VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Client-centric Orchestration and Management of Distributed Applications in Multi-tier Clouds
Keywords: Client-centric orchestration
Cloud computing
Network function virtualization
Software-defined infrastructure
Software-defined networking
Telemetry

The increasing ubiquity of IoT and “smart” devices in our everyday surroundings presents enormous opportunities to bring novel applications and services close to end-users. As these devices continue to become more powerful, we foresee scenarios where they serve as extensions of the traditional cloud, enabling time-sensitive operations to be directly performed on premises. For composite applications and services based on the microservice and NFV architectures, whose overall performance is highly dependent on the placement of their constituent microservices relative to one another, the mobility of such devices may adversely impact the application’s operational efficiency. These composite applications therefore require an orchestration system to actively manage and reconfigure the microservices so that they continue to meet operational goals and the needs of end-users. Such orchestrators must address the challenges that come with the expected scale, variety, and mobility of resources spread out over multiple tiers and geographical regions.This thesis presents our concept of client-centric orchestration, in which compute and network resources are jointly managed to ensure that clients are able to receive their service(s) at some pre-determined quality level. To this end, we present the design and implementation of a series of management plane components that can be leveraged by a client-centric orchestrator. We first develop a multi-layer telemetry system that is capable of monitoring the metrics of both applications and the underlying infrastructure. An implementation of a client-centric orchestrator is then presented that can dynamically scale and place service replicas to optimize the clients’ perceived network quality. To further augment the orchestrator, we develop SDN-based network control capabilities that it can use to install custom network flows directly into the underlying network and enforce QoS. Lastly, we consider the case where devices are cut off from central management components, and introduce a P2P-based solution that empowers the clients (whether they be end-users or microservices in a composite application) to independently discover nearby service replicas or request allocation of new replicas. Since this work contributes towards the extension of the SAVI multi-tier cloud, we will also share our operational insights, experiences, and lessons learned.
Multivariate Prediction of Pain Relief Following Surgical Interventions for Trigeminal Neuralgia: Intersections Between Brain Imaging and Machine Learning
Keywords: Chronic pain
Machine learning
Magnetic resonance imaging
Pain imaging
Treatment response
Trigeminal neuralgia

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a chronic neuropathic facial pain disorder characterized by severe lancinating pain. While surgical treatments exist for TN, 20-30% of patients achieve minimal pain relief and require multiple, repeat interventions. Structural neuroimaging of TN has revealed widespread white and gray matter abnormalities in central nervous system and peripheral nervous system areas implicated in sensory and emotional processing of facial pain. While group-level associations have been shown between these abnormalities and TN surgical treatment response, whether these abnormalities are effective predictors of surgical treatment response remain unclear. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to combine structural neuroimaging and machine learning (ML) techniques to identify and understand individual-level predictors of TN surgical treatment response. The main aims are: 1) to investigate the role of pre-treatment trigeminal nerve microstructural diffusivity patterns as predictors of long-term response to surgical treatment for TN; 2) to characterize temporal patterns of trigeminal nerve microstructural diffusivities following surgical treatment for TN with respect to treatment response; 3) to investigate the role of pre-treatment regional brain gray matter morphology as predictors of long-term response to surgical treatment for TN; and 4) to investigate the potential of a ML-derived biomarker (brain age gap estimate; brain-AGE) as a pre-treatment predictor of long-term response to surgical treatment for TN. Study 1 demonstrated that pre-treatment diffusivity patterns within peripheral and brainstem portions of trigeminal nerves can predict long-term response to TN surgery. Study 2 revealed that post-treatment patterns of microstructural diffusivities within trigeminal nerves of TN patients are associated with response to TN surgery and that treatment response is associated with temporally delayed fractional anisotropy reduction within the treatment target. Study 3 identified pre-treatment regional brain gray matter morphology (surface area and cortical thickness) as effective predictors of long-term response to TN surgery. Study 4 demonstrated that brain-AGE was elevated in TN patients and can differentiate long-term responders from non-responders to TN surgery. In sum, this thesis identified novel collections of effective TN surgical treatment response predictors and provided several candidate ML models which may serve as sensible starting points toward personalized surgical treatment response prognostication paradigms in TN.
The Contested Academy: African Canadian Women’s Experiences as Tenured, Tenure Stream and Non-tenured Faculty
Keywords: Black
Black Feminism
Faculty
Higher Education
Tenure
Women

This thesis explores the experiences of Black women who are in tenured, tenure-stream, and non-tenured faculty positions and presents how Black women negotiate their intersectional identities in the academy. The study documents their self-identifications and struggles with the academy in terms of power relations in their respective universities, including racial and sexual discrimination. In addition, the study explores the career paths of Black women faculty from contract faculty to full professor. Methodologically, the study uses Black Feminist theorizing along with autoethnography in order to explore the nature of the experiences of Black Canadian women faculty within the academy. I interviewed 13 self-identified Black women across Canadian universities, including myself as the fourteenth key informant. This study reveals a complex and rich text of how Black women see themselves in the university, their experiences with multiple and overlapping oppressions and how this affects their careers, and finally, their contributions to the academy and their visions of success.
One-Dimensional MEMS Optical Phased Array Systems Based on Surface Micro-Machined Silicon Mirrors for Scanning LiDAR Applications
Keywords: Autonomous Vehicles
LiDAR Scanner
Micro Electromechanical Systems
Optical Phased Array
Silicon Micromirror
Surface Micromachining

Optical phased array (OPA) systems are an emerging technology for lightweight and miniature LiDAR scanners due to their compact size and construction that eliminate the need for robust physical moving parts, leading to a fast response, high reliability, and low power requirements. MEMS based OPA systems generally demand narrow and tightly spaced suspended microstructures with high-aspect-ratios in the lateral dimensions, rendering some significant challenges in the system design, fabrication, and integration. This thesis presents the first MEMS based OPA system that is fabricated using a conventional surface micromachining process, leading to a simplified design for the OPA technology. The one-dimensional OPA device utilizes an array of piston-type micromirrors which act as optical phase shifters. Each metal coated polysilicon micromirror is suspended by a pair of serpentine springs and is individually actuated at low voltage by a separate electrostatic parallel plate actuator. The field of view obtained by the prototype is measured as 4.76°. The low-mass micromirrors have a response time of 6.5 µs and an out of plane actuation stroke of 0.16 µm at a dc bias voltage of 55 V which is equal to one-quarter of the laser wavelength (650 nm) used, translating into the desired optical phase shift of π radian. LiDAR scanners are usually required to generate hundreds to thousands of scan points along a far-field scan line which leads to a large number of active phase shifters in the arrays and high complexity in control. A novel one-dimensional OPA system based on a limited number of pitch tunable silicon micromirrors is presented for laser steering with high angular resolution. The in-plane pitch tuning of all the physically connected micromirrors is realized by a pair of lateral electrostatic comb-drive actuators which require only one conductive layer. The longitudinal motion of the actuators is linearly guided by a group of mirror-positioned flexures. During the fabrication steps, an optical path difference is realized by slightly elevating every other suspended micromirror along the array in order to form the required phase shift pattern. A pitch tuning of the prototype at 30 V results in an optical steering range of 0.04° with an angular resolution of 0.002°.
Measurement of Higgs couplings to top quarks and τ leptons with the ATLAS detector
Keywords: ATLAS detector
Higgs boson
tau lepton

Since the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 during the first run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, extensive measurements have been performed to characterize its properties. Its mass, spin, parity and couplings have been studied in detail with no significant deviations from the SM predictions observed. The second run of the LHC saw incredible progress with the addition of new measurements. This thesis highlights the measurements of Higgs couplings to third generation fermions, first with the observation of the ttH process and then through improved pp → H → ττ cross section measurements. The search for the ttH process is discussed in the context of the ttH → multilepton analysis, with an emphasis on final states with τhad-vis. A ttH cross section measurement, obtained in combination with results from tt(H → γγ), tt(H → ZZ* → 4ℓ) and tt(H → bb), is also presented. All results are found to be compatible with the Standard Model predictions. The study of Higgs decays involving τ leptons is expanded upon with the measurement of the pp → H → ττ cross section using the full Run 2 dataset, and a new method to estimate the largest background to this measurement is introduced. The improvement in the precision of pp → H → ττ measurements coupled with an increased sensitivity to broader regions of phase space allows for a deeper scrutiny of the Standard Model predictions, with the theory still providing an accurate description of the experimental results.
Proportionate Sentencing within the Criminal Records Act
Keywords: Criminal Law
Criminal Records
Proportionality
Sentencing Law

This paper analyzes the negative impact that Canada’s criminal records regime has on sentencing judges’ ability to proportionately sentence. The advent of the criminal record check as a risk-management tool in the private sector has increased the burden of the modern criminal record. Although the current legislative push for making record suspensions more accessible is welcome, it is best analogized as a push to reduce the mandatory minimum sentences that currently apply to criminal records. The regime continues to fall short of affording sentencing judges the flexibility to craft sentences that impose punishment that is proportionate to the circumstances of an offence and the characteristics of the offender. In response to this shortcoming, this paper proposes a modified record suspension regime that provides for judicial discretion in the longevity of Canadian criminal records.
Microbial role in dolomite formation in hypersaline sabkha and Miocene mud volcano outcrop in Kuwait
Keywords: biomarkers
carbonates
dolomite
halophiles
Miocene mud volcano
sabkha

The origin of dolomite has remained the subject of an ongoing debate for over a century and is known as “the dolomite problem”. The essence of this problem is the inability to explain the disparity of dolomite abundance in sedimentary carbonate records and in modern depositional environments. Previously conducted laboratory experiments have demonstrated the ability of microbes to mediate dolomite formation; yet microbial involvement in large scale worldwide dolomitization is poorly understood. This dissertation attempts to expand the knowledge on the microbial role in dolomite formation by investigating modern and paleo environments in Kuwait where dolomite exists. Microbes live in interactive communities where ecological interactions can possess properties of positive cooperation or negative antagonism, thereby affecting microbial composition. In Chapter 2, proto-dolomite was formed by microbial consortia dominated by Halomonas strains alongside a considerable increase in pH which is required for increasing the dolomite saturation index. Although microbes are important to overcome the dolomite kinetic barrier, Chapter 3 showed that aerobic halophilic heterotrophic microbial consortia enriched from Al-Subiya sabkha in Kuwait were unable to replace calcium carbonate by magnesium carbonate to form any of dolomite’s metastable phases. This inability suggests that dolomitization is a lengthy process at Earth’s surface temperature and the factors controlling microbial ability to precipitate dolomite from saturated solutions are dissimilar to microbial ability to dolomitize precursor calcium carbonate. In Chapter 4, crustacean burrows in Early-Middle Miocene coastal mud volcano outcrop provided channels for the mixing of the seeped methane and the downward seawater flux. The anoxic channels provided the preferential conditions for dolomite formation carried by consortia of methanotrophic archaea and sulphate reducing bacteria. In Chapter 5, organic microanalysis of microbial signatures in the mud volcano showed the immediate proximity of methanotrophic archaea and sulphate reducing bacteria to dolomite in contrast to calcite. This observation is in agreement with microbes as a nucleation site for dolomite to overcome the dolomite kinetic barrier as opposed to calcite formation.
Evaluating and Predicting the Performance of Granular Activated Carbon Filter-adsorbers: Adsorption and Biodegradation Processes
Keywords: Adsorption
Biodegradation
Drinking water treatment
Granular activated carbon

Drinking water treatment plants use granular activated carbon (GAC) to adsorb micropollutants, but the GAC has a limited adsorption capacity and needs to be replaced before it is exhausted. A minicolumn test technique was developed by Gillogly et al. (1999) to monitor the saturation of GAC beds, which enables the determination of GAC replacement schedules. However, this tool has not been fully validated. The first part of this research was to validate and refine the minicolumn test protocol by exploring fundamental questions related to operating GAC in an adsorption mode. These questions include evaluating the effect of water temperature on the adsorption of 2-methylisoborneol (MIB) and geosmin in GAC contactors, and understanding the effect of the mass transfer zone (MTZ) on the accuracy of the minicolumn test protocol. Temperature was found to be an important factor that should be considered for the minicolumn test. Full-scale GAC contactors were observed to have a broad MTZ for micropollutants, which verifies the minicolumn test protocol. When GAC is in operation, some biofiltration may be occurring, where biodegradation becomes an alternative removal mechanism. Operating GAC in a biological mode can extend GAC lifetime. However, GAC biofiltration remains poorly understood. Thus, the second part of this research was to evaluate the biodegradation potential of GAC. This research developed an approach that can differentiate between adsorption and biodegradation in GAC. The approach revealed that substantial MIB and geosmin biofiltration was occurring at one water treatment plant, and that GAC in some cases had significant adsorption capacity even after 9 years of operation. The final part of this research was to evaluate the removal of perfluorooctanic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) in GAC filter-adsorbers. It was observed that GAC could achieve approximately 20% to 55% of PFOA and PFOS removal even after a long period of operation (e.g., 6 years). This provides operational information for utilities that have installed GAC filter-adsorbers for taste and odour control but may wish to consider poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) removal as an additional treatment objective.
Community Conceptualizations of Women’s Everyday Mental Distress: The Importance of Social Contexts, Power and Agency in Shaping Women’s Distress Experiences in Eldoret, Kenya
Keywords: Common Mental Distress
Context
Global mental health
Stress
Women and mental health

Common Mental Disorders are the leading neuropsychiatric causes of disease burden in low and middle-income country (LMIC) settings. Women also demonstrate a higher burden of everyday distress globally, representing an extraordinary challenge for women in LMICs (WHO, 2017). Dominant assessment/treatment responses have been critiqued for lacking local cultural information about social contexts, experiences, and determinants of distress. This study responds to these concerns in Eldoret, Western Kenya, a context with strong mental health policy and primary care services, but limited resources and community-level data on women’s mental health. In partnership with Moi University and the AMPATH Consortium, I investigated the perspectives and experiences of women, the primary social determinants, and the community-level needs and assets around Eldoret women’s distress. This was an exploratory qualitative research study in which I drew on methodological frameworks for Community Health Needs Assessment and ethnography. I employed a critical cross-cultural theoretical stance informed by social ecological theory, cultural psychiatry, and Black and African feminisms. Over two years living in Eldoret, I generated primary data via community observation, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and asset mapping, alongside the collection of relevant pre-existing secondary data. I found that “stressed up”, a severe form of everyday common mental distress, was the foremost mental health problem for Eldoret women. Key social determinants included: insufficient resources; primary partner relationships; household gender role stress; cultural norms; and gender-based violence. Women’s greatest mental health assets were their own coping skills (including ‘being brilliant’, hustling and persevering), female support networks, chamas (women’s groups), and religious institutions. Key needs included increased opportunities for pragmatic/economic support, and a centralized community women’s centre in town. This study contributes to the literature on socio-cultural models for understanding the burden of women’s distress, and offers a methodology for cross-cultural community mental health assessment. My findings suggest that severe stress is common and highly normalized, many women may therefore not seek help from primary care. Innovative social interventions are needed that build on community assets, champion women’s strengths, and offer pragmatic economic, relationship and violence-prevention supports that could address the core social determinants of Eldoret women’s distress.
Tracing the Cellular Origins of Brain Cancers using Single-cell Transcriptomics
Keywords: Brain Cancer
Cancer Genomics
Single-Cell Transcriptomics

Brain cancers are one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths among children and adults. The cellular and molecular heterogeneity of brain cancers at the time of diagnosis renders the identification of the cell-of-origin very challenging. Recent technological advancements have paved the way for the development of high throughput single-cell transcriptomics, which can be exploited to resolve the cellular identities of these cancers, trace developmental origins, and identify transcriptomic differences between the tumor and its cell of origin. Here, I analyze single-cell transcriptomic data from the developing mouse brain with collaborators to identify novel cell populations and re-construct developmental lineages from the embryonic stage to adulthood. First, through a novel approach combining single-cell transcriptomics and gene expression deconvolution methods, I establish a pipeline to map bulk and single-cell human brain tumor transcriptomes from hundreds of patients to normal developmental lineages of the mouse brain. I then show that the different molecular subgroups of childhood cerebellar tumours mirror the transcription of cells from distinct, temporally restricted cerebellar lineages. I next analyze single-cell transcriptomes of human childhood cerebellar tumours and show that many bulk tumours contain a mixed population of cells with divergent differentiation. Together, this work highlights cerebellar tumours as a disorder of early brain development and provides a proximate explanation for the peak incidence of cerebellar tumours in early childhood. Lastly, I extend this method to adult cerebral tumors and show that glioblastoma multiforme contains cells with a transcriptional signature that highly resemble embryonic and juvenile radial glial cells. Together, my research identifies candidate cells of origin for childhood and adult brain cancers through a novel approach, provides novel insights into tumour biology and heterogeneity, and will promote the development of novel targeted therapies based on differences between the tumor and its cell of origin.