NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Mobile data and computation offloading in mobile cloud computing

Global mobile traffic is increasing dramatically due to the popularity of smart mobile devices and data hungry mobile applications. Mobile data offloading is considered as a promising solution to alleviate congestion in cellular network. Mobile computation offloading can move computation intensive tasks and large data storage from mobile devices to cloud. In this thesis, we first study mobile data offloading problem under the architecture of mobile cloud computing. In order to minimize the overall cost for data delivery, we formulate the data offloading process, as a finite horizon Markov decision process, and we propose two data offloading algorithms to achieve minimal communication cost. Then, we consider a mobile data offloading market where mobile network operator can sell bandwidth to mobile users. We formulate this problem as a multi-item auction in order to maximize the profit of mobile network operator. We propose one robust optimization algorithm and two iterative algorithms to solve this problem. Finally, we investigate computation offloading problem in mobile edge computing. We focus on workload balancing problems to minimize the transmission latency and computation latency of computation offloading. We formulate this problem as a population game, in order to analyze the aggregate offloading decisions, and we propose two workload balancing algorithms based on evolutionary dynamics and revision protocols. Simulation results show the efficiency and robustness of our proposed methods.

Keyphrases: Mobile computing, Cloud computing, Game theory, Markov process
Protocoles d'évaluation pour l'extraction d'information libre

Information extraction consists in the processing of natural language documents into a list of self-sufficient informational elements, which allows for cross collection into Knowledge Bases, and automatic processing. The facts that result from this process are in the form of relationships between entities : (Athena ; is the daughter of ; Zeus).  Open Information Extraction (OIE) is a recent paradigm the purpose of which is to extract an order of magnitude more relations from the input corpus than classical IE methods, what is achieved by encoding or learning more general patterns, in a less supervised fashion. In this thesis, I study and propose new evaluation protocols for the task of Open Information Extraction, with links to that of Knowledge Base Completion.  In the first two chapters, I propose to automatically score the output of an OIE system, against a manually established reference, with particular attention paid to the informativity and exhaustivity of the extractions. I then turn my focus to the confidence function that qualifies all extracted elements, to evaluate it in a variety of settings, and propose alternative models.

Keyphrases: Open information extraction, Evaluation, Knowledge base
Analyse des stratégies de légitimation publiques des groupes mormons monogames et polygames en Amérique du Nord

This thesis addresses the relationship between Mormonism and American society, through a detailed analysis of media materials. Specifically, legitimation strategies, put forward by Mormons communities, and delegitimation strategies, used by opponents of these marginal religious groups, are considered. Since the inception of Mormonism, in the United States, this religious movement has maintained tense relationships with mainstream culture. First, this thesis describes the evolution of relationships between Mormons and mainstream society, from the 19th century to the present era, and then includes an analysis of recent media productions presenting Mormons, with an emphasis on the fiction TV series Big Love (HBO 2006-2011). More than a case study about tensions between Mormons and mainstream society, this thesis informs us about the notions of deviance and normality and their temporal evolution, and offers a reinterpretation of the history of Mormonism through its articulation with the media. The analysis sheds light on the way public discourse influences the position of minority groups, and on the positive effects of mass media use by small religious or social groups. By explaining how a religious group can, from one period of its existence to another, be stigmatised, tolerated and even sometimes celebrated, this thesis opens perspectives for the analysis of other minority groups. A theoretical model, exposing the legitimation and delegitimation strategies of Mormon groups, is central to the thesis. This model was derived from a grounded theory analysis.

Keyphrases: mormonism, media, popular culture, postfeminism, deviance, legitimation strategies, polygamy, mariage plural, plural marriage
The poetics of translation : a thinking structure

The Poetics of Translation: A Thinking Structure is concerned with what can be known through the poetic and theoretical vectors of translation, both as a poetics as well as a reading methodology. More precisely, through a reading of contemporary experimental texts – those by Gail Scott, Erín Moure, Chus Pato, Fernando Pessoa and PME-ART – I investigate translation’s poetic and epistemological possibilities as well as translation itself as episteme (as knowledge and understanding). Erín Moure’s generative “intranslations” of the Galician poet Chus Pato (Secession/Insecession), the radical rewriting practice of English and French translations of Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet and Le Livre de l’intranquillité by the Montreal performance collective PME-ART, and the poetics of translation as dialectical image in the novel The Obituary by Gail Scott all contribute to my understanding of translation’s poetics as a thinking structure. The purpose of this study is not only to furnish an innovative and critical understanding of translation’s various permutations in contemporary experimental texts, but also to contribute to new avenues of research targeting translation and research creation while ultimately bringing translation on the side of poetry rather than the inverse. The works I examine thus offer modes of thinking about translation as a form of poetic juxtaposition and as a cypher that is concerned with what can be apprehended or understood in the elliptical space(s) of an in-between.

Keyphrases: Translation, poetics, reading methodologies, Walter Benjamin, Canadian literatures, experimental writing, 20th and 21st century poetry and prose, thinking structures, Gail Scott, Erín Moure, Chus Pato, Fernando Pessoa, PME-ART
The aesthetics and politics of political violence in West African literature

In my dissertation, I argue that political violence and emancipation are closely connected domains of meaning in African literature. By exploring a heterogeneous conceptualization of political violence which incorporates its physical and symbolic forms as well as its negative and transformative elements, I examine the West African literary responses to colonialism, post-independence oppression, and civil war, focusing upon the way political violence as a central formal, thematic and symbolic trope disrupts its conventional reception as a nihilist force. In addition to analyzing the traumatic and shattering effects of violence on persons, spaces, and nations, I discuss how narrating experiences of organized and excessive violence deploys disruptive aesthetics and politics of representation that disable the possibility of stable and normative readings and highlight its detachment from the actual. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from African literary philosophy, postcolonial criticism, and Critical Theory, I discuss how West African writers reposition the excess of political violence to liberate their narratives from instrumental readings and suggest a discursive space for utopian thinking. Chapter One draws upon theories of aesthetics and politics of representation and human liberation to explore the heterogeneity of narrative depictions of political violence in West African fiction. My discussion of the aesthetics and politics of narrative representations of political violence in my literary corpus engages with three aesthetic modes along three literary generations that have shaped the aesthetics and politics of representations in West African literature. Chapter Two discusses how Négritude and revolutionary consciousness shape narrative representation of colonial violence in Camara Laye’s The African Child and Ousamen Sembène’s God’s Bits of Wood and deploy a decolonial imaginary of revolutionary subjects to reflect on symbolic and empirical accounts of human liberation. In Chapter Three, I examine how fragmented accounts of post-independence violence in Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People and Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born register the pervasive experience of social and political disillusionment and grotesque aesthetics to articulate a detached potential of a new African consciousness of the self and the community. Chapter Four examines how excessive violence and the child-soldier figure shape the hyperrealist representation of West African civil wars in Ahmadou Kourouma’s Allah is Not Obliged and Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone and mobilize a reading for the messianic. Chapter Five discusses the process of rewriting the Nigeria-Biafra war in Buchi Emecheta’s Destination Biafra and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun and how it empowers a womanist rhetoric of emancipation.

Keyphrases: Political violence, West African novel, Aesthetics and politics of representation, Critical Theory, Emancipation, Negative utopianism
La pathogenèse du virus du syndrome reproducteur et respiratoire porcin (VSRRP) dans un nouveau modèle de cellules épithéliales des voies respiratoires du porc génétiquement modifiées (NPTr-CD163)

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is a widely spread disease in North America that causes huge economic losses in porcine industry. The PRRS virus (PRRSV) needs a lot of receptors to enter the cells. One of them is CD163, a crucial receptor to the virus internalization. Due to the importance of this receptor, researchers have genetically modified pigs to not express the CD163 receptor, providing them a resistance to PRRSV. Recently, a porcine cell-line was genetically modified to study PRRSV co-infection pathogenesis with other swine pathogens. More precisely, newborn pig trachea cells (NPTr) were modified to express the CD163 receptor, to allow PRRSV infection. However, PRRSV is known to trigger death of permissive infected cells through apoptosis, such as porcine alveolar macrophages (PAM), and MARC-145 cells. Interestingly, PRRSV can replicates into NPTr-CD163 cells at a similar rate than in MARC-145 infected cells but without inducing cell death. Also, PRRSV genome possesses high mutation rate, allowing possibility to adapt to cells without CD163 receptor. Those observations lead to the following question: how does PRRSV affect gene expression in MARC-145 cells and in NPTr-CD163 cells. Our hypothesis is that NPTr-CD163 cells response against PRRSV infection is better adapted which allow cells survival compared to MARC-145 infected cells. We also think that PRRSV could adapt to cells without CD163 receptor. Therefore, type-2 PRRSV strain, IAF-Klop, was used to infect cells at several passages containing lower to higher ratios of NPTr cells without CD163 receptor (called NPTr-N2). Also, mRNA expression modulation of the MARC-145 and the NPTr-CD163 infected cells was determined by an RNA-Seq experiment using the Illumina technology. Surprisingly, PRRSV was not able to adapt and infect NPTr-N2 cells. For the RNA-Seq experiment, an activation of the genes involved in the apoptosis pathway could be observed in NPTr-CD163 cells, but a lot of surviving genes were also expressed. This experiment gave us important insights in regards to the different mechanisms involved into PRRSV pathogenicity.

Keyphrases: CD163, NPTr, MARC-145, Co-culture, PRRS, PRRSV, RNA-Seq, mRNA
Effet de l'arrêt du ceftiofur et son remplacement par la lincomycine-spectinomycine sur les gènes de bêta-lactamase à spectre étendu ESBL/AmpC et sur la multirésistance chez les Escherichia coli provenant d'une chaîne de production aviaire pyramidale au Canada

Ceftiofur, a cephalosporin antimicrobial, has been used systematically in Canadian hatcheries for many years to prevent early mortality in chicks leading to a high prevalence of cephalosporin resistance in Escherichia coli in chickens Preventive use of ceftiofur in hatcheries stopped in 2014. We examined the effect of ceftiofur, complete antimicrobial cessation in hatchery and replacement with lincomycin-spectinomycin on the proportion of E. coli positive sample for extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) and AmpC β-lactamase related genes, and on the multidrug resistance profiles of ESBL/AmpC positive E. coli in broilers and their associated breeders, at one year post-cessation. For indicator E. coli from non-enriched ceftriaxone media, a significant decrease post-cessation in the proportion of samples harboring E. coli isolates positive for blaCMY-2 and/or blaCTX-M was observed. In contrast, following enrichment in medium containing ceftriaxone (1mg/L) to facilitate recovery of ESBL/AmpC β-lactamase producing E. coli colonies, both pre- and post-cessation, 99% of the samples harbored E. coli positive for blaCMY-2 or blaCTX-M. Flocks receiving lincomycin-spectinomycin after cessation of ceftiofur showed a significantly greater non-susceptibility to aminoglycoside, folate inhibitor, phenicol, tetracycline and possible extensively drug resistant E. coli isolates compared to those that received ceftiofur or no antimicrobial at hatchery. This study clearly demonstrates an initial decrease in ESBL/AmpC positive E. coli following the cessation of ceftiofur in hatchery but an increase in multidrug resistant to different antimicrobial class tested in E. coli following replacement with lincomycin-spectinomycin.

Keyphrases: ceftiofur, blaCMY-2, blaCTX-M, cessation, chicken, lincomycin-spectinomycin, antimicrobial, resistance
Évaluation du remodelage des voies respiratoires centrales de chevaux asthmatiques légers/modérés

Equine asthma is a common condition affecting horses of all ages. It is characterized by a lower airway non-septic inflammation. Although it is transient in most of the horses, asthma progress to its severe form in 15% of them. This last state is incurable and associated with periods of respiratory distress at rest. Remodeling of the lower airways is present in severe asthma. The alterations affect all airway components and correlate with the degree of airway obstruction of affected horses. Considering the lung function impairments in mild/moderate asthmatic horses, we postulated that a central airway remodeling is present and contributes to the disease progression. The structural changes affecting the central airways of 12 mild/moderate asthmatic horses and 10 aged-matched controls were studied using endobronchial biopsies and histomorphometric methods. The reliability of a fast-semi-quantitative score to identify morphological alterations of central airway was also evaluated. The histomorphometric method and the semi-quantitative scores permitted to identify the presence of epithelial hyperplasia, extracellular matrix thickened, and cellular infiltration in the lamina propria in asthmatic horses when compared to control horses. Two phenotypes of asthmatic horses could be defined: horses with epithelial hyperplasia associated to neutrophilic airway inflammation and with fibrosis of the muscular layer; and horses without epithelial hyperplasia with mast cell airway inflammation and normal muscle layer collagen deposition. It is the first study demonstrating the presence of central airway remodeling in mild/moderate asthmatic horses.

Keyphrases: Horses, Mild/moderate equine asthma, Central airway, Remodeling
The Path of the Logos : the relevance of the practice of Bible study in an American prison

For Christians, a thorough study of the practice of Bible Study in the prison context can help deepen understandings of what constitutes effective ministry. For people outside of the Christian faith, a study of this practice could increase understandings about the complex relationships between faith, prison and personal growth in America. Many American Christians believe that Bible study is an emancipative practice that can help those forces seeking to resolve America’s enormous incarceration problem. Participants in penitentiary bible study (teachers and students) seek ways of showing that the light of God continues to shine even in the darkest places on earth like prisons.  Belief in this theological perspective has led many Christians (as volunteers or as chaplains) to fight against the problem of mass incarceration by establishing religious practices in prisons. The American prison system sees religion not only as a right to be preserved but also as one of the programs that help rehabilitate the prisoner before his or her return to society. Garden State Youth Correctional Facility (GSYCF) houses about 1200 young men between the ages of 17 and 27. Like most American prisons, GSYCF is required to offer opportunities for religious practice to prisoners.  Through the approach of Pastoral Praxeology, this research observes the practice and the effects of Bible study on the lives of several incarcerated practitioners. The particular Bible study practice that this research project engages is the Logos Bible Study (LBS) which is distinguished from other programs by its focus on the prayerful study of the Holy Scriptures and the promotion of critical self-reflection over time. After analyzing the interviews and surveys of a group of incarcerated participants in LBS, this study has found methods for creating a terrain of positive transformation within a territory of incarceration. These methods lead to Anakainosis-Desmios—a state of spiritual renewal only possible within prison that promotes the creation and expression of emancipatory and hospitable attitudes within an oppressive and hostile prison culture.

Keyphrases: Bible study in prison, Chaplain, Pastoral praxeology, Transformed perspectives, Anakainosis, Panopticon, Religion in prison, Spiritual renewal, Prison Ministry
Diversité taxinomique et fonctionnelle des habitats benthiques dans l’espace et dans le temps : une perspective régionale et décennale

This thesis takes advantage of long-term monitoring data covering a regional scale to better apprehend the main drivers of the diversity of coastal seafloors. Through consideration of multiple spatial and temporal scales and different facets of community diversity, the main objective of this work was to provide a better predictive understanding of the responses of benthic communities to environmental changes. In particular, this thesis addressed the potential consequences of the on-going homogenisation of the seafloor and the global loss of biogenic habitats, havens of diversity made by foundation species. Through comparison of two such habitats, intertidal seagrass meadows and subtidal maerl beds, with bare sediment devoid of foundation species, this thesis has highlighted the key role of biogenic structures for long-term maintenance of the diversity and functioning of benthic communities. Indeed, these habitats mediate the dynamics and responses of benthic communities to environmental conditions, ensure a greater stability of their spatial structures at regional scale, and appeared essential for the long-term maintenance of the ecological functions benthic invertebrates are associated with. This work also highlighted that foundation species may affect benthic communities through different mechanisms, and that has implications on the structure and vulnerability of these communities. Lastly, this thesis emphasized a strong spatial and temporal stability of community richness despite important underlying changes in composition and thereby stressed the need to better characterise these compositional variations to guide conservation. These variations contributed, for instance, to an unexpectedly high taxonomic and functional richness of bare sediment at regional scale, similar to those of biogenic habitats, despite being locally depauperate. Overall, broad-scale monitoring programs are fundamental assets to bridge local empirical and theoretical ecological knowledge to the broader scales at which society manage and benefits from natural ecosystems.

Keyphrases: Conservation, REBENT, Monitoring, Numerical ecology, Biogenic habitats, β diversity, Trait-based approach, Community trajectory, Scales, Biotic homogenization
Accès aux soins de santé : expériences de migrants sans assurance maladie à Montréal, Canada

Improving access to care is an essential element in the performance of any health system and a major concern for health managers and decision-makers. Access to care for migrant populations results a number of challenges. The limitations of studies on access to health care for migrants, especially without health insurance, led us to carry out this research. This study purposes to describe the situation of access to health care for migrants without health insurance in the Montreal city. This qualitative study used semi-structured interview guides from sixteen (16) participants. The contrast sampling design was applied to our study population in order to have one or two typical cases per community group (migrant) as suggested by Pires. The access to care situation was described according to the five areas of Levesque's conceptual framework and new information were emerged from this thematic analysis. Access to health care for migrants without health insurance is considered more critical in three areas of the framework including availability, abortion and relevance. Indeed, even if there are no difficulties in identifying health services or accessing them physically, there are obstacles that are linked to care. The lack of health insurance, the direct costs of care, the unavailability of specialized doctors, poverty are the main constraints observed in this study. Other barriers, such as long care and diagnosis delays, non-continuity and adherence to care, significantly reduce the appropriateness of care. These constraints to care access might impact negatively on the target groups physical and mental health, as well as huge expenditures in hospital emergency departments.

Keyphrases: Recherche qualitative, Access to health care, Migrant without health insurance, Experiences, Montreal, Health services, Qualitative research
La Piñata : opéra et forme ouverte

This doctoral dissertation aims to define the steps leading to the creation of an open form opera titled La Piñata. The dissertation is structured in two parts. The first part explores the concept of open form and the multiple practical applications it can generate. This exploration brings me to detail the open form model I used for La Piñata. The second part highlights the workings of my compositional process, presenting the libretto and the approaches I favoured to set it to music; I develop the concept of musical objet, describing my modus operandi for vocal composition, the creation of a signifying space and proposing a few additional keys to my musical language.   Therefore, this doctoral project paves the way to the open form model created for La Piñata: a structure designed to be developed freely through the gradual introduction of fragments, ultimately forming a constellation of events, allowing tonal ruptures, portraying a growing number of spaces and juxtaposing temporalities. Finally, I will highlight how this research and creation project helped me forge a close connection with the specific art form that is opera and how the study and critique of this art form helped me create a personal language,  leading me to explore new expressive means and strengthening my position as an artist.

Keyphrases: composition instrumentale, Opera, Open form, Research-creation, Composition, Musical dramaturgy