McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par R

The main result of this thesis is a necessary and sufficient condition for an operator polynomial, L(A)-A1A, to have a Wiener-Hopf factorization with respect to a simple closed contour, y, not intersecting the spectrum of L. A spectral approach to the particular case of stable factorization was developed by Gohberg, Lerer, and Rodman. This approach is developed further here, so that the general case can be considered. One obtains a spectral theory of operator polynomials which is an extension of the spectral theory of linear operators.  Read more

Lignin, as it is commonly known, comprises approximately thirty percent of the dry substance of deciduous and coniferous woods and is one of natures most abundant vegetable products. It has engaged the attention of members of the chemical fraternity for more than one hundred years without divulging the secret of its composition. Today, we know it topossess certain well defined groups, as methoxyl and hydroxyl and a few others with less certainty. [...]  Read more

Anormalités dans la matière blanche et déconnections structurelles de l'hippocampe dans la Maladie d'Alzheimer et le Trouble Cognitif Léger avec amnésieObjectif: Ce projet a pour but d'évaluer la dégénérescence de la matière blanche et son impact sur la connectivité structurelle de l'hippocampe chez des patients avec un trouble cognitif léger avec ou sans amnésie ou la Maladie d'Alzheimer.Méthodes: Nous avons estimé l'anisotropie fractionnelle et la diffusivité moyenne de la matière blanche ainsi que la connectivité structurelle de l'hippocampe dans deux cohortes indépendantes. La cohorte ADNI incluait 108 sujets [25 cognitivement normaux, 21 avec trouble cognitif léger avec amnésie, 47 avec …  Read more

Je me propose de traiter dans cette thèse du Satanisme dans les oeuvres des auteurs modernes,de Chateaubriand à Georges Bernanos. Le champ limite de notre étude ne nous permettra que de nous arrêter aux écrivains les plus représentatifs du Satanisme littéraire, et de faire ressortir la conception diabolique propre à chaque époque. Nous essaierons de démontrer que le Satanisme du dix-neuvième siècle est purement littéraire surtout chez les romantiques. Avec Baudelaire et Huysmans, il revêt un caractère plus réel, et, de nos jours,avec Georges Bernanos,nous avons un Satanisme plus positif. Ce dernier écrivain mérite bien le titre d'écrivain diabolique; il …  Read more

The Galois theory of equations over the rational field oan be divided into two main parts. Firstly, there arises the problem of finding the group of a given equation and of obtaining information about the roots from properties of the group; seoondly, there coeurs the inverse problem of constructing equations with given group. It is well known that tremendous obstacles are encountered in every attempt at a constructive solution of these problems. [...]  Read more

Cold-formed steel (CFS) buildings continue to gain popularity for low-rise to mid-rise developments across North America. To enhance the seismic performance of CFS buildings, high-performance shear walls have been developed with steel sheathing enclosed within the center of the chord stud packs. Previous cyclic loading tests of the center-sheathed shear walls exhibited significant improvements in strength and ductility compared to other steel-sheathed shear wall systems used in CFS construction. In this study, archetype buildings framed with CFS center-sheathed shear walls were modelled in OpenSees and subjected to pushover analyses to assess their seismic performance.Numerical models of the thirteen previously tested …  Read more

The social atmosphere in England at the end of the eighteenth century abounded with visions of new heavens and new earths propagated by political and religious writers. To some, the French Revolution was incontrovertible evidence that the Day of Judgement was near, and that the end of the century would coincide with the end of time. To others, elaborate mathematical calculations produced the same conclusion. Many writers became self-proclaimed prophets who depicted new revelation of the future in detail, and their audience became a culture of anticipation who eagerly awaited the fruition of prophecy and the descent of the New …  Read more

The commercial electro-winning of cadmium from sulphate solutions is limited to low current densities and requires frequent stripping of the cathode because of the high tendency to “tree formation”. Zinc, similar in many respects to cadmium, can be deposited from sulphate solutions (with suitable addition agents) at current densities ten times those used in cadmium production. While the problem of eleminating tree-formation with cadmium might be solved by an empirical search for a suitable addition agent, a fundamental study to determine the mechanism of cadmium deposition, such as that made by Hutcheon (1) seems a preferable approach to the problem.[...]  Read more

Laurent Azoulay (Supervisor2)  Read more

Raghavan, G. S. Vijaya (Internal/Cosupervisor2)  Read more

The world is rapidly undergoing digitization, with blockchain-based solutions playing a crucial role in providing a fully digital and decentralized approach to monetary transactions. Blockchains have proven to be versatile solutions in various domains, including healthcare and supply chain management. However, their potential in digitizing physical world locations and spaces has not been fully realized.In a digital world that accurately represents the physical world, each physical entity, such as individuals with fitness trackers, smart vehicles, and smart spaces, would be represented by their digital counterparts. However, these digital representations must be accompanied by reliable physical world data, such as location …  Read more

This master's thesis in creative writing is divided into two parts. The first constitutes a critical analysis of "minimalist" writing, a term which has been used to describe the work of certain contemporary American writers but which might equally be applied to a portion of the world literature. This literary form has two fundamental characteristics from an aesthetic point of view: brevity and realism. In fact, it could be defined as the short story taken to its ultimate expression. Furthermore, it represents one of two poles by which we can evaluate all literature. The second part of the thesis is …  Read more

In this thesis entitled "Guy de Maupassant: l'engendrement du romanesque", the author proposes to demonstrate that Maupassant's six novels constitute a "trajectory", a progression driven and informed by an underlying logic. Proceeding from a psychoanalytical point of view, the author has uncovered another novel, an unspoken novel, that unfolds with Maupassant's novelistic production. This "other novel" expresses the engendering of the subject, which can be defined as the son-subject's liberation from the primal maternal dominion, thanks to the process of identification with the father. Maupassant's six novels mark various stages in this trajectory. The primal novel Une vie establishes the …  Read more

A phylogenetic character analysis of the wing venation within Apocrita (Hymenoptera) was conducted in order to examine the phylogenetic significance of wing characters. The venational data were then combined with published studies of other character suites to produce a hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships among apocritan superfamilies and families. Whereas the cladograms obtained from the collection of papers on character suites provide strong support for the sister group relationship between Orussidae and Apocrita, the ones derived from wing venation did not establish such a relationship, although they provided more support for relationships within Apocrita. A ground plan is proposed for the …  Read more

Cette thèse comprend deux essais sur la discordance par rapport au soi du consommateur et le comportement de consommation qui en découle. Le premier essai se concentre la discordance par rapport au soi du consommateur sous la forme d'une pénurie de ressources. Les consommateurs ressentent souvent une pénurie des ressources dans leur vie, par exemple, lorsqu'ils manquent d'argent pour acheter les produits désirés ou de temps pour accomplir des tâches importantes. Sur la base du mécanisme d'atténuation des menaces, cet essai examine, dans six études réalisées, l'influence de la rareté des ressources sur la volonté de partager des informations personnelles. …  Read more

This thesis is a monograph on the facade of the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy. The present appearance of the facade is the result of three building campaigns effected over the period of two centuries (c1300--c1500), and two restorative campaigns conducted in the twentieth century. Each of the three major campaigns is considered in isolation, with attention to reconstructions, formal and comparative analyses, and extensive contextualization and discussion of patronage networks. The twentieth-century interventions are cursorily presented in an epilogue. Major themes developed and continued through the five chapters of the dissertation are: architecture and its projected …  Read more

The controversial dating of the Baptistery San Giovanni is approached through formalistic considerations. Formal analyses of the Baptistery and the Duomo of Pisa lead to comparison and isolation of definitive features of Pisan and Florentine styles. As such, the buildings are shown to be prototypes and their respective receptions are traced in the Romanesque churches of Fiesole, Empoli, Lucca, Pistoia and Sardinia. It is concluded that the Baptistery must have been completed before the Duomo of Pisa was begun.  Read more

The extracellular culture supernatants of the white rot fungus Trametes versicolor can bleach and delignify unbleached kraft pulps, however the process is too slow for commercial application. Though at least two oxidative enzymes, laccase and manganese peroxidase (MnP) produced by this organism can catalyze a partial delignification of kraft pulp, the effect observed is small relative to that obtained with the complete fungal system. To develop a synthetic (cell-free) delignification system, other protentially important components of the culture supernatant were identified and their contributions to biobleaching and delignification were evaluated. The presence of pulp did not significantly affect the overall …  Read more

La glace massive au sol est une caractéristique des environnements périglaciaires à travers Sibérie, Alaska, le nord du Canada, l'Antarctique et Mars. L'occurrence de la glace massive au sol produit des questions par rapport à : i) son origine, ii) son importance à travers le paysage et iii) sa réaction aux changements climatiques. Dans l'archipel de la haute arctique canadienne, on se trouve de la glace au tabulaire massive partout dans les basses terres des îles Ellesmere et Axel Heiberg. Des recherches précédentes par W.H. Pollard ont interprété la glace à avoir une origine intra-sédimentaire reliée à la déglaciation et …  Read more

Objective. The aim of this naturalistic study is to examine whether a sample of subjects showed improvements in their defensive functioning after undergoing psychoanalysis. Methods. Seventeen subjects from the Penn Psychoanalytic Treatment Collection with completed, tape-recorded psychoanalyses had their defense mechanisms rated both for early and late sessions. Results. The pre-post effect size for the change in overall defensive functioning (ODF) of the sample was large (0.76) and statistically significant. The percentage of subjects who improved (71%) in their ODF was similar to that found by others who studied the same sample using general functioning measures. Conclusions. These findings provide …  Read more

On feeding phloroglucinol to apple tissuem connection with the biosynthesis of the flavonoid, phloridzin, it was found that phlorin, the ~-glucoside of phloroglucinol, was formed (Hutchinson, 1958). Such a ready synthesis of this phenolic glucoside suggested a very good ~stem for the study of the biosynthesis of simple plant glycosides. These compounds occur widely in plants and not very much was known about their biogenesis at the time when this study of the synthesis of phenolic glucosides in plant tissues was undertaken.  Read more

Born in Russia in 1904, Alexandre Marc was very active among the French non-conformist movements of the thirties. He attempted to federate them around the Ordre Nouveau group he founded in 1930; there, under the impulse of Arnaud Dandieu (1897-1933), a philosophy of personalism was elaborated, in a Nietzschean and federalist form, a few years before it was taken up and adapted in a communitarian Catholic version by the review Esprit of Emmanuel Mounier, where the term was made famous. Marc had brought there the idea of personalism, which he had derived from his Russian background and his German philosophical …  Read more

Computer theft is a mounting problem despite prevention strategies already in place. The marketplace currently offers post-theft solutions but most depend on software in place on the stolen item. This is a critical vulnerability as it places the theft recovery technology in the hands of the thief. This thesis is an investigation into the feasibility of abandoning this limitation by moving the theft recovery technology into the server, beyond the hands of the thief. The contents are divided into two complimentary sections. The first is the creation of a theft detecting DHCP server with acceptable performance levels for production environments. …  Read more

In the central highlands of Iceland, the implementation of new measures to delimit property rights spatially and to establish new regional management plans have caused debates over the use of natural resources with regard to their exploitation, protection and ownership. This study has tried to highlight how to resolve the debate over the use of natural resources and over the definition of land ownership in Iceland with respect to traditional user-rights and ownership practised by local communities. The answer to these questions are particularly important for marginal local communities that use the commons as pasture for sheep grazing because they …  Read more

Yargeau, Viviane (Supervisor1)  Read more

To evaluate the extent to which the provision of universal and free of charge health care services contributes to the reduction of socio-economic disparities in health status, we studied mortality due to causes amenable to medical intervention by social class in Montreal from 1984 to 1988. The study territory was divided into quintiles based on income data from the 1986 census. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated for each quintile. For all causes mortality, comparisons of the richest and poorest quintiles showed a two-fold difference in both crude death rates and standardized mortality ratios. The discrepancy between quintiles was most …  Read more

La présente recherche vise à démontrer la simulation d'écoulements aérodynamiques transitionnels à l'aide du schéma Nonlinearly Stable Flux Reconstruction (NSFR). Le schéma NSFR utilise la formulation de la Flux Reconstruction (FR), qui emploie des fonctions de correction pour permettre des pas de temps plus élevés que la méthode de Galerkin discontinue (discontinuous Galerkin - DG). Dans le cas de simulations de taille industrielle, tels que les écoulements sur des profils aérodynamiques, le pas de temps plus élevé de la NSFR peut apporter une réduction considérable au coût de calcul. Le schéma NSFR a été également mathématiquement prouvé stable pour les …  Read more

Notre capacité à faire sens du monde social à l’aide de catégories est l’un des éléments critiques nous permettant de naviguer des environnements complexes. Cependant, cette même aptitude peut également aider à reproduire des biais dans les jugements et les comportements envers des groupes de personnes. Au cours des 20 dernières années, la recherche sur les biais comportementaux intergroupes a fait de grands progrès dans l'identification de plusieurs prédicteurs sociopsychologiques importants de la discrimination, notamment les attitudes implicites (Forscher, Lai, et al., 2019) ou la déshumanisation (Bruneau et al., 2020). De plus, de nombreuses études ont été publiées dénombrant plusieurs …  Read more

L'écolier et le lycéen ont certainement eu une place dans la littérature française de toutes les époques. Dès le Moyen-Age ils jouent déjà un role important mais alors on s'intêresse à l'éducation du jeune homme, à ce qu'il deviendra. Il apparaitra donc comme sujet de traités sur les méthodes d'éducation au lieu d'etre un hero de romans.En 1532 Rabelais publie "Pantagruel" et 1534 "Gargantua""; il y discute de l'éducation du geant. Ces livres lui sont une excuse pour exposerses idées sur l'éducation. C'est dans le même but que Montaigne, dans ses "Essais" (1580) consacre p1usieurs chapitres â l'éducation des jeunes. …  Read more

In the years around 1600, a change was noted in architecture towards a return to Gothic elements in Europe. The Gothic, in contrast to the Classical or Ancient, became a "new manner", a modern style. The residence churches at Wolfenbuttel and Buckeburg, which were erected around 1600 by Lower Saxon territorial princes, are Late Renaissance constructions that were made to look partly Gothic. This was neither a lingering on of Late Gothic design nor a misunderstanding of Renaissance architecture: it was rather a conscious evocation of the past and its merger with contemporary architecture. The forms of the churches recreated …  Read more

This thesis studies low-rate wideband analysis-by-synthesis speech coders. The wideband speech signals have a bandwidth of up to 8 kHz and are sampled at 16 kHz, while the target operating bit rate is 16 kbits/sec. Applications for such a coder range from high-quality voice-mail services to teleconferencing. In order to achieve a low operating rate, the coding places more emphasis on the lower frequencies (0 to 4 kHz), while the higher frequencies (4 to 8 kHz) are coded less precisely but with little perceived degradation. The study consists of three stages. First, aspects of wideband spectral envelope modeling using Line …  Read more

The 3' poly(A) tail of eukaryotic mRNAs and the poly(A) binding protein (PABP) play key roles in the regulation of translation. Recently, our group identified two human PABP-interacting proteins (Paip), Paip1 and Paip2, which stimulate and repress translation, respectively. Paip2 also inhibits the binding of PABP to the poly(A) tail and competes with Paip1 for binding to PABP. My research project was divided into two parts to allow me to gain a greater understanding of the roles of these two PABP-interacting proteins. First, in order to study the mechanism of interaction of Paip1 and PABP, their binding sites were mapped …  Read more

Beginning with the premise that all literary texts are rhetorical in nature, this thesis explores the impact of the persuasive function in Romain Gary's Le grand vestiaire from the perspective of his poetics, defined in Pour Sganarelle. The analysis of typical narrative, descriptive and dialogal techniques used by the author brings to the fore at once the textual sites in which Gary's central precept, the univocity of meaning, is upheld, and the presence of ambiguities that undermine it. Likewise, the analysis of the novel's socio-historical context highlights its ideological dimensions, which is both inherent to the work and responsible for …  Read more

"Laws," as defined by Montesquieu, "are, in the widest signification, the necessary relations that have their origin in thenature of things." "Law, in the domain of science" says Littre,"signifies the necessary conditions which determine phenomena, the constant and invariable relation between phenomena, or between the different phases of a single phenomenon." [...]  Read more

Est-ce que les électeurs informés prennent compte d'un plus grand nombre de facteurs quand vient le temps de voter? Est-ce que les variations quant aux choix des considérations prises en compte mènent à des choix électoraux différents? Est-ce que les institutions politiques et la complexité électorale ont une incidence sur les processus de décision des électeurs et le choix du vote? À l'aide de données recueillies en Australie, en Grande-Bretagne, au Canada, en Nouvelle-Zélande et aux États-Unis (21 enquêtes au total), cette recherche examine comment l'hétérogénéité dans le niveau d'information des électeurs influence le choix du vote ainsi que le …  Read more

Development work in the field of mineral borehole logging was made in the areas of instrumentation, field testing, data processing and interpretation. Instrumentation work included a VLF logging tool compatible with a field digital computer configured to perform log instrumentation control, numerical data acquisition and recording together with video screen graphic display. Significant improvements in the overall precision and reliability of the logging operation has been realized through the use of digital technology. The field tests included the measurements of the following parameters: electrical resistivity, induced polarization, spontaneous polarization, electromagnetic field ratio and phase difference and temperature. The tests were …  Read more

The tumor suppressor gene RB regulates cell proliferation at the G1/S transition of the cell cycle. The retinoblastoma protein pRB associates with both HDAC-dependent and independent mechanisms to actively repress E2F-dependent genes required for entry into S phase. The retinoblastoma binding protein 1 RBP1 recruits the mSin3A/HDAC1 co-repressor complex to the pocket of pRB at growth arrest and accounts for the majority of the HDAC activity associated with pRB. However, transcriptional repression by RBP1 also involves HDAC-independent activities because repression is only partially relieved by the HDAC inhibitor Trichostatin A. This activity is mediated in part by residues 241 to …  Read more

Hybrid zones are natural showcases for evolutionary processes. I studied a natural hybrid zone between two species of toads, Anaxyrus americanus and A. hemiophrys in southeastern Manitoba in order to determine the type of selection maintaining the hybrid zone and to test the applicability of the leading descriptive models. I mapped the cline between the two species based on data from morphological measurements, allozyme frequencies and DNA sequences. I also mapped the transition in habitat from one end of the zone to the other based on the extent of forest cover portrayed on topographical maps. The position of the cline …  Read more

"Il est généralement considéré que les organes sensoriels et les noyaux vestibulaires encodent la vitesse angulaire de notre tête. Hors, en plus de recevoir des projections directes des nerfs vestibulaires, les noyaux vestibulaires recoivent des projections du cortex, du cervelet, ainsi que d'autres structures du tronc cérébral. Étant donné cette variété, nous avons posé la question: comment, lors de comportements naturels, les réponses de neurones dans les noyaux vestibulaires sont-elles modifiées par ces projections? Nos recherches ont porté sur trois types de neurones: 1) les neurones purement vestibulaires (VO) qui génèrent le réflexe vestibulocollique (VCR); 2) les neurones position vestibulaire …  Read more

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by the progressive loss of upper and lower motor neurons. A subset of familial ALS cases (20%; FALS-1) are linked to mutations in the Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase (SOD-1). In order to study the mechanisms of mutant SOD-1 (mSOD-1) toxicity and preferential vulnerability of motor neurons, human wild type and seven different mSOD-1 were expressed in motor neurons or dorsal root ganglion neurons of dissociated cultures of murine spinal cord-dorsal root ganglia, or in cultured hippocampal neurons. Expression was obtained by intranuclear microinjection of plasmid expression vectors. Many features of the motor neuron disease observed in …  Read more

Recently, in two recent articles, Lopez-Garcia and Maydom argued that the reception of remittances increases the fear of crime. According to these authors, this stems from the theory that remittance-households invest more in durable goods and that these goods are more likely to be the target of crime. This research has for objective clarifying two important questions : First, does receiving remittances increase fear of crime? If so, how? Second, does possession of durable goods increase fears of crime? The case of El Salvador between 2017 to 2019 will be used here to empirically support the findings. For this purpose, …  Read more

The discovery of the neutron by Chadwick in 1932 (27), and the production of artificial radioactivity two years later by Curie and Joliot (33) made possible the investigation of a completely new field. Fermi investigated the possibility of producing artificial radioactivity by neutrons, and he soon announced (49) that the bombardment of aluminum and fluorine by neutrons induces such radioactivity. Within a short time, Fermi et al. (51) succeeded in inducing artificial radioactivity in a large number of elements by neutron irradiation.  Read more