Le savant et le bouton de culotte

Roman historique très érudit, La Semaine sainte multiplie les détails pour reconstituer avec réalisme les premiers jours des Cent-Jours. Aragon emprunte en romancier aux textes qu’il lit : mémoires, documents d’archives, biographies… ; nous étudions ici la manière dont se fait le passage du document historique à la fiction. Si le détail permet d’abord d’étayer la représentation réaliste et concrète du monde passé, il risque aussi de la déborder. L’érudition peut alors jouer contre la représentation, et l’abondance de détails, perçue d’abord comme une tension métonymique qui fait du texte une forme de mosaïque, devient une forme de défense de l’infini propre au monde réel

Récits d’archives

Parce qu’il met en scène l’archivage, le récit d’archives décloisonne les pratiques littéraires et historiennes. Il trouve dans l’archive une puissance d’émotion particulière. Plus, il fait de l’archive un foyer de subjectivation, pour le narrateur, qu’il soit historien, romancier, ou autobiographe. Trois usages différents de l’archive sont distingués : l’usage documentaire, l’usage testimonial et l’usage mélancolique, qui lui-même ne recouvre pas complètement l’usage nostalgique.Because they present archiving, archival narratives decompartmentalise literary and historical practices. In the archive, they find a particular emotional strength. Also, they make the archive a centre of subjectivation for narrators, whether they are historians, novelists, or autobiographers. One can distinguish three different uses of the archive: documentary use, testimonial use, and melancholic use, which itself does not completely recover the use of the nostalgic

L’érudition imaginaire

Discréditée par le discours critique et théorique, l’érudition est présente dans un grand nombre d’œuvres de fiction ou de récits. Elle peut être l’objet d’une critique acerbe exercée à l’encontre d’un savant fou, dupe ou excentrique (Queneau, Nabokov, Canetti). Elle s’oppose souvent à l’exercice de l’imagination et à l’intelligence spéculative. Mais l’érudition imaginaire peut aussi donner lieu à dispositifs érudits mis en place dans le texte du roman : appareil de notes, listes, enquête philologique, discours savants...  migrent dans la fiction. Expression d’un savoir savant, souvent désuet, l’érudition est bordée par la folie et la mélancolie. Dans l’œuvre de Borges ou de Sebald, comme dans celle de Quignard ou de Pierre Michon, l’érudition traduit ainsi une inquiétude envers les pouvoirs de la littérature et envers son rapport au savoir et à la mémoire

Le palimpseste de l'Histoire

Roman historique, La Semaine sainte repose sur une documentation érudite très importante. Elle donne lieu à une intertextualité massive, qui prend souvent la forme de la citation explicite, dont la fonction est de consolider l’exacti­tude historique de la fiction. L’amplitude des emprunts peut être très variée, et seule une enquête érudite et minutieuse permet de retrouver les fragments montés dans le roman. Aragon ne révèle en effet qu’une partie infime des intertextes qu’il exploite pour écrire La Semaine sainte ; sous une forme implicite, l’intertextualité établit une relation polémique entre l’histoire et le roman. L’invention romanesque s’alimente en effet au discours historique qu’elle n’utilise pas aux seules fins de véracité, mais aussi pour le corriger ou le démentir. Jamais systématique, l’usage de l’intertextualité dans La Semaine sainte montre comment le roman historique procède en brouillant les cartes de l’histoire et de la fiction

Variable selection in near infrared spectra for the biological characterization of soil and earthworm casts

International audienceNear infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to predict six biological properties of soil and earthworm casts including extracellular soil enzymes, microbial carbon, potential nitrification and denitrification. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) models were developed with a selection of the most important near infrared wavelengths. They reached coefficients of determination ranging from 0.81 to 0.91 and ratios of performance-to-deviation above 2.3. Variable selection with the variable importance in the projection (VIP) method increased dramatically the prediction performance of all models with an important contribution from the 1750–2500 nm region. We discuss whether selected wavelengths can be attributed to macronutrient availability or to microbial biomass. Wavelength selection in NIR spectra is recommended for improving PLSR models in soil research

A New Generation of Peptide-based Inhibitors Targeting HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase Conformational Flexibility.

International audienceThe biologically active form of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 reverse transcriptase (RT) is a heterodimer. The formation of RT is a two-step mechanism, including a rapid protein-protein interaction "the dimerization step," followed by conformational changes "the maturation step," yielding the biologically active form of the enzyme. We have previously proposed that the heterodimeric organization of RT constitutes an interesting target for the design of new inhibitors. Here, we propose a new class of RT inhibitors that targets protein-protein interactions and conformational changes involved in the maturation of heterodimeric reverse transcriptase. Based on a screen of peptides derived from the thumb domain of this enzyme, we have identified a short peptide P(AW) that inhibits the maturation step and blocks viral replication at subnanomolar concentrations. P(AW) only binds dimeric RT and stabilizes it in an inactive/non-processive conformation. From a mechanistic point of view, P(AW) prevents proper binding of primer/template by affecting the structural dynamics of the thumb/fingers of p66 subunit. Taken together, these results demonstrate that HIV-1 RT maturation constitutes an attractive target for AIDS chemotherapeutics

Coping with Environmental Constraints: Geographically Divergent Adaptive Evolution and Germination Plasticity in the Transcontinental \u3cem\u3ePopulus tremuloides\u3c/em\u3e

Societal Impact Statement Syntheses clearly show that global warming is affecting ecosystems and biodiversity around the world. New methods and measures are needed to predict the climate resilience of plant species critical to ecosystem stability, to improve ecological management and to support habitat restoration and human well-being. Widespread keystone species such as aspen are important targets in the study of resilience to future climate conditions because they play a crucial role in maintaining various ecosystem functions and may contain genetic material with untapped adaptive potential. Here, we present a new framework in support of climate-resilient revegetation based on comprehensively understood patterns of genetic variation in aspen. Summary Elucidating species\u27 genetic makeup and seed germination plasticity is essential to inform tree conservation efforts in the face of climate change. Populus tremuloides Michx. (aspen) occurs across diverse landscapes and reaches from Alaska to central Mexico, thus representing an early-successional model for ecological genomics. Within drought-affected regions, aspen shows ploidy changes and/or shifts from sexual to clonal reproduction, and reduced diversity and dieback have already been observed. We genotyped over 1000 individuals, covering aspen\u27s entire range, for approximately 44,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to assess large-scale and fine-scale genetic structure, variability in reproductive type (sexual/clonal), polyploidy and genomic regions under selection. We developed and implemented a rapid and reliable analysis pipeline (FastPloidy) to assess the presence of polyploidy. To gain insights into plastic responses, we contrasted seed germination from western US and eastern Canadian natural populations under elevated temperature and water stress. Four major genetic clusters were identified range wide; a preponderance of triploids and clonemates was found within western and southern North American regions, respectively. Genomic regions involving approximately 1000 SNPs under selection were identified with association to temperature and precipitation variation. Under drought stress, western US genotypes exhibited significantly lower germination rates compared with those from eastern North America, a finding that was unrelated to differences in mutation load (ploidy). This study provided new insights into the adaptive evolution of a key indicator tree that provisions crucial ecosystem services across North America, but whose presence is steadily declining within its western distribution. We uncovered untapped adaptive potential across the species\u27 range which can form the basis for climate-resilient revegetation

Prion 2016 poster abstracts

Until now, the 3-dimensional structure of infectious mammalian prions and how this differs from non-infectious amyloid fibrils remained unknown. Mammalian prions are hypothesized to be fibrillar or amyloid forms of prion protein (PrP), but structures observed to date have not been definitively correlated with infectivity. One of the major challenges has been the production of highly homogeneous material of demonstrable high specific infectivity to allow direct correlation of particle structure with infectivity. We have recently developed novel methods to obtain exceptionally pure preparations of prions from prion-infected murine brain and have shown that pathogenic PrP in these high-titer preparations is assembled into rod-like assemblies (Wenborn et al. 2015. Sci. Rep. 10062). Our preparations contain very high titres of infectious prions which faithfully transmit prion strain-specific phenotypes when inoculated into mice making them eminently suitable for detailed structural analysis. We are now undertaking structural characterization of prion assemblies and comparing these to the structure of non-infectious PrP fibrils generated from recombinant Pr

In-Person and Remote Workshops for People With Neurocognitive Disorders: Recommendations From a Delphi Panel

Workshops using arts and board games are forms of non-pharmacological intervention widely employed in seniors with neurocognitive disorders. However, clear guidelines on how to conduct these workshops are missing. The objective of the Art and Game project (AGAP) was to draft recommendations on the structure and content of workshops for elderly people with neurocognitive disorders and healthy seniors, with a particular focus on remote/hybrid workshops, in which at least a part of the participants is connected remotely. Recommendations were gathered using a Delphi methodology. The expert panel (N = 18) included experts in the health, art and/or board games domains. They answered questions via two rounds of web-surveys, and then discussed the results in a plenary meeting. Some of the questions were also shared with the general public (N = 101). Both the experts and the general public suggested that organizing workshops in a hybrid format (some face-to-face sessions, some virtual session) is feasible and interesting for people with neurocognitive disorders. We reported guidelines on the overall structure of workshops, practical tips on how to organize remote workshops, and a SWOT analysis of the use of remote/hybrid workshops. The guidelines may be employed by clinicians to decide, based on their needs and constraints, what interventions and what kind of workshop format to employ, as well as by researcher to standardize procedures to assess the effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments for people with neurocognitive disorders

Antiviral and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Fluoxetine in a SARS-CoV-2 Infection Mouse Model

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Since a large portion of the world’s population is currently unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated and has limited access to approved treatments against COVID-19, there is an urgent need to continue research on treatment options, especially those at low cost and which are immediately available to patients, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Prior in vitro and observational studies have shown that fluoxetine, possibly through its inhibitory effect on the acid sphingomyelinase/ceramide system, could be a promising antiviral and anti-inflammatory treatment against COVID-19. In this report, we evaluated the potential antiviral and anti-inflammatory activities of fluoxetine in a K18-hACE2 mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and against variants of concern in vitro, i.e., SARS-CoV-2 ancestral strain, Alpha B.1.1.7, Gamma P1, Delta B1.617 and Omicron BA.5. Fluoxetine, administrated after SARS-CoV-2 infection, significantly reduced lung tissue viral titres and expression of several inflammatory markers (i.e., IL-6, TNFα, CCL2 and CXCL10). It also inhibited the replication of all variants of concern in vitro. A modulation of the ceramide system in the lung tissues, as reflected by the increase in the ratio HexCer 16:0/Cer 16:0 in fluoxetine-treated mice, may contribute to explain these effects. Our findings demonstrate the antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties of fluoxetine in a K18-hACE2 mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and its in vitro antiviral activity against variants of concern, establishing fluoxetine as a very promising candidate for the prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease pathogenesis