The Effect of Coach's Task- and Ego-Involving Climate on the Changes in Perceived Competence, Relatedness, and Autonomy Among Girl Handballers

International audienceAdolescents, especially females, have been identified as a group at risk of poor health due to their declining level of physical activity. To prevent sporting attrition, several researchers highlighted the importance of the fit between the motivational context provided by the coach and the socio-emotional needs brought by adolescents. This study concerns the role of the coach's task- and ego-involving climate on the changes in 3 fundamental perceptions underlined by the self-determination theory (8): perceived competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Contrary to the cross-sectional nature of the former studies, this one used longitudinal survey data from 236 French girl handballers. The 3 perceptions were measured by a questionnaire at the beginning and the end of one season. In the middle of the season, perceptions of coaches' motivational climate were also evaluated. Results showed that at the end of the season, feelings of competence, autonomy, and relatedness were both positively predicted by a task-involving climate and negatively predicted by an ego-involving climate, even after controlling for the level of each variable at the beginning of the season

Intégration d’un centre logistique au sein d’un réseau d'entreprises forestières : impact et analyse

L’industrie forestière compte pour une partie importante de l’activité économique québécoise et de nombreuses communautés en dépendent. Dans les forêts naturelles, la grande diversité d’espèces d’arbres et de qualité des tiges accroit la complexité des opérations de triage et de gestion des flux. De plus, l’éloignement de la ressource forestière entraîne des coûts de transport élevés. Par ailleurs, la littérature scientifique démontre que la mutualisation du transport s’avère profitable (Epstein et al. 2007), mais qu’elle est cependant fort complexe à déployer (Frisk et al. 2010). Finalement, la transition de systèmes de production en flux poussés vers des systèmes en flux tirés et les difficultés récentes de cette industrie (déclin du secteur des pâtes et papiers, crise immobilière de 2008-09, etc.) rendent d’autant plus pertinent d’examiner des façons de mieux tirer profit de la ressource forestière. À cet égard, la création de cours de triage et de consolidation qui soient distinctes des sites en forêt et des usines offre de multiples occasions de maximisation de la valeur et de minimisation des coûts. De tels centres représentent cependant un défi important quant à leur gestion quotidienne et à leur insertion dans le réseau logistique déjà en place. Nous posons donc l’hypothèse que certains facteurs économiques, logistiques et environnementaux, permettraient à un centre logistique forestier comprenant une cour de triage et une coordination du transport de créer des économies de coût, notamment par l’entremise de l’utilisation du transport hors norme (Chan et al. 2008a) et de coûts de triage plus bas (tel que nous pouvons le déduire de Favreau 1995). Nous pensons également que le fait d’effectuer des activités de triage au centre procurerait une valeur économique supplémentaire aux entreprises utilisant ses services, en limitant le taux d’erreur dans la classification des billes tel que relevé dans Sessions (2005). Cette thèse vise donc à identifier certains facteurs clés influençant la profitabilité d’un centre logistique forestier régional comportant une cour dédiée au triage et une coordination du transport. Par la suite, nous prenons en comptes ces facteurs lors du développement d’un modèle de maximisation des profits d’un réseau logistique forestier comprenant ou non une cour dédiée au triage ainsi que l’utilisation des retours en charge. Nous avons d’abord appliqué ce modèle à un cas théorique et réaliste et nous avons obtenu des gains potentiels atteignant 0,88$de profit supplémentaire par m3 disponible à la récolte sur l’ensemble du réseau. Nous avons par la suite utilisé ce modèle pour optimiser un cas d’étude plus complexe et analyser le fonctionnement du réseau y compris en le modifiant. Une analyse de sensibilité révéla que plusieurs facteurs tels que la distance des zones de récolte, le nombre de camions hors norme et le niveau des redevances avaient une influence significative sur la profitabilité du centre projeté. Enfin, dans le cas d’étude, nous avons décelé un effet dynamique entre l’opération d’une cour de triage et l’utilisation des retours en charge. L’ajout d’une cour de triage permet ainsi de réduire la durée moyenne des routes de livraison en scindant en deux les flux de matière entre les forêts et les usines, ce qui facilite le respect des limites de durées de conduite. Surtout, une telle cour fait en sorte qu’un même site peut servir autant comme origine que comme destination, ouvrant la porte à d’importantes réductions du transport à vide.The forest industry represents an important part of Quebec’s economic activity and many local communities depend on this sector. In natural forests, the great diversity of tree species and quality brings an added complexity for sorting operations and the flow of resources. Furthermore, the remoteness of the resource implies high transportation costs. Scientific literature demonstrates that sharing transportation capacity can result in important cost reductions (Epstein et al. 2007), but is quite complex to put into place (Frisk et al.2010). Finally, the transition from push systems towards pull type supply chains and the recent difficulties for this industry (decline of the pulp and paper sector, housing crisis of 2008-09, etc.) make it all the more relevant to examine how to better use the wood resource. In this regard, the creation of sort yards, distinct from both the harvesting sites and the mills, offers many opportunities for maximizing value and minimizing costs. Such centers however, represent an important challenge in regards to their daily management and their insertion in the pre-existing logistics network. We therefore hypothesize that for certain economic, logistical and environmental factors, a logistics center comprised of a sort yard and transportation coordination, could generate cost savings, especially through the use of oversize trucks (Chan et al. 2008) and lower sorting costs (as can be deduced from Favreau 1995). We also sense that the sorting activities performed in such a center would also procure an added economic value for companies using its services by limiting the error rate in the classification of the logs, as presented in Sessions (2005). The purpose of this thesis is therefore to identify key factors regarding their impact on the profitability of a regional forest logistics center, combining a specific sort yard and the use of backhauling. Following this, we consider these factors in the development of a profit maximization model for a forest logistics network with the option of using such a sort yard and/or backhauling. This model was first applied to a fictitious but realistic case using generated data in order to estimate the magnitude of potential profit improvements which reached up to$ 0.88 per m3 available for harvest. The model was then applied to optimize a real and complex network to analyze its performance as well as slightly modified versions. A sensitivity analysis was also conducted and revealed that many factors such as distances from the harvesting zones, the number of oversize trucks and the level of stumpage fees had a significant influence on the profitability of such a center. In addition, a dynamic effect between the operation of the yard and the use of backhauling was observed for the real case. The addition of a sort yard allows to reduce the average length of delivery routes by breaking in two the flow of material between the harvesting areas and the production mills. This makes it easier to fit delivery routes within the legal driving time limit. Most importantly, such a yard can serve both as an origin and a destination, therefore opening the door to important reductions in deadheading

Physiological markers of challenge and threat mediate the effects of performance-based goals on performance

We predicted that adopting a performance-approach vs. performance-avoidance goal would lead to physiological responses characteristic of psychological states of challenge vs. threat appraisals, respectively. Furthermore, we predicted that these states would mediate the effects of goals on performance. Twenty-seven undergraduate females performed a task described as identifying either exceptionally strong performers (performance-approach goal) or exceptionally weak performers (performance-avoidance goal). Participants’ cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) was recorded while they performed the task. As predicted, participants in the performance-approach goal condition performed better on the task than did those in the performance-avoidance goal condition. Also as predicted, those in the former condition exhibited a challenge pattern of CVR whereas those in the latter condition exhibited a threat pattern of CVR. Furthermore, physiological responses mediated the effects of performance-based goals on performance

Physiological markers of challenge and threat mediate the effects of performance-based goals on performance

Manuscript "in press", Journal of Experimental Social PsychologyWe predicted that adopting a performance-approach vs. performance-avoidance goal would lead to physiological responses characteristic of psychological states of challenge vs. threat appraisals, respectively. Furthermore, we predicted that these states would mediate the effects of goals on performance. Twenty-seven undergraduate females performed a task described as identifying either exceptionally strong performers (performance-approach goal) or exceptionally weak performers (performance-avoidance goal). Participants' cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) was recorded while they performed the task. As predicted, participants in the performance-approach goal condition performed better on the task than did those in the performance-avoidance goal condition. Also as predicted, those in the former condition exhibited a challenge pattern of CVR whereas those in the latter condition exhibited a threat pattern of CVR. Furthermore, physiological responses mediated the effects of performance-based goals on performance

Do Achievement Goals Mediate Stereotype Threat? An Investigation on Females' Soccer Performance

International audienceThis research investigated stereotype threat effects on women's performance in sports and examined the mediation of this effect by achievement goals. The influence of two stereotypes – relative to the poor athletic ability and the poor technical soccer ability of women – were studied. Fifty-one female soccer players were randomly assigned to one of three conditions, introducing the task as diagnostic of athletic ability, technical soccer ability, or sports psychology. Next, they filled out a questionnaire measuring achievement goals and performed a soccer-dribbling task. Results showed that compared to the control condition, females' performance significantly decreased in the athletic ability condition and tended to decrease in the technical soccer ability condition. Moreover, participants endorsed a performance-avoidance (relative to performance-approach) goal when the stereotypes were activated. However, this goal endorsement was not related to performance. The implications of these results for understanding the role of stereotypes in gender inequalities in sports are discussed

Potential exposure to diclofenac in Spain of European vultures

Diclofenac (NSAID) for veterinary use, the same that previously reduced south Asian Gyps vulture populations by nearly 99% in the late 1990s, was approved in Spain in 2013 for cattle, swine and horses. We assessed its availability and the potential exposure to European Griffon Gyps fulvus, Cinereous Aegypius monachus, Egyptian Neophron percnopterus and Bearded vultures Gypaetus barbatus in Spain. In 2014, a telephone questionnaire to 1073 official pharmaceutical distributers (POS) found 230 responses and 82 were currently selling diclofenac. The preliminary assessment for Spain showed a widespread exposure to diclofenac that extends across 275,391 km2, i.e. 54% of the territory. Diclofenac availability is related to livestock densities and certain rearing practices, especially cattle and extensive swine farming, but not with horse farms. Livestock farming carcass disposal practices and subsequent carcass availability to vultures are of concern when controlling for diclofenac potential use and residues in corpses. Overlap of diclofenac exposure with vulture distribution ranges and population sizes per region were highest for Cinereous Vulture (88% and 73% overlap with range and population size respectively), 62/56% for the Egyptian Vulture, 58/57% for the Griffon and 42/36% for the Bearded Vultures. Ensuring the safety of carcasses consumed by vultures with specific tests for NSAIDs and their use in farming practices is required

Graphene-coated holey metal films: tunable molecular sensing by surface plasmon resonance

We report on the enhancement of surface plasmon resonances in a holey bidimensional grating of subwavelength size, drilled in a gold thin film coated by a graphene sheet. The enhancement originates from the coupling between charge carriers in graphene and gold surface plasmons. The main plasmon resonance peak is located around 1.5 microns. A lower constraint on the gold-induced doping concentration of graphene is specified and the interest of this architecture for molecular sensing is also highlighted.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Final version. Published in Applied Physics Letter

Accuracy of Singularity Expansion Method in Time and Frequency Domains to Characterize Antennas in Presence of Noise

International audienceIn this paper, the accuracy of the singularity expansion method (SEM) used for antenna characterization is investigated. A well-known limitation of the SEM is that pole extraction is very sensitive to noise. A comparison between two main methods of pole extraction is presented. The matrix pencil (MP) method and the Cauchy's method are used to extract poles from the radiated fields of a dipole antenna and two bowtie antennas. Results are presented for simulated fields, and the robustness to a white Gaussian noise is also analyzed. We show that the MP method allows working with lower SNR than Cauchy's method and is more accurate for field reconstruction