Le sylvicole supérieur ancien dans la vallée du Saint-Laurent : étude d'une évolution culturelle

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal

Étude de précision et de performance du processus de classification d'images de phytoplancton à l'aide de machines à vecteurs de support

Ce projet de recherche cible l’étude et l’amélioration de la précision de la classification d’images de phytoplancton et la diminution du temps de traitement moyen requis par image. Deux solutions de classification sont proposées pour atteindre ces objectifs. La première solution vise à effectuer la classification d’images en passant par les phases de prétraitement, de discrimination et de classification, et la deuxième solution utilise uniquement les phases de prétraitement et de classification. En résumé, la phase de prétraitement manipule une image en vue de caractériser l’élément principal (le phytoplancton), la phase de discrimination utilise les arbres décisionnels à intervalles pour éliminer les catégories ayant peu ou pas de similitude avec l’image traitée et finalement, la phase de classification se sert de machines à vecteurs de support (SVM) pour prédire une catégorie d’appartenance à chaque image traitée. À la base, il y a un appareil de capture automatisée d’images qui transmet celles-ci à un classificateur. Selon la vitesse de classification, une portion ou l’ensemble des images générées seront classifiés. Donc, plus le nombre d’échantillons à classifier est grand, meilleure est l’approximation de la population de chaque groupe de phytoplanctons, à un temps donné. Le but étant d’obtenir une analyse qualitative, quantitative et temporelle plus précise de ce micro-organisme. Pour permettre la classification de ce type d’image, un logiciel nommé Biotaxis a été développé. Celui-ci offre à l’utilisateur l’option de choisir parmis les deux solutions de classification proposées ci-haut. Toutes deux débutent par l’entraînement d’un groupe de classification, qui est composé de plusieurs catégories d’image, suivi par des tests de classification, qui sont effectués sur ce groupe pour vérifier la précision de la classification des catégories d’image qui le compose. Pour entraîner et tester le classificateur du logiciel Biotaxis, deux ensembles d’images ont été employés. L’un d’eux sert uniquement à l’entrainement de groupes de classification et le second à tester ces derniers. Les résultats obtenus dans ce projet de recherche ont permis de confirmer la validité des deux solutions proposées. Il fut possible d’atteindre une précision de la classification moyenne de 87 % et plus avec des groupes de classification de 13 catégories et moins. De plus, un temps de traitement moyen inférieur à 200 ms par image a été réalisé à partir de ces mêmes groupes de classification. Le logiciel Biotaxis est proposé comme une nouvelle solution pour classifier rapidement des images de phytoplancton

Not so unusual Neanderthal bone tools: new examples from Abri Lartet, France

peer reviewedNeanderthal bone tools are often seen as negligible, consisting mainly of retouchers made from diaphyseal fragments and recognizable by their impact marks. One category, however, stand out, consisting of elongated pieces with blunt ends, most often on ribs, whose shaping involved scraping and abrasion and which are regarded as anticipating Upper Paleolithic. They are termed lissoir (smoother or burnisher) by typological analogy, although the diversity of their active ends suggests a greater functional diversity than this designation implies. Their apparent standardization results from the use of anatomically suitable blanks that only required the shaping of an active end. Mostly reported in older publications as isolated finds, they are beginning to be found in greater quantities through the careful examination of faunal remains. We describe here a series partly published in the 1970s, completed by new pieces thanks to a recent reassessment of the assemblage, and we consider it in a broader perspective

Investigating species composition in the Early Aurignacian of le Piage (France) through collagen fingerprinting (ZooMS) of screen-recovered small bone fragments

In the field of paleoproteomics, ZooMS (Zooarcheology by Mass Spectrometry) has been developed to identify morphologically non-diagnostic animal remains to taxon, offering insights into human subsistence practices. Here, we report new ZooMS analyses of 1,050 Early Aurignacian (ca. 37,000–34,000 cal BP) bone fragments from the site of Le Piage (Lot, France). The studied sample is heavily fragmented and was retrieved through water sieving. In our analysis, we compare the taxonomic identifications of bone remains using traditional morphological attributes with remains identified using ZooMS and discuss the implications of the taxonomic patterns that we uncovered. Our results indicate that, despite small effect sizes, the faunal spectrum identified through ZooMS differs from that obtained through morphological analyses. While reindeer remains the dominant species, bovids and other cervids are more abundantly represented in the ZooMS fraction. Two rare taxa, a hare (Lepus sp.) and a previously unidentified carnivore (Pantherinae/Hyaenidae/Mustelidae), were also identified using ZooMS. In addition, we note an increase of Bos/Bison remains in the sample of spongy fragments that is possibly explained by the use of grease-rich bones and bone portions as fuel. Our work adds new data on patterns of reindeer dominance during the Early Aurignacian and illustrates how ZooMS identifications of screen-recovered fragments can enhance our understanding of Paleolithic subsistence strategies and patterns of site occupation

Presumed Symbolic Use of Diurnal Raptors by Neanderthals

In Africa and western Eurasia, occurrences of burials and utilized ocher fragments during the late Middle and early Late Pleistocene are often considered evidence for the emergence of symbolically-mediated behavior. Perhaps less controversial for the study of human cognitive evolution are finds of marine shell beads and complex designs on organic and mineral artifacts in early modern human (EMH) assemblages conservatively dated to ≈100–60 kilo-years (ka) ago. Here we show that, in France, Neanderthals used skeletal parts of large diurnal raptors presumably for symbolic purposes at Combe-Grenal in a layer dated to marine isotope stage (MIS) 5b (≈90 ka) and at Les Fieux in stratigraphic units dated to the early/middle phase of MIS 3 (60–40 ka). The presence of similar objects in other Middle Paleolithic contexts in France and Italy suggest that raptors were used as means of symbolic expression by Neanderthals in these regions

Global variations in diabetes mellitus based on fasting glucose and haemogloblin A1c

Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) are both used to diagnose diabetes, but may identify different people as having diabetes. We used data from 117 population-based studies and quantified, in different world regions, the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes, and whether those who were previously undiagnosed and detected as having diabetes in survey screening had elevated FPG, HbA1c, or both. We developed prediction equations for estimating the probability that a person without previously diagnosed diabetes, and at a specific level of FPG, had elevated HbA1c, and vice versa. The age-standardised proportion of diabetes that was previously undiagnosed, and detected in survey screening, ranged from 30% in the high-income western region to 66% in south Asia. Among those with screen-detected diabetes with either test, the agestandardised proportion who had elevated levels of both FPG and HbA1c was 29-39% across regions; the remainder had discordant elevation of FPG or HbA1c. In most low- and middle-income regions, isolated elevated HbA1c more common than isolated elevated FPG. In these regions, the use of FPG alone may delay diabetes diagnosis and underestimate diabetes prevalence. Our prediction equations help allocate finite resources for measuring HbA1c to reduce the global gap in diabetes diagnosis and surveillance.peer-reviewe

Heterogeneous contributions of change in population distribution of body mass index to change in obesity and underweight NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC)

From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in different regions using data from 2896 population-based studies with 187 million participants. Changes in the prevalence of underweight and total obesity, and to a lesser extent severe obesity, are largely driven by shifts in the distribution of BMI, with smaller contributions from changes in the shape of the distribution. In East and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the underweight tail of the BMI distribution was left behind as the distribution shifted. There is a need for policies that address all forms of malnutrition by making healthy foods accessible and affordable, while restricting unhealthy foods through fiscal and regulatory restrictions

Late Pleistocene population interaction in Western europe and modern human origins: new insights based on the faunal remains from Saint-Césaire, southwestern france.

Morin Eugène. Late Pleistocene population interaction in Western europe and modern human origins: new insights based on the faunal remains from Saint-Césaire, southwestern france.. In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, tome 103, n°1, 2006. pp. 186-188

Late Pleistocene population interaction in Western europe and modern human origins: new insights based on the faunal remains from Saint-Césaire, southwestern france.

Morin Eugène. Late Pleistocene population interaction in Western europe and modern human origins: new insights based on the faunal remains from Saint-Césaire, southwestern france.. In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, tome 103, n°1, 2006. pp. 186-188