NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
L’expression de l’identité d’aidant dont le proche est atteint de la maladie d’Alzheimer

The work of caregivers within the health care system can no longer be underestimated. On the onset of chronic disease, such as dementia of the Alzheimer type, caregivers who are significantly involved in the care risk sacrificing their physical and mental health. Today, the caregiver population is considered at high risk for injury, burden, depressive symptoms and adverse events. Also, caregiving strategies and management support are generally very diversified, depending on the caregiver. Objective: In order to adapt support to the specific needs of the caregivers, this research seeks to highlight the different types of caregiving strategies and to analyze the meaning givin by the caregivers to their support. Subjects: Six informal caregivers of a family member (spouse or parent) who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease were interviewed on a regular basis (every 1 ½ years), until the death of the family member. Methods: Through analysis of the data collected during the 16 interviews, this longitudinal qualitative study offers a view to better understand the support and strategy transformations over time, as the sickness of the elderly person becomes more severe. Results: Except for one subject, we identified more than one identity and caregiving strategy per participant. We could not identify an identity for one participant due to the lack of information about her caregiving strategies. This caregiver suffered from Alzheimer disease. Conclusion: A better understanding of the different identities and caregiving strategies is essential to adapt caregiver’s services. Research on this concept appears to be a fruitful way of analysis for understanding human relationships and social support to elderly relatives suffering from a chronic illness.

Keyphrases: Informal caregiver, Family caregiver, Alzheimer's disease, Caregiver identity, Caregiving strategy, Burden of care
Une typologie tridimensionnelle des pratiques de consommation d’alcool au Canada : usages, contextes et motivations de boire

This doctoral thesis aims to develop a socio-cultural typology of alcohol consumption through measures of use, contexts and motivations to drink in order to explore and deepen our knowledge about collective practice of drinking in Canada, and to explore the variability of practices along demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of drinkers . The general hypothesis of the thesis stipulates that existing typologies in alcohol research do not allow for the exploration of all the complexities of drinking practices within a society because they are based primarily on alcohol consumption. We believe that adding contextual and motivational dimensions to the dimension of use allows for improving the observation and description of collective practices of drinking, which are associated with it.   Quantitative data from the GENACIS, GENder, Alcohol, and Culture: an international study – Canada project helped to validate the main research hypothesis. Only regular drinkers (consuming at least once a month) were selected as part of this thesis. Multiple correspondence analysis and latent class analysis permitted to derive three typologies of drinking practices, associated to social features.   The results of the research are presented in three scientific articles, each of which responds to a specific objective of the thesis.  The first article presents a classification of Canadian drinkers in six major types and establishes the link between these types, age and gender. The second article tests the invariance of the typology according to gender and proposes separate classifications for women and men in relation to age group and level of education. The third section focuses on regular drinkers’ employment and examines the association between professional position in the social hierarchy and practice of drinking.

Keyphrases: Motivation, Typologie, Alcohol consumption, Collective practice of drinking, Use, Context, Gender, Social status, Demographic characteristic, Typology, Drinking culture
Analyse de l’activité en ondes lentes et des oscillations lentes précédant le somnambulisme

Several studies have investigated slow-wave sleep EEG parameters, including slow-wave activity (SWA) in relation to somnambulism, but results have been both inconsistent and contradictory. The first goal of the present study was to conduct a quantitative analysis of sleepwalkers’ sleep EEG by studying fluctuations in spectral power for delta (1-4 Hz) and slow delta (0.5-1 Hz) before the onset of somnambulistic episodes. A secondary aim was to detect slow wave oscillations to examine their changes in amplitude and density prior to behavioral episodes of somnambulism. Twenty-two adult sleepwalkers were investigated polysomnographically following 25 h of sleep deprivation. Analysis of patients’ sleep EEG over the 200 sec prior to the episodes’ onset revealed that the episodes were not preceded by a gradual increase in spectral power for either delta or slow delta over frontal, central, or parietal leads. However, time course comparisons revealed significant changes in the density of slow and very slow wave oscillations, with significant increases occurring during the final 20 sec immediately preceding episode onset. The specificity of these sleep EEG parameters for the occurrence and diagnosis of NREM parasomnias remains to be determined.

Keyphrases: Sleepwalking, Somnambulism, Parasomnias, Sleep EEG, Slow-wave activity, Slow-wave oscillations, Sleep deprivation
L'utilisation de la musique comme support de nouveaux apprentissages dans le vieillissement normal et la maladie d'Alzheimer

This thesis research aims to test the potential of music as a mnemonic support for new learning in normal elderly and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) participants. Several studies have highlighted the beneficial effects of music on cognition in aging and dementia. At the same time, in young adults, the idea that music could serve as a mnemonic support is highly debated. Yet, very few studies addressed this question in aging or dementia. In the present work, we conduct two studies in a cohort of 8 mild Alzheimer’s disease and 7 matched control participants. The first study concerns verbal memory, and compares learning and different retention delays of lyrics (unknown texts) that are either spoken or sung. When lyrics are sung, different degrees of melody familiarity are contrasted. Moreover, as motor activity is strongly related to music, we compare two learning procedures that are either synchronized or not with the production of these lyrics during encoding: 1) participants sing in unison with the model or 2) participants hear the model without singing. Results of this study are presented and discussed in the first two articles of the experimental section. Globally, music does not show aid for learning measured in immediate recall; we even observed a harmful effect when lyrics are sung on a non-familiar melody. But music helps long-term retention of lyrics, particularly for AD participants. Nevertheless, music does not clearly interact with learning procedure involving unison singing. The second study of the thesis investigates the learning of gesture sequences. Similarly to the first study, we explore influence of music versus silence as background accompaniment, and synchronized production versus observation of gestures during encoding. Results (article 3) showed again no interaction between background accompaniment and learning procedure, but different effects of each variable on both groups. Learning gestures with synchronized production is beneficial for normal controls, but harmful for AD participants. On the other hand, musical accompaniment led to greater benefit for AD participants than for controls. In the general discussion, we present the implications of these results for fundamental and clinical neuropsychology. We propose some recommendations to maximize these effects and make them relevant for therapeutic care.

Keyphrases: Action, Alzheimer's disease, Learning, Music, Mnemonic device, Normal aging, Long term memory, Action
Modulation des effets de la caféine sur le sommeil en fonction de l’âge et des habitudes de consommation

Scientific literature clearly shows that caffeine impairs the quality of sleep, but studies suggest that tolerance to caffeine may be developed with time. In addition, sleep gradually changes during aging, and it seems to become more sensitive to external and internal challenges. We have therefore chosen to compare the effects of 200 mg of caffeine consumed in the evening, compared to a placebo, on sleep in young and middle-aged subjects, in relation to their caffeine consumption habits. Compared to the placebo condition, caffeine increased the duration of wakefulness in the last third of the night for middle-aged subjects only. Furthermore, caffeine also decreased total sleep time and sleep efficiency more significantly in light consumers than in moderate consumers, although a correlation between these results and salivary concentration differences was found, which might explain the differences in the effects noted. On the other hand, caffeine increased sleep latency, the percentage of time spent in stage 1 and wake after sleep onset for all groups, while reducing sleep efficiency and total sleep duration. No significant interaction was found between age, consumption habits and the effects of caffeine on sleep. We thus believe that the combination of consumption habits and caffeine leads to a partial tolerance to caffeine effects for moderate regular consumers, and that sleep, particularly towards the end of the night, is more vulnerable to challenges in middle-aged individuals.

Keyphrases: Caffeine, Sleep, Aging, Consumption habits
L'alimentation des esclaves d'origine africaine de la Basse-Louisiane française (1724-1751) : une fenêtre sur les rapports de pouvoir dans une société de frontière esclavagiste

By studying practices related to slave food in French Louisiana, we learn more about solidarities and conflicts between social groups and within these groups in a slave frontier society. The first chapter is about two main strategies of whites related to slave food: to preserve the slave population and to control their participation in the economy. The second chapter is about the roles of slaves in the food economy, as specialized workers and as producers and distributors of food; these roles enable them to gain more autonomy within the colonial society. The different strategies of slaves in the area of food are at the heart of conflicts and of solidarity between them.

Keyphrases: Slavery, Louisiana, Food
Le creusement des inégalités aux États-Unis sous l’angle de la loi d’airain de l’oligarchie

This thesis aims to explain the causes of the rising inequality in the United States. This inequality paired with the implementation of policies unfavorable to the interests of the lower and middle classes, in other words, the majority, seem to point towards a weak democratic system. Using the limits set by traditional economic theories as our starting point, we put forward the idea that our democracies are tainted by a ruling oligarchy. While many theorists have preferred to analyze oligarchy through a materialist perspective, we believe that an organizational perspective is a more viable alternative. Furthermore, we believe that by analyzing and applying the indicators present in Michels' Iron Law we are able to provide a new approach to this problem and arrive at several conclusions. First, it can be seen that the bureaucracy, in other words the State, can be nothing other than the organization of a minority. Second, the poor level of organization present within the lower and middle classes as compared to the high level of organization present within the upper class minority, is one of the key variables that explains the growing inequality prevalent in American society. Finally, the relative incompetence of the masses on political issues and their general lack of education are favorable ground for the development of an oligarchy.

Keyphrases: ploutocratie, United States of America, inequality, funding for elections, elite, oligarchy, interest groups, democracy, plutocracy, iron law of oligarchy, bureaucracy
Modélisation bayésienne avec des splines du comportement moyen d'un échantillon de courbes

This thesis is about Bayesian functional data analysis in hydrology. The main objective is to model water flow data in a parsimonious fashion while still reproducing the statistical features of the data. Functional data analysis leads us to consider the water flow time series as functions to be modelled with a nonparametric method. First, the functions are registered in order to make them more homogeneous. With a more homogeneous sample of curves, we proceed to model their statistical features by relying on Bayesian regression splines in a fairly broad probabilistic framework. More specifically, we study a family of continuous distributions, which include those of the exponential family, from which the data might have arisen. Furthermore, to have a flexible nonparametric modeling tool, we treat the interior knots, which define the basis elements of the regression splines, as random quantities. We then use MCMC with reversible jumps in order to explore the posterior distribution of the interior knots. In order to simplify the procedure in our general modeling context, we consider some approximations for the marginal distribution of the observations, namely one based on the Schwarz information criterion and another which relies on Laplace's approximation. In addition to modeling the central tendency of a sample of curves, we also propose a methodology to simultaneously model the central tendency and the dispersion of the curves in our general probabilistic framework. Finally, since we study several statistical distributions for the observations, we put forward an approach to determine the most adequate distributions for a given sample of curves.

Keyphrases: Bayesian free-knot regression splines, Registration, Dispersion model, Hydrograph modeling
Méthodes numériques pour la capture et la résolution des discontinuités dans les solutions des systèmes hyperboliques

After a short review about hyperbolic equations and the classical numerical methods that will be used as a basis for computations in our simulations (we call them MCS -- Main Computation Scheme), we come back to the principle of artificial compression, as defined by A. Harten, and the construction of the Artificial Compression Method (ACM). In this part, we insist on the necessity to associate the ACM with a Detector of Discontinuities (DoD). The trio MCS/DoD/ACM thus formed may be optimised one module at a time.    Then we propose some extensions of ACM up to different degrees and different orders, ending with ACM(2,2). We also formulate a way to build these extensions, noted ACM(d,r), up to a degree d and an order r. These extensions are less sensitive to discontinuities in the derivatives of a continuous solution and they less perturbate the computations performed by the MCS outside of discontinuities. This makes them more modular and usable with a wider variety of problems, even with a less reliable DoD.    We follow up with the extension in two space dimensions of the ACM(1,1). First for cartesian grids, we explore an approach using space-splitting, and another using the classical Donor-Cell Upwind scheme (DCU). We also propose an original approach, specially designed for the ACM, that we call directional. These two last approaches (DCU and directional) are then applied to triangular unstructured grids, and more precisely to the two dual Voronoï meshes (barycentric cells and diamond cells) built from the triangular elements, together with the Arminjon-Viallon-Madrane extension of the Nessyahu-Tadmor scheme as MCS.    Last but not least, we turn our attention to the problem of detecting discontinuities, and propose a DoD based on a physical property of shocks: the entropy production. The ideas developped in this part imply the use of two complementary meshes, that can be treated independently by two computing units, thus taking full advantage of the new technology of multi-core processors. This tool is made available for one-dimensional meshes, as for two-dimensional cartesian and unstructured triangular grids.

Keyphrases: fluide, artificial compression, discontinuity, hyperbolic, fluid dynamics, numerical scheme
Le genre grammatical dans le lexique mental du bilingue roumain-français

We explored the way grammatical gender is represented in the bilingual mental lexicon in order to determine whether the grammatical gender from the native language (L1) affects the production of nouns in the second language (L2). Furthermore, we explored the representation of Romanian “neuter” gender to see if it is distinct from masculine and feminine. In this study, Romanian-French bilinguals were tested using a picture-naming task in L2 (Experiments 1 and 2) and a translation task from L1 to L2 (Experiment3). Participants had to use either a bare noun (condition 1) or a noun phrase (condition 2). In all experiments, responses were faster for gender congruent than gender incongruent stimuli in both conditions. In all experiments, “neuter” was found to be distinct from masculine and feminine. We propose that grammatical gender information is available at the level of lexical representation of the language and that the two languages of bilinguals are connected in a way that allows information from that level to interact. We also propose that Romanian has a tripartite gender system.

Keyphrases: bilingual, mental lexicon, grammatical gender, romanian
Étude de dispositifs électroniques moléculaires à l'aide de modèles simples

This thesis is on molecular electronics concentrates mostly on the development of a method for the calculation of the transmission probability of molecules that are connected to contacts. On the one hand, this method aims at bringing a different point of view among the other methods for such calculations. On the other hand, it allows the integration of already developed theoretical tools in a rigorous manner, which increases the quality of the calculations. The work presented here often contains simple examples that shine some light on phenomena, such as the destructive interference, in molecular electronic devices. The chapters are from articles already published in the litterature. In chapter 2, we study a molecular quantum dot using a finite model with Kohn-Sham density functional theory. Moreover, using an implementation of the Landauer formula, we calculate the conductance of the quantum dot. We find that the electronic structure and molecular conductance depend strongly on the exchange and correlation functional employed. In chapter 3, we discuss the effect of adding a side chain to conducting molecules on the transmission probability of molecular electronic devices. We find that destructive interferences appear approximately at the energy eigenvalues of the isolated side chain, if these values do not correspond to localized states far away from the conductor. In chapter 4, we show that molecular electronic devices containing an aromatic molecule generaly possess circular currents which are associated with destructive interference phenomena in these systems. In chapter 5, we use the source-sink potential (SSP) approach to study the electronic transmission of some devices. Instead of  considering the source and sink potentials exactly, we use perturbation theory to find an expression for the transmission probability T(E) = 1 − |r(E)|2 that depends on the properties of the bare molecule, where r(E) is the energy-dependent reflection coefficient. We show that in the first-order, it is the orbital density on the atoms connected to the contacts that largely determines the transmission probability for a given incoming electron energy. In chapter 6, we present an extension of the single channel source-sink potential approach for molecular electronic devices to multiple channels. The proposed  multichannel method relies on an eigenchannel description of the conducting states of the molecular electronic device, which are obtained by a self-consistent algorithm. We use the model to study the transport of the 1-phenyl-1,3-butadiene molecule connected to two coupled rows of atoms that act as contacts on the left and right sides.

Keyphrases: Source-sink potential, Molecular electronics, Kondo effect, Electronic transmission, Molecular conductance, Source-sink potential, Interference
La pratique d’infirmières ayant participé à une mission humanitaire en Haïti suite au séisme de  2010 au sein d’une organisation non-gouvernementale

Globally, millions of people experience significant upheaval in their lives due to natural disasters. Literature related to humanitarian relief efforts has primarily focused on the work of medical personnel without any differentiation with regards to their profession or sending organization. Knowledge related to the vital role that nurses play during these devastating and tumultuous times is scarce. The purpose of this focused ethnography is, therefore, to determine how nurses describe their practice while working with Doctors Without Borders during relief efforts resulting from the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake in 2010 within the legal, political, economical, educational, sociocultural, physical and technological contexts of their experience. Four nurses participated in semi-structured, individual, in-depth 90-minute interviews. During the interviews the nurses also discussed photographs they had taken that best represented their practice during their mission. Ray’s theory of bureaucratic caring (1989) was used as a theoretical framework for this study. Participants provided rich examples of their mission’s training, objectives, and roles.  They also addressed the challenges that needed to be overcome when they returned. Some of their inherent personal assets, and characteristics of MSF itself, that emerged as important factors which defined their practice, were also described by participants. Contextual factors such as the team, time, physical environment, media coverage, security, working conditions, and the sociocultural and political context, had to constantly be taken into account by the participants so they could adjust their practice accordingly. This study leads to a better understanding of nursing practice in the humanitarian context. It has several implications for practice, future research, and curriculum improvement in the area of disaster nursing preparedness.

Keyphrases: Nursing practice, Humanitarian Aid, Ray's theory of bureaucratic caring, focused ethnography