McGill University Thèses et mémoires publiés en 1996

Recent studies have shown that a variety of K$ sp+$ channels can be enhanced by somatostatin (SST; inward and delayed rectifier, muscarinic regulated K$ sp+$ channel, Ca$ sp{2+}$-activated K$ sp+$ channel, ...). Since a somatostatin receptor (SSTR) is heterogeneous, it is not clear which SSTR subtype (five are identified) is involved in regulating each K$ sp+$ channel, nor whether the regulation is and if so to what extent receptor subtype specific. In this study we characterized electrophysiologically the effect of somatostatin-14 (SST-14) in monkey kidney cells (COS-7) stably expressing one of the five recently cloned SSTR subtypes, human somatostatin receptor …  Lire la suite

This thesis documents the design and implementation of procedures in a database programming language. The purpose of this thesis is to integrate procedure facilities into an existing relational database system. A relation is defined over a set of attributes. Given the values of a subset of attributes as input, a selection operation looks up the relation and outputs the values of the remaining attributes. Our proposed procedure construct supports this concept: a procedure is defined over a set of parameters, and the procedure can be invoked with different subsets of input parameters. This is accomplished by allowing procedures to have …  Lire la suite

Thermal conductivity is an excellent probe of quasiparticle excitations in superconductors both in the normal and superconducting state. We have applied this technique to the study of two unconventional superconductors, namely the heavy fermion superconductor UPt$ sb3$ and the high-$T sb{c}$ cuprate $ rm YBa sb2Cu sb3O sb{7- delta}.$ In the case of UPt$ sb3,$ after reviewing previous low temperature thermal conductivity measurements, we show that, for our high quality single crystals, the thermal conductivity is totally dominated by electrons and therefore provides a direct probe of the superconducting gap structure. We demonstrate that our measurements of the anisotropy of …  Lire la suite

Public concern for the intergenerational transfer of natural resources has generated an interest in sustainable development and sustainable agriculture. Policy makers have a new mandate to insure the promotion of sustainable agriculture. At the same time these policy makers must also reduce public expenditures in agriculture. These two conflicting mandates can only be accomplished when private market values for various soil conservation investments are known. Once this market information is known, policy makers can formulate appropriate policies to achieve both goals. The focus of this research is to measure the significant factors affecting land values in the study area. The …  Lire la suite

The treatment of acid mine drainage (AMD) by sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) has been reported in the literature as a possible alternative to chemical treatment. The overall objective of this study was to implement such a treatment process at the mine site and specifically within the open mine pit itself. The first step of this study was to characterize process parameters. To accomplish this, a reactor was designed and built to simulate hydrodynamic conditions found in the mine pit. This reactor contained a 6$ sp{ prime prime}$ deep gravel bed in which a mixed population of SRB was inoculated. The operation …  Lire la suite

The health care burden associated with childhood injury is huge. Surveillance--the collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of data--is seen as an important step towards understanding and controlling the injury problem. The usefulness of surveillance data, however, depends on their quality. Quality may be defined as the collection of reliable and valid data along with an unbiased capture of events. (An important issue in paediatric injury surveillance is that proxy respondents are often used to provide data on behalf of the child.) Previous evaluations of paediatric injury surveillance data, however, have not directly estimated the reliability and validity of proxy respondent …  Lire la suite

Iron content in aluminum-silicon casting alloys, which contribute to the formation of Al$ sb5$FeSi intermetallic, can be very detrimental to the physical properties of the final cast part. Thermal analysis could provide a cost effective and reliable method to quantify the iron content of the alloy melt before the casting process is performed. The formation of the Al$ sb5$FeSi intermetallic can be resolvable on the cooling curves for aluminum-silicon alloys if the iron content is equal to or greater than 0.6%wt when the cooling rate is 0.10$ sp circ$C/sec. As the iron content gradually increases, the formation temperature of Al$ …  Lire la suite

The liability regime to which air traffic services (ATS) providers are subject is being significantly changed with the implementation of satellite-based technologies as exemplified by the ICAO Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) systems, and by the movement from state to corporate provision of services. These new systems will result in less individual state control than currently exists. With multiple service providers crossing sovereign airspace boundaries, a space-based component and a greater role for pilots in selection of flight profiles, these new systems will create an increasingly complex ATS liability environment. Statutes governing and limiting the liability of state ATS …  Lire la suite

This thesis presents a conservative algorithm for the parallel simulation of billiard balls. Simulating billiard balls has become an important benchmark for parallel event driven simulation schemes. The approach distinguishes itself in that it makes use of shared variables to enable processors to ascertain the state of the computation at neighboring processors. The table is partitioned into segments which are simulated by different processors. The shared variable corresponds to a region at the boundary between table segments (referred to as the critical region). By making use of shared variables, a significant speed-up over the execution time of a purely conservative …  Lire la suite

Hamilton, Dick (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

The development of micro- and nano-scale robots for medical applications will require an understanding and intuition for nanoscale phenomena as well as a suite of new miniaturized technologies. The scanning tunneling microscope (STM), invented in 1980 by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer at IBM, and related scanning probe microscopes such as the atomic force microscope are among the most advanced instruments yet built to explore our world at the nanometer and even subnanometer level. This thesis describes the construction of a computer controlled scanning tunneling microscope, the characterization of its performance, and some results that have been obtained using the …  Lire la suite

The development of micro- and nano-scale robots for medical applications will require an understanding and intuition for nanoscale phenomena as well as a suite of new miniaturized technologies. The scanning tunneling microscope (STM), invented in 1980 by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer at IBM, and related scanning probe microscopes such as the atomic force microscope are among the most advanced instruments yet built to explore our world at the nanometer and even subnanometer level. This thesis describes the construction of a computer controlled scanning tunneling microscope, the characterization of its performance, and some results that have been obtained using the …  Lire la suite

Information retrieval in large data spaces using formal, structure oriented patterns of features has many possible applications. We developed and studied a system that can be used to localize code segments in a program. The system is built using a generic and extensible object oriented framework and uses the Viterbi dynamic programming algorithm on simple Markov models to calculate a similarity measure between an abstractly described code segment and a possible instantiation of it in the program. The resulting system can be incorporated in a larger cooperative environment of CASE tools and can be used during the design recovery process …  Lire la suite

The role of rehabilitation in maximizing seniors' independence is becoming more important as Canada's population ages and as health care shifts to the community. It is necessary for rehabilitation professionals to understand the factors that contribute to seniors' independence in order to accurately focus services and to justify directions taken in the process of health care reform. The overall objective of this study was to determine the degree to which inner-city seniors are living independently today and to identify factors contributing to independent living. A cross-sectional study was conducted with subjects selected by a random telephone selection method. One hundred …  Lire la suite

The Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage by Air of 1929 is a multilateral treaty that seeks to unify the legal regime the international carriage of passengers, baggage and cargo by air. One aspect of this regime is the regime of liability imposed on air carriers, which is characterised by a presumption of fault and liability on the carrier, thereby reversing the burden of proof, while at the same time imposing monetary limits to the damages for which the carrier is liable. In the sixty-one years that the Convention has been in force, several points …  Lire la suite

During HIV-1 assembly, the major mammalian tRNA$ rm sp{Lys}$ isoacceptors, tRNA$ rm sp{Lys1,2}$ and tRNA$ rm sp{Lys3},$ are selectively incorporated into the virus. My project has been to study the mechanism involved in this process. This was done by transfecting COS-7 cells with wild type and mutant HIV-1 proviral DNA, and analyzing the effects of these mutations on this process. In the wild type virus, 60% of viral low molecular weight RNA is tRNA$ rm sp{Lys},$ compared to 6% of the tRNA in the cytoplasm, i.e, the packaging of tRNA$ rm sp{Lys}$ is selective. HIV-1 contains approximately 8 molecules of …  Lire la suite

The occurrence of high frequency, gamma EEG activity (30-60 Hz) was bands and in investigated by spectral analysis in relationship to other frequency association with the natural sleep-waking cycle and spontaneous behaviors of the rat. High frequency, gamma waves are present and occur intermittently on the filtered and unfiltered EEG across the sleep-waking cycle. Gamma activity is distinctive from other high frequency bands, in that the amplitude varies systematically in association with (1) state, having the highest amplitude in Waking and Paradoxical Sleep (PS) as compared to Slow Wave Sleep (SWS) and, (2) behavior, having the highest amplitude in attentive …  Lire la suite

This dissertation examines the response and design of reinforced concrete core-slab-frame structures subjected to monotonically increasing earthquake and gravity loads throughout the entire load range until failure, presenting findings from three separate studies by Manatakos and Mirza (1995) continuing the M. Eng. thesis research by Manatakos (1989). A typical building is selected consisting of a central core substructure composed of elevator, staircase and infilled slab cores, with coupling and lintel beams, and surrounding slabs joining to a frame substructure composed of slab-band girders, slabs and columns. Stage 1 concentrates on the elastic response and Stage 3 examines the nonlinear response …  Lire la suite

Macdonald, Roderick A. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Kamal, M. R. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Production of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) was done in a cyclone bioreactor using various culture methods; including batch (lab and pilot scale) fed-batch and self-cycling fermentation with and without starvation periods. Alcaligenes eutrophus DSM 545 was used to accumulate about 87% (wt/wt) PHB to a total of 6.2 g L$ sp{-1}$ PHB at the end of a 48 hour batch. Similar pilot scale experiments contained a maximum of 96% (wt/wt) PHB with 4.9 g L$ sp{-1}$ accumulated. Fed-batch culture of A. eutrophus produced 96% (wt/wt) PHB with a final PHB concentration of 22.2 g L$ sp{-1}$ after 54 h. Self-cycling fermentation (SCF) …  Lire la suite

This thesis attempts to demonstrate the importance of the "autobiography of childhood" in Gabrielle Roy's first-person narratives through a narratological analysis of the most representative of these texts--the pseudo-autobiographical Rue Deschambault and La Route d'Altamont as well as the autobiographical texts La Detresse et l'Enchantement, "Ma petite rue qui m'a menee autour du monde", "Mes etudes a Saint-Boniface", "Souvenirs du Manitoba" and "Mon heritage du Manitoba". Our purpose is to identify recurrent structures and to interpret the similarities and differences in the light of contemporary theories on the autobiographical genre. This allows us in turn to examine the functioning and …  Lire la suite

Mile End Believing is a composition for eight woodwinds, four brass, and two percussionists, with a duration of approximately 13$ sp prime40 sp{ prime prime}.$ The inspiration for the piece is a Montreal neighbourhood whose cultural diversity suggested a number of short sections which, although contrasting, are linked by the nature of their relationship to one another. The eight main sections all have the same duration, and some sections are recapitulated towards the end of the work.  Lire la suite

A well known feature of thermal field theories is the breakdown of the standard perturbative expansion. This breakdown is due to the appearance of the Bose-Einstein distribution which is singular in the low-momentum limit. In this thesis it is argued that an effective-Lagrangian approach can be used to restore perturbative calculability. To illustrate this point, the induced thermal mass of a scalar theory is computed to both one and two-loop order. It is shown that the results can be largely determined without the explicit evaluation of Feynman graphs. This technique is then used to calculate the finite-temperature effective potential in …  Lire la suite

The diastereoselective synthesis of phosphite triesters and related phosphorothioate triesters and diesters has been investigated, with the goal of synthesizing diastereomerically pure DNA phosphorothioates. Towards this end, the elaboration of a new heterobicyclic structure, imidazo-oxazaphosphorine such as 56, is reported. This unstable intermediate led to the highly diastereoselective synthesis of simple phosphite triesters upon reaction with various alcohols. Two new types of sterically hindered chiral oxazaphosphorinanes 135 and 146 were then synthesized from cholesterol and camphor respectively. These structures, derived from $ gamma$-aminoalcohols possessing a tertiary alcohol function, could be isolated and characterized. They revealed very reactive in acidic conditions …  Lire la suite

Many research and commercial environments need to measure fast time varying signals and need to control subsystems, e.g. actuators, also in real-time with high bandwidth and minimum latency. Existing commercial systems for data acquisition and control have many shortcomings and behave in a non-deterministic manner. Determinism or predictability is a key element of high performance real-time systems which must always meet specific deadlines under tight synchronizations. In this thesis, a new approach to very high-performance predictable real-time acquisition and control is proposed, theoretically analyzed, implemented in hardware, and experimentally tested. The resulting system is highly adaptable and reconfigurable, and has …  Lire la suite

Art and law. Is it possible to bring one and the other together? Is there a link between them? Art and law coexist and confront one another; the enigma of their true connection is the object of this research. The period being considered is essentially limited to the nineteenth and twentieth century, however, the analysis goes back to the medieval period and the Renaissance era. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the historical avant-garde marks a moment of tension between art and law, the author's traditional conception is significantly modified. In the realm of the industrial and the technological …  Lire la suite

The REV-T virus is the most virulent of all the known acutely transforming retroviruses. The transforming activity of the virus resides within the virally encoded v-rel oncogene, the first member identified of a growing number of transcriptional regulators called the REL/NF$ kappa$B family. The mechanism of v-rel mediated transformation of avian as well as mammalian cells remains elusive, however immunoprecipitations performed with anti-v-rel antibodies clearly reveal associated proteins which include pp40 I$ kappa$B alpha, p68 c-rel, hsc70 and the p124 and p115 precursors for the p50 and p52 subunits of the REL/NF$ kappa$B family, respectively. In normal cells these same …  Lire la suite

Dialects have always had a negative reputation, and have been considered beneath the national language. Even the literature composed in the various regional languages has been considered inferior to the Italian one until only a few years ago, because it was thought that this literature had as an exclusive theme the peasant-popular world. This thesis will not only demonstrate that dialects are languages deserving of respect, but also that Lucano dialect literature is not bogged down to the peasant-popular world. In fact, it is capable of expressing any concept that any national language is capable of, even if that concept …  Lire la suite

A foliar pathogen identified as a member of the genus Alternaria was isolated from blighted Sphenoclea zeylanica (gooseweed) collected in 1991 from a rice field near Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines. Inoculum density, dew period, and plant height are factors influencing biocontrol of S. zeylanica with this indigenous pathogen. Significantly higher percent reductions in plant height and dry weight were obtained and all plants were killed at higher inoculum concentrations with 8 h of dew. The number, germination, and virulence of conidia were significantly affected by production techniques, temperature, light condition, and incubation period. Exposure to continuous near-ultraviolet (NUV) light at …  Lire la suite

Single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis (SSCP) and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (RFLP) were used to determine the genotype of Holsteins at the $ kappa$-casein ($ kappa$-CN) locus. A 432-bp fragment within exon IV containing nucleotide substitutions diagnostic of the A- and B-variants of $ kappa$-CN was amplified using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The sires from the earliest years of the AI industry had a significantly higher (p $<$ 0.01) frequency of allele than sires in modern usage. These data indicate that selection or milk production parameters may discriminate against the B-allele. SSCP analysis was also used for detecting polymorphisms …  Lire la suite

Agarwal, Vinod K. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

In this thesis the problem of localizing discontinuities while smoothing noisy data is solved for the surface reconstruction method known as Curvature Consistency. In this algorithm, noisy initial estimates of surface patches are refined according to a continuity model, using a relaxation process. The interaction between neighbouring pixels in local neighbourhoods during relaxation is shown to be equivalent to a multiple measurement fusion process, where each pixel acts as a measurement source. Using optimal estimation theory as a basis, an adaptive weighting technique is developed to estimate interpolant surface patch parameters from neighbouring pixels. By applying the weighting process iteratively …  Lire la suite

"Selective isolation protocols of selenium (Se) species integrated to Se specific atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) detection were developed and optimized for Se speciation in food supplements, including selenized yeasts. By ultrafiltration, 69.18% of Se in the extract was found as a low molecular weight soluble form, the remaining 30.82% was bound to high molecular weight components. After a cation-exchange chromatography of the ultrafiltrate, 3.77% of the Se in the extract was found in the aqueous washings of the column indicating the presence of free inorganic anions of Se; the 65.41% of Se retained on the column corresponded to the free …  Lire la suite

Glucose is a principle precursor for milk lactose and de novo synthesis of milk fat; therefore exercising during lactation could create competition for glucose between exercising muscle and lactating mammary gland. This study investigated the combined effects of maternal dietary glucose (20%, 40%, 60%), exercise (chronically exercised, sedentary) and litter size (8, 12 pups) on rat mammary gland composition, milk composition, milk yield and pup growth. Chronic exercise increased milk fat concentrations and an interaction between chronic exercise and 20% dietary glucose decreased milk lactose concentrations compared to 40% or 60% glucose diets. Restricting maternal dietary glucose also decreased milk …  Lire la suite

Protein import into the mitochondria is a result of a series of sequential binding interactions between a mitochondrial targeting signal and the translocation machinery of both mitochondrial membranes. The targeting signals contained within protein of the outer membrane are distinct from those which target proteins to other subcompartments. The transmembrane domain of the yeast outer membrane receptor protein yTom70 is capable of both targeting and inserting the protein into the outer membrane. The efficiency of this process is increased by the addition of a positively-charged region preceding the transmembrane region. These two structural domains co-operate to form a signal-anchor sequence …  Lire la suite

Thermolysis was investigated as a process to convert waste olefin-based polymers into value-added products at a moderate temperature. Virgin, linear low density polyethylene was used for the majority of the experiments. The thermolysis of virgin polystyrene, recycled polyethylene and 3:2 mixtures of polyethylene and polystyrene were also investigated. The final process that was developed employed the reactive distillation of polyolefins under an inert atmosphere and at moderate reaction temperatures, ranging from 375 to 450$ sp circ$C. The major products from thermolysis of polyethylene were a distribution of low-molecular-weight straight chain alkanes and $ alpha$-olefins ranging from C$ sb6$ to C$ …  Lire la suite

The "roadkill" films are part of a sub-genre of the more popular road film genre. Recently there has been a large number of extremely violent films featuring couples on the run. The reason behind the emergence and popularity of the "roadkill" genre can be understood through an aesthetic analysis. Chapter one examines the aesthetics and affective characteristics of the extreme violence within this sub-genre of film. This chapter refers to the works of Leo Bersani and Ulysse Dutoit, as well as Rene Girard. Chapter two explores the postmodern aesthetic of the roadside iconography by using authors such as Jean Baudrillard …  Lire la suite

Wood-Dauphinee, Sharon (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

This series of experiments examined the neural mechanisms of analgesia caused by local anaesthetic blockade or selective blockade of N-methyl- scD-aspartate (NMDA) receptors at sites in the rat forebrain. Microinjections of the local anaesthetic lidocaine were made into the medial or lateral thalamic nuclei. The results indicate that the medial thalamic nuclei mediate the expression of pain behavior after peripheral injury, whereas the lateral thalamic nuclei influence phasic withdrawal responses, but are not critical for injury-induced pain responses. Electrolytic lesions made in the lateral thalamus verified this latter finding. Intracranial microinjections of the NMDA antagonist AP5 were used to determine …  Lire la suite

Perceptual low bit-rate audio coding schemes cannot be evaluated with the traditional method of measuring the difference between input signal and output signal. A valid measure is the severity of differences between input and output that are audible to human listeners, measurement of which requires well-conducted subjective testing. Test sensitivity is improved through the use of "critical" audio program. Selection of such audio material has in the past been done by subjective listening. An objective method of selecting critical material could offer many advantages, including faster and simpler selection of new materials, the ability to evaluate a much larger number …  Lire la suite

The World-Wide Web (WWW) is currently witnessing a dramatic trend toward the incoporation of multimedia elements into on-line publishing. These elements can be very effective for communicating ideas that are difficult to explain with text alone. For the presentation of music, the WWW brings the capability of embedding audio files (recordings) into a document, thus providing audible musical excerpts in addition to textual references to selected points of interest in a musical score. However, there are technical challenges and copyright issues to be addressed when providing musical excerpts on the WWW. The research undertaken in this study brings one possible …  Lire la suite

The faculty of judgment, whether aesthetic, political, or moral, held a central position in the life of eighteenth-century England. This dissertation reveals the political ideologies underlying the aesthetic judgments (made by composers, audiences, and characters) in a repertoire of masque settings of William Congreve's libretto, The Judgment of Paris from 1701 to 1742. Chapter One provides an introduction to English political history in the early to mid-eighteenth century, in particular the Parliamentary strife which existed between the Whig and Tory parties, and documents the influence of politics on cultural production and aesthetic ideology. Chapter Two outlines the events surrounding the …  Lire la suite

Literature in art education suggests a link between aesthetic experiences and value awareness. The existence of such a link could have important implications for the role of art education in our schools, answering to the often expressed need to address values within our educational programs. However, most available work on this subject is theoretical, and often based on untested prior assumptions. Therefore claims to knowledge of this link cannot yet be explicitly made. It is my contention that an inquiry into the nature of aesthetic experiences is required before subsequent claims to knowledge of its relation to value awareness can …  Lire la suite

The pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg) has been proposed to be critical in drug and food reward. It is a major source of cholinergic inputs to the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area, areas important in reward, and is believed to modulate activity of dopamine neurons through a cholinergic mechanism. The firing rate of cholinergic PPTg cells is regulated by muscarinic autoreceptors that can be blocked to increase cell firing. If the PPTg modulates dopamine neurons involved in reward, then a muscarinic antagonist microinjected into the PPTg should be rewarding. To test this hypothesis, bilateral microinjections of scopolamine methyl bromide (5 …  Lire la suite

Monoculture corn (Zea mays L.) production may result in increased soil degradation through intensive cultivation and N fertilizer use. Intercropping may reduce these negative effects. The objectives of the study were to examine at two sites the effects of monocropping and intercropping corn on soft physical and chemical properties. A sandy loam soil of the Chateaugay series and a sandy loam soft of St Dainase series were used in a field experiment for 1993 and 1994 growing seasons. Soil with corn monoculture planted at 60 and 90 cm row width had lower soil, organic matter than that under intercrops. Soil …  Lire la suite

Traditionally, American courts refused to enforce foreign forum selection clauses as against public policy. This doctrine was abandoned in 1972 in the Bremen, where the United States Supreme Court established the presumption of validity of foreign forum selection clauses. However, the enforceability of such clauses is subject to certain exceptions which relate to particular applications of the general principles of contract law. The Bremen analysis was modified in 1991, when the Supreme Court decided Carnival Cruise, which limited the scope of such exceptions and strengthened the presumption of validity of forum selection clauses. In 1995, the Supreme Court decided Sky …  Lire la suite

The goal of this study was to investigate self-efficacy and goal choice among acting-out adolescents in comparison to nonacting-out adolescents. One hundred and sixteen adolescents between the ages of 13 and 16 participated. The adolescents were categorized as either acting-out or nonacting-out on the basis of their score on the Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher's Report Form (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1986), as well as on corroborated reports made by school administrators. Fifty-eight acting-out and 58 nonacting-out adolescents completed a questionnaire packet containing measures of self-efficacy, locus of control, self-mage, and goal choice. In addition, each adolescent was interviewed and administered a brief …  Lire la suite