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The Watchmen of the Night is a small religious group based in Aalten (in the Dutch province of Gelderland), that lives in the expectation of Jesus Christ’s imminent return to the earth. The Watchmen consider themselves belonging to the historicist school of interpretation of biblical prophecies. They expect the seventh vial of God’s wrath (Rev. 16:17) to be poured out soon and think the period 2017-2018 will be of crucial significance. In this article their prophecies concerning the end of times are presented and the question is discussed what will be the consequences for the group and its views when these predictions will be confronted with the (possible contradictory) reality of 2017-2018.

Purpose: In this study, the authors used sequential analysis to explore bidirectional and dynamic dependencies between mothers' question use and children's verbal participation during shared reading. Method: The sample was composed of mothers and their preschool-age children with specific language impairment (SLI; n = 14). Each mother and child extratextual utterance was transcribed and coded. Mother utterances were coded as "questions" or "other"; in turn, questions were coded for cognitive challenge and topic directiveness. Child utterances were coded as "verbal participation" (related to the book) or "other"; utterances designated as verbal participation were also coded for level of production (minimal, low, high) on the basis of their mean length of utterance. Results: Descriptive data show variability in mothers' question use and some variability in the level of children's verbal participation during shared reading. However, mothers' question use did not facilitate higher levels of verbal participation by children. Furthermore, the level of children's verbal participation did not influence the cognitive challenge and topic directiveness of mothers' question use. Conclusions: The findings were contrary to hypotheses and collectively suggest potentially unique and challenging verbal dynamics between mothers and their young children with SLI during shared-reading experiences. Future directions for research are discussed.

Purpose: Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and reading professionals provide educational services to children who are at risk for reading difficulties, although these professions do not necessarily coordinate efforts. To date, there is limited evidence regarding the proportion of children who receive services from both professionals. The current study reports the prevalence and overlap of speech-language and reading services provided to kindergartners and first graders in Virginia. Method: This study analyzed a population-level database of reading screening scores from 74,730 kindergartners and 75,088 first graders. Information regarding the speech-language services received by these children was obtained. Prevalence rates of speech-language impairment, reading risk, and comorbidity were calculated. The distribution of children receiving speech-language services across categories of reading competence was examined. Results: Findings indicated that approximately 6% of the children received speech-language services and 11.1% of the kindergartners and 13.7% of the first graders received reading services. One-quarter of the children receiving speech-language services also received reading services. Furthermore, children receiving speech-language services received reading services at twice the rate of children who were not receiving speech-language services in both kindergarten (23.1% vs. 9.1%) and first grade (25.2% vs. 11.3%). Clinical Implications: This study provides empirical support for improving coordination between SLPs and reading professionals.

There is a perceived shortage of male teachers in education, particularly at the primary/junior (P/J) level where male teachers in Canada account for a dwindling minority. Included among the many factors inhibiting males from becoming P/J teachers are perceptions that males might be unduly vulnerable to false accusations of inappropriate conduct with pupils, frequently of a sexual nature. This paper highlights findings of research exploring the experiences of male P/J teachers in Ontario. Results of an online survey completed by 223 male P/J teachers are discussed; 28 of these teachers reported they had been suspected of having had inappropriate contact with pupils and wrote online comments outlining their experience. The findings are discussed in the context of what it means to be a male assuming a non-traditional role of working with young children in today's milieu. (Contains 3 notes.)

Analysis of children's spoken narratives represents a potentially informative approach to language assessment within early childhood settings. Yet, narrative assessment is not readily amenable to at-scale use given the time needed to collect, transcribe, and analyze a child's narrative sample and the lack of consensus regarding what aspects of narrative expression ought to be examined (e.g., language form, language content). The purpose of this study was to describe a direct assessment of children's language abilities within a narrative context, the Narrative Assessment Protocol (NAP), which examines five aspects of language: sentence structure, phrase structure, modifiers, nouns, and verbs. In this study, we present findings regarding internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, and the concurrent and predictive validity of the NAP. NAP scores from 262 3-5-year-old children participating in preschool programs were assessed for these purposes. Findings indicated that the NAP exhibits reasonable psychometric properties across the areas addressed, to include significant concurrent and predictive relations with a norm-referenced measure of general language ability. Although more research is needed, preliminary findings indicate that the NAP provides professionals with a valid and informative assessment approach for examining children's language skills within a narrative context; such information may be useful for establishing and monitoring children's language growth within preschool programs or language interventions. (Contains 3 tables.)

There is a long standing debate between aphasiologists on the essential factor that constitutes the behavioral patterns of loss and preservation in agrammatic Broca's aphasia. It has been suggested that linguistic complexity plays a crucial role: linguistically complex structures are more difficult to produce than linguistically simple ones. However, linguistic complex structures are often less frequent in a language; for example, simple active sentences are more frequently used than linguistically more complex passive sentences. Hence, it might be that it is not linguistic complexity but frequency that determines agrammatic behavior. Frequency may play a role at several levels. For agrammatic patients, for example, the frequency of sentence constructions may be crucial, whereas for fluent aphasic speakers word frequency influences performance. The present study presents corpus frequency data for constructions that have previously been used to show the influence of linguistic complexity on Dutch agrammatic speech production. These are data on: (1) verb movement; (2) object scrambling; and (3) verbs with alternating transitivity. We compared the data of our corpus research with the performance of agrammatic speakers on the constructions. The conclusion is that frequency cannot account for the data, but linguistic complexity can. It is then discussed what "linguistic complexity" exactly stands for, in terms of the word order deficit in agrammatic aphasia. (Contains 4 footnotes, 8 figures and 9 tables.)

The authors examined how the grading scheme affects learning and students' reactions to the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT), an answer form providing immediate feedback on multiple-choice questions. Undergraduate students (N = 141) took a general-knowledge multiple-choice test of low, medium, or high difficulty. They used the IFAT with a number-correct (NC), partial-credit (PC), or correction-for-guessing (CG) grading scheme. After 1 week, they retook the test using a traditional response form with an NC scheme. When the authors used the NC or PC scheme for Test 1, the number of correct answers increased by more than 30% on Test 2. However, the increase was only about half as large with the CG scheme, suggesting that it interferes with the IFAT's learning benefits. Responses to questionnaire items provided no strong clues regarding the origin of this difference. Participants in all treatment conditions had positive attitudes toward the IFAT. (Contains 5 tables.)

Effects of an intervention and video interaction counseling with teachers of 78 children from school and centers were investigated. The study involved a quasi-experimental pretest-intervention-posttest control group design. In Condition 1 teachers received the counseling for 12 weeks, followed by withdrawal of this intervention for weeks. In Condition 2 the intervention was in reversed order. The students' competent behavior was assessed by rating their response to social support during engagement in a standardized task, their performance of standardized tasks of cognitive skills, and ratings of their social skills. Results revealed differences in favor of the participants in the two video interaction counseling research conditions on measures of social support and cognitive competence.

The process of choosing strategies within mathematization is described in a multi-method study on solving additions and subtractions. The sample consisted of 40 dyads of 3rd-graders and their teacher from ten mainstream primary schools. From each classroom the two students rated as highest and the two rated as lowest were selected to take part in a session in which teacher and students worked together. Thus two research conditions were formed: high rating versus low rating. The teacher was not informed about the selection criterion for the students, and the students were not informed why they were invited to sit with the teacher and do sums. The task involved solving four sums, and it was video taped and analysed in three steps. In the first step, the conditions were compared quantitatively with respect to teacher's social support, instruction quality, and regulation, and students' response to social support. The second step involved identification of discourse patterns. The third step implied identification of student scripts following open-ended questions by teachers. The implications of the results for teacher training with respect to mathematics instruction are discussed. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.)

The authors examined the relationship between the reactions of undergraduate students to using the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT), an answer form that provides immediate feedback on multiple-choice questions, for the first time on a major examination and their levels of test anxiety and trait anxiety. They also assessed whether students with higher levels of test anxiety and trait anxiety might be disadvantaged relative to other students by use of the IFAT in a testing situation. They found that preference of undergraduates (N =185) for the IFAT was not related to test anxiety, nor did evidence indicate that the IFAT put students with higher levels of test anxiety at a disadvantage with respect to test performance. Using the IFAT did not generally increase test-related anxiety, and for a majority of students, immediate feedback actually reduced it. Nineteen percent of students felt that immediate feedback interfered with their test performance but would nevertheless still prefer to use the IFAT in future tests. Potential concerns that test-anxious students may either dislike the IFAT or be disadvantaged by its use appear unwarranted and should not deter instructors from adopting the IFAT.

Physical literacy (PL) is essential to the holistic human experience, emphasizing embodied capability and affording opportunities for inclusive engagement. Despite its recent use as a core programming element, PL from the experiential point of view of individuals experiencing disability has yet to be explored. Excluding these perspectives promotes a culture of ableism, one that devalues the embodied capabilities of those experiencing the world differently. The purpose of this study was to highlight the participant perspective related to PL and explore the value individuals experiencing disability attribute to PL and its development. Using the communities of practice theoretical model of knowledge as a conceptual framework, 13 participants experiencing disability participated in two focus groups. Participants' experiences were thematized via the use of thematic analysis, and voices were portrayed through composite narratives, highlighting the shared participant experience and value associated with PL. Three themes emerged: (1) imagine the possibilities , (2) dance like nobody's watching , and (3) no wrong way to move. Composite narratives reflect PL as a valued means of exploration and learning, personal growth, and opportunity related to physical activity and social interaction. Participant value was considered to be enhanced via a learning climate affording opportunities for developing autonomy and a sense of belonging. This research provides an authentic understanding of PL within the context of disability, and what might be used to facilitate its development in such an environment. Individuals experiencing disability contributed to this knowledge and must be continually involved to ensure PL development is inclusive to all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undergraduates completed a questionnaire after using the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT), a commercially available answer form for multiple-choice (MC) testing that can be used easily and conveniently with large classes. This simple new technique for MC testing provides immediate feedback for each item in an answer-until-correct format and permits the earning of partial credit when the student's initial response is incorrect. Reaction to the IFAT was extremely positive, with students saying it was easy to use and contributed to their learning, and they indicated a strong desire to use the IFAT for all MC tests. Liking for the IFAT was not related to either personal characteristics or test performance variables, indicating that it has broad appeal to students.

Background. St. Joseph’s Health System has implemented an integrated comprehensive care bundle care (ICC) program with the hopes that it would improve patients’ care while reducing overall costs. The aim of this analysis was to evaluate the performance of the ICC program within patients admitted with chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD). Methods. We conducted a retrospective observational cohort study comparing ICC patients to non-ICC patients admitted to St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton for COPD being discharged with support services between June 2012 and March 2015, using administrative data. Confounding adjustment was achieved through the use of propensity score matching. Medical resource utilizations during the initial hospitalization and within the 60 days following discharge were compared using regression models. Results. All 76 patients who entered the ICC program (100.0%) were matched 1 : 1 to 76 eligible non-ICC patients (28.4%). Length of stay (6.47 [7.29] versus 9.55 [10.21] days) and resource intensity weights (1.16 [0.80] versus 1.64 [1.69]) were lower in the ICC group within the initial hospitalization but, while favoring the ICC program, healthcare resource use tended not to differ statistically following discharge. Interpretation. The ICC program was able to reduce initial medical resource utilization without increasing subsequent medical resource use.

An overview of definitions of religion and magic is followed by an outline of the main questions (inequality, cohesion, rationalization) and major scientific research programmes (historical materialism, structural functionalism, interpretative individualism, and rational choice and market-theory) in which the history of the scientific debate and the state of the art is delineated. Then, research on actual themes since the nineteen sixties is presented, viz. the evolution of the gods, secularization & unchurching, and new religious movements. How progress can be realised in the sociology of religion is discussed in the concluding section.

Cell-mediated immunity plays a key role in host control of viral infection. This is exemplified by life-threatening reactivations of e.g. herpesviruses in individuals with impaired T-cell and/or iNKT cell responses. To allow lifelong persistence and virus production in the face of primed immunity, herpesviruses exploit immune evasion strategies. These include a reduction in viral antigen expression during latency and a number of escape mechanisms that target antigen presentation pathways. Given the plethora of foreign antigens expressed in virus-producing cells, herpesviruses are conceivably most vulnerable to elimination by cell-mediated immunity during the replicative phase of infection. Here, we show that a prototypic herpesvirus, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), encodes a novel, broadly acting immunoevasin, gp150, that is expressed during the late phase of viral replication. In particular, EBV gp150 inhibits antigen presentation by HLA class I, HLA class II, and the non-classical, lipid-presenting CD1d molecules. The mechanism of gp150-mediated T-cell escape does not depend on degradation of the antigen-presenting molecules nor does it require gp150's cytoplasmic tail. Through its abundant glycosylation, gp150 creates a shield that impedes surface presentation of antigen. This is an unprecedented immune evasion mechanism for herpesviruses. In view of its likely broader target range, gp150 could additionally have an impact beyond escape of T cell activation. Importantly, B cells infected with a gp150-null mutant EBV displayed rescued levels of surface antigen presentation by HLA class I, HLA class II, and CD1d, supporting an important role for iNKT cells next to classical T cells in fighting EBV infection. At the same time, our results indicate that EBV gp150 prolongs the timespan for producing viral offspring at the most vulnerable stage of the viral life cycle.

The partial discharge plays an important role in the ageing and the rupture process of solid or mixed insulation systems. Ithas been recognized that the failure of this insulation can be joined to the presence of partial discharge often in inclusionssparkling. Liquid filled cavities can be considered as the most likely defects that can exist in capacitors. In this paper wedescribe the partial discharge evolution at low temperatures in all-PP film capacitors according to the time and the appliedvoltage. We distinguish two regimes of discharges for all the range of temperature and the low temperatures encourage thebreakdown of capacitors at weak voltage, we assign this phenomenon to the increase of the viscosity of filling liquid.

Describes a project that evaluated the academic effectiveness of 2-way interactive video as a means for delivering class lectures in an introductory psychology course. Finds that the students at the campus studio and remote site all achieved the same academically and expressed positive attitudes about the course. (CMK)

Roland Asmar1, Juan Garcia-Puig2, Philippe Gosse3, Yuri A Karpov4, Peter Wilhem De Leeuw5, Dieter Magometschniggs6, Lajos Matos7, Roland Schmieder81Institut Cardiovasculaire, Paris, France; 2Hospital La Paz, Madrid, Spain; 3Hôpital Saint André, Bordeaux, France; 4Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow, Russia; 5Academisch Ziekenhuis, Maastricht, the Netherlands; 6Institut für Hypertoniker, Vienna, Austria; 7Hungarian Institut of Cardiology, Budapest, Hungary; 8Medizinische FakultÄt, Erlangen GermanyBackground: Ambulatory blood pressure (BP) is more sensitive than office BP and is highly correlated with the left ventricular mass (LVM) of hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). Methods: In this prospectively designed ancillary study of the PICXEL trial, the effects of first-line combination perindopril/indapamide on ambulatory BP were compared with those of monotherapy with enalapril in 127 patients. Hypertensive patients with LVH received once daily either perindopril 2 mg/indapamide 0.625 mg (n = 65) or enalapril 10 mg (n = 62) for 52 weeks. Dose adjustments were allowed for uncontrolled BP. Twenty-four-hour ambulatory BP and echocardiographic parameters were measured at baseline, week 24, and week 52. Results: At study end, both treatments significantly improved ambulatory BP compared with baseline (p ≤ 0.01). Perindopril/indapamide treatment reduced 24-hour and daytime systolic BP (SBP) and pulse pressure (PP) significantly more than enalapril treatment (p < 0.01). No significant between-group differences were noted for diastolic BP (DBP) or for night-time measurements. Trough/peak ratios were higher with perindopril/indapamide than with enalapril (88.5 vs 65.8 for SBP and 86.7 vs 63.9 for DBP, respectively). The global smoothness index was higher with perindopril/indapamide than with enalapril (6.6 vs 5.2 for SBP and 5.6 vs 4.9 for DBP, respectively). With perindopril/indapamide treatment, LVM index was significantly reduced (−9.1 g/m2 from baseline; p vs baseline

Philippe Gosse Service de Cardiologie – Hypertension artérielle, Hôpital Saint André, Bordeaux Cedex, FranceAbstract: Measurement of blood pressure in the clinic may provide a false impression of blood pressure control. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) allows the automatic recording of the circadian variation in blood pressure and evaluation of the efficacy of antihypertensive medication throughout the dosing interval. Ambulatory blood pressure provides more effective prediction of cardiovascular risk; blood pressure control at the time of heightened risk in the early morning after waking and before taking the next dose of medication is becoming important in order to improve long-term prognosis. To achieve blood pressure control in the early morning, a long-acting antihypertensive agent is essential. Telmisartan, an angiotensin II receptor blocker, as well as having a terminal elimination halflife of 24 h, has a large volume of distribution due to its high lipophilicity. The efficacy of telmisartan 80 mg monotherapy has been demonstrated using ABPM, with superior reduction in mean values for the last 6 h of the dosing interval compared with ramipril 10 mg and valsartan 80 mg. In addition, telmisartan 80 mg provides superior blood pressure control after a missed dose compared with valsartan 160 mg. When combined with hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) 12.5 mg, telmisartan 40 mg and 80 mg is more effective than losartan/HCTZ (50/12.5 mg) at the end of the dosing interval. Furthermore, greater reductions in last 6 h mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) are achieved with telmisartan/HCTZ (80/ 12.5 mg) than with valsartan/HCTZ (160/12.5 mg) in obese patients with type 2 diabetes and hypertension. Recent data from a large group of patients show that telmisartan 80 mg controls the early morning blood pressure surge more effectively than ramipril 5–10 mg and, thus, may have a greater beneficial effect on long-term cardiovascular risk. This supposition is being tested in the ONgoing Telmisartan Alone and in combination with Ramipril Global Endpoint Trial (ONTARGET) programme. Keywords: angiotensin II receptor blocker, antihypertensive, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, morning, telmisartan

Infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Recognition of M. tuberculosis by pattern recognition receptors is crucial for activation of both innate and adaptive immune responses. In the present study, we demonstrate that nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 2 (NOD2) and Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are two nonredundant recognition mechanisms of M. tuberculosis. CHO cell lines transfected with human TLR2 or TLR4 were responsive to M. tuberculosis. TLR2 knock-out mice displayed more than 50% defective cytokine production after stimulation with mycobacteria, whereas TLR4-defective mice also released 30% less cytokines compared to controls. Similarly, HEK293T cells transfected with NOD2 responded to stimulation with M. tuberculosis. The important role of NOD2 for the recognition of M. tuberculosis was demonstrated in mononuclear cells of individuals homozygous for the 3020insC NOD2 mutation, who showed an 80% defective cytokine response after stimulation with M. tuberculosis. Finally, the mycobacterial TLR2 ligand 19-kDa lipoprotein and the NOD2 ligand muramyl dipeptide synergized for the induction of cytokines, and this synergism was lost in cells defective in either TLR2 or NOD2. Together, these results demonstrate that NOD2 and TLR pathways are nonredundant recognition mechanisms of M. tuberculosis that synergize for the induction of proinflammatory cytokines.

Enteroviruses often cause mild disease, yet are also linked to development of autoimmune diabetes. Dendritic cells (DCs) shape both innate and adaptive immune responses, including anti-viral responses. How different human DC subsets shape anti-viral responses, whether they have complementary or overlapping functions and how this relates to autoimmune responses is largely unknown. We used enterovirus-infected β-cells and freshly isolated human myeloid DC (mDC) subsets as a model for autoimmune type 1 diabetes. Our data show that both the BDCA1+ and BDCA3+ mDC subsets engulf mock- as well as virus-infected β-cells, albeit BDCA1+ mDCs are more efficient. Uptake of enterovirus-infected, but not mock-infected cells, activated both DC subsets as indicated by the induction of co-stimulatory molecules and secretion of type I and type III interferons. Both subsets produced similar amounts of interferon-α, yet the BDCA3+ DC were superior in IFN-λ production. The BDCA1+ mDCs more strongly upregulated PD-L1, and were superior in IL-12 and IL-10 production as compared to the BDCA3+ DC. Despite lack of IL-12 production by the BDCA3+ DC, both BDCA1+ and BDCA3+ DCs activated T cells in allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction towards a Th1-type reactivity while suppressing Th2-associated cytokines.

Introduction: It is known that pulmonary hypertension is associated with worse outcome in both cardiac and non-cardiac surgery. The aims of our retrospective analysis were to evaluate the outcomes of our patients with pulmonary hypertension undergoing major orthopedic surgery and to give experience-based recommendations for the perioperative management.Material and methods: From 92 patients with pulmonary hypertension undergoing different kinds of surgical procedures from 2011–2014 in a tertiary academic hospital we evaluated 16 patients with major orthopedic surgery for perioperative morbidity and mortality. Results: Regarding the in-hospital morbidity and mortality, one patient died postoperatively due to pulmonary infection and right heart failure (6.25%) and 6 patients suffered significant postoperative complications (37.5%; bleeding = 1, infection = 1, wound healing deficits = 3; dysrhythmia = 1). Conclusion: Our data show that major orthopedic surgery is feasible with satisfactory outcome even in cases of severe pulmonary hypertension by an individualized, disease-adapted interdisciplinary treatment concept.

Large-scale -omics data are now ubiquitously utilized to capture and interpret global responses to perturbations in biological systems, such as the impact of disease states on cells, tissues, and whole organs. Metabolomics data, in particular, are difficult to interpret for providing physiological insight because predefined biochemical pathways used for analysis are inherently biased and fail to capture more complex network interactions that span multiple canonical pathways. In this study, we introduce a nov-el approach coined Metabolomic Modularity Analysis (MMA) as a graph-based algorithm to systematically identify metabolic modules of reactions enriched with metabolites flagged to be statistically significant. A defining feature of the algorithm is its ability to determine modularity that highlights interactions between reactions mediated by the production and consumption of cofactors and other hub metabolites. As a case study, we evaluated the metabolic dynamics of discarded human livers using time-course metabolomics data and MMA to identify modules that explain the observed physiological changes leading to liver recovery during subnormothermic machine perfusion (SNMP). MMA was performed on a large scale liver-specific human metabolic network that was weighted based on metabolomics data and identified cofactor-mediated modules that would not have been discovered by traditional metabolic pathway analyses.

Dans les modèles de simulation du fonctionnement des cultures, l’interception du rayonnement est une variable cruciale pour la prévision de la productivité en biomasse. D’autre part, la connaissance de l’interception du rayonnement par une culture permet de mieux analyser la réponse à un traitement en autorisant la distinction entre les effets morphogénétique et physiologique du traitement. Par exemple, dans l’étude de la fertilisation azotée du colza [1] on a pu faire la part de l’effet morphogénétique (accroissement de l’indice foliaire, donc de l’interception) et de l’amélioration de la conversion photosynthétique du rayonnement absorbé. Dans un cas comme dans l’autre, une estimation correcte de l’interception du rayonnement est essentielle. Très souvent, un formalisme dérivé de la loi de Beer-Lambert est utilisé pour quantifier la part interceptée du rayonnement : PARi = epsiloni PAR (1) et epsiloni = 1 - e- k.IF (2), PAR représentant le rayonnement photosynthétiquement actif incident (exprimé en Joules ou en moles de photons), PARi la part de ce dernier interceptée par le couvert, epsiloni le coefficient (sans dimension) d’interception, IF l’indice foliaire et k le coefficient d’extinction du rayonnement. Un formalisme un peu plus complexe doit être utilisé si on veut considérer le rayonnement absorbé [1, 2]. Pour des cultures couvrantes, la sensibilité de ces modèles à la valeur de k est faible pour les IF élevés, c’est pourquoi ces modèles sont souvent utilisés avec succès. Mais aux faibles IF, les modèles sont sensibles à k, d’où l’importance de l’estimation de ce paramètre pour les cultures présentant une longue période de faible couverture du sol, tel le colza peu fertilisé en phase hivernale. De plus, pour les cultures discontinues, c’est-à-dire présentant des zones où le sol n’est pas du tout couvert par la végétation, comme les inter-rangs, on doit introduire dans l’équation 2 un paramètre représentant le taux de couverture du sol. Si l’estimation par mesure directe de epsiloni et donc l’estimation de k sont assez simples, au moins dans le principe pour un couvert développé en hauteur (colza après montaison) [3], une telle mesure devient beaucoup plus complexe dans le cas d’un couvert discontinu et bas. Dans ce milieu hétérogène (et souvent dans des conditions hivernales sévères), une distribution représentative des capteurs de rayonnement est difficile, les risques de perturbation de la mesure (salissure des capteurs, déréglages) sont élevés. Plusieurs études ont déjà traité de epsiloni et k dans le cas du colza [3-7]. Elles sont fondées sur des mesures d’interception du rayonnement et concernent des couverts fermés, après montaison. Une autre approche consiste à effectuer un calcul précis de PARi avec des modèles détaillés utilisant une description complète des paramètres (géométriques et radiatifs) du feuillage, et du rayonnement incident [8]. Mais les données nécessaires sont alors nombreuses, complexes à obtenir et donc généralement non disponibles en expérimentation. Pour répondre aux besoins de calcul de l’interception du rayonnement dans les phases d’installation du colza, cet article présente une méthode permettant de calculer epsiloni en tenant compte des principales caractéristiques de la morphologie du couvert et du régime radiatif auquel ce dernier est soumis. Les données nécessaires sont limitées : l’indice foliaire, les taux de couverture du sol (deux définitions), la latitude du lieu considéré, la date et le rayonnement incident quotidien. Ce calcul permet une estimation du coefficient moyen d’extinction k (équation 2). On verra que k peut être corrélé à l’IF, la période de l’année et la latitude du lieu, ce qui permet de proposer une estimation simple de k et donc un calcul simplifié de epsiloni, adapté au cas des faibles IF(colza entre levée et montaison).