about quantitative trait loci linked to agronomic traits variation. However, due to the long juvenile period of these species, establishing numerous highly recombinant populations for high resolution mapping is both costly and time-consuming. Genome wide association studies in germplasm panels is an alternative method of choice, since it allows identifying the main quantitative trait loci with high resolution by exploiting past recombination events between cultivars. Such studies require adequate panel design to represent most of the available genetic and phenotypic diversity. Assessing linkage disequilibrium extent and panel power is also needed to determine the marker density required for association studies.ResultsStarting from the largest grapevine collection worldwide maintained in Vassal (France), we designed a diversity panel of 279 cultivars with limited relatedness, reflecting the low structuration in three genetic pools resulting from different uses (table vs wine) and geographical origin (East vs West), and including the major founders of modern cultivars. With 20 simple sequence repeat markers and five quantitative traits, we showed that our panel adequately captured most of the genetic and phenotypic diversity existing within the entire Vassal collection. To assess linkage disequilibrium extent and panel power, we genotyped single nucleotide polymorphisms: 372 over four genomic regions and 129 distributed over the whole genome. Linkage disequilibrium, measured by correlation corrected for kinship, reached 0.2 for a physical distance between 9 and 458 Kb depending on genetic pool and genomic region, with varying size of linkage disequilibrium blocks. This panel achieved reasonable power to detect associations between traits with high broad-sense heritability (> 0.7) and causal loci with intermediate allelic frequency and strong effect (explaining > 10 % of total variance).ConclusionsOur association panel constitutes a new, highly valuable resource for genetic association studies in grapevine, and deserves dissemination to diverse field and greenhouse trials to gain more insight into the genetic control of many agronomic traits and their interaction with the environment

Outcome of Ph negative myeloproliferative neoplasms transforming to accelerated or leukemic phase

Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) are chronic disorders that can sometimes evolve into accelerated or leukemic phases. We retrospectively identified 122 patients with such blastic phases. The overall median survival was four months: 10.2 months for patients treated with intensive treatments compared to three months for best supportive care (p = .005). Azacytidine, intensive chemotherapies, or allogeneic stem cell transplantation gave the highest median survivals with 9, 10.2, and 19.4 months, respectively. Accelerated phases (AP) had a longer median survival compared to acute leukemia (4.8 months vs. 3.1 months; p = .02). In this retrospective and observational study, we observe that the longest survivals are seen in patients eligible for intensive treatments. Azacytidine shows interesting results in patients non-fit for intensive chemotherapy. Supportive care should probably be restricted to elderly patients and those with unfavorable karyotype. An early diagnosis of AP could also result in a better survival rate

Dynamics of DNA Replication Factories in Living Cells

DNA replication occurs in microscopically visible complexes at discrete sites (replication foci) in the nucleus. These foci consist of DNA associated with replication machineries, i.e., large protein complexes involved in DNA replication. To study the dynamics of these nuclear replication foci in living cells, we fused proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), a central component of the replication machinery, with the green fluorescent protein (GFP). Imaging of stable cell lines expressing low levels of GFP-PCNA showed that replication foci are heterogeneous in size and lifetime. Time-lapse studies revealed that replication foci clearly differ from nuclear speckles and coiled bodies as they neither show directional movements, nor do they seem to merge or divide. These four dimensional analyses suggested that replication factories are stably anchored in the nucleus and that changes in the pattern occur through gradual, coordinated, but asynchronous, assembly and disassembly throughout S phase