McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par B

Le sommeil paradoxal (SP) est une phase déterminante du sommeil des mammifères. Cependant sa fonction physiologique précise reste obscure. Plusieurs éléments de preuves liant le SP à différents aspects de l'apprentissage et de la mémoire chez l'homme et autres mammifères ont été obtenus principalement par le biais d'études corrélatives, d'approches pharmacologiques visant des populations de neurones actives pendant le SP ou encore par des études de privation de SP. Toutefois, le rôle spécifique du SP dans l'apprentissage et la mémoire reste un sujet de débat considérable puisque les approches corrélatives n'apportent pas de preuves définitives. En effet, le SP suit …  Read more

In this thesis, we review the classical theory of Stokes phenomenon, and its extension to unfoldings of irregular singularities following the work of J. Hurtubise and C. Rousseau. We then consider the approach to classification of singular systems using groupoids, presented by M. Gualtieri, S. Li, and B. Pym, and how this extends to unfoldings. In particular, we introduce the unfolded twisted pair groupoid, which serves as the universal domain of definition for generic analytic unfoldings of linear differential systems with an irregular singularity at the origin  Read more

Buddle, Christopher (Internal/Cosupervisor2)  Read more

Dans les cas de paralysie cérébrale (PC), le dépistage et l'intervention précoces sont considérées comme étant des pratiques exemplaires. Les études effectuées à ce jour se sont concentrées principalement sur des enfants qui présentent un risque élevé de PC. Les praticiens de première ligne n'ont pas accès à des outils spécifiques pour la PC qu'ils puissent efficacement appliquer dans leur contexte. Il est essentiel que tout retard inutile soit évité. L'objectif global de ce projet est de créer le contenu nécessaire pour élaborer des outils d'application des connaissances (AC) conviviaux pour les praticiens de première ligne pédiatriques. Les objectifs spécifiques: …  Read more

In this conceptual inquiry, I argue how and why homework contributes to inequality. Homework contributes to inequality systemically, as schools continue to rely heavily on it. Homework continues to contribute to inequality discursively and psychologically, as parents and educators encourage homework without fully realizing the consequences of homework for those students who have difficulty completing school tasks at home. The inequalities maintained by homework often persist unnoticed. This persistence is an example of a broader persistence of sociological problems even as technological advances are made. This imbalance in the two domains of society and technology is due partly to the …  Read more

The present study was designed to examine the contribution of lexically-based sources of information to acoustic-phonetic processing in fluent and nonfluent aphasic subjects, and age-matched normals. To this end, two phonetic identification experiments were conducted which required subjects to label syllable-initial bilabial stop consonants as either /b/ or /p/. Factors that were controlled included the lexical status (word/nonword) and neighborhood density values corresponding to the two possible syllable interpretations in each set of stimuli. Findings indicated that all subject groups were influenced by both lexical status and neighborhood density in making phonetic categorizations. Although the overall results were inconsistent with …  Read more

Although the psycholinguistic literature is rife with examples of lexical influences on phoneme identification, a debate still rages among theorists over whether these influences reflect a top-down, interactive speech perception system, or are merely evidence of post-perceptual decision biases. The failure to resolve this debate may be attributed to the shortcomings of many of the previously used behavioral methodologies, which have been unable to ensure that subject responses in phoneme decision tasks have their locus in pre-lexical phonetic processes, rather than post-lexical phonological codes. However, one promising methodology that has been applied only sparsely to the interactivity debate is the …  Read more

This thesis presents a critique of the sociotechnical approach based on a case study of sociotechnical "quality of working life" intervention undertaken in the plant and office of Thompson Building Supplies* (TBS) Ltd., a Canadian firm which produces building materials. From March 1979 through November 1980, I was employed as resource person for the office project. Following a severe downturn of the business cycle, the project was terminated before its completion in late 1980. […]  Read more

It is well known that proteins interact to form complexes with a large and diverse group of substances. These interactions vary from the highly specific combination shown by the enzyme-substrate complex or the antibody-hapten reaction to the less specific binding which may be shown by blood proteins. The present work deals largely with complexes of the latter type, as manifested by the plasma proteins.  Read more

Kaplan, Michael  Read more

Context: Hundreds of thousands of Quebec residents suffer from chronic pain, for which treatment is far from optimal. Despite low back pain being the second most common reason to visit a primary care physician, management remains challenging. Additionally, chronic low back pain (CLBP) has been found to be the most common reason for patients to be referred to tertiary pain centers. Recently, there has been an increasing acceptance that bio-psycho-social factors play a crucial role the clinical course of CLBP. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify subgroups of CLBP patients treated in tertiary care, as defined by …  Read more

The goal of this study was to examine selective attention and distractibility within the visual modality in children with Down syndrome as compared to children of normal intelligence matched for mental age. Selective attention was defined as the children's abilities to identify and respond to a target stimulus on a forced choice reaction time task. Distractibility was considered to be the extent to which the children's performances on the task were interfered with by extraneous stimuli in the visual field. Conditions on the task varied with regard to the presence or absence and location (close and far) of distracting stimuli …  Read more

Rate curves have been determined for the reagtion of ammonia and formaldehyde in aqueous solution at 0 c. and 35 c., over a range of initial mole ratios {formaldehyde: ammonia) of 0.25 to 2.0. For each set of conditions, three curves have been obtained on the basis of ammonia consumed, formaldehyde consumed and material precipitated with mercuric chloride. At o0 c. the three rate curves tend to approximate one another in a large excess of runmonia but are widelg separated in excess formaldehyde. The reverse is true at 35 c. The reaction is characterized by a high initial rate of …  Read more

This study offers additional nuance to the garden topos and trope within nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canadian women's writing and extends the critical discussion of landscape and the garden as archetype in Canadian literature. This dissertation cross-fertilizes literary analysis with garden theory, using the work of such garden historians as John Dixon Hunt, Mark Francis, and Randolph Hester. The argument emphasizes that gardens in literature, like their actual counterparts, are an art of milieu, reflective of their socio-physical contexts. Both real and textual gardens are rhetorical: their content and formal features invite interpretation. A textual garden performs similarly to an actual …  Read more

The material submitted in this manuscript, is the result of an investigation of the gross and minute anatomy of the cranial dura and related structures in the region of the hypophyseal fossa in the cow. The minute anatomy is introduced for the express purpose of aiding one in the interpretation of the gross findings.  Read more

The gelling characteristics of whey proteins is governed by factors which affect the structural properties of the protein. To understand this structure gelling relationship, the following factors were investigated; protein concentration, heating temperature and time, pH, NaCl and sugars. The effect of these factors on the molecular structure and gelatin properties of whey protein concentrate (WPC), $ beta$-lactoglobulin ($ beta$-lg), $ alpha$-lactalbumin ($ alpha$-lac) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were studied using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, HPLC, mass spectrometry, differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results showed that protein concentration affected textural properties without affecting the molecular structure …  Read more

This thesis is a product of our collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada's astronomy laboratory (Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory) to study the control of a new radio-telescope design: the Canadian Large Adaptive Reflector. The first part consists in an identification of a parabolic reflector's direct and inverse kinematics. This reflector is made of multiple triangular sections, each of them supported by hydraulic actuators from the ground. Kinematics resulted in the creation of a trajectory generator to issue commands to the actuators. Second part consists in direct modeling and model identification of a tethered aerostat system, in order to …  Read more

This research examines the changing relationships of gender, place and identity wrought by women's entrance into Montreal's financial service sector between 1900 and 1930. I seek to answer two related questions. First, what kinds of identities were enabled in the new spaces created by the feminization of clerical work? In particular, how was gender, sexual, and ethno-linguistic difference constructed within the mixed-sex clerical workspace? Second, what effect did women's entrance into corporate workspaces in the financial district have on prevailing notions about gender, class and urban space? How did this change in labour markets affect representations of women in public …  Read more

Apoptosis is a genetically predetermined cell death program common to multicellular organisms. Bcl-2/BclXL function to suppress apoptosis and promote survival by inhibiting the death pathway at key points. One key point of the death pathway involves the activation of the caspases which are proteolytic enzymes that systematically degrade the cell. Recently, studies have shown that Bap31 is a polytopic integral membrane protein of the ER which forms a complex with Bcl-2/BclXL, a CED-4-like-adaptor-molecule, and initiator procaspase-8. This suggests that the Bap31 complex may regulate apoptosis by bridging core components of the cell death machinery at the ER. In order to …  Read more

The author of this thesis undertakes to compare the role of silence in the Civil and Common law of contracts. This thesis demonstrates that these two legal systems, which had at first ignored silence, have reined it in to an increasingly greater degree by objectifying it. This paper's purpose is thus not only to comparatively assess the role of silence through the various phases of the contract, where this process of objectivization occurs, but also to examine the reasons behind this process. Lastly, it will examine the direction the process takes. The scope of silence being indefinite, it would be …  Read more

Ever since the recognition of cyclopropane by Freund (l) there has been considerable experimentation and speculation upon the mode and ease of opening of the ring in the hydrocarbon and its substitution products by acidic and basic reagents. Perkin (2) first drew attention to the fact that the stability of the ring depended on the substituent groups present and that in many respects the rings resembled ethylenic compounds e.g. some take up water in the presence of dilute sulfuric acid whereas others do not. [...]  Read more

In recent years, vagotomy has became an essential part of the surgical treatment of peptic ulcer. It is generally accepted that the success of vagotomy in the treatment of peptic ulcer is related to its effect on acid secretion. [...]  Read more

Given that the role of Heinrich Heine as a precursor to Charles Baudelaire has long been recognized and examined in the critical literature, this dissertation aims to explore congruities in their respective poetic universes, by conducting a parallel reading of the image of woman in their poetry. Contrary to a feminist critique, which denounces the writers' reductive and hence misogynist use of such images, we will remove the anathema momentarily in order to allow a discourse of love to be expressed, in a complex language which reveals the fears and desires of the loving subject in the 19th century. The …  Read more

The purpose of this thesis is to examine from a feminist perspective two novels of the Austrian writer, Marlen Haushofer (1920, Frauenstein-1970, Steyr): Die Tapetentur (1957) and Die Mansarde (1969). Both work were written in a "pre-feminist" period in the history of German women writers. However, with the aid of contemporary feminist approaches, they can be rediscovered and deciphered for the modern reader. In the first chapter I will introduce the theories to be applied, the biography of her author and the reception of the work, focusing on areas relevant to the topic of the thesis. The recurring themes of …  Read more

A process has been devised for the recovery of glacial acetic acid from the waste products of the Bachmann reaction. The method involves the removal of nitric acid as ammonium nitrate, a “fume-off” of the filtrate with sulphuric acid and a distillation in the presence of sulphuric acid. No stainless steel equipment and only a minimum of supervision is required for the process. Oleum and/or sulphuric acid are not practical dehydrating agents in this process. [...] An instrument in the form of a rotating tube has been developed for an accurate determination of the effects of the variables, encountered in …  Read more

The needs for movement and for sleep are often considered key components of welfare, with severe or prolonged deprivation in one or both likely to have lasting impacts on health and well-being. Environments are often described as central elements defining the capacity of individuals to fulfill these needs, and dairy cows are no exception: unfortunately, common housing systems used nowadays generally restrict the opportunities of movement and the capacity to rest of dairy cows. While tie-stall systems are deemed the most restrictive of all, in general, the presence of stalls in the environment of cows has been associated with altered …  Read more

The present study contains a calculation and discussion of meridional advection of water vapour on a daily basis across three latitude circles (65°N., 70°N., 80°N.) for the months of January and July, 1958. [...]  Read more

In the representation of musical audio, it is common to favour either a signal or symbol interpretation, where mid-level representation is an emerging topic. In this thesis we investigate the perspective of structured, intermediate representations through an integration of theoretical aspects related to separable sound objects, dictionary-based methods of signal analysis, and object-oriented programming. In contrast to examples in the literature that approach an intermediate representation from the signal level, we orient our formulation towards the symbolic level. This methodology is applied to both the specification of analytical techniques and the design of a software framework. Experimental results demonstrate that …  Read more

Brockwell, C. (Supervisors)  Read more

This dissertation is about non-places in contemporary American literature and film. Non-places are public spaces that are nevertheless transitory, efficient, and impersonal, dedicated mostly to logistics and straightforward tasks rather than community formation or personal identity—primary examples include things like highways, hotel rooms, convenience stores, and airports. I use these spaces here to discuss the challenges of everyday life in the highly mobile and interconnected world that they themselves have helped build, and how its high speeds, complex programs, and loose ties are illustrated and worked through in the popular imagination. On a practical basis, such infrastructure represents a series …  Read more

Light emission in marine bacteria is under the control of growth dependent induction. Associated with the induction is the increase in synthesis of the components of the two enzymes which catalyze the light emitting reaction, luciferase and fatty acid reductase. Large DNA fragments from three marine bacteria Vibrio fischeri, Vibrio harveyi and Photobacterium phosphoreum, were isolated from genomic libraries of these strains. Escherichia coli, harboring a recombinant plasmid containing a 16 kbp fragment of V. fischeri DNA, were found to express growth dependent luminescence. E. coli clones harboring analogous sequences of V. harveyi or P. phosphoreum lux DNA only expressed …  Read more

This thesis compares two contemporary artists who practice institutional criticism, Marcel Broodthaers and Fred Wilson. Looking specifically at Broodthaers's fictional museum project the Musee d Art Moderne, Departement des Aigles from 1968-1972 and Wilson's 1992 installation Mining the Museum at the Maryland Historical Society, this thesis will critically analyze each artist's similar application of deconstruction as a method. Both artists employ allegory and history as aesthetic strategies of deconstruction; using allegorical structure, the artists mobilize objects that have been arrested in history, disrupting a historical continuum that would otherwise remain foreclosed. The focus of this study will be to explore …  Read more

In 1750, the architect Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni built a Temple of Love in Gennevilliers, just north of Paris for the notorious libertine, the Duc de Richelieu. The new social freedom gained by the decline of the ancien regime gave birth to a democratic space that first appeared in the theatre and a personal freedom which changed the currents of thought on love. Servandoni's work as a painter, theatre designer and engineer of spectacles are promoted in the theory of Jacques-Francois Blondel and later Nicolas Le Camus de Mezieres as prime examples of architecture in their theories of sensation. Libertine love, …  Read more

This study looks broadly at the composition of the Scottish peerage in James VI's reign, and specifically at a subset, of the Scottish aristocracy who bore the titles of viscount or better between the years 1587 and 1625. Eighty-five subjects are identified, and classified according to the age of their titles, their religious leanings and the geographical regions from which their titles and powers were drawn, to form anumber of distinct groups---the established nobility, new peers, Protestants, Catholics (both overt and conforming), peers from the highlands and isles, peers from central Scotland, and peers from the Anglo-Scottish border region. A …  Read more

Cette étude qualitative explore l'approche d'un professeur d'université qui a incorporé la musique dans un cours de psychologie cognitive. Les sources incluent des entrevues avec des participants, des professeurs et des notes d'observations sur le terrain. L'étude a été alimentée par trois questions de recherche principales: comment la musique s'intègre-t-elle dans un cours de psychologie cognitive? Comment les étudiants perçoivent-ils le rôle que la musique joue dans le cours? Qu'est que le professeur fait dans la classe et comment l'explique-t-il?Une analyse constante et comparative des entrevues des participants a révélé trois thèmes majeurs qui comprennent chacun des éléments saillants qui …  Read more

These words speak of the majesty of the steam engine - but one might also be inclined to think of them as a brief eulogy for the beloved "iron horse." With but a few minor exceptions, the use of diesel locomotion is now predominant on North American railways. One of railroading's most cherished traditions is now but a memory.  Read more

Although computed tomography has received wide acceptance and rapid diffusion, its clinical efficacy relative to that of competing technologies has not been clearly demonstrated in non-neurological applications. Two-hundred and thirty-one consecutive in-patients investigated for suspected hepatic masses or pancreatic disorders at Royal Victoria Hospital were randomly assigned to computed tomography, nuclear medicine or ultrasonography. Each of the three technologies was assessed on various measures of diagnostic and management efficacy. […]  Read more

The word Absorption should be used as the name for the general phenomenon which includes any case of the retention of a liquid within a solid, or of a gas or vapour within a solid or liquid, when there is no apparent evidence of chemical activity. The absorption of gas by a liquid is what is ordinarily known as the solution of the gas by the liquid. The absorption of gas by a solid, sometimes called "occlusion," includes (1) the mechanical retention and adhesion of the gas or vapour in the crevices between particles of the solid, and (2) in …  Read more

Details concerning the design and performance of a conventional l80° mass spectrometer are given. The operation of a new type of high frequency positive ion source is discussed and its characteristics are compared with two conventional ion sources, the hot filament and electron-impaction source. Observations on the decay of positive ion emission from heated tungsten filaments have been interpreted in terms of a diffusion process. Analysis of these observations has given values for the diffusion constants of potassium and sodium in tungsten.  Read more