Sociobiologie et anthropologie : les obstacles actuels à l'intégration

Sociobiologie et anthropologie : les obstacles actuels à l'intégrationPour repenser les rapports de la sociobiologie à l'anthropologie, il faut revoir l'anthropologie elle-même. Soi-disant étude de la variabilité sociale et culturelle, elle a échoué dans cette tâche, d'une part à cause de sa définition de la culture et, d'autre part, à cause de ses présupposés holistes. En appréciant ce que veut vraiment dire étudier la variabilité, c'est-à-dire comparer rigoureusement, on débouche sur une anthropologie de la variabilité qui s'inspire des visées classiques. Affranchie de tout présupposé holiste et guérie de ses malaises conceptuels, cette anthropologie c néo-classique ", pour ainsi dire, nous permet de reconsidérer ses rapports avec la sociobiologie sur la base d'une analogie avec les rapports historiques entre biologie et chimie, autour de ce personnage central qu'est le grand physiologiste Claude Bernard.Sociobiology and Anthropology : Current Obstacles to IntegrationOne can hardly rethink the relationship between sociobiology and anthropology without a fresh look at anthropology itself. As the study of social and cultural variability, which it claims to be, anthropology has failed, and we attribute this failure to its peculiar notion of culture, as well as to its holistic presuppositions. By properly assessing what a study of variability means, that is, what rigorious comparison implies, we can revive a somewhat classical vision of anthropology. Freed from its holistic views and its conceptual hurdles, this c neo-classical " anthropology, so to speak, enables us to reconsider the relationship between anthropology and sociobiology on the analogy of the historial connection between biology and chemistry, as exemplified in the works of that great physiologist, Claude Bernard

Les grandes fresques dichotomiques de l'histoire rurale québécoise. Une perspective anthropologique

Les grandes fresques dichotomiques de l'histoire rurale québécoise Une perspective anthropologiqueDans le prolongement d'un article antérieur de Verdon (1987), les auteurs survolent brièvement l'historiographie rurale québécoise du dix-neuvième siècle pour suivre l'évolution de l'antique fresque dichotomique opposant des producteurs anglo-québécois " commercialisés " à des producteurs franco-québécois suivant une logique économique plutôt paysanne. D'abord attaquée par les tenants de l'économique néo-classique (les " formalistes ") puis par des historiens récusant le formalisme pour essayer de saisir la spécificité de la pratique économique paysanne (les " non-formalistes "), cette vétusté fresque dichotomique perdure, quoique dans une version désormais quelque peu frelatée. Aux rangs des non-formalistes mène en tête de file Gérard Bouchard, qui domine désonnais notre historiographie par la quantité et la qualité de ses données, ainsi que l'envergure de sa vision theorique. C'est par rapport à sa " theorie de la co-intégration " que les deux auteurs cherchent à situer la spécificité de l'économique de la paysannerie qu'a déjà proposée Verdon. économique qu'ils cherchent ici à raffiner en s'attaquant directement au concept de " commercialisation " que Verdon n'avait pas suffisamment clarifié, ce qui viciait son projet originel à cause de la confusion sémantique qui entoure ce concept. En imposant la réflexion sémantique à la pure theorisation, les auteurs parviennent à une theorie d'application plus générale dont découle un corollaire qui formera le thème d'un deuxième article : que les producteurs anglo-québécois du dix-neuvième siècle, à pan quelques rares exceptions d'ailleurs très problématiques, suivaient comme leur homologues québécois une rationalité économique paysanne. Du coup, les dichotomies traditionnelles s'écroulent.The Perennial Dichotomies of Quebec's Rural History An Anthropological PerspectiveIn the wake of an earlier article by Verdon (1987), the authors briefly survey the history of nineteenth-century rural Québec to assess the fate of that antique dichotomy opposing supposedly " commercialized " English-speaking farmers to French-speaking producers obstinately committed to a peasant rationality. First questioned by the " formaliste " (those who believe neoclassical economies applicable to ail types of economies) and then by non-formalists seeking to apprehend the specificity of a peasant economie rationality, the old dichotomy nonetheless persists, albeit in a somewhat diluted form. In Quebec, Gerard Bouchard leads intellectually this non-formalist attack, both through the quality and quantity of his data, and by the very scope of his theoretical endeavours. In this article, the authors strive to bring out the specificity of Verdon's economies of the peasantry by contrasting it to Bouchard's celebrated thesis of " co-integration ", and also set out to refine Verdon's earlier theses by tackling head-on the semantic question surrounding the concept of " commer-cialization ", which Verdon had not originally clarified. By coupling semantic analysis to straightforward theorizing they succeed in formulating a theory of greater applicability because of its greater generality. As a corollary, this new perspective leads to athesis which will form the topic of a second article, namely that English-speaking agricultural producers in nineteenth-century Quebec were following an economie rationality which was every bit as " peasant " as that of their French-speaking counterparts. Through this new looking-glass, the old dichotomies founder

Evaluation of the use of ultrasonography in primary care

Ultrasonography is proposed as a useful diagnostic aid for primary care physicians. This prospective study describes the demand for ultrasound examinations, excluding heart, vessels and pregnancy monitoring, in primary care in Switzerland. Eleven independent physicians requested an average of 2.7 ultrasound examinations per month and 18 residents 1.9 per month, which was similar to the figure of 2.2 obtained in a population-based study of 82 primary care physicians serving a region of 80, 000 inhabitants. Current demand for ultrasound scanning is low and does not indicate systematic training of primary care physicians until the efficacy of ultrasonography in this setting has been show

SNAT7 is the primary lysosomal glutamine exporter required for extracellular protein-dependent growth of cancer cells

Significance Lysosomes are degradative intracellular organelles essential to cell maintenance and homeostasis. Although their degradative function is well documented, the proteins responsible for the efflux, and reuse, of lysosomal degradation products remain largely unknown. In this study, we identify the transporter responsible for lysosomal efflux of glutamine, an amino acid central to several key metabolic pathways. This central role of glutamine is exploited by several types of cancer cells with increased consumption of glutamine. Interestingly, genetic inactivation of the transporter impairs their growth under conditions of limited glutamine availability when internalized extracellular proteins are used as an alternative source of amino acids, suggesting novel approaches for anticancer therapies.</jats:p

Predictive ability of an early diagnostic guess in patients presenting with chest pain; a longitudinal descriptive study

The intuitive early diagnostic guess could play an important role in reaching a final diagnosis. However, no study to date has attempted to quantify the importance of general practitioners' (GPs) ability to correctly appraise the origin of chest pain within the first minutes of an encounter. The validation study was nested in a multicentre cohort study with a one year follow-up and included 626 successive patients who presented with chest pain and were attended by 58 GPs in Western Switzerland. The early diagnostic guess was assessed prior to a patient's history being taken by a GP and was then compared to a diagnosis of chest pain observed over the next year. Using summary measures clustered at the GP's level, the early diagnostic guess was confirmed by further investigation in 51.0% (CI 95%; 49.4% to 52.5%) of patients presenting with chest pain. The early diagnostic guess was more accurate in patients with a life threatening illness (65.4%; CI 95% 64.5% to 66.3%) and in patients who did not feel anxious (62.9%; CI 95% 62.5% to 63.3%). The predictive abilities of an early diagnostic guess were consistent among GPs. The GPs early diagnostic guess was correct in one out of two patients presenting with chest pain. The probability of a correct guess was higher in patients with a life-threatening illness and in patients not feeling anxious about their pain

Chest wall syndrome among primary care patients: a cohort study

BACKGROUND: The epidemiology of chest pain differs strongly between outpatient and emergency settings. In general practice, the most frequent cause is the chest wall pain. However, there is a lack of information about the characteristics of this syndrome. The aims of the study are to describe the clinical aspects of chest wall syndrome (CWS). METHODS: Prospective, observational, cohort study of patients attending 58 private practices over a five-week period from March to May 2001 with undifferentiated chest pain. During a one-year follow-up, questionnaires including detailed history and physical exam, were filled out at initial consultation, 3 and 12 months. The outcomes were: clinical characteristics associated with the CWS diagnosis and clinical evolution of the syndrome. RESULTS: Among 24 620 consultations, we observed 672 cases of chest pain and 300 (44.6%) patients had a diagnosis of chest wall syndrome. It affected all ages with a sex ratio of 1:1. History and sensibility to palpation were the keys for diagnosis. Pain was generally moderate, well localised, continuous or intermittent over a number of hours to days or weeks, and amplified by position or movement. The pain however, may be acute. Eighty-eight patients were affected at several painful sites, and 210 patients at a single site, most frequently in the midline or a left-sided site. Pain was a cause of anxiety and cardiac concern, especially when acute. CWS coexisted with coronary disease in 19 and neoplasm in 6. Outcome at one year was favourable even though CWS recurred in half of patients. CONCLUSION: CWS is common and benign, but leads to anxiety and recurred frequently. Because the majority of chest wall pain is left-sided, the possibility of coexistence with coronary disease needs careful consideration

Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment

For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37 MJ of fusion for 1.92 MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion

Social change and the family: Comparative perspectives from the west, China, and South Asia

This paper examines the influence of social and economic change on family structure and relationships: How do such economic and social transformations as industrialization, urbanization, demographic change, the expansion of education, and the long-term growth of income influence the family? We take a comparative and historical approach, reviewing the experiences of three major sociocultural regions: the West, China, and South Asia. Many of the changes that have occurred in family life have been remarkably similar in the three settings—the separation of the workplace from the home, increased training of children in nonfamilial institutions, the development of living arrangements outside the family household, increased access of children to financial and other productive resources, and increased participation by children in the selection of a mate. While the similarities of family change in diverse cultural settings are striking, specific aspects of change have varied across settings because of significant pre-existing differences in family structure, residential patterns of marriage, autonomy of children, and the role of marriage within kinship systems.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45661/1/11206_2005_Article_BF01124383.pd