Ballad: Ballade, Complainte, Chanson Tragique, Chanson Lyrico-Épique ou Chanson Narrative?

In Anglo-American folklore studies, and in Europe in general, the ballad is a well defined genre. Not so in French. While English-speaking folklorists agree that the ballad is a narrative folk song with formal characteristics which set its meter and stanzaic shape apart from other types of folk songs, French folk specialists have never defined one particular folk genre as precisely as this, and have mostly been concerned with collecting and cataloguing all types of songs in terms of their theme, subject matter, style, object, use, age, origin, or other. Even if French scholars do use such terms as “complaintes,” “chansons tragiques,” or “chansons lyricoepiques” which seem to correspond to the English "ballads,” no two scholars use any of those terms with the same definition, and never does it correspond exactly to the ballads. A whole field of study is therefore open to enterprising French folk researchers who would wish to isolate French narrative folk songs, call them “ballades folkloriques” to distinguish them from the literary “ballades,” and describe their formal characteristics. Such a study would lead to rewarding comparative studies, especially between French and English ballads in Canada, for example

Le Testament du Garçon Empoisonné un Lord Randal Français en Acadie

Versions of a French ballad collected on the east coast of Canada (Acadie) are compared to Child No. 12, Lord Randal. The French ballad, Le testament du garçon empoisonné, is shown to be a popular translation resulting from the folk cultural exchanges that occurred in Canada, either in lumbercamps or among mixed (i.e. French-English) families. This French ballad has no ancestor in France, but a French Lord Randal does exist among the displaced “ Cajuns” of Louisiana. While it is impossible to identify a unique source for the French Testament, the Louisiana version seems to be the work of a literate craftsman whose source can be clearly traced to Child D version, first published in Scotts Minstrelsy. The tight language barrier which usually stands between the French and the English folk cultures seems to have been crossed in this, and in other similar cases, thanks to the intrinsic characteristics of this beautiful: Anglo-Scottish ballad. The characteristic mode o f narration of Lord Randal, its economy of details and dramatic effectiveness, seem to have impressed a French audience, who then proceeded to adapt and then adopt this English ballad into its own French repertoire. It may be inferred that a similar process of translation, adaptation, and adoption may have occurred centuries ago, in old Europe, for many of the well known ballads that have equivalents in several European languages

Favoriser les relocalisations industrielles au Québec par le biais des politiques publiques II : le Québec est-il mûr pour une réindustrialisation d’ampleur? Un aperçu de l’état du secteur manufacturier québécois

La réindustrialisation, notamment par l’entremise des relocalisations et dont la substitution des importations est l’un des effets directs, représente une tendance lourde des stratégies économiques occidentales depuis la crise financière de 2008, qui a mis en évidence les dangers de la financiarisation, de la stagnation des investissements productifs, des délocalisations industrielles et de la déconnexion entre les politiques publiques et l’économie « réelle ». Le Québec ne fait pas exception à cette règle, bien que la croissance annuelle moyenne de son PIB manufacturier depuis cette crise (environ 1,4%) ait été assez substantiellement inférieure à celle des principales puissances industrielles occidentales. Cette croissance du secteur manufacturier depuis 2009 n’a pu que ralentir son déclin relatif en proportion du PIB québécois, son poids stagnant autour des 14% depuis une dizaine d’années alors qu’il atteignait encore les 20% au tournant des années 2000. Dans un rapport détaillé publié simultanément à la présente note et auquel nous invitons les lecteurs intéressés et avertis à se référer, l’IRÉC établit dans quelle mesure et de quelles manières, dans un objectif de relocalisation partielle de ses chaînes de valeur manufacturières, le Québec peut envisager à moyen et long termes une réindustrialisation d’ampleur

The Conserved VPS-50 Protein Functions in Dense-Core Vesicle Maturation and Acidification and Controls Animal Behavior

The modification of behavior in response to experience is crucial for animals to adapt to environmental changes. Although factors such as neuropeptides and hormones are known to function in the switch between alternative behavioral states, the mechanisms by which these factors transduce, store, retrieve, and integrate environmental signals to regulate behavior are poorly understood. The rate of locomotion of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans depends on both current and past food availability. Specifically, C. elegans slows its locomotion when it encounters food, and animals in a food-deprived state slow even more than animals in a well-fed state. The slowing responses of well-fed and food-deprived animals in the presence of food represent distinct behavioral states, as they are controlled by different sets of genes, neurotransmitters, and neurons. Here we describe an evolutionarily conserved C. elegans protein, VPS-50, that is required for animals to assume the well-fed behavioral state. Both VPS-50 and its murine homolog mVPS50 are expressed in neurons, are associated with synaptic and dense-core vesicles, and control vesicle acidification and hence synaptic function, likely through regulation of the assembly of the V-ATPase complex. We propose that dense-core vesicle acidification controlled by the evolutionarily conserved protein VPS-50/mVPS50 affects behavioral state by modulating neuropeptide levels and presynaptic neuronal function in both C. elegans and mammals.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant GM024663

Supporting Parental Decisions About Genomic Sequencing for Newborn Screening: The NC NEXUS Decision Aid

Advances in genomic sequencing technology have raised fundamental challenges to the traditional ways genomic information is communicated. These challenges will become increasingly complex and will affect a much larger population in the future if genomics is incorporated into standard newborn screening practice. Clinicians, public health officials, and other stakeholders will need to agree on the types of information that they should seek and communicate to parents. Currently, few evidence-based and validated tools are available to support parental informed decision-making. These tools will be necessary as genomics is integrated into clinical practice and public health systems. In this article we describe how the North Carolina Newborn Exome Sequencing for Universal Screening study is addressing the need to support parents in making informed decisions about the use of genomic testing in newborn screening. We outline the context for newborn screening and justify the need for parental decision support. We also describe the process of decision aid development and the data sources, processes, and best practices being used in development. By the end of the study, we will have an evidenced-based process and validated tools to support parental informed decision-making about the use of genomic sequencing in newborn screening. Data from the study will help answer important questions about which genomic information ought to be sought and communicated when testing newborns

Progression of aortic stenosis after an acute myocardial infarction

Background Myocardial infarction (MI) has been shown to induce fibrotic remodelling of the mitral and tricuspid valves. It is unknown whether MI also induces pathological remodelling of the aortic valve and alters aortic stenosis (AS) progression. We thus compared AS progression after an acute MI and in patients with/without history of MI, and assessed post-MI pathobiological changes within the aortic valve leaflets in a sheep model. Methods Serial echocardiograms in human patients with AS were retrospectively analysed and compared between 3 groups: (1) acute MI at baseline (n=68), (2) prior history of MI (n=45) and (3) controls without MI (n=101). Annualised progression rates of AS severity were compared between these 3 groups. In addition, aortic valves were harvested from 15 sheep: (1) induced inferior MI (n=10) and (2) controls without MI (n=5), for biological and histological analyses. Results In humans, the acute MI, previous MI and control groups had comparable baseline AS severity. Indexed aortic valve area (AVAi) declined faster in the acute MI group compared with controls (−0.07±0.06 vs −0.04±0.04 cm²/m²/year; p=0.004). After adjustment, acute MI status was significantly associated with faster AVAi progression (mean difference: −0.013 (95% CI −0.023 to −0.003) cm²/m²/year, p=0.008). In the post-MI experimental animal model, aortic valve thickness and qualitative/quantitative expression of collagen were significantly increased compared with controls. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that AS progression is accelerated following acute MI, which could be caused by increased collagen production and thickening of the aortic valve after the ischaemic event

Innate immune cell activation after HIV-1 vaccine administration is associated with increased antibody production

The RV144 Thai phase III clinical trial’s canarypox–protein HIV vaccine regimen showed modest efficacy in reducing infection. We therefore sought to determine the effects of vaccine administration on innate cell activation and subsequent associations with vaccine-induced immune responses. RV306 was a randomized, double-blind clinical trial in HIV-uninfected Thai adults that tested delayed boosting following the RV144 regimen. PBMC collected from RV306 participants prior to and 3 days after the last boost were used to investigate innate immune cell activation. Our analysis showed an increase in CD38+ mucosal associated invariant T (MAIT) cells, CD38+ invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, CD38+ γδ T cells, CD38+, CD69+ and HLA-DR+ NK cells 3 days after vaccine administration. An increase in CD14-CD16+ non-classical monocytes and CD14+CD16+ intermediate monocytes accompanied by a decrease in CD14+CD16- classical monocytes was also associated with vaccine administration. Inclusion of ALVAC-HIV in the boost did not further increase MAIT, iNKT, γδ T, and NK cell activation or increase the proportion of non-classical monocytes. Additionally, NK cell activation 3 days after vaccination was positively associated with antibody titers of HIV Env-specific total IgG and IgG1. Vδ1 T cell activation 3 days after vaccine administration was associated with HIV Env-specific IgG3 titers. Finally, we observed trending associations between MAIT cell activation and Env-specific IgG3 titers and between NK cell activation and TH023 pseudovirus neutralization titers. Our study identifies a potential role for innate cells, specifically NK, MAIT, and γδ T cells, in promoting antibody responses following HIV-1 vaccine administration