Dynamic defects in photonic Floquet topological insulators

Edge modes in topological insulators are known to be robust against defects. We investigate if this also holds true when the defect is not static, but varies in time. We study the influence of defects with time-dependent coupling on the robustness of the transport along the edge in a Floquet system of helically curved waveguides. Waveguide arrays are fabricated via direct laser writing in a negative tone photoresist. We find that single dynamic defects do not destroy the chiral edge current, even when the temporal modulation is strong. Quantitative numerical simulation of the intensity in the bulk and edge waveguides confirms our observation

Perception de personnes sourdes sur les obstacles et les facilitateurs reliés à la participation sociale dans les domaines de l'éducation et du travail

Le but de cette thèse est de relever des obstacles et des facilitateurs à la participation sociale de personnes sourdes dans les domaines de l'éducation et du travail. Un nouveau modèle théorique est proposé portant sur les obstacles et les facilitateurs au développement de la participation sociale. La recherche s'appuie sur l'approche qualitative de l'étude de cas auprès de sept participants sourds, leur mère et leur père et un enseignant qui leur a été signifiant. Les résultats font ressortir les facteurs présents dans le microenvironnement personnel, le mésoenvironnement communautaire et le macroenvironnement sociétal, en relation avec la participation sociale des participants sourds dans les domaines de l'éducation et du travail et leurs caractéristiques personnelles. Les participants sourds révèlent un profil allant de l'oppression, la résignation, la résilience à la libération. La structure familiale, la relation avec les parents entendants, les styles défenseur, protecteur ou distant, les pratiques parentales peuvent avoir une influence sur le développement de la participation sociale de la personne sourde, au plan du microenvironnement personnel. Le mésoenvironnement communautaire retient des facteurs propres à la direction d'école, aux enseignants, aux conseillers d'orientation, aux interprètes, aux collègues d'études, aux employeurs, aux collègues de travail, aux clients, aux amis et aux voisins. Des obstacles et des facilitateurs apparaissent également dans le macroenvironnement sociétal avec le gouvernement, les services de placement ou d'orientation et les organismes de soutien ou de défense des droits. La recherche met de l'avant un modèle d'inclusion scolaire, sociale et professionnelle de la personne sourde, qui tient compte d'une approche culturelle, propre au bilinguisme.\ud ______________________________________________________________________________ \ud MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : processus de production du handicap, relations famille-école-communauté, personne sourde, éducation, travail, résilience

From Idea to Initiative: Real-Time Learning for a Funder Collaborative on Nonprofit Strategic Restructuring

Evaluation and learning is often seen as a high-stakes, formalized process of comparing an effort at its conclusion against some standard or benchmark. More recently, formative and developmental approaches to evaluation have been created to accommodate the need for more adaptability and ambiguity in an effort. The Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative, a multiyear collaboration of 17 funders in Los Angeles County, California, supports nonprofit organizations to collaborate and restructure in a variety of forms. As the initiative evolved, its evaluation and learning system had to have the ability to evolve with it. Real-time learning informed initiative design and refinement, aligned funders on the definition of success, spurred exploration of a grantee peer-learning network, and developed a vetted consultant list and key strategic partners. This article presents key design aspects of the initiative’s evaluation and learning system, describes how it evolved over time, and shares key evaluation insights and learnings. It also explores the nuances of learning and evaluation in a large collaborative, including what the initiative has done to balance learning and accountability, and quickly move from learning to insight to action

Influence of gender on people with disabilities’ work relationships : prospects for ergonomics interventions

Norms and values embedded in what is referred to as ‘institutionalised gender,’ defined by the distribution of power between genders in the political, educational, religious, medical, cultural or social institutions of a society, exist even today. The above mentioned influential institutions shape societal norms that define, reproduce and justify differing expectations and opportunities for women, men, girls and boys. Using qualitative methods, 41 semi-structured interviews among employed people with deafness/hard of hearing (DHH), blindness/low vision, motor disabilities, or chronic pain from three administrative regions of Québec (Montréal, Outaouais, and Montérégie) were analysed. The results show that while gender is omnipresent in participants’ remarks, it is not necessarily associated with exclusion from employment, but most certainly with perpetuating some forms of inequity in work situations. Solutions to raise awareness among ergonomists working with people with disabilities are suggested.Encore aujourd’hui, il existe des normes et des valeurs inscrites dans ce qui est appelé le « genre institutionnalisé », défini par la répartition du pouvoir entre les sexes dans les institutions politiques, éducatives, religieuses, médicales, culturelles ou sociales d’une société. Ces institutions influentes façonnent les normes sociales qui définissent, reproduisent et justifient souvent des attentes et des opportunités différentes pour les femmes et les hommes et les filles et les garçons. C’est à partir d’une méthodologie qualitative que 41 entrevues semi-dirigées de participants en emploi présentant une surdité, une cécité, une difficulté motrice ou des douleurs de trois régions administratives au Québec, Canada (Montréal, l’Outaouais et la Montérégie) ont été analysées. Les résultats montrent que même si le genre est omniprésent dans le discours des participants, il n’est pas nécessairement associé à l’exclusion en emploi, mais certainement au maintien de formes d’iniquités dans les situations de travail. Des pistes de solutions sont suggérées pour sensibiliser les ergonomes dans leurs interventions auprès de populations en situation de handicap

Evaluation of the seasonal formation of subsurface negative preformed nitrate anomalies in the subtropical North Pacific and North Atlantic

Summertime mixed-layer drawdown of dissolved inorganic carbon in the absence of measurable nutrients in the ocean's subtropical gyres and non-Redfieldian oxygen&thinsp;:&thinsp;nitrate relationships in the underlying subsurface waters are two biogeochemical phenomena that have thus far eluded complete description. Many processes are thought to contribute to one or both, including lateral nutrient transport, carbon overconsumption or non-Redfield C : N : P organic matter cycling, heterotrophic nutrient uptake, and the actions of vertically migrating phytoplankton. To obtain insight into the likely magnitude of potential contributing mechanisms that can remove nitrate from the nutricline while supporting dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) drawdown tens of meters higher in the water column, we investigated the seasonal formation rates for negative preformed nitrate (preNO3) anomalies (oxygen consumption without stoichiometric nitrate release) in the subsurface and positive preformed nitrate anomalies (oxygen production without stoichiometric nitrate drawdown) in the euphotic zone at the subtropical ocean time series stations ALOHA (A Long-Term Oligotrophic Habitat Assessment) in the North Pacific and BATS (Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study) in the North Atlantic. Non-Redfield −O2 : N stoichiometry for dissolved organic matter (DOM) remineralization accounts for up to  ∼ 15&thinsp;mmol&thinsp;N&thinsp;m−2&thinsp;yr−1 of negative preNO3 anomaly formation at both stations. We present a new formulation for calculating preNO3 (residual preNO3) that includes components resulting from non-Redfield DOM cycling. Residual negative preNO3 anomalies in excess of that which can be accounted for by non-Redfield DOM cycling are found to accumulate at a rate of  ∼ 32–46&thinsp;mmol&thinsp;N&thinsp;m−2&thinsp;yr−1 at Station ALOHA and  ∼ 46–87&thinsp;mmol&thinsp;N&thinsp;m−2&thinsp;yr−1 at the BATS station. These negative anomaly formation rates are in approximate balance with residual positive preNO3 anomaly formation rates from the euphotic zone located immediately above the nutricline in the water column. We evaluate three mechanisms to explain these anomalies, calculating that transparent exopolymer particle (TEP) cycling and heterotrophic nitrate uptake can contribute to the formation of both residual preNO3 anomalies. However, a significant fraction, estimated at  ∼ 50&thinsp;%–95&thinsp;%, is unexplained by the sum of these processes. Vertically migrating phytoplankton possess the necessary distribution, nutrient acquisition strategy, and biogeochemical signature to simultaneously remove nitrate at depth and transport it above the nutricline. Reported transport rates by known migrators equal or exceed the residual preNO3 anomaly formation rates and potentially explain both the negative and positive residual preNO3 anomalies as well as the mixed-layer DIC drawdown at the stations ALOHA and BATS within the limits of scarce detailed abundance profiles. However, the three processes examined are not independent and mutually exclusive. The model Rhizosolenia mat system (and perhaps other migrators) produces TEPs, suggesting that migration could provide accelerated vertical transport of TEPs and provide labile carbon for heterotrophic nitrate uptake. These results based on geochemical distributions suggest that, in the absence of additional mechanisms and rates, phytoplankton vertical migrators, although rare and easily overlooked, play a larger role in subtropical ocean nutrient cycling and the biological pump than generally recognized.</p