Field Epidemiology Assessment for a Medical Evacuation Programme Related to the Crisis in Kosovo, 1999

In complex human emergency (CHE)-aid situations, the international community responds to provide assistance to reduce morbidity and mortality related to environmental and civil disruptions. The political and social situation in Kosovo, in combination with the military activity from 23 March to 09 June, 1999, created a crisis associated with mass movement of the population of Kosovo into neighbouring provinces and nations. This forced migration of people seeking protection increased demands for -water, food, shelter, and health care in the refugee areas. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that 771,900 ethnic Albanians, and 30,700 Serbians, Croatians, and Montenegrins had been displaced from Kosovo during this time period, and that 439,500 of these people had arrived in Albania. Given the limited health-care resources in Albania to respond to the increasing demands for health care, a field epidemiological study was conducted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to assess the need for a medical evacuation program from Albania related to the crisis in Kosovo. Outcome measurements in this assessment were: 1) health-care capacity and health-care utilization rates in Albania before the crisis and by the refugees during the crisis; 2) the frequency of war-related injuries; 3) the frequency of medical evacuation; 4) nature of medical conditions of the patients being evacuated; and 5) destination for medical evacuation (internal or international) during the crisis. The results of the field assessment, which gathered health outcome data during the first eight weeks of the conflict (23 March 1999 to 25 May 1999), indicated that there was a need for a specifically designed medical evacuation programme in Albania. The study demonstrated that the implementation of a medical evacuation programme must be integrated with the national health care objectives. It also was found that the magnitude of an evacuation programme could be reduced markedly by strategic support of existing medical programmes in Albania (haemodialysis, trauma and orthopaedics, blood banking). Implementation of this strategy could permit containment of the majority of cases within Albania or to regional, health-care facilities. The results of such targeted support for specific services could result in a national programme for internal medical evacuation, with limited dependence upon the international movement of patient

Closing the compliance gap in marine protected areas with human behavioural sciences

Advocates, practitioners and policy-makers continue to use and advocate for marine protected areas (MPAs) to meet global ocean protection targets. Yet many of the worlds MPAs, and especially no-take MPAs, are plagued by poaching and ineffective governance. Using a global dataset on coral reefs as an example, we quantify the potential ecological gains of governing MPAs to increase compliance, which we call the ‘compliance gap’. Using ecological simulations based on model posteriors of joint Bayesian hierarchical models, we demonstrate how increased compliance in no-take MPAs could nearly double target fish biomass (91% increases in median fish biomass), and result in a 292% higher likelihood of encountering top predators. Achieving these gains and closing the compliance gap necessitates a substantial shift in approach and practice to go beyond optimizing enforcement, and towards governing for compliance. This will require engaging and integrating a broad suite of actors, principles, and practices across three key domains: (i)) harnessing social influence, (ii) integrating equity principles, and (iii) aligning incentives through market-based instruments. Empowering and shaping communication between actor groups (e.g., between fishers, practitioners, and policy-makers) using theoretically underpinned approaches from the behavioural sciences is one of the most essential, but often underserved aspects of governing MPAs. We therefore close by highlighting how this cross-cutting tool could be further integrated in governance to bolster high levels of compliance in MPAs

Impact of Protective Compounds on the Viability, Physiological State and Lipid Degradation of FreezeDried Pseudomonas Fluorescens BTP1 during Storage

The drying of bacteria remains a major alternative in order to keep them long term. After centrifugation, the bacterial pellet of Pseudomonas fluorescensBTP1 was divided in two fractions one with protecting compounds (2% glycerol or 5% maltodextrine) and one without and freeze-dried. After freeze drying, powders were sealed in aluminium bag under vacuum and stored at 4 or 20°C. The parameters such as viability, the conductivity and the ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids/saturated fatty acids were used to investigate the viability of freeze-dried powders during storage. For example cell concentration of powder with glycerol (PG) at CFU/g before storage is 4.109 and after 7 month 2.108 at 4°C and 3,5.107 at 20°C). The ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids/saturated fatty acids decrease in function of time (e.g. at 4°C the ratios of C18:3 and C18:2 by C16:0 decreases respectively of 0,013 to 0,001 and 0,05 to 0,03 after 60 days of storage). In the present study, flow cytometric analysis was applied to evaluate the state in which the cells are at the end of storage time. We compared the survival results of bacteria obtained by plate count with the flow cytometric analysis results.Conseil Alimentaire (CONSALIM

L'expertise criminelle et le rôle du psychologue : une comparaison entre les Pays-Bas et le Massachusetts (U.S.A.)

Jaffe Philippe, Koenraadt Frans, Weekers Jacqueline. L'expertise criminelle et le rôle du psychologue : une comparaison entre les Pays-Bas et le Massachusetts (U.S.A.). In: Bulletin de psychologie, tome 47 n°415, 1994. Expertises en psychologie légale. pp. 223-230

Effects of glycerol on Pseudomonas fluorescens BTP1 freeze-dried

The storage stability of freeze-dried powders was studied by parameters such as loss of viability on the Plate Count Agar (PCA). Powder with glycerol (PG) contains 8.4x1010cfu/g before storage 1.1x1010cfug after 3 months at 4°C and 6.0x108cfu/g after 3 months at 20°C. The concentration of soluble proteins (mg/g) decrease during storage at 4°C from 3.77 to 0.80 after 90 days; and the ratios of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids (C18:3/C16:0 and C18:2/C16:0) decrease respectively from 0.05 to 0.04 and 0.007 to 0.004 after 3 months at 4°C. This ratio characterises the membrane fluidity. Powder without glycerol (PS) contains 1.1x1010 cfu/g before storage and 1.4 x 108 cfu/g after 3 months at 4°C and 1.4 x 107 cfu/g after 3 months at 20°C. The concentration of soluble proteins (mg/g) decrease during storage at 4°C from 4.08 to 0.42 after 90 days, the glutathione concentration decrease during storage at 4°C from 2.2 to 1.4. The beneficial effect of glycerol on fatty acid composition during freezedrying is shown and the ratios of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids (C18:2/C16:0 and C18:3/C16:0) decrease respectively from 0.019 to 0.004 and 0.054 to 0.036 after 90 days storage at 4°C. Analysis by flow cytometry was used to assess the physiological state in which cells are at the end of freeze-drying. We found 13.5% live cells, 36.1% dead cells and 50.4% cells in an intermediate state for powder with glycerol (PG) after freeze-drying. These results shows that glycerol play an important role in Pseudomonas fluorescens BTP1 desiccation during freeze-drying, by maintaining a degree of viability after freeze-drying and during storage.Conseil Alimentaire (CONSALIM

Utilization of methyloleate in production of microbial lipase.

In this article, we report the development and optimization of an industrial culture medium for the production of extracellular lipase in the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica. Until now olive oil in combination with glucose was used as the carbon source and inducer for the production of lipase. Our results demonstrate that methyloleate, a cheap hydrophobic compound, could efficiently substitute olive oil as the inducer and carbon source for lipase production. A new process of lipase production was developed yielding a twofold increase in the level of production compared with the levels in previous reports.Comparative StudyJournal Articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Production and down-stream processing of an extracellular lipase from the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica

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