Measurement and comparison of individual external doses of high-school students living in Japan, France, Poland and Belarus-the 'D-shuttle' project

Twelve high schools in Japan (of which six are in Fukushima Prefecture), four in France, eight in Poland and two in Belarus cooperated in the measurement and comparison of individual external doses in 2014. In total 216 high-school students and teachers participated in the study. Each participant wore an electronic personal dosimeter 'D-shuttle' for two weeks, and kept a journal of his/her whereabouts and activities. The distributions of annual external doses estimated for each region overlap with each other, demonstrating that the personal external individual doses in locations where residence is currently allowed in Fukushima Prefecture and in Belarus are well within the range of estimated annual doses due to the terrestrial background radiation level of other regions/countries.

Assembly of HCV E1 and E2 glycoproteins into coronavirus VLPs

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is believed to assemble by budding into membranes of the early secretory pathway, consistent with the membrane location where the viral envelope glycoproteins E1 and E2 accumulate when expressed. Coronavirus assembly also takes place at pre-Golgi membranes. Here, we generated coronavirus-like particles carrying in their envelope chimeric HCV glycoproteins composed of the ectodomains of E1 and E2, each fused to the transmembrane plus endodomain of the mouse hepatitis coronavirus spike glycoprotein. The chimeric particle system will enable structural and functional studies of the HCV glycoproteins.

[Activity and cost analysis in surgical pathology. Experience of a French university laboratory using the activity-based costing method]

Good self-knowledge enables us to have a well- reasoned adaptation to our environment. Starting from this precept based on simple common sense, activity and cost analysis, when applied to medical departments in a university hospital setting, represents a necessary phase in their scientific progression and in the continuation of their university vocation. This is all the more true given the present climate of economic and organizational restructuring of medical facilities. This paper relates the experience of a French surgical pathology department which was assessed for cost effectiveness using the Activity-Based Costing (ABC) method in 1999. This method, which originated in the business world and of which the general concepts are presented here, has given us a keener understanding of the diverse processes involved, their costs and how these costs are arrived at. Moreover, this method has identified the proportion of costs imputable to diagnostic work and of those linked to work specific to a university hospital, in particular teaching and research and development. The results can then be used for a clearer analysis of the figures required by prescribers and health care funding agencies, and, within the department, to enhance perception of work carried out by the entire staff in order to initiate a new type of management centered on activity (Activity-Based Management). Adaptable to any medical department, whatever its organizational structure, independent of the significance of any given code letter and regardless of the rating method used to grade activities, the ABC method also allows for comparisons between structures of a similar nature. The thoughts it inspires on economic performance must take into account the rules of good medical practice, the imperatives of quality assurance, the need for "breathing space" which are indispensable to research and a humanist conception of working relations.