The Magnetism in Massive Stars (MiMeS) Project is a consensus collaboration among many of the foremost international researchers of the physics of hot, massive stars, with the basic aim of understanding the origin, evolution and impact of magnetic fields in these objects. At the time of writing, MiMeS Large Programs have acquired over 950 high-resolution polarised spectra of about 150 individual stars with spectral types from B5-O4, discovering new magnetic fields in a dozen hot, massive stars. The quality of this spectral and magnetic matériel is very high, and the Collaboration is keen to connect with colleagues capable of exploiting the data in new or unforeseen ways. In this paper we review the structure of the MiMeS observing programs and report the status of observations, data modeling and development of related theory.

During a 10 year interval, between January 1, 1981 and January 1, 1991, primary repair of atrioventricular septal defect with a common atrioventricular orifice was performed in 95 patients younger than 1 year. Patients with atrioventricular septal defect having two atrioventricular orifices and a small ventricular septal defect, and those with severe hypoplasia of the left ventricle, were not included in the present study. According to the presence of associated anomalies, patients were divided into those with simple forms (72%) and those with complex forms (28%). These included parachute deformity of the left atrioventricular valve (10 cases), multiple muscular ventricular septal defects (5 cases), low-lying infundibular stenosis of the right ventricle (4 cases), obstruction of the left ventricular outflow tract (3 cases), tetralogy ofFallot (2 cases) and hypoplasia of the left ventricle (2 cases).

We assessed the efficacy of 2 alcohol-based gels and 1 alcohol-based rinse for surgical hand disinfection, using European standard EN 12791. Volunteers performed surgical hand disinfection with a reference product and each of the 3 study products, with 1-week intervals between disinfection episodes. The immediate and sustained antimicrobial activities of each study product were not significantly less than those of the reference product. The study products passed the efficacy requirements of the EN 12791 standard, and they are considered suitable for surgical hand disinfection.

This study performed in the Patapédia River (Québec, Gaspésie) was designed to examine the space utilization and mobility patterns of individual Atlantic salmon parr over short time scales with frequent detections of position. In August 2004, n = 7 radio-tagged Atlantic salmon parr were located every 20 min during 10 tracking periods chosen to take into account the dawn, day, dusk and night periods. Parr showed important inter individual variability in space utilization and mobility patterns, occupying large home ranges (123 to 5602 m2) and sometimes migrating 2 km upstream in the river. No differences were observed in the mean distance travelled among the four daily periods by individual fish, but the estimated home ranges utilized during the four daily periods overlapped only partially, demonstrating that parr partly occupy different areas of the river during different parts of the daily cycle. The results suggest that an intense survey on a small number of fish may contribute to a complementary comprehension of space utilization and mobility patterns of Atlantic salmon parr when viewed in association with results from studies surveying larger number of fish at lower frequency.

Research is considered as a major component of innovation and a key to the development of modern societies. However, fundamental research, which essentially aims at improving our understanding of Nature, is often questioned about its specific role. In this paper, arguments of ‘general interests’ in support of fundamental research are presented to contribute to the science-policy debate. Beyond a notable return on investment, now acknowledged by most economists, a number of positive societal impacts of fundamental research can be underlined. Fundamental research helps society as a whole, as well as individual firms, to keep options, possible scenarios and choices open (e.g. in relation with sustainable development), to maintain a good capability for top-level scientific expertise, to develop conditions favourable to scientific and technological breakthroughs, to ensure training at the highest possible level and also to guarantee access to, and free circulation of, the most valuable information. Finally, fundamental research may contribute to a better structural link between science and society.

The potential importance of backfilling and plugging in underground radioactive waste repositories has led differents research institutions around the world (SKB in Sweden, CEA in France, AECL in Canada, etc.) to carry out extensive studies of swelling clay materials for the development of engineered barriers. These materials, which have to be emplaced in underground conditions, should combine a variety of complementary properties from both the hydro-thermo-mechanical and geochemical viewpoints: impermeability, swelling ability in order to fill all void space, heat transfer and retention capacity for the most noxious radionuclides. For years, the scientific community has acknowledged the fact that smectite clays best exhibit these properties and, thus, most of the research effort has been devoted to this type of materials. The aim of such studies is to try and link the microscopic characteristics of the material (mineralogy, geochemical properties, microstructure, etc.) to its macroscopic behaviour (swelling properties, etc…).