Démarches d’ergonomie participative pour réduire les risques de troubles musculo-squelettiques : bilan et réflexions

Cet article traite d’interventions d’ergonomie participative réalisées par trois chercheurs dans différents milieux. En introduction, l’article situe l’approche développée par rapport à la littérature dans le domaine. Un bilan est ensuite présenté des principales composantes de notre démarche. Les grandes caractéristiques de l’approche sont d’abord décrites puis les structures de participation, comme les groupes Ergo, sont ensuite expliquées. La place faite aux travailleurs de l’entreprise est discutée et les éléments de la formation donnée sont présentés. Les actions réalisées sur les situations de travail sont détaillées ; celles-ci vont du choix des postes à risque jusqu’à l’implantation et le suivi des solutions. Un tableau présente les caractéristiques des milieux étudiés et trace le bilan des interventions réalisées sur 38 situations de travail. On constate que les transformations touchent souvent l’aménagement du poste, les équipements et outils et, plus rarement, l’organisation du travail. La discussion vise à partager des réflexions inspirées par notre pratique et à ouvrir des avenues de recherche. Cinq thèmes sont abordés : l’influence du contexte organisationnel et social sur la démarche participative ; les processus en jeu au sein des groupes Ergo ; la qualité des analyses réalisées par les participants ; la place des facteurs organisationnels et psychosociaux dans la démarche participative ; et finalement, les questions liées à l’évaluation de cette démarche. En guise de conclusion nous rappelons les points forts et les limites de l’approche et proposons des pistes de recherche.This paper discusses the participatory ergonomic interventions of three researchers in different environments. The introduction situates the developed approach in relation to the literature on the subject. An assessment is then presented of the main components of our approach. The major characteristics of the approach are described first, followed by an explanation of the participation structures, including the Ergo groups. The workers’ place in the company is discussed and aspects of the training are presented. The actions carried out with regard to the work situations are detailed, from the selection of hazardous workstations, to solution implementation and follow-up. A table presents the characteristics of the environments studied and summarizes the interventions carried out on 38 work situations. The changes often involve workstation layout, equipment and tools, and more rarely, work organization. The discussion focuses on sharing reflections based on our practices and on identifying research scenarios. Five topics are discussed : the impact of the organizational and social context on the participatory approach ; the processes in play within the Ergo groups ; the quality of the participants’ analyses ; the place of organizational and psychosocial factors in the participatory approach ; and the issues related to the evaluation of this approach. The conclusion presents the strong points and limitations of the approach and proposes some avenues for future research.Este artículo trata de intervenciones de ergonomía participativa realizada por tres investigadores en diferentes ambientes. En la introducción, el artículo situa el enfoque desarrollado en relación con la literatura en este ámbito. Luego se presenta un balance de las principales componentes de nuestro proceso. Primero se describe las grandes características del enfoque, y luego se explica las estructuras de participación, como el grupo Ergo. Se discute del lugar de los trabajadores en la empresa y los elementos de la formación están presentados. Se detalla las acciones realizadas sobre las situaciones de trabajo, por ejemplo la elección de los puestos con riesgos, o la implantación y el seguimiento de las soluciones. Un cuadro representa las características de los ambientes estudiados y hace el balance de las intervenciones realizadas en 38 situaciones de trabajo. Se constata que las transformaciones a menudo afectan la ordenación del puesto, los equipos e instrumentos, y más raramente la organización del trabajo. La discusión tiene por objetivo compartir las reflexiones inspiradas por nuestra práctica y dar aperturas de investigación. Se desarrolla en cinco temas : la influencia del contexto organizacional y social en el enfoque participativo ; los procesos comprometidos en los grupos Ergo ; la calidad de los análisis realizados por los participantes ; el lugar de los factores organizacionales y psicosociales en el enfoque participativo ; y finalmente las cuestiones vinculadas con la evaluación de este enfoque. Para concluir, recordamos los puntos fuertes y los límites del enfoque y proponemos rastros de investigación

Avant-propos

Dans la foulée d’une première conférence organisée à Nancy en 2005, se tenait à Montréal, en juin 2008, la 2e conférence du Groupe de recherche francophone sur les troubles musculo-squelettiques (TMS). Organisée par l’IRSST et parrainée par la Société d’ergonomie de langue française (SELF) et l’Association canadienne d’ergonomie (ACE), cette conférence, De la recherche à l’action, réunissait plus de 250 participants : chercheurs, praticiens et acteurs des milieux de travail. Tous ont profité ..

Familial and Clinical Correlates in Depressed Adolescents with Borderline Personality Disorder Traits

Introduction: Chart review is a low-cost, but highly informative, method to describe symptoms, treatment and risk factors associated with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and to adapt screening and intervention to clinical reality. Previous chart review studies report more aggressiveness/anger and psychotic features in youths with BPD. They show that adverse family environment and parental psychopathology constitute important factors for BPD pathology. Objectives: To examine clinical characteristics of depressed BPD adolescents (12-17 years old) outpatients according to gender and to explore variables which are associated with BPD traits. Methods: A retrospective chart review using the Child and Adolescent Version of the Retrospective Diagnostic Instrument for Borderlines was conducted on 30 depressed BPD adolescents with BPD traits and 28 non-BPD depressed patients without BPD traits. Participants who reached the C-DIB threshold for BPD were included in the BPD traits group. The Child and Adolescent Version of the Retrospective Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines was used to determine the presence of BPD. Comparisons analyses were performed using Pearson’s Chi-square test. Associated factors were determined using regression analyses. Results: BPD traits participants outpatients were characterised by higher family problems (parental psychopathology, parent disagreement/argument, parent-child relational problem), more aggressive symptoms, and higher rates of family intervention and hospitalisation. A number of familial factors (parental history of delinquency, substance use, or personality disorders, having siblings, parental disagreement/argument in boys) were associated with BPD symptomatologytraits. Attention seeking and problematic functioning (does not adapt well to group activities) were also associated with BPD traits. Discussion: Our study stresses the need to assess BPD traits in adolescent psychiatric evaluation, especially in presence of aggressive behaviours, family problems and attention seeking. Our results also highlight the importance of exploring family characteristics intervention in adolescents with BPD traits

Pixelated microfluidics for drug screening on tumour spheroids and ex vivo microdissected tumour explants

ABSTRACT: Anticancer drugs have the lowest success rate of approval in drug development programs. Thus, preclinical assays that closely predict the clinical responses to drugs are of utmost importance in both clinical oncology and pharmaceutical research. 3D tumour models preserve the tumoral architecture and are cost- and time-efficient. However, the short-term longevity, limited throughput, and limitations of live imaging of these models have so far driven researchers towards less realistic tumour models such as monolayer cell cultures. Here, we present an open-space microfluidic drug screening platform that enables the formation, culture, and multiplexed delivery of several reagents to various 3D tumour models, namely cancer cell line spheroids and ex vivo primary tumour fragments. Our platform utilizes a microfluidic pixelated chemical display that creates isolated adjacent flow sub-units of reagents, which we refer to as fluidic ‘pixels’, over tumour models in a contact-free fashion. Up to nine different treatment conditions can be tested over 144 samples in a single experiment. We provide a proof-of-concept application by staining fixed and live tumour models with multiple cellular dyes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the response of the tumour models to biological stimuli can be assessed using the platform. Upscaling the microfluidic platform to larger areas can lead to higher throughputs, and thus will have a significant impact on developing treatments for cancer

Microdissected tissue vs tissue slices - a comparative study of tumor explant models cultured on-chip and off-chip

ABSTRACT: Predicting patient responses to anticancer drugs is a major challenge both at the drug development stage and during cancer treatment. Tumor explant culture platforms (TECPs) preserve the native tissue architecture and are well-suited for drug response assays. However, tissue longevity in these models is relatively low. Several methodologies have been developed to address this issue, although no study has compared their efficacy in a controlled fashion. We investigated the effect of two variables in TECPs, specifically, the tissue size and culture vessel on tissue survival using micro-dissected tumor tissue (MDT) and tissue slices which were cultured in microfluidic chips and plastic well plates. Tumor models were produced from ovarian and prostate cancer cell line xenografts and were matched in terms of the specimen, total volume of tissue, and respective volume of medium in each culture system. We examined morphology, viability, and hypoxia in the various tumor models. Our observations suggest that the viability and proliferative capacity of MDTs were not affected during the time course of the experiments. In contrast, tissue slices had reduced proliferation and showed increased cell death and hypoxia under both culture conditions. Tissue slices cultured in microfluidic devices had a lower degree of hypoxia compared to those in 96-well plates. Globally, our results show that tissue slices have lower survival rates compared to MDTs due to inherent diffusion limitations, and that microfluidic devices may decrease hypoxia in tumor models

UNBOUND

Featured here, are the extraordinary works of our graduating Fanshawe Design class. This accomplishment is truly a celebration of the three years of passion, hard work, and dedication put forth by our students. It is our greatest hope that family, friends and the fashion industry will enjoy the creative endeavors of these emerging designers from the Fashion Design program at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario.https://first.fanshawec.ca/famd_design_fashiondesign_unbound/1001/thumbnail.jp

Sport, genetics and the `natural athlete': The resurgence of racial science

This article explores the ethical implications of recent discussions that naturalize the relationship between race, the body and sport within the frame of genetic science. Many suggestions of a racially distributed genetic basis for athletic ability and performance are strategically posited as a resounding critique of the `politically correct' meta-narratives of established sociological and anthropological forms of explanation that emphasize the social and cultural construction of race. I argue that this use of genetic science in order to describe and explain common-sense impressions of racial physiology and sporting ability is founded on erroneous premises of objectivity and disinterest, and inflates the analytical efficacy of scientific truth claims. I suggest that assertions of a value-free science of racial athletic ability reify race as inherited permanent biological characteristics that produce social hierarchies and are more characteristic of a longer history of `racial science'

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Albiglutide and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Harmony Outcomes): a double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial

Background: Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists differ in chemical structure, duration of action, and in their effects on clinical outcomes. The cardiovascular effects of once-weekly albiglutide in type 2 diabetes are unknown. We aimed to determine the safety and efficacy of albiglutide in preventing cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. Methods: We did a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 610 sites across 28 countries. We randomly assigned patients aged 40 years and older with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease (at a 1:1 ratio) to groups that either received a subcutaneous injection of albiglutide (30–50 mg, based on glycaemic response and tolerability) or of a matched volume of placebo once a week, in addition to their standard care. Investigators used an interactive voice or web response system to obtain treatment assignment, and patients and all study investigators were masked to their treatment allocation. We hypothesised that albiglutide would be non-inferior to placebo for the primary outcome of the first occurrence of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke, which was assessed in the intention-to-treat population. If non-inferiority was confirmed by an upper limit of the 95% CI for a hazard ratio of less than 1·30, closed testing for superiority was prespecified. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02465515. Findings: Patients were screened between July 1, 2015, and Nov 24, 2016. 10 793 patients were screened and 9463 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned to groups: 4731 patients were assigned to receive albiglutide and 4732 patients to receive placebo. On Nov 8, 2017, it was determined that 611 primary endpoints and a median follow-up of at least 1·5 years had accrued, and participants returned for a final visit and discontinuation from study treatment; the last patient visit was on March 12, 2018. These 9463 patients, the intention-to-treat population, were evaluated for a median duration of 1·6 years and were assessed for the primary outcome. The primary composite outcome occurred in 338 (7%) of 4731 patients at an incidence rate of 4·6 events per 100 person-years in the albiglutide group and in 428 (9%) of 4732 patients at an incidence rate of 5·9 events per 100 person-years in the placebo group (hazard ratio 0·78, 95% CI 0·68–0·90), which indicated that albiglutide was superior to placebo (p<0·0001 for non-inferiority; p=0·0006 for superiority). The incidence of acute pancreatitis (ten patients in the albiglutide group and seven patients in the placebo group), pancreatic cancer (six patients in the albiglutide group and five patients in the placebo group), medullary thyroid carcinoma (zero patients in both groups), and other serious adverse events did not differ between the two groups. There were three (<1%) deaths in the placebo group that were assessed by investigators, who were masked to study drug assignment, to be treatment-related and two (<1%) deaths in the albiglutide group. Interpretation: In patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, albiglutide was superior to placebo with respect to major adverse cardiovascular events. Evidence-based glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists should therefore be considered as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes. Funding: GlaxoSmithKline