VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Variation of the pseudogene for a serotonin-7-like receptor

Antipsychotic drugs are central to the treatment of schizophrenia and psychosis. The search for a selective mechanism shared by all antipsychotics has focused mainly on the antipsychotic effects mediated by dopamine D$\sb2$ receptor blockade. However, the risk of Parkinsonism is high when antipsychotics occupy dopamine D$\sb2$ receptors above 80%. Antipsychotics which are atypical have a low tendency to induce these extrapyramidal side effects in humans and require high doses to elicit catalepsy in animals. Blockade of serotonin receptors has been suggested as a basis for atypical antipsychotic drug action. The current evidence on dopamine/serotonin interactions, however, is inconclusive. Thus, speculation of other such receptor sites contributing to the absence or low Parkinsonism observed with atypical antipsychotics has here been the impetus for a novel receptor search. Using a strategy based on the strong homology between dopamine and serotonin receptors, a serotonin-7B receptor pseudogene was previously isolated. In an effort to identify the functional serotonin-7B receptor gene through homologous hybridization screening techniques, a serotonin-7B receptor pseudogene polymorphism was detected from human fetal brain cDNA. In comparison to the pseudogene, its polymorphism contains four nucleotide substitutions and one deletion creating four amino acid changes. The intronless coding sequence of 1325 base pairs produces a truncated protein of 84 amino acids, the function of which is not known. The continuing search for the functional serotonin-7B receptor gene may elucidate these and other issues pertaining to antipsychotic drug action.
Analysis of pleated air filters using computational fluid dynamics

A numerical study was performed to investigate factors that influence pressure drop and flow pattern across pleated air filters. Simulations were done using FLUENT, a commercial available Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code. The objectives of this work were: first, to develop CFD models for different pleated filter configurations; second, to examine the effect of pleat geometry (shape, height and spacing), approaching air velocity, and filter configuration (panel filters and cylindrical filters) on the flow pattern and pressure drop across the pleated filters; third, to obtain a generalized correlation curve for the design of triangularly pleated air filters; and finally, to develop a three-dimensional CFD model for a multiple panel filter configuration and investigate the dependence of the filter pressure drop and filter medium face velocity distribution on the gap spacing between each panel filter. Results showed that the pressure drop vs. pleat count per unit length curve has a characteristic U-shape curve for all filter configurations studied. The optimal pleat count (which corresponding to the minimum filter pressure drop) depends on the pleat height, pleat shape, and filter configuration, but not on the approaching velocity. For rectangular pleats, the optimal ratio of the upstream channel spacing to the downstream channel spacing was one. By scaling the inertia and viscous terms in the momentum equation, a generalized correlation curve was obtained for the design of triangularly pleated air filters. For the multiple panel filter configuration, medium face velocity was highly non-uniform along the flow channel; decreasing the gap spacing reduced the average medium face velocity but increased the total filter pressure drop.
The design and synthesis of strained transition state analogues for phosphotriester hydrolysis

Isomeric 2,5-di-p-nitrophenyl phospholanate esters were synthesized using a modified McCormack reaction. They are to be employed as novel transition state analogues (TSA's) for the hydrolysis of phosphotriesters. Antibodies raised against these haptens are intended to exert strain upon their substrates in order to exercise their catalysis by a combination of ground state destabilization and transition state stabilization. Confirmation of the strained nature of the TSA's was confirmed by determining the C-P-C bond angle by X-ray structure analysis of a 2,5-diphenyl phospholanic acid precursor. The TSA's were conjugated to carrier proteins (bovine serum albumin and keyhole limpet hemocyanin) and used for the generation of monoclonal antibodies. The corresponding bis(p-nitrophenyl)phosphate and p-nitrobenzyl-p-nitrophenyl phosphonate antibody substrates were also synthesized. Preliminary kinetics studies on these substrates showed that they are kinetically stable enough for screening purposes yet sufficiently labile to be susceptible to antibody catalysis.
The impairment of glucoregulatory responses to stress in diabetes

In diabetic dogs, during centrally-induced stress, glycemic control deteriorates substantially because the metabolic clearance rate of glucose (MCR) does not increase to match the rise in glucose production, as it does in normal dogs. This thesis examined whether defective MCR responses in diabetes during stress can be ameliorated by: (1) acute correction of hyperglycemia with basal insulin; (2) beta-adrenergic blockade; and (3) normoglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamps. With correction of hyperglycemia with basal insulin, glycemic control deteriorated because MCR did not rise during stress. Beta-blockade, with basal insulin infusion, prevented deteriorating glycemia, since MCR responses were nearly normalized and the increment in glucose production was suppressed. Normoglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamps prevented deteriorating glycemia by suppressing the glucose production rise, but MCR responses were not improved. Thus, beta-blockade, but not the acute correction of hyperglycemia with basal insulin, nor normoglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamps, prevented deteriorating glycemia during stress in diabetes by near-normalization of MCR responses.
Interactive activities: Promoting naturalistic exchanges inside/outside the second language classroom

One of the ultimate goals of second language education is to enable the learners to communicate with native speakers of the target language. This thesis provides some methods of guiding learners to interact with various types of interlocutors, such as peer-learners, teachers, students of other classrooms or native speakers. The interaction starts in the classroom and extends gradually to that in a real environment outside the campus. Studies on second language acquisition and interaction inside a classroom are reviewed in order to familiarize the reader with underlying theories of 'interactive activities' and with research studies of the impacts of such activities. Then optimal conditions for second language learning through interaction are extracted. Eight examples of 'interactive activities' for learners at different levels are presented and integrated in proposals for a model syllabus of university-level Japanese as a second language, and for a model three-year curriculum.
Garnet peridotite xenoliths from kimberlite near Kirkland Lake, Canada

Fifty-six peridotite xenoliths have been examined from four kimberlite diatremes (A1, A4, B30 and C14) in the Kirkland Lake region of Ontario, Canada. The suite is dominated by garnet Iherzolites. Xenolith textures range from coarse (undeformed) to mosaic porphyroclastic (strongly deformed). Evidence for modal metasomatism, noted in phlogopite-dominated assemblages replacing garnet, exists in 17 xenoliths. Zonation of garnets, indicative of cryptic metasomatic processes, is identified in thirteen xenoliths. Xenoliths equilibrated over a wide range of temperatures and pressures (680-1400$\sp\circ$C, 20-60kbar), and coarse-textured xenoliths form an array corresponding to a relatively cool 40mW/m$\sp2$ steady-state conductive geotherm. Deformed xenoliths from A1, A4, and B30 are inflected 100-150$\sp\circ$C above the 40mW/m$\sp2$ steady-state geotherm. Although numerous xenoliths equilibrated within the diamond stability field, only one of 56 peridotite xenoliths is a low-Ca garnet harzburgite. The rarity of diamonds in Kirkland Lake kimberlite is directly proportional to the paucity of low-Ca garnet harzburgite in the Kirkland Lake xenolith suite.
The effect of Ambiol on growth and stress tolerance of Pinus banksiana and Picea mariana seedlings

The bio-protective action of a synthetic antioxidant, Ambiol (2-methyl-4-dimethylaminomethyl-5-hydtohybenzimidazole dihydrochloride) on membrane leakage, growth and morphology of jack pine (Pinus banksiana) and black spruce (Picea mariana) seedlings exposed to drought (withholding water from soil), heat (hot water bath 47$\sp\circ$C for 50min) and freezing (at ${-}10\sp\circ$C for 1.5 hours) stress was studied. Seeds were soaked for 24 hours, in the following Ambiol concentrations: 0, 0.1, and 10 mg/l. Under severe drought, a lower concentration (0.1 mg/l) of Ambiol was more effective in reducing membrane leakage in black spruce than in jack pine seedlings. The highest (10 mg/l) concentration of Ambiol was more successful in reducing membrane leakage in heat and freezing stressed jack pine than in black spruce plants. Ambiol increased black spruce collar toot diameter and stem height, root dry weight of both species and total biomass of jack pine seedlings measured after heat stress. Ambiol also increased the germination of black spruce seeds.
Women's participation in Canadian university mathematics programs

This study examines women's presence in mathematics programs in Canadian universities by analysing enrolment and degree attainment statistics. For this comparative study, women's participation in engineering and in all programs is also considered. The analysis begins by presenting current data, then trends in the growth in participation and in the enrolments versus degree attainment data are examined. Finally, the study explores some of the economic considerations affecting women's pursuit of graduate studies in mathematics in order to shed light on their continuing under-representation at the graduate level. It was found that despite the overall lower percentage of women in engineering programs, those who do enrol in engineering appear better able to progress to graduate studies in comparison to those in mathematics. The study also found that the economic rewards from graduate degrees are not as great for women as they are for men, regardless of the field of study; however, the difference between men and women's economic prospects may be more acute among mathematics graduates.
Systematic methodology of fuzzy-logic modeling and control and application to robotics

This thesis presents a systematic approach to fuzzy-logic modeling and control of complex systems. In the proposed methodology, the fuzzy model of the system and control rules are obtained from input-output data with no need of a priori information. The proposed fuzzy modeling methodology has three significant features: (i) a unified parameterized reasoning formulation; (ii) an improved fuzzy clustering algorithm, and (iii) an efficient strategy of selecting significant system inputs and their membership functions. The proposed fuzzy control structure consists of a fuzzy model of the system and robust fuzzy rules in order to ensure stability and satisfactory system performance. We develop a generalized formulation of sliding mode control for a class of nonlinear multi-input multi-output systems. This formulation has two distinguish features: (i) it is applicable to "black box" systems with no need to identify internal parameters or to assume specific properties; (ii) it is possible to design the robust control command for each system state independently while the stability and robustness of the entire system is guaranteed. We apply the generalized formulation to analysis of the stability and robustness of the proposed fuzzy-logic control system. We also derive guidelines for designing the robust fuzzy control rules. We apply the methodology to modeling and trajectory control of a four degree-of-freedom robot manipulator. Results of the proposed fuzzy-logic methodology are compared with those of a complete analytical simulation and a heuristic fuzzy modeling technique. A superior modeling performance in terms of accuracy and simplicity is obtained. The control performance is also compared with high-gain servo controllers for different trajectories, and a higher performance is achieved.
Climatic warming and the change in the frequency of extreme temperature events for nine sites in Canada

In order to study the impact of incremental climatic warming on summer extreme-temperature event frequency, the historical record of daily maximum June, July and August temperatures was analysed for nine sites across Canada. It was found that all of these sites are well modelled by a first order autoregressive process and that each site can be defined in terms of three parameters--the mean, variance and first order autocorrelation coefficient. By perturbing these parameters and simulating new temperature time series, sensitivity analyses were performed. For slight changes in the mean or variance there are significant increases in the frequency of both single days and run of two to five days with daily maximum temperatures over thresholds ranging from 25 to 35$\sp\circ$C. For example, for a 1$\sp\circ$C increase in the mean daily maximum temperature at Toronto, the frequency of a 5-day consecutive run over 30$\sp\circ$C more than doubled from 0.8% to 2%. For an increase in the mean of 3$\sp\circ$C this probability rose by over a factor of eight to 7.1%. For the same 3$\sp\circ$C increase, the probability of three consecutive days over 35$\sp\circ$C occurring at least once per summer jumps from 4.4% to 39.3%. Sites with less variability are more sensitive to an increase in the mean summer temperature than sites with higher variability. Simulations were conducted with two parameter values altered simultaneously. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
A developmental profile of reading errors in disabled and normal readers

The developmental progression of reading error types for Reading Disabled (RD) and Normally Achieving (NA) children was investigated over a three year span during grades 1, 2, and 3. A developmental trend was noted with both RD and NA groups show ing an increase in the proportion of words read correctly over the sessions; however, the RD group consistently read significantly fewer words correctly than the NA group. In evaluating the proportion of "no responses" (NR), a developmental trend was noted with both groups consistently showing a reduction of NR across the sessions, however in all cases the RD group displayed significantly more NR than the NA group. In the three error types evaluated (-1(where only 1 letter in a word is read incorrectly; consisting of vowel errors, insertions, deletions, consonant errors, and silent e errors), wild, and regularization), significant differences were detected for all error types in grades one and two, however differences were not significant by grade three. These results suggest that although reading disabled children remain significantly different from normally achieving children in percentage of words read correctly, and in no responses, by grade three, although error rates remain high there is no significant difference in error type between the two groups. This study provides no evidence of differing developmental stages of reading for reading disabled and normal readers.
Approximate MVA algorithms for solving queueing network models

As distributed systems such as Internet and Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN) become increasingly complex, the interactions among numerous components and workloads make system performance difficult to predict reliably. It is increasingly important to apply suitable performance evaluation tools to aid system analysis and design, system configuration and capacity planning, and resource management. Queueing network models are widely adopted for the performance evaluation of computer systems and communication networks. Approximate Mean Value Analysis (MVA) is a popular technique for analyzing queueing networks because of the efficiency and accuracy that it affords. In this thesis, all of the existing approximate MVA algorithms for separable queueing networks are surveyed. New numerical and complexity analysis results for existing approximate MVA algorithms are presented. The relative merits and tradeoffs of different implementations of the existing approximate MVA algorithms are examined quantitatively. Furthermore, two new approximate MVA algorithms, the Queue Line (QL) algorithm and the Fraction Line (FL) algorithm, for multiple class separable queueing networks are presented. Both the QL and FL algorithms are analyzed with respect to their computational costs and accuracies. Based on theoretical and empirical results, the QL algorithm is always more accurate than, and yet has the same computational efficiency as, the Bard-Schweitzer Proportional Estimation (PE) algorithm, the most popular approximate MVA algorithm. The FL algorithm has the same computational cost and yet yields more accurate solutions than both the QL and PE algorithms for noncongested separable queueing networks. The existence, uniqueness, and convergence properties of the solutions of these two algorithms are also investigated. The QL algorithm can replace the PE algorithm in a spectrum based on the trade-off between computational costs and accuracies of all of the approximate MVA algorithms.
Design of practical T¦2-selective RF excitation, TELEX, pulses

Traditional $T\sb2$-based imaging techniques are geared towards imaging long-$T\sb2$ species. Traditional techniques are therefore not optimal in clinical situations where the information of interest lies in the short-$T\sb2$ species. $T\sb2$-selective RF excitation (TELEX) is a technique for obtaining a $T\sb2$-based contrast which highlights short-$T\sb2$'s while suppressing long-$T\sb2$'s--opposite to traditional $T\sb2$ contrast. Potentially, TELEX offers several advantages over other short-$T\sb2$ imaging techniques. Previously, TELEX has been demonstrated qualitatively to highlight only very short-$T\sb2$'s $(T\sb2 \approx 0.001\ s).$ When applied to longer-T$\sb2$'s $(T\sb2 \ge 0.01\ s),$ TELEX becomes sensitive to $B\sb0$ non-uniformities. This restricts its application to problems in which the $T\sb2$ of interest is very short. In this thesis, TELEX is characterized quantitatively. Furthermore, a bandwidth broadening scheme is developed which reduces the $B\sb0$ sensitivity of TELEX. This permits the technique to be applied to longer-$T\sb2$'s. The capabilities and limitations of a practical implementation of TELEX are discussed.
The effect of GLP-1, glucagon-like peptide 1, on insulin sensitivity in diabetic dogs

It is unclear whether GLP-1 increases insulin sensitivity in addition to stimulating insulin secretion. We studied depancreatized dogs to eliminate GLP-1's incretin effect. Somatostatin was infused to inhibit extrapancreatic glucagon. Basal glucagon levels were restored by intraportal infusion. Basal intraportal insulin was infused to attain plasma glucose levels of $\sim$10 mM. Glucose was clamped at this level for the remainder of the experiment, which includes peripheral infusion of GLP-1 (1.5 pmol/kg.min) and insulin at either a high or low dose. In 12 paired experiments at the high insulin dose, GLP-1 infusion resulted in higher glucose requirements than controls. This was due to greater glucose utilization whereas glucose production was not further suppressed with GLP-1. FFA and glycerol also suppression was greater with GLP-1 than in controls. In 10 experiments at the low insulin dose, GLP-1 infusion did not affect glucose utilization, or FFA and glycerol suppression. Conclusion: GLP-1 potentiates insulin-stimulated glucose utilization in diabetic dogs, possibly due to GLS-1's potentiation of insulin's antilipolytic effect.
Designing an interface to optimize the reading efficiency of electronic texts

In two experiments, five ways of self-paced reading of electronic text were examined: Normal Page, rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), RSVP with a Completion Meter, Sentence-by-Sentence presentation, and Sentence-by-Sentence with a Completion Meter. Experiment 1 showed that RSVP was less efficient than the other formats. Completion Meters did not interfere with performance and were preferred. Experiment 2 tested the hypothesis that slow readers in the RSVP formats were making multiple eye-fixations per word that were responsible for their poor performance. RSVP within-sentence rates were set much faster (about 260 words per minute). RSVP resulted in the highest speed for slower readers over the other formats while Sentence-by-Sentence reading with a Completion Meter resulted in the highest comprehension across all subjects. The present results suggest that slower rates of presentation in RSVP should be achieved by increasing pauses between sentences or repeating sentences, not by decreasing the within-sentence-rate.
Small mammal habitat selection in wooded ravine cooridors and hydro rights-of-ways

Wildlife corridors have become used extensively in conservation strategies and landscape ecology. However, limited research has been conducted that either supports or refutes their ecological value. Moreover, few scientifically-based guiding principles exist for the evaluation and design of corridors, and there is a need for the development of more rigorous definitions which reflect their range of potential values for conservation. This research addressed these deficiencies by identifying the habitat variables important to five small mammal species occurring in plots situated within two examples of wildlife corridors: hydro Rights-of-ways (ROWs) and wooded ravines. Habitat analysis indicated that vegetation structure, rather than plant species composition or physical attributes, was the key factor influence species' distributions. These results will assist in the formulation of general strategies to create or improve wildlife habitat within corridors. The greater understanding of the ecological value of corridors will benefit initiatives intended to restore landscape connectivity.
Investigating the individual differences observed in the picture-word Stroop task

This study explored the individual differences observed by Smith, Spalek, Joordens, MacLeod, Oddson, & Tzelgov (1996). Smith et al. (1996) found that some subjects showed greater Stroop interference in picture naming from words compared to nonwords, while others showed the opposite pattern. In the present study, I tested whether the type of Stroop interference exhibited by an individual was predicted by their performance on any of the following measures; (1) Need for Cognition, (2) nonverbal intelligence, (3) vocabulary ability, (4) speed of reading words (both regular and irregular) and nonwords, and (5) working memory span. In addition, I tested whether the to-be-ignored words were being processed semantically by the individuals who showed greater nonword than word interference. The findings of the present experiment were that, other than a slight trend with respect to the working memory measure, none of the above measures differentiated between the two groups of individuals.