NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Contenu verbalisé par l’enfant victime d’agression sexuelle lors de la thérapie
 (TF-CBT) et diminution des symptômes

This exploratory study examined the relationship between the content (number and types of details) verbalized by the child victim of sexual abuse (SA) during trauma-focused cognitive-behavioural therapy and the reduction of symptoms after therapy. The sample was made up of 28 children between the ages of 6 and 13 years. On the basis of the pre- and post-therapy results observed using the French versions of the Children’s Impact of Traumatic Events Scale–Revised and the Child Behavior Checklist, the children were divided into two groups: those with a reduction of and those with a persistence of post-traumatic stress symptoms and internalized and externalized symptoms following therapy. Verbatim accounts of therapy sessions concerning SA-related details were transcribed and scored as new details (disclosed only once) or repeated details in 12 detail categories. The Mann-Whitney test results indicated no significant difference between the two groups with regard to the total average number of new details and repeated details disclosed. However, compared with the persistence of symptoms group, the reduction of symptoms group verbalized significantly more new details for the action and place categories.

Keyphrases: sexual abuse, children, trauma exposure, symptoms, clinical psychology
Effets du vieillissement sur les index électrophysiologiques de l’évaluation des relations spatiales en mémoire de travail visuelle

Human ageing is a complex process that varies a lot from one person to the other. Despite the scope of research of that subject, there is still a lot to explore. This thesis proposes three experiments that will help increase our understanding of the many changes in visual working memory and visuospatial attention seen in ageing. The first experiment assesses the changes in visual working memory capacities between young adults, healthy older adults, and persons with MCI. Furthermore, we were able to do a follow-up with the persons with MCI and determine which ones remained in a stable cognitive state and the ones that decline toward mild dementia, providing us with the opportunity to test for potential behavioral differences allowing us to distinguish between them.  Many techniques, such as neuropsychological tests and behavioral tasks, can be used to study the effects of ageing on the brain. Neuroimaging techniques can be particularly useful. In fact, many electrophysiological measures, called event-related potentials (ERPs), are linked to specific cognitive functions which allow us to follow those processes and observe the modulations caused by stimuli characteristics or ageing for example. This is the case of the N2pc (negativity 2 posterior contralateral) and the SPCN (sustained posterior contralateral negativity), two ERPs linked to visuospatial attention and visual working memory. While they are both well-known in the literature, not many studies are using them as a way to examine the changes appearing in the visuospatial attention and the visual working memory during the normal ageing process. The second and third experiment use a visual search task (including 2 conditions: counting the number of items presented and identify a specific spatial relation between 2 coloured items) to explore the changes seen on those ERPs. The second experiment wants to assess the efficiency of a multiple frame paradigm to measure the N2pc and the SPCN with young adults. The third experiment wants to examine the effects of normal ageing on the amplitude and the latency of the two components using the same type of visual search task.

Keyphrases: attention, cognition, ageing, visual working memory, electroencephalography, attention, cognition, mild cognitive impairment
Impacts fonctionnels diurnes et corrélats psychopathologiques dans le somnambulisme adulte

Sleepwalking is a common sleep disorder affecting up to 4% of adults and is associated with a risk of serious injuries to self or others. The mechanisms responsible for the disorder are still misunderstood but psychopathology has long been considered as a key factor in development of sleepwalking. While most research efforts have focused on nighttime correlates of the disorder, very few studies have examined the daytime consequences of sleepwalking. The first goal of this thesis was to clarify the relation between sleepwalking and psychopathology. The first study investigated the prevalence of depressive and anxious symptomatology in a large sample of patients. Results showed that only a minority of sleepwalkers presented with significant psychopathological symptoms. Overall, the clinical profile of patients with and without significant symptoms was more similar than dissimilar. In addition, a smaller proportion of patients with more severe symptoms reported a family history of sleepwalking when compared to those with no or few symptoms, suggesting that there could be a lesser contribution of genetic factors to their disorder. A greater proportion of patients with more severe symptoms also reported suffering from nightmares.   The second objective of this thesis was to investigate the daytime consequences of sleepwalking. The second study found that almost half of the sleepwalkers presented with clinically significant levels of sleepiness. Surprisingly, sleepiness wasn’t related to polysomnographic measures of sleep fragmentation or sleep depth. The third study found that 25 hours sleep deprivation impaired sleepwalkers’ inhibitory control during wakefulness compared to controls but between-groups differences in performance weren’t related to greater sleep fragmentation in sleepwalkers. In addition, sleep deprivation did not have a differential effect on patients’ sustained attention performance and no differences were found between groups when testing was performed during normal wakefulness.  In sum, the results from this thesis indicate that a majority of sleepwalkers don’t present with clinically elevated scores on measures of psychopathology. However, findings from studies two and three reveal the existence of significant daytime consequences in sleepwalkers that could be related to pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the disorder. The investigation of daytime phenomenon in patients suffering from somnambulism appears to be a promising research venue that could improve our understanding of sleepwalking.

Keyphrases: Cognition, Attention, Sleep disorder, Sleepwalking, Somnambulism, Sleep deprivation, Daytime consequences, Sleepiness, Cognition, Attention, Impulsivity, Psychopathology, Anxiety, Depression
Paraphilic Coercive Disorder : Behavioral Markers and Validity of Diagnostic Criteria

The present dissertation aims to address the shortcomings in the current literature on Paraphilic Coercive Disorder (PCD) by focusing on two main objectives: assessing the validity of the diagnostic criteria proposed for inclusion in the DSM-5 and investigating behavioral markers. To this end, archival files of rapists who offended against adult women were studied. The thesis consists of three empirical articles. The first article presents a succinct account of some of the key results emanating from the analyses. The second article (N = 47) examines the observed frequencies of PCD and assesses the validity and impact of relying on minimum number of victims as a diagnostic criterion. Furthermore, a number of variables of interest are examined to determine predictors of sexual recidivism. The third article (N = 52) compares diagnostic groups on a number of offense conduct characteristics – specifically sexual acts and violent behaviors – in an attempt to identify behavioral markers associated with rape-proneness that could aid with the diagnosis of PCD. Similarly, rapist typologies were created by classifying the sample into groups of sex offenders based on their sexual acts, on one hand, and violent behaviors, on the other hand. Consequently, their characteristics and association with PCD were examined. Our results do not support the reliance on number of victims. Our findings suggest that rapists with PCD are more sexually intrusive and resort to less violence overall than sex offenders without such a diagnosis and that exhibitionism and fondling could serve as behavioral markers for PCD. Moreover, rapists with PCD are characterised more by indecent request, exhibitionism, fondling, masturbation, attempted intercourse and digital penetration rather than by intercourse and sodomy. In terms of violent behaviors, rapists with PCD resort less to the use of weapons, seem not to hit their victims, and are likely characterised more by manipulation rather than by the use of death threats, excessive force and weapons. In sum, the present study highlights the necessity of relying on a combination of assessment methods in order to improve diagnostic and discriminant validity of PCD.

Keyphrases: DSM-5, Paraphilic Coercive Disorder, Victim count hypothesis, Behavioral markers, Rapist typology, Rapists of adult women, Rape Index, Sexual recidivism
La réussite éducative des élèves du primaire issus de l’immigration et l’implication parentale dans le suivi scolaire

Recognized as key players in the education and socialization of children, parents play an important role in fostering children’s academic success. As such, this thesis investigated the contribution of parental involvement on the school adjustment of a sample of elementary school students coming from immigrant families. In addition to providing a model of parental involvement and developing a questionnaire to reflect this involvement, this thesis examined the differential effect of parenting depending on parents’ region of birth. The data used for the purposes of this thesis came from the project Culture et engagement scolaire. Data were collected from students in first through sixth grade through questionnaires and individual interviews. Students’ parents and teachers were also asked to complete questionnaires. In this thesis, we first focused on the definition of parental involvement in school monitoring and validated an instrument designed for parents of elementary school students. As such, a summary of studies addressing definitions of parental involvement is presented and a definition based on this synthesis is proposed. A questionnaire derived from this definition is next validated. Results show the existence of five dimensions that account for parental involvement. These dimensions are parents’ supervision during homework, parent-child communication about school, parents’ emphasis on school achievement, as well as a behavioral and an emotional dimension of the school-parent link. In addition, predictive associations were established between some of these dimensions and student academic performance. We next took the validated instrument and examined the extent to which dimensions of parental involvement predict two aspects of student school adjustment, namely school performance and school engagement. Thereafter, differences in parental involvement depending on parents’ region of birth were observed. The three regions of birth taken into account in the study were Canada, North Africa, and the Caribbean. Results suggest the existence of differences between these three groups in terms of students’ school adjustment, parental practices, and the association between parental practices and students’ school adjustment. Overall, the studies presented in this thesis show associations between parental involvement in school and the school adjustment of students coming from an immigrant family and attending a disadvantaged elementary school. This thesis also highlights that future research amongst this population of students ought to take into account the differences attributable to parents’ region of birth.

Keyphrases: Engagement scolaire, Academic achievement, Academic engagement, Students from immigrant background, Parental involvement, Elementary school, Poverty, School-family collaboration
Topological order in a broken-symmetry state

In this thesis we will revisit the different steps that led to the discovery of the topological insulator before we then ask the question if a topologically non-trivial phase can coexist with a broken symmetry state. We will see the most important concepts in describing this new state of matter, and we will try to understand what its fascinating consequences are. This field of research is heavily driven by theory, therefore taking first a look at the underlying theoretical framework, will enable us to gain a deeper understanding of the subject. In Chapter 1 we will review the quantum Hall effect to motivate the subject. Chapter 2 deals with the first realization of a two-dimensional topological insulator in a HgTe/CdTe quantum well and then generalizes these results to 3 dimensions. We will also see how one can incorporate principles of topology to characterize a specific system with the use of topological invariants. Chapter 3 will introduce the first derivative of the topological insulator state, the antiferromagnetic topological insulator (AFTI). After theoretically motivating the subject and introducing a proper invariant for this new AFTI phase that is coupled to the Néel order, we will then investigate in Chapters 4 and 5, two prime candidates for the AFTI phase; GdBiPt and NdBiPt.

Keyphrases: diffraction de neutrons, diffraction de rayons X, NdBiPt, GdBiPt, SmB6, Quantum Hall effect, Topological insulator, Antiferromagnetic topological insulator, Topological invariant, Crystal field theory, broken symmetry state, Time reversal symmetry, Neutron diffraction, X-ray diffraction, Antiferromagnetism
Dynamique de croissance par plasma RF magnétron des couches minces à base d’oxyde de zinc

The goal of this thesis was to study the growth dynamics of zinc oxide based thin films by RF magnetron sputtering plasmas for advanced electronic, optoelectronic, and photonic applications. In this context, we have developed several diagnostics to characterize neutral and charged species in such plasmas, in particular electrostatic probe, optical emission and absorption spectroscopy, as well as plasma sampling mass spectrometry. Afterward, we have tried to correlate specific physical characteristics of as-grown ZnO thin films, in particular the deposition rate, to fundamental plasma properties.  Our results have shown that the ejection of Zn, In and O atoms during the RF magnetron sputtering of Zn, ZnO and In2O3 targets does not significantly influence the number density of positive ions (and thus the electron density assuming quasi-neutrality) as well as the electron energy distribution function (populations of low and high energy). However, the ratio of the number density of metastable argon atoms (3P2) to the electron density decreases with increasing concentration Zn atoms; a feature that can be ascribed to Penning ionization of RF sputtered Zn atoms. Furthermore, over the range operating conditions examined in this study (low-pressure plasmas), the thermalization of sputtered atoms by collisions with atoms in the gas phase remains incomplete. We have shown that one of the consequences of this result is the presence of suprathermic Zn+ ions near the target. Finally, we have correlated the quantity of sputtered Zn atoms determined by optical emission spectroscopy with the deposition rate of ZnO thin films measured by spectroscopic ellipsometry. This set of data lead us to the conclusion that mainly Zn atoms (and not excited and/or ionic Zn species) govern the growth dynamic of ZnO-based thin films during magnetron sputtering in argon RF plasmas.

Keyphrases: FDEE, FDEI, TRG-OES, ZnO thin films, Ar-metastables, Zn-metastables, EEDF, IEDF, Abroption spectroscopy, TRG-OES, Actinometry
Étude de la cinématique HI (21cm) et H-Alpha de la galaxie du Triangle (M33)

This thesis, entitled Étude de la cinématique HI (21cm) et H-Alpha de la galaxie du Triangle (M33), focuses on the analysis of the kinematics and distribution of dark matter in the galaxy M33. M33 is a spiral galaxy of the Local Group of galaxies. It is located at ~840 kpc with a luminosity of 3.7 x 109 solar luminosity in the V band. The kinematics study presented in this document is based on H-Alpha data (optical) obtained at the OMM and HI data at 21 cm obtained with the DRAO interferometer and the Arecibo single dish radio telescope.  Mapping H-Alpha yielded a better coverage of the HII regions of M33, produced a good determination of the rotation curve in the inner regions and improved the kinematical study of M33. The new study of the kinematics of the optical disk of M33 presented in this document, shows an increasing rotation of the gas in the outer regions reaching velocities of ~135 km/s (both sides) and strong variations of the position angle. This confirms again the M33 warped HI disc. The H-Alpha data allowed to get with great accuracy the rising portion of the rotation curve. We also present in this paper a large-scale study of the velocity dispersions in this galaxy using the H-Alpha data.  With the HI data, we were able to derive the rotation curve much further out (~22 kpc), which allowed us to derive a mass 2 x 1011 solar mass at that point.  The mass models using a dark matter halo (ISO, NFW, EIN) show a strong presence of dark matter with a mass ratio baryonnic - missing mass <<< 1 beyond the optical disk. The mass models derived using the MOND formalism describe adequately the inner regions but hardly converge using the combined H-Alpha and HI rotation curve.

Keyphrases: Fabry-Perot, M33, Cinématique, H-Alpha, HI, Interferometric, integral field, Fabry-Perot, Galaxy, M33, Kinematics, dynamics, interstellar medium, Mass/luminosity ratio, H-Alpha, HI, HII regions, Cosmology, Dark matter
Croissance et ensemble nodal de fonctions propres du laplacien sur des surfaces

In this thesis, we study eigenfunctions of the Laplace-Beltrami operator - or simply the Laplacian - on a closed surface, i.e. a two dimensional smooth, compact Riemannian manifold without boundary. These functions satisfy $\Delta_g \phi_\lambda + \lambda \phi_\lambda = 0$ and the eigenvalues form an infinite sequence. The nodal set of a Laplace eigenfunction is its zero set and is of interest since the vibrating plates experiments of Chladni at the beginning of the 19th century as well as, more recently, in the context of quantum mechanics. The size of the nodal sets has been largely studied recently, notably by Donnelly and Fefferman, Colding and Minicozzi, Hezari and Sogge, Mangoubi as well as Sogge and Zelditch.The study of eigenfunction growth is also an active topic, with the recent works of Donnelly and Fefferman, Sogge, Toth and Zelditch to name only a few.  Our thesis follows the work of Nazarov, Polterovich and Sodin and links growth and nodal sets of eigenfunctions in the asymptotic $\lambda \nearrow \infty$. To do so, we first consider growth exponents, which measure the local growth of eigenfunctions via their uniform norm. The average local growth of an eigenfunction is built by averaging growth exponents defined on small disks of wavelength like radius over the whole surface. We show that the size of the nodal set is controlled by the product of this average local growth with the frequency $\sqrt{\lambda}$. This result allows a function theoretical reformulation of the famous conjecture of Yau, which predicts that the size of the nodal set grows like the frequency. Our work also strengthens the common intuition that an eigenfunction behaves in many ways like a polynomial of degree $\sqrt{\lambda}$. We then generalize our results to growth exponents built upon $L^q$ norms. We are also led to study functions belonging to the kernel of Schrödinger operators with small potential in the plane. For such functions, we obtain two results linking growth and size of nodal sets.

Keyphrases: Spectral geometry, Laplace eigenfunctions, Doubling exponents, Growth exponents, Nodal sets, Yau's conjecture, Schrödinger operators
Fixed point results for multivalued contractions on graphs and their applications

In this thesis, we present fixed point theorems for multivalued contractions defined on metric spaces, and, on gauge spaces endowed with directed graphs. We also illustrate the applications of these results to integral inclusions and to the theory of fractals. chapters. In Chapter 1, we establish fixed point results for the maps, called multivalued weak G-contractions, which send connected points to connected points and contract the length of paths. The fixed point sets are studied. The homotopical invariance property of having a fixed point is also established for a family of weak G-contractions. In Chapter 2, we establish the existence of solutions of systems of Hammerstein integral inclusions under mixed monotonicity type conditions. Existence of solutions to systems of differential inclusions with initial value condition or periodic boundary value condition are also obtained. Our results rely on our fixed point theorems for multivalued weak G-contractions established in Chapter 1. In Chapter 3, those fixed point results for multivalued G-contractions are applied to graph-directed iterated function systems. More precisely, we construct a suitable metric space endowed with a graph G and an appropriate G-contraction. Using the fixed points of this G-contraction, we obtain more information on the attractors of graph-directed iterated function systems. In Chapter 4, we consider multivalued maps defined on a complete gauge space endowed with a directed graph. We establish a fixed point result for maps which send connected points into connected points and satisfy a generalized contraction condition. Then, we study infinite graph-directed iterated function systems (H-IIFS). We give conditions insuring the existence of a unique attractor to an H-IIFS. Finally, we apply our fixed point result for multivalued contractions on gauge spaces endowed with a graph to obtain more information on the attractor of an H-IIFS. More precisely, we construct a suitable gauge space endowed with a graph G and a suitable multivalued G-contraction such that its fixed points are sub-attractors of the H-IIFS.

Keyphrases: Fixed point, Contraction, Multivalued map, Hammerstein integral inclusion, Iterated function system, Fractal, Differential inclusion, Contraction