Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece
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"Comment les médias reprennent-ils le discours d’un responsable de la santé publique en période de crise sanitaire ?". La figure d’Alain Berset façonnée par la RTS.
No full textGenetic differentiation and adaptive evolution of buff-tailed bumblebees in Asia.
No full textBumblebees are important pollinating insects, so their declines resulting from environmental change have received intensive attention. Understanding how environmental factors shape the genetic structure of natural populations and identifying the genetic basis of local adaptation will provide insights into how bumblebees cope with environmental change. The buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) has a wide natural distribution range and has been domesticated to produce commercial colonies for greenhouse pollination. Previous population genetics studies on B. terrestris have mainly focused on its European populations; however, its Asian populations, representing the eastern side of its natural distribution, remain largely unsampled. To fill this gap, we collected wild B. terrestris samples from Asia, as well as wild B. terrestris samples from Europe and samples from domesticated colonies. We conducted whole-genome resequencing for 77 collected B. terrestris and performed population genomics analysis. Our results indicate that distinct genetic differentiation (F ST = 0.076) exists between B. terrestris in Europe and Asia, with substantial morphological and physiological differences detected between them; B. terrestris in Asia should represent a distinct genetic resource. Demographic analysis suggests that the effective population size of B. terrestris has increased during historic cold periods, indicating their cold-adapted characteristics. Selective sweep analysis identified 331 genes under selection in the genomes of Asian B. terrestris, likely involved in their adaptation to the high ultraviolet radiation, low temperature and low precipitation of their habitats. Our research provides insights into the population genetic structure and genetic basis of local adaptation in the buff-tailed bumblebee, which will be useful for its conservation and management
Prevalence and association analysis of obstructive sleep apnea in India: Results from BLESS cohort.
No full textDespite having the largest population in the world with 1.4 billion inhabitants, there is only scarce data on the prevalence of OSA from India.
This study aimed to find the prevalence of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) using Polysomnography (PSG) and current scoring rules (AASM 2012) in population and investigate OSA associations for cardiovascular and metabolic comorbidities.
and Methods: Participants were randomly selected among the accompanying attendants of patients admitted to a hospital in Bhopal, India and underwent level I PSG. Anthropometric measurements, blood investigations were taken. The primary outcome was prevalence of OSA, assessed by the Apnoea-Hypopnoea Index (AHI).
Level I PSG was performed on 1015 adult participants from December 2019 to February 2023; after excluding 57 participants with sleep time 2 . Prevalence (95 % CI) of moderate-to-severe OSA (AHI ≥15) and severe OSA (AHI≥30) was 30.5 % (28-34 %) and 10.1 % (8.3-12), respectively. The upper quartile of the AHI (Q4 ≥17) was independently associated with the presence of Diabetes Mellitus [OR 2.14 (95 % CI 1.07-4.44)], Hypertension [OR1.98 (95 % CI 1.20-3.28)] and Metabolic Syndrome [OR 2.36 (95 % CI 1.37-4.09)] compared to the first quartile AHI.
OSA prevalence was found to be significantly higher than previously estimated in Indian population. Association of OSA with diabetes, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome was observed
The computational perspective: A catalyst for research questions in cognitive neuroscience?
No full textWhere do novel research questions come from? We suggest that identifying key computational problems and comparing solutions across domains can be one source. We exemplify this by looking at perception and action and outline how findings from one domain may generate novel research avenues in the other
Comparison between fast-interrupted steady-state (FISS) and rapid water-excitation pulses for fat signal suppression in free-running whole-heart MRI at 1.5 T
No full textFree-running whole-heart MRI using balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) sequences offer high SNR and myocardial tissue contrast. However, an inadequate fat signal suppression may introduce artifacts and is particularly challenging with non-Cartesian readouts. The aim of this study was to evaluate different fat-signal suppression methods for whole-heart free-running MRI at 1.5 T using numerical simulations, phantom, and cardiac MRI experiments without the use of contrast agents.
Binomial off-resonant rectangular (BORR), lipid insensitive binomial off-resonant RF excitation (LIBRE), and lipid insensitive binomial off-resonant (LIBOR) pulses were implemented within a 3D radial bSSFP sequence. Their pulse parameters were optimized for fat signal suppression at 1.5 T using simulations and phantom experiments. Optimized protocols, along with a free-running fast interrupted steady-state (FISS) and non-fat suppressed bSSFP sequence, were used to acquire phantom and cardiac data in five volunteers. SAR values were recorded. The SNR and CNRWater-Fat were measured in phantom data, while SNR and CNRBlood-Myocardium were quantified in volunteers using reconstruction without motion correction. Motion-resolved reconstructions were used for qualitative assessments. Statistical differences were analyzed using one-way ANOVA.
LIBOR had the highest CNRWater-Fat (276.8 ± 2.5) in phantoms, followed by LIBRE (268.1 ± 2.6), BORR (249.9 ± 2.2), and FISS (212.7 ± 2.7), though these differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). In volunteers, BORR had the highest SNR in the ventricular blood pool (17.0 ± 1.5), and LIBRE had the highest CNRBlood-Fat (29.4 ± 9.3). FISS had the highest CNRBlood-Myocardium (29.0 ± 8.9), but the differences were not significant (p > 0.05). Motion-resolved cardiac imaging showed comparable quality across all fat-suppressed sequences, with no significant streaking artifacts observed. Free-running bSSFP with LIBOR required the lowest SAR, up to a sixfold decrease compared with FISS.
The tested sequences performed similarly in SNR and CNR but LIBOR offered the lowest SAR, making it a promising candidate for applications where RF energy deposition is a concern.
© 2025. The Author(s)
Characterising the refractive error in paediatric patients with congenital stationary night blindness: a multicentre study.
No full textCongenital stationary night blindness (CSNB) is an inherited retinal disease that is often associated with high myopia and can be caused by pathological variants in multiple genes, most commonly CACNA1F, NYX and TRPM1. High myopia is associated with retinal degeneration and increased risk for retinal detachment. Slowing the progression of myopia in patients with CSNB would likely be beneficial in reducing risk, but before interventions can be considered, it is important to understand the natural history of myopic progression.
This multicentre, retrospective study explored CSNB caused by variants in CACNA1F, NYX or TRPM1 in patients who had at least 6 measurements of their spherical equivalent of refraction (SER) before the age of 18. A mixed-effect model was used to predict progression of SER overtime and differences between genotypes were evaluated.
78 individuals were included in this study. All genotypes showed a significant myopic predicted SER at birth (-3.076D, -5.511D and -5.386D) for CACNA1F, NYX and TRPM1 respectively. Additionally, significant progression of myopia per year (-0.254D, -0.257D and -0.326D) was observed for all three genotypes CACNA1F, NYX and TRPM1, respectively.
Patients with CSNB tend to be myopic from an early age and progress to become more myopic with age. Patients may benefit from long-term myopia slowing treatment in the future and further studies are indicated. Additionally, CSNB should be considered in the differential diagnosis for early-onset myopia
Childcare and Maternal Part-Time Employment: A Natural Experiment Using Swiss Cantons
No full textFuelled by federal stimuli of 440 million Swiss francs, the staggered expansion of
childcare in many cantons allows the evaluation of this family policy on female labour
supply. With new cantonal data, this study analyses both the decision to participate in
the labour market and the intensity of participation. Empirical results of difference-indifferences
regressions show that mothers who live in cantons that have expanded
their childcare services more than the national average work at higher percentage
rates. The reform stimulated part-time employment of between 20 and 36 hours per
week by 2 percentage points. The expansion of childcare particularly affected women
with two children and upper-secondary education, who are married or cohabit with their
partner
Tobacco, electronic nicotine delivery system, nicotine replacement therapy, and cannabinoid use during pregnancy: A descriptive cross-sectional survey
No full textTobacco smoking is associated with adverse health outcomes for both pregnant women and their offspring. Smoking cessation counseling is an effective method to help women quit smoking. Developing a targeted smoking cessation intervention could benefit those who struggle to quit tobacco and potentially reduce the harm due to any co-occurring tobacco use. Assessing the prevalence of tobacco, electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), and cannabinoid use in pregnancy is key to developing such interventions. Thus, we aimed to assess the prevalence and patterns of tobacco, ENDS, NRT, and cannabinoid use in pregnancy. We further aimed to assess the prevalence of smoking cessation counseling intervention.
We conducted a cross-sectional survey among pregnant women attending regular clinical visits at Spitalzentrum Biel between February and May 2023 (n = 262). Frequency and proportion along with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were reported for tobacco, ENDS, NRT, and cannabinoid use in pregnancy.
Tobacco use was reported among 7.6% (20/262, 95% CI: 4.2%-11.1%) of the included pregnant women. Tobacco cigarettes (conventional or roll-on) were used by 7.3% (19/262, 95% CI: 3.8%-10.7%) of the surveyed pregnant women, with 0.8% (2/262, 95% CI: 0.0%-3.4%) of them reporting use of cigarettes along with ENDS and 0.4% (1/262, 95% CI: 0.0%-3.8%) reporting use of the cigarettes with NRT. Cannabinoid use was reported by 3.8% (10/262, 95% CI: 1.1%-7.0%) of pregnant women and all of them used products with Cannabidiol (CBD) only. Additionally, only 25% (5/20, 95% CI: 10.0%-48.3%) of tobacco users had received smoking cessation counseling intervention.
The estimated prevalence of tobacco, ENDS, NRT, and cannabinoid use among the pregnant women in this survey was 7.6%, 0.8%, 0.4%, and 3.8% respectively. However, among tobacco users, only one-fourth received smoking cessation counseling intervention.
Copyright: © 2025 Kandhasamy et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Building entanglements: Hagia Sophia and the everyday politics of urban landmarks
No full textSummary
Landmark buildings are instantly recognisable features of cityscapes. Dominating skylines and often overshadowing their urban surroundings, these structures are designed to encapsulate a city’s essence. Yet, behind their iconic façades lies a complex interplay of uses, politics, and conflicts. This thesis seeks to unravel the everyday life of landmark buildings, asking how such spaces are inhabited at the intersection of the ordinary and the exceptional. It examines everyday practices and affective experiences within Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia, amid its controversial conversion from a museum to a mosque in 2020. This research contributes to urban geography’s understanding of landmark buildings by engaging with insights from several research fields. It draws on architectural geographies’ explorations of the affective politics of the built environment; feminist geography’s scholarship on the politics of difference and practices of care; and urban geography’s work on everyday urbanism. The thesis advances an understanding of landmark buildings as entangled—as spaces where humans and materialities come together in often contentious interdependencies. This framework explores entanglements in three dimensions: material, affective, and corporeal. Drawing on seven months of ethnographic research in Hagia Sophia and its surrounding area of Sultanahmet between 2021 and 2023, the research follows everyday actors—tourist guides, mosque guides, cleaners, security guards, shop owners, among others—in their affective and corporeal engagement with the building. It examines their routine interactions with its materiality, their navigation of encounters within its spaces, and their experiences of broader urban and political dynamics entering the building, from over-tourism to Islamic conservatism. Affective mappings further illuminate the sensory and emotional relationships these actors maintain with the building through everyday acts of care and maintenance. First, the thesis demonstrates how the building’s symbolic change in status has practical, conflict-laden implications. Hagia Sophia emerges as a site of sensorial and bodily encounters, shaped by materialities that foster affective atmospheres while guiding or constraining movement and visibility. These dynamics transform Hagia Sophia into an entangled building where various actors engage in repairs and maintenance to express broader ethical and moral concerns about its future. Second, it shows how the building functions as a site of exclusion, rendering certain bodies and materialities invisible, and exhausting its everyday inhabitants. Practices of care emerge to navigate these exclusions, reflecting forms of differentiation, solidarity, and belonging. In this sense, Hagia Sophia actively participates in building entanglements, tightening and loosening relational knots between humans and the materialities that inhabit it. Finally, the research examines how sensory encounters—particularly smell—partly challenge the building’s credibility as a mosque while exposing broader tensions that permeate its space. Urban political tensions slip through the building’s knots, infiltrating its fabric, disrupting its iconicity, and reconfiguring its role within the city. The thesis advances an understanding of landmarks as relational spaces that project both the city’s past and its aspirations for the future, and emphasises the ordinary processes that shape their exceptional status and broader urban imaginaries.
Résumé
Les bâtiments emblématiques sont des éléments immédiatement reconnaissables des paysages urbains. Dominant les horizons, ces structures sont conçues pour incarner l’essence d’une ville. Pourtant, derrière leur façade iconique se cache une interaction complexe d’usages, de politiques et de conflits. Cette thèse explore la vie quotidienne de ces bâtiments, à l’intersection de l’ordinaire et de l’exceptionnel. Elle examine les pratiques quotidiennes et les expériences affectives au sein de Sainte-Sophie à Istanbul, suite à sa conversion controversée de musée en mosquée en 2020. Cette recherche contribue à la compréhension des bâtiments emblématiques par la géographie urbaine en s’appuyant sur des perspectives issues de plusieurs champs disciplinaires. Elle mobilise les apports de la géographie architecturale sur la politique affective des bâtiments ; de la géographie féministe sur les politiques de la différence et les pratiques du soin ; et de la géographie urbaine sur l’urbanisme du quotidien. La thèse propose une compréhension des bâtiments emblématiques comme enchevêtrés—des espaces où humains et matérialités se rencontrent dans des interdépendances souvent conflictuelles. Ce cadre théorique explore les enchevêtrements selon trois dimensions : matérielle, affective et corporelle. À partir de sept mois de recherche ethnographique menée entre 2021 et 2023 à Sainte-Sophie et dans le quartier environnant de Sultanahmet, la recherche suit des acteurs du quotidien—guides touristiques, guides religieux, agents d’entretien, agents de sécurité, commerçants, entre autres. Elle examine leurs interactions routinières avec la matérialité du lieu, leur navigation des interactions dans ses espaces, ainsi que leur expérience des dynamiques urbaines et politiques plus larges qui pénètrent le bâtiment, du surtourisme au conservatisme islamique. Des cartographies affectives mettent en lumière les relations sensorielles et émotionnelles que ces acteurs entretiennent avec le bâtiment. Premièrement, la thèse démontre que le changement symbolique de statut du bâtiment a des implications pratiques conflictuelles. Sainte-Sophie émerge comme un lieu de rencontres sensorielles et corporelles, façonné par des matérialités qui créent des atmosphères affectives tout en guidant ou contraignant les mouvements et les visibilités. Ces dynamiques transforment Sainte-Sophie en un bâtiment enchevêtré, où divers acteurs s’engagent dans des travaux de réparation et d’entretien pour exprimer des préoccupations éthiques et morales plus larges quant à son avenir. Deuxièmement, elle montre comment le bâtiment invisibilise certains corps et certaines matérialités, et épuise ses habitants du quotidien. Des pratiques de soin émergent pour naviguer ces exclusions, reflétant des formes de différenciation, de solidarité et d’appartenance. En ce sens, Sainte-Sophie participe activement à l’enchevêtrement bâti, resserrant ou relâchant les liens relationnels entre les humains et les matérialités qui l’habitent. Enfin, cette recherche analyse comment les rencontres et expériences sensorielles—en particulier l’odeur—remettent partiellement en question la légitimité du bâtiment en tant que mosquée, tout en révélant des tensions politiques urbaines qui traversent son espace et reconfigurent son rôle dans la ville. La thèse propose de repenser les bâtiments emblématiques comme des espaces relationnels, qui projettent à la fois le passé de la ville et ses aspirations pour l’avenir, et met en lumière les processus ordinaires qui façonnent leur statut exceptionnel et les imaginaires urbains plus larges