NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
La responsabilité sociale des multinationales lors de licenciements collectifs

This thesis deals with the examination of the elements of influence and decision-making that can describe and explain the behaviour of a multinational firm, during a mass layoff brought about by a plant closure, as measured using the concept of social responsibility. We take as a starting point the nefarious social and economic consequences of mass layoffs on employees and communities as well as the shortcomings of Quebec labour legislation in this regard. Moreover, we establish the link between the nature of social responsibility from a theoretical point of view and the empirical perspective within the framework of a mass layoff process. To arrive at this conclusion, at a theoretical level, through the ethical criteria defined by Garrett and Klonoski (1986), that is, just cause, mitigation of damages and procedural justice, our research has demonstrated that it is possible to determine the social responsibility of a firm from an empirical point of view within the context of a mass layoff. We have also closely examined various theories describing a firm’s social responsibility before finally adopting an instrumental theory of stakeholders. At the methodological level, we relied upon a single case study, that of the partial closure of the Rio Tinto Alcan plant located in Beauharnois, Quebec.  Moreover, it was possible to categorize the approach adopted by this firm under a theoretical taxonomy of social responsibility, thus producing an integrative approach on two levels, local and corporate, derived from our analysis. At the local level, we identified an ethical perspective related to the personal values of the individuals charged with implementing the necessary mechanisms. At the corporate level, an instrumentalist perspective takes precedence. In this sense, to establish the necessary legitimacy, the multinational firm considers itself accountable to both its shareholders and its financiers as well as to the political level (among them municipal and provincial) in order to have access to the resources it both desires and requires for its operations, from which flows the importance of its corporate image. In the natural resources sector, the type of firm must be taken into account, the role and involvement of the political level being of central importance, given that it allows access to the resources that are essential to the survival of the firm.  The contribution of this research lies mainly in the study of the concept of social responsibility through a significant phenomenon in labour relations, that of mass layoffs. This study also expands the usual theoretical domain of labour relations by taking into account a social responsibility framework that allows for the examination of phenomena through a new angle that reflects the current priorities of multinationals within a context of market openness and the search for legitimacy.

Keyphrases: Corporate social responsibility, Globalization, Mass layoff, Multinational, Labour law
Réflexion sur les phénomènes concrets : proposition d'une position concrète animée par l'action de la pulsion léthique

The present thesis sought to contribute to our understanding of mentalisation disorders and, in particular, of the phenomena of concrete thinking. We initially carried out a synthetic recapitulation of the main ideas put forward by the principal theorists who contributed to this problem. We thus reviewed Freud’s work on the actual neurosis, the contributions of Marty and Paris Psychosomatic School, of Nemiah, Sifneos, Taylor and their North American colleagues who suggested the concept of alexithymia, as well as Fonagy and Target’s reflexive function. We then proposed the existence of a concrete position (inducing a definite perspective within a particular experiential organization), whose operation is seen to antedate Klein’s schizoid-paranoid position. Our understanding is articulated around the concept of lethic drive, actually a kind of revision of the death drive and of several proposals as to its nature and mode of operation (Freud, Green, Laplanche, Schmidt-Hellerau). We are thus led to underscore, as key characteristic of the operation of the lethic drive, a crucial unbinding of the psychic subject, which results in a situation of absence or “endopsychic sleep”, within the concrete position. We thus attempted to articulate this internal action within the psychic experience, with hopes to draw a portrait which could encompass the complexity of the human mental world, in its fluidity as well as in its diversity. Further, we described the different impacts of relational trauma on the internal environment and the origin of drives. Each structural element (experience, object relations, defences, anxieties) as found resulting from the exercise of a concrete position is illustrated. A discussion of some technical and counter-transferential issues raised by psychotherapeutic work with subjects dealing with concrete thinking follows.

Keyphrases: Concrete position, Lethic drive, Relational traumas, Clinical cases, Therapeutic Issues
Développer le soutien aux besoins psychologiques des employés : évaluation des effets affectifs, comportementaux et motivationnels d’une formation destinée aux gestionnaires

Although the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000, 2008) provides a pool of knowledge that could be highly useful to help workers and organisations thrive and grow, few studies have focused on assessing interventions introducing such knowledge in practical organisational settings. In this respect, the present dissertation aims to evaluate the impact of a training program for developing psychological needs support skills of managers on work behaviours of these managers as well as on the level of satisfaction of psychological needs, motivation and psychological health of their employees. Hence, 17 managers from Canadian public sector organisations took part in a three-day training program (non-consecutive days). They also completed questionnaires a month prior to training as well as three to four months following training onset in order to assess their learning progresses and psychological needs support behaviours at work. Furthermore, 55 of their employees completed pre-training and post-training questionnaires on their perception of their manager’s psychological needs support behaviours as well as on their own level of psychological needs satisfaction, work motivation and psychological health. The study used a pre-post test non-equivalent group design, without control groups. Such design was further strengthened with internal referencing strategy (IRS) with employees (Haccoun & Hamtiaux, 1994). Results suggest that, insofar as progresses were possible with more traditional training (i.e., that the managers’ improvement potential as compared to their baseline was sufficient and that targeted skills developed properly with such training) managers have increased their psychological need support skills and, based on their perceptions, transferred training at work. However, employees of these managers did not perceive statistically significant changes between both measurement times as regards their manager’s psychological needs support skills, and expected outcomes of training on employees have not been observed. In light of these results, the last chapter of the dissertation discusses the importance of needs assessment, of organisational environment involvement in training initiatives and of additional training methods that are complementary to more traditional trainings to ensure their effectiveness. Furthermore, research contributions, limits and avenues are presented.

Keyphrases: Psychological needs support, Autonomy support, Employee supervision, Work motivation, Self-determination theory, Psychological health, Training, Managers' development, Transfer of training
Mesure des champs de radiation dans le détecteur ATLAS et sa caverne avec les détecteurs au silicium à pixels ATLAS-MPX

The LHC proton-proton collisions create a hard radiation environment in the ATLAS detector. In order to quantify the effects of this environment on the detector performance and human safety, several Monte Carlo simulations have been performed. However, direct measurement is indispensable to monitor radiation levels in ATLAS and also to verify the simulation predictions. For this purpose, sixteen ATLAS-MPX devices have been installed at various positions in the ATLAS experimental and technical areas. They are composed of a pixelated silicon detector called MPX whose active surface is partially covered with converter layers for the detection of thermal, slow and fast neutrons.  The ATLAS-MPX devices perform real-time measurement of radiation fields by recording the detected particle tracks as raster images. The analysis of the acquired images allows the identification of the detected particle types by the shapes of their tracks. For this aim, a pattern recognition software called MAFalda has been conceived. Since the tracks of strongly ionizing particles are influenced by charge sharing between adjacent pixels, a semi-empirical model describing this effect has been developed. Using this model, the energy of strongly ionizing particles can be estimated from the size of their tracks. The converter layers covering each ATLAS-MPX device form six different regions. The efficiency of each region to detect thermal, slow and fast neutrons has been determined by calibration measurements with known sources.  The study of the ATLAS-MPX devices response to the radiation produced by proton-proton collisions at a center of mass energy of 7TeV has demonstrated that the number of recorded tracks is proportional to the LHC luminosity. This result allows the ATLAS-MPX devices to be employed as luminosity monitors. To perform an absolute luminosity measurement and calibration with these devices, the van der Meer method based on the LHC beam parameters has been proposed. Since the ATLAS-MPX devices response and the luminosity are correlated, the results of measuring radiation levels are expressed in terms of particle fluences per unit integrated luminosity. A significant deviation has been obtained when comparing these fluences with those predicted by GCALOR, which is one of the ATLAS detector simulations. In addition, radiation measurements performed at the end of proton-proton collisions have demonstrated that the decay of radionuclides produced during collisions can be observed with the ATLAS-MPX devices. The residual activation of ATLAS components can be measured with these devices by means of ambient dose equivalent calibration.

Keyphrases: Simulation GCALOR, Pattern recognition, Charge sharing effect, Neutron detection efficiency, Luminosity, van der Meer method, Particle fluences, GCALOR simulation, Residual activation, Ambient dose equivalent
L’analogie de l’hérédité culturelle : fondements conceptuels de la théorie de la double hérédité

According to the dual-inheritance theory, processes of social transmission of ideas should allow human cultures to evolve in a Darwinian fashion. This conclusion is obtained by an explanatory inference according to which a profound analogy can be established between the cognitive processes of social learning and those of genetic transmission mechanisms. Not only should we understand social learning as a genuine cultural inheritance system, distinct although complementary to the genetic inheritance system, but, on the basis of the very same analogy, it would also be legitimate to transfer and adapt the theoretical concepts, explanatory formats and formal tools of evolutionary biology to the study of cultural dynamics so as to constitute a Darwinian theory of cultural evolution.  The cultural inheritance analogy has been controversial since it was first suggested. A lack of consensus amongst scientists and philosophers about the proper meaning and epistemic reach of such an analogy has impeded the acceptance that human cultures might evolve. Nonetheless, through the forty years of controversy, the structure of the cultural inheritance analogy has never been systematically scrutinized and its relevance as an epistemic foundation for theory construction seldom examined.  The main objective of this dissertation is to offer a first systematic analysis of the nature, structure, function and epistemic reach of the cultural inheritance analogy as the conceptual foundation of the dual-inheritance theory. By insisting on its logical structure, it is argued here that it is a complex analogy, the complexity of which is often misunderstood by the criticisms levelled against the dual-inheritance theory. It is argued here that the cultural inheritance analogy is in fact composed of two constitutive analogies that conjointly justify and organize a Darwinian research program of cultural evolution.

Keyphrases: culture, analogie, evolution, inheritance, analogy, darwinian theories of cultural evolution, dual-inheritance theory, memetics
Cohomologie de fibrés en droite sur le fibré cotangent de variétés grassmanniennes généralisées

In this thesis, we study the cohomology of line bundles on cotangent bundle of projective varieties. To be more precise, let $G$ be an semisimple algebraic group which is simply connected, $P$ a maximal subgroup and $\omega$ a dominant weight that generates the character group of $P$. Our goal is to understand the cohomology groups $H^i(T^*(G/P),\mathcal{L})$ where $\mathcal{L}$ is the sheaf of sections of a line bundle on $T^*(G/P)$. Under some conditions, we will show that there exists an isomorphism, up to grading, between $H^i(T^*(G/P),\mathcal{L})$ and $H^i(T^*(G/P),\mathcal{L}^{\vee})$.    After we worked in a theoretical setting, we will focus on maximal parabolic subgroups related to nilpotent varieties. In this case, the Lie algebra of the unipotent radical of $P$ has a structure of prehomogeneous vector spaces. We will be able to determine which cases verify the hypothesis of the isomorphism by showing the existence of a $P$-covariant $f$ in $\comp[\nLie]$ and by studying its properties. We will be interested by the singularities of the affine variety $V(f)$. We will show that the normalisation of $V(f)$ has rational singularities.

Keyphrases: application moment, covariant, maximal parabolic subgroup, moment map, class group, reflexive module, cohomology, prehomogeneous vector space
Les neurosciences cognitives du langage, de l'autisme et des styles cognitifs

The present thesis comprises a set of three research articles (two studies and one review article) on the cognitive neuroscience of language, all of which were written with the purpose of understanding the benefits that contemporary (neuro)linguistic theory may draw from an extensive study of the cognitive and neural processes underlying Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and vice versa. Two studies are presented, using event-related brain potentials, which provide preliminary evidence in typical individuals for two aspects of sentence processing in need of future investigation in ASD participants: (1) The neural correlates of the peculiar syntactic and semantic nature of verbs of experience (Experiencer Subject verbs, i.e., The girl has feared the storm) as opposed to verbs of action (Agent Subject verbs, i.e., The boys have eaten the fries) and their potential interface with Theory of Mind – the ability to attribute mental states to self and others – known to present delays and impairments in autism, and (2) the neural correlates of “visual imagery” skills, as assessed through the Raven Matrices, on comprehenders’ ability to detect word category violations (e.g., He made the meal to enjoy with friends/He made the enjoy to meal with friends) in a balanced visual paradigm and their potential insights into the role of visual imagery in language comprehension, known to play a potentially predominant role in ASD. The review article attempts to provide a larger perspective on the role of the cognitive neuroscience of ASD in the biology of language, in which the importance of considering autism as a “cognitive style” rather than as a disorder is given greater value, especially relative to the common notion of autism solely as a Theory of Mind impairment. Aside from their potential prospects for future research in autistic populations, these three articles also attempt to frame their topic of inquiry into the broader context of contemporary research questions on language development and language comprehension, such as the role of animacy in language processing (the “semantic P600” debate), asymmetric sampling theories of speech and music perception, the role of vision in language, modularity, cognitive styles or Bayesian inference.

Keyphrases: Language, Autism, Event-related Potentials, Thematic Animacy Reversals, Theory of Mind, Cognitive Styles, Word Category Violations, Cognitive Neuroscience
Faiseurs de féeries : mise en scène, machinerie et pratiques cinématographiques émergentes au tournant du XXe siècle

The goal of this dissertation is to renew our historical view of the exchanges occurring between theatre and early film practices at the turn of the twentieth century, by questioning the ideas of primitive cinema, credulous audiences and precinematic forms. Our research aims to put more specifically Georges Méliès’ féeries back into the institutional framework of the parisian theatre, in order to show how these films are part of the history of techniques which were used at the Châtelet, the Gaîté and the Folies-Bergère. Previous studies have generally postulated that theatre and cinema were, from the very beginning, two rival art forms. However, our historiographical approach differs from this assumption, seeing the relationship instead as that between an old cultural institution and a brand new technology. We think our understanding of early cinema could be improved if we acknowledge that the kinematographic technology belonged to the broad cultural series of luminous attractions appearing with the emergence of electric lighting. In the first part (« The spectacle of electricity »), we study lighting practices and habits of vision that helped féeries’ spectators to understand and enjoy early cinema. In the second part (« The illusion of technique »), we investigate how the integration and hybridization of technologies in féeries led theatre workmen to use the kinematograph on stage. In the third part (« The art of kinematography »), we prove that early cinema aesthetics has been shaped by rules of creation and assessment criteria belonging to the institution of theatre, such that films could already be seen by spectators and critics as artistic forms. The main challenge of this research is to offer a more accurate vision of the history of theatre in its relation to technologies and, in particular, to this new machine that was, at the time, the kinematograph.

Keyphrases: Féerie, Technologies, Georges Méliès, History, Aesthetics, Cinema, Theatre, Féerie, Staging, Technologies, Machinery, Editing, Georges Melies
De la télé-oralité à la télé-visualité : évolution de la fiction télévisuelle québécoise du téléroman à la sérietélé (1953-2012)

The thesis has two parts. In the first, noting, on the one hand, that reference publications on Québec’s television fiction are rare, and, on the other hand, that television studies suffer from a lack of works on aesthetics, it advances a new approach. The televisual fiction is the subject of aesthetic evolution driven by two apparatus and punctuated by three degrees of expression. It evolves from an apparatus where the sound prevails through tele-hearing to an apparatus where the image predominates within the tele-eying. The televisual fiction achieves the journey through three degrees of expression: from the zero-degree, the monstration of the speech, called the tele-orality, to the second-degree, the enunciative image, called the tele-visuality, through the first-degree, a transilient oscillation, called the tele-duality. It remediates the aesthetic path of the fiction film from earlysm to auteurism half a century later. In the second part, the thesis applies the theoretical model to the téléromanesque corpus. It shows that Québec’s television fiction evolves from téléroman to sérietélé, through the télésérie and an epistemic trilogy. At the end of the reflexive journey, a conclusion emerges: the current Québec’s television fiction is taking full part in what appears to be since the new millennium the television's art age.

Keyphrases: Monstration, Téléroman, Québec, Television studies, Televisual fiction, Orality, Visuality, Television, Monstration, Enunciation, TV series, Quebec
La guerre contre-insurrectionnelle guatémaltèque : sa généalogie, le déni des responsables et les sources historiques

Central America, said to have harboured the Cold War’s last pitched battles, is the world’s most violent place today, according to the United Nations. This dissertation studies the form of irregular warfare that the Guatemalan state waged against its own population during the second half of the twentieth century. Through an analysis of a few extant perpetrator accounts as well as military and police sources, this study sheds light on the three main modes by which the Guatemalan government acted against individuals justly or falsely suspected of conspiring against an exclusionary status quo: kidnapping, torture and summary executions. Combined, these three separate acts constituted a covert apparatus of repression which, beginning in 1966, proved immensely efficient. As the weapon of choice for the practitioners of counterinsurgency warfare for over twenty years, the apparatus, not unlike a production line, allowed for the accumulation of intelligence that was essential for the prosecution of this kind of war, as well as the bodies that, in their perpetual absence or desecrated presence in the public domain, served as a deadly warning to the entire social body. Yet, what are the origins and history of this apparatus of state terror? Starting with the cited references in the Guatemalan military’s counter-insurgency field manual, the answer to this question led to French paratroopers for whom military defeat in Indochina and Algeria in the 1950s was not an option, and for whom victory justified all means necessary. The penchant of the pioneers of this form of no-holds-barred warfare for lectures, interviews and articles allowed us to study the methods they encouraged and to identify their tell-tale signs in Guatemala. While the war that justified the existence of this apparatus has ended, its reputable efficiency has allowed it to persevere among those who can afford to pay for its services today. In this sense, if the war has been formally over in Guatemala for over fifteen years, the counter-insurgency continues. This dissertation traces the roots of irregular warfare and how it played out in Guatemala. Historical sources, including state records and perpetrator accounts, make denial of the crimes committed in urban and rural settings, including genocide in 1982, ring hollow. Finally, present warning signs indicate that on-going violence and impunity in the country could lead to the repetition of such crimes in the future.

Keyphrases: Guatemala, Contre insurrection, Algeria, The Battle of Algiers, Cold War, Counter-insurgency, Atrocity crimes, Genocide, Perpetrator accounts