NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
La notion de l’explosion de la coopération et ses implications chez Kim Sterelny

The concept of cooperation is often used in the field of ethics and of politics to illustrate and understand the alignment of associative behaviors between human beings. In connection with this concept, our research will concern the first question to know if Kim Sterelny (2003) manages to produce a theoretical model allowing him to explain the origins and mechanisms of the human cooperation. Our research also concerns the second question of knowing if he manages to use this model to counter the massive modularity thesis. As such, this work will deal successively with the subjects of the problem of cooperation, of the theory of group selection, of the ecological trigger of hominid cooperation, of the notions of coalition, of enforcement and of commitment and finally of the massive modularity thesis. By the examination of these subjects, we wish to demonstrate that Sterelny manages only to supply a likely sketch of the origins and of the development of the human cooperation and that his criticism of the massive modularity thesis does not manage to counter the latter.

Keyphrases: Kim Sterelny, Thought in a hostile world: the evolution of human cognition, Cooperation, Evolutionary psychology, Philosophy of biology, Massive modularity
La réaction de Gorgias au Poème de Parménide : élaboration d'une rhétorique comme fuite de l'ontologie

The main objective of this master’s thesis is to closely examine the arguments that Gorgias develops in his Discourse on the not-being, in which he defends the impossibility of knowledge. There are three arguments in this discourse: a) nothing exists; b) even if something exists, nothing can be known about it; c) even if something can be known about it, knowledge about it can't be communicated to others. These arguments do not only attack the parmenidean’s thesis of correspondence (between mind and being); they also present themselves as a justification of the art of rhetoric. As a matter of fact, without knowledge, we are unable to establish a strong difference between truth and falsehood, and therefore we are left alone with our desires and interests. It is in such a context that rhetoric becomes, literally, the only legitimate art (or technique).

Keyphrases: Gorgias, Rhetoric, Philosophy, Ontology
La distribution des zéros des fonctions L

The Katz and Sarnak philosophy states that the distribution laws of zeros of $L$-functions follow the distribution laws of eigenvalues of random matrices. The zeros near the central point would reveal the symmetry type of our family of $L$-functions. Once the symmetry has been identified, it is conjectured that many statistics associated to the zeros would be predicted by the eigenvalues of the corresponding group of random matrices. This thesis will study the low-lying zeros of the family of elliptic curves over $\mathbb{Q}[i]$. Brumer computed the symmetry type of the family of elliptic curves over $\mathbb{Q}$ in 1992. New challenges arising from this generalisation over number fields of his work will be revealed in this thesis.

Keyphrases: L-functions, Low-lying zeros, Katz and Sarnak philosophy, Random matrix theory, Elliptic curves
Bidirectional Helmholtz Machines

Efficient unsupervised training and inference in deep generative models remains a challenging problem. One basic approach, called Helmholtz machine, involves training a top-down directed generative model together with a bottom-up auxiliary model used for approximate inference. Recent results indicate that better generative models can be obtained with better approximate inference procedures. Instead of improving the inference procedure, we here propose a new model, the bidirectional Helmholtz machine, which guarantees that the top-down and bottom-up distributions can efficiently invert each other. We achieve this by interpreting both the top-down and the bottom-up directed models as approximate inference distributions and by defining the model distribution to be the geometric mean of these two. We present a lower-bound for the likelihood of this model and we show that optimizing this bound regularizes the model so that the Bhattacharyya distance between the bottom-up and top-down approximate distributions is minimized. This approach results in state of the art generative models which prefer significantly deeper architectures while it allows for orders of magnitude more efficient approximate inference. Moreover, we introduce a  deep generative model for semi-supervised learning problems based on BiHM models.

Keyphrases: Helmholtz Machines, Bidirectional Helmholtz Machine, Semi-supervised learning problems, Generative Models
Traitement de la transidentité dans "Laurence Anyways"

Our work revolves around Xavier Dolan’s film Laurence Anyways (2012), in which we will explore the transgender woman representation. First, we will proceed to a film analysis that focuses on trans identity, and then to a double reception analysis: reception in the press, but also reception by trans people. Eventually, we will detail the research-creation process that led us to direct a documentary film featuring two trans people speaking about their views on trans representation in the audiovisual media today.

Keyphrases: film, audiovisual, trans identity, transgender, representation, reception, research-creation
L'hepcidine : un possible lien entre l'inflammation chronique et le métabolisme du fer dans les maladies rénales chroniques félines

The role of inflammation in the development and progression of feline chronic kidney disease  (CKD) is not well characterized. Hepcidin, a recently discovered acute phase protein (APP) contributes to the development of anemia in human patients with CKD. The objectives of our study was to compare plasma APP including hepcidin, iron status, and erythropoietin (EPO) concentrations between healthy and cats with naturally occurring CKD.   Eighteen healthy control cats and 38 cats with CKD were prospectively recruited. Complete physical examination along with hematology, biochemistry, plasma amyloid A (SAA), haptoglobine (HAP), EPO, iron, TIBC and ferritin were performed using routine laboratory analyses and commercially available feline ELISA-assays. Hepcidin-25 concentration was assessed with a human ELISA kit (DRG® Diagnostics).  We found that mean SAA and hepcidin concentration were significantly higher and mean total iron and TIBC were significantly lower in the CKD group (P < .05). There was a significant positive correlation between creatinine and APPs (SAA and hepcidin; P < .05). Increase in SAA and hepcidin was also significantly associated with decrease of TIBC and PCV in the CKD group. The 14 (37%) anaemic cats with CKD had significantly and lower iron, TIBC, consistent with functional iron deficiency (P < .05). There were no patients with an iron profile suggestive of a true iron deficiency. There was no association with survival.  In conclusion, our data suggest that feline CKD is a pro-inflammatory state, having significant impact on iron metabolism. With further validation, hepcidin may help better characterize these interactions.

Keyphrases: Erythropoietin, Ferritin, anemia, Hepcidin
Saint-Domingue Refugees and their Enslaved Property : Abolition Societies and the Enforcement of Gradual Emancipation in Pennsylvania and New York

This thesis explores the role of abolition societies in the enforcement of gradual eman-cipation in the north of the United States in the late-eighteenth century. More specifically, it focuses on the refugees from Saint-Domingue who brought their slaves in the state of Penn-sylvania and New York, and how abolition societies adapted their strategies to cope with the massive arrival of hundreds of these refugees in the 1790s. The first section discusses the gradual end of slavery in the north following the American Revolution, starting with Pennsyl-vania in 1780, and the emergence of abolition societies, especially the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS) and the New-York Manumission Society (NYMS). In addition, this section considers the strategies of anti-slavery activists to promote and protect gradual emancipation and limit the movement of slaves within and without their respective states. The second sec-tion presents a case study of Saint-Domingue refugees coming with their slaves and how they interacted with residual slavery in New York and Pennsylvania. It also illustrates how maneu-vers employed by West-Indian slave owners in order to keep their slaves often failed as a re-sult of the intervention of abolition societies.

Keyphrases: Abolitionists (United States), Gradual emancipation, Pennsylvania, Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) -- Refugees, Eighteenth Century, New York
La cinématographie-attraction à Montréal à la lumière de la législation (1896-1913)

Cinématographie-attraction / kine-attractography has for a long time been associated with the origins of cinema. But in 1978, an academic controversy created a rift in cinematic historiography and these works were subsequently deemed to be a separate object of study, one distinct from institutional cinema. This thesis will focus on kine-attractography in the setting of Montreal from the use of the Lumière Cinematograph projector in 1896 to the founding of the Quebec Board of Censorship in 1913. The legislative context surrounding these new forms of ‘amusement’ will be discussed (bills were modified or created to address legal questions). This thesis will investigate these events within the relevant historical, geographical and cinematographic contexts. It will then consider three aspects of kine-attractography that differ from those in cinema: manufacturing (which includes the way cinematic works were financed, shot and later modified), exhibition (the matter of where and how these works were shown) and reception (the ways these works were evaluated or judged). We will discuss how kine-attractography was initially overseen by diverse groups of people (from those who financed or shot the moving pictures, to the owners of ‘amusement’ theatres, to the policeman or fireman who was present at each projection), and then subsequently overseen by recognized institutions, government representatives included. We will explore the issues which accompanied its institutionalisation relative to these various groups by studying articles and ads in Montreal’s newspapers, legal texts, official pronouncements, diocese speeches, catalogues published by manufacturing companies, and the moving pictures themselves.

Keyphrases: cinématographie-attraction, attractions, exhibition, catalogues, licences, kine-attractography, early cinema, institutionalization, moving pictures, amusement, manufacturing, exhibition, reception, legislation, film lecturer, the Sunday law, consumption
Les relations interethniques dans la Grande Guerre ; regards sur le mythe du soldat canadien-français opprimé

The First World War inevitably brings back painful memories in the province of Quebec. Quebeckers have a negative recollection of the war, viewing themselves as victims. Events related to the Great War such as the conscription crisis, the Easter riots and the inhospitality expressed by the Canadian Forces towards French Canadians are emotionally-charged memories that have nurtured this conception. When writing about the war, Quebeckers depict themselves as the scapegoats of English Canadians and present this notion as a truth. Integrated in both the historiography and popular beliefs, the idea of the oppressed French Canadian has never been questioned. This thesis aims at re-examining this idea by surveying contemporary sources: the Anglophone press and testimonies from soldiers. Its objective is to reassess the attitude and perception of Canadian Anglophones towards French Canadians, and more broadly the nature of interethnic relationships in the army during World War I, both on the home front and on the battlefield. It presents a reinterpretation of the victimisation that is deeply ingrained in the remembrance Quebeckers have of the conflict.

Keyphrases: Victimisation, First World War, Quebec, French Canada, English Canada, Interethnic relations, Canadian Expeditionary Corps, War memory, Myth, Popular Belief, Victimization
Les grandes surfaces suivi de La logique du seuil ou la problématique de l’altérité dans Autoportraits de Marie Uguay et Nombreux seront nos ennemis de Geneviève Desrosiers

This memoir focuses on two poetry collections from Quebec: Marie Uguay’s “Autoportraits” and Geneviève Desrosiers’ “Nombreux seront nos ennemis”. These can be characterised as “intimist” as they bring to the forefront the poetical narrator’s close observations of his daily life. My two-part project includes a research on Uguay’s and Desrosiers’ view of “intimism” as well as a poetry collection inspired by their work. My research concentrates on the threshold’s logic and on the narrator’s troubled relationship with the various representations of alterity. In the two studied poetry collections, the “I” indeed occupies a reclusive position from which it does not have to face alterity.  The poems that form the second part of this project testify to the resourcefulness in which the narrator spreads out in order to avoid his humdrum existence. The monotony of daily life is seen as a trap or a form of imprisonment. Consequently, only a thin frontier separates dreams from reality in these poems. The contrast between the “I”’s actual positions and his fancied destinations plays a major role in the text’s aesthetic. Several wishes are laid upon the table, amongst them a new departure. The poems therefore express the narrator’s longing but attempt to avoid the dangers of a classic “intimism” which are an exaggerated sensitivity or narcissism.

Keyphrases: Creative writing, Poetry, Study of Quebec's Literature, Women's writing, Intimacy poetry, Day-to-day writing
La gouvernance métropolitaine du transport collectif dans la région montréalaise : le cas du SRB Pie-IX

Montreal talks to have a rapid bus service for ten years. In 2015, work to produce the first draft of the section called SRB Pie-IX just beginning. How to justify delays in carrying out several years while other cities get there in less than 3 years? Several elected officials and Montreal organizations denounce a problem of governance of public transit. It’s is not easy to grasp the significance of this concept so often invoked to justify, among others, the difficulties to realize metropolitan projects. Some point to the government's responsibility, others argue the poor distribution of roles and responsibilities or regrets too many players in the metropolitan area. Governance is a concept both blurred and complex that seeks to establish the conduct of public affairs like the management of metropolitan public transit. However, the transit system involves a multitude of stakeholders with conflicting interests. The 'good governance' would be to establish a fruitful collaboration that goes beyond the limits of institutionalized stakeholders to achieve metropolitan scale projects, such as the project SRB Pie-IX.

Keyphrases: Governnance, Transit, Metropolitan area
Facteurs de risque de développement de troubles intériorisés : études en Imagerie par Résonance Magnétique structurelle

Several risk factors for the development of internalized disorders such as anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorders have been identified in the literature. The two most important risk factors include adversity during childhood (i.e. abuse, neglect and harsh parenting) and parental risk (i.e. the presence of an internalized disorder in one or both parents). These risk factors have been linked to anatomical changes in several brain structures, which are similar to those observed in internalized disorders. Thus, in the presence of these risk factors, anatomical abnormalities may predict the appearance of internalized disorders in asymptomatic individuals. In the few studies that have investigated the influence of these risk factors in a youth population, participants often had comorbidities and/or were medicated, which makes the observed anatomical changes difficult to interpret. This work has focused on these two risk factors (i.e. adversity during childhood, in the form of harsh parenting, and the parental risk) and their link with the anatomical cerebral substrates, in asymptomatic and un-medicated adolescents. A first study examined the link between harsh parenting, levels of anxiety symptoms, as measured longitudinally from birth, and neuroanatomical differences in adolescents (see Chapter 2). A second study examined the link between parental risk of developing anxiety disorders, and neuroanatomical differences in adolescents (see Chapter 3). A third study looked at the link between parental risk for developing depressive disorder or bipolar disorder, and neuroanatomical differences in adolescents (see Chapter 4). Results show differences in volume and/or cortical thickness of several key cerebral structures involved in emotional processing and regulation. This is the case of the prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, the amygdala, hippocampus and striatum. These results suggest that some neuroanatomical differences in internalized disorders may be present before the disorder emerges, and represent neuronal markers denoting the risk of developing the disorder. The theoretical implications and limitations of these three studies are discussed in Chapter 5.

Keyphrases: FreeSurfer, Adversity, Parental risk, internalized disorder, Anxiety, FreeSurfer, MRI
Evaluation use within a humanitarian non-governmental organization’s health care user-fee exemption program in West Africa

Evaluation of humanitarian action (EHA) is increasingly deployed as a means to enhance accountability, transparency, and efficiency of humanitarian programs aimed at reducing health inequities and promoting global health. EHA has become a vital tool for program stakeholders, funding agencies, and policy-makers seeking to render practice and decision-making more evidence-based. However, considerable uncertainty remains about evaluation use (EU), as EHA is frequently conducted without being used. Moreover, conditions that influence EU vary across contexts and their applicability in humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) remains unclear. Program evaluators, stakeholders, and policy-makers in humanitarian contexts have little guidance to support long-term EU, given that few studies have documented EU and its conditions over time. The aim of the present qualitative thesis is to shed light on these issues by documenting EU and the conditions influencing it over a 29-month period within an evaluation strategy embedded into a humanitarian NGO’s health care user fee exemption program. To facilitate access to care, the exemption program subsidized the health service fees of mothers, children under five, and indigents in health districts of Niger and Burkina Faso—West African Sahel regions where food crises and poverty have engendered high rates of malnutrition, morbidity, and mortality. Initial evaluation of the exemption program in Niger led to development of the evaluation strategy subsequently integrated into the same program developed in 2008 in Burkina Faso. The thesis consists of three articles. The first presents an evaluability assessment (EA), a preliminary step undertaken to determine whether an EU evaluation was feasible. Results showed the evaluation strategy’s logic was coherent and plausible, data was accessible, and evaluation strategy stakeholders deemed an EU study to be useful. The second article documents how stakeholders engaged in EU and how it served them and advanced the NGO’s mission. Results showed that stakeholders used findings instrumentally, conceptually, and persuasively, but used evaluation processes only instrumentally and conceptually. The third article identifies the conditions stakeholders saw as influencing EU over time. Key influential conditions were users’ attitudes toward evaluation, stakeholders’ interactions and communications, and evaluators’ skill in producing and sharing evaluation-based knowledge tailored to users’ needs. This thesis furthers knowledge on EU in the humanitarian action context and provides practical recommendations for stakeholders of NGOs.

Keyphrases: Program evaluation, Evaluation use/utilization, Knowledge transfer, Non-governmental organization (NGO), Humanitarian, Burkina Faso (West Africa), User fee exemption, Equity of access to health care, Global health
Algorithmique et complexité des systèmes à compteurs

One fundamental aspect of computer systems, and in particular of critical systems, is the ability to run simultaneously many processes sharing resources. Such concurrent systems only work correctly when their behaviours are independent of any execution ordering. For this reason, it is particularly difficult to ensure the correctness of concurrent systems.  In this thesis, we study formal verification, an algorithmic approach to the verification of concurrent systems based on mathematical modeling. We consider two of the most prominent models, Petri nets and vector addition systems, and their usual verification problems considered in the literature.  We show that the reachability problem for vector addition systems (with states) restricted to two counters is PSPACE-complete, that is, it is complete for the class of problems solvable with a polynomial amount of memory. Hence, we establish the precise computational complexity of this problem, left open for more than thirty years.  We develop a new approach to the coverability problem for Petri nets which is primarily based on applying forward coverability in continuous Petri nets as a pruning criterion inside a backward coverability framework. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by implementing it in a tool named QCover.  We complement these results with a study of well-structured transition systems which form a general abstraction of vector addition systems and Petri nets. We consider infinitely branching well-structured transition systems, a class that includes Petri nets with special transitions that may consume or produce arbitrarily many tokens. We develop mathematical tools in order to study these systems and we delineate the decidability frontier for the termination, boundedness, maintainability and coverability problems.

Keyphrases: formal verification, computational complexity, algorithmics, Petri nets, vector addition systems, well-structured transition systems, reachability problem, coverability problem, infinite branching