Le football comme religion populaire et comme culture mondialisée : brèves notations en vue d'une interprétation critique d'une quasi-religion contemporaine

(Résumé de l'ouvrage) Le présent recueil d'hommages veut témoigner de l'importance de l'oeuvre théologique de Jean Richard, professeur à la Faculté de théologie et de sciences religieuses de l'Université Laval. Désireux de signifier leur reconnaissance au père Richard, les auteurs de ce livre ont proposé des textes s'inscrivant dans l'un ou l'autre de ses champs de recherche privilégiés. Le tableau des contributeurs à ces mélanges regroupe des théologiens de tous les âges, hommes et femmes, provenant du Canada, mais aussi des États-Unis et de l'Europe, de langue française, anglaise ou allemande, de confession catholique ou protestante, oeuvrant dans des champs disciplinaires aussi divers que la théologie systématique, la théologie fondamentale, l'éthique théologique, l'exégèse ou encore la philosophie. Cette diversité est révélatrice de la personnalité théologique du père Richard, du caractère international de son réseau d'amitiés et de recherche et de l'ampleur de son influence. Elle témoigne aussi de l'audace d'une oeuvre qui, entreprise dans les années 1960, a dès le départ relevé le défi de l'aggiornamento que venait de poser en toute urgence son Église et qui a très vite conduit son auteur « aux confins », pour reprendre - et pour cause - une expression de son mentor Paul Tillich qui lui sied à merveille. Les contributions réunies dans ce volume ne résultent pas d'un plan concerté. D'autant plus significatifs sont les recoupements thématiques qu'on y observe, qui, par un hasard seulement apparent, restituent les principaux axes de la production théologique du père Jean Richard. L'ouverture au présent et a ses problématiques propres, ainsi que les défis conceptuels par là posés à l'effort théologique constituent les deux constantes de ces contributions, comme de l'oeuvre qui les a inspirées.

How Wages and Employment Adjust to Trade Liberalization: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Austria

We study the response of regional employment and nominal wages to trade liberalization, exploiting the natural experiment provided by the opening of Central and Eastern European markets after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990. Using data for Austrian municipalities, we examine differential pre- and post-1990 wage and employment growth rates between regions bordering the formerly communist economies and interior regions. If the "border regions" are defined narrowly, within a band of less than 50 kilometers, we can identify statistically significant liberalization effects on both employment and wages. While wages responded earlier than employment, the employment effect over the entire adjustment period is estimated to be around three times as large as the wage effect. The implied slope of the regional labor supply curve can be replicated in an economic geography model that features obstacles to labor migration due to immobile housing and to heterogeneous locational preferences.

A quasi-randomized group trial of a brief alcohol intervention on risky single occasion drinking among secondary school students.

OBJECTIVES: To show the effectiveness of a brief group alcohol intervention. Aims of the intervention were to reduce the frequency of heavy drinking occasions, maximum number of drinks on an occasion and overall weekly consumption. METHODS: A cluster quasi-randomized control trial (intervention n = 338; control n = 330) among 16- to 18-year-old secondary school students in the Swiss Canton of Zürich. Groups homogeneous for heavy drinking occasions (5+/4+ drinks for men/women) consisted of those having medium risk (3-4) or high risk (5+) occasions in the past 30 days. Groups of 8-10 individuals received two 45-min sessions based on motivational interviewing techniques. RESULTS: Borderline significant beneficial effects (p < 0.10) on heavy drinking occasions and alcohol volume were found 6 months later for the medium-risk group only, but not for the high-risk group. None of the effects remained significant after Bonferroni corrections. CONCLUSIONS: Group intervention was ineffective for all at-risk users. The heaviest drinkers may need more intensive treatment. Alternative explanations were iatrogenic effects among the heaviest drinkers, assessment reactivity, or reduction of social desirability bias at follow-up through peer feedback.

How Wages and Employment Adjust to Trade Liberalization: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Austria

We study the response of regional employment and nominal wages to trade liberalization, exploiting the natural experiment provided by the opening of Central and Eastern European markets after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990. Using data for Austrian municipalities, we examine di¤erential pre- and post-1990 wage and employment growth rates between regions bordering the formerly communist economies and interior regions. If the 'border regions'are de...ned narrowly, within a band of less than 50 kilometers, we can identify statistically signi...cant liberalization e¤ects on both employment and wages. While wages responded earlier than employment, the employment e¤ect over the entire adjustment period is estimated to be around three times as large as the wage e¤ect. The implied slope of the regional labor supply curve can be replicated in an economic geography model that features obstacles to labor migration due to immobile housing and to heterogeneous locational preferences.

Better-quasi-order : ideals and spaces

This thesis deals with combinatorics, order theory and descriptive set theory. The first contribution is to the theory of well-quasi-orders (wqo) and better-quasi-orders (bqo). The main result is the proof of a conjecture made by Maurice Pouzet in 1978 his thèse d'état which states that any wqo whose ideal completion remainder is bqo is actually bqo. Our proof relies on new results with both a combinatorial and a topological flavour concerning maps from a front into a compact metric space. The second contribution is of a more applied nature and deals with topological spaces. We define a quasi-order on the subsets of every second countable To topological space in a way that generalises the Wadge quasi-order on the Baire space, while extending its nice properties to virtually all these topological spaces. The Wadge quasi-order of reducibility by continuous functions is wqo on Borei subsets of the Baire space, this quasi-order is however far less satisfactory for other important topological spaces such as the real line, as Hertling, Ikegami and Schlicht notably observed. Some authors have therefore studied reducibility with respect to some classes of discontinuous functions to remedy this situation. We propose instead to keep continuity but to weaken the notion of function to that of relation. Using the notion of admissible representation studied in Type-2 theory of effectivity, we define the quasi-order of reducibility by relatively continuous relations. We show that this quasi-order both refines the classical hierarchies of complexity and is wqo on the Borei subsets of virtually every second countable To space - including every (quasi-)Polish space. -- Cette thèse se situe dans les domaines de la combinatoire, de la théorie des ordres et de la théorie descriptive. La première contribution concerne la théorie des bons quasi-ordres (wqo) et des meilleurs quasi-ordres (bqo). Le résultat principal est la preuve d'une conjecture, énoncée par Pouzet en 1978 dans sa thèse d'état, qui établit que tout wqo dont l'ensemble des idéaux non principaux ordonnés par inclusion forme un bqo est alors lui-même un bqo. La preuve repose sur de nouveaux résultats, qui allient la combinatoire et la topologie, au sujet des fonctions d'un front vers un espace métrique compact. La seconde contribution de cette thèse traite de la complexité topologique dans le cadre des espaces To à base dénombrable. Dans le cas de l'espace de Baire, le quasi-ordre de Wadge est un wqo sur les sous-ensembles Boréliens qui a suscité énormément d'intérêt. Cependant cette relation de réduction par fonctions continues s'avère bien moins satisfaisante pour d'autres espaces d'importance tels que la droite réelle, comme l'ont fait notamment remarquer Hertling, Schlicht et Ikegami. Nous proposons de conserver la continuité et d'affaiblir la notion de fonction pour celle de relation. Pour ce faire, nous utilisons la notion de représentation admissible étudiée en « Type-2 theory of effectivity » initiée par Weihrauch. Nous introduisons alors le quasi-ordre de réduction par relations relativement continues et montrons que celui-ci à la fois raffine les hiérarchies classiques de complexité topologique et forme un wqo sur les sous-ensembles Boréliens de chaque espace quasi-Polonais.

Facies, depositional environment, and palaeoecology of the Middle Triassic Cassina Beds (Meride Limestone, Monte San Giorgio, Switzerland).

The Ladinian Cassina beds belong to the fossiliferous levels of the world-famous Middle Triassic Monte San Giorgio Lagerstatte (UNESCO World Heritage List, Canton Ticino, Southern Alps). Although they are a rich archive for the depositional environment of an important thanatocoenosis, previous excavations focused on vertebrates and particularly on marine reptiles. In 2006, the Museo Cantonale di Storia Naturale (Lugano) started a new research project focusing for the first time on microfacies, micropalaeontological, palaeoecological and taphonomic analyses. So far, the upper third of the sequence has been excavated on a surface of around 40 m(2), and these new data complete those derived from new vertebrate finds (mainly fishes belonging to Saurichthys, Archaeosemionotus, Eosemionotus and Peltopleurus), allowing a better characterization of the basin. Background sedimentation on an anoxic to episodically suboxic seafloor resulted in a finely laminated succession of black shales and limestones, bearing a quasi-anaerobic biofacies, which is characterized by a monotypic benthic foraminiferal meiofauna and has been documented for the first time from the whole Monte San Giorgio sequence. Event deposition, testified by turbidites and volcaniclastic layers, is related to sediment input from basin margins and to distant volcanic eruptions, respectively. Fossil nekton points to an environment with only limited connection to the open sea. Terrestrial macroflora remains document the presence of emerged areas covered with vegetation and probably located relatively far away. Proliferation of benthic microbial mats is inferred on the basis of microfabrics, ecological considerations and taphonomic (both biostratinomic and diagenetic) features of the new vertebrate finds, whose excellent preservation is ascribed to sealing by biofilms. The occurrence of allochthonous elements allows an insight into the shallow-waters of the adjoining time-equivalent Salvatore platform. Finally, the available biostratigraphic data are critically reviewed.

Acetylcholinesterase inhibitor treatment for myasthenia gravis.

BACKGROUND: In myasthenia gravis, antibody-mediated blockade of acetylcholine receptors at the neuromuscular junction abolishes the naturally occurring 'safety factor' of synaptic transmission. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors provide temporary symptomatic treatment of muscle weakness but there is controversy about their long-term efficacy, dosage and side effects. This is the second update of a review published in The Cochrane Library Issue 2, 2011. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors in all forms of myasthenia gravis. SEARCH METHODS: On 8 July 2014 we searched the Cochrane Neuromuscular Disease Group Specialized Register, CENTRAL, MEDLINE and EMBASE for randomised controlled trials and quasi-randomised controlled trials regarding usage of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors in myasthenia gravis. Two authors scanned the articles for any study eligible for inclusion. We also contacted the authors and known experts in the field to identify additional published or unpublished data and searched clinical trials registries for ongoing trials. SELECTION CRITERIA: The types of studies were randomised or quasi-randomised trials. Participants were myasthenia gravis patients diagnosed by an internationally accepted definition. The intervention was treatment with any form of acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. Types of outcome measures Primary outcome measureImprovement in the presenting symptoms within one to 14 days of the start of treatment. Secondary outcome measures(1) Improvement in the presenting symptoms more than 14 days after the start of treatment.(2) Change in impairment measured by a recognised and preferably validated scale, such as the quantitative myasthenia gravis score, within one to 14 days and more than 14 days after the start of treatment.(3) Myasthenia Gravis Association of America post-intervention status more than 14 days after start of treatment.(4) Adverse events including muscarinic side effects. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: One author (MMM) extracted the data, which were checked by a second author. We contacted study authors for extra information and collected data on adverse effects from the trials. MAIN RESULTS: We did not find any large randomised or quasi-randomised trials of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors in generalised myasthenia gravis either for the first version of this review or this update. One cross-over randomised trial using intranasal neostigmine in a total of 10 participants was only available as an abstract. It included three participants with ocular myasthenia gravis and seven with generalised myasthenia gravis. Symptoms of myasthenia gravis (measured as improvement in at least one muscle function) improved in nine of the 10 participants after the two-week neostigmine treatment phase. No participant improved after the placebo phase. Lack of detail in the report meant that the risk of bias was unclear. Adverse events were minor. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Except for one small and inconclusive trial of intranasal neostigmine, no other randomised controlled trials have been conducted on the use of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors in myasthenia gravis. The response to acetylcholinesterase inhibitors in observational studies is so clear that a randomised controlled trial depriving participants in a placebo arm of treatment would be difficult to justify.

Emotional intelligence: On definitions, neuroscience, and marshmallows

In his timely article, Cherniss offers his vision for the future of "Emotional Intelligence" (EI). However, his goal of clarifying the concept by distinguishing definitions from models and his support for "Emotional and Social Competence" (ESC) models will, in our opinion, not make the field advance. To be upfront, we agree that emotions are important for effective decision-making, leadership, performance and the like; however, at this time, EI and ESC have not yet demonstrated incremental validity over and above IQ and personality tests in meta-analyses (Harms & Credé, 2009; Van Rooy & Viswesvaran, 2004). If there is a future for EI, we see it in the ability model of Mayer, Salovey and associates (e.g, Mayer, Caruso, & Salovey, 2000), which detractors and supporters agree holds the most promise (Antonakis, Ashkanasy, & Dasborough, 2009; Zeidner, Roberts, & Matthews, 2008). With their use of quasi-objective scoring measures, the ability model grounds EI in existing frameworks of intelligence, thus differentiating itself from ESC models and their self-rated trait inventories. In fact, we do not see the value of ESC models: They overlap too much with current personality models to offer anything new for science and practice (Zeidner, et al., 2008). In this commentary we raise three concerns we have with Cherniss's suggestions for ESC models: (1) there are important conceptual problems in both the definition of ESC and the distinction of ESC from EI; (2) Cherniss's interpretation of neuroscience findings as supporting the constructs of EI and ESC is outdated, and (3) his interpretation of the famous marshmallow experiment as indicating the existence of ESCs is flawed. Building on the promise of ability models, we conclude by providing suggestions to improve research in EI.

Les difficultés de gestion des partenariats public-privé en Europe. Pour une lecture "institutionnelle"

Les partenariats public-privé se développent dans la quasi-totalité des pays de l'OCDE. De nombreux acteurs, publics ou privés, y voient un moyen pour développer de nouvelles infrastructures et prestations publiques à moindre coût et de manière sensiblement plus rapide et plus efficace. Considérés sous l'angle de leur gestion, les PPP s'avèrent finalement bien plus complexes qu'ils ne paraissent d'un premier abord. Basé sur une revue de la littérature européenne portant sur les expériences en cours sur le Continent, l'article vise à faire état de la nature des débats gestionnaires entourant cette nouvelle forme de coordination des activités étatiques en relevant plus spécifiquement les difficultés auxquelles la plupart des PPP sont confrontés, sur la base d'une lecture institutionnelle.

On making causal claims: A review and recommendations

Social scientists often estimate models from correlational data, where the independent variable has not been exogenously manipulated; they also make implicit or explicit causal claims based on these models. When can these claims be made? We answer this question by first discussing design and estimation conditions under which model estimates can be interpreted, using the randomized experiment as the gold standard. We show how endogeneity--which includes omitted variables, omitted selection, simultaneity, common methods bias, and measurement error--renders estimates causally uninterpretable. Second, we present methods that allow researchers to test causal claims in situations where randomization is not possible or when causal interpretation is confounded, including fixed-effects panel, sample selection, instrumental variable, regression discontinuity, and difference-in-differences models. Third, we take stock of the methodological rigor with which causal claims are being made in a social sciences discipline by reviewing a representative sample of 110 articles on leadership published in the previous 10 years in top-tier journals. Our key finding is that researchers fail to address at least 66 % and up to 90 % of design and estimation conditions that make causal claims invalid. We conclude by offering 10 suggestions on how to improve non-experimental research.

Intertextualité: La Bible en échos

La Bible restitue au lecteur des écrits qui n'y figurent parfois pas explicitement, mais qui ont baigné les auteurs jusqu'à ressortir quasi intacts dans les textes canoniques. Tout texte appelle donc à la mémoire du lecteur d'autres textes, et, dans la Bible, leur identification reste pour l'heure relativement difficile à effectuer. Les auteurs de cet ouvrage ont l'ambition de fournir et d'illustrer une méthode pour identifier l'héritage littéraire dont la Bible se fait le témoin. Que ce soit sur l'Ancien Testament, le Nouveau Testament ou les textes apocryphes, les contributions s'attachent à exposer des relations de co-présence entre deux ou plusieurs textes (par le biais de la citation, de la référence ou de l'allusion) ou la relation de dérivation d'un texte à un autre.