NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Les facteurs à homéodomaine Pitx et Irx au cours du développement des membres postérieurs

The Pitx transcription factors have been implicated in growth and specification of hindlimb identity. First, Pitx1 gene inactivation in mice results in partial transformation of hindlimbs into forelimbs. Further, Pitx1 and Pitx2 have redundant activity for hindlimb growth as demonstrated in double mutant mice for Pitx1 and Pitx2. Indeed, Pitx1-/-;Pitx2neo/neo mice show loss of proximal (femur) and anterior (ilium, tibia and first digit) skeletal structures. A collaborator, Dr C. C. Hui of Toronto University, has demonstrated the importance of the Iroquois (Irx) family transcription factors in hindlimb development. Irx3-/-;Irx5-/- mice show loss of proximal and anterior skeletal structures, exclusively in hindlimbs, even if Irx are expressed in the two limb pairs. This phenocopy between Pitx and Irx mutants led us to investigate the interaction between these transcription factors with three hypotheses : (1) Pitx control Irx expression in hindlimb buds ; (2) the Irx direct Pitx gene expression in hindlimb bud ; (3) Pitx and Irx participate together in a growth regulation cascade in hindlimb buds. Our analyses led us to conclude that Pitx and Irx are in independant genetic cascade in hindlimb buds. However, we observed that Pitx and Irx transcription factors are capable of transcriptionnal interactions assessed using either a generic promoter or conserved regions of the Tbx4 locus. Finally, inactivation of either Pitx or Irx led to a delay of Pax9 expression exclusively in hindlimb buds. In sum, Pitx and Irx gene appear to act on parallel genetic programs involved in control of hindlimbs growth and patterning.

Keyphrases: Patterning, Transcription, Limb growth, Limb identity, Patterning, Gene regulation, Transcription, Genetic interactions, Skeletal development
Les productions palatiales dans les sociétés complexes: le cas de la céramique bleue amarnienne

The present work consists in a study of the ceramic typical of the city of Amarna (Akhet-Aten) viewed in relation to palatial productions in complex societies. In the first part of the work, we put this blue-painted pottery style in context and present the geographic, historical and religious situation of the city. We then consider the usual themes relating to the study of a ceramic: workshops, materials, transformation, firing, forms and motifs. Since the function of these vases remains an open question, we analyse various theories on the subject. We raise the question whether a link between these vases and the religious ideology introduced by pharaoh Akhenaten might exist; comparison of the motifs with the iconography of the city's palaces allows us to confirm this hypothesis. These last two points bring out the importance of this pottery in the Amarnian framework. The second part of this work pertains to the concept of palatial objects. This type of production is defined and various criteria are presented. We then apply these criteria to palatial objects from complex societies, in hope of confirming their adequacy. Having verified these characteristics, we apply them to blue-painted pottery in order to determine whether this latter corresponds to a palatial industry. Since this pottery style satisfies all these criteria, it is possible to assert that it is a palatial object. It is even possible to affirm that it consists in a prestige object, consummed by an elite and whose purpose is to further the established ideology.

Keyphrases: Amarna, Aten, Akhenaten, Blue-painted pottery style, Palace, Ceramic, Palatial object
Expérience sonore des usagers dans l'espace public urbain: l'exemple du boulevard Saint-Laurent à Montréal

Since Pierre Schaeffer has first explored the concept of "sound object," research on the sound phenomenon has considerably evolved, allowing us to grasp all of its complexity. This research further explores the world of sound by examining the everyday experience of the city main commercial streets using as fieldwork, Saint-Laurent Street in Montreal. Through a comprehensive approach, we examine people’s own interpretation of their sound experience of this historical commercial street. Every day, citizens wander and make their way in public spaces by apprehending their environment through their senses. Besides the visual aspect, senses are quite often ignored by designers of urban space. This often results in a relatively poor urban design in terms of sensorial experience. The theories and methods resulting from the environmental sounds field see the scope of their investigation expanded by anthropology of the senses. The richness of this approach allows us to better understand the multiple dimensions that shape the sound. The field of references privileged here also draws on artistic practices. Those offer us a form of field of experimentation that abounds with qualitative material. The analysis of these last ones brings to the foreground dimensions useful for the understanding of the sonic experience. This experiment was conducted using various methods to collect a maximum of qualitative material. Then, observation, qualified listening walks and commented walks1, in-depth interviews were led. This research allowed to a better understanding of the existing dialogue between the sound, the space and the user disclosing the various dimensions of the sonic experience of the commercial main street and in particular those was surrounding the culture of the senses.

Keyphrases: design urbain, son, perception, culture, urban design, experience, sound, perception, public space, culture, polysensorialiy, memory
Prediction of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy by combined uterine artery Doppler, serum biomarkers and maternal characteristics

Objective: To evaluate the screening efficacy of maternal demographic characteristics, serum biomarkers and uterine artery Doppler (uaD) during the first and the second trimester for the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. To elaborate prediction models of these diseases based on the combination of selected maternal demographic characteristics, maternal serum biomarkers and uaD indexes.  Methods: This is a prospective pregnant cohort study of 598 singleton nulliparous consecutive women. UaD investigation was performed by transabdominal sonography between 11+0 and 13+6 weeks, and between 17+0 and 21+6 weeks. All the serum samples for measurement of several placental biomarkers were collected at the first trimester. Maternal demographic characteristics were recorded at the same time. Receiver operating characteristic curves and predictive values were used to analyze the predictive powers of the above parameters. Different combinations and their logistic regression predictive models were analyzed.  Results: Among 598 women, 20 developed preeclampsia (3.3%), 7 developed early-onset preeclampsia (1.2%), 52 developed gestational hypertension (8.7%), 10 developed gestational hypertension with delivery before 37 weeks (1.7%). Second trimester uterine artery pulsatility index was the best predictor with statistical significance for all the outcomes. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis, the best predictive value in the first and second trimester was obtained for the prediction of early onset preeclampsia. The combined screening showed significantly better results compared to either maternal parameters or Doppler alone. Conclusion: As a single marker, second trimester Doppler has the highest predictive value for hypertensive disorders, preterm birth and SGA. Combination of the maternal demographic characteristics, maternal serum biomarker and uaD improves the screening efficacy, especially when this necessitates early delivery.

Keyphrases: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, Doppler, Maternal serum biomarkers, Maternal demographic characteristics, Screening, Multivariable predictive model, Doppler utérins
L’universalité des normes éthiques en recherche biomédicale sur sujets humains et leur application aux pays en développement

With a growing number of new human diseases being discovered, along with existing or novel treatments being explored for their cure, researchers are more than ever seeking to extend their biomedical trials on human subjects.  Research with human models is a crucial step for the proper understanding of diseases and therefore advancing the science and technology required to eventually eradicate global diseases such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causing acquired immune deficient syndrome (AIDS).  At present, these important studies are conducted across the world, but more specifically, in developing countries with more vulnerable populations.  This very practice has caused many stakeholders to reconsider certain ethical aspects of human studies. In this thesis, an examination of the various ethical norms for tests on human subjects will be presented in order to understand how they account for the characteristics of populations in developing countries.  This will provide the framework for a case study analyzing three philosophical approaches to biomedical research on human subjects.  Finally, a critical review of the field’s literature leads to the imperative conclusion of strengthening universal norms surrounding ethical biomedical research involving humans, specifically as vulnerable populations in developing countries are becoming more frequenctly the subjects.

Keyphrases: Biomedical research on human subjects, Universel ethics, Developing countries, HIV/AIDS, Universalism, Utilitarianism, Communautarianism
MODELING HETEROTACHY IN PHYLOGENETICS

Heterotachy, substitution rate variation across sites and time, has shown to be a frequent phenomenon in the real data. Failure to model heterotachy could potentially cause phylogenetic artefacts. Currently, there are several models to handle heterotachy, the mixture branch length model (MBL) and several variant forms of the covarion model. In this project, our objective is to find a model that efficiently handles heterotachous signals in the data, and thereby improves phylogenetic inference.    In order to achieve our goal, two individual studies were conducted. In the first study, we make comparisons among the MBL, covarion and homotachous models using AIC, BIC and cross validation. Based on our results, we conclude that the MBL model, in which sites have different branch lengths along the entire tree, is an over-parameterized model. Real data indicate that the heterotachous signals which interfere with phylogenetic inference are generally limited to a small area of the tree. In the second study, we relax the assumption of the homogeneity of the covarion parameters over sites, and develop a mixture covarion model using a Dirichlet process. In order to evaluate different heterogeneous models, we design several posterior predictive discrepancy tests to study different aspects of molecular evolution using stochastic mappings. The posterior predictive discrepancy tests demonstrate that the covarion mixture +Γ model is able to adequately model the substitution variation within and among sites.   Our research permits a detailed view of heterotachy in real datasets and gives directions for future heterotachous models. The posterior predictive discrepancy tests provide diagnostic tools to assess models in detail. Furthermore, both of our studies reveal the non-specificity of heterogeneous models. Our studies strongly suggest that different heterogeneous features in the data should be handled simultaneously.

Keyphrases: Heterotachy, covarion, covarion, MBL, posterior predictive, non-specificity, discrepancy, heterogeneity, AIC, AIC, BIC, BIC, cross validation
Le care entre dépendance et domination: l'intérêt de la théorie néorépublicaine pour penser une "caring society"

The ethics of care is facing a paradox: although politicization seems necessary, the ethics of care does not seem able to find in itself sufficient resources to formulate a comprehensive political theory. There is no political theory of care per se. This article examines the possible and fruitful rapprochement of ethics of care with neorepublican theories of non-domination. The important result would be to guarantee the protection of important forms of care activities, but this would not necessarily block negative portrayals of these activities, which can be assumed of having provoked, at least partly, the marginalization and the uneven distribution that affects these activities. In order to stop these degrading representations, care must be discussed and defined in the public space not only as a possible locus of domination, but as a fundamental and positive aspect of individual and collective lives.

Keyphrases: care
L’acceptation des rôles de l’infirmière praticienne en première ligne selon les caractéristiques socio-démographiques des usagers de CLSC

The purpose of this study was to measure the level of acceptance of the Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (PCNP) roles, by CLSC users, according to their socio-demographic characteristics. The data acquisition for this comparative synthetic research was carried out in five CLSCs in the Montreal region through a self-administered questionnaire. The accidental sample consisted of 316 people, 18 years and older, presenting to the CLSC with a medical problem. The sample group was propositioned by posters or through the suggestions of the receptionist in the waiting room. The results reveal that nearly 40% of the sample accepts every role of the PCNP. A logistic regression analysis shows that those earning a higher annual income (greater than $40,000) are more likely to accept all PCNP roles. These results will make it possible for the decision makers to take the necessary actions to establish this new occupational class; it may also help PCNPs to create strategies for efficient promotion to the general public, in regards to their advanced practice role.

Keyphrases: CLSC, Nurse practitioner, Roles, Acceptance, Primary care, Socio-demographic characteristics, CLSC
Changements dans le circuit de la récompense suite à la bulbectomie olfactive : une nouvelle approche pour étudier des antidépresseurs

Depression is a chronic, recurrent and potentially deadly disorder that affects over 20 % of the population worldwide. The mechanisms underlying depression are still not understood and current pharmacotherapy, based largely on monoaminergic hypotheses, is plagued by suboptimal efficacy and delayed therapeutic latency.  This has lead to a search for novel pharmacological treatments. To achieve this, it is first necessary to develop adequate experimental tools.  With this in mind, we aimed to measure anhedonia, a cardinal symptom of depression, in laboratory rats.  We defined anhedonia as a reduction in reward, and measured it with the sucrose intake test and in the intracranial self-stimulation paradigm. In order to induce anhedonia, we surgically removed the olfactory bulbs, a procedure that results in a host of behavioral, cellular and biochemical changes that are qualitatively similar to those observed in clinical depression.  These changes are long-lasting and reversed by chronic antidepressant treatment, validating olfactory bulbectomy as an animal model of depression. Our results show that olfactory bulbectomy also produces anhedonia, reflected by a stable and long-lasting reduction in sucrose intake as well as a reduction in the rewarding effectiveness of amphetamine in the self-stimulation paradigm.  These effects were present even after three to four weeks post-surgery. Olfactory bulbectomy was also associated with increased striatal cAMP response element binding, a molecular index associated with depressive-like behaviour.  These findings suggest that anhedonia can be reliably produced and studied within the olfactory bulbectomy model and that reward circuitry may comprise a logical target for novel drugs to treat depression.

Keyphrases: depression, anhedonia, olfactory bulbectomy, antidepressants, reward, animal model
Pour une allocation équitable des ressources en GMF

Objective: To evaluate the “burden” involved in the clinical management of people living with HIV/AIDS, in order to adjust the allocation of resources in terms of family medicine groups (FMG).  Methodology: A comparative analysis of FMG Clinique médicale l’Actuel, FMGs in Montréal and throughout Québec, identifying differences in care consumption profiles for the years 2006 to 2008 and the costs of use of services for 2005.  Results: In 2008, seventy eight percent (78%) of the clientele registered with the FMG at Clinique médicale l’Actuel was considered vulnerable, in comparison to twenty eight percent (28%) at other Montréal FMGs, a trend observed throughout Québec. The average number of visits per registered individuals was 7.57 at the Actuel FMG, while the average in Montréal was 3.37 and in Québec overall, 3.47. In 2005, the average cost of a visit at the Actuel FMG was $203.93 compared to costs that varied from $132.14 to $149.53 for comparative units.  Conclusion: The intensity of use of FMG resources at the Clinique médicale l’Actuel (number of vulnerable individuals, number of visits and costs) suggests that the clinical management of people living with HIV/AIDS is a much heavier burden than that of an average citizen, or even from the majority of other categories of vulnerability. In order to ensure that all FMGs are treated fairly and equitably, registration should be adjusted to take into account the “burden” of this clientele and to place more value on the case management of people with complex clinical presentations.

Keyphrases: Funding of FMG, Allocation of resources, Equity, Use of services, PLHIV
Implications fonctionnelles du collicule inférieur chez l'humain

The role of the inferior colliculus in human auditory processing is still poorly understood. We report the results obtained from a 12-year-old boy who suffered a very circumscribed lesion at the level of the right inferior colliculus without additional neurological damage. The child underwent an extensive battery of psychophysical and electrophysiological tests. Results revealed that tonal detection thresholds, speech recognition in the absence of competing auditory input and performance on binaural interaction tasks were unimpaired. However, the pattern of results suggests that auditory functions such as the recognition of low-redundancy speech presented monaurally, frequency discrimination, the recognition of tone-duration patterns, binaural separation, binaural integration, sound-source localization in space as well as mutlisensory integration depend on the integrity of the bilateral auditory pathways at the level of the inferior colliculus.

Keyphrases: Inferior colliculus, unilateral lesion, electrophysiological assessment, auditory processing, multisensory integration, psychophysical assessments
Cataloguing with RDA

Although based on the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR2), the new cataloguing standard that is Resources : Description and Access (RDA) represents a new approach and presents a number of changes to AACR2. In this presentation, the results of an exercise in which a score and a music sound recording have been catalogued according to AACR2 and RDA will be presented. For each resource, two MARC records have been prepared, one according to AACR2 and the other according to RDA. Comparing the two records will highlight some of the differences between the two cataloguing codes.

Keyphrases: Partitions musicales, RDA, Resource Description and Access, Format MARC 21
La fibrose en deux parties : de la paillasse à la souris

Apoptosis of endothelial cells (EC) is an early event in various fibrotic diseases including chronic allograft vasculopathy and systemic sclerosis.  We showed previously that mediators released by apoptotic EC activate myofibroblast differentiation and resistance to apoptosis, two mechanisms pivotal to fibrogenesis.  PI3K (phospatidylinositol-3 kinase) activation was found to be central to these two mechanisms.  A C-terminal fragment of perlecan (LG3) produced by apoptotic EC was found to inhibit apoptosis of fibroblasts.  The aims of the present project were : 1. to define the receptors and pathways implicated in this anti-apoptotic response and 2. to characterize the fibrogenic mediators implicated in myofibroblast differentiation.    Concerning the anti-apoptotic response, the inhibition of 21 integrin activity in fibroblasts exposed to either medium conditioned by apoptotic EC (SSC) or LG3 prevented resistance to apoptosis and was associated with decreased levels of Akt phosphorylation.  Neutralizing Src family kinases (SFK) activity in fibroblasts produced the same effects.  These results suggest that LG3 produced by apoptotic EC initiate a state of resistance to apoptosis in fibroblasts via an α2β1integrin/SFK/PI3K dependent pathway.  LG3 did not induce myofibroblast differentiation. We went on to identify which mediators present in SSC are implicated in myofibroblast differentiation.   Media conditioned by apoptotic and non-apoptotic EC (respectively SSC and SSC-ZVAD) were analyzed comparatively by 2-dimension liquid chromatography, western blotting and mass spectrometry.  Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) was the only known fibrogenic factor increased in SSC.  Caspase-3 silencing of EC demonstrated that CTGF is released by apoptotic EC downstream of caspase-3 activation. In fibroblasts, blocking the activation of SFK or silencing the proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 (Pyk2) blocked myofibroblast differentiation triggered by either SSC or recombinant CTGF in vitro.  Exposure to a pan-transforming growth factor (TGF-β) neutralizing antibody failed to attenuate myofibroblast differentiation in fibroblasts exposed to either SSC or CTGF.  Subcutaneous injection of mouse SSC to C3H mice daily for three weeks led to increased skin thickness, increased protein levels of αSMA, vimentin and collagen I. This fibrogenic response was blunted in mice injected with either SSC-ZVAD or SSC immunodepleted of CTGF.    These results bring new mechanistic insights into the fibrogenic pathways activated by EC death.  Caspase activation in apoptotic EC triggers the production of LG3 and CTGF which in turn activate SFK/PI3K dependant pathways in fibroblasts thus activating a TGF-β-independent fibrogenic response.

Keyphrases: Apoptosis, Differentiation, Endothelial cell, Fibroblast, Myofibroblast, CTGF, CTGF, Perlecan, Pyk2, Pyk2, Src, Src, PI3K, PI3K