VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Good Judge of Meta-perception
Keywords: judges
meta-accuracy
meta-perception
personality
self-knowledge

Is meta-accuracy an individual difference that people carry with them wherever they go, or is it context-specific? Previous research assumes that meta-accuracy is an individual difference, but has not explicitly tested this assumption. Using seven samples, I tested whether meta-accuracy is an individual difference by conducting three tests that examined whether there is a good judge of meta-perception across different 1) contexts, 2) traits, and 3) targets. The Good Judge Hypothesis predicts that there are individuals who are consistently meta-accurate across contexts, traits, and targets. In contrast, the Context Hypothesis predicts that there are no consistently meta-accurate individuals across contexts, traits, or targets. The present results support the Good Judge Hypothesis. However, while there was a good judge across various traits and targets, and within specific contexts, there was no evidence of a good judge across contexts. Theoretical implications, practical applications, and future directions of the current work are discussed.
CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND OUTCOMES IN PATIENTS WITH INFECTIVE ENDOCARDITIS (IE)
Keywords: Heart valves
Infection
Microorganisms
Mortality

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a serious medical condition with significant morbidity and mortality. We sought to determine the clinical characteristics, microbiological profile and long-term outcome of IE patients at a tertiary care Canadian hospital. A total of 307 confirmed IE cases were included from, January 2008 to June 2016. The mean age of study population was 58 ±16 years, including 66% males. A native cardiac valve (NVE) was affected in 238 patients (77.5%) and Staphylococcus aureus was isolated in 98 cases (32%). Surgery was performed in 190 patients (61.8%), with 120 early surgeries (63%) during index hospitalization. At a median follow up of 235 days (IQR 45-1012 days), 90 patients had died (29%); 44.4% from medical and 20% from surgical cohort, p=0.001. On multivariate analysis, age (OR 1.04 95%CI 1.02-1.07, p=0.000), heart failure (OR 3.62 95%CI 1.06-12.41, p=0.04) and septic shock (OR 2.89 95%CI 1.18-7.08, p=0.02) were predictors of mortality.
Role of miRNA-27a Regulation of VAV3 in Cellular and Experimental Models of Sepsis-induced Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
Keywords: ALI
inflammation
lung
miRNA
sepsis
VAV3

We identified miR-27a as a differentially regulated miRNA ARDS, and its putative targets play roles in lung injury. Our studies focus on the target VAV3, a GEF for Rho GTPases. VAV3 signalling cascades play roles in cytoskeletal organization of endothelial cells, which is shown to be involved in cell adhesion, migration, and maintaining barrier integrity. We hypothesize that miR-27a is overexpressed in models of ARDS while VAV3 is suppressed; regulating VAV3 via miR-27a would impact inflammatory phenotypes such as barrier integrity; and inhibiting miR-27a would attenuate inflammatory phenotypes. We aim to verify the regulation of VAV3 by miR-27a, show phenotype changes in vitro through miR-27a modulation, and replicate the findings in vivo. We find that inflammatory stimuli stimulate miR-27a expression to suppress VAV3. Loss of VAV3 disrupts endothelial barrier integrity, leading to increased adhesion and transendothelial migration of leukocytes, thus promoting inflammation. Inhibiting miR-27a would partially attenuate the inflammatory response.
The Structural Analysis of Soluble Muscle Glycogen and Insoluble Polyglucosan
Keywords: Adult polyglucosan body disease
Biochemistry
Glycogen storage
Lafora disease
Metabolism
Neurodegenerative disorder

The improper function of either glycogen synthase (GS) or glycogen branching enzyme (GBE) is directly correlated to the several glycogen storage disorders such as Lafora disease (LD, OMIM #254780) and Adult polyglucosan body disorder (APBD, OMIM #263570). A prominent feature of LD and ABPD is the presence of insoluble polyglucosan bodies that accumulate in various tissues including the skin, skeletal muscle and brain. Recent studies have demonstrated an increased average chain length in a small proportion of cellular glycogen. This is suggested to be directly correlated to the elevated glycogen accumulation in the form of polyglucosan bodies (PBs). Using mouse models of LD and APBD, we perform a structural characterization of the soluble and insoluble fractions of muscle glycogen. Knockout mice demonstrate a significant elevation of total glycogen, solely due to an accumulation of insoluble glycogen, a population which exhibits clear visual and quantitative differences in comparison to wildtype glycogen.
Characterization of Internal Oxidation in Alloy 690
Keywords: Alloy 690
grain boundary migration
hydrogenated steam
internal oxidation
TEM
ToF-SIMS

The oxidation behavior of Alloy 690 was investigated after exposure in hydrogenated steam at 480 °C. The alloy underwent internal oxidation intragranularly, resulting in the expulsion of Ni to the surface. Protective external Cr-rich oxides formed around the grain boundaries and hindered oxygen penetration and intergranular oxidation. A compact Cr-rich healing layer was able to develop over time at the internal oxidation front initiating at the grain boundary surface oxide, thus effectively stopping internal oxidation from penetrating further into the bulk alloy. Additional exposures performed on Alloy 690TT, Ni-30Cr-10Fe and Ni-35Cr-10Fe model alloys found that increased outward Cr flux due to intergranular carbides and increased Cr concentration greatly reduce the depth of internal oxidation. Short circuit diffusion along grain boundaries and diffusion induced grain boundary migration are found to significantly increase the diffusion of the reactive components and promote the formation of the protective oxide layer.
A role for the p38 MAPK in animal cell size regulation
Keywords: cell
cell size
mTOR
p38
Torin2

Cell size within animal tissues is highly uniform. Previous data has shown that the p38 pathway plays a role in this regulation. The mTOR inhibitor Torin2 reversibly decreases cell size, and upregulates p38 activity. After removal of Torin2 (recovery phase), p38 activity continues to be upregulated. Chemical inhibition of the p38 pathway, but not ERK and JNK pathways, delays the ability of cells to recover their original size. The inability of cells with inhibited p38 to recover in size is not due to continued mTOR inhibition during recovery. Genetic knockdown of p38 itself does not, whereas knockdown of its upstream effector MKK3 but not MKK6 does. In addition, our lab has generated doxycycline inducible cell lines that can express inactive forms of MKK3 and MKK6. Overexpression of inactive MKK3 in conjunction with simultaneous knockdown of endogenous MKK3, but not MKK6, may prevent cell size recovery.
The Commodification of English as Development: An Examination of English Language Teaching Voluntourism Programs
Keywords: ELT Voluntourism
English and Development
International Development
International English Teaching
Voluntourism

With over 100 countries employing English as an official or second language (Selvi Yazan, 2013), English is becoming increasingly popular around the globe. One way this spread of English has manifested is in the rise of the English language teaching voluntourism industry, where individuals from primarily Anglophone countries travel to teach English in the Global South. These trips promote volunteer English teaching as a way to contribute to local economic development. Additionally, qualifications to participate are minimal and often require only native English fluency (Jakubiak, 2016). This work explores the phenomenon of volunteer English teaching through examining discursive strategies used by organizations to construct the presence of English as linked to development outcomes. Additionally, it examines how volunteers are situated to contribute to development, and what sort of implications the framing of volunteers, English, and development have for relationships between volunteers and Global South community members.
Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process Approach for Multicriteria Decision-Making with an Application to developing an ‘Urban Greenness Index’
Keywords: Analytical Hierarchy Process
Fuzzy-AHP
Fuzzy Logic
Greenness
Spatial Analysis
Urban Greenness

Urban greenness is a multifaceted concept that describes greenness in a built environment. Current approaches studying health outcomes quantify greenness one-dimensionally, leading to the necessity of developing an index that accurately reflects greenness aspects in an urban setting. This thesis integrates Analytical Hierarchy Process with fuzzy logic (fuzzy-AHP) to develop an index based on opinions about urban greenness and on objective attribute data. Index attribute weights are obtained by triangular, trapezoidal and Gaussian membership functions; geometric mean method and fuzzy extent analysis are applied to obtain fuzzy weights. Defuzzification is performed by modal value dominancy and alpha-cuts. A numerical application is shown and resulting indices are compared. The developed ‘Urban Greenness Index’ represents a more accurate reflection of the true exposure by incorporating multiple aspects of the urban environment. After obtaining experts input on index attributes, this index can be used to explore associations to different health outcomes.
A changing natural history of primary biliary cholangitis and its impact on risk stratification
Keywords: autoimmune liver disease
bilirubin
cholestatic liver disease
epidemiology
hepatology

We sought to describe temporal trends in the presenting characteristics and clinical course of primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) from the 1970s to 2014 in a large international cohort of patients. There was a 10-year increase in age at diagnosis and the proportion of patients presenting with a mild biochemical and histological disease stage increased. Furthermore, recent decades had improved decompensation and transplant-free survival rates. Since most patients presented with normal bilirubin, we aimed to evaluate whether normal bilirubin is associated with transplant-free survival. In patients with normal bilirubin at 1 year, the threshold with the highest ability to predict liver transplantation or death was 0.6×ULN. Patients with normal bilirubin, yet above this threshold, had a 2.1-fold increase in risk. In conclusion, the natural history of PBC has changed over time and bilirubin levels ≤0.6×ULN are associated with the lowest risk for liver transplantation or death in patients with PBC.
Data-driven sonification of CFD aneurysm models
Keywords: computational fluid dynamics
hemodynamics
signal processing
sonification

A novel method is presented for inspecting and characterizing turbulent-like hemodynamic structures in intracranial cerebral aneurysms by sonification of data generated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The intention of the current research is to intuitively communicate flow complexity by augmenting conventional flow visualizations with data-driven sound, thereby increasing the ease of interpretation of dense spatiotemporal data through multimodal presentation. The described implementation allows the user to interactively listen to flow fluctuations thought to indicate turbulent-like blood flow patterns that are often visually difficult to discriminate in conventional flow visualizations. The sonification is generated through spectral analysis and resynthesis of high-frequency velocity fluctuations. For simulated flows of five intracranial aneurysms spanning a range of turbulent-like flow qualities, sonifications are presented and compared with existing quantities of flow complexity, demonstrating promising preliminary results.
Specific needs in literacy & language learning of refugee children: A comparison of German and Canadian Syrian refugee families
Keywords: acculturation
Canada
refugee
resettle
syrian
Toronto

Literacy and language development and wellbeing of Syrian refugee students are influenced by many factors including educational and refugee protection policies and socio-economic influences within schools and communities. The present study examined these factors contributing to the successes and challenges in language and literacy development, both in English, the second language (L2) and Arabic, the first language (L1), of Syrian refugee children as they settle in Canada. We employed a mixed measures design, five families participated in qualitative interviews, and nine children (5 girls; M age = 134.67 months) also completed a short battery of quantitative language and literacy measures. The interviews uncovered the importance of L1 maintenance and L2 acquisition, and support systems; and results from the quantitative measures suggested that the sample was significantly behind in language and literacy development. When compared to the German sample, both samples showed L2 difficulties.
The rewarding value of gentle touch in mice
Keywords: Affective Touch
C-Tactile
Gentle Touch

There exists strong evidence that both human and non-human primates have a specialized “affective touch” system for transmitting socio-emotionally relevant touch. There is increasing evidence that rodents possess an analogous system, but the neural mechanisms remain largely unknown. One challenge for studying affective touch in rodents is the lack of a reliable and valid behavioural assay. The current project describes a novel tactile conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm, the results from which suggest that gentle touch is rewarding for young male C57Bl/6 mice. In order to address whether tactile reward is driven by or otherwise related to innate sociality, the classic three-chambered test of social approach was used, but no significant association was found. Lastly, the brain regions associated in human affective touch (i.e. the insular and somatosensory cortices) and in reward processing (i.e. the nucleus accumbens) were analyzed using immunohistochemistry probing for c-Fos expression in response to gentle touch and tactile CPP, but no significant insights can be reported.
Anticolonial Biocultures: A Framework for Community Education, Biopower and Resilience
Keywords: biopower
Canada
colonialism
environment
Latin America
science

In this thesis, I describe colonial biopower in sciences, education, and society, and the ways in which Individual/Community biopower is maintained and reclaimed. I connect our biocultural relationships within settler colonialism and Indigenous Land movements of Turtle Island and Abya Yala. It is shown that biocultural sciences and biocultural knowledges in schooling and Community are vital to the reclamation of biopower. I connect five key concepts between Indigenous/ancestral/cultural/place-based biocultures and anticolonial thought to share a pedagogical framework which centers Humxn subjectivity, diversity, Community, co-learning/co-creating, and continual change. The anticolonial biocultures framework is meant to support mobilizing of biopower in Community learning, innovation, and change; strengthening biocultural relationships and Indigenous/ancestral/cultural/place-based biocultural knowledges; and the co-creation of resilient, sustainable Communities with(in) Nature. Esta tesis describe el biopoder colonial en las ciencias, la educación y la sociedad, y las formas en que se mantiene y recupera el biopoder Individual / Comunitario. Se muestra que las ciencias bioculturales y los conocimientos bioculturales en la educación y la Comunidad son vitales para la recuperación del biopoder. Vinculo cinco conceptos clave entre bioculturas Indígenas / ancestrales / culturales / basadas en el lugar y el pensamiento anticolonial para compartir un marco pedagógico que centra la subjetividad del ser Humxno/a/x, la diversidad, la Comunidad, el co’aprendizaje, la co-creación, y el cambio continuo de la Naturaleza. El marco de bioculturas anticoloniales apoya la movilización del biopoder en el aprendizaje comunitario, la innovación y el cambio; fortalece las relaciones bioculturales y los conocimientos bioculturales Indígenas / ancestrales / culturales / basados en el lugar; y la co-creación de Comunidades resilientes y sostenibles con (en) la Naturaleza.
From Intervention to Evaluation: Assessing the Effectiveness, Acceptability and Feasibility of a Physical Activity Intervention for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness
Keywords: mental health
mental illness
physical activity
quality of life

Individuals with serious mental illness experience physical health comorbidities and report a lower quality of life. Physical activity may be one way to target both the mental and physical health of this population. This study examined the feasibility and acceptability of a PA intervention with a local mental health housing organization. Program effectiveness was measured through changes in mental health, quality of life, and physical activity from pre- to post intervention. Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance and effect sizes were used to compare changes between intervention (N=5) and control (N=5) groups, while deductive thematic analysis was used to analyze interview responses. There were no significant group effects on the outcomes; there was a significant effect of time on total mental health scores, as well as anxiety and depression subscales. Participants, trainers and a key organizational stakeholder viewed the program as acceptable and feasible, and provided suggestions to improve future programs.
Confronting Hostile and Benevolent Sexism
Keywords: confronting prejudice
prejudice intervention
sexism
stereotyping

Although previous research has investigated how women are perceived when they confront sexism, few studies have compared confrontations of hostile and benevolent sexism. This research examines how perceptions of confronters differ depending on whether sexism is hostile (Study 1) or benevolent (Study 1 and 2) and whether the confronter is male or female. In Study 1, targets who confronted were liked and approved of, but only by female participants. Female targets were also seen as bigger complainers when responding to benevolent sexism, suggesting that challenging benevolent sexism may be costly for women due to the subtlety of benevolent prejudice. In Study 2, targets who confronted were viewed as less likeable, less appropriate, and greater complainers compared to targets who did not confront. These results inform how people may be perceived by others when confronting sexism and establishes that perceptions of confronters differ depending on whether sexism is hostile or benevolent.
The Application and Extension of a Generic Hospital Simulation Model to Predicting Patient Flow in a Hospital
Keywords: Capacity
Forecast
Hospital
Occupancy
Prediction
Simulation

Historically, fiscal year budgets determine the capacity requirements for hospitals with reactionary measures called surge protocols implemented when the planning falls short of demand. At present there is no methodology with which the short-term capacity is evaluated beyond the use of surge protocols. This thesis proposes to address this issue through the application of a generic hospital simulation model to create an operational tool for the University Health Network to predict bed demand for the coming week. The predictive model is initialized from the actual bed occupancy and the planned elective surgical slate. Arriving patients are randomly generated from historical data to simulate future bed occupancy over the forecasting window. Given a forecast of the hospital state, the hospital can avoid the use of costly surge protocols by proactively discovering and planning for events such as increased demand in the near future.
Investigating Chronotherapeutic Interventions for the Treatment of Depression
Keywords: Chronotherapy
Circadian
Depression
Insomnia
Sleep
Telehealth

Major depressive disorder is one of the most frequently diagnosed psychiatric disorders, and has widespread negative impacts on both the individual and on society. Current standard treatment options for depression have significant limitations, including side effects, contraindications, and barriers to accessing care. Chronotherapies, which make use of sleep and circadian rhythms, provide a promising alternative treatment route for depression. Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), bright light therapy (BLT), and combined chronotherapies used to treat depression were systematically reviewed. Both CBT-I and BLT have evidence to support their efficacy in treating depression; combined therapy including sleep deprivation, BLT and/or sleep phase advance may also be effective. We propose a novel combined chronotherapeutic treatment, consisting of telehealth CBT-I and BLT, which we believe would be efficacious, accessible, and which would help to relieve the considerable burden of depression in Canada.
Deconstructing Whiteness: An Analysis of Dominant Perceptions of Chinese University Students
Keywords: Chinese Canadians
Discourses
White Hegemony
Whiteness

Through analysis of results from four in-depth interviews and two online forums, this thesis examines the current views White Canadian university students hold about Chinese students at the University of British Columbia. Drawing on critical Whiteness studies and Foucauldian critical discourse analysis, this study aims to examine the complex ways White hegemony is perpetuated on university campuses. The results reveal that historical constructions of Chinese Canadians as foreign and threatening were perpetuated at the university. Additionally, the results show that although the interviewed students recognized the existence of racism on campus, they minimized its effects and denied the level of privilege they held. The thesis concludes by exploring the larger policy and educational implications of these views, as well as the possible consequences for Chinese students.
Confidence in Crisis: An Investigation of Education
Keywords: 21st Century Competencies
anxiety
confidence
crisis
metacognition
optimism

In 2016, Ontario’s Ministry of Education unveiled their ‘new’ vision for the purpose of education with the 21st Century Competencies document: to equip students with ‘competencies’ “to solve messy, complex problems” of a “competitive, globally connected, and technologically intensive world” (Ministry of Education, 2016, p. 3). In an effort to unpack the influences of this vision, I track how the standardization movement reshapes the influence of public emotion on the goals and purposes of education in United States and Canada. From this history, I consider why the public remains optimistic about an anxious education system when presented with evidence of its failure, and it further considers the price of this optimism. I conclude with a reflection on the potential of metacognition to not only alleviate anxious relations in education but also encourage truly “critical,” “creative,” and “collaborative” education practices encouraged in the document. (Ministry of Education, 2016, p. 3).
Effects of Bark Derived Nanocellulose on Gas Separation Membranes
Keywords: cellulose acetate
cellulose nanofiber
gas separation membranes
lignin
polyetherimide

Few works have been done around the application of cellulose nanofibers (CNF) for membrane gas separation processes. There are no reports in the literature for using bark-derived CNF for their gas separation potential. In this study, cellulose acetate (CA) and polyetherimide (PEI) asymmetric membranes were prepared incorporating bark-derived CNF with different levels of lignin. Composites were thermally and structurally characterized. Single gas permeation of CO2 and N2 was studied to determine the gas separation performance of the membranes. The thermal stability of the CA/CNF composites increased 15 °C, whereas the degradation temperature of the PEI/CNF composites was not significantly affected. Adding CNF to the membranes resulted in an increase of the porosity. The nanocomposites showed a trade-off between gas permeance and the selectivity. However, the bleached PEI/CNF and CA/CNF composites showed a 10-fold and 2-fold increase, respectively, in CO2 permeance without compromising the ideal CO2/N2 selectivity.