NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Pour une théorie de l’éditorialisation

The “digital turn” has been the object of many disciplinary interpretations: from media studies to the information and communication sciences, sociology, psychology, political sciences, and so on. This is not surprising if one considers –with Milad Doueihi– that the “digital turn” can be conceived as a cultural phenomenon, affecting all aspects of our lives and calling into question all our conceptual categories. The term “digital humanities” can somehow serve to signify this univerhumanités numériques Pour une théorie de l’éditorialisation Résumés sality of the digital turn: it adresses the question of what humanity becomes in the digital age. Philosophy tries to take into account the same universality: beyond any disciplinary specificity, the philosophical questioning aims to understand a phenomenon or a fact in all its implications. This paper starts from the concept of editorialisation to propose a philosophical theory of the world in the digital age. A philosophy therefore not “of the digital turn”, because the object of philosophy can only be universal, but rather a philosophy “in the digital age”.

Keyphrases: Éditorialisation, Theory of the digital humanities, Philosophy, Information and communication sciences, Authority, Editorialisation, Digital space, Content curation, Philosophy of the digital
Exploration des considérations des intervenantes allochtones en regard de leur travail en contexte Inuit, dans une perspective décoloniale

Aboriginal peoples are highly resilient to many physical and psychosocial health issues. Intergenerational trauma from past and current colonization is seen as one of the explanations for these difficulties, coupled with a lack of services to address the determinants of well-being involved. To address these challenges, community-based approaches that promote empowerment and self-governance are recommended. Non-Aboriginal stakeholders are involved in supporting community mobilization and their contribution can be substantial. Nevertheless, it seems essential to decolonize interventions, particularly by carrying out an introspection on one's own presence and impact in an indigenous context. In the first part, an ethnographic analysis of my process as a young student-researcher will be carried out and will allow an analysis of the feelings, tensions, questions and reflections that shaped this thesis. Then, the results of phenomenological qualitative analysis of five interviews conducted with non-Inuit stakeholders working in Nunavik or Nunavut will be presented. The analysis of these verbatim will have made it possible to highlight the speaker's considerations in relation to themselves and in relation to the communities, from a decolonial perspective. The inductive qualitative analysis of a focus group conducted with Inuit stakeholders will then be presented, validating some considerations. This study will have supported the importance of self-knowledge and the recognition of invisible privileges of non-aboriginal people in relation to past and current history of colonization, in order to meet the needs of communities as a priority through the establishment of meaningful and lasting trust-based relationships.

Keyphrases: collaboration, Whiteness, Aboriginal, Colonization, Decolonial perspectives, Inuit, Trust-based relationships
Les relations élèves-enseignants et les attitudes des enseignants : contribution du statut générationnel et de la région d’origine

Students' perceptions of their relationships with their teachers and their attitudes towards them are known to be associated with student academic success, particularly for students with an immigrant background. Despite the increase in immigration and the interest in the academic experiences of these students, a limited amount of quantitative research has examined how these students perceive their teachers’ attitudes and practices in Quebec. The aim of this study is, therefore, to examine students’ perceptions of the level of closeness and conflict in their relationships with teachers, as well as their perceptions of teachers' expectations of success and negative feedback towards them. More specifically, the study examines whether there are distinctions in these perceptions between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation students and between students of Haitian, North African and Canadian origin. It also explores whether there is an interaction between generational status and the region of origin on students' perceptions. Data were collected from 819 students in 8 different high schools in the province of Quebec. Results show that 2nd generation students, compared to their 3rd generation peers, consider their relationships with teachers to be less warm. Also, 1st generation students perceive slightly higher expectations of success among their teachers than non-immigrant students. These students also feel that they are receiving more negative feedback from teachers. In addition, students from Haiti report less closeness with teachers and, for students of 2nd generation, they are more likely to perceive lower teachers’ expectations toward them. The implications of these results for practice and research are discussed.

Keyphrases: Immigration, Student teacher relationship, Teacher attitudes, Student perception
Associations longitudinales entre le soutien maternel à l’autonomie et la performance en mathématiques chez les enfants au primaire : analyses par courbes de croissance

Increasing evidence suggests that maternal autonomy support fosters academic achievement in children. However, despite evidence that mathematical achievement evolves markedly during elementary school years, no study has examined early autonomy support in relation to mathematical achievement trajectories. Moreover, few studies have considered the role of child general cognitive abilities in these associations. With a sample of 113 mother–child dyads, the current study investigated whether patterns of growth in mathematical achievement during the first three years of elementary school were predicted by the interaction between maternal autonomy support and child general cognitive abilities, both assessed in infancy. Maternal autonomy support was assessed based on videotaped mother–child interactions, whereas child general cognitive abilities and mathematical achievement were assessed using standardised tests. Results suggest that early maternal autonomy support predicts later mathematical development in children, although this relation unfolds differently based on children’s baseline cognitive abilities. These findings suggest that maternal autonomy support in the first years of life may confer long-lasting benefits for children’s acquisition of mathematical knowledge.

Keyphrases: Autonomy support, Mathematical skills, Longitudinal design, Growth curve modeling
Changement des patrons de mouvements oculaires en présence d’un scotome artificiel central

Age Macular Degeneration (AMD) currently affects one million Canadians, making it the leading cause of vision loss in Canada. AMD causes the appearance of a blind spot on the macula – the central area of vision. This blind spot affects the central vision making visual perceptions blurry or distorted. The impact of this condition is considerable since it impedes driving as well as reading and ultimately leads to total blindness. AMD has also been shown to be a risk factor for depression and social isolation, further compromising quality of life for patients. One of the avenues of rehabilitation for patients is to improve their use of their residual visual function, in particular their peripheral vision. The purpose of the present research is to investigate the rehabilitative potential of training requiring the use of peripheral vision in healthy participants in the presence of a simulated central vision loss. An understanding of changes in eye movement patterns in the presence of a central artificial scotoma will help develop rehabilitation protocols for people with AMD and more broadly people with central visual loss. Results demonstrate an adaptation of visual strategies among participants, resulting in increased performance, reduced response times and better discrimination, suggesting that training is likely to contribute to the rehabilitation of people with central vision loss.

Keyphrases: central vision loss, preferred retinal locus, age-related macular degeneration
Efficacy of musical interventions on social, maladaptive and language outcomes in children with autism spectrum disorder, a systematic review and meta-analysis

There is considerable interest in using music interventions (MIs) to address core impairments present in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). An increasing number of studies suggest that MIs have positive outcomes in this population, but no systematic review employing meta-analysis to date has investigated the efficacy of MIs across three of the predominant symptoms in ASD, specifically social functioning, maladaptive behaviors and language impairments. In this thesis, all available peer-reviewed studies (n = 17) comparing active MIs to non-music interventions (NMIs) were systematically summarized and evaluated using quality assessment based on the CONSORT statement. Eleven studies fulfilled inclusion criteria for meta-analysis, which differentiated between within-session and longitudinal outcomes. The quantitative analyses results supported the effectiveness of MI in ASD, and particularly for measures sensitive to social maladaptive behaviors. Comparing between MI and NMI, the results were generally suggestive of benefits of MI over NMI for social outcomes, but did not find benefits for non-social maladaptive behaviors or language outcomes. The systematic review revealed important methodological issues present in these studies, such as small sample sizes, restricted durations and intensities of interventions, missing sample information and matching criteria, and attrition bias. Together, the combined systematic review and meta-analyses provided an up-to-date evaluation of the evidence for MI’s benefits in ASD children and provide key recommendations for future clinical interventions and research about best practice in the domain.

Keyphrases: ASD, Autism, Music, Music intervention, Social behavior, Maladaptive Behavior, Language, Systematic review, Meta-analysis
Segmentation automatique de la fibrose pulmonaire sur images de tomodensitométrie en radio-oncologie

Pulmonary fibrosis is an interstitial lung disease characterized by an irreversible production of scarring tissue. Pulmonary fibrosis has a particularly poor prognosis, with a mean survival after diagnosis lower than many cancers. This pathology was recently identified as a risk for complication following radiation therapy treatments. Pulmonary toxicity can lead to severe conditions that compromise the benefits provided by radiation therapy, making pulmonary fibrosis a relative contraindication to treatments. Manual segmentation of fibrosis on computed tomography (CT) images is a difficult task that can involve many experts for a single patient. The aim of this project is to perform automatic segmentation of pulmonary fibrosis on CT images. Fully convolutional neural networks were developed and implemented to automatically assign lung tissues. For an input CT slice, every lung voxel is assigned a tissue in a single inference. Parameters optimization was performed in a supervised and semi-supervised manner by minimizing variants of the cross-entropy between the prediction and manual annotations produced by experts. The dataset employed consists of high resolution CT scans and delineations made by radiologists and radiation oncologists. Predicted segmentation maps were compared with manual segmentations to validate the tissues assigned by the convolutional networks. Results suggest that radiation oncology applications could be developed. Possible applications include pulmonary fibrosis screening prior to treatment planning and assessment of fibrosis progression during and post-treatment.

Keyphrases: Automatic segmentation, Pulmonary fibrosis, Neural networks, Machine learning
La possibilité d’une science métaphysique dans l’ontologie de Guillaume d’Ockham : le concept d’étant

William Ockham (ca. 1285-1347) is a fervent nominalist. The only things that can possibly exist in his ontology are individual things. Universals do not exist, they are simply words. This work wonders about the possibility of metaphysics as a science in Ockham’s narrow ontology. In fact, it is a question that has been little discussed in the litterature on Ockham. To do so, our analysis will be interested in Ockham’s conception of scientific knowledge. Also, our principal goal is to question the concept of being which is the primary subject of metaphysics. In this context, Ockham’s conception of concept will be analysed and how our intellect obtains them by intuitive and abstractive cognitions.  We will then focus on the Occamian conception of equivocity and univocity as well as its distinction between absolute and connotative terms. Finally, we will use these conceptual tools to answer the following question: does Ockham consider that the concept of being if univocal to God and creatures and what are the impacts of the univocity of being on the possibility of a knowledge of God?

Keyphrases: Ockham, concept, science, being, univocity, equivocity, metaphysics
Les enjeux éthiques de la robotique sexuelle : une perspective critique féministe

The primary aim of this paper was to address the ethical issues of sexual robotics from a feminist critical perspective. We argued that sexual robotes as developed to date constituted the continuum of male domination in a sexual context. The first step was to distinguish the foundations on which sexual robotics was taking shape, namely an unequal power structure, the use of dominant norms and oppressive relational patterns. The second step was to highlight the symbolic implications, that is to say the representation of women’s group and material effects, in other words, the reinforcement of inequalities of status.  This led us to determine the characteristics of sexual robotics, otherwise stated, the repetition of domination paradigms in an innovative form, that of an intelligent robot.

Keyphrases: Sexual robotics, Artifical intelligence, Feminism, Applied ethics
Une évaluation de l’approche constitutiviste pour fonder l’anti-pragmatisme à propos des raisons de croire

This thesis, which pertains to the philosophical domain of inquiry called the ethics of belief, at the crossroads of philosophy of mind, epistemology and ethics, aims at assessing the viability of an influent argumentative strategy in favour of anti-pragmatism about reasons for belief. According to anti-pragmatism, there are no practical normative reasons for belief. The constitutivist strategy, as I call it, purports to show that anti-pragmatism is true by appealing to constitutive, intrinsic features of belief. The aim of this thesis is double: first, it is to give a portrait of the landscape of constitutivist arguments against practical reasons for belief. Second, it is to evaluate the merits of these arguments. In order to do so, I present a critical analysis of the two main constitutivist arguments that is grounded in recent works about the aim of belief, raisons for belief and epistemic norms. My conclusion is that the constitutivist strategy suffers from serious defects which threaten its viability.

Keyphrases: Philosophy, Reasons for belief, Ethics of belief, Aim of belief, Doxastic deliberation, Aim of belief, Epistemology, Norm of belief
L'État a-t-il un droit d'exclure? Une réponse cosmopolitique à la question migratoire

This master’s thesis tries to answer two interrelated questions: does the state have, from a philosophical point of view, a right to exclude, and what is the answer the state should give, from a moral point of view, to the migratory phenomenon? To do this, we engage in a critical analysis of the philosophical debate on borders and immigration between the defenders of the state’s right to exclude and the defenders of open borders. Adopting a non-ideal cosmopolitan liberal egalitarian approach and focusing mainly on unskilled economic migration from poor countries to rich liberal democracies in today's world, we successively criticize the security, socio-economic and democratic arguments for the state’s right to exclude. In general, we aim to show that these three arguments exaggerate the threat of immigration for security, public order, jobs, wages, the welfare state, culture and political self-determination, and that they do not give enough weight to the interests of migrants from poor countries. We conclude that the state does not, from a philosophical point of view, have a right to exclude, and that it would be morally preferable to open the borders further, while redefining the powers and responsibilities of states and international institutions to enable an international multilateral governance of migration, and to better respond to the main problems that amplify the migratory phenomenon, i.e. armed conflicts, glaring global socio-economic inequalities, and climate change.

Keyphrases: immigration, philosophy, ethics in international relations, cosmopolitanism, liberal egalitarianism, ideal and non-ideal theories, equality of opportunity, relational equality, immigration, open borders, international institutional reform
Generalized Mahler measure of a family of polynomials

In this thesis we consider a variation of the Mahler measure where the defining integral is performed over a more general torus. Our work is based on a tempered family of polynomials originally studied by Boyd, Boyd P_k (x, y) = x + 1/x + y + 1/y + k with k ∈ R_{>4}. For the k = 4 case we use special values of the Bloch-Wigner dilogarithm to obtain the Mahler measure of P_4 over an arbitrary torus (T_ {a, b})^2 = {(x, y) ∈ C* X C* : | x | = a, | y | = b } with a, b ∈ R_{> 0}. Next we establish a relation between the Mahler measure of P_8 over a torus(T_ {a, √a} )^2 and its standard Mahler measure. The combination of this relation with results due to Lalin, Rogers, and Zudilin leads to a formula involving the generalized Mahler measure of this polynomial given in terms of L'(E, 0). In the end, we propose a strategy to prove some similar results for the general case k > 4 over (T_ {a, b})^2 with some restrictions on a, b.

Keyphrases: Mahler measure, Bloch-Wigner dilogarithm, L-functions of elliptic curves, Arbitrary torus, Regulator
Efficacité des distributions instrumentales en équilibre dans un algorithme de type Metropolis-Hastings

In this master's thesis, we are interested in a new class of informed proposal distributions for Metropolis-Hastings algorithms. These new proposals, called balanced proposals, are obtained by adding information about the target density to an uninformed proposal distribution. A Markov chain generated by a balanced proposal is reversible with respect to the target density without the need for an acceptance probability in two extreme cases: the local case, where the proposal variance tends to zero, and the global case, where it tends to infinity. The balanced proposals need to be approximated to be used in practice. We show that the local case leads to the Metropolis-adjusted Langevin algorithm (MALA), while the global case leads to a small modification of the MALA. These results are used to create a new algorithm that generalizes the MALA by adding a new parameter. Depending on the value of this parameter, the new algorithm will use a locally balanced proposal, a globally balanced proposal, or an interpolation between these two cases. We then study the optimal choice for this parameter as a function of the dimension of the target distribution under two regimes: the asymptotic regime and a finite-dimensional regime. Simulations are presented to illustrate the theoretical results. Finally, we apply the new algorithm to a Bayesian logistic regression problem and compare its efficiency to existing algorithms. The results are satisfying on a theoretical and computational standpoint.

Keyphrases: MCMC, Metropolis-Hastings, MALA, informed proposal, locally balanced, globally balanced
Analyse spectrale de différents types de tambours : le tambour circulaire, le tabla et la timbale

This thesis deals with the harmonicity of musical instruments through spectral geometry. First, we present the known results concerning the guitar string, the circular drum and the tabla ; the first is harmonic, the second is not, and the last is somewhere in between. The case of the timpani constitutes the major part of our work. The physicist-engineer Robert E. Davis had already studied its quasi-harmonicity and here we undergo a mathematical proofreading of his approach. By combining analytical and numerical methods, we show that the sound box of the timpani allows an adjustement of the vibration frequencies of the form ω_(i1) , with 1 ≤ i ≤ 5, so that they get close to the ideal 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 ratio, while it also stifles some other dissonant modes. To do so, we develop a simplified model of a cylindrical timpani based on physics and on what Davis suggests in his thesis. This model provides a system of equations divided into three parts : the vibration of the skin and the pressure inside and outside the timpani. We use the method of Green’s functions to find the expressions of the pressures. We use these together with a modified Fourier-Bessel series development to solve the equations of the vibration of the skin. In the end, the solving of these equations is reduced to an infinite matrix system that we analyze numerically. Using Mathematica and this matrix system, we find the vibrational frequencies of the timpani, which allows us to analyze the harmonicity of the instrument. Thanks to a measure of dissonance, we optimize the harmonicity of different timpani models with different cylinder radii, heights and tensions.

Keyphrases: Spectral geometry, Green’s function, Eigenvalue, Harmonicity, Timpani, Tabla, Drum, Frequency
Real-Time Reinforcement Learning

Markov Decision Processes (MDPs), the mathematical framework underlying most algorithms in Reinforcement Learning (RL), are often used in a way that wrongfully assumes that the state of an agent's environment does not change during action selection. As RL systems based on MDPs begin to find application in real-world safety critical situations, this mismatch between the assumptions underlying classical MDPs and the reality of real-time computation may lead to undesirable outcomes.  In this thesis, we introduce a new framework, in which states and actions evolve simultaneously, we show how it is related to the classical MDP formulation. We analyze existing algorithms under the new real-time formulation and show why they are suboptimal when used in real-time. We then use those insights to create a new algorithm, Real-Time Actor Critic (RTAC) that outperforms the existing state-of-the-art continuous control algorithm Soft Actor Critic both in real-time and non-real-time settings.

Keyphrases: deep learning, reinforcement learning