The Glamour of Horror?

Dans cette réflexion sur la perception culturelle et politique des « images intolérables » nous questionnons l’argument selon lequel l’écriture optique de l’histoire forgée par les « photographies violentes » sombrerait dans une forme de démotivation psychologique et un dédain moral qui éloignent le public du photojournalisme. Notre attention à l’égard de l’ambiguïté inhérente de l’image photographique, de la dialectique intrinsèque et du cœur « brûlant » de celle-ci, nous permet de raffiner la notion de « choc » ancré dans cette image. Comme toute trace, la photographie est portée par sa propre destruction. Mais ce que la photographie capture est aussi une machine d’indétermination dans laquelle l’oscillation et l’incertitude entre le « réel » et le spectral, entre le vivant et le non-vivant, ne semble jamais finir. À travers une étude du travail de Sebastião Salgado, parmi d’autres, notre réflexion, portée par Susan Sontag et Serge Margel, montre qu’il y a un « glamour de l’horreur » dans lequel le trauma est le nom de la structure déconstructive qui est lovée au cœur des machinations photographiques et cinématographiques.In this reflection about today’s cultural and political perception of “intolerable images”, we question the argument that the optical writing of history provided by “violent photographs” would sink in a form of psychological demotivation and moral disdain that turns the public away from photojournalism. Focusing on the photographic image’s inherent ambiguity, on its intrinsic dialectic as well as its own “burning” core, allows us to address the shock contained in images per se. Like any trace, photography carries out its own destruction. But what the photograph captures is also a machinery of indetermination in which the oscillation and uncertainty between the “real” and the spectral, the living and the non-living, never seems to end. While studying Sebastião Salgado’s work among others, our reflection on Susan Sontag and Serge Margel shows that there is a “glamour of horror” in which trauma is the name of a deconstructive structure that lies at the core of the photographic and cinematic machinations

Promouvoir les territoires : un problème d'échelle

International audienceConducting research in management related to territorial development interests the professional community including policy makers and stakeholders of the territory. However, the multiplicity of stakeholders in this development highlights a difficulty related to the aporetic nature of the definition of the territory, in this case the appropriate level to implement actions of place management. This paper aims to understand how to consider this scaling problem in analyzing the consumption of territory. To do this, it focuses on the need to rely on a mesosocial scale suitable to overcome the pitfalls that lead to some strict micro-geographical account of individuals in space. This approach enables to move towards the portability of traditional marketing tools to territorial development and to provide modestly to building the field of territorial sciences.Mener une recherche en sciences de gestion afférente au développement territorial présente des intérêts pour la communauté professionnelle dont les décideurs publics et les divers acteurs du territoire. Cependant, la multiplicité des parties prenantes à ce développement met en exergue une difficulté liée au caractère aporétique de la définition du territoire, en l’espèce la nature de l’échelle appropriée pour mettre en oeuvre des actions de marketing territorial. Cette communication se propose de montrer comment se pose ce problème d’échelle en matière d’analyse de la consommation de territoire. Pour ce faire, elle met l’accent sur la nécessité de s’appuyer sur une échelle méso-sociale propre à dépasser les écueils vers lesquels conduit notamment une stricte considération micro-géographique des individus dans l’espace. Cet angle permet de tenter d’avancer vers une portabilité des outils traditionnels du marketing au développement territorial et d’apporter modestement une pierre à l’édification du champ des sciences du territoire

Resources Description, Selection, Reservation and Verification on a Large-scale Testbed

International audienceThe management of resources on testbeds, including their description, reservation and verification, is a challenging issue, especially on of large scale testbeds such as those used for research on High Performance Computing or Clouds. In this paper, we present the solution designed for the Grid'5000 testbed in order to: (1) provide users with an in-depth and machine-parsable description of the testbed's resources; (2) enable multi-criteria selection and reservation of resources using a HPC resource manager; (3) ensure that the description of the resources remains accurate

Laparoscopic versus open sigmoid resection for diverticulitis: long-term results of a prospective, randomized trial

Background: Elective laparoscopic sigmoid resection for diverticulitis has proven short-term benefits, but little data are available from prospective randomized trials regarding long-term outcome, quality of life, and functional results. Methods: Of 113 patients randomized to undergo laparoscopic (LAP) versus open (OP) sigmoid resection for diverticulitis, 105 (93%, LAP=54, OP=51) patients were examined and answered the Gastrointestinal Quality of Life Index (GIQLI) questionnaire, with a median follow-up of 30 (range, 9-63) months after surgery. Results: Incisional hernias were detected in five (9.8%) patients in the OP group versus seven (12.9%) in the LAP group, P=0.84). Overall satisfaction with the operation on a scale of 0 (very poor) to 10 (excellent) was 9 (range, 2-10) in the OP group versus 9 (range, 2-10) in the LAP group (P=0.78). Median GIQLI score was 115 (range, 57-144) in the OP group versus 110 (range, 61-134) in the LAP group (P=0.17). Overall satisfaction with the cosmetic aspect of the scar on a scale of 0 (very poor) to 10 (excellent) was 8 (range, 1-10) in the OP group versus 9 (range, 0-10) in the LAP group (P=0.01). Finally, median hospital cost (including reoperations for hernias) was 11,606 (5,230-147,982) CHF in the LAP group versus 12,138 (6,098-39,786) CHF in the OP group (P=0.47). Conclusions: Both open and laparoscopic approaches for sigmoid resection achieve good long-term results in terms of gastrointestinal function, quality of life, and patients' satisfaction. Significant long-term benefits of laparoscopic surgery are restricted to cosmetic (ClinicalTrials.gov protocol #NCT00453830

Surgical management of abdominal and retroperitoneal Castleman's disease

BACKGROUND: Abdominal and retroperitoneal Castleman's disease could present either as a localized disease or as a systemic disease. Castleman's disease is a lymphoid hyperplasia related to human Herpes virus type 8, which could have an aggressive behavior, similar to that of malignant lymphoid neoplasm mainly with the systemic type, or a benign one in its localized form. METHODS: The authors report two cases of localized Castleman's disease in the retroperitoneal space and review the current and recent progress in the knowledge of this atypical disease. CASES PRESENTATION: The two patients were young healthy women presenting with a hyper vascular peri-renal mass suggestive of malignant tumor. Both have been resected in-toto. One of them had an extensive resection with nephrectomy, while the second had a kidney preserving surgery. Pathological examination revealed localized Castleman's disease and surgical margins were free of disease. Postoperative course was uneventful, and after more than 5-years of follow-up no recurrences have been observed. CONCLUSION: Localized Castleman's disease should be considered when facing a solid hypervascular abdominal or retroperitoneal mass. A better knowledge of this disorder and its characteristic would help surgeon to avoid unnecessarily extensive resection for this benign disorder when dealing with abdominal or retroperitoneal tumors. Surgical resection is curative for the localized form, when complete, while splenectomy could be indicated for the systemic form

Reducing Cost of Surgery by Avoiding Complications: the Model of Robotic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass

Background: Robotic surgery is a complex technology offering technical advantages over conventional methods. Still, clinical outcomes and financial issues have been subjects of debate. Several studies have demonstrated higher costs for robotic surgery when compared to laparoscopy or open surgery. However, other studies showed fewer costly anastomotic complications after robotic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGBP) when compared to laparoscopy. Methods: We collected data for our gastric bypass patients who underwent open, laparoscopic, or robotic surgery from June 1997 to July 2010. Demographic data, BMI, complications, mortality, intensive care unit stay, hospitalization, and operating room (OR) costs were analyzed and a cost projection completed. Sensitivity analyses were performed for varied leak rates during laparoscopy, number of robotic cases per month, number of additional staplers during robotic surgery, and varied OR times for robotic cases. Results: Nine-hundred ninety patients underwent gastric bypass surgery at the University Hospital Geneva from June 1997 to July 2010. There were 524 open, 323 laparoscopic, and 143 robotic cases. Significantly fewer anastomotic complications occurred after open and robotic RYGBP when compared to laparoscopy. OR material costs were slightly less for robotic surgery (USD 5,427) than for laparoscopy (USD 5,494), but more than for the open procedure (USD 2,251). Overall, robotic gastric bypass (USD 19,363) was cheaper when compared to laparoscopy (USD 21,697) and open surgery (USD 23,000). Conclusions: Robotic RYGBP can be cost effective due to balancing greater robotic overhead costs with the savings associated with avoiding stapler use and costly anastomotic complication

Tackling the Problem of Data Imbalancing for Melanoma Classification

International audienceMalignant melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer, yet melanoma is the most treatable kind of cancer when diagnosed at an early stage. In this regard, Computer-Aided Diagnosis systems based on machine learning have been developed to discern melanoma lesions from benign and dysplastic nevi in dermoscopic images. Similar to a large range of real world applications encountered in machine learning, melanoma classification faces the challenge of imbalanced data, where the percentage of melanoma cases in comparison with benign and dysplastic cases is far less. This article analyzes the impact of data balancing strategies at the training step. Subsequently, Over-Sampling (OS) and Under-Sampling (US) are extensively compared in both feature and data space, revealing that NearMiss-2 (NM2) outperform other methods achieving Sensitivity (SE) and Specificity (SP) of 91.2% and 81.7%, respectively. More generally, the reported results highlight that methods based on US or combination of OS and US in feature space outperform the others

TAMARIS : Traitement et Authentification des MenAces et RISques en mer (2009)

International audienceL'objectif du projet de démonstrateur proposé TAMARIS, est d'intégrer un processus et des outils innovants de traitement de l'information pour l'analyse d'une situation qui est une série d'alertes correspondant à un comportement suspect de navire. Ce comportement suspect peut se dérouler dans le temps (sur plusieurs jours, voir mois) et sur un espace maritime étendu (plusieurs centaines de miles nautiques). L'analyse est traduite par l'élaboration en temps réel d'un dossier d'enquête électronique. Ce dossier standardisé, permet de rassembler l'ensemble des informations (des connections à des bases de données et à Internet permettent ce renseignement) et l'analyse sur un seul support réactualisé au fil du déroulement de la situation. Ce dossier peut être transmis aux autorités décisionnelles afin de suivre en permanence les évolutions et d'être informées de l'authentification progressive du comportement suspect durant son déroulement. Ce dossier est constitué et visualisé sur une table tactile, ce qui permet à une équipe d'experts de différentes organisations de travailler ensemble et en direct de façon interactive. Ce dossier constitue une archive quasi complète et chronologique qui peut être transmise également à des enquêteurs pour mener des investigations ultérieures