Jean Favier (1932-2014)

Jean Favier em 2005 Em Agosto de 2014 deixou-nos Jean Favier (JF), membro do Institut de France / Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (AIBL) e professor emérito da Universidade de Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV). Natural de Paris, JF cursou a École des Chartes (1952 ss.), obtendo em 1956 o diploma de archiviste paléographe, após defesa de uma tese sobre Enguerran de Marigny. Nos dois anos subsequentes foi aluno da École Française de Rome, ao que se seguiu um período como conservateur aux Ar..

New records of true bugs (Hemiptera, Heteroptera) from the Maltese Islands

A list of 133 species of heteropteran bugs collected from the Maltese Islands is presented; 21 of them are new records for the Maltese archipelago whereas an additional 15 represent new records for individual islands of this archipelago. The new records are of native origin in the Maltese Islands with the exception of Corythauma ayyari which is an Oriental species rapidly expanding its distribution range in Europe and Saudi Arabia. Earlier records of Capsodes gothicus and Gonocerus insidiator from Malta are incorrect and should refer to C. vittiventris and G. imitator respectively. The presence of Tuponia brevirostris in Malta is confirmed since this record was previously based only on the catalogue of Palaearctic Heteroptera without original data. A total of 15 species previously reported from the Maltese Islands are considered as doubtful. Considering the results of the present paper with additions and corrections made to the checklist of Maltese Heteroptera, the total number of confirmed records is augmented to 232 (221 in Malta, 74 on Gozo and 38 on Comino)peer-reviewe

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected

Access to HIV care in the context of universal test and treat: challenges within the ANRS 12249 TasP cluster-randomized trial in rural South Africa

Introduction: We aimed to quantify and identify associated factors of linkage to HIV care following home-based HIV counselling and testing (HBHCT) in the ongoing ANRS 12249 treatment-as-prevention (TasP) cluster-randomized trial in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Methods: Individuals ]16 years were offered HBHCT; those who were identified HIV positive were referred to cluster-based TasP clinics and offered antiretroviral treatment (ART) immediately (five clusters) or according to national guidelines (five clusters). HIV care was also available in the local Department of Health (DoH) clinics. Linkage to HIV care was defined as TasP or DoH clinic attendance within three months of referral among adults not in HIV care at referral. Associated factors were identified using multivariable logistic regression adjusted for trial arm. Results: Overall, 1323 HIV-positive adults (72.9% women) not in HIV care at referral were included, of whom 36.9% (n488) linked to care B3 months of referral (similar by sex). In adjusted analyses (n1222), individuals who had never been in HIV care before referral were significantly less likely to link to care than those who had previously been in care (B33% vs. 42%, pB0.001). Linkage to care was lower in students (adjusted odds-ratio [aOR] 0.47; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.240.92) than in employed adults, in adults who completed secondary school (aOR0.68; CI 0.490.96) or at least some secondary school (aOR0.59; CI 0.410.84) versus 5 primary school, in those who lived at 1 to 2 km (aOR0.58; CI 0.440.78) or 25 km from the nearest TasP clinic (aOR0.57; CI 0.410.77) versus B1 km, and in those who were referred to clinic after ]2 contacts (aOR0.75; CI 0.580.97) versus those referred at the first contact. Linkage to care was higher in adults who reported knowing an HIV-positive family member (aOR1.45; CI 1.121.86) versus not, and in those who said that they would take ART as soon as possible if they were diagnosed HIV positive (aOR2.16; CI 1.134.10) versus not. Conclusions: Fewer than 40% of HIV-positive adults not in care at referral were linked to HIV care within three months of HBHCT in the TasP trial. Achieving universal test and treat coverage will require innovative interventions to support linkage to HIV care

Spectral Distortions of the CMB as a Probe of Inflation, Recombination, Structure Formation and Particle Physics

Following the pioneering observations with COBE in the early 1990s, studies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) have focused on temperature and polarization anisotropies. CMB spectral distortions - tiny departures of the CMB energy spectrum from that of a perfect blackbody - provide a second, independent probe of fundamental physics, with a reach deep into the primordial Universe. The theoretical foundation of spectral distortions has seen major advances in recent years, which highlight the immense potential of this emerging field. Spectral distortions probe a fundamental property of the Universe - its thermal history - thereby providing additional insight into processes within the cosmological standard model (CSM) as well as new physics beyond. Spectral distortions are an important tool for understanding inflation and the nature of dark matter. They shed new light on the physics of recombination and reionization, both prominent stages in the evolution of our Universe, and furnish critical information on baryonic feedback processes, in addition to probing primordial correlation functions at scales inaccessible to other tracers. In principle the range of signals is vast: many orders of magnitude of discovery space could be explored by detailed observations of the CMB energy spectrum. Several CSM signals are predicted and provide clear experimental targets, some of which are already observable with present-day technology. Confirmation of these signals would extend the reach of the CSM by orders of magnitude in physical scale as the Universe evolves from the initial stages to its present form. The absence of these signals would pose a huge theoretical challenge, immediately pointing to new physics.Comment: Astro2020 Science White Paper, 5 pages text, 13 pages in total, 3 Figures, minor update to reference

Delenda est haec Carthago: the Ostend company as a problem of European great power politics (1722-1727)

The Ostend Company (1722-1731) is a symbol of present-day Belgium’s strangling by European Great Power politics in the Ancien Régime, and more specifically of the limitations imposed on the Southern Netherlands by the Dutch Republic in 1648. The present contribution analyses the right of Emperor Charles VI to send out ships to the East Indies. Pamphlets by Abraham Westerveen and Jean Barbeyrac, argued for the exclusion of the Southern Netherlands based on the Treaty of Munster. Against this, Patrice de Neny and Jean du Mont invoked the peremptory character of the natural law-rules governing free trade. However, the Treaty of Commerce concluded between Charles VI and Philip V, King of Spain, on 1 May 1725, constituted a strong basis to refute the Dutch attacks. Yet, norm hierarchy between the balance of power inscribed in the Peace of Utrecht and secondary bilateral treaties between sovereigns dominated multilateral diplomacy after 1713 and prejudiced the “Belgian” East India trade

The early modern transmission of the ancient Greek romances : a bibliographic survey

This contribution offers a new, critical bibliography of translations and editions of the five extant Greek romances in the early modern era, from the beginning of printing to the eighteenth century. By consulting catalogues of libraries, digitalised copies, and secondary literature, I expand, update and correct earlier bibliographies. I identify alleged editions and include creative treatments of the texts as well as incomplete versions. As an interpretation of my survey, I give an overview of broad, changing tendencies throughout the era and filter the dispersion over Europe in a wider area and period than was available so far, in order to get a more complete picture of their distribution. Furthermore, I point to some peculiar (tendencies in) combinations, among the lemmata themselves, as well as with other stories

NIKA2: a mm camera for cluster cosmology

Galaxy clusters constitute a major cosmological probe. However, Planck 2015 results have shown a weak tension between CMB-derived and cluster-derived cosmological parameters. This tension might be due to poor knowledge of the cluster mass and observable relationship. As for now, arcmin resolution Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) observations ({\it e.g.} SPT, ACT and Planck) only allowed detailed studies of the intra cluster medium for low redshift clusters ($z0.5$) high resolution and high sensitivity SZ observations are needed. With both a wide field of view (6.5 arcmin) and a high angular resolution (17.7 and 11.2 arcsec at 150 and 260 GHz), the NIKA2 camera installed at the IRAM 30-m telescope (Pico Veleta, Spain) is particularly well adapted for these observations. The NIKA2 SZ observation program will map a large sample of clusters (50) at redshifts between 0.5 and 0.9. As a pilot study for NIKA2, several clusters of galaxies have been observed with the pathfinder, NIKA, at the IRAM 30-m telescope to cover the various configurations and observation conditions expected for NIKA2.