VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Patients' Incidental Access to their Hospital Paper Medical Records; What do patients think?

The objective of this study was to explore inpatients’ opinions on their hospital paper medical records after they had incidental access to them. One hundred inpatients in the C.T. department at St. Michael's Hospital were surveyed: 65 patients who read their records and 35 who did not. Overall, 75.4% of readers found their records easy to understand, and most found their records correct, complete and did not find anything unexpected or distressing. Seventy-nine percent of all respondents would trust the hospital, approximately half would trust Google Health or Microsoft Healthvault and 5.6% would trust Facebook to provide online medical records. Being female, under 60 years and having a higher education predicted readership. Younger patients were also more likely to think that accessing their records would help decrease errors. Patients with higher education were more likely to find their records useful and trusted the hospital to provide online medical records.

Keywords: medical records
patient access
inpatients' opinions
hospital medical records
EHR
Advisor: Eysenbach, Gunther
An Exploration of On-chip Network-based Thread Migration

As the number of cores integrated on a single chip continues to increase, communication has the potential to become a severe bottleneck to overall system performance. The presence of thread sharing and the distribution of data across cache banks on the chip can result in long distance communication. Long distance communication incurs substantial latency that impacts performance; furthermore, this communication consumes significant dynamic power when packets are switched over many Network-on-Chip (NoC) links and routers. Thread migration can mitigate problems created by long distance communication. This thesis presents Moths, which stands for Mobile Threads. Moths is an efficient run-time algorithm that responds automatically to dynamic NoC traffic patterns, providing beneficial thread migration to decrease overall traffic volume and average packet latency. Moths reduces latency by up to 28.4% (18.0% on average) and traffic volume by up to 24.9% (20.6% on average) across a variety of commercial and scientific benchmarks.

Keywords: Network on Chip
Thread migration
Advisor: Natalie, Enright Jerger
Bone Healing in Diabetes Mellitus Associated Hyperglycemia

Diabetes mellitus is a systemic condition that remains undiagnosed in a large portion of the population, which presents potential challenges for implant-based rehabilitation. Currently, the effects of diabetes on bone healing are not fully understood. Thus prior to employing a model of diabetes in studies of peri-implant healing, it was important to investigate the temporal effects of hyperglycemia on bone healing. Bone healing of femoral drill-defects was compared between streptozotocin-induced hyperglycemic (DB) and normoglycemic (NDC) rats at 5, 10, 15, and 30 days P.O. Quantitative assessment of bone samples using μCT demonstrated a delay in bone formation occurring up to 10 days in DB animals. Histological assessment confirmed these quantitative findings. Additionally, fluorescently stained bone samples indicated possible defects in mineralization of bone in DB group. In summary hyperglycemia affects bone healing at the early stages of bone formation, concurrent with the osteoconduction phase of bone healing.

Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus
Bone
Hyperglycemia
Drill defect
microcomputed tomography
osteoconduction
Advisor: Davies, John Edward
Region-specific Distribution of β-Amyloid and Cytokine Expression in TgCRND8 Mice

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multifactorial disease that results in progressive neurodegeneration. Brain regions are differentially affected in AD; some are more vulnerable to degeneration than others. There is an age-dependent effect on beta-amyloid (Aβ) accumulation and neuroinflammation as disease progresses. In the TgCRND8 APP transgenic mouse model, levels of various Aβ species and cytokines were determined as a function of brain region and age. Aβ was found to accumulate in the brain prior to the sequential elevation of IL-1β and CXCL1. Levels of Aβ, IL-1β and CXCL1 were elevated in regions that are severely affected in AD patients. It has been shown for the first time in an APP transgenic model that CXCL1 elevation occurs following IL-1β elevation.

Keywords: Alzheimer's Disease
Beta-Amyloid
Neuroinflammation
Advisor: Mount, Howard
McLaurin, JoAnne
Intracortical Microstimulation Aanalysis of Rat Motor Cortex Following Maxillary Molar Extraction

The neuroplastic changes in the motor representations within the face primary motor cortex (Face-M1) due to jaw and tongue motor alterations following the unilateral extraction of maxillary molars teeth have not been explored. The present study used intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) and recordings of evoked electromyographic responses to compare jaw (anterior digastric) and tongue (genioglossus) motor representations within the histologically defined Face-M1 one week post intervention across naive rats (n=6), rats that underwent anesthesia, right maxillary molar extraction after soft tissue manipulation (n=6) and rats that underwent anesthesia and soft tissue manipulation without extraction (n = 7). A small but significant anterior increase in the representation of the jaw and tongue motor representations was observed (oneway ANOVA p < 0.01, Bonferroni p < 0.01) in the contralateral Face-M1 one week following unilateral extraction of maxillary molars in rats.

Keywords: Dentistry
Neuroplasticity
Advisor: Sessle, Barry John
Development and Testing of a Microfluidic Device for Studying Resistance Artery Function

Introduction: Hypertension is the number one risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Total peripheral resistance (TPR) is strongly involved in blood pressure homeostasis. TPR is primarily determined by resistance arteries (RAs). Pathogenic factors which change RA structure are associated with cardiovascular disease. Despite this, methods employed in the study of RAs lack efficiency. Methods: A polymer microfluidic device (Artery-on-a-Chip Device, AoC) made from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was developed. RAs from CD1 mice were measured on the device. Their responses to phenylephrine (PE), acetylcholine (Ach), FURA-2 imaging, and 24-h culture were assessed. Results: Following several modifications, vessel function on the AoC device was successfully measured. Robust PE constriction and Ach-induced vasodilation were observed. AoC arteries were viable after 24-hour culture, and FURA-2 was successfully imaged. Conclusions: The AoC device is a viable alternative to cannulation myography. The AoC can greatly increase the efficiency of RA studies, while also decreasing training time and difficulty.

Keywords: cardiovascular
resistance artery
microfluidic
artery-on-a-chip
Advisor: Bolz, Steffen Sebastian
The Use of Eye Movements as an Objective Measure of Mind Wandering

Previous research on mind wandering has used subjective verbal reports as a means to acquire the frequency and rate of its occurrence. I proposed the use of eye movements as an objective measure of mind wandering while participants attempted a reading task. Participants were placed in a self-classified probe-caught mind wandering paradigm while their eye movements were recorded. They were randomly probed every 2-3 minutes and were required to indicate whether their mind had been wandering before they were allowed to continue reading. The overall pattern showed that eye movement behaviour was slower and less frequent when participants reported mind wandering episodes, with duration and frequency of within-word regressions reaching levels of statistical significance. It may be that the cognitive processes that normally guide eye movements during reading exert less control during mind wandering episodes. Other implications and limitations are discussed.

Keywords: Mind wandering
Eye movement behaviour
Reading
Advisor: Joordens, Steve
The Effect of Rapid Palatal Expander Appliances on Speech

Background: Rapid palatal expanders have a screw that covers the palate and may affect speech. Methods: RPEs were treatment planned for 22 patients. Speech recordings were completed at 6 different time points. Analysis for speech acceptability, /i/ vowel formants, and /s/ and /∫/ fricative spectra were analyzed. Results: When the appliance was inserted, speech acceptability deteriorated but improved over time. For vowel /i/, the first formant increased and second formant decreased. For fricatives (/s/, /∫/), low to high frequency ratios indicated that the sounds were distorted when the appliance was inserted. The formants and ratios returned to normal levels over time. Examination of the four spectral moments found the spectral mean decreased, standard deviation increased, skewness became more positive, and kurtosis decreased at appliance insertion. Repeated measures ANOVAs found significant effects for time for all acoustic measures. Conclusions: Speech was altered when the appliance was inserted, but improved over time.

Keywords: palatal expander
speech
adaptation
Advisor: Bressmann, Tim
Rapamycin-induced Allograft Tolerance: Elucidating Mechanisms and Biomarker Discovery

The long-term success of transplantation is limited by the need for immunosuppression; thus, tolerance induction is an important therapeutic goal. A 16-day treatment with rapamycin in mice led to indefinite graft survival of fully mismatched cardiac allografts, whereas untreated hearts were rejected after 8-10 days. Specific tolerance was confirmed through subsequent skin grafts and in vitro lymphocyte assays that showed recipient mice remained immunocompetent towards 3rd party antigens but were impaired in responding to donor antigens. Mechanisms that account for this tolerant state were then investigated. Splenic CD8+CD44+ memory T-cells were reduced in tolerant mice but had increased frequencies of the CD62LLO population. CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ regulatory T-cells were increased in tolerant mice. Through multiplex PCR, 4 regulatory T-cell related genes were found up-regulated and 2 proinflammatory genes were down-regulated in accepted hearts. This expression pattern may serve as a putative biomarker of tolerance in patients undergoing transplantation.

Keywords: Transplantation
Tolerance
Regulatory T Cells
Rapamycin
Genomics
Biomarkers
Advisor: Levy, Gary A.
Towards a Surface Microarray based Multiplexed Immunoassay on a Digital Microfluidics Platform

The use of digital microfluidics (DMF) for sample handling in a microarray immunoassay was investigated. A two plate DMF device was used, with the top plate being used for the immobilization of antibodies for a sandwich immunoassay. A patterning procedure was developed for the top plate to expose patches of glass that were chemically modified, using silane chemistry, to allow for the covalent immobilization of antibodies. For creating microarrays, a set of parallel microchannels were used for the high density patterning of proteins onto the functionalized surface of the top plate. This patterning procedure was optimized to ensure the reproducibility of the immobilization and the physical integrity of the top plate. Preliminary work for a multiplexed immunoassay such as verification of cross-reactivity and detection schemes was also conducted. This work represents the initial efforts towards a microarray immunoassay on DMF, which has the potential to improve high throughput analysis.

Keywords: Digital microfluidics
Immunoassay
Advisor: Wheeler, Aaron
Thermal Spray Forming of High-efficiency Metal-foam Heat Exchangers

Thermal spray coating processes have been employed in the current study to deposit well-adhered, dense skins onto the surfaces of open-cell metal foams. The result is a channel that consists of a metal foam core and a thermal sprayed skin wall that can be used as a compact heat-exchanger by directing the coolant flow through the foam. To study the feasibility of the metallic foam heat-exchangers, hydraulic and heat-transfer characteristics were investigated experimentally. The local wall and fluid temperature distribution and the pressure drop along the length of the heat exchanger were measured for different coolant flow velocities. The Dupuit-Forchheimer modification is employed with the experimental results to determine flow characteristics. To measure the heat transfer performance, a length average Nusselt number is derived from a volumetric heat transfer coefficient based on the local wall and fluid temperatures. Heat transfer was shown to have increased nearly 7 times compared to that of a channel without a foam core.

Keywords: heat
Advisor: Chandra, Sanjeev
Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Redundant Stent-graft Configurations in Endovascular Aneurysm Repair

During endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR), if the stent-graft device is too long for a given patient the redundant (extra) length adopts a convex configuration in the aneurysm. Based on clinical experience, we hypothesize that redundant stent-graft configurations increase the downward force acting on the device, thereby increasing the risk of device dislodgement and failure. This work numerically studies both steady-state and physiologic pulsatile blood flow in redundant stent-graft configurations. Computational fluid dynamics simulations predicted a peak downward displacement force for the zero-, moderate- and severe-redundancy configurations of 7.36, 7.44 and 7.81 N, respectively for steady-state flow; and 7.35, 7.41 and 7.85 N, respectively for physiologic pulsatile flow. These results suggest that redundant stent-graft configurations in EVAR do increase the downward force acting on the device, but the clinical consequence depends significantly on device-specific resistance to dislodgement.

Keywords: endovascular
aneurysm
computational fluid dynamics
CFD
EVAR
redundancy
stent-graft
Advisor: Amon, Cristina
"Nanomedicine: Governing Uncertainties"

Nanomedicine is a promising and revolutionary field to improve medical diagnoses and therapies leading to a higher quality of life for everybody. Huge benefits are expected from nanomedicine applications such as in diagnostic and therapeutic field. However, nanomedicine poses several issues on risks to the human health. This thesis aims to defense a perspective of risk governance that sustains scientific knowledge process by developing guidelines and providing the minimum safety standards acceptable to protect the human health. Although nanomedicine is in an early stage of its discovery, some cautious measures are required to provide regulatory mechanisms able to response to the unique set of challenges associated to nanomedicine. Nanotechnology offers an unique opportunity to intensify a major interplay between different disciplines such as science and law. This multidisciplinary approach can positively contributes to find reliable regulatory choices and responsive normative tools in dealing with challenges of novel technologies.

Keywords: Nanomedicine
law and risk in novel biotechnologies
Advisor: Trudo, Lemmens
Temporal De-biasing of Behaviour in Residential Energy Consumption: Supporting Conservation Compliance Through Feedback Design

Despite years of research in residential energy conservation, means of inducing conservation behaviour through feedback are not well understood. In this thesis I take a novel approach to feedback design by addressing temporal inconsistencies that may hinder individuals from forming an intention to conserve. To help understand conservation compliance strategies, I proposed a visual framework to categorize interventions. I present two design heuristics that were inspired by temporal construal theory (Liberman & Trope, 2003). They were the impetus for the design of three feedback display prototypes, which were examined. Due to methodological limitations, significant improvements to compliance were not found. However, evidence suggests that comparative feedback may have supported reasoning about conservation rather than supporting conservation compliance directly. Future work includes refinement of feedback displays to avoid direct comparisons, exploring the use of nature imagery, and the study of a possible interaction between environmental values and comparative feedback on compliance.

Keywords: Feedback
Energy Conservation
Temporal Construal Theory
Conservation and Demand Management
Compliance
Advisor: Jamieson, Gregory Allan
Kerr v. Danier Leather: an Analysis of the Difficulty to Enforce a Duty to Update Statements about the Future in the Context of Securities Regulation

Forecasts, predictions and opinions about the future should not be treated in the same way as hard information is treated under the Securities Act. Because this type of soft information cannot be verified in advance, the imposition of liability in respect of these statements about the future may hinder their production and have a result that is adverse to the interests of investors – who would prefer to hear management speak candidly about its thoughts on the company’s future performance. This essay examines the way in which the Ontario Securities Act treats statements about the future, as well as the most important decision in this area up to the present: Kerr v. Danier Leather. It will also discuss whether there should be a duty to update predictions when the circumstances that formed the basis of these forecasts have changed significantly.

Keywords: forecast, securities, liability, misrepresentation, duty to update
Advisor: Iacobucci, Edward
Mother? A Portrait of Legal Motherhood in Canada

What characteristics make a legal mother? The thesis explores some of the gendered differences in establishing legal parentage. It defends that there is no adequate conception or definition of legal motherhood in Canada. Indeed, the conception of legal motherhood is elusive or reiterates the problematic association between biological motherhood and legal motherhood. The logical leap between a biological situation and a legal status creates two main problems. First, the elusiveness of motherhood as a legal category tends to strengthen gendered assumptions in legal parentage, and it is especially burdensome on women. Second, given the fact that no guidance is provided to decision makers, the vesting of motherhood is often subjected to an evaluation of a woman’s sexuality, sexual choices, or sexual preferences. There is a need a to put forward a comprehensive analysis of legal parentage; a gender and sexuality neutral concept of stratified legal parenthood.

Keywords: mother
motherhood
sexuality
Canada
legal motherhood
Advisor: Cossman, Brenda
On the Minimization of Regulatory Margin Requirements for Portfolios of Financial Securities

A margin account is a type of brokerage account that allows investors to buy and sell financial securities using credit. The account’s margin requirement is the amount of collateral required, from the investor, to cover the funds or securities extended by the broker to the investor. In Canada, the primary driver of an account’s margin requirement is the account’s Capital Charge [CC] which is calculated using a set of regulatory rules. The regulations are degenerate in that hundreds of valid CCs often exist for a single account. This work outlines a linear optimization model for selecting the minimal CC out of the set of valid CCs for a given margin account. The method proposed is consistent with all of the regulatory requirements and is guaranteed optimal in most cases. Relative to existing methods, the new method produced an average CC reduction of approximately 2% and displayed qualitatively better run-times.

Keywords: Margin Requirements
Capital Charge
Margin Regulations
Margin Account
IIROC
Advisor: Paradi, Joseph C.
Freedom of Religion and Reproductive Rights: A Study of Conscientious Objections to Emergency Contraception by Physicians and Pharmacists

This thesis argues that physicians and pharmacists have the right to refuse to prescribe and dispense emergency contraception, such as Plan B and abortifacient drugs, because of the right to freedom of religion. However, in order to properly protect women’s access emergency contraception as part of their right to reproductive health care, physicians and pharmacists who choose to object to emergency contraception on grounds of conscience must disclose this information to their patients, and refer their patients to a non-objecting practitioner. This thesis applies to the situation in Canada, and Ontario where the laws between provinces differ, but uses experiences and legislation from the United States of America as a comparator. Finally, this thesis concludes by proposing various methods to ensure delivery and access to emergency contraception, while protecting physicians’ and pharmacists’ right of refusal.

Keywords: Law
Advisor: Weinrib, Lorraine
The In vivo effects of Rac1 and Rac2 on Bone Quality and Aging

Introduction: The Rho family of small GTPases, including Rac1 and Rac2, are key regulators of osteoclast differentiation and function; however, little is known about their roles in bone quality and aging. Methods: Male four and nine month old mice (n=10) with Rac1, Rac2 or both (DKO) isoforms deleted in osteoclast precursors were assessed using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), micro computed tomography (microCT), compression, torsion and three-point bending testing, back scattered electron microscopy (BSE), Goldner’s trichrome and TRAP staining. Results: All Rac null mice demonstrated decreased cortical structural properties and improved trabecular architecture. With age, Rac null mice demonstrated the ability to attenuate age-related bone loss. Conclusions: Using an in vivo model with Rac1, Rac2 or both Rac isoforms deleted in osteoclasts, our findings demonstrate the deletion of Rac1 and Rac2 compromised cortical bone while improving trabecular bone properties and attenuated age-related bone loss.

Keywords: Rac1
Rac2
aging
bone quality
Advisor: Grynpas, Marc D.
Glogauer, Michael
The Brain Coordination Dynamics of Autism: A Study of Auditory Attention

Children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were compared to age-matched typically developing controls in the context of phase synchrony statistics acquired through magnetoencephalography. Subjects performed a “low-attention” task, pressing a button to a single, repeated auditory tone, and this was contrasted to an “oddball” task where they were required to button press only to deviant tones. The differences in task outcomes were primarily thought to relate to differences in sensory and executive attention. Regardless of task condition, ASD subjects showed greater magnitudes of synchrony between the parietal hemispheres which variably extended across frequencies. Additionally, for ASD subjects, increases in synchrony from the “low-attention” task to the “oddball” task were observed; whereas an opposite tendency occurred for controls. Furthermore, rates of fluctuation of phase differences showed more stable parietal synchrony within ASD across the hemispheric midline. Implications including the possibility of coordination as an indicator of ASD are discussed.

Keywords: Autism
Brain Coordination
Auditory Attention
Phase Synchrony
Rates of Fluctuation
Advisor: Velazquez, Jose Luis Perez