Bureau de Coopération Interuniversitaire

Transit service reliability is important for transit planning and operations as well as passenger experience. Large travel time variations increase operating costs and negatively affect passenger satisfaction. Existing literature focuses on specific aspects of transit travel times but less on how these aspects interact with each other. This paper proposes to combine previous research efforts by further decomposing observed trip travel times into four elements using 3 months of archived vehicle location and fare transaction data. Departure times and inter-stop travel times are obtained from vehicle locations. Dwell times at stops are estimated from fare transaction data using a dwell time model. Red-light waiting times are calculated using the vehicle locations and estimated signal timing plans. Then, using these as inputs, we identify important trip elements affecting the overall travel time variation, as well as how much variation can be attributed to each trip element using variance-based and one-at-a-time sensitivity analyses. The overall travel times and red-light waiting times are more affected by interaction effects between trip elements, whereas the overall inter-stop times and dwell times are mainly affected by large individual variations. The results suggest that planners must consider potential chain reactions where small variations in one trip element can lead to significant changes in the overall trip times as a result of interaction effects with varying cycle lengths in fixed signal timing plans. These findings will help planners better integrate available data sets, carry out comprehensive analyses, and pinpoint the determinants affecting travel time variation on each route.

Le Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire (BCI) a été mandaté en 2018 par le ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur (MES) afin de collaborer avec les universités pour l’avancement du dossier de la reconnaissance des acquis (RA) universitaire au Québec. Daniel Laurin, conseiller-expert en reconnaissance et en validation des acquis (RVA) au BCI, a été interviewé par Jean Pascal Lafrance en mars 2023 dans le cadre de la préparation de ce numéro spécial sur la reconnaissance et la validation des acquis expérientiels (RVAE) à l’université.

Abstract Lakes are heterogenous ecosystems inhabited by a rich microbiome whose genomic diversity is poorly defined. We present a continental-scale study of metagenomes representing 6.5 million km2of the most lake-rich landscape on Earth. Analysis of 308 Canadian lakes resulted in a metagenome-assembled genome (MAG) catalogue of 1,008 mostly novel bacterial genomospecies. Lake trophic state was a leading driver of taxonomic and functional diversity among MAG assemblages, reflecting the responses of communities profiled by 16S rRNA amplicons and gene-centric metagenomics. Coupling the MAG catalogue with watershed geomatics revealed terrestrial influences of soils and land use on assemblages. Agriculture and human population density were drivers of turnover, indicating detectable anthropogenic imprints on lake bacteria at the continental scale. The sensitivity of bacterial assemblages to human impact reinforces lakes as sentinels of environmental change. Overall, the LakePulse MAG catalogue greatly expands the freshwater genomic landscape, advancing an integrative view of diversity across Earth’s microbiomes.

<p>Dans un continent africain où le besoin de développement durable est notoire et les banques au cœur de l’activité économique, la mise en place d’une finance durable apparaît comme une nécessité. Toutefois, les principes de la gouvernance d’entreprise démontrent que les investisseurs quelle que soit leur nature sont capables de promouvoir une « finance saine ». De la sorte, cette recherche analyse l’influence des investisseurs sur la finance durable, en considérant le triptyque environnement-social-gouvernance. Des données issues des rapports annuels de 42 banques multinationales entre 2005-2014 et des régressions par la méthode de White, on conclut que l’actionnariat étatique et salarial affectent négativement la création de valeur, tandis que les actionnaires institutionnels et étrangers impactent favorablement les crédits verts. Enfin, l’actionnariat salarié est favorable à la philanthropie, alors que les investisseurs institutionnels et étrangers influencent négativement la charité. Cette étude consacre la responsabilité écologique des actionnaires internationaux, la mauvaise gouvernance des investisseurs en général et leur moindre engagement social.</p>

L’année 1977 marque le dixième anniversaire de la création du Sous-comité des bibliothèques de la Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec. Celui-ci a joué, dans les milieux universitaires et même au sein de la collectivité des bibliothèques québécoises, un rôle unique. Il a été l’un des premiers organismes de coopération volontaire à amorcer, et surtout à planifier, une mise en commun de ses ressources au bénéfice de l’ensemble de ses membres et de leurs usagers. L’auteur dresse un rapide bilan des activités du Sous-comité et esquisse quelques-uns de ses projets, après avoir situé, dans le contexte plus large de l’ensemble des activités de coopération des universités elles-mêmes, celles dont le Sous-comité des bibliothèques a été l’instigateur.

Abstract For kernel-based estimators, smoothness conditions ensure that the asymptotic rate at which the bias goes to zero is determined by the kernel order. In a finite sample, the leading term in the expansion of the bias may provide a poor approximation. We explore the relation between smoothness and bias and provide estimators for the degree of the smoothness and the bias. We demonstrate the existence of a linear combination of estimators whose trace of the asymptotic mean-squared error is reduced relative to the individual estimator at the optimal bandwidth. We examine the finite-sample performance of a combined estimator that minimizes the trace of the MSE of a linear combination of individual kernel estimators for a multimodal density. The combined estimator provides a robust alternative to individual estimators that protects against uncertainty about the degree of smoothness.

Public health ethics has been receiving increased attention in recent years. Often, public health practitioners have to confront complex decisions, with numerous and often conflicting ethical implications. What to do: ask colleagues? try a literature review? consult a specialist in bioethics? The title of this book raises expectations of a treatise on the subject – a refuge for the public health practitioner with disconcerting questions. As stated in its preface, the book has come about as a result of encounters and discussions at meetings of the International Association of Bioethics held over several years. Some of the chapters result from a research seminar held in the Netherlands in 2002, while others have been written subsequently. The sixteen authors of the twelve chapters, all of which are original, come from Europe and North America, and range from a PhD student to luminaries in this field, such as Lawrence O Gostin. The book is very well structured, starting with an introductory chapter by the editors, Angus Dawson and Marcel Verweij, that provides an overview of what follows and discusses three general features of public health interventions. First, the initiative for public health interventions usually comes from a public health professional and not a patient who is seeking care; second, public health interventions may not be beneficial for each individual, but aim to protect and promote health at the group or population level; and third, public health activities are potentially pervasive and can interfere with all aspects of life and of society. The topics covered range from vaccination and herd protection as a public good, a non-paternalistic argument for tobacco discouragement, to the use of cost-effectiveness analysis for priority-setting. Most readers will restrict themselves to one or two chapters, with probably only a very few reading it from cover to cover. Personally, the book has enabled me to get a better grip on an issue that I have had in the back of my mind for some years. While informed consent is the hallmark of bioethics in health services, the complexity of interventions at the group and population levels makes it difficult to use the same standard for public health activities. For example, the increased use of combined vaccines in universal vaccination programmes (such as adding also a vaccine against chickenpox to measles, mumps and rubella vaccine) makes it impossible for parents to provide informed consent to each of the component vaccines involved. Although the individual and collective benefit and risk levels are different for each individual vaccine, a parent can at best only provide consent to a combined vaccine programme. In the final chapter of the book, Niels Nijsingh argues compellingly that requiring informed consent for a dramatically expanded newborn screening programme places too severe a burden on both parents and society in general, and that we need to find other means for protecting the individuals participating in public health programmes. Such an argument may be shocking to some, but it shows that this book does not provide ready-made answers for public health practitioners stumbling over ethical issues. Rather, it forces readers to reflect on these issues, deepen their understanding and arrive at conclusions that should be discussed with others. ■

RESUME*: Selon l'auteur, le mouvement coopératif du Québec s'est développé en trois grandes étapes:—1900–1920;‐1940–1960;‐1975–1985, sous l'impulsion de leaders proches des besoins populaires. Prětres, intellectuels, membres de professions libérales, leaders syndicaux et communautaires liés par le nationalistie québécois, vont permettre au mouvement coopératif de se donner un enracinement populaire exceptionnel et des résultats économiques impressionnants.i

El autor de la Historia Universal tradicional, o sea, l a que todosconocemos, part e de l principi o unitari o d e l a Creació n o existenci adel Universo . Tod o cuant o e n s u ámbit o ocurri ó l e interes a recoge ren su s anales , siempr e qu e l o acontecid o s e hall e suficientement e do -cumentado o demostrado .