Day: 20 December 2017

On Friday, December 15, the Graduate Integration Commission met for the eighth consecutive year to present its report and decide on actions to be taken in 2018.

The Commission, under the chairmanship of the Minister of State, is composed of 13 members. Created in February 2010 by the Prince’s Government, it responds to the wish of HSH the Sovereign Prince to preserve in the Principality the intellectual wealth of its youth and also to facilitate the return of expatriate graduates to Monaco.

The executive unit’s mission is to support young Monegasque and resident graduates by promoting the establishment of bridges, and by establishing privileged contacts with companies to facilitate their access to skilled jobs, particularly in the private sector.

Minister of Health and Social Affairs, Didier Gamerdinger reminded those present that the integration of young graduates is at the heart of the concerns of the Prince’s Government.

Since the creation of the Commission, a total of more than one thousand young graduates have been interviewed in order to be able, at the end of their training, to benefit from support to find a first job, while 236 graduates, including 123 of Monegasque nationality, found a position in Monaco corresponding to their qualifications. Twenty-one expatriates have successfully benefited from this support.

These meetings have allowed for more than seven years of discussions which have helped to highlight some of the obstacles and have resulted in more personalised support, the increased awareness of business leaders and a better knowledge of the employment-generating sectors in the Principality. 

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Government launches “student loan assistance”

The genome of the first “robust” coral has been sequenced thanks to international collaboration between the Monaco Scientific Centre and King Abdullah University of Sciences of Saudi Arabia.

Tropical reefs are threatened with destruction by 2050 due to climate change and the entire scientific community is trying to find solutions to safeguard this ecosystem, one that is vital to economic and societal support for more than 500 million people worldwide.

Last October, HSH Prince Albert, in association with HRH Prince Charles of Wales and his International Sustainability Unit and HRH Queen Noor of Jordan, launched the “Coral Reef Life” declaration aimed at protecting this ecosystem.

One of these solutions is a better knowledge of the animals responsible for the formation of these reefs: hard corals. These live in symbiosis with unicellular photosynthetic algae that provide them with food. Corals appeared about 430 million years ago and evolved into two large families, called “robust” and “complex”, about 230 million years ago.

The genome of a representative of the corals of the “complex” family was sequenced in 2011, giving important information on the immune system of these animals, curiously very similar to that of the vertebrates.

It took six years before the teams of biologists from the Scientific Centre of Monaco (CSM), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) managed to sequence the first representative of the other large family, that of the robust ones, and show that the coral genomes can be surprisingly disparate. Indeed, these two corals have developed different immune systems as a result of several gene duplications. They also have a different physiological response to stress.

This comparative genomics study will enable researchers to identify and understand the sensitivity of corals to climate change, including the breakdown of symbiosis, known as bleaching, and their mechanisms of adaptation to ocean acidification and to warming. It should be noted that the sequenced species, Stylophora pistillata, is widely used around the world as a biological model.

This study, published on Thursday, December 14, in the journal Scientific Reports, is a giant leap forward in the advancement of knowledge of corals.

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Prince visits Yersin, attends cocktail reception in Martinique

On Monday, December 18, Princess Camilla of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duchess of Castro, visited the homeless in Nice alongside Les Anges Gardiens de Monaco (the Guardian Angels of Monaco), who every week distribute food and hot drinks to people living on the streets and the needy.

For more than a decade their route has been well established, women, children, families, and those without a roof over theirs heads wait for the Guardian Angels at the regular meeting points: the port church then the Promenade des Anglais, and finally the Gare de Nice. Hot meals, essential items, and a little human warmth, are distributed to hundreds of homeless.

Princess Camilla, Lady of the Order Constantine of Saint George – whose husband, Prince Charles, is the Grand Master – is also involved with Unicef, the Red Cross, Amade, and the Princess Charlene Foundation.

“I am very engaged in national and international orders, in particular, in charitable and humanitarian assistance,” she said. “And when the Guardian Angels of Monaco came to talk to me, I was touched. I wanted my presence to support their action on the ground.”

For more than 10 years, the Association of Guardian Angels has been financed only by generous donors, she said, adding that she hopes that her participation on Monday will bring more publicity to their activities.

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News

On the sidelines of the recent UN conference on oceans and the law of the sea, the Monaco Permanent Mission in New York organised an event for French-speaking legal advisers.

Professor Mathias Forteau, from the University of Paris-Nanterre, presented a work entitled “Treatise of International Law of the Sea”. This book, which offers an exhaustive view of maritime law, as contained in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, is an indispensable working tool for students and practitioners of the international law of the sea.

Annick de Marffy-Mantuano, President of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Economic Law of the Sea (INDEMER), presented the work of this Institute, created in the Principality in 1985. She emphasised the importance of an integrated approach between the legal, economic, environmental and political domains.

The discussions during this meeting on December 6 highlighted the importance of promoting legal publications in French. Collaboration with the Permanent Representation of the International Organisation of Francophonie, in New York, is already envisaged on the same topic next year.

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Princely family celebrate Yersin’s departure from Monaco Yacht Cub

The annual flu outbreak has started early in France, as it did last year, according to IRSAN, the French research institute.

Ile-de-France has already witnessed an epidemic, with a sudden surge in cases, while eight out of 12 metropolitan regions are in the pre-epidemic phase, according to the latest weekly bulletin on influenza published by Agence Publique France.

So far, the south-east of France has escaped the worst of the virus, but acute gastroenteritis has reached epidemic proportions in the Grand-Est and PACA regions.

In 2015-2016, the epidemic peaked later, in March-April. Public Health France has issued a reminder that vaccination is the best way to protect against flu and its complications, but protection occurs only from 15 days after vaccination.

In Monaco, the 2017-2018 vaccine, which requires a medical prescription but is reimbursed 100 percent to those insured by the Monaco health service, has been available in pharmacies since October and offers protection for 12 months.

Side effects – such as sensitivity to the injection site and minimal flu-like reaction – are rare and not serious, usually disappearing in one to two days.

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An “unforgettable” networking evening courtesy of JCEM