L’expérience vécue par les mères haïtiennes vivant à Port-au-Prince ayant donné leur enfant en adoption internationale

Depuis quelques années, l’adoption internationale a pris une importance croissante dans le monde, particulièrement en Haïti. Chaque année, plusieurs centaines d’enfants quittent Haïti pour l’étranger par ce biais. Depuis les années 1990, le nombre d’adoptions ne cesse d’augmenter. Pourtant, la majorité de ces enfants ne sont ni orphelins, ni abandonnés : ce sont les familles d’origine qui amènent leurs enfants aux crèches (orphelinats). De ce fait, il est d’une importance capitale d’avoir les points de vue des familles qui ont vécu cette expérience pour comprendre les raisons qui les poussent à faire un tel choix. L’objectif principal de cette recherche est de mieux comprendre l’expérience vécue par les mères haïtiennes vivant à Port-au-Prince ayant donné leur enfant en adoption internationale. De façon plus spécifique, il s’agit de comprendre les attentes et les motivations des mères face au projet d’adoption, le sens qu’elles donnent à ce projet et la manière dont elles ont vécu cette séparation. Pour ce faire, 15 entrevues semi-dirigées ont été réalisées avec des mères ayant donné leurs enfants en adoption. Les résultats de cette étude nous ont permis de comprendre que les raisons qui poussent les mères à abandonner leur enfant en adoption sont multiples et complexes. Les problèmes de santé, de logement, d’emploi, l’absence du père, etc., sont autant de raisons avancées par les mères. Pour ces dernières, l’adoption peut être considérée comme une aide à l’enfance, une façon de sauver l’enfant de la misère ou une solution de sauvetage. Par ailleurs, au moment de confier leurs enfants en adoption, les mères ont signé des documents, mais elles semblent ne pas en connaître les contenus. De plus, le manque d’information sur le devenir de l’enfant et le regard de la société poussent les mères à éprouver des regrets, de la tristesse, de la honte, des craintes, des peurs, etc. Les mères développent également certaines stratégies pour forcer les responsables des crèches ou de l’Institut du bien-être social et de recherches (IBESR) à les informer sur l’évolution de leurs enfants. Outre le retour de l’enfant à sa majorité, les mères ont des attentes matérielles et économiques par rapport à l’enfant, aux responsables des crèches et aux familles adoptives.In recent years, international adoption has become increasingly important worldwide, especially in Haiti. Each year, hundreds of children leave Haiti after being adopted. Since the 1990s, the number of adoptions is increasing. Yet, the majority of these children are not orphans or abandoned: these are the original families who bring their children to nurseries (orphanages). Therefore, it is of paramount to have the views of families who have lived this experience to understand the reasons that lead them to make such an important choice. The main objective of this research is to better understand the experience of Haitian mothers living in Port-au-Prince who have given their children for international adoption. More specifically, it is to understand the expectations and motivations of mothers facing the proposed adoption, the meaning they give to this project and how they lived this separation. To do this, 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with mothers who gave their children up for adoption. The results of this study allowed us to understand the reasons why mothers give their children for adoption are varied and complex (problems of health, housing, employment, father absence, etc.). For the latter, the adoption may be considered as child welfare, a way to save the child from poverty or as a rescue solution. Moreover, when entrusting their children for adoption, mothers signed documents, of which they do not seem to know the contents. In addition, the lack of information on the future of the child and the pressure of society inducing mothers to feel regret, sadness, shame, fears, etc. Mothers also develop strategies to force orphanages or the Institute of Welfare and Research (IBESR) to inform them about the progress of their children. Besides the return of the child, the majority of mothers have physical and economic expectations for the child, the heads of orphanages and adoptive families.Depi kèk ane adopsyon entènasyonal pa sispann kouri ak tout boulin nan lemonn patikilyèman nan peyi dAyiti. Chak ane genyen plizyè santèn timoun ki rive kite peyi dAyiti gras ak adopsyon entènasyonal. Fenomèn sa a ap vale teren nan peyi a depi nan ane katrevendis yo. Men majorite timoun yo pa ni ofelen ni abandone. Kidonk se paran yo menm ki mennen timoun yo nan krèch yo. Nan sans sa a li ta bon pou nou brase lide ak fanmi yo pou nou kapab rive konnen ki rezon ki pouse yo bay pitit yo nan adopsyon. Objektif etid sa a se rive konprann kijan manman k ap viv Pòtoprens ki bay timoun nan adopsyon viv eksperyans lan. Pou nou pi klè etid la ap chache konnen 1) ki atant ak motivasyon manman yo aprè yo fin bay pitit yo nan adopsyon 2) Ki siyifikasyon manman yo bay adopsyon an 3) kòman yo viv separasyon ak pitit yo. Nan sans sa a, nou te fè kenz entèvyou ak kenz manman ki te bay pitit yo nan adopsyon. Nan entèvyou manman yo te bannou, nou rive jwenn genyen anpil rezon ki fè yo bay pitit yo nan adopsyon. Pwoblèm lasante, kay, chomaj, papa ki kouri kite pitit nan manman yo elatriye se ansanm rezon sa yo patisipan yo bay. Pou manman yo lè yon moun bay yon timoun nan adopsyon se lavi l li sove, se nan malsite li retire timoun nan, se sèl chwa yon manman genyen. Lòt bagay etid sa a fè nou rive konprann se vre manman yo siyen kèk papye nan moman y ap bay pitit yo nan adopsyon men yo pa fin konprann sa yo siyen an. Nan sans sa a, enfòmasyon yo pa jwenn lè pitit yo fin pati kite peyi a ak jan sosyete a gade yo boulevèse manman yo anpil. Yo santi yo regrèt, tris, wont, epi yo pè tou pou timoun yo pa viktim move zak, eksplwatasyon elatriye., nan men fanmi adoptiv yo. Se pou tèt sa yo mobilize pou yo jwenn nouvèl pitit yo. Boutofen non selman y ap tann pitit yo retounen vin viv ak yo jan sa te ye men y ap tann tou kichòy nan men responsab krèch yo, fanmi adoptiv ak nan men pitit yo. Selon diskou manman yo, ta sanble atant sa yo makonnen ak yon bann pwomès kèk responsab krèch te fè yo avan adopsyon pitit yo

SF-1 a key player in the development and differentiation of steroidogenic tissues

Since its discovery in the early 1990s, the orphan nuclear receptor SF-1 has been attributed a central role in the development and differentiation of steroidogenic tissues. SF-1 controls the expression of all the steroidogenic enzymes and cholesterol transporters required for steroidogenesis as well as the expression of steroidogenesis-stimulating hormones and their cognate receptors. SF-1 is also an essential regulator of genes involved in the sex determination cascade. The study of SF-1 null mice and of human mutants has been of great value to demonstrate the essential role of this factor in vivo, although the complete adrenal and gonadal agenesis in knock-out animals has impeded studies of its function as a transcriptional regulator. In particular, the role of SF-1 in the hormonal responsiveness of steroidogenic genes promoters is still a subject of debate. This extensive review takes into account recent data obtained from SF-1 haploinsufficient mice, pituitary-specific knock-outs and from transgenic mice experiments carried out with SF-1 target gene promoters. It also summarizes the pros and cons regarding the presumed role of SF-1 in cAMP signalling

Monocarboxylate transporters in cancer

Tumors are highly plastic metabolic entities composed of cancer and host cells that can adopt different metabolic phenotypes. For energy production, cancer cells may use 4 main fuels that are shuttled in 5 different metabolic pathways. Glucose fuels glycolysis that can be coupled to the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle and oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) in oxidative cancer cells or to lactic fermentation in proliferating and in hypoxic cancer cells. Lipids fuel lipolysis, glutamine fuels glutaminolysis, and lactate fuels the oxidative pathway of lactate, all of which are coupled to the TCA cycle and OXPHOS for energy production. This review focuses on the latter metabolic pathway. Lactate, which is prominently produced by glycolytic cells in tumors, was only recently recognized as a major fuel for oxidative cancer cells and as a signaling agent. Its exchanges across membranes are gated by monocarboxylate transporters MCT1-4. This review summarizes the current knowledge about MCT structure, regulation and functions in cancer, with a specific focus on lactate metabolism, lactate-induced angiogenesis and MCT-dependent cancer metastasis. It also describes lactate signaling via cell surface lactate receptor GPR81. Lactate and MCTs, especially MCT1 and MCT4, are important contributors to tumor aggressiveness. Analyses of MCT-deficient (MCT and MCT) animals and (MCT-mutated) humans indicate that they are druggable, with MCT1 inhibitors being in advanced development phase and MCT4 inhibitors still in the discovery phase. Imaging lactate fluxes non-invasively using a lactate tracer for positron emission tomography would further help to identify responders to the treatments

The associations of dyadic coping strategies with caregiver’s willingness to care and burden: A weekly diary study

This weekly diary study investigated associations of weekly dyadic coping strategies with caregivers’willingness to care and burden. Multilevel modelling was applied to assess between- and within-personassociations for 24 consecutive weeks in 955 caregivers. Greater willingness to care was reported in weekswhen caregivers used more collaborative (b=0.26, p<0.001) and supportive (b=0.30, p<0.001) strategies,whereas uninvolved coping was associated with lower willingness to care (b=−0.44, p<0.001). Usingcollaborative coping strategies was associated with lower weekly burden (b=−0.13, p<0.001). A greaterburden was reported in weeks when caregivers used more uninvolved (b=0.19, p<0.001) and controlling(b=0.13, p<0.001) coping strategies. A full understanding of whether caregivers’ willingness to care andburden may be improved owing to weekly dyadic coping is essential for developing timely support forcaregivers

Borcherds symmetries in M-theory

It is well known but rather mysterious that root spaces of the $E_k$ Lie groups appear in the second integral cohomology of regular, complex, compact, del Pezzo surfaces. The corresponding groups act on the scalar fields (0-forms) of toroidal compactifications of M theory. Their Borel subgroups are actually subgroups of supergroups of finite dimension over the Grassmann algebra of differential forms on spacetime that have been shown to preserve the self-duality equation obeyed by all bosonic form-fields of the theory. We show here that the corresponding duality superalgebras are nothing but Borcherds superalgebras truncated by the above choice of Grassmann coefficients. The full Borcherds' root lattices are the second integral cohomology of the del Pezzo surfaces. Our choice of simple roots uses the anti-canonical form and its known orthogonal complement. Another result is the determination of del Pezzo surfaces associated to other string and field theory models. Dimensional reduction on $T^k$ corresponds to blow-up of $k$ points in general position with respect to each other. All theories of the Magic triangle that reduce to the $E_n$ sigma model in three dimensions correspond to singular del Pezzo surfaces with $A_{8-n}$ (normal) singularity at a point. The case of type I and heterotic theories if one drops their gauge sector corresponds to non-normal (singular along a curve) del Pezzo's. We comment on previous encounters with Borcherds algebras at the end of the paper.Comment: 30 pages. Besides expository improvements, we exclude by hand real fermionic simple roots when they would naively aris

Inference on counterfactual distributions

August 8, 2008. Revised: April 4, 200

Refinement Types for Logical Frameworks and Their Interpretation as Proof Irrelevance

Refinement types sharpen systems of simple and dependent types by offering expressive means to more precisely classify well-typed terms. We present a system of refinement types for LF in the style of recent formulations where only canonical forms are well-typed. Both the usual LF rules and the rules for type refinements are bidirectional, leading to a straightforward proof of decidability of typechecking even in the presence of intersection types. Because we insist on canonical forms, structural rules for subtyping can now be derived rather than being assumed as primitive. We illustrate the expressive power of our system with examples and validate its design by demonstrating a precise correspondence with traditional presentations of subtyping. Proof irrelevance provides a mechanism for selectively hiding the identities of terms in type theories. We show that LF refinement types can be interpreted as predicates using proof irrelevance, establishing a uniform relationship between two previously studied concepts in type theory. The interpretation and its correctness proof are surprisingly complex, lending support to the claim that refinement types are a fundamental construct rather than just a convenient surface syntax for certain uses of proof irrelevance