La figure de la sorcière dans la littérature du XIXe siècle (Jules Michelet, George Sand, Eliza Orzeszkowa)

The nineteenth century uncovered and analysed the tragic episodes of witch-hunting and ‘witch’ trials common in Renaissance Europe. Fascinating not only to historians, this subject also inspired men of letters who popularized the image of the witch as an old, ugly and evil person, who thus deserved her lot. Jules Michelet’s La sorcière of 1862 takes a very different approach. Simultaneously a literary and historical work, the book proved scandalous as it rehabilitated the figure of the witch, shedding favourable light on her image: it was the witch who was able to save a last spark of humanity in moments of despair; it was she who acted as comforter and healer to the people. In the context of nineteenth-century literature, certain works by female authors that focused on ‘witches,’ stand out. Whilst certain male authors (Michelet included) presented the witch as a figure from the past, who had finally perished in the 17th century, texts such as George Sand’s La petite Fadette (1848) or Eliza Orzeszkowa’s Dziurdziowie (1885), suggest that the end of witch trials did not imply an end to accusations, persecutions, and even executions of ‘witches’ – and, that in terms of culture, witchcraft or sorcery had not disappeared from the societies they knew.

Beneficial Effects of a Semi-Intensive Stroke Unit are Beyond the Monitor.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Precise mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of the stroke unit (SU) are not fully established. Studies that compare monitored stroke units (semi-intensive type, SI-SU) versus an intensive care unit (ICU)-based mobile stroke team (MST-ICU) are lacking. Although inequalities in access to stroke unit care are globally improving, acute stroke patients may be admitted to Intensive Care Units for monitoring and followed by a mobile stroke team in hospital's lacking an SU with continuous cardiovascular monitoring. We aimed at comparing the stroke outcome between SI-SU and MST-ICU and hypothesized that the benefits of SI-SU are driven by additional elements other than cardiovascular monitoring, which is equally offered in both care systems. METHODS In a single-center setting, we compared the unfavorable outcomes (dependency and mortality) at 3 months in consecutive patients with ischemic stroke or spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage admitted to a stroke unit with semi-intensive monitoring (SI-SU) to a cohort of stroke patients hospitalized in an ICU and followed by a mobile stroke team (MST-ICU) during an equal observation period of 27 months. Secondary objectives included comparing mortality and the proportion of patients with excellent outcomes (modified Rankin Score (mRS) 0-1). Equal cardiovascular monitoring was offered in patients admitted in both SI-SU and MST-ICU. RESULTS 458 patients were treated in the SI-SU and compared to the MST-ICU (n = 370) cohort. The proportion of death and dependency after 3 months was significantly improved for patients in the SI-SU compared to MST-ICU (p < 0.001; aOR = 0.45; 95% CI: 0.31-0.65). The shift analysis of the mRS distribution showed significant shift to the lower mRS in the SI-SU group, p < 0.001. The proportion of mortality in patients after 3 months also differed between the MST-ICU and the SI-SU (p < 0.05), but after adjusting for confounders this association was not significant (aOR = 0.59; 95% CI: 0.31-1.13). The proportion of patients with excellent outcome was higher in the SI-SU (59.4 vs. 44.9%, p < 0.001) but the relationship was no more significant after adjustment (aOR = 1.17; 95% CI: 0.87-1.5). CONCLUSIONS Our study shows that moving from a stroke team in a monitored setting (ICU) to an organized stroke unit leads to a significant reduction in the 3 months unfavorable outcome in patients with an acute ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. Cardiovascular monitoring is indispensable, but benefits of a semi-intensive Stroke Unit are driven by additional elements beyond intensive cardiovascular monitoring. This observation supports the ongoing development of Stroke Centers for efficient stroke care. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Le personnage de la femme-artiste chez l'écrivain polonaise Narcyza Żmichowska (1819-1876) : Helusia héritière de Corinne de Mme de Staël et de Consuelo de George Sand

Si les hommes bénéficient d’emblée de mythes (Pygmalion, Orphée) qui légitiment et motivent leur créativité, il faut attendre Corinne (1807) de Mme Staël et Consuelo (1842) de George Sand pour que le mythe de la femme créatrice trouve enfin, dans la littérature européenne, à se concrétiser et à se développer sous la forme de Künstlerromane féminins. Corinne la poétesse et Consuelo la cantatrice sont devenues des exemples littéraires non seulement pour les femmes victoriennes, comme le montre par exemple le livre de Linda Lewis intitulé Germaine de Staël, George Sand and the Victorian Woman Artist, mais également pour les femmes polonaises issues des classes favorisées - qui lisaient d’ailleurs couramment en français. En effet, même si elles ont été officiellement décriées par la critique conservatrice polonaise pour leur « immoralité », George Sand et Mme de Staël ont été lues, bien lues et même beaucoup lues par leurs contemporaines polonaises - comme le témoigne la correspondance de ces dernières, dans laquelle elles ont moins de peine à se livrer. Le thème de la femme artiste déchirée entre la carrière publique et la vie privée, tel qu’il est représenté dans Corinne et dans Consuelo, a en particulier attiré toute leur attention et suscité chez les femmes écrivains le désir d’apporter de nouvelles manières de résoudre ce conflit. Dans cet article, le Künstlerinroman polonais Książka Pamiątek (Livre des souvenirs, 1846) de Narcyza Żmichowska fait l’objet d’une analyse comparative détaillée avec les deux Künstlerinromane français dont par ailleurs il se réclame.

Methodological and physiological test-retest reliability of (13) C-MRS glycogen measurements in liver and in skeletal muscle of patients with type 1 diabetes and matched healthy controls.

Glycogen is a major substrate in energy metabolism and particularly important to prevent hypoglycemia in pathologies of glucose homeostasis such as type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). (13) C-MRS is increasingly used to determine glycogen in skeletal muscle and liver non-invasively; however, the low signal-to-noise ratio leads to long acquisition times, particularly when glycogen levels are determined before and after interventions. In order to ease the requirements for the subjects and to avoid systematic effects of the lengthy examination, we evaluated if a standardized preparation period would allow us to shift the baseline (pre-intervention) experiments to a preceding day. Based on natural abundance (13) C-MRS on a clinical 3 T MR system the present study investigated the test-retest reliability of glycogen measurements in patients with T1DM and matched controls (n = 10 each group) in quadriceps muscle and liver. Prior to the MR examination, participants followed a standardized diet and avoided strenuous exercise for two days. The average coefficient of variation (CV) of myocellular glycogen levels was 9.7% in patients with T1DM compared with 6.6% in controls after a 2 week period, while hepatic glycogen variability was 13.3% in patients with T1DM and 14.6% in controls. For comparison, a single-session test-retest variability in four healthy volunteers resulted in 9.5% for skeletal muscle and 14.3% for liver. Glycogen levels in muscle and liver were not statistically different between test and retest, except for hepatic glycogen, which decreased in T1DM patients in the retest examination, but without an increase of the group distribution. Since the CVs of glycogen levels determined in a "single session" versus "within weeks" are comparable, we conclude that the major source of uncertainty is the methodological error and that physiological variations can be minimized by a pre-study standardization. For hepatic glycogen examinations, familiarization sessions (MR and potentially strenuous interventions) are recommended. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mrs. Porter [Illustration]

Moses Jakob Ezekiel