NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Analyse épistémologique du potentiel créateur de la
sélection naturelle ;
entre darwinisme et postdarwinisme

This thesis proposes an epistemological analysis of the creative power of natural selection. The aim will be to determine to what extent it is legitimate or not to give to this selection such power. To do this, we will have to know if the selectionist explanation can answer the question of the origin of structural forms of life. In the first chapter, we will see the reasoning leading Darwin to give a creative power of natural selection. We will then understand that an exclusively Darwinian framework is maybe unable to address the problem of evolutionary novelty. In the second chapter, we will see in a Darwinian way that it is possible to retain the essence of Darwinian theory and to give natural selection a creative power, although two of the fundamental Darwinians pillars must be questioned. In the third chapter, we will see in a post-Darwinian way that the cumulative power of natural selection is maybe unable to explain adaptation at individual level, challenging seriously the creative power of natural selection. We will then understand that the debate, between supporters of a positive view and supporters of a negative view of natural selection, may depend on a particular metaphysical assumption.

Keyphrases: Natural selection, Creative power, Explanatory power, Darwinism, Darwinian tripod, Positive view, Negative view, Variational explanation, Developmental explanation, Origin essentialism
L’Assistance Ventriculaire définitive : un groupe de cOdéveloppement profeSsionnel en Soutien aux sOins INfirmierS pour développer des compétences éthiques- Projet A-VOS-SOINS

-In Canada, ventricular assist device (VAD) (a mechanical cardiac support system) for destination therapy (DT) is a treatment that is newly offered to advanced heart failure patients, ineligible for heart transplant. This new treatment meets the growing needs given the increasing incidence of heart failure, related in part to the aging population, and given the number of organ donors lower than the number of people waiting for a new organ. In response to this new treatment, a different nursing role has emerged to support these patients before and after its surgical implantation. However, nurses, as well as other professionals, are often challenged in their own values regarding VAD for DT. This can be due to different perceptions held by the patients, their families, and the care team about the benefits of the treatment versus the human costs. To help nurses better manage these situations, an Action Learning Group (ALG) based on Payette and Champagne’s (2010) approach (co-development) was implemented in a tertiary cardiac care center. Its aim was to promote co-learning in a group setting among professionals, and to promote the implementation of solutions identified. The purpose of the present project was to apply an ALG to support nurses in developing abilities and competencies in ethical thinking. In the present project, the central concerns emerged from the nurses’ own lived experiences regarding VAD for DT. Seven nurses mainly from a medical intensive care unit were encouraged in thinking and analyzing ethical concerns encountered in their practice. They were than invited to get engaged in the research and the implementation of solutions. Among the main topics discussed in this ALG are  included the impact of priors negatives experiences in regard to the accompaniment of patients in their decision-making process surrounding the DT-VAD, the helplessness experienced by nurses in difficult care situations and other topics. Ethical elements were addressed in each situation using Saint-Arnaud’s (2009) approach by principle in Health Sciences. Solutions relevant to the needs of nurses emerged from the discussions.

Keyphrases: destination therapy, heart assist device, Heart Mate 2, clinical ethic, nursing ethic, ethical concern, ethical problem, co-developement, reflective practice, action learning group
Lignes d'argumentation de la littérature relative à la non-initiation, l'arrêt de traitement, et l'euthanasie de patients inaptes

Medical decision making is often occurring at the end of life of inapt patients. We wished to learn about and appreciate the ethical arguments concerning these difficult decisions. Our objective was to understand and evaluate these lines of argument. To reach this objective, we have listed and analyzed lines of argument as they were presented in scientific articles, including the sections correspondence and commentary of scholarly journals. In order to avoid that our results are too much influenced by the specifics of one given clinical problem, we decided to analyze distinct clinical settings. The specific subjects studied are the non-initiation of antibiotic treatment for demented patients suffering from pneumonia, and active euthanasia of severely affected newborns following the Groningen protocol. Our analysis of the indexed lines of arguments from debates dealing with these specific subjects has revealed common characteristics. First, the issued argumentations had a strong normative tendency. Second, the indexed argumentation was principally oriented towards the patient himself, while largely excluding the interests of others.    We found that none of the indexed normative lines of argument was compelling. Moreover, we found that the systematic exclusion of arguments based on the interests of others entailed the impossibility to evaluate them, and potentially to exclude them definitively from the considerations. It was thus also impossible to evaluate their potentially concealed persistence as a driving force motivating the decisions made. In order to illuminate these conclusions, we have written a commentary inspired by the lines of arguments evoked in the context of the treatment withdrawal of Terri Schiavo, a patient in persistently vegetative state.       We believe that the use of lines of argument that render decisions intelligible, without however aiming at immediate normativity, could contribute to a better mutual understanding between the participants of such debates. Such argumentation also seems, in our opinion, more adapted to take the complexity and uniqueness of each single clinical case into account. We believe that such argumentation could better describe the respective motivations of the participants in the decision, and thus increase its transparency. Increased transparency would reinforce the confidence in the authenticity of the debate, and thus better legitimate clinical practice.

Keyphrases: end of life decisions, forgoing treatment, euthanasia
Le jeune téléspectateur, objet de discours social : le cas du Chili «post-1990»

This thesis examines the contemporary child television viewer phenomenon. I challenge this « reality » which is the subject of everyday life discourse and social practices. Since the advent of television, the notion of an « objective » existence of a child television viewer has been so fertile that it has even contributed to the development of a sub-domain in communication studies: Children, Youth and the Media. I examine this sub domain as well.   The thesis attempts to outline a theoretical approach to the child television viewer, understood as a social and discursive formation. Following Michel Foucault’s (1969) analysis of discourse, the study articulates two of the elements that are involved in the social construction of objects: the regime of truth and the discursive formations. I consider the child television viewer as an object of knowledge and truth, and as the product of a set of discursive formations.  I challenge on an empirical level this phenomenon in the « post-1990 » Chile, through a methodological and analytical approach that allows me to articulate the heterogeneous elements involved in the shaping of the child television viewer. This exploratory tool is the « rhizome », borrowed from Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (1976). « Rhizome » allows me to enter through multiple gateways into discursive formations of the child television viewer. Once inside, as a researcher I move in multiple directions and see different modalities of the social construction happening therein. These modalities produce multiple figures of the child television viewer emerging from the articulation of the discourse and of the social practices.   I suggest an Archive of the child television viewer in Chile « post-1990 », showing the specifics of the discursive formations and the assorted figures that have risen to surface throughout the rhizomatic process of research. Finally, I present a set of discursive practices that have also emerged from the analysis. These practices employ the figure of the child television viewer to discursively establish other « realities » that do not concern him/her directly. Borrowing from Jean-Michel Berthelot (1992), I name these practices « discursive operator ».

Keyphrases: Child Television Viewer, Discursive Formation, Broadcasting Regulatory Policy, Contemporary Ideas of Childhood, Rhizomatic Analysis of Discourse, Regime of Truth, History of Ideas, Foucault, Chile
Évaluation de l’intégration "forme urbaine – transports durables" dans les trois grandes régions métropolitaines canadiennes : nouvelle approche exploratoire

An integrated planning approach to urban development and sustainable transportation is key to managing car travels and mitigating car dependency, which are two essential elements to the sustainable development of metropolitan areas. This research focuses on the recent evolution of urban form in the three Canadian metropolitan regions of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, through the lens of the planning paradigm of “urban form – sustainable transportation” integration. Our research strategy centered on the elaboration of an analytical framework that would enable the full measurement and assessment of the planning paradigm. This framework takes advantage of analytical capabilities offered by geographic information systems (GIS), as well as by common Internet tools of “virtual place exploration” such as Google Earth. The result was an original, multidimensional and multi-scale methodological approach. Its application enabled specific urban form analyses for each of the studied metropolitan regions, structured around three main perspectives: their overall performance (around 2006), performance of their metropolitan fringe, and the evolution of their performance between 2001 and 2006. Our comparative analyses revealed that Vancouver ranks first in all three perspectives, while Montreal ranks third overall, mainly because of a particularly weak performance of its periphery. Globally, the three regions show a poor integration between urban form and sustainable transportation networks and suffer from high levels of car dependency, especially at their periphery. Despite the presence of adequate planning objectives, their urban form deficiencies and relatively weak progresses leave us to anticipate that the predominance of car dependency is there to stay in the near future. It appears vital that public stakeholders show more “lucidity”, or “maturity”, in face of tough evidences that that reveal how hard the implementation of their policy objectives is, as well as the dichotomy between these same objectives and what can be actually observed “on the ground”. A mandatory step towards improved and, maybe, more effective planning policies is a full recognition of the limits of the actual planning paradigm and of the huge challenge that a shift in trends represents. This would imply a greater transparency in the policy evaluation area, along with coordinated efforts to support the development and dissemination of high-quality data on urban form and urban transportation, improved monitoring tools, etc. All this could induce a new synergy among all stakeholders involved either in urban research, urban development or urban planning and transportation policies. An improvement to our own methodological approach could also benefit from such advances, being of many potential avenues for the ongoing exploration of the issue in Canadian metropolises.

Keyphrases: Urban form, Sustainable transportation, Geographic information systems, Indicators, Assessment, Canadian metropolitan regions
Modélisation des liens entre des variables
associées à l’environnement scolaire et la performance à l’écrit en français des finissants du secondaire au Québec

The ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport (MELS) of Quebec publishes every year educational indicators which describe many aspects of the school system. Although the MELS insists for elementary and high schools to have good results in terms of the effectiveness of their performance, the indicators that are used presently by the school’s system are not designed to appreciate their performance. A research by the MELS shows that secondary five high school students have some difficulty with two criteria (syntax and punctuation, spelling) out of the six for the French language examination (MELS, 2008). The actual research focuses on the modeling of links between school environment and student performances in the Montreal area over a period of three years. By using data from the MELS for years 2006, 2007 and 2008, this study investigates the relations between variables characteristics of student and school with the student performances. The analysis used descriptive statistics of the variables for each of the three years. We complete the analysis by doing some multilevel multivariate analysis. The results of this study indicated that there is a relative stability in student performances over the three years with a slight improvement in 2007 which continue in 2008. Students from the private sector performed better than those of the public sector. The girls continuously have better results than the boys over the three years period. Students with French as their mother’s tongue do have better results than those with mother’s tongue different than French. Nevertheless, some nuances are necessary for better understanding the interpretation of the results. Moreover, the part of variation in student performances is responsible for about 75,0 % to student level and for about 25,0 % to school level. We note some differential effects of student and school factors on the criteria considered. The student variables are responsible for about 13,9 % of the total variance in syntax and punctuation and for about 9,8 % in spelling. School variables are responsible for 3,7 % for the total variance in student performance for syntax and punctuation and for about 6,4 % for spelling. Some school factors, like the size of the school, the mix sex school do not seem to have any significant link with students’ performances.

Keyphrases: Indicators, Statistics, Multilevel multivariate analysis, Modeling
Biomethanation of syngas: identification of metabolic pathways from CO in a natural anaerobic consortium

Syngas produced through the thermal gasification of biomass for energy recovery has received increased attention in the past decades due to its higher efficiency compared to other bioenergy processes. The gas components of syngas, CO and H2, can serve as substrates for the conversion of desirable chemicals and fuels, namely methane, by a wide range of microorganisms. Meanwhile, anaerobic wastewater-treating sludges have been reported as good sources of carboxidotrophic microorganisms which can be exploited for methane production. Thus it is important to investigate existing methanogenic consortiums which, in syntrophy, are able to convert syngas into useful fuels. This study is mainly focused on the assessment of the carboxidotrophic methanogenic potential present in a natural consortium of microorganisms from a UASB reactor and the identification of CO conversion routes to methane under mesophilic temperatures. To achieve this, a series of kinetic-activity tests with the anaerobic sludge were performed under CO partial pressures varying from 0.1 to 1.65 atm (0.09-1.31 mmol/L) in both the presence and absence of specific metabolic inhibitors. The non-adapted sludge presented an interesting carboxidotrophic activity potential for growing conditions on CO alone. Inhibition experiments with 2- bromoethanesulfonic acid (BES) and vancomycin showed that CO was converted mainly to acetate by acetogenic bacteria, which was further transformed to methane by acetoclastic methanogens. Moreover, it was possible to achieve higher methanogenic potential under 100% CO by acclimation of the sludge. This adaptation led to a shift in the microbial population predominated by hydrogenophilic methanogens. This suggests a possible enrichment potential with anaerobic biofilms for large scale methane production from CO-rich syngas, and further advances the knowledge base for anaerobic reactor development.

Keyphrases: UASB, Carbon monoxide, Synthesis gas, Anaerobic conversion, Biomethanation, Hydrogenophilic methanogens, Granular UASB sludge
Algorithmes pour la reconstruction de génomes ancestraux

Ancestral genome inference is a decisive step for studying genome evolution. Knowing genomes from extinct species, one can propose biological mecanisms explaining divergences between extant species genomes. Various methods classified in two categories have been developped : distance based methods and synteny based methods. The state of the art of distance based methods only permit a certain repertoire of genomic rearrangements, thus synteny based methods are more appropriate in practice for the time being. We propose a synteny method for ancestral genome reconstruction based on a relaxed defenition of gene adjacencies, permitting unequal gene content in extant genomes caused by gene losses and whole genome duplications (WGD). Simulations results demonstrate our method’s ability to form a more assembled solution rather than a collection of contiguous ancestral regions (CAR) with respect to other methods, while maintaining a good reliability. Applications on data sets from yeasts and cereal species show results agreeing with other publications, notably the existence of nested chromosome fusion during the evolution of cereals.

Keyphrases: Algorithms, Ancestral genomes, Whole genome duplication, Synteny, Genomic distance
Étude de cas sur la dynamique motivationnelle d’élèves à risque du 3e cycle du primaire et de l’influence du jeu éducatif numérique en mathématiques sur celle-ci

The phenomena of school dropouts remains an area of grave concern in North American society, and one that is particularly present among boys. Our research aims to better understand the motivational dynamics of elementary school boys considered “atrisk” (Student Subjects = 11). Our research, both theoretical and practical, analyses the influence of an educational video game called "Math-a-Maze" on the motivational dynamics of boys at-risk, when learning mathematics. This is a case study with a mixed approach to data collection. Our sample of students represents four types of motivational dynamics : 1) Students that struggle in mathematics, 2) Students that are disengaged, 3) Students that are disengaged and that struggle in mathematics, and, 4) More complex cases. Our analysis revealed that “Math-a-Maze” generated great interest and enthusiasm among all students in our sample. The influence of this learning tool on the motivational dynamics of our subjects was more pronounced for students displaying motivational dynamics 2 and 3, "disengaged" or “disengaged and struggling in math” and some students of more complex cases. For example, our results indicate that this educational game could have a positive influence on the student’s sense of competency, and thus, their self-confidence in the subject. In order to more thoroughly explore the possible influences of this teaching method however, more in-depth research is suggested, over a longer period of time, in a natural classroom environment and with a larger sample of students at-risk.

Keyphrases: Motivation, Etude de Cas, motivational dynamic, digital-game based learning, educational game, at risk students, case study, learning, Math-a-Maze
Le grenadier tunisien (Punica granatum) stimule  le transport de glucose dans les cellules musculaires C2C12 via la voie insulino-dépendante de l’Akt et la voie insulino-indépendante de l’AMPK

Diabetes is a major public health problem worldwide with astounding human and economic consequences. The seed and the flower of pomegranate (Punica granatum), a native plant of Central Asia and the Mediterranean regions, exhibited a hypoglycaemic effect in in vivo studies. However, the underlying mechanisms have not yet been elucidated. The aim of this project was to evaluate the effect of the flower and the fruit (at 3 maturation stages) of pomegranate on glucose transport in skeletal muscle cells and to determine the molecular mechanisms involved in this effect. To accomplish this, we chose two varieties of pomegranate cultivated in Tunisia (Gabsi [GB] and Espagnoule [EP]), which have been shown to be highly consumed in that area and to possess high antioxidant activity. Differentiated C2C12 cells were treated for 18 hours with 80% ethanolic extract of the flowers and fruits (at 2, 4, and 6 months) of each variety. Our results showed that the Gabsi variety of pomegranate significantly enhances glucose uptake, without any toxicity. This effect is more pronounced in the ripe fruit (6 months) than in the flower. In parallel, the ripe fruit stimulated both the insulin-dependent pathway (Akt) and the insulin-independent pathway (AMPK), while the flower stimulated the latter only. In addition, both flower and ripe fruit treatment resulted in enhanced expression level of GLUT-4 glucose transporter in the muscle. Hence, these results suggest that regulation of glucose transport in skeletal muscle is one of the components involved in the anti-diabetic effect of Tunisian pomegranate.

Keyphrases: Pomegranate, Punica granatum, Punica granatum, Glucose uptake, Muscle, Akt,AMPK,Glut4, Diabete, Diabetes
Cognitive deficits in alcoholism

Background: The cognitive repercussions of alcoholism are well documented. However, the literature remains somewhat ambiguous with which distinct cognitive functions are more susceptible to impairment in alcoholism and to how duration of abstinence affects cognitive recovery. Some theories claim alcohol negatively affects specific cognitive functions while others assert that deficits are more diffuse in nature. We performed the first meta-analysis to examine cognition in alcoholism and how duration of abstinence affects cognitive recovery. Methods: A literature search yielded 62 studies assessing cognitive dysfunction among alcoholics. Effect size estimates were calculated using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis V2, for the following 12 cognitive domains: intelligence quotient, verbal fluency/language, speed of processing, working memory, attention, problem solving/executive functions, inhibition/impulsivity, verbal learning, verbal memory, visual learning, visual memory, and visuo-spatial abilities. Within these 12 domains, 3 effect size estimates were calculated based on abstinence duration and partitioned into short- (<1 month), intermediate- (2 to 12 months) and long- (>1 year) term abstinence. Results: Findings revealed moderate impairment across 11 cognitive domains during short term abstinence with moderate impairment across 10 domains during intermediate term abstinence, and overall small effect size estimates during long term abstinence. Conclusions: Results suggest significant cognitive dysfunction during the first year following abstinence from alcohol and that long term abstinence yields near normalisation of cognitive function. These findings support the diffuse brain deficits hypothesis. Clinical implications suggest that cognition may need to be considered an integral part of the treatment of alcoholism.

Keyphrases: Alcoholism, Cognitive deficits, Meta-analysis