Centre Alexandre Koyré

SCOPUS: ch.b

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Ischemic stroke (IS) and coronary artery disease (CAD) share several risk factors and each has a substantial heritability. We conducted a genome-wide analysis to evaluate the extent of shared genetic determination of the two diseases. METHODS: Genome-wide association data were obtained from the METASTROKE, Coronary Artery Disease Genome-wide Replication and Meta-analysis (CARDIoGRAM), and Coronary Artery Disease (C4D) Genetics consortia. We first analyzed common variants reaching a nominal threshold of significance (P<0.01) for CAD for their association with IS and vice versa. We then examined specific overlap across phenotypes for variants that reached a high threshold of significance. Finally, we conducted a joint meta-analysis on the combined phenotype of IS or CAD. Corresponding analyses were performed restricted to the 2167 individuals with the ischemic large artery stroke (LAS) subtype. RESULTS: Common variants associated with CAD at P<0.01 were associated with a significant excess risk for IS and for LAS and vice versa. Among the 42 known genome-wide significant loci for CAD, 3 and 5 loci were significantly associated with IS and LAS, respectively. In the joint meta-analyses, 15 loci passed genome-wide significance (P<5×10(-8)) for the combined phenotype of IS or CAD and 17 loci passed genome-wide significance for LAS or CAD. Because these loci had prior evidence for genome-wide significance for CAD, we specifically analyzed the respective signals for IS and LAS and found evidence for association at chr12q24/SH2B3 (PIS=1.62×10(-7)) and ABO (PIS=2.6×10(-4)), as well as at HDAC9 (PLAS=2.32×10(-12)), 9p21 (PLAS=3.70×10(-6)), RAI1-PEMT-RASD1 (PLAS=2.69×10(-5)), EDNRA (PLAS=7.29×10(-4)), and CYP17A1-CNNM2-NT5C2 (PLAS=4.9×10(-4)). CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate substantial overlap in the genetic risk of IS and particularly the LAS subtype with CAD.

This essay traces the parallel, but unrelated, evolution of two sets of reactions to traditional idealist history of science in a world-historical context. While the scholars who fostered the postcolonial approach, in dealing with modern science in the non-West, espoused an idealist vision, they nevertheless stressed its political and ideological underpinnings and engaged with the question of its putative Western roots. The postidealist history of science developed its own vision with respect to the question of the global spread of modern science, paying little heed to postcolonial debates. It then proposes a historiographical approach developed in large part by historians of South Asian politics, economics, and science that, without compromising the preoccupations of each of the two groups, could help construct a mutually comprehensible and connected framework for the understanding of the global workings of the sciences.

Blood flow produces mechanical frictional forces, parallel to the blood flow exerted on the endothelial wall of the vessel, the so-called wall shear stress (WSS). WSS sensing is associated with several vascular pathologies, but it is first a physiological phenomenon. Endothelial cell sensitivity to WSS is involved in several developmental and physiological vascular processes such as angiogenesis and vascular morphogenesis, vascular remodeling, and vascular tone. Local conditions of blood flow determine the characteristics of WSS, i.e., intensity, direction, pulsatility, sensed by the endothelial cells that, through their effect of the vascular network, impact WSS. All these processes generate a local-global retroactive loop that determines the ability of the vascular system to ensure the perfusion of the tissues. In order to account for the physiological role of WSS, the so-called shear stress set point theory has been proposed, according to which WSS sensing acts locally on vessel remodeling so that WSS is maintained close to a set point value, with local and distant effects of vascular blood flow. The aim of this article is (1) to review the existing literature on WSS sensing involvement on the behavior of endothelial cells and its short-term (vasoreactivity) and long-term (vascular morphogenesis and remodeling) effects on vascular functioning in physiological condition; (2) to present the various hypotheses about WSS sensors and analyze the conceptual background of these representations, in particular the concept of tensional prestress or biotensegrity; and (3) to analyze the relevance, explanatory value, and limitations of the WSS set point theory, that should be viewed as dynamical, and not algorithmic, processes, acting in a self-organized way. We conclude that this dynamic set point theory and the biotensegrity concept provide a relevant explanatory framework to analyze the physiological mechanisms of WSS sensing and their possible shift toward pathological situations.

Depuis vingt ans, le problème climatique s’est hissé au sommet de l’agenda mondial, et un processus multilatéral s’est mis en place pour y répondre. Or, les concentrations de gaz à effet de serre dans l’atmosphère, responsables des dérèglements climatiques, ont atteint un niveau record en 2013. Comment apprécier le bilan de ces négociations ? Revenant sur le traitement politique du changement climatique, du protocole de Kyoto à aujourd’hui, les auteurs proposent une analyse de ces enjeux et d’une gouvernance qui suscite autant d’attentes qu’elle crée de désillusions. Est-il possible de changer de paradigme, alors que le monde connaît des accélérations majeures et se voit confronté à de multiples crises ? Dans quel cadre repenser le défi climatique pour y faire face et l’inscrire dans le champ des futurs ? Une référence sur le changement climatique et les questions stratégiques qu’il pose : rapports entre science et politique et rôle des experts, évolution de la géopolitique du climat, transition énergétique en Europe, aux États-Unis et dans les grands pays émergents, articulations entre problème climatique et globalisation, entre adaptation et développement.

Transformative adaptation will be increasingly important to effectively address the impacts of climate change and other global drivers on social-ecological systems. Enabling transformative adaptation requires new ways to evaluate and adaptively manage trade-offs between maintaining desirable aspects of current social-ecological systems and adapting to major biophysical changes to those systems. We outline such an approach, based on three elements developed by the Transformative Adaptation Research Alliance (TARA): (1) the benefits of adaptation services; that sub-set of ecosystem services that help people adapt to environmental change; (2) The values-rules-knowledge perspective (vrk) for identifying those aspects of societal decision-making contexts that enable or constrain adaptation and (3) the adaptation pathways approach for implementing adaptation, that builds on and integrates adaptation services and the vrk perspective. Together, these elements provide a future-oriented approach to evaluation and use of ecosystem services, a dynamic, grounded understanding of governance and decision-making and a logical, sequential approach that connects decisions over time. The TARA approach represents a means for achieving changes in institutions and governance needed to support transformative adaptation.

OBJECTIVE: Elevated levels of plasma trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), the product of gut microbiome and hepatic-mediated metabolism of dietary choline and L-carnitine, have recently been identified as a novel risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis in mice and humans. The goal of this study was to identify the genetic factors associated with plasma TMAO levels. APPROACH AND RESULTS: We used comparative genome-wide association study approaches to discover loci for plasma TMAO levels in mice and humans. A genome-wide association study in the hybrid mouse diversity panel identified a locus for TMAO levels on chromosome 3 (P=2.37 × 10(-6)) that colocalized with a highly significant (P=1.07 × 10(-20)) cis-expression quantitative trait locus for solute carrier family 30 member 7. This zinc transporter could thus represent 1 positional candidate gene responsible for the association signal at this locus in mice. A genome-wide association study for plasma TMAO levels in 1973 humans identified 2 loci with suggestive evidence of association (P=3.0 × 10(-7)) on chromosomes 1q23.3 and 2p12. However, genotyping of the lead variants at these loci in 1892 additional subjects failed to replicate their association with plasma TMAO levels. CONCLUSIONS: The results of these limited observational studies indicate that, at least in humans, genes play a marginal role in determining TMAO levels and that any genetic effects are relatively weak and complex. Variation in diet or the repertoire of gut microbiota may be more important determinants of plasma TMAO levels in mice and humans, which should be investigated in future studies.

Auteur : Antonella Romano Titre : La Contre-Réforme Mathématique. Constitution et diffusion d’une culture mathématique jésuite à la Renaissance (1540-1640) Editeur : École française de Rome Lieu de publication : Rome Année de publication : 1999 Collection : Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome ; 306 Format : 1 vol. (XI-691 p.-[20] p. de pl.) : tabl., cartes, ill., couv. ill. ; 25 cm Annotations : Texte remanié de : Thèse de doctorat : Histoire : Paris 1 : 1996. Bibliogr. p. [623]-673. Index ISSN : 0257-4101 ISBN : 978-2-7283-0568 DOI : 10.3406/befar.1999.1252

Résumé Renonçant à la philosophie religieuse de l’histoire comme au dualisme de l’âme et du corps, l’anthropologie européenne des secondes Lumières consacre l’alliance des sciences physiques et des arts du gouvernement. Le diagnostic social sacrifie à la légalité formelle de la nature. L’homme est redéfini comme un « produit naturel », au « physique » comme au « moral ». L’urgence de son étude est incessamment rappelée. On espère en fait hâter l’émancipation de l’humanité en approfondissant l’analyse de son rapport au monde et la marche nécessaire de sa Civilisation. Le paradigme « naturaliste », fondé sur la comparaison, le classement et l’approche nomothétique des faits sociaux, acquiert vers 1800 une autorité sans précédent. Les anthropologues deviennent experts pour tout ce qui regarde l’investigation « statistique » de la condition humaine sous les différents climats. Il s’agit alors de comprendre les déterminismes généraux de l’évolution du genre humain, de mettre à jour les ressorts cachés de sa félicité. La vérité, la moralité des actes et la conduite des affaires publiques s’y trouvent, dit-on, pareillement intéressées. La redistribution des recherches dans la décennie 1795-1805 donne ainsi un nouvel élan à la réflexion classique sur la nature humaine, sous sa triple détermination temporelle, spatiale et sociale : l’origine, la race, le progrès. Cet article propose une synthèse des traits dominants de la pensée naturaliste, de ses ambitions réformatrices comme de ses contradictions foncières.

In this article, we review how two eminent Viennese system thinkers, Paul A Weiss and Ludwig von Bertalanffy, began to develop their own perspectives toward a system theory of life in the 1920s. Their work is especially rooted in experimental biology as performed at the Biologische Versuchsanstalt, as well as in philosophy, and they converge in basic concepts. We underline the conceptual connections of their thinking, among them the organism as an organized system, hierarchical organization, and primary activity. With their system thinking, both biologists shared a strong desire to overcome what they viewed as a "mechanistic" approach in biology. Their interpretations are relevant to the renaissance of system thinking in biology--"systems biology." Unless otherwise noted, all translations are our own.

Laurence Talairach-Vielmas explores Victorian representations of femininity in narratives that depart from mainstream realism, from fairy tales by George MacDonald, Lewis Carroll, Christina Rossetti, Juliana Horatia Ewing, and Jean Ingelow, to sensation novels by Wilkie Collins, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Rhoda Broughton, and Charles Dickens. Feminine representation, Talairach-Vielmas argues, is actually presented in a hyper-realistic way in such anti-realistic genres as children's literature and sensation fiction. In fact, it is precisely the clash between fantasy and reality that enables the narratives to interrogate the real and re-create a new type of realism that exposes the normative constraints imposed to contain the female body. In her exploration of the female body and its representations, Talairach-Vielmas examines how Victorian fantasies and sensation novels deconstruct and reconstruct femininity; she focuses in particular on the links between the female characters and consumerism, and shows how these serve to illuminate the tensions underlying the representation of the Victorian ideal.

Launched in 2019, the French Citizens' Convention for Climate (CCC) tasked 150 randomly chosen citizens with proposing fair and effective measures to fight climate change. This was to be fulfilled through an "innovative co-construction procedure", involving some unspecified external input alongside that from the citizens. Did inputs from the steering bodies undermine the citizens' accountability for the output? Did co-construction help the output resonate with the general public, as is expected from a citizens' assembly? To answer these questions, we build on our unique experience in observing the CCC proceedings and documenting them with qualitative and quantitative data. We find that the steering bodies' input, albeit significant, did not impair the citizens' agency, creativity, and freedom of choice. While succeeding in creating consensus among the citizens who were involved, this co-constructive approach, however, failed to generate significant support among the broader public. These results call for a strengthening of the commitment structure that determines how follow-up on the proposals from a citizens' assembly should be conducted.

ABSTRACT We develop a model in which customer capital depends on key talents' contribution and pure brand recognition. Customer capital guarantees stable demand but is fragile to financial constraints risk if retained mainly by talents, who tend to quit financially constrained firms, damaging customer capital. Using a proprietary, granular brand‐perception survey, we construct a firm‐level measure of the inalienability of customer capital (ICC) that captures the degree to which customer capital depends on talents. Firms with higher ICC have higher average returns, higher talent turnover, and more precautionary financial policies. The ICC‐sorted long‐short portfolio's spread comoves with financial constraints factor.

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains the rethinking of the social sciences and humanities prompted by the arrival of the &s;Age of Humans&s;, an ironic moniker since modernity has supposedly been the age of humanism. It draws together scholars who have a prescient insight into the significance of the new epoch. Some critique the idea of the Anthropocene from various social science perspectives, while others argue that the Anthropocene demands a re-examination of those very social sciences. Politics in the Anthropocene is about the collision of the system Earth with the system world, traditionally conceived as the political and social organisation of the former, which served as a background for the latter. The advent of the Anthropocene challenges some established boundaries between nature and culture, between climate and politics, between natural sciences and the social sciences and humanities.

Plusieurs travaux récents, tant français qu'anglo-saxons, ont porté sur le mouvement des Idéologues, sur Victor Cousin et le spiritualisme éclectique ainsi que sur la phrénologie. Le livre de Jan Goldstein se situe dans cette lignée, mais il propose une problématisation et une périodisation originales à un double titre. S'inspirant de Karl Schorske, Goldstein considère le thème, central dans la philosophie cousinienne, de l'unité et de l'identité du moi sous l'angle d'une politique post-révolutionnaire visant à affermir une identité masculine et bourgeoise mise à mal par le sensualisme philosophique du XVIIIe siècle. S'inspirant d'autre part de Michel Foucault, Goldstein met en exergue le fait que la méthode d'introspection prônée par Cousin constitua une technologie du moi appliquée à grande échelle sur une, puis sur d'autres générations de jeunes lycéens bourgeois. Tandis que les deux premiers chapitres portent sur la fin de l'Ancien Régime et la Révolution, les trois chapitres centraux, sans doute les plus novateurs, portent sur la politique du moi mise en œuvre par Victor Cousin et son ‘régiment’ de jeunes professeurs de philosophie envoyés prêcher la bonne parole spiritualiste dans les lycées et les universités. Analysant ainsi avec minutie les lettres adressées au maître par ses disciples (malheureusement non citées en note dans le texte français original), Goldstein dessine avec finesse la micro-histoire d'un réseau de pouvoir et de sociabilité mêlant inextricablement demandes de patronage et de soutien moral, déclarations de brouille et de réconciliation. Goldstein met à juste titre en vedette la correspondance que Cousin échangea avec Caroline Angebert, une disciple inattendue, puisqu'à l'époque il n'existait pas de lycées et, a fortiori d'enseignement philosophique, pour les jeunes filles. Angebert reprochait à Cousin de ne pas pleinement reconnaître aux femmes la capacité à développer leur réflexion et à disposer ainsi véritablement d'un moi. Cette correspondance mettait à nu les contradictions d'une philosophie qui exaltait l'universalité d'un moi substantiel, mais répugnait à en reconnaître la pleine possession aux femmes et aux gens du peuple. L'empire de Cousin n'a cependant pas été absolu. Dans les deux derniers chapitres du livre, Goldstein évoque des oppositions au modèle cousinien, l'une importante, du côté du catholicisme, l'autre plus marginale, du côté de la phrénologie et d'un positivisme non encore à son acmé. Paradoxalement, l'épilogue retrace peu la suite immédiate d'une histoire qui verra remis en cause, notamment par Hippolyte Taine, personnage majeur de la seconde moitié du siècle, le dogme de l'unité du moi. Le livre conclut, comme il avait commencé, en invoquant le témoignage de Sartre, en 1970, sur ses ébahissements de jeunesse à la lecture de Freud, preuve, selon Goldstein, que le moi cousinien se serait maintenu dans l'univers scolaire, à l'insu de Sartre lui-même. Cette conclusion qui saute plus d'un siècle demanderait, évidemment, à être davantage étayée. Elle n'en est pas moins stimulante, à l'image du livre lui-même.

In the current context of global change and a biodiversity crisis, there are increasing demands for greater predictive power in ecology, in both the scientific literature and at the science–policy interface. The implicit assumption is that this will increase knowledge and, in turn, lead to better decision‐making. However, the justification for this assumption remains uncertain, not least because the definition of ‘prediction’ is unclear. We propose that two types of prediction should be distinguished: corroboratory‐prediction is linked to the validation of theories; and anticipatory‐prediction is linked to the description of possible futures. We then discuss four families of obstacles to prediction, linked to the specific features of ecosystems: 1) they are historical entities, 2) they are complex, 3) their dynamics are stochastic, and 4) they are influenced by socio‐economic drivers. A naïve understanding of ecological science suggests that the two types of predictions are simply two phases in a sequence in which scientists first improve their knowledge of ecological systems via corroboratory‐predictions, and then apply this knowledge in order to forecast future states of ecosystems via anticipatory‐predictions in order to help policy makers taking decisions. This sequence is however not straightforward, partly because corroboration and anticipation are not affected by the obstacles to prediction in the same way. We thus invite to reconsider the role of ecological prediction as a tool in a deliberative model of decision‐making rather than as external scientific information aimed at enlightening the political process. Doing so would be beneficial for both the policy‐relevance of anticipatory‐prediction and the theoretical‐relevance of corroboratory‐prediction.

The diffusion of technology as an object of historical study originated partly in the years after World War II as a critique of the West's self-confidence embodied in developed countries' solutions to poverty. Such solutions, usually defined in terms of resolving technical "backwardness," promulgated a simplistic and imperialistic notion of transfer that suggested quick action, linearity in time and space, and unilateral political decisions. Two prominent scholars, Paul Bairoch and Nathan Rosenberg, argued against this portrayal of technical diffusion.1 In their view, history showed [End Page 536] that transfers of technology were uncertain and complex processes. Hence the interest of historians in technical dissemination derived from a profound skepticism concerning the diffusionist notion of transfer developed in the context of expanding Western economic power. Did this critique imply that the circulation of knowledge could not occur, that it was a kind of illusion? Although Rosenberg stressed the high rate of failure, even between countries of similar technical cultures, he did not claim that the circulation of knowledge could not occur. Rather, he pointed to methodological issues and intellectual tools for historians that would help them better understand the complexity of the process. He denied the heuristic values of leadership and backwardness, asserting that "economic growth has never been a process of mere replication." Instead, it depended entirely on the "special environments of individual countries"; diversity was therefore the cornerstone of his analysis of development paths. Rosenberg also stressed learning and the significance of mobile, skilled personnel for transmitting "noncodified knowledge." Since his seminal work first appeared, numerous case studies have lengthened this list of questions. In the spirit of Rosenberg's investigations, this article examines recent methodological innovations in order to understand the specificity of technical dissemination in the long term. Our principal argument is that although technology transfers might have taken place across long distances, the macroeconomic scale is nevertheless inappropriate for their study. Over many centuries, skills become embedded within specific communities because of their needs and constraints, their habits and symbols, and their territories. As Peter Mathias put it, techniques "were only the visible tip of a submerged mass of relationships."2 Therefore the transmission of techniques relied upon a whole set of resources, material and immaterial.3 Fundamentally, "techniques" are answers to specific needs and expectations. Their applications are not universal; they belong to a world of diversity, contingency, and heterogeneity. This has several implications. First, intermediaries and host communities were not neutral or passive; instead, they always adapted and translated the techniques they conveyed or received. The creation of hybrids—"creative imitation"—was intrinsic to dissemination, as each locality followed its own path. This challenges any notion of a universal pattern of growth.4 Techniques that originated from [End Page 537] different places and belonged to distinct generations frequently overlapped. Major questions here concern the identification of techniques—including the precise skills, materials, and processes involved—in reference to the diverse communities using them. Is it possible to follow one technique across multiple territories? What resources are available to the historian to identify techniques that were so rarely recorded and codified?5 What part did products play as conduits for technical knowledge? Are their appellations related to geographical origins or the names of their makers, or do identifying marks on the products themselves provide clues? The same sorts of questions can be applied to the routes. If failures were common, diversions were also frequent: madder dyeing, for example, which originated in India, had to be reimported several times through different routes between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries before it was actually learned and adopted in the West. Mythical origin narratives often conceal the absence of linearity by attributing a certain technique to one place or one people—or a certain technology transfer to one group or even...

Total effective compliance, hemodynamic parameters, extracellular fluid volume, cardiopulmonary (CPBV) and total blood (TBV) volumes were determined in 32 men, including 14 normotensive controls and 18 sustained essential hypertensive patients. The effective compliance was calculated from the changes in central venous pressure recorded simultaneously with the changes in blood volume obtained after a rapid Dextran infusion. In normotensive controls, compliance was 2.08 +/- 0.09 ml/mm Hg/kg and was positively correlated with plasma (r = 0.79) and extracellular fluid (r = 0.84) volumes. In hypertensives, compliance was significantly reduced (1.49 +/- 0.06 ml/mm Hg/kg; P is less than 0.001) and was correlated negatively with the CPBV/TBV ratio (r = -0.75) and positively with the plasma volume/interstitial fluid volume ratio (r = 0.84). These results suggest that in normotensives, there is a regulatory mechanism between volume and compliance and that this contributes to maintaining filling pressure and cardiac output within normal ranges. In hypertensives, the reduced compliance could participate in the maintenance of normal values of cardiac output and extracellular fluid volume by influencing the partition of intravascular and extracellular fluid volumes.

Histoire environnementale, anthropologie de la nature, sociologie de l’environnement… : on assiste, depuis une trentaine d’années, à la multiplication de sciences humaines et sociales qui prennent l’environnement pour objet, et revendiquent de voir ainsi leur épistémologie transformée. Le foisonnement de ces labels est tel que, aujourd’hui, certains souhaitent les rassembler sous une bannière commune, celle d’« humanités environnementales ».Plutôt qu’un manifeste, cet ouvrage propose une histoire des humanités environnementales au prisme des disciplines (anthropologie, histoire, philosophie, géographie, sociologie, études littéraires, sciences politiques, économie, droit). Il retrace pour la première fois l’émergence intellectuelle et institutionnelle de ces domaines d’étude. En prêtant attention à la pluralité des débats et des controverses passés, ce livre décrypte un paysage singulier de la recherche internationale contemporaine : celui des sciences humaines et sociales aux prises avec l’environnement.

La communauté d’apprentissage offre plusieurs possibilités de développement professionnel aux enseignants. Puisqu’un flou conceptuel règne autour de ce concept et qu’il nuit à son application, cet article en propose une définition englobante en fonction de ses dimensions affective, cognitive et idéologique. Selon l’analyse de contenu réalisée, la communauté d’apprentissage se définit comme un lieu de partage et de soutien entre enseignants. Elle permet la construction de savoirs individuels et collectifs, l’ajustement des pratiques et la recherche de sens. Les praticiens y apprivoisent un savoir savant ou participent à son élaboration, tout en contribuant à l’édification d’une vision partagée dans l’école.