VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The initiation, progression to and protection from T1D in NOD mice

Type I diabetes (T1D) in human and rodents is an autoimmune disease, selectively targeting pancreatic β cells in islets of Langerhans. Disease development is determined by polygenic and multiple environmental factors. In NOD mice, the disease initiates at 4–5 weeks of age with periinsulitis, and transforms into aggressively invasive insulitis by 8–10 weeks of age. In our colony, the first overtly diabetic animals are about 16 weeks old, but disease can take as much as 36 weeks in some animals. Prediabetes is thus a slow process, involving multiple immune cells and molecules, and its progression is determined by finely tuned balance and shifting bias among multiple players. It remains unknown what drives the loss of self-tolerance to islets, and what precipitates and/or halts prediabetes progression in NOD mice. Autoantigens are core elements in T cell mediated islet β cell damage, thus serving as excellent tools to study these issues. Conscious of the fact that expression of major autoantigens in T1D, including (pro)insulin, GAD65/67, ICA69, HSP and IA-2, is not islet restricted, we generated transgenic NOD mice expressing an ICA69-EGFP fusion protein under control of a β-actin promoter. Transgenics showed significant disease protection, associated with a dramatic absence of CD8+ T cells in the enhanced IFNγ-rich insulitis lesion. There was no infiltration of other ‘green’ tissues. Islet and heart transplantation as well as alloxan experiments demonstrated that transgene-specific T cells were primed and maintained only by islets. In this model, prediabetes appears to reflect strictly local events, initiated and maintained by islet-exclusive tissue factors. Autoantigen expression in the thymus is critical for the induction of tolerance and formation of T cell repertoire. We generated one tet07-ICA69 transgenic line with a promoter-independent ICA69 overexpression exclusively in thymus and spleen. These transgenic mice showed persistent tolerance to the dominant epitope of ICA69, Tep69, and disease protection. With adoptive transfer and thymus transplant experiments, it was clear that the transgene modified T cell repertoire was important for disease protection, and that re-selection of such a T cell pool in the thymus or by immunotherapy could arrest prediabetes progression even in models of late NOD prediabetes.
Dynamic modelling to investigate transient responses in lime kilns

Many problems have been attributed to variations in operating parameters in lime kiln operation, including ring formation, poor lime quality, and low kiln thermal efficiency. It is often difficult to identify key parameters that cause the problems. The interaction between kiln operating parameters during a transient period may be assessed with the aid of a dynamic lime kiln model. A dynamic lime kiln model has been developed using CADSIM Plus, which simulates a process flow-sheet using a heat and mass balance approach together with process dynamics, to examine the behavior of process variables over time. The model was tested against the operating data of a lime kiln. The results show that the model predicts the key operating parameters of the kiln reasonably well. The model can also predict solids temperature profiles and gas temperature and concentration profiles under steady state conditions, and can show how these profiles changes dynamically with other transient conditions such as changes in fuel composition and mud quality. This information is important for the prediction of lime quality under transient conditions.
Strategic placement of relay infrastructure in wireless networks

In the near future, wireless access to the Internet is expected to become a necessity. Since the demand for wireless Internet access has been increasing dramatically, public hot spots and other wireless broadband services have become increasingly popular. To satisfy the high demand from future wireless Internet users, new standards were developed and a large amount of spectrum in high frequency hand was allocated for future wireless access technologies. However, due to the higher frequency, signal attenuates more severely than that of lower frequency systems. Consequently, as future wireless communications systems migrate to higher frequencies for more spectrums, relay infrastructure will play a crucial role. Our research investigates the effects of relay infrastructure in two different wireless networks; wireless local area networks (WLANs) and heterogeneous wireless mesh networks. Different analytical models were (leveloped to analyze the effects of relay equipment placement with respect to system performance and cost. Moreover, efficient optimization techniques were developed to adjust network design parameters and in turn obtaining the, desired network quality. The main focus of this thesis is to show that relay equipment placement is an important network design parameter which can suhstantially affect network performance and cost.
Postcopulatory sexual selection in Australian redback spiders, (Latrodectus hasselti Thorell)

Postcopulatory sexual selection is now accepted as an important force shaping the evolution of mating strategies. In this thesis, I present three studies aimed at assessing mechanisms of sperm transfer, storage, and utilization in the Australian redback spider, Latrodectus hasselti. I assessed the time-course of sperm transfer and measured paternity patterns in light of manipulated copulatory patterns. My results demonstrate that copulation is prolonged past the duration needed for sperm transfer but that copulation duration can affect paternity. I also found that males deposit a mating plug, although the effect of the plug is dependent on the pattern of insemination of the female's reproductive tracts. I outline the implications of these results for understanding the evolution of redback mating behaviours such as copulatory pattern, copulation duration, and male self-sacrifice. The results highlight how an understanding of postcopulatory processes can change interpretations of the selective consequences of observed paternity patterns.
The state and the culture of violence in London, 1769-1840

This dissertation provides a broad historical survey of attitudes towards violence in late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century English society. It is the first to contextualize evidence about interpersonal violence in metropolitan London. The dissertation explores the ways in which changing attitudes towards violence relate to larger issues of legal reform and to the remarkable shift in penal practices in this period. The dissertation combines a dose study of the records of various metropolitan courts with a more general assessment of popular attitudes towards the everyday experience of violence. The records of the court of King's Bench proved a particularly rich source for this study, illuminating both the procedures of this court, as well as the motivations of litigants in cases of interpersonal violence. The records of the quarter sessions revealed significant changes in penal practice especially with regard to the prosecution and punishment of assault. In general, the courts began to take a harsher attitude towards violence in the late decades of the eighteenth century and made use of imprisonment to punish such behaviour more seriously than in the past. This shift in penal practice reflects larger changes in attitudes towards violence in English society. Modifications to other penal practices were also occurring in this period. Violent punishment lay at the heart of the English judicial system's repertoire of penal strategies. But as a consequence of the political and philosophical debate over the nature and rationale of judicial punishment, in concert with more mundane changes in the physical geography of the metropolis, violence and humiliation rapidly declined as central aspects of the English penal ethos. Through its exploration of how violence relates to these larger issues of legal reform, and the notable shift in sentiment regarding penal policy during this period, the dissertation illuminates the complexity of social reform discourses, revealing the extent to which changes in attitudes towards violence, including violent punishment, drew upon deeper cultural norms for their legitimacy and moral backing.
Navigating absence: Law and the family in Genoa, 1380--1420

Absence was an ominous event for premodern families and a significant phenomenon in premodern communities. Although absence could bring fortune or ruin to families and lineages, it was a necessary evil for those families and communities who built their success on mercantile and martial activities. While scholars have explored and debated the economic and diplomatic histories of premodern Italian communes, they have not addressed the social and legal ramifications that economic and political practices had on families. Premodern families faced a paradox: economic necessity demanded that men travel abroad; patriarchy required heads of households to be present in the commune to conduct familial affairs. This project uses the laws and extant legal records from late trecento Genoa to uncover the mechanisms and strategies Genoese families and lawmakers employed to resolve the absence dilemma. Along with highlighting the pervasive role that absence played in premodern life, this investigation asserts the primacy of the family by (re- )inserting men into the history of the family. Men and women shared the burden of sustaining the family---the focal point from which all other social roles emanated. Men and women in their familial, gendered, and social roles utilized the extended kin network and special provisions in the laws to navigate through absence. During periods of male absence, legally unenfranchised family members (wives and sons, in particular) gained qualified control over the family and access to the decision-making process. Evidence of their success maintaining the family illuminates why absence potentially threatened individual families but never the foundational premise of society---patriarchy. Patriarchy's greatest assets---flexibility and pragmatism---allowed for negotiation between the ideal and reality.
Low-density parity-check codes with reduced decoding complexity

This thesis presents new methods to design low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with reduced decoding complexity. An accurate measure of iterative decoding complexity is introduced. In conjunction with extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart analysis, an efficient optimization program is developed, for which the complexity measure is the objective function, and its utility is demonstrated by designing LDPC codes with reduced decoding complexity. For long block lengths, codes designed by these methods match the performance of threshold-optimized codes, but reduce the decoding complexity by approximately one-third. The performance of LDPC codes is investigated when the decoder is constrained to perform a sub-optimal decoding algorithm. Due to their practical relevance, the focus is on the design of LDPC codes for quantized min-sum decoders. For such a decoder, codes designed for the sum-product algorithm are sub-optimal, and an alternative design strategy is proposed, resulting in gains of more than 0.5 dB.
Threads in the tapestry: Michel Tremblay and the variation of genre

The Québécois writer Michel Tremblay has produced more than forty works ranging from plays to novels, short stories and autobiographical narratives. Many of these are connected by the recurrence of characters, most notably that of the figure of the writer, his family and their entourage. This thesis examines the recurrence of the central figure across the literary genres used by Tremblay, thereby revealing the structure of his œuvre while studying the effect of the variation of its genres. Employing the metaphor of the tapestry whose central character is its weaver, the study utilizes textual approaches to analyze the character throughout Tremblay's works but in particular in nine, three drawn from each of the genres of the novel, autobiography and theatre. Philippe Hamon's (1983) semiotic theories of literary personnel permit the examination of the character inscribed in the text while its reception by the reader or audience in each of the three genres studied is then examined using the theories of Vincent Jouve (1992). The semiotic and reception analyses reveal the main traits of the character in each genre, permitting comparison between them. Theories specific to each of the genres assist in differentiating their effect on the contents of the texts. Finally, in order to examine the weaving of the tapestry as a process, Mikhail Bakhtine's (1990; 1984) theories of architectonics are employed to show how the character, and thus Tremblay's œuvre , developed work by work over the course of the writing and through the variation of the literary genre. The analysis reveals that as the tapestry develops over time, the writer comes to occupy its centre and increasingly to reveal himself as a character, narrator and author. The variation of genres advances this process as Tremblay comes ever closer to complete self-revelation, claiming his heritage, identity and name. The tapestry approaches the total revelation of the figure of the author through an autobiographical play which allows him, as both narrator and character, to fulfill the rôle predicted for his fictional counterpart—to recreate and relive life through art.
From high skill to high school: the social organization of "Canadian work experience" for immigrant professionals

This thesis examines the concept of Canadian work experience to explore its origins as an ideological construction whose constituent work practices can be traced. Canadian work experience has no stable inherent meaning; its meaning is relational, contingent upon processes of gender, race, ethnicity, and their interconnections. Employing Dorothy E. Smith's (2005) institutional ethnography, I begin with the experiences of immigrants in a school board co-op program and investigate the policies and work practices of people that give shape to the meaning of Canadian work experience. The vibrancy of the participants' life stories are conveyed through a Reader's Theatre, an arts-informed research tradition. Within the taken-for-granted ideological frame of Canadian work experience, volunteer work is posited by many as a good strategy for immigrants to get established in the labour market. Immigrants often obtain volunteer experience though co-op programs, a large number of which are operated by school boards. The co-op programs operationalize the absence of Canadian work experience as an individual deficit, and in so doing, position immigrant professionals in precarious employment relations. My research reveals that immigrant professionals with graduate degrees and years of international work experience are put through curriculum designed for adolescents with limited work experience, and, as part of the co-op program, often perform over 400 hours of unpaid work in private manufacturing companies, banks and other for-profit ventures. I argue that the co-op programs contribute to the stratification of the labour market along racial and ethnic lines as many co-op courses explicitly restrict eligibility to immigrants who speak English as a second language, and 75 per cent of immigrants are people of colour (Statistics Canada, 2008). The co-op program is one site where immigrants learn how their differences with respect to language and work experience are made to matter. Their past experience is not considered relevant, their educational achievements are downplayed and the value of their labour is eradicated. This repositioning—treating highly skilled immigrants, specifically non-native speakers of English as inexperienced high school students—is itself a process of racialization, but one that is cloaked behind the ideological construction of Canadian work experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Civic engagement and delinquency in youth

When youth feel connected to the authorities and institutions of their communities, they are less likely to violate norms and more likely to demonstrate prosocial behaviour (Eccles & Gootman, 2001). Delinquent youth pose a challenge to educators and clinicians as they often marginalize themselves from families and institutions, such as schools, that may be able to positively influence their outcomes. This study examined the relationship between delinquency and civic engagement, traditionally two separate areas of research. It also provided information regarding the contextual influences on civic engagement beliefs (e.g., family, school, community) in delinquent youth. In accordance with a hypothesized model, relationships between delinquent attitudes and behaviours, civic engagement attitudes and behaviours, support for civic engagement attitudes and behaviours (family, school and community) and opportunities for civic engagement were examined. The sample consisted of 151 adolescents aged 14-18 years with a range of delinquent behaviour and experience with the justice system from young offender and public school sites in the Greater Toronto Area. Questionnaire measures were used to obtain demographic information, ratings of civic engagement attitudes and behaviours and support for civic engagement attitudes and behaviours. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with youth in relation to their perceived opportunities for civic engagement, experiences with civic engagement, self-reported delinquency and history with the justice system. There were significant but modest negative correlations between: (1) delinquent behaviours and attitudes and civic engagement behaviours and attitudes, and (2) delinquent behaviours and attitudes and opportunities for civic engagement. Family support was shown to have a mediating effect on the relationship between: (1) delinquent attitudes and civic engagement behaviours, and (2) delinquent attitudes and civic engagement attitudes. Youths' reported experiences with civic engagement differed by age, race, socioeconomic status, sample type (young offender and public school) and community involvement. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and clinical implications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Functional force mapping of membrane-associated protein complexes

Molecular recognition is governed by subtle structural and chemical cues between complementary binding partners. Understanding and ultimately controlling these interactions underpins efforts in fields from structural biology, biochemistry, to combinatorial chemistry and protein engineering. While traditional approaches to studying protein-protein interactions and molecular recognition phenomena have provided in-depth molecular scale details on equilibrium binding affinities and the local atomic structure of the binding interfaces, the actual force(s) involved in binding remain largely unknown. We have coupled the ability of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) to provide true three-dimensional images with its high force sensitivity into a new imaging modality termed 'topography targeted force mapping microscopy' (T2FMM) and have applied this technique to perform functional force mapping of membrane associated protein complexes. This approach allows us to physically map the local structure of the binding interface of a membrane protein or receptor and by using a ligand tethered to the scanning tip, measure the forces between the ligand and its complementary binding site as a function of spatial location. But do the observed binding forces necessarily reflect the forces associated with a fully functional membrane protein that is activated upon the binding of a ligand? To address this question, we have combined T2FMM with total internal reflectance fluorescence (TIRF) spectroscopy and microscopy to allow in situ correlation between (1) topography (AFM imaging), (2) interaction forces (AFM force measurements), and (3) functional activity (fluorescence) for individual membrane protein complexes. Our studies have demonstrated the ability of this technique to provide novel insights into the structure of both integral membrane proteins and membrane-associated proteins in a native membrane environment. It also allows the localization of membrane receptors within specific regions of a supported planar lipid bilayer (SPB) system, as well as the co-localization of receptor molecules and membrane-associated proteins upon binding to the membrane surface. Force mapping studies performed using T2FMM and the well-characterized model membrane-associated protein system of cholera toxin have now provided framework necessary to perform 'functional' force mapping of ligand-membrane protein complexes, such as the insulin-insulin receptor (IR) complex, by T2FMM, while simultaneously monitoring the activation of the IR upon insulin binding though correlated fluorescence measurements.
Soviet federalism: the case of a lost revolution

Until now, the prevailing conclusion about the significance of Soviet federalism was the notion of the federation being a hoax, used by the Bolsheviks to show their alleged commitment to democratic principles. Those who drew such a conclusion assumed that federalism is a feature of liberal democracy and that the Bolsheviks could not have been anything but authoritarian, for they were driven by Marxism, an undemocratic ideology. The author of this dissertation disagrees with the conclusion for several reasons. First, the Bolsheviks adopted a federal structure not because they wanted to deceive, but because they were under pressure from the non-Russians to accept national equality. By doing so, the Bolsheviks hoped to promote internal stability. Second, there is no reason, other than ideology, to identify federalism with liberalism. The Habsburg Empire, for instance, was politically decentralized, yet not fully liberal. Third, the impact of Marxism on the Bolsheviks' federalism was insignificant. Whether the regime was Marxist or not, a federation based on nationality would have eliminated Russification, a crucial obstacle to societal plurality and political pluralism. Thus, a key reason for maintaining a strictly centralized political system would have been eliminated. Because it was long perceived to be a hoax, Soviet federalism has been dismissed by several generations of students of Russian politics. This is unfortunate, for federalism had an enormous reformist potential in Russia and deserves a thorough analysis. If successful, federalism could have ushered in revolutionary reform by changing the prevailing type of authority, as explained by Max Weber. This, in turn, would have ended several centuries of unsuccessful attempts at modernization. Furthermore, studying the failure of Soviet federalism sheds light on the overall nature of Russia's politics by showing that the biggest obstacle to change has been the Russian tradition. Stalin used its major themes as the primary tools for challenging Lenin's leadership. Also, through the study of federalism, this thesis demonstrates that the principal instrument used by Stalin to consolidate power was not initially the Communist party, as it is commonly thought, but rather the Narkomnats, which he converted into a super-ministry responsible for re-centralizing Russia.