NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Identification de biomarqueurs protéiques prédictifs et diagnostiques des maladies coronariennes pour une population de souche canadienne-française

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major cause of mortality in Canada. Biomarkers are precious tools to diagnosis and risk stratification, and the identification of new candidates may substantially impact on public health and health economics. Due to its complexity, the human blood proteome remains challenging to explore. Our study aims at combining various complementary methods to determine the plasma proteome signature of patients at various stages of CAD.   The total cohort includes 1006 French-Canadian, 500 controls with a normal coronary angiography, and 506 patients with documented CAD. Two pools were reconstituted to represent the extremes of our population: 1) patients with a previous myocardial infarction (MI) and a recurrent MI over a 5 years follow-up and 2) controls without CAD and no events during follow-up matched for age and sex to the CAD pool (N=18). After a depletion of highly abundant proteins, pools were analyzed using 3 different proteomic methods: i) PF2D system followed by a liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry analysis (LC-MS/MS); ii) 1D-SDS-PAGE followed by LC-MS/MS; iii) Further depletion of proteins followed by 1D-SDS-PAGE and LC-MS/MS analysis of both flow through (3a) and retained fractions (3b).  Methods 2, 3a, and 3b allowed identification of 108, 125 and 91 proteins respectively. Overlapping proteins (31% between methods 2 and 3a, 61% between 2 and 3b and 19% between 3a and 3b) showed significant absolute and relative expressions with various methods. A total of 12 proteins were significantly (p<0.05) different in amounts (number of peptides identified) between the 2 pools. Analyses with the PF2D elution spectra (method 1) displayed numerous different profiles between the two groups. Over a total of 1156 fractions (control: 1172 peaks ACS: 926 peaks) generated, 370 fractions (674 peaks) overlapped between the two pools. 15 fractions (23 peaks) differed significantly (p<0,05) in amounts while some other peaks were uniquely present in one pool, representing biomarkers of potential interest.   We conclude that plasma proteome signatures are significantly modeled by the methods serving their recognition. Cost of analyses can be reduced with the PF2D method by performing a pre-selection before MS analysis. Detection of less abundant proteins can be improved by using further depletion.  Taking profit of these finding, we are now testing in our population the hypothesis that a combination of methods will sharpen our ability to detect clinically relevant proteins tailored to various clinical situations and to disease staging.

Keyphrases: Biomarkers, Coronary artery disease, Depletion, PF2D, PF2D, Proteomics
L'impact d'un accident vasculaire cérébral léger sur la qualité de vie des proches

Introduction: Mild stroke clients are often independent in basic activities of daily living but may present subtle deficits that impact on complex activities and roles. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceived quality of life of close family members three months after the stroke client was discharged home. Method: Qualitative design based on a constructivist paradigm. Interviews were conducted with family members of mild stroke clients three months after discharge. An interview guide was used and the audio content was transcribed, followed by a content analysis. Results: Eight interviews were conducted (mean age 56.9 ± 9.2 years; men=2/8). Six essential themes emerged from the data. According to participants, mild stroke clients present sequelae that interfere with complex tasks (patient), increasing the burden on other family members who have to limit their personal activities (daily living). Spouses reported sometimes acting like a parent, which caused tensions in the relationship (conjugal relationship). Anxiety is related to the risk of stroke recurrence (relapse) and some family members present physical symptoms and a lack of energy (health). However, family members do not have access to services despite support from their relatives (services). Conclusion: The results of this exploratory study strongly suggest that even a ‘mild’ stroke has an impact on the daily lives of close family members and affects their quality of life.

Keyphrases: mild stroke, close family member, quality of life, qualitative design, constructivist paradigm
Tables de concertation et préservation du patrimoine, solution porteuse ou chimère ? :
deux cas d’étude, le Vieux-Montréal et le mont Royal

Consensus building is a recent and increasingly widespread phenomenon. It is used in many areas, including urban planning, and more recently heritage protection. Consensus building appears to be an appropriate tool for municipal authorities to handle conflicts in development projects, especially those projects that are related to heritage protection. Our research focuses on the contribution of consensus building in the area of heritage preservation, and on the means put in place to achieve such a goal. Are round tables, as part of the consensus building process, appropriate in managing heritage sites?  Based on a theoretical discussion on consensus building in development issues, we compare two case studies, namely the Old Montréal and the Mount Royal round tables on consensus building. This analysis focuses on assessing the consensus building process and on developing a global vision for the future of the two heritage sectors under study. Our goal is to characterize the consensus building process used in Montréal and to evaluate its contribution to the field of heritage protection. The analysis of our two case studies reveals the existence of a distinctive consensus building process specific to Montréal, a process which however needs to be optimized.  We conclude our research with the need to improve the assessed consensus building process through a number of avenues to explore.

Keyphrases: Participation, Table de concertation, Consensus building in development issues, Consensus building process, Participation, Protection and development of the urbain heritage, Historic district, Natural and historic district, Urban fights for heritage protection, Round table of consensus building
Les figures de la divinité chez Sartre, Giraudoux et Camus : trois pièces écrites sous l’Occupation allemande

Les mouches, Sodome et Gomorrhe, and Caligula present divinities parodying and criticizing the political leaders of the Occupation (1940-1944), as well as the use by dictators of traditional religious ideologies for subjugating humanity to totalitarian regimes. Theatrical divinities once infallible and all-powerful, the figures analyzed in this study are the product of the questioning of the divinity and political powers of the twentieth century. Our thesis is comprised of three chapters which examine the discourses of these figures of the divinity from dramaturgical, semiological, philosophical and pragmatic perspectives in order to consider the following hypothesis : everything leads to believe that by limiting the ascendency of fictional divinities, largely by the means of weaknesses in their discourses, Sartre, Giraudoux and Camus tried to neutralize the corresponding discourses of real men in the collective conscience of the period. The authors studied profoundly modified the traditional image of theatrical divinities by undermining the force of their language and by questioning their identity. The divinities chosen for this study announce the decomposition of the personnage which took place after 1950 : their status is undermined and the perlocutionary force of their language is lessened. Without a real stronghold on humanity, depending on theatre, pretence, histrionics, and human weaknesses, these caricatured divinities expose themselves to compromising their regimes and are reduced to an influence highly limited by man’s liberty. By updating these myths and accounts in this way, Sartre, Giraudoux and Camus tried, by extension, to discredit the European leaders of the period.

Keyphrases: Sartre, Giraudoux, Camus, Occupation, 20th century, Sartre, Giraudoux, Camus, Occupation, Theatre, Pragmatics, Poetics, God, Divinity
L’expérience de vieillir au quotidien de femmes âgées montréalaises vivant seules à domicile dans un contexte de précarité économique

Little attention has been given to the investigation of experiences and specific realities of the sub-group and sub-culture of aging women living in poverty. In this context, the objective of this research was to explore and analyze the daily experiences of women growing old and living alone at home in poverty. To reach this objective, the theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality of Madeleine Leininger was used as the theoretical foundation while a qualitative approach and an ethnonursing method were retained. The sample was collected by a “snowball” strategy in two community groups located on the Montreal territory.  A total of seven women aged 65 years and over, living alone at home in poverty were recruited.  Individual semi-directed interviews were conducted with each woman completed by a short socio-demographic questionnaire and field notes. The qualitative content analysis was structured according to the four steps of the data analysis guide proposed by Leininger. These steps are: (1) the raw data analysis, (2) the grouping of these in re-occurring patterns, (3) the emergence of subthemes and themes and (4) the formulation of the study results in the form of theoretical expressions or recommendations. Results from this research explains the daily aging experience of women according to six cultural factors of their social structure, namely: (1) environment, (2) cultural values, (3) lifestyle, (4) human relations, (5) economic factor and (6) ethnohistory; as well as in relation to their health/illness and aging experience, and their relation with the healthcare system. Results related to the cultural factors underline that the aging experience: (1) is settled mainly in the intimate home environment of these women, (2) provides a sense of liberty, control and independence, (3) is enriched by giving to others, (4) is bounded inside a small and weak social network and (5) blossomed through a positive vision of life and the refusal to be considered as poor and dependent. Results related to the human experience and healthcare system dimensions, reveal that the aging experience is embedded in a desire to maintain the body functionalities, to stay independent and to act as experts of its own health in relation with professional care received. The daily experience of growing old for these women relies on their autodetermination, their resilience and on the meaning they give to life. These results support clinical recommendations promoting nursing care that is based on an empowerment approach which is culturally coherent with the culture of these women.

Keyphrases: Older women, Ethnonursing method, Aging experience, Cultural factors
La rencontre des contraires : attraction/narration et immersion/réflexivité dans le film en IMAX 3-D

This thesis examines the ways in which IMAX 3-D films positions its spectator. First, we look at the history of 3-D cinema, from its origins to the inauguration of IMAX 3-D in 1986. We argue that for the first 70 years of its history, 3-D cinema was staged as a return to the cinema of attractions, and that this aesthetic was an obstacle to its institutionalization in the mid-50’s and 80’s. Then, we describe the “IMAX experience” and argue that IMAX films induce a state of immersion and, at the same time, draw the viewer’s attention to the presence of the apparatus and the act of mediation. In analysing the movies Sea Monsters: a Prehistoric Adventure and Haunted Castle, we demonstrate that this tension between viewer immersion and medium reflexivity serves to glorify the IMAX trademark. Furthermore, we examine the relationship between the punctual structure imposed by the logic of attractions and the narrative line held by each and every IMAX film.

Keyphrases: IMAX 3-D, narration, attraction, immersion, Sea Monsters, Haunted Castle
Mécanismes d'activation de la voie lysosomale durant l'apoptose chimio-induite

Apoptosis is a distinct form of regulated cell death which is essential for the development and homeostasis maintenance of multicellular animals. Apoptosis is an evolutionary conserved process involving a specific molecular pathway, known as the caspase cascade, and the different cytoplasmic organelles. A lysosomal pathway, characterized by partial rupture, labilization of lysosomal membranes (LML), and cathepsin activation in the cytoplasm, is evoked during camptothecin-induced apoptosis in human cancer cells, including human histiocytic lymphoma U-937 cells. These lysosomal events begin rapidly and simultaneously with mitochondrial permeabilization and caspase activation within 3 h after drug treatment. Comparative and quantitative proteome analyses were performed to identify early changes in lysosomal protein expression/localization from U-937 cells undergoing apoptosis. In two independent experiments, among a total of more than 538 proteins putatively identified and quantitated by iTRAQ isobaric labelling and LC-ESI-MS/MS, 18 proteins were found to be upregulated and 9 downregulated in lysosomes purified from early apoptotic compared to control cells. Protein expression was validated by Western blotting on enriched lysosome fractions, and protein localization confirmed by fluorescence confocal microscopy of representative protein candidates, whose functions are associated with lysosomal membrane fluidity and dynamics. These include sterol-4-alpha-carboxylate 3-dehydrogenase (NSDHL), prosaposin (PSAP) and protein kinase C delta (PKC-d). Functional experiments demonstrate that PKC-d translocation to lysosomes is required for LML, as silencing its expression with RNA interference or suppressing its activity with the inhibitor rottlerin prevents CPT-induced LLM. PKC-d translocation to lysosomes is associated with lysosomal acidic sphingomyelinase (ASM) phosphorylation and activation, which in turn leads to an increase of ceramide (CER) content at lysosomes. The accumulation of endogenous CER at lysosomes is a critical event for CPT-induced LLM as suppressing PKC-d or ASM activity reduces both CPT-mediated CER generation at lysosomes and CPT-induced LLM.These findings reveal a novel mechanism by which PKC-d mediates ASM phosphorylation/activation and CER accumulation at lysosomes in CPT-induced LLM, rapidly activating the lysosomal pathway of apoptosis after CPT treatment. Taken together, these results confirm the importance of sphingolipid metabolism in the activation of the lysosomal pathway of apoptosis.

Keyphrases: Lysosome, PKC-d, Apoptosis, Membrane, U-937, Lipid, Membrane, Ceramide, PKC-d, Sphingolipids
Conception de miARN artificiels basée sur la caractérisation de la boucle de régulation miR-20/E2F

miRNAs are powerful regulators of gene expression in mammals. These small RNAs of around 20 nucleotides are involved in several cellular processes and diseases. MiRNAs recognize their targets mainly by a region comprising nucleotides 2-8, known as the seed. This characteristic gives them the potential to inhibit hundreds of messenger RNAs. Our first goal was to better characterize the complex network involving miRNAs in the regulation of gene expression.  To achieve this, we studied the relation between a family of transcription factors, the E2Fs, and a family of miRNAs, the miR-17-92 cluster. Our results suggest a negative feedback loop involving miR-17, miR-20a, E2F1, E2F2 and E2F3. In this loop E2F1, 2 and 3 activate the transcription of the two miRNAs that inhibit their translation in return. The inhibition of the antiapoptotic function of E2F1 by miR-17 and miR-20 in a prostate cancer context, could explain the oncogenic potential of the miR-17-92 cluster that was previously reported. Studying the miR-20/E2F feedback loop made us realize how powerful was the ability of miRNAs to inhibit several targets. To overcome the lack of efficient tools able to inhibit simultaneously the expression of multiple genes, our second goal was to develop MultiTar, an algorithm able to design artificial miRNAs that target a set of predetermined genes. MultiTar was validated in silico, using known targets of endogenous miRNAs and in vivo, taking advantage of our experience with the E2F context. We designed artificial miRNAs against E2F1-3 and expressed them both in normal human fibroblasts and prostate cancer cells where they inhibited cell proliferation and induced cellular senescence. The observed phenotypes were precisely those known for inhibiting E2F activities. Hence, MultiTar can efficiently design artificial micro RNAs able to target multiple genes and is thus a flexible tool that can address the issue of multigenic diseases and complex cellular processes. The use of multitargets could be an alternative to overcome the limits of drugs or siRNAs that are designed generally to regulate only one target.

Keyphrases: miR-20, miR-17-92, E2F, MultiTar, miRNA, negative feedback loop
Les unions d'artistes, qu'ossa m'fait faire? : la subjectivation des artistes à travers les pratiques de leurs associations

This thesis explores the subjectification of artists as entrepreneurs of self through their professional unions’ practices. From a governmentality perspective, the first chapter of this thesis describes the cultural field in Quebec, the role played by the unions under study in this ‘dispositif’ and the formation of subjects. The second chapter addresses methodological questions : the construction of the archive and details about the interviews conducted. The foucaldian archive was adapted to incoporate interviews in order to analyse once at a time the subjectification implied through unions’ practices and the self-exercise of power by artists. The next three chapters present the analysis. The first chapter of analysis addresses the inclusion in unions (who has access to unions’ services). Even before artists can invest in themselves through unions’ services, the membership process already implies some enterprise of self. This chapter also introduces the notion of security on the labour market. The next chapter concentrates on the subject entrepreneur of self who invests in his security through unions’ services : professional training and savings banks. It presents membership as an investment in itself, which gives access to other investments, and explores, through the idea of experience, unions’ inflexibility as curbing the enterprise of self. Since artists’ careers are not isolated, the last chapter of analysis locates them in a broader context through the notions of market, passion and responsibilization. The conclusion summarizes the thesis and offers an epistemological questioning as well as a brief discussion on the schizophrenic subject in the neoliberal context.

Keyphrases: Artists, Professional unions, Entrepreneur of self, Governmentality
L’un contre l’autre : la dialectique de l’auteur et de la lectrice chez Serge Doubrovsky

Since Serge Doubrovsky coined the term « autofiction » to describe his own novel on the back cover blurb of Fils (1977), doubrovskian studies have tended to focus on the literary genres issues implied by his neologism. Consequently, another aspect of the writer’s work, and a quite crucial one, was somewhat neglected: the relationship with the reader, which is not only represented and acted out by the characters in doubrovskian autofictions but also linked to a another complex, tempestuous and inextricable relationship, that of man and woman. “I write male, read myself female”, says the doubrovskian narrator, who happens to take part, under our very eyes, in a series of passionate relationships with mates that are also readers of his works. Repeated from novel to novel, the mise en scène of the rapport between the doubrovskian hero and his lady companion of the moment reminds us of Doubrovsky’s hypotheses in Corneille ou la dialectique du héros (1963), which were inspired by the Hegelian master-slave Dialectics. This study thus concentrates on the representation of the dialectical relation between male author and female reader in Doubrovsky’s autofictions. After a brief survey and description of the tools used by the author in order to construct his own Model Reader (First section), our three other principal sections will focus on the analysis of Fils and Un amour de soi (1977 and 1982; Section Two); Le livre brisé and l’Après-vivre (1989 and 1994; Section Three); and finally Laissé pour conte (1999; Section Four). We will ultimately attempt to demonstrate the doubrovskian dialectal theme’s literary richness as well as its social and historical implications – the author’s reflexion widens with each episode, touching on questions of reader-response and reception of the literary work, while the master-slave motif resonates in the History of twentieth century Europe, mainly the Second World War and the Holocaust.

Keyphrases: Doubrovsky, Doubrovsky, Autofiction, Autofiction, Narratology, Reader-response theories, Literary genres theory, Gender studies, Dialectique, Hegelian Dialectics
De Sade, fantôme de la modernité

This essay examines the relation of de Sade's works with modernity. De Sade is a visionary: he wasn't blinded by the Enlightment, in which he saw an inherent darkness. What some perceived as his madness — the natural reason, the bourgeois reason which he celebrates and exacerbates — is a mirror of our own, a mirror in which our societies refuse to see themselves and their own utilitarian reason, guided by opportunism and self-conservation. This refusal shows de Sade's works as a part of our modernity which we seek to suppress — de Sade as le refoulé de notre modernité.  First, this essay looks at the esthetic filiation from de Sade to Baudelaire and, by comparing de Sade's libertine and Baudelaire's dandy, shows how the negative esthetic of Baudelaire presupposes de Sade's conception of Evil as a product of nature and reason, and how it transfigures this conception in such a way that Good can only proceed of this awareness in Evil, through which lies the only possibility to become at once human and lucid. One must always go back to de Sade to understand Evil, writes Baudelaire, who thus highlights de Sade's — or rather a ghost of de Sade, as his name is seldom mentioned in Baudelaire's — key role in this concept of conscience dans le Mal, making him the sine qua non condition of his modernity. The second part of this essay analyzes the notion of petite souveraineté. This borrowed sovereignty, which forbids the real sovereignty, is the product of the libertine's subjection to nature and to Reason, i.e. to the bourgeois and natural Reason. The natural education by which the libertine — he who can only possess by submitting the other to the system to which he consciously submitted himself, the possessed yearning to possess, the man reduced to a ghost who create ghosts himself — wants to dominate the Other(s) is a reproduction for himself of his own subjection. This notion of petite souveraineté confronts a tradition of idealistic critics who see in the libertine the subject of a total liberty, a sovereign subject – and thus who don't notice that the historical meaning of his Reason is laden with consequences.

Keyphrases: Sade, Baudelaire, Modernité, Modernity, Reason, Nature, Conscience dans le Mal, Awareness in Evil, Souveraineté, Sovereignty, Enlightment, Adorno, Dandy, Libertin, Libertine, Formation