Standardized exercise tests in horses : current situation and future perspectives

The purpose of this literature review is to clarify how exercise capacity can be measured in horses and which standardized exercise tests (SETs) exist. In this review, the measurement of the exercise capacity of horses is discussed and the standardized exercise tests (SET) are described. Two main types of SETs are used. Laboratory or treadmill tests are easy to standardize and provide more options to use all kinds of measuring devices, since the horse stays on the treadmill. On the other hand, field tests are conducted under the natural conditions associated with the specific sports discipline, and are easier to implement in the training schedule. However, field tests encompass interfering variables, such as weather conditions, ground surface conditions and the rider or jockey. Several variables are measured in order to calculate the fitness level which may be expressed by different parameters, such as V200 (speed at a heart rate of 200 beats per minute), V1a4 (speed at a blood lactic acid level of 4 mmol/L) and VO2max (maximum oxygen uptake)

Femmes aux petits soins : la fêlure d’un idéal dans deux nouvelles de F.S. Fitzgerald The Lees of Happiness et An Alcoholic Case

Écrites à 17 ans d’intervalle, ces deux nouvelles de Fitzgerald mettent en scène des artistes dont la maladie pour l’un (« The Lees of Happiness ») et l’alcoolisme pour l’autre (« An Alcoholic Case ») ont eu raison des facultés créatrices. Pourtant, l’attention se porte moins sur les malades que sur celles qui les soignent, et embrassent ainsi un rôle traditionnellement dévolu aux femmes : l’épouse aimante sacrifiant tout pour son mari grabataire et l’infirmière dévouée investie d’une mission salvatrice. Étudiées ensemble, ces deux nouvelles vont toutefois au-delà d’une représentation genrée du soin et interrogent les fondements mêmes de l’éthique médicale telle qu’elle est envisagée aujourd’hui car elles montrent l’accomplissement de soi comme horizon du soin. Robert Misrahi oppose à la morale kantienne du devoir une « éthique de la joie » fondée sur le désir et la relation à autrui. C’est semble-t-il cette place essentielle du désir dans la relation à l’autre et à soi-même, relation entre deux sujets, qu’explorent les deux nouvelles. Mais ce que la maladie vient mettre au jour, c’est que la relation soignant/soigné révèle moins une plénitude heureuse qu’une béance intime au cœur de chaque sujet. Dans le miroir que se tendent soignante et soigné, l’image idéale du moi se fêle et laisse apparaître une fragilité et un manque essentiels à la condition humaine. Written 17 years apart, these two short stories by F.S. Fitzgerald stage artists whose creative powers have failed them, whether it be because of illness (as in “The Lees of Happiness”) or because of an excess of alcohol (as in “An Alcoholic Case). However the short stories’ emphasis is not so much on those failed artists than on the women who are devoted to them, and thus embrace a traditionally feminine role: the loving wife caring for her disabled husband and the devoted nurse who feels she has a special mission. But taken together, the two short-stories go beyond a gendered representation of care and question the very foundations of medical ethics as debated over today, for they show how much care is linked to a form of self-fulfillment. Robert Misrahi sets a form of ethics founded on joy against a moral philosophy founded on duty. The two short stories indeed seem to explore the essential part played by desire in the relationship to others and to the self, a relationship that involves two subjects. But in the case of illness, the relationship between patient and nurse or care-giver proves to be less concerned with fulfilment than with emptiness, a lack in people’s innermost beings. On each side of the mirror, patient and nurse can see the cracks in their ideal image, and reveal fragility and lack as essential to the human condition

The Scream in Alice Munro’s “The Time of Death”

In spite of its title, “The Time of Death” is built around a central ellipsis – the time of Benny’s death – while it presents the reader with “the times of death”, that is the different ways the characters experience and react to that death, reactions which all appear inappropriate. What we are made to see is what surrounds the gaping hole of death. This gaping hole around which the world is built may be linked to Edvard Munch’s famous painting, The Scream, which immediately comes to mind since the whole short story builds to a climax: Patricia’s wild scream. Although apparently a belated and completely inadequate response to Benny’s death, Patricia’s scream proves perfectly adequate, breaking through the polished surface of civilization to reveal the animality society tries to erase. However, the short story defies any clear-cut interpretation as the complex handling of point of view and voice as well as the dense network of images refuse the reader any solid ground on which to base a secure interpretation, creating a world which, as in Munch’s painting, wavers and melts, an apt rendering of “the time of death”