NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
La mobilisation linguistique au Pays de Galles, en Ontario et au Nouveau-Brunswick (1962-2012) : cycles de mobilisation et rémanence dans une perspective comparée

The Francophone linguistic minorities in New Brunswick and Ontario and the Welsh-speaking minority in Wales share many common elements. They have each developed a dense network of organization which spear-headed many campaigns that led to the improvement of the socio-political standing and of the symbolic recognition of the minority community. Also, the legal and social status of the minority language has progressed in each case, following the enactment of language laws and public policies. They all have access to institutions in which they can voice their demands or where they can govern themselves, be it in local governments or legislative assemblies. They can also appeal to linguistic ombudsmen. But, the main difference is seen in their current level of linguistic mobilization. We can describe it as high in Wales, moderate in Ontario and low in New Brunswick. How can we explain this difference in spite of a similar context in each case?  We draw upon the literature on linguistic mobilization, on abeyance and on linguistic regimes to suggest a hypothesis which makes a causal relationship between the satisfaction expressed towards the linguistic regime by groups representing linguistic minorities and the level of mobilization. The level of linguistic mobilization of a linguistic minority depends on the minority’s satisfaction towards the linguistic regime under which it lives, and this satisfaction is linked with how the groups that represent the minority perceive the successes or the failures of their linguistic mobilization. When a linguistic minority feels that its linguistic mobilization has not obtained the successes it anticipated and that the linguistic regime does not meet its main demands, the groups representing it keep the mobilization at a high level. Conversely, when a linguistic minority feels that its linguistic mobilization was successful and that the linguistic regime meets its demands, the groups reorganize and enter into abeyance.  This hypothesis suggests an explanation for each case. In Wales, the linguistic mobilization level remains high because the changes to the regime have yet to meet the demands of the linguistic minority and because the groups representing Welsh-speakers do not consider that their linguistic mobilization has been successful. In Ontario, the linguistic mobilization level is moderate, because after a period of abeyance following what is considered as a success of the linguistic mobilization, the mobilization has reignited when the community felt under threat. In New Brunswick, the linguistic mobilization is in abeyance after the mobilization achieved its main goal, but the groups representing the community remain active in the public sphere.

Keyphrases: Ontario, Linguistic regime, Linguistic mobilization, Linguistic minorities, Abeyance, Ontario, New Brunswick, Wales
Architectures radiales hétéro-poly-métalliques pour la photosynthèse artificielle et le stockage de l'information

By a supramolecular strategy, radial hetero-poly-metallic architectures were obtained for applications in artificial photosynthesis and molecular magnetism.  The first part is devoted to the synthesis, as well as the photophysical characterization (UV-vis absorption, emission, electrochemistry, X-ray diffraction) of ruthenium(II) complexes bearing a wide range of polypyridine ligands. Theoretical calculations were performed to support the interpretation of the photophysical properties. Through their pendant pyridine moieties, these complexes were used as core of architectures, bearing rhenium tris-carbonyl (for antenna effects), and cobaloximes (for catalytic properties) complexes. The nuclearities obtained vary from two to seven according to the core involved. These systems were engaged in photo-production of hydrogen, demonstrating more efficient systems than the reference in the field, the archetypal [Ru(bpy)3]2+. The second part concerns the study of transition metal couples, built on polycyanometallate cores, or oxamide-bridged lanthanide-based assemblies. These “complex as ligand” and “assemblies as ligand” approaches allow us to obtain high nuclearity systems on which we seek single molecule magnet (SMM) properties or good magnetocaloric effect (based on CrNi, GdCu, DyCu). Photo-magnetic properties have been studied on the RuCu and MoCu couples, which can serve as molecular switches in complex systems. Finally, a tri-functional hetero-tetra-metallic architecture was obtained containing a MoCu switch, a CuTb SMM entity, and a ruthenium complex.

Keyphrases: Artificial Photosynthesis, Radial architectures, Single molecule magnet, Magnetocaloric effect, Photomagnetism, High-spin moleclules
Synthesis of constrained tricyclic nucleosides and the core of nagilactone B

The present thesis comprises two major themes: 1) the design, synthesis, and biophysical evaluation of conformationally restricted tricyclic nucleosides for antisense applications, and 2) strategic approaches for synthesizing the core of nagilactone B, a norditerpenoid dilactone from the podolactone family of natural products.   Guided by structural studies of modified DNA–RNA duplexes, Chapter One focuses on a proposed dual-conformational-restriction strategy, in which two modes of conformational restriction are incorporated into a single nucleotide modification: 1) locking the furanose ring in an N- or S-type configuration and 2) restricting rotation around backbone torsion angle γ. The first constraint was incorporated by way of a 2′,4′-anhydro bridge that is found in the scaffold of locked nucleic acid (LNA), while the second was realized by annealing an additional carbocyclic ring to the modified nucleoside. The synthetic challenges associated with preparing these highly constrained molecules from carbohydrate-derived starting materials are described, in addition to the corresponding improvements in duplex thermal stability they provide to oligonucleotide sequences containing them.   Chapters Two and Three describe complementary approaches for the synthesis of the core of nagilactone B, a natural product with implications for Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome, as a consequence of its ability to act as a modulator of splicing events leading to lamin A. This natural product contains seven stereogenic centers overall, including a syn-1,2-diol moiety, a γ-lactone, and a pair of quaternary stereocenters, which are complemented by the presence of an α-pyrone moiety. To address the synthesis of these structural features, the utility of the Wieland–Miescher ketone was explored with an emphasis on synthesizing rings A, B, and D of the core of nagilactone B.

Keyphrases: Antisense therapy, Tricyclic nucleic acids, Locked nucleic acids, Nucleosides, Nucleic acids, Nagilactone B, Podolactones, Wieland–Miescher ketone, Allylic oxidation, Reductive carbomethoxylation, Cétone de Wieland–Miescher
Développement d’outils analytiques pour la détection de biomolécules directement dans des fluides sanguins

This thesis discusses the development of surface plasmon resonnance (SPR) biosensors to perform detection directly on unpurified and undiluted blood based fluids such as serum or blood. Every biosensor discussed in the following chapters rely on a home-built portable SPR device developed in Professor Masson’s research laboratories. Non-specific adsorption, which greatly hinders biosensing in crude fluids, will be the first topic of the thesis. Serum adsorption was performed on the SPR sensor surface and then characterized by SPR and mass spectrometry. This study provided useful information for biosensing directly in blood-based fluids. It also provided a better fundamental understanding of the nonspecific adsorption process on surfaces.  The first biosensor was developed to detect prostate specific antigen (PSA), a protein normally contained in serum, which is a known biomarker for prostate cancer. In order to detect low concentrations of this protein directly in serum, a microstructured gold film was used to amplify the signal generated by the binding event on the biosensor. A peptide monolayer covered the metallic surface of the sensor to reduce non-specific protein adsorption. The SPR portable instrument was modified to simultaneous detect fluorescence in order to perform a SPR and ELISA test in a single instrumental platform. Each technique provided a control for the other for detection of the prostate cancer biomarker at concentration levels required for the screening of the disease. The SPR and ELISA combination also extended the dynamic range of the biosensing assay.  Finally, the portable SPR device was used to detect small biomolecules with potential therapeutic activity directly in a sample of blood. Peptides with an anti-atherosclerotic activity were thus detected in an unpurified and undiluted blood sample at micromolar concentration. The addition of a porous membrane to the microfluidic used for the biosensing assay facilitated the successful detection of these molecules in whole blood.  The present thesis describes novel strategies and instrumental modifications to unlock the possibility of performing biosensing directly on unpurified and undiluted blood-based fluids. Modifications of the fluidic system, the SPR instrument and biosensor used will allow detection in fluids with high complexity such as serum or blood. The work described herein reports a prostate cancer screening assay performed in 12 minutes directly in serum using a portable SPR/fluorescence instrument. Finally, this thesis reports one of the first scientific papers where a SPR biosensor is used to perform analysis directly in blood.

Keyphrases: ELISA, Surface plasmon resonance, Biosensor, Blood, Mass spectrometry, Microstructured gold film, Self-Assembled Monolayer, Non-specific binding, Prostate cancer, Microfluidic
Spectacle and the one-man band : technology, performing bodies, and imaginary spaces

The term one-man band is applied to a number of different types of performers who use a variety of technological means to perform by themselves what is usually played by several different musicians. Repeated use of similar representations in popular culture and movies such as in Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins (1964) and Pixar’s One-man Band (2005) point to a particular image of the one-man band as a shared point of cultural reference. This image is of a solitary performer dressed in a colourful costume with a bass-drum on his back, cymbals between his legs, a guitar or other string-instrument in his hands, and some small wind-instrument attached close enough to his mouth to allow him to alternate signing and playing.  This thesis seeks to understand the one-man band as more than simply a musical phenomenon by situating it as a spectacular form in which symbolic content is communicated through a three-part relationship between spectator, image, and entertaining performance. In so doing, the one-man band becomes a representation of ideals associated with the Enlightenment such as liberty, the individual, and a relationship with technology. At the same time, each performance reaffirms the image of the one-man band, reconfirming and maintaining its place as a shared cultural space which exists beyond any one performer or any one performance. All of this is achieved in part through the important place accorded to the visual elements of the performance such as causal use of technology and the important place given to the performer’s body as well as through the use of colourful costumes and accessories such as puppets, fireworks, or live animals. The musical and visual aspects of the performance entertain the audience which rewards performers by positively impacting the audience resulting notably in material gain. Entertainment also fulfils a phatic function facilitating communication of the performance’s symbolic content.

Keyphrases: Performance, One-man band, Body, Performance, Space, Technology, Liminality, Entertainment, Music
«Le chef gagne tous les jours de nouveaux sujets» : pouvoir, leadership et organisation sociale chez les Algonquins des lacs Abitibi et Témiscamingue au 19e siècle

This thesis examines cultural change as experienced by the Algonquins of Lakes Abitibi and Timiskaming in the nineteenth century, using an ethnohistorical approach. Aboriginal cultural change is often perceived as having been disadvantageous and brought about through constraint. This thesis shows that the changing nineteenth century context afforded new opportunities to the Algonquins, enabling them to find solutions to old problems for which none had existed previously. Even though this period marks the beginning of the territorial dispossession of the Algonquins, no environmental stress that could have brought about these changes is discernible. This study makes use of the unifying concept of power. As conceived by the Algonquins, power is an inherent quality which can fluctuate throughout a lifetime. It manifests itself in a person's ability to bend fate to his advantage and to avert misfortune. It is also transmissible within certain families. In the early nineteenth century, certain persons were reputed to be powerful, and their leadership could not be questioned. Chieftainship was hereditary, for example, and there were certain powerful shamans who were feared. I suggest that after Catholicism was introduced, the Algonquins used that religion to shield themselves from power that was perceived as being excessive. They also took the initiative of holding elections under the provisions of the Indian Act, in order to have chiefs who were chosen for their competence and to remove feared or incompetent representatives. They also put protection measures in place, thereby avoiding an excessive concentration of power in the chief's hands. During that century, the band, as an Algonquin social unit, acquired greater significance. Summer gatherings involving the band came to be held, initially as a consequence of the employment of Algonquin men in freighting, and subsequently in response to Catholic summer missions. By the end of the century, chiefs had come to wield broad powers of political representation and were playing a growing social role within the band.

Keyphrases: Algonquin, Abitibi, First Nations, Algonquin, chief, culture change, ethnohistory, nineteenth century, Catholicism, shaman, Abitibi, Timiskaming
Les parcours d'émancipation et les espaces de participation en santé mentale : un tremplin vers la citoyenneté

In Quebec, as elsewhere in the Western world, an increasing number of people are confronted to experiences of suffering and exclusion that confine them to the margins of society. This doctoral thesis aims at understanding how people who have lived through an important experience of exclusion – because of their mental health status among other reasons – can come to recognize themselves as full citizens by getting involved in their community. It also allows us to understand the course of action or journey they went through in order to become emancipated from the limits and constraints that weighed them down. Finally, this research underscores the role that participation can play in this journey.  This thesis was undertaken in an interdisciplinary perspective, and borrows from various theoretical literatures, such as sociology, psychoanalysis, political science and social work. The concept of “emancipation journey” (parcours d’émancipation) that is central to our work allows us to distance ourselves from the biomedical model which remains dominant in mental health by putting forth a socio-political vision integrating the individual and collective dimensions of change. This concept helps us understand how “acting subjects” come to constitute on personal and political levels: both as “subjects” that arise when individuals break free from their past and work at giving it new sense, and as “actors” who materialize the manifestation of the subjects in actions, that is, the ways they self-actualize.  This research underscores the contribution of community organizations working in the mental health arena to these journeys of emancipation by identifying their values and the content of devices developed to support the transformation of the persons in various dimensions of their being: relation to “illness”, to oneself, to others and to the world. Borrowing from Winnicott, we consider these organizations as potential or transitional spaces, in as much as they offer a secure and profound anchor and can be seen as “ferryman of beings” allowing the subject to self-actualize and to become autonomous. They also contribute to the realization of democratic values and offer opportunities for people presenting a mental health problem to engage as “subjects-citizens”.

Keyphrases: Participation, Mental health, Emancipation, Community organisations, Acting subject, Subjectivation, Citizenship, Exclusion, Public participation, Winnicott
"Appropriation" des processus de développement par les pays en développement? Une perspective des acteurs sociaux nationaux : étude de cas : Rwanda

As put forward in the Paris Declaration (2005), “ownership” by developing countries of their development process forms the cornerstone of a new approach to aid and development cooperation. If the aim of “ownership” is to put developing countries “in the driver’s seat” of their development, it nonetheless remains an aid relation. Indeed, the Paris Declaration claims that “ownership” is the outcome of a consensus as well as a principle to be implemented through a series of technical measures preoccupied with concerns of effectiveness (or more accurately aid efficiency). As such, it puts forward the idea that aid is implemented as if on a blank slate. Beginning with a specific case study, in this instance Rwanda, and by focusing on the perspectives of national social actors on the issue of “ownership,” this thesis demonstrates that development agenda and policies, including the question of “ownership,” cannot be adequately grasped in a contextual vacuum. Through the narratives of national social actors, the meaning of “ownership” is reconfigured within the context of post-genocide Rwanda and aid-dependency, highlighting the significance of context in giving content and form to “ownership.” In the context of a post-genocide Rwanda, the understanding of “ownership” by national social actors is articulated around a double imperative: on the one hand, the demand for socio-economic reconstruction, on the other, the imperative of nation-building in light of the ‘ethnic’ tensions that cut across and historically structure Rwandan social and political space, and which led to the 1994 genocide.

Keyphrases: Rwanda, Post-conflit, International development, International aid, Aid effectiveness, Paris Declaration, Ownership, Nation-state, Post-conflict, Reconstruction
Construction des problèmes publics, controverse et action publique : santé publique et jeux de hasard et d'argent au Québec

Since the late 1990s, gambling is an object of controversy in Quebec public space. In recent years, the issue of management and regulation of gambling has become increasingly important in public debates and, excessive or pathological gambling is now a central concern.   In this thesis, which will take the form of a thesis by articles, we will look at the process of “construction” of the public problem of excessive gambling in Quebec. To do so, we will trace the genesis of this public issue by going back to its origins. This historical detour will allow us to highlight the various constructions by which gambling passed during the last century (vice, crime, leisure, disease and public health concern).   This genesis will also allow us to shed new light on this controversy related to gambling in Quebec. We will attempt, among other things, to highlight how public health has managed to build this "new risk" that now represents gambling. And, beyond this analysis of the current and past situation, we will try to draw lessons for the understanding, analysis and management of public policies by an analysis of the controversy related to gambling (article 1), a theoretical work on morality policies (article 2) and, a reflection on epistemological foundations of public policy analysis and management (article 3).

Keyphrases: Construction sociale, Gambling, Public problems, Social construction, Controversy, Pathological gambling, Public policy, Quebec history, Morality policies, Social regulation, Public health
Biology and characterisation of polyalanine as an emerging pathological marker

Eighteen severe human diseases have thus far been associated with trinucleotide repeat (TNR) expansions coding for either polyalanine (encoded by a GCN repeat tract) or polyglutamine (encoded by a CAG repeat tract) in specific proteins.  Among them, oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD), spinocerebellar ataxia type-3 (SCA3), and Huntington’s disease (HD) are late-onset autosomal-dominant disorders characterised by the presence of intranuclear inclusions (INIs).  We have previously identified the OPMD causative mutation as a small expansion (2 to 7) of a GCG repeat tract in the PABPN1 gene.  In addition, we and others have reported the occurrence of -1 ribosomal frameshifting events in expanded CAG repeat tracts in the ATXN3 (SCA3) and HTT (HD) genes, which result in the translation of a hybrid CAG/GCA repeat tract and the production of a polyalanine-containing peptide.  Data from OPMD suggests that polyalanine-induced toxicity is very sensitive to the dosage and length of the alanine stretch.    To validate our ATXN3 -1 frameshifting hypothesis in animal models, we set out to reproduce our findings in Drosophila and mammalian neurons. Our results show that the transgenic expression of expanded CAG repeat tract ATXN3 cDNA led to -1 frameshifting events, and that these events are deleterious.  Conversely, the expression of polyglutamine-encoding expanded CAA repeat tract ATXN3 cDNA was neither frameshifted nor toxic.  Furthermore, expanded CAG repeat tract ATXN3 mRNA does not contribute to the toxicity observed in our models.  These observations indicate that expanded polyglutamine repeats in Drosophila and mammalian neuron models of SCA3 are insufficient for the development of a phenotype. Hence, we propose that -1 ribosomal frameshifting contributes to the toxicity associated with CAG repeat tract expansions in the ATXN3 gene.   To further investigate ribosomal frameshifting in expanded CAG repeat tract diseases, we sought to create an antibody capable of detecting the frameshifted product.  Here we report the characterization of a polyclonal antibody that selectively recognizes pathological expansions of polyalanine in the protein implicated in OPMD, PABPN1.  Furthermore, our antibody also detects the presence of alanine proteins in the intranuclear inclusions (INIs) of SCA3 and HD patient samples.

Keyphrases: Spinocerebellar ataxia type-3 (SCA3), Oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD), Huntington’s disease (HD), -1 ribosomal frameshifting, Polyalanine, Polyglutamine