University Of Basel Research Articles

Inside View: University of Basel

Inside View: University of Basel

In the news: The Lasker goes to Michael Hall.

The 2017 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award was awarded to Michael N. Hall (Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland) “for discoveries concerning the nutrient-activated TOR proteins and their central role in the metabolic control of cell growth”.

Friedrich Nietzsche in Basel: An apology for classical studies

Alongside his work as a professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Basel, Friedrich Nietzsche reflected on the value of classical studies in contemporary nineteenth-century society, starting with a self-analysis of his own classical training and position as a philologist and teacher. Contrary to his well-known aversion to classical philology, a science conceived as being an end in itself, aimed at mere erudite complacency, I highlight Nietzsche’s defence of the system of Classical studies, and of the education of young people through the works of the ancient Greek and Roman period. Such an apology ‘redeems’, in a sense, the discipline, and justifies its role and continued relevance in our present-day society.

Reaction: Technological Aspects of Molecular Electronics

Dr. Emanuel Lortscher received his PhD with distinction (summa cum laude) in 2006 from the University of Basel in Switzerland and a master in physics in 2003 from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He has been a research staff member at IBM Research since 2008. He has received various prizes, including the Swiss Physical Society Award for Applied Physics in 2007 and the Faculty Prize of the University of Basel in the same year. His current research focuses on fabrication, electronics, optics, and chemistry at the nanoscale for applications in novel computing applications, biology, medicine, and the Internet of Things.

Editorial introductions

Current Opinion in Neurology was launched in 1988. It is one of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The field of neurology is divided into 14 sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Journal's Section Editors for this issue. SECTION EDITORS Stefan KlöppelStefan KlöppelStefan Klöppel is Director of the University Hospital of Old Age Psychiatry in Bern, Switzerland. Until recently, he has been head of the Freiburg Brain Imaging research unit which is dedicated to MRI research with a clinical focus. After medical school, Stefan Klöppel took positions as clinical research fellow at the Department of Neurology in Hamburg, Germany and at University College London, UK. He finished his specialisation in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in Freiburg with a clinical focus on old age psychiatry and dementia. His research is focused on neurodegenerative disorders. One aspect is the modification of machine learning techniques to apply them to MRI for an early and accurate diagnosis. These methods are highly flexible and are able to separate patients with a wide range of diseases. More recently, he took interest in non-invasive brain stimulation techniques where he seeks to identify protocols sufficiently robust for the application in clinical routine. He currently combines these stimulation methods with imaging to gain insight into the underlying mechanisms. Claudio L. BassettiClaudio L. BassettiProfessor Claudio L. Bassetti was born and raised in Ticino (Southern Switzerland), is married and father of three boys. He speaks six languages and enjoys history, literature, music, sports, and travelling. Claudio Bassetti received his MD degree from the University of Basel in 1984 and trained in neurology in Bern and Lausanne (FMH degree in 1992). He performed two research fellowships in basic neurophysiology (Basel, 1985–1986) and sleep medicine (Ann Arbor-Michigan, USA, 1995–6). In 1997 he became “Privatdozent” (associate professor) at the University of Bern. In 2000 he was appointed Professor of neurology at the university of Zurich and Director of the neurological outpatient clinics of the university hospital. In 2009 he founded the neurocenter of Southern Switzerland in Lugano which he directed until 2012. Since 2012 he is full professor of neurology at the university of Bern and director of the neurology department at the university hospital. Claudio Bassetti has authored eight books and over 350 scientific publications. His topics of interest include general neurology, sleep, stroke, movement disorders, and translational/animal research. He served as president of the European Neurological Society (ENS, 2013–4), European Sleep Research Society (ESRS, 2008–12) and Swiss Neurological Society (SNG, 2008–12). He was one of the founders and first president of the Swiss Federation of Clinical Neurosocieties (SFCNS, 2009–2013). Currently he is a board member of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences (SAMW). Since 2016 he is also Vice-Dean Research of the Medical Faculty-University Bern. Panagiotis BargiotasPanagiotis BargiotasDr Panagiotis Bargiotas is an attending physician at the Department of Neurology and the Sleep-Wake-Epilepsy Center at the University Hospital Bern, Switzerland. He specializes in the interdisciplinary management of patients with sleep-wake disturbances and neurodegenerative disorders. He is currently involved in various clinical trials and preclinical research with main focus on the mechanisms underlying sleep-wake disturbances in patients with Parkinson's disease and especially in the context of deep brain stimulation.

Does the influence of stress on financial risk taking depend on the riskiness of the decision

Does the Influence of Stress on Financial Risk Taking Depend on the Riskiness of the Decision? Bettina von Helversen (bettina.vonhelversen@unibas.ch) University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Missionsstrasse 62a 4055 Basel, Switzerland Jorg Rieskamp (joerg.rieskamp@unibas.ch) University of Basel, Department of Psychology, Missionsstrasse 62a 4055 Basel, Switzerland Abstract Porcelli and Delgado (2009) argue that stress enhances decision biases such as the reflection effect (i.e., people are more risk seeking in the loss domain than in the gain domain, Kahneman & Tversky, 1979). In the current research we follow up on this result, suggesting that stress enhances preexisting preferences for risk. That is, in decision situations in which people usually are risk seeking, they should become even more risk seeking under stress, whereas in decision situations in which people behave risk averse, they should become even more risk averse. We test these hypotheses in a financial risk- taking task. As a second goal we aimed to examine the mechanism underlying changes in risky decision making under stress. One mechanism by which stress could enhance preexisting preferences is by narrowing the focus of attention to the piece of information that is considered as most important. In line with this idea stress has been shown to reduce cognitive resources and narrow the focus of attention as well as the amount of information that can be processed (Friedman & Forster, 2010; Kelly, Ashleigh, & Beversdorf, 2007; Wichary & Rieskamp, 2011). Thus, stress could influence risky decision making by changing the amount of attention given to the attributes of the choice options such as the possible outcomes (gains or losses) and the probability of the outcome (Ben Zur & Breznitz, 1981). Many decisions under risk and uncertainty are made under physical or emotional stress. Recent research suggests that stress influences decisions between risky options, but that the direction of the influence depends on the characteristics of the gambles. For instance, stress increases risk taking for loss gambles, but decreases risk taking for gain gambles. In the current project we investigate: (1) whether the riskiness of gambles influences the direction of the stress effect and (2) whether changes in risk taking can be linked to changes in attention. Participants who gave relatively more attention to gains than to losses, as indicated by eye- tracking data, were more risk seeking than participants who gave less attention to gains. Stress did not influence participants’ attention. However, stressed participants became more risk seeking when considering gambles with relatively low risk, but less risk seeking for gambles with relatively high risk. Keywords: risk; decision making; stress; cortisol; variance Introduction Every day we make decisions involving risk and uncertainty ranging from buying a gamble ticket to investing in stocks, gold, or real estate. Many of these decisions are not made in cold blood, but under physical or emotional stress. How stress and stress-related release of hormones such as cortisol influence risk preferences, however, is far from clear. Research has found that men, but not women, tend to become more risk seeking under stress (Lighthall, Mather, & Gorlick, 2009; Preston, Buchanan, Stansfield, & Bechara, 2007; Starcke, Wolf, Markowitch, & Brand, 2008). Similarly, studies on financial risk taking have found divergent results. For instance, offering participants choices between risky and relatively safe options, Porcelli and Delgado (2009) found that participants became more risk seeking under stress when choosing between options involving losses, but less risk seeking when choosing between options involving gains. In a similar vein, Carr and Steele (2010) found that stereotype threat reduced risk taking in women. Von Dawans, Fischbacher, Kirschbaum, Fehr, & Heinrichs (2012), however, found no influence of stress on decisions between gambles involving gains and losses. Variability in Outcomes as a Measure of Risk The vast majority of research on financial risk taking involves the choice between gambles; that is, options with various outcomes that occur with a specific probability and that differ in valence (e.g., gains or losses). The risk of a gamble is commonly defined by the variability of the outcomes, with higher variability implying higher risk. For instance, finance models such as the capital-asses- pricing model equate risk with outcome variance (Sharpe, 1964). However, other variability measures such as the coefficient of variation, a measure based on the relative variance of a gamble, have been proposed to measure risk (Weber, Shafir, & Blais, 2004). In sum, if stress amplifies people’s risk preferences by narrowing their attention to the subjectively important aspect of the decision situation,

Partial Ceramic Crowns Prepared by Dental Students: Clinical Performance Up to Five Years.

Partial ceramic crowns (PCCs) are an accepted treatment option for the restoration of posterior teeth with deficient tooth substance. Data on the survival of PCCs fabricated by dental students are scarce. The aim of this retrospective clinical study was to investigate the clinical performance and longevity of PCCs placed by dental students in the last year of their training program at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Eighty-eight patients who had received at least one PCC (n=108) in the program were considered for clinical assessment; their records were analyzed to detect previous complications or failures; and they were contacted by telephone. Criteria regarding aesthetic, functional, and biological aspects were rated with a scoring system from 1=clinically excellent to 5=clinically poor. The response rate was 66.3% (55 of 83 included patients), and 72.2% (n=78) of the PCCs were included in the analysis. Five PCCs had been lost within ten to 78 months after treatment. Six PCCs were recorded as failures (score 5), and ten received clinically unsatisfactory gradings (score 4). The risk of a clinically poor outcome was 14% after five years (86% survival), while the overall success rate was 63.5%. These results suggest that the clinical procedure of PCCs was successfully implemented by these students with satisfactory clinical survival.

Mortality and acute exacerbation of COPD: a pilot study on the influence of myocardial injury

Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) punctuate important disease progression [1]. In-hospital mortality rates for acute exacerbations of COPD vary between 2.5% to 24.5% [2–4]. An integrated clinical score, CURB-65, has been proposed to predict in-hospital and 30-day mortality in acute exacerbations of COPD [5, 6]. According to death-certificate data the most common proximate cause of death in COPD is cardiac disease [7]. An association between elevated cardiac high-sensitivity troponin (hs-cTn) at admission and mortality has been reported in acute exacerbations of COPD [8, 9]. Copeptin has also been associated with poor clinical outcomes and mortality of acute exacerbations of COPD [10], as well as pneumonia [11] and myocardial infarction [12]. Recently, the combination of elevated copeptin and hs-cTn at admission for acute chest pain has been shown to have better discriminative value for acute myocardial injury [13] than troponin alone, as well as strong prognostic value for major cardiac adverse events [14]. We hypothesised that myocardial injury may be an important cause of death in patients admitted with an acute exacerbations of COPD. Accordingly, we investigated whether circulating markers of myocardial injury at the time of presentation to the emergency department (ED) with acute exacerbations of COPD added prognostic value to the CURB-65 score. Initial results were derived in a discovery cohort of 356 consecutive adult patients with acute exacerbations of COPD who presented to the EDs at the Christchurch Heart Institute (New Zealand, n=160), Lariboisiere Hospital in Paris (France, n=112), Monastir University Hospital (Tunisia, n=55) and Sivas University Hospital (Turkey, n=29). Median (interquartile range) age was 72 (63–79) years and 57% were male. A prior history of COPD was present in 85%, heart failure in 20% and hypertension in 41% of subjects. At admission, the median systolic blood pressure was 140 (123–160) mmHg, median heart rate was 98 (86–112) min –1 and median respiratory rate was 26 (22–32) min –1. The median length of hospital stay was 4 (1–8) days. 44 patients (12.4%) were admitted to an intensive care unit. 27 patients (7.6%) died during the 30-day follow-up period. An independent validation cohort comprised consecutive patients with acute exacerbations of COPD prospectively enrolled at the Basel University Hospital (Switzerland, n=135). The validation cohort had similar characteristics to the derivation cohort and 30-day mortality was 7.8%. This study was performed in accordance with the declaration of Helsinki. All patients provided written informed consent. CURB-65 was calculated by using information collected upon admission to the ED [5]. The CURB-65 score was indicative of low risk (0–1) in 51% of the derivation cohort, intermediate risk (2) in 32% and high risk (⩾3) of 30-day mortality in the remaining 17%. The primary end-point was 30-day all-cause mortality. Follow-up by phone interview for events to 30 days was completed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.67 (95% CI 0.57–0.76) for the prediction of 30-day mortality by using the CURB-65 score. Blood samples were collected within 4 h of admission into tubes containing ethylenediaminetetra-acetic acid (EDTA) with immediate separation of plasma, which was stored at −80°C prior to assay. We measured five biomarkers that reflect different pathophysiological pathways: inflammation and/or infection by C-reactive protein (CRP, Abbott laboratories, Abbott Park, IL, USA) and procalcitonin (PCT, Thermo-Fisher B.R.A.H.M.S. AG, Hennigsdorf, Germany); myocardial damage by high-sensitivity cardiac @ERSpublications Acute exacerbated COPD patients with elevated markers of myocardial injury are at high risk of early mortality

Scientific Drilling at Lake Tanganyika, Africa: A Transformative Record for Understanding Evolution in Isolation and the Biological History of the African Continent, University of Basel, 6–8 June 2016

Abstract. We report on the outcomes of a workshop held to discuss evolutionary biology, paleobiology and paleoecology questions that could be addressed by a scientific drilling project at Lake Tanganyika, the largest, deepest and oldest of the African Rift Valley lakes. Lake Tanganyika is of special significance to evolutionary biologists as it harbors one of the most spectacular endemic faunas of any lake on earth, with hundreds of unique species of fish, molluscs, crustaceans and other organisms that have evolved over the lake's long history. Most of these groups of organisms are known from fossils in short cores from the lake, raising the possibility that both body fossil and ancient DNA records might be recovered from long drill cores. The lake's sedimentary record could also provide a record of African terrestrial ecosystem history since the late Miocene. This 3-day workshop brought together biological and geological specialists on the lake and its surroundings to prioritize paleobiological, ecological and microbiological objectives that could ultimately be incorporated into an overall drilling plan for Lake Tanganyika and to consider how biological objectives can effectively be integrated into the paleoclimate and tectonics objectives of a Lake Tanganyika drilling project already considered in prior workshops.

Luminescent Ni0 Diisocyanide Chelates as Analogues of CuI Diimine Complexes

AbstractInvited for the cover of this issue is the group of Oliver S. Wenger at the University Basel. The image depicts a homoleptic Ni0 diisocyanide complex that displays photoluminescence at low temperatures. Read the full text of the article at 10.1002/chem.201700103.

Timing of surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis: a phase 3 randomised controlled trial

Based on observational studies, administration of surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis (SAP) for the prevention of surgical site infection (SSI) is recommended within 60 min before incision. However, the precise optimum timing is unknown. This trial compared early versus late administration of SAP before surgery. In this phase 3 randomised controlled superiority trial, we included general surgery adult inpatients (age ≥18 years) at two Swiss hospitals in Basel and Aarau. Patients were randomised centrally and stratified by hospital according to a pre-existing computer-generated list in a 1:1 ratio to receive SAP early in the anaesthesia room or late in the operating room. Patients and the outcome assessment team were blinded to group assignment. SAP consisted of single-shot, intravenous infusion of 1·5 g of cefuroxime, a commonly used cephalosporin with a short half-life, over 2-5 min (combined with 500 mg metronidazole in colorectal surgery). The primary endpoint was the occurrence of SSI within 30 days of surgery. The main analyses were by intention to treat. The trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01790529. Between Feb 21, 2013, and Aug 3, 2015, 5580 patients were randomly assigned to receive SAP early (2798 patients) or late (2782 patients). 5175 patients (2589 in the early group and 2586 in the late group) were analysed. Median administration time was 42 min before incision in the early group (IQR 30-55) and 16 min before incision in the late group (IQR 10-25). Inpatient follow-up rate was 100% (5175 of 5175 patients); outpatient 30-day follow-up rate was 88·8% (4596 of 5175), with an overall SSI rate of 5·1% (234 of 4596). Early administration of SAP did not significantly reduce the risk of SSI compared with late administration (odds ratio 0·93, 95% CI 0·72-1·21, p=0·601). Our findings do not support any narrowing of the 60-min window for the administration of a cephalosporin with a short half-life, thereby obviating the need for increasingly challenging SAP timing recommendations. Swiss National Science Foundation, Hospital of Aarau, University of Basel, Gottfried und Julia Bangerter-Rhyner Foundation, Hippocrate Foundation, and Nora van Meeuwen-Häfliger Foundation.

Vulnerable narcissism as key link between dark triad traits, mental toughness, sleep quality and stress

IntroductionThe concept of the Dark Triad (DT) consists of the dimensions of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, and has gained increased interest within the last 15 years for its predictive power to explain success in the fields of economy, politics, and professional sport. However, recent research suggests that the associations between DT and behavior are not as uniform as expected.AimsInvestigating the associations between DT traits and vulnerable narcissism, mental toughness, sleep quality, and stress perception.MethodsA total of 720 participants between 18 and 28 years took part in the study. The sample consisted of military cadres in the US (n = 238), Switzerland (n = 220), and of students from the university of Basel (n = 262). Participants completed self-rating questionnaires covering DT traits, mental toughness, vulnerable narcissism, sleep quality, and perceived stress.ResultsIrrespective of the sample, participants scoring high on vulnerable narcissism also reported higher DT traits, lower mental toughness, poor sleep quality, and higher scores on perceived stress.ConclusionsThe present pattern of results suggests a more fine-grained association between DT traits and further behavior, calling into question to what extent DT traits might be a predictor for greater success in the fields of economy, politics or elite sports. Specifically, vulnerable narcissism seems to be key for more unfavourable behavior.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Cultura, educação e filosofia na perspectiva Nietzschiana

O presente texto se propõe apresentar algumas reflexões acerca dos escritos nietzschianos “Sobre o futuro de nossos estabelecimentos de ensino” (1871) e “Schopenhauer Educador” (1874). As reflexões sobre educação e cultura partem das experiências do filósofo quando ensinava na universidade de Basiléia/Suíça. Segundo este filósofo, para existir cultura é preciso um projeto educativo, pois não haverá educação sem uma cultura que lhe sirva de apoio. Há uma exacerbada valorização de um tipo de saber, busca-se o acumulado em excesso e sem relação com os contextos culturais e sociais dos indivíduos. Nas críticas nietzschianas percebemos uma luta por uma concepção de educação pautada nas experiências vivas de cada indivíduo, pois a vida é percebida como propulsora de diferentes formas de pensar e conhecer. Assim, podemos extrair em Nietzsche ferramentas contraria a uma cultura de massa destinada a padronização, alienação e competitividade e o ensino de filosofia como uma aliada na denúncia e crítica de nossa sociedade e de seu povo.

Lower Educational Level is a Risk Factor for Tooth Loss - Analysis of a Swiss Population (KREBS Project).

To analyse risk factors for tooth loss in women and men seeking treatment at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Records of patients from the pool of patients at the department were consecutively screened between January 2009 and October 2011. Gender, smoking habits, education, profession, general health status and dental variables were recorded. Tooth loss was assessed on full-mouth periapical radiographs. Gender-nested logistic regression models were applied for statistical analysis. The sample consisted of 161 participants (4012 teeth in total, 3988 after exclusion of third molars), 80 women and 81 men, with a mean age of 48.0 ± 14.6 in women and 47.7 ± 12.5 in men. There were no significant differences in smoking status between men and women. Oral clinical data revealed similar gingival inflammation (BI) and number of sites with a periodontal probing depth (PPD) ≥ 5 mm among men and women. However, oral hygiene (PI) differed between men and women, with women having better oral hygiene (p < 0.01). Tooth loss increased from the front to the molar regions. A significant risk for tooth loss was associated with decreasing educational level. Compared to advanced education, individuals with 'no school graduation' showed a significantly higher risk for tooth loss in women (OR = 3.2, p = 0.02) and men (OR = 3.6, p = 0.03). Age ≥ 50 years significantly predicted tooth loss in men only (OR 2.2, p = 0.01). The results from the present study demonstrate lower educational level as a strong risk factor for tooth loss in this Swiss cohort. The educational level may need to be considered for diagnosis and treatment planning, and particularly for patient information practices to increase the patients' understanding of the development of oral diseases leading to tooth loss.

Enhanced RTI for gloss reproduction

The Digital Humanities Lab (DHLab) is a technological oriented research group within the faculty of Humanities of the University of Basel. The research profile of the DHLab integrates computer science, digital imaging, computational photography, the accessibility of digital objects and solutions for digital preservation with the aim to support scholars in the emerging field of humanities research. The project Digital Materiality, a collaboration with the Seminar of Art History, examines how new imaging and visualization methods can be applied to describe the reflection of light on surfaces of artworks. Of main interest are mosaics and early prints; both types of artworks have a strong interaction with light that can not captured adequately by standard photographic approaches. Conventional photographic processes are not able to capture the dynamic component of the light-surface interdependence that is specific for this kind of art. The technical part of the project focuses on improving the methodology that is in general described as Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) techniques. RTI is an approach based on a mathematical model, that is fitted in image data derived from photographs. By modifying the mathematical model that is used to represent the light-surface interaction, the digital reproduction can be improved so that relevant attributes of artworks can be transported into the digital domain in such a way that the requirements and needs of humanities researchers to a digital representation can be fulfilled. The improvements take into account more sophisticated but still robust and simple reflection models for the realistic visualization of localized diffuse and specular surfaces within the same digital reproduction. For humanities research the most important aspect is the compatibility to web-based Virtual Research Environments (VRE). The presented approach can be integrated in such environments because the client-side visualization is implemented in WebGL. For flexibility, performance and data permanence aspects the server side will be an enhanced image server layer following the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) image based environment.

Chromium complex has a long luminescent glow

Ruthenium bipyridine and related precious-metal complexes are popular because they exhibit long-lived, redox-active excited states that are useful for making solar cells and light-emitting devices and as sensitizers for photocatalytic organic reactions. Researchers would like to replace the precious metals with more abundant first-row transition metals, such as iron, but they have been waylaid so far because the excited-state luminescence lifetimes are too short. A key to modulating the properties of the complexes to extend the lifetime is designing ligands that better stabilize the metal ions. To that end, Laura A. Büldt, Oliver S. Wenger, and their coworkers at the University of Basel have designed a bulky chelating diisocyanide terphenyl ligand that dramatically improves chromium(0)’s excited-state lifetime, surpassing that of the best iron(II) complexes by two orders of magnitude (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.6b11803). The researchers say the electronic effects of their ligand and the cage structure it

Archaeological medicinal earths as antibacterial agents: the case of the Basel Lemnian sphragides

Abstract This paper presents the scientific investigation of three Lemnian sphragides ( terra sigillata , stamped earth), a famed medicinal clay in antiquity, dated to the sixteenth–seventeenth centuries, and presently in the Museum for the History of Pharmacy, University of Basel. The three specimens are compared with clays from the purported locality of its extraction, at Kotsinas, NE Lemnos, Greece. The study suggests a local origin for the Basel samples; it also demonstrates, for the first time, that the three Lemnian sphragides have a significant antibacterial effect against Staphylococcus aureus , a common Gram-positive pathogen, but have no such effect against Pseudomonas aeruginosa , a Gram-negative microorganism. Clay samples from the purported locality of extraction showed no antibacterial effect against S. aureus . Subsequent analysis with ultra-performance liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) revealed the presence of organic constituents in one sphragis which were absent from a sample of modern clay. A fungal secondary metabolite is proposed here as the active ingredient but other factors may also play a role. The ongoing investigation into the bioactivity of some medicinal clays might aid in the re-evaluation of Belon's statement included at the start of this paper, namely, that the Lemnian earth worked only because people in the past wished it to work.

Friedrich Nietzsche’s critique on the education of liberal arts

The crisis of education is a universal phenomenon. This is not only a problem in Korea, nor is it a recent phenomenon. Therefore, the diagnosis of the education crisis should be in-depth and philosophical. BR As a young professor at the Department of Classical Literature at Basel University, Switzerland, Friedrich Nietzsche made five lectures on the problems of German education and liberal arts under the title “About the future of our educational institution.” We can find his educational philosophy in other Nietzsche

Malaria Modeling in the Era of Eradication.

Mathematical models provide the essential basis of rational research and development strategies in malaria, informing the choice of which technologies to target, which deployment strategies to consider, and which populations to focus on. The Internet and remote sensing technologies also enable assembly of ever more relevant field data. Together with supercomputing technology, this has made available timely descriptions of the geography of malaria transmission and disease across the world and made it possible for policy and planning to be informed by detailed simulations of the potential impact of intervention programs. These information technology advances do not replace the basic understanding of the dynamics of malaria transmission that should be embedded in the thinking of anyone planning malaria interventions. The appropriate use of modeling may determine whether we are living in an era of hubris or indeed in an age of eradication.

The Arago Laboratory of Banyuls and some of its Academicians.

Since its founding in 1881 by Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers (1821-1901), the Arago Laboratory of Banyuls has been one of the three marine stations of the University Pierre and Marie Curie-Paris 6. It is located in Banyuls (Banyuls-sur-Mer) in Northern Catalonia. The center hosts researchers and students from all over the world. Some became famous, including four Nobel Prize winners: André Lwoff (1965), Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (1991), Albert Fert (2007) and Jules Hoffmann (2011). This article focuses on five scientists closely related to the center. The first three are Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers (1821-1901), the founder; Édouard Chatton (1883-1947), eminent director of the center; and André Lwoff (1902-1994), who before being known for his work in bacterial genetics and virology was an outstanding protozoologist under the direction of Chatton. Lynn Margulis (1938-2011), a great friend of the Arago Laboratory and personal friend of the author, is also remembered. Finally, there is a mention of Walter J. Gehring (1939-2014), professor at the University of Basel, Switzerland. [Int Microbiol 19(4): 183-190 (2016)].