Pieve, paese è paisaghju. Une histoire spatiale de la plaine du Fretu et de l’Extrême-Sud de la Corse (XIIIe- XIXe siècles)

Both isolated as an island and as a mountain, Corsica has certain advantages for those who would be in search of «non-modern» historical spatialities. Although geographically and culturally connected to the northern and central Italy, the island did not experience the demographic, economic, urban, and agricultural developments characteristic of the Renaissance. At the end of the Middle Ages, under the pressure of the Muslim raids, the ravages of malaria and the wars of the local lords, the Corsican communities gradually deserted the coastal plains to settle in middle mountain. Forced to practice a subsistence agropastoral economy, they then used the plains only as spaces of winter transhumance and slash and burn agriculture. Definitively conquered by Genoa at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the island was then imposed a series of agricultural policies aimed at putting the coastal plains into cultivation. Made possible by the foundation of coastal town (Ajaccio, Bastia, Porto-Vecchio), these agrarian projects, influenced by the Tuscan, Lombard and Ligurian paesaggi, failed for the most part, especially in the south of the island who remain a pastoral world. This situation led to the maintenance, during the modern era, of two social and spatial local constructions: the pieve and the paese. Vernacular, these forms of organization of space continued until the conquest of the island by France, on the eve of the French revolution. Halfway between the mountain villages of Alta Rocca and the Genoese citadel of Bonifacio, the Fretu has the particularity of having rarely been occupied as a territory or apprehended as a fixed and well-defined unit. As a poorly protected coastal region, it was mostly used simultaneously by competing peripheral communities (Bonifacio, Sartène, Alta-Rocca, Porto-Vecchio). Often marginal, sometimes disputed, this coastal plain has thus regularly played a role of boundary or border between several worlds. Moreover, if it was identified at certain moments in its history as the potential basis of a series of Genoese colonial agricultural projects (Figari, Porto-Vecchio), these enterprises had the common point of having all failed. From the point of view of the long-term history of space, this situation offers the advantage of having seen, in the same place, the aggregation, the confrontation and the intermingling of different social and spatial organizations. As such, the Fretu could be considered as a kind of laboratory of spatial diversity and hybridization. The goal of this work was therefore above all in the search for nuances and singularities relating to the rural context of the extreme south of Corsica, contrasted with the urban, agrarian, and commercial developments of central-southern Italy and France, here regularly thwarted.Doublement isolée en tant qu’île-montagne, la Corse présente des avantages certains pour qui serait à la recherche de spatialités historiques « non-modernes ». Bien que géographiquement et culturellement rattachée au nord et au centre de la péninsule italienne, l’île ne connut pas les développements démographiques, économiques, urbains et agricoles caractéristiques de l’Italie communale et renaissante. A la fin du Moyen-Âge, sous la pression des raids barbaresques, face aux ravages de la malaria et à ceux des guerres répétées des seigneurs locaux, les communautés corses désertèrent peu à peu les plaines côtières pour se fixer en moyenne montagne. Pratiquant une économie agro-pastorale de subsistance, elles n’utilisèrent alors les plaines que comme des espaces de transhumances hivernales et de cultures de céréales sur brûlis. Définitivement conquise par Gênes au début du XVIe siècle, l’île se vit alors imposer une série de politiques agricoles visant à mettre les plaines littorales en cultures. Rendus possibles par la fondation de bourgs côtiers (Ajaccio, Bastia, Porto-Vecchio), ces projets agraires, influencés par les paesaggi toscans, lombards et ligures, échouèrent pour la plupart, notamment dans le Sud de l’île, monde pastoral par excellence. Cette situation conduisit au maintien, durant l’époque moderne, de deux constructions sociales et spatiales insulaires : la pieve et le paese. Vernaculaires, ces formes d’organisation de l’espace perdurèrent jusqu’à la conquête de l’île par la France, à la veille de la révolution française. A mi-chemin des villages montagnards d’Alta Rocca et de la citadelle génoise de Bonifacio, le Fretu a la particularité d’avoir rarement été occupé comme un territoire à part entière ni appréhendé comme une unité fixe et bien définie. Pays côtier mal protégé, il fut la plupart du temps utilisé simultanément par des communautés périphériques concurrentes (Bonifacio, Sartenais, Alta-Rocca, Porto-Vecchio). Souvent marginale, parfois disputée, cette plaine littorale a ainsi régulièrement joué un rôle de limite ou de frontière entre plusieurs mondes. En outre, si elle fut, à certains moments de son histoire, identifiée comme l’assise potentielle d’une série de projets agricoles coloniaux génois (Figari, Porto-Vecchio), ces entreprises eurent pour point commun d’avoir toutes plus ou moins échoué. Du point de vue de l’histoire de l’espace, cette situation offre l’avantage d’avoir vu, sur un même lieu et sur le temps long, s’agréger, perdurer, se confronter et s’entremêler des organisations sociales et spatiales d’origines et de logiques diverses. A ce titre, le Fretu a pu être considéré comme une sorte de laboratoire de diversités et d’hybridations spatiales. C’est donc avant tout dans la recherche de nuances et de singularités relatives au contexte rural de l’Extrême-sud de la Corse, mis en contraste avec les développements urbains, agraires et commerciaux de l’Italie centro-méridionale et de la France, ici régulièrement contrariés, que s’est logé l’ambition de ce travail

Pieve, paese è paisaghju. A spatial history of the Fretu plain and the Extreme South of Corsica (13th-19th centuries)

Doublement isolée en tant qu’île-montagne, la Corse présente des avantages certains pour qui serait à la recherche de spatialités historiques « non-modernes ». Bien que géographiquement et culturellement rattachée au nord et au centre de la péninsule italienne, l’île ne connut pas les développements démographiques, économiques, urbains et agricoles caractéristiques de l’Italie communale et renaissante. A la fin du Moyen-Âge, sous la pression des raids barbaresques, face aux ravages de la malaria et à ceux des guerres répétées des seigneurs locaux, les communautés corses désertèrent peu à peu les plaines côtières pour se fixer en moyenne montagne. Pratiquant une économie agro-pastorale de subsistance, elles n’utilisèrent alors les plaines que comme des espaces de transhumances hivernales et de cultures de céréales sur brûlis. Définitivement conquise par Gênes au début du XVIe siècle, l’île se vit alors imposer une série de politiques agricoles visant à mettre les plaines littorales en cultures. Rendus possibles par la fondation de bourgs côtiers (Ajaccio, Bastia, Porto-Vecchio), ces projets agraires, influencés par les paesaggi toscans, lombards et ligures, échouèrent pour la plupart, notamment dans le Sud de l’île, monde pastoral par excellence. Cette situation conduisit au maintien, durant l’époque moderne, de deux constructions sociales et spatiales insulaires : la pieve et le paese. Vernaculaires, ces formes d’organisation de l’espace perdurèrent jusqu’à la conquête de l’île par la France, à la veille de la révolution française. A mi-chemin des villages montagnards d’Alta Rocca et de la citadelle génoise de Bonifacio, le Fretu a la particularité d’avoir rarement été occupé comme un territoire à part entière ni appréhendé comme une unité fixe et bien définie. Pays côtier mal protégé, il fut la plupart du temps utilisé simultanément par des communautés périphériques concurrentes (Bonifacio, Sartenais, Alta-Rocca, Porto-Vecchio). Souvent marginale, parfois disputée, cette plaine littorale a ainsi régulièrement joué un rôle de limite ou de frontière entre plusieurs mondes. En outre, si elle fut, à certains moments de son histoire, identifiée comme l’assise potentielle d’une série de projets agricoles coloniaux génois (Figari, Porto-Vecchio), ces entreprises eurent pour point commun d’avoir toutes plus ou moins échoué. Du point de vue de l’histoire de l’espace, cette situation offre l’avantage d’avoir vu, sur un même lieu et sur le temps long, s’agréger, perdurer, se confronter et s’entremêler des organisations sociales et spatiales d’origines et de logiques diverses. A ce titre, le Fretu a pu être considéré comme une sorte de laboratoire de diversités et d’hybridations spatiales. C’est donc avant tout dans la recherche de nuances et de singularités relatives au contexte rural de l’Extrême-sud de la Corse, mis en contraste avec les développements urbains, agraires et commerciaux de l’Italie centro-méridionale et de la France, ici régulièrement contrariés, que s’est logé l’ambition de ce travail.Both isolated as an island and as a mountain, Corsica has certain advantages for those who would be in search of «non-modern» historical spatialities. Although geographically and culturally connected to the northern and central Italy, the island did not experience the demographic, economic, urban, and agricultural developments characteristic of the Renaissance. At the end of the Middle Ages, under the pressure of the Muslim raids, the ravages of malaria and the wars of the local lords, the Corsican communities gradually deserted the coastal plains to settle in middle mountain. Forced to practice a subsistence agropastoral economy, they then used the plains only as spaces of winter transhumance and slash and burn agriculture. Definitively conquered by Genoa at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the island was then imposed a series of agricultural policies aimed at putting the coastal plains into cultivation. Made possible by the foundation of coastal town (Ajaccio, Bastia, Porto-Vecchio), these agrarian projects, influenced by the Tuscan, Lombard and Ligurian paesaggi, failed for the most part, especially in the south of the island who remain a pastoral world. This situation led to the maintenance, during the modern era, of two social and spatial local constructions: the pieve and the paese. Vernacular, these forms of organization of space continued until the conquest of the island by France, on the eve of the French revolution. Halfway between the mountain villages of Alta Rocca and the Genoese citadel of Bonifacio, the Fretu has the particularity of having rarely been occupied as a territory or apprehended as a fixed and well-defined unit. As a poorly protected coastal region, it was mostly used simultaneously by competing peripheral communities (Bonifacio, Sartène, Alta-Rocca, Porto-Vecchio). Often marginal, sometimes disputed, this coastal plain has thus regularly played a role of boundary or border between several worlds. Moreover, if it was identified at certain moments in its history as the potential basis of a series of Genoese colonial agricultural projects (Figari, Porto-Vecchio), these enterprises had the common point of having all failed. From the point of view of the long-term history of space, this situation offers the advantage of having seen, in the same place, the aggregation, the confrontation and the intermingling of different social and spatial organizations. As such, the Fretu could be considered as a kind of laboratory of spatial diversity and hybridization. The goal of this work was therefore above all in the search for nuances and singularities relating to the rural context of the extreme south of Corsica, contrasted with the urban, agrarian, and commercial developments of central-southern Italy and France, here regularly thwarted

Specific splicing defects in S. pombe carrying a degron allele of the Survival of Motor Neuron gene

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An Absence of Non-specific Immune Response towards para -Sulphonato-calix[ n ]arenes

International audienceThe effects of para-Sulphonato-calix[4]arene, para-Sulphonato-calix[6]arene and para-Sulphonato-calix[8]arene on the activation of NADPH oxidase in neutrophils has been studied. All three molecules do not induce NADPH oxidase activation, and hence do not stimulate neutrophils. Measurement of cell viability demonstrates that these three water-soluble calix[n]arene derivatives are not cytotoxic

Monocopper center embedded in a biomimetic cavity: From supramolecular control of copper coordination to redox regulation

International audienceThe electrochemical behavior of diversely substituted Cu-N-3-calix[6]arene, enzyme-like, "funnel" complexes is analyzed. The Cu(II)/Cu(I) redox process is regulated by the supramolecular organization of the Cu coordination. The presence of a "shoetree" alkyl nitrile guest molecule inside the host cavity is a prerequisite for a dynamic redox behavior. Combination of supramolecular CH-pi weak interactions with the calixarene cavity and electronic/steric effects from the N-3 substituting groups (pyridine, imidazole, pyrrolidine) enforces the preferential geometrical pattern adopted by Cu. This dictates the pathway of the electron-transfer process and, thus, the thermodynamics and kinetics of the redox reaction in the framework of a square-scheme mechanism. The present observations recall strongly the redox control exerted by the protein matrix on copper proteins through biological concepts such as induced fit mechanism, protein foldings, and entatic and allosteric effects

Leu505 of Nox2 is crucial for optimal p67phox-dependent activation of the flavocytochrome b558 during phagocytic NADPH oxidase assembly.

International audienceThe role of Leu505 of Nox2 on the NADPH oxidase activation process was investigated. An X-CGD PLB-985 cell line expressing the Leu505Arg Nox2 mutant was obtained, exactly mimicking the phenotype of a previously published X91+-CGD case. In a reconstituted cell-free system (CFS), NADPH oxidase and iodonitrotetrazolium (INT) reductase activities were partially maintained concomitantly with a partial cytosolic factors translocation to the plasma membrane. This suggests that assembly and electron transfer from NADPH occurred partially in the Leu505Arg Nox2 mutant. Moreover, in a simplified CFS using purified mutant cytochrome b558 and recombinant p67phox, p47phox, and Rac1proteins, we found that the Km for NADPH and for NADH was about three times higher than those of purified WT cytochrome b558, indicating that the Leu505Arg mutation induces a slight decrease of the affinity for NADPH and NADH. In addition, oxidase activity can be extended by increasing the amount of p67phox in the simplified CFS assay. However, the maximal reconstituted oxidase activity using WT purified cytochrome b558 could not be reached using mutant cytochrome b558. In a three-dimensional model of the C-terminal tail of Nox2, Leu505 appears to have a strategic position just at the entry of the NADPH binding site and at the end of the alpha-helical loop (residues 484-504), a potential cytosolic factor binding region. The Leu505Arg mutation seems to affect the oxidase complex activation process through alteration of cytosolic factors binding and more particularly the p67phox interaction with cytochrome b558, thus affecting NADPH access to its binding site

NAD(P)H oxidase activity of Nox4 in chondrocytes is both inducible and involved in collagenase expression.

International audienceReactive oxygen species (ROS) are regulators of redox-sensitive cell signaling pathways. In osteoarthritis, human interleukin-1beta is implicated in cartilage destruction through an ROS-dependent matrix metalloproteinase production. To determine the molecular source of ROS production in the human IL-1beta (hIL-1beta)-sensitive chondrocyte immortalized cell line C-20/A4, transfected cells were constructed that overexpress NAD(P)H oxidases. First, RT-PCR analysis showed that the C-20/A4 cell line expressed Nox2, Nox4, p22( phox ), and p67( phox ), but not p47( phox ). It was found that ROS production by C-20/A4 chondrocytes does not depend on PMA and ionomycin activation. This indicates that Nox2 was not involved in the production of ROS. In C- 20/A4 cells that overexpress Nox4, hIL-1beta stimulated ROS production three times more than the normal production of C-20/A4 cells. Moreover, there was a fourfold increase in the production of collagenase (MMP-1) by chondrocytes that overexpress Nox4. Interestingly, MMP-1 production in cells that overexpress Nox2 was not sensitive to hIL-1beta. These data suggest that under hIL-1beta stimulation, C-20/A4 chondrocytes produce MMP-1 through a Nox4-mediated, ROS-dependent pathway

New p22-Phox Monoclonal Antibodies: Identification of a Conformational Probe for Cytochrome b558

The phagocyte NADPH oxidase, belonging to the NADPH oxidase family (Nox), is dedicated to the production of bactericidal reactive oxygen species. The enzyme catalytic center is the cytochrome b558, formed by 2 subunits, Nox2 (gp91-phox) and p22-phox. Cytochrome b558 activation results from a conformational change induced by cytosolic regulatory proteins (p67-phox, p47-phox, p40-phox and Rac). The catalytic subunit is Nox2, while p22-phox is essential for both Nox2 maturation and the membrane anchorage of regulatory proteins. Moreover, it has been shown to be necessary for novel Nox activity. In order to characterize both p22-phox topology and cytochrome b558 conformational change, 6 monoclonal antibodies were produced against purified cytochrome b558. Phage display epitope mapping combined with a truncation analysis of recombinant p22-phox allowed the identification of epitope regions. Some of these antibodies almost completely inhibited in vitro reconstituted NADPH oxidase activity. Data analysis identified antibodies that recognized epitopes involved in either Nox2 maturation or Nox2 activation. Moreover, flow cytometry analysis and confocal microscopy performed on stimulated neutrophils showed that the monoclonal antibody 12E6 bound preferentially active cytochrome b558. These monoclonal antibodies provided novel and unique probes to investigate maturation, activation and activity, not only of Nox2 but also of novel Nox