Urgent Medical Aid and Associated Obstetric Mortality in Belgium

Most Belgian citizens are covered by comprehensive medical insurance (AMI). Due to recent and significant undocumented immigration, an increasing number of patients have no health coverage. They may, however, qualify for "Urgent Medical Aid" (AMU). Still, some patients have no health insurance of any kind (no coverage). This study, conducted in a hospital which cares for a large number of undocumented immigrants, looked at the proportion of women benefiting from either "AMI" or "AMU" and those who have "No coverage" and addressed obstetrical outcomes in each of the three groups. Design: retrospective observational study. We collected data of all singleton pregnancies and deliveries from the CHU St Pierre maternity ward, between 1.10.2015 and 31.3.2016. Women were classified, prospectively, by our social workers, as having access to AMI, AMU or having "No coverage". Demographic, obstetrical and perinatal data were systematically collected and validated on a day-to-day basis and comparisons were then made between the three groups of women. During the follow up period, 1.439 women had access to regular social security (AMI) (87%), 142 women (10%) to AMU and 38 (3%) had no coverage. Women who benefited from AMU were younger and their first prenatal consultation occurred later in the pregnancy than it did for women with AMI. There were no significant differences in obstetrical outcomes between the three groups of women. Urgent medical aid (AMU) confers a certain normalisation of obstetrical care to pregnant women who would otherwise have no access to health care coverage.

Lasing with resonant feedback in weakly scattering random systems

Laser action in active random media in the weak scattering regime far from Anderson localization is investigated by coupling Maxwell's equations with the rate equations of a four-level atomic system. We report systematic lasing action with resonant feedback and show that the lasing modes mostly consist of traveling waves spatially extended over the whole system. Next we address the question of the origin of the feedback mechanism in such a system where no disorder-induced long-lived resonances are available, and present strong evidence that they correspond to the quasimodes of the passive system. This in turn provides an original way to access the spatial distribution of the quasimodes of a non-Hermitian system.

Localized modes in random arrays of cylinders

Anderson localization of classical waves in random arrays of dielectric cylinders is numerically investigated as a function of the distribution of their diameters. We show that using polydispersed resonant scatterers increases the localization length, while using identical resonant scatterers fosters Anderson localization. We discuss this collective process and link it to the effect of proximity resonances that has been studied in the case of a small number of resonant scatterers.

Laser Raman à fibre émettant dans un très large domaine spectral

A very broad stimulated emission of light covering almost the entire visible spectrum is provided by a fused silica fiber Raman laser. The fiber is 3.5-50 m long with a 50-microm diameter, and the exciting light at 5320 A has a power of about 60 kW.