NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Synthèse des analogues de l’[azaPhe4]-GHRP-6 comme potentiels modulateurs du récepteur CD36

Azapeptides are peptide mimics in which one or more carbon atoms in the α-position have been replaced by a nitrogen atom. This replacement increases the rigidity of the peptide structure and promotes β-turn conformation, which is associated with many biological activities. Compared to the parent peptide, azapeptides may have increased activity and selectivity as well as greater stability, prolonged duration of action and resistance to metabolic degradation. Growth hormone releasing peptide 6 (GHRP-6, H-His-D-Trp-Ala-Trp-D-Phe-Lys-NH2) is a synthetic hexapeptide possessing affinity for two different receptors: growth hormone secretagogue receptor 1a (GHS-R1a) and cluster of differentiation receptor 36 (CD36). Selective affinity to CD36 may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of disease by modulating angiogenesis. In addition, CD36 is co-expressed with the toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) and implicated in innate immunity. Bearing in mind that the presence of an "aza" amino acid having an aromatic group on his side chain is essential to increase the selectivity towards the CD36 receptor, the work carried out during my master degree has aimed to synthesize a library of [azaPhe4]-GHRP-6 analogues to study their affinity for CD36, their potential to modulate TLR2 agonist-induced nitric oxide production and finally their angiogenesis properties. A library of 25 azapeptides was made. Twenty-three analogues were synthesized using a solid-phase approach and two analogs were made using a combination of solution and solid phase chemistry. All twenty-five analogues were tested for their ability to modulate the amount of nitric oxide produced in macrophages after treatment with a TLR2 agonist. Subsequently, fourteen of v analogs were evaluated for their CD36 binding affinity and for theirs angiogenesis properties. This approach has provided fundamental knowledge of the structure activity relationships of azapeptide modulators of CD36 as well as novel candidates for probing the chemical biology and medicinal potential of this receptor.

Keyphrases: Azapeptides, GHRP-6, N-alkylation, Peptide mimes, Azapeptides, Regioselective N-alkylation, Receptor CD36, Structure-activity relationships
Approche théorique et expérimentale combinée dans l’exploration de LiFeV2O7 et son application comme matériau d’électrode positive pour batterie aux ions lithium

Lithium ion batteries are developed to power a growing amount of portable applications and meet the needs of an increasingly mobile society. These batteries owe their success to the performances of electrode materials and electrolytes which were continuously optimized these last decades. The process leading to their industrial and commercial application was always initiated by the discovery of new materials. The research of new materials can be seen as an uncertain approach, when compared to the engineering and optimization of existing ones, but remains the driving force behind innovation. In this context, we revisited the Li2O-V2O5-Fe2O3 ternary phase diagram on the lookout for new positive electrode materials. The systematic study of the diagram led to the synthesis by solid state reaction of a new material with the composition LiFeV2O7. The following manuscript will be covering the study of this material. After a detailed characterization of LiFeV2O7, an electrochemical study was carried out to evaluate the material’s potential as a positive electrode material. The results displayed a rather complex electrochemical behavior. ex situ XRD and Mössbauer analyses were carried out on LiFeV2O7 upon cycling to try to comprehend this behavior. The experimental section was complemented with a theoretical study on LiFeV2O7 behavior in electrochemistry. It includes the modelling of LiFeV2O7 electrochemical curve and the evolution of its magnetizations upon discharge.

Keyphrases: vanadate, LiFeV2O7, ex situ, Mössbauer, VASP, Electrochemistry, Lithium-ion battery, XRD, Computational chemistry
De héros à zéro: réflexions sur les manifestations et les effets de la faiblesse dans le jeu vidéo

This master thesis focuses on the manifestations and effects of weakness in video games, present most notably within the relationship between the player and the character(s) she controls. Video games anchored into the traditions of the militarized masculinity usually do not have a propension to include a more diverse and inclusive cast of characters, far away from the cisgender heterosexual white male. Weakness within video games is intended to be a resistance movement against these hegemonic cultural conventions while offering the player a gaming experience that does not seem positive at first, but is ultimately more gratifying. This master thesis contains some examples of virtual characters that finds themselves between power and weakness.

Keyphrases: Video games, Weakness, Failure, Characters, Militarized masculinity, Heroism
Stress de performance et perceptions du recours aux médicaments : ethnographie d’une faculté de musique classique à Montréal

This master’s thesis examines the use of medical drugs in a non-medical context. In scientific literature, non-medical use of drugs is often referred to as abuse or misappropriation due to its non-therapeutic purpose and the fact that motivation for use is performance enhancement. In the vein of this research, this work explores perceptions around the use of beta-blockers – prescription drugs used to treat heart problems – to manage anxiety in performance of classical music at a university level. This thesis also analyzes the origins of stage fright in the context of music performance. Data was collected over a four-month period of fieldwork at a music faculty in Montreal. Collected data shows that performance anxiety is not only individual and biological, but is intrinsically social, cultural and moral. It is defined in relation to performance and it emerges from the conflict between ideals of performance and the reality that musicians experience. It also results from an identity contradiction due to the conflict between people’s expectations and the inherent difficulties of the profession. The institutionalization of stress plays a significant role in the pathologization of performance anxiety and it establishes self-management as a formal skill that musicians must develop. Among existing techniques, beta-blockers are taboo but they are not completely invisible. In fact, they are often the subject of debate, and discourses about them highlight the values and norms of performance in classical music. Drugs are therefore intimately involved in musicians’ identities and they have the power to bring to question someone’s legitimacy to pursue their carrier. They do indeed suggest the absence of control. Although they are used for conformist purposes, drugs are also associated to exclusion and their intrinsic characteristics are seen as problematic. This master’s thesis contributes to a larger understanding of the social and moral aspects of medical drugs and how they are conceived in particular situations, when the boundaries between treatment and performance are blurred. It also allows us to see the implications of the performance anxiety phenomenon on a cultural and social level.

Keyphrases: Stress, Performance Anxiety, Drugs, Medication, Classical Music, Performance, Beta-blockers, Trac, Stage Fright, Pharmaceuticalization, University
L’écomorphologie des suidés d’élevages au Québec : impact de la mobilité sur la forme de l’astragale

This research consists of an ecomorphological study of three groups of suids farmed in Quebec with the aim of identifying the impact of mobility as a factor influencing the development of the morphology of the astragalus (tarsus). We observe significative statistical differences in bone shape as a function of mobility using morphometric analysis and linear discriminant analysis. The hypothetical link between mobility and environmental openness - i.e., vegetation nature and cover density - allows us to use these results to comment on the interpretations and methods proposed by Laura Bishop (1994). An exploration of data collection methods on digital 3D models is also proposed. We conclude that the degree of mobility has a statistically significant impact on the morphology of the astragalus in suids. The linear discriminant analysis is a powerful classification tool for determining the levels of mobility in suids, using a small number of easily reproduced variables. The results of this research offer a means of paleoenvironnemental reconstruction, for example in contexts associated with the Homo lineage. The subjects of domestication, husbandry, environemental turnout, and predator-prey interactions are all potential research outcomes of this work.

Keyphrases: os, sanglier, astragalus, boar, bone, ecomorphology, farming, mobility, morphology, suids, tarsal, zooarchaeology, archaeology
Ontogénie de l’asymétrie des métacarpes : étude de la plasticité osseuse

During human evolution, the function of the hand changed from locomotion to exclusive manipulation, allowing the development of handedness, 90% of the today’s world populations preferring to use the right hand and the other 10% the left. Behavioural studies have documented the stages during which a child will acquire handedness. However, the effects of the mechanical strains induced by manipulation on the modelling of the bone structure remain poorly documented. This results in a poor understanding of the ontogeny of metacarpal asymmetry. Therefore, we aims to examine the effects of the mechanical charges on the bone tissue plasticity of the first three metacarpals, as these are key actors much solicited during manipulation. The sample consists of 36 individuals from two osteological collections of Euro- Canadians, divided into five age groups such as: from 0-1 years (n=10), 1-4 (n=11), 5-10 years (n=5), 16-20 years (n=4), and 20-45 years (n=6 , 3 females and 3 males). Based on analyses of CT-images taken from the midshaft, the variables CSA, Imin, Imax, J, Imax/Imin, and Theta were measured to quantify the asymmetry for each metacarpal associated with each age group. The results for the variables CSA, Imin, Imax, J, Imax/Imin and Theta did not demonstrate a directional asymmetry on the right side and no precise age group was correlated to the beginning of the differential development for the variables CSA, Imin, Imax, J, et Theta. However, a significant change in the shape (Imax/Imin) of the first and third metacarpals demonstrates an early development on the left side during the modelling process of the bone structure. The age at which there is a drastic shape change is between 7 and 10 years old, and for the third metacarpal between 2 and 5 years. In conclusion, the variable Imax/Imin (bone shape) appears to be the best one to measure the plasticity in a better way the plasticity of bone modelling under the effects of mechanical charges.

Keyphrases: Ontogeny, Metacarpals, Asymetry, Bone plasticity, Bone structure
«C’est des déchets, tu peux juste te nourrir avec ça!» : ethnographie du Dumpster Diving à Montréal

This research focuses on the dumpster diving practice of students in Montreal. The act of dumpster diving (DD) involves looking inside commercial garbage bins to retrieve food that is still good to eat. This ethnographical study aims to examine how this practice, usually associated with poverty and survival, is a choice for university students. Considering that previous researches on DD have put the emphasis on the ideological speeches, the political motivations and assumed marginality of the people, this study wishes to look into the daily implications of the practice in a group that is not marginalised, but well integrated into the system. By considering the chaîne opératoire and the performative dimension of dumpster diving we come to ask how this practice changes the individuals who partake in it. We therefore address the decommoditization of food to show how the salvaged products are valued out of the economic sphere. We will explore three different themes to answer this question: the expertise of the city, the ways of giving and exchanging food and finally, the perception of what is edible or not. By considering dumpster diving as being part of the daily food sphere, we show that individuals that dumpster dive renew in a significant way their positions on their urban and social environment and also in a more intimate level toward themselves.

Keyphrases: Dumpster diving, Gaspillage, Food, waste, consumption, Decommoditization, Students
La formation historique et la structure actuelle du racisme en Louisiane

Racism is often described as an attitude of fear, hatred or intolerance. In the context of this study, I suggest that we should rather conceive of it as a relation of power between social groups categorized in terms of “races”. In the theoretical section of my analysis, I develop an approach which enables the study of racism as both a historical and structural phenomenon. Using a materialist perspective and relying on the example of racism towards African Americans, I hold that racist ideology is tied to political and economic inequalities between groups. In the historical section, I examine the formation of racial oppression in Louisiana, in the broader setting of European colonization and slavery in America. I demonstrate that discriminations and inequalities have endured until today, despite the successive abolition of slavery and racial segregation. Finally, in the ethnographic section, I draw upon the interviews that I have conducted to analyze the contemporary dynamic of relations between Cajuns, Creoles and Blacks in southern Louisiana. I note that Blacks and Creoles are critical towards the domination of Whites in a general sense and towards that of Cajuns especially. Blacks and Creoles’ resistance is conveyed in various aspects of their culture and identity, even while divisions persist between these two groups.

Keyphrases: Cajuns, Racism, African Americans, Blacks, Creoles, Cajuns, Colonization, Slavery, Louisiana, United States
Waskapiwin Nahitatowin ou comment résoudre les conflits internes d’une manière légitime dans la communauté des Atikamekw Nehirowisiwok d’Opitciwan

Restorative justice is the dominant theoretical paradigm used when approaching community justice projects in indigenous communities. However, this theory does not entirely correspond to indigenous legal traditions, even though they are frequently associated. The Système de protection sociale des Atikamekw d’Opitciwan and the Comité de justice sociale d’Opitciwan are two community justice programs operating in the Atikamekw Nehirowisiwok community of Opitciwan, an indigenous nation in Quebec. These initiatives are a local way to take charge of certain internal conflicts, notably offenses of criminal and socioprotectional nature. These projects fall explicitly within the self-determination process of the Atikamekw Nehirowisiw people and have been established in response to some dissatisfactions regarding the state’s legal system. Concretely, these community justice programs aim to resolve some local conflicts in a way that is considered proper and legitimate by the people of Opitciwan. The objective of this dissertation is to identify the conceptions and practices of the Atikamekw Nehirowisiwok of Opitciwan about justice, and to put those in relation with the restorative justice theory. Based on fieldwork research completed in 2014 in Opitciwan, I will further suggest 10 principles that characterize what would represent a legitimate conflict resolution in the eyes of the Atikamekw Nehirowisiwok of Opitciwan, principles which their community justice projects attempt to put into practice.

Keyphrases: Atikamekw, Canada, Conflict resolution, Indigenous legal traditions, Community justice, Restorative justice, Self-determination, Legal anthropology, First Nations, Natives, Aboriginals
Une ethnographie de la relation au milieu de vie urbain de la classe moyenne indienne

This paper focuses on the relationship to the environment of individuals from the Indian middle class, between 18 and 35 years of age, who present themselves as engaged in or aware of environmental causes and who live in the city of Bangalore, Karnataka’s capital situated in the south of India. In anthropology, the relationship between humans and their living environment refers to personal subjectivities, or the ecological mind, and the world of practices. During two-months ethnographic field research in Bangalore, seven semi-directed interviews were conducted; food consumption practices served as an anchor to the study of this relationship. The latter shows diversity, linked to a variety of pragmatic, identity, monetary, health and environmental factors. For example, local food is favored for interpersonal relationships, its lower environmental impact, freshness of its products and speed of service, while supermarkets offer a greater variety of products at competitive prices. In addition, waste analysis reveals qualitative differences between individuals, which we can connect to the Hindu caste system, demonstrating its continuity within the present Indian society. The main urban environmental concerns enumerated are pollution, the insalubrity of the city and traffic. A number of factors are associated with these, including inefficient government management policies, population density, attitudes of apathy and changes related to lifestyles. The subjects of this study acknowledge their conscious efforts as well as their ability to adopt practices that have less harmful effects on the environment, especially with regard to waste reduction.

Keyphrases: Relation to the environment, Indian middle class, Ecological mind, Urban areas, Food consumption practices, Waste, Hindu caste system, Environmental concerns, Environmental impact, Ethnography, Relation to the environment, Indian middle class, Ecological mind, Urban areas, Food consumption practices, Waste, Hindu caste system, Environmental concerns, Ethnography, Environmental impact
La bière et la terre : l'attachement au lieu à travers les microbrasseries québécoises

The last thirty years have seen the birth and exponential growth of an industry that is situated in a broader context of renewed interest in local trade in Quebec: microbreweries. In addition to a limited volume of production, local distribution and a wide variety of offerings, many microbreweries share a philosophy in which the use of local references plays an important role in the promotion of their products. The main objective of this research is to analyze the brewers' and owners' motivations behind the use of such a vocabulary as well as the impact on consumers' perception of breweries and their beers. At the same time, this paper aims to paint an accurate picture of the contemporary craft beer industry in Quebec from an anthropological point of view. It will examine the data gathered through in-depth discussions with numerous actors in the world of craft beer.  The data was gathered during ethnographic research that spanned over two months and thirty microbreweries located in different regions of Quebec. A dozen semi-structured interviews of approximately one hour with consumers, brewers and business owners were interspersed with periods of participant observation in factories, brewpubs, festivals and stores specializing in local craft beer. During this fieldwork, many subjects were discussed, although only two were kept to justly represent the craft beer market from the point of view of both consumers and producers: the difficulty of what constitutes an authentic microbrewery and the omnipresent solidarity between brewers.

Keyphrases: local, Economic anthropology, Globalization, Consumption, Territory, Authenticity, Craft beer
Ethnographie des politique linguistiques éducationnelles en Géorgie : le programme de géorgien langue seconde en contextes arméniens et azéris

To understand how language and policies and planning are transmitted from the macro to the micro-level contexts, one must look through the multiple manners and occasions they will be interpreted and implemented. It is also taking a look through time, the contexts of interaction in which the language policies move and are derived from previous interactional contexts. In order to understand these complex interactions, we present a multidisciplinary approach based on the recent theoretical contributions of applied linguistics, the ethnography of language policy, used in research in Armenian and Azeri communities with access to the Georgian as a Second Language program established by the State. The aim of this research is to explore spaces that are opened, filled, and closed by language policy and planning under continuous construction. This exploration, as we suggest, must be done by exploring the various laws that govern the linguistic education system, but also their origins and how agents create, interpret and implement their own language policies in response. Understanding how actors make use of the implementation spaces is also to understand how linguistic macro-policies are instantiated in micro contexts.

Keyphrases: Ethnography of Language Policy, Implementational space, Georgia, Language policy and planning, Linguistic minorities
Les perceptions de l’apprentissage du français langue seconde des nouveaux francophones de Montréal

This master’s thesis aims to contribute to the literature on linguistic anthropology and critical and ethnographic sociolinguistics concerning linguistic mobility and perceptions of the process of learning a second language. Based on an ethnographic study of 12 adult migrants participating in francization classes in Montreal, the thesis focused on the linguistic practices of these new francophones in the context of their life outside of the formal classroom situation. We attempted to understand how these individuals think about the learning of French as a second language given their plurilinguistic repertoires. The complex processes of second language acquisition are examined in the context of their daily experience and linguistic practices within their multiple social networks. We observed that the concept of “allophone,” in Montreal, is no longer well-described by as dyadic (francophone – anglophone), and is more often characterized by as triadic (francophone – anglophone – allophone). The new francophones studied have a regular practice of speaking French mixed with these other languages. We show that the new francophones invest in learning a new language, even if they have a complex social history, because they are in the process of integrating into a new community as “new speakers.” We reflect on who wins and who loses in relation to the acquisition of the new language and thus who is recognized as a “legitimate” francophone. Lastly, we discuss the idea that second language acquisition in migrants represents a competitive arena.

Keyphrases: perceptions, new francophones, experience, language socialization, linguistic mobility, plurilingualism, French as a second language, Montreal