Canadian history is so boring ... or is it? Historian Allan Greer looks at this common complaint, and concludes the story of Canada isn't the problem.

J’ai consacré 30 années de ma vie à l’histoire du Canada, comme professeur, chercheur et auteur, mais ma passion pour cette discipline n’est pas nécessairement partagée par mes concitoyens canadiens, qui reprochent principalement à l’histoire du Canada : 1) d’être plate; 2) de ne pas être suffisamment diffusée.As someone who has spent 30 years researching, writing and teaching the history of Canada, I hear two main messages from my fellow Canadians about my favourite subject: 1. It's boring; 2. We need more of it

La rébellion de 1837-1838 au Bas Canada : une approche géographique.

Cette étude vise une meilleure compréhension de la rébellion de 1837-1838 au Bas-Canada, de la nature même du conflit ainsi que de ses antécédents sociaux et économiques, à travers l'examen des composantes régionales de l'insurrection. Bien qu'ils aient été largement appuyés à travers l'ensemble de la province, les « patriotes » révolutionnaires étaient mieux ancrés dans l'Ouest du Bas-Canada. Cette région, correspondant au district de Montréal, était plus prospère, dynamique et urbanisée que les autres régions rurales du Bas-Canada. Selon les interprétations traditionnelles, l'insurrection aurait été liée aux problèmes agraires; il semble cependant que seule la paisible région de Québec était menacée par la famine. La rébellion prit naissance non pas au sein des campagnes appauvries mais plutôt dans des régions où anglophones et francophones vivaient à proximité les uns des autres et où les redevances seigneuriales étaient comparativement élevées.This study attempts to gain a better understanding of the Lower Canadian Rebellion of 1837-1838, the nature of the conflict itself, as well as its social and economic antecedents, by examining the regional incidence of insurrection. Though they were widely supported throughout the province, the revolutionary Patriots were strongest in the western countryside of Lower Canada. This area, the District of Montréal, was rather more prosperous, more dynamic and more urbanized than other parts of rural Lower Canada. Contrary to traditional interpretations which tend to link the insurrection to agrarian distress, it was only in the quiescent Québec region thatfamine was a real threat. Rebellion occurred, not in impoverished sections of the countryside, but in areas where English- and French-speakers lived in close proximity and where seigneurial exactions were comparatively high

Low internal magnetic fields in anisotropic superconductors

This thesis is a theoretical, numerical study of the magnetic fields which exist in the anisotropic, high temperature superconductors like YBa\sb2Cu\sb3O\sb{7-\delta}, or YBCO for short, using both the anisotropic London theory and simulations based on existing muon spin rotation techniques. The thesis first describes the muon spin rotation ($\mu$SR) techniques, and then gives a brief discussion of superconductivity with regard to the London theory of anisotropic, type II superconductors. Next, numerical results of the application of this theory to YBCO are presented. Three dimensional surface plots of the magnetic field components within the flux line lattice (FLL) are shown, as well as the corresponding contour plots of the fields. Field distributions are calculated from these surfaces, and the graphs are presented. These distributions correspond to the real part of the Fourier transform of the muon histogram, and a comparison between data taken on a polycrystalline sample and the theoretical prediction is made. In addition, variation of the field distributions with parameters such as penetration depth, angle of the average field, and the magnitude of the average field is discussed. The last part of the thesis is a theoretical study of the behavior of muons which have stopped within a superconductor. The muons are assumed to stop uniformly throughout the FLL area, and the precession of each about its local field is recorded as the projection of its polarization along each of three mutually perpendicular detectors. The depolarization of these signals as a function of time is an indication of the existence of transverse field components which exist within the FLL due solely to the anisotropy of the material. In order to further investigate these off axis fields, we have developed an extension of the usual $\mu$SR techniques, coupled with Fourier analysis, which yields new information. For example, with the proper analysis procedure, one may determine to good precision the direction of the average internal field B with respect to the applied field H\sb{a}. Other quantities, which we call moments of the field distribution, may also be determined

Fur‑Trade Labour and Lower Canadian Agrarian Structures

L'emploi saisonnier rattaché au commerce de la fourrure a eu des effets considérables sur l'économie rurale dans certaines régions du Bas-Canada et l'auteur se propose ici d'étudier ceux de ces effets qui sont les plus manifestes dans le cas de la communauté rurale de Sorel.Il appert d'abord que, dans cette paroisse, l'emploi saisonnier engendré par le commerce de la fourrure s'est avéré un élément essentiel de l'économie locale pendant les années 1790 à 1820. Il ne s'agit pas ici, comme certains l'ont soutenu, d'une situation simple où des énergies se trouvaient temporairement détournées de l'activité agricole, mais bien d'une situation beaucoup plus complexe où la dépendance vis-à-vis d'un revenu extérieur a conduit à la fragmentation des terres, à la surpopulation rurale et à une pauvreté plutôt généralisée.Cette étude de Sorel démontre aussi que la coexistence, dans un endroit donné, d'une agriculture de subsistance et d'un salaire saisonnier est apparue, dans certaines régions de la vallée du Saint-Laurent, bien avant que l'industrie forestière ne vienne la favoriser ailleurs au Québec

Magnetic Fields of Vortices in a Superconducting Thin Film

The magnetic fields associated with a single superconducting vortex traversing a thin film are calculated. The formulation of Pearl, which has been used for a geometry in which for z0 one has superconducting material, is extended to the case of a thin film. For the thin film, the flux in the mid-plane is less than a flux quantum unless one uses a very large radius. For instance a 100 nm film with a 130 nm penetration depth (lambda) has only 80% of a flux quantum within a radius of 1.5 mu m = 11.5.lambda. At 10 mu m 96% is enclosed. The magnetic field near the surface in both geometries has a significant radial component. The fields for a vortex array are then obtained by summing the fields from nearby vortices. The measurability of the field distributions is discussed

Effects of Vortex Pinning on the Temperature Dependence of the Magnetic Field Distributions in Superconductors

The temperature and applied-magnetic-field dependence of the second moments of the magnetic-field distributions as measured by mu SR for YBCO and BSCCO have been fit for four different intrinsic-field-distribution models (d-wave, 2-fluid, empirical, and BCS). It is found that if a pinning potential becomes important at about 20 K, all of the models can fit the data reasonably well. The fits and the associated fitting parameters are presented

Gene expression profiling of Naïve sheep genetically resistant and susceptible to gastrointestinal nematodes

BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal nematodes constitute a major cause of morbidity and mortality in grazing ruminants. Individual animals or breeds, however, are known to differ in their resistance to infection. Gene expression profiling allows us to examine large numbers of transcripts simultaneously in order to identify those transcripts that contribute to an animal's susceptibility or resistance. RESULTS: With the goal of identifying genes with a differential pattern of expression between sheep genetically resistant and susceptible to gastrointestinal nematodes, a 20,000 spot ovine cDNA microarray was constructed. This array was used to interrogate the expression of 9,238 known genes in duodenum tissue of four resistant and four susceptible female lambs. Naïve animals were used in order to look at genes that were differentially expressed in the absence of infection with gastrointestinal nematodes. Forty one unique known genes were identified that were differentially expressed between the resistant and susceptible animals. Northern blotting of a selection of the genes confirmed differential expression. The differentially expressed genes had a variety of functions, although many genes relating to the stress response and response to stimulus were more highly expressed in the susceptible animals. CONCLUSION: We have constructed the first reported ovine microarray and used this array to examine gene expression in lambs genetically resistant and susceptible to gastrointestinal nematode infection. This study indicates that susceptible animals appear to be generating a hyper-sensitive immune response to non-nematode challenges. The gastrointestinal tract of susceptible animals is therefore under stress and compromised even in the absence of gastrointestinal nematodes. These factors may contribute to the genetic susceptibility of these animals