Fingermark detection based on the in situ growth of luminescent nanoparticles: towards a new generation of multimetal deposition

The in situ deposition of zinc oxide on gold nanoparticles in aqueous solution has been here successfully applied in the field of fingermark detection on various non-porous surfaces. In this article, we present the improvement of the multimetal deposition, an existing technique limited up to now to non-luminescent results, by obtaining luminescent fingermarks with very good contrast and details. This is seen as a major improvement in the field in terms of selectivity and sensitivity of detection, especially on black surfaces.

Social freezing in Switzerland and worldwide--a blessing for women today?

This is a critical review of the medical, ethical, judicial and financial aspects of the so called "social freezing", the cryopreservation of a woman's oocytes for non-medical purposes. The possibility of storing the eggs of fertile women in order to prevent age-related fertility decline is being widely promoted by fertility centres and the lay press throughout the world. Research data has shown that social freezing should ideally be performed on women around 25 years of age in order to increase their chances of a future pregnancy. In reality, it is mostly performed after the age of 35. Unfortunately, social freezing is in general not a solution for the underlying societal problems to fit in with professionally active women and having children. It only delays the existing problems. Furthermore, it creates a lot of potential new problems. A great deal more should be undertaken to offer real solutions to the underlying societal problems which are in part: pre-school education, care in the event of childhood illness, and the many weeks of school holidays, acceptance of professionally active women having children, and more job offers with a workload <100%.). Furthermore, society should be informed about the decreasing chances of pregnancy with increasing maternal (and paternal) age as well as the increasing risks of miscarriage and obstetric/neonatal complications. Detailed information for woman considering social freezing is crucial. Every doctor, proposing social freezing to his patients, should be up to date with all these details. Follow-up studies on the outcome of these children are needed.

Social evolution in the sweat bee Halictus scabiosae

The evolution of eusociality is one of the major evolutionary transitions of life on earth. For investigating the conditions and processes that are central to the origin of such integrated social organization, it is best to study organisms in which individuals have retained some flexibility in their reproductive strategies. Halictid bees are especially well suited as model organisms, because they show huge variation in social systems, both within and between species. In this thesis, I investigated female reproductive strategies in the primitively eusocial bee Halictus scabiosae, with a focus on the role of helpers, in order to get insight into the mechanisms governing the evolution and maintenance of eusociality. This species produces two broods per year. The females from the first brood can stay in the natal nest to help raise a second brood of males and gynes that become the next-generation foundresses in spring. We first compared the morphology of females from the two broods, as well as the nutrition they receive as larvae. Then we conducted a helper- removal experiment in the field to quantify the effects of the presence of helpers on colony survival and productivity. Finally, we reconstructed pedigree relationships of individuals using microsatellite markers in order to detect who reproduces in the nest and how much individuals drift between nests. We found that first brood females had a uniformly small size and low fat reserves, which may be caused by the restricted pollen and nectar provisions on which they develop. Colony survival and productivity was increased by the presence of a single helper, but the effect was small and mostly limited to small colonies. By inferring parentage within and across colonies, we could determine that females from the first brood rarely reproduce in their natal nests. However, foundresses are frequently replaced, and foundresses and females from the first brood occasionally move to and reproduce in foreign colonies. As a result, colonies often contain offspring from unrelated individuals, and the relatedness of females to the brood they rear is low. Overall, this thesis shows that the reproductive system of H. scabiosae is highly flexible. The production of helpers in the first brood is important for colony success and productivity, but there is a high colony failure rate and part of the first brood females drift and reproduce in foreign nests. Both foundresses and helpers appear to be constrained by harsh environmental conditions or social factors limiting reproduction and independent colony founding. - L'origine des insectes sociaux est un domaine fascinant pour la recherche. Pour comprendre les mécanismes et les conditions qui sont nécessaires pour l'évolution et le maintien de la vie en société, il est judicieux d'étudier des sociétés primitives d'insectes, où toutes les femelles ont conservé la capacité de se reproduire, même si leur rôle comportemental dans la colonie est d'aider sans se reproduire. Une des familles d'abeilles, les halictes, est idéale pour cette sorte de recherche, en raison de la grande variabilité dans leur comportement social. Dans cette thèse, j'ai étudié les stratégies reproductives des femelles de Halictus scabiosae pour mieux comprendre les mécanismes qui influencent l'évolution de la vie en société. Cette espèce produit deux cohortes de couvain par année. Les femelles du premier couvain restent souvent dans leur nid natal pour aider à élever le deuxième couvain, tandis que les femelles du deuxième couvain s'accouplent et hibernent pour devenir les nouvelles fondatrices au printemps suivant. Nous avons d'abord comparé la morphologie des femelles issues des deux couvains ainsi que leur nutrition au stade de larve. Puis, dans une expérience sur le terrain, nous avons quantifié l'apport d'une ouvrière pour la survie et la productivité de la colonie. Finalement, nous avons reconstruit des pedigrees en utilisant des marqueurs génétiques, pour savoir qui se reproduit dans la colonie et combien d'individus migrent entre colonies. Les résultats montrent que les femelles du premier couvain sont uniformément plus petites et plus maigres, ce qui indique que les fondatrices réduisent les provisions de nourriture pour leur premier couvain afin de les inciter à aider dans le nid au lieu de se reproduire indépendamment. Dans l'expérience sur le terrain, la survie et la productivité de la colonie augmentaient avec la présence d'une ouvrière additionnelle, mais l'effet était petit et limité aux petites colonies. Par la reconstruction de pedigrees, nous pouvions constater que les femelles du premier couvain pondent rarement dans leurs nids natals. Les fondatrices cependant sont souvent remplacées en cours de saison, et migrent fréquemment entre nids, tandis que les femelles du premier couvain pondent parfois des oeufs dans des nids étrangers. De ce fait, les colonies contiennent souvent des descendants d'individus étrangers, et la parenté génétique entre les femelles et le deuxième couvain est basse. Cette thèse démontre que le système reproductif de H. scabiosae est très flexible. La production d'ouvrières est importante pour la survie de la colonie et sa productivité, mais le taux d'échec est élevé et une partie des femelles du premier couvain migrent et pondent dans une colonie étrangère. Autant les fondatrices que les ouvrières semblent être contraintes par des conditions environnementales ou sociales qui limitent la reproduction et les nouvelles fondations de colonie. - Die Entstehung von sozialen Lebensformen ist eines der wichtigsten Entwicklungen in der Geschichte des Lebens. Um die Bedingungen oder Prozesse zu verstehen, welche bei der Entstehung und dem Erhalt von sozialen Merkmalen wichtig sind, sollte man Lebewesen untersuchen, welche je nach Umwelteinflüßen ihr soziales Verhalten flexibel ändern können. Furchenbienen (Halictidae) gehören dazu. Diese weisen nämlich ein breites Spektrum verschiedener sozialer Organisationsformen auf, oftmals sogar innerhalb der einzelnen Arten. In meiner Doktorarbeit befasste ich mich mit den Fortpflanzungsstrategien der Weibchen der Skabiosen-Furchenbiene Halictus scabiosae. Diese Art produziert zwei Brüten pro Jahr. Die Weibchen der ersten Brut bleiben dabei meist als Arbeiterinnen in ihrem Geburtsnest, wohingegen die Weibchen der zweiten Brut nach der Paarung überwintern, um im nächsten Frühling neue Kolonien zu gründen. In einem ersten Schritt verglichen wir die beiden Brüten bezüglich der Grösse und der Fettreserven der Weibchen sowie der Pollen-Nektar-Vorräte für die Larven. Dann bestimmten wir in einem Feldexperiment, wieviel eine zusätzliche Arbeiterin zum Überleben und zur Produktiviät der Kolonie beiträgt. Schliesslich ermittelten wir durch genetische Tests die Verwandtschaftsbeziehungen zwischen den Bienen, um herauszufinden, wer in den Kolonien tatsächlich die Eier legt und ob und wieviel die Bienen zwischen verschiedenen Nestern wandern. Wir stellten fest, dass die Weibchen von der ersten Brut einheitlich kleiner sind und weniger Fettreserven besitzen. Das weist daraufhin, dass die Nestgründerin die erste Brut unterernährt, um die Wahrscheinlichkeit zu erhöhen, dass diese Weibchen als Arbeiterinnen im Nest bleiben anstatt sich unabhängig fortzupflanzen. Schon eine einzelne zusätzliche Arbeiterin verbesserte die Überlebenschancen und Produktivität der Kolonie, der Effekt war allerdings klein und auf kleine Kolonien beschränkt. Die Verwandtschaftsanalysen zeigten, dass die Arbeiterinnen nur sehr selten ein Ei in ihr Geburtsnest legen. Erstaunlicherweise wanderten die Nestgründerinnen oft zwischen verschiedenen Nestern. Einige Weibchen der ersten Brut wanderten auch in ein fremdes Nest und produzierten dort Nachkommen. Diese Doktorarbeit zeigt, dass die Fortpflanzungsstrategien der Skabiosen-Furchenbiene tatsächlich sehr flexibel sind. Die Anwesenheit von Arbeiterinnen ist wichtig für das Überleben und die Produktivität der Kolonie. Die Misserfolgsraten bleiben jedoch hoch, und ein Teil der Weibchen der ersten Brut pflanzt sich in fremden Nestern fort. Sowohl die Nestgründerinnen als auch die Weibchen der ersten Brut scheinen durch Umweltsbedingungen oder durch soziale Faktoren in der Wahl ihrer Fortpflanzungs¬strategie eingeschränkt zu sein.

Reversible behavioural autistic-like regression: A manifestation of a special (new?) epileptic syndrome in a 28-month-old child. A 2-year longitudinal study .

A 28-month-old boy was referred for acute onset of abnormal head movements. History revealed an insidious progressive regression in behaviour and communication over several months. Head and shoulder 'spasms' with alteration of consciousness and on one occasion ictal laughter were seen. The electroencephalograph (EEG) showed repeated bursts of brief generalized polyspikes and spike-wave during the 'spasms', followed by flattening, a special pattern which never recurred after treatment. Review of family videos showed a single 'minor' identical seizure 6 months previously. Magnetic resonance imaging was normal. Clonazepam brought immediate cessation of seizures, normalization of the EEG and a parallel spectacular improvement in communication, mood and language. Follow-up over the next 10 months showed a new regression unaccompained by recognized seizures, although numerous seizures were discovered during the videotaped neuropsychological examination, when stereotyped subtle brief paroxysmal changes in posture and behaviour could be studied in slow motion and compared with the 'prototypical' initial ones. The EEG showed predominant rare left-sided fronto-temporal discharges. Clonazepam was changed to carbamazepin with marked improvement in behaviour, language and cognition which has been sustained up to the last control at 51 months. Videotaped home observations allowed the documentation of striking qualitative and quantitative variations in social interaction and play of autistic type in relation to the epileptic activity. We conclude that this child has a special characteristic epileptic syndrome with subtle motor and vegetative symptomatology associated with an insidious catastrophic 'autistic-like' regression which could be overlooked. The methods used to document such fluctuating epileptic behavioural manifestations are discussed.

Prevalence of social phobia in a clinical sample of drug dependent patients.

INTRODUCTION: Social phobia is among the most frequent psychiatric disorders and can be classified into two subtypes, nongeneralized and generalized. Whereas it significantly worsens the morbidity of comorbid substance abuse disorders, and it often is associated with reduced treatment responses, there is still lacking data on its prevalence in clinical populations of drug abusing patients. METHODS: The study sample consisted of 75 inpatients and 75 outpatients meeting DSM-IV criteria for drug dependence. Symptoms of social phobia were assessed with the French-language version of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). RESULTS: Prevalence rate were 20% for the generalized subtype and 42.6% for the nongeneralized subtype. Gender difference emerged in the severity of fear, women reporting significantly greater fear relating to performance situations than men. CONCLUSIONS: An important proportion of patients with substance dependence present a comorbid generalized or nongeneralized social phobia. Early recognition of social phobia and adequate interventions is warranted for these patients in order to improve their treatment response with regard to quality of life and relapse prevention.

Bonding and Bridging Social Capital in Step- and First-Time Families and the Issue of Family Boundaries

Divorce and remarriage usually imply a redefinition of family boundaries, with consequences for the production and availability of social capital. This research shows that bonding and bridging social capitals are differentially made available by families. It first hypothesizes that bridging social capital is more likely to be developed in stepfamilies, and bonding social capital in first-time families. Second, the boundaries of family configurations are expected to vary within stepfamilies and within first-time families creating a diversity of family configurations within both structures. Third, in both cases, social capital is expected to depend on the ways in which their family boundaries are set up by individuals by including or excluding ex-partners, new partner's children, siblings, and other family ties. The study is based on a sample of 300 female respondents who have at least one child of their own between 5 and 13 years, 150 from a stepfamily structure and 150 from a first-time family structure. Social capital is empirically operationalized as perceived emotional support in family networks. The results show that individuals in first-time families more often develop bonding social capital and individuals in stepfamilies bridging social capital. In both cases, however, individuals in family configurations based on close blood and conjugal ties more frequently develop bonding social capital, whereas individuals in family configurations based on in-law, stepfamily or friendship ties are more likely to develop bridging social capital.

Conflict resolution and evolution of social structures in insect societies

In colonies of social Hymenoptera (which include all ants, as well as some wasp and bee species), only queens reproduce whereas workers generally perform other tasks. The evolution of worker's reproductive altruism can be explained by kin selection, which states that workers can indirectly transmit copies of their genes by helping the reproduction of relatives. The relatedness between queens and workers may however be low, particularly when there are multiple queens per colony, which limits the transmission of copies of workers genes and increases potential conflicts between colony members. In this thesis, we investigated the link between social structure variations and conflicts, and explored the mechanisms involved in variation of colony queen number in ants. According to kin selection, workers should rear the brood they are most related to. In social Hymenoptera, males are haploid whereas females (workers and queens) are diploid. As a result, workers can be up to three times more related to females than males in some colonies, where they should consequently favour the production of females. In contrast, queens are equally related to daughters and sons in all types of colonies and therefore should favour a balanced sex ratio. In a meta-analysis across all studies of social Hymenoptera, we showed that colony sex ratio is generally largely influenced by workers. Hence, the evolution of social structures where queens and workers are equally related to males and females may contribute to decrease the conflict between the two castes over colony sex ratio. Another conflict between queens and workers can occur over male production. Many species contain workers that still have the ability to lay haploid eggs. In some social structures, workers are on average more related to sons of queens than to sons of other workers. As a result, workers should eliminate worker-laid eggs to favour queen-laid eggs. We showed that in the ant Formica selysi, workers eliminate more worker-laid than queen-laid eggs, independently of colony social structure. These results therefore suggest that worker policing can evolve independently from relatedness, potentially because of costs of worker reproduction at the colony-level. Colony queen number is a key parameter that influences relatedness between group members. Queen body size is generally linked to the success of independent colony foundation by single queens and may influence the number of queens in the new colony. In the ant F. selysi, single-queen colonies produce larger queens than multiple-queen colonies. We showed that this association results from genes or maternal effects transmitted to the eggs. However, we also found that queens produced in colonies of the two social forms did not differ in their general ability to found new colonies independently. Queen body size may also influence queen dispersal ability and constrain small queens to be re-adopted in their original nest after mating at proximity. We tested the acceptance of new queens in another ant species, Formica paralugubris, which has numerous queens per colony. Our results show that workers do not discriminate between nestmate and foreign queens, and more generally accept new queens at a limited rate. To conclude, this thesis shows that mechanisms influencing variation in colony queen number and the influence of these changes on conflict resolution are complex. Data gathered in this thesis therefore constitute a solid background for further research on the evolution and the maintenance of complex organisations in insect societies.

Temporal trends in intergenerational social mobility in Switzerland: A cohort study of men and women born between 1912 and 1974

The central question addressed in this paper is to what extent the influence of social origin on life chances has changed over time for both men and women. In order to capture this change, intergenerational social mobility of eight different birth-cohorts, covering most of the entire twentieth century, is analysed using a unique collection of twelve Swiss national population sample surveys. The main results show that social mobility has remained constant across cohorts born in 1912 and those born in 1974. This suggests that unlike some other industrialised countries, inequality based on social origin is persistent in Switzerland.

The genomic impact of 100 million years of social evolution in seven ant species.

Ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) represent one of the most successful eusocial taxa in terms of both their geographic distribution and species number. The publication of seven ant genomes within the past year was a quantum leap for socio- and ant genomics. The diversity of social organization in ants makes them excellent model organisms to study the evolution of social systems. Comparing the ant genomes with those of the honeybee, a lineage that evolved eusociality independently from ants, and solitary insects suggests that there are significant differences in key aspects of genome organization between social and solitary insects, as well as among ant species. Altogether, these seven ant genomes open exciting new research avenues and opportunities for understanding the genetic basis and regulation of social species, and adaptive complex systems in general.

Towards a new combination therapy for tuberculosis with next generation benzothiazinones.

The benzothiazinone lead compound, BTZ043, kills Mycobacterium tuberculosis by inhibiting the essential flavo-enzyme DprE1, decaprenylphosphoryl-beta-D-ribose 2-epimerase. Here, we synthesized a new series of piperazine-containing benzothiazinones (PBTZ) and show that, like BTZ043, the preclinical candidate PBTZ169 binds covalently to DprE1. The crystal structure of the DprE1-PBTZ169 complex reveals formation of a semimercaptal adduct with Cys387 in the active site and explains the irreversible inactivation of the enzyme. Compared to BTZ043, PBTZ169 has improved potency, safety and efficacy in zebrafish and mouse models of tuberculosis (TB). When combined with other TB drugs, PBTZ169 showed additive activity against M. tuberculosis in vitro except with bedaquiline (BDQ) where synergy was observed. A new regimen comprising PBTZ169, BDQ and pyrazinamide was found to be more efficacious than the standard three drug treatment in a murine model of chronic disease. PBTZ169 is thus an attractive drug candidate to treat TB in humans.

Médecines complémentaires: vers un consensus "evidence-based" à l'hôpital universitaire. [Complementary and alternative medicines (CAM): towards an "evidence-based" consensus in the University hospital]

Après la votation fédérale demandant de prendre en compte les médecines complémentaires, un consensus a été recherché dans quatorze services et unités du Centre hospitalier universitaire vaudois (CHUV). Confrontés aux données de la littérature (Plus de 2000 publications en "Evidence-based complementary medicine" depuis 1998), les soignants étaient tous surpris par l'ampleur des résultats cliniques disponibles actuellement. Tous identifiaient un besoin en formation et en informations sur le sujet. Une prise de position officielle de l'institution était aussi souhaitée, instituant l'enseignement et la recherche sur les médecines complémentaires et assurant la production d'informations rigoureuses et pertinentes pour la clinique. [Abstract] While a popular vote supported a new article on complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) in the Swiss Constitution, this assessment in 14 wards of the University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland, attempted at answering the question: How can CAM use be better taken into account and patients informed with more rigor and respect for their choices? Confronted with a review of the literature (> 2000 publications in "Evidence-based cornplementary medicine" since 1998), respondents declared their ignorance of the clinical data presently available on CAM. All were in favour of more teaching and information on the subject, plus an official statement from the Hospital direction, ensuring production and diffusion of rigorous and cJinically significant information on CAM.