the politics of atrocity the scandal in the french congo 1905

On February 15, 1905, the mass-circulation Petit Parisien reported that one Georges Toquet, a colonial administrator, had been charged with "assassination and violence against several natives" from the French Congo. The following day all the major Parisian papers and several provincial ones led with a much larger story of what the Petit Parisien was already calling France's "Scandales Coloniaux". Two colonial administrators "laid their hands on a young black man, whom they bound tightly with rope". They then inserted "a stick of dynamite… in the African's anus and blew him up". The structure and style of these stories closely resembled the typical fait divers, or miscellaneous (crime) story, of the Belle Epoque. Only, unlike most mainland faits divers , the Congo story had potentially serious political consequences. "It was the prelude", as the Petit Parisien declared, "to an enormous scandal in the colonial world". Sociologists define scandal as an event that implicates important people and often members of the government. It involves transgressions, or perceived transgressions, against widely accepted moral standards and as such could call the reputations of key individuals into question. Scandals could change the relations of power in a society, or reaffirm existing values and mores. Although the Congo scandal would ultimately serve to reinforce prevailing ideas about the merits of colonialism in France, government officials could not, at the outset, be confident that such would be the case

Safety and Tolerability of SER-109 as an Investigational Microbiome Therapeutic in Adults With Recurrent Clostridioides difficile Infection: A Phase 3, Open-Label, Single-Arm Trial

IMPORTANCE: A safe and effective treatment for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is urgently needed. Antibiotics kill toxin-producing bacteria but do not repair the disrupted microbiome, which promotes spore germination and infection recurrence. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the safety and rate of CDI recurrence after administration of investigational microbiome therapeutic SER-109 through 24 weeks. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This phase 3, single-arm, open-label trial (ECOSPOR IV) was conducted at 72 US and Canadian outpatient sites from October 2017 to April 2022. Adults aged 18 years or older with recurrent CDI were enrolled in 2 cohorts: (1) rollover patients from the ECOSPOR III trial who had CDI recurrence diagnosed by toxin enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and (2) patients with at least 1 CDI recurrence (diagnosed by polymerase chain reaction [PCR] or toxin EIA), inclusive of their acute infection at study entry. INTERVENTIONS: SER-109 given orally as 4 capsules daily for 3 days following symptom resolution after antibiotic treatment for CDI. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The main outcomes were safety, measured as the rate of treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) in all patients receiving any amount of SER-109, and cumulative rates of recurrent CDI (toxin-positive diarrhea requiring treatment) through week 24 in the intent-to-treat population. RESULTS: Of 351 patients screened, 263 were enrolled (180 [68.4%] female; mean [SD] age, 64.0 [15.7] years); 29 were in cohort 1 and 234 in cohort 2. Seventy-seven patients (29.3%) were enrolled with their first CDI recurrence. Overall, 141 patients (53.6%) had TEAEs, which were mostly mild to moderate and gastrointestinal. There were 8 deaths (3.0%) and 33 patients (12.5%) with serious TEAEs; none were considered treatment related by the investigators. Overall, 23 patients (8.7%; 95% CI, 5.6%-12.8%) had recurrent CDI at week 8 (4 of 29 [13.8%; 95% CI, 3.9%-31.7%] in cohort 1 and 19 of 234 [8.1%; 95% CI, 5.0%-12.4%] in cohort 2), and recurrent CDI rates remained low through 24 weeks (36 patients [13.7%; 95% CI, 9.8%-18.4%]). At week 8, recurrent CDI rates in patients with a first recurrence were similarly low (5 of 77 [6.5%; 95% CI, 2.1%-14.5%]) as in patients with 2 or more recurrences (18 of 186 [9.7%; 95% CI, 5.8%-14.9%]). Analyses by select baseline characteristics showed consistently low recurrent CDI rates in patients younger than 65 years vs 65 years or older (5 of 126 [4.0%; 95% CI, 1.3%-9.0%] vs 18 of 137 [13.1%; 95% CI, 8.0%-20.0%]) and patients enrolled based on positive PCR results (3 of 69 [4.3%; 95% CI, 0.9%-12.2%]) vs those with positive toxin EIA results (20 of 192 [10.4%; 95% CI, 6.5%-15.6%]). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this trial, oral SER-109 was well tolerated in a patient population with recurrent CDI and prevalent comorbidities. The rate of recurrent CDI was low regardless of the number of prior recurrences, demographics, or diagnostic approach, supporting the beneficial impact of SER-109 for patients with CDI. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03183141

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

La política de la atrocidad: el escándalo en el Congo francés (1905)

On February 15, 1905, the mass-circulation Petit Parisien reported that one Georges Toquet, a colonial administrator, had been charged with “assassination and violence against several natives” from the French Congo. The following day all the major Parisian papers and several provincial ones led with a much larger story of what the Petit Parisien was already calling France’s “Scandales Coloniaux”. Two colonial administrators “laid their hands on a young black man, whom they bound tightly with rope”. They then inserted “a stick of dynamite… in the African’s anus and blew him up”. The structure and style of these stories closely resembled the typical fait divers, or miscellaneous (crime) story, of the Belle Epoque. Only, unlike most mainland faits divers, the Congo story had potentially serious political consequences. “It was the prelude”, as the Petit Parisien declared, “to an enormous scandal in the colonial world”. Sociologists define scandal as an event that implicates important people and often members of the government. It involves transgressions, or perceived transgressions, against widely accepted moral standards and as such could call the reputations of key individuals into question. Scandals could change the relations of power in a society, or reaffirm existing values and mores. Although the Congo scandal would ultimately serve to reinforce prevailing ideas about the merits of colonialism in France, government officials could not, at the outset, be confident that such would be the case.El 15 de febrero de 1905 el periódico de gran circulación Le Petit Parisien informó de que un administrador colonial, de nombre Georges Toquet, había sido acusado del cargo de «asesinato y violencia contra varios nativos» en el Congo francés. Al día siguiente, los principales periódicos de París, así como muchos otros de provincias, aportaron más detalles sobre un asunto al que Le Petit parisien se refería ya como a los «escándalos coloniales» de Francia. Dos administradores coloniales «se abalanzaron sobre un joven negro, a quien ataron fuertemente con una cuerda». A continuación insertaron «un cartucho de dinamita… en el ano del africano y lo hicieron saltar por los aires». La estructura y estilo de este tipo de historias se asemeja a los típicos fait divers, o variopintas historias (de crímenes), típicas de la Belle Époque. Con la gran diferencia, sin embargo, de que en comparación con la mayoría de faits divers, la historia del Congo tenía el potencial de acarrear consecuencias políticas profundas. «Fue el preludio», declaró Le Petit Parisien, «de un enorme escándalo en el mundo colonial». Los sociólogos definen el escándalo como un suceso que implica a personajes notorios y a menudo a miembros de Gobierno. Implica un conjunto de transgresiones, o por lo menos lo que es percibido como una transgresión, contra los valores morales predominantes en una sociedad y por ello tienen la capacidad de minar la reputación de los individuos afectados. Los escándalos tienen el potencial de cambiar el poder en una sociedad, pero también de reafirmar los valores y costumbres preponderantes. Aunque el escándalo del Congo finalmente llevaría a reforzar los argumentos preexistentes sobre los méritos del colonialismo en Francia, los miembros del gobierno no podían estar seguros, por lo menos en un principio, de que este sería su desenlace final