McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par B

Les nanotubes de carbone multi-parois (MWCNT) présentent un potentiel de propriétés antimicrobiennes, notamment par pénétration de la paroi cellulaire ou par stress oxydatif. L’incorporation de MWCNT dans un revêtement de polyuréthane solide pourrait ainsi conférer des propriétés antimicrobiennes au matériau. Cependant, les MWCNT non modifiés ont tendance à s’agglomérer, en particulier dans les liquides. Pour optimiser leurs performances, une dispersion stable et homogène des particules est nécessaire. La fonctionnalisation de surface des MWCNT à l’aide de revêtements organiques déposés par plasma permet de réduire cette agglomération et d’améliorer la compatibilité des particules avec les solvants utilisés lors de la synthèse …  Read more

In this research, I propose to study the attitudes and behaviour of young children towards a television symbol, "Maman Fonfon". I also want to see how the mothers of these children react to the popularized image of "Maman Fonfon," and if their reactions may be related in some way to those of their children. The child, especially if he is quite young, is strongly affected by his mother's attitudes, since she is usually the most important adult figure in his world. Finally, I hope to find out how the symbol of "Maman Fonfon," as it has been built up by …  Read more

La gravitation en 2+1 dimensions avec une constante cosmologique négative est une théorie topologique, sans degrés de liberté locaux. Lorsqu'elle est limitée à des univers compacts qui sont topologiquement un produit direct des surfaces de Riemann au genre g et du temps, son espace de phase classique est le fibré cotangent de l'espace des modules des surfaces de Riemann. Nous considérons la quantification de l'espace des modules lui-même, qui se produit comme la tranche zéro dynamique de cet espace de phase. Quand on ajoute un terme Chern-Simons, qui brise la parité, à l'action gravitationelle, une forme symplectique non triviale est …  Read more

Cette dissertation se penche sur les interactions entre le jazz, l'identité, la nation et la modernité durant le soi-disant « âge d'or » du jazz à Montréal (1925-1955). À la croisée de la musicologie, des études de la condition féminine (études féministes noires et méthodes de recherche féministes en particulier), des études des médias et des études culturelles, je propose une réécriture critique de l'histoire du jazz montréalais, attentive au rôle que les femmes racisées et ethnicisées ont joué dans le développement de la scène jazz, et plus largement dans la formation des identités, des plaisirs, et des sons de …  Read more

The decrease in the insertion loss of a volume resonator caused by an increase in air flow velocity was experimentally investigated. This reduction was attributed to viscosity and heat conduction effects, and also to the sound that originated at the mouth of the volume resonator due to the turbulence created there. [...]  Read more

This thesis presents the quasi-rigid body formulation, a framework for viewing a satellite formation as a single entity. The formulation attaches a coordinate frame to the formation, which is incorporated into the system dynamics using Newtonian and Lagrangian mechanics. Solutions to the dynamic model in terms of quasi-rigid body states show that natural and forced relative orbits are compactly described using the formulation. Control of a formation can effectively be separated into a torque to control the orientation, and forces to maintain formation rigidity. Two closed-loop controllers are designed. One uses Lyapunov stability theory. The other prescribes a schedule of …  Read more

Hare, F. (Supervisor)  Read more

The lifting of the government imposed ban on uranium prospecting, in 1948, has resulted in a surge of activity in the Goldfields region of northern Saskatchewan. In response to the insuing demand for geological maps the Geological Survey of Canada has undertaken to systematically map the region on a 1 mile to 1 inch scale. In 1950 and 1951 the writer carried out this work east of Goldfields by mapping Forget Lake and Nevins Lake map-areas ( Blake 14, 15 ). The main interest of these areas at present is in their nearness to the scene of active prospecting and …  Read more

Today there are over 1,000 active satellites in orbit and the number of States directly involved in launching or operating satellites has increased substantially since the dawn of the space age. Even States that have no direct involvement in launching or operating satellites rely heavily on such space infrastructure: for television, radio, banking, communications, transport, agriculture, mining, and especially for modern military services. Yet, those same satellites are under increasing threat from 100,000s of pieces of space debris and the actual or potential proliferation of weapons and other means capable of destroying or disrupting satellites. There is also increasing competition …  Read more

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), affects up to 16.2% of adults (Kessler et al., 2003), and is associated with immense personal suffering, and decreases in functioning and well-being (Scott & Sensky, 2003). The most well researched psychological treatment for depression is cognitive therapy (CT), developed by Beck and colleagues (Beck et al., 1979). Integral to CT is that negative early life experiences may create latent cognitive vulnerabilities in the form of core beliefs. Once activated by stressful events, these core beliefs may give rise to other forms of distorted cognitions such as dysfunctional attitudes, automatic thoughts, and cognitive errors, which reinforce …  Read more

Cette thèse s'intéresse aux films tamouls portant sur Ammaṉ «ammaṉ paṭaṅkaḷ», genre cinématographique propre au sud de l'Inde consacré à la figure terrifiante de la déesse Māriyammaṉ. Ce travail analyse ces films dans le contexte des classes et des castes qui caractérisent le sud de l'Inde. Il s'agit en particulier d'étudier la manière dont la classe moyenne indienne émergente participe aux transformations qui touchent la représentation de la femme et les pratiques religieuses de cette région. Le statut de la classe moyenne est un thème dominant et récurrent dans les films portant sur Ammaṉ, ces derniers exploitant et négociant constamment …  Read more

This thesis is an attempt to examine Anglo-American relations at the end of World War One, when Great Britain was no longer preeminent in world affairs and the United States was as yet unwilling to continue the responsibilities that it had taken during the war. Lloyd George who sought to keep the threads of power in his hands appointed Auckland Geddes as Ambassador to the United States, a man who was personally loyal to him, thus seeking to bypass Lord Curzon's authority as Foreign Secretary. Matters were complicated by the declining influence of President Wilson and the growth of isolationist …  Read more

Most of the peninsula of Labrador-Ungava is within the belt of coniferous forests which extends around the world in northern latitudes, and the present study is on the forests and physiography around Goose Bay, Labrador, an area which has come into recent focus as the site of an important air base. This area, together with almost all of the rest of Canada, has been photographed from the air in recent years, and this has created a tremendous store of material which was formerly unavailable to the research worker due to the difficulty of travelling through the interior of this rough …  Read more

Paul Claudel, Par sa conversion remarquable, par la sublimité de sa pensée, tient peut-être une des premières places entre les écrivains contemporains. En dépit d'une enfance passée dans une atmosphère irréligieuse d'une jeunesse influencée par la philosophie matérialiste de son époque, il est tout à coup devenu croyant. [...]  Read more

David Ray Griffin claims that the commonly perceived conflict between religion and science, or between religious and scientific assertions is primarily that of worldview, or philosophical stance. Science is predominantly associated with the philosophy of materialistic naturalism, whereas religion is predominantly associated with supernaturalism. Griffin believes that the conflict between these worldviews can be overcome by a mutual modification based upon the tenets of process philosophy, thus allowing for one integrated worldview. In science this modification involves the adoption of a minimal as opposed to a maximal form of naturalism. In religion, this modification involves the adoption of naturalistic as …  Read more

This study brings John Hick's pluralistic hypothesis into engagement with the process pluralism position developed by John B. Cobb Jr. and David Ray Griffin in the ongoing attempt to adequately account for the reality of religious truth-claim diversity. Despite numerous criticisms, Hick's position remains viable in its explanatory intentions, whereas Cobb's and Griffin's position is not, contrary to its self-perception, an improvement upon Hick's hypothesis. Moreover, Cobb's and Griffin's position is not properly pluralistic and is better modified for greater alignment with the lived traditions. The primary issue is one of coherence in relation to the positing of multiple ultimacy …  Read more

MacLean, R. (Supervisors)  Read more

Curtis, Mark A. (Supervisor)  Read more

The eukaryotic mRNA 5$ sp prime$ cap structure m$ sp7$GpppX (where X is any nucleotide) is of crucial importance in translation initiation and protects messenger RNAs (mRNAs) against exonucleolytic degradation. L-A and L-BC are double-stranded RNA viruses which are persistently maintained in the cytoplasm of many Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains. Unexpectedly, their coat proteins exhibited a strong cap-binding activity. Unlike any other cap-binding protein, the coat protein (gag) of the L-A virus was shown to attach covalently to the cap structure of mRNAs, resulting in the cleavage of the cap structure and in the capture of m$ sp7$Gp. The linkage was …  Read more

Lindeman, Yehudi (Supervisor)  Read more

This study examines Canadian works of fiction that contain historical trial narratives and that enact an adversarial trial of their own for an implied reader who acts as 'appellate judge.'' Included are four Canadian novels published after 1970 that fictionalize the circumstances leading to notorious criminal trials: Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace (1996), Lynn Crosbie's Paul's Case: The Kingston Letters (1997), and Rudy Wiebe's The Temptations of Big Bear (1973) and The Scorched-Wood People (1977). They represent commentaries on the justice or injustice done to convicted murderer Grace Marks (whose trial took place in 1843), to rebel Cree chief Big Bear …  Read more

Muscle stem cells (MuSC) are essential for proper muscle regeneration, and aging is associated with a progressive decline in MuSC number and regenerative capacity. Arginine methylation is a post-translational modification of proteins that have major impacts on cellular processes. Recently, we reported that mice with protein arginine methyltransferase 7 (PRMT7) and PRMT1 null muscle stem cells display a severe regeneration impairment in skeletal muscle supporting a role for arginine methylation in the maintenance of the MuSC regenerative function in adult mice. We showed that PRMT7 is required to preserve regenerative function during aging (Chapter 2). PRMT7 null MuSCs enter premature …  Read more

The courtship behavior of the brown garden snail, Cantareus aspersus , includes a bizarre component where one snail attempts to pierce its mating partner with a sharp, calcareous dart that is covered with mucus. In vitro, the mucus causes conformational changes to the reproductive tract causing sperm to be stored rather than digested. In addition, successful dart shooters have an increased relative paternity compared to unsuccessful shooters. I have tested whether this increased paternity is caused by the mucus delivered on the dart or by the mechanical action of the dart. Mating trials were conducted using dartless and glandless snails, …  Read more

Au cours de la dernière décennie, la littérature scientifique s’est fortement intéressée au concept de polarisation affective, qui décrit le phénomène où les groupes partisans se détestent de plus en plus. L’une des questions de recherche ayant reçu le plus d’attention concerne les causes de ce phénomène et deux théories dominent les débats. La première souligne l’importance des groupes sociaux en affirmant que la polarisation affective résulte du déclin des identités partisanes transversales. Ce déclin se constate dans l’augmentation de la concentration des groupes sociaux au sein de l’électorat de certains partis, rendant ainsi plus apparentes les alliances entre groupes …  Read more

New connections are discovered between formal language theory and model theory. We give logical characterizations of natural subhierarchies of the Straubing hierarchy of star-free languages using logical notions such as quantifier complexity of first order sentences. A version of the Ehrenfeucht-Fraisse game is used to obtain a characterization of the star-free languages in terms of congruences. This thesis, which studies the fine structure of the Straubing hierarchy, is concerned with applications of the above logical characterizations. Among them are: a conjecture of Pin concerning tree hierarchies of monoids is shown to be false; the studying of properties of the characterizing …  Read more

The goal of the research reported in this thesis is to explore analogical reasoning in complex situations. In three manuscripts, novel aspects of analogy use are investigated. In Manuscript 1, analogies used in a political campaign were analyzed with the framework developed in the analogical reasoning literature. Results show a number of novel features of analogy use. The majority of source analogs used were not superficially similar to the target problem, most of the mappings between source and target were implicit, and emotion appeared to be an important feature in the selection of source analogs. In Manuscript 2, three experiments …  Read more

No existent analytical method allowed the determination of the vicinal diketones (VDK), 2,3-butanedione (diacetyl) and 2,3-pentanedione, by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS). An LC/MS method was developed for the simultaneous determination of diacetyl and 2,3-pentanedione in beer. A method allowing the determination of the amino acids (AA) related to the formation of VDK during fermentation was also developed. VDK were derivatized with o-phenylenediamine (OPDA) to form quinoxaline compounds. The reaction of VDK with OPDA was studied to optimize reaction time. Conversion of the diacetyl precursor, alpha-acetolactate, was tested using multiple oxidative decarboxylation techniques. Attempts were also made to determine simultaneously the …  Read more

This thesis examines the lovesickness or lovers' malady of Calisto and Melibea as a pathogenic condition (amor hereos, aegritudo amoris) in Fernando de Rojas' La Celestina. (1499). This study focuses on differing Mediaeval attitudes with respect to passionate love, mostly from the point of view of medical treatises but including specific theologians and moralists. The thesis presented as a medical vade mecum is organized in four chapters. The introduction gives a brief overview of amor hereos and indicates the objectives of the thesis. Chapter one is devoted to the etiology of the sickness and locates the process in La Celestina. …  Read more

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social and communication skills. Recent studies suggest that these impairments could be caused by atypical lateralization in the brain, where one hemisphere is more active than the other during cognitive processing. A growing body of research indicates that hemisphere specificity is reduced in adults diagnosed with ASD, but more research is needed to understand whether these patterns emerge early in infancy. This study used data from the International Infant EEG Data Integration Platform (EEG-IP); a multi-site cohort study of infants at risk for ASD and age-equivalent controls (London: 7, …  Read more

Uveal melanoma is the most common primary malignant intraocular tumor in adults. The management of uveal melanoma remains a clinical dilemma, which reflects our poor understanding of this life-threatening disease. A major challenge facing researchers investigating this malignancy has been to develop a suitable animal model. The purpose of this work is to characterize, in detail, the processes of tumor development, malignant cell dissemination and metastasis in a 10-week albino rabbit model of uveal melanoma. Intraocular tumors successfully developed, and metastatic disease was present in all animals at the end of the experiment. For the first time using an animal …  Read more

To develop a coherent conceptual framework regarding selection biases in studies evaluating diagnostic tests, we analyzed the joint impact of the selection processes and the nature of the relationships among relevant variables on traditional and alternative analytic strategies. For the simplest situation involving a dichotomous disease status and diagnostic test and a single dichotomous covariate, we considered selection based on the test, the covariate, the test and the covariate independently and non-independently, and the disease status. […]  Read more

The process of superplastic forming in 7475 aluminum alloy was analyzed using orientation imaging microscopy (OIM), x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). These techniques were used to determine the effect of the superplastic forming on texture, grain boundary character distribution (GBCD), grain size, residual stress and microstructure at different stages of the deformation of specimens deformed in tension. Results indicate that a microstructure is transformed mainly by the grain boundary sliding process that is responsible for rapid randomization of texture. There is also much evidence for crystallographic slip occurring in conjunction with grain boundary sliding. Accommodation of superplastic flow …  Read more

Equipment has been developed to test x-ray sensor designs suitable for texture analysis and plasticity prediction of rolled sheet in the production environment. A general method has been developed to optimize the complete sensor design by minimizing the rms error of the sensor's texture and property estimates for the sheet. A versatile reflection, x-ray diffraction sensor has been designed and built for the laboratory to test how accurately the optimized designs classify the quality of commercial rolled product. Experimental testing with the laboratory sensor was made on two sets of specimens: (1) a set of cold-rolled and annealed, interstitial-free steels; …  Read more

The work of this thesis centres around two related themes, the first being the characterization of the through-thickness inhomogeneity found in rolled sheet at various stages in its production. The second is involved with attempting to understand how and to what extent the existing inhomogeneity affects the correlations with the anisotropies of some physical or mechanical properties. For this, the inhomogeneity of six steels were measured. Three were specimens removed from the sheet during the early processing of conventional grain-oriented ferrosilicon steel, one sample taken after the first cold rolling stage, another taken after the intermediate anneal, while the last …  Read more

This thesis examines the history, political climate and evolution of l'Academie royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Paris (1648) as well as Nicolas Poussin's aesthetic contribution to its classical syllabus, and his influence on Charles Le Brun's classicizing perceptions via-a-vis the Academy during his tenure as Protector, Chancellor (for life), and Director. Explored too is the confrontation between the ancient guild system (la Maitrise), and the emerging idea of the ennoblement of the arts. Poussin's Israelites Gathering the Manna and Rebecca and Eliezer, analysed during les Conferences of the Academy, along with certain of the paintings of Charles Le Brun …  Read more

Tanny, Jason (Supervisor2)  Read more

Mayo, Nancy (Supervisor1)  Read more

Traffic accidents generate a heavy burden in deaths, bodily harm and monetary costs, and there are growing concerns regarding the unintended consequences of traffic safety policies. Yet, they are marginal in the sociological literature. Drawing on the sociology of knowledge, I explore the construction and spread of truth claims regarding traffic accidents and traffic safety, focusing on accounts of the risks of cycling and specifically the role of bicycle helmets. I use this case to contribute to several sociological debates.I used a mixed methods approach. I constructed a dataset of 1,902 articles, published 1970-2014, and identified the main themes characterizing …  Read more

Previous studies strongly suggested that RBP1 regulated E2F-dependent transcription. A previous pilot experiment also suggested that RBP1 exited the nucleus during muscle cell differentiation. In this study, repeated approaches and attempts consistently supported the alternative hypothesis that RBP1 remained nuclear during muscle differentiation. A key role for RBP1 in muscle differentiation was repeatedly suggested using RNAi. Specifically, siRNA was used to 'knock down' RBP1. The inability of myoblasts to form myotubes without RBP1 was illustrated by an inability of RBP1-depleted cells to express myosin after appropriate muscle-differention medium was applied. Further initial work suggested that RBP1's probable essential role in …  Read more

Tremblay, Bruno (Internal/Cosupervisor2)  Read more

Life for nineteenth century American women was full of restrictions and limitations. Frowned upon or simply not permitted to enter "male" spheres of activity such as professions, business and politics, many middle class women turned to philanthropy and reform work as the sole acceptable outlet for their energy, talents, and time. American Jews of German descent adopted the "Victorian ideal of womanhood" popular in the United States at this time, propelling many German-Jewish women to engage in charitable Zionist activity despite the general lack of support for Zionism in America earlier in this century. Among this group of bourgeois German-Jewish …  Read more

Holland, Paul (Supervisor)  Read more

Various methods have been employed in the evaluation of item selection methods. Typical among these studies are those made by Barthelmess, Lentz and Long and Sandiford. Barthelmess (l), has used an intercorrelational technique in evaluating various methods of item selection. Validity values were computed for each of the hundred elements of the McCall Multi-Mental Scale, Elementary Form 1, by each of the methods of item selection being studied, namely, Eta, Long, McCall, Vincent, Corrected Vincent and Bi-serial r. These methods were then evaluated on the basis of intercorrelation of each method with all the other methods. Results showed that the …  Read more