McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par B

Watson, H. (Supervisor)  Read more

Phenylketonuria is an inherited metabolic disorder which was discovered through the association of mental deficiency with the excretion of phenylpyruvic acid. Other names for this condition have ranged from the descriptive but unwieldy "phenylpyruvic oligophrenia" and "imbecillitas phenylpyruvica" to "Folling's disease", after its discoverer. [...]  Read more

Breeding biology and diet of Herring Gulls Larus argentatus were studied on Ile Nue, in the Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Nesting parameters were measured 1994--1996, and fledging success and diet were followed in 1996. Clutch size was low in all three years of the study, and hatching success was low in 1995. Low clutch size and hatching success could not be explained by researcher disturbance, predation, or competition for nest sites, leaving food-stress as the most likely explanation. To reduce the biases associated with determining diet, we used four methods to estimate diet. …  Read more

Charles Percy Snow is a remarkably interesting, versatile and contraversial figure in contemporary English life. For those who are by nature combative Snow--a former physicist of brilliance, as well as a stern reviewer of fiction, popular novelist and active politician--has provided some of life's more tolerable moments. Snow has outraged critics with his opinions on the modern novel. He has outraged literary historians and assorted critics with his opinions on the Industrial Revolution, the polarization of the literary and scientitic cultures, and the desirable course of present day education. He continues to delight and outrage critics with his novels. [...]  Read more

La pomme de terre (Solanum tuberosum L.) a son origine des Andes en Amérique du Sud. Elle est une culture de base économiquement importante qui peut être cultivée avec succès dans diverses conditions et altitudes. Le génome de la pomme de terre est complexe, avec un vaste pool de gènes provenant de nombreuses espèces sauvages de niveaux de ploïdie variables allant des diploïdes aux hexaploïdes. Les efforts de sélection de la pomme de terre se sont traditionnellement concentrés sur la multiplication végétative de la pomme de terre tétraploïde en raison de sa popularité en tant que culture. Cependant, en raison …  Read more

Plasmodium falciparum is the most important causative agent of human malaria. The present study focuses on the identification and characterization of pfgcn20, a novel-member of the ATP-binding cassette protein gene family in P. falciparum. In a PCR-based cloning strategy, I employed redundant oligonucleotides directed against sequences encoding the highly conserved Walker motifs within the ATP-binding cassette, and the resulting amplified DNA fragments were used for library screening and gene walking experiments that resulted in the molecular isolation of the pfgcn20 gem. The pfgcn20 gene spans 2448 nucleotides and was predicted to encode a 95.5 kilo-daltons hydrophilic protein, PFGCN20, with two …  Read more

Chez les patients avec un cancer du sein avancé et/ou métastatique, la résistance aux agents thérapeutiques demeure la principale cause d’inefficacité des traitements. L’intégration clinique et l’approbation de nouvelles thérapies sont souvent limitées par la faible capacité de transposition en clinique des résultats obtenus en laboratoire à partir de modèles conventionnels tels que les lignées cellulaires et les xénogreffes. Les modèles de xénogreffes dérivées de tumeurs de patients, implantées chez la souris (Patient-derived xenografts ou PDX), reproduisent fidèlement les caractéristiques génétiques et histologiques des tumeurs de patients, et leur réponse aux traitements. Pour cette raison, ils sont devenus, au cours …  Read more

The Eighties were a time in Western popular music that seemed to exist only by virtue of it coming after something else---namely, the 1960s counterculture and the punk rock of the 1970s. Inheriting both the failure of permanent cultural revolution and the intense cynicism that is punk's strongest legacy, youth cultures in the 1980s found it increasingly difficult to live in the present. This thesis labels this historical dilemma postmodern. It will show how SPIN magazine attempted to move past this dilemma in order to assert a unique identity for 1980s popular music and youth cultures. In particular, John Leland, …  Read more

The nation-state is now the dominant form of sovereign statehood, however, a century and a half ago the political map of Europe comprised only a handful of sovereign states, very few of them nations in the modern sense. Balkan historiography often tends to minimize the complexity of nation-building, either by referring to the national community as to a monolithic and homogenous unit, or simply by neglecting different social groups whose consciousness varied depending on region, gender and generation. Further, Bulgarian and Serbian historiography pay far more attention to the problem of "how" and "why" certain events have happened than to …  Read more

La relation entre le respect du droit international et la légitimité des interventions humanitaires a été étudiée de différentes façons, et par différentes sous-disciplines. Pourtant, l’étude d’un certain genre d’intervention, celui des interventions humanitaires menées par des organisations intergouvernementales, mérite d’être revisitée. En effet, il existe seulement une maigre littérature sur le sujet, et presque aucune étude ne vérifie si les résultats obtenus par le passé restent valables au fil du temps. Les approches utilisant l’analyse de discours comme outil d’analyse semblent rares également. Cette étude décide d’adopter un tel outil dans son approche de la légitimité et du respect …  Read more

In this thesis, we consider the problem of designing a control policy for an infinite-horizon discounted cost Markov Decision Process (MDP) M when there is only access to an approximate model M. In this context, we ask the following question: If an optimal policy π is designed for the approximate model, how well does it perform when used in the true model M? We provide an answer to this by bounding a weighted norm of the difference between the value function of π when used in M and the optimal value function of M by providing certain technical conditions on …  Read more

Dissolution, rest potential, cyclic voltammetry and contact angle studies have been conducted on the components of INCO matte, chalcocite (Cu4$ sb{2}$S) and heazlewoodite (Ni$ sb{3}$S$ sb{2}$), in water and collector solutions. Dissolution of Ni from heazlewoodite was observed at pH .25 V. A reaction for MBT on chalcocite at $-$0.06 V, not reported previously, was proposed. Contact angle measurements were performed with chalcocite and heazlewoodite in the presence of 2 $ times$ 10$ sp{-3}$ M NaEX over a range of potential and pH values. A significant difference in contact angle between chalcocite and heazlewoodite was observed. There was general agreement …  Read more

Xanthate interaction with pentlandite and pyrrhotite has been investigated in the case of single and mixed minerals in the presence of Ni ions and depressants such as meta-bisulfite (MBS), diethylenetriamine (DETA) and MBS plus DETA at two pHs controlled by lime and soda ash. It was found that dixanthogen was the main product and the surface concentration was consistently higher on pentlandite than on pyrrhotite. Ni ions enhanced the dixanthogen adsorption on both minerals in the case of single minerals. Mixed mineral experiments (i.e. pentlandite and pyrrhotite together) showed that dixanthogen formation on penlandite was promoted while on pyrrhotite it …  Read more

Cardiovascular disease is the second leading cause of death in Canada, resulting in $20.9 billion annual healthcare expenditures. Understanding the mechanics of the human aorta is fundamental for studying pathology progression and improving surgical grafts. This work is an experimental evaluation of the dynamic response of the human descending thoracic aorta to pulsatile flow, for hyperelastic and viscoelastic material characterizations. A mock circulatory loop was built to reproduce physiological cardiac pulsatile conditions for the aorta ex-vivo, and obtain the viscoelastic parameters with fluid-structure interactions. Then, specimens were dissected into the three constituent layers: intima, media and adventitia, for layer-specific material …  Read more

L’exposition au stress en début de vie prédispose les individus à des troubles neuropsychiatriques en modifiant la neurotransmission et la plasticité neuronale dans les régions du cerveau qui sont principalement impliquées dans le traitement des émotions et le contrôle cognitif, faisant partie du système corticolimbique. En particulier, des changements précoces dans l’équilibre entre activation et inhibition neuronale ainsi qu’une activité dysfonctionnelle des neurones inhibiteurs pourraient être impliqués dans les effets à long terme du stress néonatal sur le fonctionnement du système corticolimbique. Ceci pourrait donc conduire à un phénotype anxieux a l’âge adulte. De plus, l’exposition au stress précoce peut …  Read more

Acheson, Nicholas H. (Supervisor)  Read more

The thesis examines the utility of a pre-developed conceptual framework for learning about the human resource development (HRD) needs in a national context. The literature review focuses on knowledge-building within the main development theories and paradigms, two mainstream approaches to building knowledge about HRD and education sectors in developing countries, namely the systems approach and the strategic approach, and the role of the researcher and expert-sources of data in the knowledge-building process in research related to HRD and educational policy. The methodology involved carrying out a case study on HRD in Nicaragua using a conceptual framework, and then studying its …  Read more

Manoukian, Setrag (Supervisor)  Read more

Bider, J. R. (Supervisor)  Read more

As an earth-bound being man is confronted by two landscapes; the natural and the man-made, and both are of interest to him as an intellectual creature. While both landscapes may cause feelings of awe, or peace, or in some cases apprehension, the emotion aroused by the sight of a man-made landscape is imbued with a deeper feeling of identification which flows from the recognition of the work of fellow creatures. A sign of man in an otherwise empty landscape can change an l-It attitude to an I-Thou attitude, even though the sign may be no more than a vehicle track …  Read more

The genus Anoplonyx Marlatt belongs to the more generalized of the Nematinae and is clearly defined taxonomically (Ross, 1937). This genus is comprised of very few known species, four in North America and four in Europe; all are associated with Larix. The species are closely similar and difficult to distinguish, especially in the adult stage.  Read more

In the context of human subjects research, it is widely accepted that some persons are more vulnerable than others and that there exists a moral obligation to pay special attention to and provide additional protections for them. Since the seminal Belmont Report of 1979, research ethics policies and guidelines have employed the concept of vulnerability to alert researchers and research ethics boards (REBs) to this obligation and to guide the assessment and remediation of vulnerability. However, concerns have been raised that current conceptions of vulnerability may be stigmatizing and provide inadequate guidance. Consequently, there exists significant debate about the central …  Read more

The fact that a water hammer blow effect is experienced in an enclosed line when the water flow is stopped has been well known to engineers from as long ago as the 17th Century. However, until comparatively recent years, there has been no record of any attempt to solve the problem directly. The most common approach has been that of "solution by avoidance of the difficulty". [...]  Read more

Zawati, Ma'n Hilmi (Supervisor1)  Read more

La plupart des gens connaissent Maurice Constantin-Weyer comme l’auteur d’Un homme se penche sur son passé. C’est ce livre qui lui valut le Prix Goncourt en 1928. A part ce livre dont l’histoire se déroule dans l’ouest du Canada, Constantin-Weyer a écrit une trentaine de livres. Parmi eux, il y a une quinzaine où le lecteur se trouve dans un milieu canadien. De ces livres l’auteur a consacré sept à l’histoire du Canada. Le premier livre historique à paraître fut Vers l’Ouest en 1922, suivi en 1925 de La Bourrasque et en 1927 de Cavelier de ua Salle. Les autres …  Read more

I examined the effect of heterogeneity in the thermal environment on the life history of the cricket Allonemobius fasciatus. Variation in the life cycle was the result of a mixture of phenotypic plasticity and genetic differentiation in phenology-related traits along a latitudinal cline in growing season. Females from a partially bivoltine population have a conditional life history because they can adjust the proportion of diapause eggs in accordance with the likelihood that a second generation will grow and reproduce before winter. The thermal environment is not variable enough to result in the evolution of a marked bet hedging response, as …  Read more

Cette thèse se porte sur l'utilisation des données écologiques disponibles afin d’améliorer notre compréhension de la répartition des espèces, avec un accent particulier sur la génération d’outils qui peuvent être utilisés pour évaluer la probabilité d'établissement d’espèces exogènes (EE). Trois facteurs principaux determinent si une EE s'établira: la pression des propagules, les caractéristiques de l'écosystème destinataire, et les traits des espèces. Ma recherche examine chacun de ces trois facteurs, mettant l’accent sur l'amélioration des prévisions d’établissement et fournissant des outils aux gestionnaires et responsables politiques. Je me concentre sur les méthodes qui sont applicables au niveau des voies d’établissement d’EE …  Read more

In order that acoustical impulse noise may be studied to determine the relationship between the effects of the noise on man and his exposure, a detailed analysis of the noise is required. A technique was developed for obtaining the energy spectrum as a function of time for this type of noise. [...]  Read more

La simulation menée par logiciel comme outil de conception et de vérification est devenue presque omniprésente dans la société industrielle et basée sur la technologe d'aujourd'hui. Comme les systèmes se développent en éechelle et en complexité, souvent sur une base non linéaire, les exigences sur la simulation changent en conséquence. La simulation distribuée est une approche pour traiter d'une telle croissance. Alors que la simulation distribuée devient la norme dans divers contextes, le centre d'intérêt s'est porté sur l'efficacité de telles simulations. Une approche populaire a été de diviser un problème donné dans des sous-unités de manière à optimiser l'efficacité …  Read more

The genus Cinara Curtis comprises approximately 175 described species, all of which feed exclusively on coniferous trees and shrubs. The majority of these species occur in the North Temperate Zone, being found in North America, Europe, Asia, the British Isles, North Africa, Japan, Korea and Formosa. A few species occur in the South Temperate Zone of Soutih Africa and Australia. [...]  Read more

This study is an institutional ethnography that examines the social relations of power organizing the work of non-profit community organizations, specifically through funding processes. Starting in the experiences of workers at three Montreal community organizations, it draws attention to the ways in which the capitalist state downloads the responsibilities of health and social services onto 'community', and coordinates the depoliticization of community organizations through funding agreements that limit political work. The study also attends to the informal and incidental learning that happens through the funding work of community organizations. The data consists of semi-structured interviews, and textual analysis of key …  Read more

This thesis examines, from a feminist perspective, conceptions of the body proposed by poststructuralist philosophy and postmodernist art practice. Within both feminist and postmodern critiques of the humanist subject, the body has come to be understood as a site of cultural inscriptions. In tracing the relationship between postmodernism and feminism, the thesis addresses specifically the shift from celebratory, affirmative female imagery typical of feminist art in the seventies, to the semiotic analysis of images of women which, in the eighties, problematized the question of sexual difference as one of representation. During the eighties women artists generally eschewed figurative representations of …  Read more

In April, 1959, the Commonwealth Parliament enacted an Act, the Civil Aviation (Carriers• Liability) ( 1) Act 1959. This Act deals with international carriage by air and carriage by air within Australia. It made far reaching and perhaps revolutionary changes to the law of carriage by air within Australia. This thesis was written for the purpose of describihi those changes and their effect and to describe the law applying to carriage by air which is not covered by the Act. [...]  Read more

Of the wood used by the pulp industry, only about 50% is accounted for as the cellulose isolated from the pulping process. The other 50% is dissolved by the cooking liquors which in consequence contain carbohydrates and much lignin. In the past these liquors have been mostly discharged as waste, but nowadays much research is going into methods of recovertng these waste materials and using them industrially. [...]  Read more

The flux of soil C is linked to soil nutrient cycling and plant uptake but the exact nature of these relationships is unclear. Interactions between labile-C and humus form in controlling microbial and nutrient dynamics were studied. A new kinetic parameter was derived to reliably assess the potential energy supply to soil microbes. A bioassay study demonstrated that the rhizosphere of paper birch (Betula papyrifera Marsh.) seedlings increased soil available-C and microbial biomass but decreased microbial nutrient limitation; results suggest an alternative conceptual model for N cycling termed "co-metabolic N mineralization". Go-metabolic N mineralization occurred in a mull but not …  Read more

The dopamine transporter, the principle binding site for such drugs of abuse as cocaine and amphetamines, has a critical role in limiting dopamine availability. Several lines of evidence, including variation of DAT density in human alcoholics and in vervet monkeys with a preference for alcohol, have implicated this locus as a candidate gene, which might increase vulnerability to alcoholism. The objective of this study was to identify polymorphisms in the regulatory region of the dopamine transporter and determine whether there was an association between any of the alleles and alcoholism. Five polymorphisms were identified: three in humans and two in …  Read more

The importance of effective and timely psychotherapy treatment for Canadians in need has received increased attention in recent years. Additionally, there has been a call to better understand the current practices of the psychology workforce, to first understand where we stand as a field and further, to gain insight into how to best utilize psychology experts in the provision of mental health services. As the need for increased accessibility to psychotherapy treatment has come to the forefront of concerns in mental health care service delivery, initiatives to understand how best to implement programs aimed at increasing access have begun to …  Read more

A guinea pig model of dextran sulphate-induced colitis was developed to investigate nutritional strategies in improving gastrointestinal inflammation. The present study aimed to determine if a diet rich in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) improves clinical and physical symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and whether DHA alters inflammatory lipid mediator production, and subsequent systemic effects on the acute phase response (APR). DHA improved symptoms of IBD, including; fecal blood, diarrhea, lethargy, survival, and dietary intake. Feeding of DHA increased the percent of DHA in livers (1.2% vs 0.3%), tended to decrease inflammatory mediator production, but did not decrease intestinal damage or …  Read more

The retinoblastoma tumour suppressor protein (pRB) and E2F transcription factors are vital regulators of the cell cycle. There are three pRB and eight E2F family members in mammals, which play overlapping and distinct roles in development and disease. Notably, loss of pRB and deregulated E2F are hallmarks of cancer cells. Studies largely performed using tissue culture cells led to the classic model of E2F as an inducer of S-phase genes to promote cell cycle induction. However, in vivo studies have been revealing much more complex roles for E2F that remain poorly understood. To address this, I examined the regulation and …  Read more

Lameness is a prevalent issue within the dairy industry that has serious financial and welfare implications. The implementation of alternative gait assessment methods outside of traditional visual locomotion scoring is of interest to producers and researchers, as identifying abnormalities in locomotion early on is key to preventing severe cases of lameness. Some automated approaches are conducted via kinematic, kinetic, and accelerometric technologies. Kinematic approaches focus on how the cow moves through time and space, kinetic approaches focus on force-related measures exerted by the cow, and accelerometric approaches focus on the acceleration of the body as the cow moves. The thesis …  Read more

Cette thèse étudie les représentations de l'expérience religieuse personnelle dans les lettres de Paul en essayant de mieux cerner la nature des phénomènes qui y sont évoqués et l'objectif que poursuit leur auteur en y faisant référence. L'enquête voudrait contribuer à corriger une omission fréquente dans l'étude universitaire des témoignages d'expérience subjective dans le Nouveau Testament et dans les textes religieux anciens en général. La thèse marie une lecture socio-rhétorique des textes pauliniens à l'analyse des données expérientielles qui s'en dégagent, en faisant appel à la théorie contemporaine du rituel et de la connaissance et à des modèles anthropologiques pour …  Read more

The phenomenon of coagulation of colloidal systems is analogous in many respects to a chemical reaction, proceeding at a definite rate dependent on temperature and concentration, and being markedly sensitive to the presence of foreign substances. It is, however, mainly a diffusion-controlled process. The consequence of this is that no equilibrium state can be set up to describe the reacting system. Hence the problem cannot be treated on the basis of either the collision theory of chemical reactions or the theory of the transition state, since both of these depend on an equilibrium configuration of the reactants, activated intermediates and …  Read more

Plant, D. V. (Supervisor)  Read more

The shipping industry plays an important role in today's Quebec economy and its activities are numerous and diversified. This study identifies the law applicable and its origins. By its very nature and to a great extent, admiralty law is linked to the private law system. What should be the role played by admiralty law and what is the relationship between admiralty law and civil law when a maritime case arises in the province of Quebec is the question addressed here. To identify the applicable law and its sources is a very complex and difficult task because of the Canadian federalism …  Read more

L'échange d'indice de matières premières sur les marchés à terme est une stratégie d'investissement relativement jeune et les conséquences de cette pratique ne sont encore que partiellement comprises. Le gestionnaire de fonds spéculatif Michael Masters a déjà formulé l'hypothèse que les stratégies d'investissement seulement long mènent à des changements indus du prix de ces indices, qui en retour affecte les cours au comptant sous-jacents. Cependant, peu de preuves empiriques sont venues soutenir cette déclaration. Les conséquences des échanges d'indices de matières premières pourraient être substantielles, toutefois, la règlementation de cette activité pourrait aussi engendrer des couts administratifs importants et affecter …  Read more