After US President Joe Biden took office, some believed he would take a different path from that of his predecessor and that the Trump years were over. However, one of President Biden’s first moves was to strengthen American protectionism by heightening the United States’s “Buy America” and “Buy American” requirements. With this, the American government procurement market started to close off even more, and Canadian suppliers, in turn, grew worried. Given the United States’s international procurement commitments and the specificity of the Buy American Act and the Buy America Policy, this article explores the pathways to favourable treatment of Canadian suppliers in keeping with applicable international trade rules.

We assessed clinicians’ continuing professional development (CPD) needs at family practice teaching clinics in the province of Quebec. Our mixed methodology design comprised an environmental scan of training programs at four family medicine departments, an expert panel to determine priority clinical situations for senior care, a supervisors survey to assess their perceived CPD needs, and interviews to help understand the rationale behind their needs. From the environmental scan, the expert panel selected 13 priority situations. Key needs expressed by the 352 survey respondents (36% response rate) included behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, polypharmacy, depression, and cognitive disorders. Supervisors explained that these situations were sometimes complex to diagnose and manage because of psychosocial aspects, challenges of communicating with patients and families, and coordination of interprofessional teams. Supervisors also reported more CPD needs in long-term and home care, given the presence of caregivers and complexity of senior care in these settings.

We have investigated the integration of Hf-based material as Inter Poly Dielectric in flash memories devices. Electrical measurements showed the good properties of SiO2/HfO2/SiO2 stacks. We then interested to the impact of the thermal budget on this specific stack which induces changes in the electrical properties. XPS measurements suggests those changes are due to the presence of an Hf-silicate layer at the SiO2/HfO2 interface.

Objective: Depression is particularly prevalent in patients with advanced cancer. Cognitive therapy (CT) is an empirically supported treatment for depression in the general population. However, efficacy remains to be demonstrated in patients with advanced cancer. A prior controlled trial of CT in a group format showed improvements in depression, mood disturbance, and self-esteem; however, these effects were not maintained over time. Studies examining the efficacy of individual format CT interventions that may ensure more long-term maintenance of benefits are necessary. This study assessed the efficacy of CT for depression administered individually in women with metastatic breast cancer and its effect on immune function.

Method: Forty-five women were randomly assigned to either individual CT or to a waiting-list control (WLC) condition. CT was composed of eight weekly sessions of CT and three booster sessions administered at 3-week intervals following the end of treatment.

Results: Patients treated with CT had significantly lower scores on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale at posttreatment compared to untreated patients. Pooled data from both groups indicated significant reductions of depressive symptoms from pre- to posttreatment, as well as reduction of associated symptoms including anxiety, fatigue, and insomnia symptoms. These effects were well sustained at the 3- and 6-month follow-up evaluations. CT for depression did not appear to have a significant impact on immune functioning.

Significance of results: Findings of this study support the efficacy of CT for depression in this population and suggest that the administration of individual and booster sessions after treatment termination may be instrumental in sustaining the treatment effects over time.

In this paper the impact of processed-induced stress and transistor layout on device performance in state-of-the-art 65nm CMOS technology has been studied. We have focused this analysis on different nitride liners above devices (Contact Etch-Stop Layers – CESL) which have been fabricated on two differently oriented (100) substrates: <110> and <100>. This overview permits to have a good understanding of CESL, and to choose the right strategy in terms of process induced stress in future microelectronic technologies.

During the MOS transistors fabrication process, the source-drain extension areas are directly in contact with the oxide liner of the spacers stack. In previous works [1, 2, 3] it has been established that boron can diffuse from the source-drain extensions into the spacer oxide liner during the subsequent annealing steps, and that the amount of boron loss depends on the hydrogen content in the oxide, because it enhances B diffusivity in SiO2.

In order to characterize and quantify the above phenomena, we performed test experiments on full sheet samples, which mimic either BF2 source-drain extensions over arsenic pockets implants, or BF2 pockets under arsenic or phosphorus source-drain extensions implants. Following the corresponding implants, the wafers were covered with different spacer stacks (oxide + nitride) deposited either by LPCVD, or PECVD. After appropriate activation annealing steps, SIMS measurements were used to characterize the profiles of the various dopants, and the corresponding dose loss was evaluated for each species.

Our experimental results clearly evidence that LPCVD or PECVD spacer stacks have no influence on the arsenic profiles. On the other hand, phosphorus and boron profiles are affected. For boron profiles, each spacer type has a different influence. It is also shown that boron out-diffuses not only from the B doped source-drain extension in direct contact with the oxide layer, but also from the "buried" B pockets lying under n-doped source drain extension areas. All these results are discussed in term of the possible relevant mechanism.

Two cases of legionellosis occurring 3 years apart were acquired in the same French thermal spa and were apparently due to the same strain of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1, as shown by genomic macrorestriction analysis. Minor differences between the two isolates were found by random amplification PCR profiling which showed an additional band with one of the isolates. Analysis of 107 L. pneumophila strains isolated from the spa waters by genome macrorestriction failed to identify the infective strain, but a closely related L. pneumophila serogroup 3 strain differing from the clinical isolates by only one band was found. To determine if the clinical L. pneumophila serogroup 1 isolates was better adapted for intracellular multiplication than related serogroup 3 environmental isolates, the growth kinetics of six isolates were determined in co-culture with Acanthamoeba lenticulata. One clinical isolate failed to grow within amoeba, while the other clinical isolate yielded the highest increase in bacterial cell count per amoeba (1200 %) and the environmental isolates gave intermediate values. Genetic analysis of L. pneumophila isolates by DNA macrorestriction does not therefore appear to reflect their growth kinetics within amoeba, and is not sufficiently discriminatory to identify potentially virulent strains.

Les années 1980 ont été caractérisées par une atonie persistante de l’investissement industriel des entreprises françaises, une détérioration accusée de leurs comptes jusqu’en 1983 et des taux d’intérêt très élevés. En même temps, plusieurs difficultés sont apparues dans les travaux macroéconomiques consacrés à l’influence des anticipations de demande, du coût relatif des facteurs et du profit sur le comportement d’investissement. Ceci souligne l’intérêt d’une étude de ce comportement sur un panel d’environ 700 entreprises industrielles suivies de 1975 à 1983, qui représentent 30 % de la valeur ajoutée industrielle. Les principales conclusions de l’étude pourraient être les suivantes : le modèle de l’accélérateur est moins pertinent à partir de 1979. La contrainte de rentabilité semble avoir eu une forte influence pendant la période étudiée (1979-1983). Le taux d’intérêt apparent, propre à l’entreprise, semble influencer l’accumulation du capital. Le ratio d’endettement et les aides fiscales n’ont pas une grande importance.