VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Early Mother-Child Relationships Influence Weight Regulation in Pre-School Children
Keywords: BMI
Breastfeeding
Emotional eating
Maternal Sensitivity
Sex differences

While there has been significant historical interest in how the maternal- infant dyadic relationship shapes eating behaviour and obesity risk, only recently have systematic, longitudinal studies of this association been reported. The current thesis both replicates and extends this recent work using three studies based on the MAVAN developmental cohort: Study 1 examined the association between 6 month maternal sensitivity scores and BMI z-scores measured at 48 months of age. As hypothesized, low maternal sensitivity early in life was associated with higher BMI z-scores and an increased likelihood of being at risk for overweight, overweight or obese in girls but not boys. These findings replicate recent work by Anderson SE et al (2012); we provide the first evidence of a possible sex difference in this relationship, and extend prior findings to the pre-school years. Study 2 examined whether emotional overeating, food responsiveness, and/or enjoyment of food at 48 months as assessed using the Childrenâ s Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) mediated the relationship between 6 month maternal sensitivity scores and BMI z-scores at 48 months. Results indicated that only emotional overeating was a significant mediator of this association for girls but not for boys. Further analysis revealed that in girls only, low maternal sensitivity was associated with an increased likelihood of being at risk for overweight in connection with emotional overeating. Study 3 examined whether exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months moderates the relationship between 6 month maternal sensitivity scores and BMI z-scores measured at 48 months of age, and whether the sex of the child might further moderate this association. The results supported the general working hypothesis that exclusive breastfeeding at age 6 months moderates the association between maternal sensitivity at 6 months and child BMI z-scores at 48 months. Overall these results demonstrated another highly novel developmental trajectory relevant to early weight regulation, and offered new support for current WHO recommendations for exclusive breastfeeding through 6 months of age. Taken together, these three studies have demonstrated that early maternal sensitivity provides a significant influence on child weight regulation/ BMI in the pre-school years, moderated by sex and exclusive breastfeeding and mediated by emotional overeating.
Preparation, Surface Modification and Application of Lanthanide Nanoparticles as Elemental Tags in Mass Cytometric Bioassays
Keywords: cell assay
lanthanide
mass cytometry
nanoparticles

This thesis describes the preparation, surface modification and application of lanthanide nanoparticles (Ln NPs) as elemental tags in bioassays by mass cytometry. The most common elemental tags in mass cytometry are lanthanide metals. Previous studies established polymer-based lanthanide tags for mass cytometric bioassays. My studies focused on developing a new generation of elemental tags based on Ln NPs for bioassays by mass cytometry. The first part of my thesis describes a ligand exchange strategy for making Ln NPs that are colloidally stable in aqueous buffer media. This strategy yielded NaLnF4 NPs capped with PEG-PAMAM surface ligands. These PEG-PAMAM-capped NPs were colloidally stable in water but lacked long-term colloidal stability in PBS. This made the PEG-PAMAM-capped NPs incompatible with cell assays by mass cytometry. The second part describes the preparation of small LnF3 NPs as internal labels for Ln-containing polymer microspheres. This work was done by collaboration with Dr. Jianbo Tan. He prepared PMMA microspheres labeled with those small LnF3 NPs. We then developed a streptavidin-biotin binding assay using those LnF3-labeled microspheres as a proof-of-concept bead-based assay by mass cytometry. The third part describes a sandwich-type bead-based immunoassay by mass cytometry. I prepared NaYF4@SiO2 NPs as reporter tags for this bead-based immunoassay. By using the LnF3-labeled PMMA microspheres as bead supports, I established a bead-based immunoassay that specifically targets human IgG and tested the specificity of this assay by TEM. The fourth part discusses making a NP-based elemental tag that can specifically target cell surface markers with minimal non-specific cell binding. I synthesized PEGylated NaHoF4@SiO2 NPs and attached antibodies onto the PEG corona of the NPs. These NP-antibody conjugates showed excellent targeting ability for CD20 antigens on Ramos cells along with a low background level of non-specific binding. Future experiments are needed to demonstrate their usage in detecting low-abundance cellular biomarkers by mass cytometry.
The Effects of Fuel Chemistry and Particle Maturity on Soot Formation
Keywords: Biodiesel
Chemical Mechanism
Combustion
Core Shell nanostructure
Laser Diagnostics
Soot

A criterion to define soot maturity, a theoretical modeling approach to simulate it, and its effects on the surface reactivity of soot primary particles in laminar premixed and diffusion flames are presented in the first two chapters. It is shown that the core-shell internal nanostructure of soot primary particles is a function of the overall soot Hydrogen to Carbon (H/C) ratio and can be used to distinguish nascent from mature soot primary particles. The importance of considering dehydrogenation to predict the H/C ratio and maturity of soot is illustrated. It is shown that the decay of soot surface reactivity with maturity, i.e. soot aging, is a strong function of the internal nanostructure of soot primary particles. The necessity of simulating soot maturity for comparison with experimental measurements is discussed. Structural effects of biodiesel in terms of unsaturation, i.e. C-C double bond, its position, and the presence of the ester moiety on soot formation are investigated in chapters four and five. It is shown that unsaturation increases soot formation by higher production of soot chemical growth species while more centrally located double bond increases soot formation by producing more soot nucleating species. However, the ester moiety decreases soot formation by reducing the concentration of soot chemical growth species such as acetylene. Several experimental techniques for measuring flame temperature, soot volume fraction, primary particle diameter, and aggregate structure are compared to each other in the last chapter. It is shown that Time Resolved Laser Induced Incandescence is the most reliable method to measure the volume fraction and the primary particle diameter of mature soot particles. The sensitivity of thermocouple measurements to radiation correction is analyzed and it is shown that for accurate temperature measurement with a thermocouple, it is essential to use a locally measured variable emissivity to estimate radiation cooling effects.
Effective Models for Optical Properties: A Study on 1D, 2D, and 3D Materials
Keywords: 2D Materials
Alloys
Current Injection
Effective Models
Optical Coherent Control
Spin Injection

In this thesis I employ effective Hamiltonian models to study the electronic structure of materials. With these models I study charge- and spin-injection induced by optical absorption processes, and current-injection induced by quantum interference processes between different orders of absorption. I study the optical response of narrow stripes (''nanoribbons'') of monolayer graphene, monolayers of tin atoms (''stanene''), and alloys of AlGaAs. First I focus on graphene nanoribbons with zigzag shapes along their lengths, along which strongly localized (''edge'') states exist at the Fermi level of undoped samples. I present results for different chemical potentials, showing that edge states are responsible for the main contribution to the optical response at low photon energies (
Shallow Water Carbonate Sediments of the Galápagos Archipelago: Ecologically Sensitive Biofacies in a Transitional Oceanographic Environment
Keywords: Benthic Foraminifera
Carbonates
El Niño Southern Oscillation
Galápagos
Ocean Acidification
Sediments

Shallow water carbonate producing organisms are directly controlled by their local oceanography. As a result, long-term environmental signals—stemming from the breakdown of calcareous organisms—can be read from time-averaged carbonate sediments. To better understand these complex biophysical interactions, it is important to study carbonate development within oceanographic transition zones and environments affected by disturbances, such as the El Niño—Southern Oscillation (ENSO). This dissertation represents the first investigation into modern shallow water, soft sediment, carbonate environments of the Galápagos Archipelago, eastern tropical Pacific (ETP). This region is notable for straddling an oceanographic transition zone from tropical oligotrophic to temperate eutrophic—caused by high nutrient and low pH upwelling—and for being directly impacted by ENSO. A top-down approach is followed, which analyzes the biogenic structure of Galápagos sediments and their connection to local and regional oceanography and climate, and then explores how these findings relate to benthic foraminifera—sensitive environmental indicators contained within the sediments. Sediment point counting and statistical models revealed that while these carbonate environments span a biogenic and oceanographic transition comparable to similar settings in the ETP, the proximity of the Galápagos to the ENSO region directly influences its sedimentary structure and distribution. Point counting also revealed a near-absence of benthic foraminifera, which is unusual for ETP, and tropical shallow water carbonates in general. Statistically comparing foraminiferal species composition and diversity to dominant oceanographic parameters revealed the low abundances and distribution of these testate (shelled) single-celled protists to be negatively influenced by the combination of repeated Holocene ENSO events, and the effects of protracted exposure to high nutrient and low pH waters of the southern archipelago. Ultimately, the results of this study may serve as a template for investigating the interaction of carbonates and oceanography within similar atypical tropical assemblages in the fossil record.
The Art of Railing: Knowledge and Satire from Skelton to Shakespeare
Keywords: Aesthetics
Drama
Epistemology
Poetry
Renaissance
Satire

This dissertation argues that satire, or more specifically “railing,” provided the writers of the English Renaissance with a means of making epistemological change perceptible through poetry. Chapter 1 traces the beginnings of railing in John Skelton’s satiric attacks on Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, arguing that the paradoxes and inconsistencies of Skelton’s poems are an attempt to explore how the centralized Tudor state was turning reason into a decentralized political force that could both legitimize and resist the truth claims of the ruler. Chapter 2 examines the verse satires of John Donne, in which Christian figuralism allows Donne to see individual morality as something involved in larger social and economic forces. In “Satyre 3,” railing becomes a way to articulate a problem that arises from the Christian-figural viewpoint: how can you discern the true religion if historical forces emanate from everything and everyone? Next I turn to Edmund Spenser, whose satiric poetry in The Shepheardes Calender, Mother Hubberds Tale, and The Faerie Queene interrogates the emerging gap between human thought and the natural world. Spenser uses the limitations of satire and complaint, with their focus on the world as it is, to gesture at a higher possibility for poetry that imagines how the world could or should be. The final chapter examines how Shakespeare’s As You Like It expands on the socially transformative promise of art that Spenser depicts in The Faerie Queene. Jaques, the play’s satirist, tries to use the descriptive methods of natural philosophy as a model for curing the corruption of the world, but this approach ends up preventing him from imagining any alternative. Jaques, however, is a poet as well as a natural philosopher, and the poetry of his railing gestures at another form of truth that he himself is not entirely conscious of. This truth turns out to be the conditional truth of the aesthetic, the virtue of “if” that Rosalind uses to imagine a new life for the exiles in the Forest of Arden. Satire may not be able to change the world, but it makes it possible to imagine a kind of art that can.
Stigma, Stress, and Stories: Refining our Understanding of Suicidal Behavior among Adult Gay, Bisexual, and other Sexual Minority Men
Keywords: epidemiology
gay and bisexual men
mental health
minority stress
sexual stigma
suicide

Background: Sexual minority men are approximately four times more likely than heterosexual men to have attempted suicide. Epidemiologic evidence of this disparity is robust; however, research exploring how and why this disparity persists is sparse. Objective: To refine our understanding of suicidal behavior in adult sexual minority men, with the goal of improving relevant public health strategies to prevent suicide. Methods and aims: Data were drawn from adult sexual minority men who participated in: the population-based Canadian Community Health Survey (N=4675), a gay menâ s community-based national online survey (N=7872), and in-depth interviews with men who attempted suicide (N=7). Quantitative bias analysis was used to estimate the degree of misclassification of sexual orientation and associated bias in estimates of suicidal ideation among sexual minority men in general population-based surveys (Aim 1). Structural equation modeling was used to identify specific psychosocial challenges that mediate relationships between constructs of sexual stigma and recent suicide attempts (Aim 2). Dialogical narrative analysis was used to construct life narratives used by sexual minority men with histories of suicide attempts (Aim 3). Results: Disparities in suicidal ideation comparing bisexual (odds ratio[OR]=4.91) and gay (OR=3.63) to heterosexual men persisted after adjustment for misclassification bias but were attenuated, with greater attenuation for bisexual (adjusted OR=3.53) than for gay (adjusted OR=3.52) men. Three measured constructs of sexual stigma (enacted stigma, anticipated prejudice, and sexuality concealment) were associated with suicide attempts (p
Reconstruction of 3D Histology Volumes from Breast Lumpectomy Specimens
Keywords: Breast histology
Deformable registration
Histology image registration
Histology volume reconstruction

Three dimensional reconstruction and examination of microscopic images of tissue sections can enhance the study of normal and disease processes, particularly in studies concerned with structural changes. 3D histology volumes can also be used as ground truth in validating new volumetric medical imaging techniques. The accuracy of the histology volume reconstruction is hindered by sparse sampling of the clinical specimens, the deformation of the tissue during the histology processes, and variations in staining. The existing methods for histology volume construction of human breast specimens are either manual or applicable only to small cropped densely sampled regions. In this thesis, we hypothesize that by using image registration algorithms, 3D histology volumes can be automatically reconstructed from stacked 2D images of histology sections. We present an image registration framework for histology volume reconstruction, which is also extendable for registration of the histology to ex vivo medical images. The framework is first validated using a pre-clinical model and then further improved by optimizing the deformable registration for histology images obtained from highly deformable human breast specimens. Finally, the histology volumes of five lumpectomy specimens are reconstructed using the proposed framework to study tumour features in 3D, specifically tumour volume and focality. The proposed approach is shown to be suitable for 3D histology volume reconstruction from 2D histology images of breast lumpectomy specimens. The average target registration error for the breast specimens was measured as 0.47 Âą 0.31 mm based on manually selected landmarks and the optimized deformable registration was shown to significantly improve the registration comparing to rigid registration. It is also shown that this method has the potential to provide more accurate information about 3D tumour measurements, such as volume, and presence of multi-focality.
Measurement of Di-photon Induced Production of W-Boson Pairs and Limits on Anomalous Quartic Gauge Couplings
Keywords: Accelerator
Collider
High energy Physics
Physics
Quartic gauge coupling
Standard Model

Extension of the Standard model can enhance the interactions between four vector bosons, so the couplings deviate from their predicted value due to new quartic-gauge-boson interactions. Searches for those deviations are model-independent and cover a wide range of possible new physics. This thesis describes the measurement of exclusive production of W-boson pairs and the search for WW\gamma\gamma anomalous quartic gauge couplings at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) using a data set corresponding to 20.2 fb-1 of proton-proton collisions collected by the ATLAS detector in 2012. This analysis considers the W+W- decay modes leading to e\mu leptons. At the LHC, exclusive interactions are characterized by the absence of additional activity in the vicinity of interaction vertices. A technique based on tracks was developed to select the exclusive event candidates. The technique accepts approximately 60% of the signal, while eliminates most of the background due to suppression by 3--4 orders of magnitude. Additional background reduction is achieved by rejecting the region pT^{e\mu}
Mutable Aspirations and Uncertain Futures: Everyday life and The Politics of Urgency in Kathmandu
Keywords: Citizenship
City
Kathmandu
Right
Slum
Urban Planning

This dissertation interrogates the right to the city as a category of analysis with recourse to an account of extreme marginality. As a starting premise, it seeks inspiration from Kristin Ross’ (1987) take on everyday life as a site of dominant relations of power on the one hand, and an incubator of utopian possibilities on the other. To this end, the dissertation probes three key questions. The first question asks: what are the conditions of possibility enabling the “slum dwellers” (sukumbasi in Nepali) in Kathmandu, Nepal, to make claims for the right to the city? I document the rituals of everyday life and the capacity to make claims that are organized through a metaphorical framework of a “house with three pillars." The second question broaches the issue of how claims for a right to the city come up against governmental programs seeking to secure norms of private property, environmental sustainability, and elite aesthetics. It asks: How does the threat of violence forge sukumbasi political subjectivity and inform renewed strategies of inhabitance? The third question investigates what implications these strategies have for diminishing, or modifying, the right to the city project? The last two questions prompt us to locate the practices of the poor within the context of a “politics of urgency” – an ad hoc creative and counterintuitive “non-movement” forged in the crucible of crisis, in which the organized ritual of everyday life is disrupted and stretched in new and uncertain directions. It is under these conditions that the demand for the right to the city loses its aspirational spirit on the one hand, while ushering in an evolving politics of possibility, on the other. In considering the politics and contingencies of the right to the city, we are presented with a stark understanding of the possibilities and limits of the political aspirations of the poor. The dissertation draws on ethnographic research of “the slum” in Kathmandu, and aims to combine Postcolonial Urbanism, Planning Theory and Critical Urban Studies to constructively probe the role of urban everyday life in troubling the political contours of the right to the city project.
Integrated Genomic and Epigenomic Analyses of Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumour
Keywords: Brain Tumours
Cancer
Rhabdoid

CNS rhabdoid tumours (ATRTs) are lethal childhood cancers with SMARCB1 loss as the only reported recurrent alteration in a remarkably stable genome. ATRTs exhibit substantial clinical heterogeneity which has made therapeutic advances challenging. To uncover the molecular basis for clinical heterogeneity in ATRTs, this thesis undertook transcriptional profiling of ATRTs, which demonstrated that ATRTs encompassed two broad transcriptional subgroups, which correlated with distinct clinical phenotypes. Group 1 ATRT, had a proneural signature, upregulation of NOTCH signalling, and predominant supratentorial location, correlated with superior survival with radiation-free treatments. While group 2 ATRTs are characterized by mesenchymal signalling, increased BMP expression and infratentorial locations, correlated with more aggressive disease phenotype and poor survival despite high-dose chemo-radiotherapy regimens. I further investigated mechanisms of differential therapeutic outcomes in ATRTs, by performing an integrated multiplatform epi-genomic analysis of a large cohort of ATRTs. These studies showed ATRT coding regions were predominantly targeted by structural mechanisms and identified novel coding alterations that targeted loci with functions in neural development and epigenetic regulation in up to 20% of ATRTs. Using methylation and chromatin openness profiling, I demonstrated that group 2 ATRTs could be further segregated into subtypes 2A and 2B with distinct clinical associations. Group 2A comprised predominantly infratentorial tumours arising in very young patients, while group 2B comprised spinal as well as supra and infratentorial tumours arising in all ages. The chromatin landscapes of ATRT subtypes also correlated with distinct therapeutic sensitivities of subgroup-specific ATRT cell lines to a panel of signalling and epigenetic inhibitors. Significantly, I discovered that differential methylation of a novel PDGFRÎ˛-associated enhancer element confers robust sensitivity to Dasatinib and Nilotinib in group 2 ATRTs. Collectively, my thesis demonstrate that ATRTs can be segregated into 3 molecular subtypes with different therapeutic profiles, and provides important rationale for therapeutic stratification of ATRTs patients.