McGill University Thèses et mémoires publiés en 2002

Four areas of morphosyntax in Arabic-speaking children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) were investigated: tense, subject-verb agreement, determiners, and prepositions. Spontaneous production data were analyzed for accuracy and error types in using these morphemes. Two groups of typically-developing Arabic-speaking children served as Mean Length Utterance (MLU)-matched and chronological age-matched controls. The results indicate that Arabic-speaking children with SLI were significantly different from the two control groups of children on percentage correct use of tense and subject-verb agreement. Furthermore, when an error in verbal inflection occurred, the substitute form was usually an underspecified/default form, namely the imperative. The findings of the …  Lire la suite

The Stikine Volcanic Belt is a lineament of Tertiary to Recent alkaline volcanic centres that cross disparate oceanic and continental terranes of the northern Canadian Cordillera, and extend onto the North America craton. This volcanic lineament thus offers an unique opportunity to probe the lithospheric mantle beneath these terranes and investigate the relative roles of lithospheric and asthenospheric mantle sources in the generation of alkaline lavas. Alkaline lavas in twelve volcanic centres of the Stikine Volcanic Belt were sampled and studied for major and trace elements and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic compositions. The primitive lavas of each volcanic centre define binary arrays …  Lire la suite

Collett, J. P. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

This thesis is composed of two parts, one a translation, the other a commentary on the material that has been translated---a set of three well known identically entitled works by the famous Indian Buddhist scholar, Kamalasila (c. 740--795 C.E.). The Bhavanakramas are here translated from both Sanskrit and Tibetan sources. The commentary takes the form of an extended critical Prologue to the texts and is centred around an examination of the notions of meditation and insight as found therein. The first chapter of the commentary examines the various terms for meditation found in the texts and argues for a specific …  Lire la suite

Various aspects of the airline industry will have to be considered. In determining what the way forward should be, the very essence of airline transport must be laid bare. The industry will have to be classified, does it qualify as a global public good, or is it a mixed public/private commodity? What are the ill effects that this good has yielded as its by products? The aviation industry as a branch of global transportation will be examined in order to classify it. Methods of managing public goods effectively will be briefly considered. Following this will be an analysis of aviation …  Lire la suite

This dissertation has two objectives. The first is to modify the existing Present Value Model of the Current Account (PVMCA) to reflect the major features of the Nigerian economy and to determine if this resulting theoretical framework is valid for the analysis of the Nigerian current account for the period 1960--97. The second objective is to examine the excessiveness and sustainability of the Nigerian current account deficits during this period. To achieve these objectives, the thesis presents a model of current account determination that is based upon the permanent-income hypothesis of private consumption behavior. We derive a present value relationship …  Lire la suite

Accurate Linear Prediction Coefficient (LPC) estimation is a central requirement in low bit-rate voice coding. Under harsh acoustic conditions, LPC estimation can become unreliable. This results in poor quality of encoded speech and introduces annoying artifacts. The purpose of this thesis is to develop and test a two-branch speech enhancement pre-processing system. This system consists of two denoising blocks. One block will enhance the degraded speech for accurate LPC estimation. The second block will increase the perceptual quality of the speech to be coded. The goals of this research are two-fold---to design the second block, and to compare the performance …  Lire la suite

Our intended topic is a general discussion of the basic elements of liability related to airline accidents to which fully automated cockpits have constituted an associated contributory factor. In addition we addressed the liability of air carriers arising from injuries or death caused to passengers traveling on international flights. For this purpose, we reviewed the Warsaw System and the different international instruments that constitute it. We also reviewed principles of common law applicable to aircraft manufacturers and the "Free Flight" as an example of the growing automation environment, which is a general benefit to commercial aviation but also a likely …  Lire la suite

Major dams in the world are often instrumented in order to validate numerical models, to gain insight into the behavior of the dam, to detect anomalies, and to enable a timely response either in the form of repairs, reservoir management, or evacuation. Advances in automated data monitoring system makes it possible to regularly collect data on a large number of instruments for a dam. Managing this data is a major concern since traditional means of monitoring each instrument are time consuming and personnel intensive. Among tasks that need to be performed are: identification of faulty instruments, removal of outliers, data …  Lire la suite

Gyorkos, Theresa W. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Chiu, Ray C. J. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

The waveform relaxation method is a very efficient and reliable method, it has been widely used in several fields including circuit theory, for solving large systems of ordinary differential equations as well as partial differential equations. The convergence rate of the classical waveform relaxation approach is not uniform over the time interval for which the equations are integrated. A new approach called the optimized waveform relaxation approach was proposed with a remarkable and great improvement in the convergence behavior by introducing new transmission conditions. Here, we continue the work done on the optimized waveform relaxation by extending previous results and …  Lire la suite

Current dose photon calculation algorithms have shortcomings in calculating dose distributions accurately in complex, heterogeneous phantoms. In this work, using existing Monte Carlo (MC) algorithms, we implemented and validated a comprehensive MC treatment planning system (MCTPS). We compared MCTPS with the corrected pencil beam algorithm used in the commercial TPS, CadPlan (V2.7.3). The accuracy of dose distributions calculated by MCTPS was studied for six lung cancer patients in two modes: without correction for inhomogeneity (the clinically used method) and with the equivalent tissue air ratio (EgTAR) inhomogeneity correction switched on. Without the use of inhomogeneity corrections, absorbed dose estimated by …  Lire la suite

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurological disorder characterized by plaque deposition and an elevated immune response. Epidemiological studies have shown that use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) by the elderly is associated with a decreased relative risk and a delayed onset of AD. Moreover, the apolipoprotein E (apoE) gene has been proven to be a risk factor for AD with apoE ε4 AD patients having been found to show lower levels of brain apoE. In the present study, treatment of primary rat mixed glial cell cultures with indomethacin, aspirin, and interleukin-1beta resulted in significant increases in extracellular apoE protein. Furthermore, …  Lire la suite

Our objective was to investigate the mode of interaction between selected food proteins and phenolic compounds. Bovine serum albumin (BSA), bovine beta-lactoglobulin, and soybean glycinin were used with the following phenolic compounds; 3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid (gallic acid), 3,4-dihydroxy cinnamic acid (caffeic acid), p -hydroxycinnamic acid (courmaric acid), and 5,7-dihydroxy 4-methoxy isoflavone (biochanin A). The interaction was investigated using incubation temperatures of 35°, 45° and 55°C at pH 5, 7 and 9. Native and SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were used to identify protein-phenol interactions. Certain phenolic compounds combined with BSA and prevented …  Lire la suite

Prolactin (PRL) is a polypeptide hormone synthesized by the anterior pituitary as well as by a number of extrapituitary tissues. The hormone is an essential regulator of important biological processes. The best characterized role for PRL is its participation in the development of the lobuloalveolar system in the mammary gland. The biological actions of PRL are mediated in the cell by the membrane-bound prolactin receptor (PRLR), which is a member of the cytokine family of receptors. Binding of PRL to the PRLR induces receptor dimerization and activation of the constitutively associated Jak2 kinase, which leads to the tyrosine phosphorylation of …  Lire la suite

This thesis analyses the simplification of fashion in the French "beau monde" at the end of the eighteenth century. It reveals that the simplified fashion of the 1770s and 1780s was the result of a new feeling for nature. New perceptions of the body led physicians to plead for a new fashion, more respectful of the natural characters of the body. On the aesthetic level, natural simplicity was meant to be the only way to recover original truth and energy. Moreover, anglomania, by way of sustained exchanges with England, contributed to the development of a simpler and more egalitarian fashion. …  Lire la suite

In most food applications, whey proteins are used, rather than the individual proteins and this accounts for the high functional variability among commercially available whey protein products, and limits their applications. The overall objective of this study was to investigate the structural and thermal properties of individual alpha-lactalbumin (alpha-Lac) and beta-lactoglobulin (beta-Lg) fractions isolated from different whey protein sources. A common non-chromatographic process that isolate alpha-Lac and beta-Lg, with relatively high purity and yield from liquid whey (LW), whey protein concentrate (WPC) and whey protein isolate (WPI) using different chelating agents, was developed. The use of sodium citrate (NaC) and …  Lire la suite

Organic liquids such as crude oils, creosotes and coal tar often remain in contact with groundwater or surface waters for long periods of time before or during any attempted remediation. Potentially toxic solutes such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are continuously released from pollutant oil phases described above to the water phase. The research was aimed at understanding how physicochemical as well as biological phenomena affect dissolution and biodegradation of PAH compounds from pollutant oil phases. These phenomena were investigated for a simple two-component non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) and for creosote, a multi component NAPL. Mass transfer experiments of naphthalene …  Lire la suite

Protein-lipid complexes are known to result from complex molecular interactions which contribute to physiochemical and functional properties of foods. To identify the interactions of food proteins with lipids and the associated changes in properties, the following factors were investigated: incubation temperature, pH, type of lipids (phospholipid, triglyceride and fatty acids) and different proteins (ovalbumin and soybean glycinin). The effects of lipids on physiochemical and functional characteristics of ovalbumin and glycinin were investigated using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), fluorescence, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and emulsification and gelation properties. The results showed that pH, temperature and the …  Lire la suite

After international transportation by air became a reality, the need to fashion out an appropriate global regime to govern the new relationships created by this development led to the signing of the Warsaw Convention in 1929. As time went on, the need to adjust this original Convention to contemporary technological and legal realities necessitated the enactment of several other instruments that were not new Conventions in themselves, but were merely welded to the original 1929 Convention. With the absence of consolidation, the undesirable result was total confusion created by the concurrent operation of the multiple regimes of the Warsaw System. …  Lire la suite

The Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS) irrigates 16 million ha of land in Pakistan. The irrigation water is also used for domestic consumption in rural areas and where the ground water is brackish. Many major cities and towns dispose their untreated wastewater directly into the irrigation canal network, which ultimately has adverse impacts on the downstream water quality. In order to better understand the water quality variations, several parameters were measured along a 45 km long irrigation canal (Hakra-6R) in Punjab, Pakistan during the year 2000. The parameters measured were: biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), nitrate (NO3), ammonia (NH3), Escherichia coli …  Lire la suite

This work presents the results of a study on the development of cultural representations held by students from four public English-speaking colleges (cegeps) in the Montreal area towards the French language and Quebecers whose language of use is French. Our survey instrument aimed at knowing these cultural representations and at identifying different factors likely to influence the development of these representations according to the French level in which students are registered, either beginner or intermediate and advanced. Our hypothesis is that students registered in the intermediate and advanced levels hold more positive cultural representations than beginners, therefore that there exists …  Lire la suite

Not only usual goods are carried: some of a particular nature need particular regulations. The transportation of dangerous goods regulated by specific international rules is a good illustration while the example of artworks carried to be exposed in temporary exhibitions is less famous. Their material protection is insured by museum professionals and specialized carriers. Their legal protection is insured on two levels: on one side, detailed customs procedures are set up to regulate their movement; moreover, specific contractual rules have been created by professionals, but they do apply international conventions relative to international carriers liability. On the other side, one …  Lire la suite

The Bund deutscher Madel (BdM), a Nazi youth organization for girls, was sponsored, organized, and promoted by Adolf Hitler's National Socialist Party. The BdM instilled values and beliefs of National Socialism in German girls, and encouraged attitudes and behavior in them that harmonized with Party views on womanhood. Political indoctrination for girls often came through music---especially song. Musical repertoire of the BdM strongly interconnects with the organization's development, internal structure and political philosophies. My thesis analyses the relations between music, the BdM, National Socialism, and gender. Historical perspectives are documented to clarify the function and intention of the BdM, including …  Lire la suite

In the last decade, parties to arbitration agreements have attempted to broaden the scope of judicial review of arbitral awards by contract, beyond the boundaries established in international and domestic arbitration statutes. This thesis analyzes this contractual expansion of judicial review from an international perspective. To this end, the standard of judicial review under the most important international instruments pertaining to commercial arbitration is examined: the New York Convention and the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. The study then addresses the question as to whether provisions for heightened judicial review of arbitral awards would be enforceable under the …  Lire la suite

The effect of melatonin, a hormone that triggers biological rhythms, was examined in relation to food intake and macronutrient selection. Wistar rats (n = 48) of both sexes were divided into 3 groups and offered a simultaneous choice of 2 diets: a carbohydrate-rich diet and a protein-rich diet, with a different type of carbohydrate and protein in each of the groups. Increased short- (4h post-injection) and long-term (12h post-injection) nocturnal total food intake was found following intraperitoneal administration of melatonin (10 000 and 15 000 pg/ml blood) at dark onset. Melatonin increased short-term carbohydrate-rich diet intake similarly across sensory contrasting …  Lire la suite

This dissertation presents a series of studies aimed at applying machine learning methods to information derived from magnetic resonance (MR) based examinations in order to aid in the pre-surgical evaluation of patients with epilepsy. Two forms of epilepsy were studied: non-lesional temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and extra-temporal lobe epilepsy (ETLE) due to malformations of cortical development (MCD). Regarding patients with TLE, our aim was to predict outcome, in terms of reduction of seizure frequency, following surgical resection. To this end, we trained a Bayesian classifier on results from volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI), which …  Lire la suite

Haemophilus influenzae (Hi) is a Gram-negative bacteria that is the causative agent of bacterial meningitis. The outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria functions as a selectively permeable barrier. The exchange of small hydrophilic solutes between the external environment and the periplasm is mediated by large water-filled channels, porins. Charged residues of the pore determine the functional properties of the protein, which include: ion conductance, ionic selectivity, and voltage gating. To study the properties of the porin (341 amino acids; Mr 37,782) of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), purified porin was subjected to chemical modification. The covalent modification of lysine residues …  Lire la suite

OV90, a spontaneously immortalized epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) cell line, has been shown to contain a homogeneously staining region (HSR) originating from chromosome 22. To identify the amplified genes, differential gene expression was assessed using high-density oligonucleotide array (chip) technology. Genomic differential PCR and dot blot analysis showed that overexpression is consistent with gene amplification, as all sequences tested within the 1 Mb region of 22q11.21 are present in increased copy number. However, overexpression was not common, as only two of 69 EOC samples evaluated using the Hu6800 chip showed overexpression of a gene amplified in OV90, and three other …  Lire la suite

The solubility of gold and copper chloride in liquid-undersaturated, HCl-bearing water vapour was investigated experimentally at elevated temperatures and pressures. Experimental results show that the solubility of gold and copper is significant, increasing at higher fHCl and fH2O for gold, and at higher fH2O for copper. These increases are attributed to the formation of hydrated gas species, with a metal:chlorine ratio of 1. Hydration numbers vary from 5 at 300°C to 3 at 360°C for gold, and from 7.6 at 280°C, to 6.0 at 300°C, and 6.1 at 320°C for copper; the results reflect the presence of trimer [Cu3Cl3•(H2O)n] or …  Lire la suite

Higher education is experiencing a changing context. Strong leadership is demanded to overcome these challenging times. While management literature offers the transactional-transformational leadership model, the higher education literature argues that applying a managerial leadership model to the academic context ignores the principles of academe. This study examines the relevance of such a model within the academic context. More specifically, the study focuses on transactional-transformational leadership styles and the extent to which chairs' self and faculty members' perceptions of chairs' leadership converge. The study also examines the perceptions of the influence of leadership style on departmental outcomes, extra effort, effectiveness, and …  Lire la suite

The interface between copyright law and competition law has always been a topic of debate in legal and economic circles. Since the last decade however, new economy markets pose new challenges to this interface. Network effects, interconnectivity, rapid innovation, and excludability are characteristics of new economy markets. Particularly network effects can, in connection with copyright protection, increase market power and provoke competition authorities to monitor the exercise of copyrights. This thesis contains an analysis of the background and underlying principles of Canadian copyright law and competition law. It gives an overview over their interface in the legislation and the impact …  Lire la suite

The dynamics in Fagus-Acer forest have been frequently investigated, a particular interest being the replacement patterns and coexistence of the two dominant species, Fagus grandifolia Ehrh. and Acer saccharum Marsh. This thesis examines whether the community pattern and dynamics in a Fagus-Acer forest at Mont. St. Hilaire, Quebec, are consistent with predictions made by the disturbance hypothesis. This conceptual model explains the mechanisms underlying the coexistence and replacement patterns of the two dominant species. While the hypothesis suggests disturbance frequency and interspecific differences in growth under variable light conditions to be the key factors that determine the dynamics in Fagus-Acer …  Lire la suite

Berk, Dimitrios (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

To support and keep pace with the Internet growth, new routers based on optical multi-stage architectures are emerging. These routers consist of multiple shelves interconnected with parallel optical interconnects. This thesis proposes the analysis of the inter-channel crosstalk of a state-of-the-art 1 x 12 VCSEL and PIN array based parallel optical interconnect operating at 2.5 Gb/s. The crosstalk properties of the parallel optical interconnect will impact the optical power link budget and scalability of these multi-stage routers. To study the crosstalk properties of the optical interconnect, a special test set-up and detailed test procedures were created to analyse the bit …  Lire la suite

Federspiel, Howard M. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Alcohol abuse/dependence frequently co-occurs with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and conduct disorder (CD). Furthermore, crime studies have generally found that alcohol is involved in over 50% of violent crimes, and experimental studies support the notion that acute alcohol consumption indirectly increases the likelihood of aggressive and disinhibited behaviors in the laboratory. However, the mechanisms underlying alcohol's association with such behaviors remain unclear. The goals of this thesis were therefore to further elucidate potential mechanisms underlying (a) alcohol-induced aggressive, disinhibited behaviors and (b) the high comorbidity between delinquent, aggressive behaviors (characterizing CD/ASPD) and alcohol misuse/abuse/dependence. Thus, four studies were conducted, focusing …  Lire la suite

A crucial factor to enable low-income families to participate in the gradual development of their homes is to find a link between their building activities and those of the large-scale building sector. Amidst technological development and increasing demand for housing, the large-scale sector, such as government and private groups, resorted to industrialised housing to replace traditional and conventional building materials and methods. Industrialisation, however, resulted not only in expensive and inappropriate dwellings but also eliminated homeowners from the building process and management of their homes. To bring back the homeowners in the building process, the shift was towards the production …  Lire la suite

Bonnell, R. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

The pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) implicates several pathogenic processes, but their relative importance remains a highly debated issue. The purposes of the present studies were (1) to evaluate the implication of the over expression, in transgenic mice, of a mutated form of the amyloid precursor protein (V717FhAPP), or of the cytokine Transforming Growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1), on cerebral and hippocampal innervation, and (2) to determine if TGF-beta1 can affect vasomotor responses of cerebral blood vessels. While the mice over-expressing TGF-beta1 did not show cholinergic denervation, the mice over-expressing V717FhAPP showed selective cholinergic deficits in the CA3 region of the hippocampus. …  Lire la suite

Siddiqi, Kaleem (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

This study asks how national power capacity and state structures are reconfigured when faced simultaneously with the power diffusion impact of political globalization---defined as a consensus of ideas and subsequent pressure on states for further democratization and liberalization---and the power maximization demands of internal and external security dilemmas. Hypothesizing a resulting bifurcation of such state structures, this study identifies and explores the transformation dynamics of states being pressured by these two forces through an in-depth analysis of the Turkish case. First, the roots of the two pressures are explored from the late Ottoman and early Republican eras, and a pendulum …  Lire la suite

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is the preferred cereal for malting. Its suitability for malting depends on many criteria, including the size, shape and uniformity of the kernels. Malting quality is affected by many quantitative trait loci (QTL). Such loci have been mapped using phenotypic and genotypic information on all members of mapping populations. It may also be possible to detect marker-QTL associations using selective genotyping, in which only the progeny with high or low phenotypic values for a trait are genotyped with available markers. Information on marker-QTL associations may be used in marker-assisted selection. Marker-assisted selection could be particularly useful …  Lire la suite

The increase of antidumping measures could represent a source of mounting frictions in the trading systems among Canada, United States and Mexico. Mexico is an active user of antidumping measures suggesting that both private sector groups and government policy makers have found antidumping measures to be a convenient response to the pressures of import competition. In the last two decades, Mexico has opened its economy to international commerce. Nevertheless, its economy and legal system are not comparable to those of the United States or Canada, although it has adopted analogous antidumping laws. The Mexican antidumping practice is based today on …  Lire la suite

Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein (RNP) enzyme responsible for the replenishment of repetitive DNA sequences present at the ends of most eukaryotic chromosomes. Telomerase is minimally composed of a protein catalytic subunit, the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), and an RNA subunit. Using a small single-stranded segment (7--11 nucleotides) of the telomerase RNA as a template, the active site of the TERT catalytic subunit adds complementary nucleotides onto telomeric DNA. The primary goal of the work presented in this thesis was to biochemically and functionally characterize the human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) and the human telomerase RNA (hTR), as well as to …  Lire la suite

The foetus and its legal status in Sunni Islamic law constitute the topic of this thesis. This topic was chosen due to two main reasons. First, it is a topic of great social relevance, particularly with regards to the issues of abortion, ensoulment and foetal rights. Second, it is a topic that has received scant scholarly attention. Indeed, we find that many scholars deal with issues related to the foetus such as inheritance, bequests and blood-money inter alia in their discussions of such issues. We do not find a work concentrating solely on the foetus, thereby gathering many rulings concerning …  Lire la suite

This dissertation project is a preparation for development of a method for teaching traditional Ewe culture to people of Western or non-Ewe background, using dance ethnology as an approach to conducting research, and digital video recording as a means for documentation. The study focuses on one of the Ewe's oldest and most powerful religious dance and music ceremonies, Adzogbo, as it is performed by the Mawuli Kpli Mi Adzogbo Group from the village of Aflao in Ghana, West Africa. Adzogbo, originally from Dahomey (now Benin), was brought to Ghana in the late 19th Century, and was formally performed for the …  Lire la suite

Soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) and Bradyrhizobium japonicum can form a nitrogen fixing symbiosis. This symbiosis is important for most sustainable agriculture systems. This thesis examines two ways to enhance nodulation and nitrogen fixation by this symbiosis: coinoculation of plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) with B. japonicum, and addition of RNA to a bradyrhizobial culture medium. The optimal coinoculation dose of Serratia proteamaculans 1--102 and S. liquefaciens 2--68 was determined as 108 cells per plant under both optimal and suboptimal root zone temperatures (RZTs). Nodulation dynamics studies indicated that coinoculation of these two PGPB caused earlier nodule initiation and a …  Lire la suite

International lawyers are increasingly interested in studying NGOs ("NGOs") and their influence on state behavior, but few have studied the impact that domestic NGOs can have on transforming and generating international norms. This paper explores the links between Latin American NGOs and their aim of changing international norms into more effective instruments against systematic violations of human rights by states. I will aim to articulate the stages of the processes that NGOs go through to change state behavior. I decided to write about NGOs and changes to human rights norms because I have dedicated most of my life to trying …  Lire la suite