National University Institute Jean-Francois Champollion

Stings of certain ant species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) can cause intense, long-lasting nociception. Here we show that the major contributors to these symptoms are venom peptides that modulate the activity of voltage-gated sodium (NaV) channels, reducing their voltage threshold for activation and inhibiting channel inactivation. These peptide toxins are likely vertebrate-selective, consistent with a primarily defensive function. They emerged early in the Formicidae lineage and may have been a pivotal factor in the expansion of ants.

ABSTRACT Annexed by the Germans in 1870, the Alsace region returned to France in 1918. Following a triumphal welcome for French troops, the Alsatians began timidly to showcase their new nationality after 47 years of German presence. In a country that promoted anti-Germanism, laying claim to German heritage on the political or professional scene was impossible. The situation was quite different however in the field of sport, which cultivated contradictions by playing on its neutral and apolitical image. Local sports associations maintained a special relationship with the border, characterized by porosity with regard to Germany and the partitioning of the French or even Alsatian side. Such ambiguous positioning led them to hesitate between two different approaches: either adopt a public position proclaiming their commitment to the Republic or take an infrapolitical stand and “play with the new borders.” The paper studies this phenomenon through the monograph of the rowing club “Cercle Nautique de Strasbourg.”

This text aims to trace and examine the interactions between international migration and decentralisation in Mali, in the light of the following questions: how the decentralisation contributes to territorialise migratory resources and to which local and transnational governance. Decentralisation reform (1993) has produced new territories (rural and urban communes) and created an unprecedented local political landscape since 1999 (local elections). Faced with this territorial and political renewal, migrant associations from the regions of Kayes and Koulikoro, based in France, have adapted the terms of their commitment to their villages. The regionalisation of migratory resources is underway, and produces new forms of local and transnational governance, in which the place of migrants and their legitimacy still seems very fragile.