VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, ten anonymous 13th century French sermons

In two 13th century French manuscripts, Arsenal 2058 and Mazarine 788, may be found a series of ten vernacular sermons intriguing in the richness and complexity of their style as well as the colour of their language and the engaging attractiveness of their imagery. The present work examines the place of these texts in the predicatory tradition and the history of their Scriptural themes (sections I and II of the Introduction). Whether or not they may be the work of one writer, the purported "prédicateur de l'Arsenal", or of a group of writers working within a close tradition will be one of the major focuses of this work, and will inform the study of the possible audience for the sermons in both spoken and written form (section III). The texts themselves present a number of complexities of language and style that require careful analysis particularly in the commentary on the individual sermons (section IV). Summaries of the sermons provide a rapid overview and a guide to closer reading (section V). The unifying factor that closely links all ten sermons is a structural one, a grouping of devotional insights arranged around the biblical image of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and other similar numerical listings. It is this unifying factor which led to the selection of these texts from the texts found in the manuscripts, and to the order of their presentation in the present work. The texts have not been edited previously, and have so far drawn only limited scholarly attention. The present study will make them available to general readers for the first time. Complexities of vocabulary, syntax and regional usage, especially for the texts that are preserved in both manuscripts, will require extended critical analysis, and exceed the limits of the present work.
Seismic reflection imaging in crystalline terrains

Seismic refection surveying is a well proven geophysical method for delineating in detail the deep structure of sedimentary basins. Recently, it has also been applied in igneous and metamorphic (crystalline) rock environments. For cost and access reasons most of the data collected in crystalline terrains has been acquired by 2D crooked line profiling. But where the survey geometry is significantly irregular and the geologic structures have cross-profile dip, standard 2D imaging procedures severely underperform. My research has focused on finding remedies for the above problems by exploring and developing processing methods which usefully exploit the 3D character of crooked line data, or by finding methods of imaging that are more tolerant to the errors. To these ends I have designed the following data manipulation processes: (1) '3D prestack migration of 2D crooked lane data'. Despite obvious data limitations, bands of reflectivity recorded in crooked line data are preserved and positioned to their true subsurface locations. (2) ' Optimum cross dip analysis'/'stack'. This algorithm first analyzes cross-profile dip of the imaged reflectors and then collapses recorded bands of reflectivity into single events. (3) 'Amplitude stack'. This is a simple procedure used as a measure of last resort when 1 and 2 fail to yield 3D structural information. From tests on synthetic data and two field data sets from the Archean Superior Province, I have found that: (1) When 2D crooked line geometry forms a 3D swath of data wider than a significant fraction of the Fresnel Zone radius at the depth of interest. 3D prestack migration will focus events in space well enough for interpretation. The process is, however, computationally cumbersome; (2) Although the cross dip stack does not output a 3D volume like prestack migration, and it retains only the stronger of overlapping reflective responses, it does provide most of the same interpretative information; (3) Amplitude stacks are surprisingly effective in imaging general structural trends. In general, it is often possible to recover the 3D geometry of the structure imaged by a 2D crooked line survey.
Walter Dean and Sunnyside: A study of waterfront recreation in Toronto, 1880-1930

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, thousands of residents of Toronto looked to the waterfront for recreational activities. The beaches, amusement rides, parks and harbour area were crowded with people playing. Yet the bay has been almost completely ignored by historians. This thesis concentrates on Walter Dean and his sons who invented, designed, built and rented various popular canoe types in the area of Sunnyside from 1888 until 1931. While Dean's business was just one of the many small companies that profited from recreational activities on the harbour, his history can illustrate the heyday and decline of small craft boating on the bay. Loosely based on Cultural Studies, this thesis will investigate both Dean's business and his customers. By considering such issues as class, gender, groupings (families, couples, etc.), age and ethnic background, a picture of who enjoyed canoeing as a form of waterfront recreation should emerge. Dean's business in the environment of Sunnyside presents an interesting dichotomy from the point of view of leisure theories which speculate about why people select particular recreational activities. While the popularity of canoeing as a sport would seem to suggest a public adherence to the doctrine of "Muscular Christianity" and a desire for more contact with nature, Sunnyside as an amusement park (opened in 1922) seems to evidence a desire for the carnivalesque, an exaggeration of the noise and crowds normal in city life.
Dynamic changes in cell death after lung transplantation, apoptosis and necrosis in ischemia-reperfusion injury

Ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury is a major cause of organ dysfunction following lung transplantation. Cell death has been shown to be a pathophysiological consequence of this type of graft injury in other organ systems. However, cell death has not been described in experimental or clinical lung transplantation. Furthermore, a direct correlation between ischemic time, the different modes of cell death and post-transplant lung function has not as yet been evaluated. First, we examined the occurrence of apoptosis in human lung tissue obtained from 20 consecutive human lung transplant procedures. Minimal to no apoptosis was detected in specimens following both cold preservation and warm ischemic periods, regardless of the length of the cold ischemic period. However, the mean number of apoptotic cells at 30, 60 and 120 min after graft reperfusion were 16.6%, 22.1%, and 34.9% of total lung cells respectively. Electron microscopy confirmed that most apoptotic cells were lung parenchymal cells (Type-II cells). In a subsequent study we examined preserved as well as transplanted rat lungs for necrosis and apoptosis using a new triple staining technique. We demonstrated a significant correlation among preservation time, amount and mode of cell death and post-transplant lung function. Our findings provide new insights into the complexity of IR-injury and suggest a potential new strategic avenue to prevent and treat this kind of lung injury.
Development of a Bayesian belief network for anaerobic wastewater treatment

A Bayesian belief network (BBN) was developed to determine the most probable causes of failure for an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ANSBR) attempting to achieve a COD removal efficiency and/or a methane production rate greater than 85% and 12 L/d, respectively. The BBN could also be used in prognosis mode to increase operational efficiency and to design experiments. This expert system would minimize the technical expertise required during the operation of an anaerobic treatment system with its extremely complex microbiological community. The Bayesian belief network consisted of nodes representing variables, and arrows representing cause-effect relationships between the variables. The conditional probabilities were calculated using an ANSBR model developed previously at the University of Toronto. By comparing the probabilities of the states before and after the introduction of evidence (using Bayes' Theorem), the most likely causes and/or effects could be determined, with the best suggestions for system adjustments.
The role of the placenta in adverse fetal outcomes associated with maternal cocaine use and cigarette smoking in pregnancy

The inhibitory effect of cocaine and nicotine on placental amino acid transport, as a mechanism contributing to intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), was investigated in the perfused human placenta and in pregnancies exposed to cocaine and cigarette smoke. 'In vitro' amino acid transfer toward the fetal side was measured in the absence, and in the presence of 1.2 [mu]g/ml of cocaine, 120 ng/ml of nicotine or both. Neither cocaine nor nicotine alone significantly inhibited alanine transport, while their combination did (p = 0.02). Significant inhibition of arginine transport was detected with nicotine (p = 0.007), cocaine (p = 0.01) and their combination (p = 0.01), whereas phenylalanine (p = 0.03, p = 0.04) and valine (p = 0.03, p = 0.04) transport was affected by cocaine and their combination, respectively. For glutamine, neither cocaine, nicotine nor their combination had a significant inhibitory effect. Maternal and fetal plasma amino acid levels were determined in 11 control and 16 drug-exposed pregnancies. The drug-exposed infants had a significant decrease of gestational age, birth weight, length and head circumference. The fetal/maternal plasma amino acid concentration ratios in the drug-exposed group showed a trend to decrease for most amino acids, with a significant decrease of taurine (0.007). In parallel, the characteristics of nicotine transplacental transfer and biotransformation were investigated in the 'in vitro' placenta perfusion model. Following the addition of nicotine (40 ng/ml) to the maternal circulation, distribution into placental tissue (0.43 ± 0.13 ng/ml/min) was three times higher than transfer to the fetal circulation (0.15 ± 0.1 ng/ml/min). The clearance of nicotine was approximately 90% that of antipyrine. There was no evidence of nicotine metabolism to cotinine. Furthermore, the effect of nicotine on hCG secretion was investigated. At a nicotine concentration of 40 ng/ml, no statistically significant reduction of hCG levels was observed. Together, these observations strongly suggest that capacity of cocaine and cigarette smoke to inhibit amino acid transfer across the placenta can be a mechanism to explain the high rate of IUGR observed in cocaine and cigarette smoke exposed pregnancies. In addition, the observation that nicotine readily crosses the human placenta with no evidence of metabolism suggests that nicotine has the potential to cause adverse affects on the developing fetus.
Vitamin K deficiency in paediatric bone marrow transplantation

Vitamin K deficiency in pancytopenic children with cancer can increase the risk of serious haemorrhage. The study compared the Protein Induced by Vitamin K Absence (PIVKA-II) values and prothrombin times of 26 paediatric Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) patients who received either standard therapy or standard therapy plus extra vitamin K. Pre-BMT baseline bloodwork was also obtained. Baseline results indicated that 8 of 26 patients (31%) were PIVKA-II positive. Four cases were attributed to drug antagonism and 4 were due to poor vitamin K intake or synthesis. In the post-BMT period, the patient with a prolonged prothrombin time was PIVKA-II negative, therefore the coagulation defect occurring post-BMT does not appear to be vitamin K deficiency. The vitamin K deficiency which was identified pre-BMT was successfully treated with the standard amount of vitamin K present in parenteral nutrition (0.2 mg/day).
A case study of power quality enhancement in an electrical distribution system

This project work involves the investigation of power quality issues facing electric distribution utilities today. It contains research from various references to define power quality and summarize its effect on electric distribution utilities, end-user equipment manufacturers, and power consumers connected to the distribution system. The project also contains a power quality enhancement case study of an existing load site with a specific power quality concern. The case study includes a problem definition, an analytical summary of the situation, and a review of power quality enhancement solutions. The case study reviews and evaluates the effectiveness of several power quality enhancement solutions. A variety of zero sequence harmonic trap filters applied in different configurations are simulated in the analysis. The solutions are ranked on effectiveness to enhance power quality based on an analytical simulation using symmetrical component theory. The performance measured in the case study are neutral current reduction, neutral to ground voltage reduction, single line to ground fault current rise, and filter load duty. The solution performance measures are prioritized and the solution providing the best overall results is recommended. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Precipitation partitioning by a northern hardwood stand, southern Ontario, Canada, processes and variability

Measurements of gross precipitation, throughfall, stemflow and litter interception loss in a northern hardwood stand in Southern Ontario were made during the summer of 1995. Equations were derived for estimating the quantitative importance of each of the following water fluxes under summer canopy conditions: Throughfall, stemflow, canopy interception loss and total interception loss (canopy interception loss + litter interception loss) and net precipitation entering the soil. Gross precipitation depth and intensity had a significant effect (Ã = 0.05) on all water fluxes while event duration, proportion of canopy openings and wind velocity above the canopy did not. The importance of litter interception, which has been largely ignored in previous interception studies, was found to be significant. Interception loss from the litter layer was ~6% of gross precipitation and ~25% of total interception loss from the stand. Throughfall, stemflow and canopy interception loss variability was determined and possible factors influencing the variability of these fluxes are examined.
Effects of prolonged endurance exercise on the gene expression and plasma levels of interleukin-1 beta, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha

Physical activity induces a sub-clinical inflammatory response, mediated in part by leukocytes, and manifested In elevations of circulating pro-inflammatory cytokines including interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-Ã (TNFÃ). However, the source of these cytokines in response to exercise remains unknown. Plasma concentration and messenger RNA changes of IL-1ß, IL-6 and TNFÃ in circulating mononuclear cells (PBMC) were examined. Ten healthy (V¤ O2 peak 48.8 ± 6.5 mL·kg-1·min -1) but untrained males (age 25.3 ± 5.4 years) were subjected to 3 h of exercise at 60--65% V¤ O2 peak comprising cycling and inclined walking. Circulating leukocyte subsets were elevated during and 2 h post-exercise, but returned to normal within 24 h. Plasma concentrations of IL-1ß, IL-6 and TNFÃ peaked at the end of exercise, and remained elevated at 2 h for IL-6, and 2 h and 24 h for IL-1ß and TNFÃ. Cytokine gone expression, measured using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in circulating mononuclear cells, did not change for IL-1ß, IL-6, or TNFÃ with exercise. In conclusion, messenger RNA accumulation of IL-1ß, IL-6 and TNFÃ in circulating mononuclear immunocytes is not affected by 3 h of moderate endurance exercise, and cannot account for the changes observed in plasma cytokines.
An application of active congestion control in TCP-Vegas

TCP-Vegas, with its innovative congestion avoidance technique, achieves a better link utilization than other TCP variants. However, it fails to fairly allocate the available bandwidth among the users. In particular, it penalizes the old connections in favor of the new connections. Furthermore, TCP-Vegas has the potential to induce persistent congestion in the network. These drawbacks all stem from the problem of over-estimation of propagation delay. To improve the fairness performance of TCP-Vegas, this thesis proposes a probing mechanism based on the active networking approach. The mechanism requires support from the active network nodes to immediately forward the probe packets. The acknowledgments of probe packets at the sender provide a better estimate of the propagation delays. Our simulation results show that our proposed active TCP-Vegas fairly allocates the bandwidth among the connections. In addition, the better estimation of propagation delays leads to reduced packet backlog in the buffer, and hence results in a lower level of network congestion than the original TCP-Vegas.
Computational modeling of turbulent flow in a cyclic engine

A computational investigation of engine flow in an optical water analog engine has been carried out using KIVA. Three cases (20 RPM, 40 RPM and 60 RPM) are examined and discussed. Among the cases, simulation results of 20 RPM case are compared with previous PIV experiment results. The comparison indicates a good agreement between simulation and experiment. However, the simulation results highlight the ambiguity with regard to the velocity direction in experiment and provide a correct velocity profile at the latter part of intake stroke. A confined jet is identified in both the simulation and experiment, however, the experimental jet oscillates spatially three dimensionally, while the computationally determined jet retains constant boundaries. The study concludes that the Reynolds stress transport is the dominant component of the equation of motion near the piston surface and causes the turbulent mixing which is responsible for the mixing and combustion efficiency in an engine. For the comparison of the three different cases, there are obvious cyclic variations for different piston velocities. The discrepancies in the cases demonstrate that the transition to turbulence occurs at the lower RPM (' e.g'. 20 RPM) while the fully developed turbulence seems to occur at the higher RPM ('e.g'. 40 and 60 RPM). These, therefore, suggest that 2D PIV used in previous measurement is valid at lower RPM because the measurement actually measures the jet or the turbulence transition from jet, but 3D stereoscopic PIV is certainly better and necessary at higher RPM due to the 3D character of the turbulence.
Mechanism of Ã-latrotoxin action at the frog neuromuscular junction

Ã-Latrotoxin (Ã-LTX) is a neurotoxin purified from black widow spider venom that accelerates spontaneous transmitter release independently of extracellular Ca2+. Since transmitter release is Ca 2+-dependent, I hypothesized that Ã-LTX mobilized intracellular Ca2+. To address this question, standard electrophysiology and confocal imaging techniques were used to measure the rate of transmitter release and ion concentration dynamics respectively in frog motor nerve terminals bathed in CFS. Here I report that transmitter release by Ã-LTX follows an increase in intracellular Ca2+. The Ca2+ pool targeted by Ã-LTX is likely to be mitochondrial in origin and not endoplasmic reticulum. An increase in intracellular Na+ precedes the release of Ca2+ suggesting that the mitochondrial Na +/Ca2+ exchanger may be activated. There is also evidence to suggest that the mitochondrial permeability transition pore may be involved. Although the release of Ca2+ may accompany the increase in transmitter release produced by Ã-LTX, it is not necessary.
Development of a computer balanced motion table, a ground testing facility for microsatellite attitude control systems

This thesis documents the design, build, and test, of a microsatellite attitude control system ground testing facility at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, Space Flight Laboratory. This facility is called a three-axis motion table. The motion table provides three rotational degrees of freedom similar to those experienced by a satellite in space. The trait that complicates the design of a motion table is that it has to be mass balanced. A Matlab simulation of the movement and balancing of the motion table was completed. The simulation served three important purposes: (1) to educate the author on the mathematics involved in the workings and balancing of the table, (2) to quantify how well the table could be balanced with various quality sensors and actuators that were available off-the-shelf, (3) to quantify the errors induced by introducing simplifications to the balancing algorithm. It was shown that with a suite of affordable off-the-shelf sensors the balance algorithm is able to determine the mass center position to approximately 2% of what the mass center offset is during the recording of the platform motion data. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Plant material as substrate for sulphate reduction in acid mine drainage treatment

Acid mine drainage (AMD) contains high concentrations of heavy metals at low pH. Biological treatment using sulphate-reducing bacteria (SRB) has many potential advantages over chemical treatment of the AMD. The benefits of the biological process depend upon the availability of an economical carbon source in the vicinity of the treatment site. Earlier research indicated, contrary to expectations, that plant material was a poor substrate for SRB. In the present research, a single batch reactor, simulating the previous work, was used for both plant fermentation and then sulphate reduction using the plant fermentation products. This reactor failed because of the accumulation of total sulphides to about 700 mg/L which is well above the toxic limit for SRB. A two phase system was then designed to study the effect of the carbon to nitrogen (C:N) ratio, separately, on plant fermentation and sulphate reduction. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)