Cupule aud acorn basic morpbological differences between Quercus ithaburensis Decne. subsp. ithaburensis and Quercus ithaburensis subsp. macrolepis (Kotschy) Hedge & Yalt

Estructura del glande y de la cúpula de Quercus ithaburensis Decne. subsp. ithaburensis y de Quercus ithaburensis subsp. inacrolepis (Kotschy) Hedge & Yalt.: Diferencias esenciales.Key words. Quercus ithaburensis, taxonomy, morphology, acorn, cupule, Israel, Turkey.Palabras clave. Quercus ithaburensis, taxonomía, morfología, glande, cúpula, Israel, Turquía

Comparing two methods to promote generalization of receptive identification in children with autism spectrum disorders

Objective: The purpose of our study was to compare the effects of serial and concurrent training on the generalisation of receptive identification in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Methods: We taught one to three pairs of stimulus sets to nine children with ASD between the ages of three and six. One stimulus set within each pair was taught using concurrent training and the other using serial training. We alternated training sessions within a multi-element design and staggered the introduction of subsequent pairs for each participant as in a multiple baseline design. Results: Overall, six participants generalised at least one stimulus set more rapidly with concurrent training whereas two participants showed generalisation more rapidly with serial training. Conclusions: Our results differ from other comparison studies on the topic and indicate that practitioners should consider assessing the effects of both procedures prior to teaching receptive identification to children with ASD

Les syndicats et la transnationalisation des entreprises : Le cas des alliances syndicales internationales

Les préoccupations entretenues par les organisations syndicales à l’égard de la montée en puissance des entreprises multinationales incitent de plus en plus ces organisations à se faire les promotrices d’un nouveau contre‑pouvoir transnational. Pour ce faire, plusieurs d’entre elles se sont investies dans le développement d’alliances syndicales internationales. Après avoir fait état du développement historique de ces alliances, nous passerons en revue les nombreux obstacles qui se posent à leur formation. Nous ferons état par la suite du phénomène de la résurgence de ces alliances en contexte de mondialisation en faisant notamment ressortir leur contribution potentielle à l’émergence d’un renouveau syndical.Unions’ concerns in regards to the growing power of multinational companies urgently prompt them to instigate the construction of a new countervailing power meant to spread out its influence on a transnational basis. As a consequence, several unions have over the years been involved in developing international alliances. After mentioning the historical development of these alliances, we will put forward the many obstacles that happen to slow down their formation. We will then tackle the phenomenon of their upsurging in the actual context of globalization, highlighting their potential contribution to the emergence of a union renewal

L’effet de stimuli externes et des variables individuelles sur le traitement initial de l’information par le consommateur

The neo-classical economic theory of the consumer behavior defines a utility function in terms of a global number of characteristics a product process or the result of several purchase activities. Every consumer can be in the context of aninefficient consumption function if the choice of the product bought doesn't fit with the state of preferences for the characteristics of this product. Thus, an efficient consumption function requires an adequate level of information that the mechanics of the market performance doesn't guarantee as well as for the consumption function as for the production function.In this paper, the consumer information processing limit is exposed showing an important gap between the preferred and memorized information by the consumer during the decision process. The concept of pre-processed information proposed could possibly improve the efficiency of the consumption function

Salivary cortisol and stereotypy in minimally verbal children with autism : a pilot study

Several studies have reported conflicting results when assessing associations between stress and repetitive behaviors in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some factors that may have caused these discrepant results include the monitoring of a single broad category for repetitive behaviors, the heterogeneity of the participants, and the use of indirect measures. To address the prior issues, our study explored the relationship between salivary cortisol and direct observation measures of stereotypy in four minimally verbal children with ASD. To this end, we combined an alternating-treatment design with multiple regression analyses to examine the interaction between the two variables. The analyses indicated that the mean value of cortisol was negatively associated with global and motor stereotypy. No significant relation was found between mean value of cortisol and vocal stereotypy. These results highlight the complex relationship between stress and stereotypy and emphasize the relevance of conducting research on a larger scale, which would have a direct impact on our understanding of a core feature of ASD

Artificial intelligence for the measurement of vocal stereotypy

Il s'agit d'un article en libre accès selon les termes de la Creative Commons Attribution License, qui permet l'utilisation, la distribution et la reproduction sur tout support, à condition que l'œuvre originale soit correctement citée.Both researchers and practitioners often rely on direct observation to measure and monitor behavior. When these behaviors are too complex or numerous to be measured in vivo, relying on direct observation using human observers increases the amount of resources required to conduct research and to monitor the effects of interventions in practice. To address this issue, we conducted a proof of concept examining whether artificial intelligence could measure vocal stereotypy in individuals with autism. More specifically, we used an artificial neural network with over 1,500 minutes of audio data from 8 different individuals to train and test models to measure vocal stereotypy. Our results showed that the artificial neural network performed adequately (i.e., session‐by‐session correlation near or above .80 with a human observer) in measuring engagement in vocal stereotypy for 6 of 8 participants. Additional research is needed to further improve the generalizability of the approach

Analyse de la connectivité et des composantes vertes du campus du cégep de saint-hyacinthe

La crise de la biodiversité est une des menaces les plus importantes à l’intégrité de notre espèce. Les biens et services écologiques qui y sont associés risquent de ne plus être en mesure de maintenir les processus biologiques essentiels à la survie des écosystèmes. Ce concept nous permet donc de reconnaître l’importance des bénéfices qu’offre la nature. D’un point de vue économique, on pourrait comparer les biens et services aux dividendes d’un capital naturel qu’il faut protéger. Avec moins de 30 % de superficies boisées, la Montérégie n’échappe pas à cette réalité. Au cours des dix dernières années, la perte de superficie au profit de l’agriculture et de l’urbanisation s’est accélérée occasionnant du même coup une augmentation de la fragmentation des habitats naturels restants. C’est encore plus apparent à Saint-Hyacinthe qui en raison de l’usage agricole de son territoire ne possède que 7 % de milieu naturel et 1 % de milieu protégé. Ce modèle d’utilisation des terres suggère que les milieux naturels restants ne vont cesser de diminuer, et ce, de manière exponentielle. Pour ces raisons, il est essentiel de passer de la conversion des terres à la restauration des habitats. Dans son dernier bilan environnemental, la ville de Saint-Hyacinthe soulignait qu’il était impératif de restaurer les liens entre les milieux naturels résiduels afin de créer des corridors naturels et de recréer des liens vers les grands massifs boisés. Un corridor peut prendre plusieurs formes. De la haie, à la bande riveraine en passant par les corridors continentaux ils facilitent la dispersion, les migrations et multiplient la superficie des habitats disponibles tout en augmentant la connectivité entre ceux-ci. Le Cégep de Saint-Hyacinthe possède un grand territoire et prévoit faire des ajouts à son parc immobilier à l’été 2014. C’est l’occasion d’analyser les composantes vertes du cégep et de tenter d’optimiser la connectivité du campus avec ses voisins et les milieux naturels à proximité. L’analyse a révélé que les composantes vertes les plus importantes étaient le milieu humide et la terre en friche et que des travaux de verdissement respectant les concepts du dynamic landscape et de la restauration écologique permettraient au cégep de s’inscrire dans les démarches de conservation de la ville. Plusieurs scénarios d’amélioration des composantes vertes du campus et d’aménagement de corridors ont été analysés. Une intervention de reboisement de la trame semi-naturelle qui compose la partie arrière du cégep ainsi que plusieurs autres améliorations aux aménagements existants sont recommandées. Étant donné la mission éducative du cégep, les opportunités d’éducation à l’environnement et les transferts pédagogiques possibles sont soulignés

Newspaper coverage of autism treatment in Canada: 10-year trends (2004–2013)

Objective: To compare trends in coverage of empirically supported and alternative autism treatments in Canadian newspapers during a 10-year period and to examine whether the portrayal of empirically supported and alternative treatments differed. Method: We searched a sample of 10 daily local and national Canadian newspapers using the word autism combined with intervention or treatment in the Proquest Canadian Newsstand and Eureka.cc databases, which yielded a total of 857 articles published between 2004 and 2013. In our subsequent analyses, we only included articles whose main topic was autism and that referred to at least one treatment. We then categorized the 137 remaining articles by treatment and rated whether each treatment category was portrayed in a favourable, unfavourable, or neutral manner. Results: In total, 46% of the articles discussed at least 1 empirically supported treatment, 53% at least 1 alternative treatment, and 12% at least 1 uncategorized treatment. Newspaper articles provided favourable, unfavourable, and neutral portrayals of empirically supported treatments in 75%, 10%, and 16% of cases, respectively. In contrast, alternative treatments were portrayed favourably in 52%, unfavourably in 32%, and neutrally in 16% of cases. Our analyses indicated that empirically supported treatments were portrayed more favourably than alternative treatments (χ2 = 10.42, df = 2, P = 0.005). Conclusions: Despite some encouraging trends, our study has shown that researchers and clinicians must continue to clarify misconceptions about autism treatment. Families of people with autism spectrum disorders should be directed toward more reliable and accurate sources of information

Effects of an interactive Web training to support parents in reducing challenging behaviors in children with autism

Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage in challenging behaviors, which may interfere with their daily functioning, development, and well-being. To address this issue, we conducted a four-week randomized waitlist control trial to examine the effects of a fully self-guided interactive web training (IWT) on (a) child engagement in challenging behaviors and (b) parental intervention. After 4 weeks, parents in the treatment group reported lower levels of challenging behaviors in their children and more frequent use of behavioral interventions than those in the waitlist groups. Furthermore, within-group analyses suggest that these changes persisted up to 12 weeks following completion of the IWT. Our results highlight the potential utility of web training, but our high attrition rate and potential side effects prevent us from recommending the training as a standalone treatment

Comparison of tablet-delivered and instructor-delivered teaching on receptive identification in children with autism spectrum disorders

The purpose of our study was to compare the effectiveness of tablet- and instructor-delivered teaching (i.e., prompting and reinforcement) on the receptive identification of one-word concepts in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). To this end, we embedded a multielement design within a multiple probe design to compare the effectiveness of the two instructional modalities in seven participants. Two of the seven participants showed generalization on all concepts in fewer instructional trials following instructor-delivered teaching, whereas the remaining five participants had mixed results depending on the concept. In total, the participants showed more rapid generalization with the instructor for 14 of the 19 concepts taught. Our results suggest that tablets should not systematically replace instructor-delivered prompting and reinforcement, but that they may be used to provide supplementary teaching to children with ASD