(How) do medical students regulate their emotions?

BACKGROUND: Medical training can be a challenging and emotionally intense period for medical students. However the emotions experienced by medical students in the face of challenging situations and the emotion regulation strategies they use remains relatively unexplored. The aim of the present study was to explore the emotions elicited by memorable incidents reported by medical students and the associated emotion regulation strategies. METHODS: Peer interviewing was used to collect medical students’ memorable incidents. Medical students at both preclinical and clinical stage of medical school were eligible to participate. In total 104 medical students provided memorable incidents. Only 54 narratives included references to emotions and emotion regulation and thus were further analyzed. RESULTS: The narratives of 47 clinical and 7 preclinical students were further analyzed for their references to emotions and emotion regulation strategies. Forty seven out of 54 incidents described a negative incident associated with negative emotions. The most frequently mentioned emotion was shock and surprise followed by feelings of embarrassment, sadness, anger and tension or anxiety. The most frequent reaction was inaction often associated with emotion regulation strategies such as distraction, focusing on a task, suppression of emotions and reappraisal. When students witnessed mistreatment or disrespect exhibited towards patients, the regulation strategy used involved focusing and comforting the patient. CONCLUSIONS: The present study sheds light on the strategies medical students use to deal with intense negative emotions. The vast majority reported inaction in the face of a challenging situation and the use of more subtle strategies to deal with the emotional impact of the incident. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12909-016-0832-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Climate change adaptation through water portfolios planning in Alpine water systems

Climate change has significantly modified the water cycle worldwide, and projections confirm worsening trends over the next decades. In Alpine regions, glacier melting and shifts in rainfall regimes are critically accelerating the water cycle by anticipating the streamflow seasonal peak, steepening snow melt patterns, reducing the water available during the summer months while increasing winter flows, ultimately challenging water management and allocation across competing sectors. Storage capacity expansion seems to be a reasonable option to contrast the impact of such hydrological alteration as it allows to store additional seasonal water volumes by glacier melting and buffer extreme precipitation events, and associated flash floods. Yet, building new dams and/or heightening existing ones pose substantial environmental and economic concerns due to the lack of still valuable sites and aging of existing infrastructures. In this context, improving water productivity through multiple coordinated management measures, water portfolios hereafter, is an alternative solution worth investigating. In this study, we comparatively analyze multiple water portfolios for the Adda river basin, Italy, a complex Alpine water system, including several hydropower reservoirs in the upper part, a large regulated lake in the middle basin, and several downstream agricultural and industrial users. Portfolios are designed as combinations of three different measures: i) the re-negotiation of hydropower licenses for the three largest hydropower companies in the upper basin, ii) the re-operation of the regulated lake Como, and iii) the design of new constraints (lower and upper bounds) on the discretionary operating space of the lake. Results for different climate scenarios, including both downscaled and bias-adjusted CMIP5 and CMIP6 projections, show that while climate change is expected to exacerbate recently observed hydrological shifts, optimized water portfolios allow to restore an acceptable level of performance for all the sectors involved

France-Brésil : vingt ans de coopération

Peu d'ouvrages sont consacrés à la coopération scientifique, technique et technologique. Pourtant son rôle est considérable : elle contribue à la fois au progrès de la connaissance et au développement des nations. La coopération franco-brésilienne constitue un cas exemplaire et significatif. Plusieurs milliers de chercheurs, ingénieurs et techniciens, souvent parmi les plus renommés, en ont été les acteurs. Ils ont connu ainsi une aventure exceptionnelle qui a marqué profondément leur vie. Afin d'illustrer cette coopération entre la France et le Brésil, les deux coordonnateurs de cet ouvrage (un diplomate et un universitaire) ont sollicité le témoignage de quinze chercheurs et ont rassemblé les contributions d'une trentaine d'institutions et organismes des deux pays. De l'archéologie préhistorique à la physique nucléaire, de l'ethnologie et l'histoire aux biotechnologies et à la géologie, de l'astronomie et des activités aéronautiques et spatiales à l'informatique, à la chimie des nouveaux matériaux et aux services postaux, de la géographie, de l'économie et des sciences politiques aux sciences de la vie, à la recherche et à l'exploitation de la mer et des ressources hydrauliques ou forestières..., les multiples facettes d'une recherche en coopération se trouvent ainsi décrites et livrées au public. Cet ouvrage aspire à faire davantage comprendre les enjeux que représente la coopération entre deux pays. Il est publié simultanément en France et au Brésil