Endotoxins are a constituent of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) complexes present in the outer layer of the cell wall of most Gram-negative bacteria and some cyanobacteria. The ingestion by a typical adult of amounts exceeding 1,000 endotoxin units (EUs) can cause fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, acute respiratory illnesses, and lung inflammation. In contrast, much smaller doses may lead to protective immunity against allergic diseases. / Endotoxins can be released in the air as well as in the water; previous studies have mainly focused on airborne endotoxins. Although many studies on endotoxins in raw and treated drinking waters have been performed, few have assessed seasonal variations and none have been conducted in Eastern Canada. Furthermore, a clear understanding of removal of endotoxins by various water treatment processes is still required. / Two methods to measure the concentrations of endotoxin were used and compared, the Limulus Amebocyte Lysate test (LAL) and the recombinant Factor C test (rFC). Raw water samples were taken from various drinking water sources around the Island of Montreal. The effects of free chlorine, UV radiation, and ozone were studied in batch experiments on filtered water samples via typical dosages and fluences used in drinking water treatment facilities. Residual concentrations for free chlorine were 0.8 and 1.6 mg/L; ozone doses were 0.5 and 1 mg/L; UV fluences were 40 and 100 mWs/cm2. Detention times of 20 and 60 minutes were tested for chlorine and 5 and 20 minutes for ozone. Grab sampling from three drinking water treatment plants in the Montreal area was performed during the months of June and late August/September 2006 and January 2007. Processes at these plants include coagulation and flocculation, sand filtration, ozonation and disinfection by chlorine. To test the variation in endotoxin concentrations during a sand filter cycle, samples were withdrawn directly from a filter in one of the treatment plants studied. The filtration cycle, from one backwash to the next one, lasts 72 h. Samples were collected immediately before the backwash, at the beginning and at the end of the ripening period, at the beginning of the filtration cycle and 48 h later, which corresponds to a half cycle period. / Of the two endotoxin detection methods used, LAL consistently gave slightly higher values compared to rFC; rFC also required more expensive hardware, but the method was less tedious and reagent costs were lower. Results presented, unless otherwise stated, were obtained with the rFC method. Endotoxin levels decreased in raw water samples between June and September. Concentrations ranged from 20 to 30 EU/mL in June, and decreased to 10 to 14 EU/mL in August and beyond. For the disinfection processes, the UV and free chlorine doses tested had little or no effect on the endotoxin concentrations, but ozone reduced the concentrations by up to 75%. Sand filtration and flocculation showed significant endotoxin removal efficiencies (50--60%). Levels remained around 5 EU/mL throughout the remaining treatment processes regardless of the influent concentration. Hence, endotoxin inactivation by free chlorine and UV does not occur with typical doses used in drinking water treatment plants; in contrast, flocculation and sand filtration, as well as ozonation, are much more effective.

Shifting cultures of recycled style: a history of second-hand clothing markets in Montreal draws a cultural history of the evolving circuits through which discards of the fashion system pass. The focus is on three manifestations of the market: the female-dominated charity circuits of the nineteenth-century into which the flow of used goods was redirected following the introduction of mass-produced garments; the revival of cast-off clothing's stylish potential by punk and grunge subcultures in their respective creations of a poverty aesthetic; and the more heterogeneously mainstream market of the late 1980s and 1990s operating within a consumer environment seeped in nostalgia. / The second-hand market is a facet of the fashion system receiving scant attention by the academic community. This study aims to redress the oversight by demonstrating how much of a given society is revealed through the ways in which its members manage the matter of sartorial waste.

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The affordability crisis in the North American housing market has prompted the construction industry to reexamine technologies designed to lower cost through the factory mass production process. This thesis concentrates on modular prefabricated housing in the Province of Quebec in order to determine if this housing option can supply a less expensive alternative to comparable conventionally built housing. As issues of construction cost are allied with the quality of construction, a comparison between the conventional and the manufactured building industries, at this level, is also essential. Surveys evaluating sales cost and quality of construction have been developed for the modular prefabricated and conventional single family detached housing industry for the Province of Quebec. Fifteen prefabricated home builders and six conventional home builders were surveyed in order to facilitate the comparison between the two industries. It was found, based on the builders surveyed, that the average level of construction quality was consistent in both industries. The prefabricated residential home builders, however, proved on average to be approximately ten percent more expensive than the conventional home builders surveyed. Reasons for these cost discrepancies have been found to be related to the high start-up costs inherent in the manufactured housing industry, the overall cyclical market demand for housing, as well as price protection for distributors of manufactured housing.

A burgeoning mega-club in the heart of Montreal's gay village, Sky embodies many forces active in gay club cultures and villages across North America at the end of the twentieth century. This project documents the daily operations of Sky--as a complex architectural site, a complicated set of managerial practices, and a popular space in Montreal's Village--and outlines the theoretical implications of such an establishment for both the gay community and for club culture more generally. A large entertainment complex currently undergoing a major expansion, Sky cannot be theorized as either a wholly oppressive or completely liberatory development. Although Sky presents some of the advantages of a mega-club for the gay community--increased diversity, accessibility and community--it also highlights the disadvantages in the development of such establishments: concentration of ownership, the removal of a gay presence from city streets, and the promotion of certain gay identities and cultures over others.

In early nineteenth century Lower Canada, a direct relationship existed between the colony's laws of employment and the nature of its economy. As the artisanal and manufacturing centre of British North America, Montreal, in the first third of the century, had a pre-industrial economy. Its legal treatment of the master/servant relationship was established and directed by masters, and drew heavily upon the spirit of the pre-industrial traditions of English common law, emphasizing the criminal liability of servants failing to respect contractual obligations. Montreal's domestic servants, who were drawn from the poor and popular classes, and included mostly women and minors, were often at the greatest disadvantage in this legal system, because of their gender and economic backgrounds. Not only did their masters and mistresses have economic and social advantages, but they also controlled the legal system.

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No description available.

Arab Canadians are a heterogeneous and frequently misunderstood group whose educational background and cultural heritage have received little attention in the scholarly literature. In multicultural Canada, educators, curriculum developers, textbook authors and policy makers rely on available literature to inform their decision-making processes. Mainstream media, as a source of information and insight, do not fill this need. / In this inquiry, I examine the cross cultural and educational experiences of ten Arab undergraduate students in two English-language universities in Montreal. Participants were from Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco and have been in Canada for three to seven years. / Classic qualitative methodological tools of in-depth interviews, participant observation and document analysis were employed to record, analyze and interpret the experiences of these students. In order to give voice to these students' insights and experiences, a narrative approach is used in presenting and interpreting the data. / Seven themes identified as educational issues emerged from the analysis: Student-Teacher Relationship; Teaching Methodology; Democratic dialogue in the classroom; Teaching and learning foreign languages; Examinations; Research and Library Facilities; and Problems encountered in interactive classroom. Two themes, identified as cultural issues, emerged: Canadians' Perceptions of Arabs and Muslims from the perspectives of the participants; Islamic dress (hijab) and Sex-segregated relationships. / The analysis revealed differences in culture, language, and social and educational systems between these students' countries of origin and Canada as the major sources of these students' positive and negative experiences. The study concludes that Canadian educators can assist these students by becoming aware of their home culture, different learning styles, frustrations in adjusting to school life and in overcoming cultural shock; and by helping them adjust to Canadian educational system and learn about the Canadian culture.

A variety of extractants were used to fractionate the trace metals Cd, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn in contaminated urban soils. The metals were mostly held in soil solid phases but not in soluble and exchangeable forms. Except for Mn, extractability of metals by selective chemicals was mainly a function of the contamination level. The speciation of these elements in water, 0.01 M CaCl2, and pH-adjusted water extra was calculated using the chemical equilibrium model MINEQL+. The free ions of Cd, Ni, and Zn were the predominant species in most of the water and 0.01 M CaCl2 extracts while PbCO30 was the main form of Pb. Organically complexed Cu accounted for over of the total dissolved Cu. The solubility of trace metals increased as solution pH was decreased. Metals Cd, Ni, Pb and Zn combined with Cl- at low pH (<5). Organically complexed Cu was shifted to Cu2+ when pH was decreased. / Except for Mn, the activities of the other metals in water, 0.01 M CaCl 2 extracts, and pH-adjusted water extracts were undersaturated with respect to established minerals in soils. MnHPO4 seems to be controlling the solubility of Mn in these extracts.