Rapport d'évaluation du programme Nature en ville de la Ville de Neuchâtel

La Direction de l'urbanisme, de l'économie et de l'environnement de la Ville de Neuchâtel a mandaté l'Unité de politiques locales et d'évaluation de l'IDHEAP et le bureau d'études en écologie appliquée L'Azuré pour évaluer le programme Nature en ville de la Ville de Neuchâtel. Le but de l'évaluation est de déterminer si les objectifs visés par le programme ont été atteints et d'améliorer l'ancrage du programme Nature en ville dans le fonctionnement de l'administration communale

Heterogeneity in testing practices for infections during pregnancy: national survey across Switzerland.

QUESTION: Detection and treatment of infections during pregnancy are important for both maternal and child health. The objective of this study was to describe testing practices and adherence to current national guidelines in Switzerland. METHODS: We invited all registered practicing obstetricians and gynaecologists in Switzerland to complete an anonymous web-based questionnaire about strategies for testing for 14 infections during pregnancy. We conducted a descriptive analysis according to demographic characteristics. RESULTS: Of 1138 invited clinicians, 537 (47.2%) responded and 520 (45.6%) were eligible as they are currently caring for pregnant women. Nearly all eligible respondents tested all pregnant women for group B streptococcus (98.0%), hepatitis B virus (HBV) (96.5%) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (94.7%), in accordance with national guidelines. Although testing for toxoplasmosis is not recommended, 24.1% of respondents tested all women and 32.9% tested at the request of the patient. Hospital doctors were more likely not to test for toxoplasmosis than doctors working in private practice (odds ratio [OR] 2.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04-6.13, p = 0.04). Only 80.4% of respondents tested all women for syphilis. There were regional differences in testing for some infections. The proportion of clinicians testing all women for HIV, HBV and syphilis was lower in Eastern Switzerland and the Zurich region (69.4% and 61.2%, respectively) than in other regions (range 77.1-88.1%, p <0.001). Most respondents (74.5%) said they would appreciate national guidelines about testing for infections during pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: Testing practices for infections in pregnant women vary widely in Switzerland. More extensive national guidelines could improve consistency of testing practices

Study of supports for the final doublets of ATF2

We investigated supports for the final doublets of ATF2 with vertical relative motion to the floor of final doublets below 10nm. Our calculations of relative motion were done by using data of ATF ground motion. We studied the vibratory behaviour of a steel lightweight honeycomb table as a base for fixing magnets. First, the table was fixed to the floor by four steel feet at its corners. Its first vertical resonance was at 41Hz, which induces a non negligible relative motion (5.7nm) compared to ATF2 tolerances. Modal shape measurements show that the six first resonances of the table (below 150Hz) are rigid body modes in the six degrees of freedom. The conclusion of these measurements is that the table is very rigid and well adapted for ATF2 project but the rigidity of the four steel feet is not sufficient compared to the rigidity of the table. Consequently, the table was fixed to the floor on one entire face to break these six rigid body modes by three large steel plates. The first vertical resonance was then at higher frequencies (92Hz), which show that good boundary conditions were chosen for the table. The relative motion was then low (3.5nm above 0.1Hz) compared to ATF2 tolerances. To finish, we studied the vibratory behaviour of one ATF2 FD sextupole and one ATF2 FD quadrupole with their intermediary supports made at LAPP and used to fix these magnets to the honeycomb table. The measurements showed that the final doublets with their intermediary supports were well designed because the first resonance of sextupoles and quadrupoles was at high frequency (above 100 Hz and at 76Hz respectively), which induced a small relative motion of final doublets to the floor compared to ATF2 tolerances

Protease inhibitor 15, a candidate gene for abdominal aortic internal elastic lamina ruptures in the rat

The inbred Brown Norway (BN) rat develops spontaneous ruptures of the internal elastic lamina (RIEL) of the abdominal aorta (AA) and iliac arteries. Prior studies with crosses of the BN/Orl RJ (susceptible) and LOU/M (resistant) showed the presence of a significant QTL on chromosome 5 and the production of congenic rats proved the involvement of this locus. In this study, we further dissected the above-mentioned QTL by creating a new panel of LOU.BN(chr5) congenic and sub-congenic lines and reduced the locus to 5.2 Mb. Then 1002 HS rats were studied, whose phenotyping revealed a low prevalence and high variability for RIEL. High resolution mapping in the HS panel detected the major locus on chromosome 5 (log P>35) and refined it to 1.4Mb. Subsequently, RNA-seq analysis on AA of BN, congenics and LOU revealed expression differences for only protease inhibitor15 (Pi15) gene and a putative long intergenic noncoding RNA (lincRNA) within the linkage region. The high abundance of lincRNA with respect to reduced Pi15 expression, in conjunction with exertion of longitudinal strain, may be related to RIEL, indicating the potential importance of proteases in biological processes related to defective aortic IEL structure. Similar mechanisms may be involved in aneurysm initiation in the human AA

Anomalous electric conductions in KSbO3-type metallic rhenium oxides

Single crystals of KSbO3-type rhenium oxides, La4Re6O$19, Pb6Re6O19, Sr2Re3O9 and Bi3Re3O11, were synthesized by a hydrothermal method. Their crystal structures can be regarded as a network of three-dimensional orthogonal-dimer lattice of edge-shared ReO6 octahedra. All of them exhibit small magnitude of Pauli paramagnetism, indicating metallic electronic states without strong electron correlations. The resistivity of these rhenates, except Bi3Re3O11, have a temperature dependence of$rho(T)=\rho_{0}+AT^{n}$$(n \approx 1.6)$ in a wide temperature range between 5 K and 300 K, which is extraordinary for three-dimensional metals without strong electron correlations. The resistivity of Bi3Re3O11 shows an anomaly around at 50 K, where the magnetic susceptibility also detects a deviation from ordinary Pauli paramagnetism.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures. J. Phys. Soc. Japan, in pres

Active vibration isolation system for CLIC final focus

International audienceWith pinpoint accuracy, the next generation of Linear Collider such as CLIC will collide electron and positron beams at a centre of mass energy of 3 TeV with a desired peak luminosity of 2*1034 cm-2s-1. One of the many challenging features of CLIC is its ability to collide beams at the sub-nanometer scale at the Interaction Point (IP). Such a high level of accuracy could only be achieved by integrating Active Vibration Isolation systems (AVI) upstream of the collision to prevent the main source of vibration: Ground Motion (GM). Complementary control systems downstream of the collision (Interaction Point FeedBack (IPFB), Orbit FeedBack (OFB)) allow low frequency vibration rejection. This paper focuses on a dedicated AVI table designed for the last focusing quadrupole (QD0) where the specifications are the most stringent. Combining FeedForward (FF) and FeedBack (FB) techniques, the prototype is able to reduce GM down to 0.6 nm RMS(4Hz) experimentally without any load. These performances couldn't be achieved without cutting edge-technology such as sub-nanometer piezo actuators, ultra-low noise accelerometers and seismometers and an accurate guidance system. The whole AVI system is described in details. Further developments concern the integration of the final focusing magnet above the AVI table, first as part of the simulation with its dynamical model, and finally, as a realistic prototype

The K^{+}--->\pi^{+}\nu\bar{nu} Rare Decay in Two Higgs Doublet Model

The rare k+--->pi+ \nu \bar{\nu} decay is investigated in the context of type II two-Higgs-doublet model (2HDM). By using the existing experimental data of the branching ratio, restrictions on the free parameters of the model m_H, and tan\beta are obtained: tan\beta belong to the range 0.7- o.8, and m_H belong to the range 500- 700 GeV.Comment: 12 pages, latex file, 3 figures, postscript file

Engaging with sustainability issues in metropolitan Chennai : city report

Chennai is the largest metropolitan city in South India (8.7 million in 2011) and the provincial capital of the large state of Tamil Nadu (population 72 million in 2011). Before that, under British rule, the city was the capital of the Madras Presidency, and was known as Madras until 1996, when the name was officially changed to Chennai. Located on the east coast of India, on the Bay of Bengal, sea trade has been an important aspect of the regional economy since at least the colonial period. Still today, the city combines political functions with economic command functions for both manufacturing and services, reflecting the region's diversified economy. The Chennai metropolitan area has witnessed strong growth over the last 20 years in automobile manufacturing, software services, hardware manufacturing, healthcare and financial services (CDP 2009). However, it should be noted that only 30% of total employment in the city takes place in the formal sector i.e., is covered by contracts and labour laws, the remaining 70% falls in the informal sector. This underscores the importance of small and micro enterprises and self-employment for providing goods, services and livelihoods in the local economy

Postnatal dexamethasone, respiratory and neurodevelopmental outcomes at two years in babies born extremely preterm.

IMPORTANCE: Postnatal dexamethasone is associated with reduction in bronchopulmonary dysplasia. There remains, however, concern that its short-term benefits are accompanied by long-term adverse effects e.g. poorer neurodevelopmental outcomes. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to determine the effects of administration of postnatal dexamethasone on respiratory and neurodevelopmental outcome at two years of age after adjusting for neonatal and infant risk factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study included 412 infants born at 23-28 weeks of gestation, 29% had received postnatal dexamethasone. Two outcomes were examined, respiratory hospital admissions in the past 12 months and neurodevelopmental impairment. Logistic regression, adjusted for sex, birthweight z-score, gestation, maternal smoking, oxygen dependency at 36 weeks, airleak, patent ductus arteriosus, pulmonary haemorrhage, major ultrasound abnormality, mode of ventilation and age at assessment, was undertaken. RESULTS: After adjustment, postnatal dexamethasone was associated with significantly increased proportions of both respiratory hospital readmission: (0.35 vs 0.15, difference = 0.20; 95% CI: 0.08, 0.31) and neurodevelopmental impairment (0.59 vs 0.45, difference = 0.14; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.26). CONCLUSIONS: Postnatal dexamethasone use in extremely preterm infants is associated with increased risks of respiratory hospital admissions and neurodevelopmental impairment. These associations were not explained by excess neonatal morbidities

Reproductive Safety of Trazodone After Maternal Exposure in Early Pregnancy: A Comparative ENTIS Cohort Study.

Trazodone is indicated for the treatment of major depressive disorder, but more frequently prescribed off-label at lower doses for insomnia in women of childbearing age. The aim of this study was to assess the risks linked to trazodone exposure during pregnancy for which limited safety data are available. This multicenter, observational prospective cohort study compared pregnancy outcomes in women exposed to trazodone in early pregnancy against those in a reference group of women exposed to a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) between 1996 and 2021. The sample included 221 trazodone and 869 SSRI-exposed pregnancies. Exposure to trazodone in the first trimester was not associated with a significant difference in the risk of major congenital anomalies (trazodone [1/169, 0.6%]; SSRI [19/730, 2.6%]; adjusted odds ratio, 0.2; 95% confidence interval, 0.03-1.77). The cumulative incidences of live birth were 61% and 73% in the trazodone and reference group, respectively (25% vs 18% for pregnancy loss and 14% vs 10% for pregnancy termination). Trazodone exposure was not associated with a significantly increased risk of pregnancy termination and pregnancy loss. The rate of small for gestational age infants did not differ between the groups. This study did not reveal a significant difference in the risk of major congenital anomalies after first trimester exposure to trazodone, compared with SSRI exposure. Although this study is the largest so far, these results call for confirmation through further studies