NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Long large character sums

This thesis deals with a central topic in analytic number theory, namely that of characters and more specifically, that of character sums. More precisely, we will develop a result concerning the maximal value that can be attained by some long character sum. In Chapter 1 are discussed the notions and techniques that will be necessary in the elaboration of the proof of the main result. We will discuss notions of harmonic analysis, classical number theoretic techniques, as well as give an overview of smooth numbers. Chapter 2 will serve as an introduction to the theory pertaining to Dirichlet characters and character sums. Basic properties and classical theorems will be covered and we will provide a survey of recent results closely related to the main topic on interest in this thesis. We will give in Chapter 3 a first result which will lead this thesis to diverge into the field of lattices. It comes up as an auxiliary result to the main result, but bares an interest independent to characters. We will discuss the order of magnitude of multiples of a chosen lattice vector, when the multipliers lie in prescribed congruence classes. Chapter 4 will serve as a bridge between lattices and characters and we will study the consequences of applying the theorems we proved in Chapter 3 to characters. We will derive results that will be key to the proof of our main theorem. In Chapter 5, we will prepare the ground for the proof of our main theorem by unveiling some preliminary estimates that will be needed. In particular, the chapter will consist of two parts: one treating of exponential sums, while the other one will be concerned with smooth numbers. Finally, Chapter 6 will be the apex of this thesis and will provide the proof of our main result on character sums. The argument built in this chapter will allow us to prove a lower bound for the maximal value that can be reached by a character among the characters modulo a prime number q.

Keyphrases: Analytic number theory, Dirichlet characters, Long character sums, Lattices
Deep learning and reinforcement learning methods for grounded goal-oriented dialogue

While dialogue systems have the potential to fundamentally change human-machine interaction, developing general chatbots with deep learning and reinforce-ment learning techniques has proven diﬃcult. One challenging aspect is that these systems are expected to operate in broad application domains for which there is not a clear measure of evaluation. This thesis investigates goal-oriented dialogue tasks in multi-modal environments because it (i) constrains the scope of the conversa-tion, (ii) comes with a better-deﬁned objective, and (iii) enables enriching language representations by grounding them to perceptual experiences. More speciﬁcally, we develop GuessWhat, an image-based guessing game in which two agents cooper-ate to locate an unknown object through asking a sequence of questions. For the subtask of visual question answering, we propose Conditional Batch Normalization layers as a simple but eﬀective conditioning method that adapts the convolutional activations to the speciﬁc question at hand. Finally, we investigate the diﬃculty of dialogue-based navigation by introducing Talk The Walk, a new task where two agents (a “tourist” and a “guide”) collaborate to have the tourist navigate to target locations in the virtual streets of New York City.

Keyphrases: Deep learning, Reinforcement Learning, Natural Language Interfaces, Goal Oriented Dialogue, Grounded Language Learning
Mise en oeuvre d’une approche sociotechnique de la vie privée pour les systèmes de paiement et de recommandation en ligne

Technologies in Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) are playing a vital role across the entire production process to design and deliver advanced digital systems. Given the exponential development of research in this field, two concepts are largely addressed to increase performance and efficiency of online environments: trust and user behavior. These two extents continue to proliferate in most designed solutions and are increasingly enriched by continuous investments in online payments and recommender systems. Along with the trend of digitalization, the objective of this research is to gain a better understanding of the various challenges in these two areas, make improvements and propose solutions more convenient to the users in terms of online perception and user behavior. In addition to the state of the art and challenges, this work is divided into five main parts, each one contributes to better enrich the online user experience in both online payments and system recommendations: • Online customer fears: We analyze different components of the website that may affect customer behavior in decision-making and online fears. We focus on customer perceptions regarding privacy violations and financial loss. We examine the influence on trust and payment security perception as well as their joint effect on three fundamentally important customers’ aspects: confidentiality, privacy concerns and financial fear perception.     • Personalization, control and conditional payment: we propose a new online payment platform that supports both personalization and conditional multi-payments, while preserving the privacy of the cardholder. • Exploring user behavior and cybersecurity knowledge: we design a new website to conduct an experimental study in online shopping. The results highlight the impact of user’s perception in cybersecurity and privacy concerns on his online behavior when dealing with shopping activities. • Balance between data utility and user privacy: we propose a privacy-preserving method based on the “k-means” algorithm and the “k-coRating” model to support the utility of data in online recommendations while preserving user’s privacy. • User interest constancy metric: we propose a neural network to predict the user’s interests in recommender systems. Our aim is to provide an efficient method that respects the constancy and variations in user preferences.   In this thesis, we focus on four major contributions related to: 1) online payment platforms, 2) user behavior in online payments regarding decision making, multi-fears and cyber security 3) user interest constancy in online recommendations, 4) balance between privacy and utility of online data in recommender systems.

Keyphrases: Protocole, Privacy, Online payment, Payment protocol, Data protection, Data control, Recommender system, Cybersecurity, Collaborative filtering
Critique cultivée et modernité vernaculaire : dualité de l'émergence d'un discours sur le cinéma dans la presse montréalaise francophone entre 1920 et 1931

This PhD dissertation is a history and an analysis of the francophone film criticism genesis in Montreal, between 1920 and 1931. It aims to understand how the field of film criticism is formed in Quebec, as well as to expose the polysemy of its discourse. The methodology chosen borrows from the Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of fields, from the leading historians of film criticism, and from studies on Quebec’s cultural history. The initial hypothesis is that since it was first published in mass newspapers in the 1920s instead of specialized journals (as it was the case in France and the United States as examples), the Quebec film criticism was developed by cultural journalists from other disciplines than cinema (mainly music and theatre) and was intended to a broad and diverse popular audience rather than to a small audience of cinephiles. This situation has favoured the emergence of a vernacular film criticism that takes its distance from the narrow parameters imposed by the “clerico-nationalism”, and whose freedom is limited by a press dealing with the market laws. It must also waver between the interest of the journalists for French culture and the American cinema hegemony whose movies aimed to be much more popular entertainment instead of being narrative, artistic or aesthetic experimentations. Moreover, since Canadian film production is rather marginal, local cultural journalists cannot really have an impact on the nature of the films mainly produced in the United States or in Europe. However, they can have an impact on viewers, as well as on several issues related to broadcasting. These journalists, nevertheless, developed a relevant reflection on cinema and films, while keeping a distance from the main controversies that were driving foreign criticism, although they know and read them. The result was a discourse on cinema peculiar to that time and revealing the specific situation of Quebec.

Keyphrases: film critic, popular culture, cinema, popular press, film history, Quebec
Les défenses de la Grèce du Nord : architecture, géographie, histoire et phénomènes régionaux aux périodes archaïque, classique et hellénistique

From the 8th century BC onwards, Greek colonists established many colonies between the Thermaic Gulf and the Evros river. Often located on hostile territory where the land is a very important source of wealth, these new cities have ensured their safety and stability by quickly establishing defense systems around their settlements. Throughout the periods, several powers have also taken interest in the northern Aegean territories and marked the military landscape of the region by fortifying their own urban centers. This research project concerns the systematic study of these fortifications. If some researchers, mainly Yves Grandjean, Dimitrios Lazaridis and Alexander Cambitoglou, have shown interest in the fortifications of specific cities (Thasos, Amphipolis and Torone), no synthesis covering our region, yet very rich in military architecture, has been undertaken, hence the interest of this project.  More specifically, we pursue the following objectives: 1) to study the geography and demography of the region in order to better understand the distribution of the territory and the way it was defended by the settlers; 2) to contextualize the defensive structures within the politico-military history of the region. Apart from the monumental work of N.G.L. Hammond (but focusing mainly on Macedonia), the one of Benjamin Isaac (whose chronological scope is relatively limited) or that of Angelos Zannis (which focuses only in the country between Strymon and Nestos) there is no real analysis of the military history of northern Greece. Therefore, our objective is to analyze the effects of political and military movements (Persian presence, Macedonian advance, Athenian interference, Thasian expansion, Thracian conflicts, etc.) on the development of the military architecture. 3) The aim is also to catalog, locate, describe, date and illustrate (photographically and topographically) all the defensive works of northern Greece. 4) Finally, we will analyze and argue on the different defense methods, the construction techniques and the stylistic features and forms of the fortifications. The objective here is to have a better appreciation of the cultural heritage and the regional influences in the establishment and construction of defense systems. The analysis of techniques and styles will provide a better understanding of the links between new settlements and mother-cities, it will also allow to address the question of artisanal mobility and the effects of migration on military architecture.

Keyphrases: Fortification, Architecture, Defensive systems, Greek colonisation, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Northern Greece, Geography, History, Construction techniques, Architectural styles
Le monde de Jean Alexis Lemoine dit Monière, marchand de Montréal au XVIIIe siècle

From the 1950s to the 1970s, historians’ attention was turned towards the disappearance of a bourgeoisie canadienne which should have made the transition from commercial to industrial capitalism. These studies began, so to speak, with the end, in attempting to define the long-term historical consequences of the Conquest on an as-yet ill-defined group that in principle included some merchants.    This thesis follows new investigations in both Europe and the USA which have permitted to look anew, often with a cultural history approach, at merchants of the Early Modern period. Focusing on a Montreal merchant outfitter (marchand équipeur) and his family, the investigation first seeks to determine if the Canadian merchants’ culture (broadly defined) was similar to that of their French counterparts who worked on the same business level. A second aim is to evaluate the leeway available to individuals in face of the general conditions of the trade and the role of networks in the merchants’ career. Finally, the thesis attempts to define the self-conception of these men while looking at their lifestyle and the various roles they played in their community. To complete such a study, we have chosen to look « wide and deep » like micro-historians have before us.  The study examines the long life of the équipeur, Jean Alexis Lemoine dit Monière, who chose to settle in Montreal in 1715 and whose career Louise Dechêne had followed until 1725. After her, historians have since pictured Monière as a typical marchand équipeur. But he might not have been typical, he might even have been a « limiting case ». The thesis follows him to the end of his life and looking for all the opportunities that were offered to him along the way. It accords considerable importance to the material and immaterial legacy of his father, Jean Lemoine, and to what Monière passed on to this son, Pierre Alexis and a few nephews. Situating Monière between his father who emigrated from Rouen, his brothers and his own son, permits us to see the emergence of a profession, that of équipeur. We look at how Monière, who died in 1754, was prepared to embrace the merchant’s profession and how he perceived the way he should work as an équipeur. This study affords a better understanding of merchants’ culture, broadly conceived, in early French Canada. Exploring a variety of sources and using a micro-historical approach, we hope to have followed Dale Miquelon’s suggestion to look (again) at the merchants’ world with the eyes of the people of the times in order to answer today’s questions.

Keyphrases: Culture, XVIIe siècle, XVIIIe siècle, Merchants, Wholesalers, Fur trade, New France, 17th century, 18th century, Conquest, Seven Years War
Geopolítica de las Emociones: masculinidades y subjetividades de los trabajadores agrícolas transmigrantes mexicanos y guatemaltecos que laboran en Quebec

The implementation of neoliberal globalizing policies, centered on the governance of markets, has led to the relocation of employment sources to specific production centers, forcing the workforce to move to them. Such is the case of the farm workers from Mexico and Guatemala that are mobilized year after year into Québec’s fields and greenhouses through the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) and / or the Agricultural Stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (AS-TFWP). Individuals who are part of a vulnerable and flexible labour force, and whose hiring conditions violate their fundamental and labour rights by tying them to a single employer, forcing them to reside in the employer's premises and exposing them to premature repatriation.  This research project infers that affectivity and emotionality are increasingly explored topics in the social sciences, particularly in geography. By incorporating the emotional dimension, it exposes the need to examine the emotional narratives of Mexican and Guatemalan transmigrant farm workers, based on the possible ideological use of the emotions that are socialized in a multiscalar and spatial way by the actors who govern the programs that hire them. It therefore raises the question that understanding the emotions of these workers, associated with their participation under specific work conditions framed by the SAWP and the AS-TFWP can significantly contribute to studies that address the relationship between emotionality and male labour migration.  This is demonstrated by analyzing Canadian, Mexican and Guatemalan state-driven policies and practices, using emotions such as fear, despair, acquiescence and resignation as mechanisms of social control within the SAWP and the AS-TFWP, along with satisfaction pride in fulfilling the breadwinner role as the unique form of masculinity proposed by these programs.  In particular, the relationship between emotions, masculinity and the experience of powerlessness is elucidated. Likewise, through the interweaving of workers' narratives, the interaction of different discriminatory categories is clarified, based on the masculine gender, rarely used in existing migratory studies. Finally, we analyze the speeches of those who have been left behind, the wives of the workers and a few key people, in order to account for the emotional costs caused by the absence of their partners and fathers of their children.

Keyphrases: Guatemala, Québec, Emotions, Labour Migration, Masculinities, SAWP, AS-TFWP, Mexico
The Holy Spirit in an urban African religiosity, between tradition and transformation : a case study in two Christian denominations in Yaoundé, Cameroon

The articulation of this thesis derives from a curiosity on how the urban contemporary African believers understand the Holy Spirit. The portrayals African theologians have drawn of the African understanding of the Holy Spirit, seems to be based on a dichotomized theological paradigm: the African traditional religion and the Western Christian tradition, which had created dissonance on the academic stage. This paradigm raises a debate of continuity and discontinuity between the spiritual beings of the two traditions, the traditional spirits and the Holy Spirit. Elochukwu Uzukwu and Matthew Michael, whom this thesis will take a special attention, figure among the few works of the African theologians about the understanding of the Holy Spirit. Uzukwu supports continuity based on the African Independent Churches’ theological orientation, whereas Michael sided with those stating the discontinuity, grounds on the Evangelical theological orientation. These theologians, whom take opposite stances based on their respective theological orientations, represent theologically bipolarized stances on Africanized Pneumatology and the African religiosity. Surprisingly, the ongoing debate among the theologians did not accord much room to the lay believers’ religiosity nor on their empirical studies. Therefore, this thesis has decided to inquire the lay African believers on whom the Holy Spirit is to them hoping that this study could settle the dissonance persisting on the academic field. The voices of the contemporary lay African believers brought vivid accounts on how they have theologized the two spiritual worlds to define the Holy Spirit into an African faith. Their voices that were introduced to the academic field have brought innovative insights and discoveries. It revealed how the Africanized comprehension of the Holy Spirit presented by the African theologians were the stance of the very minority of believers, although it were wrapped as if it was a popular Africanized Pneumatology. Conversely, the bipolarized paradigm on which the African theologians were articulating the Africanized understanding of the Holy Spirit even appeared to be outmoded. Therefore, based on the voices of the ground, this thesis develops proposals for an Africanized understanding of the Holy Spirit that could be relevant and pertinent to an urban contemporary African religiosity. The unheard voices that this thesis brought its attention to call to re-evaluating the articulation between Christianity and Traditional Religion in Africa.

Keyphrases: African Christianity, Evangelical Church, Independent Church, Holy Spirit, Pneumatology, Traditional Spirits, Lay Believers, Urbanization, Cameroun, Cameroon
Mapping the captive body in three twenty-first century women’s writings

In my doctorat project, entitled “Mapping the Captive Body in Three Diasporic Women’s Writings,” I analyze the workings of state power in relation to the body, as illustrated in the works of Edwidge Danticat, Azar Nafisi and Marina Nemat. I explore the different ways state-sponsored violence, dictatorship and patriarchy alter the very constructions of body, mind, voice, and subjectivity. By considering these institutionalized forms of violence and coercion, I demonstrate how physical confinement engenders the captivity of the mind and the de(cons)truction of the self. In so doing, I conceptualize captivity as physical, psychological and social. In addition, I contend that the struggle to resist this erasure and reclaim subjectivity and corporeality takes the forms of individual, communal, and/ or collective action. The first chapter contextualizes and historicizes the studied works with the era the Duvalier, Khomeini’s dictatorship, in addition to the post 9/11 US immigration policies. It also provides the theoretical framework that frames this dissertation. The second chapter focuses on Joseph Dantica’s imprisonment and disfranchisement and raises questions about the biopwer that defines Krome Detention Center. I demonstrate the way Edwidge Danticat posthumously recover her uncle’s identity. The third chapter studies female captivity in terms of forced veiling and constant surveillance. I analyze how Nafisi and her students take refuge in and resist through the power of literature. In the fourth chapter, I look at how prison regulates Nemat’s gender and identity. I argue that marital rape, as a gendered political violence, becomes a means through which Nemat’s subjection and domination is possible. The second part of the chapter explores the importance of carceral friendship and the act of writing in defying and resisting erasure.

Keyphrases: Haïti, Iran, Captivity, Body, Mind, Imprisonment, Dress Code, Gender, The United States