NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Citer la révolte : la reprise québécoise du discours de la décolonisation francophone

Refering to the theories of Genette, Compagnon and Morawski's on quotation and intertextuality, this thesis compares two distinct, yet complementary, body of works: the major essays written by Hubert Aquin, Gaston Miron and the young intellectuals who collaborated to Parti Pris are analyzed as rewriting (or rethinking) of the works of Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon and Albert Memmi, figureheads of the francophone decolonization movement. The main objective of this study is to investigate the bases on which Québécois intellectuals attempted to justify their recuperation of the discourse of decolonization, and how this discourse shaped their reflection towards redefining Québec nationalism, as well as promoting its diffusion. Articulated around three principal axes – cultural identity, language conflicts and the role of literature and the writer in the struggle for national emancipation –, this thesis shows that the creation of such a symbolic partnership has enabled Québec to join the community of francophone nations.

Keyphrases: Quebec literature, Decolonization, Quotation, Intertextuality, Rewriting, Essay
Le Programme Hors Normes en santé au travail : représentations d’infirmières du secteur public

Since 2006, the Programme Hors Normes (PHN) (Standards Non-compliance Program) of the “Direction de santé publique de Montréal ”, has set new guidelines for Occupational Health Teams with regard to workers who have been exposed to environmental concentrations of chemical agents that exceed permissible exposure levels, in other words, that are “standards non-compliant.” The PHN oversees the reporting of non-compliance to the relevant authorities and ensures that employers conduct rigorous follow-up. In doing so, the program has redefined the roles of occupational health team nurses.  This exploratory study aims to describe the representations of these nurses with regard to the PHN and to better understand how they represent their practice into the PHN. Individual semi-directed interviews were conducted among seven nurses.  Qualitative analysis of the data, through categorization and consistent comparison of narratives, reveals the various ways nurses represent their practice in the PHN. Their representations of their practice appear to derive from four elements: work organization, work relationships, intervention target, and work satisfaction.  To increase nurses’empowerment, to take into account the ways in which he PHN has prompted them to reflect on their practice, and to promote cross-sector and cross-professional cooperation, the study suggests that nurses should participate in the planning and implementation of intervention programs and that on-going training should be provided in order to further harmonize professional practice.

Keyphrases: santé publique, occupational health, public heath, intervention programs, nurses, representations, professional identity, environmental monitoring
L’acquisition du subjonctif chez les apprenants adultes de français langue seconde

This project aims at understanding the difficulties related to the acquisition of the French subjunctive in second language adult learners. More specifically, we will try to determine the different elements involved in its acquisition.   To begin with, we will present language theories from the 1950s to the present in order to shed light on the various elements affecting second language acquisition in adults. We will then look specifically at the situation of the French subjunctive. The subjunctive mode is generally described in the literature as difficult to acquire because its usages are complex and unique to the French language. However, as we will see, some studies have proven that the subjunctive in oral French is in fact quite simple. We will end this section by describing the subjunctive and its applications. This description will demonstrate the wide theoretical range of these applications which we will later compare with those found in everyday oral French.    In the last two sections of this work, we will analyze and discuss the results of five studies on the use of the subjunctive in French as a first and second language. First, we will demonstrate that, contrary to the received idea in the literature, the complexity of subjunctive applications does not affect its acquisition. We will in fact show that in spoken language, the subjunctive is rarely used, while its applications are relatively simple. We will then show that the main cause of its difficulty lies with the incapacity of learners to notice those verbs in the input due to its low frequency and its relatively slight saliency (in other words, its conspicuousness). We will also see that the acquisition of the subjunctive tends to be delayed in the learning process, largely because that acquisition is dependent on the development of the complex sentences in which it is found.

Keyphrases: Acquisition, French, Subjunctive, Frequency, Language, Acquisition
Recherche d’étoiles jeunes de faible masse dans le voisinage solaire

The gravitational collapse of a molecular gas cloud produces the incipient stars with various masses between 0.08 and approximately 100 M . The majority of the stellar galactic population is made up of stars with masses lower than approximately 0.6 M . The last event of stellar formation in the solar neighborhood happened in the local bubble no more than 100 million of years ago, probably caused by the propagation of a shock wave in the galactic local arm. This is how young associations, also called moving groups were formed. Their members are characterized by a common velocity and position within the Galaxy. Young associations, being sparsely populated and relatively close to the Sun, their members are found all over the sky. So far, only the most massive members (luminous ones) have been identified. Young low-mass stars, comprising the majority of the population, remain to be identified. Those stars are expected to be excellent candidates to find exoplanets through direct imaging techniques, while also forming a key population to constrain M stars and brown dwarfs evolutionnary models. This master thesis presents a new method using a kinematical model coupled with a Bayesian statistic analysis to identify young low-mass stars in the beta Pictoris, Tucana- Horologium and AB Doradus associations. Using a sample of 1080 K and M stars, all showing youth indicators such as Halpha emission and X-rays luminosity, their photometric and kinematic properties (proper motion) are analyzed to extract 98 highly probable members distributed over the three associations. Status confirmation as members will require measurement of their radial velocity (predicted by our analysis) and the lithium at 6708 Å equivalent widths to better constrain their age.

Keyphrases: low-mass stars, moving groups, M dwarfs
A new paradigm for the folding of ribonucleic acids

Recent findings show the important role of ribonucleic acid (RNA) within the cell, be it the control of gene expression, the regulation of several homeostatic processes, in addition to the transcription and translation of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) into protein. If we wish to understand how the cell works, we first need to understand its components and how they interact, and in particular for RNA. The function of a molecule is tributary of its three-dimensional (3D) structure. However, experimental determination of RNA 3D structures imparts great costs. Current methods for RNA structure prediction by computers only take into account the classical or canonical base pairs, similar to those found in the well-celebrated DNA double helix. Here, we improved RNA structure prediction by taking into account all possible types of base pairs, even those said non-canonicals. This is made possible in the context of a new paradigm for the folding of RNA, based on nucleotide cyclic motifs (NCM): basic blocks for the construction of RNA. Furthermore, we have developed new metrics to quantify the precision of RNA 3D structure prediction methods, given the recent introduction of many of those methods. Finally, we have evaluated the predictive power of the latest low-resolution RNA structure probing techniques.

Keyphrases: Ribonucleic acid, Structure prediction, Structure comparison, Structure evaluation, Non-canonical base pairs
Optimization of p-cycle protection schemes in optical networks

Network survivability is a very interesting area of technical study and a critical concern in network design. As more and more data are carried over communication networks, a single outage can disrupt millions of users and result in millions of dollars of lost revenue. Survivability techniques involve providing some redundant capacity within the network and automatically rerouting traffic around the failure using this redundant capacity.  This thesis concerns the design of survivable optical networks using p-cycle based schemes, more particularly, path-protecting p-cycles, in link failure scenarios. Our study focuses on the placement of p-cycle protection structures assuming that the working routes for the set of connection requests are defined a priori. Most existing work carried out on p-cycles concerns heuristic algorithms or methods suffering from critical lack of scalability. Thus, the objective of this thesis is twofold: on the one hand, to propose scalable models and solution methods enabling to approach larger problem instances and on the other hand, to produce optimal or near optimal solutions with mathematically proven optimality gaps. For this, we rely on the column generation technique which is suitable to solve large scale linear programming problems. Here, column generation is used as an intelligent way of implicitly enumerating promising cycles to be part of p-cycle designs.  At first, we propose mathematical formulations for the master and the pricing problems as well as the first column generation algorithm for the design of survivable networks based on path-protecting p-cycles. The resulting algorithm obtains better solutions within reasonable running time in comparison with existing methods. Then, a much more compact formulation of the pricing problem is obtained. In addition, we also propose a new hierarchical decomposition method which greatly improves the efficiency of the whole algorithm and allows us to solve larger problem instances. As for integer solutions, two heuristic approaches are proposed to obtain good solutions.  Next, we dedicate our attention to a systematic comparison of p-cycles and classical shared protection schemes. We perform an accurate comparison by using a unified column generation framework to find provably good results. Afterwards, our study concerns an empirical evaluation of directed and undirected link- and path-protecting p-cycles under asymmetric traffic scenarios. We show how much additional protection cost results from employing bidirectional systems in such scenarios.   Finally, we investigate a column generation formulation for the design of p-cycle networks under availability requirements and obtain the first lower bounds for the problem.

Keyphrases: Network Design, Telecommunications, Shared protection, Column generation
Problèmes de perception de la parole dans le bruit chez les enfants présentant 
un trouble de traitement auditif

A hallmark listening problem of individuals presenting with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is their poor speech recognition in noise.  The underlying cause of their difficulties in unfavourable listening conditions is unknown.  The objective of this dissertation was to explore the underlying nature of the speech perception problems in noise in the case of APD.   The Test de Phrases dans le Bruit (TPB) was developed to explore the underlying origins of the speech perception difficulties in noise in the case of APD, in order to identify if they are related to an auditory dysfunction, a language-based dysfunction or both.  The TPB consists of five lists of 40 recorded sentences, including 20 highly predictable (HP) sentences and 20 low predictable (LP) sentences, and a speech babble.  The familiarity of each sentence final key word was tested with a group of children from five to seven years old.  The intelligibility in noise of the sentences and the degree of predictability were also measured with adult participants in order to obtain equivalent lists.  The actual sentence list sets of the TPB have been tested with a group of 15 adults and a group of 69 children without any hearing problem before its use with children presenting with APD.   To achieve the general goal of the study, ten participants identified with APD (APD group) were assessed with the TPB, as well as ten age and gender matched children with normal auditory processing functions (control group).  The mean performances of the APD group were significantly lower than the ones of the control group on the TPB sentence keyword recognition in noise at the signal-to-noise ratios of 0, +3 and +4 dB.  The group average of the HP and LP difference of scores was similar between the groups at each of the tested signal-to-noise ratio.  These results suggest that, as a group, children with APD use linguistic contextual information when listening to speech in background noise to the same extent as the ones of the control group.  According to these analyses, the underlying origin of the speech perception problems in noise in the case of APD would be related to an auditory dysfunction.    However, examination of the group data analyses differed from the individual analyses.  The verification of the individual patterns revealed different profiles suggesting that further substantiation of these preliminary findings is warranted.  A better understanding of the listening difficulties in noise exhibited by individuals with APD should lead to specific and efficacious intervention programs.

Keyphrases: Speech in noise tests, School age children, Language-based competencies, Linguistic context
Une nouvelle méthode de détection du glaucome par la mesure de l'asymétrie interoculaire : l’asymétrie du rapport de la surface neurorétinienne sur la surface du disque optique ou rim area to disc area asymmetry ratio (RADAAR)

This thesis describes a new clinical and technological approach to the diagnosis of glaucoma. Specifically, we intend to study a new way to detect glaucoma by measuring rim area to disc area asymmetry ratio (RADAAR).   For this purpose, we use a database consisting of a population divided into 4 different diagnostic groups (normal, possible glaucoma, probable glaucoma and definitive glaucoma). The RADAAR measurements are calculated in different ways based on the stereometric parameters of the optic nerve head of subjects, produced by confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (Heidelberg Retina Tomograph (HRT) (Heidelberg Engineering, Germany)). We conduct an analysis of data with SPSS or we put forward the RADAAR distribution in different populations, its validity in detecting open angle glaucoma and its usefulness in screening for glaucoma.  We therefore enroll 523 subjects in this study with about 82 subjects with definitive glaucoma. The average age is 62 years. There are more females than males and more Caucasians than Africans Caraibeans. We find that the distribution of RADAAR measures is different in each diagnosis group. In terms of performance, the sensitivity of the RADAAR measurement is very low. So, its ability to detect the disease is low. However the RADAAR measure is much more specific so, its ability to identify subjects free of the disease is high. RADAAR measure would also be much more effective in African Caribbean’s than in Caucasians. Similarly, it would be much more sensitive in males than in females. The RADAAR measurement is useful if it is combined with another method of diagnosis like the Moorfields regression analysis (MRA) included in the HRT3 software especially in case of the detection of glaucoma in populations at high risk.   Ultimately, we determine that the RADAAR is an interesting tool for the diagnosis of glaucoma particularly in the context of screening for glaucoma.

Keyphrases: RADAAR, MRA, Open angle glaucoma, Optic nerve head, Confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (HRT3), RADAAR, MRA, Screening
Essai clinique randomisé visant à évaluer l’efficacité du lavage des cavités nasales à l’aide d’une solution saline dans la prévention des otites moyennes aiguës à répétition

Introduction: Normal saline nasal cavity irrigations (NSNI) are commonly recommended by pediatricians and otolaryngologists to prevent recurrent acute otitis media (rAOM). However, no published scientific study corroborates or invalidates this practice.   Goal: To determine the efficacy of NSNI to prevent rAOM.    Method: Pilot randomized controlled clinical trial. All consecutive patients with a diagnosis of rAOM were eligible. Recruited patients were randomized in 2 groups. Only patients in the treatment group proceeded with NSNI. The primary outcome of the study was the incidence of rAOM observed during a 3 month period.   Results: Twenty-nine patients met the inclusion and exclusion criteria and agreed to participate. There was a statistically significant lower incidence of rAOM in the treatment group (p=0.003, Fisher exact).   Conclusion: Our results suggest that NSNI could effectively prevent rAOM. A larger scale randomized multicentre study is feasible, and it must be done in order to verify for external validity and to properly assess safety issues.

Keyphrases: Irrigations nasales, Randomized controlled trial, Prevention, Isotonic saline solution, nasal irrigations, Acute otitis media
Score PELOD : indice précoce de mortalité pédiatrique des transplantations hépatiques pour hépatite fulminante

Hepatic transplantation is the only definitive treatment for acute liver failure for those children who do not recover spontaneously.  Early indicators of prognosis in acute liver failure have been studied in adults in order to define the indication for liver transplantation.  The course of the disease in the pediatric population, particularly with respect to hepatic encephalopathy, differs from that in adults.  Consequently, these criteria are not applicable to the pediatric population.  Primary objective: To determine the risk markers for mortality in children receiving liver transplantation for acute liver failure.  Liver failure is defined as being severe failure without prior liver disease within the last eight weeks. Method: A retrospective study was conducted with children who had received a liver transplantation for acute liver failure at Sainte-Justine’s Hospital between 1985 and 2005.  Data including the PELOD (Pediatric Logistic Organ Dysfunction) Score, a clinical score (0-71) of illness severity in children in intensive care, were recorded from patients’ charts.  Results: 14 children, aged from five months to sixteen years old, were transplanted for fulminant liver failure.  Nine (64%) survived and five (36%) died.  The need for mechanical ventilation was associated with a poorer survival (p= 0,027).  Of all of the children who had a PELOD Score variation inferior to five, between admission and transplantation, 88% survived.  None of those with a score variation superior to five survived (p=0,027).  Conclusion: In our single centre study, the PELOD Score variation was a pre-transplant marker of mortality after liver transplantation for pediatric acute liver failure.

Keyphrases: Liver transplantation, Pediatric acute liver failure, PELOD Score
Modulation de l’expression du récepteur B1 des kinines par l’angiotensine II et l’endothéline-1 dans des cellules musculaires lisses vasculaires

Oxidative stress is involved in the overexpression of kinin B1 receptor (B1R) in various models of diabetes and hypertension. Since angiotensin II (Ang II) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) are pro-oxidative peptides involved in cardiovascular diseases, their contribution in increasing the expression of B1R was examined in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). QRT-PCR and Western blot analysis were used to measure the expression of B1R in VSMC derived from A10 cell line and the aorta of Sprague-Dawley rats. This study shows that Ang II increases the expression of B1R (mRNA and protein) in a concentration- and time-dependent manner (maximum 1 μM between 3-6 h). This increase involves AT1 receptor, PI3K and NF-κB, but not AT2 receptor and ERK1/2. Moreover, ETA receptor is involved in the effect of Ang II at 6-8 h but not at 1-4 h. However, ET-1 increases expression of B1R (maximum 2-4 h) via stimulation of ETA and ETB receptors. Ang II and ET-1-induced increase expression of B1R is blocked by antioxidants (N-acetyl-L-cysteine and diphenyleneiodonium). These results suggest that Ang II induces B1R in VSMC by AT1 receptor in the first phase and by releasing ET-1 (predominantly by ETA receptor) in the late phase, via oxidative stress and activation of PI3K and NF-κB. These results clarify the mechanism involved in the overexpression of B1R which has adverse effects in diabetes and hypertension.

Keyphrases: kinin B1 receptor, angiotensin II, endothelin-1, oxidative stress, vascular smooth muscle cell, ERK1/2, ERK1/2, NF-κB, NF-κB, PI3K, PI3K
Surfaces de Riemann compactes et formule de trace d'Eichler

In this thesis, we will study several algebraic, geometrical and topological properties of compact Riemann surfaces.  Two principal subjects will be treated.  First, using the fact that every compact Riemann surfaces of genus g greater or equal to 2 has a finite number of Weierstrass points, we will be able to prove that those surfaces have a finite number of automorphism.  Afterward, we will study the Eichler's trace formula. This formula allow us to find the character of an automorphism acting on the space of holomorphic q-differentials.  We will start our study using Klein's quartic curve. We will apply Eichler's formula in this case, which will allow us to familiarize ourselves with the statement of the theorem.  Finally, we will demonstrate the Eichler's trace formula, treating the case where the automorphism acts fixed point freely separately from the case where the automorphism has fixed points.

Keyphrases: Character, Klein's curve, Riemann surfaces, Eichler's trace formula, Automorphism
Le statut ontologique de la dunamis chez Aristote

This master thesis seeks to determine the ontological value of potency in Arstotle’s philosophy. To do so, the first chapter defines the two meanings of potency, which are the power to change something else and the potential state of a being. We then explain the multiple meanings of power and its multiple types, namely nature, soul and art. The second chapter, in addition to analysing the links between potentiality and non-being, also studies how non-being, potency and possibility are connected. Finally, the third chapter explains the aristotelian ontological hierarchy to highlight the ontological value of potency in connection to act. This is done in accordance with three kinds of priority, which are the priority of act over potency in a single substance, the priority of eternal beings, especially the one of the prime mover, over generated and corruptible beings, and the priority of good in actuality over potential good.

Keyphrases: Aristote, Philosophy, Aristotle, Power, Possibility