87 research outputs found
Une analytique du pire que mal
No full text<p><strong>Résumé</strong></p><p>Cet entretien aborde les éléments principaux du livre de Pierre-Henri Castel, <i>Pervers, analyse d'un concept</i>. Il traite de la méthode philosophique de l'auteur, une analytique du « pire que mal » qui permet de comprendre les personnes perverses dans leurs relations avec leurs victimes. Cette perspective théorique a des implications pratiques sur la façon de comprendre les coupables lors des procès qui jugent leurs actes.</p><p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>This interview discusses the main elements of Pierre-Henri Castel's book, <i>Pervers, analyse d'un concept</i>. It deals with the philosophical method of the author, an analysis of the "worse than bad" which allows to understand perverse people in their relations with their victims. This theoretical perspective has practical implications for how to understand perpetrators during the trials that judge their actions. </p>
Development of vaccine platforms for membrane display of surface antigens using HIV-1 Env as model immunogen
No full textThe HIV-1 pandemic remains a major public health concern worldwide with over 1.5 million new infections every year. Despite the many effective prevention tools now available, access to treatment and implementations of these tools are proving difficult. Thus, developing an effective vaccine to prevent HIV-1 transmission remains of upmost importance. To date, HIV-1 vaccines failed to induce robust protective immunity and prophylactic vaccines that will elicit long-lasting protective immune responses still remain to be developed.
The HIV-1 Envelope glycoprotein (Env) has been the main target of immunogen design with the aim of inducing neutralizing antibodies. In order to cover Env diversity, prophylactic vaccines are expected to induce broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs). This will likely require Env trimers that limit exposure of non-neutralizing antibody (nNAb) epitopes within stabilized closed pre-fusion Envs that exhibit bNAb epitopes.
In this thesis, an iterative design process generated membrane-bound Env immunogens that present stabilized native-like trimers. This ultimately resulted in the ConSOSL.UFO.750 trimer that preferentially binds quaternary-specific bNAbs relative to nNAbs. Further characterization of the soluble ConSOSL.UFO.664 confirmed presentation of a closed pre-fusion native-like structure. Immunogenicity studies demonstrated that ConSOSL.UFO.664 can induce autologous Tier 2 neutralization in rabbits and showed that ConSOSL.UFO.750 can modulate the T helper response in a mouse model. To improve the potential of the membrane-bound designs to induce relevant immune responses, virus-like particles (VLPs) based on Mumps and PIV5 pseudotyping were developed. These VLPs displayed Env immunogens and were able to modulate the immune response by intrastructural help in mice.
Work presented in this thesis shows the successful design of immunogens that preserve the pre-fusion native-like structure of Env, amenable to various vaccination platforms. The ConSOSL.UFO design has now been moved into phase I clinical trial within the EAVI2020 consortium which will provide critical information for the development of an effective vaccine.Open Acces
Author Correction: Markerless tracking of an entire honey bee colony (Nature Communications, (2021), 12, 1, (1733), 10.1038/s41467-021-21769-1)
No full textThe original version of this Article omitted from the author list the fourth author Alexander S. Mikheyev, who is from the Ecology and Evolution Unit, OIST Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan, and the Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. The third author Yoann Portugal has the following additional affiliation: Ecology and Evolution Unit, OIST Graduate University, Okinawa, Japan. The fourth author Alexander S. Mikheyev and the fifth author Greg J. Stephens declare equal contributions. Consequently, the Acknowledgements, which formerly read “We thank Michael Iuzzolino, Dieu My thanh Nguyen, Orit Peleg, and Michael Smith for comments on the manuscript and code testing. This work was supported by the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University”, have been corrected to “We are grateful to Takahashi Ikemiya for maintaining the experimental bee colonies. We thank Michael Iuzzolino, Dieu My Thanh Nguyen, Orit Peleg, and Michael Smith for comments on the manuscript and code testing. This work was supported by the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University. Additional funding was provided by KAKENHI grants 16H06209 and 16KK0175 from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to AM”. Additionally, the Author Contributions, which formerly read “Y.P. performed the bee work and devised the imaging setup, L. H. devised the labeling tool, K.B. performed method development and data analysis, K.B. and G.S. designed the study and wrote the manuscript”, has been corrected to “Y.P. performed the bee work, Y.P. and A.M. devised the imaging setup, L.H. devised the labeling tool, K.B. performed method development and data analysis, K.B., A.M., and G.S. designed the study, K.B. and G.S. wrote the manuscript”. This has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article. The original version of the Supplementary information associated with this Article contained an error in the description of Supplementary Table 2, which incorrectly read “All imaging data in this study were collected in 2019”. The correct version states “2018” in place of “2019”. The HTML has been updated to include a corrected version of the Supplementary information
Rational design of DNA-expressed stabilized native-like HIV-1 envelope trimers
No full textThe HIV-1-envelope glycoprotein (Env) is the main target of antigen design for antibody-based prophylactic vaccines. The generation of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAb) likely requires the appropriate presentation of stabilized trimers preventing exposure of non-neutralizing antibody (nNAb) epitopes. We designed a series of membrane-bound Envs with increased trimer stability through the introduction of key stabilization mutations. We derived a stabilized HIV-1 trimer, ConSOSL.UFO.750, which displays a dramatic reduction in nNAb binding while maintaining high quaternary and MPER-specific bNAb binding. Its soluble counterpart, ConSOSL.UFO.664, displays similar antigenicity, and its native-like Env structure is confirmed by negative stain-EM and glycosylation profiling of the soluble ConSOSL.UFO.664 trimer. A rabbit immunization study demonstrated that the ConSOSL.UFO.664 can induce autologous tier 2 neutralization. We have successfully designed a stabilized native-like Env trimer amenable to nucleic acid or viral vector-based vaccination strategies
En quête d’autres milieux. La permaculture au prisme de la mésologie en Suisse et au Japon
No full textLa multiplicité des définitions de la permaculture qui existent aujourd’hui complexifie sa délimitation, mais elle est aussi le signe du dynamisme des communautés qui s’en prévalent, la diffusent et la concrétisent, et ce faisant, l’adaptent et en renégocient le sens. Depuis sa conceptualisation en Tasmanie dans les années septante par Bill Mollison et David Holmgren, le concept de la permaculture s’est exporté et a inévitablement évolué. Que signifie la permaculture aujourd’hui ? Comment circule-t-elle ? Comment son sens est-il disputé, fragilisé, stabilisé ?
Cette thèse propose de suivre la permaculture en Suisse et au Japon et de raconter, à travers une série de récits, ce qu’elle y motive comme expérimentations, négociations et bifurcations. Ces pays offrent un contraste intéressant, car, bien qu’ayant des relations différentes aux non-humains et d’évidentes spécificités territoriales et pédo-climatiques, ils sont tous deux confrontés aux limites écologiques et humaines de leur système agricole industrialisé et à la nécessité de la transformer à l’aune de ces limites. Un des objectifs était de mettre en lumière les diverses réponses et stratégies proposées par les permaculteurs et permacultrices face à cette situation.
Afin d’analyser les dynamiques par lesquelles la permaculture se concrétise de manière relationnelle et contextuelle, selon des trajectoires de vie, des lieux et des territoires, j’ai fait le choix de l’étudier au prisme de la mésologie. La mésologie, ou « étude des milieux humains », est une perspective développée par le géographe Augustin Berque, qui ambitionne de dépasser les dualismes du paradigme moderne grâce à des concepts radicalement relationnels : milieu, trajectivité, médiance. Elle offre ainsi des outils conceptuels et critiques à même de décrire les fluctuations du sens de la permaculture en fonction des milieux.
Tant la permaculture que la mésologie peut être lue comme une quête d’autres milieux – autres que ceux du grand récit du progrès, du capitalisme et de la modernisation écologique, et autres que ceux qui se dessinent à travers l’esthétique d’effondrement brutal qu’évoque l’Anthropocène. Qu’est-ce que ces quêtes engagent comme vision du sujet et expérience de soi ? Afin de faire ressortir leurs implications existentielles, expérientielles et politiques, je propose le concept de « soi mésologique », que j’ai construit en m’inspirant de trois figures que sont, le « militantisme existentiel » de l’économiste hétérodoxe Christian Arnsperger, le
« soi écologique » du philosophe Arne Næss et le « militantisme spirituel » de l’autrice féministe queer décoloniale Gloria Anzaldúa.
L’objectif de cette thèse est triple : 1) explorer et conceptualiser une disposition de soi qui arrive à tenir la tension entre reconnexion au milieu et déconnexion au système, en d’autres termes, qui fasse preuve de d’acceptation critique et incarnée ; 2) mettre en évidence ce qui, dans la permaculture, s’apparente à cette disposition de soi, et en quoi cette dernière est motrice d’une transformation des milieux ; 3) mettre en lumière les paysages et frictions que la permaculture fait émerger à travers ces transformations.
L’approche méthodologique est ce que Yoann Moreau appelle mésographie – une approche ethnographique des milieux, inspirée de la mésologique – dans le double contexte suisse et japonais. Elle consiste en des enquêtes de terrain basées sur de l’observation participante dans une trentaine de lieux et au sein de diverses associations et sur cinquante entretiens semi-directifs avec des pionniers, porteurs de projets et membres actifs.
Les apports principaux de cette recherche sont, 1) de raconter concrètement la permaculture par des
« récits de milieux » qui permettent de saisir conjointement des trajectoires de vie et des trajectoires de lieu ;
2) de donner à voir, à travers des « récits de frictions paysagères », les opportunités de, et les obstacles au changement que chaque territoire apporte ; 3) de situer le « soi mésologique » à l’interface entre la critique existentielle du système dominant et une attention et un prendre-soin renouvelé aux vivants.
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The multiple understandings of permaculture that currently exist complicate its definition and delimitation, but are also a sign of the dynamism of the communities that use it, disseminate it and put it into practice, and in so doing, adapt and renegotiate its meaning. After being coined in Tasmania in the 1970s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, the concept of permaculture has been progressively exported worldwide and has inevitably evolved. What does permaculture mean today? How does it circulate? How is its meaning put to work, disputed, weakened or stabilized?
This thesis proposes to “track” permaculture in the double context of Switzerland and Japan, through a series of stories, narrates what changes, negotiations and experimentation it is driving. These countries offer an interesting contrast, because they have different relations with non-humans, along with territorial and pedo-climatic specificities, but are both facing the ecological and human limits of their industrialized agricultural system and the need to transform it in this light. Hence, one of the purposes of this research was to explore permaculturists’ various strategies and responses to this situation.
To analyze the dynamics that lead to the emergence of permaculture contextually, as an intertwining of life trajectories, places and territories, I chose to study it through the prism of mesology. Mesology, or the 'study of human milieux', is a perspective developed by the geographer Augustin Berque, which aims to go beyond the dualisms of the modern paradigm by using radically relational concepts: milieu, trajectivity, mediance. It thus offers conceptual and critical tools to describe how permaculture’s meanings vary depending on the milieu.
Permaculture and mesology are both devoted to the quest for other milieux – other than those shaped by the grand narrative of progress, capitalism and ecological modernization, and other than those portrayed through the aesthetics of disruptive collapse of the Anthropocene. What do these quests entail for the subject’s identity and how do they engage other experiences of self? In order to bring out their existential, experiential and political implications, I propose the concept of the “mesological self”, drawing on three figures: the “existential activism” of the heterodox economist Christian Arnsperger, the “ecological self” of the philosopher Arne Næss and the “spiritual activism” of the decolonial queer feminist author Gloria Anzaldúa.
The aim of this thesis is threefold: 1) to conceptualize a disposition of self that manages to hold the tension between reconnection to the milieu and disconnection from the system, in other words, one that demonstrates embodied critical acceptance; 2) to identify what, in permaculture, resonates with this disposition of self, and how the latter is the driving force behind a transformation of milieux; 3) to explore the landscapes and frictions that permaculture creates through these transformations.
The methodological approach is what Yoann Moreau calls mesography – an ethnographic approach of milieux imbued with mesology – in Switzerland and Japan. It consists of a fieldwork-based study combining participant observation on thirty sites, active participation within various groups and associations, and fifty semi-directive interviews with pioneers, project leaders and active members.
The main contributions of this research are: 1) to narrate permaculture in a new way, through “stories of milieu” that make it possible to jointly capture life and place trajectories; 2) to narrate through “stories of landscaping frictions”, the opportunities and obstacles to change that each territory brings; 3) to position the “mesological self” in the interplay between existential criticism of the dominant system and renewed attention and care for the living
Corrigendum: Plasma polymers as targets for laser-driven proton-boron fusion
No full textA Corrigendum on Plasma polymers as targets for laser-driven proton-boron fusion by Tosca M, Molloy D, McNamee A, Pleskunov P, Protsak M, Biliak K, Nikitin D, Kousal J, Krtouš Z, Hanyková L, Hanuš J, Biederman H, Foster T, Nersisyan G, Martin P, Ho C, Macková A, Mikšová R, Borghesi M, Kar S, Istokskaia V, Levy Y, Picciotto A, Giuffrida L, Margarone D and Choukourov A (2023). Front. Phys. 11:1227140. doi: 10.3389/fphy.2023.1227140In the published article, there was an error in Affiliations 6, 7, and 8.Author Valeriia Istokskaia should be affiliated with “2, 7” instead of “2, 6”.Author Yoann Levy should be affiliated with “8” instead of “7”.The authors apologize for these errors and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated
Dynamic modeling of Terahertz Quantum cascade lasers
No full textIn this paper, the influence of the simplifications made in the four-equation-based set of rate equations describing the dynamic behavior of a Quantum Cascade Laser (QCL) is studied. Numerical simulations based on the set of four rate equations has been developed, enabling the theoretical study of the influence of different parameters on the direct modulation response of the laser. These equations have been then linearized in order to deduce a set of state system equations, which was written in a matrix formalism. Finally, an approximate second order transfer function has been derived with the linearized dependence of its times constant
Improving Industrial Solar Cell Fabrication using Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms
No full textThe present thesis approaches the improvement of the performance metrics of industrially fabricated solar cells. It aims to develop an optimization method that uses machine learning to identify an improved configuration of solar cell production lines. Conventional methods for process improvement rely on modelling experimental data to improve a process of interest. The number of experiments needed for modelling grows exponentially with the number of parameters taken into account. Since experiments are costly and time-consuming, the number of parameters that can be considered in this existing method is limited. This existing method thus allows modelling of only a few processes, and cannot include all inter-dependencies between the processes in the production line. In this thesis, an alternative method is proposed for the optimization of solar cell fabrication that uses machine learning and genetic algorithms. Instead of collecting experimental data, this method uses data collected from sensors in the production line. Machine learning is employed to establish a model of the production using the natural variation in this sensor data. This allows us to create more complete and accurate models of the production line. Genetic algorithms are then combined with the machine learning model to identify an improved configuration of process parameters. As part of this study, a virtual solar cell production line was developed to test and compare different machine learning algorithms. Based on experiments with this virtual production line, two novel approaches are proposed that can optimize production lines using a combination of artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms. It was demonstrated that the first approach improved the photovoltaic cell efficiency of cells from a simulated production line from 17.9 to 19.2. This significant improvement demonstrates the power of applying machine learning to solar cell production. The results achieved in this thesis encourage further development of the proposed method and application to real-life production lines
COVA1-18 neutralizing antibody protects against SARS-CoV-2 in three preclinical models
No full textMonoclonal antibodies show great promise in treating Covid-19 patients. Here, Maisonnasse, Aldon and colleagues report pre-clinical results for COVA1-18 and demonstrate that it reduces viral infectivity in three animal models with over 95% efficacy in macaques upper respiratory tract
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