Les parlementaires suisses entre démocratisation et professionnalisation (1910-2010). Biographie collective des élus fédéraux et réformes du Parlement helvétique

Notre travail de thèse vise à analyser, d'une part, les principales réformes du Parlement fédéral adoptées au cours du 20e siècle et, d'autre part, l'évolution du profil sociographique pour six cohortes d'élus fédéraux (1910, 1937, 1957, 1980, 2000 et 2010), sous l'angle de sa démocratisation et de sa professionnalisation. La thèse comprend trois axes de recherche principaux. Premièrement, nous nous penchons sur les deux réformes institutionnelles censées favoriser la démocratisation du recrutement parlementaire, à savoir l'adoption de la proportionnelle pour l'élection du Conseil national en 1918 et l'introduction du suffrage féminin à l'échelon fédéral en 1971. Nous abordons également les réformes du Parlement visant, depuis les années 1970, à sa revalorisation et à sa professionnalisation. Le deuxième axe porte sur la réalisation d'un portrait collectif des élus fédéraux pour la période 1910-1980, dans le but de vérifier l'impact des réformes des règles électorales (proportionnelle et suffrage féminin) sur le profil des députés et sénateurs. Enfin, dans le troisième axe, nous abordons les transformations du profil socio-professionnel des parlementaires pendant la période plus récente (1980-2010), en lien avec la professionnalisation accrue de l'Assemblée fédérale et les changements des rapports de force partisans. Nos résultats permettent de mettre en évidence plusieurs éléments de continuité (prédominance de la catégories des indépendants, notamment des avocats, des chefs d'entreprise et des agriculteurs, et sous-représentation des salariés du secteur public ; fort ancrage local), ainsi que certains facteurs de rupture (présence accrue des femmes, moindre importance de la carrière militaire). D'autres changements dans le profil sont liés au processus récent de professionnalisation, contesté et inachevé, qui a favorisé néanmoins l'émergence de nouveaux profils sociologiques d'élus, en termes de formation, de profession (apparition du groupe des parlementaires professionnels) et de cumul des mandats économiques et politiques, avec cependant de fortes variations entre les partis et entre les deux Chambres. - Our PhD thesis aims at analysing, on the one hand, the main reforms of the Federal Parliament adopted during the 20th century and, on the other hand, the evolution of sociographical profile for six cohorts of Swiss MPs (1910, 1937, 1957, 1980, 2000 and 2010) in terms of their democratization and professionalization. Our research is composed of three main parts. Firstly, we analyse two institutional reforms which intended to promote the democratization of parliamentary recruitment, namely the adoption of proportional representation (PR) in 1918 for the election of the National Council and the introduction of women's suffrage at the federal level in 1971. We also deal with parliamentary reforms that, since the 1970s, have aimed at reasserting the political status of the Federal Assembly and at professionalizing its members. Secondly, we carry out a collective biography of Swiss MPs during the period 1910-1980, in order to verify the impact of electoral reforms (PR and women's suffrage) on the profiles of deputies and senators. Finally, we discuss the transformation of the MPs' socio-_professional profiles during the recent period (1980-2010) in connection with the increased professionalization of the Federal Assembly and the changes of the power relations within the Parliament. Our results allow us to highlight several elements of continuity (the predominance of self-employed persons, especially lawyers, business managers and farmers, and the underrepresentation of public employees; stronger background in local politics), as well as some factors of discontinuity (increased presence of women and lesser importance of the military career). Other changes of the parliamentarians' profile are related to the recent process of professionalization. Although contested and unfinished, it has promoted new sociological profiles in terms of educational background, profession (growth of the professional parliamentarians) and number of political and economic mandates held simultaneously, however with important variations between parties and between Lower and Upper House.

Poor, Hungry and Stupid: Numeracy and the Impact of High Food Prices in Industrializing Britain, 1780-1850

This paper argues that low levels of nutrition impaired cognitive development in industrializing England, and that welfare transfers mitigated the adverse effects of high food prices. Age heaping is used as an indicator of numeracy, as derived from census data. For the cohorts from 1780-1850, we analyse the effect of high grain prices during the Napoleonic Wars. We show that numeracy declined markedly for those born during the war years, especially when wheat was dear. Crucially, where the Old Poor Law provided for generous relief payments, the adverse impact of high prices for foodstuffs was mitigated. Finally, we show some tentative evidence that Englishmen born in areas with low income support selected into occupations with lower cognitive requirements.

Polymorphisms of the " macrophage migration inhibitory factor " gene in infectious diseases

Summary The proinflammatory cytokine macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) has emerged as a central mediator of inflammation and innate immune defense against infections. MIF has been shown to play an important role in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases like sepsis, tuberculosis and autoimmune inflammatory diseases, such as arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and asthma. Two functional polymorphisms of the MIF gene promoter, a five to eight CATT repeat microsatellite at position -794 and a G/C SNP at position -173, have been associated with increased susceptibility to or severity of autoimmune inflammatory diseases like arthritis, colitis and atopy. The aim of this thesis was to define whether, and if so by which mechanisms, MIF gene polymorphisms influence the susceptibility to or the outcome of one of the most severe and one of the most prevalent infectious diseases: meningococcal sepsis and tuberculosis, respectively. The results of the comparison between 1106 patients suffering from severe meningococcal infections and 434 healthy volunteers showed that carriers of the CATT5-5 genotype were protected from meningococcemia. A transmission disequilibrium test involving 106 families confirmed this association. At baseline and after stimulation with Neisseria meningitidis, the CATT5 MIF promoter drove lower transcriptional activity than the CATT6 or CATT7 alleles in human monocytic cells and whole blood of CATT5-5 healthy individuals tended to produce less MIF than whole blood of CATT6-6 individuals. Beyond, we describe several new MIF gene polymorphisms in Africans. Genotyping the CATT microsatellite and the -173*G/C SNP revealed great genetic diversity in six African ethnic groups. Comparing 471 African tuberculosis cases and 932 matched healthy controls, we observed ethnicity dependent associations of the -173*G/C and the CATT5-8 with susceptibility to or severity of tuberculosis, but confirmation in larger cohorts ìs needed. In conclusion, we report that homozygous carriage of a low expression allele of the MIF gene protects from meningococcal disease. These results support the concept that analyses of MIF genotypes in patients with sepsis may help to classify patients into risk categories and to identify those patients who may benefit from anti-MIF therapeutic strategies.

Violence against adolescents: an analysis based on the categories gender and generation

Exploratory and descriptive study based on quantitative and qualitative methods that analyze the phenomenon of violence against adolescents based on gender and generational categories. The data source was reports of violence from the Curitiba Protection Network from 2010 to 2012 and semi-structured interviews with 16 sheltered adolescents. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20.0 and the qualitative data were subjected to content analysis. The adolescents were victims of violence in the household and outside of the family environment, as victims or viewers of violence. The violence was experienced at home, mostly toward girls, with marked overtones of gender violence. More than indicating the magnitude of the issue, this study can give information to help qualify the assistance given to victimized people and address how to face this issue.

Reflections on Young Women and the Youth Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa

There has been an upsurge in academic studies on youth in Sub-Saharan Africa since the last decade of the 20th century, underlining the growing importance that generational cleavages seem to play in today’s societies. However, gender has been neglected in research and policies bearing on youth, unveiling a rather negative and limited approach to Sub-Saharan African youth: limit situations are those most focused on (as the role of youth in conflicts), young males being perceived as the most active in those contexts and who therefore shall be the focus of political (and academic) attention. Acknowledging the need to integrate gender in the approaches to youth, this paper tries to grasp, through a preliminary literature review, how the predicaments of the so-called “youth crisis” are lived and perceived by young girls, and identify the main themes and theoretical perspectives of the literature that has tried to explore this thematic.

Guidelines for Perioperative Care in Elective Colonic Surgery: Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS(®)) Society Recommendations.

BACKGROUND: This review aims to present a consensus for optimal perioperative care in colonic surgery and to provide graded recommendations for items for an evidenced-based enhanced perioperative protocol. METHODS: Studies were selected with particular attention paid to meta-analyses, randomised controlled trials and large prospective cohorts. For each item of the perioperative treatment pathway, available English-language literature was examined, reviewed and graded. A consensus recommendation was reached after critical appraisal of the literature by the group. RESULTS: For most of the protocol items, recommendations are based on good-quality trials or meta-analyses of good-quality trials (quality of evidence and recommendations according to the GRADE system). CONCLUSIONS: Based on the evidence available for each item of the multimodal perioperative care pathway, the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) Society, International Association for Surgical Metabolism and Nutrition (IASMEN) and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) present a comprehensive evidence-based consensus review of perioperative care for colonic surgery.

Eficacia y seguridad del tratamiento antibiótico domiciliario endovenoso en patologia infecciosa procedente del servicio de urgencias

Este estudio de cohortes analiza la eficacia y seguridad del tratamiento antibiótico domiciliario endovenoso (TADE) en pacientes con infecciones procedentes del servicio de urgencias e ingresados en la unidad de Hospitalización a domicilio (HaD) del Hospital de Sabadell. Los pacientes procedentes de Urgencias presentaron mayor edad, mayor deterioro funcional, estancia media más corta, mayor proporción de infecciones urinarias y menor porcentaje de infecciones por P.aeruginosa. Estos pacientes no presentaron mayor riesgo de reingreso hospitalario, ni peor evolución de la infección, ni un incremento de las infecciones asociadas a cuidados sanitarios por lo que el TADE autoadministrado es seguro y eficaz.

Daño neurológico detectado por RM difusión y variaciones en el estado neurocognitivo tras implante de TAVI vs. RVA en pacientes con similar perfil de riesgo:) Datos preliminares

El presente trabajo muestra los datos preliminares de una estudio de cohortes prospectivo unicéntrico que pretende comparar el daño neurológico asociado a dos intervenciones cardiacas para el tratamiento de la estenosis aórtica severa. Concretamente se analiza la aparición de lesiones isquémica agudas cerebrales detectadas por RM tras los dos procedimientos y su posible asociación con alteraciones del estado neurocognitivo en la evolución. La presentación actual solo muestra los datos preliminares de los resultados de la RM cerebral. En el apartado métodos se describe también como se realizó la valoración del estado neurocognitivo, no obstante, los resultados de estas valoraciones y su posible correlación con las lesiones en la RM cerebral aún no estan analizados y por lo tanto no se presentan.

Automated auditory mismatch negativity paradigm improves coma prognostic accuracy after cardiac arrest and therapeutic hypothermia.

PURPOSE: EEG and somatosensory evoked potential are highly predictive of poor outcome after cardiac arrest; their accuracy for good recovery is however low. We evaluated whether addition of an automated mismatch negativity-based auditory discrimination paradigm (ADP) to EEG and somatosensory evoked potential improves prediction of awakening. METHODS: EEG and ADP were prospectively recorded in 30 adults during therapeutic hypothermia and in normothermia. We studied the progression of auditory discrimination on single-trial multivariate analyses from therapeutic hypothermia to normothermia, and its correlation to outcome at 3 months, assessed with cerebral performance categories. RESULTS: At 3 months, 18 of 30 patients (60%) survived; 5 had severe neurologic impairment (cerebral performance categories = 3) and 13 had good recovery (cerebral performance categories = 1-2). All 10 subjects showing improvements of auditory discrimination from therapeutic hypothermia to normothermia regained consciousness: ADP was 100% predictive for awakening. The addition of ADP significantly improved mortality prediction (area under the curve, 0.77 for standard model including clinical examination, EEG, somatosensory evoked potential, versus 0.86 after adding ADP, P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: This automated ADP significantly improves early coma prognostic accuracy after cardiac arrest and therapeutic hypothermia. The progression of auditory discrimination is strongly predictive of favorable recovery and appears complementary to existing prognosticators of poor outcome. Before routine implementation, validation on larger cohorts is warranted.

Preventing violence by intimate partners in adolescence: an integrative review

Abstract OBJECTIVE To analyze the scientific literature on preventing intimate partner violence among adolescents in the field of health based on gender and generational categories. METHOD This was an integrative review. We searched for articles using LILACS, PubMed/MEDLINE, and SciELO databases. RESULTS Thirty articles were selected. The results indicate that most studies assessed interventions conducted by programs for intimate partner violence prevention. These studies adopted quantitative methods, and most were in the area of nursing, psychology, and medicine. Furthermore, most research contexts involved schools, followed by households, a hospital, a health center, and an indigenous tribe. CONCLUSION The analyses were not conducted from a gender- and generation-based perspective. Instead, the scientific literature was based on positivist research models, intimately connected to the classic public healthcare model and centered on a singular dimension.

Civil conflict and human capital accumulation: The long-term effects of political violence in Perú

This paper provides empirical evidence of the persistent effect of exposure to political violence on humancapital accumulation. I exploit the variation in conflict location and birth cohorts to identify the longandshort-term effects of the civil war on educational attainment. Conditional on being exposed toviolence, the average person accumulates 0.31 less years of education as an adult. In the short-term,the effects are stronger than in the long-run; these results hold when comparing children within thesame household. Further, exposure to violence during early childhood leads to permanent losses. I alsoexplore the potential causal mechanisms.

Eleven-year physical activity trends in a Swiss urban area.

OBJECTIVE: Regular physical activity is a major health determinant. Little is known about physical activity trends. We evaluated whether adult physical activity levels are changing in a Swiss urban state (Geneva). METHOD: We analyzed 11-year trends of physical activity indicators, including 3+MET-minutes per week and physical activity outside working hours, in population representative adults (n=9320, aged 35-74years, 50% women), relating declared physical activity to socioeconomic status, lifestyle, and clinical and blood markers. RESULTS: Combining yearly cohorts from 1999 to 2009, we found a significant trend for increased physical activity levels. Weekly age and sex adjusted 3+MET-minutes per week increased from 3023 to 3752, between 1999 and 2009 (P=0.02). The increase also concerned physical activity outside working hours (+18kcal/day/year). There was a shift from low levels of physical activity levels towards higher activities. Physical activity indicators were associated with socioeconomic status, comorbidities, and biological and anthropometric measures. The trend for increased physical activity was more prominent over the latter 5years. CONCLUSION: We found that physical activity levels have increased in an urban Swiss state. The increase is significant but small, and further efforts to promote physical activity are therefore warranted.

Bubbly collateral and economic activity

This paper develops a model of the bubbly economy and uses it to study the effects of bailoutpolicies. In the bubbly economy, weak enforcement institutions do not allow firms to pledge futurerevenues to their creditors. As a result, "fundamental" collateral is scarce and this impairs the intermediationprocess that transforms savings into capital. To overcome this shortage of "fundamental"collateral, the bubbly economy creates "bubbly" collateral. This additional collateral supports anintricate array of intra- and inter-generational transfers that allow savings to be transformed intocapital and bubbles. Swings in investor sentiment lead to fluctuations in the amount of bubblycollateral, giving rise to bubbly business cycles with very rich and complex dynamics.Bailout policies can affect these dynamics in a variety of ways. Expected bailouts provideadditional collateral and expand investment and the capital stock. Realized bailouts reduce thesupply of funds and contract investment and the capital stock. Thus, bailout policies tend to fosterinvestment and growth in normal times, but to depress investment and growth during crisis periods.We show how to design bailout policies that maximize various policy objectives.

The evolution of adult height in Europe: A brief note

This paper presents new evidence on the evolution of adult height in 10 Europeancountries for cohorts born between 1950 and 1980 using the European CommunityHousehold Panel (ECHP), which collects height data from Austria, Belgium, Denmark,Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Our findings show agradual increase in adult height across all countries. However, countries from SouthernEurope (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain) experienced higher gains in stature than thoselocated in Northern Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Sweden).

Are Americans' musical preferences more omnivores today?

Although we found a general trend favouring the omnivorousness thesis, as soon as we adjusted it to a set of structural factors and consumers tastes it was clear that this was caused by elitist inclusive omnivores who had increased the scope of their tastes. In general, younger cohorts were becoming less omnivorous, nevertheless, they were also becoming more educated and had greater to higher levels of inc ome, making the youth moreomnivorous. As expected, upscale consumers set limits on their popular taste: musicalgenres, whose audiences had educational levels below the mean profile were less preferredby upscale respondents. In spite of this, as time passed, some popular brows gained socialstatus.