Un manuel de sorcellerie en Basse Bretagne au XVIIIe siècle

In the 18th century, in Lower Brittany, a certain François Merret wrote a handbook of witchcraft, entered at no. 415 in the Archives of the Department of Finistere. This handbook is a collection of practical formulae, to be used in order to obtain something : for example, « To obtain 100 ecus a week» or « To obtain the love of girls » or « To win at games ». The ritual of François Merret is a colourful, heterogeneous mixture drawn from the differente rituals commonly used in the witchcraft of previous centuries. His work is a vivid illustration of the mentality of rural populations under the «Ancien Regime ».Au XVIIIe siècle, en Basse Bretagne, un certain François Merret rédige un manuel de sorcellerie — déposé aux Archives du Finistère sous la cote 415. Ce manuel de François Merret est un corpus de formules utilitaires rédigées pour « avoir » : « Pour avoir cent écus par semaines » ; pour « se faire » : «pour se faire aimer des filles » ; pour « gagner» aux jeux. Le rituel de François Merret est un amalgame polychrome et disparate de textes tirés des différents rituels de sorcellerie en usage dans les siècles antérieurs. L'ouvrage de François Merret est un témoignage de l'état d'esprit des populations rurales sous l'Ancien Régime.Muyard F. Un manuel de sorcellerie en Basse Bretagne au XVIIIe siècle. In: Annales de Bretagne et des pays de l'Ouest. Tome 99, numéro 3, 1992. pp. 291-297

Isolation and in vitro antibacterial activity of astilbin, the bioactive flavanone from the leaves of Harungana madagascariensis Lam. ex Poir. (Hypericaceae)

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Effect of 7-O-β-D-glucopyranosylchrysin and its aglycone chrysin isolated from Podocytisus caramanicus on estrogen receptor α transcriptional activity

A screening of Greek Fabaceae extracts identified the methanolic extract of Podocytisus caramanicus Boiss. & Heldr. as having proliferative activity on human breast cancer cells (MCF-7). Using transient transfection experiments, we have first used three compounds described for their estrogen-like properties, E2, genistein (Gen) and biochanin A (Bch), as controls to evaluate our cellular model. Secondly, we have demonstrated that the 7-O-β-D- glucopyranosylchrysin (Glc-chr), the most abundant flavone of the extract, and its aglycone chrysin were able to increase estrogen receptor α transcriptional activity in MCF-7 cells. We have also shown that the estrogenic activity of Glc-chr could be completely suppressed by the pure estrogen antagonist ICI 182,780 suggesting that the effect of Glc-chr is mediated by ERα. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart

GeTe phase change material and Ti based electrode: Study of thermal stability and adhesion.

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Political Communications in Democratic Taiwan: The relationship between politicians and journalists

This article assesses the present state of political communications in Taiwan through a close analysis of the perceived relationship between journalists and politicians. This relationship is examined within the context of media commercialization. Based on the assumption that in cultures of democratic political communication the interaction between media and political actors involves both conflict and cooperation, we consider how journalists and politicians negotiate the balance of power between them. The empirical evidence gathered from semistructured interviews for this article suggests that the interaction between media and political elites in Taiwan is defined by high levels of conflict, hostility, mutual suspicion, and mistrust—attributes of a relationship that can have profound implications for the legitimacy and efficacy of institutions, actors, and political communications in a newly created democratic system. The article explains the evidence through the perspective of the “knowledge deficit model” that operates within the context of media commercialization. This indicates that the perceptions (of the public, journalists, and politicians) of the formal aspects of democracy may have been transformed, but the nuances that define the application of democratic norms (the practice of responsible journalism) remain ambiguous. More importantly, huge market pressures and the widely accepted media logic, coupled with the democratic knowledge deficit, are creating a vicious cycle in the practice of political communication in Taiwan. This perhaps provides some tentative explanation for the brisk deterioration of expectations about democracy and the media’s role in it, as well as the quality of democratic political communication in Taiwan