McGill University Thèses et mémoires publiés en 2004

This dissertation concerns the multilingual structure found in the fictitious works of French writer Raymond Queneau (1903-1976) by examining the different languages of genres that occur in this author's first novel, Le Chiendent (1933). The distinctive style of literary discourse and the diversity in the languages of interspersed genres found in this novel are examined. The stylistic analysis is inspired primarily by the Bakhtin theory and aims to shed light on Queneau's language-related practices in a fictitious context. The author's linguistic theory is then examined in order to better understand the philosophy that underlies this innovative practice. The dialogic function …  Read more

Lorsqu’elle mit fin à cinq décennies d’occupation soviétique, l’Estonie comprenait une importante minorité russe. Dans le but de se distancier de la Russie et de « corriger » les torts causés aux Estoniens par le régime soviétique, l’État estonien mit en place des politiques nationalistes qui affectèrent ces Russes ainsi que les autres non-Estoniens. Les membres de la minorité russe durent donc redéfinir leur position en Estonie alors que leur présence et leurs liens à la Russie étaient perçus comme problématiques par le peuple estonien et par l’État. Depuis que l’Estonie est devenue candidate à l’accession à l’Union européenne, on …  Read more

Retinoids are derivatives of vitamin A with demonstrated therapeutic potential for the treatment of breast cancer. The efficacy of retinoids in vitro and in vivo correlates with the expression of the estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha). The role of ERalpha in mediating RA-induced sensitivity is not understood and is further complicated by the recent discovery of ERalpha. This dissertation explores the transcriptional, as well as proliferative, response to RA in human breast cancer cells expressing ERbeta or ERbeta. First, ER-negative breast cancer cells were stably transduced with ERalpha-deletion mutants using retroviral technology. We compared the effect of the ERalpha wild-type, ERalpha-deletion …  Read more

Urbanization is known to have a negative impact on biodiversity. However, it is possible to increase bird species richness in cities through local actions such as increasing vegetation density and diversity. My first objective was to compare bird density and diversity on the island of Montreal among four urban habitat types: low-density and medium-density residential sectors, and residential and natural parks. A second objective was to determine the presence of bird species assemblages within these four urban habitats and a third was to explore associative relationships among six mainly shrub-nesting bird species and the vegetation they use. Point counts were …  Read more

Forest harvesting is blamed for a perceived increase in the flashiness and turbidity of the Cascapedia River's water. This has raised questions over the source of the sediment (harvest parcels, roads, or stream banks) and its potential impact on the sedimentology of the river. The objectives of this research are twofold. The first is to ascertain if harvesting operations are associated to a widening of low-order tributaries, creating a source of sediment. The second is to determine if variations in the sedimentology along four segments of the Cascapedia can be associated to harvesting operation intensity. Firstly, analysis of stream width …  Read more

This thesis analyses the process of social construction of women's citizenship rights in Peru under the regime of Alberto Fujimori (1990--2000). It builds on an existing body of literature on democratization and women's movements in Latin America, to develop an understanding of the forms of women's mobilization under new democratic regimes and the impact of the pattern of state-society relations on the advancements and losses in women's citizenship rights. More specifically, it shows that the 1990s witnessed a significant range of advances in women's civil and political rights, while social and economic rights suffered serious reversals. It is argued that …  Read more

Objective. The aim of this naturalistic study is to examine whether a sample of subjects showed improvements in their defensive functioning after undergoing psychoanalysis. Methods. Seventeen subjects from the Penn Psychoanalytic Treatment Collection with completed, tape-recorded psychoanalyses had their defense mechanisms rated both for early and late sessions. Results. The pre-post effect size for the change in overall defensive functioning (ODF) of the sample was large (0.76) and statistically significant. The percentage of subjects who improved (71%) in their ODF was similar to that found by others who studied the same sample using general functioning measures. Conclusions. These findings provide …  Read more

Audio coding paradigms depend on time-frequency transformations to remove statistical redundancy in audio signals and reduce data bit rate, while maintaining high fidelity of the reconstructed signal. Sophisticated perceptual audio coding further exploits perceptual redundancy in audio signals by incorporating perceptual masking phenomena. This thesis focuses on the investigation of different coding transformations that can be used to compute perceptual distortion measures effectively; among them the lapped transform, which is most widely used in nowadays audio coders. Moreover, an innovative lapped transform is developed that can vary overlap percentage at arbitrary degrees. The new lapped transform is applicable on the …  Read more

Neuronal growth cones guide the growing axons toward their target to establish precise neuronal connections during embryogenesis. The growth cone expresses cell surface receptors for recognizing guidance and targeting signals. It also possesses the intracellular signal transduction machinery to convert the extracellular signals into the reorganization of cytoskeletal structures in controlling growth-cone movement. Previous studies identified the SH2/SH3 adapter protein Dock as a key component of an evolutionarily conserved signaling pathway that transduces signals from cell-surface receptors to the growth-cone cytoskeleton to regulate growth cone motility. My M.Sc. studies (Ruan et al., 1999) demonstrated that the Ste20-like Serine/Threonine kinase Misshapen …  Read more

During HIV-1 assembly, the Gag structural protein specifically encapsidates two copies of viral genomic RNA in the form of a dimer. An RNA stem-loop structure (SL1) in the 5' untranslated region, known as the dimerization initiation site (DIS), is important for dimerization and packaging of HIV-1 genomic RNA; however, the mechanisms involved are not fully understood. The major goal of this PhD study was to further understand HIV-1 RNA dimerization, and to study the role of the Gag protein in the dimerization and packaging processes. Despite the known involvement of the DIS in RNA dimerization, DIS-mutated viruses still contain significant …  Read more

This thesis presents several design experiments for high-performance power-efficient asynchronous circuits. In Chapter two we present a new asynchronous pipeline logic family with improved latency and throughput compared to several other asynchronous pipeline circuits. The channels between pipeline stages use data encoding and a small set of minimum-delay timing constraints that permit modular design with few dependencies on technology and layout. We develop circuit blocks that implement linear pipelines as well as forking, joining and data-dependent decisions. An implementation in 0.18mum CMOS exhibits a latency of 56ps per pipeline stage and throughput of 4.8-giga data item per second (GDI/s) in …  Read more

Caspases play an important role in shaping the developing organism. They are required to eliminate unwanted or damaged cells and therefore are able to prevent disease. Several reports have shown increased caspase-3 expression in different cell types undergoing apoptosis. We undertook to examine the role of T cell activation through the T cell receptor (TCR) in regulating caspase-3 gene expression. The KOX-14 murine T cell hybridoma was initially used as a model for activation-induced cell death. Caspase-3 mRNA levels increased by 3-fold following T cell activation and was independent of STAT1 activation and therefore of IFN-gamma signaling in KOX-14 cells …  Read more

In this dissertation, I examined the lived experiences of eight first-generation Iranian immigrants (six women and two men) enrolled as full-time undergraduate students in predominantly English institutions of higher education in Montreal. Using the key principles of phenomenology and critical ethnography, and through a series of open-ended, in-depth interviews, I explored the situated meanings of education in the lives of these men and women. The findings of my study show that the participants' perceptions of higher education seemed to be greatly influenced by their cultural values and beliefs. They perceived "education'' as social and cultural capital which secures their status …  Read more

Numerical simulation of forming processes has been an important means for material selection, tool design, and process optimization. A critical component of simulation, however, is an accurate material constitutive model, describing the response of the material under possible modes of deformation. The accuracy, in turn, is linked to the tests and techniques applied for identification of constitutive models: the more elaborate the identification, the more reliable the material parameters. For textile composites, uncontrollable factors such as contact friction, misalignment, slip, variations in local fiber volume, and tow compaction are sources that generate considerable scatter in the response of fabrics. Accordingly, …  Read more

Trenton-Black River reservoirs in the Appalachian Basin are typically associated with fault-related hydrothermal dolomites that are sealed by unaltered host rocks. However the details of fault geometry and where porosity develops around faults remains poorly documented. Integration of 3-D seismic, wireline and production data from Saybrook Field in northeastern Ohio has shown that the productive trend is controlled by a 3.4mi (5.5 km) long, NW-SE oriented basement fault that was probably reactivated during the Taconic Orogeny in the Mid- to Late Ordovician. The far-field stresses of this compressional activity caused strike-slip movement of the pre-existing fault to create echelon synthetic …  Read more

Rockburst control measures have been in practice with continued efforts for improvements since the beginning of the 20th century. The thesis concentrates on the evaluation of destress blasting, which is an important pro-active rockburst control measure. The concept of destress blasting is based on the fracturing of highly stressed rock mass by detonating explosive charge within it. The concept has been carried out ever since the first reported use in a Canadian coal mine circa the early 1930s. Since then, many mines across the continents have applied this technique using a trial-and-error approach with mixed successes. To date, the application …  Read more

This study examines two interconnected and as yet wholly neglected aspects of Max Weber's 'Sociology of Law,' namely, its substantive underpinnings and focal concern with the status of the judge. At the heart of the 'Sociology of Law' is a comparative analysis of the Continental and the English administrations of justice, which can best be understood when read against his substantive sociology and which requires an assiduous reading of the 'Sociology of Law.' Thus the first part of this examination elucidates Weber's overarching concern with the effects of bureaucratization on the development of personality. The second part provides a detailed …  Read more

Durability of reinforced concrete infrastructure is severely affected by corrosion of reinforcing steel. Conventional patch repair techniques are unable to stop this corrosion due to electrochemical incompatibility between the "repaired" concrete and the original "chloride-infested" concrete. This research was undertaken to compare the performance of different patch repair strategies of corroded concrete bridge deck slabs, proposed by different industrial partners, with respect to the conventional patch repair. The results show that the potential difference between the "repaired-patch" concrete and the "existing" concrete accelerates local corrosion around the patch, and gradually progresses towards the repaired zone. Beneficial effect of sacrificial anodes …  Read more

The effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions has traditionally been measured using tests of physical capacity. The rehabilitation process, however, comprises many ingredients that set up a cascade of effects that impact beyond simple physical capacity. In this thesis, the vehicle of a clinical trial conducted to evaluate the efficacy of a walking intervention for persons with chronic stroke was used to illustrate the array of outcomes that are impacted upon by a rehabilitation intervention. First, the walking intervention was proven effective in enhancing two traditional capacity outcomes: functional walking capacity and walking speed. The intervention primarily benefited functional walking capacity, measured …  Read more

This thesis considers the apparent shift in Canadian refugee policy between the more liberal refugee programs of the 1980s to the more restrictive contemporary orientation. We provide an explanation for the nature and content of policy pronouncements made in the period following the events of September 11, 2001. In order to put contemporary policy in context, we begin our investigation post-World War II when Canada first entered the international arena as a fully independent state. What follows is an examination of why the Canadian government has preferred its choice of refugee policies, and a consideration of forces and institutions that …  Read more

This study assessed the diets of participants in the Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention Project (KSDPP). Data were gathered from three cross-sectional surveys of students in grades four to six in the Mohawk community of Kahnawake. Single 24-hour recall interviews were conducted in 2002 (n = 151), 1998 (n = 153) and 1994 (n = 164). Mean number of servings of Vegetables and Fruits (3.6 per day), Milk Products (1.6 per day), and Meat and Alternatives (1.5 per day) were found to be below ranges recommended by Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating. Correspondingly, mean intakes of fibre, calcium and vitamin …  Read more

Depuis la “déclaration de la guerre contre le cancer” en 1971 et grâce aux avancées en génétique humaine et technologie moléculaire, le domaine de la biologie du cancer s’est rapidement étendu, fournissant l’espoir qu’un traitement pour cette maladie léthale sera trouvé. Une des contributions majeures du domaine de la biologie cellulaire pour la compréhension des maladies malignes a été la mise en évidence du rôle des facteurs de croissance et de leurs récepteurs dans la transformation et la progression maligne. En particulier, le rôle central que jouent les récepteurs à tyrosine kinase (RTK) dans différents cancers a abouti au développement …  Read more

Asthma is a heterogeneous disorder, and the prevalence is increasing worldwide. The BCG vaccine is hypothesized to lower the risk of asthma by modulating specific aspects of T-cell mediated immunity (termed Th1 and Th2). We conducted a case-control study to determine the relationship between BCG vaccine given to children born and raised in Quebec and asthma in adult subjects. 93 case subjects with a clinical diagnosis of asthma and 118 control subjects without asthma answered a standardized questionnaire, and BCG vaccination status was verified in a central registry. After adjusting for potential confounders, vaccination with BCG after the age of …  Read more

It has long been known that Soderberg aluminum smelters are a large source of anthropogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the environment. The atmospheric fate of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is of importance to the aluminum industry in Canada due to their environmental persistence and potential health effects. For Soderberg smelters, the fate of facility emissions is of concern due to the involuntary nature of exposure by the general public in the surrounding regions. Excellent relationships between benzo[a]pyrene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons between different types of Soderberg facilities and raw material formulations were found in the occupational environment during this investigation. This …  Read more

Static analysis [NNH99] is technique used to compute information about the run-time behaviour of a program prior to execution. Traditionally, it has been used in the context of optimizing compilers, but it has recently been applied to more formalized languages in order to develop provable policies that can be used to verify the security of networks. Best results are naturally achieved with the most precise information flow techniques, though complex systems impose feasibility constraints. Accuracy of results, particularly with respect to relative cost of computation is thus an important quality. This thesis presents a series of dataflow analyses of the …  Read more

Three experiments were conducted to characterize the fate of B-vitamins in the gastrointestinal tract of dairy cows. Experiment 1 was undertaken to verify if differences among published studies could be explained by methods of collection and preparation of ruminal fluid, using four ruminally cannulated non-lactating Holstein cows. Acidification of fresh ruminal fluid, causing the lysis of bacterial cells, yielded higher B-vitamin concentrations than differential centrifugation, while the method of collection used did not have an important impact. Results suggested that most of the vitamins are present in the bacterial fractions, and that only limited amounts are present in the surrounding …  Read more

State sovereignty is the basic underlying principle of international law. Like all branches of international law, air law has developed under this principle of sovereignty, leaving the final decision to the consents and political wills of the governments for both their internal and external affairs. In the same vein, the international system is based on the juridical equality of all nations, which are free to participate in all forms of regional and international organizations. However, due to economic and political globalization and the demand for a more efficient international cooperation as well as the market forces and technical and economical …  Read more

Turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) infects a variety of crops, worldwide, including the economically relevant Brassicacea family. It was previously demonstrated that TuMV infection in tobacco protoplasts leads to an overall decrease of host protein. However, it remains unclear whether this phenomenon is due to the repression of plant gene transcription during the infection period or due to viral inhibition of host translation. In this study, quantification of various transcripts and protein products from infected tobacco was performed via real-time RT-PCR and ELISA. In comparison to the gamma-tubulin endogenous control, gene expression for the tobacco H3, HSP70 and granule-bound starch synthase …  Read more

The impact of agricultural practices on wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) movements and survivorship was investigated in a fragmented agri-forest landscape over two years. Agricultural activities and machinery contributed to the death of 20% of radio-tracked turtles. Annual survivorship of adults was 0.904 and 0.868 and for juveniles it was 0.815 and 0.831 for 1998 and 1999, respectively. Mutilation rates in adults were 90% +/- 3% in both years; in contrast, the maximum rate in juveniles was 57%. Setting the cutting height of disc mowers to 100 mm would increase harvest yields, reduce wear on machinery, decrease soil erosion, and reduce …  Read more

In a previous study by our research group, parents and teachers of gifted children disagreed about the importance of group work in the inquiry-based classroom, with parents rating group work as less important than did teachers (Syer & Shore, 2001). The purpose of the present study was to attempt to understand this difference of opinion. Parents (n = 15), teachers (n = 11), and a group who were both parents and teachers (n = 5) of gifted children responded to a researcher-designed telephone interview. Teachers perceived parents as competitive and grade-oriented. Parents themselves, however, reported that their opinions of group …  Read more

Previous studies have shown that the biodegradation of di-ester plasticizers can lead to the accumulation of toxic recalcitrant metabolites. Rhodococcus rhodochrous ATCC 13808 is a bacterium known to degrade plasticizers. The first steps of the biodegradation mechanism consist of esterase-mediated hydrolyses. The present study focused on characterizing the esterase produced by R. rhodochrous and defining its impact on the rate of hydrolysis of different di-ester plasticizers. By means of esterase activity and growth studies, it was possible to determine that the esterase produced by R. rhodochrous was constitutive and bound to the cell membrane. Treatment with a non-ionic surfactant, Triton …  Read more

The late Neoproterozoic Salient Platform (Byng Formation, upper Miette Group), located 50 km northwest of Jasper, Alberta, contains one of three known occurrences worldwide of the Cloudina-Namacalathus fossil assemblage. The Salient Platform initiated in relatively deep water (minimum 30-50 m) on Mount Machray. Lowermost carbonates on Salient Mountain and The Colonel were deposited in quiet environments behind the developing stromatolitic reef. The upper two thirds of the platform formed in shallow water and consists of huge, elongated Platella and Cryptozoon bioherms, within which most shelly fossils are found. Carbonate production is terminated by Gog Group siliciclastic sedimentation. Thin, shell-bearing stromatolitic …  Read more

A phylogenetic analysis of the tribe Azeliini (Muscidae) was conducted, as well as a revision and phylogenetic analysis of the genus Thricops Rondani. Forty-four valid species and two subspecies of Thricops were recognised, including six species new to science. All species of this genus have been redescribed and illustrated, and a key to the world fauna is presented. An exemplar-based phylogenetic analysis of Thricops was conducted using three different sources of data: morphological characters of the adults, nucleotide sequence from the nuclear gene white and nucleotide sequence from the subunits I and II of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase. …  Read more

Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) and their binding proteins (IGFBPs) have been associated with an increased risk of several cancers. This case-control study investigated the relationship between IGF-I and IGFBP-3 plasma levels and the risk of squamous intraepithelial lesions (SILs) of the cervix, as well as the risk of HPV infection in women. 366 cases and 366 controls were recruited from five Montreal area hospitals. There was a significantly decreased risk of LSIL for the highest quartile of IGFBP-3 relative to the lowest quartile (Odds Ratio (OR)=0.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.08-0.77), adjusted for age, HPV status and IGF-I. Also, there …  Read more

This study examined the friendships between gifted and regular adolescents to determine if competition was related to the quality and stability of their friendship. Sullivan (1953) had predicted that competition harmed friendship, but this has not been tested empirically. Thirty-eight gifted and 38 regular friendship dyads from grades seven and eight were recruited from two high schools in Quebec and one in Ontario. Competition was defined in terms of competitive goal orientation. Students who competed in order to improve their performance on a task were rated as more task-oriented. Those who competed in order to show superiority over others were …  Read more

Sex differences have been established in a number of behaviours, including aspects of cognition, aggression, and sexuality. Although there has been a considerable amount of research concerning the influence of estrogen on sexually dimorphic behaviours, there has been a dearth of investigations on the role of testosterone (T) in these behaviours in women. The studies presented here were undertaken to elucidate the role of T in sexually-dimorphic aspects of psychological functioning in women. In Study 1, users and non-users of oral contraceptives were tested with a battery of neuropsychological tests and questionnaires at two different phases of the menstrual cycle. …  Read more

The standard genotyping technique in tuberculosis molecular epidemiology is IS6110 Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP). Several public health organizations intend to switch from IS6110 RFLP to spoligotyping and Mycobacterium Interspersed Repetitive Units - Variable Number Tandem Repeats (MIRU-VNTR); however, the relevant test characteristics have not been studied. Objective. Estimate the sensitivities and specificities of spoligotyping and MIRU-VNTR using IS6110 RFLP as the reference standard. Population. Residents of the island of Montreal diagnosed with active tuberculosis between 1996-1998, who were culture positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis and had ≥6 copies of IS6110 upon RFLP. Outcomes. Sensitivity, specificity, percent transmission. Estimated sensitivities. spoligotyping …  Read more

Birchtree is an ultramafic ore body and prior to 2003, represented one third of the production for Inco's Thompson operation. The ultramafic host rocks are high in MgO which, when processed through the smelter, promotes problems in the roasters and converters due to the high liquidus temperature. In October 2003, production from Birchtree mine ramped up to more than half of the total feed to the mill. The mill cannot produce a suitable concentrate for the smelter with current circuit configuration and operating practices. The target for the mill was to produce a nickel concentrate with less than 3% MgO. …  Read more

Ammonius Saccas instructs Plotinus towards a synthesis of ancient Greek philosophy. A brief introduction to the historical Plotinus is offered. The Hypostases: The One or Supreme Reality, the Divine Mind, Nous, and the Universal Soul, Logos, are discussed in the context of Plato's eternal ideas, Beauty, Truth and Good. An examination of the dialogue Plotinus has with art and beauty is offered. The relationship between Plato's divine intelligibles and art is discussed in context of the treatise On Beauty. The intelligible beauty of ideas, cosmos, nature and art are examined in context of the treatise On Intellectual Beauty. Plotinian theory …  Read more

This thesis studies optical microscopy based high order autocorrelation approaches for measuring molecular aggregation of fluorescently labeled particles in fluid systems. As the particles randomly diffuse into and out of the volume defined by the focus of a confocal laser beam illumination, the collected fluorescence intensity fluctuates. Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) and Image Correlation Spectroscopy (ICS) have been used as methods which analyse temporal and spatial intensity fluctuations, and provide quantitative information of the molecular transport processes. Theoretical expressions for the high order autocorrelation function magnitudes for a non-interactive model are derived as well as their fitting equations for single- …  Read more

Emotion can exert a modulatory role on declarative memory. Several studies have shown that emotional stimuli (e.g., words, pictures) are better remembered than neutral ones. Although facial expressions are powerful emotional stimuli and have been shown to influence perception and attention processes, little is known about their effect on memory. We conducted an event-related fMRI study in 18 healthy individuals (9 men) to investigate the effects of expression on recognition memory for faces. During the encoding phase, participants viewed 84 faces of different individuals, depicting happy, fearful or neutral expressions. Subjects were asked to perform a gender discrimination task and …  Read more

A Dominant Negative (DN) fusion derivative of CHMP4B was generated, EGFP-CHMP4B, in order to disrupt the function of endogenous CHMP4B and thus to elucidate the potential role of this VPS factor in HIV-1 budding. Indeed, the over-expression of this fusion protein led to reductions in viral production. In order to validate these findings, RNAi (RNA interference) technology was harnessed. Small interfering RNA (siRNA) was designed to deplete endogenous CHMP4B. The results show that depletion of CHMP4B via siRNA ablates HIV-1 production. The disruption of the VPS pathway can be determined by monitoring the fate of TfR (Transferrin Receptor), a cell-surface …  Read more

This thesis treats three topics in mechanics of helices, each being covered in a separate part. The first part focuses on the determination of a spectral (i.e., frequency dependent) finite element of a helix. The helix is treated as a straight, linear elastic element, exhibiting coupling of axial with torsional responses. Explicit forms of all the coefficients of the stiffness matrix are derived and their dependencies on the frequency and the parameter describing the said coupling are plotted. In general, the growth of that parameter leads to a progressively denser occurrence of the resonances of both axial and torsional motions. …  Read more

Many complex systems are hybrid in the sense that: (i) the state set possesses continuous and discrete components, and (ii) system evolution may occur in both continuous and discrete time. One important class of hybrid systems is that characterized by a feedback configuration of a set of continuous controlled low level systems and a high level discrete controller; such systems appear frequently in engineering and are particularly evident when a system is required to operate in a number of distinct modes. Other classes of hybrid systems are found in such diverse areas as (i) air traffic management systems, (ii) chemical …  Read more

Microporosity, a serious defect in Al-Si based castings, severely prevents their widespread applications in many critical conditions. The use of criteria functions to quantitatively predict microporosity level holds promise. To date, an ideal criteria function has yet to be obtained. In the present work, microporosity distribution in three prominently used hypoeutectic Al-Si alloys (319, 356, and 332) was investigated. The prediction effectiveness of single solidification parameter and existing criteria functions was evaluated by correlating thermal data from simulation studies to experimentally obtained microporosity values. Several new criteria functions are proposed based on experimental observation and multivariable regression analysis. The results …  Read more

The structural behaviour of FRP-composite (E-glass/polyester) sheet pile panels subjected to uniform pressure load was investigated. Single, connected and concrete-filled 2.13 m panels were tested to failure with the objective of determining their moment capacity and failure mechanism. As the uniform load test procedure utilized in this study allowed for the prevention of premature local crushing behaviour within the span, the average moment capacity obtained in this study was more than double that found in prior studies of FRP sheet pile panels, averaging 11.15 kN.m in single panel tests and 9.32 kN.m in connected panel tests. Single panels exhibited little …  Read more

There has been a substantial amount of research on aggression in men's ice hockey. Although there is some research on aggression in women's ice hockey, there is still a noticeable absence of empirical research on various aspects of aggression. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence and intent of aggressive behaviors in university women's ice hockey. Two methods of data acquisition were used: systematic observation (measured prevalence) and stimulated recall interviews (measured intent). Results revealed the presence of several aggressive techniques, such as body checking, punching, pushing, and cross checking. Several reasons for these aggressive behaviors emerged …  Read more

The design and verification of high performance circuits is becoming increasingly challenging due to the complex sets of constraints that must hold to ensure correct operation. The complexity of digital circuits increases rapidly, which in turn results in an increased complexity of the verification process and increased user effort. Efficient and easy to use tools are therefore required for timed verification. In this thesis we propose two methods to aid the verification process. Firstly, we introduce a new verification methodology that combines the advantages of several existing successful approaches. In particular, our verification technique uses a combination of untimed, relative …  Read more

Virus infection of a mammalian host initiates a set of rapid and coordinated cellular events designed to limit and ultimately eradicate pathogen replication and spread. Development of an efficient anti-viral response is dependent upon communication between pathogen-susceptible cells at the site of infection and the immune effectors. In response to cellular detection of a viral threat, communication is achieved through production and secretion of secondary protein messengers called cytokines. Interferons (IFN) are cytokines that are crucial to the establishment of anti-viral immunity; type I IFNs secreted by virus-infected cells activate the innate immune machinery, modulate adaptive immune responses, promote apoptosis …  Read more

Mouse serum amyloid A 1 (SAA1), an apolipoprotein is found in the serum complexed with high density lipoprotein (HDL). Expression of SAA1 is increased during acute phase response following infection, inflammation or trauma. Evidence shows that SAA1 is cleared from the circulation following endocytosis by macrophages and endothelial cells; incomplete degradation of SAA1 leads to intracellular AA fibril formation and induction of life-threatening systemic AA amyloidosis. In this context, at least two important mechanisms remain to be elucidated: first, identification of putative SAA receptors mediating endocytosis of SAA by activated monocytoid cells, and second, the conditions that promote intracellular amyloidogenesis. …  Read more