NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Analyse du raisonnement covariationnel favorisant le passage de la fonction à la dérivée et des situations qui en sollicitent le déploiement chez des élèves de 15 à 18 ans

To better understand the transitional challenges between high-school and post-secondary education, we propose a study of the passage from the notion of function to the notion of derivative. Based on numerous studies on the difficulties related to this passage and, more specifically, on the work of Carlson and colleague’s (Carlson, 2002; Carlson, Jacobs, Coe, Larsen & Hsu, 2002; Carlson, Larsen & Jacobs, 2001; Oehrtman, Carlson & Thompson, 2008) on covariational reasoning, we present an analysis of the dynamics of the development of covariational reasoning. By submitting four different problem-situations to small groups of students ending secondary school and beginning college (15-18 years old), we were able to examine that development. On one hand, the analysis of the reasoning of those students allowed us to refine the grid proposed by Carlson, bringing out, not only the reasoning units used by those students during the proposed activities, but also their role in the dynamic of the reasoning. On the other hand, this analysis reveals the influence of certain characteristics of the situations on the non-linear interactions between those units.

Keyphrases: Covariation, Variable, Mathematics education, Function, Derivative, Covariational reasoning, Rate of change, Modeling
Finalités de l'enseignement de l'histoire et nation dans les représentations sociales des enseignants d'histoire du Québec au secondaire

History education has been the object of many debates in Québec and around the world almost since it was introduced in schools. The adoption of a new history curriculum in Québec in recent years sparked a particularly intense debate. These discussions even triggered a revision of the new curriculum, not even ten years after it was put into place. Nation and collective memory are at the heart of the discussions. For many, the new curriculum does not adequately transmit basic historical facts about the origins of the nation to students. Our research tries to better understand the place of national identification in Québec history education and the impact that the curriculum can have on that aspect of teaching. We have put into place two different methodologies to try to find answers to that question: one qualitative and one quantitative. We thus aim to identify the history teachers' social representations about the objectives of history education and the role national identification plays in it. To do that, we have analyzed the subjects' responses according to Audigier's (1995) framework, which identifies three types of objectives to history education: national and civic, intellectual and critic as well as practical. The qualitative phase of our research consists of height interviews with history teachers at the secondary level. These interviews present the profiles of height teachers who integrate the national past in their own way into their teaching practices. The data collected during that phase of the research allowed us to create a survey that served as the main tool of the quantitative phase. In total, 36 history teachers took the survey and the results show that national and civic objectives of history education remain at the forefront, despite the curriculum change.

Keyphrases: Nation, Québec, History teaching, Social representations, History education
The hypotensive effect of exercise on IOP : an interaction of physical fitness and parasympathetic efficacy

After over 100 papers on post exercise reductions in IOP it is known that under a vast number of exercise protocols, of differing intensities and durations, the hypotensive effects of exercise on IOP are attenuated in the physically fit. A proposed mechanism is the parasympathetic nervous system that potentially increases in efficacy with physical training. The general objective of this thesis was to further tease apart those factors that contribute to post exercise reductions in IOP and to elucidate possible mechanisms.     Study 1, a meta-analysis, was conducted to quantify the relative contributions of intensity and duration to the effect of exercise on IOP and the degree to which these variables affect sedentary and normally active populations. A pattern of results emerged such that those persons who are Sedentary experience a greater drop in IOP after aerobic exercise than those who are physically fit (ES = -4.198 mm Hg and -2.340 mm Hg, respectively). A lack of pre-exercise control over covariates such as fluid ingestion was also observed.   Hyperosmolarity (a side effect of dehydration) is one of the proposed mechanisms driving the hypotensive effect of exercise. Study 2 compared reductions in IOP in both a hypo-hydrated (water restricted) and hyper-hydrated condition before, during and after an ergocycle ride of 90 minutes. After an initial decrease in both conditions, IOP returned to baseline in the Hypo-hydrated condition despite a significant loss of bodyweight and increased in the Hyper-hydrated condition as a result of the hydration protocol.    Given the high level of physical fitness among our participants in Study 2, Study 3 was designed to further elucidate the relationship between physical conditioning and IOP. Using correlational analyses we observed the relationship between a test of VO2max and an average of IOP measurements made over the course of eight weeks. A significant relationship existed only for those participants in the upper range of the fitness continuum.     Conclusion. The results of the current study suggest that the hypotensive effect of exercise on IOP is likely a homeostatic response to dysregulation of the aqueous humor caused by the initiation of exercise and pre-exercise fluid intake protocols.

Keyphrases: intraocular pressure, exercise, physical fitness, fluid intake, intensity, dehydration, homeostasis, sedentary, Glaucoma, physical activity
La jeunesse comme enjeu politique au cinéma états-unien contemporain : pour une polis audiovisuelle

This research is about the political properties of the audiovisual media, focusing on cinema as a specific practice, in front of a concrete problem: marginalized youth in contemporary American society, which is symptomatic of a loss of hope for the future. Guided by Hannah Arendt’s political theory, the arguments start with two film analyses: a first one of Larry Clark’s Kids (1995) concerns the social invisibility of youth, and audiovisual media’s faculty to confront the spectator. The second one takes a look at the systematized power to which youths are submitted in a bureaucratic educational establishment, as it is featured in Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (2003), and examines media’s capacity to bring the viewer to think. Third and last, a more overall reflection on the current situation of film culture within the audiovisual field dominated by mass entertainment explores the possibility of an audiovisual polis. This last part pursues the themes discussed in the two former ones in a politic perspective, directly based on Arendt’s thoughts: they lead to considerations on appearance and durability of the world, which are the main functions of the polis, as well as considerations on the spectator’s role.

Keyphrases: Polis, Kids, Elephant, Contemporary cinema, Conflict between generations, Audiovisual media, Youth in cinema, Cinema and politics
Le sang du ciel, un témoignage-fiction pour interroger la vérité

The purpose of this research is to reflect the notion of truth in the discursive economy of testimony. This study examines, on the one hand, the critical or academic discourses and, on the other, the literary discourse itself. The first part defines the nature of the problem, particularly with references to notion of truth and verisimilitude. As the basis of comparison, the analysis introduces three authors who will be points of refernence throughout the research: Primo Levi, Jorge Semprun, and Charlotte Delbo. At the outset, this study presents the general lines of the two discursive economies' evolution, from the very first survivor accounts (the 40's and the 50's) to the narrative turning point symbolized by Eichmann's trial. This latter coincides with the publication of a unique literary account: Blood from the Sky, of Piotr Rawicz. The second part examines the critical and academic reception of Rawicz's novel, which revolved around the work's fictionality. This foray into hermeneutics allows for indentfying free stages of criticism, varying according to time periods and countries. Finally, the last part aims to show that Blood from the Sky is a witness account conceived as an aesthetic project whose modernity does not stop at refusing to say what is at issue. On the contrary, the novel asks questions of its own time and dares to broach topics that the general consensus we should avoid.

Keyphrases: Shoah, Rawicz, fiction, testimony, literature modernity
Les paradoxes de la lutte contre la corruption en Afrique : cas du Bénin et du Rwanda

Democratic regimes are often praised in the general discourse reproduced by international institutions and assumed by the main political actors in the world as a great weapon for the fight against corruption and good governance. However, the analysis of two african countries, Benin and Rwanda, seems to indicate that it is the country with the least democratic system that succeed the best in the fight against corruption. Against all expectations, in fact, Rwanda despite the often decried authoritarianism of his government, outperforms Benin, often applauded for its successful democratic transition. This trend is confirmed by most indicators of corruption. This finding, challenges the starting assumptions, and then forces us to wonder about the source of the performance of Rwanda. This memory precisely demonstrates that the relationship between the nature of the political regime and the effectiveness of the fight against corruption is far from automatic. The rules of the political game within the regime and the quality of anti-corruption institutions implemented can have a major influence on the success or failure of measures against corruption.

Keyphrases: Rwanda, institutions, Benin, Rwanda, fight against corruption, institutions, political regimes
Étude de l’impact de la pression pulsée sur la réactivité cérébrovasculaire

While in vivo arterial blood pressure in cerebral arteries is pulsatile, in vitro cerebral arterial function is generally assessed under a static pressure. Thus, whether pulse pressure regulates cerebral endothelial shear stress sensitivity and myogenic tone is unknown. We hypothesized that a physiological pulse pressure induces a better flow-mediated dilation and optimized myogenic tone. The aim of this study was to test in vitro the impact of pulse pressure on myogenic tone and eNOS-dependent flow-mediated dilation in mouse cerebral arteries. Using a custom computer-controlled pneumatic system generating a pulse pressure (used at 30 mm Hg, rate of 550 bpm) coupled to an arteriograph, isolated posterior cerebral arteries from 3-month old C57Bl/6J mice were pressurized at 60 mm Hg, either in static or pulse pressure conditions. Shear stress from 2 to 20 dyn/cm2 was applied and flow-mediated dilation measured. Without pulse pressure, myogenic tone was low but potentiated by both L-NNA (eNOS inhibitor) and PEG-catalase (catalyses H2O2), suggesting an influence of eNOS-derived dilator products on myogenic tone. Pulse pressure significantly increased myogenic tone, independently of L-NNA and PEG-catalase, suggesting that pulse pressure prevents the impact of eNOS. In both static and pulse pressure conditions, cerebral arteries did not dilate to shear stress in the presence of L-NNA or after endothelial denudation, confirming the endothelial origin of the dilatory response. Up to 15 dyn/cm2, shear stress elicited similar flow-mediated dilation in static and pulse pressure conditions; at 20 dyn/cm2, however, flow-mediated dilation were higher in the presence of pulse pressure. PEG-catalase reduced flow-mediated dilation in static but not in pulse pressure, suggesting that in static conditions eNOS is responsible for O2 -/H2O2 production. Indeed, eNOS-derived O2 -/H2O2 production was measured during flow-mediated dilation in static pressure, while pulse pressure promoted eNOS-derived NO production. Differences in flow-mediated dilation between static and pulse pressure conditions were abolished after Nox2 inhibition. In conclusion, pulse pressure modulates cerebrovascular eNOS activity: at rest, pulse pressure inhibits eNOS, increasing myogenic tone. In the presence of flow, pulse pressure permits a shear stress-dependent eNOS-derived NO release, leading to higher flow-mediated dilation.

Keyphrases: pulse pressure, flow-mediated dilation, myogenic tone, shear stress, nitric oxide, hydrogen peroxide
Qu'importe  : une faute au texte ;  suivi de Mécanismes et dialogisme photographique dans Crimes passionnels et Darlinghurst Heroes d'André Martin

The first part of this thesis in research-creation is an entitled photofiction: Qu’importe – une faute au texte. Situated in Montreal, the story is that of a wandering on the island, of a mutual love between the city and characters, the freedom to act, to see and to like. It’s a dive in Montreal by eyes. A series of photos, sometimes imbricated, juxtaposed, affixed, weaved, imposed in the text, participate to the intrigue by a dialogue between text and image. More than a simple parenthesis, they exceed the illustration to become themselves the narrative. Thus, the story is about the imprint of the characters, the plan of the city through a multitude of deviations. They devote themselves to Montreal without blending in. It is Montreal as seen by its residents. They travel it with wide-open arms, embracing it everywhere, while trying to take root.   Follows, Mécanismes et dialogisme photographique, an essay on two Quebec’s photofictions of the author André Martin: Crimes passionnels and Darlinghurst heroes and on what can bring the photography to the narrative when it’s not any more confined to its function of illustration. At first, I question the photography in its relation to the text, from a narrative point of view. Then, I study the presence of the photographic in the text: subjectivity, textual allusions, methods of pictorial evocation, text-photo and photo-text. I close by questioning what I call the "parenthesis" function of the photography, its removable character, the necessity of the relation to the text: "auxiliarisation", obligation, collision, contradiction, collaboration and temporality. In the end, it’s about a critical work on both photofictions to participate in the elaboration of a photoliterary bibliography and promote an acknowledgment of its existence in the Quebec’s literature.

Keyphrases: Photofiction, Fiction, Dialogisme photographique, Photograph, Litterature, French litterature, Photolitterature, Photo novel, Photos, Photography, Litterature and Photography
Glycosidation avec protection minimale en solution et sur support solide

Glycosides are well-known to be components of important antibiotics, anticancer agents and antiviral drugs. They are also involved in many biologically relevant processes such as cell-cell recognition, inflammation, immunity, cell transport, cell adhesion, and as determinants of blood group types. Our group has championed stereocontolled methods of glycoside synthesis with minimal donor protection using the concept of remote activation of anomeric heterocyclic aglycones. In the presence of sub-stoichiometric amounts of Lewis acids, unsubstituted beta-D-pyridyl glycosides are excellent donors affording simple and complex glycosides usually with high alpha-anomeric selectivity. Conversely, alpha-D-pyridyl glycosides give the inverted beta-glycosides with equally good selectivity. Examples of stereocontrolled glycoside synthesis with acceptor molecules include among others, phenols, steroids, terpenes, and hydroxyamino acids. Applications to glycoside synthesis on solid support have been pursued with promising results.

Keyphrases: Glycoside, minimal protection glycosidation, solid-supported glycosidation
La compétition et l’exploitation optimale des ressources 
chez les parasitoïdes

Female parasitoids must adjust their behavior in response to different environmental factors when foraging for hosts. One of the most important factors they must cope with is the presence of competitors in their environment. The objective of this study is to measure the effects competition has on the foraging strategies of non-aggressive parasitoids. We used the species Trichogramma pintoi and T. minutum (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae), two egg parasitoids of lepidoteran species. We measured patch residence times, patch-leaving mechanisms and progeny sex allocation of females foraging alone, and of females foraging under direct or indirect, intra- or interspecific competition. Trichogramma pintoi females favoured a general strategy entirely based on the perceived quality of the patch, whereas T. minutum females favoured a strategy that was adapted to the type of competition (direct or indirect) and to the nature of the competitors (intra- or interspecific) they were subjected to, with no regards for the quality of the patch. The distinction between these two strategies brings forth interesting research opportunities regarding the effects of competition at the landscape level, and should be of interest for biological control practitioners wishing to increase the efficacy of biological control programs and of commercial mass rearings.

Keyphrases: Trichogramma pintoi, Trichogramma minutum, Behavioral ecology, Competition, Parasitoids, Patch residence time, Patch-leaving mechanisms, Progeny sex allocation, Trichogramma pintoi, Trichogramma minutum
Érotisme pudique et dissolution des limites dans Hamaguri d’Aki Shimazaki ;
suivi de Probablement personne

With its active usage of veils and folding screens, modesty writing is characterized by a certain precaution – often unsettling in and of itself – that is intended to avoid exciting readers. Aki Shimazaki’s Hamaguri is constructed on such a seemingly contradictory core that transcends the taboo of incest. A comparative analysis of this novel using Duras’ The Lover and Kawabata’s The House of the Sleeping Beauties allows one to uncover a certain erotic modesty, whose defining characteristic is that it undermines transgression when the boundaries of the forbidden are broken down. In a phenomenon where opposites collide, erotic modesty bridges the dualistic gap that exists between elements once considered incompatible: body and soul, Eros and Thanatos, that which is permitted and the forbidden. Infused with this particular form of eroticism, Probablement personne acquaints readers with a young woman and her sumi-e painting professor, who is forty years her senior. An incommunicable bond develops, bordering on haunting, and ties the two closer together. Their relationship transpires in the unspoken, looks as well as gestures, gradually unveiling itself through strokes of ink on paper and floral symbolism: captivating, picked, wilted. Their drama unfolds in the grey area between what really happens, and what does not.

Keyphrases: Transgression, Réticence, Hamaguri, Aki Shimazaki, Marguerite Duras, Yasunari Kawabata, Modesty, Erotism, Transgression, Reticence, The house of the sleeping beauties, The lover
Impact de l'hypotension chez le rat avec encéphalopathie hépatique due à la maladie
de foie chronique : implication pour les complications neurologiques suivant la
transplantation hépatique

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a major neuropsychiatric complication caused by chronic liver disease such as cirrhosis and is characterized by cognitive and motor dysfunction. The only curative treatment to date remains liver transplantation (LT). Historically, HE has always been considered to be a reversible metabolic disorder and has therefore been expected to completely resolve following LT. However, persisting neurological complications remain a common problem affecting as many as 47% of LT recipients. LT is a major surgical procedure accompanied by intraoperative stress and confounding factors, including blood loss and hypotension. We hypothesize, in the setting of minimal HE (MHE), the compromised brain becomes susceptible to hypotensive insults, resulting in cell injury and death. To investigate this hypothesis, six-week bile-duct ligated (BDL) rats with MHE and respective controls (SHAM) were used. Blood is withdrawn from the femoral artery (inducing hypovolemia) until a mean arterial pressure of 30, 60 and 90 mmHg (hypotension) and maintained for 120 minutes. Our results demonstrated that BDL with following hypotension of 30 and 60 mmHg have a lower neuronal cell count compared to SHAM-operated animals. Furthermore, we provide evidence neuronal cell death is occurring due to apoptosis (observed by presence of cleaved caspase-3). In addition, cerebral blood flow is reduced in BDL rats compared to SHAM-operated controls. Second objective was to assess the therapeutic potential of the ammonia-lowering agent ornithine phenylacetate (OP) in preventing hypotension-induced neuronal loss in BDL rats. OP-treated BDL rats, in addition to lowering blood ammonia, also ameliorated cognitive function. However, cleaved caspase-3 levels were still elevated in the brains of OP-treated BDL rats therefore suggesting OP delays the onset of neuronal death in BDL rats. Overall, these findings strongly suggest that cirrhotic patients with MHE are more susceptible to hypotension-induced neuronal cell loss. Moreover, these results suggest a patient with HE (even MHE), with a “frail brain”, will fare worse during LT transplantation and consequently result in poor neurological outcome. Combination of MHE and hypotension may account for the persisting neurological complications observed in a number of cirrhotic patients following LT. Therefore, MHE, i) should not be ignored and therefore diagnosed and ii) merits to be treated in order to reduce the risk of neurological complications occurring post-LT

Keyphrases: Rat BDL, Hypotension, Hepatic Encephalopathy, BDL rats, Hypotension, Neuronal death, Ornithine phenylacetate, Liver transplantation
Linguistic imperialism : a study of language and yoruba rituals
in Wole Soyinka’s Death and the king’s horseman

The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate the significant role of language in the development of the play Death and King’s Horseman by Nigerian author Wole Soyinka. The first chapter discusses the implications of writing a postcolonial text in the English language and revisits the language debates of the 1950s and 1960s. In addition to English, the thesis observes the use of other forms of communication such as Nigerian Pidgin English, local dialects, and Yoruba metaphors. Consequently, the intersection between language and culture becomes apparent through the description of the rituals. The final section of the thesis explores Soyinka’s primary focus of creating a “threnodic essence.” With the use of ritual masks, dance and music, he develops a type of dialogue that transcends the written form and is accessible only to those who are equipped with Yoruba cultural sensibilities.

Keyphrases: Soyinka, language, English, song, dance, threnody