BCG vaccination and leprosy protection: review of current evidence and status of BCG in leprosy control.

The bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, initially developed to provide protection against TB, also protects against leprosy; and the magnitude of this effect varies. Previous meta-analyses did not provide a summary estimate of the efficacy due to the heterogeneity of the results. We conducted a meta-analysis of published data including recently published studies (up to June 2009) to determine the efficacy of BCG protection on leprosy and to investigate whether age at vaccination, clinical form, number of doses, type of study, the latitude of study area and year of publication influence the degree of efficacy and explain the variation. In the light of the results, we argue for more emphasis on the role of BCG vaccination in leprosy control and research

Overconfidence and excess entry: a comparison between students and managers

Overconfidence can lead to excessive business entry. Here we replicate the pioneer experiment finding this nexus (Camerer and Lovallo 1999) and extend it in two major directions: (1) to consider managers as well as student subjects and (2) to explicitly take into account selected characteristics of the manager subjects. We find that managers are more prone to the nexus overconfidence-excess entry than students are. In particular, we find that left-handed, married, and emotionally aroused managers are more prone to excess entry.excess business entry, overconfidence, unrealistic optimism

Internal exponential stabilization to a nonstationary solution for 1D Burgers equations with piecewise constant controls

International audienceThe feedback stabilization of the Burgers system to a nonstationary solution using a finite number of internal piecewise constant controls is considered. Estimates for the number of needed controls are derived. In the particular case of no constraint on the support of the control a better estimate is derived, so the possibility of getting an analogous estimate for the general case is discussed.That possibility is suggested by the results of some numerical simulations

Remarks on the internal exponential stabilization to a nonstationary solution for 1D Burgers equations

International audienceThe feedback stabilization of the Burgers system to a nonstationary solution using finite-dimensional internal controls is considered. Estimates for the dimension of the controller are derived. In the particular case of no constraint on the support of the controla better estimate is derived and the possibility of getting an analogous estimate for the general case is discussed; some numerical examplesare presented illustrating the stabilizing effect of the feedback control, and suggesting that the existence of an estimatein the general case analogous to that in the particular one is plausible