Documents found
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143.More information
While universities organized themselves during the pandemic to maintain the integrity of exams through, among other things, proctoring software, the continued use of these requires strengthening the protection of students' personal information. The current reform of the federal private sector law (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act) is an opportunity to do so that should not be missed.
Keywords: Loi sur la protection des renseignements personnels et les documents électroniques, Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act
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144.More information
Chapter 19 of CUSMA on digital trade is, among the preferential trade agreements (PTAs), the one that goes the furthest to liberalize digital trade between signatory countries. In fact, the United States, unlike the European Union and China, for example, sees the ACP as the best way to ensure the free flow of digital goods and services across borders while governing data flows that make these commercial transactions possible. Why did the United States choose to make these trade agreements the primary vehicle for governing digital trade and data flows with the rest of the world? And why has a partner like Canada accepted provisions within CUSMA that impose significant potential limits on the regulation of data and digital platforms? Using a political economy perspective, this article answers these questions.
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145.More information
SummaryThe chlorination of drinking water networks represents a delicate task. It ensures protection against microbial regrowth and network contamination. However, chlorine also reacts with organic matter in the system and leads to the formation of chlorinated by-products, which are undesirable for the human health. Thus, one of the main objectives of the water network manager is to maintain acceptable levels of free residual chlorine, at all network nodes and at all times. When water sources are chlorinated, reaction-transport processes create an unbalanced distribution of free chlorine concentrations, especially in networks characterized by long water residence times. Booster stations in networks constitute an efficient alternative to improve the spatial and temporal chlorine distribution. Their number and their optimum locations are two challenges facing network managers. In this respect, this paper suggests the use of a genetic algorithm (GA) to determine the number and the optimum locations of chlorine booster stations in networks. The two main objectives of this study were: (1) the improvement of the spatio-temporal homogeneity of chlorination and (2) the reduction of the number of booster stations.A solution to this optimisation problem is an arrangement of ns booster stations in n consumption nodes of the water network. To resolve this problem, we linked the toolkit of the hydrodynamic computer program EPANET, which uses a one-dimensional reaction-transport model, to the proposed genetic algorithm (GA). In this application, we assume that free chlorine reactions through distribution networks are first-order. First, the EPANET computer program simulates temporal and spatial chlorine spreading in the network for each solution. Next, the GA calculates the sum square deviation E(NN, T), for the average chlorine concentration required for adequate sanitation (0.1‑0.5) mg/L, which corresponds to an optimal free chlorine concentration of 0.3 mg/L in the network. The number of booster stations is also defined for each solution studied. The optimal solution must minimize the sum square deviation and the number of booster stations used. Therefore, solution j can be evaluated by its fitness representing the weighted sum of the homogeneity function Fh(j) and the function of booster stations number Fsmin(j). According to the fitness of the solution, genetic operators (tournament selection, two points crossover and mutation) associated with an elitist evolution strategy (ES), combine individuals and create new populations. This iterative process explores the solution space and improves the maximum population fitness until stagnation, to achieve the optimal individual.The test network configuration maintained for modelling is formed by a tank and 20 km of pipes. The stretched-out shape of the network imposed long water residence times and usually created an unbalanced distribution of free chlorine concentrations at consumption nodes. In order to evaluate chlorination, three control nodes were chosen: N145 (first consumption node), N168 (middle of the network) and N206 (extremity of the network). For this network example, the best initial chlorination homogeneity was reached with a constant free chlorine concentration equal to 0.5 mg/L, usually imposed by the manager at the exit of the water tank. This initial management approach created in the network a sum square deviation of 65.9 mg2/L2, as well as an unbalanced spatial chlorination distribution with 27% of the consumption nodes having free chlorine concentrations less than the minimum required value for adequate sanitation (0.1 mg/L). The simulation of higher free chlorine concentrations at the exit of the water tank (0.8 mg/L) led to concentrations above the maximum value required for adequate human health protection (0.5 mg/L) at 26% of the consumption nodes. Also, 10% of the nodes had concentrations lower than the minimum concentration required for human health. For all constant chlorination scheduling studied (0.4; 0.5; 0.6; 0.7 and 0.8 mg/L), an important fraction of consumption nodes remained with free chlorine concentrations outside the desired concentration range. Therefore, this management approach is not suitable for networks with long residence times.Before its application, the GA required the definition of the crossover and the mutation probability (respectively 0.9 and 0.05), the size of the population (100) and the maximum number of generations (300). In addition, in the present application, chlorination homogeneity and the reduction of the booster stations number (p1 = p2 = 0.5) were given the same importance. According to boundary conditions, we imposed a free chlorine concentration of 0.5 mg/L at both the exit of the water tank and at the booster stations. The application of the GA, developed in this study, ensures the evolution of the initial population until stagnation of its maximum fitness. The resulting optimal solution involved the creation of two booster stations at nodes N179 and N196. The simulation of this chlorination management improves the spatio-temporal homogeneity of free chlorine concentrations in consumption nodes. It reduced the sum square deviation from 65.9 to 38.8 mg2/L2. Finally, 98% of the consumption nodes had free chlorine concentrations (0.1-0.5 mg/L) that were required in the context of human health.This model represents a first step in the optimization of chlorination homogeneity in networks characterized by long water residence times. The use of this tool requires network hydraulic modelling, the simulation of the free chlorine behaviour, the definition of the chlorine reaction coefficients and the GA parameters. The optimization of the chlorine concentration scheduling (in water sources and in booster stations) represents an additional step in the present work.
Keywords: optimisation, algorithmes génétiques, homogénéité, chloration, réseau d'eau potable, optimization, genetic algorithms, homogeneity, chlorination, drinking water network
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146.More information
This theoretical article is in the field of human activity analysis. This study focuses on the development of undergraduate students who specialized in rugby in the Science and Techniques of Physical Activities and Sport program. Moments of a process of an instrumental genesis (Rabardel, 1995) of students using material artefacts (software dedicated to the analysis of rugby sevens games) were noticed, with a special interest in behaviours revealing an appropriation of the software. The controversy among students, caused by the use of the software about the qualification of game phases, contributes to developing both the instrumentation phase – appropriation of the tool by the students- and the instrumentalisation phase – adjustments made on the tool by students. This double process helps the students to improve their reading of rugby games.
Keywords: artefact, genèse instrumentale, registre de technicité, conceptualisation en action, rugby, artefact, instrumental genesis, registers of technicality, conceptualization in action, rugby, artefacto, génesis instrumental, registro de tecnicidad, conceptualización en acción, rugby
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147.More information
This text reports on an experiment in collaborative self-learning enriched by means of information and communications technology. The experiment took place as part of a master's level course which linked use of the basic functions of Windows 95 with surfing of the Net. It was conducted in a socio-constructivist frame of reference. The article reports on participants' learning strategies and roles (a dozen people were involved), as well as on the human and technological resources made available to participants. It then analyzes the various actions that students were led to take, their attitudes, their motivation, their personal work strategies, their reflective processes, and their reactions to the requirements of collaborative work. The article closes with a forward look at the requirements made on the educator by this kind of teaching context.
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148.More information
If we agree that, paradoxically, copyright is an exception to the principle of the free circulation of ideas, its maintenance becomes truly challenging at a time when the appearance of new technologies and the combination of national and transnational legislation are turning into increasingly complex issues. Enhancing protection and extending its duration, without overlooking the growth of the cultural heritage, are the main characteristics of this new legal challenge.
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150.More information
The author Régine Robin explores and exploits all the possibilities of cyberspace on her website titled Papiers perdus (lost papers), which is split between academic life and creative prose. On the creative side of Papiers perdus, 106 fragments of texts varying in length are organized in five sections and their content is suggested by constraints expressed by the author on her home page. Despite this illusion of order, the author encourages the reader to reconstitute these texts in any order they see fit without any guidance on her part. To create meaningful relationships between these fragments of cybertext without resorting to a linear reading, this article turns to the theory of postmodern cartography, which is a manner by which manifested subjective space can be understood as a means to access and create new paths of meaning through the postmodern world (Jones, 2007). Specifically, with the help of the software Hyperbase, I will analyze the semantic constellations which create networks of meaning through the Association graphs.
Keywords: cybertexte, Régine Robin, Hyperbase, Associations, cartographie postmoderne, cybertext, Régine Robin, Hyperbase, Associations, postomodern cartography