VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Eye Biometrics Signal Analysis and Potential Applications in User Authentication and Affective Computing
Keywords: Affective Computing
Biomterics
HCI
Machine Learning
User Authentication

As the adoption of biometric technologies grows, there is an escalating worry regarding the potential for bypassing, disguising, or replicating biometric data. Established biometric methods, such as facial recognition and fingerprints, are susceptible to these forms of drawbacks, undermining their core objective, which is to use physical traits for reliable deployment. This thesis proposes utilizing eye biometric signals (eye movement and pupillometry) for identifying individuals and recognizing affective states. Eye biometric signals are critical biological signals that inherently incorporate liveliness verification and resist counterfeiting due to their distinctive nature. However, utilizing eye signals as a biometric is challenging because recordings from the same person can vary due to factors like background noise, physical exertion, and emotions. While variations due to noise and physical activity can be managed through proper pre-processing and feature extraction techniques, the influence of psychological factors on eye biometric signals is more complicated to handle. This thesis deals with this problem from an affective computing point of view. First, the thesis pinpoints the psychological conditions that can influence the eye signals which, consequently, threaten the precision of its deployment in various applications. It outlines experimental arrangements purposely designed to induce active and passive arousal as well as positive and negative valence. A data-driven model serves as the foundation for detecting emotional patterns after tailoring the model for eye biometric signals. The results demonstrate the identification of psychological/affective states that affect eye biometrics to a degree that may render biometric matching unreliable. Three application scenarios are examined: a) user authentication, b) affective/emotional state recognition, and c) Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) detection. The developed models are tailored to suit each context, and the pros and cons of each setup are explored. Additionally, to improve the utility of these emerging modalities, a multimodal framework is introduced that combines facial expressions and pupillometry. Finally, this thesis introduces a study that investigates the existence of bias with eye biometric signals and identifies the different factors that affect modality performance. Overall, this thesis endeavors to develop the necessary algorithms and practical infrastructure for effectively employing eye biometric signals in real-world biometric systems.
Exploring the Potential of Software-Defined Networking for Smart Grid Automation: A Cyber-Physical Systems Approach
Keywords: Communication networks
Cybersecurity
Smart-Grids

With the emerging concept of smart grids integrating renewable energies and the emergence of connected devices. The power grid is becoming increasingly dependent on underlying communication infrastructure. Concerns about the cybersecurity and resilience of power systems have heightened in electric utilities and regulatory agencies over the past decade mainly because of the unpredictable target, location and scale of cyberattacks and the potential severity of consequences. The cyber vulnerability of power grids is on the rise by the emergence of smart grid technologies increasingly reliant on the communication infrastructure. This underlines an imminent need for the modelling and examination of power grid vulnerabilities to cyber-physical attacks. \par This thesis provides an in-depth analysis of the operational vulnerabilities in Energy Control Systems (ECS) to cyberattacks, spanning from the fundamental protection level operating in a Local Area Network (LAN) to the advanced Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) level functioning within a Wide Area Network (WAN). To facilitate this analysis, a co-simulation platform bridging Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) simulators was developed, focusing on the vulnerability assessment of communication-assisted protection schemes (CAPS) to cyberattacks. The research underscores the pressing requirement for a more resilient communication infrastructure to fortify power system protection. In response to this need, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) was incorporated into the co-simulation platform, which remarkably enhanced the resilience of CAPS against cyberattacks. As a result, the co-simulation platform was further optimized to explore the potential of SDN in strengthening the resilience of the SCADA system operating within the WAN. SDN capabilities are leveraged to propose an innovative IT/OT intrusions Detection System that improves the resilience of Telecontrol commands. Later, SDN with Genetic Algorithm is proposed as an alternative to the standard MPLS infrastructure used in Wide Area Networks. Our results demonstrated that SDN-GA significantly improves the resilience of physical systems as it can promptly respond to dynamic changes within large-scale networks. Ultimately our thesis shows that Software Defined Networking capabilities significantly improve the resilience of smart grid automation at every level of the ECS infrastructure.
Autonomous Operation and Control of a Mixed-Source Microgrid with Grid-Forming Converters
Keywords: Grid-Forming Converters
Microgrid
Mixed-Source Microgrid
Remote Drive
Synchronous Generators

This thesis investigates the suitability of existing converter control schemes to operate a mixed source microgrid. Dynamic modeling in state space is used to demonstrate that inverse droop control is the best existing method for microgrid operation, exhibiting superior voltage and frequency quality when faced with common disturbances. This thesis subsequently proposes a new algorithm to autonomously operate a mixed-source microgrid – the remote field-oriented synchronous drive. The remote field-oriented drive operates alongside existing governor and exciter controls to rapidly damp microgrid voltage and frequency dynamics even during severe disturbances such as the line-start of a large induction motor or a three-phase grid fault. The proposed algorithm also supports a proposed supervisory control scheme which allows the mixed-source microgrid to connect to a larger transmission network and participate in various power systems operation schemes. The relative performance of existing converter control schemes as well as the proposed remote field-oriented drive is validated using a detailed hardware-in-the-loop simulation consisting of a PLECS RT-Box and external digital controllers. HiL simulations show that the proposed remote drive exhibits a near 10-fold improvement in transient frequency regulation and a near 2-fold improvement in transient voltage regulation during various loading contingencies when compared to traditional governor/exciter controls. The proposed algorithm is also shown to eliminate the subsynchronous shaft speed oscillations seen when using existing converter control schemes. Finally, the proposed algorithm is shown to allow a mixed-source microgrid to seamlessly synchronize with and subsequently operate within a larger transmission network, actively regulating the power flow between the microgrid and transmission network without requiring any structural or parametric changes to converter-side controls.
Neobarroco en la literatura latinoamericana del siglo XX
Keywords: Jose Donoso
Luis Rafael Sanchez
Myriam Laurini
Neobaroque
Neobarroco
Severo Sarduy

This research examines the baroque attributes, elements, and modes in the works of three Latin-American authors mainly, but not exclusively, from the theoretical perspective of Cuban writer and critic Severo Sarduy (1937-1993), who articulates a baroque supported, on the one hand, on affectation and parody —intertextuality and intratextuality being its main components— and on the other, on a subversive and disruptive spirit, the origins of which go back to the astronomical postulates of Johannes Kepler and the effects or resonances that they continue to produce in the history of thought, including literature. In Chapter 1, I analyze the novel La guaracha del Macho Camacho (1976) by Puerto Rican writer and playwright Luis Rafael Sánchez (1936-), using the theory Sarduy develops in his essay “The baroque and the neobaroque”, which connects the Latin-American neobaroque with affectation and parody, while also exploring the thematic and narrative decentering in the text using one of the six manifestations of the Keplerian ellipse proposed by Sarduy in his book Barroco. My goal is to locate the different ways in which this approach helps in reading Sánchez’ novel as a critique of simple or commonplace ways of interpreting Puerto Rico’s reality. Chapter 2 focuses on the 1978 novel Casa de campo by Chilean writer José Donoso (1924-96). I examine the plurality of the point of view and narrative modes in the novel, an overlooked aspect of its neobaroque aesthetic. I argue that the playfulness and plurality of points of view and narrative modes in the book constitute Donoso’s revolt against contemporary literary conventions and exemplify the rebelliousness and diversity of the neobaroque. Finally, in Chapter 3, I propose that if the retombée of the Keplerian ellipse can reach and impact any type of thought, like Sarduy claims, that would include the ethical sphere. This chapter proposes the presence of a neobaroque ethics —supported by the so-called “intelligent” emotions and what Spanish philosopher Antonio Marina labels “creative intelligence”— in the detective short story “La nota roja que no existió” (1988) by Mexican-Argentinian writer Myriam Laurini (1949-).
Times of Uncertainty and Future Projections for Forced Migrations: The Case of Syrian Refugee Mothers and Youths in Canada
Keywords: MENA
migration
mothers
Syrian refugee crisis
temporal
youth

Migration scholars have recently been focusing on temporality as a distinct phenomenon of the migratory process. In this dissertation, I produce new knowledge on the temporal dimensions of forced migration by asking: how does time work with space to shape forced migrants’ experiences after resettling in the host country? Taking the important case of Syrian refugee families in Canada, I explore —in four chapters— how mothers and teenagers experience time and uncertainty, and perceive past, present, and future following their resettlement. I draw on two waves of in-depth interviews with 41 mothers during their first year of resettlement (2016-2017) and three waves with 20 additional mothers between 2018 and 2021. I also draw on in-depth interviews with 25 teenagers. First, I demonstrate the importance of examining refugee mothers’ future projections in the first year of resettlement and considering a cultural and religious dimension of future projection. I put forward two novel concepts (“foreclosed futures” and “entangled timelines”) that capture mothers’ future perceptions during this initial period. Second, I demonstrate the ways in which mothers’ language learning process in the host country shapes their temporal experiences beyond the first year of resettlement. I analyze the different ways in which mothers find themselves “stuck” in the present, where multiple structural barriers and individual challenges significantly slow down their language acquisition process and prevent them from achieving other goals. The conflict between government expectations for the long-term future and participants’ immediate priorities underscores how language, space, and time co-construct notions of the future. Moreover, I examine how age and life stage at the time of migration shape these teenagers’ temporal experiences in the host country. I analyze two different trajectories for refugee teenagers: those who arrived as children in the earlier waves now experience a “slow present,” while recently resettled older teenagers experience a “tense present.” Lastly, I discuss two innovative methods used in my research with refugee teenagers, including “collective interviewing” and the “timeline-drawing” activity, which have allowed participants to be more creative in narrating their stories and trajectories. Ultimately, these findings suggest that scholarship on forced migration may continue to benefit from attention to how time and temporal experiences shape newcomers’ lives.
Faculty Perspectives about the Impacts of Implementing Indigenous Content at Humber College in Ontario, Canada
Keywords: critical whiteness theory
culturally responsive teaching
faculty motivation
focused curriculum
Indigenous content
student development theory

This qualitative, multi-method study examined course outlines through a Qualitative Document Analysis (QDA), which then led to the Qualitative Interviews (QI) of faculty members who taught Indigenous content within their academic courses. The initial analysis focused on 180 course outlines from 8 different academic programs in the Faculty of Social and Community Services at Humber College. Degree and diploma program course outlines were included in the analysis, which was centred on locating Indigenous content within each of the 8 academic programs. The QI explored the perspectives of 12 professors in the Faculty of Social and Community Services at Humber College who had taught courses that had embedded Indigenous content. These interviews sought to understand the perspectives of professors about the challenges, success, and motivations to include Indigenous content in their curricula. Through the QDA and QI, critical themes were uncovered, and emphasized the importance of the relationships developed within the classroom setting between professors and students, and the diverse culture that each post-secondary classroom offers learners. Each academic program contained a different level of Indigenous content, and the professors offered critical insights into what content was taught and what the impacts of this learning were within the classroom. The professors who had integrated Indigenous content into their pedagogy and curricula demonstrated Culturally Responsive Teaching practices and were engaged in a variety of ways with Indigenous content and the 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Professors’ approaches to teaching and learning, commitments to social justice, and interest in the decolonization and Indigenization of curricula had the most significant impacts on the implementation of Indigenous content.
Characterization of the Early Immune Response to Clozapine: Relevance for Idiosyncratic Drug-Induced Agranulocytosis
Keywords: agranulocytosis
clozapine
idiosyncratic drug reactions
immunotoxicology
inflammation
innate immune response

Clozapine, a highly efficacious neuroleptic, is seldom prescribed due to the risk of idiosyncratic drug-induced agranulocytosis (IDIAG). Progression to IDIAG is rare and remains poorly defined; however, patients frequently experience transient inflammatory responses early in treatment. Previously, our lab established that 1) a similar immune response occurs in rats and 2) myeloperoxidase (an enzyme present in neutrophils and precursors) bioactivation of clozapine generates neoantigens but the connection between these early mechanistic events remained unclear. Thus, we sought to better understand the induction of this proinflammatory response, focusing on the roles of myeloperoxidase, damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), and inflammasome activation. In THP-1 macrophages, we found that caspase-1 or myeloperoxidase inhibition attenuated clozapine-induced release of inflammatory mediators IL-1β, CXCL1, and C-reactive protein. In Sprague-Dawley rats, clozapine induced dose-related increases in neutrophils, corticosterone, CXCL1, α-1-acid glycoprotein, and calprotectin. Myeloperoxidase inhibition significantly attenuated clozapine-induced increases in neutrophil mobilization from the bone marrow to the blood and spleen. Moreover, the clozapine-triggered release of inflammatory mediators from the liver, spleen, and bone marrow was dampened by myeloperoxidase inhibition. Conversely, caspase-1 inhibition only attenuated clozapine-induced neutrophilia and related cytokine changes. Structural analogues olanzapine and fluperlapine did not induce a proinflammatory response in vitro or in vivo, but did induce similar changes in lymphocytes and corticosterone. In a comparison of clozapine- and olanzapine-exposed extracellular vesicles (EVs), clozapine induced a greater increase in the concentration of EVs enriched from both THP-1 macrophages and rat serum. Moreover, clozapine-exposed EVs induced an inflammasome-dependent response in vitro, supporting a potential role for EVs in immune activation. Proteomic and bioinformatic analyses demonstrated an increased number of differentially expressed proteins with clozapine that were enriched in pathways related to inflammation, myeloid cell chemotaxis, and TGF-β signaling. Together, these novel findings support the hypothesis that myeloperoxidase-mediated clozapine bioactivation leads to neoantigen formation, the release of DAMPs (either as soluble mediators or in EVs), and activation of an innate immune response, propagated in part by inflammasome activation. Overall, a better mechanistic understanding of clozapine-induced inflammation may elucidate ways to predict or prevent IDIAG, enabling more frequent therapeutic use of this and potentially other IDR-associated drugs.
A Disease Management Approach to Health Technology Assessment: A Multi-Methods Analysis for the Prevention and Management of Clostridioides difficile Infection
Keywords: Clostridioides difficile
economic evaluation
health services research
health technology assessment
systems thinking

Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary process with a primary goal to inform health system decision-making. HTA is considered the reference paradigm for the assessment of technology in healthcare with efforts to achieve a high-quality health system. HTA conventionally responds to questions about new market entrants for a single decision-maker. In the context of Canada’s decentralized health system, many decision-makers means many, typically narrow, scopes of analysis. Literature suggests that there are likely implications of this environment which may include overlooking opportunities to identify an optimal mix of interventions that maximizes health outcomes. Our work aimed to draw attention to the conventional scope of the decision problem in HTA, and explore one alternative to this conventional approach, a disease management approach.Study 1 used scoping review methodology to assess how, and to what extent, a systems-level perspective is considered in decision-making for the adoption or de-adoption of a health intervention or technology (e.g., drug, medical device, procedure). Study 2 was a second scoping review to assess how the scope of the decision problem is typically defined within one component of HTA, economic evaluation, and specifically for Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) infection interventions. Study 3 used economic evaluation methodology, and C. difficile as an exemplar, to identify the optimal implementation strategy for a new vaccine in combination with a new (more effective, more costly) treatment (disease management approach) compared to the conventional approach which typically assesses interventions independently. Study 4 used qualitative methodology to explore opportunities for conceptualizing the decision space in HTA as a disease management approach versus an intervention management approach. Our research confirmed that intervention assessments are typically conducted in isolation to other interventions, assuming that the surrounding intervention environment is static. We highlight that an expanded approach to how we structure the decision problem in HTA, a disease management approach, will not be without its challenges. We provide quantitative and qualitative evidence in support of a step toward a more system-level perspective to HTA and endeavor to showcase a potential opportunity for HTA to contribute to a more proactive, resilient, and sustainable healthcare system in Canada.
Higher Euler-Kronecker Constants
Keywords: Dedekind zeta function
Dirichlet L-functions
Distribution
Euler-Kronecker Constant
Moments

The coefficients that appear in the Laurent series of Dedekind zeta functions and their logarithmic derivatives are mysterious and seem to contain a lot of arithmetic information. Although the residue and the constant term have been widely studied, not much is known about the higher coefficients. In this thesis, we study these coefficients $\gamma_{K,n}$ that appear in the Laurent series expansion of $\frac{\zeta_K'(s)}{\zeta_K (s)}$ about $s=1$, where $K$ is a global field. For example, when $K$ is a number field, we unconditionally prove certain arithmetic formulas satisfied by these coefficients and we give bounds for them under GRH. Analogous bounds for function fields of curves defined over a finite field are also shown. \vspace{2mm}\\ We also study the distribution of values of higher derivatives of $\mathcal{L}(s,\chi)= L'(s, \chi)/L(s, \chi)$ at $s=1$ where $\chi$ ranges over all non-trivial Dirichlet characters with a given large prime conductor $m$. In particular, we compute moments, i.e. the average of $P^{(a,b)}(\mathcal{L}^{(n)}(1, \chi))$, where $P^{(a,b)}(z) = z^a \overline{z}^b$ and study their asymptotic behaviour as $m \rightarrow \infty$. We then construct a density function $M_{\sigma}(z)$, for $\sigma= $ Re$(s)$ and show that for Re$(s) > 1$ $$\text{Avg}_{\chi} \Phi(\mathcal{L}'(s, \chi)) = \int_{\mathbb{C}} M_{\sigma}(z) \Phi(z) |dz| $$ holds for any continuous function $\Phi$ on $\mathbb{C}$.