VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
CMOS biosensors

Two biosensor chips, realized in standard 0.18μm CMOS, are presented with test results using biological analytes. The electrochemical biosensor, consisting of a 3×3 array of three-electrode sensing elements, occupies 1.4mm2, and can be reconfigured dynamically, via on-chip register, to perform: impedance spectroscopy, amperometric and potentiometric analysis. The design follows concepts previously published, but uses new transistor sizing and placement. Impedance spectroscopy test results are presented for the protein linker BSA; previous work is extended by presenting test results for different size on-chip aluminum-alloy electrodes offering an effective approach to detect different concentrations. The second design, the SEPTIC Detector, detects ions that flood out from a targeted bacterial cell wall when specific bacteriophages are applied. The 1.1mm2 chip is the first to confirm the efficacy of CMOS and aluminum alloy electrodes spaced to create a 0.46μm×10μm×0.9μm trench. Test results confirm identification of E. coli W3110 bacteria cells using bacteriophage λ, within 160sec.
Horizontal application of fundamental rights in India

This paper is concerned with the horizontal application of constitutional guarantees, that is, application of constitutional guarantees to private law. It outlines and analyses the approaches taken in India, Germany, Canada, United States and South Africa and argues against approaches to horizontalisation that disregard the public/private divide. The argument is based on zones of private autonomy and the distinct nature of the practice of private law; arguing that the practice itself is categorically distinct from that of public law and operates according to its own rules which are necessary for the practice to exist. Accordingly, it argues that constitutional values may help develop private law; however, the development must be in accordance with the nature of the practice. Use is made of H.L.A. Hart's criticism of Bentham's imperative theory of law to distinguish between private action and State action; and of Professor Ernest J. Weinrib's work to describe the essential nature of private law practices.

Keywords: Human rights, India
Civil rights, India
Understanding gender bias in assessment and evaluation practices in science education

The under-representation of females in the scientific community in general and in school science in particular has been noted for many years. Every year new studies bring up-to-date statistics and reveal complex aspects of how different factors in society and school system contribute to this problem. This thesis investigates an important and under-researched area of gender bias in science education. First, through a literature review it illuminates the specific facets and mechanisms through which gender bias enters science assessment. Second, it develops an evaluative framework which is subsequently used to review a typical new non-commercial science assessment battery developed for students in grades one to eight.

Keywords: Sex discrimination in education
Women in science
Sex discrimination against women
Science, Study and teaching
Women, Education (Higher)
Facilitating school change: a case study of reflection on practice

"This dissertation is the product and process of my reflection on a recent renewal project of a school's administrative system. I evaluated how I led the change process and why I led it the way I did. The purpose of the study was to investigate how my mindset influenced the change process and then was reconstructed through reflection on the change process. To achieve this, I defined three analytical categories or dimensions for a mindset corresponding to the three levels of change: personal, interpersonal, and organizational. I conducted my dissertation as a qualitative case study"--Extract from the abstract.

Keywords: School management and organization
The suitability of core French for recently arrived English as a second language adolescent immigrants

In Ontario, recently arrived English as a second language (ESL) immigrant students are frequently excluded from participating in the Grade 9 core French program, which is obligatory in principle for all secondary school students. I designed a mixed-method study to explore whether this practice, where it occurs, is well founded. First, through a survey of the secondary principals and guidance heads of a large urban southern Ontario school board, I examined the present practices of inclusion of ESL students in core French. Second, I compared the French proficiency of three, groups of secondary students: recently arrived ESL adolescents, multilingual Canadian-born students and unilingual Canadian-born students. Third, this study examined the contributions the ESL participants brought to the French-learning context by means of participant journals, participant and parental interviews. The survey of the principals and guidance heads revealed that French was considered an optional course for ESL students. The French proficiency measures, however, demonstrated the ESL students' ability to be successful in core French. French proficiency was measured using a multi-skills test consisting of a multiple choice listening test, three reading tasks, two writing tasks, a dictation and three oral tasks. The ESL group outperformed the other groups in one writing task and in both the reading and listening test components. They also outperformed the unilingual group on one section of the speaking test and the multilingual group on another section of the speaking component. There were no significant differences found among the groups for the other test components: the dictation, the second writing section or the final speaking component. The qualitative findings reveal that the ESL participants were confident in their ability to learn French. This confidence was founded in their prior successful language-learning experiences. Moreover, the ESL participants expressed satisfaction in their progress in learning French after one semester of study. Their positive affect was grounded in their view of multilingualism that tolerates and celebrates different levels of competence in multiple languages. In addition, they attributed value to learning French as one of the official languages of Canada.
Co-expression of human kallikreins 2 and 3 in prostate and breast cancer: clinical utility and mechanisms of steroid hormonal regulation

KLK2, encoding for human glandular kallikrein (hK2), and KLK3, encoding for prostate specific antigen (PSA/hK3), are members of the human kallikrein gene family, a subgroup of serine proteases, located on chromosome 19q13.4. The two kallikreins share striking similarities regarding structure, tissue localisation, regulation, as well as a close physiological relationship, since hK2 has been shown to cleave and activate proPSA in vitro. Elevated serum PSA level is a valuable clinical marker for management and monitoring of prostate cancer. However, it cannot always distinguish efficiently between benign and malignant prostatic disease. We examined the potential clinical utility of hK2 in the discrimination between benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer, in patients with moderately elevated PSA levels. Our results showed that the hK2/free PSA ratio could enhance significantly the value of the free/total PSA ratio, which is currently used for the discrimination between the two diseases. We also showed that PSA and hK2 levels correlate and are higher in benign than in malignant prostatic tissue, indicating that the two kallikreins are regulated by similar mechanisms. PSA has also been detected in the female breast tissue, both healthy and cancerous. We hypothesised that hK2 was also present in female breast secretions and this was verified by its detection in milk from lactating women, nipple aspirate and breast cyst fluid. Previous studies had shown that KLK3 is under steroid hormonal regulation in breast cancer cell lines. We found that KLK2 and KLK3 were differentially expressed in breast cancer in vitro after androgen stimulation. We investigated possible mechanisms that might account for those differences and we concluded that PSA and hK2 production is dependent upon an intact androgen receptor pathway, which requires the presence of specific transcriptional cofactors. This finding suggests that breast tumour screening on the level of co-factors may offer valuable insight into the complexity of signalling by androgens in breast cancer.
Endogenously produced protein regulators provide feedback signals that regulate the ex vivo expansion of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells

The absence of effective strategies for the ex vivo expansion of human blood (hematopoietic) stem cells (HSCs) limits the development of many stem cell-based therapies. The focus of this study was to investigate in vitro processes responsible for regulating HSC proliferation and to utilize this information in the design of a robust methodology for expanding HSCs. Herein we show the existence of a negative feedback control mechanism whereby differentiated blood cells secrete soluble factors that limit HSC expansion. We demonstrate that global culture manipulation strategies including subpopulation selection and media dilution/exchange modulate this feedback mechanism to enable stem cell expansion. Using this approach, we were able to generate increased numbers of long term culture-initiating cells (LTC-ICs; 14.6-fold), rapid non-obese diabetic/severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) repopulating cells (R-SRCs; 12.1-fold), and long-term NOD/SCID repopulating cells (LT-SRCs; 5.2-fold), compared with input; outputs significantly higher than those obtained in unmanipulated control cultures. In order to enable this culture methodology for therapeutic applications, a closed-system bioprocess was designed which incorporated in-line subpopulation selection and media dilution/exchange processes. Experiments showed that the bioprocess was able to expand colony forming cells (CFCs), LTC-ICs and LT-SRCs in a manner consistent with results using standard tissue culture dishes. Studies to optimize the bioprocess operating conditions were also performed. In these studies it was found that non-specific cell loss, which occurred during the subpopulation selection step, could be decreased by increasing flow rate through the selection element. The ability to decrease cell loss is important since it should facilitate higher expansions of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells within the bioprocess. Furthermore, optimization of the subpopulation selection process through the identification of specific inhibitory factor secreting cells may further augment the measured expansions. To initiate this goal, the gel microdrop (GMD) assay was developed as a means to measure protein secretion from individual cells in the context of cell surface phenotype. The development and use of the GMD assay represents the first step in the design of a second generation bioprocess which should have an even greater capacity for the ex vivo expansion of HSCs.
Cranial anatomy of Ennatosaurus tecton (Synapsida: Caseidae) from the Middle Permian of Russia, and the evolutionary relationships of Caseidae

The cranial anatomy of the Russian caseid Ennatosaurus tecton is described in detail. Three autapomorphies distinguish E. tecton from other caseids: a broad anterior ramus of the jugal, a large contribution of the frontal to the dorsal orbital margin, and a relatively narrow parasphenoid body. Phylogenetic analysis of Caseidae yields a single most parsimonious tree. The obtained topology posits Ennatosaurus tecton as the sister taxon to the monophyletic clade of the North American caseids Angelosaurus dolani and Cotylorhynchus romeri. Oromycter dolesorum from the Richards Spur locality becomes the most basal member of Caseidae, replacing Casea broilii. In addition, the genus Casea is paraphyletic, whereby C. rutena forms the sister taxon to the clade containing E. tecton, C. romeri, and A. dolani. The current topology reveals the pattern of dental complexity in terms of the number of apical cuspules does not contain a phylogenetic signal and convergently acquired tooth morphologies occur between some caseid taxa.
Minority within a minority: black Francophones of Ontario and the dynamics of power and resistance

This study examines the dynamics of power and resistance within Francophone communities in Ontario/Canada. It investigates the situation of Black Francophone Africans and Haitians who constitute a racial minority situated within the official linguistic minority, in the distribution of economic and political resources that are attributed by the Canadian State to Francophones as one of its two official linguistic minorities. It also identifies various resistance strategies Black Francophones invent in order to enter power structures. An ethnographic approach conducted through qualitative methods enabled me to capture the connectedness between discourse and social action. I was also able to conceptualize how power relations are performed by examining them across the lenses of race, gender and language. This work is situated in the history of slavery and colonialism, in the migration of Africans and Haitians within Francophone space, and in the contribution of immigrants to Canadian society. My study affirms the reproduction of dominance by white Francophones towards Black Francophones. It also reveals that these Blacks endure forms of racism that other racialized groups encounter in Canada. These practices unveil connections and similarities between the State and Francophone institutions. My work stresses the contradiction represented by the existence of racism in Western societies like Canada that are guided by the liberal democracy principles. The Black Francophone struggle informs us that the Canadian project of official bilingualism, that is based on the myth of the two founding peoples and its protection for linguistic minorities, continues to support ideologies of a predominantly white national project. The vigorous activism of Black Francophones reinforces the urgency of establishing a more inclusive Francophonie within a more equitable society. Drawing on Antiracism, Black Feminism and Discourse Analysis, my thesis pinpoints the racism that Black Francophones face coming from the Canadian State and Francophone mainstream institutions. I name State racism as a factor that resolves in disrupting the economic development of the Black Francophone community. I portray specific practices that explain Francophone mainstream institutional racism. I also show that the actions and counter-hegemonic discourses taken by Black Francophones are situated in the discourse of resistance and hold specific significance in terms of the development of the Black Francophone community.

Keywords: French-Canadians, Social conditions
French-Canadians, Ontario
Haitians, Social conditions
Haitians, Ontario
Blacks, Social conditions
Blacks, Ontario
Racism, Ontario
What are the values shaping university quality assurance?

This thesis identifies the core ideals of the university, and its expected role within the nation state and the global community, in order to propose necessary characteristics of an international quality assurance standard. Today most discussions of quality assurance overlook the need to define explicitly the core values of the university that characterize, underlie, and inform notions of academic quality. Deeply held notions of the university—its historical foundation, its interaction with the nation state, and its ideals of knowledge—continue to shape its identity and interaction in the global economy. The methodological approach to this thesis, the "problem-approach", is rooted in the comparative education scholarship of Brian Holmes and Ruth Hayhoe. Textual analysis focuses on values that support national/indigenous knowledge and forms of the university. Policy initiatives of the World Bank, UNESCO, and the OECD are evaluated to determine which practices best support an inclusive international quality assurance standard.
The role of Ikaros in the pituitary

Pituitary cell differentiation follows a highly specific pattern and temporal sequence of events. Analysis of FGFR4, a key receptor mutated in pituitary adenomas, yielded promoter regulation by the hematopoietic transcription factor Ikaros (Ik). The pituitaries of homozygote Ik null mice (C-/- ), heterozygotes (C+/- ) and wild-type (C+/+) littermates were examined using immunohistochemistry and morphometry. During embryogenesis, the pituitaries of C+/- and C-/- mice revealed developmental delay. Normal cell types do develop, however Ik mutant mice exhibit a marked reduction in pituitary mass with a loss in somatotrope and melanocorticotrope populations. Also, Ik C-/- mice suffer from a high incidence of mortality and display a dwarf phenotype with reduced circulating IGF-I and corticosterone. Ik C+/- mice apparently have normal growth but also have reduced IGF-I and corticosterone levels. The dwarf phenotype and early mortality of C-/- mice were rescued by hormone treatment. The striking pituitary changes indicate a functional role for Ik in normal pituitary development.
CMB angular power spectra and cosmological implications from the 2003 LDB flight of the BOOMERANG telescope

In January 2003 the BOOMERANG telescope completed a second successful flight over the Antarctic continent. In this thesis an overview of the BOOMERANG instrument is given, with emphasis on the pointing system. The analysis of the BOOMERANG 2003 (B03) flight data from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) maps to angular power spectra is also described. The final B03 temperature angular power spectrum represents the most precise intermediate scale measurement of CMB temperature anisotropy to date. The final polarization power spectrum represents a sim;5sigma detection in the ell; = 100 to ell; = 1000 multipole range. The Polarization Sensitive Bolometers (PSBs) used in B03 are the first of their kind and will be used in the High Frequency Instrument (HFI) on the Planck Surveyor satellite. The successful B03 CMB anisotropy measurements using PSBs represents a critical first step for the Planck satellite mission. The B03 data alone constrains the parameters of the standard Lambda;CDM model---a Universe in which Cold Dark Matter and a cosmological constant, Lambda;, are the dominant energy components---remarkably well and is consistent with constraints from a multi-experiment combined CMB data set (hereafter CMBall). Several extensions to the standard model are tested using both the CMBall data set and a combined CMBall + Large Scale Structure (LSS) data set. The resulting constraints from the CMBall + LSS data set, representing the most up-to-date parameter analysis, are: slight evidence (both
Insulin synthesis in the brain

There is evidence that in addition to the pancreas, the brain also synthesizes insulin. Two clonal immortalized hypothalamic cell lines, N-39 and N-46, express insulin 2 (Ins2). 16.7 mM glucose stimulates Ins2 mRNA expression in N-39 cells. Forskolin and exendin-4 induce a biphasic Ins2 mRNA response in N-39 cells, while 17beta-estradiol does not significantly alter Ins2 mRNA levels. Using transient transfections, we have shown that mouse Ins2 -110/+183 luciferase construct contains stimulatory sequences in N-39 and N-46 cells, while there are repressor regions at more upstream base pairs. This pattern of activity is not seen in the MIN6 beta cell line. Exendin-4 does not alter the activity of mouse Ins2 promoter 5' regulatory regions from -1004 to + 183 base pairs in N-39 cells. These studies indicate that nutrients and hormones regulate the expression of hypothalamic insulin, and the insulin cis-regulatory regions differ between the pancreas and the hypothalamus.
American incunabula: 'Grotesque Genesis' and the genealogical genre. One strand in the modern American novel

This dissertation deploys two locations of culture--the Book of Genesis, and the manifold, mischievous tensions of the grotesque mode--as a means to theorize the convergence of origins and archives, and of beginnings and begettings, in a representative series of American 'foundational fictions.' The selected texts-- Os Sertões (Euclides da Cunha, 1902), Absalom, Absalom! (William Faulkner, 1936), Cien años de soledad (Gabriel García Márquez, 1967), The Invention of the World (Jack Hodgins, 1977), and Texaco (Patrick Chamoiseau, 1992)--are synoptic creation stories of colonial and Creole cultures in the Americas. These are regional synecdoches founded upon a utopian design and written in an incessantly apocalyptic mode, with the retrospective glance of a totalizing history. Arising from a meditation on cultural autochthony and identity, behind each stands the Bible as familiar or ideal form.
Oscar Wilde and the moral imagination

The complex relationship between Oscar Wilde's celebrity and his critical reception has, for the past century, been distinctly marked by a moral dimension. The publication history of Wilde's writings, from his earliest volume Poems (1881) to the posthumous De Profundis (1905) registers the impact of a series of morally-inflected Wilde myths on his position in the literary marketplace. "Oscar Wilde and the Moral Imagination" traces the development of Wilde's contested literary reputation from its origins in the popular culture of the aesthetic movement to his relegation to the margins of literary culture in the climate of moral hysteria that followed his imprisonment for homosexual acts in 1895. Emphasizing textual and material features in the publication history of Wilde's writings, I argue that the multiple and frequently contradictory ethical critiques that attended Wilde's aesthetic theories were subject to the demands of different markets and publishing formats, and were designed to appeal to a variety of audiences as he actively cultivated a reception in moral terms. With the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890-91) and the play Salome (1894), for instance, texts that thematize their own decadence, Wilde wrote with a shrewd awareness of his audience's moral expectations. As an ethical polemicist and celebrity artist, Oscar Wilde's engagement with his audiences was, to use two of his own terms, neither pure nor simple, as he negotiated his way through a culture industry whose commercialism he criticized, despite being profoundly implicated in it.
Design and construction of a genetic clocked set-reset latch

The design and implementation of a synthetic genetic circuit analogous to a clocked Set-Reset latch is presented. The circuit consists of a pair of co-repressing transcription factors comprising a switch, and two input promoters used to change the state of the switch. The inputs are gated using terminator structures. The terminator activities are modulated by the intracellular level of an antitermination protein acting as the system clock. Deterministic and stochastic simulation models were used to predict the circuit's behaviour. The circuit was cloned into a pair of plasmids used to transform Escherichia coli bacteria. The circuit behaviour was monitored using the fluorescence signal from a green fluorescent protein that indicated the current latch state. Experimental characterization of the circuit did not confirm that the circuit met the design criteria. Plasmid copy number of the circuit was found to have a significant effect on latch state stability.