National De La Research Articles

Vegetal agency: the sap controversy in early eighteenth-century France treatises on plants and gardening

This article examines how the apologetics of the abbé Noël-Antoine Pluche (1688–1761) impacted his presentation of botanical knowledge in the ten dialogues published in the first and second volumes of his natural history book Le Spectacle de la nature (1732–1750). Pluche popularized a conception of the physical world where plants are reducible to inert mechanisms, devoid of life and agency. First, I examine the various intertwinements of science and theology in his depiction of plant anatomy, by investigating his use of mechanical analogies, his adoption of the sap circulation hypothesis, and his application of the pre-existence theory to account for both generation and vegetative multiplication. I then compare Pluche's understanding of plant growth with those offered by contemporaneous gardening treatises, demonstrating that part of Pluche's project included opposing the materialist and animist undertones found in these gardening treatises that emphasized vegetal life, self-organization, and sap agency.

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier’s ‘Sur la nature de l’eau’: an annotated English translation

ABSTRACT On November 14th, 1770, the young chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) read his ‘Sur la nature de l’eau’ to the Académie des Sciences. Eventually published in the Académie’s journal in 1773, the two-part memoire challenged a widely held view of earlier experimenters: the transmutability of matter. Specifically, experimenters such as Jean-Baptiste Van Helmont (1580–1644), Robert Boyle (1627–1691), and Ole Borsch (1626–1690) had noted that when distilled water was heated in a glass vessel, a small amount of earthy residue remained, seemingly demonstrating the transmutation of water into earth. Antoine-Laurent designed an experiment to determine whether it was really to the ‘destruction of a portion of the water that this residual earth owed its origin, or if it was to that of the glass.’ In partial agreement with Jean-Baptiste Le Roy (1720–1800), a fellow academician, Antoine-Laurent aimed to disprove the antiquated belief – the transmutation of one element into another – by using a glass vessel from the alchemist’s cabinet: the pelican.

Deviating from Monstrosity

Between 1800 and 1807, Napoleonic reforms to obstetrics exposed more physicians to “monstrous births” (congenital anomalies). These reforms followed post-Revolutionary France’s need to re-define the “individual” and the Enlightenment’s attempts to naturalize the “monstrous.” Drawing on foundational eighteenth-century natural historical and medical texts, the article argues that the French Revolution was a major turning point in the conceptualization of dis/ability. To illustrate this, the illuminated volume Les Ecarts de la Nature (1775) by Nicolas-François and Geneviève Regnault and its 1808 edition revised by the physician Jacques-Louis Moreau de la Sarthe are analyzed through contemporary disability studies. The late eighteenth-century’s eventual eradication of monstrosities from the natural realm would lead to certain human bodies becoming normalized and others pathologized. This pathologization involved systematically categorizing human beings into forced binaries. Yet, by attempting to order that which does not fit into a binary, Les Ecarts attests that the dichotomy between “normal” and “abnormal” is a false narrative.

Political Disillusionment and the Fine Line Between Independence and Neo-colonialism in Early Post-colonial Africa: A Literary and Historical Perspective from Senegal with Aminata Sow Fall

ABSTRACT Focusing on the role of the French empire in the emergence of political disenchantment in the early post-independance Francophone African society, this paper draws from Aminata Sow Fall’s literary texts La Grève des bàttu (1979) and L’ex-Père de la nation (1987) to examine the political history of Senegal. Analysing these texts, we highlight two key aspects in this political history: the continuous external influence and contemptuous complicity of the former colonial power in various aspects of governance in post-independent Francophone African countries, and the complicity of the post-colonial leaders whose limited conceptualisation and interpretation of independence create conducive conditions for disenchantment. I argue that these dynamic influences which impact the validity of independence in Senegal, also represent the reality of many francophone African societies. To foreground the arguments in this article, I shall employ the post-colonial theory which facilitates the understanding of the impact of imperialism on ex-colonies, and sociological criticism which articulates the relationship between these texts and the social realities of the society from whence they emanate, drawing out specific insights about how they align with the interpretation of the chosen literary sources. In conclusion, I proposed that a re-evaluation of the role of internal and external political players is needed for the advancement and genuine emancipation of post-colonial African societies.

‘The Constantin Guys of the atomic era’: on the poetic reception of Robert Rauschenberg by Alain Jouffroy and Surrealism

Robert Rauschenberg is not usually thought to have had much contact with Surrealism and even spoke openly about his disdain for the movement on some occasions. However, through the period 1958–69, the Surrealists showed great enthusiasm for the ‘poetic’, ‘metaphorical’ resonance of Rauschenberg’s work, a positive response that has since largely been lost. In place of that history, the interpretation of Rauschenberg by John Cage as a ‘literalist’ or ‘factualist’ gained ground and even came to define the artist’s œuvre in some quarters, a reading that Rauschenberg himself approved. Caught in the middle of these two versions of Rauschenberg are the largely untranslated texts of French poet, critic, and ex-Surrealist Alain Jouffroy (1928–2015), which form the substance of this article. Jouffroy pioneered the positive critical reception of Rauschenberg in France from 1961 while he continued to be influenced by his Surrealist past, to the point that his writings on Rauschenberg reveal consistent contradiction under close reading. The highest point of tension was reached across 1963–64 when Jouffroy wrote eulogistic poems devoted to Rauschenberg’s massive silkscreen painting Barge (1962–63) and to Surrealism in L’Antichambre de la nature (1966, written in 1964), alongside key texts of art criticism on Rauschenberg. Culminating in an analysis of the silkscreen and poems, this article argues that while Jouffroy’s writings seem ostensibly to further the Cagean interpretation of the artist, they are riven by an awkward dual loyalty that can be read in support of a ‘poetic’ ‘Surrealist Rauschenberg’.

Three historical issues dealing with time and inertia in relation to present physics

We present three issues associated with the works of Galileo in 1632 and Einstein in 1905 and 1911, which concern respectively the status of time in relativity, the quantum identification of mass and frequency and the mysterious identity of inertial and gravitational masses. These issues naturally lead to a new (quantum) way of thinking of time and inertia, a topic which has been ignored by physicists in the early quantum years although it had contributed to the foundations of previous (classical) physics and to its major success, Einstein’s general relativity. The “philosophy” underlying our discussion is that the reconsideration of “old historical issues” may help overcoming the epistemological obstacles, which generally surround present relativistic and quantum physics, and hide what Poincare called “l’unite de la nature”.

NEW SPECIES OF ALIPPISTRONGYLUS (TRICHOSTRONGYLINA: NIPPOSTRONGYLINAE) FROM THE ELEGANT RICE RAT, EURYORYZOMYS NITIDUS, OF LA CONVENCIÓN, PERU.

A new species of AlippistrongylusDigiani and Kinsella, 2014, was found in the intestines of the elegant rice rat, Euryoryzomys nitidus, collected in the Amazon rainforest. These mammals were preserved in alcohol and archived in the Colección Científica de Mamíferos del Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Mayor de San Marcos and accessed for the observation and investigation for the diversity of their endo-parasites. A total of 857 worms were recovered from the 3 individuals examined. Morphological investigations and comparisons with the only known species of the genus indicate that this is an undescribed species. These nematodes feature the diagnostic characteristic of the genus, being a bifurcated posterior end that consists of a tail and a conical appendage near the level of the vulva and uninterrupted ridges in the synlophe of unequal size. However, the orientation of this conical appendage on the female tail, features of the synlophe, and shape of the copulatory bursa warrant the proposal of an amended diagnosis to include character variability detected in the new species.

Mapping Indigenous Land: Native Land Grants in Colonial New Spain by Ana Pulido Rull (review)

Reviewed by: Mapping Indigenous Land: Native Land Grants in Colonial New Spain by Ana Pulido Rull Paula López Caballero (bio) Mapping Indigenous Land: Native Land Grants in Colonial New Spain by Ana Pulido Rull University of Oklahoma Press, 2020 DURING THE FIRST CENTURY of Spanish colonization in the Americas, the most common means of obtaining plots of land—for Indigenous peoples as well as Spaniards—was to request a royal land grant (mercedes reales). The grants were documents issued by the representatives of the king in Spain's colonies: the viceroy and the Real Audiencia. In New Spain (present-day Mexico), records created to request, oppose, or negotiate these land grants included a painting or map as part of the evidence presented by parties involved. Forty-eight examples of these paintings, created between 1571 and 1617, are stored in the Mapoteca of the Archivo General de la Nation. From this corpus, Pulido Rull selected fourteen paintings for detailed analysis, which along with their legal records form the empirical basis of this book. Pulido Rull's historical investigation is complemented by infrared and ultraviolet radiation analysis of these documents, which makes it possible to document how the maps were modified, possibly during the course of legal arguments. The book also includes twenty-seven color plates and fifty-one black-and-white images. Pulido Rull argues that these maps were sites of cross-cultural communication between Indigenous peoples and Spaniards in which Indigenous views regarding disputed lands can be observed. She proposes understanding these maps as subjective interpretations of space created according to a specific intentionality. They can therefore be read as a mechanism for the participation and negotiation of Indigenous painters, as well as those they represented, in the legal processes for awarding land grants. The book comprises five chapters. After a clear, concise introduction, the first chapter provides general historical context on legal processes for obtaining lands. This pedagogical chapter is useful for nonspecialists. The second chapter, the book's longest, may be read as the flip side of the first one, as it examines the most formal aspects of the whole corpus of maps: pictorial strategies for representing space, questions related to the maps' authorship, and the graphic conventions used within them. Chapter 3 examines records, created mainly by Indigenous nobles, for requesting land grants. Analysis of these records demonstrates the opportunities available to these elites and the [End Page 177] privileged position they managed to maintain throughout the first century of colonization. The fourth section analyzes records in which maps were used to oppose land grants. In contrast to the previous chapter, this chapter displays the practical rather than legal limits of the colonial system: upon reviewing the cases, it is clear that bending the law was a common practice for magistrates, above all to favor Spaniards over Indigenous peoples. The final chapter presents cases in which Indigenous peoples affected by land grants opted to negotiate instead of simply opposing the grants. Analysis of these cases clearly illustrates the multiple ways in which maps contributed to legal processes and resolution of conflicts. The most explicit example is that of Huixquilucan (State of Mexico), where a Spaniard requested two plots of land for goat herding. In order to prevent goats invading plots used for crop cultivation, the town authorities presented a map to the courts. The visual discourse of this document organizes space in such a way that implies that land grants could only be awarded in specific locations. This message is actually retained as an argument in the written transcriptions of the record, showing how the artist had the opportunity not only to represent the territory of the town but to influence the decision of the magistrates and judges by favoring the position of the affected Indigenous residents of Huixquilucan. In short, the multiple, rigorously and minutely analyzed cases in this book are clear examples of the complexity and reach of the perspective that Pulido Rull develops. The promising hypothesis she proposes is to understand, in the same analytical movement, both the practical exercise of the law established by the colonial order and the artistic expression developed by mapmakers. In doing so, Pulido Rull contributes to the...

A 4-days-on and 3-days-off maintenance treatment strategy for adults with HIV-1 (ANRS 170 QUATUOR): a randomised, open-label, multicentre, parallel, non-inferiority trial.

Intermittent (on 4 days per week) antiretroviral therapy (ART) for patients with HIV-1 might be more convenient, better tolerated, and cheaper than continuous treatment. We aimed to establish the efficacy and safety of a 4-days-on and 3-days-off (intermittent) maintenance regimen versus a standard 7 day (continuous) maintenance regimen. In a randomised, open-label, multicentre, parallel, non-inferiority trial, we randomly assigned (1:1) adults with HIV-1 infection with a plasma viral load (pVL) of less than 50 copies per mL for more than 12 months and no drug-resistance mutations to either the intermittent regimen or their existing continuous maintenance regimen, with stratification according to third therapeutic agent (protease inhibitor, non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, or integrase-strand transfer inhibitor). Participants were recruited from 59 hospitals throughout France. The main exclusion criteria were CD4 cell count lower than 250 cells per μL and chronic hepatitis B virus infection. The primary endpoint was the proportion of participants in the modified intention-to-treat (mITT) population who started the study strategy presenting treatment success at week 48 (pVL <50 copies per mL without strategy modification), estimated using the US Federal Drug Administration snapshot approach, with a 5% non-inferiority margin. The study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03256422) and EudraCT (2017-000040-17). The trial is now closed. From Sept 7, 2017, to Jan 22, 2018, 850 potential participants were screened for eligibility. 647 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned (1:1) to either the intermittent or the continuous treatment group. The mITT population included 636 participants (318 per group). At week 48, in the mITT population, treatment success was recorded in 304 (96%) of 318 participants in the intermittent treatment group and 308 (97%) of 318 in the continuous treatment group (adjusted difference -1·3%, 95% CI -4·2 to 1·7). Six (2%) participants in the intermittent treatment group and four (1%) participants in the continuous treatment group had virological failure. Grade 3-4 adverse events were reported in 29 (9%) participants in the intermittent treatment group and 39 (12%) participants in the continuous treatment group (p=0·320). Daily life satisfaction improved in 153 (59%) of 258 participants in the intermittent treatment group versus 19 (7%) of 255 in the continuous treatment group (p<0·0001). ART costs were 43% lower in the intermittent treatment group than in the continuous treatment group (p<0·0001). These findings show the non-inferiority of the treatment strategy of 4-consecutive-days-on and 3-days-off strategy maintenance regimen relative to standard continuous ART triple therapy over 48 weeks. 4 days on and off treatment represents a workable, effective alternative strategy for patients with high adherence to ART, and using a drug combination with a high genetic barrier to resistance. Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Agence Nationale de Recherche sur le Sida et les Hépatites Virales, Maladies Infectieuses Emergentes.

Donor HLA Class 1 Evolutionary Divergence Is a Major Predictor of Liver Allograft Rejection : A Retrospective Cohort Study.

The HLA evolutionary divergence (HED), a continuous metric quantifying the peptidic differences between 2 homologous HLA alleles, reflects the breadth of the immunopeptidome presented to T lymphocytes. To assess the potential effect of donor or recipient HED on liver transplant rejection. Retrospective cohort study. Liver transplant units. 1154 adults and 113 children who had a liver transplant between 2004 and 2018. Liver biopsies were done 1, 2, 5, and 10 years after the transplant and in case of liver dysfunction. Donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies (DSAs) were measured in children at the time of biopsy. The HED was calculated using the physicochemical Grantham distance for class I (HLA-A or HLA-B) and class II (HLA-DRB1 or HLA-DQB1) alleles. The influence of HED on the incidence of liver lesions was analyzed through the inverse probability weighting approach based on covariate balancing, generalized propensity scores. In adults, class I HED of the donor was associated with acute rejection (hazard ratio [HR], 1.09 [95% CI, 1.03 to 1.16]), chronic rejection (HR, 1.20 [CI, 1.10 to 1.31]), and ductopenia of 50% or more (HR, 1.33 [CI, 1.09 to 1.62]) but not with other histologic lesions. In children, class I HED of the donor was also associated with acute rejection (HR, 1.16 [CI, 1.03 to 1.30]) independent of the presence of DSAs. There was no effect of either donor class II HED or recipient class I or class II HED on the incidence of liver lesions in adults and children. The DSAs were measured only in children. Class I HED of the donor predicts acute or chronic rejection of liver transplant. This novel and accessible prognostic marker could orientate donor selection and guide immunosuppression. Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale.

A world of inflammation: the need for ecological solutions that co-benefit people, place and planet.

The ecology of the early environment - including microbial diversity, nutrition, nature, social interactions and the totality of exposures in the wider "exposome" - have life-long implications for all aspects of health and resilience. In particular, the emergence of "microbiome science" provides new evidence for vital relationships between biodiversity and health at every level. New perspectives of ecological interdependence connect personal and planetary health; the human health crisis cannot be separated from the social, political and economic "ecosystems" otherwise driving dysbiosis (from its etymological root, "life in distress") at every level. Adverse changes in macroscale ecology - of food systems, lifestyle behaviours, socioeconomic disadvantage and environmental degradation - all impact the microbial systems sitting at the foundations of all ecosystems. In particular, changes in the function and composition of the human-associated microbiome have been implicated in the mounting global burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), exacerbating inflammation and metabolic dysregulation through multiple pathways across the lifespan. This "dysbiotic drift" (adverse shifts in ecology at all scales) underscores the need for ecological approaches aimed at restoring symbiosis, balance and mutualism. While there is promise with supplement-based strategies (e.g. probiotics, prebiotics), it is essential to focus on upstream factors implicated in dysbiosis, including the health of wider environments, lifestyle, nature relatedness, and the social policies and practices which can facilitate or inhibit dysbiotic drift. This also calls for ambitious integrative approaches which not only define these interconnections, but also capitalize on them to create novel, collaborative and mutualistic solutions to our vast interdependent global challenges.

The renovation of paradoxes: decolonising the Africa Museum without restituting DR Congo’s cultural heritage

ABSTRACT This article assesses the extent to which the Africa Museum (AM) decolonised itself according to Sarr and Savoy’s criteria for restitution applied to DR Congo’s cultural heritage. Rather than casting permanent restitution as a single objective, this paper argues that the long-term process consubstantial to the decolonising momentum can break an often-misleading taxonomy down and discern its components as fields of investigation as well as pragmatic steps to rethink the modalities of restitution. The AM’s restructuring of exhibition rooms and epistemes, inventorying, digitisation and provenance studies partly resonate with intermediary restitution practices such as restoration of ethos, recognition of guilt, reparation of broken narratives and reappropriation of knowledge. Nevertheless, the findings of this research show that these initiatives can only be considered as preconditions for restitution – not permanent alternatives designed as retentionist devices – if they are accompanied with a proactive museum diplomacy towards the Musée National de la République Démocratique du Congo (MNRDC).

In the service of secrecy: An enveloped history of priority, proof and patents

This article is about an everyday paper object: an envelope. However, as opposed to most other flat paper containers, the enveloppe Soleau can only be bought from L’Institut national de la propriété industrielle (INPI) in Paris. At the cost of €15 you get a perforated, double-compartment envelope allowing you to constitute proof of creation and assign a precise date to your idea or project. But the enveloppe Soleau is something much more than just a simple and cheap way by which you can prove priority in any creative domain. It is a material footprint anchored to centuries of practices associated with disclosure and secrecy, a gateway into the infrastructure of the intellectual property system and its complicated relationship to the forms of knowledge it purports to hold. The purpose of this article is to consider the making of the enveloppe Soleau as a bureaucratic document, a material device performing a particular kind of legal paperwork. In four different vignettes, the article tracks the material becoming of the enveloppe Soleau as an evidentiary receptacle, beginning by going back to early modern practices of secrecy and priority, continuing with its consolidation in two patents (from 1910 and 1911) to the inventor Eugène Soleau (1852–1929), and ending up, in 2016, dematerialized in the e-Soleau. As a bureaucratic document, the enveloppe Soleau shows just how much work a mundane paper object can perform, navigating a particular materiality (a patented double envelope); formalized processes of proof (where perforations have legal significance); the practices of double archiving (in an institution and with the individual) and strict temporal limitations (a decade). Ultimately, the enveloppe Soleau travels between the material and immaterial, between private and public, between secrecy and disclosure, but also between what we perceive of as the outside and inside of the intellectual property system.

Archetypes of the pandemic.

This paper attempts to read the psychological and emotional impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic through the archetypal images contained in patients’ dreams. In these dreams, symbols related to the power of nature and to extreme danger are paired with feelings of detachment that seem to point to a traumatic dissociation, due to the archetypal experience that erupts in familiar surroundings. Through the humanization of the ineffable experience, dissociation, which in the beginning of the pandemic showed in high levels of anxiety, panic attacks and depersonalization, can be transformed into the overview needed for the search for meaning. The container for this process of transformation is the analyst, the real, virtual or imagined one, and his or her ability to relate and feel.

Mining Language: Racial Thinking, Indigenous Knowledge, and Colonial Metallurgy in the Early Modern Iberian World

Mining Language: Racial Thinking, Indigenous Knowledge, and Colonial Metallurgy in the Early Modern Iberian World

The Programme d'Appui aux Stratégies Sociales (PASS), a handshake between mutualists from North and South (Europe-Africa)

ResumeLe Programme d'Appui aux Stratégies Sociales, (PASS), est un pôle d'expertise en santé et protection sociale à but non lucratif qui prolonge les activités du Programme d'appui aux stratégies mutualistes de santé, géré par Expertise France de 2015 à 2020. La structure est opérationnelle depuis août 2019 grâce au soutien de deux groupements mutualistes français, le Groupe Vyv et la Fédération Nationale de la Mutualité Française (FNMF), sous la forme d'une société par actions simplifiées à but non lucratif. Partant de son socle originel d'appui au développement des couvertures santé mutualistes, le PASS élargit son domaine d'intervention aux projets, politiques et systèmes de santé et de protection sociale avec une attention particulière sur les problématiques liées aux femmes et aux enfants. Le PASS propose ainsi une expertise construite autour de 3 domaines d'activité stratégiques qui sont: (1) l'appui aux mécanismes solidaires de financement de la santé de type mutualiste (audit, études, conseil, formation); (2) l'appui au renforcement des services de santé bâtis en lien avec les politiques publiques et (3) l'apport en expertise et en capacités opérationnelles en réponse à diverses problématiques ponctuelles de santé et de protection sociale. Basé à Abidjan en Côte d'Ivoire, le PASS étend l'ensemble de ses activités aux autres pays d'Afrique francophone.

La pandemia de COVID-19 en 2020 en perspectiva histórica. Epidemias y crisis de mortalidad en los tres últimos siglos en Castilla y España

This article depicts Spain’s COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 in terms of the main mortality increases reported in&nbsp;Castile and/or the whole country between 1700 and 2019. Data are drawn from population censuses, parish&nbsp;records in 138 Castilian municipalities, and the Movimiento Natural de la Población de España, 1890-2018. Our findings suggest that: (1) Catastrophic mortality rates plummeted in Castile during the second half of the 18th&nbsp;century, but severely rebounded in the early 19th century. (2) Only four crises afflicted the region between 1815&nbsp;and 1869, but their average intensities exceeded those of the previous century. (3) Between 1870 and 2019,&nbsp;there were only three mortality upturns in Spain, 1918, 1938, and 1941. (4) Due to the current pandemic, excess&nbsp;mortality in 2020 was relatively low compared to those registered in Castile or Spain before that date.

Lassa fever outcomes and prognostic factors in Nigeria (LASCOPE): a prospective cohort study

SummaryBackgroundLassa fever is a viral haemorrhagic fever endemic in parts of west Africa. New treatments are needed to decrease mortality, but pretrial reference data on the disease characteristics are scarce. We aimed to document baseline characteristics and outcomes for patients hospitalised with Lassa fever in Nigeria.MethodsWe did a prospective cohort study (LASCOPE) at the Federal Medical Centre in Owo, Nigeria. All patients admitted with confirmed Lassa fever were invited to participate and asked to give informed consent. Patients of all ages, including newborn infants, were eligible for inclusion, as were pregnant women. All participants received standard supportive care and intravenous ribavirin according to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control guidelines and underwent systematic biological monitoring for 30 days. Patients' characteristics, care received, mortality, and associated factors were recorded using standard WHO forms. We used univariable and multivariable logistic regression models to investigate an association between baseline characteristics and mortality at day 30.FindingsBetween April 5, 2018, and March 15, 2020, 534 patients with confirmed Lassa fever were admitted to hospital, of whom 510 (96%) gave consent and were included in the analysis. The cohort included 258 (51%) male patients, 252 (49%) female patients, 426 (84%) adults, and 84 (16%) children (younger than 18 years). The median time between first symptoms and hospital admission was 8 days (IQR 7–13). At baseline, 176 (38%) of 466 patients had a Lassa fever RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) lower than 30. From admission to end of follow-up, 120 (25%) of 484 reached a National Early Warning Score (second version; NEWS2) of 7 or higher, 67 (14%) of 495 reached a Kidney Disease–Improving Global Outcome (KDIGO) stage of 2 or higher, and 41 (8%) of 510 underwent dialysis. All patients received ribavirin for a median of 10 days (IQR 9–13). 62 (12%) patients died (57 [13%] adults and five [6%] children). The median time to death was 3 days (1–6). The baseline factors independently associated with mortality were the following: age 45 years or older (adjusted odds ratio 16·30, 95% CI 5·31–50·30), NEWS2 of 7 or higher (4·79, 1·75–13·10), KDIGO grade 2 or higher (7·52, 2·66–21·20), plasma alanine aminotransferase 3 or more times the upper limit of normal (4·96, 1·69–14·60), and Lassa fever RT-PCR Ct value lower than 30 (4·65, 1·50–14·50).InterpretationOur findings comprehensively document clinical and biological characteristics of patients with Lassa fever and their relationship with mortality, providing prospective estimates that could be useful for designing future therapeutic trials. Such trials comparing new Lassa fever treatments to a standard of care should take no more than 15% as the reference mortality rate and consider adopting a combination of mortality and need for dialysis as the primary endpoint.FundingInstitut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, University of Oxford, EU, UK Department for International Development, Wellcome Trust, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Agence Nationale de Recherches sur le SIDA et les hépatites virales, French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development.

The battle between Good and Evil in Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo’s "Historia general y natural de las Indias"

For Oviedo, America was the Promised Land, the Edenic Garden, but also the Demon Empire. His Historia General y Natural de las Indias, so comprehensive thorough, and so moral, represented the clash of these two scenarios; the struggle waged in the New World between the forces of Good and Evil, both protagonists in their voluminous chronicle. Faced with an exultant nature –symbol of innocence, abundance and divinity–, hunger, plagues, diseases, natural adversities, all capital sins and countless diabolical forces danced for his Historia, like an apocalyptic parade, distressing the reader. From Book XXIX, on the cruelties of Pedrarias Davila and his minions, and called «infernal»; and of the discouraging Book L, on «Infortunios y naufragios», this article focuses on the sufferings of conquered and conquerors, on the way in which Oviedo prosecuted these actants and on how he narrated his tragic avatars on Indian lands.

Diderot et Maupertuis sur la sensibilité de la matière, ou comment feindre de ne pas se comprendre

In §§ 50-51 of his Pensées sur l’interprétation de la Nature, Diderot draws consequences adverse to religion from the hypothesis of the sensibility of living matter in the Système de la Nature, prompting an endangered Maupertuis to respond. Diderot knows that he is reading his own materialistic conception of matter in Maupertuis but is feigning to object to it, while Maupertuis, who knows that the so-called objection is in truth Diderot’s own view, is compelled to defend himself. Through this rhetoric of feigned misunderstanding, real and fundamental questions (living matter, continuity, totality, unity of natural philosophy) raised by the phenomena of organization are being discussed.