Immigration et francophonie dans les écoles ontariennes : comment se structurent les rapports entre les institutions, les parents et le monde communautaire ?

L’immigration est un facteur important de diversification des écoles de langue française en Ontario. Comment se structurent les rapports entre les institutions, les parents et le monde communautaire dans la prise en considération de la diversité par les écoles de la minorité ? Nous présenterons les résultats d’une étude ethnographique combinée à une analyse de discours réalisée entre 2002 et 2004, où nous avons analysé les représentations et pratiques institutionnelles dans 15 écoles d’une grande ville ainsi qu’une initiative communautaire mise de l’avant par une association locale de femmes immigrantes, mettant ainsi en valeur la complexité des processus à l’oeuvre dans les relations entre l’école et les familles immigrées.Immigration is an important factor in the diversification seen in Ontario’s French language schools. How are the relationships between institutions, parents and communities shaped to account for diversity as it is experienced in minority language schools ? We will discuss the results of an ethnographic and sociolinguistic study that took place between 2002 and 2004, where institutional policies and practices used in 15 urban schools and a community initiative put forward by an association of local immigrant women were analyzed. This study highlights the complexity of processes at work in school- immigrant family relations.La inmigración constituye un factor importante de diversificación de las escuelas de lengua francesa en Ontario. ¿Cómo se estructuran las relaciones entre las instituciones, los padres de familia y el mundo comunitario, en la toma en cuenta de la diversidad por las escuelas de la minoría ? Presentaremos los resultados de un estudio etnográfico combinado a un análisis de discurso realizado entre 2002 y 2004, donde hemos analizado las representaciones y prácticas institucionales en 15 escuelas de una gran ciudad así como una iniciativa comunitaria desarrollada por una asociación local de mujeres inmigrantes, poniendo de relieve la complejidad de los procesos que intervienen en las relaciones entre la escuela y las familias inmigradas

Professional and managerial black African women: Johannesburg and London’s emerging and transnational elites

The number of women entering professional and managerial jobs globally has increased over the past thirty years. However, only a small percentage of texts within feminist and organisational theory specifically address the lives and experiences of professional and managerial Black African women within the workplace and family life. As such, many organisational and social research questions in this area remain unanswered. This thesis examines the work and family lives of professional and managerial Black African women living and working in Johannesburg and London. It explores how such women with relatively similar colonial histories, cultures, career and professional backgrounds handle their complex social positioning. This complexity, as discussed in the thesis, is created mainly through the way in which identity characteristics such as gender, race/ethnicity and class intersect and impact on these women when working in an environment where they are in a minority and viewed in some instances as ‘space invaders’. The impact that these complex social categories, combined with the influences of culture and history, have on their identities as career women, mothers, wives, partners and daughters is also examined. As Black African women with careers in major cities on opposite sides of the globe, these emerging and transnational elite Black African women remain a rarity and hidden gem to most – making them unique both in the workplace and in communities. In London, they are not only minorities within the UK population but minorities in their role as professional and managerial women within the corporate private sector. In Johannesburg, although part of the majority population in the country, they still remain minorities within the professional and managerial circles of that country’s corporate private sector. The method I use to gather data is the Life History approach which allows me, the researcher, to reveal my participants’ individual views and interpretation of their own work and family life experiences. I do this by conducting semi-structured interviews as a means of collecting their ‘life stories’. These stories told by Black African professional and managerial women reflect their views of reality. Through a form of Life History analysis, this mode of enquiry further reveals the importance of acknowledging difference when implementing government and organisational policies that combat barriers brought about by corporate practices and cultural attitudes within the workplace and society as a whole

Students’ Pathways Across Local, National and Supra-National Borders: Representations of a Globalized World in a Francophone Minority School in Ontario, Canada

Informed by anthropology of childhood and youth, this paper examines how elementary students make sense of their diverse trajectories in an expanding culture of spatial, virtual and linguistic mobility (Farmer, 2012). Drawing on data collected in one francophone minority school in Ontario, Canada, we discuss students’ representations of a “globalized world” as they co-construct with peers and teachers the multiple meanings associated with mobility, citizenship and nationhood

Functional near infrared spectroscopy as a probe of brain function in people with prolonged disorders of consciousness

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a non-invasive technique which measures changes in brain tissue oxygenation. NIRS has been used for continuous monitoring of brain oxygenation during medical procedures carrying high risk of iatrogenic brain ischemia and also has been adopted by cognitive neuroscience for studies on executive and cognitive functions. Until now, NIRS has not been used to detect residual cognitive functions in patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness (pDOC). In this study we aimed to evaluate the brain function of patients with pDOC by using a motor imagery task while recording NIRS. We also collected data from a group of age and gender matched healthy controls while they carried out both real and imagined motor movements to command. We studied 16 pDOC patients in total, split into two groups: five had a diagnosis of Vegetative state/Unresponsive Wakefulness State, and eleven had a diagnosis of Minimally Conscious State. In the control subjects we found a greater oxy-haemoglobin (oxyHb) response during real movement compared with imagined movement. For the between group comparison, we found a main effect of hemisphere, with greater depression of oxyHb signal in the right > left hemisphere compared with rest period for all three groups. A post-hoc analysis including only the two pDOC patient groups was also significant suggesting that this effect was not just being driven by the control subjects. This study demonstrates for the first time the feasibility of using NIRS for the assessment of brain function in pDOC patients using a motor imagery task

The expression of VvMYBPA1 in tobacco remodulates the phenylpropanoid pathway and diverts the synthesis of anthocyanins into condensed tannins in flowers

Patients in Vegetative State (VS), also known as Unresponsive Wakefulness State (UWS) are deemed to be unaware of themselves or their environment. This is different from patients diagnosed with Minimally Conscious state (MCS), who can have intermittent awareness. In both states, there is a severe impairment of consciousness; these disorders are referred to as disorders of consciousness (DOC) and if the state is prolonged, pDOC. There is growing evidence that some patients who are behaviourally in VS/UWS can show neural activation to environmental stimuli and that this response can be detected using functional brain imaging (fMRI/PET) and electroencephalography (EEG). Recently, it has also been suggested that a more reliable detection of brain responsiveness and hence a more reliable differentiation between VS/UWS and MCS requires person-centred and person-specific stimuli, such as the subject's own name stimulus.In this study we obtained event related potential data (ERP) from 12 healthy subjects and 16 patients in pDOC, five of whom were in the VS/UWS and 11 in the Minimally Conscious State (MCS). We used as the ERP stimuli the subjects' own name, others' names and reversed other names. We performed a sensor level analysis using Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) software. Using this paradigm in 4 DOC patients (3 in MCS, and 1 in VS/UWS) we detected a statistically significant difference in EEG response to their own name versus other peoples' names with ERP latencies (~300 ms and ~700 ms post stimuli). Some of these differences were similar to those found in a control group of healthy subjects.This study shows the feasibility of using self-relevant stimuli such as a subject's own name for assessment of brain function in pDOC patients. This neurophysiological test is suitable for bed-side/hospital based assessment of pDOC patients. As it does not require sophisticated scanning equipment it can feasibly be used within a hospital or care setting to help professionals tailor medical and psycho-social management for patients

Advanced Manifolds for Improved Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Performance

An investigation was conducted to see if additive manufacturing could be used to fabricate more efficient manifold designs for improved flow, reduced stresses, and decreased number of joints to be sealed for a solid oxide electrolyzer used to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. Computational flow and mechanical modeling were conducted on a NASA Glenn Research Center patented cell and stack design with the potential to achieve a 3-4 times mass reduction. Various manifold designs were modeled, and two were downselected to be fabricated and tested. Some benefit was seen in a baffled manifold design, which directed incoming flow more effectively into the flow channels, compared to the original design, where the flow spent more time within the manifold itself. Flow measurements indicated some non-uniformity of flow across the channels at higher flow rates, which were not predicted by the model. Some possible explanations for the differences are discussed

A simple intervention for disorders of consciousness- is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

Sleep is a physiological state necessary for memory processing, learning and brain plasticity. Patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) show none or minimal sign of awareness of themselves or their environment but appear to have sleep-wake cycles. The aim of our study was to assess baseline circadian rhythms and sleep in patients with DOC; to optimize circadian rhythm using an intervention combining blue light, melatonin and caffeine, and to identify the impact of this intervention on brain function using event related potentials. We evaluated baseline circadian rhythms and sleep in 17 patients with DOC with 24-h polysomnography (PSG) and 4-hourly saliva melatonin measurements for 48 h. Ten of the 17 patients (5 female, age 30–71) were then treated for 5 weeks with melatonin each night and blue light and caffeine treatment in the mornings. Behavioral assessment of arousal and awareness [Coma recovery scale-revised (CRS-R)], 24-h polysomnography and 4-hourly saliva melatonin measurements, oddball mismatch negativity (MMN) and subject's own name (SON) experiments were performed twice at baseline and following intervention. Baseline sleep was abnormal in all patients. Cosinor analysis of saliva melatonin results revealed that averaged baseline % rhythmicity was low (M: 31%, Range: 13–66.4%, SD: 18.4). However, increase in % Melatonin Rhythm following intervention was statistically significant (p = 0.012). 7 patients showed improvement of CRS-R scores with intervention and this was statistically significant (p = 0.034). All the patients who had improvement of clinical scores also had statistically significant improvement of neurophysiological responses on MMN and SON experiments at group level (p = 0.001). Our study shows that sleep and circadian rhythms are severely deranged in DOC but optimization is possible with melatonin, caffeine and blue light treatment. Clinical and physiological parameters improved with this simple and inexpensive intervention. Optimization of sleep and circadian rhythms should be integrated into rehabilitation programs for people with DOC

5-SPICE: the application of an original framework for community health worker program design, quality improvement and research agenda setting

Introduction: Despite decades of experience with community health workers (CHWs) in a wide variety of global health projects, there is no established conceptual framework that structures how implementers and researchers can understand, study and improve their respective programs based on lessons learned by other CHW programs. Objective: To apply an original, non-linear framework and case study method, 5-SPICE, to multiple sister projects of a large, international non-governmental organization (NGO), and other CHW projects. Design: Engaging a large group of implementers, researchers and the best available literature, the 5-SPICE framework was refined and then applied to a selection of CHW programs. Insights gleaned from the case study method were summarized in a tabular format named the ‘5×5-SPICE chart’. This format graphically lists the ways in which essential CHW program elements interact, both positively and negatively, in the implementation field. Results: The 5×5-SPICE charts reveal a variety of insights that come from a more complex understanding of how essential CHW projects interact and influence each other in their unique context. Some have been well described in the literature previously, while others are exclusive to this article. An analysis of how best to compensate CHWs is also offered as an example of the type of insights that this method may yield. Conclusions: The 5-SPICE framework is a novel instrument that can be used to guide discussions about CHW projects. Insights from this process can help guide quality improvement efforts, or be used as hypothesis that will form the basis of a program's research agenda. Recent experience with research protocols embedded into successfully implemented projects demonstrates how such hypothesis can be rigorously tested