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The shear behaviour of bonded concrete-granite joints under constant normal stress conditions is experimentally investigated in this paper. Concrete was prepared following standard mix used in pre-existing dams in France and poured on granite samples with a natural surface roughness. Before the direct shear tests, the joint surfaces were scanned by a laser profilometer to obtain the 3D morphology features. By analysing the shear test results, no direct correlations were found between the shear strength of bonded joints and classical roughness parameter.

Current recommendations for bariatric surgery are limited to patients older than 18 years. Two studies in 2007 showed that bariatric surgery improves survival in adults. Medical management of severe obesity in adolescents is all too often ineffective. For these reasons, early surgical intervention for adolescents with morbid obesity may be expected to prevent or avoid comorbidities, decrease mortality, and improve the quality of life. Several studies have demonstrated the feasibility of adolescent bariatric surgery with morbidity comparable to that seen in adult series. The earlier the surgery, the better the result in terms of prevention or reversal of comorbid conditions. In the USA, a consensus definition of adolescents eligible for bariatric surgery specifies attainment of Tanner Stage IV of sexual maturity and achievement of 95% of axial growth. Just as in adults, bariatric surgery in adolescents requires prolonged follow-up; it is important that such surgery be performed in centers specialized in adult bariatric surgery having the necessary multidisciplinary structure.

Introduction: Surgical training is stressful, particularly in the operating room setting. The purpose of the study is to evaluate and quantitate intra-operative stress in surgical trainees., Material: and methods: Cardiac rate was used as a measure of stress during surgical cases; surgical residents serving as the primary surgeon and assistant during 21 laparoscopic cholecystectomies underwent telemetry monitoring., Results: Intra-operative cardiac rate increased by 4-10%, particularly in the resident serving as primary surgeon. The most stressful moments of the procedure were the draping of the surgical field, trocar placement, clip application, and extraction of the gallbladder., Conclusion: This study offers a measure of the stress of surgical residents in the operating room. Heart rate is not the ideal parameter of stress, yet it gives a good idea of the level of stress. The identification of stress-inducing factors may help residents to deal with difficult situations.

Situation: In 1997 the Supreme Court of Justice decreed that "the doctor is responsible for giving his patient certain information and is obliged to prove that the information has been given". French surgical societies recommend using a form of informed consent signed by the patient applicable to all practices., Aims: To evaluate a step taken systematically since 1999 in our department., Patients and Methods: A prospective study was put into place for 259 patients candidate for elective surgery. All patients signed and returned the "informed consent" before surgery. The day of leaving the hospital, they answered a post-operative questionnaire to evaluate what they remembered of the "informed consent form" and the quality of information., Results: Ninety three per cent of them remembered it. Eight per cent signed it without reading it. Eighty two per cent of the patients think that this document is useful for their medical records. Among the patients who did not read the informed consent form: 38% wished it gave more information, whereas only 16% of those who had read it, considered the given information inadequate. This difference is statistically (p=0.03) significant., Conclusion: The informed consent form gives a lot of information to the patients, but the surgeon is still obliged to do likewise. Patients who did not read the consent were less satisfied with the given information than those who had read it. The positive reaction of the patients in favour of the form makes it evident that the existence of the form reassures them.

In order to study cellular senescence in T lymphocytes and its link with aging, we have undertaken long-term cultures from adult individuals (aged from 20 to 40) and centenarians. The proliferative advantage of CD4+ over CD8+ T cells is reversed after the second stimulation. Periodically stimulated cultures remained exponentially growing during nearly 200 days, whereas 2 of them that were continued for 300 days stopped proliferating. However, once this phase of senescence is reached, the cells do not die out. Six other cultures remained viable for 34 months without proliferation but with conservation of the cell number. Three of these cultures have clonal karyotypic abnormalities: trisomy 2 and telomeric fusions.

Although this is an unfrequently used technique, the authors report their early experience concerning twenty-seven cases of carotid artery revascularization under cervical plexus anesthesia. They express their surgical judgement about the advantages and the limits of the simplest and most reliable way of cerebral monitoring during the surgical procedure, but it might have only a limited indication.

Even though multiple factors are involved in arterial blood pressure elevation, during pregnancy-induced hypertension normal physiologic processes are occurring in the uteroplacental unit. These appear probably very early in pregnancy. Treatment of pregnancy-induced hypertension at the present time is directed simply at lowering the blood pressure. It should be emphasized that only one placebo-controlled study has demonstrated a beneficial effect of antihypertensive treatment for the fetus in moderate pregnancy-induced hypertension. Future treatment very likely will be preventive, administered from the onset of pregnancy in a high-risk patient.

Chlamydia appears to be an increasingly frequent cause of salpingitis and its complications (sterility, extra-uterine pregnancy). The difficulty of isolating Chlamydia in cell cultures has led us to study the value of serology in the form of immunofluorescence and ELISA. This study is based on 475 cases (206 controls and 269 women with tubal disease). Although it is difficult to interpret an isolated IgG level, the results nevertheless confirmed the value of serodetection: especially the comparison between the control group (18.44% positive) and the pathological group (62.08% positive) and the effectiveness obtained when cases of tubal sterility were treated with appropriate antibiotics, alone or in combination with surgery.