La dimension affective du rapport à l’écrit d’élèves québécois

Comprendre le rapport à l’écrit des élèves est essentiel pour agir sur le développement de leurs capacités langagières, clé de voute du développement intellectuel, de la réussite sco‐ laire et de l’épanouissement personnel et social. La recherche Scriptura sur les activités de lecture et d’écriture menées dans les classes d’histoire et de science du secondaire au Qué‐ bec a exploré le rapport à l’écrit des élèves. Les réponses de 1 150 élèves à un questionnaire et d’entretiens avec sept élèves de 4e secondaire permet de décrire, du moins en partie, une des dimensions de ce rapport à multiples facettes, la dimension affective. Il ressort une nette différence entre le rapport à l’écrit des filles et celui des garçons, du moins dans sa dimension affective. Par ailleurs, le manque d’intérêt de tous les élèves pour la lecture et l’écriture en histoire et sciences est manifeste. Mots clés : adolescence, affectivité, compétences langagières, enseignement secondaire litéracie, rapport à l’écrit Understanding students’ relationship to writing and reading is essential to the develop‐ ment of their language abilities, the keystone of their intellectual growth and academic success, as well as their social and personal well‐being. The Scriptura research project on reading and writing, which was conducted in secondary history and science classes in Quebec, studied students’ relationship to writing and reading. Results from 1150 question‐ naire responses, and in‐depth interviews with seven tenth‐grade students, allow a partial description of one of the many facets of this relationship, the affective dimension. Our study shows a significant difference between boys’ and girls’ relationships to writing and reading, at least in the affective aspects. Furthermore, all students show a marked lack of interest in writing and reading in history and science classes. Key words: adolescence, affectivity, language skills, literacy, relationship to writing and reading, secondary education

Validation of activity questionnaires in patients with cystic fibrosis by accelerometry and cycle ergometry

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to validate physical activity questionnaires for cystic fibrosis (CF) against accelerometry and cycle ergometry. METHODS: 41 patients with CF (12-42 years) completed the Habitual Activity Estimation Scale (HAES), the 7-Day Physical Activity Recall questionnaire (7D-PAR) and the Lipid Research Clinics questionnaire (LRC) and performed an incremental exercise test according to the Godfrey protocol up to volitional fatigue. Time spent in moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) assessed objectively by accelerometry was related to the time spent in the respective activity categories by correlation analyses and calculating intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Furthermore, the results of the exercise test were correlated with the results of the questionnaires. RESULTS: Time spent in the categories 'hard','very hard' and 'hard & very hard' of the 7D-PAR (0.41 > r > 0.56) and 'active' (r = 0.33) of the HAES correlated significantly with MVPA. The activity levels of the LRC were not related to objectively determined physical activity. Significant ICCs were only observed between the 7D-PAR activitiy categories and MVPA (ICC = 0.40-0.44). Only the LRC showed moderate correlations with the exercise test (Wmax: r = 0.46, p = 0.002; VO2peak: r = 0.32, p = 0.041). CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the activity categories 'hard' and 'very hard' of the 7D-PAR best reflected objectively measured MVPA. Since the association was at most moderate, the 7D-PAR may be selected to describe physical activity within a population. None of the evaluated questionnaires was able to generate valid physical activity data exercise performance data at the individual level. Neither did any of the questionnaires provide a valid assessment of aerobic fitness on an invidual leve

A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N=10,535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-being, and (2) whether the relation between religiosity and self-reported well-being depends on perceived cultural norms of religion (i.e., whether it is considered normal and desirable to be religious in a given country). In a two-stage procedure, the teams first created an analysis plan and then executed their planned analysis on the data. For the first research question, all but 3 teams reported positive effect sizes with credible/confidence intervals excluding zero (median reported β=0.120). For the second research question, this was the case for 65% of the teams (median reported β=0.039). While most teams applied (multilevel) linear regression models, there was considerable variability in the choice of items used to construct the independent variables, the dependent variable, and the included covariates

Vowel space area in later childhood and adolescence: Effects of age, sex and ease of communication

This study investigated vowel space area (VSA) development in childhood and adolescence and its impact on the ability to hyperarticulate vowels. In experiment 1, 96 participants aged 9-14 years carried out an interactive task when communication was easy (no barrier, 'NB') and difficult (the speech of one participant was filtered through a vocoder, 'VOC'). Previous recordings from 20 adults were used as reference. Measures of VSA (ERB2), F1 and F2 ranges (ERB) and articulation rate were obtained. Children's VSA were significantly larger than adults'. From the age of 11, vowel hyperarticulation was evident in VOC, but only because VSA were gradually reducing with age in NB. The results suggest that whilst large VSA do not prevent children from hyperarticulating vowels, the manner in which this is achieved may not be adult-like. Experiment 2 was conducted to verify that large VSA were not a by-product of children being unable to see each other. Thirteen participants carried out the same task face-to-face with their interlocutor. Comparisons to matched participants from experiment 1 showed no differences in VSA, indicating that the audio-only modality did not influence results. Possible reasons for larger VSA in the spontaneous speech of children and adolescents are discussed

A Many-analysts Approach to the Relation Between Religiosity and Well-being

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset (N = 10, 535 participants from 24 countries). We recruited 120 analysis teams to investigate (1) whether religious people self-report higher well-being, and (2) whether the relation between religiosity and self-reported well-being depends on perceived cultural norms of religion (i.e., whether it is considered normal and desirable to be religious in a given country). In a two-stage procedure, the teams first created an analysis plan and then executed their planned analysis on the data. For the first research question, all but 3 teams reported positive effect sizes with credible/confidence intervals excluding zero (median reported β = 0.120). For the second research question, this was the case for 65% of the teams (median reported β = 0.039). While most teams applied (multilevel) linear regression models, there was considerable variability in the choice of items used to construct the independent variables, the dependent variable, and the included covariates

La réécriture accompagnée : une démarche didactique complexe pour améliorer la compétence scripturale

Résolument socioconstructiviste, la démarche didactique de « réécriture accompagnée » consiste en un agencement modulable de divers dispositifs d'apprentissage de l'écriture de textes. Fondée sur un cadre conceptuel multiréférentiel, elle a d'abord été élaborée de façon empirique selon une démarche de praticien réflexif. La recherche exploratoire effectuée à son propos décrit et modélise la démarche, puis présente son adaptation à un cours crédité d'écriture de textes entrant dans le cursus de formation d'enseignants de français langue première et portant sur six genres non littéraires. Une analyse qualitative détaillée du déroulement des séquences majeures, sur lesquelles porte la recherche, ainsi que de l'évolution de deux étudiantes au cours de la session, fait apparaître le parcours différencié de chacune et révèle une progression forte de la compétence scripturale de ces deux sujets, parallèlement à une modification importante de leurs procédures d'écriture de textes, particulièrement en matière d'anticipation et de retour réflexif sur leur écrit, considérés comme une manifestation d'expertise. Parallèlement se font jour des modifications de leur représentation de l'écrit, qui demeurent toutefois fragiles. Une analyse statistique de quatre corpus de copies, d'une part, et, d'autre part, une analyse de contenus de tous les questionnaires renseignés par les étudiants montrent que ces résultats se retrouvent dans l'ensemble du groupe et que la progression est parfois plus forte chez les étudiants initialement en difficulté. La plupart des modifications de procédures constatées ou déclarées au cours de la session semblent stabilisées un an plus tard. Par ailleurs, l'étude met en évidence l'impact de trois éléments dans la qualité des apprentissages : le temps imparti, l'expérience réalisée par les apprenants et le sens, qui guide y compris les apprentissages formels. La recherche débouche donc sur un nombre important d'hypothèses pour des recherches ultérieures permettant de confirmer ces résultats

Patron de marche : comparaison entre contrôles et adolescents atteints d'une scoliose idiopathique

Scoliosis is a 3D deformation of the spine and thoracic cage and mostly teenager girls are affected by it. Spatio-temporal parameters during walking has been described for this population but kinetic factors have not been documented as well as the asymmetry between the two legs. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to quantify the kinetics of the lower limbs in idiopathic scoliotic patients (ISP) and control adolescents. Ten control adolescents and nine ISP walked at comfortable speed for ten trials on a 10m walkway. Control adolescents walked at a slightly but not significantly faster speed than ISP. No other tendency is reported for cadence, stride length, stance and double support phases durations. Control adolescents show greater ankle (A2) plantar flexors energy generation during push-off and hip (H3) flexor energy generation during late stance and early swing phases compared to ISP. ISP displayed significantly more work asymmetry than controls for the knee absorption bursts. Generally, work bursts of the control group are usually greater than the ones of the ISP group. The greater work reported by the ankle plantar flexors (A2) during push-off and hip flexors (H3) during late stance and pull-off can explain the higher walking speed compared to the ISP group

Les rotations des ceintures scapulaire et pelvienne à la marche : comparaison entre contrôles et adolescents atteints d'une scoliose idiopathique

Subjects with idiopathic scoliosis, during a walking task at natural speed, showed no difference in pelvic and shoulder range of motion. However, idiopathic scoliosis shoulder minimum range of motion was smaller in coronal plane and did not cross the neutral position. Consequently, that means idiopathic scoliosis shoulder rotated farer counterclockwise than clockwise. Surprisingly, it did not affect movement nor coordination in the frontal plane which demonstrates that, even if shoulder rotations are asymmetric, the trunk is able to adapt and to coordinate walking pattern

The TIR Homologue Lies near Resistance Genes in Staphylococcus aureus, Coupling Modulation of Virulence and Antimicrobial Susceptibility

Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domains in Toll-like receptors are essential for initiating and propagating the eukaryotic innate immune signaling cascade. Here, we investigate TirS, a Staphylococcus aureus TIR mimic that is part of a novel bacterial invasion mechanism. Its ectopic expression in eukaryotic cells inhibited TLR signaling, downregulating the NF-kB pathway through inhibition of TLR2, TLR4, TLR5, and TLR9. Skin lesions induced by the S. aureus knockout tirS mutant increased in a mouse model compared with wild-type and restored strains even though the tirS-mutant and wild-type strains did not differ in bacterial load. TirS also was associated with lower neutrophil and macrophage activity, confirming a central role in virulence attenuation through local inflammatory responses. TirS invariably localizes within the staphylococcal chromosomal cassettes (SCC) containing the fusC gene for fusidic acid resistance but not always carrying the mecA gene. Of note, sub-inhibitory concentration of fusidic acid increased tirS expression. Epidemiological studies identified no link between this effector and clinical presentation but showed a selective advantage with a SCCmec element with SCC fusC/tirS. Thus, two key traits determining the success and spread of bacterial infections are linked