McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par N

Savoir comment répartir un ensemble de biens à un groupe d’agent est central à la société. Il y a deux approches principales pour répondre à cette question : L’approche de la théorie des jeux où on étudie des mécanismes -- principalement des enchères -- qui sont utilisés pour répartir les biens, et l’approche normative qui étudie l’existence et la facilité de calculer des allocations ayant des propriétés désirables tel l’équitabilité et une valeur sociale élevée. Dans cette thèse, nous détaillons nos contributions dans les deux domaines.Dans la première partie de cette thèse, nous analysons deux catégories majeures d’enchère avec plusieurs …  Read more

Applicability of Monte-Carlo method for the textural and microstructural changes during annealing processes is studied. Models that are developed for explaining annealing processes are incorporated into Monte-Carlo procedures and the textural and microstructural changes are then followed. The simulated results are compared with the experimental observations to validate the proposed models, The three exemplary annealing processes selected for the present work are industrially important and diversified in their annealing characteristics, These are: (I) Cube {100}⟨001⟩ texture development during recrystallization of Al, (II) Abnormal grain growth of Goss {110}⟨001⟩ grains in Fe-Si steels, (III) The competition between (111) and (100)-fiber textures …  Read more

This dissertation presents a series of studies aimed at elucidating the relationship between clinical disability and central nervous system pathology in multiple sclerosis (MS) using multiple magnetic resonance (MR) surrogates of pathology. MR spectroscopic (MRS) measurement of the neuronal-specific metabolite N-acetylaspartate provides an index of neuronal/axonal integrity. Magnetization transfer (MT) imaging provides measures related to myelination. Visualization of brain regions that become activated while performing a given task is possible using functional MRI (fMRI). Sophisticated image processing techniques allow more of the information contained in MR data to be extracted, such as the degree of atrophy of the brain or …  Read more

This thesis describes an image-based system for analyzing dose distributions produced during treatment planning of stereotactic radiosurgery. A review of stereotaxy and radiosurgery, particularly for the treatment of arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), is presented. The stereotactic apparatus and linear accelerator-based irradiation techniques used at McGill University are described in some detail. The image-dose analysis software, running on a UNIX workstation, is presented, including software utilities for the evaluation of radiosurgery treatment plans based on magnetic resonance (MR) images. The importance of dose-volume histograms (DVHs) in the assessment of treatment plans is discussed, and the software developed to generate DVHs is described. …  Read more

In this thesis we introduce the Rankin-Selberg hypothesis in the Selberg Class to obtain a non-vanishing theorem on line $ Re(s)=1$ for a certain sub-class of functions in this class. We also prove that the Selberg's Conjectures imply the $S sb{K}$-primitivity of $ zeta sb{K}.$  Read more

La qualité des produits post-récoltes change rapidement due à la vitesse accélérée de la respiration, de la transpiration, et de la maturation. Le but de ce travail était de déterminer l'effet d un enrobage , formé de pectine et d'alginate, sur l'extension de la durée de conservation des tomates cerises et d'étudier l'effet d'un stress abiotique sur l'amélioration des propriétés antioxydantes des canneberges. Deux formulations d' enrobages ont été évaluées : une formulation à base de pectine avec 3% de pectine, 1,35% de sorbitol, 1,2% de cire d'abeille et 0,36% de monoglycérides, et une formulation à base d'alginate avec 2% …  Read more

Plusieurs organismes peuvent entrer en dormance, ou diapause, pour survivre à des conditions environnementales précaires pour une durée prolongée. Lorsque des larves de Caenorhabditis elegans entrent en diapause dauer, elles cessent complètement de se développer ainsi que de se nourrir, cependant elles demeurent actives et mobiles, tout en acquérant une résistance au stress et une longévité extrême. L'entrée en stade dauer est accompagnée d'une réduction de signalisation par l'insuline, de l'établissement d'un arrêt généralisé du cycle cellulaire, de l'accumulation de ressources nutritives et d'un changement global au niveau du métabolisme. Les processus physiologiques et moléculaires précis qui induisent la quiescence …  Read more

Les animaux ayant une acuité auditive développée sont toujours sujet à évoluer et à s'adapter à de nouvelles situations pour améliorer leurs capacités à survivre à la pression exercée par les prédateurs. Chez le grillon, en fait, une récente étude menée sur une espèce ayant les ailes dimorphiques, a démontré que les grillons ayant la capacité de voler (longues-ailes) étaient plus sensibles aux ultrasons que ceux qui étaient incapable de voler (courtes-ailes). La décision développementale de devenir un grillon aux longues ou courtes ailes se fait durant les deux derniers stages larvaires. En plus, il a été suggéré que le …  Read more

Les introns de groupe II sont de grands ribozymes qui s'épissent des transcrits pré-ARNm par eux mêmes de façon autocatalytique. Ils sont présents chez les bactéries, les archaebactéries et dans les organelles des eucaryotes inférieures et des plantes terrestres. Les introns de groupe II contiennent toutes les composantes nécessaires pour leur épissage, par contre, des facteurs d'épissage protéique sont essentiels in vivo pour induire le repliement tridimesionnel approprié de ces ARNs intronique. Les introns de groupe II chez les procaryotes encodent leurs propres facteurs d'épissage appelé protéine encodé dans l'intron (IEP). En revanche, la majorité des introns de groupe II …  Read more

Les phtalates sont des produits chimiques produits en grande quantité. Ils sont ajoutés lors de la fabrication des plastiques à base de polychlorure de vinyle (PVC) pour améliorer leurs propriétés. Depuis plusieurs décennies, la communauté scientifique s’inquiète de leur capacité à perturber le système endocrinien et causer des effets nocifs sur la fonction testiculaire. Cette thèse vise à identifier des substituts pour les phtalates : des molécules ayant une faible empreinte écologique, fonctionnellement équivalents au di-2-éthylhexyle (DEHP) et n’ayant pas d’effets négatifs sur l’environnement et la santé. Pour ce faire, nous avons évalué les plastifiants commerciaux DEHP et 1,2-cyclohexane dicarboxylic …  Read more

The decade 1940-1950 represents a decisive stage in the evolution of the relations between the Quebec literary scene and France. Whereas before the war, literary discourse keeps on upholding, in a dogmatic way, the superiority of French culture and literature, the next period is characterized, on the contrary, by a reassessment of this postulate. The historical circumstances justify the setting up of exceptional institutional conditions. Some French writers and critics, in exile in North America, partake, to varying degrees, in the French Canadian literary scene. The backing of these intellectuals is not unrelated to the process of modernization and autonomization …  Read more

This study explores how interviewing and gathering feedback from former students can benefit in the professional development of a teacher. Although there is an extensive amount of literature concerning teacher reflection focusing on the perspective of the teacher, this study places importance on both the perspectives of the teacher and his former students. Building on the works of Dewey, Tyler and Aoki concerning educational experiences, Korthagen's approach to teacher reflection, Eakin and Graham's ideas concerning autobiography and Barone and Yoder and Strong-Wilson's views on learning from the stories of others, the author takes existing literature and builds on it, suggesting …  Read more

This study shows that resistance to killing by reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) increases during migration and development in Schistosoma mansoni. Resistance is associated with the protective role of antioxidants as shown by the increased levels of superoxide dismutase and of the glutathione system enzymes. Hydroperoxide-dependent glutathione peroxidase activity was not detectable in newly transformed schistosomula, however the activity was present in the liver stages. The antischistosomal drug oltipraz (OPZ) decreased in an irreversible manner the activity of S. mansoni glutathione S-transferase (GST), an important protective enzyme, both in vivo and in vitro. The inhibition of GST activity was not isoenzyme …  Read more

All biological assays are subject to variability in response. The variability may be of biological or mechanical origin, and its presence imposes limitations upon the accuracy of the interpretations of the assay. Since accuracy is of fundamental importance in the practical application of these assays, any modifications in present procedures which will reduce variation wil1 likewise inarease the precision of the test and thereby increase its usefulness.[...]  Read more

Writings about Buddhist ethics and Mahayana Buddhist ethics in particular cannot escape two basic problems. The first problem is that the often-misunderstood soteriological aim of Mahayana, achieving Nirvana, conflicts with the tradition's normative ethics because Nirvana is posited as transcending worldly conventions. The second problem is that Mahayana Buddhist emptiness ontology seems to destroy the idea of ethical action by revealing the fallacy of acting from the standpoint of an individual self. For these reasons, it has been said that Mahayana ethics is impossible. By utilizing the Zen Buddhist philosophy of Nishitani Keiji's Religion and Nothingness, I will demonstrate that …  Read more

The mine production schedule defines the sequence of extraction of selected mine units over the life of the mine, and consequentially establishes the ore supply and total material movement. This sequence should be optimized so as to maximize the overall discounted value of the project. Conventional schedule approaches are unable to incorporate grade uncertainty into the scheduling problem formulation and may lead to serious deviations from forecasted production targets. Stochastic mine production schedulers are considered to obtain more robust mine production schedule solutions. The application of stochastic approaches to the mine production schedule problem is recent and additional testing is …  Read more

Leishmania protozoan parasites, the causative agent of leishmaniasis, a disease endemic in more than 80 countries, undergo two main developmental stages during its life cycle: the extracellular flagellated promastigote residing in the midget of the sandfly vector and the obligate intracellular amastigotes which multiply in the phagolysosome of infected macrophages within the mammalian host. The differentiation process from promastigote to amastigote allows Leishmania parasites to adapt to different environments and is essential for parasite proliferation and survival. However, the molecular events that regulate this process are not well understood. In higher eukaryotes, cellular proliferation, differentiation and function are governed largely …  Read more

In this study I challenge the uncritical use of the long held dictum of the development discourse that education empowers women. From a post-structuralist feminist position I show that in its current state the educational discourse in Pakistan actually disempowers women. This discourse constitutes gendered identities and positions them in a way that exacerbates and intensifies inequalities between men and women. Gendered constitution and positioning of subjects also regulates the relationship between the subjects and the state in such a way that women and minorities are excluded from the citizenship realm. Educational discourse in Pakistan is the premier site where …  Read more

Management of public enterprise in Canada has been generally entrusted to a public corporation which, it is argued, provides the necessary managerial freedom from undesirable political control. It is also considered to encourage both productive competitiveness, and a sufficient degree of public control in accordance with the principle of responsible government. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Canadian National Railways are under considerable public control through the media of regulatory and investigative agencies, both parliamentary and governmental. Parliament, which constitutes the apex of the administrative pyramid, possesses sufficient opportunities and methods to exercise its control on these corporations. It is …  Read more

IL-12 and IL-13 are recently discovered cytokines which belong to Th1 and Th2 subtypes, respectively. To further support the hypothesis that Th2-type cytokines are involved in asthma, mRNA levels for IL-12 and IL-13 were measured in bronchial biopsies from asthmatics and normal controls as well as in moderately severe asthmatics before and after corticosteroid therapy using the technique of in situ hybridization. The number of IL-13 mRNA positive cells in asthmatics was significantly higher than that found in normal controls. However, there was a significant decrease in the number of IL-12 mRNA positive cells in asthmatic biopsies compared to normal …  Read more

Le cancer se développe lorsque les cellules perdent leur capacité à contrôler la division et forment une tumeur. Les cellules de tumeur maligne peuvent envahir les tissus voisins ou se propager (métastaser) à d'autres parties du corps. Les os sont l'un des sites les plus courants pour les métastases cancéreuses. Les Métastases Osseuses (MO) peuvent entraîner une inflammation, des dommages structurels et une douleur intense. De 70 à 90\% des patients atteints de MO souffrent de douleur intense. Par conséquent, détecter et contrôler la douleur associée à la MO a le potentiel d'améliorer la qualité de vie des patients atteints …  Read more

Les verres bioactifs et solubles présentent un grand potentiel dans les applications biomédicales dans l'ingénierie des tissus durs et mous. La vitesse à laquelle ces verres génèrent une réponse, ou leur réactivité, est un paramètre important pour la guérison de l'efficacité. En raison de leur coordination tétraédrique, les verres à base de silicate présentent une solubilité lente et incomplète, ce qui limite leur application dans la réparation des tissus mous. Par conséquent, il y a un grand intérêt dans le développement de formulations de verre bioactif plus solubles et réactives basées sur l'oxyde formant un réseau de borate, qui peut …  Read more

Health and social service systems can be difficult to traverse, especially in the stressful situations that often necessitate accessing them. In Quebec, these difficulties are exacerbated for English speaking or limited French-proficient persons. This thesis employs a needs-based assessment to explore how linguistic-based access barriers to health and social services affect Montreal’s English-speaking Disability community, focusing on those with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities and their caregivers/advocates. It identifies the community’s needs and proposes three key issues that result in the needs being unmet by the social service system. Specifically, the issues are (i) inaccessible information for limited French-proficient persons, as …  Read more

This inquiry examines the relationship between studio drawing instruction and art theory, by reviewing practical and theoretical art books, questioning peers, and conducting a focus group encounter. The resulting data, interpreted in light of 25 years of teaching experience, suggests that the chronology of exercises in all the reviewed drawing texts encourages a widespread use of outlining at the expense of a concentration on rendering mass and volume. In response to changing demands on art teachers, the author proposes an outline for an updated studio drawing manual which synthesizes theory and practice by addressing compatible themes, and proposes a chronology …  Read more

The present thesis represents the first major Canadian study to examine images of women in film. It concentrates on a body of film which was produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in its first decade (1939 to 1949). It is postulated here that the images of women in these films will reflect the position of women in the larger socio-economic context. We begin by looking at the status of women in Canada during World War II and the post-war years (1939 to 1949). Since there has been so little research on women during this period of Canadian …  Read more

In general, chest radiographs (CXR) have high sensitivity and moderate specificity for active pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) screening when interpreted by human readers. However, they are challenging to scale due to hardware costs and the dearth of professionals available to interpret CXR in low-resource, high PTB burden settings. Their utility is also limited by a high degree of inter- and intra-reader variability. In an effort to overcome these barriers to use, computer-aided detection (CAD) programs have been developed to facilitate rapid and automated CXR interpretation.To assess the diagnostic accuracy of a CAD software that uses deep learning (artificial intelligence) (qXR, Qure.ai, …  Read more

In the late sixteenth-century a Peruvian Indian and Inca nobleman named Guaman Poma de Ayala wrote a one-thousand page history of the world, his Nueva Cronica y Buen Gobierno, recounting the development of Andean and European humanity from the beginning of time up to the period in which the author lived. My analysis focuses on the mode of communication used by Guaman Poma, his use of Renaissance Iberian discursive and visual codes, to articulate his radical views of Spanish rule in Peru. His views, I argue, although articulated in a foreign language and media, express a fundamentally Andean understanding of …  Read more

After a brief introduction to the main results of Recursion Theory, we present the notion of Partial Applicative Structures (PAS). We follow that with a brief discussion of the axioms of Intuitionistic Zermelo-Fraenkel Set Theory (IZF). We then present the construction of a P -valued model of IZF where P is a Powell Algebra derived from a PAS. We follow this with a detailed discussion of the Realizability Universe, the P -valued model when P is derived from Kleene's PAS. Using the model above, we shall establish some independence and consistency results. The main result of the essay is to …  Read more

Trace metals are food components that can play an important role in regulating the Maillard reaction through their redox activity and high ligand binding affinity especially towards amino acids. The resulting amino acid-metal complexes are known to possess a different chemical reactivity relative to their free counterparts and are expected to behave differently during thermal treatments. Understanding how these metal complexes degrade independently or react with other food components during processing can provide important insight into their fundamental role in the context of the Maillard reaction. In the absence of sugars, studies performed through heating of different metal salts (Cu, …  Read more

Introduction. Programmed Death 1 is a molecule that becomes expressed on the surface of B and T cells once they are activated. Binding with its ligands, PD-L1 and PD-L2 which are found on T cells, antigen-presenting cells and peripheral tissues, causes inhibition of the PD-1-bearing cell. Knockout of the PD-1 gene in mice causes autoimmune nephritis, arthritis and cardiomyopathy. A study in humans demonstrated that an intronic SNP, named PD-1.3, is associated with lupus in several different populations. Studies on whether this polymorphism affects gene expression proved inconclusive and its biologic significance remains unknown. Methods. We began by sequencing the …  Read more

The development of the knowledge of the thalamus has proceeded along many avenues of research. The early workers ranged far and wide, comparing, dividing, and subdividing the thalamus and in general terms catalogued anatomical data. Later the relationship of the thalamus and other areas of the nervous system was discovered and with this began the studies of the thalamocortical and corticothalamic connections. [...]  Read more

The mosque (masjid) as the center of Muslim higher education was, from the latter part of the fifth centuries hijri (circa, eleventh centuries A.D.), being gradually replaced by the madrasah. In less than a hundred and fifty years after the establishment of the first madrasah in Khurasan, this institution became the most widespread educational system of higher learning in the Muslim world.  Read more

This thesis is not an exhaustive bibliography of Islam in the modern Arab world and its relations with Arab nationalism. It is an attempt to provide a working guide to the most reliable literature on the subject which has been accessible to the writer, or which he knows to exist. Works dealing with the historical background are only mentioned when necessary for the understanding of religious developments, or when the historical and religious aspects are indistinguishably interwoven as in the Wahhabi and Sanusi movements.  Read more

Robert Hooke (1635–1703), now mostly known for his scientific work as the first Curator of Experiments of the Royal Society, was also the architect of some of the most visible buildings in Restoration London. He was operating at a time when significant transformations were occurring in how natural philosophy, natural history, and architecture were being practiced.Centred on Hooke’s archives, this dissertation studies the affinities and cross-pollinations between his experimental and architectural works. Rather than focussing on their interactions as two distinct disciplines, it studies their shared praxes of reading, drawing, and building. In addition to bringing to the fore previously …  Read more

Exploration of the visual scene is comprised of periods of fixation on specific objects in our environment, interrupted by abrupt eye movements that bring new objects in our visual field. Whenever we perform an eye movement, a chaotic smearing of the visual world is introduced on the retina from the input displacement. However, our perception of our environment remains stable. In order to achieve this, our brain must have a compensation mechanism for these shifts. Since eye-movements last for a very brief period of time, it is imperative to make use of a modality that is able to capture the …  Read more

Plus de 20% de la population mondiale adulte souffre de douleur chronique. Les évidences prouvent que la transition de la douleur aiguë à la douleur chronique dépend de la neuroplasticité dans la corne dorsale de la moelle épinière (CDME). Bien que les molécules responsables de l'initiation de la mémoire à long terme dans la CDME ont été identifiées, peu est connu sur le maintien de sa plasticité synaptique à long terme. La protéine kinase Mζ (PKMζ) est une kinase active de manière persistante qui contribue uniquement au maintien de la potentialisation à long terme (PLT) et au stockage de la …  Read more

Moodie, Erica (Supervisor2)  Read more

The thesis consists of the first part of a four-part novel and critical afterword. The Slaughter is an account of Peter Scythes' poetic attempt to accommodate himself in a world he perceives as strange. In this mythological novel, character development takes place where the carnivalesque and the fantastic intersect. The required critical afterward is in three parts: a summary Mikhail Bakhtin's writings on Rabelais; a consideration of plot ambiguities in the text The Slaughter and Henry James' The Turn of The Screw; and a discussion of how Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and The Slaughter use language, memory and myth-making …  Read more

Phytohemagglutinin (PRA) has a well established mitogenic and blastogenic action when incubated in vitro with lymphoid cells. The action of this substance was studied in vivo and the histological changes induced by PRA in various organs of the rabbit were compared to those induced by a common antigen (human gamma globulin). It is suggested from the data obtained that PRA does not act as a common antigen. In the PRA treated animals the most striking changes were noted in the spleen. There were marked effects on the white pulp but the most significant histologic features were observed in the red …  Read more

This study investigates the importance of traditional hunting knowledge to Cree identity and experience. My fieldwork was conducted in Wemindji, James Bay, Quebec, with Cree trappers and on the interactions of scientific researchers and Cree trappers. I explore the connections between these interactions and wider relationships of the Crees with histories of extractive development and the State. The misrecognition or negation of Cree authority in development discourse and outcomes has contributed to subsistence practices and traditional hunting knowledge becoming politically and emotionally charged signifiers. I argue that subsistence practices and traditional hunting knowledge have come to encode cultural difference and …  Read more

L’initiation de la traduction des ARN messagers (ARNm) est contrôlée par la voie de signalisation PI3K/Akt/mTOR via le complexe d’initiation eIF4F qui comprend eIF4E, une protéine liant la coiffe des ARNm, eIF4A, une hélicase qui déroule les structures secondaires localisées dans la region 5’ non-traduite des ARNm, et eIF4G, une protéine dite d’échaffaudage qui interagit avec eIF4E et eIF4A. La perturbation de l'activité cellulaire du complexe eIF4F peut avoir des conséquences oncogéniques en plus de moduler la chimiosensibilité des cellules cancéreuses. Nous avons utilisé des ARN interférants inductible (ARNi) qui ciblent eIF4E ainsi que des molécules inhibitrices de l’activité d’eIF4A …  Read more

ContexteLa perte de poids liée au cancer est associée à de moins bons résultats thérapeutiques, à une augmentation de symptomes, à une réduction de la qualité de vie et à une diminution des taux de survie. Les interventions nutritionnelles ont démontré leur efficacité pour améliorer le poids corporel et la composition corporelle chez les patients atteints de cachexie cancéreuse ; cependant, les composantes optimales de ces interventions demeurent incertaines. L’objectif principal de cette thèse était d’explorer différents aspects de l’utilisation des interventions nutritionnelles dans le contexte de la perte de poids liée au cancer chez des patients suivis dans une …  Read more

Sarcopenia (muscle loss) and dynapenia (loss of strength) are risk factors for disabilities, falls and loss of autonomy with aging. The essential amino acid leucine is a signaling molecule that stimulates mRNA translation, protein synthesis and insulin secretion, making it a potential anabolic agent. This thesis assessed the effect of leucine added to a meal on whole-body leucine balance, myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic proteins and on total plasma protein fractional synthesis rates (FSR) in 13 older women. The design was a randomized, double-blind crossover versus an isonitrogenous meal. A possible effect of sarco-dynapenia on these variables was tested (n=7 with sarco-dynapenia, …  Read more