McGill University Thèses et mémoires publiés en 1997

Chahal, D. S. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

The problem solving strategies used by staff radiologists and radiology residents during the process of interpreting difficult breast diseases depicted on mammograms were examined. Staff radiologists (n = 10) and radiology residents (n = 10) diagnosed 10 cases under two experimental conditions (5 authentic and 5 augmented). In the authentic condition, standard unmarked mammograms were used. Mammographic findings were highlighted on a second set of the same cases for the augmented condition. [...]  Lire la suite

Straw, William O. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

In 1922, the Bolshevik government expelled some 160 prominent intellectuals from Russia. Numbered among these were many of the leaders of the Religious Renaissance which had flourished since the turn of the century. They advocated a "third way": neither for the Tsarist regime nor the Bolsheviks; neither for Capitalism nor Communism; neither for Materialism nor Idealism; rather, they promoted personalist, spiritual development (Godmanhood ), Christian economic ethics (Sobornost'), and a path to knowledge informed by reason, but guided by faith (Religious-Philosophy ). Forced to join the Russian diaspora, these religious philosophers continued to advance their movement with the help of …  Lire la suite

This study examines the association between immigrant women's self-reported health and their employment status and occupation using data on 859 immigrant women aged 20--64 from the 1994--95 National Population Health Survey. Of this group, 502 were in paid employment, 107 assessed their global health as poor, and 158 reported one or more disability days in the previous two weeks. Distress scores ranged from 0--21 (mean 3.85). Logistic and multiple linear regression showed being employed (vs. not being in paid employment) was associated with better self-assessed global health when age, education, income, marital status, country of birth and time since immigration …  Lire la suite

A series of hindered biphenols specifically designed to form stable biphenoxy radicals were prepared by an oxidative coupling reaction of hindered phenols in the presence of CuCl and molecular oxygen in butyronitrile or by reacting the diphenoquinones with HCl gas. The biphenoxy radicals generated from the oxidation of the original biphenols with an aqueous solution of KOH/K$ sb3$Fe(CN)$ sb6$ or Ag$ sb2$O were used as reagents in organic reactions and catalysts in the oxidation of diarylmethanes to corresponding ketones. They were also used in the synthesis of novel ether and acetal monomers through a quantitative radical coupling reaction with monomers …  Lire la suite

Ten front-line maternal social workers were interviewed to determine how they are managing in terms of combining their work and family responsibilities. Supervisor support, and the effectiveness of family-friendly work place policies were explored. All agreed, that motherhood, has had a positive impact on practice including increased empathy and understanding, for both parents and children. The following workplace initiatives were determined to be helpful: flexible and predictable work hours; part-time options; and compressed-work-week. Despite half feeling unsupported by their supervisors, the majority indicated that they are managing well primarily due to flexible work hour scheduling. The attitude of supervisors, regarding …  Lire la suite

This thesis seeks to add to the understanding of wage determination in Canada. Data from the Labour Market Activity Survey and the Survey of Displaced Workers are analysed to indicate the degree to which wages for workers of given observable characteristics vary across industries. Possible explanations for such differentials are considered, with market-clearing models argued to be unconvincing compared to the main alternative, efficiency-wage theory, which allows for a persistent distribution of labour rents across industries. In particular, the key mechanisms in versions of the efficiency-wage hypothesis appealing to workers' concern for fairness are found to be relatively free of …  Lire la suite

Because of the impact of sedentary behavior on health and because physical activity behavior tracks from youth to adulthood, there is increasing interest in the early determinants of physical inactivity. Baseline and one-year follow-up data on level of physical activity were collected in classroom questionnaires from 1060 4th and 5th grade students (64.8% of eligible children). Physical activity was measured in an adaptation of the Weekly Activity Checklist. 11.8% of boys and 23.4% of girls were physically inactive (i.e. reported $<$1 activity/day). Multivariate logistic regression analyses identified the following independent predictors of physical inactivity: Boys: low past year physical activity, …  Lire la suite

The objective of this research was the selection of the most efficient arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus on pepper (Capsicum frutescens L. cv. North star) and sweet corn (Zea mays L. cv. Bicolor) growing under controlled and field conditions. The inoculum treatments consisted of 9 different AM inocula and an autoclaved mix of roots and sand used as a control. Plants were inoculated and planted in a pasteurized growth medium (greenhouse) and non-fumigated soil in 4 different field locations for each crop. Glomus intraradices (GinA) and both the same strain (GinA) and a mix of Sclerocysitis rubiformis and G. fasciculatum (Sru$+$) …  Lire la suite

This thesis studies the estimation of the motion of a rigid-body from body-point motion data. This study is closely related to the direct kinematics problem in robotics, its solution being particularly challenging, at the displacement level, for parallel manipulators. The concept of measurement subspaces is used to characterize the motion of the end-point of three-degree-of-freedom serial manipulators of general geometry for any joint-sensor layout. Once the motion of a redundant set of body points is characterized by its measurement subspaces, the pose estimation problem reduces to a linear least-square problem subject to the nonlinear constraint of proper orthogonality over the …  Lire la suite

In Proustian aesthetics, the act of reading constitutes a fundamental activity in the elaboration of Remembrance of Things Past. The representation of each art form which the novel proposes to synthesize (architecture, painting, and literature) is based on intertextual relationships that unite texts from non literary (Ruskin, Male), literary (Sand, Sevigne, Racine) and philosophical (Schopenhauer) sources, that contribute to a general conception of art that reintegrates the problem of the reception of art works in the context of an essentially literary experience. In accordance with Hans-Robert Jauss' theory, the presence of such texts enables the reconstitution of the reader's expectations, …  Lire la suite

Polyphenol oxidases are important enzymes because of their role in food spoilage, oxidizing monophenols into o-diphenols and/or diphenols into the corresponding o-quinones. The resulting compounds are unstable and can rapidly form brown colored compounds, called melanins. Polyphenol oxidases, (PPOs) have been purified from several sources, particularly from fruits and vegetables. However, successful purification of PPO to homogeneity from plant sources has always been difficult. The purification procedure of PPOs from cassava tuber consisted of (1) the preparation of cassava acetone powder; (2) the buffer extraction of the acetone powder to obtain a crude extract, followed by one of two possible …  Lire la suite

The purpose of this work is to measure the influence of the Dialogues of Lahontan (1702--3) on contemporary thought relative to the myth of the Noble Savage. The text is divided into two parts: (1) Lahontan and the idea of the "noble savage" at the beginning of the 18th century in which we deal with the life of Lahontan, the historical and cultural background in New-France and in Europe at the turn of the 18th century, the Indian tribes of Northeastern America, and finally the Dialogues of Mr le Baron de Lahontan et d'un Sauvage, which consist in a comparison …  Lire la suite

This work intends to show the extent of the influence of Voltaire's religion-related writings on Pigault-Lebrun, a famous 19$ rm sp{th}$ writer scarcely remembered today. The subject is divided in two separate parts. The first part will demonstrate how the different clergy members described by Voltaire are rendered quite faithfully as the characters of the secular and the regular clergy found in the author's novels. In the second part, we will find out the extent to which Pigault-Lebrun has used the 18$ rm sp{th}$ century philosopher's writings in order to write Le Citateur, an anti-clerical essay used by Napoleon as …  Lire la suite

Glenn, H. Patrick (Advisor)  Lire la suite

Shakespeare's history plays are not merely benign representations of various historical figures and events but the site of political, cultural, and ideological contestation at the time of their performance. Richard II documents two divergent theoretical approaches to sovereignty which are more applicable to the political climate in Shakespeare's time than Richard's. In this essay, I read this play through the lens of various political tracts and historical tendencies dominant in late Elizabethan England. Though such an analysis might best be understood as historical materialist in orientation, I offer a contextual analysis of various modes of early modern political thought drawing …  Lire la suite

This study was initiated to determine the effects of Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) on the vegetation and soils of their nesting sites within the Mingan Island National Park Reserve. Both vegetation (species composition, cover, density, growth) and soil characteristics (pH, N, P, K, Ca, Mg) were monitored throughout the 1995 breeding season. Exclosures were installed within the colonies as control sites to prevent gull activity and these were compared to "treatment plots" or areas where gulls were present. All plants located at the study sites were native perennials with the exception of Stellaria, a native annual. Ledum groenlandicum was the …  Lire la suite

Rains, Prudence (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

In the Islamo-arabic world, as it is proven in this text, the expression of Insanity was tolerated, free, and was attributed traits of sainthood. We found these three characteristics, in the speech of three muslim immigrants, users of psychiatric services in Montreal. The major themes of their speech were listed. Two therapeutic propositions were given as a conclusion to the text.  Lire la suite

In the Jasper Basin, Jasper National Park, Alberta, the late Frasnian Simla Member and Mount Hawk Formation comprise a shallow water carbonate platform (upper part of the Ancient Wall reef complex) and an adjacent slope and basin respectively. The Frasnian-Famennian paraconformity overlies the Simla Member everywhere within the study area. Basinward, this boundary becomes conformable where it overlies the Mount Hawk Formation. The F-F boundary forms the basal bounding surface for the Sassenach Formation. The early Famennian Sassenach Formation comprises mixed siliciclastic/carbonate strata that overlie, onlap and frequently toplap the underlying Mount Hawk Formation and Simla Member along the northeastern …  Lire la suite

In this thesis we have not entered the names of all the authors who wrote in the Venetian language in the course of the XX century, but only the names of those who distinguished themselves. This thesis does not deal exclusively with poetry, but it includes also prose, theatre and journalism. In fact, analyzing so many and such varied works allowed us to formulate working hypotheses on the origins, evolution and various motivations of their respective authors. It also supplied us with some clues as to why they chose to write in a regional language and, sometimes, in one of …  Lire la suite

This work consists of a combination of approaches to understanding the mythological workings of the death and life of Eva Peron. Using the Foucauldian notions of discursive regularities, the study of materialization and meaning in the 'body that matters' by Judith Butler, along with Baudrillard's definition of simulacra and simulation, this thesis traces the diverse constructions and significations of the 'names' and 'bodies' surrounding Evita's life, the treatment of her death, and the period which followed. Throughout the course of this analysis, her names and bodies are subjected to the conception of 'myth' as defined by Roland Barthes, bringing to …  Lire la suite

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by (1) senile plaques formed of aggregated amyloid peptides of 40 to 42 amino acids (A$ beta sb{1-40}$ and A$ beta sb{1-42}$) which are derived from the metabolism of the amyloid precursor protein, (2) by neurofibrillary tangles involving a dysfunction of the cytoskeleton due to the hyperphosphorylation of the tau protein, and (3) by amyloid-laden cerebral vessels. The goal of this project is to determine if there is a link between the presence of aggregated amyloid peptides and tau hyperphosphorylation. We incubated the human fetal primary neuron cultures with A$ beta sb{1-40}$ and A$ beta sb{1-42}$ …  Lire la suite

The purpose of the analytical part of this master's paper is to specify the signification of the voyage motive considered as the theme of some of the stories in Jacques Ferron's Contes. This theme consists in being at the basis of both travel narratives and tales structure. It is a matter of studying, on the one hand, how the author is spiritually in line with these stories and on the other hand, how he distinguishes himself by his singular use of them. Two tales, "La vache morte du canyon" and "Cadieu" are analyzed, in the first part, according to literary …  Lire la suite

Alexander Pushkin devoted the last five years of his life to research in the imperial archives in St. Petersburg publishing a number of works dealing with such historical figures as Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Boris Godunov, and the rebel leaders Mazepa and Pugachev. This thesis examines Pushkin's historiographical methodology and conclusions and considers Pushkin's writings from the viewpoint of the historian rather than the literary critic. It offers a chronological study of the four fictional and non-fictional works in which Pushkin analysed major figures and events in Russian history and traces the importance he attributed to them for …  Lire la suite

This thesis presents an investigation of semileptonic B meson decays with a narrow P-wave charm meson in the final state. The data sample consists of 3.29 x 106 BB¯ events collected with the CLEO II detector at the Cornell Electron-positron Storage Ring. The P-wave charm mesons are reconstructed in the chain of decays: D0J→D*+p- ,D*+→D0p+,D 0→K-p+ or D0→K-p+p 0 . Study of the decay B-→D*+p0ℓ -nℓ&d1; reveals useful information about the deficit observed in inclusive charm semileptonic B decays and the effective couplings of the W boson to heavy quark mesons. The results obtained for the exclusive semileptonic product branching …  Lire la suite

Leonardo Sciascia was undoubtedly a prominent figure of Italian public life due to his scathing criticism of the Mafia and of occult power. Unfortunately, most critics have relegated him to the role of mere detractor of Italy's corrupt public and private mores. We cannot deny that he did indeed fulfill this role as well; however the overall literary value of his works by far exceeds that of a statement of charges against organized crime. His literary production can be in fact interpreted as a safe haven for truth against the establishment's drive to obliterate it. This thesis aims at reasserting …  Lire la suite

This dissertation addresses the problem of information gathering with a visual system. We formalize a probabilistic framework for information gathering by defining three components: geometric models, sensor observation models and models for prior information. Geometric models consist mainly of the object model, which describes the structure of the rigid body in a certain fixed coordinate system. Sensor models mathematically describe the mapping between the rigid body coordinates and the statistically corrupted sensor observations. Prior information is encoded in a structured environment assumption, as geometric and dynamic models are assumed known. Within this framework and using an optimization criterion that relates …  Lire la suite

This thesis deals with the challenge posed to post-imperial British identity by the rise of Scottish political nationalism and its voice the Scottish National Party (SNP) from the late 1960s to 1980. With the ultimate decline of the British Empire in the decades following the Second World War, Britishness, which had been forged through the imperial experience, was fundamentally challenged by older national identities within the United Kingdom. Scottish nationalism was one of these identities which had been subsumed by an imperial British identity for over two hundred years. A combination of the collapse of the industry of empire in …  Lire la suite

Canadian military historians have overlooked the role of the Canadian artillery in the South African War of 1899-1902, This thesis is an attempt to fill that gap in the historiography, Based largely on primary sources such as newspaper reports, military records, and personal diaries and letters, the thesis examines the contributions and experiences of D battery, Royal Canadian Field Artillery, in South African War. It asserts that the battery played a variety of roles, ranging from the monotonous line of communication duty to intense combat actions, and that the soldiers reacted to this varied experience in different ways.  Lire la suite

Submerged macrophyte beds provide a secondary realm of accumulation in lakes. Particles otherwise destined to reside in the deep-water profundal zone are intercepted by nearshore macrophyte communities that attenuate wave and current energy. The microenvironment found inside submerged macrophyte beds can be substantially more quiescent than that of the open-water, allowing for fine particles to be deposited out of the water column. Together with larger, eroded inorganic sediments and coarse organic particles, these materials comprise the sediments underlying macrophyte communities. Thirty-four littoral sites were sampled in Lake Memphremagog (Quebec-Vermont) to quantify the role of morphometry (littoral slope and site exposure) …  Lire la suite

Yau, M. K. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Hermo, Louis (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

X-ray mammography is currently the modality of choice for breast cancer screening. However, X-ray mammography cannot provide a positive diagnosis for cancer. A novel, dedicated breast imaging modality has been developed based on the principles of Positron Emission Tomography (PET). The Positron Emission Mammography (PEM) system is a sensitive, high resolution ($ sp sim2$ mm) breast scanner. PEM detects increased cell metabolism (indicating the presence of cancer) by imaging the distribution of tumour-specific metabolic radiotracers. The accurate co-registration of metabolic and X-ray breast images is important for localizing and characterizing suspicious lesions. Traditionally, registration between different imaging modalities has been …  Lire la suite

Background. Worldwide, the incidence of Crohn's Disease (CD) has been rising in the last thirty years. It has no known causal factor, and remains incurable today. Using a hospital registry of French Canadian CD patients, a case-control study was undertaken in 1989 to assess potential risk factors for CD. Methods. 49 CD cases and 48 controls (healthy family members) answered a food frequency questionnaire that referred to dietary exposure at the time of CD diagnosis. Results. CD patients were younger than family controls: 35 years vs. 41 years (p = 0.001). They also had more years of schooling (8.0 years …  Lire la suite

This thesis undertakes a critical assessment of a very topical and highly debated question in the development of EU competition law: does the European Merger Control Regulation apply to concentrations that result in collective (or joint respectively oligopolistic) dominance? And, if so, under what conditions? The study suggests that the Merger Control Regulation does, indeed, cover cases of collective dominance. It recommends, however, that a proposed transaction should only be blocked on grounds of collective dominance if it raises substantive doubts that the transaction will create an anti-competitive market structure (like, for example, the Gencor/Lonrho case). Should the doubts not …  Lire la suite

An algorithmic method for the recognition of fungal spore cells in microscopic images, as well as its development and its origin, are described and demonstrated. The process is designed for a machine vision project which automatically identifies fungal spores within field samples for epidemiological simulation models. The method consists of a three-pass system that successfully recognizes spores in any position and which is tolerant of occlusion. The algorithm, as implemented, demonstrated an accuracy of $ pm$5.3% on low quality images which is less than the assumed error of humans performing the same task. The processing speed also compared favorably with …  Lire la suite

Humidifying infant incubators facilitates heat retention, but entails an infection risk from microbial humidifier contamination. The Royal Victoria Hospital nursery was recently reequipped with steam humidity source incubators and converted to incubator humidification. An observational (before-after) study investigated the association between incubator humidification and hypernatremia and (secondarily) other hydration associated outcomes in very premature infants. Thirty-one incubator humidification and 60 non-humidification period infants were compared. Mean gestational age was 25.83 weeks for both groups. Mean highest serum sodium values were 143.5 (SD 9.4) and 152.9 (SD 4.9) mEq/l respectively (p < 0.001). Differences persisted after adjustment for confounding by age …  Lire la suite

This thesis describes an algorithm for detecting moving objects in images taken from a moving robot. The algorithm distinguishes itself from other similar, existing solutions in that it lends itself to a fast implementation, yet provides results which are reliable and accurate enough for use on a real mobile robot system without any a priori knowledge of the robot's egomotion. The algorithm builds on previous work by Frazier and Nevatia but adds two key enhancements in order to realize a working system. First is the ability to efficiently and continuously update the robot's egomotion parameters by way of the focus …  Lire la suite

Daily net ecosystem CO$ sb2$ exchange (NEE) was monitored at several peatland communities in a mid-boreal headwater bog at the Experimental Lakes Area (Kenora, ON., Canada) throughout the 1995-96 growing seasons. Transparent and opaque chamber systems were used to measure NEE and dark respiration at replicate plots in which the vascular vegetation was either clipped or unclipped. CO$ sb2$ fixation and emission fluxes were estimated from NEE measurements and were compared within and among the peatland communities. Communities that supported shrubby, xerophytic vegetation fixed CO$ sb2$ at rates that ranged from, on average, 0.194 to 0.365 mg CO$ sb2$ m$ …  Lire la suite

Terminal regions of chromosomes are frequently involved in structural chromosomal abnormalities and are prone to rearrangements. They are also gene rich, and have been shown to be associated with a number of clinical conditions. This study focuses on telomere-specific fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) probes. It addresses the technical aspects of their preparation and application, and examines whether FISH using these probes is a valuable tool for detection of aberrations in the terminal regions of chromosomes. A set of telomere specific probes was generated from half yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) and cosmid clones by DNA preparation via Alu-PCR, alkaline lysis, …  Lire la suite

The degradation of type II collagen, the major collagen of articular cartilage, is thought to be initiated by a specific cleavage within its triple helical domain by one or more of MMP-1 (collagenase-1), MMP-8 (collagenase-2), and MMP-13 (collagenase-3). We demonstrate the direct involvement of increased collagenase activity in type II collagen cleavage, in osteoarthritic (OA) human femoral condylar cartilage, and in IL-1 stimulated mature bovine nasal and articular cartilages, by developing and using antibodies reactive to carboxy-terminal (COL-3/4Cshort) and amino-terminal (COL2-1/4N1) neoepitopes generated by cleavage of native type II collagen by these collagenases. A secondary cleavage followed the initial cleavage …  Lire la suite

This study argues that there is an essential unity to John Donne's poems and sermons. Chapter One is a survey of Donne criticism: Ilona Bell suggests Donne "seeks communion, but is continually prepared to recognize disjunction." It is argued that Bell's notion is validated in both genres where Donne renders concrete a movement of thought or emotion through figurative language. Chapter Two examines how the sermons move between the literal sense of scripture, and its multiform spiritual significance. Chapter Three examines the writerly tradition of the Church Fathers in relation to some of Donne's poetry. Augustine read the bible as …  Lire la suite

A zonally averaged coupled atmosphere-ocean model for climate studies is developed. The ocean component is the Wright and Stocker two-dimensional thermohaline circulation (THC) model, and the atmospheric component is a zonally averaged energy-moisture balance model for the atmosphere. Both single- and multi-basin configurations of the model are considered. The results obtained with this coupled model are compared with those from an ocean-only model that employs mixed boundary conditions. The differences in the steady states of the two models and their linear stability are examined over a wide range of parameters, for both one- and two-basin ocean models. The presence of …  Lire la suite

Troubadour style painting first appeared at the Paris Salon in the opening years of the Nineteenth century. After its initial success during the reign of Napoleon, it continued to fiourish in the period of the Bourbon Restoration. Of small scale and primarily devoted to the representation of anecdotal scenes from the lives of the great French monarchs of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance periods, troubadour style painting evoked nationalist and patriotic sentiments. This analysis of its socio-political foundations in the Napoleonic period reveals an implicit royalist message, particularly in the works of Pierre Revoil and Fleury Richard, the two …  Lire la suite

Suissa, Samy (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Equipment has been developed to test x-ray sensor designs suitable for texture analysis and plasticity prediction of rolled sheet in the production environment. A general method has been developed to optimize the complete sensor design by minimizing the rms error of the sensor's texture and property estimates for the sheet. A versatile reflection, x-ray diffraction sensor has been designed and built for the laboratory to test how accurately the optimized designs classify the quality of commercial rolled product. Experimental testing with the laboratory sensor was made on two sets of specimens: (1) a set of cold-rolled and annealed, interstitial-free steels; …  Lire la suite