The Lumière Lyon 2 University implements mediation actions for the PRC and JCJC 2021 research projects in consultation with their respective coordinators and according to the programming of the University’s Science and Society staff division. These mediation actions open to non-academic audiences can take the form of comic strips, articles, video capsules, workshops for events. They will be evaluated internally.

The present proposal aims to study the effects of emotion and attention on memory in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Particularly, we are interested in combined effects of emotion and attention on this function. This is the main novelty of this project. We combine the expertise of researchers with a multidisciplinary scientific basis (cognitive psychology, geriatrics, neuropsychology and neuroimaging) and with multi-domain basis (attention, emotion, memory) in order to respond to the following questions: (1) Do Alzheimer's patients memorize and recognize better emotionally significant information' (2) How attention modulates retention and recognition of emotionally significant information in AD' (3) What is the role of amygdala in retention and recognition of emotionally significant versus emotionally neutral information in AD and normal elderly subjects' Emotions are thought to play an important role in encoding and retrieval of memories, as expressed by emotional memory enhancement (EME) of performance. This enhancement is probably mediated by amygdala, the structure involved in emotional processing. Recent studies point out that pathological changes affect amygdala early in the Alzheimer's disease. Thus it is important to understand the effects of emotional processes on memory in AD. The existing data are rather controversial. Particularly, the nature of the memory task (implicit/explicit) may be involved in a discrepancy of results. The question we ask here has not been systematically investigated to date. Usually, studies examine EME in AD either with explicit or implicit tasks. We propose to investigate this discrepancy by using two experimental tasks and by varying instructions given to subjects in order to cross explicit and implicit encoding with explicit and implicit recall. The tasks will be categorization and recognition of emotionally significant or neutral stimuli. In order to better understand the role of amygdala in the EME a volumetric measure of amygdala will be performed in AD patients and control elderly subjects, and a correlation between its volume and the memory performance will be examined. In addition, we will use the fMRI approach to study implication of amygdala in EME with normal elderly subjects. Attention seems central to all cognitive activities and this raises-up the question of relation between attention and mnemonic processes. Recent studies suggest greater functional and neuropathological changes in the frontal lobes in AD than it was though. Attention deficits in this population are predominant when the situation requires inhibition of irrelevant information or cognitive control over highly active but inappropriate responses, or requires prioritizing of information. Thus, an understanding of AD related changes in memory cannot be achieve without an understanding of AD related changes in selective attention, particularly in inhibition. However, there is few evidence of how impairment of inhibition and impairment of prioritizing might influence memory performance in AD. We will use tasks inspired from psychophysical experimental paradigms. The main paradigm will, in a first part, constrain subjects to respond to some stimuli and to inhibit other according to their physical characteristics. In addition, some of the stimuli will be characterised by priority physical characteristic. In a second part we will investigate subjects' recognition of stimuli in function of their inhibition and their priority physical information. Selective attention may be modulated by emotional nature of the information. Thus, we will study the combined effects of the emotional valence of information and attention abilities of AD patients on their memory performance. The same paradigms, as here above, will be used and in addition we will vary emotional valance of the stimuli. This project, studying influence of emotional and attentional processes on memory in AD, should contribute to a better understanding of memory function in this population. We expect to clarify the discrepancy of results concerning emotional memory enhancement. The second part of this project should precise involvement of inhibitory and prioritizing processes in memory impairment in AD. The third part of this protocol attempts to bring together usually separated investigations. Exploration of combined influences of emotional and attentional processes on memory in AD patients may bring new insight on the memory impairment in these patients and on the normal memory function. Functional neuroimaging study and Voxel Based Morphometry will precise the role of amygdala in memory processes of emotional stimuli. Eventually, better understanding of emotional memory enhancement in Alzheimer's patients may help in elaboration of memory remediation programs.

Scattering experiments are the most elaborate way to analyse the laws of nature. In quantum field theory, the S-matrix encompasses all scattering processes, and describes physical phenomena as varied as collision experiments, gravitational waves, the strong nuclear force, string theoretic and quantum gravitational effects such as black hole production in high-energy scattering. There are two approaches to compute the S-matrix: perturbative and non-perturbative. The first has progressed a lot, propelled by the modern colliders’ needs, but captures only restricted physical regimes. Interestingly, it gave rise to new concepts, such as the double-copy construction of gravity, whose origin is elusive. The non-perturbative approach aims to compute the S-matrix directly, by combining the powerful principles it must obey: unitarity, causality, and crossing. Its main bottlenecks are our lack of control on multi-particle processes, and the non-linear nature of unitarity. These constraints are so stringent that today we still have not obtained a single fully consistent S-matrix. This project aims to fill this gap. It will (1) provide the first fully consistent S-matrices and produce the most accurate up-to-date pion S-matrix model, (2) produce models of unitary quantum-gravity scattering with high-energy black hole production. Even more ambitiously, for (1) and (2), the team will explore the space of all such consistent S-matrices. Finally, (3) SPARTA will investigate the non-perturbative nature of double-copy and explore its role as a new S-matrix principle. SPARTA will reach these goals thanks to an original approach to non-perturbative unitarity, "scattering-from-production", which tackles the bottlenecks of the non-perturbative approach, while making use of modern perturbation theory, and using powerful numerical tools. By this unique approach, SPARTA will lay the foundations of a grand programme, at the interface of scattering amplitudes and non-perturbative S-matrix.

“China’s Great Brain Gain” is a response to the inadequate representations of the Chinese experience with globalization. Its central object of analysis is the systematic reexamination of the role that American-educated Chinese (liumei) played in the birth of what we call “modern China”. Between the First Opium War (1839–42) and the founding of the People’s Republic of China (1949), over 40,000 Chinese students went to study in the United States, intending to return and apply the knowledge they had acquired abroad to “modernize” their country. These returned students represent a wave of brain migration unique in world history, with far-reaching effects that have yet to be fully examined. Our approach is based on the conviction that social actors rather than abstract geopolitical entities are the driving forces of historical change. It is also based on the conviction that a proper reevaluation of the liumei’s contributions must include the quantitative and qualitative analysis of their life trajectories, social networks, and cultural discourses from a transnational and longue durée perspective. Our methodology relies on the systematic collection of historical data from a wide range of multilingual sources, their integration within a digital environment, and their semantic enrichment using advanced techniques of Natural Language Processing. This data-rich history is designed to overcome the limitations of both traditional and “big data” approaches and to enable multidimensional analyses that were not heretofore possible. This project emphasizes feasibility through its well-defined target population and source corpora, its reliance on validated methodologies, and its two-pronged approach combining macro-analyses with selected case studies. By combining cutting-edge digital methods with an intellectually ambitious research agenda, it will profoundly reshape our understanding of modern China and radically transform research practices beyond the field of Chinese Studies.