NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
A new identity for a new beginning : desistance from crime by the process of informing

The main objective of this dissertation is to analyze and comprehend the phenomenon of desisting from crime by providing information to law-enforcement authorities. From this general purpose, specific objectives were of consideration. First, the focus is shifted towards the way an offender overcomes internal barriers and external stigma to eventually adhere to a pejorative label such as informant or snitch. Second, the emotional process at the source of one’s decision to turn away from crime and cooperate with the government is under study. Third, attention is placed on the implications and the consequences of justice collaboration on an offender’s ability to appeal to their new identity, as well as their tendency to maintain desistance from crime.    Inspired by a phenomenological approach, data collected for this master’s thesis was retrieved from literary works such as autobiographies and biographies written by and about self-proclaimed ex-offenders turned state informants. More precisely, the sample includes twelve (12) life-accounts. The data was extracted by using a coding sheet, constructed from In Vivo coding, emotion coding and descriptive coding.    Results show that the decision to cease criminal involvement by becoming an informant is based on a turning point. Identified turning points relate to an offender’s experience of a significant loss. Furthermore, unlike offenders who desist from crime through a different path, those who inform must manifest greater adaptability to their new prosocial identity, especially when under a witness protection program (WPP). Although some justified their cooperation by their maturation, their desire to do good or by the seduction of a new deviant challenge, informing did not prove to be an infallible way to sustain desistance. Indeed, while some were unable to internalize their new identity due to certain factors (e.g. new name, geographical relocation, solitude, unfulfilled needs by the WPP), others could not bear the ubiquitous stigma of being labelled an informant (and congruently, the fear of retaliation).   These findings provide insight on the emotional unfolding of desisting from crime by transitioning from offender to informant. It is hoped that a better acknowledgement of the phenomenon will encourage policy makers and government officials to improve informant-related procedures in order to reduce the risk of recidivism and thus better protect society.

Keyphrases: crime, informants, identity, phenomenology, desistance, crime, labelling, emotional process
« O.K. Google, assiste-moi » : les parcours des utilisateurs et des familles qui domestiquent le Google Home

The last five years have been marked by the proliferation of applications that are based on artificial intelligence. Intelligent personal assistants, such as the Google Home, are among these popular apps that integrate consumer’s homes and they specifically target families. Basically, these devices are speakers, but they can do much more than just play music (eg, answering questions, voice control your home, telling stories, etc.). Their novelty and the many ways they can be customized make them interesting to study the malleability and integration of technologies in everyday life. This research explores how 26 Google Home users, including six families, have integrated (or not) this device into their daily routines. We looked at the problems they encounter with this technology, their strategies for overcoming them, and the meanings they ascribe to their Google Home over their journey with this object. In interviews, participants demonstrated how a Google Home does not become an "assistant" overnight. Using domestication theory, we retrace the paths of the users and families who have to “tame” it before it takes on this meaning for them. Finally, we show how, beyond individual assistance, the Google home has the potential to reconfigure family dynamics as it becomes a family assistant.

Keyphrases: Domestication, Assistant personnel intelligent, Google Home, Routines, Intelligent personal assistant, Families, Artificial intelligence, Voice recognition
Group defamation and harm to identity

The law of group defamation is habitually confronted by objections on two fronts. First, in the tort of group defamation, the law requires that the member claiming injury is able to establish that the defamatory statement was “of and concerning” him personally, and thus that the prejudice was subjective and individualized by nature. Courts have traditionally refused to admit cause of action if the involved group was too large. The harm caused by such group-targeting expression is presumed to be somehow lessened by its generalized formulation, defaming the group as a whole as opposed to individual member(s). Therefore, it does not constitute sufficiently individualized harm to an identifying member of the group. Second, on a broader, constitutional level, group libel laws appear to contravene the very order of system of fundamental rights given the reverence freedom of expression commands in democratic societies.  The present thesis argues otherwise. The study opines that the harm in group defamation that degrades fundamental characteristics such as race or ethnicity can indeed give rise to individual prejudice because it is a form of harm to identity. In doing so, the study first critically reexamines laws on (group) defamation, related relevant laws, and their constitutional treatment in the American and Canadian legal systems. The thesis offers a new way of reconceptualizing harm in group defamatory speech grounded on an identity-based framework.

Keyphrases: Expression, Individu, Defamation, Speech, Harm, Identity, Individual, Group, Communitarianism, Liberalism, Freedom of expression
Les pierres à moudre du site d’Ucanal, Guatemala : provenance des matériaux dans les basses-terres mayas de la période Classique

This thesis examines groundstone artifacts found at the archaeological site of Ucanal, in Petén, Guatemala. These stone tools consist primarily of manos and metates, tools which were indispensable to all Maya households since they were used to process corn into flour, one of the basic staples of the Maya diet. This thesis documents the typological, stylistic, technological, and raw material characteristics of a sample of 156 groundstone tools dating from the Late Preclassic to Terminal Classic periods (ca. 300 BC – AD 1000). In addition, a more focused chemical composition study of the granite and quartzite groundstone tools was conducted using a portable X-ray fluorescence machine (pXRF) in order to test the reliability of the pXRF for identifying provenience sources and, if possible, to identify different exchange networks between Ucanal and other regions of the Maya area. Groundstone raw materials were also assessed by archaeological context in order to identify if elite, middle-status, and commoner households at the site of Ucanal had access to different raw materials sources and thereby participated in different economic exchange networks. The results of this chemical composition study reveal that the site of Ucanal had access to three sources of granites from the Maya Mountains in Belize. Although the results from the quartzite samples are too preliminary to identify specific source locations, they reveal that the majority of the quartzite tools had a similar chemical composition. Contextual analyses reveal that different types of households did not have significantly different access to non-local groundstone raw materials, and therefore the exchange of groundstone tools may have occurred through market exchange. Finally, access to non-local groundstone tools did not decline over the course of the Late Classic (ca. 600-830 AD) to Terminal Classic (ca. 830-1000 AD) periods, indicating that the site continued to engage in long-distance exchanges despite political crises that were experienced more broadly in the Southern Maya Lowlands during the Terminal Classic period.

Keyphrases: pXRF, Ucanal, Granites, Groundstone, Sourcing, Maya Mountains, Maya Lowlands
Design persuasif de jeu de rôle de table : introduction et validation d'une approche argumentative au design de jeu

We often refer to the ‘experience’ as the reason for playing a game. As such, it is an important component of the game designer’s work since they must support the player in reaching the experience proposed by the game. Unfortunately, at present, no known design approach helps the designer act on this experience in a voluntary and concrete way. By focusing on the philosophy of action, which allows us to link experience to action and then to reasoning, we went in search of an approach that would allow us to influence the desires, knowledge and beliefs of the player, in order to act directly on his reasoning. Following the path of persuasive design, already drawn by other authors in the field, we opted for an approach based on the Treaty on argumentation. This approach was first built on the translation of the main concepts of the argumentation. Then, by focusing on research through design literature, we put this approach to the test, through the creation of a tabletop role-playing game and the deployment of user playtests. The design and tests allowed us to collect — through a logbook, direct observation of participants, and focus groups — data to refine the theoretical model of the approach. The experiment revealed that a persuasive design would indeed influence the desires, knowledge and beliefs of the players, but that the discussion goes beyond the causal link of game mechanics to the intended experience. Indeed, the designer can use several rhetorical tools through the attributes of the game to lead the player to its development. Nevertheless, these tools are only stepping-stones used to bring the player through several stages and behaviors. This thesis will specifically discuss persuasive design as it is applied to the design of a role-playing game, and may, in the future, grow into a research program that targets persuasive design in a broader sense.

Keyphrases: Argumentation, Game design, Persuasive design, Rhetoric, Role-playing games, Research through design
Le citoyen au coeur de la résilience dans l’agglomération de Montréal : lorsque l’adaptation au risque devient la préoccupation de chacun

Resilience, the capacity of a city or environment to maintain its structure, to reshape, learn and adapt to shocks and stresses, leads to an increased accountability of citizens in risk preparedness and mitigation. Since the city’s settlement, floods have occurred frequently in Montreal, but citizens are still little prepared, as the damage caused by the 2017 spring floodings shows. From the beginning of the 21st Century, international agencies and governments are striving to increase public awareness and encourage citizens to take action. An informed citizen will have an increased risk perception which will lead to a protection behavior. This link between information, perception and behavior is not clear however. Previous research shows in fact that the protection behavior depends on multiple factors such as experience, risk occurrence, as well as coping appraisal compared to costs of a measure. This thesis answers the following research question: how to encourage people to adopt protective actions against floods in Montreal? A research investigation involving 237 citizens from four areas of Montreal that were impacted by the 2017 spring floods sheds light on barriers to the adoption of protective action, analyzed through the Protective Action Decision Model (Lindell, Perry, 2012). In our case, the lack of action is due to a lack of information and knowledge about risk sources as well as mitigation measures, a perception that preparedness measures such as the 72h emergency kit are not efficient, a perception of a low self-efficacy in implementing mitigation measures, and the resource-intensive cost of these measures. One major factor is the uncertainty of floods, a risk that we are not capable to predict accurately, which combined with a high perceived responsibility of public authorities leads to a lack of incentive to act immediately. Based on these findings, a case study of New Orleans in the United States, offers some thoughts on the ways we can encourage citizens to undertake protective measures, including a combination of awareness measures, engagement, as well as enforcement and the use of incentives. This study of barriers to individual protective action against floods investigated here depicts the same problems we face when promoting action against climate change.

Keyphrases: Perception, Adaptation, Resilience, Risk awareness, Uncertainty, Risk management, Floods, Climate change, Preparedness, Mitigation
Développement de mimétiques du sialyl LewisX comportant une unité tartrate différenciée par l’incorporation d’un pharmacophore anionique

E- and P-selectins are important drug targets for treating inflammation related diseases. They play a key role in leukocyte recruitment at sites of injury, which is an important defense mechanism of the immune system. In response to inflammatory stimuli, the vascular cell walls express E- and P-selectins that bind to complementary transmembrane glycoprotein ligands ESL-1 and PSGL-1 located on the surface of leukocytes. These adhesion proteins interact with sialyl LewisX, a tetrasaccharide bound to ESL-1 and PSGL-1 to mediate the rolling and capture of leukocytes at sites of inflammation. Unfortunately, excessive infiltration or accumulation of leukocytes leads to several acute or chronic conditions such as stroke, rheumatoid arthritis and respiratory diseases. E- and P-selectins are also involved in cancer metastasis and in complications for sickle cell diseased patients. Therefore, there is a medical need for drugs that could prevent this excessive recruitment of leukocytes, such as novel sLeX analogues. Recent studies have provided insights into the bioactive conformation of sLeX binding to E- or P-selectins, revealing key pharmacophores. Previously, a first generation of tartrate-based mimetics synthesized and tested by our group have exhibited exciting results. Building upon these results, the objectives of my Master’s research presented in this thesis was to synthesize a second generation of sLeX mimetics functionalized at the acyclic tartrate tether with a side chain bearing an anionic pharmacophore could afford favorable interactions with a second binding site on the selectins. Preliminary results allowed us to isolate two analogues presenting better activity than our first generation of antagonists.

Keyphrases: Sialyl LewisX, Inflammation, Tartrate, Analogues, Selectins, Total synthesis, Carbohydrates, Mimetics
Démocratie et paradoxe du vote : fondements théoriques et enjeux socio-économiques en Afrique subsaharienne francophone

The widespread democratization in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa, driven by France since 1990 as a conditionality of development aid, has since come up against numerous constraints. The difficulty of appropriating the very principle of democracy is a real limit to its practical implementation, particularly because of the voting paradox associated with it. The resulting socio-economic challenges imply the state's capacity to guarantee fundamental citizen rights, not only formal but also in terms of equitable distribution and transmission within and between generations of capabilities.

Keyphrases: Philosophy, Ethics, Economics, French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa, Capabilities, Fragility, Paradox of democratic voting, Fragilité
An integrated 3D approach for effective mine risk education in post war-zone areas

International Mine Action Standards define Mine Risk Education (MRE) as activities that seek to reduce the risk of death and injury from mines and explosive remnants of war, by raising awareness and promoting safe behaviour. MRE systems and practices in post clearance areas in conflict affected regions worldwide promote two main types of activities, identification of explosive remnants of war and making the correct response ensuring individual safety as well as the safety of the community. This can be viewed as a two dimensional approach spanned by Identification and Response dimensions. This paper based on the findings from a recent empirical study conducted specifically in the northern Sri Lanka introducing Reconciliation as a third dimension to further improve the present two dimensional approach of mine risk education. The authors acknowledge that MRE has had a positive impact on war affected communities in global context. However, it needs considerable integration of a learning module which should reflect the different causes of life catastrophe risks are similar to mine risks in extreme scenarios- they constitute non-diversifiable risks, so that MRE helps maintain a significant effect and long- lasting impact on attitudes towards landmines and other explosive remnants of war at the community level.

Keyphrases: Philosophy, Ethics, Economics, Explosive remnants of war, Mine risk education, Reconciliation, Risk
Mise à l’essai de l’intégration de l’approche par compétences aux formations réalisées par les conseillères en sciences infirmières en milieu clinique

Nurses have the responsibility to assess, monitor, apply nursing and medical care plans and ensure follow-up with their patients (Côté, Tanguay, Gagnon, Charlin and Michaud, 2014). However, those responsibilities come with their own set of burdens. Lack of confidence, and difficulty in mobilizing resources, are several reasons that nurses feel they are not well equipped to react in certain clinical settings (Shin, Jung, Kim, Lee and Eom, 2010). Audétat Voirol, Chapados and Laurin (2014) believe that a gap in clinical reasoning  (RCI) explain the difference between real live clinical situations and those learned during a nurses’education. However, nurses denounce that theoretical knowledge and clinical training is often accelerated and seldom reflects the reality of nursing (Al-Dossary, Kitsantas and Maddox, 2014). It is therefore essential that throughout their career, nurses have relevant and realistic training that will give them an accurate overview of the complexity of nursing. This training was to enable nurses to develop and transfer into their daily practice effective multidisciplinary decision-making skills in the management of their patients and families. Through various pedagogical activities, a Competency-based approach (APC) allows the multidisciplinary integration of knowledge in an optimal way and enables the learner to give meaning to his / her learning (Tardif, 2003). According to Nguyen and Blais (2007), a Competency-based approach allows the design of activities that foster the development of critical analysis, clinical reasoning, communication skills and leadership. These elements are essential for optimal nursing practice (Larue and al., 2013; Audétat Voirol and al., 2014). Despite its high potential and being recommended by the Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec (INSPQ, 2011), this approach is rarely used in the clinical setting. A change in pedagogical approach is required and nurse educators need to shift toward the Competency-based approach when developing new educational content. The purpose of this internship was to integrate the Competency-base approach into the training provided by the nurse educators of the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de la Montérégie-Est (CIUSSSME) using an online tool called Transform your training provided by the Centre d’Innovation en Formation Infirmière (CIFI), 16 Nurses educators were guided to transform one of their educational programs into a Competency-based approach. The intervention was done with the hope of improving the clinical reasoning of the nurses receiving this educational content. This intervention convinced the nursing direction of the health care center to provide the training session to all nurse educators in their center.

Keyphrases: Formation, Formation infirmière, Nurse educator, Nursing Formation, Competency-based approach
Étude des déterminants de l’induction et de la sensibilité à l’interféron chez le réovirus de mammifères

Mammalian reovirus is currently under study as an oncolytic virus that can preferentially kill cancer cells. Although the viral and cellular determinants responsible are poorly understood, the interferon-related signaling pathways are probably involved. Two viral isolates differing in their sensitivity to interferon were previously obtained and their nucleotide sequence was determined. In order to establish the importance of the differences between these two viruses (T3DK and VeroAV) and the wild-type virus (T3DS), the plasmids carrying each of the corresponding viral genes were mutated. Viruses carrying different combinations of T3DK or VeroAV genes in a T3DS genetic background were then recovered by transfection of cells using the "reverse genetics" technique. T3DK virus is not only more sensitive to interferon than T3DS, but it also induces much more interferon production. We were able to show that the sensitivity phenotype is solely due to the presence of the T3DK μ2 and λ2 proteins, whereas its ability to induce the interferon-related pathways is rather associated with the combination of its μ2 and λ1 proteins. On the other hand, the VeroAV virus is also more sensitive to interferon than the T3DS virus, without however inducing more interferon. The sensitivity phenotype is, in this case, due to a single point mutation in the virus S1 gene. This mutation modifies both the σ1 and σ1s protein of VeroAV, but it seems that it is its impact on the non-structural protein σ1s that is responsible for the observed sensitivity phenotype. The results thus demonstrated that phenotypes of induction and sensitivity to interferon are partially genetically dissociable properties and that they may be dependent on multiple viral determinants. The selection of interferon-sensitive mutants followed by their characterization with the reverse genetics approach will certainly contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in the mammalian reovirus oncotropism.

Keyphrases: Reovirus, Interferon, Reverse genetics
Le carcinome intracanalaire de la prostate : indication potentielle pour la radiothérapie adjuvante

Background: Intraductal carcinoma of the prostate (IDC-P) is a variant of prostate cancer (PC) that can be found amongst usual forms. Studies observed that IDC-P has a different biology and response pattern to treatments usually offered to patients with advanced disease. Treatment response for localised PC with IDC-P has never been studied. Objective: To test the impact of adjuvant radiotherapy (ART) in patients with localized PC and IDC-P. Methods: We performed a retrospective study of men with localized PC treated by radical prostatectomy (RP) with or without ART, from two centers (1993–2015). Exclusion criteria were the use of another type of treatment prior to BCR, and detectable PSA following RP or ART. Primary outcome was BCR. Patients were grouped by treatment (RPonly/RP+ART), IDC-P status, and presence of high-risk features (HRF: Grade Groups 4–5, positive margins, pT3 stage). Results: We reviewed 293 RP specimens (median follow-up 99 months, 63 BCR). Forty-eight patients (16.4%) were treated by RP+ART. Multivariate Cox regression for BCR indicated that IDC-P had the strongest impact compared to other HRF (HR=2.39, 95%CI:1.44-3.97), while ART reduced the risk of BCR (HR=0.38, 95%CI: 0.17-0.85). The protective effect of ART was superior in IDC-P[+] patients, when compared to IDC-P[–] patients. IDC-P[+] patients who did not receive ART had the worst BCR-free survival (log-rank P=0.023). Furthermore, IDC-P had the same impact on BCR-free survival as ≥1 HRF (log-rank P=0.955). Conclusion: Men with IDC-P who did not receive ART had the highest BCR rates, and IDC-P had the same impact as ≥1 HRF, which are often used as ART indications. Once validated, ART should be considered in patients with IDC-P.

Keyphrases: Adjuvant radiotherapy, Biochemical recurrence, Intraductal carcinoma of the prostate, Radical prostatectomy