NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Perspectives esthétique et compositionnelle d’une dialectique entre le son et la musique

With this dissertation, I wish to contribute to the sustainability of instrumental art music, so it covers several topics related to this form of music, from theoretical and esthetical issues to practical and compositional matters. Two main contexts are being studied : modernity and market economy. The first one, through the triumph of technical reason, leads to the independence of art, which puts art at risk of becoming self-referential. The second one, because of the pressure put on composers at the bottom of the creation/production/distribution chain, jeopardizes that independence it had helped make possible. However, the independence of art –as an esthetic, social, political, economical, and intellectual achievement –is a major issue, because potential compromises for external reasons involve losing ground in all these aspects. My dissertation will explore, as a response to this issue, lines of thought and operation in order to reaffirm –and claim –what is specific to art music and still deserves to be heard, thus advocating for the survival of what makes art music possible. More specifically, I will use the dialectics of sound and music in two ways: to approach the consecutive mediation steps that bring mechanical waves to structure themselves in our conscience to the point where they get transmitted to us as heritage, and; to describe my own intention to communicate through music by analyzing two of my own works : Musique d’art pour quintette à cordes and Musique d’art pour orchestre de chambre II (partie 1). Musique d’art pour quintette à cordes is a 65-minute concert piece for string quartet and contrabass, spatialization, treatment, and space-setting of the musicians. I initiated and produced this research/creative project on my own. The 14-minute Musique d’art pour orchestre de chambre II (partie 1) is a commission. The global critical feedback on the components specific to the medium paves the way to a tighter correlation between content and the form of presentation selected: the concert. This correlation can lead the public to want to visit the works and appreciate their meaning, which would preserve art music as an approach to understanding the world.

Keyphrases: Composition, Son, Musique, Art, Culture, Sound, Music, Creation, Independence, Modernity
Solvency considerations in the gamma-omega surplus model

This master thesis is concerned with risk theory, and more specifically with actuarial surplus models with dividends. We focus on an important model, called the gamma-omega model, which is built to enable the study of both periodic dividend distributions and a non-standard type of ruin. We make several new extensions to this model, which are motivated by solvency considerations. The first one consists in adapting results from a 2011 paper to a new model built on the assumption of a solvency constraint. The second one, more elaborate, consists in proving the optimality of a barrier strategy to pay dividends in the gamma-omega model. The third one deals with the adaptation of a 2003 theorem on the optimality of barrier strategies in the case of solvency constraints, which was not proved right in the periodic dividend framework. We also give analogous results to the 2011 paper in case of an optimal barrier under the solvency constraint. Finally, the last one is concerned with two non-traditional ways of dealing with a ruin event. We first implement a forced liquidation of the surplus in parallel with a possibility of liquidation at first opportunity in case of bad prospects for the dividends. Secondly, we deal with injections of capital into the company reserve, and monitor their implications on the amount of expected dividends. Numerical illustrations are provided in each section, when relevant.

Keyphrases: Injections de capital, Liquidation, Capital Injections, Periodic dividends, Omega ruin, Optimality, HJB equation
Étude de quelques populations structurées : processus de coalescence et abondance d’une stratégie

In this thesis, we study some examples of structured populations. In particular, we analyze the evolution of cooperation in the sense of determining conditions that favor it. We study the evolution of cooperation in a phenotype space of any size. We study also the evolution of cooperation in a finite population subdivided into  hierarchical groups of any size. Finally, we study the effect of aspiration on the evolutionary process in a finite population  distributed on a circle with only a local interaction by pairwise.

Keyphrases: Abundance in frequency, Coalescent process, Evolution of cooperation, Fixation probability, Dominance hierarchy, Phenotype space, Prisoner’s Dilemma, Strong migration, Game on circle, Geographical structure, Migration forte
Recyclage et transformations du religieux dans le roman québécois contemporain (Maleficium de Martine Desjardins et L’âge de Pierre de Pierre Gariépy)

The influence of the Catholic Church on the lives of Quebecers, once dominant, has greatly diminished in the last decades. If that is the case, the signs, patterns, images and words of religion, for their part, have not deserted the symbolic space. They are traces of a heritage and they squat the “imaginaire social” (Pierre Popovic) of contemporary Quebec. As such, they can be mobilized, handled, twisted and transformed by literature. This thesis aims to study these imaginary relics of the Christian religion, which is regarded as a Church and as a mythology, in two Quebec novels published in 2011: L’âge de Pierre by Pierre Gariépy and Maleficium by Martine Desjardins. In a perspective of sociocriticism, it analyzes the relations to authority, eroticism, ethics, foreigners and writing as they are processed by the “mises en texte” (Claude Duchet) in these works. The study shows that both novels thematize religion and use it as a familiar and readily malleable material, not to maintain a legacy nor out of nostalgia, but to take a critical look at contemporary Quebec society. In a way, they say that it is still pious, however the beliefs that run through it are now found on the side of politics, media and business.

Keyphrases: Imaginaire social, Martine Desjardins, Pierre Gariépy, Sociocriticism, Contemporary Québec novel, Religion (Christianity)
Grito vagabundo : el exilio como alegoría de un trauma histórico en tres novelas latino-canadienses

This thesis studies how three Latino-Canadian novels use the trope of exile as an allegory of a trauma that goes beyond the individual experience of their protagonists: the transition from State to Market led by the dictatorships in Latin-America. José Leandro Urbina’s Cobro revertido (1992), Sergio Kokis’s Le pavillon des miroirs (1994), and Alejandro Saravia’s Rojo, amarillo y verde (2003) explore different aspects of this process through the memory of their characters. Exile forces these characters to confront the limits of the different semiotic structures that they try to use as an ideological foundation for their social lives. They discover that it is not possible to recreate the same hierarchies, values and power relations of their home countries in their host country, not only because of cultural differences, but also because of a historical turn that has changed the relationships between the subject, the community and the territory. These novels work-through the experience of this change by entering a dialogue with different genres, such as the foundational romance, the Boom’s historical meta-fiction, the Bildungsroman and the testimonio, covering various historical periods, from the national-popular to the dictatorships and the democratic transitions. Thus, these authors reflect on the mechanisms used in several works of 20th century Latin-American fiction to create and naturalize subjectivities aligned with the hegemonic projects of the nation-states in the region. These meta-narrative exercises also cover the role of writing as the privileged media for the articulation of an identity based on the type of imagined community that is the nation. They point to the limits of writing in the present state of media’s technological development and the expansion of transnational capitalism. This allows these authors to explore other forms of representation that make visible the traces of other stories that could not be dialectically incorporated into the official historical discourse.

Keyphrases: allegory, literature of exile, national-popular, post-dictatorial literature, mourning literature
On the fly type specialization without type analysis

Dynamically typed programming languages such as JavaScript and Python defer type checking to run time. In order to maximize performance, dynamic language virtual machine implementations must attempt to eliminate redundant dynamic type checks. This is typically done using type inference analysis. However, type inference analyses are often costly and involve tradeoffs between compilation time and resulting precision. This has lead to the creation of increasingly complex multi-tiered VM architectures.  We introduce lazy basic block versioning, a simple just-in-time compilation technique which effectively removes redundant type checks from critical code paths. This novel approach lazily generates type-specialized versions of basic blocks on the fly while propagating context-dependent type information. This does not require the use of costly program analyses, is not restricted by the precision limitations of traditional type analyses and avoids the implementation complexity of speculative optimization techniques.  Three extensions are made to the basic block versioning technique in order to give it interprocedural optimization capabilities. Typed object shapes give it the ability to attach type information to object properties and global variables. Entry point specialization allows it to pass type information from callers to callees, and call continuation specialization makes it possible to pass return value type information back to callers without dynamic overhead. We empirically demonstrate that these extensions enable basic block versioning to exceed the capabilities of static whole-program type analyses.

Keyphrases: JIT, VM, compiler, dynamic typing, optimization, code, analysis, performance
Algorithme de branch-and-price-and-cut pour le problème de conception de réseaux avec coûts fixes, capacités et un seul produit

Many problems in transportation, telecommunications and logistics can be formulated as network design problems. The general problem consists in identifying a subgraph of the network on which facilities are to be built, and the quantities of products to transport on it, subject to a set of constraints, with the objective of minimizing total costs. In this dissertation, the aim is to adress the capacitated network design problem with fixed costs and a single commodity, that we transform into a muticommodity network design problem in order to improve the value of the lower bound of the relaxed model. The proposed method is a branch-and-price-and-cut algorithm with stopping criterion that combines column generation, cutting-plane and branch-and-bound methods. Numerical tests are performed using two groups of instances with different sizes, large and very large. The results are compared to those given by CPLEX, one of the most efficient software tools for integer programming, and to a branch-and-cut algorithm. It is shown that the method we adopted is competitive in particular for very large instances.

Keyphrases: Branch-and-bound, Single-commodity capacitated network design problem, Multicommodity capacitated network design problem, Branch-and-bound, Column generation, Cutting-plane methods
Publics, visibilité et reconnaissance en art contemporain : étude du cas de Ai Weiwei

With contemporary art, we have seen the introduction of the celebrity culture in a relatively hermetic art world. Andy Warhol is the most obvious example, but we can also think about artists such as Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst. They contribute in the making of a new way to create and produce works of art, and also to participate in the complex networks of the contemporary art world. It is in this perspective that this paper examines the particular case of Ai Weiwei, because we find him to be a very interesting case study of the "star-making". He establishes himself in the art world as a real "continual buzz", being that the attention that he personally receives and the interest that his works get did not seem to weaken over the last years. In order to understand the construction of this phenomenon, as well as its extent, we must analyze three necessary elements for the recognition of the artist: first, the public and the issues of taste; then, the authorities in the matter of legitimation in the world of contemporary art; finally, the visibility, especially in the age of Internet and social networks. Based on a framework derived from the sociology of art, this study proposes itself as a reflection on the work of Ai Weiwei, but also on the very status of the artist’s figure in contemporary art.

Keyphrases: Public, Ai Weiwei, Contemporary art, Recognition, Visibility
Imaginer l’Amérique : Québec à travers les vues d’optique des graveurs allemands Habermann et Leizelt

Published during the American Revolution in the Collection des prospects, the perspective views Vuë de la Place capitale dans la Ville basse a Quebec, Vuë de la haute ville a Quebeck, Vuë de la basse Ville a Quebec vers le fleuve St-Laurent, Vuë de la rue des recolets de Quebeck et Vuë de Quebeck were etched by the German engravers Franz Xaver Habermann (1721-1796) and Balthasar Frederich Leizelt (1755-1812). The main goal of this thesis is to show how these five images were perceived as authentic even if the urban scenery that they depict is not topographically accurate. This allows us to highlight the formal constraints stemming from the optical instruments as well as the cultural models prevailing within the dominant perception of the American urban territory at the time of their creation and reception. Analyzing the fictionality of the German engravings also yields clues into the ideological orientations and the collective discourse about Quebec, perceived as a far away land, by a political ensemble which was not exerting direct domination on the colony founded on the shores of the Saint-Lawrence river.

Keyphrases: Perspective views, urban landscape, Quebec (city), german engravings and etchings, Visual Culture of the Eighteenth-Century
L’espace comme matériau : l’architecture moderne et le complexe du Bauhaus à Dessau

The urban space and architectural space are part of our everyday life. We live this spatiality without necessarily taking it into consideration, it belongs to our habits of movement. From the mid-18th century, the city and the architecture will witness many innovative transformations. The modern space will develop a new language that is now familiar to us. This analysis therefore focuses on the transformation undergone by the architecture, and more broadly, by the city, and on the impacts that the arrival of new materials and new technologies will have on the structure. It is in this perspective that the study takes an interest in the architectural complex of the Bauhaus Dessau. Located in northern Germany, the small town of Dessau has been the platform of major architectural changes. Also, we will focus on different interactions between the various western actors (philosophers, artists and architects) working in the same period, in order to consider the possible influences on the development of the architectural researches of Walter Gropius, and specifically, of his complex in Dessau.

Keyphrases: Walter Gropius, Urban space, Architectural modernity, Phenomenology, Walter Gropius, Bauhaus complex in Dessau
Rôle et évolution du rôle logistique des lixae dans les armées romaines

This research aims to clarify the lixae’s logistic role in the Roman armies and it evolution between the end of the Republican period and the Late Empire. Although the lixae are often associated with sutlers and camp-followers, their presence in the armies is not limited to these two roles. This research will first define the civilian context in the Roman armies in relation with the lixae. The etymology and historiography of the lixae will then be treated prior to the description and analysis of their different roles according to ancient sources. The last part of this research will focus on the changing role of lixae in the Roman armies. The hypothesis advanced in this research is that the merchant role of lixae in the armies becomes more specialized over time. Finally, all the ancient sources mentioning lixae are grouped in two catalogs in the appendix of this research.

Keyphrases: Lixa, Roman army, Logistic in Roman armies
Le processus de thermo-érosion du pergélisol dans la zone de pergélisol continu

Ice wedges polygons are very common features characterizing continuous permafrost environments. When concentrated snowmelt runoff recurrently flows into opened frost cracks in ice wedges (or nearby depressions), thermo-erosion of permafrost leading to gullies can occur. In the valley of Qalikturvik on Bylot Island (NU, Canada), rapid development of gullies due to thermo-erosion processes in wet polygons exert the following: i. forced rerouting of drainage networks, changing moisture input in wetlands adjacent to a gullied channel; ii. variation in near-surface thermal regime and moisture; iii. erosion and displacement of thawed soils outside the watershed. The objectives of this thesis are to quantify and widen the understanding of the thermo-erosion gullying geomorphology, the related impacts (as aforementioned in i. ii. iii.) and the role of such erosion in the context of the periglacial landscape evolution on a short to medium timescale.  In this study, gullies are active and dynamic: one gully triggered in 1999 (and monitored since then) elongated at a rate varying between 38 and 50 m/y during the first decade following its initiation. Its total length at the end of that decade (1999-2009) was ~750 m for an eroded surface of ~25 000 m². Sinkholes were exclusive to the active zone of a gully where alluvial levees and collapsed polygons were common in the stable zone. Thirty-five gullies were identified over the polygon terrace featuring the valley floor. 1401 polygons were consequently breached due to thermo-erosion resulting in 200 000 m³ of displaced soils and thawed permafrost.  Gullied areas were characterized by improved drainage conditions, a reduced capacity to retain moisture and a transition from dominantly surface runoff toward channelized flow. Intact wet polygons were homogeneous between each other and in their center; disturbed polygons were heterogeneous (for moisture, thermal regime and vegetation) following a breach of at least one side. Wetland polygons, when disturbed due to gullying, evolve toward an heterogeneous landscape which will become the new equilibrium for that terrain for decades to come.

Keyphrases: Impacts, Hydrologie, Permafrost, Polygon, Ice wedge, Erosion, Thermo erosion, Gully, Impacts, Hydrology, Wetlands
Structure et évolution du pergélisol depuis le Pléistocène Tardif, Beaver Creek, Yukon

The Beaver Creek Road Experimental Site (62º 20’ 20’’ N – 140º 50’ 10’’ O) sits on the Beaver Creek moraine. This landform was already evolving before the Last Glacial Maximum. In a single square kilometer perimeter, its topography, vegetation, soil and cryostratigraphy have been studied with a geosystemic perspective to detail its catena and related structure. Furthermore, the cryostratigraphy has been interpreted considering the literature to suggest a landscape evolution model. Recent changes at the site were integrated in the model to actualize the geosystem’s evolutive trend. This work has shown that the durability of the permafrost is strongly supported by the wetlands associated to flat lowlands. On the one hand, some moraine hillcrests are still slightly outcropping. There, the limited moisture inhibited the development of peat and intrasedimentary ice (<1 m). On the other hand, the depressions are quite flat and extended. They inherited not only of the crest’s eroded sediments, but they also fixed an important quantity of ice and organic matter (>15 m) by the mean of syngenetic permafrost aggradation driven by the climate and preserved by the ecosystem. At least one thermoerosion event occurred before the last syngenetic aggradation stage (Holocene), but was only a partial one. The ongoing global warming threatens to trigger another permafrost degradation stage on the drainage basin scale. On the field unit scale, the land use is already degrading the local ice-rich permafrost.

Keyphrases: Physical geography, Quaternary, Periglacial geomorphology, Geosystem, Ecosystemic cryogenesis, Pedology, Ecology
La mesure alternative d’hostilité dans les relations de rivalité interacteur

The present document explores the phenomenon of interstate rivalry and the measures that quantify its intensity. Each of the existing definitions sheds light on one particular aspect of rivalry. The enduring rivalry emphasizes the role of the militarized competition, the strategic rivalry gives a particular importance to the political leaders’ perception of the enemy, while the interstate rivalry focuses on the salient issues of the rivalry. These different interpretations influence the operationalization of the notion of rivalry and the choice of parameters that are selected to capture its manifestations. We combine those three visions in one definition of interactor rivalry, proposing a new classification of hostile actions and an alternative measure of hostility based on the frequency of the latter. The four following case studies helped us to achieve these goals: the rivalries between Afghanistan and Pakistan, between Armenia and Azerbaijan, between Belize and Guatemala, and between Somalia and Ethiopia.

Keyphrases: Action hostile, Alternative hostility measure, Hostile action, Interactor rivalry, Strategic rivalry, Enduring rivalry, Interstate rivalry, Severity measure
Les interconnexions électriques entre la France et ses voisins européens depuis 1970 : un vecteur méconnu de l'intégration européenne

Transmission networks were first thought one by one, connecting a production surplus to a consumer need. They thus sometimes very naturally and from the outset crossed state boundaries to suit their purpose. The electrical sector reinforced itself strongly as the electric turn was taken. The interconnections between countries were thought by technicians as a basic security measure and balance of this unusual product that is electricity.  In France especially, where nuclear power generation developed from the 1970s, these interconnections gradually became a source of revenue for the national company, and furnished surplus for the national trade balance. The growing interest in the electric power sector by the European institutions in the late 1990s challenged the vertical geographical economic players and shifted the stakes to a framework wider than the nation state.  In these successive transformations, cross-border interconnections, especially across the French borders, play a specific and increasingly structuring rôle for open economies of European countries. The electrical transmission networks continue a transition that began in the 1970s, and took them from being a necessary evil to the status of essential factors of the European economies. The purpose of this thesis is to illustrate the wide adaptability of these industrial, economic, societal and political bodies, apparently immobilized by their capital-intensive nature. It does so by way of issues relating to interconnections at the French borders. Sources are technical data from operators, literature – although rare - on these topics, as well as official statistics from the French ministry. This strong capacity for innovation and development of "service layers " now allows major transportation networks to endure even as their environment changes.

Keyphrases: Europe, Transmission network, electricity, interconnections, network manager