Drogues, médicaments et sexualité

De nombreux travaux ethnologiques et psychologiques ont porté sur les répercussions des usages de drogues et, plus récemment, des médicaments sur les fonctions sexuelles. Nous présentons dans cet article les principales dimensions dégagées sur cette question. Dans un premier temps, les substances aphrodisiaques principales sont envisagées à partir des perspectives ethnologiques et expérimentales. Cette recension montre la diversité des contextes et des produits employés, de même que la variabilité des effets. La seconde section porte sur les drogues de synthèse contemporaines, à leurs contextes d’utilisation ainsi qu’aux conséquences sur la sexualité et la prise de risques face aux infections transmissibles sexuellement (ITS) et au VIH/sida. La troisième partie porte sur les développements pharmacologiques qui modulent la fonction sexuelle de même que sur les usages détournés des médicaments à des fins sexuelles récréatives. Ce survol des recherches contemporaines met en évidence la place importante de l’érotisme dans la consommation des différentes substances et l’intérêt de développer un programme d’études plus précis dans ce domaine.Numerous ethnological and psychological studies have dealt with repercussions of uses of drugs, and more recently of pharmaceutical drugs on sexual functions. We present in this paper the main dimensions reported on these questions. At first, main aphrodisiac substances are envisaged from the ethnological and experimental perspectives. This review shows the diversity of contexts and products used as well as the variability of effects. The second part deals with contemporary synthetic drugs, contexts of use and consequences on sexuality and risk–taking behaviour linked to STDs and HIV/AIDS. The third part deals with the pharmacological innovations which modulate sexual functioning as well on the illicit uses of pharmaceutical drugs for recreational sexual purposes. This overview of actual research reveals the significant role of eroticism in the consumption of the different substances and the interest to develop a program of studies more precise in this field.Numerosos trabajos etnológicos y psicológicos se han referido a las repercusiones que el uso de drogas y, más recientemente, los medicamentos, tienen sobre las funciones sexuales. Presentamos en este artículo las principales dimensiones que surgen de esta cuestión. En primer lugar, las sustancias afrodisíacas principales se consideran a partir de perspectivas etnológicas y experimentales. Este resumen muestra la diversidad de los contextos y de los productos empleados, así como la variabilidad de los efectos. La segunda sección se refiere a las drogas sintéticas contemporáneas, a sus contextos de uso y a sus consecuencias sobre la sexualidad y al hecho de tomar riesgos ante las infecciones transmisibles sexualmente (ITS) y al VIH/Sida. La tercera parte trata sobre los progresos farmacológicos que modulan la función sexual y los usos alternativos de los medicamentos con fines sexuales recreativos. Este panorama de las investigaciones contemporáneas pone en evidencia el papel importante del erotismo en el consumo de diferentes sustancias y el interés por desarrollar un programa de estudios más preciso en este campo

Familiarity Detection with the Component Process Model

International audienceWe propose a computational model for the Component Process Model (CPM) of Scherer, the most recent and the most complete model of emotion in psychology. This one proposes to appraise a stimulus through a sequence of sixteen appraisal variables dealing with a large number of its characteristics. As CPM is very abstract and high level, it is not really used in affective computing and no formal models exist for its appraisal variables. Based on the CPM, in this paper we propose a mathematical function for one appraisal variable detecting the familiarity of a perceived event according to the state of the cognitive component of an agent (goals, needs, semantic memory, and episodic memory)

Identification of research priorities in CHD:Empowering patients and families through participation in the development of formal research agendas

Background: Conquering CHD, formerly known as the Pediatric Congenital Heart Association (PCHA), is the leading congenital heart disease (CHD) patient advocacy organisation in the United States of America, and places high priority on patient engagement in the research process. Participatory design is an approach to problem-solving that utilises the knowledge and opinions of groups of people to generate plans and new ideas. Utilising this mode of patient engagement, patients and families engaged with Conquering CHD assisted in developing a list of research priorities which was then distributed to the larger membership with instructions to rank the priorities in order of importance. Upon completion, these items were compared to the current scientific literature to assess correlation with current publications. This cross-sectional study and literature review aimed to assess the priorities of patients and families in CHD research and to determine the reflection of these areas in the current body of scientific literature. Methods: This cross-sectional study utilised a survey asking participants to rank the importance of research items within categories including Technology Advances, Genetic and Cellular Research, Broad Understanding of CHD, and Psychosocial Outcomes which was distributed through social media and email to 43,168 accounts across all platforms. Respondents were asked to place each item in a ranked order in each category, with the value 1 representing the most preferred for each participant. Anyone engaged with Conquering CHD was eligible to complete the study, including patients and families. Subsequently, a literature review of the largest medical databases including PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect was undertaken to determine the number of articles published per each topic which was then assessed to determine if there is a correlation between patient-ranked priorities and the current body of literature. Results: The study generated a total response of 527 participants. Regarding Technology Advances, valve replacement was the preferred topic (mean rank 2.07, IQR 2). Stem cell research was the favoured topic in Genetic and Cellular Research (mean rank 2.53, IQR 2). Access to care was the priority in the Broadening Understanding of CHD (mean rank 1.24, IQR 1). Pertaining to Psychosocial Outcomes, psychological/emotional effects was the highest ranked topic (mean rank 1.46, IQR 1). The literature review returned a total of 135,672 articles in the areas of interest. For Valve Replacement, 8361 articles resulted reflecting a proportion of 0.097 of total articles. For Stem Cell Research, 9921 articles resulted reflecting a proportion of 0.115 of total articles. For Access to Care, 7845 articles resulted reflecting a proportion of 0.091 of total articles. For Psychological/Emotional Effects, 6422 articles resulted reflecting a proportion of 0.074 of total articles. A Spearman's correlation demonstrated no correlation between the preferred domain of CHD research and the number of articles published for that domain (rs = 0.02, p = 0.94). Conclusions: This process demonstrates the effectiveness of participatory design, using a patient and family network to determine the research items of concern to those affected by CHD. The cross-sectional survey was effective in assessing patient and family priorities but was limited by access to reliable internet and delivery only in English. Though the study had a large response rate, it was limited to patients already engaged with Conquering CHD. For these reasons, it may not completely reflect the opinions of the total population affected by CHD. However, this offers valuable insight into patient-determined priorities and reveals that the current scientific literature does not correlate with these items. These data serve to inform individual and institutional research agendas to better reflect the needs and desires of this population.</p

Bioactive Seed Layer for Surface-Confined Self-Assembly of Peptides

International audienceThe design and control of molecular systems that self-assemble spontaneously and exclusively at or near an interface represents a real scientific challenge. We present here a new concept, an active seed layer that allows to overcome this challenge.It is based on enzyme-assisted self-assembly. An enzyme, alkaline phosphatase, which transforms an original peptide,Fmoc-FFY(PO 4 2À), into an efficient gelation agent by dephosphorylation, is embedded in a polyelectrolyte multilayer and constitutes the "reaction motor". A seed layer composed of a polyelectrolyte covalently modified by anchoring hydro-gelator peptides constitutes the top of the multilayer. This layer is the nucleation site for the Fmoc-FFY peptide self-assembly. When such a film is brought in contact with a Fmoc-FFY-(PO42-) solution, a nofiber network starts to form almost instantaneously which extents up to several micrometers into the solution after several hours. We demonstrate that the active seed layer allows convenient control over the self-assembly kinetics and the geometric features of the fiber network simply by changing its peptide density

BioXSD: the common data-exchange format for everyday bioinformatics web services

Motivation: The world-wide community of life scientists has access to a large number of public bioinformatics databases and tools, which are developed and deployed using diverse technologies and designs. More and more of the resources offer programmatic web-service interface. However, efficient use of the resources is hampered by the lack of widely used, standard data-exchange formats for the basic, everyday bioinformatics data types