Systemic evaluation - a contribution to Swiss development research

Systemic thinking may be traced hack to several roots. Some of them can he found in Taoism, the basic concepts of which are the achievement of cosmic harmony and a well-balanced social order. Others can be found in Greek philosophy. Similarly, modern physics in its most advanced branches is now recognizing basic aspects of these same roots in a scientific guise. The more the process of research and theory building advances, the more phenomena are recognized as complex and interdependent with other phenomena. Interdisciplinary research and the constitution of new disciplines are contributing to a scientific approximation of integral reality, which is becoming more and more like the one everyone knows as prescientific. The transcendence of the narrow boundaries of positivist sciences seems to be becoming a necessity for scientific evolution. The ecological crisis of the twentieth century may itself lead to increased systemic thinking, and it is in full awareness of the fact that there are no simple solutions that the systemic evaluator tries to cope with the problems of the dynamics of social and political interventions in the Third World as a means of development co-operation..

Evolution of sleep and sleep EEG after hemispheric stroke

The evolution of subjective sleep and sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) after hemispheric stroke have been rarely studied and the relationship of sleep variables to stroke outcome is essentially unknown. We studied 27 patients with first hemispheric ischaemic stroke and no sleep apnoea in the acute (1-8 days), subacute (9-35 days), and chronic phase (5-24 months) after stroke. Clinical assessment included estimated sleep time per 24 h (EST) and Epworth sleepiness score (ESS) before stroke, as well as EST, ESS and clinical outcome after stroke. Sleep EEG data from stroke patients were compared with data from 11 hospitalized controls and published norms. Changes in EST (>2 h, 38% of patients) and ESS (>3 points, 26%) were frequent but correlated poorly with sleep EEG changes. In the chronic phase no significant differences in sleep EEG between controls and patients were found. High sleep efficiency and low wakefulness after sleep onset in the acute phase were associated with a good long-term outcome. These two sleep EEG variables improved significantly from the acute to the subacute and chronic phase. In conclusion, hemispheric strokes can cause insomnia, hypersomnia or changes in sleep needs but only rarely persisting sleep EEG abnormalities. High sleep EEG continuity in the acute phase of stroke heralds a good clinical outcome.

Scientific assessment of the quality of OSIRIS images

Context. OSIRIS, the scientific imaging system onboard the ESA Rosetta spacecraft, has been imaging the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and its dust and gas environment since March 2014. The images serve different scientific goals, from morphology and composition studies of the nucleus surface, to the motion and trajectories of dust grains, the general structure of the dust coma, the morphology and intensity of jets, gas distribution, mass loss, and dust and gas production rates. Aims. We present the calibration of the raw images taken by OSIRIS and address the accuracy that we can expect in our scientific results based on the accuracy of the calibration steps that we have performed. Methods. We describe the pipeline that has been developed to automatically calibrate the OSIRIS images. Through a series of steps, radiometrically calibrated and distortion corrected images are produced and can be used for scientific studies. Calibration campaigns were run on the ground before launch and throughout the years in flight to determine the parameters that are used to calibrate the images and to verify their evolution with time. We describe how these parameters were determined and we address their accuracy. Results. We provide a guideline to the level of trust that can be put into the various studies performed with OSIRIS images, based on the accuracy of the image calibration.