VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Enabling Privacy-preserving Model Personalization via On-device Incremental Training

Inference on edge devices (e.g., smartphones) is becoming increasingly common, benefiting from low-latency inference and user privacy by keeping data on-device. However, on-device training is still considered impractical due to mobile computational and memory capacity constraints. Nevertheless, on-device training is an important direction for enabling privacy-preserving model personalization, whereby a model is customized to a user’s preferences and behaviors. We propose MoIL which enables privacy-preserving, efficient, and accurate model personalization by performing compute-intensive training on a curated user-general global dataset in the cloud, and continuing training incrementally on-device using a user-specific local dataset. MoIL reduces the training time of an image classification model from 3.1 years to 48 minutes and an audio tagging model from 5.2 months to 61 minutes. MoIL achieves local/global on-device accuracy comparable to training on centralized local/global datasets in the cloud, deviating at most 7.3% for global accuracy and 0.9% for local accuracy.

Keywords: Deep Learning
Incremental Learning
Model Personalization
On-Device Learning
Advisor: Pekhimenko, Gennady
Thinking through Curriculum as a Site for Decolonial Education: Indigenous Related Content and Cognitive Imperialism

This qualitative curriculum analysis study examines practices of compartmentalization in the framing of Indigenous-related content in grades 3-6 of the Ontario social studies curriculum. Findings suggest that cognitive imperialism, through practices of compartmentalization, is reinforced through 1) the prevalence of dominance-imbued binary constructions, 2) curricular enclosures, and 3) the divorcing of power analysis from an emphasis on perspective-taking. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for cognitive imperialism, specifically, and for decolonial justice education more broadly.

Keywords: compartmentalization
Curriculum
decolonial
Education
Indigenous
justice
Advisor: Vemic, Angela
Brett, Clare
Real-time Minimum Foot Clearance Estimation using a Wearable Biofeedback System to Prevent Trip-related Falls

Trip-related falls are a significant concern for older adults and gait-impaired individuals as they can lead to severe injuries, hospitalizations and negatively impact the quality of life. A low or unsuccessful Minimum Toe Clearance (MTC) is considered a predictor of tripping risk. Thus, increasing the MTC can be a key component in minimizing the likelihood of tripping. This thesis presents a wearable biofeedback system that uses two Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensors located at the toe and heel to estimate different foot clearance parameters and provide auditory biofeedback in real time. The accuracy of the wearable system is validated against motion capture, and a novel real-time MTC detection algorithm is evaluated. The system is also assessed as a personalized warning and training tool to prompt users to increase their MTC in real-time. The proposed system has the potential to be integrated with assistive wearable technologies to minimize the risk of tripping and, ultimately, fall-related injuries.

Keywords: Fall Prevention
Gait Analysis
Minimum Foot Clearance
Time-of-Flight Sensor
Tripping
Wearable
Advisor: Roshan Fekr, Atena AR
Fernie, Geoff GF
Mechanistic Investigation of Intercalation Process in Two Specific Aqueous and Non-aqueous Aluminum Ion Batteries

In this thesis, the intercalation mechanism in two specific aluminum ion batteries (AIBs), aqueous and non-aqueous, are investigated. The first thrust is focused on the charge storage mechanism of -MnO2 with high theoretical capacity in 2 m Al(OTF)3 aqueous electrolyte. In this study, we find that the reversible capacity is contributed by the insertion of hydronium ion, which compromises the achievable cell-level energy density of the aqueous AIB. To truly utilize the high-capacity Al metal anode, the focus is put on a non-aqueous AIB system in the second thrust. We investigate the underlying charge storage mechanism of an organic cathode made of benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene-4,8-dione (BDTD) in an ionic liquid electrolyte (AlCl3/trimethylamine hydrochloride (TMAHCl) = 1.8 by mole), and AlCl2+ is identified as the charge carrier ion. Understanding the intercalation mechanism is critical in terms of assessing the practical cell-level achievable energy density and scalability of the developed AIB technologies.

Advisor: Azimi, Gisele
A Multiple Streams Analysis of E-Cigarette Policy in Ontario

In October 2018, the Ford government in Ontario reversed the previous Wynne government’s ban on promoting vaping products, such as e-cigarettes. However, in October 2019, the Ford government enforced the vaping promotion ban again and in February 2020 passed further regulatory restrictions. This study seeks to understand what prompted these changes by applying the Multiple Streams Framework. In-depth interviews were conducted with key stakeholders from government, non-governmental organizations, universities, and trade associations (n=15). Legislative debate transcripts (n=10), committee proceeding transcripts (n=11), and newspaper articles (n=101) were also collected. Data was coded and thematically analyzed, which showed that the first reversal occurred because of the election of the Progressive Conservative Ford government. The second reversal occurred because of the rise in youth vaping and the e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury (EVALI) outbreak, which focused the attention of policymakers on the vaping problem.

Keywords: e-cigarette
Ontario
policy
regulation
vaping
Advisor: Schwartz, Robert
Inclusive or Exclusive? Students’ Perceptions on How Teachers and Peers Treat Special Educational Needs Students in General Education Classrooms

This study investigates how non-designated students perceive teacher and peer behaviours towards students designated with special educational needs (SEN). Semi-structured interviews with 25 university students who had been in general education classrooms in high school were conducted to understand how the epistemological beliefs teachers and peers hold impact the learning and experiences of students with SEN in inclusive classrooms. A thematic, phenomenological analysis identified factors such as accommodations, groupwork, presence of aides, and teacher modelling as influential in the interactions of students with SEN and their peers and teachers. The findings of this research may help schools determine how to improve the experiences of students with SEN in inclusive classrooms.

Keywords: Inclusive education
Peer Relations
Special Educational Needs
Student Experience
Teacher Modelling
Advisor: Childs, Ruth
Underweight in the First Two Years of Life and Growth in Later Childhood

There is limited evidence regarding the consequences of underweight within high income countries. The aim was to evaluate the relationship between underweight (zBMI <-2) in the first two years and growth in later childhood. A prospective cohort study was conducted through TARGet Kids!. At 10 years, females with underweight in the first two years had 0.47 lower mean zBMI, compared to not underweight females, while males with underweight had 0.32 lower mean zBMI compared to not underweight males. Children with underweight and a lower zBMI growth rate (1 SD below the mean) in the first two years had lower zBMI, and HAZ, while children with higher zBMI growth rate (1 SD above the mean) had similar zBMI through 10 years. The relationship between underweight in the first two years and growth was stronger among females and children with lower growth rate and attenuated among children with higher growth rate.

Advisor: Maguire, Jonathon L
Understanding and Detecting Software Upgrade Failures in Distributed Systems

Upgrade is one of the most disruptive yet unavoidable maintenance tasks that undermine the availability of distributed systems. Any failure during an upgrade is catastrophic, as it further extends the service disruption caused by the upgrade. The increasing adoption of continuous deployment further increases the frequency and burden of the upgrade task. In practice, upgrade failures have caused many of today’s high-profile cloud outages. Unfortunately, there has been little understanding of their characteristics. This thesis presents an in-depth study of 123 real-world upgrade failures in 8 widely used distributed systems. Our study shows that upgrade failures are more critical and catastrophic than non-upgrade failures, with most of them caught after code release. Guided by our study, we have designed a testing framework DUPTester to expose upgrade failures. Testing 4 distributed systems with DUPTester revealed 20 previously unknown upgrade failures, many of which already fixed or confirmed by developers based on our reports.

Keywords: bug detection
distributed systems
study
upgrade failure
Advisor: Yuan, Ding
Building a Strategic Action Plan for the Ontario Construction Industry to Tackle Future Pandemics

The construction industry is facing enormous challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to build a synthesized knowledge base of industry-level best practices for pandemics since there is no such knowledge base currently. The best practices were developed by synthesizing the experiences from other industries and other countries. Then, they were evaluated and prioritized by analyzing the results of industry surveys and expert interviews. Finally, the implications of the study and recommendations for the construction industry were produced and discussed. A total of 79 best practices were proposed at the end of this study. This study contributes to the development of a knowledge base of industry-level best practices for the construction industry in managing future pandemics. Future studies can investigate the implementation details of these best practices as implementation is the main concern of the construction industry.

Keywords: Construction
Pandemic
Advisor: El-Diraby, Tamer
An Electrospinning Approach to the Design of Gas-phase Heterogeneous Photocatalytic Systems

This thesis is focused on solar fuels systems that use gas-phase heterogeneous (GPH) photocatalysis to convert CO2, the primary greenhouse gas driving climate change, into value added products. A solar fuels system’s ability to capture light energy in chemical bonds through photocatalytic reactions is crucial to its performance but can be very difficult to isolate from other factors. This work aims to use the highly versatile technique of electrospinning to gain better control over the parameters of a solar fuels system, with the intention to inform improved lab-scale characterization of photocatalytic materials, as well as to instruct system design approaches for scaling up such a system to a commercial scale. An iterative approach is applied to fabricating highly tunable photocatalytic layers, ultimately producing a repeatable and scalable support structure for photocatalysts that offers the flexibility and control required at multiple stages in the technology’s development.

Keywords: Electrospinning
Heterogeneous
Photocatalysis
Solar fuels
Advisor: Hatton, Benjamin D
Human-animal Interactions with Autistic Youth: A Critical Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: This study critically explored biomedical assumptions about autism and the desired effects of human animal interactions (HAI) for autistic young people. METHODS: A two-phase critical qualitative study was conducted. Phase One was a critical interpretive synthesis (CIS) of HAI health sciences research. In Phase Two, four interviews were conducted with autistic children 12 to18 years old, a parent, and their pets. RESULTS: The CIS revealed that animals are largely represented as therapy tools or objects that are utilized to address so called “deficits” in social function. The interviews challenged these representations, suggesting autistic children and animals form multifaceted relationships that include notions of ownership, familial bonds, friendship, and affection. IMPLICATIONS: This research challenges how HAI and autism are represented and studied in health care and has implications for research design and clinical practice.

Keywords: Autism
Autistic
Childhood
Human-Animal Interaction
Pet
Therapy
Advisor: Hamdani, Yani
Gibson, Barbara E
An Examination of the Effects of Victimization from Adolescent Bullying on Early-adulthood Health and Education: A Two-stage Analysis

Objective: To determine whether having been bullied in mid-adolescence has a measurable effect on health and economic welfare at age 25. Methods: This analysis applies a two-stage residual inclusion approach to the Next Steps survey cohort (n = 4017) to account for endogeneity resulting from variable mismeasurement. Control variables for stress factors are included to account for other hypothesized sources of endogeneity. Results: Having been bullied during adolescence is observed to have a significant and harmful relationship with a majority of the quality-of-life measures. Evidence of hypothesized sources of endogeneity are detected. Conclusion: Having been bullied during mid-adolescence is a significant economic and health shock at the level of the individual. Furthermore, as bullying is also highly prevalent worldwide, the cumulative effects across individuals make bullying a serious burden at a societal level. Initiatives which mitigate early-life stress and adolescent transitional pressures can likely improve overall social welfare.

Keywords: Adolescence
Bullying
Education
Health
Skill
Stress
Advisor: Laporte, Audrey
Neither Here nor There: A Phenomenological Study of Immigrant Students Enrolled in Canadian Higher Education

As Canada welcomes thousands of immigrants each year, some of them enrol in postsecondary education (PSE) to become more competitive in the labor market. However, the experiences of immigrant students in PSE are largely undocumented. Using a qualitative research design, this study explores immigrant students’ experiences in postsecondary institutions in Ontario, Canada, specifically in graduate programs. Eighteen interviews were conducted with nine mature immigrant students to better understand their needs, challenges, and aspirations. Bandura’s social cognitive theory is used as a theoretical framework to assess the experiences of mature immigrant students. There are four main themes: (1) balancing societal requirements with expectations of self, (2) the role of systemic and structural barriers in PSE, (3) education as a pathway to personal and professional success, and (4) the immigrant student identity in PSE. Findings reveal the important role PSE providers can play in helping immigrant students settle and succeed in Canada.

Advisor: Childs, Ruth
The Role of a Stepwise Complement-mediated PMN Activation towards NETosis in the Pathogenesis of C3 Glomerulopathy

C3G is a complement-driven disease that affects the filtration unit of the kidney, the glomerulus. There is a so far not understood gap in the pathogenetic cascade from complement activation (intravascular space) to inflammation and deposition in the glomeruli (extravascular space). Recently, C3G patient kidney biopsies were found to have significant infiltration of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) suggesting an underappreciated aspect of C3G pathogenesis. Given the chronic systemic complement activation found in C3G patients, I investigated the complement-induced responses of PMNs. I found a stepwise complement mediated PMN activation with upregulation of PMN priming markers (CD11b, MPO, CitH3) but not complete NETosis (intact nuclear membrane) in serum containing conditions. Only once transferred into serum-free conditions, PMNs completed the process of NETosis. My findings not only advance understanding of C3G pathogenesis, but also point towards more specific treatments for C3G patients with the potential to improve outcomes and quality of life.

Keywords: C3 Glomerulopathy
CD11b
Citrullinated Histone 3
Complement system
NETosis
Polymorphonuclear neutrophils
Advisor: Licht, Christoph CL
Decision Diagrams and Large Neighbourhood Search for Earliness Tardiness Single Machine Scheduling with Sequence Dependent Setups

Industrial manufacturing environments often penalize job earliness and tardiness or the sum of setup times, yet little work has addressed the combination of these complexities. This thesis formalizes and investigates the Earliness Tardiness Scheduling with Setups (ETSS) problem, which is a single machine scheduling problem minimizing weighted earliness/tardiness and setup costs. We develop several solution methodologies utilizing the following optimization techniques: Integer Programming (MIP), Constraint Programming (CP), Decisions Diagrams (DD), and Large Neighbourhood Search (LNS). Our computational studies demonstrate scalability issues with the complex objective function and find that LNS is the best technique developed, suggesting that LNS is an appropriate method for solving the ETSS problem.

Advisor: Beck, Chris
StrandStrainer – Release Strand Persistency

Current computer systems assume data transfer from volatile to persistent storage through a slow, block-based interface. Emerging Persistent Memory (PM) technologies are challenging this paradigm by providing user-space software with a fast, byte-addressable interface to persistent storage. Bypassing the heavy file system transfers, software now need to ensure its own recoverability after crashes. Our work improves prior works on providing crash consistency guarantees, and introduces a new ISA-level primitive--PersistRelease to enable efficient execution of log-free data structures (LFD) on PM-aware systems. PersistRelease leverages the release semantics seen in popular memory consistency models, and accurately mirror its semantics in the persistency domain. By incorporating the release semantics, we avoid unnecessary stalls that prior works need. We incorporate hardware structures to execute PersistRelease, and evaluate our implementation on five LFD and one traditional workloads. We see an average speedup of 4% over the baseline implementation.

Keywords: Crash Consistency
Memory Ordering
Persistent Memory
Release Semantics
Advisor: Enright Jerger, Natalie
The Use of Proteomic Analyses to Identify Potential Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers in Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MScl) remains a highly unpredictable disease. Many hope that fluid biomarkers may contribute to better stratification of disease, aiding the personalization of treatment decisions, ultimately improving patient outcomes. The objective of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) brain-specific proteins from early in the disease course of MScl on long term clinical outcomes. In this prospective longitudinal study, 34 MScl patients had their CSF collected and stored within 5 years of disease onset and were then followed clinically for at least 15 years. CSF concentrations of 64 brain-specific proteins were analyzed in the 34 patient CSF, as well as 19 age and sex-matched controls, using a targeted liquid-chromatography tandem mass spectrometry approach. We identified six CSF brain-specific proteins that significantly differentiated MScl from controls (p<0.05) and several proteins that could predict disease course over the next decade. Calcium/Calmodulin Dependent Protein Kinase II Alpha (CAMK2A) emerged as a biomarker candidate that could discriminate between MScl and controls and could predict long-term disease progression. Targeted approaches to identify and quantify biomarkers associated with MScl in the CSF may inform on long term MScl outcomes. CAMK2A may be one of several candidates, warranting further exploration.

Keywords: Biomarkers
Cerobrospinal Fluid
Mass Spectrometry
Multiple Sclerosis
Proteomics
Advisor: Diamandis, Eleftherios P
An Economic Evaluation of Docetaxel versus Abiraterone or Enzalutamide in Addition to Androgen Deprivation Therapy for the First-Line Treatment of Metastatic Hormone-sensitive Prostate Cancer in Ontario

Background: Prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality in Canada. Docetaxel, abiraterone, and enzalutamide have demonstrated survival benefits when added to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT); however, they have never been directly compared. Objective: To evaluate the cost-utility of adding docetaxel, abiraterone, or enzalutamide to ADT in newly diagnosed metastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer (mHPSC). Methods: A partitioned survival model was constructed to estimate total costs, quality adjusted life years (QALYs), and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) from the public payer perspective. Results: Although the addition of abiraterone or enzalutamide resulted in greater QALY gains compared to docetaxel (0.34 and 0.35 incremental QALYs, respectively), neither drug appeared cost-effective (ICERs $155,317 and $187,290/QALY, respectively). Model results were sensitive to abiraterone and enzalutamide drug costs. Conclusion: Without a substantial reduction in abiraterone or enzalutamide pricing, docetaxel addition to ADT is the preferred strategy in mHSPC treatment from a cost-effectiveness perspective.

Keywords: Cost-effectiveness analysis
Cost-utility analysis
Medical decision making
Partitioned survival model
Pharmaceutical sciences
Prostate cancer
Advisor: DeAngelis, Carlo
Mittmann, Nicole
To Know Ourselves - In Conversation on Métis Identity: Young Métis Perspectives from the Historic Georgian Bay Métis Community

Métis people as Indigenous people have encountered systematic dispossession and oppression, leading to both misrepresentation and under-representation in historic and current educational, academic, and political spheres. This legacy directly impacted young Métis people and how they understand themselves today as Indigenous people. This work aimed to uncover how Métis youth come to know themselves as being Métis, and what their definitions are regarding how they view themselves as Indigenous people. Story-based narrative inquiry was used in speaking with Métis young people from the Historic Georgian Bay Métis Community of Penetanguishene, Ontario. Personal experiences related to geo-location, seeking understanding/unknowing, relatedness/relation and responsibilities, language, challenge and journey yielded some of the first contributions in academia on how Métis youth form their Métis identities. As a result, it is critical for Métis youth to be provided spaces with these characteristics to uphold their participation in knowledge sharing in matters that effect their futurities. Les Métis, en tant qu’Autochtones, ont été systématiquement dépossédés et opprimés, ce qui a donné lieu à une fausse représentation et à une sous-représentation dans les sphères historiques et actuelles de l’éducation, de l’enseignement et de la politique. Cet héritage a eu des répercussions directes sur les jeunes Métis et sur la façon dont ils se comprennent aujourd’hui en tant qu’Autochtones. Ce travail visait à découvrir comment les jeunes Métis apprennent à se reconnaître comme Métis et quelles sont leurs définitions de la façon dont ils se perçoivent comme Métis en tant que peuple Autochtone. L’enquête narrative fondée sur l’histoire a servi à parler avec des jeunes Métis de la communauté Métis Historique de la Baie Georgienne de Penetanguishene, en Ontario. Les expériences personnelles liées à la géolocalisation, à la recherche de compréhension/méconnaissance, à la relation/relation et aux responsabilités, à la langue, aux défis et au parcours ont donné lieu à des premières contributions du milieu universitaire sur la façon dont les jeunes Métis forment leur identité Métis. Par conséquent, à l’avenir, il est essentiel que les jeunes Métis se voient offrir des espaces marqués par ces caractéristiques afin de maintenir leur participation au partage des connaissances sur les questions qui influent sur leur avenir.

Keywords: Canada
Culture
Indigenous Identity
Indigenous Studies
Indigenous Youth
Métis
Advisor: Ansloos, Jeffrey P