Prophylaxie de la septicémie des veaux, par colonisation artificielle avec des microbes

L’efficacité d’une colonisation artificielle de microbes non patho gènes dans le naso pharynx, en tant que prophylaxie anti-infectieuse chez le veau nouveau-né, a été étudiée dans les conditions de la pra tique. La colonisation microbienne a été réalisée immédiatement après la naissance, grâce à l’administration intranasale d’un mélange de bactéries, contenant environ 107 microbes vivants appartenant à 3 souches non pathogènes de bactéries des genres Micrococcus, Streptococcus et Corynebacterium. Les résultats suivants ont été notés : 1. — La suspension microbienne est dénuée de toute nocivité et elle est bien tolérée par les veaux nouveau-nés même mis au monde par césarienne. 2. — Dans 38 élevages où sévit la septicémie, 12 (= 7 p. 100) des 171 veaux traités prophylactiquement ont été malades et 2 sont morts. Parmi les 319 veaux-contrôles non traités des mêmes éleva ges et de la même période de vêlage, 114 (= 35,7 p. 100) sont deve nus malades, et 24 sont morts. 3. — Dans 5 élevages infectés, le taux de morbidité chez les ani maux traités a été comparé avec les pertes survenues au cours de périodes de vêlage précédentes. Sur 107 veaux traités, 5 (4,6 p. 100) ont été malades et 2 sont morts. Parmi les 232 animaux non traités, 78 (= 33,8 p. 100) ont été malades et 27 sont morts. La colonisation microbienne artificielle du naso pharynx de veau nouveau-né est donc considérée comme une mesure prophylactique efficace contre les maladies infectieuses de la période néonatale

Working conditions and Work-Family Conflict in German hospital physicians: psychosocial and organisational predictors and consequences

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Germany currently experiences a situation of major physician attrition. The incompatibility between work and family has been discussed as one of the major reasons for the increasing departure of German physicians for non-clinical occupations or abroad. This study investigates predictors for one particular direction of Work-Family Conflict – namely work interfering with family conflict (WIF) – which are located within the psychosocial work environment or work organisation of hospital physicians. Furthermore, effects of WIF on the individual physicians' physical and mental health were examined. Analyses were performed with an emphasis on gender differences. Comparisons with the general German population were made.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data were collected by questionnaires as part of a study on <it>Psychosocial work hazards and strains of German hospital physicians </it>during April–July 2005. Two hundred and ninety-six hospital physicians (response rate 38.9%) participated in the survey. The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ), work interfering with family conflict scale (WIF), and hospital-specific single items on work organisation were used to assess WIF, its predictors, and consequences.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>German hospital physicians reported elevated levels of WIF (mean = 74) compared to the general German population (mean = 45, <it>p </it>< .01). No significant gender difference was found. Predictors for the WIF were lower age, high quantitative demands at work, elevated number of days at work despite own illness, and consequences of short-notice changes in the duty roster. Good sense of community at work was a protective factor. Compared to the general German population, we observed a significant higher level of quantitative work demands among hospital physicians (mean = 73 vs. mean = 57, <it>p </it>< .01). High values of WIF were significantly correlated to higher rates of personal burnout, behavioural and cognitive stress symptoms, and the intention to leave the job. In contrast, low levels of WIF predicted higher job satisfaction, better self-judged general health status, better work ability, and higher satisfaction with life in general. Compared to the German general population, physicians showed significantly higher levels of individual stress and quality of life as well as lower levels for well-being. This has to be judged as an alerting finding regarding the state of physicians' health.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In our study, work interfering with family conflict (WIF) as part of Work-Family Conflict (WFC) was highly prevalent among German hospital physicians. Factors of work organisation as well as factors of interpersonal relations at work were identified as significant predictors for WIF. Some of these predictors are accessible to alteration by improving work organisation in hospitals.</p

Traffic and Related Self-Driven Many-Particle Systems

Since the subject of traffic dynamics has captured the interest of physicists, many astonishing effects have been revealed and explained. Some of the questions now understood are the following: Why are vehicles sometimes stopped by so-called ``phantom traffic jams'', although they all like to drive fast? What are the mechanisms behind stop-and-go traffic? Why are there several different kinds of congestion, and how are they related? Why do most traffic jams occur considerably before the road capacity is reached? Can a temporary reduction of the traffic volume cause a lasting traffic jam? Under which conditions can speed limits speed up traffic? Why do pedestrians moving in opposite directions normally organize in lanes, while similar systems are ``freezing by heating''? Why do self-organizing systems tend to reach an optimal state? Why do panicking pedestrians produce dangerous deadlocks? All these questions have been answered by applying and extending methods from statistical physics and non-linear dynamics to self-driven many-particle systems. This review article on traffic introduces (i) empirically data, facts, and observations, (ii) the main approaches to pedestrian, highway, and city traffic, (iii) microscopic (particle-based), mesoscopic (gas-kinetic), and macroscopic (fluid-dynamic) models. Attention is also paid to the formulation of a micro-macro link, to aspects of universality, and to other unifying concepts like a general modelling framework for self-driven many-particle systems, including spin systems. Subjects such as the optimization of traffic flows and relations to biological or socio-economic systems such as bacterial colonies, flocks of birds, panics, and stock market dynamics are discussed as well.Comment: A shortened version of this article will appear in Reviews of Modern Physics, an extended one as a book. The 63 figures were omitted because of storage capacity. For related work see http://www.helbing.org