VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Tunneling Dynamics of a Bose-Einstein Condensate
Keywords: bose-einstein condensation
laser cooling
tunneling

The simplicity and versatility of ultra-cold atoms make it an ideal system for studying Quantum Mechanical phenomenon like tunneling. This thesis describes progress towards experimentally measuring the time spent by a tunneling particle in the classically forbidden region. A detailed analysis of the experimental requirements to measure the tunneling time is presented along with the experimental tools developed to meet these requirements. These include a thin \SI{1.3}{\micro m} optical tunnel barrier, a smooth atomic waveguide, and a Larmor clock to measure the tunneling time. Delta-kick cooling is used to achieve the extremely low temperatures required for the tunneling time experiments. A 2.4x reduction in the atomic velocity spread is demonstrated, reducing the rms velocity spread to \SI{0.46(5)}{mm/s}. This corresponds to cooling to an effective temperature of \SI{2.0(4)}{nK}. The thin optical barrier opens up the possibility to study the decay of quasi-bound condensates via tunneling. We develop a novel trapping configuration for this purpose, in which the barrier acts as one of the walls of the trap. Inter-atomic interactions strongly dictate the escape dynamics of the condensate out of this trap, giving rise to three distinct regimes--- classical over the barrier spilling, quantum tunneling driven by interactions, and decay dominated by background losses. We show that in the tunneling regime, the decay rate depends exponentially with the chemical potential of the condensate. Experimental results show good agreement with numerical solutions of the 3D Gross-Pitaevskii equation.
Molecular Biomarker Discovery in Psoriatic Arthritis
Keywords: Biomarkers
Epigenetics
Genomics
Psoriasis
Psoriatic Arthritis
Rheumatology

Aim: Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is an inflammatory arthritis of unknown etiology that develops in approximately 30% of individuals with psoriasis. No objectively measurable biomarker has been identified for PsA, due in part to insufficient knowledge of its etiopathogenesis. This work aims to identify candidate biomarkers of PsA by studying its underlying transcriptomic and epigenomic mechanisms. Methods: Psoriasis (PsC) and PsA patients from a prospective cohort were analyzed. Whole blood, serum, and semen samples were obtained from subsets of patients and unaffected controls for transcriptomic, protein, and epigenomic analyses, respectively. Potential epigenetic mechanisms were also analyzed using self-reported family history data from the entire PsC and PsA cohort to further explore the parent-of-origin effect. Results: Transcriptomic analyses identified several genes involved in innate immunity, particularly toll-like receptor signalling as differentially expressed in whole blood of PsA and PsC patients. Four candidate gene expression biomarkers CXCL10, NOTCH2NL, HAT1, and SETD2 were replicated in an independent cohort of PsC and PsA patients. Soluble CXCL10 was significantly elevated in baseline serum samples of psoriasis patients who later developed PsA compared to patients who did not develop PsA. Excessive paternal transmission was found in PsC and PsA patients, as well as genetic anticipation manifesting as increased disease severity during male transmission. DNA methylation profiling of sperm cells revealed several germ line variations associated with psoriasis and PsA occurring near or within genes involved in inflammatory and immune system processes, including HCG26 within the major histocompatibility complex. Conclusions: Whole blood transcriptomic and serum protein analysis identified the chemokine CXCL10 as a putative predictive biomarker of PsA in PsC patients. Evidence of a parent-of-origin effect, genetic anticipation, and the identification of germ line DNA methylation variations in patients suggest a role for epigenetic mechanisms in psoriatic disease etiopathogenesis, and a potential new avenue of biomarker discovery.
Error Processing in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Keywords: ADHD
error processing
performance monitoring

Performance monitoring refers to the detection of errors and correct responses in ongoing performance and the subsequent cognitive and behavioural adjustment of one's performance. Adequate performance monitoring is crucial to self-regulation and reinforcement learning, both of which are dysfunctional in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Although research has shown that children with ADHD adjust less than controls following errors, studies have not determined if this deficit is limited to performance monitoring of errors, termed error processing. One explanation for this deficit is that children with ADHD have a diminished ability to detect errors in their performance, suggesting that the provision of performance feedback would facilitate performance monitoring. Study 1 examined post-error and post-correct adjustment of reaction time in an ADHD and control group using a modified flanker task in two conditions, one with feedback and one without. Study 1 aimed to determine if ADHD participants display a general or specific performance monitoring deficit, and if any deficit could be improved by providing feedback. With feedback, ADHD participants showed similar post-correct adjustment, but significantly less post-error adjustment and accuracy than controls. Feedback significantly enhanced accuracy and post-error adjustment for controls, but not for ADHD participants. Results suggest that the ADHD deficit is specific to error processing and that it does not improve with feedback. Neurological theories and research denote the biological basis of error processing, proposing it as a marker of genetic risk (i.e., an endophenotype) for ADHD. Consistent with this hypothesis, Study 2 examined the familiality of error processing in ADHD participants, unaffected siblings of children with ADHD, and controls using the same methodology as Study 1. With feedback, ADHD participants and unaffected siblings displayed similar post-correct adjustment, but significantly less post-error adjustment and accuracy than controls. Notably, unaffected siblings and ADHD participants showed similarly atypical post-error adjustment and accuracy. Results indicate familiality of the error processing deficit in ADHD. Moreover, as post-error adjustment is a behavioral measure that is easily scalable and feasible for large-scale research, error processing as an endophenotype of ADHD is supported. Combined, results promote the inclusion of this deficit in the neurocognitive profile of ADHD.
Europeanization, National Party Systems and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights: The Cases of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
Keywords: Estonia
Europeanization
Latvia
LGBT Rights
Lithuania
Party Systems

In recent years, there has been a growing divergence in national policies towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons within a growing European Union (EU). This variation is surprising given that support of LGBT persons, and more specifically, of state recognition of gender-neutral partnerships has become a widely disseminated EU value. In explaining why this variation has occurred, this dissertation forwards two central arguments: First, the EU’s ability to achieve policy convergence in the sphere of LGBT rights across all 28 member states is limited by a lack ‘hard tools’ at the EU’s disposal. In absence of a larger horizontal equality directive, the EU must increasingly rely on elite persuasion to achieve its goals in member states. This contrasts with the reality in applicant states, such as Montenegro, where the promise of eventual membership in the EU provides strong external incentives to comply with policies supported by Brussels. As this thesis finds, such direct pressure is absent for countries already within the Union, and elevates the importance of domestic factors that can challenge pro-LGBT EU norms. Secondly, through a closer examination of the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, it is argued that the stability of national party systems, measured through the number of political parties, ideological polarization and issue cleavages, as well as system volatility, can significantly shape whether a country adopts EU LGBT norms or not. The relative stability and more programmatic nature of the Estonian party system made it easier for a minimal number of elites to adopt EU-supported gender-neutral partnerships. By contrast, the highly volatile and unstable Latvian and Lithuanian party systems made the passage of laws touching on socially contentious issues, such as gay rights, extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible to pass, despite a supranational environment strongly encouraging such laws. While this analysis derives centrally from the Baltic countries, it may have larger generalizable potential, as many countries within the EU with underdeveloped or unstable party systems have shown resistance to adopting pro-EU LGBT laws.
Modular AC Nanogrid with Four-quadrant Micro-inverters and High-efficiency DC-DC Conversion
Keywords: Battery
Grid
Integrated
Inverter
Power Electronics
Solar

A signicant portion of the population in developing countries live in remote communities, where the power infrastructure and the required capital investment to set up local grids do not exist. This is due to the fuel shipment and utilization costs required for fossil fuel based generators, which are traditionally used in these local grids, as well as high upfront costs associated with the centralized Energy Storage Systems (ESS). This dissertation targets modular AC nano-grids for these remote communities developed at minimal capital cost, where the generators are replaced with multiple inverters, connected to either Photovoltaic (PV) or battery modules, which can be gradually added to the nano-grid. A distributed droop-based control architecture is presented for the PV and battery Micro-Inverters (MIV) in order to achieve frequency and voltage stability, as well as active and reactive power sharing. The nano-grid voltage is regulated collectively in either one of four operational regions. Effective load sharing and transient handling are demonstrated experimentally by forming a nano-grid which consists of two custom 500 W MIVs. The MIVs forming the nano-grid have to meet certain requirements. A two-stage MIV architecture and control scheme with four-quadrant power-flow between the nano-grid, the PV/battery and optional short-term storage is presented. The short-term storage is realized using high energy-density Lithium-Ion Capacitor (LIC) technology. A real-time power smoothing algorithm utilizing LIC modules is developed and tested, while the performance of the 100 W MIV is experimentally verifed under closed-loop dynamic conditions. Two main limitations of the DAB topology, as the core of the MIV architecture's dc-dc stage, are addressed: 1) This topology demonstrates poor efficiency and limited regulation accuracy at low power. These are improved by introducing a modified topology to operate the DAB in Flyback mode, achieving up to an 8% increase in converter efficiency. 2) The DAB topology needs four digital isolators for driving the active switches on the other side of the isolation boundary. Two Phase-Locked-Loop (PLL) based synchronization schemes are introduced in order to reduce the number of required digital isolators, hence increasing reliability and reducing the implementation costs. One of these schemes is demonstrated on a discrete 150 W DAB prototype, while both of them are implemented on-chip in a 0.18um 80V BCD process. In addition, the power-stage of the primary-side of a 1 MHz, 50 W DAB converter is fully integrated on the same die. By using such a high switching frequency, the size of passive elements in the DAB is reduced, resulting in further cost reductions for the MIV. The results of this dissertation pave the way for affordable nano-grids with minimal capital cost, reliable performance and reduced complexity.
Romantic Ekphrasis and the Intellectual Culture of Sensibility
Keywords: ekphrasis
poetry
romanticism
sensibility

This thesis examines the intersection of poetry about art, the culture of sensibility, and eighteenth-century aesthetic thought in Romantic literature. These converging discourses allowed poets to suggest insights into the necessary conditions of sympathetic exchange, and the limits of what sympathy can accomplish. This thesis proposes ambitious changes to our understanding of Romantic ekphrasis in order to offer a subtle but crucial change to our understanding of the culture of sensibility. It considers a broad range of Romantic ekphrases – some well-known poems by Wordsworth, Keats, and Shelley, and some largely unstudied poems by Cowper, Mary Russell Mitford, Henry Hart Milman, Barry Cornwall, and others – reading these texts against multiple historical contexts. One of these contexts is the eighteenth-century idea that the visual arts represent only a single, “pregnant” moment, whereas literature represents successions of events. Moral philosophy and the philosophy of the sister arts are bound up with one another throughout the eighteenth century; David Hume’s formulation of sympathy as instinctive and visual comes to be associated with painting and sculpture, while Adam Smith’s formulation of it as an imagined reconstruction comes to be associated with literature. Another key context is the ekphrastic tradition, especially its understudied eighteenth-century portion. This thesis is the first study to adequately investigate the archive of eighteenth-century ekphrasis. In the light of these contexts, it argues that Romantic ekphrasis was a site of ongoing intellectual activity within the culture of sensibility. Romantic thinkers inherited a set of questions about the role of emotion and affect in ethical conduct, and about the role of the arts, not only in producing emotion, but also in shaping how we grapple intellectually with emotion. This thesis brings to light some of the intellectual tools that early nineteenth-century poets brought to bear on these questions.
Exploring the Attributes, Experiences, and Motivations of Female Public Elementary School Administrators of Colour in Ontario
Keywords: barriers to promotion and supports for promotion
Canadian study
female administrators of colour
public elementary school administrators of colour
public school administrators of colour
women administrators of colour

EXPLORING THE ATTRIBUTES, EXPERIENCES, AND MOTIVATIONS OF FEMALE PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS OF COLOUR IN ONTARIO Doctor of Education 2016 Anjili Sophia Pant Graduate Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education University of Toronto Abstract This study explores how the attributes, experiences, and motivations of female public elementary school administrators of colour in Ontario have contributed to their entry into administration. Data were obtained through qualitative life-history interviews with 3 currently practicing, middle-aged administrators: 2 African Canadian (a principal and a vice-principal) and 1 South Asian (principal). Resilience theory was used to investigate internal and external attributes of the participants, disruptions they faced, and motivational factors that enabled them to become administrators. Cross-case analysis revealed relevant attributes the participants shared: focus, resourcefulness, independence, social competence, a capacity for hard work, self-discipline, optimism, a positive attitude, perseverance, and a willingness to learn. Barriers to their entrance into administration were: the interview process, the struggle to obtain Canadian credentials, politics, and difficulty having their leadership skills acknowledged. Motivations to enter administration were: encouragement from others, persistence after unsuccessful attempts to enter administration, being able to meet interviewers’ expectations, and a passion for the work. Among the findings were participants’ recommendations for aspiring female administrators of colour: Keep your ambitions to yourself. Know that it is a lonely job. Understand what the work entails. Recognize that administrative positions are not powerful ones. Avoid interacting only with people from your own ethnic background. Do not use the “race card” as an excuse for not succeeding in the interview process. Remain calm when discriminated against. Most importantly, pursue the necessary credentials: Prepare for administration early in your career (work at the family of schools level, community, culture and caring, and numeracy and literacy). Seek out a variety of mentors. Stay connected with people who support you. Master a specific skill. Be resourceful. Keep current with educational jargon. Continue to develop professionally. Write and present at workshops. Use the media to showcase your school and practice. Finally, support the advancement of quality women of colour. Suggestions for future research include: (a) repeat this study in 5 and 10 years; (b) examine leadership programs and determine whether women of colour are being hired; and (c) compare and contrast the career paths of women and men (both of colour and White).
Disagreement About Beauty
Keywords: Aesthetics
Beauty
Disagreement
Epistemology
First Person
Kant

I aim to give an original account of how we should respond to disagreement about beauty. The recent debate about ‘peer disagreement’ in epistemology offers two rough positions for how to respond when a peer disagrees: 1) remain ‘steadfast,’ maintaining confidence in my belief due to the fact that, from my first person perspective, I take her to be mistaken, and 2) be ‘conciliatory,’ revising confidence in my belief if I find no reason to think I am more likely to be right from a third personal step back. I argue that neither of these options captures what we need for the case of beauty. What has not yet been considered is that imagining the first person perspective of another may be important for responding rationally to disagreement, and may give disagreement some other kind of epistemic significance than simply lowering or maintaining confidence in one’s judgment. First, following Kant, I argue that the first person has special importance for judging beauty; we want to judge a thing’s beauty for ourselves, and we want others to come to agree with us on the basis of their own experience. In that case, stepping back to the third person would remove us from the arena wherein we could find the kind of agreement we are looking for. This supports a ‘steadfast’ response to disagreement, but that alone is not enough. Judgments of beauty are made in the plural first person, a perspective that speaks for everyone in voicing my own pleasure. That means others are always relevant as first person perspectives who ought to feel and judge in community with me. I am under some rational pressure to help them see what they are missing when we disagree, and I will argue that this requires an imaginative effort to better understand their aesthetic experience ‘from the inside’. While our aim in this imagining is to correct one another, it simultaneously opens each of us to the possibility of unexpected insights that could revise our own judgments instead. On the two options given in the peer disagreement debate, there doesn’t seem to be much room for the idea that I could both maintain confidence in my judgment and continue to take the other’s disagreement to have epistemic significance. I argue that this combination is possible and appropriate for beauty, for in that case it is the very confidence I have in my judgment that motivates me to try to imaginatively understand the other, and opens me to the epistemic vulnerability that comes with such an exercise.
The Development of Surface Profile Models in Abrasive Slurry Jet Micro-machining of Brittle and Ductile materials
Keywords: abrasive slurry jet micro-machining (ASJM)
micro-machining
solid particle erosion

In low-pressure abrasive slurry jet micro-machining (ASJM), a slurry jet of fine abrasive particles is used to erode micro-sized features such as holes and channels in a variety of brittle and ductile materials with a high degree of accuracy and repeatability without the need for a patterned mask. ASJM causes no tool wear and thermal damage, applies small forces on the workpiece, allows multilevel etching on a single substrate and is relatively quick and inexpensive. In this study for the first time, the mechanics of micro-slurry jet erosion and its relation to the fluid flow of the impinging jet was investigated using a newly developed ASJM system. Existing surface evolution models, previously developed for abrasive air jet machining (AJM), were evaluated and modified through the use of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models for profile modeling of micro-channels and micro-holes machined with ASJM in brittle materials. A novel numerical-empirical model was also developed in order to compensate for the shortcoming of existing surface evolution models and provide a higher degree of accuracy in predicting the profiles of features in ductile materials machined with ASJM. In addition, the effect of process parameters on the minimum feature size attainable with ASJM as a maskless process was also examined and it was shown that the size of machined features could be further reduced.
Compact Discrete Representations for Scalable Similarity Search
Keywords: Big data
Clustering
Hashing
Machine Learning
Nearest neighbor search
Similarity search

Scalable similarity search on images, documents, and user activities benefits generic search, data visualization, and recommendation systems. This thesis concerns the design of algorithms and machine learning tools for faster and more accurate similarity search. The proposed techniques advocate the use of discrete codes for representing the similarity structure of data in a compact way. In particular, we will discuss how one can learn to map high-dimensional data onto binary codes with a metric learning approach. Then, we will describe a simple algorithm for fast exact nearest neighbor search in Hamming distance, which exhibits sub-linear query time performance. Going beyond binary codes, we will highlight a compositional generalization of k-means clustering which maps data points onto integer codes with storage and search costs that grow sub-linearly in the number of cluster centers. This representation improves upon binary codes, and provides an even more precise approximation of Euclidean distance. Experimental results are reported on multiple datasets including a dataset of SIFT descriptors with 1B entries.