VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Enhancement of Critical Care Response Teams Through the Use of Electronic Nursing-mediated Vital Signs Surveillance
Keywords: User-centered design
Vital Signs
Human Factors
Critical Care Response Teams

Failure to recognize changes in a patient’s clinical condition is a barrier to the effectiveness of CCRT outreach programs. The development of a vital signs capture and decision system could alert care providers and CCRTs when a patient’s clinical condition deteriorates. However, point-of-care vital signs capture and documentation is often problematic in clinical practice. Ethnographic research was conducted to understand the difficulties of replacing pen and paper charts and barriers to electronic nursing documentation systems. Analysis of workflows directed the design of two solutions; 1) Apple iPhone facilitated manual vital signs entry, 2) Motorola MC55 enabled automatic data capturing from physiological monitors. Nurses participated in high-fidelity usability testing, comparing the traditional method of paper documentation with the two electronic solutions. As a result of user-centered design process, both solutions were comparable to the efficiency of paper methods, were found acceptable to nurses, and could be successfully incorporated into current workflows.
Connection between Severe Weather and Intense Lightning
Keywords: lightning, storm, intense, lightning studies, lightning studies research group, charge, ECHOTOP, CAPPI, severe, non-severe, environment, CN Tower, weather, correlation

This Thesis researches, explains and provides conclusions for the question of correlation between data and criteria used by Environment Canada (EC) and Lightning Studies Research Group (LSG) of University of Toronto. The necessity of such correlation arises from the question of common criteria between severe weather, as it shown in graphical data from EC, and intense lighting storms, recorded by LSG, despite deep differences in area, time scale and object of observation used by those two organizations. The objective of the Thesis is not only to compare those two, very different sets of data and criteria and find out the common ground between them, but also to provide in-depth explanation of criteria, used by Lighting Studies Research Group, along with revisiting and establishing some of them. Eight storm cases, taken from years 2005-2008 provide cases for practical research, which affects intermediate Greater Toronto Area.
Characterization of a Biodegradable Electrospun Polyurethane Nanofiber Scaffold Suitable for Annulus Fibrosus Tissue Engineering
Keywords: intervertebral disc
annulus fibrosus
mechanical stimulation
biodegradation
tissue engineering
scaffold
nanofiber
degenerative disc
tissue engineering

The current study characterizes the mechanical and biodegradation properties of a polycarbonate polyurethane (PU) electrospun nanofiber scaffold intended for use in the growth of a tissue engineered annulus fibrosus (AF) intervertebral disc component. Both the tensile strength and initial modulus of aligned scaffolds were higher than those of random scaffolds and remained unaffected during a 4 week biodegradation study, suggesting a surface-mediated degradation mechanism. The resulting degradation products were non-toxic. Confined compressive mechanical force of 1kPa, was applied at 1Hz to in vitro bovine AF tissue grown on the scaffolds to investigate the influence of mechanical force on AF tissue production, which was found to decrease significantly at 72 hours relative to 24 hours, independent of any effects from mechanical forces. Overall, the consistent rate of PU degradation, along with mechanical properties comparable to those of native AF tissue, and the absence of cytotoxic effects, make this polymer suitable for further investigation for use in tissue-engineering the AF.
Inclusion Characterization in High Strength Low Alloy Steel
Keywords: Steel Cleanliness
Non-metallic Inclusions

The cleanliness of high strength low alloy (HSLA) steel was assessed qualitatively and quantitatively. The determination of inclusion type and inclusion morphology were carried out using Selective Potentiostatic Etching by Electrolytic Dissolution (SPEED) method allowing in-situ examination of inclusion morphology by analytical techniques such as SEM/EDS. Inclusion size analysis mainly involved a combination of an analytical technique to provide images of the sample surface and an image analysis system to accurately measure the inclusion size. Four analytical methods were compared in order to evaluate their suitability for subsequent quantitative analysis. It was found that images taken with backscattered electron imaging mode from the scanning electron microscope provides the most accurate representation of inclusion distribution. The various techniques were used to evaluate HSLA steel grades of similar chemistry produced with and without gas shrouding. The results confirmed that with reoxidation minimized by gas shrouding between ladle and tundish, the steel cleanliness was significantly improved.
On the Design of Peer-assisted Video-on-demand Systems
Keywords: Peer-to-Peer
Video-on-Demand
Optimization

Peer-assisted Video-on-Demand (VoD) systems have not only received substantial recent research attention, but also been implemented and deployed with success in large-scale real-world streaming systems. Despite the remarkable popularity in real-world systems, the design of such systems are not well understood. In this thesis, we seek to address two design problems in peer-assisted VoD systems. First, we focus on the design of cache replacement algorithms. We construct an analytical framework based on dynamic programming, to help us form an in-depth understanding of optimal strategies to design cache replacement algorithms. Second, we shift our attention to the surplus upload bandwidth allocation problem in multi-channel systems. Through theoretical analysis and realistic simulations, we conclude that surplus upload bandwidth from peers can be utilized more efficiently than conventional prefetching strategies when it is devoted to redistributing content to those channels in deficit state.
Coherent Shared Memories for FPGAs
Keywords: FPGA
Computer Engineering
Caching
Shared Memory

To build a shared-memory programming model for FPGAs, a fast and highly parallel method of accessing the shared-memory is required. This thesis presents a first look at how to implement a coherent caching system in an FPGA. The coherent caching system consists of multiple distributed caches that implement the write-once coherence protocol, allowing efficient access to system memory while simplifying the user programming model. Several test applications are used to verify functionality, and assess performance of the current system. Results show that with a processor-based system, some applications could benefit from improvements to the coherence system, but for many applications, the current system is sufficient. However, the current coherent caching system is not sufficient for most hardware core based systems, because the faster memory accesses quickly saturate shared system resources. As well, the performance of distributed-memory systems currently surpasses that of the coherent caching system. Performance results are promising, and given the potential for improvements, future work on this system is warranted.
Investigation of the Relationship between Transit Network Structure and the Network Effect - The Toronto & Melbourne Experience
Keywords: Public Transit Planning
Transit Network

The main objective of this study was to quantitatively explore the connection between network structure and network effect and its impact on transit usage as seen through the real-world experience of the Toronto and Melbourne transit systems. In this study, the comparison of ridership/capita and mode split data showed that Toronto’s TTC has better performance for the annual data of 1999/2001 and 2006. After systematically investigating travel behaviour, mode choice factors and the various evidence of the network effect, it was found that certain socio-economic, demographic, trip and other design factors in combination with the network effect influence the better transit patronage in Toronto over Melbourne. Overall, this comparative study identified differences that are possible explanatory variables for Toronto’s better transit usage as well as areas where these two cities and their transit systems could learn from one another for both short and long term transit planning and design.
Source Tracing of Dissolved Organic Matter (DOM) in Watersheds Using UV and Fluorescence Spectroscopy
Keywords: streams
detrital energy
ecosystem ecology
spectroscopy
dissolved organic matter
carbon cycling

In aquatic ecosystems, dissolved organic matter (DOM) is an important source of detrital energy on which microorganisms rely. However, its dynamics are not well understood in an ecological context. By isolating watershed sources, the work reported in this thesis has attempted to characterize the seasonal patterns of DOM in the hyporheic zone of a temperate stream and to find the likely sources that contribute to this pool of organic carbon. Hyporheic DOM characteristics described by UV spectroscopy indicated temporal rather than spatial dependence. Excitation-emission matrices (EEMs) showed that hyporheic DOM was mainly comprised of fulvic- and humic-like fluorescence with small amounts of protein-like fluorescence. Increases in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations from birch litter isolates were greater than those from cedar litter in early autumn, but less in late autumn. Although streambed biofilm was not significant in increasing DOC concentrations, it was also a source of protein-like fluorescence.
The ABO Polymorphism and Plasmodium Falciparum Malaria
Keywords: Malaria
Hematology
ABO Blood Group
Phagocytosis

Malaria has exerted a major selective pressure for red blood cell (RBC) polymorphisms that confer protection to severe disease. There is a predominance of blood type O in malaria endemic regions, and several lines of evidence suggest that the outcome of Plasmodium falciparum infection may be influenced by ABO blood type antigens. Based on observations that enhanced phagocytosis of infected polymorphic RBCs is associated with protection to malaria in other red cell disorders, we hypothesized that infected type O RBCs may be more efficiently cleared by the innate immune system than infected type A and B RBCs. The present work demonstrates human macrophages in vitro and murine monocytes in vivo phagocytosed P. falciparum infected O RBCs more avidly than infected A and B RBCs independent of macrophage donor blood type. This difference in clearance may confer relative resistance to severe malaria in individuals with blood type O.
In Their Own Best Interests? Textually Mapping Governmentality in the Lives of Young People without Stable Housing in Canada
Keywords: Poststructuralism
Governmentality
Critical Discourse Analysis
Homeless youth
Neo-liberalism
Community-based governance

Working to untangle the multiple interests and “truths” that manifest in decision-making in youth shelters, I draw on the Foucauldian perspective of governmentality as an alternative means of problematizing “youth homelessness” in Canada. Tracing interdiscursivity between levels of authority, I use critical discourse analysis to deconstruct federal and Ontario government, and Toronto youth shelter discourses. Aiming to normalize the problematic, I uncover tensions between crime control and human resource development within each level of authority. Further, usurping attention to employment and housing, mental illness and youth criminality are taking over as dominant discourses. Moreover, the discursive production of “needy” and “helping” subjectivities is serving to depoliticize and individualize institutionally structured relationships, thereby limiting the depth of citizenship permitted poor, racialized and gendered young people. Concealing ongoing neo-liberal restructuring, therapeutic community-based governance is thus justified over action to address the roots of youth homelessness.
Clinical Faculty's Activities and Outputs: An Intellectual Capital Concept Map
Keywords: Intellectual capital
Concept mapping
University medical department
Clinical faculty
Education administrators

The purpose of this study was to explore the composition of intellectual capital (IC) by addressing the research question: What are the knowledge-based activities and outputs which comprise the IC of a university medical department? A conceptual framework was developed to highlight the importance of activities. The conceptualization of IC was further developed using concept mapping. Education administrators’ perceptions were solicited to derive IC used in a research faculty of a Canadian university. The results indicate that IC can be understood in terms of activities and outputs. Clinical faculty can be expected to engage in research and its supervision, education, obtaining qualifications, clinical and professional practice, and service. Within these categories, individual activities and outputs were not considered to be of equal importance or impact. Among seventy activities and outputs, articles in internationally refereed journals was ranked as most important, whereas teaching awards was ranked as having the most impact.
Producing Barrels from Bitumen: A Political Ecology of Price in Explaining the Classification of the Alberta Oil Sands as a Proven Oil Reserve
Keywords: Alberta oil sands
resources geography
oil reserves

In December, 2002, the oil sands of Alberta, Canada – earlier seen as an obscure, obstacle-ridden scientific project – were for the first time included in the Oil & Gas Journal’s year-end review of worldwide oil reserves. To explain this decision, the editors of this prestigious international petroleum magazine cited the basic neoclassical economic theory of price-driven resource substitution. This thesis contends, however, that the neoclassical theory in fact explains very little of how it became possible to profitably extract petroleum from Alberta’s bitumen-saturated sands. Merging insights from resources geography on the politics of nature-based production with scholarship on calculation and classification in Science and Technology Studies, this thesis fleshes in much-needed detail and dimension to the neoclassical account by emphasizing the role of key actors and decision-makers, many within the state but also within the private sector, who have actively negotiated supply costs and pursued technological strategies for the oil sands. In doing so, it argues that market prices and supply costs are not independent objects, but are underpinned by a malleable, contingent, and profoundly political process. As evidence, this thesis draws on national and international petroleum statistics, industry publications and public relations campaigns, as well as over 80 years of archived and more contemporary government documents, in order to show that substitution between two materially different resources is rarely an independently propelled or inevitable response.
Adverse Drug Reactions in the Emergency Department Population in Ontario: Analysis of National Ambulatory Care Reporting System and Discharge Abstract Database 2003-2007
Keywords: adverse drug reaction

ADR is an important public health problem which reduces quality of care patients receive and increases cost to healthcare system. Little is known about the incidence and economic burden of ADR-related ED visits and subsequent hospitalizations in Canada. This study estimated the incidence and cost of ADR-related ED visits and subsequent hospitalizations for patients (>65 years) in Ontario, and explored patient, drug and system factors associated with severe ADRs. In a population-based retrospective cohort of Ontario older adults, 7222 (0.75%) of all ED visits were ADR-related, and among these patients 21.56% were hospitalized in 2007; In 2007, the total measured cost of ADR-related visits and subsequent hospitalizations amounted to $13.6 million with the cost being $333.47 and $7528.64 per person for ED visits and subsequent hospitalizations, respectively. Severe ADRs were associated with sex, age, comorbidity, multiple drugs, multiple pharmacies, newly prescribed drugs, recent ED visit, recent hospitalization and LTC residents.
A Comparison of the Costs of Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy and of Axillary lymph Node Dissection in the Management of Early-stage Breast Cancer in Ontario
Keywords: Sentinel lymph node biopsy
breast cancer
cost-minimization analysis
decision analysis
axillary lymph node dissection

Objective: To complete a cost-minimization analysis (CMA) of the cost of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) and axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in the management of early-stage breast cancer (ESBC) in a hypothetical Ontario hospital setting. Methods: Decision-analysis modeling, with a decision-tree and Markov states, was used to estimate hospital costs for the two treatment options. The model was populated with data from the literature and costs from the Ontario Case Costing Initiative, a publicly accessible, government-sponsored, costing database. Model variability and parameter uncertainty were quantified by probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA). Results: The SLNB treatment algorithm was cost-minimizing compared to the ALND-only treatment option. The costs of treating postoperative complications did not contribute to the incremental average cost. Conclusion: A treatment algorithm that involves SLNB as the initial axillary-staging procedure in the setting of ESBC offers a cost-savings over the ALND-only option. This result is generalizable to all Ontario hospitals.
Single Channel Conductance of the CaV2.2 Calcium Channel
Keywords: Single-channel
Calcium
Conductance
Physiological
CaV2.2
N-type

Calcium ions (Ca2+) are admitted into presynaptic nerve terminals through voltage gated calcium channels and diffuse to bind and activate the secretory vesicle discharge mechanism. Current research favors a highly ‘modal’ organization where the release sites are activated by one or a few closely apposed channels (Stanley, 1997). To fully understand the nanophysiology of transmitter release site activation, it is necessary to determine the rate of Ca2+ flux through individual channels at normal physiological external concentrations. OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between CaV2.2 channel conductance and external Ca2+ across the physiological range. CONCLUSION: The conductance of the CaV2.2 channel was determined across the range of 1-100 mM [Ca2+]EXT . With 2 mM [Ca2+]EXT, the conductance was determined to be 2.76 ± 0.24 pS.
The Relationship between Children’s, Adolescents’, and Adults’ Epistemological Development and Their Evaluation of Different Teaching Methods
Keywords: epistemology
pedagogy
theory of mind
child development
educational psychology

This study assessed the relationship between children’s, adolescents’, and adults’ epistemological development and their evaluations of different teaching methods. Participants were presented with different teaching scenarios in which the domain (scientific or moral), nature (controversial or noncontroversial), and method (lecture or discussion) were varied to determine if this affected participants’ rating of the scenarios. Epistemological development was assessed in three domains: aesthetic, value (moral), and physical truth (science). Ninety-six participants (7–8-, 10–11-, 13–14-year-olds, and college students) were included in the study. In general, it was discovered that older participants (13-14-year-olds and college students) preferred discussion methods, while younger participants (7-8 and 10-11-year-olds) did not discriminate between lectures or discussions. However, all participants took the domain, nature, and method into consideration. Epistemological development was predictive of participants’ preference for teaching methods, but only in the value domain.
Reverse Engineering of Content as a Task for Finding Usability Problems: An Evaluative Case Study using the Wikibreathe Tool for Online Creation of Asthma Action Plans
Keywords: Reverse Engineering
Usability
Human Factors
Asthma Action Plan

After formulating the problem and reviewing relevant research literature, a study was performed that compared reverse engineering with traditional scenario-based techniques in usability evaluation. In this case study, an online tool for creating asthma action plans was created and evaluated through questionnaires and focus groups. The tool was then tested in a controlled study using both a traditional scenario-based approach and the reverse engineering method. A group of twelve users built asthma action plans using each method in a randomized order. Results concerning usability, efficiency and the types of usability problems found were reported, along with recommendations for further research in the use of reverse engineering as a method of usability evaluation.
Increased Fixation Distance during Search among Familiar Distractors: Eve-movement Evidence of Distractor Grouping
Keywords: Distractor Familiarity
Eye Movements

The present study tested the hypothesis that distractor-based facilitation of visual search occurs because familiar distractors are processed and rejected in groups. We recorded participants’ eye movements during a visual search task to determine if familiar distractors were associated with an increased average distance between fixations and distractors. The study provided convergent evidence of a strong relation between search efficiency and distractor familiarity, wherein the distance between fixations and distractors increases with the efficiency of search. Further examination of eye movements suggested that the grouping of familiar distractors resulted in an efficient scanning of the search display by increasing the area of the display effectively processed during each fixation and therefore reducing the need to fixate individual distractors.
Generating Miss Rate Curves with Low Overhead Using Existing Hardware
Keywords: Miss Rate Curves
Hardware Performance Counters
Memory Management
Operating Systems

Miss Rate Curves (MRCs) for main memory have been proposed as a representation of memory utilization for use in a range of optimizations in the area of memory man- agement. Various techniques exist for their creation; however, all real-world methods of MRC generation must make trade-offs between overhead and accuracy. Proposals for new hardware techniques exist, but have yet to be implemented in actual hardware. We pro- pose the use of the Intel PEBS (Precise Event-Based Sampling) performance monitoring capability for the task of MRC generation on existing commodity hardware. We use PEBS to generate MRCs and compare them against MRCs generated through instrumentation, finding the PEBS MRCs to be good, but imperfect approximations, while keeping average PEBS overheads below 5%. We were unable to show that PEBS is better or worse than existing techniques, but believe we have succeeded in showing the promise of the use of general purpose performance monitoring hardware for this task and in motivating future research and development in this area.