Changing cultural attitudes towards female genital cutting

As globalization brings people with incompatible attitudes into contact, cultural conflicts inevitably arise. Little is known about how to mitigate conflict and about how the conflicts that occur can shape the cultural evolution of the groups involved. Female genital cutting is a prominent example1, 2, 3. Governments and international agencies have promoted the abandonment of cutting for decades, but the practice remains widespread with associated health risks for millions of girls and women4, 5. In their efforts to end cutting, international agents have often adopted the view that cutting is locally pervasive and entrenched1. This implies the need to introduce values and expectations from outside the local culture. Members of the target society may view such interventions as unwelcome intrusions1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, and campaigns promoting abandonment have sometimes led to backlash1, 7, 8, 10, 11 as they struggle to reconcile cultural tolerance with the conviction that cutting violates universal human rights1, 9. Cutting, however, is not necessarily locally pervasive and entrenched1, 3, 12. We designed experiments on cultural change that exploited the existence of conflicting attitudes within cutting societies. We produced four entertaining movies that served as experimental treatments in two experiments in Sudan, and we developed an implicit association test to unobtrusively measure attitudes about cutting. The movies depart from the view that cutting is locally pervasive by dramatizing members of an extended family as they confront each other with divergent views about whether the family should continue cutting. The movies significantly improved attitudes towards girls who remain uncut, with one in particular having a relatively persistent effect. These results show that using entertainment to dramatize locally discordant views can provide a basis for applied cultural evolution without accentuating intercultural divisions

Epstein-Barr Virus LMP2A Reduces Hyperactivation Induced by LMP1 to Restore Normal B Cell Phenotype in Transgenic Mice

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) latently infects most of the human population and is strongly associated with lymphoproliferative disorders. EBV encodes several latency proteins affecting B cell proliferation and survival, including latent membrane protein 2A (LMP2A) and the EBV oncoprotein LMP1. LMP1 and LMP2A signaling mimics CD40 and BCR signaling, respectively, and has been proposed to alter B cell functions including the ability of latently-infected B cells to access and transit the germinal center. In addition, several studies suggested a role for LMP2A modulation of LMP1 signaling in cell lines by alteration of TRAFs, signaling molecules used by LMP1. In this study, we investigated whether LMP1 and LMP2A co-expression in a transgenic mouse model alters B cell maturation and the response to antigen, and whether LMP2A modulates LMP1 function. Naïve LMP1/2A mice had similar lymphocyte populations and antibody production by flow cytometry and ELISA compared to controls. In the response to antigen, LMP2A expression in LMP1/2A animals rescued the impairment in germinal center generation promoted by LMP1. LMP1/2A animals produced high-affinity, class-switched antibody and plasma cells at levels similar to controls. In vitro, LMP1 upregulated activation markers and promoted B cell hyperproliferation, and co-expression of LMP2A restored a wild-type phenotype. By RT-PCR and immunoblot, LMP1 B cells demonstrated TRAF2 levels four-fold higher than non-transgenic controls, and co-expression of LMP2A restored TRAF2 levels to wild-type levels. No difference in TRAF3 levels was detected. While modulation of other TRAF family members remains to be assessed, normalization of the LMP1-induced B cell phenotype through LMP2A modulation of TRAF2 may be a pathway by which LMP2A controls B cell function. These findings identify an advance in the understanding of how Epstein-Barr virus can access the germinal center in vivo, a site critical for both the genesis of immunological memory and of virus-associated tumors

Interface solide-solide « mise en evidence par études viscoélastiques du rôle des agents interfaciaux dans un composite verre-epoxyde »

Les caractéristiques viscoélastiques (E’, tg δ) de composites unidirectionnels polyépoxyde/fibres de verre ont été déterminées en soumettant l’échantillon à des sollicitations mécaniques dynamiques en flexion trois points. La présence d’un agent de couplage aminosilane à la surface des fibres se manifeste essentiellement par une augmentation du module au plateau caoutchoutique et une diminution du pic d’amortissement, notamment lorsque les fibres font un angle θ = 30° avec l’axe de l’échantillon. Cette évolution est reliée à une rigidification de la zone interfaciale en présence d’aminosilane A1100

Étude microcalorimétrique de la sorption d'eau sur des fibres et des grains de polytéréphtalate d'éthylène-glycol

Le couplage microcalorimétrie-gravimétrie a été utilisé pour déterminer le profil énergétique de la sorption d'eau sur des grains et des fibres de polytéréplitalate d'éthylène-glycol à 25 °C.Les résultats obtenus ont mis en évidence l'hétérogénéité de la surface du polymère vis-à-vis de l'eau et l'apparition d'un phénomène de gonflement avec nouvelle accessibilité du solvant. Cette nouvelle accessibilité apparaît à une pression relative d'autant plus forte que le taux de cristallinité, élevé par traitement thermique, est plus important.Des études de rétention de vapeurs et de cinétique de diffusion ont permis de mieux préciser le mécanisme de sorption de la vapeur d'eau