VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Impact Of Palliative Care on The Aggressiveness Of End-of-life Care In Patients With Advanced Pancreatic Cancer
Keywords: Palliative care
Pancreatic cancer
End-of-life care

Our objective was to examine the impact of palliative care (PC) on aggressive care near death for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Measures of aggressive care included (i) chemotherapy within 14 days of death; (ii) more than one emergency department (ED) visit; (iii) more than one hospitalization; and (iv) at least one intensive care unit (ICU) admission, all within 30 days of death. A retrospective population-based cohort study was conducted with patients diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer in Ontario. Multivariable logistic analyses were performed. Our final cohort consisted of 5,381 patients (median survival of 75 days). 52% received a PC consultation. PC consultation was associated with decreased use of chemotherapy near death (OR=0.34); and lower risk of ICU admission (OR=0.12), multiple ED visits (OR=0.19), and multiple hospitalizations near death (OR=0.24). A per unit increase in the monthly rate of PC visits was associated with lower odds of aggressive care.
Reintroduction of Divorce into Philippine Law
Keywords: divorce
philippines
marriage

The Philippines and Vatican City are the only states left in the world without divorce. While the Philippines recognize relative divorce, or legal separation as termed under its Family Code, it has not sanctioned absolute divorce in the country except for Muslims and foreigners. During pre-colonial times and the Japanese occupation of the country, absolute divorce was legal and widely practiced. The thesis argues for the reintroduction of absolute divorce into Philippine law on a legal, pragmatic, and rights-based approach. It argues that divorce protects and strengthens the family; it is legal, constitutional, and in compliance with the international human rights obligations of the Philippines; it answers the issues on and inadequacies of the existing legal framework on nullity, annulment, and legal separation; it is one of the solutions to decrease, if not end, spousal violence; and its absence is discriminatory on the grounds of social class, religion, and nationality.
Towards a Wireless EEG System for Ambulatory Mental Health Applications
Keywords: Clinical Engineering
EEG
Emotional Valence

The purpose of this thesis was to create and test a proof-of-concept novel ambulatory EEG system to monitor emotional valence in real-time. A qualitative comparison of a wireless EEG acquisition system by the imec group to a gold standard laboratory EEG system was successfully performed. A new wireless transmission system was created using the Texas Instruments’ ADS1299 EEG front-end chip and quantitatively compared to the gold standard system. This system and the ADS1299 performance demonstration kit were used to evaluate several equations for emotional valence classification. Three of these equations were able to correctly classify emotional valence on a positive-neutral vs. negative basis over 90% of the time on the performance demonstration kit and over 90% of the time on the wireless system. The wireless data was acquired and saved on a novel BlackBerry application that also allowed emotional self-assessment by the user during testing.
Supply Chain Operation Modelling and Automation Using Untimed and Timed State Tree Structures
Keywords: Supply Chain Operation
State Tree Structures
Supervisory Control Theory

We study the supervisory control of supply chain operation modelled by (timed) State Tree Structures (STS). We model each agent involved in a supply chain using holons. Three operational models, make-to-order, make-to-stock, and assemble-to-order are considered. A strong assumption on the original STS theory is weakened to allow events shared among agents to be located at different levels. A supervisor is synthesized for the example of a mattress supply chain with make-to-stock operation under certain specifications. Moreover, a new version of the Timed STS framework is developed to allow events to have an upper time bound i.e. deadline. With Timed STS framework, more specifications requiring time measurement can be modeled and a supervisory control is synthesized for the timed model of a supply chain. For a nonempty supervisory synthesis result, the maximum time for the inventory periodic review rate, and the minimum cycle time for customer order satisfaction are achieved.
Attitude and Orbit Control of Small Satellites for Autonomous Terrestrial Target Tracking
Keywords: satellite
attitude
attitude and orbit control
microsatellite
control
estimation
tracking

Terrestrial target tracking using low Earth orbit satellites provides essential daily services and vital scientific data. In this thesis, the Attitude and Orbit Control System of such a terrestrial tracking satellite, Nanosatellite for Earth Monitoring and Observation Aerosol Monitor, is presented in detail. The satellite is a new generation Earth observation mission with the objective of detecting global atmospheric aerosol content through sub-degree pointing. The design is presented from initial hardware selection and budget development to operation definition and mission operation. The efficacy of performing precise autonomous Earth-pointing on a small satellite platform is validated through high fidelity simulations involving satellite and environmental dynamics, test-characterized hardware models and flight software-in-the-loop. The results provide practical target tracking methodologies which in the past have been publicly inaccessible to the author's best knowledge and which can be now be applied to a broad range of precise Earth-pointing satellites.
Exploring Ethicists' Perspectives of Healthcare Ethics Program Effectiveness
Keywords: Ethicists
Ethics programs
Evaluation
Qualitative research
Ethics practice
Healthcare ethics

Proliferation of ethics programs in healthcare organizations has occurred without rigorous evaluation. This qualitative study explored what makes an ethics program effective from the perspective of 15 practising ethicists across Canada. Objectives were to: describe how practising ethicists define ethics program effectiveness, identify evaluation strategies, and identify critical success factors. Ethicists defined effectiveness as: 1) meeting standards; 2) making a difference; and 3) delivering value for investment. To evaluate, ethicists assessed: ethics program activity data, qualitative feedback, relevant accreditation results, peer review, and pre- and post- results. Ethicist competencies and attributes, organizational understanding of, and support for, the ethics program, and a community of practice were critical success factors. Effectiveness emerged as a multi-dimensional concept. Findings provide a preliminary outline of what an ethics program evaluation framework might include and inform practice standard development, ethicist training programs, and organizational oversight for ethics programs.
Developing a Potential Substrate Reduction Therapy for Six Mucopolysaccharidoses by Decreasing NDST1 Activity
Keywords: Mucopolysaccharidoses
NDST1

Mucopolysaccharidoses result from genetic mutations in lysosomal enzymes required for degradation of glycosaminoglycans. The deficiency in any of eight lysosomal enzymes needed to degrade heparan sulfate leads to an accumulation of both non-degraded and partially degraded polysaccharides within the lysosomes of many tissues. Interestingly, six of these deficient enzymes can be treated by a relatively new approach – substrate reduction therapy (SRT), which aims to reduce the synthesis of the substrate for the deficient enzyme being targeted. I developed a cell-based high throughput screen assay for the identification of compounds that decrease the expression of the first modifying enzyme in HS biosynthesis, N-deacetylase/N-sulfotransferase 1, by inhibiting the transcription of its mRNA. From the high throughput screen, I identified several compounds, with a previous history of use in humans, which significantly decreased the endogenous NDST1 expression and therefore, could be considered as potential SRT agents for up to six Mucopolysaccharidoses.
High Performance Content Centric Networking on Virtual Infrastructure
Keywords: Content Centric Networking
CCN
Virtual Infrastructure
Partitioned Tables
Smart Applications on Virtual Infrastructure
SAVI
Performance

Content Centric Networking (CCN) is a novel networking architecture in which communication is resolved based on names, or descriptions of the data transferred instead of addresses of the end-hosts. While CCN demonstrates many promising potentials, its current implementation suffers from severe performance limitations. In this thesis we study the performance and analyze the bottleneck of the existing CCN prototype. Based on the analysis, a variety of design alternatives are proposed for realizing high performance content centric networking over virtual infrastructure. Preliminary implementations for two of the approaches are developed and evaluated on Smart Applications on Virtual Infrastructure (SAVI) testbed. The evaluation results demonstrate that our design is capable of providing scalable content centric routing solution beyond 1Gbps throughput under realistic traffic load.
Effects of Inertial and Geometric Nonlinearities in the Simulation of Flexible Aircraft Dynamics
Keywords: Flight Simulation
Flexible Aircraft
Geometric Nonlinearities
Inertial Nonlinearities

This thesis examines the relative importance of the inertial and geometric nonlinearities in modelling the dynamics of a flexible aircraft. Inertial nonlinearities are derived by employing an exact definition of the velocity distribution and lead to coupling between the rigid body and elastic motions. The geometric nonlinearities are obtained by applying nonlinear theory of elasticity to the deformations. Peters' finite state unsteady aerodynamic model is used to evaluate the aerodynamic forces. Three approximate models obtained by excluding certain combinations of nonlinear terms are compared with that of the complete dynamics equations to obtain an indication of which terms are required for an accurate representation of the flexible aircraft behavior. A generic business jet model is used for the analysis. The results indicate that the nonlinear terms have a significant effect for more flexible aircraft, especially the geometric nonlinearities which leads to increased damping in the dynamics.
Can-Fit-Pro, The Fit Body and The Field of Physical Fitness.
Keywords: Fitness
Body

This thesis presents an examination of how the body is situated within the field of physical fitness: it examines how individuals learn what a ‘fit’ body looks and ‘performs’ like, and explores the benefits of having the appearance of a fit body in our society. The research findings, observations, and conclusions contained within this text are drawn from two inter-related sources: a commonly used fitness industry textbook called Foundations of Professional Personal Training (Anderson, Bates, Cova, & Macdonald, 2008) and my own experiences as a professional within that industry, captured in an auto-ethnographic journal. There are three main, highly interconnected, hegemonic discourses that frame the Foundations of Professional Personal Training text: biomedical expert knowledge, neoliberal biopedagogy, and, most importantly, the discourse of risk management mediated by healthiest risk discourse.
Exchanging Approaches: Evaluating Methods to Counter Chinese Currency Undervaluation
Keywords: safeguards
WTO
international trade
Chinese currency
currency undervaluation
currency
valuation
renminbi
Rodrik
manipulation
international trade law
GATT
trade stability
IMF
Article XV
countervailing duties
subsidies
China
currency manipulation
currency policy
exchange rate
floating exchange
RMB
safeguards regime
antidumping
compensation mechanism
gold standard
Bretton Woods

I evaluate four possible approaches the United States may take to address China's practice of undervaluing the renminbi: 1) a challenge under Article XV of the GATT and the associated IMF provisions; 2) countervailing duties; 3) antidumping measures; and 4) safeguard measures. I conclude that the first three approaches are unlikely to succeed; there are a number of legal and political obstacles to the pursuit of these remedies. While the current WTO safeguards regime is likely insufficient, a new safeguards regime can--and should--be developed. I review and critique Dani Rodrik's proposal for a new safeguards regime and set out my own basic blueprint for a significantly expanded safeguards regime, emphasizing that flexibility in the realm of international trade law would help to secure overall stability in international trade itself. In order to be effective shock absorbers, safeguards must become far more flexible.
Understanding Accessibility in Midsize Cities: An Empirical Analysis of Canadian Cities, and Case Studies of Kamloops, British Columbia and Milton, Ontario
Keywords: midsize cities
accessibility
transportation
sustainability

Midsize cities face a number of sustainability challenges, particularly in terms of transportation and land use, however only a small subset of the literature has addressed these issues. Examination of the literature reveals two reasons for this: there is no consensus on a definition of midsize cities used for transportation research purposes, and there is very little empirical understanding of midsize city characteristics. This thesis addresses both of these issues. In order to establish the bigger picture, an empirical classification of Canadian cities is completed and used as a tool to analyze the travel behaviour characteristics of Canadian midsize cities. This work is followed by two detailed case studies of midsize Canadian cities – the City of Kamloops, British Columbia, and the Town of Milton, Ontario. The case studies employ both qualitative and quantitative research methods to explore the context around travel behaviour in each community.
Mobile Phone-based Telemonitoring as an Aid for Home Care Nurses: A Focus on Design and Implementation
Keywords: telemonitoring
home care
nursing
heart failure
remote patient monitoring

The intent of this project was to integrate an existing mobile phone-based telemonitoring system into a home care nursing environment. Analyses were conducted to examine nursing workflows and home care constraints. User-centric design, development, and testing were used to modify the current telemonitoring system for a home care pilot study with heart failure clients. Interim results show technology acceptance by home care nurses and improved self-awareness in clients; the telehomecare system offers its greatest value as an opportunity for client education following clinical alerts. The pilot study will continue with a focus on increased client recruitment and selectivity towards those most in need of chronic disease management. It is expected that the system will result in an improvement in health outcomes and more efficient delivery of home care visits. The results from this study will provide insight into the impact of a new service delivery model for home care nurses.
Compiling for a Multithreaded Horizontally-microcoded Soft Processor Family
Keywords: compiling
soft processors
fpga
scheduling
throughput
computational density
design space
computer architecture

Soft processing engines make FPGA programming simpler for software programmers. TILT is a multithreaded soft processing engine that contains multiple deeply pipelined and varying latency functional units. In this thesis, we present a compiler framework for compiling and scheduling for TILT. By using the compiler to generate schedules and manage hardware we create computationally dense designs (high throughput per hardware area) which make compelling processing engines. High schedule density is achieved by mixing instructions from different threads and by prioritizing the longest path of data flow graphs. Averaged across benchmark kernels we can achieve 90% of the theoretical throughput, and can reduce the performance gap relative to custom hardware from 543x for a scalar processor to only 4.41x by replicating TILT cores up to a comparable area cost. We also present methods of quickly navigating the design space and predicting the area of hardware configurations.
Caffeine Intake and the Plasma Proteome
Keywords: Nutrition
Nutritional Sciences

Caffeine has been implicated in a number of health conditions, but the mechanisms and physiological pathways affected are not all well understood. Genetic variation in the caffeine metabolizing gene, CYP1A2 (rs762551), is associated with differences in caffeine metabolism and disease risk. The objectives of this thesis were to determine the association between caffeine intake and the plasma proteome and whether CYP1A2 genotype modifies any associations. Subjects (n=1095) were from the Toronto Nutrigenomics and Healthy Study. Initially, no significant associations were seen between caffeine intake and 54 high-abundance plasma proteins. After stratification by CYP1A2 genotype, plasma gelsolin levels decreased significantly with increasing caffeine intake among the slow metabolizers (A/C +C/C). These results suggest that plasma gelsolin levels are affected by caffeine intake and this association is only evident among slow metabolizers. Gelsolin may have a role in mediating some of the biological effects of caffeine.
Design and Evaluation of a Vocalization Activated Assistive Technology for a Child with Dysarthric Cpeech
Keywords: Assistive technology
Dysarthria

Communication disorders affect one in ten Canadians and the incidence is particularly high among those with Cerebral Palsy. A vocalization-activated switch is often explored as an alternative means to communication. However, most commercial speech recognition tools to date have limited capability to accommodate dysarthric speech and thus are often prematurely abandoned. We developed and evaluated a novel vocalization-based access technology as a writing tool for a pediatric participant with cerebral palsy. It consists of a high quality condenser headmic, a custom classifier based on Gaussian Mixture Modeling (GMM) and Mel-frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) as features. The system was designed to discriminate among five vowel sounds while interfaced to an on-screen keyboard. We used response efficiency theory to assess this technology in terms of goal attainment and satisfaction. The participant’s primary goal to reduce switch activation time was achieved with increased satisfaction and lower physical effort when compared to her previous pathway.
An Experimental Study of the Solubility of Platinum (Pt) and Rhodium (Rh), with some Results for Chromium (Cr) Content at Chromite Saturation, in Molten Basalt-Rhyolite Mixtures
Keywords: platinum
rhodium
melt composition
solubility

Pt, Rh and chromite solubility in basalt-rhyolite mixtures at 1400°C, 0.1 MPa, FMQ +3.4 and FMQ (fayalite-magnetite-quartz-buffer) is presented. Melt samples were equilibrated on Pt90Rh10 loops and in chromite crucibles for up to 100 hours. Pt/Rh solubility decreased 20 and 7-fold respectively, progressing to rhyolitic compositions. Cr solubility decreased 3-fold (FMQ+3.4) and 4-fold (FMQ) over the same compositional interval. At FMQ+3.4, reduced Cr solubility, compared to FMQ, reflects Cr3+ and Fe3+ exchange, stabilizing Fe3+-rich spinel. As SiO2 increases, decreasing Pt/Rh and Cr solubility is interpreted to result from low abundances of non-bridging oxygens and lack of octahedral sites for Cr3+.Numerically simulated diffusive exchange between basalt and rhyolite predicts rapid alloy saturation at high fO2, but undersaturated mixtures at low fO2. Magma mixing produced Fe3+-rich spinel at high fO2; chromite undersaturation occurs near FMQ. Combined chromite and Pt-rich alloy saturation does not appear to result from magma mixing near FMQ.
Determining the Biological Role(s) of Ubiquitin Fold Modifier 1(UFM1)
Keywords: Biochemistry
UBL
Ufm1
Ubiquitin like protein

Ubiquitin fold modifier 1 (Ufm1) is a member of the ubiquitin like protein (UBL) family. Like other UBLs, Ufm1 can be conjugated to protein substrates via specific E1 (Uba5), E2 (Ufc1) and E3 (Ufl1) enzymes, and removed from these substrates via the action of Ufm1-specific proteases. While Ufm1 has been implicated in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) function, its biological roles remain poorly understood. By identifying; (a) Ufm1 binding proteins, (b) protein interactors of the Ufm1 conjugation/deconjugation system, (c) Ufm1 conjugates, as well as (d) the intracellular localization of Ufm1 and its main interactors, I aimed to better characterize the biological role(s) of this poorly understood UBL.
Behaviour of GFRP Reinforced Concrete Columns under Combined Axial Load and Flexure
Keywords: concrete column
GFRP reinforcement

This study presents experimental results from nine large-scale circular concrete columns reinforced with longitudinal and transverse glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars. These specimens were tested under lateral cyclic quasi-static loading while simultaneously subjected to constant axial load. Based on the measured hysteretic loops of moment vs. curvature and shear vs. tip deflection relationships, a series of parameters related to ductility and flexural strength are used to evaluate the seismic behavior of each column. The results showed that concrete columns reinforced with GFRP bars have stable post-peak branches and can achieve very high levels of deformability. Longitudinal GFRP bars maintained their stiffness at high strains and transverse GFRP spirals provided increasing confinement for the entire duration of the test without any spiral damage. The tests showed that, as an innovative material with excellent corrosion resistance GFRP bars can be successfully used as internal reinforcement in ductile concrete columns.
Mobile Service Overlay Networks for Multimedia Applications
Keywords: service overlay network
multimedia streaming
experimental study
topology policy
spanning tree
location based topology

With the increasing demand on multimedia applications over the Internet, and the growing number of mobile smart devices people are using, it is helpful to develop a mobile network architecture that can support multimedia transmission without using infrastructures. We propose that service overlay networks over MANETs can serve as a supplement to the existing 3G/4G networks and Wi-Fi access point networks. In this thesis we present experiment results that show the feasibility of mobile service overlay networks to meet the requirements of multimedia streaming. And also, we improved one of the existing overlay protocols. The improved protocol takes physical location into consideration when establishing connections in the overlay network. It also limits the number of neighbors each node can have, which prevents a particular node from becoming the bottleneck of the network, when connected to too many neighbors. Evaluation results show the new protocol reduces network packet loss rate.