Pastoral counselling of the sick: (case study : Ecumenical Chaplaincy of CHUV/Aumônerie Oecuménique du CHUV – Centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois, Switzerland, and Religious Assistance Service of the hospitals in the Romanian Orthodox Church, Romania)

The thesis “Pastoral Counselling of the sick (case study: Ecumenical Chaplaincy of CHUV/Aumônerie Oecuménique du CHUV – Centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois, Switzerland and Religious Assistance Service of the hospitals in the Romanian Orthodox Church, Romania)” presents the importance of Pastoral counselling, a unique form of counselling which uses spiritual and psychological resources for healing the persons who are in existential crisis. Pastoral counselling is necessary for the existential searches and for finding possible solutions in order to acquire the balance of life, in relation with God, with other people and with the social environment. In this thesis my interest was to find out what the Romanian Orthodox Church could learn from the other Churches in Lausanne (Switzerland), who had already worked out a detailed Pastoral counselling program for the sick in order to offer religious assistance to the people. I analyzed the services of the Ecumenical Chaplaincy of CHUV for the spiritual care of the patients and I compared this with the services of the chaplains for the Pastoral counselling of the sick in the Religious Assistance Service of the hospitals in the Romanian Orthodox Church. The main conclusion of the thesis is that in the Romanian Orthodox Church it is important to develop a new perspective of ecumenical cooperation between confessions recognized by the Romanian Government, that can provide some unique opportunities for sharing and exchanging experiences and for mutual learning in the Pastoral counselling of the sick

Gait variability while dual-tasking: fall predictor in older inpatients?

Background and aims: Increased gait variability is associated with a high risk of falling in older community-dwellers, but no information exists about the relationship between increased gait variability and falls occurring in older hospitalized patients. We therefore sought to determine, in an acute geriatric setting, whether gait variability in single- (i.e., usual walking) or dual-task conditions can predict inpatient falls. Methods: Stride time variability was calculated in both single-task (i.e., usual walking) and dual-task conditions with a GAITRite®-System in 13 male and 44 female patients (mean age=85.0, SD=6.6 yrs) consecutively admitted to the acute care geriatric department of Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland. All participants were able to walk without assistive devices at day 3 post-admission. Falls during hospital stay were identified through the hospital accident reporting system. Results: Ten fallers and 47 non-fallers were identified. The first fall events were significantly associated with the coefficient of variation of stride time in both walking conditions during hospital stay (OR 13.3, (95% CI 1.6-113.6), p=0.018 for usual walking; OR 8.6, (95% CI 1.9-39.6), p=0.006 for dual-task walking). Furthermore, the time elapsing between the first day of hospitalization and the first fall was significantly shorter when the cut-off value of stride time variability was calculated for dual-tasking compared with usual walking. The Cox regression model revealed that only the coefficient of variation of stride time during dual-task walking was significantly associated with the occurrence of the first fall event (p=0.006). Conclusion: Our results suggest that the degree of stride time variability in dual-task walking conditions distinguished fallers from non-fallers in a group of independently walking, older inpatient

Control of landslide retrogression by discontinuities: evidences by the integration of airborne- and ground-based geophysical information

International audienceThe objective of this work is to present a multi-technique approach to define the geometry, the kinematics and the failure mechanism of a retrogressive large landslide (upper part of the La Valette landslide, South French Alps) by the combination of airborne (ALS) and terrestrial (TLS) laser scanning data and ground-based seismic tomography data. The advantage of combining different methods is to constrain the geometrical and failure mechanism models by integrating different source of information. Because of an important point density at the ground surface (4. 1 pt.m-224 ), a small laser footprint (0.09 m) and an accurate 3D positioning (0.07 m), ALS data are adapted source of information to analyze morphological structures at the surface. velocities) may highlight the presence of low seismic-velocity presence of dense fracture networks at the sub-surface. The surface displacements measured from TLS data over a period of two years (May 2008-May 2010) allow one to quantify the landslide activity at the direct vicinity of the identified discontinuities. An important subsidence of the crown area with an average subsidence rate of 3.07 m.year-1 is determined. The displacement directions indicate that the retrogression is controlled structurally by the pre-existing discontinuities. A conceptual structural model is proposed to explain the failure mechanism and the retrogressive evolution of the main scarp. Uphill, the crown area is affected by planar sliding included in a deeper wedge failure system constrained by two pre-existing fractures. Downhill, the landslide body acts as a buttress for the upper part. Consequently, the progression of the landslide body downhill allows the development of dip-slope failures and coherent blocks start sliding along planar discontinuities. The volume of the failed mass in the crown area is estimated at 500,000 m3 with the Sloping Local Base Level method

Use of advanced cluster analysis to characterize seafood consumption patterns and methyle mercury exposures among pregnant women

Because of the variability in food contamination and nutrient contents, consumers must balance the risks and benefits of fish consumption through their choice of species, meal size and frequency. The objectives of this study were to characterize the risk of MeHg exposure in French pregnant women consuming fish, and to explore the use of unsupervised statistical learning as an advanced type of cluster analysis to identify patterns of fish consumption that could predict exposure to MeHg and the coverage of the Recommended Daily Allowance for n-3 PUFA. The proportion of pregnant women exposed at levels higher than the Tolerable Weekly Intake (PTWI) for MeHg is similar to that observed amongst women of childbearing age in previous French studies. At the same time, only about 50% of the women reached the recommended intake of 500 mg/day n-3 PUFA. Cluster analysis of the fish consumption showed that they could be grouped in five major clusters that are largely predictable of the intake of both MeHg and n-3 PUFA. This study provides demonstrates that a global increase in seafood consumption could lead to MeHg exposure above the toxicological limits, thereby questioning the potential beneficial effects of n-3 PUFA intakes

Demented versus non-demented very old inpatients: the same comorbidities but poorer functional and nutritional status

Background: demented patients have been reported to be healthier than other old people of the same age. Objectives: to assess comorbid conditions, functional and nutritional status in medically ill hospitalised patients with normal cognition or affected by dementia of various causes and severities, or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Design and Setting: a prospective study was carried out, between January and December 2004, in the Rehabilitation and Geriatric Hospital (HOGER). Methods: activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and mini nutritional assessment (MNA) scores were assessed as a function of the status of the patient two weeks before admission to hospital. On admission, cognitive status was assessed by a systematic battery of neuropsychological tests, comorbid conditions were assessed with the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), and body mass index (BMI) and functional independence measure (FIM) were determined. BMI and FIM were also determined on discharge. Results: we studied 349 patients (mean age 85.2±6.7; 76% women): 161 (46.1%) cognitively normal, 37 (10.6%) with MCI and 151 (43.3%) demented (61 Alzheimer's disease (AD), 62 mixed dementia (MD) and 17 vascular dementia (VaD)). ADL, IADL, FIM and MNA scores on admission decreased with cognitive status, regardless of the type of dementia. Functionality at discharge remained significantly lower in demented patients than in other patients. CCI was high and similar in all three groups (mean 4.6±2.7). Patients with VaD had poorer health than other demented patients, with a higher average comorbidity score, more frequent hypertension, stroke and hyperlipidaemia. Comorbidity did not increase with severity levels of dementia. Conclusions: in this cohort of very old inpatients, demented patients, non-demented patients and patients with MCI had similar levels of comorbidity, but demented patients had a poorer functional and nutritional statu

Slow Magnetic Relaxation and Electron Delocalization in an S = 9/2 Iron(II/III) Complex with Two Crystallographically Inequivalent Iron Sites

The magnetic, electronic, and Mössbauer spectral properties of Fe 2L(µ-OAc)2ClO4, 1, where L is the dianion of the tetraimino-diphenolate macrocyclic ligand, H2L, indicate that 1 is a class III mixed valence iron(II/III) complex with an electron that is fully delocalized between two crystallographically inequivalent iron sites to yield a [Fe2]V cationic configuration with a St 9/2 ground state. Fits of the dc magnetic susceptibility between 2 and 300K and of the isofield variable-temperature magnetization of 1 yield an isotropic magnetic exchange parameter, J, of -32(2) cm-1 for an electron transfer parameter, B, of 950 cm-1, a zero-field uniaxial D9/2 parameter of -0.9(1) cm-1, and g 1.95(5). In agreement with the presence of uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, ac susceptibility measurements reveal that 1 is a single-molecule magnet at low temperature with a single molecule magnetic effective relaxation barrier, Ueff, of 9.8 cm-1. At 5.25 K the Mössbauer spectra of 1 exhibit two spectral components, assigned to the two crystallographically inequivalent iron sites with a static effective hyperfine field; as the temperature increases from 7 to 310 K, the spectra exhibit increasingly rapid relaxation of the hyperfine field on the iron-57 Larmor precession time of 5 x 10-8 s. A fit of the temperature dependence of the average effective hyperfine field yields |D9/2| 0.9 cm-1. An Arrhenius plot of the logarithm of the relaxation frequency between 5 and 85 K yields a relaxation barrier of 17 cm-1

Thermal carrier emission and nonradiative recombinations in nonpolar (Al,Ga)N/GaN quantum wells grown on bulk GaN

We investigate, via time-resolved photoluminescence, the temperature-dependence of charge carrier recombination mechanisms in nonpolar (Al,Ga)N/GaN single quantum wells (QWs) grown via molecular beam epitaxy on the a-facet of bulk GaN crystals. We study the influence of both QW width and barrier Al content on the dynamics of excitons in the 10-320 K range. We first show that the effective lifetime of QW excitons s increases with temperature, which is evidence that nonradiative mechanisms do not play any significant role in the low-temperature range. The temperature range for increasing s depends on the QW width and Al content in the (Al,Ga)N barriers. For higher temperatures, we observe a reduction in the QW emission lifetime combined with an increase in the decay time for excitons in the barriers, until both exciton populations get fully thermalized. Based on analysis of the ratio between barrier and QW emission intensities, we demonstrate that the main mechanism limiting the radiative efficiency in our set of samples is related to nonradiative recombination in the (Al,Ga)N barriers of charge carriers that have been thermally emitted from the QWs

Gut Microbiota Associated with Clostridioides difficile Carriage in Three Clinical Groups (Inflammatory Bowel Disease, C. difficile Infection and Healthcare Workers) in Hospital Field

peer reviewedClostridioides difficile is an anaerobic spore-forming Gram-positive bacterium. C. difficile carriage and 16S rDNA profiling were studied in three clinical groups at three different sampling times: inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients, C. difficile infection (CDI) patients and healthcare workers (HCWs). Diversity analysis was realized in the three clinical groups, the positive and negative C. difficile carriage groups and the three analysis periods. Concerning the three clinical groups, β-diversity tests showed significant differences between them, especially between the HCW group and IBD group and between IBD patients and CDI patients. The Simpson index (evenness) showed a significant difference between two clinical groups (HCWs and IBD). Several genera were significantly different in the IBD patient group (Sutterella, Agathobacter) and in the CDI patient group (Enterococcus, Clostridioides). Concerning the positive and negative C. difficile carriage groups, β-diversity tests showed significant differences. Shannon, Simpson and InvSimpson indexes showed significant differences between the two groups. Several genera had significantly different relative prevalences in the negative group (Agathobacter, Sutterella, Anaerostipes, Oscillospira) and the positive group (Enterococcus, Enterobacteriaceae_ge and Enterobacterales_ge). A microbiota footprint was detected in C. difficile-positive carriers. More experiments are needed to test this microbiota footprint to see its impact on C. difficile infection

IARC Monographs: 40 Years of Evaluating Carcinogenic Hazards to Humans

Background: Recently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Programme for the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans has been criticized for several of its evaluations, and also for the approach used to perform these evaluations. Some critics have claimed that failures of IARC Working Groups to recognize study weaknesses and biases of Working Group members have led to inappropriate classification of a number of agents as carcinogenic to humans. Objectives: The authors of this Commentary are scientists from various disciplines relevant to the identification and hazard evaluation of human carcinogens. We examined criticisms of the IARC classification process to determine the validity of these concerns. Here, we present the results of that examination, review the history of IARC evaluations, and describe how the IARC evaluations are performed. Discussion: We concluded that these recent criticisms are unconvincing. The procedures employed by IARC to assemble Working Groups of scientists from the various disciplines and the techniques followed to review the literature and perform hazard assessment of various agents provide a balanced evaluation and an appropriate indication of the weight of the evidence. Some disagreement by individual scientists to some evaluations is not evidence of process failure. The review process has been modified over time and will undoubtedly be altered in the future to improve the process. Any process can in theory be improved, and we would support continued review and improvement of the IARC processes. This does not mean, however, that the current procedures are flawed. Conclusions: The IARC Monographs have made, and continue to make, major contributions to the scientific underpinning for societal actions to improve the public’s health