[en] Prevention and control of damage to health, crops, and property by insects, fungi, and noxious weeds are the major goals of pesticide applications. As with use of any biologically active agent, pesticides have unwanted side-effects. In this review, we will examine the thesis that adverse pesticide effects are more likely to occur in children who are at special developmental and behavioral risk. Children's exposures to pesticides in the rural and urban settings and differences in their exposure patterns are discussed. The relative frequency of pesticide poisoning in children is examined. In this connection, most reported acute pesticide poisonings occur in children younger than age 5. The possible epidemiological relationships between parental pesticide use or exposure and the risk of adverse reproductive outcomes and childhood cancer are discussed. The level of consensus among these studies is examined. Current concerns regarding neurobehavioral toxicity and endocrine disruption in juxtaposition to the relative paucity of toxicant mechanism-based studies of children are explored

[en] There are currently five French 900MWe reactors recycling plutonium in mixed oxide (MOX) fuel - St Laurent B1 and B2, Gravelines 3 and 4, and Dampierre 1. Experience gained during the last three years has been satisfactory, with no clad failures observed and with handling and radiation shielding problems under control. Electricite de France does not expect any special difficulties when starting load following with MOX, for which authorization was given in September 1990. (author)

[en] The operational characteristics of the reactors, viewed in the broadest sense, influence the behaviour of the fuel. Attempts are made to show that the fuels used today, even if they are of an older design, are much more stressed than was previously intended: the burn-up rate has notably increased and the network cycle operation subjects them to great stresses. It is, however, ascertained that their behaviour remains absolutely satisfactory, even when approaching the technological limits. The number of malfunctions in the reactor is incidentally generally very low and the gain from a continuation of operation with defective fuel, taking into consideration certain criteria, or from repairing a not fully burnt-up fuel element, has been indicated. The inherent qualities of the fuel together with the expected outputs of the fuel of the next generation mean that new savings on the cost of the fuel cycle can be expected

[en] Plutonium recycle in France will concern a dozen of PWR 900 MWe controlled in gray mode till 1995. This paper presents the main characteristics of fuel management with plutonium recycle. The organization of management studies will be copied from this developed for classical management studies. Up these studies, a ''feasibility report'' aims at establishing at each stage of the fuel cycle, the impact of the utilization of fuel containing plutonium

[en] Short communication

No abstract available

[en] The development of irradiation for food preservation is dependent on a satisfactory method for choosing the doses. The reduction of the doses is particularly suitable, not only for the cost, but for organoleptic qualities of food. Many studies have demonstrated that Bacillus, Salmonella, Staphylococcus and Clostridium species are frequently isolated from food. The objective of this work is to prove the efficiency of combined treatments using irradiation and temperature (80⁰C), to reduce the dose of irradiation and the organoleptic alterations of food. The results are dependent on environmental conditions of the bacteria. (author)

[en] We investigate the possibility to distinguish the small-coupling, slow-rotation black hole solution of Chern–Simons (CS) gravity from the Kerr solution. We develop simulations of electromagnetic observables in the vicinity of CS and Kerr black holes. We show that the typical relative observable difference between CS and Kerr spacetimes is of the order of 0.1% thus beyond reach of current or near-future instruments. (paper)

No abstract available

[en] 47 Patients with unresectable non small cell lung carcinoma, 15 stage IIIA, 31 stage IIIB, 1 stage IV (cervical lymphadenopathy) were treated with a combination of 3 courses of chemotherapy and hypofractionated irradiation followed after 3 weeks by split course radiotherapy. Each course was repeated every 3 weeks with the following sequence: Cisplatinum (CDDP) (20 mg/m²) was given in a 20-min infusion, followed by a 2-h infusion of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) (400 mg/m²) on days 1, 2, 5 and 6. Radiation with a dose of 3 Gy on the target volume was given on days 3 and 4 -in one fraction for the former 27 patients, in 2 fractions of 1.5 Gy for the latter 20 patients with a 6-h interval- after a 2-h infusion of 5-FU (400 mg/m²). The results remain disappointing: the objective response rate was 53%, the median survival was 10 months for the series, and the one-year survival 47%. The median survival was 14 months for IIIA, 10 months for IIIB and IV. Regarding the therapeutic regimen there seems to be less morbidity with 2 fractions per day for which the median survival is nearly the same at 10 months (1 fraction/day) versus 12 months (2 fractions/day). (author). 21 refs., 1 fig., 5 tabs