Réception de Claude Simon en Chine

En 1985, quand Isaac Bashevis Singer découvre le nom du vainqueur du prix Nobel, ne sachant rien sur le lauréat en littérature, il se demande : « Ce Claude Simon, est-il un homme ou une femme ? » Anecdote célèbre à la mesure de l’effet spectaculaire produit par la décision de l’Académie suédoise qui surprit la presse internationale. Curieusement, elle est évoquée vingt ans plus tard par un journaliste chinois dans son article à la mémoire de Claude Simon, disparu en 2005. L’auteur de cet arti..

Une « pulsion-de-traduction ». Traduire Claude Simon en chinois

L’Acacia est ma première traduction littéraire. Après une thèse en littérature comparée sur Claude Simon et l’écrivain chinois Yu Hua, je me réjouis de cette chance que j’ai de pouvoir travailler encore une fois, mais cette fois d’une autre manière, sur l’œuvre de ce grand auteur français. La traduction, support matériel où adviennent des rencontres, des confluences, et parfois même des collisions, possède à mon avis une importance primordiale. Pour un chercheur qui souhaite maintenir une int..

A comparative study of the works of Claude Simon and Yu Hua

Les fictions de Claude Simon et de Yu Hua s’affranchissent de la représentation mimétique de la réalité, traditionnellement considérée comme dogme du roman. Leurs œuvres, qui ressassent la mémoire des événements historiques dans l’Histoire du XX° siècle, ne visent pas une restauration du passé au moyen de la chronologie et de l’enchaînement de causes et d’effets. Le vécu personnel de Claude Simon et de Yu Hua les incite à réfléchir sur la valeur de l’écriture face à la violence des désastres, et à remettre en cause toutes les modalités de représentation prétendant rétablir l’ordre du monde qui est en réalité radicalement chaotique. L’aspect insaisissable, obsédant de l’Histoire les obligent à partir à la recherche de formes nouvelles, et à élaborer une transfiguration de leur objet d’écriture. Ainsi, une expérience du temps chaotique voire fantastique, la hantise des aïeux et du père, les manifestations d’un érotisme intense, d’une violence aveugle, ainsi que tous les procédés de désorganisation de la narration, toutes les étrangetés du langage, témoignent d’un constat : l’évocation du passé ne peut advenir qu’obliquement. L’importance de l’Histoire dans la diégèse et dans la genèse de leurs œuvres réfute un type de critique qui identifie ces œuvres au formalisme. Ce lien organique entre l’Histoire et la fiction montre aussi qu’une certaine littérature contemporaine, caractérisée par une volonté de rupture avec les codes classiques de la représentation romanesque, surmonte une tentation nihiliste pour suggérer une éthique.Claude Simon and Yu Hua’s fictions abandon the traditional mimetic representation of reality. Their works, which reexamine the memory of events in the History of the 20th century, are not aimed at restoring the past by means of a chronology and a sequential linking of cause and effect. The personal life experiences of Claude Simon and Yu Hua led them to reflect on the value of writing in the face of the violence of the century’s disasters, and to question the validity of a so-called realist literature pretending to re-establish the order of the world which is in reality radically chaotic. The elusive and obsessional character of History requires the writer to set off in search of new forms, and to elaborate a transfiguration in his literary objectives. Thus, the chaotic or even fantastic experience of time, the obsessive figures of ancestors and the father, the excess of eroticism or blind violence, as well as all the disorders in the narration and the strangeness of the language, all come within an attempt to speak of a past which can only be evoked obliquely. The importance of History in the diegesis and in the genesis of their works refutes a certain type of criticism which identifies these works with formalism. This visceral connection between History and fiction also shows that contemporary literature, marked by a spirit of rupture, goes beyond nihilism and in its own way realizes an ethical value

Development of FRET and Stress Granule Dual-Based System to Screen for Viral 3C Protease Inhibitors

3C proteases (3Cpros) of picornaviruses and 3C-like proteases (3CLpros) of coronaviruses and caliciviruses represent a group of structurally and functionally related viral proteases that play pleiotropic roles in supporting the viral life cycle and subverting host antiviral responses. The design and screening for 3C/3CLpro inhibitors may contribute to the development broad-spectrum antiviral therapeutics against viral diseases related to these three families. However, current screening strategies cannot simultaneously assess a compound’s cytotoxicity and its impact on enzymatic activity and protease-mediated physiological processes. The viral induction of stress granules (SGs) in host cells acts as an important antiviral stress response by blocking viral translation and stimulating the host immune response. Most of these viruses have evolved 3C/3CLpro-mediated cleavage of SG core protein G3BP1 to counteract SG formation and disrupt the host defense. Yet, there are no SG-based strategies screening for 3C/3CLpro inhibitors. Here, we developed a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and SG dual-based system to screen for 3C/3CLpro inhibitors in living cells. We took advantage of FRET to evaluate the protease activity of poliovirus (PV) 3Cpro and live-monitor cellular SG dynamics to cross-verify its effect on the host antiviral response. Our drug screen uncovered a novel role of Telaprevir and Trifluridine as inhibitors of PV 3Cpro. Moreover, Telaprevir and Trifluridine also modulated 3Cpro-mediated physiological processes, including the cleavage of host proteins, inhibition of the innate immune response, and consequent facilitation of viral replication. Taken together, the FRET and SG dual-based system exhibits a promising potential in the screening for inhibitors of viral proteases that cleave G3BP1

Improved Method of Ink-Gelatin Perfusion for Visualising Rat Retinal Microvessels

To visualize completely rat retinal microvessels, the gelatin-ink perfusion condition was systematically optimized using von Willebrand factor (vWf) immunostaining as control. Whether the vessel showed by the new perfusion condition can be used for double label with neurons or glial cells in the same retina was also tested. Our results showed that infusing rats first with 20 ml of 37°C ink plus 3% gelatin at 140% rat mean arterial pressure (MAP), and subsequently with 20 ml of 37°C ink plus 5% gelatin at 180% rat MAP allowed the ink to completely fill the rat retinal microvessels. Rat retinal microvessels labeled by the perfusion method were more in number than that by vWf immunostaining. Moreover, our data, for the first time, displayed that the improved gelatin-ink perfusion had no effect on and caused no contamination to the following fluorogold labeling or immunostaining of retinal neurons or glial cells in the same tissue. These data suggest that the improved gelatin-ink perfusion technique is a superior method for morphological characterization of rat retinal microvessels, compatible to the double labeling of glial cells and neurons, and it extends the practical scale of the classic method

Studies on advantages of heavy ions in radiotherapy compared with gamma-rays

Hepatoma and melanoma cells were exposed to C-12(6+) beams generated by HIRFL facility and gamma-rays and the cell response was studied by colony assays as well as the analysis of RBE of carbon ions was evolved. The survival curves of cells irradiated by heavy ions were different from those of cells irradiated by gamma-rays. And two kinds of cell showed the obvious discrepancy in response to the photon and ion irradiation. The results showed that heavy ions have special physical properties and mighty potency to kill cell in both single and fractional irradiation meanwhile it can kill tumor cells with high radioresistance more efficiently. When involved in clinical therapy, heavy ions will enhance the therapy efficiency and decrease the suffering of patients because it can impair the repair for sublethal damage of cells which can lead to fewer irradiation fractions

Palladium Nanoparticles Anchored on Amine-Functionalized Silica Nanotubes as a Highly Effective Catalyst

The catalytic performance of supported heterogeneous catalysts is mainly dependent on their constitutive components including active species and supports. Therefore, the design and development of effective catalysts with synergistic enhanced effect between active sites and supports is of great significance. A facile in situ reduction approach to prepare amine-functionalized silica nanotubes (ASNTs)-supported Pd (ASNTs@Pd) composite catalyst is demonstrated in this article. Benefiting from the intrinsic physical and chemical properties of the ASNTs support and deposited Pd nanoparticles (NPs), the as-prepared ASNTs@Pd catalyst exhibits superior catalytic activity, stability, and reusability toward nitroarene reduction reactions. For catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol, the turnover frequency (TOF) is as high as 313.5 min^–1, which is much higher than that of commercial Pd/C (5.0 wt %) and many noble-metal based catalysts reported in the last 5 years. In addition, a high TOF of 57.4 min^–1 was also realized by ASNTs@Pd catalyst for the Suzuki coupling reaction