NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
By indirections find directions out : thinkable worlds in Abbott and Vonnegut

This thesis is concerned with the interaction between literature and abstract thought.  More specifically, it studies the epistemological charge of the literary, the type of knowledge that is carried by elements proper to fictional narratives into different disciplines.  By concentrating on two different theoretical methods, the creation of thought experiments and the framing of possible worlds, methods which were elaborated and are still used today in spheres as varied as modal logics, analytic philosophy and physics, and by following their reinsertion within literary theory, the research develops the theory that both thought experiments and possible worlds are in fact short narrative stories that inform knowledge through literary means. By using two novels, Abbott’s Flatland and Vonnegut’s The Sirens of Titan, that describe extra-dimensional existence in radically different ways, respectively as a phenomenologically unknowable space and as an outward perspective on time, it becomes clear that literature is constitutive of the way in which worlds, fictive, real or otherwise, are constructed and understood.  Thus dimensions, established through extensional analogies as either experimental knowledge or modal possibility for a given world, generate new directions for thought, which can then take part in the inductive/deductive process of scientia.  By contrasting the dimensions of narrative with the way that dimensions were historically constituted, the research also establishes that the literary opens up an infinite potential of abstract space-time domains, defined by their specific rules and limits, and that these different experimental folds are themselves partaking in a dimensional process responsible for new forms of understanding. Over against science fiction literary theories of speculation that posit an equation between the fictive and the real, this thesis examines the complex structure of many overlapping possibilities that can organise themselves around larger compossible wholes, thus offering a theory of reading that is both non-mimetic and non-causal.  It consequently examines the a dynamic process whereby literature is always reconceived through possibilities actualised by reading while never defining how the reader will ultimately understand the overarching structure.  In this context, the thesis argues that a causal story can be construed out of any one interaction with a given narrative—underscoring, for example, the divinatory strength of a particular vision of the future—even as this narrative represents only a fraction of the potential knowledge of any particular literary text.  Ultimately, the study concludes by tracing out how novel comprehensions of the literary, framed by the material conditions of their own space and time, endlessly renew themselves through multiple interactions, generating analogies and speculations that facilitate the creation of new knowledge.

Keyphrases: Thought experiments, Possible worlds, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Edwin Abbott Abbott, Flatland, The Sirens of Titan, Compossibility, Science fiction, Epistemology, Space-Time
La communication d'élèves malentendants intégrés en classe ordinaire au Québec

For more than three decades, school authorities have encouraged the education of children with hearing loss in inclusive settings. Despite the use of technologies such as hearing aids and FM systems and because of a series of factors influencing verbal communication conditions, hearing-impaired students integrated in mainstreamed classes experience periods of non-optimal amplification that can hamper learning activities. Only a few studies have been conducted by taking the students’ points of view into consideration. This study aims at 1) documenting the perceptions that mainstreamed hearing-impaired students using amplification and allowed to a FM system have or have reported to professionals of their communication situations in class, 2) describing the context in which communication conditions occur, 3) identifying the compensatory strategies known or used by students and speakers while they participate in class activities. This multiple-case study combines qualitative and quantitative data collected from in-depth interviews with eight hearing-impaired students, from short interviews with each student’s teacher and main professional, and from observation sessions during which the level of noise in the classroom were measured and the positions of the teacher were noted. The data were analyzed longitudinally to describe the students and transversely to compare the students. The results showed that hearing-impaired elementary school students can talk about their classroom communication situations; often, for the most difficult ones, students relate all of their difficulties to the speaker and the environment, and not to themselves. As for the context, the results showed that teachers were mostly far from the students and not facing them, that formal teaching was not often done, and that classrooms were noisy. Furthermore, teachers mention that they didn’t have enough information in order to fully help these students. Teachers and students also use different communication strategies, but these strategies are not always efficient in improving communication. All of these results point to solutions for improving classroom communication and the context in which students learn by increasing knowledge and collaboration between the different actors.

Keyphrases: Perceptions, Communication, Observation, Mainstreaming, Elementary school, Hearing-Impaired, Children, Hearing aids, FM systems, Perceptions, Communication, Interview, Observation
Synthèse d’un inhibiteur de la rénine, l’aliskiren et développement de méthodes catalytiques d’alkylation asymétrique

A new synthetic route toward aliskiren, a potent renin inhibitor for the treatment of hypertension in man, was achieved. In this approach, the use of key steps such as an asymmetric allylation catalyzed by one of MacMillan’s catalysts, a ring closing metathesis for the formation of a 9-membered lactone and a catalytic aziridination/diastereoselective acid-catalyzed ring rearrangement reaction sequence leading to an aminohydroxylated product permitted us to achieve an 11-step synthesis of aliskiren. While elaborating the sequence towards the inhibitor, the tendency of the cyclic intermediate to rearrange through a quinonoid intermediate was observed. The products of the rearrangement were analyzed. Furthermore, studies exploring the formation of the nine-membered ring lactone demonstrated a dependency on the diastereomeric nature of the substrates.  A new allylation methodology was explored for the preparation of aliskiren, in which a palladium catalyzed decarboxylative asymmetric alkylation took place in the presence of a chiral PHOX ligand. The scope of the reaction was studied varying substituents on acyclic alpha-allylketones and an additive effect was noticed with respect of the reaction rate and selectivity. In addition to the preparation of molecules with pharmaceutical interest, few experiments to elucidate the role of the additive in the allylation reaction were investigated.  Inspired by our observation of quinonoid formation and our use of the palladium asymmetric allylation method to generate an alpha-stereogenic center, we anticipated that a diastereoselective synthesis of a key intermediate for the synthesis of aliskiren could be accomplished by introducing a nucleophile on a quinonoid intermediate from the least hindered face, under catalytic and acidic conditions. Gold(III) chloride and bismuth(III) triflate were found to be especially efficient as catalysts, showing kinetically controlled differentiation in the reactivity of diastereomeric alpha-substituted benzyl alcohols.

Keyphrases: Complexe pi-allyle de palladium, Renin inhibitor, Nine-membered ring lactone, Asymmetric allylation, Pi-allyl palladium complex, Acid catalysis, Gold catalyst, Bismuth catalyst, Diastereoselective alkylation
Vers des assemblages de complexes métalliques oligonucléaires, servant d’antenne solaire au niveau moléculaire

This research project involves synthetic metallosupramolecular systems developed to mimic the natural process of photosynthesis. Ideally, these systems would be able to provide the energy and the charge separation needed to catalyze multielectron-transfer reactions, such as water-splitting or carbon dioxide reduction. The realization of such a catalytic system would create a renewable energy source, in the form of chemical energy, created directly from solar energy. The system envisioned has three distinct parts in the form of an antenna. First of all, chromophores go into an excited state, while capturing the visible light energy of the Sun. Then comes a hub which binds all the chromophores and collects this excited state energy through an electron transfer. This electron is then transferred again to the last part, a catalytic reaction center. This assembly creates a charge separation between the chromophore and the reaction center which are separated by the hub, thus avoiding the recombination of charge. The project focuses on the synthesis, characterization and application in photocatalysis of chromophore-hub-catalyst assemblies. First of all, a study of fluorene and rhenium based chromophores was made to assess the electronic transfer between these two components. Then, tetraamidinate rhodium dimer based hubs have been created and studied in order to establish their photophysical and electrochemical characteristics. Then one of these assemblies was formed with chromophores of rhenium, thus creating discrete molecular species containing one to four chromophores. And finally, these assemblies were combined with a cobalt-based catalyst and were tested for hydrogen photoproduction. The latter required the development of a photoreactor which is also described in detail in this thesis.

Keyphrases: chromophore, transfert de charge, rhodium, cobalt, rhenium, charge transfer, isomerization, Suzuki coupling, photophysics, electrochemistry, density functional theory, Hammett parameter, Taft parameters, solvatochromism, hydrogen, photocatalysis, gas phase chromatography
Synthesis of polyelectrolyte brushes on silica-based substrates through surface-initiated polymerization : brush characterization and responsiveness to variation in pH and ionic strength

Polyelectrolyte (PE) brushes are interesting objects for many advanced applications because they are capable of changing their conformation and, consequently, their surface properties in response to applied environmental conditions. The control over the main brush parameters such as thickness, composition, and macromolecular architecture is essential to get well-defined grafted polymers. This is possible by Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (SI-ATRP) that allows preparing polymer brushes in a well-controlled manner from covalently immobilized initiator layer. The first example of direct synthesis of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) brushes using water-mediated SI-ATRP from a siloxane-modified mica surface was demonstrated. By attaching a fluorescent tag to PAA and applying Total Internal Reflection Fluorescent microscopy, the monitoring over PAA degrafting in real-time was possible. Environmental conditions of pH≥9.5 with added salt were found to be critical for substrate-initiator linkage stability resulting in polymer detachment. In order to shield from hydrolysis the sensitive substrate-initiator bond and prevent undesired polymer degrafting, a hydrophobic polystyrene (PS) spacer between initiator and responsive PAA layer was introduced. The obtained PS-block-PAA brushes were stable under extreme conditions of pH and ionic strength. The pH responsiveness of obtained block copolymer brushes was studied in situ by ellipsometry and the evidence of PAA reversible pH-induced switch from collapsed to extended conformation was provided. Also, the essentially different brush conformations as a result of interaction of PAA block with metal cations of different valency were obtained. Studied block copolymers present a promising responsive material for rapid switching. Additionally, it was demonstrated that phosphonic acid ATRP initiator could be used as an alternative to organosilanes.  The phosphonate initiator was successfully grafted for the first time to silica surface and water-mediated ATRP was applied to synthesize PAA and poly(sulfopropyl methacrylate) brushes. The confirmed resistivity of Sisubstrate-O-Pinitiator bond towards hydrolysis in a wide range of pH from 7.5 to 10.5 allowed investigating the friction properties of PAA brushes under different environmental conditions using the Surface Forces Apparatus. Despite PAA brushes stability at high applied load, friction studies revealed non-significant changes in friction coefficient with pH and ionic strength.

Keyphrases: Conformation brosse, Ellipsometrie, Polymer brush, Poly(acrylic acid), Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization, Brush conformation, pH- and ionic strength responsiveness, Ellipsometry, Brush degrafting and stability, Surface properties, Siloxane initiator
Essays in labor and public economics

In my thesis, I use compelling research designs to address important public policy issues. My first chapter estimates the causal impact of the party allegiance (Republican or Democratic) of U.S. governors on labor market outcomes. I match gubernatorial elections with March CPS data for income years 1977 to 2008. Using a regression discontinuity design, I find that Democratic governors are associated with lower average individual earnings. I provide evidence that this is driven by a change in workforce composition following an expansion in employment of workers with low and medium earnings. I also find that Democratic governors cause a reduction in the racial earnings gap between black and white workers through an increase in the annual hours worked by blacks relative to whites. My second chapter analyze how shootings in high schools affect schools and students using data from shooting databases, school report cards, and the Common Core of Data. The chapter is co-written with Dongwoo Kim. We examine schools’ test scores, enrollment, and number of teachers, as well as graduation, attendance, and suspension rates at schools that experienced a shooting, employing a difference-in-differences strategy that uses other high schools in the same district as the comparison group. Our findings suggest that homicidal shootings significantly decrease the enrollment of students in Grade 9, and reduce test scores in math and English. We find no statistically significant effect for suicidal shootings on any outcome variables of interest. Using student-level data from California, we confirm that some of the effects on student performance occur as a result of students remaining enrolled and not only due to changes in student body composition.                                                           My third chapter investigates the impact of school mobile phone policy on student performance. The chapter is co-written with Richard Murphy. Combining a unique dataset on autonomous mobile phone policies from a survey of schools in four cities in England with administrative data, we investigate the impact of imposing a mobile phone ban on student performance. Our results indicate an improvement in student results after a school bans the use of mobile phones; this suggests that mobile phones distract learning and imposing a ban limits this problem.

Keyphrases: Technologies, Shootings, Education, Student Performance, Mobile Phones, Techonology, Regression Discontinuity, Earning Gap, Difference-in-Difference, Labor Market, Political parties
Attitudes stigmatisantes envers les personnes vivant avec le VIH : développement et validation d’un instrument de mesure intégrant un dispositif participatif

Background: A measurement scale is generally evaluated in terms of validity and reliability. However, the dynamic and evolutive nature of certain issues, such as the stigmatization of people living with HIV (PLHIV), suggests that it is particularly important to rapidly reinvest the knowledge into practice that has been obtained using validated measures.  Objectives: The purpose of this thesis was to develop and validate a scale to assess stigmatizing attitudes towards PLHIV by integrating a steering committee into the process. Part of this thesis uses the data collected from a survey of attitudes towards PLHIV in Quebec. Three studies were conducted to achieve the three following objectives: 1) to validate the revised version of a measurement scale to assess stigmatizing attitudes towards PLWHA in the general Quebec population; 2) to analyze the relationship between stigmatizing attitudes and HIV testing in the general Quebec population, and 3) to describe and analyze how members of a steering committee used and disseminated knowledge produced by a research project. Methods: A steering committee made up of partners from various communities was formed once funding was obtained. The committee was actively involved before, during, and after the population telephone survey (n=1500) was conducted to collect the data. The Stigmatizing Attitudes towards People Living with HIV/AIDS Scale (SAT-PLWHA-S) was validated using psychometric analyses: exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, correlations, multiple linear regression, t-tests, hypothesis testing of factorial structure invariance, and Cronbach’s alphas (objective 1). The association between stigmatizing attitudes and HIV testing were tested using sequential logistic regression (objective 2). The dissemination and use of knowledge among professional networks were analyzed using a retrospective case study (objective 3). Results: The results revealed three significant findings. First, from a psychometric standpoint, the SAT-PLWHA-S is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring stigmatizing attitudes towards PLHIV. Second, one form of stigmatizing attitudes, concern about occasional contact with PLHIV, appeared to act as a barrier for HIV testing in the general Quebec population. Third, a steering committee appear to foster rapid translation of research results into concrete public health actions. Conclusion: These results shed light on the contribution of a steering committee to the validation of a measurement scale. The joining of scientific and practitioners’ concerns appears to be a promising avenue for improving the quality and relevance of data generated by such measures.

Keyphrases: validation, measurement scale, HIV, stigmatization, testing, steering committee, knowledge transfer
Les jeux du dissemblable : folie, marge et féminin en littérature haïtienne contemporaine

Since the second half of the twentieth century and the turn of the millennium, why have representations of madness and the feminine proliferated in the Haitian literary landscape? Whilst reflecting on the broad tendencies that brought together the expression of catastrophe, the unravelling of meaning and the emergence of important feminine characters and figures in works of all genres, I will question madness, margins and the feminine in contemporary Haitian literature as concurring expressions of dissimilarity. Examining Haitian literary works, I want to propose a reading on the rhetoric postures and performances of dissimilarity and the manner in which they point towards an outsideness of literature: the unspeakable “thing” that signals – from within – the (im)possibility of the text, the (im)possibility of reading and creation. To achieve this purpose, I have chosen to construct a reading on limits (of the text, of the norm) that also considers its own contestation. Chapter one is built around the novel « Folie » by Marie Chauvet. It addresses the topic and rhetoric of madness while taking note of important aesthetic configurations that I suggest set the stage for contemporary Haitian literature. I also address methodological problems arising when “reading” madness as “absence d’œuvre” (Foucault). Intersecting Chauvet’s writing with the theoretical contributions of Felman, I specify my approach as a compromised or involved reading. In the second chapter, I paint the portrait of the contemporary Haitian general context using the essential anthologies of Davertige and Frankétienne. These two works allow me to address the notion of “limits” while considering the forms and issues created by the fabrications of margins, traumatic memory and madness. I therefore approach the contemporary Haitian context as a complex panorama and as a problem, both shaped by and shaping literary subjectivities. Finally, in the third chapter, analysing the more recent texts of Jan Dominique and Lyonel Trouillot, I reflect on hidden genealogies that perpetuate previously identified configurations when the feminine, as dissimilarity, negotiate a place on the side of margins or madness. The reflection I propose on destinations, the absent or impossible oeuvre allows me to differentiate the specificities of margins and madness, and most importantly, to glimpse, while reading the literary text, at the essential absence where creation risks itself. Thus, dissimilarity becomes the fleeting object of my compromised reading. A critical reading, which compromises itself with creative writing, in a decisive attempt to subvert theory, forcing it to unveil its own rhetorical play, to reveal its possible failure while making it eloquent.

Keyphrases: Folie, Marges, Absence d’œuvre, Madness, Margins, Feminine, Creative Writing, Haitian Literature, Contemporary, Traumatic Memory, Dissimilar, Impossible Text
Genetic determinants of clinical heterogeneity in sickle cell disease

Sickle cell disease is a monogenic disease caused by a mutation in the β-globin locus. Although it is a monogenic disease, it shows a high clinical heterogeneity. Environmental and genetic factors are thought to play a role in this heterogeneity. It has been observed that a high fetal hemoglobin (HbF) levels correlates with a diminution of the severity and mortality of patients with sickle cell disease. The goal of my project was to identify genetic modifiers of the clinical severity of sickle cell disease. First, I performed the fine-mapping of three regions previously associated with HbF levels. Second, I performed genome-wide association studies with two clinical complications of sickle cell disease as well as with HbF levels. Since no new loci reached array-wide significance for HbF levels, I performed a pathway analysis to identify additional HbF loci of smaller effect size that might implicate shared biological processes. Finally, I performed the analysis of 19 whole exomes from Jamaican sickle cell disease patients with very mild complications. In conclusion, given the sample size of the replication cohorts available, we do not currently have the means to statistically validate the association signals. However, these results provide good candidate genes for functional studies and for future replication. Our results also suggest that β-hydroxybutyrate in endogenous levels could influence HbF levels. Furthermore, we show that fine-mapping the loci associated in genome-wide association studies can identify additional signals and increase the explained heritable variation.

Keyphrases: Sickle cell disease, Fetal hemoglobin, Genome-wide association study, Whole-exome sequencing, Pathway analysis