NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Consommation de cannabis, impulsivité et comportements routiers à risque chez les jeunes conducteurs

Despite many prevention efforts, young drivers are overrepresented in road crashes. Some studies show that cannabis use and impulsivity are significant predictors of risky driving behaviour among young drivers. The aim of this thesis is to better understand the association between cannabis use and risky driving behaviour, while considering the driver’s impulsivity. For this purpose, this thesis is divided into two articles. The first article aims to verify whether the frequency of cannabis use predicts risk-taking over and above the impulsivity traits of young drivers. 209 participants aged between 17 and 25 completed questionnaires on their driving behaviours, impulsivity, and frequency of cannabis use. Results show that the frequency of cannabis use is a significant predictor of risky driving over and above the five impulsivity traits. Furthermore, positive urgency is the only impulsivity trait which predicts risky driving, regardless of the frequency of cannabis use. Several explanations of these results are proposed, including one we found particularly relevant: the probability of driving under the influence is higher with more frequent use, so the substance effects could explain risky driving behaviour. Therefore, in our second study, we wanted to test whether cannabis use was associated with risky driving behaviour even if the user was not driving under the influence. Moreover, since frequent use can be symptomatic of a cannabis use disorder (CUD), we wanted to verify its impact on risky behaviours. The second article, therefore, compares two groups of cannabis users (with or without CUD) on several driving behaviours, while considering their impulsivity. A sample of 76 male participants, cannabis users, aged 18 to 25, completed a driving simulation task and a stop-signal task, abstaining from cannabis use in the 12 hours preceding the experiment. They also completed questionnaires about their cannabis use patterns, impulsivity traits and risk-taking. Results show that users with a CUD displayed more risky behaviours in the simulator than users without a CUD, regardless of their impulsivity level and without being under the effects of the substance. Several explanations have been proposed: difficulty adjusting to driving without the influence of the substance for users with a CUD; presence of a confounding variable different from the impulsivity; or residual effects of cannabis, not detected by the stop-signal task. In summary, this thesis emphasizes that cannabis use is a contributing factor to young drivers’ risky behaviours, regardless of their impulsivity. Moreover, cannabis users are not a homogeneous group, which is why it is important to specifically target problematic users in prevention campaigns.

Keyphrases: cannabis, young drivers, risky driving behaviour, cannabis use disorder, impulsivity, disinhibition, driving simulator, stop-signal task
Apprentissage statistique avec le processus ponctuel déterminantal

This thesis presents the determinantal point process, a probabilistic model that captures repulsion between points of a certain space. This repulsion is encompassed by a similarity matrix, the kernel matrix, which selects which points are more similar and then less likely to appear in the same subset. This point process gives more weight to subsets characterized by a larger diversity of its elements, which is not the case with the traditional uniform random sampling. Diversity has become a key concept in domains such as medicine, sociology, forensic sciences and behavioral sciences. The determinantal point process is considered a promising alternative to traditional sampling methods, since it takes into account the diversity of selected elements. It is already actively used in machine learning as a subset selection method. Its application in statistics is illustrated with three papers. The first paper presents the consensus clustering, which consists in running a clustering algorithm on the same data, a large number of times. To sample the initials points of the algorithm, we propose the determinantal point process as a sampling method instead of a uniform random sampling and show that the former option produces better clustering results. The second paper extends the methodology developed in the first paper to large-data. Such datasets impose a computational burden since sampling with the determinantal point process is based on the spectral decomposition of the large kernel matrix. We introduce two methods to deal with this issue. These methods also produce better clustering results than consensus clustering based on a uniform sampling of initial points. The third paper addresses the problem of variable selection for the linear model and the logistic regression, when the number of predictors is large. A Bayesian approach is adopted, using Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods with Metropolis-Hasting algorithm. We show that setting the determinantal point process as the prior distribution for the model space selects a better final model than the model selected by a uniform prior on the model space.

Keyphrases: Approximation de Laplace, Prédiction a posteriori, Data grouping, Determinantal graphical model, Eigendecomposition, k-nearest neighbors method, Kernel-based methods, Lanczos algorithm, Laplace’s approximation, Posterior prediction, Probabilistic mutual exclusion
La vie économique dans le roman québécois (1956-1983) : représentations, histoire et pratiques

This thesis proposes an analysis, through the prism of the imaginaire social, of literay works that represent economic life, from the industrial boom that marked the post-war period to the 1980s. Combining cultural history and sociocriticism, we study the representations of economic life, their conditions of possibility, production and circulation. Our work focuses in particular on the ideological and political dimension of the working classes and of fictitious workers among marginal authors (Jean-Jules Richard, Pierre Gélinas, Germain Archambault, Maurice Gagnon and Élisabeth Vonarburg) and others who are better known (Claude Jasmin, Jacques Ferron, Jacques Renaud, Francine Noël). As the figure of the writer, the worker is a “complex normative focus” (Hamon, 1984). By crossing the analysis of different cultural productions with the reading of specific novels, the thesis questions the supposed disinterest of Québec literature for economic life.  We first attempt to rethink the categories and oppositions of literary history: realism, regionalism, “documentary” and the social novel. An analysis of the discourse of writers and critics in periodicals sheds light on the different definitions of the social role of literature and of the writer circulating in the 1950s discourse. The contrasting reception of social novels indicates the average literary quality of some of those literary works but a certain enthusiasm for social representations. Articulating history, politics and industrial work, the novels of Pierre Gélinas and Jean-Jules Richard offer a marginal point of view on the workers' strikes of the time informed by a communist sensibility. In their works, as in those published in the review and in Éditions Parti pris, the representations of women offer, by their complexity, a significant perspective on economic life. The exploration of marginality and mobility in the publishing house's publications creates the figure of the taxi driver, a modern-day coureur des bois. The last chapter focuses on the figure of the housewife and on the issue of housework. By studying Francine Noël's Maryse and Élisabeth Vonarburg's Le Silence de la Cité, we reassess the presupposition that realism is the preferred form of economic representation.

Keyphrases: Imaginaire social, Québec Literature, Sociocriticism, Economic Life, Cultural History, Communism and Political Ideologies
L'été au Parc Belmont ; suivi de, Cartographies du père

L’été au Parc Belmont is a collection of fragments that combines narrative prose, family archive photographs, handwriting and drawings. In this story, the narrator is investigating her father’s identity. The narrator gathers all the information she can ﬁnd and remains the sole enunciator of the story in her attempt to exhume the paternal past. The plot unfolds in an overwhelming, melancholy and non-linear temporality; between the father’s childhood along the Rivière des Prairies, his adolescence in Cartierville and his adulthood in a suburban town, the narrator’s investigation periodically bursts in. The use of family archives in the form of photographs and videos problematizes the relationship between text and image. Thus, photographs are used in various ways : photos which appear in the text without being directly referred to, photos which are given an elliptical or falsiﬁed ekphrasis, photos accompanied by diverted legends, etc. Cartographies du père oﬀers a reﬂection on the links between topography and biography in contemporary literary texts. In this essay, I am studying a corpus that is both Québécois and American, as well as narrative and graphic. The study focuses on three authors : Alison Bechdel (Fun Home : A Family Tragicomic, 2006), Hervé Bouchard (Harvey ou Comment je suis devenu invisible, 2009) and Catherine Mavrikakis (La ballade d’Ali Baba, 2014). Beyond the relationships between transmission and locales, the texts of my corpus are linked by the father’s death, an unsurpassable loss, an event that is yet to be investigated by the narrators. While this essay focuses on the way in which these texts thematize paternal absence –namely through the diﬃculties and shortcomings of the transmission resulting from this loss – it is also questioning the ways in which the authors represent various locales, play with the space of the page, mobilize mapping tools and describe routes. For these heirs, the reconstruction of a family event or history necessarily involves a reconstruction of the setting, whether it be the Pennsylvania countryside, the Bouillon family home or the road between Montreal and Key West. The analysis of the reconstruction of the locale informs the reader of the relationship that the heir maintains with the father ﬁgure. Cartographies du père also oﬀers a reﬂection on the act of remembering and talking about another person and on the inevitable ﬁctional shifts that this action provoke.

Keyphrases: Roman, XXIe siècle, Quebec literature, American literature, 21st century, Creative writing, Photographs, Comics, Novel, Father ﬁgure, Place studies, Intertextuality
Comparaison sonore de 4 films inspirés du même roman : “l'invasion des profanateurs” (1955)

This Thesis is a sound comparison between four movies inspired by the same novel : The Body Snatchers (1955) by Jack Finney. I talk about the audio technology that each movie used and how it has contributed in the evolution of the musical style, the foley, and the sound design. At first, I compare the 4 movies in a general way : the musical themes, the use of the foley to scare the audience, the Jump Scare, and the sound design. Then, I chose 4 common scenes that I analyze more in details. This thesis gives a partial view of the evolution of sound in science fiction movies.

Keyphrases: science-fiction, sound design, Film music, Science fiction
Étude du changement de l’architecture du sommeil chez la personne âgée après un sevrage aux benzodiazépines couplé à la thérapie cognitivo-comportementale pour insomnie

Background: Benzodiazepines (BZD) and related drugs are consumed chronically by a large part of the elderly population with chronic insomnia. However, this use in this population is criticized for the risk of associated side effects. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is the first-line treatment for insomnia because of its efficacy and safety.  Objective: The objective of this project is to assess changes in sleep quality, macroarchitecture and sleep microarchitecture after withdrawal from BZD in the elderly with chronic insomnia. Then, we study the effect of CBT-I coupled with withdrawal on the same variables of interest. We hypothesize that weaning will be accompanied by an improvement in the subjective sleep quality  (decrease in Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and increase in sleep efficiency (SE)) and a modification of certain distinct variables: sleep spindle and stage N3 (increase in the percentage at stage N3 and decrease in the density of sleep spindles). In addition, we hypothesize that these changes will be more pronounced with CBT-I coupled with weaning.    Methods: 41 participants (mean age: 69.39 ± 6.88 years) were randomized into 2 groups; stratified for age, duration and dose of BZD and relatives consumed: the weaning+CBT-I group (N = 23) and the weaning group (N = 18). All participants complete a 16-week weaning plan with follow-up, and at the same time, only the therapy group receives CBT-I. Data acquisition is carried out before and after weaning from questionnaire (ISI), sleep diary (SE) over a period of 14 days, and by polysomnographic recordings (stage N3 and density of sleep spindles).   Results: 60.98% of participants (weaning+CBT-I group: 60.87%; weaning group: 61.11%) succeeded in completely stopping their medication after withdrawal. A decrease in ISI (F(1.40) = 4.36, p = 0.04) and in sleep spindle density (F(1.36) = 7.18, p = 0.01) was observed after weaning. Finally, CBT-I coupled with weaning showed a greater increase in SE (Sleep Diary; F(1.35) = 6.75, p = 0.01) compared to the control group.  Conclusion: The weaning plan with follow-up makes it possible to obtain complete weaning in a majority of participants, without any significant worsening of their quality of sleep being observed. The addition of CBT-I during withdrawal from BZD and related products resulted in a greater improvement in self-reported sleep quality (Sleep Diary: SE).

Keyphrases: Benzodiazepines, Withdrawal, CBT-I, Sleep architecture, Elderly
Perceptions du proche aidant et du professionnel de la santé quant au statut fonctionnel des personnes atteintes de la maladie d’Alzheimer ou d’autres troubles neurocognitifs : un examen de la portée

The role of the caregiver is essential in supporting the autonomy of those with Alzheimer's disease (or another neurocognitive disorder). However, although the caregiver's perception of the functional status of the person to whom he or she provides support has already been studied, no literature review that has addressed the correspondence between a professional assessment and the perception of functional status by caregivers. The objective of this study is therefore to compare the caregiver's perception and evaluation of the healthcare professional regarding the functional status of seniors with Alzheimer's disease (or other neurocognitive disorders). To do so, a scope review was conducted. Sixteen articles meeting the inclusion criteria were included in the study. All studies were non-experimental (cross-sectional, longitudinal, cohort with control group, cohort, qualitative and mixed), and represented heterogeneous samples with respect to the cognitive dimension of the subjects. The majority of studies (n=10) had more female than male participants. The age of seniors with a neurocognitive disorder ranged from 62.4 (±6.8) y.o. to 82.73 (±6.4) y.o., and that of caregivers ranged from 48.2 (±15.2) y.o. to 79.6 (±8.5) y.o. Spouses of people with Alzheimer's disease or a neurocognitive disorder were the primary caregivers among family caregivers, followed by children. Assessment settings varied from home, clinical settings or research center laboratories. The results of 75 % of the studies show that the assessments made by professionals gave results that diverge from the perception of caregivers. In 31 % of the studies, there was a tendency for caregivers to underestimate abilities compared to professionals, while in 25 % of the studies, there was a tendency for caregivers to overestimate abilities. Finally, in 19 % of the studies, the nature of the discrepancies (underestimation or overestimation) was not specified Results on the nature of the relationship between the person with a neurocognitive disorder and his/her caregiver suggest that spouses tend to overestimate the functional abilities of people with mild neurocognitive disorders, while relatives in other types of relationships (child, friend) generally show a tendency to underestimate them. Moreover, differences between caregivers and professionals are more likely to be related to activities related to instrumental activities of daily living. Additional studies with caregivers will have to be conducted in parallel with standardized assessments by healthcare professionals in order to collect more data to better understand which activities of functional status are perceived in a divergent way.

Keyphrases: Perception, Neurocognitive disorder, Activities of daily living, Caregiver
Clarification of the role of the TBC1D24 gene in human genetic conditions

Pathogenic variants in the TBC1D24 gene are associated with genetic disorders, the majority of which are transmitted in an autosomal recessive manner. The phenotypes are variable in terms of clinical presentation and severity. The most severe forms cause epileptic encephalopathy (EIEE16) or DOORS syndrome which is marked by deafness, abnormalities of the nails and fingers, intellectual deficit and convulsions which are often difficult to control. Other forms of epilepsy include EPRPDC (Rolandic epilepsy with paroxysmal exercise-induce dystonia and writer's cramp), FIME (familial infantile myoclonic epilepsy), and PME (progressive myoclonus epilepsy). A specific missense variant is associated with autosomal dominant deafness (DFNA65) which develops in adulthood. A review of the literature of the published phenotypes observed in individuals with pathogenic variants in the TBC1D24 gene is presented here with recommendations for the clinical management of these patients. In addition, a group of eight patients with intellectual disability and epilepsy who share a microdeletion on chromosome 1613.3 containing the TBC1D24 gene were characterized in order to define a new genetic syndrome. The critical region contains TBC1D24, ATP6V0C and PDPK1. The significantly similar phenotype shared by the eight individuals suggests that haploinsufficiency for TBC1D24, ATP6V0C and PDPK1 causes a new genetic syndrome. Knowledge of the genes essential for the phenotype in this cohort helps in the identification of new candidate genes for intellectual disability and epilepsy.

Keyphrases: DOORS, FIME, PME, EPRPDC, TBC1D24, Microdeletion, Epilepsy, Deafness, Intellectual disability
Développement du langage communicatif chez les autistes qui ont expérimenté une régression langagière en bas âge

Early language regression (ELR) is observed by 10 to 50% of autistic children parents but its relevance on the development of language and socio-communicative skills is uncertain. This master's thesis aims to establish the effect of ELR on the progression of language development and socio-communicative outcomes. It also aims to highlight the atypical communicative features that accompany the language development of autistic children with ELR. Retrospective data from 2 047 unrelated autistic children aged from 4 to 18 years were extracted from the Simons Simplex Collection. Language progression following ELR was quantified and the probability of achieving fluent speech modelled by logistic regression. Atypical communicative features associated with a history of ELR were identified and grouped. Linear models were used to evaluate the relationship of ELR, non- verbal IQ and the combination of atypical communicative features with language and socio-communicative levels. ELR is associated with faster language onset but later attainment of speech fluency. The probability of reaching fluent speech is mostly influenced by non-verbal IQ, the effect of which is not modulated by ELR. Autistic children with ELR present a speech development, which starts early, followed by a plateau and a final phase of catch up. The latter is associated with a group of atypical communicative features that may represent a core language development profile in autism.

Keyphrases: Hétérogénéité, Autism, Speech, Language, Heterogeneity
Validation of synthetic lethal hits of microtubule targeting agents

Microtubules, key components of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton, are highly dynamic polymers of tubulin implicated in a wide variety of cellular processes. Their essential roles in the cell cycle have made them a valid target in cancer therapy. Despite the clinical efficacy of microtubule targeting agents (MTA), their use is hampered by side effects. We sought to identify genetic vulnerabilities that can be exploited to decrease the required dose while maintaining efficacy, and therefore reduce side effects. In collaboration with the Tyers laboratory at IRIC, we carried out a genetic screen based on synthetic lethality with antiproliferative agents, including MTAs. We have selected genes whose knockout sensitized cells to MTAs. I have confirmed that the knockout of GNA13, SEPHS1, DLGAP5, and QRICH1, DLGAP5, sensitize NALM6 cells to docetaxel and vincristine respectively. However, no knockout of these genes increased the sensitivity to docetaxel in U2OS cells. In addition to its effect with docetaxel, GNA13 stood out as being a particularly exciting target. GNA13 knockout increased the frequency and severity of chromosome segregation errors in U2OS cells. This increase was not corrected following treatment with UMK57, a molecule known to reduce the rate of chromosome segregation errors. Interestingly, the GNA13 knockout also increased the frequency of chromosome segregation errors in non-cancerous and chromosomally stable RPE1 cells. This suggests that GNA13 does not require transformation nor chromosomal instability as prerequisites for exacerbating chromosomal instability. Overall, these results open up a new avenue of anticancer therapeutic strategies, namely, the treatment of cancers presenting mutations in QRICH1, DLGAP5, GNA13, and SEPHS1 with lower doses of MTAs. In particular, GNA13 is frequently mutated in certain lymphomas. In addition, the results obtained demonstrate that GNA13 knockout exacerbates chromosomal instability and, therefore, could be involved in carcinogenesis.

Keyphrases: Microtubules, Cancer, Mitose, Vincristine, GNA13, QRICH1, DLGAP5, SEPHS1, Chromosomal instability, Mitosis, Synthetic lethality
La protection des renseignements personnels dans l'exploitation des assistants vocaux.

Voice assistants bring a new way for humans to interact with technology by only using their voice. Scalable and interactive technology thanks to artificial intelligence. We will see that the technical and software characteristics of voice assistants contribute to a massive collection of personal information by companies.  The imprecision of confidentiality policies, the absence of information on the mode of operation, the imperfection of the Natural Language Processing characterized by false positives and the difficulties inherent in the exercise by individuals of some of their rights contribute to the mismatch between voice assistants and various existing laws. In addition, the possibility for people to interact with the object as well as its lack of autonomy tend to complicate the application of civil liability regimes, including that resulting from the act of thing.  This recent appearance of voice assistants has so far not giving judges the possibility to rule on the right to privacy, protection of personal information and civil liability. Current case law doesn’t seem to be well adapted to the technological context around the voice assistant, and more generally the voice. The Oakes test, which was design to determining the reasonableness of a violation of the rights and freedoms set out in the Canadian Charter, appears to be unsuited to this new context. We will see that the lack of powers conferred on the competent authorities represents a major obstacle in monitoring the application of the rule of law.

Keyphrases: Artificial intelligence, Personal information, Civil liability, Privacy, Voice assistant, Algorithm, Natural language processing