International Des Research Articles

Cultural diplomacy at second-tier global events: The case of Qatar’s 2023 Horticultural Expo

Horticultural Expos are second-tier expositions sanctioned by the Bureau International Des Expositions (BIE) and the latest event was held in Doha, Qatar from October 2023 to March 2024. Organized around the theme of “Green Desert, Better Environment,” Expo 2023 included pavilions from about 80 countries and organizations, and aimed to entice 3 million visitors to Qatar. Although Horticultural Expos are smaller and receive less attention than top-tier World’s Fairs, they are nonetheless important sites for host countries to engage in cultural diplomacy. Drawing from an event ethnography at the Expo in December 2023, this article shows how the Qatari hosts adapted nationalist scripts about the desert and local identity – to cement the state-led storyline that Qatar is committed to a sustainable and globally-engaged path to future development – in crafting its cultural diplomacy discourse for the event. Though cultural diplomacy works differently at second-tier global events, the case of Qatar’s Expo 2023 still has concrete effects that must be understood and evaluated on their own terms.

Redefining cross-resistance, co-resistance and co-selection: beyond confusion?

The similarity of current definitions of 'cross-resistance' and 'co-resistance' continues to cause confusion both in the scientific community as well as in understanding policies and in particular when looking at resistance from a risk assessment perspective. Further, lack of harmonized definitions of these terms in the regulatory space is challenging for interpretation. The purpose of this article is to: (i) provide an overview of the ambiguity in existing terminology related to cross-resistance, co-resistance and co-selection; (ii) emphasize the challenges created by the use of poor terminology in research and scientific literature; and (iii) propose a clear set of harmonized definitions that could be put into use through international regulatory agencies and institutions, such as the World Health Organization, Food and Drug Administration, European Medicines Agency, Center for Disease Control, Committee for Veterinary Medicinal Products, World Organization for Animal Health/Office International des Epizooties and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Eventive modal projection: the case of Spanish subjunctive relative clauses.

How do modal expressions determine which possibilities they range over? According to the Modal Anchor Hypothesis (Kratzer in The language-cognition interface: Actes du 19e congrès international des linguistes, Libraire Droz, Genève, 179-199, 2013), modal expressions determine their domain of quantification from particulars (events, situations, or individuals). This paper presents novel evidence for this hypothesis, focusing on a class of Spanish relative clauses that host verbs inflected in the subjunctive. Subjunctive in Romance is standardly taken to be licensed only in a subset of intensional contexts. However, in our relative clauses, subjunctive is exceptionally licensed in extensional contexts. At the same time, the interpretation of these relative clauses still involves modality, a type of modality that targets the goals of the agent of the main event. We argue that the pattern displayed by these relative clauses follows straightforwardly if subjunctive is associated with a modal operator that, like modal indefinites (Alonso-Ovalle and Menéndez-Benito in Journal of Semantics 35(1):1-41, 2017), can project its domain from a volitional event. Overall, our proposal supports the event-based analysis of mood (Kratzer in Evidential mood in attitude and speech reports. Talk delivered at the 1st Syncart Workshop, Siena, July 13, 2016; Portner and Rubinstein in Natural Language Semantics 28:343-393, 2020) and extends its application beyond attitudinal and modal complements.

Exploration and application of detection and genotyping standards for white spot syndrome virus

White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is the pathogen that causes white spot disease (WSD) in shrimp. The mortality rate of infected shrimp can reach 100% in one week. Up to now, both the Office International Des Epizooties (OIE) and the national standard have adopted the same universal primers for nested PCR. With increasing number of WSSV sequences reported, the recommended nested PCR has been found at risk of missing detection. Therefore, a new nested PCR to detect WSSV in crustaceans in our laboratory has been developed. Two sets of detection primers for nested PCR were designed. The sensitivity of the first-step PCR of the two sets of redesigned detection primers were 10 times greater than that of the universal primers. We selected JC-F/JC-R primers for the follow-up experiments. In the detection of WSSV in crustaceans caught in beach in Yantai, there were no results in the first-step PCR with both the universal primers and JC-F1/JC-R1. In the second-step PCR, the detection rate of universal primers was 23.75%, and that of our redesigned detection primers (JC-F2/JC-R2) was 65%. In order to promote the study of molecular epidemiology of WSSV in the future, we also designed universal primers for ORF14/15 and ORF75. The samples of Procambarus clarkii carried WSSV collected from Hubei and Zhejiang were analyzed. According to the sequence information of ORF14/15, they all belong to type I. The genotypes of ORF75 of them were all the M-f-c. We speculated that genotype M-f-c might evolve from subtype II, and there may be multiple ways of evolution of the M-f-c.

Naar een architectuur van vereenvoudiging?

The Belgian architect Victor Horta (1861-1947) spent most of the First World War in the United States. Over the course of three years, from December 1915 to January 1919, he explored how the American skyscrapers, standardized dwellings and ingenious urban planning might serve as a model for a modern, post-war Belgium.
 Yet Horta’s memoirs had very little to say about his discussion of American architecture or any influence his travels might have had on his post-war work. This article consequently breaks new ground in examining the various talks on the subject that Horta gave in the 1920s. Horta’s lectures actually provide a good picture of how he started to see American architecture as a model for the future. In American architectural practice, serial production, standardization and economies of scale facilitated a simplification of the design – a solution Horta also proposed for war-torn Belgium.
 By way of illustration, the article describes the affinity between Horta’s more classical formal language of the 1920s, as in his 1925 pavilion for the Exposition international des Arts décoratifs et industriels modernes, and the architecture of the United States. It also shows that Horta was an important proponent of American architecture in Belgium, and also played a pioneering role in the introduction of some of its defining features, such as high-rise construction.

Reverse Transcriptase Enzyme-assisted recombinant isothermal amplification with CRISPR/Cpf1 for RNA virus assay

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) causes Foot-and-mouth disease, which was listed as a reported disease by Office international des épizooties. It has caused great economic losses to the meat industry. Here, we developed a sensitive, rapid, and visible method based Reverse Transcriptase Enzyme-assisted recombinant isothermal amplification technique (RT-ERA) and CRISPR/Cpf1 for detecting FMDV. RT-ERA achieved simultaneous reverse transcription and amplification in a short time at 37 ℃. Moreover, CRISPR/Cpf1 specifically recognized the products and amplified the signals through the trans-cleavage activity, which converted the DNA signals into fluorescence signals and lateral flow assay strip. Within 30 min, the method detected FMDV as low as 10 copies·μL−1, making it 103 times more sensitive than gel electrophoresis and 10 times more sensitive than reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR. Moreover, the method had good performance in actual samples. Therefore, this method realized visual detection without the large instruments and showed significant potential for FMDV assay.

Patrimoine collectif des Nations/Patrimoine commun de l’Humanité. At the origins of the debate on the conservation of World Heritage

The climate between the two world wars was a critical moment for the emergence of a debate on issues regarding the conservation of world heritage. In particular, all the innovative ideas that began to take shape in the early 20th century were amplified until they took on an international dimension. A fundamental role in this sense was played by the League of Nations and the whole series of organisations, such as the Institut International de Coopération Intellectuelle or the Office International des Musées, which at least partly formed the basis for the establishment of Unesco. The role played by the Office International des Musées, later inherited by Unesco, was decisive in triggering an intense exchange between scholars and technicians belonging to the various member states in the field of museology and cultural heritage conservation. As a result, in these decades initiatives on the restoration and conservation of monuments flourished, and among them above all La Conférence sur la conservation des monuments held in Athens in 1931. The political and cultural climate linked to this conference now represents a defining moment in understanding the start of an international debate on issues regarding the emergence of the concept of world heritage and its protection.

The Materialization of Television Formats

The materialization of television formats (e.g., The Masked Singer formats) has become a popular commodity in the global television trade. A television format is an idea, concept, or formula. How can buyers and sellers exchange intangible things such as formats? In this article, I examine the materialization process of formats, which enables the orderly exchange between buyers and sellers in marketplaces. By examining MIPFormats, the only global format conference held prior to Marché International des Programmes de Télévision, I argue that the format conference serves the distinct function of managing the format materialization process. I specifically highlight two aspects of the materialization process: objectification and singularization. Through three strategies—visualizing formats, educating format producers and creators, and establishing a normative framework—MIPFormats holds formats together as tradable items in the global television market.

Rabbi Daniel Édouard Farhi

Former Rabbi of the Mouvement Juif Liberal de France (MJLF), Rabbi Daniel Édouard Farhi was born in Nazi-occupied Paris on 18 November 1941 to Sephardic parents who originated from Izmir, Turkey. Ordained in February 1966 by Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof at the Institut International des Études Hébraïques in Paris, he commenced his career as Rabbi of Union Libérale Israélite (1967–1977), commonly known as ‘Rue Copernic’ and the country’s first Liberal synagogue (1907). It was there where he received his formal Jewish education and where he later succeeded his mentor Rabbi Andre Chalom Zaoui when the latter made aliyah in 1969 to become spiritual leader rabbi of Har-El Synagogue in Jerusalem.

Min-Max Regret-Based Approach for Sizing and Placement of DGs in Distribution System under a 24 h Load Horizon

Load variations in any power system result in loss escalation and voltage drops. With the sensible and optimal allocation of distributed generators (DGs), these problems could be considerably mitigated. It has been seen in existing methods that, ideally, the allocation of DGs has been carried out during fixed loads and constant power requirements. However, in real scenarios the loads are always variable and the allocation of DGs must be done in accordance with the variations of the connected load. Therefore, the current paper addresses the aforementioned problem by the distinctive optimal allocation of DGs for each variability of 24 h load horizon. However, a single exclusive solution is considered among all allocations of 24 h. The min-max regret concept has been utilized in order to deal with such a methodology. Altogether, 24 scenarios are analyzed wherein each scenario corresponds to a specific hour of the respective day. The optimal allocation of DGs in terms of their optimal sizing and placement has been carried out by using three algorithms including battle royale optimization (BRO), accelerated particle swarm optimization (APSO), and genetic algorithm (GA). The multi-objective optimization problem is evaluated on the basis of minimum value criterion of the multi-objective index (MO). MO comprises active and reactive power losses and voltage deviation. Hence, in order to find the robustness of the proposed technique, Conseil international des grands reseaux electriques’ (CIGRE) MV benchmark model incorporating 14 buses has been used considerably as a test network. In the end, the results of three proposed algorithms have been compared.

Analysis of Different Global Navigation Satellite Systems in Time Transfer

The use of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers in the field of telecommunications for timing and synchronization has become indispensable. At present, approximately 83 timing laboratories share their timing data from approximately 715 atomic clocks with the Bureau international des poids et mesures (BIPM) for calculating Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). One of the important remote connections between the timing laboratories distributed worldwide and the BIPM is done through the GNSS. The American GNSS (GPS) was the first GNSS to be used for that purpose beginning in 1984. Presently, there are additional GNSSs that can be used for the same purpose, namely, the European system (Galileo), the Chinese system (BeiDou), and the modernized Russian system (GLONASS). In this article, we study the performance of different GNSSs in time transfer from different perspectives. A software tool was built specifically for that purpose using LabVIEW, and the data used in the evaluation belong to the new Golden Receiver of the German metrology institute (PTB).

Final report on the CCPR Key Comparison CCPR-K3.2014 Luminous Intensity

Main textThe metrological equivalence of national measurement standards in the field of photometry and radiometry is determined by a set of key comparisons chosen and organised by the Consultative Committee of Photometry and Radiometry (CCPR) of the Comité international des poids et mesures (CIPM), working closely with the Regional Metrology Organisations (RMOs). In September 2009 the CCPR decided that a second round of the key comparison K3 Luminous Intensity be commenced. The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) was chosen to pilot this comparison. A total of 12 participants were selected from the three RMO group members: EURAMET&COOMET (6: IO-CSIC, LNE-CNAM, METAS, NPL, PTB, VNIIOFI), APMP&AFRIMETS (4: NMISA, NIM, NMIA, NMIJ), and SIM (2: NIST, NRC). The comparison was organised as a star comparison (NMI-Pilot-NMI) using incandescent standard lamps supplied by each NMI (National Metrology Institute) as the travelling comparison artifact. This report describes the comparison organisation (Section 2), the measurement methods and uncertainties achieved at all the participants and at the pilot (Sections 3 and 4), and the method for analysis and the results of the comparison according to this method (Section 4). It includes a comparison of the results of this comparison with the 1999 first round key comparison (Section 5). Section 6 presents a summary of the comparison.To reach the main text of this paper, click on Final Report. Note that this text is that which appears in Appendix B of the BIPM key comparison database https://www.bipm.org/kcdb/.The final report has been peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the CCPR, according to the provisions of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM MRA).

Critical Institutions: Alternative Modes of Institutionalisation in Derrida's Engagements

In this article, I consider the role of institutions in Jacques Derrida's political engagement. In spite of Derrida's significant involvement with political causes throughout his life, his engagements have received little sustained attention, and this is particularly true of his work with institutions. I turn to two such cases, the Collège international de philosophie and the Parlement international des écrivains and argue that these represent an alternative mode of institutionalisation. These institutions seek to destabilise other institutions as well as themselves. Looking closely at the institutions that Derrida founded, we see three common characteristics emerge. These institutions are anti-hegemonic, self-reflexive and international. I then connect these to Derrida's thought, offering a reading of the undecidable, which brings forth the importance of conventions in the decision. Finally, I demonstrate that the three shared characteristics of Derrida's institutions form part of an effort to open up space for the possibility of alterity. Through this, and beyond a distinction between theory/practice, we come to see Derrida's institutional engagements as an active form of critique, both of other institutions and themselves.

Multiplex PCR method for distinguishing two genotypes of Megalocytivirus isolates in Korea

Megalocytivirus is a genus of piscine viruses that belongs to the Iridoviridae family, and this family includes red seabream iridovirus (RSIV), turbot reddish body iridovirus (TRBIV), and infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus. RSIV causes high mortality and economic losses in the rock bream (Oplegnathus fasciatus) Korean aquaculture industry. The World Organization for Animal Health’s Office International des Epizooties has provided a manual for RSIV detection. However, distinguishing it from TRBIV has not been confirmed. In this study, a multiplex PCR method was established to detect two genotypes of Megalocytivirus, RSIV and TRBIV. New primer pairs were optimized for the PCR reaction. A mixture of one universal and two specific primer pairs could amplify three distinct products targeting ATPase, DPO, and LRP genes. The sensitivities of primer pairs were evaluated, showing a detection limit of 2.0 × 105 copies, using a plasmid construct, against the three target genes of Megalocytivirus. Moreover, specificity evaluation indicated that primer pairs were not subjected to interference by other virus strains. This evaluation of multiplex PCR showed that it can distinguish two genotypes of Megalocytivirus from 21 Korean Megalocytivirus isolates, including 20 RSIV and one TRBIV. Finally, we describe a new multiplex PCR method to detect different genotypes of Megalocytivirus simultaneously, which makes the diagnosis of viral diseases occurring in the Korean aquaculture industry more convenient.

Deferral and the Dream

Deferral and the Dream

RIPM: A Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals (1760–1966)

RIPM (Le Répertoire International de la Presse Musicale) is widely regarded as the most comprehensive resource offering electronic access to music periodicals from the early Romantic era to the twentieth century. Founded in 1980 by H. Robert Cohen, RIPM is the youngest of the so-called ‘4 R's of International Music Research’; its partner initiatives include RISM (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales), RILM (Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale), and RIdIM (Répertoire International d'Iconographie Musicale). Cohen's ambitious project was notably visionary in its use of technology: not only did it use computing from the start (beginning with DOS-based indexing systems), but it was also the first of the 4 R's to explore full text searching. RIPM seeks to address ‘two main problems that have prevented these [historic music] journals from being systematically collected and examined: (1) the limited number of libraries possessing the journals, and (2) the difficulty encountered when one attempts to locate specific information within an available source’. The project has thus focused on collection building, curation, indexing and accessibility. This international cooperative's accomplishments are impressive: as of July 2020, the database contains 527 music periodicals, 430 available in full text complete runs, totalling 996,000 annotated records and 1.47 million full-text pages of music periodicals.

The effect of the HRB linker of Newcastle disease virus fusion protein on the fusogenic activity.

Newcastle disease, designated a class A disease of poultry by the Office international des epizooties (OIE), is an acute infection caused by Newcastle disease virus (NDV). The merging of the envelope of NDV with the membrane of a target host cell is the key step in the infection pathway, which is driven by the concerted action of two glycoproteins: haemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) and fusion (F) protein. When the HN protein binds to the host cell surface receptor, the F protein is activated to mediate fusion. The three-dimensional structure of the F protein has been reported to have low electron density between the DIII domain and the HRB domain, and this electron-poor region is defined as the HRB linker. To clarify the contributing role of the HRB linker in the NDV F protein-mediated fusion process, 6 single amino acid mutants were obtained by site-directed mutagenesis of the HRB linker. The expression of the mutants and their abilities to mediate fusion were analysed, and the key amino acids in the HRB linker were identified as L436, E439, I450, and S453, as they can modulate the fusion ability or expression of the active form to a certain extent. The data shed light on the crucial role of the F protein HRB linker in the acquisition of a normal fusogenic phenotype.

A Universal Real-Time Fluorescence qPCR Method for Identifying Epidemic Strains of African Swine Fever Virus

Objective Establishing a highly sensitive real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (qPCR) method for universal testing of epidemic African swine fever virus (ASFV) strains. Methods The ASFV p72 gene was targeted to design primer probes covering 24 p72 genotypes. The optimal amount of dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) for qPCR amplification was determined, Various sensitivity and limit of detection (LOD) tests were performed, and clinical samples from China and imported goods were tested. Results The optimal primer-probe combination could specifically detect ASFV, 1.5% DMSO was optimal for qPCR, and LOD reached 3.2 copies/μL with good reproducibility (n = 20, p = 0.369). The method was employed to test 142 clinically suspected samples, of which 30 pig blood and 37 pig tissue samples were ASFV-positive. Moreover, the positive testing rate for ASFV was higher than for the standard qPCR method recommended by the Office International Des Epizooties (OIE), and for the commercially available kit. Thus, our method is superior for testing weakly positive samples with low virus titre, and epidemic strains present in imported goods. Conclusion Our method could be employed for universal testing of epidemic ASFV strains worldwide, ensuring wider coverage of hosts and ASFV strains/endemic strains, reducing false negatives, and benefitting early diagnosis.

Forecast of Epizootic situation for main helminthoses of Farm livestock in the Russian Federation for 2020

The purpose of the research is forecasting an epizootic situation for the main helminthoses of farm livestock in the Russian Federation for 2020.According to the WAHID of the International Office of Epizootics (Office International des Epizooties – QIE), the following zoonotic helminthoses were recorded in the Russian Federation in 2019: 489 people were infected with echinococcosis (causative agents were Echinococcus granulosus and E. multilocularis), among them 4 people died, 42 were infected with Trichinella, and 40 contracted cysticercosis. 382 people suffering from toxoplasmosis were registered, among them 3 died. The infection was caused by ingestion of poorly cooked meat (tissue cysts) which had not undergone diagnostic testing before being supplied to retail trade system. For purposes of the country’s food safety in the field of controlling livestock inventory, products obtained from livestock and health security, the annual monitoring (forecast) is becoming relevant for helminth-contaminated areas of the Russian Federation among livestock.

Development of a Digital RT-PCR Method for Absolute Quantification of Bluetongue Virus in Field Samples.

Bluetongue (BT) is a major Office International des Epizooties (OIE)-listed disease of wild and domestic ruminants caused by several serotypes of Bluetongue virus (BTV), a virus with a segmented dsRNA genome belonging to the family Reoviridae, genus Orbivirus. BTV is transmitted through the bites of Culicoides midges. The aim of this study was to develop a new method for quantification of BTV Seg-10 by droplet digital RT-PCR (RTdd-PCR), using nucleic acids purified from complex matrices such as blood, tissues, and midges, that notoriously contain strong PCR inhibitors. First, RTdd-PCR was optimized by using RNAs purified from serially 10-fold dilutions of a BTV-1 isolate (105.43TCID50/ml up to 10−0.57 TCID50/ml) and from the same dilutions spiked into fresh ovine EDTA-blood and spleen homogenate. The method showed a good degree of linearity (R2 ≥ 0.995). The limit of detection (LoD) and the limit of quantification (LoQ) established were 10−0.67TCID50/ml (0.72 copies/μl) and 100.03TCID50/ml (3.05 copies/μl) of BTV-1, respectively. Second, the newly developed test was compared, using the same set of biological samples, to the quantitative RT-PCR (RT-qPCR) detecting Seg-10 assay widely used for the molecular diagnosis of BTV from field samples. Results showed a difference mean of 0.30 log between the two assays with these samples (p < 0.05). Anyway, the analysis of correlation demonstrated that both assays provided similar measurements with a very close agreement between the systems.