McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par A

LOX is a marker of poor prognosis in several malignancies and is hypothesized to promote a migratory phenotype in hypoxic breast carcinomas. This thesis aims to characterize the expression of LOX and LOXL2 in human UM and to evaluate the transcriptional control of LOX under simulated hypoxic conditions. DPA and BAPN, both LOX catalytic inhibitors, were used to evaluate the effect of inhibiting this enzyme on cellular proliferation and invasion. Eighty-one percent of FFPE samples stained positive for LOX. High LOX expression correlated with the aggressive epithelioid cell type and was associated with shorter metastasis-free survival. Simulated hypoxia resulted in …  Read more

Dimorphic Leishmania donovani parasites exist as promastigotes in the sandfly vector and differentiate into amastigotes once injected into the skin of human hosts during a blood meal. The mechanisms and signals that are involved in triggering differentiation are not well understood in Leishmania. We have investigated whether tyrosine phosphorylation is a possible signalling component. Differential levels of tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins were observed in extracts from in vitro promastigote and amastigote cultures, with an overall reduction in the latter stage. Following this observation, the inhibition of tyrosine phosphorylation was examined in promastigotes using Tyrphostin AG1433, a broad-spectrum tyrosine phosphorylation inhibitor. AG1433 treated …  Read more

Nugus, Peter (Supervisor1)  Read more

The design of congestion controls for ATM-based telecommunication networks is a problem of much recent interest. Preventive controls attempt to restrain the development of congestion by shaping or filtering the incoming cell streams at the user-network interface, independently of the dynamics of the network itself. Preventive controls have a policing function, to protect the network from overload due to malice or malfunction on the user side of the interface, and a regulating function, to smooth the demand on network storage and bandwidth in the hope of improving network performance. We study the regulating function in simple ATM systems in which …  Read more

Asthma has not declined in morbidity and mortality despite significant advances in medical treatment. A literature review was conducted and a program of research was devised with the goal of improving understanding of why many appropriately treated and educated asthmatics are unable to gain adequate control of their asthma. A review of the literature found that psychological stress was a poorly understood trigger for asthmatic symptoms and a possible factor in poor asthma control. A clinic visit study of adult asthmatics found: (1) life event stress was associated with asthma quality of life but not ventilatory function, (2) asthma self-efficacy …  Read more

L’apprentissage me ́trique est un domaine important de l’apprentissage automatique, sur lequel une mesure de similarite ́ entre des ensembles d’objets est apprise a` partir de donne ́es. Dans un contexte moderne, ces donne ́es peuvent provenir de certains cas de proble`mes d’externalisation ouverte a` un ensemble d’utilisateurs (ou de travailleurs), qui sont susceptibles d’avoir des capacite ́s et des niveaux d’engagement diffe ́rents pour la taˆche. Dans cette the`se, nous essayons d’abord d’examiner quelques-unes des principales me ́thodes de ́veloppe ́es dans ce domaine de l’apprentissage automatique. Enfin, nous pre ́sentons une approche de conception de me ́canisme pour …  Read more

Hasan, M. (Supervisor)  Read more

Isac, Mihaiela (Supervisor2)  Read more

Isac, Mihaiela (Internal/Cosupervisor2)  Read more

Les Juifs et les Canadiens français ont longtemps vécu cloisonnes dans leurs milieux au sein même du Québec. Depuis une décennie, on note un rapprochement entre les deux groupes. Bien avant l'établissement de relations étroites, cependant, le romancier québécois s'intéressait déjà au Juif, mais l'image qu'il rendait de ce dernier reflétait les préjuges de son proprem.1lieu. Le personnage mythique que l'on a le plus associe au Ju1f est celui du commerçant ruse et âpre au gain; aussi le retrouve-t-on souvent dans le roman québécois. La figure du Juif représente, par contre, des caractéristiques complexes; elle symbolise, par exemple, la souffrance …  Read more

Le Tryphon est un grand dirigeable cubique rempli d'hélium, sur lequel sont montés de nombreux capteurs et hélices permettant un vol intérieur complètement contrôle. Le projet Tryphon est une collaboration entre des ingénieurs et des artistes qui a pour but la recherche autant que la performance artistique. Les recherches précédentes, portant sur un seul Tryphon, ont permis de développer un modele precis et d'atteindre un niveau raisonnable d'estimation d'etat et de contrôle rétroactif. Cette recherche porte sur le développement du système de guidage, de navigation et de contrôle servant au rendez-vous et a l'amarrage de deux Tryphons. L'étape du rendez-vous …  Read more

Anthony van Dyck's contemporary vision of sovereignty and knighthood made him the principal image-maker in England during the 1630s. His portraits of Charles I exemplified the Arcadian realm and philosophies held at court, as well as complying with the artistic and historical traditions of English painting. As a celebration of Monarchy by Divine Right, Van Dyck's portrayals of the Sovereign summarize the philosophical concepts of knighthood expressed in the Platonic Love theory and the Order of the Garter. Charles I was Defensor Fides, Pater Patriae, the suitor to his lady, and the courtly gentleman--all roles of the knight. Beyond his …  Read more

The phase transition at the QCD critical end point is believed to be in the 3D Ising universality class. A recently proposed method of using low order Taylor series coefficients to pinpoint the location of the QCD critical end point is tested with the Ising Model. The finding is that one cannot rely solely on the lowest order series coefficients to accurately locate the Ising critical point, and moreover, the values of higher order coefficients are clouded with statistical uncertainty. The method does manage to qualitatively capture the features of the Ising Model phase diagram.  Read more

An n-particle-irreducible (nPI) effective action Gamma[phi, G, ...] is a functional whose stationary points coincide with the exact Green's functions of a quantum theory (for n=2 this is known as a Phi-derivable approximation). Any practical application would necessitate a truncation of Gamma at some finite loop order; then, the stationary points of Gamma[phi, G, ...] would correspond to a selective resummation to all orders in a perturbative expansion. This thesis explores the application of these functional techniques to non-abelian gauge theory in three spacetime dimensions.3D gauge theories are physically relevant in that they provide an effective description of the non-perturbative …  Read more

A group of 21 HIV-positive gay or bisexual men was compared with a matched group of 22 HIV-negative individuals. All subjects were sexually active gay or bisexual males matched for age, as well as age at first intercourse with males. Subjects completed a detailed sexual history questionnaire as well as a series of standardized measures of psychosocial functioning. Results indicated that subjects engaged in a wide range of unsafe sexual behaviours, and frequently combined drugs with sex. Scores on the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) were significantly correlated with lifetime condom use. Social support was also found to be significantly …  Read more

The National Policies of Education in India have recognized the need for teacher professional development. However, science teachers continue to look for innovative methods to improve teaching. Through collaborative action research with four science teachers at a girls' school in Hyderabad, India, the study explored conditions that enhance or inhibit the implementation of constructivist instructional methods. Data were collected through interviews, reflective memos, research journal, collages and found poetry. The study found that teacher background and experience, teachers' views on science education and the school environment played a role in teacher development. The use of constructivist instructional strategies affected teachers' …  Read more

Des réformes d'éducation sont en cours dans les écoles en Inde (NCERT, 2005) et au Québec, Canada (MELS, 2004). Des approches constructivistes sont recommandées dans les politiques d'enseignement, ce qui marque un changement monumental pour les professeurs de sciences dans les deux contextes. Dans cette recherche, je compare la façon dont les professeurs de sciences indiennes et du Québec ont mis en place des programmes d'études en sciences, afin de faciliter la compréhension des affordances et des contraintes sur l'agence des enseignants avec l'objectif de créer des structures de classe fondé sur la théorie constructiviste.En prenant comme base la théorie …  Read more

The Stikine Volcanic Belt is a lineament of Tertiary to Recent alkaline volcanic centres that cross disparate oceanic and continental terranes of the northern Canadian Cordillera, and extend onto the North America craton. This volcanic lineament thus offers an unique opportunity to probe the lithospheric mantle beneath these terranes and investigate the relative roles of lithospheric and asthenospheric mantle sources in the generation of alkaline lavas. Alkaline lavas in twelve volcanic centres of the Stikine Volcanic Belt were sampled and studied for major and trace elements and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic compositions. The primitive lavas of each volcanic centre define binary arrays …  Read more

Résumé Les Images des Femmes du Tiers Monde: Différence et Rupture dans les Représentations du Développement Cette thèse analyse l'usage des images des femmes du Tiers Monde par l'Agence Canadienne de Développement International (ACDI) durant la période 'Les Femmes dans le Développement' (FED). Cette analyse interprétative critique examine comment ces images, - en tant que textes institutionnels -, fonctionnent pour reproduire les notions de différence à propos des femmes et du Tiers Monde. Cette étude se penche sur la rupture entre le langage et les images du développement et analyse la manière dont les messages médiatiques véhiculent les discours relativement …  Read more

Today’s telecommunications infrastructure is increasingly reliant upon complex material interactions with the electromagnetic field. For instance, effects such as dispersion, in which a material’s response to an applied field depends on its frequency, and nonlinearity, where the response is a complex function of field strength, form the cornerstones of fields such as nonlinear fibre optics. In consequence, efficient, accurate, and reliable numerical simulation tools capable of modeling these complex interactions are increasingly in demand, as cost effective alternatives to physical experimentation and prototyping.In this thesis, a family of Finite-Element Time-Domain (FETD) based numerical methods for the simulation of electromagnetic problems …  Read more

Plusieurs matériaux d’origine naturelle démontrent une dépendance de fréquence de leurs propriétés lorsqu’ils interagissent avec les champs électromagnétiques (dispersion), ce qui nécessite un traitement plus précis et spécialisé lors de la modélisation numérique et de la simulation. En conséquence, au cours des dernières années, de nombreuses extensions à des techniques numériques standards, tels que la méthode des éléments finis dans le domaine temporel (FETD), ont été proposées, afin d'accueillir et de modéliser les phénomènes dispersifs. Parmi eux, ceux basés sur la technique de la transformée en Z Möbius sont, en général, plus précis et polyvalent. Cependant, malgré une augmentation en …  Read more

The socio-economic and political changes effected in Kerala by the British and colonial discourse at the beginning of the twentieth century challenged traditional structures of power. This eventually resulted in social mobility within various communities which, as a result, embraced modernity and began to pursue modern education. However, Mappila Muslims' long-standing tradition of struggle against colonial powers and their hatred of British rule had led them to resist the modernization process and consequently become more socially and educationally backward than other communities in Kerala. It was in this context that Vakkom Muhammad Abdul Khadir Moulavi (1873-1932), who is acknowledged as …  Read more

Rincon, Sonia Victoria Del (Supervisor1)  Read more

Soil properties and their spatial variability was measured to provide a strong database to assess the modification in soil properties associated with future changes in land use. Surface (0--10 cm) soil samples were collected from a 9 ha, 46-year-old pasture being converted to a native tree plantation and a neighboring control pasture near Sardinilla, Panama. A small-scale nested grid of surface soil samples was replicated in the future plantation and a primary forest in the region to evaluate the spatial variability of soil properties. Seven 1 m profiles were sampled in the future plantation and litter samples were collected at …  Read more

This thesis examines how physicians in the Indian diaspora living in Canada---both those trained in Ayurveda in India (vaidyas) and those trained in Western medicine in India (MDs)---view the practice of Ayurveda in Canada. More specifically, it examines how their views have been influenced by New Age thought in general and Transcendental Meditation in particular and how these perceptions reflect the changing relation of religion and Ayurvedic medicine. It is the intent of this thesis to show that Ayurveda in Canada exists mainly as part of the greater New Age movement, as a transformed system that is inspired by both …  Read more

Collett, J. P. (Supervisor)  Read more

lck is a member of the src family of tyrosine protein kinase genes expressed predominantly in T-lymphocytes. Its product, p56$ sp{ rm lck}$ is physically and functionally associated with the CD4 and CD8 T-cell surface antigens, suggesting a possible role in CD4/CD8-mediated tyrosine phosphorylation signals during the process of antigen stimulation. Activation of p56$ sp{ rm lck}$ by mutation of tyrosine 505 was prevented by further mutation of either the site of autophosphorylation, tyrosine 394 to phenylalanine, or the site of myristylation, glycine 2 to alanine, as determined by the effects of overexpression of these p56$ sp{ rm lck}$ mutants …  Read more

Forecasts for the first fungicide application to manage cercospora blight of carrot (Daucus carota L. subsp. sativus (Hoffim) Arcang) caused by Cercospora carotae (Passerini) Solheim were evaluated during the summers of 1991 and 1992. In the forecast based on infection, the blight severity values (BSV) were calculated for each day using duration of leaf wetness, relative humidity and temperature. The first fungicide was applied when the cumulative blight severity value reached 14 (CBSV 14) and 18 (CBSV 18). The forecasts were compared with the 50% disease incidence threshold method where the first fungicide was applied when the middle leaf of …  Read more

Les inhibiteurs de la pompe à protons (IPP) et les antagonistes des récepteurs de l'histamine-2 (anti-H2) sont des médicaments antiacides. Bien qu'ils soient principalement indiqués pour une utilisation à court terme, les IPP sont depuis peu utilisés pendant des périodes prolongées, souvent sans indication fondée sur des preuves, ce qui incite les organismes à promouvoir la déprescription. L'utilisation des IPP soulève également des questions de sécurité, notamment en ce qui concerne le cancer gastro-intestinal. Ainsi, l'objectif de ma thèse de doctorat était de combler les lacunes existantes dans les connaissances sur l'utilisation et l'innocuité des IPP pour le cancer. Tous …  Read more

Pollak, Michael (Internal/Supervisor)  Read more

A Lagrangian dynamic and thermodynamic iceberg drift model was developed, coded and validated against observations. First, the model was used to create a climatology (1979-2000) of iceberg drift in the Southern Ocean. The simulation reproduced the main patterns of motion and the northernmost extent of Antarctic icebergs as inferred from satellite and ship observations. The model was then used to hindcast 29 giant iceberg drift tracks in what was the first study of an iceberg model ability to reproduce the motion of individual icebergs around the Antarctic continent on timescales of years. The shape and timing of twelve of the …  Read more

Plasmodium falciparum is a protozoan parasite that causes malaria, a disease that is widely spread in the tropical world. Chloroquine has been very effective against malaria since it was introduced into the field until the emergence of chloroquine resistant malaria. Chloroquine resistant malaria has become widely spread in the endemic area. In addition, cross resistance to other antimalarial drugs that are different in structure and function has been reported, even though some of these drugs had not been previously used in that particular region. The objective of this study was to determine the molecular mechanism of this resistance. Actinomycin D …  Read more

Malgré des décennies de recherche, des règles et de lutte pour l'accessibilité du web, peu de recherche en informatique a abordé les pratiques du métier de l'accessibilité du web. Ce thèse aborde le travail de l'accessibilité du web avec trois méthodes, détaillées dans trois manuscrits distincts : d'abord, en la traitant à travers une autoethnographie collective ; puis, en élaborant un cadre théorique pour caracteriser le travail et le processus de l'accessibilité web ; et finalement, en menant une enquête par entretiens avec des professionel.les de l'accessibilité web pour comprendre leur travail et les barrières qui les empêchent de bien …  Read more

In the vast expanse of the law, there is probably no branch or division which can trace its history farther back, or which is more important to the general public, including as it does innumerable elements of everyday life, than that branch of law dealing with Private Property. The term ‘Property’ has a bewildering variety of uses. However, basically it is used in two senses: that of ownership or title, and also to designate the ‘res’ over which ownership is or has been exercised. This one word is used to express both the genus and the species. The relationship between …  Read more

Since cortisol (F) can influence fetal lung maturation in late gestation, interconversion between cortisol and its inactive analogue cortisone (E), catalyzed by 11(beta)-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11-HSD) (E.C.1.1.1.146), may be an important mechanism for controlling the level of F in the fetal lung parenchyma. The objects of this study were to: (1) resolve conflicting data; and (2) to study possible regulating factors of the 11-HSD. Human fetal lungs (HFL) of gestational ages 9-20 weeks were grown as monolayer cultures or as explants with ('3)H-F and ('3)H-E or ('14)C-E (0.01-17 ng/ml), for 6-16 days. Extracts of tissue culture medium were chromatographed to separate …  Read more

We consider n events A1… An and let p (Ail … Aik ) denote the probability of the joint occurrence of Ail … Aik. Then if p (Ail … Alk) is either equal to zero or to a function 0k of k alone, we call the n events A1 … An "quasi-symmetric events. Kaplansky [4] shows how algebraic symbolism can be applied to find the probabilities of these types of events, by making use of "the symbolic method".  Read more

The Canadian language training sector is a booming industry for those interested in capitalizing on the worldwide demand for English, such as private language schools. Thus, this study analyzed the websites of two Montreal-based private language schools to elucidate how these schools use discursive and visual resources to advance their ideology. Defined as a form of social practice (Fairclough, 1992; Pare, 2002), ideology is the way in which the schools are acting discursively in order to serve their for-profit interests. Specifically, the study investigated how both schools manage the tension between their claims to educational legitimacy and their business concerns. …  Read more

This thesis presents new testing methods to study the bond characteristics of reinforcing bars and pretensioned strands. For reinforcing bars, the new technique, which simulates a more uniform bond stress, enabled the study of both pullout failures and splitting failures. Variables studied included concrete cover, bar size and the effect of epoxy coatings on the bars. Analytical expressions for predicting the bond stress versus slip response and the bond stress distribution for different types of pullout tests are developed. For pretensioned strand, the testing technique enabled the study of the bond characteristics along both the transfer and the flexural bond …  Read more

An important step in high throughput screening of small molecule libraries for drug discovery is hit prioritization and validation to rule out false positives and is usually performed using biochemical or binding assays. The development of orthogonal assays that are highly sensitive can accelerate the hit-to-lead process, and are different from the primary assay are of value in small molecule screening. Limited proteolysis combined with mass spectrometry (LiP-MS) is an informative technique for studying changes in protein structure upon ligand binding. LiP-MS utilizes short exposure of proteins under native conditions to low concentration of proteases. The resulting proteolytic pattern is …  Read more

We study the problem of externally guarding or inspecting a polygonal environment with a mobile guard (watchman) in both unlimited and limited visibility models. A survey of the literature on guarding problems is presented for both stationary and mobile guards, as well as for both interior and exterior workspaces. Our research concentrates on the external inspection of a single, convex or simple, polygon. In particular, we study the relationship between the interior angles of convex polygons and the length of an external inspection route under unlimited visibility. We then propose a method for computing the shortest external inspection route for …  Read more

L'interaction avec les systèmes d'information consiste essentiellement, à l'heure actuelle, en une interaction unimodale, où l'utilisateur se sert d'un système d'information textuel ou graphique. Cependant, les études en interaction humain-machine démontrent que le recours à différentes modalités sensorielles permet de communiquer de l'information de façon enrichissante. La présente recherche porte sur le rehaussement de l'expérience utilisateur au moyen de rétroaction auditive dans un système de visualisation de l'information hiérarchique en trois dimensions, en représentant certains éléments structurels et navigationnels à l'aide de sons non oraux. L'hypothèse de base stipule que la modalité auditive pourrait alléger les tâches de navigation, améliorer …  Read more

Vu, Mai (Supervisor2)  Read more

This thesis presents Islamic modernism in Malaya as reflected in the life and works of Sayid Syekh al-Hadi (1867-1934). Having first described and evaluated the previous writings mentioned about al-Hadi, it outlines the main characteristics of Islamic modernism, and discusses al-Hadi's life and his thought covering four topics namely: ritualism, education, woman and politics. The study has shown that al-Hadi was a Malayan Muslim modernist. He seriously advocated Islamic modernism to overcome what he had perceived as the causes contributing to Malayan Muslim decadence and backwardness. He believed that Malayan Muslims could advance and progress even though they were under …  Read more