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The Cheyenne Woman in the Nineteenth Century. The Cheyennes were a hunting and gathering nomadic people, who moved from the Great Lakes region to the Northern Great Plains, where they became equestrian bujfalo hunters at the end of the XVIIIth century. Their social organization was strictly divided between the men, hunting and protecting the tribe, and the women, in charge of the welfare of the household. Even after they turned to the buffalo culture, the Cheyennes remained a matrilineal and matrilocal tribe, which held women in high regard for they were the mothers of the people. That status was degraded when the Whites introduced new goods, and therefore new needs, to the Cheyennes : the demand for industrial items grew so much during the XIXth century that the women worked most of their time producing goods for trade, becoming therefore more and more considered as a labor force. The wars with the US Army also influenced tribal organization through the growing influence of the warriors. But the process which was transforming a uterine society into an agnatic one was stopped by the surrender of the tribe and the reservation system., Les Cheyennes, peuple nomade vivant de la chasse et de la cueillette dans la région des Grands Lacs, migrèrent jusqu’aux Grandes Plaines du Nord, où ils se transformèrent en cavaliers chasseurs de bison à la fin du XVIIIe siècle. Une organisation sociale stricte répartissait le travail entre les hommes, qui chassaient et protégeaient la tribu, et les femmes, qui avaient la responsabilité du bien-être de la famille. L’apparition des Blancs entraîna une dégradation progressive du statut des femmes en introduisant dans la culture cheyenne de nouveaux produits, donc de nouveaux besoins : la demande en objets industriels augmenta tellement au cours du siècle que les femmes consacraient leur temps à fabriquer des objets de négoce, et étaient de plus en plus considérées comme une simple force de travail. Mais l’évolution qui transformait une société matriarcale en société patriarcale fut brusquement interrompue par la reddition de la tribu et la politique des réserves., Pepin Véronique. La femme cheyenne au XIXe siècle. In: Cahiers Charles V, n°22, septembre 1997. Vie privée, bien public. Histoire de la sociabilité américaine. pp. 173-189.

Objective Aerobic exercise can improve cardiovascular fitness and does not seem to be detrimental to patients with asthma, though its role in changing asthma control and inflammatory profiles is unclear. The main hypothesis of the current randomised controlled trial is that aerobic exercise will be superior to usual care in improving asthma control. Key secondary outcomes are asthma quality of life and inflammatory profiles. Design A total of 104 sedentary adults with physician-diagnosed asthma will be recruited. Eligible participants will undergo a series of baseline assessments including: the asthma control questionnaire; the asthma quality-of-life questionnaire and the inflammatory profile (assessed from both the blood and sputum samples). On completion of the assessments, participants will be randomised (1:1 allocation) to either 12-weeks of usual care or usual care plus aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise will consist of three supervised training sessions per week. Each session will consist of taking a short-acting bronchodilator, 10 min of warm-up, 40 min of aerobic exercise (50–75% of heart rate reserve for weeks 1–4, then 70–85% for weeks 5–12) and a 10 min cool-down. Within 1 week of completion, participants will be reassessed (same battery as at baseline). Analyses will assess the difference between the two intervention arms on postintervention levels of asthma control, quality of life and inflammation, adjusting for age, baseline inhaled corticosteroid prescription, body weight change and pretreatment dependent variable level. Missing data will be handled using standard multiple imputation techniques. Ethics and dissemination The study has been approved by all relevant research ethics boards. Written consent will be obtained from all participants who will be able to withdraw at any time. Results The result will be disseminated to three groups of stakeholder groups: (1) the scientific and professional community; (2) the research participants and (3) the general public. Registration Details ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT00953342

Rationale: The endurance shuttle walk has recently been shown to be highly responsive to both bronchodilation and pulmonary rehabilitation. The degree to which changes in endurance shuttle walking performance are perceptible to patients is unknown. Objective: To evaluate the relationship between objective and subjective measures of change in endurance shuttle walking performance. Methods: 129 comparison points were obtained from 69 patients with COPD (FEV1: 47±16%) who completed two or more endurance shuttle walking tests as part of a bronchodilation study. Patients were asked to rate their performance of the day in comparison to their previous performance on a 7&S209; point scale ranging from -3 (large deterioration) to +3 (large improvement). These ratings were related to changes in walking distance and endurance time, expressed both as delta and percent change. Results: Patient ratings of change were significantly correlated with delta walking distance (r=0.44, P < 0.001), delta endurance time (r=0.46, P < 0.001), percent change in walking distance (r=0.54, P < 0.001), and percent change in endurance time (r=0.55, P < 0.001). Deteriorations in walking performance were perceived in 34% of cases, while improvements were detected in 81% of cases. Conclusion: Changes in endurance shuttle walking performance, especially improvements, are well perceived by patients with COPD. From this set of data, it should be possible to identify the smallest change in walking performance with a high likelihood of being perceived by the patients (MCID).

Background: Contractile fatigue of the quadriceps occurs in a significant proportion of patients with COPD after constant-load cycling exercise. Dynamic hyperinflation, by altering cardiac output during exercise, could contribute to fatigue susceptibility in this population. The purpose of this study was to compare operational lung volumes during constant workrate exercise between COPD patients who do and those who do not develop contractile fatigue of the quadriceps (fatiguers vs non-fatiguers). Methods: Sixty-two patients with COPD (FEV1: 46±16%) completed a constant-load cycling test at 80% of the peak workrate achieved during progressive cycle ergometry. Ventilatory parameters were monitored breath-by-breath, while inspiratory capacity maneuvers were obtained every other minute during constant-load cycling. Quadriceps twitch force was measured with magnetic stimulation of the femoral nerve before and after the test. Muscle fatigue was defined as a post-exercise reduction in quadriceps twitch force of more than 15% of the resting value. Results: Forty patients (65%) developed muscle fatigue after constant-load cycling. No significant differences were found between fatiguers and non-fatiguers with respect to age, body mass index, resting lung function, peak oxygen consumption, and endurance time to constant-load exercise. Change in inspiratory capacity from rest to end-exercise (DIC) was similar between both subgroups (DIC: 0.56±0.32L vs 0.56±0.47L for fatiguers and non-fatiguers respectively, P=0.99). Conclusion: Susceptibility to muscle fatigue could not be predicted by exercise duration or by the degree of dynamic hyperinflation in patients with COPD.