NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Discrimination d'événements par analyse des signaux enregistrés par le projet PICASSO

Dark matter has been a mystery for astrophysicists for years now. Numerous observations have shown that up to 85 % of the gravitation mass of the universe is made of this unknown type of matter. One of the theories explaining this missing mass problem considers WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles), neutral stable particles predicted by extensions of the standard model, as possible candidates. The PICASSO experiment (Project In Canada to Search for Supersymetric Objects) tries to detect this particle directly. The technique uses superheated droplet detectors, with freon (C4F10) as the active medium. When a WIMP hits the fluorine nucleus, it creates a nuclear recoil, which in turn triggers a phase transition from a liquid droplet to a gaseous bubble. The acoustic noise of this event is then recorded by piezoelectric transducers mounted on the walls of the detector. There are however other particles than the WIMPs that can trigger this phase transition. Alpha particles, or even gamma rays can create bubbles. The Data Acquisition System (DAQ) is also subject to electronic noise that can be picked up, and to acoustic noise coming from an exterior source. Fractures in the polymer holding the droplets in place can also trigger spontaneous phase transitions. There is therefore a need to minimize the impact of these background noises. The level of purity of the ingredients used in detector fabrication then becomes very important. Digital processing methods are also used to develop discrimination variables that improve the limits of detection of the WIMP.

Keyphrases: Dark matter, Supersymetry, Wimp, Wimp, Neutralino, Neutralino, Superheated droplet detectors, Neutron, Neutron, Alpha particle, Background noise
La caractérisation chimique de cherts du Bas-Saint-Laurent et de la Gaspésie : vers le développement d’une méthode d’analyse non destructrice

The main objective of this project is to test, and to participate in the development of the non-destructive energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence chemical characterization method developed at the “Laboratoire de caractérisation non destructive de l’Université de Montréal”. To do so, I analyzed chert originating from two different prehistoric quarries, the La Martre quarry DhDm-8, Gaspé Peninsula, and that of quarry CkEe-28, Témiscouata, Québec. Both quarries were exploited intermittently from the Late PaleoIndian through the Archaic and into the Woodland periods.  The six elements involved in the characterization, three major elements (Si, Al, Fe) and three trace elements (Ba, La, Ce), were selected because of their specific features. On one hand, results confirm that the Université de Montréal EDXRF analyzer is able to analyze with precision solid rock chips. On the other hand, by using bivariate and ternary plots, as well as discriminant analysis, I was able to distinguish one chert from the other.  In order to ensure the validity of the chemical analysis, archaeological samples from sites on the St. Lawrence Estuary including Rimouski (DcEd-1), l’Anse à la Vache and Turcotte-Lévesque (DaEi-6 and DaEi-8) were tested and compared to the results for the quarry samples. Results show that the characterizatoin can be applied on archaeological artefacts since both cherts were located on every sites, except for Rimouski, where only Touladi chert was present.

Keyphrases: Archaeology, Chert characterization, X ray fluorescence, Prehistoric quarries, Late Paleoindian, Saint Lawrence Iroquoians, Québec, Québec
Protective Liberalization :
the state and the Mexican petrochemical industry 1958-2000

This thesis follows and analyses the involvement of both social actors and the state in the industrial transformation of Mexico. While these actors have been key associates in the development of the Mexican economy for decades, with the 1982 debt crisis, and especially after the promotion of a structural reform in 1986, the patterns of their involvement changed. However, this change was more limited than expected, and the state did not abandon its participation in some key industrial sectors. This thesis will demonstrate that the role of the state remained important during the process of change towards an Export-Oriented developmental paradigm, although the state continued to participate in fashioning social relations, it did so in new ways that can be termed “protective liberalization.”

Keyphrases: Mexico, petrochemical industry, developmental state, protective liberalization, state participation
Modularité massive ou construction sociale? : une analyse de l'approche psychoévolutionniste de Cosmides et Tooby

In this thesis, we enquired about the philosophical and empirical foundations of the psycho-evolutionary model of Cosmides and Tooby, especially with regards their Massive Modularity Thesis (MMT). We wanted to determine whether the MMT can account for complex mental processes such as emotions. The thesis first gives a general explanation of evolutionary psychology (as opposed to behavioral ecology or sociobiology) then evaluates different lines of argument for MMT. We then turn to the philosophical criticism of MMT by David Buller.

Keyphrases: Modularity of mind, Evolutionary psychology, Philosophy of science, Wason Selection Task, Emotions, Sociobiology, Massive Modularity Thesis, Standard Social Science Model
Au nom de l'humanité? : histoire, droit, éthique et politique de l'intervention militaire justifiée par des raisons humanitaires

Military intervention justified on humanitarian grounds is a constant of the international order, designated by different names: “intervention d’humanité” in the nineteenth century, humanitarian intervention in the English-speaking tradition, “droit” or “devoir d’ingérence” in France, responsibility to protect the last few years. The aim of this interdisciplinary dissertation is to understand this complex phenomenon in all its dimensions - historical, legal, ethical and political - and develop a realistic theory of intervention by the analysis of five criteria: just cause, legitimate authority, right intention, last resort and proportionality.  We show that realism is not an amoral conception of foreign policy but an epistemological commitment to analyze international relations as they are rather than as we would like them to be. That so-called humanitarian intervention is not, contrary to a widespread prejudice, a recent phenomenon, or even inherited from the nineteenth century. We can trace its genealogy in several millennia in many cultures. That none of the terminology used is satisfactory. That one must abandon the criterion of good intention because the intervening state is not, cannot and should not be disinterested. That it is possible to defend a minimal interventionism, in some cases and under certain conditions, while assuming the lack of disinterestedness, the selectivity of interventions, the risk of abuse and the uncertainty of the result.

Keyphrases: Humanitarian intervention, Ingérence, Kosovo, Kosovo, Military, Just war, Responsibility to protect, International ethics, International law, Realism, Darfour, Darfur
Intraoperative hemodynamic instability during and after separation from cardiopulmonary bypass : importance, mechanism and prevention

Every year, 1 million to 1.25 million patients worldwide undergo cardiac surgery. [1] Up to 36,000 cardiac surgeries are performed each year in Canada and close to 8000 in Quebec (http://www.ccs.ca). Because of the aging of the population, cardiac surgery will increasingly be offered to patients at a higher risk of complications. Indeed, elderly patients have increased co-morbidities, and aging is also a significant risk factor in the prevalence of coronary artery disease. [2] The consequence is a reduced physiologic reserve, hence an increased risk of mortality. These issues will have a significant impact on future healthcare costs, because our population undergoing cardiac surgery will be older and more likely to develop postoperative complications. One of the most dreaded complications in cardiac surgery is difficult separation from cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). The definition of difficult separation from CPB includes the time period from when CPB is initiated and until the patient leaves the operating room. When separation from CPB is associated with right ventricular failure, the mortality rate will range from 44% to 86%. [3-7] Therefore the diagnosis, the preoperative prediction, the mechanism, prevention and treatment of difficult separation from CPB will be crucial in order to improve the selection and care of patients and to prevent complications for this high-risk patient population. The hypotheses of this thesis are the following: 1) difficult separation from CPB is an independent factor of morbidity and mortality, 2) the mechanism of difficult separation from CPB can be understood through a systematic approach, 3) inhaled milrinone is a preventive and therapeutic approach in the patient at risk for difficult weaning from CPB after cardiac surgery.

Keyphrases: hypertension pulmonaire, right ventricle, cardiac surgery, pulmonary hypertension, cardiopulmonary bypass, hemodynamic instability, transesophageal echocardiography
Dieu, le capitalisme et le développement local : conflits sociaux et enracinement territorial : étude monographique d'un village québécois

Pertaining to the monographic tradition in sociology and anthropology, this dissertation is about the diversity of the practices and ideologies of the different kinds of rural populations, which are in turn distinguished according to their "territorial establishment". I aim to shed a new light on the ongoing social conflicts in all of Quebec's countryside that are due to the increase of "new-inhabitants" whose world views are in opposition to the always decreasing farmers. With a village as observatory, I account for the "totalizing movement" of the social life experience in both its material and symbolic dimensions. I study the main forms of life (religious, economic, and political) with multivarious methods: "participant observation", statistical analysis, analysis of discourse, as well as the municipal archives and oral history.   The analysis of the diverse forms of social life shows that they are organized according to two main models: the public and communautarian model, and the private and familial one. The former model comprises individuals who value the State's and professionals interference in the redistribution of goods as well as in the development of the countryside. These individuals occupy a marginal economic position in the village, and their positions and world views are closer to urban individuals. As for the private and familial model, it comprises individuals who defends both the predominant role of family network in the development of the village, and the separation of the village from the exogenous market competition and political interventions. This model's representatives occupy a local dominant economic position, but feel more and more politically dominated in the regional political scene by their representatives and professionals, as well as in the world economy where they occupy a dominated position. The underlying oppositions of these two models are anchored in an age-old history that displays, on the one hand, the traditional elite associated to the Church and the francophone educated notaries, and, on the other hand, the industrial and commercial elite that succeeded to the Anglophones in the 1920s. The meaning and content of the models lightly vary with recent transformations in  the family structure and with the regionalization of the political and religious powers.

Keyphrases: Rural life, Monograph, Ethnography, Religion, Economy rural, Rural politic, Social space, Local development
La ferme du Bas-de-la-Baie, 1673-1759 : contribution zooarchéologique à l'étude des sites ruraux

This Master's thesis presents the results of a zooarchaeological study based on two occupations of a single site dating to the beginning of the colonization of Baie-Saint-Paul (17th-18th centuries). An analysis of the faunal assemblage, a total of 1175 animal bones, has shown the opposite characters of the occupations. The "tar makers'" habitation site reveals the exploitation of wild ressources to make up for deficient animal rearing, as well as the skinning of wild game to provide a supplementary income through the fur trade. The farm established by the Séminaire de Québec reveals an alimentation based on farm produce, augmented by the hunting of wild species from the immediate environment. The zooarchaeological study of the Bas-de-la-Baie farm site also confirms the central role of breeding for rural sites in the St. Lawrence Valley, while underlining their diversity, in which farming, hunting and fishin played complementary roles.

Keyphrases: Baie-Saint-Paul, Séminaire de Québec, Archaeology, New-France, 17th-18th centuries, Tar makers
Les maux de ventre des enfants haïtiens de Montréal : entre la recomposition culturelle et la souffrance familiale

Belly-stomachaches in children are a space of hybridity and creolization, affected by social and cultural dimensions. These aches are collectively constructed within nuclear families, with their migratory histories and their sufferings. Having interviewed Haitian families living in Montreal, we documented the illness trajectories, the perceptions, explanations and means of relieving the aches, which all interact in a dynamic mode. Generally speaking, the children perceive their belly-stomachaches as an irregular experience that has an impact on their social life, although tolerated by the children and theirs mothers. Families have not received a medical diagnosis and give temporary, changing explanations to the aches, in a constant reformulation. In general, families will use different methods to deal with belly and stomach aches. The family space, church activities, and official medicine are privileged therapeutic spaces.

Keyphrases: Bellyache/stomachache, Hybridity, Creolization, Immigration, Immigration, Haitians, Therapeutic space, Cultural reconstitution, Social suffering, Child, Medical religious pluralism, Medical anthropology
Sleep bruxism is associated with a rise in blood pressure

Objectives: Sleep Bruxism (SB) is a movement disorder identified by tooth grinding and rhythmic masticatory muscle activity (RMMA).  It is often associated with body movements and sleep arousals.   Increases in autonomic sympathetic activities that characterize sleep arousal precede SB.  These events include an augmentation of the following variables: sympathetic cardiac activity (-4 minutes), electroencephalography frequencies (-4 seconds), heart rate and respiratory amplitude (-1 seconds), and suprahyoid muscle activity (-0.8 seconds). This study examined whether these sympathetic activities are associated with significant changes in arterial blood pressure (BP). Methods:  Ten subjects with SB (5 male; 5 female; mean age ± standard error = 26 ± 1.8) underwent 3 nights of full polysomnography that included non-invasive beat to beat BP recording.  The first night served as a screening and habituation night.  Analysis was performed on second and third night recordings.  Overall analysis was based on single SB episodes occurring in stage 2 sleep only, for a total of 65 episodes. Systolic and diastolic BP measurements were taken from a window of 20 beats before and 23 beats after onset of each SB episode.  SB episodes were categorized as:  1) SB + cortical arousal; 2) SB + body movement (BM); 3) SB + cortical arousal + BM. A fourth category, SB alone, was also analysed but used as preliminary data since the category consisted of only 4 episodes. Results:  Both systolic and diastolic BP increased with SB episodes.  This increase was significant for both systolic and diastolic BP for SB events with cortical arousal and/or BM (p≤0.05).  The average BP surges (systolic/diastolic ± SE) were: 28.4 ± 2.4/13.2 ± 1.5mm Hg for SB + cortical arousal; 30.7 ± 1.6/19.4 ± 2.3mm Hg for SB + BM; 26.5 ± 2.8/14.6 ± 2.0mm Hg for SB + cortical arousal + BM; 22.9 ± 5.2/12.4 ± 3.3mm Hg for SB episodes occurring alone. Conclusion:  Sleep bruxism is associated with blood pressure fluctuations during sleep.  This BP surge is greater in SB episodes associated with cortical arousal and/or BM, which often co-occur with SB events.  These results are congruent with our previous observations, where SB is preceded by a rise in sympathetic activity and sinus tachycardia.

Keyphrases: sleep, sleep bruxism, blood pressure, cortical arousal, body movement, rhythmic masticatory muscle movement
Le potentiel thérapeutique du GDF-5 dans l’arthrose : une étude in vitro des facteurs anaboliques et cataboliques du cartilage

Purpose: The objective of this study is to assess the effect of GDF-5 on cartilage homeostasis. GDF-5 is a susceptibility gene for OA and member of the BMP super family. Studies have shown that it can increase expression of anabolic factors in chondrocytes. Therefore, our study indentifies how GDF-5 influences this metabolism and the global homeostasis of chondrocytes, aiming mainly towards Aggrecan.  Methods : Osteoarthritic (OA) chondrocytes from canine and human models were exposed to GDF-5. Protein expressions, along with mRNA expression were assessed in order to investigate Aggrecan production and the ratio of Col-II/Col-I, for the anabolic phenotype markers. The aggrecanases ADAMTS-4 and ADAMTS-5 and their global activity were assed for the catabolic factors. The NITEGE and CTX-II epitope were also measured in synovial fluid of Pond-Nuki dogs that received intraarticular GDF-5 injections.  Results :  GDF-5 increases chondrocyte cellular activity, in our canine and human models. Both mRNA and protein expression of the chondrocytes Aggrecan were increased and the aggrecanases expression and activity were decreased. Collagen ratio did not show a phenotype, except et high dosage where the Col-I production is induced. Aggrecanase activity was lowered while CTX-II was increased.  Conclusion : In conclusion, the anabolic cellular activity of OA chondrocytes increases while the catabolic factors decrease in presence of GDF-5.  This double action illustrates the global effect of GDF-5, identifying it as a potential disease modifying factor of OA that should be further investigated.

Keyphrases: Arthrose (OA), Chondrocytes, Aggrecan, GDF-5, ADAMTS-4, ADAMTS-5, Pond-Nuki, NITEGE, CTX-II, Osteoarthritis (OA), Aggrecanase
L’effet du vieillissement sur les cellules souches neurales adultes

Neurogenesis persists throughout the adulthood in two regions of the mammalian central nervous system (SNC): the sub-ventricular zone (SVZ) of the forebrain and the sub-granular zone (SGZ) of the hippocampus. Neurogenesis is possible due to the proliferation capacity of stem cells present within both the SVZ and SGZ niches, but with aging, the forebrain undergoes a drastic reduction in its number of adult neural stem cells (aNSCs), a decrease of cell proliferation and an alteration of the neurogenic niches. However, a key unresolved question remains: how the onset of aNSC loss is temporally related to changes of proliferating activity and to structural alterations within the principal stem cell niche (the SVZ)? To gain insights into the initial events leading to aging-associated aNSC loss, we investigated the changes occurring to aNSCs and the SVZ niche between young adulthood and middle-age. The SVZ niche of middle-aged mice (12-months-old) was found to display reduced expression of markers for multiple neural precursor sub-populations when compared to young adult mice (2-months-old). Anatomically, this was associated with significant cytological aberrations, including an overall atrophy of the SVZ, loss of sub-ependymal cells, and accumulation of large lipid droplets within the ependyma. Functionally, these changes correlated with diminished SVZ activity and reduced number of newly born neurons reaching the principal target tissue: the olfactory bulbs. To determine whether changes were evident at the level of the SVZ stem cells, we evaluated key in vitro and in vivo parameters of aNSCs. Tissue culture experiments showed that equal numbers of neurosphere-forming aNSCs could be isolated from young adult and middle-aged forebrains. However, at middle-age, neural precursors seemed to be less sensitive to growth factors during their in vitro differentiation and displayed signs of increased quiescence in vivo. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that, with early aging, aNCS and their SVZ niche go through significant changes, and suggest that aging-associated aNSC loss is secondary to these events.

Keyphrases: Cellule souche neurale, Neural stem cell, middle-age, brain aging, olfactory bulbs, sub-ventricular zone, proliferation, neurogenesis, neurosphere, progenitor, neuroblast, neuron, ependymal cell, lipid droplet
Est-ce que l’intelligence générale et les traits de personnalité des adolescents sont reliés? : relations concurrentes et prospectives dans une étude longitudinale de cinq ans

According to several scholars, general intelligence and personality traits are fundamental constructs that are necessary for individuals’ psychosocial adjustment.  Even though several studies showed significant relations between these constructs in adults’ samples, very few attempted to demonstrate if these relations can be observed in adolescents’ samples.  Moreover, very few studies verified if these relations between general intelligence and personality traits were also significant prospectively with a time interval between assessments.  Furthermore, the available studies do not allow determining if the relations between general intelligence and personality traits are different across gender.  This study aimed at filling these gaps.  The objectives were to determine if there were concurrent and prospective relations between general intelligence and personality traits in adolescents, as well as to determine if these relations were different across boys and girls.  Data were drawn from the New Approaches New Solutions (NANS) longitudinal study.  A large sample of adolescents first assessed in grade one, and re-assessed four years later in grade 5 was used.  At the first wave of data collection, only general intelligence was assessed, while at the fifth wave, both general intelligence and personality were assessed.  Structural equation modeling on latent variables was used to test the different research hypotheses.  The results demonstrated that concurrently, general intelligence and all personality traits considered are significantly positively related, which partially contradict data from adults’ samples.  Prospectively, the results confirmed that correlations decreased over time for almost all personality traits.  Finally, multiple-group structural equations models confirmed there are significant differences between boys and girls for some personality traits.  Overall, despite several results converge with those observed with adults’ samples, some interesting differences can be observed when adolescents are studied.

Keyphrases: Intelligence, École, Cognitive Abilities, Personality traits, School