USURJ: University of Saskatchewan Undergraduate Research Journal
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Artwork: A Whole New World
No full textAs a learner, I’ve always been curious about the world around me, including a keen interest in how organisms function at a cellular level. This curiosity led to me developing a passion for the sciences. Not only that but as a curious individual I have always felt drawn to the sciences, a field where questions are always encouraged, hence the title of piece being “But, why?”. My passion for understanding the world at a cellular level made me want to study CPPS for my undergrad. Now, being in the second year of my degree I not only enjoy my classes but also appreciate the shift in perspective they have caused in how I view the world around me. This art piece is dedicated to the change in perspective I have experienced. Through my art piece, I try to use biological figures in imitation of the natural world to show that the things we learn are everywhere around us. For example, the DNA bridge is indicative of our genetic material being the backbone of who we are at the molecular level. Below the DNA bridge, I included the initials R.E.F as an homage to Rosalind E. Franklin whom I first learned about in grade 11 about not having received credit for her work in revealing the double helix formation of DNA. I drew the DNA so that it is unwinding closer to the end to show how there is still so much we have yet to discover and understand regarding its many complexities. I also included a body of water since it is crucial to many forms of life, and inside of it, I drew outlines of duplicating cells. Next to the water, is a phospholipid bilayer, something that has come up in my studies since high school as something simple yet crucial. The bacteriophages creeping towards the left are meant to contrast the bright and joyful imagery, to show how in sciences we learn about the interesting ways in which our bodies and environments are able to fend off potential dangers. However, these dangers are also important in the balance of life and the natural environment. The greenery framing the art piece is meant to represent the extracellular matrix, the various proteins that hold cells together. I tried to imitate this through my painting as crosslinked greenery. In the bottom right corner, I’ve also drawn myself looking up from reading a textbook as a way to show what it’s like to learn about such fascinating things and how it directly shifts my world view. Lastly, I drew this piece with a clear vanishing point as a metaphorical way of showing that our knowledge of the world and the study of science has gone through a journey and though our knowledge may have “dates of discovery” and points at which we began the studies of certain things, there is still no clear end to learning and everything we discover only leads to more questions which is definitely my favourite part about learning in my degree. Similar to the endless journey of the sciences, I look forward to where my own journey in this field will go
Hommes algériens, femmes françaises. Sexe, amour et conjugalité dans une France en guerre (1954-1962)
No full textInternational audienceRecent studies on immigration, sexuality, and race, have done well to revise the longstanding misperception of Algerian migrants in metropolitan France as celibate and sexless individuals. In fact, the majority of Algerian migrants had entered into relationships—predominantly heterosexual—with Europeans since their arrival in the metropole. This article analyzes the intimate ties between Algerian male migrants and European women in metropolitan France during the Algerian War (1954-1962). It draws on the thousands of police files, which tracked the daily movements of Algerians during these years. While investigators consistently remarked on the “insignificance” of their subjects’ personal lives, their detailed reports unwittingly generated a copious source base on the multitude of inter-ethnic relationships. Ironically, the official narratives intended to affix stable identities to the Algerian subjects soon unraveled to reveal a rich micro-sociology of Algerian immigrant life during decolonization. In delineating the plurality of personal ties forged by Algerian men in the metropole, this study reimagines the contours of immigrant life while assessing the impact of the war’s violence on the everyday lives of Algerian men and European women. Ultimately, the study makes whole the historical experiences of these men and women in all of their importance.À rebours de travaux en sciences humaines et sociales ayant figé les migrants algériens en France dans leur statut officiel de « célibataires », cet article montre combien les échanges étaient fréquents avec les femmes métropolitaines. Il s’appuie sur des sources qui, pour n’avoir aucunement pour objet les relations sentimentales ou sexuelles (des migrants comme des métropolitaines), n’en révèlent pas moins la fréquence de ces relations : parce que les dossiers d’enquêtes policières centralisés par le ministère de l’Intérieur durant la guerre d’indépendance algérienne s’intéressent aux fréquentations et emplois du temps de chaque victimes, suspects ou coupables, de nombreux couples mixtes apparaissent. Ces couples contractualisés ou non, légitimes ou non, durables ou non, façonnent une réalité historique autrement peu visible et permettent de se défaire des catégories figées par le pouvoir colonial pour une microsociologie des relations dans un contexte particulier, celui de la guerre d’indépendance. Cet article permet d’approfondir nos connaissances sur une société française plurielle marquée par la colonisation, l’immigration et la guerre, comme sur les conséquences de la guerre dans l’intimité des individus. Il rééquilibre enfin les représentations en redonnant aux immigrés algériens et aux femmes françaises toute leur place dans la relation
La fonction critique des représentations du hasard à l’heure de la dataification du monde
No full textInternational audienc
Scattering rigidity for analytic metrics
No full textInternational audienceFor analytic negatively curved Riemannian manifold with analytic strictly convex boundary, we show that the scattering map for the geodesic flow determines the manifold up to isometry. In particular one recovers both the topology and the metric. More generally, our result holds in the analytic category under the no conjugate point and hyperbolic trapped sets assumptions
Concrete constructions or messy mangroves?: How modelling contextual effects on constructional alternations reflect theoretical assumptions of language structure
No full textInternational audienceDepending on the theory of language employed, the paradigmatic and lexical variation associated with a given composite form-meaning pair is treated in different ways. Firstly, variation can be treated as independent of the constructional semantics, an approach typical of modular theories. Secondly, paradigmatic variation can be considered indicative of constructional semantics; its variation constituting networks of closely related families of constructions. This is a common approach in Construction Grammar. Thirdly, there exists a trend in Cognitive Linguistics and Construction Grammar to treat grammatical constructions as non-discrete emergent clusters of many-to-many form-meaning mappings. This study explores the possibility of extending current methods for quantitatively modelling construction grammar to an approach that does not assume discrete grammatical constructions. The speaker choice examined consists of the English future constructions will and BE going to and their use in contemporary informal British English. The constructions are examined with the behavioural profile approach. Three different regression modelling methods are applied to the grammatical alternations, each operationalising one of the theoretical assumptions. While the results show that all three approaches are feasible and comparable in predictive accuracy, model interpretation becomes increasingly difficult with added complexity
La langue, matière à machines
No full textInternational audienceThis article presents an interlinked series of inquiries concerning the material inscription of language. This inscription is explored in its poetic and symptomatic aspects, as well as by way of a “machined” cartography. Sound and concrete poems isolate the acoustic component of oral language and the visual dimension of writing. A figure in the domain of art brut invents alphabets to grasp the being of words. A designer seeks to apply his “onto-cartographic” method beyond an original application to industrial design objects. Integrating these three investigations into the same experimental set, we endeavoured to meta-model the way in which investment in the plastic and sonic values of language expands, and disrupts the field of signification. Our experimental method involves building a machine, based on the upcycling of a video game terminal. We describe its genesis and show how its design reflects, in turn, four “material planes” of a poem by Bernard Heidsieck, and a dual topological series of images by Francis Palanc, pertaining to the possible and impossible relations between signifiers.Cet article présente l’aspect matériel de l’inscription du langage comme l’enjeu d’une poétique, d’une clinique psychique et d’une cartographie « machinée ». Les poésies sonores et concrètes isolent la composante acoustique de la langue orale et la dimension visuelle de l’écriture. Une figure de l’art brut invente de nouveaux alphabets pour saisir l’être des mots. Un designer cherche à appliquer sa méthode « onto-cartographique » au-delà des seuls objets techniques. Intégrant ces trois enquêtes à la faveur d’une même expérience, nous entreprenons de méta-modéliser la manière dont l’investissement des valeurs plastiques et sonores du langage dilate le champ de la signification. Expérimentale, notre méthode suppose de construire une machine. Celle dont nous présentons la genèse repose sur l’up-cycling d’une borne de jeu vidéo. Sa conception réfléchit tour à tour quatre « plans matériels » d’un poème de Bernard Heidsieck et une série d’images « auto-géométriques » de Francis Palanc