VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Mental Health Care for Common Perinatal Mental Disorders: What Do Fathers Need?
Keywords: Cross-Sectional Survey
Decision Making
Help Seeking
Men's Mental Health
Perinatal Period
Treatment Preferences

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand fathers’ decision making processes around help-seeking for symptoms of common perinatal mental disorders. Methods: Using a cross-sectional survey, we recruited a large sample of fathers to identify their decision making needs and preferences for mental health services, in accordance with the Ottawa Decision Support Framework. Results: Our results revealed that fathers’ knowledge about mental disorders was relatively high. Knowing how a mental disorder impacts child development was an important reason to seek treatment. Only 50% of fathers reported being comfortable disclosing symptoms to a healthcare provider, and the preferred disclosure settings were an online survey or primary care provider. Fathers with a history of a perinatal mental disorder had greater acceptability towards pharmacotherapy, compared to fathers with no history. Conclusions: Our findings support the need for the design of targeted decision support to optimize fathers’ engagement in mental health services. Conclusions: Our findings support the need for the design of targeted decision making support that overcomes obstacles to help-seeking among fathers and optimizes their engagement in mental health services in the perinatal period.
The Effect of β-cell Specific ZnT8 Deficiency on Insulin Secretion
Keywords: Beta-cell
Diabetes
Insulin
Slc30a8
ZnT8

Zinc plays a role in insulin processing, storage, and secretion. Zinc transport processes may be linked to defects in insulin secretion associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Indeed, ZnT8, a zinc influx transporter highly expressed in pancreatic β-cells, is associated with T2D risk. Presently, the role ZnT8 plays in diabetes progression and whether altered ZnT8 activity affects T2D risk/treatment is controversial. The effects of ZnT8 knockdown in mouse are modestly to severely deleterious, whereas in humans, ZnT8 loss-of-function haploinsufficiency appears to reduce diabetes risk. A β-cell specific ZnT8 knockout and haploinsufficiency model were developed and examined under normal and metabolically stressed conditions. Mice with reduced ZnT8 did not have significantly impaired glucose homeostasis or β-cell function compared to controls under normal and conditions of acute insulin resistance. Overall, pancreatic β-cell ZnT8 deletion or knockdown did not impair β-cell function, nor was it protective of hyperglycaemia associated with insulin resistance.
A 3-phase Electric Vehicle Charger Integrated with Dual Inverter Drive
Keywords: dual inverter
electric vehicle
integrated charging
onboard charging

This thesis proposes a 3-phase electric vehicle (EV) charger which reemploys components of a dual inverter drive for charging when the EV is parked. Reemployment of drive components for charging can significantly reduce charging station infrastructure costs. The proposed charger's current source converter basis improves fault detection and prevents motor torque generation during charging. The dual inverter drive allows for integration of mixed energy storage media during driving and reduction of current ripple during charging. The proposed charger was tested through experimentation on a 10kW prototype. Experimental results showed the charger could perform constant-current constant-voltage charging of two isolated energy storage units from a 3-phase grid with >0.99 power factor. Charging wasperformed with balanced DC current passing through the EV's motor windings which prevented torque generation during charging. The prototype achieved an overall efficiency of 93% at rated power while meeting the international grid current harmonics standard IEC 61000-3-12.
Tuning of Pd Clusters and their Local Environment for CH4 and CO Oxidation Reactions
Keywords: Catalysis
Kinetics
Methane Oxidation
Zeolite

Pd clusters are active catalysts for oxidation of CH4 and CO, the major components of exhaust gas emissions and significant greenhouse gasses. Addition of Pt enhances the reactivity of Pd for either oxidation reaction by modifying the electronic properties of the Pd. This thesis explored (i) the optimum Pd-to-Pt atomic ratio for CH4 and CO oxidation reactions and (ii) the effects local Pd site environment alteration by confining of the clusters in SSZ-13 zeolite pores and the resulting dynamic interconversions among small and large Pd clusters. The optimal Pt-to-Pd atomic ratio was between 0.2 and 0.3, maximizing Pd-Pt interactions. In SSZ-13 zeolites, reversible re-dispersion was achieved using subsequent treatments under O2 and H2, and 10 kPa O2 partial pressure during CH4-O2 reactions was found to maximize the Pd cluster dispersion. The modifications on Pd clusters explored in this thesis could help produce more active (Pt incorporation into Pd) and stable (Pd supported on SSZ-13) exhaust emission catalysts that are less prone to sintering.
A Multi-facet Investigation of Impulsivity and Social Cognition in Bipolar Disorder
Keywords: Bipolar Disorder
Impulsivity
Social Cognition
Social Perception
Theory of Mind

Research has supported the impairment of both impulsivity and social cognition within bipolar disorder (BD). Despite this, additional research is necessary to clarify the manifestation of the sub-domains of these multi-faceted constructs. This study sought to examine the manifestation of the facets of impulsivity (i.e. trait behavioural) and social cognition (i.e. theory of mind social perception). Performances on validated measures of impulsivity and social cognition from a sample of 26 BD participants and 25 community controls were compared to observe for patterns indicative of impairment. The results of this examination suggest that euthymic and subthreshold BD individuals perform equal to controls regarding behavioural measures of impulsivity, theory of mind, and social perception. At the same time, levels of trait-impulsivity are statistically elevated compared to controls. These results suggest additional variables such as medication, symptom profile, and baseline functioning may mediate/moderate the manifestation of impulsivity and social cognitive impairments.
Gender, Migration, and Newcomer Artists
Keywords: art and social reproduction
Gender and Migration
Marxist feminism
Newcomer artist

The art world is grounded in the gendered and undervalued work of social reproduction. Thus, the high female presence in the newcomer arts scene is not circumstantial but a common trait of an increasingly gendered art world. Drawing from dialectical historical materialist anti-racist Marxist-feminism and existing literature, I explore the conditions in which newcomer female artists come to engage with the Toronto art world, and how do their experiences are imbricated with the power relations that constitute a gendered society. Through interviews to eight artists, I present not only a description of these women’s experiences, but their intersection with gender and racial hierarchies and capitalist social relations embedded in the art world in which they wish to be included.
Manipulating the Blood Labyrinth Barrier with Mannitol to Prevent Cisplatin-induced Hearing Loss
Keywords: Antioxidants
Blood Labyrinth Barrier
Cisplatin
Hearing Loss
Mannitol
Pharmacokinetics

AbstractCisplatin is a chemotherapeutic medication that remains in the cochlea indefinitely, causing permanent hearing loss. Mannitol may increase the permeability of the Blood Labyrinth Barrier (BLB) therefore increasing the rate of egression of cisplatin and entry of N-acetylcysteine (NAC): an otoprotective agent. Rats treated with cisplatin, at t=0 hours, were given either mannitol at t=0 hours, mannitol at t=6 hours, NAC alone, or NAC with mannitol. Mannitol at t=0 hours increased cisplatin entry into the inner ear and exacerbated cisplatin-induced hearing loss. Mannitol at t=6 hours did not increase cisplatin entry into the inner ear and preserved inner ear functionality and structure. NAC with mannitol provided greater protection against cisplatin-induced hearing loss than NAC alone. Mannitol injections at t=6 hours reduced cisplatin ototoxicity and enhanced the efficacy of antioxidants. This will provide an important therapeutic strategy to prevent cisplatin ototoxicity, a direct implication in hearing rehabilitation in cisplatin chemotherapy.
Investigating Neuroimaging and Cognitive Correlates of the Glutathione Antioxidant System in Mild Vascular Cognitive Impairment
Keywords: cardiovascular
glutathione
magnetic resonance spectroscopy
neuroimaging
oxidative stress
vascular cognitive impairment

Mild vascular cognitive impairment (mVCI) is the prodromal stage of vascular dementia and its pathogenesis is less defined in literature. This thesis explored the associations between antioxidant glutathione (GSH), white matter damage, and cognitive deficits. Patients with mVCI (n=23) were recruited from Toronto Rehabilitation Institute’s cardiac rehabilitation program. Increased GSH in the occipital lobe as measured by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy was associated with greater periventricular white matter hyperintensities in the occipital lobe as measured by magnetic resonance imaging (β=0.629, p=0.029). Conversely, increased plasma glutathione peroxidase was associated with greater deficits in verbal memory (β=-0.587, p=0.010), while increased GSH in the anterior cingulate cortex demonstrated a trending association with greater deficits in verbal memory (β=-0.564, p=0.056). This research suggests that GSH dysregulation may be associated with white matter damage, although findings were limited to the occipital lobe, and the peripheral GSH system may be associated with memory deficits in mVCI.
Geographies and Infrastructures of School Segregation: A Historical Case Study of Rochester, NY
Keywords: Education Policy
Geographies of Education
Infrastructure Studies
Racial Capitalism
School Segregation
Settler Colonialism

School segregation in the United States is at a crisis point. The educational landscape in Rochester, NY has become increasingly segregated along the lines of race, class, and geography in recent decades. This thesis investigates the geographies and infrastructures that laid the foundation for Rochester’s school segregation crisis. In particular, it asks how settler colonialism and racial capitalism have sculpted urban and suburban communities’ socio- spatial histories. This research aims to support academics, policymakers, and activists who are committed to developing more historically informed school desegregation policies, and to actualizing “equal educational opportunities for all.”
Longitudinal Differences in Cerebral Amyloid Accumulation and Cognition between users of Angiotensin-converting Enzyme Inhibitors and Angiotensin Receptor Blockers
Keywords: Alzheimer's
Amyloid
Angiotensin receptor blocker
Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor
Cognition
Hypertension

Background: Mounting but inconsistent evidence suggests that Angiotensin II Type-1 Receptor Blockers (ARBs) may protect against cognitive decline more than Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors (ACE-Is). This thesis performed head-to-head comparisons between these antihypertensives in older adults, examining related mechanisms and potential sources of heterogeneity. Methods: Propensity weighted mixed models examined longitudinal differences between ARB vs. ACE-I users in amyloid-β (Aβ) accumulation and cognitive performance among Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) Neuroimaging Initiative and National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Centre participants, respectively. APOE ε4 carrier status and blood-brain barrier (BBB) penetration were explored as potential heterogeneity factors. Results: In cognitively normal individuals, ARB exposure was associated with less Aβ accumulation. In individuals with AD, ARB exposure was associated with slower decline in multiple cognitive domains specifically among ε4 non-carriers, and particularly compared to non-crossing ACE-Is. Conclusions: ARBs were associated with favourable Aβ and cognitive outcomes, particularly in ε4 non-carriers and compared to non-crossing ACE-Is.
Design and Implementation of a Telemetry System for Microsatellite Operations
Keywords: Database
Microsatellite
Operation
Telemetry

Small satellites generate lots of telemetry data on orbit. These telemetry data are important for monitoring the health of spacecraft, validating design, and planning operations. As more small satellites are being launched into space, an integrated telemetry system is needed to store, access, and display telemetry data. This thesis presents the author's work in designing and implementing such a system. This telemetry system greatly facilitates checking telemetry data and provides a platform on which automated telemetry monitoring and autonomous operations can be implemented. First, a PostgreSQL database and a back-end interface are described, followed by the front-end components which include a graphical user interface and a visualization tool with Grafana. Then, tools that insert data into the database are presented along with performance benchmarking. Finally, use cases of the telemetry system are presented, including but not limited to telemetry monitoring and telemetry analysis.
Is the Meal Hall Part of the Campus Learning System? Investigating Informal Learning in a University Residence Meal Hall
Keywords: Food equity
Food pedagogy
Informal learning
Student Housing and Residence Life
Student learning and development
Sustainable food systems

Food offers uniquely generative learning opportunities because it is both something to learn about (nutrition, ethical sourcing) and learn through (conversations over shared meals). This thesis bridges the fields of Food Studies, Higher Education and Student Affairs, and Adult Education by asking: What informal learning takes place in the university meal hall? I performed a qualitative case study on a meal hall with more than 1000 students from over 65 countries. My findings cluster around six themes: identity development, food literacy and embodied learning, community and social learning, learning and agency, habit and learning, and food systems learning. My findings point to the powerful promise of intentionally-curated learning in the meal hall to disrupt the invisibility of the modernist food system, and to maximize the pedagogical potential of food to contribute to the campus learning system. This research justifies further study of university meal halls as distinct learning communities.
Zinc-binding to Leukocyte Cell Derived Chemotaxin 2 and Implications for its Associated Amyloidosis
Keywords: ALECT2 Amyloidosis
LECT2
LECT2 aggregation
Leukocyte cell derived chemotaxin 2
Protein biochemistry

Deposition of leukocyte cell-derived chemotaxin 2 (LECT2) as amyloid (ALECT2) leads to ALECT2 amyloidosis, an amyloid disease with no known cure. Recent findings indicate that ALECT2 amyloidosis is severely underdiagnosed. All sequenced ALECT2 amyloidosis patients have a single nucleotide polymorphism that changes an isoleucine (WT) to a valine (58V) at position 58. Currently, little is known of the mechanism by which the protein misfolds and aggregates. Herein, we demonstrate the first molecular characterization of the misfolding and aggregation of the mature LECT2 protein. Through various biophysical methods, we found that zinc-binding alters the secondary structure, increases the conformational stability, and reduces aggregation propensity of both WT and 58V-LECT2. No significant difference was found between the variants in their secondary structure, conformational stability, and zinc-binding affinity. However, zinc-free 58V-LECT2 was significantly more amyloidogenic than WT-LECT2. Therapies aimed at ALECT2 amyloidosis should exploit putative conformational differences between zinc-bound and zinc-free LECT2.
Examining Factors which Affect Self-esteem of Professional Immigrants in Canada
Keywords: Career Psychology
Counselling Psychology
Education
Immigration
Self-esteem
Vocational Development

To benefit the economy, Canada accepts thousands of professional immigrants each year. However, they often encounter unforeseen hardships in acculturation and employment pursuits which negatively impact self-esteem: a predictor of career success and life satisfaction. Since existing supports for professional immigrants have proven unsatisfactory, the current study aimed to identify and understand impacts of adjustment barriers on self-esteem to inform development of resources including career counselling protocols. Methodologies included analysis of qualitative interviews with professional immigrants who underwent retraining in Canada. Results revealed fluctuations in self-esteem throughout adjustment periods. Self-esteem was highest prior to immigration and upon initial arrival in Canada but significantly decreased during primary attempts at job searching and acculturation. During retraining and post-retraining employment, self-esteem increased but was threatened by remaining adjustment barriers. Eleven key impactors on self-esteem were revealed. By identifying challenges for professional immigrants, results can inform development of resources to encourage health and success.
Audio-viisual Temporal Judgments and the Schutz- Lipscomb Illusion in Younger and Older Adults
Keywords: Aging
Integration
Multisensory

When objects collide, they produce an auditory and visual event. Studying impact events can be used to expand what is known about audio-visual integration. The present study used the Schutz- Lipscomb Illusion to examine how an audio-visual impact event is perceived by younger and older adults and whether temporal and spatial offsets of the audio and visual stimuli influence judgements. Twenty-one older and 21 younger adults completed tone duration and temporal order judgements (TOJ) for audio-visual stimuli in which the spatial and temporal offsets were manipulated. Results demonstrated that the strength of the illusion based on tone duration did not differ between groups and was not influenced by spatial or temporal offsets. Older adults showed an “auditory bias” when making TOJs. TOJ precision and illusion strength were not correlated. The current findings extend beyond traditionally used audio-visual paradigms to help provide a further understanding of age-related differences in audio-visual integration.
Pedagogy Otherwise: Queer Temporality and Social Justice Education
Keywords: community education
critical pedagogy
future
queer theory
queery temporality
social justice education

Social change is an engagement with time: it alters, reframes, and reckons with temporal experiences and expectations. Social change engages time to improve the justice of our conditions. As such, social justice education should be conscious of the ways that its pedagogies engage time. This thesis looks to critical pedagogies and community education to draw out how time is already considered in social justice education, and to suggest how else time might be taken up in pedagogy. To do this, the thesis looks at how education can broaden possibilities by rejecting the dominant order as the only reality. The thesis looks at the various ways that queer theorists understand thinking about the future, and what these conceptions of time mean for social justice pedagogies. The findings of this thesis are collected under the concept of Pedagogy Otherwise, which offer an initial sketch of how temporal conceptions can support social change through education.
Towards Modular Multispectral Object Detection using Adaptive Weighted Fusion
Keywords: Computer Vision
Deep Learning
Machine Learning
Object Detection
Perception
Sensor Fusion

Object detection is a common computer vision task, used for perception for robotic applications and autonomous vehicles. While many deep learning-based approaches have improved the accuracy and performance of these systems, they lack the environmental robustness to be reliably deployed in critical applications. We propose a novel multispectral, modular object detection architecture to improve the environmental robustness of these systems using an adaptive approach. Our approach is modeled after the multimodal nature of human perception, and it's ability to dynamically weigh senses given the environment. Furthermore, our architecture is modular/model agnostic allowing for simpler deployment. We evaluate our architecture on two datasets with a wide-range of simulated environmental perturbations. Our architecture manages to improve robustness in these conditions and reduces variance in performance regardless of the environment, reducing the sample variance of the mAP between experimental scenarios to ~0.0012, compared to ~0.111 on the early fusion architecture.
The Induced Membrane Technique: Effects of Antibiotic-impregnated PMMA on Healing of a Rat Model of Segmental Defect
Keywords: Animal Model
Antibiotics
Bone Defect
Bone Graft
Induced Membrane
Masquelet

The induced membrane technique (IMT) is a therapeutic option for managing bone defects. Although not described in the original reports of the technique, surgeons now frequently incorporate antibiotics into the polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) spacer to prevent or treat infection. However, the effects of these antibiotic concentrations on bone healing are not clear. The purpose of this study was to investigate if the practice of using antibiotic-impregnated spacers in the IMT, impacts bone repair. PMMA spacers with no antibiotics, low-dose and high-dose antibiotics were implanted in 5 mm segmental femoral defects. Bone grafting was performed four weeks later. Twelve weeks post-graft, defects treated with spacers without antibiotics and those treated with low-dose antibiotics had higher rates of radiographic union, and higher bone volume compared to defects treated with high-dose antibiotic spacers. In the context of the IMT, our results suggest that high doses of antibiotics in PMMA may negatively impact bone healing.
Cognitive Discrepancies, Values and Subjective Well-Being in People with Schizophrenia
Keywords: Lifespan development
Psychosis
Schizophrenia
Subjective well-being
Values

Past research indicates that people with schizophrenia often achieve similar levels of subjective well-being (SWB) compared to healthy individuals despite prominent symptomatology and significant functional, social and cognitive difficulties. People with schizophrenia also report more conservative value systems (less openness to change and greater emphasis on tradition), suggesting that changing motivations and personal values may contribute to SWB and the apparent motivational deficits commonly reported in this population. In the current study, middle-aged people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (n=29) and community control participants (n=23) rated their current SWB, life satisfaction, hope, and values. They also completed a battery of cognitive tests and diagnostic interviews. Patients reported similar levels of SWB in the context of significant cognitive, social and functional difficulties, more conservative value systems, and a greater propensity for goal disengagement compared to controls. These results are discussed in relation to lifespan development and motivational theory.