Men. Roots and Consequences of Masculinity Norms

Recent research has uncovered the historical roots of gender norms about women and the persistent effect of such norms on economic development. We find similar long-term effects of masculinity norms: beliefs about the proper conduct of men. We exploit a natural historical experiment in which convict transportation in the 18th and 19th century created a variegated spatial pattern of sex ratios across Australia. We show that in areas that were heavily male-biased in the past (though not the present) more Australians recently voted against same-sex marriage, an institution at odds with traditional masculinity norms. Survey data show that this voting pattern is mostly driven by men. Further evidence indicates that these historically male-biased areas also remain characterized by more violence, excessive alcohol consumption, and occupational gender segregation. We interpret these behaviors as manifestations of masculinity norms that emerged due to intense local male-male competition and that persisted over time

Diving into our digital future: defining IAMSLIC's digital architecture

pp.69-7

De la simplicité en morphologie

International audienceLes unités lexicales simples ne font que rarement l’objet d’études en morphologie dérivationnelle, bien qu’elles soient le point de départ des mécanismes qui la sous-tendent. Nous nous proposons dans cet article d’élaborer et d’analyser un important corpus de noms simples du français. L’objectif est de vérifier l’hypothèse de Croft (1991) selon laquelle les noms simples dénotent prototypiquement des objets, contrairement aux noms construits, qui renvoient principalement à des actions ou à des propriétés, selon qu’ils sont dérivés de verbes ou d’adjectifs. Nous constituons dans un premier temps un corpus de noms simples, ce qui présuppose de définir cette notion, plus problématique qu’elle ne le paraît d’emblée. Nous proposons dans un second temps une annotation sémantique des quelque 3500 noms simples retenus, en noms d’objet, d’action ou de propriété, et nous détaillons la série de tests linguistiques employés pour établir cette classification. Il ressort de notre étude qu’environ un quart des noms simples ne dénotent pas (ou pas uniquement) des objets. Certains d’entre eux relèvent de classes nominales plus spécifiques, non réductibles aux trois catégories initialement considérées

Effects of debris-flow and bed composition on erosion and entrainment

Erosion and entrainment of material by debris flows determine debris-flow volume growth and therefore hazard potential. Recent advances in field, laboratory, and modelling studies have distilled two driving forces behind debris-flow erosion; impact and shear forces. A third factor influencing the (relative) importance of these forces is the viscosity and abundance of the interstitial fluid in the debris flow and the bed. However, how erosion and these forces depend on the composition of the debris flow itself and the composition of the bed remains unclear. Here, we present results of small-scale flume experiments with a loosely packed erodible bed that highlight the far-reaching effects of debris-flow and bed composition on erosion processes and magnitude. We quantify the effects of gravel, clay, and solid fraction in the debris flow on bed erosion. In addition, we quantify the effects of water and clay content of the unconsolidated bed on erosion by a debris flow. We show that debris flow erosion increases linearly when the gravel fraction of a debris flow is increased, which is linked to an increase in both impact and shear forces. We find that debris flow erosion, and the related forces, are non-linearly impacted by the clay and water content of the debris flow and those of the bed. For both the clay content of the debris flow and the bed, an optimum in erosion exists around a specific clay percentage that does not directly relate to an optimum in either shear or impact forces. When the water content of the bed and/or the debris flow is increased, erosion becomes largest when supersaturated conditions occur. These conditions are unrelated to the magnitude of the two erodible forces. This shows that both clay and water content affect erosion by affecting the transfer of pore pressures from the debris flow to the bed. We can therefore conclude that impact and shear forces dictate debris flow erosion in most cases but that their (relative) importance is significantly altered by the means and effectivity of pore pressure transfer from the debris flow to the bed. The latter is highly influenced by the viscosity and abundance of the interstitial fluid of the debris flow and the composition of the bed

How Bed Composition Affects Erosion by Debris Flows - An Experimental Assessment

A solid physical understanding of debris-flow erosion is needed for both hazard prediction and understanding landscape evolution. However, the processes and forces involved in erosion by debris flows and especially how the erodible surface itself influences erosion are poorly understood. Here, we experimentally investigate the effects of bed composition on debris-flow erosion, by systematically varying the composition of an erodible bed in a small-scale debris-flow flume. The experiments show that water and clay content of an unconsolidated bed significantly control erosion magnitude by affecting the transfer of pore pressure, loading conditions, and contraction-dilation behavior of the bed. As the water content increases and the bed comes close to saturation, erosion increases rapidly, whereas for clay content an optimum for erosion exists around a clay content of 3%–4%. Our results show that small variations in bed composition can have large effects on debris-flow erosion, and thus volume growth and hazard potential

Developing a French FrameNet: Methodology and First results

International audienceThe Asfalda project aims to develop a French corpus with frame-based semantic annotations and automatic tools for shallow semantic analysis. We present the first part of the project: focusing on a set of notional domains, we delimited a subset of English frames, adapted them to French data when necessary, and developed the corresponding French lexicon. We believe that working domain by domain helped us to enforce the coherence of the resulting resource, and also has the advantage that, though the number of frames is limited (around a hundred), we obtain full coverage within a given domain

Nonmalignant portal vein thrombi in patients with cirrhosis consist of intimal fibrosis with or without a fibrin-rich thrombus

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is a common complication of cirrhosis. The exact pathophysiology remains largely unknown, and treatment with anticoagulants does not lead to recanalization of the portal vein in all patients. A better insight into the structure and composition of portal vein thrombi may assist in developing strategies for the prevention and treatment of PVT. APPROACH AND RESULTS: Sixteen prospectively and 63 retrospectively collected nonmalignant portal vein thrombi from patients with cirrhosis who underwent liver transplantation were included. Histology, immunohistochemistry, and scanning electron microscopy were used to assess structure and composition of the thrombi. Most recent CT scans were reanalyzed for thrombus characteristics. Clinical characteristics were related to histological and radiological findings. All samples showed a thickened, fibrotic tunica intima. Fibrin-rich thrombi were present on top of the fibrotic intima in 9/16 prospective cases and in 21/63 retrospective cases. A minority of the fibrotic areas stained focally positive for fibrin/fibrinogen (16% of cases), von Willebrand factor (VWF; 10%), and CD61 (platelets, 21%), while most of the fibrin-rich areas stained positive for those markers (fibrin/fibrinogen, 100%; VWF, 77%; CD61, 100%). No associations were found between clinical characteristics including estimated thrombus age and use of anticoagulants and presence of fibrin-rich thrombi. CONCLUSION: We demonstrate that PVT in patients with cirrhosis consists of intimal fibrosis with an additional fibrin-rich thrombus in only one-third of cases. We hypothesize that our observations may explain why not all portal vein thrombi in patients with cirrhosis recanalize by anticoagulant therapy

Environmental considerations and current status of grouping and regulation of engineered nanomaterials

This article reviews the current status of nanotechnology with emphasis on application and related environmental considerations as well as legislation. Application and analysis of nanomaterials in infrastructure (construction, building coatings, and water treatment) is discussed, and in particular nanomaterial release during the lifecycle of these applications. Moreover, possible grouping approaches with regard to ecotoxicological and toxicological properties, and the fate of nanomaterials in the environment are evaluated. In terms of potential exposure, the opportunities that arise from leveraging advances in several key areas, such as water treatment and construction are addressed. Additionally, this review describes challenges with regard to the European Commission’s definition of ‘nanomaterial’. The revised REACH information requirements, intended to enable a comprehensive risk assessment of nanomaterials, are outlined

Analytical and toxicological aspects of nanomaterials in different product groups: Challenges and opportunities

The widespread integration of engineered nanomaterials into consumer and industrial products creates new challenges and requires innovative approaches in terms of design, testing, reliability, and safety of nanotechnology. The aim of this review article is to give an overview of different product groups in which nanomaterials are present and outline their safety aspects for consumers. Here, release of nanomaterials and related analytical challenges and solutions as well as toxicological considerations, such as dose-metrics, are discussed. Additionally, the utilization of engineered nanomaterials as pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals to deliver and release cargo molecules is covered. Furthermore, critical pathways for human exposure to nanomaterials, namely inhalation and ingestion, are discussed in the context of risk assessment. Analysis of NMs in food, innovative medicine or food contact materials is discussed. Specific focus is on the presence and release of nanomaterials, including whether nanomaterials can migrate from polymer nanocomposites used in food contact materials. With regard to the toxicology and toxicokinetics of nanomaterials, aspects of dose metrics of inhalation toxicity as well as ingestion toxicology and comparison between in vitro and in vivo conclusions are considered. The definition of dose descriptors to be applied in toxicological testing is emphasized. In relation to potential exposure from different products, opportunities arising from the use of advanced analytical techniques in more unique scenarios such as release of nanomaterials from medical devices such as orthopedic implants are addressed. Alongside higher product performance and complexity, further challenges regarding material characterization and safety, as well as acceptance by the general public are expected