L'étude des mouvements sociaux est dominée par deux écoles: la théorie de la mobilisation des ressources et la théorie des nouveaux mouvements sociaux. Il est souvent nécessaire de les combiner afin de créer une théorie "juxtaposée" plus complète. Quatre critères d'analyse sont proposés dans le but de non seulement comparer les deux écoles, mais aussi d'étudier un mouvement concret, l'altermondialisation. Ces critères sont: le contexte, l'émergence, l'organisation et les fins/l'évaluation du mouvement altermondialiste. Ces critères sont appliqués au mouvement dans le but de créer un modèle analytique synthétique capable d'étudier son caractère unique. Une telle approche est essentielle pour l'étude d'un mouvement comme l'altermondialisation qui est à la fois hétérogène (dans sa composition) et homogène (dans son objet d'opposition).

Cette étude de cas part des controverses publiques suscitées par des projets de loi qui paraissaient menacer la liberté de choix des femmes au cours de la 39e législature du Parlement canadien (3 avril 2006 au 7 septembre 2008). Partant de l'exceptionnelle absence de loi en matière d'avortement au Canada, nous avons observé qu'un statu quo perdurait depuis bientôt vingt ans : l'avortement ne cesse d'apparaître dans les médias et les débats publiques, mais les parlementaires canadiens refusent d'ouvrir le débat sur cette question. Après avoir retracé la décriminalisation de l'avortement au Canada, nous avons trouve que l'adoption de la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés avait permis au législateur d'éviter d'assumer ses responsabilités et avait contraint les tribunaux de décider de l'encadrement de l'avortement. De plus, l'absence de loi oblige d'autres instances, non juridiques, à créer des limites à la pratique de l'avortement. La réticence à discuter de l'absence de loi en matière d'avortement fait aussi en sorte que toutes discussion sur le foetus -- et il semble que ces discussions soient de plus en plus fréquentes -- s'avèrent controversées. Reprenant à notre compte l'idée de Luc Boltanski (2004) selon laquelle l'apparition de l'avortement révèle une contradiction inhérente au processus d'engendrement des êtres humains, ce qui mène au maintien de cette pratique dans l'officieux ainsi qu'à une catégorisation foetale, nous avons observé que cette catégorisation apparaissait à la fois dans les jugements de la Cour suprême sur la protection du foetus ainsi que dans les débats à la Chambre des communes. A nos yeux, ces manières foncierement opposées de percevoir l'être qui croît dans le corps de la femme continueront probablement de se polariser à mesure que la sensibilisation à l'égard du foetus augmente. Toutes ces conséquences de l'absence de loi devraient pousser le Parlement à prendre une décision claire à l'égard de la question politique principielle qu'est l'avortement.

Cette thèse observe que malgré des améliorations au niveau du discours en faveur de l'équité des genres au sein du commerce équitable, on peine à les voir se transformer en changements de facto (Heyck et Daly 2002), que ce soit au niveau des mentalités ou du contrôle des ressources (Cretney et Tafuna'i 2004).Cette thèse rend compte d'une étude de cas effectuée dans une coopérative de café costaricaine affiliée au commerce équitable, la Coopesanta Elena, sélectionnée pour son pourcentage de femmes membres élevé, où a été étudiée l'influence du commerce équitable sur les rapports sociaux de sexe et l'empowerment féminin. En explorant divers indicateurs d'empowerment, particulièrement des indicateurs socio-économiques et participatifs, nous pouvons constater que d'autres facteurs influencent davantage la capacité de ces femmes à effectuer des choix. Ce sont davantage l'éducation formelle ainsi que la participation au sein d'une coopérative de femmes artisanes (sans lien avec le commerce équitable) qui semblent avoir contribué de façon plus significative à l'empowerment féminin. Dans cette optique, nous poserons un regard critique sur le potentiel d'empowerment féminin du commerce équitable, qui demeure après tout un mode alternatif de commerce international dirigé par le Nord et se basant avant tout sur des denrées primaires.

This thesis explores the social experience of Mexican and Guatemalan temporary immigrants in Quebec who are part of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP). Two distinct perspectives exist on the matter: that the programs are beneficial for all parties involved (workers, employers, and governments); and, that the programs exploit the workers involved, who must make important sacrifices and get meagre benefits. In the literature review, a neoliberal environment is found to be a macro factor that affected the programs substantially. This thesis, based on qualitative research conducted with workers and other program participants, brings new evidence to bear on these debates. Even though the workers come to Quebec strictly to earn money for their families, the social isolation and language barrier they endure in their host communities make their lives in Canada often very difficult. While more and more activities for the workers are being organised, additional efforts could be made. This thesis concludes that, overall the experience of the workers is not poor, but there is clearly room for improvement in order to balance their significant sacrifices and the benefits they (and Canada) get from the difficult work they perform.

Rural producer organizations are being increasingly recognized for their efforts in improving the livelihoods of small farmers across the developing world. Caught between microfinance and commercial banks, these organizations however often struggle to access the necessary funds to bring their product to market or finance much-needed infrastructure. In recent years, a growing recognition of the problem has led to the emergence of a new generation of specialized financial institutions (commonly called alternative lenders). Using innovative supply-chain oriented strategies such as reverse factoring, these lenders aim to catalyze the emergence of local financial markets that meet the needs of rural producer organizations. This thesis evaluates the need for these financial innovations, their impact as well as the business case for lending to rural producer organizations. This assessment is achieved through documentary research, literature review and three case studies of coffee rural producer organizations in the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Veracruz and Chiapas. This thesis concludes that although a RPO financing gap was indeed identified in Mexico in the early 2000s, this gap was found to be receding in recent years due to the Mexican government's success in encouraging commercial lending to the sector through FIRA, a second-tier development bank, and changes in the financial regulatory framework allowing the rise of two categories of non-bank financial institutions, the SOFOL and SOFOM. The study also found a business case for profitable lending to rural producer organizations. All three studied organizations, despite their challenges, were found to be dynamic businesses with financing needs undoubtedly beyond what the microfinance market has to offer. This thesis however identifies several risk factors for potential lenders: vulnerability to price fluctuations and local competition, the politicized nature of RPOs, dependence on public and private subsidies as well as low internal capacity in financial management and accounting. This thesis evaluated the impact of recent financial innovations to be moderately positive at worst and transformational at best on rural producer organizations. The loans provided by alternative lenders allowed the organizations to gain precious credit experience while capitalizing on market opportunities that could have otherwise been out of reach. Finally, this thesis concluded by suggesting a few strategies that could be used by alternative lenders to maximize their impact, including adjusting their interest rates to market conditions, working with local financial institutions, diversifying their client base, taking more risks, strengthening RPO capacity through capacity-building programs and leveraging RPO internal credit funds to unlock underserved rural microfinance markets.

Abstract Not Available.

Arguments and evidence from many related branches of geophysics are used to evaluate the principal hypotheses on the nature of the earth's core. No definite conclusions on the composition of the core are reached. Nevertheless, with improved data from seismology, high pressure physics and planetary astronomy, it should be possible to obtain further insight on the nature of the earth's core on the basis of the arguments summarized in this thesis. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

A nonlinear effective stress method of analysis for determining the static and dynamic response of 2-D embankments and soil-structure interaction systems is presented. The method of analysis is incorporated in the computer program TARA-3. The constitutive model in TARA-3 is expressed as a sum of a shear stress model and a normal stress model. The behavior in shear is assumed to be nonlinear and hysteretic, exhibiting Masing behavior under unloading and reloading. The response of the soil to uniform all round pressure is assumed to nonlinearly elastic and dependent on the mean normal effective stresses. The porewater pressures required in the dynamic effective stress method of analysis are obtained by the Martin-Finn-Seed porewater pressure generation model modified to include the effect of initial static shear. During dynamic analysis, the effective stress regime and consequently the soil properties are modified for the effect of seismically induced porewater pressures. A very attractive feature of TARA-3 is that all the parameters required for an analysis may be obtained from conventional geotechnical engineering tests either in-situ or in laboratory. A novel feature of the program is that the dynamic analysis can be conducted starting from the static stress-strain condition which leads to accumulating permanent deformations in the direction of the smallest residual resistance to deformation. The program can also start the dynamic analysis from a zero stress-zero strain condition as is done conventionally in engineering practice. The program includes an energy transmitting base and lateral energy transmitting boundaries to simulate the radiation of energy which occurs in the field. The program predicts accelerations, porewater pressures, instantaneous dynamic deformations, permanent deformations due to the hysteretic stress-strain response, deformations due to gravity acting on the softening soil and deformations due to consolidation as the seismic porewater pressures dissipate. The capability of TARA-3 to model the response of soil structures and soil-structure interaction systems during earthquakes has been validated using data from simulated earthquake tests on a variety of centrifuged models conducted on the large geotechnical centrifuge at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. The data base includes acceleration time histories, porewater pressure time histories and deformations at many locations within the models. The program was able to successfully simulate acceleration and porewater pressure time histories and residual deformations in the models. The validation program suggests that TARA-3 is an efficient and reliable program for the nonlinear effective stress analysis of many important problems in geotechnical engineering for which 2-D plane strain representation is adequate. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Civil Engineering, Department of / Graduate

Human methionine synthase reductase (MSR) is a 78-kDa diflavin enzyme involved in folate and methionine metabolism. It regenerates the cofactor of methionine synthase (MS), cob(II), to reduce inactive MS. MSR and one of its the FAD/NADPH binding domain were cloned as GST-tagged fusion proteins for expression and purification in Escherichia coli. And a 1.9 Å Crystals of the FAD/NADPH binding domain of MSR with and without NADP+ were produced and carried out X-ray diffraction experiment and the structure of the crystal was solved by molecule replacement method. The activation domain of human MS was also expressed and purified in Escherichia coli and crystallization conditions determined. A new expression vector for full-length MSR, which contains a N-terminal GST tag, and C-terminal 6× His tag, was constructed and validated by sequencing, restriction enzymes digestion and successfully expressed in E. coli and Yeast Pichia pastoris. Based on the structure information, site-directed mutagenesis on the two positions Asp652 and trpytophan697 of MSR were designed and completed. The variants D652A, D652R, D652N of the FAD/NADPH binding domain of MSR and the variants D652A,D652R,D652N, W696A,W697H of the full-length MSR were cloned and expressed in BL21 (E. coli). The proteins of these mutants were purified by affinity chromatography, anion exchange chromatography and gel filtration chromatography. And the kinetic studies on these variants of MSR were investigated in steady state kinetic study, steady state inhibition studies, stopped-flow pre steady-state kinetic and redox potential studies. Compared with the data of the wild type MSR, the turnover number of variants all decreased, the catalytic ability become lower and the midpoint potential of cofactor FAD occurred positive shift. Both 2'5-ADP and NADP+ were competitive inhibitors for variants of MSR. However, 2'5'-ADP was relative strong inhibitor than NADP+. All the data on variants of MSR suggested the Asp652 and tryptophan697 were two important structural and function determinant of MSR. To investigate the dynamic properties of EPR, ENDOR and ESMME are used to investigate the existence of the semiquinone flavin cofactors, FAD and FMN, and the hyperfine coupling arising from the interaction of some nuclei with the unpaired electron spin. ELDOR spectroscopy was applied to measure the distance between the FAD and FMN in MSR under the binding of 2', 5'-ADP, NADP and the activation domain of MS to further check the conformational change of MSR.

The problems associated with nonlinear analysis of the load-deformation response of soils and soil structures are investigated. Methods of incremental nonlinear analysis are reviewed and their relative advantages and disadvantages discussed. Stress-strain relations commonly used for soils are critically examined and their limitations discussed. These stress-strain relations are based on the assumption that soils are isotropic, incrementally elastic materials. Evidence reported by other authors and reviewed in this study shows that the stress-strain relations commonly used for soils have two major sources of error, the anisotropy of soils and the effects of stress-path are neglected. The representation of soil stress-strain behaviour after yield is discussed. Although soils act as plastic materials after yield, it is common practice to represent post-yield behaviour by models of elastic materials. Many researchers use a constant value of Poisson's ratio and merely reduce the value of Young's modulus at yield. It is shown, with numerical examples, that this practice results in yielded soil elements being unrealistically compressible after yield. It is shown, with further numerical examples, that the predicted behaviour of yielded soil elements is more realistic if the value of the shear modulus is reduced at yield and the bulk modulus is not reduced. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Civil Engineering, Department of / Graduate