McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par B

Gill, J. E. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

Dunbar, M. J. (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

The Waite-Amulet property consists of 3,967 acres in Dufresnoy and Duprat townships, northwestern Quebec. It lies approximately six miles northwest of the Horne mine of Noranda Mines Limited at Noranda, Quebec. [...] The copper-zinc-gold-silver ores are obtained at present from the Waite section, the former Waite-Ackerman- Montgomery mine. [...] A large body of similar ore is being developed in the Amulet section. This is the Amulet lower A ore-body which was disclosed by diamond drilling during the spring of 1938. During the summer of 1939 that part of the property lying between F shaft (Amulet section) and the property boundary …  Lire la suite

Urbanization in 20th century Brazil has been characterized by a large rural-urban migration. The reinforcement, throughout the national territory, of an urban life-style brought about by this growing urbanization has somehow decreased the cultural distance between the country's urban and rural environments. In spite of that, cultural differences between the two environments do exist, and it is not wrong to assume that a cultural change occurs along the rural-urban migration process. The present research deals with the issue of urbanization and cultural change in Brazil. It focuses specifically on informal urban housing, built by rural immigrants to the city. This …  Lire la suite

L'effet de la connectivité entre les communautés écologiques marines en régions subarctiques n'a jusqu'à maintenant reçu que très peu de support empirique. En fait, dans de tels systèmes, plusieurs difficultés expérimentales peuvent être engendrées par les nombreuses perturbations saisonnières, les processus hydrologiques locaux et régionaux ainsi que l'apport régional constant en espèces. Dans cette étude, nous avons manipulé des bancs de moules artificiels en milieu intertidal, sur la côte de l'estuaire du St-Laurent (Québec), ainsi que la distance entre les bancs, la période d'échantillonnage et le couvert local de bancs de moules naturels dans le but d'élucider l'effet que nous …  Lire la suite

This thesis is a study of a single aspect of life in Montreal, the activities of French-Canadian physicians during the course of their life-careers. A sector of the organization of medical services in the urban community will be explored here, as seen by interviewing some forty medical men of the French group. The social boundaries of the French medical system will be indicated first, and, the self-sufficiency of this system being shown by its isolation from other similar systems of other ethnic identification, this study will give particular attention to the interpersonal relationships involved in medical practice within the French …  Lire la suite

La vitamine B12, également appelée cobalamine, est essentielle au fonctionnement de deux enzymes chez les mammifères: la methylmalonylCoA mutase et la méthionine synthase. À ce jour, neuf erreurs innées du métabolisme de la cobalamine ont été décrites entrainant soit une acidurie méthylmalonique soit une homocystinurie, soit les deux combinées. L’erreur innée la plus commune du métabolisme de la cobalamine, cblC, est causée par des mutations du gène MMACHC et aboutit à la manifestation d’un phénotype métabolique combiné. Notre laboratoire a accumulé 339 échantillons de fibroblastes issus de patients souffrant d’un déficit de cblC; parmi eux, 50 possédaient soit une seule …  Lire la suite

La paralysie faciale est une maladie potentiellement dévastatrice, qui diminue souvent le clignement des yeux et peut entraîner d’autres problèmes fonctionnels, des problèmes esthétiques et psychologiques et des troubles de la communication. Les technologies de réanimation actuelles visant à rétablir les fonctions sont souvent d’une efficacité limitée : en général, elles ne parviennent à rétablir des mouvements fonctionnels que par des moyens non spontanés. Or, des progrès récents rendent possibles des techniques comme la stimulation faciale. La stimulation faciale est une technique proposée pour restaurer la symétrie des mouvements faciaux perdue par suite d’une paralysie faciale unilatérale. Il s’agit essentiellement …  Lire la suite

Le développement des dirigeables cubiques nommés Tryphons, mené durant la dernière décennie, a impliqué un groupe interdisciplinaire de chercheurs en ingénierie et en arts. La partie ingénierie a consisté en la modélisation du dirigeable, ainsi que le d ́eveloppement de systèmes de localisation et de contrôle. Le modèle dynamique précédemment développé manquait de précision, en particulier sur les termes aérodynamiques que sont la masse ajoutée et la trainée. La Méthode des Eléments en Limites a été utilisée dans cette recherche pour obtenir numériquement les coefficients de masse et d'inertie ajoutées. Pour leurs valeurs expérimentales, trois séries d'expériences ont été conduites …  Lire la suite

In 1956, Samuel Beckett was approached by the BBC Third Programme to write a radio play; out of that commission emerged All That Fall. This first sortie into radio drama prompted Beckett’s further exploration of sound in various media. This thesis tracks the chronological evolution of recorded sound in Beckett’s radio, television, and adapted stage plays produced between 1957 and 1983. In each chapter, I describe the creation of Beckett’s sounds, particularly those made in recording studios such as the Radiophonic Workshop at the BBC. I examine the historical and technical qualities of sound production in order to catalog and …  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

The research presented here is carried out along two related fronts. Calculational techniques which derive from the symmetry properties of the theory of strings are used to generate new solutions corresponding to five dimensional rotating black holes. The Dirichlet brane (D-brane) content of these black holes is then identified and this information is used to compute the microscopic statistical entropy, which is then shown to be identical to the classical Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. The symmetry techniques are then further exploited to create new low-energy background solutions describing different supersymmetric bound states of D-branes. In one case these D-brane bound states have …  Lire la suite

Les gaz en traces, dont le monoxyde de carbone, l’hydrogène et le méthane, ont été découverts récemment comme étant des substrats importants pour la croissance microbienne dans les environnements extrêmes. Certaines bactéries de l’Antarctique et des déserts tropicaux peuvent agir comme chimioautotrophes en utilisant l’énergie obtenue par l’oxydation de ces gaz pour fixer le carbone. Les bactéries consommant les gaz en traces pourraient être des productrices primaires importantes dans les sols des déserts polaires et pourraient contribuer au cyclage des nutriments et des gaz à effet de serre. Cependant, la manière dont le changement climatique affectera leur abondance ou leur …  Lire la suite

Two new radioactivities of 0.40 and 0.18 seconds have been induced in titanium and iron targets respectively, by proton bombardment in the McGill University synchro-cyclotron. The threshold energies required for their production are approximately 9.5 and 13 Mev. [...]  Lire la suite

The problems encountered in the use of a rotating arm for the generation of wind to test microphone windscreens are presented. Tests on various windscreens of cylindrical and spherical shape, composed of single and multiple sections, indicate that the most effective windscreens are those constructed of several layers of separated sheer nylon cloth. The supporting framework for the cloth as well as the cloth itself, have a marked effect on both the reduction of wind noise and on the attenuation of the desired sound.  Lire la suite

The goal of the thesis presented herein is to provide an overview of current issues in auditory display design and to suggest how these issues may be applied to the development of applications for the World Wide Web (WWW). The software developed as part of this thesis, the SprocketPlug plug-in for Netscape Navigator, provides a tool for exploring various auditory display techniques at three levels of WWW development: HTML, Javascript, and Java. The strength of SprocketPlug is that it enables WWW developers to incorporate interactive spatialized sound as an integrated component of WWW documents and applications. The implementation of SprocketPlug …  Lire la suite

Cette thèse présente le développement d'un système de bouclage en direct de mappages entre gestes et sons. Ce système est construit sur une infrastructure de connectivité pour des instruments de musique embarqués sans fil utilisant un écosystème de mappage et de synchronisation distribuée. J'ai porté mon écosystème s'inscrivant dans la tendance récente de l'Internet des objets musicaux (IoMusT) vers une plateforme embarquée et je l'ai évalué avec des métriques de contraintes temps réel de la performance musicale telles que la faible latence et la haute stabilité. Sur base de cette infrastructure, j'ai développé un système de bouclage en direct à …  Lire la suite

This dissertation considers the relation between culture and communication with respect to the development of aboriginal media in Canada. It introduces and elaborates a concept of cultural politics with which to interpret the history of contact between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people. This concept is further applied to an analysis of Canadian cultural and communications policy and the intervention of native broadcasters in policy procedures and discourses. The dissertation undertakes a critical review of existing research on aboriginal media. It assesses the usefulness of interpretive tools drawn from poststructuralist philosophy, ethnography and postcolonial theory in understanding the relation between cultural politics …  Lire la suite

This thesis examines the effect of early parental care and environmental experience on hippocampal development and cognitive function in the adult rodent. Maternal care in the rat contributes to cognitive function through effects on neural systems known to mediate certain forms of learning and memory. The offspring of mothers that exhibit a low frequency of licking/grooming (Low-LG mothers) over the first week of life show decreased hippocampal synaptogenesis and N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor mRNA expression, and poor spatial learning; relative to the offspring of mothers that exhibit high levels of maternal care. The results of cross-fostering studies provide evidence for a …  Lire la suite

Cette thèse s'intéresse aux problèmes de moindres carrés entiers (ILS), ou les problèmes du vecteur le plus proche. Une approche souvent utilisée pour résoudre ces problèmes est la méthode de recherche discrète, qui implique deux étapes: la réduction et la recherche. Le but principal de la réduction est de rendre l'étape de recherche plus rapide. Les stratégies de réduction des problèmes ILS sous contrainte de boîte impliquent la réorganisation de colonnes de la matrice de données. Il existe actuellement deux algorithmes pour la réorganisation des colonnes, appelés ici les algorithmes SW et CH, qui sont les plus efficaces pour la …  Lire la suite

The treaty which initiated the Anglo-French Entente was signed April 8, 1904. It assumed the modest appearance of a new colonial accord having as its essential basis the recognition by Great Britain of French interests in Morocco and by France of those of Great Britain in Egypt. The two countries by the ninth article of the convention "agreed to afford one another diplomatic support in order to obtain the execution of clauses of the present Declaration regarding Egypt and Morocco. The British view of the arrangement was that it was concerned with colonial questions in certain specified localities.  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

This thesis aims at defining the argumentative terms and strategies of the rhetoric of praise in printed collected eulogies of women of the first half of the XVIth Century, both in collections of famous women (which celebrate exceptional feminine figures) and apologies of the female sex (which defend womankind through praise). The inquiry starts with the first French printed translation of Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris, entitled De la louenge et vertu des nobles et cleres dames (1493), and ends with the Fort inexpugnable de l'honneur du sexe foeminin (1555) by Francois de Billon, who provides the first historic panorama of …  Lire la suite

The reaction of nitrogen atoms with propane has been found to produce hydrogen cyanide, ethane, ethylene, methane and hydrogen in the temperature range 75c. – 292c. The rate of hydrogen cyanide formation at a constant nitrogen atom flow rate increased with increasing propane flow rate; no corresponding increase was observed for the rates of formation of the other hydrocarbons. Second order specific rate constants were calculated from the rates of disappearance of propane.  Lire la suite

Symbiotic nitrogen-fixation research is becoming increasingly important from an environmental and agricultural standpoint. The process of symbiotic nitrogen-fixation is complex, requiring many genes for proper and efficient function. Sinorhizobium meliloti and the legume plant, Medicago sativa, form a symbiotic relationship in which the plant provides a steady source of carbon to bacteroids within root nodules. The S. meliloti bacteroid converts nitrogen gas into ammonium, and supplies the plant with a bio-available source of nitrogen. Carbohydrate metabolism is essential because nitrogen-fixation is an energy-consuming process, requiring a significant amount of energy and reducing power. The C4 – dicarboxylic acids provided by …  Lire la suite

Every convex polytope is both the intersection of a finite set of halfspaces and the convex hull of a finite vertex set. Transforming from the halfspaces (vertices, respectively) to the vertices (halfspaces, respectively) is called vertex enumeration (facet enumeration, respectively). It is an open problem whether there is an algorithm for these two problems polynomial in the input and the output size. For each of the known methods, this thesis develops a characterization of what constitutes an easy or difficult input. Example families of polytopes are presented that show that none of the known methods will yield a polynomial algorithm. …  Lire la suite

A new type of confocal Raman microscope called a Fourier transform confocal Raman microscope (FT-CRM) was designed, built and characterized with respect to its spatio-spectral imaging properties. Several different applications of the FT-CRM are presented that take advantage of its unique spectral and spatial imaging characteristics. The instrument combines focused illumination with spatially-filtered detection in a confocal optical configuration to collect photons scattered from a diffraction-limited volume in the sample (typically ${<}5 times10 sp{-18} m sp3)$ and reject photons from outside that region. The molecular vibrational information encoded in the inelastic, or Raman, spectral component of light scattered from the …  Lire la suite

Exposure to the aversive details of traumatic events has been shown to present a risk to the personal and professional well-being of intimate partner violence (IPV) social workers. My dissertation presents a study, comprised of three manuscripts, that describes current knowledge on workplace social support as well as presents insights derived from interviews with five IPV social workers on their understandings and experiences of workplace social support. The first manuscript is a scoping review that looks specifically at experiences, potential impacts, and factors related to human service professionals' exposure to the aversive details of IPV. This review is guided by …  Lire la suite

During his eight-year Italian sojourn (1600-1608), Sir Peter Paul Rubens became familiar with villeggiatura, a form of villa life (unique to Italy) modeled on the antique garden. Rubens' experience was personal, for a close examination of a select number of his works demonstrates that he fully assimilated this humanistic tradition. He participated in the intellectual currents of his time, the source of ars hortulorum. In his pictures, Rubens took over forms found in gardens of antiquity, the Renaissance or the Baroque and, in certain instances, recreated the mood, function and sense found in these gardens and as described by literary …  Lire la suite

Rubens' material reality culminates in the tableau which he named Het Pelsken (Flemish for 'The little Fur,' known also as La Pelisse). Of his vast oeuvre it is the most frequently cited work, described by one spectator as an "oil painting of a subject quite unusual...a beautiful woman naked beneath her dark fur." 1 Among art historians the tableau has been the subject of debate as to its 'meaning,' especially since the life-size image does not include narrative paraphernalia that would allow mythological interpretations. But as one scholar wrote, "most are relieved that the work was never meant to be …  Lire la suite

Neisseria meningitidis (SD1C) when grown in an iron-limited medium at low pH exhibited a dramatic increase in virulence for the mouse. This enhanced virulence correlated with a specific colonial type, and altered outer membrane protein profile, the expression of an uptake sytem for iron from human transferrin, and an increased resistance to phagocytosis by mouse polymorphonuclear leukocytes. The outer membrane of cells grown at pH 6.6 contained a 69,000 molecular weight protein (protein III) that was exposed on the cell surface. The outer membrane of iron-limited cells grown at pH 7.2 also exhibited protein III, but cells grown at pH …  Lire la suite

The requisites of a sound system of social economy are maximum production and the most equitable distribution of wealth consistent with it. It is the contention of the writer that no radical departure from the present economic organization which is based on the individual's pursuit of profit as the main economic motive - is necessary to secure this. The outstanding impediment to the realization of maximum production is seen to be industrial depressions and the enforced idleness they cause. An analysis of depressions reveals that price stabilization holds the key to the solution. But the present technique of regulation cannot …  Lire la suite

La fluidisation granulaire se produit lorsque des matériaux granulaires passent d’un comportement solide à un comportement fluide sous certaines conditions, telles que des vibrations mécaniques. Ce phénomène a une portée étendu, de la locomotion robotique à la manipulation robotique adaptative. Certains préhenseurs robotiques souples, par exemple, reposent sur le barrage granulaire: ils s’adaptent aux objets lorsqu’ils ne sont pas bloqués, puis se rigidifient lorsqu’ils sont bloqués pour permettre leur manipulation. Cependant, les recherches actuelles se concentrent principalement sur la fluidisation globale, laissant les mécanismes de fluidisationlocalisée sous-explorés. Cela limite le contrôle et la précision des applications robotiques. Ce travail étudie …  Lire la suite

Let Kw(t) := inf∥P∥ 22≤t 01 |1 - P(theta)|2w(theta) dtheta, where w ≥ 0 is a decreasing function and P ∈ L2([0,1], Leb.). Then we have Kw ≤ Kv ↔01 1wq +l dtheta ≥ 01 1vq+l dtheta ∀ lambda ≥ 0. We present two similar proofs of this result, which are analogous to the well-known majorization theorem: Let v, w ≥ 0 be decreasing functions, and suppose 01 w(theta)dtheta = 01 v(theta)dtheta. Then Fw ≤ Fv ↔01 (w(theta) - x)+ dtheta ≥ 01 (v(theta) - x)+ dtheta ∀ x ≥ 0, where F w(t) = t1 w(theta)dtheta. Since our proofs …  Lire la suite