L’âme répétitive de la procession de pèlerinage (Zola, D’Annunzio, Huysmans)

L’étude répond aux questions suivantes: comment Zola et ses successeurs représentent-ils les dynamiques psychiques des foules dans leurs romans portant sur des processions dans les lieux de pèlerinage (Lourdes, Casalbordino), et quels sont les explications qu’ils donnent des miracles qui ont lieu dans ce contexte ? D’un côté les réponses se réfèrent au savoir scientifique contemporain (Charcot, Tarde, Lacassagne, Bernheim), savoir sociologique et psychiatrique qui est repris et transformé dans ces romans. De l’autre côté ils se concentrent sur la figure mimétique de la répétition qui, au niveau du discours littéraire, reflète les concepts de répétition, imitation, suggestion (Tarde). L’effet de cette stratégie discursive est la représentation d’un inconscient collectif qui, à travers des techniques de répétition suggestives, forment un milieu au sens biologique, dans lequel se dissolvent les individus du groupe en formant un organisme commun

Forme e metamorfosi del ‘non conscio’ prima e dopo Freud: ‘ideologie scientifiche’ e rappresentazioni letterarie

In the wake of recent French and German studies that attempted to outline a history of psychology of the so-called unintentional before Freud, this volume intends to present a inquiry that scrutinizes in a more systematic way the various forms of the “non conscious” (independent or complementary of psychoanalysis) developed from the end of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century. We focused on their reception by literature, most of all in the Italian arena which has been less investigated up till now. The papers explore the relationships between literature and the “scientific ideologies” such as medicine, psychology and ethnography, with regard to the representation of the vast arena of the “non conscious”, as far as it interferes with and affects the conventions of literary genders and narrative writing.Dagli anni Novanta in poi, per effetto soprattutto degli studi sulla personalità e l’evoluzione scientifica del pensiero psicologico, chi si occupa di letteratura da una prospettiva antropologica deve fare i conti con l’esigenza di rileggere la cultura del secondo Ottocento e del primo Novecento fuori dall'orbita univoca del pensiero freudiano, riconoscendo l'esistenza di paradigmi di lunga durata: ovvero di quelle ‘ideologie scientifiche’ (Canguilhem) messe in ombra dalla massiccia divulgazione della psicanalisi, o nel migliore dei casi assunte come prodromi della rivoluzione freudiana

Graphical representation of ribosomal RNA probe accessibility data using ARB software package

BACKGROUND: Taxon specific hybridization probes in combination with a variety of commonly used hybridization formats nowadays are standard tools in microbial identification. A frequently applied technology, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), besides single cell identification, allows the localization and functional studies of the microbial community composition. Careful in silico design and evaluation of potential oligonucleotide probe targets is therefore crucial for performing successful hybridization experiments. RESULTS: The PROBE Design tools of the ARB software package take into consideration several criteria such as number, position and quality of diagnostic sequence differences while designing oligonucleotide probes. Additionally, new visualization tools were developed to enable the user to easily examine further sequence associated criteria such as higher order structure, conservation, G+C content, transition-transversion profiles and in situ target accessibility patterns. The different types of sequence associated information (SAI) can be visualized by user defined background colors within the ARB primary and secondary structure editors as well as in the PROBE Match tool. CONCLUSION: Using this tool, in silico probe design and evaluation can be performed with respect to in situ probe accessibility data. The evaluation of proposed probe targets with respect to higher-order rRNA structure is of importance for successful design and performance of in situ hybridization experiments. The entire ARB software package along with the probe accessibility data is available from the ARB home page

Effekt von N-Düngung und DMPP auf Spurengasemissionen sowie Enzymaktivität und Genkopien von Nitrifikanten und Denitrifikanten

Der Einfluss der Faktoren N-Düngung und Applikation eines Nitrifikationsinhibitors (DMPP) auf Nitrifizierer und Denitrifizierer untersucht. Die DMPP-Applikation verlangsamte die Nitrifikation auch zwei Monate nach Applikation. Es konnte kein Effekt auf die untersuchten Denitrifikationsgene und die Enzymaktivität der Denitrifizierer festgestellt werden. Die Faktoren N-Düngung und DMPP-Applikation hatten keine Auswirkung auf die N2O-Emission, da sie, vermutlich applikationsbedingt, eine sehr hohe Variabilität aufwies. Eine Interaktion der beiden Faktoren wurde jedoch bei der Bodenatmung nachgewiesen. Dabei setzte die DMPP-Zugabe die CO2-Freisetzung herab

A network analysis to identify mediators of germline-driven differences in breast cancer prognosis.

Identifying the underlying genetic drivers of the heritability of breast cancer prognosis remains elusive. We adapt a network-based approach to handle underpowered complex datasets to provide new insights into the potential function of germline variants in breast cancer prognosis. This network-based analysis studies ~7.3 million variants in 84,457 breast cancer patients in relation to breast cancer survival and confirms the results on 12,381 independent patients. Aggregating the prognostic effects of genetic variants across multiple genes, we identify four gene modules associated with survival in estrogen receptor (ER)-negative and one in ER-positive disease. The modules show biological enrichment for cancer-related processes such as G-alpha signaling, circadian clock, angiogenesis, and Rho-GTPases in apoptosis

Germline variants and breast cancer survival in patients with distant metastases at primary breast cancer diagnosis.

Breast cancer metastasis accounts for most of the deaths from breast cancer. Identification of germline variants associated with survival in aggressive types of breast cancer may inform understanding of breast cancer progression and assist treatment. In this analysis, we studied the associations between germline variants and breast cancer survival for patients with distant metastases at primary breast cancer diagnosis. We used data from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC) including 1062 women of European ancestry with metastatic breast cancer, 606 of whom died of breast cancer. We identified two germline variants on chromosome 1, rs138569520 and rs146023652, significantly associated with breast cancer-specific survival (P = 3.19 × 10-8 and 4.42 × 10-8). In silico analysis suggested a potential regulatory effect of the variants on the nearby target genes SDE2 and H3F3A. However, the variants showed no evidence of association in a smaller replication dataset. The validation dataset was obtained from the SNPs to Risk of Metastasis (StoRM) study and included 293 patients with metastatic primary breast cancer at diagnosis. Ultimately, larger replication studies are needed to confirm the identified associations

Combined Associations of a Polygenic Risk Score and Classical Risk Factors With Breast Cancer Risk.

We evaluated the joint associations between a new 313-variant PRS (PRS313) and questionnaire-based breast cancer risk factors for women of European ancestry, using 72 284 cases and 80 354 controls from the Breast Cancer Association Consortium. Interactions were evaluated using standard logistic regression and a newly developed case-only method for breast cancer risk overall and by estrogen receptor status. After accounting for multiple testing, we did not find evidence that per-standard deviation PRS313 odds ratio differed across strata defined by individual risk factors. Goodness-of-fit tests did not reject the assumption of a multiplicative model between PRS313 and each risk factor. Variation in projected absolute lifetime risk of breast cancer associated with classical risk factors was greater for women with higher genetic risk (PRS313 and family history) and, on average, 17.5% higher in the highest vs lowest deciles of genetic risk. These findings have implications for risk prevention for women at increased risk of breast cancer

Rare germline copy number variants (CNVs) and breast cancer risk.

Funder: CIHRGermline copy number variants (CNVs) are pervasive in the human genome but potential disease associations with rare CNVs have not been comprehensively assessed in large datasets. We analysed rare CNVs in genes and non-coding regions for 86,788 breast cancer cases and 76,122 controls of European ancestry with genome-wide array data. Gene burden tests detected the strongest association for deletions in BRCA1 (P = 3.7E-18). Nine other genes were associated with a p-value < 0.01 including known susceptibility genes CHEK2 (P = 0.0008), ATM (P = 0.002) and BRCA2 (P = 0.008). Outside the known genes we detected associations with p-values < 0.001 for either overall or subtype-specific breast cancer at nine deletion regions and four duplication regions. Three of the deletion regions were in established common susceptibility loci. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first genome-wide analysis of rare CNVs in a large breast cancer case-control dataset. We detected associations with exonic deletions in established breast cancer susceptibility genes. We also detected suggestive associations with non-coding CNVs in known and novel loci with large effects sizes. Larger sample sizes will be required to reach robust levels of statistical significance

Mendelian randomisation study of smoking exposure in relation to breast cancer risk

Background Despite a modest association between tobacco smoking and breast cancer risk reported by recent epidemiological studies, it is still equivocal whether smoking is causally related to breast cancer risk. Methods We applied Mendelian randomisation (MR) to evaluate a potential causal effect of cigarette smoking on breast cancer risk. Both individual-level data as well as summary statistics for 164 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) reported in genome-wide association studies of lifetime smoking index (LSI) or cigarette per day (CPD) were used to obtain MR effect estimates. Data from 108,420 invasive breast cancer cases and 87,681 controls were used for the LSI analysis and for the CPD analysis conducted among ever-smokers from 26,147 cancer cases and 26,072 controls. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to address pleiotropy. Results Genetically predicted LSI was associated with increased breast cancer risk (OR 1.18 per SD, 95% CI: 1.07-1.30, P = 0.11 x 10(-2)), but there was no evidence of association for genetically predicted CPD (OR 1.02, 95% CI: 0.78-1.19, P = 0.85). The sensitivity analyses yielded similar results and showed no strong evidence of pleiotropic effect. Conclusion Our MR study provides supportive evidence for a potential causal association with breast cancer risk for lifetime smoking exposure but not cigarettes per day among smokers.Peer reviewe

Common variants in breast cancer risk loci predispose to distinct tumor subtypes.

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified multiple common breast cancer susceptibility variants. Many of these variants have differential associations by estrogen receptor (ER) status, but how these variants relate with other tumor features and intrinsic molecular subtypes is unclear. METHODS: Among 106,571 invasive breast cancer cases and 95,762 controls of European ancestry with data on 173 breast cancer variants identified in previous GWAS, we used novel two-stage polytomous logistic regression models to evaluate variants in relation to multiple tumor features (ER, progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and grade) adjusting for each other, and to intrinsic-like subtypes. RESULTS: Eighty-five of 173 variants were associated with at least one tumor feature (false discovery rate < 5%), most commonly ER and grade, followed by PR and HER2. Models for intrinsic-like subtypes found nearly all of these variants (83 of 85) associated at p < 0.05 with risk for at least one luminal-like subtype, and approximately half (41 of 85) of the variants were associated with risk of at least one non-luminal subtype, including 32 variants associated with triple-negative (TN) disease. Ten variants were associated with risk of all subtypes in different magnitude. Five variants were associated with risk of luminal A-like and TN subtypes in opposite directions. CONCLUSION: This report demonstrates a high level of complexity in the etiology heterogeneity of breast cancer susceptibility variants and can inform investigations of subtype-specific risk prediction