McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par B

Lowenstein, L. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

The vasa efferentia and the ductus epididymis are tubules which connect the testis with the vas deferens. The vasa efferentia are formed in the embryo from some of the mesonephric nephrons or Wolffian tubules. These join the Wolffian duct at their distal ends, and during prenatal development they establish a connection with the rete testis. [...]  Lire la suite

The following work is intended to show the origin, extent and economic possibilities of a deposit of magnesite in Grenville township in the Province of Quebec. It includes a brief account of the general geology and structural features of the region as well as an advisory statement to guide the operators in the future development of the deposits and a caution to the buyers in selecting their supplies.  Lire la suite

The cAMP binding protein CABP1 isolated from Dictyostelium discoideum consists of two subunits, CABP1A and CABP1B, which are produced from a single gene by an unusual splicing mechanism. To characterize this mechanism, an actin-CABP1 fusion gene was constructed and introduced into D. discoideum cells by DNA-mediated transformation. Analysis of these cells demonstrated that the transcripts derived from the fusion gene were properly processed to generate both CABP1A and CABP1B. However, when the 5$ sp prime$ splice site in the gene was mutated to conform to the D. discoideum consensus, only CABP1B was produced. These results suggest that the splicing event …  Lire la suite

Cumming, Julie E. (Advisor)  Lire la suite

The clinician knows so well the gripping, cleaving, tightening pain in the chest that bespeaks of narrowing or occlusion of a coronary artery. He has seen the picture often. Half a century ago he called it acute indigestion. [...]  Lire la suite

Ascocybe grovesii was discovered in 1953 by Doreen E. Wells at the Division of Botany and Plant Pathology, Science Service, Department of Agriculture, Ottawa. (59) The species under study is the only known member of the genus. Apart from the work of Miss Wells, no other studies have been made of this fungus. Dr. C.M. Wilson of the Botany Department of McGill University, found that Ascocybe produced an aromatic odor during growth on a mixture of glucose and amino acids. Moreover, the fungus was found to be incapable of growth on glucose and inorganic nitrogen.  Lire la suite

Efforts to keep children in their own homes when they are found to be at risk within the meaning of child protection legislation have resulted in the creation of family preservation programs. Typically, these services are crisis-oriented. Short-term, intensive work with families is offered with a goal of maintaining the child in his or her own home. A family support program which provides these services in the anglophone community of Montreal was examined. The data for this qualitative study were obtained through indepth interviews with the program staff and through an examination of agency files. The findings suggest that service …  Lire la suite

The policy recommendation document, Revisioning Inner City and CommunityLINK Resources in Vancouver Schools, is explored in this research by applying critical discourse analysis methods. The document focuses on the need to "revision" school resources in the inner city district of East Vancouver, which is considered to be Canada's poorest postal code. This thesis concentrates in particular on how literacy is conceptualized throughout the text, both implicitly and explicitly. This research brings attention to the ways textual forms of governance in the school system are used to reinforce and reproduce dominant ideologies of how literacy is understood and shaped in educational …  Lire la suite

The past decade has witnessed the introduction and development of fee charging in family agencies on this continent. This is a subject of current interest to lay and professional groups in various communities both in Canada and in the United States. Fee charging implies an understanding between client and agency that compensation for the service will be paid by the client. [...]  Lire la suite

Hills, T. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

L’apprentissage par imitation est le processus d’apprentissage d’une politique à partir de l’observation de démonstrations d’experts. Traditionnellement, cela consiste à exposer un agent à des ensembles d’états-actions de trajectoires. Le résultat attendu serait alors quel agent corresponde sa politique à celle de l’expert par observation et qu’il apprenne à se comporter de manière similaire dans des conditions et des environnements comparables. Plutôt que d’imiter l’expert, que ce passerait-il si nous voulions encourager notre agent à r soudre la tâche à accomplir, tout en évitant spécifiquement la solution de l’expert? Nous proposons une nouvelle approche pour définir et extraire la stratégie …  Lire la suite

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

The French personalist movement (1930-1938) finds its origins in French Neo-criticism and Thomism, and German existentialism. The contribution of Russian religious-populist philosophy has not yet been studied. Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948) incorporated this tradition in his philosophy. Exiled after the Russian Revolution, he brought his version of Russian "personalism" to France, where his works were seized as a manifesto by the French personalist movements L'Ordre Nouveau and Esprit. Alexandre Marc (1904-), another exile, and Emmanuel Mounier (1905-1950) tried to reconstruct the Russian mir as a French institution. Populism envisioned Russia as a decentralized federation of autonomous mirs; likewise, French personalists advocated …  Lire la suite

This report presents the results of two summers of field work during which an area of approximately 140 square miles of previously unmapped country was systematically traversed. In addition it includes a correlation of all previous work in the Burlington Peninsula. The newly mapped areas include the north coast of the peninsula from Ming's Bight to Cape St. John and south to join the Tilt Cove - Bett's Cove area mapped by Snelgrove, (1931), and a strip about three miles wide along the coast from Nipper's Harbour to the south side of Middle .Arm, Green Bay. To assist in correlation, …  Lire la suite

Complex robotic tasks such as autonomous exploration and grasping demand the co-operation of sensors and actuators. In order to integrate sensor measurements and actuator control schemes we must determine the rigid body transformations that relate the native co-ordinate frames of these devices. Equivalently, we need to estimate the relative pose of sensors and actuators in the systems. We examine the problem of determining the pose of a robot-mounted range-finding camera, and present a class of solutions motivated by the idea that mobile camera calibration is best addressed by an ongoing dynamic estimation process. We use range measurements and known robot …  Lire la suite

This thesis is an analysis of medical and popular views toward female sexuality in late seventeenth century England (1660-1696), based on the study of learned vernacular medical texts, personal sources and popular literature. In that period, women's subordinate social status to men was largely determined by their 'inferior' biology; "female illnesses" were considered to be a product of women's innate physiological 'weakness' as defined by humoral medical theory, and their reproductive organs were linked to their less restrained (than men's) sexual desires. This research examines those medical and social ideas that defined the female sex in late seventeenth century England, …  Lire la suite

Cox, J. (Supervisors)  Lire la suite

This research sought to explore the meaningfulness of belonging to a choir. Members of 14 Canadian choirs (N=404) responded to 18 statements concerning the perceived benefits of choral singing. Choristers ranked six aspects of choral singing in the following order of importance (from greatest to least): musical, intellectual, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual. An in-depth analysis of three central areas of the choral experience (social, intellectual, and emotional) was done and six sample populations were compared: paid vs. volunteer choristers, choristers living in different areas (urban, suburban, and rural), choristers with a music degree vs. non-degree, age of choristers (young …  Lire la suite

In the past, studies on factors affecting the experimental production of gastric adenocarcinoma have been hampered by the lack of a method which would produce adenocarcinomas of the stomach in a significant number of animals. Until 18 years ago there were no successful authentic cases of experimentally induced gastric adenocarcinoma. During the past 30 years many studies have been carried out, but the results of the best series have been at most disappointing.  Lire la suite

Fetal tracheal occlusion (TO) has been investigated as a treatment option for lung hypoplasia secondary to Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). While it has been shown to promote larger lungs, it is unclear whether TO stimulates mature lung growth or simply induces alveolarization without concomitant bronchial development, a distinction with important clinical implications. We employed the Nitrofen rat model of CDH to investigate the effect of TO on fetal lung branching through morphometric examination, lung casting, lung histology and comparison of two molecular markers involved in lung growth. Nitrofen administration retarded lung growth through decreased lung branching and delayed molecular marker …  Lire la suite

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) is a necrotizing infection of immunocompromised patients caused by the opportunistic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus and is associated with a high mortality rate. Impaired delivery of antifungals to hyphae within necrotic lesions is thought to contribute to therapeutic failure in IPA. We hypothesized that transfusion of leukocytes loaded ex vivo with the lipophilic antifungal posaconazole could improve delivery and penetration of antifungals to the sites of established infection and improve outcome in experimental IPA. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the posaconazole-loading capacity of neutrophil-like dHL-60 cells, the effects of loading on the functional capacity, and the …  Lire la suite

Procaine was first synthesized by Einhorn in 1905. Xylocaine (Lidocaine) was synthesized by Löfgren in 1948. Wiedling, Löfgren and Tegner reported on Propitocaine (Citanest) in 1960. They have been used mainly for local and regional anesthesia in surgery and dentistry. The first review of the use of local anesthetics by the intravenous route was reported by Graubard and Peterson in 1950. Gilbert et al (1951) reported similar results using intravenous Xylocaine. In their cases they reported effective analgesia when the Xylocaine was used in cases of advanced cancer. They reported that the danger of side-effects appeared to be less than …  Lire la suite

Since their initial identification in pediatric high-grade gliomas (pHGGs), somatic mutations in histone 3 (H3) genes (“oncohistones”) have been increasingly reported in other cancers. H3 mutations occur with remarkable tissue and age specificity and are notably enriched in specific brain and bone tumors in children. When H3 mutations arise in a correct context, they perturb the chromatin landscape, alter gene expression, and promote tumorigenesis. Among brain tumors, K27M mutation in H3 genes (H3K27M) defines diffuse gliomas of the midline which affect mainly young children, while H3.3G34R/V mutations occur in hemispheric gliomas of adolescents and young adults. Among bone tumors, > …  Lire la suite

Roughly speaking, a group G is omnipotent if orders of finitely many elements can be controlled independently in some finite quotients of G. We proved that pi1(S) is omnipotent when S is a surface other than P2,T2 or K2 . This generalizes the fact, previously known, that free groups are omnipotent. The proofs primarily utilize geometric techniques involving graphs of spaces with the aim of retracting certain spaces onto graphs.  Lire la suite

Conspiracy theories – explanations of significant events as the secret malicious plot of a powerful group – have become a prevalent part of our cultural dialogue particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Social events that bring about uncertainty have been linked to endorsement of conspiracy theories. The pandemic, as a significant social crisis, provided a natural experiment to investigate the role of social stressors in the development of conspiracy theories. The current study draws on theoretical models such as the Adaptive Conspiracism Hypothesis, Social Identity Theory, and the Existential Threat Model of Conspiracy Theories. These models suggest that conspiracy beliefs may …  Lire la suite

Historique : Le saignement sévère durant les opérations neurochirurgicales peut résulter en stress aigu affectant la performance psychomotrice bi-manuelle de l’opérateur ce qui pourrait emmener à l’erreur chirurgicale et à des résultats nuisibles chez le patient. Les méthodes objectives n’ont pas étés développées pour évaluer l’influence du stress aigu sur la performance psychomotrice bi-manuelle neurochirurgicale. Des simulateurs en réalité virtuelle, tels que le Neuro-Touch, permettent de tester le stress aigu de la performance psychomotrice qui se tient dans des environnements libres de facteurs de risque. Ainsi, l’objectif de cette étude était d’explorer l’impact d’une résection tumorale virtuelle de nature stressante …  Lire la suite

Le Programme d'analyse des troupeaux laitiers du Québec (Valacta, Québec, Canada) a fourni une imposante base de données de relevées laitiers au jour du contrôle pour des vaches ayant vêlé entre janvier 2000 et mai 2007. Cette base de données contenait 919,814 relevées de production laitière au jour du contrôle provenant de 45520 vaches de race Ayrshire sur 956 fermes laitières, 133,690 relevés provenant de 7493 vaches de race Jersey sur 910 fermes laitières, et 118,996 relevés de 5693 vaches de race Suisse Brune sur 476 fermes laitières. Les relevées au jour du contrôle pour les trois premiers rangs de …  Lire la suite

Immunoglobulin superfamily, member 1 (IGSF1, formerly known as InhBP/p120) is a protein of unknown function, highly expressed in the pituitary gland. In this thesis, I characterized: 1) co- and post-translational processing of IGSF1, 2) expression of IGSF1 in several tissues, and 3) the link between IGSF1 and the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis. The IGSF1/Igsf1 gene is located on the X chromosome, and multiple mRNA isoforms have been identified in both humans and mice. The canonical full-length protein is encoded by human mRNA isoforms IGSF1-1, IGSF1-3, and IGSF1-4, and murine Igsf1-1. Along with our collaborators, I demonstrated that the canonical full-length protein …  Lire la suite

La multi-résistance chez le cancer est reconnue comme un obstacle majeur, limitant l'efficacité du traitement chimiothérapeutique. La multi-résistance opère à travers des mécanismes variés et complexes: les transporteurs de type cassette de liaison à l'ATP comme la P-glycoprotéine 1 (ABCB1, MDR1), la protéine de résistance du cancer du sein (BCRP2, ABCG2) et la protéine associée à la multi-résistance (MRP1, ABCC1) sont toutes reconnues comme inductrices de la multi-résistance, dû à l'efflux des agents chimiothérapeutiques en dehors de la cellule cancéreuse. La présence ou la surexpression de P-gp1 à été démontrée en clinique dans plusieurs échantillons suite aux traitements chimiothérapeutiques chez …  Lire la suite

Le tungstène est un métal de transition largement utilisé dans les contextes professionnels et médicaux, mais ses risques pour la santé humaine restent peu connus. Il a été reconnu comme un contaminant environnemental ayant des implications potentielles sur la santé humaine. Une exposition chronique au tungstène est de plus en plus associée à des effets néfastes sur la santé, notamment des maladies cardiovasculaires, pulmonaires et des cancers. Le dépôt de tungstène dans les os est associé à une augmentation des dommages à l’ADN, à un arrêt du cycle cellulaire et à l’apoptose des cellules B résidentes de la moelle osseuse. …  Lire la suite

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common form of pancreatic cancer. Chemotherapeutic agents, including gemcitabine, alone or in combination with other anti-cancer drugs, are widely applied for treatment. However, benefits from these treatments are modest due to the therapeutic limitations associated with drug resistance. Therefore, identification of new targetable molecules is urgently needed in order to improve survival and prognosis. Dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2) is a potential target whose inhibition suppresses PDAC proliferation and metastasis upon the functional blockage of the receptor with antagonists in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we investigated possible therapeutic benefits of a …  Lire la suite

In many large-scale optimization problems arising in the context of machine learning the decision variable is of high-dimension and the objective function decomposes into a sum over a large number of terms (one for each instance in the training data set).In this setting, second-order optimization methods such as Newton or quasi-Newton methods, are not tractable due to the complexity of evaluating and inverting the Hessian, or an approximation thereof. Also, the vast amount of data available is spread around multiple servers making a centralized optimization solution sub optimal or impossible. Therefore we concentrate on first order methods that are scalable …  Lire la suite

Cette thèse examine les expériences vécues par les étudiants musulmans qui fréquentent des écoles secondaires du Québec au lendemain des attentats terroriste du 11 Septembre 2001. Les données sont scrutées avec le point de vue de la théorie critique. En utilisant une approche ethnographique critique informée par ethnographie institutionnelle, cette étude a recueilli des données en interrogeant les anciens et actuels étudiants musulmans dans le but de reconnaître l'autorité des participants à décrire leurs expériences vécues dans les écoles secondaires du Québec. Grâce à se livrer à des entretiens individuels du groupe et discussion, l'étude a révélé biais systémique et …  Lire la suite

Cette thèse examine le phénomène de l'islamophobie à travers les medias « pédagogico-culturels » que sont les films d'Hollywood et les reportages de nouvelles, et cela pendant les périodes avant et après les attentats terroristes du 11 septembre 2001. Un certain nombre de similitudes dans les types de messages et d'images islamophobes ont été répertoriées, y compris une représentation constante des musulmans : en tant que terroristes, ou comme étant violemment opposés à l'Occident, ou encore des gens primitif et arriéré, et aussi comme étant seulement «bon» lorsqu'ils adhérent à un agir occidentalisé. La thèse conclu en examinant comment le …  Lire la suite

Uveal Melanoma (UM) is the most common malignant intra-ocular tumor in adults. Despite the high accuracy of clinical diagnosis and advances in local treatment, more than 50% of UM patients develop metastasis within ten years of initial diagnosis. NM23 is a human metastasis suppressor gene. Reduced Nm23-H1 expression is correlated with high metastatic potential in a variety of different cancers including melanoma. C-Met is a receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) that has been known to stimulate the invasive growth and increase the metastatic potential of cancer cells. Expression of c-Met is correlated with high mortality rate in UM patients. Treatment with …  Lire la suite

Diabetes has been shown to affect the thickness of the basement membrane in various human tissues and organs. The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether diabetes can cause thickening of the anterior capsule basement membrane (ACBM), and correlate the findings with the duration and the severity of diabetes. For the purpose of this study, anterior lens capsule specimens of diabetic patients (DP), and non-diabetic patients (NDP) are collected from phaco-emulsification cataract surgeries. All cases are formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded and stained with H&E and periodic acid-Schiff. The ACBM thickness is measured and reviewed under a light microscope. The results of …  Lire la suite

This thesis describes an environment in which two angiographic methods, Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA) and Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA), can be objectively compared and analyzed. Such an environment requires that both angiographic projections be displayed from the same view-point and with the same projection geometry. The two angiograms are displayed side by side and several points on the vascular structure are identified in both modalities. These points are used to estimate, using a Least Squares Minimization, the Homogeneous Transformation Matrix (HTM) characterizing the projection of the DSA image. The resulting HTM is used to generate a corresponding Maximum Intensity Projection …  Lire la suite

La perception des trois tons caractéristiques de la langue Yoruba fut étudiée par quatre groupes différents en ce qui concerne la discrimination, l'identification, ainsi que l'analyse des tons acoustiques qui se présentent dans certains monosyllables Yoruba prononcés par un homme et une femme. Les résultats de cette analyse ont indiqué que, (1) l'expérience est le facteur dominant dans la perception des tons de la langue Yoruba; (2) les tons pouvaient être identifiés avec précision par les quatre groupes isolés; (3) l'environnement phonémique dans lequel les tons sont perçus est un important facteur à leur perception; (4) les tons semblent être …  Lire la suite

Sustainability of rural rice processing will ensure self-sufficiency and food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Research, appropriate technology, and education (RATE) was used as a tool to effectively develop methods on how to increase sustainability of rice processing in the region. Utilization of rice husk waste from the predominant Engelberg and Milltop rice mills as biofuel feedstock was found to increase the sustainability of the process: considering the social, economic, and, environmental criteria. Process parameters including binder type and ratio, moisture content, and die pressure were found to affect the quality of densified rice husk. Rice husks from these two mills …  Lire la suite

Cette thèse, basée sur un projet de recherche qualitative, examine la trajectoire d'intégration dans la société québécoise de jeunes réfugiés syriens scolarisés, en décrivant leur parcours d'apprentissage à travers le programme de francisation et les milieux universitaires anglophones. L'étude décrit les points de vue de ces étudiants sur leur compréhension du concept d'identité et leur récit de la façon dont leur parcours d'apprentissage refaçonne leur(s) identité(s). À la suite d'un processus de sélection boule de neige, j'ai recruté cinq étudiantes et cinq étudiants universitaires comme participants. Huit d'entre eux ont d'abord été inscrits au programme de francisation puis ont entamé …  Lire la suite

DuPorte, E. (Supervisors)  Lire la suite

The Lie algebra associated to the lower central and p-central series of a group is an important invariant of the group but is difficult to compute. For a finitely presented group this Lie algebra, can be determined under a certain condition on the initial forms of the relators, namely that of strong freeness. We give an algorithm for the strong freeness of 4 quadratic Lie polynomials in 4 variables over an arbitrary field thus extending a result of Bush and Labute.  Lire la suite

The three studies presented here represent a two-year program of research that critically explored one case of high-stakes language assessment—English proficiency assessment for teacher certification in Quebec, Canada.The first study was an examination of the final administration of a writing test used for this purpose at one Quebec university before this test was replaced. In this study, mismatches were revealed in stakeholder perceptions of the task to be produced in this assessment. The second study examined the pilot administration of a new replacement test. It focused on the socio-political environment of the test—namely, how the perception of high or low …  Lire la suite

Cette thèse est une étude de l'expédition de Rhode Island. Elle doit constater si la faillite de l'entreprise était due à un manque de coopération de la part de l'escadre française.Elle commence par une récapitulation des événements de la guerre en Amérique jusqu'à l'entrée de la France en 1778, avec un récit des négociations entre les deux pays, qui aboutirent à la signature du traité d'alliance. [...]  Lire la suite