A cosmopolitan temptation

For some, the transnationalization of political action and communicative space in the European Union heralds an emergent cosmopolitan order. Need that be so? There are supranational institutions in the EU as well as transnational political and cultural spaces and cross-border communicative flows. However, the Union's member states remain key controllers of citizenship rights and purveyors of collective identities. And for many purposes they still maintain strongly bounded national public spheres. Because the EU's overall character as a polity remains unresolved, this has consequences for the organization of communicative spaces. The EU is a field of tensions and contradictions that is inescapably rooted in institutional realities. Wishful thinking about cosmopolitanism can get in the way of clear analysis

Trichostatin A, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, modulates unloaded-induced skeletal muscle atrophy

International audienc

Blood lactate exchange and removal abilities after relative high intensity exercise: effects of training in normoxia and hypoxia

Contains fulltext : 146931.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)241 p

Energy Cost and Mechanical Work of Walking during Load Carriage in Soldiers

International audienceIn the military context, soldiers carry equipments of total mass often exceeding 30%-40% of their body mass (BM) and complexly distributed around their body (backpack, weapons, electronics, protections, etc.), which represents severe load carrying conditions. Purpose: This study aimed to better understand the effects of load carriage on walking energetics and mechanics during military-type walking. Methods: Ten male infantrymen recently retired from the French Foreign Legion performed 3-min walking trials at a constant speed of 4 km[middle dot]h-1 on an instrumented treadmill, during which walking pattern spatiotemporal parameters, energy cost (CW), external mechanical work (Wext), and the work done by one leg against the other during the double-contact period (Wint,dc) were specifically assessed. Three conditions were tested: (i) light sportswear (SP, reference condition considered as unloaded), (ii) battle equipment (BT, ~22 kg, ~27% of subjects' BM, corresponding to a military intermediate load), and (iii) road march equipment (RM, ~38 kg, ~46% of subjects' BM, corresponding to a military high load). Results: Repeated-measures ANOVA showed that military equipment carriage significantly (i) altered the spatiotemporal pattern of walking (all P \textless 0.01), (ii) increased absolute gross and net CW (P \textless 0.0001), and (iii) increased both absolute and mass-relative Wext (P \textless 0.01) and Wint,dc (P \textless 0.0001) but did not alter the inverted pendulum recovery or locomotor efficiency. Conclusions: Military equipments carriage induced significant changes in walking mechanics and energetics, but these effects appeared not greater than those reported with loads carried around the waist and close to the center of mass. This result was not expected because the latter has been hypothesized to be the optimal method of load carriage from a metabolic standpoint

Early Changes in Costameric and Mitochondrial Protein Expression with Unloading Are Muscle Specific

We hypothesised that load-sensitive expression of costameric proteins, which hold the sarcomere in place and position the mitochondria, contributes to the early adaptations of antigravity muscle to unloading and would depend on muscle fibre composition and chymotrypsin activity of the proteasome. Biopsies were obtained from vastus lateralis (VL) and soleus (SOL) muscles of eight men before and after 3 days of unilateral lower limb suspension (ULLS) and subjected to fibre typing and measures for costameric (FAK and FRNK), mitochondrial (NDUFA9, SDHA, UQCRC1, UCP3, and ATP5A1), and MHCI protein and RNA content. Mean cross-sectional area (MCSA) of types I and II muscle fibres in VL and type I fibres in SOL demonstrated a trend for a reduction after ULLS (0.05 <= P < 0.10). FAK phosphorylation at tyrosine 397 showed a 20% reduction in VL muscle (P = 0.029). SOL muscle demonstrated a specific reduction in UCP3 content (-23%; P = 0.012). Muscle-specific effects of ULLS were identified for linear relationships between measured proteins, chymotrypsin activity and fibre MCSA. The molecular modifications in costamere turnover and energy homoeostasis identify that aspects of atrophy and fibre transformation are detectable at the protein level in weight-bearing muscles within 3 days of unloading