McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par A

Background: Congenital nephrotic syndrome (CNS) is featured by heavy proteinuria that occurs within 3 months of age and is caused by genetic mutations that affect glomerular podocyte function. In two sisters with CNS, we identified a deletion of one of three evolutionary conserved aspartate residues (referred to as Δ185) in ARHGDIA, a gene encoding for RhoGDIα. RhoGDIα regulates the activity and intracellular localization of the Rho-family of small GTPases and stabilizes Rho-GTPases in their inactive form. Additional mutations in ARHGDIA have since been reported (G173V and R120X) in patients with childhood-onset nephrotic syndrome. The aim of the study was to …  Lire la suite

There have been many cases of intrusion of civil aircraft into the airspace of foreign States. On occasion, the subjacent State has reacted by using force against such aircraft, sometimes with fatal consequences. Customary international law admits the use of force only in exceptional circumstances. As the United Nations specialized agency responsible for international civil aviation, ICAO has conducted fact-finding investigations into a number of cases of aerial shootdowns and adopted resolutions and taken decisions in this connection. Such resolutions and decisions have clearly been influenced by political factors. The Organization has also taken specific legal and technical steps aimed …  Lire la suite

This master's thesis focuses on two female artists, Germany's Erika Mann (1905-1969) and Quebec's Pauline Julien (1928-1998). The impact of their artistic contribution created in part in their chosen exile, as well as their political engagement will be examined. Biographical, social, and historical facts, which influenced the life and work of each artist, will be included. An analysis of texts written or performed by each of them follows. Finally, comparisons are established, demonstrating the many parallels between their professional and artistic lives, as well as their political engagement.  Lire la suite

The above passage is indicative of the pervasive nature of trade. The importance of trade was recognized, not only by Mercantilist writers who gave it first place in economic development, but even the Physiocrats who relegated it to a subordinate position bad to pay attention to the fact that through trade a country must obtain the goods it cannot produce within its boundaries. Adam Smith also who gave priority to agriculture, stating that capital should first be used in agriculture and the excess invested in trade, paid attention to the benefits that can be derived from international trade. Smith was …  Lire la suite

Botrytis cinerea Pers., l'agent causal de la pourriture grise, représente un défi majeur pour la culture du fraisier (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.), notamment en agriculture en environnement contrôlé (EC) où l'humidité et la température favorisent souvent son développement. Les progrès récents des technologies de diodes électroluminescentes (DEL) offrent la possibilité d'explorer la qualité de la lumière comme stratégie durable pour moduler le développement des agents pathogènes et renforcer les défenses des plantes. Cette thèse a étudié les effets de rapports de lumière LED mixtes rouge lointain/bleu (FR/B) (5:1, 1:1, 1:5) comparés à la lumière blanche et à l'obscurité sur la …  Lire la suite

Gupta, Rina (Internal/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

Woodhead, W. (Supervisors)  Lire la suite

This dissertation examines mother-daughter relationships in six novels written by German speaking women authors in the decade after the "Year of the Woman." Three novels depict positive mother-daughter relations: Ausflug mit der Mutter (1976), by Gabriele Wohmann, Gestern war Heute (1979), by Ingeborg Drewitz, Die dreizehnte Fee (1983), by Katja Behrens. Three others portray a negative mother-daughter relationship: Die Eisheiligen (1979), by Helga Novak, Die Zuchtigung (1985), by Waltraud Anna Mitgutsch, and Die Klavierspielerin (1983), by Elfriede Jelinek. Common to all novels is a strong autobiographical tendency and the central importance of the mother in the development of the daughter's …  Lire la suite

The El Mochito mine, located in west-central Honduras, exploits a distal Zn-Pb-Ag skarn-hosted deposit. The bulk of economic mineralization, occurring either as steeply dipping pipes or flat-lying manto bodies, is hosted by Cretaceous Atima Formation limestone. Skarn mineralogy consists of early grossularitic garnet followed by andraditic garnet and hedenbergitic pyroxene, with pyroxene skarn the principal host to sphalerite mineralization. Ore minerals, which post-dated silicate precipitation, comprise sphalerite of variable Fe content, galena, magnetite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, pyrite and trace amounts of arsenopyrite. The distribution of ore metals in the orebodies is zoned from Zn-Fe-rich cores to adjacent Pb- and Ag-rich zones …  Lire la suite

Steroid receptors mediate their effects on gene transcription. by interacting with cis-acting enhancer regions known as response elements (REs). Recent evidence from the long terminal repeat of the Mouse Mammary Tumour Virus (MMTV) suggests that glucocorticoid response elements (GREs) may consist of directly-repeated half-sites separated by nine base pairs (GRE-D9). Evidence is provided that GRE-D9 can bind to GR homodimers in vitro, and that, when present in multiple copies, can mediate transactivation of a reporter gene in vivo. Heat shock protein 90 (hsp90) has been implicated in modulating the ligand-inducibility of the estrogen receptor (ER) in vivo. In order to …  Lire la suite

Bamboo, whose estimated number of species ranges from 500 to 1000 comprising some 60 or more genera (l) is usually a mild-climate plant and few species are native to cold temperature regions. Most species are native to Asia and adjacent islands, large stands of naturally habited bamboo being scattered along the tropical belt of Asia, and also across Africa to central America. Bamboo grows so rapidly both above and beneath the soil that very few plants can interfere with it to any appreciable exent (l). The maximum rate of bamboo growth has been reported as high as 91 cm. per …  Lire la suite

This thesis deals with the history of the Acehnese Islamic empire, focusing on the events leading up to its decline in both its internal stability and its hegemony in the surrounding regions in the second half of the seventeenth century. During the given period (1641-1699) the empire was ruled successively by four female rulers. The thesis deals with the political and economic developments in this period. Aceh was an Islamic empire in the Indonesian archipelago which emerged as the greatest and most influential Islamic power in the region from the middle of the sixteenth century to the early seventeenth century. …  Lire la suite

Dans cette étude, je définie et évalue l’institutionnalisation d’organisations non-gouvernementales (ONG) sous des politiques transnationales en examinant la Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques (CCNUCC) et sa relation avec l’accréditation d’ONG, de 1991 à 2007. Je combine observation participante, entrevues et analyse des réseaux dans le but d’évaluer l’institutionnalisation comme faisant partie d’une politique multi-niveaux, dans laquelle les ONG interagissent avec les états et les institutions internationaux, à l’échelle locale et internationale. Intégrée dans cette analyse est l’étude du Réseau action climatique (RAC) au Canada et aux États-Unis, suivant la ratification du Canada et la non-ratification des États-Unis …  Lire la suite

Several numerical experiments are carried out using the Bryan-Cox Ocean General Circulation Model to investigate the variability of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation under steady, non-zonal, surface forcing and realistic geometry. To this end the annual mean surface forcing fields were derived from the climatological data sets of Levitus (1982), Hellerman and Rosenstein (1983) and, Schmitt et al. (1989). Further, Arctic freshwater flux, an important part of the hydrological cycle within the North Atlantic Deep Water formation region, is taken into account. It is found that under present-day climatological surface forcing the system may oscillate at interdecadal period. The mechanism …  Lire la suite

The issue of nonresponse to surveys is a serious problem in survey research because it reduces the amount of information obtained, creates a significant nuisance for data analysis and may introduce bias into the survey results by flawing the representativeness of the target population under investigation. This paper examines item-nonresponse and "don't know" responses in the General Social Survey of Canada of 1985 and comments specifically on the different effects of personal and telephone interviewing technique on rate of item omission. The effect of sensitivity of the question, and position of the item in the questionnaire on nonresponse are also …  Lire la suite

Les codes correcteurs d'erreurs sont essentiels à la réalisation d'une communication fiable sur des canaux bruyants. Les codes polaires sont une classe récente de codes correcteurs d'erreurs en blocs linéaires, et sont les premiers à avoir une construction explicite et à atteindre asymptotiquement la capacité symétrique des canaux par rapport aux canaux d'entrée binaires sans mémoire discrète. Ils ont été récemment adoptés dans la norme 5G pour le canal de contrôle eMBB.L'algorithme de décodage à annulations successives par liste permet d'atteindre des performances de décodage presque optimales au prix d'une grande complexité d'implémentation. Il a été démontré que l'algorithme à …  Lire la suite

Les récepteurs ionotropiques du glutamate (iGluRs) sont des complexes protéiques multimériques qui participent au contrôle de la majorité des connections synaptiques excitatrices du système nerveux central. Les changements dynamiques de la puissance de neurotransmission excitatrice constituent la base de la plasticité synaptique. Il est notamment suggéré que celle-ci soit responsable des processus neurophysiologiques sous-jacents à l’apprentissage et la mémoire. Les mécanismes de plasticité sont strictement contrôlés par les neurones de deux façons. Premièrement, le nombre de récepteurs au sein de la synapse peut être modifié en altérant les taux d’exo- et endocytose de récepteurs situés respectivement à l’intérieur et à …  Lire la suite

This dissertation comprises of two essays on marketplace interaction. The first essay focuses on consumers' interaction with firms in the context of market research surveys. Consumers sometimes anticipate interacting with firm representatives during follow-up interviews after completing market research surveys. Based on an anticipated cognitive effort mechanism, this essay shows in four studies that anticipated firm interaction can bias consumer responses to market research surveys, such that anticipated firm interaction increases the gap between private and publicly expressed attitudes when the valence of private attitude is negative but not when it is positive. This essay contributes to the literature on …  Lire la suite

The hypothesis was that there is an association between cardiovascular, reproductive and oncogenic effects and chemicals (gases, volatile organic compounds (VOC's)) to which firefighters are exposed. The objectives of the study were to assess firefighter exposures to: (1) diesel emissions in firehalls; (2) contaminated self-contained-breathing-apparatus (SCBA's); and, (3) VOC's at fires. Carbon monoxide (CO) was used as a marker for diesel emissions. Air in SCBA cylinders was analyzed for chemical contaminants. The U.S. EPA TO-14 method for ambient air analysis was verified for the analysis of 144 VOC's in air samples collected in SummaTM canisters at experimental and municipal fires. …  Lire la suite

Current therapies do not prevent the devastating complications associated with type 1 and 2 diabetes. Novel therapies seek to restore a functional beta-cell mass through stimulating endogenous beta-cell mass expansion. Whilst there is considerable evidence that the beta-cell mass is under homeostatic regulation in the normal pancreas, it is unclear if such regulation exists in the context of induced beta-cell mass expansion. The aim of this study was to demonstrate that beta-cell mass expansion resulting from the induction of islet cell neogenesis is subject to long-term homeostatic control in the normoglycemic mouse adult pancreas. A pentadecapeptide fragment of Islet Neogenesis …  Lire la suite

Lefsrud, Mark (Supervisor1)  Lire la suite

It is not difficult to conceive of physiological conditions in mammalian life requiring an immediate and generalized augmentation of neuro-muscular activity, with or without an accompanying increase in mental activity. Fear, excitement, pain, and rage, are all examples of situations which cause unusual emphasis to be placed on the ability of the individual to develop a rapid and widespread increase in all muscular forces. [...]  Lire la suite

Les frontières chicanas ont généré leurs propres barroquismos qui, ayant fait pousser les fruits de l'héritage colonial mexicain, se sont intensifiés dans le climat culturel unique du sud-ouest des États-Unis. En tant que citoyens de seconde classe, les Mexico-Américains ont été exclus des méta-récits de la nation. Cependant, cette position extérieure leur a accordé un point de vue unique, d'où l'on pouvait percevoir une réalité multiforme et contradictoire. De l'habitation des marges socio-culturelles, une certaine façon de penser a émergé, permettant la coexistence de contradictions, l'ambiguïté et la pluralité: une manière de penser essentiellement baroque. Cette thèse se base sur …  Lire la suite

Kirby, T. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

This paper is submitted as an accompaniment to my thesis presentation of April 25, 1973 at McGill University, Montreal. A tape recording of the concert, along with this paper will be deposited in the McGill University Archives. Herewithin are notes relating to l} production, 2} performance conditions, 3} a general description of the tape part of the work, and 4) the participation of the group METAMUSIC, in my piece, Piece for Four Track Tape Recorder Canada Unlimited Number Two -subtitled Sam McGee, abbreviated as PFFTTRCUNTsSMc. Preceding the body of the paper are 1) a table of abbreviations and 2} explanation …  Lire la suite

Concept mapping in college-level physics was investigated. The study was carried out in three parts. First, an attempt was made to validate concept mapping as a method of evaluating student learning at the junior college level (ages 16-21). Several measures were found to be sensitive to differences in students' achievement. Second, the effectiveness of concept mapping as an instructional strategy was investigated. It was found that the strategy led to improvement in multistep problem-solving performance but not in performance on single step problems. Third, the concept maps made by experts in the field were compared with the maps made by …  Lire la suite

Les taux d'avortement atteignent des niveaux historiquement bas aux États-Unis alors que les politiques d'avortement restrictives augmentent simultanément, incitant des questions sur la façon dont une grande partie de la baisse de l'avortement est attribuable à une diminution par rapport à un besoin réduit par rapport à un accès réduit. Les restrictions à l'avortement au niveau de l'État englobent une combinaison de politiques «axées sur la demande» qui ont un effet théoriquement direct sur les femmes, et de la politique du « côté de l'offre » (souvent désignées collectivement sous le nom de réglementation ciblée des fournisseurs de services d'avortement …  Lire la suite

Harper, Samuel (Internal/Supervisor)  Lire la suite

A subset of the leukaemic clone, the leukaemic stem cell (L-HSC), is responsible for the maintenance and propagation of a leukaemia. Most current therapies, however, do not target this population. In this thesis, I show that a determinant of disease phenotype is the frequency of the leukaemic stem cell within the leukaemic population. Moreover, the frequency of L-HSC in a leukaemia is predetermined by the inherent properties of the cell that is transformed and can be attributed to the ontogenic origin of the cell. Ideal therapies would specifically target mechanistic defects in leukaemic stem cells; however, the pathways that are …  Lire la suite

PGC-1alpha is a key factor controlling mitochondrial biogenesis. In this thesis, we demonstrate that PGC-1alpha is also a central regulator of the intrinsic properties of mitochondria. Using mitochondria isolated from muscle tissues of MCK- PGC-1alpha Tg mice that ectopically express PGC-1alpha under the control of the muscle creatine kinase promoter, we observed significant changes in their intrinsic properties compared with wild-type controls. The results illustrate that PGC-1alpha changes the respiratory and ROS generation capacities of mitochondria, while maintaining their topology/sidedness of ROS production. Additionally, PGC-1alpha did not alter the fraction of electrons escaping the respiratory chain to react with oxygen …  Lire la suite

Climate change is projected to have considerable impacts on human health, and public health institutions at all levels of government will need to adapt to protect the health of populations. The impacts of climate change are highly localized, thus federal systems are expected to have the inherent advantage of allowing for regional diversity and policy experimentation in adaptation, but are also prone to conflict and stalemates. In addition, local public health authorities often lack the capacity to adapt to climate change, despite being on the 'front lines' of climate impacts. Assistance is needed from upper-level governments for local-level public health …  Lire la suite

Contexte: La solitude est un facteur prédictif de mauvaise santé et de mortalité précoce dans la population générale et se produit plus fréquemment chez les personnes âgées vivant avec le VIH. Alors que de nombreux services sont disponibles pour les personnes vivant avec le VIH, des services pour vaincre la solitude constituent le principal domaine de besoins non satisfaits pour cette population. La solitude est un problème à multiples facettes qui est vécu différemment selon le sexe, la culture et l’âge. Cependant, pour développer des services ciblés et efficaces, il faut comprendre l’expérience de la solitude chez les personnes âgées …  Lire la suite

Proteins of the Ner/Nlp family have been characterized in order to identify the evolutionarily conserved protein domains important to their structure and function. The homologous DNA-bonding Ner proteins of closely related temperate coliphages Mu and D108 regulate the transcription and transposition of the phage genomes by binding to nonhomologous DNA operators. In order to precisely define the DNA-binding domains of Mu and D108 Ner, recombinant Mu and D108 ner genes were constructed and the DNA-binding and pseudoimmunity properties of the recombinant proteins were examined. D3112 is a Mu-like transposable bacteriophage of Pseudomonas aeruginosa which was proposed to encode a ner-like …  Lire la suite

Chaoborus americanus larvae were used in laboratory experiments to assess their efficiency at decreasing mosquito larval populations. Third and fourth instar Chaoborus americanus larvae were independently fed assemblages of single prey species to test hunger and several prey species to test preference. Prey species included Daphnia and the four Aedes aegypti larval instars. The results show that Chaoborus americanus larvae will choose early instar mosquito larvae over Daphnia, however, this preference decreases as the mosquito larvae become older. Third instar Chaoborus americanus larvae will choose first instar mosquito larvae over Daphnia 76% of the time, whereas they will select third …  Lire la suite

Since the Industrial Revolution, the world has witnessed an utterly fantastic phenomenon of urban expansion hitherto unparalled. The establishment of large centres of population followed as a logical result of industrialization, but the speed at which they have outgrown their boundaries to mature into colossal masses of people and buildings is something unique to modern time. In North America, the rapidity of urbanization has accentuated urban problems which can be remedied only with the help of proper town planning. [...]  Lire la suite

A theoretical investigation into the launching of dipolar surface waves on a dielectric tube is presented. The source under consideration is a transversely oriented point electric dipole situated on the axis of the tube. It is found to excite only the dominant HE11 mode. Phase and group characteristics as well as some field distributions are given for the source -free case; however, these are independent of the choice of the source, and are dependent only on the particular mode being excited. Surface-wave as well as radiated powers are obtained in terms of the current in the source dipole, and the …  Lire la suite

La chimie supramoléculaire est aussi appelée la « chimie de l'information moléculaire ». L'information structurelle des molécules est reconnue et traitée au niveau supramoléculaire, entraînant ainsi la complexification de l'organisation de la matière – de la formation de simples composés d'inclusion à l'émergence de la vie elle-même. Le travail présenté dans cette thèse applique les principes fondamentaux régissant les interactions intermoléculaires pour manipuler l'assemblage de l'ADN, un archétype du stockage de l'information dans la structure moléculaire. Dans le Chapitre 2, des principes élémentaires de reconnaissance moléculaire sont appliqués pour élargir l'alphabet d'appariement de bases d'ADN. L'acide cyanurique, une petite molécule …  Lire la suite

Background: Sexual problems are common among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBM) with HIV, yet sexual health practice often prioritized HIV risk behaviour, underscoring the need to examine how other sexual concerns are addressed in existing interventions. Importantly, sexual dysfunction (SD) is prevalent in this population: in Montreal, up to 35% of GBM with HIV report SD, including reduced libido, erectile dysfunction (ED), ejaculatory problems, and pain during sex. Most research on SD and HIV has been quantitative, focusing on predictors of ED rather than patient experience. Little is known about how GBM with HIV …  Lire la suite

This thesis undertakes an in-depth examination of the power of human rights advocacy in combating women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, the thesis explores the gender discrimination that lies at the core of women's susceptibility to the virus. Culturally-imposed social roles are depicted as the fundamental cause of the violation of women's human rights, including their right to health. The objective of the thesis is to analyze the potential of using a human rights approach to address this issue. It adopts the assumption that "the mobilization of shame" triggered by civil society's actors can alter states' human rights …  Lire la suite

The impact of horizontal resolution on the pathways of the Atlantic Waters (AW) to the Atlantic-Arctic gates, and their associated heat transport are investigated using two configurations of the GFDL CM2-O climate model suite, one at 1/10° (HighRes) and one at 1/4° (MedRes), run under a preindustrial scenario. Using 5-day averaged velocity fields from the configurations, an offline Lagrangian tracking experiment is conducted by initializing passive virtual particles with constant volume transport at 55°N within the precursors of the AW in the eastern Atlantic sector and following them until the Barents Sea Opening (BSO) and Fram Strait (FS). The majority …  Lire la suite

Stress-strain concepts and terminology are discussed, and definitions of basic terms given. The concepts of failure in the fields of Engineering, Soil Mechanics, and Geology are reviewed from a geological viewpoint. The conditions of rupture are discussed. Becker's (1893) paper is critically analyzed in the Appendix, and his principal conclusions are shown to be fallacious. [...]  Lire la suite

Previous studies show that recovering alcoholics exhibit deficits in perceiving facial affect. The present study investigates whether these deficits are present prior to the onset of alcoholism. Participants with a family history of alcoholism (FHP) and participants without such a family history (FHN) selected the emotion label they felt most closely corresponded with stimuli viewed on a computer screen. Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Survey was also completed. The data revealed a relationship between family history of alcoholism and the perception of facial expressions. Additionally, FHP participants were higher in sensation seeking compared to FHN participants and high sensation seekers were less …  Lire la suite

This dissertation offers an analysis of the cinematic (un)homely. Loosely based on Freud's concept of the uncanny – that frightful and inexplicable experience of the home as a foreign and strange space – the (un)homely is a poignant sign of the times, a contemporary trope of the various kinds of spatial dislocation, transience, homelessness and disempowerment symptomatic of contemporary global societies. In short the (un)homely conjures up the decline of family, its faltering role as the moral center of the world and all the unpleasant ramifications that come from the destabilization of the home. The (un)homely speaks to the breakdown …  Lire la suite