Journal articles on the topic 'Crues massives'

The origin of cosmic gamma-ray bursts remains one of the most intriguing puzzles in astronomy. We suggest that purely general relativistic effects in the collapse of massive stars could account for these bursts. The late formation of closed trapped surfaces can occur naturally, allowing the escape of huge energy from curvature-generated fireballs, before these are hidden within a black hole.

Avec jusqu'à 1 million de personnes inondées, et 6,5 millions d'habitants privés d'eau ou d'électricité, les autorités régionales s'interrogent sur la capacité à mener à bien une évacuation de l'agglomération francilienne en cas de crue exceptionnelle de la Seine. L'étude présentée ici vise à répondre à une partie de ces interrogations, en proposant un outil d'aide à la décision sous SIG pour identifier de façon spatialisée les besoins de prise en charge dans l'hébergement d'urgence des populations sinistrées, en cas d'évacuation massive. La méthodologie se fonde sur la combinaison de deux indices, agrégés à l'échelle du bâti : (1) un « indice d'exposition », qui synthétise des variables relatives à l'aléa et aux impacts physiques induits par ce dernier. Cet indice est constitué à partir d'une réflexion sur la stratégie d'évacuation envisagée par la Préfecture de Police, coordinatrice de la gestion de crise à l'échelle régionale ; (2) un « indice de susceptibilité à l'auto-hébergement », qui vise à représenter la capacité d'une population donnée à trouver un hébergement par ses propres moyens, chez des proches notamment, en synthétisant diverses variables sociales et démographiques. Ces variables sont identifiées grâce à un état de l'art ad hoc, constitué à partir de retours d'expérience internationaux d'évacuations massives passées.

Abstract The master tumor suppressor p53 controls transcription of a wide-ranging gene network involved in apoptosis, cell cycle arrest, DNA damage repair, and senescence. Recent studies revealed pervasive binding of p53 to cis-regulatory elements (CREs), which are non-coding segments of DNA that spatially and temporally control transcription through the combinatorial binding of local transcription factors. Although the role of p53 as a strong trans-activator of gene expression is well known, the co-regulatory factors and local sequences acting at p53-bound CREs are comparatively understudied. We designed and executed a massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA) to investigate the effect of transcription factor binding motifs and local sequence context on p53-bound CRE activity. Our data indicate that p53-bound CREs are both positively and negatively affected by alterations in local sequence context and changes to co-regulatory TF motifs. Our data suggest p53 has the flexibility to cooperate with a variety of transcription factors in order to regulate CRE activity. By utilizing different sets of co-factors across CREs, we hypothesize that global p53 activity is guarded against loss of any one regulatory partner, allowing for dynamic and redundant control of p53-mediated transcription.

Massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs) are a high-throughput method for evaluating in vitro activities of thousands of candidate cis-regulatory elements (CREs). In these assays, candidate sequences are cloned upstream or downstream from a reporter gene tagged by unique DNA sequences. However, tag sequences may themselves affect reporter gene expression and lead to major potential biases in the measured cis-regulatory activity. Here, we present a sequence-based method for correcting tag-sequence-specific effects and show that our method can significantly reduce this source of variation and improve the identification of functional regulatory variants by MPRAs. We also show that our model captures sequence features associated with post-transcriptional regulation of mRNA. Thus, this new method helps not only to improve detection of regulatory signals in MPRA experiments but also to design better MPRA protocols.

I began drafting this Introduction on July 30, 2013, the day that Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning was convicted on 19 of 21 charges, including 6 counts of espionage, in a U.S. military court martial. Manning is a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst who covertly conveyed to WikiLeaks a massive file of over 700,000 classified documents—including battlefield reports from Iraq, reports from Afghanistan, and State Department cables—thereby publicly disclosing extensive information about U.S. military conduct, and misconduct, of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Manning was subjected to harsh treatment, including solitary confinement during the first nine months of his detention, sparking public outcry and leading a UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to hold that his detention represented cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

The need for efficient image denoising methods has grown with the massive production of digital images and movies of all kinds. The distortion of images by additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is common during its processing and transmission. This paper is concerned with dual-tree complex wavelet-based image denoising using Bayesian techniques. Indeed, one of the cruxes of the Bayesian image denoising algorithms is to estimate the local variance of the image. Here, we employ maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation to calculate local observed variance with Maxwell density prior for local observed variance and Gaussian distribution for noisy wavelet coefficients. Evidently, our selection of prior distribution is motivated by analytical and computational tractability. The experimental results show that the proposed method yields good denoising results.

In this contribution we describe a white pumice fall deposit, informally named pómez Bosque de Tlalpan (PBT), found in several outcrops in the southern Mexico basin. The most representative sequence occurs at the Bosque de Tlalpan park, Delegación Tlalpan, in Mexico City. In this site the deposit is 3 m thick, massive, and contains 80–90 vol. % of pumice clasts, predominantly of coarse lapilli-sized and some block-sized fragments. The PBT has a dacitic composition (64.9–66 wt. % SiO2, on anhydrous basis) of calc-alkaline affinity, and a mineral assemblage represented by plagioclase > amphibole > orthopyroxene > biotite, ±Fe-Ti oxides, with quartz in lesser proportions, and zircon as accesory mineral, in a vesicular and glassy matrix. According to data collected from seven outcrops, thickness and clast size of the deposit decrease towards the NE and therefore the vent source should be located to the SW of Bosque de Tlalpan. Possible sources are the volcanoes Ajusco and San Miguel, which are part of the Sierra de Las Cruces volcanic range, and are located in this direction at ~11 km from Bosque de Tlalpan. The age of the PBT deposit was determined by radiocarbon dating of underlying paleosoils that yielded 25,730 ± 130 to 37,450 ± 330 yrs B.P. (Late Pleistocene). Additionally, thermoluminscence dating of one sample yielded an age of 30,300 ± 5,000 years, similar to the radiocarbon ages. Hence, the PBT represents the youngest reported deposit from the Sierra de Las Cruces volcanic range. Although only seven outcrops were described in this work, we interpret the PBT deposit as produced by a plinian-type eruption, based on its massive structure, its ca. 3 m thickness, and the presence of pumice clasts in coarse lapilli to block sizes, as well as 3.5 cm sized lithics, at 11 km from the possible vent source, characteristic of this kind of deposits. We discard the monogenetic volcanoes from the Chichinautzin volcanic field as the vent source of the PBT deposit, because this kind of volcanoes is relatively mafic in composition and do not produce plinian-type deposits.

This paper presents the new finds of Renaissance wooden ceilings at the Petris-Moise Palace in Cres, decorated with painted panels and mural paintings. The construction elements, such as the composite massive beam known as trave leonardesca, are technically sophisticated and constructed in accordance with the Renaissance treatises on architecture. The painted ceiling panels are still a unique find in Croatia as to their installation and painting method, but are related to numerous painting cycles in the noble residences of southern France, Spain, Switzerland and northern Italy dating from the 14th until the mid-16th century. As for the dimensions, the pigments used, the installation and painting method, and the represented motifs, the closest analogy has been found in some Friulan examples. The difference, however, is that the Cres examples almost entirely belong to the visual language of grotesque, since they were produced somewhat later, at the time when this kind of decorative repertoire had already become highly appreciated. The constructions and decorative elements are a result of the Renaissance rebuilding in the second half of the 16th century, when the walls were painted as well. Based on an analysis of the heraldic symbols and motifs, and their comparison with the historical data on the Petris family, the commissioner has been identified as the Imperial Golden Knight Ivan Juraj Petris, a close relative of Franciscus Patricius (Petris). It has been assumed that the painting cycle was created under the influence of this renowned Renaissance philosopher.

The high number of cyberbullying cases that occur from year to year are rampant among teenagers, adults and even children, all of whom are involved in becoming victims and even perpetrators of cruel crimes committed in cyberspace. This research seeks to explore the efforts that should be made by schools which are seen as a forum for producing superior and civilized children's character so that they are wiser and more professional in operating and using digital, especially in this technological era. Data was collected through observation, interviews and documentation activities at 3 educational institutions in Indonesia. The results of the research show that a massive way that can be done to overcome the main problem of overcoming the dangers of cyberbullying can be done by strengthening the role of educational institutions, namely schools, to be able to provide theoretical understanding and real action in terms of operating and using digital in all areas of school activities, namely by making efforts to interconnect all school academic and non-academic activities on a digital basis.

Aujourd’hui, il ne fait plus de doute que les trois quartiers Saint-Matthieu, Saint-Jacques et La Réal de Perpignan, fondés dans le courant du XIIIe siècle, se caractérisent principalement par leurs élévations en terre crue massive constituant les murs latéraux et de fond des maisons. La première opération qui a révélé leur existence s’est déroulée, en 2000, dans la rue de l’Anguille, dans le quartier Saint-Jacques[1]. Depuis, des opérations d’ampleur variable, portant tantôt sur le bâti, tantôt sur le sous-sol, ont permis de progressivement compléter nos connaissances sur l’organisation du parcellaire au sein des trois quartiers médiévaux, sur la mise en œuvre de ces élévations en terre, sur le modèle de la maison qu’accueillaient ces parcelles et, peu à peu, sur leurs aménagements intérieurs. [1] Guyonnet (F.), Rue de l'Anguille. Etude des élévations à Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales). DFS, AFAN. SRA Languedoc-Roussillon, 2001, 101 p. (inédit)

The coronavirus D-19 (Covid-19) pandemic has shaken almost every country in the world: as we stand, 6,3 million deaths from the infection have already been recorded, 167,000 and 380,000 of which are in Italy and the Russian Federation, respectively. In the first wave of the pandemic, Italy suffered an abnormally high death toll. A detailed analysis of available epidemiological data suggests that that rate was shockingly high in the Northern regions and in Lombardy, in particular, whilst in the southern region the situation was less dire. This inexplicably high mortality rate in conditions of a very well-developed health care system such as the one in Lombardy recognized as one of the best in Italy certainly cries for a convincing explanation. In 1976, the small city of Seveso, Lombardy, experienced a release of dioxin into the atmosphere after a massive technogenic accident. The immediate effects of the industrial disaster did not become apparent until a surge in the number of tumors in the affected population in the subsequent years. In this paper, we endeavor to prove our hypothesis that the release of dioxin was a negative cofactor that contributed to a worsening of the clinical course of COVID-19 in Lombardy.

Résumé L'évolution du droit international humanitaire au cours des cinquante dernières années a été caractérisée par deux orientations contradictoires. La première est le progrès considérable intervenu dans cette partie du droit international. Le droit international humanitaire est aujourd'hui l'une des branches du droit international dont les règles sont les plus exhaustives: la plupart des aspects de la protection des personnes dans les conflits armés et de la conduite des hostilités ont fait l'objet de dispositions détaillées. En outre, les Conventions de Genève de 1949 ont acquis une reconnaissance pratiquement universelle. Un grand nombre de leurs dispositions sont maintenant reconnues comme étant des règles du droit coutumier et font partie du jus cogens. Ce succès remarquable contraste toutefois avec la seconde orientation, à savoir les violations flagrantes des Conventions et l'augmentation inquiétante du nombre d'actes inhumains et cruels commis au cours des conflits armés des dernières années. Les catastrophes humanitaires causées par la guerre sont devenues l'un des problèmes majeurs de notre temps. Il est évident que les dispositions juridiques n'ont pas toujours donné les résultats que l'on attendait d'elles au moment de leur adoption. À cet égard, l'évolution des Conventions de Genève au cours des cinquante dernières années est marquée à la fois par le succès et l'échec. — L'auteur examine d'abord l'évolution normative du droit international humanitaire depuis 1949, puis analyse les causes des violations massives qui ont été commues pendant h même période.

Aquaculture provides more than 50% of all seafood for human consumption. This important industrial sector is already under pressure from climate-change-induced shifts in water column temperature, nutrient loads, precipitation patterns, microbial community composition, and ocean acidification, all affecting fish welfare. Disease-related risks are also shifting with important implications for risk from vibriosis, a disease that can lead to massive economic losses. Adaptation to these pressures pose numerous challenges for aquaculture producers, policy makers, and researchers. The dataset AqADAPT aims to help the development of management and adaptation tools by providing (i) measurements of physicochemical (temperature, salinity, total dissolved solids, pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, transparency, total nitrogen, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, total phosphorus, total particulate matter, particulate organic matter, and particulate inorganic matter) and microbiological (heterotrophic (total) bacteria, fecal indicators, and Vibrio abundance) parameters of seawater and (ii) biochemical determination of culturable bacteria in two locations near floating cage fish farms in the Adriatic Sea. Water sampling was conducted seasonally in two fish farms (Cres and Vrgada) and corresponding reference (control) sites between 2019 and 2021 of four vertical layers for a total of 108 observations: the surface, 6 m, 12 m, and the bottom.

This study aims to analyze Khaled Hossein’s judgment in <em>The Kite Runner</em> towards Pashtun and Hazara identities from different angles, and has achieved the real image of two highlighted identities in <em>The Kite Runner</em>. In the novel, in most events, or scenes the Pashtun identity is massively exaggerated and stereotyped as racist, cruel, uncivilized, savage, and prejudiced throughout the novel. Whereas, Hazarz's identity is depicted as helpless, poor, discriminated, inferiors, and victims of Pashtun's mastery. For this purpose, the research is conducted qualitatively. Qualitative is based on library research, which involves the step-by-step process used to gather information from different relevant literary books. The findings of the study show all the events that have been described in the novel might not been found in the real society of Afghanistan, but some have been described by Khaled Hosseini in the novel are accurate. The study intends to analyze and elucidate the above derogations and propaganda about both highlighted (Pashtun and Hazara) identities by Hosseini in <em>The Kite Runner </em>through the text.

The article examines the ideological aspects of the German struggle against partisans in the occupied territory of Soviet Belarus. The author, on the basis of previously unpublished documents of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (propaganda publications of the occupation authorities, orders and circulars of the heads of the German General Commissariat, reports of partisans) and a number of historical studies, analyzes the content of German propaganda materials, identifies its main thematic areas, determines the effectiveness of anti-partisan propaganda. The heads of the General District (W. Kube and C. von Gottberg) expressed a special opinion on the methods of anti-partisan struggle. They believed that punitive actions were ineffective and the main stake in the anti-guerilla struggle made on propaganda and involvement of the local population. The author concludes that the massive and large-scale propaganda influence of the German administration was neutralized by an extremely cruel occupation policy (namely, punitive actions of the SS against partisans and the civilian population living in the partisan zone, the genocide of Jews, which caused obvious rejection and fear) as well as partisan counter-propaganda. Attempts to involve the Belarusian population to combating partisans proved to be not very effective. Moreover, the very actions of the German occupation authorities — forced recruitment to work in Germany, as part of numerous collaborationist organizations — forced Belarusians to seek salvation among the partisans.

Le Pont du Gard est un pont-aqueduc romain construit vers 50 après JC pour assurer le franchissement des gorges du Gardon par un aqueduc d’alimentation de la ville de Nîmes (France). Le pont-aqueduc et le pont routier attenant sont édifiés sur un entablement calcaire urgonien, karstifié et fracturé. Les ouvrages enjambent le lit mineur du Gardon par une voûte qui relie les piles VII et VIII. D’un point de vue géologique, ce chenal profond constitue une incision fracturée majeure dans ce paysage rocheux. Depuis près d’un siècle, les craintes d’une déstabilisation des flancs subverticaux de ce chenal ont motivé la mise en place de protections et de dispositifs de renforcement du massif rocheux. Un appareillage constitué par deux boulons instrumentés au moyen de capteurs extensométriques et une sonde de température a été mis en place dans l’appui rocheux de la pile VII et a fait l’objet d’un suivi pendant plusieurs années. Cette auscultation révèle des déformations de la roche qui évoluent avec le régime saisonnier des températures atmosphériques. Parmi les fluctuations journalières, des petits évènements semblent pouvoir être attribués à la variation de la température de l’eau pendant certaines crues du Gardon. Un calcul approximatif de ces variations saisonnières et momentanées a été effectué au moyen d’une formulation analytique. Un premier paragraphe présente une revue bibliographique des effets thermiques dans les massifs rocheux sous l’influence des conditions climatiques. Le paragraphe suivant est consacré à la présentation du site, de ses conditions environnementales et des travaux de renforcement. Les principales caractéristiques du dispositif d’auscultation sont présentées ensuite, puis les données recueillies. Une simulation des effets de la température est proposée enfin. Les résultats permettent d’expliquer effectivement l’ordre de grandeur des déformations observées dans la roche.

Several million tons of sediments and various debris were transported to the north arm of the Saguenay Fjord and the Baie des Ha! Ha! following the torrential rains and accompanying flash flood of July 1996 in the Saguenay region (Québec). The flood deposits covered the indigenous sediments and buried the benthic community. The objective of this work is to determine the best chemical and biological indicators of the changes that occurred in the benthic habitat of the fjord. The new sediment layer is poor in organic matter but rich in detrital carbonates and contains low mercury and lead concentrations reflecting the absence of industrial contamination. Ongoing geological processes leading to the re-establishment of steady-state conditions were evidenced by measurements of porosity, redox potential (Eh), and salinity of interstitial waters taken a few weeks and a few months after the events. The meiofauna were severely affected with a massive reduction of the average density of organisms relative to values recorded before the flood, but recolonisation was already in progress 1 year after the flood. Important losses of macrobenthic species were recorded in 1997 relative to 1996. However, the abundance and the diversity of the polycheate taxa were higher in 1997, indicating a recolonisation of the new sediment layer by pioneer species.

This article explores specific representation of regret in The Tale of Khan Tokhtamysh’ Invasion of Moscow. While there are two existing versions of this text, a brief version (Simeonovskaya Chronicle, Rogozhskii Chronicler) and an extended version (Novgorodskaya Chronicle 4, Sofiiskaya and Novgorodskaya Karamzinskaya Chronicles), the article focuses on the hitherto understudied brief version. In Simeonovskaya version, different recurrent patterns that underline the main idea of the chronicle and define its pathos, compensate for the minimum of expressive tropes employed in the narrative of the 1382 invasion. The analysis reveals two major motifs — of plundering and burning — that support the author’s main thought: Tokhtamysh’s invasion was a plunder and a terrible destruction that caused massive damage to Moscow and the neighboring towns. Whereas the author of the extended version focuses more on the heroism of the city defenders and laments the cruel death of civil citizens and clergy, the author of the brief chronicle is more concerned with the description of the devastating event itself. The author of the brief version regrets the material damage caused by Tokhtamysh more than he would grieve for the victims. It is possible to explain this peculiarity by turning to earlier chronicles. By the time the brief chronicle of Tokhtamysh invasion was written, Simeonovskaya Chronicle had developed a structural and stylistic pattern describing invasions of the Horde that accentuated motifs of plundering and burning. The recurrence of similar events in a long time-period together with laconic style typical for chronicles resulted in the mentioned specificity: the brief version of the chronicle, following the pattern, puts to the fore regret about the material damage instead of mourning.

Mercure, a ballet in three tableaux with scenery and costumes by Pablo Picasso and choreography by Léonide Massine, created a scandal on a par with that of Parade (1917) when it was first performed at La Cigale Theatre in Montmartre on 15 June 1924 as part of the ‘Soirée de Paris’ season mounted by the wealthy Comte Etienne de Beaumont. Although Mount Etna, as it transpired, featured in the scenario but not in Picasso's stage sets, the première was certainly the scene of a volcanic eruption, a deliberate demonstration orchestrated by the Surrealists (led by the poet André Breton), who tried to drown Satie's music-hall score with their cries of ‘Long live Picasso! Down with Satie!’ The reasons behind this were complex and inseparable from Satie's enthusiastic support for the Dada movement and its founder, Tristan Tzara, from 1919 onwards. After the failure of the Congrès de Paris (convened by Breton to establish a Dada constitution and himself as leader), Satie took great delight in assuming the presidency of Breton's public trial at the Closerie des Lilas restaurant on 17 February 1922. Their enmity was further intensified by Satie's participation in the ‘happening’, known as La soirée du Coeur à barbe, which Tzara mounted at the Théâtre Michel on 6 July 1923. In what might be regarded as a dress rehearsal for Mercure, the newly founded Surrealists under Breton mounted a campaign in support of Picasso, which led to Breton being expelled by the police.

Current issues of reparation for damages caused to Ukraine by Russia armed aggression: a full-scale war, unprecedented (compared to the Second World War and the rest of the wars of the 21st century) in scope, cruel in essence, genocidal in purpose, devastating in means and consequences are considered. One of consequences of war and war crimes committed by Russian aggressors starting from February 24, 2022, is massive destruction and damage to housing and other property of Ukrainian citizens. Within framework of initiated criminal proceedings, damages are compensated by filing a civil lawsuit. However, specifics of the grounds of such a lawsuit cause the occurrence of certain risks for the victim, as well as problems with law enforcement and the exercise of their powers by investigators and prosecutors. In particular, difficulties may lie in the impossibility of inspecting the scene of the incident, which will ultimately negatively affect the determination of the amount of damage caused (calculation of the material equivalent of the damage). Determining the amount of damage caused as a result of the destruction or destruction of housing is also problematic, as it often requires the appointment of an expert opinion, while the scale of the destruction within the state makes it impossible to conduct such an expert opinion in a reasonable time. Attention is focused on the issues of establishing the person who should be responsible for the claim, or the civil defendant. Possibility of overcoming the jurisdictional immunity of Russia as a defendant in the declared civil lawsuits was also considered. Conducted research made it possible to formulate proposals on mechanism of compensation for the damage caused, as well as on improvement of current criminal procedural legislation of Ukraine.

This study presents a new geochemical, petrological, and geochronological U–Pb dataset from Ediacaran metabasites of the Canigó and Cap de Creus massifs, Eastern Pyrenees. The rocks are composed of calcic amphibole + plagioclase + chlorite + epidote ± quartz plus titanite + apatite + ilmenite ± biotite ± rutile as accessory phases and show relict igneous textures. Peak pressure-temperature determinations share common conditions, ranging 452–482ºC and 5.2–7.7kbar. These intermediate P-T conditions suggest Barrovian-type metamorphism, most likely related to a collisional setting. The metabasites correspond to evolved basaltic rocks (Mg#<0.55) with moderate TiO2 content (up to 2.08wt.%) and relatively low Cr (43–416ppm). The rocks are moderately enriched in light rare earth elements (LREE) relative to heavy rare earth elements (HREE) (average (La/Lu)n of 2.7) and the N-MORB normalized multi-element patterns show negative slopes, with prominent negative Nb anomalies ((Nb/La)NMORB=0.33–0.78). These variations are akin to island arc tholeiites generated in back-arc basins and to other metabasites described in the Eastern Pyrenees with a putative Ediacaran age, and they differ from the Ordovician tholeiitic metabasites from the Canigó massif, which derived from a contaminated E-MORB source. The positive ƐNd(T) values (0.82–3.05) of the studied metabasites preclude a notable contribution from an older continental crust. U-Pb dating (LA-ICP-MS) of one chlorite-rich schist sample in contact with the metabasites from the Canigó massif yielded a main peak at ca. 632Ma. We argue that the Cadomian metabasites from the Pyrenees formed during back-arc extension in the continental margin of Gondwana and were later affected by (probably early Variscan) medium-P metamorphism before the HT-LP metamorphism classically described in the Pyrenees.

This study presents a new geochemical, petrological, and geochronological U–Pb dataset from Ediacaran metabasites of the Canigó and Cap de Creus massifs, Eastern Pyrenees. The rocks are composed of calcic amphibole + plagioclase + chlorite + epidote ± quartz plus titanite + apatite + ilmenite ± biotite ± rutile as accessory phases and show relict igneous textures. Peak pressure-temperature determinations share common conditions, ranging 452–482ºC and 5.2–7.7kbar. These intermediate P-T conditions suggest Barrovian-type metamorphism, most likely related to a collisional setting. The metabasites correspond to evolved basaltic rocks (Mg#<0.55) with moderate TiO2 content (up to 2.08wt.%) and relatively low Cr (43–416ppm). The rocks are moderately enriched in light rare earth elements (LREE) relative to heavy rare earth elements (HREE) (average (La/Lu)n of 2.7) and the N-MORB normalized multi-element patterns show negative slopes, with prominent negative Nb anomalies ((Nb/La)NMORB=0.33–0.78). These variations are akin to island arc tholeiites generated in back-arc basins and to other metabasites described in the Eastern Pyrenees with a putative Ediacaran age, and they differ from the Ordovician tholeiitic metabasites from the Canigó massif, which derived from a contaminated E-MORB source. The positive ƐNd(T) values (0.82–3.05) of the studied metabasites preclude a notable contribution from an older continental crust. U-Pb dating (LA-ICP-MS) of one chlorite-rich schist sample in contact with the metabasites from the Canigó massif yielded a main peak at ca. 632Ma. We argue that the Cadomian metabasites from the Pyrenees formed during back-arc extension in the continental margin of Gondwana and were later affected by (probably early Variscan) medium-P metamorphism before the HT-LP metamorphism classically described in the Pyrenees.

Consideration of the aspect of adaptation, in particular morphological, is expedient with obligatory comparison of morphometric indicators in healthy and sick patients and between groups of patients with different degrees of severity of dermatosis. The aim of the study was to investigate the differences between longitudinal and transverse body sizes between healthy and/or patients with eczema men depending on the severity of the dermatosis. Patients with idiopathic (n=34) and microbial (n=38) eczema men of the first mature age underwent an anthropometric examination according to Bunak. The diagnosis of eczema was made according to the nomenclature of ICD-10. As a control from the data bank of the research center of National Pirogov Memorial Medical University, Vinnytsya anthropometric data of 82 practically healthy men of the same age group were selected. Statistical data processing was performed in the license package “Statistica 5.5” using non-parametric methods of evaluation of the obtained results. In healthy men, compared with patients, higher values were found for: the height of the pubic anthropometric point by 3.5-5.7% and the height of the acetabular anthropometric point by 4.9-7.5% compared with sick men with idiopathic mild and severe eczema and mild and severe microbial eczema and lower values for: height of the suprathoracic anthropometric point by 1.7-2.6% for idiopathic eczema of mild, severe course and microbial eczema of mild course; height of the acromial anthropometric point by 1.6-2.3% compared with men with idiopathic eczema of mild and severe course; height of the finger anthropometric point by 3.0-5.9% compared with men with idiopathic eczema of mild and severe course and microbial eczema of mild and severe course. In healthy men, compared with patients, higher values were found: mid-thoracic diameter – by 3.1-11.1%, 5.5-14.4%, transverse lower thoracic diameter – by 8.6-14.1% and anterior-posterior mid-thoracic diameter – by 10.2-16.6% and smaller values: width of shoulders by 15.3-21.1% compared with men with idiopathic eczema of mild and severe course and microbial eczema of mild and severe course. In healthy individuals, the width of the distal epiphysis of the forearm is greater by 3.14% compared with patients with idiopathic severe eczema and the width of the distal epiphysis of the crus by 3.1% compared with patients with microbial eczema of mild course; smaller - the width of the distal epiphysis of the shoulder by 3.0% compared with patients with idiopathic eczema of severe course and the width of the distal epiphysis of the thigh by 5.2-7.6% compared with patients with idiopathic eczema of mild and severe course and microbial eczema of mild course. In healthy individuals, the values of the size of the pelvis are lower: interspinous distance – by 8.3-11.6%, intercristal distance – by 8.7-12.5% and intertrochanteric distance – by 7.7-10.5% compared with sick men with idiopathic mild and severe eczema and microbial eczema of the mild and severe course. Differences in longitudinal body size in patients with different forms and severity of eczema. When comparing anthropometric indicators between sick men, the following were found: the height of pubic and acetabular anthropometric points in sick men with idiopathic eczema of mild course is higher by 1.8% and 1.7%, respectively, compared with sick men with microbial eczema of similar severity; shoulder width in patients with idiopathic eczema of mild course is 4.8% less than in patients with idiopathic eczema of severe course. Thus, men with eczema have a subpathological constitutional type, which is characterized by an elongated “cylindrical” torso, shortened lower extremities, as well as more massive distal and less massive proximal epiphyses of the upper and lower extremities.

Today, the home pregnancy test is the most frequently performed laboratory test for self-diagnosis (home diagnostic test). It is also the first laboratory test that has been adapted for self-use at home. This is probably because women have always wanted to know the answer to the question: “Am I pregnant or not?” and always preferred to know the answer to this question intimately and in a discreet way. The history of the pregnancy test is also an interesting example of how the discovery of antibodies and the development of in vitro diagnostic methods based on the antigen–antibody reaction were important for the development of laboratory and clinical diagnostics. Immunodiagnostic techniques (based on the antigen–antibody reaction) are currently the basis of modern specialist laboratory diagnostics, which is essential in clinical diagnosis. The history of the pregnancy test is an interesting one and dates back to ancient times. A pregnancy test is defined as a procedure intended to reveal the presence or absence of pregnancy. Nowadays, every pregnancy test is based on the detection of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in urine or blood. Human chorionic gonadotropin is secreted by the placenta right after a fertilized egg cell implants in the uterus and can be detected in both the urine and blood of pregnant women. Urine pregnancy tests are convenient for self-use at home. Blood tests are performed in medical laboratories. Specialized laboratory methods not only detect hCG but also determine the concentration of this hormone. However, both of these methods are highly accurate and common. Throughout the ages, many different methods were used to detect pregnancy at the earliest stage. Grain, wine, and various small animals were used as research tools. These were both long-term and often unreliable; most were based on folk beliefs and superstitions. Animal pregnancy tests were the first biological tests used in this field. This was a significant advance in the accurate detection of relatively early pregnancy. Animal tests in modern times are considered cruel and inhumane, no matter how reliable their results can be. Their place is now taken by much more specific, more sensitive, and definitely more ethical immunochemical tests. The pregnancy test and the methods to find out whether a woman is pregnant have gone through massive transformations, from bioassays using plants to bioassays on animals to advanced immunochemical techniques and biosensors. Modern pregnancy tests are not invasive and are very sensitive. Nowadays, it takes only about 3 min to know the answer to the question: “Am I pregnant or not?”. However, it was not always as simple as it is today. This manuscript aims to show the important role played by antibodies in the development of laboratory and clinical diagnostics in the example of the interesting history of the pregnancy test.

Summary The importance of pressure/volume/temperature (PVT) properties, such as the bubblepoint pressure, solution gas-oil ratio, and oil formation volume factor, makes their accurate determination necessary for reservoir performance calculations. An enormous amount of PVT data has been collected and correlated over many years for different types of hydrocarbon systems. Almost all of these correlations were developed with linear or nonlinear multiple regression or graphical techniques. Artificial neural networks, once successfully trained, offer an alternative way to obtain reliable results for the determination of crude oil PVT properties. In this study, we present neural-network-based models for the prediction of PVT properties of crude oils from the Middle East. The data on which the network was trained represent the largest data set ever collected to be used in developing PVT models for Middle East crude oils. The neural-network model is able to predict the bubblepoint pressure and the oil formation volume factor as a function of the solution gas-oil ratio, the gas specific gravity, the oil specific gravity, and the temperature. A detailed comparison between the results predicted by the neural-network models and those predicted by other correlations are presented for these Middle East crude-oil samples. Introduction In absence of experimentally measured pressure/volume/temperature (PVT) properties, two methods are widely used. These methods are equation of state (EOS) and PVT correlations. The equation of state is based on knowing the detailed compositions of the reservoir fluids. The determination of such quantities is expensive and time consuming. The equation of state involves numerous numerical computations. On the other hand, PVT correlations are based on easily measured field data: reservoir pressure, reservoir temperature, oil, and gas specific gravity. In the petroleum process industries, reliable experimental data are always to be preferred over data obtained from correlations. However, very often reliable experimental data are not available, and the advantage of a correlation is that it may be used to predict properties for which very little experimental information is available. The importance of accurate PVT data for material-balance calculations is well understood. It is crucial that all calculations in reservoir performance, in production operations and design, and in formation evaluation be as good as the PVT properties used in these calculations. The economics of the process also depends on the accuracy of such properties. The development of correlations for PVT calculations has been the subject of extensive research, resulting in a large volume of publications.1–10 Several graphical and mathematical correlations for determining the bubblepoint pressure (Pb) and the oil formation volume factor (Bob) have been proposed during the last five decades. These correlations are essentially based on the assumption that P b and Bob are strong functions of the solution gas-oil ratio (Rs) the reservoir temperature (T), the gas specific gravity (?g) and the oil specific gravity (?o) or P b = f 1 ( R s , T , γ g , γ o ) , ( 1 ) B o b = f 2 ( R s , T , γ g , γ o ) . ( 2 ) In 1947, Standing1 presented graphical correlations for the determination of bubblepoint pressure (Pb) and the oil formation volume factor (Bob) In developing these correlations, Standing used 105 experimentally measured data points from 22 different crude-oil and gas mixtures from California oil fields. Average relative errors of 4.8% and of 1.17% were reported for Pb and Bob respectively. Later, in 1958, Lasater9 developed an empirical equation based on Henry's law for estimating the bubblepoint pressure. He correlated the mole fraction of gas in solution to a bubblepoint pressure factor. A total of 137 crude-oil and gas mixtures from North and South America was used for developing this correlation. An average error of 3.8% was reported. Lasater did not present a correlation for Bob In 1980, two sets of correlations were reported, one by Vasquez and Beggs10 and the other by Glasø.7 Vasquez and Beggs used 600 data points from various locations all over the world to develop correlations for Pb and Bob. Two different types of correlations were presented, one for crudes with °API&gt;30 and the other for crudes with °API 30. An average error of 4.7% was reported for their correlation of Bob Glasø used a total of 45 oil samples from the North Sea to develop his correlations for calculating Pb and Bob. He reported an average error of 1.28% for the bubblepoint pressure and ?0.43% for the formation volume factor. Recently, Al-Marhoun4 used 160 experimentally determined data points from the PVT analysis of 69 Middle Eastern hydrocarbon mixtures to develop his correlations. Average errors of 0.03% and ?0.01% were reported for Pb and Bob respectively. Dokla and Osman6 used a total of 50 data points from reservoirs in the United Arab Emirates to develop correlations for Pb and Bob. They reported an average error of 0.45% for the bubblepoint pressure and 0.023% for the formation volume factor. The conventional approach to develop PVT correlations is based on multiple-regression techniques. An alternative approach will be to use an artificial neural network (ANN). PVT models based on a successfully trained ANN can be excellent, reliable tools for the prediction of crude-oil PVT properties. The massive interconnections in the ANN produces a large number of degrees of freedom, or fitting parameters, and thus may allow it to capture the system's nonlinearity better than conventional regression techniques. Recently, artificial neural networks have found use in a number of areas in petroleum engineering.11–20 The objective of this study is to use ANNs to develop accurate PVT correlations for Middle East crude oil to estimate Pb and Bob as functions of Rs, T, ?g, ?o. With additional experimental data, the neural-network model can be further refined to incorporate these new data. In addition, in this article we evaluate the accuracy of the ANN models developed in this study compared to other PVT correlations.

AbstractAbridged English version. – The Variscan Pyrenean belt (fig. 1) has been for long famous for its Late Carboniferous LP-HT metamorphism, characterised by the prograde succession, in medium grade metapelites, of biotite, cordierite, andalusite and sillimanite, together with staurolite and garnet [Guitard et al., 1996]. However, the discovery of two kyanite generations lead Azambre and Guitard [2001] to propose a polymetamorphic evolution, with an early (MI) and a late (MIII) kyanite-bearing Barrovian stage, preceding and following the main LP-HT stage (MII).Geological settingThe Variscan orogeny in the Pyrenees occurred from Namurian to Early Stephanian (c. 325-300 Ma), following the deposition of thick Ediacarian-Ordovician silico-clastites, Silurian to Early Caboniferous carbonates, and pre-orogenic Mid-Carboniferous flyschs.Two main tectonic events are recorded, each one subdivided into regionally correlated sub-events (phases) (table I), allowing a detailed correlation between tectonics, metamorphism and plutonism. The Namurian to Westphalian D1 event (c. 325-310 Ma) resulted in a S-vergent fold and thrust belt (with 100–150 km of N-S shortening) and the development of the main, sub-horizontal, Sr schistosity (D1c phase), coeval with MI. The Westphalian-Early Stephanian D2 event (310-300 Ma) was more complex. First, a syn-convergence extensional phase (N-vergent backfolds and E-W extension) resulted in the E-directed escape of the upper crust (D2a phase). Then, a renewal of the N-S shortening was marked by large upright anticlines (domes) and narrower synclines, with up to 10 km amplitudes (e.g., the Canigou anticline-Villefranche syncline pair) (D2b phase). Both D2a and D2b were coeval with MII and the emplacement of early granitoid sills and laccoliths (e.g., the Ansignan hypersthene-granite in the Agly Massif). Later on, D2 evolved into a transcurrent regime, with belt-parallel dextral transpression (D2c and D2c phases). D2c was coeval with the main stage of granite emplacement under low-grade conditions, allowing the expression of a conspicuous Mγ contact metamorphism (e.g., Mont-Louis pluton). D2d ended the D2 event, with the development of retrograde dextral-reverse mylonites. The late MIII metamorphic event encompassed D2c and D2d (and possibly D2b).The early MI Barrovian metamorphic eventThe MI Barrovian metamorphic event resulted from the crustal thickening associated with the development of the D1 intra-cratonic wedge. It was of low-grade, with a chlorite-muscovite Sr schistosity, in the part of the belt that was subsequently overprinted by the syn-MII transformation of chlorite into biotite. The only remnants of MI medium-grade conditions are found as early kyanite in the deepest domains of the Castillon, St-Barthélémy, Agly and Aston massifs, being there obliterated under high-grade MII conditions, and in the core of the Canigou anticline (Velmanya, point v in fig. 2), where a relict kyanite-staurolite-anorthite paragenesis is known, shielded by MII cordierite. The reconstructed P-T conditions at the thermal peak of MI are 5 kbar (19 km) and 575oC (fig. 2), implying the existence of a (now eroded) major D1 nappe (≥ 7 km thick).The main MII LP-HT metamorphic eventStructural domes and medium– or high-grade MII zones are broadly coincident, high-grade conditions being only encountered in the core of the Albères massif, the southern Aston Dome and the North-Pyrenean massifs (grading there up to the LP granulite facies) (fig. 1).Subdivisions of the MII eventThe prograde MII metamorphism is essentially syn-D2a, with clear syn-kinematic growth of the medium-grade minerals, and the main regional tectono-metamorphic D2a/MII structure is evidently deformed and strongly folded by the D2b phase: the D2b domes are basically post-metamorphic. However, a detailed examination of the blastesis-deformation relationships shows that staurolite is pre- to-synkinematic for D2a, whereas andalusite is strictly synkinematic (and consequently is often observed shielding the staurolite), cordierite being syn-to post-kinematic and syn-D2b in some instances. This allows a subdivision of the MII event into three stages:– MIIs, pre-to-syn-D2a, characterised by the staurolite-andalusite (And1 without cordierite) association, with development of a staurolite zone grading downwards into an andalusite (St → And1) zone. – MIIa, syn-to post-D2a (but always developed prior to D2b), characterised by the cordierite (Cord1)-andalusite (And2) association (without staurolite), with development of a thin cordierite zone grading downwards into an andalusite (Cord1 → And2) zone. – MIIb, post-D2a and syn-D2b, characterised by a large cordierite (Cord2) zone developed at the expense of an-dalusite (And → Cord2), only found in the core of the D2b anticlines (e.g., the Garonne dome).Thus, although MII is basically pre-D2b, and the MIIs and MIIa medium-grade isogrades are folded, it appears that metamorphism was still active in the cores of the ascending D2b domes (MIIb). Moreover, in the core of some domes, prograde sillimanite is also syn-kinematic of the D2b phase, and the sillimanite-muscovite isograde may obliquely overprint the MIIa isogrades, as in the Canigou dome. This is related to the syn-D2b emplacement of granite sheets (e.g., the Canigou granite) and may be interpreted as an aureola of “regional-contact” metamorphism, noted MIIγ, that was evidently coeval with MIIb, and enhanced its effects.P-T-t path of the MII eventThe P-T-t path of the MII event may be described using the petrogenetic grids of Pattison et al. [2002] and Pattison and Vogl [2005] (fig. 3). From MIIs to MIIb, it records a prograde anti-clockwise path, following a post-MI clockwise exhumation path, with ≥ 7 km eroded (fig. 2B). The MIIs pressure was close to 3 kbar (10–11 km) in the St zone and decreased to 2.5 kbar (9 km) at the MIIa stage (And2 isograde), for an estimated temperature of 540oC (based on the triple point of Holdaway [1971], the thermobarometer of Pattison et al. [2002] and independent fluid inclusion data by Kister et al. [2003]). A further pressure decrease, down to 2 kbar (7 km), and a temperature increase (up to 600oC) is registered in the MIIb cordierite zone in the core of active D2b domes. Except for the cores of the domes, MIIa remained the peak temperature event, and during MIIb pressure remained constant (or was re-increasing in the syncline cores) and temperature was constant or decreasing. At the end of the MII event (MIIb-MIIγ), extreme conditions of c. 4 kbar and 700–730oC are recorded in the deepest parts of the belt, where anatexis, succeeding to a sillimanite-K-feldspar zone, is observed, as in the Albères Massif and some North-Pyrenean Massifs.The MII metamorphism as a syn-tectonic plutono-metamorphic eventBased on the observation of the deep crust outcropping in the North Pyrenean massifs, Vielzeuf [in Guitard et al., 1996] concluded that emplacement of mafic melts in the Carboniferous lower crust was responsible for the MII metamorphism. At the beginning of the process, a regional thermal anomaly is superimposed to the middle crust (MIIs-MIIa), directly reflecting the emplacement of mafic sills in the underlying lower crust (fig. 4A). Heat is transferred conductively and, most likely, advected by the aqueous-carbonic fluids issued from the devolatilising lower crust (fluid inclusion data). Heat advection by melts characterised the end of the MII event, with development of more or less local thermal anomalies: still “regional” (MIIbγ) as in the Garonne dome, or directly liked to sheet-like granite intrusions (MIIγ) as at the bottom of the Mont-Louis pluton (fig. 4B) or at the contact of the Canigou granite (fig. 4C).The late MIII Barrovian metamorphic eventThe MIII event is mainly characterised in the eastern massifs (Albères, Cap de Creus), where a retrogressive kyanite (so-called “hysterogenic” kyanite) is overprinting high-grade assemblages. Although poorly expressed, MIII minerals in these massifs define two zones, with an external chloritoid zone and an internal kyanite-staurolite zone. A MIII chloritoid zone (sillimanite → chloritoid) is also observed in the core of the Canigou dome. Under the kyanite-staurolite equilibrium hypothesis, the peak MIII P-T conditions in the eastern massifs are estimated at 5 kbar and 575oC, that would imply a pressure increase of 1 to 1.5 kbar (4–6 km deepening) starting from the end of MII, associated with a severe temperature decrease of 150oC. Such an overpressure cannot be due to the D2d dextral-inverse mylonites. However, a fluid inclusion study [Kister et al., 2003] demonstrated that the rocks of the Villefranche syncline did register a pressure increase at the D2b stage, i.e., experienced effective downwards displacement during the syncline formation, and it may be estimated that, in the core of the syncline, a depth increase of 7–8 km could have been attained. Now, in the Cap de Creus massif, the highest MIII grade is observed in the core of the D2b Birba syncline, analogous to the Villefranche syncline. Thus, D2b deepening in the syncline cores may have contributed to the pressure increase. An additional increase may have been provided by sedimentary accumulation in an overlying (and now eroded) syn-orogenic basin (fig. 5). While such a process may explain the development of MIII associations in the D2b synclines, it remains to explain its appearance in the anticlines (Albères, Canigou). However, in the same fluid inclusion study referred to just above [Kister et al., 2003], it is demonstrated that, post-dating D2c and the late pluton emplacement, the studied area suffered a severe isobaric temperature drop, allowing the appearance of chloritoid in the Canigou core (fig. 5). A similar explanation may hold for the Albères massif, if it is accepted there that late kyanite and staurolite were not in equilibrium: starting from the peak MII conditions (c. 4 kbar and 650o–700oC), a strong isobaric cooling would have allowed the successive appearance of staurolite and kyanite.Discussion and conclusionTimingThe youngest pre-orogenic flyschs are dated (in the Axial Zone) from the Namurian-Westphalian boundary (315±5 Ma), thus setting a minimal age for D1-MI. On the other hand, in the northern Pyrenean Agly massif, the Ansignan hypersthene-granite, which is coeval with MII, is dated at around 315-305 Ma, and the associated norites, likely testifying for the mafic magmatism at the origin of the heat flux responsible for MII, are themselves dated at c. 315 Ma. Finally, the large syn-D2c (post-MII) granite plutons are all dated at 307±3 Ma (i.e., close to the Westphalian-Stephanian boundary). Taken together (with the possibility of a slight diachronism between the North Pyrenean massifs and the Axial Zone, and, within the Axial Zone, between east and west), these data indicate that the MI-MII transition and the whole D2a–c/MII development took place in a very restricted time interval (c. 10 Ma), in Westphalian to Stephanian times.Crustal rheology and orogenic developmentAt the end of the Namurian crustal subduction (D1-MI), the Pyrenean crust, that had been thickened with at least a doubling of the upper crust thickness, had begun to experience uplift and erosion. This exhumation process rapidly changed from retrograde to prograde (MIIs-MIIa) during the D2a (MII) syn-convergence extensional phase.The D2a sub-event was marked by the development of three interrelated processes: (i) isotherm upwelling, regional stratiform MII metamorphism and partial melting in the middle crust, as a result from the intrusion, in the lower crust, of mafic magmas of mantellic derivation; (ii) thinning of the thickened crust; (iii) first arrival of granite plutons in the middle crust. It is thought, according to Vielzeuf [inGuitard et al., 1996], that these processes were initiated by a lithospheric delamination process.At the end of D2a, the crustal rheology had been modified, with a partially melted middle crust that received granitic melts issued from the melting of the lower crust. This highly ductile middle crust was sandwiched between a thick (≥ 10 km) rigid upper crust and a less ductile granulitised hot lower crust (800o–900oC), thus allowing the progressive decoupling of the upper and lower crust from D2a to D2c. The buckling of the upper crust, with formation of the large upright D2b folds, became therefore possible, forcing the injection of deep anatectic melts in the anticline cores (a probable explanation of the MIIbγ thermal culmination), and creating, in the deepened syncline cores, the strong pressure increase that favoured MIII inception.However, the MII isogrades are frozen in their folded position, indicating that cooling of the belt had indeed begun since at least the end of the D2b phase. The cooling was sufficiently rapid to be expressed in the Axial Zone by a sub-isobaric temperature decrease, at the origin of the MIII Barrovian and retrograde event, coeval with the late D2c and D2d phases. In the North Pyrenean Massifs, where the D2d phase was extensive, the retrograde MIII event could not be expressed, due to both decompression and thermal effects of the extension.A summary of this complex evolution is given in figure 6. Finally, the interrelated D2 and MII events appear as the record, in the middle-upper crust, of a very short, but very intense heating event that strongly modified the rheologic behaviour of the crust inherited from the D1 crustal subduction and allowed a transitory decoupling of the upper and lower crust. The isobaric MIII event records an exceptionally rapid return to the “normal” thermal and rheologic structures of the crust.The rapidly changing tectonic and thermal conditions that characterise the Variscan Pyrenees during the D2 event may be understood if the position of the Pyrenees within the southern branch of the West European Variscan belt is considered (fig. 7).

At an academic conference, I chatted with the Dean of Admissions from a prestigious public university in the mid-West and was struck by a story he told me: A Chinese doctoral student walked into his office one day and blasted him for admitting so many undergraduates from China, saying that this devalued his own credentials, as the qualities of those Chinese undergraduates, in his opinion, were no comparison to his. The dean narrated this story half-jokingly, apparently feeling it was funny. However, he might not fully understand the roots of this student’s complaint. In a test-oriented Chinese education system, students are ranked by test scores, and by test scores only. In this student’s eyes, he had been able to score high on the competitive Gaokao, and then was selected by an equally, if not more, competitive screening to study at this famous U.S. university (Liu 2016). In his view, he had abilities superior to those who were not able to score high on the Gaokao but, instead, paid to study at the same university he had tried so hard to get into. This student’s statements may sound crude and cruel, but they are based on the perspective from his small world. However, the larger world is changing and getting flatter (Friedman 2005). In part, that means an increasing number of Chinese students have access to world-class universities. Despite the massive growth of higher education sector in China, only two Chinese universities are ranked among the top 100 best universities in the world, while 41 out of these top 100 are located in the United States (Times higher education 2018). With the increasing proportion of upper middle-class families in today’s China, more and more Chinese students do not have to rely on American scholarships to study at American institutions. The recent history of Chinese students’ dependency on full American scholarships to study abroad was merely a reflection of the economic deprivation and limited education opportunities of the country at that time. This gave rise to the mindset of academic elitism exhibited by this doctoral student, which sees prestigious universities as belonging to the few students who can outscore the masses. Perhaps, instead, he should feel happy for the younger generation of Chinese students who have the freedom to choose. This change, of Chinese international students’ academic and social backgrounds and their ensuing experiences abroad, has motivated my research over the past 7 years. My book (Ma 2020) Ambitious and Anxious has shown a diverse set of Chinese students in terms of both family backgrounds and education trajectories. Their capacity to pay for the overseas education has often obscured their socioeconomic diversity, the parental sacrifices and their own academic and social challenges and struggles. In other words, this freedom to choose and access a wider set of education options overseas is backed by economic resources that are vastly unequally distributed among Chinese students and their families. Perhaps this doctoral student is frustrated partly because American universities often admit Chinese undergraduates who have the resources to study here. This touches upon a thorny identity issue that American universities, particularly selective ones, have to grapple with. How can they avoid being considered bastions of privilege and wealth? Over the past few decades, American universities have made efforts to recruit students from humble backgrounds. However, these efforts have been almost exclusively limited to domestic students. For many institutions, the tuition dollars of international students are a key revenue source for funding financial aid for domestic students. This logic may help balance the books, but it runs the risk of challenging institutions’ meritocratic ideals. The increasing concentration of economic elites from foreign countries may not enter into the diversity metrics of campus administrators, but surely it tacitly reinforces the culture of privilege and wealth that our universities strive to break out of.

O presente artigo tem por objetivo compreender ‘O que pode a educação escolar em tempos de pandemia de COVID-19?’. Para tanto, a pesquisa teórico-empírica de caráter qualitativo (DENZIN; LINCOLN, 2006) foi esboçada por meio de um instrumento que é o formulário online, contendo um conjunto de quinze questões, contendo perguntas fechadas e abertas. Os achados da pesquisa foram explorados por meio de análise de conteúdo (BARDIN, 2004), tendo como inspiração teórico-epistemológica os escritos de Deleuze (1992; 2000), Guattari e Rolnik (1996), Rolnik (2018), Foucault (2000; 2008), Rouvroy e Berns (2010; 2015) e Corrêa (2006). Resultou da pesquisa a compreensão da pandemia como um acontecimento (DELEUZE, 1992, 2000), que emerge em meio a um cenário de governamentalidade algorítmica (ROUVROY; BERNS, 2010), o qual vincula-se a um agenciamento de subjetividade capitalística (ROLNIK, 2018). Emerge da pesquisa a compreensão de que a pandemia colocou em ênfase esse movimento de controle, individualização e comunicação (CORRÊA, 2006) que já vinha crescendo, como elementos de um contexto neoliberal, o qual, visto sob o prisma da educação escolar, vem produzindo ainda mais afetos, efeitos e sintomas sob as vidas e corpos das pessoas vinculadas de algum modo, às instituições de ensino. O quanto as estratégias de ensino empregadas em tempos de pandemia têm contribuído para um aumento massivo de sofrimento psíquico, em meio a um contexto de distanciamento social, já que boa parte delas utilizam premissas do ensino presencial.Palavras-chave: subjetividade capitalística; pandemia; educação escolar.ADVENTURES OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN BRAZILIAN SCHOOL EDUCATIONAbstractThe present article aims to understand 'What can school education do in times of the COVID-19 pandemic?' To this end, the theoretical-empirical research of qualitative nature (DENZIN; LINCOLN, 2006) was outlined by means of an instrument that is the online form, containing questions a set of fifteen questions, containing closed and open questions. The research findings were explored through content analysis (BARDIN, 2004), taking as theoretical-epistemological inspiration the writings of Deleuze (1992, 2000), Guattari and Rolnik (1996), Rolnik (2018), Foucault (2000, 2008), Rouvroy and Berns (2010, 2015), and Corrêa (2006). Resulting from the research, is the understanding of the pandemic as an event (DELEUZE, 1992, 2000), which emerges amidst a scenario of algorithmic governmentality (ROUVROY; BERNS, 2010), which links to an agency of capitalistic subjectivity (ROLNIK, 2018). It emerges from the research, the understanding that the pandemic has emphasized this movement of control, individualization, and communication (CORRÊA, 2006). That we had already been growing, as elements of a neoliberal context, which, seen from the perspective of school education, has been producing even more affections, effects, and symptoms on the lives and bodies of people, somehow linked to educational institutions. The teaching strategies employed in times of pandemic have contributed to a massive increase in psychological suffering, in the midst of a context of social distance, since most of them use premises of classroom teaching.Keywords: capitalistic subjectivity; pandemic; school education. CRUCES DE LA PANDEMIA COVID-19 EN LA EDUCACIÓN ESCOLAR BRASILEÑAResumenEste artículo pretende comprender ‘¿Qué puede hacer la educación escolar en tiempos de la pandemia COVID-19?’. Para eso, la investigación teórico-empírica de carácter cualitativo (DENZIN; LINCOLN, 2006) se bosquejó a través de un instrumento que es el formulario en línea, que contiene preguntas, un conjunto de quince preguntas, que contiene preguntas cerradas y abiertas. Los resultados de la investigación fueron explorados a través del análisis de contenido (BARDIN, 2004), teniendo como inspiración teórica y epistemológica los escritos de Deleuze (1992; 2000), Guattari y Rolnik (1996), Rolnik (2018), Foucault (2000; 2008), Rouvroy y Berns (2010; 2015) y Corrêa (2006). La investigación resultó en la comprensión de la pandemia como un evento (DELEUZE, 1992, 2000), que surge en medio de un escenario de gubernamentalidad algorítmica (ROUVROY; BERNS, 2010), que está vinculado a una agencia de subjetividad capitalista (ROLNIK, 2018). De la investigación surge el entendimiento de que la pandemia enfatizó este movimiento de control, individualización y comunicación (CORRÊA, 2006) que ya estaba creciendo, como elementos de un contexto neoliberal, que, visto desde la perspectiva de la educación escolar, ha ido produciendo aún más afectos, efectos y síntomas en la vida y el cuerpo de personas vinculadas de alguna forma a instituciones educativas. Cuánto las estrategias de enseñanza utilizadas en tiempos de pandemia han contribuido a un aumento masivo de la angustia psicológica, en medio de un contexto de distanciamiento social, ya que la mayoría de ellas utilizan premisas de la enseñanza en el aula.Palabras clave: subjetividad capitalista; pandemia; enseñanza.

Abstract The human and chimpanzee genomes are strikingly similar, but our neural phenotypes are very different. Many of these differences are likely driven by changes in gene expression, and some of those changes may have been adaptive during human evolution. Yet, the relative contributions of positive selection on regulatory regions or other functional regulatory changes is unclear. Where are these changes located throughout the human genome? Are functional regulatory changes near genes or are they in distal enhancer regions? In this study we experimentally combined both human and chimpanzee cis-regulatory elements (CREs) that showed either 1) signs of accelerated evolution in humans or 2) that have been shown to be active in the human brain. Using a massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA), we tested the ability of orthologous human and chimpanzee CREs to activate transcription in iPSC-derived neural progenitor cells and neurons. With this assay we identified 179 CREs with differential activity between human and chimpanzee; in contrast, we found 722 CREs with signs of positive selection in humans. Selection and differentially expressed (DE) CREs strikingly differ in level of expression, size, and genomic location. We found a subset of 69 CREs in loci with genetic variants associated with neuropsychiatric diseases, which underscores the consequence of regulatory activity in these loci for proper neural development and function. By combining CREs that either experienced recent selection in humans, or CREs that are functional brain enhancers, presents a novel way of studying the evolution of non-coding elements that contribute to human neural phenotypes.

Abstract Galaxy clusters accrete mass through large scale, strong, structure-formation shocks. Such a virial shock is thought to deposit fractions ξe and ξB of the thermal energy in cosmic-ray electrons (CREs) and magnetic fields, respectively, thus generating a leptonic virial ring. However, the expected synchrotron signal was not convincingly established until now. We stack low-frequency radio data from the OVRO-LWA around the 44 most massive, high latitude, extended MCXC clusters, enhancing the ring sensitivity by rescaling clusters to their characteristic, R500 radii. Both high (73 MHz) and co-added low (36–68MHz) frequency channels separately indicate a significant (4–5σ) excess peaked at (2.4–2.6)R500, coincident with a previously stacked Fermi γ-ray signal interpreted as inverse-Compton emission from virial-shock CREs. The stacked radio signal is well fit (TS-test: 4–6σ at high frequency, 4–8σ at low frequencies, and 8–10σ joint) by virial-shock synchrotron emission from the more massive clusters, with $\dot{m}\xi _e\xi _B\simeq (1\mbox{--}4)\times 10^{-4}$, where $\dot{m}\equiv \dot{M}/(MH)$ is the dimensionless accretion rate for a cluster of mass M and a Hubble constant H. The inferred CRE spectral index is flat, p ≃ 2.0 ± 0.2, consistent with acceleration in a strong shock. Assuming equipartition or using $\dot{m}\xi _e\sim 0.6~{{\%}}$ inferred from the Fermi signal yields $\xi _B\simeq (2\mbox{--}9)~{{\%}}$, corresponding to B ≃ (0.1–0.3) μG magnetic fields downstream of typical virial shocks. Preliminary evidence suggests non-spherical shocks, with factor 2–3 elongations.

Mexico stands out for its unique rites of symbolization of death. Being historically determined by the richness of its pre-Hispanic cultures, and with the fusion of catholic and Mesoamerican rites, Mexicans’ relationship with death is unique. Mourning rites are imbued with a circular worldview of life and death. Some of the basic psychoanalytic components of mourning are present in Mexican mourning rites: symbolic function, cathartic affects, identification, and socialization of signifiers. Nowadays, the massive deaths as a result of violence imposes the encryption of mourning as a perverse demand. The lack of response to the cries for help render useless the symbolic functions of mourning rites, which brings about a new way of socializing the loss, through massive social movements. We inquire, through a psychoanalytic reading of mourning and its socio-historical aspects in Mexico, and by emphasizing the traditions of mourning and its multiple symbolic values, the different ways Mexicans deal with death, in order shed some light into Mexicans’ symbolic responses and relationship with death while facing the perverse challenge of a violent regime.

This research focuses on how Native Americans experience various forms of physical and symbolic violence starting from the frontier era. This violence did not stop because during the heyday of cowboy films in Hollywood, the Natives always played the role of "Indians" who were very cruel and deadly to white Americans. Native Americans also faced symbolic violence when film studios saw them as objects that could be borrowed for shooting needs. Using a qualitative method, this research seeks to show that Indigenous American resistance is massive enough to put up a fight against these stereotypes so that white people in the American film industry lend their voices about discrimination and how Native American artists resisted by forming a union of Indigenous artists in America.

Abstract Although some variation introgressed from Neanderthals has undergone selective sweeps, little is known about its functional significance. We used a Massively Parallel Reporter Assay (MPRA) to assay 5,353 high-frequency introgressed variants for their ability to modulate the gene expression within 170 bp of endogenous sequence. We identified 2,548 variants in active putative cis-regulatory elements (CREs) and 292 expression-modulating variants (emVars). These emVars are predicted to alter the binding motifs of important immune transcription factors, are enriched for associations with neutrophil and white blood cell count, and are associated with the expression of genes that function in innate immune pathways including inflammatory response and antiviral defense. We combined the MPRA data with other data sets to identify strong candidates to be driver variants of positive selection including an emVar that may contribute to protection against severe COVID-19 response. We endogenously deleted two CREs containing expression-modulation variants linked to immune function, rs11624425 and rs80317430, identifying their primary genic targets as ELMSAN1, and PAN2 and STAT2, respectively, three genes differentially expressed during influenza infection. Overall, we present the first database of experimentally identified expression-modulating Neanderthal-introgressed alleles contributing to potential immune response in modern humans.

In this article, I show that the World Bank, along with other international financial institutions, is the primary architect of neoliberal policy of privatizing the formation of higher education and the migration of skilled labour from the Global South to the Global North. The Bank, through development gurus and theories orchestrating the pro-North development agenda, systematically manoeuvres the neoliberalization of higher education and migrant labour from the 1980s to the late 2000s with the promise of democracy, equity, justice and prosperity. Despite massive doses of The Bank-prescribed neoliberal development pills, the majority of the world’s population has yet to experience the promise. The Global South, through three selected countries that see the wisdom of wielding strong state roles in delivering social services, is able to partly parry the deadly sting of the 2008 global economic downturn. The South, immersed as it is in the North’s development agenda as shown in selected literature, has become a doppelganger of the North. In determining the South’s dynamic in service delivery, I turn to Habermas’ communicative rationality that likewise brings to bear similarly framed thoughts as the yardstick of the South’s critical voice against the North’s continuing espousal of neoliberal policy. It is this critical voice that further cultivates people’s micropolitics of beliefs, gender and language, and cries out “no” to The Bank-prescribed neoliberalized higher education and migrant labour – a prescription that leads to and simulates a “back-to-the-cave” circumstance.

Abstract Background Hiatal hernia is defined by the permanent or intermittent prolapse of any abdominal structure into the chest through the diaphragmatic esophageal hiatus. Prolapse of the stomach, intestine, transverse colon, and spleen is relatively common, but herniation of the pancreas is a rare condition. We describe a case of acute pancreatitis and bile duct dilatation secondary to a massive hiatal hernia of pancreatic body and tail. Case presentation An 86-year-old woman with hiatal hernia who complained of epigastric pain and vomiting was admitted to our hospital. Blood tests revealed a hyperamylasemia and abnormal liver function test. Computed tomography revealed prolapse of the massive hiatal hernia, containing the stomach and pancreatic body and tail, with peripancreatic fluid in the posterior mediastinal space as a sequel to pancreatitis. In addition, intrahepatic and extrahepatic bile ducts were seen to be dilated and deformed. After conservative treatment for pancreatitis, an elective operation was performed. There was a strong adhesion between the hernial sac and the right diaphragmatic crus. After the stomach and pancreas were pulled into the abdominal cavity, the hiatal orifice was closed by silk thread sutures (primary repair), and the mesh was fixed in front of the hernial orifice. Toupet fundoplication and intraoperative endoscopy were performed. The patient had an uneventful postoperative course post-procedure. Conclusion A rare massive hiatal hernia, involving the stomach and pancreatic body and tail, can cause acute pancreatitis with bile duct dilatation. The etiology can be flexure of the main pancreatic and extrahepatic bile ducts. Symptomatic herniation is best treated with surgery. Elective surgery is thought to be safer than emergent surgery in patients with serious complications.

Dozens of variants in the gene for the homeodomain transcription factor (TF) cone-rod homeobox (CRX) are linked with human blinding diseases that vary in their severity and age of onset. How different variants in this single TF alter its function in ways that lead to a range of phenotypes is unclear. We characterized the effects of human disease-causing variants onCRXcis-regulatory function by deploying massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs) in mouse retina explants carrying knock-ins of two variants, one in the DNA-binding domain (p.R90W) and the other in the transcriptional effector domain (p.E168d2). The degree of reporter gene dysregulation in these mutantCrxretinas corresponds with their phenotypic severity. The two variants affect similar sets of enhancers, while p.E168d2 has distinct effects on silencers.Cis-regulatory elements (CREs) near cone photoreceptor genes are enriched for silencers that are derepressed in the presence of p.E168d2. Chromatin environments of CRX-bound loci were partially predictive of episomal MPRA activity, and distal elements whose accessibility increases later in retinal development were enriched for CREs with silencer activity. We identified a set of potentially pleiotropic regulatory elements that convert from silencers to enhancers in retinas that lack a functional CRX effector domain. Our findings show that phenotypically distinct variants in different domains of CRX have partially overlapping effects on itscis-regulatory function, leading to misregulation of similar sets of enhancers, while having a qualitatively different impact on silencers.

Throughout history, the controversial Empress Dowager Cixi has been portrayed as a cruel and ineffective leader, despite contradicting evidences. This study assesses the narratives that vilified her via library and historical research methods, and analysed using critical discourse analysis. The Qing’s social system became an instrument of prejudice and discrimination which fostered a gender-biased mindset and disparity that was used against Qing women like Cixi. This scenario paved the way for prejudiced and fabricated narratives about Cixi written by scholars and foes, and were accepted and cited in the vast majority of subsequent English historical and scholarly works, which are still regarded as accurate today. The study discovers that Cixi’s contribution can be traced through China’s political, development, and social sectors, such as in the empowerment of Qing women. This article examines Cixi under the theme of gender, and accentuated how gender has become a crucial key in creating a massive impact on her life and how Qing’s societal system itself becomes a tool of suppression, bias and discrimination towards Qing women, specifically Cixi. This article bridges a major research gap in gender and political studies by filling in the studies on historical women’s leadership. Cixi broke down gender barriers to reform China, and she should be honoured for her contributions to society.

Dans l’espace du Gandiol, les activités économiques traditionnelles étaient la pêche et l’agriculture avec lesquelles la population a une longue tradition. En 2003, les fortes pluies enregistrées dans le Haut bassin du fleuve Sénégal expliquent l’augmentation massive du débit du fleuve consécutivement à l’addition des ondes de crue. Pour empêcher des inondations dans la ville de Saint-Louis, une brèche a été ouverte. Cependant, cette brèche a eu des effets négatifs sur l’agriculture et beaucoup d’espèces de poissons. Elle a, aussi, entrainé des modifications écologiques se manifestant par l’apparition de certaines espèces aquatiques : Anadara Senilis, Carasostrea Gasar. Dès lors, l’étude de l’exploitation de l’espèce Anadara senilis dans le parc national de la langue de Barbarie (commune de Ndiebène Gandiol) fait l’objet de cette contribution. La méthodologie adoptée intègre les enquêtes de terrain sous forme de questionnaires et de guides d’entretien et le traitement des données quantitatives et qualitatives. Les résultats montrent que la collecte des coquillages est progressivement devenue la principale activité des femmes. Cette activité est pratiquée dans un but essentiellement lucratif et a eu des impacts considérables tant au niveau socioéconomique qu’environnemental. C’est pourquoi, l’encadrement des exploitants est souhaitable pour une gestion durable de cette ressource renouvelable.

ABSTRACT Background: Erosion and migration into the esophagogastric lumen after laparoscopic hiatal hernia repair with mesh placement has been published. Aim: To present surgical maneuvers that seek to diminish the risk of this complication. Method: We suggest mobilizing the hernia sac from the mediastinum and taking it down to the abdominal position with its blood supply intact in order to rotate it behind and around the abdominal esophagus. The purpose is to cover the on-lay mesh placed in “U” fashion to reinforce the crus suture. Results: We have performed laparoscopic hiatal hernia repair in 173 patients (total group). Early postoperative complications were observed in 35 patients (27.1%) and one patient died (0.7%) due to a massive lung thromboembolism. One hundred twenty-nine patients were followed-up for a mean of 41+28months. Mesh placement was performed in 79 of these patients. The remnant sac was rotated behind the esophagus in order to cover the mesh surface. In this group, late complications were observed in five patients (2.9%). We have not observed mesh erosion or migration to the esophagogastric lumen. Conclusion: The proposed technique should be useful for preventing erosion and migration into the esophagus.

Abstract The boundary in the Iberian Pyrite Belt is a world-class metallogenic district developed at the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary the Iberian Variscides that currently has seven active mines: Neves Corvo (Cu-Zn-Sn) and Aljustrel (Cu-Zn) in Portugal, and Riotinto (Cu), Las Cruces (Cu), Aguas Teñidas (Cu-Zn-Pb), Sotiel-Coronada (Cu-Zn-Pb), and La Magdalena (Cu-Zn-Pb) in Spain. The Iberian Pyrite Belt massive sulfide ores are usually hosted in the lower sections of the volcano-sedimentary complex (late Famennian to late Visean), but they also occur in the uppermost levels of the phyllite-quartzite group at the Neves Corvo deposit, stratigraphically below the volcano-sedimentary complex. A Pb-Nd-Sr isotope dataset was obtained for 98 Iberian Pyrite Belt metapelite samples (from Givetian to upper Visean), representing several phyllite-quartzite group and volcano-sedimentary complex sections that include the footwall and hanging-wall domains of ore horizons at the Neves Corvo, Aljustrel, and Lousal mines. The combination of whole-rock Nd and Sr isotopes with Th/Sc ratios shows that the siliciclastic components of Iberian Pyrite Belt metapelites are derived from older quartz-feldspathic basement rocks (–11 ≤ εNdinitial(i) ≤ –8 and (87Sr/86Sr)i up to 0.727). The younger volcano-sedimentary complex metapelites (upper Tournaisian) often comprise volcanic-derived constituents with a juvenile isotopic signature, shifting the εNdi up to +0.2. The Pb isotope data confirm that the phyllite-quartzite group and volcano-sedimentary complex successions are crustal reservoirs for metals found in the deposits. In Neves Corvo, where there is more significant Sn- and Cu-rich mineralization, the higher (206Pb/204Pb)i and (207Pb/204Pb)i values displayed by phyllite-quartzite group and lower volcano-sedimentary complex metapelites (up to 15.66 and 18.33, respectively) suggest additional contributions to the metal budget from a deeper and more radiogenic source. The proximity to Iberian Pyrite Belt massive sulfide ore systems hosted in metapelite successions is observed when (207Pb/204Pb)i &gt;15.60 and Fe2O3/TiO2 or (Cu+Zn+Pb)/Sc &gt;10. These are important criteria that should be considered in geochemical exploration surveys designed for the Iberian Pyrite Belt.

Abstract Cis-regulatory elements (CREs) can be classified by the shapes of their transcription start site (TSS) profiles, which are indicative of distinct regulatory mechanisms. Massively parallel reporter assays (MPRAs) are increasingly being used to study CRE regulatory mechanisms, yet the degree to which MPRAs replicate individual endogenous TSS profiles has not been determined. Here, we present a new low-input MPRA protocol (TSS-MPRA) that enables measuring TSS profiles of episomal reporters as well as after lentiviral reporter chromatinization. To sensitively compare MPRA and endogenous TSS profiles, we developed a novel dissimilarity scoring algorithm (WIP score) that outperforms the frequently used earth mover's distance on experimental data. Using TSS-MPRA and WIP scoring on 500 unique reporter inserts, we found that short (153 bp) MPRA promoter inserts replicate the endogenous TSS patterns of ∼60% of promoters. Lentiviral reporter chromatinization did not improve fidelity of TSS-MPRA initiation patterns, and increasing insert size frequently led to activation of extraneous TSS in the MPRA that are not active in vivo. We discuss the implications of our findings, which highlight important caveats when using MPRAs to study transcription mechanisms. Finally, we illustrate how TSS-MPRA and WIP scoring can provide novel insights into the impact of transcription factor motif mutations and genetic variants on TSS patterns and transcription levels.

The business of basketball can be cruel at times. Teams often trade players against the players’ wishes, using them like chess pieces to help the team, not the player, reach its goal. However, in recent years, the NBA has become a “players’ league” as the balance of power in contract negotiations has shifted from teams to players. More than ever before, players are dictating the terms of their contracts because team owners understand that the public pays top dollar to watch the best players perform, many of whom are considered cultural icons with massive marketability. However, this change in bargaining power has also created incentives for players to participate in opportunistic and strategic behavior. With limited earning-power years and a rare, sought-after skillset, players have increasingly engaged in contractual holdouts with the goal of either being traded to a new team or renegotiating their existing contracts for more money. This Note offers a short- and long-term legal framework to deal with the holdout scenario where players refuse to play pursuant to their original agreements until their contractual demands are accepted. Part I examines the key components of the NBA’s structural framework, including the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Salary Cap, the Uniform Player Contract, Compensation, and Free Agency. Part II defines the player holdout problem, explains the significance of the problem for the NBA and its teams, and clarifies why traditional remedies set by the courts are inadequate to deal with this concern. Part III presents the optimal short-term legal solutions available to teams to address the holdout problem, namely self-help specific performance and liquidated damages, and certain limitations and challenges in enforcing these solutions. Finally, Part IV introduces a long-term, league-wide strategy to prevent holdouts in the future: Player Escrow Accounts.

Brain size and cortical folding have increased and decreased recurrently during mammalian evolution. Identifying genetic elements whose sequence or functional properties co-evolve with these traits can provide unique information on evolutionary and developmental mechanisms. A good candidate for such a comparative approach is TRNP1, as it controls proliferation of neural progenitors in mice and ferrets. Here, we investigate the contribution of both regulatory and coding sequences of TRNP1 to brain size and cortical folding in over 30 mammals. We find that the rate of TRNP1 protein evolution (ω) significantly correlates with brain size, slightly less with cortical folding and much less with body size. This brain correlation is stronger than for >95% of random control proteins. This co-evolution is likely affecting TRNP1 activity, as we find that TRNP1 from species with larger brains and more cortical folding induce higher proliferation rates in neural stem cells. Furthermore, we compare the activity of putative cis-regulatory elements (CREs) of TRNP1 in a massively parallel reporter assay and identify one CRE that likely co-evolves with cortical folding in Old World monkeys and apes. Our analyses indicate that coding and regulatory changes that increased TRNP1 activity were positively selected either as a cause or a consequence of increases in brain size and cortical folding. They also provide an example how phylogenetic approaches can inform biological mechanisms, especially when combined with molecular phenotypes across several species.

Même si la guerre, comme destruction de masse, a été très tôt au centre des intérêts de la discipline, l’anthropologie ne l’a jamais caractérisée comme une « violence extrême ». Ce qui pose d’emblée la question en termes autres que quantitatifs. L’extrême dans la violence n’est pas forcément dans l’importance du nombre de ses victimes. Il faut y ajouter d’autres dimensions comme l’inanité de l’acte, sa gratuité, son degré de cruauté et le non-respect des règles et normes partagées. Celles de la guerre, par exemple, imposent de ne s’attaquer qu’à l’ennemi armé et d’épargner les civils, de soigner le blessé etc. La violence extrême passe outre toutes ces normes et règles ; et s’exerce avec une cruauté démesurée. La première guerre mondiale constitue aux yeux des défenseurs de cette thèse, le moment inaugural dans le franchissement d’un tel seuil. Car, c’est dans cette guerre que fut utilisé pour la première fois le bombardement aérien, lié à l’ère industrielle, exterminant de nombreuses populations civiles non armées. Associée aux affrontements et insurrections débordant les cadres étatiques, l’expression peut désormais inclure également des faits commis dans le cadre des guerres conduites par des États. La violence extrême est une agression physique et une transgression outrancière d’une éthique partagée. Qu’elle s’exerce lors d’une guerre ou dans le cadre d’une institution (violence institutionnelle) elle est une violence extrême dès lors qu’elle use de moyens estimés inappropriés selon les codes communs et les sensibilités partagées. Les manières et les moyens d’agir doivent être proportionnels à l’objectif visé ; et toute outrance délégitime l’acte de violence, quand bien même celui-ci relèverait de « la violence légitime » monopole de l’Etat. Le qualificatif extrême vient donc spécifier un type de violence qui atteint ce point invisible ou imprévisible, en bafouant l’ordre éthique et conventionnel. Aller à l’extrême c’est aller au-delà du connu et de l’imaginable. La violence extrême est celle donc qui dépasse une limite se situant elle même au-delà des limites connues ou considérées comme impossibles à franchir. Elle renvoie à ce qui dépasse l’entendement par son ampleur ou par sa « gratuité » ; car, ce sont ses finalités qui rationalisent la guerre et toute autre forme de violence. Dépourvue de toute fonctionnalité, la violence extrême n’a d’autres buts qu’elle-même (Wolfgang Sofsky (1993). En d’autres termes, la violence extrême est ce qui oblitère le sens en rendant vaines (ou du moins imperceptibles) les logiques d’un acte jusque-là appréhendé en termes d’utilité, de fonctionnalité et d’efficacité. La violence est extrême quand elle parait démesurée par le nombre de ses victimes (génocide, nettoyage ethnique, meurtres et assassinat de masse) ; mais elle l’est d’autant plus, et le plus souvent, quand elle est accompagnée d’un traitement cruel, froid et gratuit : dépeçage, brûlure, énucléation, viols et mutilations sexuelles. Outrepassant l’habituel et l’admissible, par la démesure du nombre de ses victimes et le degré de cruauté dans l’exécution de l’acte, la violence extrême se situe dans un « au-delà », dont le seuil est une ligne mouvante et difficilement repérable. Son « objectivation » dépend à la fois du bourreau, de la victime et du témoin ; tous façonnés par des constructions culturelles informées par les contextes historiques et produisant des sensibilités et des « esthétiques de réception » subjectives et changeantes. La violence extrême est, nécessairement, d’abord une question de sensibilité. Or, celle-ci est non seulement une subjectivation mais aussi une construction historiquement déterminée. Pendant longtemps et jusqu’au siècle des lumières, le châtiment corporel fut, pour la justice, la norme dans toute l’Europe. Les organes fautifs des coupables sont maltraités publiquement. On exhibait les femmes adultères nues et on leur coupait les seins ; on coupait les langues des blasphémateurs et les mains des voleurs. Le bûcher était réservé aux sodomites, aux hérétiques et aux sorcières. On crevait les yeux (avec un tisonnier incandescent) du traître. Les voleurs de grands chemins subissaient le châtiment d’être rompus vifs. On écartelait et on démembrait le régicide. La foule se dépêchait pour assister à ces spectacles et à ceux des supplices de la roue, des pendaisons, de la décollation par le sabre etc. Placidement et consciencieusement, les bourreaux ont appliqué la « terreur du supplice » jusqu’au milieu du XVIIIe siècle (Meyran, 2006). Il a fallu attendre les lumières pour remplacer le corps violenté par le corps incarcéré. Aujourd’hui insupportables, aux yeux du citoyen occidental, certains de ces châtiments corporels administrés avec une violence extrême sont encore en usage dans d’autres sociétés. Après les massacres collectifs qui ont marqué la fin du XXe siècle, les travaux de Véronique Nahoum-Grappe portant sur le conflit de l’ex-Yougoslavie vont contribuer à relancer le débat sur la notion de « violence extrême » comme elle le rappellera plus tard : « Nous avions utilisé la notion de « violence extrême » à propos de la guerre en ex-Yougoslavie pour désigner « toutes les pratiques de cruauté « exagérée » exercées à l’encontre de civils et non de l’armée « ennemie », qui semblaient dépasser le simple but de vouloir s’emparer d’un territoire et d’un pouvoir. » (Nahoum-Grappe. 2002). Elle expliquera plus loin qu’après dix années de ces premières observations, ce qu’elle tentait de désigner, relève, en fait, d’une catégorie de crimes, graves, usant de cruauté dans l’application d’un programme de « purification ethnique ». Pourtant, quel que soit le critère invoqué, le phénomène n’est pas nouveau et loin d’être historiquement inédit. Si l’on reprend l’argument du nombre et de la gratuité de l’acte, le massacre n’est pas une invention du XXe s ; et ne dépend pas de la technologie contemporaine. On peut remonter assez loin et constater que dans ce domaine, l’homme a fait feu de tout bois, comme le montre El Kenz David dans ses travaux sur les guerres de religion (El Kenz 2010 & 2011). Parce que les sensibilités de l’époque admettaient ou toléraient certaines exactions, aux yeux des contemporains celles-ci ne relevaient pas de la violence extrême. Quant aux cruautés et autres exactions perpétrés à l’encontre des populations civiles, bien avant Auschwitz et l’ex-Yougoslavie, l’humanité en a souffert d’autres. Grâce aux travaux des historiens, certaines sont désormais relativement bien connues comme les atrocités commises lors des colonnes infernales dans la guerre de Vendée ou le massacre de May Lai dans la guerre du Vietnam. D’autres demeurent encore méconnues et insuffisamment étudiées. Les exactions menées lors des guerres coloniales et de conquêtes sont loin d’être toutes recensées. La mise à mort, en juin 1845, par « enfumade » de la tribu des Ouled Riah, dans le massif du Dahra en Algérie par le futur général Pélissier sont un exemple qui commence à peine à être porté à la connaissance en France comme en Algérie (Le Cour Grandmaison, 2005.). Qu’elle soit ethnique ou sociale, qu’elle soit qualifiée de purification ethnique ou d’entreprise génocidaire, cette extermination qui passe par des massacres de masse ne peut être qualifiée autrement que par violence extrême. Qu’elle s’exerce sur un individu ou contre un groupe, la violence extrême se caractérise presque toujours par un traitement cruel, le plus souvent pensé et administré avec une égale froideur ; une sorte d’« esthétisation de la cruauté ». Pour le dire avec les mots de Pierre Mannoni, la violence extrême use d’un certain « maniérisme de l'horreur », ou de ce qu’il appelle « une tératologie symbolique » (Mannoni ,2004, p. 82-83), c‘est à dire l’art de mettre en scène les monstruosités. Motivée par un danger ou une menace extrême justifiant, aux yeux du bourreau, une réponse extrême, cette violence extrême a pu s’exécuter par la machette (Rwanda) ou dans des chambres à gaz, comme par d’autres moyens et armes de destruction massive. C'est l'intégrité du corps social et sa pureté que le bourreau « croit » défendre en recourant à une exérèse… salvatrice. La cruauté fait partie de l’arsenal du combattant qui s’ingénie à inventer le scénario le plus cruel en profanant l’intime et le tabou. Françoise Sironi le montre à propos d’une des expressions de la violence extrême. L’efficacité destructrice de la torture est obtenue entre autres par la transgression de tabous culturels ; et par l’inversion qui rend perméable toutes les limites entre les dedans et les dehors. Réinjecter dans le corps ce qui est censé être expulsé (excréments, urine, vomissures) ; féminiser et exposer les parties intimes ou les pénétrer en dehors de la sphère intime, associer des parties démembrées d’un corps humain à celles d’un animal, sont autant de manières de faire violence extrême. Cette inversion transgressive use du corps de la victime pour terroriser le témoin et le survivant. Outrepassant l’habituel et l’attendu par la manière (égorgement, démembrement, énucléation, émasculation etc.,), les moyens (usage d’armes de destruction massive, d’armes nucléaires bactériologiques ou chimiques) et une certaine rationalité, la « violence extrême » est un dépassement d’horizon. L’acte par sa singularité suggère une sortie de l’humanité de son auteur désensibilisé, déshumanisé ; qui, par son forfait et dans le même mouvement, exclue sa victime de l’humanité. Pour Jacques Semelin, la violence extrême « est l’expression prototypique de la négation de toute humanité ; dans la mesure où ses victimes sont le plus souvent d’abord « animalisées » ou « chosifiées » avant d’être anéanties (Sémelin, 2002). Ajoutons qu’elle n’est pas qu’anéantissement, elle est aussi une affirmation démonstrative d’une surpuissance. Que ce soit par le nombre, la manière ou l’arbitraire, la violence extrême a ponctué l’histoire de l’humanité et continue à la hanter Parmi ses formes contemporaines, le terrorisme est une de ses manifestations les plus spectaculaires ; permettant de comprendre qu’elle est d’abord une théâtralisation. L’image de chaos que renvoient les attentats et autres exactions spectaculaires, est le résultat dument recherché à l’aide d’une organisation minutieuse et de stratégies affinées que cette image chaotique occulte souvent. Il s’agit d’une démarche rationnelle tendant à produire un acte apparemment irrationnel. Les massacres collectifs qui font partie de ce que Stéphane Leman-Langlois qualifie de « mégacrimes » (Leman-Langlois, 2006) constituent une autre forme contemporaine de cette violence extrême ; dont la Bosnie-Herzégovine et le Rwanda demeurent les exemples les plus dramatiques depuis la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. En raison de leur ampleur et l’organisation méthodique de leur exécution, ces massacres ont été, à juste titre, souvent qualifié de génocide. C’est le professeur de droit américain d’origine polonaise, Raphael Lemkin qui donnera le nom de génocide à ce que, Winston Churchill, parlant du nazisme, qualifiait de « crime sans nom ». Au terme génocide devenu polémique et idéologique, sera préféré la notion de massacre que Semelin définit comme « forme d’action le plus souvent collective de destruction des non combattants » (Sémelin 2012, p. 21). Dans les faits, il s’agit de la même réalité ; sans être des entreprises génocidaires, ces massacres de masse ont visé l’« extermination » de groupes humains en vue de s’emparer de leur territoire au sens le plus large. La violence extrême agit à la fois sur l'émotionnel et sur l'imaginaire ; en franchissant le seuil du tolérable et de la sensibilité ordinairement admise dans le cadre de représentations sociales. Le caractère extrême de la violence se définit en fonction d’un imaginaire partagé ; qu’elle heurte en allant au-delà de ce qu'il peut concevoir ; et des limites de ce qu'il peut « souffrir ». Il s’agit d’une violence qui franchit le seuil du concevable et ouvre vers un horizon encore difficilement imaginable et donc insupportable parce que non maîtrisable. Qu’est-ce qui motive ce recours à l’extrême ? Nombre d’historiens se sont demandé si les logiques politiques suffisaient à les expliquer. Ne faudrait-il pas les inférer aux dimensions psychologiques ? Plusieurs approches mettent, quelquefois, en rapport violence extrême et ressorts émotionnels (peur, colère et haine et jouissance..). D’autres fois, ce sont les pulsions psychiques qui sont invoquées. Incapables d’expliquer de telles conduites par les logiques sociales ou politiques, ce sont les dimensions psychologiques qui finissent par être mises en avant. L’acte, par son caractère extrême serait à la recherche du plaisir et de la jouissance dans l’excès, devenant ainsi une fin en soi. Il peut également être une manière de tenter de compenser des manques en recherchant du sens dans le non-sens. Cela a pu être expliqué aussi comme une manière de demeurer du côté des hommes en animalisant ou en chosifiant la victime, en la faisant autre. L’auteur de la violence extrême procède à une négation de sa victime pour se (re) construire lui-même. Pure jouissance (Wolfgang Sofsky) délire (Yvon Le Bot, J Semelin) ou conduite fonctionnelle de reconstruction de soi (Primo Levi), sont les trois approches avancées pour expliquer la cruauté comme acte inadmissible et inconcevable (Wierworka, 2004 : p 268). Or, la violence extrême prend la forme d’une cruauté quand ses protagonistes redoublent d’ingéniosité pour inventer le scénario inédit le plus cruel. Car la violence extrême est d’abord un indéchiffrable insupportable qui se trouve par commodité rangé du côté de l’exceptionnalité. Parce qu’inintelligible, elle est inacceptable, elle est extra… ordinaire. Ses auteurs sont des barbares, des bêtes, des monstres ; autrement dit ; des inhumains parce qu’ils accomplissent ce que l’humain est incapable de concevoir. Dans quelle mesure, de telles approches ne sont-elles pas une manière de rassurer la société des humains qui exclue ces « monstres » exceptionnels seuls capables d’actes … inhumains ? Parce qu’inexplicables, ces violences sont quelquefois rangées dans le registre de la folie ; et qualifiées de « barbares » ou de « monstrueuses » ; des qualificatifs qui déshumanisent leurs auteurs et signalent l’impuissance du témoin à comprendre et à agir. En d’autres termes, tant que la violence relève de l’explicable (réciprocité, échange, mimétisme etc.), elle demeure humaine ; et devient extrême quand elle échappe à l‘entendement. Indicible parce qu’injustifiable, la violence extrême est inhumaine. Cependant, aussi inhumaine soit-elle d’un point de vue éthique, la violence extrême demeure du point de vue anthropologique, un acte terriblement humain ; et que l’homme accomplit toujours à partir de déterminants et selon un raisonnement humains. Comme le dit Semelin : « Les deux faces de la violence extrême, sa rationalité et sa démence, ne peuvent se penser l’une sans l’autre. Et rien ne sert de dénoncer la sauvagerie des tueurs en omettant de s’interroger sur leurs buts » (Semelin, 2000). L’auteur de l’acte de violence extrême s’érige en homme-dieu pour dénier toute humanité à la victime qu’il décide d’exclure de la vie, de la déshumaniser en l’expulsant vers l’infra humain.

The pop cultural moment that most typifies the social psychology of invasion for many of us is Orson Welles's 1938 coast to coast CBS radio broadcast of Invaders from Mars, a narration based on H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds. News bulletins and scene broadcasts followed Welles's introduction, featuring, in contemporary journalistic style, reports of a "meteor" landing near Princeton, N.J., which "killed" 1500 people, and the discovery that it was in fact a "metal cylinder" containing strange creatures from Mars armed with "death rays" which would reduce all the inhabitants of the earth to space dust. Welles's broadcast caused thousands to believe that Martians were wreaking widespread havoc in New York and Jersey. New York streets were filled with families rushing to open spaces protecting their faces from the "gas raids", clutching sacred possessions and each other. Lines of communication were clogged, massive traffic jams ensued, and people evacuated their homes in a state of abject terror while armouries in neighbouring districts prepared to join in the "battle". Some felt it was a very cruel prank, especially after the recent war scare in Europe that featured constant interruption of regular radio programming. Many of the thousands of questions directed at police in the hours following the broadcast reflected the concerns of the residents of London and Paris during the tense days before the Munich agreement. The media had undergone that strange metamorphosis that occurs when people depend on it for information that affects themselves directly. But it was not a prank. Three separate announcements made during the broadcast stressed its fictional nature. The introduction to the program stated "the Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air in The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells", as did the newspaper listing of the program "Today: 8:00-9:00 -- Play: H.G. Wells's 'War of the Worlds' -- WABC". Welles, rather innocently, wanted to play with the conventions of broadcasting and grant his audience a bit of legitimately unsettling, though obviously fictitious, verisimilitude. There are not too many instances in modern history where we can look objectively at such incredible reactions to media soundbytes. That evening is a prototype for the impact media culture can have on an audience whose minds are prepped for impending disaster. The interruption of scheduled radio invoked in the audience a knee-jerk response that dramatically illustrated the susceptibility of people to the discourse of invasion, as well as the depth of the relationship between the audience and media during tense times. These days, the media itself are often regarded as the invaders. The endless procession of information that grows alongside technology's ability to present it is feared as much as it is loved. In the current climate of information and technological overload, invasion has swum from the depths of our unconscious paranoia and lurks impatiently in the shallows. There is so much invasion and so much to feel invaded about: the war in Kosovo (one of over sixty being fought today) is getting worse with the benevolence and force of the UN dwindling in a cloud of bureaucracy and failed talks, Ethiopia and Eritrea are going at it again, the ideology of the Olympic Games in Sydney has gone from a positive celebration of the millennium to a revenue-generating boys club of back scratchers, Internet smut is still everywhere, and most horrifically, Baywatch came dangerously close to being shot on location on the East Coast of Australia. In this issue of M/C we take a look at literal and allegorical invasions from a variety of cleverly examined aspects of our culture. Firstly, Axel Bruns takes a look a subtle invasion that is occurring on the Web in "Invading the Ivory Tower: Hypertext and the New Dilettante Scholars". He points to the way the Internet's function as a research tool is changing the nature of academic writing due to its interactivity and potential to be manipulated in a way that conventional written material cannot. Axel investigates the web browser's ability to invade the text and the elite world of academic publishing via the format of hypertext itself rather than merely through ideas. Felicity Meakins's article Shooting Baywatch: Resisting Cultural Invasion examines media and community reactions to the threat of having the television series Baywatch shot on Australian beaches. Felicity looks at the cultural cringe that has surrounded the relationship between Australia and America over the years and is manifested by our response to American accents in the media. American cultural imperialism has come to signify a great deal in the dwindling face of Aussie institutions like mateship and egalitarianism. In a similarly driven piece called "A Decolonising Doctor? British SF Invasion Narratives", Nick Caldwell investigates some of the implications of the "Britishness" of the cult television series Doctor Who, where insularity and cultural authority are taken to extremes during the ubiquitous intergalactic invasions. Paul Mc Cormack's article "Screen II: The Invasion of the Attention Snatchers" turns from technologically superior invaders to an invasion by technology itself -- he considers how the television has irreversibly invaded our lives and claimed a dominant place in the domestic sphere. Recently, the (Internet-connected) personal computer has begun a similar invasion: what space will it eventually claim? Sandra Brunet's "Is Sustainable Tourism Really Sustainable? Protecting the Icon in the Commodity at Sites of Invasion" explores the often forgotten Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia. She looks at ways in which the image of the island is constructed by the government and media for eco-tourism and how faithful this representation is to the farmers, fishermen and other inhabitants of the island. Paul Starr's article "Special Effects and the Invasive Camera: Enemy of the State and The Conversation" rounds off the issue with a look at the troubled relationship between cutting-edge special effects in Hollywood action movies and the surveillance technologies that recent movies such as Enemy of the State show as tools in government conspiracies. The depiction of high-tech gadgetry as 'cool' and 'evil' at the same time, he writes, leads to a collapse of meaning. This issue of M/C succeeds in pointing out sites of invasion in unusual places, continuing the journal's tradition of perception in the face of new media culture. I hope you enjoy this second issue of the second volume: 'invasion'. Ben King 'Invasion' Issue Editor Citation reference for this article MLA style: Ben King. "Editorial: 'Invasion'." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.2 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9903/edit.php>. Chicago style: Ben King, "Editorial: 'Invasion'," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 2 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9903/edit.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Ben King. (1999) Editorial: 'invasion'. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(2). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9903/edit.php> ([your date of access]).

The spam, the spam…like a meteor shower it comes, unceasing like the tides, unrelenting in its desire to save me, to lift me from my slumber, misfit that I am, sitting in the darkness waiting to be delivered from my faltering biology, my feeble credit rating, my meagre education. It comes every day, unbidden, from the Outside, from the Interior, from some networked techno-Badland where the righteous fear to tread. I don’t know who it comes from, they have never met me, they will never meet me. Their addresses are botched, their names are fake, Orientalized, Africanized, garbled beyond decryption. Their websites are down, their phones are off the hook, they route their missals through hapless foreign email servers whose gatekeepers have foolishly left their relays open. As soon as I set up filters to innoculate myself, their algorithms mutate and new strains develop, more wily and Protean than the last. And now, the hybrids are everywhere. Hungry free-ranging email-bots blithely pillaging the websites of the world for valuable identity-capital. Virtual Nigerian millionaires, who despite their legitimate business practices have become trapped in hostile economic ghettos. HGH addicts, greedily sucking back, mugwump-like, the life-juices of virtual human nervous-systems produced in suburban hormone-banks across the United States and Eastern Europe. A revitalized Third-Age, the golf courses of the world reeling under the onslaught of this new breed of energized, radiant octogenarians. A vast and growing horde of new entrants to the ranks of the stupendously well-endowed. How many others are there like me, out there, weltering under the unceasing weight of this crazed cyborgian storm, this cornucopia of inventiveness and perversion? We number in our millions, we unwitting receivers of the raw and bleeding edge of quackery; we are an Us, and they are a Them. We span the globe, worlds virtual and real, from the towering heights of corporate monoliths to the crumbling edges of the Hotmail slums. It doesn’t matter who we are! We are all equal here, we are all equal under Spam. Spam is the Great Leveller. Together, we are end-points, we are destinations, we are enormous potential-capital, we are a great numbers-game, we are fantastic odds. Here we all sit, crammed together in identical folders on $49 CD-ROMs. We toil together at the coal-face of the Trash bin, fingertips worn bare, Delete buttons sticky with the blood of the unwanted. And you know what? We outnumber them millions to one! These blond beasts of prey, these feeders on the bandwidth of the oppressed, these wanton exploiters of Microsoft’s Achilles heels, these teenage manipulators of the inviolable principles of global finance. Their margins so low, their reach so vast, their frequency irrelevant; they hardly even need to exist to do their job, their numbers are so small. They could so easily just be a glitch in the system, a forgotten semicolon here, a missing bracket there, and suddenly WHAM, zinging across the datasphere; Increase Your Bust Size! Prevent Employment Stagnation! All Natural Pheromones, Attract Sex! But isn’t it about time I gave in? Surely I could do with a larger penis. 23-67% larger in 6 months. An extra ¾” of girth in 10 months. Shoot 16 feet! Impress your friends! Surely now is a good time to start imbibing daily doses of Human Growth Hormone, in some weirdly cannibalistic ritual of geno-pharmacology. Surely now is the time to deal with my incipient baldness. Surely now is the time to develop a taste for teen barnyard frolics. I want to meet them, these machine-writers , these Home Based Workers. I want to meet a spammer, I want to check their palms. I want to look into their eyes and guage the soul of this particular brand of Internet Entrepreneur. I want to meet them for their blatant idiocy. I want to meet them because their business model is perfect. I want to meet them because they want to rip me off and they’ve never even seen my face. I want to meet them because they seem to know my name. I want to meet them to see if anything they say is true: “I was approached many times before but each time I passed on it. I am so glad I finally joined just to see what one could expect in return for the minimal effort and money required. To my astonishment, I received total $610,470.00 in 21 weeks, with money still coming in.” “We have been on the spray for just 3 weeks now, and besides the tremendous energy we both feel, my husband’s allergies and spells of depression have lifted. I am healing extremely fast after an accident and have lost 7 lbs. without trying!” “Got to tell ya I really was impressed with the results after a month - I didn’t have any problems to speak of but was interested in improving my control and size. I went from a 6.5/7.0” length to a full 8.0” - the big deal was not the size increase but the improved circulation I received - the head increased a full inch in diameter and along with this more enjoyment with every stroke as it is hyper sensitive when erect due to the increased surface area. The program was worth every penny - feel sorry for those that don’t know about this information.” But who are these people? It’s getting very personal. They call me by name, they tell me stories about their lives, inspiring stories of amazing success, of against-all-odds, of business miracles, of youth regained, balding abated, penises sprouting anew like fresh corn from good soil. What kind of subjectivity can we assign to these chimeras, these fictions of a hopeful science? They materialize only on-screen, they inhabit a realm yet-to-come. Their hawking cries hail me from beyond the abyss of faith; they have already leapt, already broken through. Doppelgängers of the net.art avant-garde, these over-people, these reachers-forth, their lives played out on a lightning stage between the soaring peaks and the Trash bin. Are they authors? Are they artists? Are they…real? Pah! What was I thinking?! Reality is a tool of the bureaucrats, of the biologically homeostatic, of the devious puppetmasters of offline media. No reality for them, these dare-devils of the multi-level marketing scheme, re-programmers of genetic destiny, they who write the future of the Human in bold red 18-point font. And no reality for us either, the potential consumers, demographically profound, fundamentally troubled; aging, lonely, single, furiously masturbating, high cholestorol, high blood pressure, overweight, in debt, badly mortgaged, un-insured, uneducated, exercise hating, impotent, suspicious, broke, balding, poorly endowed, small breasted and dog, dog tired. So perhaps we are all a little fictional, all a little speculative. But so what! A full inch in diameter! $620,000 in 6 months! Who would not sacrifice a little verifiability for such riches? This magnificent spray that decelerates Time and accelerates Body and Mind. This mystical information that increases Control and Size. How could my current state not be found wanting? How can I ignore the call? And with such a mainline into the future, what need have I of the machinations of the mainstream dot-economy? What difference does it make to me whether the nano-agents busily connecting synapses in the Amazon.com brain-in-a-tank can predict my favourite books and music? What difference do any of these massively-funded personalisation programs make, when daily I receive exhortations to feed fetishes I never even dreamed I had? I am interpellated anew, I have received messages from the Enlightened, the joyful consumers of the Word; once cynical, once suspicious, now laughing. Take me, I’m yours, de-subject me, re-subject me, I’m bubbling over, I’m full to the brim, I’m ready to suck the juice out of life and stay on to get the marrow. I’m right around the corner from just handing over my credit card details to the first one who asks nicely: “Fill out all requested information. You need to enter your credit card number for age verification - this protects under 18's from accessing explicit hardcore pornography. We have only listed the largest, most publicly operated porn sites that we KNOW can be trusted with this information. YOU WILL NOT BE CHARGED FOR THE FREE PASSWORD. If you don't believe me, just read their terms and conditions.” Citation reference for this article Substitute your date of access for Dn Month Year etc... MLA Style Cooke, Grayson. "A Spam Scam Slam" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0308/08-spamscam.php>. APA Style Cooke, G. (2003, Aug 26). A Spam Scam Slam. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 6,< http://www.media-culture.org.au/0308/08-spamscam.php>

This paper on cultural loops will begin slightly off-track, drawing on lessons that can be learned from a very basic non-terminating program, written in basic programming language: 100 Print "an infinite loop is" 110 Goto 100 Run an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is ... The output will continue looping through this cycle ad infinitum. Suppose that somebody has entered this program into a computer and entered a "Run" command as illustrated above. This somebody has then left the room and we enter a moment later. What we appear to be looking at is, strictly speaking, an "infinite loop," a programming sequence that has no condition for termination except for activation of the self same sequence. The screen has been filled with seemingly endless repetitions of the same string: "an infinite loop is" (or is it "is an infinite loop," or "loop is an infinite," or "infinite loop is an"?). In any case, we do not know that the loop is endless, nor even that this is a loop. Perhaps we could imagine that after so many repetitions the output will change. Perhaps we imagine that our absent programmer is really hard up for ways to pass the time and has spent countless hours entering repetitions of the same string into just one single line of programming: 100 Print "infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is an infinite loop is ... After several hours, perhaps the programmer finally tired of the exercise and finished off: ... an infinite loop is really a finite loop that thinks it can last forever and ever amen." For this matter, we might also wonder, as we watch the text scrolling up the screen, whether all of the preceding text has followed this exact pattern. Perhaps we just happened to stumble into the room at that moment, reflected in the current output, when our absent programmer decided to interrupt typing up a treatise on infinite loops with a banal illustration of what might constitute a loop of this sort. Wait for just a second or two more and surely the output will be different. Of course, in the present instance, we will be waiting for a very long time for any kind of change to appear in the output—how long is infinity again, does anybody know? Perhaps there is folly in trying to second guess the next piece of output produced by a program, particularly when the evidence on the screen provides no genuine clues to the structure of the program for which it is the output. At this point I hear the cries of dissent. How can I possibly say that the output of this program provides no clues to the structure of the program? After all, are we not faced here with output that, at the very least, appears to be endlessly repetitive? Without being drawn into a detailed discussion about the phenomenology of repetition, it is fair to say that, yes, when faced with the output on the screen as we enter the room, a reasonable expectation is that this output is several repetitions of a non-terminating series of repetitions. As each string is preceded and followed by the same string, the evidence suggests that the strings running off both the top and bottom of the screen have been preceded by and will be followed by the same string, according to the pattern. Yet I maintain that we can never be absolutely certain that the next thing that will appear on the screen will be yet another repetition of the same string. We cannot know the mind of the creator with sufficient certainty to predict this with perfect accuracy. Certainly, anybody who presumes that the string of strings on the screen is part of some non-repeating body of text is less likely to be right than the person who sees the pattern and guesses that the program for which this text is the output is an infinitely looping one. We need only to stop the program and bring it up on the screen to confirm the latter's suspicions to be correct. With this very strategy, however, we also illustrate the correctness of the claim I have made. In order to know with certainty what the program will be likely to output next, at some point we are required to terminate it and look at the program itself rather than its output. In other words, we need to stop the output if we want to know what will be put out next. The irony of this situation is of course that we cannot know from any series of outputs within an infinite loop that the loop is in fact infinite (or even that it is a loop), without first terminating the loop to look beyond its repeating output. An infinite loop is indeed a finite loop that we think can last forever and ever, amen. Douglas Hofstadter makes a similar point about the relationship between infinity and the finite parameters of strange loops in Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (1979). Strange loop phenomena emerge "whenever, by moving upwards (or downwards) through the levels of some hierarchical system, we unexpectedly find ourselves right back where we started" (10). A sense of paradox is associated with strange loops because they bring our notions of the finite and the infinite into conflict. Some object (A) always seems to contain or be the root cause of some other object (B) in a finite relationship, yet B also seems to contain or be the root cause of A, a paradox of infinite indeterminacy. Yet the paradox emerges because we are blinded from looking beyond what appears to be a fully self-contained system of determinations, even if we are unable to resolve the paradox of whether A determines B or vice versa. As we move upwards or downwards through the hierarchies in the system, we presume that we will move closer to its limit in either direction, yet we find ourselves perpetually drawn to reproduce the same steps within the hierarchy. For this reason, Hofstadter also refers to strange loops as tangled hierarchies (passim). The tangle is what draws us to repeat the same system of determinations endlessly, but Hofstadter points out that any system includes a protected or "inviolate level" which always remains "unassailable by the rules on other levels, not matter how tangled their interactions may be among themselves" (688). In the work of M.C. Escher, in particular, Hofstadter finds the most powerful visual realisations of strange loop phenomena: in Ascending and Descending, monks walk up and down staircases that loop around to join each other; in Waterfall, water falls into a pool that leads to an aqueduct flowing down to the waterfall that empties into the same pool; and in Drawing Hands, there are two hands that appear to be drawing each other. In each of these cases, however, the resolution of the apparent paradox is in realising the hand of Escher at work beyond the hierarchy: [In Drawing Hands,] levels which ordinarily are seen as hierarchical—that which draws and that which is drawn—turn back on each other, creating a Tangled Hierarchy. But the theme ... is borne out, of course, since behind it all lurks the undrawn but drawing hand of M.C. Escher, creator of both LH and RH. (689) The non-terminating program with which I began this paper provides a variation on this theme, since the output provides evidence of an infinite loop lurking in the structure of the program. A termination of the loop to look beyond the output will confirm this. Yet beyond the program is of course the programmer and, not necessarily the same person, the person who entered the "run" command to execute the program. In other words, there are several inviolate levels to consider in dealing with computer programs. The program itself contains the inviolate rules determining repetitions in the output. Beyond the program is the programmer. We might also consider the programming language and limitations of the technology mediating between the programmer and the program that is written, but I want to press ahead expeditiously. Beyond the programmer, there is also an executor, somebody who activates the program, making possible the generation of output. Perhaps we could refer to these two inviolate levels as those of the creator and the generator. In his examination of the strange loop of Escher's Drawing Hands, Hofstadter points out the hand of the creator lurking within the inviolate level beyond the frame of the picture. We might add that as a work of art, the picture is not a free-floating object presented to us in any unmediated way. The image circulates within an array of cultural institutions and contexts, all of which mediates our access to it, and which might be thought of here as the conditions for the generation of the image. Consider, for example, that we had never seen Drawing Hands before reading Hofstadter's book. We would have to take Hofstadter's word on the matter, that this drawing had been done by this Dutchman named Escher. Hofstadter—or, to be more precise, the book which carries his name as its authorial signature—has made possible our access to the image. Furthermore, it is within the context of a discussion about strange loops and such matters that we are asked to look at the image. Now, suppose we were to put the book down and think little of it for some time, perhaps because we are not very mathematically minded and we sort of got muddled up a bit by some of the other parts of Hofstadter's book. Years later, we find ourselves in an art gallery, and there is a special exhibit of Escher's work. We stumble upon the original, stare at it for a moment, then realise that we have seen it before. Suddenly, Hofstadter's discussion springs to mind and we are reminded of strange loops and we think smugly, ah, this is no paradox, since the hand of Escher existing at an inviolate level has drawn both the left and right hands which appear to be drawing each other. This situation leads to a strange cultural loop, since our reception of an original artwork has been already shaped by something we have seen elsewhere, in this instance, a copy of that exact same artwork. The point is of course that cultural products circulate within precisely just these sorts of loops all of the time. Indeed, I maintain that such loops constitute culture. Allow me to explain. What makes an object an example of a culture is its capacity to resonate with features that it has in common with other objects created within the same culture. Words such as genre, movement, poetics or style (among others) refer to ways in which original works of art remain tied together within structures of repetition of core features. In a similar vein, archaeologists excavating a dig and finding numerous pots will look for repeated patterns, shapes, and techniques to determine cultural affiliations. The strange loop emerges around the vexed question of origins: is a culture made up of repeated patterns on pots, or does a culture determine repetitions of patterns on pots? At this point it should be pertinent to bring cultural theory into play. According to the theoretical anthropology developed by Clifford Geertz in The Interpretation of Cultures (1975), culture can be defined as "a stratified hierarchy of meaningful structures" (7). The ethnographic method that he calls "thick description" is designed to enable anthropologists to sort out these structures from the concrete complexes of behaviour that are observed in the field. He takes as a reference point a question posed by the philosopher Gilbert Ryle: when is the closing of one eyelid a wink and when is it a twitch? As Stephen Greenblatt summarises the point, the distinction is in the shared code, a distinction that "is secured by the element of volition that is not itself visibly manifest in the contraction of the eyelid; a thin description would miss it altogether" (Practicing 23). To compare this situation with the situation I described earlier, we can imagine thick description as a method for second guessing cultural output by moving from the perceived pattern to expectations about the mind and method of the creator. The thickness of the description inheres in its intent to take fuller account of the conditions for the generation of this cultural output. Yet in practice, the method sometimes seems to rigidify. For example, Greenblatt's own literary criticism—referred to most commonly as New Historicism, although he himself prefers the name Cultural Poetics—is often accused of flattening out culture. The method typically proceeds by considering together a literary text and the text of some contemporary domestic circumstance or event (a legal extract, a travel journal, a royal decree or such like), so as to find patterns pointing to the system of meanings underlining both texts. Being unable to terminate the infinite loop of cultural production, whereupon all texts echo all other texts in something akin to what Michel Foucault called the "fantasia of the library," the new historicist tries to work backward from the conventions of textual production to the cultural matrix beneath. While Greenblatt frequently argues that a cultural poetics recognises the agency of the individuals who produce these texts, the core issues of methodology have at base been recently defined in terms of the inviolability of the base level of determination—the archive: If every trace of a culture is part of a massive text, how can one identify the boundaries of these units? What is the appropriate scale? There are, we conclude, no abstract, purely theoretical answers to these questions. To a considerable extent the units are given by the archive itself—that is, we almost always receive works whose boundaries have already been defined by the technology and generic assumptions of the original makers. (Practicing 14) Here again the tension emerges between the infinite and the finite in the attempt to come to terms with unidentifiable boundaries of the units of culture. The resolution, curiously enough, is a loop at the core of Greenblatt's cultural poetics: the structure of the archive determines for us the units of perception within which we view traces of culture, to determine the structure of the archive. Thus, from the perspective of Greenblatt's cultural poetics, the stratified hierarchy of meaningful structures constituting culture is a tangled hierarchy. Lurking at the inviolate level is, of course, Greenblatt himself. Greenblatt, Geertz and many others who practice these methods for reading culture as a text recognise this inviolate level openly. In the introduction to his landmark work, Renaissance Self-Fashioning (1980), Greenblatt confesses, "the resonance and centrality we find in our small group of texts and their authors is our invention" (6). This confession leads me one step closer to my final point here. Even as the method of cultural poetics tends at times to flatten culture out to nodes of production arising from a single, static archive, and threatens to forget the agency of cultural producers, the method itself relies entirely on the creative and constitutive role of the observer. Greenblatt's literary and cultural criticism functions in a way that bears striking resemblance to the flights of fancy we undertook in the opening passages of this paper, looking at a pattern of output and trying to imagine what the structure of production would be like behind this output. Like the archaeologists staring at patterns on pots, cultural theorists could sometimes be forgiven for overlooking the question of agency altogether. One of the reasons for this is that we tend to think of agency in terms of a capacity to effect change, rather than in terms of the repetition of existing patterns and structures. "Structure" and "agency" might seem to be mutually opposed terms in discussions of cultural production. Yet the lesson we might be able to learn from these discussions of strange loops and cultural production is that agency is just as necessary to shaping the cultural matrix as it is to the realisation of this system in the production of culture. When we find patterns, we are exercising the wholly productive force of the imagination. Beyond creators, generators, programs, archives and so on, there is the observer whose capacity for making sense of texts is what ultimately gives to culture its contours, patterns and limits. Furthermore—what remains to be discussed in another forum—this constitutive capacity is something that is present in everyday practice, not simply in the realms of anthropology or cultural studies. The person sitting in front of the television, for example, is in much the same situation as when we stared at the computer screen waiting to see if the output would change. The decisions we make about whether we recognise patterns, locate meaningful structures and so on are similar to cultural reception or consumption, which I maintain is as productive as creation or generation. It is the decisions we make that insinuate infinity when we observe a loop. As we observed at the outset here, the infinity of the loop is not inherent in the structure of the output but in the way we choose to make sense of the patterns, what we imagined to have preceded the present text and to be likely to come after. To illustrate the comparison between observation of an infinite loop and agency in the field of cultural production, in conclusion, we need only to go back again to where we started here, but I leave that task up to the reader. References Foucault, Michel. Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews. Trans. D.F.Bouchard and S.Simon. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977. Gallagher, Catherine and Stephen Greenblatt. Practicing New Historicism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. London: Hutchinson, 1975. Greenblatt, Stephen. Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980. ---. Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture. New York: Routledge, 1992. Hofstadter, Douglas R. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Sussex: Harvester Press, 1979. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Johnson, Laurie. "Agency" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5.4 (2002). [your date of access] < http://www.media-culture.org.au/mc/0208/agency.php>. Chicago Style Johnson, Laurie, "Agency" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5, no. 4 (2002), < http://www.media-culture.org.au/mc/0208/agency.php> ([your date of access]). APA Style Johnson, Laurie. (2002) Agency. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5(4). < http://www.media-culture.org.au/mc/0208/agency.php> ([your date of access]).