Partenariat et programmes de stages internationaux pour les jeunes: le cas du Programme Québec sans frontières

Ce mémoire s'intéresse aux relations de partenariat entre des organisations non gouvernementales au Québec et des organisations non gouvernementales en Afrique dans le cadre d'un programme de stages internationaux pour les jeunes. Globalement, de plus en plus de jeunes participent à un stage international chaque année et l'offre gouvernementale, déjà importante pour ces programmes, est souvent complétée par des organisations canadiennes privées. Une nouvelle logique de développement accorde une attention particulière aux relations de partenariat Nord-Sud. Sans partenaires nationaux au Sud, les organisations situées au Québec perdent la légitimité d'intervenir à l'étranger. Quant à ce partenariat, il fait appel à des notions de respect mutuel, de réciprocité et d'égalité (Eriksson Baaz, 2005; Fowler, 1991a, 1991b, 1998, 2000; Hately, 1997; Hately, Malhotra et North-South Institute, 1997; Lister, 2000; Malhotra, 1997; Navarro-Flores, 2009; Postma, 1994). Cette recherche vise à comprendre comment les organisations de coopération internationale au Québec construisent leurs relations de partenariat avec des organisations non gouvernementales en Afrique afin de permettre à des jeunes du Québec, entre 18 et 35 ans, de réaliser un stage à l'étranger. Cette recherche propose d'évaluer les relations de partenariat Nord-Sud dans le cadre du programme Québec sans frontières (QSF), un programme financé par le ministère des Relations internationales du gouvernement du Québec. Concrètement, il s'agit d'une étude de cas exploratoire cherchant à comprendre les relations de partenariat Nord-Sud observées. Par ailleurs, nous voulons tirer des conclusions valides, mais surtout intéressantes, pour les acteurs responsables de l'implantation des projets (ONG québécoises et africaines) et les bénéficiaires (jeunes du Québec). Sur le plan méthodologique, il s'agit d'une étude qualitative par une approche d'analyse hybride entre la théorisation ancrée et la confrontation des résultats à un cadre conceptuel initial. Le cadre conceptuel a été développé en prenant acte des théories sur les organisations et les relations interorganisationnelles, et spécialement celles abordant les relations de partenariat entre les organisations du Nord et du Sud. À la lumière des seize entrevues semi-dirigées réalisées en février 2010 et des documents récoltés au sein des organisations rencontrées, les conclusions sont les suivantes : dans le cadre du programme Québec sans frontières : (1) les stages internationaux représentent un service offert à la population québécoise, et plus spécifiquement, et plus spécifiquement aux jeunes du Québec âgés entre 18 et 35 ans; (2) le gouvernement du Québec contractualise la prestation de ce service à des organisations québécoises menant à un partenariat de service entre les organisations africaines et québécoise; (3) grâce à ce programme, les organisations québécoises et africaines accèdent à une multitude de ressources (a) ce qui renforce d'une part, l'interdépendance organisationnelle des acteur et (b) ce qui mène, d'autre part, à une division internationale du travail. En définitive, les relations interorganisationnelles observées s'apparentent à des partenariats de services où les actions et gestes posés par les acteurs impliqués dans l'implantation d'un service sont contraints par la nature de la ration les unissant

Effects of a community scorecard on improving the local health system in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo: qualitative evidence using the most significant change technique.

BACKGROUND: More than a decade of conflict has weakened the health system in the Democratic Republic of Congo and decreased its ability to respond to the needs of the population. Community scorecards have been conceived as a way to increase accountability and responsiveness of service providers, but there is limited evidence of their effects, particularly in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. This paper describes the implementation of community scorecards within a community-driven reconstruction project in two provinces of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. METHODS: Between June 2012 and November 2013, 45 stories of change in the health system were collected from village development committee, health committee, community members (20 men and 18 women) and healthcare providers (n = 7) in 25 sites using the Most Significant Change technique. Stories were analyzed qualitatively for content related to the types and mechanisms of change observed. RESULTS: The most salient changes were related to increased transparency and community participation in health facility management, and improved quality of care. Quality of care included increased access to services, improved patient-provider relationships, improved performance of service providers, and improved maintenance of physical infrastructure. Changes occurred through many different mechanisms including provider actions in response to information, pressure from community representatives, or supervisors; and joint action and improved collaboration by health facility committees and providers. CONCLUSIONS: Although it is often assumed that confrontation is a primary mechanism for citizens to change state-provided services, this study demonstrates that healthcare providers may also be motivated to change through other means. Positive experiences of community scorecards can provide a structured space for interface between community members and the health system, allowing users to voice their opinions and preferences and bridge information gaps for both users and frontline healthcare providers. When solutions to problems identified through the scorecard are locally accessible, users and healthcare providers are able to work together to implement mutually acceptable solutions that improve quality of health services, and make them more responsive to users' needs

Guide to identifying alert thresholds for heat waves in Canada based on evidence

Among natural-disaster risks, heat waves are responsible for a large number of deaths, diseases and economic losses around the world. As they will increase in severity, duration and frequency over the decades to come within the context of climate change, these extreme events constitute a genuine danger to human health, and heat-warning systems are strongly recommended by public health authorities to reduce this risk of diseases and of excessive mortality and morbidity. Thus, evidence-based public alerting criteria are needed to reduce impacts on human health before and during persistent hot weather conditions.\ud The goal of this guide is to identify alert thresholds for heat waves in Canada based on evidence, and to propose an approach for better defining heat waves in the Canadian context in order to reduce the risks to human health and contribute to the well-being of Canadians. This guide is the result of the collaboration among various research and public institutions working on: 1) meteorological and climate aspects, i.e. the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC, Environment and Climate Change Canada), and the ESCER centre at the Université du Québec à Montréal, and 2) public health, i.e. Health Canada and the Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec

« Ça reste encore mystérieux pour moi » : récits et expériences du genre chez les personnes autistes

This article focuses on the experiences of gender in the narratives of autistic people and their entourage. The social category of gender would make less subjective sense for autistic people because of an alternative relationship to learned social norms. We analyzed interviews conducted with autistic people, their relatives, clinicians and blogs. In the accounts, autistic people describe themselves as impervious to social, and therefore gender, norms. Signs of gender atypia in childhood are often posited in their accounts as precursors to the diagnosis to come: the relationship to gender and society is described by them as an intersection of dissonant experiences. Female autism is described as a phenotype, a kind of autism in itself. Thus, these experiences testify to the impossibility of disentangling (or at least distinguishing completely) the interweaving of the experiences of autism and gender

Evaluation of stenoses using AI video models applied to coronary angiography.

The coronary angiogram is the gold standard for evaluating the severity of coronary artery disease stenoses. Presently, the assessment is conducted visually by cardiologists, a method that lacks standardization. This study introduces DeepCoro, a ground-breaking AI-driven pipeline that integrates advanced vessel tracking and a video-based Swin3D model that was trained and validated on a dataset comprised of 182,418 coronary angiography videos spanning 5 years. DeepCoro achieved a notable precision of 71.89% in identifying coronary artery segments and demonstrated a mean absolute error of 20.15% (95% CI: 19.88-20.40) and a classification AUROC of 0.8294 (95% CI: 0.8215-0.8373) in stenosis percentage prediction compared to traditional cardiologist assessments. When compared to two expert interventional cardiologists, DeepCoro achieved lower variability than the clinical reports (19.09%; 95% CI: 18.55-19.58 vs 21.00%; 95% CI: 20.20-21.76, respectively). In addition, DeepCoro can be fine-tuned to a different modality type. When fine-tuned on quantitative coronary angiography assessments, DeepCoro attained an even lower mean absolute error of 7.75% (95% CI: 7.37-8.07), underscoring the reduced variability inherent to this method. This study establishes DeepCoro as an innovative video-based, adaptable tool in coronary artery disease analysis, significantly enhancing the precision and reliability of stenosis assessment

Neuropilin-1 expression in adipose tissue macrophages protects against obesity and metabolic syndrome

Neuropilin-1–expressing adipose tissue macrophages are critical mediators of protective inflammation during weight gain.</jats:p