Brunetière au Québec

Brunetière séjourna à Montréal et à Québec en 1897. Les lettres adressées au critique par ses hôtes canadiens révèlent les obstacles qu'il fallut lever pour le faire venir : méfiance du clergé, rivalité entre anglophones et francophones, entre Montréal et Québec. Sa visite constitue néanmoins une date dans les échanges culturels avec la France

Désécrire la vie

International audienceCe que j’aime dans le dernier livre d’Annie Ernaux, c’est la distance qu’elle s’impose pour raconter sa vie, c’est le mouvement vers l’anonymat qu’elle imprime à son commentaire d’un lot de photos de famille, c’est la fusion de l’intime dans le temps commun, la génération, l’époque, la culture de masse. Ce que j’aime moins, ce sont les résurgences de la France profonde, provinciale et petite-bourgeoise, le parallèle entre Auschwitz et Hiroshima, ou entre Auschwitz et le 11 septembre, le vote pour Poujade ou Arlette Laguiller

iGVPT2 : an interface to computational chemistry packages for anharmonic corrections to vibrational frequencies

iGVPT2 is a program for computing anharmonic corrections to vibration frequencies, based on force field expansion of the potential energy surface in normal mode coordinates. It includes second order vibrational perturbation theory (VPT2) algorithm and its derived methods (VPT2+K, DCPT2, HDCPT2). iGVPT2 is interfaced with several computation chemistry packages to compute the potential energies and dipoles derivatives. The second, third and quartic derivatives can be computed at the same level of theory but they can be also computed using different methods via one or two computational packages. iGPVT2 includes also a very fast hybrid QM//MM approach for biomolecules. It is provided free-of-charge for non-commercial research (see \url{https://sites.google.com/site/allouchear/igvpt2})

Suis‑je romancier ?

Le poncif moderne qui admet volontiers la cohabitation de la fiction et de la critique a une triple origine : les Baudelaire-Mallarmé-Valéry qui, écrivant de la poésie, s'attachaient à la définir ; les « herméneutiques du soupçon » pour lesquelles l'interprétation devient fiction ; le post-structuralisme tel qu'inauguré par le concept de « métalangage ». L'auteur rappelle la souffrance, le doute d'écrivains érigés en modèles, tel Proust

On the possibility to consider fullerene shell C60 as a conducting sphere

Correctness of the model representing the fullerene shell C60 as a conducting sphere has been analyzed. The static and dynamical polarizabilities of the molecule C60 have been calculated on the basis of experimental data on the photo-absorption cross- section of fullerene. It has been shown that the real C60 in the static electric field behaves most likely as a set of separate carbon atoms rather than as a conducting sphere and its static polarizability exceeds by more than two times that of conducting sphere.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

The structure and energetics of 3^3He and 4^4He nanodroplets doped with alkaline earth atoms

We present systematic results, based on density functional calculations, for the structure and energetics of $^3$He and $^4$He nanodroplets doped with alkaline earth atoms. We predict that alkaline earth atoms from Mg to Ba go to the center of $^3$He drops, whereas Ca, Sr, and Ba reside in a deep dimple at the surface of $^4$He drops, and Mg is at their center. For Ca and Sr, the structure of the dimples is shown to be very sensitive to the He-alkaline earth pair potentials used in the calculations. The $5s5p\leftarrow5s^2$ transition of strontium atoms attached to helium nanodroplets of either isotope has been probed in absorption experiments. The spectra show that strontium is solvated inside $^3$He nanodroplets, supporting the calculations. In the light of our findings, we emphasize the relevance of the heavier alkaline earth atoms for analyzing mixed $^3$He-$^4$He nanodroplets, and in particular, we suggest their use to experimentally probe the $^3$He-$^4$He interface.Comment: Typeset using Revtex, 20 pages and 8 Postscript file

Intermittent selective clamping improves rat liver regeneration by attenuating oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum stress.

International audienceIntermittent clamping of the portal trial is an effective method to avoid excessive blood loss during hepatic resection, but this procedure may cause ischemic damage to liver. Intermittent selective clamping of the lobes to be resected may represent a good alternative as it exposes the remnant liver only to the reperfusion stress. We compared the effect of intermittent total or selective clamping on hepatocellular injury and liver regeneration. Entire hepatic lobes or only lobes to be resected were subjected twice to 10 min of ischemia followed by 5 min of reperfusion before hepatectomy. We provided evidence that the effect of intermittent clamping can be damaging or beneficial depending to its mode of application. Although transaminase levels were similar in all groups, intermittent total clamping impaired liver regeneration and increased apoptosis. In contrast, intermittent selective clamping improved liver protein secretion and hepatocyte proliferation when compared with standard hepatectomy. This beneficial effect was linked to better adenosine-5'-triphosphate (ATP) recovery, nitric oxide production, antioxidant activities and endoplasmic reticulum adaptation leading to limit mitochondrial damage and apoptosis. Interestingly, transient and early chaperone inductions resulted in a controlled activation of the unfolded protein response concomitantly to endothelial nitric oxide synthase, extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/2 (ERK1/2) and p38 MAPK activation that favors liver regeneration. Endoplasmic reticulum stress is a central target through which intermittent selective clamping exerts its cytoprotective effect and improves liver regeneration. This procedure could be applied as a powerful protective modality in the field of living donor liver transplantation and liver surgery

An extremely radioresistant green eukaryote for radionuclide bio-decontamination in the nuclear industry

International audienceNuclear activities generate radioactive elements which require processes for their decontamination. Although biological remediation has proved efficient in industrial applications, no biotechnology solution is currently operational for highly radioactive media. Such a solution requires organisms that accumulate radionuclides while withstanding radioactivity. This paper describes the potentialities of an extremophile autotrophic eukaryote, Coccomyxa actinabiotis nov. sp., that we isolated from a nuclear facility and which withstands huge ionizing radiation doses, up to 20,000 Gy. Half the population survives 10,000 Gy, which is comparable to the hyper-radioresistant wellknown prokaryote Deinococcus radiodurans. Cell metabolic profile investigated by nuclear magnetic resonance was hardly affected by radiation doses of up to 10,000 Gy. Cellular functioning completely recovered within a few days. This outstanding microalga also strongly accumulates radionuclides, including 238U, 137Cs, 110mAg, 60Co, 54Mn, 65Zn, and 14C (decontamination above 85% in 24 h, concentration factor, 1,000-450,000 mL g-1 fresh weight). In 1 h, the microalga revealed as effective as the conventional physico-chemical ion-exchangers to purify nuclear effluents. Using this organism, an efficient real-scale radionuclide bio-decontamination process was performed in a nuclear fuel storage pool with an important reduction of waste volume compared to the usual physico-chemical process. The feasibility of new decontamination solutions for the nuclear industry and for environmental clean-up operations is demonstrated