NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Predictive values of neurological examination, otoscopic examination and brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) in calves with otisis media-interna

Currently, the antemortem diagnosis of otitis media-interna is based upon the presence of appropriate clinical signs and adjunctive diagnostic imaging including radiography and computed tomography. The purpose of this prospective study was to evaluate predictive values of neurological examination, otoscopic examination and BAER in calves for the diagnosis of otitis media-interna using computed tomography as the gold standard. The second objective was to define BAER reference values in normal calves and to describe BAER abnormalities in calves affected with otitis media-interna. Seventeen Holstein calves between 5 and 7 weeks of age were included. All calves had a neurological examination, otoscopic examination and BAER. Calves were sedated with intravenous xylazine (0.05-0.15 mg/kg [0.02-0.07 mg/lb]) for computed tomography of the tympanic bullae to evaluate for the presence of otitis media-interna. Based upon computed tomographic results, 11 of 17 calves were affected with otitis media, 4 unilaterally and 7 bilaterally. Five waveforms were consistently identified on BAER traces from 6 normal calves. The positive predictive value of BAER, neurological examination and otoscopic examination were 94.7%, 91.7% and 66.7% respectively. Clinically, the most reliable non-invasive diagnostic test to diagnose otitis media-interna in the calf is the BAER. Abnormalities were observed on BAER before the development of neurological deficits in approximately 40% of calves allowing earlier diagnosis.

Keyphrases: Calf, BAER, Computed tomography, Otitis media-interna, Xylazine, Xylazine
Therapeutic potential of endothelin receptor type A and bradykinin receptor B1 dual antagonism in osteoarthritis treatment

The author's laboratory has previously shown that endothelin-1 (ET-1), a 21-residue vasoconstrictive peptide, plays a central role in joint tissue metabolism, and has a catabolic function in matrix collagen degradation in osteoarthritis. These effects occur primarily through ligation of the endothelin-1 receptor A subtype (ETA). The subsequent release of the nonapeptide vasodilator bradykinin (BK) in the joint microenvironment, and up-regulation of bradykinin receptor B1 (BKB1) expression, engenders a vicious cycle of synovial membrane inflammation, articular cartilage destruction, and joint pain. In the present work, we describe a preclinical study of the efficacy of treatment of surgically induced osteoarthritis with ETA and/or BKB1 specific peptide antagonists. We hypothesize that antagonism will diminish osteoarthritis progress and articular pain.  Osteoarthritis was surgically induced in rats by transection of the anterior cruciate ligament. Animals were subsequently treated with weekly intra-articular injections of specific peptide antagonists of ETA and BKB1. Hind limb pain was measured by the static weight bearing test for two months post-operatively. Post-mortem, knee joints were analyzed radiologically and histologically.  Local antagonist treatment diminished overall limb pain, and accelerated postoperative recovery, after disease induction. Treatment also protected joint radiomorphology and histomorphology, with dual antagonism being slightly more protective.  ETA and BKB1 dual antagonism improves chronic pain and prevents joint degradation in osteoarthritis. They therefore represent a novel therapeutic target: specific receptor dual antagonism may prove beneficial in disease management.

Keyphrases: inflammation, osteoarthritis, pain, endothelin, bradykinin, animal model, peptide antagonist
Inter and intra-specific differences in medicinal plant use for the treatment of type II diabetes symptoms by the Cree Elders of Eeyou Istchee (QC)

In Canada there is an overwhelming prevalence of type II diabetes in First Nations communities. Here an ethnobotanical approach has been used in cooperation with the Cree Nation of Eeyou Istchee to focus on finding plant based treatments for the conditions which collectively make up the symptoms of diabetes. The pharmacopoeias of two Cree communities (Waskaganish and Nemaska) are elucidated then compared with previously studied populations (Whapmagoostui and Mistissini). Despite differences in north-south east-west geography, plant ranking and use matrices were similar with the exception of Nemaska/Whapmagoostui. We have also completed the evaluation of Black spruce (Picea mariana) needle, bark and cone cytoprotectivity. Extracts from all organs exhibited concentration-dependent protection. Organ-specific response was habitat and growth environment dependent with plants grown either in bog or forest habitats in coastal or inland environments exhibiting differences in efficacy. Observed bioactivity correlated with total phenolic content but not with antioxidant activity. Together, these results contributed to the understanding of antidiabetic activity of Canadian boreal forest plants identified by the Cree of Eeyou Istchee healers at the cellular level.

Keyphrases: neuropathie, Picea mariana, cytoprotection, medicinal plants, type II diabetes, neuropathy, Picea mariana, ethnobotany, antioxidant, phenolics, cytoprotection, Aboriginal, PC12-AC cells
Les traits de personnalité peuvent-ils distinguer différents types de décrocheurs scolaires potentiels à l'adolescence?

Adolescents’ school dropout is an alarming phenomenon which has several negative consequences for the youth themselves and for society as a whole.  Empirical studies outlined the importance of considering school dropouts as a group of adolescents displaying heterogeneous profiles.  Consequently, a number of researchers proposed typologies of school dropouts during adolescence, including Janosz (1994; Janosz, Le Blanc, Boulerice, & Tremblay 2000).  Using three indicators of adolescents’ school adaptation (school engagement, school indiscipline, and academic achievement), Janosz identified four types of potential school dropouts, namely the Quiets, the Disengaged, the Low-achievers, and the Maladjusted.  Predictive studies conducted to date showed that these different types proposed by Janosz can be distinguished on different classical individual and environmental risk factors of school dropout.  However, it is not know if these potential school dropout types can be distinguished on an important factor, namely personality traits.  Thus, this study aimed at evaluating if adolescents’ personality traits (Openness, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Emotional stability) could predict membership in the four school dropout types proposed by Janosz et al. (2000), controlling for the effect of several classical risk factors of school dropout.  Data were drawn from the New Approaches New Solutions (NANS) longitudinal study, which counts over 40 000 adolescents from 69 high school in Quebec (Canada).  The sample that was used in this study (N = 4980) was composed of pupils aged 14 to 16 years assessed in 2006-2007.  Adolescents filled out questionnaires in group during a class period.  Different multinomial logistic regression models controlling for the hierarchical nature of the data confirmed that personality traits predicted membership in the different dropout types, and this, over and above the effect of several classical risk factors of school dropout.  The results suggest that theories of school dropout could integrate personality traits and also that they could be used for screening adolescents at risk of dropping out of high school.

Keyphrases: Adolescence, School dropout, Typology of school dropouts, Risk factors, Personality traits, Adolescence
Les enfants autochtones en protection de la jeunesse au Québec : leur réalité comparée à celle des autres enfants

Canadian Aboriginal populations have for a while experienced difficulties that influence their actual lives. Research in Canada and elsewhere in the world acknowledges the overrepresentation of aboriginal children in child welfare services. In Canada, the overrepresentation of aboriginal children in child welfare services is mostly explained by the existence of risky life conditions rather than by the hypothesis of differential treatment of aboriginal children by child welfare. The actual study adds knowledge concerning child maltreatment in the aboriginal children population and the way Québec child welfare responds to aboriginal children by an examination of their overrepresentation, their differences with other children and the predictors of out-of-home placement. Using administrative data of Québec child welfare services, the overrepresentation of aboriginal children is first verified at three steps of the child welfare trajectory: the retained reports, the substantiated cases and the out-of-home placements. Aboriginal children are compared with other children on personal, family, parental and services characteristics. Predictors of out-of-home placement for children receiving child welfare services are finally investigated, with a specific attention to the aboriginal status in that prediction. Results reveal an increase in the overrepresentation of aboriginal children as they progress in the different steps of child protective services trajectory. These children live more often with hard life conditions and have to face more risk factors than other children. The importance of aboriginal status in out-of-home placement decisions remains substantial, even when many other characteristics increasing out-of-home placement risks are added. The complexities to access primary care in aboriginal communities or the influence of an unmeasured variable, such as material or economic poverty are possible explanations. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Keyphrases: Placement, Aboriginal children, Child maltreatment, Child welfare services, Overrepresentation, Out-of-home placement
Models and algorithms for the capacitated location-routing problem

The capacitated location-routing problem (CLRP) arises as a key problem in the design of distribution networks. It generalizes both the capacitated facility location problem (CFLP) and the multiple depot vehicle routing problem (MDVRP), the ﬁrst by considering additional routing decisions and the second by adding the location decision variables. In this thesis we use different mathematical programming tools to develop and specialize new models and algorithms for solving the CLRP. In Chapter 3, three new models are presented for the CLRP based on vehicle-ﬂow and commodity-ﬂow formulations, all of which are shown to dominate, in terms of the linear relaxation lower bound, the original two-index vehicle-ﬂow formulation [19]. Known valid inequalities are complemented with some new ones and included using separation algorithms that in many cases generalize extisting ones found in the literature. Computational experiments suggest that ﬂow models can be efﬁcient for dealing with small or medium size instances of the CLRP (50 customers or less). In Chapter 4, a new branch-and-cut-and-price exact algorithm is introduced for the CLRP based on a set-partitioning formulation. The pricing problem is a shortest path problem with resource constraints (SPPRC). In particular, we consider a relaxation of such problem in which routes are allowed to contain cycles of length three or more. This is complemented with the development of new valid inequalities that are shown to be effective for closing the optimality gap as well as to restrict the appearance of cycles. Computational experience supports the fact that this method is now the best exact method for the CLRP. In Chapter 5, we introduce a new metaheuristic with the aim of ﬁnding good quality solutions in short or moderate computing times. First, a bundle of good solutions is generated with the help of a greedy randomized adaptive search procedure (GRASP). Following this, a blending procedure is applied with the aim of producing a better upper bound as a combination of all the others in the bundle. An iterative destroy-and-repair method is then applied using a location-reallocation model that generalizes the reallocation model due to de Franceschi et al. [48].

Keyphrases: location-routing, branch-and-cut, branch-and-price, metaheuristic
Un protocole de diffusion des messages dans les réseaux véhiculaires

Nowadays, the car has become the most popular mode of transport, but unfortunately its use is accompanied by a number of problems (accidents, pollution, congestion, etc.). These problems will get worse with the increase in the number of passenger cars, despite very significant efforts made to reduce the number of road deaths, which is still very high. Wireless networks for vehicles called VANET (Vehicle Ad Hoc Networks), were developed when it became possible to connect several mobile vehicles without relying on pre existing communication infrastructures. These networks have currently become the subject of increased attention from manufacturers and researchers, due to their potential for improving road safety and/or offering assistance to drivers. They can, for example, alert other drivers that roads are slippery or that an accident has just occurred.  In VANETs, broadcast protocols play a very important role compared to unicast protocols, since they are designed to communicate important safety messages to all nodes. Existing broadcast protocols are not reliable and suffer from several problems: (1) broadcast storms, (2) hidden nodes, and (3) transmission failures. These problems must solved if VANETs are to become reliable and able to disseminate messages rapidly.  The aim of our research is to solve some of these problems while ensuring the best compromise among reliability, guaranteed transmission times and bandwidth (Quality of Service: QoS). The research in this thesis focuses on developing a new technique for managing medium access. This protocol incorporates the centralized management approach involving stable clusters. In this technique, time is divided into cycles; with each cycle being shared among the control and service channels, and is divided into two segments. The first is based on TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) while the second is based on CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance) to manage access to the medium. Furthermore, our protocol adaptively adjusts the time consumed in broadcasting safety messages, thereby improving channel capacity. It is implemented in the MAC (Medium Access Control), and centralized in stable cluster heads that are able to adapt to the dynamics of vehicles. This protocol  provides a centralized and efficient use of time intervals for an exact number of active vehicles, including hidden nodes/vehicles. Our protocol also provides time intervals dedicated to security applications for providing access to communication channels, and also reduces overhead via directed diffusion of data. Keywords: Ad-hoc networks, VANET, Vehicle, Periodic Safety Messages, broadcast protocols, contention-free.

Keyphrases: sans contention, Ad Hoc Network, Vehicular, Periodic Safety Messages, broadcast protocols, contention-free, Clustering Stability, Communications Overhead, Cluster Residence Time
Se lier, se délier : deux films documentaires face au pardon

In this study we strive to show how the notion of relationship, conjured up by the documentary, is challenged by the act of forgiving in two films depicting executioners. Is it possible to conceive of a filmic project that would be at the same time ethical and include the participation of former criminals? Such is the question raised by the filmmakers Avi Mograbi and Rithy Panh. The purpose of our research will be to highlight instances where forgiveness unfolds, both explicitly and implicitly, in the documentary form. We will thus try to understand how the films "Z32" and "S21 la machine de mort khmère rouge" find a social, political and aesthetic existence, from shooting to reception. In this way the symbolic and performative potential of the act of forgiving will be revealed in its relation to the reconstruction of the bond with the other.

Keyphrases: Documentary film, Rithy Panh, Avi Mograbi, Z32, S21, Forgiveness, Executioner
Sélection et polymorphisme chez des grenouilles mimétiques du Pérou (Dendrobatidae)

The diversification of aposematic signals in Müllerian mimicry systems is a puzzling phenomenon. Although aposematism and mimicry are expected to promote uniformity in warning signals, impressive variations may be observed among populations at relatively small spatial scales. It has been suggested that spatial variation in selective pressures caused by predators might be responsible for this phenomenon.  In order to test this hypothesis, we studied the transition in the aposematic signals of the mimetic poison-dart frogs of Northern Peru (Dendrobatidae) between two geographical systems characterized by distinct aposematic signals. This was done by combining population genetics and ecological tools. In both systems, Ranitomeya imitator is sympatric with either R. ventrimaculata or R. variabilis. This system is recognized as a rare example in support of the hypothesis for advergence: R. imitator, which is polymorphic, is believed to mimic distinct sympatric monomorphic model species. However, our results do not support the hypothesis for advergence of the aposematic signals by R. imitator. The genetic similarity between the model species suggests that they have diverged more recently than R. imitator populations or that they are still connected by gene flow. These results indicate that these species were misidentified as being different species. As such, the identification of the mimetic species based on phenotypic variability is invalidated in this system, since R. imitator is as variable as R. variabilis/ventrimaculata.  Also, our results demonstrate that predation pressure is spatially variable, in both intensity and direction, thus creating a heterogeneous selective landscape. As such, strong and directed stabilizing selective pressures maintain the geographic organisation of aposematic signals and explain phenotypic uniformity and mimetic relationships. Relaxation of these selective pressures enables for the appearance of novel aposematic phenotypes and promotes high phenotypic variability via neutral evolutionary processes. The interaction between these selective regimes has enabled us to demonstrate, and this for the first time, how the Wright’s shifting balance theory of evolution may promote adaptive diversification in a natural system.  In conclusion, this study highlights just how dynamic Müllerian mimicry systems can be. The interplay between neutral evolutionary processes and natural selection enables for the predominance of novel aposematic phenotypes at a local scale, and the geographical organisation of warning signals and Müllerian relationships.

Keyphrases: Ranitomeya, structure spatial, diversification, Aposematism, mimetism, phenotypic advergence, spatial structure, spatial structure, diversification
Association entre l'insécurité alimentaire et les apports en nutriments chez les Premières Nations de la Colombie-Britannique

The aim of this study was to verify the association between food insecurity and dietary intake of First Nations living on reservations in British-Columbia and to assess interactions of traditional food in the relationship between food insecurity and dietary intake. We analyzed data for 493 women and 356 men in 21 First Nations communities in British-Columbia using a 24h-food recall and the Health Canada adapted version of the HFSSM Food security questionnaire from the First Nations Food, Nutrition and Environment Study (FNFNES). We did not find any association between food security and total dietary intake for women and for men. However, traditional food was found to be interacting in the relationship between food security and total dietary intake for many nutrients for men and women. For First Nations women, diet quality could have a major impact in the relationship between food insecurity and dietary intakes. For men, differences in dietary behaviours could have been associated to a lack of traditional food in the worse cases of food insecurity. Moreover, interactions of traditional food in the relationship between food security and total dietary intake leave us to believe that men and women, from moderate food-insecure and food-secure households, add this kind of food to their daily intake whereas men and women from serious food-insecure households seem to replace commercial foods with traditional foods.

Keyphrases: Autochtones, Adultes, Canada, First Nations, Food intake, Dietary intake, Food insecurity, Food security, Traditional Food, British-Columbia, Adults, Canada
Homogeneity and heterogeneity of political traditions in the remaking of world order

The central purpose of this research is a revaluation, two decades after the 1991 demise of the USSR, of Francis Fukuyama's 1989 "End of History" theory, which postulates that with the fall of the USSR no major ideology is a challenger to the domination of liberal capitalist democracy; and of Samuel P. Huntington's 1993 "Clash of Civilizations" theory that postulates the existence of a finite number of antagonistic homogeneous civilizations. When confronted with the actual unfolding of historical events, these two absolute and uncompromising theories appear increasingly relative. Two questions were researched: the interaction between Ideology and Historical conditions in the case of Fukuyama, and that of the presupposed Intra-civilizational homogeneity and Inter-civilizational antagonistic heterogeneity. This research, not dismissing them totally, comes to the conclusion that they constitute the two opposite poles of a continuum that encompass most types of interactions between polities. First, this thesis comes to the conclusion that ideologies and their relative weight are part of a broader picture rather than absolutes in themselves, as Fukuyama argues. Furthermore, the study of Maoist China and especially of the thoughts of Mao Zedong strongly suggests the heterogeneity of political traditions locally, contrary to Huntington's thesis. In other words, interactions between polities seem more dynamic than the simplistic linear approaches of Fukuyama and Huntington.

Keyphrases: Fukuyama, Huntington, Mao Zedong, China, Clash of Civilizations, End of History, Fukuyama, Huntington, International relations, Mao Zedong, Nation building, Political traditions, State building