NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Identité et capitalisme de consommation dans les romans de Chuck Palahniuk : une étude comparative de Lullaby et Survivor

This thesis focuses on the internalization of identity in Chuck Palahniuk's novels Lullaby and Survivor in regards to each character's role within their respective families and surroundings (environments). Using both Baudrillard and Foucault's theories, we can demonstrate that one's identity, created by our modern society, can be explained by its domination by the capitalist mantra and the mediatic presence. The literary universes created by Palahniuk are in the American style where literary language is used to develop the notions of liberty and free will within the American national identity, enabling the main protagonists to fight against the various control methods present within this society (inspired by Weinstein's project). This study does not fucus solely on the internalization of identity, both individual and cultural, but also on the problems related to the masculine identity as well as the character's passivity in both novels. The author attempts to solve these problems by breaking its character's solitude either by way of integrating them in a community that recognizes them as unique individuals, by establishing a connection based on the retelling of their personal history or by reconnecting with the feelings of filial love and belonging.

Keyphrases: Chuck Palahniuk, Chuck Palahniuk, American literature, Consumerism, Dwelling, Family, Free will, Identity, Masculine identity, Passivity
Portrait de l'écrivain en ascète: Ralph Waldo Emerson et la modernité des exercices spirituels

This master thesis considers how the literary practice of Ralph Waldo Emerson might help us rethink the modern heritage in the tradition of spiritual exercises. The nineteenth century American writer followed the path of this antique tradition that was uncovered by the philosophy historian Pierre Hadot, allowing us to consider anew this tradition within the framework of modernity. It is thus possible to access an unexpected modernity of spiritual exercises, unknown to Hadot himself, characterized by the production of literary texts that convey what Emerson calls, “an original relation to the universe.” The first chapter explains the specificity of traditional spirituality, where writing serves to incorporate traditional text into oneself. It considers the literary practice of Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Saint Augustine, who all attempted to live according to their conception of transcendence: personal under stoicism, institutional within Christianity. Chapter two illustrates how Emerson overturns the traditional way of behaving with a spiritual text. His critique of Christian theology shows that the revelation of Christ is, in its origin, a personal experience of transcendence that cannot be instituted. From this romantic dissension with Christianity emerges a theory of literature related to mysticism and in close ties with an “expressivist” conception of language (Charles Taylor). The final chapter examines Emerson’s literary askesis. First explained is the antischolastic conception of the scholar, subsequently showing how his way of thinking is interrelated to a fluxional conception of the universe. Lastly demonstrated is how his experimental way of life relies on a conception of literature as process.

Keyphrases: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Spiritual exercise, Literature, Expressivism, Modernity, Mysticism, Transcendence
La traduction de la littérature hispano-américaine au Québec : de l'intégration immigrante à la mondialisation éditoriale

In 2012, the translation of Hispanic American literary works in Québec is still marginal. However, the translation of such works has been increasing over the last twenty years and two Québec publishers have shown a keen interest in them: Les Écrits des Forges and Les Allusifs. The first has published in Spanish/French versions many canons of Mexican poetry while the latter has a good number of Hispanic American writers in French translation in its catalogue (now part of Leméac). This wave of interest was preceded by an initial movement of integration of Hispanic American literature in Québec, a movement mainly caused by the arrival in Canada of Hispanic American authors fleeing from a war or a dictatorial regime in their country of origin or having other reasons.  Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory and its subsequent application to the international literary space by Pascale Casanova, this thesis seeks to explain the conditions and processes that underlie the translation and publishing of Hispanic American literature in Québec. To this end, it analyzes the trajectory of three authors, each of whom has had at least one of his or her books published in French in Québec. These authors are the Salvadoran Horacio Castellanos Moya, whose novel titled Le Dégoût was published by Les Allusifs in 2003, the Mexican Jaime Sabines, whose Poemas del peatón/Poèmes du piéton was published by Les Écrits des Forges in 1997, and the Colombian Quebecer Yvonne América Truque, whose Proyección de los silencios/Projection des silences was published by the CÉDAH in 1986.  Each of these trajectories illustrates a particular model of production and distribution of Hispanic American literature in translation which appeared during the last twenty years. Together, these case studies highlight the progressive move towards an increased globalization in Québec publishing structures as well as in the distribution and reception of symbolic goods.

Keyphrases: Québec, Horacio Castellanos Moya, Jaime Sabines, Yvonne América Truque, Translation, Hispanic American Literature, Sociology of Translation, Field Theory
A dynamic sequential route choice model for micro-simulation

In transportation modeling, a route choice is a model describing the selection of a route between a given origin and a given destination. More specifically, it consists of determining the sequence of arcs leading to the destination in a network composed of vertices and arcs, according to some selection criteria. We propose a novel route choice model, based on approximate dynamic programming. The technique is applied sequentially, as every time a user reaches an intersection, he/she is supposed to consider the utility of a certain number of future arcs, followed by an approximation for the rest of the path leading up to the destination. The route choice model is implemented as a component of a traffic simulation model, in a discrete event framework.  We conduct a numerical experiment on a real traffic network model in order to analyze its performance.

Keyphrases: Attraction, Répulsion, Route choice, Approximate dynamic programming, Sequential choice, Attraction, Repulsion
Revisiting optimization algorithms for maximum likelihood estimation

Maximum likelihood is one of the most popular techniques to estimate the parameters of some given distributions. Under slight conditions, the produced estimators are consistent and asymptotically efficient. Maximum likelihood problems can be handled as non-linear programming problems, possibly non convex, that can be solved for instance using line-search methods and trust-region algorithms. Moreover, under some conditions, it is possible to exploit the structures of such problems in order to speedup convergence. In this work, we consider various non-linear programming techniques, either standard or recently developed, within the maximum likelihood estimation perspective. We also propose new algorithms to solve this estimation problem, capitalizing on Hessian approximation techniques and developing new methods to compute steps, in particular in the context of line-search approaches. More specifically, we investigate methods that allow us switching between Hessian approximations and adapting the step length along the search direction. We finally assess the numerical efficiency of the proposed methods for the estimation of discrete choice models, more precisely mixed logit models.

Keyphrases: Optimization, Trust-region, Line-search, Estimation, Maximum likelihood, Hessian approximation, Model switching, Discrete choice, Mixed logit
Reconstruction tridimensionnelle pour projection sur surfaces arbitraires

This thesis falls within the field of computer vision.  It focuses on stereoscopic camera calibration, camera-projector matching, 3D reconstruction, projector blending, point cloud meshing, and surface parameterization. Conducted as part of the LightTwist project at the Vision3D laboratory, the work presented in this thesis aims to facilitate video projections on large surfaces of arbitrary shape using more than one projector.  This type of projection is often seen in theater, digital arts, and architectural projections.  To this end, we begin with the calibration of the cameras, followed by a piecewise 3D reconstruction using an active unstructured light scanning method.  An automated alignment and meshing of the partial reconstructions yields a complete 3D model of the projection surface.  This thesis then introduces a new approach for the parameterization of 3D models based on an efficient computation of geodesic distances across triangular meshes.  The only input required from the user is the manual selection of the boudaries of the projection area on the model.  The final parameterization is computed using the geodesic distances obtained for each of the model's vertices.  Until now, existing methods did not permit the parameterization of models having a million vertices or more.

Keyphrases: multi-projection, calibration, surface parameterization, multi-projection, stereo, camera calibration, 3D reconstruction, meshing, computer vision, projector blending, unstructured light
La résolution du problème de formation de cellules dans un contexte multicritère

Group technology techniques are now widely used in  many manufacturing systems.  Those techniques aim to decompose industrial systems into subsystems or cells of parts and machines. The problem of finding the most effectivegroup technology is formulated in operations research as the Cell Formation Problem. Several criteria can be used to specify the optimal solution such as flood intercellular, intracellular load balancing, etc. Solving this problem leads to several advantages such as reducing inventory and simplifying programming.  The Cell Formation Problem is an NP-hard problem; therefore, exact methods cannot  be used to solve large problems within a reasonabletime, whereas heuristics can generate solutions of lower quality, but in a reasonable execution time. We suggest in this work, three different metaheuristics to solve the cell formation problem having two objectives functions: cell autonomy and load balancing between the cells.We compare numerically these metaheuristics. Furthermore, for problems of smaller dimension that can be solved exactly with CPLEX, we verify that the metaheuristics can reach the optimal value.

Keyphrases: Group technology, Pareto optimization, Multi-objective optimization, Cell formation problem, Heuristics
Le rapport Displaced Persons and Their Resettlement in the United States et le début des politiques d’accueil aux États-Unis

 With the ending of the Second World War, the refugee problem became an international issue. Several million people, which are called the Displaced Persons (DPs), are without shelter and should receive immediate help to survive. Although the majority of DPs will return to their home country, there are still hundreds of thousands of refugees in 1948. The only practical solution to solve this problem is the migration of refugees out of Europe. The Americans have played a crucial role by agreeing to receive 415,000 DP between 1948 and 1952 through the Displaced Persons Act (DP Act) of 1948 and its amendments in 1950 and 1951.  After heated discussions between the restrictionnists and those who advocate the liberalization of immigration laws, the Displaced Persons Act was voted with great reluctance and signed, June 25, 1948, by President Harry S. Truman. This law provides for the arrival of 202,000 DPs in two years, but it contains measures deemed discriminatory to certain ethnic groups. In order to improve the DP Act, Congress conducted research on the situation of refugees still in camps in 1949 while studying the impact of the DPs arrival in the United States from 1948 to 1950. This study was submitted as a report, the Displaced Persons and Their Resettlement in the United States, January 20th, 1950. This thesis proposes a thorough analysis of this report to demonstrate how the study helped the decision-making process of the U.S. Congress that led to the acceptance of a larger number of DP’s while also laying the basis for a settlement policy with regard to refugees.

Keyphrases: United States, displaced persons, immigration policy, refugees, cold war
Hybridations fin-de-siècle : les Contes et nouvelles de Rachilde entre décadentisme et symbolisme

Since Rachilde is generally associated with the french Decadent mouvement, few people are informed that the author also contributed to the symbolist movement of the 1890’s by helping in the set-up of the Théâtre de l’Art and Théâtre de l’Œuvre and especially by composing plays, tales and short-stories which take part in the symbolist spirit of the late nineteenth century. Gathered in the collection Contes et nouvelles suivis du Théâtre published in 1900 by the Mercure de France, these seventeen texts written between 1890 and 1900 establish an anthology of what we call Rachilde’s "symbolist period" of short-story, tale and play writing. Our dissertation is interested in the phenomenon of hybridisation between narrative and dramatic genres as well as between decadent and symbolist themes in this collection little known amongst scholars and the general public. The first chapter of our dissertation becomes attached to the study of Contes et nouvelles suivis du Théâtre in the perspective of the poetics of the collection and examines how the combination of Rachilde’s texts leads to an "anthologie de l’entre-deux". In our second chapter, we adopt the viewpoint of the poetics of genre to discuss the hybridisation of literary genres in Contes et nouvelles suivis du Théâtre, more precisely the narrative and the dramatic genres, that result in "dramatic prose". Finally, in the third chapter, we shall examine the recurring themes of Rachilde’s writing, that entangles decadent and symbolist themes, after being interested in "le style artiste", which allows her to sketch "in a visible way" the various forms of spectres, illusions and shadows that strew the texts of Contes et nouvelles suivis du Théâtre.

Keyphrases: Rachilde, conte, nouvelle, théâtre, decadentism, litterary hybridisation, tale, short-story, play
Mise en voix de l'intime : étude de cinq solos de Marie Brassard

This dissertation focuses on the development of the strategies of self-representation and autofictionnalisation in five one-woman shows by Marie Brassard between 2000 and 2011 – Jimmy, creature de reve, The Darkness, Peepshow, The Invisible and Me Talking to Myself in the Future. The objective of this study is to analyze the way vocal masks contribute to self-disclosure and thereby produce a feeling of intimacy despite the alternating effects of identification and alienation they engender. The first chapter shows that by opening the “me” to the world through creations, the protagonists soon come to say “I” without having the consistency of a character, while the “me” of the archienonciator expands through continual permeability and permutations of themes, motives and characters. The second chapter analyzes the deregulation affecting the space stage and the audience as well as the performer and her collaborators in the establishment of a genuine dialogism. With the study of the body on stage as its starting point, the last chapter examines the effects of spatial and textual decompartmentalization and shows that the display of the triple role endorsed by Brassard – author, actress and scenic organizer – forces us to reconsider the nature of the body that offers itself to the audience during the performance, inviting the audience member to invest himself in stagecraft beyond what is obvious.

Keyphrases: Performance, Autofiction, Marie Brassard, Quebec theatre, Postdramatic theatre, Analysis of the stage, Enunciation, Intimacy, One-woman show
La poétique du rire dans Le Roman comique de Scarron

The following study has three main goals. We will first describe the textual representations of laughter in Scarron’s Le Roman comique, establishing on the one hand the conditions of possibility of the comic and by showing, on the other hand, the debt that the seventeenth century’s comic novels have contracted towards the poetics of the comedy. We will then identify the nature and meaning of the dramaturgical strategies used by Scarron to represent his comical characters, sometimes disqualified but always questionned. Finally, we will highlight the originality of Scarron’s novel structure that hosts contradictory aesthetics. While it blurs the frontiers of cultural, literary and ideological hierarchies, Scarron’s laughter, an experience of insubordination and an affirmation of a critical consciousness, induces a certain way of reading comedy and delivers a skeptical view of classical age’s world. Animated by this protean and ambivalent laughter, our study proposes a global interpretation of Scarron’s novel based on a detailed analysis of his poetics.

Keyphrases: Scarron, Le Roman comique, Burlesque, Antiroman, Scarron, Le Roman comique, Laughter, Burlesque, Seventeenth century's comic novels, Antinovel, Poetics of the novel
Le contrôle sur l’Internet

The thesis focuses on the concept of control as it functions on the Internet and pertains to the tools of information and communication. In a first approach to my subject, I define the concepts of information and communication and outline the theoretical framework of their evolution. The aims of this section are: (1) to study the ambiguity of their definitions, and (2) to make the link between these terms and control. After a brief theoretical description, the complexity of the concept of control is explored, primarily through the work of Nobert Wiener. The aim of this discussion is allow the various forms of control functioning through the Internet to be identified and classified into two categories adapted from Michel Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish.” The two categories developed are: (1) control- mechanism (2) control-block. Finally, the influence that these various forms of control have on the construction of our individuality is examined. As a starting point, I discuss the notion of the individual as understood by Foucault, followed by and exploration of the concepts of the socially constructed self, and enable fundamental questions to be posed about possibilities of escape from the control mechanisms enabled by new information and communication technologies. Some answers to these questions and reformulations of key concepts are proposed in conclusion.

Keyphrases: Information, Communication, Individu, Information, Communication, Control
Tectonique moléculaire : vers l'utilisation du dispirofluorène-indénofluorène comme unité de construction pour bâtir des réseaux cristallins poreux

Supramolecular chemistry is a field of rapidly increasing interest in recent years.  The field uses weak intermolecular interactions to control molecular organisation and therefore modulate the properties of materials.  Adequate selection and positioning of functional groups, combined with a carefully selected molecular core to which the groups are attached, allows for the creation of molecules with a high degree of predictability in the way they will interact with their neighbours.  This approach to the design and construction of materials, called molecular tectonics, is based on subunits called tectons (derived from the Greek word for builder), which use weak interactions to organise themselves in a predictable manner and generate novel supramolecular architectures.  In favorable cases, the interactions can counter the general tendency shown by molecules to pack together in a compact manner.  Instead, specific functional groups direct molecular recognition and help guide the process of auto-assembly.  At the same time, the molecular core of the tecton is also of capital importance as it must allow an optimal orientation of the recognition groups. The molecular tectonics approach, used jointly with crystallisation, opens the door to new opportunities in crystal engineering.  For example, crystal engineering now allows the logical creation of porous crystalline networks that can accept guest molecules.  Although any type of weak interaction can hold such networks together, the hydrogen bond is favored for constructing porous supramolecular networks.  The strength, directionality and versatility of the hydrogen bond accounts for its special importance in the domain of crystal engineering.    A recognition group of particular interest in crystal engineering is the 2,4-diamino-1,3,5-triazinyl unit.  This unit forms hydrogen bonds according to various standard motifs.  The use of this recognition group, joined to molecular cores specifically designed to inhibit close packing, such as Onsager crosses, allows for the construction of supramolecular networks with high porosity, as shown by the behaviour of 2,2’,7,7’-tetrakis(2,4-diamino-1,3,5-triazin-6-yl)-9,9’-spirobi[9H-fluorene].  We present here an extension of previous studies of spirobifluorenyl cores by describing the synthesis and structural analysis of molecules with related dispirofluorene-indenofluorenyl cores.  This new core offers the same characteristics as the spirobifluorenyl core, namely rigid topology and an Onsager cross molecular shape which are known to inhibit close packing.  We have combined this core with a variety of recognition groups to verify the influence of the molecular core on the crystalline networks generated, particularly on the volume accessible to guest molecules.

Keyphrases: Supramolecular chemistry, Crystal engineering, Hydrogen bond, Weak interactions, Dispirofluorene-indenofluorene, Self-assembly, Porosity
Spéciation chimique des nanoparticules d'argent dans les sols

Because of their antibacterial properties, silver nanoparticles are widely used in common items such as textiles, soaps and medical products. This practice has shown a drastic expansion during the last years thus leading to potential contamination of the environment by nanoparticles. To understand fate, transport and bioavailabity of nanoparticles, it is important to understand their physicochemical properties. More specifically, it is essential to quantify the dissolution of nanoparticles with chemical speciation measurements. The aim of this study is to quantify the speciation of silver nanoparticles in different soils. Different concentrations of silver nanoparticles have been injected in soil and after a specific time, the ionic form was measured with a silver specific electrode while total silver was quantified by atomic absorption or ICP-MS. Chemical speciation measurements in three different soils indicate that a soil’s properties has a large influence on the fate of silver nanoparticles, especially it’s pH and organic matter content. Results show that if a soil is acidic, it will lead to the release of more free silver ions while organic matter tends to adsorb ions making them less available. Over a six month period, nanoparticles seem to fix rapidly to soil solids but also seem to dissociate or oxidise over the months, leading to a greater amount of potentially bioavailable ions. These results have important implications to the determination of environmental risks of metal nanoparticles.

Keyphrases: sol, silver, Nanoparticles, Speciation, specific electrode, soil