McGill University Thèses et mémoires publiés en 2001

Parathyroid Hormone-related Protein (PTHrP) was first identified as a tumor-derived product responsible for Malignancy Associated Hypercalcemia. The protein was characterized based on its ability to mimic Parathyroid Hormone (PTH) in kidney and bone. PTHrP is a secretory peptide with limited homology to PTH at the amino-terminus that allows it to bind to the common PTH/PTHrP receptor (PTH1R). Normal secretion of PTHrP has now been demonstrated in a number of tissues where it acts as an autocrine/paracrine mediator of cell growth and differentiation. Much of the documented biological activity of PTHrP is mediated through PTH1R however a body of evidence indicates …  Lire la suite

On-chip signal extraction and characterization structures are slowly becoming a necessary component of any complex integrated circuit design. The increased integration of the modern System On a Chip has necessitated the development of these alternate test strategies to address the issue of device node access and signal integrity. The process of extracting a signal in an analog form across a chip boundary can often compromise its true nature, as these new systems stretch performance limits. The aim of this thesis is to introduce two circuits for on-chip sub-nanosecond signal capture. The emphasis is placed on providing gigahertz rate effective sampling …  Lire la suite

A land tenure system is a set of rules which govern social relations between peoples in respect to land. It defines the property rights in land of individuals or groups in a specific locality or society. The property rights, which are in effect bundles of rights, may include the right to use, lease, mortgage, transfer, and so on. The source of these tenurial rules can be either customs or enacted laws. This thesis examines in detail these aspects of land tenure systems in respect to Eritrea, a country situated in the Horn of East Africa. Accordingly, the indigenous systems of …  Lire la suite

A rodent model was developed to assess the osteogenic potential of continuous capacitive electrical stimulation on bone healing around titanium (Ti) implants. Adult male rats were fitted subcutaneously with electrical leads, that were placed around Ti implants inserted in the tibia. One electrical lead was attached directly to the extraosseous component of the implant, and the other was anchored to the adjacent subcutaneous tissues. Bone healing around the Ti implant was assessed histologically after 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 14 and 21 days of continuous capacitive electrical stimulation as compared to controls and sacrificed immediately. Other groups of animals …  Lire la suite

Van De Ven, T. G. M. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

This thesis proposes a seventh-order 0.05° equiripple linear-phase continuous-time filter employing, for the first time, instantaneous companding. The filter was designed and integrated in a mature bipolar process. The amount of boost (up to 13dB) and group-delay adjustment (+/-30%) are digitally programmable. The DC gain is controllable up to 10dB, and the -3dB frequency (fc) is tunable from 5 to 70MHz. The output swing for 1% THD is higher than 100mVpp, with a 1.5V supply. The filter consumes very low power (5--13mW for fc = 70MHz), compared to state-of-the-art implementations (e.g. 120mW for fc = 100MHz [1]). An approach to …  Lire la suite

The business corporation is an important engine for the creation of wealth and it plays a vital role in promoting economic development and social progress in both domestic and international economies. Hence companies must operate within a governance framework that keeps them focused on their objectives and accountable for their actions. There is the need to establish adequate and credible governance arrangements. The degree of observance to the basic principles of good corporate governance is an important factor for investment decisions. Traditional corporate doctrine has taken the separation of ownership from control as the core problem of corporate governance. On …  Lire la suite

We examined the design, development and implementation of a modular system of multiple, wheeled mobile manipulators that can team up to cooperatively transport a large common object. Each individually autonomous mobile manipulator consists of a differentially driven wheeled mobile robot (WMR) with a passive, two-degree-of-freedom, planar revolute jointed arm mounted in the plane parallel to the base of the WMR. The composite multi-degree-of-freedom vehicle, formed by placing a common object on the end-effector of two such mobile manipulator systems, possesses the ability to change its relative configuration as well as accommodate relative positioning errors of the mobile bases. However, closed …  Lire la suite

Dimorphic Leishmania donovani parasites exist as promastigotes in the sandfly vector and differentiate into amastigotes once injected into the skin of human hosts during a blood meal. The mechanisms and signals that are involved in triggering differentiation are not well understood in Leishmania. We have investigated whether tyrosine phosphorylation is a possible signalling component. Differential levels of tyrosine-phosphorylated proteins were observed in extracts from in vitro promastigote and amastigote cultures, with an overall reduction in the latter stage. Following this observation, the inhibition of tyrosine phosphorylation was examined in promastigotes using Tyrphostin AG1433, a broad-spectrum tyrosine phosphorylation inhibitor. AG1433 treated …  Lire la suite

We questioned whether adrenergic amines extracted from the Seville orange Citrus Aurantium (CA) increases metabolic rate and enhance the thermic response to a 1.7MJ mixed meal (TEF) in lean and obese men and women; the latter had upper-body obesity, a condition associated with defective TEF, attributed to altered SNS. Nine lean (7M, 2F; BMI: 23 +/- 1 k g/m 2; waist circumference: 78 +/- 2 cm) and 13 obese (4M, 9F; BMI: 35 +/- 1 kg/m2; waist circumference: 105 +/- 3 cm) subjects were studied. With CA: (1) RMR increased more in men vs women (94 vs 42 kJ over …  Lire la suite

The effects of length-bias and left-truncation in survival data have been well studied in the statistical literature. To a lesser extent, the phenomena of length-bias and left-truncation have also been investigated when group comparisons are of interest. This literature examines various biases that may occur under different scenarios, and also, on occasion, proposes procedures for the estimation of covariate effects when using prevalent data. In this thesis, we review the literature concerned with the analysis of length-biased and left-truncated data, paying particular attention to the issue of group comparisons. Some shortcomings of the methods developed in the literature are pointed …  Lire la suite

Since the overall performance of the delta-sigma D/A converter is limited by the analog circuitry, the greatest design challenge when building the converter involves the implementation of the reconstruction filter. This thesis will cover the design and implementation of three monolithic reconstruction filters. The first is an audio band active-RC Butterworth filter which is realized using a leapfrog structure. The various issues related to this design are dealt with including design-for-testability circuitry and tuning circuitry. The next two filters are both implementations of a current steering semidigital FIR reconstruction filters. These implementations are meant to reveal an alternative approach to …  Lire la suite

Grimard, Franque (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Children form a bulk of the Canadian population, but have no control over the economic purse that decides their future. The "action-radii" of children between the ages of 6 years to 10 years is limited to the surrounding neighbourhood. This is also the age of physical exercise, emotional, social and full personality development in which play constitutes an important education tool. Over the years, the urgent need to create high-density housing led to subsidized housing projects. During this process, providing an ideal environment in which to raise children has been overlooked. So, what do the children do? Where do they …  Lire la suite

Objective. The diagnostic interview for borderline personality disorder (DIB) requires a long duration of administration (45 minutes). This led to the development of a briefer (10 minutes), and therefore more feasible, version of the DIB named the DIB-Ab. It is the aim of this study to test the validity and reliability of the DIB-Ab. Method. Forty-seven previously suicidal adolescents, aged 14--21 years, participated in this study. The DIB-Ab and DIB-R were administered during a battery of tests separated by 130 minutes of unrelated measures. Results. The Pearson correlation coefficient of the DIB-Ab with respect to the DIB-R ranged from .52--.80 …  Lire la suite

Whey media, containing 2% (w/v) whey powder, 1% (w/v) glucose, and 0.5% (w/v) yeast extract, were fermented with nine Lactobacillus strains to produce angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides. Lb. brevis, Lb. helveticus, and Lb. paracasei were most effective in producing whey hydrolysates that contained potent ACE inhibitors, with the inhibition rate ranging from 93.3 +/- 0.3 to 100%. The hydrolysates of three Lactobacillus strains were partially purified by dialysis (6,000--8,000 Da cut-off) to remove larger molecules, and subsequently subjected to RP-HPLC, equipped with a Delta Pak C18 column. Each chromatogram displayed at least three distinct peaks at the hydrophobic …  Lire la suite

The study is a comparative analysis of the development of two networks of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Jalisco and their contribution to the strengthening of the political capacities of NGOs. A new view of civil society is introduced that emphasizes its multiple functions and forms the basis for disaggregating capacity into three dimensions: defensive, propositional and infrastructural. A political process approach draws from social movement theory for understanding the emergence and activities of NGO networks. The development of NGOs in Mexico from the 1960s through the 1990s is analyzed as the result of mobilization …  Lire la suite

This thesis discusses the role of Environmental Impact Assessments in the implementation of the concept of sustainable development within the realm of North-South tensions regarding responsibilities for environmental conservation. Environmental Impact Assessments provide opportunities for realizing sustainable development not only because they operationalize the integration principle of sustainable development by facilitating the equilibrium between development and environmental conservation objectives, essential for ecological sustainability, but also because, in allowing for public participation in the assessment process, they promote the realization of the civil right of participation in public affairs, an essential component of good governance required for sustainable development to thrive. …  Lire la suite

Recently, various proteoglycans (PGs) have been identified in the lung. The first objective of this thesis was to test the hypothesis that matrix glycosaminoglycans contribute to lung tissue viscoelasticity. Lung parenchymal strips were exposed to specific glycosaminoglycans-degradating enzymes to determine whether the mechanical properties of the tissue were affected. The degradation of heparan sulphate and chondroitin/dermatan sulphate glycosaminoglycans caused significant increases in energy dissipation and dynamic resistance relative to control strips. Hyaluronidase treatment did not alter any of the dynamic or static measures. Since PGs were found to be part of the stress bearing structure, the second part of the …  Lire la suite

For the past few decades, analog voiceband modems have been used extensively to carry digital information over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Conventional voiceband modems treat the PSTN as an analog communication channel. However, today's PSTN is mostly a digital network except for the basic telephone services provided via analog subscriber lines. The conventional model of analog voiceband channels is no longer adequate to characterize the physical connection between terminals with direct digital access to the network and voiceband modems connected to analog subscriber lines. Such a connection requires a different model in each direction. There are now international …  Lire la suite

Abbott, Frances V. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Living organisms must monitor and respond to a diverse array of environmental stimuli. These responses, many of which are genetically-programmed, allow the organisms to obtain nutrients as well as cope with toxins. To identify such responses in Escherichia coli, a chromosomal luxAB gene fusion library was constructed. By screening this library with metals and monitoring for increases in luminescence, two metal-inducible clones were identified. Luminescence of clone LF20110 increases with increasing concentrations of added aluminum, iron, indium, gallium and vanadium, but not added calcium, magnesium or nickel. Luminescence of clone TBT1 increases with increasing concentrations of added tributyltin, triethyltin, tri-n-propyltin …  Lire la suite

Retinoic acid (RA), the major biologically active form of vitamin A, is required for normal development of the mouse embryo. In particular, RA is necessary for the correct anteroposterior specification of the embryonic axis. Exposure to RA at certain stages of development leads to premature truncation of the vertebral column, accompanied by spina bifida. In contrast, embryos that are homozygous null for RARgamma do not exhibit these defects, indicating that this receptor specifically mediates this teratogenic effect. Differential display PCR and suppression subtractive hybridization were employed using the RARgamma null embryos in an attempt to identify downstream targets that may …  Lire la suite

Let S be a data set of n points in Rd, and m&d4; be a point in Rd which "best" describes S. Since the term "best" is subjective, there exist several definitions for finding m&d4; . However, it is generally agreed that such a definition, or estimator of location, should have certain statistical properties which make it robust. Most estimators of location assign a depth value to any point in Rd and define m&d4; to be a point with maximum depth. Here, new results are presented concerning the computational complexity of estimators of location. We prove that in R2 the …  Lire la suite

The efficiency of estimation procedures and the validity of testing procedures in simple and multiple quantitative linear models with autocorrelated errors have been studied in this thesis. The importance of the nature of the explanatory variable(s), fixed and trended versus purely random or following a first-order autoregressive [AR(1)] process, has been emphasized in Monte Carlo studies. The estimation procedures were compared on the basis of different measures of efficiency, relative to OLS or GLS, depending on the context. The estimation procedures studied include the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Generalized Least Squares (GLS), estimated GLS, Maximum Likelihood (ML), Restricted Maximum Likelihood …  Lire la suite

The Lagrangian Block Method (LBM) developed in this thesis is a simulation method. Flow properties are transported in the direction of the velocity following a Lagrangian procedure. The computational elements of the LBM are systems of blocks. These blocks are utilized in the method as containers for the storage of the flow properties (masses). During the computation, the masses in the blocks remain positive, and the total mass in the system is conserved. The resolution of the method is accurate to within one to two computational blocks. The LBM is also unconditionally stable. Accurate results can be obtained with the …  Lire la suite

This thesis is aimed at challenging the conventional wisdom regarding trade and competition under the World Trade Organization, namely, that the WTO does not deal with competition matters. This thesis shows that this wisdom cannot be upheld when viewed in conjunction with Karl Wittgenstein's theories of language and with the panel and Appellate Body's decisions in United States-Anti-Dumping Act of 1916. These decisions confirm the application of such theories to the WTO and indicate, first, that the WTO limits concerning trade and competition are not as clearly defined as followers of the conventional wisdom suggest, and, second, that the Appellate …  Lire la suite

Due to a rising interest in natural fibres for textiles as well as environmental concerns, the demand for fibre flax has increased in recent decades. It was, therefore, with great enthusiasm that Canadian farmers welcomed, in 1997, the opening of a flaxprocessing unit in the region of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec. The purpose of this study was to investigate the economic viability of fibre flax contracting as an alternative activity for field-crop producers in Quebec. A risk-programming model called minimization of total absolute deviation (MOTAD) was developed to better approach this issue. The MOTAD takes into account the variability in income that …  Lire la suite

In the United States, the transition from aristocratic agriculturalism to liberal democratic industrialism was distinguished from instances of this transformation in other countries by a threat to the territorial integrity of the Union. In this dissertation, I provide novel insight into this unique challenge and its link to American political development. Drawing on recent works on the process of secession, I have developed an innovative framework for the analysis of secession in which the institutional design of the state plays a central role in facilitating this act of territorial and political withdrawal. This framework specifies five factors that contribute to …  Lire la suite

The research work presented in this thesis deals with flight control problems. Based on robust control techniques such as H infinity control and mu-synthesis, we develop control laws that are efficient in reducing gust loads on flexible aircraft. Uncertainty models for flexible aircraft are proposed and shown to be well adapted for robust control design, while tightly covering unknown but bounded variations of flexible mode parameters. One of the models presented introduces a new complex-rational controller design methodology that takes advantage of the uncertain plant structure and achieves good performance criteria. Other uncertainty models are presented for the first time …  Lire la suite

The thesis argues for holding the United Nations responsible for violation of rules of self-determination in the same manner it has been responsible for infringement of humanitarian norms. The position stems from the decision of the International Court of Justice that held the United Nations has duties corresponding to its rights. By the analogously application of the rules of state responsibility, the United Nations is responsible for breach of rules of self-determination in the de-colonization process of Eritrea. The responsibility of the organization emanates from an imposition of a lopsided resolution. The resolution gave more weight to political and strategic …  Lire la suite

Julie Bruneau is characterized in many different ways in the Papineau family correspondence. The first-, second- and third-person narrators of the correspondence each use many techniques, some similar and some different, to emphasize various aspects of Julie's character. The study of the characterization achieved by the different narrative voices, as well as by the contrasting first-person voices in Julie's own letters, allows us to better understand the nature of epistolary characterization in all its forms. The comparison of these varying accounts of Julie Bruneau's character allows us to come to a more balanced and complete portrait than would the study …  Lire la suite

Ward, Brian (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Double-strand breaks (DSBs) are one of the most lethal threats to genomic integrity. In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, double-strand breaks are primarily repaired via the homologous recombination repair pathway. While the mechanisms underlying this pathway have been generally characterized, the early steps leading to commitment of DSBs to homologous recombination repair are as yet unclear. In particular, it has been shown that the exonuclease processing of DSBs is a critical step prior to strand invasion of a homologous template. Endo-exonucleases represent a class of nucleases that have been linked to recombinational repair processes in various organisms. Early on, a degradative …  Lire la suite

The American courts developed business law by devising principles for resolving the rift between shareholders and the management. An important principle in this respect is the Business Judgment Rule (BJR). The BJR has attained an important position in the American corporate law. However, it has failed to find such position in the laws of other jurisdictions. In the current era, when different economies are integrating into a global market, corporations are forming global alliances. This thesis will study the role of the BJR in global alliances by examining the case of the Star Alliance as an example. It will focus …  Lire la suite

The dissertation seeks to contribute to our understanding of the role played by parties in the consolidation of democracy in the context of military tutelage and anti-system challenges. It finds that the conceptualization of parties under internal and external pressures in competitive party systems can be a useful framework to understand the constraints faced by parties in new democracies contemplating legal and constitutional reforms as a way to deepen democracy. The dual party framework focuses on the significance of the institutional (identity and party unity) and rational concerns of parties (electoral success) during democratization, at the same time that it …  Lire la suite

Several epidemiological studies have evaluated whether an association exists between hypertension and cancer with inconclusive results because of several design biases. Using the Saskatchewan Health Databases, a cohort of subjects with incident treated hypertension between 1980 and 1987 was assembled and followed until 1996 to identify all incident cancer hospitalizations. Age and sex-standardized incidence ratios for all cause and for site-specific cancers were estimated using provincial cancer rates. A small increased risk of all-cause cancer was found mainly among females (RR: 1.12, 95 percent CI 1.06--1.17). Site-specific analyses revealed increased risks for uterine, breast, bladder, kidney, and several less common …  Lire la suite

Simone Weil is best known to the world as a mystic and a philosopher. She died in 1943 at the age of 34, ostensibly because she refused the hypernutrition prescribed for the treatment of her tuberculosis. Shortly after her death, thanks to the posthumous publication of her work, she was recognised as one of the twentieth centuries most original thinkers in areas as diverse as philosophy, political history, religion, and ethics. Few writers have delved into the foundational relationship she discerned between a destructive form of suffering she called "affliction" and the experience of divine love. The present dissertation exposes …  Lire la suite

Kaplan, David (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

This thesis addresses long- and short-term neurotrophin modulation of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons (BFCNs), focusing on acetylcholine (ACh) release and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT; the enzyme responsible for ACh synthesis) activity. (1) Initially, ACh release was characterized from primary embryonic basal forebrain cultures. Release was vesicular, dependent upon extracellular choline and regulated by negative feedback via M2-like muscarinic receptors. (2) The next step was to determined the long-term (24--96 hour) effects of nerve growth factor (NGF), brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-4 (NT-4) and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) on ChAT activity, ACh content, high-affinity choline uptake, constitutive and K+ stimulated ACh release. These …  Lire la suite

Two-dimensional free-space optical interconnects (2D-FSOIs) promise to deliver tremendous gains in bandwidth and architectural freedom for applications such as telecommunication switches and massively parallel computing systems. One major obstacle preventing the commercial deployment of 2D-FSOI systems is the problem of optical alignment, which is further exacerbated by the requirements that these systems be field-serviceable and able to sustain the harsh conditions of industrial environments. This thesis proposes a broad range of solutions to alleviate this alignment problem. One important aspect of this work concerns the development of a generic packaging strategy, which consists of partitioning an optical system into separate …  Lire la suite

Eisenberg, Mark J. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Waddell, Candace S. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

The NF-kappaB family of transcription factors is involved in immunoregulation, cellular differentiation and growth. Using Jurkat cells engineered to inducibly express a transdominant form of IkappaBalpha (TD-IkappaBalpha), we have found two novel genes regulated NF-kappaB transcription factor, interleukin 13 and TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) apoptotic signaling protein. Treatment with a variety of T cell receptor mimetics resulted in a rapid and dramatic increase in the expression of TRAIL mRNA as well as cell surface protein. The induced expression of TRAIL was linked to the presence of a c-Rel binding site at position -256 to -265. Mutation of this site or …  Lire la suite

The beta3-adrenergic receptor (beta3-AR) represents a very attractive target for the development of anti-obesity drugs. Selective agonists have been developed based on the rodent beta3-AR and successfully used to treat obesity and Type 2 diabetes in these animals. In humans, however, these particular compounds appear to be less effective and not as specific for the beta3-AR as they are in rodents. An additional problem is the low level of expression of these receptors in human adipose, which may ultimately limit the clinical use of stronger more specific agonists. The objective of this research was to examine the regulation of the …  Lire la suite

The most outstanding features of Gesualdo Bufalino's literary works are outlined in this dissertation. Bufalino, a Sicilian writer, made a name for himself in Italian literature in the early Eighties. The first part of this thesis deals with the author's biographic background and existential experiences which ostensibly contributed the most to his shifting life onto the literary page. It ends with an analysis of Diceria dell'untore , the novel which made him famous. The dissertation provides then an in-depth analysis of the various themes connected with memory, the centrepiece of this author's artistic universe, from which he ceaselessly carves out …  Lire la suite

This thesis explores the concept of "Sanctity of Life" from the perspective of what "life," in particular human life, means today. With the rapid advances in science and modern medical practice, the concept of life has undergone many changes, shaking the foundations of what before made us view life as sacred. Modern thought has brought new forms of understanding to the concept of life. I question the goals of modern medicine and biotechnology, and criticize the reductionist view of life. And finally, I highlight a new ethical approach that could bridge science and moral convictions about the concept of life. …  Lire la suite

Experiments were conducted in controlled and field conditions to determine the effect of seed size, a fungal pathogen (Colletotrichum coccodes), and soybean interspecific competition on the population dynamics of Abutilon theophrasti (velvetleaf). Seed size differences among ten individual A. theophrasti plants significantly (P < 0.001) affected seed germination and dormancy. Higher seed viability (98%) was observed among seeds having a weight above 6.0 mg. The response of A. theophrasti plants that originated from two extreme seed size groups (small <7mg and large >12mg) to the pathogen, C. coccodes, did not change over generations, and the most vigorous plants produced heavier …  Lire la suite

This thesis is an examination of sex in D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover and Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness as it relates to the social, linguistic and political elements of literary modernism. Both novels "think sex," allowing specific concepts of sex to act as methods of communication between artists and readers. By writing sex, Hall and Lawrence address the modern reader, providing a script for ideal readerly and writerly approaches to the novel. The first chapter examines contemporary cultural and gender theory's understanding of the relationship between sex and discourse and relates this to political and literary considerations …  Lire la suite

The purpose of this research is to develop a new tool for mechanical design and analysis of single crystal (SC) nickel base superalloys used in gas turbine engine components. The principle of this tool is based on the extension of the predictive models for isotropic material behavior to anisotropic materials such as SC nickel, base superalloys. This objective is achieved by combining the two main approaches used in the literature for SC materials development: the macroscopic approach and the microscopic approach. For that reason, this theory is designated as the "combined approach " (CA). The structure of the CA theory …  Lire la suite