De Giens Research Articles

What place for intelligent automation and artificial intelligence to preserve and strengthen vigilance expertise in the face of increasing declarations?

In 2018, the "Ateliers de Giens" (Giens Workshops) devoted a workshop to artificial intelligence (AI) and led its experts to confirm the potential contribution and theoretical benefit of AI in clinical research, pharmacovigilance, and in improving the efficiency of care. The 2022 workshop is a continuation of this reflection on AI and intelligent automation (IA) by focusing on its contribution to pharmacovigilance and the applications and tasks could be optimized to preserve and strengthen medical and pharmacological expertise in pharmacovigilance. The evolution of pharmacovigilance work is characterized by many tasks with low added value, a growing volume of pharmacovigilance reporting of suspected side effects, and a scarcity of medical staff with expertise in clinical pharmacology and pharmacovigilance and human resources to support this growing need. Together, these parameters contribute to an embolization of the pharmacovigilance system at risk of missing its primary mission: to identify and characterize a risk or even a health alert on a drug. The participants of the workshop (representatives of the Regional Pharmacovigilance Centres (CRPV), the French National Agency for Safety of Medicinal Products (ANSM), patients, the pharmaceutical industry, or start-ups working in the development of AI in the field of medicine) shared their experiences, their pilot projects and their expectations on the expected potential, theoretical or proven, AI and IA. This work has made it possible to identify the needs and challenges that AI or IA represent, in the current or future modes of organization of pharmacovigilance activities. This approach led to the development of a SWOT matrix (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), a basis for reflection to identify critical points and consider four main recommendations: (1) preserve and develop business expertise in pharmacovigilance (including research and development in methods) with the integration of new technologies; (2) improve the quality of pharmacovigilance reports; (3) adapt technical and regulatory means; (4) implement a development strategy for AI and IA tools at the service of expertise.

Under the Mediterranean I: Studies in Maritime Archaeology

Under the Mediterranean I: Studies in Maritime Archaeology

Keynote address: The Centre Camille Jullian: 50 years of maritime and nautical archaeology

This article retraces the principal activities of the Centre Camille Jullian – UMR 7299 (CCJ) in Mediterranean nautical archaeology from its beginnings with the pioneering underwater excavations of the Planier III and Madrague de Giens wrecks from the end of the 1960s, to the beginning of the 1980s, through the 1990s and the wrecks of Marseille’s ancient harbour, and up until the most recent developments. This latter period has seen the CCJ gradually extend its activities into father flung Mediterranean regions through international collaborations in Italy, Croatia, Egypt and the Black Sea, and the increasingly advanced integration of multiple interdisciplinary approaches. The theoretical and methodological foundations on which the innumerable projects of its researchers are based have allowed the study of ancient Mediterranean ships to be tackled in innovatory and constantly renewed ways.

Rigging elements found on the Madrague de Giens shipwreck (Hyères, Var, France, 1st century BC)

Cet article présente quelques-unes des pièces de gréement trouvées sur l’épave de la Madrague de Giens (Hyères, Var, 70‑45 av. J.-C.) durant les campagnes de fouille 1976 à 1982 : poulies, moques, manœuvres de voile, replacées dans le contexte de l’épave et dans celui plus général des embarcations antiques. On tentera d’identifier leur fonction par comparaison avec les agrès utilisés traditionnellement dans la marine à voile moderne.

A Further Proposal for the Hull Lines of the Madrague de Giens Ship (c .70 BC)

A Further Proposal for the Hull Lines of the Madrague de Giens Ship (<i>c</i> .70 BC)

Meeting after meeting: 20 years of discoveries by the members of the Exocytosis-Endocytosis Club.

Twenty years ago, a group of French cell biologists merged two scientific clubs with the aim of bringing together researchers in the fields of Endocytosis and Exocytosis. Founded in 1997, the first annual meeting of the Exocytosis Club was held in 1998. The Endocytosis Club held quarterly meetings from its founding in 1999. The first joint annual meeting of the Exocytosis-Endocytosis Club took place in Paris in April, 2001. What started as a modest gathering of enthusiastic scientists working in the field of cell trafficking has gone from strength to strength, rapidly becoming an unmissable yearly meeting, vividly demonstrating the high quality of science performed in our community and beyond. On the occasion of the 20th meeting of our club, we want to provide historic insight into the fields of exocytosis and endocytosis, and by extension, to subcellular trafficking, highlighting how French scientists have contributed to major advances in these fields. Today, the Exocytosis-Endocytosis Club represents a vibrant and friendly community that will hold its 20th meeting at the Presqu'Ile de Giens, near Toulon in the South of France, on May 11-13, 2017.

The human gut microbiome as source of innovation for health: Which physiological and therapeutic outcomes could we expect?

From the moment of birth, each human being builds a microbe-host symbiosis which is key for the preservation of its health and well-being. This personal symbiotic coexistence is the result of progressive enrichments in microorganism diversity through external supplies. This diversity is nowadays massively overthrown by drastic changes related to clinical practice in birth management, environmental exposure, nutrition and healthcare behaviors. The last two generations have been the frame of massive modifications in life and food habits, with people being more and more sedentary, overfed and permeated with drugs and pollutants. We are now able to measure the impact of these changes on the gut microbiota diversity. Concomitantly, these modifications of lifestyle were associated with a dramatic increase in incidence of immune-mediated diseases including metabolic, allergic and inflammatory diseases and most likely neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. Microbiota is becoming a hot topic in the scientific community and in the mainstream media. The number of scientific publications increased by up to a factor three over the last five years, with gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases being the most productive areas. In the intellectual property landscape, the patent families on microbiota have more than doubled in the meantime. In parallel, funding either from National Institutes (e.g. from NIH which funds research mainly in the field of allergies, infections, cancer and cardiovascular diseases, from the White House which launched the national microbiome initiative) or by pharmaceutical companies follow the same trend, showing a boost and a strong support in the research field on microbiota. All major health players are investing in microbiome research as shown by the number of deals signed and by funding during 2015. The Giens round table addressed how the medicine of tomorrow, considering human beings as a human-microbe symbiotic supraorganism, could leverage microbiome knowledge and tools. The rationale for our working group has been structured around four domains of innovation that could derive from ongoing efforts in deciphering the interactions between human cells and intestinal microbiome as a central component of human health, namely: (1) development of stratification and monitoring tools; (2) identification of new target and drug discovery, as a part of our supra-genome; (4) exploitation of microbiota as a therapeutic target that can be modulated; (4) and finally as a source of live biotherapeutics and adjuvants. These four streams will exemplify how microbiota has changed the way we consider a wide range of chronic and incurable diseases and the consequences of long-lasting dysbiosis. In-depth microbiota analysis is opening one of the broadest fields of investigation for improving human and animal health and will be a source of major therapeutic innovations for tackling today's medical unmet needs. We thus propose a range of recommendations for basic researchers, care givers as well as for health authorities to gain reliability in microbiome analysis and accelerate discovery processes and their translation into applications for the benefits of the people. Finally, les Ateliers de Giens round table on microbiota benefited from the richness of the French ecosystem. France represents a center of excellence in the microbiota research field, with French institutions as Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA [Metagenopolis, Micalis]), Centre national de la recherché scientifique (CNRS), Unité de recherche sur les maladies infectieuses et tropicales émergentes (URMITE), Institut of Cardiometabolism and Nutrition (ICAN), Institut des maladies métaboliques et cardiovasculaires (I2MC), Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (Inserm), Pasteur Institute and Gustave-Roussy being top-players for the number of publications.

Size strain VI: diffraction analysis of the microstructure of materials, Presq' ile de Giens (France), 17–20 October 2011

Size strain VI: diffraction analysis of the microstructure of materials, Presq' ile de Giens (France), 17–20 October 2011

Organic matter stabilization and ecosystem functions: proceedings of the fourth conference on the mechanisms of organic matter stabilization and destabilization (SOM-2010, Presqu’île de Giens, France)

A better knowledge of soil organic matter (SOM) stabilisation and destabilisation processes may help improving soil management strategies and practices to optimize ecosystem services such as organic carbon (C) storage and mitigation of greenhouse gases, improvement of soil structure and protection against erosion, sustainability of soil fertility (Lal 2004). A series of international conferences on the mechanisms of organic matter stabilization and destabilization was launched in 2003 in Hohenkammer in Germany (Kogel-Knabner et al. 2005). The next editions took place in Asilomar in 2005 (Sollins et al. 2007) and in Glenelg, near Adelaide, Australia in 2007 (Smernik and Skjemstad 2009). This special issue of Biogeochemistry, presents in 10 articles some of the results from the fourth edition of these conferences (SOM-2010), which took place on 19–23 September 2010 in the Presqu’ile de Giens, France. This edition was organized by the soil organic matter group of the Bioemco laboratory (Biogeochemistry and Ecology of Continental Ecosystems) based in Thiverval-Grignon, France, and was entitled ‘‘Organic matter stabilization and ecosystem functions’’. It was also part of the series of conferences of the group Molter (Molecular structures as drivers and tracers of terrestrial C fluxes), an ESF-funded research networking programme for the 2008–2013 period. The conference was attended by 177 delegates (including 65 students) from 21 countries, with most from France, Germany and USA. This fourth conference was specifically dedicated to ecological aspects of OM stabilization and destabilization mechanisms in sediments and soils.

Evidence of Geometric Operators used to Shape Ancient Hulls

In some shipwrecks we can recognize factors such as units of measurement, use of segments and arcs, and repetition of shapes, which may have been rationalised during the transition from craft shipbuilding to a formal design process. This is an a posteriori assessment, as we do not know how hull-shapes were planned and controlled in Antiquity. However the Cheops boat, and the Madrague de Giens, Anse des Laurons II, Fiumicino 4 and Yassi Ada II wrecks, display measurements and geometries suggesting rational approaches to hull-moulding, with principles common to those of medieval and Renaissance shipbuilding and the traditional Mediterranean garbi. © 2012 The Author

L'épave la Madrague de Giens (Var) et la plaine de Fondi (Latium). Producteurs des vins, des amphores Dr. 1b et commerçants

Antoinette Hesnard, La Madrague de Giens (Hyères, Var) shipwreck and the Fondi (Latium) plain, producers of wine, of amphorae Dr. 1 Β and merchants The excavation of the shipwreck La Madrague de Ciens and the prospection of the Fondi plain and the production workshops of the Dr. 1 Β amphorae of the principal cargo have led to the gathering of contextual data concerning the production (wine-growing plain and workshops) and the commercialisation (the shipwreck) of wines in the second quarter of the Ist century BC. The archaeological data allow us to make out the rôles of the différent actors involved in the chain going from the production of the wine to its marketing. The number of amphorae on which observations can be repeated (thousands) and the almost exhaustive nature of the excavation of the wreck ensure the reliability of the information. The typological and epigraphic data and the distribution of the amphorae in the hold of the vessel have been systematically cross-referenced. The meanings to be attributed to the amphora stamps have been confirmed and refined. They are workshop marks either belonging to a wine-growing fundus (that of P. Veueius Papus at Canneto) or independent (that of San Anastasia) producing for several fundi of the plain. The geometrie stamps of the stoppers are evidence of a generalised conventional system used by merchants loading together the amphorae of several wine producers to attest to the action and control of the tax collecting services. The stoppe-ring and stamping of the plugs happened as the amphorae were embarked in order to mark a single ensemble, the property of a sole merchant, that would be unloaded during a single opération when the boat arrived at the correct port.

Foreword

This special issue of RCM contains a selection of 25 papers presented at the 2nd Joint European Stable Isotope User Meeting (JESIUM) held at Presqu'île de Giens, France, from 31st August to 5th September 2008. JESIUM, the Joint European Stable Isotope User Meeting, is initiated by the national associations/networks of stable isotope users from across Europe (BASIS Benelux, ESIR Eastern and central Europe, GASIR Germany, SFIS France, SIMSUG UK, and SINA Austria). The objectives of JESIUM are to bring together scientists with a broad range of interests in stable isotopes, to encourage communication across disciplines and country boundaries, to provide the opportunity to discuss theoretical and methodological difficulties, and to exchange ideas about how techniques might be transferred to other areas of research. Following the success of the first JESIUM meeting organised by Rebecca Hood-Nowotny in Vienna (2004) with the contribution of the Stable Isotope Network of Austria (SINA), the French Society of Stable Isotopes (SFIS) was proud to organise the second JESIUM (2008) in the south of France under the coordination of Jaleh Ghashghaie. The JESIUM objectives were successfully achieved in a meeting that gathered approximately 290 participants from diverse backgrounds, mostly from Europe but also from all around the world (about 30 countries were represented), and stimulated the active participation of commercial sponsors (25 companies). JESIUM 2008 was highly successful and it was a great pleasure to host this event in France. On behalf of the organizing committee, we would like to thank all the participants for the high quality of their presentations, the conveners for selecting the talks and organizing the sessions and discussions, and the sponsors for supporting this meeting. Methodological advances in stable isotope studies Physiology & Biochemistry across the spectrum of life forms Plant Ecophysiology: from leaf to ecosystem Soil, Marine & Freshwater Ecology Hydrology, Earth Science & Cosmochemistry Climatology, Palaeoclimatology & Archaeology Isotopic signatures as diagnostic & decision tools for society New concepts and developments A total of 84 oral communications and over 200 posters were presented, including one senior and one or two junior keynote lectures and about 10 regular talks per session. The diversity and quality of communications (talks as well as posters) and the discussions (both formal and informal) guaranteed an interesting program. Young scientists were especially promoted during JESIUM 2008. In the preparation phase, every European Association selected a young scientist to present a ‘Junior Keynote’ lecture. Likewise, and under the benevolent control of Tom Bullen, prizes for the ‘best overall presentation by a young scientist’ and the ‘best poster by a young scientist’ were awarded to Britta Hartard and Mehmet Senbayram, respectively. JESIUM 2008 was characterized by a culture of openness, collaboration and fun, and was full of memorable moments: a musical opening, a cruise to Porquerolles Island, and an already famous dancing gala night. To keep pace with the innovations and to reap maximum benefit for all, it is necessary for us to continue to collaborate and to educate scientists across Europe in this exciting and enlightening branch of science. It is with this in mind that we are pleased to announce the next JESIUM in 2012 in Germany; for the latest information, see the JESIUM website (http://www.jesium.eu). Please enjoy the quality of the papers and be inspired by the JESIUM 2008 spirit.

Plant DNA repair and recombination on the French Mediterranean

This EMBO Workshop on Plant DNA Repair & Recombination took place between 31 May and 3 June 2007, in Presqu'ile de Giens, France, and was organized by B. Hohn, A. Levy, H. Puchta, D. Shippen, C. Well and C. White. ![][1] Two factors motivate research in plant DNA repair and recombination today: the unique tools that plants offer for understanding fundamental biological processes, and the promise that a deeper understanding of these processes will facilitate improved technologies for breeding and engineering crops for food, fuel and medicines (Tzfira & White, 2005). With these thoughts in mind, scientists assembled at the Presqu'ile de Giens in the south of France from 31 May to 3 June 2007 for an EMBO Workshop on Plant DNA Repair & Recombination to share their latest results. Almost 10 years have passed since the previous EMBO Workshop on the topic—organized in 1998 in the Netherlands—so expectations were high. Owing to space limitations, this report cannot be comprehensive and will, instead, reflect meeting highlights by using feedback from the session chairs. The processes of DNA repair and recombination have been studied for many years using various organisms including bacteria and yeast, and also mammalian cells and plants. This has revealed the subtleties of the molecular mechanisms underlying these processes and has shown on the one hand clear conservation of these processes in evolution, and on the other clear differences in their regulation among the different organisms. Such differences make harnessing the recombination process for precise genetic engineering easily accomplished in yeasts, but (currently) tedious in mammalian and plant cells. The power of plant genetics, especially with the aid of the model organisms Arabidopsis thaliana and Oryza sativa , is proving to be instrumental in the identification of factors that mediate and regulate recombination. Importantly, it has been shown that … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif

La charpenterie navale romaine: Matériaux, méthodes, moyens. By Michel Rival.

Discusses how the nature and procurement of timber affected Roman ship carpentry and construction, and demonstrates that Roman shipwrights could exploit fully the morphological and physical attributes of the woods available to them. The author bases his arguments in part on the identification of wood samples taken from the hull remains of 19 Greco-Roman ships dating from the 4th century BCE through the 7th century CE, and on his detailed study of timber usage and carpentry on three well-preserved Roman wrecks. Chapter 1 discusses the wood species identified from the 19 wrecks; chapter 2 discusses the traditional means of acquiring useful timber. The remaining chapters are devoted to an examination of the hull remains of the shipwrecks at la Madrague de Giens, la Place de la Bourse in Marseilles, and Wreck I at Port-Vendres. A brief conclusion is followed by a bibliography, an index of ancient authors, and a glossary.