VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Embedding Metadata: Exploring the Ontology of Hybrid Digital and Material Objects

This thesis discusses the design of three systems that were built using Critical Making as an investigative method. The systems are: an RFID antenna that links ISBNs to online metadata; metamash.org, which aggregates ISBN metadata; and doitag.org, which allows users to associate tags with DOI numbers. Each system was designed to interrogate issues related to identification, categorization and the institutional foundations of, and individual practices surrounding, information systems, providing levers to get at deeper ontological issues. Each investigation points in its own way to a profound lack of understanding about the ontology of digital, or hybrid material/digital objects. David Weinberger's ordering scheme for material and digital objects is used because it allows for a discussion of ordering systems in general. However, focusing solely on categorization systems masks more important questions about the ontology of such objects and how building and using such objects fundamentally defines what they are.

Keywords: metadata
critical making
Advisor: Hockema, Stephen
Ratto, Matthew
Evaluation of Discrete Explicit Filtering for an Approximate Deconvolution Approach to LES

In the study of computational turbulence, the success of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is largely determined by the quality of the sub-filter scale (SFS) model and the properties of the filter used to introduce resolved and unresolved length scales. Explicit filters are desirable so that better control over the filter may be achieved, and filter operator errors can be then controlled to a desired order of accuracy. One large advantage to using an explicit filter is that the mathematical definition of the filter may be exploited when considering various SFS models or even different LES techniques. Approximate deconvolution is a technique used in LES, which performs an inverse filtering operation to partly restore the original unfiltered solution. The discrete explicit filtering technique will be used to perform the deconvolution, and numerical results will show how the approximate solution may be used to perform LES.

Keywords: Fluid Dynamics
Numerical Simulation
Advisor: Groth, Clinton P. T.
Evaluation of an Educational Intervention for Employees Exposed to Workplace Trauma

Introduction: This thesis evaluated the effectiveness of an educational intervention for Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) employees exposed to a traumatic event at work. Methods: This study used a sequential mixed methods design. The primary outcome was the proportion seeking mental health treatment after an educational intervention (BPI) compared to a group not receiving an educational intervention (TAU). Qualitative interviews aimed to understand what compelled participants to seek help and perceptions of the educational intervention. Results: 60 TAU and 50 BPI participants were recruited. A larger proportion of BPI participants sought specialty mental health treatment compared to the TAU (p=0.034). Reasons for seeking treatment were varied and we found overall positive responses to the educational intervention, particularly normalization of reactions. Conclusions: A greater proportion of those receiving the educational intervention sought help. However, the interviews showed that although the educational intervention was helpful, it was not central to this decision.

Keywords: mental health
post-traumatic stress disorder
workplace mental health
psychological trauma
educational intervention
Advisor: Links, Paul
Implementing a Preconditioned Iterative Linear Solver Using Massively Parallel Graphics Processing Units

The research conducted in this thesis provides a robust implementation of a preconditioned iterative linear solver on programmable graphic processing units (GPUs). Solving a large, sparse linear system is the most computationally demanding part of many widely used power system analysis. This thesis presents a detailed study of iterative linear solvers with a focus on Krylov-based methods. Since the ill-conditioned nature of power system matrices typically requires substantial preconditioning to ensure robustness of Krylov-based methods, a polynomial preconditioning technique is also studied in this thesis. Implementation of the Chebyshev polynomial preconditioner and biconjugate gradient solver on a programmable GPU are presented and discussed in detail. Evaluation of the performance of the GPU-based preconditioner and linear solver on a variety of sparse matrices shows significant computational savings relative to a CPU-based implementation of the same preconditioner and commonly used direct methods.

Keywords: Energy Systems
Power Systems
Transient Stability
Parallel Programming
GPU
Advisor: Tate, Zeb
Validity and Fairness in Accommodations, Special Provisions, and Participation Decisions on the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test

Policy guidelines of the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) state that accommodations and participation decisions on the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) do not threaten validity. However, these issues are contentious in American large-scale testing. New approaches integrate test access, administration, accommodation and participation within a unified fairness and validity construct. The current study, based on demographic and outcome data for the entire population of OSSLT-eligible students from 2006 to 2009, demonstrates changing patterns in accommodations and participation decisions across schools and years. In particular, English language learners are found to be considerably underrepresented among students receiving special needs accommodations. This has implications for the valid interpretation and fair use of test scores. Recommendations are proposed for improving fairness, consistency, and validity in administering accommodations and participation.

Keywords: English language learner
special needs
standardized tests
accommodation
participation
fairness
Advisor: Jang, Eunice
Evaluation of an Intervention Program for Maltreating Fathers: Statistically and Clinically Significant Change

Currently, few intervention programs for maltreating fathers exist and even fewer of them have been evaluated for effectiveness. The current study examined the effectiveness of a community-based group treatment program for domestically violent and child abusing fathers by looking at reliability, magnitude, and clinical significance of changes in variables associated with maltreatment risk mechanisms in a group of 98 participants. The intervention was found to be largely successful in producing statistically significant changes in fathers’ overreactivity to children’s misbehaviour, ability to co-parent with children’s mothers, and their ability to prioritize their children’s needs. However, a closer look at individual change (using measures of clinical significance), showed variability in fathers’ responses to treatment, with some men making changes across measures and some remaining in the clinically concerning range despite treatment efforts. The implications of these findings for intervention and maltreatment prevention are discussed.

Keywords: intervention
parenting
Advisor: Scott, Katreena
The Relation between Executive Function and Treatment Outcome in Children with Aggressive Behaviour Problems: An EEG Study

This study examined whether cortical changes underlying treatment for children with aggressive behaviour problems are related to changes in executive function (EF) performance. Fifty-five 8- to 12-year-old clinically-referred children were tested before and after a 14-week treatment intervention. Performance on four EF tasks varying in affective relevance was assessed at each session. EEG was also used to record peak amplitudes for the “inhibitory” N2, an event-related potential, while the children completed an emotion-induction Go/Nogo task. Results showed that changes in N2 amplitudes significantly predicted changes in performance only for the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) – an affectively relevant task. Subsequent analysis revealed that only children who improved with treatment displayed significant decreases in N2 amplitudes and significant improvement in IGT performance from pre- to post-treatment. These findings suggest that cortical changes underlying successful treatment for children’s aggressive behaviour problems tap improvement in executive functions recruited for emotionally demanding events.

Keywords: executive function
emotion
aggressive behaviour problems
Advisor: Lewis, Marc D.
Invisibility, Disappearance and Reclamation: A Sociological Investigation into the Location(s) of Aboriginal and African Women in Canada

This thesis focuses on issues of the growing level of violence that continues to be leveled at two groups of women in Canada; Aboriginal women and African Canadian women. I propose that a combination of State racism, sexism, colonialism, poverty and societal indifference are responsible for the marginalization and oppression that both these groups of women are facing in Canada today. I will make use of three key tenets of sociological discourse that are built on the theoretical frameworks of anti-colonial, Indigenous and Black Feminism. These frameworks describe ways in which the interlocking systems of oppression maintain a Eurocentric, colonial hegemony that continues to perpetuate violence against Aboriginal and African Canadian women. This comparative approach opens an investigative lens into the ways that ideologies (including cultural representations in the media) demean both Aboriginal and African Canadian women.

Keywords: Women
Violence
Aboriginal
African
Advisor: Cannon, Martin
(Re)Writing the Body in Pain: Embodied Writing as a Decolonizing Methodological Practice

This thesis explores the possibilities of embodied writing for social inquiry. Using an examination of the social production of bodily pain to exemplify my approach, and drawing upon autobiographical writing, I develop an embodied writing practice and theorize its implications for decolonizing knowledge production. Following a phenomenologically informed interpretive sociology, I attend closely to language and the construction of meaning through reflexive engagement with pain as a social phenomenon. I also utilize mindfulness meditative practice methodologically to centre the body within social research and intervene in the mind/body split which underwrites much Western knowledge production and reproduces normative, medicalized relations to bodily knowledge. I suggest that by undoing those traditional boundaries demarcating the possibilities of knowledge production, and attending to our epistemological locations which are themselves deeply political, we might generate differently imagined relations to embodiment.

Keywords: pain
disability
decolonizing methodology
embodiment
embodied writing
autobiography
mindfulness
sociology of pain
interpretive sociology
disability studies
feminist theory
Advisor: Ng, Roxana
Mindfulness Meditation: A New Approach to Working with Sexual Offenders

Negative affect and emotions such as anger and anxiety, are risk factors related to sexual offending (Howells, Day, & Wright, 2004; Serran & Marshall, 2006). Consequently, most sexual offender treatment programs teach offenders how to cope with situations that produce negative emotionality (Pithers et al., 1989; Marshall, Marshall, Serran, 2006). A review of mindfulness meditation, a positive therapeutic approach, has demonstrated utility in improving emotional management skills (Baer, 2003), however meditation has yet to be considered as a treatment for sexual offenders. The present study is a pilot attempt at exploring the feasibility of using meditation in working with sexual offenders. Results show that participants were receptive to meditation, thought it may be beneficial, and were able to concentrate and relax during an experiential session. The potential benefits of mindfulness for improving emotional management in sexual offenders will be discussed and directions for future research will be explored.

Keywords: sexual offenders
meditation
Advisor: Stermac, Lana
Long-term Training in Learning and Work for Youth at Risk: Sustainability and Creativity in Policy and Execution of Youth at Risk Programs in Toronto

The City of Toronto experienced a particularly tremulous year in 2005. Dubbed the "year of the gun," the marked increase in violence among racialized youth lead to an increase in community cultural programming. These programs provide safe productive environments for youth to gather and develop self esteem and as well as important marketable life skills for the labour force. However there is currently a disconnect between these programs and the valuable training that they are imparting to youth. The traditional training and learning-to-work transitions have not enjoyed the success that was envisioned in the early stages of these initiatives. Through interviews and observation, the research documented in this thesis offers an opportunity for practitioners, policy makers and program funders to re-think the traditional approach as it relates to the arts and cultural programs for racialized at-risk youth in Canada's largest urban centre.

Keywords: Learning and Work
Youth at Risk
Advisor: Sawchuk, Peter H.
Optimal Life-career Development of Immigrant Professionals

Literature addressing Canada’s immigrant professionals has primarily focused on the negative aspects of life-career transition. Research themes have centered on discouraging features of migration such as barriers, discrimination, underemployment and unemployment. Surprisingly few studies have explored how, in spite of personal and environmental barriers, some new Canadians have found they have flourished in their new country. The purpose of this study is to explore the lived experiences of a group of immigrant professionals who believe they have successfully transitioned in the life-career domains. Using a grounded theory approach, 20 individuals were interviewed about their experiences. Analysis revealed that a combination of internal and external factors contributed or hindered their life-career trajectories. Meaning making, social support and behavioural coping emerged as primary coping strategies. Issues with language and accreditation emerged as significant barriers to life-career development. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Keywords: immigration
positive psychology
Advisor: Chen, Charles
Cognitive Patch Theory: A Comparison of the Morphosyntactic Competences of Advanced ESL Learners and Native Speakers of English

This study investigates the morphosyntactic competence of advanced ESL learners and native speakers of English. Using the framework of the Government and Binding approach (Chomsky,1981, 1986), the study tests the predictions made by the evolved Fundamental Difference Hypothesis (Bley-Vroman, 2009), namely that the grammars of advanced L2 learners are unreliable(where reliability means converging to the L2 grammar), non-convergent to the L2 grammar, and characteristic of patches (where patches are extragrammatical principles independent of the normal syntactic processes). The participants of the study were tested on three tasks (timed grammaticality judgment task, a correction task, and a preference task). The findings of the study indicate that the difference between the morphosyntactic competence of the advanced ESL learners and that of native speakers is gradient rather than categorical.

Keywords: Adult Second Language Acquisition
Morphosyntax
Linguistic Patches/Grammatical Viruses
The Evolved Fundamental Difference Hypothesis
Advisor: Helms-Park, Rena
Spada, Nina
Dynamic Interleaved Imaging of Pyruvate Metabolism with Hyperpolarized 13C

Dynamic nuclear polarization and dissolution of 13C-labeled metabolite allows dynamic imaging of metabolism in-vivo. However, the spatial and temporal resolutions of magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging are limited by the duration of free-induction decay acquisitions and the T1-based, non-recoverable polarization decay. This thesis describes the implementation of a spectral-spatial radiofrequency excitation pulse with a `flyback' echo-planar readout trajectory to dynamically image [1-13C]-pyruvate and [1-13C]-lactate in an interleaved manner. This technique excites a single resonance of either [1-13C]-pyruvate or [1-13C]-lactate and generates dynamic images with 5mm in-plane resolution. Metabolite dynamics extracted from the images and the corresponding non-localized spectroscopic data reveal similar kinetic rates upon fitting to a kinetic model. This demonstrates the feasibility of probing metabolism in heterogeneous tissues in-vivo with dynamic interleaved 13C MR imaging.

Keywords: 13C
hyperpolarized
metabolism
pyruvate
spectral-spatial
DNP
MR metabolic imaging
cancer
Advisor: Cunningham, Charles H.
Isolation of Extracellular Proteins from Ophiostoma ulmi and their Effect on Tensile Properties of Thermoplastic Starch

Starch-derived bioplastics are an inexpensive, renewable and environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional petroleum-based plastics. Proteins secreted by Ophiostoma ulmi, were investigated for their application in bioplastic product. Proteins were isolated from fungal cultures by anion exchange chromatography and used to treat starch. Subsequently, plastic films were generated by solution casting, with glycerol as plasticizer. Tensile strength of the films was found to increase significantly compared to the control. The relative water holding capacity of the treated starch also decreased dramatically. Attempts to identify fungal proteins by MALDI-TOF MS/MS did not result in positive matches, mainly due to lack of fungal sequence information. Additionally, the effect of non-specific proteins resulted in a modest increase in tensile strength and a slightly greater effect on water absorption. Proteins secreted by O. ulmi were therefore implicated in improving properties of starch-based plastics. Investigation into the role of an extracellular polysaccharide is also suggested.

Keywords: role of extracellular fungal proteins in bioplastic development
Advisor: Christendat, Dinesh
Sain, Mohini
Elder Care in an Emergency Department: How does Disparity in Practice Come to be?

Elderly patients in the Emergency Department (ED) receive a different level of care than younger patients. The ED disproportionately deploys resources to serve the needs of the younger patient population, a decision that appears to be mediated by the acuity of the patient’s condition as defined by the institution. This study will seek to examine the institutional work processes by which this disparity in care is created. By looking at the needs of the elderly as ED patients and based on what they identify as important to them, this ethnographic study will examine the work organization of the nurses, physicians, and administrators in the ED. The goal of the research is, through the examination of the organization of work and the texts that mediate it, to explain the ruling relations through which elderly patients are subjugated as patients in the ED.

Keywords: Institutional ethnography
Dorothy Smith
Texts
Ruling Relations
Qualitative
Emergency Department
Elderly
Elder Care
Social Analysis
Work Organization
Institution
Health Care
Advisor: Burstow, Bonnie
Consumer Perspectives on the Sunnybrook Program of Assertive Community Treatment (SunPACT). Implications for Program Development and Evaluation.

The present study examined the subjective experiences of individuals living in the community with a severe or persistent mental illness receiving services from the Sunnybrook Program of Assertive Community Treatment (SunPACT). The researcher employed McCracken’s (1998) Long Interview Method to interview a sample of 8 clients from SunPACT. The aim of this research was to explore client perspectives on their experiences of SunPACT and their perception of its impact on their quality of life. The findings from this study overlapped with the literature, as well providing new and vital information in the implementation and monitoring of quality of care of an ACT model. This research demonstrated that clients experience the effects of their treatment differently, and therefore, understanding client feedback is imperative to understanding how to maximize treatment benefits and provide effective services. Specific details about their experiences are outlined. Implications for social work practice are discussed.

Keywords: Social Work
Community Mental Health
Assertive Community Treatment
Consumer Feedback
Advisor: Williams, Charmaine
Comparison of the Osteoinductivity of Infuse® and OP-1® via in vitro and in vivo Assays

Due to its significant morbidity, alternatives to autogenous bone grafting are required. Recent research has focused on application of growth factors, including bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs). Two recombinant human BMP (rhBMP) containing bioimplants, Infuse® (rhBMP-2) and OP-1® (rhBMP-7), are approved for human application. Objective: to provide a direct comparison of the two approved rhBMP containing bioimplants in their clinically available forms. Methods: Activity of rhBMP-2 and -7 were tested using the C2C12 cell based assay comparing alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity. Activity of Infuse® or OP-1® bioimplants containing 52.5µg of rhBMP-2 or rhBMP-7 were compared using a mouse muscle pouch assay and analyzed with micro CT (mCT) and histology. Results: in vitro: rhBMP-2 induced greater ALP production than rhBMP-7 at different time points. In vivo: OP-1® induced greater bone volume than Infuse® of equivalent quality based on mCT. Conclusions: In the clinically available form, OP-1® induced greater bone volume than Infuse®.

Keywords: rhBMP
Infuse
OP-1
osteoinductivity
Advisor: Clokie, Cameron
An Investigation of the Heat and Moisture Performance of a Ventilated Masonry Retrofit for Historic Structures

Insulating historic masonry buildings will improve thermal performance. However, heritage requirements often limit the addition of insulation to the interior surface. This can lead to colder and wetter walls. Freezing temperatures coupled with high moisture levels in the brick leave the walls susceptible to frost damage. Current retrofit designs attempt to control condensation of interior moisture. However, these designs do not consider exterior moisture sources, nor do they allow for interstitial moisture to be easily removed. This thesis presents an innovative, ventilated masonry retrofit that utilizes drainage and drying to address moisture accumulation issues. Computer simulations are used to assess and compare the hygrothermal performance of typical and ventilated masonry retrofits. The results show masonry moisture contents are reduced when ventilation drying is provided. Further, these simulations show it may be possible to increase thermal insulation levels in historic masonry buildings without damaging the very façade to be preserved.

Keywords: Historic
Ventilated
Masonry
Retrofit
Insulation
Advisor: Pressnail, Kim D.