crep: a regular expression-matching textual corpus tool

Crep is a UNIX2 tool which searches either a tagged or free textual corpus file and outputs each sentence that matches the specified regular expression provided by the user as a parameter. The expression consists of user-defined regular expressions of words and/or part-of-speech tags. The purpose of crep is to make the searches faster and easier than by either a) searching through corpora by hand; or b) constructing a lexical scanner for each specific search. crep achieves this facilitation by offering the user a simple expression syntax, from which it automatically constructs an appropriate scanner. The user therefore has the ability to execute a whole search in one command, invoking implicitly and explicitly several tools, including a sentence delimiter, a part of speech tagger (developed by Ken Church at AT&T Bell Laboratories), and various output filters

L'accès aux soins de santé mentale : le discours des jeunes adultes en difficulté

Ce mémoire de maîtrise vise à comprendre comment la question de l'accessibilité aux soins de santé mentale se pose dans l'univers des jeunes adultes en difficulté. Plus précisément, le but de l'étude est de documenter les barrières à l'accès aux soins de santé mentale, d'analyser les logiques sous-jacentes à ces barrières et finalement d'évaluer l'impact de l'expérience d'être jeune adulte en difficulté sur celles-ci. L'approche de l'anthropologie médicale et le concept de souffrance sociale, sensibles aux facteurs culturels, socio-économiques et politiques, servent de contexte d'analyse aux 12 entretiens semi-dirigés réalisés auprès de jeunes adultes fréquentant des Auberges du cœur à Montréal. L'identification de barrières à l'accès a, dans un premier temps, permis d'observer que les obstacles dans l'expérience de recours aux soins de santé mentale peuvent provenir autant des institutions que des jeunes adultes eux-mêmes. Dans un deuxième temps, l'analyse qualitative a servi à dégager trois principales logiques qui sous-tendent ces barrières : le parti pris positiviste, la logique marchande, et la tendance à la psychologisation. Les données récoltées tendent à montrer que des influences politiques et économiques sont déterminantes dans le maintien de différents types de barrières à l'accès et qu'une pleine reconnaissance de ces enjeux profonds est essentielle pour agir positivement sur l'accessibilité aux soins de santé mentale de la population en général, et plus particulièrement des jeunes adultes en difficulté dont les besoins se font criants.This Master's thesis aims to understand how the issue of access to mental health care arises in the world of young adults in difficulty. More precisely, the research's objectives are to document the barriers to access to mental health care, to analyze tendencies underlying these barriers and to evaluate the impact of being young adult in trouble on them. The approach of medical anthropology and the concept of social suffering, sensitive to cultural, socio-economic and political factors framed the analysis to the 12 semi-directed interviews conducted with young adults using services from Auberges du coeur to Montreal. First, the identification of barriers to access allowed to observe the obstacles in the experience of use of mental health care may come as institutions that young adults themselves. Secondly, the qualitative data analysis was used to identify three main logic underlying these barriers: the positivist bias, market logic, and the trend of psychologizing. The data collected suggest that political and economic influences are critical in maintaining different barriers to access, and full recognition of these deep issues is essential to act positively on access to mental health care of the general population, especially young adults in difficulty whose needs are urgent

Aménagement de l'habitacle de véhicule de patrouille : analyse ergonomique et élaboration d'outils et de recommandations pour prévenir les troubles musculo-squelettiques et améliorer le confort et l'efficacité des patrouilleurs

Depuis 2002, le travail policier a connu de grands changements et le véhicule est désormais le principal lieu de travail des patrouilleurs. Le travail nécessite l'utilisation d'un nombre grandissant d'équipements techniques dans des véhicules de plus en plus petits, ce qui se répercute sur le confort et la santé des patrouilleurs. L'Organisation répertorie des problèmes de lombalgies (18 % des accidents de l'Organisation), ainsi que des inconforts au bas du dos chez 37% des patrouilleurs. Les guides d'aménagement d'autos-patrouille existants offrent des pistes méthodologiques sur l'approche à adopter, mais n'offrent pas d'informations précises sur l'impact des choix de conception. Cette étude vise à i) analyser le travail des patrouilleurs à bord des véhicules pour montrer l'impact des aménagements sur les postures de travail, le confort et l'efficacité des patrouilleurs, ii) documenter les avantages et limites de différents aménagements de véhicules et iii) identifier des pistes permettant d'améliorer la conception des véhicules. La méthodologie a consisté à faire i) une analyse ergonomique du travail des patrouilleurs en milieu municipal et autoroutier avec les trois modèles de véhicule (n = 9), ii) une analyse comparative de l'aménagement des véhicules de quatre corps policiers municipaux, iii) un questionnaire sur l'appréciation du confort des véhicules de patrouille (n = 943) et iv) une analyse du cône de visibilité et des zones d'atteinte selon la position du patrouilleur dans l'habitacle. Les résultats montrent que le travail des patrouilleurs alterne entre des activités variables (conduite de véhicule, travail de bureau et prise d'informations) et sollicitantes cognitivement et physiquement, et que le véhicule exacerbe ces contraintes. La standardisation des aménagements et le positionnement des équipements favorisent les contraintes posturales, car leur design engendre de la variabilité d'un modèle de véhicule à l'autre. Les caractéristiques des véhicules, comme la hauteur du tableau de bord et la forme des fenêtres, i) modulent la position du conducteur et les zones d'atteinte, ii) occasionnent de l'obstruction visuelle et iii) engendrent des postures contraignantes pour le dos. Plusieurs contraintes liées aux équipements sont observées: i) obstruction visuelle causée par l'ajout du cinémomètre sur le tableau de bord, ii) clavier d'urgence sans repères tactiles iii) rangements difficiles d'accès, iv) éclairage inadapté au travail de bureau, v) sièges inadaptés au travail de bureau et au port du ceinturon et du gilet pare-balles et vi) cloison qui engendre de l'obstruction visuelle et empêche les grands de se positionner convenablement dans l'habitacle. Les recommandations visent l'amélioration des guides d'aménagement, un choix d'équipements en meilleure adéquation avec le travail des patrouilleurs et la mise en place d'une démarche de conception centrée sur l'activité des patrouilleurs qui regrouperait plusieurs services de police. \ud ______________________________________________________________________________ \ud MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Aménagement, Auto-patrouille, Véhicule, Ergonomie, Patrouille policière, Poste travail mobile, Véhicule

Perceptions of School Superintendents and a Community Task Force Regarding the Health, Pedagogical, Social, and Economic Policy and Planning Decisions for LongTerm School Closure Due to Pandemic Influenza-A Multi-Method Approach

The research focused on the impact pandemic influenza could have on K-12 school systems. The research looked at responses of school leaders regarding the pedagogical, community health, social, and economic impacts of a pandemic. During an influenza pandemic school districts may be asked to close for as long as 12 weeks to reduce contact among children and stop the spread of disease. School superintendents\u27 perceptions and attitudes were sought regarding school policy implications associated with long-term closure of K-12 school districts. The research methods used for this study included: (a) electronic survey, (b) face-to-face interviews, and (c) focus group. Information and data were collected and examined from 19 school districts. The research findings are being used to inform school and public health officials of the perceptions school district superintendents have regarding the potential for long-term school closure due to pandemic influenza. Key findings were (a) school superintendents do not have a clear understanding of who has the authority to close all county schools in the event of a pandemic, (b) school superintendents are essentially equally divided on whether or not a school board policy on extended school closure is needed, and (c) over 50% of the superintendents were not sure or did not believe BOCES should coordinate a task force to address the issue of pandemic influenza planning in schools

How Does a Pre-Assessment of Off-Campus Students\u27 Information Literacy Affect the Effectiveness of Library Instruction?

This study investigates the impact that pre-tests have on the effectiveness of library instruction when students are given feedback on their pre-test performance. Librarians and academic faculty partnered to measure library instruction outcomes in two Master\u27s degree classes. The Research Readiness Self-Assessment (RRSA) was used as a pre-test (before instruction) and a post-test (after instruction) in Class 1 and as a post-test only in Class 2. Students who completed both tests performed significantly better on a post-test, earning higher scores on obtaining information and overall information literacy. They reported greater library/research experience and less reliance on browsing. Compared to students who did not take a pre-test, students who received pre-test-based feedback had higher scores on library/research experience and lower scores on reliance on browsing. To enhance the effectiveness of library instruction, students can be given pre-test-based feedback that compares their actual and perceived literacy and encourages the use of library databases

Examining the learnability of auditory displays: Music, earcons, spearcons, and lyricons

Auditory displays are a useful platform to convey information to users for a variety of reasons. The present study sought to examine the use of different types of sounds that can be used in auditory displays—music, earcons, spearcons, and lyricons—to determine which sounds have the highest learnability when presented in sequences. Participants were self-trained on sound meanings and then asked to recall meanings after listening to sequences of varying lengths. The relatedness of sounds and their attributed meanings, or the intuitiveness of the sounds, was also examined. The results show that participants were able to learn and recall lyricons and spearcons the best, and related meaning is an important contributing variable to learnability and memorability of all sound types. This should open the door for future research and experimentation of lyricons and spearcons presented in auditory streams

CMAS: Fully integrated portable Centrifugal Microfluidic Analysis System for on-site colorimetric analysis

A portable, wireless system capable of in situ reagent-based colorimetric analysis is demonstrated. The system is based on a reconfigurable low cost optical detection method employing a paired emitter detector diode device, which allows a wide range of centrifugal microfluidic layouts to be implemented. Due to the wireless communication, acquisition parameters can be controlled remotely and results can be downloaded in distant locations and displayed in real time. The stand-alone capabilities of the system, combined with the portability and wireless communication, provide the flexibility crucial for on-site water monitoring. The centrifugal microfluidic disc presented here is designed for nitrite detection in water samples, as a proof of principle. A limit of detection of 9.31 ppb, along with similar coefficients of correlation and precision, were obtained from the Centrifugal Microfluidic Analysis System compared with the same parameters measured using a UV-Vis spectrophotometer

Microfabrication and Applications of Opto-Microfluidic Sensors

A review of research activities on opto-microfluidic sensors carried out by the research groups in Canada is presented. After a brief introduction of this exciting research field, detailed discussion is focused on different techniques for the fabrication of opto-microfluidic sensors, and various applications of these devices for bioanalysis, chemical detection, and optical measurement. Our current research on femtosecond laser microfabrication of optofluidic devices is introduced and some experimental results are elaborated. The research on opto-microfluidics provides highly sensitive opto-microfluidic sensors for practical applications with significant advantages of portability, efficiency, sensitivity, versatility, and low cost