VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Human respiratory chemoreflex adaptations

Thus, adaptation in the chemoreflexes is shown here to be potentially beneficial in some cases, while exacerbating the pathology in other instances such as obstructive sleep apnoea. The respiratory chemoreflexes in humans are charged with the extremely important task of regulating the supply of oxygen and the clearance of carbon dioxide. These relatively small organs, located peripherally at the bifurcation of the common carotid artery and centrally at various medullary sites are influenced by many factors and are highly labile. I hypothesize that hypoxia, hypercapnia and other arousing stimuli act to illicit adaptation in the chemoreflexes. I further hypothesize that while in some instances these adaptations are beneficial; there are other instances when adaptation may in fact have detrimental effects. First, after a long, 3-hour exposure to isocapnic hypoxia, the peripheral chemoreflex was observed to have changed. The threshold for carbon dioxide had diminished thus allowing for a greater drive to breathe at any given carbon dioxide level. The benefit of this elevated drive would allow a person to maintain arterial saturation of oxygen despite an environmental lack. This effect persisted for at least one hour after the termination of the hypoxic insult. Secondly, many apnoeic episodes result in hypoxia, hypercapnia and arousal in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea. Assessing the chemoreflex control of breathing before and after a night of sleep in subjects in whom this disorder is severe demonstrated marked overnight changes. While control patients tended toward more stable breathing overnight, sleep apnoea patients showed elevation in chemoreflex sensitivity to carbon dioxide that increased their propensity for breathing instability.
Nonlinear noise analysis of LC-tuned CMOS VCOs and extrinsic noise effects

This thesis considers the noise performance of CMOS LC-VCOs. It is motivated by the challenges that the oscillator noise specification presents to designers of large mixed-mode systems. It treats this issue on a theoretical level and on a design level. On the theoretical level, this work presents an analytical method for examining the noise behaviour of fully-integrated, resonator-based VCOs. This is intended to give designers a more fundamental insight into the LC-oscillator's noise performance without the need for an exhaustive use of the simulator. In the analysis, the oscillator is distilled to its simplest dynamic model: a nonlinear second-order stochastic differential equation. Nonlinear expressions for common oscillator topologies are derived and integrated into the second-order model. A variety of intrinsic and extrinsic noise models are included as well. Asymptotic solution methods are combined with the correlation theory to produce closed-form expressions for the phase noise. These techniques readily account for a number of important properties including: state-dependent noise, positive feedback, AM-PM conversion, large phase deviations and noise modulation. The analysis is verified in simulation with SPECTRE and experimentally with integrated VCO measurements. On the design level, this thesis considers methods of shielding oscillators from extrinsic noise. To this end, a fully-monolithic 2.4-GHz 0.18-mum CMOS LC-VCO with enhanced supply rejection is proposed and designed. Isolating the tank and switching core from the power and ground lines, the effect of supply disturbances on the VCO are reduced by 40 dB, more than a 30-dB improvement over other fully-monolithic LC-VCOs. Further, this scheme does not compromise the oscillator's tuning sensitivity, allowing a 1-GHz (38%) tuning range. At a power dissipation of 11 mW, the measured phase noise at 100-kHz offset from a 2.9-GHz carrier is -105 dBc/Hz. Also, recognizing that typical varactor designs make LC-oscillators susceptible to common-mode disturbances a new MOS-varactor structure capable of rejecting such noise is proposed. Simulation results indicate a 5-times improvement in common-mode noise rejection for the new structure.
Priority setting in hospitals: An evaluation of strategic planning at University Health Network

Objective. To describe and evaluate priority setting in hospital strategic planning. Design. Qualitative case study and evaluation using the conceptual framework ‘accountability for reasonableness’. Setting. The Clinical Activity Target Setting process at University Health Network. Participants. Sixty-six board members, administrators, and clinical staff who participated in strategic planning. Data collection. Three primary sources: key documents, interviews with participants/stakeholders, and observations of group deliberations. Data analysis. Open and Axial coding: In open coding data were read and then fractured by identifying chunks of data that relate to a concept or idea. In axial coding, similar ideas were organized into overarching themes (the four conditions of ‘accountability for reasonableness’). Results. Implications for practice, four areas of ‘good practice’ and ten recommendations for improvement, were identified. Also implications for theory were identified. Conclusion. Capturing and sharing lessons among institutions, using ‘accountability for reasonableness’ as a common framework, can help improve priority setting.
Screening behaviours in relatives of Ontario colorectal cancer patients: a social-ecological approach

Purpose of study. To identify whether screening decisions in relatives of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients are influenced by family members, friends, medical advice, or public awareness campaigns. Methods. Eligible relatives of CRC patients participating in a population-based familial CRC registry were invited to take part in a brief telephone interview. The variables assessed in the telephone interview were derived from an adaptation of the Social-ecological framework, in order to examine potential influences of family members, medical professionals and social contacts. Those who had undergone screening were compared with those who had not, and subjects undergoing diagnostic tests were excluded. Results. Ninety-three percent of the 609 subjects invited replied; 420 (69%) agreed to the interview, and 368 met the final inclusion criteria. Logistic regression analyses demonstrated that having encouragement from a family physician, having few barriers to screening, having 3 or more family members with CRC, having encouragement from family members, having been given advice from a surgeon, and having ever discussed CRC screening with social groups were associated with having ever been screened. Perceived risk, advice from family members, exposure to advertising/public awareness campaigns, and confidence in the health care system were not associated with screening. Non-screeners frequently cited being asymptomatic as the main reason for not screening, while screeners indicated that their family history of CRC was the most important factor in deciding to be screened. Conclusions. The social-ecological framework provides a good explanatory model for CRC screening in increased-risk relatives. Variables from each of the individual-, family-, physician-, and societal-levels were associated with screening. Encouragement from physicians and having few barriers to screening were the strongest correlates of CRC screening behaviour in this group of increased-risk individuals. These findings may be useful in designing interventions aimed at increasing screening uptake, perhaps emphasising the role of the family physician. Educational interventions that focus on the nature of asymptomatic screening should also be considered.
Indexing and matching for view-based 3-D object recognition using shock graphs

A shock graph is a shape abstraction that decomposes a shape into hierarchically organized primitive parts [55]. In this thesis, we propose a novel shock graph computation algorithm that yields stable graphs under noise and shape deformation due to viewpoint changes. Next, we extend the indexing and matching framework for hierarchical structures introduced by Shokoufandeh et al. [54], and apply it to the problem of matching shock graphs representing views of 3-D objects. The indexing performance is improved by a vote accumulation algorithm that efficiently solves a multiple one-to-one assignment of votes. In turn, the matching algorithm is extended by ensuring the satisfaction of all the hierarchical constraints encoded in the graphs. We show that the proposed integrated framework is effective in recognizing object shapes and in estimating the pose of their corresponding 3-D object models. We demonstrate the performance of the framework with a database of 2688 object views.
Ethical decision making in bioscience companies: case studies and a comparative analysis

Bioscience companies are facing increasing ethical challenges—in number and complexity. Literature exists on business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility in general, but little is written about ethical decision making in bioscience companies. Furthermore, there is no study comparing ethical decision making across bioscience companies. The purpose of this research is to describe and analyze ethical decision making in bioscience companies. Qualitative case study methods are used to produce three case studies describing ethical decision making in three bioscience companies, and a cross-case comparison analysis of ethical decision making across twelve bioscience companies. From this, taxonomies describing why bioscience companies address ethical issues, what ethical issues they face, and what mechanisms they use to address these issues are developed. Evaluations of the ethics mechanisms are also performed. The three case studies are useful teaching tools and the taxonomies can guide other bioscience companies in ethical decision making.
Pattern-based decomposition method and partitioning analysis for complex redesign problems

Modern engineering design problems are usually large-scale, complex, and computationally intensive, and thus their redesign to accommodate new requirements poses a considerable challenge. In this thesis, a methodology is developed to analyze and decompose a redesign problem, represented through a binary design dependency matrix (DDM), in order to delimit the portions of the design model for re-computation and facilitate the development of re-computation strategies and detailed redesign plans. The results are portrayed through pattern-based representations. The methodology consists of two components: (1) redesign scenarios representation, in which all the possible redesign scenarios that can arise in practice are characterized through redesign decomposition patterns, and (2) redesign partitioning analysis, in which a given DDM is decomposed to produce all possible redesign pattern solutions that satisfy user-specified decomposition constraints. Two example redesign problems, one for a DC motor and one for a relief valve, are used to illustrate and validate the methodology.
Attachment in blind infants: a systematic investigation using Ainsworth's strange situation

The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of attachment that exists between blind infants and their mothers. The sample included 16 mothers and blind infants who were videotaped in the Ainsworth Strange Situation, a standardized measure of infant-mother attachment. The mothers also participated in a semi-structured interview designed to provide information regarding the infants' behaviour at home and in the community, amidst both familiar and unfamiliar people. The data were analyzed by comparing the results of the Strange Situation Procedure to normative data and also by using a Muhiple-Case Analysis of other descriptive information. This study showed that the infants who were partially sighted (yet still legally blind) generally behaved in a similar manner to sighted children with respect to their attachment behaviour at home, in the community and during the Ainsworth Strange Situation. The attachment behaviour of infants who were totally blind, however, generally differed from that of sighted children in the Ainsworth Strange Situation, as well in home and community contexts. Infants who were totally blind from birth were more often classified as insecurely attached, Category A, (80%), as compared to normative samples (22%). A rationale based on Culture theory, is developed to explain why the totally blind infants react differently from children with some sight. Lastly, limitations on the applicability of the Attachment Theory and Ainsworth's Strange Situation procedure when used on totally blind children were identified.

Keywords: Infants with disabilities
Blind children
Mother and child
Attachment behavior in children
Psychological tests
Robert Grosseteste's Chasteu d'amur: a text in context

This study of Le Chasteu d'amur, a thirteenth-century Anglo-Norman poem by Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln 1235–1253, examines the intended and actual audience for the text, and provides a new critical edition. Through assessment of the manuscripts preserving the text, records of the text in medieval library catalogues, and a review of book ownership and vernacular literacy in Anglo-Norman culture, the study shows that readership included scholars, clergy, religious, and lay men and women. The text itself is demonstrated to be more closely allied to biblical translation and commentary than to courtly literature. Discussion of newly discovered sources for the castle allegory in the Apocalypse and contemporary biblical commentary support this conclusion. Crossover between Grosseteste's Latin theological works and Le Chasteu is illustrated in the textual analysis and the fons fontium to the edition.
Ecologic agency: human behavior within the boreal forest

Economic models of agency founded upon an egotist interpretation of human behavior (i.e. homo economicus), dominate our understanding of human interaction with the environment, and represent the starting point for most forms of natural resource analysis. Alternatively, the doctrines of 'sustainable development' rest upon the ethical imperatives of inter-generational equity (i.e. altruism), and shift our vision from the exploitation of single resources over economic horizons, to the maintenance of 'total' ecosystems over ecological scales. As a result, conflicts and tradeoffs between short-term, reactive, 'economic' behaviour and long term, proactive 'sustainable' behaviour would appear inevitable, yet no recognized model of the latter form of agency exists to facilitate comparative analysis. This thesis seeks to determine whether the motivational impetus underlying 'sustainable development' is amenable to formal representation in the form of a Weberian 'ideal type' (i.e. homo brundtlandus), as per homo economicus. After an iterative developmental process, an abstractive, existential formulization of human intent is created upon which to base analysis (i.e. homo ecologicus). The influence of 'ecologic' agency within a specific environmental setting (i.e. the boreal forest) is determined and compared to that of economic agency under similar circumstances. Specifically, a whole forest optimization model is used to ascertain the cost an economic agent would incur to maintain the productivity (i.e. long term site productivity) and form (i.e. species composition) of natural capital stocks through time. Under reasonable conditions an economic agent would willingly forego future wood flows to increase current flows, permanently divesting from natural capital. Ecologic agency is examined under similar circumstances (i.e. maintenance of species' composition) utilizing a dynamic and spatially explicit representation of the boreal forest in concert with a genetic algorithm. In contrast to economic agency, ecologic agency enlists natural processes to maintain environmental stability and species persistence. The theoretical implications of this analysis are then examined in terms of the plausibility of results (i.e. correspondence to actual circumstances) and the heuristic utility of homo ecologicus. Factors are discovered which limit the successful utilization of environmental agency, portending to methodological deficiencies in more traditional forms of human agency (i.e. most notably homo economicus).
Suspended in perpetuity?: teacher professional identity in a time of educational reform

Drawing upon Foucauldian poststructuralist theories of discourse, governmentality and identity, this study employs critical discourse analysis techniques to examine teacher professional identity within the context of educational reform between 1995 and 2004 in the province of Ontario. Problematizing notions of profession(al)(ism)(ization) in teaching and conceptions of teacher identity, the study examines the contextual production, sustenance and consequences of public, media, government, teacher organizations and collegial and administrative representations of teachers and teaching as they manifest as effects of power and as they are positioned and ascribed to and within particular normalizing discourses and practices. The data set for the study consists of the transcripts of 14 interviews and other textual data including newspaper columns, letters to the editor, government news releases and policy documents, internet web-sites and teacher-produced materials. The study reveals that many of the discourses that constitute teaching construct particular subject positions for teachers to occupy that are frequently and highly incongruent with the perceptions that teachers have of themselves. The study reveals that the normalizing power of deeply-rooted and firmly-held assumptions about what it means to be a teacher continue to govern and sustain particular mentalities that effectively keep teachers under perpetual scrutiny and surveillance. Despite some teachers' efforts to reject, resist and subvert these discourses, teachers' professional identities remain under perpetual negotiation and revision. Theoretically, this study makes a specific contribution to the literature on teacher professional identity and more generally to the ways in which individuals make meaning. By destabilizing the notion of an essentialized professional identity in teaching, this study has begun an examination of the apriori assumptions that are taken as commonsense when referring to teachers as professionals and teaching as a profession. The study suggests it is important to continue exploration of the nature of and ways in which teachers (and others) respond to the discourses and their inherent power relations that construct teachers' work and the effects these have on teacher identity and the evolution of the teaching profession. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)
Two teachers' associations and the Ontario College of Teachers: a study of teacher and the state relations

This study examines the evolution of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association (OECTA), the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF), and their relations with state officials in Ontario, with particular attention paid to the establishment of the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT). A socio-historical conceptual framework is applied to suggest that historical and contemporary relations between the state in Ontario and the two teachers' unions can be seen as a series of crises and settlements. The findings of this study show that, for the most part, OECTA's and OSSTF's relations with the state in Ontario have existed in periods of relaxed settlement. The thesis traces a wealth of discussions and proposals regarding a self-regulating profession for teachers that began over a century and culminated in 1996 with the Ontario College of Teachers Act. When the Ontario College of Teachers was established, relations between the teachers' unions and the province of Ontario were unsettled, however, with the introduction of the Education Quality Improvement Act, these relations entered a crisis phase. The significance of this thesis is to demonstrate the usefulness of the socio-historical approach to the understanding of historical and contemporary relations of OSSTF and OECTA to the state in Ontario. Further investigation of potential areas for scholarship may increase the depth and scope of knowledge of relations between state and teachers' associations in Ontario.

Keywords: Education and state, Ontario
Teachers, Ontario
Teaching
Developing fMRI technology for stroke recovery research

By the year 2020, cerebrovascular disease is estimated to be the fourth leading burden of disease in the world. Already, stroke is the leading cause of neurological disability in the developed world. As acute stroke therapy, public awareness, and timely medical care improve, mortality rates will continue to decrease. Unfortunately, such successes are not matched with respect to stroke recovery. The majority of stroke survivors are likely to experience poor functional outcomes, lack of independence, and an inability to perform activities of daily life. This reality is due to lack of understanding of the mechanisms that govern stroke recovery, and difficulty in deciding on an intervention strategy that will maximize recovery. In recent years, there has been a revolution in our ability to map human brain function, both in health and disease. At the forefront of this revolution is Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), a non-invasive technique that relies on changes in cerebral blood oxygenation to measure changes in neuronal activity indirectly. Increasingly, fMRI is being applied to study stroke recovery. This thesis develops fMRI technology that can build on tools available in stroke recovery research. Because motor deficits are a prevailing impairment after stroke, the research in this thesis pertains to the motor system. First, a feasibility study is conducted to develop a lower limb fMRI experiment relevant to gait. Second, a system capable of electromyography (EMG) measurements within the MRI scanner room is developed. Overcoming the challenges of measuring EMG biopotentials during fMRI scanning is achieved by hardware development and novel denoising techniques. Third, a system capable of measuring electrodermal activity (EDA) during fMRI is developed as a means to monitor the activity of the autonomic nervous system during motor tasks. Skin conductance responses (SCR) are incorporated into the fMRI data analysis using both univariate and multivariate statistics. Collectively, these tools are shown to have considerable merit for stroke recovery studies, and the proof of principle is demonstrated in the last chapter by a case study. Finally, the long term potential of the work is discussed in the context of emerging theories on stroke recovery.
Walk the line: Consequences of linear features to eastern wolves (Canis lycaon)

Previous studies on wolves have reported conflicting evidence for both affinity and avoidance of linear features. This conflict may arise due to the nature and conditions of the features and circumstances of low human activity may allow animals to benefit from linear features. Using telemetry points (n = 51,515) collected from 28 GPS collared wolves in Algonquin Provincial Park (Ontario) over 4 years (2003--2006), I tested for wolf affinity or avoidance of linear features with randomization procedures applied to individual telemetry points and empirical estimates of home range. Significance was assessed by generating null distributions and applying a confidence interval procedure. Results indicated that linear features in this study system are not prohibitive to movement and can be used by wolves. Conservation initiatives within protected areas should therefore address the quantity and types of linear features since their use by predators may have cascading effects upon prey species and competitors.