Quantum Hamiltonian Reduction in Superspace Formalism

Recently the quantum hamiltonian reduction was done in the case of general $s\ell(2)$ embeddings into Lie algebras and superalgebras. In this paper we extend the results to the quantum hamiltonian reduction of $N=1$ affine Lie superalgebras in the superspace formalism. We show that if we choose a gauge for the supersymmetry, and consider only certain equivalence classes of fields, then our quantum hamiltonian reduction reduces to quantum hamiltonian reduction of non-supersymmetric Lie superalgebras. We construct explicitly the super energy-momentum tensor, as well as all generators of spin 1 (and \hf); thus we construct explicitly all generators in the superconformal, quasi-superconformal and $\Z_2 \times \Z_2$ superconformal algebras.Comment: 13 pages latex, ENSLAPP-A-45

Dispersion et persistance de la biodversité dans la trame forestière (DISTRAFOR)

L’établissement d’un trame forestière fonctionnelle, c’est -à-dire qui permette aux espèces de se déplacer et de migrer au sein des paysages, suppose de connaître les espèces qui se dispersent mal et les configurations paysagères délétères. Pour y répondre, le projet Distrafor a étudié la réponse à la connectivité spatiale et temporelle forestière de la flore vasculaire, des coléoptères saproxyliques et carabiques, et de la faune du sol, en contrôlant la qualité de l’habitat. Les analyses ont porté sur des données préexistantes et acquises pour ce projet, en étudiant à partir de cartes anciennes et de données de biodiversité contemporaines les assemblages faunistiques et floristiques dans des boisements anciens et récents. Les résultats montrent que près de la moitié des plantes réagit à l’ancienneté de l’usage forestier mais cette réponse peut s’expliquer en partie par des différences des caractéristiques chimiques des sols entre forêts anciennes et forêts récentes. Des analyses complémentaires restent à réaliser pour estimer la proportion de plantes véritablement limitées par de faibles capacités de dispersion. Ces espèces bénéficient de l’accroissement de la connectivité forestière, en particulier dans les zones de grandes cultures et les zones urbaines. La colonisation est nettement favorisée lorsque l’accroissement forestier se fait au contact direct de bois anciens. Les plantes naturalisées ne semblent pas particulièrement favorisées par la connectivité. En contexte agricole, la composition des assemblages de coléoptères carabiques et sa proxyliques varie entre boisements récents et anciens, alors qu’elle ne semble réagir ni à la qualité, ni à la connectivité de l’habitat forestier ; les cortèges sont moins riches dans les paysages les plus boisés. Certaines espèces de coléoptères semblent pouvoir compenser une plus forte fragmentation forestière par de meilleures capacités de dispersion. Sur les mêmes sites, la macrofaune du sol répond à ces paramètres mais de façon différenciée selon les taxons et la région. Ces résultats montrent qu’il faut cibler les opérations de restauration sur les zones les moins boisées, et qu’il faut encourager en parallèle le maintien et la restauration de la qualité des habitats forestiers les plus fragiles

Association between mode of delivery and maternal complications in a public hospital in Greater Metropolitan São Paulo, Brazil

O estudo objetivou avaliar associação entre via de parto e complicações maternas. Realizou-se coorte retrospectiva com partos ocorridos durante o ano de 2003, em um hospital público. As complicações avaliadas foram: infecção, hemorragia, histerectomia, rotura uterina, lesão de órgão contíguo, trombose venosa profunda e embolia pulmonar. Utilizou-se a odds ratio (OR) e os testes de qui-quadrado de Pearson e de Fisher, além da regressão logística. Estabeleceu-se o nível de 0,05 como significante. Foram encontradas 15 complicações. Tomando-se o parto vaginal como referência, encontrou-se associação entre cesárea e as complicações tomadas em conjunto. Analisando-se variáveis confundidoras, encontrou-se associação das complicações com hipertensão, soropositividade para HIV, placenta prévia e descolamento prematuro de placenta. Após controle para estas quatro variáveis, manteve-se a associação entre cesárea e complicações (OR = 9,7; p = 0,04). Encontrou-se também associação entre complicações e cesárea eletiva comparada ao parto vaginal (OR = 4,7; p = 0,02), e maior proporção de complicações, no limite da significância estatística, nas cesáreas eletivas comparadas à "tentativa de parto vaginal" (OR = 3; p = 0,058). Conclui-se que a cesárea associa-se a complicações maternas, mesmo após a realização de vários ajustes.The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between mode of delivery and maternal complications, based on a retrospective cohort of all births at a public hospital in 2003. Complications included: infection, hemorrhage, hysterectomy, uterine rupture, lesions in adjacent organs, deep venous thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism. The analysis used odds ratio (OR), chi-squared test, and Fisher's exact test, besides logistic regression. Fifteen complications were identified. Taking vaginal delivery as the reference, an association was found between cesarean section and overall complications. Analysis of confounding showed an association between hypertension, HIV, placenta previa, and abruptio placentae. After controlling for these variables, an association remained between overall complications and cesarean section (OR = 9.7; p = 0.04). Another analysis comparing elective cesareans and vaginal deliveries also showed an increased risk for cesarean (OR = 4.7; p = 0.02). Finally, comparing elective cesareans with trial of labor, we found an increased proportion of complications in elective cesareans, with borderline significance (OR = 3; p = 0.058). We concluded that cesarean section is associated with maternal morbidity, even after controlling for confounders

Zionism after 100 year : the state of Israel after 50 years : a survey of the Zionist debate in Israel in the nineties

Zionism after 100 years The State of Israel after 50 years. A Survey of the Zionist Debate in Israel in the Nineties Since its inception, the State of Israel has had to face a series of difficult questions and dilemmas concerning its relation to Judaism, the Jewish Diaspora and its immediate neighbors - the Palestinians, both inside and outside its borders. Today, one hundred years after the opening of the first Zionist Congress by Theodor Herzl and fifty years after the creation of the Zionist State of Israel, a series of factors - the peace process and the demographic evolution within Israel being the most important - have reinforced those dilemmas and are about to impose some very difficult choices on the Israelis concerning the meaning of a Jewish state and its future demographic and constitutional character. These difficult questions require answers. Because they concern the very nature of the State of Israel they have given birth to an important, vivid and controversial debate usually referred to as the Zionist debate - a debate as old as the State of Israel itself but whose intensity has increased in the past years. This dissertation is a case study whose basic aim is to explore, describe and explain the nature of the political system of the State of Israel and its relation to the Zionist ideology. The main focus is on the relationship between the particularist concept of a Jewish state and the universal principles of democracy. In the first two chapters I discuss the relation between the Israeli state idea - its normative foundation - and its political regime - the organization of power within Israel - and argue that Zionism and democracy are incompatible. Furthermore, I argue that the tension between the particularist concept of a Jewish state and the universal principles of democracy is inherent to the special character of the Israeli political regime which, using Nils A. Butenschøn's terminology, I describe as an ethnocracy: A political regime which, in contrast to democracies, is instituted on the basis of qualified rights to citizenship and with ethnic affiliation as the distinguishing principle, downgrading the Israeli Arabs to the status of second-class citizens. I also explain why, fifty years after its creation, Israel more than ever is facing difficult political and ideological challenges that are directly or indirectly connected to Palestinian demographic trends and argue that one of the major challenges facing the Zionist State of Israel today is the determination of the status and rights of a growing number of non-Jews in a state that first and foremost was established to serve the interests of one particular collective - the Jews - and which therefore claims itself to be Jewish. In the framework of this dissertation I use the Zionist debate in order to throw light on the special character of the Israeli political regime. By putting under scrutiny the views, currents and trends expressed in the debate I hope to contribute to a better understanding of the Israeli ethnocracy, its relation to democratic principles of power-distribution, its vulnerability to demographic changes and the directions in which it might evolve. I also hope that this, in its turn, will contribute to a better understanding of the situation for the more than one million Palestinians living inside the borders of Israel Proper. As a result, in addition to analyzing the relationship between the different principles of power distribution present in the debate and showing how the Zionists themselves view Zionist principles of power sharing in relation to other principles, I analyze the debate from a particular perspective that deals precisely with the rights of the non-Jewish population of the Zionist State of Israel. Basically, the elements of the debate are divided into two groups: Zionism and democracy (chapter three), and Zionism and the Diaspora (chapter four). Chapter five is devoted to discussing the phenomenon known as post-Zionism and the claim according to which post-Zionism constitutes a challenge to Zionism. In the debate I found several indicators of the Israeli ethnocracy's vulnerability towards demographic changes and indicators of the unwillingness of Zionists to forego Zionism for the sake of democracy. Strategies such as the claim of "a Zionist majority" and the Absentee Voting Bill, together with the redefinition of the classical goals and role of Zionism and the reaffirmation of the state's commitment to aliyah, are all defense strategies aiming at counterbalancing the increase the political influence of the Arab minority, thereby undermining their rights. They all imply and advocate the reinforcement of the ethnocratic character of the State of Israel in order to protect Jewish dominance. On the other hand, post-Zionism is often associated with a more inclusive vision of Israeli society and is seen as a challenge to Zionism and the State of Israel both by mainstream scholars and some post-Zionist scholars. In chapter five, however, I point out the difficulty of evaluating the character of the post-Zionist movement as a whole. The post-Zionist scholars constitute a very heterogeneous group as they don't share the same academic methodology and political agenda. Although some of these scholars undoubtedly operate with a non-exclusive vision of Israeli society and advocate the making of Israel into "a state of all its citizens", thereby constituting a pole against the above-mentioned Zionist tendencies, they cannot be said to represent the post-Zionist movement as a whole. Nevertheless, I also stress the fact that in a culture so long dominated by myths and ideology, the advent of autonomous historiography and sociology and the destruction of a series of powerful myths might, in the long run, might have an important impact on the unfinished construction of Israel identity. The reinforcement of the ethnocratic foundations of the State of Israel will increasingly make the contradiction between the concept of a Jewish state and the concept of democracy more visible, not only to Israeli society, but to the world, I conclude. As the need for the Israelis to choose between the concept of a Jewish state and the concept of democracy becomes more urgent, stronger views and radical solutions to the dilemmas faced by the State of Israel are likely to be uttered with more and more vehemence in the Zionist debate, with decisive consequences for the more than one million Palestinian Israelis who have irremediably become part of a state that wasn't meant for them

Parsonage-Turner syndrome revealing Lyme borreliosis.

International audienceParsonage-Turner syndrome, also known as acute brachial neuritis or neuralgic amyotrophy, can be caused by various infectious agents. We report on four patients who experienced Parsonage-Turner syndrome as the first manifestation of Lyme disease. The clinical picture was typical, with acute shoulder pain followed rapidly by weakness and wasting of the shoulder girdle muscles. Electrophysiological testing showed denervation. A single patient reported erythema chronicum migrans after a tick bite. Examination of the cerebrospinal fluid showed lymphocytosis and protein elevation in 3 patients. Serological tests for Lyme disease were positive in the serum in all 4 patients and in the cerebrospinal fluid in 2 patients. Antibiotic therapy ensured a favorable outcome in all 4 cases. Two patients achieved a full recovery within 6 months. Parsonage-Turner syndrome should be added to the list of manifestations of neuroborreliosis. Serological tests for Lyme disease should be performed routinely in patients with Parsonage-Turner syndrome

Control of microcarrier feed time by quantitative determination of bead-to-bead transfer during hMSC cultures

Mesenchymal stem cells extracted from the Wharton’s jelly of human umbilical cords (hWJ-MSC) show increasing interest for cell therapies due to their reduced immunogenicity, high expansion capabilities, fast growth kinetics and various growth factors synthesis capabilities. hWJ-MSC are adherent-dependent cells meaning their expansion requires colonization of available adherence surfaces. However, when confluence is almost reached, it was previously shown that MSC begin to form aggregates that can detach from the microcarriers leading to a negative impact on cell growth and functionality [1]. To solve this problem an already assessed strategy consists in the addition of fresh microcarriers during the expansion phase. Until now, no quantitative study describing this phenomenon have been reported in literature. Besides, addition of fresh new microcarriers should allow to maintain growing cell, allowing to reach a higher cell density than in a system without microcarriers feed. The aim of this study is to better control fresh microcarriers addition by quantitatively characterize bead-to-bead transfer process during MSC cultures. Aiming at this, MSC were cultivated on Cytodex-1 microcarrier in HPLsupplemented culture medium, in mixed Erlenmeyer flasks. To quantify bead-to-bead transfer homemade fluorescent Cytodex-1 were used as available adherence surfaces. DAPI nuclei and Live/Dead cell staining were performed to determine total viable cell number and number of cells per microcarrier. Cell counting was obtained from computerized analysis of fluorescent microscopy images. Using these methods, microcarrier addition time was established to maintain constant cell number per microcarrier, avoiding to reach the confluence state. Our results showed both qualitatively and quantitatively bead-to-bead transfer during microcarrier cultures. By controlling the addition of fresh microcarriers cell aggregation has been completely prevented. This procedure allowed an increase of the maximal total cell number by a factor 1.5 in comparison with a culture with only medium feed addition. [1]. Ferrari, C., et al., (2012). Limiting cell aggregation during mesenchymal stem cell expansion on microcarriers. Biotechnology progress, 28(3), 780-787Optimisation de surface des microporteurs destinés à l'ingénierie tissulair