VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Musical and Ontological Possibilities of Mugham Creativity in pre-Soviet, Soviet, and post-Soviet Azerbaijan
Keywords: Azerbaijani mugham
creativity
ghazal poetry
Islamic aesthetics
Soviet and post-Soviet studies
tar

The different angles from which the phenomenon of mugham creativity can be approached all point to the significance of sung ghazal poetry. Even in instrumental renditions of mugham, the overriding presence of sung texts manifests itself through the musical structure, pace, technique and, most importantly, an imaginative and interpretive engagement with meanings that musicians undergo. In this dissertation, the link between music and poetry and its role in mugham creativity are investigated from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives. First, pre-Soviet, Soviet and post-Soviet contexts are examined to reveal how changes in musical and textual parameters influenced creativity and shaped its historical trajectory in Azerbaijan. Second, native terminology, musical examples, characteristics and experiences of creativity are explored using hermeneutic phenomenology in order to shed light on the creative process in the moment of performance. It is my contention that interpretation based on meanings in ghazal poetry that are rooted in Islamic sciences opens up both musical and ontological possibilities for musicians embarked on the mugham journey. This creates a state that is often difficult to express discursively as musicians themselves resort to phrases such as “revelation”, “explosion of thinking”, and “the self is taken from the self” that show only the limits of language to explain what goes on. The dissertation concludes with questions about how scholarship can further our understanding of the enigmatic flashes of musical discovery that are essential to Azerbaijani mugham and to musical traditions across cultures.
Grouping for Literacy Instruction in Kindergarten and Grade One: The Ecology of Teacher Perceptions and Classroom Practices
Keywords: Ability Grouping
Literacy Instruction
Teachers' Classroom Practices

Grouping students based on ability has been a longstanding approach to addressing the challenges of instructing diverse student populations; nevertheless, ability grouping has remained a controversial practice, fueling decades-long debate among educational researchers and practitioners alike. Despite the lack of empirical consensus, a common theme emerging across literature is that the broader context of the instructional setting and processes may have more impact on student achievement than ability grouping per se. In light of the mounting research that highlights the importance of literacy learning opportunities afforded to students in the early grades, this study sought to examine the practice of grouping for literacy instruction as an integral element of the encompassing classroom ecology, through in-depth mixed-methods analyses of thirteen primary classrooms across the Greater Toronto Area. The seven Kindergarten and six Grade One participating classrooms were viewed as multi-layered settings that impact studentsâ early literacy learning through a number of interacting micro-level factors (unique to each setting) shaped by overarching macrosystem influences (province-wide government-mandated policies and programs). Situating teachers as the primary actors within the classroom microsystem, data on perceptions and practices were collected and anchored from the lens of the participating teachers. To observe and understand teachersâ implementation of student grouping structures, classroom data were collected using both qualitative and quantitative tools, and organized into three dynamic levels: structural/physical constructs; social/behavioural perceptions; and instructional/pedagogical practices. Results, presented both as individual classroom case descriptions and as general group findings across classrooms, illustrate the variability of classroom-level practices in relation to relevant province-wide government policies. Using this methodology, this study highlights the importance of cautious extrapolations from large-scale studies across different classroom contexts and provides further support for using classroom case study in elucidating the importance of local elements and processes in our understanding of how government-mandated programs and policies are structured and implemented.
Risks, Needs and Reality Checks: Community Work with Multiply Disadvantaged Justice Involved Individuals
Keywords: assessment
community corrections
discretion
governance
risk
social services

This study examines community practitioners who work with multiply-disadvantaged, justice-involved individuals often referred to as ‘complex-need clients’. It has become increasingly popular to talk about the need to support people bouncing between jail, courts and other emergency services. This population does not neatly ‘fit’ the mandate of any single organization, and stakeholders (i.e., case managers, mental health, court support, shelter staff, probation) are required to respond holistically, working across organizational and disciplinary boundaries, thus, facilitating conversations about risk, unprecedented information sharing and the development of instruments, technologies, and management systems regulating people via service and supervision structures. Despite policy and academic recognition of the practical and humanitarian issues at hand, sociological research rarely considers how the ‘complex-need client ' is framed or how this leads to new organizational configurations and hybrid responses. My dissertation addresses conceptual and empirical voids, examining how complex legal, social and medical problems are framed and managed. This study uses 105 interviews and two years of fieldwork focusing on the governance of ‘complex-need’ clients who are criminalized and depend on services offered by practitioners in and out of the justice system. I show that the production, sharing and use of risk knowledges helps community practitioners address a variety of objectives and interests, including fulfilling mandates to recognize threats to safety; managing reputational risk and conforming to managerial logics; instituting ‘effective’ evidence based practices for interventions; and addressing issues of liability. I argue that knowledge produced to inform coordinated responses to complex-needs is simultaneously used to protect practitioners and to advocate for clients and push other stakeholders towards penal, judicial and social change. I argue that community practitioners contribute to penal surveillance and risk management – even serving as de facto sureties – while also generating resistance and illustrating the value of evidence from outside criminal justice fields.
Development and Evaluation of Photocatalytic Linear Engineered Titanium Dioxide Nanomaterials for the Removal of Disinfection Byproduct Precursors from Drinking Water
Keywords: Adsorption
Disinfection Byproducts
Nanomaterials
Photocatalysis
Titanium Dioxide
Water Treatment

Photocatalysis has long been touted as a potential drinking water treatment technology but has proven difficult to implement at full scale. This project aimed to address two of the perennial challenges preventing the use of photocatalysis for drinking water treatment: the need to safely remove the photocatalyst from the water after treatment and the danger that incomplete mineralization of contaminants will lead to the formation of intermediate compounds that are more reactive or toxic than their parent compounds. A suite of titanium dioxide-based linear engineered nanomaterials (LENs) was synthesized and compared to standard commercial titanium dioxide nanoparticles in terms of filterability, settleability, surface characteristics, crystal phase structure, available surface area, photonic efficiency, and propensity to form hydroxyl radicals. The LENs were also evaluated in terms of their ability to remove disinfection byproduct (DBP) precursors from two natural surface water matrices via adsorption and photocatalysis. DBPs, which form when naturally occurring organic precursor compounds interact with chemical disinfectants used in drinking water treatment, are suspected carcinogens and are widely regulated throughout the world. In this study, photocatalysis increased the DBP formation potential of both water matrices at short irradiation times. Longer treatment times resulted in decreased in DBP formation potential. Adsorption removed DBP precursors from the water without transforming them. The surface area and crystal phase structure of the nanomaterials were identified as important drivers of photocatalytic treatment effectiveness and regenerability. Adsorption efficacy was mainly impacted by surface area, agglomeration, and charge interactions. The effects of both adsorption and photocatalysis on DBP formation potential were strongly influenced by the composition of the water matrix being treated. The results of this project have informed the conceptual design of two titanium dioxide-based water treatment processes for DBP precursor removal: a single step photocatalytic system and a two-step adsorption and regeneration system.
Home and Community-Based Service Utilization Patterns for Seniors with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias
Keywords: Dementia
Home Care
Informal Care
Latent Class Analysis
Multinomial Logistic Regression
Service Utilization

Background: Half a million Canadians are living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Approximately half these individuals live in the community, supported by informal caregivers. In this population, utilization of formal services is low and patterns of utilization are not well understood. Previous studies examining predictors of service use have examined services in isolation however, often multiple services are utilized, with little coordination between services. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide a better understanding of the community-based services utilized concurrently by seniors with dementia and their caregivers. Methods: Administrative data were utilized to conduct a secondary analysis. Using latent class analysis, cases were categorized into patterns of home and community-based health and support service use. Multinomial logistic regression was employed to identify predictors of identified service use patterns. Results: A broad range of services were utilized by seniors with dementia in this sample. Services supporting patients’ functional needs were utilized most frequently, while services addressing patients’ medical needs, rehabilitation and caregiver relief were used less often. Utilization of all services, except nursing and occupational therapy, varied by level of cognitive impairment. Seven unique patterns of home and community-based service use were identified. Key patient and caregiver characteristics impacting service use patterns included living arrangement, functional impairment, location of care, cognitive impairment, age, continence, and caregiver relationship. Conclusions: The majority of community-based seniors with dementia did not access formal services. For those who did access formal services, availability of informal caregivers, living arrangement, caregiver relationship and location of care impacted the pattern of service use. A proactive approach to supporting caregivers and reducing the impact of functional limitations is recommended. Further research is needed to understand caregivers’ decision-making processes affecting service utilization and to assess the impact of patterns of service utilization on both patient and caregiver outcomes.
Towards Autonomy and Mobility for a Tethered Robot Exploring Extremely Steep Terrain
Keywords: Climbing Robot
Extreme Environment
Mapping
Robotics
SLAM
Tethered Robot

Mobile robots are well suited to explore environments considered too costly, time consuming, and hazardous for human inspection. However, a recent push to explore increasingly extreme environments has required the development of robust mobile platforms that can navigate steep, cluttered terrain, operate for extended periods, and relay information to a remote operator. Applications of these systems include terrestrial and planetary geologic survey and infrastructure inspection, where remote observation is not a viable option. This thesis chronicles the design, development, and testing of the physical platform and autonomy functions for the Tethered Robotic eXplorer (TReX), a novel mapping robot capable of navigating near-vertical terrain while supported by an attached electromechanical tether; the tether provides continuous power and communication to and from the robot, but also constrains motion due to its finite length and susceptibility to entanglement in cluttered environments. A tethered robot can avoid entanglement by (i) mapping intermediate anchors (locations of obstacle-to-tether contacts), and (ii) autonomously retracing its outgoing path to sequentially unwrap the tether from obstacles. We approach (i) by formulating incremental and batch solutions to a new TSLAM problem using tether measurements to aid odometry and map anchors, and handle (ii) using visual route following in conjunction with autonomous tether control to manage tension and assist the robot to repeat previously driven paths on steep terrain. This work concludes with a geologic surveying mission, where TReX is teleoperated to explore and map a steep, tree-covered rock outcrop in an outdoor mine.
La trajectoire vers soi (et vers les autres) : rapports entre le texte et les images photographiques dans les récits autobiographiques d’Anny Duperey et Annie Ernaux
Keywords: autobiographie
texte/image

L’écriture autobiographique a une longue tradition, car ses origines remontent au XVIIIe siècle. Cependant, au cours des années, l’écriture de soi a beaucoup évolué et à l’époque contemporaine, elle se joint souvent à la photographie. Ce type de création littéraire est relativement peu exploré par les critiques. La présente thèse a pour but d’étudier les relations entre le texte et les images photographiques dans quelques récits autobiographiques de deux auteures : Anny Duperey (Le Voile noir, Je vous écris…) et Annie Ernaux (L’usage de la photo, Les années, « photojournal » d’Écrire la vie). Ces deux artistes contemporaines sont bien connues au public français ; la renommée d’Anny Duperey est due à sa longue carrière de comédienne alors qu’Annie Ernaux est une écrivaine prolifique, présente sur la scène littéraire française depuis presque quatre décennies. Dans leurs textes, les deux auteures présentent divers choix esthétiques ainsi que des approches différentes envers l’écriture. Anny Duperey se sert des photographies et de l’écriture autobiographique dans son travail de deuil, dans sa quête identitaire ainsi que dans sa chasse aux souvenirs disparus. Les rapports texte/images mis en œuvre dans Le Voile noir appartiennent donc plutôt au mode de collaboration. Cependant, dans les trois textes d’Annie Ernaux étudiés dans la présente thèse, les interactions entre l’écrit et le visuel sont plus complexes et difficiles à définir. Dans L’usage de la photo nous observons une certaine collision entre les photographies et le texte. La juxtaposition de ces deux modes de représentation donne une nouvelle dimension, voire une nouvelle signification à son récit. Dans Les années, l’écriture éclipse les photographies, car elles apparaissent uniquement sous forme d’ekphrasis et, par conséquent, elles perdent en partie leur dimension référentielle. En revanche, dans le « photojournal », les images photographiques et les fragments des journaux qui les accompagnent semblent garder une certaine indépendance. La présente thèse se compose de trois chapitres dont le premier fournit le cadre théorique nécessaire à l’étude de notre corpus littéraire. Les chapitres 2 et 3 sont consacrés respectivement à une analyse critique des textes de Duperey et Ernaux. Le caractère hybride des récits privilégiés dans cette thèse exige une approche interdisciplinaire, c’est pourquoi nous avons puisé dans plusieurs domaines de recherches : la mémoire, l’écriture autobiographique, la photographie, l’ekphrasis et même la psychologie.
Deformed D1D5 CFT: a holographic probe of quantum gravity
Keywords: black holes
conformal field theory
high energy physics
holography
quantum gravity
string theory

One of the big unsolved questions in gravity research is the black hole information problem. This problem, which pits the unitarity of quantum field theory against smooth classical spacetime, must have a solution in a complete theory of quantum gravity. This thesis will explore aspects of one approach to this problem in the context of string theory. The approach imagines black hole microstates as string theoretic objects. We look at a prototype system, the D1D5 system, and exploit holography to examine the dual conformal field theory (CFT). Specifically, we examine the CFT deformed from the free orbifold point, dual to a very stringy bulk, using a twisted operator that will take us towards the point with the supergravity description. The effects of twisted operators in the CFT are key to understanding physical processes such as emission and thermalization in black hole microstates. We will propose a component twist method for examining the effects of bare twist operators for higher twists in the continuum limit. Our method builds higher twists from simple 2-cycle twists, whose effects are known. We will find that, in this limit, the coefficients describing general states will follow a conjectured general functional form. We then explore the deformed CFT directly by examining operator mixing for untwisted operators. We will exploit the operator product expansion on the covering space, where twist operators of the orbifold are resolved. We use this to examine the mixing of a general supergravity operator, specifically examine the dilaton, and finish with the mixing of a non-supersymmetric candidate operator. We conjecture that this method could be extended to include twisted operators. We will also examine the mixing of the non-supersymmetric candidate operator by examining three point functions. To automate the lengthy and repetitive computations, we wrote a Mathematica package to compute correlation functions and OPEs in the D1D5 CFT. We will explain some of the main functions of this package and how it can be applied to computations. Finally, we will end with a short discussion on future directions.
Reading Between the Bits: Uncovering New Insights in Data for Efficient Processor Design
Keywords: approximate computing
computer architecture

Three emerging trends pose challenges to the design of efficient processors. First, applications are executing on strictly energy-constrained hardware due to the rise of IoT and mobile computing. Traditional architectures expend a great deal of energy providing exactness despite the approximate applications that often run on these systems. Second, data sets are growing to enormous proportions due to the rapid gathering of user information in modern devices. We can no longer rely on data being readily available in on-chip computer storage. Third, active chip area is diminishing at smaller technology nodes due to power density limitations in process technology scaling. We can no longer fully utilize all on-chip hardware resources simultaneously. Our research tackles these challenges by recognizing that they stem from fundamental gaps in the way that data is contextualized in hardware. The goal of a processor is to process real-world information; yet in modern computers, hardware perceives data as nothing more than bits. Can the hardware tell if an integer is purely numerical or if it will be used as a memory address later? Can it tell that two elements are adjacent in a multidimensional data structure even though they are not stored contiguously? Can it tell if contiguous data elements will be accessed at the same time or accessed independently? Traditionally, hardware cannot interpret data bits on their own; it only interprets data bits by how instructions use them. It lacks an understanding of what information is encoded in the bits (functional context), where that information is located (spatial context), and when that information is needed (temporal context). Our research fills these gaps in data context to address the three challenges, recognizing that 1) functional context enables approximation for greater efficiency under tight energy constraints; 2) spatial context demystifies patterns and correlations to more efficiently and concisely process massive data sets; and 3) temporal context infers the criticality of data to allow for better utilization of precious on-chip resources.
A miniaturized microfluidic cytometer platform for point-of-care blood testing applications
Keywords: CD4
flow cytometry
global health
lab on a chip
microfluidics
point of care

In recent years, microfluidic lab-on-a-chip devices have made tremendous progress. Many new features, new processes and fabrication methodologies have been proposed and realized in the last two decades. In the field of clinical diagnostics, however, there still lack devices and products that truly utilize microfluidic lab-on-a-chip technologies. My thesis is focused on developing a novel blood testing platform that can be commercialized as a point-of-care diagnostic tool using microfluidics and optical detection technologies. Access to laboratory quality blood testing has been difficult and sometimes prohibitive for many populations around the world, which lead to increased mortality, morbidity and healthcare cost. In this work, I research and developed a particle imaging and detection system using microfluidics to control sample motion. The system used fluorescence based detection methodology. A novel image analysis algorithm is proposed and implemented to detect and track particles captured by the optical detector. My thesis investigates the fluidic design, on-chip fluidic control, optical detection system and particle/cell counting algorithm. The overall system is designed to be capable of commercialized as a point-of-care portable blood analysis system deployed in remote health settings. In addition, CD4 T cell counting, which is the current gold standard in HIV/AIDS disease monitoring, is used as an example assay developed on the platform. A microfluidic chip, that can complete the cell counting analysis within 15 minutes directly from a single finger prick blood sample is designed, fabricated and characterized. This work also studies the sample preparation steps required for the cell counting assay and the impact of various system parameters. The system described in this thesis highlights a portable blood testing platform that can be further developed and commercialized as a clinical tool for cell, protein and nucleic acid based laboratory tests conducted at point-of-care. The outcome of this work demonstrates the feasibility and utility of such system or product in medical diagnostics in remote health settings.