VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Acquired Brain Injury and Naturalistic Strategy Use: Analysis of Strategies Used during Completion of the Multiple Errands Test

This study furthers our understanding of naturalistic strategy use by ABI survivors with executive dysfunction. Strategies used by 14 stroke survivors, 12 TBI survivors and 25 matched controls on the Baycrest Multiple Errands Test (BMET) were scored. Relationships between strategy use and BMET performance were found for all groups (rs=.30-.71). TBI participants experienced monitoring difficulties (rs=-.38 to -.71). Greater use of task setting strategies was associated with better performance for all participants. Results support the theory of fractionation of the prefrontal lobes and the suggestion for further fractionation of the task setting and monitoring processes. Strategy use was consistently correlated with scores on the AMPS (rs=.30-.75) indicating good ecological validity. Differences in patterns of strategy use between stroke and TBI participants suggest these types of ABIs do not affect real-world performance in the same way. This study indicates the importance of understanding naturalistic strategy use for cognitive rehabilitation after ABI.

Keywords: strategy
brain injury
Advisor: Dawson, Deirdre R.
Reduction of TRS Emissions from Lime Kilns

The pulp and paper industry has been struggling to meet the new and stringent TRS (Total Reduced Sulphur) emission compliance standards established in recent years. However, a new approach by some regulatory bodies gives intricate operational parameters a new and important role in achieving environmental compliance. TRS compounds that cause the distinctive pulp mill odour, originate from sodium sulphide in white liquor used in the kraft pulping process. Up to 20% of TRS emissions could originate from the lime kiln and lime mud solids content is one of the operational parameters that could help reduce the TRS emissions from the lime kiln. Residual sodium sulphide in the lime mud that results in TRS gases, is dissolved in the moisture content of the mud. Although efficient lime mud washing can remove most of the residual sodium sulphide, the remaining moisture content of the mud still contains some sodium sulphide. Therefore, improved lime mud dewatering can be effective in reducing the TRS emissions from the lime kiln. Data presented in this study confirms that as the lime mud solids content increases, TRS emissions from the lime kiln decrease. Data analysis demonstrates a negative linear correlation at 5% significance level between TRS emissions and lime mud solids.

Keywords: Total Reduced Sulfur
Lime Kiln
Pulp and Paper
Lime Mud Solids
Air Emissions
TRS
Advisor: Tran, Honghi
Inhaled Hypertonic Saline (7%) improves the Lung Clearance Index in CF Paediatric Patients with FEV1% predicted ≥ 80%

Objective: To determine if inhaled Hypertonic Saline (7%) improves the Lung Clearance Index in paediatric Cystic Fibrosis patients with FEV1 ≥80% predicted. Methods: In a blinded crossover trial, twenty CF patients received 4 weeks of hypertonic saline (7%) (HS) and 4 weeks of isotonic saline (0.9%) (IS) separated by a 4 week washout period. The primary endpoint was the change in LCI in the HS versus the IS treatment periods. Results: Four weeks of twice daily inhalation of HS significantly improved the LCI as compared to IS by 1.16, 95% CI [0.26, 2.05]; p=0.016. Baseline LCI before IS, 8.71+/-2.10, was not significantly different from baseline LCI before HS inhalation, 8.84+/-1.95 (p=0.73). Randomization order had no significant impact on the treatment effect (p=0.61). Conclusions: Four weeks of twice daily Hypertonic Saline (7%) inhalations improved the LCI and may be a suitable early intervention therapy for CF patients with mild disease.

Keywords: Hypertonic Saline
Cystic Fibrosis
Advisor: Corey, Mary
Sex Differences in Nicotinic Currents of Layer VI Neurons of Prefrontal Cortex During Development

There is a large sex difference in the prevalence of attention deficit disorder; yet, little is known about sex differences in prefrontal attention circuitry. We investigated sex differences in the developmental nicotinic excitation of corticothalamic layer VI neurons, which play an important role in attention. Using whole cell recording in prefrontal brain slices, we examined the inward currents elicited by nicotinic stimulation in rodents. We found a prominent sex difference in the currents during the first postnatal month when males had significantly greater α4β2* nicotinic currents. Immunohistochemical analysis of α4YFP mice revealed no sex difference in the pattern or proportion of YFP-positive neurons in layer VI. Further electrophysiological experiments revealed that progesterone is able to rapidly and significantly suppress nicotinic currents in layer VI neurons. This is the first illustration at a cellular level that prefrontal attention circuitry is differently excited by nicotinic stimulation in males and females during development.

Keywords: prefrontal cortex
nicotine
sex difference
electrophysiology
development
progesterone
Advisor: Lambe, Evelyn K.
A Novel Technique for Class II Composite Restorations with Self-adhesive Resin Cements

Purpose: To determine microleakage and microtensile bond strength (µTBS) of composite restorations bonded with self-adhesive resin-cements. Methods: Six groups of molars were assigned to cements: RelyX-Unicem, Breeze, Monocem, PanaviaF-2.0, Filtek-LS, and Scotch-Bond-Multipurpose (adhesive). For microleakage, Class II preparations were made. Cements were applied onto all cavity walls. Preparations were restored, specimens themocycled and then immersed in red dye. Dye penetration was assessed according to 5-point scale. For µTBS test, 6 mm composite buildups were made over tooth surfaces. Rectangular rods were cut and subjected to tensile force. Mean µTBS and SDs were calculated. Results: RelyX-Unicem and Breeze showed low microleakage, however, they had lower µTBS values. Filtek-LS showed the least microleakage and the highest µTBS with dentin. Conclusion: RelyX-Unicem, Breeze and Filtek-LS will improve marginal seal when used in subgingival Class II composite restorations.

Keywords: Microleakage
Composite restoration
Advisor: El-Mowafy, Omar
Multiphase Optimal Response Mixed-signal Current Program Mode Controller

The primary focus of this thesis is to present a simple and practical implementation of an optimal-time response controller for multiphase interleaved dc-dc SMPS. This novel solution enables equal current sharing between phases not only in steady-state, but also during load transients, as well as bump-less transition between those two states. A digital voltage loop and multiple analog peak current programmed mode current loops are combined to implement a capacitor charge balance control algorithm with fairly simple hardware. This algorithm provides recovery from a disturbance in a single on-off switching action, which is performed in virtually the fastest possible time. The hybrid interface between the loops is provided through a structure combining a sample-and-hold circuit and a relatively slow successive-approximation DAC that provides control signals for all the loops in the system. Furthermore, for operation under light load conditions, the controller automatically switches into simply implemented pulse-frequency mode of operation.

Keywords: power converters
digital control
current program mode
multiphase switch mode power supplies
Advisor: Prodic, Aleksandar
Design and Implementation of Ground Support Equipment for Characterizing the Performance of XPOD and CNAPS & Thermal Analysis of CNAPS Pressure Regulator Valve

As the potential uses of nanosatellites become apparent, their numbers keep increasing. This is evident at the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) located at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies which has seen a rapid growth in satellite missions in recent years. By leveraging the use of the Generic Nanosatellite Bus developed at SFL, satellites can be rapidly developed to carry science payloads or demonstrate the capabilities of new technologies on orbit. Testing satellite systems in an Earth environment is an important step in qualifying them for space. This thesis describes the development of ground support equipment for testing SFL’s nanosatellite separation system, XPOD, and characterizing the performance of the propulsion system, CNAPS. Also, the thermal behaviour of a pressure regulator valve on CNAPS is examined for various flow conditions.

Keywords: nanosatellite
satellite
Advisor: Zee, Robert E.
Computerized Provider Order Entry: Initial Analysis of Current and Predicted Provider Ordering Workflow

Background: Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) allows providers to enter medication and service orders electronically. Workflow analysis is a critical component of CPOE implementation. Objectives 1. To develop a nosology for provider ordering workflow. 2. To describe actual provider ordering workflow focusing on chart and computer usage 3. To model the impact of computerized ordering on provider workflow in three future state scenarios Method: 20 hours of participant observation was performed for nosology development, time motion studies totaling 47 and predictive modeling projected effects of possible implementation scenarios Results/Conclusions: Unique nosology was developed. Clinicians spent 27% of their time with the patient, 2.2% writing orders and 1.1% locating patient charts. Our study predicted that the E-All scenario (computerization of all orders) would be the best implementation choice. Limitations: Small sample size (25 clinicians), participant frame of reference and other assumptions may have affected the results of this study.

Keywords: Workflow
CPOE
Advisor: Etchells, Edward
Data Recovery For Web Applications

Web applications store their data at the server. Despite several benefits, this design raises a serious problem because a bug or misconfiguration causing data loss or corruption can affect a large number of users. We describe the design of a generic recovery system for web applications. Our system tracks application requests and reuses undo logs already kept by databases to selectively recover from corrupting requests and their effects. The main challenge is to correlate requests across the multiple tiers of the application to determine the correct recovery actions. We explore using dependencies both within and across requests at three layers, (i.e., database, application, client) to help identify data corruption accurately. We evaluate our system using known bugs and misconfigurations in popular web applications, including Wordpress, Drupal and Gallery2. Our results show that our system enables recovery from data corruption without loss of critical data incurring little overhead while tracking requests.

Keywords: Web applications
Recovery
Corruption
Misconfiguration
Advisor: Goel, Ashvin
Combination 111In and 177Lu –Dotatoc and Vaccinia Virus Oncolytic Therapy for SSTR2-positive Tumors

Radiolabeled somatostatin analogues based on octreotide have proven useful in the management of somatostatin receptor subtype 2 (sstr2)-positive tumours in clinical trials. The aim was to compare the potency and evaluate the combination of 111In- and 177Lu-DOTATOC with a double-deleted version of vaccinia virus (ddVV), an oncolytic virus for inhibiting the growth of sstr2-expressing human embryonic kidney (HEK-293) cells or MC-38 murine colon cancer cells grown as monolayers or as spheroids. Cytotoxicity studies were carried out using ddVV, 111In-DOTATOC and 177Lu-DOTATOC, individually or in combination on MC-38 spheroids, HEK-293 cells and spheroids. HEK-293 cell growth in spheroids was reduced to 17.2 ± 4.9% and 26.5 ± 6.3 % with 111In-DOTATOC and 177Lu-DOTATOC alone and 13.1 ± 7.1% and 0% in combination, respectively. MC-38 spheroids showed greater toxicity in combination treatment. Combination of ddVV with 111In- or 177Lu-DOTATOC is only advantageous in monolayer culture. No advantage was observed in spheroid models.

Keywords: SSTR2
111In-DOTATOC
177Lu-DOTATOC
Vaccinia virus
Advisor: Reilly, Raymond Matthew
Horizontal Discrimination in the Private Sector in the Mexican and the Canadian Legal Systems: Divergence of Means but Convergence of Results. A Functionalist Approach

The thesis lends support to the functionalist theory of Konrad Zweigert and Heinz Kötz that legal systems converge on results but diverge on means. We apply the Mexican and the Canadian legal systems to a hypothetical discrimination case. This work shows that, although the Mexican and the Canadian legal systems have different legal principles, different concepts of discrimination and different means of choosing the appropriate forum, law and remedy, both jurisdictions produce the same result: the protection of the equalization of opportunities human right of people of vulnerable social groups by compensating individuals for rights which have been infringed.

Keywords: comparative law
discrimination law
Advisor: Valcke, Catherine
Expressive Arts as a Social and Community Integration Tool for Adolescents with Acquired Brain Injuries

Acquired brain injury (ABI) during adolescence presents even greater challenges to youth already facing complex issues in this transitory period. Studies have demonstrated that youth with ABI suffer from social and community withdrawal as a result of their injuries. However, a lack of research focusing on interventions designed to promote community integration has left the effectiveness of these programs difficult to assess. The current study aimed to collect pilot data about the effectiveness of an expressive arts-based therapeutic program in helping to improve community integration of these youth, as these therapies have been shown to be useful for individuals with similar cognitive and behavioural issues. Results over 2 stages of testing suggest that expressive arts therapy is a promising intervention strategy to help promote social and community integration skills. The findings also suggest that more research is needed to develop improved measures of community integration for adolescents with ABI.

Keywords: acquired brain injuries
expressive arts
Advisor: Keightley, Michelle L.
Colantonio, Angela
Quantitative Paleoclimate Reconstructions from the Melville Peninsula, Nunavut, Canada

A transitional climate and the presence of Thule sites make the Melville Peninsula an area of high importance for paleoenvironmental studies. Lake sediment cores and surface samples from Melville Peninsula were analyzed for diatom assemblages. Fragilarioid diatom species dominate assemblages from the interior of the peninsula since the middle Holocene. The greatest changes in diatom communities occurred during the transition from the Holocene Thermal Maximum to the Neoglacial, and in the post-Little Ice Age period. Species richness reached maximum values in the most recent period, reaching 50.8 species in surface sediments. Diatom-inferred pH reconstruction from two lakes did not indicate substantial change throughout the Holocene despite assemblage changes, showing the complexity of interpreting paleoclimate records dominated by Fragilarioids. Analysis of modern assemblages from the interior and East coast of Melville Peninsula confirm the importance of site size and water chemistry, as determined by bedrock geology, in determining diatom species distributions.

Keywords: paleoclimatology
Arctic
Advisor: Finkelstein, Sarah A.
The Prevalence of Ethnicity-related Victimization in Urban Multiethnic Schools

Bullying remains a serious issue in our schools. The goals of this study were three-fold. Firstly, to obtain an estimate of ethnic-racial bullying victimization in urban schools, secondly, to examine protective factors for bullying victimization, and finally, to explore gender differences in bullying behaviour. A total of 319 students in grades 6 and 7 completed a measure of bullying victimization and safe school environment. The results revealed an overall bullying victimization rate of 53.9% with 17.8% of students reporting being bullied based on their ethnicity or race. Contrary to previous research (McKenney, Pepler, Craig, & Connolly, 2006), girls and boys were equally likely to engage in all types of bullying behaviours. Extracurricular activities were generally not a protective factor against bullying, while a large network of close friends was. Bullying intervention programs need to focus on ethnic/racial bullying, and teachers need to increase their awareness of this problem.

Keywords: bullying
victimization
education
cross-cultural
ethnic
race
school psychology
urban
youth
adolescent
Advisor: Gillis, Joseph Roy
'Safe' Schools: Safe for Who?: Latinas, 'Thugs', and Other Deviant Bodies

This analysis is concerned with the spatially-anchored hierarchies of power that organize Ontario’s current schooling model. Using the experiences of four young Latina girls, it questions how current school safety discourses function as barriers to educational success, vis-à-vis their role in reconfiguring these students’ identities through narratives of danger, menace, and unruliness. Specific safety and security related practices are explored as sites through which marginalized students are produced as dangerous bodies who are undeserving of full educational opportunities. It is argued that these practices (as manifest in current approaches to surveillance, policing, discipline and punishment, and the restriction of educational mobility) all work to produce the school space as dominant space. Rather than offering youth the opportunity to overcome inequalities, schools and education instead play a definitive role in their continued propagation by sanctioning the control, containment, and eviction of those who are deemed to be deviant.

Keywords: Latino/a youth
education
racism
zero-tolerance
barriers to success
systemic oppression
Advisor: Razack, Sherene
Sexual Desire among Adolescent Girls: Investigation of Social Context and Personal Choices

This qualitative inquiry uses a life history prospective approach to investigate the social context in which adolescent girls’ sexual feelings emerge and in which girls’ sexual experiences occur. Nine adolescent girls were interviewed at two points in time during their adolescence and themes from their narratives were analyzed with respect to their experiences with sexuality. It appears that peers, family members, and sexual/dating partners have a major effect on both, girls’ sexual experiences and their connection with their sexual feelings. Prospective analysis revealed that over time, the social contexts of adolescent girls became more complex and girls became exposed to increasingly contradictory messages about what they should do and feel and behave. Girls appeared to have internalized the social messages around sexuality, which was evident through how girls talked about sexuality and through girls’ direct reports that their decisions were affected by the social and familial implications of their decisions.

Keywords: adolescent sexuality
sexuality
sexual desire
adolescent development
Advisor: Piran, Niva
The Lived-experience of Internationally-trained Midwives working as Registered Midwives in Ontario

This study presents an account of the lived-experience of internationally-trained midwives who have immigrated to Canada, attended a bridging program to reaccredit as a midwife, and currently meet the requirements for registration with the College of Midwives of Ontario. Ten internationally-trained midwives were interviewed about their experience of this transition in their life. The interviews were then subjected to a qualitative analysis based on the principles of grounded theory. The findings outline the experience of immigration and reaccreditation focusing on the barriers and challenges faced by these female immigrants. The impact on the individual’s sense of identity was explored. Coping strategies used by the participants were investigated.

Keywords: immigration
women
reaccreditation
midwives
counselling
coping strategies
Advisor: Chen, Charles
Losing Faith in Fundamentalist Christianity: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

This study investigated the psychological experience of losing faith in God, within the context of fundamentalist Christianity. Nine former fundamentalist Christians were interviewed about their experience of losing faith. Data analysis was guided by principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 2004), an inductive qualitative approach that identifies themes to generate a description of an experience's essence. Themes were classified into three domains (Experience of Christianity, Transition out of Christianity, and Experience of Unbelief). Participants' transition was characterized by emotional shifts (associated with a loss of trust in, or loyalty to, God) and intellectual shifts (associated with a loss of belief in God's existence). Two typologies of experience emerged within the Experience of Unbelief, one characterized by a sense of relief and the other by a sense of struggle. The findings are discussed in relation to theories of identity and attachment, and are used to generate recommendations for counselling practice.

Keywords: counselling psychology
loss of faith
fundamentalist Christianity
qualitative
Advisor: Moodley, Roy
Preliminary Investigation of the Relationship Between Emotion Processing Variables and Difficulties in Affect Regulation With the Use of Affect Regulation Strategies

A preliminary measure of affect regulation strategies was developed from Parkinson and Totterdell’s (1999) provisional classification of deliberate strategies for improving negative affect. Four broad categories of strategies including Cognitive Engagement, Cognitive Diversion, Behavioural Engagement, and Behavioural Diversion were represented by the measure. Using this measure, relationships between self-reported use of affect regulation strategies and difficulties in emotion regulation and emotion processing variables were investigated. Participants included 186 adults. Participants completed a 20 minute online survey consisting of the measure of affect regulation strategies, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Subjective Experience of Emotions Scale (SEE), and a demographic information questionnaire. Weak correlations were found for the majority of the difficulties in emotion regulation and emotion processing subscales and individuals’ self-reported use of affect regulation categories. Results also provide evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the DERS and SEE.

Keywords: affect regulation
affect regulation strategies
difficulties in emotion regulation
emotion processing
improving negative affect
preliminary measure of affect regulation strategies
Advisor: Watson, Jeanne
The Influence of Peer Relationships on Girls' Body Experiences Overtime

Peer relationships encompass an important developmental context for young girls’ understanding of normative social behavior and appearances. In early adolescence, concern for peer acceptance intensifies, as do the rigid standards peers regulate and command for physical appearance. Pressure to conform to group norms of attractiveness leaves girls vulnerable to reduced self-esteem and body dissatisfaction. Based on the life history narratives of 10 pre- and post-pubertal girls of diverse backgrounds, experiences with peers as they relate to pressures and resistances towards appearance conformity are documented through a prospective design. Results support the presence of two highly integrated domains of the peer environment which promote the pervasiveness of appearance-related pressure and body-consciousness for girls transitioning into adolescence: the evaluative external gaze and concerns for peer acceptance. Protective factors are discussed in the context of girls’ friendships and their ability to distance themselves from peer appearance pressure.

Keywords: body image
peers
Advisor: Piran, Niva