VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Variability in the Age of Schooling Contributes to the Link between Literacy and Numeracy in Côte d’Ivoire
Keywords: age
age-for-grade
Côte d’Ivoire
literacy
numeracy

We explored the predictors of literacy and numeracy, and their covariance (overlap between the two skills) in rural Côte d’Ivoire. Ivorian children are often old for their grade due to late enrollment and grade repetition, leading to variation in age-for-grade (i.e., how far a child’s age differs from policy age for a given grade). Structural equation models were constructed to understand how cognitive components and individual-level factors predict literacy and numeracy covariance. Phonological awareness, numerical magnitude, ordinality, working memory, and visual attention were cognitive predictors of covariance. Additionally, age was positively related to covariance and age-for-grade was negatively related to covariance. Post-hoc multi-group modelling revealed literacy and numeracy covariance was significant for the on-time group (students in the correct grade based on policy age) but not the late group (students in a lower grade). Our results suggest that literacy and numeracy covariance depend on the maturity of underlying cognitive components.
Leadership For The Development Of Positive Culture: How Leaders Foster Positive Cultures In Single-gendered Independent Schools
Keywords: education
independent schools
positive culture
single-gendered

While significant research has been done in the area of school culture, a focus on independent schools and the barriers to positive culture as well as the strategies employed to overcome said barriers have not been sufficiently examined. This paper delves into the intricacies of culture creation and maintenance in single-gendered independent schools in Canada. This paper argues that there are specific strategies that can be employed by leaders in order to foster a positive culture in their schools, as well as markers that point to the existence of toxic cultures within their institutions. It is also important to recognize that there are certain leadership foci that directly contribute to the development of a positive school culture. Rooted in qualitative research collected from a series of semi-structured interviews with current professionals, this paper concludes that there are principles that can provide a foundation for positive culture building in independent schools.Keywords: single-gendered, independent schools, education, toxic culture, positive culture, educational leadership, effective leadership
On the Design and Validation of an Autonomous Vehicle Perception System for the SAE/GM AutoDrive Challenge II
Keywords: Autodrive Challenge
Autonomous Vehicle
aUToronto

The University of Toronto Team aUToronto started a new SAE/GM Autodrive Challenge Series II from 2021 to 2025 after a successful four-year run in Series I. This challenge series tasks participating university teams to develop an autonomous vehicle system that can achieve SAE J3016™ Standard Level 4 autonomy by the end of the fourth year and demonstrate its capability at the University of Michigan MCity autonomous vehicle proving ground. The first year of the challenge series asks the team to develop a perception system for an autonomous vehicle and complete detection and tracking tasks for objects commonly seen on the road. The team excelled in all the challenge categories, and we placed first place in all but two competition categories. This thesis describes our winning entry for the Year 1 competition from a Team Principal's system design perspective, and our effort in automating testing and validation for our software system.
An Evaluation of Treatment Response and Clinical Event-free Survival in Autoimmune Hepatitis: A Canadian Multicentre Cohort Analysis
Keywords: autoimmune hepatitis
autoimmune liver disease
hepatology
mixed-effects modelling
survival
treatment response

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a rare immune-mediated inflammatory liver disease, that if left untreated, can progress to liver decompensation, liver transplantation, or death. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is a surrogate marker of treatment response and serves as an indicator of disease activity. The first study examined the prognostic factors that were associated with ALT improvements during the first 18 months of treatment. This study found that older age was associated with improvement in ALT at 6 and 12 months, whereas baseline biochemistry, cirrhosis status, and medication dose did not significantly impact ALT over time. The second study investigated the association of dynamic biochemical patterns overtime on the risk of experiencing a liver-related clinical event. This study showed that continuous elevations in liver transaminase, but not immunoglobulin G, were associated with an increased risk of experiencing a liver decompensation event, liver transplantation, or death.
Validation of Automatic Diadochokinesis Tools for the Assessment of Dysarthria in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Keywords: acoustics
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
automatic
dysarthria
signal processing
speech

Oral diadochokinesis (DDK) is a dysarthria assessment task. Automatic DDK analysis algorithms have mostly been validated in individuals with no to mild dysarthria and uniform syllable tasks. The goal of this study was to evaluate the performance of five DDK algorithms across dysarthria severity and syllable type. 282 recordings of /ba/, /pa/, and /ta/ from 145 participants with ALS were analyzed. The recordings were stratified into mild, moderate, or severe dysarthria groups. The number of syllables, DDK rate, and cycle-to-cycle temporal variability (cTV) were extracted. The absolute energy algorithm yielded the strongest agreement with manual analysis across all severity groups, but showed variation for /ta/ tasks. Absolute energy-based algorithms appeared to be the most robust for DDK analysis across dysarthria severity and syllable types, though limited against severe dysarthria and alveolar syllable contexts. This work can inform clinicians and researchers of the best tools to use while conducting DDK analysis.
Influence of Genome-wide Variation on Complex Disease Risk in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome
Keywords: 22q11.2 deletion syndrome
copy number variation
dyslipidemia
microRNA
polygenic risk score
schizophrenia

The 22q11.2 deletion has been associated with increased risk for many complex disorders. Mechanisms underlying its variable expression, however, are not well understood. In this thesis, I test the hypothesis that genome-wide variation may influence the expression of schizophrenia and lipid metabolism disorders in individuals with a 22q11.2 deletion. We hypothesized that 22q11.2 deletion-related microRNA dysregulation may exacerbate schizophrenia risk associated with additional rare copy number variants (CNVs). Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that individuals with schizophrenia were about twice as likely versus those without to have an additional rare CNV overlapping a gene targeted by a microRNA. In our study of lipid levels, we identified two pathogenic rare variants, and an association between polygenic risk scores and lipid levels. Collectively, these results support the role of genome-wide variation in modifying the expression of the 22q11.2 deletion and implicate cellular mechanisms that may contribute to these complex disorders.
Investigating the Role of Fatty-acid Synthesis and S-Palmitoylation on Coronavirus Infection
Keywords: Coronavirus
FASN
palmitoylation
SARS-CoV-2
Spike
ZDHHC

The cytosolic domain of Spike contains highly conserved cysteine residues that are potential sites of S-palmitoylation; a PTM mediated by palmitoyl transferases which add palmitate to the target protein. Here, we investigated the cytosolic domain of Spike and its interaction with the palmitoyl transferase ZDHHC5. We found that the Spike protein is palmitoylated and that increased abundance of ZDHHC5 resulted in hyper-palmitoylation of Spike while silencing of ZDHHC5 reduced palmitoylation as well as the ability of the human coronavirus 229E to form viral plaques in cell monolayers. We used a fatty acid synthase inhibitor TVB-3166 to reduce palmitoyl-CoA levels which in turn eliminated palmitoylation of SARS-CoV2 Spike, attenuates the ability of human coronavirus 229E to form plaques and reduced the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in epithelial cells. Thus, inhibition of the Spike protein palmitoylation has the potential to treat SARS-CoV-2 and other coronavirus infections.
Engineering Approaches to Encourage Various Pro-Social Behaviours
Keywords: Autism Interventions
Pro-environmental behaviour
PsychEng

To meet sustainability targets, more interventions that lead to behaviour changes are needed, towards more sustainable habits. In part 1, a blocked-sink intervention is studied across three experiments to reduce water consumption. In an online study, participants reduced water use by 14%. A preliminary in-person study found the intervention did motivate participants to reduce water use in some conditions and could potentially lead to water-use behaviour change. Applying this outflow-limiting strategy is discussed with respect to other resource-consuming scenarios. As the number of children being diagnosed with autism increases, more diverse social-skills interventions are needed. In part 2, I explore a novel intervention to help autistic children improve social-communication skills, while learning how to computer program. Students are asked to program a chatbot that can mimic a human, while implicitly learn socialization skills. A feasibility study found social validity for this program. Next steps to improve student social-skill acquisition through the program are discussed.
An Analysis of Emergency Department Self-harm Presentations during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Keywords: covid-19
emergency medicine
pandemic
psychiatry
self-harm
suicide

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by concerns regarding increased suicides due to exacerbated stressors and the potential impact of SARS-Cov-2 infection and COVID-19 disease. Emergency department (ED) self-harm presentations can be used as a proxy indicator for suicides. Therefore, the current study analyzed the number of self-harm presentations to the three major trauma centres in Toronto, Canada during the pandemic’s first year. A chart review of presenting patients was then conducted to characterize the pandemic’s potential suicidogenic effects and identify at-risk populations. It was hypothesized that ED self-harm presentations would increase and presentation characteristics would change during the pandemic. It was found that while self-harm presentations did not increase, the proportion of medically severe injuries increased, and several suicide-related risk factors were independently associated with pandemic presentations. These results may be informative for suicide prevention strategies targeting vulnerable populations both during the pandemic and beyond.
New Cathodes Now and Recycling Later: Dynamic Scenarios to Reduce Battery Material use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Light-duty Electric Vehicle Adoption in the U.S.
Keywords: battery chemistry
climate change
critical metals
electric vehicles
lithium-ion batteries
recycling

Electric vehicles (EV) have an important role in mitigating climate change impacts from personal travel. Increasing the uptake of EVs requires a substantial increase in the production of lithium-ion batteries (LIB), which largely rely on critical metals and contribute to EV life cycle emissions. By using a fleet life cycle assessment model, we evaluated the battery material demand and GHG emissions implications from high EV penetration rates for the US light-duty vehicle (LDV) fleet from 2020-2050. Our findings demonstrated that there are significant supply constraint risks for cobalt, lithium, and nickel, if the US relies primarily on EV deployments to achieve its 2˚C sectoral mitigation target. We also found that increasing recycling, shifting battery chemistry, and adopting renewable energy sources for battery production can avoid 330 million tonnes in cumulative GHG emissions from 2020-2050. This is equivalent to 20% of the US transportation sector’s annual GHG emissions in 2020.
Podocyte Injury in Primary Membranous Nephropathy: Evidence Supporting a Role for Complement
Keywords: Complement System
Membranous Nephropathy
Podocyte injury

Podocytes are differentiated epithelial cells playing an essential role to ensure a normal function of the glomerular filtration barrier (GFB). Podocyte injury is involved in the pathogenesis of numerous glomerular diseases, including primary membranous nephropathy (PMN), leading cause of nephrotic syndrome in adults and common cause of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). The Heymann’s nephritis model of PMN shows that proteinuria is complement-mediated, however the pathogenetic role of complement in human PMN remains unclear. We demonstrated that complement deposition can be detected on podocytes exposed to serum of PMN patients, leading to actin disruption. Subsequently, we aimed to demonstrate both structural and functional effects of complement deposition on podocytes, using an in-vitro model of immortalized human podocytes. Complement activation induced intracellular calcium increase, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, intracellular ATP depletion and actin cytoskeleton disruption, and ultimately resulted in impaired podocyte migration. Consequences of complement activation were reversible via complement inhibition.
“I don’t like working in a group because criticism is not constructive”: An Exploratory Study of International Female Students’ Perceptions and Experiences of EAP/ESL Collaborative Projects in Canadian Post-secondary Institutions
Keywords: Canadian post-secondary education
Group work
International female students

With their steady increase in numbers, international female students remain a significant group in the Canadian post-secondary educational landscape. This qualitative study explored the perceptions and lived experiences of 14 international female students from 10 countries with small group work in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) or English as a Second Language (ESL) programs in several Canadian post-secondary institutions. The data were collected using in-depth individual interviews and a focus group via Zoom and analyzed thematically. Six main themes were identified: (1) the nature of interactions with male group mates; (2) the need for cultural adjustments; (3) the influence of group work on language learning; (4) the psychological effects of group work; (5) notions of group work in Canadian post-secondary classrooms; and (6) personal attitudes towards group work. The findings have implications for different stakeholders in the Canadian higher education context.
Impact of Digital Counselling with Social Network Support for Self-care on Health-related Quality of Life in Chronic Kidney Disease
Keywords: Cognitive-behavioural therapy
Digital counselling
Kidney disease
Motivational interviewing
Self-care
Social support

Self-care behaviours are essential for maintaining and improving health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. ODYSSEE-vCHAT, a digital counselling program with social network support (SNS), targets low self-care adherence. This thesis assessed the link between ODYSSEE-vCHAT engagement and HRQOL at 4 months. High (≥ 33 minutes) versus No Usage of digital counselling was associated with improved mental health. High (≥ 65 minutes) versus No Usage of SNS was linked to reduced symptoms and problems, as well as improved mental health and engagement in activities for living well. High Usage of both digital counselling and SNS (≥ 150 minutes) was positively associated with mental health and engagement in activities for living well compared to No Usage, while Low Usage (> 0 and < 150 minutes) was negatively associated with physical functioning. Findings suggest that the therapeutic impact of digital counselling for CKD self-care is improved through SNS.
Considering Process: Investigating Practice and Methodology in Filipinx Canadian Theatre Creation
Keywords: Asian-Canadian
Filipino-Canadian
Methodology
Pagkikipagkapwa
Process
Theatre

Considering Process: Investigating Practice and Methodology in Filipinx Canadian Theatre Creation explores the pre-colonial Filipinx concept of pagkikipagkapwa—being ultimately connected to one another and the world around us—in the processes of Filipinx Canadian artists. Through interviews with research partners, we observe the concept of pagkikipagkapwa in action as it highlights collaboration and joy in the creation of theatre making. Beginning with a brief explanation of pagkikipagkapwa, this project guides readers to find pagkikipagkapwa in the directorial process of Nina Lee Aquino, the collaborative writing processes of Miss Orient(ed), People Power, Through the Bamboo, and Pedestal Pinays, as well as the individual writing processes of Marie Beath Badian, Marie-Leofeli Barlizo, and Leon Aureus. As witnesses to these methodologies, this thesis calls us to consider the present-day processes of racialized artists as adaptations of an ancestral understanding of art making. These processes reflect a pre-colonial understanding of theatre and performance, which ultimately serves as invaluable knowledge in the creation of culture.
Cubical Homotopy and Homology Groups
Keywords: cubical set
homology group
homotopy group
Hurewicz theorem

We define and study homotopy and homology groups of cubical sets. To this end, we give four definitions of homotopy groups of a cubical set, prove that they are equivalent, and further that they agree with their topological analogues via the geometric realization functor. We provide purely combinatorial proofs of several classical theorems, including: product preservation, commutativity of higher homotopy groups, the long exact sequence of a fibration, and Whitehead's theorem. We also give an elementary proof of the Hurewicz theorem relating homotopy and homology groups of a cubical Kan complex.
Maya Women, Non-traditional Agriculture and “Care” : Rethinking Feminist Geographies of “Care” from the Guatemalan Highlands
Keywords: care
care work
cuerpo-territorio
Development
feminist political ecology

To alleviate poverty, the Guatemalan State and USAID facilitated a transition from sustenance to non-traditional export crops in the 1970s. The transition disrupted Maya women’s land management practices by reducing land access. Today, the Highlands is the nation’s leading vegetable exporter, while boasting the highest rates of food insecurity and malnutrition. This thesis demonstrates how the meanings of care work within development discourses imperil and undermine Maya women’s access to, and control over, land. I draw on the concept of cuerpo-territorio (body-land) to highlight how access to land is constitutive of Maya women’s ability to care for communities. I undertake a discourse analysis of export policies, while tracing the movement of the Women’s Association for the Development of Sacatepéquez as they transition back to milpa sustenance farming. My findings demonstrate how territorial dispossession and Indigenous geographies of care are interconnected, revealing a more complicated understandings of care in feminist geography. Para aliviar la pobreza, el Estado guatemalteco y USAID facilitaron una transición de cultivos de sustento a cultivos de exportación no tradicionales en la década de 1970. La transición interrumpió las prácticas de gestión de la tierra de las mujeres mayas al reducir el acceso a la tierra. Hoy, los altiplanos es el principal exportador de vegetales del país, al tiempo que cuenta con las tasas más altas de inseguridad alimentaria y desnutrición. Esta tesis demuestra cómo los significados del trabajo de cuidado dentro de los discursos de desarrollo ponen en peligro y socavan el acceso y el control de las mujeres mayas sobre la tierra. Se basa en el concepto de cuerpo-territorio para resaltar cómo el acceso a la tierra es constitutivo de la capacidad de las mujeres mayas para cuidar de las comunidades. Realizo un análisis del discurso de las políticas de exportación, al mismo tiempo que sigo el movimiento de la Asociación de mujeres para el desarrollo de Sacatepéquez en su transición de regreso a la agricultura de subsistencia de la milpa. Mis hallazgos demuestran cómo el despojo territorial y las geografías indígenas del cuidado están interconectados, revelando una comprensión más complicada del cuidado en la geografía feminista.
Longitudinal Patterns of Functional Connectivity in the Frontoparietal and Default Mode Networks in Moderate-severe Traumatic Brain Injury
Keywords: functional connectivity
longitudinal
magnetic resonance imaging
recovery
traumatic brain injury

Moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) disrupts neural network functional connectivity, with recovery implications. Longitudinal studies in the chronic stages of injury are needed to better understand connectivity trajectories and mechanisms. This thesis characterized resting-state functional connectivity patterns in the frontoparietal network (FPN) and default mode network (DMN) at approximately 0.5, 1-1.5, and 3+ years after moderate-severe TBI compared to healthy controls. Linear mixed-effects modeling with a linear spline at 1.5 years demonstrated hypoconnectivity in patients at approximately 0.5 years post-injury in the FPN and DMN. In patients, these networks showed connectivity increases between 0.5 and 1.5 years post-injury. Between 1.5 to 3+ years, marginal functional connectivity declines were observed in the right FPN, and estimated declines were observed in the DMN and left FPN. These novel findings may reflect initial compensatory functional reorganization, followed by the deleterious network impacts of chronically increased metabolic load and structural neurodegeneration.
Antenna Pattern Measurement of a Microsatellite Platform with Articulating Solar Arrays and the Commissioning of NewSpace and Microspace Satellites
Keywords: Antenna
Commissioning
Microspace
NewSpace
Operation
Satellite

Two crucial milestones all satellite missions encounter are antenna pattern characterization and commissioning. The SPARTAN platform, newly developed by the Space Flight Laboratory, is tailored to serve NewSpace businesses’ needs. Unique to the platform are two deployable articulating solar arrays for power-demanding payloads. This thesis explores the effect of the articulating arrays on the platform’s primary antennas. An antenna’s radiation pattern is paramount to satellite communication and is influenced by its surroundings. The pattern measurement methodology, fixture design, analysis, and result comparison with simulation for the new platform are presented. After launch, spacecraft are commissioned, where satellites are methodically brought up to full functionality. Avionics and payload health is confirmed, attitude sensors are tuned, and the platform’s physical properties are estimated. Through the lens of an operator, this thesis discusses the successful commissioning of the maiden SPARTAN mission and NorSat-3, the latest maritime monitoring satellites developed for the Norwegians.