BackgroundIn the context of translational research, researchers have increasingly been using biological samples and data in fundamental research phases. To explore informed consent practices, we conducted a retrospective study on informed consent documents that were used for CARPEM’s translational research programs. This review focused on detailing their form, their informational content, and the adequacy of these documents with the international ethical principles and participants’ rights.MethodsInformed consent forms (ICFs) were collected from CARPEM investigators. A content analysis focused on information related to (...) biological samples and data treatment (context of sampling and collect, aims, reuse, consent renewal), including the type of consent. An automatic assessment of the readability of the ICFs were performed with the IT program “Flesch Score”.Results29 ICFs from 25 of 49 studies were analyzed after selection criteria were applied. Three types of consent were identified: 11 broad consents, six specific consents, and two opt-out consents. The Flesch Scores showed that most of the documents were too complex to be fully understood by most of the potential research participants. Most of the biological samples were collected during the healthcare routine, but the information content about secondary use of biological samples varied between ICFs. All documents mentioned personal data treatment but information about their reuse was not standardized in the ICFs.ConclusionsOur review of current IC procedures of CARPEM showed that practices could be improved considering new translational research methods. “Old fashion written ICFs” should be adapted to the translational research approach, to better respect individual rights and international research ethics principles. In this context, theoretically, a digital tool allowing dynamic information and consent of participants, through an electronic interactive platform may be a good way to promote more active participation in research. Nevertheless, its feasibility in the complex environment of biological samples and data research remains to prove. The way of a combination of a broad consent followed by dynamic information may be alternatively tested. (shrink)

The two leading French film writers and critics of the post-war period were André Bazin and Georges Sadoul. Their relationship has often been reduced to the controversy that followed the publication of Bazin's article on ‘Soviet Cinema and the Myth of Stalin’ in 1950. While the ensuing polemic undeniably drove them apart, the prevailing critical emphasis on this episode fails to do justice to either their critical work or its wider context. Indeed, the heartfelt tribute Sadoul paid to Bazin after (...) the latter's death testifies to a much richer and more complex relationship between the two critics. Drawing on both published and archival sources, this article sets out to throw a new and more comprehensive light on this historically critical relationship and its context by examining the reactions of both critics to the ‘Stalin Myth’ controversy, post-war American cinema, and the form and content debate of the later 1940s. (shrink)

The differentiation of T Lymphocytes within the thymus is an important biological phenomenon during wich these cell acquire their functions to further control the immune system. Numerous experiments under various conditions have been devised to understand the different mechanisms involved in this complex process. Nevertheless, interpretation of these experiments lead to still contradictory debatable hypotheses. Modelisation of this process through classical simulation methods cannot be envisaged because they are not adapted to modifications of the model structure, which is the point (...) of interest. For these reasons, we proposed a new approach of automatic search for model. The program consists of four independent connected modules : The generator produces model, based on the rationale of formal grammars. Protocol and experimental data are stored in a set of experiments. The simulator using a protocol and a model provides simulated results. Finally, the supervisor by comparing simulated results and experimental data, adapts the model parameters to increase their fit and either chooses a new experiment to explore, or modifies the model structure. Change of the model structure is performed among still unexplored models according to their promise level, which is iteratively evaluated relatively to previously explored models through a proposed model distance. The generator is written in Prolog and the other modules in C++. The architecture of the program allows us to modify or complete a module without changing anything in the other modules. As a consequence, the proposed modeling approach conceived to study T lymphocyte differentiation within the thymus remains independent of this biological phenomenon and can be applied to other biological problems. (shrink)

L'ensemble que forment ces contributions porte sur les différentes périodes et questions dont Jean Salem était lui-même spécialiste, ou les aborde par des biais inattendus : l'atomisme et l'épicurisme de l'Antiquité, la philosophie classique et le matérialisme des Lumières, le matérialisme moderne et ses critiques, la tradition marxiste, le pragmatisme, la pensée économique, la philosophie du vin ou encore la lecture philosophique des œuvres littéraires. Ce volume propose ainsi un aperçu de l'état des recherches sur le matérialisme, sous ses différentes (...) formes et dans ses interactions avec les autres traditions philosophiques."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

The practice and development of modern medicine requires large amounts of data, particularly in the domain of cancer. The future of personalized medicine lies neither with “genomic medicine” nor with “precision medicine”, but with “data medicine”. The establishment of this DM has required far-reaching changes, to establish four essential elements connecting patients and doctors: biobanks, databases, bioinformatic platforms and genomic platforms. The “transformation” of scientific research areas, such as genetics, bioinformatics and biostatistics, into clinical specialties has generated a new vision (...) of care. Molecular tumor boards are one response to these changes and are now providing better access to next-generation sequencing and new cancer treatments to patients with inoperable or metastatic cancers, and those for whom the usual treatment has failed. However, MTB face a crucial ethical challenge: maintaining and improving the trust of patients, clinicians, researchers and industry in academic medical centers supported by private or public funding rather than providing genetic data directly to private companies. We believe that, in this era of DM, appropriate modern digital communication networks will be required to maintain this trust and to improve the organization and effectiveness of the system. There is, therefore, a need to reconsider the form and content of informed consent documents at all academic medical centers and to introduce dynamic and electronic informed consent. (shrink)

This article is aimed at introducing a French discourse analysis model, e.g. the ‘star model’, initiated by the LAA team led by Robert Vion in Aix-en-Provence, to English-speaking researchers. It will be argued that language activity is multi-dimensional and can be traced at various heterogeneous levels of speech productions belonging to macro as well as micro orders. Speakers achieve different varieties of positioning which result in negotiating an interactional space within a pre-given situation. The model is precisely designed to offer (...) a unified and comprehensive view of such heterogeneous phenomena in constant interconnection. In this study, we also intend to illustrate our approach through the analysis of two different corpora. Speakers’ strategies under extreme conditions will be analysed; the various sequences used were taken from a special corpus which we were asked to study as part of a national research programme. In order to illustrate interactional space shifts, we will also use the transcript of a meeting which took place between a patient and a medical investigator in a hospital in Marseilles. (shrink)

Cancers rely on multiple, heterogeneous processes at different scales, pertaining to many biomedical fields. Therefore, understanding cancer is necessarily an interdisciplinary task that requires placing specialised experimental and clinical research into a broader conceptual, theoretical, and methodological framework. Without such a framework, oncology will collect piecemeal results, with scant dialogue between the different scientific communities studying cancer. We argue that one important way forward in service of a more successful dialogue is through greater integration of applied sciences (experimental and clinical) (...) with conceptual and theoretical approaches, informed by philosophical methods. By way of illustration, we explore six central themes: (i) the role of mutations in cancer; (ii) the clonal evolution of cancer cells; (iii) the relationship between cancer and multicellularity; (iv) the tumour microenvironment; (v) the immune system; and (vi) stem cells. In each case, we examine open questions in the scientific literature through a philosophical methodology and show the benefit of such a synergy for the scientific and medical understanding of cancer. (shrink)

The practice and development of modern medicine requires large amounts of data, particularly in the domain of cancer. The future of personalized medicine lies neither with “genomic medicine” nor with “precision medicine”, but with “data medicine”. The establishment of this DM has required far-reaching changes, to establish four essential elements connecting patients and doctors: biobanks, databases, bioinformatic platforms and genomic platforms. The “transformation” of scientific research areas, such as genetics, bioinformatics and biostatistics, into clinical specialties has generated a new vision (...) of care. Molecular tumor boards are one response to these changes and are now providing better access to next-generation sequencing and new cancer treatments to patients with inoperable or metastatic cancers, and those for whom the usual treatment has failed. However, MTB face a crucial ethical challenge: maintaining and improving the trust of patients, clinicians, researchers and industry in academic medical centers supported by private or public funding rather than providing genetic data directly to private companies. We believe that, in this era of DM, appropriate modern digital communication networks will be required to maintain this trust and to improve the organization and effectiveness of the system. There is, therefore, a need to reconsider the form and content of informed consent documents at all academic medical centers and to introduce dynamic and electronic informed consent. (shrink)

Visual processing is thought to function in a coarse-to-fine manner. Low spatial frequencies, conveying coarse information, would be processed early to generate predictions. These LSF-based predictions would facilitate the further integration of high spatial frequencies, conveying fine details. The predictive role of LSF might be crucial in automatic face processing, where high performance could be explained by an accurate selection of clues in early processing. In the present study, we used a visual Mismatch Negativity paradigm by presenting an unfiltered face (...) as standard stimulus, and the same face filtered in LSF or HSF as deviant, to investigate the predictive role of LSF vs. HSF during automatic face processing. If LSF are critical for predictions, we hypothesize that LSF deviants would elicit less prediction error than HSF deviants. Results show that both LSF and HSF deviants elicited a mismatch response compared with their equivalent in an equiprobable sequence. However, in line with our hypothesis, LSF deviants evoke significantly reduced mismatch responses compared to HSF deviants, particularly at later stages. The difference in mismatch between HSF and LSF conditions involves posterior areas and right fusiform gyrus. Overall, our findings suggest a predictive role of LSF during automatic face processing and a critical involvement of HSF in the fusiform during the conscious detection of changes in faces. (shrink)

Marcel Beaufils fut un pedagogue exceptionnel qui exerca une influence decisive sur l'evolution de l'esthetique musicale en France, a partir des annees 50. Or, parmi ses ouvrages, Musique du son, musique du verbe est tres certainement celui qui porte le plus fortement la marque de son activite d'enseignant au Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris ; cette mission, il semblait l'entendre davantage comme celle d'un declencheur d'idees, catalyseur, plutot que du transmetteur d'un savoir fige une fois pour toutes. Bouleversant (...) toute tentative de classification academique, toute certitude acquise, ce livre laisse des pointilles ; un grand souffle traverse son ecriture. N'en deplaise aux musicographes, il s'agit la d'un ouvrage de creation, qui nous rappelle que Marce Beaufils etait egalement un ecrivain qui savait manier le verbe a la fois en tant que dramaturge et en tant que poete. (shrink)

Comment penser la morale – sans verser dans l'incantation de l'obligation ou en appeler à la crainte suscitée par la sanction? La proposition de Guyau consiste à concevoir l'histoire de la philosophie morale comme traversée par une antinomie structurale (idéalisme versus naturalisme) qu'un évolutionnisme élargi peut dépasser. La morale qui en découle sera anomique, inventive et sans modèle suprême – sans obligation ni sanction.

Le témoignage de Sœur Marie-André du Sacré-Cœur s'inscrit parfaitement dans la dénonciation du travail forcé féminin développée par les missionnaires catholiques de Haute-Volta dans la première moitié du XXe siècle. Les missions se présentent volontiers comme les seuls lieux de protection de la population africaine contre l'exploitation abusive du travail forcé. Parfois, elles recourent à l'opinion publique métropolitaine, en dénonçant, dans la presse catholique, la mauvaise gestion ad...

Le témoignage de Sœur Marie-André du Sacré-Cœur s'inscrit parfaitement dans la dénonciation du travail forcé féminin développée par les missionnaires catholiques de Haute-Volta dans la première moitié du XXe siècle. Les missions se présentent volontiers comme les seuls lieux de protection de la population africaine contre l'exploitation abusive du travail forcé. Parfois, elles recourent à l'opinion publique métropolitaine, en dénonçant, dans la presse catholique, la mauvaise gestion ad...

Malgré l’évidente réticence du parti anticlérical à adopter une nouvelle religion avec un dogme et des sacrements, la promotion philosophico-politique du lien social sous la Troisième République a conduit à revisiter en théorie, sinon en pratique, quelques thèmes majeurs du positivisme religieux. Le parcours ici proposé va de la politique (Ferry, Léon Bourgeois, Jaurès, la libre-pensée) à la philosophie morale et sociale (Jean-Marie Guyau, Alfred Fouillée, Gustave Belot, Émile Boutroux) et de celle-ci à la sociologie (Durkheim) et à l’analyse (...) de la pensée (Alain). L’usage ambigu, sélectif, des textes et des idées de Comte, mélange d’hommage et d’aversion, reflète la liberté d’interprétation qui parvient à féconder une philosophie au-delà de son cadre d’origine. L’enquête privilégie cet axe de recherche et met au jour les transactions par lesquelles s’est monnayé un héritage que l’on aurait tort de croire aujourd’hui disparu. (shrink)

Ensemble d’articles et de comptes rendus de tables rondes, cet ouvrage est le fruit d’un colloque organisé par l’IRCAM, l’occasion d’une rencontre entre chercheurs et musiciennes. De nombreux sujets sont abordés dans cette étude pluridisciplinaire où les femmes sont replacées dans leur contexte historique, social et culturel original, et où le fait musical est entendu comme révélateur du fonctionnement d’une société. Par de multiples portes d’entrée, cette réflexion d’ensemble aborde ainsi le...

A leader in the modern commentary on ethics and philosophy, Mary Warnock casts a critical eye over her life and times.

Fundamental principles : the nature of the dispute -- Types of euthanasia -- Psychiatric assisted suicide -- Neonates -- Incompetent adults -- Human life is sacred -- The slippery slope -- Medical views -- Four methods of easing death and their effect on doctors -- Looking further ahead.

How is hope to be found amid the ethical and political dilemmas of modern life? Writer and philosopher Mary Zournazi brought her questions to some of the most thoughtful intellectuals at work today. She discusses "joyful revolt" with Julia Kristeva, the idea of "the rest of the world" with Gayatri Spivak, the "art of living" with Michel Serres, the "carnival of the senses" with Michael Taussig, the relation of hope to passion and to politics with Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau. (...) A dozen stimulating minds weigh in with their visions of a better social and political order. The result is a collaboration - of writing, of thinking, and of politics - that demonstrates more clearly than any single-authored project could how ideas encountering one another can produce the vision needed for social change. (shrink)

t. 1. Autographa et bibliothecae A-F -- t. 2. Bibliothecae Gdańsk-Münster.

This chapter first distinguishes between originality and creativity. True originality is rare, whether in art, science, or LEGO, because to be truly original means to have done something that no one has ever done before, and that no one could have anticipated. Most LEGO creations will not meet that condition, for with the exception of serious hobbyists who undertake massive builds, most players who make original creations are making creations that are commonplace. Painting or remolding or placing stickers on the (...) bricks counts against the spirit of LEGO creation. The chapter then discusses The LEGO Movie embodies the paradox that presents three conflicting models of creative LEGO play, illustrated by the Master Builders, Finn's father, and Emmet. The movie's creators were deliberately playing around with conflicting popular conceptions of creativity: creativity as madness, creativity as thinking outside the box, and creativity as vision. (shrink)

This selection consists of extracts from writings of women concerned solely with the pursuit of abstract ideas, historically contextualized. The texts, for the most part, reflect issues widely debated in their contemporary societies. Extracts from lesser-known writers are also included, providing a diversity of arguments spanning four centuries and including some notable contemporary philosophers.

Nature and Mortality is a challenging look at some of the major public issues of our time through the eyes of one of our most influential and probing liberal humanists. It is a frank account on where we stand today on such controversial matters as human embryology, genetic engineering, euthanasia and abortion. Warnock's views may seem like a red rag to a bull to some, but her contribution to the debate is always stimulating. Enlivened by autobiographical anecdote and some delicious (...) side-swipes, Nature and Mortality is Mary Warnock at her most perceptive, wise and entertaining. (shrink)

Part Two of the Ethical and Religious Directives outlines the responsibility to care for the spiritual needs of patients and residents, following the example of Christ who both healed the sick and forgave them their sins. The proposed revisions to the introduction add a more explicit focus on the dignity of the sick, the redemptive value of suffering, and the potential evangelization that takes place through institutional health care. The proposed revisions to the directives emphasize that patients and residents have (...) a right to receive spiritual and sacramental care. Likewise, Catholic healthcare institutions, medical staff, and pastoral care personnel have an obligation to arrange and provide adequate spiritual and sacramental care. (shrink)

We show the existence of noncomputable oracles which are low for Demuth randomness, answering a question in [15] (also Problem 5.5.19 in [34]). We fully characterize lowness for Demuth randomness using an appropriate notion of traceability. Central to this characterization is a partial relativization of Demuth randomness, which may be more natural than the fully relativized version. We also show that an oracle is low for weak Demuth randomness if and only if it is computable.