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Abstract: The developments of contemporary robotics result in widening the fields of intervention of the robots from now on implied in diversified sectors of social activity and even private clinic. They also return to the representations of alive, of the thinking like to theoretical constructions and deconstructions which accompany them. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Beyond the 75 animal and human pictures, the 491 Magdalenian engraved plaquettes bear 410 abstract signs, in 14 different types, among which eight were unknown up to now in South-Western France, (more than 130 cases). Some examples of all those signs are shown. Besides there are 213 groups of parallel lines. At “Les Beaux-Sarts”, less than 2m from the hut described in 2003, another human excavation (maybe a tomb?) delivered a schist plaquette with 94 parallel lines carved on its surface, the lines appear as three groups of 14, 7 (or 8?) and 24 (or 28?) lines and one group of 17 (or 18?) oblique lines, with various secondary lines. Five thousand years before the cerebral center of precise calculation was at the beginning of its formation, this piece, out of the bases of which calculation might be subdivided, cannot be considered as the evidence that they were able to count. The author analyses the affective mental possibilities proved by those elements and puts them apart from the rational progress in the abstraction possibilities of the human brain, which occurred later all through ten thousand years. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In all IVF programs, ovarian stimulation may lead to a hyperstimulation syndrome. Mild ovarian stimulations are suggested to reduce this complication of infertility treatment. In this article, we wonder what the consequences of different stimulations are on oocytes quality. The quality of the oocyte being the major factor of the development of a good embryo, it can be evaluated by direct or indirect techniques. Some are subjective. Several studies seem to show that ovarian stimulation has an influence on oocye quality, especially at a chromosomic and perharps, epigenetic level. It seems that a mild stimulation (for example with GnRH antagonist) selects less oocytes but with a better quality and produces euploid embryos. The uterine transfer of this kind of embryo should lead to an ongoing pregnancy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Thanks to the success of new assisted reproductive technology, including sperm microinjection (ICSI), men with severe spermatogenesis impairments can now become biological fathers. Whether the germinal cell used for ICSI is conveying appropriate genetic and epigenetic information is an important concern. However, to date, there is a huge lack of data on which information is epigenetically conveyed to the offspring and how. The basic support for epigenetic marks is the nucleus structure. During spermatogenesis, a major re-organization of the male germ cells nucleus structure occurs, which includes a global condensation associated with a removal of most core somatic histones and their replacement by sperm-specific nuclear proteins. The available data on the molecular mechanisms involved in this process and how it could relate to the setting of male-specific epigenetic information is reviewed and discussed in light of our current knowledge about nuclear structure and functions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

After the strong climatic shocks which happened over and over again, which made the hands free and which started the biological and cultural development of Hominoids, everything depended on the brains of the species concerned and their ability to correlate and invent, because of the constant pressure of their natural and social environment. We are less interested in describing 15 steps here, than in specifying, for each reference mark in a non-stop process, the level reached by mental ability as much cognizantly as affectingly and the neurological bases, which allowed them to occur. This progression was based on the complexification (through epigenesis) of intracerebral connections at different levels allowing us to have large conscience and language, which are the bases of our freedom (via feelings, re-entries and mental pictures). Consequently, men could progressively have control of natural powers, inert ones first (tools), then moving ones (fire), living (hunting) and social ones (slavery); at last, men could free himself from them and perceive them objectively, dominate them, and conceive them in time and abstraction. Writing, then philosophy, then counting and logic have only recently crowned the progress towards the conquest of abstract and humanism through reversive action. The whole show phyletical gradualism, which is still progressing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The geology of Saint-Vallier is dominated by fine detrital deposits intercalated with indurated horizons. The base of the sequence is characterised by coarse detrital sediments (pebbles, gravels, sands) which fine upwards with the addition of silts and fine sands. Micromorphologic study reveals the importance of carbonate epigenesis throughout. The replacement of siliceous elements by calcite is due to phreatic carbonate drift. Epigenesis, guided by plant roots, lay at the origin of many concretions, such as rootlet pipes and either isolated nodules or those linked together in the “bancs durcis” (indurated layers). Bioturbation is also important: it was responsible for sediment homogenization and high porosity following rootlet disappearance; animal traces (burrows, micro-excrements and earth worms biospheroïdes) are common. Pedogenesis is discrete and marked by argilification, decarbonation of sediments and stronger bioturbation in beds overlying the “bancs durcis”. Soils profiles are incomplete, indicating truncation. All geometrical and sedimentological characteristics of the deposits point to a complex environment where channels alternated with riverbank soils. The processes of sedimentation, as well as dissolution, downcutting and reworking of former deposits, lateral transfer of carbonates and pedogenesis were repeated over time. The environment is that of an alluvial fan with a shallow slope, placed at the distal end of the Chambaran surface and connected to the alluvial plain of the Rhone at the start of Plio-Quaternary incision. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]