Les hôtels de région à Orléans et à Limoges : les « palais en pierre » d’un nouveau pouvoir

Œuvres d’une même équipe d’architectes réunie autour de Christian Langlois et de Luc et Xavier Arsène-Henry, les deux hôtels de région du Centre-Val-de-Loire, à Orléans et du Limousin, à Limoges, inaugurés respectivement en 1981 et 1989, paraissent atypiques au sein du corpus des hôtels de région édifiés ou aménagés à cette période. En effet, le style néoclassique de ces deux « palais de pierre », mis au point par Langlois dans la décennie précédente lors des agrandissements du Sénat est à contre-courant des canons architecturaux du moment. L’analyse montre qu’à l’intérieur de cette coque classique, les aménagements intérieurs, dus aux frères Arsène-Henry, se veulent plus contemporains. Après une présentation des architectes principaux des deux chantiers, notre article se propose de préciser les particularités des opérations d’Orléans puis de Limoges : malgré leurs similitudes formelles, ces deux édifices témoignent de deux temps de l’institution régionale, qui, d’établissement public régional (EPR) en 1972, devient en 1982 une collectivité territoriale de plein exercice. Une première synthèse permettra d’esquisser la manière dont ils matérialisent un nouveau pouvoir et incarnent les idées régionale et républicaine. Enfin, nous étudierons comment furent reçus ces deux hôtels de région avant de nous interroger en conclusion sur la place particulière qu’ils occupent dans l’architecture contemporaine.The two ‘hôtels de région’ built for the regions of Centre-Val-de-Loire and the Limousin, inaugurated respectively in 1981 at Orléans and 1989 at Limoges, seem to be rather a-typical in the corpus of new hotels de region built during this period. The neo-classical style of these two ‘stone palaces’, as they were described by the architect Christian Langlois, who developed this style during the preceding years in his extensions for the Senate at Paris, seems to be in marked contrast with the accepted canons of architecture at the time. Analysis suggests that within the neo-classical outer shell, the interior organisation, designed by the Arsène-Henry brothers, was more contemporary. After a presentation of the architects of the two buildings, our article goes on to present the specific features of the two creations. Despite formal similarities, the two buildings are manifestations of an evolution in the nature of the regional authority which was a public regional establishment (EPR) in 1972 but became a fully-fledged regional authority in 1982. A first synthesis will look at the way the buildings materialised the new centre of power and expressed regional and republican ideas. We will also look at the critical reception accorded to the two buildings before attempting an analysis of the special place they occupy in contemporary architecture

Plasma concentrations of coffee polyphenols and plasma biomarkers of diabetes risk in healthy Japanese women

Coffee consumption has been reported to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes in experimental and epidemiological studies. This anti-diabetic effect of coffee may be attributed to its high content in polyphenols especially caffeic acid and chlorogenic acid. However, the association between plasma coffee polyphenols and diabetic risks has never been investigated in the literature. In this study, fasting plasma samples were collected from 57 generally healthy females aged 38-73 (mean 52, s.d. 8) years recruited in Himeji, Japan. The concentrations of plasma coffee polyphenols were determined by liquid chromatography coupled with mass tandem spectrometer. Diabetes biomarkers in the plasma/serum samples were analysed by a commercial diagnostic laboratory. Statistical associations were assessed using Spearman's correlation coefficients. The results showed that plasma chlorogenic acid exhibited negative associations with fasting blood glucose, glycated hemoglobin and C-reactive protein, whereas plasma total coffee polyphenol and plasma caffeic acid were weakly associated with these biomarkers. Our preliminary data support previous findings that coffee polyphenols have anti-diabetic effects but further replications with large samples of both genders are recommended

Glucose-derived spiro-isoxazolines are anti-hyperglycemic agents against type 2 diabetes through glycogen phosphorylase inhibition

International audienceGlycogen phosphorylase (GP) is a target for the treatment of hyperglycaemia in the context of type 2 diabetes. This enzyme is responsible for the depolymerization of glycogen into glucose thereby affecting the levels of glucose in the blood stream. Twelve new d-glucopyranosylidene-spiro-isoxazolines have been prepared from O-peracylated exo-D-glucals by regio- and stereoselective 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrile oxides generated in situ by treatment of the corresponding oximes with bleach. This mild and direct procedure appeared to be applicable to a broad range of substrates. The corresponding O-unprotected spiro-isoxazolines were evaluated as glycogen phosphorylase (GP) inhibitors and exhibited IC50 values ranging from 1 to 800 μM. Selected inhibitors were further evaluated in vitro using rat and human hepatocytes and exhibited significant inhibitory properties in the primary cell culture. Interestingly, when tested with human hepatocytes, the tetra-O-acetylated spiro-isoxazoline bearing a 2-naphthyl residue showed a much lower IC50 value (2.5 μM), compared to that of the O-unprotected analog (19.95 μM). The most promising compounds were investigated in Zucker fa/fa rat model in acute and sub-chronic assays and decreased hepatic glucose production, which is known to be elevated in type 2 diabetes. This indicates that glucose-based spiro-isoxazolines can be considered as anti-hyperglycemic agents in the context of type 2 diabetes

BoVW model for animal recognition: an evaluation on SIFT feature strategies

Nowadays classifying images into categories have taken a lot of interests in both research and practice. Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) was not successful in solving semantic gap problem. Therefore, Bag of Visual Words (BoVW) model was created for quantizing different visual features into words. SIFT detector is invariant and robust to translation, rotations, scaling and partially invariant to affine distortion and illumination changes. The aim of this paper is to investigate the potential usage of BoVW Word model in animal recognition. The better SIFT feature extraction method for pictures of the animal was also specified. The performance evaluation on several SIFT feature strategies validates that MSDSIFT feature extraction will get better results

Contribution a l'etude du mode de replication et du mode d'action de l'ARN satellite du virus de la mosaieque du concombre

SIGLEINIST T 77245 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc