McGill University Thèses et mémoires publiés en 2020

The minerals industry has recently encountered significant price fluctuations leading to more business risk and unexpected overall returns on capital fund invested. This situation forces mining corporations to find new decision-making processes to improve productivity and efficiency in allocation or prioritization of business-related spending, including sustaining and working capital projects. This research aims to propose new portfolio management strategies to be used at the senior management level of global mining companies. Given that decision-making processes regarding a portfolio require risk management and diversification components, the main emphasis is on managing the trade-offs between risks and returns. Therefore, the effect of …  Read more

Avec la progression et la diffusion des technologies de l’information, les informations personnelles sont utilisées de manière innovante pour accroître les avantages individuels, sociaux et économiques. En même temps, le risque d’atteinte à la vie privée a également augmenté. Actuellement, lors de réunions gouvernementales internationales, de nombreux pays insistent sur l’importance de comparer les systèmes juridiques de protection de la vie privée pour le développement de la société économique internationale. Cette thèse vise à identifier les similitudes et les différences dans les lois canadiennes et japonaises concernant la protection de la vie privée et des renseignements personnels dans le secteur …  Read more

Ces dernières années, la recherche s'est multipliée sur les effets hétérogènes de l'exposition aux importations dans toutes les régions. Simultanément, les chercheurs ont identifié l'augmentation considérable de la concentration du marché sur les marchés du travail et des produits. Malgré cela, aucun travail n'examine la relation entre la concentration du marché et le comportement électoral, ni le rôle de médiateur joué par la concentration du marché pour déterminer les effets hétérogènes de la libéralisation des échanges entre les entreprises et les régions. Cet article répond en montrant que l'exposition aux importations peut entraîner une concentration plus élevée sur le marché …  Read more

L’objectif principal de cette thèse est d’améliorer les stratégies de contrôle prédictif du modèle afin qu’elles puissent étre utilisées pour améliorer davantage l’efficacité et l’optimisation des coûts d’un microréseau. Les systémes de gestion de l’énergie basés sur le contrôle prédictif du modèle actuels peuvent nécessiter beaucoup de calcul et devenir trop lents pour une optimisation en ligne. Une approche améliorée, basée sur le contrôle prédictif du modèle fut développé pour améliorer le temps de calcul et l’évolutivité des schémas de commande actuels basés sur le contrôle prédictif du modèle. À cette fin, les problèmes d’engagement de l’unité et de répartition …  Read more

L’imagerie par résonance magnétique (IRM) est une technique non invasive avec de nombreuses applications en recherche et en clinique. En combinaison avec des données cliniques ou psychologiques, l'IRM structurelle du cerveau humain peut être utilisée pour étudier des questions concernant la nature de la relation entre la structure du cerveau, la santé et le comportement. L'IRM structurelle peut être aussi utilisée pour obtenir des biomarqueurs quantitatifs qui peuvent être combinés avec des algorithmes de classification et utilisés à des fins diagnostiques et pronostiques en clinique. Ces applications nécessitent la segmentation des structures anatomiques. Bien que l'étiquetage manuel par un expert …  Read more

The current media and scholarly discourse surrounding the management of the perilous nuclear-laced landscape of post 3/11 suggests that this discourse benefits the neoliberal state but fails to adequately address the key role played by nonhuman actors, specifically animals and plants. Perched at the intersection of media ecology, Japan, cultural, and animal studies, this project zooms in on the relations between these actors and reveals them as objects of biopolitical management—manifest through withdrawal (of care)—played out against the green screen of resilience-thirsty neoliberal states of precarity. The first chapter questions the notion that a group of refuseniks looking after abandoned …  Read more

Strachan, Ian Brett (Supervisor1)  Read more

Gobbi, Gabriella (Supervisor1)  Read more

De Pokomandy, Alexandra (Supervisor1)  Read more

Nichols, Naomi (Supervisor1)  Read more

As researchers such as Gray (2013) and Paiz (2015) have established, textbooks within the industry of English Language Teaching (ELT) have historically done a poor job of incorporating queer content. The industry of ELT textbooks is lucrative with a global reach, so the impact the books have is very significant. In the name of profits, it is common to see the most conservative version of a textbook used for all markets, which means that LGBTQ representation is virtually invisible (Gray, 2010). It may be done in the name of cultural sensitivity, but as Kimberlé Crenshaw (1991) says in her landmark …  Read more

Les oligonucleotides (ONs) sont à la base de nombreuses applications thérapeutiques, en particulier le silençage génique incluant les oligonucléotides antisens (AONs), les petits ARNs interférants (siRNAs) et l’édition de gènes (ex : CRISPR-Cas9). Aujourd’hui, on dénombre sept oligonucléotides approuvés par la FDA et beaucoup d’autres à diverses phases d’essais cliniques. Cette vague récente de thérapies approuvées est due principalement au développement de modifications chimiques qui permettent d’ajuster finement les propriétés médicinales des oligonucléotides. Parmi ces dernières, on compte : (i) l’augmentation de l’affinité au récepteur cible ; (ii) la minimisation des effets hors cible ; (iii) l’amélioration de la pénétration …  Read more

In open pit mining, a major geotechnical challenge involves the excavation of the steepest possible slope angle to achieve the lowest stripping ratio while ensuring maximum ore recovery. This generally means a good overall profitability since waste rock removal is kept to a minimum. However, steepening pit slopes may induce failures, which may disprove the economic benefits that were initially aimed at and which may also result in loss of life, damage to equipment and environment. As a result, the selection of slope angle is a critical decision that can have far-reaching effects on the economics and operation of the …  Read more

The current research tested whether the passing of government legislation, signaling the prevailing attitudes of the local majority, was associated with changes in citizens’ attitudes. Specifically, with ~1 million responses over a 11-year window, we test whether state-by-state same-sex marriage legislation was associated with decreases in anti-gay implicit and explicit bias. Results across five operationalizations consistently provide support for this possibility. Both implicit and explicit bias were decreasing prior to same-sex marriage legalization, but decreased at a sharper rate following legalization. Moderating this effect was whether states passed legislation locally. While states passing state-level legislation experienced a greater decrease in …  Read more

Hinsberg, Vincent Johan van (Supervisor2)  Read more

Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer in nature. Cellulose is renewable, biocompatible, biodegradable, and non-toxic. However, strong inter- and intra-molecular hydrogen bonds as well as hydrophobic interactions exist among cellulose molecules. Consequently, it is rendered insoluble in most commonly used inorganic/organic solvents. The traditional cellulose solvent from the viscose route causes serious environmental pollution, so many efforts have been made to develop novel cellulose solvents and study their dissolution mechanisms. Several solvent systems have been reported in recent years, which can be classified as acidic aqueous systems, alkali/urea aqueous systems, ionic liquid systems, and mixed solvent systems. Various cellulose-based functional …  Read more

Les problèmes de apprentissage automatique sont naturellement de grande dimension et des méthodes d'optimisation doivent être spécifiquement conçues pour les resoudre. L'un des algorithmes les plus communs est le du gradient stochastique. Lorsqu'il s'agit d'un problème fortement convexe, la vitesse de convergence optimal est O(1/k).Cette valeur est théoriquement bornée, mais la constante correspondante peut encore être améliorée. Dans cette thèse, nous commençons par passer en revue les méthodes d'optimisation pour l'apprentissage automatique. Ensuite, nous explorons les constantes théoriques de convergence pour la descente de gradient stochastique avec le taux d’apprentissage optimal et un taux d’apprentissage inspirée par Polyak. Enfin, nous …  Read more

Pour les cancers trouvés chez l’adulte, 3,4 à 6,7% des interventions médicale qui sont testées en essais cliniques progressent à l’approbation réglementaire. Peu est connu des taux de réussites correspondants au développement de médicaments pour le traitement du cancer chez les enfants. L’objectif de cette thèse était de déterminer la proportion des interventions médicales dans les essais anti-cancers pédiatriques qui avancent ou « passent » aux phases ultérieures du développement et/ou qui sont utilisés en clinique, et la proportion des participants inscrits dans de tels essais qui participent à un « essai passant ». Nous avons utilisé ClinicalTrials.gov pour chercher …  Read more

Raz, Amir (Supervisor1)  Read more

Morin, Suzanne (Supervisor1)  Read more

Nandi, Arijit (Supervisor2)  Read more

Digital platforms have emerged as a central focus of digital innovation in the IT industry, with many of today’s biggest and fastest growing firms all operating platform businesses. In the so-called platform revolution, however, we are currently limited in our understanding of how social factors influence the generative mechanisms by which platforms evolve to dominate traditional businesses. In three essays, this dissertation makes progress toward deepening understanding of digital platforms as new organizing forms and their pathways to generative or disruptive performance. Essay 1 examines how organizational rules, norms, routines and practices embedded in social and structural properties give different …  Read more

A cardinality constraint in an optimization problem limits the number of nonzeroentries in each element of the solution set. Traditional methods, such as branch-andbound,can reduce the number of feasible points to search. That said, many ofthe proposed methods to solve mathematical programs with cardinality constraintsstill have a computational complexity which is exponential. Previous work has reformulatedcardinality constrained mathematical programs (with dierentiable constraintsand objectives) as mathematical programs with complementarity constraints(MPCCs) which preserve the global and local minimizers of the original problem.Similar to previous work with MPCCs, this gave way to regularization approacheswhich allow standard NLP solvers to be eectively used. In …  Read more

Brown, Peter Gilbert (Supervisor2)  Read more

Brenner, Bluma (Supervisor1)  Read more

La diffraction ultrarapide par électrons avec compression radio-fréquence est une technique expérimentale capable d’intérroger la structure évolutive de la matière, avec une résolution temporelle sous une picoseconde. Cette thèse d'écrit une approche nouvelle de synchronisation haute-performance entre laser et système électronique radio-fréquence. Cette technique enjoint la génération directe du signal de compression à partir d’un peigne de fréquence avec phase stabilisée. Le peigne de fréquence est produit par photo-détection directe d’un train d’impulsions laser ultrarapides et le signal approprié est filtré puis conditionné dans un système radio-fréquence à niveau de bruit ultra-faible. Ce système de synchronisation, combiné à un système …  Read more

The rediscovery of black phosphorus (black P) and the prediction of blue P as new, non-metallic, and single-element two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials have ignited the interest of researchers in these materials for a variety of fields. Originating from the field-effect transistors, multilayer black P has demonstrated great promise in numerous applications, such as photodetectors, photovoltaics, and imaging devices. Recently, 2D black P has also been proven to be a promising candidate for chemical sensing of various common gases using field-effect transistors, due to its large molecular adsorption energy, inherently large surface/volume ratio, and anisotropic electronic properties. However, the candidacy of its …  Read more

Seguin, Philippe (Internal/Cosupervisor2)  Read more

Marino, Faleh Tamimi (Supervisor1)  Read more

Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are anthropogenic chemicals with unique properties and wide applications in industrial and consumer products. However, studies have shown that the once highly valued PFAS are persistent pollutants, ubiquitous in the environment, and are developmental and reproductive toxins. To meet the stringent drinking water guidelines for PFAS, technologies that can destroy PFAS are urgently sought for. As multiple carbon-fluorine bonds render many conventional destruction processes ineffective, advanced oxidation-based treatment methods are some of the very promising methods for the destruction of PFAS in contaminated environmental matrices. Nevertheless, if effective oxidation-based treatment methods are to be developed, …  Read more

Costopoulos, Andre (Supervisor2)  Read more

In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, fermentation is the most important pathway for the production of energy, even under aerobic conditions (Crabtree effect). With low concentrations of glucose, ethanol produced during fermentation is used for the production of this sugar. This process relies on a shift to a respiratory mode. This change in metabolism requires a massive reprogramming of gene expression. For example, increased expression of genes for gluconeogenesis and the glyoxylate cycle is observed upon a shift to ethanol. This process is controlled in part by the transcriptional regulators Cat8, Sip4, Rds2, and Ert1 that belong to the family of …  Read more

The share of renewable energy resources for electricity generation is growing with the deepening of the penetration of intermittent, weather-dependent sources, which is leading to a transformation of demand and supply patterns. In order to compensate this variability in the power balance, a promising alternative is bioenergy. Traditionally, biogas digesters have been designed to provide a continuous supply of biogas. This implies that electricity generation from biogas is no more dispatchable than other non-dispatchable renewable sources like wind and solar power. Nonetheless, there are ways to make bioenergy capable to modulate its power output to provide grid support services (e.g., …  Read more

Schmidt, Alexandra (Supervisor2)  Read more

Milot, Marie-Helene (Supervisor2)  Read more

Voigt, Kristin (Supervisor2)  Read more

This research outlines the impact of a single-sex convent school in New Delhi on the self-perception, social behavior, and sexual identity of young women in India. This analysis has been conducted within the context of the intersections of Indian patriarchy and the centuries long subjugation of Indian women’s identities with the Christian missionary, colonial legacy of convent schools. I argue that the combination of these two contexts creates a negative impact on young girls and that although the Convent presents itself as an empowering institute, in practice it is only perpetuating and reinforcing the socio-cultural ideologies that subjugate Indian women. …  Read more

Platt, Robert William (Supervisor1)  Read more

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have become increasingly prevalent as a strategy for engaging teachers in school planning and distributing leadership function within schools in Quebec. While many scholars have praised the potential of PLCs, their effectiveness in practice has been called into question. This qualitative study offers a close examination of PLCs by exploring the experiences that teachers and pedagogical consultants have had in PLCs, and by outlining how these experiences have shaped their perceptions of PLCs. This research, consequently, seeks to contribute to the literature on professional learning communities through an exploration of PLCs within a particular context – …  Read more

Ouellet, Jean Albert (Supervisor2)  Read more

Legionella pneumophila is one of the most important cause of waterborne disease in developed countries. It is the causative agent of Legionnaires’ disease, a severe pneumonia. L. pneumophila is a natural bacterial inhabitant of water systems where it parasitizes and grows in protozoan host species, such as amoeba and ciliates. This adaptation to grow intracellularly has also allowed it to grow within human macrophages. In this way, Legionnaires’ disease is contracted by the inhalation of aerosols contaminated with L. pneumophila, which leads to infections of the lung macrophages and subsequent pneumonia. Cooling towers, used for air conditioning and ventilation systems, …  Read more

Cerruti, Marta (Supervisor2)  Read more

Les thérapies réparatrices trans sont un ensemble de pratiques cherchant à décourager les comportements associés à un genre autre que celui assigné à la naissance et/ou qui font la promotion d’identités de genre alignées sur celui assigné à la naissance. Cette thèse explore la juridicisation des thérapies réparatrices trans. Le premier chapitre situe les débats autour des thérapies réparatrices trans dans le contexte contemporain canadien, explique le choix de la terminologie de ‘thérapie réparatrice’, et définit ce que sont les thérapies réparatrices trans. Le deuxième chapitre explore le champ d’application des interdictions des thérapies réparatrices trans en interprétant le Projet …  Read more

Child supervision is integral to the wellbeing and healthy development of children and adolescents. Parenting decisions and practices, including on child supervision, are greatly influenced by society’s norms and values, hence the need to explore child supervision norms and practices before and after families migrate to a new country. There has been limited scholarly attention to child supervision practices among migrant families, particularly how immigrant caregivers and children perceive adequate child supervision and the influence of different supervision practices on the wellbeing of children and adolescents. Fifteen South Korean caregivers and ten South Korean adolescents living in the Greater Toronto …  Read more

Les cellules classiquement classent leurs constituants dans des regions spatialesdelimitees par des membranes pour moduler les reactions biochimiques. Recemment,il a ete demontre dans les systemes eucaryotes et procaryotes que cette compartimentationpeut se produire a la place des membranes. La theorie des transitionsde phase, le changement d'etats dans un systme, a ete utilisee pour expliquer ceprocessus, mais les details mecanistes ne sont pas bien compris. A savoir le rle decertaines proteines intrinsequement desordonnes et les proprietes qui leur permettentde faciliter ces transitions, ainsi que les proprietes matrielles qu'elles conferentAces structures. Dans ce manuscrit, nous decrivons deux methodes distinctes parlesquelles le r^ole …  Read more

Pedro Rosa (Supervisor2)  Read more

When screening for novel replication control genes in C. crescentus, we unexpectedly identified a temperature sensitive (TS) allele of the cell division-related gene dipM. In the published literature, DipM has been identified as a non-canonical endopeptidase that aids in peptidoglycan cell remodelling, particularly at the cell division septum. To confirm DipM’s unexpected relationship to DNA replication, we studied plasmid replication. We show that intact chromosomal dipM is required to support autonomous replication of four different replicon-types. A potential defect in replication prompted us to investigate fluorescently-tagged ParB of the chromosome partitioning system to report on Cori replication. While we observe …  Read more

Cooperstock, Jeremy (Supervisor1)  Read more

Joos, Geza (Supervisor1)  Read more

Riva, Mylène (Supervisor2)  Read more