LE STUDIUM Multidisciplinary Journal

Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormones (LH), the gonadotropins are the regulators of follicle growth, ovulation, and oocyte maturation. An imbalance in their levels or activity is known to cause subfertility or infertility, especially in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). In many of these women, LH levels are high along with untimely LH receptor (LHR) expression in granulosa cells in the follicular phase of menstrual cycles. Here, we demonstrate that high LHR activity due to high LH stimulate abnormal cAMP levels. The interaction between FSHR and IRS proteins (IRS-1 or IRS-2) is altered due to high LH/LHR expression/activity. This study demonstrates novel therapeutic targets in women with PCOS. The inhibition of high LHR activity with antagonistic peptides or LHR specific nanobodies would pave a way towards management of hormonal imbalance in women with PCOS.

The research focussed on a monophonic chansonnier compiled after 1500 in the context of earlier, contemporary and later musical sources transmitting polyphonic and monophonic concordances and variants of its repertoire, without forgetting the repertoire uniquely transmitted by it. The resulting monograph on the manuscript will include a historical introduction and an online transcription of the melodies with their texts. It will moreover examine a group of songs shared with another monophonic chansonnier, exploring their polyphonic arrangements in related sources and the transformations of music-poetic forms, like the virelai. In examining the spread of various songs from the late fifteenth to the early sixteenth century, this study explores the significance of monophonic songs within the musical landscape of late medieval and early Renaissance France and Europe. Moreover, it reconsiders the concept of ‘variant’, proposing a more nuanced and open conception of ‘musical work’, existing well beyond the traces left in the sources.

If undercover police incite someone to break the law, to make an arrest, this is state entrapment. If a private citizen incites someone to break the law, to report them, we have private entrapment. State entrapment usually compromises prosecution. Private entrapment usually does not. The police and the courts respond to it in disparate, unpredictable ways. The research project is primarily interested in state entrapment; private entrapment is of secondary interest. The focus is on three questions: definition; permissibility; implications. Rather than stemming from innocuous conventional differences, disagreements about entrapment are at heart philosophical conflicts. Philosophy has a key role to play in deepening our understanding of the assumptions that underlie debates about entrapment, the concept of entrapment, and the ethics of entrapment. This project is the first sustained, comprehensive, and specifically philosophical study of the topic. During the research stay at Tours, one chapter of a forthcoming book (Oxford) was written.

The booming field of diffusion chronometry allows geoscientists to extract the timing and duration of subsurface magmatic processes that occur prior to volcanic eruptions. The technique relies on modeling step-wise, concentric chemical gradients that form within magmatic minerals as they grow or get perturbed by new incoming magma prior to volcanic unrest. These chemical ‘tree rings’ are smeared with time by element diffusion, so that the amount of time between perturbation and eruption can be recovered if the mobility (diffusivity) of elements is calibrated in the lab at magma temperatures. This project aims to resolve recently uncovered discrepancies between widely-used element diffusivities obtained in simplified systems (e.g., mineral-mineral couples) and those obtained in melt bearing systems (mineral-melt couples). The new experiments carried out during a STUDIUM-supported sabbatical in 2024-2025 confirmed that the presence of melt is responsible for important differences in element mobilities for olivine, perhaps via the presence of H2O. Diffusivities in plagioclase, by contrast, are not influenced by melt or H2O, implying that current community practices are robust. The underlying mechanisms by which these differences in element behavior appear are still being investigated, and new tools recently tested (hyperspectral cathodoluminescence) may hold important clues as to the presence and distribution of point defects in these minerals. 

The work presented is a report on a research stay as part of LE STUDIUM for visiting researchers from September 1 to November 30, 2025, at the Laboratory of Physics and Chemistry of the Environment and Space (LPC2E) of the CNRS in Orléans. This is a research stay whose objective is to apply an in-depth methodology for the microphysical, optical, and radiative characterization of aerosols at the surface and at altitude. This technique is based on in situ measurements taken by the LOAC instrument during flights using weather balloons, climate model simulations, and data from airborne and satellite sensors. This enabled us to understand the measurement methodology using the LOAC instrument, which has already been tested by the CNRS's LPC2E, and aerosol modeling using ECSM2 model simulations. Based on the measurement campaigns carried out, we analyzed the aerosol profile as well as that of PM1, PM2.5, and PM10, and the volume size distribution of the particles. Also, based on aerosol extinction evaluated using the Mie code, we were able to determine the aerosol optical depth (AOD), which is an integration of the extinction coefficient across the atmospheric layer. In addition, this trip was an opportunity to participate in a validation study of the ATLID lidar aboard the EarthCare satellite, which has been in orbit since May 2024. This has enabled us to learn a new approach to the optical and microphysical characterization of aerosols that can be applied in Burkina Faso and West Africa in general.

Mineral reactions in subsurface energy systems result in deviations from local equilibriums and can impact critical engineering properties of the system, including storage capacity (porosity) and injectivity (permeability). Accurate understanding and prediction of reaction rates and impacts on formation properties is needed for safe and efficient design and implementation of these engineered systems. Precise simulation of mineral reaction rates is limited by a poor understanding of the mineral reactive surface area in porous media. Here, pore scale numerical simulations are leveraged to simulate mineral reactions for varied flow and reaction conditions and the effective surface area analyzed. Numerical simulations of reactions in a porous media mesh are carried out in OpenFOAM® and a new scaling factor, relating the effective surface area to the accessible surface area, determined.

The goal of the research was to map Chinese investments in Loire Valley viticulture and its links with lifestyle migration. The research showed that despite the overall rise of lifestyle migration from China to Europe, Chinese investment in Loire Valley viticulture is very limited. This is because, while Chinese investment in Bordeaux wineries has declined, its principal drivers were high-end prestige investments and for-profit ventures, for which the Loire Valley, unlike Burgundy, is not an attractive alternative. Contrary to expectations, middle-class investors attracted by the “European lifestyle” associated with vineyard ownership appear to be a small group among Bordeaux investors and are currently struggling with the crisis afflicting Bordeaux wine production.

 The Moon is a cornerstone for understanding the early history (origin, budget and timing) of volatile elements (H, C, F, S, Cl) delivered to all terrestrial planets. The volatile study of lunar magmatism is the most direct way to reconstruct the volatile budget of the Moon’s interior.  However, this reconstruction is compromised by magmatic processes that modify the initial compositions of the lunar magmas. The final goal of our work is to determine how sulfide saturation and segregation in all the compositional range of lunar lavas have affected the sulfur isotopic composition of the magmas. The determined sulfur isotopic fractionation between lunar silicate melts and immiscible sulfide blebs will allow us to directly unravel the sulfur isotopic composition of the heterogeneous reservoirs forming the Moon’s interior, and therefore, provide fundamental information on the early evolution of sulfur isotopes of the Earth’s satellite.