NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Ethic of Care versus Ethic of Justice? The Gender- Corruption Nexus: Testing the New Conventional Wisdom

This paper employs empirical data from Ghana to examine how gender, as a social system, generates moral dilemmas in the public sector. Female and male officials feel forced to choose private (family/social) requirements of morality over public sector ethics. The paper demonstrates that the very same gender which delineates behavioural personalities and is used to justify women’s higher ethical standards could potentially be a source of corruption, as women attempt to fulfil expectations of femaleness in the conduct of public duties. Fundamentally, the paper argues that gendered ethics -which require women and men to exude an ethic of care and an ethic of justice respectively- could perpetuate behaviours that negate public sector ethics (corrupt behaviours), but conform well to social ethics. Employing as its theoretical base, Carol Gilligan’s (1982) moral development theory, it concludes, inter alia, that injecting women into the public sector should be promoted as a right, rather than on grounds of women’s presumed superior probity. Premising women’s inclusion in the public realm on assumptions of their higher ethical standards risks being counterproductive in achieving equal representation, if such assumptions are later disconfirmed.

Keyphrases: Philosophy, Ethics, Economics, Corruption, Gender, Ethic of Care, Ethic of Justice, Ghana
Bribery: An Exploration of Uganda Perspectives

This is an investigation of the concept of bribery in a multicultural context. It is possible that the term and concept “bribery” do not exist in some African contexts. Uganda is taken as the example and centre for this discussion, and in particular Ankole. In order for both the term and concept to make sense, there is need for contextual definition and differentiation. Similarly the terms Ethics and Economic Policies need a contextual treatment. For instance, can Ethical Codes be universalised? The discussion suggests a shift from concentrating on the nature and impact of Ethics and Economics to the understanding of the contexts where they operate.

Keyphrases: Philosophy, Ethics, Economics, bribery, Uganda, multicultural context, public office
Leadership ethics and the problem of Dirty Hands in the political economy of contemporary Africa

The article discusses problems of poor governance and corruption in Africa within the framework of wider philosophical and political debates between universalism and relativism, idealism and realism, as well as individualism and communitarianism. Firstly, the author claims that the realist approach to political and leadership ethics fails to differentiate between descriptive and prescriptive elements of governance and can thus easily be used to justify ‘Dirty Hands’ of the leaders in the name of the greater national good, even in cases in which self-interest is the only motivational force for actions that undermine ordinary codes of social and personal ethics by public officers. Secondly, the article shows how the failing of public trust in government and the weakness of the state further enforce sub-national communitarian politics that tend to be ethnically based and exclusive, and thus, violate the core of public ethics, that is, the requirement for impartiality. Finally, the article suggests idealistic universal principles for public (service) ethics to be introduced as complementary rather than competing with local, socially and culturally bound ‘private’ ethics. This requires that, on the one hand, we need to understand better the complex historical, economic and social circumstances and transitional political arrangements in African countries. On the other hand, we need to invest more in reflective civic and professional ethics education that adopts a balanced view between political realism and idealism as the starting point for institutional reforms as well as for long term attitude- and behavior- change.

Keyphrases: Philosophy, Ethics, Economics
Caractérisation de la réponse immunitaire cellulaire dirigée contre ARFP et cartographie des épitopes du génotype 3a lors de l’infection au virus de l’hépatite C

Interferon-α combined with ribavirin is the only approved treatment of hepatitis c virus (HCV) infection.  The efficiency is between 50-75%, the therapy is expensive and has numerous side-effects.  It is imperative to have a better understanding of HCV pathogenesis to develop better treatments or a vaccine.  To this end, our approach is to characterize the immune cellular response against ARFP, a newly identified and conserved antigen of HCV; and to characterize and fine map cellular immune response of a patient infected with genotype 3a that spontanously resolved.  Genotype 3a is most prevelant in intravenous drug users (IDUs) where nearly 60% of all new HCV infections happen.  Very few epitopes are known for genotype 3a which makes it difficult to study HCV-specific immune responses in this population. In this study, for ARFP specific cellular responses, we observed no significant difference between patients that spontanously resolved compared to those who developped persistent infection.  This strongly suggests that ARFP does not play a major role in acute HCV infection resolution. For the charaterization of immune cellular response developped against genotype 3a, we identified and characterized 5 epitopes recognized by lymphocytes T, CD3+, CD4+, CD8-: E2504-521, NS31064-1081, NS4B1759-1776, NS5A2074-2091, NS5B2421-2436.  We compared them with epitopes known for genotype 1a.  We have identified 4 novel epitopes.  Finally, NS4B1759-1776, previously identified, could be a good candidate in the developement of a peptide based vaccine against HCV.

Keyphrases: ARFP, genotype 3a, hepatitis C, cellular immune response, epitopes
Une approche géographique du « travail » des enfants des rues

(Cameroon) and Antananarivo (Madagascar), with special focus on the activities which generate money. Which working spaces do exist in the city, according to which logics? This questioning allows us to draw the hesitant limits of the street universe. We open up the reflection about the children’ destiny and their capacity to integrate the urban society. We take into account the actions of the State and of the NGO and the representations from city dwellers.

Keyphrases: Madagascar
Working Children: their Agency and self-organization

In recent years, ‘agency’ has appeared in academic writings as a new way of referring to active involvement from below in development interventions. The concept of ‘agency’ starts from the assumption that people are actually agents themselves, continuously acting in and reacting to circumstances. In child labour activism, this concept has been applied to working children in the understanding that, in order to improve their working conditions, children should be organised in organizations that are exclusively for and (ideally) run by working children. This paper aims to evaluate the extent to which child labourers can become agents of change through their own organizations. The paper will draw on two studies carried out by the IREWOC foundation. In 2002 a study was undertaken in Bolivia to give practical meaning to the concept of child agency. Secondly, in 2004/2005 an investigation was carried out on the functioning and impact of children’s organizations in Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. The applied research methods were mainly anthropological and used participant observation, (semi-) informal interviews and group interviewing with working children, their parents and adult representatives of the working children’s organizations. Both investigations show that in focussing on children as active participants, the structural constraints under which children have to live also need to be highlighted. One needs to understand how material poverty, mental deprivation and disempowerment help to shape resilience and defiance, but also anger, distrust and marginalisation.

Keyphrases: Philosophy, Ethics, Economics, Child Labour, Child agency, Child Labour Union, Latin America
The decoupling approach to quantum information theory

Quantum information theory studies the fundamental limits that physical laws impose on information processing tasks such as data compression and data transmission on noisy channels. This thesis presents general techniques that allow one to solve many fundamental problems of quantum information theory in a unified framework. The central theorem of this thesis proves the existence of a protocol that transmits quantum data that is partially known to the receiver through a single use of an arbitrary noisy quantum channel. In addition to the intrinsic interest of this problem, this theorem has as immediate corollaries several central theorems of quantum information theory.  The following chapters use this theorem to prove the existence of new protocols for two other types of quantum channels, namely quantum broadcast channels and quantum channels with side information at the transmitter. These protocols also involve sending quantum information partially known by the receiver with a single use of the channel, and have as corollaries entanglement-assisted and unassisted asymptotic coding theorems. The entanglement-assisted asymptotic versions can, in both cases, be considered as quantum versions of the best coding theorems known for the classical versions of these problems.  The last chapter deals with a purely quantum phenomenon called locking. We demonstrate that it is possible to encode a classical message into a quantum state such that, by removing a subsystem of logarithmic size with respect to its total size, no measurement can have significant correlations with the message. The message is therefore "locked" by a logarithmic-size key. This thesis presents the first locking protocol for which the success criterion is that the trace distance between the joint distribution of the message and the measurement result and the product of their marginals be sufficiently small.

Keyphrases: information theory, quantum information
L'impact de la Convention de la Baie-James et du Nord québécois sur la santé
des Cris de l'Iiyiyiu Aschii

Objective : The health of Status Indians is below that of other Canadians, showing important gaps among the different Status groups. The Cree Nation of Eeyou Istchee, signatory to the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA), shows a higher health level than that of other Indian Nations. The objective of this thesis is to examine the impact of the JBNQA, signed in 1977, on the health of the Cree. Method : A comparative health analysis was conduted among the Cree of Eeyou Istchee, other Indian Nations’ levels, and that of non-Native Canadians, in order to examine the evolution of social determinants of health statuses of these groups. Results : The Cree achieved the highest improvement in their socioeconomic determinants,  limited progress in reducing their risky behaviors, and better retention of their traditional ways of life, than other Native Nations. The Cree increased their life-expectancy at birth to a higher status than the Canadian status, and their child mortality rates decreased compared to those of other Status Indians. Conclusion : The JBNQA seems to have had a significant impact on the health of the Cree Nation of Eeyou Istchee. The improvements might be explained by the political structures created by the Agreement. These structures supported both the improvement of the social determinants and the development of the Cree self-governement.

Keyphrases: Autochtones, Accord de revendication globale, Comprehensive claims, JBNQA, Social determinants, Self-government, Status Indians, Native people, James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, Eeyou Istchee, Public policy
Impact du genre et du modèle sur les mécanismes d’épileptogénèse dans le cerveau immature

Kainate and pentylenetetrazole models represent two animal models of temporal lobe epilepsy in which long-term consequences differ. The first model is a classical model of epileptogenesis with spontaneous recurrent seizures while the second one is limited to acute seizures. We wanted to characterize the difference in changes which occur in excitatory and inhibitory systems of the hippocampus of adult males and females having suffered an episode of status epilepticus during the immature stage of life. Besides having noticed a difference between genders in the febrile model, our second objective was to see if this difference was also present in models using neurotoxins.  Electrophysiology recordings indicated that KA and PTZ rats (both male and female) showed a hyperactivity of NMDA receptors in CA1, CA3 and DG pyramidal cells. Anatomical modifications causing hyperactivity were studied and results show a selective loss of specific GABA interneurons PV in the O/A layer of CA1 region of the hippocampus in KA and PTZ male rats. However in female rats, only the DG layer was slightly affected in PTZ while female KA presented losses in both DG and O/A layers.  Cognitive evaluation indicated that only PTZ rats showed a spatial impairment since KA rats had a similar learning pattern as controls. However, once again, that difference was observed only in males and not in females.  In summary, our results confirmed that there is a difference between genders regarding brain damages after having suffered an episode of status epilepticus during the immature stage.

Keyphrases: Kainate, Kainate, Pentylenetetrazole, Epilepsie, Epilepsy, Hippocampus, Excitatory system, Inhibitory system, Cognitive consequences, Hyperexcitability ∙, Pyramidal cells, GABA interneuron
Rôle des GTPases ARF dans la migration  des cellules endothéliales et la sécrétion du NO

ARF6 and ARF1 are small GTPases of the ARF family(s) that regulate several signalling pathways including vesicles trafficking, lipid membrane remodelling and actin cytoskeleton reorganization. To date, the role of ARF6 and ARF1 in GPCR and RTK signalling, in endothelial cells, is little known. In this thesis, we aimed to characterize the role of ARF6 in the migration of endothelial cells induced by Enodothelin-1, and the role of ARF1 in the secretion of NO induced by VEGF.  We show that ARF6 is essential for endothelial cell migration induced by endothelin-1. Inhibition of ARF6 expression using RNA interference markedly impaired basal and ET-1 stimulated cell migration. In this condition, FAK is found constitutively associated with Src. In contrast, depletion of ARF6 impairs the ability of GIT1 to form an agonist-promoted complex with FAK, thereby preventing disassembly of focal adhesions. As a consequence, adhesion of ARF6-depleted endothelial cells is increased and their motility is reduced. Furthermore, our result shows that ARF1 GTPase is essential for the activation of eNOS and the secretion of NO following VEGFR2 activation in endothelial cells.  Inhibition of ARF1 expression using RNA interference markedly impaired the recruitment of Akt to the plasma membrane and its phosphorylation by the VEGF. As a consequence, the inhibition of Akt leads to an inhibition of eNOS, a well known downstream target, which in turn leads to inhibition of NO production.  All together, our results indicate that ARF6 and ARF1 are essential for the ETB and the VEGFR2 signalling leading to cell migration and NO secretion respectively, two required steps for angiogenesis.

Keyphrases: ARF6, ARF1, FAK, Src, GIT, ETB, Migration, NO, eNOS, Akt
Un rôle pour les protéines de la famille Whirly dans le maintien de la stabilité du génome des organelles chez Arabidopsis thaliana

Maintenance of genome stability is essential for the accurate propagation of genetic information and for cell growth and survival. Organisms have therefore developed efficient strategies to prevent DNA lesions and rearrangements. Much of the information concerning these strategies has been obtained through the study of bacterial and nuclear genomes. Comparatively little is known about how organelle genomes maintain a stable structure. This study implicates the single-stranded nucleic acid-binding proteins of the Whirly family in the maintenance of plant organelle genome stability.  Here we report that the plastid-localized single-stranded DNA binding proteins of the Whirly family are required for plastid genome stability in Arabidopsis thaliana and Zea mays. Absence of plastidial Whirlies favors the accumulation of rearranged molecules that arise through a non-homologous recombination mechanism mediated by regions of microhomology. This mechanism is similar to the microhomology-mediated break-induced replication (MMBIR) described in bacteria, yeast and humans. Additionally we show that plant organelles can repair double-strand breaks using a MMBIR-like pathway. Plants lacking Whirly proteins accumulate elevated levels of microhomology-mediated DNA rearrangements upon double-strand break induction,  indicating that Whirlies also contribute to the accurate repair of plant organelle genomes. Using biological and structural data, we propose a working model in which Whirlies modulate the access of repair proteins and complementary DNA to single-stranded regions, thereby regulating the choice of repair pathways and maintaining plant organelle genome stability. The various aspects of this model will be tested in future experiments which should allow a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying genome stability in plant organelles.

Keyphrases: plastides, mitochondries, Whirly proteins, single-stranded nucleic acids, maintenance of genome stability, plant biology, plastids
Quand le problème est de définir le problème :
les compétences mobilisées par les acteurs de la problématisation des projets de
stage de coopération internationale

This study was realized within the framework of a master’s degree in Design and Complexity. It tries to demonstrate the importance of problem building in projects, allowing the action to be in coherence and in relevance with the context where the project takes place. From now on, we consider that the value of the project cannot be satisfied on the only basis of its efficiency, which means the concordance of the results with planned objectives. Consequently, this analysis relies on the assumption that problem building uses specific competencies usually unused compare to others steps during the process of project building. In this regard, an exploratory research was carried out on this subject with the objective of identifying skills during problem building, and more specifically identifying those competencies within a particular project, which are the international cooperation projects. To get there, we realized a table of reference of skills and competencies by using a case study that we did. That case study was based on small projects managed by international cooperation groups in Quebec. The use of both “instruction to the double” and research-intervention techniques allowed us to conclude to the following results: problem building needs specific skills of management of the information and mediation. The main skills of problem building are: the capacity of generating the availabilities of projects from primary and secondary data; the capacity of choosing and justifying these choices according to data analysis; the capacity of presenting clever written information, respectful of the ideas of the partners according to the language of project used by the public whom addresses the proposition; the capacity of using the comments of appraisers to improve a project and be capable of leading a project. vii The main contribution of this research lies in the proposition of a precious tool for the recruitment and the selection, the evaluation and the formation of the actors that conduct problem building.

Keyphrases: Formulating projects, Theory of inquiry, Problem building, Coherence, Relevance
Is There Personal Identity in Economics?

John B. Davis explores the question of what the economic individual is. He bases his considerations of orthodox economics on the assumption that these theories implicitly rely on a conception of the individual that has its origin in Locke’s idea of the self as subjective inwardness. Economic history then is the attempt to deal with Locke’s inherent problems that this view involved. If neoclassical economics still has aspects of human psychology, mainstream economics dropped the subjective concept of the individual out of their considerations. However, Davis demonstrates that even the neoclassical concept of the individual fails to pass the existence test of individual identity. The latter is an idea developed in analogy to philosophers’ concern about personal identity and examines if the individual can be distinguished among different individuals and if he or she can be reidentified as the selfsame individual through time. The failure of the theory of the individual in orthodox economics led Davis to develop a concept of a socially embedded individual in accordance with heterodox accounts of economics. He submits this conception to the same test of individual identity. It appears that the socially embedded individual can be said to hold an identity in specific circumstances.

Keyphrases: Philosophy, Ethics, Economics
Implication des canaux K+ dans les processus de réparation de l’épithélium respiratoire sain et fibrose kystique

The cystic fibrosis pathology (CF) is caused by mutations of the gene coding for the Cl- channel, CFTR. In the lungs, the dysfunction of transepithelial ion transport leads to an alteration of airway surface liquid volume and composition. Dehydrated mucus accumulation then favors chronic bacterial colonisation and inflammatory response, inducing severe epithelial injuries in the airways and the alveoli and then, respiratory failure. The main objective of my master degree project was to study normal alveolar, normal and CF bronchial epithelia repair processes using an in vitro model of mechanical wound-healing. Our results reveal the presence of an EGF/EGFR autocrine loop that controls cell migration and wound-healing. Our results show also that EGF signaling stimulate KATP, KvLQT1 and KCa3.1 K+ channel activity and expression in epithelial cells. K+ channel activation is crucial for repair processes since K+ channel inhibitors prevent most of EGF-stimulated wound-healing. We also observed that CF cells present delayed repair processes, probably caused by an EGF signaling defect and reduced K+ channel activity and expression. Our results allow us to better understand the regulatory mechanisms of normal and CF epithelial repair processes. Futhermore, our results open to new therapeutic options that promote, with K+ channel activators and growth factors, respiratory epithelium regeneration in CF patients.

Keyphrases: Cystic fibrosis, Epithelial wound, Repair process, K+ channels