McGill University Thèses et mémoires publiés en 2003

Maki, Brian (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Nalbantoglu, Josephine (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

The engaged classroom is a space where teacher and students come together to share in the acts of teaching and learning. They embark on a collaborative journey of empowerment and through the process reciprocally influence each other's growth and emancipation. Through an autobiographical exploration of my experiences as a student and as a teacher, I present an exploration of the concept of empowerment. I explore its significance not only on the level of literacy development in my kindergarten classroom, where I teach French in an Armenian heritage language setting, but also on a more personal and professional level. Working in …  Lire la suite

We have used the living ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) reaction with C12(PCy3)2Ru=CHPh to generate a new class of conjugated polymer precursors containing the reactive group 1,2-dichlorocarbonate in their backbone. These polymers possess narrow molecular weight distributions and are easily processable. We have incorporated the 1,2-dichlorocarbonate monomers into block copolymers and have shown that these systems can self-assemble in selective solvents to generate spherical micellar aggregates, as observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Mild hydrolytic treatment of these precursor polymers converts them into novel low band-gap conjugated polymers and block copolymers containing 1,2-diol groups in their backbone. We then report the …  Lire la suite

The declaration of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932 marked the end of a fbirty-year process to unify the peninsula. Under the authority of Ibn Saud, the conquest movement which began in 1902 came to control most of current Saudi Arabia by 1932. Throughout this period, Ibn Saud used the legitimacy he gained from the historical association of his family with the Wahhabi movement to help solidify his political authority. However, in order to properly understand how this occurred, Ibn Saud's conquest movement and the effects of the Wahhabi ideology more generally need to be contextualized in terms of …  Lire la suite

Jorgensen, Jan (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

The large demand for high-bandwidth communication systems has brought down the cost of optical system components. To be competitive in a crowded market, implementation of the different systems of an optical transceiver on a single chip has become mandatory. CMOS technologies, especially state-of-the-art processes like the 0.18mum CMOS, permit integration of huge amounts of transistors per millimeter square. Furthermore, deep-submicron CMOS processes have similar RF performances to their traditional bipolar equivalent. It is therefore a small footstep to go to congregate high-speed analog circuits with digital cores on a single die. This thesis addresses two of the building blocks found …  Lire la suite

Each year, sudden aircraft performance degradation due to ice accretion causes several incidents and accidents. Icing is a serious and not yet totally mastered meteorological hazard due to supercooled water droplets (liquid water droplets at a temperature below the dew point) that impact on aerodynamic surfaces. Icing results in performance degradations including substantial reduction of engine performance and stability, reduction in maximum lift and stall angle and an increase of drag. A realistic ice accretion simulation is achieved if the three contributing factors: the aerodynamic flow field, the water droplet trajectories, and the thermodynamic ice accretion process, are accurately modeled. …  Lire la suite

The effect of the ratio of the velocity field integral scale at the injection point to the scalar injection scale (the injection ratio) on the mixing of a passive scalar (temperature) is studied in the wake of a circular cylinder. Hot-wire anemometry and cold-wire thermometry are used to measure simultaneously the velocity and thermal fields, respectively. A mandoline is used to (slightly) heat the wake. The injection ratio is varied in two ways. The velocity integral scale at the injection point is varied by changing the mandoline downstream position. Increasing the velocity scale, ℓ₀ (i.e., increasing the mandoline downstream position), …  Lire la suite

The opus of Joseph Joubert (1754--1824) was for a long period barely known, due to the fact that it languished unpublished, both during his lifetime and after his death, until the complete version of his Notebooks was brought out in 1938 by Andre Beaunier (reissued in 1994). It was thanks to this new form which his thoughts now took that a completely new Joubert came into view. No longer was he merely a moralist, as portrayed by Sainte-Beuve, whose version held sway for a number of decades, but a diarist as well, i.e., writing his thoughts on a daily basis, …  Lire la suite

Globalization has favoured a new type of business: Multinational Enterprises (MNE). MNE distinguish themselves from national businesses in the sense that they continue to be governed, in their relationship with their employees, by the national law where they operate. This contradictory dualism is the source of great tensions and uncertainties with regard to the future of national and international labour law standards. In a first part of this thesis, we study the International Labour Organization (ILO), which is the international body competent to adopt international standards and apply them. In the second part, we examine the phenomenon of national labour …  Lire la suite

Phenotypic characterizations demonstrated that diversity among 19 naturalized North American and 5 commercial Kura clover ( Trifolium ambiguum M.B.) rhizobial strains was limited. Growth chamber and field evaluations indicated the superiority of North American isolates, increasing foliage accumulation by 30% when compared to commercial inoculant strains. Nitrogen fertilization, however, produced greater accumulations in all evaluations. Genetic diversity among 128 isolates from the lower Caucasus was significant. Nodulation specificity of rhizobia from the lower Caucasus was demonstrated to be more complex than what was reported in the literature, as plants of different ploidy levels and even of different species were, in …  Lire la suite

We analyse the preservation of physical properties of numerical approximations tosolutions of the Lotka-Volterra system: its positivity and the conservation of theHamiltonian. We focus on two numerical methods : the symplectic Euler method andan explicit variant of it. We first state under which conditions they are symplectic andwe prove they are both Poisson integrators for the Lotka-Volterra system. Then, westudy under which conditions they stay positive. For the symplectic Euler method,we derive a simple condition under which the numerical approximation always stayspositive. For the explicit variant, there is no such simple condition. Using propertiesof Poisson integrators and backward error analysis, …  Lire la suite

Roff, Derek (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Methylobacterium extorquens ATCC55366 is an interesting candidate for large-scale production of recombinant proteins. Development and optimization of this recombinant expression system were done using the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene cloned into expression vectors (pRK310 and pCM110) as model systems. Selection of efficient GFP-expressing clones, long-term production stability without selection in flasks, effects of selection, oxygen and methanol supplies, were studied during fed-batch fermentations in a 20-l bioreactor. Sequential batch-culture cultivations in shake flasks showed that specific GFP production was constant in the presence of tetracycline. However, the GFP production decreased in the absence of this selective pressure. In fed-batch …  Lire la suite

Diet recommendations to achieve target metabolic control for prevention of micro and macrovascular complications have been outlined. Although previous studies in individuals with type 2 diabetes have identified certain factors associated with adherence to diet recommendations, adherence is multi-factorial in nature and includes demographic, biological and psychosocial variables. Our main objective was to identify factors associated With dietary behaviour among individuals with type 2 diabetes attending an out-patient clinic. Furthermore, we attempted to identify factors associated with frequency of seeing the dietitian and stages of change far lower fat intake. Principal hypothesis: those who are younger, female, lower in body …  Lire la suite

This project explores Oscar Wilde's work on painting, the art of dress, and home decor, referred to collectively in his lectures as the 'decorative arts.' While it has become commonplace to assert that Wilde's plays and essays subvert the status quo, few scholars have studied Wilde's work on the decorative arts to substantiate his status as a writer arguing for social and political change. Through an analysis of Wilde's North American lecture tour and his editorship of The Woman's World, as well as his approach to painting, clothing, and home decor in his more well-known work, I argue that Wilde …  Lire la suite

In this dissertation, I investigate the structural representation of mood in a Minimalist framework. This investigation is based on the study of mood particles in Modern Standard Arabic and the way they interact with (i) the verb and (ii) negation. Arabic subjunctive particles are compared to subjunctive Balkan particles. The main suggestion is that Arabic clause structure involves an inflectional projection Modal Phrase (ModP) that hosts the subjunctive particle ?an as well as other mood particles all of which check verbal mood morphology through the operation Agree. The subjunctive particle ?an is compared to Balkan subjunctive particles and is argued …  Lire la suite

Le role des contributions epigenetiques lors du developpement d'un zygote en un organisme adulte a ete etudie a travers la caracterisation genetique et moleculaire de deux genes a effet maternel, mau-2 et clk-2, chez le nematode C. elegans. Des mutations dans ces deux genes produisent des patrons d'heritabilite differents, ainsi que des phenotypes distincts. Les mutants mau-2 sont secourus partiellement par un effet maternel, mais sont normaux quand un allele de type sauvage est exprime chez le zygote. Le gene mau-2 participe au guidage de nombreuses migrations de cellules et axones lors du developpement. Ce gene code pour une proteine …  Lire la suite

This thesis introduces a flexible and general representation of image deformations using a correspondence matrix H. It is shown that these image deformations can be performed and detected using the optimal basis operators derived from the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) of H. Among other uses, the decomposition can convert the description of an image deformation into a matrix multiplication. The correspondence matrix is used to perform a variety of image transforms, including scale change, image plane rotation and translation. The methodology is also used to independently reproduce the steerable basis operators for the rotation of functions. The correspondence matrix framework …  Lire la suite

The superior colliculus (SC) is a structure that is implicated in the control of visual orienting behaviors. The SC contains a motor map which encodes saccade vectors topographically. Small saccades are encoded rostrally, larger ones caudally. More recently, it was shown that the rostral part of the SC contains a specialized "fixation zone". A group of cells located in the rostral SC have been called SC fixation neurons (SCFNs). SCFNs via projections to "omni-pause" neurons (OPNs) seem to play an important role during fixation behavior by holding gaze on target for a certain period of time through inhibition of the …  Lire la suite

In epidemiologic studies, prevalent cases with a disease are often identified through a cross-sectional study. These cases are then followed for a fixed period of time at the end of which the subjects will either have failed or have been censored. When interest lies in estimating the survival distribution, from onset, of subjects with the disease one must take into account that the survival times of the cases ascertained in such fashion are left truncated. When it is possible to assume that there has not been any epidemic of the disease over the past period of time that covers the …  Lire la suite

This thesis presents a new method of solution for the aerodynamics of finite-span wings, which overcomes the difficulties of the previous methods. The present method uses velocity singularities in the Trefftz plane (situated downstream at infinity) to derive the contributions in the solution of the circulation distribution caused by the changes in the spanwise variation of the wing chord and incidence. The new specific functions derived for these contributions contain both natural and forced symmetry and antisymmetry terms, and thus represent a correct mathematical modeling of the physical problem. The correct mathematical representation of these contributions leads to a highly …  Lire la suite

Two RNA trafficking cis sequences (A2RE-1 and A2RE-2) were identified in HIV-1 RNA. Their activity is assessed here during HIV-1 gene expression. Single point mutations in each A2RE reduced the levels of bound hnRNP A2, but also resulted in a marked accumulation of viral genomic RNA in the nucleus and a significant reduction in genomic RNA encapsidation in progeny virions, with the strongest phenotype observed for the A2RE-2 mutant. Immunofluorescence analyses revealed marked changes in viral gene expression patterns for pr55Gae and Vpr, as well as a significant reduction in Vpr incorporation levels. Viral infections were markedly compromised in the …  Lire la suite

This study examined the narratives and stories of 13 daughters of Jewish women Holocaust survivors. A qualitative multi-methodological integrative approach that incorporated feminist standpoint epistemologies and elements oF grounded theory was used. Mechanisms such as the use of an auditor and judges were utilized to address the researcher's reflexive stance and subjective frame. Participants' data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Interviews were subjected to extensive qualitative analyses and were compared to find recursive themes and sub-themes. The results oF this study indicated that Holocaust survivor mothers were conceptualized by their daughters as being either strong, challenged or both. Participants described …  Lire la suite

Effective dynamic virtual-machine optimization depends on quickly finding and optimizing frequently-executed code regions. Such regions are naturally represented with a trace-cache, a collection of long, frequently-executed sequences of instructions. An ideal trace-cache is small and captures the majority of the program's execution stream, yet consists of traces large enough to allow for useful inter-bytecode optimizations and improve instruction-fetch performance. This thesis describes an efficient dynamic technique for finding and constructing such traces. Our trace caching algorithm relies on three innovative techniques: profiling data is managed with the Branch Implication Graph(BI-Graph) data structure, decomposing the program into small, independent, tree-like components …  Lire la suite

We review several properties of string theory and introduce the Brandenberger-Vafa mechanism. This mechanism uses the intrinsic properties of strings to explain why only three of the nine spatial dimensions (ten in the context of M-theory) predicted by string theory are observable. We develop two methods used to verify the BV mechanism and later employ these methods to corroborate previous findings.  Lire la suite

Can we read the Gospel of Mark as tragedy? How so? With what limits? With what results? I depart from previous explorations of these questions by rejecting their definition of tragedy as a work faithful to the dramatic conventions described in Aristotle's Poetics. I build instead on Aristotle's essential definition of tragedy as a work that inspires fear and pity in an audience. Using a narrative-critical approach, which allows a focus on the effects generated by Mark's plot and characters, I conclude that Mark, while more tragic than Matthew, is not clearly tragic or comic: the gospel maintains a careful …  Lire la suite

The first part of this thesis offers an analysis of the overtures and clausulas found in The Surveillant, a collection of short stories written by Québec author Gaetan Brulotte. Literary methods are treated in accordance with the functions and forms of intensification that said methods suggest to the reader. Such treatment demonstrates the strategic importance of beginning and end of a text. Furthermore, the interpretation of these different writing techniques shed a new light on author's writing. The second part of this thesis is a creation work in the form of various-length short stories written around the theme of waiting. …  Lire la suite

Nicell, J. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

This research is concerned with menstruation as it is experienced and presented by women involved in feminist groups in Montreal. Biomedical discourse hegemony in the production of a discourse on women's body has been sometimes reinforced and sometimes questioned by feminist movements. The interviews reveal that despite the impact of feminist discourses, women's experience seems deeply influenced by biomedical and hygienist discourses and by negative stereotypes commonly found in society at large. Feminist discourses allow these women to open spaces of freedom and criticism in their practices and thoughts regarding menstruation.  Lire la suite

This thesis is dedicated to establishing ways in which the image of Calderon was perceived and constructed by the thinkers of the Enlightenment, of both conservative and reformist convictions, as part of their efforts to create and impose their own understanding of what Spanish national identity is or should be like. The thesis concentrates on the writings of several of the most important intellectuals of the XVIII century who took part in the heated debate as to the value of Calderon's work: Blas Nasarre y Ferriz, Tomas Erauso y Zabaleta, Nicolas Fernandez de Moratin, Cristobal Romea y Tapia, Jose Clavijo …  Lire la suite

Mature neurons are among the most long-lived cell types in mammals. Yet large numbers of neurons die during the early stages of development and later in life when neurodegenerative diseases set in or whenever the neurons are subjected to trauma. The processes that control neuronal survival and death are not fully understood. However, key regulators of these events include a family of proteins called the neurotrophins. The neurotrophins are growth factors that control neuronal development and maintenance in addition to survival. Neurotrophins interact with two types of cell surface receptors, the Trk family of tyrosine kinases, and the p75 neurotrophin …  Lire la suite

Optimization of the culture conditions for the biomass production of the alga Phaeodactylum tricornutum was investigated in relation to chlorophyllase activity. To obtain the highest total chlorophyllase activity, the biomass of P. tricornutum was harvested after a period of 7 days of incubation during which the incubation temperature was maintained at 18°C for 18 h during the day and 10°C for 6 h during the night. During culture incubation, illumination was provided by fluorescent lamps projecting an incident intensity of 330 mumol/m2.s and the pH of the culture was maintained at 8.4, adjusted by a stream flow of CO 2. …  Lire la suite

When a new drug is introduced onto the market, patients treated with it often tend to be sicker than those who are not. Once a drug has been released onto the market, its safety and efficacy can usually only be assessed using non-experimental studies. However, these methods cannot account for the differential assignment of sicker patients to new drugs, which can make a new drug seem detrimental or even dangerous, if these systematic differences are not accounted for. This is a prototypical example of confounding by indication, which is often viewed as an insurmountable problem in pharmacoepidemiologic research. Confounding by …  Lire la suite

This thesis is an attempt to examine Anglo-American relations at the end of World War One, when Great Britain was no longer preeminent in world affairs and the United States was as yet unwilling to continue the responsibilities that it had taken during the war. Lloyd George who sought to keep the threads of power in his hands appointed Auckland Geddes as Ambassador to the United States, a man who was personally loyal to him, thus seeking to bypass Lord Curzon's authority as Foreign Secretary. Matters were complicated by the declining influence of President Wilson and the growth of isolationist …  Lire la suite

In this thesis we investigate if reinforcement learning (RL) techniques can be successfully used to build automated trading agents. We present two case studies in which we develop RL agents for participating in auctions. The first case study focuses on the continuous double auction (CDA), a market mechanism used in many electronic trading venues. There are currently several automated bidding strategies for participating in the CDA, geared both toward personal profit and toward increasing the efficiency of the entire market. We use model-free reinforcement learning to construct a bidding strategy for the CDA and empirically evaluates its performance against other …  Lire la suite

Vertebral development patterns have been well characterised in the Paleozoic "lepospondyls" and "labyrinthodonts", as well as in modern amniotes, frogs and caecilians. Each of those groups consistently develop either the neural arches before the centra or the centra before neural arches. Preliminary studies confirmed that members of the Urodela exhibit both developmental patterns. To understand if there is any consistency in patterns of vertebral development within and between families, as well as to investigate the distribution of patterns within the order, 120 salamander larvae from the ten living salamander families were cleared, stained and examined for osteological development. In order …  Lire la suite

Size fluctuations in amphibian populations at single breeding sites are related to variations in recruitment from the larval stage. However, overall patterns of abundance should be related to the pattern of recruitment success at the many sites where breeding occurs over a landscape. Recruitment patterns for six amphibian species, Ambystoma laterale, A. maculatum, Bufo americanus, Hyla versicolor, Pseudacris crucifer and Rana sylvatica, were investigated at multiple sites within the 10 km 2 Mont St. Hilaire nature reserve during 2001 and 2002. Amphibians bred at eighteen sites but recruitment occurred at only 8 and 11 sites in each year, respectively. Hydroperiod …  Lire la suite

"Injury to the central nervous system as a result of cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) often leads to impairment in balance and mobility. Very little is known about the strategies that patients with CVA employ to prevent falls during unexpected changes of a support surface while patients are standing and walking. Previous studies showed that light touch increases postural stability in healthy subjects. However, it is not known whether patients with CVA would benefit from light touch in the same way as the healthy subjects do. Three studies in this research were conducted to examine the impact of stroke on postural responses …  Lire la suite

The Statechart formalism is explored. The meta-modeling environment, AToM3, is examined. Statecharts are meta-modelled using the AToM3 tool. The classical, hierarchical DEVS formalism is also explained in detail. A simulation package, pythonDEVS is used to simulate DEVS models. Small modifications to the pythonDEVS package yields a real-time DEVS executor, pythonDEVS. From the Statechart meta-model, a Statechart modeling environment is generated. The mapping of Statechart models onto behaviourally equivalent DEVS models is presented. Statecharts are mapped onto DEVS. A code generator is built which automates the Statecharts to DEVS translation. The resulting models can be executed in real-time using the pythonDEVS …  Lire la suite

Nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) is a cellular event by which messenger RNAs (mRNA) possessing a premature termination codon (PTC) are rapidly degraded to avoid production of incomplete proteins. NMD is a translation-dependent cytoplasmic and nucleus-associated event. Eukaryotic initiation factor 4AIII (eIF4AIII) is a RNA-helicase protein found mostly in the nucleus. It is related to the eIF4AI and eIF4AII proteins, which are localized to the cytoplasm where they are involved in translation initiation. The role of eIF4AIII in nucleus-associated NMD was investigated in this work. HeLa cells were treated with small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeted against eIF4AIII. Immunoblot analysis revealed 45 to …  Lire la suite

The medial surface of a 3D object is comprised of the locus of centers of its maximal inscribed spheres. Interest in this representation stems from a number of interesting properties: i) it is a thin set, i.e., it contains no interior points, ii) it is nomotopic to the original shape, iii) it is invariant under rigid transformations of the object and iv) given the radius of the maximal inscribed sphere associated which each skeletal point, the object can be reconstructed exactly. Hence, it provides a compact representation while preserving the object's genus and making certain useful properties explicit, such as …  Lire la suite

The Histoire comique de Francion (1623--1633) of Charles Sorel marks a passage in the history of laughter, from the Renaissance to the classical period. Sorel defines the Histoire comique as a realistic genre by opposing it to the heroic, pastoral and burlesque genres. Whereas Rabelaisian works showed an ambivalent and carnivalesque laughter, the tone of Sorel's Francion is both satirical and univocal. The carnivalesque and popular traditions are mocked for the benefit of an elitist rationalism. The Francion shows a hero who distances himself from the popular culture to become a honnete homme. In order to respect the bienseances, laughter …  Lire la suite

The nation-state is now the dominant form of sovereign statehood, however, a century and a half ago the political map of Europe comprised only a handful of sovereign states, very few of them nations in the modern sense. Balkan historiography often tends to minimize the complexity of nation-building, either by referring to the national community as to a monolithic and homogenous unit, or simply by neglecting different social groups whose consciousness varied depending on region, gender and generation. Further, Bulgarian and Serbian historiography pay far more attention to the problem of "how" and "why" certain events have happened than to …  Lire la suite

The goal of this work was to maximize the biodegradation of the commercial chlorinated paraffin Cereclor S52 using an axenic culture of Pseudomonas sp. 273. Tests of the adherence of growing cultures to hydrocarbon substrates showed differences between Cereclor S52 and a readily degradable chlorinated alkane, 1,10-dichlorodecane (DCD). In the bioreactor, Cereclor S52 was degraded by up to 73% by means of multiple additions of DCD. This is indicative of an upper limit for the degradation of Cereclor S52 in this system. The degradative enzymes in Pseudomonas sp. 273 did not appear to be induced by Cereclor itself, by yeast …  Lire la suite

Apoptosis is a genetically programmed, biochemically executed form of cell suicide essential for development and homeostasis in all multicellular organisma. The caspase family of cysteine proteases orchestrate the apoptosis program and are regulated by memebers of the Bcl-2 family. Extensive studies in mammals have revealed that Bcl-2 proteins control caspase activiation by governing a key mitochondrial checkpoint, invovling the permeabilization of the outer mitochondrial membrane and the release of proapoptotic factors from the intermembrane spce. Bcl-2 proteins are located at other intracellular membranes, including the endoplasmic reticulum, and emerging evidence suggests that this organelle also plays a key role in …  Lire la suite

This study participates in a tendency of Rabelaisian criticism to consider the Pantagruelian text as a weaving of borrowed forms which rcho surrounding discourses. On thrse grounds, we argue that epideictic rloquence, which comprises praise and blame, forms up a network of recognisable passages. This corpus, which, frora the Gargantua to the Quart Livre, brings together pieces eclectic as much in claim as in structure, is tackled from a generic perspective and analysed in light of their common rhetorical components: dispositio, elocutio and inventio. In accordance with the aesthetic of imitation, which informs the making of texts in the Renaissance, …  Lire la suite

Cheese ripening is a costly and lengthy process. Increasing the enzyme pool in the cheese curd has been shown to accelerate the cheese ageing process, enhance flavour and texture. The characteristics of two lactic acid bacteria attenuated by pulsed electric fields were studied in a milk system and in cheese slurry. The potential of accelerating cheese ripening via the addition of starter cultures attenuated by pulsed electric fields (PEF) was studied. Pulsed electric field treatment was performed in a static treatment chamber using bi-polar waveform with a field intensity of 20 kV and 2 mus pulse width. The number of …  Lire la suite

This thesis questions the widespread proposition that the civilian standard of proof in civil matters is considerably higher than the corresponding standard in the Common Law. Instead, it is argued here that the "odd differences" in the formulae employed to describe it "are merely a matter of words". Conceptually, both legal traditions combine the subjective element of a belief in the truth with the objective requirement of warrant for this belief in the evidence presented. The trier's belief that a certain statement is true has to be reasonably inferable from the evidence. In both traditions the standard is not fixed …  Lire la suite