VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Balancing Risk-taking and Safety Among Patients, Families, and Clinicians During Transitions in Care from Brain Injury Rehabilitation

This study examines the factors that influence how patients, families, and clinicians make decisions about risk-taking and safety in brain injury rehabilitation. Despite the importance of these decisions, particularly during transitions in care, there is scant literature to help guide these care partners in ethical and clinical decision-making related to risk-taking and safety. This study suggests that there are tensions between rehabilitation and patient safety efforts. Risk-taking lies at the core of brain injury rehabilitation; however, decisions about risk-taking are also influenced by conflicting values, system pressures, and patient abilities. A relational approach to autonomy that addresses patients’ decisional and functional abilities within their social contexts is more nuanced than a liberal individualist approach to autonomy, and provides a better framework for understanding decision-making. Relational autonomy may help clinicians make decisions that better balance risk-taking and safety, decisions that are committed to the principles of respecting autonomy and advancing safety.

Keywords: Patient safety
Patient autonomy
Advisor: Baker, G. Ross
Comparison of hr-pQCT & MRTA to DXA & QUS for the Ex-vivo Assessment of Bone Strength

There is a pressing need for better assessment of bone strength as current clinical tools do not directly measure bone mechanical properties, but offer only surrogate measures of bone strength. We conducted an ex-vivo study of emu bones to examine how two investigative devices, hr-pQCT and MRTA, compare to current clinical tools (DXA and QUS) in predicting true bone mechanical properties. We found that hr-pQCT parameters were able to assess bone strength as well as DXA and better than QUS, while MRTA was able to predict bone strength well in low-density but not high-density bones. Our results suggest that both hr-pQCT, which has the unique ability to specifically assess the various determinants of bone strength, and MRTA, which measures a bone mechanical property (stiffness), have great potential for use as clinical tools that can assess various components of bone strength not measured by current devices.

Keywords: bone strength
osteoporosis
bone quality
hr-pQCT
DXA
emu model
Advisor: Cheung, Angela M.
An Integrated Segmented Gate Driver with Adjustable Driving Capability for Efficiency Optimization

A novel gate driver design is proposed to improve the conversion efficiency of DC-DC converters. Conventional gate drivers provide a fixed gate driving strength (capability) over the entire output load range. However, it is demonstrated that to optimize the overall conversion efficiency, the driving capability of the gate driver circuit should be adjusted according to the loading condition. The proposed segmented gate driver consists of 8 parallel driver segments that can be turned on/off allowing the power consumption of the gate driver circuit to be dynamically adjusted. The post layout simulation results in high voltage TSMC 0.25µm CMOS process shows that up to 7% improvement in the efficiency can be achieved. Furthermore, in addition to efficiency improvements, a 60% reduction in the ringing and overshoot/undershoot was observed. An integrated segmented gate driver IC designed for AMSP35HV process was submitted for fabrication with the support from CMC.

Keywords: Gate Driver
Adjustable Driving Capability
Advisor: Ng, Wai Tung
Connecting with the Global Garment Industry: Can Ethical Consumption Promote Sustainability?

In the globalized garment industry (GGI) most clothing is involved in complex networks that exploit both people and the environment. This system is unsustainable yet supported by Canadian consumers, who have become disconnected from their clothing’s production and disposal processes as a result of the development of increasingly complex social and technological systems since the Industrial Revolution. Canadians currently learn about the industry from public portrayals in which the dominant messages are designed by corporations promoting consumption. Nevertheless, growing numbers of consumers are realizing that this system is unsustainable and attempting to take action. This study uses methods based on institutional ethnography to explore the challenges faced by Canadians trying to engage in ethical consumption. Promoting sustainability is seen as requiring broad structural change, which can be supported by individual Canadians seeking to learn about the industry and working with its global stakeholders to build the civil commons.

Keywords: ecofeminism
ecosocialism
ethical consumption
fashion
garment industry
globalization
industrialization
institutional ethnography
sustainability
Advisor: Ng, Roxana
Sumner, Jennifer
Access to Dental Care for a Selected Group of Children and Adolescents with ASD

Objectives: 1) to determine if children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) encounter difficulties accessing dental, 2) to identify barriers that diminish access to dental care for this population. Methods: This descriptive study is based on a web-survey conducted at the Geneva Centre for Autism in Toronto between November 2008 and March 2009. Forty-nine multiple choice questions including open-ended fields were developed. Parents of children with ASD (ages 5–18) completed the survey. Results: The majority of participants visited a dentist regularly (71%) and had private dental insurance (64%). Parents/caregivers were more likely to have difficulties finding a dentist as unmarried parents (OR=3.7, P=0.075) or when their level of education was high school/less (OR=10.4, P=0.043). Conclusions: The majority of children/adolescents with ASD had access to dental care. Difficulties accessing dental care were related to family structure, parents’ education and their perception of dentists’ knowledge of ASD.

Keywords: ASD
autism spectrum disorder
Advisor: Lawrence, Herenia P.
Simulation of Flexible Aircraft

This study aims to improve flight simulation of flexible aircraft. More specifically, this thesis concentrates on comparing two flexible aircraft flight simulation models. Both modeling techniques considered use the same aircraft structural and aerodynamic data provided by the aircraft manufacturer. Simulation models were developed and tested using a number of control inputs in both longitudinal and lateral dimensions. Time history responses from the simulations were compared. The effect of increasing the flexibility of the aircraft model was also studied on both models. It was found that the two models produce very similar results for the original aircraft stiffness case. However, the lateral response of the two models diverges as the stiffness is lowered. A number of recommendations are made for further testing and research, based on the conclusions of the study.

Keywords: Simulation
Flexible
Deformable
Flight Dynamics
Advisor: Grant, Peter R.
Neuroplastic Changes During Auditory Perceptual Learning Over Multiple Practice Sessions Within and Between Days

This study investigated the neuroplastic changes that accompany speech identification training using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Participants completed three practice sessions over two consecutive days. In the morning group, practice occurred in the morning and evening of the first day, and in the morning of the next day; whereas, in the evening group, practice occured in the evening of the first day, and in the morning and evening of the second day. In both groups, behavioural improvement between the first session and last session was comparable. Neuromagnetic data showed practice-related changes in N1m amplitude between the first and last sessions. A time-of-day (TOD) of practice effect was found for P2m mean amplitude. In both groups, P2m-related changes with practice were greater when consecutive sessions occurred between days than within a day. The results are consistent with the proposal that task-related changes in the P2m wave are an index of perceptual learning.

Keywords: Perceptual learning
Auditory evoked field
Human
Cognition
Vowel
Speech
Hearing
Sleep
MEG
Advisor: Alain, Claude
Gain-reconfigurable Current-sensing Circuit for High-frequencey Low-power DC-DC Converters

A novel current-sensing circuit that can operate from 1MHz to 4MHz has been designed and implemented for high-frequency low-power dc-dc power converter applications. The design is based on SenseFET concept with embedded SenseFETs in the main switch (MS) and synchronous rectifier (SR). An intermediate RC filter merges outputs from the MS and SR SenseFETs and supplies a smooth voltage signal to an op-amp. This reduces the need for a very high gain-bandwidth op-amp circuit and improves the efficiency of the power converter. The circuit has configurable feedback gain in order to increase current sensing accuracy when the average inductor current is small.

Advisor: Prodic, Aleksandar
Collagen Glycation Promotes Myofibroblast Differentiation

The incidence of cardiomyopathy and cardiac fibrosis is markedly increased in patients with diabetes mellitus. As cardiac fibrosis is mediated by myofibroblasts, we investigated the effect of diabetes-associated collagen glycation on the conversion of cardiac fibroblasts to myofibroblasts. Collagen glycation was modeled by the glucose metabolite, methylglyoxal (MGO). Cells cultured on MGO-treated collagen exhibited increased activity of the α-smooth muscle actin (SMA) promoter, elevated levels of collagen I, α-SMA mRNA, and enhanced protein expression of α-SMA, ED-A fibronectin and cadherins. Increased expression of α-SMA was dependent on β1 integrins and on TGF-β. In collagen gel assays, MGO-collagen promoted faster contraction and cell migration was increased by MGO-collagen. In shear-force detachment assays, cells on MGO-collagen were less adherent, and β1 integrin activation and focal adhesion formation were inhibited. We conclude that collagen glycation augments the formation and migration of myofibroblasts, critical processes in the development of cardiac fibrosis in diabetes.

Keywords: Collagen
Diabetes
Advisor: McCulloch, Christopher
Simmons, Craig Alexander
On Improving Spectrum Utilization through Cooperative Diversity and Dynamic Spectrum Trading

The prime wireless spectrum is inherently a critical yet scarce resource. As the demand of wireless bandwidth grows exponentially, it becomes a crucial issue to improve the spectrum utilization for the development and deployment of any new wireless technologies. In this thesis, we seek to address this problem through cooperative diversity and dynamic spectrum trading, in the context of the envisioned primary-secondary dynamic spectrum sharing paradigm. For an OFDMA-based cellular primary network which owns an exclusive right to access a certain spectrum band, we propose XOR-assisted cooperative diversity to improve the spectral efficiency of the allocated band, as well as an optimization framework to address the resource allocation problem. For the secondary network that utilizes cognitive radios to opportunistically exploit the spectrum white spaces, we establish a spectrum secondary market, design the market institution based on double auctions, and solve the decision making problem using reinforcement learning, to improve spectrum utilization via trading among secondary users.

Keywords: cooperative diversity
dynamic spectrum trading
secondary spectrum
cognitive radio networks
network coding
Advisor: Li, Baochun
Delivery of Helper-dependent Adenoviral Vectors to the Subretinal Space of Mice

The helper-dependent adenoviral (HD-Ad) vector is the latest generation of Ad vectors. It ameliorates the vector-associated immunogenic problems with increased capacity for carrying DNA because all viral coding genes are removed. I hypothesize that HD-Ad vectors can be effective vehicles for retinal gene delivery. The objectives of this study are to determine if HD-Ad vectors can deliver reporter genes, GFP or lacZ, driven by a CMV or a MOPS promoter, into specific retinal layers. Subretinal injections were performed and eyes removed at time points from 1 week to 3 months, processed for fluorescent microscopy, X-gal staining, and H&E staining. Transgene expression was detected for at least 3 months. A dose dependent relationship was revealed between the level of transgene expression and viral vector dose. Distinctively, the MOPS promoter drove photoreceptor cell specific expression. Notably, no sign of inflammation or tissue toxicity was detected, demonstrating the benefits of the HD-Ad vector.

Keywords: eye gene therapy
viral vectors
helper dependent adenovirus
subretinal injections
retina
photoreceptors
Advisor: Hu, Jim
A Real-time Mediated Reality Platform for Outdoor Navigation on Mobile Devices and Wearable Computers

Wearable computing systems have been researched and developed for several decades. With the advent of the head-mounted display, augmented and mediated reality systems became an important example of wearable computing. However, due to certain factors such as computational constraints, cost, obtrusiveness, practicality, and social acceptance, mediated reality systems have been leveraged in only very specific application domains and have yet to see mainstream adoption. This dissertation describes the research and development of a real-time mediated reality platform developed for modern mobile devices to provide a more reasonable transition in overcoming the mainstream adoption barrier of mediated reality systems. In particular, an outdoor navigational application that provides contextually-relevant information about a user’s surroundings is developed using the platform as a proof-of-concept for evaluation. In addition, the server infrastructure required to support the application is discussed, as well as the evaluation of a hybrid orientation tracking approach using sensors and computer vision.

Keywords: Mediated Reality
Wearable Computing
Advisor: Mann, Steve
W-Band Passive and Active Circuits in 65-nm Bulk CMOS for Passive Imaging Applications

The design and implementation of mm-wave switches, variable attenuators, and a passive imaging system in 65-nm CMOS are presented. The design and analysis of shunt switches is presented with a demonstration circuit showing record performance for a single-pole single-throw switch with 1.6dB loss and 30dB isolation at 94GHz. Single-pole double-throw (SPDT) switches are shown, with 4dB insertion loss in the W-band (75-110GHz), and the only reported SPDT switch operating in the D-band (110-170GHz). A novel technique for implementing digitally controlled variable attenuation is presented, resulting in variable attenuation between 4 and 30dB in the W-band. Finally, a W-band radiometer is described integrating a record-high gain CMOS LNA, SPDT switch, and peak detector. This is the highest-frequency imaging system in CMOS with this level of integration, offering a responsivity over 90kV/W, and a noise-equivalent power less than 0.2pW/√Hz.

Keywords: mm-wave
CMOS
passive imaging
LNA
switches
noise figure
peak detector
Advisor: Voinigescu, Sorin
Charaterization of Beta-cell Specific Knockout of UCP2

The whole body UCP2 knockout (UCP2−/−) have enhanced insulin secretion and higher ATP content. However, these changes could be due to indirect effects of extra-pancreatic deletion and therefore, generating beta-cell specific knockout mice (UCP2BKO) is essential. A 90% knockdown of UCP2 protein was observed in beta-cells of UCP2BKO mice. No significant differences were observed in body weight accumulation, fasting blood glucose, plasma insulin or glucagon. UCP2BKO had impaired oral glucose tolerance with no differences in insulin secretion or sensitivity. Enhanced ROS accumulation was observed in the beta-cells of UCP2BKO and upregulation of antioxidant enzyme genes. Morphometric analysis showed an increased glucagon positive area in the pancreata of UCP2BKO mice. Results obtained from UCP2BKO were contrary to the phenotype observed in UCP2−/− mice. Overall, the characterization of UCP2BKO demonstrates that UCP2 in the beta-cell is involved in modulating ROS production.

Keywords: diabetes
UCP2
Advisor: Wheeler, Michael
A Novel Biosensing Interface Preparation Method for ElectroMagnetic Piezoelectric Acoustic Sensor

Preliminary work towards the development of novel biosensing interfaces for EMPAS (ElectroMagnetic Piezoelectric Acoustic Sensor) is presented in this manuscript. This method involves the use of unprecedented thiosulfonate-based linkers to construct robust and durable SAMs (Self-Assembling Monolayer) onto piezoelectric quartz crystals, which can chemoselectively immobilize thiol-containing biomolecules under aqueous conditions in a single, straightforward, reliable and coupling-free manner. Initial efforts are devoted to the construction of SAMs and the subsequent immobilization of thiol-containing biomolecules, and then characterization by CAMs (Contact Angle Measurement) and ARXPS (Angle-Resolved X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy). This method is then implemented into the construction of biosensing interfaces dedicated to the detection of avidin. With the incorporation of OEG (Oligo(Ethylene Glycol)) backbone and diluent in the method, 14-fold difference in signal response of EMPAS was observed between biotinylated and unfunctionalized SAMs.

Keywords: biosensor
self-assembling monolayer
EMPAS
thiolsulfonate
Advisor: Michael, Thompson
Roko: Balancing Performance and Usability in Coarse-grain Parallelization

We present Roko, a system that allows parallelization of sequential C codes with a modest user intervention. The user exposes parallelism at the function level by annotating the code with pragmas. Roko defines only two pragmas: the parallel pragma is used to denote function calls that will be executed asynchronously, and the exposed pragma is used to describe data usage of the marked function calls. Architecturally, Roko consists of three components: a compiler that analyzes pragmas, a software environment that spreads the execution over multiple processors, and a hardware support that implements a novel synchronization scheme, versioning. We have designed, implemented and evaluated an FPGA-based prototype of Roko. Our experimental evaluation shows: (i) that few simple pragmas are all that is needed to expose parallelism in benchmark applications and (ii) that Roko can deliver good performance in terms of application speedup.

Keywords: Programming Model
Parallelization
Synchronization
Concurrency Control
Multi-core Systems
FPGA Applications
Advisor: Abdelrahman, Tarek S.
Characterization of the Role of CXCL10 and CXCR3 in Breast Cancer

Lymphocytic infiltration is a feature of basal breast cancer tumors. CXCL10 is a chemokine that was found expressed higher in basal tumor RNA compared to estrogen receptor positive tumor RNA. Both CXCL10 and its receptor CXCR3 were expressed in familial breast cancer tissues, a proportion of which have a basal phenotype. CXCL10 expression was associated with lymphocytic infiltration, and with CXCR3 expression. CXCL10 ligand and receptor were overexpressed individually or together in the human MCF7 cell line. Recombinant human CXCL10 was found to dose dependently decrease cell proliferation. CXCR3 and CXCL10-CXCR3 expressing cells had the potential for increased migration independent of CXCL10 concentration. Co-expression of both genes increased proMMP-2 levels, and conditioned media from one of these clones chemoattracted more of the CXCR3 clones, CXCL10-CXCR3 clones, and CD4+ T-lymphocytes. CXCL10 neutralization suggested that CXCL10 could play a role in this chemoattraction, though it is likely not the only factor involved.

Keywords: Breast Cancer
Lymphocytic Infiltration
Chemokine
Basal
CXCL10
CXCR3
Advisor: Andrulis, Irene
Optimization of Purification Conditions for the Pseudomonas syringae HopZ1a Type III Secreted Effector Protein for Structural and Functional Studies

HopZ1a is a type III secreted effector (TTSE) protein from Pseudomonas syringae. The goal of this study was to obtain a 3D crystal structure of HopZ1a to provide insight into its biochemical function. The first objective was to obtain HopZ1a protein that was sufficiently abundant and pure for crystallographic studies. Purification conditions were optimized and multiple constructs of HopZ1a were generated using secondary structure prediction programs as well as structural characteristics inherent to TTSEs. Truncations of HopZ1a from the N- and C-terminus led to a soluble, proteolytically resistant construct, HopZ1a66-261. This protein formed granular precipitates in crystallography screens. These conditions will provide the basis for refinement screens aimed at optimizing the HopZ1a crystallization conditions. Overall, the soluble constructs described in this study will provide invaluable tools for future in vitro functional and structural studies of this important family of type III secreted effector proteins.

Keywords: Molecular biology
microbiology
Advisor: Christendat, Dinesh
Desveaux, Darrell
Cough Detection and Forecasting for Radiation Treatment of Lung Cancer

In radiation therapy, a treatment plan is designed to make the delivery of radiation to a target more accurate, effective, and less damaging to surrounding healthy tissues. In lung sites, the tumor is affected by the patient’s respiratory motion. Despite tumor motion, current practice still uses a static delivery plan. Unexpected changes due to coughs and sneezes are not taken into account and as a result, the tumor is not treated accurately and healthy tissues are damaged. In this thesis we detail a framework of using an accelerometer device to detect and forecast coughs. The accelerometer measurements are modeled as a ARMA process to make forecasts. We draw from studies in cough physiology and use amplitudes and durations of the forecasted breathing cycles as features to estimate parameters of Gaussian Mixture Models for cough and normal breathing classes. The system was tested on 10 volunteers, where each data set consisted of one 3-5 minute accelerometer measurements to train the system, and two 1-3 minute accelerometer measurements for testing.

Keywords: cough detection
arma forecasting
respiratory gating
breathing measurement
gaussian mixture model
4DCT
Advisor: Kwong, Raymond H.
Alasti, Hamideh
Sex Differences in Sensorimotor Mu Rhythms During Selective Attentional Processing

Magnetoencephalography was used to investigate the effect of directed attention on changes in sensorimotor mu (8-12Hz) response (mu reactivity) to non-painful electrical stimulation of the median nerve in healthy adults. Results indicated attention-related sex differences in mu reactivity, with females showing i) prolonged mu suppression when attending to somatosensory stimuli indicating active processing of the sensory stimuli; ii) task-dependent attentional modulation of the mu response, which was absent in males, and iii) a trend for greater neuronal excitability of the primary somatosensory region suggesting greater physiological responsiveness to stimulation overall. Sex-related differences in attentional modulation of sensorimotor rhythms suggest that females and males use different top-down control strategies when processing somatosensory information. These sex differences in attention may underlie well-documented sex-related biases in pain processing wherein females typically report greater sensitivity to experimental and clinical pain.

Keywords: sex differences
attention
somatosensory processing
mu rhythms
Advisor: Tannock, Rosemary