NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
La figure de l’atome, paradigme de la vulgarisation scientifique

An analytical framework for the study of images used in the popularization of scientific knowledge is developped from the semiotics of Charles S. Peirce and the archeological method of Michel Foucault. This framework is applied specifically to figures of the atom found in a systematic study of two popular science magazines. Recommendations emerging from our analysis are offered.

Keyphrases: Charles S. Peirce, Michel Foucault, figure, paradigme, popularization, visual communications, semiotic, paradigm, atom
Comparaison de deux nouvelles méthodes d’évaluation de la fertilité masculine avec le spermogramme chez des patients ayant recours à la fécondation in vitro

Male factors are known to be involved in almost half of the couples consulting for infertility. To date, the tests for evaluating male fertility are poor predictors of pregnancy. We developed two new tests to evaluate sperm function: a sperm survival test and a new method to measure sperm DNA integrity.   This prospective study was conducted on 42 infertile couples undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Assessment of sperm parameters was done according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria, and sperm survival upon exposure to a cationic detergent was measured by observing motility under the microscope. Sperm DNA integrity was verified by our new radioenzymatic method as well as by the sperm chromatin structure analysis (SCSA) method. All testing was performed on a remainder aliquot of the semen samples. The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Montréal (CHUM), and informed consent was obtained before inclusion.   Neither conventional semen analysis, nor sperm DNA fragmentation showed statistically significant difference between conception and non-conception cycles. However, the biochemical pregnancy rate was statistically higher in couples where the sperm survival time was long (>250 s) compared to short (≤250 s): 66% vs. 27% respectively, (p < 0.05). The clinical pregnancy rate and implantation rate were also higher but the differences did not reach statistical significance.  Our study confirms that conventional semen analysis and the assay for sperm DNA integrity are not reliable indicators of IVF outcome. In contrast, our new sperm survival test seems to be a better predictor of the pregnancy rate after IVF. Improvement of its specificity and a larger cohort of patients are necessary before proposing its regular application in IVF clinics.

Keyphrases: spermicide, DNA, male infertility, spermicide, in vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), pregnancy rate
Évaluation pré-clinique et clinique de deux nouvelles stratégies dans le traitement des maladies cardiovasculaires : activité anti-thrombotique de l'inhibition du récepteur P2Y1 et activité anti-inflammatoire de l'inhibition du récepteur PAR-1

Platelets have a central role in haemostasis as well as in the pathology of atherothrombotic disease. Antiplatelet therapy is the standard treatment for patients with coronary heart disease. However, the current antiplatelet agents show some disadvantages. The aim of my studies was then to describe the effect of inhibition of platelet activation pathways that are not yet the target of clinically used therapies. The two studies that were performed are regarding the inhibition of two G coupledprotein receptors, which are the ADP P2Y1 receptor and the thrombin PAR-1 receptor. First, the study of P2Y1 receptor revealed that its inhibition alone or in combination with the inhibition of P2Y12 receptor show a therapeutic potential in patients with stable coronary disease. Second, the study of a novel antiplatelet agent, SCH 530348, which is in phase III of its clinical development, has been carried out. SCH 530348, which is a PAR-1 receptor antagonist, can therefore act on platelets as well as on leukocytes which also express this receptor. This second study showed that additionally to its effect on platelet activation inhibition, SCH 530348 also reduces the cell-surface markers of systemic inflammation.

Keyphrases: P2Y12, P2Y1, protease-activated receptor-1, PAR-1, SCH 530348, imflammation, platelet, thrombosis, leukocyte
La motivation au changement des personnes incarcérées

Numerous studies have focused on receptivity factors as a means of intervening on behalf on incarcerated individuals. In fact, several meta-analyses have displayed that those treatments which took into consideration receptivity factors proved to be more successful than those which did not. Nevertheless, among the receptivity factors, many variables remain to be studied in order to further our understanding of these important elements, such as the motivation to change of incarcerated individuals as well as their motivation to become involved in a process of change. Aside from the known elements which influence an individual's motivation to change, such as protection and risk factors as well as internal and external factors, is it possible that other factors also have a significant influence upon such motivation? In other words, could an individual's perception of the risk they present influence their motivation to change? In order to explore these questions, a field placement was completed at the St-Jérôme Detention Centre and case studies were completed with four individuals incarcerated at this facility. All throughout the placement, we analysed these individual's perception of their risk and we observed that this factor truthfully had an influence upon their level of motivation. In this regard, further studies regarding this factor could allow correctional workers to better identify those inmates who could benefit from correctional interventions.

Keyphrases: Motivation to change, Change process, Receptivity, Corrections, Prisoners, Inmates
Entourage d'un toxicomane. Profil clinique: besoins, interventions et impacts

Drug addiction is an intricate phenomenon for the drug addicts. Their personal characteristics as well as those of their relatives can affect their fate. Besides the direct consequences that we can observe on the relatives of the drug addicts, they themselves influence the maintenance of the behaviour related to the consumption through various characteristics related to the co-reliance such as the relief from responsibility, control, mitigation, etc.  The relatives obviously have a role to play in the rehabilitation process of the drug user but it is even more necessary that they work themselves out of their problems. Learn to communicate adequately, know how to set the limits, break from isolation, understand the importance of taking care of its needs and stop feeling excessively guilty are needs which the relative must take care of in order to support the drug user’s self-care. Through case studies, this report aims to ascertain the presence of behaviours supporting the continuance of drug use and to show that a relative support program can truly help persons close to the drug user and support the drug user’s self-care. Moreover, it tends to exemplify how the theoretical aspects can be observed at the clinical level through the analysis of the 4 cases featured.

Keyphrases: Drug addiction, Drug addicts, Caregivers, Family, Significant others, Codependency, Support programs, Rehabilitation, Couples
La lettre de crédit commerciale : facilité de crédit désuète ou incomprise ?

More than seventy-five years after the creation of the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits by the International Chamber of Commerce, can we talk about a true international success of the commercial letter of credit as a reliable and secured instrument of payment? Notwithstanding its triple functions and the formalistic application of its principles of non-assignability, of strict compliance and of dual autonomy, which have answered the needs resulting from the evolution of international commerce, it seems unrealistic to talk about such success. But why? Confronted with the national regulations as well as nationalist and protectionist practices of the states which have nevertheless ratified the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits, the malleability of those rules seems to have been misrepresented of the principal attributes of the commercial letter of credit. ln that respect, we can ask ourselves if the commercial letter of credit is an outdated or misunderstood credit facility? The present thesis is the fruit of many reflections on the problems linked with the application and the interpretation of the commercial letter of credit as an international instrument of payment and more particularly, on the gaps of the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits.

Keyphrases: RUU, CCI, Letter of credit, Documentary credit, Uniform customs and practice for documentary credits, UCP, International law, ICC, International chamber of commerce
La jurisprudence en accès libre à l'ère du contenu généré par les usagers

User generated content and collaboration, also called « Web 2.0 », offer new possibilities in the context of a thriving and open Internet. Digital environments that employ these production mecanisms allow user communities to enrich a virtual space. Using a constructivist approach, we explore how collaboration can serve the users of an open access database of court rulings, namely the Canadian Legal Information Institute's website (www.CanLU.org). Collaboration is set within a framework that we name the « Collaboration Framework ». There are two classes of objects, users and documents, that interact following four relationships: links between documents, exchanges between users, writing (from users to documents) and consumption (from documents to users). In turn, we can better understand how collaboration functions, given a specific class of documents. Following an analysis of court rulings as a system of documents and an illustration of user needs in civil society, the Collaboration Framework is applied to an open access database of court rulings in order to determine how users can enrich the system's content.

Keyphrases: Internet, Collaboration, Court cases, User generated content
Analyse cinématique de la marche de travailleurs exposés à une surcharge mécanique sur l’articulation fémoro-tibiale (AF-T)

Many studies agree that mechanical knee loading, either related to obesity, intense sports, biomechanical alteration of the knee or exposition to heavy load occupational activities, is an important factor in knee OA development. Work related knee OA has been the focus of numerous studies, many of them reporting increased knee OA prevalence in workers involved in particular occupational fields such as construction, floor layer, painting, mining, agriculture, shop assistant and health care employees. Persons working in these occupations are exposed to noxious positions or activities such as kneeling, squatting, climbing stairs or ladders, carrying heavy load and prolonged walking. These gestures overload the knee joint, resulting in modifications of the knee joint structures or in neuromuscular adaptations of the knee movement pattern. These structural modifications and neuromuscular adaptations can bring about gait kinematic changes that can either initiate knee OA or contribute to its progression. The main objective of this study was to analyze the effect of mechanical overloading on the tibial-femoral joint suffered during walking tasks at work and compare the kinematics gait tibial femoral joint of workers exposed to knee overloading (KO workers) to that of non-knee overloaded workers (non-KO workers). Twenty four KO workers and 9 non-KO workers participated to the study. Gait kinematic data were recorded at the knee in a clinical setting using an electromagnetic motion tracking system. The following parameters were extracted and used for group comparison: knee angle at initial contact, peak knee flexion angle during loading response and angle range. Group comparison for clinical and kinematic variables of interest was performed with Student-t and ANCOVA tests. KO workers had greater knee flexion angle at initial contact, during loading response and single limb support, and they demonstrated a lower angle range than non-KO workers. iv We believe that gait kinematic data can suggest biomechanical factors that could predispose workers to the development or progression of knee OA. A better understanding of these factors could be a first step toward more efficient intervention within the population.

Keyphrases: Osteoarthritis, Biomechanical factors, Workers, Knee kinematics, Gait analysis
Étude exploratoire des facteurs de risque du détournement en interne du patrimoine informationnel

While we are living in a society where information and data have a central place, organizations are regularly confronted to the misappropriation of immaterial assets. This type of workplace deviance represents a strongly hidden aspect of criminality, few reported and which management relies on each others. The objective of this study was also to relieve this lack of knowledge by analyzing the different risk factors involved in the internal misappropriation of informational patrimony (DIPI). In the case where workplace is a complex environment, made of numerous interactions between people and their environment, the proposed factors come from various disciplines and build up dimensions different one to the other. The data used in our research were collected trough a standardized questionnaires that were distributed to employees who handle or have access to data and/or information in the achievement of their work. At last, 66 questionnaires were completed. This survey shows that DIPI is a widespread phenomenon, but still sensitive inside organizations. The major risk factors of DIPI would be inhibition (absence of victim’s personalization and immaterial aspect of the target) and settings factors (opportunity to act and targets accessibility). To a less extend, but not insignificant, factors of participation to creation, work satisfaction and ethical work climate, have a role to play too in the risk of DIPI. The approach and the results support the necessity to conceive the risk globally regarding to measures taking into account both technical and managerial aspect to limit the DIPI.

Keyphrases: Employee theft, Misappropriation, Immaterial assets, Information leak, Data theft, Workplace deviance, Disclosure of information, Risk factors, Information protection and management, specialized access crime
Laver la patrie de la tache de l’ignorance
L’État, les mineurs et les enfants de l’Équateur (1760-1845)

The family metaphor has been used throughout the history of Ecuador by colonial and republican governments alike to embody the perfect political system and the domination of a privileged group, the « parents », over a submissive population, their metaphorical children. This doctoral thesis is concerned with the concept of minority in the late colonial and early republican eras (1760-1845). It draws on State discourses and strategies to legitimize the colour-class domination of the Indians, the people of African descent, as well as people of mixed ancestry, perceived as childlike. This thesis is also concerned with resistance strategies of individuals who did not consider themselves minors and did not accept laws, government decrees or the hierarchical order intended to place them in this submissive position. By presenting themselves as competent parents asking for patria potestad, legal authority over their children, many adults such as women, Indian fathers or slave parents, fought for greater autonomy for themselves, their families, or their communities.  After the Wars of Independence and the birth of Gran Colombia, followed by that of the Republic of Ecuador, the symbolic head of the political family, the King of Spain, as well as the bureaucracy that represented him in his American Empire, disappeared. The political system of Ecuador now rested in the hands of multiple « fathers », members of a select Creole oligarchy, members of the same group that had complained during the colonial period and the revolutionary period that the Spanish King had abused his powers as a tyrannical father. The Ecuadorian population, in particular its indigenous segment, was still considered to be composed of « children ». The new challenge was to explain why, after fighting for freedom from oppression, the majority of adults still needed to be under the tutelage of White Patriachs, as tribute payers, slaves or peones (forced laborers). An argument was used repeatedly to justify the preservation of the colonial order in the republican era: the ignorance of the plebe and its temporary need for guidance. Over more than a century, the myth of the construction of the Ecuadorian Nation, where all citizens would live freely and equally, was counterbalanced by another myth, that of a Nation that needed to be cleansed from its ignorance. There appeared to be only one possible means to get rid of this lingering imperfection: public education.

Keyphrases: Ecuador, state, colonialism, Nation, nation, society, republic, racism, education, slavery, indigenous people
Étude du pouvoir d’ordonnance du ministre de l’environnement en matière de décontamination des sites au Québec

The protection of the environment is a vital issue for modern society.  Following the Industrial Revolution, the contamination of the environment found many avenues, and now can be found in the water, the atmosphere and, sometimes less obviously, in the soil.  Considering the number of contaminated lands indexed by the ministère du Dévoloppement durable, l’Environnement et des Parcs, one might well wonder about the effectiveness of the measures in section IV.2.1 of the Environment Quality Act which include powers of ordering land characterization and rehabilitation retroactively over not only the polluter and whoever allows the contaminants to be emitted, but also in certain cases the one who has or has had the custody of the land, in any capacity.  In 2003, the regulatory structure for remediation orders underwent a major reform, whose main features are described in the first part of this essay.  However, the application of these measures derives from the minister’s discretionary power.  Developments that affect this discretion are described in the second part of our study.  The number of orders delivered by the minister is so low that we have to consider, in the third part of our essay, the eventual liability of the State in relation with contaminated grounds, considering the principles of sustainable development and above all of intergenerational equity which, in our view, should be reflected in the application of minister of the environment’s power to order.

Keyphrases: Environment Quality Act, Characterization study, Rehabilitation plan, Regulation, Discretion, An Act respecting administrative justice, Sustainable development, Liability, Contaminated ground
Zoning of the commercial poultry industry in Ontario as a method of avian influenza mitigation

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) is the international reference body for international trade standards for live animals. Zoning is a method of controlling certain infectious diseases, including avian influenza, recommended by the OIE for use when appropriate. Avian influenza outbreaks have been extremely costly to the poultry industry throughout the world. In order to assess whether this approach was possible in Ontario, data on poultry industry production sites were provided by the Ontario poultry marketing boards. Zone borders were formed based on two criteria. The first criterion was the supply of essential products and services such that within-zone commercial poultry production could be maintained. The second was the contiguity of the zone’s territory. Four associated industries were identified which provide essential products and services: feed mills, abattoirs, hatcheries, and egg grading stations. A product flow analysis was completed to understand the direction of product movements between the poultry production sites and the sites of the four associated industries.  This analysis was used to create a database of input requirements and output production capacity from each type of poultry production site. Using ArcGIS, this information was merged with geospatial data from Statistics Canada on Ontario and Quebec to create the database used for zoning scenarios. Seventy-two scenarios were completed; of these, four were chosen which minimized production loss over the whole industry. These scenarios demonstrate that the method used for the zoning study can identify the production deficits and surpluses of the commercial poultry industry in Ontario. These scenarios can serve as a starting point for discussion among industry stakeholders, as cooperation and communication are essential to the success of zoning.

Keyphrases: Commerce international, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, Zoning, Commercial poultry industry, Flow Analysis, Network analysis, Supply-management, Avian diseases, Reportable disease, International trade, Regional disease control, Diseases transmission
Étude du documentaire écologiste comme genre cinématographique et de ses impacts individuels et collectifs au sein du mouvement social

This memoire in Film studies has been written in a context of research-creation.  Besides this written document about ecologist documentary as a cinematographic genre, my  work is attached to a 60 minutes activist documentary about agrifood.  The goal of all this work is divided in two sections.  First, the memoire is trying to establish if we assist, for about a decade, at the birth of a new genre that we are going to call ecologist documentary.  The second part aims to identify this genre in the ecologist social movement and to measure his social impacts through the environmental movement.  Produced in parallel of the  writing of my memoire, I’m using my movie to experiment the dominant characteristics of ecologist cinema, as well as a field of evaluation of the social impacts of ecologist  documentary.

Keyphrases: Cinema, Documentary, Genre, Genre, Ecologist, Environmentalism, Social movement, Impact, Impact