L'image de Paul dans les Actes des apôtres

(Résumé de l'ouvrage) Deuxième volet de l'oeuvre de Luc, le livre des Actes des Apôtres fait aujourd'hui l'objet de multiples travaux où se croisent enquêtes historiennes, analyses littéraires, questions théologiques. Pour son XXe congrès (Angers, août 2003), l'ACFEB a souhaité participer au débat. Ce volume en rassemble les contributions principales. Odile Flichy commence par dresser un panorama des recherches en cours : renouvellement de l'approche historique, lectures narratives, liens avec le judaïsme. Puis Roselyne Dupont-Roc reprend le problème de la double tradition textuelle du livre. Marie-Françoise Baslez situe le « monde des Actes » dans la littérature et la culture de l'époque. Jean-Pierre Lémonon, relisant Actes 18, 18 - 19, 7, examine les différents courants chrétiens qui marquent Éphèse au Ier siècle. Daniel Marguerat montre comment le récit de Luc dessine Paul comme une « figure identitaire » du christianisme. Michel Quesnel se risque à une analyse rhétorique des discours d'apologie de Paul (Ac 22 et 26). Rémi Gounelle débat des relations entre les foisonnants Actes apocryphes des Apôtres et les Actes des Apôtres canoniques. Enfin deux exemples de réception contemporaine du livre des Actes des Apôtres sont proposés : Laurent Villemin traite de son influence sur l'ecclésiologie du concile Vatican II et Carlos Mesters raconte la lecture qu'en font les « communautés ecclésiales de base » au Brésil. Au terme de ce parcours multiforme, les éditeurs n'ont qu'un souhait : que les lecteurs puissent, comme Théophile, « vérifier la solidité des enseignements [qu'ils ont] reçus » !

Congenital heart disease in pregnancies complicated by maternal diabetes mellitus. An international clinical collaboration, literature review, and meta-analysis.

PURPOSE: Investigation of the incidence and distribution of congenital structural cardiac malformations among the offspring of mothers with diabetes type 1 and of the influence of periconceptional glycemic control. METHODS: Multicenter retrospective clinical study, literature review, and meta-analysis. The incidence and pattern of congenital heart disease in the own study population and in the literature on the offspring of type 1 diabetic mothers were compared with the incidence and spectrum of the various cardiovascular defects in the offspring of nondiabetic mothers as registered by EUROCAT Northern Netherlands. Medical records were, in addition, reviewed for HbA(1c) during the 1st trimester. RESULTS: The distribution of congenital heart anomalies in the own diabetic study population was in accordance with the distribution encountered in the literature. This distribution differed considerably from that in the nondiabetic population. Approximately half the cardiovascular defects were conotruncal anomalies. The authors' study demonstrated a remarkable increase in the likelihood of visceral heterotaxia and variants of single ventricle among these patients. As expected, elevated HbA(1c) values during the 1st trimester were associated with offspring fetal cardiovascular defects. CONCLUSION: This study shows an increased likelihood of specific heart anomalies, namely transposition of the great arteries, persistent truncus arteriosus, visceral heterotaxia and single ventricle, among offspring of diabetic mothers. This suggests a profound teratogenic effect at a very early stage in cardiogenesis. The study emphasizes the frequency with which the offspring of diabetes-complicated pregnancies suffer from complex forms of congenital heart disease. Pregnancies with poor 1st-trimester glycemic control are more prone to the presence of fetal heart disease.

Physical activity attenuates the influence of FTO variants on obesity risk: a meta-analysis of 218,166 adults and 19,268 children.

BACKGROUND: The FTO gene harbors the strongest known susceptibility locus for obesity. While many individual studies have suggested that physical activity (PA) may attenuate the effect of FTO on obesity risk, other studies have not been able to confirm this interaction. To confirm or refute unambiguously whether PA attenuates the association of FTO with obesity risk, we meta-analyzed data from 45 studies of adults (n = 218,166) and nine studies of children and adolescents (n = 19,268). METHODS AND FINDINGS: All studies identified to have data on the FTO rs9939609 variant (or any proxy [r(2)>0.8]) and PA were invited to participate, regardless of ethnicity or age of the participants. PA was standardized by categorizing it into a dichotomous variable (physically inactive versus active) in each study. Overall, 25% of adults and 13% of children were categorized as inactive. Interaction analyses were performed within each study by including the FTO×PA interaction term in an additive model, adjusting for age and sex. Subsequently, random effects meta-analysis was used to pool the interaction terms. In adults, the minor (A-) allele of rs9939609 increased the odds of obesity by 1.23-fold/allele (95% CI 1.20-1.26), but PA attenuated this effect (p(interaction)  = 0.001). More specifically, the minor allele of rs9939609 increased the odds of obesity less in the physically active group (odds ratio  = 1.22/allele, 95% CI 1.19-1.25) than in the inactive group (odds ratio  = 1.30/allele, 95% CI 1.24-1.36). No such interaction was found in children and adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: The association of the FTO risk allele with the odds of obesity is attenuated by 27% in physically active adults, highlighting the importance of PA in particular in those genetically predisposed to obesity.

La responsabilité entre éthique et religion. Discussion avec Paul Ricoeur

(Résumé de l'ouvrage) Ethique de la biologie, mais aussi éthique de la science, des affaires, des assurances, de lentreprise, du corps et de la sexualité, de la communication, de lenvironnement, de la famille... Les champs dapplication de léthique sont sans limites. ... Composé de trois parties, cet ouvrage présente dabord les grandes options philosophiques (libéralisme, utilitarisme, éthique de la discussion, etc.) et les grandes figures (Aristote, Kant, Spinoza, Heidegger, Foucault, etc.) en matière déthique, puis les différents domaines concernés, et enfin les grands débats (pour ou contre la pornographie, le clonage, l'euthanasie, l'éducation, l'avortement...). Écrit de façon pédagogique, il donne une bibliographie très actuelle pour chaque entrée, un index des thèmes et des noms. L'ouvrage rassemble plus de cinquante intervenants francophones. ...

Evaluation of prenatal ultrasound diagnosis of fetal abdominal wall defects by 19 European registries.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the current effectiveness of routine prenatal ultrasound screening in detecting gastroschisis and omphalocele in Europe. DESIGN: Data were collected by 19 congenital malformation registries from 11 European countries. The registries used the same epidemiological methodology and registration system. The study period was 30 months (July 1st 1996-December 31st 1998) and the total number of monitored pregnancies was 690,123. RESULTS: The sensitivity of antenatal ultrasound examination in detecting omphalocele was 75% (103/137). The mean gestational age at the first detection of an anomaly was 18 +/- 6.0 gestational weeks. The overall prenatal detection rate for gastroschisis was 83% (88/106) and the mean gestational age at diagnosis was 20 +/- 7.0 gestational weeks. Detection rates varied between registries from 25 to 100% for omphalocele and from 18 to 100% for gastroschisis. Of the 137 cases of omphalocele less than half of the cases were live births (n = 56; 41%). A high number of cases resulted in fetal deaths (n = 30; 22%) and termination of pregnancy (n = 51; 37%). Of the 106 cases of gastroschisis there were 62 (59%) live births, 13 (12%) ended with intrauterine fetal death and 31 (29%) had the pregnancies terminated. CONCLUSIONS: There is significant regional variation in detection rates in Europe reflecting different policies, equipment and the operators' experience. A high proportion of abdominal wall defects is associated with concurrent malformations, syndromes or chromosomal abnormalities, stressing the need for the introduction of repeated detailed ultrasound examination as a standard procedure. There is still a relatively high rate of elective termination of pregnancies for both defects, even in isolated cases which generally have a good prognosis after surgical repair.

Administering brief motivational interventions to young men: Results from a pilot census transmissible study among 19 year-old francophone Swiss men.

AIMS - To pilot the implementation of brief motivational intervention (BMI) among conscripts, and to test the effectiveness of BMI in young men voluntarily showing up for a single face-to-face alcohol BMI session. Participants were conscripts attending the army recruitment process in Lausanne. This process is mandatory for all Swiss males at age 19 and Lausanne serves all francophone Swiss men. METHODS - Of 3'227 young men that were seen during the army recruitment procedures, 445 voluntarily showed up for a BMI and 367 were included in the study (exclusions were random and unsystematic and related to organizational aspects in the recruitment center). After an initial assessment, subjects were randomized into two groups: an immediate BMI and a 6-month delayed BMI (waiting list design). A 6-month follow-up assessment was conducted in both groups. BMI was a face-to-face 20 minutes counseling session with a psychologist trained in motivational interviewing at baseline and a telephone session for the control group at follow-up. Strategies of BMI included the exploration and evocation of a possible behavior change, importance of future change, readiness to change, and commitment to change. A filmed example of such an intervention is available in French at www.alcoologie.ch. RESULTS - All procedures are now fully implemented and working and the provision of preventive efforts found general approval by the army. 3'227 were eligible for BMI and 445 of them (13.8%) showed up for receiving a BMI. 367 were included in the study, 181 in the BMI group and 186 in the control group. More than 86% of those included were reached at follow-up. With one exception all findings on alcohol use went in the expected direction, i.e. a stronger decrease in alcohol use (or a smaller increase as for usual weekly drinking amount) in the BMI group. The risk for risky single occasion drinking (RSOD) decreased from 57% at-risk users at baseline to 50.6%, i.e. a 6.4% point decrease in the BMI group, while there was only a 0.6% point decrease (from 57.5% to 56.9%) in the control group. Moreover, the study showed that there was a likelihood of crossover effects for other substances like tobacco smoking and cannabis use. Despite these encouraging and consistent positive findings, none reached significance at conventional levels (p < 0.05). DISCUSSION - Data suggest a beneficial impact of BMI on alcohol use outcomes and potential effect on other substance use in 19-year old men attending the army recruitment and showing up voluntarily for BMI. As the main aim was to implement and test feasibility of conducting BMI in this setting none of our findings reached statistical significance. The consistency of findings across measures and substances, however, raises hope that non-significance in the present study does not mean no effect, but mainly insufficient power of this pilot study. [Authors]

The Acts of Paul and the Canonical Acts : A Phenomenon of Rereading

(Abstract only in french) Une approche littéraire de l'intertextualité, à l'aide des catégories posées par G. Genette, permet de renouveler l'approche du rapport entre Actes de Paul et Actes canoniques. A la différence de la critique littéraire classique, qui ne repère pas de dépendance littéraire hors de similitudes verbales ou narratives, l'« hypertextualité » désigne un phénomène de relecture dans lequel un texte-source est recomposé et réinterprété au sein d'un écrit second. Grâce à cette catégorie, cette contribution rend compte du jeu dialectique de parenté et de divergence que l'on observe entre les Actes de Paul et les Actes de Luc. La recomposition de la biographie de Paul dans les Actes de Paul a usé de créativité, elle a puisé dans l'imaginaire chrétien, mais elle s'est aussi servie de traditions préservées dans la suivance de l'apôtre.

Les Actes de Paul. Un portrait inhabituel de l'apôtre

(Résumé de l'ouvrage) L'intérêt est vif aujourd'hui pour cette littérature proche de la Bible, faite d' évangiles, d' actes des apôtres et d' apocalypses non retenus dans le canon. Pourquoi ces textes apocryphes, qui ont souvent pour objet des événements évoqués ou des personnages mentionnés dans la Bible, ont-ils été mis à l' écart et largement oubliés dans le passé ? Ont-ils été écrits pour concurrencer les livres du Nouveau Testament ? Quel message religieux véhiculaient-ils ? Le lecteur se voit offrir ici de nombreux extraits de textes et des explications qui en disent la portée, l' intérêt et le charme. Enfin réédité, cet ouvrage est considéré comme un classique dans un domaine suscitant toujours plus d' engouement. Il présente l'Evangile de Thomas, l'Evangile de Nicodème, l'Evangile secret de Marc, les Actes de Paul et les Actes de Philippe. Il accueille également un essai inédit sur l'Evangile de Judas, où est évoquée notamment la filière gnostique à laquelle se rattache cet évangile apocryphe; la trahison de Jésus y est interprétée comme un mystère libérant par la mort le Jésus spirituel.