Le nationalisme, les intermédiaires et l’intégration politique canadienne

Cet article analyse le rôle que les groupes d’intérêt peuvent jouer dans les conflits entourant la question nationale au Québec. Occupant une place intermédiaire entre l’État et les acteurs économiques, ces groupes subissent à la fois les pressions nationalistes et les mouvements d’intégration économique. Nous montrons qu’en se structurant à l’image de l’État québécois, les groupes d’intérêt se sont différenciés de plus en plus de leurs partenaires canadiens, de telle sorte que le comportement de ces groupes a renforcé les forces autonomistes au Québec. Cette analyse est fondée sur une étude des associations qui représentent les grandes classes sociales : le patronat, les ouvriers, les producteurs agricoles; les professions, c’est-à-dire les médecins et les enseignants; et les nouveaux mouvements sociaux tels que le mouvement des femmes.This article examines the role that interest associations might play in the broader context of the national question in Quebec and Canada. As institutions that occupy the space between the state and civil society, associations experience both the pressures of nationalism in Québec and of economic integration in North America. We argue that the close relationship between these associations and the Quebec state has led associations to structure themselves in that state's image and to differentiate themselves from pan-Canadian association structures. Consequently, associations tend to reinforce social forces seeking to reinforce Québec autonomy. The analysis is based on a study of comprehensive associations representing social classes: business, the labour movement, and agricultural producers, the professions-physicians and teachers, and new social movements-the women's movement

Improving the Limits of Detection of Low Background Alpha Emission Measurements

Alpha particle emission, even at extremely low levels, is a significant issue in the search for rare events (e.g., double beta decay, dark matter detection). Traditional measurement techniques require long counting times to measure low sample rates in the presence of much larger instrumental backgrounds. To address this, a commercially available instrument developed by XIA uses pulse shape analysis to discriminate alpha emissions produced by the sample from those produced by other surfaces of the instrument itself. Experience with this system has uncovered two residual sources of background: cosmogenics and radon emanation from internal components. A development program is underway to enhance the system and extend the pulse shape analysis technique further, so that these residual sources can be identified and rejected as well. In this paper, we review the theory of operation and pulse shape analysis techniques used in XIA`s alpha counter, and briefly explore data suggesting the origin of the residual background terms. We will then present our approach to enhance the system`s ability to identify and reject these terms. Finally, we will describe a prototype system that incorporates our concepts and demonstrates their feasibility.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figures, presented at LRT-201

Linked games, international organisations and agricultural trade

"Im Laufe des letzten Jahrzehnts haben die meisten OECD-Länder grundlegende Reformen ihrer Agrarpolitik in Angriff genommen. Die Frage, inwieweit politische Maßnahmen auf internationaler Ebene den Anstoß für diese Reformen gegeben haben, wird derzeit kontrovers diskutiert. Diese Diskussion wirft wichtige theoretische Fragen darüber auf, wie das Ausmaß der Interdependenz zwischen internationalen, regionalen (EU) und nationalen Politikänderungen theoretisch erfasst und empirisch bestimmt werden kann. Wir bieten das Konzept autonomer, miteinander verbundener Spiele als theoretischen Ansatz an, der zur Lösung dieser Fragen beitragen könnte. Dieser Ansatz könnte auch eine stringentere theoretische Analyse der Rolle internationaler Organisationen bei der Politikgestaltung ermöglichen. Der Schwerpunkt liegt insbesondere auf der Europäischen Kommission und dem GATT-Sekretariat. Auf der Grundlage unseres Ansatzes argumentieren wir, daß Politikreformen in den EU-Mitgliedstaaten in beträchtlichem Maße geprägt wurden von den Vorschlägen und Ergebnissen der internationalen Agrarverhandlungen während der Uruguay-Runde des GATT." [Autorenreferat]"Over the past decade, most OECD countries have begun to reform fundamentally their agricultural policies. Some dispute has emerged over the extent to which policy-making at the international level has triggered these reforms. These disputes raise important theoretical questions about how we theorize and test for the degree of interdependence between international, regional (EU), and domestic policy change. This paper offers the concept of autonomous, linked games as a possible theoretical route to follow, a route that also permits more systematic theoretical consideration of the role of international organizations in policy-making. We focus, in particular, on the European Commission and the GATT Secretariat. Drawing on these concepts, we argue that policy reform by EU member states was significantly shaped by proposals and outcomes in the international negotiations on agriculture during the GATT Uruguay Round." [author's abstract

Sugarcane transgenics expressing MYB transcription factors show improved glucose release

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Nucleotide and amino acid alignments of MYB31 and MYB42. Alignments of published (Fornalé et al. 2006) and cloned nucleotide and amino acid sequences (ORF and UTR) for ZmMYB31 (NM_001112479) and ZmMYB42 (NM_001112539). Alignments were made using the Kyoto University Bioinformatics Center website ( http://www.genome.jp/tools-bin/clustalw ) and amino acid translations were made using the ORF region of each MYB nucleotide sequences and Vector NTI software. The start and stop codons are underlined in nucleotide sequence alignments with the 5′ and 3′ UTR regions being upstream and downstream of the start and stop codons respectively. The R2 and R3 motifs in each sequence are underlined with light gray and dark grey shading respectively

DNMT3b overexpression contributes to a hypermethylator phenotype in human breast cancer cell lines

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>DNA hypermethylation events and other epimutations occur in many neoplasms, producing gene expression changes that contribute to neoplastic transformation, tumorigenesis, and tumor behavior. Some human cancers exhibit a hypermethylator phenotype, characterized by concurrent DNA methylation-dependent silencing of multiple genes. To determine if a hypermethylation defect occurs in breast cancer, the expression profile and promoter methylation status of methylation-sensitive genes were evaluated among breast cancer cell lines.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The relationship between gene expression (assessed by RT-PCR and quantitative real-time PCR), promoter methylation (assessed by methylation-specific PCR, bisulfite sequencing, and 5-aza-2'deoxycytidine treatment), and the DNA methyltransferase machinery (total DNMT activity and expression of DNMT1, DNMT3a, and DNMT3b proteins) were examined in 12 breast cancer cell lines. Unsupervised cluster analysis of the expression of 64 methylation-sensitive genes revealed two groups of cell lines that possess distinct methylation signatures: (i) hypermethylator cell lines, and (ii) low-frequency methylator cell lines. The hypermethylator cell lines are characterized by high rates of concurrent methylation of six genes (<it>CDH1, CEACAM6, CST6, ESR1, LCN2, SCNN1A</it>), whereas the low-frequency methylator cell lines do not methylate these genes. Hypermethylator cell lines coordinately overexpress total DNMT activity and DNMT3b protein levels compared to normal breast epithelial cells. In contrast, most low-frequency methylator cell lines possess DNMT activity and protein levels that are indistinguishable from normal. Microarray data mining identified a strong cluster of primary breast tumors that express the hypermethylation signature defined by <it>CDH1</it>, <it>CEACAM6, CST6, ESR1, LCN2</it>, and <it>SCNN1A</it>. This subset of breast cancers represents 18/88 (20%) tumors in the dataset analyzed, and 100% of these tumors were classified as basal-like, suggesting that the hypermethylator defect cosegregates with poor prognosis breast cancers.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These observations combine to strongly suggest that: (a) a subset of breast cancer cell lines express a hypermethylator phenotype, (b) the hypermethylation defect in these breast cancer cell lines is related to aberrant overexpression of DNMT activity, (c) overexpression of DNMT3b protein significantly contributes to the elevated DNMT activity observed in tumor cells expressing this phenotype, and (d) the six-gene hypermethylator signature characterized in breast cancer cell lines defines a distinct cluster of primary basal-like breast cancers.</p

Treatment with 2-AAF blocks the small hepatocyte-like progenitor cell response in retrorsine-exposed rats

Liver regeneration after partial hepatectomy (PH) in retrorsine-exposed rats is accomplished through proliferation and differentiation of small hepatocyte-like progenitor cells (SHPCs). The cells of origin of SHPCs are not known. We investigated the possibility that SHPCs are directly derived from oval cells, a known liver progenitor cell, by combining the retrorsine/PH (RP) model with 2-acetamidofluorene (2-AAF), an anti-mitotic agent that elicits an oval cell reaction in response to liver deficit

The Development of Day-night Differences in Sleep and Wakefulness in Norway Rats and the Effect of Bilateral Enucleation

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) exhibits circadian rhythmicity in fetal and infant rats, but little is known about the consequences of this rhythmicity for infant behavior. Here, in Experiment 1, we measured sleep and wakefulness in rats during the day and night in postnatal day (P)2, P8, P15 and P21 subjects. As early as P2, day-night differences in sleep-wake activity were detected. Nocturnal wakefulness began to emerge around P15 and was reliably expressed by P21. We hypothesized that the process of photic entrainment over the first postnatal week, which depends upon the development of connectivity between the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT) and the SCN, influences the later emergence of nocturnal wakefulness. To test this hypothesis, in Experiment 2 infant rats were enucleated bilaterally at P3 and P11, that is, before and after photic entrainment. Whereas pups enucleated at P11 and tested at P21 exhibited increased wakefulness at night, identical to sham controls, pups enucleated at P3 and tested at P21 exhibited the opposite pattern of increased wakefulness during the day. Pups tested at P28 and P35 exhibited this same pattern of increased daytime wakefulness. All together, these results suggest that prenatal and postnatal experience modulates the development of species-typical circadian sleep-wake patterns. Moreover, we suggest that visual system stimulation, via the RHT’s connections with the SCN, exerts an organizational influence on the developing circadian system and, consequently, contributes to the emergence of nocturnality in this species

A General Formula for Black Hole Gravitational Wave Kicks

Although the gravitational wave kick velocity in the orbital plane of coalescing black holes has been understood for some time, apparently conflicting formulae have been proposed for the dominant out-of-plane kick, each a good fit to different data sets. This is important to resolve because it is only the out-of-plane kicks that can reach more than 500 km/s and can thus eject merged remnants from galaxies. Using a different ansatz for the out-of-plane kick, we show that we can fit almost all existing data to better than 5 %. This is good enough for any astrophysical calculation, and shows that the previous apparent conflict was only because the two data sets explored different aspects of the kick parameter space.Comment: 14 pages