Tieleman Jansz. van Braght, the mennonite martyrology and history

In his martyrology (published in 1660), the conservative Dutch Mennonite Tieleman Jansz. van Braght propose an original interpretation of the Christian past. In order to put together a succession of witnesses, he examines one by one the ancient or medieval spiritual ancestors who, at the time, were claimed by both Catholics and Protestants. Those who seems to have been submitting to the divine principles - such as the practice of adult baptism - are considered as orthodox ; furthermore, if the orthodox suffered for their faith, they were given the title of martyr. Among the chosen ones, we thus have, besides the Anabaptists themselves: the early Christians, the Donatists, the Waldenses and the Hussites. These believers become the members of a dissenting and persecuted Church, which had held its own since the days of the Apostles. This notion conflict with the idea of Reformatio et, a fortiori, with that of Restitutio which is generally ascribed to the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century.Dans son martyrologe paru en 1660, le mennonite conservateur néerlandais Tieleman Jansz. van Braght propose une relecture originale du passé chrétien. Cherchant à constituer une succession de témoins, il examine un à un les ancêtres spirituels antiques ou médiévaux que les catholiques et les protestants revendiquaient alors. Ceux qui semblent se soumettre aux préceptes divins - notamment à la pratique du baptême des adultes - reçoivent un brevet d'orthodoxie auquel s'ajoute, lorsque l'orthodoxe a souffert pour sa foi, le titre de martyr. Sont ainsi sélectionnés, outre les anabaptistes proprement dits, les premiers chrétiens, les donatistes, les vaudois ou les hussites. Ces fidèles deviennent les membres d'une Église dissidente et persécutée qui s'est maintenue sans faiblir depuis les temps apostoliques. Cette conception s'oppose à l'idée de Reformatio et, a fortiori, de Restitutio que l'on prête généralement aux anabaptistes du 16e siècle

Compte rendu de l’ouvrage de Gianluca Mori : Bayle philosophe

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Clinical prediction models for diagnosis of COVID-19 among adult patients: a validation and agreement study.

peer reviewed[en] BACKGROUND: Since the beginning of the pandemic, hospitals have been constantly overcrowded, with several observed waves of infected cases and hospitalisations. To avoid as much as possible this situation, efficient tools to facilitate the diagnosis of COVID-19 are needed. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate and compare prediction models to diagnose COVID-19 identified in a systematic review published recently using performance indicators such as discrimination and calibration measures. METHODS: A total of 1618 adult patients present at two Emergency Department triage centers and for whom qRT-PCR tests had been performed were included in this study. Six previously published models were reconstructed and assessed using diagnostic tests as sensitivity (Se) and negative predictive value (NPV), discrimination (Area Under the Roc Curve (AUROC)) and calibration measures. Agreement was also measured between them using Kappa's coefficient and IntraClass Correlation Coefficient (ICC). A sensitivity analysis has been conducted by waves of patients. RESULTS: Among the 6 selected models, those based only on symptoms and/or risk exposure were found to be less efficient than those based on biological parameters and/or radiological examination with smallest AUROC values ( 0.75 for Se and NPV but poor agreement (Kappa and ICC < 0.5) between them. The results of the first wave were similar to those of the second wave. CONCLUSION: Although quite acceptable and similar results were found between all models, the importance of radiological examination was also emphasized, making it difficult to find an appropriate triage system to classify patients at risk for COVID-19

Decision-based interactive model to determine re-opening conditions of a large university campus in Belgium during the first COVID-19 wave

peer reviewedBackground The role played by large-scale repetitive SARS-CoV-2 screening programs within university populations interacting continuously with an urban environment, is unknown. Our objective was to develop a model capable of predicting the dispersion of viral contamination among university populations dividing their time between social and academic environments. Methods Data was collected through real, large-scale testing developed at the University of Liège, Belgium, during the period Sept. 28th-Oct. 29th 2020. The screening, offered to students and staff (n = 30,000), began 2 weeks after the re-opening of the campus but had to be halted after 5 weeks due to an imposed general lockdown. The data was then used to feed a two-population model (University + surrounding environment) implementing a generalized susceptible-exposed-infected-removed compartmental modeling framework. Results The considered two-population model was sufficiently versatile to capture the known dynamics of the pandemic. The reproduction number was estimated to be significantly larger on campus than in the urban population, with a net difference of 0.5 in the most severe conditions. The low adhesion rate for screening (22.6% on average) and the large reproduction number meant the pandemic could not be contained. However, the weekly screening could have prevented 1393 cases (i.e. 4.6% of the university population; 95% CI: 4.4–4.8%) compared to a modeled situation without testing. Conclusion In a real life setting in a University campus, periodic screening could contribute to limiting the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic cycle but is highly dependent on its environment

A 2-month field cohort study of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva of BNT162b2 vaccinated nursing home workers

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Médecins et vétérinaires célestes d’Ardenne

Short history of the evolution of the cults devoted to the healing saints in the Ardenne (Belgium).Esquisse de l'évolution des cultes aux saints guérisseurs en Ardenne belge

Des savants en société : les penseurs du XVIIe siècle au travail

peer reviewedPrésents dans notre univers culturel, dans nos programmes scolaires et, naguère, sur nos billets de banque, les penseurs du XVIIe siècle occupent une place singulière dans notre mythologie collective. Cette singularité est accentuée par le fait que, contrairement à leurs prédécesseurs « humanistes » et à leurs successeurs « philosophes des Lumières », ils ne sont pas rangés par l’historiographie dans un tiroir conceptuel et demeurent donc des individus de plein droits. Et quels individus ! On en fait les protagonistes d'une « histoire héroïque de la science » qui, défiant les traditions religieuses et universitaires, créent de toutes pièces un savoir nouveau. Investis d'une mission prométhéenne, ils transgressent les lois divines pour offrir aux hommes le feu de la modernité. L'histoire intellectuelle traditionnelle a conforté cette image. Elle fait de ces héros des individus isolés, indépendants des contextes et de la contingence. Ces conceptions ne sont plus les nôtres. Depuis longtemps maintenant, la nouvelle histoire intellectuelle initiée par Quentin Skinner, l'histoire culturelle et la sociologie des sciences nous invitent à réinsérer ces individus dans leur horizon culturel, politique, social et matériel

Compte rendu de l'ouvrage de Hermann von Kerssenbrock, Narrative of the Anabaptist madness (éd. Christopher S. Mackay)

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