Vers une politique de conciliation travail- famille au Québec : des enjeux complexes et en évolution

Au cours des dernières décennies, le thème de la conciliation travail-famille s’est taillé une place importante dans le discours populaire, médiatique et politique tant au Québec, dans les pays industrialisés que dans les organismes internationaux. L’expression désigne les défis que posent pour les individus, les couples, les familles, les milieux de travail et la société en général la relation nouvelle qui s’est développée entre ces deux sphères de vie avec le passage d’une société industrielle à une société dite postindustrielle. Ces défis perçus, ressentis, identifiés et définis différemment par l’un ou l’autre de ces acteurs se sont traduits par l’inscription de cette question à l’agenda politique des gouvernements, ici comme ailleurs. L’objet de la recherche est de comprendre les dynamiques entourant le développement des actions de l’État québécois sur le thème de la conciliation travail-famille. La recherche s’intéresse aux acteurs (Intérêts) qui ont participé aux processus de développement des mesures de conciliation travail-famille et au contexte Institutionnel qui encadre leurs interactions avec les décideurs. À ce titre, la recherche permet de vérifier si le développement de la politique familiale québécoise peut être situé dans ce qui a été désigné comme le « modèle québécois de développement ». La variable « Idée » complète le cadre théorique de l’analyse du développement de la politique de conciliation travail-famille au Québec selon l’approche dite « des 3 I ».

Nouvelles approches pour la conception d'outils CAO pour le domaine des systèmes embarqués

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Une proposition d'intervention de pratique réflexive visant les infirmières pour l'amélioration des soins palliatifs en centre de soins de longue durée

Travail dirigé présenté à la Faculté des sciences infirmières en vue de l’obtention du grade de Maître ès sciences (M.Sc.) en sciences infirmières option formation des sciences infirmières

Modellbasiertes Service Level Management verteilter Anwendungssysteme

Zur Senkung von Kosten werden in vielen Unternehmen Dienstleistungen, die nicht zur Kernkompetenz gehören, an externe Dienstleister ausgelagert. Dieser Prozess wird auch als Outsourcing bezeichnet. Die dadurch entstehenden Abhängigkeiten zu den externen Dienstleistern werden mit Hilfe von Service Level Agreements (SLAs) vertraglich geregelt. Die Aufgabe des Service Level Managements (SLM) ist es, die Einhaltung der vertraglich fixierten Dienstgüteparameter zu überwachen bzw. sicherzustellen. Für eine automatische Bearbeitung ist daher eine formale Spezifikation von SLAs notwendig. Da der Markt eine Vielzahl von unterschiedlichen SLM-Werkzeugen hervorgebracht hat, entstehen in der Praxis Probleme durch proprietäre SLA-Formate und fehlende Spezifikationsmethoden. Daraus resultiert eine Werkzeugabhängigkeit und eine limitierte Wiederverwendbarkeit bereits spezifizierter SLAs. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird ein Ansatz für ein plattformunabhängiges Service Level Management entwickelt. Ziel ist eine Vereinheitlichung der Modellierung, so dass unterschiedliche Managementansätze integriert und eine Trennung zwischen Problem- und Technologiedomäne erreicht wird. Zudem wird durch die Plattformunabhängigkeit eine hohe zeitliche Stabilität erstellter Modelle erreicht. Weiteres Ziel der Arbeit ist, die Wiederverwendbarkeit modellierter SLAs zu gewährleisten und eine prozessorientierte Modellierungsmethodik bereitzustellen. Eine automatisierte Etablierung modellierter SLAs ist für eine praktische Nutzung von entscheidender Relevanz. Zur Erreichung dieser Ziele werden die Prinzipien der Model Driven Architecture (MDA) auf die Problemdomäne des Service Level Managements angewandt. Zentrale Idee der Arbeit ist die Definition von SLA-Mustern, die konfigurationsunabhängige Abstraktionen von Service Level Agreements darstellen. Diese SLA-Muster entsprechen dem Plattformunabhängigen Modell (PIM) der MDA. Durch eine geeignete Modelltransformation wird aus einem SLA-Muster eine SLA-Instanz generiert, die alle notwendigen Konfigurationsinformationen beinhaltet und bereits im Format der Zielplattform vorliegt. Eine SLA-Instanz entspricht damit dem Plattformspezifischen Modell (PSM) der MDA. Die Etablierung der SLA-Instanzen und die daraus resultierende Konfiguration des Managementsystems entspricht dem Plattformspezifischen Code (PSC) der MDA. Nach diesem Schritt ist das Managementsystem in der Lage, die im SLA vereinbarten Dienstgüteparameter eigenständig zu überwachen. Im Rahmen der Arbeit wurde eine UML-Erweiterung definiert, die eine Modellierung von SLA-Mustern mit Hilfe eines UML-Werkzeugs ermöglicht. Hierbei kann die Modellierung rein graphisch als auch unter Einbeziehung der Object Constraint Language (OCL) erfolgen. Für die praktische Realisierung des Ansatzes wurde eine Managementarchitektur entwickelt, die im Rahmen eines Prototypen realisiert wurde. Der Gesamtansatz wurde anhand einer Fallstudie evaluiert.

Universität und solidarische Ökonomie

RESUMO: A economia solidária é aqui apresentada como um movimento social emancipatório e como uma das formas de resistências das trabalhadoras e trabalhadores ao modelo de desenvolvimento capitalista. O movimento contemporâneo de economia solidária abrange o processo de produção, comercialização e finanças. A economia solidária é caracterizada pela posse coletiva dos meios de produção e pelo controle dos trabalhadores dos empreendimentos através de autogestão, cooperação e solidariedade. Os empreendimentos econômicos solidários se organizam sob a forma de cooperativas, associações e grupos informais. Um dos maiores desafios da economia solidária está no campo educativo, porque impõe a desconstrução dos princípios individualistas e privatistas preponderantes na maioria das relações econômicas, e exige a construção de outra cultura pautada na solidariedade. Nesse sentido, a pesquisa realizada, tem como objeto de estudo as metodologias de incubação fomentadas pelas universidades nas ações de economia solidária. Para isso, analisamos as experiências da Incubadora de Economia Solidária da Universidade Federal da Paraíba - Brasil e da Incubadora na Universidade de Kassel- Alemanha – Verein für Solidarische Ökonomie e.V. A pesquisa buscou conhecer e analisar as práticas de incubagem das universidades na economia solidária, como processos de mudança social. A coleta de informações foi realizada, tendo por base, uma revisão bibliográfica, relatórios das Incubadoras, registros fotográficos, observação participante e entrevistas semi-estruturadas. Os resultados da análise indicam que as metodologias de incubação na economia solidaria, por terem um caráter aberto e participativo, por considerarem os condicionamentos históricos e as diferentes culturas, fazem-nas portadoras de mudanças sociais. Esta metodologia pode ser utilizada por diferentes atores, em lugares e situações distintas. A pesquisa indica ainda, a centralidade da questão ecológica como elemento que poderá unificar o movimento internacional de economia solidária.

Atomistic-continuum modeling of ultrafast laser-induced melting of silicon targets

In this work, we present an atomistic-continuum model for simulations of ultrafast laser-induced melting processes in semiconductors on the example of silicon. The kinetics of transient non-equilibrium phase transition mechanisms is addressed with MD method on the atomic level, whereas the laser light absorption, strong generated electron-phonon nonequilibrium, fast heat conduction, and photo-excited free carrier diffusion are accounted for with a continuum TTM-like model (called nTTM). First, we independently consider the applications of nTTM and MD for the description of silicon, and then construct the combined MD-nTTM model. Its development and thorough testing is followed by a comprehensive computational study of fast nonequilibrium processes induced in silicon by an ultrashort laser irradiation. The new model allowed to investigate the effect of laser-induced pressure and temperature of the lattice on the melting kinetics. Two competing melting mechanisms, heterogeneous and homogeneous, were identified in our big-scale simulations. Apart from the classical heterogeneous melting mechanism, the nucleation of the liquid phase homogeneously inside the material significantly contributes to the melting process. The simulations showed, that due to the open diamond structure of the crystal, the laser-generated internal compressive stresses reduce the crystal stability against the homogeneous melting. Consequently, the latter can take a massive character within several picoseconds upon the laser heating. Due to the large negative volume of melting of silicon, the material contracts upon the phase transition, relaxes the compressive stresses, and the subsequent melting proceeds heterogeneously until the excess of thermal energy is consumed. A series of simulations for a range of absorbed fluences allowed us to find the threshold fluence value at which homogeneous liquid nucleation starts contributing to the classical heterogeneous propagation of the solid-liquid interface. A series of simulations for a range of the material thicknesses showed that the sample width we chosen in our simulations (800 nm) corresponds to a thick sample. Additionally, in order to support the main conclusions, the results were verified for a different interatomic potential. Possible improvements of the model to account for nonthermal effects are discussed and certain restrictions on the suitable interatomic potentials are found. As a first step towards the inclusion of these effects into MD-nTTM, we performed nanometer-scale MD simulations with a new interatomic potential, designed to reproduce ab initio calculations at the laser-induced electronic temperature of 18946 K. The simulations demonstrated that, similarly to thermal melting, nonthermal phase transition occurs through nucleation. A series of simulations showed that higher (lower) initial pressure reinforces (hinders) the creation and the growth of nonthermal liquid nuclei. For the example of Si, the laser melting kinetics of semiconductors was found to be noticeably different from that of metals with a face-centered cubic crystal structure. The results of this study, therefore, have important implications for interpretation of experimental data on the kinetics of melting process of semiconductors.

Attentional Selection in Object Recognition

A key problem in object recognition is selection, namely, the problem of identifying regions in an image within which to start the recognition process, ideally by isolating regions that are likely to come from a single object. Such a selection mechanism has been found to be crucial in reducing the combinatorial search involved in the matching stage of object recognition. Even though selection is of help in recognition, it has largely remained unsolved because of the difficulty in isolating regions belonging to objects under complex imaging conditions involving occlusions, changing illumination, and object appearances. This thesis presents a novel approach to the selection problem by proposing a computational model of visual attentional selection as a paradigm for selection in recognition. In particular, it proposes two modes of attentional selection, namely, attracted and pay attention modes as being appropriate for data and model-driven selection in recognition. An implementation of this model has led to new ways of extracting color, texture and line group information in images, and their subsequent use in isolating areas of the scene likely to contain the model object. Among the specific results in this thesis are: a method of specifying color by perceptual color categories for fast color region segmentation and color-based localization of objects, and a result showing that the recognition of texture patterns on model objects is possible under changes in orientation and occlusions without detailed segmentation. The thesis also presents an evaluation of the proposed model by integrating with a 3D from 2D object recognition system and recording the improvement in performance. These results indicate that attentional selection can significantly overcome the computational bottleneck in object recognition, both due to a reduction in the number of features, and due to a reduction in the number of matches during recognition using the information derived during selection. Finally, these studies have revealed a surprising use of selection, namely, in the partial solution of the pose of a 3D object.

Jmodels: Java models of earth system regulation

The JModel suite consists of a number of models of aspects of the Earth System. They can all be run from the JModels website. They are written in the Java language for maximum portability, and are capable of running on most computing platforms including Windows, MacOS and Unix/Linux. The models are controlled via graphical user interfaces (GUI), so no knowledge of computer programming is required to run them. The models currently available from the JModels website are: Ocean phosphorus cycle Ocean nitrogen and phosphorus cycles Ocean silicon and phosphorus cycles Ocean and atmosphere carbon cycle Energy radiation balance model (under development) The main purpose of the models is to investigate how material and energy cycles of the Earth system are regulated and controlled by different feedbacks. While the central focus is on these feedbacks and Earth System stabilisation, the models can also be used in other ways. These resources have been developed by: National Oceanography Centre, Southampton project led by Toby Tyrrell and Andrew Yool, focus on how the Earth system works.

Labor supply, biased technological change and economic growth

Se utiliza un modelo de innovaciones sesgadas para estudiar los efectos de cambios exógenos en la oferta laboral. En un contexto de innovaciones sesgadas, a medida que las economías acumulan capital, el trabajo se hace relativamente más escaso y más caro, por este motivo, hay incentivos para adoptar tecnologías ahorradoras de trabajo. Del mismo modo un cambio en la oferta laboral afecta la abundancia de factores y sus precios relativos. En general, una reducción de la oferta laboral, hace que el trabajo sea más caro y genera incentivos para cambio tecnológico ahorrador de trabajo. Así, el efecto inicial que tiene el cambio en la oferta laboral sobre los precios de los factores es mitigado por el cambio tecnológico. Finalmente, los movimientos en la remuneración a los factores afectan las decisiones de ahorro y, por lo tanto, la dinámica del crecimiento. En este trabajo se exploran las consecuencias de una reducción de la oferta laboral en dos contextos teóricos diferentes: un modelo de agentes homogéneos y horizonte infinito y un modelo de generaciones traslapadas.

Sensitivity of large-scale atmospheric analyses to humidity observations and its impact on the global water cycle and tropical and extratropical weather systems in ERA40

Reanalysis data obtained from data assimilation are increasingly used for diagnostic studies of the general circulation of the atmosphere, for the validation of modelling experiments and for estimating energy and water fluxes between the Earth surface and the atmosphere. Because fluxes are not specifically observed, but determined by the data assimilation system, they are not only influenced by the utilized observations but also by model physics and dynamics and by the assimilation method. In order to better understand the relative importance of humidity observations for the determination of the hydrological cycle, in this paper we describe an assimilation experiment using the ERA40 reanalysis system where all humidity data have been excluded from the observational data base. The surprising result is that the model, driven by the time evolution of wind, temperature and surface pressure, is able to almost completely reconstitute the large-scale hydrological cycle of the control assimilation without the use of any humidity data. In addition, analysis of the individual weather systems in the extratropics and tropics using an objective feature tracking analysis indicates that the humidity data have very little impact on these systems. We include a discussion of these results and possible consequences for the way moisture information is assimilated, as well as the potential consequences for the design of observing systems for climate monitoring. It is further suggested, with support from a simple assimilation study with another model, that model physics and dynamics play a decisive role for the hydrological cycle, stressing the need to better understand these aspects of model parametrization. .

The challenges facing privatization of infrastructure projects in Libya

Libya with its strategic location and natural resources stands as a crucial link between the Arab world, Europe, and Africa. The people of Libya have an optimistic outlook with regard to the Libyan economy after the suspension of the United Nations sanctions in 1999 that had been imposed on Libya in 1992, as well as the recent emphasis on privatization from the government. Since then, local and foreign investors have been encouraged to take a more prominent role in order to help privatize some of the state run-industries; the attention to privatization is aimed to help Libya’s economic growth and reduce its heavy dependency on oil revenues. Considering the economic situation, Libya is a rich country. However, it needs to modernize, it needs more and better infrastructure, it needs non-oil based financing, furthermore, it needs to develop a financial model for development and investment from the private sector. Although the Libyan government is working on the improvement of the business environment to make it more attractive for foreign investors in a way to move towards privatization, they have ignored some of the challenges that privatization will be facing in Libya. Privatization can not be implemented overnight. They have taken this for granted without careful consideration of its challenges. This paper attempts to investigate and discuss the challenges that need to be taken into account before privatization of infrastructure projects can be introduced in Libya. This paper is based on interviews with senior technical officials in the government.

Global climate change and soil carbon stocks: predictions from two contrasting models for the turnover of organic carbon in soil

Enhanced release of CO2 to the atmosphere from soil organic carbon as a result of increased temperatures may lead to a positive feedback between climate change and the carbon cycle, resulting in much higher CO2 levels and accelerated lobal warming. However, the magnitude of this effect is uncertain and critically dependent on how the decomposition of soil organic C (heterotrophic respiration) responds to changes in climate. Previous studies with the Hadley Centre’s coupled climate–carbon cycle general circulation model (GCM) (HadCM3LC) used a simple, single-pool soil carbon model to simulate the response. Here we present results from numerical simulations that use the more sophisticated ‘RothC’ multipool soil carbon model, driven with the same climate data. The results show strong similarities in the behaviour of the two models, although RothC tends to simulate slightly smaller changes in global soil carbon stocks for the same forcing. RothC simulates global soil carbon stocks decreasing by 54 GtC by 2100 in a climate change simulation compared with an 80 GtC decrease in HadCM3LC. The multipool carbon dynamics of RothC cause it to exhibit a slower magnitude of transient response to both increased organic carbon inputs and changes in climate. We conclude that the projection of a positive feedback between climate and carbon cycle is robust, but the magnitude of the feedback is dependent on the structure of the soil carbon model.

Spatio-temporal dependencies in functional connectivity in rodent cortical cultures

Models of functional connectivity in cortical cultures on multi-electrodes arrays may aid in understanding how cognitive pathways form and improve techniques that aim to interface with neuronal systems. To enable research on such models, this study uses both data- and model-driven approaches to determine what dependencies are present in and between functional connectivity networks derived from bursts of extracellularly recorded activity. Properties of excitation in bursts were analysed using correlative techniques to assess the degree of linear dependence and then two parallel techniques were used to assess functional connectivity. Three models presenting increasing levels of spatio-temporal dependency were used to capture the dynamics of individual functional connections and their consistencies were verified using surrogate data. By comparing network-wide properties between model generated networks and functional networks from data, complex interdependencies were revealed. This indicates the persistent co-activation of neuronal pathways in spontaneous bursts, as can be found in whole brain structures.

Reframing 'crisis' in fair trade coffee production: trajectories of agrarian change in Nicaragua

A focus on crisis provides a methodological window to understand how agrarian change shapes producer engagement in fair trade. This orientation challenges a seperation between the market and development, situating fair trade within global processes that incorporate agrarian histories of social change and conflict. Reframing crisis as a condition of agrarian life, rather than emphasizing its cyclical manifestation within the global economy, reveals how market-driven development encompasses the material conditions of peoples' existence in ambiguous and contradictory ways. Drawing on the case of coffee production in Nicaragua, experiences of crisis demonstrate that greater attention needs to be paid to the socioeconomic and political dimensions of development within regional commodity assemblages to address entrenched power relations and unequal access to land and resources. This questions moral certainties when examining the paradox of working in and against the market, and suggests that a better understanding of specific trajectories of development could improve fair trade's objective of enhancing producer livelihoods.

The middle-atmosphere Hadley circulation and equatorial inertial adjustment

In the tropical middle atmosphere the climatological radiative equilibrium temperature is inconsistent with gradient-wind balance and the available angular momentum, especially during solstice seasons. Adjustment toward a balanced state results in a type of Hadley circulation that lies outside the “downward control” view of zonally averaged dynamics. This middle-atmosphere Hadley circulation is reexamined here using a zonally symmetric balance model driven through an annual cycle. It is found that the inclusion of a realistic radiation scheme leads to a concentration of the circulation near the stratopause and to its closing off in the mesosphere, with no need for relaxational damping or a rigid lid. The evolving zonal flow is inertially unstable, leading to a rapid process of inertial adjustment, which becomes significant in the mesosphere. This short-circuits the slower process of angular momentum homogenization by the Hadley circulation itself, thereby weakening the latter. The effect of the meridional circulation associated with extratropical wave drag on the Hadley circulation is considered. It is shown that the two circulations are independent for linear (quasigeostrophic) zonal-mean dynamics, and interact primarily through the advection of temperature and angular momentum. There appears to be no significant coupling in the deep Tropics via temperature advection since the wave-driven circulation is unable to alter meridional temperature gradients in this region. However, the wave-driven circulation can affect the Hadley circulation by advecting angular momentum out of the Tropics. The validity of the zonally symmetric balance model with parameterized inertial adjustment is tested by comparison with a three-dimensional primitive equations model. Fields from a middle-atmosphere GCM are also examined for evidence of these processes. While many aspects of the GCM circulation are indicative of the middle-atmosphere Hadley circulation, particularly in the upper stratosphere, it appears that the circulation is obscured in the mesosphere and lower stratosphere by other processes.