Place ratings, shifting neoliberalism and quality of life in communities

The publication of place ratings on the basis of their competitive attractiveness and quality of life has been one element of place marketing and promotion agenda associated with the onset of neoliberalism. The Places Rated Almanac in the US has epitomised and led the development of such guides, and after a quarter of a century appears on the basis of sales to continue to offer currency and utility. This paper explores the relevance of this particular almanac and its offsprings within the context of recent accounts of the periodisation of neoliberalism. In particular it considers the extent to which such guides have continued to have resonance through the shift from economic-focussed roll back neoliberalism to more socially-oriented roll out neoliberalism

Conceptual knowledge of decimal arithmetic

In 2 studies (Ns = 55 and 54), the authors examined a basic form of conceptual understanding of rational number arithmetic, the direction of effect of decimal arithmetic operations, at a level of detail useful for informing instruction. Middle school students were presented tasks examining knowledge of the direction of effects (e.g., "True or false: 0.77 * 0.63 > 0.77"), knowledge of decimal magnitudes, and knowledge of decimal arithmetic procedures. Their confidence in their direction of effect judgments was also assessed. The authors found (a) most students incorrectly predicted the direction of effect of multiplication and division with decimals below 1; (b) this pattern held for students who accurately compared the magnitudes of individual decimals and correctly executed decimal arithmetic operations; (c) explanations of direction of effect judgments that cited both the arithmetic operation and the numbers' magnitudes were strongly associated with accurate judgments; and (d) judgments were more accurate when multiplication problems involved a whole number and a decimal below 1 than with 2 decimals below 1. Implications of the findings for instruction are discussed

Amplitude modulation of vowel glottal pulses: application to sleep inertia

International audienceHuman voice carries non-linguistic information about emotion, fatigue, stress, truth, psychological illnesses etc. The proofs of this are well-established nowadays. In real-life situations, in laboratory conditions and from a cross-cultural point of view, the speakers psycho-physiological disorders induce vocal modifications. Many acoustic parameters are measured. They belong to the dynamic and spectral planes. Phase space is also involved. Amplitude modulation is one of them. Unlike prosody and vocal quality features, this has not been widely studied. In this paper, a method for estimation vowel glottal pulses amplitude modulations is proposed. After pulse detection, a sinusoidal fit is applied leading to an estimate of the amplitude modulation frequency. This method has already been used in experiments on sleep inertia effects on the voice. A pilot is suddenly awakened to undertake aeronautical psychomotor tasks. Results show the existence of an amplitude modulation. Their validity is based on determination coefficient measurements taking into account the number of pitch periods. Additionally, shimmer measurements show an increase after awakening. It can thus be concluded that sleep inertia has an effect on vowels uttered by the pilot

Études moléculaires du rôle de Pax6 lors du développement de la rétine et des cellules souches rétiniennes

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal

Efficient optical pumping of Zeeman spin levels in Nd3+:YVO4

We demonstrate that Zeeman ground-state spin levels in Nd3+:YVO4 provides the possibility to create an efficient lambda-system for optical pumping experiments. The branching ratio R in the lambda-system is measured experimentally via absorption spectroscopy and is compared to a theoretical model. We show that R can be tuned by changing the orientation of the magnetic field. These results are applied to optical pumping experiments, where significant improvement is obtained compared to previous experiments in this system. The tunability of the branching ratio in combination with its good coherence properties and the high oscillator strength makes Nd3+:YVO4 an interesting candidate for various quantum information protocols.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Enquêtes de victimation et statistiques de police : les difficultés d’une comparaison

En utilisant une série d’enquêtes nationales de victimation et de statistiques policières françaises pour la période 1985-2002, les auteurs analysent les obstacles à surmonter et les difficultés à résoudre pour comparer ces deux sources, d’abord en ce qui concerne plusieurs sortes d’atteintes aux biens, ensuite différentes catégories de violences

Channel Openings Are Necessary but not Sufficient for Use-dependent Block of Cardiac Na+ Channels by Flecainide: Evidence from the Analysis of Disease-linked Mutations

Na+ channel blockers such as flecainide have found renewed usefulness in the diagnosis and treatment of two clinical syndromes arising from inherited mutations in SCN5A, the gene encoding the α subunit of the cardiac voltage–gated Na+ channel. The Brugada syndrome (BrS) and the LQT-3 variant of the Long QT syndrome are caused by disease-linked SCN5A mutations that act to change functional and pharmacological properties of the channel. Here we have explored a set of SCN5A mutations linked both to BrS and LQT-3 to determine what disease-modified channel properties underlie distinct responses to the Na+ channel blocker flecainide. We focused on flecainide block that develops with repetitive channel activity, so-called use-dependent block (UDB). Our results indicate that mutation-induced changes in the voltage-dependence of channel availability (inactivation) may act as determinants of flecainide block. The data further indicate that UDB by flecainide requires channel opening, but is not likely due to open channel block. Rather, flecainide appears to interact with inactivation states that follow depolarization-induced channel opening, and mutation-induced changes in channel inactivation will alter flecainide block independent of the disease to which the mutation is linked. Analysis of flecainide block of mutant channels linked to these rare disorders has provided novel insight into the molecular determinants of drug action

Hard lessons : Why rational number arithmetic is so difficult for so many people

Fraction and decimal arithmetic pose large difficulties for many children and adults. This is a serious problem because proficiency with these skills is crucial for learning more advanced mathematics and science and for success in many occupations. This review identifies two main classes of difficulties that underlie poor understanding of rational number arithmetic: inherent and culturally contingent. Inherent sources of difficulty are ones that are imposed by the task of learning rational number arithmetic, such as complex relations among fraction arithmetic operations. They are present for all learners. Culturally contingent sources of difficulty are ones that vary among cultures, such as teacher understanding of rational numbers. They lead to poorer learning among students in some places rather than others. We conclude by discussing interventions that can improve learning of rational number arithmetic