What’s Language Got to do with it? An Exploration into the Learning Environment of Quebec’s Classes d’Accueil

This article stems from an on-going qualitative study of the ‘environment’ of Montreal’s elementary level welcome classes for new immigrant students (classes d’accueil), including teachers’ language attitudes and actual language practices in the classroom. Since the official language of instruction in Quebec is French, the classe d’accueil provides a unique setting for exploring many issues: how teachers look upon the linguistic and cultural diversity of their learners; how teachers negotiate their way between potentially opposing tensions-- to integrate newly arrived children into Quebec, and, to reinforce Quebec’s distinct cultural and linguistic status. By drawing on socio-cultural theory of language learning, this study explores the manner in which teachers might foster an inclusive learning environment in the classe d’accueil. Cet article est le résultat d’une étude qualitative en cours à l’école primaire qui analyse l’environnement des classes d’accueil pour nouveaux immigrants à Montréal. Elle analyse également les attitudes linguistiques et les pratiques langagières des professeurs dans la salle de classe. Comme la langue officielle de l’éducation au Québec est le français, ces classes d’accueil offrent un environnement unique pour explorer beaucoup de questions : comment les professeurs perçoivent-ils la diversité culturelle et linguistique de leurs apprenants, comment négocient-ils les tensions opposées, c’est-à dire comment font-ils pour intégrer des enfants qui viennent d’arriver au Québec en même temps que renforcer la particularité linguistique et culturelle de la province. Tout en se basant sur la théorie socio culturelle de l’apprentissage des langues, cette étude explore les différentes façons offertes aux professeurs qui encouragent la mise en place d’un environnement d’apprentissage inclusif en classe d’accueil

A multi-sensor system for robotics proximity operations

Robots without sensors can perform only simple repetitive tasks and cannot cope with unplanned events. A multi-sensor system is needed for a robot to locate a target, move into its neighborhood and perform operations in contact with the object. Systems that can be used for such tasks are described

Orbit Transfer by Means of a Ward Spiral

The Ward spiral occurs as a result of the study of the effects of drag on the orbit of a satellite. The Ward spiral is also suitable as a climb path when transferring from a lower to a higher orbit, if both orbits are circular. A Ward transfer to a larger orbit is described in detail and compared to the well-known Hohmann transfer, and it is shown that a Ward transfer can have the advantage of a shorter transfer time

The Collinearity Principle and Minimum Energy Orbits

This paper presents two important aspects for application of the Collinearity Principle, viz.: the orbital energyof a point satellite of constant angular momentum as a function od its orbit eccentricity, and satellite collision

Catch-up growth in children with chronic kidney disease started on enteral feeding after 2 years of age

BACKGROUND: Enteral feeding by tube in chronic kidney disease (CKD) before 2 years of age improves growth. Whether it is effective after this age is unknown. We assessed whether height and weight SDS changed after tube feeding was started in children with CKD above 2 years of age. METHODS: Retrospective study of pre-transplant, pre-pubertal children (< 11 years) with CKD stages 2–5 started on nasogastric tube or gastrostomy feeds for the first time after age 2 years. Children were identified by searching dietetic records and the renal database. Children on growth hormone were excluded. Height, weight, and BMI were documented 1 year prior to and at the start of tube feeds, and after 1 and 2 years. Data collection ceased at transplantation. RESULTS: Fifty children (25 male) were included. The median (range) age at start of tube feeds was 5.6 (2.1–10.9) years. Sixteen children were dialysed (1 haemodialysis, 15 peritoneal dialysis); 34 predialysis patients had a median (range) eGFR of 22 (6–88) ml/min/1.73 m2. Overall height SDS (Ht SDS) improved from − 2.39 to − 2.27 at 1 year and − 2.18 after 2 years (p = 0.02). BMI SDS improved from − 0.72 to 0.23 after 1 year and was 0.09 after 2 years of enteral feeding (p < 0.0001). Height SDS improved more in children aged 2–6 years (− 2.13 to − 1.68, p = 0.03) and in children not on dialysis (− 2.33 to − 1.99, p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Enteral tube feeding commenced after 2 years of age in prepubertal children with CKD improves height and weight SDS, with stability of BMI during the second year. Younger children and those not on dialysis had the greatest benefit

An Experimental Investigation of Humidity and Temperature Effects on the Mechanical Properties of Persfluorosulfonic Acid Membrane

The mechanical properties of a perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) membrane have been investigated at different humidities and temperatures in a custom-designed environmental chamber. Tensile tests were conducted to determine Young’s modulus, the proportional limit stress (“yield strength”), break stress, and break strain. In-plane dimensional changes of the membrane at different temperature and humidities were also determined. The results indicate that Young’s modulus and the proportional limit stress of the PFSA membrane decrease as humidity and temperature increase. Higher temperature leads to lower break stress and higher break strain. However, humidity has little effect on the break stress and break strain. A nonparametric statistical analysis, Kruskal–Wallis test, is applied to the experimental results, which shows that the effects of temperature and humidity on Young’s modulus and proportional limit stress are statistically significant

An Experimental Investigation of Humidity and Temperature Effects on the Mechanical Properties of Persfluorosulfonic Acid Membrane

The mechanical properties of a perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) membrane have been investigated at different humidities and temperatures in a custom-designed environmental chamber. Tensile tests were conducted to determine Young’s modulus, the proportional limit stress (“yield strength”), break stress, and break strain. In-plane dimensional changes of the membrane at different temperature and humidities were also determined. The results indicate that Young’s modulus and the proportional limit stress of the PFSA membrane decrease as humidity and temperature increase. Higher temperature leads to lower break stress and higher break strain. However, humidity has little effect on the break stress and break strain. A nonparametric statistical analysis, Kruskal–Wallis test, is applied to the experimental results, which shows that the effects of temperature and humidity on Young’s modulus and proportional limit stress are statistically significant

Piloting Eyes on the Baby: A Multiagency Training and Implementation Intervention Linking Sudden Unexpected Infant Death Prevention and Safeguarding

We describe the coproduction, pilot implementation, and user evaluation of an evidence-based training intervention addressing prevention of Sudden Unexpected Deaths in Infancy (SUDI) for the multiagency workforce supporting vulnerable families with babies in a northern English county. We aimed in this pilot study to improve knowledge, skills, and engagement of professionals and support staff providing services for vulnerable families with increased risk of SUDI. The training intervention was co-produced by the academic team and the project Steering Committee which comprised senior leaders from the local authority, health and care sectors, and third-sector organisations, and rolled out to multiagency teams between November 2022 and March 2023. Evaluation data were collected using a post-training questionnaire, followed up by the Normalisation Process Theory (NPT) NoMAD survey issued at two time-points post-training, and interviews with stakeholders. The evaluation, conducted from January to May 2023, aimed to assess how well the multiagency workforce accepted SUDI prevention as part of their remit and incorporated SUDI prevention activities into their everyday work. Most multiagency professionals and support staff were enthusiastic about the training and their role in SUDI prevention. Fewer health professionals completed the training than expected. Forty percent (397/993) of invited staff completed the training. Our results revealed initial lack of knowledge and confidence around SUDI prevention and targeted provision for vulnerable families which improved following the Eyes on the Baby training. The proportion of nonhealth professionals rating their knowledge of SUDI prevention as good or excellent increased significantly from 28% before training to 57% afterwards. Self-rated confidence in discussing SUDI prevention with families increased significantly from 71% to 97%. Health professionals’ ratings increased significantly for knowledge from 62% to 96%, and confidence from 85% to 100%. Use of NPT allowed us to identify that by the time of evaluation, the earliest adopters were cognitively involved with the programme and engaged in collective action, while later adopters had not yet reached this stage. We conclude that effective implementation of multiagency working for SUDI prevention can be accomplished by providing clear training and guidance for all staff who have regular or opportunistic contact with vulnerable families. Our next step is to evaluate the sustainability of MAW SUDI prevention over the medium to long term and assess the responses of recipient families to this approach

Toward an automated signature recognition toolkit for mission operations

Signature recognition is the problem of identifying an event or events from its time series. The generic problem has numerous applications to science and engineering. At NASA's Johnson Space Center, for example, mission control personnel, using electronic displays and strip chart recorders, monitor telemetry data from three-phase electrical buses on the Space Shuttle and maintain records of device activation and deactivation. Since few electrical devices have sensors to indicate their actual status, changes of state are inferred from characteristic current and voltage fluctuations. Controllers recognize these events both by examining the waveform signatures and by listening to audio channels between ground and crew. Recently the authors have developed a prototype system that identifies major electrical events from the telemetry and displays them on a workstation. Eventually the system will be able to identify accurately the signatures of over fifty distinct events in real time, while contending with noise, intermittent loss of signal, overlapping events, and other complications. This system is just one of many possible signature recognition applications in Mission Control. While much of the technology underlying these applications is the same, each application has unique data characteristics, and every control position has its own interface and performance requirements. There is a need, therefore, for CASE tools that can reduce the time to implement a running signature recognition application from months to weeks or days. This paper describes our work to date and our future plans

IMECE2008-66292 EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF VIBRATION OF MICROMACHINED RESONATORS

ABSTRACT Among many different mechanisms that are used for excitation and detection of vibration of micro-beam resonators, electrostatic comb-drives have the benefit of simplicity and large range of linear operation. The disadvantage of using comb-drives is the effect of added mass to the beam; however, the analytical model of the beam-mass system predicts that this shortcoming can be overcome by proper adjustment of the mass, rotary inertia, and location of the comb-drive. In addition, the analytical model can predict the effect of the axial force of the beam on the resonance frequencies. In this paper, the results of the experiments on two resonators are presented. These results are used to verify the validity of the analytical model and finding its parameters. Very close agreement between the theory and experiment is observed. The residual stress of the MEMS structural layer is measured using the calibrated analytical model parameters