Réduction des rejets en minéraux des porcs par l'utilisation d'une source de minéraux organiques et de mannan-oligosaccharides

Les objectifs expérimentaux de ce projet étaient en premier lieu de comparer la digestibilité d'une source de cuivre (Cu) et de zinc (Zn) organiques (protéinate de minéral) par rapport à une forme inorganique (sulfate), et en deuxième lieu de vérifier l'impact des mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS) sur la digestibilité des minéraux, le pH intestinal et la production d'acides gras volatiles. Vingt-huit porcs d'environ 25 kg ont reçu aléatoirement quatre traitements enrichis avec 10 ppm de Cu et 100 ppm de Zn. Les traitements impliquaient l'utilisation d'une source inorganique ou organique, et l'absence ou la présence de mannan-oligossacharides. Les résultats montrent que la source organique a amélioré la digestibilité (P<0,01) et l'utilisation nette (P<0,01) du Cu. En revanche, les MOS n'ont eu comme seul effet de montrer une tendance (P<0,10) à augmenter la digestibilité et l'utilisation nette du Cu en présence d'une source inorganique de minéraux. Bref, la source organique a permis une meilleure digestibilité et utilisation du Cu, alors que le MOS n'a engendré aucune modification de l'environnement intestinal qui aurait pu modifier de façon significative l'absorption du Zn et du Cu

Une approche intégrée pour la définition d'unités de voisinage dans le contexte d'une étude sur les inégalités sociales de la santé dans la région de Québec

Dans le contexte d'une étude qui vise à identifier l'effet du milieu local sur la santé, il est essentiel avant toutes analyses de bien délimiter les endroits sur le territoire qui ont le même potentiel d'influence sur la santé de la population qui l'habite. Ces endroits, que nous appellerons unités de voisinage, sont habituellement circonscrits en fonction de critères d'ordre statistique ou encore sur la base d'un découpage de nature politique. Le présent mémoire présente une nouvelle approche pour définir des unités de voisinage dont la circonscription sera l'intégration d'éléments qui seront autant d'ordre historiques, statistiques que de la perception d'intervenants du milieu. Avec l'aide de ces acteurs locaux, nous avons donc déterminé quels sont les éléments physiques, sociaux ou économiques induisant la formation naturelle de chacune des unités identifiées pour un quartier central urbain, une banlieue ainsi qu'un environnement rural dans les environs de la ville de Québec

Le repérage des unités de voisinage : Contribution d’une approche historique en milieu urbain, périurbain et rural dans la région de Québec

Cet article se veut une contribution originale à la définition d’unités de voisinage dans un contexte d’étude des inégalités sociales de santé. Après une revue de la notion de voisinage, le texte propose une approche de type historique afin de définir des unités de voisinage dans trois territoires de la région de Québec, soit les arrondissements de Limoilou et de Charlesbourg et la municipalité régionale de comté (MRC) de Portneuf. L’approche consiste d’abord à repérer toutes les limites territoriales que des institutions du milieu se sont données depuis le début des années 1960 afin de baliser leurs activités, puis d’en faire la somme et la synthèse. L’information de base a été obtenue de plusieurs sources, elle a été numérisée, introduite dans un SIG, pondérée à l’aide de critères, puis cartographiée. Le résultat fait apparaître, dans chaque territoire, un nombre variable d’espaces communs à la vie des institutions et de la population que celles-ci desservent. Comme ces espaces sont de faible dimension et le reflet d’interactions sociales, on peut les rapprocher de la notion de voisinage.This article is an original contribution to the definition of neighbourhood units in the context of a study on social inequalities with respect to health. After reviewing the concept of neighborhood, we propose an historical approach in order to define neighborhood units within three districts located in the Quebec City region: two Quebec City boroughs (Limoilou and Charlesbourg) and the municipal regional county (MRC) of Portneuf. This approach required collecting, adding together and summarizing all the modifications to administrative boundaries that these districts have undergone since the beginning of the 1960s. The original data was drawn from numerous sources, digitized, entered into a GIS, weighted according to certain criteria, and mapped. The results highlight a set of common areas shared by institutions and the population that they serve. As these areas are small and reflect social interactions. They can be linked with the notion of neighborhood

An anticipative kinematic limitation avoidance algorithm for collaborative robots : Three-dimensional case

This paper presents an anticipative robot kinematic limitation avoidance algorithm for collaborative robots. The main objective is to improve the performance and the intuitivity of physical human-robot interaction. Currently, in such interactions, the human user must focus on the task as well as on the robot configuration. Indeed, the user must pay a close attention to the robot in order to avoid limitations such as joint position limitations, singularities and collisions with the environment. The proposed anticipative algorithm aims at relieving the human user from having to deal with such limitations by automatically avoiding them while considering the user's intentions. The framework developed to manage several limitations occurring simultaneously in three-dimensional space is first presented. The algorithm is then presented and detailed for each individual limitation of a spatial RRR serial robot. Finally, experiments are performed in order to assess the performance of the algorithm

A multi-perspective approach for defining neighbourhood units in the context of a study on health inequalities in the Quebec City region

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Identification of socioeconomic and health inequalities at the local scale is facilitated by using relevant small geographical sectors. Although these places are routinely defined according to administrative boundaries on the basis of statistical criteria, it is important to carefully consider the way they are circumscribed as they can create spatial analysis problems and produce misleading information. This article introduces a new approach to defining neighbourhood units which is based on the integration of elements stemming from the socioeconomic situation of the area, its history, and how it is perceived by local key actors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using this set of geographical units shows important socioeconomic and health disparities at the local scale. These disparities can be seen, for example, in a 16-year difference in disability-free life expectancy at birth, and a $10,000-difference in average personal income between close neighbourhoods. The geographical units also facilitate information transfer to local stakeholders.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The context of this study has made it possible to explore several relevant methodological issues related to the definition of neighbourhood units. This multi-perspective approach allows the combination of many different elements such as physical structures, historical and administrative boundaries, material and social deprivation of the population, and sense of belonging. Results made sense to local stakeholders and helped them to raise important issues to improve future developments.</p

Multilevel analysis of childhood nonviral gastroenteritis associated with environmental risk factors in Quebec, 1999–2006

Childhood nonviral gastroenteritis is a priority for various public health authorities. Given that waterborne transmission is sometimes incriminated during investigation of gastroenteritis outbreaks, the authors hypothesized that watershed characteristics may influence the occurrence of this disease and could contribute additional insights for better prevention and control. The study described here aimed to investigate watershed characteristics in relation to nonviral gastroenteritis and specifically three bacterial and parasitic forms of childhood gastroenteritis to assess their relative importance in the province of Quebec, Canada. Information on children aged 0–4 years with bacterial or parasitic enteric infections reported through ongoing surveillance between 1999 and 2006 in the province of Quebec was collected. Factors measured at the municipal and watershed levels were analyzed using multilevel models with a Poisson distribution and log link function. Childhood nonviral gastroenteritis, giardiasis, and campylobacteriosis were positively associated with small ruminants and cattle density. Childhood salmonellosis was positively associated with cattle density. Also, childhood campylobacteriosis incidence was positively associated with larger watershed agricultural surface. In addition to local agroenvironmental factors, this analysis revealed an important watershed effect

Population-level trends in the distribution of body mass index in Canada, 2000-2014

Objective Research studying population-level body mass index (BMI) trends document increases in mean or prevalence of overweight/obese but less consideration has been given to describing the changing distribution of BMI. The objective of this research was to perform a detailed analysis of changes in the BMI distribution in Canada. Methods Using data from the CCHS (2000–2014), we analyzed distributional parameters of BMI for 492,886 adults aged 25–64 years. We further stratified these analyses for women and men, education level, and region of residence. Results Mean BMI has increased for most subgroups of the Canadian population. Mean BMI values were higher for men, while standard deviation (SD) of the BMI distribution was systematically higher in women. Increases in mean BMI were accompanied with increases in SD of BMI across cycles. Across survey cycles, the 95th percentile increased more than 10 times more rapidly compared to the 5th percentile, showing a very unequal change between extreme values in the BMI distribution over time. There was a relationship between SD with BMI, but these relations were generally not different between educational categories and regions. This suggests that the growing inter-individual inequalities (i.e., dispersion) in BMI were not solely attributable to socioeconomic and demographic factors. Conclusions This study supports the hypothesis that the simultaneous increases in mean BMI and SD of the BMI distribution are occurring, and suggests the need to move beyond the mean-centric paradigm when studying a complex public health phenomenon such as population change in BMI

Geographic Variability in the Association between Socioeconomic Status and BMI in the USA and Canada

Objective: Reported associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and obesity are inconsistent depending on gender and geographic location. Globally, these inconsistent observations may hide a variation in the contextual effect on individuals' risk of obesity for subgroups of the population. This study explored the regional variability in the association between SES and BMI in the USA and in Canada, and describes the geographical variance patterns by SES category. Methods: The 2009–2010 samples of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) were used for this comparison study. Three-level random intercept and differential variance multilevel models were built separately for women and men to assess region-specific BMI by SES category and their variance bounds. Results: Associations between individual SES and BMI differed importantly by gender and countries. At the regional-level, the mean BMI variation was significantly different between SES categories in the USA, but not in Canada. In the USA, whereas the county-specific mean BMI of higher SES individuals remained close to the mean, its variation grown as SES decreased. At the county level, variation of mean BMI around the regional mean was 5 kg/m2 in the high SES group, and reached 8.8 kg/m2 in the low SES group. Conclusions: This study underlines how BMI varies by country, region, gender and SES. Lower socioeconomic groups within some regions show a much higher variation in BMI than in other regions. Above the BMI regional mean, important variation patterns of BMI by SES and place of residence were found in the USA. No such pattern was found in Canada. This study suggests that a change in the mean does not necessarily reflect the change in the variance. Analyzing the variance by SES may be a good way to detect subtle influences of social forces underlying social inequalities

Enrichment of bacterial strains for the biodegradation of endocrine disrupting compounds from sediments of the Pearl River delta (PRD)

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

To put an end to car dependence - Final report of the scoping review of the literature on the modal shift from the car to alternative modes 2010-2020

This research answers the following question: what are the main modal shift strategies discussed in the literature of the last 10 years? It also undertakes to analyze the impacts of each of the strategies present in the literature. It presents a scoping review of the literature aiming to draw an up-to-date portrait of the abundant literature on modal shift in order to synthesize it and present it in an organized manner and draw conclusions for future research and transport and development policies aimed at reducing automobile dependence and inducing a modal shift from the automobile to alternative modes of transport. We reviewed 2,872 studies published between 2010 and 2020 and retained 108 that we analyzed in detail. More than two thirds of studies report positive results of modal shift from the car towards alternative mobility. This leads us to believe that it is possible to implement public policies to facilitate modal shift and thus help reduce car dependence. A large majority of research on public transport reports positive examples. However, for studies on active transportation, we note that almost all of the research (92%) reports successes. By paying attention to the degree of coercion of the interventions investigated in the literature, we see that the “carrot” measures which seek to induce the modal shift by offering a benefit are more successful than the “stick” type measures which aim to restrict certain choices (pricing, tolls, reduction of parking spaces). However, research on the “carrot and stick” combination approach reports the most positive results. This leads us to conclude that research on this type of intervention should continue to be developed, even encouraged, and to suggest that public decision-makers take into account the beneficial effects for modal shift resulting from the combination of the two types of interventions simultaneously “carrot and stick”