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Cet article retrace le parcours des tissus bogolans bio-équitables de Ballakissa Art, exposés pour la première fois à l’Ethical Fashion Show de Paris, en 2006. Du Tapis Rouge de Paris, il nous conduira sur la colline de Lassa, à Bamako, où se trouve l’atelier de l’artiste malien. Il ne s’agira pas seulement d’un voyage entre la France et le Mali. Le déplacement est beaucoup plus complexe puisqu’il s’articule autour des plusieurs univers idéologiques qui ne coïncident pas forcément avec les frontières géographiques. Pour ce faire, il faudra interroger la notion de valeur que les acteurs reconnaissent à ces créations de mode, la manière avec laquelle ils la construisent et les finalités instrumentales qui lui sont réservées. L’espace sociopolitique que les protagonistes de cette manifestation occupent dans le monde globalisé sera aussi interrogé, en partant de l’idée que le problème de la valeur est intrinsèquement politique. This article traces the journey of Ballakissa Art's bio-fair trade bogolan fabrics, first exhibited at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris in 2006. From the Tapis Rouge in Paris, it will lead us to the hill of Lassa, in Bamako, where the Malian artist's workshop is located. It will not only be a journey between France and Mali. The displacement is much more complex since it is articulated around several ideological universes that do not necessarily coincide with the geographical borders. In order to do this, we must question the notion of value that the actors recognize in these fashion creations, the way in which they construct it and the instrumental purposes that are reserved for it. The socio-political space that the protagonists of this event occupy in the globalized world will also be questioned, starting from the idea that the problem of value is intrinsically political.

Humulus lupulus (Hop) contains numerous metabolites with anticancer potential. Despite this, their immunomodulatory activity, and in particular of bitter acids, is unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that a Hop pellet extract fraction containing bitter acids possesses immunomodulatory activity by enhancing Natural Killer (NK) cells function. After fractionation by semi-preparative Liquid Chromatography, three different fractions were obtained. The phytocomplex and the fractions were tested to verify the ability to modulate the NK compartment. Cytofluorimetric analysis revealed that a fraction containing bitter acids was able to up-regulate of NKG2D and NKp44 activating receptors. A further simplification yield a fraction mainly composed by Humulinones and Cohulupone derivatives, that at the concentration of 0.1 µg/mL induced selective activation of Nkp44 receptor and enhanced the cytolytic activity of NK cells against leukemia cell line K562. Those results point out the possible use of Hop bitter acids as natural immunostimulants and adjuvants in chemotherapy protocols.

HmtDB (http://www.hmtdb.uniba.it:8080/hmdb) is a open resource created to support population genetics and mitochondrial disease studies. The database hosts human mitochondrial genome sequences annotated with population and variability data, the latter being estimated through the application of the SiteVar software based on site-specific nucleotide and amino acid variability calculations. The annotations are manually curated thus adding value to the quality of the information provided to the end-user. Classifier tools implemented in HmtDB allow the prediction of the haplogroup for any human mitochondrial genome currently stored in HmtDB or externally submitted de novo by an end-user. Haplogroup definition is based on the Phylotree system. End-users accessing HmtDB are hence allowed to (i) browse the database through the use of a multi-criterion 'query' system; (ii) analyze their own human mitochondrial sequences via the 'classify' tool (for complete genomes) or by downloading the 'fragment-classifier' tool (for partial sequences); (iii) download multi-alignments with reference genomes as well as variability data.