Violence, deuil, politique (violence, mourning, politics) (trad. de l'anglais E.U.)

Cet article soutient l'idée que le travail du deuil peut être riche de possibilités pour repenser la communauté et les relations internationales, et que la " guerre préventive " ainsi que la déréalisation de la perte concourent à miner les liens humains fondamentaux. L'expérience du deuil est à même de révéler les modes sur lesquels le self est fait de relations intériorisées, si bien que lorsque nous perdons des êtres, nous perdons et altérons une part de nous-mêmes. Faire le deuil pourrait déboucher sur une option : la non-violence. A soutenir l'insoutenable quand nous perdons quelqu'un, nous pouvons devenir capables d'une plus grande sollicitude envers les pertes subies par les autres, et en particulier, les pertes causées par notre propre recours à la violence. La distinction entre des vies " qui valent la peine d'être pleurées " et d'autres " qui ne valent pas une larme " est révélatrice de la distribution géopolitique différentielle de la mélancolie, ainsi que des cadres raciaux et ethniques qui font et défont l'humain en sa possibilité d'être pleuré. Voici qui laisse entrevoir une manière de faire le lien entre un concept psychanalytique de la formation du sujet, concept pétri de politique, et une politique soucieuse de tout ce qu'il y a d'inacceptable à mourir sous les frappes militaires. La théorie féministe est centrale à cette conception, dans la mesure où elle met tout particulièrement l'accent sur un sujet incarné, vulnérable à la violence, qui ne peut émerger que dans le contexte d'une dépendance physique fondamentale.

Applications of a transportable Raman spectrometer for the in situ detection of controlled substances at border controls

A transportable Raman spectrometer was tested for the detection of illicit drugs seized during border controls. In a first step, the analysis methodology was optimized using reference substances such as diacetylmorphine (heroin), cocaine and amphetamine (as powder or liquid forms). Adequate focalisation distance and times of analysis, influence of daylight and artificial light sources, repeatability and limits of detection were studied. In a second step the applications and limitations of the technique to detect the illicit substances in different mixtures and containers was evaluated. Transportable Raman spectroscopy was found to be adequate for a rapid screen of liquids and powders for the detection and identification of controlled substances. Additionally, it had the advantage over other portable techniques, such as ion mobility spectrometry, of being non-destructive and capable of rapid analysis of large quantities of substances through containers such as plastic bags and glass bottles.

A population-based study of first and second-line drug-resistant tuberculosis in a high-burden area of the Mexico/United States border

The resistance of 139 Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) isolates from the city of Monterrey, Northeast Mexico, to first and second-line anti-TB drugs was analysed. A total of 73 isolates were susceptible and 66 were resistant to anti-TB drugs. Monoresistance to streptomycin, isoniazid (INH) and ethambutol was observed in 29 cases. Resistance to INH was found in 52 cases and in 29 cases INH resistance was combined with resistance to two or three drugs. A total of 24 isolates were multidrug-resistant (MDR) resistant to at least INH and rifampicin and 11 MDR cases were resistant to five drugs. The proportion of MDR-TB among new TB cases in our target population was 0.72% (1/139 cases). The proportion of MDR-TB among previously treated cases was 25.18% (35/139 cases). The 13 polyresistant and 24 MDR isolates were assayed against the following seven second-line drugs: amikacin (AMK), kanamycin (KAN), capreomycin (CAP), clofazimine (CLF), ethionamide (ETH), ofloxacin (OFL) and cycloserine (CLS). Resistance to CLF, OFL or CLS was not observed. Resistance was detected to ETH (10.80%) and to AMK (2.70%), KAN (2.70%) and CAP (2.70%). One isolate of MDR with primary resistance was also resistant to three second-line drugs. Monterrey has a high prevalence of MDR-TB among previously treated cases and extensively drug-resistant-MTB strains may soon appear.

Effective diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease by means of large margin-based methodology.

BACKGROUND Functional brain images such as Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) have been widely used to guide the clinicians in the Alzheimer's Disease (AD) diagnosis. However, the subjectivity involved in their evaluation has favoured the development of Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) Systems. METHODS It is proposed a novel combination of feature extraction techniques to improve the diagnosis of AD. Firstly, Regions of Interest (ROIs) are selected by means of a t-test carried out on 3D Normalised Mean Square Error (NMSE) features restricted to be located within a predefined brain activation mask. In order to address the small sample-size problem, the dimension of the feature space was further reduced by: Large Margin Nearest Neighbours using a rectangular matrix (LMNN-RECT), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) or Partial Least Squares (PLS) (the two latter also analysed with a LMNN transformation). Regarding the classifiers, kernel Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and LMNN using Euclidean, Mahalanobis and Energy-based metrics were compared. RESULTS Several experiments were conducted in order to evaluate the proposed LMNN-based feature extraction algorithms and its benefits as: i) linear transformation of the PLS or PCA reduced data, ii) feature reduction technique, and iii) classifier (with Euclidean, Mahalanobis or Energy-based methodology). The system was evaluated by means of k-fold cross-validation yielding accuracy, sensitivity and specificity values of 92.78%, 91.07% and 95.12% (for SPECT) and 90.67%, 88% and 93.33% (for PET), respectively, when a NMSE-PLS-LMNN feature extraction method was used in combination with a SVM classifier, thus outperforming recently reported baseline methods. CONCLUSIONS All the proposed methods turned out to be a valid solution for the presented problem. One of the advances is the robustness of the LMNN algorithm that not only provides higher separation rate between the classes but it also makes (in combination with NMSE and PLS) this rate variation more stable. In addition, their generalization ability is another advance since several experiments were performed on two image modalities (SPECT and PET).

Voyage du prince de Galles au Canada, départ du Renown ayant le prince de Galles à bord : [photographie de presse] / [Agence Rol]

Référence bibliographique : Rol, 55358

Voyage du prince de Galles au Canada, la famille royale à bord du Renown avant le départ : [photographie de presse] / [Agence Rol]

Référence bibliographique : Rol, 55357

Cholinergic regulation of bone.

Bone remodeling is regulated by the two branches of the autonomic nervous system: the adrenergic and the cholinergic branches. Adrenergic activity favors bone loss, whereas cholinergic activity has been recently shown to favor bone mass accrual. In vitro studies have reported that cholinergic activity induces proliferation and differentiation of bone cells. In vivo studies have shown that the inhibition of cholinergic activity favors bone loss, whereas its stimulation favors bone mass accrual. Clinical studies have shown that bone density is associated with the function of many cholinergic-regulated tissues such as the hypothalamus, salivary glands, lacrimal glands and langerhans cells, suggesting a common mechanism of control. Altogether, these observations and linked findings are of great significance since they improve our understanding of bone physiology. These discoveries have been successfully used recently to investigate new promising therapies for bone diseases based on cholinergic stimulation. Here, we review the current understanding of the cholinergic activity and its association with bone health.

Prolonged survival with valproic acid use in the EORTC/NCIC temozolomide trial for glioblastoma.

Objective: This analysis was performed to assess whether antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) modulate the effectiveness of temozolomide radiochemotherapy in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma.Methods: The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) 26981-22981/National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) CE.3 clinical trial database of radiotherapy (RT) with or without temozolomide (TMZ) for newly diagnosed glioblastoma was examined to assess the impact of the interaction between AED use and chemoradiotherapy on survival. Data were adjusted for known prognostic factors.Results: When treatment began, 175 patients (30.5%) were AED-free, 277 (48.3%) were taking any enzyme-inducing AED (EIAED) and 135 (23.4%) were taking any non-EIAED. Patients receiving valproic acid (VPA) only had more grade 3/4 thrombopenia and leukopenia than patients without an AED or patients taking an EIAED only. The overall survival (OS) of patients who were receiving an AED at baseline vs not receiving any AED was similar. Patients receiving VPA alone (97 [16.9%]) appeared to derive more survival benefit from TMZ/RT (hazard ratio [HR] 0.39, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.24-0.63) than patients receiving an EIAED only (252 [44%]) (HR 0.69, 95% CI 0.53-0.90) or patients not receiving any AED (HR 0.67, 95% CI 0.49-0.93). Conclusions: VPA may be preferred over an EIAED in patients with glioblastoma who require an AED during TMZ-based chemoradiotherapy. Future studies are needed to determine whether VPA increases TMZ bioavailability or acts as an inhibitor of histone deacetylases and thereby sensitizes for radiochemotherapy in vivo.

Evaluation of quality improvement for cesarean sections caesarean section programmes through mixed methods.

BACKGROUND The rate of avoidable caesarean sections (CS) could be reduced through multifaceted strategies focusing on the involvement of health professionals and compliance with clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). Quality improvements for CS (QICS) programmes (QICS) based on this approach, have been implemented in Canada and Spain. OBJECTIVES Their objectives are as follows: 1) Toto identify clusters in each setting with similar results in terms of cost-consequences, 2) Toto investigate whether demographic, clinical or context characteristics can distinguish these clusters, and 3) Toto explore the implementation of QICS in the 2 regions, in order to identify factors that have been facilitators in changing practices and reducing the use of obstetric intervention, as well as the challenges faced by hospitals in implementing the recommendations. METHODS Descriptive study with a quantitative and qualitative approach. 1) Cluster analysis at patient level with data from 16 hospitals in Quebec (Canada) (n = 105,348) and 15 hospitals in Andalusia (Spain) (n = 64,760). The outcome measures are CS and costs. For the cost, we will consider the intervention, delivery and complications in mother and baby, from the hospital perspective. Cluster analysis will be used to identify participants with similar patterns of CS and costs based, and t tests will be used to evaluate if the clusters differed in terms of characteristics: Hospital level (academic status of hospital, level of care, supply and demand factors), patient level (mother age, parity, gestational age, previous CS, previous pathology, presentation of the baby, baby birth weight). 2) Analysis of in-depth interviews with obstetricians and midwives in hospitals where the QICS were implemented, to explore the differences in delivery-related practices, and the importance of the different constructs for positive or negative adherence to CPGs. Dimensions: political/management level, hospital level, health professionals, mothers and their birth partner. DISCUSSION This work sets out a new approach for programme evaluation, using different techniques to make it possible to take into account the specific context where the programmes were implemented.

Whole-genome sequencing of a Plasmodium vivax isolate from the China-Myanmar border area

Currently, there is a trend of an increasing number of Plasmodium vivaxmalaria cases in China that are imported across its Southeast Asia border, especially in the China-Myanmar border area (CMB). To date, little is known about the genetic diversity of P. vivaxin this region. In this paper, we report the first genome sequencing of a P. vivaxisolate (CMB-1) from a vivax malaria patient in CMB. The sequencing data were aligned onto 96.43% of the P. vivaxSalvador I reference strain (Sal I) genome with 7.84-fold coverage as well as onto 98.32% of 14 Sal I chromosomes. Using the de novoassembly approach, we generated 8,541 scaffolds and assembled a total of 27.1 Mb of sequence into CMB-1 scaffolds. Furthermore, we identified all 295 known virgenes, which is the largest subtelomeric multigene family in malaria parasites. These results provide an important foundation for further research onP. vivaxpopulation genetics.

Cohesion, competition and contradiction: INTERREG and Franco-British Cross border co-operation

Aquest article resumeix el desenvolupament del programa INTERREG i la cooperació a la frontera franc-britànica en els últims vint anys. Això és seguit per una anàlisi de la forma transfronterera cooperació pot entendre recorrent a les discussions conceptuals de canviar la governança europea i les relacions de poder entre els diferents nivells de govern. Aquestes idees conceptuals proporcionen un context per a un examen en profunditat de la iniciativa INTERREG IIIA, a la frontera franc-britànica que es destaquen alguns dels principals problemes i les contradiccions de la cooperació transfronterera.