Fond De Research Articles

Wiederfunde der Kleinen Hufeisennase Rhinolophus hipposideros (Bechstein, 1800) nach 30 Jahren in Luxemburg

The lesser horseshoe bat, last seen in Luxembourg in the winter of 1992, has been listed as extinct on the Red List since 2002. However, following the reopening of the entrance of an ironmine near Lasauvage (Minette), close to the French border, acoustic monitoring detected the species on six occasions between September and October 2022. Further studies in 2023 and 2024 near to Lasauvage in Fond de Gras revealed the use of this site at least as migrating corridor and hibernation in the old mines is very likely. These discoveries represent the first evidence of the lesser horseshoe bat in Luxembourg since 30 years.

A Ciné-Geography of Militant Cinema in the age of Three Worlds. Making Global History Appear in the Long 1960s

This essay questions the historical narrative of liberation struggles in the long 1960s by looking into two documentary films: La Hora de los Hornos, by Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino (Argentina 1968), and Le Fond de L’Air est Rouge, by Chris Marker (France 1977). A comparative analysis of the two films – two long narratives of neocolonialism and anti-imperialism – will allow us not only to revisit the periodization of the sixties, but also the ability of militant cinema to overcome the shortcomings of traditional historiography to render the global geopolitics of its struggles. More specifically, the deployment of montage in La Hora decentred the political hierarchies of the capitalist world-system from the perspective of the third world, thus opening history to a global approach of the long 1960s; as for Le Fond, the film can be seen as a global archive of images reinforcing the worldwide scope of the period’s struggles while simultaneously giving it a sense of historical closure. The formal experiments in La Hora and Le Fond allow us to reflect on these films’ status as forms of historical mediation. Showing 1960s political struggles through the formal procedures of film, however, challenges traditional history in fundamental ways. Accordingly, the essay concludes with a reflection on the historicity of film narratives. In particular, it will try to point to how film montage and duration may constitute appropriate narrative forms to come to terms with some of the major challenges currently put to historiography: the global circulation in the history of capitalism and the temporality of the end of communism.

Analysis of the Spatiotemporal Evolution of the Maurienne Swarm (French Alps) Based on Earthquake Clustering

AbstractBetween August 2017 and March 2019, an intense seismic swarm was recorded in the Maurienne valley in the north of the Belledonne massif (Western French Alps). In order to study the spatiotemporal evolution of the Maurienne swarm, we created a high‐resolution catalog based on template matching, double‐difference relocation, and moment magnitudes. The catalog includes 71,064 events with a maximum moment magnitude of 3.5 and a magnitude of completeness of 0.7. The seismic activity is interpreted as the reactivation of an N80 strike‐slip fault system called Fond de France. Moreover, earthquake relocation reveals the presence of a shallower fault system with the same strike, but opposite dip direction and smaller size. The presence of two distinct fault systems may explain the observed variation of the b‐value with depth. The seismicity migrated asymmetrically in all directions during the course of about 15 months. Shorter migrations lasting 2–3 days are also observed. The different migration patterns suggest that the swarm is driven by several mechanisms, possibly pore‐pressure diffusion, aseismic slip, and earthquake interactions.

EFFECT OF SUPPLEMENTATION WITH TYPICAL MEXICAN FOODS (OPTUNA FICUS INDICA, THEOBROMA CACAO AND EDIBLE CRICKETS) IN HIGH-FAT/HIGH-SUGAR DIET-FED MICE

The obesogenic environment, including high fat/ high sugar diet, are risk factors for developing multiple diseases associated with obesity, such as metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) and metabolic syndrome, among others. An increase in physical activity and change of diet is the first therapeutic line to prevent or treat obesity; however, adherence to this treatment is negligible. Therefore, this communication's objective was to evaluate the effect of supplementation with a mixture of foods of Mexican origin: Optuna ficus indica, Theobroma cacao and edible crickets (MexTHER) on a diet high in saturated-fats and fructose-sucrose in obesogenic mice. Twenty male C57BL/6J mice were divided into three groups between 7 and 8 weeks of age. Control group: Normal diet (ND) for 16 weeks; HF Group: Diet with 45% of Kcal from fat and water added with 55% fructose and 45% sucrose ad libitum for 16 weeks; and Therapeutic group: HF diet up to week eight and the last 8 weeks switched to a high fat/sugar diet supplemented with 10% nopal, 10% cocoa and 10% cricket (MexTHER). The animals were sacrificed at 16 weeks and histological, biochemistry and cognitive analysis were performed. Mice fed with MexTHER diet showed a significant reduction in weight at sacrifice. After two weeks MexTHER group equaled their weight to the ND group (ND = 35.92 ± 4.76, HF = 47 ± 7.11, MexTHER = 34.20 ± 6.71 p <0.001). Liver weight, visceral fat, and epididymal fat were also significantly reduced. The MexTHER group significantly decreased levels of triglycerides, cholesterol, LDL, insulin, glucose, GIP, leptin, PAI-1 and resistin. The livers of MexTHER and ND mice did not show histological alterations. The size of adipocytes showed significantly smaller diameters in the MexTHER group against HF group. Mice supplemented with MexTHER improved cognitive parameters, obtaining higher Discrimination Index than the ND group in test novel object recognition (NOR). Supplementation with nopal or cocoa has been shown to reduce alterations caused by a diet high in fat and sugar; however, the simultaneous supplementation proposed in this project induced more noticeable benefits, being similar to those achieved with a switch from HF diet to ND diet. MexTHER supplementation is a potential strategy for the treatment of diseases associated with excessive consumption of fat and sugars, such as MAFLD. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. This work has been fully subsidized by the Fond de Desarrollo Scientific de Jalisco (FODECIJAL) with key number 7941-2019.

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302 Characterization of TIGIT and PVR expression in colorectal liver metastases

BackgroundMetastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) is common and lethal and generally not responsive to current immunotherapies. We hypothesize that efficacious T cell-based immunotherapy can be developed for this malignancy, provided that immune checkpoints relevant to liver metastasis, the first site of disease progression, are targeted. Here, we characterized CRC liver metastases by RNAseq, FACS and in vitro functional assays to identify candidate immune checkpoints.MethodsWe performed deep RNAseq clustering and differential gene expression analysis on bulk RNA extracted from 52 mismatch repair gene proficient CRC liver metastases. By multiparameter FACS, we analyzed the expression of candidate immune checkpoints in cell suspensions derived from 18 liver metastases, matched non-tumoral livers, and pre-operative PBMCs. We evaluated IFN-γ (ELISA) secretion and tumor lysis (Incucyte) of tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes (TILs) expanded from liver metastases stimulated by autologous cancer cells with or without monoclonal antibodies blocking candidate immune checkpoints.ResultsOut of 52 metastases, 21 (40.3%) clustered as immune reactive (IR) defined by concurrent high expression of transcripts related to antigen processing, immune cell lineage, immune checkpoints, interferon-gamma response, cytokines, and chemokines, whereas 25 (48.1%) were classified as non-IR. Of all inhibitory ligands assessed, PVR and PVRL2 had the highest expression, both in IR and non-IR metastases, and higher than PD-L1 and PD-L2 expression. The expression of corresponding receptors TIGIT and CD226 was significantly higher in IR compared to non-IR metastases, at absolute levels higher than PD-1. By FACS analysis, PVR and PVRL2 expression by tumor-infiltrating myeloid and tumor cells was higher than PD-L1 and PD-L2 expression. High PVR expression was also found in hepatocytes, liver macrophages and circulating monocytes in the same patients. In TILs, TIGIT was significantly overexpressed in activated CD4+CD25+ (74.8 ±3.0%) and CD8+CD25+ (68.7 ± 8.4%) compared to resting CD25neg T cells, an expression pattern that was not seen for PD-1 or in T cells infiltrating the liver or circulating in the blood. The majority of cancer cell lines derived from liver metastases expressed PVR, but low levels of PD-L1. TIL clones expanded from liver metastases expressed TIGIT at various levels inducible by TCR stimulation. Upon co-culture with autologous cancer cell lines, TIL clones were more lytic and secreted more IFN-γ in presence of anti-TIGIT blocking antibody.ConclusionsBy expression and functional data, the TIGIT/PVR immune suppressive axis appears as a biologically promising target for the development of immunotherapy in patients with CRC metastatic to the liver.AcknowledgementsThis work is supported by Bristol Myers Squibb and by the Quebec Cancer Consortium. A.B. holds a postdoctoral scholarship award from the Institut du cancer de Montréal. S.T. holds a Junior 2 clinical-scientist salary award from the Fond de recherche Santé-Québec. The University of Montreal Roger des Groseillers Research Chair in hepatopancreatobiliary surgical oncology supports the biobanking and clinicopathological database associated with this project.Ethics ApprovalInstitutional review board approvals were obtain to conduct this project (16.262) and all patients provided informed consent to contribute to this project with biospecimens and clinicopathological data (09.237).

Awake prone positioning for COVID-19 acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure: a randomised, controlled, multinational, open-label meta-trial

BackgroundAwake prone positioning has been reported to improve oxygenation for patients with COVID-19 in retrospective and observational studies, but whether it improves patient-centred outcomes is unknown. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of awake prone positioning to prevent intubation or death in patients with severe COVID-19 in a large-scale randomised trial.MethodsIn this prospective, a priori set up and defined, collaborative meta-trial of six randomised controlled open-label superiority trials, adults who required respiratory support with high-flow nasal cannula for acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure due to COVID-19 were randomly assigned to awake prone positioning or standard care. Hospitals from six countries were involved: Canada, France, Ireland, Mexico, USA, Spain. Patients or their care providers were not masked to allocated treatment. The primary composite outcome was treatment failure, defined as the proportion of patients intubated or dying within 28 days of enrolment. The six trials are registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04325906, NCT04347941, NCT04358939, NCT04395144, NCT04391140, and NCT04477655.FindingsBetween April 2, 2020 and Jan 26, 2021, 1126 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to awake prone positioning (n=567) or standard care (n=559). 1121 patients (excluding five who withdrew from the study) were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. Treatment failure occurred in 223 (40%) of 564 patients assigned to awake prone positioning and in 257 (46%) of 557 patients assigned to standard care (relative risk 0·86 [95% CI 0·75−0·98]). The hazard ratio (HR) for intubation was 0·75 (0·62−0·91), and the HR for mortality was 0·87 (0·68−1·11) with awake prone positioning compared with standard care within 28 days of enrolment. The incidence of prespecified adverse events was low and similar in both groups.InterpretationAwake prone positioning of patients with hypoxaemic respiratory failure due to COVID-19 reduces the incidence of treatment failure and the need for intubation without any signal of harm. These results support routine awake prone positioning of patients with COVID-19 who require support with high-flow nasal cannula.FundingOpen AI inc, Rice Foundation, Projet Hospitalier de Recherche Clinique Interrégional, Appel d'Offre 2020, Groupement Interrégional de Recherche Clinique et d'Innovation Grand Ouest, Association pour la Promotion à Tours de la Réanimation Médicale, Fond de dotation du CHRU de Tours, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Ltd.

Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation May Lower the Risk of Leukemia in ELANE Neutropenia: Historical Trends from a French Severe Chronic Neutropenia Registry (FSCNR) Cohort

Context: Congenital neutropenia (CN) is associated with high leukemia risk and high risk of severe infections. The risk of leukemia depends on the genotype (ELANE , SBDS…) and also on the exposure to GCSF, which can be measured by the cumulative dose or as the mean dose received by the patient (1, 2). Since 2005, in France, patients that receive a high daily dose of GCSF, above the threshold of 15 µg/kg/day, are eligible for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), in addition to patients with classic indications, like myelodysplasia/acute leukemia (MDS-AL), or GCSF refractoriness (typically above 50 µg/kg/day) (3). The FSCNR prospectively monitors all patients with CN, and a genetic diagnosis is recommended for all patients with CN (4). Here, we analyzed the effect of this policy among patients with the ELANE mutation, because this group is currently one of the most heavily treated with GCSF. The GCSF dose was calculated according to a previous publication(1). The follow up of the cohort, expressed in person-years, included data from each patient, followed from birth to the last follow up visit of the study, to the date of the event (MDS-AL), or to the date of HSCT.Results: Since 1993, a total of 935 patients with chronic neutropenia were registered in France. Among those patients, 138 carried ELANE mutations, including 47 with cyclic and 91 with permanent neutropenia. Patients were grouped by whether they were born before (n=86) or after (n=52) 2005. The cumulative observation times were 1483 person-years for the 86 patients born before 2005 till 2005, and 1053 person-years for the 52 patients born after 2005 and the 80 patients born before 2005, but followed since 2005 (6 patients born before 2005 no longer contributed to the follow up after 2005, because they presented with MDS-AL or were treated with HSCT). In the entire cohort, 108 patients received GCSF at a mean dose of 9.8 µg/kg/day and 30 patients did not receive GCSF. The maximum doses were less than 5 µg/kg/day (n=38, 27%), between 5 and 10 µg/kg/day (n=30, 21%), between 10 and 30µg/kg/day (n=25), and above 30 µg/kg/day (n=15, 10%) patients. Both the mean and the maximum doses received by these patients did not change with time. Five patients were considered fully refractive (ANC < 0.2 G/l after more than 50 µg/kg/day GCSF); 16 patients received allogeneic HSCTs; and 6 patients presented with MDS-AL. The total number of HSCTs and the incidence of MDS-AL significantly changed over the study period. Before 2005, 4 out 86 patients underwent HSCTs; since 2005, 12 out 132 patients susceptible to receive a HSCT underwent transplantations (i.e., the 52 patients born after 2005 and the 80 patients born before 2005, but were followed after 2005). The rate of HSCTs per person-year increased from 2.7 10-3 to 11.4 10-3 (p<0.001). The incidence rate of MDS-AL per person-year decreased from 4 10-3 to zero (p<0.02). After 2005, HSCT was indicated for GCSF refractoriness in 3 patients and for high GCSF doses (10-30 µg/kg/day) in 9 patients. Before 2005, HSCT was indicated for MDS in 2 patients and for GCSF refractoriness in 2 patients. Noteworthy, 14 out the 16 HSCT survived. The 2 deaths observed after HSCT were related to the procedure, as one patient dyed before 2005 from sepsis and one dyed after 2005 from a refractory grade IV GVHD with Transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy .Conclusion: Our results supported early HSCT in patients with ELANE mutations that received high GCSF doses (15 µg/kg and more but not considered as refractory to GCSF) might lower the risk of leukemic transformation and might be benefit for the survival of the patients.Acknowledgments: The French SCN registry is supported by grants from Amgen, Chugai, Prolong Pharma, Inserm, the Association 111 les Arts, the Association RMHE, the Association Sportive de Saint Quentin Fallavier and « Le Fond de dotation Contre la Leucémie“. The authors thank the association IRIS and Mrs Grosjean and Mr Gonnot (ASSQF) for their support..Reference List1. J. Donadieu et al., Haematologica90, 45 (2005).2. P. S. Rosenberg et al., Blood107, 4628 (2006).3. L. R. Peffault de la Tour et al., Bone Marrow Transplant.50, 1168 (2015).4. J. Donadieu, O. Fenneteau, B. Beaupain, N. Mahlaoui, C. C. Bellanne, Orphanet. J. Rare. Dis.6, 26 (2011). [Display omitted] DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

SUN-077 In Utero Growth Restriction Induces an Early Metabolic Shift in Fetal Rat Heart

Adverse uterine environment may expose newborns to develop metabolic diseases later in their life. The in-utero growth restriction (IUGR) is an immediate outcome of a sub-optimal womb environment, where the fetus cannot reach its full growth potential. We have developed an animal model of IUGR based on a low-sodium diet given to dams during the last week of gestation. We showed that the isocaloric low-sodium diet reduces maternal blood volume expansion, causing poor placental perfusion, low placental weight and subsequent IUGR in offspring. Redistribution of blood flow in the fetus was observed, causing a preferential perfusion to major organs, such as the heart. Consistent with this, adult offspring showed an increase in blood pressure and remodeling of cardiomyocytes occurs in adult female, suggesting metabolic changes in cardiac function. In this study, we address whether the IUGR induced-stress leads to metabolic changes in fetal cardiomyocytes to adapt their energy-production process and lipid utilization. At 22 days of gestation, hearts were collected from IUGR and control fetuses, and homogenized. Gene expression profile as well as protein levels were analyzed. We observed an increased expression of critical genes involved in lipid metabolism, such as long chain fatty acid receptor CD36, carnitine palmitoyltransferase CPT1a, and also key enzymes of long chain fatty acid beta-oxidation in IUGR heart. In addition, our results indicate an increase in mitochondrial biogenesis. To address whether changes in lipid metabolite profile might prevail, we performed lipidomic MS analysis in heart homogenates. Lipidomics showed significant accumulation of very long and long-chain fatty acids in the context of IUGR and when comparing males and females. These changes could be reminiscent of an adaptation in the use of fatty acids for energy production. Altogether, these findings suggest that fetal IUGR cardiac cells may rely more on the use of lipids as an energy source, compared to same age control cells. Such alterations in energy metabolism in fetal IUGR cardiomyocytes are consistent with an early metabolic shift to favor lipids as the main energy source. This shift normally occurs in the neonatal life to adapt to an extra-uterine environment. Therefore, our findings suggest that adaptation to an altered placental perfusion results in an early cardiac metabolic remodeling that might predispose individuals to metabolic disorders later in their life. Sources of Research Support: Fond de Recherche Québécois en Santé (FRQS) and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Le Dossier M, livre 2: Après et bien avant

The prologue’s short dialogue between father and son, which sets the novel’s tone, identifies the key geopolitical issues with the acuity of a ten-year-old’s perception of the times’ changing winds. To Gabriel’s question : Why are the Tutsis and Hutus fighting?, his father responds, Because they don’t have the same nose. Then, ironizing on the persistence of children, the narrator recalls a classmate categorizing Cyrano de Bergerac as Tutsi, before concluding: “Le fond de l’air avait changé. Peu importe le nez qu’on avait, on pouvait le sentir” (Something in the air had changed. And you could smell it, no matter what kind of nose you had). Petit pays thus moves from the personal to national and international political tensions, with Gabriel’s parents’ breakup presaging the civil war that would tear Burundi apart and that continues to this day, with its summary trials of human-rights activists, hate propaganda, and ideological signposts that characterize genocides. Written in 2015, the year of the terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo and of the concomitant question of hospitality for migrants and refugees, the novel opens with Gabriel remembering his eleventh birthday, as he turns thirty-three in Paris, alone in a bar, where a TV flashes images of refugees fleeing war just as he had twenty years before, and deciding to return to Bujumbura . With its luminous ode to a childhood bathing in Burundi’s beauty; the realism of snatched conversations and radio broadcasts about unfolding political events; and the acumen of the contemporary orality of its raplike punch lines, Petit pays circumscribes the fragility of everyone’s cul-de-sac, in a personal hymn to reading and writing as humanity’s safe haven and safeguard. (Editorial note: An English translation by Sarah Ardizzone, Small Country, was published by Hogarth in 2018.) Sarah Davies Cordova University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Grégoire Bouillier Le Dossier M, livre 2: Après et bien avant Paris. Flammarion. 2018. 868 pages. A scant two months after winning the prestigious, quirky Prix Décembre for the first volume, Grégoire Bouillier brought out the second half of his Le Dossier M. Like its predecessor, this massive tome is an unwieldy, unconstrained cornucopia of thoughts and memories around the author’s relationship with the inscrutable M. The book’s contents even spilled out onto a website dedicated to presenting various mementos and realia at ledossierm .fr. For all the heterogeneity Bouillier provides, though, the two volumes betray wholly dissimilar emotional modes. The first volume was more or less in medias res, describing and expressing the wild love Bouillier experienced, while this second Julián Herbert Tomb Song Trans. Christina MacSweeney Graywolf Press Mexican author Julián Herbert finds himself at his mother’s side as she is dying of leukemia, and he can’t help but relive his childhood as the son of a prostitute, surrounded by half-siblings and constantly in motion. Tomb Song modulates between different kinds of prose in a story that is chaotic, absurd, and painfully poignant. Ming Holden Refuge Kore Press Refuge is the remarkable memoir of a young woman who has put herself in harm’s way time and again to lend much-needed aid to refugees in Africa, Syria, and Asia. Holden exhibits a laudable self-awareness of how her privilege as a white westerner gives her access to resources that might otherwise be unavailable to those she serves and delivers her message of universal humanism with style and grace. Nota Bene WORLDLIT.ORG 79 volume takes on a bleaker, more retrospective stance befitting its subtitle, “After and Long Before.” For most novelists, the plot and characters must precede the writing; their work consists of arranging words in a way that appropriately depicts these constructs. Bouillier, however, lets the words he sets down take the lead; everything else follows, with little regard for linearity or logical progression. Emotion, rather, is the governing concern. And so Bouillier decides to reveal, at the end of volume 2, just how several episodes described in volume 1 turned out to be false: “Mistakes, retakes: these were, from the very start, the two pillars supporting my story of M.” Perhaps...

Jules by Didier Van Cauwelaert

Reviews 281 bientôt “en rugissements de victoire” (180). Pourtant cet antihéros n’a toujours pas d’identité ni de nom; il est reconnu uniquement par son origine nationale.Au fond de lui-même, il se rend compte qu’il est bien pire que le “malheureux mortel, pauvre d’amour et d’argent” (178) qu’il était à Évreux. En Syrie, tout progresse pourtant rapidement. Sa conscience n’a mis que trois jours“à mourir”(178). Peut-on en vouloir à ce misérable? Mérite-t-il la pitié ou l’anathème? À chaque lecteur de décider en son âme et conscience. Auburn University (AL) Samia I. Spencer Van Cauwelaert, Didier. Jules. Paris: Albin Michel, 2015. ISBN 978-222-631483-3. Pp. 275. 19,50 a. Alice Gallien, one of the three protagonists of this novel, will be undergoing a cornea transplant in two days. But, “la réalité sera-t-elle fidèle au rêve éveillé qui l’a reconstruite?” (24). Just prior to her flight from Paris to Nice, accompanied by her seeing-eye Labrador Jules, she has an encounter at the Orly airport with Zibal de Frèges, a macaroon vendor, but really a biochemical engineer and astrophysicist. The restoration of Alice’s sight causes upset to the seven-year relationship between Alice and Jules. Jules is reassigned. Unable to adjust to his new master, he escapes and heads to the airport to find Zibal who freed him from a cage when Alice was first heading off for her surgery.Alice has her own crisis of judgment, reflected in her earlier statement: “j’avais vécu plus de dix ans dans une erreur de jugement donnant une fausse image de moi” (83). Elements of Gertrude of La symphonie pastorale are present here. All three characters have been abandoned, disappointed, and deceived in some way. They belong together. Their trials and tribulations connect, and it is a credit to the author how successful is the dénouement. Colorful secondary characters flesh out the tale, and link the reasons these three ought to act as one. There is Alice’s older, rich, influential lesbian lover, Fred; Zibal’s adoptive frustrated diplomat author mother, Éliane; Zibal’s “sadomaso” neighbor, Coumba; and Jules’s vet and vet psych. Also, Cauwelaert has a wonderful, comfortable way with words, making the novel a page-turner. By slowly revealing how the two human protagonists came to their present conditions, and by alternating their point of view, he assures the reader’s interest in the story. From Paris to Trouville, Jules’s pull on his lead, takes Zibal on a picaresque adventure to reclaim Alice, who no longer needs Jules as guide dog, but as a friend. Alice’s past trauma and Zibal’s social and economic failures make them arrive at the perfect moment in time for each other through Jules:“J’ai confiance en mon destin, à nouveau. C’est moi que le chien a choisi” (149). Zibal’s life is turned around, as is Alice’s. This reader is impressed with both the subject matter and the style of the novel. Effective dialogue, good character development, and simple phraseology make Jules a delightful book. The author’s familiarity with the guide dog’s training, emotions, and reactions is accurate and relevant. Jules, Zibal, and Alice form a trio of need, love, compassion, healing, and joy. Jules is touching, moving, and poignant: highly recommended. Santa Rosa Alliance Française (CA) Davida Brautman Vargas, Fred. Temps glaciaires. Paris: Flammarion, 2015. ISBN 978-2- 0813-6044-0. Pp. 497. 20 a. In the author’s ninth Adamsberg novel, the Commissioner returns, after a hiatus of four years, to investigate a suspicious double suicide in which a mysterious symbol near the bodies catches the detective’s interest. Also back to work on this case is Adamsberg’s unconventional but loveable squadron at the Paris criminal brigade, including Adrien Danglard with his penchant for historical and architectural trivia, Violette Retancourt with her keen instinct and uncanny strength, and Louis Veyrenc, who speaks in rhyming couplets. Adamsberg, the “pelleteur de nuages” (289), is, as ever, more articulate with a sketchbook than with words. His understanding of the...

SU-E-T-306: Electronic Equilibrium in RBE of DSB Induction in Monte Carlo Simulations of Low Energy Photon and Electron Track Structures

Purpose: The study of DNA double‐strand breaks (DSB) induction by ionizing radiation can provide understanding of linear quadratic formalism failures for complex cases such as stereotactic body radiation therapy. Using Monte Carlo simulations in cell nuclear volumes and adequate DNA modelling, estimation of DSB's is possible for various radiation fields. This study aims to evaluate the impact of electronic equilibrium (EE) and lack‐thereof on dosimetric quantities such as dose, number of ionizations and excitations and subsequently on simulated DSB's and on the relative biological effectiveness (RBE). Methods: Using Geant4 with the newly added Geant4‐DNA low energy processes, we simulated track structures of mono‐energetic photons and electrons (0.280 to 20 keV), including Auger electrons and fluorescence photons deexcitation products, and scored energy deposition interactions inside liquid water micro‐volumes of various shapes and sizes. Electronic equilibrium conditions were varied by changing the relative size of the particle source and volume of interest. Results: The total number of energy depositions interactions inside the volume varied around 0.62+/−0.04 interactions/eV and was almost constant for all analyzed EE conditions. However, the spatial distribution is affected by EE conditions and lack of interactions around the edges of the volume of 30% were scored. When coupled to a fixed position geometrical DNA model, simulated strand breaks are underestimated by up to 10% influencing the RBE of DSBs induction as a function of particle energy. Conclusion: In order to speed up miro‐dosimetric calculations, source sizes violating electronic equilibrium are often used. Simulated DSB's in a fixed geometrical model for different incident particle energies in electronic deequilibrium conditions, can thus be skewed by up to 10%. To circumvent this effect, sources satisfying electronic equilibrium in the volume for all energies or probabilistic delocalized DNA models need to be used. Fond de Recherche en Sante du Quebec Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Inscriptions of the Sovereign Body in Abdellatif Laâbi

This article examines how the postcolonial francophone writer Abdellatif Laâbi locates the Moroccan monarchy within a history of colonial manipulations of indigenous political institutions. In Laâbi’s literary works, in particular his novel Le fond de la jarre and his early poetic works from the 1960s, L’œil et la nuit and Le Regne de barbarie , the body of the sovereign takes on a palpable materiality that Laâbi uses to expose a foreclosed link between colonial and postcolonial definitions of national culture. I argue that Laâbi’s spectral poetic landscapes mine this negated register of memory in order to figure new modes of aesthetic and political agency.

Relationship between Long Sleep Duration and Functional Capacities in Postmenopausal Women

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between long sleep duration and functional capacities. We conducted a cross-sectional study at the Department of Kinanthropology at the University of Quebec at Montreal. Forty eight non-frail postmenopausal women aged between 49 to 75 years were recruited using advertisements in local papers. Body weight, body mass index, fat mass, skeletal muscle mass, number of steps per day, SF-36 total (healthy questionnaire), resting metabolic rate, total energy intake, sleep duration, knee extensor strength (dynamometer), chair stand test and balance opened eyes test were measured. WE FOUND A SIGNIFICANT NEGATIVE CORRELATION BETWEEN HOURS OF SLEEP AND FUNCTIONAL CAPACITY: chair stand test (r = -0.33, p = 0.02), balance opened eyes test (r = -0.45, p = 0.001), muscle strength (r = -0.43, p = 0.002) and skeletal muscle mass (r = -0.39, p = 0.007). In addition, long sleepers (> 9 h) had significantly lower values for skeletal muscle mass (p = 0.03), muscle strength (p = 0.01), chair stand test (p = 0.03), and balance opened eyes test (p = 0.001). Finally, linear regression analysis showed that sleep duration was an independent predictor of the chair stand test (p = 0.024), balance opened eyes test (p = 0.001), and muscle strength (p = 0.035) in our cohort. Long sleepers were associated with lower functional capacities in our cohort of sedentary postmenopausal women.

Magdalenian societies in the Massif Central (France): Paleohistorical perspectives on the long-term (16.5–11.5 ka BP)

The notion of rupture dominates reflections on the prehistoric occupation of the Massif Central (France). From this perspective, the recent Upper Palaeolithic is interpreted through a prism of migrations or climatic determinism. All studies confirm a marginal occupation of this territory during the LGM and at the beginning of the Late Glacial. More than a historiographical balance, this article reviews the definition of early Magdalenian stages in the Massif Central and attempts to place them in an evolutionary process.This approach leads to the proposal of new diagnostic elements for chrono-cultural determination. Not only is the presence or absence of some typical tool types used, but an attempt is made to recognize whole (or parts of) coherent lithic systems. The aim of this paper is to illustrate this methodology through well-documented examples: data from the sequence of the Abri Durif in Enval (Sol de la Grange and Fond de l'Abri, Vic-le-Comte, Puy-de-Dôme, France) clearly highlights the differences between two subphases. This paper presents the results of the first analyses of these lithic assemblages, focusing on microliths whose particular typo-technological characteristics are analyzed in detail (strong backed bladelets of the Sol de la Grange vs. bladelets with marginal right backing of the Fond de l'Abri).This distinction between two chronological and technological traditions is discussed, substantially changing the classical evolutionary schema between Magdalenian and Badegoulian in this region. Particular chrono-regional episodes can be identified in the huge Magdalenian “mosaic”. Based on radiocarbon data, a new subdivision in the Paleolithic sequence of the French Massif Central (Middle Magdalenian vs. Upper Magdalenian) is proposed, reflecting the emergence of a particular paleohistorical event. Dominated by a relative arrhythmic pattern, this transition seems to reflect a greater span of time, through the successive emergence and development of technical and symbolic attributes that may be considered as representative of cultural identity of Magdalenian societies.

Review article

The Case of the Grinning Cat (Chris Marker France 2004) with Three Cheers for the Whale (Chris Marker France 1972) and A Bestiary (Five Short Films on Animals). Icarus Films 2008. US NTSC Region 1. US$29.98.A Grin without a Cat (Chris Marker France 1977). Icarus Films 2009. US NTSC Region 1. US$29.98.La jetee (Chris Marker France 1963) and Sans soleil (Chris Marker France 1983). The Criterion Collection 2007. US. NTSC Region 1. US$39.95.The Last Bolshevik (Chris Marker France/UK 1993) and Happiness (Alexander Medvedkin USSR 1934). Icarus Films 2008. US NTSC Region 1. US$34.98.Level Five (Chris Marker France 1996). Optimum Classic Releasing 2011. UK. PAL Region 2.Remembrance of Things to Come (Chris Marker and Yannick Bellon France 2001) and Collette (Yannick Bellon France 1950). Icarus Films 2008. US NTSC Region 1. US$24.98.The Sixth Side of the Pentagon (Chris Marker France 1967) and The Embassy (Chris Marker France 1973). Icarus Films 2008. US NTSC Region 1. US$24.98.This cluster of DVD releases allows us to ask the serious question, Can we consider the LeftBank avant-garde editor and director Chris Marker an sf filmmaker? This does not, at first, seem that promising a line of inquiry. Marker has consistently worked at the margins even of the French Nouvelle Vague since the early 1950s, maintaining a political commitment to fugitive forms, anonymity and remorseless experiment in his essay films. In the way his work has been recently framed by scholars, he is a figure who explores memory and forgetting, a master of collating overlooked footage snatched from the jaws of mediatised oblivion or a political artist motivated by an exploration of post-war legacies (of the Second World War, of Algeria and other African colonial wars, of Vietnam, of the Cold War, of Yugoslavia). He declares himself, in the final dedication of the three-hour act of recovery of radical 1960s politics that is A Grin without a Cat (Le fond de l'air est rouge), as 'constantly opposed to the Powers who wish we had no memory'. He offers a political critique of the empire of signs, constantly interrogating the truth status of footage, reframing it, rescuing the lost or suppressed records of history, tracking the misdirection of the edit, the fusion of fact and fiction in records of history, all the while questioning the power of cinematic spectacle itself. Marker is thus more likely to be considered as a film essayist of history and trauma, quite the reverse perspective of sf, or else as an experimentalist resolutely opposed to the low cultural spectacle of popular sf cinema. Laura Rascaroli discusses his work under the title 'The Musealisation of Experience', and a familiar array of metaphors about haunting and spectrality, concerning things that stubbornly refuse to die and return from the past, often frames academic discussion of Marker's work (see Murray, for instance).Of course, one of Marker's very rare solely fictional films, the atypical La jetee (1963), had a certain influence in sf. J. G. Ballard hailed it in the pages of New Worlds as a model for New Wave sf, although exactly to the extent that it transcended the genre: 'Not once does it make use of the time-honoured conventions of traditional sf. Creating its own conventions from scratch, it triumphantly succeeds where science fiction invariably fails' (29). Nevertheless, Marker's sparse and stately use of still images to unfold his post-apocalyptic time-travel story was too much for Terry Gilliam, who translated La jetee into his typically chaotic mise en scene in Twelve Monkeys (US 1996), a film which lashed Marker's Cold War scenario into the melodramatic conventions of timetravel paradox narratives. Too much emphasis on La jetee can be distorting-after all, it was a short side-project that emerged reactively inside Marker's unmanipulated verite set of interviews with complacent bourgeois Parisians, Le joli mai (France 1963), and helps to be read in that context as a sort of extrapolation of a post-Algerian, post-Cuban-missile-crisis Paris that has suffered a sort of catastrophe of global amnesia. …

À Table! The Gourmet Culture of France by Becky Brown

induction. This is facilitated by very brief “Analysons!” exercises whose answers are found in an appendix. Students are then led to practice the structures in activities such as guessing situations, questions and answers, etc. “Mise en pratique ” exercises focus on detail and self-correction with answers in an appendix. Throughout, grammar is presented in simple and clear language with appropriate examples. “Culture interactive” continues as the final section, now moving from language chunks to the discourse level. Various dimensions of culture in the Francophone world are provided as input in the “Écoutons! Lisons! Écrivons! Parlons! Regardons! Chantons!” activities of this rich and varied section. Of particular note here is the “Écrivons!” activity where students are directed to read a screen shot of a message from a “Forum des étudiants” and then “post” a message of their own as a response. At the end of each chapter is a recap of new vocabulary in traditional list form. Finally, the text concludes with a “Par la suite” appendix which is keyed to each chapter and provides expansion on grammar. Throughout the text, “feature boxes” provide tidbits on culture, usage, history, and study tips. Both “Par la suite” and these “feature boxes” provide the instructor with plentiful opportunities to expand or abridge, thus assuring maximum flexibility. Increased use of the target language is encouraged by the use of French in activity directions and culture “feature boxes” starting with chapter 5, whereas English is used throughout in the usage, history, and study tips “feature boxes.” One important concern for instructors is recycling and review. This is facilitated by specially marked activities every fourth chapter that recap and review previously presented grammar points. The accompanying Workbook/Laboratory Manual offers what the preface calls “more conventional practice,” but these activities are hardly uninventive. They are simply geared for work outside of class time when face-to-face interactive practice is not possible. Recipes, bandes dessinées, devinettes, maps, and assorted visuals all provide sufficient input to feed both listening and writing exercises, which are mixed together in each chapter rather than separated. They follow the same structure as the text chapter but with some very important additions. “Lisons!” provides pre- and post-reading strategies, while “Écrivons!” provides writing strategies plus a targeted grammar checklist. Another addition is “Prononcez bien!” which targets phonetic issues for listening and repetition, and is followed by a cloze dictée. Listening exercises are self-correcting. A corrigé is not provided in the workbook for written exercises. All audio exercises are available free of charge to adopters on ten CDs and online. Instructors will find this new program very flexible and students will assuredly be attracted to its presentation in manageable segments, all of which are expanded in the publisher’s online site. Regrettably, this reviewer did not have access to the Web site’s resources for instructors and students. La Salle University (PA) Leonard Marsh BROWN, BECKY. À Table! The Gourmet Culture of France. Newburyport, MA: Focus, 2010. ISBN 978-1-58510-297-6. Pp. 194. $35.95. Cet ouvrage tombe à point nommé puisque le comité intergouvernemental de l’UNESCO vient d’inscrire la pratique sociale du grand repas français au patrimoine culturel immatériel de l’humanité. Cette décision implique de préserver Reviews 1219 la pratique sociale traditionnelle qui, comme l’indique le site Internet de l’UNESCO, “doit respecter un schéma bien arrêté: il commence par un apéritif et se termine par un digestif, avec entre les deux au moins quatre plats, à savoir une entrée, du poisson et/ou de la viande avec des légumes, du fromage et un dessert”. La table des matières d’À Table! respecte fidèlement ce menu qui annonce neuf chapitres de douze à vingt pages chacun. Gastronomes et œnologues en herbe, nous sommes invités à découvrir la gastronomie française, le protocole pour mettre le couvert, préparer et servir les mets, présenter et entamer le fromage, sélectionner les vins. La couverture avec ses baguettes croustillantes, épices et fromages à l’étal sur un fond de nappe à carreaux vifs rouges et blancs d’emblée nous met en appétit pour une aventure culturelle et...

Scenes in a Library: Alain Resnais and Toute la mémoire du monde

Scenes in a Library:Alain Resnais and Toute la mémoire du monde Steven Ungar (bio) You never know what you are filming. — Chris Marker, Le Fond de l'air est rouge (1977) One Film in Another What interest might a 1956 documentary short about a library hold today for the historically-minded spectator? The pages that follow explore the place of Alain Resnais's 1956 documentary, Toute la mémoire du monde (All the World's Memory) among the eight short subjects he directed before completing his first feature-length fiction film, Hiroshima mon amour, in 1959. In particular, I consider Toute la mémoire du monde as a supplement to Nuit et brouillard, the 30-minute documentary on Nazi concentration and death camps that Resnais completed a year earlier.1 Within a longer duration, I also situate Toute la mémoire du monde among a corpus of postwar documentaries that engage aspects of modernization in France during a period of decolonization coincidental with the emergence of an art and a universe in the aftermath of the concentration camp (Cayrol and Rousset). Much as Edward Dimendberg has argued recently concerning Le Chant du stryrène (The Song of Styrene), I contend that a reconsideration of Toute la mémoire du monde rewards "close reading with a veritable return of repressed geopolitical relations" in late Fourth-Republic France (Dimendberg, 65). My epigraph from Chris Marker's cinematic account of failed revolution following 1967 suggests that only in retrospect might one fully understand what one sees—or, in this case, films—in the heat of the moment. Marker's cautionary remark is especially apt with reference to the early postwar period during which chemical processes of development imposed a necessary delay, whose consequences often affected the epistemological status associated with photography and cinema. (I am thinking here of the characterization of the photographer Thomas [David Hemmings] as accidental witness in Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow Up [1966]). At stake for me in this process of delayed disclosure is a consideration of how best to account for a seemingly minor film like Toute la mémoire du monde whose [End Page 58] complexity as text and document arguably becomes all the more evident some fifty to sixty years after the fact. Here, then, are working questions that have generated the pages that follow: What might inquiry into the genesis and production of Toute la mémoire du monde tell us today about the industrial, social, and political conditions in which it was made? How did Resnais's film of scenes in a library disclose aspects of daily life during a decade marked increasingly by silence surrounding Vichy and division concerning the fate of French Algeria? What assumptions concerning the concepts of library, archive, and memory might Toute la mémoire du monde question, since its ostensible subject was a state agency of record whose mission was to collect and conserve printed materials and other objects whose inclusion qualified them as national treasures? The eight documentary short subjects Alain Resnais made before Hiroshima mon amour are best understood as a subset of some sixteen or so postwar documentaries that I consider as responding—each in its own way—to Jean Vigo's 1930 call for a social cinema whose treatment of provocative subjects would move spectators in ways that only cinema could move them (Vigo, 60-63). The films in this larger set include Aubervilliers (Eli Lotar, 1945), Paris 1900 (Nicole Védrès, 1947), Le Sang des bêtes (Georges Franju, 1949), Hôtel des Invalides (Franju, 1952), Les Statues meurent aussi (Resnais and Chris Marker, 1953), Dimanche à Pékin (Marker, 1956), Lettre de Sibérie (Marker, 1957) Moi, un Noir (Jean Rouch, 1957), L'Opéra Mouffe (Agnès Varda, 1958), Chronique d'un été (Rouch and Edgar Morin, 1961), and Le Joli mai (Marker, 1962). Since the sole film Vigo cited in 1930 was Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's 1928 Un Chien andalou, the social cinema he had in mind should not be equated with instances of cinéma engagé such as Jean Renoir's La Vie est à nous (1936), commissioned by the French Communist Party at the height...

High and very high resolution deep-towed seismic system: Performance and examples from deep water Geohazard studies

We present the technological development and initial results from the deep-towed seismic acquisition device SYstème SIsmique Fond de mer (SYSIF) recently built by Ifremer. The two configurations of the SYSIF are presented (high resolution (HR): 250–1000 Hz and very high resolution (VHR): 650–2000 Hz), and results are compared to conventional seismic acquisition systems such as multi-channel HR or single-channel VHR (hull-mounted sub-bottom profiler). The ability of SYSIF to achieve higher resolution imagery is due to both the technology employed (low-frequency Janus–Helmoltz piezoelectric transducer) and the deep-towed operating mode (reduction in the Fresnel zone). Sea trials have been conducted in various geological environments and in water depths as deep as 2500 m. The new technique improved imaging of deep seafloor and sub-surface features such as pockmarks, carbonate mounds, sub-marine slides and sub-surface faulting. SYSIF, therefore, is a well-suited tool to investigate deep water geological features, especially those related to geohazard for scientific and industrial purposes.

Journal 1879–1886 (review)

Reviewed by: Journal 1879–1886 Richard M. Berrong Loti, Pierre . Journal 1879–1886. Eds. Alain Quella-Villéger and Bruno Vercier. Paris: Les Indes Savantes, 2008. Pp. 812. ISBN 978-2-84654-172-5 Coming out two years after the appearance of Volume i, which covered the decade preceding the appearance of Loti's first novel, Aziyadé, this second volume of the first unabridged edition of his diary spans the years during which the author wrote and published most of his famous works: Aziyadé (1879), his tale of an affair between an English naval officer and a Turkish odalisque (and, between the lines, a handsome boatman), which Roland Barthes misread in a careless essay; Le mariage de Loti (1880), the story of that naval officer's affair with a vahiné, one of the things that convinced Gauguin to go to Tahiti; Le Roman d'un spahi (1881), a much less romantic inter-racial affair set in Senegal; Mon Frère Yves (1883), a highly homoerotic story of the relationship between a French naval officer and a Breton sailor to which Genet would allude in Querelle de Brest; and Pêcheur d'Islande (1886), Loti's masterful transfer of painterly Impressionism to literature. Since I explained the state of the diary as it now exists and how it differs from what Loti originally wrote in my review of the first volume (NCFS: 35.3: 682–83), I won't repeat that here. [End Page 334] Instead, let me start by explaining that this part of Loti's diary does not, unlike say that of Edmond de Goncourt, tell us much about the fascinating Parisian literary scene of the time. Loti was an active officer in the French navy from 1873–1910, so while he did spend some time in Paris, he was never a regular in the era's literary salons, which he hated. He came to know Alphonse Daudet rather well, corresponded with him, and through him met Zola and Goncourt, but his mentions of encounters with them are brief and uninformative. Loti very much admired Flaubert, but his rise to fame with Le Mariage de Loti came just after the latter's death so he never got to meet the author of Salammbô, to which he repeatedly refers in both his diary and his works. Nor, sadder to say, does Loti speak much in this part of his diary about the creation of those works. He notes when he started and finished them, but in these pages as we have them now there are no reflections on their composition. We see that he struggled with Pêcheur d'Islande for over a year, evidently doing a great deal of rewriting, but these pages contain no insights into what the issues were. What they do reveal, however, is the development of Loti's preoccupation with recording feelings in a way that would allow him to retrieve them later, as well as amazement at the way involuntary memory could provide him with unexpected access to apparently forgotten moments in his past and the vivid emotions that were part of them, what he referred to as "le passé mort." He was astounded, for example, while visiting India on his way back from a tour of duty in the Far East, to discover that certain things there summoned up long-forgotten moments from his sojourn in Tahiti fourteen years before: "cela m'impressionne et je vois que ces souvenirs de là-bas vivent encore au fond de mon cœur" (681). Since, despite what he had at first assumed, these memories and emotions, so difficult to recover voluntarily, nonetheless still resided in his "dessous mystérieux," and since sights, sounds, and smells revived them involuntarily, Loti, a generation before one of his great admirers, Marcel Proust, became progressively more intrigued with involuntary memory and how to facilitate its operation. Already in 1880 he dreamed of gathering together "dans un volume décousu une foule d'impressions éprouvées jadis dans tous les pays du monde" (168). Soon he was writing to his friend Émile Pouvillon: "ma vie à moi s'use à lutter contre la fragilité des choses, à retenir tout ce qui s'en va...