McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par A

Maass, O. (Supervisor)  Read more

The SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complexes play a major epigenetic role within the cell, regulating the expression levels of a great number of genes. Small cell carcinoma of the ovary, hypercalcemic type (SCCOHT), a rare and extremely aggressive ovarian malignancy diagnosed in young women, as well as a subset of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) are thought to be caused by inactivating mutations in the SMARCA4 gene, encoding for a catalytic ATPase subunit of SWI/SNF. Unfortunately, there are no effective targeted treatments currently available for these SMARCA4-deficient cancers since the loss of SMARCA4 is not itself directly druggable. Using an unbiased …  Read more

Ce mémoire présente une méthodologie pour l’élaboration d’un dictionnaire de l’ininīmowin (cri des marais) et expose ce que signifie la littératie en langue autochtone pour l’ininīmowin et d’autres langues autochtones au XXIᵉ siècle. L’ininīmowin est parlé dans le centre-nord du Manitoba par les ininiwak (peuple cri des marais). Cette langue a façonné les valeurs et les épistémologies à travers lesquelles les ininiwak ont compris leur place dans le monde. Pendant des millénaires, l’ininīmowin s’est épanoui dans le nord du Manitoba. Le premier contact avec les Européens, à la fin du XVIIᵉ siècle, a mené à l’établissement de la traite des …  Read more

This formation of new business arrangements, in the form of strategic alliances, is the topic upon which this thesis is focused. Two new types of business agreements, which have been observed, are strategic contract-based alliances and strategic fuzzy alliances. While, contract-based alliances are new, in that firms are choosing non-traditional partners, strategic fuzzy alliances are quite unique as they involve trust. The aim of this thesis is to analyse these alliances and the role of trust in business-to-business relationships. This will be accomplished in two ways. First, using Shapiro et al.'s (1992) taxonomy of trust and a neo-classical framework, a …  Read more

Do welfare and social service provisions affect the childbearing decisions of Anglophone single mothers living below the low-income level in Montreal? Neoliberal rhetoric has asserted that increased welfare generosity will ultimately breed dependence on social services and propagate a lack of self-sufficiency for single mothers. Rather than a direct cause-and-effect relationship between welfare generosity and the birthrate of single mothers relying on welfare, my evidence suggests a weak correlation: while these provisions may alter the context in which childbearing decisions are made, they do not solely or primarily determine the outcomes of a pregnancy. By altering the economic context in …  Read more

Mordell, D. L. (Supervisor)  Read more

As a result of the current interest in theories designed to explain the processes whereby precipitation originates in clouds and, if possible, to devise methods of causing or initiating precipitation at times or places more desirable than those chosen by Nature, and particularly in view of certain assumptions made in the formulation of some of these theories, experiments are in progress to study the behaviour of water particles in a region of moist air and small water droplets such as is found in a cloud. For such experiments, some means of producing a cloud, preferably of controlled characteristics, in the …  Read more

En 1870, plusieurs activistes réformistes du système carcéral, des gardiens et des scientifiques tinrent un Congrès sur la Prison à Cincinnati en Ohio afin de discuter de la possibilité de ségréguer les sexes dans les pénitenciers. Les lobbys et pétitions adressés durant le panel résultèrent dans la première instance aux États-Unis d'une prison pour femmes seulement à Indianapolis en Indiana. La Indianapolis Women's Reformatory, plus tard renommée la Indianapolis Women's Prison (IWP), fut la culmination du mouvement de réforme carcérale de l'Ère Progressive, un mouvement mené par le Gouverneur de l'état Conrad Baker et les Quakers Charles et Rhoda Coffin. …  Read more

A correlated light and electron microscope study ls presented of hyperplasia and neoplasia in rat thyroid glands exposed to X-irradiation, prolonged dietary iodine deficiency, or both. The following tissues are examined and compared: normal thyroid; hyperplastic thyroid; thyroid tumour nodule; modified hyperplastic thyroid near tumour nodule; parathyroid infiltrated by thyroid tumour nodule; and thyroid tumour extend1ng throughout a thyroid lobe. Original observations relating to the architecture and cytology of these tissues are reported and discussed. These observations concern: contiguity between thyroid follicles; folllole proximity to blood vessels; light cells; luminal colloid; psammoma bodies; intraluminal cells; microlumina; cell interdigitations; basal lamina; …  Read more

An electron microscopic study of colloid droplets and dense bodies in the thyroid follicular cells of TSH-injected and non-TSH-injected rats indicated the following: 1) Colloid droplets and dense granules were situated on the average slightly nearer to the apex of the cell than to the base. On the average, one micron separated a colloid droplet from the nearest dense body. TSH did not significantly affect these values. 2) Colloid droplets varied in density between gray and white. The lighter droplets showed matrix filaments of a size similar to reported dimensions of thyroglobulin crystals. Density variation may represent stages of thyroglobulin …  Read more

In its development from the unorganized data of Natural History, the youthful science of Ecology has evolved along two rather divergent lines. The first of these, called by Chapman, "Autecology·, deals with some single species of plant or animal 1n relation to its environment or to some restricted part of its environment. This approach has the obv1ous advantage of limiting the field and eliminating many complexities. Its disadvantages l1e in the fact that it tends to over emphasize some isolated part of what ought to be a broad and complexly interrelated structure. The other aspect of Ecology, called ·Synecology' by …  Read more

This paper is a consideration of the animal communities found in two fresh-water ponds. It is an attempt to classify the members of the associationsand to determine their relations to their environment and to one another. A comparison of the two ponds will also be made. [...]  Read more

The Burton, Kates and White model of community response to environmental change is used to study a rapidly developing suburb of Montreal. Between 1973 and 1988, 11 376 single family dwellings were built in the 'West Island'. A geographic information system (GIS) analysis shows 40 percent of vacant land was developed between 1983 and 1989, over half this was for low density housing. A study of citizens' perceptions of the changes shows 72 percent of residents felt local environmental conditions were the same or better than when they first moved to the area (average 14 years) and 71 percent felt …  Read more

The dominant mode of societal operation in today’s world, in its pursuit of the good life through economic growth and consumption, is destroying the planet’s ecosystems and accelerating towards an inhospitable climate regime, with mixed results for even short-term human well-being. This pathological mode of societal operation is based in discredited worldviews. However, important aspects of a coherent, updated worldview have not been articulated and thus have not been integrated into the efforts of scholarship to steer society away from collapse and toward sustainable, desirable futures. In particular, there is a need for an explanatory framework that makes sense of …  Read more

Currently, the two main testing methods available for tensile strength determination of brittle materials such as rocks and concrete are the Glued Ends Direct Tensile Strength (GEDTS) test and the Brazilian Tensile Strength (BTS) test. Although the BTS test is popularly used for indirect tensile strength measurement due to its simplicity, it suffers several validity issues that cause it to overestimate the tensile strength of the tested material. The GEDTS test, on the other hand, is a direct testing method that is internationally recognized and acknowledged as the correct method for determining the tensile strength of brittle materials. However, challenges …  Read more

Plus de 260 grandes rivières traverses des frontières internationales; toutefois, l'augmentation de la population, de la consomation et les changements climates font pression sur une grande partie de ces ressources essentielles d'eau douce. De plus, ce ne sont pas tous les bassins fluviaux transfrontaliers qui soient gérés efficacement par les pays qui en partagent les ressources. Dans cette thèse, je soutiens que la gestion au niveau du bassin versant affecte tous les utilisateurs du système hydrologique et peut promouvoir le développement équitable, la protection des écosystèmes riverains et la sécurité régionale. Je propose une nouvelle approche pour l'évaluation et la …  Read more

Rates of depression have been observed to increase markedly during adolescence. In addition, depression rates for adolescent girls have been reported to be up to twice those of boys. A wide variety of factors have been proposed to account for these changes, including psychological factors derived from cognitive theories of depression. Such theories have often awarded an important contributory role to a negative self-concept. In the meantime, research in child and adolescent development has revealed that the self-concept undergoes profound changes during adolescence, and that these changes affect boys and girls differently. Thus the significant sex difference in rates of …  Read more

The development and growth of new communication services and emerging applications requires high-performance access networks capable of providing high-bandwidth interconnections to end-users. In recent years, optical code-division multiple access (OCDMA) has been proposed as a means for providing flexible access to high-bandwidth applications and offering different levels of quality of service. This thesis explores the impact of encoder/decoder mismatch on system performance for 2 dimensional wavelength-time (2D lambda-t) OCDMA and the implementation of a multi-user 2D lambda-t OCDMA direct detection demonstrator system. Our analysis and experimental demonstrations are based on depth-first search codes (DFSCs) which have previously been shown to …  Read more

Marsh, D. (Supervisor)  Read more

In Economics, when the development of backward countries is being considered, the problem is usually treated with reference to some specific area. Most frequently a monograph is presented, a ease study documenting the economic possibililities and making definite policy recommendations for a given country. This method is essentially empirical and inductive; the concern is with immediate obstacles to economic progress. There is little attempt to deal with economic development more generally or to formulate a theory which might be applicable to a variety of countries and conditions.  Read more

There has been a great increase in the amount of scientific work done in the Polar Regions in recent years but the accuracy of many of the measurements is uncertain. This methodological study was undertaken as a preliminary basis for an examination of the relationships between ablation and run-off on an arctic glacier. It is an attempt to obtain an estimate of the accuracy which can be expected in such a study through the examination of some of the methods of measuring ablation and run-off. At the same time, it is an attempt to define the probable limits of accuracy …  Read more

Ablation and run-off on the White Glacier (38 km2), Axel Heiberg Island, N.W.T., were studied during the summers 1959-61 and some comparisons were made with nearby glaciers. Techniques of measuring ablation and run-off are described and assessed and the results of longterm, including full season, and short term measurements of both are presented. [...]  Read more

An emerging phenomenon, which anticipates deregulation, liberalization of trade, and changes in competition law, is the increasing interaction among telecommunications carriers resulting in the formation of global alliances. These global alliances---on a larger scale---also involve broadcasting and computing companies that have been regulated in a totally different fashion. A likely consequence of this sweeping technological revolution is that telecommunications will gradually integrate and converge with these segments of the communications industry. As part of this all-service-convergence trend, a number of key international telecommunications alliances (henceforth ITAs) are scrutinized. The thesis begins by canvassing leading business-organization theories that attempt to account …  Read more

A statistician responsible for the library surveys of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics soon becomes aware of the problems of public library finance. In addition to the financial data contained in published reports, more detailed information on public library finance is frequently requested, and put to many uses by librarians, trustees, and government officials. Individual libraries use financial data from the Dominion Bureau of Statistics in their annual reports, for comparative purposes, to measure the growth of their respective libraries in relation to public library growth in Canada as a whole. Provincial public library agencies use the information for comparisons …  Read more

The techniques and principles of mysticism are described, and illustrated from the life of a Hindu mystic and from the teaching of St. John of the Cross. The problem is then stated -- what is the relation between mysticism and Hebrew prophetism? Can the latter be described as mystical, or is the Hebrew mind alien to mysticism? We then look at the Hebrew religion as it makes contact with Baalistic prophetism, an early form of mysticism. In the struggle that ensued between the two, we discover the religion of Israel absorbing something from Baalism but asserting its own peculiar genius. …  Read more

McGilvray, Jim (Supervisor)  Read more

Edmund Spenser's poetry is keenly attentive to the operation of Elizabethan sovereignty and power. Although deeply invested in the actions, values, and priorities of the Elizabethan state, it frequently views the burgeoning development of late-Tudor political institutions with a high degree of anxiety. This study traces the ways in which Spenser employed idealized images of retirement to investigate and come to terms with the institutions of the late Elizabethan world—including but not limited to the court, the English church, the Queen, the literary patronage system, and England's colonial interests in Ireland. It argues that Spenser's increasing alienation from the Elizabethan …  Read more

Les chambres de culture constituent des éléments essentiels de l’agriculture en environnement contrôlé (AEC), permettant une régulation environnementale précise et une production agricole durable tout au long de l’année, en particulier dans les zones urbaines où la superficie cultivable est en déclin. L’industrialisation et l’urbanisation nécessitent des stratégies innovantes de production alimentaire afin de répondre aux besoins d’une population croissante. Le réaménagement d’espaces inutilisés, tels que des bâtiments non fonctionnels, représente une approche viable pour relever ce défi. La première étude a consisté à transformer une chambre froide non fonctionnelle en une chambre de culture végétale capable de maintenir des …  Read more

Haggerty, Jean Lois (Internal/Cosupervisor2)  Read more

Tsimicalis, Argerie (Supervisor2)  Read more

The construction of phylogenetic trees commonly uses molecular sequence data (DNA, RNA or amino acid sequences) for a single gene family over a set of n extant taxa. However, difficulties arise when the phylogenetic gene tree for one gene family disagrees with the phylogenetic gene tree for a different gene family. Several computational problems arise when trying to explain this disagreement (the two gene trees are not equal). Typically, one assumes a (simplified) model of evolution restricted to a small set of events which are assumed to cause the disagreement. Two such well-studied events are gene duplications and lateral gene …  Read more

A ballot theorem is a theorem that yields information about the conditional probability that a random walk stays above its mean, given its value St after some specified amount of time t. In the first part of this thesis, ballot theorems are proved for all walks whose steps consist of independent, identically distributed random variables that are in the range of attraction of the normal distribution. With a mild assumption on the moments of the steps, the results are strengthened; the latter results are shown to be within a constant factor of optimal when the value of the random walk …  Read more

Malgré la fréquence et l'ampleur des interruptions des technologies de l'information (TI) au travail – définies comme des événements causés ou transmis par les TI qui captent l'attention cognitive et rompent la continuité d'une tâche primaire – ce phénomène a fait jusqu'ici l'objet de peu d'attention dans les travaux actuels de recherche. La thèse explique la nature des interruptions des TI et examine leurs effets sur la performance des personnes et des groupes. La thèse est composée de trois articles, chacun étant consacré à l'une des questions suivantes : (1) Quels sont les différents types d'interruptions des TI et comment …  Read more

The variation in the magnetic properties of Manganese Zinc ferrite produced by changes in the manufacturing process was investigated experimentally. The initial permeability and core loss may be controlled over a wide range by the sintering process. Also, the permeability, core loss, temperature coefficient of permeability and Curie point are strongly dependent on the chemical composition of the material. [...]  Read more

Présentation enrichissement de l'environnement et l'exercice sont connus pour favoriser la plasticité du cerveau. Les fondements cellulaires associés à la plasticité des changements liés à la structure du cerveau restent inconnus. Les changements anatomiques de volume et de la biochimie qui se produisent dans le cerveau suit entraînement sur tapis roulant sont bien documentés dans la littérature à la fois animale et humaine forcés, mais on sait peu sur la physiologie sous-jacente de la façon dont une est reliée à l'autre. L'objectif de cette étude était donc d'effectuer longitudinale dans les analyses in vivo après l'exercice et d'étudier ces mécanismes …  Read more

This dissertation constructs a computable general equilibrium model for Ghana using the social accounting framework. The model is used to examine the macroeconomic effects of policies that alter the sectoral terms of trade in the Ghanaian economy. The study shows the macroeconomic effects at a greater level of disaggregation for this country than previous studies on the Ghanaian economy and achieves this through using updating techniques to construct social accounting matrices for three periods. The results show that though improvements in the terms of trade for the Cocoa sector through currency devaluations, increases in the domestic price of exportables or …  Read more

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are a key technology underpinning the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO's) communications, navigation, surveillance/air traffic management concept. The fact the de facto GNSS, the Global Positioning System (GPS) is a military system owned, operated and controlled by the United States raises many legal and institutional issues for civil aviation. This thesis will discuss the nature of GPS/GNSS as a global utility, ICAO's evolutionary path toward a civil GNSS (ie one independent from GPS) and trace the development of the institutional debate within ICAO. Reliance on navigation by GNSS in terms of the principle of State …  Read more

The water of the oceans (11) contains about 3.5% by weight of dissolved inorganic salts in addition to organic substances and any suspended matter which may be present. The quantities and identities or these ions have been the subject of much investigation and are now generally accepted. The dissolved salts have a profound effect on many of the physical properties of sea water. Surprisingly, although the total weight of dissolved salts is not always the same, it has been found that the relative proportions of the various major constituents remain virtually unchanged, except when extreme dilution is encountered.  Read more

"In this thesis the following claims of original work are made: 1) Measurements, at various temperatures, upon individual samples of saline ice over a very wide frequency range (20-Hz to 100-MHz). The effects of salinity and electrode spacing were also investigated. 2) The inversion, by numerical methods, of the two relevant integral equations in terms of the experimental data. 3) The tentative identification of three possible electrical mechanisms suggested by this analysis."@eng  Read more

Kaartinen, Mari Tuulia (Internal/Cosupervisor2)  Read more

In a limited screen of monokaryons and dikaryons of various strains of Trametes versicolor, the monokaryons generally bleached hardwood and softwood kraft pulps more extensively than dikaryons, although there was great variation among both groups. A monokaryotic strain (52J) derived from a Paprican dikaryon (52P) by regenerating mycelium-derived protoplasts had better pulp bleaching ability than its dikaryotic parent. Unusually low extracellular laccase and manganese peroxidase activity levels were associated with reduced pulp bleaching. Mutants of strain 52J were isolated with various manganese peroxidase and laccase activities. Those with markedly reduced laccase and manganese peroxidase activity had impaired abilities to bleach, …  Read more

Lefsrud, Mark (Supervisor1)  Read more