Introduction : Text and image in children's literature

Issue theme: Volume 1: Power and Authority in Text and Image: the educational and political dimension of children’s literaturePublisher PDFNon peer reviewe

De Pétrone à Fry, la matrone d’Éphèse : tribulations d’un cadavre conjugal

Dans sa préface à une réédition des fables d’Éphèse, l’éminent folkloriste Joseph Jacobs mentionnait l’épisode dit de la Matrone d’Éphèse, tiré du Satyricon de Pétrone, comme « the most popular of all stories » ; il allait jusqu’à suggérer qu’on en trouvait l’illustration sur la tapisserie de Bayeux. Il est indéniable que le conte de Pétrone a connu un succès immense en Europe. Sur les soixante-seize versions du thème recensées par le critique Killis Campbell, quatorze proviennent d’auteurs a..

Écho traductrice : ce qui survit

Cet article prend pour point de départ une analogie proposée par le traductologue Georgy Katzarov entre le traducteur et la figure d’Écho pour interroger ses modalités et ses limites. Si l’image paraît de prime abord doloriste, vouant le sujet traduisant à un étiolement sans recours, d’autres points de vue lui apportent un éclairage plus positif. L’écho comme modalité de la traduction invite au jeu sur les sons et les sens ; il est aussi ce qui prolonge la vie du texte, ses effets littéraires, en faisant émerger des résonances que l’original ignorait parfois receler, ce qu’atteste le dialogue tissé par Anne Hébert, poétesse québécoise, avec son traducteur anglophone. Un autre dialogue, celui de Douglas Robinson avec les membres de son réseau de traducteurs, fait apparaître le désir de surmonter l’idée selon laquelle le traducteur, « canal » ou « chaman » d’une voix toute-autoritaire, ne peut accéder à la dignité d’écrivain. Enfin, en se confrontant à un poème religieux de George Herbert qui dévoile lui-même l’inventivité salvatrice de l’écho, l’on reformulera la tâche du traducteur comme un devoir de ré-énonciation, rachetant la perte au moyen de la création, comme l’Écho du poème rémunère sa parole tronquée d’une chute brève mais toujours scintillante.This article seeks to appraise the analogy between the figure of the translator and that of the nymph Echo as set forth by Georgy Katzarov: what are its restrictions and potential developments? While this simile seemingly confines the translator to being a sufferer, caught in a Lacanian process of fading, other perspectives highlight its more positive connotations. Echoing as a manner of translating can result in playful manipulation of sounds and meanings. It also provides the text with a new lease of effect, a form of survival, as it brings out this or that resonance which the text harboured unawares. This is demonstrated by the dialogue woven between poetess Anne Hébert from Quebec and her English-speaking translator. Another dialogue between Douglas Robinson and the members of Lantra-L, an Internet forum devoted to translation issues, showcases the former’s desire to overcome the widespread idea that the translator, as channel or chaman of an all-powerful voice, cannot be endowed with a writer’s status. Finally, we shall look into a religious poem by George Herbert, centered upon Echo as a figure of innovative salvation and the richness of cultural transfer, and reformulate the task of the translator as a duty to re-enunciate and redeem loss by means of creation – just as Herbert’s Echo compensates for her truncated speech with curt but scintillating endwords

Datamama, bringing pregnancy research into the future: design, development, and evaluation of a citizen science pregnancy mobile application

Background: Pregnancy mobile applications (apps) have grown in popularity over the past decade, with some being used to promote study recruitment or health behaviors. However, no app serves as an all-in-one solution for collecting general data for research purposes and providing women with useful and desirable features. Aim: To create and develop a Swiss pregnancy mobile app as an innovative means to collect research data and provide users with reliable information. Methods: Determining the key features of the app involved a review of the literature and assessment of popular apps in the Swiss AppStore. A team of engineers developed the app, which includes a pregnancy timeline, questionnaires for data collection, medical and psychological articles and a checklist with appointment reminders. The content was written and reviewed by healthcare providers considered experts in the topics adressed. The questionnaires are distributed based on the user’s gestational age, by a chatbot. The project was authorized by the ethics commission in the canton of Vaud. An online survey of ten questions, advertised on Datamama’s home screen, was conducted to assess the users’ use of the app (27.11- 19.12.2022). Results: A review of 84 articles and 25 popular apps showed the need for a comprehensive pregnancy app. The development of Datamama took 2 years and included the creation of 70 medical and psychological articles and 29 questionnaires covering 300 unique variables. Six months after the launch, there were 800 users with a 73% average participation rate in the questionnaires. Sixty-five women completed the survey, with 70.8% using the app once to multiple times per week. The primary reason for using the app was to help research by answering the questionnaires, followed by access to reliable medical information. The reason most frequently ranked first for using the app was to help research by answering the questionnaires (42/65, 67% of women rated it first), followed by access to reliable medical information (34/65, 54% women rated it second). Women rated the information as clear, understandable, and interesting with a trust rating in data handling at 98.5%. The average grade for recommending the app was 8/10, with suggestions for increasing the amount of medical content and tailoring it based on gestational age. Conclusion: Datamama is the first pregnancy app to address the needs of both patients and researchers. Initial feedback from users was positive, highlighting future challenges for success. Future work will consist in improving the app, validating the data and use it to answer specific pregnancy-related research questions

Influence of root and leaf traits on the uptake of nutrients in cover crops

Aims: Cover crops play an important role in soil fertility as they can accumulate large amounts of nutrients. This study aimed at understanding the nutrient uptake capacity of a wide range of cover crops and at assessing the relevance of acquisition strategies. Methods: A field experiment was conducted to characterize 20 species in terms of leaf and root traits. Plant traits were related to nutrient concentration and shoot biomass production with a redundancy analysis. Acquisition strategies were identified using a cluster analysis. Results: Root systems varied greatly among cover crop species. Five nutrient acquisition strategies were delineated. Significant amounts of nutrients (about 120 kg ha−1 of nitrogen, 30 kg ha−1 of phosphorus and 190 kg ha−1 of potassium) were accumulated by the species in a short period. Nutrient acquisition strategies related to high accumulations of nutrients consisted in either high shoot biomass and root mass and dense tissues, or high nutrient concentrations and root length densities. Species with high root length densities showed lower C/N ratios. Conclusions: The same amounts of nutrients were accumulated by groups with different acquisition strategies. However, their nutrient concentrations offer different perspectives in terms of nutrient release for the subsequent crop and nutrient cycling improvement

Oxygen gradient ektacytometry-derived biomarkers are associated with acute complications in sickle cell disease

We investigated the potential of the point of sickling (PoS; the pO2 tension at which red cells start to sickle), determined by oxygen gradient ektacytometry to serve as a biomarker associated with the incidence of acute sickle cell disease-related complications in 177 children and 50 adults. In the pediatric cohort, for every 10 mmHg increase in PoS reflecting a greater likelihood of sickling, the likelihood of an individual experiencing >1 type of acute complication increased; the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) was 1.65. For every 0.1 increase in minimum elongation index (EImin; reflecting improved red blood cell deformability at hypoxia), the aOR was 0.50. In the adult cohort, for every 10 mmHg increase in PoS, we found an aOR of 3.00, although this was not significant after correcting for multiple testing. There was a trend for an association between higher PoS and greater likelihood of vaso-occlusive episodes (VOEs; children aOR, 1.35; adults aOR, 2.22). In children, only EImin was associated with VOEs (aOR, 0.68). When data of both cohorts were pooled, significant associations with PoS and/or EImin were found for all acute complications, independently and when >1 type of acute complication was assessed. These findings indicate that oxygen gradient ektacytometry generates novel biomarkers and provides a rationale for further development of these biomarkers in the assessment of clinical severity, evaluation of novel therapies, and as surrogate clinical trial end points. These biomarkers may be useful in assessing efficacy of novel therapies like pyruvate kinase activators, voxelotor, and L-glutamine

Effects of Genotypes and Treatment on Oxygenscan Parameters in Sickle Cell Disease

(1) Background: The aim of the present study was to compare oxygen gradient ektacytometry parameters between sickle cell patients of different genotypes (SS, SC, and S/β+) or under different treatments (hydroxyurea or chronic red blood cell exchange). (2) Methods: Oxygen gradient ektacytometry was performed in 167 adults and children at steady state. In addition, five SS patients had oxygenscan measurements at steady state and during an acute complication requiring hospitalization. (3) Results: Red blood cell (RBC) deformability upon deoxygenation (EImin) and in normoxia (EImax) was increased, and the susceptibility of RBC to sickle upon deoxygenation was decreased in SC patients when compared to untreated SS patients older than 5 years old. SS patients under chronic red blood cell exchange had higher EImin and EImax and lower susceptibility of RBC to sickle upon deoxygenation compared to untreated SS patients, SS patients younger than 5 years old, and hydroxyurea-treated SS and SC patients. The susceptibility of RBC to sickle upon deoxygenation was increased in the five SS patients during acute complication compared to steady state, although the difference between steady state and acute complication was variable from one patient to another. (4) Conclusions: The present study demonstrates that oxygen gradient ektacytometry parameters are affected by sickle cell disease (SCD) genotype and treatment

Qu’imite-t-on dans une traduction ?

That translation should attempt to be mimetic in its hope to restitute the original will not be denied. However, its history shows that « imitation » is a floating signifier, appropriated in turn by the champions of literalism and the partisans of free textual recreation. We may wonder, then, what it is that is imitated in translation – an arrangement of words and ideas or an intent to communicate ? To answer this question, we shall remember the French translators of Aristotle’s Poetics and their decision to translate mimesis as « representation ». To imitate, for a translator, comes akin to re-representing the text, investing in it a speech effect equivalent to that which it produced upon its initial reception. The translator will not attempt to delete what, in the text, constitutes a testimony to or dialogue with the linguistic and literary conventions of the time, but they will bring the text into a certain present – that of the aesthetic event. They will enact what Antoine Berman calls « a non perceptible resemblance », letting the force of the text become manifest beyond mere semantic conversions

« In the presence of absence » : la remémoration dans The Conjugial Angel d’A. S. Byatt

Cet article revient sur la novella d’A. S. Byatt qui s’appuie sur un legs historico-littéraire (le double deuil mené par Alfred et Emily Tennyson autour d’Arthur Hallam) pour interroger le rapport du deuil à l’écriture. In Memoriam, le poème élégiaque d’Alfred, qui associe l’écriture à un ordre du deuil tout masculin, s’oppose aux séances de spiritisme organisées par Emily et ses consœurs. Celles-ci trouvent le moyen de réintroduire la voix dans le texte, de faire parler le deuil au présent par l’intermédiaire de la locution angélique. La mémoire se fait alors porteuse d’images désordonnées, chargées d’affect, qui rappellent que la vocation du roman post-moderne tient à ce juste milieu entre archive et performance. La remémoration s’éloigne ainsi du remembrement, que lui assignent les personnages victoriens du récit : elle cherche une nouvelle expressivité dans la parcellisation des discoursThis article attempts a reading of A. S. Byatt’s novella, which exploits a historical and literary heritage (Alfred and Emily Tennyson’s dual effort to mourn Arthur Hallam) so as to question the relationship between mourning and writing. In Memoriam, Alfred’s elegiac poem, frames writing within an masculine order of mourning which is opposed to the female characters’ spiritual meetings. The women succeed in « voicing » the text till it achieves a present enunciation through the figure of the Angel and his unmediated speech. Memory becomes a way of producing disordered, affect-laden images, reminding us that the post-modern novel finds its vocation half-way between archive and performance. Rememoration can no longer be confused with re-membering (its function according to the Victorian characters in the novel) : its expressive potential is brought forth as it effects discursive fragmentation