VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Evaluating a Mindfulness-based Intervention for Adolescents with ADHD and their Parents: A Mixed Methods Approach
Keywords: Adolescents
Cognitive Therapy
Intervention
Mindfulness
Parents

Adolescents with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have difficulty regulating their attention, behavior, and emotions, which negatively impacts peer and family relationships. Mindfulness training may strengthen self-regulatory processes. The goal of the dissertation was to evaluate whether and how concurrent parent-adolescent mindfulness training improves individual and family functioning in adolescents with ADHD. In Study 1, I utilized a quantitative method to determine whether mindfulness training reduces symptomatology and ameliorates the functional impairment experienced by participants. In Study 2, I used a qualitative approach to accomplish two aims: 1) to explore participant experiences, perceptions, and beliefs related to mindfulness meditation; and 2) to examine potential mechanisms of action in mindfulness training. Eighteen adolescents with ADHD (ages 13-18) and 17 parents participated. Participants completed questionnaires assessing adolescent symptoms, functional impairment, family functioning, parenting stress, and mindfulness at 4-week baseline, pre- and post-intervention, and at 6-week follow-up. A subset of five families (n=12 individuals) participated in semi-structured interviews about their lived experiences of mindfulness 1 - 3 months after the intervention. Parents reported reductions in adolescent inattention, conduct problems, and peer relations problems, decreases in parenting stress, and increases in mindful parenting after the intervention. Gains were maintained at 6-week follow-up. Adolescents did not report changes on quantitative measures. Thematic analysis of interview data revealed improved peer and family relationship quality after mindfulness training. The underlying mechanisms of action were consistent among parents and adolescents. They identified self-awareness, decentering, acceptance of others, and self-regulation of attention, behavior, and emotion as key components of the process of change. Based on the findings of the dissertation, I developed a model of the process of change in parent-adolescent mindfulness training. I integrated the results from Study 1 and 2 under this conceptual framework. Overall, this mixed methods evaluation suggests that mindfulness training reduces ADHD symptoms and improves interpersonal functioning via enhanced self monitoring, self regulation, and emotional co-regulation among adolescents with ADHD and their parents.
OPTIMIZATION OF DISSOLVED AIR FLOTATION FOR DRINKING WATER TREATMENT THROUGH CFD MODELING
Keywords: CFD
DAF
Dissolved air flotation
Multiphase flow
Water treatment

The dissolved air flotation (DAF) process is known for its efficiency in the removal of low-density particles from water. The performance of the system depends, in part, on the hydrodynamics of the flow. Whereas experimental flow measurement methods for DAF can be very challenging due to the presence of bubbles and particles, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be applied as an alternative approach for improving the understanding of the hydrodynamics, but would still require validation. In this study, two-phase and three-phase analytical and CFD models of DAF were developed to evaluate the formation of stratified flow (back and forth horizontal flow layers in the separation zone) and its impact on bubble and particle removal. By including the effects of bubble aggregation and bubble-particle aggregation, the models were able to predict the formation of stratified flow under different air fractions, bubble sizes, and loading rates. The CFD model showed that stratified flow improved bubble removal as well as particle removal, demonstrating that up to 130% higher loading rates can be achieved in the presence of stratified flow. An increase in air fraction and bubble size was shown to improve bubble removal, but particle removal began to decrease when air fractions and bubble sizes increased beyond optimum levels. The CFD model was then validated with a pilot-scale DAF system by comparing measurements of residence time distribution (RTD), bubble layer position and bubble-particle contact efficiency. In general, the CFD model was able to represent the pilot-scale DAF flow at different loading rates with very good accuracy (R2 values higher than 0.75). Finally, the validated model was applied to evaluate the effect of the addition of different configurations of baffles in the separation zone. The results suggested that baffles in the separation zone can enhance stratification of the flow and allow up to 86% higher loading rates.
A Parallel Solution-Adaptive Method for Turbulent Non-Premixed Combusting Flows
Keywords: Parallel Adaptive Mesh Refinement
Turbulent Combusting Flows
Turbulent Diffusion Flames
Numerical Algorithm

A parallel adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) algorithm is proposed and applied to the predictions of turbulent non-premixed compressible combusting flows for both two and three space dimensions. The parallel solution-adaptive algorithm solves the system of partial-differential equations governing turbulent compressible flows of reactive thermally perfect gaseous mixtures using a fully coupled finite-volume formulation on body-fitted multi-block quadrilateral meshes and hexahedral meshes. The compressible formulation adopted herein can readily accommodate large density variations and thermo-acoustic phenomena. A preconditioned multigrid algorithm is used to obtain the solution on highly stretched meshes in a more efficient manner. A flexible block-based hierarchical data structure is used to maintain the connectivity of the solution blocks in the multi-block mesh and to facilitate automatic solution-directed mesh adaptation according to physics-based refinement criteria. For calculations of near-wall turbulence, an automatic near-wall treatment readily accommodates situations during adaptive mesh refinement where the mesh resolution may not be sufficient for directly calculating near-wall turbulence using the low-Reynolds-number formulation. Numerical results for turbulent diffusion flames, including cold- and hot-flow predictions for a bluff-body burner, are described and compared to available experimental data. The numerical results demonstrate the validity and potential of the parallel AMR approach for predicting fine-scale features of complex turbulent non-premixed flames.
USE OF ROTATIONAL THROMBOELASTOMETRY FOR OPTIMAL MANAGEMENT OF EARLY RESUSCITATION OF BLEEDING TRAUMA PATIENTS
Keywords: coagulopathy
hemorrhage
traumatic injury

Early trauma-induced coagulopathy (TIC) is associated with uncontrollable bleeding, high transfusion requirements and mortality. Current management strategies of coagulopathic bleeding trauma patients are either guided by untimely laboratory tests (goal-directed) or blind transfusion protocols according to pre-established formulas (damage-control, 1:1:1). Both strategies have significant limitations that may account for the poor outcome of many patients. Viscoelastometric tests such as rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) are emerging technologies with potential to revolutionize resuscitation of rapidly bleeding trauma patients. This project aims to investigate the role of ROTEM in early trauma resuscitation, including TIC diagnosis, guiding blood transfusion and predicting 24h mortality. The overarching hypothesis is that ROTEM parameters measured immediately upon hospital admission, may predict increased transfusion requirements, including massive transfusion (MT), and 24h mortality, and thus could guide blood and blood product transfusions. In order to explore this hypothesis, a series of approaches have been performed. A systematic review and international consensus conference with a panel of renowned experts in trauma, critical care, hematology, and surgery were done. They established the ROTEM parameters and values used for the diagnosis of TIC, guidance of blood transfusion and prediction of 24h mortality. Next, patient data from two major Canadian trauma centers were obtained to develop and validate prediction models for assessing the risk of requiring blood and blood product transfusion (red blood cells (RBC), plasma, cryoprecipitate and platelets), massive transfusion (MT) and 24h mortality using ROTEM and readily available clinical variables. The systematic review and the consensus conference indicated that low clot amplitude was associated with transfusion requirements, MT and 24h mortality but exact ROTEM parameters values could not be determined due to equipment limitations (i.e. high coefficient of variability) and poor understanding of their physiologic meaning (i.e. meaning of hyper coagulability parameters). Similarly, patient data analysis demonstrated that low clot amplitude, both in extrinsic (EXTEM) and fibrinogen pathways (FIBTEM), along with clinical parameters, accurately predicted the need for plasma and cryoprecipitate transfusion, MT, and 24h mortality. ROTEM however, did not predict RBC or platelet transfusion. The results of our studies indicate that ROTEM may assist in the early diagnosis and guide timely management of bleeding coagulopathic injured patients. While our findings warrant future evaluations we speculate that ROTEM can guide blood transfusions, reduce inappropriate blood utilization and improve patient outcome (reduce mortality).
The Sacred Historian’s Craft: Francisco de Florencia and Creole Identity in Seventeeth-century New Spain
Keywords: Historiography
Hagiography
Creole Patriotism
New Spain
Jesuits
Sanctity

This dissertation examines how and why creole scholars practiced the sacred historian’s craft in seventeenth-century New Spain. I explore the context in which they performed their research and the multiethnic sources they used to interpret their sacred past. In particular, I analyze expressions of creole patriotism by demonstrating how sacred historians engaged with their “saints,” images, and religious institutions to challenge European theories of American degeneracy. Although sacred history was designed for spiritual edification, I argue that it was also a political medium through which creoles voiced their concerns and declared their cultural and spiritual parity as members of Catholic kingdoms within the Spanish empire. To follow the multiple tasks of the sacred historian my dissertation focuses on the religious career of the Jesuit Francisco de Florencia (1620–1695), a prolific writer on several popular devotions and the Company of Jesus in New Spain. Instead of studying his sacred biographies, devotional histories, and provincial chronicle in isolation from each other, I analyze them together as a group to illustrate how creoles incarnated the sacred historian’s craft into their New World environment. There are three parts in this dissertation. In the first part I provide a brief survey of Florencia’s life by concentrating on his peregrinations throughout the New World and the Old. Through his travel and pilgrim experiences, I demonstrate how creoles invented Europe and their own creole identities by appropriating European and indigenous spiritual topographies, traditions, and customs. In the second part I treat Florencia’s idea of sacred history and his method of collecting and evaluating his sources. Sacred historians in New Spain, I contend, sought to prove with evidence that they belonged to Catholic kingdoms with authentic sacred traditions that were just as reliable as all others in the Spanish empire and larger Christendom. And in third part I explore how Florencia applied the sacred historian’s craft to imagine the human and physical geography of New Spain. By analyzing how he drew upon and modified a wide range of sacred traditions, I elucidate the ways in which creoles envisioned New Spain as a land teeming with sanctity and material wealth.
Coaching as a Strategy for Improving Early Learning Program Quality
Keywords: coach
coaching
early childhood education
mentoring
quality
quality improvement

As professionals and governments increasingly recognize the role early learning programs play in the young child’s learning and development, agencies and governments alike are trying to determine effective strategies for enhancing program quality. While coaching has gained popularity as a method to improve program quality, there has been little research on coaching within the licensed early learning and care sector in Canada. The current study utilized a mixed methods approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative methods, to better understand how a quality improvement process and the use of coaches support changes to program quality. The quality improvement process provided a structure for educators to examine practices, set goals, and implement changes while the coaches provided support and guidance to educators engaged in the process. The main quantitative method utilized the Early Childhood Education Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) to evaluate program quality before and after the implementation of the process. While the results were not statistically significant, there were some indicators that the process and the use of coaches might support program quality improvements. The analysis of qualitative data (from survey questions and interviews) resulted in themes regarding both the quality improvement process and the value of coaches. The strongest overarching themes regarding the implementation of the process were: 1) Need for Time and 2) Importance of Reflective Practice. An additional theme was - Process Results in Positive Outcomes. The overarching themes regarding coaches were: 1) Coaches Provide Resources, 2) Coaches Provide Clarity/Insight, 3) Coaches are Mediators/Facilitators, and 4) Coaches Help Educators Complete the Process. The limitations of the study (e.g., small sample size, use of volunteers) restricted generalizations, but the results did highlight the need for more research and provided some implications for agencies and governments looking to improve program quality.
"Wir sind Geburtshelfer eines neuen Lebens": DEFA's Positive Heroes
Keywords: Antifascism
DEFA
German Democratic Republic
Positive Heroes
Socialist Cinema

Of the catalogue of feature films produced by the German Democratic Republic’s state-owned production studio, DEFA (Deutsche Filmaktiengesellschaft), the most well-known and well-studied are its antifascist films. However, relatively little scholarly attention has been paid to the protagonists of these films and their function as role models (Vorbilder) and representatives of the East German state and its ideology. These figures may be referred to as positive heroes: a term from Soviet literature which describes a character who embodies dedication to socialist ideology and the Party, as well as an ideal of socialist leadership. This dissertation examines the portrayals of positive heroes in DEFA films from the late 1940s—prior even to the founding of the GDR—through to the early 1990s, when DEFA’s final films post-German reunification were produced. I begin with an analysis of DEFA’s most important project in its first decade, Kurt Maetzig’s two biographical films about Ernst Thälmann, in which I argue that positive heroism in DEFA films is made up of two connected character types: the symbolic hero, who represents the Party, State, and ideology, and the role model or Vorbild, who represents a locus of identification for the spectator. Using a framework based on Žižekian psychoanalytical theory, I argue furthermore that these character types play a significant role in the ideological mission of antifascist films: to construct and disseminate specific forms of socialist, East German identity. Moreover, my analysis of the portrayals of positive heroes highlights the underlying contradictions within the GDR’s doctrine of antifascism, and thus in its foundational narrative.
Sleep Apnea Caused by Rostral Fluid Shift: Identifying Risk Factors and Developing a Treatment Using Calf Muscle Electrical Stimulation
Keywords: Edema
Electrical stimulation
Fluid shift
Sleep apnea
Snoring

Rationale: Fluid accumulation in the legs due to a sedentary lifestyle can increase overnight fluid shifting from the legs and into the neck (i.e. rostrally) when lying down to sleep. Rostral fluid shift can increase pressure on the pharyngeal airway and severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). This thesis contains three studies that together investigate risk factors for neck fluid accumulation when lying down, and explores a therapy of calf muscle electrical stimulation (ES) for reducing daytime leg fluid accumulation to treat OSA caused by fluid shift. Methods:The first study used data previously collected on the time-course of fluid shift from the legs and into the neck while lying supine for 90-minutes. Using demographic, anthropometric and fluid-based data captured before lying down, risk factors for increased neck fluid accumulation while supine were identified. Study two was a sham-controlled trial into the effects of using calf muscle ES while seated for two-and-a-half hours on leg fluid accumulation, consequent rostral fluid shift when supine, as well as OSA and snoring. Study three explored the time-course of seated leg fluid accumulation between sham and active calf muscle ES conditions to identify the optimal time-period for using the device to reduce leg fluid accumulation. Results: Study one found that male sex and greater leg and neck fluid volumes prior to lying down increased risk for neck fluid accumulation when lying down. Study two demonstrated that compared to sham ES, active calf muscle ES reduced seated leg fluid accumulation by 46%. Consequently, rostral fluid shift out of the legs and into the neck reduced by 17% and 31%, respectively. Lastly, while OSA severity did not change after ES, calf muscle ES reduced snoring index. Study three did not identify an optimal time-period for using calf muscle ES, but found the effectiveness in reducing leg fluid accumulation increases with time. Conclusion: The thesis shows that calf muscle ES is an effective therapy for reducing leg fluid accumulation and consequent pharyngeal narrowing likely through reduction of overnight neck fluid accumulation. Future work should explore the effects of long-term use of calf muscle ES on OSA severity.
Identification and Control of 3D Mechanical Stimulation Conditions for Heart Valve Tissue Engineering using Microdevice Arrays
Keywords: Hydrogel
Mechanical stimulation
Mesenchymal stromal cell
Microdevice
On-chip strain sensing
Tissue stiffness monitoring

Tissue engineered heart valves have the potential to meet the growing need for valve replacement for pediatric patients, adolescents, and active adult patients with congenital defects, rheumatic fever, and valve disease, respectively. Currently engineered valve replacements are not durable post-implantation often due to cell-mediated tissue retraction and subsequent regurgitation. This limitation is largely due to the lack of knowledge required to inform the effective design of engineered tissues, and lack of platforms to efficiently investigate the integrative effects of multiple microenvironmental cues particularly including heart valve-relevant 3D mechanical stimulation on cell functions. Specifically, the optimization of mechanical loading protocols and methods for monitoring of tissue functional properties remain as primary challenges and priority for heart valve tissue engineering. In this thesis, a platform was presented that enabled 3D dynamic mechanical stretch of arrayed cell-laden hydrogel constructs and simultaneous continuous stiffness measurement of the hydrogel constructs in situ with integrated strain sensors. Cell-seeded polyethylene glycol norbornene (PEG-NB) hydrogels were bound to deformable membranes via a thiol-ene reaction with off-stoichiometry thiol-ene based polydimethylsiloxane as the membrane material. Dynamic 3D mechanical stimulation of human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs)-seeded PEG-NB significantly promoted myofibroblast differentiation. As captured by the on-chip strain sensors, significant evolution in the stiffness of cell-hydrogel constructs during culture due to cell-mediated remodeling was also confirmed. In addition, a proof-of-concept study to screen and identify the optimal 3D mechanical stimulation combination for promoting collagen expression by MSCs was demonstrated, using factorial experimental design and regression parametric modeling. For the first time, a significant mechanical stimulation interaction effect was revealed that dominantly determined collagen production by cells. The precisely controllable biomaterial and biochemical properties of the PEG-NB system also make this platform readily amenable to include other relevant microenvironmental cues for comprehensive combinatorial screening studies, and has the potential to identify strategies to predictably control the construction of functional engineered tissues in vitro. This platform with on-chip strain sensing also represents a promising approach to address the limitation of end-point analysis, enables exploration of bioprocess control strategies, and would provide insights otherwise not available into the engineered tissue development.
Programming the Gut Microbiota-Bone Axis by Early Life Exposure to Vitamin D in Mice in the Context of an Obesogenic Diet
Keywords: Bone
Diabetes
Gut microbiota
Obesity
Programming
Vitamin D

Vitamin D has anti-inflammatory effects, and in the context of obesity, may reduce systemic inflammation and impaired bone health. Maternal vitamin D status may program offspring health, and is positively associated with offspring bone mass. Serum lipopolysaccharide (LPS) concentration is lower in healthy male mouse offspring exposed to high maternal vitamin D. Although, the programming effects on healthy female offspring, nor its effects within the context of obesity for either sex, have been studied. The overall thesis objective was to investigate the programming effects of vitamin D on the gut microbiota-bone axis in the context of a chronic high fat and sucrose (HFS) diet in male and female mice. Dams were fed high (H, 5000 IU/kg of diet) or low (L, 25 IU/kg of diet) vitamin D during pregnancy and lactation. At weaning, offspring remained on their damâ s diet (HH and LL groups) or were switched (HL and LH groups), and fed a high fat (44%) and sucrose (20%) diet until 7 months of age. High maternal dietary vitamin D resulted in lower intestinal permeability (p=0.010), serum LPS concentrations (dam diet, p=0.011), higher colonic percent Bacteroides (p