Abstract

Inconceivable as it is, it has been proved that animals can survive after having had their blood massively or even totally replaced by emulsions of perfluorinated compounds in salines. "Bloodless" rats charged with an emulsion of perfluorotri-n-butylamine survived a five hour period in an atmosphere containing 50 "/, oxygen and 50 "/, carbon monoxide, i . e. in conditions where the transport of oxygen by the red cells is entirely blocked. This review discusses: 1) the experiments which have demonstrated the capability of blood substitutes based on perfluorinated compounds to sustain life; 2) the characteristics and preparation of the relevant peffluoro compounds and the production and handling of their emulsions; 3) their "physiology", i . e. toxicity, life-span in the blood-stream, effect on the organs and their functions, and excretion properties. Obstacles remaining to be overcome in order to provide a safe blood substitute for medical practice include the availability of numerous series of well-defined pure and inert perfluorinated chemicals, the production of stable emulsions, the optimization of fluid balance, and the attainment of reasonable excretion rates. The accent is placed upon the role of the chemist in the progress of this research.

In France, a Housing Act, called Solidarité et Renouvellement Urbain (Solidarity and Urban Renewal), came into force in 2000. Its main aim is to challenge segregation in housing and to strengthen solidarity among citizens. It promotes a tenure mix through legal requirements: in urban areas, every commune should reach a minimum of 20 per cent social housing in its housing stock before 2020. This paper attempts to explain why policy makers believe in the virtues of a tenure mix. The second aim is to assess the discrepancies between the rhetorical level of policy aims and the pragmatic level of policy outputs, raising methodological issues on the relevance of the communal scale for the measure of segregation and social mix. The conclusion raises paradoxical issues: social class segmentation resists social mixing more strongly than ethnic segmentation; the French social mix policy strengthens ghettos and hinders the right to decent housing for the very poor.

No abstract

No abstract