NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Les processus décisionnels de l’intervention militaire au Canada (1990-2003) : une approche réaliste néoclassique

The decision to intervene militarily or not in a conflict is certainly one of the most important a government can take. These decisions are extremely significant financially, politically and socially costly. The research presented in this document analyzes decision-making processes in Canada during the Gulf War, the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. Canada is a very interesting case to study because despite its middle power status, it took part in seven armed conflicts since September 1867. This research will therefore try to identify the reasons for Canada to invest financial and human resources in some conflicts, while it chooses not to get involved in others. Some theories of international relations argue that the defence policy of states is guided by the desire to maximize their power on the international stage. Other theories will instead focus on values or norms internalized by states, or their integration into international institutions. These different assumptions raise the importance of internal and external factors, but do not tell which will prevail. Thus, using a neoclassical realism model of decision making synthesizing these two factors, it will be possible to determine which internal (internal policy constraints, perceptions of managers) or external factors (Canada's relative position in the international system) dominate in the decision to go to war.

Keyphrases: Canada, Afghanistan, Canada, Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan, war, decision-making, neoclassical realism, military interventions
Intra- and inter-hemispheric interactions in somatosensory processing of pain : dynamical causal modeling analysis of fMRI data

Pain is a perceptual experience comprising many dimensions. These pain dimensions interrelate with each other and recruit neuronal networks that process the corresponding information. Elucidating the functional architecture that supports different perceptual aspects of the experience is thus, a fundamental step to our understanding of the functional role of different regions in the cerebral pain matrix that are involved in the cortical circuitry underlying the subjective experience of pain. Among various brain regions involved in the processing of nociceptive information, primary and secondary somatosensory cortices (S1 and S2) are the main areas generally associated with the processing of sensory-discriminative aspect of pain. However the functional organization in these somatosensory areas is not completely clear and relatively few studies have directly examined the integration of information among somatic sensory regions. Thus, several questions remain regarding the hierarchical relationship between S1 and S2, as well as the functional role of the inter-hemispheric connections of the homologous somatic sensory areas. Likewise, the question of serial or parallel processing within the somatosensory system is another questionable issue that requires further investigation. The purpose of the present study was to test a number of causal hypotheses regarding the functional interactions between S1 and S2, while subjects were receiving painful electric shocks. We implemented a connectivity modeling approach, which utilizes a causal description of system dynamics, in order to study the interactions among activation sites defined by a data set derived from a functional imaging study. Our paradigm consists of 3 experimental scans using electric shock stimuli, with the stimulus intensity changing from moderately painful (level 3), to slightly painful (level 2), and to completely non-painful (level 1) during the final scan. Therefore our paradigm allowed us to investigate how stimulus intensity is encoded within our network of interest, and how the connectivity of the different regions is modulated across the different stimulus conditions.   Our result is in favor of serial mode of somatosensory processing with thalamocortical input to S1 contralateral to stimulation site. Thus our results implicates that pain information is propogated from S1 contralateral through our network of interest comprising of bilateral S1 and S2. Our analysis indicates that S1→S2 connection is modulated by pain, which suggests that S2 is higher on the hierarchy of pain processing than S1, in accordance with previous neurophysiological and MEG findings. Lastly, our analysis provides evidence for the entrance of somatosensory information into the hemisphere contralateral to the stimulation side, with inter-hemispheric connections responsible for the transfer of information to the ipsilateral hemisphere.

Keyphrases: Pain, Somatosensory cortex, FMRI, Connectivity, Causality, IRMf
Rôle des facteurs physico-chimiques du micro-environnement intestinal et des boucles inter-hélicales du Domaine I dans l’activité de la toxine insecticide Cry9Ca du bacille de Thuringe

Once ingested by susceptible insects, Bacillus thuringiensis insecticidal toxins must be activated by the insect’s intestinal proteases.  Their first domain, a bundle of seven amphipathic -helices, is responsible for their insertion into the luminal membrane of midgut cells, thereby creating poorly selective pores.  The toxicity and pore-forming ability of one such toxin, Cry9Ca, its single-site mutants, R164A and R164K, and of the 55-kDa fragment resulting from its proteolytic cleavage at residue 164 were investigated using a combination of homology modeling, bioassays, osmotic swelling experiments with Manduca sexta larval midgut brush border membrane vesicles and electrophysiological measurements on isolated midguts.  Neither the single mutations nor the proteolytic cleavage altered Cry9Ca toxicity.  In low ionic strength solutions however, pore formation was highly dependent on pH: increasing pH from 6.5 to 10.5 resulted in an irregular step-wise decrease in membrane permeabilization.  All four toxin preparations nevertheless depolarized the apical membrane of freshly isolated midguts bathing in a solution containing 122 mM KCl at pH 10.5.  The activity of Cry9Ca, R164A and R164K was greatly enhanced when the experiments were conducted in the presence of midgut juice, the lipids extracted from an equivalent volume of midgut juice or a cocktail of water-soluble protease inhibitors.  Additionally, the role of the interhelical loops of Domain I in membrane insertion was investigated with Cry9Ca double mutants with mutations that either introduced, neutralized or reversed an electrical charge.  All but three mutants retained a toxicity and a pore-forming ability that were comparable to those of their parental toxin.  Overall, the results suggest that the midgut microenvironment contributes to minimizing the influence of surface charges carried by Domain I interhelical loop residues on B. thuringiensis toxins pore-forming ability.  They also indicate that, depending on the cleavage site and on the experimental conditions used, further proteolysis of the activated Cry9Ca toxin can either stimulate or be detrimental to its activity and that M. sexta midgut juice probably contains protease inhibitors that could play a major role in the activity of B. thuringiensis toxins in the insect midgut.

Keyphrases: Formation de pores, Bacillus thuringiensis, Manduca sexta, Insecticidal toxins, Pore formation, Microenvironment, Proteolysis, Electrostatic interactions, Osmotic swelling assay, Electrophysiological assay, Homology modelling, Bacillus thuringiensis, Manduca sexta
Le film de famille, héritier de la tradition orale

This research wants to demonstrate that the home movie and his reception context seem to be deeply marked by oral tradition and it’s communicative and social system.  Orality should be considered as the family remembrance catalyst in home movies.  This spoken word is the main transporter of the interpretation of home movie message as the family discourse.  In fact, if we try to evaluate which one of the sensory mediums is more important for family communication (visual or oral medium), we would find out that orality plays a bigger part.  Consequently, its form, content and finality correspond to the “oral cinema” definition of Germain Lacasse.  Because of an actual lack of literature on this specific subject, the purpose of this study is to connect and define theories of oral tradition and home movie.  The theoretical approach developed is based on oral tradition theory, Halbwach’s collective memory theory and on the relations between cinema and orality.  Therefore, several aspects will be discussed : the contribution of orality in domestic memory constitution, the orality involvement in family memory stimulators or medias, and finally, the analysis of home movie’s form and content as an oral cinema. In addition, four sequences of Quebec made home movies since the twenties until our days are studied.

Keyphrases: Home movie, Oral tradition, Family memory, Collective memory, Oral cinema
Évaluation pharmacoéconomique d'un test de prédisposition génétique aux effets secondaires musculaires reliés aux statines

Introduction: Statins have proven their efficacy in the treatment of dyslipidemias. However, these molecules are associated with muscular side effects. Since these side effects may have adverse consequences on patients’ daily life and have an important role in the discontinuation of statin therapy in a large proportion of patients, it would be useful to develop a pharmacogenomic test that identifies a priori the individuals who are likely to develop statin-related muscular side effects (SRMSE). The objective of the present study was to determine of the monetary value of such a type of test considering that this aspect would represent an important component of its marketing and implementation into medical practice.  Method: The first simulation was carried out using the method of Markov, but this one did not allow consider all the desired elements. This is why the discrete events simulation method have been used to study a population of 100 000 hypothetical patients newly initiated on a statin. This virtual population was duplicated to have two identical cohorts of patients. The first one was administered the test and a suitable treatment while the second received the current standard treatment—that is, a statin. The model allowed the two cohorts to evolve over a period of 15 years taking into account the risks of fatal and non fatal cardiovascular diseases (CVD), SRMSE and mortality from other causes than CVD. The consequences (CVD, SRMSE, death) incurred in these two populations and the associated costs were then compared. Finally, the process was repeated 25 times to assess the stability of the results and various sensitivity analyses were carried out.  Results: The mean difference of CVD and SRMSE treatments, lost of human capital and drugs costs between the two cohorts was of 28.89 $, these costs being higher in the cohort who was not administered the test. However, the standard deviation with the average was considerable (416.22 $) calling in question the validity of the monetary estimate of the test pharmacogenomic.This difference varied a lot as a function of the proportion of patients being predisposed to SRMSE, the efficacy and the costs of the alternative treatments, the SRMSE cost, and the value assigned to one additional month of life.   Conclusion: The results suggest that a test of genetic predisposition to SRMSE would have a value around 30 $ in patients who start a statin treatment. However, uncertainty surrounding the value obtained is very important and several variables for which the real data are not available in the literature have an important influence on the value. The real value of this genetic tool could thus be given only when the model is updated with more precise data on the prevalence of the ESMIS and their impact on the observance at the treatment and then analyzed with a higher number of patients.

Keyphrases: Pharmacoeconomy, Pharmacogenomic, Myopathie
La privatisation des soins de santé : clarifications conceptuelles et observations sur le cas québécois

For the last 25 years, the issue of health care privatization has frequently been a subject of public debate in Québec. Already during the 1980s, when the health sector was starting to be under pressure, the use of the private sector was presented as a possible alternative. More recently, with the adoption of bill 33 by the liberal government of Jean Charest, many groups in the civil society have denounced the privatization of health care. What is striking when we study health care privatization is that the concept is rarely clearly defined. Through a closer look at the Quebec case, this research first recalls how the idea of health care privatization has emerged and progressed. This idea appeared during the 1980s when health care public programs started to represent important pressures on the public finance of states that were also experiencing an economic crisis. At the same time, neoliberalism and its questioning of the welfare state was slowly eclipsing keynesianism. A new way of managing health care public programs seemed necessary. New public management and the techniques it proposes, privatization being one of them, appeared to be the solution to consider. Then, through a literature review, this research analyzes the concept of privatization, in the realm of social protection in general but also more specifically in health care. Through this process, the research clarifies the concept of privatization and defines it systematically. Thus, privatization in the health care sector transfers responsibility from the public to the private in different areas. These areas are: 1) management and administration, 2) financing, 3) provision, 4) ownership. Adding to this definition, privatization is a process of change and can be initiated actively or passively. The last part looks more particularly at the Québec case and shows how privatization has evolved in the Québec health care sector. It also highlights how some aspects of the Canadian institutional context have influenced health care privatization in the province. Québec has not been impervious to privatization. After the cuts in health care funding by the federal government that began in the 1980s, the Québec’s government reacted by actively privatizing some complementary health services through de-insurance. It has also put in place the ambulatory shift policy, which has lead to a passive privatization of health care. The ambulatory shift represented a new trend in health care provision that consists in sending patients home more quickly after their hospitalization. The Canadian Health Act, considered as an obstacle to privatization, does not limit this kind of privatization. Finally, with the passing of bill 33, after the Chaoulli case, the Québec’s government has actively opened the door to the private sector in three health care activities: administration and management, provision, and financing.

Keyphrases: Québec, Canada, privatization, health care, neoliberalism, new public management, welfare state, Québec, Canada
Le sentiment de surqualification chez les diplômés

The majority of researchers who study occupational overqualification interpret it as mainly a matter of overeducation. This analysis shows that the issue of overqualification has a broader interpretation than these authors have shown. One assumes that a graduate hopes to obtain a position commensurate with his level of education, but we also have to consider other factors that explain overqualification. The notion of overqualification comes from a social judgment: it is empirical, contextualized and dynamic. As there are objective and subjective measures, we explore the different factors that contribute to the perception of overqualification in Canadian postsecondary graduates. Statistical analysis is used to identify such factors in these individuals during their first years after graduation. Initially, we show that work skills and the link between the diploma earned and the employment obtained explains much more about the feeling of overqualification than solely the matter of overeducation. We also demonstrate that the impact of the extent a given skill is used on the feeling of overqualification varies substantially according to the graduate’s field of study and the nature of the particular skill utilized.

Keyphrases: Overqualification, Overeducation, Skill, Qualification, Qualification, Graduate
Differences in atrial fibrillation properties under vagal nerve stimulation versus atrial tachycardia remodeling

Background: Vagal nerve stimulation (VS) and atrial tachycardia remodeled (ATR) atrial fibrillation (AF) substrates share many features: reduced effective refractory period (ERP), increased ERP heterogeneity and some common molecular mechanisms. This study compared VS and ATR substrates at comparable ERP abbreviation.  Methods: In each of 6 VS dogs, bilateral cervical VS parameters were adjusted to produce the same mean ERP as a sex and weight matched ATR dog. Electrophysiological parameters, mean duration of AF (DAF) and local dominant frequencies (DF) were determined (before (CTL) and after VS in VS dogs). Results: Despite matched ERPs (VG: 80±12msec vs ATR: 79±12msec) DAF was greater (*), conduction heterogeneity was greater (*), DF was faster (*) and DF variability greater (*) in VS dogs. AF drivers reflected by maximum DF zones were adjacent to autonomic ganglia in VS dogs; there was a tendency (p<0.07) to faster driver zones in the left atrium comparing to the right in ATR dogs. Conclusions: For a comparable atrial ERP, VS AF is faster and more persistent than AF with an ATR substrate. These results are consistent with modeling work suggesting that VS-induced hyperpolarization is an important contributor to AF-maintaining rotor stabilization and acceleration. Similarities in DF distribution in VS dogs with distribution of ablation lesions performed after Complex Fractionated Atrial Electrograms mapping suggests new curative ablation methods. DF distribution differences between VS and ATR provides new ideas about possible neuroreceptorial remodeling and indicates important differences between these superficially similar AF substrates.

Keyphrases: Vitesse de conduction, Atrial fibrillation, Atrial tachycardia remodeling, Complex fractionated atrial electrograms, Vagal stimulation, Dominant frequencies, Effective refractory period, Cardiac ganglia, Muscarinic receptors, Conduction velocity, Ablation
Impact des émotions sur les performances

Emotions play a crucial role in cognitive processes, particularly in learning tasks. Furthermore, several studies in neurosciences have shown that emotion is closely related to cognitive processes. They have also determined many different forms of intelligence other than the rational intelligence; one of them is the form having an emotional dimension which influences the learning processes, namely emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is a significant factor in academic and professional success. Under the light of these results, the computer scientists will, in their turn, try to focus on the emotional factor in computer systems and more particularly in those dedicated to learning. The integration of emotional intelligence in these systems, specifically in Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS), will enable them to recognise learner’s emotions and improve his/her performances. In this thesis, our main aim is to develop a learning strategy which promotes and enhances memorization by children.  To achieve this aim, we developed an English web course and a virtual tutor using multimedia resources such as voice pitch, music, images, and gestures to induce emotion in the learner. We conducted an experiment to test the effectiveness of some emotional strategies and assessed the impact of aroused emotions on the ability of memorizing knowledge to be acquired by the learner. The results of this experimental study have shown that implicit induction of emotions has a significant influence on learner’s performances. Moreover, no effective strategy can be applied to all learners at the same time. However, the efficiency of a strategy depends mainly on the learner’s behavioral profile based on his temperament.

Keyphrases: intelligent tutoring system, temperament, emotion elicitation, efficient emotional strategy for learning, knowledge memorization
Vidéosurveillance intelligente pour la détection de chutes chez les personnes âgées

Developed countries like Canada have to adapt to a growing population of seniors.  A majority of seniors reside in private homes and most of them live alone, which can be dangerous in case of a fall, particularly if the person cannot call for help. Video surveillance is a new and promising solution for healthcare systems to ensure the safety of elderly people at home.  Concretely, a camera network would be placed in the apartment of the person in order to automatically detect a fall. When a fall is detected, a message would be sent to the emergency center or to the family through a secure Internet connection. For a low cost system, we must limit the number of cameras to only one per room, which leads us to explore monocular methods for fall detection.  We ﬁrst studied 2D information (images) by analyzing the shape deformation during a fall. Normal activities of an elderly person were used to train a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) to detect any abnormal event. Our method was tested with a realistic video data set of simulated falls and normal activities.  However, 3D information like the spatial localization of a person in a room can be very useful for action recognition. Although a multi-camera system is usually preferable to acquire 3D information, we have demonstrated that, with only one calibrated camera, it is possible to localize a person in his/her environment using the person’s head. Concretely, the head, modeled by a 3D ellipsoid, was tracked in the video sequence using particle ﬁlters. The precision of the 3D head localization was evaluated with a video data set containing the real 3D head localizations obtained with a Motion Capture system. An application example using the 3D head trajectory for fall detection is also proposed.  In conclusion, we have conﬁrmed that a video surveillance system for fall detection with only one camera per room is feasible. To reduce the risk of false alarms, a hybrid method combining 2D and 3D information could be considered.

Keyphrases: Computer vision, Videosurveillance, Fall detection, Motion detection, Tracking, Shape analysis, 3D localization