L’iconodulie cinématographique ou la nouvelle offrande du monde (à propos de Cinéma 1 et 2 de Gilles Deleuze)

En deçà ou au-delà des pouvoirs de fascination ou de capture anesthésiante propres aux mauvais films, d’où provient la puissance singulière des images cinématographiques, capables d’offrir « le » monde, entendu comme ouverture sur un dehors qui serait à la fois extérieur à notre expérience quotidienne et pourtant doté de sens, donc perceptible et descriptible ? Comment, entre tous les arts de l’image, le cinéma parvient-il à nous libérer des images toutes faites, des clichés, pour nous rendre à un tel dehors ? Ces questions constituent le fil directeur que l’on peut trouver au double ouvrage, L’image-mouvement et L’image-temps, que Gilles Deleuze a consacré au cinéma : montrer comment l’histoire du grand cinéma, et non simplement tel ou tel film, peut articuler un projet-de-monde d’inspiration phénoménologique et une « manière de faire des mondes » d’inspiration plus analytique ; autrement dit, montrer combien le cinéma peut nous éveiller à l’unité du monde tout en le reconstruisant techniquement et à la manière propre de son réalisateur dans chaque film singulier. Pour donner au fil conducteur traversant l’ouvrage de Deleuze toute son extension, il nous faut toutefois voir à quoi il se rattache. D’abord, en montrant en quoi la cinéphilie moderne peut effectivement être considérée comme une nouvelle « iconodulie », au sens byzantin du terme : une sauvegarde du monde par l’image. Ensuite, en montrant de quelle manière, chez Deleuze, un tel monde, étrangement donné et fabriqué à la fois, un et multiple, en vient de lui-même à changer de sens, en particulier en se constituant non plus à partir de l’espace mais du temps, non plus à partir des choses mais des signes, non plus à partir des communautés nationales mais des devenirs minoritaires. Enfin, en montrant que le cinéma est par conséquent justiciable de bien davantage que d’une nouvelle esthétique : d’une nouvelle ontologie, d’une nouvelle pédagogie et d’une nouvelle politique.Beyond the power of fascination and the anaesthetizing effect of bad films, where does the singular power of film images come from? These images are capable of offering us “the” world, understood as an opening onto an outside which is both external to our everyday experience and yet laden with meaning, and therefore perceptible and describable. How is the cinema, of all the image arts, able to liberate us from ready-made images and clichés and to take us to this outside? These questions are the guiding threads of Gilles Deleuze’s two-volume work on cinema, The Movement-Image and The Time-Image: to show how the history of cinema as a whole, and not just one film or another, can articulate a world-project inspired by phenomenology and a more analytical “way of making worlds.” In other words, to show to what extent the cinema can awaken us to the unity of the world while at the same time technically reconstructing it according to each director’s style in every single film. To give the guiding thread of Deleuze’s work its complete ramification, we have to see what it is attached to. First, by showing how cinephilia today can be seen as a new form of “iconoduly,” in the Byzantine sense of the term: the world saved by the image. Next, by showing how in Deleuze’s work such a world, strangely rendered and fabricated at one and the same time, singular and multiple, comes itself to change meaning, in particular by establishing itself no longer out of space but rather out of time, no longer out of things but rather out of signs, no longer out of national communities but rather out of minority situations. Finally, by showing as a result that the cinema is amenable to much more than a new aesthetic: it is open to a new ontology, a new pedagogy and a new politics

L’irréductible optimisme des catastrophes et des apocalypses

Cette réflexion développe l’hypothèse apparemment paradoxale qu’écrire la fin (du monde, d’un monde, d’une civilisation, d’une époque, d’une vie, d’un amour…) manifeste toujours, d’une manière ou d’une autre, une certaine dose d’optimisme. À l’opposé du pessimisme tragique comme de la prétendue terreur apocalyptique, les récits de catastrophes relèvent toujours d’une conception optimiste de la vie et de l’histoire. À l’inverse, toute compréhension lucide de l’histoire conduit seulement à constater qu’on ne peut jamais en finir avec rien.This examination develops the apparently paradoxical hypothesis that writing the end (of the world, of a world, of a civilization, of an era, of a life, of a love, etc.) always manifests itself, one way or another, with a certain measure of optimism. Contrary to tragic pessimism, such as the alleged apocalyptic terror, narratives of catastrophes always reveal a conception of optimism when it comes to life and to history. Conversely, all lucid comprehension of history leads only to the observation that one can never finish with anything

Falsifier n’est pas mentir

Dans Culloden et The War Game, Peter Watkins fait exploser autant le genre télévisé du reportage que le genre cinématographique de la fiction historique. Il s’agit pour lui de falsifier le compte rendu de l’histoire, non pour la relativiser, non pour ouvrir au scepticisme et à la sortie de l’histoire, mais pour remettre en cause tout compte rendu unique, toute vérité définitive, et rendre à l’histoire vraie sa forme d’herméneutique infinie en fonction du présent. La vérité des images de guerre n’appartient à personne, ni à ceux qui les font ni à ceux qui les contemplent – elle est à jamais objet de litige ou de partage, car, au-delà de cette vérité, il n’y a plus que des mensonges ou des fictions

A Stochastic Multi-scale Approach for Numerical Modeling of Complex Materials - Application to Uniaxial Cyclic Response of Concrete

In complex materials, numerous intertwined phenomena underlie the overall response at macroscale. These phenomena can pertain to different engineering fields (mechanical , chemical, electrical), occur at different scales, can appear as uncertain, and are nonlinear. Interacting with complex materials thus calls for developing nonlinear computational approaches where multi-scale techniques that grasp key phenomena at the relevant scale need to be mingled with stochastic methods accounting for uncertainties. In this chapter, we develop such a computational approach for modeling the mechanical response of a representative volume of concrete in uniaxial cyclic loading. A mesoscale is defined such that it represents an equivalent heterogeneous medium: nonlinear local response is modeled in the framework of Thermodynamics with Internal Variables; spatial variability of the local response is represented by correlated random vector fields generated with the Spectral Representation Method. Macroscale response is recovered through standard ho-mogenization procedure from Micromechanics and shows salient features of the uniaxial cyclic response of concrete that are not explicitly modeled at mesoscale.Comment: Computational Methods for Solids and Fluids, 41, Springer International Publishing, pp.123-160, 2016, Computational Methods in Applied Sciences, 978-3-319-27994-

Canagliflozin and Cardiovascular and Renal Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Chronic Kidney Disease in Primary and Secondary Cardiovascular Prevention Groups

Background: Canagliflozin reduces the risk of kidney failure in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease, but effects on specific cardiovascular outcomes are uncertain, as are effects in people without previous cardiovascular disease (primary prevention). Methods: In CREDENCE (Canagliflozin and Renal Events in Diabetes With Established Nephropathy Clinical Evaluation), 4401 participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease were randomly assigned to canagliflozin or placebo on a background of optimized standard of care. Results: Primary prevention participants (n=2181, 49.6%) were younger (61 versus 65 years), were more often female (37% versus 31%), and had shorter duration of diabetes mellitus (15 years versus 16 years) compared with secondary prevention participants (n=2220, 50.4%). Canagliflozin reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events overall (hazard ratio [HR], 0.80 [95% CI, 0.67-0.95]; P=0.01), with consistent reductions in both the primary (HR, 0.68 [95% CI, 0.49-0.94]) and secondary (HR, 0.85 [95% CI, 0.69-1.06]) prevention groups (P for interaction=0.25). Effects were also similar for the components of the composite including cardiovascular death (HR, 0.78 [95% CI, 0.61-1.00]), nonfatal myocardial infarction (HR, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.59-1.10]), and nonfatal stroke (HR, 0.80 [95% CI, 0.56-1.15]). The risk of the primary composite renal outcome and the composite of cardiovascular death or hospitalization for heart failure were also consistently reduced in both the primary and secondary prevention groups (P for interaction >0.5 for each outcome). Conclusions: Canagliflozin significantly reduced major cardiovascular events and kidney failure in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and chronic kidney disease, including in participants who did not have previous cardiovascular disease

Canagliflozin and renal outcomes in type 2 diabetes and nephropathy

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, but few effective long-term treatments are available. In cardiovascular trials of inhibitors of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), exploratory results have suggested that such drugs may improve renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS In this double-blind, randomized trial, we assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease to receive canagliflozin, an oral SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose of 100 mg daily or placebo. All the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 30 to <90 ml per minute per 1.73 m2 of body-surface area and albuminuria (ratio of albumin [mg] to creatinine [g], >300 to 5000) and were treated with renin–angiotensin system blockade. The primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease (dialysis, transplantation, or a sustained estimated GFR of <15 ml per minute per 1.73 m2), a doubling of the serum creatinine level, or death from renal or cardiovascular causes. Prespecified secondary outcomes were tested hierarchically. RESULTS The trial was stopped early after a planned interim analysis on the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee. At that time, 4401 patients had undergone randomization, with a median follow-up of 2.62 years. The relative risk of the primary outcome was 30% lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group, with event rates of 43.2 and 61.2 per 1000 patient-years, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59 to 0.82; P=0.00001). The relative risk of the renal-specific composite of end-stage kidney disease, a doubling of the creatinine level, or death from renal causes was lower by 34% (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.81; P<0.001), and the relative risk of end-stage kidney disease was lower by 32% (hazard ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.86; P=0.002). The canagliflozin group also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.95; P=0.01) and hospitalization for heart failure (hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.80; P<0.001). There were no significant differences in rates of amputation or fracture. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular events was lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group at a median follow-up of 2.62 years

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

Spinoza : un autre salut par le corps ?

One of the last proposals of Spinoza’s Ethica (the 39th of the fifth part) says this : « Who has a body able to the greatest number of acts, has a mind whom the greatest part is eternal ». In relation with what was said about the unit of body and mind since the second part, that proposal seems obvious : who has a powerful body will get some affects suitable to the mind’s order, hence will get a mind as powerful, that is to say eternal. However, such a proposal becomes curious when it is analysed from the point of view of salvation which, in The Ethica, as Beatitude or third kind’s knowledge, follows a only intellectual way. Would it be un other kind of salvation, a salvation by the body, what Spinoza doesn’t describe but what would get a spinozistic meaning ? And if we answer positively, how to obtain such a salvation by changing his body’s acts before his mind ? Here is the mean question of this issue