VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Age of Epilepsy Onset on Cognition, Brain Structure and Network Organization in People with Left and Right Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
Keywords: fMRI
functional connectivity
Graph Theory
Memory
MRI
Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is a characterized by recurrent seizures in the temporal lobes and is associated with memory impairments, widespread cortical abnormalities, and altered network properties. This disorder emerges at varying ages from perinatal periods to midlife. This thesis examines the relationship between the age of epilepsy onset with memory, cortical thickness and network properties. In the first study, I found that, in people with left TLE (LTLE), earlier onset was associated with worse verbal memory, visual memory, IQ, and thinner cortex in left frontal language regions, while onset in young adulthood was associated with peak memory and cortical thickness in these regions. Further, cortical thickness in these regions correlated with verbal memory ability. Conversely, in people with right TLE (RTLE), earlier onset was associated with better visual memory, but with thinner posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and superior frontal cortex and thinner cortex in these regions was associated with worse visual memory. In study 2, I found that early onset was associated with higher network segregation in RTLE. Higher network segregation also related to better visual memory ability, suggesting that this network organization seen in early onset individuals is beneficial. In study 3, I used functional connectivity to parcellate the hippocampus into anterior and posterior divisions. In LTLE, anterior hippocampus to PCC connectivity was related to verbal memory, while in RLTE, posterior hippocampus to PCC connectivity was related to visual memory, though age of onset was unrelated to these effects. Together, this dissertation presents evidence that early life onset of temporal lobe epilepsy affects cognition, brain structure and organization. Seizure laterality appears to play a major role in how this effect is expressedâ early onset in the language dominant hemisphere is associated with a developmental hindrance, while early onset in the non-dominant hemisphere is associated with adaptive network organization.
Letâ s Talk About the NOC: An Ethnography of Classification
Keywords: culture
domain
employment
immigration
knowledge organization
occupational classification

This ethnographic study describes the background of standard national occupational classification in Canada and analyses its use within an organization that supports employment initiatives for newcomers to Canada. Original in its approach, the study responds to questions about the social role of a classification system through ethnographic description of who is involved in working with occupational classification. Fieldwork methods included gathering instantiations of the National Occupational Classification (NOC) and its antecedent occupational classification systems, participant observation, interviews and documentary research. Analytical techniques included writing and visual analysis in relation to conceptions of knowledge organization and information drawn from the disciplines of Library and Information Science. The topic and approach are significant towards extending the range of knowledge organization systems analyzed in library and information science (LIS) disciplines, and bridging the interests of knowledge organization research and information practices and social epistemology. Findings demonstrate the existence of complex relations among organizational practices such as producing algorithmic matches between occupational categories, tracking and communicating quality measures to stakeholders, and informing the design of new organizational systems. Producing matches, measuring quality, and informing design in turn exist in relation to both broader social organization systems such as immigration and the economy and narrower engagements of everyday life. The mediating role played by standardized occupational classification exists orthogonal to the everyday life of individuals and socio-economic institutions and is brought into view through description and analysis based in local organizational settings. The discussion turns toward a deeper analysis of the specific role of the NOC in this organizational setting by putting into relation with concepts of knowledge organization and library and information science research. Methodological techniques are also considered in greater detail in the discussion. Significantly this study combines ethnographic techniques for data gathering with analytical approaches drawn from the domain of knowledge organization. It will serve as a resource for future investigations of occupational classification in social practices of interest to Library and Information Science.
The Role of Dendritic Cells in Promoting Adaptive Antiviral Immune Responses at the Intestinal Mucosa
Keywords: Antigen presenting cell
IgA
lymphotoxin
Rotavirus
Small intesitine
vaccine

The immune system of the gastrointestinal tract must be tightly regulated to limit inflammatory responses towards innocuous food and commensal antigens while allowing for rapid development of effector responses against invading pathogens. Highly specialized antigen presenting cells, such as dendritic cells (DCs), play an essential role in balancing the regulatory and inflammatory responses in the gut. Although multiple DC subsets have been described in both lymphoid and non-lymphoid tissues, we know little about which DC subset(s) provoke antiviral responses within the gut, as well as what DC-intrinsic pathways are needed for optimal CD8+ T cell responses against viral infection at the mucosa. Herein, using an infection model with rotavirus (RV), a double-stranded RNA virus with a small intestinal tropism, I demonstrated that BATF3-dependent DCs are required for generating optimal RV-specific CD8+ T-cell responses in adult mice. However, a significant amount of RV-specific CD8+ T cells are still detectable in the small intestinal lamina propria (SILP) of Batf3-/- adult mice, suggesting the existence of compensatory cross-presentation machinery in the absence of BATF3-dependent DCs. Interestingly, BATF3-dependent DCs are absolutely needed for RV-specific CD8+ T-cell responses in neonatal mice. Furthermore, a decreased Th1 response and an increased Th17 in both adult and neonatal Batf3-/- mice is observed upon RV infection, although local and systemic RV-specific immunoglobulin A (IgA) production kinetics and titers are unimpaired in these mice. Our lab previously showed that DC-intrinsic lymphotoxin beta receptor (LTbR) signaling pathway is important for optimal CD8+ T-cell expansion in responses to foreign protein antigens in the periphery. Moreover, Lta-/- mice display prolonged RV antigen shedding and delayed anti-RV IgA response. To determine whether LTbR signaling pathway in DC can impact on anti-RV adaptive immune responses, I challenged Ltbr-/- ->WT bone marrow chimeric mice with RV. I found that LTbR signaling in the radio-sensitive is dispensable for RV clearance. In Ltbr-/-->WT chimeric mice, increased interferon gamma-secreting RV-specific CD8+ T cells and polyclonal Th1 cells are present, accompanied by a decrease in interleukin 17-producing polyclonal CD4+ T cells in the SILP. In spite of this altered cytokine profile, the local and systemic RV-specific IgA response is unperturbed. Taken together, these studies contribute towards our understanding of DCs in regulating antiviral adaptive immune responses in the intestine.
Portrayals of School Administrators in Imaginative Literature: A Content Analysis of Twenty Novels
Keywords: administrators in novels
content analysis fiction
fictional school administrators
school administrator novels
school leadership fiction

This thesis adds to a body of interpretive studies that use the arts to support social science research—in this case, an examination of school administrators in imaginative literature, specifically novels. While similar studies do exist, most only assess the extent to which surface images of these administrators are consistent with stereotypes of real-life school leaders, and thus fail to determine how each character’s leadership fully impacts the educational institution. Through a qualitative content analysis of twenty Anglo-American novels published during the 20th and 21st centuries, this investigation probes deeper into these portrayals, looking past mere surface images to explore the issues fictional administrators face and the leadership practices they adopt, a framework that serves to reveal how such portrayals offer valuable insight into educational leadership. The findings show that there exists no single, simplistic portrayal of fictional administrators and that many of the issues that confront them resemble those faced by real-life school leaders, though in the fictional world, the importance ascribed to each issue differs from that of real life. The findings also show that the notion of the “Great Man” leader is pervasive and that authors generally associate leadership with masculinity and do not conceptualize it as something done by women except in all-female settings. In addition, administrators are often portrayed as traditional managers functioning within a hierarchy, possessing goals that serve the interests of the administrators and their institutions. And finally, administrators are portrayed as exerting a direct influence on student outcomes, contrary to much of the scholarly literature that finds that leadership only indirectly impacts outcomes.
Information Behaviour of Sell-side and Other Analysts in Financial Institutions in Toronto, Canada
Keywords: Information Behaviour
Organizational Behaviour

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the information behaviour of sell-side and other analysts in terms of their perception of environmental signals and information goals. I consider how individual, task, and sector factors influence sell-side and other analystsâ information behaviour. The research questions are: 1. What are the information goals of analysts as they seek and use financial and non-financial information to produce research? 2. In what ways do analysts perceive signals in their environment to prompt specific information seeking and information use? 3. What are the factors (individual-, sector-, and task- related factors) that influence the perception of information goals and signals in the environment? To address the research questions, I study the information behaviour of sell-side and other analysts in major financial institutions and private client firms. This study includes analysts in different positions to offer a holistic account of analyst information behaviour. I collected the data using Critical Incident Technique (CIT) interviews, and I analyzed the data using Boyatzis (1998) Thematic Analysis. The main findings of the study are that sell-side and other analysts seek and use information to identify investment opportunities or problematic situations, to establish reputations as trustworthy information sources, and to contribute innovative, value-added research to their industries. Environmental factors that influence how analysts perceive information goals and signals include time, geographical, political, and regulatory changes, competition, and consensus. Analysts establish criteria to select and to analyze quality information and communicate views or recommendations based on their research. Other analysts refer to sell-side analyst research to produce internal research for institutional investors (organizations) and to advise private clients and retail clients (general public). This study advances our knowledge of sell-side and other analysts who work for financial institutions in Toronto, Canada, as influential economic actors in a complex business environment.
Power Grid Verification
Keywords: Optimization
Power Grid
Reliability
Verification
VLSI

This thesis develops a collection of computer-aided design (CAD) tools for analysis and verification of the power delivery network (PDN) in integrated circuits. With technology scaling, the PDN verification problem is becoming more challenging than ever because the number of nodes that need to be checked is in the billions. There is a need for new highly efficient CAD tools that can handle the enormous sizes of today's PDNs. Existing tools are either vector-based or vectorless. Vector-based tools assume full knowledge of the currents drawn by the underlying logic circuitry and they compute the exact resulting voltage drops, while vectorless tools require a limited amount of information and they compute worst-case values for the voltage drops. Both types of tools have their own merits. The focus of the first part of this thesis is on improving the performance of an important existing vectorless technique that is based on current constraints. The second part proposes new vector-based methods for conservative verification of the PDN that will prove to be much faster than the traditional tools. Finally, the third part of the thesis introduces a new vectorless framework under transient current constraints. The new framework will be used for power scheduling, which is an emerging CAD problem for active PDNs where certain parts of the power grid can be completely shut down through power gating. A power scheduler is responsible for managing the workloads on the chip such that the PDN is kept safe from voltage drop at all time.
"I Work in Social": Community Managers and Personal Branding in Social Media
Keywords: community manager
influencer
new media work
personal branding
social media
social media management

Welcome to a world of networking, hustling, coffee, cupcakes, and cocktails; a world where social media is not only an interest, but a way that people meet, become friends, make money, and stay connected. Here, social media is both a passion and a profession, but there is also an unspoken tension. My research analyzes how social media managers—those who manage online communities and create content across digital platforms—work in social media (referring to the work practice of social media managers), and also do the work of social media (referring to the curation of their personal brand using social media to leverage a strategic advantage in the job market). Using a mixed method approach, including three years of fieldwork in Toronto and semi-structured interviews with social media professionals, this dissertation analyzes the “social media scene” and identifies elements of the changing landscape of work and self-presentation in an age of social media. The research examines the practice of community management across various industries, including marketing agencies, entertainment, not-for-profit, education, government, telecommunications, retail, and sports. The dissertation uncovers an emerging feminization of social media within the profession. I argue that social media management represents the next iteration of the devaluation of women’s work in the tech industry, mirroring the history of women’s labour in technology. I uncover how people are adopting personal branding practices on social media as a strategy to gain control of their own lives and careers against conditions of increased corporatization, job insecurity, and precarious economic times. I explore the influencer economy and introduce the term “casual influencer” to refer to an ordinary person who posts sponsored content on behalf of a brand, and are typically compensated with free “swag” or experiences, which points to the commercialization of community. The dissertation contributes to our understanding of the inherent contradictions and binaries of living and working in a digitally mediated world: the double labour of working on personal branding as an integral aspect of being an employee; the dissolving divide between the personal and the professional; and the visibility of influence and invisibility of disclosure inherent in social media.
Influence of Temperature and Storage Solution Composition on Test Methods for Alkali-silica Reactivity
Keywords: Accelerated Mortar Bar Test
Alkali-Silica Reaction
Concrete Prism Test
Pore Solution Composition

The concrete prism test (CPT, ASTM C1293, CSA A23.2-14A) and the accelerated mortar bar test (AMBT, ASTM C1260, ASTM C1567, CSA A23.2-25A), commonly used for evaluation of alkali-silica reaction (ASR), have limitations. The main disadvantage with the AMBT is that some field innocuous aggregates are incorrectly identified as reactive (false-positives) and some field reactive aggregates are incorrectly identified as non-reactive (false-negatives). The shortcoming associated with the more accurate CPT is its lengthy testing period of 1 to 2 years. This study attempts to improve these methods by evaluating the influence of temperature and composition of storage solution. At 80C in 1N NaOH storage, AMBT samples have different pore solution compositions than cement pastes cured at ambient temperatures. Changes in pore solution composition were found to lead to changes in the type and composition of ASR products. For more accurately representing paste pore solutions and resulting ASR products, the storage solution and the temperature of the AMBT were modified to 0.65N KOH+0.150N NaOH at 60C. Contradictory to what was expected, the modification did not dramatically improve test accuracy. However, the modified test appeared to still be better alternative to the standard AMBT, especially for aggregates that show pessimum behavior. The concrete prism test modified to 60C storage was also assessed and was found to be more promising than the modified AMBT. This modified test was almost as accurate as the standard CPT and the test period was reduced to only 3 to 6 months.
Joint Task Offloading and Resource Allocation for Mobile Cloud with Computing Access Point
Keywords: Computing Access Point
Mobile Cloud Computing
Mobile Edge Computing
Resource Allocation
Semidefinite Relaxation
Task Offloading

Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) extends the capabilities of mobile devices to improve user experience. Mobile users can offload tasks to the cloud, using abundant cloud resources to help them gather, store, and process data. In this dissertation, we consider a general three-tier multi-user MCC system consisting of mobile users, a computing access point (CAP), and a remote cloud server. The CAP serves both as the network access gateway and a computation service provider to the mobile users, so that each task may be processed locally, at the CAP, or at a remote cloud server. In a multi-user scenario, to offload tasks, we need to further allocate communication and computation resources among competing users. The existing works either optimize only the offloading decisions of tasks without the resource allocation for three-tier systems, or consider only the two-tier systems with mobile users and the remote (or nearby) processor. Instead, for a general three-tier system, we jointly consider both the offloading decision and resource allocation among all users, with an aim to conserve energy and maintain service quality for all of them. We first consider the scenario where each user has a single task, with an aim to minimize the overall cost of energy consumption, computation, and maximum delay among users. The joint optimization problem is formulated as a mixed-integer program, which is NP-hard in general. An efficient heuristic algorithm using semidefinite relaxation (SDR) and a new randomization mapping approach is proposed. For the case with strict delay constraints for each task, we propose a three-step algorithm to obtain a feasible solution that is locally optimal. We further investigate a more general mobile cloud network where each user has multiple independent tasks. Both cases with and without a CAP are studied, and corresponding nearly optimal solutions are obtained. In addition to the centralized optimizations above, we also study the interaction between selfish mobile users and the CAP. We use a game theoretic approach by letting mobile users distributively compute their own offloading decisions based on their respective cost function, while the CAP decides the allocation of communication and computation resources. We show that a Nash equilibrium (NE) exists in our formulated game, and we propose an algorithm which leads to an NE in finite steps. In all cases above, we show that the proposed methods provide nearly optimal performance. Furthermore, by exploiting the CAP efficiently, we can significantly reduce the energy and computation costs of mobile cloud computing over traditional two-tier systems where offloaded tasks are only processed at the remote cloud center.
Multiparametric Quantitative MRI of the Cervical Spinal Cord to Measure Microstructure and Tissue Injury: Development, Validation, and Applications of a Clinically Feasible Protocol
Keywords: Diffusion tensor imaging
DTI
Magnetic resonance imaging
MRI
Spinal cord injury
Spine

An array of spinal cord (SC) quantitative MRI (qMRI) techniques can measure aspects of microstructure and tissue injury. This research develops a clinically feasible multiparametric MRI protocol, including diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) fractional anisotropy (FA), magnetization transfer ratio (MTR), and measurement of SC cross-sectional area (CSA). A novel biomarker of white matter (WM) injury is also introduced, normalizing T2*WI WM signal intensity by grey matter (T2*WI WM/GM). A study of 40 healthy subjects establishes methods, normalization procedures, normative values, and reliability. 58 patients with degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) are studied, showing significant differences in 10 metrics. Combining these measures using multivariate methods overcomes the limitations of each technique, achieving good diagnostic accuracy and clinical correlation. T2*WI WM/GM shows strong potential as a novel biomarker, comparing favourably with established biomarkers FA and MTR. Our study of healthy subjects identifies an alarming rate of asymptomatic SC compression (ASCC) at 50%. Objective criteria and automated shape analysis are developed to create a new definition of SC compression, and qMRI demonstrates significant tissue injury in this group. This finding suggests the potential for pre-symptomatic diagnosis of DCM and other spinal pathologies. Finally, a longitudinal study compares multiparametric qMRI with clinical measures for monitoring disease progression in DCM, indicating that modified Japanese Orthopedic Association (mJOA) score is insensitive to detect progression, whereas qMRI showed tissue progression more often than comprehensive clinical assessments. These results suggest that natural history studies employing mJOA underestimate progression, due to neuroplasticity and behavioural adaptation. Combined qMRI and clinical data are now being used to inform surgical decision-making for individual patients. Reliable multiparametric assessment of SC microstructure is possible using clinically suitable methods. This approach shows strong clinical utility for individual patients, including good diagnostic accuracy, correlations with impairment, detection of tissue injury in asymptomatic individuals, and detection of progressive tissue injury in DCM patients.