<p>In 2020/21, the “Chaumény” footbridge was built in posttensioned UHPFRC over a railway line in the city of Montreux, Switzerland. UHPFRC stands for Ultra High Performance Fiber Reinforced Cementitious composite. UHPFRC shows high resistance both in tension and compression as well as excellent durability properties. The design and construction of the lightweight structure is described. The structure consists of a U-shaped trough girder with a span of 22.5m above the railway clearance, resting on one abutment and one pier, as well as a staircase leading from the pier down to the ground. The footbridge is composed of several precast elements that were assembled by posttensioning to achieve monolithically linked structure.</p>

Switzerland has a rich and diversified geoheritage. It marks the origin of nature protection in Switzerland, with the earliest protected erratic boulders dating back to 1838. At present, however, the significance of the geological richness and geodiversity of the country is largely unknown in public and political circles. Due to the country’s federal structure, which assigns nature conservation to the cantons, geoconservation differs from one canton to the other. At the federal level, geosites are the only type of natural heritage that has not been inventoried in the framework of the Nature and Landscape Protection Act. Nevertheless, an inventory was conducted by the Swiss Academy of Sciences; it includes 322 geosites of national value and, despite its lack of a legal status, provides a basis for planning. Several cantons already have an active geoconservation policy, while others have been very passive so far. Many geosites also enjoy indirect protection through other forms of protection (biotope inventories, UNESCO World Heritage sites, etc.), but the geoparks programme is still undeveloped in Switzerland, with a national programme in place only since January 2020. No region was allowed to apply to be recognised as a UNESCO Global Geopark until 2020. Geoheritage is often at the heart of the tourist offers proposed by Swiss tourist sites (glaciers, waterfalls, mountains, valleys and a variety of landscapes of geological origin) and geotourism products do exist (guided tours, panels, discovery trails, apps, etc.), but except in the three existing natural UNESCO World Heritage sites and in parks of national importance, the offers are fragmented.

In the current debate over the Future of Work, there is little discussion about how firms anticipate the evolution of their demand for labor and the related mix of skills as they adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. This article contributes to this debate by leveraging a global survey of 3000 firms in 10 countries, covering the main sectors of the economy. Descriptive statistics from the survey are complemented by econometric analyses of corporate labor demand decisions. The findings are four-fold. First, those are still early days in the absorption of AI technologies, with less than 10% of companies investing in a majority of AI technologies and for multiple purposes. Second, if an aggregate portion of firms anticipates reducing employment as a result of adopting AI technologies, as many other companies anticipate labor growth or reorganizing employment. Third, this reallocation picture holds true when we examine further demand by labor functions and skills, with talent shifting toward more analytic, creative, and interaction skills, and away from administrative and routine-based functions, in line with past trends of skill- and routine-biased technological change. Fourth, a novel to the literature on Future of Work, econometric results on employment change highlight that employment dynamics are driven by related spillover effects to product markets. Higher competition, larger expectations of market (share) deployment may counterbalance negative automation effect on employment dynamics.

The Vidourle Viaduct is an iconic structure on the Nîmes–Montpellier Bypass (Contournement Nîmes–Montpellier or CNM in French), the first dual-track, mixed-traffic, high-speed railway line (HSL) in France. The viaduct is 159 m long and 14.1 m wide, and consists of one Warren main bridge and two half-through access bridges. The aesthetic features of the viaduct were designed by Alain Spielmann’s architectural office. This paper describes its structural design and construction methods. The mixed traffic feature of the CNM imposes several constraints on its structural design, particularly on viaduct geometry and design loads. Moreover, the viaduct sits in an area known for its torrential flooding, hence the pier design was optimized to reduce the impact on the riverbed. As per Eurocodes, the structural design was verified for static, dynamic and seismic responses, as well as rail-structure interactions. The steel frame was manufactured in Switzerland, transported by special road convoys and assembled on-site. The Warren bridge and one access bridge were launched together over built piers and abutments using jacks. The second access bridge was positioned using a mobile crane.

<p>The Vidourle Viaduct is an iconic structure on the Nîmes-Montpellier Bypass (Contournement Nîmes-Montpellier or CNM in French), the first dual track, mixed traffic high speed railway line (HSL) in France. The viaduct is 159 metres long and 14.1 metres wide, and consists of one Warren main bridge and two half-through access bridges. The aesthetic features of the viaduct were designed by Alain Spielmann’ architectural office. This paper describes its structural design, structural analyses and construction methods.</p>

During recent years, a lot of projects using new technologies have been developed in the field of geoheritage. This chapter aims to present how digital technologies can be used for geoconservation and interpretation. While large amounts of digital data (visual, dimensional, locational or environmental) can be recorded to monitor heritage, the emergence of virtual visualisation has been experiencing the greatest development in recent years. Cutting-edge geovisualisation using high-resolution images or 3D representation techniques allows the acquisition of accurate digital models. These virtual models of natural environment can be used to prevent natural hazards in touristic geosites, such as rockfalls in Yosemite National Park, to keep a digital archive of vulnerable sites as in the Valley of Geysers in Kamchatka, to produce cave replicas as for the Chauvet cave in France, or to augment reality for geotourists as in the project GeoGuide. Beyond the quality of virtual models produced, many questions remain concerning production costs, data reliability and longevity, user’s engagement and the ‘sense of place’ of virtual geoheritage.

Due to the renewed interest for sites of geological interest, both in nature conservation and tourist sectors, numerous regional and national geosite inventories have been carried out in several countries during the last two decades. Several research groups discussed methodological issues, in particular concerning the assessment, and proposed various assessment methods. The University of Lausanne developed a method for assessing the scientific and additional values of geomorphosites in 2007. The method was widely used in regional inventories in Switzerland and abroad. This paper presents a new version of the method and discusses four main issues: (1) the assessment methodology is included in a larger process, from the selection of potential geomorphosites to their use and evaluation by stakeholders; (2) a particular attention is put on the selection of potential geomorphosites that will then be assessed and a simple approach crossing a spatial selection (the selected geomorphosites should be representative of the regional geomorphological processes) and a temporal one (the selected geomorphosites should cover the whole temporal stages of the regional morphogenesis, with both relict and active landforms) is proposed; (3) a new part is added in the assessment method; it concerns the use characteristics and fills a gap in the existing method; (4) finally, the paper discusses mapping and representation issues: specific maps are produced at two levels: simple geomorphological maps accompany the assessment of each geomorphosite and synthetic maps, covering the whole study area, are produced for the communication of results to stakeholders. For this, four types of representation (qualitative, univariate, bivariate, multivariate) are proposed. The method is illustrated by three examples of inventories carried out in Western Switzerland and Haute-Savoie (France).

The introduction of the athlete's biological passport (ABP) has been a milestone in the fight against doping. The ABP is a collection of measurements of different biological parameters influenced by the administration of doping agents through the time and for each athlete. Two different modules have been developed and validated so far: the haematological module, which aims to identify enhancement of oxygen transport, including use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents and any form of blood transfusion or manipulation, which became effective in 2010; and the steroidal module, which intends to detect the use of endogenous anabolic androgenic steroids when administered exogenously and other anabolic agents, which was introduced in 2014. Prior to the implementation of the haematological module, it is important to define an athlete’s testing pool on whom to collect blood and/or urine in-competition and out-of-competition (for the steroidal module, this is irrelevant because all collected urine samples will be subjected to analysis for the steroidal variables) and to be compliant with the strict requirements of the World Anti-Doping Agency ABP Operating Guidelines. The established individual profile can be used either to target traditional antidoping tests (recombinant erythropoietins, or homologous blood transfusion tests for the haematological module; isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) for the steroidal module) or to support an antidoping rule violation due to the use of a forbidden substance or method. In this article, we present the experience of four major International Federations which have implemented an ABP programme, focusing on the haematological module. They constitute examples which could be followed by other antidoping organisations wishing to introduce this new, efficient and innovative antidoping tool.

Capnocytophaga canimorsus is a Gram-negative commensal of dog's mouth causing severe human infections. A strain isolated from a human fatal infection was recently shown to have a sialidase, to inhibit the bactericidal activity of macrophages and to block the release of nitric oxide by LPS-stimulated macrophages. The present study aimed at determining the prevalence of C. canimorsus in dogs and the occurrence of these hypothetical virulence factors. C. canimorsus could be retrieved from the saliva of 61 dogs out of 106 sampled. Like in clinical isolates, all dog strains had a sialidase and 60% blocked the killing of phagocytosed Escherichia coli by macrophages. In contrast, only 6.5% of dog strains blocked the release of nitric oxide by LPS-challenged macrophages, suggesting that this property might contribute to virulence. The comparative analysis of 69 16S rDNA sequences revealed the existence of C. canimorsus strains that could be misdiagnosed.