NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
L’archivage numérique des projets « Europan » comme situation d’analyse scientifique du concours d’idées en architecture

There are not many theories of project offering a modeling constructed from the complexity and diversity of the architecture project. However, certain situations bringing together dozens of projects, present themselves as comparable and experimental situations: architectural, urban and landscape competitions. The Laboratoire d'étude de l'architecture potentielle from the Université de Montréal (Environmental Design), having developed a system of digital archiving for Canadian competitions, has undertaken, with the support of Groupement d'intérêt public “Europe des projets architecturaux et urbains”, the development of a database comprised of the documentation of competition ideas of Europan. Beyond the issues of digital archiving, there are clearly theorizing possibilities based on the logic of a database, particularly on the structure of the entity/relationship diagram, an indispensable modeling necessary for its computer translation. This research is undertaking a first update of these conceptual elements and suggests that the database is a theoretical model of the project opening up new venues for research and knowledge.

Keyphrases: Architectural competitions, Projet, Project, Idée architecturale, Architectural ideas, Data base, Digital archiving, Broadcasting
Le « nanomonde » et le renversement de la distinction entre nature et technique : 
entre l’artificialisation de la nature et la naturalisation de la technique

Nanosciences and nanotechnologies (NST) are part of a technoscientific field, the nanoworld, which is founded on a theoretical and practical hybridization between nature and technique. In this master thesis we are interested in the blurring of the distinction between the natural and the artificial that so follows. From a socio-historical perspective of the construction of the dualism nature/artefact typical of modern societies, we try to apprehend the socio-cultural stakes that might result from its reversal. Through discourse analysis of interviews conducted with the main researchers in NST in Quebec, we illustrate empirically, and systematize, the double process of artificialisation of nature and naturalization of technique, which is theoretically pointed out as characteristic of the blur of the distinction between nature and technique carried out in the nanoworld. We suggest that the two terms, artificialisation of nature and naturalization of technique, far from being contradictory, rather constitute elements of a synergetic dynamics that leads to a de-ontologisation of nature as a category of thought and a disqualification of the domain that distinguishes human activity.

Keyphrases: Nanotechnologies, nanosciences, technoscience, science, dualisme nature/culture, Nanotechnologies, nanosciences, technoscience, science, social representations, nature/culture dualism, modern societies, deconstruction
Mécanisme de référence en orthopédie pour mono-traumatisme dans un centre de traumatologie niveau 1

Patients with isolated traumatic limb injuries usually consult primary care for first line treatment. The primary care physician will often refer the patient to an orthopaedic surgeon when needed. The research objective was to study the referral mechanism to an Orthopaedic Service in a Level 1 Trauma Center for patients with an isolated limb injury. Access to specialized care and quality of primary care are used to describe the referral mechanism. We studied 166 consecutives patients referred to orthopaedic surgery over a 4 months period. Before the orthopaedic visit, 23 % had seen 2 or more doctors for their injury. The time between the first primary care visit and the orthopaedic evaluation was greater (68 hours) then the interval between the injury and the visit with primary care (21 hours). Among the cases that were considered urgent, 36 % had not been seen within the recommended delay. Quality of initial care was judged sub optimal for 49 % of patients in terms of immobilization, analgesia and/or walking aids. Factors associated with decreased access or quality of care are: smoking, younger age, living far from the hospital, consulting first in a private clinic, lower limb or soft tissue injury and a patient‟s low self-perception of severity. These results underline the necessity of targeting primary care education and improving the referral mechanism for patients with isolated limb injuries.

Keyphrases: Fracture, Referral mechanism, Isolated limb injury, Quality of care, Access to care, Orthopaedic surgery
Élaboration d’un anticorps chimère anti-gp350 comme traitement prophylactique éventuel des syndromes lymphoprolifératifs B chez les greffés

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is associated with B-cell post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD). EBV has the unique property of immortalizing B lymphocytes, thereby causing their uncontrolled proliferation in an immunocompromised host. Certain evidence suggests that EBV productive infection may play a primary role in the genesis of PTLD by generating virus particles which can infect bystander B cells. In an immunocompromised individual, these infected B cells may then give rise to expanding B-cell clones. The project presented in this thesis is part of a research program seeking to elucidate the role of EBV productive infection in the genesis of PTLD. The specific aim of this work was to design a chimeric monoclonal antibody against the EBV envelope glycoprotein gp350 in order to neutralize the virus, thereby preventing entry into B cells. Our laboratory constructed a chimeric version of the murine monoclonal antibody, 72A1, which binds to gp350 and blocks infection. The initial cloning attempts revealed the presence of nonfunctional (aberrant) transcripts in the hybridoma line producing the 72A1 antibody. The chimeric version of the authentic light chain is now completed while the chimeric heavy chain construction is ongoing. As part of the characterisation process for the chimeric antibody, a cell line stably expressing surface gp350 was generated. This gp350-expressing cell line will be used for antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity assays (ADCC). This anti-gp350 chimeric antibody could be useful as a preventive therapy in transplant patients at high risk for PTLD by blocking the infection of bystander B cells.

Keyphrases: gp350, Herpesvirus, Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease, Preventive therapy, Virus neutralization, gp350, Chimeric monoclonal antibody, Aberrant chain
Consommation alimentaire d’antioxydants et risque de cancer du poumon : une étude cas-témoins montréalaise

Objective: To investigate the association between dietary intake of carotenoids (β-carotene, α-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, lutein/zeaxanthin and lycopene) and vitamin C, and risk of lung cancer according to sex, smoking intensity and tumor histological subtype. Methods: In the course of a case-control study conducted in Montreal, Canada, in-person interviews elicited dietary data from 1,105 incident lung cancer cases and 1,449 population controls. Usual frequency of intake of 49 fruit and vegetables two years prior to diagnosis or interview was estimated and converted to antioxidant intakes. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) between intake variables and lung cancer were estimated using logistic and polytomous regression models, adjusting for potential confounding factors. Results: High intakes of antioxidants were generally associated with some 30% reduction in lung cancer risk. A protective effect was observed among men and women, among never smokers, smokers regardless of intensity, and for small cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma. Conclusions: Results from this study suggest several dietary antioxidants may protect against lung cancer. Prevention programs should promote increased intakes of fruit and vegetables rich in carotenoids and vitamin C.

Keyphrases: Nutrition, Cancer, Epidemiology, Nutrition, Case-control, Cancer, Lung, Carotenoids, Vitamin C
Segmentation d’images intravasculaires ultrasonores

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) is a catheter based medical imaging technique that produces cross-sectional images of blood vessels. These images provide quantitative assessment of the vascular wall, information about the nature of atherosclerotic lesions as well as the plaque shape and size. Over the past few years, this medical imaging modality has become a useful tool in research and clinical applications, particularly in atherosclerotic disease studies.   However, IVUS imaging is subject to catheter ring-down artifacts, missing vessel parts due to calcification shadowing or side-branches, heterogeneously looking plaques and ultrasonic speckle from blood. The automated analysis of large IVUS data sets thus represents an important challenge.  A three-dimensional segmentation algorithm based on the multiple interface fast-marching method is presented. The segmentation is based on region and contour features of the IVUS images: a new speed fonction for the interface propagation that combines the probability density functions (PDFs) of the vessel wall components and the intensity gradients is proposed. The segmentation is highly automated with the detection of the lumen boundary that is fully automatic. Minimal interactions are necessary with a novel initialization procedure since initial contours of the external vessel wall border are also computed automatically on a limited number of longitudinal images and then proposed to the user for acceptance or correction.   The segmentation method was validated with in-vivo IVUS data sets acquired from femoral arteries. This database contained 3 subgroups: pullbacks acquired before balloon angioplasty, after the intervention and at a 1 year follow-up examination. Results were compared with validation contours that were manually traced by different experts in IVUS image analysis. The lumen and external wall boundaries detected with the fast-marching method are in agreement with the experts' manually traced contours with similarly found area measurements and small point-to-point contour differences. In addition, the 3D fast-marching segmentation method dramatically reduced the analysis time compared to manual tracing. Such a valdiation study, with comparison between pre- and post-intervention data, has never been reported in the IVUS segmentation literature.  In conclusion, the fast-marching method combining the information on the gray level distributions and intensity gradients of the images is precise and efficient to analyze large IVUS sequences. It is hoped that the fast-marching method will become a widely used tool for the fastidious and difficult task of IVUS image processing.

Keyphrases: segmentation, level-sets, fast-marching, Intravascular ultrasound imaging, segmentation, level-sets, fast-marching, gray level probabilty density functions, gray level gradients
Caractérisation de la SERPINA1, 
une antiprotéase différentiellement exprimée 
dans le cancer épithélial de l’ovaire

Epithelial ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic cancer with a five-year survival rate of 30-40% in patients diagnosed with high-grade invasive disease (TOV). This is in stark contrast to the 95% five-year survival in patients diagnosed with low malignant potential (LMP) disease. It is therefore important to understand the biological differences between LMP and TOV. We have previously identified differential expression of SERPINA1 between serous LMP and TOV tumors through gene expression analysis using Affymetrix U133 DNA microarrays. Expression of this protease inhibitor in the majority of LMP tumors was confirmed and validated by Q-PCR. To study the effects of its overexpression on the invasive potential of ovarian cancer cell lines, SERPINA1 was cloned in the pcDNA3.1+ plasmid and stable clones were derived from two invasive ovarian cancer cell lines, TOV 112D and TOV 1946. Comparisons between clones and controls have shown no SERPINA1-dependent difference in cellular growth or spheroid formation. However, effects on cellular migration and invasion are observed in cells overexpressing SERPINA1. Results from an in vivo xenograft study in SCID mice will allow us to determine if SERPINA1 overexpression affects ovarian tumorigenesis. SERPINA1 remains an interesting candidate gene whose further characterization may lead to insights into its role, and the role of proteases and their inhibitors, in ovarian cancer disease progression.

Keyphrases: SERPINA1, Epithelial ovarian cancer, Differential expression, Low malignant potential (borderline) tumor, Invasive tumor, SERPINA1, Protease inhibitor
Débat public sur la valeur sociale des innovations médicales : l'expérience d'un Café scientifique

Medical innovations have significant influence on clinical practice, policy-making and public expectation towards the health care system. In the context of public health care systems, the cost of health innovation is a major barrier to its adoption even if they are often portrayed in the media as inherently desirable. Such a framing of the problem impedes the debate on what makes social and technological health innovations relevant from a population health perspective. Thus it is interesting to take advantage of an innovative communicational process, the Café scientifique. This research project analyzes a Café scientifique that took place in March 2007 which established a dialogue between four experts and around 80 members of the public on health innovation issues. The objectives are: 1) to analyze the application of the Café scientifique, and 2) to analyze its impact on participants. This single case study uses qualitative and quantitative data: 1) semi-participative observation; 2) audiovisual recording of the activity; 3) surveys distributed at the end of the activity; 4) semi-directed interviews (n=11) with participants. Integrated analysis of all data gives a better understanding of how the context is structuring for the debate, describes the main roles adopted by participants, identifies key health innovation issues that were discussed and highlights which features have facilitated or hindered a dialogue between scientists and the public. The Café scientifique is an unusual practice which stirs up interest of both researchers and participants.

Keyphrases: Café scientifique, Dialogue, Health innovation, Public science communication, Technological choices, Democratic values
Évolution de la pratique et de la perception de l’excision au Burkina Faso entre 1998 et 2003

Between 100 and 140 million women, young and teenage girls have undergone feminine genital cutting (Andro and Lesclingrand, 2007). The medical risks of excision are high and relate to the reproductive, physical and psychological health of women. New migrations and the increase of countries legislating female genital cutting contributed to the internationalization of the practice and to the changes in its process. The loss of the ritual significance of excision and the increase as a concealed practice have clearly been noticed. In the meantime, the international movements fighting it, regional as well as national, amplify and put changes together in order to counter the new figure of female genital cutting. Burkina Faso does not make exception. The Government has clearly positioned itself in favour of movements fighting excision; and has set up many legal, political and economic devices in order to support their initiatives. In 2003, 77% of Burkina Faso women aged between 15 to 49 years old were declared excised. In parallel, a reduction in the practice for their daughter between 1998 and 2003 is noted as well as an increase in the number of Burkina Faso people declaring themselves against the practice. However in 2003, approximately 40% of women have performed or would like their daughter to undergo the cut; and approximately 24% of men and 26% of women are still encouraging the perpetuation of excision. This thesis’ first concern is the changes in the practice, and the knowledge and attitudes regarding excision between 1998 and 2003. Secondly, the attention is drawn on the socio-cultural, demographic and economic determinants indulging the doggedness of this practice within Burkina Faso people and on the concrete obstacles workers encounter on the ground. Therefore this research associates quantitative and qualitative methods. It combines statistic analysis of the Demographic and Health Surveys of 2003 and 1998 data; and analyzes data collected from talks made between October 1 st and 10th, 2005 with fields’ workers.

Keyphrases: Excision, Burkina Faso, Excision, Female genital cutting, excision determinants, Burkina Faso, fight movement, obstacles to the fight, legislation
La stigmatisation des aidants familiaux de personnes atteintes par la maladie d’Alzheimer

Aging populations in western societies contribute to the raise of chronic illnesses such as Alzheimer disease. The issue of aging also echoes in recent political reforms and more generally in the way we manage public services. In this context, Quebec’s public health regime has known diverse modifications concerning “first line caregiving” (soins de première ligne). New actors of the public system have acquired roles and responsibilities defining particular issues. We address one of these issues. This research aims at specifying the social processes inherent to the isolation of family caregivers helping a relative suffering from Alzheimer disease. The stigmatization process and related microprocesses are the principal mechanisms analysed. The data derives from in-depth, semi-structured interviews, realised with a cohort of sixty family caregivers followed longitudinally since the beginning of their care trajectories. A qualitative scheme bears out our investigation. We have analysed a sample of twelve participants using a sequential approach. Three typical processes were identified: social separation, transitory stigma and social anomia. Results suggest that the caregivers’ support networks are subjected to a setting of conditions structuring social stigma, the recurrent condition being an issue of power implying the social control of the ill relative. Caregivers who also are the spouses of the ill relative are the most inclined to stigmatization in early trajectory.

Keyphrases: Social networks, sequential analysis, social support, social control
L’identification et l’impact de différents types de réseaux sociaux dans les trajectoires de vie de personnes assistées sociales

This thesis examines the role of social networks in life trajectories of individuals living on social security benefits in Quebec. The precarious living conditions of these individuals can be situated in social relations from which discrimination and stigmatization arise. Analysis of social networks can allow us to discover certain dynamics, particularly with regard to their qualitative and temporal character.  Life story narratives were used in order to identify certain social networks in discourse and in elaborating a qualitative analysis model of social networks within a life trajectory perspective. This step allowed to identify a link between certain important narrative events and transformation of relations. Also revealed in discourse were quality indicators of contacts in relation to either a “positive”, “negative” or “neutral” contribution in the trajectory.  The comparison of trajectories of the individuals selected allowed to identify similar network morphologies and to produce a typology. The different categories are identified in function of three dominant categories of contacts evoked by participants: family, knowledge and organisms. The mention of social security, psychiatric contact or even the respondent’s lapse into silence concerning one of the categories allowed to nuance the typology and to identify eleven types of networks. In order to assess the pertinence of this analytical model, an exploratory demonstration of the typology was effectuated.

Keyphrases: Itinérance, Social Networks, Qualitative Analysis, Trajectory, Social Security, Homelessness, Social Relations, Social Inequality
« Accommodements raisonnables » pour motif religieux : étude d’un débat public

This master’s thesis addresses the polemic that took place in Québec between March 2006 and December 2007 on the “reasonable accommodation” of religious minorities. Starting from a comprehensive perspective and a theoretical framework peculiar to the sociology of ethnic relations, it offers a two-pronged qualitative analysis of the open letters published in Québec newspapers. First, the various arguments made by participants in the debate are identified and categorized by means of thematic analysis. Second, a comparative approach is used to identify the various types of participants in this debate, taking into account both the nature of the ideological forces at work and their position on the most salient social-differentiation axes that structured the debate.  The results suggest that the polemic arose from a conflict between the various “identity markers” used to place ethnic boundaries. Moreover, it suggests that the polemic also gave rise to a reconfiguration of ethnic relations in Québec, due to the distinction between the debate on the nation-to-nation conflict and that on the criteria for inclusion in the nation.

Keyphrases: Québec, religion, reasonable accommodation, Québec, popular discourse, open letters, ethnic relations, religion
Hypophosphatémie après résection hépatique

Background: Post-hepatectomy hypophosphatemia, first associated with metabolic demands by the regenerating liver, has recently been related to an excessive fractional urinary phosphate excretion (FePO4). We decided to investigate the role of parathyroid hormone (PTH) and of phosphatonins in the latter finding. Methods: Serum phosphate (PO4), ionized calcium (Ca++), HCO3-, pH and FePO4, Intact PTH, carboxyl-terminal and Intact fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF-23), FGF-7 and frizzled related-protein-4 (FRP-4) were measured before and serially on post-operative days 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7, in 18 patients undergoing liver resection. Results: Serum PO4 was lowest (0.66 ± 0.33 mmol/l; p < 0.001) on po day 2. FePO4 peaked at 25.07 ± 2.26 % on po day 1 (p < 0.05) and was associated with Intact PTH levels (r = 0.65, p = 0.006).  Decreased Ca++ levels (1.1 ± 0.01 mmol/l; p < 0.01) and increased Intact PTH levels (8.8 ± 0.9 pmol/l; p < 0.01) observed on po day 1 were negatively related (r = -0.62, p = 0.016). Intact FGF-23 decreased to its nadir 7.8 ± 6.9 pg/ml (p < 0.001), on po day 3 and was correlated with PO4 levels on po days 0, 3, 5 and 7 (p < 0.001). Carboxyl-terminal FGF-23, FGF-7 and FRP-4 levels could not be related either to PO4 concentrations or FePO4.  Conclusion: Post-hepatectomy hypophosphatemia is related to an increased FePO4 unrelated to Intact FGF-23 or carboxyl-terminal FGF-23, FGF-7 or FRP-4. I-PTH contributes to excessive FePO4 on po day 1 but not thereafter. Other factors not yet defined should explain post hepatectomy hypophosphatemia.

Keyphrases: Hyperphosphaturie, Liver, Resection, Hypophosphatemia, Hyperphosphaturia, Phosphatonins