McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par B

The early days of the French Revolution witnessed a sudden expansion of the popular press under conditions of complete freedom, and as national issues and party controversies developed, newspapers took up the cudgel of partisan strife. Mirabeau, Brissot, and Condorcet brought politics and journalism into the closest union. By October, 1789, three political groups clearly stood out in the National Assembly: the aristocrats, the moderates or "monarchiens", and the so-called patriots. [...]  Read more

In this thesis, ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy is used to investigate the effect ofinterfaces on charge carrier dynamics and optical gain in CdSe nanocrystals (NCs), CdSe/ZnS core/shell NCs and ultrasmall CdSe NCs. A narrow bandwidth photo-induced absorption (PA) feature has been identified as evidence of surface trapping in pump-probe transients in CdSe nanocrystals. Capping a CdSe NC with a ZnS shell diminishes this surface trapping signal by passivating the surface. However, both CdSe and CdSe/ZnS NCs also demonstrate a second, broad PA shelf upon excitation with an intense pump pulse. This PA shelf is expected to arise from charges trapped either …  Read more

Cette thèse présente des mesures optiques qui révèlent la nature des excitons, ou des pairesliés électron-trou, dans des points quantiques semi-conducteurs colloïdaux. En raison dela restriction de la taille des points quantiques, les excitons dans les points quantiquessont fortement influencés par le confinement quantique et interactions électrostatiques.Les excitons se couplent également aux vibrations dans le réseau cristallin ou la surfacedu points quantique. Ces facteurs font que la points quantique est un excellent terraind’essai pour les dynamique quantiques et les interactions multi-particules. Récemment,la spectroscopie électronique bidimensionelle (2DES) est devenue une méthode populairepour sonder les dynamiques ultrarapidse dans les matériaux électroniques. 2DES …  Read more

Nikolaos Provatas (Supervisor2)  Read more

Beaucoup d'enfants ont plus de difficultés à prononcer clairement les sons que les autres enfants de leur âge, et présentent un trouble phonologique (TP). Les enfants qui ont un TP sont à risque de présenter des difficultés académiques et socio-émotives. Une bonne compréhension de la nature sous-jacente de leur TP est nécessaire afin de fournir une intervention efficace (Stackhouse & Wells, 1997). Tandis que les orthophonistes évaluent les manifestations de surface des troubles de la communication depuis plusieurs décennies, la connaissance des causes sous jacentesdes TP et des troubles de langage est plus limitée, mais grandissante. De plus, alors qu'il …  Read more

The Strange Lake rare-metal (Zr, REE, Nb, Be) deposit on the border of Québec and Labrador, Canada, contains a large resource of zirconium, rare earth elements and niobium. Much of the potentially economic mineralization was concentrated by magmatic processes, with additional remobilization of REE by hydrothermal fluids. The alkaline granite pluton (1240 ± 2 Ma; Miller et al., 1997) intruded along the contact between an Elsonian quartz monzonite massif in the southwest and paragneisses of Hudsonian age in the northeast.Much of the rare metal mineralization occurs in pegmatite lenses in the subsolvus granite, which are most abundant in the Main …  Read more

Malgré des décennies de recherche proposant des solutions politiques efficaces, la pauvreté est restée un problème persistant au Canada. Un nombre important de recherches ont été produites pour répondre aux arguments courants contre ces solutions, mais le problème n'est toujours pas résolu. Cette thèse étudie les raisons pour lesquelles ces solutions n'ont pas été mises en œuvre en examinant la manière dont la pauvreté est présentée. Plus précisément, elle explore la manière dont les idées méritocratiques au sein d'une structure de gouvernance néolibérale influencent et façonnent la politique de lutte contre la pauvreté. En utilisant le Manitoba comme étude de …  Read more

Étant une des maladies infectieuses parmi les plus répandues et affectant 99 pays à travers le monde, plus de 3 milliards de personnes risquent de contracter le paludisme à chaque année. Le parasite porteur de la maladie, le Plasmodium, génère le pigment paludique comme sous-produit durant la dégradation de l'hème. Ce pigment représente une cible médicale importante, puisque sa biosynthèse est essentielle à la survie du parasite. Quoi que le cycle de développement du parasite soit bien compris, le processus de détoxification de l'hème reste à découvrir.L'anhydride d'hématine (HA) est l'analogue synthétique isométrique du pigment paludique couramment utilisé. Une métallation …  Read more

La dégradation contrôlée des ARNm joue un rôle crucial dans la régulation post-transcriptionnelle de l'expression des gènes. Dans le cytoplasme, la plupart de la dégradation des ARNm se produit par un processus dépendant de la déadénylation qui implique le recrutement de déadénylases par des protéines de liaison à l'ARN. Les déadénylases éliminent les queues poly(A) des ARNm, ce qui recrute le complexe de décapage des ARNm à l'extrémité 5' de l'ARNm. Ce complexe hydrolyse la structure en coiffe N7-méthylguanosine de l'ARNm grâce à l'activité enzymatique de DCP2, rendant ainsi l'ARNm vulnérable à la dégradation de l'extrémité 5' vers l'extrémité 3' …  Read more

This thesis examines how the recent socio-economic and political arena in Cuba informs the relationship among the idea of population health, national statistics, and the everyday lives of individuals. Post-revolutionary Cuba has used measures of the health of individuals as a metaphor for the health of the body politic, effectively linking the efficacy of socialism and its governmental apparatus to the health conditions of the population. The creation of a model of health care that was informed by the revolutionaries' vision of a new social order, which in turn would help to create an ' hombre nuevo' (new man and …  Read more

Over the last forty years, China has been facing major problems resuIting from rapid urban growth. In the last decades, great efforts were made to solve the dramatic housing shortage and to improve the appalling living conditions in overcrowded areas. In 1990, the Beijing municipal government launched a program for the renewal of the old city center. A series of residential projects has been implemented in traditional neighborhoods since then which have affected the character of the old city and the lives of its residents. So far, very few studies have been conducted to assess the implementation of the renewal …  Read more

It has been traditionally assumed by most physicians that illnesses of the body are to be treated as such; and that they are not related to the problems of the psychiatrist or the psychologist. In the treatment of skin diseases, it might be reasonable, then, to suppose that one would be concerned solely with salves, ointments, and such specific care of the affected areas. During the past twenty-five years, however, it has become generally recognised, both by physicians and by psychologists, that such an approach to medical problems leaves out of account many factors which it would be profitable to …  Read more

Measurements have been made to determine if the amount of dimethylether sorbed on alumina, under the same conditions of temperature and bulk phase density, depends upon its thermal history. It would be expected on the basis of the orientation hypothesis that the sorption would "be changed by destroying the residual liquid structure which persists above the critical temperature. Within the limits of experimental error, however, no difference could be detected. The variation of sensitivity of quartz spirals used for weighing has been investigated, and an equation has been deduced for making suitable corrections. It was also found that the sensitivity …  Read more

Science ls based upon belief in the concept of causality; in Newtonian terms of direct 'cause' and effect or, in the more recent terms of relativity theory and population statistics, of 'causes' and 'probabilistic effects'. This is mentioned because any attempt to understand brain function immediately involves description and quantification of apparent situation, or stimulus induced effects or 'responses'. Until approximately 80 years ago, the only responses available for study were either of a subjective or of an overt 'behavioural' (motor) nature. [...]  Read more

A field lysimeter experiment was conducted on a sandy loam soil during the growing seasons of 1989 and 1990. The experiment tested the effects of four water table treatments on soybean (Glycine max) yields. The water table depths were 40, 60, 80, and 100 cm in depth. Yields were measured in terms of: total seed mass per plant, number of seeds per plant, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, and speed protein content at harvest. The water management simulation model DRAINMOD, was used to develop irrigation and drainage strategies for soybean production. Three water table management …  Read more

La maladie de Parkinson (MP) est une maladie neurodégénérative complexe causée par une combinaison de facteurs génétiques et environnementaux. Un des gènes associés avec la MP est la kinase 1 induite par PTEN (Pink1), pour laquelle un des rôles dans la répression de la présentation d’antigènes mitochondriaux (MitAP) par le complexe majeur d’histocompatibilité de classe I a récemment été détaillé par notre laboratoire et nos collaborateurs. Une perte de PINK1, qui résulte en une augmentation en MitAP suivant une exposition au pathogène intestinal gram-négatif Citrobacter rodentium, induit l’activation de cellules T CD8+ auto-réactives aux antigènes mitochondriaux in vivo. Ces cellules …  Read more

In the past century, the scope of patentable objects has greatly expanded. Patents are now being granted on living organisms, human biological material and genes. What are the consequences of such practices for scientific research and health care? One of the fundamental philosophical questions behind this issue is the following: are we justified in patenting human genetic material? An examination of the traditional philosophical justification of intellectual property will allow us to critically explore whether or not this practice is ethically justifiable. It will be argued that the consequentialist justification of intellectual property requires, in this present case, that we …  Read more

Aging is often associated with the decline of numerous cognitive functions, especially learning and memory. Stable forms of long-term plasticity require the induction of a cascade of genes to produce and maintain structural changes associated with memory formation in the hippocampus, a brain area essential for spatial memory. Using a microarray approach, global alterations in gene expression were investigated in two animal models of memory deficits; namely Long-Evans rats with memory impairments following systemic administration of scopolamine (a muscarinic acetylcholine receptor antagonist), and a cohort of aged Long-Evans rats which naturally develop memory impairments during aging. Among the various hippocampal …  Read more

Technological development at the turn of the twentieth century, more specially in the hydroelectricity industry, has brought the industrialization of several regions. It has been particularly the case in Quebec, after 1900, when the growth of new industrial groups such as pulp and paper, electro-metallurgy, etc... had given way to the structuration of Quebec's industrial space-economy. After a rapid industrial growth, which has been maintained until the end of the fifties, the Quebec's "inner periphery" regions, which have developed on these industrial groups, have known a slow down when it was not a steady decline. Through a detailed analysis of …  Read more

The early observation that chlorination was an effective delignification agent of wood eventually led to the commercial Pomilio pulping process and to the alkaline hypochlorite bleaching of wood pulps. The study of the lignin products from these and other chlorination processes suffered from the presence of the carbohydrate fraction and from the pressure of the industrial point of view. Moreover, the conditions employed in industry were not necessarily the most advantageous for fundamental lignin studies, so that many lignin products were often highly chlorinated and badly degraded. This circumstance led to the abandonment of chlorination as a means of studying …  Read more

This work surveys currently available methods for measuring human brainwaves in order to generate music and technologies for real-time transmission of audio and music over the Internet. The end goal is to produce a performable music system which sends live human brainwaves over the Internet to produce sounding music at another, physically separated location.  Read more

The Creation of the Roman Frontier, l' uvre de Stephen Dyson, utilise plusieurs modèles anthropologiques pour illuminer le développement de la frontière républicaine. Son traitement de la frontière Ligurienne durant la deuxième siècle avant J.-C. postule une politique' envers les Liguriennes déterminer par le Sénat et les tacticiens de la frontière romain' (les consuls). Dyson fais exprès de ne pas tenir compte des forces de la politique domestique et la compétition aristocratique. Mais son insistance que ces forces cachent les continuités de la politique Ligurienne est incorrecte. Ce thèse évalue les développements dans la Ligurie entre les années 200 et …  Read more

Pristane, a pure alkane, is known to induce plasma cell dyscrasias in BALB/c mice. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of long-term dietary administration of Echinacea purpurea on immune and hemopoietic cell populations of the spleen and bone marrow, of normal and plasmacytoma-bearing mice. The results revealed quantitative cell lineage-specific changes in both the spleen and bone marrow of pristane-exposed animals. Moreover, the consumption of Echinacea resulted in cancellation of the pristane-mediated negative effects on NK cells and nucleated erythroid cells. Echinacea administration over the long-term resulted in a prolongation of the onset of old age mediated deaths …  Read more

Extrudate swell is an important phenomenon in polymer extrusion, affecting many polymer processes. The ability of predicting swell, using rheological properties of the resin, would help the design and operation of plastics processing equipment. Different techniques for predicting swell are reviewed. A computer program has been written to predict steady-state, isothermal extrudate swell in annular and circular dies. The equations of motion and continuity have been solved along with selected constitutive relations. Newtonian, power-law and the viscoelastic Maxwell and Giesekus rheological models were chosen. The Galerkin formulation of the Finite Element Method has been used to solve the system of …  Read more

Bone marrow transplantations frequently result in a graft-versus-host reaction (GVHR) even when donors and recipients are HLA matched. In the present work with mice, an experimental protocol was designed to verify whether or not a GVHR ensuing immunosuppression can occur even in the absence of a difference at the level of the major histocompatibility antigens. Injection of lymphoid cells from donors histoincompatible with recipients at the level of one or multiple minor antigens induced a GVHR resulting in a marked decrease of humoral response of the recipients, and also a lack of ability of their lymphocytes to respond to mitogens. …  Read more

We introduce a weighted model of random trees and analyze the asymptotic properties of their heights. Our framework encompasses most trees of logarithmic height that were introduced in the context of the analysis of algorithms or combinatorics. This allows us to state a sort of "master theorem" for the height of random trees, that covers binary search trees (Devroye, 1986), random recursive trees (Devroye, 1987; Pittel, 1994), digital search trees (Pittel, 1985), scale-free trees (Pittel, 1994; Barabasi and Albert, 1999), and all polynomial families of increasing trees (Bergeron et al., 1992; Broutin et al., 2006) among others. Other applications include …  Read more

Corballis, Dr. Mike  Read more

Porter, J. (Supervisors)  Read more

To test the hypothesis that compression hastens the healing of fractures, three groups of experimental fractures in dogs have been devised. The first group was treated by plate immobilization and compression. The control groups were immobilized with bone plates or intra medullary nails. 1). It was found that union occured more rapidly in the group treated with compression. [...]  Read more

This thesis consists of analysis of three different data sets: (i) Aircraft-based eddy correlation data collected above irrigated and non-irrigated agricultural land in Southern California during the California Ozone Deposition Experiment (CODE) summer 1991; (ii) micrometeorological tower data, collected over grape and cotton canopies as part of CODE; (iii) aircraft-based eddy correlation flux data above two grid sites in the Canadian boreal forest during the Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS), spring and summer of 1994 and 1996. Results from the CODE aircraft data document composition and size of the dominant structures, which transport heat and gases (H2O, CO 2 and ozone) …  Read more

Nous avons démontré que le problème quand à prendre des décisions concernant des énoncés mathématiques finis, bien que récursif, est infaisable accordé à n'importe quel modèle de calcul. Plus précisément, nous avons établi un ensemble de problèmes mathématiques ne pouvant être résolus que par des programmes assez long qui suggéreraient la décision finale implicitement, au fil des calculs. Ce fait a d'abord été publié en 1973 par un Hongrois du nom de Michael Makkai, et il sera expliqué en anglais pour la toute première fois ici. Dans ce travail, nous 1) éluciderons la démonstration faite par Makkai basé sur l'adaptation …  Read more

This study attempts to extend the scope of existing analyses of unemployment in Jamaica by exploring empirically one aspect of the relation between demand and unemployment. The central hypothesis is that the structure of consumer expenditures which result from a highly skewed income distribution pattern is a cause of continuing high levels of unemployment. A static Leontieff-type input-output model is used to generate solutions for industry output levels and associated employment levels, for alternative expenditure patterns resulting from income redistribution. The results confirm the hypothesis. It was found that although higher employment levels were generally associated with more equitable income …  Read more

This thesis examines the relation between the structure of imports and the growth of the Jamaican eeonomy. [...]  Read more

A study of the literature on stomata shows that although the earlier workers on this subject were cognisant of the effects of external conditions, such as humidity, temperature, etc., on stomatal movement, their observations in regard to these were of a more or less incidental nature. Darwin ( 3 ) came to the conclusion that a high temperature had atleast some effect in keeping stomata open and that it delayed nocturnal closure. [...]  Read more

Two arginine-specific periplasmic binding proteins have been purified from E. coli ML-30 by affinity chromatography on an arginine-BE-Sepharose 48 gel. By this means it was possible to separate the arginine-binding activity of crude osmotic shock fluid into arginine specific (adsorbed) and arginine non-specific (non-adsorbed) binding frictions. The adsorbed fraction which was displaced with arginine was resolved into two arginine-specific binding proteins by gradient elution with arginine. Both proteins differ on the basis of affinities for arginine, Isoelectric Points, mobilities on anionic polyacryilimide gels, but have identical molecular weights, and similar amino acid composition. One of the binding protein, is similar …  Read more

La séquençage des ribosomes (Riboseq) permet l'analyse de la synthèse des proteins. Riboseq isole et capture les courts (~30nt) segments d'ARNm qui sont piégés sous le ribosome pendant la traduction (appelé empreintes de ribosomes ou ERS). Il a d'abord été construit pour observer les changements dans la production de traduction chez la levure, mais les applications de la procédure se sont diversifiées et élargies pour étudier des espèces allant des insectes aux humains. cependant, il n'y a pas de procédure riboseq pour le tissu cérébral humain post-mortem dans la littérature, malgré le fait que cela pourrait permettre des recherches précieuses …  Read more

Climate change is set to impact biodiversity around the globe. In response, pole-wards range shifts are being observed ubiquitously, leading to range contraction for species already living at northern latitudes, such as birds breeding in northern Canada. Any pole-wards shift by these species, or from other species moving up from the south, will cause range contraction and increased extinction risk. Canadian birds are experiencing climate-driven change faster than anywhere else in the world, making it critical to understand the magnitude of change they will experience in the future. Species distribution models (SDMs) are the most commonly used tool to understand …  Read more

Since the time of Bryan's (1974) seminal work on the social status of children with learning disabilities (LD), research has consistently shown that children with LD struggle to earn social acceptance from non-LD peers. Recently, investigators have uncovered within-group variability among children with LD suggesting that some children with LD are well accepted and even popular among non-LD peers. An appeal in the field of learning disabilities has emerged, calling for a shift from deficit-model research focusing on the deficiencies of children with LD, to the investigation of how children with LD obtain positive social outcomes. Accordingly, a study was …  Read more

Crystals of 34% exchanged Eu$ sp{3+} beta sp{ prime prime}$-alumina were studied using site-selective spectroscopic techniques. The Eu$ sp{3+}$ ions were found to exhibit spectra which could be categorized into three types of emitting centres. These emitting centres are related to the crystallographic sites available for Eu$ sp{3+}$ in $ beta sp{ prime prime}$-alumina, namely the mid-Oxygen and Beevers-Ross sites. The fluorescent lifetimes were measured and were found to be consistent with the site assignments, particularly in the variations possible in the Eu$ sp{3+}$ coordination in mid-Oxygen sites. Analysis of the emission intensities reveals that the calculated site populations are …  Read more

During the sixties decade, the literature of Quebec is marked by the emergence of the works of women writers who give precedence to the female protagonist. Thus, contrary to her counterpart prior to 1960, the fictitious woman of the sixties is no longer relegated to the background of the novel. This image of the female as a principal character around whom all the elements of the narrative unfold is new to our literature. Our writers seem to desire, consciously or not, to create heroines who are more than mere props for their husbands or their children. Furthermore, these heroines are …  Read more

One of the greatest advances in chemistry in recent years has been the demonstration of the existence of free atoms and radicles as intermediaries in chemical reactions. More and more, reactions which previously were thought to take place through activated molecules directly have been shown on further analysis to depend on preliminary splitting of these molecules into atoms or radicles. Thus there is a peculiar interest in the study of reactions in which a "molecular" mechanism seems of necessity to be involved. Such a reaction is that forming the basis of this present investigation, namely, the reaction between propylene and …  Read more

Cette thèse étudie l'épidémie de variole qui a frappé Montréal en 1885, la dernière épidémie incontrôlée de variole dans une grande ville. Les analyses précédentes de cette épidémie ont établi un lien entre la sympathie des francophones pour Louis Riel dans le cadre de la Résistance du Nord-Ouest et leur résistance à la vaccination. Cependant, Kahnawà:ke, une réserve Kanien'kehà:ka (Mohawk) située près de Montréal, a apparemment géré l'épidémie sans grande résistance, bien qu'elle ait eu des raisons de sympathiser avec Riel. Cette thèse retrace l'expérience de Kahnawà:ke face à l'épidémie, puis la compare à celle des francophones et des anglophones …  Read more