NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Caractérisation du syndrome de chevauchement de l’asthme et de la maladie pulmonaire obstructive chronique

Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are frequent in Canada with a prevalence of 8.4% among Canadians aged 12 and over for asthma and a prevalence of 5 to 15% among Canadians aged 35 to 79 years. Asthma and COPD can coexist in a patient and this Asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS) affects about 10% to 55% of COPD patients. To better understand this syndrome, two studies were designed and conducted. First, focus groups evaluated how pulmonologists diagnose and treat ACOS, and how they assess its control in routine clinical practice. The pulmonologists reported that the diagnosis must be based on clinical characteristics, pulmonary function tests, and clinical intuition.  They also agreed that the treatment should target the features of both asthma and COPD. The second study assessed the prevalence of adverse events in COPD/ACOS patients on long-acting inhaled anticholinergics (LAAC) and β2-agonists (LABA) in a real-world setting. This study demonstrates that side effects are common among COPD/ACOS patients. Dry mouth and dry throat were the most reported side effects. These results demonstrate that more explicit guidelines for ACOS and a better understanding of the safety profile of long-acting bronchodilators would be beneficial for patients.

Keyphrases: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS), Adverse events, Long-acting bronchodilators, Focus group
Évaluation de l’impact des services en téléobstétrique du RUIS McGill offerts à une population de femmes inuites avec grossesse à risque élevé habitant sur la côte de la baie d’Hudson au Nunavik

Health care accessibility to the population located in a remote region of Quebec represents a challenge for the Ministère de la santé et des services sociaux. Solution such as telemedicine has been used to mitigate this issue. Therefore RUIS McGill has developed a teleobstetric program helping Inuit women in Nunavik with their risky pregnancy. This thesis’s objective is to understand the impact of the RUIS McGill teleobstetric program on the mother and her new born health plus the cost and utilization of health services following its implementation in the Inuulitsivik Health & and Social Services Centre located on Hudson Bay Shore. Inuit women at high risk pregnancy and their children in the region of Nunavik's Hudson Bay, who are far away from specialist in obstetric, are targeted. The teleobstetric program provides access to the RUIS McGill obstetricians located in Montreal. A quasi- experimental design was used to examine three hypotheses about the mothers and their children health, the use of health services and their costs. The teleobstetric program became operational in 2006, providing the ability to be a before-after study with two groups of women, those who delivered before 2012 (pre-test) and those who delivered after 2006 (post-test). The data collection took place, in its entirety, through paper medical records of the participants allowing the analysis of 47 cases for the pre-test and 81 cases for the post-test. Variance and covariance’s analysis, logistical regression and the non-parametric Mann-Witney test has allowed to conclude that the pre-test and post-test are different for only two variables which is the weight at birth, lower in the post-test and for the blood pressure of the mother at birth, higher in the post-test. For all other variables based on the three hypothesis of this thesis, results show no significate difference between pre-test and post-test, illustrating that the same level of quality has been conserved after the implementation of the teleobstetric program. Based on results, this thesis recommends reviewing and modifying the program’s objectives; sharing telehealth communication terminals with other specialties; undertaking an assessment of the cost-based program; strictly monitor the use of the program to maximize efficiency and potential; establishing a dashboard; and undertaking a comparative evaluation study in a comparable teleobstetric service.

Keyphrases: Nunavik, Program evaluation, High-risk pregnancy, Inuit nation, Teleobstetric, Telemedicine, Health administration, Region, Northern Quebec, Healthcare
La résistance à l’insuline en insuffisance rénale chronique et le risque de développer un diabète de type 2 : un cercle vicieux

Chronic renal failure (CRF) is characterized by multiple homeostasis imbalances such as insulin resistance. However, few studies addressed the underlying mechanisms of the insulin resistance in CRF. Moreover, it is not known if the insulin resistance in CRF could lead to type II diabetes in predisposed patients. In 5/6th nephrectomised Sprague-Dawley (CD) rat model of CRF, we observed a correlation between the severity of the renal injury, evaluated by the serum creatinine level, and the hyperglycaemia, evaluated by the serum fructosamine level (R2 = 0.6982, p < 0.0001). However, this hyperglycemia is not observed on fasting. During a glucose tolerance test, we noticed an increase of the glycaemia in CRF rats (AUC 1.25 fold, p < 0.0001) comparing to controls. Insulin secretion of CRF rats was not significantly higher (AUC ≈1.30 fold, N.S.) during glucose challenge. Interestingly, despite more increase in insulin levels in CRF rats following a glucose bolus, the peripheral tissues did not show any increase in blood glucose uptake suggesting a defect in expression and/or function of glucose transporters in these rats. Indeed, we observed decreased expression of glucose transporters in the liver (≈0.60 fold, p < 0.01) and muscles (GLUT1 0.73 fold, p < 0.05 and GLUT4 0.69 fold, p < 0.01). Accordingly, there was a significant reduction in the insulin-dependent glucose uptake in the muscles of CRF rats compared to controls (≈0.63 fold, p < 0.0001). Since muscles are responsible for the majority of insulin-sensitive glucose transport, downregulation of GLUT4 could be associated with the insulin resistance observed in CRF. The modulation of the expression of several glucose transporters may contribute to insulin resistance in CRF, but other mechanisms could also be implicated. Despite this important perturbation of glucose transport, we did not observed any case of type II diabetes in our CD rat model. In a rat model of metabolic syndrome, the Zucker Leprfa/fa, CRF causes a strong hyperglycemia on fasting (1.5 fold, p < 0.0001). Furthermore, CRF Zucker showed an exacerbated glycemic response (AUC 1.80 fold, p < 0.0001) during glucose challenge. A strong insulin resistance in muscle was measured as the usual insulin dose (2mU/mL) was not enough to stimulate glucose uptake in Zucker rats with CRF. The same modulation of glucose transporters in the peripheral tissues was observed in both rat models. As opposed to CD rats, ≈30% (p < 0.05) of CRF Zucker rats’ showed presence of glucose in their urine. CRF by itself won’t lead to type II diabetes. However, when insulin resistance is already present when developing CRF, it could precipitate the onset of type II diabetes among these patients.

Keyphrases: GLUT4, Insulin resistance, Chronic renal failure, Glucose transporters, GLUT4, Type 2 diabetes
La perturbation du locus Nr2f1-K12 entraine une différenciation gliale précoce dans un nouveau modèle murin de mégacôlon aganglionnaire

Hirschsprung disease is a congenital intestinal motility disorder characterized by an aganglionic segment in the distal colon. A genetic screen performed via random insertional mutagenesis in mice allowed identifying the Spot line, whose homozygotes suffer from an aganglionic megacolon. The analysis of mutant embryonic intestines revealed a decreased proliferation rate and a delay in migration of the enteric neural crest cell (eNCC) progenitors, secondary to their early glial differentiation, resulting in failure to properly colonize the intestine. Sequencing of the Spot genome indicated that the transgene was inserted into the K12-Nr2f1 locus on chromosome 13, a region devoid of genes associated with the disease, and disrupted in addition a highly conserved non-coding sequence. K12 is an uncharacterized long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) gene antisense to the Nr2f1 gene, which is involved in gliogenesis in the central nervous system. Sequencing of the eNCC transcriptome revealed an overexpression of Nr2f1 and short forms of K12 in Spot, and luciferase assays showed repressive activity of the conserved element. We observed the expression of K12 in the eNCC and its subcellular localization in transcriptionally active zones of the nucleus. With the recent emergence of LncRNA regulators and supposing that the regulation of Nr2f1 is done by its antisense K12, these data allowed us identifying two new candidate genes associated with a premature glial differentiation leading to aganglionic megacolon.

Keyphrases: ARN long non-codant, Hirschsprung, Enteric nervous system, Genetics, Gliogenesis, Long non-coding RNA, Mice
Valeur diagnostique des micro-éveils autonomiques comme substitut aux éveils cérébraux dans l'apnée du sommeil

The general adult population has a high prevalence of sleep breathing disorders, of which obstructive sleep apnea is the most common, yet many cases remain undiagnosed. Although overnight laboratory polysomnography, called type 1 recording, is the most effective diagnostic tool, it is expensive and time-consuming. To overcome these disadvantages, several portable home (type 3) recording devices have been developed. However, they do not measure brain activity (with EEG). This study presents a comparison between type 1 and type 3 recordings. All apnea, hypopnea, and RERA respiratory events were analyzed, as well as cerebral arousals (EEG arousals) and autonomic arousals. Autonomic arousals are defined by increased heart rate following a respiratory event. To enrich the analysis, the following respiratory outcome measures were included: 4% oxygen saturation index (ODI), apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), respiratory disturbance index with apneas + hypopneas + RERAs including EEG arousals (RDIe), and RDI including autonomic arousals scored as an increase of 5 bpm (RDIa5). The objective of this study was to determine the proportion of respiratory events associated with autonomic arousals and the impact on RDI detected with type 1 compared to type 3 recordings. The hypothesis is that respiratory events with autonomic arousals will have a greater impact on RDI using type 3 compared to type 1 recordings. This study included 72 subjects who underwent type 1 full polysomnography recording and 79 different subjects underwent type 3 ambulatory recording. The following analyses were performed: 1) percentage of events associated with only autonomic arousals in type 1 and type 3 studies; 2) frequency of migration from lower to higher AHI severity category when accounting events associated with only autonomic arousals; 3) Bland-Altman (B-A) for agreement between AHI, RDIe, and RDIa5 (type 1) and AHI and RDIa5 (type 3) and; 4) Pearson correlations and intraclass coefficient correlation (ICC) for agreement between AHI, RDIe and RDIa5 (type 1) and between AHI and RDIa5 (type 3). The use of the RDIa5 criterion increased the number of AHI scoring events by 49% for type 1 recordings and by 51% for type 3 recordings. These results show that autonomic arousals have a similar impact on RDI data using both type 3 and type 1 recordings. We conclude that RDIa5 is a suitable and reliable criterion for type 3 recordings.

Keyphrases: RDI, sleep apnea, hypopneas, autonomic arousals, EEG arousals, AHI
L’exploitation d’un modèle de levure présentant une déficience de l’absorption des anthracyclines révèle qu’une protéine de Caenorhabditis elegans, OCT-1, est un transporteur fonctionnel d’anthracyclines

Anthracyclines such as doxorubicin (DOX) or daunorubicin (DNR) are used for treatment of a wide variety of cancers from lymphomas to breast cancer going through some leukemia. Still today, several people think that anthracyclines enter cells through passive diffusion, but these same people believe that the p-glycoprotein is involved in efflux of anthracyclines. We think that there is a transporter responsible for uptake of anthracyclines by cells and we want to develop a yeast model that would allow us to determine if protein from another eukaryote organism could be able to transport DOX into yeast cells. In order to do that, we gathered a group of mutants that are already known to be resistant to other positively charged molecules such as bleomycin and NaD1 and determined their ability to take up DOX. The simple mutants sam3Δ or dur3Δ showed no or slight decrease of DOX compared to parent. If the double mutant sam3Δdur3Δ showed rather significant uptake decrease, it is the agp2Δ that showed the grater decrease in DOX uptake as a resistance to its lethal effect. We used that mutant to express a protein from the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, OCT-1 (CeOCT-1). The results showed that this protein was able restore back the uptake of DOX that was compromised in agp2Δ and was also able to increase the sensitivity of the parent to its lethal effect. This leads us to believe that CeOCT-1 is functional transporter for DOX and goes against the dogma wherein anthracyclines enter the cells through passive diffusion.

Keyphrases: Caenorhabditis elegans, OCT-1, Uptake, Yeast, Transporters
Réussite et sélection au premier cycle universitaire au Québec : une analyse multiniveau

The objective of this thesis is to study the forms of academic selectivity and the factors of success in undergraduate programs in Quebec. Based on different writings on the subject, this thesis presents the various determinants of academic success and selectivity in Quebec university programs. From a methodological point of view, this study uses an administrative longitudinal database of the University of Montreal consisting of two generations of cohorts of undergraduate students. Empirically, we first analyzed the differentiation of undergraduate programs in selectivity to derive an aggregate indicator of selectivity. Then we studied the individual success factors by controlling the effect of the R score in a multilevel model.   The explanatory analysis brings up two main original findings on success factors; one on the R score and the other on the gender. The R score influences the chances of student success, but inversely with the level of selectivity. In programs where the entry selection process is the most demanding, graduation rates are the highest and the link between the R score and the final gradin is very low. Moreover, being a male tends to reduce the chances of success rate, but this negative effect disappears when the R score and the program are both considered in a multilevel model. If female students do better at the undergraduate level, it is mainly because they previously had better school performance and that they are not in the same programs as their male counterparts.

Keyphrases: Selectivity, Student, Academic success, R score
Entre contestation et résignation : l’expérience de profilage racial de jeunes racisés ayant reçu des constats d’infraction dans le cadre du contrôle de l’occupation de l’espace public montréalais

This memoir explores the real-life experience and the construction of the experience of racialized youths who have received statements of offense for having occupied the Montreal public space.  Using the Sociology of experience theorized by Dubet (1994), the profile and the living conditions, the presence in public areas, the reasons and nature of the statements of offense, the strategies implemented for racial profiling along with its consequences on the racialized youths all must be apprehended. Based on a qualitative perspective, the research method was founded on 10 semi-structured interviews where 9 young men and 1 one young lady  between the ages of 18 and 30 who have had encounters with the police concerning the control of the public space in Montreal. Essentially based on the mixed approach of Miles and Huberman (2003), the corpus analyze helped to understand heterogeneity of the experience of racially profiled youths questioned.  It was possible to distinguish two types of racial profiling experience: the protesters and the resigned.  If the interactions with law enforcement create treatments that are perceived to be discriminatory, the experience is constructed according to the nature of the interaction, the maturity level and the age group of the youths and comes in submission or contest strategies. The results of the research demonstrate otherwise the relevance of the youth's accompaniment at the level of realization of their rights and the protestation of the received infractions.

Keyphrases: discrimination raciale, intervention sociale, racialized youths, racial profiling, sociology of experience, public space, typology, racial discrimination, social intervention, advocacy
La construction des attitudes envers les Roms : le cas français

Representing between 10 and 12 million individuals in Europe, the Roma population faces discrimination and social exclusion. 40% of Europeans refuse to have Roma as their neighbors, while 70% of them do not even have direct contact with them in their lives. Based on these observations, this study analyses how attitudes towards Roma are constructed. I propose to investigate this mechanism in two similar environments, but where local integration policies towards Roma diverge, making the conditions of intergroup contact differ. The analysis is premised on two scientific assumptions: that the integration of migrants is a local public policy issue; and that intergroup contact structures attitudes between majority and minority cultures. Thus, from semi-structured interviews in the French communes of La Courneuve and Ivry-sur-Seine, I empirically test four dominant theories in the field of intergroup relations: contact theory, the halo effect, the impact of local immigrants integration policies, and media influence.

Keyphrases: Préjugés, Minority, Roma, Intergroup attitudes, Prejudice, Contact theory, Media, Local politics, Intergroup competition, Residential segregation
Économie comportementale : retrouve-t-on un effet d’ancrage dans la LNH ?

Economic analysis, by its nature, involves observing, qualifying and quantifying economic data with the ultimate goal of making forecasts. In this masters thesis, I am interested in factors that could bias a forecaster's behavior – with special focus on phenomena, like the anchoring effect, that have been proposed in behavioral economics. At a fundamental level, the anchoring effect states that an agent's ability to accurately forecast may be affected by placing unwarranted emphasis on certain economic variables. To study this effect, I analyze how the salaries of National Hockey League (NHL) players are determined by the players' characteristics and past performance. From the results, it would appear that NHL general managers are generally sensible and rational when it comes to using historical data to make decisions about player salaries. However, there is a persistent anomaly regarding the draft position of a player. Although one would not expect the draft position to be very important after eight years of experience in the NHL, the analysis shows that it is remains a significant determinant of player salary. Behavioral economics and more specifically, the anchoring effect, helps explain why this might be so.

Keyphrases: Risque, Behavioral economics, Anchoring effect, Anchoring Bias, Anchor, Bias, NHL, Econometrics, Forecast, Risk, Risk aversion
Validation de l’échelle de mesure de la conscience de l’environnement d’affaires

Employee business awareness is defined as individual nonmanagerial employee realization, perception or knowledge of the employing organization’s business environment as demonstrated when involved in decision making or problem solving that affects the business. This study delineates the context of this construct, applies accepted scale development procedures, and provides construct and nomological validity evidence supporting the developed measure. The initial set of items for the measurement scale was generated from interviews conducted with employees in participatory work settings (Gauvreau-Jean, 2008). The initial 40-item scale was then tested with a sample of 508 workers within a manufacturing company. Scale reduction resulted in a scale covering four dimensions of the construct. Its content adequacy was then challenged by two focus groups and two expert assessments (Lessard, 2014).  Finally, the construct and nomological validity of the modified scale (which included 24 items) was tested with 330 front-line employees from four companies. The initial four-dimensional structure was supported, scale and factor reliabilities were high, and hypotheses relating employee business awareness to work characteristics, supervisor-rated contextual performance and affective organizational commitment were supported. The development of the 24-item employee business awareness scales may illuminate questions relating to employee participation and organizational effectiveness. Another survey completed by supervisors (n=43) tested the extra role performance of the frontline employees.

Keyphrases: employee business awareness, scale development, validity, decision-making, autonomy, information processing, contextual performance, organizational commitment
Hyperactivations frontales en mémoire de travail dans le trouble cognitif léger

Recent studies have shown greater task-related activation in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) compared to healthy older adults. It has been suggested that these hyperactivations reflect compensatory processes of brain plasticity in the early phase of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Functional compensation processes could emerge in response to a loss of structural integrity in brain regions typically required for the task. In this masters dissertation, I examined this hypothesis in MCI using a working memory task that incorporated a parametrical variation of difficulty level as well as functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Multiple regression analyses were used to identify areas of the brain in MCI in which functional activation varied as a function of neural injury as measured by hippocampal volume. Parameter estimates from these areas were then extracted and used for further correlational analyses with performance and structural volumes. Results indicate that MCI participants with high neural injury hyperactivated a subset of regions in the right frontal lobe. Furthermore, the level of activation was negatively correlated with the volume of frontal and parietal regions. These results indicate the presence of compensatory hyperactivations associated with a working memory task in persons with MCI.

Keyphrases: Hyperactivation, Analyses multimodales, Alzheimer’s disease, Mild cognitive impairment, Executive functions, Compensatory mechanisms, Magnetic resonance imaging, Multimodal analyses