La prématurité est un problème de santé publique mondial qui affecte aujourd'hui 1 sur 10 enfants chaque année. En France, ce phénomène a régulièrement augmenté, les prématurés représentant 7,3% des nouveaux nés français en 2014, contre 5,9% en 1995. Des recherches scientifiques ont établi que les enfants nés prématurément sont plus susceptibles de rencontrer des difficultés dans le développement langagier ainsi que dans d'autres domaines cognitifs que les enfants nés à terme. Cependant, nos connaissances sur les habilités langagières précoces des enfants prématurés restent actuellement limitées. Le premier objectif de cette thèse était donc de spécifier différentes capacités de perception de la parole pendant les deux premières années, en référence à celles d'enfants nés à terme de même âge postnatal. Son second objectif était d'étudier si le degré de prématurité module les performances langagières des enfants prématurés. Cette thèse est organisée en trois parties expérimentales. La première a exploré la segmentation, c'est-à-dire la capacité à découper la parole en mots, qui est liée à l'acquisition du vocabulaire. Nos résultats ont établi qu'à 6 mois d'âge postnatal, les enfants prématurés ont des capacités de segmentation basiques (segmentation de mots monosyllabiques, Exp. 1), comme les enfants nés à terme de même âge postnatal (6 mois ; Nishibayashi, Goyet, & Nazzi, 2015) et corrigé (4 mois ; Exp. 2). Toutefois, nous avons aussi trouvé des différences avec les nés à terme. Si les enfants prématurés de 6 mois segmentent des syllabes intégrées dans des mots, comme précédemment trouvé pour les enfants nés à terme, l'effet de segmentation à des directions opposées chez les deux populations, suggérant différents mécanismes de traitement (Exp. 3). En outre, à 8 mois d'âge postnatal, nos résultats ne font pas apparaître de biais consonantique dans la reconnaissance des mots segmentés, comme chez les enfants nés à terme (Exp. 4). Néanmoins, des enfants bilingues prématurés et nés à terme qui ont le français comme langue dominante sont capables de segmenter des mots monosyllabiques à l'âge de 6 mois (Exp. 5). La deuxième partie a mesuré le comportement visuel d'enfants prématurés et nés à terme face à un visage parlant dans la langue maternelle (le français) et une langue étrangère (l'anglais). Nos résultats révèlent qu'à 8 mois, les enfants prématurés ont un comportement visuel différent de celui d'enfants nés à terme au même âge postnatal et corrigé. Alors que les enfants nés à terme ont un comportement visuel différent dans les deux langues, ce n'est pas le cas chez les enfants prématurés (Exp. 6). Ces comportements visuels différentiels sont les premiers éléments de caractérisation de la trajectoire développementale de la perception audiovisuelle des enfants prématurés. La troisième partie a porté sur le développement lexical. Nos résultats montrent que les enfants prématurés reconnaissent la forme des mots familiers à 11 mois d'âge postnatal (Exp.7), comme les enfants nés à terme (Hallé & de Boysson-Bardies, 1994). Concernant la production lexicale autour de l'âge de 24 mois postnatal (Exp. 8), nos résultats révèlent que les enfants prématurés ont un vocabulaire réduit par rapport aux enfants nés à terme de même âge postnatal, mais des niveaux similaires à ceux de même âge corrigé. Cependant, un pourcentage élevé des enfants prématurés étaient en dessous du centile 10 selon les normes de la population typique, ce qui pourrait constituer un indice d'identification de risque de délais langagiers. Pris ensemble, nos résultats offrent une vision plus détaillée et nuancée de l'acquisition langagière précoce des enfants nés à terme, et aident à mieux comprendre la contribution relative de l'input environnemental (i.e. exposition à input visuel et auditif non filtré) et la maturation neuronale à cette trajectoire développementale. / Prematurity is currently an important public health problem in the world that affects 1 in 10 babies worldwide every year. In France, preterm birth has steadily increased from 5.9% in 1995 to 7.3% in 2014. Research has demonstrated that prematurely born children are more susceptible to encounter some difficulties in language development and other cognitive domains than children born fullterm. To date, knowledge on early language abilities in preterm infants remains limited. The first goal of this doctoral research was to specify different speech perception abilities in the first two years of life in preterm infants, comparing their abilities to those of fullterm infants of the same postnatal age. The second goal was to investigate whether degree of prematurity modulates linguistic performance across preterm infants. This thesis is organized in three experimental parts. First, we explored word segmentation (the ability to extract word forms) from fluent speech, an ability that is related to lexical acquisition. Our findings showed that basic segmentation abilities are in place in monolingual preterm infants at 6 months of postnatal age (Exp. 1), since they segment monosyllabic words just like their postnatal (Nishibayashi, Goyet, & Nazzi, 2015) and corrected age (4-month-olds; Exp.2) fullterm peers. However, we also found differences with fullterms. While 6-month-old preterms segment embedded syllables as fullterms do (Nishibayashi et al., 2015), the direction of the effect is reversed, suggesting differential processing mechanisms (Exp. 3). Moreover, at 8 months postnatal age, we failed to find evidence for a consonant bias in recognition of segmented word forms (Exp. 4) as found for fullterms of the same age (Nishibayashi & Nazzi, 2016). Nevertheless, French-dominant bilingual populations were found to segment monosyllabic words in French at 6 months, whether being born pre- or full-term (Exp. 5). In the second part, using eye-tracking techniques, we measured preterm and fullterm infants scanning patterns of a talking face in the native (French) and a non-native (English) language. We found that preterm infants at 8 months postnatal age show different looking behavior than their fullterm counterparts matched on postnatal and maturational age. Compared to fullterm infants who showed different scanning pattern of a face speaking in the two languages, preterm infants showed similar scanning patterns for both languages (Exp. 6). These differential gaze patterns provide a first step to characterize the developmental course of audiovisual speech perception in preterm infants. The third part focused on lexical development. Our results show that preterm infants recognize familiar word forms at 11 months postnatal age (Exp. 7), hence at the same postnatal age as fullterm infants (Hallé & de Boysson-Bardies, 1994). With respect to word production at around 24 months of postnatal age (Exp. 8), we found that preterm infants have smaller vocabularies than fullterms of the same postnatal age, but as a group have similar levels as their fullterm, corrected age peers. However, more preterm infants were below the 10th percentile than expected based on (fullterm) norms, which might constitute an index for early identification of (preterm) infants at risk for linguistic delays. Taken together, our results help us build a more detailed and nuanced picture of early language acquisition in preterm infants, and better understand the relative contribution of environmental input (i.e. exposure to unfiltered auditory and visual input after preterm birth) and brain maturation on this developmental trajectory.

The questions posed in this study were: Are there significant differences among various tasks for eliciting five locative prepositions, and, if so, do tasks vary in their effectiveness according to the age of the children? Sixty children, ten within each of six age groups, aged eighteen to forty-eight months, participated in the study. All the children had normal language and hearing abilities. An investigator-developed assessment, the Test for Comprehension of Five Locative Prepositions, was administered to each child by the investigator. The Test for Comprehension of Five Locative Prepositions involved picture contexts and object contexts of varying sizes, and required manipulation, pointing and self action response modes.

This study explored morpheme acquisition in learners of English as a Second Language (ESL). Specifically, it looked at the development of eight selected individuals from Korea over the course of an intensive 8-week instruction program and tracked their acquisition of three specific English morphemes: indefinite articles used with singular count nouns, progressive -ing forms, and third person -s markers. The individuals were given an assessment test to place them at the correct level within the program prior to their selection for the study. The participants provided four sets of data in the form of writing samples at fixed intervals during the eight weeks. The results were evaluated and documented in the pages that follow. Improvement was shown in raw performance data on the morphemes, and a significant correlation was found for both the indefinite article and progressive –ing morphemes in number of correct responses.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

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The capital maintenance doctrine presupposes that a company’s capital must not be returned to its shareholders. The doctrine was anchored on three rules, one of which was that a company cannot acquire its own shares as this amounted to a diversion of capital to the shareholders whose shares were acquired. This rule was partly rationalized as protecting the interests of shareholders. In South Africa the rule was embodied in s 85 of the Companies Act 61 of 1973. However, it was amended by s 9 of the subsequent Companies Amendment Act 37 of 1999 to provide that a company can acquire its own shares if certain substantive and procedural requirements were satisfied. Upon the enactment of Companies Act 71 of 2008, the requirements have not been substantially altered. They are partly geared towards protecting shareholders by ensuring that shareholders are treated equally and fairly. Moreover, the Johannesburg Securities Exchange Limited (hence the JSE Limited) was empowered by the Companies Act 61 of 1973 to promulgate requirements to be met when a company wishes to acquire its own shares. The Companies Act 71 of 2008 does not in express terms empower the JSE Limited to develop requirements to be met when a company wishes to acquire its own shares. However, the Act expressly requires that a listed company wishing to acquire its own shares must also comply with the requirements of the relevant exchange. Such requirements can therefore be deemed to subsist even amidst the new Act as an internal regulation of the JSE Limited. The said requirements are also partly aimed at protecting shareholders, largely by ensuring that adequate information is availed to shareholders to empower them to make informed decisions. / Private Law / (LL.M. (Company Law))

ITC/USA 2005 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-First Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2005 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Experimental science payloads vary greatly in design for the purpose of performing specialized tasks. As such, their supporting control, data acquisition and telemetry subsystems are often expensive custom designed units with specific abilities, thus limiting reuse. This paper presents a payload control, data acquisition and telemetry system capable of providing a range of functionality to science payloads as a consequence of its accommodating architecture, programmability, and physical modular design. Details of the system and its capabilities are presented followed by an actual configuration of the system as the backbone of a micro-electro-mechanical-systems technology demonstration payload designed for suborbital flight.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California / The IntelliBus network protocol provides an enabling technology for the next generation data acquisition system. IntelliBus provides greater data acquisition efficiency and reliability compared to other network protocols. This paper discusses the design considerations and implementation of a next generation Data Acquisition System incorporating IntelliBus with emphasis on the advantages of the new architecture over existing acquisition systems.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California / Serial interfaces (RS232, RS422/485) have been the standard method of communications in traditional data acquisition systems. The role of these interfaces has been to supply a simple setup and control path between a host and the data acquisition master and little else. Today’s distributed data acquisition systems (DAS), which are comprised of many types of components including Ground Support Computers (GSC), Pilot Control Units (PCU), Data System Control Units (DSCU), Solid State Recorders (SSR), Data Acquisition Units (DAU) and Cockpit Instrumentation Data Systems (CIDS), are ideally suited to the use of Ethernet for not only setup functions, but for the distribution of acquired data and status to an unlimited number of users. Besides the obvious advantage of higher data rates, Ethernet provides other benefits such as greater data integrity, multi-host capability, and common programming interfaces. This paper details the integration of new L3 Communications - Telemetry East (L3-TE) Ethernet based software and hardware components that are part of the Comanche Data Systems equipment suite.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 18-21, 2004 / Town & Country Resort, San Diego, California / With recent improvements in data acquisition technology, it is now possible to use an FTI data acquisition system to measure analog signals with a total error from all sources of less than 0.05% - over an extended temperature range - and at high sample rates. This accuracy is better than one count of an old 10-bit system and includes non-linearities, initial errors (in gain, offset and excitation) and drift errors, simplifying the task of interpreting data acquisition system performance specifications. This paper looks at some practical steps taken to achieve this accuracy, from a hardware design and signal processing perspective. This leads to a discussion of implications for the FTI system designer, including: sensor and wiring specifications, sample rate, filtering specifications, and a discussion of implications for the data processing engineers.