La vie secrète des animaux

Festival des Sciences 2019. Village des Sciences, Champs Libres - Rennes. Chercheurs, associations, entreprises et collectivités se mobilisent dans toute l'Ille-et-Vilaine. Un programme riche en découvertes et en surprises qui s'adresse au grand public et aux scolaires.Le comportement animal nous fascine, nous étonne !En donnant de la voix, les porcs expriment un grandnombre d’émotions et communiquent avec leurssemblables et avec les hommes qui les côtoient. Les poissons ont des capacités d’apprentissage qui necessent de nous surprendre. Des jeux, des ateliers etanimations pour mieux comprendre le comportementdes animaux et évaluer objectivement le bien-êtreanimal

De la langue au style

De la langue au style offre au lecteur un ensemble d’études qui traitent de la description linguistique des textes littéraires et de leur approche stylistique. L’objectif principal de l’ouvrage est de montrer que l’analyse de la langue française et celle des faits de style, loin d’être incompatibles, constituent deux démarches complémentaires, qui gagnent à se nourrir l’une de l’autre, plutôt qu’à s’opposer. Dans cette perspective, il regroupe des travaux signés à la fois par des linguistes et des stylisticiens, spécialistes des domaines les plus divers, comme par exemple la syntaxe de phrase, la grammaire textuelle, la sémantique lexicale, la phonologie historique, la poétique, la sémiotique ou encore l’histoire des idées. Les contributions des uns et des autres sont agencées autour de quatre grands thèmes fédérateurs : (i) l’articulation entre la voix singulière de l’écrivain et les formes générales dont il dispose ; (ii) la détermination et la description des phénomènes linguistiques susceptibles de refléter cette articulation ; (iii) la pertinence de la notion de « langue littéraire » ; (iv) l’intégration de l’étude stylistique dans une théorie globale de l’œuvre littéraire et de sa réception. Une bibliographie collectant plusieurs centaines de publications récentes dans le domaine vient clore l’ouvrage

Le sens et la mesure: De la pragmatique à la métrique. Hommages à Benoît de Cornulier

Le sens et la mesure : ou comment les aspects sémantiques, pragmatiques et symboliques du langage s'opposent-ils, ou se marient-ils, à son organisation formelle ? Les travaux de Benoît de Cornulier sont une bonne illustration de préoccupations touchant aux différents domaines recouverts par ce type de problématique. Ce volume y rend hommage en se concentrant principalement sur des études touchant à la langue ou la littérature françaises. De la grammaire à la poétique, de la pragmatique minimaliste à la métrique de l'alexandrin, en passant par la sémantique lexicale ou la chanson française, ce livre, où l'on croise des corpus de français parlé (ou chanté) à côté de textes de Racine, La Fontaine, Rimbaud ou Apollinaire, est un voyage passionnant en " Cornulierie ", et rend compte d'un univers intellectuel foisonnant, tout en faisant progresser le savoir par des études majeures signées de quelques-uns des grands noms de la linguistique et des études littéraires

Reproductive seasonality in primates: patterns, concepts and unsolved questions

Primates, like other mammals, exhibit an annual reproductive pattern that ranges from strictly seasonal breeding to giving birth in all months of the year, but factors mediating this variation are not fully understood. We applied both a categorical description and quantitative measures of the birth peak breadth based on daily observations in zoos to characterise reproductive seasonality in 141 primate species with an average of 941 birth events per species. Absolute day length at the beginning of the mating season in seasonally reproducing species was not correlated between populations from natural habitats and zoos. The mid‐point of latitudinal range was a major factor associated with reproductive seasonality, indicating a correlation with photoperiod. Gestation length, annual mean temperature, natural diet and Malagasy origin were other important factors associated with reproductive seasonality. Birth seasons were shorter with increasing latitude of geographical origin, corresponding to the decreasing length of the favourable season. Species with longer gestation periods were less seasonal than species with shorter ones, possibly because shorter gestation periods more easily facilitate the synchronisation of reproductive activity with annual cycles. Habitat conditions with higher mean annual temperature were also linked to less‐seasonal reproduction, independently of the latitude effect. Species with a high percentage of leaves in their natural diet were generally non‐seasonal, potentially because the availability of mature leaves is comparatively independent of seasons. Malagasy primates were more seasonal in their births than species from other regions. This might be due to the low resting metabolism of Malagasy primates, the comparatively high degree of temporal predictability of Malagasy ecosystems, or historical constraints peculiar to Malagasy primates. Latitudinal range showed a weaker but also significant association with reproductive seasonality. Amongst species with seasonal reproduction in their natural habitats, smaller primate species were more likely than larger species to shift to non‐seasonal breeding in captivity. The percentage of species that changed their breeding pattern in zoos was higher in primates (30%) than in previous studies on Carnivora and Ruminantia (13 and 10%, respectively), reflecting a higher concentration of primate species in the tropics. When comparing only species that showed seasonal reproduction in natural habitats at absolute latitudes ≤11.75°, primates did not differ significantly from these two other taxa in the proportion of species that changed to a less‐seasonal pattern in zoos. However, in this latitude range, natural populations of primates and Carnivora had a significantly higher proportion of seasonally reproducing species than Ruminantia, suggesting that in spite of their generally more flexible diets, both primates and Carnivora are more exposed to resource fluctuation than ruminants

Procedures performed during neurosurgery residency in Europe

International audienceAbstract Background In a previous article ( 10.1007/s00701-019-03888-3 ), preliminary results of a survey, aiming to shed light on the number of surgical procedures performed and assisted during neurosurgery residency in Europe were reported. We here present the final results and extend the analyses. Methods Board-certified neurosurgeons of European Association of Neurosurgical Societies (EANS) member countries were asked to review their residency case logs and participate in a 31-question electronic survey (SurveyMonkey Inc., San Mateo, CA). The responses received between April 25, 2018, and April 25, 2020, were considered. We excluded responses that were incomplete, from non-EANS member countries, or from respondents that have not yet completed their residency. Results Of 430 responses, 168 were considered for analysis after checking in- and exclusion criteria. Survey responders had a mean age of 42.7 ± 8.8 years, and 88.8% were male. Responses mainly came from surgeons employed at university/teaching hospitals (85.1%) in Germany (22.0%), France (12.5%), the United Kingdom (UK; 8.3%), Switzerland (7.7%), and Greece (7.1%). Most responders graduated in the years between 2011 and 2019 (57.7%). Thirty-eight responders (22.6%) graduated before and 130 responders (77.4%) after the European WTD 2003/88/EC came into effect. The mean number of surgical procedures performed independently, supervised or assisted throughout residency was 540 (95% CI 424–657), 482 (95% CI 398–568), and 579 (95% CI 441–717), respectively. Detailed numbers for cranial, spinal, adult, and pediatric subgroups are presented in the article. There was an annual decrease of about 33 cases in total caseload between 1976 and 2019 (coeff. − 33, 95% CI − 62 to − 4, p = 0.025). Variables associated with lesser total caseload during residency were training abroad (1210 vs. 1747, p = 0.083) and female sex by trend (947 vs. 1671, p = 0.111), whereas case numbers were comparable across the EANS countries ( p = 0.443). Conclusion The final results of this survey largely confirm the previously reported numbers. They provide an opportunity for current trainees to compare their own case logs with. Again, we confirm a significant decline in surgical exposure during training between 1976 and 2019. In addition, the current analysis reveals that female sex and training abroad may be variables associated with lesser case numbers during residency