Saint-Amand-de-Coly – Enclos abbatial

L’église abbatiale de Saint-Amand-de-Coly (c. 1120-début xiiie s.) qui appartient à un monastère de fondation légendaire remontant au vie s. est inscrite dans un enclos prenant l’aspect d’une enceinte fortifiée. Le projet scientifique, initié par une prospection électrique en 2014, étudie les modalités de la topographie interne, des maisons canoniales à l’habitat communautaire, l’évolution de la fortification, des installations artisanales à la culture matérielle et aux ressources naturelles...

La grande église à plan centré du quartier est de Bosra

Les fouilles menées par la mission archéologique franco-syrienne en Syrie du Sud entre 1985 et 2000 ont permis de découvrir et dégager une grande église à plan centré dans le quartier oriental de la ville antique de Bosra. Entièrement bâtie en basalte, elle présente un vaste espace central de presque 30 m de diamètre délimité par une colonnade circulaire et un déambulatoire inscrits dans un bâtiment de plan carré dont les quatre angles contiennent de larges exèdres. Sur les quatre côtés du bâtiment, des constructions largement saillantes prennent appui. L'église est fondée sur un remblai massif recouvrant deux monuments d'époques protobyzantine et nabatéenne à vocation peut-être cultuelle. Plusieurs de leurs éléments ont été remployés dans la construction de l'église élevée à la fin du Ve ou au début du VIe siècle et manifestement abandonnée à la fin du VIIIe siècle. Le réexamen des vestiges de cet ouvrage majeur pour la ville et pour l'architecture religieuse d'époque byzantine en Syrie permet de formuler des hypothèses sur sa restitution volumétrique et sur les modes de couvertures adoptés pour ses différents composants. Deux modes de couverture sont fréquemment mis en œuvre en Syrie du Sud : la couverture en dalles de basalte jointives et les voûtes en opus caementicum, agglomérat de mortier et de scories basaltiques légères. Les vestiges en place nous fournissent fort peu d'indices et nous privilégions ces deux types de couverture pour les pièces annexes qui composent cette vaste église. En revanche, la coupole de l'espace central et la couverture du déambulatoire sont plus problématiques en raison de leur grande portée et il serait tentant d'envisager, à cet endroit, une solution utilisant le bois, coupole à deux coques imbriquées pour l'une et charpente en demi ferme couverte de tuiles pour l'autre

Real forms of some Gizatullin surfaces and Koras-Russell threefolds

Altres ajuts: The first two authors acknowledge support by the Swiss National Science Foundation grant "Geometrically ruled surfaces" 200020-192217.We describe the real forms of Gizatullin surfaces of the form xy = p(z) and of Koras-Russell threefolds of the first kind. The former admit zero, two, three, four, or six isomorphism classes of real forms, depending on the degree and the symmetries of the polynomial p. The latter, which are threefolds given by an equation of the form x dy + z k + x + t l = 0, all admit exactly one real form up to isomorphism

Complements of hypersurfaces in projective spaces

We study the complement problem in projective spaces $\mathbb{P}^n$ over any algebraically closed field: If $H, H' \subseteq \mathbb{P}^n$ are irreducible hypersurfaces of degree $d$ such that the complements $\mathbb{P}^n \setminus H$, $\mathbb{P}^n \setminus H'$ are isomorphic, are the hypersurfaces $H$, $H'$ isomorphic? For $n = 2$, the answer is positive if $d\leq 7$ and there are counterexamples when $d = 8$. In contrast we provide counterexamples for all $n, d \geq 3$ with $(n, d) \neq (3, 3)$. Moreover, we show that the complement problem has an affirmative answer for $d = 2$ and give partial results in case $(n, d) = (3, 3)$. In the course of the exposition, we prove that rational normal projective surfaces admitting a desingularisation by trees of smooth rational curves are piecewise isomorphic if and only if they coincide in the Grothendieck ring, answering affirmatively a question posed by Larsen and Lunts for such surfaces.Comment: 36 page

Le développement du moulin hydraulique à roue horizontale à l’époque omeyyade : à propos d’un moulin sur l’aqueduc de Bosra (Syrie du Sud)

En 2005 et 2006, en marge de l’étude de l’aqueduc de Bosra par la Mission archéologique française en Syrie du Sud, un moulin hydraulique a été fouillé et daté de l’époque omeyyade. Il s’agit d’un moulin hydraulique double placé en aval d’un réservoir situé sur l’aqueduc. Deux chutes d’eau obliques permettaient de faire tourner deux roues horizontales qui actionnaient les meules par un système de transmission directe. Ce moulin hydraulique s’inscrit dans une petite série de moulins récemment étudiés et bien datés au Proche-Orient. Ils tendent à démontrer que la roue horizontale, bien que plus simple à mettre en œuvre que la roue verticale, n’a pas été utilisée au Proche-Orient avant le début de l’époque islamique. Dans l’état actuel de la recherche, on peut dire que la roue horizontale a été introduite à l’époque omeyyade et utilisée d’abord avec des chutes d’eau obliques, avant l’introduction du système de la chute d’eau verticale et conduite forcée qui s’est généralisé à l’époque médiévale.In 2005 and 2006, while studying the aqueduct of Bosra, the French archaeological mission in Southern Syria excavated a water mill that was dated to the Umayyad period. It is a double water mill situated downstream from a reservoir built on the aqueduct. Two horizontal wheels were powered by two oblique water chutes. Millstones were then rotated by direct transmission. This water mill belongs to a small series of Near Eastern mills that were recently studied and well dated. They tend to demonstrate that the horizontal-wheeled mill, even if easier to conceive than the vertical-wheeled mill, was not used in the Near East before the early Islamic period. Considering the data presently at hand, the horizontal‑wheeled mill was introduced in the Umayyad period and was first used with oblique water chutes, before the later introduction of the so-called drop-tower, which was in general use during the Medieval period.خلاصة – في عامي 2005 و 2006، وعلى هامش دراسة قناة بصرى من قبل البعثة الأثرية الفرنسية في سورية الجنوبية، تم تنقيب طاحونة مائية وتأريخها من العصر الأموي. وهي عبارة عن طاحونة مائية مزدوجة قائمة عند سافلة خزان يقع على القناة. وكان مسقطان للمياه بشكل مائل يسمحان بدوران عجلتين أفقيتين كانتا تحركان حجري الرحى بواسطة نظام نقل مباشر. وتندرج هذه الطاحونة المائية ضمن سلسلة صغيرة من الطواحين المدروسة حديثاً والمؤرخة جيداً في الشرق الأدنى. وهي تميل إلى البرهان على أن العجلة الأفقية، على الرغم من كونها أبسط من العمودية في التشغيل، لم تستخدم في الشرق الأدنى قبل بداية العصر الإسلامي. وضمن الوضع الحالي للأبحاث فإن العجلة الأفقية كانت قد أدخلت خلال العصر الأموي واستخدمت أولاً في مساقط المياه المائلة، قبل إدخال نظام سقوط المياه العمودية والمسار الإجباري الأمر الذي تعمم خلال العصور الوسطى

American Branch Report 1996

The seventh annual dinner of the American branch was held at the I Matti restaurant in Washington, D.C. on 29 December 1996. There was no formal programme, but the traditional toast was offered and greetings were delivered from members who could not attend. Those present particularly appreciated the messages from Kathleen and Bill Adams and from Harriet Williams. While we enjoyed excellent Italian food, there was lively conversation about recent works on George Eliot, film versions of various nineteenth-century novels, and our own projects and recent reading. Those in attendance were Marjorie Goss, Shoshana Knapp, Lee Pierson, Meri-Jane Rochelson, Ed Smith, and Linda K. Robertson. Ed Smith volunteered to prepare a Special Session proposal on George Eliot for next year\u27s Modern Language Association convention in Toronto

Interactive procedural simulation of paper tearing with sound

International audienceWe present a phenomenological model for the real-time simulation of paper tearing and sound. The model uses as input rotations of the hand along with the index and thumb of left and right hands to drive the position and orientation of two regions of a sheet of paper. The motion of the hands produces a cone shaped deformation of the paper and guides the formation and growth of the tear. We create a model for the direction of the tear based on empirical observation, and add detail to the tear with a directed noise model. Furthermore, we present a procedural sound synthesis method to produce tearing sounds during interaction. We show a variety of paper tearing examples and discuss applications and limitations

Eukaryotic Initiation Factor 2B (eIF2B) GEF Activity as a Diagnostic Tool for EIF2B-Related Disorders

BACKGROUND:In recent years, the phenotypes of leukodystrophies linked to mutations in the eukaryotic initiation factor 2B genes have been extended, classically called CACH/VWM (Childhood ataxia with cntral hypomyélination/vanishing white matter disorder). The large clinical spectrum observed from the more severe antenatal forms responsible for fetal death to milder adult forms with an onset after 16 years old and restricted to slow cognitive impairment have lead to the concept of eIF2B-related disorders. The typical MRI pattern with a diffuse CSF-like aspect of the cerebral white matter can lack particularly in the adult forms whereas an increasing number of patients with clinical and MRI criteria for CACH/VWM disease but without eIF2B mutations are found. Then we propose the use of biochemical markers to help in this difficult diagnosis. The biochemical diagnosis of eIF2B-related disorder is difficult as no marker, except the recently described asialotransferrin/transferrin ratio measured in cerebrospinal fluid, has been proposed and validated until now. Decreased eIF2B GEF activity has been previously reported in lymphoblastoid cell lines from 30 eIF2B-mutated patients. Our objective was to evaluate further the utility of this marker and to validate eIF2B GEF activity in a larger cohort as a specific diagnostic test for eIF2B-related disorders. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We performed eIF2B GEF activity assays in cells from 63 patients presenting with different clinical forms and eIF2B mutations in comparison to controls but also to patients with defined leukodystrophies or CACH/VWM-like diseases without eIF2B mutations. We found a significant decrease of GEF activity in cells from eIF2B-mutated patients with 100% specificity and 89% sensitivity when the activity threshold was set at < or =77.5%. CONCLUSION:These results validate the measurement of eIF2B GEF activity in patients' transformed-lymphocytes as an important tool for the diagnosis of eIF2B-related disorders

Patient and physician perspectives of a smartphone application for depression: a qualitative study

Background: Despite an increasing number of smartphone apps, such therapeutic tools have not yet consistently demonstrated their efficacy and many suffer from low retention rates. To ensure the development of efficient apps associated with high adherence, we aimed to identify, through a user-centred design approach, patient and physician expectations of a hypothetical app dedicated to depression. Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with physicians (psychiatrists and general practitioners) and patients who had experienced a major depressive episode during the last 12 months using the focus group method. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed using qualitative content analysis to define codes, categories and emergent themes. Results: A total of 26 physicians and 24 patients were included in the study. The focus groups showed balanced sex and age distributions. Most participants owned a smartphone (83.3% of patients, 96.1% of physicians) and were app users (79.2% of patients and 96.1% of physicians). The qualitative content analysis revealed 3 main themes: content, operating characteristics and barriers to the use of the app. Expected content included the data collected by the app, aiming to provide information about the patient, data provided by the app, gathering psychoeducation elements, therapeutic tools and functionalities to help with the management of daily life and features expected for this tool. The "operating characteristics" theme gathered aims considered for the app, its potential target users, considered modalities of use and considerations around its accessibility and security of use. Finally, barriers to the use of the app included concerns about potential app users, its accessibility, safety, side-effects, utility and functioning. All themes and categories were the same for patients and physicians. Conclusions: Physician and patient expectations of a hypothetical smartphone app dedicated to depression are high and confirmed the important role it could play in depression care. The key points expected by the users for such a tool are an easy and intuitive use and a personalised content. They are also waiting for an app that gives information about depression, offers a self-monitoring functionality and helps them in case of emergency