Avec la hausse des niveaux de dimensionnement sismique il est devenu nécessaire de limiter les chargements internes dans les structures, notamment en utilisant des dispositifs glissants. Ces dispositifs plafonnent les efforts internes en déclenchant un glissement de la structure. Il devient cependant nécessaire d'estimer l'amplitude des déplacements de corps rigide, notamment pour les structures stockées dans des réservoirs. Dans ce cas, il est nécessaire de prévenir les impacts entre la structure glissante et les bords du réservoir pour contrôler les risques de fuite. Parmi les structures glissantes immergées, on citera les ponts, les structures côtières en maçonnerie, les râteliers de stockage de combustible nucléaire, etc...Les équations de dynamique associées au comportement de ces structures sont non-linéaires et nécessitent l'utilisation de simulations numériques coûteuses en temps de calcul et ne permettant pas de faire des études de sensibilité rapides. On propose donc une méthode de résolution quasi-analytique de ces équations en traitant dans un premier temps, l'évaluation analytique des matrices de masses ajoutées du couplage fluide-structure, dans un second temps, une méthode de résolution quasi-analytique du glissement d'une structure quelconque immergée dans un fluide avec une actualisation de la géométrie de lames d'eau. Les résultats obtenus présentent une bonne adéquation avec des simulations numériques et offrent un temps de calcul quasiment instantané compatible avec une étude paramétrique ou stochastique de ces structures / As the seismic loadings are increasing in accordance to the recent regulations regarding Earthquake design, the use of sliding devices in structures is becoming more common. These devices limitate the internal forces by creating a rigid body sliding. It is then necessary to estimate the global displacement of the structure, especially concerning structures that are immersed in a reservoir. In this case, the displacement must be well estimated in order to prevent impacts between the sliding structure and the boundaries of the reservoir. We can find such structures in : bridges, costal structures in brick and masonry, or in the nuclear industry with the underwater fuel storage racks, ...The governing equations for the behaviour of these structures are non linear and must be solved using time-consuming computer simulations which are not fit for a stochastic study. Our method consists in, firstly, evaluating analytically the added masses of the fluid-structure interaction, secondly, a semi-analytical solving of the governing equations including the updating of the dimensions of the fluid layers surrounding the sliding structure. The results of this new method are in accordance with the numerical simulations and can be obtained in a short time (1 or 2 seconds) which offers the possibility to make a stochastic analysis of the non linear behaviour

In this dissertation I claim that Michel Foucault is a pro-enlightenment philosopher. I argue that his critical history of thought cultivates a state of being autonomous in thought and action which is indicative of a kantian notion of maturity. In addition, I contend that, because he follows a nietzschean path to enlightenment, Foucault’s elaboration of freedom proceeds from his critique of who we are, which includes a rejection of humanism’s experiential limits. At the same time, and perhaps most importantly, I also suggest that Foucault articulates a posthumanist conception of finitude and being. To begin with, I show that on humanism’s path to edghtenment, which is established by Rousseau, Kant and Hegel and currently advocated by Rawls and Taylor, a philosophy of the autonomous subject who desires self-actualisation through recogrution precedes the epistemologcal and political critiques which generate humanism’s objective, normative and subjective axes of experience. On the basis of Foucault’s archzological, genealogical and, when they operate together, critical historical critiques of these conditions of possibility for autonomy and recogrution, I maintain that humanism fails to teach us how to think or act freelythat is, as critical thought that delivers enhghtenment-and that humanism’s knowledge of the world and its justice in politics necessitate the confined exclusion of those who are different and the submission of subjectivity of those who are normal. In response to the immaturity that is at the heart of humanism, I illustrate that Foucault deploys archeology, genealogy and critical history to excavate his posthumanist, enlightenment alternatives of savoir, pouvoir and ethico-morality. After he relocates an explanation of cause and effect in the human sciences from savioir to the relations between savoir and pouvoir, I explicate how Foucault reconceives, firstly, the way pouvoir is exercised by productive mechanisms, which discipline the body and regulate the citizen, and, secondly, the nature of pouvoir, which he characterises as governmentality, or one’s action upon the actions of others. He then retlunks freedom as the vis-a-vis of pouvoir/savoir, and I demonstrate how critical history reveals that, prior to the hermeneutic relation to self wluch is at the centre of humanism’s conception of moral identity, ethical subjectivity in antiquity is formed through an ascetic, agonistic freedom that is based on a practical relation to self. Foucault uses this as a blueprint for the present, in which an ethico-political state of being autonomous in thought and action is constituted over against our limits of pouvoir/savoir. I thus claim that Foucault’s portrayal as an anti-enlightenment philosopher, who proffers nothing but anormative critique and amoral freedom, represents the perspective of those for whom to be anti-humanism is akin to being antienlightenment. These criticisms are exposed as misguided by the thesis that I verify in this dissertation, which is that critical history qua critique, thence an ontology, namely, Foucault’s critical ontology, brings about maturity and endorses an ehghtenment that is both contra- and post-humanism.

Thèse diffusée initialement dans le cadre d'un projet pilote des Presses de l'Université de Montréal/Centre d'édition numérique UdeM (1997-2008) avec l'autorisation de l'auteur.

This study springs from my experience of what I term ‘narrative fracture', a life-hiatus or crisis that derails one's current life pattern and self-identity. It examines the nature of this phenomenon and its possible roots in early infancy and childhood. Three therapeutic modalities: dreams, psychotherapy and autobiographical writing, which were instrumental towards resolution of that narrative fracture for me, are then explored. The study uses first person heuristic methodology because my own experience, and ongoing process towards resolution, lies at the heart of the research. It also, as part of that methodology, draws on the experience of three ‘textual co-researchers' as recorded in their autobiographical writings. Each of the segments of the study, narrative fracture, roots of narrative fracture, and modalities towards resolution, are interrogated from three directions: my autobiographical narrative relating to that segment, and extracts from the other authors' texts of theirs, then examination of these in light of the relevant theory, and finally a reflexive review made of the findings, following thus a pattern, identified by Michelle Davies, of a narrative ‘voice', an interpretive ‘voice' and an unconscious ‘voice'. Most traumatic for me at narrative fracture was loss of self-identity and erupting internal chaos. Psychoanalyst/interpersonal theorist Karen Horney's theories around the formation of a ‘false self' and the related palliative measures of addiction and controlling are my foremost source of understanding here. To discover how self-identity is formed and can potentially be impeded, the mother-baby relationship, the issue of attachment, and the crucial involvement of the body in the infant developmental matrix are explored, principally through the works of Donald Winnicott and John Bowlby; and the related development of ‘affect-regulation' and ‘mentalization' through Peter Fonagy's breakthrough work. Ulric Neisser and Jerome Bruner's theories bring further understanding of development of the self and the socially constructed elements of self-identity. In the process towards ‘reconstruction' Donald Kalsched's theory of the crucial necessity of ‘re-traumatization' is foregrounded, and the study holds this in mind during exploration of the three therapeutic modalities. Neuroscience and brain research also inform this exploration, and a common denominator is found between the three therapeutic modalities via Ernest Hartmann's notion of a ‘continuum' of modes of mental functioning. It is established that the REM programming and reprogramming state, and input from unconscious mental processing are increasingly at work as we operate at the ‘creative'/'dreaming' end of this continuum, and that here psychotherapy, autobiographical writing and dreaming are all shown to be located. Four key points emerge in understanding the impact of these three modalities on healing narrative fracture: the centrality of the relational; the emotions as ‘linchpin'; the power of pattern, metaphor and image; and the potency of the sleeping brain. With its personal accounts, and the new syntheses made between aspects of the different academic fields it mines, this study offers a new perspective on the nature, and lifelong consequences, of early childhood development. It is envisaged that this will provide valuable insight to the burgeoning numbers of quantitative researchers now recognising the need for first person input to their third person research, and to those who are professionally involved in the care of others, as well as to related policy-makers.

There is a strong body of psychological research implicating the mass media in the aetiology of adolescent girls' negative body image and eating behaviours. The present thesis aims to extend this research by examining potential factors – namely, media type, body perfect internalisation and materialism – that make girls more vulnerable to the negative impact of the mass media. An initial meta-analysis (Chapter 3) collated the findings of existing research examining the impact of ‘body perfect' media on adolescents' body image; examining gender, age and media type as moderators of this effect. Chapter 4 examined the relative roles of both media type and media model identification (a key dimension of body perfect internalisation), within the mass media and body image relationship. Using both survey and experimental methods (N = 199), it was found that adolescent girls' habitual tendency to identify with media models, was a more potent vulnerability factor within the mass media and body image relationship, than media type. Due to the limitations associated with existing measures of body perfect internalisation, a new measure of body perfect internalisation was developed in Chapter 5 (N =373), which was subsequently utilised in the final experiments of the thesis. Chapter 6 demonstrated that acute music video exposure had a more potent negative impact on girls' body image than still media images (N = 142); an effect that was fully mediated by wishful character identification and also moderated by body perfect internalisation. Chapter 7 consists of two studies that demonstrate the important role which materialism plays within the mass media, body image and eating behaviour relationship. In Study 1, structural equation modelling identified a direct pathway between materialism and restrained eating that was independent of body image (N = 199). This finding was further replicated in an exposure experiment, which demonstrated that brief exposure to materialistic media causes acute diet-like behaviours in adolescent girls (N = 180).

This thesis emerged from the author’s quest to increase her personal and professional effectiveness, to become more congruent, and to be a better person in the world. The thesis discusses how to move from Argyris and Schon’s behavioural model 1 (seeking answers externally, blaming others, avoiding responsibility, controlling behaviour and the belief that there is one right way) to model 2 (seeking answers from within, accepting responsibility, living in a state of flow, surprise and emergent possibilities, looking at the world in multiple ways and collaborating with others). Drawing from her own experiences and interactions with others, the author explores issues such as how people learn the qualities that enable them to be better people; what experiences have enabled people to move toward model 2; what happens when a group, especially within an organisation, moves toward model 2 and how does this happen; and how can conditions be created to enable individuals or groups to move toward model 2. / Master of Science (Hons)

Cette thèse propose une analyse contrastive de l'actualisation du nom et du verbe dans un groupe de proverbes français et vietnamiens contenant des praxèmes corporels. Ces deux dimensions de l'actualisation sont mises en rapport avec le processus de la production du sens générique du proverbe. La généricité proverbiale, en tant que visée de ce genre du discours, se réalise de façons fort différentes dans les deux langues : dans le proverbe français, l'indétermination de la référence nominale et de la référence verbale s'exprime essentiellement par les déterminants zéro et défini, par les procès de type atélique et par le présent de l'indicatif. En revanche, le vietnamien étant une langue isolante qui ne possède ni article ni temps verbal, l'indétermination référentielle se réalise essentiellement par les syntagmes nominaux nus, par les procès de type atélique et par l'absence de circonstant de temps.

Thèse diffusée initialement dans le cadre d'un projet pilote des Presses de l'Université de Montréal/Centre d'édition numérique UdeM (1997-2008) avec l'autorisation de l'auteur.

Thèses (M.A.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 1999. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 13 juillet 2006). Publié aussi en version papier.

La préoccupation théologique et pastorale portant sur l’incisive question de la disjonction entre le message du mystère chrétien et la réalité de la vie humaine trouve une prise en compte favorable dans le concept de « théologie actuelle » émis par le jésuite Henri Bouillard depuis le siècle dernier. Ce concept concentre en effet toute une herméneutique théologique orientant sur un discours qui soit justement « ‘’à la gloire de Dieu’’ parce que défendant l’Humanum ». Comme une expression du combat contre « l’extrincésisme » en théologie, le concept bouillardien engage sur la voie d’une réflexion qui n’est pas un ‘’effet de mode’’, mais plutôt qui allie « sens et fait » dans une « logique de la foi ». Celle-ci, comprenant les « dogmes non pas (seulement) comme révélés, mais (surtout) comme révélateurs », fait de l’existentiel un « lieu théologique ». L’épistémologie connexe au concept de « théologie actuelle » induit donc la recherche de la « consubstantialité » entre le message chrétien et le contexte historique et culturel de l’existence humaine ; celle-ci étant considérée comme « la sphère aurorale du dévoilement » de celui-là. Le concept de « théologie actuelle » honore la vocation théologique comme « production d’un langage inédit, parce qu’elle ne peut redire (… son) origine qu’historiquement et selon une interprétation créatrice. » tel que le dit Cl. Geffré. C’est pourquoi de la pertinence de ce concept bouillardien découle son actualité au moyen d’une actualisation exigeante. / The theological and pastoral issue of the possible disjunction of the message of the Christian mystery from human life finds a favorable consideration through the concept of "actual theology" issued by the Jesuit Henri Bouillard during the last century. This concept concentrates in itself a whole theological hermeneutics inducing a discourse that is precisely "to the glory of God" because it defends the Humanum.As an expression of the struggle against "extrinsicism" in theology, the Bouillardian concept engages us into a reflection that does not follow the "latest fad" but rather combines "meaning and fact" according to the "logic of faith". The latter, including "dogmas not (only) as revealed, but (especially) as revealing," considers the existential reality a "theological place." Thus, the epistemology connected with the concept of "actual theology" leads to the search for the "consubstantiality" between the Christian message and the historical and cultural context of human existence, the latter being considered the "dawn sphere of the unveiling" of the former.The concept of "actual theology" honors the vocation of the theological science as the “production of an unprecedented language, because it can repeat (... its) origin only historically and according to a creative interpretation”, as Cl. Geffre says. That is why the relevance of this Bouillardian concept implicates its validity for today, by means of a demanding update.