Amputation in emergency situations: indications, techniques and Médecins Sans Frontières France's experience in Haiti

PURPOSE: The decision to amputate is always difficult but becomes even harder in emergency situations, which usually present extra complicating factors. MSF EXPERIENCE: These include human factors (related to both the surgeon and the patient); poor or nonexistent medical facilities, especially in war conditions or resource-poor countries; and cultural and religious considerations. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has developed a quick medical and logistical response that relies on surgical protocols adapted to emergency situations, together with complete "kits" of medical equipment, supplies and inflatable facilities. CONCLUSION: Our response to Haiti's 2010 earthquake relied on these tools but also highlighted the need to develop more detailed protocols that will help our teams on the ground

Amputation in emergency situations: indications, techniques and Médecins Sans Frontières France's experience in Haiti

Abstract Purpose The decision to amputate is always difficult but becomes even harder in emergency situations, which usually present extra complicating factors. MSF Experience These include human factors (related to both the surgeon and the patient); poor or nonexistent medical facilities, especially in war conditions or resource-poor countries; and cultural and religious considerations. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has developed a quick medical and logistical response that relies on surgical protocols adapted to emergency situations, together with complete "kits" of medical equipment, supplies and inflatable facilities. Conclusion Our response to Haiti's 2010 earthquake relied on these tools but also highlighted the need to develop more detailed protocols that will help our teams on the ground

A Unified Theoretical Description of the Thermodynamical Properties of Spin Crossover with Magnetic Interactions

After the discovery of the phenomena of light-induced excited spin state trapping (LIESST), the functional properties of metal complexes have been studied intensively. Among them, cooperative phenomena involving low spin-high spin (spin-crossover) transition and magnetic ordering have attracted interests, and it has become necessary to formulate a unified description of both phenomena. In this work, we propose a model in which they can be treated simultaneously by extending the Wajnflasz-Pick model including a magnetic interaction. We found that this new model is equivalent to Blume-Emery-Griffiths (BEG) Hamiltonian with degenerate levels. This model provides a unified description of the thermodynamic properties associated with various types of systems, such as spin-crossover (SC) solids and Prussian blue analogues (PBA). Here, the high spin fraction and the magnetization are the order parameters describing the cooperative phenomena of the model. We present several typical temperature dependences of the order parameters and we determine the phase diagram of the system using the mean-field theory and Monte Carlo simulations. We found that the magnetic interaction drives the SC transition leading to re-entrant magnetic and first-order SC transitions.Comment: 30pages, 11figure

Tendances évolutives socio-économiques des îles de la Méditerranée

The aim of this paper is to look at Mediterranean islands’ socio-economy in a prospective way. After giving a definition of the prospective approach and of a «statistical» island, the different steps of the prospective approach are explained. Indeed, it is necessary to make a demographic (population, density,...) and an economical assessment before drawing up prospective scenarii. Two extremes are possible : a tendancial scenario and an alternative scenario. Future reality is, of course, between these two scenarii.L’objectif de cette communication est d’apporter un éclairage prospectif dans le domaine socio-économique pour les îles de la Méditerranée. Après une définition statistique d’une île et de la prospective, les étapes de l’approche prospective sont expliquées. Il est en effet nécessaire d’établir un état des lieux au niveau démographique (évolution de la population, densité...) et économique (examen de l’évolution des trois secteurs classiques de l’économie) avant de dresser des scénarios prospectifs parmi lesquels on peut distinguer deux extrêmes : le scénario tendanciel et le scénario alternatif. La réalité future se trouve, quant à elle, entre ces deux extrêmes.Boillot François. Tendances évolutives socio-économiques des îles de la Méditerranée. In: Ecologia mediterranea, tome 21 n°1-2, 1995. Connaissance et conservation de la flore des îles de la Méditerrannée. Ajaccio, Corse, France (5-8 octobre 1993) pp. 277-286

Mission Perseus-Exobiologie (comportement d'acides aminés et de peptides soumis aux conditions de l'espace)

ORLEANS-BU Sciences (452342104) / SudocSudocFranceF

Validation expérimentale d'outils de modélisation d'une pile à combustible de type PEM

Cette thèse tente d'apporter une vision globale des phénomènes mis en jeu lors du fonctionnement d'une pile à combustible de type PEM. Une méthodologie originale a été développée pour appréhender et mesurer les principaux paramètres thermodynamiques, cinétiques et des phénomènes de transport. La détermination expérimentale de la distribution des temps de séjour et la simulation numérique ont permis de caractériser l'écoulement dans les plaques bipolaires. La cinétique des deux demi-réactions électrochimiques a ensuite pu être analysée par des expériences ciblées de dilution des gaz réactifs, et en tenant compte de la diffusion dans l'assemblage membrane-électrodes. Enfin, l'influence de l'humidité sur les performances électriques, ainsi que l'estimation de la résistance ohmique, ont été abordéesIn this work, a global view of the phenomena occurring in a PEM fuel cell is given. An original methodology was developed in order to determine the main parameters : thermodynamics, kinetics and transport phenomena. The gas flow in bipolar plates was chracterised using experimental determination of residence time distributions and numerical simulations. Kinetics of both electrochemical reactions were analysed feeding the cell by diluted gases. In this part, the diffusion of reactants in the membrane electrodes assembly was taken into account. Finally, the relationship between humidity and electrical performance was investigated and the ohmic resistance of the cell was estimatedNANCY/VANDOEUVRE-INPL (545472102) / SudocSudocFranceF

Delivery of extraterrestrial amino acids to the primitive Earth. Exposure experiments in Earth orbit.

International audienc

Evaluation of Different RNA Extraction Methods and Storage Conditions of Dried Plasma or Blood Spots for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 RNA Quantification and PCR Amplification for Drug Resistance Testing▿

The development and validation of dried sample spots as a method of specimen collection are urgently needed in developing countries for monitoring of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Our aim was to test some crucial steps in the use of dried spots, i.e., viral recovery and storage over time. Moreover, we investigated whether dried plasma and blood spots (DPS and DBS, respectively) give comparable viral load (VL) results. Four manual RNA extraction methods from commercial HIV type 1 (HIV-1) VL assays—a QIAamp minikit (Qiagen), the Abbott Molecular sample preparation system, the Nuclisens assay (bioMarieux), and High Pure viral nucleic acid kit (Roche Applied Science)—were compared for VL quantification and PCR amplification for genotypic drug resistance testing on dried spots from spiked plasma and residual samples from HIV-1 patients (n = 47; median VL, 4.13 log10 copies/ml). RNA recovery from DPS was efficient using Nuclisens extraction (median difference, 0.03 log10 copies/ml) and slightly underestimated using the Abbott Molecular sample preparation system (median difference, 0.35 log10 copies/ml). PCR amplification results were in concordance. Measurements from DBS overestimated VL for plasma, with VL results showing <3.7 log10 copies/ml. VL was stable for up to 3 months in spiked DPS stored at 20°C but for only 1 month at 37°C. A faster decline was observed in PCR efficiency: DPS could be stored for 1 week at 37°C and for 1 month at 20°C. In conclusion, the RNA extraction method is an important factor in obtaining reliable RNA quantification and PCR amplification of HIV-1 on DPS/DBS. DBS could be used as an alternative for DPS depending on HIV RNA cutoffs for virological failure. VL measurements remain stable over a longer period than do PCR amplification results