McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par A

Les nanoparticules de synthèse (NPs) sont intensivement utilisées dans une multitude de produits industriels et de consommation, grâce à leur grande surface spécifique. Une grande partie de ces NPs se jette dans les stations de traitement des eaux usées (STEP), et finit par être rejetée dans l’environnement principalement avec les boues provenant des bassins de décantations, et avec les effluents d’eaux usées. Cependant, les données quantitatives disponibles sur les NPs dans les effluents d’eaux usées, les boues et les biosolides sont limitées, rendant ainsi l’évaluation du risque environnemental et de l’absorption biologique des NPs plus difficiles. L’objectif général de cette …  Read more

Salvatore, Armando (Supervisor1)  Read more

This thesis analyzes some potential applications of kinetic energy (KE) storage systems in power systems operation. The goal was to take advantage of the KE stored in the existing rotating machines in a power system such as synchronous generators and motors by "borrowing" some of the stored KE when electricity prices are high and "returning" this energy to the rotating masses when the prices are down. As shown in this thesis, this operation can be performed from the control center by optimally scheduling the set points of the generators under automatic generation control (AGC) over a given time horizon. This …  Read more

Cloud based deployments have been moving towards a positive trend over the past decade. A variety of tooling has been introduced and the deployment procedure itself has been immensely eased. Thus, many large scale businesses are considering a move towards a fully cloud based solution. This enables them to take complete advantage of the data intensive computing facilities of the cloud. Nevertheless, the decision to move towards a complete cloud-deployment does pose some important concerns; the top priority concern being data security. The current service-levels (in terms of data security) provided by the cloud providers are proven to be strong. …  Read more

The partially purified extracellular lipase from Pseudomonas fragi CRDA 037, obtained by ammonium sulfate precipitation, was subjected to further purification by successive ion-exchange and size-exclusion chromatographies using the Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography system. The purification of the partially purified lipase resulted in two enzymatic fractions, FIVa ' and FIVb', with a purification-fold of 169 and 195, respectively. Native electrophoretic analyses revealed the presence of three bands for fraction FIVa', with estimated molecular weights (MW) of 16.2, 25.8 and 38.5 kDa and two bands for FIVb' , with estimated MW of 15.2 and 25.8 kDa. The two purified fractions, FIVa' and …  Read more

Shaykh Tabarsi was a Shi'ite scholar, the only Shi'ite theologian of importance in the twelfth century A.D. He produced a commentary on the Qur'an which scholars, both Shi'ite and Sunnite, have acclaimed as the leading work in the field of tafsir. No Western scholar has done any study on Tabarsi or on any of his works. This dissertation is therefore, the first work in a Western language to be devoted to this important Muslim scholar and theologian.  Read more

Adams, Charles J. (Supervisor)  Read more

Au cours de cette thèse, une méthode pratique de carbonatation prématurée du béton a été conçue. Un sujet largement publié ces dernières années, la cure accélérée du béton utilisant le CO2 a suscité l'intérêt du secteur du bâtiment, avec un nombre d'acteurs visant à industrialiser cette technique. Le défi que recèle la mise en œuvre de ce processus réside dans le besoin de pressions élevées pour assurer une pénétration efficace du CO2 au sein du béton. La majorité des chambres de maturation actuellement adoptée par l'industrie du béton préfabriqué sont incapables de résister à de telles pressions élevées. Pour remédier …  Read more

Object localization and tracking are important requirements for the autonomous grasping of moving objects. Autonomous grasping requires continuous information gathering by sensors. In this thesis, I examined the use of miniature amplitude based infra-red proximity sensors which are useful in this context since they can be placed directly in the robot's end-effector and thus guarantee unobstructed sensing. Unfortunately, using these sensors in a network leads to problems of local interference. To eliminate such problems, I synchronized and modulated the frequency of commercial sensors to enable their use in a network. In addition, I have developed two approaches which provide useful …  Read more

IntroductionLe vieillissement entraîne le déclin cognitif et les déficiences structurelles du cerveau. Il est essentiel de comprendre les mécanismes responsables de ces troubles pour élaborer des stratégies visant à préserver la robustesse du cerveau chez les personnes âgées. Les facteurs hormonaux, comme le cortisol, sont essentiels à la santé du cerveau. Des différences dans l’impact du cortisol ont également été observées entre les hommes et les femmes. Cependant, les recherches sur les populations âgées restent limitées, puisque des lacunes persistent concernant l’effet du cortisol sur les fonctions cérébrales à un âge avancé.Objectif de l’étudeCette étude vise à explorer le lien …  Read more

The high number of Giardia cyst polluting surface water, in conjunction with the inadequacy of current water treatment practices in ensuring the complete removal of giardial cysts, has led our group to propose the use of CWP2-based transmission-blocking vaccines as a mean to control environmental contamination by reducing the spread of infective Giardia cysts in nature. In this PhD thesis, three key studies were performed with the ultimate goal of developing and testing a CWP2-expressing transmission-blocking DNA vaccine in the mouse model of the disease. The study presented in manuscript I examined for the first time the host's local immune …  Read more

El-Gamal, Mourad N. (Supervisor2)  Read more

RésuméTraiter la perte complète des dents avec une prothèse (hybride) inférieure retenue par deux implants et une prothèse complète supérieure est considéré comme des soins prothétiques de base. Jusqu'à récemment, de nombreux chercheurs ont manifesté leur intérêt pour le domaine de la restauration prothétique implantaire comme une alternative au traitement de l'édentation. Ils ont réalisé de nombreuses études quantitatives pour comprendre comment les patients édentés perçoivent les prothèses inférieures supportées par deux implants. Cependant, les perspectives des patients quant à l’efficacité d’une prothèse inférieure sur implants restent floues et n’ont pas été explorées par des méthodes qualitatives.Nous avons conduit une …  Read more

BackgroundAlthough nurses play a major role in alleviating the burdens associated with critical incidents, little is known about nursing preparedness in these emergent situations. This study aims to evaluate the degree of preparedness and training of Canadian nurses in disasters and critical incidents. MethodsAn observational cross-sectional survey through self-administered web-based questionnaire was shared with nurses working in Emergency Departments, Adult/pediatric Intensive Care Units, and Cardiac Care Units at five hospitals affiliated with McGill University in Montreal (Quebec, Canada). General demographics, level of experience, critical-care training, and level of confidence in performing trauma-related activities were collected. The statistical significance level was …  Read more

Barralet, Jake (Internal/Supervisor)  Read more

Les mutations dans le recepteur androgene humain (hAR) causent, ou du moins predisposent, it differentes maladies telles que le syndrome d’insensibilire aux androgenes (AIS), l’atrophie musculaire spinobulbaire (SBMA), une maladie neurodegenerative ainsi que le cancer de la prostate. Ma recherche a porte sur le mecanisme de pathogenese de trois mutations dans le hAR. La premiere mutation etant une expansion de l’insert poly-glutamine (poIyQ) dans le premier exon qui cause le SBMA; les 2 autres mutations sont dans l’exon 5 (Asn727Lys) et dans l’exon 8 (Met886Val) du do maine de liaison du ligand (LBD) qui causent l’infertilite d’origine oligospermique. [...]Ni la …  Read more

Platt, Robert William (Supervisor1)  Read more

Cette recherche construit l'évolution historique du Mouvement islamique en Somalie de 1950 à 2000, en se concentrant sur l'Islah (Islaax) comme étude de cas. Outre le chapitre d'introduction, il est divisé en quatre phases: le renouveau islamique, la conscience islamique, l'éveil islamique, et les mouvements islamiques. La première phase, le renouveau islamique, fournit des renseignements généraux et traite de la renaissance de la Confrérie Sufi dans le XIXe siècle et sa rencontre avec le colonialisme. La deuxième phase porte sur la montée de la conscience islamique pendant la lutte de la Somalie pour l'indépendance après le retour de l'Italie à …  Read more

This thesis deals with the crisis of political loyalty in Somalia. The analysis is based on an elitist perspective which permits a more satisfactory integration of all levels of Somali society than is possible with familiar "clanist" or "social theory" interpretations. The paper gives details of the three leading ideological groups in Somalia over the past three decades--the Tribalists, Nationalists and Islamists. It demonstrates how the future of the nationalists' imported models of government and policies to contain tribalism culminated in the re-emergence of tribalism, now in more militant political form. The author presents Islam as an important political component …  Read more

The exponential developments made in the field of mRNA vaccines, CRISPR technology and antisense therapies have solidified nucleic acid therapeutics’ presence at the forefront of modern medicine. With an ability to engage targets that are otherwise undruggable by conventional therapeutics, nucleic acid-based drugs have opened new avenues for treating intractable diseases. Synthetic oligonucleotides are now recognized as the third major drug discovery platform, in addition to small molecules and antibodies. Additionally, they provide valuable probes to study key structure-function relations and offer mechanistic insights at the molecular level of important enzymatic processes. In this thesis, we highlight our efforts in …  Read more

Nodal sections of the winter-hardy 'John Franklin' rose cultivar from field-grown plants were cultured on a modified Murashige and Skoog (MS) nutrient medium. Very high levels of contamination from the surface of the initial sections required that plants be grown under greenhouse conditions. Rose plantlets obtained from subsequent subcultures were used for the first time in a radiotracer experiment with $ sp{32}$P to study the kinetics of phosphorus (P) uptake as a function of temperature of the nutrient medium. P uptake increased with time for rooted and non-rooted plantlets in a linear fashion that did not reach an equilibrium value …  Read more

In vitro culture techniques are widely used in potato for rapid production of specific pathogen tested plantlets and microtubers, which are essential for seed certification programs. The limited calcium (Ca) uptake in vitro promotes physiological disorders in many micropropagated species including potato. Factors that may affect Ca uptake by potato plantlets, including cations, osmotic potential, and boron (B) were examined. The possibility of improving microtuber yield by low pH shock or successive harvests, which stimulated greenhouse potato production, were also investigated. Ca uptake by cvs. Norland and Bintje potato plantlets grown on modified Murashige and Skoog (MS, 1962) media was …  Read more

"Des boutures de noeuds prélevées sur le rosier rustique 'John Franklin' élevé en plein air ont été mises en culture sur un milieu Murashige et Skoog modifié. Un taux élevé de contamination a exigé que le prélèvement des boutures soit effectué sur des plantes cultivées sous-serres. La technique de traçage radioactif a été appliquée, pour la première fois, sur les pousses de rose obtenues in vitro par plusieurs repiquages successifs dans le but d'étudier la cinétique de 1 'absorption du phosphore, en fonction de la température de la solution nutritive. On a trouvé que le taux d'absorption par les pousses …  Read more

Contexte :Les patients à haut risque cardiovasculaire qui subissent une intervention chirurgicale majeure non cardiaque sont confrontés à une morbidité et une mortalité périopératoires importantes. La pré-adaptation multimodale est une nouvelle intervention prometteuse pour optimiser l’état fonctionnel, nutritionnel et psychologique avant une chirurgie. Nous avons effectué une étude pilote pour déterminer la faisabilité et la sécurité d’un programme individualisé de pré-adaptation chez cette population vulnérable.Méthodes :Une étude prospective de faisabilité à simple insu a été menée. L'intervention consistait en un programme de pré-adaptation de quatre semaines incluant des séances d’exercice supervisées, une optimisation de l’état nutritionnel et un soutien psychologique …  Read more

Souza, Raphael de (Internal/Supervisor)  Read more

The biblical narrative of Jephthah and his daughter (Judges 11:31-40) recounts the story of the judge, Jephthah, who vowed to sacrifice to God whatever came to greet him upon his return from a victorious battle with Ammon, and whose daughter became the victim of this vow. The goal of this thesis is to examine a sample of the Jewish responses to this biblical narrative from ancient and medieval times through the twentieth century. The analysis demonstrates the difficult nature of this text, its linguistic and conceptual ambiguities, the solutions to a well-defined series of problems proposed by more than two …  Read more

Rashi, an eleventh century Bible commentator who lived in France, is the most influential Jewish exegete of all time. The popularity of his Pentateuch commentary has resulted in many extant manuscripts and printed editions, and the effect of scribal activity involved in the work's large circulation has led to extensive textual variants. Moreover, the earliest extant dated manuscript of the commentary was copied 130 years after Rashi's death. This extended length of time facilitated the introduction of countless changes into the work that, over time, have become virtually undetectable. One key to uncovering the most authentic version of Rashi's commentary …  Read more

This investigation was carried out in order to determine the specificity of a panel of monoclonal antibodies previously generated against murine pregnancy-associated splenic natural suppressor cells and to characterize the cell surface target molecule(s) on cells that are recognized by these antibodies. The monoclonal antibody from clone 2C1.1 was purified on anti-rat Ig affinity column and used to partially characterize the antigenic determinant recognized by it. A 50 KDa target molecule was detected on pregnancy spleen cells enriched for Natural Suppressor activity but not on similar cells from the virgin animals. Experiments employing a cellular ELISA technique demonstrated that the …  Read more

L’hippocampe joue un rôle important dans l'apprentissage et la mémorisation d'informations spatiales. Cependant, nous savons depuis un certain temps que des lésions à l’hippocampe engendrent des déficits qui ne sont pas attribuables aux capacités d’apprentissage et de mémoire, telles que des déficiences dans la capacité à inhiber une réponse comportementale et une difficulté à adapter ses comportements. Ces déficiences, qui rappellent celles associées à l’atteinte du cortex préfrontal, incluent des difficultés à imaginer le futur, à inhiber des comportements inappropriés, ou à prendre des décisions optimales. Nous avons découvert dans une étude préliminaire que le contrôle inhibiteur chez les rats …  Read more

The hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/Met receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK), regulates a wide variety of biological responses including cell migration, proliferation and invasion and deregulation of these processes can lead to cancer development. At the start of this PhD thesis, the concept that deregulation of RTKs can occur through loss of negative regulatory mechanisms, had emerged. RTKs are down-regulated through the endocytic pathway, which involves receptor ubiquitination. Work from this thesis demonstrates that uncoupling the Met RTK from Cbl-mediated ubiquitination (Met Y1003F) results in oncogenic activation of Met both in vitro and in vivo. Met ubiquitination is not required for internalization …  Read more

Handa, J. (Supervisor)  Read more

Two experiments were designed as a preliminary exploration of how stress is used by language-impaired children in the comprehension of spoken language. Response time was measured as subjects decided whether a probe word given immediately after a sentence had been present in the sentence. The results of the first experiment indicated that the probe latency technique was sensitive to the effects of word category (content versus function words) and word position on the response times of children with normal language in the kindergarten, first, third, and sixth grades. In the second experiment, the probe latency task was used to study …  Read more

In 1974, Elmer A. Driedger writes about the modern principle of interpretation for the first time in The Construction of Statutes, in which he states: « Today there is only one principle or approach, namely, the words of an Act are to be read in their entire context, in their grammatical and ordinary sense harmoniously with the scheme of the Act, the object of the Act, and the intention of the Parliament ». The modern principle combines the three so-called traditional rules of interpretation in Canada, namely the Literal rule, the Golden rule and the Mischief rule in order to …  Read more

La Fondation Nationale Littéraire affirme que sa principale ambition est de célébrer et de récompenser la meilleure littérature publiée aux États-Unis, tout en garantissant que le roman conserve une place durable au sein de la culture américaine. En réfléchissant à cette mission, je suis amené à m’interroger sur les expériences vécues par les auteurs noirs lorsqu’ils ou elles sont sélectionnés en tant que finalistes ou lauréats du prix de fiction des Prix Littéraires Nationaux. Plus précisément, en examinant les types de romans pour lesquels ces auteurs noirs ont été récompensés, je m’interroge sur les formes narratives qu’ils ou elles mobilisent, …  Read more

Ce travail entame en 1968/1969 dans le cadre de PINSTITUT DE DROIT AERIEN ET SPATIAL de llUNIVERSITE Mc GILL est une etude de jurisprudence afferente a Pinterpretation de Particle 25 de la Conven­tion de Varsovie amende par le Protocole de La Haye par les tribunaux fran9ais. Il existe une litterature abondante consacree a l'interpretation de la Convention de Varsovie et aux dispositions de Particle 25 a partir des jugements rendus par les tribunaux fran9ais en particulier. Mais les travaux de synthese datent. Il nous a paru souhaitable de proceder El. une mise El. jour. A cette fin et sur la …  Read more

Chemin, Matthieu (Supervisor1)  Read more

Rowley, Robin (Supervisor)  Read more

Milde, Michael (Supervisor)  Read more

The essence of running an enterprise which is defined as a system by which the companies are lead and compared is generally set in priority terms. For some, they favour in the first instance to secure the economic efficiency then to scope with the social problems at a later stage---'Shareholder model'. Others are inclined to consider that the priority lies into an environmental, sharing and caring society etc.---'Stakeholder model'. Where the evolution of the corporate governance is going to lead to? And how does it affect the directors' responsibility? After a thorough study of its European evolution in particular in …  Read more

Over the past decade, concerns have emerged over the accumulation of plastic contaminants in water bodies and their potential impact on aquatic life. Although wastewater treatment plants were determined to be significant pathways for the release of microplastics and nanoplastics into the environment, these treatment plants can also serve as vital barriers to prevent the discharge of these contaminants into water bodies. Earlier studies have demonstrated that coagulation, flocculation and settling lead to high removal of nanoplastics and microplastics. However, researchers have been unable to validate these laboratory observations in large-scale primary wastewater treatment systems due to limitations of current …  Read more

Complex statistical models, such as time-series and mixed-effects models, are essential for analyzing temporal and hierarchical data. These models often involve unobservable parameters requiring Bayesian inference, yet intractable likelihoods render traditional Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods computationally demanding. This thesis develops a comprehensive simulation-based inference (SBI) framework using Sequential Neural Posterior Estimation (SNPE-C) and Sequential Neural Likelihood Estimation (SNLE) to perform Bayesian inference without explicit likelihood evaluations. By leveraging forward simulations and neural density estimation with carefully designed summary statistics, these methods capture temporal dependencies in time-series and target variance components in mixed-effects models. Through systematic experiments on synthetic …  Read more

Les algorithmes classiques d'apprentissage profond sont des outils puissants pour la construction de modèles prédictifs précis pour les données étiquetées. Cependant, les réseaux neuronaux profonds traditionnels conçus pour l'apprentissage de tels modèles sont à la fois sujets au surajustement et incapables d'évaluer l'incertitude. En revanche, l'apprentissage Bayésien basé sur l'émergence des méthodes de Monte Carlo par chaîne de Markov et l'inférence variationnelle offrent une forte capacité à exprimer l'incertitude dans les prédictions et à améliorer la probabilité postérieure. La méthode présentée évalue l'efficacité et la précision de l'inférence Bayésienne dans des contextes complexes. Nous fournissons une analyse empirique approfondie des …  Read more