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Contexte: L'utilisation des benzodiazépines et des autres sédatifs-hypnotiques est associée à un risque accru d’effets indésirables chez les aînés. Il n’existe pas de données populationnelles québécoises permettant de suivre l’utilisation de ces médicaments, particulièrement chez les individus plus vulnérables comme les aînés multimorbides. Objectif : Cette étude vise à décrire les tendances d'utilisation des benzodiazépines et des autres sédatifs-hypnotiques chez les aînés au Québec de 2000 à 2016, en fonction des maladies chroniques. Méthode: Nous avons mené une étude populationnelle avec les données du Système intégré de surveillance des maladies chroniques du Québec. Nous avons inclus tous les individus âgés de ≥ 66 ans couverts par le régime public d'assurance médicaments. Toutes les benzodiazépines et les autres sédatifs-hypnotiques pouvant être utilisés en alternatives ont été inclus. L'utilisation a été définie comme le fait d'avoir obtenu au moins un remboursement d’un de ces médicaments pour une année donnée. Les prévalences d'utilisation standardisées pour l’âge et le sexe ont été calculées chaque année puis stratifiées selon le nombre de maladies chroniques. Les tendances ont été calculées avec des régressions log-binomiale. Résultats: La proportion d'utilisateurs de benzodiazépines est passée de 34,8 % à 24,8 % de 2000 à 2016 (p < 0.001). Les aînés multimorbides (≥ 2 maladies chroniques) sont les plus grands utilisateurs de benzodiazépines; la prévalence d’utilisation est passée de 43,3 % à 30,6 % de 2000 à 2016. Inversement, la proportion d'utilisateurs d’autres sédatifs-hypnotiques a augmenté, particulièrement pour le trazodone et la quétiapine, de 5,4 % à 8,4 %, et ce, surtout chez les aînés multimorbides (7,4 % à 11,6 %). Conclusion: De 2000 à 2016, les aînés québécois se sont vu prescrire moins de benzodiazépines, mais davantage de trazodone et de quétiapine. Considérant les risques reliés à ces médicaments et la prévalence élevée, il importe de développer des interventions, particulièrement chez les aînés multimorbides. / Background Benzodiazepines and other sedative-hypnotics are associated with increased risks of adverse events. Heightened awareness towards risks may have changed prescribing habits over the years. However, these trends are not fully described, especially in vulnerable people such as multimorbid older adults. Objective We aimed at describing the annual prevalence of benzodiazepine and other sedative-hypnotic use in relation with multimorbidity among older adults in the province of Quebec, Canada, from 2000 to 2016. Method We conducted a population-based study using the Quebec Integrated Chronic Disease Surveillance System. We included all individuals aged ≥ 66 years covered by the public drug plan. For each year, we evaluated the age and sex-standardized proportion of benzodiazepine and other sedative-hypnotic users, defined as individuals with of at least one drug claim in the year. We stratified our results according to multimorbidity and used log-binomial regression to study trends. Results The proportion of individuals using benzodiazepines decreased from 34.8% in 2000 to 24.8% in 2016 (p for trend < 0.001). Multimorbid peopl (≥ two chronic diseases) remained the highest users over the years, with 43.3% and 30.6% of them being users in 2000 and 2016, respectively. Conversely, the proportion of users increased for other sedatives, particularly for trazodone and quetiapine, rising from 5.4% to 8.4% (p<0.001), and especially among multimorbid individuals (from 7.4% to 11.6%). Conclusion Older adults used less frequently benzodiazepines but more quetiapine and trazodone in recent years. The use of these medications, particularly in multimorbid people at risk of adverse events, has to be addressed.

Dans la présente recherche, nous nous sommes interessé au vocabulaire caractérisant une des réalties québécoises : l'hiver et le nord. Le geographe Louis-Edmond Hamelin a répertorié et publié, en 2002, un vocabulaire de plus de 1400 mots, intitulé Le Quebec par des mots : l'hiver et le Nord, cernant les mots caractéristiques de cette realité nord-américaine. II était impossible, dans les limites d'un mémoire de maîtrise, de traiter tous les mots de ce répertoire. Aussi nous sommes-nous limité à la partie du vocabulaire relatif au climat, défini par l'auteur lui-même comme : « [...] les manifestations de la froidure, l'hiver. » (Hamelin : 2002 : 02). De manière à circonscrire de façon objective la notion de « climat » et à répertorier dans l'ouvrage les mots propres à cette notion, nous nous sommes basé sur la définition qu'en donne Le Petit Robert électronique, a savoir: « Ensemble des circonstances atmosphériques et météorologiques propres a une région du globe. éléments du climat: aridité, humidité, précipitations, pression atmosphérique, saison, sécheresse, température, vent ». Nous avons donc sélectionné tous les vocables simples ayant un lien avec le climat tel que défini dans ce dictionnaire. Notre recherche comporte un double objectif. D'une part, déterminer si notre corpus d'analyse renferme des néologismes de forme (créations lexicales) et des sens nouveaux (extension de sens) et d'autre part, évaluer la pertinence d'intégrer ces mots ou ces sens nouveaux dans un dictionnaire usuel québécois. À la lumière de notre analyse, nous relevons quatorze mots (néologismes de forme ou de sens) qu'il serait pertinent d'inclure dans un dictionnaire usuel du français en usage au Québec, soit en consignant le nouveau mot ou sens, soit en réajustant certaines définitions de manière à tenir compte de l'usage au Québec.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This Study investigates how favor asking may be expressed in Xhosa. Both favor asking and requesting are situated in a context, where the meaning of each is necessarily driven by the way the interlocutors interpret each other's speech. Again favor asking and requesting share the same underlying intent in that a speaker tries to get a hearer to do something. People in the working environment, more especially in the educational sector, have lots of projects to do and they are obliged to ask for favors for such projects. In the process of asking for favors, they are faced with a wide choice of strategies to choose from. In this study, the data shows consistent use of request strategies within specific contexts. The results of this study are consistently interpretable in that the more polite is the request for compliance; the greater is the degree of compliance. In Xhosa, unhedged performative and obligation are request strategies with the highest frequency of occurrence. There are also certain strategies in Xhosa that have a low frequency, i.e., imperative, ability, hedged performative, willingness, wishes, permissions and desire. Therefore they are not considered possible compliance strategies in Xhosa. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek hoe die verskynsel van guns-vra in Xhosa uitgedruk word. Sowel guns-vra en versoeke word geritueer in 'n konteks, waar die betekenis van elk noodwendig gedryf word waarop die gesprekvoerders mekaar se spraak interpreteer. Guns-vra en verskoning deel dieselfde onderliggende bedoeling daarin dat die spreker poog om die hoorder iets te laat doen. Persone in die werksektor, meer spesifiek die opvoedkundige sektor, het talle take en projekte om uit te voer en hulle het noodwendig talle gunste om te vra vir die doeleindes van hierdie take. In die proses van gunste-vra, het sprekers 'n wye keuse van strategieë om aan te wend. Die data in die studie toon 'n konsekwente gebruik van versoekstrategieë in spesifieke kontekste. Die resultate van hierdie studie is konsekwent interpreteerbaar daarin dat hoe meer beleefd die versoek vir voldoening is, hoe groter is die graad van voldoening. Hierdie studie toon aan dat in Xhosa, ongekwalifiseerde performatief en verpligting die strategieë is wat die hoogste frekwensie van verskyning het. Die studie toon voorts aan dat daar ook bepaalde strategieë in Xhosa is wat 'n lae frekwensie het, naamlik die emperatief, vermoë, gekwalifiseerde performatief, bereidheid, wense, toestemming, en begeerte. Dus word hierdie strategieë nie beskou as moontlike voldoeningstrategieë nie.

This paper structurally estimates a dynamic model of usage behavior and network effects in a social network site using data from MySpace.com. We view a social network as a stock of capital that yields a flow of utilities over time by creating social interactions between the owner and her friends. When one decides to use a social network site, it may have two distinct network effects: (1) one can manage an existing base of friends through social networking and thus prevent depreciation of capital stock (maintenance effect), and (2) one may acquire new friends through social networking, which results in creation of new capital stock (investment effect). Thus, we model social networking as a dynamic process, in which one's current action to use a social network site can influence the evolution of her social network. We found that realtime chat and messaging, features of MySpace.com, positively affect one's usage decision and hence achieve the intended goal of generating site traffic. However, different demographic groups may have idiosyncratic preferences for these features. Based on parameter estimates, we performed counterfactual simulations with the goal of providing managers with ways to enhance firm performance. / text

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Le travail de thèse porte sur l’étude du phénomène d’impact balistique dans le cas d’un tissu 2D et 3D avec 3 approches : numérique, expérimentale et analytique. Un protocole expérimental spécifique a été développé pour réaliser des essais dynamiques sur un fil en utilisant des moyens de suivi avec des systèmes d’acquisition rapide. Les essais balistiques ont été effectués à l’aide d’une instrumentation permettant le suivi de la vitesse du projectile et la déformation du tissu. 2 modèles numériques ont été utilisés : macroscopique et mésoscopique. Le modèle macroscopique du tissu 2D permet une prédiction sommaire des paramètres d’impact. Pour mieux mettre en évidence les interactions entre les fils d’un tissu 2D, un modèle mésoscopique, utilisant des éléments coques, a été développé. La confrontation des résultats numériques obtenus avec les données expérimentales démontre la robustesse du modèle mésoscopique puisque le phénomène des contacts fil/fil et projectiles/fils peut être analysé. Par ailleurs, dans un souci d’optimisation de temps de calcul, une combinaison entre les modèles mésoscopique et macroscopique a permis le développement d’un modèle multi échelle méso-macro. Un outil numérique est développé afin de modéliser géométriquement un tissu 3D. Ce modèle permet d’étudier les effets des frottements et des bords sur un tissu 3D soumis à un impact balistique. Un modèle analytique a été élaboré en prenant en compte les réflexions des ondes de déformation sur les fils pendant l’impact d’un tissu multi-couches. Ce modèle permet de prédire d’une façon continue l’évolution de plusieurs paramètres décrivant l’impact. / This thesis deals with the study of ballistic impact in the case of 2D and 3D fabrics using 3 approaches: numerical, experimental and analytical to improve the body armour protection. A totally new specific experimental protocol was developed for dynamic testing on yarn by using monitoring systems with fast acquisition. Ballistic tests were performed using a gas gun with instrumentation for monitoring projectile velocity and deformation of fabric. Two numerical models were used: macroscopic and mesoscopic models. Indeed, the macroscopic model, which considers 2D fabric as a homogeneous plate, allows a summary prediction of various impact parameters as: residual velocity, impact energies, deformation pyramid. To describe better interactions between yarns in a 2D fabric, a mesoscopic model was developed using shell elements. Comparisons between results obtained by both models and experimental data have demonstrated the modelling robustness at the mesoscopic scale since yarn/yarn and projectile/yarn contacts can be analyzed. Furthermore, in order to optimize computation time, a combination of mesoscopic and macroscopic models has allowed creating a multi-scale model distinguishing between different working areas of fabric during impact. A new numerical tool has been developed to model geometrically 3D fabrics taking into account yarns cross section. This model allows studying the effects of frictions and boundary conditions of a 3D fabric subjected to ballistic impact.In addition, an analytical model was carried out taking into account reflections of strain waves on yarns in the case of impact of a multi-layer fabric. This model predicts continuous evolutions of several parameters describing the impact.

The gas turbine engine has a wide range of applications, these include industrial and aerospace applications on locomotive, ferry, compressor and power generation, and the most popular application will be for the air transportation. The application for air transportation including military and commercial aircraft is highly sensitive to safety concerns. The engine health monitoring system plays a major role for addressing this concern, a good engine monitoring system will not only to provide immediate and correct information to the engine user but also provide useful information for managing the maintenance activities. Without a reliable performance diagnosis module involved, there will be not possible to build a good health monitoring system. There are many methodologies had been proposed and studied during past three decades, and yet still struggling to search for some good techniques to handle instrumentation errors. In order to develop a reliable engine performance diagnosis technique, a fully understanding and proper handling of the instrumentation is essential. A engine performance fault pattern matching method has been proposed and developed in this study, two fault libraries contains a complete defined set of 51963 faults was created by using a newly serviced fighter engine component data. This pattern matching system had been verified by different approaches, such as compares with linear and nonlinear diagnosis results and compares with performance sensitivity analysis results by using LTF program engine data. The outcomes from the verications indicate an encouraging result for further exploring this method. In conclusion, this research has not only propose a feasible performance diagnosis techniques, but also developed and verified through different kind of approaches for this techniques. In addition to that, by proper manipulating the created fault library, a possible new tool for analyzing the application of instruments' implementation was discovered. The author believes there will be more to study by using this created fault pattern library. For instance, this fault pattern library can be treated as a very good initial training sets for neural networking to develop a neural diagnosis technique. This study has put a new milestone for further exploring gas turbine diagnosis technique by using fault pattern related methods.

The main objective for this degree project is to implement an Application Availability Monitoring (AAM) system named Softek EnView for Fujitsu Services. The aim of implementing the AAM system is to proactively identify end user performance problems, such as application and site performance, before the actual end users experience them. No matter how well applications and sites are designed and nomatter how well they meet business requirements, they are useless to the end users if the performance is slow and/or unreliable. It is important for the customers to find out whether the end user problems are caused by the network or application malfunction. The Softek EnView was comprised of the following EnView components: Robot, Monitor, Reporter, Collector and Repository. The implemented system, however, is designed to use only some of these EnView elements: Robot, Reporter and depository. Robots can be placed at any key user location and are dedicated to customers, which means that when the number of customers increases, at the sametime the amount of Robots will increase. To make the AAM system ideal for the company to use, it was integrated with Fujitsu Services’ centralised monitoring system, BMC PATROL Enterprise Manager (PEM). That was actually the reason for deciding to drop the EnView Monitor element. After the system was fully implemented, the AAM system was ready for production. Transactions were (and are) written and deployed on Robots to simulate typical end user actions. These transactions are configured to run with certain intervals, which are defined collectively with customers. While they are driven against customers’ applicationsautomatically, transactions collect availability data and response time data all the time. In case of a failure in transactions, the robot immediately quits the transactionand writes detailed information to a log file about what went wrong and which element failed while going through an application. Then an alert is generated by a BMC PATROL Agent based on this data and is sent to the BMC PEM. Fujitsu Services’ monitoring room receives the alert, reacts to it according to the incident management process in ITIL and by alerting system specialists on critical incidents to resolve problems. As a result of the data gathered by the Robots, weekly reports, which contain detailed statistics and trend analyses of ongoing quality of IT services, is provided for the Customers.

The communion between human is frequent in modern society, and mass media has become an important tool for people to obtain information about life and experience of the outside world as a result. TV is the medium that has the largest size, is the most common and the most contacted by people around the globe, and also has the largest influences on modern people. However, with the innovation of spreading technology, the Internet has become the second largest medium industry that is next to TV due to such features as two-way spreading, real time interaction, low cost and free selection etc. Both TV and the Internet are ranged side by side as the two great powerful medium nowadays, they are both capable of spreading words, graphics, sound, images and video data, leaving profound influences on the audience, but the two vary greatly in terms of their showed appearances and usage nature. This research is based on the theory of Belk situation, locks the audience¡¦s watching/ usage behaviors in a certain special time space; a questionnaire survey has been conducted on those audience who have the habit of watching TV and using the Internet in the three areas covering Pingtung, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the purpose of the survey is to explore the watching/usage ¡¥situation¡¦ and ¡¥behaviors¡¦ of those audience who watch TV and use the Internet and make contrast for the differences between the two groups; the main conclusions come after statistics and analysis as follows: I. The differences of watching/usage situations between TV and the Internet 1. Those audience who watch TV have their home as the main environment, while the Internet users have comparably more diversified network environment. 2. The social interactive capability of the Internet is better than that of TV; TV is the main interactive media with family members, while the Internet is the main interactive media with non family members. 3. The later the time interval is, the higher ratio of watching TV of the audience will be; the main time interval for using the Internet is in the morning and evening respectively. Furthermore, the interactive lasting time of using the Internet is longer than that of watching TV and so as the addiction. 4. Due to its own features different from that of the Internet, TV can guide the audience¡¦s purpose of behaviors. 5. Through the contact with the media, the audience can maintain various satisfaction levels in daily life at a certain stable one; watching TV can increase people¡¦s pleasure level and the mood is just so-so for most users of the Internet. II. Under different situations, the behavior differences between the audience of watching TV and using the Internet 1. In case the physical environment is different, the audience¡¦s watching/usage behaviors are varied in terms of purpose, time interval and the relation with the interactive objects. 2. In case the social life environment is different, and when the interactive objects of the audience are not family members, the time interval of starting using for their watching/usage behaviors become varied is in the morning. 3. In case the time structural surface is different, the time interval of starting using for their watching/usage behaviors become varied is in the morning, at the end of usage and become varied for the watching/using hours. 4. In case the task definition is different, the audience¡¦s watching/usage behaviors are varied in terms of ¡¥ceremonial usage¡¦ purpose and ¡¥tool usage¡¦ purpose. 5. In case the previous status is different, the two groups of audience have obvious relevant features for the physiology of watching/usage behaviors, and the influence from the Internet is higher than that from TV.