L’imaginaire du jeu d’échecs en France au XIXe siècle, ou la conversion intellectuelle du guerrier

La première revue des échecs, Le Palamède, étroitement associée au cercle d’échecs du Café de la Régence à Paris, est fondée au XIXe siècle. Elle contribue à la formation du mythe du joueur d’échecs comme figure de la cérébralité. Or l’examen de cette revue et de ses différents avatars au cours du siècle, montre l’étroite proximité entre la figure du joueur d’échecs et celle du guerrier et laisse entrevoir ce processus d’intellectualisation de la violence décrit par de nombreux historiens. Concernant la prégnance des valeurs aristocratiques défendues par les clubs d’échecs, on peut remarquer que la référence à la civilisation est concomitante au développement d’une rhétorique guerrière et patriotique. Tout en valorisant « l’homme moyen », les revues se chargent de redonner une dimension mythique au joueur d’échecs par la recherche d’origines glorieuses, puisant en grande partie dans l’imaginaire médiéval en identifiant le joueur de génie à la figure du chevalier errant. On assiste alors à une sorte de conversion intellectuelle du guerrier où le mouvement de pacification des mœurs rejoint le travail de prosélytisme, de propagande et de militantisme ; double mouvement à corréler peut-être avec la construction d’une figure d’intellectuel pas toujours dreyfusard.Le Palamède, the first chess journal, closely linked to the chess club of the Café de la Régence in Paris, is founded during the nineteenth century. It contributed to the shaping of the chess player myth as an image of cerebrality. Yet, the analysis of this journal and its avatars during the nineteenth century, shows the proximity between the chess player’s figure and that of the warrior and allows us to see the process of intellectualization of violence, a process described by many historians. As for the importance of aristocratic values, we can observe that most of the references to civilization were concomitant to a patriotic and warlike rhetoric. Even if they celebrated ‘l’homme moyen’ (the average man), these journals gave a mythic dimension to the chess player by looking for his glorious origins and by associating him to the medieval figure of the errant knight. We then see an intellectual conversion of the warrior in which the civilising process meets with proselytism, propaganda and activism. This double movement should be connected to the birth of the figure of the ‘intellectual’ in the early nineteenth century, although this particular ‘intellectual’ would not necessarily side with Dreyfus.Die erste Schachzeitschrift, Le Palamède, eng verbunden mit dem Club des Café de la Régence in Paris, wurde im 19. Jahrhundert gegründet. Sie trägt zur Ausbildung des Mythos des Schachspielers als Figur der Cerebralität bei. Die Analyse dieser Zeitschrift in ihren verschiedenen Ausprägungen im Laufe des Jahrhunderts zeigt die enge Nähe zwischen der Figur des Schachspielers und der des Kriegers und lässt einen Prozess der Intellektualisierung der von zahlreichen Historikern beschriebenen Gewalt erkennen. Was die Prägnanz der vom Schachclub vertretenen aristokratischen Werte anbelangt, kann man sehen, dass die Verweise auf die Zivilisation begleitet wurden von einer kriegerischen und patriotischen Rhetorik. Auch wenn der Durchschnittsmensch gewürdigt wurde, war es das Ziel der Zeitschriften, dem Schachspieler wieder eine mythische Dimension zu verleihen, und zwar durch die Bezugnahme auf seine glorreichen Anfänge, die in großen Teilen aus der Vorstellungswelt des Mittelalters schöpften, wo sie mit Fahrenden Rittern gleichgesetzt wurden. Man kann also eine Art intellektuelle Umwandlung des Kriegers ausmachen, in der der Prozess der Zivilisierung auf Bekehrungseifer, Propaganda und Aktivismus trifft. Diese doppelte Entwicklung muss eventuell mit der Konstruktion der Figur des Intellektuellen, der nicht unbedingt ein Anhänger von Dreyfus war, in Zusammenhang gebracht werden

Role of Protein Phosphorylation in the Regulation of Cell Cycle and DNA-Related Processes in Bacteria

In all living organisms, the phosphorylation of proteins modulates various aspects of their functionalities. In eukaryotes, protein phosphorylation plays a key role in cell signaling, gene expression, and differentiation. Protein phosphorylation is also involved in the global control of DNA replication during the cell cycle, as well as in the mechanisms that cope with stress-induced replication blocks. Similar to eukaryotes, bacteria use Hanks-type kinases and phosphatases for signal transduction, and protein phosphorylation is involved in numerous cellular processes. However, it remains unclear whether protein phosphorylation in bacteria can also regulate the activity of proteins involved in DNA-mediated processes such as DNA replication or repair. Accumulating evidence supported by functional and biochemical studies suggests that phospho-regulatory mechanisms also take place during the bacterial cell cycle. Recent phosphoproteomics and interactomics studies identified numerous phosphoproteins involved in various aspect of DNA metabolism strongly supporting the existence of such level of regulation in bacteria. Similar to eukaryotes, bacterial scaffolding-like proteins emerged as platforms for kinase activation and signaling. This review reports the current knowledge on the phosphorylation of proteins involved in the maintenance of genome integrity and the regulation of cell cycle in bacteria that reveals surprising similarities to eukaryotes

Occurrence and Fate of Emerging Wastewater Contaminants in Western Balkan Region

This paper reports on a comprehensive reconnaissance of over seventy individual wastewater contaminants in the region of Western Balkan (WB ; Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia), including some prominent classes of emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products, surfactants and their degradation products, plasticizers, pesticides, insect repellents, and flame retardants. All determinations were carried out using a multiresidue analytical approach, based on the application of gas chromatographic and liquid chromatographic techniques coupled to mass spectrometric detection. The results confirmed a widespread occurrence of the emerging contaminants in municipal wastewaters of the region. The most prominent contaminant classes, determined in municipal wastewaters, were those derived from aromatic surfactants, including linear alkylbenzene sulphonates (LAS) and alkylphenol polyethoxylates (APEO), with the concentrations in raw wastewater reaching into the mg/l range. All other contaminants were present in much lower concentrations, rarely exceeding few μ g/l. The most abundant individual compounds belonged to several classes of pharmaceuticals (antimicrobials, analgesics and antiinflammatories, b-blockers and lipid regulators) and personal care products (fragrances). Due to the rather poor wastewater management practices in WB countries, with less than 5 % of all wastewaters being biologically treated, most of the contaminants present in wastewaters reach ambient waters and may represent a significant environmental concer

Post-paralysis tyrosine kinase inhibition with masitinib abrogates neuroinflammation and slows disease progression in inherited amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Background: In the SOD1G93A mutant rat model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), neuronal death and rapid paralysis progression are associated with the emergence of activated aberrant glial cells that proliferate in the degenerating spinal cord. Whether pharmacological downregulation of such aberrant glial cells will decrease motor neuron death and prolong survival is unknown. We hypothesized that proliferation of aberrant glial cells is dependent on kinase receptor activation, and therefore, the tyrosine kinase inhibitor masitinib (AB1010) could potentially control neuroinflammation in the rat model of ALS. Methods: The cellular effects of pharmacological inhibition of tyrosine kinases with masitinib were analyzed in cell cultures of microglia isolated from aged symptomatic SOD1G93A rats. To determine whether masitinib prevented the appearance of aberrant glial cells or modified post-paralysis survival, the drug was orally administered at 30 mg/kg/day starting after paralysis onset. Results: We found that masitinib selectively inhibited the tyrosine kinase receptor colony-stimulating factor 1R (CSF-1R) at nanomolar concentrations. In microglia cultures from symptomatic SOD1G93A spinal cords, masitinib prevented CSF-induced proliferation, cell migration, and the expression of inflammatory mediators. Oral administration of masitinib to SOD1G93A rats starting after paralysis onset decreased the number of aberrant glial cells, microgliosis, and motor neuron pathology in the degenerating spinal cord, relative to vehicle-treated rats. Masitinib treatment initiated 7 days after paralysis onset prolonged post-paralysis survival by 40 %. Conclusions: These data show that masitinib is capable of controlling microgliosis and the emergence/expansion of aberrant glial cells, thus providing a strong biological rationale for its use to control neuroinflammation in ALS. Remarkably, masitinib significantly prolonged survival when delivered after paralysis onset, an unprecedented effect in preclinical models of ALS, and therefore appears well-suited for treating ALS.Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovació

Centrality dependence of charged particle production at large transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}} = 2.76 TeV

The inclusive transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) distributions of primary charged particles are measured in the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta|<0.8$ as a function of event centrality in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV with ALICE at the LHC. The data are presented in the $p_{\rm T}$ range $0.15<p_{\rm T}<50$ GeV/$c$ for nine centrality intervals from 70-80% to 0-5%. The Pb-Pb spectra are presented in terms of the nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm{AA}}$ using a pp reference spectrum measured at the same collision energy. We observe that the suppression of high-$p_{\rm T}$ particles strongly depends on event centrality. In central collisions (0-5%) the yield is most suppressed with $R_{\rm{AA}}\approx0.13$ at $p_{\rm T}=6$-7 GeV/$c$. Above $p_{\rm T}=7$ GeV/$c$, there is a significant rise in the nuclear modification factor, which reaches $R_{\rm{AA}} \approx0.4$ for $p_{\rm T}>30$ GeV/$c$. In peripheral collisions (70-80%), the suppression is weaker with $R_{\rm{AA}} \approx 0.7$ almost independently of $p_{\rm T}$. The measured nuclear modification factors are compared to other measurements and model calculations.Comment: 17 pages, 4 captioned figures, 2 tables, authors from page 12, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/284

Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube

We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Charge separation relative to the reaction plane in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}= 2.76 TeV

Measurements of charge dependent azimuthal correlations with the ALICE detector at the LHC are reported for Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV. Two- and three-particle charge-dependent azimuthal correlations in the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta| < 0.8$ are presented as a function of the collision centrality, particle separation in pseudo-rapidity, and transverse momentum. A clear signal compatible with a charge-dependent separation relative to the reaction plane is observed, which shows little or no collision energy dependence when compared to measurements at RHIC energies. This provides a new insight for understanding the nature of the charge dependent azimuthal correlations observed at RHIC and LHC energies.Comment: 12 pages, 3 captioned figures, authors from page 2 to 6, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/286

Elliptic flow of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV

We report the first measurement of charged particle elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is performed in the central pseudorapidity region (|$\eta$|<0.8) and transverse momentum range 0.2< $p_{\rm T}$< 5.0 GeV/$c$. The elliptic flow signal v$_2$, measured using the 4-particle correlation method, averaged over transverse momentum and pseudorapidity is 0.087 $\pm$ 0.002 (stat) $\pm$ 0.004 (syst) in the 40-50% centrality class. The differential elliptic flow v$_2(p_{\rm T})$ reaches a maximum of 0.2 near $p_{\rm T}$ = 3 GeV/$c$. Compared to RHIC Au-Au collisions at 200 GeV, the elliptic flow increases by about 30%. Some hydrodynamic model predictions which include viscous corrections are in agreement with the observed increase.Comment: 10 pages, 4 captioned figures, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/389

Particle-yield modification in jet-like azimuthal di-hadron correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76 TeV

The yield of charged particles associated with high-$p_{\rm T}$ trigger particles ($8 < p_{\rm T} < 15$ GeV/$c$) is measured with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV relative to proton-proton collisions at the same energy. The conditional per-trigger yields are extracted from the narrow jet-like correlation peaks in azimuthal di-hadron correlations. In the 5% most central collisions, we observe that the yield of associated charged particles with transverse momenta $p_{\rm T}> 3$ GeV/$c$ on the away-side drops to about 60% of that observed in pp collisions, while on the near-side a moderate enhancement of 20-30% is found.Comment: 15 pages, 2 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 10, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/350

Transverse sphericity of primary charged particles in minimum bias proton-proton collisions at s=0.9\sqrt{s}=0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV

Measurements of the sphericity of primary charged particles in minimum bias proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=0.9$, 2.76 and 7 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC are presented. The observable is linearized to be collinear safe and is measured in the plane perpendicular to the beam direction using primary charged tracks with $p_{\rm T}\geq0.5$ GeV/c in $|\eta|\leq0.8$. The mean sphericity as a function of the charged particle multiplicity at mid-rapidity ($N_{\rm ch}$) is reported for events with different $p_{\rm T}$ scales ("soft" and "hard") defined by the transverse momentum of the leading particle. In addition, the mean charged particle transverse momentum versus multiplicity is presented for the different event classes, and the sphericity distributions in bins of multiplicity are presented. The data are compared with calculations of standard Monte Carlo event generators. The transverse sphericity is found to grow with multiplicity at all collision energies, with a steeper rise at low $N_{\rm ch}$, whereas the event generators show the opposite tendency. The combined study of the sphericity and the mean $p_{\rm T}$ with multiplicity indicates that most of the tested event generators produce events with higher multiplicity by generating more back-to-back jets resulting in decreased sphericity (and isotropy). The PYTHIA6 generator with tune PERUGIA-2011 exhibits a noticeable improvement in describing the data, compared to the other tested generators.Comment: 21 pages, 9 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 16, published version, figures from http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/308