The EU as a foreign policy actor – should human rights really be promoted in China?

La UE promou les seves normes i principis com els drets humans a tercers països també. en aquest document conceptualitza la UE en el seu poder normatiu i presenta la seva política de drets humans i alguns interpretacions alternatives dels drets humans. La qüestió de si, i en el qual el preu de la UE ha de promoure els drets humans a la Xina, tenint en compte diversos punts de conflicte i si es pot complir amb el seu paper d'un poder normatiu a la llum de diferents restriccions s'examinen. Finalment, és analitza el que això implica per a la realització limitada demanda original de la UE i el que un optimitzat. política de drets humans pot semblar

The yellow fever 17D vaccine virus as a vector for the expression of foreign proteins: development of new live flavivirus vaccines

The Flaviviridae is a family of about 70 mostly arthropod-borne viruses many of which are major public health problems with members being present in most continents. Among the most important are yellow fever (YF), dengue with its four serotypes and Japanese encephalitis virus. A live attenuated virus is used as a cost effective, safe and efficacious vaccine against YF but no other live flavivirus vaccines have been licensed. The rise of recombinant DNA technology and its application to study flavivirus genome structure and expression has opened new possibilities for flavivirus vaccine development. One new approach is the use of cDNAs encopassing the whole viral genome to generate infectious RNA after in vitro transcription. This methodology allows the genetic mapping of specific viral functions and the design of viral mutants with considerable potential as new live attenuated viruses. The use of infectious cDNA as a carrier for heterologous antigens is gaining importance as chimeric viruses are shown to be viable, immunogenic and less virulent as compared to the parental viruses. The use of DNA to overcome mutation rates intrinsic of RNA virus populations in conjunction with vaccine production in cell culture should improve the reliability and lower the cost for production of live attenuated vaccines. The YF virus despite a long period ignored by researchers probably due to the effectiveness of the vaccine has made a come back, both in nature as human populations grow and reach endemic areas as well as in the laboratory being a suitable model to understand the biology of flaviviruses in general and providing new alternatives for vaccine development through the use of the 17D vaccine strain.

Workforce Planning News - Edition 5 (PDF 159 KB)

Apr-04

Breaking Bad News ... Regional Guidelines (PDF 270 KB)

Developed from Partnerships in Caring (2000)

Influence of Individual Characteristics on Work Engagement and Job Stress in a Sample of National and Foreign Workers in Switzerland

In most Western postindustrial societies today, the population is aging, businesses are faced with global integration, and important migration flows are taking place. Increasingly work organizations are hiring crossnational and multicultural workteams. In this situation it is important to understand the influence of certain individual and cultural characteristics on the process of professional integration. The present study explores the links between personality traits, demographic characteristics (age, sex, education, income, and nationality), work engagement, and job stress. The sample consisted of 618 participants, including 394 Swiss workers (200 women, 194 men) and 224 foreigners living and working in Switzerland (117 women, 107 men). Each participant completed the NEO-FFI, the UWES, and the GWSS questionnaires. Our results show an interaction between age and nationality with respect to work engagement and general job stress. The levels of work engagement and job stress appear to increase with age among national wotkers, whereas they decrease among foreign workers. In addition, work engagement was negatively associated with Neuroticism and positively with the other four personality dimensions. Finally, job stress was positively associated with Neuroticism and Conscientiousness, and negatively associated with Extraversion. However, the strength of these relationships appeared to vary according to the worker's nationality, age, sex, education, and income.

Foreign ant queens are accepted but produce fewer offspring.

Understanding social evolution requires us to understand the processes regulating the number of breeders within social groups and how they partition reproduction. Queens in polygynous (multiple queens per colony) ants often seek adoption in established colonies instead of founding a new colony independently. This mode of dispersal leads to potential conflicts, as kin selection theory predicts that resident workers should favour nestmate queens over foreign queens. Here we compared the survival of foreign and resident queens as well as their relative reproductive share. We used the ant Formica exsecta to construct colonies consisting of one queen with workers related to this resident queen and introduced a foreign queen. We found that the survival of foreign queens did not differ from that of resident queens over a period of 136 days. However, the genetic analyses revealed that resident queens produced a 1.5-fold higher number of offspring than introduced queens, and had an equal or higher share in 80% of the colonies. These data indicate that some discrimination can occur against dispersing individuals and that dispersal can thus have costs in terms of direct reproduction for dispersing queens.

Inequalities in old age - old news or new debate: Presentations

On October 20th, 2010, CARDI hosted an event entitled��'Inequalities in old age - old news or new debate?’. The event marked the launch of a CARDI funded research report Inequalities in Old Age: the impact of the recession on older people in Ireland, North and South��and the launch of a discussion paper prepared for CARDI by Dr. Maria Pierce and Dr.��Virpi Timonen, Trinity College Dublin��Theories of Ageing and Approaches to Welfare in Ireland, North and South [summary]. The event also featured a number of other presentations. Please find a selection of the presentations from the day below:Theories of Ageing: Lenses for Understanding, Signposts for Reforming Social Protection in Old Age by Dr Virpi Timonen, Director of SPARC and Dr Maria Pierce, Research Fellow, Trinity College Dublin.Inequalities, Pensions and the Recession by Prof Paddy Hillyard, Queen’s University Belfast and Dr Demi Patsios, Policy Research Consultant, Dr Francesca Lundstr̦m, Research Consultant.Pensions and Older Women by Dr Aine N�_ L̩ime, Programme Co-ordinator, ICSG (Irish Centre for Social Gerontology), NUI Galway.����

Medical students' skills and needs for training in breaking bad news.

This study assessed medical students' perception of individual vs. group training in breaking bad news (BBN) and explored training needs in BBN. Master-level students (N = 124) were randomised to group training (GT)-where only one or two students per group conducted a simulated patient (SP) interview, which was discussed collectively with the faculty-or individual training (IT)-where each student conducted an SP interview, which was discussed during individual supervision. Training evaluation was based on questionnaires, and the videotaped interviews were rated using the Roter Interaction Analysis System. Students were globally satisfied with the training. Still, there were noticeable differences between students performing an interview (GT/IT) and students observing interviews (GT). The analysis of the interviews showed significant differences according to scenarios and to gender. Active involvement through SP interviews seems required for students to feel able to reach training objectives. The evaluation of communication skills, revealing a baseline heterogeneity, supports individualised training.

Linezolid alone or combined with rifampin against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in experimental foreign-body infection.

We investigated the activity of linezolid, alone and in combination with rifampin (rifampicin), against a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strain in vitro and in a guinea pig model of foreign-body infection. The MIC, minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) in logarithmic phase, and MBC in stationary growth phase were 2.5, >20, and >20 microg/ml, respectively, for linezolid; 0.01, 0.08, and 2.5 microg/ml, respectively, for rifampin; and 0.16, 0.63, >20 microg/ml, respectively, for levofloxacin. In time-kill studies, bacterial regrowth and the development of rifampin resistance were observed after 24 h with rifampin alone at 1x or 4x the MIC and were prevented by the addition of linezolid. After the administration of single intraperitoneal doses of 25, 50, and 75 mg/kg of body weight, linezolid peak concentrations of 6.8, 12.7, and 18.1 microg/ml, respectively, were achieved in sterile cage fluid at approximately 3 h. The linezolid concentration remained above the MIC of the test organism for 12 h with all doses. Antimicrobial treatments of animals with cage implant infections were given twice daily for 4 days. Linezolid alone at 25, 50, and 75 mg/kg reduced the planktonic bacteria in cage fluid during treatment by 1.2 to 1.7 log(10) CFU/ml; only linezolid at 75 mg/kg prevented bacterial regrowth 5 days after the end of treatment. Linezolid used in combination with rifampin (12.5 mg/kg) was more effective than linezolid used as monotherapy, reducing the planktonic bacteria by >or=3 log(10) CFU (P < 0.05). Efficacy in the eradication of cage-associated infection was achieved only when linezolid was combined with rifampin, with cure rates being between 50% and 60%, whereas the levofloxacin-rifampin combination demonstrated the highest cure rate (91%) against the strain tested. The linezolid-rifampin combination is a treatment option for implant-associated infections caused by quinolone-resistant MRSA.

Neurologie [News in neuroloey 2014].

In 2014, breastfeeding during maternal antiepileptic therapy seems to be safe for the children and can be recommended. Intravenous thrombolysis by Alteplase improves the outcome after a stroke if administered within 4.5 hours and it is also recommended in elderly population over 80 years. ProSavin genic therapy for Parkinson disease is under investigation. The Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) has an analgesic effect in neuropathic pain as well as an antidepressant effect. Antagonists of calcitonin gene-related peptide can have a beneficial role in migraine prevention. Diagnostic biomarker panels for Alzheimer disease are under investigation. Oral teriflunomide and dimethyl fumarate (BG-12) for relapsing multiple sclerosis treatment are now available in Switzerland.

News from compositions, the R package

The R-package “compositions”is a tool for advanced compositional analysis. Its basicfunctionality has seen some conceptual improvement, containing now some facilitiesto work with and represent ilr bases built from balances, and an elaborated subsys-tem for dealing with several kinds of irregular data: (rounded or structural) zeroes,incomplete observations and outliers. The general approach to these irregularities isbased on subcompositions: for an irregular datum, one can distinguish a “regular” sub-composition (where all parts are actually observed and the datum behaves typically)and a “problematic” subcomposition (with those unobserved, zero or rounded parts, orelse where the datum shows an erratic or atypical behaviour). Systematic classificationschemes are proposed for both outliers and missing values (including zeros) focusing onthe nature of irregularities in the datum subcomposition(s).To compute statistics with values missing at random and structural zeros, a projectionapproach is implemented: a given datum contributes to the estimation of the desiredparameters only on the subcompositon where it was observed. For data sets withvalues below the detection limit, two different approaches are provided: the well-knownimputation technique, and also the projection approach.To compute statistics in the presence of outliers, robust statistics are adapted to thecharacteristics of compositional data, based on the minimum covariance determinantapproach. The outlier classification is based on four different models of outlier occur-rence and Monte-Carlo-based tests for their characterization. Furthermore the packageprovides special plots helping to understand the nature of outliers in the dataset.Keywords: coda-dendrogram, lost values, MAR, missing data, MCD estimator,robustness, rounded zeros

The interactional space in CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms

Aquest estudi pretén investigar els intercanvis verbals mestre/a – aprenent(s) en dos contextos d'instrucció diferents: classes amb un enfocament AICLE (Aprenentatge Integrat de Continguts Curriculars i Llengua Estrangera) on s’aprenen continguts no lingüístics a través de l’anglès, per una banda, i classes 'tradicionals' d'anglès com a llengua estrangera, on l’anglès és alhora objecte d’estudi i vehicle de comunicació, per una altra banda. Més concretament, les preguntes que formula el/la mestre/a, la producció oral dels aprenents i el 'feedback' del/de la mestre/a en els episodis d’atenció a la forma s’han estudiat a la llum de les principals teories provinents del camp de l’Adquisició de Segones Llengües (SLA) per tal de demostrar el seu paper en l’aprenentatge de l’anglès. El corpus de dades prové de l’enregistrament de 7 sessions AICLE i d'11 sessions EFL enregistrades en format àudio i vídeo en dos centres públics d’Educació Primària (EP) de Catalunya. A cadascuna de les escoles, el/la mateix/a mestre/a és l’encarregat/da dels dos tipus d’instrucció amb el mateix grup d’aprenents (10-11 anys d’edat), fet que permet eliminar variables individuals com l'aptitud dels aprenents o l'estil del/de la mestre/a.Els resultats mostren un cert nombre de similituds discursives entre AICLE i EFL donat que ambdós enfocaments tenen lloc en el context-classe amb unes característiques ben definides. Tal com apunta la recerca realitzada en aquest camp, la instrucció AICLE reuneix un seguit de condicions idònies per un major desenvolupament dels nivells de llengua anglesa més enllà de les classes ‘tradicionals’ d’anglès. Malgrat això, aquest estudi sembla indicar que el potencial d'AICLE pel que fa a facilitar una exposició rica a l’anglès i una producció oral significativa no s’explota degudament. En aquest sentit, els resultats d’aquest estudi poden contribuir a la formació dels futurs professors d'AICLE si es busca l’assoliment d’una complementarietat d’ambdós contextos amb l’objectiu últim de millorar els nivells de domini de la llengua anglesa.