Documents found
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482.More information
Several studies try to understand the relations that are present in encounters between individuals. Whether using questionnaires, interviews, semi-structured interviews or vignettes, it is difficult to capture and measure these phenomena. Systematic observation is a possible method that offers a wealth of information regarding interactions and it enables the researcher to describe a situation with objectivity. This paper presents the theoretical and methodological issues surrounding observation in a school context and it outlines the steps for developing an observation grid measuring the behaviour of teachers dealing with challenging behaviours exhibited by children with intellectual disability.
Keywords: observation, déficience intellectuelle, trouble du comportement, enseignant, observation, intellectual disability, challenging behavior, teacher
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483.More information
The aim of this study was to identify the reconfiguration of health-work relations caused by the increase in two phenomena in the work world: the digitalization of the service relationship and the ageing demographic of the active population. The accompanying article presents the results of research carried out in an airline company. The exploratory research sought to understand how the career paths of customer service agents are being put to the test by numerous, continuous changes that have been accelerating in recent years. To this end, we identified two main orientations: wear-and-tear paths, in which deficiencies tend to become more pronounced, and construction paths, which are vectors for skill development and health. The methodology combines: 1) a synchronic approach (an analysis, through the prism of work activity, of how changes interact and effect health and performance) and 2) a diachronic approach (identification of the various changes underway). An analysis of the work activity of five customer service agents revealed an intensification of work by way of increasing industrial and market constraints in the service relationship, as well as a change in the "co-production" of service in "digitized" situations. These new constraints arise at a time when room for maneuver at the organizational level is shrinking. These results call into question the possibility for these ageing personnel to hold their own in a context where work life is lengthening. The results also point to the resources on which agents rely at the various levels, be they individual (experience developed in the service relationship), collective (work teams), or organizational (coordinating of schedules, design of work stations and equipment). They likewise highlight the possibilities, when designing work organization and career paths, of taking these resources into account and drawing on health, HR, and managerial actors, who play a fundamental role.
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484.More information
An important stimulus in the development of copyright law has been the goal of balancing the sensitive relationship between authors and the general public in light of the interests of each. If the public wishes to benefit from the cultural advantages inherent in an author's work, one must also recognize the author's right to enjoy exclusive use of his or her work for commercial purposes. However, the concept of copyright exhaustion was created with the intent of limiting copyright exclusivity. How can one balance intellectual rights with the rights of the public while preserving the principles of economic liberalism? The goal of this article is to provide an answer to this question.
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485.More information
AbstractThis paper argues that it is both possible and necessary to analyse universitycosts in a detailed and coherent way. Such analysis should rest on a model ofproduction. In the model proposed here, production results from the coordinated operation of several activities. The structure of these functional activities isreflected in the administrative organization, and also in the accounting set up ofthe financial reporting system. This data bank, together with the requiredsoftware, would already be usable as an operational tool for cost analysis. Later on,a proper model could be constructed.
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487.More information
Considering the complexity of the water cycle in soil systems, models are used more than ever in parallel with field investigations to assist in the decision making process (KHAKURAL et ROBERT, 1993). Most available models are either too complicated (many non-measurable parameters) or too simple (empirical or site-specific) to be used as management tools. Such tools should conform to known theory and should be structured to enable efficient analysis of field situations with minimal requirements for parameters (CARSEL et al 1984). However, if the mechanistic models are very performing tools with regards to their representation of the processes and for the accuracy and reliability of their results, they are criticized for their complexity and for the large number of parameters they require. For this reason, their potential application as management tools cannot be recommended especially in preliminary investigations when the methodology has to be straight forward and rapidly implemented. On the other hand, existing management tools are often developed using an empirical approach for a specific context which considerably limits their transferability to different situations. Moreover, their empirical parameters often cannot be measured for the new situations, and must be adjusted for each new application. A new approach conciliating the qualities of both kinds of tools was elaborated for the development of management tools. This approach consists in using mechanistic models for simulating a set of possible situations and in rationalizing the information obtained by simulation through regression analyses or other methods. An example of this methodology is presented in this paper with the development of the hydrological part (runoff, leaching and drainage) of a management tool dedicated to the evaluation of nutrient losses related to manure applications. Developed for the Quebec conditions, 4500 theoretical situations were considered corresponding to ten climates, nine soil textures, 25 crops and two slope values. Independently, agricultural management practices and drainage were taken into account.For the mechanistic simulation of the water budget in the 4500 theoretical situations, the hydrologic module of the mechanistic-stochastic model AgriFlux was used (BANTON et al. 1993b). Because of the important field variability of most parameters, the stochastic AgriFlux model incorporates the variability resulting from field heterogeneity, measurement errors and intrinsic uncertainty related to parameter definition. The soil profile is divided in plot scale homogeneous horizons (or compartments) and a daily time step is used in the calculations. The water budget module in AgriFlux is named HydriFlux and simulates all the water-related processes (precipitations, snowmelt, infiltration, runoff, water uptake by plants, evaporation, percolation and drainage) using characteristic water contents and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity.In the example presented, the simulation results obtained by running HydriFlux have shown that the soil water fluxes (runoff and percolation) vary as linear functions of both the annual rain volume (the most important characteristic of the climate) and the logarithm of the saturated hydraulic conductivity (the most important characteristic of the soil type). A reduction of the number of crops could also be achieved by taking into account the water needs and the water uptake curves of the crops. This rationalization-simplification reduced the number of theoretical simulations to be stored in the management tool to 120 (2 climates x 3 textures x 10 crops x 2 slopes). These represent only 2.7% of the initial situations simulated by the mechanistic HydriFlux model. The different water fluxes are stored in the management tool as tables in which direct interpolations are performed to calculate the fluxes corresponding to all the potential intermediary situations. Such developed management tool presents good qualities at the same time for its calculation speed, for its easy parameterization, for the reliability of its evaluation (through the evaluation of the mechanistic model) and for its high transferability and applicability to various situations. The calculations are rapidly done and their programming can be very easily made by using a spreadsheet software.An application of this evaluation method has been done on an experimental site located in Quebec (ENRIGHT et MADRAMOOTOO, 1994), the only one for which both the runoff and the drainage have been measured during many years (1989 to 1991, April to December). The application on two fields (1.84 et 4.63 ha) has shown a good concordance between the calculated and measured results, as well for the magnitude of the fluxes than for the relative importance of these fluxes. Moreover, this application has shown that the variability of the measured values is higher than the calculated ones, attesting of the great influence of the variations in climatic, soil, crop and management conditions on the water budget. However, the good evaluation of the fluxes (for relative and absolute values) confirms the reliability of the proposed approach and of the simplification.
Keywords: Flux, bilan en eau, gestion, modélisation, logiciel, Flux, water budget, management, modeling, software, AgriFlux
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488.More information
This study aims at validating a French version of scales designed to measure students' perceptions of supportive climate in mathematics in grade 11 (16 years old). Based on Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000a, 2000b), and more precisely on the fulfillment of the three psychological basic needs, the scales focus one of the three basic dimensions of Klieme et al.'s model of instructional quality (Klieme et al., 2006). Results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that the four scales present good psychometric properties. The current study also investigates gender differences in students' perceptions of supportive climate in mathematics. If no gender differences are found for three scales, results show that girls perceive more significantly teacher social and academic support than boys, even under control of their socioeconomic status and their math abilities.
Keywords: climat de soutien, mathématiques, perceptions par les élèves, genre, validation d'échelles, supportive climate, mathematics, students' perceptions, gender, scales validation, clima de apoio, matemática, perceções dos estudantes, género, validação de escalas
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489.More information
For the past few years, the 4D digital model has served as a new research, communication, and dissemination tool for historians whose work involves a component related to built heritage. This type of model takes into consideration the temporal dimension of the built environment, i.e. how the morphology of a place evolves over time. It also allows for a multiplicity of hypotheses in reconstituting the built environment and for the linking of spatial information and documentary sources. The 4D model can be accessed via an interactive digital environment. We are interested in learning how humans respond to such computer systems. We will attempt to determine the extent to which the 4D model could help improve communication between historians and learners as well as among historians within a research group. Furthermore, we will consider how to optimize communication between historians and computer developers so that the history researcher is able to make more effective use of digital technologies. We conclude by presenting a case study of a 4D digital environment in order to examine these various types of communication.
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490.More information
This contribution is part of the context of a “Laboratoire Commun” (LabCom) supported by a research team in the humanities and social sciences and a socio-economic player in the Toulouse region. The aim of this partnership was to make the world of academic research come closer to business. Thus, this LabCom allowed the collaboration of a small enterprise, organizer of congress and a multidisciplinary research team. We are interested in this paper to develop program-training evaluation as it develops in a context of collaborative research. Thus, part of the results of the evaluation of an experimental training program, developed within this congress of interventional cardiology, will be presented.
Keywords: évaluation de dispositif, recherche-intervention, collaboration, program evaluation, intervention-research