Place des faiseurs de secret au Centre des Brûlés du CHUV

The National Burn Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, is treating many patients using a folk medicine called the secret. The popular belief is that the secret maker can remotely ease the pain and accelerate the healing process of a burn. This study is interested in the opinion of the caregivers and patients treated in the same center about these secret makers. 46 persons were interviewed. The study tries to explain this phenomenon scientifically; so far it hasn't been much researched. The results show that the Swiss caregivers are well informed (84%) of this folk medicine, and think for the majority (90%) that it can help reduce the pain of burns victims. The patients are demanding of such an approach and wish for recommendations from the caregivers, however they are reserved regarding the results they hope. The stress reduction on the burn victim, who has called a secret maker, and afterwards the biochemical and hormonal markers could be a scientific explanation of the positive effect of these healers on the patients. Le centre romand des grands brûlés (CRGB) du CHUV à Lausanne traite de nombreux patients en Suisse romande qui ont recours à une médecine populaire nommée le secret. La croyance populaire veut que les faiseurs de secret puissent soulager les douleurs et accélérer la guérison des brûlures, grâce à une intervention à distance. Cette étude s'intéresse à l'opinion des soignants et des patients traités dans ce même centre concernant ces faiseurs de secret ; 46 personnes ont été interrogées. L'étude tente, tant que possible, de trouver une explication scientifique à ce phénomène peu étudié jusqu'à présent. Les résultats montrent que les soignants suisses sont bien informés (84%) et pensent en majorité (90%) que cette pratique aide à réduire les douleurs des patients victimes de brûlures. Ces mêmes patients sont demandeurs d'une telle approche, aimeraient une recommandation de la part des soignants tout en étant réservés quant au résultat qu'ils espèrent. La réduction du niveau du stress chez les patients brûlés qui ont fait recourt aux faiseurs de secrets, et par la suite de ses médiateurs chimiques et hormonaux pourrait être une piste scientifique expliquant le rôle positif que peut jouer le secret chez les patients brûlés

PERSONAL ASPIRATIONS, THE “GOOD LIFE” AND THE LAW

[Many of the messages conveyed and laws created by capitalistic, consumer culture encourage the pursuit of goals for wealth, image and status. Sub- stantial research shows, however, that when individuals focus on such “ex- trinsic” goals, they report lower personal well-being and engage in more problematic social and ecological behaviour than when they are oriented towards “intrinsic” pursuits for personal growth, affiliation, and community feeling. Legislative agendas that are designed to increase “time affluence” and protect children from commercialisation are discussed as example ac- tivities lawyers could pursue to help increase intrinsic and decrease extrin- sic aspirations.]

Improvement of SLR accuracy, a possible new step

The satellite laser ranging (SLR) technology experienced a large number of technical improvements since the early 1970's, leading now to a millimetric instrumental accuracy. Presently, it appears as useless to increase these instrumental performances as long as the atmospheric propagation delay suffers its actual imprecision. It has been proposed for many years to work in multiwavelength mode, but up to now the considerable technological difficulties of subpicosecond timing have seriously delayed such an approach. Then a new possibility is proposed, using a device which is not optimized now for SLR but has already given good results in the lower troposphere for wind measurement: the association of a radar and a sodar. While waiting for the 2-lambda methodology, this one could provide an atmospheric propagation delay at the millimeter level during a few years with only little technological investment

Implementation of a low-cost photogrammetric methodology for 3D modelling of ceramic fragments

International audienceA simple and cheap tool has been developed for measuring shards of old ceramics, found in archaeological yards. It is based on a digital camera, and various photogrammetric and computer vision freeware completed by home-made software developments. The paper presents the equipment used for the acquisition of the images, and the processing software for the various steps. This software is mainly based on algorithms originating from computer vision community, and from more classical photogrammetry. Some intermediate results are presented, the final output of the present work being a very dense cloud of points describing the geometry of the surface of the shard, that may be post processed by many off-the-shelf drawing commercial software, depending on the needs of the archaeologists

Social comparison, personal relative deprivation, and materialism.

Across five studies, we found consistent evidence for the idea that personal relative deprivation (PRD), which refers to resentment stemming from the belief that one is deprived of deserved outcomes compared to others, uniquely contributes to materialism. In Study 1, self-reports of PRD positively predicted materialistic values over and above socioeconomic status, personal power, self-esteem, and emotional uncertainty. The experience of PRD starts with social comparison, and Studies 2 and 3 found that PRD mediated the positive relation between a tendency to make social comparisons of abilities and materialism. In Study 4, participants who learned that they had less (vs. similar) discretionary income than people like them reported a stronger desire for more money relative to donating more to charity. In Study 5, during a windfall-spending task, participants higher in PRD spent more on things they wanted relative to other spending categories (e.g., paying off debts).This work was supported by grant RPG-2013-148 from the Leverhulme Trust and studentship ES/J500045/1 from the Economic and Social Research Council

Maximizing Learning Opportunities Through Activity Modification

While the challenges of including all students in physical education are real, there is one overriding consideration: How successful is each child as a result of the teaching approach adopted? Considering the importance of accommodating all students, it is essential that practitioners explore new ways of teaching, discover a range of strategies for including students with diverse abilities, and continually rethink and revise lessons and activities. More than asking which students to include and how to accommodate only these students, practitioners should be asking how they can modify activities for all students to be successful. More than likely, the answer to this question is also complex. Yet, it is not easily discarded when the alternative is a class in which only the skilled feel good about their involvement and achieve desired outcomes, and those less skilled are at risk for ceasing physical activity participation. It also ignores those most skilled who stop participating due to a lack of challenging activities and subsequent boredom. Teaching approaches, inclusive of all, are critical to the success and commitment of all students. While good inclusionary practice takes time and support, the benefits are far reaching

Degree of Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty, A Comparison of Foreign vs Local Banks in Ghana

High service quality leads to competitive advantage as customers feel satisfied and thus are more probable to further buy the company’s services, to recommend them to others and to ignore competitors’ offerings. The focus of this study was to empirically determine the degree of service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty among retail banking customers and to compare the individual levels of these constructs between foreign and local banks in Ghana.  This study employed a set of survey questionnaire to collect raw data from 1,020 bank customers for analysis. The GAP analysis was used to identify the levels of service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Comparisons were then made between foreign banks and their local counterparts. Comparatively, service quality and customer loyalty are higher in foreign banks than in local banks. On the other hand, the local banks performed better than their foreign counterparts on customer satisfaction. But for two banks, the levels of service quality and customer satisfaction are higher across the banking industry of Ghana with respective mean scores of 5.42 and 5.51, against a scale mean of 5.0. The same cannot be said of customer loyalty, which recorded very poor results with overall mean score of 4.62. Banks are generally advised to work at improving the levels of service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, as these remain key ingredients for bank performance. Keywords: Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Loyalty, Retail Bankin