No description available.

No description available.

Car dependency has resulted in traffic congestion in the Champlain Bridge corridor between the South Shore and Montreal CBD. This thesis addresses the ongoing debate of whether an inflexible rail or more flexible express bus system is better suited for travel in the corridor. An exploratory analysis of commuters revealed dispersed work destinations, suburb-to-suburb commuting, and public transit constraints for car users, providing evidence that rail would not be an effective solution. Factors known to affect mode choice such as access walking time, cost, and number of transfers were quantified in a discrete choice model of mode choice by commuters in existing rail corridors in Montreal. The model was then applied to the Champlain Bridge corridor under the assumption of hypothetical rail implementation. The projected demand for rail was lower than current express bus use in the corridor, suggesting that there would be no justification in incurring the great expense of building a rail system to replace the current express bus system. Improvement of the established bus system would have greater potential to reduce car trips.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of the Greek day school Socrates in Montreal and its overall impact on its students vis-a-vis the variables of ethnic identity, socio-personal adjustment and academic achievement. Existing documentation, content analysis of the Greek community press, and participant observation were all used in unfolding the school's historical development. The dependent variables of Greekness, adjustment and achievement were examined via the interviewing of 549 Greek origin individuals, 118 of whom were adults, 255 Socrates students, 158 non-Socrates students, and the rest 18 were Socrates graduates. Although the results obtained did not provide conclusive evidence concerning an assumed differential impact of Socrates along the variables investigated, the ethnic identity influences of the community school were clearly delineated. At the same time, the results of the study have pointed to what has been coined here a "Socrates ethos" which is may be conducive to academic and socio-professional success. Accordingly, an overall long-term Socrates impact has tentatively been postulated.

The Burton, Kates and White model of community response to environmental change is used to study a rapidly developing suburb of Montreal. Between 1973 and 1988, 11 376 single family dwellings were built in the 'West Island'. A geographic information system (GIS) analysis shows 40 percent of vacant land was developed between 1983 and 1989, over half this was for low density housing. A study of citizens' perceptions of the changes shows 72 percent of residents felt local environmental conditions were the same or better than when they first moved to the area (average 14 years) and 71 percent felt the quality of the community was the same or better. The condition of wooded areas was the largest determinant of perception of local environmental conditions and "friendliness" was most closely related to evaluations of community quality. A history of environmental activism describes a sector of the population as having crossed a "threshold of tolerance" and taken action to protect valued natural assets of the community.

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.