NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Concentrations et flux d'azote dans les sédiments hypoxiques de l'Estuaire Maritime du St-Laurent

Sediments display strong redox gradients and represent important sites of various microbially mediated nitrogen (N) transformation pathways resulting in the loss of fixed N. Increased eutrophication of coastal systems will likely impact the overall function of these sediments via changes in the oxygen (O2) concentration in the overlying water, thus influencing the redox gradient and the relative importance of different N processes. To have a better understanding of how O2 could influence N transformations, we measured dinitrogen (N2), nitrate (NO3-), oxygen and ammonium (NH4+) diffusive fluxes in the sediments of the Lower St. Lawrence Estuary (LSLE) and estimated denitrification rates. The importance of the nitrification-denitrification couple as a function of a gradient of hypoxic O2 concentrations was also evaluated. Dissolved gas concentrations were measured using a new approach developed in this study. N2, O2, NO3- and NH4+ diffusive fluxes varied respectively from 5.5 to 8.8, from -37.1 to -84.8, from -4 to -5.8 and from 0.6 to 0.8 μmol N m-2 h-1 among the five stations sampled. N2 and NO3- concentrations in sediment pore water and measured fluxes of NO3- in and N2 out of the sediments suggested that NO3- diffusion from the overlying water alone could not support N2 production. Using a stoichiometric approach, estimated potential nitrification rates varied among sites, from 0.01 to 52% of the total NO3  supply rate. The relative importance of nitrification decreased with increasing hypoxia.

Keyphrases: Concentrations de diazote, Lower St. Lawrence Estuary, Hypoxia, Sediments, Nitrification-denitrification couple, Dinitrogen fluxes, Dinitrogen concentration
Variation de l’expression et de l’activité des 11β-hydroxystéroïde déshydrogénases rénales, cardiaques et placentaires au cours de la gestation de la rate

The activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system can lead to hypertension and cardiac fibrosis. However, despite a substantial elevation of aldosterone during pregnancy, those adverse effects are not observed. Aldosterone acts via the mineralocorticoid receptors (MR) which can also bind cortisol with a similar affinity. Regulation of the local levels of this glucocorticoid by the 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases (11β-HSD) is thus crucial to avoid overstimulation of MRs. We believe that these enzymes are involved in the maternal and fetal protections against the high levels of aldosterone and cortisol observed during pregnancy. We propose that the adaptative mechanisms occurring during normal pregnancy involve tissue-specific changes in the expression (mRNA and protein) and activity of both 11β-HSDs. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were sacrified on day 14, 17, 19 or 22 of gestation (term = day 23) and their organs were collected. In the kidney, our results have shown that 11β-HSDs protein levels decrease in late gestation. In the placenta, a dramatic decrease of 11β-HSD1 mRNA and protein expressions is observed on day 17 while 11β-HSD2 levels are increased. Expression and activity of the 11β-HSD2 are then decreased up to day 22. No significant differences were detected in the left cardiac ventricle. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that gestation is associated with important modifications in the placenta, possibly to ensure a normal fetal growth, while expression in the kidney and the heart is barely changed. More studies on MR expression in those tissues will be required to better characterise the function of the 11β-HSDs throughout pregnancy.

Keyphrases: 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases, Glucocorticoids, Mineralocorticoids, Pregnancy, Salt retention, Cardiac fibrosis, Fetal development
Caractérisation moléculaire de la modulation spatio-temporelle des fonctions du phagosome

Macrophages are specialized cells of the immune system which mediate destruction and killing of invading micro-organisms. They do so by engulfing them by a process called phagocytosis. Microbes are then captured in an intracellular compartment, the phagosome, which gradually acquire molecules able to attack and degrade its cargo. Use of proteomics let us demonstrate the presence of flotillin-1 enriched microdomains (also called lipid rafts or membrane rafts) on the phagosomes. Our team demonstrated the crucial importance of these rafts in the phagocytosis process. Indeed, survival of L. donovani correlates with its presence in a ‘raftless’ phagosome while a mutated L. donovani without LPG is rapidly killed in a phagosome containing lipid rafts. To understand the membrane raft destabilisation mechanism mediated the LPG molecule, we induced phagocytosis of parasites devoid of LPG (LPG-) and compared it to the wild type parasite by microscopy. We first demonstrated that LPG alone is necessary to prevent normal maturation of the phagosome. Additionally, we discovered that the LPG molecule not only inhibits lipid rafts formation on the phagosome but also disorganise pre-existing lipid rafts. This effect of LPG is proportional to the number of repetitive sugar units (Gal( 1,4)-Man 1-PO4) which compose this molecule. Our work demonstrated for the first time an important role of the membrane rafts in the phagosome maturation. Moreover, our conclusions will give new interesting leads for clinical studies on leishmaniosis. The second goal of this work was to characterise them with proteomics and lipidomics tools. To do this, we undertook the systematic identification of proteins present on both subdomains of the phagosome (lipid rafts versus the rest of the phagosomal membrane). To achieve this, we purified phagosomes, from which we isolated lipid rafts by floating Triton X-100 insoluble membranes (DRMs for Detergent Insoluble Membranes). After that, we identified proteins by mass spectrometry.

Keyphrases: phagosome, Leishmania, macrophage, lipid rafts, membrane rafts, proteomics, phagosome, macrophage, Leishmania
Sur l'inégalité de Visser

Let p be a polynomial in the variable z. There exist several inequalities between the coefficents of p and its maximum modulus. In this work, we shall mainly study known proofs of the Visser inquality together with some extensions. We shall finally apply the inequality of Visser to obtain extensions of the Chebyshev inequality.

Keyphrases: Inequalities, Polynomials, Analytic Functions, Chebyshev Polynomials, Power Series, Maximum Modulus, Inequality of Visser
Les Essais de Dimitrios Katartzis

The work is an annotated translation of D. Katartzis’ Dokimia (Essays) (Editions, Athens: Ermis Editions, 1974, pp. 4-73), unpublished in the author’s lifetime. In this work, he presents to the reader his theory on Modern Greek language, education, religion, and philosophy. His educational projects are inscribed within the framework of the Greek Enlightenment and the principal proponents of the movement, the Phanariotes.  Katartzis, who was an enthusiastic follower of the Encyclopédie and the French philosophers, elaborates his theory on the Greek Nation, the Romaioi, and their Modern Greek language, on the education of Greek and Wallachian children, on the need to translate foreign works in the actual, spoken language and not the language of the ancestors, because « he wanted to benefit his Nation ».

Keyphrases: Phanariotes, Romaioi, modern Greek language, Phanariotes, neo-hellenic Enlightenment, Romaioi
Implication du récepteur aux cannabinoïdes CB2 dans le développement de la voie
rétinothalamique

Retinal projection navigation towards their visual targets is regulated by guidance molecules and growth cone transduction mechanisms. Here, we show that cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2R) is widely expressed throughout the visual pathway during development and in cultured retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and cortical neurons. Both the number of filopodia and the surface area of the growth cone (GC) are modulated by CB2R activity in a PKA-dependant manner. Furthermore, DCC is required for CB2R induced morphological changes of the GC. CB2R agonists induce GC chemorepulsion. Treatments altering CB2R activity change retinal explants projections length. These effects are specific to CB2R as no changes were observed in cnr2 knockout mouse. A single intraocular injection of AM630 increases retinal projection branch length and aberrant projections were also observed. Moreover, we report defect in eye-specific segregation of retinal projections in the dLGN in cnr2-/- mice. These findings highlight the modulatory role of endocannabinoids and their CB2R during axon guidance.

Keyphrases: Guidage axonal, DCC, CB2, Growth cone, CB2R, Axonal guidance, Development, Endocannabinoid, Visual system, Segregation
Le Corps grotesque dans «Les Cent Contes drolatiques» d'Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac is mostly acknowledged, today, as the father of the novel and as the writer of La Comédie humaine. But we often forget that between 1830 and 1832, at the beginning of his career, the author wrote, mainly and like many writers of his time, short stories. Multiple factors can explain that interest, for example, Hoffman’s Contes fantastiques had been translated from German to French and their success was immediate. Moreover, the new mediums of literary publication, in magazines and newspapers, favoured the proliferation of the genre.   One corpus will keep our attention through these pages: Les Cent Contes drolatiques, a project, unpopular in his time, with which Balzac aimed to « restaurer l’école du rire  » in France. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the author recreated short stories like the ones that Rabelais, Verville and the reine de Navarre have written in their time, three or four centuries before. To do so, Balzac invented a language that simulated the old French and created grotesque characters.   What is, in Honoré de Balzac’s work, the aesthetic of laugh, and how does the author express that concept in his Cent Contes drolatiques? To answer these questions, we will study the manifestations of the grotesque in the entire production of the writer. Also, according to Mikhaïl Bakhtine, in L’Œuvre de François Rabelais et la culture populaire au Moyen Âge et sous la Renaissance , the grotesque, linked to laugh, is related to the body :  « Le trait marquant du réalisme grotesque est le rabaissement, c’est-à-dire le transfert de tout ce qui est élevé, spirituel, idéal et abstrait sur le plan matériel et corporel.  » Consequently, it is the representations of the body that, in a further reflection, we will examine. Finally, the study of the grotesque body in Les Cent Contes drolatiques will show another facet of Balzac’s writing, often ignored by researchers : the importance of laughter and the vision of the world that it communicates through literature.

Keyphrases: nineteenth century, Honoré de Balzac, Les Cent Contes drolatiques, grotesque, body
The Abuser and the Abused : impropriety in Selected Texts by Jane Austen

The focus of this study is women’s rights in Jane Austen’s novels. Despite the increasing awareness of individuality and human rights, psychological (and often physical) abuse exists. After Marilyn Butler’s seminal study Jane Austen and the War of Ideas, Austen is better understood within the contexts of her time. Human relationships are much more complicated as mothers try to “sell-off” their daughters to the highest bidder. These women attempt to secure their own financial future regardless of their children’s wishes or patriarchal norms. Moreover, widows who once exercised power through their husbands see this power relinquished, as society tries to identify their social status. Austen criticizes independent widows who try to obtain power by using their sexuality and manipulative language. The need for control spreads to all females no matter their social standing. This develops a competitive nature amongst them that limits the growth of society. This lack of unity allows men to abuse women themselves. Finally, with the advent of film studies, it is important to look at Austen novels translated into this media. Directors interpret abuse in various degrees, but most acknowledge its presence.

Keyphrases: Susan, Prejudice, Mansfield, Emma, Northanger, film, flirt, women, power, widows, Susan, Prejudice, Mansfield, Emma, Northanger, film, flirt
Attitudes et croyances envers les rêves : une approche multidimensionnelle

Our goals were to develop a questionnaire (the IDEA) to assess dream-related beliefs, to investigate the relations between these beliefs and waking-state variables as well as the roles they may play in peoples’ lives. In the first article, 725 participants completed the IDEA and 357 participants also completed a dream log and questionnaires on dreams, personality, and well-being. A factor analysis of the IDEA revealed 7 dimensions. Using these dimensions, individuals were classified into three distinct profiles which showed differential relations to measures of personality and well-being. In the second article, people with high dream recall, psychological distress, thin boundaries and an elevated capacity for absorption, were found to be the most likely to believe that their dream experiences are meaningful. The findings indicate that the IDEA is a useful instrument for researchers and those dream-related beliefs can play important psychological roles in people’s lives.

Keyphrases: Absorption, Cauchemars, Dreaming, Beliefs, Scale construction, Personality, Absorption, Psychological boundaries, Nightmares, Well-being
Abus sexuels et conversion religieuse : une approche narrative fondée sur la triple mimèsis de Paul Ricœur

Although despair or discontent has long been thought to be a precipitating factor for religious experience, there has been no systematic investigation of the possible links between sexual abuse and religious conversion. A review of literature on the religious dynamics of sexual abuse reveals opposite paradigms: religion as risk factor and religion as resource. Likewise, a review of conversion studies reveals three such dichotomies: active or passive convert, sudden or gradual conversion, and conversion as normal or pathological. Anecdotal evidence from the literature suggests that the interaction between sexual abuse trauma and a subsequent conversion is more complex.  To transcend these paradigmatic dichotomies, a narrative approach is advocated. More specifically, I use the concept of narrative identity as developed by Paul Ricœur. This concept relates to the Ricœurian notion of triple mimèsis, which links the practical and narrative fields. Starting from biographical elements from the narrative (mimèsis I), how does the subject configure his account to make sense out of his experience (mimèsis II) and refigure it to construct a survivor/convert identity (mimèsis III).  Seven non-directive interviews were conducted with people who have suffered sexual violence during childhood and who subsequently experienced a religious conversion. From the aforementioned three-step analysis, the positive or negative contribution of the narrative elements – but mostly their interaction – to the subject’s narrative identity can be evaluated. We conclude that the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and a later conversion is not as simple as the literature would lead us to believe. Conversion can be beneficial to the subject’s survival and contribute to the healing of the sexual trauma. However, some religious elements can hinder the recovery process. These harmful elements vary from one person to another, and what is harmful for one can be beneficial for another, depending on the life story’s configuration.

Keyphrases: Conversion, Inceste, Paul Ricoeur, Triple mimesis, Religiosity, Incest, Sexual abuse, Hermeneutics, Narrative identity
Ο μύθος της επιστροφής στη νεοελληνική ποίηση του 20ου αιώνα : le mythe du retour dans la poésie néo-hellénique du XXe siècle

The Μyth of the Return in 20th Century Neo-Hellenic Poetry   The Neo-Hellenic poetry of the 20th century is permeated by a recycling of the forms and figures of speech found in classical Greek mythology. This recycling, as practiced by poets such as Cavafy, Seferis and Elytis, is expressed and articulated in the phenomenon of the myth of the return, which evolves on four distinct planes: the myth (story) of the return, the return to the myth, the return of the myth and the myth (illusion) of the return.   The first manifestation of this myth of the return is the Homeric story of the Odyssean archetype. Secondly is expressed the return to the myth into a recycled ideological and poetic form. Thereafter is shaped the return of the myth, through which the initial mythology of the return occurs as a concept that enables a primary form of expression. Finally is transcended the myth of the return, which is no longer only story, but illusion.

Keyphrases: Cavafy, Elytis, Poetry, Neo-hellenism, 20th century, Myth, Return, Greek mythology, Cavafy, Seferis, Elytis
Réécriture des récits bibliques dans les proses du Graal au XIIIe siècle

This MA thesis introduces results of a research which is analysing links between the medieval Bible and the Grail novels written during the 13th century. For that purpose, we had recourse to biblical paraphrases and translations in prose written in old French as a secondary corpus.  This dissertation is divided in three chapters. The first chapter introduces the main and secondary corpuses by putting them into context. This chapter also deals with the Bible in the Middle Ages, that is to say with its status and with its diffusion in the society. The following chapter analyses the biblical rewritings found in the corpus by dealing with the questions of allegory and exegesis, mainly in the Legend of the Tree of Life. Finally, the third chapter studies the writing of the dream as a common process of writing found in the Bible and taken back by the Grail novels.  In the end, medieval authors took back not only the tales of the Bible, but also its writing processes. The study of this dynamic of resumption also allows demonstrating how texts incorporate biblical material in the specific development of romance, a literary genre in emergence at that time.

Keyphrases: Grail literature, XIIIth century prose romance, Medieval Bible, Intertextuality
Évaluation comparative de stratégies visant à augmenter les interventions de courte durée en cessation tabagique auprès du personnel infirmier de milieux hospitaliers

Introduction : Research results demonstrate a decrease in cigarette smoking when preventive professional interventions are routinely carried out. The Quebec recent literature reports that, nurses from different working areas assess their patient smoking habits 62 % of the time and recommend cessation in only 38 % of the situations. When this assessment is realized by hospital nurses, this percentage drops around 30 %. Knowing that nursing staff is present at the bedside 24 hours a day, a non-negligible influence of tobacco counselling by nurses is of potential interest for hospitalized patients. The objective of the present study is to compare, on medical and surgical units, the effectiveness of three strategies (interactive educational session, recall, and both together) to a control group, on the number of nursing interventions pertaining to cessation of cigarette smoking. Choice of those three strategies is based on reported effectiveness and transferability potential. Research design is experimental with group randomisation. Factorial model opens possibility to assess impact of each of the three strategies versus the control group. Pre and post strategy multi-measurements (at 1 and 3 months) are sought from nursing staff, patients, patient charts, management, nurses in charge of the centers for tobacco cessation. Results : Nursing staff completed questionnaires at time 1 (N = 156), at time 2 (N= 78), and at time 3 (N=69). Similarly, 156 patients were interviewed at time 1, 89 at time 2, and 98 at time 3. Results show that nursing staff assesses cigarette smoking habits for only 35,7 % of the patients, and their intent to stop smoking only 17,6 % of the time. Very few tobacco counselling interventions are carried out on medical and surgical units by nursing staff. Some barriers are identified, and nursing staff perceives a non-self-efficacy with regard to those interventions. Results do not allow confirmation of hypotheses. However, complementary statistical analyses show that the educational strategy increases the number of nursing interventions during a short period, and decreases perception of barriers to tobacco counselling. Impact of recall could not be assessed as it was not introduced as planned. Conclusion : Considering modest results from the strategies, the interactive educational sessions shows a short term effect on the nursing staff’s interventions,. The difficulties encountered during implementation of the strategies have been explained, which will be useful when planning future research in tobacco cessation.

Keyphrases: attitude, educational intervention, tobacco cessation, tobacco, multiple strategies, experimental design, attitude, self-efficacy, nursing
Preuves interactives quantiques

This thesis is devoted to complexity theory based on the interactive proof paradigm. All classes defined in this way involve one or many infinitely powerful provers attempting to convince a verifier of limited power that a string belongs to a certain language. We will consider the classical model, in which the various participants are Turing machines, as well as the quantum model, in which they are quantum circuits. The literature review included in this thesis assume that the reader is familiar with the basics of complexity theory and quantum computing. This thesis presents the original result that the class NP can be characterized by a class of quantum interactive proofs of logarithmic size. The various classes are presented in an order that facilitates the treatment of interactive classes. The first chapter is devoted to the basic complexity classes; these will be useful points of comparison for classes presented subsequently. Chapters two and three respectively present classes with one and many provers. The presentation of the result mentioned above is the object of chapter four.

Keyphrases: interactive proofs, complexity, quantum, characterization
La historia carnavalesca del 68 en Palinuro de México de Fernando del Paso

Summary This work aims to reveal the strategies used in Fernando del Paso’s Palinuro de México (1977) to represent the history of the 1968 student movement, which ended with the massacre of Tlatelolco. In order to protect its image, the government censored this event, among the most significant of Mexico’s contemporary history.  We approach Palinuro de México as part of a literary corpus that resists the silence imposed by the authorities with the creation of a poetics capable of recounting the student movement’s history and denouncing the regime’s censorship. Our working hypothesis borrows from research by Paul Veyne and Jacques Rancière, who demonstrate that the writing of history does not possess a scientific method, but is instead a form of literary construction. It allows us to assert that history, because it uses literature, can also be told in a novel.  Mijail Bajtin’s theory of the carnavalesque, which is characterized by its humour, liberty of expression, and opposition to official rules, allows us to identify the literary processes used in Palinuro de México to create a memory of Tlatelolco. This style recalls the vitality of the student movement by underlining their merry, non-violent subversion of values. Its polyphonic element also allows the author to include a theatrical play within the novel and to represent the different ideologies opposed during the conflict.

Keyphrases: Tlatelolco, carnavalesque, 1968 student movement, carnavalesque literature, popular culture, polyphony