Interaction Sheaves on Continuous Domains

We introduce a description of the power structure which is inherent in a strategic game form using the concept of an interaction sheaf. The latter assigns to each open set of outcomes a set of interaction arrays, specifying the changes that coalitions can make if outcome belongs to this open set. The interaction sheaf generalizes the notion of effectivity functions which has been widely used in implementation theory, taking into consideration that changes in outcome may be sustained not only by single coalitions but possibly by several coalitions, depending on the underlying strategy choices. Also, it with not necessarily finite sets of outcomes, generalizing the results on solvability of game forms obtained in the finite case in Abdou and Keiding (2003).Nash equilibrium; strong equilibrium; solvability; effectivity; acyclicity

Anti-Blackness and Orientalism in Quebec and Manitoba Ancient History Curricula

Although Canada is often portrayed as a multicultural, benevolent, liberal society, the experiences of Black peoples, Indigenous peoples and Peoples of Colour living in Canada point to the problematic of ongoing anti-Black racism, Indigenous erasures and anti-immigrant sentiments, while perpetuating White Eurocentric dominance. Research demonstrates that schools and school curricula play an important role in perpetuating these problems (e.g., Abdou, 2017; Calderon, 2014; Poole, 2012). But how might curricula and available teaching resources specifically be contributing to Canada’s underlying narratives of White Eurocentric dominance? There is a growing body of literature that demonstrates problematic discourses in the curriculum for Indigenous peoples (e.g., Battiste, 2013; Calderon, 2014; Tuck & Gaztambide-Fernández, 2013). In this paper, we specifically interrogate anti-Blackness and Orientalism. We outline the various findings of critical discourse analyses that we conducted on secondary school textbooks used in Quebec and Manitoba to teach world history and ancient civilizations. By comparing these two contexts, we offer new perspectives on the ways that Canadian curricula are constructed as dominant White-centric narratives by depending on the logics of Orientalism and anti-Blackness. Building on previous textbook analyses, we attempt to bring critical perspectives to problematize dominant norms that contribute to the oppressions of Black peoples and Peoples of Colour in the Canadian context and to provide insights on a potential way forward for more inclusive and balanced representations. While our textual analyses do not directly address representations of Indigenous peoples in curricula, we hope this contribution will help draw attention to some common exclusionary approaches and representations that need to be questioned and challenged

Evaluation of the productivities of Djallonke sheep and N'Dama cattle at the Centre de Recherches Zootechniques, Kolda, Senegal

Presents results of analysis of the reproductive performance, viability and growth performance traits of Djallonke sheep & N'dama cattle kept at the Centre de Recherches Zootechniques in Senegal; includes productivity indices for the two species built on the basis of the analyzed data

Combining global and local semantic contexts for improving biomedical information retrieval

Présenté lors de l'European Conference on Information Retrieval 2011International audienceIn the context of biomedical information retrieval (IR), this paper explores the relationship between the document's global context and the query's local context in an attempt to overcome the term mismatch problem between the user query and documents in the collection. Most solutions to this problem have been focused on expanding the query by discovering its context, either \textit{global} or \textit{local}. In a global strategy, all documents in the collection are used to examine word occurrences and relationships in the corpus as a whole, and use this information to expand the original query. In a local strategy, the top-ranked documents retrieved for a given query are examined to determine terms for query expansion. We propose to combine the document's global context and the query's local context in an attempt to increase the term overlap between the user query and documents in the collection via document expansion (DE) and query expansion (QE). The DE technique is based on a statistical method (IR-based) to extract the most appropriate concepts (global context) from each document. The QE technique is based on a blind feedback approach using the top-ranked documents (local context) obtained in the first retrieval stage. A comparative experiment on the TREC 2004 Genomics collection demonstrates that the combination of the document's global context and the query's local context shows a significant improvement over the baseline. The MAP is significantly raised from 0.4097 to 0.4532 with a significant improvement rate of +10.62\% over the baseline. The IR performance of the combined method in terms of MAP is also superior to official runs participated in TREC 2004 Genomics and is comparable to the performance of the best run (0.4075)

Effet de l’arbre Acacia senegal sur la fertilité des sols de gommeraies au Niger

Six gommeraies des trois bassins gommiers du Niger ont été étudiées : Kiki et Kokoiyé dans le bassin gommier occidental, Bader Goula et Azzaî dans le bassin gommier central et Malam Mainari et N’Guel Kolo dans le bassin gommier oriental. L’objectif de l’étude est d’évaluer l’effet d’Acacia senegal sur la fertilité des sols sous et hors houppiers dans ces gommeraies. Les résultats obtenus à travers les paramètres retenus (le pH, le carbone organique (C), l’azote (N), la capacité d’échange cationique (CEC), le phosphore assimilable (P) et la somme des bases échangeables (S) pour appréhender cet effet d’A. senegal sur le sol montrent une amélioration de la teneur en ces éléments dans le sol sous houppier comparativement aux témoins dans la plupart des cas.Mots clés : Acacia senegal, fertilité, sol, gommeraie, Nige

An integrated requirements management system for construction projects

Within the AEC/FM Industry, the current paper-based system used to manage client requirements information and the change request process lacks efficiency and effectiveness. Traditionally, requirements management has principally been focused at the early stages of a construction project where elicited client requirements information is used as the basis for design and does not extend to later phases. Links between corresponding requirements at different phases do not exist which makes traceability difficult. There are no methods to keep track of client requirements and the changes in a satisfactory way that take a whole lifecycle approach. Construction organisations, like other engineering related businesses, are turning to computer systems (to replace current manual and paper intensive processes) in their quest for practical ways to facilitate requirements information management. This paper presents a prototype system for client requirements information management taking a whole lifecycle approach. It comprises of integrated components made up of a repository and change management system (CMS). The prototype was developed following case studies of construction projects and interviews with construction experts in order to fully understand the need for such a system. The applicability and effectiveness of the prototype will be validated using a focus group made up of various construction stakeholders and academic practitioners

BPM-driven construction client requirements change management

Changing client requirements is one of the principal factors that contribute to delays and budget overruns of construction projects which as a result causes claims, disputes and client dissatisfaction. Change management ensures that such changes are handled through a properly coordinated and controlled process and retained throughout the project life cycle. This paper presents an empirical study that investigated the potential for an automated process of managing changes to clients’ requirements in construction projects. An initial focus group meeting was set up as a preliminary study which was followed by two case studies. Participant observation was used to conduct the case studies during which technical documents were also reviewed. The results show that current requirements change management process lacks efficiency. The paper concludes that business process management (BPM) approach could be a solution to better manage the requirements change process

Lifecycle approach to requirements information management in construction projects: state-of-the-art and future trends

Changes in client requirements are most frequent in construction and are known to contribute to budget over-runs and late delivery of projects. Such changes need to be managed adequately to enhance visibility, traceability and linked to the original requirements and communication with all stakeholders throughout the lifecycle of a facility. Traditionally, requirements management has principally been focused at the early stages of the construction process where elicited client requirements information is used as the basis for design and does not extend to the later phases. A life cycle approach is important because client requirements often change dramatically over a facility’s life. This evolution needs to be understood, for example, particularly if the facility is to be refurbished or adapted for uses other than those for which it was originally designed. This paper presents an empirical study to highlight the current state of managing clients’ requirements and to propose the need for a lifecycle approach to requirements information management in construction projects. An ethnographic study was conducted to examine the requirements management process based on participatory observations of construction project meetings and interviews with project managers. The study also details the state-of-the-art of requirements management by presenting a qualitative review of literature on this topic. This review includes industries other than construction. The paper concludes that currently, with no lifecycle insight, very few informal schemes detail the management of requirements beyond the design process into the later stages of the project. It proposes that the management of requirements should extend beyond elicitation and documentation and requires an approach that will enable changeability and impact analysis, accessibility, traceability and communication to all stakeholders

Integrated change and knowledge management system - development and evaluation

Knowledge is often generated as part of the change and dependency management (CDM) process. Given that knowledge has become a fundamental resource for organizations, it is imperative that any new knowledge generated from CDM is captured and disseminated. In energy retrofits, inadequate management of changes and dependencies could have negative impacts on building energy performance. This paper presents the development and evaluation of an Integrated Change and Knowledge Management System (ICKMS) in this scope. It discusses the use case, requirements, information exchanges, and the system architecture. ICKMS can be used in projects to manage changes and dependencies, track change histories, and capture lessons learned from changes. The proposed ICKMS eliminates the gap between CDM and knowledge management (KM) activities, and prevents loss of potential knowledge in CDM processes. The use of the integrated system in construction projects is expected to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of simultaneously managing changes, dependencies and knowledge