McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par R

Les récepteurs de surface cellulaire sont des protéines transmembranaires intégrées dans la membrane plasmique qui jouent un rôle essentiel dans le maintien de la communication entre les signaux extracellulaires et les processus internes de la cellule, tels que la croissance, la survie et la migration cellulaires. La machinerie Endosomal Sorting Complexes Required for Transport (ESCRT) contribue à l'équilibre entre la dégradation et le recyclage des récepteurs, ce qui est essentiel pour contrôler leur disponibilité sur la membrane plasmique et la durée de la signalisation. La perturbation de l'ESCRT induit une stabilisation des récepteurs à la surface cellulaire et une signalisation …  Read more

Medical errors are the third cause of death in the US (Makary & Daniel, 2016). In an effort to reduce medical errors, a better understanding of the process of clinical reasoning is needed to inform better instruction of these skills. Recent research on clinical reasoning skills has demonstrated that the process of diagnosing patients is complex and that clinical knowledge outcomes can be affected by emotions experienced during case resolution (Jarrell et al., 2017; Kuiper, 2013). This thesis examines medical students (n=16) diagnostic skills in the context of solving virtual patient cases in BioWorld (Lajoie, 2009), a technology-rich learning environment. …  Read more

Les réponses affectives, telles que le stress et les émotions, sont considérées comme des facteurs influençant les erreurs humaines dans le monde de l'aviation ; cependant, la recherche aéronautique tend à explorer l’affection comme un élément subordonné de la cognition. Pourtant, de plus en plus de recherches démontrent que les réponses affectives ont un effet considérable sur la performance. Ainsi, l’objectif de cette thèse est d’examiner l’impact des réponses affectives des pilotes sur la précision de leur vol dans le cadre d’entraînements avec des simulateurs. L'enquête a commencé par une revue systématique des recherches existantes qui explorent l'affection et la …  Read more

This thesis describes the enchanted, sylvan world of a peasant community from La Macarena, a municipality located in the Colombian Northwest Amazonia. These peasants experience the forest as an animated place, inhabited by different spiritual, animal, and non-human beings with whom they have to deal in order to access some indispensable resources. In this manner, more than a natural place, the forest stands as an intricate network where humans, animals, plants, and spirits have to constantly interact. The value of these social interactions shapes the ways in which peasants use forest resources, engage with particular places, and relate with their …  Read more

This thesis is an attempt to interpret the conception of authority that was predominant among the Central and Northern Arabs at the time immediately preceding the rise of Islam. Since that conception was not explicitly formulated, we have analyzed the role and influence of the different political and religious functionaries as well as the reactions of their "subjects" to their commands in order to discover the basis of legitimacy for that authority. As there exists an essential relationship between authority and society, we have presented the social and economic organization and the ideal values of the pre-Islamic Arabs which might …  Read more

Adams, Annmarie (Supervisor1)  Read more

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI) affects millions of people worldwide and induces long-lasting deficits. The visual system has been well-characterized and is therefore the ideal test bed to study the cortical dysfunctions that occur after mTBI. The current understanding of visual perception in the mTBI population is constrained by measures of sensitivity and performance. Such metrics—whether acquired behaviorally or through non-invasive brain imaging—are limited in their mechanistic implications. Psychophysical studies report many visual deficits following brain injury, and these are understood in terms of cortical integration dysfunction. However, we do not know whether that can be explained by cortical integration …  Read more

Most traditional database systems offer secondary indexing to increase the performance of data reads during query execution. With the advent of newer, NoSQL distributed datastores, some don't yet have a secondary indexing feature built in. HBase is one such distributed database system. It partitions tables in so-called table regions across many nodes but does not offer secondary indexing. Since some types of queries may benefit from secondary indexing in order to improve their performance, we endeavoured to implement such secondary indexing for HBase. In this thesis, we present and compare two coprocessor based secondary indexing implementations.The first implementation, Table Based …  Read more

Dans cette thèse, j'examine certaines relations entre humains et non-humains qui se déroulent dans un contexte de violence armée, portant l'attention sur les dommages que la guerre a infligés sur les nombreuses relations que les communautés autochtones et afro-colombiennes, habitant dans le Bajo Atrato, entretiennent avec leurs territoires et les myriades d'existences qui les peuplent. Je décris une série de blessures qui vont au-delà de l'humain pour explorer dans quelle mesure des concepts tels que droits humains, réparation ou même dommage peuvent avoir sur notre compréhension de la violence et de ses séquelles. Des esprits errants de ceux qui ont …  Read more

Despite the recent advances in catalytic organic transformations, we believe the discovery of novel and more advantageous catalytic systems would bring insights to our understanding of the reactivity and mechanistic aspects of known processes. Our particular interest in the Diels-Alder reaction and the anionic oxy-Cope rearrangements, and our efforts in the investigations towards the development of new methods of catalysis are detailed in this thesis.Our efforts focus on the utilization of Lewis acid/base mediated method for the activation of the Diels-Alder reaction. Although the initial synthetic approach of the model substrates has proven to be challenging, we have circumvented those …  Read more

Qihuang Zhang (Supervisor2)  Read more

Monahan, Adam H. (Supervisor2)  Read more

For any ring R (associative with 1) we associate a space X of prime torsion theories endowed with Golan's SBO-topology. A separated presheaf L(-,M) on X is then constructed for any right R-module M$ sb{ rm R}$, and a sufficient condition on M is given such that L(-,M) is actually a sheaf. The sheaf space rm E { buildrel{ rm p} over longrightarrow} X) etermined by L(-,M) represents M in the following sense: M is isomorphic to the module of continuous global sections of p. These results are applied to the right R-module R$ sb{ rm R}$ and it is …  Read more

La structure d'un réseau neuronal est l’un des déterminants critiques de sa performance et dicte la façon dont l’information circule.L’architecture détermine la capacité de représentation, les biais inductifs et l’efficacité computationnelle d’un modèle.Ces facteurs influencent directement la manière dont un réseau apprend à partir des données, exécute une tâche donnée et généralise à de nouveaux exemples.Traditionnellement, l’identification d’une bonne architecture de réseau neuronal se faisait par une conception manuelle, reposant sur l’intuition des experts et un coûteux processus d’essais et d’erreurs expérimentales.Les architectures obtenues par ce processus étaient souvent réutilisées par la suite pour plusieurs applications, afin de réduire les …  Read more

This study examines reasons why successful and dedicated women classroom teachers become disillusioned with teaching. The four women teachers who participated in this study embody the "good and ideal" woman teacher. Yet, over a three year period of time during which we engaged in a written correspondence, they disclosed personal stories about teaching that showed their anger, pain and disillusionment. The purpose of drawing on the narratives of these women was two-fold. First, I wanted their stories to better inform my practice as a teacher educator. I reasoned that if it is successful and dedicated women teachers who become disillusioned …  Read more

[...] Calculations have shown that the resonance-dispersion analysis of experimental data, which is based on a two-level system, should yield single-valued relaxation times in the case of multi-level systems as well, and the results should be equal to those of pulse-saturation measurements where the return to equilibrium in the latter case can be characterized by a simple exponential.  Read more

Carruthers, J. (Supervisor)  Read more

Bone is a complex organ fulfilling multiple roles within the human body. Due to its multifunctionality, bone can be affected by a multitude of disorders. To understand the effects of disorders on bone, models of those diseases are needed. Once models have been established and sufficiently characterized one can start to assess the effects of treatments on the disease within that model. If new treatment options were shown to be effective in pre-clinical settings, their effectiveness must be proven within patients.First, I present a characterization of a pre-clinical model. My colleagues and I characterized the bone phenotype of a novel …  Read more

The flow inside and outside of undeformed fluid drops suspended in an immiscible liquid in shear and hyperbolic flow was studied under conditions where the transmission of shear stresses across the interface was unimpeded. Excellent agreement with a previously developed theory was found. The effect of surface-active substances was to inhibit the internal circulation by forming an elastic interface capable of resisting shear stresses. The deformation, orientation and burst of drops in the two flow fields were investigated for a wide variety of systems. The deformation and orientation were in excellent quantitative accord with the theories due to Taylor and …  Read more

McLelland, J. (Supervisor)  Read more

The jurisprudence of Lon Fuller continues to provide important insights into the relationship between the design of legal institutions and the results that flow from them. This thesis explores Fuller's insights as a foundation for considering the place of legislation within contemporary governance. The challenges of contemporary governance involve a plurality of dimensions and participants. This means that the capacity of legislation to provide an effective response is more contingent than is often recognised. This thesis understands legislation as informing and being informed by an appreciation of the purposes to which that legal form might be put in complex regulatory …  Read more

This dissertation looks at the way in which the shifting configurations of nation, gender and future in Micah might affect readers' positioning as subjects---that is their positioning as agents of speech and action---in a way that might engender resistance to oppression. It is suggested that if readers of Micah identify with the ambiguous and shifting national and gendered identities, within the context of the book's visions for the future, they are urged to recognize contradictions within their own subjectivity. This has the possible effect of shifting the reader's pre-formed subject position, or at least interrogating it, a process which may …  Read more

The contribution of this thesis to knowledge is that it is a test case of the lndian ideal 'unity in diversity' as proposed by an Indian Muslim, Humayun Kabir, to solve the problem of cultural identity of Indian Muslims in a secular democratic state. This study of Kabir's proposal suggests that the ideal is neither an actuality nor a possibility. It is not an actuality because Kabir consistently in his historical, philosophical, educational and political essays fails to attain the ideal. It is not a possibility because Kabir's proposal underestimates the importance and power of traditional religion inherent in the …  Read more

Evans, M. D. C. (Supervisor)  Read more

In this thesis, the innervation patterns by substance P- (SP), dopamine-beta-hydroxylase- (DbetaH) and the vesicular acetylcholine transporter- (VAChT) immunoreactive (IR) fibres were investigated in the skin of the rat lower lip, in order to provide a morphological basis for the possible interactions between sensory and autonomic fibres in the periphery. Our immunocytochemical approach revealed that SP-IR sensory fibres were widely distributed throughout the epidermis and dermis. In the dermis, they were associated with blood vessels, hair follicles, sebaceous glands and mast cells. Electron microscopical quantification revealed that SP-IR fibres equally innervated arterioles, capillaries and venules, all of which were shown …  Read more

Cancer is a heterogenous group of diseases promoted by many oncogenic drivers and highly robust and redundant signaling networks. Overcoming tumour complexity with single-targeted drugs has proven challenging. Paradoxically, despite our knowledge of the complexity of tumours in the advanced stages, most of the conventional drugs follow the philosophy of “one gene, one drug, one disease” and specifically target single disease-causing genes in tumour cells. Accordingly, acquired resistance is the most frequent cause of failure of the latter therapeutic strategies. To circumvent this problem, our laboratory developed a novel approach termed “combi-targeting”, which focused on the design of multi-targeted inhibitors …  Read more

Julien Gracq est un écrivain relativement jeune dont l'oeuvre n'a pas encore touché le grand public. Pour cette raison il nous semble utile de donner quelques indications sur la vie du romancier. [...]  Read more

The temperature of the polymer melt plays an important role in injection molding, directly affecting the quality of the molded part. A new barrel, nozzle, and crew tip were constructed for an injection molding machine to allow the installation a Vanzetti infrared optical fiber temperature sensor and several exposed junction thermocouples. These sensors were compared for the measurement of polymer melt temperature. Open loop pseudo-random binary sequence experiments were performed to obtain dynamic temperature models for nozzle melt temperature when the band heater power was varied. The open loop response of the nozzle melt temperature was found to be second …  Read more

We review the geometric quantization of the moduli space M of flat SU(2) connections on a compactRiemann surface in the real polarisation of Weitsman [Wei92][JW92]. We also use the methods of [RSW89] toconstruct a line bundle over the toric variety P associated to the moment polytope of Jeffrey and Weitsman’sintegrable system on the moduli space, which is compatible with the prequantum line bundle on M. There isa degeneration of the moduli space to this toric variety due to Biswas and Hurtubise [BH21], and we discusshow this degeneration might be used to prove results about the real and Kaehler polarisations of …  Read more

The occurrence of neutral 16-hydroxylated steroids in biological materials has been recognized for many years. In 1940, Marker and Turner (1) demonstrated the presence of a 16-hydroxy group in a steroid isolated 7 years previously by Smith et al from pregnant mares urine (2). It was not until 1945 however that Hirschmann (3) showed the compound to be 5α-pregnan-3ß,l6α,208-triol. [...]  Read more

Biopolymers are polymers produced by certain microorganisms, that are readily degradable in the environment. These biodegradable plastics have the potential to be used as substitutes for conventional petroleum based plastic provided that the production costs can be greatly reduced. The high cost of biopolymer production is due to the cost of substrate which mainly is glucose. The enzymatic hydrolysis of potato processing wastes was to produce glucose as a least expensive feedstock substrate for the production of biopolymers of polyhydroxybutirate (PHB) from the bacterium Alcaligenes eutrophus was studied. The enzymatic hydrolysis experiments were carried out using $ alpha$-amylase liquefaction enzymes …  Read more

Kaufman, Jay (Internal/Supervisor)  Read more

Dans cette étude, la cinétique des processus magmatiques a été étudiée en utilisant des techniques expérimentales et une modélisation théorique. Une série d'expériences de dissolution et de cristallisation ont été menées, en utilisant un appareil de cylindre à piston, sur une composition granitique hydratée et métallumineuse.Les expériences de dissolution ont été effectuées à 800 MPa et à des températures allant de 1000 à 1400 ℃ afin d’étudier la solubilité de la monazite et du xénotime dans une fusion rhyolitique hydratée contenant du bore et les diffusivités des composantes essentielles de ces minéraux dans la fonte. Deux nouvelles équations pour la …  Read more

Previous studies showed that <<Penicillium cyaneo-fulvum>> elaborates an antiviral substance in stationary cultures. In the present investigation, it was shown that the mould produces the antiviral agent in agitated fermentor culture. Antiviral culture filtrates were purified by precipitation of. impurities with acetone, followed by dialysis and concentration. The product was subjected to gel filtration, which resulted in a significant increase in activity, on a weight basis, when compared with non gel-filtered samples. Lyophilization resulted in a partial loss of activity of the antiviral preparation, but no change in the ultraviolet spectrum of the material. Studies on gel-filtered preparations indicated that, …  Read more

Cooke, P. M. (Supervisor)  Read more

Fertilizer P fixation and fertilizer N losses in soils may be reduced through additions of polyphenolic compounds. The influence of ammonium lignosulfonate (NH$ sb4 sp+$-LS) on triple superphosphate (TSP) efficiency was investigated in a soil incubation study using three Quebec soils and in a growth bench study using one soil. For the incubation study, soils were analyzed for pH and P extractability, as a function of NH$ sb4 sp+$-LS rate and time. In the growth bench study, TSP and NH$ sb4 sp+$-LS were applied at varying rates and corn (Zea mays L.) dry matter yields and nutrient compositions analyzed. Similar …  Read more

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) co-exist in an increasing number of patients, and activity-related breathlessness is a prevalent and often disabling symptomatic manifestation in those who are obese (OB) and have COPD (OB-COPD). Numerous studies report that OB-COPD patients report higher (i.e., worse) levels of activity-related breathlessness (at rest and during exercise) compared to their normal weight (NW) counterparts. However, the physiological mechanisms of relatively greater breathlessness in OB-COPD patients remains unclear and largely understudied. The aim of this study was to examine the individual and combined effects of obesity and COPD on …  Read more

CD4+ T cells consist of multiple subtypes that contribute to the control of infectious diseases by providing help to immune and non-immune target cells. T helper 2 (Th2) and T follicular helper (Tfh) cells are two CD4+ subsets that are critical for orchestrating host immunity against helminth infection – a global health problem affecting almost 2 billion people worldwide. However, the molecular mechanisms regulating these distinct effector cell lineages remain to be clearly defined. Here we describe an unexpected role for the Tfh cell-defining transcriptional repressor, B cell lymphoma (BCL)-6, in regulating Th2 effector function during experimental helminth infection. Specifically, …  Read more

The amazing rise in importance of the synthetic rubber industry in the United States and Canada during the war years is now a well-known fact and requires no further description. To-day this industry has ceased to be merely an alternative source of rubber, and has achieved the status of a major industry with an annual capacity of one million tons. The maintenance of this position, in a peace time economy, depends on its ability to produce a low cost product with properties approaching or surpassing those of natural rubber. The properties of the present GR-S type synthetic rubber, are mainly …  Read more

The social implications of anxiety have received little empirical attention. Moreover, the continuity of interpersonal processes associated with clinical and non-clinical levels of chronic social anxiety has not been systematically investigated. The relation between interpersonal behavior and anxiety reported during naturally occurring social interactions was examined in two studies; the first examined community volunteers exhibiting a range of chronic social anxiety levels, while the second compared individuals with generalized social anxiety disorder (GSAD) to a matched sample of non-clinical controls. Unique patterns were expected to emerge with respect to state versus chronic levels of social anxiety. State social anxiety was …  Read more

In this thesis I investigated how four student conductors made musical meaning from their scores in rehearsals with their peers and the mediating role that verbal language played in that process. Rosenblatt's (1978, 1994) transactional theory of the literary work provided a framework for conceptualizing the performed musical work as a musical event. Halliday's (1975, 1978, 1985) social theory of language use, particularly his notion of 'register' served as the framework for interpreting the intended meanings of conductors' utterances during rehearsals, and for understanding the dialogic nature of language use. Vygotsky's (1962, 1978) socio-psychological theory of the interdependence of thought …  Read more

The following measurements have been performed (1) the sorption of water vapour on beaten and unbeaten wood pulps. (2) The sorption of water on wood pulps which had been heated. (3) The sorption of, methyl alcohol vapour on groundwood, unbleached kraft and bleached sulphite pulps. (4) The sorption of n-propyl alcohol vapour on bleached sulphite pulp and purified cotton both with and without preliminary washing of the samples with propyl alcohol. [...]  Read more