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Opinion – L’ambivalence dans le discours Nord-Sud de la Suisse

Quelque 1700 requérants d’asile venus du Sri Lanka vivaient en Suisse lorsque le groupe de travail consacré aux Tamouls, réunissant six œuvres d’entraide, a publié en novembre 1984 des propositions en vue d’élaborer une politique globale en matière de réfugiés. Parmi les éléments d’une « combinaison subtile de politique libérale en matière d’asile, de politique de développement et de politique étrangère », leur rapport mentionnait l’introduction d’un « petit asile » (temporaire), une préparat..

Stellungnahme : Zweideutigkeit im schweizerischen Nord-Süd-Diskurs

Rund 1700 Asylsuchende aus Sri Lanka lebten in der Schweiz, als die von sechs Hilfswerken beauftragte „Projektgruppe Tamilen“ im November 1984 Vorschläge für eine neue, umfassende Flüchtlingspolitik publizierte : Zu einer „differenzierten Kombination von liberaler Asylpolitik, Entwicklungspolitik und Aussenpolitik“ zählte sie die Einführung eines (temporären) „kleinen Asyls“, eine Vorbereitung auf die Rückkehr („Entwicklungszusammenarbeit in der Schweiz“) und Beiträge zur Konfliktlösung in Sr..

Opinion – L’ambivalence dans le discours Nord-Sud de la Suisse

Quelque 1700 requérants d’asile venus du Sri Lanka vivaient en Suisse lorsque le groupe de travail consacré aux Tamouls, réunissant six œuvres d’entraide, a publié en novembre 1984 des propositions en vue d’élaborer une politique globale en matière de réfugiés. Parmi les éléments d’une « combinaison subtile de politique libérale en matière d’asile, de politique de développement et de politique étrangère », leur rapport mentionnait l’introduction d’un « petit asile » (temporaire), une préparat..

Stellungnahme : Zweideutigkeit im schweizerischen Nord-Süd-Diskurs

Rund 1700 Asylsuchende aus Sri Lanka lebten in der Schweiz, als die von sechs Hilfswerken beauftragte „Projektgruppe Tamilen“ im November 1984 Vorschläge für eine neue, umfassende Flüchtlingspolitik publizierte : Zu einer „differenzierten Kombination von liberaler Asylpolitik, Entwicklungspolitik und Aussenpolitik“ zählte sie die Einführung eines (temporären) „kleinen Asyls“, eine Vorbereitung auf die Rückkehr („Entwicklungszusammenarbeit in der Schweiz“) und Beiträge zur Konfliktlösung in Sr..

Seasonal Fluctuations of Bacterial Community Diversity in Agricultural Soil and Experimental Validation by Laboratory Disturbance Experiments

Natural fluctuations in soil microbial communities are poorly documented because of the inherent difficulty to perform a simultaneous analysis of the relative abundances of multiple populations over a long time period. Yet, it is important to understand the magnitudes of community composition variability as a function of natural influences (e.g., temperature, plant growth, or rainfall) because this forms the reference or baseline against which external disturbances (e.g., anthropogenic emissions) can be judged. Second, definition of baseline fluctuations in complex microbial communities may help to understand at which point the systems become unbalanced and cannot return to their original composition. In this paper, we examined the seasonal fluctuations in the bacterial community of an agricultural soil used for regular plant crop production by using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism profiling (T-RFLP) of the amplified 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) gene diversity. Cluster and statistical analysis of T-RFLP data showed that soil bacterial communities fluctuated very little during the seasons (similarity indices between 0.835 and 0.997) with insignificant variations in 16S rRNA gene richness and diversity indices. Despite overall insignificant fluctuations, between 8 and 30% of all terminal restriction fragments changed their relative intensity in a significant manner among consecutive time samples. To determine the magnitude of community variations induced by external factors, soil samples were subjected to either inoculation with a pure bacterial culture, addition of the herbicide mecoprop, or addition of nutrients. All treatments resulted in statistically measurable changes of T-RFLP profiles of the communities. Addition of nutrients or bacteria plus mecoprop resulted in bacteria composition, which did not return to the original profile within 14days. We propose that at less than 70% similarity in T-RFLP, the bacterial communities risk to drift apart to inherently different state

Aerosol Remote Sensing in Polar Regions

Multi-year sets of ground-based sun-photometer measurements conducted at 12 Arctic sites and 9 Antarctic sites were examined to determine daily mean values of aerosol optical thickness tau(lambda) at visible and near-infrared wavelengths, from which best-fit values of ngstrm's exponent alpha were calculated. Analyzing these data, the monthly mean values of tau(0.50 micrometers) and alpha and the relative frequency histograms of the daily mean values of both parameters were determined for winter-spring and summer-autumn in the Arctic and for austral summer in Antarctica. The Arctic and Antarctic covariance plots of the seasonal median values of alpha versus tau(0.50 micrometers) showed: (i) a considerable increase in tau(0.50 micrometers) for the Arctic aerosol from summer to winter-spring, without marked changes in alpha; and (ii) a marked increase in tau(0.50 micrometer) passing from the Antarctic Plateau to coastal sites, whereas alpha decreased considerably due to the larger fraction of sea-salt aerosol. Good agreement was found when comparing ground-based sun-photometer measurements of tau(lambda) and alpha at Arctic and Antarctic coastal sites with Microtops measurements conducted during numerous AERONET/MAN cruises from 2006 to 2013 in three Arctic Ocean sectors and in coastal and off-shore regions of the Southern Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and the Antarctic Peninsula. Lidar measurements were also examined to characterize vertical profiles of the aerosol backscattering coefficient measured throughout the year at Ny-lesund. Satellite-based MODIS, MISR, and AATSR retrievals of tau(lambda) over large parts of the oceanic polar regions during spring and summer were in close agreement with ship-borne and coastal ground-based sun-photometer measurements. An overview of the chemical composition of mode particles is also presented, based on in-situ measurements at Arctic and Antarctic sites. Fourteen log-normal aerosol number size-distributions were defined to represent the average features of nuclei, accumulation and coarse mode particles for Arctic haze, summer background aerosol, Asian dust and boreal forest fire smoke, and for various background austral summer aerosol types at coastal and high-altitude Antarctic sites. The main columnar aerosol optical characteristics were determined for all 14 particle modes, based on in-situ measurements of the scattering and absorption coefficients. Diurnally averaged direct aerosol-induced radiative forcing and efficiency were calculated for a set of multimodal aerosol extinction models, using various Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function models over vegetation-covered, oceanic and snow-covered surfaces. These gave a reliable measure of the pronounced effects of aerosols on the radiation balance of the surface-atmosphere system over polar regions

Clinical evidence for high-risk CE-marked medical devices for glucose management: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIMS To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis, within the Coordinating Research and Evidence for Medical Devices (CORE-MD) project, evaluating CE-marked high-risk devices for glucose management. MATERIALS AND METHODS We identified interventional and observational studies evaluating the efficacy and safety of eight automated insulin delivery (AID) systems, two implantable insulin pumps, and three implantable continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices. We meta-analysed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing AID systems with other treatments. RESULTS A total of 182 studies published between 2009 and 2024 were included, comprising 166 studies on AID systems, six on insulin pumps, and 10 on CGM devices; 26% reported industry funding; 18% were pre-market; 37% had a comparator group. Of the studies identified, 29% were RCTs, 24% were non-randomized trials, and 47% were observational studies. The median (interquartile range) sample size was 48 (28-102), age 34.8 (14-44.2) years, and study duration 17.5 (12-26) weeks. AID systems lowered glycated haemoglobin by 0.5 percentage points (absolute mean difference [MD] = -0.5; 21 RCTs; I2 = 86%) and increased time in target range for sensor glucose level by 13.4 percentage points (MD = 13.4; 14 RCTs; I2 = 90%). At least one safety outcome was assessed in 71% of studies. CONCLUSIONS High-risk devices for glucose monitoring or insulin dosing, in particular AID systems, improve glucose control safely, but evidence on diabetes-related end-organ damage is lacking due to short study durations. Methodological heterogeneity highlights the need for developing standards for future pre- and post-market investigations of diabetes-specific high-risk medical devices

Clinical Use and Therapeutic Potential of IVIG/SCIG, Plasma-Derived IgA or IgM, and Other Alternative Immunoglobulin Preparations

Intravenous and subcutaneous immunoglobulin preparations, consisting of IgG class antibodies, are increasingly used to treat a broad range of pathological conditions, including humoral immune deficiencies, as well as acute and chronic inflammatory or autoimmune disorders. A plethora of Fab- or Fc-mediated immune regulatory mechanisms has been described that might act separately or in concert, depending on pathogenesis or stage of clinical condition. Attempts have been undertaken to improve the efficacy of polyclonal IgG preparations, including the identification of relevant subfractions, mild chemical modification of molecules, or modification of carbohydrate side chains. Furthermore, plasma-derived IgA or IgM preparations may exhibit characteristics that might be exploited therapeutically. The need for improved treatment strategies without increase in plasma demand is a goal and might be achieved by more optimal use of plasma-derived proteins, including the IgA and the IgM fractions. This article provides an overview on the current knowledge and future strategies to improve the efficacy of regular IgG preparations and discusses the potential of human plasma-derived IgA, IgM, and preparations composed of mixtures of IgG, IgA, and IgM