Étude des liens entre la consommation ponctuelle abusive de cocaïne injectée et les facteurs associés à la transmission du VIH

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

Le développement professionnel des enseignants en contexte de mise en réseau de petites écoles rurales géographiquement distantes : au-delà de l’alphabétisation technologique

L’article rend compte du développement professionnel des enseignants dans le contexte de l’École éloignée en réseau, une initiative ministérielle destinée à relier les écoles rurales par le biais de technologies collaboratives à des fins d’enrichissement de l’environnement d’apprentissage. Les 12 compétences professionnelles (MEQ, 2001) ont servi de cadre de référence à l’élaboration d’un questionnaire visant à évaluer la perception des enseignants de leur propre développement professionnel dans le cadre de l’initiative. Des entretiens semi-structurés ont aussi été menés. Les résultats révèlent des acquis qui vont bien au-delà du seul développement de la compétence à utiliser des outils technologiques. This article examines the professional development of teachers who participated in the Remote Networked Schools initiative, one that aims to link classrooms of rural schools with collaborative technologies to enrich their learning environment. Professional competencies (MEQ, 2001) were the framework adopted for the conception of a questionnaire that evaluated teachers' perception of their own professional development in the context of the ministry initiative. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted. Results reveal in particular that mobilization of competencies goes beyond the competency to integrate technologies into teaching and learning

Pouvons-nous réduire la dose d’azote après un retour de prairie?

Affiche présentée dans le cadre du Colloque de l'ARC, «Des racines et des ailes pour la recherche collégiale», dans le cadre du 85e Congrès de l’Acfas, Université McGill, Montréal, les 8 et 9 mai 2017.Au Québec, les émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES) d’origine agricole représentent près de 8 % des émissions totales. Environ 40 % des émissions agricoles découle de l’usage des engrais minéraux et des engrais de ferme. Tout apport excédentaire d’engrais azoté dans les cultures se traduit par des émissions supplémentaires d’oxyde nitreux (N2O), un puissant gaz à effet de serre qui contribue aux émissions de GES. Plusieurs études ont démontré que la culture de maïs n’avait pas besoin d’apports importants d’azote en postlevée, après des retours de prairie. En collaboration avec des producteurs agricoles, 16 sites d’essais de fertilisation azotée ont été implantés sur des retours de prairie ayant reçu des engrais de ferme. Les traitements consistaient à apporter 4 doses d’azote minéral (0, 40, 80 et 120 kg N/ha). La teneur en nitrates du sol ainsi que les rendements à la récolte ont été évalués. La teneur en nitrates a confirmé l’effet significatif de la prairie et des engrais de ferme sur la teneur en azote disponible pour le maïs. L’apport d’azote minéral n’a pas eu d’effet significatif sur les rendements en azote, à l’exception d’un site. Le maïs cultivé sur un retour de prairie ne nécessite pas un ajout d’engrais minéral. Éliminer l’apport d’azote réduit tant les émissions de GES que les dépenses en engrais pour les producteurs

'Do not attempt resuscitation' and 'cardiopulmonary resuscitation' in an inpatient setting : factors influencing physicians' decisions in Switzerland

To determine the prevalence of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and do-not-attempt-resuscitation (DNAR) orders, to define factors associated with CPR/DNAR orders and to explore how physicians make and document these decisions. We prospectively reviewed CPR/DNAR forms of 1,446 patients admitted to the General Internal Medicine Department of the Geneva University Hospitals, a tertiary-care teaching hospital in Switzerland. We additionally administered a face-to-face survey to residents in charge of 206 patients including DNAR and CPR orders, with or without patient inclusion.; 21.2% of the patients had a DNAR order, 61.7% a CPR order and 17.1% had neither. The two main factors associated with DNAR orders were a worse prognosis and/or a worse quality of life. Others factors were an older age, cancer and psychiatric diagnoses, and the absence of decision-making capacity. Residents gave four major justifications for DNAR orders: important comorbid conditions (34%), the patients' or their family's resuscitation preferences (18%), the patients' age (14.2%), and the absence of decision-making capacity (8%). Residents who wrote DNAR orders were more experienced. In many of the DNAR or CPR forms (19.8 and 16%, respectively), the order was written using a variety of formulations. For 24% of the residents, the distinction between the resuscitation order and the care objective was not clear. 38% of the residents found the resuscitation form useful.; Patients' prognosis and quality of life were the two main independent factors associated with CPR/DNAR orders. However, in the majority of cases, residents evaluated prognosis only intuitively, and quality of life without involving the patients. The distinction between CPR/DNAR orders and the care objectives was not always clear. Specific training regarding CPR/DNAR orders is necessary to improve the CPR/DNAR decision process used by physicians

Clinical utilization of genomics data produced by the international Pseudomonas aeruginosa consortium

The International Pseudomonas aeruginosa Consortium is sequencing over 1000 genomes and building an analysis pipeline for the study of Pseudomonas genome evolution, antibiotic resistance and virulence genes. Metadata, including genomic and phenotypic data for each isolate of the collection, are available through the International Pseudomonas Consortium Database (http://ipcd.ibis.ulaval.ca/). Here, we present our strategy and the results that emerged from the analysis of the first 389 genomes. With as yet unmatched resolution, our results confirm that P. aeruginosa strains can be divided into three major groups that are further divided into subgroups, some not previously reported in the literature. We also provide the first snapshot of P. aeruginosa strain diversity with respect to antibiotic resistance. Our approach will allow us to draw potential links between environmental strains and those implicated in human and animal infections, understand how patients become infected and how the infection evolves over time as well as identify prognostic markers for better evidence-based decisions on patient care

Cardiovascular effects of sub-daily levels of ambient fine particles: a systematic review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>While the effects of daily fine particulate exposure (PM) have been well reviewed, the epidemiological and physiological evidence of cardiovascular effects associated to sub-daily exposures has not. We performed a theoretical model-driven systematic non-meta-analytical literature review to document the association between PM sub-daily exposures (≤6 hours) and arrhythmia, ischemia and myocardial infarction (MI) as well as the likely mechanisms by which sub-daily PM exposures might induce these acute cardiovascular effects. This review was motivated by the assessment of the risk of exposure to elevated sub-daily levels of PM during fireworks displays.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Medline and Elsevier's EMBase were consulted for the years 1996-2008. Search keywords covered potential cardiovascular effects, the pollutant of interest and the short duration of the exposure. Only epidemiological and experimental studies of adult humans (age > 18 yrs) published in English were reviewed. Information on design, population and PM exposure characteristics, and presence of an association with selected cardiovascular effects or physiological assessments was extracted from retrieved articles.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 231 articles identified, 49 were reviewed. Of these, 17 addressed the relationship between sub-daily exposures to PM and cardiovascular effects: five assessed ST-segment depression indicating ischemia, eight assessed arrhythmia or fibrillation and five considered MI. Epidemiologic studies suggest that exposure to sub-daily levels of PM is associated with MI and ischemic events in the elderly. Epidemiological studies of sub-daily exposures suggest a plausible biological mechanism involving the autonomic nervous system while experimental studies suggest that vasomotor dysfunction may also relate to the occurrence of MI and ischemic events.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Future studies should clarify associations between cardiovascular effects of sub-daily PM exposure with PM size fraction and concurrent gaseous pollutant exposures. Experimental studies appear more promising for elucidating the physiological mechanisms, time courses and causes than epidemiological studies which employ central pollution monitors for measuring effects and for assessing their time course. Although further studies are needed to strengthen the evidence, given that exposure to sub-daily high levels of PM (for a few hours) is frequent and given the suggestive evidence that sub-daily PM exposures are associated with the occurrence of cardiovascular effects, we recommend that persons with cardiovascular diseases avoid such situations.</p

Molecular characteristics of Human Endogenous Retrovirus type-W in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.: HERV-W in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

International audienceEpidemiological and genome-wide association studies of severe psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD), suggest complex interactions between multiple genetic elements and environmental factors. The involvement of genetic elements such as Human Endogenous Retroviruses type 'W' family (HERV-W) has consistently been associated with SZ. HERV-W envelope gene (env) is activated by environmental factors and encodes a protein displaying inflammation and neurotoxicity. The present study addressed the molecular characteristics of HERV-W env in SZ and BD. Hundred and thirty-six patients, 91 with BD, 45 with SZ and 73 healthy controls (HC) were included. HERV-W env transcription was found to be elevated in BD (P<10-4) and in SZ (P=0.012) as compared with HC, but with higher values in BD than in SZ group (P<0.01). The corresponding DNA copy number was paradoxically lower in the genome of patients with BD (P=0.0016) or SZ (P<0.0003) than in HC. Differences in nucleotide sequence of HERV-W env were found between patients with SZ and BD as compared with HC, as well as between SZ and BD. The molecular characteristics of HERV-W env also differ from what was observed in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and may represent distinct features of the genome of patients with BD and SZ. The seroprevalence for Toxoplasma gondii yielded low but significant association with HERV-W transcriptional level in a subgroup of BD and SZ, suggesting a potential role in particular patients. A global hypothesis of mechanisms inducing such major psychoses is discussed, placing HERV-W at the crossroads between environmental, genetic and immunological factors. Thus, particular infections would act as activators of HERV-W elements in earliest life, resulting in the production of an HERV-W envelope protein, which then stimulates pro-inflammatory and neurotoxic cascades. This hypothesis needs to be further explored as it may yield major changes in our understanding and treatment of severe psychotic disorders

L'interdisciplinarité en question

du Perron Stéphane. L'interdisciplinarité en question. In: Linx, hors-série n°6-1, 1995. Difficultés linguistiques des jeunes en formation professionnelle courte. Diagnostic et propositions de remédiation. De la langue ordinaire au technolecte. Actes du Colloque international de Paris X – Nanterre, organisé avec le soutien du Conseil Régional d’Ile-de-France, de l’institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres de Versailles et du Rectorat de Versailles 19, 20 et 21 décembres 1994.VOLUME 1. pp. 159-165