VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Development of Smart Textile Systems for Electrophysiological Monitoring

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide. Assessments of cardiac electrical signals, such as variations in cardiac rhythm or abnormalities in wave form, allow for diagnoses of cardiac disease states. Conventionally, the cardiac electrical signals are acquired using gel electrodes, part of electrocardiogram (ECG) assessment. Gel electrodes have limitations for long-term use due to durability issues and possible skin irritations. This presents a need for an alternative to gel electrodes that addresses the limitations for long-term ECG measurements such as a holter system, while providing comparable clinical applicability and accuracy.Throughout human history, textiles have been a ubiquitous technology. Their pervasive nature makes them a promising medium as a replacement for gel electrodes. This can be achieved through the introduction of materials that can capture electrical signals from the body. These materials can be introduced through techniques of lamination on textiles or as a fiber/yarn in the textile production process. In this thesis a variety of materials from the literature were selected and deployed using textile lamination and knitting, to create textile-based electrodes for electrophysiological signal acquisition. The textile-based electrodes were electrically characterized and compared to gel electrodes. The textile electrodes were further classified for their performance in the acquisition of electrophysiological signals, such as electrocardiogram (ECG) and electromyogram (EMG). In the subsequent phase of this thesis textile form factors were designed and developed, that incorporated the textile-based electrodes best suited for ECG and EMG acquisition. The form factors were selected for use cases in, a) ECG: continuous monitoring through an underwear form factor for CVD, and b) EMG: continuous monitoring through a sleeve form factor for prosthetic control. Successful demonstrations are presented of the developed textile form factors, and the custom algorithms needed for the analysis of acquired electrophysiological signals from the textile-based electrodes. In conclusion, a framework for the design, development, testing and validation of textile based electrophysiological systems is presented. These guidelines and best practices should pave the way for future developments in this field.

Keywords: Cardiovascular Disease
Electrocardiogram
Electromyogram
Electrophysiology
Remote Patient Monitoring
Smart Textiles
Advisor: Popovic, Milos R
The Witness-Scholars of the Holocaust and Their Righteous Rescue Narratives (late 1970s – early 1990s)

This dissertation analyzes narratives of rescue during the Holocaust that coalesced between the late 1970s and early 1990s. During this time, Holocaust discourse moved beyond a narrow focus on the perpetrators and survivors of concentration camps and killing centers, as scholars and writers began to incorporate a more diverse range of experiences in their work. Amidst this transition, the subfield of “rescue studies” developed in a complicated negotiation across geographic, religious, and cultural boundaries, between the people who constructed the subfield and their prospective audiences. “Righteous rescue” was one of the first analytical tools that elicited a range of lessons from the Holocaust, beyond sheer evil and destruction. The rise of narratives of righteous rescue reflected the efforts of individual scholars and survivors to develop new frameworks and storytelling devices in order to wrest some meaning, or at least some sort of order, from the catastrophe. The focus of this dissertation is on four people whose works constituted the core of the early righteous rescue discourse: Philip Hallie, Nechama Tec, Samuel Oliner, and Mordecai Paldiel. All four were scholars of the Holocaust whose research was closely connected to their wartime experiences. Trained in Philosophy, Sociology, and Religion, they introduced tools from their respective fields to understand what they called “goodness.” In the process, they both expanded the scope of Holocaust remembrance and revised theories and practices in their home disciplines. While investigating other people’s rescue stories, they identified themselves as witnesses of goodness, testifying to their own experiences of rescue during the Holocaust. The moral core of the righteous rescue narratives raises questions about the ethics of examining rescue. All four witness-scholars placed storytelling at the center of their writing, emphasizing the power of real stories in shaping collective memories of the past. This method contributed to the stratification of righteous rescue literature, as the author, narrator, and character each spoke in a different voice. At the same time, the process of turning personal stories into moral tales tested the authors’ ability to respect the witnesses’ self-understanding while translating their experiences into universal lessons. Situating these questions about the ethics of storytelling at the forefront of analysis, this dissertation traces the evolution of the four witness-scholars’ righteous rescue literature through changing chronological, national, and international contexts. Loosely connected, their narrative trajectories point to the multiple ways in which the scholars’ personal experiences during the Holocaust intertwined with their research in the living present.

Keywords: Jewish-Christian relationship
Narrative identity
Rescue altruism
Research interview ethics
Scholar's autobiography
Transcultural Holocaust memory
Advisor: Lahusen, Thomas TL
Additive Manufacturing Methods to Make High-Heat-Flux Heat Sinks

Cold plates with internal flow passages were made by placing 3D printed polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) parts in channels machined in the plates, spraying metal over the polymer, and then dissolving the polymer. Aluminum and copper plates with coolant channels were made and found to have significantly lower thermal resistances than commercial cold plates. Properties for a sprayed metal layer to adhere to a polymer substrate were identified, including substrate roughness, substrate temperature during spraying and the thermal coefficients of expansion of the metal and polymer. Surface features such as pin fins and channels were deposited directly on heat-generating surfaces using thermal spray deposition. Tests were done by cooling a 1 cm2 copper surface with a surface heat flux of 50-450 W/cm2. The thermal resistance of the heater surfaces decreased resulting in heat transfer coefficients up to 50 kW/m2K. These features increased the heat transfer area by 45% and distributed cooling liquid uniformly without introducing any thermal contact resistance, unlike conventional heat sinks. Nozzles with an array of water jets were 3D printed using polymer to impinge water jets over a high heat-flux surface. Experiments were done to measure convective heat transfer from a copper surface with a surface area of 0.142 cm2 emitting heat fluxes of 50 to 900 W/cm2 while varying the water flow rate from 0.1 to 1.0 L/min. Heat transfer coefficients as high as 150,000 W/m2K were measured during impingement cooling.

Keywords: Additive Manufacturing
Electronic Cooling and High heat dissipation
Jet Impingement
Liquid Cold Plates
Surface enhancement
Thermal spray and 3D printing
Advisor: Chandra, Sanjeev
Efficacy of Training in Solution-focused Coaching: Process Study of Learners’ Progress in Response Choices

The aim of this thesis is to study the efficacy of coach training by investigating the changes in practitioners’ interactional patterns with their clients as they learn to practice Solution-Focused coaching. The heterogeneous roots of coaching have contributed to highly eclectic theoretical bases, ambiguous definitions, and a lack of process evidence for its efficacy––all of which are shortcomings that this thesis addresses by asking the research question: What changes in the interactional patterns of a practitioner learning to coach? To answer this, three video recordings of coaching conversations over the span of their Solution-Focused Coaching Program from three practitioners-in-training (PiT’s) are used. Their response patterns are analyzed using descriptive methods of Microanalysis of Face-to-Face Dialogue (MFD) and the Dialogic Orientation Quadrant (DOQ). MFD is used for content analysis of what PiT’s and their clients do; DOQ for functional analysis of how their interactions contribute to creating meaning together. The results show a higher rate of formulations––especially in the positive content––in their later sessions as well as a decreased rate of adding their own words over time, which is consistent with previous analytical studies on expert sessions. While the rate of asking questions did not show a consistent change, embedded presuppositions had a markedly consistent orientation toward positive content in later sessions for all PiT’s. This study is limited to short excerpts of sample sessions of three PiT’s yet contributes to the literature because it is the first to introduce DOQ––a meta-model of interaction––as a research tool. It is also the first process study to include both MFD and DOQ, and it provides a longitudinal and comparative analysis of PiT skill development. Implications of the study include supporting coaching practitioners and trainers by increasing their empirical understanding of efficacy; inviting researchers in MFD to consider the adoption of DOQ as an operational language of functional analysis; and encouraging the use of DOQ as a tool for various process research, outcome evaluation, and pedagogy of coaching.

Keywords: coaching
dialogic orientation quadrant
heutagogy
microanalysis
process research
solution focused
Advisor: Sawchuk, Peter H
Supporting the Inclusion of Children with Developmental Disabilities in Play-based Kindergarten

Play is widely recognized as occupying a central role in young children’s early learning and development. Contemporary research on the benefits of both child-led and teacher-guided play have driven curricular shifts in kindergarten toward mandating play-based learning. However, research on play and disability has characterized play as a challenging context for children with developmental disabilities (DD), with concerns raised regarding access to play opportunities, engagement in different play skills, and level of social participation with peers. Kindergarten teachers have also been found to hold differing views toward play and learning and implement play-based learning in different ways. Consequently, it is important to explore how teachers approach play-based learning in inclusive settings with diverse student bodies, including children with DD. This exploration was guided by a social relational model of disability, acknowledging how both impairment effects and contextual factors can impact experiences of play, as well as a sociocultural perspective toward play and children’s learning. Firstly, an online survey was conducted of 42 kindergarten teachers’ perspectives toward play and inclusion. Secondly, teachers in eight play-based kindergarten classrooms were examined using direct observation and semi-structured interviews. Lastly, a subset of three teachers who shared a strong commitment to inclusion in play were examined more closely through a case study lens. Teachers in the broader survey conceptualized inclusion primarily from an academic lens and addressed it mainly outside of play, underscoring a need for clearly defined strategies in play. Both indirect (i.e., environmental) and direct (i.e., teacher support) strategies for supporting inclusion in play were highlighted in studies two and three, as well as perceived challenges and some notable patterns between perspectives and practices. This exploration also uncovered some ongoing concerns related to meaningfully supporting children with DD in play, including emphasizing child-led play with a more passive teacher role and a narrow focus on social development in play. These findings can help to inform teacher training programs related to play and lay the groundwork for future research on cultivating play-based learning spaces that can support the participation and holistic learning of all children, including children with DD.

Keywords: Developmental disabilities
Inclusion
kindergarten
Play-based learning
Teacher perspectives
Advisor: Pyle, Angela
The Investigation of Genomic Microsatellite Indel Signatures in Replication Repair Deficient Germline and Cancerous Tissues

Replication repair deficiency (RRD) is the inactivation of either/both of the mechanisms that repair mistakes during DNA synthesis, the mismatch repair (MMR) system and polymerase proofreading. RRD is associated with different malignancies at all stages throughout life, and among the different forms, one that is particularly aggressive is Constitutional Mismatch Repair Deficiency (CMMRD). It is characterized by the germline biallelic loss of one of the four MMR genes, MSH2, MSH6, MLH1, and PMS2. Individuals with CMMRD have no MMR activity from conception, and develop cancers early in life, primarily in the brain, GI, and haematopoietic systems. These cancers are commonly hypermutated (>10 mut/Mb), and the analysis of their mutations led to insights on their etiology, mutational kinetics, and signatures. Conversely, there is another category of mutations that is associated with RRD but has not been investigated in CMMRD tissues, called microsatellite insertion/deletions (MS-indels). These MS-indels are canonically known to be repaired by the MMR system, and are highly prevalent in adult MMR-deficient (MMRD) cancers. This thesis presents a comprehensive, genomic analysis of MS-indels in RRD tissues, and the associated biological discoveries and clinical implications. Chapter 1 highlights important findings in the pertinent fields of replication repair, microsatellites, modern therapies/prevention, and current challenges with diagnosis of RRD. Chapter 2 describes the methods used in this thesis, including bioinformatic pipelines, statistical analyses, as well as any laboratory experiments that were included in the subsequent chapters. Chapter 3 describes the landscape of MS-indels in RRD cancers, defining novel MS-indel signatures (MS-sigs) that uncover important biological questions. Chapter 4 details the clinical use of MS-sigs in the diagnosis of RRD in cancer, and its efficacy in predicting the response of RRD tumours to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). Chapter 5 outlines the ability of MS-sigs to detect RRD in the germline, and clarifies the heterogeneity of MSI in CMMRD individuals. Chapter 6 is focused on the future directions of this work, and discusses the potential limitations to the above studies. This thesis clarifies the association between MS-indels and RRD, and describes how microsatellite mutations can impact the treatment and clinical management of individuals with RRD.

Keywords: Bioinformatics
Cancer genetics
Cancer predisposition syndrome
Paediatric oncology
Advisor: Tabori, Uri
Gay Sex and Digital Media in Beirut: The Social and Erotic Life of Information

In this dissertation, I examine how queer men in Beirut, Lebanon use sex apps and other social media to create their intimate lives despite the persistence of marginalizing legal, state, and social regulations. Among men, there is a sense that gay sex has become different in the digital age, becoming both more abundant and more ordinary. I argue that gay sex in Beirut is not extraordinary simply because it exists against a set of marginalizing forces, but rather that it is ordinary because of its imbrication in everyday life, habits, and routines. Sex apps are tools for the abundant ordinariness of sex. In my dissertation, I examine the media practices, logics, desires, meanings, categories, and debates queer men in Beirut have developed to live with one another sexually and relationally. What I demonstrate in this ethnography of gay sex in the digital age is that queer politics are not exclusively about resistance, but about the pleasures and struggles of carving out moments for sex, intimacy, and pleasure in an otherwise bounded world. Along with an ethnographic exploration of gay sex and how men talk about it, a central focus of this dissertation is the erotic life of information itself. In digital sex cultures, information plays a central role in the production of desire and sexual possibilities. Information produces feeling, both in the meaning of the words and images, but also in the ritualistic subtleties of how information is shared. The sociality of sex apps, I argue, is fundamentally about exchange as a way of making things happen through the erotic life of information.

Advisor: Dave, Naisargi N
Identification of Resting Membrane Potential as a Regulator of Medulloblastoma Stem Cell Proliferation

Medulloblastoma is a cancer of the cerebellum and is one of the most common malignant pediatric brain tumours. Currently, a significant barrier to treatment is disease relapse, which is almost uniformly fatal. Although the mechanism of disease relapse in humans is not presently understood, a preclinical mouse model of medulloblastoma has demonstrated that a rare subset of tumour cells, marked by the transcription factor Sox2, persist and continue to seed the tumour after antimitotic chemotherapy treatment. Additionally, human Sonic hedgehog subgroup medulloblastomas that are enriched for Sox2+ cell expression profiles have a worse prognosis.Together, these data suggest that medulloblastoma relapse develops from a rare, treatment resistant population, against which no therapies currently exist. One under studied property of medulloblastoma cells is their bioelectric properties. In this thesis, I used electrophysiology to study the bioelectric properties of medulloblastoma cells, with the aim of better understanding the disease heterogeneity that leads to relapse. I identified a novel bioelectric heterogeneity that exists amongst proliferative and quiescent tumour cells. Specifically, the resting membrane potential of the quiescent Sox2+ population was found to be hyperpolarized, and the proliferative progenitor population was found to be depolarized. Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs were used to depolarize the resting membrane potential of Sox2+ cells, which resulted in the disruption of quiescence and a transient increase in proliferation. To understand what maintains Sox2+ cells in this hyperpolarized state, I investigated candidate ion channels and found that the hyperpolarizing ion channel Kir4.1 was expressed at both the RNA and protein level in Sox2+ cells, but not other tumour populations. Furthermore, pharmacological blockade of this channel resulted in membrane depolarization, and genetic knockdown in a Drosophila model of medulloblastoma resulted in a reduction in tumour volume. Taken together, these findings identify RMP as a regulator of MB cell proliferation and demonstrate the therapeutic potential of targeting ion channels to modulate RMP in cancer and disrupt tumour growth.

Keywords: Bioelectrics
Cancer Biology
Medulloblastoma
Advisor: Dirks, Peter B
Huang, Xi
Understanding and Supporting Socio-cognitive-emotional Dynamics in Knowledge Building Communities

Wellbeing is increasingly viewed as a key component of success in school, with research showing the many ways in which emotions and cognition interact. Positive emotions are generally beneficial for students’ learning; negative emotions can be beneficial or not, depending on self-regulation and learning strategies that play a mediating role. Knowledge Building is a pedagogical approach that emphasizes students taking higher levels of responsibility for bringing ideas they really care about to the community and collectively improving the ideas. An important and direct way for students to take responsibility is engaging in discourse about their discourse—metadiscourse—in which they collectively plan, monitor, regulate, and evaluate their progress. According to the control-value theory, students should experience higher levels of positive emotions in Knowledge Building because they have more control over learning and perceive the learning as more personally relevant. My thesis represents longitudinal design-based research in which young students take greater responsibility for their Knowledge Building. In Chapter 1, a literature review and outline of contributions to the field of the Learning Sciences is presented. In Chapter 2, instruments used to analyze students' emotions are presented, using multimodal data—including text, speech, gesture, and facial expressions recorded in classroom videos. In Chapter 3, design research to investigate how student engagement in metadiscourse influenced their emotions was conducted, and interrelationships between students’ emotions and idea improvement were explored. In Chapter 4, the co-development of students’ emotions and idea improvement over time was examined using Markov Chain analysis. Students expressed greater levels of enjoyment and surprise when engaged in metadiscourse. They liked metadiscourse, designing new work, and improving ideas; confidence was significantly positively associated with students’ explanations (partial and elaborated) and proposals for new directions for their research. Reflection led to greater levels of reflection. Overall, this thesis develops theoretical constructs that integrate Knowledge Building, metadiscourse, and the control-value theory for enhancing students’ productive Knowledge Building and emotional wellbeing.

Keywords: Discourse analysis
Emotion
Knowledge Building
Metadiscourse
Multimodal analysis
Wellbeing
Advisor: Scardamalia, Marlene
Impact of Inflammation on the Expression of Renal Drug Transporters

Inflammation-mediated changes in the expression and activity of drug transporters and drug metabolizing enzymes have been shown to alter disposition of their substrates. Renal drug transporters including ABC and SLC transporters play an important role in the clearance of several drug substrates, as well as numerous endogenous compounds. Little is known about the impact of inflammatory stimuli on renal transporters. Using rodent models, we investigated the impact of inflammation on the expression of clinically important renal drug transporters. Three inflammatory conditions were examined as part of this thesis: inflammation elicited by HIV viral proteins, by bacterial endotoxin, and by the viral mimetic poly I:C. In a series of in vivo studies, endotoxin was administered to male HIV1-Transgenic (HIV1-Tg) and wild type (WT) rats to model the presence of endotoxemia in HIV patients. Endotoxin administration significantly downregulated numerous renal drug transporters in both HIV1-Tg and WT rats 18 h after administration. In addition, the presence of the HIV transgene alone in the absence of endotoxin resulted in the downregulation of the mRNA expression of several drug transporters. Although HIV and endotoxin each imposed alterations in the expression of many clinically important renal drug transporters, co-infection did not augment this effect. Viral and/or bacterial infections may impact the renal clearance of drug substrates and could potentially be a source of drug-disease interactions. In the next set of in vivo studies, poly I:C or saline was administered to pregnant rats at term. Poly I:C imposed a significant reduction in the mRNA and protein expression of numerous renal drug transporters 24 h after administration. Next, poly I:C or saline was administered to pregnant rats at mid-gestation and the impact of poly I:C was investigated at different time points. The mRNA expression of several drug transporters was downregulated at 6 h, and corresponding alterations at the protein level occurred at 48 h. Overall, poly I:C imposed significant reductions in the expression of several key renal transporters at term and mid-gestation in pregnant rats. Thus, viral infection may impact renal excretion of drug transporter substrates, potentially leading to drug–disease interactions.

Keywords: Bacterial infection
Drug transporters
Inflammation
Kidney
Pregnancy
Viral infection
Advisor: Piquette-Miller, Micheline