Valoriser le géopatrimoine par la médiation indirecte et la visualisation des objets géomorphologiques

Le géopatrimoine regroupe des objets géologiques lato sensu auxquels certaines valeurs sont attribuées, en fonction de leur intérêt pour la science, de leur rareté, de leurs particularités culturelles ou écologiques, etc. Valoriser le géopatrimoine signifie avant tout faire partager cette approche aux non-spécialistes, en expliquant ce qui fait la valeur de ces objets. Cette valorisation peut s'effectuer, entre autres, sous la forme d'une activité touristique et contribuer ainsi au développement régional. Faire comprendre l'origine, la singularité et la valeur des formes du relief implique le recours à une communication éducative, désignée par le terme de médiation. Les implications de la dimension éducative du processus, comme la prise en compte des connaissances et attentes du public, la création d'un environnement favorable à l'apprentissage ou l'attractivité du contenu, sont souvent négligées. Du point de vue conceptuel, un modèle de la médiation indirecte (c'est-à-dire au moyen de supports médiatiques) a été proposé et appliqué au développement empirique de produits de médiation et à leur évaluation. Ce modèle ne garantit pas la réussite de la communication éducative, mais contribue à créer un cadre favorable au processus. De plus, plusieurs lignes directrices pour le choix du type de média et sa mise en forme ont été définies sur la base d'une compilation de résultats de la psychologie cognitive sur l'usage des médias pour l'apprentissage. Des méthodes qualitatives et quantitatives variées ont été mobilisées: enquêtes par questionnaire ex situ et in situ, auprès des visiteurs de géomorphosites de montagne, réalisation de médias interactifs testés ensuite auprès de divers publics (parcours enregistré, pré- et post-questionnaires) et entretiens collectifs. Les résultats obtenus éclairent divers aspects de la problématique. L'étude du public a montré, par exemple, que le géotourisme possède un réel public parmi les visiteurs des sites de montagnes: trois-quarts d'entre eux expriment de l'intérêt pour des explications sur la géologie et l'évolution du paysage. Cette thèse a exploré ces aspects liés au processus d'apprentissage en se focalisant sur les médias visuels, surtout interactifs. La plupart des médias visuels couramment utilisés en géomorphologie ont été considérés. Le développement de versions interactives de ces médias sous forme d'applications web a fourni un aperçu concret des possibilités des nouvelles technologies. Les utilisateurs apprécient en particulier a richesse du contenu, le haut degré d'interactivité et la variété de ces applications. De tels médias incitent à visiter le site naturel et semblent aussi répondre aux intérêts de publics variés.

Report of the National Physical and Sensory Disability Database Development Committee

The need for information on the health service needs of people with physical and/or sensory disabilities was first highlighted in Shaping a Healthier Future, a document which outlined the national strategy for effective healthcare in the 1990s. This strategy document identified the establishment of a national database as the means of gathering such information Download the Report here

National Physical and Sensory Disability Database - information pack

The need for information on the service needs of people with physical and/or sensory disabilities was first highlighted in Shaping a Healthier Future: A strategy for Effective Healthcare in the 1990s.  This strategy document identified the establishment of a national database as the means of gathering such information.  Subsequently, the report of the Review Group on Health and Personal Social Services for People with Physical and Sensory Disabilities, Towards an Independent Future, identified the lack of reliable information on the numbers of people with a physical and/or sensory disability needing a health and personal social service and their precise service needs. Download the Report here

BlastR--fast and accurate database searches for non-coding RNAs.

We present and validate BlastR, a method for efficiently and accurately searching non-coding RNAs. Our approach relies on the comparison of di-nucleotides using BlosumR, a new log-odd substitution matrix. In order to use BlosumR for comparison, we recoded RNA sequences into protein-like sequences. We then showed that BlosumR can be used along with the BlastP algorithm in order to search non-coding RNA sequences. Using Rfam as a gold standard, we benchmarked this approach and show BlastR to be more sensitive than BlastN. We also show that BlastR is both faster and more sensitive than BlastP used with a single nucleotide log-odd substitution matrix. BlastR, when used in combination with WU-BlastP, is about 5% more accurate than WU-BlastN and about 50 times slower. The approach shown here is equally effective when combined with the NCBI-Blast package. The software is an open source freeware available from www.tcoffee.org/blastr.html.

FoodMicro Database

The food industry on the island of Ireland carries out extensive testing of their food products but results of these analyses are not normally released for public evaluation.

The Eukaryotic Promoter Database EPD: the impact of in silico primer extension.

The Eukaryotic Promoter Database (EPD) is an annotated non-redundant collection of eukaryotic POL II promoters, experimentally defined by a transcription start site (TSS). There may be multiple promoter entries for a single gene. The underlying experimental evidence comes from journal articles and, starting from release 73, from 5' ESTs of full-length cDNA clones used for so-called in silico primer extension. Access to promoter sequences is provided by pointers to TSS positions in nucleotide sequence entries. The annotation part of an EPD entry includes a description of the type and source of the initiation site mapping data, links to other biological databases and bibliographic references. EPD is structured in a way that facilitates dynamic extraction of biologically meaningful promoter subsets for comparative sequence analysis. Web-based interfaces have been developed that enable the user to view EPD entries in different formats, to select and extract promoter sequences according to a variety of criteria and to navigate to related databases exploiting different cross-references. Tools for analysing sequence motifs around TSSs defined in EPD are provided by the signal search analysis server. EPD can be accessed at http://www.epd. isb-sib.ch.

Analysis of the National Childhood Obesity Database 2005-06

This report looks at the first year of data collection on childhood obesity and the difficulties of this project. This report summarises the data available and provides high level analysis of the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the children measured in 2005-06. The report was produced for the Department of Health by the South East Public Health Observatory on behalf of the Association of Public Health Observatories, and published in December 2006.

Analysis of the national childhood obesity database 2005-06

A report for the Department of Health by the South East Public Health Observatory on behalf of the Association of Public Health Observatories. The report looks at the first year of data collection on childhood obesity and the difficulties of this project. This report summarises the data available and provides high level analysis of the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the children measured in 2005-06.

Northern Ireland Substitute Prescribing Database Report 31 March 2014

This bulletin summarises information on individuals referred to the Northern Ireland Substitute Prescribing Scheme (SPS). It relates to those referred up to and including the 31 March 2014 and focuses on those patients in contact with Substitute Prescribing treatment services during 2013/14.

Northern Ireland Substitute Prescribing Database Report 31 March 2013

This bulletin summarises information on individuals referred to the Northern Ireland Substitute Prescribing Scheme (SPS). It relates to those referred up to and including the 31 March 2013 and focuses on those patients in contact with Substitute Prescribing treatment services during 2012/13.