VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
SD Storage Array: Development and Characterization of a Many-device Storage Architecture

Transactional workloads have storage request streams consisting of many small, independent, random requests. Flash memory is well suited to these types of access patterns, but is not always cost-effective. This thesis presents a novel storage architecture called the SD Storage Array (SDSA), which adopts a many-device approach. It utilizes many flash storage devices in the form of an array of Secure Digital (SD) cards. This approach leverages the commodity status of SD cards to pursue a cost-effective means of providing the high throughput that transactional workloads require. Characterization of a prototype revealed that when the request stream was 512B randomly addressed reads, the SDSA provided 1.5 times the I/O operations per second (IOPS) of a top-of-the-line solid state drive, provided there were at least eight requests in-flight. A scale-out simulation showed the IOPS should scale with the size of the array, provided there are no upstream bottlenecks.

Keywords: flash memory
secure digital
FPGA
prototype
transactional workload
OLTP
Advisor: Moshovos, Andreas
Evaluation of the Frequency and Time Domain Soil-structure Interaction Analysis Methods against the Hualien Large-scale Seismic Test (LSST) Data

Nonlinear seismic soil-structure interaction (SSI) analyses are often completed using the equivalent linear frequency domain analysis method as it is simple to use and computationally efficient. However, the method is inherently linear and a better strategy is to employ the nonlinear time domain analysis method, which is computer intensive but can more accurately simulate nonlinear soil behavior. In this thesis, the two methods are evaluated using the Hualien LSST field data. For the nonlinear time domain analyses, the utilized Hualien LSST finite element model is initially verified by comparing its linear responses to those obtained via the linear frequency domain analysis method; which is also verified against the multi-step analysis approach. In the frequency domain, the equivalent linear analyses are completed by an industry collaborator. The results show that two methods generate similar responses for the low intensity earthquakes but differ for the more intense and amplified earthquakes.

Keywords: Structural Engineering
Geotechnical Engineering
Advisor: Kwon, Oh-Sung
Serial Measures of the Cortisol Awakening Response during Treatment for Depression in an Inpatient Setting

Goal: To determine whether the Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR) associates with treatment response and course in hospital for inpatients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Methods: The CAR was measured at admission and discharge in patients completing a four-week inpatient program for MDD. Self-report questionnaires were used to assess changes in depression, anxiety, and perceived stress. Results: Over the four week hospital stay measures of CAR reactivity (Delta, AUCi) decreased, but there was no significant correlation between the change in CAR reactivity and change in clinical symptoms. Cross-sectional measurements of the CAR reactivity at both admission and discharge were strongly correlated with the drop in depression scores in hospital. Furthermore, poor treatment responders had a significantly lower CAR reactivity at both admission and discharge than did good responders. Conclusion: Individuals with higher CAR reactivity at admission and discharge had the greatest reduction in depression over the course of treatment.

Keywords: Depression
Cortisol
Treatment Outcome
HPA
Cortisol Awakening Response
Prediction
Advisor: Levitan, Robert
Association of Leg Length with Metabolic Abnormalities Underlying Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

The objective of this thesis was to determine the association of leg length (LL), a marker of early childhood conditions, with metabolic abnormalities underlying type 2 diabetes. Utilizing data from a population at-risk for diabetes, the associations of LL with i) insulin resistance (IR) and beta-cell dysfunction and ii) a continuous metabolic syndrome risk score (MetScore) were analyzed. Results showed that shorter LL was associated with IR and beta-cell dysfunction, and that the combination of short legs and large waist (a marker of adult obesogenic conditions) was associated with the greatest IR. Height, a marker of overall childhood conditions, was found to be inversely associated with the MetScore. Therefore, both adverse childhood conditions and early-late life mismatched conditions may increase the risk for diabetes through differing pathways. Improving childhood conditions (i.e. nutritionally or economically) may be an important strategy to prevent diabetes.

Keywords: Early childhood conditions
Insulin resistance
Beta-cell dysfunction
Anthropometry
Leg length
Metabolic Syndrome
Continuous Metabolic Syndrome score
Type 2 diabetes
Stature
Height
Developmental origins of health and disease
Advisor: Hanley, Anthony James Gordon
Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis and Post-processing of Reinforced Concrete Structures under Transient Creep Strain

A suite of NLFEA programs, VecTor, has been developed at the University of Toronto. However, this software still requires the development of other functions to execute some types of analyses. One of the required functions is the consideration of transient creep strain in the heat transfer analysis. Moreover, there is a strong need to develop a general graphics-based post-processor applicable to VecTor programs. The first objective of this thesis is to develop a function considering the effect of the transient creep strain, because it can have significant influence on the behaviour of concrete under elevated temperatures. The second purpose of this thesis is to construct the new analysis visualization features compatible with entire suite of VecTor programs. As the result, the modified post-processor, JANUS, has had its abilities expanded significantly.

Keywords: JANUS
Post-processor
Transient creep
Fire
Concrete
Programming
Advisor: Vecchio, Frank J.
Interaction between a Molten Smelt Droplet and Water at Different Temperatures

In a kraft recovery dissolving tank, high temperature molten smelt droplets fall into an aqueous solution and dissolve. The rapid heat transfer between molten smelt and water can lead to violent dissolving tank operation, and in severe cases, a dissolving tank explosion. In this study, an experimental apparatus was built to investigate the interaction between a molten synthetic smelt droplet and water. Smelt-water interaction was documented, and the effects of water and smelt temperatures on droplet explosion probability, explosion delay time, and explosion intensity were examined. The results show that explosions always occur below a lower critical water temperature, which is a function of smelt temperature, and never explodes above an upper critical water temperature. Up to the upper critical water temperature, as the water temperature increases, the explosion probability decreases, and the explosion delay time and the explosion intensity increases. A Smelt-Water Interaction Temperature (SWIT) diagram was constructed to describe the explosion probability at different smelt and water temperatures.

Keywords: chemical engineering
vapor explosion
kraft pulping
Advisor: Honghi, Tran
Markus, Bussmann
Optical, Structural, and Electrical Characterization of Colloidal Nanocrystalline Silicon

In this thesis, colloidal nanocrystalline silicon (ncSi) capped with allylbenzene (AB) groups, is created using a sol-gel method. This novel material, AB-ncSi, is size separated and its optical, structural, and electrical characteristics are investigated in detail. For optical characterization, the photoluminescence (PL) peak is located for each fraction of the nanoparticles to determine its diameter. The AB-ncSi samples have diameters ranging from 2.89 nm to 7.65 nm. Ellipsometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) are used to estimate the film thickness and average distance between the particles, respectively, for structural characterization. No correlation was found between AB-ncSi size and film thickness however the estimated average distance between the particles decreased with decreasing diameter. Finally, for electrical characterization, conductivity of size-separated samples is measured and the temperature dependent conductance is analyzed. The results emerging from these analyses suggest that the charge transport mechanism for AB-ncSi is nearest-neighbor hopping (NNH) albeit VRH is also a potential contributor.

Keywords: Silicon Nanocrystal
Photoluminescence
Size-Selective
Conductivity
Charge Transport
Advisor: Kherani, Nazir P.
Machine Learning for Variant Detection and Population Analysis in Heterogenerous Cancer Sample

Cancer is a complex and deadly disease that is caused by genetic lesions in somatic cells. Further research in computational methodology for detecting and characterizing somatic mutations is necessary in order to understand the comprehensive systems level model of the roles of those lesions in cancer development. In the first project, I trained a list of supervised machine learning classifiers that classify false positive versus true positive somatic single nucleotide variants (SNVs). I was able to show an improvement of somatic SNV detection on the data set over the reported classifier. In the second project, we developed PhyloSub model that uses a nonparametric Bayesian prior over a set of trees to cluster SNVs, and infer the subclonal phylogenetic structure of tumors with uncertainty from SNV sequencing data. Experiments showed that PhyloSub model could infer the subclonal phylogenetic structure from both single and multiple tumor samples.

Keywords: Single nucleotide variant
Machine learning
Cancer heterogeneity
Advisor: Stein, Lincoln
Morris, Quaid
Analytical Modelling of Carrier Depletion Silicon-on-insulator Optical Modulation Diodes

We derive an analytical model for the depletion capacitance of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) optical modulation diodes. This model accurately describes the parasitic fringe capacitances due to a lateral pn junction and can be extended to other geometries, such as vertical and interleaved junctions. Analytical results show excellent agreement with numerical simulations. The model is used to identify the waveguide slab to rib height ratio as a key geometric scaling parameter for the modulation e ciency and bandwidth for lateral diodes. We characterise the fringe capacitance as a parasitic e ffect that leads to a decrease of about 20% in modulation bandwidth of typical SOI diodes without a corresponding increase in modulation effi ciency. From the scaling relations, the most e ffective way to increase the modulation bandwidth is to reduce the series resistance of the diode. In the light of our analysis, we propose high-speed and low power microdisk structures for future SOI modulators.

Keywords: Optoelectronics
Modulators
PN junctions
Photonics
Advisor: Poon, Joyce
The Impact Of Palliative Care on The Aggressiveness Of End-of-life Care In Patients With Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

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.

Keywords: Palliative care
Pancreatic cancer
End-of-life care
Advisor: Alibhai, Shabbir Muhammad Husayn
Reintroduction of Divorce into Philippine Law

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.

Keywords: divorce
philippines
marriage
Advisor: Shaffer, Martha
Towards a Wireless EEG System for Ambulatory Mental Health Applications

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.

Keywords: Clinical Engineering
EEG
Emotional Valence
Advisor: Cafazzo, Joseph
Supply Chain Operation Modelling and Automation Using Untimed and Timed State Tree Structures

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.

Keywords: Supply Chain Operation
State Tree Structures
Supervisory Control Theory
Advisor: Wonham, Murray
Attitude and Orbit Control of Small Satellites for Autonomous Terrestrial Target 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.

Keywords: satellite
attitude
attitude and orbit control
microsatellite
control
estimation
tracking
Advisor: Zee, Robert E.
Exploring Ethicists' Perspectives of Healthcare Ethics Program Effectiveness

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.

Keywords: Ethicists
Ethics programs
Evaluation
Qualitative research
Ethics practice
Healthcare ethics
Advisor: Gibson, Jennifer
Developing a Potential Substrate Reduction Therapy for Six Mucopolysaccharidoses by Decreasing NDST1 Activity

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.

Keywords: Mucopolysaccharidoses
NDST1
Advisor: Mahuran, Don J.
High Performance Content Centric Networking on Virtual Infrastructure

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.

Keywords: Content Centric Networking
CCN
Virtual Infrastructure
Partitioned Tables
Smart Applications on Virtual Infrastructure
SAVI
Performance
Advisor: Leon-Garcia, Alberto
Effects of Inertial and Geometric Nonlinearities in the Simulation of Flexible Aircraft Dynamics

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.

Keywords: Flight Simulation
Flexible Aircraft
Geometric Nonlinearities
Inertial Nonlinearities
Advisor: Grant, Peter R.
Can-Fit-Pro, The Fit Body and The Field of Physical Fitness.

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.

Keywords: Fitness
Body
Advisor: MacNeill, Margaret
Exchanging Approaches: Evaluating Methods to Counter Chinese Currency Undervaluation

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.

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
Advisor: Trebilcock, Michael