NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Changements corticaux et sous-corticaux des événements du sommeil lent au cours du vieillissement

As demonstrated by recent advancements in the field of neuroscience, sleep is an active and dynamic state in which cohesive neural oscillations organize brain functions. Sleep spindles and slow waves are hallmarks of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and are used as markers on the electroencephalogram to characterize the underlying neural activity. Because of their implication in sleep and cognitive processes, these oscillations are particularly relevant in aging research, as functional challenges to sleep and memory are well known among this population. Normal aging not only reduces the characteristics of NREM sleep oscillations, but it also modifies anatomical and functional measures of brain integrity. Local regulation of NREM sleep oscillations have recently been described, yet few evidence is currently available on this process in aging. The present work aims to characterize the relationship between sleep neurophysiology, normal aging and regional brain activity with the assessment of the topography and hemodynamics of NREM sleep oscillations throughout adulthood. In a first study, sleep spindle density, duration, amplitude and frequency will be assessed in three age groups in relation to brain topography using electroencephalography. In a second study, hemodynamic responses to slow wave events and their modulation by amplitude will be assessed in two age groups using electroencephalography combined with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Our results can be summarized as follows: 1) age effects on sleep spindle characteristics showed an intriguing dichotomy between anterior and posterior cortical areas; 2) hemodynamic variations related to slow waves were observed in a wide array of cortical and subcortical regions in older individuals. These results suggest the functional reorganization of neural activity during NREM sleep throughout adulthood, support NREM sleep oscillations as useful and sensible biomarkers of brain aging, and promote further research on age-related changes in synaptic plasticity, cell restoration and sleep maintenance.

Keyphrases: Eeg, Irmf, Onde lente, Fmri, Nrem sleep, Sleep spindle, Slow wave, Aging
L'apport des personnages virtuels simulant différentes dispositions affectives à l'évaluation des intérêts sexuels

Penile plethysmography is considered the most objective method to assess adult men's sexual interests. However, a growing number of researchers underline the poor correspondence between the stimuli used during this type of assessment and reality. It is proposed to try to overcome this issue by using computer generated virtual characters that present a variety of affective dispositions during plethysmographic assessments. These stimuli have never been used in the assessment of child molesters' sexual interests. This thesis is composed of two articles that aim at supporting the use of this type of stimuli during plethysmographic assessments. In order to reach this goal, men who have or not engaged in sexual contact with children were recruited so that they could be compared.  A first empirical study is bipartite. On one hand, it aims to determine in a student sample whether the affective dispositions simulated by the virtual characters represent what was intended. Its second goal is to determine the ability of the charcarters to generate a sexual arousal profile representative of non-deviant men. The second experimental study focuses on comparing profiles of erectile responses recorded to the virtual characters and determining their ability to discriminate individuals according to their group membership.  Overall, results support the use of these stimuli during plethysmographic assessments. They demonstrate that the virtual characters simulate intended affective dispositions as well as their ability to generate profiles of sexual arousal and deviance differentials representative of group membership. This research project presents the advantages of using virtual characters that simulate varying affective dispositions in the assessment of child molesters' sexual interests and proposes interesting avenues in terms of assessment and treatment with this population.

Keyphrases: penile plethysmography, virtual characters, affective dispositions, affordances, child molesters, deviant sexual interests
Les historiens français et britanniques devant la responsabilité de l’échec des négociations tripartites de 1939 : étude historiographique de 1961 à 2011

In 1939, France and Great Britain realized that stopping Hitler’s aggression in Europe would require a common front. Such an endeavour brought them to consider the Soviet Union as a possible ally. Despite four months of negotiations, the three countries could not reach any agreement. This failure was dramatic since on 23 August, a non-aggression pact was signed between Berlin and Moscow and, one week later, Germany invaded Poland. The Second World War had started. Since the 1990s, many historians argued that Western historiography about these failed negotiations has been influenced by Cold War propaganda and the idea that the Soviets never had the intention of allying with Western Europe. However, after a more careful look at studies published between 1961 and 2011 by French and British historians, this thesis demonstrates that, since 1961, in both Great Britain and France, the interpretations of the Soviet Union’s role in those negotiations were more free of ideological presuppositions than is often claimed. The publication of Taylor’ The Origins of the Second World War and the controversy that followed radically changed the nature of the debate and allowed the emergence of theses strikingly similar to those argued currently. These suggest that the Soviet leaders prioritized allying with the Entente at least until the end of July and that France and, most notably, Great Britain’s foreign policy caused the failure of the tripartite negotiations.

Keyphrases: 1939, France, relations internationales, 1939, origin of the Second World War, historiography, USSR, France, Great Britain, international relations
Développement d'une méthode de quantification des varicosités synaptiques et asynaptiques établies par les neurones dopaminergiques

Dopamine neurons (DA) of the Substantia Nigra compacta (SNc) and Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) are able to develop axon terminals that are either synaptic or non-synaptic in terms of their structure. No method other than electron microscopy was previously developed to quantify synaptic and non-synaptic axonal varicosities established by DA neurons. The main objective of this project was to develop a method for the quantification and analysis of synaptic and non-synaptic terminals established by cultured DA neurons. We hypothesized that synapses should be visualized by the colocalisation of presynaptic proteins such as synaptotagmin 1 (SYT1) and postsynaptic markers like the postsynaptic density protein 95 (PSD95).               To perform this, we prepared primary DA neurons cultures from neurons obtained from the ventral mesencephalon of TH-GFP transgenic mice. We then used immunocytochemistry and confocal microscopy to localize markers of the pre and postsynaptic compartments. Images were quantified using the Image-J software.                Our results show that the majority of axon terminals established by DA neurons contain the presynaptic marker SYT1. However, only a minority are associated with the postsynaptic marker PSD95, compatible with previous in vivo results. In comparison, glutamatergic neurons from the cortex establish a majority of terminals associated with a postsynaptic marker.                Our results validate the establishment of an experimental strategy allowing quantification of the proportion of synaptic and non-synaptic contacts established by DA neurons, a technique that we plan to use to explore the molecular mechanisms of synapse formation by these neurons.

Keyphrases: Dopamine, Synapses, Adhesion proteins, Immunocytochemistry, Varicosities
Bougainville, Lévis, Vaudreuil : trajets dans les historiographies de la guerre de Sept Ans

Very popular since the 1980s, studies on collective memory have stimulated interest in historiography and especially in the construction of heroic figures. The thesis follows this trend in studying how a multinational historiography treated three French officers of the Seven Years’ War’s North American theatre. We observe how Vaudreuil, Bougainville and Lévis have fared at the hands of historians from Great Britain, France, the United States and English and French Canada, from the eighteenth century to the present. The purpose of the study is to isolate the varying perspectives from which historians of different times and national allegiance have examined the three figures. In the end, the three men were seen to incarnate three contrasting, variously interpreted postures. Since historians were particularly sensitive to what they saw as national conflicts, they judged their heroes accordingly. Vaudreuil, the Canadian-born governor of Canada, thus became the champion of his “country”; Bougainville, French-born future navigator and protagonist of the Enlightenment who wrote disparagingly about the colony, was judged on these opinions; while Lévis, a Frenchman who was more discreet in his writings, was evaluated above all as the victor of the battle of Sainte-Foy in 1760.

Keyphrases: Historiography, National identities, Memory, Seven Years’ War
Constitution de l’univers discursif de la prostitution au Québec : enjeux autour de la sexualité dans les médias québécois à la lumière du projet de loi C-36

This thesis aims to explore how discourses around sexuality were created and circulated in the Québec media following the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision to strike down the prostitution laws in December 2013 (Canada (Attorney General) v. Bedford, 2013 SCC 72). Using discourse analysis and drawing on feminist theory in order to conceptualize sexuality in regards to sex class systems and sexual dynamics, the thesis addresses rival discourses in a time frame that follows the striking down of the laws up until when Bill C-36 was introduced by the Conservative government. Media discourses and the regulating systems that they entail (privileged voices, oriented coverage, framed debates etc.) all help create certain ideas around sexuality whilst simultaneously normalizing them. With the input of numerous social agents (politicians, women’s groups, academics, prostituted women and lawyers), the rival discourses set around morality and choice in sexuality fed a public debate built on a similar antagonism to that of the feminist “sex wars”. This thesis understands these discourses framed within the debate of prostitution as constitutive of current understandings of sexuality and sex class systems.

Keyphrases: Prostitution, C-36, Discourse analysis, Feminism, Sexuality, Media in Québec
Rôle du facteur de transcription Gfi1b au cours de l’hématopoïèse précoce

Growth factor independent 1b (GFI1b) is a transcription factor implicated in the regulation of hematopoiesis. It is highly expressed in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and throughout the differentiation of erythroid and megakaryocytic lineages. Using a CreLox system, we have generated mice in which GFI1b is conditionally deleted in megakaryocytic lineages. These mice exhibit a strong proliferation of immature megakaryocytes, which are unable to produce platelets. We were unable to confirm the results of a previously published study from our group, which reported an increase of hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow using a different mouse model. However, in agreement with this publication, an increase in the circulating HSC pool can be detected in our GFI1b knockout mice. A preliminary analysis of the molecular role of GFI1b suggests that this transcription factor might be implicated in the circadian regulation of HSC mobilization in the blood. Finally, our experiments on the biological effects of the deletion of GFI1b in the adult murine hematopoietic compartment allowed us to better understand the role of GFI1b in hematopoiesis, and to confirm the major contribution of GFI1b to the development of megakaryocytes and the production of mature platelets.

Keyphrases: Gfi1b, Hematopoiesis, Transcription factor
La Lanterne d’Arthur Buies : analyse du discours pamphlétaire et de sa réception dans le milieu journalistique

La Lanterne, written in Montreal by Arthur Buies from 1868 to 1869 and inspired by Rochefort’s La Lanterne, diverges from newspapers published at that time, when the clergy - who controlled most of them - imposes upon Catholics obedience to the authorities. By publishing La Lanterne, Buies opposes French-Canadian newspapers not only through his criticisms towards them, but also through his choice to write it as a pamphlet, a literary genre that confronts the standards from that period by being written in a style close to spoken language and essentially based on denunciation. Although not officially censored, the polemist is under pressure from the clergy and the conservative press, which affects his project of turning his newspaper into an organ for the youth. Reconstructing the history of La Lanterne and analysing the text, in comparison with the 1884 reedition, allow us to identify the expression of Buies’ ambition, in opposition to the more discreet signs of the difficulties he had to face while writing his journal. The polemist portrays himself in interaction with his opponents and his readers. Thus, the study of the response La Lanterne received from other newspapers shows there was little reaction and that those who wrote about it discredit the publication. Buies was in fact struggling with the absence of a true interlocutor. Our analysis of the literary dimension of La Lanterne brings a better comprehension of Buies’ goals and the tools he intended to use to transform the press - and, by that, the Canadian youth. By looking at the response Buies received, we also want to highlight how the French-Canadian journalistic community worked and understand the part Buies played in it.

Keyphrases: La Lanterne, Arthur Buies, XIXe siècle, Pamphlet, Nineteenth century, Canadian press, Reception study, French-Canadian clergy, Anticlericalism
Le Verre de Charlemagne : rencontres méditerranéennes

The so-called ‘Cup of Charlemagne,’ today in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Chartres, was kept for centuries in the treasury of the nearby church of the Madeleine de Châteaudun. The enamelled and gilt glass can be dated and localized to Syria at the end of the twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century; its gilt copper base was added towards the end of the thirteenth century, in France. A number of gilt and enamelled glasses similarly circulated around the Mediterranean during this period, and the roles these objects played in forging relationships between East and West are here demonstrated to be various and complex.  The current project thus aims to retrace the journey taken by the Cup of Charlemagne across continents and across the centuries, with the aim of demonstrating the importance of the object’s double identity as a product of both East and West. Thus, the means by which the Syrian glass was integrated into its new use context in France will be given particular attention. The origin and technique of enamelled and gilded glass in general will first be treated, then the creation of the Cup of Charlemagne in particular, before turning to the historical context for the transfer of this astonishingly fragile glass across the Mediterranean. The study will probe the ‘Christianisation’ of such Islamic objects, and will treat the various metamorphoses they withstood once having reached Western Europe. A variety of other enamelled glasses that similarly reached Europe in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries will be considered alongside the Cup of Charlemagne to enrich and flesh out its history.

Keyphrases: Islam, Christianisation, Enamelled Glass, Medieval, Islam, Christianization, Materiality
Effets cellulaires de l’activation de ligases de l’ubiquitine par la protéine lysosomale LITAF

LITAF (lipopolysaccharide-induced tumor necrosis factor-alpha factor), a lysosomal protein, possesses two PPXY motifs which are able to interact with a specific subgroup comprised of three ubiquitin ligases. These ligases play a role in the ubiquitination and degradation of several cellular proteins in lysosomes and proteasomes. The aim of this study was to show that LITAF activates these ligases and to investigate the consequences of the activation of these ligases on their substrates. To do so, in vivo and in vitro ubiquitination assays were conducted in the presence of LITAF and the appropriate ligases and substrates. Activation of the ligases was measured by their self-ubiquitination rate and activation of their substrates was measured by their ubiquitination and degradation rates. Our results show that the activity of the ligases is increased in the presence of LITAF and that ubiquitination and degradation of the substrates are partially increased. Thus, LITAF might play a role in the regulation of ubiquitin ligases. The importance of these results lies in the fact that expression and intracellular localization of LITAF are affected in several pathologies. Our results bring new insights into the physiological role of this protein and could partly explain how the altered expression of LITAF affects cellular balance.

Keyphrases: LITAF, Lysosome, Ligase, Itch, WWP1, Charcot-Marie-Tooth, Ubiquitin, Endosomal trafficking
La communauté du dehors : imaginaire social et représentations du crime au Québec (XIXe-XXe siècle)

Quebec society, like all societies, has its own legendary crimes and criminals. Yet if these famous faits divers have been recently made into historiographical re-enactments, the cultural and historic manner in which they are transformed from local news reports into national myths – what we call mecanisms of “ légendarisation ” –, is practically unknown. It is this mutation that this thesis examines : drawing from four famous crimes of the 18th and 19th centuries (the Seigneur of Kamouraska’s murder [1839] as well as the crimes committed by “ La Corriveau ” [1763], by the “ docteur l’Indienne ” [1829] and by the “ brigands du Cap-Rouge ” [1834-1835]), our analysis recollects their two-hundred-year-long genealogy into collective memory. Through this collective memory, a complex discourse system arises for each crime : by intertwining newspaper reports and stories from oral and written traditions, social imagination manufactures great antagonist figures, incarnations of evil and avatars of the devil from ordinary criminal acts. This vast antagonizing process is in fact dependent on a whole epoch – the 19th century – where, in the western world, “ crime ” was suddenly placed at the heart of all social and political preoccupations. This era seemingly created a literary craze for crime, as well as a whole arsenal of specialized notions, ideas and technologies designed to understand, mesure and eliminate criminality. During the Lower Canada period, the phenomenon spreads across this side of the Atlantic. In the wake of this movement, the great criminals who impacted the collective mind are made to become especially rallying imaginary enemies : figures of a radical otherness, they become the foil against which Quebec society, from the 19th century onwards, instituted itself.

Keyphrases: Crime, Institutions judiciaires, Social imagination, Quebec literature, Newspapers, Collective memory, Oral tradition, 19th century, Cultural history, Judicial institutions
Representations of curanderismo in Chicana/o texts

My dissertation focuses on representations of curanderismo in Chicana/o texts. A healing tradition, a worldview, a system of beliefs and practices of diverse origins, curanderismo addresses medical, religious, cultural, social and political needs of the Mexican American people on both individual and communal level. In my discussion of literary texts (Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima, Pat Mora’s selected poems, Cherrie Moraga’s play The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea) and of the 2014 academic course on curanderismo at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, which I approach as a cultural text, curanderismo reflects complex, often ambiguous ways of representing Chicana/o search for self-identity, self-affirmation and self-empowerment, growing out of a long history of subjugation and discrimination. In the texts under analysis curanderismo assumes the role of a powerful metaphor of the possibility of bringing together a variety of values, attitudes, concepts and notions with the ultimate aim of celebrating the potential of the Chicana/o self.

Keyphrases: Curanderismo, Genre, Chicana/o literature, Mexican American communities, U.S.-Mexico borderland, Representation, Curanderismo, Identity, Gender, Politics, Academia
Effet de la classe ou expériences scolaires? : étude sur l'élaboration et la variation des aspirations scolaires réalistes des étudiant(e)s canadien(ne)s au regard des études universitaires

This thesis investigates the social phenomenon of the elaboration and adjustment of realistic educational aspirations for high school graduates during the ten-year period preceding graduation. Its aim is to determine which factors most affect realistic edu-cational aspirations in the light of two major sociological concepts: Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and Raymond Boudon’s concept of rationality. In short, this thesis explores the manner in which factors linked to educational experience (the baseline for rational calculating) and to sociocultural heritage (habitus) may affect the cons-truction of so-called realistic educational aspirations and their adjustment The analyses are done in two distinct parts. The first part consists of logistic regres-sion analysis using cross-sectional data drawn from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS). The aim of this analysis is to identify the main factors that enter into consid-eration during the construction of educational aspirations for Canadian students ap-proaching high school graduation. The second part, also using YITS data, examines this phenomenon with a longitudinal perspective in order to identify which factors affect aspirations throughout Canadian students’ educational experience. This is done using generalized estimating equations (GEE) regression.  The results show that young students, predictably, use rational calculation when con-structing and adjusting realistic educational aspirations, but also that such a calcula-tion is highly influenced by the habitus, especially by the parents’ education level (institutionalized cultural capital). Moreover, the students’ calculation proves to be significantly constrained, when assessing the risks of following different educational aspirations, by the self-reported overall high school average and additional grades in the first years of a postsecondary studies.

Keyphrases: Habitus, Capital social, Habitus rationality, Educational aspiration, Realistic educational aspiration, Cultural capital, Economic capital, Social capital, Rationality, Educational experience, Cost-benefit calculation