VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Control of Acoustic Waves by Locally Resonant Phononic Crystals
Keywords: Acoustics
Band gap materials
Band structure
Local resonance
Metamaterials
Phononic crystals

Locally resonant acoustic materials were proposed to control sound using structures with feature size orders of magnitude smaller than the acoustic wavelength in air. Millimeter-sized resonators over the audible frequency range typically consist of dense cores coupled to stiff shells through elastically soft material. Using a rigid core-shell approximation (RCSA), we analytically derive the frequency-dependent, effective inertial quantities for the fundamental translational and rotational resonances of such core-shell resonators. The effective inertia is expressible in closed form by elementary functions, enabling a mapping of the low-frequency physics to a simple model involving a point mass or a rod harmonically coupled to a box. We present an effective inertia-spring tensor (EIST) model for the low-frequency acoustic modes of phononic crystals with multiple, local, resonances within each unit cell and their coupling to spatially separated resonators. The EIST model is a generalization of the widely quoted point-mass-in-a-box representation of resonant acoustic metamaterials. Our model consists of an array of frequency-dependent, effective masses and moments of inertia coupled to near and distant neighbors by a wave-vector-dependent effective spring constant matrix. We demonstrate, using several two-dimensional and three-dimensional models, that our simple representation accurately describes exact phononic band structures involving coupled translational and rotational modes, in close agreements with the finite-element method. The existence and the frequency range of local resonance band gaps are predicted by the concurrence of negative effective mass and moment of inertia. A large local resonance gap may occur in spectral proximity to a distinct gap arising from Bragg scattering. Our model is generalized to complex dumbbell-shaped resonators, revealing a dense collection of flat ``slow sound'' bands near the local resonance band gap. We demonstrate that thin claddings of such locally resonant, phononic crystals, of only three to five unit cells in thickness, can effectively prevent sound transmission, by a combination of reflection and absorption, over much of the audible spectrum. Moreover, frequency-selective sound transmission can be enabled by engineering waveguide channels that transmit sound through the local resonance gap, the Bragg gap, or both. This offers a path to sound-sculpting claddings that can surround a noise-generating source.
Biological, Clinical, and Functional Implications of Cell-Free DNA Topology in Cancer
Keywords: Cell-Free DNA
cGAS-STING
Liquid Biopsy
Tumour Immunity

Cells can release their DNA into the extracellular space and circulation by active mechanisms or as a product of cell death. In oncology, this cell-free DNA (cfDNA) has emerged as a promising source of cancer biomarkers because it contains actionable information about a patient’s disease and can be readily obtained via a simple blood draw. In addition to its use in biomarker applications, cfDNA may also function as a mediator of pro-inflammatory signaling in the tumour microenvironment. Despite its mounting importance both clinically and physiologically, the biological features of cfDNA remain poorly understood. In particular, the structural relationship between cfDNA and other biological macromolecules – its topology – has not been thoroughly investigated. This lack of knowledge has limited the implementation of cfDNA to its full potential as a cancer biomarker, while also hampering our understanding of how cfDNA influences intercellular communication and tumour immunity. To address this gap, I first conducted a fundamental and comprehensive characterization of cfDNA topology in pre-clinical cancer models. I implemented a novel DNA-targeted immunoprecipitation assay to demonstrate that distinct topological subsets comprising membrane-protected or accessible cfDNA had unique sub-cellular origins and mechanisms of active release. I then applied these methods to clinical cohorts and found that topological characterization enhanced the diagnostic and prognostic capabilities of mitochondrial cfDNA. Based on these findings, I proposed a series of experiments to elucidate the in vivo origins of distinct cfDNA topological subsets and discussed important considerations for future clinical studies evaluating cfDNA topology as a liquid biopsy analyte. Next, I examined the impact of topology on the ability of tumour-derived cfDNA to stimulate DNA-sensing pathways in immune cells. Through rigorous mechanistic investigations, I observed pro-inflammatory macrophage signaling in response to accessible cfDNA released from tumour cells undergoing secondary necrosis. From this in vitro model, I outlined subsequent experimental steps to determine the fate of cfDNA-induced inflammation in the tumour microenvironment, and I considered the impact of cfDNA immunogenicity on the successful implementation of DNA-sensor-targeting cancer immunotherapies. Altogether, the knowledge gained from these studies contributes to a refined model of cfDNA biology and structure, which can be leveraged both for cancer liquid biopsy applications and to bolster our overall understanding of tumour-immune interactions as they relate to patient responses to immunotherapy.
Understanding the Preliminary Stages of Social Evolution in Western Black Widow Spiders
Keywords: Behavior
Bioinformatics
Genomics
Social Evolution
Spider

The transition from solitary to social living is considered one of the major evolutionary transitions. While much social evolutionary research considers costs and benefits associated with sociality, these studies are dominated by taxa with complex cooperative social behavior. Investigating species in the early stages of social evolution provides insight into evolutionary forces that underlie the initiation of sociality . I test key predictions of three hypotheses of social evolution in the western black widow spider, Latrodectus hesperus, which displays variation in sociality across its range, from solitary to facultative group living. I studied three focal populations, one facultatively group living population in British Columbia (BC), and two solitary populations, one from California (CA), and one from Texas (TX). I used an experimental approach to test patterns of kin discrimination, inbreeding depression, and aggression in two contexts across the solitary and social populations. I found that the social BC population had higher mating success with kin compared to nonkin, and did not suffer from inbreeding depression. The CA population showed the opposite pattern of higher mating success with nonkin and both solitary CA and TX populations suffered significant inbreeding depression. However, the BC population had the lowest fecundity overall, suggesting a history of inbreeding in this population. The social BC population also displayed the lowest levels of foraging aggression. However, group living individuals within BC were more aggressive than solitary living individuals. The solitary CA population was the only population that displayed ritualized escalation of agonistic behavior, suggesting an evolutionary history of high interindividual conflict. Finally, I used reduced representation sequencing to directly assess levels of inbreeding, genetic diversity, and gene flow across the three focal populations. I found that the social BC population had the highest levels of inbreeding, lowest genetic diversity, and that gene flow was restricted between all sampled populations. Together, these results suggest that an increase in relatedness and higher aggressiveness are factors that may be contributing to social group formation and continued social evolution in L. hesperus.
Fallout 250: Anishinaabe Post-Apocalypse Survivance Handbook
Keywords: Anishinaabe
Anishinaabemowin
Decolonization
Futurities
Indigenization
Indigenous

Welcome to the End of Anishinaabe Time and its afterwards. Here, Anishinaabeg and their Kin are trapped in the DeathWorld where there has been a mass destruction of Anishinaabe Lifeworld and continual fallout for 250 years. Throughout this process, the totalitarian regime has created belligerent systems known as the ®CMP (Racist Colonial Matrix of Power) to ensure that Anishinaabe forms of resistance cease to be intelligible acts. Anishinaabe Remnants (ARs) are all that remain. ARs are persecuted, imprisoned, and subjected to torturous forms of erasure. Some ARs have been so badly mutated that they have become a dangerous force of destruction feeding off the most vulnerable for their own benefit.But not all is lost. In the Post-Apocalypse, there are many Anishinaabe Remnants and Kin fighting to escape the DeathWorld, fighting to salvage what is left of Anishinaabe ways of being and create something new out of 250 years of indelible violence. This Handbook is part of the fight. In the far future, a series of Spirit Worlding events converge to launch the construction of an Intergalactic Aatisokaanan Docking Station where Survivance literature can be developed. The Fallout 250 Anishinaabe Post-Apocalypse Survivance Handbook is one such book that is brought back during the time of the Post-Apocalypse to be a guide for Anishinaabe Remnants and their Kin to light the 8th Fire and save the world! The Handbook is written in the literary genre of Role Playing Games (RPGs) and contains character descriptions, skills development, collectables, and a walkthrough for the main missions required in order to journey away from victimry towards a rapprochement with the non-human and human critters in the Post-Apocalypse. The Handbook works from the position that the reader must complete all missions in order to light the 8th Fire and live beyond the the Deathworld’s apocalyptic erasure. Are you ready? Because it’s time to Get Lit!
A Comparative Variationist Analysis of Phonetic Variation and Change in Toronto Heritage Tagalog
Keywords: bilingualism
heritage languages
language contact
phonetics
Tagalog
variationist sociolinguistics

Heritage languages are defined as a product of language contact. In this scenario, patterns of variability are often attributed to contact with the majority language. However, variability may not necessarily or solely be due to contact; it may also be driven by language-internal processes or even identity construction. This dissertation adopts a comparative variationist approach and develops a framework for examining variable patterns of bilingual sound production and the interplay between contact-, internal-, and identity-based processes underlying variation and change. Using Tagalog spontaneous speech data from two generations of heritage speakers in Toronto, and from older and younger homeland speakers in Manila, three phonetic variables are examined: the F2 of /u/, voice onset time (VOT) of /p t k/, and the realization of /r/. Inter-group comparisons and multivariate analyses reveal distinctive patterns. Focusing on Heritage Tagalog, results demonstrate that the F2 of /u/ exhibits stable variation whereas the VOT of /p t k/ and the realization of the rhotic as an approximant show signs of change. While the change in VOT may be attributed to contact with English (the heritage speakers’ majority language), the change in the use of the approximant reflects an interplay between contact with English as well as the language-internal process of lenition. Contact-induced patterns, however, do not point to complete (phonetic) assimilation. These findings suggest that heritage speakers have acquired and maintained separate categories for Tagalog sounds, but these categories nonetheless interact with those for their similar English sounds. Furthermore, the extent to which heritage speakers are oriented towards their Filipino heritage and culture influences the linguistic conditioning of /u/ and /p t k/, suggesting that structural aspects of the phonetic system are being deployed in the construction and expression of identity. Taken together, while heritage speakers display robust phonological knowledge in Tagalog, their linguistic experiences under contact have led to some changes, reflected in phonetic differences. More broadly, this study demonstrates that patterns of variability are not attributable to only one source. This work advances theories of language contact by increasing our understanding of how linguistic, social, and contact-based factors conspire to give rise to variability and change among heritage speakers.
[STATIC] Desire
Keywords: cinematic
cli-fi
climate
eclectic
metamodernist
post-cinematic

This thesis composition and its accompanying research paper documents the development of a personal compositional practice that involves the interaction of contemporary cinematic creativity tools, methods, and performance practices with the rigorous structures and aesthetics of contemporary music. This 'post-cinematic' practice is explored in this composition by using modern film music technology and methods to generate and develop musical material, and through engaging with filmic approaches to both musical form and performance practice.
Production of Race Logic and Resistance in Education: Unveiling Racism in the Turkish Educational System through the Perspectives of Kurdish Teachers and Students
Keywords: Anti-Colonial Theory
Kurdish
Kurdish Studies
Racism
Turkish Education System

Production of Race Logic and Resistance in Education: Unveiling Racism in the Turkish Educational System through the Perspectives of Kurdish Teachers and StudentsBy Sevgi Arslan A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirementsfor the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The Department of Social Justice Education Ontario Institute for the Studies in Education University of Toronto © Copyright Sevgi Arslan 2023 This research investigates the complex processes of racism within the educational context of Turkey, focusing specifically on the perspectives of Kurdish educators and students. The present study project is grounded in a discursive anti-colonial paradigm and employs a mixed-method research methodology. The primary objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms by which race logic is produced and upheld inside educational institutions in Turkey. Additionally, it examines the ways in which both students and teachers negotiate, challenge, or reinforce prevailing racist narratives and behaviors. This study seeks to contribute valuable insights to the current body of information on the interrelationships among racism, education, and resistance by employing a comprehensive analysis of data obtained via photo-elicitation, quantitative surveys, and in-depth discussions. The findings suggest that the Turkish education system plays a significant role in the continuation of racist violence and oppression. The current education system reinforces a framework that is deeply entrenched in racial categorization, leading to the marginalization and subjugation of Kurdish identities and cultural manifestations in schools. This is accomplished through various levels: epistemic (consisting of knowledge systems and cultural norms), structural (including institutionalized ideology), and direct (relating to specific actions carried out by educators). The study's findings offer useful insights that can inform the development of targeted interventions and policies to promote inclusivity, social justice, and equity within Turkey's educational system.
Preperiodicity in Arithmetic Dynamics
Keywords: arithmetic dynamics
critical points
dynamical systems
Lagrange interpolation
number theory
rational functions

Motivated by the Uniform Boundedness Conjecture of Morton and Silverman, we prove various results related to preperiodic points of algebraic dynamical systems. Our main contribution concerns the distribution of preperiodic points in one-parameter families of rational functions $f_t$ defined over a number field $K$. We show that for all $t$ outside of a set of natural density zero, every $K$-rational preperiodic point of $f_t$ is the specialization of some $K(T)$-rational preperiodic point of $f$. Assuming a weak form of the Uniform Boundedness Conjecture, we also calculate the average number of $K$-rational preperiodic points of $f$, giving some examples where this holds unconditionally. To illustrate the theory, we give new estimates on the average number of preperiodic points for the quadratic family $f_t(z) = z^2 + t$ over the field of rational numbers. This builds on work of Le Boudec and Mavraki. Our second contribution is a new technique for constructing endomorphisms with many preperiodic points. Working over a field of characteristic 0, we use Lagrange interpolation to produce degree-$d$ polynomial maps of $\A^n$ with a finite orbit of size nearly $n$ times the naïve bound. This extends a result of Hutz. For our final contribution, we introduce a new generalization of the notion of preperiodic hypersurface and explore some of its basic ramifications. We also prove that among nonlinear endomorphisms of projective space, those with a periodic critical point are Zariski dense. This answers a question of Ingram.
Interpreting Complement Coercion in Context
Keywords: aspectual verbs
complement coercion
metonymy

Complement coercion (The woman finished the coffee, The worker started a bench) has been treated as a phenomenon of mismatch and repair, where an aspectual verb (begin, finish, start, etc.) which typically takes an event argument (e.g., fight, game) instead occurs with a physical entity as its direct object (e.g. coffee, bench) (Pustejovsky and Bouillon, 1995). The specific combination of an aspectual verb and an entity type direct object is known to cause processing costs for readers(McElree et al., 2001; Traxler et al., 2002, and more). With few exceptions in past literature (e.g., Pi˜nango and Deo, 2016), the processing of these coercion sentences has been analogized to the interpretation of a covert complement verb, semantically composed but not syntactically present (finish the coffee→finish [drinking] the coffee). This means that past accounts treat coercion interpretation as lexicalized event retrieval – a process of interpreting a physical entity direct object as an event by way of lexical selection (i.e., choosing an appropriate verb to represent the event). In this dissertation, I present 3 diverse methodologies to offer a new descriptive account of complement coercion. I argue for coercion interpretation as lexically underspecified event selection, where an event sense is chosen from several broad possible meanings of the aspectual verb itself. I argue against the dominant treatment of coercion as lexicalized event retrieval, and in favour of a descriptive theory that relies on independently motivated ground principles. More broadly, I situate the processing of complement coercion as a derivative of other linguistic phenomena, as opposed to being a construction-specific process of repair. I end by noting other coercion phenomena where a similar, multidisciplinary approach might challenge prevailing assumptions that require singular construction-specific explanations.
Digital Ethnographic Explorations of Adolescent Mobilities
Keywords: Adolescents
Childhood
Critical GIS
Mobilities
Visual Ethnography

Children and adolescents have unique and important contributions to make to urban discourses; However, their experiences are usually invisible, remaining on the borders of academic work and planning practice. While there is growing scholarly work on children’s mobility, much of this work is limited to quantitative examinations of independent mobility and Active School Travel of younger children that does not always account for: a.) non-active modes of travel beyond school trips, b.) intersecting axes of identity of the mobile subject, and c.) children’s grounded experiences. Aiming to address this gap, I draw from feminist, critical-race, and decolonial perspectives underpinned in post-structural sociological framings of childhoods and mobilities to examine embodied and embedded suburban (im)mobilities for immigrant adolescents. To do so, community-based work was completed with four non-profit organizations in the city of Mississauga, Canada. I engaged twenty-eight participants in GPS mapping, visual diaries (e.g. photos and short videos), semi-structured interviews, and collaborative video-editing to explore their grounded experiences of transport. Key findings from this study are presented in three chapters. The first explores mobility as a tactical process with mundane practices highlighted as means of extending activity spaces, accessing inaccessible places, and existing adult-governed norms. The second chapter presents specific grounded mobility narratives to explore interdependent entanglement of adolescent mobilities with socioeconomic, material, and institutional processes. Finally, a re-centering of a subset of forgotten visual data of fleeting rhythms are presented in the third chapter as modes of rereading the (sub)urban beyond adult-centered constructions. Overall, the work challenges reductive readings of childhoods, and limited understandings of their reproduced mobilities and spaces in a suburban context.
Dynamic Integration of Textual Data in Digital Twins Using Concept Networks and Machine Learning
Keywords: Building Information Modeling
Concept Networks
Digital Twins
Machine Learning
Unstructured Data

Digital twins (DTs) refer to a digital environment that incorporates all data generated by a building to develop descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive models. DTs virtualize building physical products, work processes, and decision-making systems, aiming to use data and analytics to create business intelligence tools. By definition, DTs must facilitate the interplay between structured and unstructured data, accommodating fragmented parties involved in the construction and operation of a building. Despite the focus of many studies on structured data, unstructured data is the primary source of capturing business and operational knowledge, making it vital for developing business intelligence applications. The top-down and rule-based solutions that are generally used for managing structured data fail to match the non-parametric and evolutionary nature of unstructured data. Nevertheless, having a formal model for conceptualizing unstructured data is the essential first step for developing any business intelligence application. This study explores the potential advantages of using concept networks as data models for managing and integrating unstructured textual data in the context of DTs. Concept networks arrange text concepts into a graph, which provides for formal and logical manipulation and analysis of unstructured data. Inductively, unstructured data is represented through a skeleton, but not parametrized. This approach is a bottom-up approach, which contrasts the traditional top-down approaches, where knowledge is deducted and data is captured in a formal, static model. The research is limited to the domain of work orders, as managing work orders is one of the most essential tasks for facility/operational digital twins. The thesis then proceeds in three main steps. The first step is a review of the current state of digital twins and digital twinning, identifying the key research gaps in the domain, and proposing a definition for digital twinning. The second and third stages address the research gaps through two separate studies focusing on the interaction between unstructured data and users and integrating unstructured data with Building Information Modeling, respectively.