VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Search for Contact Interactions using Dijet Angular Distributions with the ATLAS Detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

The LHC, with its center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, offers the chance to investigate the fundamental constituents of matter at a higher energy scale than ever before. Using the data acquired by the ATLAS detector in the summer of 2010, two different measures of the angular distributions of dijet final states are studied and compared to Standard Model QCD expectations. Such a comparison is used to set new stringent limits on the existence of quark substructure.

Keywords: Dijet Angular Distributions
Contact Interactions
Advisor: Savard, Pierre
Family Members' Use of Private Companions in Nursing Homes: A Mixed Methods Study

Families who are dissatisfied with the nursing home care of their family member may supplement their care by hiring a private companion. Families who have the financial resources pay for extra care, while families who cannot afford a private companion receive the current standard of care. Anecdotal evidence suggests that private companion use has increased over time. However, there is no research that examines private companions. The goal of this mixed methods study was to provide empirical evidence about who private companions are, what they do, and why they are needed. Andersen and Newman’s Health Service Utilization Model was used to understand private companion use. This study used both survey research and grounded theory. A mailed survey was completed by 280 of 432 family members of nursing home residents in a Toronto nursing home, yielding a response rate of 65 percent. Grounded theory principles were used to conduct interviews with 10 family members to understand why private companions were hired. Almost two-thirds of nursing home residents had a private companion. Family members reported that they paid about $475 per week for private companions who provided about 40 hours of care per week. Private companions were mostly women and immigrants. Private companions performed many activities including assisting with activities of daily living, toileting, feeding, escorting to activities, and providing social support. In the survey, family members reported hiring a private companion for reasons related to families’ needs (e.g. quality of care concerns), residents’ needs (e.g. deteriorating health); and staff recommendations. The family members reiterated these reasons in the interviews. Quality of care was the overarching theme that captured the reason for private companion use, which encompassed the following themes: inadequate staffing, unmet residents’ needs, overburdened family members, and suboptimal nursing home environment. The qualitative data emphasized the importance of building relationships with nursing home residents. The predictors of private companion use in the multivariate analysis were longer duration of nursing home stay, higher resident dependency, and family members’ concerns with quality of care. This research is among the first to study private companions, and has implications for research, policy, and practice.

Keywords: Private Companions
Nursing Homes
Quality of Care
Caregiving
Advisor: McDonald, Lynn
Otherworld - Giving Applications a Chance to Survive OS Kernel Crashes

The default behavior of all commodity operating systems today is to restart the system when a critical error is encountered in the kernel. This terminates all running applications with an attendant loss of "work in progress" that is non-persistent. Our thesis is that an operating system kernel is simply a component of a larger software system, which is logically well isolated from other components, such as applications, and therefore it should be possible to reboot the kernel without terminating everything else running on the same system. In order to prove this thesis, we designed and implemented a new mechanism, called Otherworld, that microreboots the operating system kernel when a critical error is encountered in the kernel, and it does so without clobbering the state of the running applications. After the kernel microreboot, Otherworld attempts to resurrect the applications that were running at the time of failure. It does so by restoring the application memory spaces, open files and other resources. In the default case it then continues executing the processes from the point at which they were interrupted by the failure. Optionally, applications can have user-level recovery procedures registered with the kernel, in which case Otherworld passes control to these procedures after having restored their process state. Recovery procedures might check the integrity of application data and restore resources Otherworld was not able to restore. We implemented Otherworld in Linux, but we believe that the technique can be applied to all commodity operating systems. In an extensive set of experiments on real-world applications (MySQL, Apache/PHP, Joe, vi), we show that Otherworld is capable of successfully microrebooting the kernel and restoring the applications in over 97\% of the cases. In the default case, Otherworld adds negligible overhead to normal execution. In an enhanced mode, Otherworld can provide extra application memory protection with overhead of between 4% and 12%.

Keywords: Operating Systems
Reliabiltiy
Fault Tolerance
Microreboot
Advisor: Stumm, Michael
The Managerial Roles of Academic Deans in Ontario

This thesis examines the managerial roles of the academic deans in Canadian universities, particularly in the province of Ontario. It is important to study the roles of the academic deans since they are pivotal to any higher education institution’s success. Research indicates that organizational performances are very much influenced by what happens in the middle of organizations rather than at the top. (Currie and Procter, 2005) As middle managers, deans are compelled to manage both people and results, while providing vital links to the organization when translating top-level directives of the upper management – president, vice-president academic etc. - into operational plans that need to be understood and implemented by the departmental chairs and program coordinators. Understanding the roles of the academic deans within the context of new public management ideologies will help to increase our understanding about how universities are run and what challenges are presently being faced. The study involved participants from 15 Ontario universities. An online survey has been used in order to collect the data. The response rate was 39%, 41 academic deans out of 105 provided their input between May –July 2009. The data collected was subjected to a quantitative analysis which included descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The findings confirmed the fact that the role of the academic dean has become more managerial in nature as Canadian universities are moving more towards a managed professional public organization model.

Keywords: academic dean
managerial role
Advisor: Sá, Creso
On a Universal Finite Type Invariant of Knotted Trivalent Graphs

Knot theory is not generally considered an algebraic subject, due to the fact that knots don’t have much algebraic structure: there are a few operations defined on them (such as connected sum and cabling), but these don’t nearly make the space of knots finitely generated. In this thesis, following an idea of Dror Bar-Natan’s, we develop an algebraic setting for knot theory by considering the larger, richer space of knotted trivalent graphs (KTGs), which includes knots and links. KTGs along with standard operations defined on them form a finitely generated algebraic structure, in which many topological knot properties are definable using simple formulas. Thus, a homomorphic invariant of KTGs provides an algebraic way to study knots. We present a construction for such an invariant. The starting point is extending the Kontsevich integral of knots to KTGs. This was first done in a series of papers by Le, Murakami, Murakami and Ohtsuki in the late 90’s using the theory of associators. We present an elementary construction building on Kontsevich’s original definition, and discuss the homomorphicity properties of the resulting invariant, which turns out to be homomorphic with respect to almost all of the KTG operations except for one, called “edge unzip”. Unfortunately, edge unzip is crucial for finite generation, and we prove that in fact no universal finite type invariant of KTGs can intertwine all the standard operations at once. To fix this, we present an alternative construction of the space of KTGs on which a homomorphic universal finite type invariant exists. This space retains ii all the good properties of the original KTGs: it is finitely generated, includes knots, and is closely related to Drinfel’d associators. The thesis is based on two articles, one published [Da] and one preprint [BD1], the second one joint with Dror Bar-Natan.

Keywords: finite type invariants
knotted trivalent graphs
Kotsevich integral
Drinfeld associator
Advisor: Bar-Natan, Dror
Gender and Occupational Riskiness

In this thesis I investigate the relationship between the gender distribution across industries and occupations and the incidence and consequences of displacement. First, I provide empirical evidence to support the idea that women self-select into less risky industries and occupations, that is industries and occupations with lower displacement rates and lower earnings growth. Using data from the Displaced Worker Survey (1984-2002), the corresponding Annual Demographic Supplement to the March Current Population Survey, and the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, I find that, even though women have a lower incidence of displacement in the aggregate, they are more likely to get displaced at the one-digit industry and occupation level than men. Displacement is also more costly for women, in terms of both employment and monetary consequences, which suggests that women’s choice of safer sectors could be an insurance mechanism against the risk of displacement and its costly consequences. I then construct a dynamic occupational choice model in the spirit of Keane and Wolpin (1997), in which occupation(industry) groups differ not only in terms of the rate of human capital accumulation, but also in the risk and associated cost of displacement, as well as in the value of the non-monetary utility component. I calibrate the model for men and perform a number of counterfactual experiments for women. Quantitative results suggest that differences in displacement probabilities, together with differences in re-employment probabilities, and in human capital penalty rates at displacement explain up to 15% of the gender occupational segregation, and up to 10% of the gender industry segregation. Allowing women to also have an extra preference for non-employment explains in a proportion of 60% why women avoid high risk occupations, that is occupations with higher displacement risk, higher earnings growth and higher human capital depreciation (or alternatively, lower human capital transferability).

Keywords: gender
displacement
occupational choice
Advisor: Kambourov, Gueorgui
Siow, Aloysius
Structural Evolution of Quiescent Galaxies from the Peak of the Cosmic Star Formation Epoch

The main focus of this thesis is the investigation of an interesting new population of massive passively evolving galaxies found at high redshifts. We use a sample of these galaxies at redshifts 1<z<2 drawn from the Gemini Deep Deep Survey sample and measure their structural parameters based on the Hubble Space Telescope imaging in the rest frame visible and ultraviolet wavelength range. Our analysis shows that a fraction of these systems are very compact, with effective radii of R_e<1 kpc, even when observed in rest frame visible light. The average size of these objects is 2-5 times smaller than the typical size of an early-type galaxy of similar mass found locally. We combine the results from our morphological analysis with data from published spectroscopic samples of quiescent systems with known structural parameters. Analysis of these data for galaxies over the redshift range 0<z<2.5 shows that passively evolving galaxies are continuously and gradually growing in size. We also find smooth evolution of the stellar mass density within the central kiloparsec of these systems. The stellar mass density grows by a factor of 3 from z=0 to z~2.5. None of the models proposed to drive the structural evolution of early-type objects can explain all the observed aspects of this process. Because these massive compact galaxies have such small angular sizes, future studies of these systems will benefit from adaptive optics. In order to compile a large statistical sample of these objects suitable for adaptive optics follow-up, we first need to find a large number of targets with nearby bright natural guide stars. As a first step in this process, we describe the properties of a set of one square degree regions of the sky we have located that have a rare combination of high stellar surface density and low levels of extinction. We demonstrate that the adaptive optics-related properties of these fields are in some cases orders of magnitude better than those of existing deep fields.

Keywords: extragalactic astronomy
galaxy evolution
elliptical galaxies
fundamental parameters
astronomical techniques
astronomical instrumentation
astrophysical data
Advisor: Abraham, Roberto
Understanding Synthetic Speech and Language Processing of Students with and without a Reading Disability

To help circumvent reading disability (RD) decoding difficulty, Text-To-Speech (TTS) software can be used to present written language audibly. Although TTS software is currently being used to help RD students, there is a lack of empirically supported literature to inform developers and users of TTS software on best practices. This dissertation investigated two methods to determine whether they increase the effectiveness of TTS for RD and typically-developing students. The first method compared low and high quality TTS voices in regards to understanding. TTS voice quality was identified by having 40 university students listen to and rate the quality of 10 commonly used TTS voices and 2 human voices. Three voices were chosen for the subsequent study based on the ratings; one low quality TTS, one high quality TTS, and one natural voice (Microsoft Mary, AT&T Crystal, and Susan, respectively). Understanding was assessed with tests of intelligibility and comprehensibility. Forty-five grade 6 to 8 students who were identified as having a RD were compared to same-age typically-developing peers. Results showed high quality TTS and natural voice were more intelligible than the low quality TTS voice, and high quality TTS voice resulted in higher comprehensibility scores than low quality TTS and natural voice. The second method investigated whether it is possible to increase a student’s comprehension when using TTS by modifying the presentation style of the TTS voice. The presentation style was manipulated in two ways: varying the speed at which the TTS presented the materials (120, 150, 180 words per minute) and the presence of pauses varied (no pauses inserted, random pauses inserted, or 500 millisecond pauses at the end of noun phrases). Due to a floor effect on the comprehension of the texts the expected results were not obtained. A follow up analysis compared the participants’ prosodic sensitivity skills based on whether they had a specific language impairment, (SLI) a reading impairment (RI), or were typically-developing. Results suggested that SLI has significantly less auditory working memory then RI impacting their auditory processing. Recommendations for future research and the use of TTS based on different learning profiles are provided.

Keywords: Text-To-Speech
Reading Disability
Assitive Technology
Learning Disabilities
Advisor: Geva, Esther
Identification and Analysis of the Folding Determinants of Membrane Proteins

Membrane proteins are responsible for a variety of key cellular functions including transport of essential substrates across the membrane, signal transduction, and maintenance of cellular morphology. However, given the size and high hydrophobicity of membrane proteins, along with demanding expression and solubilization protocols that often preclude biophysical studies, novel approaches must be devised for studies of their structure and function. This thesis addresses these issues through several sets of inter-related experiments. We first examine sequence motifs directing -helix packing, wherein the determinants of glycophorin A (GpA) dimerization were identified via TOXCAT assay and the evaluation of GpA-derived peptides. We found that (i) conservative mutations can have significant effects on the oligomerization of glycophorin A; and (ii) residues that introduce more efficiently packed structures that are poorly solvated by lipid leads to improved transmembrane segment dimerization. In a further study, we inquired into the criteria for selection of membrane-spanning -helices by cellular machinery through investigation of hydrophobic helical segments (termed -helices) that we identified in soluble proteins. We found that the number and location of charged residues in a given hydrophobic helix are related to their insertion propensity as membrane-spanning segments. When we applied this criterion to -helices in their intact protein structures, we successfully determined the extent of -helix mutations necessary to convert a soluble protein, in part, to a membrane-inserted protein. Finally, using a three-transmembrane segment construct from the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), we performed experiments aimed at optimizing criteria for protein overexpression, including construct design, choice of expression system, growth media, and expression temperature. The overall findings are interpreted in terms of progress towards defining the fundamental characteristics of membrane-spanning -helices - from their primary amino acid sequence to the helix-helix interactions they display in the assembly of biologically-functional membrane protein structures.

Keywords: membrane proteins
folding
Advisor: Deber, Charles M.
Near-infrared Characterization of the Atmospheres of Alien Worlds

In this thesis I present near-infrared detections of the thermal emission of a number of hot Jupiters and likely transit depth differences from different wavelength observations of a super-Earth. I have pioneered ``Staring Mode'' using the Wide-field Infrared Camera on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope to achieve the most accurate photometry to-date in the near-infrared from the ground. I also discuss avenues that should allow one to achieve even more accurate photometry in the future. Using WIRCam on CFHT my collaborators and I have detected the thermal emission of the following hot Jupiters: TrES-2b and TrES-3b in Ks-band, WASP-12b in the J, H \& Ks-bands, and WASP-3b in the Ks-band on two occasions. Near-infrared detections of the thermal emission of hot Jupiters are important, because the majority of these planets' blackbodies peak in this wavelength range; near-infrared detections allow us to obtain the most model-independent constraints on these planets' atmospheric characteristics, their temperature-pressure profiles with depth and an estimate of their bolometric luminosities. With these detections we are able to answer such questions as: how efficiently these planets redistribute heat to their nightsides, if they're being inflated by tidal heating, whether there's any evidence that one of these planets is precessing, and whether another experiences extreme weather and violent storms? My collaborators and I have also observed several transits of the super-Earth GJ 1214b. We find a deeper transit depth in one of our near-infrared bands than the other. This is likely indicative of a spectral absorption feature. For the differences in the transit depth to be as large as we observed, the atmosphere of GJ 1214b must have a large scale height, low mean molecular weight and thus have a hydrogen/helium dominated atmosphere. Given that other researchers have not found similar transit depth differences, we also discuss the most likely atmospheric makeup for this planet that results from a combination of all the observations to date. Lastly, by searching for long-term linear trends in radial velocity data, I constrain the theory that most hot Jupiters migrated to their present positions via the Kozai mechanism with tidal heating.

Keywords: Extrasolar Planets
Eclipses
Transits
Advisor: Murray, Norman
Jayawardhana, Ray
Heteroatom-directed Olefin Hydroacylation

Rhodium-catalyzed hydroacylation is a powerful and atom-economical method for synthesizing ketones from aldehydes and olefins. Despite this, a narrow scope of reactive substrates has limited the utility and broad application of this transformation. Efforts towards the development of new classes of reactive substrates have focused on the use of oxygen- and sulfur-containing olefins, which have enabled various modes of reactivity and thus allowed access to novel types of hydroacylation products. In addition to reactivity, a key to the success of these transformations is the control of regio-, stereo-, and chemoselectivity. In combination with substrate structure, strategies in enantioselective catalysis and metal-organic cooperative catalysis have been applied to achieve requisite reactivity and selectivity when required. A variety of products, such as medium-sized heterocycles, branched sulfur-containing and β-hydroxy ketones, and ketones bearing quaternary carbon centres have been synthesized via hydroacylation using these strategies. A method for preparing polyelectrolyte-stabilized palladium nanoparticles and their use in Suzuki coupling reactions have also been developed.

Keywords: Hydroacylation
Catalysis
Rhodium
Asymmetric Catalysis
Advisor: Dong, Vy Maria