VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Giant-con Gold Deposit: A Once-linked Archean Lode-gold System
Keywords: Gold
Structural Geology
Yellowknife
Mullion
Ore Plunge
West Bay Fault

The Giant and Con deposits, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, represent a classic Archean lode-gold deposit now offset by a major Proterozoic fault (West Bay Fault). The link between the Giant and Con deposits is supported by their similarities. However, there are distinct differences between the two deposits in terms of the offset of stratigraphy, response to D2 deformation, geometry, gold mineralization styles, and depth of gold mineralization. Gold mineralization in the Giant-Con system formed over a protracted history of deformation and hydrothermal activity. Early D1 extension resulted in offset and excision of stratigraphy and the formation of refractory gold mineralization within strongly deformed schistose zones and quartz-carbonate veins. The main D2 deformation in the district resulted in the strong overprint of D1 refractory gold mineralization and was associated with the northwest-southeast flattening of the Giant deposit and progressive reverse-dextral shear of the Con deposit. Free-milling gold mineralization is associated with the D2 event, forming deeper in the Giant-Con system, creating a vertical zonation of free-milling quartz-carbonate veins overprinting earlier refractory gold mineralization that formed higher in the system. Ore plunge in the Giant deposit is controlled by the interaction of the original geometry of D1 deformation zones with the effects of D2 flattening. Ore plunge in the Con deposit is controlled by the orientation of F2 fold and B2 boudin axes in auriferous quartz-carbonate veins. D3 reactivation of the deformation zones (probably related to the end of the D2 compressive event) caused local reactivation of structures and is not associated with gold mineralization. D4 Proterozoic faulting offset and segmented the two deposits, including the major offset by the West Bay Fault. A new reconstruction of the West Bay Fault shows that the Con deformation zone is the down dip extension of the Giant deposit and not the Campbell deformation zone as previously thought.
EFL Learners’ Perceptions of Grammatical Difficulty in Relation to Second Language Proficiency, Performanc, and Knowledge
Keywords: Grammatical Difficulty
Second Language Performance
EFL Learners
Second Language Knowledge

This study investigated grammatical difficulty from the perspective of second language (L2) learners in relation to their overall L2 proficiency and L2 performance and knowledge. The design included the administration of a student questionnaire, an interview, a proficiency test, and oral production and metalinguistic tasks. The proficiency test and questionnaire were administered to 277 university-level Chinese EFL learners in Taiwan. The questionnaire explored learners’ perceptions of grammatical difficulty of 20 English grammar features. Thirty of the students who completed the questionnaire met with the researcher individually to complete a grammatical difficulty ranking activity, 2 grammar exercises and 2 stimulated recalls, all of which aimed to further explore why the learners considered the selected features to be more (or less) difficult for them to learn. The oral production tasks were administered to 27 of the students who completed the questionnaire. The metalinguistic task was administered to 185 of the students who participated in the questionnaire survey. The questionnaire results indicate that, overall, the participants did not perceive the 20 target features to be difficult to learn. Notwithstanding, the ranking results of the questionnaire suggest that learners’ perceptions of grammatical difficulty are based on whether the rules to describe the formation of language features are easy or difficult to articulate. The qualitative results show that the learners’ perceptions of grammatical difficulty were influenced by several factors including their L2 knowledge, L2 grammar learning experience, and L1 knowledge, all of which were examined with reference to syntactic, semantic, and/or pragmatic levels. In terms of the relationship between learners’ perceptions of grammatical difficulty and their overall L2 proficiency, results show that learners’ perceptions of grammatical difficulty do not vary at the syntactic level, but that there is some variation at the pragmatic level. Regarding the relationship between learners’ perceptions of grammatical difficulty and their L2 knowledge, results suggest that learners’ perceptions of grammatical difficulty vary according to their implicit/explicit knowledge of the features in question; at the explicit knowledge level, the feature perceived to be less difficult to learn is used more accurately, while at the implicit knowledge level, this is not the case.
Hydrogen (H2) Production and Membrane Fouling in Fermentative H2-producing Membrane Bioreactors
Keywords: fermentative H2 production
membrane fouling
H2-producing membrane bioreactor (HPMBR)

This research examined the influence of organic loading rate (OLR) and biosolids type on the performance of fermentative H2-producing membrane bioreactors (HPMBRs) with respect to H2 production and membrane fouling. Five OLRs ranging from 4.0 to 30 g COD L-1 d-1 were examined in a lab-scale HPMBR. The system performance with both suspended and granulated biosolids was also investigated. The H2 yield from the suspended biosolids HPMBR was not significantly influenced by OLR at OLRs ≤ 13 g COD L-1 d-1, appeared to be maximized at an OLR of 22 g COD L-1 d-1, and then decreased as the OLR was increased further. An optimum OLR that maximizes H2 yield may be near the OLR that causes reactor overload with respect to substrate utilization. Under the same operating conditions, the H2 yield from a suspended HPMBR was significantly higher than that from a granulated HPMBR. A higher H2 consumption rate and a higher concentration of bound extracellular polymeric substances from the granulated HPMBR may contribute 5–48% and 25–67% of the H2 production difference between the two systems, respectively. The experimental results accompanied with microscopic examination of fouled membrane surfaces indicated that biosolids deposition and colloidal adhesion were the two dominant membrane fouling mechanisms in the HPMBRs. Membrane fouling was characterized by two distinct stages: an initial stage with a relatively higher fouling rate and a second stage with a lower fouling rate. Membrane fouling rates and resistances were influenced by the properties of biosolids and colloids in the mixed liquor. The fouling rates increased with increased biomass concentration, but decreased as colloids became more negatively charged. The irreversible and irremovable fouling resistance increased with increased concentration of colloids, while the removable fouling resistance had no relationship with biomass concentration. Biosolids granulation may benefit membrane performance due to a lower colloidal concentration produced. The single cake filtration model was proper to simulate membrane performance in the initial fouling stage. Both cake filtration and combined cake-standard models provided good fits for the second fouling stage, whereas future study is required to improve model predictability for membrane fouling in this stage.
Beyond Episodic Memory: Medial Temporal Lobe Contributions to Problem-solving and Semantic Fluency Tasks
Keywords: cognitive psychology
memory

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the contribution of episodic memory processes supported by the medial temporal lobes (MTL) to two goal-oriented non-episodic tasks, problem solving and semantic retrieval (verbal fluency). The reported experiments provide evidence for the hypothesis that MTL-based episodic processes are robustly involved in completing non-episodic tasks that are open-ended in that no algorithm or procedure can be applied to obtain task-relevant information. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were administered the Means-End-Problem-Solving (MEPS) task, an open-ended test of social problem solving. People with impaired episodic memory associated with MTL damage or deterioration, patients with temporal lobe epilepsy or excisions (TLE) and older adults, performed worse than matched controls at solving such problems. Importantly, the participants’ performance on the MEPS as judged by the number of relevant solution steps generated correlated with the number of internal (episodically-relevant) but not external (semantically-relevant) details provided in the solutions. Thus, information derived from episodic memory benefited performance on the MEPS. Experiments 3 and 4 were conducted to ascertain whether open-endedness and episodic relevance are determinants of MTL contributions to performance on tests of verbal fluency, which traditionally are considered the domain of semantic memory. Using fMRI, Experiment 3 tracked the time course of MTL activation as participants performed a fluency task for categories that ranged in episodic relevance. The MTLs were more active throughout for categories that depended on autobiographical memories, not active for categories that were not episodically relevant, and active for episodic/spatial categories only later in the time course as the task moved from being well-defined to open-ended. The necessary involvement of the MTL in these tasks was confirmed by the pattern of spared and impaired performance of patients with TLE on category fluency tasks (Experiment 4). Together, these findings are consistent with the view that MTL-based processes are involved in tasks beyond those that test episodic memory. Furthermore, these studies suggest that performance on non-episodic tasks recruits the MTL most robustly when a task is open-ended.
The Conversion of the Vikings in Ireland from a Comparative Perspective
Keywords: Vikings
Christianity
Ireland
England
Normandy
conversion

The history of the Viking invasions in England and what is now France in the ninth and tenth centuries is fairly well documented by medieval chroniclers. The process by which these people adopted Christianity, however, is not. The written and archaeological evidence that we can cobble together indicates that the Scandinavians who settled in England and Normandy converted very quickly. Their conversion was clearly closely associated with settlement on the land. Though Scandinavians in both countries expressed no interest in Christianity as long as they engaged in a Viking lifestyle, characterized by rootless plundering, they almost always accepted Christianity within one or two generations of becoming peasants, even when they lived in heavily Scandinavian, Norse-speaking communities. While the early history of the Vikings in Ireland was similar to that of the Vikings elsewhere, it soon took a different course. While English and French leaders were able to set aside land on which they encouraged the Scandinavians to settle, none of the many petty Irish kings had the wealth or power to do this. The Vikings in Ireland were therefore forced to maintain a lifestyle based on plunder and trade. Over time, they became concentrated into a few port towns from which they travelled inland to conduct raids and then exported what they had stolen from other parts of the Scandinavian diaspora. Having congregated at a few small sites, most prominently Dublin, they remained distinct from the rest of Ireland for centuries. The evidence suggests that they took about four generations to convert. Their conversion differed from that of Scandinavians elsewhere not only in that it was so delayed, but also in that, unlike in England and Normandy, it was not associated with the re-establishment of an ecclesiastical hierarchy. Rather, when the Scandinavians in Ireland did convert, they did so because they were evangelized by monastic communities, in particular the familia of Colum Cille, who had not fled from foundations close to the Viking ports. These communities were probably driven by political concerns to take an interest in the rising Scandinavian towns.
De Rham Theory and Semialgebraic Geometry
Keywords: Semialgebraic geometry
metric invariants
L^p cohomology
Poincare inequality for differential forms

This thesis consists of six chapters and deals with four topics related to De Rham Theory on semialgebraic sets. The first topic deals with L-infinity cohomology on semialgebraic sets. We introduce smooth L-infinity differential forms on a singular (semialgebraic) space X in Rn. Roughly speaking, a smooth L-infinity differential form is a collection of smooth forms on disjoint smooth subsets (stratification) of X with matching tangential components on the adjacent strata and of bounded size (in the metric induced from Rn). We identify the singular homology of X as the homology of the chain complex generated by semialgebraic singular simplices, i.e. continuous semialgebraic maps from the standard simplex into X. Singular cohomology of X is defined as the homology of the Hom dual to the chain complex of the singular chains. Finally, we prove a De Rham type theorem establishing a natural isomorphism between the singular cohomology and the cohomology of smooth L-infinity forms. The second topic is a construction of a Lipschitz deformation retraction on a neighborhood of a point in a semialgebraic set with estimates on its derivatives. Such a deformation retraction is the key to the results of the first and the third topics. The third topic is related to Poincare inequality on a semialgebraic set. We study Poincare type Lp inequality for differential forms on a compact semialgebraic subset of Rn for p >> 1. First we derive a local inequality by using a Lipschitz deformation retraction with estimates on its derivatives from the second topic and then we extend it to a global inequality by employing a technique developed in the appendix. As a consequence we obtain an isomorphism between Lp cohomology and singular cohomology of a normal compact semialgebraic set. The final topic is in the appendix. It deals with an explicit proof of Poincare type inequality for differential forms on compact manifolds. We prove the latter inequality by means of a constructive 'globalization' method of a local Poincare inequality on convex sets. The appendix serves as a model case for the results of the third topic in Chapter 5.
A Global Kinase and Phosphatase Interaction Network in the Budding Yeast Reveals Novel Effectors of the Target of Rapamycin (TOR) Pathway
Keywords: Target of Rapamycin
budding yeast
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
yeast
kinase
phosphatase
protein-protein interactions
TOR
nutrients
growth
rapamycin
signaling
network
metabolism
nitrogen catabolite repression
retrograde response
glutamate dehydrogenase
glutamine
glutamate
alpha-ketoglutarate
cell size
aging
lifespan
mitochondria
uncoupled respiration
petite
reactive oxygen species
free radical theory of aging
apoptosis
cancer
glutaminolysis
TORC1
Nnk1
Fmp48
Mks1
Sch9
Gdh2
Ure2
ribosomal protein S6 kinase
S6K
cell biology
molecular biology

In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the evolutionarily conserved Target of Rapamycin (TOR) signaling network regulates cell growth in accordance with nutrient and stress conditions. In this work, I present evidence that the TOR complex 1 (TORC1)-interacting proteins Nnk1, Fmp48, Mks1, and Sch9 link TOR to various facets of nitrogen metabolism and mitochondrial function. The Nnk1 kinase controlled nitrogen catabolite repression-sensitive gene expression via Ure2 and Gln3, and physically interacted with the NAD+-linked glutamate dehydrogenase Gdh2 that catalyzes deamination of glutamate to alpha-ketoglutarate and ammonia. In turn, Gdh2 modulated rapamycin sensitivity, was phosphorylated in Nnk1 immune complexes in vitro, and was relocalized to a discrete cytoplasmic focus in response to NNK1 overexpression or respiratory growth. The Fmp48 kinase regulated respiratory function and mitochondrial morphology, while Mks1 linked TORC1 to the mitochondria-to-nucleus retrograde signaling pathway. The Sch9 kinase appeared to act as both an upstream regulator and downstream sensor of mitochondrial function. Loss of Sch9 conferred a respiratory growth defect, a defect in mitochondrial DNA transmission, lower mitochondrial membrane potential, and decreased levels of reactive oxygen species. Conversely, loss of mitochondrial DNA caused loss of Sch9 enrichment at the vacuolar membrane, loss of Sch9 phospho-isoforms, and small cell size suggestive of reduced Sch9 activity. Sch9 also exhibited dynamic relocalization in response to stress, including enrichment at mitochondria under conditions that have previously been shown to induce apoptosis in yeast. Taken together, this work reveals intimate connections between TORC1, nitrogen metabolism, and mitochondrial function, and has implications for the role of TOR in regulating aging, cancer, and other human diseases.
On the Squeezing and Over-squeezing of Photons
Keywords: Quantum Optics
Entanglement
Quantum Information
Squeezing
single photon
Metrology

Quantum mechanics allows us to use nonclassical states of light to make measurements with a greater precision than comparable classical states. Here an experiment is presented that squeezes the polarization state of three photons. We demonstrate the deep connection that exists between squeezing and entanglement, unifying the squeezed state and multi-photon entangled state approaches to quantum metrology. For the first time we observe the phenomenon of over-squeezing where a system is squeezed to the point that further squeezing leads to a counter-intuitive increase in measurement uncertainty. Quasi-probability distributions on the surface of a Poincaré sphere are the most natural way to represent the topology of our polarization states. Using this representation it is easy to observe the squeezing and over-squeezing behaviour of our photon states. Work is also presented on two different technologies for generating nonclassical states of light. The first is based on the nonlinear process of spontaneous parametric downconversion to produce pairs of photons. With this source up to 200,000 pairs of photons/s have been collected into single-mode fibre, and over 100 double pairs/s have been detected. This downconversion source is suitable for use in a wide variety of multi-qubit quantum information applications. The second source presented is a single-photon source based on semiconductor quantum dots. The single-photon character of the source is verified using a Hanbury Brown-Twiss interferometer.
Identification of Genes and Pathways Involved in Familial Ovarian Cancer
Keywords: ovarian cancer
genetics

One of the most important risk factors in ovarian cancer is family history, and two well-studied tumour suppressor genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 have already been identified in “high-risk” families. However, alterations of other genes may also be important for ovarian cancer pathogenesis in individuals with family history of breast/ovarian cancer. In this thesis, I compared the gene expression profiles of tumours from patients with strong and weak family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer to identify genes that may be significant in the subset of patients with ovarian cancer predisposition. Based on this comparison, two genes of interest were selected for further investigations: hCDC4/FBXW7 (F-box and WD repeat domain containing 7) and PRKCZ (protein kinase C zeta). Through mutational analyses I identified one nucleotide alteration within exon 7 of hCDC4; however, overall I found that hCDC4 mutation is a rare event in ovarian tumours. Additional epigenetics analyses revealed that promoter methylation is not a significant mechanism responsible for repression of hCDC4 expression in ovarian cancer. Nevertheless, the variable expression of hCDC4 proteins observed in ovarian tumour tissues by immunohistochemical staining of tissue microarrays suggests that hCDC4 deregulation may potentially be important in a subset of ovarian cancers. Additionally, I observed that expression levels of PRKCZ are higher in ovarian tumours from patients with strong family history compared to patients with weak family history. PRKCZ has previously been shown to be involved in a variety of cellular processes; however its role in ovarian cancer remained elusive. To further understand the role of PRKCZ in ovarian tumourigenesis, including cell viability, cell migration, as well as relevant downstream signaling pathways, I performed functional assays using an in vitro ovarian cancer model. I observed that PRKCZ increases proliferation of the SKOV3 ovarian cancer cell line and participates in EGF-induced chemotaxis. Furthermore, I identified IGF1R (insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor) and ITGB3 (integrin beta 3) as downstream effectors of PRKCZ as expression of these genes is significantly altered when PRKCZ is over-expressed. Given their previously identified associations with familial ovarian cancer, the IGF1 and ITGB3 signaling pathways may therefore represent a possible link between PRKCZ and this disease.
Design and Evaluation of a Mobile Phone-based Remote Patient Monitoring System for Heart Failure Management: A Focus on Self-care
Keywords: patient monitoring
self-care
mobile phone
heart failure

Methods to improve self-care and clinical management of heart failure are required, especially in light of the anticipated increase in heart failure prevalence and associated high costs. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) has been shown to improve heart failure outcomes, but the feasibility and efficacy of mobile phone-based RPM systems are still unknown. The main objectives of this research were to investigate the optimal design of a mobile phone-based RPM system, and to determine the effects of the system on self-care, clinical management, and health outcomes. A mobile phone-based RPM system was first developed using a user-centric design process. It was then evaluated with a six-month randomized controlled trial consisting of 100 patients attending a heart function clinic. The quality of life improved only for the intervention group, but both intervention and control groups improved with respect to self-care, heart function, and heart failure prognosis. The clinic was determined to be a confounder. Patients who were enrolled into the clinic for less than six months showed significantly greater improvements (six months is required for patients to stabilize from medication optimization). Therefore, a subgroup analysis using data from the 63 patients who were enrolled into the clinic for over six months at time of recruitment was performed. The results from the subgroup analysis indicated that the RPM system improved self-care, heart function, and heart failure prognosis at statistically significant and clinically meaningful levels. These improvements were found to be a result of enhanced self-care knowledge and practices, as well as enhanced clinical management enabled by the system. No differences in mortality or hospital admissions were found between groups, but the trial was underpowered to detect changes in these outcome measures. In summary, mobile phone-based RPM was found to be a feasible and effective tool to help improve heart failure management and outcomes.