Bioanalysis of new designer drugs

Since the late 1990s the illicit drug market has undergone considerable change: along with the traditional drugs of abuse that still dominate, more than 100 psychotropic substances designed to bypass controlled substances legislation have appeared and led to intoxications and fatalities. Starting from the huge class of phenylalkylamines, containing many subgroups, the spectrum of structures has grown from tryptamines, piperazines, phenylcyclohexyl derivates and pyrrolidinophenones to synthetic cannabinoids and the first synthetic cocaine. Due to the small prevalence and high number of unknown substances, the detection of new designer drugs is a challenge for clinical and forensic toxicologists. Standard screening procedures might fail because a recently discovered or yet unknown substance has not been incorporated in the library used. Nevertheless, many metabolism studies, case reports, screening methods and substance-profiling papers concentrating on single compounds have been published. This review provides an overview of the developed bioanalytical and analytical methods, the matrices used, sample-preparation procedures, concentration of analytes in case of intoxication and also gives a résumé of immunoassay experiences. Additionally, six screening methods for biological matrices with a larger spectrum of analytes are described in more detail.

Psychothérapie de la dépression chronique : l’apport du modèle CBASP selon McCullough

Les dépressions chroniques sont fréquentes et souvent traitées par des approches traditionnelles. Cet article vise à présenter la nature spécifique de la psychopathologie et un traitement spécifiquement adapté à ces patients avec dépression chronique. Nous décrirons d’abord les spécificités psychopathologiques de cette population, en nous référant aux travaux de J. Piaget et de D. Kiesler. À partir de ces théories, nous mettrons en avant le modèle Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP), selon McCullough. Cet auteur propose deux volets d’interventions spécifiquement adaptées aux patients avec dépression chronique : l’analyse situationnelle et les techniques interpersonnelles basées sur la notion de transfert et de contre-transfert. Nous soulignerons la pertinence de cette approche par le résumé de plusieurs études empiriques ayant établi l’efficacité de ce modèle, sous certaines conditions cliniques. Nous terminerons par une réflexion de l’application de ce modèle au-delà du tableau clinique de la dépression chronique en ajoutant ainsi des arguments supplémentaires en faveur de l’apport du modèle CBASP au champ actuel de la psychothérapie des troubles mentaux.

Teaching practice recommendations: prevention and screening

The aim of this article is to provide guidance to family doctors on how to tutor students about effective screening and primary prevention. Family doctors know their patients and adapt national and international guidelines to their specific context, risk profile, sex and age as well as to the prevalence of the disorders under consideration. Three cases are presented to illustrate guideline use according to the level of evidence (for a 19-year-old man, a 60-year-old woman, and an 80-year-old man). A particular strength of family medicine is that doctors see their patients over the years. Thus they can progressively go through the various prevention strategies, screening, counselling and immunisation, accompanying their patients with precious advice for their health throughout their lifetime.

Looking too Old? How First Impressions of Older-looking Candidates Contribute to Unfavorable Selection Decisions

Building on theories of impression formation based on faces, this research investigates the impact of job candidates’ facial age appearance on hiring as well as the underlying mechanism. In an experiment, participants decided whether to hire a fictitious candidate aged 50 years, 30 years or without age information. The candidate’s age was signaled either via chronological information (varied by date of birth) or via facial age appearance (varied by a photograph on the résumé). Findings showed that candidates with older-appearing faces—but not chronologically older candidates—triggered impressions of low health and fitness, compared to younger-appearing candidates. These impressions reduced perceptions of person-job fit, which lowered hiring probabilities for older-appearing candidates. These findings provide the first evidence that trait impressions from faces are a determinant of age discrimination in personnel selection. They call for an extension of current models of age discrimination by integrating the effects of face-based trait impressions, particularly with respect to health and fitness.

Une analyse des connecteurs pragmatiques fondée sur la théorie de la pertinence et son application au TALN

Dans cet article, nous proposons d’appliquer une analyse des connecteurs pragmatiques issue de la théorie de la pertinence au traitement automatique des langues naturelles (TALN). Nous commencerons par montrer les conséquences de l’application de la théorie de la pertinence sur l’étude des connecteurs, en prenant pour exemple les connecteurs de l’anglais. Dans un deuxième temps, nous exposerons les contraintes imposées par les limites actuelles du TALN. Enfin, nous proposerons un schéma d’étude des connecteurs pragmatiques pour le TALN ainsi qu’une esquisse d’application de cette méthode.