McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par T

The cover of a recent issue of a leading Canadian magazine drew a comic parallel between the children of today and the children of' the parental generation. The children of the past were depicted as happy carefree lads and lassies engaging in such active games as hoop rolling, skipping, scrub baseball, apple stealing and the like. The modern child appeared in a darkened room blankly staring at a television screen. This idea appears too common now that television has become a part of life and it is not always expressed in a humourous vein. In fact many people are concerned …  Read more

Foreign tourists' images and ratings of Iceland before and after a visit to Iceland were investigated. Two self administered questionnaires were used to gather the data. Of 372 tourists, mainly from the USA and Great Britain, answering the first questionnaire 243 answered the follow-up questionnaire. The tourists come mostly because of the scenery and particular landscape features and there is evidence of further tourist potential having to do with history and perhaps culture and customs. Changes in image during stay were considerable. The image of cost, which is the most negative aspect of the country, worsened, but the image of …  Read more

George Elliott Clarke’s ongoing, multi-volume epic, Canticles I, engages canonical and minority racial narratives in order to create a discursive space for (re)presentations of voice. As an epic, Canticles I utilizes many of its traditional structural markers; however, it largely revises and adapts them in order to suit its postcolonial project. The collection, though international in scope given its mapping of transatlantic movement, also negotiates with issues of nationalism, particularly in recognizing the effects of diaspora on the multicultural mosaic of Canada and confronting Canada’s long-disregarded history of slavery. This thesis examines how Canticles I evokes postcolonial poetics within the …  Read more

Bayesian inference is a method that can be used to estimate an unknown and/or unobservable parameter based on evidence that is accumulated over time.In this thesis, we apply Bayesian inference techniques in the context of two network-based problems.First, we consider multi-target tracking in networks with superpositional sensors, i.e., sensors that generate measurements equal to the sum of individual contributions of each target.We derive a tractable form for a novel moment-based multi-target filter called the Additive Likelihood Moment (ALM) filter. We show, through simulations, that our particle approximation of the ALM filter is more accurate and computationally efficient than Markov chain …  Read more

Network-based video-on-demand (VoD) deployments are today very limited in scope. The largest deployed libraries are just 0.7% of the global movie and TV-series catalog and peak utilization of VoD targets are 10--15% of broadcast TV peak viewing numbers. Recognizing that libraries and usage may grow, service providers are intensely interested in large-scale content delivery networks that provide content propagation, storage, streaming, and transport. We focus on one of the challenges of VoD network design: resource planning. We describe a method and design tool for the planning of large-scale VoD systems and address the resource allocation problem of determining the number …  Read more

The goal of this research is to design, analyze and manufacture a carbon fiber bicycle stem that maximizes the use of carbon fiber composites. The stem is the part of the bicycle that connects the handlebar to the fork. The design is difficult due to the small size and complex geometry of the part, thus not obvious to conceive with a standard composite manufacturing approach. With all the required specifications and the experience of the early prototypes, a general manufacturing plan was devised. Work began with a concurrent design and analysis process. The machining and preparation of the prototyping molds …  Read more

Studies of the Early Meiji Period have until now been mainly articulated around the issue of continuity and discontinuity between the Edo and Meiji eras. Thus Tokyo has become the central locus of production of multiple discourses on Japanese modernity, urbanity and culture. This work adopts a discontinuist approach by considering each era as two entirely distinct, although related, historical assemblages. For this, I focus my study on the conditions of production of Tokyo as a modern urban space. The entry into modernity is the crossing of a threshold. As Edo is marked by the order of the general equivalent …  Read more

This study situates the National Action Committee on the Status of Women's [NAC] activism and media strategies in relation to the emergence of neoliberal policy and political discourse at the federal level in Canada. The rise of neoliberal policies and political language during the 1980s and early 1990s in Canada created a new terrain on which political debates about women's issues entered into public culture. Consequently, women's organizations had to change advocacy strategies in order to participate in national political discourse and contest the terms on which women's issues were being framed. While this story has primarily been told as …  Read more

In 1986, Quebec adopted the Act to amend the Civil Code and the Code of Civil Procedure in respect of Arbitration and thereby established a new and modern regime for contractual arbitration. The new regime includes provisions to facilitate execution in Quebec of arbitral awards rendered outside the province. This thesis deals with certain aspects of the new regime, comparing it with the well-established French law of arbitration, which has abundant caselaw covering both domestic and international arbitration. Emphasis is placed on the manner in which Quebec courts have applied the new arbitration law in comparison with French judicial practice. …  Read more

This thesis studies measures of musical rhythm complexity. Informally, rhythm complexity may be thought of as the difficulty humans have performing a rhythm, listening to a rhythm, or recognizing its structure. The problem of understanding rhythm complexity has been studied in musicology and psychology, but there are approaches for its measurement from a variety of domains. This thesis aims to evaluate rhythm complexity measures based on how accurately they reflect human-based measures. Also, it aims to compare their performance using rhythms from Africa, India, and rhythms generated randomly. The results suggest that none of the measures accurately reflect the difficulty …  Read more

Cette thèse, intitulée “Unmasking Gender and Class: A Feminist-Historical Synthesis of Social Contexts in Louisa May Alcott's Behind A Mask and Little Women”, explore les représentations contrastées des rôles de genre, de l'autonomie et de la classe dans les deux œuvres phares de Louisa May Alcott. Dans une optique féministe et historique, l'étude examine comment Little Women et Behind A Mask reflètent et remettent en question les attentes de la société du XIXe siècle à l'égard des femmes. Little Women dépeint une vision sentimentale et moraliste de la vie domestique, s'alignant sur les idéaux culturels du « culte de la …  Read more

Simple technologies are required for reducing the post harvest losses of horticultural produce. Edible films are being studied extensively for application on fresh and cut fruits and vegetables. Tomato, being a very nutritious and important food and a highly perishable climacteric fruit, this study was planned to investigate the application of chitosan films. Chitosan is a biodegradable waste product from sea food and is safe for consumption. With a view to broaden its antimicrobial activity it was combined with lysozyme, a lytic enzyme. Since the edible films are sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity, they were studied under ambient …  Read more

Objective. While most older Canadians prefer to “age in place” in their own homes, not all dwellings meet acceptable housing standards. As a social determinant of health and well-being, housing can affect healthy aging and shape life satisfaction. Evidence suggests that relationships between housing and well-being can differ across the rural-urban continuum and genders. This study examines rural-urban and gender variations in the associations between housing characteristics and subjective well-being, considering whether these are significant modifiers. Methods. I use cross-sectional, individual-level data from the Canadian Housing Survey (pooled 2018 and 2020 data) for respondents aged ≥ 65 years living across …  Read more

La loyauté des groupes immigrants a souvent été questionnée, particulièrement lorsqu'ils sont considérés comme des minorités suspectes dont la loyauté envers leur pays d'origine peut être plus importante que leur loyauté envers leur pays d'accueil. Ce concept d' « allégeances conflictuelles » est basé sur la prémisse que les deux loyautés sont mutuellement exclusives et que, par conséquent, l'une doit avoir la priorité sur l'autre. Cependant, cette dissertation soutient que la conception que les membres de la seconde génération de la communauté diasporique Tamoule du Sri Lanka ont de leur pays d'origine ainsi que de leur pays d'accueil ouvre un …  Read more

Macrophages are active participants in many important biological processes, including antimicrobial activity, tumour surveillance, apoptotic cell clearance, homeostasis and wound healing. The activity of all cells is under the direct influence of their genetic makeup and macrophages are no exception. Natural resistance-associated macrophage protein 1 (Nramp1, also known as SLC11A1) is a macrophage-restricted gene that confers resistance to intracellular pathogens in mice. Mitogen activated protein kinase activated protein kinase 2 (MAPKAPK-2 or MK2), a substrate of p38 MAPK, is known to influence the activation of macrophages in response to stressors, including the Toll-like receptor (TLR)-4 ligand LPS. Like NRAMP1, MK2 …  Read more

This narrative self-study focuses on my experience as a sixth-grade teacher in Quebec, Canada making the pedagogical shift to student-centered assessment. Student-centered assessment is defined as one that decentralizes teacher authority, increases transparency of evaluations, and increases assessment dialogue. Some elements of student-centered assessment are in line with the Quebec Education Plan while others are more diametrically situated. Through a “bricolage” approach to narrative inquiry, I analyzed how the role of the teacher in terms of curriculum and assessment is impacted by political, cultural, and philosophical realities that impact the teaching context. My identity as a teacher, and particularly my …  Read more

McMillan, William (Supervisor2)  Read more

The purpose of this research is to further our understanding of the hydrostatic adjustment process due to diabatic heating. This is achieved by the use of an atmospheric model based on Euler's non-hydrostatic, fully elastic set of equations resolved by the semi-Lagrangian, semi-implicit marching scheme. Such a model thus allows a tri-dimensional, numerical approach of a problem which could, until now, only be addressed within a simplified context (one-dimensional and analytical; bi-dimensional and numerical). The hydrostatic adjustment is the mechanism by which the atmosphere tends to reach a new hydrostatic balance when this one has been upset. This can be …  Read more

It was felt that a bridge was missing from the family of bridges in the literature dealing with the comparison of capacitance, mutual inductance and/or self inductance. This new bridge would bear a similar relationship to Maxwell Abridge that the Heydweiller did to the Owen. Reference to Appendix I will show these relationships. To keep the study to reasonably comprehensive limits particular attention is to be paid to the comparison of the new bridge with Maxwell's bridge. Frequently the effects of quadrature components of bridge units on the final balance conditions are glossed over in the study of simple bridges …  Read more

"Parameters influencing efficacy of Steinernema carpocapsae (Sc) strains and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (Hb) were examined. Virulence differences between these strains and species were related, in part, to nematode activity. Nematode field persistence was good in loamy soils and poor in soils with high clay or sand contents. Hb and Sc (Mexican and All strains) persisted well, whereas Sc (Breton and DD136 strains) persisted poorly. Hb and Sc (Mexican) survived the winter in southwestern Quebec. The nematodes were found to be inactive in field soils for much of the growing season due to lack of moisture. Ability to tolerate desiccation had no …  Read more

L'huile de graines de canneberges est une huile de qualité qui peut être mise en marché pour ses propriétés fonctionnelles "santé" issues de sa composition particulière en acides gras oméga 3, 6 et 9 et de sa forte concentration en antioxydants. Il existe peu ou pas d'information sur la teneur en huile de la graine de canneberge, cependant l'industrie alimentaire s'intéresse à l'extraction de cette huile, qu'elle effectue présentement par pressage à froid, malgré un faible rendement. Afin de palier à ce problème, une étude a débuté afin d'analyser les rendements en huile obtenus par différents procédés d'extraction dont l'ébullition …  Read more

The Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) is a self-report instrument designed to measure defensive functioning and coping styles. Originally developed by Bond and colleagues (1983), the questionnaire has been researched extensively. The present investigation sought to determine the factor validity of the newly developed DSQ-60 (Trijsburg, Bond & Drapeau, 2003) in a sample of English-speaking university students (n = 305) and French-speaking university students (n = 212). Using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, three factors, or defense styles were revealed: image distorting, affect regulating, and adaptive. Cronbach's alpha for the three styles was .64, .72, and .61, respectively. Results are …  Read more

Strontium originating from nuclear detonations has now been disseminated throughout the globe and measurable quantities of this radionuclide are present in practically all surface soil, food and human bone. The biological chain of radiostrontium has been extensively investigated in the last two decades. These have shown that strontium is similar but not identical with calcium in its metabolic behaviour in mammals. [...]  Read more

The man produced radiation had been with us for nearly three-quarters of a century. It represents an element which has significant impact on nearly every phase of human life. In the latter part of last century, the experiments with vaccum dischargers have led to the discovery of X-rays by Roentgen in 1895. This was soon followed by Becherel's (1896) discovery of radiation from radiactive materials. Within months it was recognized that each of these radiation could have injurious effect upon persons exposed to it. The increasing incidence of radiation damage had culminated in the establishment of International Commission of Radiological …  Read more

Misra, A. K. (Supervisor)  Read more

Fluid flow and filtration phenomena associated with filtration of liquid aluminum using reticulated ceramic filters were systematically investigated. It was found that fluid flow through this type of filter could be described by Darcy's Law up to a Reynolds number of 8, and the permeability of this type of filter ranged from about $9 times10 sp{-3}$ to $4 times10 sp{-2} rm mm sp2$. Parameters affecting filtration processes during the initial period were identified, some of which could be quantified numerically using a 2-D computational domain. According to these numerical analyses, the clean filter coefficient for this type of filter was …  Read more

Non-metallic inclusions in steel such as alumina, silicates, etc. are detrimental to many steel properties. Elimination of these inclusions has long been a major target in steelmaking. In this investigation, attempts have been made to remove these non-metallic inclusions by passing the liquid steel through a ceramic filter. It was found that this approach is very effective for removing solid non-wetting inclusions such as alumina. It appeared that liquid silicates could also be removed to some degree.  Read more

Both intracellular and extracellular levansucrase (LS) were recovered from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens biomass. Sucrose was identified as an important inducer for the expression of LSs. Polyethylene glycol (PEG 200) selectively fractionated intracellular (vs. extracellular) LS activity. Partially purified intra- and extracellular LSs were studied in terms of their optimum reaction temperature, pH, kinetics as well as their catalytic properties. B. amyloliquefaciens LSs exhibited high levan-forming activity over a wide range of sucrose concentrations. The optimum temperatures for the intra- (25-30 °C) and extracellular (40 °C) LS transfructosylation activities were lower than those for their hydrolytic activities (45-50°C). Intracellular LS's catalytic efficiency …  Read more

Lipase, from porgy (Stenotomus chrysops) viscera, was purified by polyethylene glycol (PEG) 1000 precipitation, followed by dialysis and affinity chromatography on EAH-Sepharose 48. The digestive lipase from porgy showed seasonal variation in activity with high activity found in late summer and early fall compared with a spring sample. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation fraction was used to characterize this enzyme using p-nitrophenyl palmitate (pNPP) as substrate. Porgy lipase did not behave like a bile salt activated/depended lipase because it was able to hydrolyze pNPP without bile salt (e.g., sodium cholate). Porgy lipase was stable within the pH range of pH 6.0-10.0, …  Read more

Cairns, Robert D. (Supervisor)  Read more

Managing a common property resource, especially one jointly owned by two nations, is a formidable problem as it involves both incentives to cooperate and incentives to cheat. Often conflicts flare up, followed by efforts of reconciliation, which are interrupted again by new conflicts. A classic example of this is the Pacific salmon fishery, which is jointly harvested by the U.S.A and Canada. To understand the nature of this conflict, and to make policy recommendations, a game-theoretic approach is developed in this thesis.  Read more

Dendritic cell (DC)-based immunotherapy is a promising strategy to treat malignant diseases. Traditionally, DCs are obtained by differentiating monocytes (Mo-DCs) in open flask systems using tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS) as the substrate. Disposable culture bags composed of flexible fluoropolymers such as fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) represent promising alternatives to polystyrene flasks to minimize the risks of contamination when producing therapeutic cells for clinical use. The transition from the more hydrophilic TCPS (adherent culture) to the more hydrophobic fluoropolymers (suspension culture) entails significant changes in the substrate surface properties which can impact protein adsorption and cell product attributes. The impact of …  Read more

Le cancer du sein triple négatif est caractérisé par son agressivité et par son profil clinique défavorable pour le patient. Ces tumeurs sont enrichies de cellules initiatrices de tumeurs et de cellules souches du cancer du sein, lesquelles sont dotées d'une capacité d'auto-renouvellement les permettant de générer des tumeurs hétérogènes. Ceci est associé à un haut risque de rechute ainsi qu'à une réponse partielle à la chimiothérapie chez le patient. Les cellules souches du cancer du sein s'avèrent donc une cible importante dans le développement des thérapies ciblées contre le cancer du sein triple négatif. Nous avons démontré une surexpression …  Read more

Comprendre comment les connexions neuronales induisent des comportements spécifiques est au cœur des neurosciences. Bien qu’efficaces, les traceurs neuroanatomiques existants ne permettent pas d’identifier les populations neuronales postsynaptiques recevant des signaux de neurones génétiquement définis. L’objectif de cette thèse est de développer un nouvel outil de marquage transsynaptique, appelé Transsynaptically-Induced Recombinase-Activated Neuron Tracing (TIRANT). Pour réaliser ce marquage, TIRANT utilise un ligand synthétique exprimé dans les neurones présynaptiques et un récepteur synthétique de type Notch, fusionné à une recombinase, dans les neurones postsynaptiques. La liaison ligand-récepteur déclenche le clivage du domaine intracellulaire, libérant ainsi la recombinase et permettant l’expression d’un …  Read more

Veterinary drug residues, though carefully regulated, remain commonly detected in food of animal origin (meat, seafood, dairy products etc.). Worryingly, new pharmaceutically active contaminants are continuously being detected in food. Recently, human pharmaceuticals and other antimicrobial residues occurring as environmental contaminants in aquatic systems were observed to accumulate in various seafood. At the same time, most foods of animal origin are cooked before consumption. In terms of food safety, it is therefore necessary to understand the fate of drug residues in the food supply chain, notably during thermal processing.Amphenicols (e.g. florfenicol, chloramphenicol) are one class of antibiotics commonly reported in …  Read more

Plastic-related chemicals (PRCs) are substances related to plastics including the initial components of the plastics (e.g. monomers, antioxidants, additives) and the degradation products of plastics. The occurrence of PRCs in food and their potential adverse health effects have raised concerns about the health of consumers. To date, the surveillance of PRCs in food has mostly focused on the targeted screening and quantification of specific residues using tools such as high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or gas chromatography (GC) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS). For example, bisphenol A (BPA) and several phthalates have been detected in different types of food. To …  Read more

Specularity is a very common phenomenon in the real world and confounds many computer vision tasks such as stereo. The first purpose of this thesis is to design a real-time algorithm of specularity detection. After that, with the knowledge of where the specularities are, a stereo correspondence approach robust to specularity is proposed. Finally, a specularity recovery method is presented to recover the underlying diffuse color using the stereo correspondence information. For real-time specularity detection, a new concept of unnormalized Wiener entropy (UW Entropy) is first proposed in this thesis, which has the desirably simple final form and requires no …  Read more

Arbel, Tal (Supervisor2)  Read more

Whalen, Joann Karen (Supervisor1)  Read more

Let K be a field of characteristic zero, K[ x, y] be the polynomial ring in two variables. Let Delta f denote the K-derivation of K[ x, y] given by Deltaf(g) = J(f, g) = fxg y -- fygx, the Jacobian determinant of f, g with respect to the coordinate system x, y. The derivation Deltaf is a differential operator on K[x, y]. The main objective of this thesis is to develop the spectral theory of the differential operator Deltaf. More precisely, we not only determine the eigenvalues but also the structure of the eigenfunctions of Deltaf. In developing this …  Read more

Gas tungsten arc deposition and laser wire deposition were made using Inconel 625 wire modified with 0.4 wt% B. Laser powder deposition was performed using blended powders of Mar M247 and Amdry DF3 with a ratio of 4:1. The microstructure of three types of as-deposited samples was studied. It was found that the eutectic amount formed at terminal solidification in all conditions was sufficient to backfill cracks if formed during solidification. For the laser wire and powder deposited samples, the rapid solidification behavior was also investigated. The three types of as-deposited samples were subjected to typical heat treatments. The eutectics …  Read more

La communication sans fil est le segment de croissance le plus dynamique parmi les techniques de la communication. Dans un système de communication sans fil, l'interférence inter-symboles (ISI) est une distorsion linéaire qui provoque des erreurs de décisions au niveau du récepteur. L'égaliseur est nécessaire pour éliminer l'ISI. Récemment, l'égalisation aveugle du canal est devenue un sujet de recherche populaire dans les domaines de la communication sans fil. Un des jalons de la technologie aveugle est fondé sur le cadre des statistiques du second ordre (SOS) du signal reçu. Tout particulièrement, la méthode du sous-espace exploite l'orthogonalité entre le sous-espace …  Read more

With dramatically increasing internet bandwidth, electrons as information carriers are being continually replaced with photons. This exchange has been fully completed in the long-haul high-speed backbone network, now occurs in short-reach data centers and radio frequency communications, and eventually will reach the chip level. Various emerging optical technologies have been developed during this time; with performance and cost being the two major factors to be considered for these technologies. In this work, we propose and design several novel optical fiber devices to enhance the performance or lower the associated cost of emerging technologies in the areas of microcavities and dual-mode …  Read more

Rochefort, Christian (Internal/Cosupervisor2)  Read more

Dealy, John Michael (Supervisor1)  Read more

The processability of a resin in film blowing is strongly influenced by its flow behavior in extension. In this study, the suitability of the Sentmanat Extensional Rheometer (SER) and of a novel tester for polyethylene film resins was evaluated. The SER, which subjects the resin to simple extension, is simple and fast to use, requires a small quantity of sample and gives reliable data that can be used to detect differences in molecular weight, molecular weight distribution and levels of long-chain branching. The data are also related to the stability of the bubble in film blowing. The tester, on the …  Read more

The primary grain in oat spikelets is larger than the secondary grain. Oat genotypes were grown to determine the effects of planting primary and secondary grains separately on vegetative and reproductive growth. Plants from primary seeds had higher yields than those from secondary seeds. The advantage was associated with earliness of heading. It was concluded that increased seed uniformity would be advantageous. Reductions in panicle size by removal of all primary grains and some secondary grains indicated that secondary grains have more growth potential than observed in untreated panicles. However, secondary grains in the treated panicles did not achieve weights …  Read more