McGill University Thèses et mémoires par auteur commençant par R

Reven, Linda G. (Supervisor2)  Lire la suite

Canada and the Netherlands have developed different anti-avoidance techniques. On 13 September 1987, a new general anti-avoidance rule came into effect in Canada. The scope of application of this new rule remains uncertain. Some writers have suggested that the rule incorporates the business purpose test and the step transaction doctrine, while others have contended that section 245 is a version of the abuse of rights doctrine. After a comparative analysis of Canadian and Dutch anti-avoidance techniques, it is suggested that section 245 is a Canadian version of the Dutch judicial doctrine of fraus legis. The two conditions for the application …  Lire la suite

The great adaptability of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) and the exclusive use of zidovudine (3$ sp prime$azido-3$ sp prime$deoxythymidine or AZT) in the treatment of AIDS has motivated our search for HIV-1 strains resistant to this drug. Our first attempt at obtaining such strains was made by using an in vitro approach in which a lymphoid cell line, chronically infected with HIV-1, was exposed to various drug concentrations. Although this system has never generated such mutants, we found that the progeny virus population, present in the culture fluids of these chronically infected drug-treated cells lost infectivity. These …  Lire la suite

Current pain therapies are inefficient due either to their low potency or danger associated with their use. Novel analgesics are difficult to produce, as basic pain neurobiology is still poorly understood at the cellular and circuit level. One successful treatment for pain is anterolateral cordotomy, which is the surgical section of the anterolateral tract – an ascending pathway in the anterior spinal cord which specifically carries pain and temperature sensory information. Despite this, the surgery is invasive, permanent and carries potential complications. Neurons at the source of the anterolateral tract have been identified using a variety of tools and have …  Lire la suite

In a Ph.D. thesis submitted in 1946 G.H. Segall described a reaction between hydroxylamine hydrochloride in pyridine and cellulose trinitrate in which a stable cellulose “mono-oxime dinitrate” was formed. A gas, predominantly nitrous oxide but containing some nitrogen, was evolved. Segall also found that cellulose trinitrate reacted with free hydroxylamine in pyridine to yield one mole of nitrogen and a cellulose “dinitrate”. His attempts to discover whether the “labile” nitrate group occupied the second, third or sixth positions in the glucose units of the cellulose trinitrate led to indecisive results. In these circumstances Hayward reverted to a simpler, crystalline compound, …  Lire la suite

The goal of this thesis was to examine submerged macrophoe biomass, distribution, and ecosystem effects at scales large enough to incorporate the littoral zone into models of whole lake structure and function. Submerged macrophyte biomass and distribution was shown to be highly variable between growing seasons and primarily dependant upon air temperature and the timing of the onset of the growing season. Within a growing season, a mass balance study showed an undisturbed macrophyte bed to markedly lower phytoplankton biomass: total phosphorus ratios, although the net effect of the bed on the growing season phosphorus budget was minimal. The weedbed …  Lire la suite

The Catalytic Process Engineering research group developed a catalytic channel reactor with spatially-resolved measurement capabilities to study the CO2 methanation reaction. The bottom plate of the reactor is coated with a catalyst of interest, while the top is closed with a quartz glass plate to enable temperature measurements of the catalyst surface via infrared thermography. In addition, the reactor is equipped with a small movable sampling capillary to determine the gas composition along the reactor axis.The goal of this thesis research was to develop and optimize a dip-coating procedure that yields a homogenous coating with a known catalyst mass distribution …  Lire la suite

Renewable energy sources such as windmills and solar panels are limited by temporal and geographical gaps that prevent the continuous production of energy. Power-to-gas (P2G) is an energy storage technology that can close the gaps by converting the surplus power from renewable energy sources into grid-compatible methane gas. This thesis aims to develop and evaluate a prototype reactor for direct biogas and CO2 methanation. The prototype reactor resembles a plate heat exchanger in which the small channels are introduced into the metal plates and coated with a catalyst. For that purpose, catalyst deposition method development was necessary to achieve strong …  Lire la suite

The E4orf4 protein of human adenovirus kills transformed cancer cell lines by a p53-independent mechanism. Accumulating evidence suggests that the mechanism of E4orf4-induced death is distinct from apoptosis and occurs via some novel pathway. Previous studies have shown that E4orf4 can interact with the mammalian Balpha subunit of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) and that this interaction is important for E4orf4-induced cell death. As PP2A is highly conserved across eukaryotic species we chose to study the effects of E4orf4 in a genetically tractable organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, in an effort to elucidate the mechanism of E4orf4-mediated cell death. E4orf4 expression is lethal …  Lire la suite

This study aimed to determine whether the use of body weight (BWS) during overground ambulation leads to immediate improvements in the gait pattern. of stroke clients, and whether an overground support system is feasible for use as a gait training tool in this population. Fourteen subjects 3 to 18 weeks post stroke and with ambulatory capacity but mobility problem (timed-up-and-go score > 25 s) participated in the study. Subjects were instructed to walk over a distance of 7 m with 0% (full weight bearing), 15% or 30% BWS provided by an overhead suspension system. Ground reaction forces, body kinematics and …  Lire la suite

Predictors of long-term academic outcomes among Naskapi adolescents from Kawawachikamach, a reserve in Northern Quebec, were examined. Adolescents from this community as from other First Nations communities are statistically at risk for high school drop out and lower levels of educational attainment. However, efforts by communities during the past two decades to narrow the gap in educational attainment between First Nations students and the general population has resulted in significant gains for students who live on reserves. In a series of three initial visits that spanned a year, adolescents from grades 6 through 11 completed a battery of measures used …  Lire la suite

Stix, John (Supervisor1)  Lire la suite

Fisheries that frequently transcend international borders, known as transboundary fisheries, generate most global fishing revenue but face severe overexploitation. Transboundary fisheries management is complex and fraught with uncertainty, demanding flexible and adaptive governance arrangements to combat persistent issues of overexploitation and coordination failure. Additionally, climate change is shifting the distribution of marine species, changing historical ranges, and causing fisheries to venture into other management jurisdictions. These ecological changes will have a substantial impact on the overall management and economics of fisheries worldwide, requiring effective international collaboration. To inform these efforts, this dissertation seeks to understand the structure, performance, and adaptation …  Lire la suite

Les véhicules à moteur à combustion interne (VMCI) posent divers problèmes, le principal étant la pollution. En raison d'un impact beaucoup plus faible sur l'environnement, les véhicules électriques (VE) s'avèrent être des substituts appropriés pour les VMCI. Néanmoins, les véhicules électriques n'ont pas réussi à gagner en popularité parce que la capacité actuelle de stockage d'énergie des batteries électriques est beaucoup plus faible que celle des combustibles fossiles. Par conséquent, il faut améliorer le rendement des VE pour les rendre viables. L'application de transmissions multi-vitesses (TMV) dans les véhicules électriques va dans cette direction. La puissance désirée est transmise de …  Lire la suite

La tourmaline, XY₃Z₆T₆O₁₈(BO₃)₃V₃W, est un borosilicate commun dans les environnements crustaux, enregistrant les relations de phase avec minéraux, fluides et liquides magmatiques dans divers contextes tectoniques. La diversité de ses sites cristallographiques permet l'incorporation d'éléments, tandis que sa stabilité et faible diffusivité préservent la zonation, paramètres essentiels pour reconstruire les historiques P-T-X. Une interprétation précise nécessite un modèle thermodynamique, développé dans cette thèse à partir de mesures cristallochimiques et calorimétriques.Un ensemble d’environ 50 échantillons naturels et synthétiques de tourmaline a été constitué dans le système Na-Ca-B-Fe²⁺-Fe³⁺-Mg-Al-Si-Ti-O-H-F. Les échantillons naturels capturent la variabilité réelle des compositions, tandis que les échantillons synthétiques …  Lire la suite

The main objective of this study was to estimate the costs associated with different storage levels of maize for the National Cereals and Produce Board (the NCPB), the grain marketing agency of the Kenyan government. Four storage level scenarios were considered. The first involved a zero-supply security scenario, where the model was required to simply satisfy the demand in each period. The second, third and fourth respectively, involved two, three and four months supply security scenarios, where the model was required to purchase grain equivalent to the demand for those periods. Scenario two, providing two months supply security was not …  Lire la suite

Many biological disciplines have benefitted from research involving tissue or cell culture (McKeehan et al., 1990). Animal cell culture is now involved in a large proportion of biological, pharmacological and medical research. Clinical interest lies in the production of cells for uses such as skin grafting in the treatment of burn wounds (Gallico et al., 1984; Sugihara et al., 1991) and gene therapy (Robertson, 1986; Culliton, 1990) or as rich sources of biomolecules for structural and functional characterisation. Vaccine production is the largest industrial application where animal cells are used as hosts for the multiplication of viruses (Clark and Hirtenstein, …  Lire la suite

Butomus umbellatus, L. (commonly known as "The Flowering Rush") is an aquatic herbaceous perennial with a thick horizontal rootstock. The sword shaped leaves are all basal and a erect. The plant has pink regular and hermaphroditic flowers borne on long pedicels of unequal length and arranged in the form of an umbel. [...]  Lire la suite

As Indonesian Muslim depictions of Christianity have varied over time, this study is an attempt to provide a brief survey of the Muslim attitudes towards Christianity in modern Indonesia. It will set the stage by first investigating the Muslim depiction of Christianity as found in the seventeenth century works of Nuruddin al-Raniri. It will go on to survey some aspects of Dutch colonial policy concerning Indonesian Islam and will cover Muslim responses to and perceptions of Christian doctrine in the Old Order and New Order periods. Some polemical writings from the two communities produced by such writers as Hendrik Kraemer, …  Lire la suite

In parallel programming, loop computation is one of the most expensive operations in terms of execution duration. In order to solve this problem their parallelization is compulsory. One form of parallelization is for a compiler to automatically produce a parallel SPMD (Single Program Multiple Data) program. These compilation techniques encompass both compile-time and run-time resolution methods. This thesis presents a specific case of the run-time resolution of the loops, the independent loops. These loops do not have any interactions between their iterations, hence they have a great potential for parallelism. This work presents an experimental method which has been developed …  Lire la suite

Cette dissertation analyse l'utilisation et le sens de l'histoire dans les œuvres graphiques et les décors intérieurs d'un architecte britannique du XIXe siècle, William Burges (1827-1881). Burges est reconnu par l'historiographie contemporaine comme l'un des acteurs majeurs du mouvement néogothique en Angleterre, particulièrement de la phase éclectique et expérimentale connue sous le nom de « High Victorian » (circa 1850-1870). Pourtant, son travail a souvent été taxé d'inauthenticité. Au fil d'études marquantes sur les représentations de l'histoire qu'il a entamées vers 1980, l'historien de l'art Stephen Bann a affirmé que toute rencontre avec le passé est ultimement de nature personnelle. …  Lire la suite

Lafleur, Paul T., (Supervisor)  Lire la suite

A radioimmunoassay was developed to determine the concentration of immunoreactive somatostatin (IRS) in crude and partially-purified extracts of various anatomical regions of the nervous system, including the retina. Affinity chromatography using somatostatin antiserum served to concentrate IRS from the retina and other brain regions. Retinal IRS from rats and humans inhibited the release of growth hormone in a bioassay in a similar manner as did synthetic somatostatin. Affinity chromatography-purified extracts of rat median eminence, anterior hypothalamic-preoptic area, amygdala and cerebral cortex, when subjected to gel filtration chromatography, eluted with similar profiles characterized by four IRS peaks of which the third …  Lire la suite

The meteorite impact that formed the 32-km-wide Upper Pennsylvanian (285 ± 23 Ma) West Clearwater structure, situated about 125 km east of the Hudson Bay arc, northern Quebec, formed a sheet of impact melt now exposed on a central ring of islands. Crater-fill deposits exposed on the ring of islands can be divided into three major successive units, which are, in ascending order: 1) a red, friable impact-melt-bearing fragmental breccia 0 to 20 m thick cut by small (cm to dm) dykes of impact melt; 2) a red, massive, clast-rich impact-generated melt about 18 meters thick containing up to 25% …  Lire la suite

The meteorite impact that formed the 32-km-diameter Upper Pennsylvanian (285 +/- 23 Ma) West Clearwater structure, situated about 125 km east of the Hudson Bay arc, northern Quebec, formed a sheet of impact melt now exposed on a central ring of islands. At least seven marble enclaves have been mapped in the melt sheet; this report is based on observations made on samples from two of these enclaves. These blocks represent recrystallized remnants of a cover of Middle Ordovician limestone, now completely eroded in the area. While the impact melt was still above its solidus, the locally fossiliferous dolomite-bearing limestone …  Lire la suite

The unusual behaviour of the mid-oxidation state nitrogen oxides, nitric oxide (NO) and dinitrogen trioxide (N2O3), are explored in solution.Nitric oxide is shown to catalyze the cis-trans isomerizations of diazo species in aqueous and organic solutions, and a model is presented by which this proceeds by spin catalysis, making use of the unpaired electron of NO to permit access to triplet patways. Five diazo compounds are tested and compared to stilbene, which is not found to isomerize under these conditions.Dinitrogen trioxide is found to form easily in organic solvents, which stabilize the molecule even above room temperature. Solutions can be …  Lire la suite

For airlines, one of the most significant challenges in the 1990's will be to finance the enormous fleet replacement and expansion activities they have undertaken. Because airline earnings tend to by cyclical and industry returns on capital investment have traditionally been poor, lenders have come to rely increasingly on asset based methods to finance aircraft acquisitions. On account of the prevalence of asset based financing, the underlying legal structures must be able to reassure the lender, to a reasonable extent, that its interests in the aircraft will be protected and recognized. In Canada, the legal structures for taking security on …  Lire la suite

The recycling of consumer items and their use as building materials have long been recognized by researchers and scholars in studies of informal settlements. There they are used as substitutes to traditional materials for walls and roofs, scarce or unaffordable in urban areas. However, they are also used as a means to repair or protect dilapidated materials and building components. Recycled consumer items are neither accepted nor regarded as standard building materials. Nevertheless, builders continue to use them, recognizing the existence of a market where they are regarded as alternative materials in housing. The use of these materials is defined …  Lire la suite

Contexte:La vitesse de l'onde de pouls (PWV) est une mesure clé de la rigidité artérielle et de la prédiction des événements cardiovasculaires. Alors que la PWV est proposée pour évaluer la rigidité aortique dans les anévrismes de l'aorte, sa corrélation avec la biomécanique du tissu de l'aorte ascendante n'est pas claire. Cette étude vise à comparer la PWV chez les patients avec et sans anévrismes de l'aorte ascendante et à la corréler avec la rigidité locale mesurée par échocardiographie et tests de tissus ex vivo.Méthodes:Vingt-trois patients ont subi une résection élective d'anévrisme aortique (groupe 1) ou une chirurgie de pontage …  Lire la suite

The production of charmonium states, $ chi sb1$ and $ chi sb2$, was measured at 300 GeV/c with $ pi sp+$, $ pi sp-$, and proton beams on a lithium target. The cross-sections were determined by analyzing the full data sample recorded, during the 1987-1988 running period, by experiment E705 at Fermilab. The $ chi$ mesons were detected through their radiative decay into J/$ psi$ $ gamma$ and the subsequent decay, $ psi to mu sp+ mu sp-$. The measured cross-sections for the $ chi$ mesons and estimates of the cross section for direct production of J/$ psi$'s have been …  Lire la suite

Historical facts are inherently uncertain, which can be mitigated through the use of various practices and tools. The purpose of this thesis is to apply spatiotemporal analysis techniques to historical case studies set in the Western Han Dynasty of China in order to reduce spatial and historical uncertainty surrounding these cases. The thesis was guided by three research questions, all broadly focused on the implications of applying geospatial analyses, and more specifically culturally informed and geographically enabled rule-based models to historical scenarios, and the impact it would have on spatial uncertainty in those situations. The case studies included in this …  Lire la suite

Le cancer du sein est le cancer le plus fréquemment diagnostiqué et la seconde cause de mortalité associée au cancer chez les femmes canadiennes. Le développement de métastases est la cause majeure de la morbidité et de la mortalité dûes à cette maladie. Le cancer du sein est une maladie très hétérogène qui peut toutefois être traité par l'utilisation de thérapie ciblée ; toutefois, les thérapies actuellement disponibles ont un effet limité sur la formation des métastases. Dans le but d'identifier de nouveaux médiateurs moléculaires associés à la formation de métastases osseuses dérivées du cancer du sein et qui pourraient …  Lire la suite

Up to the end of the last century, the only mode of functional co-ordination in the organism which was understood was that of reflex nervous mechanism. With the discovery however of specific hormones, the concept that there might be a humoral co-ordinating mechanism began to be entertained. [...] It is now generally accepted that the specific hormones are produced in especially developed glandular organs, the glands of internal secretion, and are transported by the blood stream to distant organs where they exert their effect. [...] In contra-distinction to these, there are substances not only produced in any one organ but …  Lire la suite

1. The histamine content of the normal and adrenalectomised male rat is lower than that of the female.2. Evidence is presented to show that there is an increase in the histamine content of the portal blood of the adrenalectomised rat after injury tothe gastro-intestinal tract, which appears within two minutes and disappears after five minutes.3. There is an increase in the histamine content of lung and lymphatic tissue in the normal rat which has been subjected to the action of muscularexercise, and surgical trauma.4. There is a decrease in the histamine content of the lung tissue and an increase of …  Lire la suite

The relationship between precipitation and atmospheric vertical motion is investigated over the globe. By combining and averaging precipitation rates within small ranges of vertical motion, the mean precipitation rate is found to vary smoothly with vertical motion. The relationship is modelled with a simple function that assumes zero precipitation for subsidence and linearly increasing precipitation for ascending motion. Function parameters are computed from NCEP reanalysis data individually for every grid point and every calendar month. Variations in the slope account for geographical and seasonal variations in moisture and other precipitation factors. At each grid point, the scheme diagnoses precipitation rate …  Lire la suite

Previous models of the coronary microcirculation have not considered the possible heterogeneity of capillary transit times nor the exchange of subatances across the sarcolemma and into the myocyte. A more extensive model including these factors was developed and teated with multiple indicator dilution data from the in situ dog heart. 125I-albumin and 51Cr-labelled red blood cells were used as intravascular references, 14C-sucrose as a capillary surface area and interstitiel space reference, tritiated water as a non-sequestered substance entering the tissue cell and 3H-palmitate as a representative of the long-chain free fatty acids which are sequestered in the myocyte. The permeating …  Lire la suite

The use of immunoadsorbents for the purification of antibodies has been investigated. An immunoadsorbent was prepared by coupling bovine serum albumin (BSA) to ehtylene maleic anhydride copolymer (EMA) at 0C, and used to adsorb rabbit anti-BSA antibodies from an ammonium sulphate precipitated globulin fraction of the antiserum. The antibodies were eluted by a column procedure with phosphate buffered 8 M urea or stepwise with 0.35 M glycine-HCl buffer pH 3.0, 2.5 and 2.0. Using urea to elute and a modification of the original procedure, recovery based on precipitable nitrogen was 42%. Purity was 50% based on the proportion of total …  Lire la suite

Immunity to Salmonella typhimurium was investigated in a susceptible (C57BI/6J) and a resistant (A/J) strain of mice. Macrophages were compared for their phagocytic and bactericidal capacities. The effect of antibody on these activities was a also studied. Normal macrophages of both strains were equally phagocytic but those of the susceptible strain were twice as bactericidal as those of the resistant strain. Therefore, susceptibility in this instance did not result from inability of macrophages to phagocytize or to kill the organism. Macrophages from resistant animals intensively immunized with a phenol-killed vaccine demonstrated increased bactericidal activity in the absence of specific antibody. …  Lire la suite

L'illusion du spectre visible is a piece for soprano, flute, clarinet, french horn, violin, cello and piano. The basic concept of this composition which is d1vided into four sections is the crystallisation of timbre. This state is achieved when the color, harmonic rhythm, and actual rhythm of a sound become periodic and in phase. The treatment of the sound is achieved through the control and manipulation of its frequency content, its spatialisation and in the evolution of its duration time. [...]  Lire la suite

I studied the onshore migrations of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence to test the predictability of the distributions and catches of a migratory predatory fish relative to physical oceanographic processes and the distributions and abundances of its prey. To survey daily fish distributions and abundances by species, hydroacoustic signal discriminant methods were developed which classified schools of cod, capelin (Mallotus villosus), and mackerel (Scomber scombrus) with 93% success. Physical oceanographic processes along the 150 km of coastline studied were characterized by Ekman-type upwellings and downwellings forced by alongshore winds at periods $>$3 d. Physical …  Lire la suite

Ohlin, Peter (Supervisor)  Lire la suite