McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par B

This thesis describes a theoretical and experimental investigation of a two-dimensional, turbulent jet flowing, at incompressible speeds, onto a screen placed at right angles to the flow. Five wire screens with square mesh and open area ratios ranging form 0.34 to 0.66 were tested over a range of Reynolds numbers. Attention was focussed on the loss of momentum of the flow through the screen and the subsequent development of the flow downstream. For the screens with relatively large open area ratios, there was a tendency for the jet profiles to return to a self-preserving shape downstream. For the more solid …  Read more

The following study traces the history of fundamental political resistance to Communism in the Soviet Occupied Zone/German Democratic Republic from 1945 to 1955. The two most tangible manifestations of this form of resistance are dealt with: actions of members of the non-Marxist parties before being co-opted into the Communist system, and the popular uprising on 17 June 1953. In both manifestations, the state's abuse of basic rights of its citizens---such as freedom of speech and personal legal security---played a dominant role in motivation to resist. This study argues that the 17 June uprising was an act of fundamental resistance which …  Read more

Phelan McDermid Syndrome (PMS) has only 400 known cases worldwide. Characteristics of this genetic disorder include a lack of speech, moderate to severe intellectual disabilities and characteristics of autism (Shaw et al., 2007). This study assessed factors contributing to the quality of life in these families using a mixed method approach. Data was collected from 26 families through a quality of life assessment and a semi-structured interview (FQOLS; Beach Center, 2001; EFI; Weisner, Bernheimer & Coots, 1997). The interviews were coded for themes and simple linear regression was used to determine the variables that best predict quality of life. The …  Read more

Sinacore, Ada L. (Supervisor2)  Read more

Social drinkers (healthy males aged 18--34) participated in three experiments that examined some of the mechanisms that may be responsible for the effects of alcohol on emotionally charged memory. In a study on incidental learning, alcohol enhanced neutral, positive and negative memory, possibly by a nonselective consolidation mechanism. Alcohol's enhancement of memory was found to not be associated (contingently related) with its incentive reward and relief effects. In another study on intentional learning, alcohol enhanced positive memory and/or inhibited negative memory, possibly reflecting a contingent relationship to its incentive effects. When the role of individual differences was examined, relatively little …  Read more

Delinquency among adolescents has become one of the major problems of our society. Much has been written about this problem and many studies by sociologists, psychologists, and psychiatrists, have been made to find the causes. Over the decades many theories as to the cause or causes of delinquency have been postulated by various writers. These theories have varied from that of heredity to those of environmental or social factors. [...]  Read more

The purpose of this study is to examine the distribution of authority within the family organization and evaluate its effects on family relationships and personality development. Specifically, we will study the democratie family and compare it to families organized along the more traditional lines. [...] It has become increasingly clear that family authority generally and the democratie family specifically must be clarified within bath an operational and theoretical framework. It is the intent of this study to produce objective evidence which will lead to a reevaluation of what the democratie family means. We will also test a number of hypotheses …  Read more

Walker, R. (Supervisor)  Read more

The CBC Current Affairs program Sunday Morning is used as a case study to develop an appropriate theory and conceptual apparatus for the understanding of the relationship between the organisation of news-production and news-product. This relation is first identified as critical to the field of mass media studies in general, and news-research in particular. On the basis of this review a new model of news-as-discourse is proposed. In the examination of the radio program Sunday Morning this model and its conceptual categories are further developed and linked with other research in the sociology of news, the structuralist analysis of narrative, …  Read more

In the present study, the influence of boundary conditions on the propagation of a vapor explosion in a stratified tin/water system has been investigated experimentally. In one of two experiments, a propagating interaction was initiated, by an exploding wire trigger, in a channel formed by two sections of 1.25 cm and 5 cm in width. The interaction failed consistently at the transition into the larger channel, due to the sudden lateral expansion. The behavior of the interaction was also investigated in the absence of confining walls, accomplished by triggering it in the center of a cylindrical tank. The system's response …  Read more

Software tools are often adopted during large-scale software development in order to increase software productivity. Tools can affect the ability of the organization to deliver quality software systems; and they can affect software development cost and cycle-time. However, too frequently, the insertion of tools fails to yield the desired improvement. This constitutes a significant problem to software organizations because the adoption of a tool can incur considerable cost, and because the adoption of inappropriate tools can disrupt the development process. Predicting the impact of tool insertion has traditionally been difficult because one tool can have drastically different effects on different …  Read more

This thesis presents a number of major innovations in related but different areas of research. The contributions range along a continuum from mathematical phylogenetics, to development of statistical methodology for detecting recombination and finally to the application of statistical techniques to understand Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) an important pathogen. An underlying theme is the application of combinatorial and statistical ideas to problems in evolutionary biology and genetics. Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 give a number of results relevant to mathematical phylogenetics, in particular maximum parsimony. Chapter 2 presents a new formulation of maximum parsimony in terms of character subdivision, providing …  Read more

The Wilms' tumor suppressor gene 1 (wt1) encodes a transcription factor belonging to the Early Growth Response (EGR) family of proteins. The gene produces an mRNA that is alternatively spliced to yield four different species. In this thesis, it is shown that the wt1 gene has two sites of translational initiation, an AUG codon and a CUG codon that is upstream of and in frame with the AUG codon. The combination of alternative initiation sites and alternatively spliced exons allows the gene to encode eight different isoforms. It was previously shown that heterozygous mutations of wt1, predicted to result in …  Read more

Cooper, D. G. (Advisor)  Read more

eIF4F is a complex of three polypeptides: eIF4E, the cap binding protein, eIF4A, an RNA helicase and eIF4G, a large polypeptide which serves as a molecular bridge between the mRNA and the ribosome. eIF4E is the least abundant of the initiation factors in most cell types making it a crucial target for translational control. Two important mechanisms involved in regulating eIF4E activity are its phosphorylation at serine 209 and the binding of the inhibitory 4E binding proteins (4EBPs). eIF4E becomes phosphorylated in response to extracellular stimuli such as growth factors, mitogens and hormones by the p38-MAP kinase pathway kinases Mnk1 …  Read more

Scarth, G. (Supervisors)  Read more

Cette étude examine les représentations de l’itinérance dans deux journaux montréalais, The Gazette et La Presse, sur trois décennies (1991-2019). Fondée sur le constructionnisme social, elle utilise une analyse critique du discours pour identifier les thèmes discursifs récurrents et émergents liés aux problématisations, aux réponses et aux solutions proposées, aux représentations des personnes en situation d'itinérance, aux attributions causales et aux voix incluses en tant qu'auteurs de revendications. Cette recherche apporte de nouvelles perspectives à l’étude des discourse médiatiques sur l’itinérance en prolongeant l’analyse longitudinale jusqu’aux années 2010 et en se concentrant sur Montréal, un context peu étudié dans la …  Read more

Turks and Indians are the two major figures of the Other in French Renaissance literature. The purpose of this thesis is to explore otherness from a closer point of view by analysing the discursive allusions of the inhabitants of the South of the French Kingdom, particularly those of the "Province de Languedoc" throughout a collection of texts from the second half of the 16th century, whether they be strictly of a literary, historical or geographical source. Using the imagology method, the idea of the South being a key space in the emergence of the French identity is challenged. First of …  Read more

Ce travail documente des progrès dans les capacités instrumentales et expérimentales pour l’étude des processus ultrarapides et de hors-équilibres des relations structure-propriété des systèmes chimiques et des matériaux. De nouveaux résultats sont présentés ici, incluant: des données obtenues à partir de mesures spectroscopiques pompe-sonde avec une résolution temporelle de l’ordre des femtosecondes à des fréquences infrarouges médiannes (IR médian) et visibles sur des solutions aqueuses de photoacides Brønsted donneurs de protons HPTS (pyranine), APTS et curcumine; de mesures spectroscopiques bidimensionnelles IR médian d’indicateurs de la dynamique des liaisons hydrogène dans des solutions aqueuses de divers acétates halogènes substitués (par examin …  Read more

In the ideology of sentimentalism, physical sensation integrates the parts of the body into a whole, and the fragmented members of the body politic into a social community. However, intense pain is always an individual experience. It not only isolates us from other people, but is also isolates us from our own bodies: pain renders our bodies out of control. Moreover, pain attacks our very notion of self by threatening to render us unconscious, and unable to perceive that self. This complex of problems became especially acute for late eighteenth-century writers, as they tried to reconcile their sympathy for the …  Read more

Travis, Lisa (Supervisor)  Read more

In the face of an explosion of feminist discourse and an increasingly global, deeply troubled socio-religious climate, the following study explores the role of religion qua Christianity in researching female subjectivity, according to Julia Kristeva. Kristeva's pervasive influence and controversial reception in academic circles grants her the focus of this investigation. This project familiarizes the reader with Kristeva's theory of subjectivity as a process and situates her among the plethora of feminist theorists. It also examines her view that religion is an illusory therapy for the modern subject in crisis. Finally, these two themes are brought together in a discussion …  Read more

Environ 1 couple canadien sur 6 est confronté à l'infertilité; plusieurs ont recours aux techniques de procréation assistée (TPA) pour concevoir. Bien que les TPA se soient améliorées, des recherches supplémentaires dans le domaine de la reproduction peuvent nous aider à améliorer les protocoles actuels de TPA. L'hormone folliculostimulante (FSH) est un régulateur essentiel de la reproduction et est souvent utilisée dans les TPA. La production de FSH dans les cellules gonadotropes hypophysaires est régulée par de multiples facteurs, dont les inhibines gonadiques. Les inhibines A et B sont des membres de la superfamille TGFβ qui suppriment la synthèse de …  Read more

In the first segment of the critical part of my thesis, my thought lays on "L'art du roman" of Virginia Woolf. In the second part, while recognizing certain qualities in the critical work of the English writer, I take side in favor of the literary theories of Celine and Sartre. In the last part of this text, I am exposing my views according to which the Quebec's literature would have greater advantage of being more "engage". The creating part of my thesis takes shape as a "roman engage". The story is about a disillusioned nationalist Quebecer, graduate and unemployed, who …  Read more

Le rétinoblastome (RB) est une protéine classifiée comme suppresseur de tumeur. Elle joue plusieurs rôles importants dans la cellule, incluant: la régulation du cycle cellulaire, la différentiation cellulaire et l'apoptose. Dès sa découverte, le rétinoblastome a été caractérisé par son rôle primaire en règlant le cycle cellulaire dans lequel RB fonctionne comme régulateur de la transition entre la phase G1 et la phase S. Depuis ce temps, d'autres rôles pour RB indépendents de son fonctionnement dans le cycle cellulaire ont été identifiés. Notamment, il a été démontré que RB joue un rôle important dans la promotion de processus de dévelopement …  Read more

Damiano, Pasini, (Supervisor1)  Read more

Although attention has been focussed on the eastern portion of the Gaspe Peninsula for many years by numerous campanies prospecting for oil, it is only comparatively recently that economie base metal deposits of substantial size have been proved. This resulted from a prospector tracing a piece of mineralized neat to its source. The discovery led to the formation of Gaspe Copper Mines Ltd., a Noranda subsidiary. The mine, which is now taking shape, is transforming a section ot the Gaspe wilderness into a modern industrial enterprise and has been responsible for the birth of the new town of Murdochville. It …  Read more

Ce mémoire aborde les villes de Moncton et d'Ottawa à partir de la notion de « capitale littéraire » de Pascale Casanova. Tandis que la ville de Moncton est parvenue à devenir la capitale littéraire de l'Acadie, la ville d'Ottawa, qui rappelle pourtant sa contrepartie acadienne à bien des égards, peine à endosser cette fonction pour l'Ontario français. Dans chacune des parties de ce mémoire, il s'agit d'étudier le rôle institutionnel de ces villes puis d'identifier les stratégies d'écriture par lesquelles leurs auteurs ont cherché, ou non, à les transformer en capitale littéraire. Le premier chapitre porte sur la ville …  Read more

Future missions like Roman, HabEx, and LUVOIR will directly image exoplanets in reflected light. While current near-infrared direct imaging searches are only sensitive to young, self-luminous planets whose brightness is independent of their orbital phase, reflected light imaging will reveal changes in planet brightness over the course of an orbit due to phase variations. One of the first objectives will be determining the planet’s orbit via astrometry, the projected position of the planet with respect to its host star in the sky plane. We show that phase variations can significantly improve the accuracy and precision of orbital retrieval with two …  Read more

Hohlweg, Christophe (Supervisor2)  Read more

Chronic pain is overwhelmingly prevalent in the paediatric population, with 10-25% of children and adolescents affected and 5% disabled by it. Approximately only 3% of the children and adolescent suffering from chronic pain will receive an effective treatment. Current treatment protocols are based on general anaesthesia protocols for adults, which are not well adapted to younger patients. There is an imperative need for better treatment solutions since failure to treat those patients bears a negative impact on their health and daily lives, in addition to being an economic burden for society through healthcare costs and loss of productivity.Quantitative sensory testing …  Read more

Les médicaments opioïdes sont fréquemment prescrits aux patients souffrant de douleur chronique, mais leur utilisation peut entraîner des problèmes tels que le mésusage et la dépendance. Les données probantes indiquent que l’envie d’opioïdes (en anglais « craving », c.-à-d. un fort désir ou une impulsion de consommer des opioïdes) peut augmenter la propension des patients à en faire un usage problématique. Bien que de nombreuses recherches aient été menées sur les déterminants de l’envie d’opioïdes chez les utilisateurs illicites, notre compréhension des facteurs qui contribuent à cette envie chez les patients atteints de douleur chronique et qui se voient prescrire …  Read more

Two experiments were carried out to assess the dietary preferences of nursing and early-weaned piglets when offered a choice between similar diets differing only in one experimental ingredient. In experiment 1, 25 nursing and 15 early-weaned (21 days) Landrace litters were assigned to a preference test and a combination of two diets containing 70% of corn (C), wheat (W), barley (8), or oats (O) and 30% of a basal mix in a completely randomized design. Maximum percent of relative preference and highest average daily intake per piglet were obtained, for the nursing piglets, with diets containing W (60%a), followed by …  Read more

The overriding theme of this thesis concerns the level of antitrust enforcement within the U.S. airline industry by the agencies entrusted with this task. After a brief Introduction, Chapter I will examine whether concentration within the U.S. airline industry is a natural phenomenon or an ordinary monopoly/oligopoly resulting from the behaviour of competitors. In concluding that a natural monopoly/oligopoly does not exist, Chapter II will analyse the policy being antitrust enforcement in the industry. Chapter III will then use the implementation of S 408 of the Federal Aviation Act (FAA) by the Department of Transportation (DOT) as an example of …  Read more

Objective. To identify predictors of injection cessation among Montreal active injection drug users (IDUs). Design. Subjects were selected from the St. Luc Cohort, a prospective study that has accrued IDUs since 1988. Subjects were eligible if they completed at least 3 visits between 1995 and 1999. Predictors of sustained and of short injection cessation were examined using logistic and Cox proportional regression. Results. Sustained injection cessation was negatively associated with injection frequency, a surrogate marker of addiction severity. Getting syringes at needle exchange programs or pharmacies impacted positively on the ability of moderate users to initiate and sustain injection cessation. …  Read more

Education represents one of Isabelle de Charriere's favourite topics. In her novels, the author has expressed her concerns on the matter, but her comments refer particularly to women's education. The present study will therefore be dedicated to the gathering of these observations, in order to show the author's position regarding the education of women. Afterwards, it should be possible to see whether Madame de Charriere's ideas may be compared to those of her time. In the case of women, moral education is preponderant, but knowledge is also important. In addition to her pedagogical advice, the writer provides some thoughts on …  Read more

Ce mémoire identifie des moyens accessibles aux décideurs politiques et aux acteurs de l'industrie informatique pour promouvoir l'inventivité et l'innovation de logiciels. Pour ce faire, la clôture de la brevetabilité des programmes informatiques est chevauchée : ne prenant pas parti à ce débat, le point de vue qu'elle procure est utilisé pour apprécier sur deux volets des outils favorisant l'inventivité et l'innovation de logiciels. D'abord, leur faisabilité est évaluée de façon pragmatique en analysant la superstructure du droit international de la propriété intellectuelle, principalement l'Accord sur les aspects des droits de propriété intellectuelle qui touchent au commerce, qui prévoit des …  Read more

The arbitrability of legal disputes surrounding patent issues is a controversial problem in most legal systems. For many countries, patent disputes touch on public policy, which in turn, often interfere and sometimes deny the arbitrability of such disputes. There is no legal obstacle to arbitration. The controversy lies rather in the arbitral tribunal's power to challenge the validity of registered rights. In all cases, the state ensures that all granted rights fulfil the legal criteria. Therefore, it may decide to give exclusive rights to its jurisdiction to adjudicate any dispute challenging the validity of a patent. This paper suggests doing …  Read more

Newman, B. G.  Read more

Alcohol abuse is the second most prevalent lifetime psychiatric disorder. However, individuals do not face an equal risk of developing problematic alcoholrelated behaviors. Alcohol use disorders are heterogeneous conditions whose development may be caused by a variety of factors and vulnerabilities. The identification of markers of risk is necessary in order to identify individuals at higher risk for addiction early on as well as to help develop treatment interventions which target an individual's specific risk factors. The goal of the present dissertation is to increase our understanding of the role that one putative risk factor, an exaggerated cardiac response to …  Read more