A validity study of the Flesch readability formula applied to mathematic materials

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

La constitutionnalisation du droit du travail : une menace ou une opportunité pour les rapports collectifs de travail ?

Le droit du travail se compose d’une pluralité de sources émanant du droit étatique et du milieu de travail. Sa spécificité tient à la manière de combiner ces sources en conférant une légitimité particulière aux sources issues de la négociation collective. Les auteures suggèrent que cette toile de fond permet de comprendre comment se manifeste empiriquement le processus de constitutionnalisation du droit des rapports collectifs du travail et d’anticiper ses effetsjuridiques sur le rapport qu’entretiennent les institutions des rapports collectifs du travail avec l’ensemble du droit instaurant des protections d’ordre public. Les tribunaux (notamment la Cour suprême du Canada dans l’affaire Parry Sound) avaient graduellement reconnu le rôle important de ces institutions dans la mise en œuvre des droits de la personne et, plus généralement, d’autres normes issues du droit étatique. Bien que cette approche ne fasse pas l’unanimité — en témoignent l’arrêt de la Cour suprême dans l’affaire Isidore Garon et la jurisprudence des tribunaux inférieurs québécois, qui est analysée dans le présent article —, les auteures estiment que l’approche en question est porteuse d’un renouvellement des principes d’articulation des sources du droit du travail qui s’appuie toujours sur le rôle central des institutions collectives. C’est en ce sens que le processus de constitutionnalisation, loin d’être une menace, s’inscrirait dans la continuité de l’histoire du droit du travail.Labour and Employment Law is the product of multiple sources whose roots into the state law and into the law of the work place. The specific nature of this branch of the law originates in the way its sources combine and give specific legitimacy to ground rules that emerge from collective bargaining. The authors suggest that this background makes it possible to understand how the constitutionalization process of the law of collective labour relations empirically manifests itself, and to anticipate its legal effects upon the relationships between institutions of collective labour relations and the body of law forming the bedrock of public order. The courts (and most specifically the Supreme Court of Canada in the Parry Sound case) have gradually recognized the important role of these institutions in the implementation of human rights and, more generally, of other rules issuing from the state law. While this approach has not been unanimously recognized — consider the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Isidore Garon and other decisions emanating from lower Quebec courts analyzed in this paper — the authors consider that the approach portends a renewal of the interactions of Labour and Employment Law sources, which are always grounded upon the central role of collective institutions. It is in this sense that the constitutionalization process, far from being a threat to the unfolding history of Labour and Employment Law, is actually a part and parcel thereof

The Ayahuasca Patent Revocation: Raising Questions About Current U.S. Patent Policy

This Note explores the discriminatory effect of U.S. patent law and policy on indigenous communities in developing countries. For years, Western researchers have relied upon local people to point them to useful regional plants and animals so that they could then isolate, develop and patent the chemical compounds found in the organisms. Yet, the U.S. patent system does not recognize or value the traditional knowledge of indigenous groups regarding their regional biodiversity. Rather, the researchers who isolate the compounds can obtain a patent with no recognition for the indigenous knowledge upon which they relied. Recently, the World Trade Organization has succeeded at globalizing Western intellectual property systems through international treaties. These efforts have met with significant resistance in several developing countries. The controversy over the ayahuasca patent is one example of developing countries\u27 opposition to Western-style intellectual property rights. By implementing the suggestions described in this Note, the United States could ensure that indigenous knowledge would be recognized and thus could avoid future controversies like the one surrounding the ayahuasca patent

Non-invasive acquisition of fetal ECG from the maternal xyphoid process: a feasibility study in pregnant sheep and a call for open data sets

Objective: The utility of fetal heart rate (FHR) monitoring can only be achieved with an acquisition sampling rate that preserves the underlying physiological information on the millisecond time scale (1000 Hz rather than 4 Hz). For such acquisition, fetal ECG (fECG) is required, rather than the ultrasound to derive FHR. We tested one recently developed algorithm, SAVER, and two widely applied algorithms to extract fECG from a single channel maternal ECG signal recorded over the xyphoid process rather than the routine abdominal signal. Approach: At 126dG, ECG was attached to near-term ewe and fetal shoulders, manubrium and xyphoid processes (n=12). FECG served as the ground-truth to which the fetal ECG signal extracted from the simultaneously-acquired maternal ECG was compared. All fetuses were in good health during surgery (pH 7.29+/-0.03, pO2 33.2+/-8.4, pCO2 56.0+/-7.8, O2Sat 78.3+/-7.6, lactate 2.8+/-0.6, BE -0.3+/-2.4). Main result: In all animals, single lead fECG extraction algorithm could not extract fECG from the maternal ECG signal over the xyphoid process with the F1 less than 50%. Significance: The applied fECG extraction algorithms might be unsuitable for the maternal ECG signal over the xyphoid process, or the latter does not contain strong enough fECG signal, although the lead is near the mother's abdomen. Fetal sheep model is widely used to mimic various fetal conditions, yet ECG recordings in a public data set form are not available to test the predictive ability of fECG and FHR. We are making this data set openly available to other researchers to foster non-invasive fECG acquisition in this animal model

Non-invasive brain stimulation can induce paradoxical facilitation. Are these neuroenhancements transferable and meaningful to security services?

For ages, we have been looking for ways to enhance our physical and cognitive capacities in order to augment our security. One potential way to enhance our capacities may be to externally stimulate the brain. Methods of non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS), such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial electrical stimulation (tES), have been recently developed to modulate brain activity. Both techniques are relatively safe and can transiently modify motor and cognitive functions outlasting the stimulation period. The purpose of this paper is to review data suggesting that NIBS can enhance motor and cognitive performance in healthy volunteers. We frame these findings in the context of whether they may serve security purposes. Specifically, we review studies reporting that NIBS induces paradoxical facilitation in motor (precision, speed, strength, acceleration endurance, and execution of daily motor task) and cognitive functions (attention, impulsive behavior, risk-taking, working memory, planning, and deceptive capacities). Although transferability and meaningfulness of these NIBS-induced paradoxical facilitations into real-life situations are not clear yet, NIBS may contribute at improving training of motor and cognitive functions relevant for military, civil, and forensic security services. This is an enthusiastic perspective that also calls for fair and open debates on the ethics of using NIBS in healthy individuals to enhance normal functions

Vagal contributions to fetal heart rate variability: an omics approach

Fetal heart rate variability (fHRV) is an important indicator of health and disease, yet its physiological origins, neural contributions in particular, are not well understood. We aimed to develop novel experimental and data analytical approaches to identify fHRV measures reflecting the vagus nerve contributions to fHRV. In near-term ovine fetuses, a comprehensive set of 46 fHRV measures was computed from fetal pre-cordial electrocardiogram recorded during surgery and 72 hours later without (n=24) and with intra-surgical bilateral cervical vagotomy (n=15). The fetal heart rate did not change due to vagotomy. We identify fHRV measures specific to the vagal modulation of fHRV: Multiscale time irreversibility asymmetry index (AsymI), Detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) alpha1, Kullback-Leibler permutation entropy (KLPE) and Scale dependent Lyapunov exponent slope (SDLE alpha). We provide a systematic delineation of vagal contributions to fHRV across signal-analytical domains which should be relevant for the emerging field of bioelectronic medicine and the deciphering of the vagus code. Our findings also have clinical significance for in utero monitoring of fetal health during surgery