NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Transforaminal versus intra-articular facet steroid injections for the treatment of cervical radiculopathy : a randomized, double-blinded, controlled study

Transforaminal corticosteroid injections can be performed in the management of cervical radiculopathy but carry the risk of catastrophic complications. This study compares the efficacy of transforaminal and facet corticosteroid injections at 4 weeks post treatment. We randomly assigned 56 subjects to receive CT-guided transforaminal (15 men, 13 women; mean age 52 years; range 28 – 72 years) or facet (8 men, 20 women; mean 44 years; range 26 – 60 years) injections. The primary outcome was pain severity rated on a visual analog scale (0-100). Secondary outcome measures were the Neck Disability Index and the Medication Quantitative Scale.  In the intention-to-treat and as-treated analyses, for a mean baseline score, facet injections demonstrated a significant pain score reduction of 45.3% (95%CI: 21.4; 69.2) and 37.0% (95%CI: 9.2; 64.7), while transforaminal injections showed nonsignificant pain score reduction of 9.8% (95%CI: +11.5; 31.2) and 17.8% (95%CI: +6.6; 42.2). While facet injections demonstrated an improvement in Neck Disability Index score of [24.3% (95%CI: +2.9; 51.5); 20.7% (95%CI: +6.2; 47.6),] as opposed to transforaminal injections [9.6% (95%CI: +15.2; 34.4); 12.8% (95%CI: +11.2; 36.7)], the results did not reach statistical significance. Noninferiority of facet to transforaminal injections was demonstrated for baseline pain score ≤ 60, while noninferiority analysis was inconclusive for baseline pain score ≥ 80 and for the Neck Disability Index score. Neither intervention showed a significant medication intake score reduction over time. Facet injections are effective for the treatment of cervical radiculopathy and represent a valid and safer alternative to transforaminal injections.

Keyphrases: Rachis cervical, Intervention spinale, Cervical spine, Cervical radiculopathy, Cervical disc herniation, Cervical spondylosis, Cervical foraminal stenosis, Spine injections, Transforaminal steroid injections, Intra-articular facet steroid injections, Spine intervention, Pain management
Influence of Weapon Types on the Patterns and Outcomes of Violent Encounters

In collaboration with the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), this study aims to improve the knowledge about the structuring effect of firearms on criminal violence. This study first identifies factors associated with firearms use in violent crimes and second, estimates the risk of fatal and non-fatal injuries associated with gun use. Data used in the present study come from the Module d’information policière (MIP), for the period of 2011 to 2012. Data were analyzed using a two-step strategy. First, logistic regressions were conducted to pinpoint factors associated with firearm use in violent crime. Second, estimates of the average treatment effect were computed using the propensity score matching (PSM) technique. PSM is an innovative statistical strategy that attempts to reproduce conditions of controlled experiments when cases were not randomized in the first place. In general, results show that firearms are more frequently used in gang-related crimes where individuals attack relatively non-vulnerable targets (young males accompanied by other persons). Despite these characteristics, firearm use increases the risk of fatal injuries in violent altercations, but lessens the risk of non-fatal injuries, among other things, in the case of robberies. Findings establish that firearms facilitate the perpetration of violent crimes, even in the hands of the strongest offenders. Results also suggest that other weapons are poor substitutes for firearms. Although the findings cannot fully corroborate firearms as the great equalizer, these weapons do confer several advantages to their user(s). Firearms also appear to be a sufficient threat in the case of robberies, where additional injuries are not necessary to successfully commit the crime.

Keyphrases: Firearms, Criminal violence, Facilitator, Vulnerability, Death, Injuries, Propensity Score Matching
Proposition d'une perspective disciplinaire pour l'exploration de facteurs organisationnels influençant la violence horizontale chez les infirmières

Summary An integrative and critical analysis of the last decade’s studies regarding horizontal violence (HV) among staff nurses and their underlying theoretical frameworks was conducted.  Following this analysis, it has become clear that HV among nurses should be prevented with interventions held within the work environment because of its important prevalence, the variety of negative actions and their multiple consequences for the nurses, the patients and the healthcare organization.  However, a lack of knowledge regarding organizational factors of influence as well as the absence of an optimal theoretical framework to explore them, remain.  This constitutes an obstacle to the development of effective prevention strategies in the health establishments.  Therefore, a theoretical framework that allows the comprehension and contribution of those factors should be made available to researchers and nursing managers in order to orient the choice of prevention strategies to deploy.  A nursing framework would ensure a disciplinary coherence for its users and the transfer of knowledge in the healthcare environments.  The «Culture Care Diversity and Universality theory» elaborated by Leininger (1988; 2001; 2006; 2010) along with the Sunrise Model (Leininger, 2001) are proposed and privileged as a disciplinary perspective for the exploration of organizational factors that influence horizontal violence among staff nurses.

Keyphrases: Leininger, Horizontal violence, Nurses, Organizational factors, Prevention, Theoretical frameworks, Nursing perspective, Integrative analysis
Rôle de l’infirmière en santé mentale dans un Groupe de Médecine Familiale

The author wanted to document the role of the mental health nurse in a Family Group Medicine services. The aims of this analysis are: 1. Describe the role of the community mental health nurse in the primary services by searching in the scientific literature and on what is actually being done in Quebec 2. Identified the collaboration models that could be used to implement this role 3. Defined recommendations to help the implementation of this role in theFamily Group Medicine services

Keyphrases: Primary health care, Collaboration, Co-location, Delivering of health care, Community mental health nursing, Integrated care
Présentation personnalisée des informations environnementales

We present our work in this thesis in the field of information visualization. We dealt with the problem of the generation of weather forecasts reports. Given the huge amount of information produced by Environment Canada and a wide variety of users, it must generate a customized visualization that meets their needs and preferences.  We developed MeteoVis, a weather report generator. Given that we have little information on the user profile, we relied on the choices made by similar users to calculate the needs and preferences of a user.  We use unsupervised machine learning techniques to group similar users . We compute a degree of similarity of user profiles in the same cluster to determine the needs and preferences.  We conducted, with the help of external users experiments for evaluating and comparing our tool with the current site of Environment Canada. The evaluation results show that the visualizations generated by MeteoVis are significantly better than the current bulletins prepared by EC.

Keyphrases: Information visualization, Personalization, User profile, Machine learning, Data mining, Graph
Le Sionisme chrétien contemporain aux États-Unis, entre religion et politique

This doctoral thesis deals with Christian Zionism, and more precisely with pastor John Hagee, the members of his organization (Christians United For Israel - CUFI) and his assembly, Cornerstone Church. This movement gathers fundamentalist Evangelicals who literally obey Genesis 12: 3, which says it is necessary to bless Israel to be blessed in return. They believe that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, the creation of the State of Israel (1948) and the conquest of Jerusalem (1967) are forewarning signs of the Second coming of Jesus Christ confirming the prophecies from the New Testament and the Old Testament. CUFI has one message for the nation of America, and also for humanity. Their message must be communicated in defense of the State of Israel and the Jews. This explains how the Christian Zionist movement, which is not a recent one, aims for reaching its ultimate objective of national influence by constantly changing its techniques along with employing progressive strategies. The question deals with the relationship between religion and politics. The research follows the progression of Hagee and his groups from the religious sphere to political engagement, and the factors that are the origins of this passage. We will see how these Christians, who are influenced by a background that is political, millenarist and prophetic, become religious actors in the political arena. Moreover, we concentrated on pro-Israel Evangelical literature, in addition to making a field study along with observations and interviews. During the field trips, the individual, as a pro-Israel Evangelical, his own experience, and his relation to religion and Israel was our focus. Finally, this thesis provides an interdisciplinary perspective between religious studies and American studies.

Keyphrases: Christian Zionism, Israel, Evangelicals, United States, Foreign affairs, Religion, Politics
Les déterminants du comportement alimentaire de jeunes hommes gais

Introduction: This study aimed to explore the determinants of food choices amongst young gay men. The secondary objective was to explore gay men’s perception towards heterosexual men’s food choices.  Method: A qualitative method based on picture taking and individual semi-structured interviews was used.  Results: Eleven gay men from 21 to 25 years old and living in apartments in the Montreal area participated in the study. Physical appearance, health and nutrition are very influential factors of their eating behavior. Men in the cohort support the perception that these factors do not influence as strongly heterosexual men’s eating behavior. These men, in general, enjoy cooking, but do not all invest the same amount of time. They are big consumers of food outside home.. Many of them limit their consumption of meat, a food they consider masculine and strongly linked to heterosexual men.  Conclusion: The eating behavior of the young men in this cohort is influenced by many factors that are not usually associated with men, like physical appearance, health and nutrition. They are aware of this dichotomy by comparing themselves with their heterosexual friends. If healthcare professionals neglect these factors, they may miss effective intervention points.

Keyphrases: alimentation, image corporelle, food choices, diet, homosexual, masculinity, gender, men's health, body image
Special functions of Weyl groups and their continuous and discrete orthogonality

This thesis presents several properties and applications of four families of Weyl group orbit functions called $C$-, $S$-, $S^s$- and $S^l$-functions. These functions may be viewed as generalizations of the well-known Chebyshev polynomials. They are related to orthogonal polynomials associated with simple Lie algebras, e.g. the multivariate Jacobi and Macdonald polynomials. They have numerous remarkable properties such as continuous and discrete orthogonality. In particular, it is shown that the $S^s$- and $S^l$-functions characterized by certain parameters are mutually orthogonal with respect to a discrete measure. Their discrete orthogonality allows to deduce two types of Fourier-like discrete transforms for each simple Lie algebra with two different lengths of roots. Similarly to the Chebyshev polynomials, these four families of functions have applications in numerical integration. We obtain in this thesis various cubature formulas, for functions of several variables, arising from $C$-, $S^s$- and $S^l$-functions. We also provide a~complete description of discrete multivariate cosine transforms of types V--VIII involving the Weyl group orbit functions arising from simple Lie algebras $C_n$ and $B_n$, called antisymmetric and symmetric cosine functions. Furthermore, we study four families of multivariate Chebyshev-like orthogonal polynomials introduced via (anti)symmetric cosine functions.

Keyphrases: Weyl groups, Orbit functions C, S, S^s and S^l, Orthogonal polynomials, Discrete transforms, Cubature formulas
Verbaliser l’indicible : une étude de l’expérience de la «vibe» dans la scène underground-house de Montréal

This thesis examines the discourses and embodied experiences of participants from the underground electronic house music scene in Montreal. In this empirical study, I aim to provide a twofold contribution to the field of studies on contemporary expressive cultural formations. First, on the methodological standpoint, this research illustrates the scope of the « explicitation » interview—a method of retrospective introspection developed by French researcher Pierre Vermersch (1994)—in assisting informants in the process of putting sensory impressions, emotions, thoughts or actions into words. Combined with a long-term immersive approach in the field, I argue that this innovative method proved to be a rigorous tool, which allowed participants to access and verbalize embodied memories with unprecedented accuracy. Second, this ethnographic study sheds light on new social spaces of solidarity and expression created by middle and upper middle class Quebecers of Haitian origin. The results of this research show, firstly, that the "vibe"—an idiomatic expression widely used by the househeads to qualify their experience—is a conceptual cornerstone that maintains cohesion between the representations, beliefs and bodily practices of the participants. Secondly, the study demonstrates that this cultural formation stands as a new expression of counter-cultural space, which establishes a critical distance from both the commercialised "hip hop culture" as well as the dominant (mainstream) cultural space by promoting a subversive bodily and spiritual experience. This unique site of transmission and communion creates new models of sociability and contributes in an unusual way to the intercultural urban dialogue in Montreal.

Keyphrases: immersion, explicitation, danse, vibe, Haitian, spirituality, methodology, reflexivity, methodology, embodiment, music, dance
La représentation du métro dans le jeu vidéo d'horreur : désorientation, angoisse et terreur

This master thesis studies video games‘ spatiality and the ludic adaptation of real locations. It focuses on one specific location, the subway, and on its representation in the horror genre. The research is structured by three levels of adaptation : systemic, sociohistorical and technological. Based on examples of games compared with the reality of the subway, those three levels of adaptation enable at once an exploration of the impact of the virtual location on the gaming experience and of the external influences on the game design.

Keyphrases: video game, horror, spatial conception, production of space, urbanism
Étude longitudinale des liens prédictifs entre les traits de personnalité et les comportements antisociaux à l’adolescence

The goal of this longitudinal study was to evaluate if personality traits in early adolescence can predict future antisocial behavior, after controlling for initial level of antisocial behavior and the influence of various known risk factors. The sample includes 1036 adolescents from eight high schools in the province of Quebec. The adolescents were evaluated twice, once during the first year of high school (12-13 years old) and once during the second year of high school (14-15 years old). Adolescents filled a self-reported questionnaire. Structural equation models first confirmed that the covariation among different antisocial behaviors can be explained by a latent variable. The results confirmed that adolescents’ personality traits at ages 12 and 13 predict their antisocial behaviors at ages 14 and 15. In accordance with previous studies, Extraversion, Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability predict future antisocial behavior. However, the effect of Agreeableness disappeared once initial level of antisocial behavior was controlled for. Finally, multiple-group structural equation models showed significant gender-specific predictive relations. The results of this study support the relevance of personality traits for both theory of antisocial behavior and clinical practice.

Keyphrases: adolescence, personality traits, antisocial behavior, adolescence, predictive relations, risk factors, gender
La coédition franco-québécoise et ses conséquences sur les oeuvres de fiction publiées en traduction

The copublishing of the translated version of literary books in Quebec and then distributed under a French publishing brand, is a practice used by editors to broaden the outreach of their books. The process of copublishing is carried out through various methods which tend to evolve in an unpredictable way : editors and translators make compromises about the target language in order to reach their cross-Atlantic markets. What is the nature of these compromises? Are they terminological, lexicographical, cultural or merely subjective? How are they perceived by translators and publishers? This essay explores these questions through the study of four cases of literary works copublished by publishers and literary translators from Quebec.  The analysis demonstrates that these compromises, be they cultural or not, have little impact on the quality of French in the copublishing market, which is often in France. But they sometimes create a feeling of cultural dominance on the part of France. This discourse is however nuanced by the type of copublishing practice and the position occupied by translators within the publishing structure. A clearer framework for copublishing practices and a better status for the translator of literary works would contribute to mitigate some of the tensions related to copublishing.

Keyphrases: Copublication, Fiction, Copublishing, Translation, Norms, Target audience, Cultural domination
Parenting styles and adjustment in gifted children

The present study examines the psychosocial development of gifted children. Although much evidence exists that gifted children experience problems of adjustment, such as social isolation, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem, few studies have investigated the family environment of gifted children and its possible links to child psychosocial adjustment. The goal of this study, therefore, was to address these questions by examining the parenting styles, as defined by Baumrind, of parents of gifted children and their potential associations with the adjustment levels of their children. Parenting styles were measured using a self-report questionnaire. The level of adjustment for gifted children, aged 7 to 11 years old, was measured using behavioural and self-concept measures. Giftedness was determined using a standardized intelligence test. Forty-eight gifted children and 52 nongifted children participated in the study. Parents of gifted children reported using a predominantly authoritative parenting style. Mothers, however, reported significantly higher authoritative scores than fathers. Parents reported several gifted children to experience problems with peers, but their teachers did not report this nor did the children themselves. No associations were found between a particular parenting style and the reported presence of peer social problems in gifted children. Mothers’ authoritarian parenting style was significantly associated with lower conduct problem levels, and higher intellectual self-concept levels in gifted children. As for mothers’ authoritative parenting style, a significant relationship was found with higher conduct problem levels in gifted children. Mothers’ permissive parenting style was found to be associated with lower self-concept levels in gifted children. As for the fathers, authoritarian and permissive parenting styles were found to be linked to lower adjustment and self-concept levels in gifted children. Adjustment levels and parenting styles were also compared between gifted and nongifted children. For both groups of children, adjustment levels were in the normal range and the parents reported similar use of the three parenting styles. As for the relationships between parenting styles and adjustment in nongifted children, fathers’ authoritative parenting style was found to be associated with higher child adjustment levels. Mothers’ authoritarian and fathers’ permissive parenting styles were found to be associated with lower self-concept levels in nongifted children. The conclusions of this thesis permit a better understanding of the complexity of the links between parenting styles and the psychosocial adjustment of gifted children.

Keyphrases: Child adjustment, Child outcomes, Self-concept, Giftedness, Parenting style, Parenting, Gifted children
Méga-événements et nouveaux médias : le journalisme liquide dans le contexte de la Coupe du monde de 2014 et des Jeux olympiques de 2016

This master thesis deals with the representations circulating on the Internet before and during the historical and unexpected popular uprising in Brazil, during the 2013 Confederations Cup. The wave of protests, which triggered a passionate online debate about mega-events, is still an understudied phenomenon. To fill this gap, this research investigates the problem by examining the case of the city of Rio de Janeiro, host of the finals of 2014 World Cup and of 2016 Olympic Games. The study aims to analyze on the representations emerging from news networks in the light of the fast-paced urban transformations and conflicts that currently characterize mega-events in the city. A natural logic analysis of documents published between 2009 and 2013 by four particular types of news sites highlights how social representations reproduced: (1) the government strategy of urban branding and (2) the civil movements strategies to face urban transformations. At the theoretical and methodological levels, the study explores the research path of liquid journalism, inspired by the work of sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, who focused on the cultural, economic and political consequences of globalization. The collected data were analyzed from a critical and theoretical viewpoint. The results were discussed by confronting those obtained by the researchers who we referenced in the literature.

Keyphrases: mega-events, host city, journalism, online journalism, urban branding, urban transformations, evictions, Brazil, uprising