Durkheim, the Sacred and Environmental Crisis in the Contemporary Industrial Society

Este artículo presenta una lectura heurística de Las formas elementales de la vida religiosa. Contiene dos partes. La primera trata unos prolegómenos teóricos y metodológicos y la segunda pasa a considerar una aplicación práctica. Los prolegómenos precisan los conceptos de lectura y de lectura heurística, para recordar luego el valor heurístico concreto que damos a una serie de conceptos de base de la obra durkheimiana. La interdependencia y la integración de estos conceptos nos dan una idea concisa del núcleo central del pensamiento de Durkheim en lo que toca a la relación entre lo sagrado y el mundo contemporáneo. La aplicación práctica nos parece más ambiciosa, ya que se refiere directamente al excepcional problema del calentamiento climático y de la degradación constante del medio ambiente que vivimos desde hace unas décadas. Después de indicar en sus grandes líneas las causas societales determinantes de este problema, entramos en la cuestión delicada del remedio que es necesario encontrar para poder sobrevivir, nosotros, nuestros hijos y nuestros nietos. Para entrar de manera concreta en estas causas y remedios, nuestra lectura de FE nos lleva a considerar la importancia suprema del concepto de sagrado que, para expresarlo en términos puramente positivos y naturales, calificamos de valor ético fundamental que orienta el comportamiento de las personas y de los grupos sociales. El artículo termina sometiendo a consideración los elementos de un cambio social alternativo que, siguiendo las posiciones de Durkheim, incluya a la vez, estos valores éticos fundamentales y las condiciones organizativas, económicas y sociales.This paper presents a heuristic reading of The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. It includes two parts. The first one deals with theoretical and methodological prolegomena and the second, with a practical application. The prolegomena specify previously the notions of reading and of heuristic reading, and later the heuristic value that we attribute to a series of basic durkheimian concepts. The interdependence and integration of these concepts offers a concise idea on the hard core of the sociological theory concerned with sacred and profane throughout The Forms The practical application seems vaster and more ambitious. It refers directly to the exceptional problem of climate change and the constant degradation of natural environment that we are suffering these last decades. After showing broadly the societal determinant causes of climate change, we go into the critical question of the remedies that are necessary to survive, ourselves, our children and our grand children. To study concretely these causes and these remedies, our reading of The Forms leads to consider the major importance of the crucial term of sacred. A term which, in order to employ a positive and neutral vocabulary, will be called as the founding ethical value that guides the behaviour of people and of social groups. This paper ends with an appeal to a kind of social alternative change that, following Durkheim’s insights, includes simultaneously the recognition of these fundamental ethical values and a particular attention to the social and economic conditions that shape the modern lif

La Religion de l’humanité. Notes sur l’anthropocentrisme durkheimien

A first study of Durkheim’s personal convictions has convinced us of the decisive importance of his Jewish origins and his religion of humanity. Based on his own "inclusive" and "dynamogenic" conceptions of religion, it can be stated in fact that Durkheim was instilled with genuine religious faith. This article proposes to return in a bit more detail to the question of exploring the way in which Durkheim was himself a believer in the religion of humanity. It attempts to trace back first to one of the most immediate sources of this religiosity, from a brief analysis of the Durkheimian interpretation of Saint Simon’s writings. It then studies the theoretical status of this form of transcendant dualism which transmutates the theocentricity of the Yavehic faith into an anthropocentricity which is just as radically religious

The sigma -> gamma gamma Width from Nucleon Electromagnetic Polarizabilities

The lightest QCD resonance, the sigma, has been recently fixed in the pi-pi scattering amplitude. The nature of this state remains nowadays one of the most intriguing and difficult issues in particle physics. Its coupling to photons is crucial to discriminate its structure. We propose a new method that fixes this coupling using only available precise experimental data on the proton electromagnetic polarizabilities together with analyticity and unitarity. Taking into account the uncertainties in the analysis and in the parameter values, our result is Gamma_{pole}(sigma -> gamma gamma) = (1.2 +- 0.4) KeV.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure. v2: Matches published version. v3: Small errata in Eq. (3) correcte

Discriminant Analysis of Geographical Origin of Cork Planks and Stoppers by Near Infrared Spectroscopy

The objective of this study was to assess the potential of visible and near infrared spectroscopy (VIS+NIRS) combined with multivariate analysis for identifying the geographical origin of cork. The study was carried out on cork planks and natural cork stoppers from the most representative cork-producing areas in the world. Two training sets of international and national cork planks were studied. The first set comprised a total of 479 samples from Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, while the second set comprised a total of 179 samples from the Spanish regions of Andalusia, Catalonia, and Extremadura. A training set of 90 cork stoppers from Andalusia and Catalonia was also studied. Original spectroscopic data were obtained for the transverse sections of the cork planks and for the body and top of the cork stoppers by means of a 6500 Foss-NIRSystems SY II spectrophotometer using a fiber optic probe. Remote reflectance was employed in the wavelength range of 400 to 2500 nm. After analyzing the spectroscopic data, discriminant models were obtained by means of partial least square (PLS) with 70% of the samples. The best models were then validated using 30% of the remaining samples. At least 98% of the international cork plank samples and 95% of the national samples were correctly classified in the calibration and validation stage. The best model for the cork stoppers was obtained for the top of the stoppers, with at least 90% of the samples being correctly classified. The results demonstrate the potential of VIS + NIRS technology as a rapid and accurate method for predicting the geographical origin of cork plank and stopper

Pharmacology and preclinical validation of a novel anticancer compound targeting PEPCK-M

Background: Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) catalyzes the decarboxylation of oxaloacetate to phosphoenolpyruvate. The mitochondrial isozyme, PEPCK-M is highly expressed in cancer cells, where it plays a role in nutrient stress response. To date, pharmacological strategies to target this pathway have not been pursued. Methods: A compound embodying a 3-alkyl-1,8-dibenzylxanthine nucleus (iPEPCK-2), was synthesized and successfully probed in silico on a PEPCK-M structural model. Potency and target engagement in vitro and in vivo were evaluated by kinetic and cellular thermal shift assays (CETSA). The compound and its target were validated in tumor growth models in vitro and in murine xenografts. Results: Cross-inhibitory capacity and increased potency as compared to 3-MPA were confirmed in vitro and in vivo. Treatment with iPEPCK-2 inhibited cell growth and survival, especially in poor-nutrient environment, consistent with an impact on colony formation in soft agar. Finally, daily administration of the PEPCK-M inhibitor successfully inhibited tumor growth in two murine xenograft models as compared to vehicle, without weight loss, or any sign of apparent toxicity. Conclusion: We conclude that iPEPCK-2 is a compelling anticancer drug targeting PEPCK-M, a hallmark gene product involved in metabolic adaptations of the tumor

Constraints on Higgs boson properties using WW∗(→ eνμν) jj production in 36.1fb-1 of √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

This article presents the results of two studies of Higgs boson properties using the WW(→ eνμν) jj final state, based on a dataset corresponding to 36.1 fb of s=13 TeV proton–proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The first study targets Higgs boson production via gluon–gluon fusion and constrains the CP properties of the effective Higgs–gluon interaction. Using angular distributions and the overall rate, a value of tan (α) = 0.0 ± 0.4 (stat.) ± 0.3 (syst.) is obtained for the tangent of the mixing angle for CP-even and CP-odd contributions. The second study exploits the vector-boson fusion production mechanism to probe the Higgs boson couplings to longitudinally and transversely polarised W and Z bosons in both the production and the decay of the Higgs boson; these couplings have not been directly constrained previously. The polarisation-dependent coupling-strength scale factors are defined as the ratios of the measured polarisation-dependent coupling strengths to those predicted by the Standard Model, and are determined using rate and kinematic information to be aL=0.91-0.18+0.10(stat.)-0.17+0.09(syst.) and a= 1.2 ± 0.4 (stat.)-0.3+0.2(syst.). These coupling strengths are translated into pseudo-observables, resulting in κVV=0.91-0.18+0.10(stat.)-0.17+0.09(syst.) and ϵVV=0.13-0.20+0.28 (stat.)-0.10+0.08(syst.). All results are consistent with the Standard Model predictions

Constraints on Higgs boson production with large transverse momentum using H →b b ¯ decays in the ATLAS detector

This paper reports constraints on Higgs boson production with transverse momentum above 1 TeV. The analyzed data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV were recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider from 2015 to 2018 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 136 fb-1. Higgs bosons decaying into bb¯ are reconstructed as single large-radius jets recoiling against a hadronic system and are identified by the experimental signature of two b-hadron decays. The experimental techniques are validated in the same kinematic regime using the Z→bb¯ process. The 95% confidence-level upper limit on the cross section for Higgs boson production with transverse momentum above 450 GeV is 115 fb, and above 1 TeV it is 9.6 fb. The Standard Model cross section predictions for a Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV in the same kinematic regions are 18.4 fb and 0.13 fb, respectively

Measurement of Higgs boson decay into b-quarks in associated production with a top-quark pair in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The associated production of a Higgs boson and a top-quark pair is measured in events characterised by the presence of one or two electrons or muons. The Higgs boson decay into a b-quark pair is used. The analysed data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb, were collected in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider between 2015 and 2018 at a centre-of-mass energy of s = 13 TeV. The measured signal strength, defined as the ratio of the measured signal yield to that predicted by the Standard Model, is 0.35−0.34+0.36. This result is compatible with the Standard Model prediction and corresponds to an observed (expected) significance of 1.0 (2.7) standard deviations. The signal strength is also measured differentially in bins of the Higgs boson transverse momentum in the simplified template cross-section framework, including a bin for specially selected boosted Higgs bosons with transverse momentum above 300 GeV. [Figure not available: see fulltext.