McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par Y

Madathil, Sreenath Arekunnath (Supervisor2)  Read more

Introduction: Despite considerable prevention efforts, dental caries remains the most prevalent oral disease worldwide, especially among people with lower socioeconomic positions, resulting in significant health inequities. This is partially attributable to overlooking the health impacts of the social environment. Various dimensions of the social environment may affect oral health, either independently or interdependently. However, previous studies have focused on separate social dimensions. Moreover, the underlying biological mechanisms linking the social environment to dental caries remain unclear. This thesis investigates the direct and indirect mechanisms through which the social environment influences dental caries development.Methods: Data for this thesis are drawn from …  Read more

Ce projet analyse les tendences par genre dans les programmes annuels de l'Association américaine des géographes (American Association of Geographers) de 1998, 2005 et 2010 à l'aide de la technique de traitement du langage naturel de modélisation formelle des thèmes et d'analyse de la fréquence des mots. La proportion de thèmes liés à la géographie humaine augment tandis que celle des thèmes liés à la géographie physique diminue au cours de la période étudiée. Contrairement aux attentes, les résultats ne montrent pas de division stricte entre la géographie humaine et la géographie physique en fonction du sexe du premier auteur, …  Read more

The purpose of this study is to analyze and/or predict the long-term creep characteristics of the buffer material placed around the nuclear waste container in the disposal vault. The analytical techniques examined have the objectives of deriving statically possible stresses compatible with kinematically possible strains while satisfying the boundary conditions. In order to detect any creep in the buffer material under actual boundary conditions a scale-model testing procedure is adopted, called the glass-box technique, which enables the visual observation of the buffer movement by scaling down half of the in-hole disposal system through its longitudinal axis. […]  Read more

Fecal water contaminations have been known to cause severe disease outbreaks throughout the world, thus proper wastewater treatment can help to avoid them. Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a well-known microorganism that flourishes in the gut of warm-blooded animals and can cause disease, such as diarrhoea, urinary tract infection, dysentery-like illness, haemorrhagic colitis and neonatal meningitis. Previous studies have shown that the virulence gene profile of E. coli can accurately predict its in vivo pathogenicity in animal models. E. coli in municipal wastewaters was therefore used in this study as a model pathogenic microorganism to examine the effects of activated …  Read more

Introduction: Une mortalité significative est observée chez la population diabétique en raison de complications cardiovasculaires. Un des changements biochimiques caractéristiques souvent observés chez les personnes atteintes de diabète est la formation de produits de fin de glycation avancée des protéines (AGEs). Les AGEs, un des ligands primaires pour le récepteur de l'AGE (RAGE), avaient été associés auparavant à l'initiation et le maintien des réponses pathologiques pro-inflammatoires principalement par NF-κB. L'interaction AGE-RAGE avait été directement liée aux effets délétères, menant éventuellement à des pathologies, telles que l'athérosclérose et la cardiomyopathie. Il a été démontré que l'ocytocine, une hormone peptidique qui induit …  Read more

It has been well established that the development of discipline in the gymnasium and the classroom is affected by factors related to proper management and instruction (Siedentop, 1991; Doyle, 1986). However, little research has been done to investigate discipline in relation to the overall teaching context by investigating the instructional and managerial systems together. This study provided an in-depth investigation of one secondary physical education teacher's learning environment. The first two instructional units of the school year for each of two grade levels (25 and 22 lessons, respectively) were observed. The Rules, Routines and Expectations (RRE) instrument was used to …  Read more

Rees, Tobias (Supervisor2)  Read more

Since its appearance in 2003, avian influenza (AI) has been highly 'productive,' linking into a distinct form diverse elements, among which include: international health organizations and local farmers; governments and AI viruses; wildlife experts and public health practitioners; food regulatory bodies and ecologists; ornithologists and the poultry industry; ordinary citizens and, of course, poultry. From the perspective of an anthropology of thinking, 'AI' is intriguing because it escapes 'nature' and 'culture' concepts that traditionally ordered relationships between man and the natural world. Is 'AI' natural or cultural, animal or human, a blend of both, or something else entirely? The emergence …  Read more

Photovoltaic cells with a ZnO/CdS/CuInSe$ sb2$ structure have been fabricated on bulk CuInSe$ sb2$ substrates. Conversion efficiencies of more than or near 10% were routinely obtained on cells with an active area of up to 8 mm$ sp2$ and without the use of an antireflection coating. The highest conversion efficiency of 11.5% was obtained on a cell with an active area of 4 mm$ sp2$. This cell is comparable in conversion efficiency to the highest value of 12% (1) reported in the literature for monocrystalline CuInSe$ sb2$ cells but has an active area of more than five times larger. The …  Read more

A new methodology employing artificial neural networks is used to project changes in North Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) genesis potential (GP) and potential intensity (PI) in warming climate. The input data is from simulations of 5 climate models. Emanuel's revised Genesis Potential Index is used to measure the GP. Changes are identified in the 1st (P1) and 2nd (P2) half of the 21st century. The early and late summer GP decreases throughout the 21st century over most of the eastern half of the basin and increases off the east coast of USA and the north coast of Venezuela during P1. …  Read more

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune condition that results in the loss of insulin- producing pancreatic beta cells causing patients to depend on daily insulin injections to manage their blood glucose levels. Significant progress has been made in developing automated insulin injection pumps and blood glucose monitors to improve patient quality of life. Nevertheless, it is evident that exogenous glucose monitoring and insulin injection has yet to replicate the complexity of the glucose sensing mechanism provided by beta cells, which exist in a cluster of cells known as pancreatic islets. Pancreatic islet transplantation offers the possibility to restore …  Read more

Les microsphères creuses formées par auto-assemblage couche par couche (LBL) de polymère présentent un intérêt grandissant pour le développement de système biocompatibles de délivrance de médicaments, de sonde d’imagerie ainsi que d’autres types de macromolécules. Le développement de ces capsules bénéficie de procédés de fabrication simples, d’une large variété de matériaux disponibles, ainsi que d’une bonne adaptabilité à leurs applications par l’incorporation une sensibilité au pH et des molécules pour le ciblage. La méthode LBL a été employée pour construire des capsules pour la délivrance de médicaments anticancéreux, d’insuline et d’autres thérapies. De plus, les travaux antérieurs du laboratoire ont …  Read more

This thesis scrutinizes the IRB's designation as an "expert tribunal" over the content of a "well-founded fear of being persecuted". Firstly, it suggests that a decision-maker's appeal to the "good reasons" and "say-so" of an "expert" authority serves only the interests of legal justice. Secondly, it looks behind the "rule" of a well-founded fear and considers the role of language and rhetoric in the "expert" construction of the "genuine" refugee claimant. Finally, it argues that the possibility of an ethical and responsible form of justice for the gay refugee claimant lies behind the "rule" of an authentic homosexual identity, in …  Read more

The phage neutralization technique is a sensitive method for the detection of anti-phage antibody. It has found its greatest usefulness in studies of antibody synthesis in which the concentrations of antibody usually have been very low. In the present study, the phage neutralization method was exploited for the detection of rabbit antibodies directed against 2,4-dinitrophenyl residues (DNP). The sodium salt of dinitrobenzene sulfonate was reacted with bacteriophage T2. Over 90% of the phage particles were inactivated in the coupling procedure. However, the surviving hapten bacteriophage conjugates (HBCs) were found to be sensitive to inactivation by anti-hapten antiserum. Thus, anti-hapten antiserum …  Read more

Une protéine (SCP) de grand pouvoir immunogène a été extraite, avec NaCl 0.lM, de la moelle épinière de boeuf, protéine qui a été localisée uniquement dans le tissu nerveux. L'analyse immuno-électrophorétique démontra trois formes moléculaires de SCP, dont deux furent retenues à l'intérieur du sac à dialyse. Ces deux formes ont démontré des mobilités électrophorétiques d'une beta1-globuline (beta1-SCP) et d'une gamma-globuline (gamma-SCP) tandis que la forme dialysable la mobilite d'une gamma-globuline. Beta1-SCP a été isolé par absorption en volume des extraits de la moelle épinière de boeuf avec DEAE-Sephadex A-50, suivie par chromatographie sur cellulose CM-52, gamma-SCP a été isolé …  Read more

Antonio Averlino, known as Filarete (1400--1469), wrote that architecture is a gestational process, likening the architect to the mother and the father as the client. The process requires the architect-mother to " fantasticare e pensare e rivoltarselo per la memoria," fermenting ideas and incubating them in conjunction with one's memory. The intent is to understand mnemonics as a creative operation in Filarete's Trattato di Architettura. A key to this lies with Filarete's personal symbol, the bee. The bee's process of mellification acts as a metaphor of the architect's gestational design. The bee, long utilized as a memorative trope, points towards …  Read more

Secondary language arts curricula may or may not include stories of love or faith or forgiveness;on the other hand,such curricula are all but guaranteed to feature narratives of violence and the suffering that violence entails.Consider some of the “greatest hits” of the North American high school English canon:Lord of the Flies; Macbeth, to name but a few.This observation about the narratives that we teach and learn in secondary language arts might, at first glance, seem almost banal: We live in a violent world, so of course we’re going to read and teach stories about violence.However, such seeming banality underscores the …  Read more

The Warsaw Convention 1929 is the first international instrument relating to private international air law. It established a certain uniform set of regulations in the field of international carriage by air. This widely accepted Convention was later amended and supplemented by several instruments in order to adjust and adapt this uniform set of rules to the rapid growth of aviation industry. With the absence of consolidation, the result was total confusion created by the coexistence of multiple legal regimes of the Warsaw System. To modernize and consolidate the instruments of the Warsaw System into one single instrument, the Montreal Convention …  Read more

Gene-by-environment interactions influence brain development from conception to adulthood. In particular, prenatal brain development is a window of vulnerability to the interplay between environmental and genetic factors. Rodent and human research demonstrates that prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) alters hippocampal volumes. In Project Ice Storm, it has been demonstrated that increased levels of objective, but not subjective, PNMS are associated with increased right hippocampal volumes in early adolescent females. However, although PNMS affects hippocampal size on average, similar degrees of PNMS lead to different effects in different individuals. This differential susceptibility to the effects of PNMS may be due to genetic …  Read more

This study aims to identify and quantify injury diagnoses, locations, mechanisms, and trends for a Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (CIAU) male ice hockey team between the 1984--85 and 2000--2001 seasons. Injury rates were assessed by type, position, period, zone, game type, and time loss. Also described are the interactions between injury location and diagnosis, as well as the relationships between time loss, injury location, and diagnosis. This study was based on injury reports provided by the ice hockey staff, which followed a standard injury reporting protocol over the last 17 years. The injury rate of 18.9 injuries per 1000 player …  Read more

In 2006 a youth health survey was conducted in Pangnirtung, Nunavut as part of a community collaboration. The survey assessed food use, nutrient status and anthropometry. Thirty four percent of youth were above healthy weight; soft drink consumption averaged 1 litre per day; and nutrient intake distributions showed likelihood of inadequacies in the diet. Traditional food (TF) consumption, however, had a beneficial effect on nutrient status as iron, vitamin A and protein intake was significantly higher among those who consumed TF. Elder stories about TF were used as a pilot intervention aimed to promote TF by increasing traditional knowledge (TK) …  Read more

Cette thèse vise à rétablir la centralité de l’antagonisme dans les théories démocratiques radicales contemporaines. L’antagonisme signifie un type de conflit dont les parties n’ont aucune capacité à s’entendre. Cette incapacité s’étend à leurs accords potentiels comme à leurs désaccords, et transforme le processus de prise de décision en un pur conflit de pouvoir. J’avance l’argument que la démocratie radicale est fondamentalement antagoniste dans la mesure où elle consiste à démasquer les inégalités et injustices au sein d’une communauté politique sous la forme d’une lutte contre celles-ci. La principale source d’antagonisme est alors la réticence et la résistance au changement …  Read more

In this inquiry, I examine how six repatriated students from China perceive their experiences in Japanese schools and in Japanese second language education. I focus on their voices and perspectives gained through audio-taped interviews. Employing Pierce's (1995) concept of investment and Rampton's (1990) concepts of language expertise, affiliation, and inheritance, I focus on how these adolescent students perceive the relationship between languages and identities and how their experiences affect their ways of looking at themselves. The data I collected through interviews in Japan supports the views that identity is multiple and fluid, and languages are profoundly and intricately related with …  Read more

Gold, Ian Jeffrey (Internal/Cosupervisor2)  Read more

Functional polymers have offered a viable platform in designing smart nanoformulations for a variety of applications. However, development of well-defined nanocarriers through efficient design of their polymer precursors, still remains a significant challenge. This thesis research contributes towards the field of nanomedicine by simplifying the design of smart amphiphilic polymeric precursors, and a detailed evaluation of their aqueous nanoformulations. We describe a versatile methodology to multi-stimuli responsive soft nanoparticles from branched star polymers of AB2 composition, in which the core forming biocompatible and biodegradable polycaprolactone (PCL) arm (A) is functionalized with a tertiary amine. These nanoparticles respond to multiple stimuli …  Read more

Episodic memory is the ability to remember one’s first person experiences embedded in a spatial and temporal context (Tulving, 1972). In the case of patient Henry Molaison (H.M.), he was not able to form any new long-term episodic memories following bilateral lesions of the medial temporal lobe (Corkin et al., 1997; Scoville & Milner, 1957). This spawned a massive research program investigating the medial temporal lobe to pinpoint neural mechanisms that subserve spatial and temporal aspects of episodic memory. Although potential neural correlates of spatial components of episodic memory have been identified (Hafting et al., 2005; J. O’Keefe & Dostrovsky, …  Read more

This study investigates the shearing strength of two types of soil as determined by the unconfined compression test and the double ring shear test, together with the stress-strain modulus as determined from the slope of the unconfined compression curve. Laboratory investigations were conducted on loosely compacted sand samples, dense sand samples and clay samples, all of which were cured and tested under two temperature conditions - 0°F. and 24°F. Both fast and slow unconfined compression tests were conducted at these two temperatures.  Read more

The behaviour of frozen soil under loading conditions has been studied in terms of fundamental factors contributing to the strength of the soil. Electro-chemical theories based upon forces of interaction between charged particles have been applied by considering fine-grained soils as platelets with unbalanced charges. It has been shown that the quantity of water remaining unfrozen in a soil-water system is directly related to the surface potential and the potential halfway between two adjacent charged plates. Unfrozen water content is dependent on the original water content, temperature, clay content, charge density, and electrolytic concentration.  Read more

This thesis provides a review of a computational modeling technique for woodwind-like musical instruments with arbitrarily shaped bore and finger holes. The model of a simple acoustic structure implemented in Matlab is verified through experimental measurements in terms of radiation directivity. The methods of calculating the acoustical impedance at the input end and the internal sound pressure at any position along the principle axis of the bore are presented. The procedure for calculating the radiation pressure is detailed in an example featuring a main bore with two open holes. The far-field and near-field formulas of radiation distances and angles are …  Read more

Heart sounds recorded on the surface of the thorax can be significantly distorted due to the varying properties of the transmission paths between the heart chambers and body surface. For diagnostic purposes, it is desirable to obtain the sounds at the source. In this thesis, an algorithm has been developed to recover the left-ventricular component of the second heart sound from externally recorded phonocardiograms. The algorithm uses a model of the heart-thorax system and is derived from deconvolution techniques developed for analogous problems in speech processing and seismology. The algorithm has been tested on data acquired from dogs. The recovered …  Read more

À une époque où la résolution de systèmes linéaires complexes est une tâche courante dans divers domaines, le besoin d’efficacité informatique reste primordial. Cette thèse cherche à combler le fossé entre les algorithmes mathématiques complexes et l'accessibilité pour les ingénieurs, les chercheurs, les scientifiques et les passionnés.À la base, cette recherche explore les synergies entre deux technologies informatiques contemporaines: la méthode Incomplete Cholesky Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient (ICPCG) et les unités de traitement graphique (en anglais, Graphics Processing Units, ou GPUs) modernes, avec un accent particulier sur les puces graphiques mobiles NVIDIA. La méthode ICPCG est réputée pour son efficacité dans …  Read more

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a central role in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and contribute to the onset of many associated complications. Larix laricina is a native medicinal plant highly respected by the Cree elders and healers of James Bay, Québec, and has been used to treat diabetes related symptoms for generations. Previous studies have validated the strong anti-diabetic potential of L. laricina as well as its significant antioxidant activities and high polyphenol content. Here, we explore antioxidant activity as an underlying mechanism of anti-diabetic effects of L. laricina, hypothesizing that polyphenols represent the most active …  Read more

The atmospheric pressure glow discharge plasma torch (APGD-t ) was used to treat cell cultures to investigate potential reactions with biological tissue. The plasma jet successfully detached HAAE-1 and HepG2 cells from a culture surface. The cells surrounding the void did not show any morphological damage after treatment. The detached HepG2 cells were transplanted to a new vessel, where they reattached. A viability assay showed the transplanted cells had functioning mitochondria up to 7 days after exposure to the plasma jet. These cells were also shown to have a permeabilized cell membrane for 4 hours after treatment, with resealing of …  Read more

Une méthodologie de conception originale basée sur la production de l'espace desperformances des amplificateurs en balayant les variables de contrôle indépendantesest examinée. Cette méthodologie peut optimiser des amplificateurs de CMOS parrapport au gain, à la bande passante, au bruit, à la déformation et à la puissance.L'espace des performances est recherché directement dans les logiciels SPICE sansl'aide d'aucun modèle mathématique ou des logiciels externes. Cette méthode fonctionnedans tous les logiciels SPICE, allant de Cadence à la version d'étudiantde PSPICE. La technique est basée sur la variation de tension dans des noeudsspécifiques de l'amplificateur en utilisant une source de courante dépendente et, …  Read more

Thomas, Denise Keiko (Supervisor1)  Read more

The development of efficient strategies towards the formation of carboncarbon (C-C) bonds is of great interest. A common route into C-C bond formation occurs through the coupling between nucleophiles and electrophiles. However, in most cases, these activated coupling partners are often derived from less reactive starting materials. The direct use of carbon-hydrogen (C-H) bonds to form C-C bonds1.2 would be highly desirable since it would eliminate preactivation of the substrate and improve the overall efficiencies in synthetic routes by removing needless synthetic steps (Figure 1).  Read more

This study is intended to furnish an explicability of hunter-gather's organizational model on the lithic technology. The fieldwork area is the Imjin-Hantan River Area (the IHRA) located at the midwestern part of the Korean Peninsula. The archaeological sites included in the fieldwork are Jangsanri (ca 0.2 Mya BP), Chongokni (ca 60 Kya BP), Juwolri, and Kawolri (younger than ca 50 Kya BP). In addition, a previously excavated Upper Palaeolithic assemblage of Janghungri (ca 23 Kya BP) is included in the quantitative analysis of lithic assemblages. For the background of the research area, chapter II is devoted to demonstrating the general …  Read more

Contexte : Le syndrome métabolique est très répandu parmi les candidats à la greffe rénale et les greffés du rein. La manifestation hépatique du syndrome métabolique, la maladie hépatique stéatosique associée à un dysfonctionnement métabolique (MASLD), est la maladie hépatique chronique la plus répandue dans le monde. Cependant, elle n'a pas fait l'objet d'études approfondies chez les greffés du rein.Objectifs : Nous avons cherché à rapporter le fardeau de MASLD dans une population de greffés du rein et à étudier son association potentielle avec les résultats de la transplantation, y compris la dysfonction avancée du greffon, l'échec du greffon et …  Read more

Iron (Fe) plays an essential role in numerous metabolic processes. The transferrin receptor (TfR) is a cell membrane-associated protein that serves as a gatekeeper in regulating cellular uptake of Fe from transferrin (Tf) by TfR-mediated endocytosis. TfRs are expressed ubiquitously, but their highest levels of expression are on immature erythroid cells (which are the most avid consumers of Fe in the organism) and on rapidly dividing cells, both normal and malignant. In proliferating non-erythroid cells TfR expression is feedback inhibited by Fe through the interaction of specific binding proteins, iron regulatory proteins (IRPs), with iron responsive elements (IREs) in the …  Read more

The goal of this Master’s project was to compare the minute-by-minute neck/shoulder muscle activity and oxygenation responses to repetitive arm motion-induced fatigue between the sexes. Healthy 13 female and 13 male subjects performed a repetitive pointing task until reaching perceived exertion of 8/10 on the Borg CR10 scale for their neck/shoulder region. Activation amplitude and median power frequency of the three trapezius and three deltoid muscles, and oxygenation of upper trapezius, were quantified via electromyography and near-infrared spectroscopy, respectively. Fatigability and oxygenation responses were comparable between the sexes. Females showed greater activation amplitude in their anterior deltoid muscle than males. …  Read more

Increasing use and abuse of opioid drugs have become a worldwide public health concern over the last several years. While much attention has focused on North American trends in opioid use, utilization in other developed countries remains understudied. To our knowledge, very few studies have examined the utilization of opioids in the United Kingdom (UK), and each had important limitations. Thus, our objective was to examine trends in the prescription of opioids in a primary care setting in the UK over the past two decades and to describe characteristics of patients receiving opioid prescriptions.We constructed a population-based retrospective cohort study …  Read more

This thesis considers the design of receivers for multi-user communication systems based on asynchronous direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (DS-CDMA). Its primary aim is to improve current receiver designs which exhibit shortcomings in systems using long sequence spreading (where the spreading sequence changes with each consecutive bit). The conventional matched filter (MF) and noise-whit MF (NWMF) receivers incur a degradation in performance under power-imbalance (near-far like) conditions. Similar to that of the conventional MF (CMF), the near-far resistance of the NWMF is shown to be zero. Other receivers, including multiuser receivers, suffer from either incompatibility or excessive complexity under long sequence spreading. …  Read more