VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Engineered Biofiltration for the Removal of Disinfection By-product Precursors, Genotoxicity and Emerging Contaminants
Keywords: Biological Filtration
Disinfection By-Products
Drinking Water
Engineered Biofiltration
Genotoxicity
Halogenated Furanones

Biofilters have been operated in a passive manner without operator control, but the focus has shifted to the potential for enhancement. This pilot study compared conventional treatment (coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, non-biological filtration) to passive and engineered direct biofilters for the removal of disinfection by-product precursors, and genotoxic precursors for two different source waters (Lake Ontario and Otonabee River). Additionally, 9 pharmaceuticals and 2 artificial sweeteners were spiked into the pilot to observe the reduction of these emerging contaminants through the biofilters. Conventional treatment provided superior performance compared to biofiltration for the removal of DBP precursors, but performed equally well with respect to genotoxicity reduction in Otonabee River samples. Lake Ontario water was best treated by filters receiving 0.8 mg/L PACl. Engineered biofilters, enhanced with nutrients or hydrogen peroxide, were typically no better than a passively operated biofilter. The removal of pharmaceuticals and sweeteners was improved with a combination of biological and chemical treatments.
Upgrading a Commercial Vehicle Model Using a Roadside Truck Survey: Application for the City of Edmonton
Keywords: Calibration
Commercial Vehicle Model
Edmonton
Freight Demand Modelling
Freight Modelling
Transportation

The movement of goods and services are central to the economy of the City of Edmonton. The City understood the importance of incorporating commercial vehicle movements as part of their overall planning process and developed a commercial vehicle model in 2006. Since the development of the original model, no further analysis has been conducted to ensure that the model is estimating commercial vehicle movements accurately. Preferably, an updated establishment-based survey would be collected and a complete re-estimation of the tour-based microsimulation model would be performed. However, this research aims to provide a cost effective approach to upgrade the City of Edmonton's commercial vehicle model to reflect current conditions using the truck counts collected in a roadside truck survey. This research has provided the City with an effective iterative adjustment procedure which has resulted in a model which outperforms the original model and is re-calibrated to the new road count data.
Implementation and Evaluation of an SDN Management System on the SAVI Testbed
Keywords: Cloud Computing
Management
Networking
Software-Defined Infrastructure
Software-Defined Networking
Virtualization

Distributed computing applications often require a variety of infrastructure components, such as storage, computing power, and network access, in order to be deployed. In recent years, the IaaS model of cloud computing has significantly reduced the cost of storage and computing power, thus lowering barriers for developers who wish to deploy such applications. However, allowing administrators and users to exercise fine-grained control over the network fabric itself has been an elusive feature. The Smart Applications on Virtualized Infrastructure (SAVI) testbed is an IaaS cloud aimed at empowering researchers to deploy novel applications and experiments. One of the key traits of the testbed is its attempt to virtualize the entire infrastructure, including non-conventional resources such as FPGAs and wireless access points, while enabling researchers the ability to carry out fine-grained traffic control. This thesis documents the implementation and evaluation of an SDN management system for the SAVI testbed, using a novel infrastructure management concept known as software-defined infrastructure.
Development of Artificial Neural Networks for the Optimization of Drinking Water Treatment
Keywords: artificial neural networks
coagulation
filtration
optimization
Water Treatment

Effective filtration is essential to maintaining surface water treatment objectives. To maximize water quality in terms of effluent turbidity and filter run time, the Elgin Area WTP has adopted artificial neural networks (ANN) to predict settled water and filter effluent turbidity as well as optimum alum and carbon dioxide dosages. Settled water turbidity dosage-response surfaces were produced by applying a matrix of assumed alum and carbon dioxide dosages and comparing the results to historical averages. Trained ANNs were used to predict filter effluent turbidity for a variety of flow rates and compared to removal efficiency equations. ANN responses based on assumed values proved to be successful diagnostic tests for the ANN and ease the choice of operating conditions for optimal performance. Point-wise confidence intervals based on error and squared error values were produced using ANN. These ANN based confidence intervals performed well compared to statistic-based confidence intervals.
Alterations of Bone Mineral Density, Microarchitecture and Strength in Patients with Ankylosing spondylitis: a Cross-sectional Study using High-resolution Peripheral Quantitative Computerized Tomography
Keywords: Ankylosing Spondylitis
Bone microarchitecture
Bone mineral density
HRpQCT

Patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) have high fracture risk. BMD, bone microarchitecture and strength determine bone strength. However, the effect of AS on bone microarchitecture and strength is not studied yet. This study aimed to analyze how AS affects bone microarchitecture and strength. Volumetric BMD (vBMD) and microarchitecture were measured using HRpQCT, and bone strength was estimated using finite element analysis. Multivariable linear regression was used to analyze the effect of AS on HRpQCT and FEA parameters. There were 44 AS patients and 85 non-AS subjects. In multivariable linear regression models, AS patients had lower volumetric BMD, cortical thickness, BV/TV and higher cortical porosity and trabecular separation when compared to non-AS controls. FEA parameters such as bone stiffness and stress were also abnormal in AS patients. To conclude, it was found that volumetric BMD, trabecular and cortical microarchitecture as well as FEA parameters were worse in AS patients than non-AS subjects. These abnormalities might partly explain the high fracture risk in patients with AS.
Soybean N2-fixation Rates and Yield in Tree-based Intercropping Systems: Effects of Water Limitations and Environmental Modifications
Keywords: legume
N2 fixatoin
Ontario
soybean
water deficit
water stress

In Ontario, where 80% of Canada's soybean crop is grown, a lack of reliable soil moisture during the growing season is an anticipated outcome of climate change. Di-nitrogen (N2) fixation rates in soybean are well known to be highly sensitive to water deficits. The objective of this study was to examine i) the effect of a full season water deficit on soybean N2-fixation rates and yield in the field, and ii) whether tree- based intercrops (TBI) could modulate the impact of a full season water deficit on these two parameters. This study used rainfall reduction shelters to reduce available soil moisture in monoculture and in a TBI agroforestry system in southern Ontario. Fixed N was significantly reduced in the water deficit treatment in both monoculture and TBI systems. Soybean yield was significantly reduced in the water deficit treatment but only in monoculture, not in the TBI system. Results demonstrate that important N pathways are restricted under water limitation but that TBI systems may induce yield stability under water deficit scenarios.
Energy-optimal Flight of a Solar-assisted Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Keywords: energy-optimal path planning
flight test
power management
solar
UAV

The harnessing of solar energy during the operation of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) provides a potential solution to combat the energy constraints. This thesis examines the practicality of a mini solar-assisted UAV and provides experimental validation in regards to energy maximization through solar-electric power management and flight path optimization. A solar-assisted UAV is constructed and shows an increase in flight time. In addition, through the application of power management techniques, an increase in net energy for the solar-assisted UAV is observed. A simulation environment is also developed providing a model for the UAV and estimations for the energy collected and consumed during flight. The simulation results are consistent with real-time measurements during flight tests. Finally, an energy-optimal flight path increasing the net energy is obtained and successfully demonstrated during flight tests.
Divide-and-conquer Techniques for Large Scale FPGA Design
Keywords: Benchmarks
Computer-Aided Design
Floorplanning
FPGA
Latency Insensitive

The exponential growth in Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) size afforded by Moore's Law has greatly increased the breadth and scale of applications suitable for implementation on FPGAs. However, the increasing design size and complexity challenge the scalability of the conventional approaches used to implement FPGA designs - making FPGAs difficult and time-consuming to use. This thesis investigates new divide-and-conquer approaches to address these scalability challenges. In order to evaluate the scalability and limitations of existing approaches, we present a new large FPGA benchmark suite suitable for exploring these issues. We then investigate the practicality of using latency insensitive design to decouple timing requirements and reduce the number of design iterations required to achieve timing closure. Finally we study floorplanning, a technique which spatially decomposes the FPGA implementation to expose additional parallelism during the implementation process. To evaluate the impact of floorplanning on FPGAs we develop Hetris, a new automated FPGA floorplanning tool.
Accelerated Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Thermometry using an Undersampled Radial Acquisition and an Iterative Reconstruction
Keywords: compressed sensing
magnetic resonance thermometry
prostate
transurethral
ultrasound

This thesis investigated the acceleration of MR thermometry, in the context of prostate heating generated via a transurethral ultrasound applicator, using highly undersampled radial acquisitions with a compressed sensing reconstruction. Three clinically-relevant heating patterns were generated in a phantom using a planar ultrasound transducer. Radial k-space was acquired and retrospectively undersampled by acceleration factors of 4, 8, and 16. Thermometry images were reconstructed using zero-filling and a compressed sensing approach and their accuracy was evaluated. A data-driven method was used for selecting the sparsity transform and the tuning parameters were chosen based on representative heating images. At each acceleration rate the compressed sensing thermometry images showed considerable reduction in artifacts relative to the zero-filled case. The Daubechies and Battle-Lemarie transforms were found to work well. At the maximum acceleration factor, thermometry images could be obtained that were of sufficient accuracy for use in the treatment.
Sparse Beamforming Design for Network MIMO System with Limited Backhaul
Keywords: Beamforming
MIMO

This thesis considers a downlink multicell cooperation model in which the base-stations (BSs) are connected to a central processor via rate-limited backhaul links and each scheduled user is cooperatively served by a potentially overlapped cluster of BSs. Two different problem formulations are considered respectively: optimal tradeoff between the total transmit power and backhaul capacity under fixed user rate constraints, and utility maximization for given per-BS power and backhaul constraints. Motivated by the compressive sensing literature, we propose to approximate the backhaul rate as a function of the weighted $\ell_2$-norm square of the beamformers. This novel idea allows the optimal tradeoff to be converted into a weighted power minimization problem, which then can be solved efficiently using the well-known uplink-downlink duality approach; it also makes the utility maximization problem solvable through a generalized weighted minimum mean square error approach. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithms is justified through numerical simulation results.
Calibration of ILIDS and PDPA Droplet Sizing Systems
Keywords: Calibration
ILIDS
Image processing
Laser optics
PDPA
Spray characterization

Laser-based droplet sizing techniques are widely used in industrial prototyping and diagnostics applications. However, their ability to immediately output highly precise droplet size distribution charts, seemingly without any significant user input, belies their vulnerability to bad input parameters, noise, and optical aberrations that can only be identified and resolved by means of careful calibration using monodisperse droplets. The contribution of this paper is threefold: first, we provide a review of well-known and obscure sticking points identified in various publications and how they apply in the context of ILIDS and PDPA calibration procedures; second, we present a novel, cheap and simple droplet generator design of the continuous-stream type, based on the rotary actuator of a computer hard drive; third, we submit a proof-of-concept design of a computer vision algorithm to eliminate the need for camera calibration in combined PIV/ILIDS systems.
Automation of a Multiplexed Microbead-based DNA Assay Platform
Keywords: diagnostics
medical device
microfluidics
nanotechnology

Microbead-based diagnostic technology has been explored in academia for over 30 years. As the technology matured, it became clear that this was a competitive platform for multiplexed point- of-care diagnostics for a number of different applications spanning from healthcare, border defense, food safety and environmental monitoring. To realize the benefits of this technology to Canada and the rest of the world, it is imperative to develop an automation scheme to enable minimally trained users to be able to leverage this technology in a point-of-care setting where there is no access to a full lab, and often without reliable water or electricity. This thesis aims to leverage the use of microfluidics and magnetism to enable a simple way of automating the microbead platform for this purpose.
Tin Whisker Growth and Mitigation with a Nanocrysytalline Nickel Coating
Keywords: Metal coating
Nickel Coating
Tin Whisker mitigation
Tin Whiskers

Tin Whisker Growth and Mitigation with a Nanocrysytalline Nickel Coating Master of Applied Science, 2015 Szymon Janiuk Materials Science and Engineering, University of Toronto Abstract: Tin whiskers are a problem in the electronics industry since the EU banned the use of lead in Pb-Sn solders as part of the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS). The biggest concern with Sn whiskers is their ability to short-circuit electronics. High reliability applications such as the aerospace, defense, healthcare, and automotive industries are at most risk. This project explores Sn whisker mitigation and prevention with the use of nanocrystalline nickel coating over Sn surfaces. Sn was plated onto a pure Cu substrate using electroplating. A high temperature and high humidity condition, at 85°C and 85% RH, was effective at growing whiskers. A nNi coating was plated over Sn/Cu coupons. After subjecting the nNi/ Sn/Cu samples through 85°C/85% RH testing conditions, no whiskers were observed penetrating the surface. These results make nNi a viable material to use as a coating to prevent the growth of Sn whiskers in electronic assemblies.
Adaptive Fault Tolerant Control for Nonlinear Systems with Constraints
Keywords: Adaptive control
Fault tolerant control
Input constraints
Nonlinear systems
State constraints

In this thesis, fault tolerant control (FTC) design for nonlinear systems with input and output/state constraints are studied. To handle the input constraints, auxiliary systems are integrated with the controller. To deal with output constraints, Barrier Lyapunov Functions (BLFs) are used. When state constraints are in force, command filters are used in conjunction with BLFs. A novel adaptive fault tolerant cooperative tracking control (AFTCTC) scheme is developed for a class of input and output constrained nonlinear multiagent systems. Exponential convergence of the cooperative output tracking error into a small set around zero is guaranteed, while the constraints on the output will not be violated. The results are then extended to the design of a novel adaptive fault tolerant control (AFTC) scheme for a class of input and state constrained multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear systems, where the constraints on the system state will not be violated.
Analytical Approaches to Investigating Transit Network Resilience
Keywords: EMME
Graph Theory
Network
Public Transit
Resilience
Robustness

The reliability of public transit networks is of critical importance the world over. As transit demand is forecasted to grow, there exists a need to quantitatively measure the operational resilience of a transit network. Such metrics can be used to transit planners and operators to effectively mitigate the impact of service disruptions on commuters. By representing the public transit network in Toronto, Canada as a directional graph, a series of metrics based in graph theory were employed to analyze resilience. Using simulation allowed one to overcome the inherent limitations in a network science approach and introduced the concepts of `Station Importance' and `Exposure'. These indices are based on the demand-weighted increased in travel cost when service disruptions occur. An analysis on the behavior of trip-makers is conducted via a sentiment analysis using Twitter. The result of the combined efforts discussed above is a framework to capture operational resilience.
Co-deposition of Pigment Particles with Nickel through Electrodeposition
Keywords: Codeposition
Copper Phthalocyanine
Nickel Composite
Nickel Electrodeposition
Pigment

This research focuses on the synthesis of a nickel-pigment composite coating in an effort to produce coloured nickel electrodeposits via the codeposition approach. A blue pigment, Copper Phthalocyanine (CuPc) Blue was codeposited to create Ni-CuPc composite coatings. Top surface and cross-sectional Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images confirmed the codeposition of pigment particles within the nickel matrix throughout the entire coating thickness. The top surface of the Ni-CuPc composite coating showed an unexpected metallic copper colour. X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analysis indicates the presence of metallic copper confined to the top surface. It was speculated that this phenomenon is due to the galvanic displacement reaction between copper from the pigment and nickel from the matrix. Upon removing the copper surface layer the colour of the composite remained metallic silver despite the presence of the pigment particles.
Structural Analysis of Corneal Nano-nipple Arrays in Nymphalidae Butterflies
Keywords: Antireflection
Biomimicry
Crystallography
CSL
Grain boundaries
Nano-nipples

This study is concerned with the two-dimensional arrangement of corneal nano-nipples on the eyes of two Nymphalid butterflies. While the nano-nipples are predominantly in close-packed ordered arrangements, there are coordination defects known as 5-7 defects that disrupt the local translational symmetry and generate a number of secondary defects. Most often 5-7 defects align in rows to separate nipple domains with different orientations much like grain boundaries in crystalline materials. Surprisingly, the majority of 5-7 defect rows are special low-sigma; boundaries that occur infrequently in random crystalline materials. Such prevalence of low-sigma; boundaries suggests that they may serve specific purposes. Based on the superlattices associated with the observed low-sigma; boundaries, it is tentatively suggested that they could lead to diffraction effects for infrared light.
A New Suite of Pathogenesis-induced Gene Expression Markers in Arabidopsis thaliana
Keywords: Arabidopsis
Gene marker
Interactions database
Interactions network
Pseudomonas psyringae

Plant immunity comprises of two main branches. In one branch, plants recognize microbial molecules called pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs); inducing PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI). Successful pathogens suppress PTI using effector proteins. These effectors can be recognized by the plant causing effector-triggered immunity (ETI); causing cell death to prevent further infection. Pathogenesis-Related genes are markers of pathogen infection but do not distinguish between PTI, ETI or susceptibility. Using available transcriptomic data for the interaction between Arabidopsis thaliana and Pseudomonas syringae, I identified 2 genes induced during a susceptible interaction, 1 gene induced by ETI and 4 genes induced by PTI. These genes characterized using protein interaction data from the Proteomics Standards Initiative Common QUery InterfaCe using the BAR's interactive database; the Arabidopsis Interactions Viewer. This analysis produced networks of protein interactions for 6 of these marker genes. Transcriptomic expression analyses demonstrated a correlation of expression between these expression markers and their interactors.
Signalling Through the PGC-1a Pathway Mediates an Inducible Stress Response in Retinal Astrocytes to Resist Oxidative and Metabolic Insults
Keywords: Astrocytes
Glaucoma
Oxidative Stress
PGC-1a

Glaucoma is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in the eye. Astrocytes are an adjacent cell type that provides metabolic support and antioxidant defense for the RGCs and the loss of these neurosupportive functions contributes to the pathogenesis of glaucoma. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1 alpha (PGC-1a) is a transcriptional co-activator that regulates the expression of metabolic and antioxidant genes through interactions with transcription factors. PGC-1a deficiency has recently been implicated in neurodegeneration, but its role in mediating astrocyte functions is not well understood. In this study, PGC-1a activity and its expression were induced in astrocytes following metabolic and oxidative stress. Under these conditions, pharmacological stimulation of PGC-1a improved antioxidant capacity, mitochondria biogenesis, and increase astrocyte viability through regulations of downstream gene expression. Thus, PGC-1a is a key mediator of astrocyte stress responses, which can be targeted to promote their neurosupportive functions.
Pictorial Korea: Visualizing the Nation for a Foreign Audience in Cold War Photobooks
Keywords: Cold War
International Publicity League of Korea
Photobooks
Photography
Pictorial Korea
South Korea

In the mid-20th century, a South Korean publication company called the International Publicity League of Korea attempted to change the way that the world perceived their emerging nation-state by producing a series of annual photobooks entitled Pictorial Korea. This thesis examines editions of Pictorial Korea as both constructed visual narratives and material objects to reveal how the IPLK conveyed images of the nation to their intended audience. In order to do so, it traces the company's history, their critique of foreign images of South Korea, their relationship with the world of photography, and the transmission and corroboration of their representations through the materiality of Pictorial Korea. It argues that within the context of the Cold War, the IPLK's works positioned South Korea in relation to the non-communist West and communist North Korea by portraying it as a modern, sovereign nation and the rightful heir to Korean historical tradition.