NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Analyse des besoins de formation continue en prévention et contrôle des infections auprès d’infirmières d’un centre hospitalier universitaire

The positive impact of online continuing training in infection prevention and control (IPC) nursing practice has been documented in the literature. Training Needs Analysis (TNA) is recommended as an important step in the training design process. There is little scientific literature on TNA based online continuing training module in IPC for Quebec nurses. This study aimed to identify the training needs felt with regard to the IPC skills of nurses practicing in a Montreal hospital center. 390 nurses responded to the self-administered questionnaire survey. The results of this study suggest that a hybrid online training focused on the management of infection transmission risks, occupational health and safety as well as the management of biological waste should be developed within the establishment. The results of our study also revealed significant associations between certain socio-demographic and professional characteristics and the perceived need for training for some PCI skills. These results contribute to the advancement of knowledge in nursing sciences by documenting the online training needs in IPC of Quebec nurses. This study also contributes to improving the quality of continuing education, by adapting it to the needs of learners.

Keyphrases: e-learning, nurses, continuing education, infection prevention and control
La musique à l'ère de McCarthy : diplomatie, propagande et résistance musicale de 1950 à 1960

This thesis addresses the subject of the political employment of music by questioning the ambiguous relationship between propaganda and musical diplomacy during the Cold War. Focusing mainly on the musical production in the United States in the 1950s, this study examines the strategies adopted by both jazz and classical musicians to criticize and denounce the discriminatory policies of this communist witch-hunt embodied by Republican Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (1908-1957). It also shows how U.S. leaders have sought to promote American values by internationally promoting jazz as a democratic symbol, particularly against the Soviet Union.  The first two chapters serve to set the stage: the first chapter provides a contextualized political and historical portrait of the Cold War – starting from the premise that it is rooted in the October 1917 Revolution –, and introduces the socio-political context of the 1950s by emphasizing the important influence that McCarthyism, the anti-communist political conception of Senator McCarthy had on American life. The second chapter, also contextualizing, establishes the differences between American and Soviet cultural policies. This chapter introduces the Cultural Presentations program, the cultural exchange program funded by the Department of State, as well as the official cultural relations between the United States and the USSR from 1958 to 1985. The last two chapters focus on case studies to illustrate the socio-political impact on music life and productions in the 1950s. The third chapter discusses the presence of jazz in the Cultural Presentations program and traces the journey of four great jazz musicians who took part in the program to promote jazz internationally, while highlighting the irony of using African Americans as representatives of democracy in a segregated America. The fourth chapter deals specifically with the American operatic genre and the criticisms of McCarthyism in some works of this repertoire. Particular attention is paid to Leonard Bernstein’s (1918-1990) operetta Candide, due to the composer’s notorious political commitment and the explicitly political purpose of the work.  This research aims to take stock of the political usage of music by linking two different visions of its use in the United States.

Keyphrases: jazz, Louis Armstrong, Leonard Bernstein, McCarthyism, Cold War, propaganda, diplomacy, opera, cultural policy, democracy
Le straight edge au Québec : abstinence, musique hardcore et résistance

This thesis examines the notion of resistance in the straight edge subculture in the context of Quebec, focusing on the place and role of hardcore music through this resistance. It is part of a sociomusicology field study consisting in interviews with participants in the Quebec straight edge subculture. It is interested in the development of straight edge culture in the context of Quebec and its organization on the margins of the mainstream cultural industry. It also explores the relationship of this subculture with the Quebec hardcore scene. This thesis examines the perception of subcultural identity and the representation of the straight edge value system amongst subcultural participants. It also explores, through the analysis of the participants' discourses, their conception of mainstream society, power structures and dominant ideologies in order to understand their conceptions of resistance. The thesis then looks at the aesthetic characteristics of the straight edge hardcore genre through its musical parameters and the production and use of the voice in this genre. Finally, it is shown that hardcore music supports and sustains straight edge subcultural resistance through various performances, compositional and scenic strategies, supported by the vocal and musical parameters of the genre, lyrics, as well as the context of the live concert.

Keyphrases: Straight edge, hardcore, punk hardcore, D.I.Y., resistance, subculture, music scene, popular music
The digital revolution : how technology changed the workflow of composers for media = La révolution numérique : comment les technologies ont changé les méthodologies de travail pour les compositeurs à l'image

Technologies have shaped, and still do so, the way music composers for screen work: communication-wise, in their creative workflow and in their skill sets. From Forbidden Planet to Covid-19, we will examine how and in what way the workflows of music composers have changed throughout the years.

Keyphrases: Composition, Technologies, Music, Workflow, Music for screen, Composer for screen, Music for film, Video game music, Music composer
Étude des facteurs génétiques dans la pathophysiologie du somnambulisme

Sleepwalking is a common sleep disorder and it belongs to the family of NREM parasomnias. Despite decades of research, its pathophysiology remains poorly understood. Family and twin studies show that a strong hereditary component is involved. However, very few molecular studies have been conducted to identify the genes involved and there is still no consensus on the mode of transmission in families. This Master’s thesis contains two separate studies which will attempt to address these two problems. The aim of the first study was to determine whether genetic variants in the Adenosine Deaminase (ADA) gene were enriched in the sleepwalking population compared to healthy sleepers. The entire gene was sequenced in 251 sleepwalking patients from Montreal and Montpellier as well as in 94 control subjects with no personal or family history of sleepwalking. No genetic variants were enriched in sleepwalking patients compared to healthy sleepers and public genetic databases. In the second study, the first objective was to determine the mode of transmission of sleepwalking in 20 French-Canadian families. The second objective was to measure the recurrence risk as well as the relative risk for siblings and children of index patients. In our cohort, sleepwalking was transmitted mainly in an autosomal dominant mode with reduced penetrance. The recurrence risks for first-degree relatives were: lifetime 0.48 to 0.56, in childhood 0.43 to 0.56, and in adulthood 0.14 to 0.35. The relative risks for first-degree relatives were: lifetime 6.96 to 8.12, in childhood 1.48 to 4.06 and in adulthood 4.67 to 11.67 higher than the general population. Further molecular studies, such as exome sequencing, and genetic linkage studies in families will be needed in order to identify new candidate genes that can act as biomarkers. This would allow the development of an independent test for the diagnosis and ultimately have implications for targeted therapeutic approaches.

Keyphrases: Pedigrees, Sleepwalking, NREM parasomnia, Adenosine deaminase, Genetics, Sequencing
Estimation de la mortalité attendue à long terme des maladies chroniques : une comparaison de différentes méthodes d’analyse

Long term mortality associated to medical conditions is rarely known with accuracy. Despite this, mortality assessment is essential in certain field of activity, such as life insurance and medical expertise. Constant Relative Risk (RR) methodology is the most used method although often leading to superficial and conservative estimations. We then decided to compare two mortality estimation methods, the constant Excess Death Rate (EDR) and the Proportional Life Expectancy (PLE). We analyzed long term mortality of several chronic medical conditions, such as cancers and coronary artery diseases, and we compared those results with those from the three distinct estimation methods. Thus, we were able to determine which methodology is the most accurate. Our results show that constant EDR and PLE are superior to constant RR to better estimate the mortality. The longer the follow-up is, the better those methods are. Finally, factors like age and the kind of the medical condition seem not to have an important impact when it comes to identify the most suitable method. Constant EDR and PLE should be recommended for mortality assessment in medical insurance underwriting and for life expectancy evaluation in medical expertise.

Keyphrases: Estimation, Mortality, Survival, Chronic medical condition, Long term, Mortality Ratio, Excess death rate, Proportional Life Expectancy (PLE), Life expectancy
Preuves comportementales de capacités olfactives améliorées chez les personnes sourdes

Sensory deprivation, and particularly hearing impairment, is an excellent theoretical model for studying the phenomena of neuroplasticity in the human brain, as well as the adaptive behaviors available in order to support the daily lives of individuals deprived of a sensory modality. To adapt to their handicap, deaf individuals rely daily on their other senses that have remained intact. Evidence from literature has consistently supported superior visual and tactile performance in congenitally deep deaf individuals. In this study, we explored complete olfactory skills in congenitally deaf individuals. For this, we evaluated the olfactory capacities of 11 congenitally deaf individuals through psychophysical tasks relating to the processes of detection, identification, discrimination and localization of odors, in comparison with 11 hearing individuals. The Sniffin’Sticks test and an olfactometer were used to identify potential differences in olfactory performance between the two groups. The results demonstrated that hearing deprivation leads to superior performance in terms of olfactory modality in congenitally deaf individuals compared to hearing individuals.

Keyphrases: Olfaction, Adaptation, Congenital Deaf, Neuroplasticity, Sensory Deprivation
Validation externe des critères de gravité du saignement intracrânien chez les patients avec un traumatisme crâniocérébral léger

Background: There is variability in the management of patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) and abnormal findings on their initial head computed tomography (CT). The main objective of this study was to validate the value of the Important Brain Injury (IBI) criteria, introduced by the Canadian CT-Head Rule, in predicting the need for surgical intervention. The secondary objective was to evaluate the usefulness of IBI criteria to predict admission to a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This is a post hoc analysis of a prospective cohort of adult patients presenting to the ED of one tertiary care, academic center, between 2008 and 2012, with MTBI and an abnormal initial head CT. Neurosurgical intervention and tertiary center admission were at the discretion of the treating physician. The sensitivity and specificity of the IBI criteria were calculated with their 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). Results: A total of 678 patients (male = 65.9%, mean age = 62.5 years) were included, of whom 114 (16.8%) required neurosurgical intervention. All patients requiring neurosurgical intervention met IBI criteria on their initial head CT (sensitivity of 100% [95%CI 96.8-100]). However, only 196 (28.9%) patients who did not require neurosurgical intervention were correctly identified using these criteria (specificity of 34.8% [95%CI 30.8-38.8]). The IBI criteria had sensitivity of 78.3% (CI 74.6-81.7) and specificity of 55.9% (CI 47.4-64.2) to predict admission to a tertiary care center. Conclusion: The IBI criteria for MTBI identified all patients who required neurosurgical intervention, but did not show a high specificity. They were less sensitive, but more specific, in predicting admission to a tertiary care center.

Keyphrases: validation, mild traumatic brain injury, guidelines, management, neurosurgical intervention, head computed tomography, validation
Intervention nutritionnelle visant à stabiliser l’anticoagulothérapie à la warfarine sodique

Vitamin K intake has emerged as an important factor in influencing the stability of long-term anticoagulation therapy. Clinical trials have shown that patients receiving a vitamin K supplement (100 - 150 μg/d) present improvements in the stability of their anticoagulant therapy. Thus, a 24-week randomized controlled trial was conducted to verify whether similar beneficial effects could be achieved by increasing daily vitamin K intake through the diet. Patients randomly assigned to the intervention group attended workshops that provided dietary counsel to increase their vitamin K intake by ≥ 150 μg/day. Patients in the control group participated in distinct workshops providing general advice on a balanced diet. The stability of anticoagulation therapy was defined as the percentage of time spent in the therapeutic range (TTR ≥ 70%) during weeks 4 through 24 of the experimental period. Intention to treat analysis showed that the percentage of participants who benefited from an improvement in the stability of anticoagulation therapy was greater in the intervention group than the control group (44.4% vs 27.3% respectively; p=0.22). Per protocol analysis accentuated the difference between groups i.e. 52.2% vs 27.3% in intervention and control group respectively (p=0.088). Both analyses showed that the mean vitamin K intake calculated during weeks 6 through 24 was higher in the intervention than in the control group (p=0.001). The study tends to support the hypothesis that a high daily vitamin K intake improves the anticoagulation stability of warfarin-treated patients.

Keyphrases: warfarine, warfarin, dietary vitamin K intake, anticoagulant therapy, anticoagulation instability
L’évolution des pangénomes de procaryotes sur des échelles de temps humaines

The pangenome is the collection of unique genes found in a species. For prokaryotes, especially those present in the human gut microbiota, variation in gene content is characterized by gene gain through horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and gene loss. In human gut, gene content variations can occur at faster rates than mutation, which allow microbes to adapt rapidly to environmental changes. This justifies the study of the prokaryotes pangenome evolution on human time scales which are considered evolutionarily short, e.g. in the order of few years. Most studies about the evolution of prokaryotic pangenomes involve relatively distant species that have diverged since millions of years. In addition, the balance of major evolutionary forces involved, such as horizontal transfer, selection, genetic drift, and mutations, is not clearly defined and is debated in literature. This master's project therefore aims to broaden the evolutionary portrait of prokaryotic pangenome evolution by focusing on near-term evolution. To do this, we will first review the relevant literature related to this topic, including the methods used to detect mobile genes and the pangenome evolution models. We will then analyze the evolution of a pre-existing collection of 37 853 mobile genes involved in recent HGT events detected in the gut microbiota of individuals from North America and Fiji Islands. To detect evolutionary signatures of the forces in action, we will estimate various population genetics parameters from the alignment between metagenomic sequencing reads of 176 Fijian microbiomes and this collection of mobile genes. We will also explain the evolutionary simulation tool that we have developed in order to validate and explain some of our observations. While we don’t exclude the importance of selection for specific cellular functions for pangenome evolution, we found that the near-term evolution of mobile genes can be explained by a model in which mobile genes can spread selfishly without being largely adaptive to their human or microbial hosts, contrarily to what is often observed over longer evolutionary time scales.

Keyphrases: Pangenome, Evolution, Mobile genes, Horizontal Gene Transfer, Human gut microbiome, Simulation
The impact of p53 mutations on the ER status and estrogen dependent growth of breast tumours

TP53 is one of the most commonly mutated genes in breast cancer (~30% tumors) and encodes the tumour suppressor p53. The majority of TP53 mutations observed in breast cancer are enriched in different subtypes, with an overall higher frequency of mutation found in the estrogen receptor negative (ER-) subtypes of HER2+ and basal-like (75-80%) compared to the ER+ subtypes of luminal A and B (15-30%). ER+ breast tumours are dependent on estrogens for growth and may be treated with endocrine therapies, whereas ER- tumours are resistant to such treatments. p53 has been reported to regulate ER expression, suggesting that mutations could contribute to loss of ER. We therefore hypothesized that the TP53 mutations found in ER- subtypes may directly or indirectly lead to loss of ER expression levels and of estrogen-dependent proliferation and antiestrogen sensitivity.  Wildtype TP53 expression in the ER+ breast cancer cell line MCF-7 was suppressed by CRISPR-Cas9. A panel of TP53 mutations was selected based on subtype bias, associated ER levels, and mutation frequency. This panel was then stably expressed into the TP53 KO clonal cell lines using retroviral expression vectors. Neither suppression of TP53 or introduction of mutations in combination with Nutlin-3a stimulation suppressed estrogen receptor expression in MCF7 cells. Furthermore, while sensitivity to Nutlin-3a was abolished in the mutant p53 bearing cell lines in proliferation assays in the presence of estradiol, no estrogen-independent proliferative capacity was observed. Finally, antiestrogen-mediated cell cycle arrest was not relieved upon TP53 KO. However, TP53 KO demonstrated an increased capacity for clonal growth in the absence of estrogens, and resistance to doxorubicin and ionizing radiation. Our results suggest that TP53 mutations are not involved in loss of ER+ related phenotypes but may act as mediators of transition to estrogen-independent growth.

Keyphrases: breast cancer, p53, ERα, transcriptional regulation, estrogen dependence, cell cycle
L’expérience subjective de la psychose : récits et trajectoires de jeunes d’Auberges du coeur

The conception of psychosis and its recovery are mostly influenced by biomedical models of  mental illness. Other perspectives exist and are useful to understand the experience of psychosis,  in a more global and critique way. The phenomenology, the experiential approach and alternative  approaches are interesting and useful to increase our knowledge on psychosis experience.   This project has the purpose to explore a phenomenon which is not so known in the research  community, as well as giving a space to young adults to talk about their experience of psychosis.  We found that even though many approaches are interested in the experience of psychosis, there  are not so many spaces to talk about the suffering that comes with that experience. The question  that guided the research was: What is the meaning and the significations of psychosis for young  adults that were living in an Auberge du Coeur, and receiving services from a Premier Épisode  Psychotique (PEP) clinic? Also, what approaches of psychosis are part of their storytelling?   To answer this question, a qualitative methodology was used. Six young adults that had  experienced a psychosis and had been homeless were interviewed. We were interested in their  lifepath, their vision of the world and their perception of different services they were in touch with.  Many perspectives were developed so that the data analysis can be critique. We were interested in the concept of subjectivity, the knowledge about experiences and the concept of suffering.   The analysis shown that all the participants experienced a lot of difficulties beside the psychosis  experience, such as traumas and psychological distress. We also found that the psychosis  experience is hard to get and hard to reach for them. It is especially hard to explain how it feels  with words. In their storytelling, we see that the biomedical models are predominant. It seems like  the participants were not able to find spaces to talk about the suffering that comes with psychosis  experience, even though they receive help from community centers and public services.

Keyphrases: psychosis, subjectivity, suffering, young adults, homelessness
« De véritables débits de poisons » : analyse des référendums de prohibition dans les provinces canadiennes entre 1898 et 1921

The historical results of different referendums and plebiscites held in Canada since the Confederation revealed a high level of opposition between the provinces. Quebec particularly distinguishes itself from the rest of the country during these referendums. Indeed, this province was the only one to oppose conscription, the prohibition and to hold two referendums to secede from Canada. Our understanding of the origins of these differences in the Canadian provinces, and Quebec in particular, is still vague today. It is important to look back in time to see these distinctions at the beginning of the 20th century by studying the multiple issues linked to alcohol and prohibition. This thesis aims to explain the relationship between socio-demographic variables and prohibition plebiscite results. Temperance movements have been founded in the mid-19th centuries in Canada and the United States, with unequal success. Canadian temperance movements never really succeed to extend their influence nationwide, but it was successfully introduced in communities later by the Scott Act (1878). The national referendum of 1898 revealed a strong opposition to prohibition in Quebec. The origins of these regional disparities, between the province of Quebec and the rest of Canada, and at the community-based level in Quebec, has yet to be explained. Which factors account for these differences? In the following analysis, several different variables like ethnic origins, rural and urban proportion, and gender are used to explain the support or opposition toward prohibition. With the data analysis of the Canadian census (1901, 1921), the plebiscite results and the Quebec Liquor Commission annual report (1921-1922), ordinary least squares models (OLS) and generalized linear models (GLM) will be used to analyze multiple variables in support of prohibition. The attitudes of Catholics and French-speaking communities outside Quebec will be analyzed during the New Brunswick (1920) and Nova Scotia plebiscite (1920). A link with the actual political attitudes about the legalization of cannabis tends to show that these distinctions persist through time concerning public health issues in Quebec.

Keyphrases: Prohibition, Canada, Prohibition, Quebec, Canada, Referendum, Quebec liquor Commission, Temperance, Social Control, Political attitudes, Political history, 19th century, 20th century