"Du proche au lointain : essais de restitution de l'espace vécu à Paris à la fin du Moyen Âge"

Cet article est la synthèse d'une journée d'études organisée dans le cadre du séminaire sur l'histoire de Paris. Elle visait à tenter de cerner la perception de l'espace au Moyen Âge à travers différentes sources. Il se dégage de la confrontation des dossiers l'impression qu'il y a des usages sociaux très sélectifs de l'espace urbain, même si il faut compter aussi avec un effet de source, puisque chacune met en avant une dimension de la vie et que l'existence en comporte plusieurs. Les parcours individuels découpent des zones plus ou moins linéaires qui dessinent un espace en étoile coïncidant mal avec le périmètre urbain défini par les remparts ou les cartes des historiens. Les pérégrinations des demandeurs de lettres de rémission sont à ce titre éclairantes. Il est probablement exagéré d'évoquer un usage exclusivement nodal, en archipel, de l'espace urbain comme dans la ville contemporaine, mais la notion rassurante de quartier entendu comme village urbain qui serait caractéristique de l'Ancien Régime mériterait d'être questionnée. Des quartiers existent certainement, mais forment-ils la trame de tout l'espace urbain ? Rien n'est moins sûr : il faudrait s'assurer d'abord que toutes les zones ont une identité, et ensuite que leurs habitants n'ont pas d'intérêts significatifs en dehors. Sous cet angle, le Paris de la fin du Moyen Âge pourrait peut-être se rapprocher d'une ville contemporaine. Les réseaux s'inscrivent-ils dans un espace dominé par des contraintes physiques ou par l'horizon interpersonnel de chacun, c'est-à-dire la géographie humaine de la ville ? Il y a une dialectique temporelle complexe entre ces deux données, puisque la répartition des artisans est fonction des ressources naturelles et humaines dont ils ont besoin, mais des circonstances exceptionnelles montrent qu'ils peuvent surmonter l'éloignement physique avec leurs collaborateurs ou leurs ressources. Pour eux, la Seine est un obstacle surmontable ; tandis que pour tous ceux qui en vivent, marchands, propriétaires de vignes rurales ou bateliers, elle est un axe de circulation et une mère nourricière. D'une manière générale, il est fort probable que la Seine a le même statut ambigu à l'époque médiévale qu'à l'époque moderne, où elle est tout à la fois une frontière et un pôle d'attraction dont l'influence se fait sentir loin dans l'espace parisien . L'espace vécu est donc très fragmentaire, mais l'espace imaginaire semble être plus vaste et plus cohérent : les éloges de Paris ou les farces le dessinent à l'échelle de la rive, voire même de la ville entière. L'étude des itinéraires des processions pourrait aller dans ce sens, car il semble qu'un certain nombre d'entre elles traversent le fleuve et sortent même des murs, contribuant ainsi à ressouder les morceaux de la ville . La circulation officielle du roi, qui entre dans Paris par la porte Saint-Denis mais en sort par la porte Saint-Antoine , participe du même phénomène. Tout se passe comme si les rituels politiques et religieux ou les cérémonies ludiques qui unifient l'espace parisien étaient les contrepoints nécessaires à l'éclatement de l'espace vécu réel

Equation of state of liquid mercury to 520 K and 7 GPa from acoustic velocity measurements

Ultrafast acoustics measurements on liquid mercury have been performed at high pressure and temperature in a diamond anvil cell using picosecond acoustic interferometry. We extract the density of mercury from adiabatic sound velocities using a numerical iterative procedure. We also report the pressure and temperature dependence of the thermal expansion, isothermal and adiabatic compressibility, bulk modulus, and pressure derivative of the latter up to 7 GPa and 520 K. We finally show that the sound velocity follows a scaling law as a function of density in the overall measured metallic state. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC

A case report of a patient with upper extremity symptoms: differentiating radicular and referred pain

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Similar upper extremity symptoms can present with varied physiologic etiologies. However, due to the multifaceted nature of musculoskeletal conditions, a definitive diagnosis using physical examination and advanced testing is not always possible. This report discusses the diagnosis and case management of a patient with two episodes of similar upper extremity symptoms of different etiologies.</p> <p>Case Presentation</p> <p>On two separate occasions a forty-four year old female patient presented to a chiropractic office with a chief complaint of insidious right-sided upper extremity symptoms. During each episode she reported similar pain and parasthesias from her neck and shoulder to her lateral forearm and hand.</p> <p>During the first episode the patient was diagnosed with a cervical radiculopathy. Conservative treatment, including manual cervical traction, spinal manipulation and neuromobilization, was initiated and resolved the symptoms.</p> <p>Approximately eighteen months later the patient again experienced a severe acute flare-up of the upper extremity symptoms. Although the subjective complaint was similar, it was determined that the pain generator of this episode was an active trigger point of the infraspinatus muscle. A diagnosis of myofascial referred pain was made and a protocol of manual trigger point therapy and functional postural rehabilitative exercises improved the condition.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this case a thorough physical evaluation was able to differentiate between radicular and referred pain. By accurately identifying the pain generating structures, the appropriate rehabilitative protocol was prescribed and led to a successful outcome for each condition. Conservative manual therapy and rehabilitative exercises may be an effective treatment for certain cases of cervical radiculopathy and myofascial referred pain.</p

Water dynamics in Shewanella oneidensis at ambient and high pressure using quasi-elastic neutron scattering

Quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) is an ideal technique for studying water transport and relaxation dynamics at pico- to nanosecond timescales and at length scales relevant to cellular dimensions. Studies of high pressure dynamic effects in live organisms are needed to understand Earth’s deep biosphere and biotechnology applications. Here we applied QENS to study water transport in Shewanella oneidensis at ambient (0.1 MPa) and high (200 MPa) pressure using H/D isotopic contrast experiments for normal and perdeuterated bacteria and buffer solutions to distinguish intracellular and transmembrane processes. The results indicate that intracellular water dynamics are comparable with bulk diffusion rates in aqueous fluids at ambient conditions but a significant reduction occurs in high pressure mobility. We interpret this as due to enhanced interactions with macromolecules in the nanoconfined environment. Overall diffusion rates across the cell envelope also occur at similar rates but unexpected narrowing of the QENS signal appears between momentum transfer values Q = 0.7–1.1 Å−1 corresponding to real space dimensions of 6–9 Å. The relaxation time increase can be explained by correlated dynamics of molecules passing through Aquaporin water transport complexes located within the inner or outer membrane structures

Does ocular treatment of uveal melanoma influence survival?

Treatment of uveal (intraocular) melanoma is aimed at prolonging life, if possible conserving the eye and useful vision. About 50% of patients develop fatal metastatic disease despite successful eradication of the primary intraocular tumour. The effect of ocular treatment on survival is unknown, because the same survival data from case series can be interpreted in different ways. Treatment is therefore based on intuition and varies greatly between centres. Randomised trials of treatment vs non-treatment of asymptomatic tumours are desirable but would be controversial, difficult, expensive and possibly inconclusive. Strategies for coping with uncertainty are needed to avoid unethical care

Altered sensory-weighting mechanisms is observed in adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis

BACKGROUND: Scoliosis is the most common type of spinal deformity. In North American children, adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) makes up about 90% of all cases of scoliosis. While its prevalence is about 2% to 3% in children aged between 10 to 16 years, girls are more at risk than boys for severe progression with a ratio of 3.6 to 1. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that idiopathic scoliosis interferes with the mechanisms responsible for sensory-reweighting during balance control. METHODS: Eight scoliosis patients (seven female and one male; mean age: 16.4 years) and nine healthy adolescents (average age 16.5 years) participated in the experiment. Visual and ankle proprioceptive information was perturbed (eyes closed and/or tendon vibration) suddenly and then returned to normal (eyes open and/or no tendon vibration). An AMTI force platform was used to compute centre of pressure root mean squared velocity and sway density curve. RESULTS: For the control condition (eyes open and no tendon vibration), adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients had a greater centre of pressure root mean squared velocity (variability) than control participants. Reintegration of ankle proprioception, when vision was either available or removed, led to an increased centre of pressure velocity variability for the adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients whereas the control participants reduced their centre of pressure velocity variability. Moreover, in the absence of vision, adolescent idiopathic scoliosis exhibited an increased centre of pressure velocity variability when ankle proprioception was returned to normal (i.e. tendon vibration stopped). The analysis of the sway density plot suggests that adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients, during sensory reintegration, do not scale appropriately their balance control commands. CONCLUSION: Altogether, the present results demonstrate that idiopathic scoliosis adolescents have difficulty in reweighting sensory inputs following a brief period of sensory deprivation

Setting and analysis of the multi-configuration time-dependent Hartree-Fock equations

In this paper we motivate, formulate and analyze the Multi-Configuration Time-Dependent Hartree-Fock (MCTDHF) equations for molecular systems under Coulomb interaction. They consist in approximating the N-particle Schrodinger wavefunction by a (time-dependent) linear combination of (time-dependent) Slater determinants. The equations of motion express as a system of ordinary differential equations for the expansion coefficients coupled to nonlinear Schrodinger-type equations for mono-electronic wavefunctions. The invertibility of the one-body density matrix (full-rank hypothesis) plays a crucial role in the analysis. Under the full-rank assumption a fiber bundle structure shows up and produces unitary equivalence between convenient representations of the equations. We discuss and establish existence and uniqueness of maximal solutions to the Cauchy problem in the energy space as long as the density matrix is not singular. A sufficient condition in terms of the energy of the initial data ensuring the global-in-time invertibility is provided (first result in this direction). Regularizing the density matrix breaks down energy conservation, however a global well-posedness for this system in L^2 is obtained with Strichartz estimates. Eventually solutions to this regularized system are shown to converge to the original one on the time interval when the density matrix is invertible.Comment: 48 pages, 1 figur