VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The commitment of older learners to university-based learning: changing perspectives

As the population ages, education in the post-retirement years will become an even more popular option and attention will need to be given to the contributions that older learners can make to our institutions and to our communities. This is a qualitative study of older learners who have enrolled at university for a degree. The case being studied is the Senior Citizen's Program at the University of Toronto, implemented in 1976. Since that date, several hundred older learners have completed their undergraduate programs. The qualitative approach for this study relied on data collected from interviews during two phases of research. The first phase focused on twenty-six seniors who had graduated between 1996 and 2001. This was an exploratory stage to identify this group of learners' motives for enrolling at university during this stage of their life. The second phase of the study examined in more depth the learning experiences for five respondents. Additional data sources included interviews with university administrators, both retired and current, university coordinators, family members, and university professors. An archival search for documents on the history of this program was also conducted through the University of Toronto library system. Current aging theory, adult learning principles, along with lifelong learning theory, were used as the conceptual frameworks and the lenses for the study. Six themes emerged from the case of the Seniors' Program: restitution for thwarted educational goals, the symbolic meaning of a degree, the importance of family and university support, struggles with the new technology, the importance of a mutually engaging teaching and learning environment, and benefits to the university and the older learners. This study addressed some of the limitations of existing research in this field as changing perspectives about the contributions that older learners can make needs to be addressed. Demographics indicate that more older learners will be accessing universities over the next decade and this study provides current information useful for future planning. What became apparent in this study is that older people have the capacity to contribute throughout the later years as part of their legacy of helping others. There are many healthy, active seniors who are an underused, untapped resource for our universities and the broader communities.

Keywords: Adult education
Older people, Education (Higher)
Motivation in adult education
The effect of papermaking conditions on the bulk and roughness of coated wood-free papers containing aspen high-yield pulp

The effect of partially substituting Aspen high-yield pulp (HYP) for hardwood bleached Kraft pulp (HBKP) on the roughness and bulk of coated paper calendered to a targeted gloss is investigated. The effects of HYP type, HYP content (%), rosin-alum internal size, and precalendering temperature are examined. Controlled amounts of water and coating colour are applied to the paper samples using a modified RNA-52 Printability Tester and a puddle type coater, respectively. There was no significant increase in roughness after coating for up to 20% HYP substituted. In addition, compared to internal sizing, precalendering temperature is the most effective pre-treatment method in reducing roughness after wetting. There is an interaction effect between internal sizing level and precalendering temperature on the final bulk of coated calendered samples. Moreover, a non-linear relationship exists between precalendering temperature and the final bulk for samples substituted with 30% Aspen HYP.
Investigation of stable carbon compound specific isotope analysis to monitor and quantify the biodegradation of chlorinated ethenes in groundwater systems

Identification and quantification of chlorinated ethene biodegradation were investigated using carbon compound specific isotope analysis (CSIA). A dynamic headspace sampling technique was developed and shown to be a robust, simple and effective method for isotopic analysis of dissolved chlorinated ethenes at low concentrations ([mu]g/L). This technique was used to monitor the biodegradation of tetrachloroethene (PCE) to ethene at a contaminated field site. At the field site, significant isotopic fractionation characteristic of biodegradation was observed in the isotope values of PCE and its degradation products trichloroethene (TCE), cis -1,2-dichloroethene (cDCE), and vinyl chloride (VC). During this study, stable carbon isotope analysis also provided one of the earliest lines of evidence for biodegradation. In laboratory and field experiments with an emplaced PCE dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) source, isotopic fractionation was observed in the isotope values of the dechlorination intermediates produced by biodegradation, but not in the aqueous PCE near the DNAPL. These results confirm the hypothesis that isotopic fractionation due to biodegradation will not be observed in aqueous PCE close to the source zone. A model was developed to predict concentration values from isotope data for each step in the sequential reaction of PCE to non-toxic ethene. ...

Keywords: Geochemistry
Chlorohydrocarbons
Groundwater, Analysis
Science, internationalization, and policy networks: regulating genetically-engineered food crops in Canada and the United States, 1973-1998

The early history of the commercialization of genetically-engineered food crops in Canada and the United States is a cautionary tale that underlines the importance of adequate policy capacity. As of the late 1990s, precedent-setting regulatory responses had established far more systematic evaluations of environmental and food safety risks of new plant varieties but were failing to secure consumer acceptance at home and abroad. This case study compares the two countries' responses, as global pioneers in the use of these crops, to the three issues of environmental release, food safety, and food labelling. The comparison reveals that despite expected pressures for Canadian policy choices to converge with American models, Canadian regulators have been given greater discretion and capacity to respond to the issues of environmental release and food safety. Domestic variables explain much of the substance of policy choices in both countries including these differences. Variation in the scope of regulation across issues and countries correlates with differing domestic policy networks. Further, the role of science as an idea and resource within domestic policy networks varies consistently with the degree of discretion and thus capacity given to regulators across issues. The effects of internationalization are largely in shaping preferences and contributing to resources exploited within domestic policy networks. This result suggests that it is difficult to gauge fully the impact of internationalization on domestic policy making without exploring its interaction with domestic institutions. Guided by historical institutionalism, the case study includes an assessment of the inertia of policy legacies and the constraints on policy making imposed by policy boundaries. Policy legacies provide starting points for policy making, including levels of state capacity and autonomy. Policy boundaries (created by key moments of the intersection of ideas, interests, and institutions) shift advantage within policy networks. Lessons from the case study include the conclusion that policy capacity may rest substantially on three interrelated factors: first, state capacity and autonomy; second, scientific legitimacy (the way in which science is used during policy making); and third, democratic legitimacy (conducting policy making in a manner that will be widely perceived as legitimate in a democratic sense).
Real estate liquidity risks, price risks, and cities

The dissertation examines the linkages among real estate liquidity risks, price risks, and the thickness of a market, as they are observed in cities. It attempts to explain why large metropolitan property markets can be attractive to investors and continue to thrive in terms of liquidity. The dissertation uses real estate markets as the context, and adopts the perspective of an asset vendor to examine the decision processes leading to spatial agglomeration in light of liquidity risks. Property prices are uncertain in the form of price risks, and the asset vendor is risk-averse. The dissertation examines how a thicker market can reduce liquidity risk and explains why thicker markets can be attractive to investors in terms of lower liquidity risks. The dissertation is comprised of three papers, and each paper deals with a specific question that attempts to forge the linkages among real estate liquidity risks, price risks, and the thickness of a market. The first paper precisely defines the cost of liquidity as a discount in price (or utility) that an investor would be willing to tradeoff for an immediate transaction. The second paper uses the definition of liquidity cost established in the first paper to examine how and to what extent the thickness of a market may affect the cost of liquidity. Thickness is defined as the number of trading partners in the market. The third paper adopts a different stance to analyze how an agent copes with uncertainty in general, in light of the indivisible nature of home ownership. It uses home ownership as an example to study the relationship among price risk, risk aversion, and the investor's propensity to invest. The dissertation highlights the role of uncertainty in shaping a risk-averse investor's location choice. It provides a different lens to explore the processes leading to spatial agglomeration. It emphasizes the agent's behavior in understanding economic activities and spatial outcomes. It broadens our understanding of cities' role as a thick market, which helps investors to cope with uncertainty.
Regulation of dopamine transporter by DJ-1

Wild type DJ-1 is a sim;28 kDa cytosolic protein that is ubiquitously expressed in tissues. In this study, we show that human embryonic kidney-293T (HEK-293T) cells co-transfected with wild type DJ-1 and human dopamine transporter (hDAT) exhibit significant elevation of [3H] DA reuptake compared to cells transfected with hDAT and empty expression vector or with DJ-1 mutants. The up-regulation of DAT activity observed in HEK-293T cells co-transfected with DJ-1/hDAT was not due to altered affinity for [3H] DA nor an increase in total hDAT protein levels. Moreover, coimmunoprecipitation and affinity pull down assays suggest a physical association between hDAT and DJ-1 in both HEK-293T cells and in rat striatum. We also observed that DJ-1 mediated hDAT up-regulation in DJ-1/hDAT co-expressed cells was abolished when cells were pre-treated with hydrogen peroxide. Collectively, our results suggest that DJ-1 plays essential roles in regulating hDAT functions under both basal and oxidative conditions.
Retargetable binary tools for embedded software

Equipping retargetability to the embedded software development tool suite is the enabler of architectural exploration in the context of system-on-chip design. While the study of retargetable compilers has been active for long, retargetting equally important binary tools, including linkers and micro-architecture simulators, has not received enough attention. In this thesis, we propose a unique methodology where the architecture-dependent components of production models. Our architectural model includes not only the instruction set architecture (ISA) model, but also the application binary interface (ABI) model, a subject not previously reported. With this methodology, we are able to automatically port Free Software Foundation (GNU)'s Binary File Descriptor (BFD) library and GNU linker, the de facto standard for linking, as well as SimpleScalar, the de facto standard for micro-architecture simulation, all based on a common specification of an arbitrary RISC-like processor.
Generic parallel genetic algorithms framework for optimizing intelligent transportation systems (GENOTRANS)

Many intelligent transportation systems (ITS) require formulations of Optimization problems. Heuristic solution methods such as genetic algorithm (GA) are successful and attractive approaches to solve such optimization problems. Additionally, ITS optimization problems are computationally demanding and often intractable by sequential GA. This thesis introduces the architecture and development of a generic distributed parallel genetic algorithms engine (GENOTRANS). It utilizes parallel population structures that proved to enhance the GA overall performance. The presented framework is based on the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) architecture that provides standards for building enterprise solutions. To demonstrate the use of the new tool, GENOTRANS was tested on the optimization of GAID (Genetic Adaptive Incident Detection) which utilizes multiple smoothing parameter probabilistic neural networks optimized by genetic algorithms. The Master-slave parallel scheme has shown a significant speed up relative to sequential GA. The multi-deme approach generally enhanced the quality of the solution and the convergence characteristics.
Bank branch productivity comparison -- DEA models with bank methods

The purpose of this study is to introduce a new staffing allocation model for a bank branch network, using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and compare the results to those from the Bank's own system. The Bank's system methodology is based on complex index calculations and has sufficient complexity to be comparable to DEA; hence, the validation is of real relevance to management. The Bank's approach is to identify an “efficiency band” that shows the efficient branches, as well as those that are “overstaffed ” and “understaffed”. In DEA sense, the most efficient branches are “understaffed” (working “too hard”), so additional staff may be required. “Overstaffed” branches are identified in the usual way. An evaluation or validation of their system as well as some improvements seem desirable for the Bank. The DEA model proposed monitors the Bank branch network efficiency and identifies the best practices of efficient branches; classified in two size categories: “small” and “large” branches. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
De-familiarizing the familial: unveiling the perverse familial through the narrational aesthetics of trauma and the obscene across seminal independent films

This interdisciplinary film studies dissertation engages in close readings of four independent texts: Eve's Bayou (1997), Madame Sata (2002), Far From Heaven (2002) and Monster's Ball (2001) through which I analyze the representations of the perverse familial via the narrational aesthetics of trauma and the obscene. My project unveils how social categories of the family, race, sexuality, gender and class are reconstructed and reconstituted as perverse structures, via the narrational aesthetics of trauma and the obscene that operates in these texts. Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach to inform my reading of the films, I infuse film studies textual analysis and genre criticism, with a marinade of black, literary and queer studies. I foreground across four chapters the various styles that these familial texts embody, ranging from the merging of black independent textual concerns with a melodramatic mode in Eve's Bayou, the staging of the queer biopic aesthetics of Madame Sata , a rewriting of 1950's family melodramas in Far From Heaven , and a postmodern drama that evokes the plotting of the 'male weepie,' in Monster's Ball
A goal-oriented representation of service-oriented software design principles

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) embodies a set of principles including service abstraction, composability, discoverability, and reusability, among others. Although these principles are widely circulated by SOA technology vendors, there have been few efforts to collect, organize, and elaborate on these principles for the purpose of guiding system design. In this paper, we explore how service-oriented design principles can be organized in a goal graph representation and used in system design. We propose a method to extract SOA design principles from textually represented service-oriented knowledge sources. Next, we apply our method on an SOA knowledge source, extract SOA design knowledge-base organized by design principles and presented by goal graph, and explore application of such knowledge-base.
Linking phenomenology, anatomy and pharmacolgy of antipsychotic treatment

The overall objective of the present thesis has been to study antipsychotic effects from three different levels of analysis: (a) phenomenology, (b) anatomy and (c) pharmacology and to provide a link between these levels. The phenomenological section of the thesis (A) deals with the development of an instrument: the dimensions of psychosis instrument (DIPI) to capture the multidimensional experience of psychosis and subsequently its differential change with the initiation of antipsychotic medications. This study provides the first systematic evidence that antipsychotic medications initially decrease the behavioural impact of the psychotic experience, rather than decreasing the conviction it its reality. The second study from this section, asks patients directly what they thought the antipsychotics were doing for their main psychotic experience, and suggests that antipsychotics mainly produce a state of "detachment" from symptoms, rather than an "eradication" of them. The anatomical (B) and pharmacological (C) sections of this thesis aim at associating the phenomenological aspect of antipsychotics response (i.e. subjective well being under neuroleptics -SWN- ) to different brain regions (striatal and extrastriatal) and to the different states (high affinity and low affinity state) of the DA D2 receptors. The anatomical section showed---for the first time---the significant association between antipsychotic induced dysphoria and temporal blockade. The pharmacological section showed, first, no significant difference in the DA receptors configured in the high affinity state (DA D 2high) between drug-free schizophrenic patients and healthy volunteers. Second, a significant association between antipsychotic-induced-dysphoria and binding potential (BP). However, the direction of the association was opposite: SWN was directly associated with BP of the DA D2 as measured with the standard antagonist ligand ([C11]-raclopride) and indirectly associated as measured with the new agonist ligand ([C11]-(+)-PHNO). In summary, the present work comprises studies from phenomenological to pharmacological, providing a link between different levels of analysis of antipsychotic drug treatment. The implications of these findings for understanding schizophrenia and antipsychotics are discussed.
Freud or Nietzsche: The drives, pleasure, and social happiness

Many commentators have remarked upon the striking points of correspondence that can be found in the works of Freud and Nietzsche. However, this essay argues that on the subject of desire their work presents us with a radical choice: Freud or Nietzsche. I first argue that Freud's theory of desire is grounded in the principle of inertia, a principle that is incompatible with his later theory of Eros and the life drive. Furthermore, the principle of inertia is not essentially distinct from his later theory of the death drive. Consequently, Freud's theory of desire can only be interpreted consistently as a monism of the death drive. Finally, I argue that in Nietzsche's theory of desire there is no essential conflict between individual desire and social life. The Nietzschean subject desires to manifest power in the form of activity that is independent of external agents, not to dominate the other. Consequently, Nietzsche's view allows for the possibility of a positively defined concept of the social good in which morality is the affirmation and enhancement of every subject's happiness, and justice can be achieved through the promotion and protection of an equality of power among subjects. Next, I explicate the stakes of this opposition by analyzing the social consequences of each view for morality and justice. I argue that the Freudian subject seeks to dominate the social other, and that there is an insurmountable conflict between the satisfaction of desire and the demands of social life. Consequently, Freud's view allows only for a negative conception of the social good in which morality is defined as the intrinsically impossible task of eliminating evil, and justice can be achieved only through the equal distribution of instinctual frustration. I then analyze Nietzsche's attempt to ground his theory of desire in the concept of the will to power. I argue that Nietzsche's view of desire is fundamentally opposed to the key elements of Freud's theory of desire: the principle of constancy, the Freudian definition of the drive, and the pleasure principle.
The resolution complexity of constraint satisfaction

Constraint satisfaction provides a uniform framework for addressing a variety of combinatorial problems. Propositional proof complexity is the study of the minimum lengths of proofs in propositional logic. We view constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) as generalizing propositional satisfiability, and adapt ideas from resolution proof complexity to their study. We study a previously defined resolution-like proof system for CSPs, denoted here NG-RES, and a new system C-RES. NG-RES is very natural, but C-RES is more powerful, and is equivalent to propositional resolution for CSPs equivalent to SAT. We examine CSP algorithms that employ standard techniques from the literature, and show they are resolution-based. They implicitly construct NG-RES or C-RES proofs. We also give resolution-based algorithms for binary CSPs with non-trivial upper bounds. For domain size d, we construct C-RES proofs in time O([ d/2]n), and for domain size 3 we obtain O(1.38027n), which is close to the best algorithmic upper bound. For resolution-based algorithms, minimum resolution proof size is a lower bound on running time. We demonstrate there are many CSP instances for which the shortest C-RES proof is of exponential size: Any k-CNF formula which is hard for propositional resolution induces two families of CSP instances which are hard for C-RES, one with domain size k and binary constraints, and one with domain size two and k-ary constraints. Based on a known relationship between clause size and refutation length for propositional resolution, we reduce C-RES length to the “sub-critical expansion” of CSP instances. We use this to obtain C-RES lower bounds for random CSPs. Known exponential resolution lower bounds for random instances of k-SAT are seen to imply lower bounds for equivalent random CSPs. For a more general family of random CSPs, we obtain exponential C-RES lower bounds when constraints are “loose”. Our results generalize those implied via random k-SAT in two respects: they apply to binary CSPs, and they hold for constraints which are “tighter” than propositional clauses. We also demonstrate a width-length relationship for NG-RES. This implies that tree-NG-RES is quasi-automatizable, and may lead to an improved separation between NG-RES and RES.