Multiple Representations of Human Genetics in Biology Textbooks

Multiple ways of representing the emerging new genetic knowledge and its implications have resulted from recent research including the Human Genome Project. In this chapter, we discuss that the presentation of human genetics is now less deterministic, formulated in a more systemic approach, taking into account the interaction between the genes and their environment (epigenetics), discussing the notion of biological determinism, and including connections with ethical and social implications. How are these new genetic trends represented today in biology textbooks? Do multiple ways exist across cultures, languages, and countries? Two complementary sets of data are presented and discussed: (1) the representation of human genetic diseases in French biology textbooks, showing a frequent absence of a systemic approach with nevertheless some exceptions; and (2) a comparative analysis of biology textbooks in 16 countries, showing the common similarity in their use of an implicit message through the same clothes and hairstyle of identical twins, but strong differences--in their use of the metaphor genetic program--which depended on the sociocultural context of each country. We argue that the renewal of the taught representations of human genetics is not only correlated with the renewal of scientific knowledge, but also with implicit values underlying each country's sociocultural context

The genetic determinism of human performances. A comparison between teachers' conceptions in Finland and France

International audienceFinland has the best mean sciences scores among the OECD countries while France is in the OECD average (PISA 2006). Nevertheless, when measuring interactions between knowledge and values in teachers' conceptions, the comparison between the two countries shows surprising results. In the context of the European research project Biohead-Citizen, in-service and pre-service teachers filled out a questionnaire including 31 questions related to the genetic determinism of human performances. The samples (732 in France, 306 in Finland) comprised Primary School teachers and Secondary School Biology and Language teachers. The answers to the questions dealing with only scientific knowledge, or with only social values, did not differ with the country. Nevertheless, there are very significant differences for the interactions between knowledge and values mainly related to innatism: for instance, Finnish teachers more agree with the proposition "there are genetic factors in parents that predispose their children to be good in school" (or "good violinists"); or with "It is for biological reasons that women more often than men take care of housekeeping". Our results are analysed with different statistical tests including multivariate analyses. They are then discussed, taking into account the respective content of school textbooks in the two countries

A GENDER EFFECT RELATED TO TEACHERS' CONCEPTIONS ON BIOLOGICAL GENDER DIFFERENCES. A SURVEY IN 14 COUNTRIES

In the context of the European research project Biohead-Citizen, 5,706 in-service and pre-service teachers from 14 countries (most in Europe, but also in Africa and Middle East) filled in a questionnaire containing 16 questions mainly related to the existence and to the origins of differences between men and women. We analyse the teachers' answers on biological gender differences, as possible interactions between their scientific knowledge (K) and values (V). Nine questions were focused on possible KV interactions, dealing with biological and / or social differences between men and women. Five questions were related only to scientific knowledge and two questions only to values. In each country we applied the questionnaire to six different samples : pre-service and in-service primary schools teachers , and biology and national language upper schools teachers . The answers were submitted to multivariate analyses. The results confirm that biology teachers have more scientific knowledge on this issue than their colleagues. Nevertheless, the answers to questions related to sexist or hereditarianist values show very significant differences among countries, the less economically developed countries being more sexist than the other ones. There is a significant gender effect for the sexist variables. The ratio men / women being different from one country to another, and inside the six samples in each country, we suppressed these two effects to show that the gender effect is still significant independently to these variables. Female teachers are significantly less sexist than their male colleagues

Teachers' conceptions of biological determinism in five countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France and Italy

e-book: http://www.esera.org/media/eBook_2013/strand%2012/Pierre_Clement_09Jan2014.pdfInternational audienceThe interaction between the genome and its environment (epigenetics) is a new paradigm in biology. Nevertheless, the notion of genetic determinism is still present in syllabuses and textbooks. What about teachers' conceptions? We analyzed the teachers' conceptions related to the genetic determinism of human performances in five European countries, using 24 questions of the Biohead-Citizen questionnaire. The conceptions of the 2038 teachers, when grouped by country, show clear and significant differences, being more deterministic in the three countries of North Europe (Finland, Estonia, Denmark) than in Italy and France, and more sexist for only some of the related questions. When grouped by religion, the differences are significant but disappear after suppression of the country effect, while this last one does not disappear after suppression of the religion effect: there is no specific religion effect. There is a gender effect (female teachers being more feminist), an effect of the level of instruction at University (the most instructed teachers having more knowledge but also some more tolerant attitudes), and an effect of age (the oldest believing more in genetic determinism). A Co-Inertia analysis shows significant correlations between teachers' answers on genetic determinism with their political opinions: genetic determinism (as belief of heredity of intelligence) and intolerant attitudes (as sexism and racism) are correlated with the most conservative political opinions. Finally, we found a specific and paradoxical effect of biology training of teachers: biologist teachers have, without surprise, more knowledge than their colleagues, but are also more convinced of the importance of genetic determinism: their training in biology still needs to be improved by introducing the most recent concepts of genetics, as epigenetics

Les conceptions d'enseignants de 14 pays sur le déterminisme génétique de certaines performances et comportements humains.

National audienceLa génétique humaine vient de tourner le dos à l'ère du "tout-génétique" qui réduisait à un déterminisme génétique toute performance ou comportement humain, alors que ceux-ci émergent aussi d'apprentissages socioculturels dont le support biologique est l'épigenèse cérébrale. Les conceptions des enseignants ont-elles suivi ces changements ? Notre travail analyse les réponses de 5706 enseignants et futurs enseignants de 14 pays à des questions relatives à ces déterminismes génétiques. Leurs conceptions sont étudiées en tant qu'interactions entre valeurs et connaissances scientifiques, au moyen d'analyses multivariées. Elles varient très significativement d'un pays à un autre, mais elles sont aussi corrélées de façon plus ransversale à des convictions religieuses et politiques. Les valeurs qui fondent les conceptions innéistes / héréditaristes s'articulent le plus souvent sur des connaissances scientifiques périmées, issues de l'ère du tout-génétique, en particulier dans les six pays non européens de notre échantillon. Inversement, en Italie et en France, l'interaction KV (connaissances / valeurs) s'appuie sur des connaissances plus actuelles et des valeurs moins fatalistes. Cependant, dans certains pays comme la Finlande, des conceptions héréditaristes co-habitent avec des connaissances scientifiques assez actualisées. L'importance d'analyser ces interactions est soulignée pour rendre l'enseignement de la biologie plus citoyen

Le droit de l’eau en France entre permanences et mutations

Depuis toujours, l’homme a tenu, par nécessité vitale, à disposer, voire à maîtriser l’eau. Le droit n’avait d’autre fonction que d’aménager la disposition ou la maîtrise de l’eau. Toute l’évolution du droit peut s’analyser comme un contrôle de plus en plus serré de l’usage de la ressource hydraulique qui obéit à des contraintes physiques, géographiques, climatiques… Ainsi, il y a le droit de l’eau des pays arides et celui des pays humides ; il y a ceux qui luttent pour l’eau et ceux qui luttent contre elle. Car, au-dessus de la libre disposition des hommes, la nature fixe sa loi. Les contraintes peuvent être aujourd’hui plus vives, elles ne sont pas nouvelles. Ce que mettent bien en lumière l’évolution du droit de l’eau et la permanence des traditions.S’il s’agit d’un droit qui tient beaucoup à l’histoire, force est bien de reconnaître qu’il n’est pas figé et qu’il doit sans cesse s’adapter pour répondre aux évolutions de notre société. Les dernières lois en France ont mis en évidence la notion de l’eau patrimoine commun. Cette notion n’est pas propre à la France : l’eau est régulièrement proclamée comme « bien public », et plus récemment « droit humanitaire ». On ne peut négliger de nos jours les dimensions européenne et internationale du droit de l’eau. Le manque d’eau, catastrophique dans certains pays, et la pollution imposent à l’heure actuelle une plus large politique. Celle-ci dépasse les seuls cadres nationaux ; les principes juridiques classiques sont vite dépassés. On retrouve à l’échelon mondial les préoccupations économiques et sociales du droit de l’eau qui vont désormais au-delà de la simple réglementation.Since the dawn of civilization, humankind has, owing to sheer necessity, required access to water and to the harnessing of water. In its broadest sense, law has had no other purpose than to provide a framework for the accessing or harnessing of water. The evolution of such law may be analyzed as an increasingly tight control over the use of hydraulic resources that are subservient to physical, geographical and climatic constraints. Thus it stands that there is law governing arid lands and law regulating humid ones. So above and beyond humankind’s free access to water, Mother Nature dictates her law. Current constraints may be more demanding, but they bear nothing new. The preceding sheds light upon the evolution of laws governing water and the perennial nature of tradition.While such law is firmly grounded in history, one must recognize that it is not static and has to be continuously adapted in answer to the needs of our society. Recent legislation in France has drawn attention to the concept of water being a common patrimonial heritage. This concept is not limited to France since water is regularly stated as being a “public heritage” and more recently as a “humanitarian right.” In our times, European and international dimensions to the right to water cannot be overlooked. Scarcity of water, which is catastrophic in some countries, and pollution underscore the current need for all encompassing public policy. This goes far beyond mere national borderlines for classical legal principles are rapidly overtaken. Worldwide we are witnessing the economic and social concerns for rights to water that extend far beyond ordinary regulatory measures

Interpreting liver stiffness in the cirrhotic range: What are we measuring?

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Les professeurs de droit membres du Conseil Constitutionnel

Since the establishment of the Constitutional Council, eleven law professors have joined the institution. This thesis then began to understand and define the mechanisms behind their selection, their specific roles in the decision-making process so as to define their contributions to the constitutional court. It appears then necessary to reconsider the conditions of access to the Constitutional Council as their contribution to the development and the development of working methods and jurisprudence of the Constitutional Council was considerably developed to deepen the relationship between teaching office and judicial function.Depuis la création du Conseil constitutionnel, onze professeurs de droit ont accédé à l’institution. Il s’agit ici de comprendre et de définir les mécanismes à l’origine de leur sélection, leurs rôles spécifiques dans le processus d’élaboration des décisions de façon à délimiter leurs apports à la juridiction constitutionnelle. Il apparaît alors nécessaire de repenser les conditions d’accès au Conseil constitutionnel tant la contribution de ces universitaires à l’élaboration et à l’essor des méthodes de travail et de la jurisprudence du Conseil constitutionnel a été considérable, au point d’approfondir les rapports entre fonction doctrinale et fonction de juger

Metaheuristic methods applied to the environmentally conscious optimization of wood-plastic composite

This paper addresses the optimization of the quality of wood plastic composites(WPC) designed for outdoor uses such as decking, taking into account theenvironmental impact during the life cycle of the product, from production to end oflife. In a context where several conflicting objectives must be satisfied simultaneouslyin the design process, meta-heuristic approaches provide efficient methods foroptimization. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) has been chosen here to solve acomplex problem in which physical properties such as creep and duration of load,water absorption and swelling, need to be improved with a limited impact onenvironment. This requires to get reliable information on material properties as relatedto its composition, environmental impacts through life cycle analysis (LCA), and toimplement this information through analytical or probabilistic models in the PSOalgorithm in order to obtain a set of optimal solutions for the composite. This papershows the feasibility of this approach, which can be generalized in the design of anytype of composite structures, provided objective functions can be specified