McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par R

Forward and backward curved blade centrifugal fans as noise sources were subjected to an analysis employing the matched acoustic waveguide measuring technique. There are three major findings: 1. The noise output from homologous series of fans can be defined by one V - shaped specific noise power vs. log specific curve, with minimum close to maximum static efficiency. Fan noise "laws" differ as the slope of the branches of this curve. 2. Fan outlet noise power at maximum fan efficiency approximates 10^-5 times the input fan power.  Read more

This thesis integrates physiological and evolutionary ecology to quantify effects of hypoxia (low oxygen) on the energetic and life-history traits of the mouth brooding African cichlid, Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor. A field survey of 10 populations in Uganda indicated that dissolved oxygen (DO) is a strong predictor of interdemic variation in life-history traits. Females from low-DO sites were characterized by smaller size at maturity, and more, smaller-sized offspring than females from high DO, supporting body-size surface area predictions under hypoxia. In lab rearing and acclimation experiments, embryos and juveniles held under hypoxia and normoxia did not differ in size or survival, suggesting …  Read more

Ce mémoire propose une recherche ethnographique des tensions politiques présente dans les systèmes de gouvernance d’une zone protégée dans la région nord de l’Amazonie brésilienne : la Forêt de Faro. En me basant sur des exemples tirés de cinq mois de recherche sur le terrain, entre août et décembre 2019, je décris des situations quotidiennes de conflit et de résistance qui démontrent comment des communautés locales et des environnementalistes s’affirment comme des « sujets » actifs dans la (re)production des systèmes de gouvernance environnementale (Agrawal 2005). En m’appuyant sur le travail d’Arun Agrawal (2005) et James Scott (2008), je décris …  Read more

Weight loss and depletion of fat-free mass commonly occurs in patients with COPD. The objective of the study was to determine the magnitude and duration of protein depletion during an episode of acute exacerbation. Fifteen patients (9 women and 6 men) admitted for an acute exacerbation of COPD participated in a descriptive study that prospectively measured individual nitrogen balance over a 6-week follow-up period using repeated nitrogen balance tests. The mean nitrogen balance in hospital was -13.20 +/- 11.63 g N/day. Only 2 patients achieved a positive nitrogen balance by 2 weeks post-admission and 4 more patients by 4 weeks …  Read more

This study looks at the phenomenological work of 20th century French thinker Michel Henry (1922-2002). Not yet widely known to an English audience, his work has recently been attracting a growing readership among students of phenomenology as well as among those interested in the so-called 'return of religion' since the last quarter of the 20th century. For those interested in the relation of the phenomenological method to this return of religion, one of the main issues is how phenomenology itself is being (re)defined and expanded to address new modes of phenomenality, including what has been called by Henry and others …  Read more

Background: Participation in the sport of running has grown immensely in recent years as evidenced by the 30,300 running events that took place in the United States in 2015, which represents an 8% increase in the number of events from 2014 (Running USA, 2016). Runners who compete in events of various distances are looking for strategies to improve their performance and increase their speed. Psychological skills, including self-talk (ST), are performance-enhancing strategies that can contribute to optimal performance in sports (Hall, Duncan, & McKay, 2014). ST refers to what people say to themselves either out loud or as a small …  Read more

The word "vecindad" in Spanish means neighborhood, but the word is also used to describe a dwelling form. The vecindad is usually known as a row of one-room dwellings surrounding an open space or patio. This kind of dwelling form exists in most Latin American countries as well as in Spain, however the word "vecindad" is used exclusively in Mexico. This dwelling form existed in Spain under the name of "corrales" and it was brought to Mexico in the XVI century with the Conquest of 1521. Initially, vecindades were built as multi-family tenements to rent to low-income artisans or workers …  Read more

This thesis aims to contribute to current discussions on citizenship and transnationalism by analyzing the circumstances of Paraguayan, Bolivian and Peruvian immigrants in Argentina. More precisely, I examine the impact that state-promoted criminalizing discourses had on the lives of these immigrants in La Plata city in the late 1990s. On the one hand, their access to public services and resources was importantly constrained, submerging many into increasingly pauperized conditions. On the other hand, new distinctions were created within these nationally defined groups as a result of discursive and residential strategies deployed by many of these immigrants.  Read more

Dans notre tentative de comprendre la pertinence de la protéase rhomboïde humaine RHBDL4 résidant dans le réticulum endoplasmique (RE), l'homologue mammifère le plus structurellement resemblant à la GlpG, nous avons récemment identifié RHBDL4 comme une nouvelle enzyme clivante de la protéine précurseur de l'amyloïde (APP) donnant des fragments. N- et C- terminaux distincts. L’APP peut subir un traitement amyloïdogène par les - et les -sécrétases produisant les peptides bêta amyloïde (A), qui font parties des principales caractéristiques de la maladie d’Alzheimer (MA). Dans le RE, RHBDL4 coupe l'APP à plusieurs reprises dans l'ectodomaine, empêchant ainsi le traitement amyloïdogène de l'APP. …  Read more

La maladie de Parkinson (MP) est une maladie neurodégénérative progressive caractérisée par une longue période prodromique dominée par un dysfonctionnement gastro-intestinal (GI) et d'autres symptômes non moteurs. Cette phase précoce suggère que les mécanismes de la maladie pourraient trouver leur origine dans un dysfonctionnement immunitaire périphérique bien avant l'apparition des symptômes moteurs. Cette thèse explore comment la perte du gène PINK1, un gène associé à la MP familiale, entraîne un dysfonctionnement immunitaire, notamment au niveau des macrophages périphériques, et contribue à la pathogenèse précoce de la MP, en se concentrant sur l'intestin comme site initiateur. Un défi majeur pour la …  Read more

Family history of breast cancer (BC) is a factor that increases an individual’s risk for BC owing to the transmission of disease-causing alleles. Pathogenic variants in BRCA1 and BRCA2 are commonly found in women that are at a high-risk of developing BC and confer estimated lifetime risks ranging between 65-79% and 61-77%, respectively. Similar to many other BC predisposing genes (BCPGs) such as ATM, CHEK2 and PALB2, BRCA1/BRCA2 play an important role in the maintenance of genomic integrity through their involvement in the homologous recombination pathway. While pathogenic variants in BRCA1/BRCA2 are found at a frequency of less than 1/40 …  Read more

Cette recherche considère les gravures ornementales de type rocaille dans l'architecture du dix-huitième siècle d'Augsbourg. Nous y examinons l'importance de la rocaille et interprétons les raisonnements qui sous-tendent le choix du mélange entre architecture, ornementation et nature, ainsi que l'importance de la théâtralisation de ces gravures. Les représentations de l'artiste bavarois Johann Esaias Nilson se prêtent particulièrement bien à une telle analyse. Des questions clés influencent cette enquête. Si dans ces oeuvres d'art, architecture et ornement se mélangent, dans quelle mesure l'ornement peut-il continuer de communiquer avec éloquence? Comment peut-on comprendre une architecture qui tente de se rapprocher de la …  Read more

Paul Ramsey's medical ethics is built from a philosophical antinomy: Premise, the human being is a creature of will; Proposition, the human will is a free will; Contrary Proposition, the human will is a not-free will. General, exceptionless rules of conduct function in Ramsey's thought as moral restraint to human freedom. The moral agent ought always to act in accord with the demands of agape; and not only once but as often as the same features of a decision/action arise. General rules guide and restrain human free will in a necessary way to assure an ordered and moral society. This …  Read more

In looking at rural-urban linkages, this thesis addresses the extent to which social research may be generalized within development policy. Studies of Yoruba migrants in south-western Nigeria demonstrate that the ties between migrants and their hometowns can have a positive impact on local community development, an outcome which some researchers would suggest reflects a larger trend throughout the Third World. However, using information on the historical and cultural background of the Yoruba as well as a brief examination of Yoruba immigrants to North America, this study proposes that the utility of these ties in hometown development relates more to the …  Read more

In this thesis equivalence of the concepts of ana-bicategory and 2D-multitopic category is proved. The equivalence is FOLDS equivalence of the FOLDS-Specifications of the two concepts. Two constructions for transforming one category to another are given and it is shown that we get a structure equivalent to the original one when we compo e two constructions.  Read more

Pigeon flying has been a popular sport in Iran for many centuries and is practiced throughout the country. However, the hotbed of pigeon flying is generally accepted as being Southern Tehran and a few of the surrounding cities. Today, in many ways, pigeon flying has become associated with the concept of traditional Iranian culture and often juxtaposed with the idea of Iran as a modern country. Unlike other aspects of traditional Iran which are cherished and considered an important asset for the nation, pigeon flying has instead acquired mostly negative connotations. This thesis aims to discuss these dynamics through an …  Read more

A sequential exploratory design (Creswell, 2003) was used to measure how a social-constructivist oriented educational psychology course could move beyond the inert knowledge Mandl, Gruber, and Renkl (1996) reported to be the outcome of student teacher engagement with formal university courses. Biggs' 3P model (Biggs, & Moore, 1993) provided the framework for qualitatively categorizing 26 student teachers' (16 female, 10 male) conceptions of meaningful learning, and allocations of responsibility for learning. Categories were tested for independence and subsequently predicted learning outcomes as identified by Bloom's revised taxonomy (Anderson, & Krathwohl, 2001). All students held qualitative conceptions of learning. Participants who …  Read more

Steinberg, Roy  Read more

Law, Susan (Internal/Cosupervisor2)  Read more

Nelson, Samuel (Supervisor1)  Read more

La traduction de documents dans plusieurs langues represente des coûts eleves pour les entreprises, les gouvernements et les rmes internationales. Au Canada par exemple, il est obligatoire que tous les documents ociels soient rediges en Anglais et en Francais. Cette politique a force l'industrie de traduction a embaucher un grand nombre de traducteurs professionnels. Il est de notoriete que les normes imposees pour la traduction de documents administratifs rendent la tâche des machines de traduction trop ardue. Un grand nombre d'outils sont commercialement disponibles pour ameliorer l'ecacite des traducteurs humains a dierents nivaux de leur travail. Les employes des bureaux …  Read more

Cathode erosion under the action of an electric arc is a major problem in plasma torches. The reduction of cathode erosion through the development of superior cathode materials would result in more economical operation of plasma torches. Carbon nanotubes have favorable electron emission properties; they are studied here for the fabrication of superior cathode materials. In this work, the growth of carbon nanotubes (CNT) using thermal CVD is studied on different metal and metal alloy electrodes. Electroless Ni coated on Monel substrates and Ni deposited Si wafer substrates with 20 nm Cr under layer gave the highest density of CNT …  Read more

1ABSTRACTThe development of light emitting diodes (LEDs) technology has resulted in the recent development in lighting systems with high irradiance, variable wavelengths and efficiency for controlled plant growth. The ability to select wavelengths of light has allowed for research on specific recipes of light to match plant growth requirements through the photosynthetically active radiation range wavelengths (PAR 400 nm to 700 nm). Earlier published research has investigated the responses of plants towards the controlled supply of single and double wavelength of light, especially in the red and blue spectrum with very limited research beyond this range. However, research in our …  Read more

Al-Saji, Alia (Supervisor1)  Read more

Russell Steele (Internal/Supervisor)  Read more

Spinal cord injury affects thousands of people every year, however, treatment options are currently limited and none are universally accepted. Inflammation has been shown to play a critical role in propagating secondary damage which exacerbates the initial trauma, therefore modulating the inflammatory response after injury has therapeutic potential. As prostaglandins are powerful inflammatory mediators in the periphery, I have examined the role of prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) after spinal cord injury. My thesis provides evidence that PGD2 produced from hematopoietic prostaglandin D synthase plays a detrimental role in locomotor recovery. Blocking HPGDS or its receptor DP1, leads to reduced secondary damage, …  Read more

The aim of this work was to synthesize the 2,3-dibromo-inden-2-one-1 by the method of Roser; and to study the reaction of this compound with pyridine and with the three methyl-pyridines. Since it was known that the bromine atom in the 3- position of 2,3-dibromoindone could split off as a negative ion, one would expect the formation of a pyridinium salt. The pyridium salt would be expected to react with aniline in a manner similar to the ring opening reaction of zincke. It was hoped that the investigation of this reaction could offer additional knowledge concerning the reaction mechanism of the …  Read more

The outbreak of the first psychotic episode disarrays the person's everyday experience and of significant others. This work takes the notion of experience as the key mediating variable to understand how the cultural and social frame affects the experience of psychosis. Culture contributes to the articulation of the experience of psychosis through its influence on individual, family, and community reactions. I focused on the first psychotic experience of low-income youth living in Sao Paulo, Brazil because one can see more clearly the role played by the cultural and social dimensions, since the process of experiencing psychosis is not yet totally …  Read more

La réponse après-poinçonnement d’assemblages dalle-poteau de béton armé a été étudiée. Cette thèse constitue de deux parties dont la première discute les recherches précédentes sur l’effet des membranes en traction en plus de l’utilisation d’armature d’intégrité structurale de façon à éviter l’effondrement progressif après avoir subit un poinçonnement en cisaillement d’assemblage dalle-poteau. La deuxième partie décrit la conception d’un système formant d’une dalle plate qui sera la base des modèles d’assemblage dalle-poteau de cette recherche. Deux modèles ont été construits et testés à déterminer la résistance de poinçonnement en cisaillement et la résistance après-poinçonnement pour étudier le paramètre d’armature d’intégrité …  Read more

Sarcopenia – muscle loss that occurs with aging – is a growing concern affecting physical strength and function. This thesis assessed whether 1) the anabolic response of protein metabolism to a meal is impaired in older sarcopenic women – a phenomenon we believe to be largely responsible for the daily imbalance between protein synthesis (S) and breakdown that ultimately causes muscle loss, 2) meal supplementation with leucine (LEU), an essential amino acid which has been shown to stimulate protein S, improves the protein anabolic response to a meal, and 3) a LEU-rich meal affects meal thermogenesis or satiety. Using tracer …  Read more

Mon thèse considère l’influence de Charles Dickens sur les œuvres de trois contemporaines Américaines: Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, et Louisa May Alcott. Plus précisément, j’examine comment ces trois auteurs ont intégré le langage, les motifs, et les histoires de Dickens dans leurs propres créations, produisant de la littérature "original"— un idéal crucial et complexe de la période— qui répond quand même à son contexte historique et culturel. Malheureusement pour innombrable artistes, les succès immenses de Dickens ont coïncidé avec la demande d’Emerson pour des artistes Américain qui seront indépendant des influences Européens. Alors que chacun de ces sujets— la …  Read more

The work outlined in this thesis was a part of the program of glacial studies undertaken by the Arctic Research Expedition to Axel Heiberg Island, N. W. T., during the summer of 1960. The expedition was organized for the purpose of investigating the fields of glaciology, geology, meteorology, botany and other closely related subjects as they applied to Axel Heiberg Island. [...]  Read more

De nombreux cancers ont une incidence, un comportement et une réponse au traitement différents chez les hommes et chez les femmes. Traditionnellement, ces variations spécifiques liées au sexe ont été attribuées à des différences entre les sexes dans les habitudes, l'exposition professionnelle et le statut hormonal. Plus récemment, il a été reconnu que certaines de ces différences peuvent être attribuées à la génétique. Nous avons été particulièrement frappés par l'augmentation significative de l'incidence et de la mortalité du mélanome chez l'homme. L'objectif de ce projet était de caractériser la contribution du chromosome X à cet effet. L'analyse globale des altérations …  Read more

A major disadvantage of cytotoxic chemotherapy is the difficulty in selectively targeting tumor cells. Therefore, understanding the biological differences between cancer and normal cells provides a foundation for designing strategies to improve cancer therapy. Although arsenic trioxide (ATO, As2O3) is an effective therapy in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), its use in solid tumors is limited by the toxicity observed at concentrations required to induce apoptosis in non-APL cells. It is well characterized that oncogenically transformed cell lines generate a greater amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) at basal levels.(1,2) Furthermore, it is thought that the increase of ROS formation renders …  Read more

Chromosome 11p15.5 harbors a gene or genes involved in Beckwith Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS) and that confer(s) susceptibility to Wilms' tumor, rhabdomyosarcoma, and hepatoblastoma. PowerBLAST of P1 artificial chromosome clones from this region identified two novel transcripts with open reading frames encoding putative proteins of 253 and 424 amino acids. The larger of the transcripts was shown by Northern blot to be predominantly expressed in the fetal and adult liver and kidney. This transcript shares homology with integral membrane organic cation transporters, such as the tetracycline resistance proteins and bacterial multidrug resistance proteins; and was therefore designated ORCTL2 (organic cation transporter-like …  Read more

When the twentieth century comes to be reviewed a hundred years hence, one of the most noteworthy characteristics will, without doubt, be the extraordinary fruitfulness which the thought of evolution has enjoyed in this century. As we write, it is a record of fact that, while in biological circles there are explanations of the evolutionary process other than that of "Natural Selection" as suggested by Darwin, yet the theory of evolution has met with such universal acceptance that it is now taken for granted; not only does it provide a background for biological thought, but it has given a method …  Read more

Les coopératives agricoles sont rapidement devenues l'un des contributeurs les plus importants de développement rural dans le monde. Des législateurs, des chercheurs, ainsi que des donateurs ont identifié ces coopératives comment des mécanismes essentiels pour faciliter le partage d'information, accroître la collaboration, diffuser l'innovation agricole, et améliorer l'accès au marché pour les producteurs oeuvrant dans des contextes variés. La recherche empirique soutient que les bénéfices des coopératives sont équivoques, révélant des succès et des échecs, en plus de soulever des questions sur la capacité des coopératives à faciliter des changements équitables et durables. Également, la plupart des études menées jusqu'à …  Read more

In introducing a subject like "The Flour Milling Industry in Canada" we must realize the important position which it holds in Canada's economic life. Figures for the past year show that the Industry ranked second among all the industries of the country from the point of view of the value of its product. Hence it is with special interest that we should examine the following brief survey of the Industry. To make our subject clear we have divided it into four chapters. [...]  Read more

Le noyau accumbens (NA) est une structure qui joue un rôle essentiel dans la prise de décision, la locomotion et le comportement alimentaire. Les neurones dans le NAc présentent des changements prononcés dans activité lorsque les animaux perçoivent et locomote pour récompenser les stimuli associés, mais il existe une variabilité entre les neurones dans leurs modèles de réponse. L'activité neuronale dans la NA est stimulée par des entrées glutamatergiques provenant de diverses régions du prosencéphale, y compris le noyau thalamique médian (ThM), l'amygdale basolatérale (ABL) et l'hippocampe ventrale (HippV). Il est largement inconnu lorsque ces voies sont spécifiquement actives par …  Read more

Objectif. Les oscillations gamma (γ) sont des rythmes cérébraux intrinsèques importants pour la vigilance et les processus conscients. Bien que les anesthésiques généraux (AG) atténuent l'activité γ provoquée par une stimulation sensorielle, l'effet des AG sur l'activité γ spontanée demeure largement inconnu. L'auteur a caractérisé les courbes concentration-réponse du propofol sur le comportement et sur les oscillations γ spontanées. Méthodes. Des rats adultes (n=9) ont eu une implantation chronique d'électrodes dans le cortex en barillet et dans le noyau ventral postéromédial du thalamus. La puissance γ spontanée a été mesurée en présence de 4 concentrations plasmatiques de propofol (3,6,9,12 μg/ml, …  Read more

Guzman, Hector (Cosupervisor2)  Read more