Within new worlds : some of the difficulties and challenges of translating two of Pierre Nepveu's literary essays

This project provides a translation of two of Pierre Nepveu's essays taken from his book Intérieurs du nouveau monde published in 1998. The translation is followed by a commentary that outlines some of the difficulties and challenges that his work presented in the translation process. The work involved in translating these essays not only required effort at the level of the text itself, but also meant delving into the literary corpus on which the author based his ideas. The readings and research involved prior and during translation affects the syntax, word choice, and overall voice of the text in the receiving language. Translation involves much more than a simple transfer process and requires relying on a wealth of background work that engages the translator as a reader and as a writer. Pierre Nepveu's essays are filled with literary references and information that proves to be interesting and multifaceted reading

Preparing a solar take-off: solar energy demonstration and exhibitions in Japan, 1945–1993

When the first oil crisis hit Japan in 1973, the country was highly dependent on imported oil as the source of electric power. The dire prospect of an oil cut-off gave sufficient and immediate impetus for Japan to begin searching frantically for alternative energy sources. Starting in 1974, the state-sponsored Sunshine Project, which originated from concern about the country’s excessive oil dependency – rather than being a direct response to the oil crisis – mobilised the technological and financial resources for finding viable energy alternatives and implemented a number of state-funded projects. One of the most successful enterprises was the development of solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation, and, as a consequence, the household solar PV panel penetrated into the consumer market in the 1990s, comparatively earlier than most of the developed nations. The existing literature tends to focus on the economic incentive provided by state subsidy. However, the diffusion of the solar panel in Japan calls for a more nuanced explanation. A certain degree of social acceptance was needed before a large number of consumers embraced a new energy technology to the extent that they were willing to pay for the initial cost. The social acceptance for using a new technology was, in turn, based on pre-existing knowledge about the technology. This paper aims at shedding light on the pathways through which the knowledge about solar energy proliferated in the Japanese society, by focusing on solar energy demonstration and exhibitions – these forms of knowledge circulation had their roots in the penetration of the solar water heater in rural areas of Japan in the immediate post-WWII period

Regards sur les paradigmes féministes en recherche

Huit spécialistes ont accepté de répondre à trois questions sur l’émergence, la variété et l’avenir des paradigmes féministes en recherche. Ces personnes viennent d’universités différentes, de disciplines différentes et font aussi partie de générations différentes.Cette discussion n’a pas vraiment eu lieu, et c’est pourquoi elle est qualifiée de « virtuelle ». Toutefois, un échange a pu être constitué avec les réponses reçues. Il témoigne d’opinions contrastées, allant de l’optimisme au pessimisme, au sujet de l’influence des paradigmes féministes sur l’ensemble de la recherche universitaire.Eight professors were invited to answer three questions on the apparition, the variety and the future of feminist paradigms in research. They come from different universities, different disciplines and different generations. This discussion is called "virtual", because the participants have never met. The dialogue presented has been fabricated with the answers received. It reveals contrasted opinions, from optimism to pessimism, about the influence of feminist paradigms on the whole of learned research

Optimization of temporal versus spatial replication in the development of habitat use models to explain among-reach variations of fish density estimates in rivers

Abstract: We evaluated the effects of temporal variation of fish density estimates on the explanatory power of habitat use models. Fish density estimates were obtained using visual surveys (10 visits) in eighteen 100 m reaches over a 7-week period. Physical attributes of reaches were estimated. Field data were used to develop a simulation domain (10 000 reaches) that reflected the spatio-temporal variability of fish density estimates and physical attributes. Simulations indicated that for a sampling effort of approximately 200 surveys, the number of reaches surveyed (25 to 200) and the number of surveys per reach (1 to 8) affected the adjusted R 2 of models by 5% to 42%. The established practice of sampling a maximized number of reaches once did not appear necessarily optimal for developing habitat use models. Analysis of temporal coefficients of variation suggests that species within the same family may require a similar survey design. Hence, for salmonids, it may be more appropriate to sample more reaches once, and for cyprinids, it may be more optimal to repeatedly sample fewer reaches

Deformable and durable optical phantoms with controlled density of scatterers

Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Reading and spelling impairments in children and adolescents with infantile myotonic dystrophy

Abstract This study investigated reading and spelling difficulties in subjects with the juvenile form of myotonic dystrophy (MD). Twenty-three consecutive patients with juvenile MD who were referred to a special clinic were assessed for reading and spelling skills (phonological processing, word identification, narrative comprehension (two tasks), information seeking in a document (TV schedule), and spelling). Reading impairments were frequent (63-84% of the subjects being below the level of literacy depending on the tasks), even in subjects without mental retardation (22-66%) despite normal word identification scores. All but two subjects had spelling difficulties. The severity of these learning difficulties was correlated with longer mutation size and maternal transmission, but could not be related to phonological deficit, suggesting that other brain dysfunction might be involved (e.g., attention, working memory, naming speed, executive function). Children with the juvenile form of MD should systematically be assessed for reading and spelling problems, and correlations with basic cognitive functioning explored.