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Silica cell walls of diatoms have attracted attention as a source of nanostructured functional materials and have immense potential for a variety of applications. Previous studies of silica cell wall formation have identified numerous involved proteins, but most of these proteins are species-specific and are not conserved among diatoms. However, because the basic process of diatom cell wall formation is common to all diatom species, ubiquitous proteins and molecules will reveal the mechanisms of cell wall formation. In this study, we assembled de novo transcriptomes of three diatom species, Nitzschia palea, Achnanthes kuwaitensis, and Pseudoleyanella lunata, and compared protein-coding genes of five genome-sequenced diatom species. These analyses revealed a number of diatom-specific genes that encode putative endoplasmic reticulum-targeting proteins. Significant numbers of these proteins showed homology to silicanin-1, which is a conserved diatom protein that reportedly contributes to cell wall formation. These proteins also included a previously unrecognized SET domain protein methyltransferase family that may regulate functions of cell wall formation-related proteins and long-chain polyamines. Proteomic analysis of cell wall-associated proteins in N. palea identified a protein that is also encoded by one of the diatom-specific genes. Expression analysis showed that candidate genes were upregulated in response to silicon, suggesting that these genes play roles in silica cell wall formation. These candidate genes can facilitate further investigations of silica cell wall formation in diatoms.

La série Astérix n’a jamais connu de succès au Japon où après la parution de trois albums dans les années 1970, personne n’en a guère plus entendu parler, à la différence de Tintin. L’échec s’explique avant tout par des différences culturelles. La société codifiée et conventionnelle japonaise s’accommode mal de l’insoumission gaillarde et indisciplinée que vante la série. C’est aussi le républicanisme gaulois du village, régi par les seules lois de l’amitié ou de la compréhension de l’autre, où chacun pèse de son individualité, qui reste souvent impénétrable pour le Japonais, pétri d’étiquette et de protocole. L’humanisme individualiste de la série est une pratique européenne difficile à assimiler. D’autres explications tiennent à la nature du marché de la bande dessinée au Japon, largement dominé par les mangas, et aux caractéristiques d’une traduction haut de gamme et par là même inadaptée. The Asterix series has never been successful in Japan. Three albums were published in the 1970s but no one has much heard about Asterix ever since, contrary to Tintin. The failure is primarily explained by cultural differences. The conventional and codified Japanese society has difficulties accepting stories which boast hearty and undisciplined absence of submission. The situation can also be accounted for by the village’s Gaulish republicanism, where friendship and understanding of others are the only laws and where everyone displays their individuality, which is unfathomable for the typical protocol- and etiquette-abiding Japan-ese citizen. The individualistic humanism of the series is a European way which is difficult to assimilate. Other explanations are linked to the specificity of the comics market in Japan, which is dominated by mangas, and the characteristics of the proposed upmarket translation, which was not suited to the public.

Au cours des cinquante dernières années, Astérix a parcouru le monde, et pas seulement dans de savoureuses aventures. Traduite dans plus de cent langues et dialectes, la série a aussi conquis le monde pour le plus grand bonheur de générations de lecteurs. Enfin, elle est devenue transmédiatique, grâce aux dessins animés, films et autres jeux vidéos. Il fallait bien un colloque international à l'université Sorbonne Nouvelle pour célébrer le cinquantenaire du plus célèbre des guerriers gaulois Des universitaires d'horizons divers, exégètes, traducteurs, traductologues, spécialistes des médias, venus de Gaule, d'Hispanie, d'Helvétie, mais aussi d'Égypte et du Japon, ont exploré le monde, les mondes, d'Astérix. Le présent ouvrage est une sélection des contributions présentées lors du colloque. Nul doute qu'il répondra aux questions que le lecteur peut encore se poser sur le « phénomène Astérix ».

Confession d’un masque (1949), œuvre qui consacra l’enfant prodige de la scène littéraire nipponne qu’était déjà Mishima depuis 1944, se place à plusieurs niveaux sous le signe proustien. De ce faux premier roman jusqu’à la tétralogie finale dont la date d’achèvement n’est autre que celle de son suicide, l’article étudie dans l’œuvre de Mishima, l’engrenage du « je » proustien et sa métempsychose, montrant que la lecture de la Recherche aura alimenté chez Mishima, une ambition de littérature mondiale., Confessions of a Mask (1949), a work that elevated the child prodigy of the Japanese literary scene that Mishima had already been since 1944, is influenced by Proust in several ways. From this false first novel until the final tetralogy whose date of completion is none other than that of his suicide, the article studies in the work of Mishima the mechanism behind the Proustian “I” and its metempsychosis, showing that reading the Recherche would feed Mishima’s world-literary ambitions.

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At the Heart of the Figure of Mishima Mishima's Confession of a Mask (1949) both turned him into a literary figure and showed him as a figure of literature ; in 1970, he dated the last paragraph of his last book with the date of his suicide, the finishing touch of a life — long quest to unravel fiction and reality — by knitting them more firmly together, « at the heart »., Nemoto Misako. Au cœur de la figure de Mishima. In: Littérature, n°111, 1998. pp. 37-50.

A reproducible noninvasive monkey model for global brain ischemia with exact insult (no flow x 16 min) to the brain, with survival and with standardized preischemic, ischemic and postischemic variables is described. This model allowed us to demonstrate for the first time: 1) that a substantial part of brain damage early postischemia is reversible and amenable especially to barbiturate treatment; 2) that the postischemic brain shows increased vulnerability for additional insults. Optimal postischemic intensive monitoring and immobilization for 24-48 hours is important for improved outcome; 3) that immediate postischemic reperfusion pressure (MAP 110-150 mm Hg) significantly improves the outcome; 4) that heparinisation during ischemia has no protective effect and 5) that postischemic heparinisation and intravenous hemodilution does not ameliorate the outcome. The protective effect of trimetaphan against neurogenic pulmonary edema can be explained by the prevention of pulmonary hypertension but its protective effect on the development of secondary cerebral edema has to be elucidated.

The protective effect of thiopental on neurological lesions provoked by cerebral anoxie was studied in the monkey. Cerebral ischemia was induced by a cervical tourniquet applied for a period of 16 minutes. A control series of 10 animals received only the normal resuscitation. A series of 27 monkeys received either 90 mg/kg of thiopental at 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes following ischemia, or 120 mg/kg at the 30th or 60th minute. One third of the dose was administered within 5 minutes and the rest during the following 55 minutes. The results shows that the prevention, by thiopental, of the clinical and histological lesion secondary to cerebral anoxia is effective when this drug is administered before the 15th minute. With 90 mg/kg administered at the 30th or 60th minute the improvement was slight: with 120 mg/kg it was greater if the injection was given at the 60th rather than at the 30th minute. These results, along with the mechanisms which may explain the action of thiopental, are discussed.