NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Simulateur compilé d’une description multi-langage des systèmes hétérogènes

The design of heterogeneous systems requires two main steps, modeling and simulation. Usually, simulators are connected and synchronized by using a cosimulation bus. These current approaches have many disadvantages: they are not always adapted to the distributed environments, the execution time can be very disappointing, and each simulator has its own core of simulation. We propose a new approach which consists in developing a multi-language compiled simulator where each model can be described by employing various modeling languages such as SystemC, ESyS.Net or others. Each model contains modules and communication links between them. These modules describe functionalities for a desired system. Their description is realized by using the programming object and can be described by using a syntax that a user will have chosen. We thus propose a separation between the language of modeling and simulation. The models are transformed into the same internal representation which could be seen like unique objects. Our environment compiles these internal objects by producing a unified code instead of using several languages of modeling which add many mechanisms of communications and extra informations. Optimizations can include various mechanisms such as merging processes into only one sequential process while respecting the semantics of the models. We will use two abstraction levels, the “register transfer level”(RTL) and the “transaction-level modeling”(TLM). RTL allows a low level abstraction for modeling and the communication between the modules is done with signals. The TLM is a modeling for transactional communication with a higher abstraction level than RTL. Our aim is to support these two types of simulation, but the user can choose the language of modeling. In the same way, we propose to use a single core and to remove the cosimulation bus to accelerate the simulation time.

Keyphrases: SystemC, Simulator, SystemC, Cosimulation, Multi-laguages, Systems
L’incidence du programme Vers le pacifique sur les buts de maîtrise et le sentiment d’appartenance à l’école

The object of the present study was to evaluate the impact of a conflict resolution and mediation training program on student’s motivation and sense of belonging to school. By its three fundamental missions (instruct, qualify and socialize), Quebec’school system serves as a living and a learning environement for its students. However, behaviour and/or school motivation problems can have a negative impact on some students’ achievement. Taking in consideration those problematic issues, schools have implemented programs in order to prevent violence and improve student’s behaviour. Different evaluations of these programs indicated an improvement of certain behaviours and a correlation with some aspects of school motivation. Considering that mastery-oriented goals and the sense of belonging to school are factors that contribute to school motivation, it is relevant to ask if such a program may have an impact on these variables. A secondary analysis of data from Rapport final d’évaluation des impacts du programme Vers le pacifique pour les quatre années de sa mise en œuvre (Bowen, 2006) was conducted in order to verify if the program Vers le pacifique had an impact on mastery-oriented goals and the sense of belonging to school, and to determine which specific students’ behaviours developped through this program had an impact on these two factors. Furthermore, sex and level of implementation of the program in the school were taken in consideration for these analysis. Multivariate and univariate analysis results reveal that Vers le pacifique program does not have a significant impact on mastery-oriented goals and sense of belonging. Both variables decreased over time, whatever the sex or level of implementation of the program. Yet, one of the behaviours developped through the program, emotion management, has a positive impact on students’ mastery-oriented goals. These results, consistent with some theories from the literature, lead to recommendations such as implementing a complementary motivationnal component to Vers le pacifique. Thereby, it might be possible to counteract the decrease over time of mastery-oriented goals and sense of belonging to school, while promoting school motivation and success.

Keyphrases: Conflict Resolution, Sense of belonging, Mastery-oriented goals
L'effort associé à la reconnaissance de la parole chez les adultes et les personnes aînées

The primary objective of the current thesis was to quantify and compare the amount of listening effort that young and older, normal-hearing adults with normal (or corrected normal) vision expend when speech is presented in background noise.  Listening effort refers to the attentional and cognitive resources required to understand speech.  Study 1 was designed to determine the listening effort associated with auditory speech recognition (hearing a speaker) whereas Study 2 examined the listening effort involved with audiovisual speech recognition (hearing and seeing the face of a speaker).  Listening effort was assessed behaviourally, using a dual task paradigm where a word recognition task was paired with a tactile pattern recognition task and, with self-reported ratings.  Both measures of listening effort were assessed under two experimental conditions:  1) equated level - where the level of background noise was the same for all participants and, 2) equated performance - where single task word recognition performance did not differ between groups.  The tactile task costs revealed that older adults expended more listening effort than young adults for both experimental conditions regardless of the perceptual modality in which the speech stimuli were presented (i.e., audio-only and audiovisual).  Overall, the cost involved with tactile task performance was highest for older adults when speech was presented audiovisually. While visual cues can improve audiovisual speech recognition our results suggest they can also place an extra demand on processing resources with performance consequences for the word and tactile tasks under dual task conditions.  Consistent with the literature, the correlation findings of Study 1 and Study 2 support the idea that dual task measures and self-reported ratings each assess different aspects of listening effort.  As listening effort draws upon auditory and cognitive factors, the purpose of Study 3 was to determine to what extent the separate components of auditory working memory (capacity and processing) contribute towards the variance observed in listening effort and to determine if the pattern of working memory predictor variables changes with age.  Results of a sequential regression analysis for young adults indicated that a measure of auditory capacity (span size) was related to listening effort whereas a measure of auditory processing (alphabetical recall) was related to the cost associated with word recognition accuracy performance under dual task conditions.  However, these relationships did not extend to older adults or to the data obtained when the speech recognition tasks were performed audiovisually.  Further research is required to determine what cognitive factors underlie listening effort – especially for older adults.

Keyphrases: Cognition, Listening effort, Dual task paradigm, Aging, Cognition, Speech recognition, Audiovisual speech recognition, Working memory
L'éclatement en géométrie algébrique, différentielle et symplectique

The blow-up is a transformation which plays an important role in geometry, because it can be used to resolve singularities,  relate birationally equivalent varieties, and construct varieties with new properties. This thesis first presents blowing-up as  developped in classical algebraic geometry. We will study it in the case of affine and (quasi-)projective varieties, on a point and  along an ideal and a subvariety. Then a discussion about its extension to the differential category will be carried out, over the real and complex  fields, on a point and along a submanifold. An example of a resolution of singularity will then follow. Subsequently we will discuss  blowing-up in the symplectic category, where we will do the same as for complex manifolds, paying careful  attention to the symplectic form. To conclude, we will study a theorem by François Lalonde, where the symplectic blow-up  plays a major part in proof. This theorem states that any 4-variety fibered by 2-spheres over a Riemann surface, and  different than the Cartesian product of two 2-spheres, can be equiped with a 2-form giving it a symplectic structure ruled by curves that are  holomorphic with respect to its almost-complex structure, and such that the symplectic area of the base is smaller that  the capacity of the variety. In the proof, we blow up a ball in the 4-variety, and obtain a fibration containing two distinct spheres with  a self-intersection equal to -1: the pre-image of the point where the usual complex blow-up is done, and  the proper transform of the fiber. These two are exceptional, so it is possible to do the inverse operation - the blow down -  on each of them. By blowing down the latter, we get a minimal variety, and by combining information about the  symplectic area of its homology classes and of those of the original variety, we obtain the result.

Keyphrases: Classical algebraic geometry, Real blow up, Complex blow up, Symplectic blow up, Blow up along a submanifold
La situation socioéconomique des résidants des collectivités des Premières Nations et des collectivités environnantes du Québec : impact des facteurs de contexte et des facteurs individuels

This research assesses the specific contribution of individual and contextual factors in explaining the socioeconomics discrepancies between members of First Nations communities and those of communities located nearby.  Using logistic regression on 2001 census data, four dimensions of socioeconomic conditions, largely inspired by the Community Well-Being Index (CWB), are assessed: employment, housing, income and education.  The results of the study show that social inequalities appear correlated to both types of factors. Educational inequalities are primarily due to contextual factors even if individual factors, such as age and gender, also play a role in determining the odds of living social inequalities. Educational inequalities precede employment and income inequalities and, to some extent, explain them. Moreover, housing inequalities are mainly explained by spatial location and residence in a First Nations community Furthermore, the ethnicity of respondents does not play a major role in explaining the discrepancies, once other characteristics are taken into account. This does not mean that social inequalities do not exist between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians. Actually, significant differences between these two social categories are observed even when other characteristics are controlled for. Thus, the results of this study point out to the fact that the focus of quantitative research on Aboriginal people’s conditions should be put on additional predictors of inequalities besides “aboriginality”. Also, the review of literature shows a lack of research on social inequalities within First Nations communities in Canada.

Keyphrases: condition autochtone comparée, First Nations, socioeconomic conditions, 2001 census, logistic regression, comparative aboriginal condition, categorizations
Balises pour l’intervention avec les technologies auprès des élèves qui ont des incapacités intellectuelles

Regarded as essential means of participation in society, information and communication technologies (ICT) are a promising track for teaching and learning of students with intellectual disabilities. However, several authors denounce the low use of ICT in education of these students. Worse yet, research on the subject generate interesting results, but a limited support to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field. Guided by intuition and empirical enthusiasm, theses researches often rely on reference frames. While the literature abounds with fields of knowledge that can contribute to this area, these proposals are fragmented and poorly adapted to the specifics of the latter. The educational intervention with ICT with students with intellectual disabilities remains an ill-defined conceptual field that is not legitimized by any particular reference frame. This doctoral research precedes the conception of an educational intervention model using ICT with students who have intellectual disabilities. It aims to establish strong tags that can serve as a framework for developing this model. In this phase of preconception, we pursue two objectives: 1) developing a repository consisting in a framework for integrating existing knowledge on the subject that will serve primarily to structure and organize the information available within the a synthesis validated by experts and practitioners; 2) developing a tender specification of the functions that a perfect model of this intervention should meet to fully satisfy the needs of different users. These tags (the repository and the tender specification) are intended, mainly, to researchers, technology developers, teacher educator, etc. Students, teachers and other educational agents will benefit indirectly from these tags through their applications by the first users of (training programs, technologies, studies, lesson plans, etc.).

Keyphrases: educational intervention, information technologies, students with intellectual disabilities, tags, functional analysis, anasynthesis
Modélisation de l'irradiance solaire spectrale dans le proche et moyen ultraviolet

We present a model for spectral solar irradiance between 200 and 400 nm. It is an extension of a model for total solar irradiance based on sunspots fragmentation and erosion. This model takes the observed sunspot position and area as input for every oneday time step whereas emergences on the far side of the Sun are injected stochastically. The model simulates the spot’s disintegration and fragmentation into smaller structures such as spots and faculae and produces a magnetic structures area distribution evolving with time. The model contains many free parameters controlling the spots fragmentation, the quiet Sun irradiance, etc. They are adjusted by comparing the model outputs with observations from satellites spanning approximately three activity cycles. The model for spectral irradiance is a modified version of the model for total irradiance. More precisely, the spots and faculae contrast calculation and the quiet Sun contribution are adjusted to account for their spectral dependance. First, the quiet Sun flux is interpolated on a non magnetic synthetic spectrum, while the spots contrast is calculated with the ratio of the flux from a synthetic spectrum colder than the non magnetic photosphere, and the flux from a quiet Sun spectrum. The facular brightening is calculated with a simple procedure using the black body theory. This procedure interpolates a temperature associated with the formation height of photons from faculae on a temperature profile resulting from model atmosphere calculations. The spectral irradiance time series calculated with the model are compared to data from SOLSTICE on UARS. The two data sets do not agree very well, especially when we consider the minimum irradiance level and the amplitude variations over a complete cycle. Therefore, we apply a correction on the quiet Sun level and on the facular temperature profile. Finally, using a genetic algorithm, we reconstruct an empirical facular temperature profile by maximizing the fitness with observations. We use it to reconstruct spectral irradiance time series starting in 1874 at wavelengths of interest for stratospheric chemistry and dynamics.

Keyphrases: ultraviolet, Sun, spectral irradiance, ultraviolet, relative variability
Caractérisation moléculaire du rôle de Lhx2 dans le développement de l'oeil et du cerveau

Central nervous system (CNS) development in vertebrates is an extremely complex process that requires tight molecular control. Some very early expressed genes during embryonic development are of tremendous importance for CNS development. Among those, we find the LIM homeodomain protein Lhx2. Embryos that lack Lhx2 (Lhx2-/-) suffer from cerebral cortex hypoplasia, are anophtalmic and have smaller liver. The mutant embryos die in utero at embryonic day 16 (e16) due to a deficit in mature erythrocytes. The principal objective of this thesis was to characterize the molecular function of Lhx2 in eye and cerebral cortex development. Lhx2 is a part of the homeodomain transcription factors expressed in the anterior neural plate along with Rx, Pax6 and Six3. Eye development starts by a bilateral evagination of this region. We show here that Lhx2 expression is crucial for the first steps of eye formation. Indeed, in absence of Lhx2, Rx, Six3 and Pax6 expression is delayed in the anterior neural plate. At the optic vesicle stage, Lhx2 mutation precludes the initiation of Six6 expression (an homeodomain transcription factor essential for eye development). We demonstrate that Lhx2 and Pax6 bind to Six6 promoter and cooperate for its trans‐activation. So, Lhx2 is essential for retinal identity determination in the neural plate. Later on, it cooperates with Pax6 to establish definitive retinal identity and promote cell proliferation. Lhx2 is strongly express in the telencephalon, the embryonic region that will give rise to cerebral cortex. Lhx2 ablation causes a decrease in neural progenitor cells proliferation in this region. We show that the lack of Lhx2 causes a premature differentiation of the radial glia cells into intermediate progenitors and post‐mitotic neurons. These phenotypes correlate with a decrease activity of the Notch pathway. In Lhx2-/- telencephalon, the atypical Notch‐ligand DNER is strongly overexpressed. Furthermore, Lhx2 and co‐repressors associate at the DNER promoter region. We conclude that Lhx2 allows Notch pathway activation in the developing cerebral cortex. It does so by inhibiting DNER transcription, which is a Notch pathway repressor in this particular context. Thus, Lhx2 allows the maintenance and the proliferation of neural progenitor cells.

Keyphrases: Retinogenesis, Cellules souches/progenitrices neurales, Neurogenesis, Optic Vesicle, DNER, Neural stem cells/progenitors, Pax6, Telencephalon, Lhx2, Notch Pathway
Exploration de l’expérience de tirer son lait par les mères : constats dans une optique de design

The breast pump is an apparatus which can help mothers breast feeding. According to a preliminary study, breast pumping has not been explored a lot in previous studies; thus, it is hard to tell if the product responds well to the needs of its use and utility, or how it is combined with breastfeeding. The basis of the exploratory study was built on those stakes with the purpose of understanding the experience of use of the breast pump. Inspired by the user centered phenomenological approach, qualitative date with semi-structured interviews involving seven participants were cumulated. The analysis of the data made it possible to identify the important themes, which led to statements that have been interpreted from a design perspective.  The study found that it is often when the reality of breast feeding overtakes mothers that they will feel the need to get a breast pump, inspired by the brands used in hospitals because au lack of time. The breast pump is mainly used to ease breast congestion and is valued for the liberty it provides, getting integrated in a routine. The breast pump is not ergonomic; there seems to be an offset between its design and its real manipulations. Those results of the study could be integrated in the breast pump to represent better the reality of the context, the practice and the use of the product. They could also nurture the process of conception in future project to improve the breast pump design.

Keyphrases: Breast pump, Breast Feeding, Breast milk, User experience, Prduct improvement, Design, Design
Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 in human disease

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the 21st century. Among risk factors, hypercholesterolemia and abdominal obesity are directly linked to premature development of atherosclerosis. Familial hypercholesterolemia, commonly due to low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) deficiency, is known to cause premature atherosclerosis and aortic calcification in humans. Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9), a member of the proprotein convertase family, is indirectly associated with CVD through enhanced LDLR degradation. Mutations in the human PCSK9 gene lead to either familial hypercholesterolemia or hypocholesterolemia, depending on whether the mutation causes a gain or a loss of function, respectively. It is uncertain if individuals carrying mutations causing a gain-of-function of PCSK9 will develop aortic calcification or whether loss-of-function mutations will lead to abdominal obesity. In this thesis, we investigated: 1) the effect of PCSK9 overexpression on aortic calcification; 2) the consequences of PSCK9 deficiency, mimicking pharmacological inhibition of PCSK9 on fat tissue. We employed a transgenic (Tg) mouse model overexpressing mouse PCSK9 and illustrated by micro-computerized tomography that calcification occurs to a lesser extent in PCSK9 Tg mice than in LDLR-deficient mice. While both PCSK9 Tg and LDLR deficiency caused familial hypercholesterolemia, circulating cholesterol levels alone could not dictate the degree of aortic calcification. In another study, we used genetically modified mice lacking PCSK9 and demonstrated that visceral fat accumulation (adipogenesis) is regulated by circulating PCSK9. Thus in the absence of PCSK9, visceral adipogenesis increases likely via post-translational regulation of very-low-density lipoproteins receptors (VLDLR) in the adipose tissue. In conclusion, these two studies highlight the dynamic balance of PCSK9 in different metabolic pathways, making it a key element in cardiovascular health. Consequently, attempts to survey and/or alter PCSK9 biology should be performed in a valid animal model using sensitive methods and with careful attention to side effects of any given intervention.

Keyphrases: Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9, Low-density lipoprotein receptor, Familial hypercholesterolemia, Aortic calcification, Fat metabolism