Elaboration d’un référentiel de gestion et de classement des documents d’activité pour le Service des finances de la Commune de Montreux

Le présent travail et mandat pour les Archives de Montreux (AM) est un travail pratique traitant de Records Management (RM). L’application des connaissances dans ce domaine se traduit ici par l’élaboration d’un référentiel de gestion et de classement des documents d’activités pour une unité administrative particulière : le Service des finances (SF) de la Commune de Montreux. Un référentiel est un plan de classement des documents par activités définissant des délais de conservation et des sorts finaux aux documents. En outre, ce projet s’inscrit dans un contexte où les professionnels de l’information sont constamment exposés aux différents défis liés à l’explosion des volumes informationnels. La dématérialisation des documents prend notamment part à ces défis, car celle-ci s’impose lentement mais sûrement dans tous types d’institutions. Cela implique pour les archivistes une gestion de formats et de types de supports toujours plus nombreux, divers et souvent peu pérennes. Par conséquent, ce travail, en plus d’aboutir à un produit exploitable qu’est le référentiel, aborde également ces différents aspects de la gestion de l’information de nos jours qui sont illustrés au fur et à mesure de la réalisation du mandat. Finalement, la partie réflexive de ce travail portera plus particulièrement sur la formation des collaborateurs à l’utilisation d’un référentiel de gestion et de classement des documents. En effet, afin que ce référentiel soit adopté et appliqué par les collaborateurs, la formation s’impose comme une composante essentielle à la réussite du projet. Cependant, il n’existe à ce jour dans le domaine archivistique que très peu de littérature sur ce sujet, ce qui nous amène à nous poser la question suivante : Comment former les collaborateurs à un outil archivistique ? Pour ce faire, ce travail effectue également une comparaison avec ce qui se fait en bibliothéconomie en terme de formation

An Inka Offering at Yayno (North Highlands, Peru): Objects, Subjects and Gifts in the Ancient Andes

While Marcel Mauss's landmark essay on The Gift has been vital in social anthropology, inspiring a vast and influential secondary literature, the gift has been much less prominent in archaeological interpretation. This study considers evidence for an ancient Andean gift economy, a system of reciprocal exchanges focused on making people and ensuring group social relations, rather than accumulating wealth/capital. Excavations at Yayno (north highlands, Ancash, Peru) revealed two features dating to the time of the Inkas: 1) a slab-lined cist burial; and 2) an offering deposit containing abundant long-distance trade and sumptuary items. Besides its mountaintop location, the burial's intrusive character and foreign items indicate that the offerings were made to propitiate the place, ruins and their divine aspect. This essay studies the reciprocal acts that led to the offerings, comparing them to gifting patterns in Inka human sacrifices known as capac hucha. The key actors in the exchange were children, divinities, Inka bureaucrats, local leaders and state subjects

The Oldest Case of Decapitation in the New World (Lapa do Santo, East-Central Brazil)

We present here evidence for an early Holocene case of decapitation in the New World (Burial 26), found in the rock shelter of Lapa do Santo in 2007. Lapa do Santo is an archaeological site located in the Lagoa Santa karst in east-central Brazil with evidence of human occupation dating as far back as 11.7-12.7 cal kyBP (95.4% interval). An ultra-filtered AMS age determination on a fragment of the sphenoid provided an age range of 9.1-9.4 cal kyBP (95.4% interval) for Burial 26. The interment was composed of an articulated cranium, mandible and first six cervical vertebrae. Cut marks with a v-shaped profile were observed in the mandible and sixth cervical vertebra. The right hand was amputated and laid over the left side of the face with distal phalanges pointing to the chin and the left hand was amputated and laid over the right side of the face with distal phalanges pointing to the forehead. Strontium analysis comparing Burial 26's isotopic signature to other specimens from Lapa do Santo suggests this was a local member of the group. Therefore, we suggest a ritualized decapitation instead of trophy-taking, testifying for the sophistication of mortuary rituals among hunter-gatherers in the Americas during the early Archaic period. In the apparent absence of wealth goods or elaborated architecture, Lapa do Santo's inhabitants seemed to use the human body to express their cosmological principles regarding death

An Engineered Methanogenic Pathway Derived from the Domains Bacteria and Archaea

A plasmid-based expression system wherein mekB was fused to a constitutive Methanosarcina acetivorans promoter was used to express MekB, a broad-specificity esterase from Pseudomonas veronii, in M. acetivorans. The engineered strain had 80-fold greater esterase activity than wild-type M. acetivorans. Methyl acetate and methyl propionate esters served as the sole carbon and energy sources, resulting in robust growth and methane formation, with consumption of >97% of the substrates. Methanol was undetectable at the end of growth with methyl acetate, whereas acetate accumulated, a result consistent with methanol as the more favorable substrate. Acetate was consumed, and growth continued after a period of adaptation. Similar results were obtained with methyl propionate, except propionate was not metabolized

Mycobactin and clofazimine activity are negatively correlated in mycobacteria

Clofazimine (CFZ) is an anti-leprosy drug shown to improve outcomes in treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) and nontuberculous mycobacterial infections. Studies in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium avium identified CFZ resistance mutations in the gene that encodes the MmpR5/MmpT5 regulator, which increase expression of the mycobactin (MBT) transporter, MmpS5/L5. We found exposure of M. tuberculosis to CFZ induced a pattern of gene expression that mirrored low iron conditions, including strong induction of genes that encode MBT synthesis and transport. We identified a corresponding increase in MBT levels indicating a role in iron homeostasis in CFZ activity. CFZ bactericidal activity against both Mycobacterium smegmatis and M. tuberculosis was increased in high iron conditions in which MTB synthesis and transport was limited. We show the presence of MBT correlated with decreased CFZ killing activity while inhibition of MBT synthesis increased killing. Considerable iron efflux was observed during CFZ treatment indicating iron loss may be a feature of CFZ anti-mycobacterial activity. CFZ solubility studies and CFZ-mediated reduction of free iron indicate a potential redox interaction between CFZ and iron. MBT or MBT flux across the cell envelope appears to block CFZ killing in M. smegmatis and potentially M. tuberculosis. The specific mechanism by which MBT inhibits CFZ lethality remains unclear but may involve, increased iron acquisition, the MmpS5/L5 MBT efflux pump, or the CFZ subcellular localization altered by the redox state and solubility of CFZ. CFZ has thus far been proven most effective against Mycobacterium leprae, which lacks MBT, indicating an understanding of the complex interaction of CFZ with iron acquisition systems may suggest more effective therapeutic applications