Impact of Selective Reductions in Labor Taxation

To study the impacts of reductions in employer’s social security contributions, we construct an intertemporal general equilibrium model with different types of workers (and wages), search unemployment and endogenous job destruction rates. Our model reproduces the empirical evidence that the impacts on employment, of reductions in contributions at the minimum wage level, go through a decrease in job destructions rather than an increase in job creations. We moreover find that, although it is prejudical to average productivity, reductions targeted at the minimum wage create much more net employment than reductions targeted at other wages.Labor taxation; Job destruction rate; Employment

Inflammation and Atherosclerosis: State of the Art in 2004-2005

peer reviewedInflammation plays a pivotal role in atherosclerosis; being present in all steps of the pathology, from initiation to the progression of the lesions to the development of vulnerable plaques and clinical destabilisation. Therefore, systemic markers of inflammation have emerged to predict future cardiovascular events in patients initially admitted for unstable syndromes, but also in healthy subjects. These markers can identify high risk patients and they are used to adapt ideal treatment to the patient's profile. The implication of the inflammation process in the treatment strategies is described in the last part of the article

Semi-implicit representation of sharp features with level sets

The present contribution enriches the nowadays “classical” level set implicit representation of geometries with topological information in order to correctly represent sharp features. For this, sharp features are classified according to their positions within elements of the level set support. Based on this additional information, sub-elements and interface-mesh used in a finite element context for integration and application of boundary conditions are modified to match exactly to the sharp features. In order to analyze evolving geometries, Boolean operations on these semi-implicit representations are derived so that the minimal additional information to represent correctly the new geometry is stored. This approach has been successfully applied to complex two-dimensional geometries. It computes in a robust way numerous Boolean operations and guarantees the precision and the convergence rate of the numerical simulations.Integrating Numerical Simulation and Geometric Design Technology (INSIST

Simulation of contact on crack lips and its influence on fatigue life prediction

his work is dedicated to evaluate the influence of the contact on crack lips on crack path and crack growth rate under multi-axial loading conditions. An important part is dedicated to algorithmic robustness when handling contact in the context of XFEM in presence of crack tip enrichment functions. Crack path predictions as well as crack growth rate are also strongly influenced by the partial contact so that expressions classically used in the context of uniaxial loading without contact must be adapted. Preliminary simulations of a cracked cylinder submitted to four points bending under multiaxial loading conditions are presented and will be compared to experimental results

A platform for the fast interpretation of movements and localization of users in 3D applications driven by a range camera

Interactivity is one of the key challenges for immersive applications like gaming. Manufacturers have been working towards interfaces that are driven by a device (e.g. a Wiimote) or interfaces that are controlled by a camera with a subsequent computer vision module. Both approaches have unique advantages, but they do not permit to localize users in the scene with an appropriate accuracy. Therefore, we propose to use both a range camera and accurate range sensors to enable the interpretation of movements. This paper describes a platform that uses a range camera to acquire the silhouettes of users, regardless of illumination, and to improve the pose recovery with range information after some image processing steps. In addition, to circumvent the difficult process of calibration required to map range values to physical distances, we complete the system with several range laser sensors. These sensors are located in a horizontal plane, and measure distances up to a few centimeters. We combine all these measurements to obtain a localization map, used to locate users in the scene at a negligible computational cost. Our method fills a gap in 3D applications that requires absolute positions.Peer reviewe

Exact Representation of Interfaces Using Enriched Level-Set Technique

This work aims to improve implicit representation of complex industrial work-pieces by reducing the existing gap between Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE). The proposed approach is based on the level-set technique [1]. Limitations of the latter technique results in the miss-capturing of corners lying on the interface (iso-0 level-set) and other sharp features. These limitations also have a significant impact on surrounding elements. In order to avoid undesired over-smoothing to the sharp features, especially corners, an enhanced representation is proposed that is based on level sets method is introduced. This technique, referred in what follows by “level-set+” ,enriches the classical level-set by using data related to the corner points. This is done by automatically detecting geometrical points and using this information in the implicit representation. Elements containing these geometrical points and surrounding elements will be re-subdivided according to the updated iso-contour. This technique helps to employ classical level set and preserve current data structure for most of the creation of the iso-0 level set. Although the method is general enough to handle most possible configurations in terms of the corner locations, there are still limitations which have been handled in such a way to prevent computational failure. Also, the technique is effective at reducing the memory requirements by automatically erasing sharp features that are no longer existing after e.g. boolean operations. Some novel results illustrates accurate implicit representations of boundaries including the exact capture of sharp features in 2D and 3D. All the developments are implemented in our in-house finite element software Morfeo. There are numerous applications which can benefit from the above mentioned developments including crack propagation with the X-FEM method and transient machining simulations

Prevalence and mechanisms of resistance to carbapenems in Enterobacteriaceae

Objectives: To determine the point prevalence of carbapenem-non-susceptible Enterobacteriaceae (CNSE) and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) isolates among hospitalized patients in Belgium. Methods: Twenty-four hospital-based laboratories prospectively collected 200 non-duplicated Enterobacteriaceae isolates from clinical specimens of hospitalized patients over a 2 month period. All isolates were screened locally for decreased susceptibility to carbapenem drugs using a disc diffusion method according to CLSI interpretative criteria. CNSE strains were referred centrally for confirmation of carbapenemase by phenotypic and molecular testing. Results: From February to April 2012, 158 of the 4564 screened Enterobacteriaceae isolates were categorized as non-susceptible to carbapenems, resulting in a point prevalence of CNSE of 3.5% (95% CI: 2.9%–4.2%; range per centre: 0.5%–8.5%). Of the 125 referred CNSE isolates, 11 Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates [OXA-48 (n=7), KPC type (n=3) and NDM type (n=1)], 1 OXA-48-positive Escherichia coli isolate and 1 KPC-positive Klebsiella oxytoca isolate were detected in eight hospitals. None of the 72 carbapenem-non-susceptible Enterobacter spp. isolates were confirmed as CPE. The minimal estimated point prevalence of CPE isolates was 0.28% (13/ 4564; 95% CI: 0.13%–0.44%) overall (range per centre: 0%–1.5%). Conclusions: Despite the overall low prevalence of CNSE found in this study, the detection of CPE isolates in one-third of the participating centres raises concerns and highly suggests the spread and establishment of CPE in Belgian hospitals

Patent Foramen Ovale Closure or Anticoagulation vs. Antiplatelets after Stroke

BACKGROUND Trials of patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure to prevent recurrent stroke have been inconclusive. We investigated whether patients with cryptogenic stroke and echocardiographic features representing risk of stroke would benefit from PFO closure or anticoagulation, as compared with antiplatelet therapy. METHODS In a multicenter, randomized, open-label trial, we assigned, in a 1:1:1 ratio, patients 16 to 60 years of age who had had a recent stroke attributed to PFO, with an associated atrial septal aneurysm or large interatrial shunt, to transcatheter PFO closure plus long-term antiplatelet therapy (PFO closure group), antiplatelet therapy alone (antiplatelet-only group), or oral anticoagulation (anticoagulation group) (randomization group 1). Patients with contraindications to anticoagulants or to PFO closure were randomly assigned to the alternative noncontraindicated treatment or to antiplatelet therapy (randomization groups 2 and 3). The primary outcome was occurrence of stroke. The comparison of PFO closure plus antiplatelet therapy with antiplatelet therapy alone was performed with combined data from randomization groups 1 and 2, and the comparison of oral anticoagulation with antiplatelet therapy alone was performed with combined data from randomization groups 1 and 3. RESULTS A total of 663 patients underwent randomization and were followed for a mean (+/- SD) of 5.3 +/- 2.0 years. In the analysis of randomization groups 1 and 2, no stroke occurred among the 238 patients in the PFO closure group, whereas stroke occurred in 14 of the 235 patients in the antiplatelet-only group (hazard ratio, 0.03; 95% confidence interval, 0 to 0.26; P<0.001). Procedural complications from PFO closure occurred in 14 patients (5.9%). The rate of atrial fibrillation was higher in the PFO closure group than in the antiplatelet-only group (4.6% vs. 0.9%, P = 0.02). The number of serious adverse events did not differ significantly between the treatment groups (P = 0.56). In the analysis of randomization groups 1 and 3, stroke occurred in 3 of 187 patients assigned to oral anticoagulants and in 7 of 174 patients assigned to antiplatelet therapy alone. CONCLUSIONS Among patients who had had a recent cryptogenic stroke attributed to PFO with an associated atrial septal aneurysm or large interatrial shunt, the rate of stroke recurrence was lower among those assigned to PFO closure combined with antiplatelet therapy than among those assigned to antiplatelet therapy alone. PFO closure was associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation

Etest® versus broth microdilution for ceftaroline MIC determination with Staphylococcus aureus: results from PREMIUM, a European multicentre study

Objectives: To compare the concordance of ceftaroline MIC values 24 by reference broth microdilution (BMD) and Etest (BioMérieux, France) for MSSA and MRSA isolates, respectively, in isolates from PREMIUM (D372SL00001), a European multi-centre study.  Methods: Ceftaroline MICs were determined by reference BMD and by Etest for 1,242 MSSA and MRSA from adult patients with community-acquired pneumonia or complicated skin and soft tissue infections collected between February and May 2012; tests were performed across six European laboratories. Selected isolates with ceftaroline resistance in broth (MIC >1 mg/L) were retested in three central laboratories to confirm their behaviour.  Results: Overall concordance between BMD and Etest was good, with >97% essential agreement and >95% categorical agreement. Nevertheless, 12 of the 26 MRSA isolates found resistant by BMD scored as susceptible by Etest, with MICs ≤1 mg/L, thus counting as very major errors, whereas only five of 380 MRSA found ceftaroline susceptible in BMD were mis-categorised as resistant by Etest. Twenty-one of the 26 isolates with MICs of 2 mg/L by BMD were then re-tested twice by each of three central laboratories: BMD MICs of 2 mg/L were consistently found for 19 of the 21 isolates. Among 147 Etest results for these 21 isolates (original plus six repeats per isolate) 112 were >1 mg/L.  Conclusions: BMD and Etest have good overall agreement for ceftaroline against Staphylococcus aureus; nevertheless, reliable Etest-based discrimination of the minority of ceftaroline-resistant (MIC 2 mg/L) MRSA is extremely challenging, requiring careful reading of strips, ideally with duplicate testing

Micromechanics of inclusion-reinforced composites in elasto-plasticity and elasto-viscoplasticity : modeling and computation/

In this thesis, we propose some innovative developments for the implementation of mean-field homogenization schemes adapted to the prediction of the behavior of elasto-plastic and elasto-viscoplastic composites. For elasto-plastic materials, the local constitutive laws written in a rate form are linearized incrementally over several time-steps so that homogenization schemes developed in the context of linear elasticity can apply over each time interval. Since the original implementation gave too stiff predictions, we propose different stiffness reductions for the matrix tangent operator and study theoretically and numerically the influence on the final macroscopic prediction. Definition of the per phase reference state in also studied and linked to the fields heterogeneity effect. Predictions thus obtained are confronted with those of a secant (or total) formulation of the constitutive laws. For elasto-viscoplastic composites, we use the affine formulation which reduces the constitutive laws to fictitious linear thermo-elastic relations in the Laplace domain where the homogenization can apply. Our main contribution is a full treatment of internal variables in the linearization procedure. This enables to deal with realistic constitutive behaviors and general loading histories. We illustrate the influence of viscous effects under various loading conditions and study the accuracy of the method with respect to the loading rate. For both classes of composites, numerous predictions obtained by mean-field homogenization schemes are confronted against those of three-dimensional finite element simulations and experimental results. For a wide range of materials and loading conditions, a good agreement at the macroscopic level between our predictions and the reference results is observed.(FSA 3)--UCL, 200