NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Rebelle devant les extrêmes : Paul Levi, une biographie politique

This Ph.D. thesis is a political biography of Paul Levi, a German Marxist of the interwar period. Already in 1914, Levi embodied a radical faction within the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Alongside Rosa Luxemburg, the leader of this same left wing, he is contesting, above all, the party’s participation in the national war effort. But Levi is also inspired by Lenin, who he met in Switzerland in 1916-1917. In fact, when taking over the leadership of the German Communist Party (KPD) in March 1919, Levi ruled with an iron fist according to the theory of “democratic centralism”. As Lenin has done in Russia in October 1917, Levi also did everything in his power to promote a workers’ revolution in Germany in order to set in power a dictatorship of the proletariat, which would exclude all other social classes from sitting in the government. Consequently, in opposition to traditional historiography, this thesis shows that Levi was not a “democratic Socialist” of the Luxemburg school, but rather a Marxist whose political thought resembled that of the Bolsheviks. In fact, his action contributed to further weaken an already frail Weimar Republic and all its democratic institutions.  This study also shows that Levi’s outstanding career was in large part the result of his rebellious character. Throughout his life, Levi consistently denounced the bourgeois politics of the non-workers’ parties, but he also systematically went against the majority within the political organizations in which he took part: the workers’ parties and the Reichstag. His impulsive nature set him apart as a solitary politician. In fact, Levi had many enemies. In 1921, he ran afoul of major Bolshevik leaders, which caused him to lose the leadership of the KPD. The Communists subsequently saw him as an enemy of the working class, slandering him in the press and in the Reichstag. Levi denounced, for his part, the Stalinist terror and made a mockery of the KPD, which had become, according to him, no more than a Soviet puppet. But this thesis also reveals that Levi, as a Jewish lawyer, led a major political campaign against the Nazis. In 1926, for example, as he served on a Reichstag public commission investigating Bavarian political assassinations, he tried by all possible means to charge important Nazis with murder. The Nazi press replied with a vicious anti-Semitic press campaign against him. Levi, however, refused to kneel before such intimidation and rather chose to sue important Nazi leaders, such as Alfred Rosenberg and Hitler himself before the court, in addition to summoning many others before the above-mentioned Reichstag commission. In the end, despite the fact that this study very critically evaluates Levi’s ideology, it praises his political integrity, which remained unshakable though faced with adversity and the criminal drift of the political extremes of the interwar period.

Keyphrases: Levi, Paul (1883-1930), Weimar Republic (1918-1933), Communist Party of Germany (KPD), Communist International, Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Communism, Socialism, Marxism
Figures de l'avarice et de l'usure dans les comédies : The Merchant of Venice de Shakespeare, Volpone de Jonson et L'Avare de Molière

The emergence of a capitalist ‘spirit’ (Weber) in England and France at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries played a leading role in reconfiguring the relation between avaritia and cupiditas which determine the whole semantic field of usury and interest. This thesis postulates that this evolution is perceptible in French and British comedy at that time, in particular for some of the playwrights who staged miserly characters imprinted in our collective imagination. Starting from a comic type as common in Greek and Roman drama as it was in the well-established religious canon in the Christian West, a new understanding of money as object and as sign leads to the construction of a truly modern figure of avarice. Shylock, Volpone (Mosca) and Harpagon, hang on to a almost divine idea of gold and the more or less known world of money, medium they think they control through their treasure, and which is about to become the universal equivalent of any good. Those characters fit perfectly into this modern dynamic of economic, cultural and social exchanges, but they also contribute, with their strictly usurious speech, to its depreciation. Their entourage tries to tame this « lability » of values (Simmel) generated by the economy of the usurer-miser to a new order – a cosmic, ethical or political order. Conflicts are resolved by a court of law, external discriminatory authority and pretext for the mise-en-abyme of social judgment. The analysis of these denouements allows one to understand the work of each author in the comic form and function, through the text, the genres, or an aesthetic of space. It shows how much each author strived to value the contribution of his art to the public, in a time of socio-economic crisis.

Keyphrases: Avarice, Usure, Elizabethan drama, French comedy, Greed, Usury, Money, Capitalism, Economics, Comic type, Comic machine, Character
Le roulement du personnel et la performance organisationnelle : l’effet modérateur des pratiques de gestion des ressources humaines

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between turnover and organizational performance, as well as to highlight the moderating effect of human resources practices on this relationship. This empirical research is based on sample of 241 Desjardins caisses populaires establishments, members of la Fédération des caisses Desjardins of Montréal and West of Québec in credit union sector.     This study uses the theoretical framework of Arthur (1994) and Guthrie (2001) which suggests that turnover has a negative effect on organizational performance. Moreover, these authors suggest that human resources strategies will moderate in the relationship between turnover and organizational performance. In fact, the more organizations invest in human resources practices, the more employees’ departures are expensive because organizations lose this investment and the expected benefits related to it, which will, in return, affect organizational performance. Therefore, it would be relevant to consider the human resources strategies in the relationship between turnover and organizational performance.  The results of the present study show a negative relationship between turnover and organizational performance. More precisely, we notice that turnover decreases productivity and increases costs. The moderating effect of human resources practices was significant. In fact, the effect between turnover and organizational performance is more negative when “commitment” human resources practices are implemented. Also, the association between turnover and organizational performance is attenuated when “involvement” human resources practices are implemented.   This study illustrates the importance to consider human resources strategies in the organization to better qualify the impact of turnover on organizational performance. Therefore, this study might help management to adjust their human resources strategies to influence the impact of turnover on organizational performance.    Key words: quit rate, turnover, organizational performance, human resources management, productivity, financial profit.

Keyphrases: Turnover, Quit rate, organizational performance, Human resources management, productivity, financial profit
Modélisation procédurale par composants

The realism of computer graphics images requires the creation of objects (or scenes) of increasing complexity, which leads to considerable costs. Procedural modeling can help to automate the creation process, to simplify the modification process or to generate multiple variations of an object instance. However although several procedural methods exist, no single method allows the creation of all types of complex objects, including in particular a complete building.  This thesis proposes two solutions to the problem of procedural modeling: one solution addressing the geometry level, and the other introducing a general system suitable for complex object modeling.    First, we present a simple and general modeling primitive, called a block, based on a generalized cuboid shape.  Blocks are laid out and connected together to constitute the base shape of complex objects, from which is extracted a control mesh that can contain both smooth and sharp edges.  The volumetric nature of the blocks allows for easy topology specification, as well as CSG operations between blocks.  The surface parameterization inherited from the block faces provides support for texturing and displacement functions to apply surface details. A variety of examples illustrate the generality of our blocks in both interactive and procedural modeling contexts.  Second, we present a novel procedural modeling system which unifies some techniques into a common framework.  Our system relies on the concept of components to spatially and semantically define various elements.  Through a series of successive statements executed on a subset of queried components, we grow a tree of components ultimately defining an object whose geometry is made from blocks.  We applied our concept and representation of components to the generation of complete buildings, with coherent interiors and exteriors.  It proves general and well adapted to support partitioning of spaces, insertion of openings (doors and windows), embedding of staircases, decoration of façades and walls, layout of furniture, and various other operations required when constructing a complete building.

Keyphrases: Procedural modeling, Component, Architecture, Building, Shape grammar, Boolean operation, Geometric representation, Subdivision surface, Bloc, Block
Évolution des performances scolaires lors de la transition secondaire-Cégep : influences respectives des évaluations PISA, des performances scolaires antérieures et des contextes de vie

In order to assess international student performance, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has developed academic assessments, and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) for students reaching the end of the compulsory schooling. This program has achieved international reknown and is intended to become a key program for assessing student performance in skills necessary for success in life. This research presented here explores in to what degree the PISA is capable of predicting academic success of students who are moving into postsecondary studies in the province of Quebec. We have defined a variable allowing us to predict performance results for students as they transition from high school to Cégep. Our results tend to confirm that the PISA assessments are able to predict in part the continuation of good grades in school when variables related to student life are controlled for. However, an even better indicator than PISA assessments is the earlier grades, which explain the grades earned in the first year of postsecondary studies. However, after controlling for some environmental variables, the early grades are not able to predict the difference between low and high scores during the transition. Only the PISA assessments preserve a low part to predict a decline in school performance for those making the transition to postsecondary studies.

Keyphrases: Transition, Performance evaluation, Academic achievement, Transition
Rôle des neutrophiles dans l'inflammation allergique associée au souffle chez le cheval, un modèle naturel d'asthme

Human asthma and equine heaves are chronic pulmonary diseases sharing several pathophysiological properties including lower airway inflammation, reversible bronchoconstriction, bronchial hyperresponsiveness, and tissue remodeling.  Clinical phenotypes of asthma are characterized in part by the inflammatory cell populations infiltrating the airways, and the presence or absence of allergy.  Heaves is a suitable animal model for the study of the poorly defined pathophysiological processes leading to airway neutrophilia.  The immune response in heaves involves Th2 cytokine expression, which is, among other features, associated to allergic inflammation (acquired immunity). Environmental dust exposure leading to clinical exacerbation of heaves contains non-specific agents derived from bacteria, molds or fungi which could also activate innate immune responses in heaves affected horses.  We studied the role of neutrophils in innate and acquired immune responses in heaves affected-horse. First, innate immune responses of neutrophils isolated from normal and heaves-affected horses to bacterial-derived products were studied.  We also assessed the effect of IL-4, a Th2 cytokine, on equine neutrophils isolated from both groups of horses. Finally, we evaluated the arginase isoforms expressed by equine neutrophils as this enzyme that takes part to the L-arginine metabolism and is thought to contribute to bronchospasm and tissue remodeling associated with asthma. Our results suggest that both neutrophils and mononuclear cells from heaves-affected horses, when compared to healthy horses, have an excessive inflammatory response to lipopolyssacharides and formylated peptides characterized by increased IL-1β, IL-8 and TNF expression. This altered innate response was associated with systemic inflammation in asymptomatic susceptible horses as high serum TNF concentrations were detected.  Furthermore, we found that equine neutrophils are activated by IL-4 and release neutrophil chemotactic factors in response to this cytokine. IL-4 also induces a distinctive activation phenotype in neutrophils that is characterized by increased expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-8 and TNF) and receptors (IL-4Rα and CD23) potentially involved in the allergic response.   Finally, we showed that arginase 1 is not a marker of IL-4-activated equine neutrophils although they constitutively express a functionally active isoform 2 of the enzyme. The up-regulation of arginase isoforms in the peripheral lungs of horses with heaves suggests a role for arginase in this model, as it is described in the mouse, rat and guinea pig models.  Taken together, this work suggest that neutrophils could play an important role in both innate and acquired immune responses associated with heaves pathophysiology, a natural model of neutrophilic asthma.

Keyphrases: arginase, neutrophils, heaves, asthma, innate immunity, allergic response, Th2-type cytokines, arginase, pro-inflammatory cytokines, systemic inflammation, cellular phenotype
La cause juste et suffisante de congédiement en droit québécois lors d’une absence du travail pour raison de santé

Absenteeism at work due to health represents an important stake in today's society since it is constantly increasing. It creates several negative consequences for Quebec Enterprises. We are interested in work absenteeism due to health, from a legal perspective. The purpose of our research consist in identifying, from a sample of seventy-seven judicial decisions, faulty or not faulty circumstances which constitute a fair and sufficient reason for dismissal in cases of absence from  work due to health.   As for faulty instances, our results show that to occupy a second job during an absence from work, to carry out incompatible activities with against health limitations, making false statements, falsifying  medical documents, failing to notify an absence from work without authorization or in the presence of a collective labour agreement, to refuse to return to work following a directive from the employer or to provide the necessary medical information do not constitute irrefutably a fair and sufficient reason for dismissal.   For not faulty incidents, our analysis shows that the incidents related to assiduity at work with or without a collective labour agreement, instances related to the ability to return to work with or without psychological and physical limitations and by taking into account the risk for one’s health and safety, or the risk for others are not at any rate a fair and sufficient reason for dismissal.   It seems, in the decisions analyzed according to the criteria Wohl c. Joly, that the employer must prove the three elements that constitute a fair and sufficient reason for dismissal.

Keyphrases: Fair and sufficient, Dismissal, Work absenteeism, Faulty instances, Not faulty instances
Décrire quantitativement les interventions téléphoniques des infirmières au service Info-Santé selon le niveau de compétence novice - compétent - expert

Nurse telephone consultation services are rapidly progressing throughout the world. It is known that nurses with a greater experience in telephone practise obtain more information on the client’s health condition when in consultation, than nurses with less experience. We can presume that Patricia Benner’s «levels of nursing experience», (1984), will provide us with an explanation for these differences. Yet, to this day, no study describes how these differences between levels of experience are manifested in conversation during an intervention between the nurse and the client. The object of this descriptive study was to identify the manifestations of this communication expertise during a telephone consultation. Using the Roter interaction analysis system (RIAS), 190 recorded calls between nurses (N = 15) with differing levels of expertise, according to Benner’ nomenclature (1984), and the callers who have consulted them were analyzed. The calls that were studied, from a larger study, were first calls from parents regarding their child aged five years or less. It was possible to observe characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses common to nurses within each level of expertise in this study. Despite the fact that there are differences between nurses with fewer years of experience and nurses with more clinical telephone experience, results seem to indicate that, regardless of their experience, nurses are strongly centered on the task of assessing the caller’s health situation; however, their interventions include few phrases aimed at establishing a true partnership with the caller. Results obtained provide information that could be used to elaborate professional developmental strategies, and guide administrators in their choice of indicators when evaluating service quality and its effect on clientele. Nevertheless, an increased number of nurse participants and a greater number of calls would enable us to confirm the results obtained from these 190 calls.

Keyphrases: Nurse-patient relation, Professional-patient relation, Telephone Consultation, Telephone nursing advice, Telephone quality nursing, Telenursing, Telehealth, Nursing advice protocole, Teletriage outcomes
Le multiculturalisme dans une perspective féministe : une théorie libérale de l’aménagement de la diversité culturelle

This dissertation aims at complementing existing multicultural theories with measures promoting autonomy and equality among cultural and religious minorities’ most vulnerable members. In a liberal society, multicultural policies are justified inasmuch as they allow compensating for undeserved inequalities, particularly those stemming from the individuals’ belonging to a cultural minority. The first chapter addresses this justification of cultural diversity management. In practice, multicultural policies can however contribute to weaken even more the vulnerable individuals within minorities, hence reinforcing existing inequalities among the group. Indeed, feminist writers have brought to light a number of criticisms about these policies, which are exposed in the second chapter. In the third chapter, the capabilities concept, constructed as an operational and procedural definition of relational autonomy, is used to build a framework complementing existing multicultural theories. Potential practical applications of this model are then explored in the fourth chapter. The capabilities framework, construed both as a guide for policy-making and as a standard to resolve hard cases, could pave the way for a new kind of cultural diversity management techniques. This framework is more flexible towards cultural diversity, potentially allowing accommodations for more cultural practices, but it is also more stringent, requiring the implementation of institutional mechanisms addressing issues within minorities.

Keyphrases: multiculturalism, feminism, liberalism, autonomy, equality, tolerance, women, capabilities, deliberation, education
Débat inexistant ou paroles persistantes : la théologie des reliques au Moyen Âge, autour du De pigneribus sanctorum de Guibert de Nogent

Relics are items linked to the saints, or to the Christ. Relics carry spiritual power, called virtus, source of miracles. Since the Antiquity, and especially since the Middle Age, relics played an essential part in the life of christian societies. The fact remains that the medieval theologians seemed to have reserved, for the cult of relics, a small part of their writings, as to be regarded by historians as having been presenting "a theoretical elaboration inversely proportional to its significance " and did not elicit any debate.  This thesis thus proposes to study, through the various accounts left on the cult of relics, the ancient and medieval, what were the views, beliefs and controversies around the cult of relics. The hypothesis is therefore proposed that a "problem of the relics" existed, throughout the Middle Age, intimately linked to developments in the cult of saints and ideas on the Eucharist. A shift occurs during the Middle Ages, from a criticism, considered heretical, of the cult itself, to a denial of abuse and vagueness of this cult in the name of orthodoxy. These persistent speeches, if not a debate, about the validity and the mystical mechanisms and abuse of such a cult, would be well crystallized in the twelfth century, reflected in many contemporary writers, such as Thiofrid Echternach and especially Guibert of Nogent, stressing the need for theoretical development and codification of these practices.

Keyphrases: Saints, Moyen-âge, Relics, Cult, Theology, Saints, West, Middle age, Guibert of Nogent, Church
Quitter les siens? : une analyse des trajectoires de sortie chez les juifs hassidiques

This master’s thesis analyses the paths taken by individuals who exit ultraorthodox Jewish communities. More precisely, it illuminates the process by which certain Hasidim take it upon themselves to leave behind the lifestyle and the community in which they were born and raised. My research primarily uses interviews and field notes to show how certain individuals manage to exit such ultra-religious communities despite the presence of strong social controls to prevent leaving. This study examines adjustment strategies and ruses used by Hasidim to avoid religious control and prompt their departure process. Drawing from Goffman’s theory, I will show how in a controlled environment individuals are still able to succeed in creating some marges de manoeuvre. These particular spaces of liberty shaped by each individual allow for the ultimate success of completely leaving the community.

Keyphrases: Erving Goffman, Hasidim, Community exit, Social control, Erving Goffman, Adaptation strategies