VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Supervisory Hybrid Control of a Wind Energy Conversion and Battery Storage System
Keywords: hybrid control
wind energy
supervisory control
linear control
micro grid
battery storage
induction generator
wind turbine
finite hybrid automata
microgrid

This thesis presents a supervisory hybrid controller for the automatic operation and control of a wind energy conversion and battery storage system. The supervisory hybrid control scheme is based on a radically different approach of modeling and control design, proposed for the subject wind energy conversion and battery storage system. The wind energy conversion unit is composed of a 360kW horizontal axis wind turbine mechanically coupled to an induction generator through a gearbox. The assembly is electrically interfaced to the dc bus through a thyristor-controlled rectifier to enable variable speed operation of the unit. Static capacitor banks have been used to meet reactive power requirements of the unit. A battery storage device is connected to the dc bus through a dc-dc converter to support operation of the wind energy conversion unit during islanded conditions. Islanding is assumed to occur when the tiebreaker to the utility feeder is in open position. The wind energy conversion unit and battery storage system is interfaced to the utility grid at the point of common coupling through a 25km long, 13.8kV feeder using a voltage-sourced converter unit. A bank of static (constant impedance) and dynamic (induction motor) loads is connected to the point of common coupling through a step down transformer. A finite hybrid-automata based model of the wind energy conversion and storage system has been proposed that captures the different operating regimes of the system during grid-connected and in islanded operating modes. The hybrid model of the subject system defines allowable operating states and predefines the transition paths between these operating states. A modular control design approach has been adapted in which the wind energy conversion and storage system has been partitioned along the dc bus into three independent system modules. Traditional control schemes using linear proportional-plus-integral compensators have been used for each system module with suitable modifications where necessary in order to achieve the required steady state and transient performance objectives. A supervisory control layer has been used to combine and configure control schemes of the three system modules to suite the requirements of system operation during any one operating state depicted by the hybrid model of the system. Transition management strategies have been devised and implemented through the supervisory control layer to ensure smooth inter-state transitions and bumpless switching among controllers. It has been concluded based on frequency domain linear analysis and time domain electromagnetic transient simulations that the proposed supervisory hybrid controller is capable of operating the wind energy conversion and storage system in both grid-connected and in islanded modes under changing operating conditions including temporary faults on the utility grid.
Something to Talk About: Applying the Unwritten Principle of Democracy to Secure a Constitutional Right to Access Government Information in Canada
Keywords: constitutional law
access to information
unwritten
judicial review
principles
information
Canada
constitution
constitutional interpretation
democracy
parliamentary supremacy

Something to Talk About: Applying the Unwritten Principle of Democracy to Secure a Constitutional Right to Access Government Information in Canada by Vincent Clayton Kazmierski A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Juridical Science Faculty of Law University of Toronto 2008 ABSTRACT In this thesis, I argue that the unwritten constitutional principle of democracy provides a foundation for the recognition of a constitutional right to access government information in Canada. More specifically, I argue that the principle of democracy can be used to fill the “access gap” in the written provisions of the Constitution. I begin by synthesizing the Supreme Court of Canada’s jurisprudence and the work of a number of academics to outline guidelines for the recognition of unwritten constitutional principles. I also attempt to construct a coherent account of the content and effect of the constitutional principle of democracy. I proceed to argue that recognition of a right of access to government information as part of the principle of democracy fits within the guidelines I identify as it is supported by “strong” pragmatic, historical and structural evidence. I then demonstrate how the constitutional right of access to government information may be applied to protect access to information in at least three different ways: through statutory interpretation, through the regulation of administrative discretion, and, in exceptional circumstances, through the invalidation of legislation. I rely on the work of a number of British scholars and on aspects of David Dyzenhaus’s conception of law as a culture of justification to help bridge the divide between the Supreme Court of Canada’s approach to the application of unwritten constitutional principles and the concerns raised by critics of that approach. I argue that the application of the principle of democracy respects the primary role of democratically elected representatives of the public, while establishing that the judiciary also has an important role to play in the identification and enforcement of fundamental values. I suggest that this judicial role can be effectively constrained through the guidelines sketched by the Supreme Court and more fully articulated in this thesis. Finally, I argue that the application of the principle of democracy to invalidate legislation can also be justified in exceptional circumstances where the legislation imposes substantial impediments on fundamental aspects of the democratic process. In such cases, the principle of parliamentary supremacy is properly counterbalanced by the principle of democracy.
Preferential Allelic Expression of Genetic Information on Human Chromosome 7
Keywords: Gene Expression
Preferential Allelic Expression

Genes are typically expressed in equal amounts from both parentally inherited chromosomes. However, recent studies have demonstrated that genes can be preferentially transcribed from a locus. Non-random preferential expression of alleles can occur in a parent-of-origin pattern, known as imprinting, where epigenetic factors regulate their transcription. Alternatively, it can occur in a haplotype-specific pattern, where cis-acting polymorphisms in regulatory regions are thought to underlie the phenomenon. Both forms of unequal allelic expression have been associated with human disease. Consequently, it is important to identify genes subject to unequal allelic expression and characterize mechanisms that regulate differential transcription. This thesis presents the results of a screen for unequal allelic expression where approximately 50 murine transcripts homologous to genes on human chromosome 7 were analyzed. Human chromosome 7 was selected due to its association with several human disorders that show parent-of-origin effects. The screen identified non-imprinted preferential allelic expression in numerous transcripts and demonstrated that such patterns can occur in tissue specific patterns. Paraoxonase-1 (Pon1), a gene implicated in arthrosclerosis, was identified as having a dynamic pattern of allelic expression which varies throughout embryonic development. This finding represents the first report of a developmentally regulated pattern of allelic variance. Carboxypeptidase-A4 (Cpa4) was identified as having a tissue-specific imprinted pattern of expression, where the maternal allele was preferentially expressed in all embryonic tissues, with the exception of the brain. The Krüppel-like factor 14 gene (Klf14), a novel imprinted transcript, was found to have ubiquitous maternal expression in all human and murine tissues analyzed. A differentially methylated region, generally associated with imprinted transcripts, was not found in the gene’s CpG island, nor was a differential pattern of histone modifications identified. However, it was determined that maternal methylation regulates the transcript. The data in this thesis contribute to our understanding of the numerous patterns of allelic expression that exist in nature and the diverse mechanisms that regulate them. Ultimately, quantitative analyses of allelic expression patterns and the identification of their underlying genomic DNA sequences will become standard protocol in all biomedical studies.
Toward More Efficient Motion Planning with Differential Constraints
Keywords: motion planning
viability
safety enforcement

Agents with differential constraints, although common in the real world, pose a particular difficulty for motion planning algorithms. Methods for solving such problems are still relatively slow and inefficient. In particular, current motion planners generally can neither "see" the world around them, nor generalize from experience. That is, their reliance on collision tests as the only means of sensing the environment yields a tactile, myopic perception of the world. Such short-sightedness greatly limits any potential for detection, learning, or reasoning about frequently encountered situations. In result these methods solve each problem in exactly the same way, whether the first or the hundredth time they attempt it, each time none the wiser. The key component of this thesis proposes a general approach for motion planning in which local sensory information, in conjunction with prior accumulated experience, are exploited to improve planner performance. The approach relies on learning viability models for the agent's "perceptual space", and the use thereof to direct planning effort. In addition, a method is presented for improving runtimes of the RRT motion planning algorithm in heavily constrained search-spaces, a common feature for agents with differential constraints. Finally, the thesis explores the use of viability models for maintaing safe operation of user-controlled agents, a related application which could be harnessed to yield additional, more "natural" experience data for further improving motion planning.
Novel Mechanisms of Transcriptional Repression by the Paired-like Homeodomain Transcription Factor Goosecoid
Keywords: Foxh1
Goosecoid
Sumoylation
Transcription
Mixl1
Smads
TGF-beta

Gastrulation is the process by which the three germ layers are generated during vertebrate development. Nodal ligands, which form a subgroup of the Transforming Growth Factor β (TGFβ) superfamily, regulate the expression several transcription factors implicated in gastrulation. Among these are the paired-like homeodomain transcription factors Goosecoid (Gsc) and Mixl1. At the molecular level, Gsc has been described to function as a transcriptional repressor by directly binding to paired homedomain binding sites on target promoters. Here, I describe a novel mechanism of transcriptional repression by Gsc. Using a molecular and embryological approach, I demonstrate that the forkhead transcription factor Foxh1, a major transducer of Nodal signaling, associates with Gsc which in turn recruits histone deacetylases to negatively regulate Mixl1 expression during early mouse development. Post-translational modification of transcription factors by SUMO proteins represents an important mechanism through which their activity is controlled. Here, I also demonstrate that Gsc is sumoylated in mammalian cells by members of the PIAS family of proteins and this modification potentiates the repressive activity of Gsc on direct targets such as the Xbra and Gsc promoters, but not on indirect targets such as Mixl1. Taken together, work presented in this thesis describes two novel mechanisms of transcriptional repression by Gsc.
Planar Lightwave Circuits Employing Coupled Waveguides in Aluminum Gallium Arsenide
Keywords: Planar Lightwave Circuits
optical waveguides
optical switching
microresonators
dynamic localization
optical delay

This dissertation addresses three research challenges in planar lightwave circuit (PLC) optical signal processing. 1. Dynamic localization, a relatively new class of quantum phenomena, has not been demonstrated in any system to date. To address this challenge, the quantum system was mapped to the optical domain using a set of curved, coupled PLC waveguides in aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs). The devices demonstrated, for the first time, exact dynamic localization in any system. These experiments motivate further mappings of quantum phenomena in the optical domain, leading toward the design of novel optical signal processing devices using these quantum-analog effects. 2. The PLC microresonator promises to reduce PLC device size and increase optical signal processing functionality. Microresonators in a parallel cascaded configuration, called "side coupled integrated spaced sequence of resonators" (SCISSORs), could offer very interesting dispersion compensation abilities, if a sufficient number of rings is present to produce fully formed "Bragg" gaps. To date, a SCISSOR with only three rings has been reported in a high-index material system. In this work, one, two, four and eight-ring SCISSORs were fabricated in AlGaAs. The eight-ring SCISSOR succeeded in producing fully formed Bragg peaks, and offers a platform to study interesting linear and nonlinear phenomena such as dispersion compensators and gap solitons. 3. PLCs are ideal candidates to satisfy the projected performance requirements of future microchip interconnects. In addition to data routing, these PLCs must provide over 100-bit switchable delays operating at ~ 1 Tbit/s. To date, no low loss optical device has met these requirements. To address this challenge, an ultrafast, low loss, switchable optically controllable delay line was fabricated in AlGaAs, capable of delaying 126 bits, with a bit-period of 1.5 ps. This successful demonstrator offers a practical solution for the incorporation of optics with microelectronics systems. The three aforementioned projects all employ, in their unique way, the coupling of light between PLC waveguides in AlGaAs. This central theme is explored in this dissertation in both its two- and multi-waveguide embodiments.
Precoder Designs for Receivers with Channel Estimators in Fading Channels
Keywords: orthogonal frequency division multiplexing
block precoder design
interleaver design
fading channel estimation

Diversity transmission is an effective technique to combat fading channels and this thesis introduces two main ideas. Firstly, a novel precoding technique is proposed to achieve diversity transmission and improve bit error rate (BER) performance over the existing linear constellation precoding (LCP) techniques. Experimental and theoretical results are presented to show that the proposed precoding schemes can outperform the existing LCP schemes in various fading channels and additive white Gaussian noise channels. Secondly, an interleaving technique to further improve the BER performance is proposed. The proposed diversity transmission techniques are implemented for both single-carrier and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The second part of the thesis focuses on the pairwise error probability analysis of the proposed and LCP schemes when receivers have imperfect channel state information (CSI). The BER performance of the proposed precoding and interleaver scheme are investigated in OFDM systems with minimum mean square error channel estimators and single-carrier systems with basis expansion model based channel estimators. It is demonstrated that while precoding schemes designed for receivers with perfect CSI yield near-optimum BER performance in the former system, the proposed phase-shift keying based precoding schemes perform well in the latter system. In both cases, the proposed precoding scheme, combined with the novel interleaving technique, outperforms the existing LCP schemes.
Examination of the Role of Dopamine D3 Receptors in Behavioural Sensitization to Ethanol
Keywords: Behavioural Neuroscience
Neuropharmacology
Dopamine D3 Receptors
Behavioural Sensitization
Ethanol
Dopamine Receptor Knockout Mice

Dopamine D3 receptors (D3Rs) have been implicated in mediating behavioural sensitization to various drugs of abuse, but their role in ethanol (EtOH) sensitization has not been directly examined. Neil Richtand proposed a role for D3Rs in the modulation of sensitization by acting as an inhibitor of D1/D2 receptor-mediated behaviours, and several reports suggest D3Rs up-regulate in response to chronic drugs of abuse. In separate experiments, we examined EtOH sensitization in D3R knockout (KO) as well as in D1R and D2R KO mice. We also examined amphetamine sensitization in D3R KOs compared to wild type mice. We challenged C57Bl/6 and DBA/2 mice with a D3R agonist (PD128907) and antagonist (U99194A) to examine how acute and chronic D3R activation and inactivation may affect the induction and expression of EtOH sensitization. We investigated D1/D3R interactions in sensitized and control mice and examined whether EtOH sensitization leads to changes in D3R binding using [125I]-7-OH-PIPAT autoradiography. Results showed that D3R KOs, were resistant to EtOH but not to amphetamine sensitization. Chronic but not acute D3R blockade with U99194A inhibited the induction, whereas acute D3R activation with PD128907 attenuated the expression of EtOH sensitization. In our D1/D3R interaction study we observed that although PD128907 attenuated D1 agonist-induced hyperactivity with SKF81297, this effect was the same in sensitized and control animals, even though sensitized mice were more responsive to PD128907 than controls. This enhanced response, which suggests a functional up-regulation of D3Rs, was not accompanied by changes in D3R binding as indicated by autoradiography, and could mean that functional changes in the D3R associated with EtOH sensitization occur elsewhere than at the level of the membrane-bound receptor. Taken together, these results suggest a modulatory role for the D3R in EtOH but not amphetamine sensitization, where D3R activation attenuates the expression and D3R blockade prevents the induction of EtOH sensitization. These results are important because a better understanding of the role of the D3R in EtOH sensitization may help not only to identify some of the underlying neural mechanisms of sensitization, but also help in the identification of treatment strategies for patients that may be susceptible to alcohol abuse.
The Physico-chemical Nature of the Chemical Bond: Valence Bonding and the Path of Physico-chemical Emergence
Keywords: History of Science
History of Chemistry
Chemical Bond
Valence Bond
Linus Pauling
Reductionism
Interdisciplinarity
quantum chemistry
physical chemistry
chemical physics

Through the development of physical chemistry and chemical physics over the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the relationship between physics and chemistry changed to create a broad interdisciplinary framework in which chemists and physicists could make contributions to problems of common value. It is here argued that evolving disciplinary factors such as physical and chemical responses to the atomic hypothesis, the nature of disciplinary formation in Germany and the United States, the reception of quantum mechanics within physics and chemistry, and the application of quantum mechanics to the problem of chemical bonding by physicists and chemists, formed the chemical bond into a physico-chemical theory. In the late nineteenth-century context of early physical chemistry, the chemical bond was known as a physical link between atoms, which could not be studied by chemical means because of the lack of an adequate atomistic framework. Both chemists and physicists broadly accepted the atomistic hypothesis following the discovery of the electron at the turn of the twentieth century, which afforded theoretical study of chemical bonding. Between 1916 and 1919, Gilbert N. Lewis and Irving Langmuir proposed the valence bond to be a pair of electrons shared between two atoms, within the context of a cubic model of the atom. However, the lack of a physical mechanism for the shared electron pair prevented the formation of a fully physico-chemical view of bonding. In 1927, physicists Walter Heitler and Fritz London showed the stability of the valence bond was caused by the wave mechanical phenomenon of resonance. Chemist Linus Pauling extended their treatment of the valence bond to a theory of structural chemistry in The Nature of the Chemical Bond. His synthesis of the physical and chemical views, his value as a physico-chemical researcher during the 1930s, and the research of his contemporaries John Slater and Robert Mulliken show that a true physico-chemical blend was only realized within the amorphous discipline of chemical physics. Finally, it is seen that this interdisciplinarity of chemical bonding and its supporting framework force a reevaluation of the reductionist criteria, and a re-definition of the chemical bond as a physico-chemical work.
The Cellular and Molecular Properties of Flavinoids in Prostate Cancer Chemoprevention
Keywords: Flavonoids
Prostate Cancer
Cell cycle
Apoptosis
Senescence
TRAMP
Microarray
Diet

Flavonoids are a large class of dietary polyphenols that have emerged as candidate agents for chemoprevention in prostate cancer. Despite the large number of known flavonoids (over 9000), only a few have been studied in prostate cancer to date. The work presented in this thesis describes the identification of novel anti-proliferative flavonoids, their molecular effects on cell cycle and related proliferation and survival pathways, and their chemopreventive properties in a murine model of prostate carcinogenesis. We identified several novel flavonoids with potent anti-proliferative effects in human prostate cancer cells in vitro. Non-prostate cell lines were generally resistant to the effect of these flavonoids. Two of the most potent flavonoids identified, 2,2-dihydroxychalcone (DHC) and fisetin, induced S and G2 phase cell cycle arrest in LNCaP and PC3 prostate cancer cells. Gene expression studies employing oligonucleotide microarray demonstrated profound down-regulation in gene expression of 75 key cell cycle (predominantly G2 and M phase) genes by DHC and fisetin, and the enhanced expression of 50 stress-response genes with important roles in cell proliferation and survival. DHC and fisetin induced apoptosis, but not accelerated senescence, in prostate cancer cells. The chemopreventive effect of 4 flavonoids identified from the in vitro studies was examined in an autochthonous murine model of prostate cancer (TRAMP). Mice were administered diets supplemented with 1% DHC, 1% fisetin or a combination of flavonoids (0.25% DHC, 0.25% fisetin, 0.25% quercetin, 0.25% luteolin) for 32 weeks. We demonstrated a significant reduction in genitourinary weight, and a reduction in prostate cancer grade in mice administered 1% DHC and combination diets. Flavonoid supplementation was, however, associated with gastrointestinal toxicity in some mice. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry demonstrated the accumulation of high levels of flavonoid in the prostates of TRAMP mice. These findings lay the foundation for further studies of flavonoids in clinical chemoprevention trials.