VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Multigrid and cubic spline collocation methods for advection equations

This thesis describes numerical methods for the solution of advection equations in one-dimensional space. The methods are based on combining the multigrid and cubic spline collocation (CSC) methodologies. Multigrid methods for cubic splines are presented. Appropriate restriction and extension operators are developed for cubic splines that satisfy various boundary conditions. The multigrid methods are applied to CSC equations arising from the discretization of one-dimensional second-order differential equations. The rate of convergence are proved. Multigrid methods for cubic splines are then extended to the solution of one-dimensional shallow water equations (SWEs). The SWEs are discretized in time with a semi-Lagrangian semi-implicit scheme and in space with CSC methods. We discuss three different discretization approaches at each time step and develop new numerical methods. Through comparison with Jacobi's iterative method and convergence discussion, we show that our multigrid methods for CSC are convergent and efficient. The numerical results confirm our analysis.
Social investing by private trustees

I have examined whether the practice of social investing by private trustees is consistent with their fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty. I have reviewed American, British and Canadian jurisprudence and statutes to compare and contrast those jurisdictions' legal positions so as to resolve the tensions created by the practice of social investing. In private trust law, the trustee's only concern should be to safeguard the financial interests of the beneficiaries and not to promote the social agenda of the trustees or of a third party. Social investing entails making investments on the basis of non-financial criteria. I have examined whether a settlor's direction to a trustee in the trust instrument to practice social investing is consistent with the trustee's fiduciary duties. I have also suggested two potential solutions to the conflict: the acceptance of a limited version of social investing and the creation of an ethical statutory trust.

Keywords: Legal investments
Prudent person rule
Investments, Moral and ethical aspects
Trusts and trustees
Musical expertise and concurrent sound segregation

There is growing evidence suggesting that musical training improves performance in various auditory perceptual tasks. These improvements are paralleled by changes in scalp recorded event-related potentials (ERPs). The present study examined whether musical training modulates the ability to segregate concurrent auditory objects using behavioral measures and ERPs. Behaviorally, expert musicians were more consistent at identifying concurrently occurring sounds. Increased consistency in musicians was paralleled by enhancements to ERPs related to concurrent sound perception. Object-related negativity (ORN) is an ERP component that is thought to pre-attentively index stimulus features related to perceiving concurrent sounds. The P400 is an ERP component that is thought to index the conscious perception of concurrent sounds. Both ORN and the P400 were enhanced in expert musicians compared to non-musicians. These neuro-plastic modulations are discussed in terms of auditory scene analysis theory.
Identification of proteins regulating lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster using genetic and proteomic approaches

Aging is a universal biological process that involves both environmental and genetic factors. Using single gene mutations and/or DNA microarray analyses several genes affecting lifespan have been identified in model organisms. The goal of my thesis was to use a proteomics based approach in Drosophila to identify proteins that were up-regulated during aging. I found that Turandots, a novel family of proteins previously implicated in stress response, were highly up-regulated during aging. To determine if Turandots play a direct role in aging/lifespan I used a combination of RT-PCR and western blot analysis to demonstrate that TurandotA was expressed in the nervous system. I also found that overexpression of TurandotA in the Drosophila nervous system increased lifespan and resistance to oxidative stress. Together, these studies demonstrate that proteomics can be used to identify genes implicated in organismal lifespan and demonstrate an essential role for Turandots in this process.
RegionTracker: A framework for coarse-grain optimizations in the on-chip memory hierarchy

Current on-chip block-centric memory hierarchies exploit access patterns at the fine-grain scale of small blocks. Several recently proposed techniques for coherence traffic reduction and prefetching suggest that further useful patterns emerge with a macroscopic, coarse-grain view. These techniques extended conventional caches with additional tracking and management structures, considerably increasing overall cost and complexity. This thesis demonstrates that coarse-grain tracking and management no longer need to be afterthoughts. We propose RegionTracker, a dual-grain cache design that maintains block-level communication while directly supporting coarse-grain tracking and management functionality. Compared to a conventional block-centric cache of the same data capacity, RegionTracker requires less area and power to achieve a nearly identical miss rate (within 1%). In addition, RegionTracker's coarse-grain functionality allows it to serve as a building block for coarse-grain optimizations, reducing their overall cost and easing their adoption.
Making services work for whom? interpretive analysis of public policy towards families with children with developmental disabilities in Ontario

In 1997 the Ontario Ministry of Community, Family and Children's Services launched the Making Services Work for People (MSWP) framework. This initiative brought comprehensive changes in public policy concerning families with children who have developmental disabilities. This study explored the outcomes of the MSWP policy, and its effects on quality of life for families with children with developmental disabilities. In-depth interviews were conducted with members of the three policy groups, namely, parents, service providers and policy makers. Interviews and documents were analyzed according to the interpretive approach to policy analysis. Findings of this study indicated that all three policy groups were dissatisfied with the outcomes of the MSWP policy. In particular, parents felt that MSWP policy failed because it did not provide their families with the promised easier access to services. Parents identified detractors from their families' quality of life, including poor coordination of services, waiting lists, and repeated assessments.
Human Umbilical Cord Perivascular Cells (HUCPVCs): a mesenchymal cell source for dermal wound healing

Mesenchymal stern cells, derived from bone marrow (BM-MSC), have been used with clinical success to enhance the healing of acute and chronic dermal wounds. However, BM-MSC procurement is limited due to the necessity for volunteers of appropriate age. Human Umbilical Cord Perivascular Cells (HUCPVCs) represent an alternative, non-controversial source of postnatal progenitor cells. The goal of the present work was to evaluate the effectiveness of PKH-67 labeled 1PUCPVCs to repair full thickness excisional skin wounds in an immunocompromised mouse model by their direct delivery using a fibrin sealant. Macroscopically and microscopically, HUCPVC treated defects at both 3 and 7 days demonstrated enhanced wound closure, a thicker and more organized dermal granulation tissue and complete re-epithelialization when compared to fibrin only control defects. Moreover, HUCPVC treated defects significantly increased the wound tensile strength over untreated controls. K167 labeling of cell derived from wound digests demonstrated unequivocably that HUCPVCs were mitotically active in-vivo at 5 days. A diffusion chamber model demonstrated HUCPVCs were capable of synthesizing both type I and III collagens in-vivo at 2 weeks. These data provide the first evidence of the efficacy of HUCPVCs to enhance early dermal wound healing suggesting their potential use in both acute and chronic dermal tissue engineering strategies.
Characterization and modeling of microstructural evolution of near-eutectic Sn-Ag-Cu solder joints

Near-eutectic Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) solders are currently considered as major lead-free replacement candidates for Sn-Pb eutectic alloys in microelectronics applications. In this thesis, the microstructural thermal stability including recrystallization, grain growth behavior, Pb and Au contamination effects and interaction of the SAC solder with Cu and Ni substrates were investigated. Intermetallic growth on Cu during solid state aging was established to be bulk diffusion controlled. The IMC layers in the SAC system grew at a slower rate than in the Sn-Pb system. A multilayer diffusion model of the SAC/Cu couple was proposed and employed for predicting intermetallic layer growth kinetics. In general, the calculated IMC thicknesses for short and intermediate aging times were in reasonable agreement with the experimental data. The true eutectic composition of the Sn-Ag-Cu alloy was verified to be Sn3.5Ag0.9Cu wt.%, and the eutectic melting temperature was determined to be 217.4 +/- 0.8°C. The system was classified as belonging to faceting (Cu6Sn5)-faceting (Ag3Sn)-nonfaceting (Sn matrix) ternary eutectic. It was found that the reliability of SAC solder joints on copper was considerably better than on nickel due to copper enrichment during reflow and subsequent Cu6Sn5 intermetallic precipitation. Enhanced copper and silver diffusion followed by tin recrystallization and grain growth, cavity nucleation and subsequent micro-crack linkage formed the framework of a proposed microstructural model of solder degradation mechanisms under cyclic creep conditions. The most significant consequence of Pb contamination was the formation of a quaternary eutectic phase (Sn-Ag-Cu-Pb) with a melting point at 176°C. Similarly, the presence of gold in the SAC alloy led to a development of a new quaternary phase (Sn-Ag-Cu-Au) melting at 204°C. Prolonged aging of SAC-4 wt.% Au on nickel resulted in the deposition of a new, previously unreported, intermetallic (IMC) layer, ((Au1-xCUx)6Sn 5, 15 wt.% of Au) on top of the existing (Cu1-yNi y)6Sn5 layer. The interfacial products that formed during soldering to copper were Cu6Sn5 and Cu3Sn. Soldering to nickel resulted in the formation of one layer, (Cu1-yNiy) 6Sn5, which was different from the expected Ni3Sn 4 layer. A small copper content in the SAC solder (0.7 wt.%) was sufficient to promote this thermodynamic shift.
A randomized placebo-controlled trial of pioglitazone to improve metabolic control in adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus

Exaggerated insulin resistance during puberty may contribute to poor metabolic control in adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D). The objective of this study was to determine if the addition of pioglitazone to usual insulin therapy leads to improved glycemic control (HbA1c) in pubertal T1D patients. We conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind 6 month trial of 30 mg pioglitazone versus placebo in 35 adolescents with T1D, high insulin dose (>0.9U/kg/day) and suboptimal glycemic control (HbA1c> 7.5%). After 6 months both groups had improved metabolic control (p
Variations in CYP2D6 activity affect the pharmacokinetics and dynamics of dextromethorphan in humans

Background. CYP2D6 is responsible for the biotransformation of many drugs including antidepressants, amphetamines, and oral opiates. Variations in CYP2D6 activity affect the pharmacokinetics and therapeutic efficacy of some of these drugs. This thesis tested the effect of both genetic variations in CYP2D6 expression and pharmacologic inhibition of CYP2D6 activity on the kinetics and dynamics of high doses of dextromethorphan. Methods. Study 1: Six healthy male volunteers, 4 extensive metabolizers (EMs) and 2 poor metabolizers (PMs), were administered placebo and 3 of 5 possible dextromethorphan doses (dose range 1.3 to 6.0 mg/kg). Plasma dextromethorphan and its metabolites, objective and subjective effects, were assessed at baseline and every hour post-drug for six hours. Study 2: Eight healthy volunteers (6 males, 2 females), all EMs, were administered placebo and dextromethorphan (as in Study 1) both before and after pretreatment with quinidine 100 mg, a CYP2D6 inhibitor. Measures were assessed as in Study 1. Results. Study 1: Peak plasma dextromethorphan concentrations were 5-fold higher and peak plasma dextrorphan concentrations were 30-fold lower in PMs compared to EMs. Pharmacodynamically, PMs were less tolerant than EMs to high doses of dextromethorphan. At 3.0 mg/kg, PMs had greater psychomotor impairment (p < 0.05), and reported greater negative drug effects such as sedation (p < 0.01) and dysphoria (p < 0.01) and fewer positive drug effects such as euphoria (p < 0.05) and overall drug liking (p < 0.05) than EMs. Study 2: Peak and AUC plasma dextromethorphan concentrations were 5-fold higher and peak and AUC plasma dextrorphan concentrations were 6-fold lower in EMs pretreated with quinidine compared to EMs alone. The AUC with quinidine was lower than without quinidine for subjective measures of euphoria (p < 0.04) and drug liking (p < 0.05) and was greater for subjective measures of unpleasantness (p < 0.02), drowsiness (p < 0.05) and nausea (p < 0.05). Conclusion. Decreased CYP2D6 activity resulted in significant changes in the psychoactive effects of dextromethorphan. PMs and EMs pretreated with quinidine showed a significant inhibition of dextromethorphan metabolism and, in turn, a change in the overall ratings of subjective effects compared to untreated EMs. These results demonstrate a relationship between CYP2D6 activity and psychoactive drug effects and may identify individuals at risk for dextromethorphan abuse.
Comparative abuse liability and pharmacological effects of meprobamate, triazolam and butarbital

New York State control regulations resulted in a 55% decrease in benzodiazepine prescribing and an increase in prescribing of older drugs (meprobamate (M) up 125%; butabarbital (B) up 30%). We compared the abuse liability of triazolam (T), M and B in 14 recreational drug users. In a double-blind, cross-over, placebo (P) controlled study, three doses each of T, M and B were administered to each subject. Objective tests and subjective response questionnaires measured drug effects. T, M and B showed comparable dose-response slopes on both objective measures. Dose equivalence using objective measures was determined to be M2400 = B400 = T0.5. At equivalent doses, B produced the highest score on Cole/ARCI Abuse Potential, ARCI PCAG and ‘Drug Strength’. T = B on Cole/ARCI Euphoria, ARCI MBG scales and ‘Drug Liking’. M = P on Euphoria and Abuse Potential scales. On price crossover point analysis, B had almost twice the value of T or M. These data suggest an abuse liability of B > T > M and that the prescribing regulations had little net effect on abuse risk.
Investigations ofp53 signaling: Insights of upstream and downstream regulation. 1. Conditional Chk1-knockout in T-cells. 2. Carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1C as novel target of p53

Our current knowledge suggests that the tumour suppressor p53 is a means by which the metazoan cell responds to stress and plays a critical role in determining the cell fate in that response. By interrupting the appropriate stress response, we should expose the cell to potentially lethal stress. Intense study is currently progressing to conteract both DNA-damage stress response and metabolic stress response. These processes present very real opportunities for effective therapeutics against cancer. In response to DNA-damage, p53 stimulate concurrent strategies for ensuring that the damaged DNA is not inherited by daughter cells after cell division. These are by stalling cell proliferation at checkpoints thus activating DNA repair and by activating apoptosis. We have focused our research on Chk1, a kinase that activates p53. Because null mutation of Chk1 in mice is embryonic lethal, relatively little is known about the true cellular function of this factor. We used the Cre-loxP system and the Lck promoter to generate conditional mutant mice in which Chk1 was deleted only in the T-cell lineage. We found that loss of Chk1 activated the checkpoint kinase Chk2 as well as the tumor suppressor p53 in these thymocytes. Significantly, we found that Chk2-deficiency partially rescued the apoptosis in Chk1 mutant cells. Critically decreased energy storage, due to reduced nutrient supply, hypoxia, or genetic defect, will signal metabolic stress pathways in the cell. One class of enzymes by which the cell alternates between energy production and usage is the carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT) 1 family. Malonyl-CoA inhibits energy production by inhibiting the CPT1 family. We report that carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 C (CPT 1 C), a poorly characterized member of this family, is a novel p53 target gene induced by hypoxia. In mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells, a loss-of-function mutation of CPT1 C results in mitochondrial swelling, lipid droplet accumulation, defective proliferation, and increased apoptosis due to spontaneous activation of the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway. Strikingly, ES cells deficient in CPT1C function succumb to spontaneous death under hypoxic and low glucose conditions. Our results indicate that p53 may protect cells from metabolic stress via induction of CPT1C.
L'autre sur scène: Construction et réception du personnage du fou dans la dramaturgie contemporaine

Pour mener ce travail, nous abordons des personnages faisant partie du repertoire dramatique francais et quebecois du XXe siecle, parmi lesquels nous analysons en detail Charles Charles dans Provincetown Playhouse, juillet 1919, j'avais 19 ans de Normand Chaurette, Caligula dans la piece du meme nom d'Albert Camus, Aurelie dans La Folle de Chaillot de Jean Giraudoux, Folial dans Escurial de Michel de Ghelderode, et Marcel dans La maison suspendue, Marcel poursuivi par les chiens, et En pieces detachees de Michel Tremblay. La presente these est une exploration approfondie de la figure du fou dans la dramaturgie contemporaine de langue francaise dans le but d'apporter une contribution aux recherches concernant le personage dramatique. Fondee sur les ouvrages consacres a la notion de personnage, informee par la semiotique ainsi que par la semiologie theatrale, et eclairee par les publications recentes sur les theories de l'alterite, cette etude se donne pour tache d'elucider la perception et la reception des personnages dramatiques marques de folie. Suite a une presentation des concepts theoriques fondamentaux et un bref apercu historique du phenomene de la folie (chapitre I), nous mettons en lumiere les modes de (re)construction du personnage fou par le destinataire d'un texte dramatique afin d'expliquer l'heterogeneite a l'interieur de cet etrange ensemble qui rassemble sous la meme etiquette tout un eventail de personnages divers (chapitre II). Nous nous penchons ensuite sur les elements qui contribuent a souligner l'alterite d'un personnage (dis)qualifie comme fou et justifient la constance de l'ambiguite ressentie par le public envers ce genre de personnage: l'influence de figures issues de textes anterieurs - Dionysos, Dame Folie, fou du roi - qui soulignent les connotations positives et/ou negatives attribuees a la folie (chapitre III), ainsi que l'importance de l'espace dramatique/scenique qui s'avere frequemment a la fois marginal et privilegie (chapitre IV). Dans un dernier temps, nous demontrons comment les multiples aspects de notre etude s'enchevetrent pour nous aider a comprendre de quelle facon la folie peut orienter la lecture du spectacle theatral et solliciter un investissement affectif, intellectuel et pulsionnel de la part du destinataire.
Investigating the role of salicylic acid in the age-related resistance response of the Arabidopsis Thaliana-Pseudomonas Syringae pv. tomato system

Mature Arabidopsis plants are more resistant to infection with Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato ( Pst) than younger plants. The inducible defense response, age-related resistance (ARR), results in the production of a non-proteinaceous, anti-bacterial compound in the apoplast of mature plants infected with Pseudomonas. The ARR incompetent phenotype of three salicylic acid accumulation deficient mutants pad4, sid1, sid2 indicates that SA accumulation is required for a successful ARR response in mature Arabidopsis plants. Intercellular and leaf SA levels were measured using HPLC following Pst infection in young and mature plants to determine if SA accumulation is associated with the ARR response. On application of salicylate hydroxylase, the in vivo degradation of salicylic acid in the apoplast of mature plants infected with Pst results in an increase in bacterial growth, strongly suggesting that SA present in the intercellular space has a direct effect on the growth of Pst during ARR.
Influence of network topology on nonlinear dynamics in populations of mapped clock oscillators representing hippocampal neurons

The Mapped Clock Oscillator (MCO) is a model of biological oscillators, such as the electrical transmembrane oscillations in pyramidal neurons of the CA3 hippocampal region. Populations of these oscillators were investigated, with emphasis on the relationship between network topology and the nonlinear dynamics of the system, in particular the appearance and extent, in topological response maps, of regions showing high-complexity, possibly chaotic (HPC) dynamics. Topology was investigated using the properties of binary relations, hence giving it a mathematical basis. It was found that the topological properties were related to the state transitions of the system, and in particular that symmetry in multi-dimensional networks increased the incidents of HPC dynamical modes of network behaviour.
The effects of competition on payments for nursing services to private home care provider agencies

In 1997, Ontario's Community Care Access Centres (CCACs) were given the authority to purchase home care services from for-profit and not-for-profit providers through a competitive bidding process. The purpose of this reform was to encourage competition between home care providers, with the twin objectives of lowering costs and increasing service quality. According to previous literature, competition leads to lower staff wages and a destabilized labour market, which can negatively impact quality of care. This thesis investigates how competition amongst home care service providers in Ontario affected the gross nursing payments to private home care providers between 1995 and 2001. Regression analyses were performed to ascertain the relationship between measures of competition, profit status of the provider agencies, and gross nursing rates, while holding other factors constant. The results suggest that competition and profit status of the home care agency are important determinants of payments for nursing services.