McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par A

L'angiogenèse est un processus physiologique qui permet la formation de nouveaux vaisseaux sanguins. Ce phénomène est nécessaire à la croissance tumourale puisqu'il permet l'apport en oxygène et en nutriments. L'inhibition de ce procédé est ciblée dans certains traitements contre le cancer et son efficacité a été validée cliniquement. L'identification de nouveaux mécanismes inhibant l'angiogenèse est donc de grands intérêts. L'angiogenèse est régulé par l'équilibre entre les facteurs secrétés pro- et anti-angiogéniques. Ceci crée un environnement favorable à la croissance des cellules endothéliales, précurseurs cellulaires du système vasculaire. Il y a de nombreuses évidences qui nous mènent à penser que les …  Read more

A major issue in financial economics is the behavior of asset returns over long horizon as opposed to short horizons. This study provides empirical evidence from the perspective of long memory analysis. Evidence of long memory is explored using international currency prices for fourteen countries. The measure of long-term persistence employed is the modified rescaled range statistic proposed by Lo (1991), which tests for long-range dependence after having accounted for a wide range of short-memory processes. Further analysis is conducted on the squared and absolute returns of the series, using the procedure proposed by Geweke and Porter-Hudak (1983). The empirical …  Read more

Endometriosis is a debilitating condition that affects over 10% of women and is characterized by the presence of endometrial tissue outside the uterus, most often in the pelvic cavity. It is thought to arise through retrograde menstruation where endometrial tissue is displaced into the peritoneal cavity where it implants and develops into lesions that can cause inflammation, tissue scarring, and it can subsequently result in pelvic pain in response to estrogen cycling. Although this disease affects a large number of women and impacts their quality of life, its underlying molecular mechanisms are not understood. Wnt signaling plays a role in …  Read more

Le micro-usinage au laser femtoseconde (fs) est une méthode de texturation de surface sans contact qui peut créer des structures à rugosité hiérarchique (micrométrique et nanométrique à la fois). Tandis que les structures induites par les lasers fs ont été amplement étudiées sur les métaux, très peu de publications se sont intéressées à leur formation sur les surfaces de polymères. Récemment, il a été démontré que l'irradiation fs d'une surface de poly(tétrafluoroethylène) entraîne la formation d'une structure poreuse de grande surface. Une telle structure peut être avantageuse dans plusieurs applications comme les matériaux auto-nettoyants et les implants biomédicaux. Cependant, on …  Read more

With the aim to improve present microwave lens designs used in radar antennae, three lens systems were designed, built and tested. They are the lens and correcting plate, the thick lens and the sphere. They exhibit geometric forms as described by their names. The lens and correcting plate is a system that contains a thin plate that cancels the primary astigmatism present in a lens when the source is at two diametrically opposite positions 24° off the optical axis. [...]  Read more

Background. Alzheimer Disease (AD) is a common progressive neurodegenerative disorder that results in impairment of memory, thinking and behavior (dementia). Objective. To delineate the patterns and extent of EpoR expression in the brains of patients with sporadic AD, Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI; a frequent harbinger of AD) and normal elderly controls (NEC). Results. (A) Temporal cortex: Percentages of GFAP-positive astrocytes co-expressing EpoR were (i) significantly increased in AD and MCI vs. NEC (p<0.05) in layers II and III, (ii) increased in MCI, but not in AD, vs. NEC in layer I, and (iii) unrelated to diagnosis (p>0.05) in layers IV, …  Read more

This thesis studies the relationship between architecture and cosmology based on recent research in the interdisciplinary field of Archaeoastronomy. The main objective of this study is to understand the symbolic morphology of ancient Iranian structures called chartaqi. These structures characteristically incorporate a dome built on a cross and are intentionally and accurately aligned with particular astronomical references of the horizon.Taking the recent discoveries of the astronomical alignments of chartaqi as a starting point led to the discovery of identical astronomical alignments in similar Roman structures. These parallels are shown in detail in this thesis. Based on an analysis of these …  Read more

Dans ce mémoire, nous cherchons à déterminer comment favoriser la protection des droits humains dans le cadre de l’implantation de bases d’habitation permanentes dans l’espace extra-atmosphérique. Sur le plan méthodologique, notre réflexion s’inscrit dans les champs de la géographie juridique et de la prospective. Dans un premier chapitre, nous exposons brièvement le droit actuellement applicable aux activités dans l’espace et constatons que ce cadre juridique s’avère inadéquat pour protéger efficacement les droits humains dans un contexte d’implantation massive, permanente et durable d’individus dans l’espace. En effet, il se limite essentiellement à garantir la protection de personnes rigoureusement sélectionnées et entraînées, …  Read more

Pollak, Michael (Supervisor1)  Read more

The E1B-55 kDa protein of human adenovirus type 5 is known to function early in lytic infection by reversing growth arrest and apoptosis that result from E1A-induced accumulation and activation of the p53 cellular tumor suppressor. This function allows infected cells to survive long enough to produce high levels of progeny virions, and in the case of rodent cells it permits the formation of stable E1A transformants. The E1B-55 kDa protein binds to p53 and inhibits its ability to activate transcription. Inhibition of p53 appears to result from transcriptional repression activity associated with the E1B-55 kDa polypeptide. In the present …  Read more

The balance wind equation is derived, analysed and programmed for application in atmospheric models, and is compared and contrasted with other wind approximations. The mathematical concept of ellipticity of the equation is related to physical characteristics of the atmosphere. A review of three different numerical methods of solution is made; after simplification, one of these is adopted. The solution is performed on the Control Data G-20 computer located at the Central Analysis Office at Montreal Airport. The computations are carried out on a 1709 point octogonal grid covering the northern hemisphere from the Pole to 15°N latitude. The two 500 …  Read more

The goal of this study was to design, characterize and test a flow-through extraction cell for rapid determination of toxic metals present in soil and sediment samples. Based on a design elaborated by Jean Bouffard, a Teflon cell was first machined, but it appeared to be leaky and hard to disassemble without breaking the fritted glass discs. To overcome these difficulties, a poly ether ether ketone (PEEK) cell was machined and several parts were modified. Even though the shape and seal of the components seemed to be affected when heated, the cell was working at room temperature and proved promising …  Read more

The near-tropopause energy spectrum obeys a -5/3 power law at mesoscales. Some theories accommodating this fact assume ageostrophic dynamics but ignore the abrupt stratification jump characterizing the tropopause. Alternatively, it has also been proposed that the mesoscale spectrum results from tropopause-altered geostrophic turbulence. This thesis investigates the respective roles of the stratification jump and of ageostrophic dynamics in shaping the near-tropopause flow. To do so, a numerical model is constructed that integrates the non-hydrostatic Boussinesq equations in the presence of an arbitrary stratification profile. Decaying turbulence simulations are performed over a wide range of Rossby numbers both with and without …  Read more

The Arctic and the Antarctic are put forward as among the few remaining blank' spaces on the map available to nineteenth-century writers for speculative fiction, with polar narratives functioning as a bridge between the travelogue and science-fiction proper. Examining gender in these narratives, the Arctic is typically sexed as male, whereas the Antarctic is designated female. The male explorer protagonist is emasculated before the hyper-masculinity of the Arctic and the overpowering femininity of the Antarctic alike. Turning to race, white explorers venturing into white regions find that their racial status is challenged by superior instances of whiteness. They are also …  Read more

The retention of process colloids in the paper web is essential for papermaking process efficiency and product quality. Fines (fibre fragments) and fillers strongly affect the optical, surface and mechanical properties of paper. A very efficient flocculation aid system to deposit fine material (colloids) on fibres (collectors) consists of a polymer used in conjunction with anionic microparticles. The objective of this thesis is to elucidate the mechanism of fines retention with poly(electrolyte)-montmorillonite flocculant systems. Two main subjects are addressed. Firstly, polymer transfer between colloidal particles and collectors was characterised and modelled, and the influence on the papermaking process was evaluated. …  Read more

C-fibers are one class of the somatosensory fibers in the peripheral nervous system. They are characterized by their lack of myelination and slow conduction velocity. Small diameter, C-fiber low threshold mechanoreceptors (C-LTMRs) respond to non-discriminative gentle touch and their endings can be found in non-glabrous hairy skin. The activation of these fibers is perceived as pleasurable. Here, we report on a novel method for direct targeting of these mechanosensitive neurons to specifically label and interrogate this genetically defined subset of primary sensory neurons.Newborn mice were injected at P1-P5 with Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) 2/8 coding for flexed tdTomato-ChR2. IHC was performed …  Read more

Le but de cette étude était de parvenir à une compréhension des pratiques mentorales qui s'exercent en physiothérapie et en ergothérapie dans de grands établissements d'enseignement clinique universitaires canadiens, de comprendre la façon dont les professionnels débutants sont intégrés dans le milieu de travail, et d'examiner la signification que les mentors et mentorés accordent à leurs expériences mentorales. Dans cette étude, les pratiques mentorales de cinq physiothérapeutes et de cinq ergothérapeutes exerçant dans deux milieux universitaires canadiens distincts ont été examinées. Six mentors comptant plus de cinq années d'expérience et quatre mentorés avec un an ou moins d'expérience ont été …  Read more

This thesis deals with the assessment of seismic accelerations in buildings and the seismic analysis of components installed on building rooftops, with special focus on operational telecommunition towers during and after earthquake shaking. First, acceleration data recorded during the 1999 Chi Chi earthquake from 11 instrumented buildings located in Taiwan were studied. Fundamental building periods were extracted by system identification and compared to those evaluated according to the equations proposed in the 2005 edition of the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC). Next, rooftop acceleration spectra and time histories were evaluated using 3-D finite element building models; three models of …  Read more

L'hypertension et les médicaments antihypertenseurs ont été reliés au risque de cancer depuis plus de 3 décennies. Dans cette thèse, nous abordons certaines des faiblesses des études menées jusqu'ici en réalisant une étude de population observationnelle à l'aide la base de données de santé de Saskatchewan. Nous avons suivi 77887 sujets dont le traitement antihypertenseurs avait été initié entre 1980 et 1987 jusqu'à fin 2004. Une analyse cas-témoin nichée dans cette cohorte a indiqué une petite diminution du risque de cancer (toutes causes confondues) chez les utilisateurs de bétabloquants comparativement aux utilisateurs de diurétiques thiazidiques (OR incident 0.9; IC 95% …  Read more

Several epidemiological studies have evaluated whether an association exists between hypertension and cancer with inconclusive results because of several design biases. Using the Saskatchewan Health Databases, a cohort of subjects with incident treated hypertension between 1980 and 1987 was assembled and followed until 1996 to identify all incident cancer hospitalizations. Age and sex-standardized incidence ratios for all cause and for site-specific cancers were estimated using provincial cancer rates. A small increased risk of all-cause cancer was found mainly among females (RR: 1.12, 95 percent CI 1.06--1.17). Site-specific analyses revealed increased risks for uterine, breast, bladder, kidney, and several less common …  Read more

B cell lymphomas are a heterogeneous group of malignancies affecting B lymphocytes that play an essential role in immune responses as they differentiate into antibody-secreting plasma cells. B cell lymphomas can broadly be divided into B cell Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) which include more than 50 different types, varying from slow-growing to fast-growing lymphomas. The two most common types of NHL are Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and follicular lymphoma, whereas some types of NHL are rare such as Burkitt lymphoma and Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia. Multiple oncogenic drivers are involved in the formation and progression …  Read more

Renato Jose Pires Machado (Supervisor2)  Read more

Bakery products are important sources of nutrients in our diet. However, spoilage occurs shortly after baking. After microbial spoilage, the main spoilage problem is staling. Therefore, methods to control staling are of great importance to the bakery industry since staling results in millions of dollars annually in lost revenues. Initial studies using a one variable at a time approach showed that enzymes, guar, algin and pectin gums and high fructose corn syrup could delay staling and resulted in an organoleptically acceptable product. Subsequent optimization studies using a Response Surface Methodology (RSM) approach show the appropriate levels of enzyme (Novamyl), guar …  Read more

Background. The Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumours (RECIST) assess the efficacy of new therapies in clinical trials of solid tumours but not of lymphoma. These criteria, with some modifications, could replace the International Workshop Classification (IWC) for assessing efficacy in lymphoma. A lymphoma-adapted version of RECIST (LAR) would be simpler to apply than the IWC criteria and allow efficacy assessment to be standardized across clinical trials. Methods. RECIST was modified to apply to the unique features of lymphoma. Using data from three phase II lymphoma trials (n=115), the clinical qualities of this modified scale were studied. Face, content and …  Read more

Coates, Mark (Supervisor1)  Read more

Le besoin de développer des méthodes d'optimisation distribuées est nécessaire dans des applications pratiques impliquant le traitement de données naturellement distribuées, privées, ou simplement trop grandes à stocker sur une seule machine. Au cours de la dernière décennie, un grand nombre d'algorithmes distribués ont été trouveés pour résoudre des problèmes d'optimisation convexe à grande échelle, en particulier pour les systèmes multi-agents. Même si les algorithmes avec des propriétés théoriques les plus souhaitables sont connus, beaucoup d'analyses théoriques ignorent des problèmes pratiques importants, tels que l'asynchronisme et les délais de communication. Par conséquent, il arrive souvent que ces algorithmes ayant des …  Read more

Increasingly, knowledge-based tasks such as new product development and market research are being conducted by geographically dispersed teams. Early evidence from knowledge-based view of the firm and geographically dispersed work literatures suggests that at least four kinds of knowledge gaps---transactive memory system, mutual knowledge, categorization and situated knowledge---exist because of the (dispersed) structure of the knowledge management context . Dispersed members therefore cannot take for granted that they have a common context, making dispersed collaboration problematic. The dissertation - a qualitative, theory-generating exercise - seeks to address the question, 'how do dispersed teams collaborate to create useful knowledge?' Specifically, the …  Read more

As environmental issues and the communities that confront them increasingly transcend borders, environmentalists in the North (wealthier countries) and the South (poorer countries) face the challenges of effective communication and collaboration. Acknowledging differences in how environmentalists culturally construct the environment is an important starting point; particularly given the tendency on the part of Northern environmentalists to assume (a) that environmentalism is essentially the same in different cultures i.e., it is all like Northern environmentalism; and (b) that environmentalism is more developed in the North. This study examines and compares the constructed environments of a sample of Mexican and Canadian environmentalists. …  Read more

Examinations are required to perform a considerable number of closely related and yet varied functions. In general terms, however, it may be said that they have two principal uses: (l) They are applied by a teacher to his pupils in order to determine the effectiveness of his own teaching; and (2) they are also, and more frequently, employed by a teacher or by some external authority to test the eligibility of an examinee for some certain desired award. The nature of the award will obviously vary vrith the conditions of the examination. It may consist merely in a formal recognition …  Read more

String theory is to date the best candidate for the "theory of everything" which would describe all four fundamental interactions, including gravity, on the same footing. The general description of black holes and other spacetimes with horizons remains a key aspect of quantum gravity that must be addressed by a consistent theory, such as string theory. Also, the resolution of singularities is a fundamental problem in a quantum theory of gravity. At the same time, the recent revolution in observational cosmology creates a pressing need to accommodate fundamental issues such as cosmic acceleration and cosmological horizons within the framework of …  Read more

This thesis analyzes the text of Genesis Rabba, one of the largest and most important of the rabbinic midrashim. It pays particular attention to its use of the term miyyad ("immediately"). Two specific patterns of usage are identified. Through these patterns, the thesis demonstrates how Genesis Rabba's midrash is simultaneously a work of narrative and of exegesis, and comments on some aspects of these two functions. It also traces the lexical evolution of the word miyyad in Hebrew.  Read more

The Czechoslovakian crisis in the Spring and Summer of 1938 had deeply divided the British press. By September 1938 there were discernible clear lines ot difference both on the policy Britain was urged te pursue in Central Europe and on the role - or lack of role - envisaged for the U.S.S.R. The Soviet connection to events stemmed from the Czech-Soviet Mutual Assistance Pact of May 1935, contingent for its operation in the case of aggression on the active intervention ot France. [...]  Read more

The application of haptic devices to surgery simulation presents many exciting opportunities. For example, medical students could practise surgery without using animals and surgeons could evaluate and plan surgical procedures before making a single real incision. An integral component of these surgical simulator systems is haptic feedback. There are many engineering challenges that must be addressed in order to successfully integrate haptics with the environmental characteristics found in surgery. The most fundamental of these challenges is to achieve update rates of solid nonlinear deformable objects that are acceptable to the human haptic system. This thesis presents a software architecture that …  Read more

The autonomous calibration of a manipulator is considered with respect to both dynamic and joint sensor properties. Using methods based on adaptive control, a new formulation is introduced such that bench calibration of the robot joint sensors and actuators is no longer necessary. When adaptive control is used in identification, inaccuracies caused by various sources of noise are averaged out because the identification takes place on-line, this is in contrast to static methods which rely on a limited number of input data. This method is unique because the joint calibration is done with respect to invariant forces due to gravity …  Read more

The learning effects under filtered and unfiltered listening conditions for ten severely hearing-impaired children were investigated using minimal pair distinctions. Significant learning occurred under both listening conditions, but there was no significant difference between performance with filtered and unfiltered speech. Subjects were able to learn distinctions based on gross spectral and durational cues, but no learning occurred when minimal pair distinctions depended on relatively subtle spectral differences. It was concluded that these deaf children did not have access to compensatory cues apparently used by hard-of-hearing adults in speech discrimination.  Read more

A crucial factor to enable low-income families to participate in the gradual development of their homes is to find a link between their building activities and those of the large-scale building sector. Amidst technological development and increasing demand for housing, the large-scale sector, such as government and private groups, resorted to industrialised housing to replace traditional and conventional building materials and methods. Industrialisation, however, resulted not only in expensive and inappropriate dwellings but also eliminated homeowners from the building process and management of their homes. To bring back the homeowners in the building process, the shift was towards the production …  Read more

Spatial navigation is one of the major challenges faced by blind individuals. Despite this, it is well established that blind individuals can successfully navigate many environments by relying on their remaining senses. In rodent models, much has been discovered about how the brain encodes spatial awareness and enables spatial navigation in sighted animals, but little is known about how the brain’s spatial navigation system adapts following vision loss.To address this, we turn to the head direction (HD) system, which consists of cells that track an organism’s moment-to-moment head direction in the horizontal plane – effectively acting as a neural compass. …  Read more

This thesis investigates the role played by the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), a traditionalist Islamic organization established by K. H. Hasjim Asj'ari in 1926, in the development of Indonesian nationalism, elaborating in particular on its activities under the New Order (1980s and 1990s) after it implemented the Pancasila as the sole foundation for all political parties, social and mass organizations. As the largest Muslim traditionalist organization in Indonesia, the NU was originally founded to protect and promote the interests of Muslim traditionalists, who loyally followed the school of Ahlu al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah. The doctrines of the latter school are shown here …  Read more

Computational and experimental investigations of fluid flow and heat transfer aspects of loop heat pipes (LHPs) are presented in this thesis. The overall goal is to formulate and develop cost-effective mathematical models and numerical solution methods for computer simulations of LHPs. This work has five distinct parts. First, a basic network thermofluid model of conventional LHPs operating under steady-state conditions is proposed, implemented, tested, and applied. It illustrates the main steps in the formulation of such models. The capabilities of this basic model are assessed by applying it to an LHP for which experimental results are available in the literature. …  Read more

This thesis examines the works published under the subject of "eugenics" in the first decades following the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, from the 1930s through to the end of the Second World War, the period when the Republican medical professionals showed the most interest in eugenics. Sample articles from semi-official popular and popular medical journals, proceedings of two national medical congresses, as well as some conferences given by the Republican medical elite the proceedings of which were published by the single party in power are examined to assess the formation of eugenic arguments. The aim of the thesis …  Read more

Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) is a promising technology that enables production of complex parts with unique freedom in design and short lead times. For applications requiring high strength and high temperature resistance, Ni-base superalloys are the primary choice of materials. Although variety of superalloys can be produced through LPBF, most high strength alloys are prone to cracking and considered difficult to weld. The main objective of this research is to assess the processability of precipitation hardenable Ni-base superalloys by LPBF. For this purpose, processing of two different precipitation hardenable alloys, Rene 41 (R41) having a fair weldability and Rene …  Read more

« Mar Maroun », pour chœur de chambre, flute traversière et deux percussionnistes, dépeint un parcours du passé vers le présent par le développement musical de chants traditionnels Syro-Maronite. Ceux-ci sont transformés avec le temps par des techniques mélodiques et également influencés par la musique électroacoustique à l'intérieur d'un cheminement à grand-échelle de hauteurs définis vers des progressions de bruits, façonnant également les interactions à petite-échelle, surtout avec l'utilisation de techniques vocales sans hauteurs définies. Les instruments utilisés dans la pièce font références à des pratiques musicales provenant du quatrième siècle et à d'autres influences culturelles ; la musique Maronite …  Read more