McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par R

This thesis argues that in the De Rerum Natura of Lucretius Shelley found an insight into the role of contingency in physical and historical process which allowed him to go beyond the limitations of an intellectual inheritance divided between post-Kantian Romanticism and the sceptical revolutionary Enlightenment. This insight entails radical implications for our understanding of the political role of the literary text. Shelley conceives society in evolutionary terms, making poetry a revolutionary clinamen (or mutation) in the iterative cycles of social reproduction. Models drawn from contemporary chaos theory help us to understand how this entropic tendency to disorder can work …  Read more

In a 6-week rat model it was demonstrated that a small dose of peri-implant zoledronic acid (ZA) increased local bone formation 3-fold compared with controls. Ancillary in vitro studies using 14C-labeled ZA implant doses demonstrated biphasic elution profiles for implants coated with hydroxyapatite; complete ZA release occurred within one to three weeks in serum compared with only 60% ZA release after 12 weeks in water. Implants without hydroxyapatite coating showed more burst-type release profiles and full ZA elution within 24 hours of hydration in serum or water. Canine studies at 6 weeks using implants with 14C-labeled ZA showed that the …  Read more

Johnstone, R. M.  Read more

Proper nutrition can promote healthy aging by preventing disease and disability and thereby helping to maintain autonomy. Seniors are at risk of declining nutritional status as they age. We investigated medical, psychological, social and environmental characteristics as both predictors and correlates of elevated nutritional risk in community-dwelling seniors using data from a prospective study of 839 seniors aged 75 and over, in Montreal. At baseline, more than half (59%) of the participants were at elevated nutritional risk. Cross-sectional analyses supported the findings of previous research examining correlates of elevated nutritional risk. Longitudinal results showed that amongst those at low nutritional …  Read more

In 1943, Vogt (l) was able to show that the adrenal venous blood of animals contained a high concentration of cortical hormones several times the quantity extractable from the tissue. She concluded, therefore, that the hormones, for the most part, were not stored in the tissue but synthesized as required at a rapid rate. [...]  Read more

"Much of the old rentaI housing in Montreal is owned by unsophisticated small owners who own one to three rentaI properties. These owners make a significant contribution to the housing market and to urban neighborhoods by supplying well-maintained housing at low rents. When a neighborhood appreciates in land value because of its desirability for highrise apartment development, large owners and speculators enter and drive up prices. The resulting larger interest rates and higher taxes further reduce returns on the already economically marginal old houses making operation increasingly difficult for those wishing to maintain the present land use. Large owners, who …  Read more

Memory of some forms requires the hippocampus, a brain structure in the medial temporal lobe that reveals remarkable synaptic plasticity. Most synapses in the hippocampus require NMDA-receptors for the induction of this plasticity. Memories that require the hippocampus may also require NMDA-receptor mediated plasticity. This thesis tested the involvement of NMDA receptor activity in memory for a non-spatial, social learning task that requires the hippocampus: the social transmission of food preference, NMDA receptor antagonist (CPP) injected systemically 55 minutes prior to training impaired performance 72 hours later, but not 48 hours, 24 hours, or 15 minutes later. NMDA receptor antagonist …  Read more

As the number of Canadians diagnosed with cancer continues to grow and treatment effectiveness improves, cancer survival rates increase. An estimated 62% of people are expected to survive for 5 years after their cancer diagnosis (Canadian Cancer Society, 2012). Increasing numbers of Canadians requiring ongoing medical treatment, surveillance and supportive care places a strain on current healthcare resources (Canadian Cancer Society, 2011). Given the limited funds available, and the growing demand for services, there is a strong need for feasible, accessible, cost contained psychosocial interventions for patients with cancer. Bibliotherapy is a psychological self-help intervention that relies primarily on books …  Read more

The Mattagami Lake mine deposit is a zinc and copper-bearing pyritiferous deposit emplaced in a thick volcanic pile at the contact of pyroclastic rhyodacite and effusive andesite. In its geological setting and mineralogy it is similar to many other deposits in North America, e.g. the Horne and Lake Dufault mines of the Noranda camp, flin flan, Geco mine, Buchans, the deposits of Shasta County, California and the Verde mine, Arizona. Comparable deposits are found in the Calidonides of Norway, in the Urals, Spain, Cyprus and Japan. [...]  Read more

As recently as 1950 Schofield (1) was able to state that the electrophilic substitution of heterocyclic compounds lacked a comprehensive explanation. Since then considerable progress has been made both on the experimental and on the theoretical side, but there still remain many problems to clarify. The systematic investigations of Ochiai and den Hertog on the properties of heterocyclic N-oxides presented interesting new possibilities.  Read more

The present study was performed to determine if pigs varying in their susceptibility to stress, adapted to a casein-based diet, experience an improvement in biochemical parameters related to stress and behaviour compared to pigs adapted to the traditional western canadian cereal-based swine diet. Experiment 1 involved separating fifty-eight, 8-week old pigs according to genotype with respect to the halothane gene. Within each genotype pigs were divided into 2 groups and assigned to either a control diet or to a diet where most of the protein source was substituted for casein. All animals were adapted to diet for 6 weeks and …  Read more

The primary object of the investigation was the determination of the specific external surface of pulp fibres. Of the methods available for this purpose, the permeability method based on the Kozeny equation was selected as the most suitable. It has been found to provide reproducible results. The effective specific volume of the investigated material is an important factor in the Kozeny relationship and had to be determined. A procedure was employed which permitted the simultaneous evaluation of the specific surface and the apparent specific volume. Both of the quantities determined are of great practical and theoretical value in the investigation …  Read more

Rutherford, Ernest, 1871-1937, (Supervisor)  Read more

The study narrowed down then to an investigation of the mental abilities and special aptitudes of the women clerical workers of Montreal. The groups tested were obtained through the very helpful co-operation of the Business and Professional Women's Employment Bureau, which has its headquarters in the Y.W.C.A. and the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, which supplied a group of employed clerical workers for purposes of comparison. [...] The procedure used involved the establishment of two occupational and guidance clinics in the area. The clinical examination included an interview concerning the individuals vocational and educational history, vocational testing, and a …  Read more

Stehle, R. (Supervisors)  Read more

The theory of quantum electrodynamics has been with us for some time. Techniques of calculation have evolved which produce answers which are in excellent agreement with the experimental results. However, the logical consistency of the procedures is open to question. Debate has continued for some years on the consistency of the formalism, and almost any shade of opinion may be found somewhere in the literature. [...]  Read more

The term “liver function test” was originated in the days when investigators envisioned discovering a single procedure which would measure accurately the status of all the functions of the liver. Over a period of about fifty years many tests have been developed, some on a sound physiological basis, others quite empirically; few have proved to be of value. Within the last few years research in this field has followed a different trend. There has been an increasing interest in investigation into the physiological principles underlying these tests, with the result that great improvements have been made in some of the …  Read more

Audio-to-audio alignment of musical recordings is the mapping of events in one recording to their corresponding events in other recordings of the same underlying musical piece. Among other applications, musical audio-to-audio alignment is used for: comparing and analyzing musical performances; finding different performances and arrangements of a musical work in a database; discovering musical motifs in field recordings of folk music; automatically synchronizing multiple takes (re-recordings of specific excerpts) in a recording studio; and aligning a musician's performance to a score in realtime, for purposes of interactive performance such as automated accompaniment. This thesis investigates audio-to-audio alignment by an algorithm …  Read more

<<Arthrobacter globiformis>> strain 425 is known to require preformed biotin for maximum growth and normal morphological development. Characteristic morphological changes during biotin-sufficient growth are interrupted in biotin-deficient medium, where cells become grossly aberrant. The minimum amount of biotin required for normal growth and morphology was found to be 0.08 - 0.4 mug/ml in a chemically-defined medium. Morphological changes associated with biotin-nutrition were followed by light and electron microscopy. The aberrant form consisted of several protoplasts within a thick matrix, quite unlike the single-celled form of the organism. The matrix may consist of unpolymerized cell wall precursors or components. These protoplasts …  Read more

Improved conditions for studying the growth, morphology and ultrastructure of Mycoplasma hominis (ATCC 14027) have been developed. Electron microscopy of whole cells, which had been fixed "in situ", indicated that M. hominis replicated by binary fission during exponential growth. Upon further incubation pleomorphic forms appeared. Four other strains of M. hominis showed similar behaviour. The pleomorphic populations contained cells within the size range of mycoplasma "elementary bodies". These were isolated by sequential filtration using gravity - after pronase treatment had dispersed aggregates. Only a negligible number of the cells passing the membrane of 220 nm pore size were viable, indicating …  Read more

This thesis maps a genealogy for the process of erosion that has affected functional communities in North America over the last half-century. It seeks to make links between this erosion of functional communities and the increasing stress that families and, by extension, schools are currently experiencing. This thesis argues that in order to understand the dysfunction and stress we are seeing in our schools today, our examination must extend beyond children and families to include the wider social ecology, philosophical, economic, and political contexts, as well as the physical landscapes that shape family, school, and community life.  Read more

This study investigated changes in self-esteem and perceived problem solving ability of academically at-risk students participating in a program called Science of Survival. The program combined adventure education and problem based learning approaches. One hundred and fifty-five male and female students, between the ages of 16 and 24 years completed the Self-Esteem Inventory and the Problem Solving Inventory at the beginning of the semester, after an adventure experience weekend, and at the end of the semester. A group of seventy-seven first year social science students, serving as a control group, also completed the inventories on the same time schedule. Self-esteem …  Read more

The study of diabetes mellitus is vital in this day and age because its incidence is increasing at an alarming rate. Diabetes results in the loss of function of beta-cells within the pancreas. Insulin resistance contributes to diabetes but the human body can compensate in various ways such as increasing the islet cell mass, glucose disposal and insulin secretion, in order to prevent the onset of diabetes. Growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) are two integral hormones important in both glucose homeostasis and islet cell growth. Early studies using cultured islet cells have demonstrated positive regulation of beta-cell …  Read more

Gauvin, Raynald (Supervisor)  Read more

The first three cantos of the Book of Courtesy discover to us the realm of social relations, where, as in the sphere of Justice, a strict system of gradation operates. lndeed, Spenser, in the early part of Book VI, sustains much of the atmosphere of the "stonie" age of Book V, and Calidore's initial adventures illustrate the abuses to which a hierarchical order of society lends itself in the fallen world. The poet's artistic exploration of these abuses traces their origins to the mean and malicious impulses of the human mind, which are, in a larger context, manifestations of the …  Read more

BAG3 myofibrillar myopathy (MFM) is a rare and severe form of childhood muscular dystrophy. Typically caused by the pathogenic Pro209Leu substitution in the BAG3 protein, this myopathy results in progressive muscle weakness, spinal rigidity and peripheral neuropathy. Cardiomyopathy, and respiratory failure typically occur in the second decade of life and this is often the cause of death in these patients. BAG3 is a multifunctional protein, perhaps best known for its role as a co-chaperone to HSP70 as a part of the chaperone assisted selective autophagy (CASA) complex. CASA is of particular importance to skeletal and cardiac muscle due to the …  Read more

A study of the kinetics of iodine exchange at the air/water interface, between a monolayer of a-iodostearic acid and substrate iodide ion, forms the subject matter of the Experimental section of this thesis.  Read more

The need for an absolute method to follow the changes in viscosity shown by polyvinyl acetate in various solvents, initiated a study of osmotic methods for determining molecular weights of this polymer. A Carter-Record type of cell was found less convenient than a modified form of the Van Campen osmometer. Number average molecular weights for polyvinyl acetate determined with the latter did not agree with reasonable predictions of intrinsic viscosity measurements when Carter-Record type membranes were used. Reasonable molecular weights were obtained for Gelva 15,45,150 and 360 with caustic treated membranes.[...]  Read more

The primary objective of this study was to examine the modulation of prehensile forces in people with cerebral vascular accidents resulting in sensory deficits on the hand. A prehensile pinch force apparatus was constructed to measure the pinch forces employed when holding a manipulandum between the thumb and index finger, and to determine how these forces changed as a function of the direction of force applied to the hand by a motor connected to the manipulandum and the surface texture of the manipulandum (i.e. plastic, suede, sandpaper). Sensorimotor function was assessed in twelve experimental subjects (patients) and fourteen normal control …  Read more

Carbonic acid and carbonic acid combined with freezing and thawing, extract considerably less, and 0.5N hydrochloric acid only slightly more potassium from Greensboro pasture soil, than does extraction with\ ammonium acetate. The hydrochloric acid extraction indicates that this soil has a low supply of so-called moderately available potassium. Experiments with samples of fertilized Greensboro loam show little variation in the moderately available fraction.  Read more

Factors affecting catch, trap fishing power and reef fish trappability were investigated by experimental fishing with Antillean fish traps on west coast fringing reefs in Barbados. Commercial (small mesh) traps caught significantly more fish (by number and weight), caught significantly smaller fish, and caught a higher proportion of immature fish, than large mesh traps. Fishing power was significantly higher for commercial traps than for large mesh traps. These catch differences between trap types have serious implications for the management of the reef fish resource by the imposition of larger mesh sizes in the commercial fishery. The squeezability hypothesis and the …  Read more

Important gender differences exist regarding affective disorders, and depression affects women two times more than men. Accumulating evidence suggests a functional interrelationship between ovarian steroids, the serotonergic (5-HT) system and depression. The objective of this thesis was thus to study the modulation of the 5-HT neuronal firing activity by neuroactive steroids and compare it between genders. It was achieved by means of in vivo extracellular unitary recordings of dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) 5-HT neurons in anesthetized rats. The basal firing rate of DRN 5-HT neurons was significantly higher in males (M) and pregnant females (P17) as compared to freely cycling …  Read more

The eighteenth century was a period ripe with challenges for hospitals in France. Denounced as ineffective, inefficient and even inhumane institutions, hospitals found themselves at the centre of a growing debate over the administration of health care and welfare. Although dismissing the hospital's traditional role as a refuge for the poor, the indigent and the sick, many reformers believed that this institution still could play a valuable social role. Thus, while contemporaries lashed out against the large, "abuse-ridden," hopitaux generaux and hotels-Dieu , small hospitals were seen in a more favourable light. For the growing number of contemporaries who argued …  Read more

La mortalité chez les patients cancéreux est principalement associée à la formation de métastases. Alors que l'importance de la synthèse protéique dans la formation des tumeurs est bien établie, son rôle dans leur dissémination demeure inexploré. Pour étudier cet aspect du cancer, la présente thèse porte sur un phénomène régulatoire important dans la traduction des ARNm en protéine : la phosphorylation d'eIF4E. Ce facteur d'initiation est un oncogène qui est fréquemment surexprimés dans divers cancers, et son hyperactivité est associée à un mauvais pronostic. La phosphorylation sur la serine 209 est requise pour son activité : ainsi, il a été …  Read more

Si l'analogie entre le corps humain et le clavecin est fréquemment employée dans les écrits philosophiques du siècle des Lumières, dans l'œuvre de Denis Diderot elle est l'objet d'une réelle « préoccupation permanente » (Chouillet, 1984). À de nombreuses reprises, le directeur de l'Encyclopédie emploie l'analogie tant pour représenter une forme d'intersubjectivité entre participants d'une conversation que pour donner une explication proprement matérialiste de l'âme. Extensible, le trope du « philosophe-clavecin », qui trouve son expression la plus achevée dans le Rêve de D'Alembert, se trouve à la conjonction de débats en matière de langage, de physiologie, de musique. En …  Read more

The production of neutral meson resonances in deep inelastic scattering has been studied in DESY with the ZEUS detector at the HERA collider. The rho 0, f0(980) and f2(1270) total cross sections, as well as differential pT and eta cross sections, were measured in the 0 GeV < pT < 7 GeV and |eta| < 1 ranges. The obtained total cross sections were sr0 = 19.21 +/- 0.92 (stat.) +/- 7.59 (syst.) nb, sf0 = 0.63 +/- 0.04 (stat.) +/- 0.25 (syst.) nb and sf2 = 3.62 +/- 0.02 (stat.) +/- 1.73 (syst.) nb. The cross sections measurements for f0 …  Read more

It is known that the bone consists of crystals of a Calcium phosphate complex held together in a matrix derived from connective tissue. The phosphate salts are responsible for the firmness and resistance which are two of the main characteristics of bone. The problem of bone formation has been approached in two ways; First, histologically by the comparison of bones from animals of various ages; Secondly, by chemical estimation of bone salts and more recently phosphatase. In spite of the large amount of knowledge accumulated on the subject, many points are still obscure. Indeed, our knowledge of bone formation has …  Read more

The unique architecture of branched oligonucleotides was exploited to study compounds that associate as two parallel duplexes with intercalating C•C+ base pairs (i-motif DNA). The formation of a branched cytosine tetrad was induced by joining the 5'-ends of a pair of pentadeoxycytidine strands with a branching riboadenosine (rA) linker. This arrangement causes the orientation of the dC strands to be parallel, and forces the formation of a C•C+ duplex that self associate into i-DNA. Presence of the i-motif in this structure is supported by thermal denaturation, native gel electrophoresis, CD, and NMR spectroscopy. To further characterize the nature of the …  Read more