VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Temporal synchrony and aging

Age-related changes in the auditory system have been attributed to three separate factors: outer hair cell damage, changes in endocochlear potentials, and loss of neural synchrony (Mills et al., 2006). While loss of neural synchrony may have little effect on audiometric thresholds, it is thought to contribute to difficulties understanding speech in noise. An intensity discrimination experiment was performed in quiet, broadband, and notched noise. While two of the older adults exhibited intensity discrimination thresholds equivalent to those of the younger adults, the majority of the older adults had much larger thresholds than younger adults the noise conditions. Importantly, these older adults did not exhibit smaller thresholds in broadband noise compared to notched noise as was the case for younger adults. Since temporal fine structure cues are present in the broadband--but not the notched-noise condition, this pattern of findings suggests that these older adults were not as able as younger adults were in making use of temporal fine structure cues. A jitter algorithm was used to simulate a loss of synchrony and a smearing algorithm was used as a control for the unintended spectral distortion produced by the jitter algorithm. Over the course of five experiments, young and old adults with good audiograms in the speech range were presented with sentences under a variety of processing conditions using a range of parameters to examine the effect of a loss of synchrony on speech perception in noise. In general, the jitter condition resulted in a significant decline in word identification compared to both the smear and intact conditions for both age groups. This suggests that a loss of synchrony can have a deleterious affect on speech intelligibility in noise. Furthermore, the performance of the young adults in the jitter conditions were similar to that of the older adults in the intact conditions for low-context sentences. Thus, the jitter condition appears to simulate this neural aspect of auditory aging in otherwise healthy young ears.
The effect of micro-implant surface geometry on peri-implant bone adaptation under orthodontic loading in the rabbit tibia

Twenty-four New Zealand white rabbits were used for this investigation. All implants were placed in the mid-diaphyseal surface of the right proximal tibia. In part I, 13 animals were implanted with two test and one control machined threaded micro-implants (1.2mm diameter, 4mm length). In part II of the study, 11 animals received two test and one control porous-surfaced micro-implants (2.6mm diameter, 2.5mm length). After a 12-day healing period, the test micro-implants were loaded with tension coil springs for 42 days. Part I showed no significant differences in peri-implant bone response between the compression, tension and control surfaces of the threaded micro-implants. In part II, the test compression surfaces within 500 mum of the porous-surfaced micro-implants had significantly greater peri-implant bone response than the corresponding control implant surfaces (p
Enacting global citizenship education: Teacher subject-matter knowledge and pedagogy

At the global level, increased interdependence has critical implications for what it means to educate 'for citizenship'. Research identifying what students need to know and to be able to do as 'global citizens', in response, has infiltrated mandated curricula. Equally significant is that changes in the contemporary global context are emergent and teachers' own understanding of complex global issues, and ways of teaching them, cannot be assumed. Studies identifying teacher confidence in subject matter knowledge and teacher fears of controversy as constraints to global citizenship classroom teaching highlight challenges confronting teachers in this area. This study describes and critically assesses how a small sample of exemplary global citizenship educators used and interpreted curriculum guidelines and knowledge resources to enact global citizenship education, finding that participants' global citizenship classroom teaching was predominantly a self-directed endeavor intimately linked with their personal passion for their subject matter and for their teacher identities.

Keywords: World citizenship, Study and teaching
International education
Political participation, Study and teaching
Teachers
Teaching
Numerical methods for the valuation of synthetic Collateralized Debt Obligations

A Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) is a credit derivative that creates fixed income securities, which are known as tranches. A CDO is called a synthetic CDO if the risky assets in the underlying pool are credit default swaps. An essential part of the valuation of a synthetic CDO tranche is how to estimate accurately and efficiently the expected value of the tranche loss function. It is known that the expected value of a function of one random variable is completely determined by the distribution of the random variable and the function itself. A standard approach to estimate the expected value of a function of one random variable is to estimate the distribution of the underlying random variable, the pool loss in our case, and then to evaluate the expected value of the given function, the tranche loss function for our problem. Following this approach, we introduce three methods for estimating the distribution of the pool loss: a stable recursive method for computing the distribution of the pool loss exactly, an improved compound Poisson approximation method and a normal power approximation method for approximating the distribution of the pool loss. We also develop a new method that focuses on the tranche loss function directly. The tranche loss function is expressed simply in terms of two bases functions. Each of the two bases functions is a transformation of the hockey stick function h(x), where h(x) = 1– x if 0 ≤ x < 1 and 0 if x ≥ 1. By approximating the hockey stick function by a sum of exponentials, the tranche loss function is approximated by a sum of exponentials. The main advantage of this method is that the distribution of the pool loss need not be estimated. A crucial part of this new method is the determination of the coefficients of an exponential approximation to the hockey stick function. We discuss both the numerical method for computing the exponential approximation to the hockey stick function as well as the theoretical properties of the approximation. Performance comparisons of the four new methods developed in this thesis and other standard methods for synthetic CDO valuation are presented.
Darkness inside: The role of the half-monster hero in the Middle English Romance tradition

The figure of the half-monster hero stands as one of the more intriguing problems of Middle English literature. This character, the son of a human being and a god or monster, progresses from a miraculous birth through an unruly childhood to a career in which he uses the powers of the "outside" that are his birthright to expel or contain the "outsiders"--The monsters---threatening his society. At this juncture, he is the only monster remaining and must himself be contained through expulsion from or assimilation into the "inside." The half-monster is common in folklore and non-Christian literature, in which he is not necessarily considered a power of good against evil but one of inside against outside. However, in the Middle Ages, he occasionally appears in a Christianised form as a child of evil who allies himself with good and fights once more for the inside. The Christian half-monster, who is balanced almost perfectly between Christ and Antichrist, is thus inherently contradictory. In this dissertation, I explore three Middle English examples of the half-monster figure: Merlin (in the Prose Merlin), Alexander the Great (in Kyng Alisaunder), and Richard the Lionheart (in Richard Coeur de Lion). These characters echo Antichrist in their origins and Christ in their purposes; they bring darkness inside, fighting for God with powers that are less than divine or breaking Christian rules in defence of Christianity. By accepting that these characters embody paradox and not attempting to explain contradictory elements of the stories away as "mistakes," I am able to examine both contradiction itself as an essential element of the half-monster story and the role of contradiction in the medieval Christian world-view. The half-monster balances between inside and outside, good and evil, superhuman and subhuman. In the process, he highlights the importance of the inner darkness that lurks at the heart of even the Christian world of story.
A subharmonically-injected quadrature LO generator for 17GHz WLAN applications

An LC delay line I/Q signal generator using sub-harmonic injection locking for 17GHz HiperLINK application is presented in this thesis. The I/Q generator multiplies a 5–6GHz input signal by three and generates an accurate I/Q LO signals in the 17GHz band. Symmetric injection locking is employed to minimize the output I/Q imbalance caused by the injected I/Q error. Two asymmetric LC delay lines accurately set the free-running frequency of the I/Q generator close to 17GHz. Measurement results indicate a free-running frequency of 16.24GHz and an injection-locking range from 14.6GHz to 17.86GHz at 0dBm input power. The input-to-output phase noise degradation is approximately 10 dB. The power consumption excluding buffers is 22.04mW from a 2.2V power supply.
Midwifery client perspectives on interprofessional relations

The standpoint of midwifery clients in the everyday process of consultation or referral was explored through the use of one-on-one interviews and textual analysis. The subjugation of women and midwives by biomedicine and patriarchy was illustrated through the activation of authoritative texts, through closure strategies which maintain the physician monopoly over birth and through the adherence to a physician-centred model of birth. At the same time, there were stories of resistance as midwives and women activate a woman-centred model of care that challenges these ideologies. The stories of the women suggest that the consultation process is complex with instances of subjugation and resistance occurring simultaneously. The experience of midwifery clients has been useful for illustrating power relations between various health professionals and between professionals and clients.
Search for the mechanism by which hyperthermia induces increased elastin deposition

Hyperthermia-exposed cells demonstrated increased elastin deposition and decreased cellular proliferation. Moreover, tropoelastin co-localized exclusively with EBP and hyperthermia facilitated higher levels of EBP, decreased chondroitin sulfate-containing glycosaminoglycans and increased EBP recycling, enhancing the protection/secretion of tropoelastin. In occlusive arterial diseases the production of elastic fibers is abnormal and associated with heightened cellular proliferation. Preliminary data indicated that exposure of human fibroblasts to 41°C increased elastin deposition. The present study investigated all stages of elastogenesis in vitro disclosing the cellular and molecular mechanisms of this phenomenon and determining whether hyperthermia affects the physiological status of smooth muscle cells. Cells from both Costello and Williams Syndrome patients showed similar trends of increased elastin and decreased proliferation. Since clinical treatments based on genetic manipulations are not practical, the present study provides scientific basis for the development of a novel, simple method to increase elastic fiber deposition in hopes of alleviating the pathological phenotypes.
Indexing methods for efficient parsing with typed feature structure grammars

A major obstacle in developing efficient parsers for unification-based grammars is the slow parsing time caused by the complex and large structure used to represent grammatical categories. With the broadening coverage of such grammars, their size and complexity increases, creating the need for improved parsing techniques. Although several statistical optimizations exist today that exhibit significant improvements in parsing times, they rely on data collected during a training phase. This thesis presents a theoretical investigation of indexing based on static analysis of feature structure grammar rules, a method that has received little attention in the last few years in computational linguistics. This non-statistical approach has the advantage of not requiring training phases, although it is consistent with further statistical optimizations.
Enabling technologies for parallel single cell electrophoresis in a microchip platform

This thesis presents the development of a system for single cell capillary electrophoresis in a multichannel microfluidic device. Large features were machined into the polymethylmethyl acrylate (PMMA) substrate using a programmable milling machine. The finer, channel designs consisting of 4, parallel 10 mum channels were photolithographically etched in the substrate using a laser micro-fabrication system based on a molecular fluorine (F2) excimer laser. The system uses optical tweezers for selection and transport of single cells inside the microfluidic device, and electrical potential for lysis of the cells at the opening of the channels. Separation of the injected content of individual calcein-labeled Acute Myloid Leukemia (AML) cells is presented and compared to separations performed in an established system for single cell capillary electrophoresis.
Calculated risk-taking: the governance of casino gambling in Ontario

The establishment of three provincially-owned commercial casinos in Ontario beginning in 1993 provides the empirical base for this governmentality-inspired investigation into the casinos' governing rationale. Their general notions of benefit and cost, I show, are implicitly understood within an emergent political context of profitability that economically and socially justifies casino provision. Techniques of image management assist in constructing a publicly palatable image of profit but are also reinforced by the cost-benefit framework and its subsequent spawning of an array of sub-regimes of governance and their constituent technologies. This thesis analyzes control structures that aim at minimizing the primary costs to profit, namely revenue, crime and addiction. It seeks to anatomize and describe the various technologies, power relations, languages and objectives that constitute and enable the governance of different domains deemed risky to casino profitability. Moreover, the implications for theorizing governance and specifically, risk governance are explored Lastly, a detailed analysis is performed on the programmes concerned with gambling addiction and responsibilization and their role in governing gamblers. Through these concepts, casino gambling acquires a greater social and political significance. As I argue, they are ultimately projects that perpetuate and produce a subjectivity and behavioural set that reflects appropriate citizenship for contemporary society and all its conditions.

Keywords: Dissertations, Academic
Casinos, Ontario
Gambling, Ontario
Family functioning in chronic orofacial pain conditions

Temporomandibular disorders, atypical facial pain, atypical odontalgia and Burning Mouth Syndrome are four challenging chronic orofacial pain conditions. The biopsychosocial model of chronic pain recognizes that neurophysiology, psychological processes and social factors mediate pain. However, relatively little is known about the effect of social environments. The family represents the most immediate social environment. The objectives of this study were to (i) compare family functioning in chronic orofacial pain and pain-free families using multiple family informants and a postulated biopsychosocial theoretical framework and (ii) to identify psychosocial predictors of pain improvement at six-months follow-up. This study used a two-phase study approach. Phase 1 was a cross-sectional study of chronic orofacial pain and pain-free families comprised of the female chronic orofacial pain subject or female pain-free volunteer and their intimate partner. Pain females were recruited from Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto while female volunteers were drawn from the Faculty of Dentistry clinic and environs. Female subjects completed standard questionnaires, which included the Family Environment Scale, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and the modified version of the Chronic Stress Inventory. Pain females also completed pain questions. Corresponding data were obtained from intimate partners using postal questionnaires. Pain questionnaires were mailed to pain females in phase 2 six-month after phase I recruitment. Data analyses from 41 chronic orofacial pain couples and 50 pain-free couples showed both significant between-group and within-family, functioning differences. Phase 1 identified female-partner marital adjustment differences, social life chronic stress, couple depressive symptomatology and partner expressiveness (communication) as significant predictors of pain intensity. Psychosocial factors were also identified as the strongest predictors of pain reduction and self-rated pain improvement in phase 2. This study showed family functioning differences between chronic orofacial pain and pain-free families that provide preliminary support for the theoretical framework with putative adaptive and operant pathways mediating the relationship between pain and family functioning. Psychosocial factors as prognostic predictors of pain improvement underscore the need for further research to elucidate family interactions and to investigate the implications of psychosocial factors in the management of chronic orofacial pain conditions.
Fluid bed roasting of Bessemer matte

A laboratory fluid bed roaster was used to study the rate of roasting by analysis of the off gas. The roasted calcine formed a NiO phase saturated with 30% tenorite (CuO) in solid solution. The mineralogy of the second copper oxide phase was found to depend on the amount of excess air used during roasting. Cuprite (Cu2O) is more stable at a pO2 of 0.05 atm., while tenorite is formed at 0.21 atm. Fluid bed roasting of Bessemer matte containing copper, nickel and sulphur was demonstrated at temperatures from 900°C to 1050°C. At higher temperatures, the solidus of the copper-nickel oxide calcine is reached and fluid bed roasting becomes impossible due to rapid agglomeration caused by liquid phase sintering. Kinetics are slow below 900°C.Complete roasting of Bessemer matte in a fluid bed is environmentally advantageous since the sulphur dioxide can be economically converted to sulphuric acid. The exothermic roasting reaction provides sufficient energy to achieve the reactor temperatures so no excess fuel is required and no greenhouse generating gases are produced. Non-isothermal thermo-gravimetric experiments were conducted to determine initiation of roasting and reaction kinetics. Isothermal techniques were not possible without melting the sulphide phase, however, batch fluid bed roaster tests closely simulated isothermal conditions by rapidly heating the sulphides particles to target temperature. The kinetics of roasting increases with increasing temperature and with increasing pO2.
The beta-delayed particle decay of 17Ne

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.