McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par B

An internal combustion engine was instrumented in view of developing automatic diagnosis methods based on the analysis of PV diagrams. The pressure signal is unstable over successive cycles. Consequently, pressure must be averaged over several consecutive cycles to produce valid data. Due to instrumentation problems the data obtained was insufficient to allow the development of diagnostics. The investigation reported in this work is thus limited to the development of a microprocessor-based system for the acquisition of pressure-volume data on high speed, spark ignition internal combustion engines. Several instrumentation problems were identified and solutions applied or proposed. The information presented here …  Read more

Anatomically, the visual system of non-human primates shows a complicated pattern of cortico-cortical connectivity. The behavioural relevance of many of these connections is unclear, as is the similarity of connectivity with that in the human brain. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and psychophysics to investigate connectivity among visual areas involved in (1) modulating visual perception during saccadic eye movements and (2) perceiving visual motion. Our first study demonstrated that phosphenes induced by TMS of visual cortex are perceived as more intense shortly after the onset of a saccade. This indicates that the cortical areas responsible for saccade generation are …  Read more

Shoulder Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) are prevalent conditions particularly among women. Obtaining accurate measurements of shoulder range of motion (ROM) is a major concern for the clinical setting. The purpose of this project was to obtain reference data and assess test-retest reliability of shoulder ROM using the BTE simulator II (Simulator II, BTE technologies™) in a healthy adult population of women. Shoulder ROM was assessed from thirty female right-handed subjects (20-52 years old) in flexion, extension, external rotation and abduction, on two separate days. ROM measurements were slightly different from those of the literature, were not associated with age or anthropometric …  Read more

The effects of single and combined dietary protein and zinc restrictions on the outcome of primary and challenge infections with the intestinal nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus in mice were examined using a 3 x 2 factorial design that combined three levels of dietary protein (24% - control; 7% - marginal; 3% - low) with 2 levels of dietary zinc (60 mg/kg - control; 3 mg/kg - marginal). Protein and zinc restrictions, at these levels, produced independent effects on final worm burdens. While mice fed both marginal and low protein diets, and marginal zinc diets had significantly higher worm burdens in a …  Read more

Après des décennies de stagnation et de négligence politique, les services ferroviaires canadiens n’ont pas de quoi rendre fier lorsque nous les comparons avec ceux d’autres pays industrialisés. Cependant, le changement semble être à l’horizon avec la mise en œuvre partielle de la proposition du train à grande fréquence (TGF) de VIA Rail dans le corridor Québec-Windsor. Cette étude applique l’approche des courants multiples ([Multiple Streams Framework] MSF) afin d’analyser comment le TGF s’est inscrit à l'agenda du gouvernement.À partir d'entretiens qualitatifs avec 13 répondants, trois observations basées sur le MSF sont confirmées : 1) activité dans les trois volets …  Read more

Producing error-free circuits is of paramount importance in the semiconductor industry. Assertions are becoming an indispensable means of verifying the correctness of increasingly complex digital designs. Assertions model the proper behavior of a design, and are expressed in a high level language based on temporal logic. In dynamic verification, simulation is used to exercise a circuit in order to assess its behavior. For large designs, simulation times are often prohibitively excessive, and designs are instead emulated in hardware. Because of their high-level temporal operators, assertion statements do not lend themselves directly to hardware implementations such as emulation. This thesis introduces …  Read more

This thesis details the use of a programmable logic device to increase the playing strength of a chess program. The time-consuming task of generating chess moves is relegated to hardware in order to increase the processing speed of the search algorithm. A simpler inter-square connection protocol reduces the number of wires between chess squares, when compared to the DEEP BLUE design. With this interconnection scheme, special chess moves are easily resolved. Furthermore, dynamically programmable arbiters are introduced for optimal move ordering. Arbiter centrality is also shown to improve move ordering, thereby creating smaller search trees. The move generator is designed …  Read more

The expression of HIV-1 in cells of monocytic origin was investigated. In order to do this, the cell line U-937 was chosen because it possesses many characteristics of immature monocytes and can be easily infected by HIV-1. We found that long-term chronically-infected cells generate a high amount of defective particles, unable by themselves to successfully infect any target cells. Two main phenotypes were detected, one showing defectiveness in reverse transcriptase activity, and the other one showing inability to express fully mature glycoproteins. We also investigated the biological relevance of these defective particles, particularly in a situation where two cells generating …  Read more

The first part of this thesis includes a brief comparison between electric motors and hydraulic actuators for high performance robotics applications. Hydraulic actuators with fast valves are shown to be superior because of their large torque to mass ratios and their extended bandwidth. One such hydraulic actuator is characterized and its highly nonlinear dynamics are modeled and identified. A simulator implementing this dynamic model is shown to predict the system's behavior satisfyingly. A lead lag force controller that yields a large bandwidth and good accuracy is also designed. The second part is devoted to the modeling and control of an …  Read more

These ecological results were recorded from the Sherbrooke district on Appalachian upland podsol soils. A comparative study of the seminal andvegetative reproductions in certain permanent pasture plants was made under different conditions of pasture management, and different sward types,through direct and indirect methods. By direct observation, we grouped in two categories, chosen young plants originating immediately, either fromseeds, or from vegetative devices. Eleven pasture plants, weedy in nature, were thus observed. Indirectly, the oomparative importance of seminalreproduction was studied from the correlations worked out between the surface vegetation and the top-soil viable seed content. These correlationswere calculated between species of …  Read more

Lysine was first isolated in 1889 from casein hydrolysate (21). It was precipitated with phosphotungstic acid and then crystallized as the hydrochloride after removal of the acid with barium hydroxide. The following technique was the basis for the first method of determining lysine in protein hydrolysates: histidine was precipitated from the alkaline hydrolysate with mercuric chloride, arginine was removed as the silver sait from the remaining solution after saturation with barium hydroxide and finally lysine was separated from the remaining amino acids by précipitation with phosphotungstic acid and crystallizati on as the picrate sait after decomposing the phosphotungstate with barium …  Read more

The reaction between copper and dithiocarbamic acid derivatives produces a brown coloured complex which absorbs light at 435 m.u. When this reaction is applied to the determination of copper, it provides a very sensitive method that can detect, and measure accurately, concentrations as low as 0.1 µ.g. of copper. For this particular determination, the dithiocarbamic acid derivatives function as the reagent. It should be possible, however, to apply the same reaction to the determination of dithiocarbamio acid derivatives by using the copper component as the reagent. If the determination was limited to the dithiocarbamic acids as such the method would …  Read more

Le virus de l'immunodéficience humaine (VIH) infecte présentement plus de 33 millions d'individus. Contre cette pandémie, la solution idéale serait le développement d'un vaccin. Toutefois, de récents essais cliniques évaluant l'efficacité des stratégies de vaccination visant à la stimulation des cellules T ou B contre le VIH n'ont pas réussi à démontrer que ces stratégies protégeaient contre l'infection. Pour plusieurs membres de la communauté scientifique, ces échecs démontrent que les caractéristiques d'une réponse immunitaire efficace contre le VIH sont encore méconnues et que le rôle des cellules du système immun inné devra sans doute être éclairci afin d'élaborer un vaccin …  Read more

Cette thèse étudie le roman français de l'entre-deux-guerres à partir d'un motif particulier, celui de l'adolescent dans la foule urbaine. Il constitue un foyer autour duquel gravitent des débats et des contradictions propres à ce moment historique, par exemple entre l'espoir d'un meilleur futur et la mémoire de la guerre, entre la subjectivité et l'anonymat, entre l'usage quotidien de la ville et les bouleversements architecturaux et géopolitiques qui l'atteignent. Par le biais de microlectures des Beaux Quartiers de Louis Aragon (1936), de La Conspiration de Paul Nizan (1938) et du Sursis de Jean-Paul Sartre (1945), elle montre comment la rencontre …  Read more

Le but de ce mémoire est de comprendre comment des régimes autoritaires et semi-autoritaires peuvent en venir à répondre aux besoins de leur population en l'absence d'élections justes et libres, et parfois même mieux que certaines démocraties. Ce mémoire, pour répondre à cette question, se concentre sur des pays situés en Asie du Sud-est. Plusieurs régimes autoritaires et semi-autoritaires dans la région ont démontré une forte tendance à répondre aux besoins de leur population, comme le Vietnam, la Malaisie et Singapour, alors que les régimes démocratiques ont souvent échoué à remplir une telle fonction. Pour expliquer ces résultats surprenant, l'argument …  Read more

Plus de vingt ans après la décision historique de la Cour suprême du Canada R. c. Marshall, qui a reconnu le droit du peuple Mi’kmaq de pêcher librement à travers le Mi’kma’ki et de vendre leurs prises pour une subsistance convenable, les Mi’kmaq sont toujours confrontés à de nombreux obstacles qui les empêchent d’exercer ces droits issus de traités. De plus, les règlements de gestion des pêches ainsi que les programmes établis par le ministère des Pêches et des Océans (MPO) pour mettre en œuvre la décision Marshall ne reflètent pas les lois et les systèmes de connaissances des Mi’kmaq. …  Read more

With the recent progress in both computer technology and systems biology, it is now possible to simulate and visualise biological systems virtually. It is expected that realistic in silico simulations will enhance our understanding of biological processes and will promote the development of effective therapeutic treatments. Realistic biochemical simulators aim to improve our understanding of biological processes that could not be, otherwise, properly understood in experimental studies. This situation calls for increasingly accurate simulators that take into account not only the stochastic nature of biological systems, but also the spatial heterogeneity and the effect of crowding of biological systems. This …  Read more

La leucémie myéloïde aiguë (LMA) pédiatrique est une maladie génétiquement hétérogène distincte de chez l’adulte avec peu d’altérations chromosomiques et souvent médiée par un oncogène unique tel que les gènes de fusion. La leucémie mégakaryoblastique aiguë (LMKA), un sous-type rare de LMA qui compte pour 10% des cas, est associée à un pronostique adverse. Initialement rapporté chez des patients LMKA, le gène de fusion CBFA2T3-GLIS2 démontre une probabilité de survie globale lugubre aussi basse que 14%. La protéine chimérique résulte de l’inversion du chromosome 16 fusionnant ainsi les domaines région d’homologie nerveuse de CBFA2T3 aux domaines doigt de zinc de …  Read more

Today every citizen secures some minimum of education; and the majority of parents regard the schooling of their children as a matter to be taken for granted. The school leaving age, of course, varies with the standards of the community and its laws. But all public school students, particularly of adolescent age, must sooner or later consider this academic work partly as the training for some specific occupation, career, or job. The important question before the community today, then, is a classification of the relationships between the educations we give and the vocations we seek. Such a problem involves an …  Read more

Les récepteurs mu aux opioïdes (MORs) jouent un rôle central dans l’addiction et ce majoritairement via le contrôle qu’ils exercent sur les phénomènes de récompense. Les effets des MORs sur le système de récompense sont généralement attribués à leur expression dans le circuit mésocorticolimbique. Les MORs sont toutefois exprimés dans d’autres régions du cerveau, notamment dans une petite structure cérébrale épithalamique qui exprime la plus forte densité de MORs : l’habénula médiane (MHb). Le rôle de cette population spécifique de récepteurs n’a jamais été exploré, malgré l’implication fortement suggérée dans la littérature de l’habénula dans l’addiction et les processus de …  Read more

Poor user interfaces in programming environments detract from environments' power and ineffectively communicate with users. Moreover, specification, development, testing, and modification of these usually large, complex, and handcrafted user interfaces are difficult, error prone, slow, and costly. An alternative is user-interface generation. This thesis deals with two primary issues: xmupe2, a user-friendly user interface for the MUPE-2 programming environment, and user-interface generation. Implemented in Modula-2 and C for the X Window System, xmupe2 shows MUPE-2's character with: windows tailored to program-fragments, textual and graphical representations of fragments' contents, and editing commands fired by context-sensitive mouse-based menus. Secondly, and because of …  Read more

Conventional two-dimensional glass and plastic in vitro cell culture systems potentially lack an accurate representation of the in vivo reality of three-dimensional cell locomotory processes; an important loss of valuable information or even misinformation in understanding and interpreting underlying cell behavioral mechanisms could result. This thesis uses a dynamic quantification approach of human tumor cell locomotory behavior in a three-dimensional collagen gel matrix in conjunction with time-lapse videomicroscopy and computer digitization. This approach better approximates physiological in vivo cell behavior by allowing cell trajectory analysis and expression of phenotypic characteristics previously not observed in two-dimensional culture systems or end point …  Read more

Ecological restoration is a practice that seeks to assist the recovery of an ecosystem. It is a practice that has gained significant traction as a response to land degradation, climate change and biodiversity loss across the world and has been recognized as a complement and tool of environmental conservation and management. Despite significant investment in research, regulatory reform and delivery, ecological restoration has been criticized for failing to deliver on its promise to contribute to social-ecological recovery. This thesis explores from a regulatory perspective the provisions for ecological restoration across three case studies in Australia and asks what regulatory arrangements …  Read more

In examining the administrative process of a social service department in a general hospital, the authors chose to study the area of planned change. Because of the many changes being imposed on the social workers from within their own department as well as from the provincial government, an attempt was made to concentrate on the method of management used to integrate three separately functioning social service units into one department and to assess the actual and per­ceived effect on the social service staff. Commencing from a descriptive analysis of the change process, the authors formulated specific hypotheses which could be …  Read more

The prion protein (PrP) is known for its implication in a number of neurological disorders. Interestingly, overexpression of Bcl-2 in these PrP-/- cells protects against serum deprivation, suggesting that PrP may function like Bcl-2 to prevent cells from undergoing apoptosis. Based on this idea, this thesis demonstrates that PrP is a potent protective agent against Bax-mediated death of cultured human primary neurons. This neuroprotective function appears to require the presence of the octapeptide repeat region of PrP. Surprisingly, while the majority of PrP resides on the cell surface as a glycophosphatidyl inositol (GPI)-anchored protein, the GPI anchor is not required …  Read more

This study was designed to better define the molecular interactions that govern cell surface depletion of the CD4 receptor after HIV-1 infection of susceptible cells. The effects of intracellular association between the envelope glycoprotein precursor gp160 and CD4 were addressed in the U-937 monocytic cell line. Formation of complexes between these molecules was shown to impact on the maturation and transport of both in U-937 cells that were chronically-infected with either wild-type virus or with viruses unable to cleave the viral envelope precursor protein gp160. This arrest in maturation was demonstrated to be pre-Golgi in nature and was characterized by …  Read more

The present thesis seeks to shed new light on the reasons explaining the state of the Canadian policy on pharmaceutical patents (hereinafter the Canadian Policy ) as well as on its normative shortcomings. A better understanding of the reasons underlying its existence will enable those who wish to suggest ways of updating it, to improve their viability with the Canadian government. The shortcomings of the Canadian policy on pharmaceutical patents are reflected in its sub optimal character which, in turn, leads to a failure by the Canadian Policy to maximize collective interest. Our analysis of the state of the Canadian …  Read more

This thesis stages a meeting between the work of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the short fiction of Italian writer Italo Calvino. This meeting has as its subject the question of the human and the non-human. What forces make up the human? What assemblages of elements make up language, literature, subjectivity? And what does it mean that these forces come from outside the human at the same time as they create the human? Calvino is often accused of being an unemotional writer, lacking in human warmth. With this I agree completely. Calvino does lack human warmth because he allows non-human …  Read more

Cette étude quasi-expérimentale d'une intervention en classe visait à analyser les incidences d'un enseignement translinguistique sur l'acquisition de la morphologie en L1 (anglais) et en L2 (français) chez des élèves de 2e année. Trois groupes d'élèves de la même école d'immersion française précoce ont participé à cette réplique de l'étude de Lyster, Quiroga et Ballinger (2013), ayant comme variation la dominance linguistique des participants. Deux groupes (n = 22) ont reçu 240 minutes d'enseignement centré sur la morphologie dérivationnelle à partir de la lecture d'albums pour enfants et ont été comparés à un groupe témoin (n = 14) recevant son …  Read more

Les lymphocytes T baignent dans des espaces chimiques à hautes dimensions. Ces globules blancs doivent détecter d'infimes différences entre des antigènes similaires et présentés en mélanges. La signalisation complexe de leurs récepteurs de cellules T (TCR) transforme ces stimuli en réponses multivariées. Un modèle exhaustif de ces mécanismes deviendrait rapidement trop labyrinthique pour être utile. Il serait préférable de tenter d'établir les lois physiques émergentes régissant la réponse des lymphocytes T et, plus généralement, la détection chimique biologique. De tels principes quantitatifs restent toutefois à formuler. En étroite collaboration avec des laboratoires expérimentaux d'immunologie, nous avons développé des modèles à …  Read more

T cells defend their hosts by scanning other cells for ligands from potentially pathogenic sources. Upon antigen detection, they produce and consume extracellular proteins called cytokines to communicate with each other. Those messenger proteins play a fundamental role in scaling the nonlinear, out-of-equilibrium immune response. Yet, no quantitative theory exists to systematically account for the dynamics of multiple cytokines at once. However, state-of-the-art experimental data from our collaborators (Altan-Bonnet lab, NIH) reveal that cytokine concentrations encode information about the strength, or quality, of the ligands detected by the T cells. In this thesis, we combine cytokine biology, information theory, and …  Read more

Poole, R. J. (Supervisor)  Read more

Bobyn, D. (Supervisor)  Read more

AbstractThis qualitative self-study explores the relationship between the personal and professional dimensions of a teacher’s life that shape identity and praxis. The question driving the research is: How have my life experiences (personal and professional) contributed, or not, to my identity as a high school teacher over the past 40 years? The two sub-questions were: What kinds of life experiences emerge in my recollection process? How do others perceive me as a teacher? I have written a memoir revealing my experiences as a woman, daughter, student, teacher, wife, and mother over six decades, and the role that perceptions of me …  Read more

Cette recherche qualitative explore l'optique des élèves sur l'enseignement de l'anglais, langue maternelle, en salle de classe, dans la région du Grand-Montréal. L'étude s'est déroulée dans ma salle de classe personnelle et les participants étaient mes élèves de cinquième secondaire de mon cours d'anglais, ce qui a grandement facilité la collection des données. Celles-ci ont été accumulées et synthétisées par des observations, des entrevues ainsi que des artefacts, sur une période totale de treize semaines. Les conclusions de cette étude révèlent que les enseignants jouent un rôle décisif dans le succès académique de leurs élèves. Ces derniers ont pu décrire …  Read more

Osteoarthritis (OA), the degenerative and most common form of arthritis, is a complex disease of the whole joint and affects over 3 million Canadian adults. To this day, there is no satisfactory method of relieving osteoarthritic pain and, although chronic pain is the most reported complaint of the disease, our understanding of its driving mechanisms remains limited. Studies in this thesis were devised with the objective of contributing to understanding of the mechanism of pain in OA.Studies investigating changes of innervation of bone have been few and sparse in the literature, mostly due to the complexity and poor success of …  Read more

Protein translation in mammalian cells can be divided into three stages: initiation, elongation, and termination, which require several factors. The peptide elongation factor 1A (eEF1A-1), which was formerly referred to as eEF-1alpha, is a guanosine triphosphate (GTP) binding protein and it is responsible for bringing aminoacyl-tRNA to the ribosomes in the process of protein synthesis. The S1/eEF1A-2 factor also referred to as S1, is an isoform of eEF1A-1. Both proteins are expressed from two distinct genes and share 92% identity in their amino acid sequences. Besides the tissue specific expression S1/eEF1A-2, little is known about the functions of the S1/cEF1A-2 …  Read more

L'actuelle génération de télescopes à imagerie atmosphérique Cherenkov (TIAC) a recours à la technologie des tubes photomultiplicateurs (TPM) pour enregistrer les impulsions lumineuses produites par le rayonnement Cherenkov accompagnant les cascades électromagnétiques générées lorsque des rayons gamma interagissent avec l'atmosphère terrestre. Un tube photomultiplicateur est un détecteur capable de convertir de très faibles impulsions lumineuses en un signal électronique amplifié; ce genre de photodétecteur est caractérisé par un gain, correspondant au nombre d'électrons produits par photon détecté. L'évaluation et l'ajustement du gain d'un TPM est une variable essentielle à la technique d'imagerie utilisée par les TIAC. Sur le Very Energetic …  Read more

The beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) is an extensively processed membrane protein with a single membrane spanning domain. One of the natural proteolytic products of APP is a peptide of 39 to 43 amino acids in length, beta-amyloid, that has been identified as a major constituent of senile plaques, a neuropathological hallmark of Alzheimer disease (AD). In Down syndrome (DS) (trisomy 21), overexpression of the APP gene, located on chromosome 21, is thought to be responsible for the early formation of senile plaques in the brain of DS patients. We investigated the transcriptional regulation of the APP gene in order to …  Read more

This thesis analyses the International and American laws and regulations structuring the commercialization of space based remote sensing images. Chapter one outlines the historical evolution influencing the present regulatory structure. Chapter two describes the technology of space based remote sensing systems. Chapter three analyses the international treaties and institutions along with their application to commercial remote sensing by satellites. Chapter four analyses the American legislative evolution and regulatory structure pertaining to commercial remote sensing. The argument of the thesis is that a contextual evolution of the global geopolitical climate is forcing a regulatory retooling for commercial space endeavors. The contextual …  Read more

Ultrasonic acoustic resonance has found diverse applications in various scientific and industrial fields, leveraging its ability to manipulate sound waves and propagate energy. These sound waves have properties making them uniquely suited to a range of tasks which will be reviewed and studied in this work. Contactless force application, or acoustophoresis, is one such use of the acoustic pressure generated by the sound waves which is assessed. Another phenomenon discussed is cavitation generated with high amplitude acoustic waves, where accurate control of bubble inception presents opportunities for various applications in sonochemistry, including hydrogel polymerization. To precisely engineer the location and …  Read more

This research focuses on the involvement of chemists in professional Canadian environmentalism. We confront opposed research and development sector perspectives (government, industry, and university) to describe how incompatabilities between them resist cross-sectoral interaction and limit disciplinary greening. We then refer to original questionnaire and interview data to discuss the greening force of professional associations on a multisectoral discipline (chemistry). Finally, we consider plausible research avenues in the sociology of environment to address the current and future status of environmental chemistry.  Read more

The Histoire comique de Francion (1623--1633) of Charles Sorel marks a passage in the history of laughter, from the Renaissance to the classical period. Sorel defines the Histoire comique as a realistic genre by opposing it to the heroic, pastoral and burlesque genres. Whereas Rabelaisian works showed an ambivalent and carnivalesque laughter, the tone of Sorel's Francion is both satirical and univocal. The carnivalesque and popular traditions are mocked for the benefit of an elitist rationalism. The Francion shows a hero who distances himself from the popular culture to become a honnete homme. In order to respect the bienseances, laughter …  Read more