Building consensus: shifting strategies in the territorial targeting of Turkey's public transport investment

© 2019, © 2019 Regional Studies Association. A growing amount of research explores how the allocation of regional development monies follows electoral reasons. Yet, the existing literature on distributive politics provides different and contrasting expectations on which geographical areas will be targeted. The paper focuses on proportional representation (PR) systems. While in such settings governments have incentives to target core districts and punish foes, it is suggested that when incumbents attempt to build a state–party image they may broaden the territorial allocation of benefits and even target opposition out-groups. The paper exploits data on Turkey's public transport investment for the period 2003–14 and in-depth interviews to provide results in support of the hypothesis.Harvard Emirates Leadership Initiative Fellowshi

Getting the Grip on Nonspecific Treatment Effects: Emesis in Patients Randomized to Acupuncture or Sham Compared to Patients Receiving Standard Care

Background: It is not known whether or not delivering acupuncture triggers mechanisms cited as placebo and if acupuncture or sham reduces radiotherapy-induced emesis more than standard care. Methodology/Principal Findings: Cancer patients receiving radiotherapy over abdominal/pelvic regions were randomized to verum (penetrating) acupuncture (n = 109; 99 provided data) in the alleged antiemetic acupuncture point PC6 or sham acupuncture (n = 106; 101 provided data) performed with a telescopic non-penetrating needle at a sham point 2-3 times/week during the whole radiotherapy period. The acupuncture cohort was compared to a reference cohort receiving standard care (n = 62; 62 provided data). The occurrence of emesis in each group was compared after a mean dose of 27 Gray. Nausea and vomiting were experienced during the preceding week by 37 and 8% in the verum acupuncture group, 38 and 7% in the sham acupuncture group and 63 and 15% in the standard care group, respectively. The lower occurrence of nausea in the acupuncture cohort (verum and sham) compared to patients receiving standard care (37% versus 63%, relative risk (RR) 0.6, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.5-0.8) was also true after adjustment for potential confounding factors for nausea (RR 0.8, CI 0.6 to 0.9). Nausea intensity was lower in the acupuncture cohort (78% no nausea, 13% a little, 8% moderate, 1% much) compared to the standard care cohort (52% no nausea, 32% a little, 15% moderate, 2% much) (p = 0.002). The acupuncture cohort expected antiemetic effects from their treatment (95%). Patients who expected nausea had increased risk for nausea compared to patients who expected low risk for nausea (RR 1.6; Cl 1.2-2.4). Conclusions/Significance: Patients treated with verum or sham acupuncture experienced less nausea and vomiting compared to patients receiving standard care, possibly through a general care effect or due to the high level of patient expectancy.Original Publication:Anna Enblom, Mats Lekander, Mats Hammar, Anna Johnsson, Erik Onelov, Martin Ingvar, Gunnar Steineck and Sussanne Börjeson, Getting the Grip on Nonspecific Treatment Effects: Emesis in Patients Randomized to Acupuncture or Sham Compared to Patients Receiving Standard Care, 2011, PLOS ONE, (6), 3, .http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0014766Licensee: Public Library of Science (PLoS)http://www.plos.org

La motivation du chirurgien-dentiste (approche psychologique et sociologique)

L'interrogation sur la motivation du chirurgien-dentiste, en tant qu'acteur de santé publique et garant de son propre équilibre physique et psychique, est posée. Dans une première partie, le concept de motivation professionnelle est abordé sous diverses approches : physiologique, psychologique ou sociologique. Puis dans une deuxième partie, les nombreux et potentiels facteurs de motivation concernant la profession de chirurgien-dentiste sont décrits. La troisième partie est consacrée aux risques de la " démotivation ". Des propositions pour éviter ou surmonter cette situation sont présentées. Enfin, la quatrième partie illustre les propos précédents par une enquête de motivation sur une promotion de jeunes praticiens.TOULOUSE3-BU Santé-Centrale (315552105) / SudocPARIS-BIUM (751062103) / SudocSudocFranceF

Multi-step fractionation as a tool for enhanced valorization of technical lignins

The valorisation of lignin obtained as a by-product of the pulping and biofuel industries is one of the most promising topics in the bioresource field. Despite its potential value as the only massively available aromatic biopolymer feedstock, technical lignin is nowadays mostly burnt as low cost energy source because of its chemical recalcitrance. The high heterogeneity of this material, largely dependent on the different vegetal sources and the specific biomass recovery methods, restricts its direct use and hinders also the optimization of depolymerisation approaches. The development of effective technical lignin fractionation strategies is therefore today one of the most challenging topic in the green chemistry field. In this study, the fractionation of two industrial commercial lignins was performed by a three step procedure set-up either in aqueous or in environmentally friendly organic solvents in order to obtain sustainable and scalable processes. The first step consisted in a microfiltration or a Soxhlet extraction in function of the solvent used. Then a cascade membrane ultrafiltration allowed to obtain at the end three refined lignin fractions (see Figure below) which were fully characterized, presenting better defined physico-chemical properties compared to the starting raw material. The availability of technical lignin fractions with tailored and reproducible characteristics allows the set-up of enhanced lignin valorization strategies for the development of bio-based polymers and preparation of key platform chemicals, thereby paving the way for an effective exploitation and valorization of this remarkable resource. Allegretti, A.; Fontanay, S.; Krauke, Y.; Luebbert, M.; Strini, A.; Troquet, J.; Turri, S.; Griffini, G.; D’Arrigo, P. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2018, 6, 9056-9064. Acknoledgements: ValorPlus Project (grant agreement no FP7-KBBE-2013-7-613802)

Chemo-enzymatic depolymerization of lignin

Lignin is a highly complex phenolic matrix that acts as a binder in plants conferring them structural integrity and strength, and is one of the three major subcomponents of lignocellulosic biomass. Although burning lignin is still considered a valuable contribution in saving fossil sources, the exploitation of this extremely abundant natural polymer in terms of higher value-added applications is very appealing as it represents the only viable source to produce aromatic compounds as fossil fuels alternative. Due to the very broad composition in terms of molecular weight of the raw material, a pretreatment strategy becomes necessary for an efficient lignin valorization as macromolecular building block for polymeric materials or as precursor for aromatic small molecules. This procedure is an essential tool for a thorough exploitation of the main three different fractions recovered, namely a high, an intermediate and a low molecular weight fraction. The first one is characterized by the presence of high molecular weight polymers and is used without further chemical modification for developing bio-based polymeric materials;[1] the last one can be separated by chromatography into small aromatic molecules for preparative organic chemistry; whereas the middle fraction, characterized by an intermediate molecular weight, is the ideal starting material for oxidative depolymerization assays.[2,3] On this fraction, a new cascade process has been investigated involving at first a chemical step aiming at a partial conversion of macromolecules to lower molecular weight intermediates followed by a biocatalytic step performed by different classes of O2-dependent laccases (EC 1.10.3.2) in the presence of TEMPO as a mediator. Promising results have been obtained and extensive research is now in progress