Can thin-lipped mullet directly exploit the primary and detritic production of European macrotidal salt marshes?

Juveniles and adults (>100 mm) of Liza ramada colonize macrotidal salt marsh creeks of Mont Saint-Michel bay (France)between March and November, during spring tide floods (43% of the tides) and return to coastal waters during the ebb. This fish species actively feeds during its short stay in the creek (from 1 to 2 h). On average, each fish swallows sediment including living and inert organic matter, which amounts to 8% of its fresh body weight. Their diet is dominated by small benthic items (especially diatoms and salt marsh plant detritus), that correspond to the primary and detritic production of this macrotidal salt marsh creek. Despite very short submersion periods, mullets filter and ingest large quantities of sediment and concentrated organic matter (on average organic matter in stomach content is 31%) produced by these coastal wetlands. European salt marshes are thus shown to act as trophic areas for mullets, which are well adapted to this constraining habitat which is only flooded for short periods during spring tides

La prévention des difficultés de lecture et d'écriture

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal

Creative Education

The aim of this study was to assess the efficiency of four learning conditions to develop phonological and musical processing skills through a set of 10 nursery rhymes. According to the analysis of the teachers' practices, eight kindergarten classes (n = 100 kindergarteners) were paired and assigned to one of the following conditions: 1) music; 2) language; 3) combined [music and language]; and 4) passive listening (control classes). Participants in conditions 1, 2, and 3 were met for 40 minutes per week over a ten-week period. In condition 1, the nursery rhymes were supplemented by musical activities and in condition 2 by language activities. Condition 3 was a combination of activities from conditions 1 and 2. In condition 4, children listened to a recording of the same nursery rhymes for 15 minutes daily during free exploration periods. No intervention was proposed for this control condition. All participants were evaluated using the same phonological and musical processing measures prior to and after the implementation of the program. Results indicated that children in conditions 1, 2 and 3 significantly improved their phonological awareness and their invented spelling skills at post-test. However, only the two conditions in which the music component was integrated enhanced significantly their results at the verbal memory task. Children in conditions 1, 3 and 4 enhanced tonal and rhythm perception skills. This study demonstrated that supplementing nursery rhymes with language activities is an efficient manner to develop emergent literacy skills, but the addition of musical activities could also boost phonological processing skills

The Saint-Jude landslide of May 10th, 2010, Quebec, Canada : investigation and characterisation of the landslide and its failure mechanism

A landslide occurred on May 10, 2010, along the Salvail River, in the municipality of Saint- Jude, Quebec. Debris of the landslide was formed of blocks clay having horst and graben shapes, typical of spreads in sensitive clays. A detailed investigation was carried out by the Ministère des Transports, de la Mobilité durable et de l’électrification des transports du Québec in collaboration with Université Laval, with the objective of characterizing this landslide, determining the causes and learning about its failure mechanism. The soil involved is a firm, grey, sensitive lightly overconsolidated clay with some silt. Data from piezometers installed near the landslide indicated artesian conditions underneath the Salvail River. Cone penetration tests allowed to location of two failure surface levels. The first one starting 2.5 m below the initial river bed and extending horizontally up to 125 m and a second one 10 m higher reaching the backscarp. Investigation of the debris with onsite measurements, light detector and ranging surveys, cone penetration tests, and boreholes allowed a detailed geotechnical and morphological analysis of the debris and reconstitution of the dislocation mechanism of this complex spread.Un glissement est survenu le 10 mai 2010 le long de la rivière Salvail, dans la municipalité de Saint-Jude au Québec. Les débris de ce glissement étaient formés de blocs d’argile ayant la forme de horst et de grabens, typique des étalements dans les argiles sensibles. Le Ministère des Transports, de la Mobilité durable et de l’électrification des transports du Québec et l’Université Laval ont réalisé l’investigation détaillée de ce glissement de terrain, dans le but de le caractériser, d’en déterminer les causes et d’en apprendre d’avantage sur le mécanisme de rupture. Le sol impliqué est une argile sensible grise avec un peu de silt, de consistance ferme, légèrement surconsolidée. Les piézomètres installés à proximité du glissement indiquent des conditions artésiennes sous la rivière Salvail. L’utilisation du piézocône a permis de localiser deux niveaux de surfaces de ruptures. L’un à 2,5 m sous la position initiale de la rivière, s’entendant horizontalement sur 125 m, et l’autre 10 m plus haut, allant jusqu’à l’escarpement arrière. L’investigation des débris par mesures prises sur le terrain, levées de télédétection par laser, piézocônes et forages a permis une analyse géotechnique et morphologique détaillée de ces derniers et la reconstitution du mécanisme de dislocation de ce glissement complexe

The carbon fraction in biomass and organic matter in boreal open woodlands of Eastern Canada

In Canada, boreal open woodlands (OWs) show interesting afforestation potential, but no detailed study is available regarding the carbon fraction (CF) of dry matter in biomass and litter reservoirs (tonne C/tonne dry mass). This study aimed at providing the very first specific CF values of C reservoirs and compartments in OWs, with the main hypothesis that given the particular stand characteristics of OWs, more precise CF values than IPCC’s default values would significantly change the calculation of C stocks in OWs. Results indicate that even though the CF values measured in this study were significantly different among the different C reservoirs and compartments in OWs, they matched the IPCC default CF values for the biomass (0.50) and humus (0.37) reservoirs. Therefore, the main hypothesis of this study – that more precise CF values than IPCC’s default values would significantly change the calculation of C stocks in OWs – was not supported by the results. Consequently, the IPCC default values of the CF in the biomass and litter (humus) reservoirs can be used to estimate C stocks in boreal OWs, for example when using OWs as the baseline scenario in afforestation projects. Les terrains dénudés secs (DS) boréaux du Canada montrent un potentiel de boisement intéressant, sauf qu’aucune étude détaillée n’est disponible à propos de la fraction carbonique (FC) de la matière sèche dans les réservoirs de la biomasse et de la litière (tonne de C par tonne de masse sèche). La présente étude visait à fournir les toutes premières valeurs spécifiques de FC des réservoirs et compartiments de C des DS, avec l’hypothèse principale que vu les caractéristiques particulières des DS, des valeurs de FC plus précises que les valeurs par défaut du GIEC changeraient significativement le calcul des stocks de C dans les DS. Les résultats indiquent que bien que les valeurs de FC étaient significativement différentes entre les réservoirs et compartiments des DS, elles étaient similaires aux valeurs par défaut du GIEC, tant pour les réservoirs de la biomasse (0.50) que de la litière (0.37). Ainsi, l’hypothèse principale de l’étude – que des valeurs de FC plus précises que les valeurs par défaut du GIEC changeraient significativement le calcul des stocks de C dans les DS – n’est pas soutenue par les résultats. Par conséquent, les valeurs de FC par défaut du GIEC pour les réservoirs de la biomasse et de la litière (humus) peuvent être utilisées pour estimer les stocks de C des DS boréaux, par exemple lorsque les DS font office de scénario de référence dans des projets de boisement

Selective alteration of gene expression in response to natural and synthetic retinoids.

BACKGROUND: Retinoids are very potent inducers of cellular differentiation and apoptosis, and are efficient anti-tumoral agents. Synthetic retinoids are designed to restrict their toxicity and side effects, mostly by increasing their selectivity toward each isotype of retinoic acids receptors (RARα,β, γ and RXRα, β, γ). We however previously showed that retinoids displayed very different abilities to activate retinoid-inducible reporter genes, and that these differential properties were correlated to the ability of a given ligand to promote SRC-1 recruitment by DNA-bound RXR:RAR heterodimers. This suggested that gene-selective modulation could be achieved by structurally distinct retinoids. RESULTS: Using the differential display mRNA technique, we identified several genes on the basis of their differential induction by natural or synthetic retinoids in human cervix adenocarcinoma cells. Furthermore, this differential ability to regulate promoter activities was also observed in murine P19 cells for the RARβ2 and CRABPII gene, showing conclusively that retinoid structure has a dramatic impact on the regulation of endogenous genes. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings therefore show that some degree of selective induction or repression of gene expression may be achieved when using appropriately designed ligands for retinoic acid receptors, extending the concept of selective modulators from estrogen and peroxisome proliferator activated receptors to the class of retinoid receptors

Élaboration et premiers pas de validation de questionnaires pour évaluer la fidélité du modèle de réponse à l’intervention en littératie dans les écoles primaires francophones québécoises

Many French-speaking elementary schools in Quebec implementing the Response to Intervention (RTI) model in literacy need to evaluate the accuracy (or fidelity) of its implementation. In collaboration with schools, this study is aimed at developing and validating instruments to evaluate the fidelity of RTI and its implementation strategies. Self-evaluation questionnaires were developed, including the completion of group meetings with 50 participants to adapt the content to the context and cognitive interviews with 35 participants to pretest the questionnaires. These questionnaires will help inform feedback on the implementation of RTI, and are essential to evaluate the efficacy of RTI. Keywords: response to intervention, fidelity, implementation, reading, writing, literacy,questionnaires, validityPlusieurs écoles primaires francophones québécoises implantant le modèle de réponse à l’intervention (RAI) en littératie désirent en évaluer la fidélité. En collaboration avec certaines de ces écoles, cette étude vise à élaborer et à valider des instruments d’évaluation de la fidélité de la RAI et de ses stratégies d’implantation. Des questionnaires d’autoévaluation ont été élaborés : 50 participants ont discuté en groupes pour adapter le contenu à leur contexte et 35 participants ont pris part à des entrevues cognitives pour prétester les questionnaires. Ces questionnaires permettront d’alimenter la rétroaction sur l’implantation de la RAI et sont essentiels pour l’évaluation de l’efficacité de la RAI. Mots-clés : réponse à l’intervention, fidélité, implantation, lecture, écriture, littératie, questionnaires, validit

Experimental Certification of Quantum Transmission via Bell's Theorem

Quantum transmission links are central elements in essentially all implementations of quantum information protocols. Emerging progress in quantum technologies involving such links needs to be accompanied by appropriate certification tools. In adversarial scenarios, a certification method can be vulnerable to attacks if too much trust is placed on the underlying system. Here, we propose a protocol in a device independent framework, which allows for the certification of practical quantum transmission links in scenarios where minimal assumptions are made about the functioning of the certification setup. In particular, we take unavoidable transmission losses into account by modeling the link as a completely-positive trace-decreasing map. We also, crucially, remove the assumption of independent and identically distributed samples, which is known to be incompatible with adversarial settings. Finally, in view of the use of the certified transmitted states for follow-up applications, our protocol moves beyond certification of the channel to allow us to estimate the quality of the transmitted state itself. To illustrate the practical relevance and the feasibility of our protocol with currently available technology we provide an experimental implementation based on a state-of-the-art polarization entangled photon pair source in a Sagnac configuration and analyze its robustness for realistic losses and errors.Comment: 34 pages, 14 figure

Les documents scientifiques informels: un patrimoine peu exploré, témoin de la construction des savoirs

L'objectif du projet ECRITO était de contribuer à préserver et à valoriser les documents scientifiques produits quotidiennement par les chercheurs de Midi-Pyrénées, en amont des publications formelles : non seulement les articles, communications ou monographies, qui constituent la partie visible de la recherche, mais aussi tous les matériaux et informations accumulés par les chercheurs, et sur la base desquels se construit leur travail. Ces matériaux sont de types très divers : littérature " grise " (rapports, mémoires, documentation techniques...), documents textuels " informels " (carnets, notes, brouillons, correspondances, cahiers de laboratoires), corpus visuels, sonores ou multimédia (campagnes photographiques, campagnes d'enquêtes, enregistrements audio ou vidéo), données électroniques (bases de données, fichiers informatiques), etc. Le projet visait également à prolonger, de manière exploratoire, le questionnement sur le patrimoine scientifique à partir des traces matérielles produites quotidiennement par les chercheurs dans leurs activités de recherche. Ces traces représentent en effet une fenêtre irremplaçable sur la science en train de se construire : elles permettent de rendre visible et compréhensible le processus habituellement dissimulé de production de la science, ce qui constitue un enjeu scientifique et pédagogique fondamental