VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Illness, identity and vocation in primary bone cancer: A narrative analysis of three types of work

Background and rationale. People with primary bone cancer typically are young (usual age of onset 16-35 years old) and undergo arduous treatment regimens. The current standard of care (tumour resection and limb reconstructive surgery with or without chemotherapy) achieves survival rates in excess of 60 per cent, but also results in significant residual disability at a time when patients are choosing career paths, establishing independence and embarking on new roles. To date, the nature of the relationship between experiences of osteosarcoma illness and experiences of vocation has remained unclear. This study sought to examine this relationship. Methods. This qualitative study employed a narrative methodology informed by postmodern narrative theory. In-depth focused open-ended interviews with 14 bone tumour survivors were conducted. Audio tapes of interviews were transcribed and analyzed for story typology and thematic content via constant comparison. Findings. Respondents offered accounts of three types of 'work' in which they engaged: 'illness work', 'identity work' as well as 'vocational work'. Osteosarcoma illness constituted a crisis in their lives, one which necessitated considerable illness work. The all-consuming nature of illness work meant that respondents were forced to stop vocational work for a significant period of time. The crisis of illness also precipitated 'identity work': they portrayed themselves as active sufferers and moral agents, rather than passive victims who simply endure. Respondents recounted a process of transformation, of 'becoming other' to who they had been prior to illness. When they re-entered the vocational sphere, they told of their changed relationships to vocation. Conclusions. This study offers a re-conceptualization of 'work' and the notion of 'return to work'. Rather than experiencing a mere interruption to their vocational lives, respondents told of re-entering the vocational sphere from a different position from whence they left. The study methodology and substantive findings hold implications for clinician-patient interactions as well as for the broader arena of 'return to work', in terms of both practice and policy.
The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope: BLAST

The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) is a sub-orbital submillimetric experiment designed to survey the sky with a 2 m Cassegrain telescope, using large-format bolometric detector arrays in three wavebands centered at 250 μm, 350 μm, and 500 μm. The number of detectors, and diffraction-limited beams of 30'' FWHM at 250 μm give BLAST unprecedented mapping speed and resolution. Flown from a high-altitude balloon-borne platform, BLAST is designed to study the evolutionary history and processes of star formation in local galaxies (including the Milky Way), and galaxies at cosmological distances. BLAST is a technology demonstrator for the SPIRE instrument on the Herschel satellite, and flew from Fort Sumner, NM (2003), in a 24 h test flight; from Kiruna, Sweden (2005), where 100 h of data were collected on Galactic targets; and from McMurdo, Antarctica (2006), where 250 h of data were collected in both Galactic and extragalactic surveys. This work reviews BLAST and the experimental techniques we have implemented, which led to the success of the project. I also discuss in greater details those aspects of BLAST that will be of relevance for future experiments. I discuss the diffraction limited optics and the detector system that provide point-source sensitivities of 250 mJy[special characters omitted] in each waveband, and resolutions from 30' to 60'', from 250 μm to 500 μm, respectively. A new pointing system, based on a day-time star tracker and gyroscopes, was developed, and a pointing reconstruction pipe-line implemented, allowing attitude determination with an accuracy of better than 5'' RMS, at a rate of 100 Hz. The number of detectors, the large volume of data, and the correlations among channels, common in a multi-pixel focal plane, required the implementation of a new data reduction pipe-line. The output of the pipe-line are calibrated maps and simulated maps which enable Monte Carlo analysis. This work also presents the in-flight performance of the instrument. While the design noise was achieved in both the Kiruna and McMurdo flight, the optics performed correctly only during the Antarctic flight.
Mirrors of ink and wonderful lamps: The "Arabian Nights" in Victorian and postmodern literature

This study first situates Victorian translations of the Nights and Khayyam's Rubaiyat with recourse to previously unknown sources, including letters exchanged between the various translators and Pre-Raphaelite and Decadent poets and the 'foul papers' for Burton's Nights. This evidence suggests Lane alone among the translators was attentive to the claims of history and ethics on his material, while FitzGerald, Payne and Burton preferred Pre-Raphaelite and Decadent methods of translation that privileged sound over sense. Yet even Lane's notes to the Nights, which had informed Thomas Carlyle and George Eliot's respective interests in Islam and the occult, would later be gutted to suit the imperialist sentiment that accompanied Britain's invasion of Egypt in 1882. This reception attests to the power of Western institutions to reshape Eastern texts as foreseen by Said in Orientalism. Recent scholarship has attributed the popularity of the Arabian Nights tales in the Arabic-speaking world to the fulfillment of expectations of worldly justice and reward rather than to the presence of magic. In contrast, this study finds that the tales' reception in late-imperial and postmodern English letters is governed by a disregard for their possible ethical and historical claims. This unmooring of the practice of translation from notions of fidelity and authenticity is precisely what attracted the postmodern writers Barth and Rushdie to the Pre-Raphaelite and Decadent texts of FitzGerald and Burton. However, current postcolonial scholarship is less useful in understanding Burton and FitzGerald's influence on Barth and Rushdie. Barth's seminal postmodern prose and Rushdie's early postcolonial musings date to the sixties and mid seventies when reissues of Burton and FitzGerald's Eastern translations were in vogue in counter-cultural circles. In his prose Barth sought to rewrite Burton's notes rather than the original tales, and Rushdie privileged FitzGerald's Khayyam as exemplary of a positive conception of the migrant or 'translated man.' The influence of Said's Orientalism would prompt both writers to be more self-conscious about their use of Victorian translations of Eastern texts, but they would not altogether forsake a constructive engagement with this Victorian tradition in The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor and The Satanic Verses.
Design and implementation of the electrical power system for CanX-1

Six CubeSats designed and built by students were launched on June 30, 2003 by a Russian launch vehicle, ROCKOT. CanX-1 (Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment-1) was one of them and is the first picosatellite in Canadian history. CanX-1, the first satellite in the CanX program initiated by the Space Flight Laboratory at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, employs a custom-built OBC, radio, ACS and power system, as well as experimental payloads such as CMOS imagers, a GPS receiver and a Xiphos Q4 controller card. Throughout this thesis, the electrical power subsystem comprising triple-junction GaAs solar panels, a lithium-ion battery, and a custom power distribution module is extensively presented. Moreover, the design, implementation and testing of the power system, in order to meet the mission and system level requirements, are explained.

Keywords: Nanosatellites
Satellite solar power stations
Cooperative vehicle position estimation

We present four vehicle localization (position estimation) algorithms. These algorithms can be broken into two classes: those which minimize the mean square error in the position estimates (i.e. the Kalman filter and the nonlinear least squares constrained algorithms), and those which minimize the maximum level of error in the position estimates (i.e. the H∞ filter and the constrained minimax algorithm). We show that gains in accuracy and reliability can be achieved over existing GPS-based approaches by making use of radio ranging based inter-vehicle distance measurements. Also, we show that the accuracy of previously proposed radio ranging based localization can be improved upon by taking into account additional information that is available to vehicles (e.g. digital road maps: vehicle kinematics). Then, after showing the benefits of using our algorithms, we present a detailed mathematical analysis and series of experiments that highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each algorithm.
Co-operative and oligomeric potential of the M2 muscarinic cholinergic receptor

G protein-mediated signalling has been suggested to occur via co-operative interactions within an oligomeric receptor. In the current study, non-competitive effects have been observed in the binding of the muscarinic antagonists N-methylscopolamine (NMS) and quinuclidinylbenzilate (QNB) to M 2 muscarinic receptors extracted from porcine atria in cholate-NaCl or Lubrol-PX. In particular, the apparent capacity for [3H]QNB exceeds that for [3H]NMS, but unlabelled NMS is inhibitory at all of the sites labelled by [3H]QNB. NMS therefore appears to inhibit at sites to which it does not bind. The data can be described in terms of co-operative interactions within a receptor that is tetravalent or larger and retains its oligomeric stability under the conditions of the assays. Similar effects also have been observed with the M2 muscarinic receptor from baculoviral infected Sf9 cells. In that case, however, the manifestation of cooperativity was dependent upon the level of cholesterol in the membrane; moreover, at least eight interacting sites were required to describe the data. Direct evidence for oligomers has come from the co-immunoprecipitation of c-Myc- and FLAG-tagged M2 muscarinic receptors in various detergent-solubilised extracts of co-infected Sf9 cells. In digitonin-cholate, the receptor appears to exist as a static mixture of monomers and oligomers. The two forms of the receptor have been separated on the basis of binding activity and immunological reactivity. Monomers appear to be functional insofar as they bind antagonists with typical musarinic affinity, thereby raising the possibility that they also participate in the signalling process. The oligomers are wholly or largely inactive, but their function can be preserved or recovered by treatment of membranes with an antagonist prior to solubilisation. The possibility that the M2 muscarinic receptor can form relatively large oligomers is supported by the detection of a heteromer containing c-Myc-, FLAG-, and HA-tagged forms of the receptor in extracts of triply infected Sf9 cells. M2 muscarinic receptors therefore exhibit co-operativity in the binding of ligands to interacting sites within an oligomer that is tetrameric and very likely larger. These observations are consistent with the notion that co-operative interactions lie in the mechanistic pathway of signalling via G protein-coupled receptors.
Blood interactions with candidate implant surfaces

Peri-implant bone healing response is a complex biological cascade comprised of multiple cellular and molecular components. Since the blood interaction with endosseous implants occurs prior to the actual bone formation on the implant surfaces, the study of such interaction is an important consideration for the understanding of overall peri-implant bone healing response. In this study, blood cell interactions with, and plasma protein adsorption to, cpTi surfaces having different surface micro-textures were investigated for the first time using in vitro approaches. In addition, CaP (calcium phosphate) surfaces having different surface textures were investigated. The results show that cpTi micro-textures increase RBC agglomeration, and increase platelet adhesion, platelet microparticle formation, platelet p-selectin expression. Plasma fibrinogen adsorption to micro-textured cpTi surfaces was also increased. In addition, CaP-coated surfaces of different surface textures influenced platelet activation differently. Overall, the cumulative findings indicate that the platelet activation is influenced by surface micro-textures of candidate implants, and provides better understanding of blood/implant interactions. Increased platelet activation by micro-textured cpTi surfaces is likely to play an important role in subsequent bone healing cascade.
Role of Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) in patterning and formation of tracheal cartilage

Tracheal cartilage malformation is an uncommon but important clinical condition, often resulting in severe obstructive apnea. Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) is suggested to be important for tracheal cartilage development. Thus, Shh-/- mice were used to investigate the role of Shh in tracheal cartilage formation. In wild-type, prechondrogenic mesenchymal cells proliferated in a specific pattern, condensed and differentiated into chondrocytes, forming cartilage. In Shh -/-, none of these processes occurred. Such defects may be due to the changes in the genetic control of tracheal cartilage formation, as observed by down-regulated expressions of Shh downstream genes; Ptch1, Gli1, Gli2 and Gli3, and chondrogenic genes; Sox9 and Col2a1. Moreover, the ventral-specific patterning of Sox9 was lost in Shh -/-. A significant reduction in mesenchymal proliferation and increase in apoptosis in Shh-/- were found, which may cause lack of mesenchymal cell formation to form tracheal cartilage. Thus, Shh signalling is crucial in tracheal cartilage patterning and formation.
Combinatorial techniques for key distribution and information storage

We address four security problems in electronic information systems. First, we analyze tree-based broadcast encryption schemes. The challenge of broadcast encryption lies in minimizing storage and the number of encryptions while maintaining system security. Tree-based key distribution schemes are the best known broadcast encryption schemes. We introduce generating functions for this family of schemes, which lead to analysis of the mean number of encryptions. We also introduce approximations that are easy to calculate and significantly more accurate than previously known estimations. Second, we propose communication-efficient schemes for wireless sensor networks. A secure communication link is established between sensors that hold common keys, which are discovered by each node broadcasting the key identifiers of its key ring. We make modifications to existing schemes so that common keys can be discovered efficiently. Our modifications do not weaken network connectivity or system resiliency against key compromise. We also introduce families of new deterministic key distribution schemes with low-communication overhead. Third, we introduce decoding algorithms for subset batch codes. The use of subset codes can attain essentially optimal system parameters for private information retrieval protocols and make them practical. Our decoding algorithm gives the optimal recoverability parameter for certain types of multisets. While a general decoding algorithm appears very difficult to develop, our decoding algorithms suggest directions for further development of practical codes for private information retrieval. Lastly, we introduce an extended Steiner system ES( t, k, v), a collection of k-multisets (called blocks) of a v-set such that every t-multiset belongs to exactly one block. It provides a natural solution to the problem of retrieving a multiset of items by accessing only one server. For such designs, the number of blocks is not unique. An extended triple system, with t = 2 and k = 3, was previously known. We show constructions of ES(3, 4, v) for infinitely many values of v with minimum number of blocks. We also present a simple construction of ES(2, q + 2, q 2 + q + 1) for a prime power q.
Sedatives may suppress arousal while allowing greater genioglossus activity during sleep

Arousals can promote recurrence of obstructions in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) (AJRCCM 169:623, 2004). Accordingly, a drug that suppresses arousal without concomitant suppression of reflex-mediated pharyngeal muscle recruitment may be beneficial in OSA. This study determines if in response to respiratory stimuli a sedative can suppress arousal more than pharyngeal muscle responses, and which sedatives have this property. The results show that some sedatives can suppress arousal from sleep while allowing greater recruitment of pharyngeal muscle activity in response to respiratory stimulation. In principle, agents with this property may be beneficial in some patients with OSA, particularly those in whom arousals destabilize breathing. Although each sedative increased the arousal threshold in response to CO2 stimulation, only pentobarbital, lorazepam and zolpidem increased GG activity during non-REM sleep. This was due to a higher arousal threshold, permitting chemical respiratory drive to rise to higher levels before arousal and higher baseline GG activity before CO2 administration.
Cerebellar injury induced by fluid percussion trauma to the forebrain: Characterization and evaluation of a novel model of traumatic brain injury

Introduction. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) continues to be a serious health concern as a leading cause of death and disability. Clinical trials to treat this condition have been largely unsuccessful. Traumatic axonal injuries (TAI) are a common component of mild and severe TBI, but have largely not been addressed as therapeutic targets in clinical trials. Increasing evidence, however, suggests that inclusion of white matter protection as a therapeutic strategy may provide a better outcome than the previously failed targeting of neuroprotective mechanisms. Conclusions. Forebrain-targeted fluid percussion trauma resulting in CI is a reproducible model that exhibits mechanisms of secondary injury consistent with processes observed in other brain structures. This model can be used to evaluate therapeutic interventions targeting mechanisms of white matter injury. Results. Forebrain fluid percussion resulted in a reproducible cerebellar injury demonstrating a relationship between trauma intensity and Purkinje cell loss. There was evidence for temporal and spatial patterns of secondary injury in the cerebellum. MDL-28170 significantly reduced neurofilament degradation, axonal pathology and electrophysiological deficits. Methods. Cerebellar injury (CI) was produced by applying fluid percussion trauma to the forebrain. Immunohistochemistry was used to demonstrate selective vulnerability of Purkinje cells and demonstrate evidence of TAI. Western blotting was used to detect neurofilament breakdown and spectrin degradation after injury. Assessment of cerebellar white matter dysfunction was examined electrophysiologically through recording of compound action potentials. Cerebellar microinjection of a calpain inhibitor, MDL-28170, was used to evaluate a therapeutic strategy in order to validate the use of CI as a model of TBI. A balance beam task was employed to evaluate cerebellar-related behavioural deficits. Rationale/Hypothesis. There is clinical evidence to suggest that cerebellar dysfunction may contribute to TBI pathophysiology. However, a comprehensive evaluation of cerebellar pathophysiology following forebrain TBI has not been performed. We hypothesize that cerebellar injury induced by forebrain-targeted fluid percussion trauma is reproducible and exhibits a dose-response relationship between trauma intensity and cell loss. Furthermore, we propose that cerebellar injury can be used as a model to evaluate therapeutic strategies aimed at limiting the extent of secondary injury following TBI.
A CMOS imager for DNA detection

DNA Microarrays are used to analyse the DNA sequence of an organism. They are used to determine the activation levels of DNA sections within the entire DNA sequence. These microarrays consist of many spots, one for each DNA section, that give off light in proportion to the activation level of that DNA section, microarray scanning equipment is used to determine light intensity at each of the spots on a DNA microarray. This thesis examines the feasibility of using standard CMOS technology for imaging a DNA microarray. It explains the design of a CMOS imager and the construction of a microarray scanner using this CMOS chip. The results are compared with a commercial microarray scanner. The detection limit for the commercial scanner is 4.49 fluorophores/um 2 and 4590 fluorophores/um2 for the proposed microarray scanner. The detection limit of the proposed scanner is set by various non-idealities in its optical and mechanical components.
Feminine sexual behaviour in female testicular feminization mutation (Tfm) carrier Sprague-Dawley rats

Gonadal androgens are known for their promotion of male characteristics both biologically and behaviourally and have been extensively studied in male rats. There is less known about their role in the expression of feminine sexual behaviour in female rats. Female Tfm carrier rats were tested for feminine sexual behaviour since they are partially androgen insensitive. Attractivity, receptivity, and proceptive aspects of sexual behaviour were examined in a female-paced partition chamber between carriers of the Tfm mutation and their wt female siblings. Two experiments were conducted; one using naturally cycling females and the second using hormone primed females. No differences in attractivity and receptivity were observed between Tfm carriers and wt females, along with no differences in pacing measures. These results suggest that the androgen insensitivity mutation does not have an effect on the development and expression of feminine sexual behaviour. Keywords: androgens, feminine sexual behaviour, androgen receptor, pacing, androgen insensitivity.