Avec Les Research Articles

Polymerase chain reaction in comparison with serological tests for early diagnosis of human leptospirosis

The aim of this study was to compare the sensitivity and specificity of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using two primer pairs and combined with blood culture, immunoglobulin M enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (IgM ELISA), microscopic agglutination test (MAT) and slide agglutination test (SAT) in the diagnosis of human leptospirosis. We analysed 124 serum samples: 60 from patients with confirmed leptospirosis, 20 from patients with other diseases and 44 from healthy individuals. Analysing the first serum sample collected during the first 3-8 days of disease, the sensitivities of the four tests MAT, IgM ELISA, SAT and PCR were, respectively, 69.0%, 79.3%, 72.4% and 62%. In subsequent samples, those same sensitivities were, respectively, 95.4%, 100%, 100% and 72.7% in samples collected from days 9 to 14 and 88.9%, 88.9%, 77.8% and 44.4% in those collected from days 15 to 42. The most specific method (at 100%) was PCR and the least specific (at 89.1%) was IgM ELISA. Although we found PCR to be less sensitive than the serological tests over the course of the disease, our data indicate that PCR was the most sensitive in those initial serum samples presenting no specific antibodies detectable by any of the serological methods tested. We also recommend that PCR can be used in combination with serological tests as we found that this improves the sensitivity of the diagnosis of leptospirosis in the first phase of the disease (93.1-96.5%).

A Reading Spectacle for the Nation: The CBC and "Canada Reads"

Radio One's Reads, which aims to select a work of Canadian literature all of Canada should read together, was first broadcast as a network special in 2002. This essay undertakes an ideological analysis of the cultural work that performs, focussing on the first three series and drawing upon original interviews with the show's producers, listeners, and cultural workers. authors conceptualize the show as both a mass reading event and a media spectacle that reinforces the blockbuster of contemporary Canadian literary publishing. They also contend that the model of nation imagined by the content of is problematically, if predictably, conservative (bilingual and uncritically multicultural); however, the authors position this ideological limitation against the potential for creative resistance produced by the show's multiple modes of delivery. L'emission de Radio One intitulee Canada Reads qui choisit une oeuvre litteraire canadienne « que tout le Canada devrait lire ensemble » a ete diffusee pour la premiere fois lors d'un special du Reseau en 2002. Le present article effectue une analyse ideologique des oeuvres culturelles choisies pour l'emission en mettant l'accent sur les trois premieres series et en se servant d'entrevues originales avec les realisateurs de l'emission, les auditeurs et les agents culturels. Les auteures conceptualisent l'emission comme un evenement de lecture de masse et un spectacle mediatique renforcant la « culture de superproduction » de la publication litteraire canadienne contemporaine. Les auteures avancent que le modele de nation qui est « imagine » par le contenu de l'emission est problematiquement, mais de facon previsible, conservateur (bilingue et aisement multiculturel). Toutefois, les auteures placent cette limite ideologique dans le contexte d'une resistance creatrice possible causee par les divers modes de delivrance de l'emission. CBC Radio is a great literary patron and sometimes has (quasi-) original ideas. (Richler 2002, RA4) Ungrateful listeners have criticized the CBC's Canada Reads campaign.... Isn't it somewhat totalitarian to urge everyone in the country to read the same book, even if the book is as good as Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion? (Gordon 2002, A18) The jury's choice of an essentially unreadable novel arose partly from the ambiguity of the job. They were not to pick the best book, but the book Canada should read-an opening that gave free rein to CanCult's ingrained nannyism. (Bethune 2003, 52) Like many One Book pseudo-communities, the also provided the requisite illusion of public participation in the form of a people's ballot... a patronizing top-down process leads us to supposedly morally edifying books that are already quite popular. (Niedzviecki 2002, 16) What cultural work does Radio One's perform-and for whom? Does it uphold the symbolic power of the and reinforce its explicit ideological imperatives as a public broadcaster to educate, inform, and represent Canadians? Or, does represent a reimagining of Radio's national community and the corporation's role within the field of Canadian culture? responses quoted above represent the complex, and often conflicting, attitudes articulated by media commentators and arts critics writing for national print publications. These writers alternately question or reinforce the CBC's cultural authority as an arbiter of literary quality, as a promoter of Canadian literature, and as a nation-building institution. Their comments underline the corporation's ideological and structural position within the ruling relations of power' and trouble the CBC's relationship to its audience, in particular to readers of literary fiction. is an annual program that first aired in April 2002, and that aims to get Canadians across the country to read the same book: it has been described as an attempt to create a huge trans-Canadian book club. …

Besinnung and What May the Century Amount To: On or About or Because of Marc Angenot as Goad and Stimulus

This is an article in two parts. Part 1, "Besinnung: Remembrance, Recollection, Reasoning Again," approaches, starting from Augustine's Confessions, Marc Angenot's "social discourse theory" and his article "Pour en finir avec les �tudes litt�raires." In the spirit of Nietzsche's maxim "You should be closest to a friend with your heart when you resist him," the great strengths of Angenot's approaches are pointed out, as well as limits of and reservations about a Foucauldian discourse theory that cannot accommodate fiction. Part 2, "What May the Century Amount to," is a set of independent theses in a sustained dialogue with Angenot's work.

“Thou, The Player of the Game, Art God”: Nabokovian Game-playing in Cronenberg’s eXistenZ

David Cronenberg a souvent parlé de l'influence marquante que Vladimir Nabokov a exercé sur son oeuvre. Une analyse de certains passages des textes de Nabokov peut donc élucider plusieurs aspects de l'esthétique littéraire qu'incarne le cinéma de Cronenberg, en particulier son film eXistenZ. Le cinéma de Cronenberg partage de nombreux éléments stylistiques avec les textes de Nabokov, entre autres, les intrusions de l'auteur, les motifs ludiques, la mise-en-abîme, l'acte de nommer et les structures narratives « auto-consumantes ».

The Relationship among Accounting Choices Prior to Mandatory Accounting Rules, Information Disclosure, and Timing of Adoption of Mandatory Rules

AbstractInformation disclosure theory suggests that voluntary accounting choices may be substitutes for information produced under mandatory accounting rules, and that late adopters of mandatory accounting rules manage information disclosure via choice of accounting methods before the mandatory rule. Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 8 (SFAS No. 8) required uniform accounting methods and uniform disclosure of foreign operations for multinational firms. Prior to SFAS No. 8, multinational firms had complete flexibility in accounting for foreign operations. The empirical analysis correlates voluntary accounting method choices before SFAS No. 8 with mandated disclosures after SFAS No. 8 for 98 early adopters and 112 late adopters. The results are consistent with the implications of information disclosure theory.RésuméLa théorie sur la divulgation de renseignements suggère que des choix facultatifs de comptabilité peuvent rem‐placer les renseignements présentés sous des règies de comptabilité obligatoires et que ceux/celles qui ont adopté récemment des rèles de comptabilité obligatoires gèrent la divulgation de renseignements via le choix de méthodes de comptabilité avant la règie obligatoire. Le Rapport sur les Normes de Comptabilité Financière nd̀ 8 (R.N.C.F. n° 8 / SFAS No. 8) a exige I'uniformité des méthodes de comptabilité et l'uniformité dans la divulgation des opérations étrangères destinées aux firmes multinationals. Avant le R.N.C.F. nd̀ 8, les multinationals jouissaient d'une flexibilité complète en comptabilité destinée aux opérations étrangères. L'analyse empirique met en corrélation les choix facultatifs de méthodes de comptabilité avant le R.N.C.F. n° 8 avec les divulgations autorisées après le R.N.C.F. n° 8 pour 98 personnes l'ayant adopté au début et 112 personnes l'ayant adopté récemment. Les résultats sont compatibles avec les implications de la théorie sur la divulgation des renseignements.

Guillevic/Levertov: The Poetics of Matter

Denise Levertov's introduction to and translations of the French poet Eugene Guillevic in her volume Guillevic: Selected Poems are revealing of her own poetics, most particularly in terms of her relation to nature. Indeed, a poet's take on another poet usually reveals as much about the former as it does about the latter, and often is motivated by what the former wishes to take away from those materials, or reinforce in herself. Guillevic's interest is in and to a great degree so is Levertov's, although for her is often placed into the context of other researches. The term nature, however, begs the questions relevant to what is being invented in these poetries, and why it might be that Levertov found Guillevic's poetry engaging enough to spend her time translating it. First of all, nature here seems to mean objects, both manufactured ones that still bear the traces of their original mineral identity, and unworked ones that comprise part of the world of non-human force: in short, objects are things that present themselves as heavy, dense, opaque, and real, over and apart from human identity and use. But also means immediacy, a reference not only to presence but also to a present tense that, it is held, we can actually grasp by relating to a past: which means, in this case, by relating it to the eternal, to the fact that it always was, and will be, as if presence itself were a proof of the eternal. But above all, what is of interest in these two poetries is the invocation of in terms of a notion of the unconscious, as if there were a way in which the raw materials of the physical world were not merely alien activities but parts of ourselves still beyond our reach. Rather than locating the unconscious in some mythical elsewhere, or in a psychic compartment that, if one is lucky, one might come into contact with only through speech, these poets locate the unconscious, to slightly alter the context of a Husserlian formula (but only slightly), in the things themselves. A provocative thought--that the unconscious lies in the raw materials and physical objects that surround us. I suspect that sculptors and painters are more aware of this possibility than are others. Guillevic is that rare serious poet who thinks he sees a limit to language, a point at which poetry gives way to the contemplation of things as they are--a point Levertov herself simultaneously posits and desires to go beyond. Born in 1907, Eugene Guillevic is generally thought of as one of the major French lyric poets of his generation, along with, perhaps, Jean Follain. His principal collections of poetry include Terraque (1942), Executoire (1947), Gagner (1949), Carnac (1961), Sphere (1963, Avec (1966), and Euclidiennes (1967), from which Levertov's selections are drawn; Ville (1969), Paroi (1970), Inclus (1973), and Du Domaine (1977) all appear later. Guillevic is not, in any traditional way, an especially difficult poet, as is for example his contemporary Rene Char (they were born in the same year); nor for that matter is he as good a poet as Char, at least in terms of interrogating language. During the occupation Guillevic joined the Communist Party, and a fair portion of his poetry is of a directly political nature. Chiefly, however, he has been regarded as a poet of and often as a poet who can illuminate nature's darker tones. What seems to impress Levertov--and what no doubt leads her into the translation of Guillevic, with the implicit support and insight such translation could lend to her own writing--is the promise of vision. In Voir (To See, GSP 6) Guillevic writes: Il s'agit de voir Tellement plus clair, De faire avec les choses Comme la lumiere. Levertov renders this quite literally: It's a question of seeing so much clearer, of doing to things what light does to them. (GSP 7) Compare this to section S of Relearning the Alphabet (RA 118), the poem which I take to be the finest of Levertov's career: I turn in the forest. …

The Influence of Pressure on Fracture of a Ti-V Plate Steel

AbstractThe effect of hydrostatic pressure on the fracture behaviour of a hot-rolled plate steel subjected to two different thermomechanical histories has been studied. The pressure-dependent ductility of the annealed plate was in good agreement with the results of a model based on void growth in a powerhardening solid. Both plates exhibited a transition from ductile fracture to shear fracture at a critical level of hydrostatic pressure; however, the plate with the lower finishing temperature exhibited the transition at lower levels of pressure and plastic strain. This behaviour can be rationalized in terms of the anisotropic plastic properties of the plate. Resume L'effet de la compression hydrostatique sur le comportement en rupture d'une tole d'acier laminee a chaud, ayant subi deux traitements thermomecaniques differents a ete etudie. La dependance de la ductilite envers la pression, pour la tole recuite, est en accord avec les resultats issus d'un modele de croissance de cupules au sein d'un solide d...

Mediating estrangement: a theory for diplomacy

How does one live according to reason if the other, the alien, the foreigner whether remote or nearby may burst into one's world at any moment?Raymond Aron, Peace and WarDiplomacy has been particularly resistant to theory. What knowledge we do have of the practice and principles of diplomacy is largely drawn from the works of former diplomatists like Abraham de Wicquefort's L'Ambassadeur et ses Fonctions (1681), Frangois de Callières' De la Manière de Négocier Avec les Souverains (1716), Ernest Satow's Guide to Diplomatic Practice (1917) and Harold Nicolson's Diplomacy (1939).1 Conveying a view of diplomacy as a specialized skill of negotiation, these works seek to ‘maxim-ize’ that skill for the benefit of novices entering the profession. Understandably, their histories of diplomacy tend to be sketchy and rather anecdotal, and their theories of diplomacy, when they do exist, usually consist of underdeveloped and implicit propositions. Moreover, since the authors were serving governments at the apogee of imperial power, they were not interested in looking too widely and too deeply into a past which might undermine the foundations of skilful negotiation—order, continuity, and ‘common sense’.

Interaction of GeV heavy ions with solids — first results at ganil

The Grand Accelerateur National d'Ions Lourds (GANIL) of Caen, France, accelerates ions from C to U in the energy range from 100 MeV/amu to 10 MeV/amu. The Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherches avec les Ions Lourds (CIRIL) is in charge of the non-nuclear facilities and assists, at GANIL, the physicists of both atomic physics and condensed matter physics. Irradiation facility and first typical results for condensed matter physics are presented. Influence of electronic stopping power for the ion irradiation induced effects in organic and inorganic materials and amorphous metallic alloys is shown.

Thermodynamic Properties of Copper-Sulfur Melts

A correlation is presented for the thermodynamic properties of copper-sulfur melts in good agreement with available experimental data. A single set of expressions is used to describe the full composition range, with the immiscibility region being obtained through stability considerations. The correlation is based on the assumption of distinct chemical species in the liquid, with physical interactions between them being described by the three-suffix Margules equations with zero ternary interactions, and the regular solution assumption. The best correlation was obtained with species of the same stoichiometry as in the solid phase (CuS, Cu2S), along with mono atomic copper. Values predicted for properties of interest are included. Résumé Une corrélation entre propriétés thermodynamiques de scories sulfurées de cuivre qui est en bon accord avec les données expérimentales disponibles est présentée. Un seul ensemble d'expressions est utilisé pour décrire la gamme complète des compositions, alors que la région d'immiscibilité, est obtenue à partir de considérations sur la stabilité. La corrélation est basée sur l'hypothèse d'espèces chimiques distinctes dans le liquide reliées entre elles par des interactions physiques décrites par des équations de Margules à 3 suffixes et où les interactions ternaires sont nulles avec en plus l'hypothèse que la solution est réguliere. La meilleure corrélation a été obtenue avec des espèces ayant la même stoechiometrie, comme celle de la phase solide (CuS, Cu2S), avec le cuivre monoatomique. Les valeurs prédites pour les propriétés ayant un intérêt sont incluses.

Optical reflectivity measurements on thorium metal samples

C. Alvani and J. Naegele Commission of the European Communities, Joint Research Centre, European Institute for Transuranium Elements, Postfach 2266, D-7500 Karlsruhe 1, F.R.G. Resume. — L'etude systematique de la reflectivite optique a ete entreprise sur des echantillons de thorium dont la surface a ete preparee par polissage mecanique et electrolytique ou qui ont ete utilises tels quels apres obtention par le procede van Arkel. Les resultats des mesures de reflectivite optique sont compares avec les resultats publies. Une augmentation de la rugosite de la surface provoque une diminution de la reflectivite et induit probablement des plasmons de surface mis en evidence par le minimum de reflectivite mesure a 4 eV. Les meilleurs resultats n'ont ete obtenus qu'avec des surfaces electropolies, cependant, dans des conditions bien determinees, le procede van Arkel conduit a de bons resultats. Abstract. — Thorium samples, the surfaces of which were mechanically polished, electropolished and as grown from the van Arkel process, were systematically studied by optical reflectivity measurements. These optical data were compared with published measurements showing significant discrepancies. Increasing surface roughness was found to lower the reflectivity considerably and probably to induce surface plasmons indicated by a deep minimum in reflectivity at 4 eV. Best reflectivity data were obtained only for electropolished surfaces. Well chosen conditions for the van Arkel process give also good results. 1. Introduction. — To determine the character of the 5f-electrons in actinide metals, several optical investigations have been performed on thorium [1, 2] and americium [3]. For thorium, the surfaces were prepared in different ways (Ref. [1] : electro­polished single crystal ; Ref. [2] : bulk material elec­tropolished and sputter etched in a glow discharge). The results show significant discrepancies. Conse­quently these data must be interpreted differently. It must be pointed out as has been stated earlier [1] that serious difficulties arise from attri­buting features in the spectroscopic data to specific transitions in the calculated band scheme since a large number of possible states might be involved. Therefore, a better, not only qualitative [1,2] but quantitative comparison needs detailed matrix ele­ment calculations which are not available at present. On the other hand a comparison of the reflectivity of thorium with that of protactinium, the first metal in the actinide series which is assumed to have occu­pied 5f-levels, could help greatly to identify transi­tions involving 5f-states. The aim of this study was to find a preparation procedure that reliably avoids surface induced re­flectivity structures. Thorium was taken for compa­rison with and as stand-in for protactinium the metal to be measured next. For this purpose the reflectivity of differently prepared thorium samples has been measured from 2 eV to 5 eV and compared with published data. 2. Sample preparation. — The surfaces were pre­pared using three different methods : — Mechanical polishing down to 0.05 urn grain size. — Van Arkel process. In a sealed evacuated quartz tube, thorium is transported as iodide in the vapour phase to a hot substrate (electropolished tungsten) where the iodide dissociates and a poly-crystalline Th-layer of high purity is deposited. In order to get the Th-layer as compact and flat as possible the temperature of the substrate and the partial pressure of the iodide have been varied systematically. — Electrochemical polishing. The advantage of this procedure over other methods, specifically me­chanical abrasion, is principally in obtaining an unworked, strain free and microscopically flat surface [4]. A solution of perchloric acid (1.5 %) in methanol [5, 6, 7] has been used in a stainless steel beaker as cathode. A temperature of — 80 °C was maintained by a flow of cooled nitrogen gas. This procedure has been applied to single crystal and to polycrystalline van Arkel deposited Th samples. After preparation the samples were enclosed in a window-sealed sample holder under an argon atmo­sphere. 3. Results and discussion. — Figure 1 shows the reflectivity obtained for mechanically (curve a) and electrochemically (curve b) polished Th single crys­tals together with the published data. Curve a shows a remarkable reflectivity minimum at 4 eV as report­ed by Veal et al. [2], whereas curve b shows much higher reflectivity without the minimum as published

LES INDICATEURS EMOTIONNELS DANS LES ASSOCIATIONS DE MOTS, EN RELATION AVEC LES MESURES PSYCHOMETRIQUES D'ANXIETE ET DE CARACTERE NEVROTIQUE

Applied PsychologyVolume 23, Issue 2 p. 120-120 LES INDICATEURS EMOTIONNELS DANS LES ASSOCIATIONS DE MOTS, EN RELATION AVEC LES MESURES PSYCHOMETRIQUES D'ANXIETE ET DE CARACTERE NEVROTIQUE P. S. HUNDAL, P. S. HUNDALSearch for more papers by this authorV. V. UPMANYU, V. V. UPMANYUSearch for more papers by this author P. S. HUNDAL, P. S. HUNDALSearch for more papers by this authorV. V. UPMANYU, V. V. UPMANYUSearch for more papers by this author First published: April 1974 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1974.tb00312.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume23, Issue2April 1974Pages 120-120 RelatedInformation

X. RELATIONS AVEC LES AUTRES VIRUS

EPPO BulletinVolume 4, Issue 1 p. 98-101 X. RELATIONS AVEC LES AUTRES VIRUS First published: March 1974 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2338.1974.tb02318.x 1) Johnson: Tobacco virus 1 Smith: Nicotiana virus 1 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume4, Issue1March 1974Pages 98-101 RelatedInformation

Francois de Callieres and Diplomatic Theory

Francois de Callieres (1645–1717) was a diplomatic envoy and man of letters who in 1716 published De la Manière de Négocier avec les Souverains. A Normand of literate and noble, but modest ancestry, he lived for many years in various parts of Europe before securing, somewhat late in a long life, a position in the service of Louis XIV. Although he won admission to the Académie Française for a panegyric on the King and published several other books including a noteworthy contribution to the ‘Battle of the Ancients and Moderns’, the high point in his sombre but determined life came during the Nine Years War when as a secret envoy he negotiated the crucial terms with the Dutch which led to the Congress of Ryswick (1697) and peace. Thereafter he held the sensitive position of secrétaire du cabinet at Versailles and supplied the secretary of state for foreign affairs with a flow of memoranda on the conditions of peace.

Undrained Behaviour of Quickclay Underloadtests Åsrum

Synopsis Two field load tests on a soft quick clay are described, and a continuous record of excess pore pressures and settlements is presented. The measured values are compared to analytical predictions in the elastic range and also in the range of confined plastic flow beneath the test fill. Good agreement was found between observed and theoretical values. After a critical surface load had been reached, there was a pronounced increase in the observed rate of pore pressure build-up. This critical stress level was used to backfigure the undrained strength of the clay. The backfigured values determined in this manner differed by only 10–15%, from those determined by the field vane. On détaille deux essais de chantier sur une argile fluide et tendre. et on prescnte un record continue de la pression de l'eau interstitielle et des tassements. Les quantitès mesurées sont compares avec les prédictions analytiques dans la domaine élastique et dans la domaine d'écoulement olastiaue limité sous le remblayage d'essai. On a frouvé la bonne conformité: entre les valeurs observées et théoriques. Pour une charge superficielle critique, on a trouvé une grande augmentation de la pression de l'eau interstitielle. Cettc niveau de la contraintc critique a été employée a deriver la résistance au cisaillement à teneur en eau constante. 11 n'y avait qu'une difference de l0–15% entre les résultats derives dans cette facon et ceux determines par le scissométre en place.

Claude Fauchet and his Library

Gröber, in his history of Romance philology, recognizes Fauchet as the man who founded the study of mediaeval French literature “soweit es die ihm zugänglichen Hss. gestatteten.” England had to wait another two hundred years till Sharon Turner did her a like service with his History of England from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest (1795-1805). Fauchet was also a political historian of the mediaeval period, but in this field he had an illustrious predecessor, in the person of Jean Dutillet (d. 1570), lawyer and secretary to Henry II of France. This able man was commissioned by his king to investigate the trésor des chartres; the result was a six-volume report, La France ancienne, du gouvernement des trois estats en l'ordre de la justice de France avec les changements qui sont arrivés. This is the first modern history of a mediaeval period (the Capetian dynasty), and Dutillet followed it with treatises on the Albigensian Crusade and the Gallican Church, which were published after his death. Fauchet, following in Dutillet's footsteps, but on his own initiative, took as his province the first two dynasties of France. Before taking up the subject of his library it may be well to summarize what is known of Fauchet's life and work.