Personnages dans l’art saharien : le réel et l’imaginé

In the Sahara, wherever there are naked rock surfaces, engravings and paintings have been found in large numbers. This rock art includes various types of images — the oldest dating about ten millenniums — among which human beings, wild or domesticated animals, therianthrops and non-explicit images can be identified. According to periods and styles, the human being has been represented under extremely varied aspects from particularly realistic — similar to the reality — till very simplified, even caricatural drawings. For some realistic representations of women and men, we can observe anatomical or morphological peculiarities which, without being frequent, show cases of steatopygy and gynoïd or androïd obesity, pathological or not. For certain periods, we also find imaginary, fantastic or caricatural representations. These images characterize particularly styles previous to that called “Round Heads”. So, in the Saharan art, the human being has been represented either in his physical truth, or according to multiple stylistic conventions or graphic stereotypes, which could characterize certain ethnic groups.     

L’éclairage biologique des activités mentales: réduction ou mise en perspective ?

The relationship between the human psychological faculties and their underlying biological foundation is traditionally addressed within the mind-matter philosophical framework and its ethical extension regarding freedom and determinism. Neurobiology represents a new method, reflective of our times, to articulate the relationships between biological and psychological phenomena. The various points of view in this field are often based on implicit ontological presuppositions and, at least sometimes, unconscious epistemological assumptions: monism vs dualism, functionalism, reductionism, eliminativism, type identity and other more or less sophisticated variations. Bearing in mind the pitfalls these create, we can try to determine structural analogies across the different levels of the living being and the mind: the energy imbalance maintained for cell survival; the dynamic and complementary relationship between homeostatic and allostatic functions in living organisms; the tension between essential and complementary cognitive brain processes, such as the processes used to represent an object and those used to locate an object in space. Those phenomena all bear structural analogies, even though they work at different levels.     

La scintigraphie hépatobiliaire : aspects et applications d’une technique sous-exploitée

We present two clinical cases illustrating two indications of cholescintigraphy that are purposely very dissimilar to illustrate the panel of application of this technique. The first reported case is a young man who received an auxiliary-liver transplantation for the treatment of fulminant hepatitis, in whom cholescintigraphy enabled to follow the evolution of the graft and the native-liver function and to determine the appropriate time to (gradually) reduce and then cease the antirejection-drug treatment. The second case is a middle-aged man with incapacitating abdominal pain. Cholescintigraphy related pain to a dysfunction of the sphincter of Oddi.     

Froid hivernal et port exclusif de chaussures de sport en tissu par une adolescente : effets tardifs en tomoscintigraphie osseuse et en résonance magnétique nucléaire

We present a rare clinical case of a 14-year-old adolescent girl from central Switzerland with an algoneurodystrophy of the left foot and leg 6 months after grade I frostbite(s) of the feet. After 6 months of constant pain of the digits, not attenuated by non steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, MRI of the feet reveals a predominantly left-sided and distal medullary edema, limited to the phalanges. Bone scintigraphy shows a predominantly left-sided diffuse feet hypoperfusion, coupled with an increased bone uptake of the left leg at late images. Inadequate life-style of adolescents, i.e., exclusively wearing shoes made of cloth and not of leather – even with temperatures below 0 °C in winter – might be a cause of chronic pain of foot digits. This is a rare demonstration of late effects of cold on foot digits by combined MRI and bone scintigraphy. Algoneurodystrophy in children and adolescents is an underdiagnosed clinical entity.     

L’assemblage lithique du site Acheuléen de Namib IV (Namib central,Namibie)

Despite a rich archaeological record, the old prehistory of Namibia, particularly from the Earlier Stone Age, is poorly documented, due to the surface context of the findings, exposed by erosional processes. In this context, human behaviors and responses to environment changes in this region during the Middle Pleistocene remain unclear. In the late 1970's, Myra Shackley surveyed the Central Namib dune desert and discovered lithic artefacts associated to fragmented fossilized bones of antelopes, elephants, zebras and buffalos at Namib IV. She interpreted this locality as an Acheulean butchery site on the shores of a paleolake. The radiometric dating suggested an age of ~347ka whereas biochronology broadly pointed the human occupation to the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (1–0.5 Ma). Thanks to these ages, Namib IV is currently the earliest dated evidence of human presence in the current Namib coastal desert. Contextualized by the existing chronological and paleoenvironmental data, we analyzed the unstudied lithic material recovered at Namib IV. To do so, we applied a qualitative morpho-structural approach to the stone tools and tried to reconstruct the productional schemes (chaînes opératoires). Our results argue for an important economy of the raw material, a spatial fragmentation of stone tool production and an important technical homogeneity of the lithic assemblage despite few possible intrusive elements. In the light of these analyses, we finally discussed the advanced site function of Namib IV as butchery site.     

Tomographie d’émission de positons et radiopharmaceutiques spécifiques en oncologie : exemples d’application

Although FDG PET/CT imaging provides high sensitivity in several kinds of cancer and has many applications, it is important to recognize that FDG is not a “specific” radiotracer for imaging malignant disease and that its sensitivity is also sometimes limited (especially for well-differentiated or slow growing tumours). Highly “tumour-specific” complementary PET radiopharmaceuticals are then essential to evaluate. Some examples of the potential clinical utility of specific PET radiopharmaceuticals are reported in this issue.     

L’intersubjectif et l’intrasubjectif dans l’expérience de souffrance. Un regard psychanalytique

Psychoanalysis characterises subjectivity as a notion based on the “plurality of psychologically troubled persons”, revealed, for instance, in dreams. The author takes a closer look at a number of Freud’s dream analyses and argues that, in working with the dream, subjects often eject one of their psychologically troubled persons (often the “suffering child”) out of themselves, projecting the person into the Other. As a result, an intersubjective space is created, which is required to receive the divisions originating from the intrasubjective space. Freud’s 1895 Project, however, goes farther: the evacuation of the “disparate part” of the child to the Other grants access to logical and rational judgement, guaranteeing a child’s psychological life a fictional stability (the “Thing” or the “ego”). Freud adds that this process is possible if a Nebenmensch — or “fellow creature” — is present and has the quality of a “helping person” capable of receiving the child’s suffering cry. These two lines of thought, together, help clarify the intersubjective position underlying the analytical work: a tentative encounter between the patient’s distress and the analyst’s presence. Free-floating attention will enable the analyst to receive and hear this distress and ease the patient’s recovery of his or her intrasubjective space.     

L’impuissant,les injections intracaverneuses,et le sexologue: pour une prise en charge globale

The current widespread use of intracavernosal injections (ICI) in the treatment of impotence has caused physicians confronted with this type of pathology, and sexologists in particular, to seek the best means of mastering the theoretical and practical aspects of such management. Since 1988, we have used ICI as a cognitive-behavioural tool. Our experience is based upon, on the one hand, an acquired practice, but also upon a conceptual model of sexuality which integrates various reflex, sensual and erotic components in a dynamic, interactive manner. In positioning ICI at the heart of an easily implemented cognitive-behavioural functional framework, we allow it to be not only symptomatic treatment (i.e. of erection failure, whatever the cause), but also to acquire a true therapeutic dimension. Such an integrated approach, which brings about a true healing process, is made possible by the renewal of the subject’s self-confidence, easing his anxiety, restoring his inadequate sexual performance, and by moving forwards in a spirit of success. In depending on the manifestly obvious results of the injection, the patient also rediscovers his sensual, erotic and fantasizing capacities, necessary for recovery of sexual satisfaction.     

Prospections systématiques d’une vallée entre Rhône et Loire (France). Une cartographie de l’occupation à la fin de l’Acheuléen ?

Systematic surveys on the Rhins Valley, a little tributary of the Loire River (South East France), have yielded lithic assemblages for more than 20 years. The number of open-air localities totals at that moment 28. The assemblages are composed for the most of bifaces, cores, including many Levallois cores, and flakes. Although the number of pieces varies in localities, data recorded for more than 20 years are enough to map a small size territory and compare assemblages attributed to the end of the “Acheulean”. Comparison of strategies, debitage and façonnage, provides hypotheses on the type of occupation of the valley, with living spots located on the flint outcrops and asking both a heavy-duty component and flaking products. Some main categories of bifacial tools are present, mainly on flint. The ratio of bifaces and intensity of shaping seems to distinguish the series. The Levallois core technology is used in large quantity associated to diverse other core technologies. These sites located on the plateaus bordering the valley offer the opportunity to describe human occupations on a micro-regional scale, occupations sharing technological common features. These occupations are located between the Saône-Rhône corridor and the isolated basins of the Massif Central. The rhodanian corridor has yielded at that moment few evidence of Acheulean open-air human occupations. These sites attest that systematic surveys have to continue on these areas to complete the knowledge on the occupations.     

Comparaison des teneurs en saccharose et en nucléotides riches en énergie des graines en germination d'une betterave sucrière et d'une betterave fourragère

Comparison of a sugar beet with a forage beet variety shows that, during germination, the seedlings have the same nucleoside triphosphate content, but those of sugar beet contain more sucrose and less UDPG than those of forage beet.     

L’éléphantiasis pénoscrotal, diagnostic et prise en charge: à propos de trois cas

Penoscrotal elephantiasis is a rare disease outside areas where filariasis is endemic. It is a benign disease but can become disabling in that it can make sexual relations difficult and sometimes even affect urination. We report three cases of primitive penoscrotal elephantiasis treated with complete surgical resection of pathological tissue and penoscrotal reconstruction, with good functional and aesthetic results. We update, through our own experience and a review of the literature, aspects of the diagnostic and therapeutic care of penoscrotal elephantiasis.     

L’origine et l’évolution des oiseaux : 35 années de progrès

The origin and evolution of birds: 35 years of progress. Birds are dinosaurs – specifically, small feathered and flighted theropod dinosaurs that probably originated in Laurasia during the Late Jurassic over 140 million years ago. They are most closely related to other small theropods such as dromaeosaurs and troodontids, terrestrial predators that were fleet-footed hunters. The origin of birds is a classic example of two kinds of macroevolution: the phylogenetic origin of the group, and the sequential assembly of adaptations such as flight that are indelibly associated with birds. These adaptations were not assembled all at once. Rather, a great many characteristics associated with birds and flight first appeared in non-avian dinosaurs, where they were used for many purposes other than flight. These included insulation, brooding, and probably display and species recognition. Birds diversified steadily but gradually after their origin, which is identified with the origin of flight (Archaeopteryx); forelimb and other flight-associated features evolved more rapidly than features associated with the posterior skeleton. The first birds grew more slowly than extant birds do, and more like other small Mesozoic dinosaurs; like them, they probably matured sexually well before they completed their active skeletal growth. The origin of flight is not a problem of “trees down” or “ground up,” but rather an examination of the order in which diagnostic flight characters evolved, and what each stage can reveal about the functions and habits of bird outgroups at those evolutionary junctures.     

Variabilité de l’Acheuléen de plein air entre Rhône et Loire (France)

The lithic assemblages of five open-air sites offer the opportunity to observe and compare Final Acheulean series located in the Loire department (South-East France). The sites were probably multi-activity places including large tools and flakes, according to the strategies used by humans. Three main categories of large bifacial tools mainly made of flint can be described, with a triangular or oval shape and with a transversal cutting edge. The ratio and intensity of flaking oppose the series. The Levallois flaking is always present and associated to various other types of methods. The sites, located on plateaus on the two banks of a small valley, suggest human circulating between the Saône-Rhône corridor and the interior basins of the Massif Central Mountains. The Rhodanian corridor yielded little evidence of Acheulean open-air settlements while in the Centre of France, they are numerous. These sites prove that systematic prospecting in this area will permit in future to complete the map of the Acheulean occupations in south-east France and discuss about the variability.     

L’homme de Tautavel. Un Homo erectus européen évolué. Homo erectus tautavelensis

One hundred and forty-eight human remains have been discovered during excavations carried out between 1964 and 2014 in la Caune de l’Arago, in Tautavel, in the Eastern Pyrenees. They come from a detailed stratigraphic context comprising 15 archaeostratigraphic units with human presence, with ages ranging from 550 ka for unit Q at the base, to 400 ka for unit C at the top (OIS 14 to 10). During this long period of time, Man experienced two cold and dry climatic periods (stratigraphic complexes I and III), separated by a humid-temperate period (stratigraphic complex II). Most of the human remains come from units F and G, in stratigraphic complex III, associated with a cold and windy steppic environment. The human remains were mixed with the archaeological material and waste from hunted and consumed fauna. The inventory of human remains comprises a majority of cranial elements, and in particular, the anterior portion of a skull, Arago XXI, discovered on 22 July 1971, which revealed the physical aspect of the first Europeans for the first time. The remains are made up of 5 mandibles, 123 teeth (isolated or still on the alveolar arch), several post-cranial skeletal fragments: 9 upper limb elements, 19 lower limb elements, representing 30 deceased individuals, comprising 18 adults and 12 children. The study of these fossils relates them to Asian and African forms of Homo erectus, as they display common characteristics. This observation raises questions as to the existence of this group in Europe. The contribution of the collection of human fossils from Arago thus presents a threefold interest; paleontological, population-based and behavioural. The multiple remains allow us to assess the biodiversity and the composition of this small population. These remains present original features in comparison to Mauer, the classical Homo heidelbergensis European ancestor. The Arago fossils display archaic characteristics not observed on the Mauer mandible; in particular, the great anteroposterior extension of the convex arch toward the fore, the large proportions of the premolars and of the M2, the high robusticity index of the mandible body, the sub-horizontal alveolar planum and the slightly inclined prominent mylohyoidian line. The face of the skull is not yet reduced to allow for the expansion of the brain, a process which develops at a later stage. The skull is low, with an extended frontal, very marked facial prognathism and a powerful masticatory apparatus with temporal crests and a prominent torus angularis, conveying a pantagonal coronal cross-section, contrasting with the regular convexity observed on the skulls from La Sima de los Huesos and Neanderthals. A comparative analysis with the well-documented population discovered in La Sima de los Huesos shows that the latter fossils are more evolved and are more similar to the Neanderthal shape, and at the same time, not very different from the Mauer mandible. The currently known European human fossils point to the following scenario: Homo georgicus, a similar form to the habilis-rudolfensis group, bearing pre-Oldowan and Oldowan technology, was present at the gateways of Europe approximately 1.8 Ma ago. From 1.2–0.8 Ma onwards, the somewhat fragmentary records from Atapuerca, Elefante, Gran Dolina-TD6, could be related to this first lineage. The first Homo erectus with biface cultures to leave Africa arrived at the gateways of Europe some 1.2 Ma ago, as shown by the discovery of the Kocabaş skull cap in Anatolia, similar to the fossils from Buia in Eritrea and Daka in Ethiopia, dated to about 1 Ma. From 0.55 Ma, the set of 148 human remains, and in particular the skull Arago XXI, point to the presence of a new, well-documented form (distinct from Mauer). We propose to relate these remains to Homo erectus tautavelensis, thereby giving this subspecies a geographic connotation. The morphofunctional and cultural characteristics of Homo erectus tautavelensis represent the stock of a long European lineage, leading to the emergence of Neanderthals.