VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Human Rights and Contracts as Labour Governance: A (Post-)legal Realist Inquiry
Keywords: Law and Development
Core Labour Rights
International Labour Organization
Contract Law
Washington Consensus
Neoliberalism
Equality Rights
Freedom of Association
Successor Rights
Collective Bargaining
Critical Legal Studies
American Legal Realism
Indeterminacy
Legal Semiotics
Interruption of Performance
Substantive Equality

Law and development mainstream conceptions of labour market policies, while still marked by long-dominant views of contract law as economically superior to any labour regulation, have recently incorporated certain specific labour (human) rights. Core labour rights are thus accepted by global policy-makers, on the basis of their radical distinction from non-core labour standards and their rationalization according to certain foundational principles. This thesis criticizes the prevailing dichotomies between core labour rights and non-core standards, on the one hand, and contract law and regulation, on the other, bringing to bear the post-legal realist idea of legal indeterminacy. It argues that the organizing legal concepts that justify these dichotomies contain gaps and ambiguities that often lead to contradictory and indeterminate outcomes. It thus suggests that the core/non-core labour standards and contract/regulation distinctions are unproductive and should be rejected if a better conception of labour governance is to come to fruition.
The Development and Evaluation of a Fully-coupled Monolithic Approach to Aero-structural Analysis and Optimization
Keywords: CFD
optimiztion
aerodynamics
structural
monolithic
fluid-structure interaction
aero-structural
analysis

A monolithic approach to aero-structural analysis and optimization has been developed and implemented. In contrast to a partitioned approach which uses individual fluid and structural solvers to solve their respective systems separately, the monolithic approach solves a fully-coupled system simultaneously, enforcing solution compatibility across the sub-system interfaces at each iteration. In this work, a three-field formulation is used, consisting of fluid, structural, and fluid mesh-movement sub-systems. The performance of the monolithic approach is characterized using 1-D unsteady and 2-D steady analysis problems, and compared with a partitioned approach. Four steady model aero-structural optimization problems are also investigated. Gradients of the objective function are computed using the discrete-adjoint and flow-sensitivity (direct) methods. In each case, the monolithic approach is shown to be a promising option for efficient aero-structural analysis and optimization, though the implementation requires additional development of coupling sub-matrices when compared to a partitioned approach.
Factors Affecting Gaseous Mercury (Hg) Emissions from Soils: Insights from Disturbance due to Frest Harvesting and Hg Source Depth Manipulation
Keywords: Mercury
Emission
Forest Harvesting
Soil
Isotope
Source Depth
Dry Flux
Soil Wetting
Flux
Wet Flux
Solar Radiation
Soil Moisture
Leaf Litter
Sequestration
ICP-MS
Tekran
Tracer
Enriched Mercury Isotope
Forest Floor
Deposition
Biomass Harvesting
Capillary Transport
Hg
Cycling

This thesis explored the impacts of forest harvesting on gaseous elemental mercury emissions from forest soils in both field and laboratory studies, through novel use of enriched mercury isotope tracers. Forest floor Hg emissions, sourced from legacy deposition, increased proportionally to the vegetation quantity removed, with biomass harvesting most exacerbating emissions. Contemporary Hg deposition did not appear to be influenced by harvesting. Some of the tracer was rapidly lost to the atmosphere (~8%), but most was sequestered within the soil. Two regimes facilitating Hg emissions were observed in low-light conditions. Under extremely dry conditions deeper Hg sources (&gt; 2cm depth) were as equally susceptible to emission as shallower sources. Following wetting to field capacity, emissions were elevated only from shallow sources, likely as a result of upward capillary transport. Impacts of vegetation removal and dry fluxes are previously uncharacterized and may constitute large additional sources to regional atmospheric Hg cycling.
Business Models for Selling AEC Knowledge over the Cloud
Keywords: Business Models
Cloud Computing
Project Management
Business Intelligence
Building Information Modelling
Software Tailoring
AEC Firms

Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) firms are in need to modify their business models to exploit available opportunities by the increasing role of knowledge management and information technology in the global economy. This thesis will propose business models for AEC firms to sell consulting knowledge on-line. The three proposed business models are: business and management intelligence, design optimization and innovation and; software customization and real time data analytics. The business models are based on selling online consulting knowledge services customized to the customers' business needs through enabling emerging information technologies like cloud computing. The models were developed through benchmarking cases in other industries, previous classifications in the area of business models and, experts insights. The suitability of these models to different clients will be assessed in addition to the most suitable revenue streams. Finally, the validated final business models will be presented in the framework by Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010).
The Effect of Ankle Arthritis on Hindfoot Kinematics During Heel Rise
Keywords: foot & ankle biomechanics
arthritis

The act of raising the heel up is an essential portion of the gait cycle in humans, comprising the third rocker in the gait cycle. This act further demands specific motions from the hindfoot, and the surrounding structures. These motions have been previously studied and are reasonably well understood. End-stage osteoarthritis of the ankle (or ESOA) has been theorized to affect not only the ankle joint, but the same joints required for heel rise. (i.e. - hindfoot, lower leg, and foot) In the present research, the powerful effect that ESOA has on the lower leg, hindfoot and forefoot biomechanical relationship was demonstrated as significantly different from that of healthy age and sex-matched controls. This has implications not only for further research, but potentially treatment as well.
Adhesion of Epoxy Coating to Steel Reinforcement under Alkaline Conditions
Keywords: adhesion
Epoxy
Cathodic Disbondment
pH
Alkaline
Disbondment

Epoxy-coated reinforcement was developed in the 1970s and became the primary corrosion protection technique in North America. Throughout the years, ECR has exhibited mixed results, with some regions and jurisdictions reporting good corrosion protection while others reported poor field performance of ECR. It has been established that epoxy coating can lose its adhesion in a wet environment thus providing poor corrosion protection of reinforcing steel. However, limited research has been done on the influence of concrete pore solution on adhesion of epoxy coating to reinforcing steel. This research investigates the effect of high alkali conditions on performance of ECR bars. Based on the test results, it was found that the rate of disbondment increases as the hydroxyl ion concentration increases and presence of high temperature accelerates the disbondment process.
Molecular Characterization, Expression Analysis and Physiological Roles of Allatotropin in Rhodnius prolixus
Keywords: Rhodnius prolixus
blood-gorging
neurophysiology
allatotropin
physiology
neuroendocrinology
immunoreactivity
insect
hemipteran

Rhodnius prolixus, the principal Chagas disease vector, requires a blood meal to complete its moult cycle into the next stage. Allatotropins (ATs), a family of peptides first isolated from Manduca sexta, have been shown to regulate the biosynthesis of juvenile hormone, an insect growth and development hormone; however, ATs, being multimodal peptides, also exhibit myotropic effects on some insect visceral muscles. Here, this AT family of peptides has been examined in R. prolixus. Genomic analysis revealed a cDNA fragment of 973bp encoding one mature amidated AT tridecapeptide (Rhopr-AT) with high transcript levels observed, via RT-PCR, in the central nervous system (CNS) and pool of fat body and trachea. AT-like immunoreactive neurons were found throughout the CNS and AT-like immunoreactive processes were present on some peripheral tissues. Bioassays using hindgut and dorsal vessel contraction, however, failed to demonstrate any effect of Rhopr-AT on these tissues. Future work will examine the effects of Rhopr-AT on JH production.
Maternal Intakes and Sources of Folate and other One-carbon Nutrients in the Post-fortification Era
Keywords: folate
vitamin B12
vitamin B6
choline
betaine
methionine
pregnancy
one-carbon nutrients
food frequency questionnaire
supplements

This study characterizes B vitamin supplement use prior to and during pregnancy, changes in dietary one-carbon nutrient intakes (folate, vitamin B12, vitamin B6, choline, betaine and methionine) and most significant dietary sources. In Canadian women (Toronto, Ontario) supplemental (n=364) and dietary intakes (using a food frequency questionnaire) (n=290) were assessed during early and late pregnancy. Majority reported using a B vitamin-containing supplement prior (60%) to and during early (93%) and late (89%) pregnancy. Median supplemental intakes of folic acid, B12 and B6 were 1000 µg/d, 2.6 µg/d and 1.9 mg/d, respectively. Dietary one-carbon nutrient intakes did not change appreciably between early and late pregnancy. Most significant sources of folate and B6 were fruits and vegetables, of folic acid were cereals and grains and of B12 were dairy and egg products. Overall, this study provides novel information about one-carbon nutrient intakes in pregnancy which are crucial in maternal and child health.
The Sonch’on Trial: Legalizing Colonial Intentions
Keywords: Colonial Korea
Law in Korea
Anti-Colonial Movement
Sunchon Case
Korean Conspiracy Trial
Legal Reforms in Korea
Colonial Administration
Torture

This thesis takes a fresh look at the legal practices observed at the Sŏnch’ŏn trial, the main trial of the Korean Conspiracy Case. On 28 June 1912, 132 suspects were brought forth on charges of alleged assassination of the first Governor-General of colonial Korea, Masatake Terauchi. It is argued that if the immediate local interests of the new administration invariably affected the entire case, what determined the nature of the suspects’ treatment before and during the trial was a set of formal and informal legal practices that were transported to the colony amidst legal reforms. By analysis the trial from an empire-wide perspective, this study looks at how specific legal practices from the metropole were exacerbated in Korea through legal loopholes and the agency of legal actors and how such informal and disavowed legal practices both defined the legal system of the colony and helped sustain the Japanese colonial venture.
Thermo-mechanical Behaviour of Turbine Disc Assembly in the Presence of Residual Stresses
Keywords: Thermo-Mechanical
Residual Stress
Shot Peening
Turbine Disc Assembly
Finite Element Method

A comprehensive three dimensional coupled thermo-mechanical finite element study is performed on turbine blade attachments in gas turbine engines. The effects of the self-generated centrifugal forces of the disc and the associated blades, thermal loads, and shot peening residual are all considered in this thesis. Three aspects of the work were accordingly examined. The first was concerned with the coupled thermo-mechanical stress analysis and load sharing between the teeth of the fir-tree root. The second was devoted to the development of a complete model incorporating the effect of shot peening residual stresses upon the developed stress state. The effectiveness of shot peening treatment in response to cyclic thermo-mechanical loadings at the contact interface has also been studied. The third was concerned with the validation of some aspects of the developed models analytically using closed form solutions and experimentally using photoelasticity.
The Role of Visuomotor Regulation Processes on Perceived Audiovisual Events
Keywords: multisensory integration
perception
action
vision

Recent evidence suggests audiovisual perception changes as one engages in action. Specifically, if an audiovisual illusion comprised of 2 flashes and 1 beep is presented during the high velocity portion of upper- limb movements, the influence of the auditory stimuli is subdued. The goal of this thesis was to examine if visuomotor regulation processes that rely on information obtained when the limb is traveling at a high velocity could explain this perceptual modulation. In the present study, to control for engagement in visuomotor regulation processes, vision of the environment was manipulated. In conditions without vision of the environment, participants did not show the noted modulation of the audiovisual illusion. Also, analysis of the movement trajectories and endpoint precision revealed that movements without vision were less controlled than movements performed with vision. These results suggest that engagement in visuomotor regulation processes can influence perception of certain audiovisual events during goal-directed action.
Role of Chromosomal Type II Toxin-antitoxin Modules in Survival of Streptococcus mutans
Keywords: Toxin-antitoxin
Streptococcus mutans

Type II toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are composed of a stable toxin and its cognate unstable antitoxin that impedes the toxin through direct interaction. The human oral pathogen Streptococcus mutans uses a quorum-sensing peptide (CSP) as a stress-inducible pheromone to synchronize gene expression in response to specific stressors. The objectives of this study were to investigate the role of S. mutans MazEF TA in cell survival and characterize the functionality of CSP-inducible chromosomal type II TAs. Our results suggest that MazEF represents a stress-response element. Interestingly, S. mutans negatively regulates its MazEF system under high-cell-density environment that is characteristic of oral biofilms. S. mutans also encodes a novel chromosomal type II TA involved in biofilm formation and development of dormant persister cells. The results from this study suggest a complex interplay between quorum-sensing (signal), type II TA activation (response), and persister formation (phenotype) as a reaction to environmental perturbations.
Mechanisms that Jeopardize Skeletal Muscle Perfusion during Surgery
Keywords: Muscle Perfusion
Phenylephrine
Serum Lactate
Creatine Kinase
Muscle Damage
Muscle Flap
Neurosurgery
Free Tissue Transfer
Rhabdomyolysis
Craniotomy
Rectus Abdominus Muscle
Oxygen
Body Mass Index
Microvascular Blood Flow

We assessed potential mechanisms that may jeopardize skeletal muscle perfusion during surgery leading to adverse outcomes including muscle injury and flap hypoxia. In craniotomy patients, we observed an increase in serum lactate and creatine kinase and urine myoglobin; indicative of muscle damage. The early rise in lactate correlated with elevated BMI, suggesting that obesity caused tissue compression and muscle ischemia. In our rodent model, we investigated the effects of flap preparation and phenylephrine on muscle perfusion by assessing microvascular blood flow and tissue PO2. Phenylephrine reduced muscle blood flow by ~20%, yet increased PO2 by ~10% suggestive of decreased O2 metabolism. At baseline, muscle flap blood flow was reduced by ~50% while PO2 was severely reduced ~80% (~5 torr) suggesting that flap perfusion was attenuated and O2 metabolism was increased. Phenylephrine infusion further reduced muscle flap perfusion. These data demonstrate multiple mechanisms by which muscle perfusion is jeopardized during surgery.
The Role of SIRT1 in Pancreatic Beta Cells
Keywords: SIRT1
Diabetes

SIRT1 has emerged as a critical regulator of glucose homeostasis and metabolism in the past decade. Glucose homeostasis is tightly regulated by insulin however, the factors affecting insulin release are still incompletely understood. Relatively recent evidence has shown SIRT1 to be a positive mediator of insulin secretion although its mechanism is largely unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine how SIRT1 regulates insulin release. Using a pancreatic beta cell-specific Sirt1 knockout mouse model (Sirt1BKO), oral glucose challenge revealed a glucose intolerant phenotype with reduced insulin secretion. Isolated Sirt1BKO islets also secreted less insulin without changes to insulin content or islet morphology. Intracellular defects were localized to the mitochondria and showed suppressed bioenergetics negatively affecting downstream glucose-induced calcium influx. This is the first study using a Sirt1BKO mouse model to show novel mitochondrial genes under SIRT1 regulation and when impaired, results in reduced insulin secretion.
Reliability and Responsiveness of the Standardized Universal Pain Evaluations for Rheumatology Providers for Children and Youth (SUPER-KIDZ)
Keywords: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis
Pain

Aims: To determine the test-retest reliability and responsiveness of a new computerized 20-item pain measure, SUPER-KIDZ, in children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). Methods: A single centre prospective cohort study of JIA patients aged 8-18 years was performed. For each SUPER-KIDZ item, test-retest reliability analysis was done in patients expected to have stable pain, and responsiveness was evaluated after intra-articular steroid injection(s). Results: Fifty-one subjects were included. Good internal consistency (α=0.73-0.92) was demonstrated for the 3 SUPER-KIDZ domains. Acceptable test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient or kappa ≥0.80) was found for 15 SUPER-KIDZ items. At 2 weeks post-injection, 16 items were responsive to change in pain (standardized response mean=0.66-0.82, significant Wilcoxon signed rank and linear mixed model). Conclusions: The majority of the SUPER-KIDZ items have acceptable test-retest reliability and responsiveness properties. If validity is demonstrated, this measure could be implemented as a standardized comprehensive pain tool for JIA patients.
Collective Epithelial Cell Migration in vitro Driven by Mechanical and Chemical Cues
Keywords: Collective Cell Migration
Mechanotaxis
Haptokinesis

Cells in vivo respond to chemical and mechanical cues in the environment. In fact, it is the resulting migration of cells as a cohesive group that underlies embryonic morphogenesis, wound repair and cancer tumour development and invasion. Techniques have been developed to investigate chemotaxis, haptotaxis and mechanotaxis &ndash; the directional movement of cells in response to soluble chemical cues, substrate-bound chemical cues and mechanical cues respectively. Most of the existing tools however, have been designed for and applied to the investigation of single cell migration. Given its importance in vivo, there is a need for adapting these methods and applying them to characterize directed collective cell migration. The main objective of my thesis was to engineer tools and quantitative methods to investigate collective cell migration and use them to compare single and collective migration in response to mechanical cues and substrate-adhered chemical cues in vitro.
Nanostructured Photocatalysis for Water Purification
Keywords: photocatalysis
water treatment
solar disinfection
titanium dioxide
E. coli

The integration of photocatalytic advanced oxidation into solar disinfection is a robust method of improving the microbial and chemical quality of treated water. This study evaluates the performance of photocatalytic solar irradiated batch reactors through an analytical model that reduces treatment parameters by simplifying photoreactor geometry and relating performance to reactor configuration. Accompanying experiments compare the performance of titanium dioxide coated foams of varying pore size to suspended and fixed film configurations through degradation of organic dyes (acid orange 24 and methylene blue), Escherichia coli, and 1,4-dioxane. Results indicate that a catalyst immobilized on a foam support can match the performance of a suspension due to effective mass transport and association between analyte and foam. Additionally, the potential treatment capacity of solar photocatalysis was compared to conventional treatment methods. Results of this comparison stress the fundamental limitation of solar photocatalysis if visible light wavelengths are not harnessed.
Derivation and Genetic Validation of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Cell Lines and Characterization of Their Growth Requirements
Keywords: Renal Cell Carcinoma
Cell Lines

While extirpative surgery is curative for localized clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), many patients develop recurrences or present with metastatic disease. Several aspects of ccRCC biology have been investigated, but these have been done in cell lines, which are known to poorly represent the tumour. Since cell lines are amenable to a wide array of experimental testing, the studies presented here demonstrate a novel method to generate ccRCC cell lines from primary tumours, which increases the rate of primary tumour cell line generation four fold. Additionally, ccRCC cells do not grow in serum-free media, which has been shown to be beneficial in other cancers. Therefore, we interrogated the effect of exogenous growth factors to optimize our serum-free media growth conditions, among which TGFb1 appeared to elicit the largest mitogenic effect. Once optimized, these findings will provide a valuable tool for understanding ccRCC tumour cell biology and identifying therapeutic targets.
Investigation of the Mechanism and Structure of the Cage-like Complex formed by the Escherichia coli Inducible Lysine Decarboxylase LdcI and the MoxR AAA+ ATPase RavA
Keywords: Protein Purification
Protein Interaction
NMR
Gel Filtration Chromatography
Cryo-EM
Acid Stress

The gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli, a neutralophile, is remarkable in its defenses against acid stress. Of interest to our laboratory is the inducible lysine decarboxylase (LdcI) system, an acid resistance system which renders acid resistance to E. coli in mild acid stress (~pH 5). It was found that this enzyme forms an extremely large (~3.3 MDa) and tight complex (Kd ~ 0.56 μM) with a MoxR AAA+ ATPase named Regulatory ATPase Variant A (RavA). The cryo-EM structure at 14 Å was determined. Through size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) experiments, the binding sites on both LdcI and RavA have been determined. It is proposed that the complex can form through both charged and hydrophobic interactions. In the course of these studies, unexpected observations led to the characterization of the LARA domain of RavA as an amyloid protein under in vitro conditions. The physiological significance of this observation is still under investigation.
Probabilistic Siamese Networks for Learning Representations
Keywords: Machine Learning
Neural Networks

We explore the training of deep neural networks to produce vector representations using weakly labelled information in the form of binary similarity labels for pairs of training images. Previous methods such as siamese networks, IMAX and others, have used fixed cost functions such as L 1, L2-norms and mutual information to drive the representations of similar images together and different images apart. In this work, we formulate learning as maximizing the likelihood of binary similarity labels for pairs of input images, under a parameterized probabilistic similarity model. We describe and evaluate several forms of the similarity model that account for false positives and false negatives differently. We extract representations of MNIST, AT&T ORL and COIL-100 images and use them to obtain classification results. We compare these results with state-of-the-art techniques such as deep neural networks and convolutional neural networks. We also study our method from a dimensionality reduction prospective.