VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Identifying the Perceived Factors Affecting Career Transition Among International Pharmacy Graduates (IPGs) Who are in the Process of Obtaining Their License in Ontario
Keywords: Career change
Career transition
Immigrant pharmacists
IPGs

Every year, Canada welcomes thousands of Internationally Educated Health Professionals (IEHPs), including International Pharmacy Graduates (IPGs). While many IEHPs integrate into their career of choice, many others face challenges that make it difficult to enter the workplace in the profession for which they have qualified. Those in the latter group tend either to accept low-paying jobs or leave Canada to return to their home country. Accepting a low-paying job or returning to the origin country are true examples of “brain waste” and “brain drain” respectively. The cost of brain drain and brain waste is significant. To minimze the economic impact, many initiatives have been launched to support career transition among IEHPs. The literature discusses many determinants of career transition, yet it falls short on identifying factors that influence career transition among IEHPs who cannot get into the career of their choice. The purpose of this qualitative research is to identify the factors that affect career transition among IPGs. Twenty-five English-speaking IPGs who are in the process of obtaining their licence and living in Ontario were interviewed. Participants’ responses were analyzed deductively, using a set of integrated-model-of-career-transition-derived codes, as well as inductively. Motives and three categories of factors affecting career transition among IPGs were identified. The categories include person/career correspondence, personal factors, and availability of alternative career. The identified factors appear consistent with the integrated model for career transition. Three new factors—professional identity, culture, and knowledge—were identified. To better theorize the factors affecting career transition among IPGs, a model was proposed to describe these factors and their interaction. The findings of this research and the proposed model are a step toward building a body of knowledge about factors affecting career transition among IEHPs, yet more studies are needed.
Automatic Failure Diagnosis for Distributed Systems
Keywords: debugging
diagnosis
distributed systems
failure reproduction
root cause

Distributed software systems have become the backbone of Internet services. Failures in pro-duction distributed systems have severe consequences. A 63-minute outage of Amazon in 2018 caused a 100-million loss in revenue. Therefore, diagnosing such failures in distributed systems is particularly critical because it can reduce the service downtime and associated cost. However, failure diagnosis at data center scale is notoriously difficult because these systems are complex: there are numerous threads, processes, and nodes communicating concurrently. Despite decades of efforts dedicated to automated failure diagnosis, existing diagnosis techniques are either intrusive and incur non-negligible performance overhead in a production environment, or face scalability challenges when applied to complex software systems. This dissertation aims to automate human diagnosis procedure for distributed system failures. It makes two main contributions towards improving automated failure diagnosis techniques. The first contribution of this dissertation is a technique that can automatically locate the root cause in a failed distributed system execution. Identifying the root cause in a failed execution of a distributed system with billions of executed instructions is like finding a needle in a haystack. This dissertation designs and evaluates a tool, called Kairux, capable of pinpointing the root cause of a failure in a distributed system, in a fully automated way. The second contribution is a technique that can automatically reproduce failure from production distributed systems. Given a failure report, the first step of developers’ diagnosis is typically to reproduce the failure. To automate this step, this dissertation designs and evaluates a technique, called Pensieve, that mimics developers’ analysis of a chain of causally dependent events that lead to the failure using log analysis and program analysis. This dissertation provides the implementation of a practical tool capable of reconstructing near-minimal failure reproduction steps from log files and system bytecode, without human involvement. By evaluating on some of the most complex, real-world failures from widely-deployed dis-tributed systems such as HBase, HDFS, and ZooKeeper, this dissertation shows that Pensieve is capable of formulating a minimal set of operations necessary to reproduce the failure, and Kairux can further pinpoint each failure’s respective root cause.
Listening to Difference: A Deleuzian Approach to Music Education
Keywords: Deleuze
Education
Ethics
Music
Philosophy
Subjectivity

The philosophical parsing of subjectivity has undergone continuous shifts and revisions since the Enlightenment and has grown to occupy a central point of concern, especially in the development of continental and poststructuralist thought. Ever since Immanuel Kant placed subjectivity into its own epistemic realm, adjacent to or at least prior to the physical and the historical, thinkers have struggled with the specter of a purely transcendental subjectivity outside of place and time. I argue that it is precisely this conception of subjectivity that led German Idealist thinkers to privilege music as a sublime language which grants philosophical and aesthetic access to transcendent subjectivity, leading them to the view that music was the secret language that grants access to being qua being. I further argue that this privileging has in turn led to many of the hidden universalist assumptions and formalist redundancies that continue to haunt music pedagogy. I assert that as long as the transcendental subject remains hidden in plain sight as an ideal or image, music pedagogies, even those that aspire to be praxial or pragmatic, remain problematic. It is in this spirit that I turn to the subjectivity developed by Gilles Deleuze, a subjectivity predicated on his very unique philosophical formulation of difference. Deleuze conceives of subjectivity as a surface effect that arises continuously from an “immanence” that can only be expressed through an embodied ethics. Conceived as a radically positive and continuous form of sensual becoming in the present, and completely eschewing transcendental subjectivity as it was formerly conceived, Deleuzian subjectivity points the way forward to pedagogies predicated on active emergence and experimentation rather than on rote and reified (re)presentation. I hope to demonstrate how Deleuzian subjectivity could be applied to pedagogies that treat music as an unfolding and experimental process of becoming, rather than a presentation of a sublime and essential self. I will then show how Deleuzian subjectivity has been extensively theorized in the post-modern pedagogical work of other educational theorists, most notably the work of Elizabeth Ellsworth. My final assertion remains that music education cannot be reformed or rethought without first rethinking the subject.
Contrapuntally Inspired: Voice Leading, Texture and Rhythm in the Music of Ben Monder
Keywords: ben monder
counterpoint
jazz
rhythm
texture
voice leading

This dissertation examines the use of counterpoint in the music of New York guitarist Ben Monder, arguing that specific contrapuntal elements inform his musical expression and contribute to his unique voice in contemporary jazz. Published pedagogical literature on jazz composition emphasizes big band arranging over small ensemble writing and has not adequately addressed the scope of jazz compositional practices since the 1960s. Consequently, innovative approaches such as Monder’s have been neglected and suitable frameworks for analyzing his contributions have not been developed. Synthesizing Walter Piston’s notion of opposition and Ernst Toch’s interest in textural shifts as a form of contrast with attention to Monder’s development of intervallic voicings and voice leading broadens my framework for analyzing contemporary jazz counterpoint. In particular, my analysis emphasizes non-imitative polyphony consisting of opposing elements within a texture (melody, harmony, rhythm, metre) and contrast between textures (shifts). Score analysis, transcription and a personal interview with Monder form the basis for examining select compositions and related improvisations in solo, duo, trio or quartet settings featured in his recordings Flux (1996), Dust (1997), Excavation (2000), Oceana (2005), and Hydra (2013). Analyses reveal a varied use of contrapuntal devices, including voice leading of intervallic voicing structures in chorales, a freer treatment of dissonance in pedal point, polytonality, polyrhythm, polymetre, and textural shifts. Guitar solos illustrate an often-overlooked contrapuntal link between composition and improvisation through motivic development. Most significantly, Monder’s extensive treatment of contrapuntal techniques shapes the form and identity of his compositions. This comprehensive approach to counterpoint and his emphasis on notation over improvisation in multi-movement compositions set him apart from his peers and gain him recognition from musicians and critics alike. His unique position within contemporary jazz circles challenges the prevailing tendency among jazz scholars to overlook composers in favour of improvisers who are assumed to have been the driving forces of jazz history. This study, then, builds on a growing direction in jazz scholarship that challenges existing narratives of jazz history and practice. It also serves as a stepping-stone for establishing counterpoint as a rich analytical, pedagogical, compositional and improvisational resource in contemporary jazz practice.
Understanding and Measuring Self-perceived Outcome following Ankle Reconstruction
Keywords: Ankle arthrodesis
Ankle arthroplasty
Conceptual framework
Patient-reported outcomes
Recovery
Vigilance

The importance of capturing the patient’s perspective of the impact of their health condition and treatment is well-recognized. This information is often collected using patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs); however, such measures may overlook the patients’ perspective in favour of clinician or researchers’ opinions. The literature lacks sufficient evidence for the conceptual foundation and content validity (i.e. how well an instrument reflects the target construct) of existing PROMs used to assess ankle reconstruction (total ankle replacement and ankle fusion) based on patients’ lived experience. Guidelines for PROMs recommend qualitative research with the target population to support their conceptual development and establish content validity. This thesis investigates outcomes that are important to end-stage ankle arthritis patients who have undergone ankle reconstruction, and lays the foundation for their measurement. This is examined, first, by comparing the contents of commonly used PROMs to issues raised by patients. Broad domains (e.g. pain, physical function) were found to be important, but there were gaps in content, casting doubt on the comprehensiveness of these measures. Subsequently, an in-depth qualitative study explored patients’ experiences with ankle reconstruction. Two new concepts were identified that have not been previously described in the ankle literature. Recovery describes patients’ perception of ‘being better’, involving a series of appraisals and coping efforts based on the presence and importance of ongoing issues, sufficient resources for coping, and whether coping efforts are viewed as satisfactory. Vigilance represents patients’ perceived need to focus attention on their environment and ankles. These concepts offer a new understanding of how ankle reconstruction affects patients’ lives. This thesis then models a rigorous method for operationalizing these novel concepts for development of future PROMs for ankle reconstruction. A conceptual framework for vigilance is presented, which preserves the meaning of the qualitative data and grounds content- and format-related decisions necessary for PROM development in patients’ experiences. Measuring these outcomes is necessary and worthwhile to capture all meaningful outcomes to patients. These findings broaden the medical community’s definition of a ‘successful outcome’, and improve clinicians’ ability to communicate with individuals who have undergone ankle reconstruction or are considering the procedures.
Comprehensive Analysis of the Molecular Underpinnings of Pediatric Glioma
Keywords: BRAF
Clonal Evolution
DIPG
Glioma
pLGG
Risk Stratification

Tumors arising in the central nervous system (CNS) are the largest group of solid tumors affecting children. Of these CNS tumors, gliomas are the most prevalent. Currently gliomas are histologically segregated into two umbrella categories: low-grade glioma (grades 1 and 2, pLGG) and high-grade glioma (grade 3 and 4, pHGG). pLGG are the most frequently diagnosed pediatric glioma. Although overall survival of these tumors is robust, extensive clinical heterogeneity exists, specifically as it pertains to the patient's long-term prognosis. Molecular studies over the past decade have identified that pLGG frequently harbor genetic alterations in the RAS/MAPK pathway, although a comprehensive molecular landscape of the disease has yet to be completed. To address this, we characterized a population-based cohort of >1,000 pLGG. We discovered that RAS/MAPK pathway dysregulation was universal in pLGG. Further, pLGG could be clinically classified based on their underlying alteration type: rearrangement or SNV. Further sub-classification stratified pLGG into clinical risk groups, highlighting patients at risk for a worsened prognosis. Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a subtype of pediatric glioma that arises in the pons of children. DIPG prognosis is dismal, with a median survival of 10 months. Previous sequencing efforts identified frequent p.K27M mutations in Histone H3 which resulted in a global loss of K27 (di/tri)-methylation. Here, we collected tissue from DIPG patients from multiple sites of tumor dissemination and the primary pontine lesion for multi-omics analysis. We uncovered homogeneity of tumor defining alterations, including H3 p.K27M, but heterogeneity of many accessory alterations. Clonal evolution modelling uncovered that H3 p.K27M was the most frequent initiating event in DIPG, but universally required an obligate molecular event, most often a TP53 mutation, to promote tumorigenesis. In an effort to understand the molecular interplay of DIPG evolution, we developed a bioinformatics approach that integrated methylation and gene expression changes into our evolutionary model. Doing so revealed unique clonal pathway dysregulation, including up-regulation of cell migration and angiogenesis in highly invasive clones. Collectively, our analysis revealed several key tumorigenic properties of DIPG and provides a deeper understanding of DIPG pathogenesis.
Autosomal Recessive Variants in Intellectual Disability and Autism Spectrum Disorder
Keywords: Autism
Autosomal Recessive Variants
Bioinformatics
Intellectual Disability
Mental Health
Neurodevelopment

The development of the nervous system is a tightly timed and controlled process where aberrant development may lead to neurodevelopmental disorders. Two of the most common forms of neurodevelopmental disorders are Intellectual Disability (ID) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). These two disorders are intertwined, but much about the etiological relationship between them remains a mystery. Little attention has been given to the role recessive variants play in ID and ASD, perhaps related to the ability of recessive variants to remain hidden in the population. This thesis aims to help determine the role of recessive variants in ID and ASD and identify novel genes associated with these neurodevelopmental disorders. Technological advancements such as Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and large population-scale sequencing reference sets have ushered in a new era of high throughput gene identification. In total, 307 families were whole-exome sequenced (192 consanguineous multiplex ID families and 115 consanguineous trio ASD families), representing 537 samples in total. This work identified 26 novel genes for ID such as ABI2, MAPK8, MBOAT7, MPDZ, PIDD1, SLAIN1, TBC1D23, TRAPPC6B, UBA7, and USP44 in large multiplex families with an overall diagnostic yield of 51 %. ASD often has other comorbid features and the connection with ID and ASD has been observed in literature with an estimated 40-70% if ASD probands also have comorbid ID. Extending the use of consanguineous families in autosomal recessive variant identification in ASD, the diagnostic yield for this ASD trio cohort was ~26 %, with 28 of the known variants coming from previously known genes. This study identified putative variants with functional mouse models that display behavioural and nervous system abnormalities involving genes such as EPHB1, VPS16, CNGA2 and EFR3B. Of the neurodevelopmental genes from this cohort, ZNF292 is the most associated with ID with or without syndromic features and ASD. The overall body of work highlights the clinical and genetic heterogeneity in neurodevelopmental disorders and demonstrates the important role that recessive variants have in neurodevelopment disorders, including ASD. The identification of novel genes will hopefully provide better diagnosis and clinical management for patients.
Objective Behavioural Characterization of Intrinsic Motivation in Schizophrenia: A Focus on Exploratory Behaviour and Activity Engagement
Keywords: Effort
Exploration
Motion capture
Motivation
Negative symptoms
Schizophrenia

Motivation deficits are a prominent and pervasive feature of schizophrenia that substantially impacts psychosocial functioning. While task-based investigations have characterized these deficits within the purview of extrinsic motivation (driven by external rewards), similar evaluation of intrinsic motivation (in the absence of reward) has been lacking. This thesis describes the development and validation of two tasks that objectively quantify behaviours that align with distinct facets of intrinsic motivation. Exploratory behaviour (in a novel environment containing common and uncommon objects) and activity preference (between an activity requiring effortful engagement versus another experienced passively) in the absence of external incentive were quantified using wireless motion capture in an open-field setting. Initial task validation studies tested the hypotheses that outpatients with schizophrenia (n=21), compared to healthy controls (n=20), would demonstrate reduced exploratory behaviour and active engagement, and that task-derived behavioural measures would correlate with clinical measures of amotivation and psychosocial functioning. Concerted examination of performance in both tasks in an extended sample of patients (n=45) and controls (n=47) tested the hypotheses that multifaceted characterization of intrinsic motivation would reveal distinct behavioural phenotypes, and that these phenotypes would predict schizophrenia diagnosis, clinical amotivation, and psychosocial functioning. Most task-derived measures indicated nonsignificant between-group differences in the initial validation studies, but performance impairments correlated with more severe amotivation and poorer functioning in schizophrenia. Concerted examination of task performance via cluster analysis identified three behavioural phenotypes: low exploration, low activity, and high exploration/activity. The two low performance clusters disproportionately comprised patients with schizophrenia and demonstrated similar elevated amotivation levels. Patients demonstrated poorer functioning compared to within-cluster controls, with the discrepancy increasing from the high performance to low activity to low exploration cluster. These findings suggest that exploratory behaviour and activity engagement are valuable behavioural biomarkers of intrinsic motivation. Clinical amotivation may reflect impairment in separate, behaviourally distinguishable facets of intrinsic motivation. Impairment in either facet may be deleterious particularly for individuals with schizophrenia. In addition to demonstrating the feasibility of quantifying real-world human behaviours, these methods and findings stand to advance the conceptualization of motivation deficits in schizophrenia and may help guide personalized remediation.
Turning Brain Drain into Brain Gain: Harnessing Pakistan's Skilled Diaspora
Keywords: Brain Drain
Brain Gain
Diaspora
Diaspora engagement
Migration
Pakistan diaspora

Leaders in developing nations are increasingly concerned about the economic impact of losing highly qualified citizens to opportunities in more developed countries, particularly countries in the West. This diaspora phenomenon, often labeled brain drain, refers to developing countries losing intellectual capital through the emigration of highly skilled individuals. To understand brain drain, the objective of this exploratory descriptive and interpretive study was to explore the various conditions under which Pakistani diaspora settled in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) would be willing to engage in knowledge transfer activities. Theoretical frameworks of reciprocity and human capital theory grounded this study. The guiding research question was: What are the conditions under which diaspora members would be willing to engage in knowledge transfer activities with Pakistan? The study used an exploratory descriptive research design with an interpretive approach to examine leveraging diaspora engagement to convert brain drain to brain gain in Pakistan. Interviewing diaspora was essential to determine how developing countries, like Pakistan, can harness the knowledge of its diaspora for developmental purposes. A total of 15 face to face interviews of Pakistani diaspora who settled in the Greater Toronto Area were conducted for this study. Based on the findings of the study, Pakistan has a significant opportunity to tap into its more than seven million diaspora (Haq et al., 2013) and engage them for its capacity building purposes. Findings from the study indicated diaspora knowledge transfer is dependent on life stages and years spent in a new country. Individuals new to a country are less likely to engage in knowledge transfer than those who have lived in a new country for a longer duration. To achieve success in engaging with Pakistani diaspora, factors like mutual trust, a need to approach diaspora engagement in a structured manner and more importantly a need to have a broad vision on the part of sending countries were considered essential requirements to achieve a successful diaspora engagement strategy. There is a need and an opportunity for Pakistan to reflect and transform its thinking about its diaspora and the developmental role they might play beyond sending remittances.
Focussed Solutions to the Einstein Vacuum Equations
Keywords: Einstein vacuum equations
Gaussian beams
Large-data solutions
Quasi-linear wave equations
Translational symmetry

We construct solutions to the Einstein vacuum equations in polarised translational symmetry in 3 + 1 dimensions which have H1 energy concentrated in an arbitrarily small region around a two-dimensional null plane and large H2 initial data. Specifically, there is a parameter k and coordinates s, x, v, y such that the null plane is given by x = k-1/2/2, v = T√2 - k-1/2 for some T independent of k, the H1 energy of the solution is concentrated on the region [0, T'] × [0, k-1/2] × [T√2 - k-1, T√2] × R1, and the H2 norm of the initial data is bounded below by a multiple of k3/4. The time T' has a lower bound independent of k. This result relies heavily on a new existence theorem for the Einstein vacuum equations with characteristic initial data which is large in H2. This result is proved using parabolically scaled coordinates in a null geodesic gauge.