The Fiscal, Social and Economic Dividends of Feeling Better and Living Longer

While Canada has socialized most of the costs of treating illness, Canada has maintained a reliance on individuals interacting through private markets to invest in upstream health promotion and disease prevention. The failure of the market to provide the efficient level of upstream investment in health is leading to large and avoidable increases in the need for downstream medical treatment. The way to reduce the future deadweight loss of illness and disease is for provincial governments to address the upstream market failures through an expansion of the scope of public payment for health care to include upstream services for health promotion and disease prevention. Perhaps somewhat counterintuitively, spending public health-care dollars across a broader range of health and wellness services can result in spending less in total, because of the efficiency gains that will come from better health in the population. That is certainly what the evidence from a unique Albertan pilot project leads us to conclude. The Pure North S’Energy Foundation is a philanthropic initiative that pays for and provides preventative health-care services for Albertans drawn from groups that are vulnerable to poor health. This includes homeless people, people suffering from addiction, people with low incomes, people in isolated areas and susceptible seniors. The health improvements observed in those participating in the Pure North program have been significant. Effective health-promotion and disease-prevention services obviously benefit patients. But there are also substantial benefits to society as well. The annual health-care bill for a Canadian in poor health is estimated to be more than $10,000 higher than for someone in good health, meaning that keeping people in good health can be an important means for controlling public health-care budgets, and can free up scarce acutecare hospital resources. If the Pure North program were scaled-up province-wide to cover the nearly quartermillion Albertans in poor health, the resulting health improvement seen in Pure North participants could translate into a nearly 25-per-cent reduction in hospital days used by Alberta patients every year and a net savings of$500 million on hospital and physician costs. That does not even include the economic benefits of keeping workers in better health and productive, while spending fewer days ill or hospitalized. To date, Canada’s approach to health care has largely left it to patients to choose whether to seek healthpromotion and disease-prevention services on their own, suggesting an implicit deference to an individual’s rights and responsibilities. But for many low-income, isolated, addicted or aboriginal Canadians, there often is no choice: These services, when delivered privately, are often too expensive or may be otherwise inaccessible. The initial spirit behind Canadian medicare was to correct a health-market failure, so that no patient would face barriers to accessing necessary treatments. That same philosophy also recommends extending universal coverage for health-promotion and disease-prevention to vulnerable Canadians who today face similar barriers to access. If the Alberta government wants to show both foresight and fairness, the benefits from this kind of program, economically and societally, are simply too attractive to disregard

Antécédents et conséquences de l’insécurité professionnelle dans un contexte de réforme institutionnelle : le cas des Responsables Formation

International audiencethis study proposes a renewed model of antecedents and consequences of professional insecurity based on a quantitative study of 276 Training Managers in France. Based on the theory of resource conservation, the results of our analysis seem to show that the proactive personality has a negative relationship with the feeling of job insecurity, thus proving to be a resource for the individual in contexts of change. In addition, our study corroborates previous studies on the positive link between perceived job insecurity and intention to leave. This positive relationship also appears between job insecurity and intention to leave the profession more broadly. Finally, our study reveals a significant moderating effect of the perceived job alternatives on the model's relationships as a whole. Our results show that the boundaryless career orientation seems positively related to job insecurity in contexts where individuals perceive many job opportunities. All of these results help to refine the understanding of job insecurity, a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly prevalent in organizations.Cette étude propose un modèle renouvelé d’antécédents et de conséquences de l’insécurité professionnelle basé sur une étude quantitative portant sur 276 Responsables de Formation en France. En se centrant sur la théorie de la conservation des ressources, les résultats de notre analyse semblent démontrer que la personnalité proactive influence négativement le sentiment d’insécurité professionnelle, se révélant ainsi être une ressource pour l’individu dans des contextes de changement. Cette étude corrobore les études précédentes quant au lien positif entre l’insécurité professionnelle perçue et l’intention de quitter l’emploi pour les individus. Cet impact positif semble par ailleurs s’exercer aussi entre l’insécurité professionnelle et l’intention de quitter la profession plus globalement. Enfin, les résultats révèlent un effet modérateur des alternatives d’emploi perçues par l’individu sur l’ensemble des relations du modèle. Nos résultats démontrent que l’attitude de carrière sans frontière semble positivement liée à l’insécurité professionnelle dans des contextes où l’individu perçoit de nombreuses alternatives d’emplois. L’ensemble de ces résultats permet d’affiner la compréhension de l’insécurité professionnelle, phénomène de plus en plus répandu au sein des organisations

antécédents et efficacité des stratégies de médiation : l’intervention des présidents de Commissions mixtes paritaires en France

International audienc

The Importance of Dose, Frequency and Duration of Vitamin D Supplementation for Plasma 25-Hydroxyvitamin D

The importance of dose, frequency and duration of vitamin D supplementation for plasma 25(OH)D levels is not well described and rarely reported for supplementation that exceeds 2000 IU per day. The objective is to examine dose, frequency and duration of supplementation in relation to plasma 25(OH)D in a large population-based sample. We accessed data on 2714 volunteers that contributed to 4224 visits and applied multilevel regression. Compared to not using supplements, a minimum regimen of 1000–2000 IU once or twice per week for one month was not effective in raising 25(OH)D. Compared to this minimum regimen, higher doses of 2000–3000, 3000–4000, and 5000 IU or more were associated with a 7.49, 13.19 and 30.22 nmol/L 25(OH)D increase, respectively; frequencies of three to four, five to six and seven times/week were associated with a 5.44, 16.52 and 30.69 nmol/L increase, respectively; and supplementation of five months or longer was associated with an increase of 6.68 nmol/L (p < 0.01 for all). Age, body weight, physical activity, smoking, and self-rated health were significantly associated with 25(OH)D. Whereas dose, frequency and duration of supplementation are important to healthy subjects committed to optimizing their nutritional status, to the design of clinical trials, individual characteristics and lifestyle contribute substantially to 25(OH)D

Rôle des hormones d'origine maternelle dans le développement de la réactivité émotionnelle chez la caille japonaise

National audienc

Mouse Model of Respiratory Tract Infection Induced by Waddlia chondrophila.

Waddlia chondrophila, an obligate intracellular bacterium belonging to the Chlamydiales order, is considered as an emerging pathogen. Some clinical studies highlighted a possible role of W. chondrophila in bronchiolitis, pneumonia and miscarriage. This pathogenic potential is further supported by the ability of W. chondrophila to infect and replicate within human pneumocytes, macrophages and endometrial cells. Considering that W. chondrophila might be a causative agent of respiratory tract infection, we developed a mouse model of respiratory tract infection to get insight into the pathogenesis of W. chondrophila. Following intranasal inoculation of 2 x 108 W. chondrophila, mice lost up to 40% of their body weight, and succumbed rapidly from infection with a death rate reaching 50% at day 4 post-inoculation. Bacterial loads, estimated by qPCR, increased from day 0 to day 3 post-infection and decreased thereafter in surviving mice. Bacterial growth was confirmed by detecting dividing bacteria using electron microscopy, and living bacteria were isolated from lungs 14 days post-infection. Immunohistochemistry and histopathology of infected lungs revealed the presence of bacteria associated with pneumonia characterized by an important multifocal inflammation. The high inflammatory score in the lungs was associated with the presence of pro-inflammatory cytokines in both serum and lungs at day 3 post-infection. This animal model supports the role of W. chondrophila as an agent of respiratory tract infection, and will help understanding the pathogenesis of this strict intracellular bacterium

Optoelectronic phase-locked loop for millimeter-wave and THz beat note stabilization

International audienceA novel scheme based on opto-electronic down conversion is proposed and demonstrated to obtain an ultra-high spectral purity and tunable optical beat note in the GHz and millimeter wave range. An in-loop relative frequency stability better than 4 10-12 is reported. This approach opens the way to THz metrology

Non-linear optoelectronic phase-locked loop for stabilization of opto-millimeter waves: towards a narrow linewidth tunable THz source.

International audienceWe propose an optoelectronic phase-locked loop concept which enables to stabilize optical beat notes at high frequencies in the mm-wave domain. It relies on the use of a nonlinear-response Mach-Zehnder modulator. This concept is demonstrated at 100 GHz using a two-axis dual-frequency laser turned into a voltage controlled oscillator by means of an intracavity electrooptic crystal. A relative frequency stability better than 10⁻¹¹ is reported. This approach of optoelectronic down conversion opens the way to the realization of continuously tunable ultra-narrow linewidth THz radiation

40-GHz Photonic Synthesizer Using a Dual-Polarization Microlaser

International audienceAn optically carried microwave synthesis working at 40 GHz is demonstrated by using a two-frequency solid-state microchip laser inserted as a voltage-controlled oscillator inside a digital phase-locked loop. We report an in-loop relative frequency stability better than 2.5 × 10-11. The capabilities of the synthesis are illustrated with different frequency sweeping formats

Beat note stabilization of a 10-60 GHz dual-polarization Nd:YAG microchip laser through optical down conversion

International audienc