VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Time-resolved peripheral MR angiography with limited projections

Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is promising as a minimally invasive technique in treatment planning and follow-up of peripheral arterial disease. However, the standard technique is sensitive to the accurate timing of imaging relative to the contrast arrival and re-distribution, and dynamic information of contrast distribution is not available. To achieve time-resolved MRA, undersampling schemes with limited-view projections are investigated. Constrained reconstruction algorithms are developed to obtain both high spatial and temporal resolution with sufficient signal-to-noise ratio and limited artifacts. The AUCTION algorithm (Assignment and Update with CorrelaTION) is designed to reconstruct orthogonal biplane projections, and the HYPR algorithm (HighlY constrained backPRojection) is explored for reconstructing an arbitrary number of limited projections. Computer simulations, phantom and in-vivo studies are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the techniques. With limited-view projections, sub-millimeter spatial resolution and sub-second temporal resolution can be achieved over large fields-of-view for peripheral MRA.
Glucagon-like peptide-1-induced suppression on glucagon secretion in pancreatic alpha-cells: A study using phosphoinositol 3-kinasegamma deficient mice

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), potentiates glucose-stimulated insulin Secretion from pancreatic beta-cells and inhibits glucagon release from pancreatic alpha-cells. In beta-cells, GLP-1-stimulated insulin secretion is partly mediated by cAMP-dependent and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) dependent pathways. While much is known about beta-cell signaling mechanisms, how GLP-1 suppresses alpha-cell glucagon secretion remains largely unknown. Given that GLP-1 receptor is a G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR), mice lacking PI3Kgamma, a GPCR-activated isoform, were used to examine the mechanism(s) underlying GLP-1 suppression of glucagon secretion. RT-PCR and immunocytochemistry failed to detect GLP-1 receptor in glucagon-secreting alpha-TC6, InR1-G9, and murine alpha-cells. Pancreas perfusion of a GLP-1 analogue suppressed glucagon secretion in wild-type and PI3Kgamma -/- mice in a wortmannin insensitive manner. Furthermore, insulin was found to suppress glucagon secretion both in vitro and ex vivo, mimicking the actions of GLP-1. Therefore, GLP-1-induced glucagon suppression is likely secondary to insulin's actions on alpha-cells and independent of PI3Kgamma pathway.
Effect of mesenchymal stromal cells on cytotoxic signaling pathway in natural killer cells

Given the increasing use of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) and natural killer (NK) cells in cell therapy protocols, we investigated the immunomodulatory effect of MSCs on two NK cell lines, KHYG-1 and NK-92, by co-culture with cell-contact or in a transwell system, or with MSC-conditioned medium. NK cytotoxicity was measured by 51Cr release assay. NK immunophenotype and phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) were assessed by flow cytometry. Granule polarization in NK cells was analyzed by immunostaining of perforin using confocal microscopy. We found that MSCs suppressed NK cytotoxicity mainly via soluble factors, including nitric oxide (NO) and the indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) catabolite, kynurenine. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) worked only synergistically with IDO. MSCs were lysed by NK-92 but not KHYG-1, possibly due to upregulation of CD94 and CD244 and increased granule polarization in NK-92. These results demonstrate that MSCs can suppress the cytotoxicity of NK cell lines but can also be targets of NK-mediated cytolysis; thus, these considerations must be taken into account when designing clinical protocols with MSCs or NK cell lines.
A little bit goes a long way: he effects of raising awareness of strategy use on advanced adult second language learners' strategy use and oral production

This research uses Vygotsky's sociocultural theory and Halliday's systemic functional linguistics to explore the effects of heightened awareness of strategy use on learners' strategy use and oral production. It examines two groups of advanced adult ESL learners, with four learners in each group, over 10 weeks. The experimental group members received a strategy use awareness-raising session and engaged in task-specific reflection on their strategy use immediately after their weekly speaking activities. The comparison group members did not receive the strategy use awareness-raising treatment, but engaged in freewheeling reflection immediately after their identical weekly speaking activities. A qualitative analysis of learners' spoken data recorded during their performance of weekly speaking tasks and the data generated from post-speaking reflections showed differences in strategy use and oral production between the experimental and comparison groups. Quantitative data were derived from learners' spoken data, the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL), Reflective Cards (RC), and Strategy Recall Checklists. For strategy use, the experimental group, relative to the comparison group, made statistically significant gains on Reflective Cards, Metacognitive, Compensation, Cognitive, and Social Strategies, but not on Memory and Affect Strategies, with large effect sizes for all but Social Strategies. For oral production, the two groups differed significantly in their grammatical intricacy scores and lexico-grammatical resources. The correlational analyses showed a strong, positive association between the variables of lexico-grammatical resources in experiential and textual metafunctions and the strategy use variables (RC and posttest SILL). The results from repeated measures over the experimental period indicated a statistically significant variation in mean values between groups over time, and the trend lines analyses determined statistically significant linear trends for oral production. The results from the between-subject tests further supported that the oral production and strategy use variables differed significantly between the two groups. Research findings from both the quantitative and qualitative data shed light on the efficacy of heightening learners' strategy use awareness through in-class awareness-raising sessions and post-speaking activity strategy-specific reflection. Pedagogically, the findings suggest that creating opportunities and mediating tools to foster learners' awareness of speaking strategies contribute substantially to their language-learning endeavours.
Structure and energetics of peptide-membrane interactions: A molecular dynamics simulation study of the antimicrobial peptide indolicidin with model bilayers

The many modes of action of antimicrobial peptides all involve peptide interactions with intruder cell membranes. Understanding the structure-activity relationship of these peptides is thus critical to the design of new therapeutic agents. As a complementary approach to experimental techniques, molecular dynamics simulations offer atomistic insights to the mechanisms of peptide-membrane interactions. The work presented here focuses on the behaviour of the 13-residue cationic antimicrobial peptide indolicidin and its analogues with various model bilayers. Structural differences between solvated and membrane-bound forms, and between the wild-type and analogue species, are captured by the simulations. The thesis examines the use of an efficient sampling algorithm to probe the thermodynamic properties of the simulated system. The free energy of transfer of indolicidin from water to a bilayer and structural aspects of the peptide's passage through the bilayer are discussed.
Aromatic amino acid requirements and metabolism

The phenylalanine requirement for healthy adult males and children fed a diet without tyrosine was determined by the IAAO method using lysine as the indicator. Five healthy men and children were studied at graded levels of phenylalanine, devoid of tyrosine. The mean phenylalanine requirement, in the absence of tyrosine, was estimated to be 48 mg·kg-1·d -1 for healthy adult males and 28 mg·kg-1·d -1 for healthy children. The lower estimated requirement for children could be due to lower phenylalanine hydroxylation rate in the response of the substrate in children. Lower urinary tyrosine/phenylalanine concentration ratios in children implied that the rate of phenylalanine hydroxylation may be limited. The study indicates that phenylalanine alone may not provided the entire needs of aromatic amino acids in children fed a diet without tyrosine. There is no agreement in the current literature on the estimates for aromatic amino acid (phenylalanine plus tyrosine) requirements for healthy adults determined by stable isotope techniques. In addition, there is no data on the estimates for aromatic amino acid requirements by those techniques for healthy children. The choice of the best indicator is still under debate; however, phenylalanine and lysine have been used frequently in the indicator amino acid oxidation (IAAO) method. Leucine has not been evaluated as an indicator, but has been used in the 24-h indicator amino acid oxidation and balance technique. In order to examine the suitability of leucine as the indicator, seven adult males were studied in the identical study design of the previous study, but this time leucine was used as the indicator. With the intention of determining the effect of leucine intakes on the response pattern, the study contained two parts with two different leucine daily intakes: an excess leucine intake of 65 mg·kg-1·d-1 and the mean requirement of 45 mg·kg-1·d-1. The clear pattern of partitioning of the indicator amino acid between oxidation and protein synthesis was not observed at the higher leucine intake, but could be seen at the lower leucine intake. The requirement estimated was not different from that obtained using lysine as the indicator.
Dynamic WDM network performance: the impact of banding in reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers

This thesis investigates the impact of banding in limited reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (L-ROADMs) on network performance in dynamic wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) networks. We quantify the trade-off between L-ROADM tunability and the number of L-ROADMs in wavelength-routed, single-hop, single-fibre, unidirectional metropolitan ring networks. We find that L-ROADMs can be deployed under static traffic conditions without compromising network connectivity and without additional wavelengths. Under dynamic traffic conditions, 30% of the nodes can accommodate L-ROADMs under uniformly distributed traffic for an L-ROADM tuning range of 50% of the spectrum. This increases to 45% of the nodes for hub traffic. In both static and dynamic traffic, a hub network is most favourable for deploying L-ROADMs—a finding of particular relevance in metropolitan networks.
Determinants of home care utilization and place of death for cancer patients prior to death

Background. The increasing incidence of cancer, an aging population, health care restructuring and consumer preferences have resulted in a demand for palliative home care and a need to understand home care utilization norms for patients at the end-of-life. Purpose. The study was designed to examine determinants associated with home care utilization and the probability of home death in an integrated interdisciplinary model of palliative home care services. Methods. This retrospective, observational study linked secondary clinical palliative care and utilization databases to exam use of publicly funded home care resources for cancer patients prior to death. Univariate analysis and hierarchical regression modeling were used to examine relationships between predisposing, enabling and illness characteristics on home care use, length of the final home care episode and place of death. Results. Place of death, the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms and type of cancer were determinants for home care expenditures in univariate analysis and male gender, a diagnosis of brain or head and neck cancer were predictive of home care expenditures in multivariate models. Symptoms of jaundice, respiratory and cerebrovascular comorbid illnesses, and income were determinants for length of the final stay on home care prior to death, whereas income and respiratory comorbidity were predictive of LOS in multivariate analysis. Subjects with a diagnosis of brain cancer, gastrointestinal symptoms, male gender, living with someone and college/university education had increased odds of dying at home. Conclusion. The findings of the study has implications for health care policy, particularly related to the eligibility of patients for home care whose prognosis and dependency needs exceed the three month prognostic criteria. This study provides an initial step in the examination of home care utilization norms for the terminally ill cancer patient prior to death or final hospitalization. Further research is necessary to examine causal relationships between integrated models of interdisciplinary palliative home care, resource utilization and probability of home death and particularly on quality care at the end-of-life.
The legal narrative of war time sexual violence against women: transformation and transformative potential

In this paper I consider the legal narrative that has accompanied wartime sexual violence against women. This legal narrative is part of international humanitarian law and international criminal law, areas in which, in recent years there have been major developments. Recent legal developments relating to wartime sexual violence against women have been impressive and have largely been hailed as a success. In this paper, I explore the evolution of this legal narrative and test the contours of this success. I survey in particular important developments at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). What I hope to bring out in this paper are not only the successes but also some of the ambiguities that accompany these developments and complicate this legal narrative.

Keywords: Women, Crimes against
Sex crimes, Rwanda
Sex crimes, Yugoslavia
International criminal courts
Crimes against humanity
Toward a formal characterization of garbage collection

This statement uses a number of ill-defined terms, including machine, computation, pause, and pointer. In this thesis we give formal definitions for all of these concepts, and use them to give a formal interpretation of this fundamental intuition. Discussions of garbage collection rest on the intuition thatThe result of the computation will be unchanged if we pause the machine, alter parts of memory that are not reachable via any chain of pointers; and allow the machine to resume.
Feedback mechanisms in the morphodynamics of multiple barred nearshores

It is increasingly recognised that the equilibrium model of nearshore morphodynamics is too simplistic and that nearshore morphology reflects a more complex dynamic related to the cumulative effect of a sequence of storms. The purpose of this study is to identify the feedback mechanisms between the pre-existing morphology and the hydrodynamics and sediment transport within the inner surf zone, and to describe the consequence of those feedbacks to the behavior of the nearshore environment over a sequence of storm events. Data relating to suspended sediment transport and to wave transformation were collected from the inner surf zone of a marine tidal and a lacustrine multiple-barred nearshore; the results from the latter site were integrated with a morphometric analysis of seasonal profile variability. Results suggest that the direction and magnitude of suspended sediment transport varies with the magnitude of local wave dissipation; a strong feedback at the individual bar scale. Within the outer surf zone, suspended sediment transport and bar response tend to converge at a condition of Hrms h-1 ap; 0.3, which is maintained over a locally defined range of incident wave heights due to the ability of the outer bar to filter the incident wave field through breaking and the generation of secondary (harmonic) waves. Further wave breaking offshore also leads to both a weakening of the undertow current within the intertidal zone and to a bar-scale relationship in which suspended sediment transport and bar response are divergent relative to H s h-1 ap; 0.6; potentially the source of much of the unexpected behavior in nearshore morphodynamics. The feedback relationships at the bar-scale are further influenced by shoreward transport resulting from a modulation of the incident wave field at infragravity frequencies that both balances the offshore transport by undertow currents and forces the inner bars to a position coincident with the antinodes of the standing wave structure. These results, when combined with the morphometric analysis, suggest that the expression of a bar cycle over a sequence of storm events is not affected by storm chronology, although the timing and frequency of that cycle depends on the sequence of storm events.
Between revelation and concealment: an exploration of Liu E's self-representation in The Travels of Lao Ts'an

My study investigates the late-Ch'ing writer Liu E's autobiographical sensibility as expressed in The Travels of Lao Ts'an, and explores his acts of revelation and concealment of self presented in his novel. In the first chapter, “A Display of Multiple Metaphors of Self,” I discuss the frequently raised question regarding the lack of narrative coherence and unity in the novel. After scrutiny and juxtaposition of biographical information, autobiographical intent, and the portrayal of his protagonist, I argue that Liu E's novel allows him to display various metaphors of self in accordance with James Olney's autobiographical theory, thus attaining a coherence of metaphor if not narrative structure. The second chapter is “The Portrait of a Lonely Traveler,” in which I discuss this novel in view of traditional Chinese travel literature, and analyze Liu E's treatment of time and space in the story. One of my major concerns is to explore Liu E's perceived relationships between self, society, and country as expressed in various temporal and spatial relations in the novel. In “A Great Moment of Revelation,” the third chapter, I consider the famous Peach Blossom Mountain episode. In this chapter, the ethical and religious import of Liu E's philosophical discourse delivered in the story is my focus. I explore questions regarding Liu E's philosophical convictions and cultural identity, particularly during that turbulent late-Ch'ing age. The fourth chapter is “Possible Impurity in the Depiction of Pure Officials.” My attention here is on Liu E's description and indignant view of the so-called “pure officials.” In addition to the manifest statements in his comments, I examine whether or not other latent motives can be detected in his depiction of “pure officials.” In the last chapter, “The Problematic in Liu E's Self-Written Commentaries,” I deal with Liu E's own comments on his novel, which appear at the end of story chapters. At this point, Liu E steps aside from the writer's position to pose as a commentator to evaluate his own work; thus, his attention to and concern for specific scenes and episodes becomes a tell-tale indicator of his real intent and motivation in writing a novel for the expression of self.
The effect of folate supplementation on folate status and breastmilk folate concentration in lactating women

Seventy-two pregnant women were enrolled at 36 wk gestation and upon delivery, randomly assigned to either [6S]-5-methylTHF (416 mug/d) or a placebo or to a FA (400 mug/d) reference group. Despite decreases in red blood cell (RBC) folate levels after partuition among all treatment groups, concentrations remained consistent with a reduction in the risk of NTDs (> 906 mnol/L). At 16 wk postpartum, mean RBC folate of [6S]-5-methylTHF group (2178; 95% CI: 1854, 2559 nmol/L) was greater than FA (1967; 1628, 2377 nmol/L) and placebo group (1390; 1198, 1613 nmol/L). Total milk folate concentrations did not differ among groups, and unmetabolized FA was detected in 96% of milk samples tested at 16-wk. Despite high blood folate concentrations of participants, the predictive ability of blood folate to dietary intake remains weak. Given the confirmed role of folate in the development of neural tube abnormalities, women planning a pregnancy should continue to consume 400 mug/d of supplemental folate regardless of blood folate status. Since use of [6S]-5-methylTHF may reduce the inherent risks associated with FA, supplementation of such should be considered as it appears to be more effective than FA in preserving maternal folate stores and poses no detrimental effects on milk folate levels. Prior to the folic acid (FA, pteroylglutamic acid) fortification program, healthy, lactating women were at risk of folate deficiency. No data, however, have been available evaluating the impact of fortified food supply in this subpopulation. Although suboptimal folate status carries risks, overzealous consumption of FA through fortification and concurrent supplement use is not without harm. Alternatively, availability of the natural diastereoisomer [6 S]-5-methyltetrahydrdofolate ([6S]-5-methylTHF) may present a safer form of folate, and studies have shown it to be as effective as FA in increasing blood folate indexes in nonpregnant, nonlactating adults (1-3). The purpose then of the present study was to evaluate the folate status of lactating women post-FA fortification and compare the effectiveness of supplemental [6S]-5-methylTHF, placebo and FA in maintaining folate status and milk folate concentrations. Further, we evaluated whether blood folate in this sample of women were predictive of their dietary folate intakes.
Cytokine synergies in erythropoiesis: Identifying and explaining interactions through cell division tracking and factorial design

The directed differentiation of hematopoietic cells demands fine-grained control over cell decisions. Experiments were performed to distinguish the distinct and joint effects of two cytokines---erythropoietin (EPO) and stem cell factor (SCF)---on proliferation and survival in red blood cell progenitors. An in vitro model was used to quantify these effects on erythroid progenitors. Using factorial design approach, EPO and SF were shown to have merely additive effects on cell number in two cell lines: one human erythroleukemia (TF-1), and one mouse multipotential cell line (FRCP-mix). However, a synergistic expansion of erythroid cells within differentiating FDCP-mix cultures was observed. Cell division tracking, coupled with a mathematical model of cell proliferation, quantified this response as separate sequential effects: SCF promoted early proliferation of all progenitor cells, and EPO was necessary for survival of committed erythroid progenitors. This quantitative approach suggests how separation of proliferation from death rates can identify meaningful synergism.
One-pass algorithms with revocable acceptances for job interval selection

In this research, one-pass algorithms are considered for the weighted job interval selection problem on m machines (WJISP m). One-pass algorithms with revocable acceptances consider each input once, and must accept or reject the input at that time. At any instant, the set of accepted intervals must be a feasible solution to the problem; however, previously accepted intervals can be later rejected to maintain this condition. In this thesis, an algorithm called ONE-PASS W EIGHT/LENGTHalpha is presented and analyzed. This algorithm gives constant approximation ratios for the general WJISPm and many variants. Secondly, this work shows that no adaptive one-pass algorithm with revocable acceptances can have an approximation ratio smaller than 1.17 for weighted interval selection on one machine, even when all interval lengths are the same. This shows that one-pass algorithms with revocable acceptances cannot optimally solve the interval selection problem on one machine.