La psychothérapie psychologique en Suisse vers la transparence et la qualité

The article gives an overview of psychological psychotherapy in Switzerland. We describe the legal status of psychological psychotherapists, their position and role within the Swiss health-care system, the professional context they practice in, the format of psychotherapy training, various employment models of psychological psychotherapists, as well as the currently insufficient reimbursement situation of psychological psychotherapy. Reimbursement by mandatory health insurance is highlighted as the most important current challenge psychological psychotherapists face in Switzerland, on their way to be fully acknowledged as independent providers of psychotherapy

Fibroblast growth factor receptors 1 and 2 in keratinocytes control the epidermal barrier and cutaneous homeostasis

Loss of FGFRs results in skin abnormalities due to activation of keratinocytes and epidermal T cells

Immunogenicity of toxins during Staphylococcus aureus infection

AB - BACKGROUND: Toxins are important Staphylococcus aureus virulence factors, but little is known about their immunogenicity during infection. Here, additional insight is generated. METHODS: Serum samples from 206 S. aureus-infected patients and 201 hospital-admitted control subjects were analyzed for immunoglobulin (Ig) G binding to 20 toxins, using flow-cytometry based technology. Antibody levels were associated with p

Construire sa vie (Life designing) : un paradigme pour l’orientation au 21e siècle

Ce texte est la traduction française de l’article publié dans le Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75(3) : Savickas, M. L., Nota, L., Rossier, J., Dauwalder, J.-P., Duarte, M. E., Guichard, J., Soresi, S., Van Esbroeck, R., & van Vianen, A. E. M., « Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st century » (239-250), © 2009, avec la permission de Elsevier. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00018791 ***** La nouvelle organisation sociale du travail du début du 21e siècle pose une série de questions et lance de nombreux défis aux spécialistes de l’accompagnement en orientation professionnelle. Compte tenu de la mondialisation du conseil en orientation, c’est dans un cadre international que nous avons décidé d’aborder ces questions, puis de formuler des réponses potentiellement innovantes. Cette approche permet d’éviter les difficultés que soulève la création de modèles et de méthodes dans un pays donné en tentant ensuite de les exporter dans d’autres, où ils doivent être adaptés pour être utilisés. Cet article présente le premier résultat tangible de cette collaboration : un modèle et des méthodes d’accompagnement des personnes. Le modèle « Construire sa vie », destiné à des interventions d’accompagnement en orientation se fonde sur cinq présupposés concernant les personnes et leur vie professionnelle : des possibilités liées aux contextes, des processus dynamiques, une progression non linéaire, des perspectives multiples et des configurations individuelles. En partant de ces présupposés, nous avons bâti un modèle en contexte, se réclamant de l’épistémologie du constructionnisme social, reconnaissant en particulier que les connaissances et l’identité d’un individu sont le produit d’interactions sociales et que le sens est co-construit, via la médiation du discours. Le cadre général « construire sa vie » s’appuie sur les théories de la construction de soi (Guichard, 2005) et de la construction des parcours professionnels (Savickas, 2005), qui décrivent les conduites d’orientation et leurs développements. Ce cadre concerne toute la vie, il est holiste, tient compte des contextes et est préventif.At the beginning of the 21st century, a new social arrangement of work poses a series of questions and challenges to scholars who aim to help people develop their working lives. Given the globalization of career counseling, we decided to address these issues and then to formulate potentially innovative responses in an international forum. We used this approach to avoid the difficulties of creating models and methods in one country and then trying to export them to other countries where they would be adapted for use. This article presents the initial outcome of this collaboration, a counseling model and methods. The life-designing model for career intervention endorses five presuppositions about people and their work lives: contextual possibilities, dynamic processes, non-linear progression, multiple perspectives, and personal patterns. Thinking from these five presuppositions, we have crafted a contextualized model based on the epistemology of social constructionism, particularly recognizing that an individual’s knowledge and identity are the product of social interaction and that meaning is co-constructed through discourse. The life-design framework for counseling implements the theories of self-constructing (Guichard, 2005) and career construction (Savickas, 2005) that describe vocational behavior and its development. Thus, the framework is structured to be life-long, holistic, contextual, and preventive

The genomes of two key bumblebee species with primitive eusocial organization

Background: The shift from solitary to social behavior is one of the major evolutionary transitions. Primitively eusocial bumblebees are uniquely placed to illuminate the evolution of highly eusocial insect societies. Bumblebees are also invaluable natural and agricultural pollinators, and there is widespread concern over recent population declines in some species. High-quality genomic data will inform key aspects of bumblebee biology, including susceptibility to implicated population viability threats. Results: We report the high quality draft genome sequences of Bombus terrestris and Bombus impatiens, two ecologically dominant bumblebees and widely utilized study species. Comparing these new genomes to those of the highly eusocial honeybee Apis mellifera and other Hymenoptera, we identify deeply conserved similarities, as well as novelties key to the biology of these organisms. Some honeybee genome features thought to underpin advanced eusociality are also present in bumblebees, indicating an earlier evolution in the bee lineage. Xenobiotic detoxification and immune genes are similarly depauperate in bumblebees and honeybees, and multiple categories of genes linked to social organization, including development and behavior, show high conservation. Key differences identified include a bias in bumblebee chemoreception towards gustation from olfaction, and striking differences in microRNAs, potentially responsible for gene regulation underlying social and other traits. Conclusions: These two bumblebee genomes provide a foundation for post-genomic research on these key pollinators and insect societies. Overall, gene repertoires suggest that the route to advanced eusociality in bees was mediated by many small changes in many genes and processes, and not by notable expansion or depauperation

A multifunctional brain-computer interface intended for home use: An evaluation with healthy participants and potential end users with dry and gel-based electrodes

Current brain-computer interface (BCIs) software is often tailored to the needs of scientists and technicians and therefore complex to allow for versatile use. To facilitate home use of BCIs a multifunctional P300 BCI with a graphical user interface intended for non-expert set-up and control was designed and implemented. The system includes applications for spelling, web access, entertainment, artistic expression and environmental control. In addition to new software, it also includes new hardware for the recording of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. The EEG system consists of a small and wireless amplifier attached to a cap that can be equipped with gel-based or dry contact electrodes. The system was systematically evaluated with a healthy sample, and targeted end users of BCI technology, i.e., people with a varying degree of motor impairment tested the BCI in a series of individual case studies. Usability was assessed in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. Feedback of users was gathered with structured questionnaires. Two groups of healthy participants completed an experimental protocol with the gel-based and the dry contact electrodes (N = 10 each). The results demonstrated that all healthy participants gained control over the system and achieved satisfactory to high accuracies with both gel-based and dry electrodes (average error rates of 6 and 13%). Average satisfaction ratings were high, but certain aspects of the system such as the wearing comfort of the dry electrodes and design of the cap, and speed (in both groups) were criticized by some participants. Six potential end users tested the system during supervised sessions. The achieved accuracies varied greatly from no control to high control with accuracies comparable to that of healthy volunteers. Satisfaction ratings of the two end-users that gained control of the system were lower as compared to healthy participants. The advantages and disadvantages of the BCI and its applications are discussed and suggestions are presented for improvements to pave the way for user friendly BCIs intended to be used as assistive technology by persons with severe paralysis

Mating alters gene expression patterns in Drosophila melanogaster male heads

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Behavior is a complex process resulting from the integration of genetic and environmental information. <it>Drosophila melanogaster </it>rely on multiple sensory modalities for reproductive success, and mating causes physiological changes in both sexes that affect reproductive output or behavior. Some of these effects are likely mediated by changes in gene expression. Courtship and mating alter female transcript profiles, but it is not known how mating affects male gene expression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We used <it>Drosophila </it>genome arrays to identify changes in gene expression profiles that occur in mated male heads. Forty-seven genes differed between mated and control heads 2 hrs post mating. Many mating-responsive genes are highly expressed in non-neural head tissues, including an adipose tissue called the fat body. One fat body-enriched gene, <it>female-specific independent of transformer </it>(<it>fit</it>), is a downstream target of the somatic sex-determination hierarchy, a genetic pathway that regulates <it>Drosophila</it> reproductive behaviors as well as expression of some fat-expressed genes; three other mating-responsive loci are also downstream components of this pathway. Another mating-responsive gene expressed in fat, <it>Juvenile hormone esterase </it>(<it>Jhe</it>), is necessary for robust male courtship behavior and mating success.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study demonstrates that mating causes changes in male head gene expression profiles and supports an increasing body of work implicating adipose signaling in behavior modulation. Since several mating-induced genes are sex-determination hierarchy target genes, additional mating-responsive loci may be downstream components of this pathway as well.</p

Somatic sex-specific transcriptome differences in Drosophila revealed by whole transcriptome sequencing

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Understanding animal development and physiology at a molecular-biological level has been advanced by the ability to determine at high resolution the repertoire of mRNA molecules by whole transcriptome resequencing. This includes the ability to detect and quantify rare abundance transcripts and isoform-specific mRNA variants produced from a gene.</p> <p>The sex hierarchy consists of a pre-mRNA splicing cascade that directs the production of sex-specific transcription factors that specify nearly all sexual dimorphism. We have used deep RNA sequencing to gain insight into how the Drosophila sex hierarchy generates somatic sex differences, by examining gene and transcript isoform expression differences between the sexes in adult head tissues.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we find 1,381 genes that differ in overall expression levels and 1,370 isoform-specific transcripts that differ between males and females. Additionally, we find 512 genes not regulated downstream of <it>transformer </it>that are significantly more highly expressed in males than females. These 512 genes are enriched on the × chromosome and reside adjacent to dosage compensation complex entry sites, which taken together suggests that their residence on the × chromosome might be sufficient to confer male-biased expression. There are no transcription unit structural features, from a set of features, that are robustly significantly different in the genes with significant sex differences in the ratio of isoform-specific transcripts, as compared to random isoform-specific transcripts, suggesting that there is no single molecular mechanism that generates isoform-specific transcript differences between the sexes, even though the sex hierarchy is known to include three pre-mRNA splicing factors.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We identify thousands of genes that show sex-specific differences in overall gene expression levels, and identify hundreds of additional genes that have differences in the abundance of isoform-specific transcripts. No transcription unit structural feature was robustly enriched in the sex-differentially expressed transcript isoforms. Additionally, we found that many genes with male-biased expression were enriched on the × chromosome and reside adjacent to dosage compensation entry sites, suggesting that differences in sex chromosome composition contributes to dimorphism in gene expression. Taken together, this study provides new insight into the molecular underpinnings of sexual differentiation.</p