Au Québec, la Loi concernant les soins de fin de vie (LSFV) est en vigueur depuis décembre 2015. Cette loi permet aux patient-e-s de demander une aide médicale à mourir et de l’obtenir lorsque certains critères légaux d’éligibilité sont rencontrés. L’objectif est de discuter des changements en éthique des soins de fin de vie induits par la LSFV. Le magistère romain et l’Assemblée des évêques catholiques du Québec ont énoncé publiquement leurs positions, alors que quelques voix chrétiennes dissidentes se sont aussi exprimées. Les tensions entre les positions magistérielles et les normativités de l’État de droit démocratique méritent réflexion, dans le contexte de la critique du cléricalisme, de nouveaux modèles ecclésiaux et d’une « dissidence respectueuse ». La problématisation par Jürgen Habermas de l’activité communicationnelle, de la tension entre factualité et validité et des risques de dissensions dans les sociétés complexes fournissent des axes théoriques utiles pour enrichir la discussion. Ni les orientations méthodologiques, ni le cadre théorique ne visent à mener une argumentation directement liée à la légitimité des pratiques médicales de la LSFV. La discussion en bioéthique interdisciplinaire et théologique évite certains pièges de la polarisation, permettant de multiplier les points de vue et les nuances. Tant d’un point de vue historique, culturel que sociologique, l’aide médicale à mourir apparaît comme un fait social. Un cadre théorique issu De l’éthique de la discussion de Jürgen Habermas structurera la discussion des enjeux pratiques: les usages de la raison pratique y sont différenciés en interrogations pragmatiques, éthiques et morales. Lorsque la posture d’écoute et d’engagement « sur le terrain » sont privilégiées, même en bioéthique théologique, il y a possibilité que l’aide médicale à mourir soit considérée comme une forme de dernier recours ou un moindre mal. Une approche heuristique de la raison pratique permet d’explorer des repères en bioéthique et notamment de déployer le consentement libre et éclairé sous l’angle du triple usage de la raison pratique. L’incertitude morale façonne la réflexion éthique et est une marque de la condition humaine. La fin de vie est une expérience singulière pour chaque personne dont la visée est la « bonne mort ». Des thématiques en bioéthique interdisciplinaire et théologique émergent : la narrativité et l’accompagnement, la mort tragique du Christ, la « post-autonomie », l’autonomie relationnelle, des approches féministes en bioéthique, des bonnes pratiques de communication, etc. / Quebec’s Act Respecting End-of-Life Care has been in force since December 2015. The law opens up the possibility for patients to request aid in dying and access medical assistance in dying when the legal criteria of eligibility are met. The objective is to discuss the changes in end-of-life care induced by the Act. The magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church and the Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops have publicly stated their positions, although there have been dissenting voices in the Christian community. Tensions between magisterial positions and democratic normativities deserve reflection, in the context of a critique of clericalism, new ecclesial models and « respectful dissent ». The problematization by Jürgen Habermas of communicative action, tensions between facticity and validity, and the risks of dissensions in a complex society, provide useful theoretical axes for enriching the discussion. Neither the methodological orientations nor the theoretical framework are intended to lead to an argument directly related to the legitimacy of the medical practices of the Act. Discussion in interdisciplinary and theological bioethics can avoid a few pitfalls of polarization, by admitting multiple points of view and nuances. Both a historical, cultural and sociological reading makes medical assistance in dying appear as a social fact. A theoretical framework from Habermas’ Discourse Ethics will structure the discussion of practical issues: the uses of practical reason are differentiated into pragmatic, ethical and moral questions. When the posture of listening and engagement « on the ground » is favoured, even in theological bioethics, there is apossibility that medical assistance in dying could be considered as a latter resort or a lesser evil. A heuristic approach to practical reason allows us to explore benchmarks in bioethics and to deploy, in particular, free and informed consent in terms of pragmatic, ethical and moral uses of practical reason. Moral uncertainty shapes ethical reflection and is a mark of the human condition. The end of life is a singular experience for each person whose aim is the « good death ». Themes in interdisciplinary and theological bioethics are emerging: narrativity and support, the tragic death of Christ, « post-autonomy », relational autonomy, feminist approaches in bioethics, good communication practices, etc.

Nanotechnologies are the fastest growing industry sector ever recorded. The US budget for nanotechnology is predicted to reach the 1 trillion dollar threshold in 2015, meaning that nanotechnologies will indeed be larger than all other technologies combined. High aspect ratio nanomaterials (HARN) become increasingly important in the nanotechnology industries, and show great promise, offering many advantages and improvements to a significant range of products. The main feature of HARN is the ratio of the width of a nanomaterial to its height which can be up to 1000, making the material fibre or platelet- shaped. However, this feature leads to comparison between HARN and other high aspect ratio materials including fibre shaped materials, such as asbestos fibres. Due to the structural similarities between fibrous HARN and asbestos the question arises- do HARN pose the same risk as asbestos? This project aimed to assess the potential of a range of HARN to cause similar pathological effects as asbestos fibres. In order to address this aim a panel of HARN was tested against the fibre pathogenicity paradigm in vivo by examining the pulmonary and pleural responses as well as in vitro to reveal the mechanism of cell/HARN interaction. The first part of the study focused on fibre-shaped HARN, including a panel of distinct length classes of silver nanowires (AgNW) which were injected directly into the pleural space, a target tissue for asbestos related diseases. Injection of high aspect ratio AgNW into the pleural space of mice revealed a length dependent inflammatory response in line with the fibre pathogenicity paradigm which explains fibre pathogenicity. AgNW from 5 μm in length and above led to a significant increase in granulocytes in the pleural space which is similar to that seen after treatment with long amosite asbestos. The use of additional HARN with different compositions allowed us to identify a threshold length for fibre-induced pleural inflammation, which is 5 μm. Frustrated phagocytosis has been stated as an important factor in the initiation of an inflammatory response after fibre exposure. A novel technique, backscatter scanning electron microscopy (BSEM), was used to study frustrated phagocytosis since it provides high-contrast detection of nanowires, allowing clear discrimination between the nanofibres and other cellular features. Using this technique we showed that the onset of inflammation does not correlate with the onset of frustrated phagocytosis, with a fibre length of ≥5 μm and ≥10 μm, respectively, leading to the conclusion that intermediate length fibres fully enclosed within macrophages as well as frustrated phagocytosis are associated with a proinflammatory state in the pleural space. We further showed that fibres compartmentalise in the mesothelial cells at the parietal pleura as well as in inflammatory cells in the pleural space. To investigate the mechanism of the lengthdependent inflammation caused by AgNW, the NALP3 inflammasome activation pathway was studied in vitro, however no clear correlation could be identified. We further aimed to investigate the threshold length of fibre-induced inflammation in the lung and the effect of fibre length on macrophage locomotion in an in vitro macrophage migration assay. Pharyngeal aspiration of AgNW resulted in a length dependent inflammatory response in the lungs with threshold at a fibre length of 14 μm. Shorter fibres including 3, 5 and 10 μm elicited no significant inflammation. This identified threshold length differs from that in the pleural space which may be explained by differences in clearance mechanism of deposited fibres from the airspaces compared to the pleural space. Particle clearance from the lung is partly performed by migration of particle-laden macrophages to the mucociliary escalator. We investigated if uptake of longer fibres leads to restricted mobility and showed that exposure to AgNW in the length of ≥ 5 μm resulted in impaired motility of macrophages in the wound closure assay. The second part of the study focused on HARN in the form of nanoplatelet-shaped particles since nanoplatelets may pose an unusual risk to the lungs and the pleural space because of their aerodynamic properties. We first derived the respirability of graphene nanoplatelets (GP) from the basic principles of the aerodynamic behaviour of plate-shaped particles which allowed us to calculate their aerodynamic diameter. This showed that the nanoplatelets, which were up to 25 μm in diameter, were respirable and so would deposit beyond the ciliated airways following inhalation. We therefore utilized models of pharyngeal aspiration and direct intrapleural installation of GP, as well as an in vitro model, to assess their inflammatory potential. These large but respirable GP were inflammogenic in both the lung and the pleural space at an acute timepoint although they decreased in their inflammatory potential over a 6 weeks period. Oxidation of GP in the lung tissue was investigated in order to identify if GP degraded over the 6 week period in the lung tissue and therefore showed reduced inflammogenicity. Raman spectroscopy was used to measure the oxidation state and revealed that no change occurred over the observed timeframe. The mechanism underlying acute GP inflammation was studied in THP-1 macrophages exposed to GP. These investigations showed that GP exposure led to significant expression of IL-1β, which could be blocked via a number of inhibitors related to the NALP3 inflammasome activation. This study highlights the importance of shape/length of HARN as a driver for in vivo and in vitro inflammogenicity by virtue of their respirable aerodynamic diameter, despite a considerable 2-dimensional size which leads to an inflammatory response when deposited in the distal lungs and the pleural space. The identification of the threshold length for nanofibre-induced pathogenicity in the pleura and the lung has important implications for the understanding of the structure–toxicity relationship for asbestos-induced mesothelioma. It also contributes to risk assessment by offering a template for production of safer synthetic nanofibres by the adoption of a benign-bydesign approach. The results of this work highlight the importance of testing new HARN to protect workers in nanotechnology industries and the public.

Aspect oriented programming is a relatively new programming paradigm aimed at improving the development of software through a mechanism that allows for crosscutting concerns to be better modularized. Such concern crosscutting is an element of software artifacts that affects one or more quality attributes and ultimately the ability of software to evolve to meet new functional requirements, or to take advantage of new hardware, or meet new business rules. The aim of this dissertation was to explore the relationship between the degree of crosscutting present in a software artifact and its evolvability. This research study illustrates the correlation between the homogeneity of a program's features and its ability to evolve. Throughout the study, such correlation was drawn from a three pronged approach, first by looking at measuring how invasive code changes are, second by identifying a measurable evolvability indicator, and third by using such indicator to propose changes in program constructs that can enhance or improve the evolvability of it. This study proposed the use of existing concern crosscutting metrics to measure invasiveness of code changes and the variability of such measurements to infer a measurable evolvability indicator. Through this approach a number of contributions were made to the body on knowledge, first the creation of a way to quantify evolvability of Aspect Oriented programmed software, and secondly, a way of identifying parts of an Aspect Oriented artifact that can contribute to the deterioration of the system by hindering its evolvability.

Aspect oriented programming languages provide a new enhanced composition mechanism between the functional sub units as compared to earlier non aspect oriented languages. For this reason the refactoring process requires a new approach to the analysis of existing code that focuses on how the functions cross cut one another. Aspect mining is a process of studying an existing program in order to find these cross cutting functions or concerns so they may be implemented using new aspect oriented constructs and thus reduce the complexity of the existing code. One approach to the detection of these cross cutting concerns generates a method call tree that outlines the method calls made within the existing code. The call tree is then examined to find recurring patterns of methods that can be symptoms of cross cutting concerns. The conducted research focused on enhancing this approach to detect and quantify cross cutting concerns that are a result of code tangling as well as code scattering. The conducted research also demonstrates how this aspect mining approach can be used to overcome the difficulties in detection caused by variations in the coding structure introduced by over time.

The interaction of a rectangular turbulent jet with a free surface for three jet-exit aspect ratios is experimentally investigated using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The jet exits from a sharp edged rectangular orifice plate, parallel to the free surface and has a jet width of d = 10 mm. Aspect ratios of 1, 2 and 4 are studied with a fixed offset of 3d from the free surface. Reynolds and Froude numbers based on the bulk velocity are 6900 and 1.27 respectively. Detailed 2-D velocity fields are captured using the PIV in the central x-y plane for 0 < x/d < 23.5. The distribution of Reynolds shear stresses and turbulent kinetic energy show that they are suppressed in the vicinity of the free surface due to confinement. There was a significant effect of nozzle geometry on the reattachment point and recirculation region of the jets. / May 2016

This study investigated the need for a pointcut for parallelizable loops in an aspect-oriented programming environment. Several prototype solutions exist for loop pointcuts, but the solutions are not very granular. In particular, they are not able to differentiate between loops that are parallelizable and those that are not. Being able to identify parallelizable loops automatically, as part of an aspect-oriented compiler's weaving process, is particularly important because (1) manually identifying parallelizable loops is known to be a difficult problem and (2) aspectizing parallelized loops can lead to a reduction in code tangling and an increase in separation of concerns. This paper describes the concepts behind the loop-pointcut problem. It then describes the approach used in this study for implementing a solution in the form of an aspect-oriented Java compiler with a parallelizable loop pointcut. Identifying parallelizable loops is known to be a difficult problem, and as such, this study's parallelizable loop pointcut implements a heuristic solution. The pointcut identifies many parallelizable loops as being parallelizable, but in erring on the side of conservatism, there are some parallelizable loops that the pointcut is unable to identify as parallelizable. To test the parallelizable-loop pointcut, the pointcut was applied to a benchmark set of parallelizable programs. There were two versions of each benchmark program - (1) an aspect-oriented version, where the aspect-oriented compiler's weaver added the multi-threading functionality, and (2) a non-aspect-oriented version, where the benchmark program's source code directly implemented the multi-threading functionality. For each benchmark program, the output from the aspect-oriented version was compared to the output from the non-aspect-oriented version. The study found that each loop that was deemed parallelizable by the aspect-oriented benchmark program was executed in parallel (with multiple threads) by both versions of the program - the aspect-oriented version and the non-aspect-oriented version. There were some loops in the non-aspect-oriented benchmark programs that were deemed parallelizable and executed in parallel, but those same loops were deemed non-parallelizable by their associated aspect-oriented benchmark program. This discrepancy is explained by the study's conservative approach to identifying loops as parallelizable.

<p>The Swedish National Rail Administration, Banverket, has the overarching sector responsibility for Swedish railways, including a responsibility for implementing and managing the government decision for an ecologically sustainable development. In support of achieving ecologically sustainable development and fulfilment of the national environmental objectives and environmental legislation, Banverket initiated the implementation of an Environmental Management System (EMS) in 1998. The overall aim of this thesis is to examine the EMS applied at Banverket with regard to the identification and monitoring of environmental aspects at the administrative Railway Regions of Banverket. The analysis is based on a qualitative approach comprising questionnaires, interviews, document analysis and participating observations.</p><p>Areas for potential improvements are identified. A more stringent use of the EMS is needed in the organisation. Furthermore, a link between activity, aspect and impact when identifying environmental aspects would improve the procedure. Like in other public organisations, the monitoring of environmental aspects at Banverket is insufficient. Introducing indicators and integrating different Government requirements for environmental monitoring into one system, using EMS as a tool would make the system more effective. In the thsesis a framework is proposed for the identification of environmental aspects pertaining to operation and maintenance at Banverket. This framework has an input–output perspective and provides a clear connection between activity, aspect and impact. Furthermore, by establishing the framework on a system used mainly for environmental performance evaluation, a better connection between the identification and monitoring of aspects is created, possibly improving both processes. The framework for the identifica-tion of environmental aspects, as proposed in the thesis, could also be modified and applied in other organisations.</p><p>A major conclusion of the study is that the EMS applied at Banverket, in its present form, is not an effective environmental management tool for achieving ecologically sustainable development within the rail sector. Adapted methods for identification and monitoring of environmental aspects for public organisations such as Banverket would facilitate the application of EMS and increase its effectiveness as an environmental tool.</p>

One of the most important linguistic processes the speaker is obligatorily involved in is perfectivization. Any verbal process can be presented as completed, or perfective, or as incompleted, imperfective. Both completed and incompleted processes can be aspectually pure and non-pure. Aspectually pure processes are semantically simple since they have the feature [Perfective] only, while aspectually non-pure processes, besides having the feature [Perfective], have additional semantic features. The present study is an attempt to examine perfective processes in Russian and English with a view to describing and comparing the means of perfectivization used in the said languages. The analysis of the evidence has revealed that the process of perfectivization was realized in the language using different linguistic means: in Russian it was typically realized by the use of perfectivizing morphemes (prefixes and suffixes) while in English it was typically realized by the appropriate co- text (complementation, adverbial particles) and the use of analytic verb structures. The formal expression of perfectivity in Russian was determined to a considerable extent by the type of perfective processes as well as by the type of process. As language is an economic system, some perfectivizing prefixes overlapped: they were used with both types of perfective process - general and specific. As for English, the means of perfectivization presented a mixed bag: English mostly resorted to... [to full text] / Perfektyvizacija yra vienas svarbiausiųjų lingvistinių procesų: kalbantysis turi pasakyti adresatui, kokį procesą jis turi galvojė: baigtinį (t.y. perfektinį) ar nebaigtinį(t.y.neperfektinį). Abu procesai svarbūs komunikacijos procese; jie sudaro dialektinę vienybę. Tačiau lingvistiniu požiūriu svarbesnis ir įdomesnis yra baigtinis procesas. Šiame magistriniame darbe jam ir skiriamas dėmesys: nagrinėjamos perfektyvizacijos priemonės rusų ir anglų kalbose. Darbą sudaro įvadas, teorinė, praktinė dalis, išvados, santrauka lietuvių kalba ir panaudotos literatūros sąrašas. Įvade aptariami darbo tikslai, teorinė reikšmė, metodai. Teorinėje dalyje bandoma parodyti, kaip veiksmažodžio semantika veikia jo veikslines ypatybes. Išskiriami keturi proceso tipai: atlikimo ( angl. „accomplishments“), pasiekimo (angl. „ achievements“), veikimo (angl. „ activities“) ir būsenos ( angl. „ activities“). Nors darbas skirtas perfektyvizacijos procesams rusų ir anglų kalbose, daugiau dėmesio skiriama anglų kalbos procesų perfektyvizacijai, t.y.kaip perfektinė reikšmė realizuojama anglų kalboje. Tokią tyrimo kryptį lėmė pati tyrimo medžiga: darbe daugiausia nagrinėjami rusų kalbos perfektiniai veiksmažodžiai, rinkti iš Levo Tolstojaus romano „ Ana Karenina“ ir jų ekvivalentai angliškame šio romano vertime. Tyrimo medžiagos analizė parodė, kad gretinamos kalbos , kaip ir reikėjo tikėtis, naudoja skirtingus perfektyvizacijos būdus: rusų kalba , su nedidelemis išimtimis, naudojo morfologines... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

L'Hypothèse de la Primauté de l'Aspect (Anderson & Shirai, 1996) propose que les verbes ont tous leur propre aspect lexical inhérent. Ces aspects lexicaux sont: les états, les activités, les accomplissements et les achèvements. Toujours selon l'Hypothèse de l'Aspect, les inflexions grammaticales des verbes apparaîtraient dans la production des apprenants, d'une L1 ainsi que d'une L2, d'une manière cohérente avec l'aspect lexical du verbe. La présente étude examinera l'acquisition du progressif du présent en anglais par les apprenants français d'anglais L2. Les résultats d'un teste de compétence générale linguistique indiquent que les participants de cette étude sont à trois niveaux linguistiques: débutant (n = 20), intermédiaire (n = 14) et avancé (n = 19). Leurs résultats seront comparés à ceux du groupe témoin composé de sept locuteurs natifs de l'anglais (n = 7), qui venaient de finir leur licence ou étaient en train de l'obtenir. Les résultats d'une ANOVA simple montrent que la difference entre les groupes est significative (f(3, 58) = 3.520, p = .021). Les résultats d'un test d'acceptabilité /préférence grammaticale révèlent un effet significatif pour l'aspect lexical et le groupe pour les niveaux débutant (X² (1) = 16.904, p = .001) et intermédiaire (X² (1) = 12.167, p = .001), mais pas pour le niveau avancé (X² (1) = .032, p = .499). D'après un test de chi carré, les résultats d'une description d'une vidéo se révèlent être significatifs en ce qui concerne l'aspect lexical : (X² (1) = 198.242, p = .001). Ces résultats montrent un fort effort d'aspect lexical sur le choix entre le présent simple et le présent progressif et indiqueraient aussi un effet de plateau puisque les différences entre les niveaux intermédiaires et avancés sont souvent non significatives. Les résultats indiquent aussi une préférence pour le présent simple comparé au present progressif, surtout avec les verbes téliques.

A legacy software system can be taken to consist of N methods which contain within their implementations the intended activities and functions of the system. These activities and functions are referred to as concerns. Some of these concerns are typically implemented and used in multiple methods throughout the system and these are deemed to be crosscutting concerns. Through the use of an aspect-oriented programming paradigm, the implementation and use of these crosscutting concerns can be abstracted into aspects. In order to refactor the system, the process of aspect mining is carried out to identify the crosscutting concerns in the software system. Once identified, the crosscutting concerns can then be refactored into aspects. Clustering-based aspect mining techniques make use of a vector space model to represent the source code to be mined. In this investigation, the individual methods of the software system were represented by a d-dimensional vector by mapping a method M to the vector V where the components of the vector V were values derived from applying a source code metric to each method M. These vector space models were then processed through the k-means++ clustering algorithm and the resulting cluster configurations were then evaluated to assess the quality of the results with respect to the identification of crosscutting concerns. This research studied the effect that the number of dimensions of a vector space model has on the results of a clustering-based aspect mining algorithm. Several vector space models were defined and principal component analysis was used to reduce the dimensionality of the models. Each of the models was processed multiple times through the aspect mining algorithm and the distributions of the collected measures were tested for statistically significant differences using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. The results indicate that changes in the number of dimensions of a vector space model can produce significant effects in the collected measures. In addition, the measures used to assess the performance of an aspect mining process need to be analyzed for underlying relationships.