L'émergence d'une discipline scientifique. La création de l'Association Suisse de Science Politique (1951‐1959)

This article presents the results of a historical research on the creation of the Swiss Political Science Association in 1959. A first attempt of creation had failed eight years before, despite a favourable international context and the important scientific work of Marcel Bridel. Although Bridel was supported by several leading figures of the early political science, his proposal was met by the hostility of his colleagues, who had a historical, philosophical or juristic background. On the other hand, a few years later Jacques Freymond managed to create the Association in an almost administrative way and without any scientific discussion. The contrast between these two attempts illustrates the ambivalence of the institutionalisation process of Swiss political science since 1959. The institutional logic was more important during the creation of the Association than the scientific dimension, but has nonetheless been a useful basis to promote further scientific efforts. This initial ambivalence has had durable effects on the discipline, which obtained academic legitimacy without clearly taking position neither on its basic object, nor on its specificities with respect to the other social sciences or even ordinary discourses on politics. This has led to a disciplinary identity that is contingent, uncertain and fragile, and which calls for an epistemological reconsideration of the intellectual autonomy of political science.     

From evaluation to auditing and from programs to institutions: Causes and consequences of the decline of the program approach

In the wake of the “audit revolution” during the 1980s and 1990s, administrative systems across the western world have tended to gradually downplay evaluation as a component of the policy process. At the same time, auditing has dramatically increased in scope and depth, and has also, to some extent, come to fill the role in policymaking previously played by evaluation studies. This article reviews this development from the perspective of policymaking and institutional change or “drift.” Specifically, we look at the types of information and knowledge that are lost and gained as a result of these developments. We apply a cross‐national approach, drawing on the examples from the European and North American contexts.     

Michel Crozier's Long March: the Making of The Bureaucratic Phenomenon

Crozier's Bureaucratic Phenomenon was a landmark in the development of both the sociology of organizations as a research approach and the study of French society in the 1960s. To understand its genesis requires an exercise in the history ofcontemporary thought, locating Crozier's magnum opus within the context of the influence of Gouldner, March and Simon. His initial intellectual preoccupation was with the role of trade unions in the US and France during the cold war. This led to his main cultural finding: the fear of face-to-face communication. requiring impersonal mediation to avoid confrontation with those in authority. France required a new style of authority and her intellectuals should provide it as a way of dealing with the problem of overcoming cultural lag and changing France into a modern industrial society.     

Fingermark detection based on the in situ growth of luminescent nanoparticles--towards a new generation of multimetal deposition

The in situ deposition of zinc oxide on gold nanoparticles in aqueous solution has been here successfully applied in the field of fingermark detection on various non-porous surfaces. In this article, we present the improvement of the multimetal deposition, an existing technique limited up to now to non-luminescent results, by obtaining luminescent fingermarks with very good contrast and details. This is seen as a major improvement in the field in terms of selectivity and sensitivity of detection, especially on black surfaces.     

Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and liquid-liquid extraction (LLE): comparison of the performance in classification of ecstasy tablets. Part 2

Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) is assessed as an alternative to liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) currently used for 3,4-methylenedioxymethampethamine (MDMA) profiling. Both methods were compared evaluating their performance in discriminating and classifying samples. For this purpose 62 different seizures were analysed using both extraction techniques followed by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). A previously validated method provided data for HS-SPME, whereas LLE data were collected applying a harmonized methodology developed and used in the European project CHAMP. After suitable pre-treatment, similarities between sample pairs were studied using the Pearson correlation. Both methods enable to distinguish between samples coming from the same pre-tabletting batches and samples coming from different pre-tabletting batches. This finding emphasizes the use of HS-SPME as an effective alternative to LLE, with additional advantages such as sample preparation and a solvent-free process.     

“Here we give advice for free”: the functioning of plant clinics in Rwanda

Although plant clinics are considered an important mechanism in the service delivery to farmers, not much is known about their functioning in the daily reality of plant doctors and farmer-clients. This article reports on an exploratory study describing the functioning of eight plant clinics in Rwanda. Personal and organisational commitment, publicity, and proactive communication with farmers and local leaders are key factors explaining higher attendance of some clinics. Farmer attendance is under-reported by 40–50%. Data management needs improvement to make clinic records reliable tools for decision-makers. This type of assessment can help improve operations and realise the plant clinics’ potential.     

An Unusual Case of Death Probably Triggered by the Association of Buprenorphine at Therapeutic Dose with Ethanol and Benzodiazepines and with Very Low Norbuprenorphine Level

Buprenorphine is largely prescribed for maintenance treatment in opioid dependence due to its safety profile. Nevertheless, fatalities at therapeutic dose have been described when associated with other central nervous system depressants, such as ethanol or benzodiazepines. Here, we report a case of death due to association of buprenorphine at therapeutic dose with benzodiazepines and ethanol. Although toxicity has been often attributed to its metabolite norbuprenorphine rather than to buprenorphine itself, in our case, norbuprenorphine was not detected in urine and bile and only in traces in blood. Moreover, the presence in blood of free buprenorphine but not of glucuronide metabolites argues for an unusual early death, at the beginning of buprenorphine metabolism. We propose that in the context of prior toxic impregnation, buprenorphine directly (and not via its metabolite norbuprenorphine) acted as a triggering factor by blocking the ventilatory response, rapidly leading to fatal respiratory depression.