NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Caractérisation des lymphocytes T CD4 spécifiques au VIH chez les donneurs non-infectés

CD4+ T cell (Thelper, TH) responses play a key role in antiviral immunity. However, HIV-specific TH responses generated either by infection or by vaccine candidates are highly variable. Studies in mice and humans suggest that antiviral TH responses can be generated before exposure to the specific viral pathogen through cross-reactivity with other microorganisms These pre-existing responses may influence development of TH responses upon pathogen or immunogen exposure. We investigated HIV-specific TH responses in HIV-uninfected individuals (UD) and compared them to those of HIV-infected donors (HI).  The prevalence of HIV-specific proliferative TH responses in UD was surprisingly high: 33% of UD had a robust Gag response >1% by CFSE assay. While Gag was more frequently targeted than the alternative HIV proteins Env, Nef and Pol, we did not observe the strong Gag immunodominance pattern seen in HI. Proliferative responses were overall lower in UD than HI, but strong expansion was occasionally observed. We derived Gag- and Env-specific short-term TH cell lines from UD and used intracellular staining to confirm their specificity and functions.  TNF-α and CD40L dominated TH responses in UD lines, contrasting with HI lines that were robust IFN- producers. Functional affinity in UD was variable and could be improved in some subjects by optimization of antigen presentation. Gp41 epitope mapping identified peptides recognized by TH from UD. The results show that functional HIV-specific CD4 T cells exist in a substantial proportion of UD. Such pre-existing CD4 T cell could impact development of virus-specific TH responses at the time of acute HIV infection and influence responses to vaccine candidates.

Keyphrases: cellule T CD4, Gp41, HIV, CD4 Thelper cells, Cross-reactive responses, Epitope mapping, Pre-immune repertoire
Effet d’un entrainement moteur sur le taux de concentration sérique du facteur neurotrophique dérivé du cerveau chez les personnes âgées

Introduction: Physical exercise has been reported as a promising approach to counteract aging-associated decreased cognitive functions. Different exercise training programs have been associated with improvement of cognition and mood potentially by acting on several molecular pathways. Different exercise interventions have been shown to increase the levels of Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This protein is a key neurotrophin, it increases the survival and growth of neurons and consequently favours neuroplasticity.  However, few studies have compared different types of physical exercise training protocols and their impact on BDNF levels, especially in participants over 60 years old. The goal of this study was to compare the effects of two different exercise protocols on serum BDNF levels in healthy older adults.  Methods: Thirty-four older adults were divided in two groups; combined strength and aerobic group (CSA, age: 70.5±5.3 yrs.) and gross motor activities and flexibility group (GMA, age: 74.6 ± 5.2 yrs.). Both interventions were composed of three weekly 60-minute sessions for a period of 8 weeks. The intervention for the CSA group included maximal strength exercises and high intensity aerobic interval training. GMA involved locomotion activities, ball manipulation (hand-eye coordination), and stretching exercises. One-way ANCOVAs were performed on variable absolute change, while controlling for age and baseline value. Results: As expected, CSA participants showed significant increase in aerobic capacity (VO2max). In contrast, only the GMA group showed significant change in BDNF serum levels following intervention.  Conclusion: These results suggest that gross motor activities could potentially lead to improvements in cognition through the enhancement of BDNF production.

Keyphrases: Aging, Brain-derived neurotrophic factor, Gross motor ability, Physical exercise
Comparaison des modalités de traitements antibiotiques post-opératoires des mastoïdites aiguës sans complication intracrânienne chez l’enfant

Acute mastoiditis is one of the most common complication of acute otitis media in children under two years old. To our knowledge, neither guidelines have been published nor prospective study has compared the oral and intravenous post-operative antibiotic treatments of mastoïditis. Our objective was to compare the oral and intravenous post-operative treatments of pediatric acute mastoiditis without intracranial complication. A retrospective cohort study was done. Two groups of children (n = 29) diagnosed with acute mastoiditis without intracranial complication, who has been operated, were compared by the demographics, the type of antibiotics, the durations of hospitalization and postoperative treatment and the incidence of complications. Both groups had equivalent duration of hospitalization and postoperative treatment. The intravenous group had 14,3% of minor complications (n = 2) and 7,1% of major complications (n = 1). The oral group had 6,7% of minor complications (n = 1) without any major complication. This study supports the notion that, in the pediatric population, adequate surgical drainage of acute mastoiditis without intracranial complication can be followed by discharge with oral antibiotics to achieve the same satisfactory and safe outcomes of intravenous treatment.

Keyphrases: Treatment, Antiobiotics, Acute mastoiditis, Pediatric
Évaluation de la survie et de la progression de la maladie des patients diagnostiqués avec un sarcome métastatique des tissus mous traité par chimiothérapie palliative

High-grade sarcomas present a metastatic progression in approximately 50% of cases. The effectiveness of palliative chemotherapy as a treatment of systemic metastases is still modest. The main objective of this study is to assess disease progression and survival of patients diagnosed with metastatic soft tissue sarcomas treated with palliative chemotherapy. A retrospective chart review of 68 patients treated with palliative chemotherapy for metastatic soft tissue sarcomas between 2003 and 2013 at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital was achieved. Data for control group of 36 patients with metastatic soft tissue sarcomas not treated with chemotherapy was collected retrospectively. Median overall survival with chemotherapy treatments was more than two times overall survival without treatments, which were 20 months and 7 months, respectively (p=0.0001). Overall survival was improved for all histologic subtypes with chemotherapy treatments, especially for leiomyosarcomas and synovial sarcomas, even though the difference in survival was not statistically significant between treated and untreated groups. When chemotherapy was given in combined therapy during first line of treatment, event-free survival was statistically longer (p=0.0184) and favorable responses rates were doubled. In conclusion, results have shown a significantly improved overall survival in all histological groups with chemotherapy treatments. Nevertheless, patients with favorable response to chemotherapy have poor outcomes. Additional treatment options are needed.

Keyphrases: Palliative, Soft-tissue sarcomas, Metastasis, Chemotherapy, Survival
Impact de l’ajout d’une équipe de proximité intensive pour jeunes itinérants souffrant de psychose et de toxicomanie à une clinique d’intervention précoce pour la psychose

In Canada, every night, about 6000 youths are homeless. Those suffering from psychosis and substance use disorder (SUD) are at higher risk for homelessness. Today’s literature suggests the need for dedicated interventions for this population. In 2012, an intensive outreach team (ÉQIIP SOL (ES)) was created at the CHUM, to help homeless youth suffering from psychosis and SUD (HYPS). Objective: Explore the impact of ES added to an early intervention for psychosis clinic (EIC) on service use and the symptomatic and functional outcome for the HYPS. Method: Longitudinal study comparing the outcome of HYPS who received care from ES in addition to an early intervention for psychosis clinic (EIPC) (2012-2015) to an HYPS historical cohort who received care from EIPC only (2005-2011). Housing stability (main outcome), living arrangement autonomy, global assessment of functioning scale (SOFAS), clinical global assessment scales (GAF, CGI), SUD severity (AUS, DUS) and services use (Emergency consultations and hospitalizations) have been collected prospectively for 24 months. Results: With ES + EPIC, there is a higher rate of HYPS in stable housing than with EIPC only (RR=2,38, p=0,017). Symptomatic and functional outcomes as well as drug and alcohol misuse are somewhat similar for the 2 groups. Conclusion: The addition of ES to an EIPC seems to benefit HYPS in increasing housing stability. However, poor prognostic factors of HYPS and the high intensity of the comparator treatment (EPIC) may explain why ES does not seem to have an additional impact on shortterm symptomatic, functional and SUD outcome.

Keyphrases: Intervention, Homelessness, Psychosis, Intervention, Youth, Addiction, Outcome, First Episode Psychosis, Substance use disorder
Les auteurs de 4-Mai en Chine : 
construction d'une configuration

At the dawn of the twentieth century, in China, a group of intellectuals and writers find themselves at the beginning of a new cultural and politic movement. Sinologists call them the “May-Fourth writers”. They have for goal to transform China, implement a form of modernity in using literature. From the rejection of Confucian tradition to the promotion of the Communist ideas, they seem to be in the middle of every social and political transformation that the country has experienced. The May Fourth era is a turning point in the history of China. It begins just after the fall of the last Qing emperor and ends just before the victory of the Chinese Communist Party, it is a time where the Chinese society was reorganized. The intellectuals were no exception, a new configuration is under construction. It is with the sociology of Norbert Elias that I will try to understand which configuration allow the development of both literature and politics in an interdependent relationship. The new configuration that characterizes the May Fourth writers is different than the one that characterize the Confucian mandarins of the Imperial age. The various elements who allow the May Fourth writers to pass to a configuration to another (new themes in literature, a way to be modern, political commitment) are also the elements that influence the political world, showing the interdependence between them.

Keyphrases: Configuration, May Fourth movement, Modernity, Configuration, Interdependence, Literature, Politics
Le paradoxe du backpacking chez les jeunes Québécois : entre individualisation et connexion

Being open to the world is trending with today’s youth in Quebec and elsewhere. Members of the Generation Y, young people are already familiar with "new technologies". Indeed, the digital ways and the social media networks have no secret for them, and allow them to keep in touch on a worldwide scale. It then becomes tempting to leave on an adventure, a bag on their back, to conform to the view of being open to the world as a quality.   The present Master’s thesis considers the notion of backpacking, namely a trending way of travelling by young people, in particular students, by putting a bag on their back and leaving on a journey to enrich their qualities as individuals. Indeed, leaving their social epicenter, often alone, while traveling "light" in foreign parts of the world contributes to their capacity to act on their own initiative and acquiring qualities susceptible to highlight their individuality. This trend is theoretically designed in the light of theses about individualization present in sociology and which, here, will be considered with nuances.   The current analysis leans on semi-directive interviews from backpackers considered representative of this inclination to put their daily routine on hold in order to act by themselves. The study produced in the pages of this report reveals that, at their level, they travel freely, while keeping a smart phone or a portable device which they constantly remain connected to their social epicenter, their parents and friends. In doing so, the devices exercise a power of inflection on their trip and on their actions abroad. How do we explain this paradox? Backpacking with the intention to act on their own, but constantly be subjected to others opinions, which in turn can in some respects govern the control facilitating individualization at its quality value. That is what the Master’s thesis tries to explain.

Keyphrases: backpacking, TIC, autonomy, ICTS, individualization, journey, test, youth
Médecine de reproduction et sélection génétique : la mise en acte d’un idéal de corporéité

Whether we talk about “technosemen”, “cyborg babies” or “techno-birth”, it all comes down to one thing: the use of the latest reproductive technologies is part of a redesign of the biological processes. What we are witnessing is that the body is being technified and ultimately broken down in such a way that it can be exploited and marketed in spare parts. However, because they’re being valued, the biological substances are often also rematerialized in the social consciousness. In looking at the gamete donation industry, we are trying to understand how it treats the reproductive substances as commodities in reconstructing the donor’s body. There is plenty of literature on how the new reproductive technologies are contributing to the identity and societal renewal. Our goal is therefore to look beyond and reflect on how much the genetic selection performed in fertility clinics says about the social patterns that enter in the identity dimension of the body. This thesis analyses the rhetoric used on the websites of sperm and egg banks in Canada and in the United States to recruit and present the donors. We will show that sperm and egg donations, which come within what is now called the bioeconomy, replicate a certain vision of social groups which are altogether classified by gender, race and social class.

Keyphrases: Fécondation in vitro, Technosciences, Body, In vitro fertilization, Genetic selection, Bioeconomy, Reproductive technologies, Norms reproduction, Ameliorative medecine, Eugenics
Cultures, connaissances et idéologies religieuses à l’école : l’Iran et le Québec face à la laïcité scolaire

By crossing various socio-historical events since the mid-twentieth century in history through the modernization of societies, it is clear that an important part of industrialization could have contributed to the emergence of mass education.   Admittedly, the individual must attend an academic environment in order to be able to live adequately in a modern industrialized society.   Thus, faced with the modernization of Western societies, science and scientific developments had major impacts on the education of children. On the aspect of science, the teaching of religion at school becomes an interrogation to researchers like Émile Durkheim, the ''father of sociology''; The project of secularization in France is the result of the adaptation of a public institution to the values ​​of a modern society. In analyzing the educational institutions of two societies, it is a question of apprehending how they are in contrasts concerning the place of religion in the pedagogy: Iran and Quebec. The sociological tradition obliges writers to orient their ideas by constructing a question of research, which is based on the conjunction of different paradigms.

Keyphrases: Secularization, School, Religion, Sociology of youth, Textbooks
Le rôle des groupes communautaires LGBT dans la formulation des politiques publiques : le cas de la politique québécoise de lutte contre l'homophobie

This masters thesis is about the roles of LGBT community groups and their influence on the creation  of  the  Politique  québécoise  de  lutte  contre  l'homophobie  (Quebec's  national  policy  against  homophobia.) It analyses the dynamics between the groups representing the interests of sexual and  gender minorities and the Quebec government, from 2000 to 2011. Our research uses a theoretical  framework based on  resource mobilization theory as well as an approach that combines the tools of  the corporatist and pluralist approaches. On the basis of a documentary analysis and 6 interviews held  with LGBT community leaders as well as official from the Ministry of Justice, the analysis reveals  how  the  issue  of  homophobia  in  Quebec  contributed  to  the  creation  of  a  corporatist  relationship  between  the  State  and  some  of  the  groups  controlling  the  most  resources.  It  also  offers  a new  perspective on the relations between community groups and the strategies they employ, as a function  of their resources, to influence the State.

Keyphrases: Homophobie, Transphobie, LGBT, sexual minorities, homophobia, transphobia, community group, corporatism, pluralism, gender, identity politics, policy
Les ONG travaillant avec les mères célibataires au Maroc : des instruments d'antipolitique de l'État?

The main purpose of this dissertation is to question the link between democratization and its associative actors. To accomplish this, a case study was conducted. The focus of this case study was centred around  non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working with single mothers in Morocco. These women are living in situations of  social exclusion due to their participation in non-marital sexual relations, an act that is punishable by law in Morocco. On a superficial level, the NGOs taking care of these women strive to remove them from the margins of society, facilitate their social inclusion and, by extension, improve the status of women in Morocco. Presented in a certain light, these NGOs would seemingly contribute to improve "social capital" and politicize sensitive subjects – and thus reinforce the aforementioned doxa.  In actuality, it is rather a reverse process that is at work. In fact, the state "unloads" (Hibou 1998, 1999a, 1999b, 2011) the issue of single mothers onto the NGOs. A « discharge » that is part of a wider movement of "privatization" (Catusse 2008), dictated by neoliberal precepts. This situation is resolved according to the logic of "problem solving", without necessarily tackling its root causes. Viewed from this perspective, we are faced with the disillusion that instead of strengthening democratization or improving the status of women in Morocco, NGOs reinforce a status quo that maintains and strengthens authoritarian practices. In short, NGOs end up fueling an "anti-political" situation (Schedler 1997) by becoming, in spite of themselves, instruments for defusing social and political problematics.

Keyphrases: Capitalism, Privatization, Morocco, Authoritarianism, Neoliberalism, Antipolitics, Discharge, State, Non-Governmental Organizations, Social capital, Democratization
Étude de la distribution taxonomique du système de double hérédité uniparentale des mitochondries

Mitochondria are semi-independent organelles, mostly known for their role in energy production necessary for cell survival. Several characteristics make them unique: they have their own genome, the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), and contrary to the nuclear genome (nuDNA), they are inherited uniparentally by Strict Maternal Inheritance (SMI) in animal species. Exceptionally, one model of mitochondrial inheritance found in some Bivalvia goes against the rule of SMI. It is called the Doubly Uniparental Inheritance (DUI) system. The species concerned possess two distinct mitochondrial lineages: one transmitted by the male (M mtDNA) to his sons only, and the other by the female to both sons and daughters. The most likely hypothesis to explain the retention of the DUI system in evolution involves him in sexual determination in bivalves but a widened study on different DUI systems is needed to verify this hypothesis. Until now, the DUI system has been described in 46 bivalve species but its distribution in this group might be broader given the total number of living species estimated to >20000. This project aimed to study (and broaden) taxonomic distribution of DUI within mollusks as a necessary prerequisite to a better understanding of its function and its origin. The results suggest the absence of DUI in five gastropods species and confirm its discovery in two new bivalves species and families [i.e. Scrobicularia plana (Semelidae) and Yoldia hyperborea (Yoldiidae)]. Based on phylogenetic data, we favor the hypothesis of a single origin of DUI. Finally, the new taxonomy proposed here confirms the presence of the DUI system in 103 bivalves species belonging to 12 families.

Keyphrases: Bivalves, DUI, Scrobicularia plana, Yoldia hyperborea, Mitochondria, Mitochondrial DNA, Doubly Uniparental Inheritance, Bivalves, Taxonomy, DUI, Scrobicularia plana, Yoldia hyperborea
Pouvoir conjugal et immigration chez des couples colombiens immigrants à Montréal

The effects of immigration on individuals as the result of social, cultural and economic influences of the new context are well known in the scientific literature. So for those who immigrated as a couple, the immigration experience leads them to renegotiate their roles in order to adjust to the conditions of the new environment. This renegotiation makes changes in the distribution of marital power and allows the adaptation of the partners in the new society and the return to balance in the couple. However, this adaptation is not done evenly between men and women. This research aims to predict changes in the distribution of marital power among a group of thirty Colombian couples who immigrated to Montreal, depending on length of stay and degree of identification with the host society (Canada and Quebec). Marital power is evaluated in this study according to the perception of the partners about their responsibilities in making global decisions and in four specific categories before and after immigrating to Montreal. About the length of stay, the data obtained show that, for women, the time lived in the host society predicts changes in the distribution of marital power. These results also confirm that these changes favour the empowerment of women within the couple in two of four categories: « leisure time and social activities » and « care and education of children ». However, the perception of women is not shared by men ; for men, the time spent in the host society does not predict changes in the distribution of marital power. Regarding the degree of identification, our data show that for the women interviewed, identification with Canada can predict changes in the distribution of marital power globally. Regarding the degree of identification with Quebec, it predicts changes in the distribution of marital power in the « care and education of children » category for both men and women.

Keyphrases: Marital power, Immigration, Couples, Colombians, Length of stay, Identification