McGill University Theses and dissertations by author name (F)

When one pauses to consider the whole vegetable kingdom; forest, shrubs, grasses, and plants or the higher types, as built up of cellulose crystals, one readily appreciates the importance of a clear conception of the cellulose unit and its properties. Particularly is this true of its behaviour towards water, for upon these latter relations have been builta large part of our modern civilized structure. In view of the above mentioned facts it seems in order to discuss briefly the structure and specific volume of cellulose and wood, together with some particular swelling properties. [...]  Read more

The work described in this thesis presents data which shows that the steroid glycoside alkaloids (Tomatine and Gomatine) recently isolated from crown gall infected tomato stalks exert anti-inflammatory activity in experimental animals. The oral or parenteral administration of Tomatine one hour prior to injecting carrageenan into rat hind paws significantly inhibited paw swelling in both intact and adrenalectomized animals.  Read more

Glenn, Jane Matthews (Supervisor)  Read more

Students enrolled in vocational courses are suspected of having poorer hearing acuity then other students in regular ( non vocational ) courses due to noise exposure during training. This study compares hearing thresholds of 327 students in vocational courses to those of 370 students of regular courses. Programmes of interest are joinery, welding, motor vehicules and mechanics. […]  Read more

A large interest has been devoted to the use of optical interconnections in digital computer and digital telecommunication systems over the last few years. This interest is motivated by the promise of a greatly increased connectivity, lower power dissipation, and the compactness of interconnections that can be achieved with the use of this technology. This thesis examines the design and the implementation of a modular spot-array generator for a modulator-based free-space optical interconnect. Two cascaded diffractive optical elements produce 4 x 8 clusters on a 1600 mum x 800 mum pitch, where each cluster is a 4 x 4 array …  Read more

Nous assistons à une transition à l’échelle mondiale vers les énergies renouvelables et sources énergétiques faibles en carbone. De nombreuses technologies existantes et nouvelles utilisant de l'électricité renouvelable devront être mises en service afin de réduire les émissions de CO2 et atteindre les objectifs ambitieux de neutralité carbone. Les procédés plasma pour la synthèse de l’ammoniac et la conversion du CO2 promettent non seulement de relever le défi de la neutralité carbone, mais aussi d’augmenter les performances et réduire les coûts d’opération.Deux sources d'excitation typiques utilisées pour produire des plasmas non-thermiques sont les alimentations électriques à impulsions nanoseconde (ns) haute …  Read more

The monumental paintings that Canadian artist Attila Richard Lukacs (b. 1962, Edmonton) created while in Berlin (after 1986) focus on the themes of desire, power, masculinity, and eroticism. This focus, however, is not only a representation of what he sees, but is also an attempt to order things to a political and ethical end. Using the major works of Michel Foucault ( The Order of Things, The History of Sexuality), the thesis demonstrates how Where the Finest Young Men... (1987) and Authentic Decor (1988), may be interpreted as achieving a fundamental ordering and representation of desire. In particular, the thesis …  Read more

Mark, S. K. (Supervisor)  Read more

Assurer un accès fiable à l'eau potable reste un défi aujourd'hui. Les technologies de filtration d'eau basées sur des éponges en oxyde de graphène sont utiles dans ce contexte grâce à la structure hiérarchique des pores, la grande surface, et la bonne adsorption de divers contaminants chimiques et métalliques. Cependant, les propriétés antimicrobiennes et la capacité d'élimination des bactéries par les éponges en oxyde de graphène ne sont pas bien comprises. Bien que des systèmes composites aient été développés pour améliorer les propriétés antimicrobiennes, la plupart de ces systèmes se concentrent sur la conjugaison d'antibiotiques puissants ou de biocides de …  Read more

Kirk, Andrew G. (Supervisor1)  Read more

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is one of the most widely used methods to implement biosensors because of its label-free and sensitive detection. Surface plasmon resonance allows the change in the refractive index of a sample to be measured accurately by the analysis of the light reflecting at a metal-dielectric interface. A way to increase the sensitivity of SPR biosensors was found in fabricating a spectro-angular SPR biosensor and using of a newly developed data processing method called the Double Projection Method. The objective of the work presented in this thesis is to improve further the detection limit of the spectro-angular …  Read more

Severe weather (SW) can have a huge impact on someone's life and property. Presently at Environment Canada (EC), there is no useful automated tool to help the forecasters in their SW forecast. The goal of this thesis was to develop a useful automated tool to help the SW forecasters in their SW predictions. A severe weather intensity (SWI) index was created from the 1-km Global Environmental Multiscale Limited Area Model (GEM-LAM) outputs. The GEM-LAM 1-km was run on summer days in 2008 and 2009 over Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec. The dataset of summer 2009 was used to create algorithms that …  Read more

Munz, Richard J. (Supervisor)  Read more

Joseph, Lawrence (Supervisor2)  Read more

The perioperative use of cardiac medical therapy (aspirin, angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, lipid lowering agents (including statins), and beta-blockers) holds the potential to improve clinical outcomes among patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). These medications have been shown to be efficacious in reducing adverse events in a small number of trials involving non-cardiac surgery patients. However, their use has not been closely examined among CABG patients. We performed a systematic review of the literature in which we identified all studies that examined the perioperative use of cardiac medical therapy among CABG patients. We also examined the use and effectiveness …  Read more

The effect of the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis at reducing the incidence of root diseases has received considerable attention. However, information on the role of mycorrhizae in reducing disease incidence of Fusarium root rot of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), caused by the root pathogen Fusarium solani f. sp. phaseoli, is scarce. A study was undertaken to investigate how the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF) Glomus intraradices affects disease development and population number of F. solani f. sp. phaseoli in the mycorhizosphere of bean plants growing in an experimental microcosm unit. This newly designed unit facilitated the spatial monitoring and quantification of both the …  Read more

The strict divisions of city spaces created by physical urban planning disintegrated under transformations of capitalism and its accompanying crises of overaccumulation, social urban planning was elaborated to more effectively control the capitalist city and to reintegrate the increasingly blighted areas of the once popular amusements into the economy. This disciplined reintegration, unsuccessfully attempted in New York City's Times Square since the late 1920s. is finally being realized by the redevelopment forces that began shaping the city's spatial practices in the wake of the fiscal crisis of 1975. The development projects undertaken in midtown Manhattan following the recovery from the …  Read more

Le projet d'irrigation de l'Office du Niger, situé dans le delta intérieur du Niger au Mali, est né d'une proposition très insuffisante mais grandiose conçue en 1920 par un ingénieur des Travaux Publics Coloniaux, Émile Bélime. Conçu à l'origine comme un moyen de transformer la Vallée du Niger en une vaste plantation de coton, et envisagé par la suite comme le grenier central de l'Afrique Occidentale, ce projet n'a jamais atteint qu'une petite partie de son potentiel agricole espéré. Sa réalisation et sa mise en exploitation on nécessité le déracinement par contrainte de dizaines de milliers d'Africains. Même après la …  Read more

Within the context of the current negotiations over the Free Trade Area of the Americas, there is an unquestionable need to create a system to resolve disputes that may arise between the state parties. Since new dispute settlement systems are often developed by borrowing and learning from past experiences, this thesis examines and compares certain aspects of the dispute settlement mechanisms of the World Trade Organization and certain regional and bilateral agreements signed in the western hemisphere. The result of the analysis is a set of proposals about which of these aspects could be effectively integrated into the design of …  Read more

Previous use of the diffraction technique as a means of characterizing microstructure in multiphase steels has been generally limited to measurements of retained austenite. Other phases, specifically martensite, have not been examined in complex microstructures since there exists peak overlap with ferrite. This research looks at using neutron diffraction as a means to characterize martensite in a multiphase steel microstructure, thus providing a more complete characterization tool. Three low carbon steels, comprised of a dual-phase, ferrite-martensite microstructure, were used in this study. Two diffraction methods were investigated; a direct deconvolution of the martensite peaks from the ferrite peak, and an …  Read more

The main objectives of this Thesis were the determination of the reaction kinetics of the dissolution of zinc-ferrite particles ((Zn$ sb{1-x}$, Fe$ sbsp{x}{2+}$)$ rm Fe sbsp{2}{3+}O sb4$, x $ le$ 0.4) in hot aqueous solutions of sulphuric acid, and the development of a mathematical model for the prediction of the performance of a series of continuous stirred-tank reactors where zinc ferrite is leached. Well-characterised, porous zinc-ferrite particles of industrial origin were subjected to controlled leaching experiments at temperatures close to 373 K in sulphuric acid solutions of concentration higher than 0.25mol L$ sp{-1}$. The dissolution process was found to be …  Read more

This thesis examines the carnivalesque strategies evident in the short story "Confabulacion de la arana" by the Cuban writer, Guillermo Vidal. Two particular perspectives are used here. First, an analysis of the narrator and the narrative structure is made in which the contribution of the narrative strategies present in the text are explored. To do this, the methodological framework of literary carnivalization offered by the Russian critic Mijail Bajtin has been used, foregrounding his basic argument that carnival, as a social practice, is intrinsically subversive since it abolishes all forms of hierarchy and convention present in society during non-carnival time. …  Read more

For over a decade now, governments in a growing number of countries have been introducing laws that block civil society organizations from forming, advocating for certain causes, accessing resources, and collaborating with other public actors. To date, literature on this phenomenon focused on hybrid and authoritarian regimes and academic attention to more democratic settings in which this happens has been scarce. Most former studies have also focused on the impact of laws once they have been enacted rather that on the legislation process itself and its potential implications. In this study, I examine the case of Israel, exploring the importation …  Read more

Maistre, Cathrine Le (Internal/Supervisor)  Read more

Bennewitz, Roland (Internal/Cosupervisor2)  Read more

Chronic pain is a leading cause of disability worldwide, yet research has remained fragmented across levels of analysis. Population-level studies describe prevalence but offer little insight into individual vulnerability, while biomarker and psychosocial studies identify predictors but lack normative context. This thesis integrates these perspectives to advance a multiscale, biopsychosocial understanding of pain.The first study mapped global pain prevalence across the lifespan by pooling data from more than five million participants across over one hundred countries. The resulting normative trajectories revealed distinct age- and pain site-specific patterns, consistent sex differences, and regional variation, establishing population reference curves for pain risk. …  Read more

The thesis is an examination of the prose part of the UpadesascThasri, a non-commentarial work of Sahkaracarya (8 century CE). The introduction deals with several issues concerning the structure and content of the text itself, as well as a critique of the manner in which the text has been interpreted by recent researchers. The main body of the thesis is sectioned according to an eight-fold therapeutic model of interpretation suggested by Vetter (1979). The thesis concludes with an examination of the three-fold discipline of sravana, manana, and nididhyasana, as viewed by the Vedantic tradition. The complete text of the prose …  Read more

Warn, Tom (Thesis Director)  Read more

Le reflux vésico-urétéral (RVU), le mouvement rétrograde de l’urine de la vessie vers les reins, est l’anomalie congénitale du rein et des voies urinaires (ACRVU) la plus fréquente. Le RVU, affectant ~1% de la population, prédispose à des infections urinaires récurrentes et des lésions rénales pouvant entraîner une insuffisance rénale terminale. La plupart des enfants atteints de RVU ont une malformation de la jonction vésico-urétérale (JVU). Cependant, le RVU peut aussi être associé à d'autres ACRVUs et des formes syndromiques de RVU existent, comme le syndrome d'Ehlers-Danlos de type hypermobile (SED-TH). Nous utilisons trois modèles de souris: la lignée consanguine …  Read more

While Brad Mehldau is generally considered to be a jazz pianist, his music is eclectic, combining aspects of jazz, rock, and classical music all at once. My goal is to analyze and theorize about these pluralistic aspects, specifically in his covers of rock songs. Mehldau has covered a wide range of rock songs over the course of his career — probably more so than any well-known jazz musician — ranging from alternative rock to folk, both in trio settings and as a solo pianist. In my thesis, I analyze Mehldau's repertoire of rock covers as a solo pianist, in order …  Read more

In this dissertation, many-body physics techniques are used to study and improve ideas related to the description of heavy ion collisions at very high energy. The first part of the thesis concerns the production of tensor mesons in proton-proton (pp) collisions. An effective theory where the f2 meson couples to the energy-momentum tensor is proposed and a comparison of the inclusive cross-section computed in the collinear factorization, the kT-factorization and the color glass condensate is performed. A study of the phenomenology in pp collisions then shows a strong dependence on the parametrization of the unintegrated distribution function. The conclusion is …  Read more

Mothers, in female literature, have often been represented through the eyes of their daughters; only recently have they begun to speak for themselves. The object of this thesis is to analyse the portrayal of mothers and daughters in several modern short stories written by women from 1961 onwards, in order to understand the principal elements of an often difficult and ambivalent relationship. In the texts written from "daughterly" perspectives, mothers represent regression and lack of autonomy; therefore, daughters tend to dissociate themselves from their mothers in an attempt to avoid the cycle of repetition typical of this relationship. In these …  Read more

Results are reported of investigations made on celery grown in sand cultures and fed nutrient solutionsmade up of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in various combinations. The experiment was of a 3 x 3 x 3 design. Medium applications of nitrogen when the plants were six inches and half grown produced increased yields. Low applications on plants approaching maturity gave good results. High phosphorus applications on six-inch and approaching maturity plants produced increased celery yields and helped to check pithiness in the plants approaching maturity. For six-inch and hal~ grown plants, a medium level of potash gave increased yields and for …  Read more

Howes, F. (Supervisor)  Read more

The present work deals with establishing of the exact meaning of the technical terms used by al-Kindi in the longest of his extant philosophical treatises, The Letter on the First Philosophy. On many occasions, however, when the meaning of a term appeared to be obscure in the Letter, the evidence of al-Kindī's usage of such a term has had to be brought forward from his other philosophical works in order to elucidate its meaning as accurately as possible. Much attention has been paid to the original significance of the terms that are al-Kindī's translation of Aristotle's philosophical vocabulary. In some …  Read more

Deslauriers, Marguerite (Supervisor1)  Read more

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed female cancer in the world. Consequently, researchers deployed tremendous efforts that led to a significant increase in life expectancy and quality of life. Despite those advances, breast cancer remains the second leading cause of female cancer-related deaths after lung cancer in Canada. Considering their cost-effective nature, microRNAs (miRNAs) have become an interesting therapeutic avenue in the treatment of diseases, including cancer. Micro-RNAs are small, non-coding RNAs whose main function is in regulating the output of RNA translation. By binding the 3’UTR of the messages they target, miRNAs add a level of regulation that …  Read more

Le TGF-beta jour un rôle important dans la progression du cancer du sein en tant que facteur pro-métastatique, notamment en promouvant la migration des cellules cancéreuses. Il devient évident qu'une nouvelle classe de molécules, les micro-ARNs, agit en aval du TGF-beta dans plusieurs étapes de la progression cancéreuse. Dans ce manuscrit, nous rapportons la régulation négative du miR-584 exercée par le TGF-beta, et ceci, dans des cellules provenant de plusieurs lignées. De plus, nous avons déterminé que la protéine PHACTR1, qui contient plusieurs sites se liant à l'actine, était positivement régulée par le TGF-beta et que son expression était inhibée …  Read more

This dissertation is a recension of the thesis of Harry J. McSorley on Luther. We pay special attention to some of the reactions that the book of McSorley published in 1969; that is Luther Right or Wrong? An Ecumenical Theological Study of Luther's Major Work, The Bondage of The Will has given rise to, either positively or negatively. Then we put McSorley vis-a-vis his critics, and we try the most possible to create a dynamic dialogue between them. After showing some of the reactions to the thesis of McSorley, and after presenting the thesis itself, we try to answer our …  Read more

This essay deals with the linguistic comparison of Hebrew and Arabic in Hebrew dictionaries and in the Jewish Bible interpretations written in the Islamic region of influence in medieval times. It discusses the attitudes, the methods of comparison, and the contribution of virtually every important medieval authority on the Hebrew language who dealt with this linguistic comparison, between Saadia Gaon and Isaac Ibn Barun (between the tenth century and the beginning of the twelve century). […]  Read more

Breast cancer is a very heterogeneous disease. This heterogeneity can be observed at many levels, including gene expression, chromosomal aberrations, and disease pathology. A clear understanding of these differences is important since they impact upon treatment efficacy and clinical outcome. Recent studies have demonstrated that the tumour microenvironment also plays a critical role in cancer initiation and progression. Genomic technologies have been used to gain a better understanding of the impact of gene expression heterogeneity on breast cancer, and have identified gene expression signatures associated with clinical outcome, histopathological breast cancer subtypes, and a variety of cancer-related pathways and processes. …  Read more

The NMR solution structure of TM0983, a thermostable protein from Thermo-oga Maritima was solved with minimal constraints as part of a large scale structural proteomics project. A putative function for this protein was assigned based on a structural homolgy search using DALI. Measurements of 15N-1H residual dipolar couplings were performed and used to further refine the structure. These restraints decreased the backbone RMSD from 0.9 to 0.683, and helped to identify a cis peptide bond between C36 and P37. Another thermostable protein, MTH1440, from Methanobacter Thermoautotrophicus was purified for the purpose of NMR structural studies. The purification procedure was optimized …  Read more

In the fundamental understanding of the floatation process, the energies of the various interfaces involved are of prime importance. The work of adhesion equation offers a relationship between these surface energies and floatability. The equation is readily derived and is frequently quoted in relation to floatation (1-5) . However, it has met with little use and even less success (6, 7) which is possibly die to the techniques employed in measuring the essential parameters. To study this possibility, a number of the available methods were compared. [...]  Read more

Barbeau, Hugues (Supervisor)  Read more