La mémoire de projet : véhicule d’intégration de l’ergonomie et de la SST à la conception ?

Pour les ergonomes et les préventionnistes, faire évoluer la conduite de projet afin de pouvoir influencer efficacement la conception des situations de travail constitue un enjeu majeur. Cet article traite d’un levier d’amélioration continue des projets qu’ils pourraient exploiter avantageusement pour soutenir leurs efforts : la mémoire de projet. L’article résume d’abord ce qui est dit de cet outil dans la littérature issue des domaines de la gestion de projet et des organisations. Puis, il propose aux intervenants en ergonomie et en SST des leçons à tirer de la mémoire de projet pour soutenir leurs efforts d’intégration à la conception : infiltrer les lieux d’amélioration continue des projets ; promouvoir, voire même outiller, le recours à la mémoire de projet, même ponctuel, en particulier une mémoire centrée sur le processus (pour compléter celle, classique, centrée sur les résultats) et réalisée par tous les acteurs projet, y compris eux-mêmes.A major issue for ergonomists and preventionists is to have the project process evolve in order to effectively influence the design of work situations. This article discusses a continuous project-improvement mechanism that they could use to advantage to support their efforts : project memory. First, this article summarizes what is being said about this tool in the literature from the fields of project and organization management. It then proposes, to ergonomic and OHS professionals, lessons to be drawn from the project memory to support their design integration efforts : infiltrating the continuous project improvement activities that are taking place in the day-to-day life of the organization ; promoting the implementation of project memory practices, even sporadically, particularly process-oriented memory (to complement the more classical result-oriented memory) and carried out by all the project participants, including themselves.Para los ergonomistas y los especialistas en prevención, la evolución de la gestión de proyectos para poder influir eficazmente en la concepción de las situaciones de trabajo constituye un desafío mayor. Este artículo trata de un mecanismo de mejora continua de los proyectos que prodrían explotar para más eficacia en el apoyo de sus esfuerzos : la memoria de proyecto. Primero, el artículo resume lo que se dice de este instrumento en la literatura procediente de los ámbitos de la gestión de proyecto y de las organizaciones. Luego, propone, a los especialisatas en ergonomía y en SST, enseñanzas de la memoria de proyecto para apoyar sus esfuerzos de integración en la concepción : infiltrarse en los lugares de mejora continua de los proyectos ; promover, sino instrumentar el recurso a la memoria de proyecto, incluso puntual, en particular una memoria centrada en el proceso (para completar la memoria más clásica centrada en los resultados) y realizada por todos los actores del proyecto, incluso ellos mismos

Parent perceptions of the quality of life of pet dogs living with neuro-typically developing and neuro-atypically developing children: an exploratory study

There is growing scientific and societal recognition of the role that pet dogs can play in healthy development of children; both those who are neuro-typically developing and those who live with a neuro-developmental disorder, such as autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. However, little attention has been paid to how living with children positively and negatively affects quality of life of a pet dog. In this exploratory study we conducted semi-structured interviews with parents of neuro-typically developing children (n = 18) and those with a neuro-developmental disorder (n = 18) who owned a pet dog, until no new factors were identified. Living with children brought potentially positive benefits to the dog’s life including: imposition of a routine, participation in recreational activities and the development of a strong bond between the child and the dog. The importance of maintaining a routine was particularly prevalent in families with children with neuro-developmental disorders. Potential negative factors included having to cope with child meltdowns and tantrums, over stimulation from child visitors, harsh contact and rough and tumble play with the child. The regularity and intensity of meltdowns and tantrums was particularly evident in responses from parents with children with a neuro-developmental disorder. However, child visitors and rough play and contact were mentioned similarly across the groups. Protective factors included having a safe haven for the dog to escape to, parent’s awareness of stress signs and child education in dog-interaction. Parents were also asked to complete a stress response scale to provide an initial quantitative comparison of stress responses between dogs living with the two family-types. Parents with neuro-typically developing children more frequently observed their dog rapidly running away from a situation and less frequently observed their dog widening their eyes, than parents with children with a neuro-developmental disorder. We propose the development of a stress audit based on the findings reported here, to prevent potential dangerous situations, which may lead to dog bites and dog relinquishment and allow owners to maximise the benefits of dog ownership

The seeds of divergence: the economy of French North America, 1688 to 1760

Generally, Canada has been ignored in the literature on the colonial origins of divergence with most of the attention going to the United States. Late nineteenth century estimates of income per capita show that Canada was relatively poorer than the United States and that within Canada, the French and Catholic population of Quebec was considerably poorer. Was this gap long standing? Some evidence has been advanced for earlier periods, but it is quite limited and not well-suited for comparison with other societies. This thesis aims to contribute both to Canadian economic history and to comparative work on inequality across nations during the early modern period. With the use of novel prices and wages from Quebec—which was then the largest settlement in Canada and under French rule—a price index, a series of real wages and a measurement of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are constructed. They are used to shed light both on the course of economic development until the French were defeated by the British in 1760 and on standards of living in that colony relative to the mother country, France, as well as the American colonies. The work is divided into three components. The first component relates to the construction of a price index. The absence of such an index has been a thorn in the side of Canadian historians as it has limited the ability of historians to obtain real values of wages, output and living standards. This index shows that prices did not follow any trend and remained at a stable level. However, there were episodes of wide swings—mostly due to wars and the monetary experiment of playing card money. The creation of this index lays the foundation of the next component. The second component constructs a standardized real wage series in the form of welfare ratios (a consumption basket divided by nominal wage rate multiplied by length of work year) to compare Canada with France, England and Colonial America. Two measures are derived. The first relies on a “bare bones” definition of consumption with a large share of land-intensive goods. This measure indicates that Canada was poorer than England and Colonial America and not appreciably richer than France. However, this measure overestimates the relative position of Canada to the Old World because of the strong presence of land-intensive goods. A second measure is created using a “respectable” definition of consumption in which the basket includes a larger share of manufactured goods and capital-intensive goods. This second basket better reflects differences in living standards since the abundance of land in Canada (and Colonial America) made it easy to achieve bare subsistence, but the scarcity of capital and skilled labor made the consumption of luxuries and manufactured goods (clothing, lighting, imported goods) highly expensive. With this measure, the advantage of New France over France evaporates and turns slightly negative. In comparison with Britain and Colonial America, the gap widens appreciably. This element is the most important for future research. By showing a reversal because of a shift to a different type of basket, it shows that Old World and New World comparisons are very sensitive to how we measure the cost of living. Furthermore, there are no sustained improvements in living standards over the period regardless of the measure used. Gaps in living standards observed later in the nineteenth century existed as far back as the seventeenth century. In a wider American perspective that includes the Spanish colonies, Canada fares better. The third component computes a new series for Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is to avoid problems associated with using real wages in the form of welfare ratios which assume a constant labor supply. This assumption is hard to defend in the case of Colonial Canada as there were many signs of increasing industriousness during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The GDP series suggest no long-run trend in living standards (from 1688 to circa 1765). The long peace era of 1713 to 1740 was marked by modest economic growth which offset a steady decline that had started in 1688, but by 1760 (as a result of constant warfare) living standards had sunk below their 1688 levels. These developments are accompanied by observations that suggest that other indicators of living standard declined. The flat-lining of incomes is accompanied by substantial increases in the amount of time worked, rising mortality and rising infant mortality. In addition, comparisons of incomes with the American colonies confirm the results obtained with wages— Canada was considerably poorer. At the end, a long conclusion is provides an exploratory discussion of why Canada would have diverged early on. In structural terms, it is argued that the French colony was plagued by the problem of a small population which prohibited the existence of scale effects. In combination with the fact that it was dispersed throughout the territory, the small population of New France limited the scope for specialization and economies of scale. However, this problem was in part created, and in part aggravated, by institutional factors like seigneurial tenure. The colonial origins of French America’s divergence from the rest of North America are thus partly institutional

Fernand Leduc

Viau provides a chronology retracing Leduc's activities from 1941 to 1968. Biographical notes. 8 bibl. ref