NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Effets d’un programme de promotion de la vitalité cognitive sur la pratique d’activité physique d’ainés

Background: Several studies have demonstrated that physical activity (PA) could have an impact on the cognitive vitality of older adults. The Jog Your Mind program encourages participants to become more physically active and is designed to promote cognitive vitality. This study aims to explore: 1) the effect of the program on PA; 2) the moderating and mediating effects of PA on the program’s impact on cognition; and 3) the correlation between PA and various cognitive domains in participants prior to the start of the program. Methods: In total, 294 individuals aged 60 and over participated in the cognitive vitality promotion program immediately for the experimental group or one year later for the controls. They were evaluated using cognitive tests, questionnaires (MoCA, MIA, CVLT, RBMT, MMQ, QAA, Stroop) and PA instruments (an adapted version of the CHAMPS physical activity questionnaire and the 2-minute step test of the SFT). Correlations were made at the start of the study and multiple regressions were carried out to measure the impact of the program on PA. Results: Participation in the program was associated with an increase in PA (p< 0.05). However, analyses did not show a significant moderating or mediating effect of PA on cognition (p< 0.05). At the start of the study, the most active subjects obtained better results in terms of memory strategies (p< 0.05). Conclusion: These results show that a multifactorial program, including the promotion of PA, can lead participants to become more physically active. Further studies should be implemented to determine whether the practice of PA has a moderating or mediating effect on cognitive vitality.

Keyphrases: cognition, promotion, physical activity, cognitive vitality, multifactorial program, olders, seniors
Effects of exercise training on intrauterine growth restriction in an animal model

Abstract Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) refers to the condition in which the baby's estimated weight is below the 10th percentile of babies of the same gestational age. It affects 5-10% of pregnancies and is a major cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality. In our previous studies in a transgenic preeclampsia mouse model (R+A+ mice), we found that exercise training (ExT) before and during pregnancy reduced maternal blood pressure (BP), and prevented IUGR by improving placental development. Here, we confirm the benefits of ExT in a mouse model of IUGR without preeclampsia (p57kip2 KO (p57-/+). We confirmed the presence of IUGR, reduced placental mass, increased placental pathology, smaller litter size and increased number of non-viable pups per litter in sedentary p57-/+ mice. ExT prevented IUGR as well as normalized all the mentioned parameters. The expression of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a key regulator of angiogenesis required for normal placental development, was reduced in pregnant p57-/+ mice and normalized by ExT. The expression of 2 inflammatory factors (interleukin-1β and MCP-1 mRNA) in placenta was elevated in KO sedentary mice and MCP-1 was normalized by ExT, proposing that placental inflammation may contribute to placental pathology. However, in contrast to R+A+ mice, the placental RAS in p57-/+ mice was found to be normal and there was no effect of ExT. Taken together, these results suggest that exercise training prevents intrauterine growth restriction by improving angiogenesis, placental alterations and placental inflammation.

Keyphrases: p57Kip2, Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), Exercise training, Angiogenesis, Renin-angiotensin system, Placenta, Inflammation
Tabagisme et défavorisation de quartier : étude exploratoire des expériences de stigmatisation chez les jeunes femmes

Smoking prevalence decreased in the last decades, but social inequalities in smoking increased. Strategies aiming to denormalize smoking have led to the stigmatization of smokers. However, what is not well understood is the connection between this stigmatization and neighbourhood deprivation. This qualitative study compared experiences of stigma from fifteen young women who smoke. Half lived in the most deprived neighbourhoods of Montreal and the other half, in the least deprived neighbourhoods. In the latter, stigmatizing smokers was part of the norm. Smoking was seen as a symbol of poverty, resulting in the use of strategies to distance themselves from stigma. In the most deprived neighbourhoods, participants reported gender based stigma which they attempted to escape by hiding when smoking. These findings bring to light unexpected effects of anti-tobacco policies and could contribute to the development of more equitable policies.

Keyphrases: Recherche qualitative, Stigma, Smoking, Social inequalities, Neighbourhood, Women, Qualitative research, Experience, Interview, Deprivation, Health inequalities
La québécité comme élément fondateur d'une pensée musicale électroacoustique

The proposed research project studies quebecity through a major term of the Americas : the territory. Invested in both a southern (St. Lawrence) and northern (hivernity) axis, this approach to Quebec’s territory, it’s space, and it’s density, is applied to the acousmatic corpus through the use of concepts theoretical established by several figures from Quebec and beyond. The inspirations of my acousmatic works proposed cycle, being mainly from extra-musical spheres – the process of various Quebec’s artists and researchers have contributed to the emergence of my poetic corpus such as Pierre Perrault, René Derouin, Daniel Chartier and Louis-Edmond Hamelin – is underlined. The musical side of the territory conception is performed analytically using two methods proper to the electroacoustic genre – the typology of Pierre Schaeffer, and the functional analysis of Stéphane Roy –, that, through the work of some international composers of electronic music, serve to highlight the plurality and the universal semantics network of the territory, giving way to a broader reading of this theme. Finally, the proposed methodology identify the universal – natural model, psychoacoustic references –, the local - use of Quebec’s poetry, animals or specific anecdotal references such as bird calls and sounds taken from the Saint Lawrence –, and the dichotomous relationship between nature and culture in my work, to build a coherent musical discourse based on the territory of Quebec.

Keyphrases: Acousmatic music, Quebecity, Americanity, Nordicity, Territory, French, Poetry
Artisans, génies et vedettes : le statut des compositeurs dans la presse musicale française

This master thesis proposes a look of various statuses given to contemporary composers in the Parisian musical context at the beginning of the 20th century, through an analysis of the specialised press of that period. The corpus of my research consists in three different journals, each one with its own distinct sphere of sociability: La revue musicale (histoire et critique), a scholarly publication close to the Schola cantorum; Le Mercure musical, an avant-garde publication which has championed Maurice Ravel’s music; and a third, Musica, a magazine with a much larger audience, intended for the growing middle class, and which readership is mostly constituted of women and music learners. This thesis reveals that the traditional opposition between the concepts of craftman-composer and of genius-composer — a concept deriving from the end of the 18th century and the 19th century — sees the rise of a third component at the beginning of the 20th century: the star-composer, a status which was until then only limited to performers. Those three statuses coexisted throughout the musical press during the early 20th century. Their promotion by specific publications was in some cases done for aesthetic reasons and in others for economical motives. The outcome of this study reveals that the musical press is not only an indicator of the changes in the composers’ status within the array of cultural greatness, but it has also played an active role in these transformations.

Keyphrases: La Revue musicale (histoire et critique), Le Mercure musical, Musica, Musical press, French music, Discourse analysis, Genius, Stardom, Craftsman
Les coalitions politiques et l'orientation du changement économique et politique aux États-Unis : la Grande Dépression et la Grande Récession comparées

The thesis analyses the concept of crisis, economic and political, as a source of ideological and political change. Based on the concept of austerity, I identify significant differences between two major crises, the Great Depression and the Great Recession. The former was characterized by a double crisis, both economic and political, while the latter was defined by an economic crisis only. The absence of contagion in the political system explains the tenacity of austerity, reintroduced during the neoliberal revolution of the 1980s. The notion of austerity became integral to the political agenda and the interests of a good portion of the coalition behind the Democratic Party. The persistence of the political landscape originated in the last critical realignment in the United States. While the critical realignment of the 1930s transformed the very nature and scope of the state intervention, the Great Recession did not have such an outcome. Economic orthodoxy remained in place, constituting an important difference between the two crises.

Keyphrases: Economic austerity, Economic crisis, Political crisis, Critical election, Great Depression, Great Recession, Political coalition, United States, Democratic party
Enjeux éthiques en radiologie diagnostique : comment la bioéthique peut-elle contribuer
à une meilleure radioprotection du patient?

While imaging technologies represent a real achievement for modern medicine, their introduction seems not to have been preceded by a sufficiently reflective process that would have anticipated the multiple challenges arising in current radiological practice. In focusing on the technical and scientific achievements, the actual radiation protection framework fails to consider sufficiently the essential contribution brought by social, ethical and human dimensions of disciplines such as bioethics. This failure means that today we find ourselves faced with major issues related to patient radiation protection, such as overuse of radiological examinations or medical personnel’s lack of information about the risks of radiation. Following an overview of ethical issues in diagnostic radiology affecting medical radiation protection of patients, a major issue in current practice – i.e., the inadequate justification of radiological examination prescriptions – will be analyzed using a principle-based approach. From this exercise, which aims to demonstrate how ethics can contribute concretely to radiation protection, a need arises for a new and comprehensive vision leading to solutions for controversies related to the current use of medical imaging. In a population health perspective, it is important to contribute to the reduction of the trivialization of the use of ionizing radiation in diagnostic medical practice by combining both bioethics and radiation protection. This research project aims to be a modest but necessary first step in the establishment of such an interdisciplinary dialogue.

Keyphrases: Medical imaging, Radiation protection, Radiation risk, Ionizing radiation, Bioethics, Principle-based approach
Poétique de la ville postmoderne : Montréal dans La canicule des pauvres de Jean-Simon DesRochers

La canicule des pauvres (2009) recounts the daily life of twenty-six characters living at The Galant, a former brothel turned into an apartment building in Montreal’s Latin Quartier. This study shows interest in how the novel reveals a particular and complex image of the city. What can this representation of Montreal teach us about Quebec’s society ? What has become of urban civilization in the world of La canicule des pauvres ?  How does DesRochers’s writing work with the usual representations of the city that come from the contemporary social imagination or the past literature ? Is there such a thing as postmodern Montreal ? In the spirit of sociocritical perspective, this memoir postulates that from the flow of the text we can understand the complex of meaning related to the representation of Montreal developed by the novel. By the images it gives, by the modes of enunciation and narration, by its way of uniting the effectiveness of brief chapters and extent of novelistic vision, by the multiple life stories described and their interlacing, the novel presents a city that has become foreign and opaque to its own residents. The study is divided into four parts which respectively examine the main features of the text layout, the narrative fragmentation, the recurring smog theme and the way The Galant’s residents interact with each other. In sum, the city appears paradoxical, alive indeed, but offering no vision of a coherent and liberating way of living together.

Keyphrases: La canicule des pauvres, Roman contemporain, Quebec literature, Contemporary novel, sociocriticism, City
Olga Elena Mattei frente al canon de la poesía colombiana de su tiempo (1962-2005)

This thesis aims to place the work of the Colombian poet Olga Elena Mattei within the Colombian poetry of her time (1962-2005). In the first chapter, some theoretical concepts are defined and the term "canon", focused on poetry, is explained. In the second chapter, the landscape of the Colombian poetry of the second half of the twentieth century is set. The style of the most important poets, who are considered as canonical, is presented. In the last chapter, the peculiarities of Mattei's poetry are analyzed. It is concluded that Olga Elena Mattei is part of the canon of the Colombian poetry, but her work has challenged the dominant trends over the decades. For example, it is shown how, in the sixties of the twentieth century, when, in Colombia, rhyme and metrics were still preponderant in poetry, Olga Elena Mattei dared to write and publish in free verse. In the seventies, when free verse was accepted and it reigned in the Colombian poetry, Mattei was the first woman to write anti-poetry in Spanish. In the eighties, while anti-poetry was the main trend in Colombian poetry, Mattei devoted herself to write poetry about science, never wrote in Colombia before. And in the nineties, when free verse is dominant in Colombia, Mattei returns to rhyme.

Keyphrases: Antipoetry, Poetic language, Scientific poetry, Cosmic poetry, Dominant poetry, Women's poetry, Philosophical poetry, Mystical poetry, Main Colombian poets, Colombian female poets
Salir de casa para volver a casa : lectura de la genética autoficcional de Alejandro Zambra (2006-2011)

This work is a detailed analysis of the novels published by the Chilean writer Alejandro Zambra between 2006 and 2011. Considering his belonging to the so-called postdictatorial generation, which the author willingly embraces, this thesis focuses on his autofictional reconstruction of childhood, and on the way in which it reproduces, questions and subverts the dominant dictatorial narrative that condemns the children to the role of secondary characters. To follow the development of his discourse, we resort to genetic criticism’s central concept of the “pre-text” (or the “foretext”), with the help of which; we can reread Bonsái and La vida privada de los árboles retrospectively in order to identify them as ideological precursors of Formas de volver a casa. A substantial part of the work deals with the representation of space and with the way in which it configures the narrative positions of the characters in the texts. In this relationship we can identify the spatial dichotomy articulated by the novels, which associates the private life and spaces with inactivity and resignation, as well as the public life and spaces with action and questioning. The sequence of novels analyzed bear witness to the autofictional trajectory traversed by the author, who initially assimilates the dictatorial narrative, by avoiding a direct confrontation with the past and with his family’s history in a narrative elusion, before approaching these subjects through a self-confrontation that prefigures the different ways of going home.

Keyphrases: autofiction, Alejandro Zambra, postdictatorial generation, genetic criticism, private life, Chile, childhood
Sexualité et corporéité féminines dans le cinéma de réalisatrices contemporaines : une lecture féministe

This master’s thesis examines how female corporeality and sexuality are dealt with in the work of contemporary female film directors. It draws on the films Anatomy of Hell (Catherine Breillat, 2004), Sleeping Beauty (Julia Leigh, 2011), Nuit #1 (Anne Émond, 2011), and Clip (Maja Milos, 2012). Our hypothesis is that these directors adopt a feminist attitude, whether it is asserted or not, by reviewing gender stereotypes about the female body and sexuality. To begin with, we focus on the erotic dynamic, maintained throughout history, between the woman as an object of desire and the man as a desiring subject, in film and elsewhere. Subsequently, we analyze the deconstruction of female gender stereotypes pertaining to modesty and passivity in the chosen corpus. Thus, we demonstrate that by revising these stereotypes, the directors voluntarily thwart the spectator’s erotic experience. In conclusion, we examine the recurring self-objectification strategies of the female body employed by the filmmakers. These directors are part of a trend of subversion which can be observed in contemporary feminist artistic practices.

Keyphrases: subversion, women’s cinema, sexuality, corporality, eroticism, feminism, spectatorship, subversion, objectification, modesty, passivity
Amélioration a posteriori de la traduction automatique par métaheuristique

Statistical Machine Translation is a field ingreat demand and where machines are still far from producing human-level results.The main method used is a segment by segment linear translation of a sentence, which prevents modification of already translated parts of the sentence. Research for this memoir is based on an approach used by Langlais, Patry and Gotti 2007, which tries to correct a completed translation by modifying segments following a function which needs to be optimized. As a first step, exploration of new traits such as an inverted language model and a collocation model brings a new dimension to the optimization function. As a second step, use of different metaheuristics, such as the greedy and randomized greedy algorithms, allows greater depth while exploring the search space and allows a greater improvement of the objective function.

Keyphrases: Collocations, Local search, Statistical machine translation, Language model, Metaheuristic
Designing Regularizers and Architectures for Recurrent Neural Networks

This thesis represents incremental work towards artificial intelligence using connectionist methods. Recurrent neural networks are a set of increasingly popular sequential models capable in principle of learning arbitrary algorithms. These models perform deep learning, a type of machine learning. Their generality and empirical success makes them an attractive candidate for further work and a promising tool for creating more general artificial intelligence.   The first chapter of this thesis gives a brief overview of the background topics:  artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, and recurrent neural nets. The next three chapters cover these topics in order of increasing specificity. Finally, we contribute some general methods for recurrent neural networks.  Chapter \ref{arxiv1} presents our work on the topic of recurrent neural network regularization. Regularization aims to improve a model's generalization ability,  and is a key bottleneck in the performance for several applications of recurrent neural networks,  most notably speech recognition. Our approach gives state of the art results on the standard TIMIT benchmark for this task.  Chapter \ref{cpgp} presents the second line of work, still in progress, exploring a new architecture for recurrent neural nets. Recurrent neural networks maintain a hidden state which represents their previous observations. The idea of this work is to encode some abstract dynamics in the hidden state,  giving the network a natural way to encode consistent or slow-changing trends in the state of its environment. Our work builds on a previously developed model;  we describe this previous work and our contributions, including a preliminary experiment.

Keyphrases: Regularization, Supervised learning, Unsupervised learning, Speech recognition, Language modeling, Neural networks, Machine learning, Deep learning, Artificial intelligence
Legal shifts : shaping expectations of intellectual property protection in an open innovation industrial environment

The purpose of this thesis is to assess the effects of changes in firms’ expectations of intellectual property (“IP”) law protection over inventions and innovations in an industrial environment characterized by open innovation practices. To begin, a legal analysis of IP regimes in Canada and the United States is achieved through different cases of court decisions, legal amendments and international treaties in order to show how legal standards vary and to demonstrate the repercussions of legal shifts over firms’ expectations. Then, the characteristics of the open innovation management model, in which firms adopt a purposively open mindset in their business relationships, are described, and its relevance is supported using a simple model. Emphasis is laid upon open innovation’s distinguishable treatment of intra- and inter-firm flows of knowledge and inputs. Building on these insights and using them as assumptions, a microeconomic model of firms’ knowledge flow interactions is constructed, with two choice variables that capture firms’ technology management mechanisms in an open innovation industrial environment: IP and secrecy. Through the tension between these two variables, inter-firm interactions and decision-making processes are assessed with a static analysis. To study firms’ choices in greater detail, a two-firm version of the model is then examined using game theory. Throughout, the impact of fluctuations in firms’ expectations of IP law is assessed. As expected, these effects, for a focal firm, vary depending on that firm’s technology management decisions as well as other firms’. Effects also differ with respect to the nature of knowledge flows relationships that each firm undertakes. In the two-firm game theoretic version of the model, comparative statics of a mixed-strategy Nash Equilibrium show that the relationship with the other firm qualifies the consequences of legal shifts on firms’ technology management strategies. Notably, increasing expectations of IP protection for a firm’s technology might actually result in this firm relying less on IP.

Keyphrases: Intellectual Property, Patents, Trade Secrets, Innovation, Open Innovation, Technology Management, Microeconomic Theory, Game Theory, Industrial Organization, Intellectual Property Law