List of Bid Proposal Holders; Letting date: October 20, 2015

List of Bid Proposal Holders

List of Bid Proposal Holders; Letting date: November 17, 2015

List of Bid Proposal Holders

List of Bid Proposal Holders; Letting date: December 15, 2015

List of Bid Proposal Holders

List of Bid Proposal Holders; Letting date: January 10, 2016

List of Bid Proposal Holders

List of Bid Proposal Holders; Letting date: February 16, 2016

List of Bid Proposal Holders

Association between growth and blood pressure during the life course in children and adolescents

Background: Little is known on the relative importance of growth at different periods between birth and adolescence on blood pressure (BP). Objective: To assess the association between birth weight, change in body weight (growth) and BP across the entire span of childhood and adolescence. Methods: School-based surveys were conducted annually between 1998 and 2006 among all children in four school grades (kindergarten, 4th, 7th, and 10th year of compulsory school) in the Seychelles, Indian Ocean. Height and weight and BP were measured. Three cohorts of children examined twice were analyzed: 1606 children surveyed at age 5.5 and 9.1, 2557 at age 9.2 and 12.5, and 2065 at age 12.5 and 15.5, respectively. Weights at birth and at one year were extracted from medical files. Weights were expressed as Z-scores and growth was defined as a change in weight Z-scores (corresponding to weight centile crossing). The association between BP (at age 5.5, 9.2, 12.5, and 15.5) and weight at different times was assessed by linear regression. Using results of regression models of BP on all successive weights, life course plots were drawn by plotting regression coefficients against age at which weight was measured. The figure shows a life course plot of systolic BP in boys aged 15.5. Results: Without adjustment for current weight (at the time of BP measurement), birth weight was not associated with current BP, irrespective of age, excepted for girls at age 15.5 for whom a modest positive association was found. When adjusted for current weight, birth weight was negatively and modestly associated with current BP. BP was strongly associated with current weight, irrespective of age. Life course plots showed that BP was strongly associated with growth during the few preceding years but not with growth during earlier years, except for growth during the first year of life which tended to be associated with systolic BP. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that BP during childhood and adolescence is mainly determined by current body weight and recent growth.

List of Bid Proposal Holders; Letting date: March 15, 2016

List of Bid Proposal Holders

Long diagnostic delay in Crohn's disease is associated with complicated disease course and increased operation rate

Background: We have recently shown that the median diagnostic delay to establish Crohn's disease (CD) diagnosis in the Swiss IBD Cohort (SIBDC) was 9 months. Seventy five percent of all CD patients were diagnosed within 24 months. The clinical impact of a long diagnostic delay on the natural history of CD is unknown. Aim: To compare the frequency and type of CD-related complications in the patient groups with long diagnostic delay (>24 months) vs. the ones diagnosed within 24 months. Methods: Retrospective analysis of data from the SIBDCS, comprising a large sample of CD patients followed in hospitals and private practices across Switzerland. Results: Two hundred CD patients (121 female, mean age 44.9 ± 15.0 years, 38% smokers, 71% ever treated with immunomodulators and 35% with anti-TNF) with long diagnostic delay were compared to 697 CD patients (358 female, mean age 39.1 ± 14.9 years, 33% smokers, 74% ever treated with immunomodulators and 33% with anti-TNF) diagnosed within 24 months. No differences in the outcomes were observed between the two patient groups within year one after CD diagnosis. Among those diagnosed 2-5 years ago, CD patients with long diagnostic delay (n = 45) presented more frequently with internal fistulas (11.1% vs. 3.1%, p = 0.03) and bowel stenoses (28.9% vs. 15.7%, p = 0.05), and they more frequently underwent CD-related operations (15.6% vs. 5.0%, p = 0.02) compared to the patients diagnosed within 24 months (n = 159). Among those diagnosed 6-10 years ago, CD patients with long diagnostic delay (n = 48) presented more frequently with extraintestinal manifestations (60.4% vs. 34.6%, p = 0.001) than those diagnosed within 24 months (n = 182). For the patients diagnosed 11-15 years ago, no differences in outcomes were found between the long diagnostic delay group (n = 106) and the one diagnosed within 24 months (n = 32). Among those diagnosed >= 16 years ago, the group with long diagnostic delay (n = 71) more frequently underwent CD-related operations (63.4% vs. 46.5%, p = 0.01) compared to the group diagnosed with CD within 24 months (n = 241). Conclusions: A long diagnostic delay in CD patients is associated with a more complicated disease course and higher number of CD-related operations in the years following the diagnosis. Our results indicate that efforts should be undertaken to shorten the diagnostic delay in CD patients in order to reduce the risk for progression towards a complicated disease phenotype.

List of Bid Proposal Holders; Letting date: April 19, 2016

List of Bid Proposal Holders

A course on collaboration between social workers and general practitioners during their vocational training

The educational programme reported was an experiment in the vocational training scheme of the department of General Practice, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, Holland, and is now part of the course. The programme focused on the training in team function (co-operation) given to trainee GPs and social workers. It became clear that both groups during their professional training develop markedly different attitudes and views about patient (client) care. These differences form a fundamental handicap in any discussion about teamwork. During the programme the students were made aware of this divergence of viewpoint and were taught how to handle these resulting handicaps and, if possible, to eliminate them.

List of Bid Proposal Holders; Letting date: May 17, 2016

List of Bid Proposal Holders

European Integration Without EU Membership : Models, Experiences, Perspectives

At the beginning of the 1990s, the concept of "European integration" could still be said to be fairly unambiguous. Nowadays, it has become plural and complex almost to the point of unintelligibility. This is due, of course, to the internal differentiation of EU membership, with several Member States pulling out of key integrative projects such as establishing an area without frontiers, the "Schengen" area, and a common currency. But this is also due to the differentiated extension of key integrative projects to European non-EU countries - Schengen is again a case in point. Such processes of "integration without membership", the focus of the present publication, are acquiring an ever-growing topicality both in the political arena and in academia. International relations between the EU and its neighbouring countries are crucial for both, and their development through new agreements features prominently on the continent's political agenda. Over and above this aspect, the dissemination of EU values and standards beyond the Union's borders raises a whole host of theoretical and methodological questions, unsettling in some cases traditional conceptions of the autonomy and separation of national legal orders. This publication brings together the papers presented at the Integration without EU Membership workshop held in May 2008 at the EUI (Max Weber Programme and Department of Law). It aims to compare different models and experiences of integration between the EU, on the one hand, and those European countries that do not currently have an accession perspective on the other hand. In delimiting the geographical scope of the inquiry, so as to scale it down to manageable proportions, the guiding principles have been to include both the "Eastern" and "Western" neighbours of the EU, and to examine both structured frameworks of cooperation, such as the European Neighbourhood Policy and the European Economic Area, and bilateral relations developing on a more ad hoc basis. These principles are reflected in the arrangement of the papers, which consider in turn the positions of Ukraine, Russia, Norway, and Switzerland in European integration - current standing, perspectives for evolution, consequences in terms of the EU-ization of their respective legal orders1. These subjects are examined from several perspectives. We had the privilege of receiving contributions from leading practitioners and scholars from the countries concerned, from EU highranking officials, from prominent specialists in EU external relations law, and from young and talented researchers. We wish to thank them all here for their invaluable insights. We are moreover deeply indebted to Marise Cremona (EUI, Law Department, EUI) for her inspiring advice and encouragement, as well as to Ramon Marimon, Karin Tilmans, Lotte Holm, Alyson Price and Susan Garvin (Max Weber Programme, EUI) for their unflinching support throughout this project. A word is perhaps needed on the propriety and usefulness of the research concept embodied in this publication. Does it make sense to compare the integration models and experiences of countries as different as Norway, Russia, Switzerland, and Ukraine? Needless to say, this list of four evokes a staggering diversity of political, social, cultural, and economic conditions, and at least as great a diversity of approaches to European integration. Still, we would argue that such diversity only makes comparisons more meaningful. Indeed, while the particularities and idiosyncratic elements of each "model" of integration are fully displayed in the present volume, common themes and preoccupations run through the pages of every contribution: the difficulty in conceptualizing the finalité and essence of integration, which is evident in the EU today but which is greatly amplified for non-EU countries; the asymmetries and tradeoffs between integration and autonomy that are inherent in any attempt to participate in European integration from outside; the alteration of deeply seated legal concepts, and concepts about the law, that are already observable in the most integrated of the non-EU countries concerned. These issues are not transient or coincidental: they are inextricably bound up with the integration of non-EU countries in the EU project. By publishing this collection, we make no claim to have dealt with them in an exhaustive, still less in a definitive manner. Our ambition is more modest: to highlight the relevance of these themes, to place them more firmly on the scientific agenda, and to provide a stimulating basis for future research and reflection.

Prevalence and time course of acute mountain sickness in older children and adolescents after rapid ascent to 3'450 meters

Rapport de synthèse :Grâce au développement de moyens de transport modernes, de plus en plus d'enfants et d'adolescents se rendent en haute altitude dans le cadre de leurs loisirs. Le mal aigu des montagnes est une complication fréquente des séjours en haute altitude. Ses symptômes en sont des maux de tête, une fatigue, des troubles du sommeil, des nausées et des vertiges. La vitesse d'ascension, |'attitude maximale atteinte, une susceptibilité individuelle ainsi qu'une acclimatation antérieure a l'attitude sont tous des facteurs influant sur le risque de développer un mal aigu des montagnes et sur sa sévérité. Bien que très fréquente chez l'adulte, nous ne possédions, au moment d'entreprendre |'étude faisant |'objet de cette thèse, que peu de données solides concernant la prévalence de cette affection chez l'enfant ainsi que sur son évolution au cours du temps. Cette étude a pour but de mesurer la prévalence du mal aigu des montagnes, et son évolution au cours du temps au sein d'un groupe d'enfants et d'adolescents dans des conditions contrôlées. C'est à dire en éliminant |'influence de facteurs confondants tels que l'importance de l'exercice physique fourni ou une différence dans la vitesse d'ascension. Pour ce faire nous avons évalué la présence de mal aigu des montagnes dans un groupe de 48 garçons et de filles âgés de 11 à 17 ans en bonne santé habituelle, n'ayant jamais séjourné en haute altitude au préalable. Afin d'évaluer la présence ou non de mal aigu des montagnes nous avons utilisé une version française du « Lake Louise Score >>. Les mesures furent effectuées 6,24 et 48 heures après |`arrivée à la station de recherche de la Jungfraujoch située à 3'450m. L'ascension a consisté en un trajet de train durant 2h30. Nos observations montrent que la prévalence du mal aigu des montagnes durant les 3 premiers jours ne dépasse jamais les 25%. Elle est similaire pour les deux sexes et diminue au cours du séjour. (17% après 24 heures, 8% après 48 heures) Aucun sujet n'a dû être évacué à une altitude inférieure, Cinq sujets ont eu besoin de recourir à un traitement symptomatique et y ont bien répondu Les résultats de cette étude démontrent que dans le groupe d'âge étudié, après une ascension rapide en haute altitude, la prévalence du mal aigu des montagnes est relativement faible, ses manifestations cliniques sont bénignes et, |lorsqu'' elles sont présentes, se résolvent rapidement. Ces observations suggèrent que pour la majorité des enfants et des adolescents en bonne santé et non habitués a |'attitude, un séjour en haute altitude ne présente pas de risque et une prophylaxie pharmacologique du mal aigu des montagnes n'est pas nécessaire.