VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Mitral repair versus replacement for ischemic mitral regurgitation

Mitral replacement and repair are surgical options for Ischemic Mitral Regurgitation (IMR). A prospective data-base from 1990 to 2001 was used to compare repair (n = 69) to replacement (n = 173) in patients with IMR. Baseline risk and patient selection were adjusted for in a Cox model stratified to pathophysiologic sub-types. Propensity score and frailty models were used to adjust for the surgeon effect. During early follow-up, repair lead to better survival, hazard ratio (HR) of 0.18, 0.26 and 0.38 at 0, 1 and 2 years of follow-up (95% Confidence Intervals (CI): 0.05â€“0.56, 0.10â€“0.70, and 0.16â€“0.92 respectively). During 3 to 8 years of follow-up survival with repair was not significantly different from replacement. Hospital mortality was lower after repair, Odds Ratio: 0.12 (95%CI: 0.01â€“0.92). However, The risk of re-operation was higher after repair (13% vs. 2%, p < 0.001). </p> Mitral repair was associated with better early survival, not sustained at long-term follow-up. This may be partly due to progression ischemia and recurrence of IMR after repair.
Mapping systemic lupus erythematosus and psoriatic arthritis in greater Toronto area using geographic information systems

Mapping Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Psoriatic Arthritis in Greater Toronto Area Using Geographic Information Systems; by Mustafa H. Al-Maini, MD FRCPC. A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master's in Health Sciences Graduate Department of Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Toronto 2008. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) are immune diseases that are influenced genetically and environmentally. We used geographic information systems (GIS), to map SLE and PsA in Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Using the cumulative number of observed cases of SLE or PSA diagnosed between January 1st 1965 to June 30th 2007 and excluding patients younger than 10 years and older than 69 years, and dividing by the general population age-sex match group; we calculated age-sex-GTA region observed incidence rates. These rates were then used to compute expected incidence rates for each census tract of the general population in the GTA and maps were produced. This is the first study to use GIS to map SLE and PsA in a defined geographic area. We developed a methodology to compute expected age-sex incidence maps of SLE and PsA in a defined geographic area.
Buckling failure in adhesive joints under bending loads

Adhesive joints in different structures are subjected to a variety of loading conditions. Thus failures in these joints occur in different modes such as global yielding, crack growth, and buckling. The failure mode under investigation is buckling failures in joints with an existing crack of significant length and subjected to bending loads. The objective of this work is to develop a finite element model that predicts buckling failure in such joints. Also this work tries to determine the range of applicability of the use of this model and its sensitivity to different parameters that affect buckling. The presented finite element model proves to be accurate in predicting snap buckling in adhesive joints. Moreover, the results of the parametric studies show that the factors that influence buckling are the top adherend thickness and its ratio to bottom adherend thickness. Furthermore, the model managed to predict the buckling ranges for industrial applications.
Transforming growth factor-alpha gene expression in the pituitary gland

Transforming growth factor alpha (TGF-?) is a secreted polypeptide that was discovered in the medium of certain retrovirus-transformed fibroblasts. It is capable of reversibly transforming certain normal mammalian cells (e.g. fibroblasts) in culture. The fully processed form of TGF-? is 50 amino acids long and shares 30% structural homology to the 53 amino acid-long epidermal growth factor (EGF). TGF-? and EGF interact with the same receptor and activate the receptor's tyrosine kinase domain which is thought to mediate the ligand-induced mitogenic response in a variety of cells. In addition, other signalling mechanisms, such as the phosphoinositide system among others, are activated. The TGF-? gene is expressed in a variety of tumors especially carcinomas. TGF-? is also detected during embryogenesis. More recently TGF-? synthesis has been demonstrated in normal adult cells such as keratinocytes, activated macrophages and several areas of the adult brain. Our lab demonstrated the presence of TGF-? mRNA in the normal adult rat pituitary. We have also isolated and purified the TGF-? peptide in the media of dispersed nontransformed bovine pituitary cells. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
A role for the type 4 adenylyl cyclase isoform in forskolin-response pathway of Y1 mouse adrencortical tumor cell lines

Four mutant clones independently derived from the Y1 mouse adrenocortical tumor cell line have adenylyl cyclase (AC) activities that are resistant to forskolin, a direct activator of AC. In this study the AC isoform composition of the forskolin-responsive and forskolin-resistant mutant adrenal cells was examined in order to explore the underling basis for forskolin-resistance. The AC isozymes detected in forskolin-responsive Y1 cells and their relative abundance were: AC-5/6 > AC-1 > AC-3 > AC-4. AC-5/6 comprised 70% of the total AC molecules in the cell whereas AC-4 represented ?1% of the total. As determined by immunofluoresence, the four isozymes were distributed throughout the cytoplasm and only AC-5/6 could be detected in purified plasma membrane fractions by Western blot analysis. Strikingly, the four forskolin-resistant mutants all were deficient in AC-4; the levels of the other AC isoforms were comparable in parent and mutant cells. Transfection of one of the mutant clones with an AC-4 expression vector restored responsiveness to forskolin in a manner that correlated with the level of AC-4 expression. The levels of AC-4 achieved in the transformants represented ?3% of the total AC molecules in the cell arguing that forskolin specifically targets AC-4 to mediate the cAMP-dependent changes in cell shape and proliferation in this cell line.
Developing a commodity-based truck origin-destination matrix estimation model using input output data and genetic algorithms

A commodity-based model to estimate truck origin-destination (O-D) matrix is presented. The model takes advantage of the genetic algorithm global search method to find the best O-D matrix that, when assigned to the network, gives the minimum deviation between the observed and estimated values. The model is flexible with respect to the type of input data. Flows are treated as commodity dollar value; therefore the estimated O-D matrix entries consist of the value of the commodity shipped by truck from the origin zone to the destination zone. The method is composed of two submodels. The first sub-model, the trip generation model, uses Input-Output (IO) data with employment and population data to estimate the zonal level of commodity attraction and production. The second sub-model, the genetic algorithm model, searches globally for the optimum O-D matrix. Case study and a numerical example have improved the functionality of the proposed model.
Examining the role of attentional control settings on the oculomotor system using saccadic trajectory deviations and the gap effect

Transient visual stimuli are known to capture covert spatial attention. This capture of attention only occurs, however, if the stimuli match the attentional control settings of the observer. While covert attentional capture is always contingent on attentional control settings, overt attentional capture (the capture of oculomotor programming) is not. For example, changes in luminance may produce oculomotor capture regardless of the goal state of the observer. The present research delineates the extent to which attentional control settings can be used to control the oculomotor system. Two experiments were implemented to investigate different components of the oculomotor system. In Experiment 1, saccade generation was examined through saccadic trajectory deviations and the remote distractor effect. In Experiment 2, saccade generation was examined through the gap effect. It was found that, while attentional control settings could be employed to completely abolish the remote distractor effect, attentional control settings could only attenuate trajectory deviations and had no influence on the gap effect.
Shape optimisation of solids in contact using variational inequalities

Despite its importance to the mechanical integrity of engineering components, contact effects are frequently treated using oversimplifying assumptions, leading to inaccurate prediction of the contact stress distribution. This is due to the complexity of the governing system of equations and their behaviour under any design perturbation. In addition, shape optimisation of contact problems constitutes an important field in the design and development of many engineering applications. It is however not commonly used in developing contact surfaces. It is with this in mind that we conduct the current investigations. This thesis is devoted to the development, implementation and application of optimal shape design of frictional contact problems, using variational inequalities. Three aspects of the work are accordingly examined. The first is concerned with the consistent, accurate and efficient modelling of frictional contact problems. In this regard, accurate representation of contact surfaces using cubic splines and a new surface-to-surface contact search algorithm are developed. To avoid the difficulties associated with nondifferentiability of Coulomb's friction terms, two solution techniques are adopted: (i) mathematical programming along with the use of regularisation and (ii) nondifferentiable optimisation techniques. The second aspect is concerned with the development of new shape optimisation formulations and algorithms for elastic and elasto-plastic media involving frictional contact. This includes the appropriate selection of objective functions and design variables, which are based on the use of rational B-splines, and the development of new sensitivity analyses using the material derivative approach. Three solution techniques are employed to solve the resulting nonsmooth formulations. The first is based on the use of Sequential Quadratic Programming to minimise the regularised objective function. In the second, nonsmooth objective functions are minimised using proximal bundle method, while the third is based on the use of genetic algorithm. Finally, the newly developed formulations and algorithms are validated and applied to a number of real engineering problems. The numerical predictions are compared to existing commercial finite element codes. The results revealed that the new consistent contact and optimisation formulations are more accurate and reliable than the traditional contact variational and gradient optimisation methods.
Oxygen as a paramagnetic probe for nuclear magnetic resonance: Structure and paramagnetic profile of a lipid bilayer/membrane model system

Paramagnetic contact shifts and relaxation rate enhancements from molecular oxygen dissolved in a model membrane, were studied by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The model membrane system was an isotropic bicelle formed using 1-myristelaidoyl-2-myristoyl-d27-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (MLMPC), a custom phospholipid, and 1-2-dihexanoyl-d22- sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DHPC). The 13C and 1H spectra of MLMPC were assigned. Molecular oxygen was delivered at external pressures of 20 and 50 atm. Paramagnetic contact shifts were found to scale with the oxygen solubility gradient in the lipid bilayer, were found to be invariant to temperature changes in the region studied (288K to 331K), and scaled linearly with changes in oxygen pressure. Relaxation rate enhancements from oxygen were low in the headgroup region and increased to a roughly constant rate in the acyl chain region. Rates were comparable to values predicted by simple thermodynamic theories which take into account the observed gradients in diffusion rates and solubility of oxygen in bilayers.
Teneurin C-terminal associated peptide (TCAP): Molecular and cellular characterization of in vivo and in vitro neuromodulatory effects of TCAP-1

The teneurin C-terminal associated peptides (TCAPs) are a recently discovered family of 4 peptides, encoded by the final exon of the teneurin protein family. As a family, their sequence is highly conserved, suggesting a vital physiological function. Further, the TCAP family has a high sequence similarity to the stress-regulating corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) family of peptides, and are expressed in key limbic regions of the brain implicated in the control of emotionality. This suggested that the TCAP family may be another player in the regulation of stress and anxiety. However, very little is known about the TCAP family's functions and mechanisms. In specific, the relationship between TCAP and its proprotein, the teneurins, has not been examined. The hypothesis for this thesis is that TCAPs are a bioactive system independent from the teneurins. The processing of TCAP from its proprotein indicates that the peptide can under certain conditions be transcribed separately. Investigation of its expression also suggests that the peptide can be cleaved to form smaller fragments, not associated with the full length teneurin. To develop a model of TCAP's bioactivity, a putative 35kDa binding protein for TCAP-1 is characterized. Synthetic TCAP-1 is also capable of infiltrating the blood-brain-barrier following peripheral injections and can modulate CRF-related anxiety behaviours. Finally, TCAP-1's ability to induce neuromodulatory changes independently from teneurins is investigated through its effects on the morphology of neurons. Data shows that TCAP-1 has cytoskeletal and morphological effects on immortalized hypothalamic and primary embryonic hippocampal cells. The peptide can also modulate in vivo the morphology of dendritic trees of CA3 hippocampal neurons at a certain distance away from the cell body; and differentially depending on the presence of chronic restraint stress in rats. Together, these data show that TCAP-1 is capable of independently inducing neuromodulatory effects that may be part of a mechanism to rewire the brain, resulting in behavioural modifications. Understanding the TCAP family, as an independent bioactive system, may help us comprehend the brain circuits regulating our moods, and may aid in the design of new therapeutic agents for the alleviation of psychological and mental ailments.
Towards a feminine oriented education for empowerment: Reorganizing adult learning for peri-urban women development in Ghana

The issue of informal and lifelong learning seem to be under microscopic scrutiny in learning policy discourses as learning is becoming part of everyday life. Learning facilitates the skill development of an individual. Thus education, learning, development, equity, empowerment, women, consciousness, equality, gender, have become buzz words in the development literature after the 1975 International Women's Day and 1996 Beijing women's meeting respectively. These concepts, however, may be mere rhetoric for women in Ghana and elsewhere if they do not translate into interventions which positively impact on the lives of marginalized and vulnerable women. So structures affecting women's learning need reorganizing whilst systemic hindrances to their learning, interrogated. This research advocates for the consideration of informal learning as pedagogy for developing the social and cognitive skills of women to ensure their functionality in society. Its pays special attention to the African and Ghanaian contexts. The research will employ the process of textual analysis to conceptualize and review learning vis-a-vis issues around women, feminism and, gender and development by using the feminist discursive framework to elaborate the essence of informal learning as means that impacts women's development.
Pattern of HLA allele co-expression influences immunodominance of anti-viral CTL responses

In order to assess whether co-expression of multiple, as opposed to expression of single, MHC class I alleles influences the pattern of anti-flu CTL epitope recognition and immunodominance (ImDc), doubly HLA transgenic (Tg) mice were established on a H2-K-/-/D-/- background. In flu-infected, doubly Tg A2/B7 or A2/B27 mice, IFN-gamma ELISpot assays with A2/M1.58-66 and B7/NP418-426 or B27/NP383-391 flu epitopes showed strong recognition of both peptides for both alleles. In contrast, in flu-infected doubly Tg B7/B27 mice, a reduced level of B27/NP383-restricted CTL response was detected while there was virtually no change in the response level of B7/NP418-restricted CTL. These results demonstrate a form of ImDe. Subsequent studies suggested that co-expression of HLA-B7 with HLA-B27 may lead to a partial deletion of Vbeta8.1+ B27/NP383-restricted CD8+ T cells in these doubly Tg B7/B27 mice.
Synthesis of annulated pyrazoles via a tandem alkylation/direct arylation sequence

The following thesis describes the palladium-catalyzed, norbornene mediated tandem alkylation/direct arylation of pyrazole substrates to form polycyclic annulated compounds. The reaction involves the alkylation of activated aryl groups followed by arylation of the pyrazole nucleus in a one-pot procedure. The mechanism for such transformations is described as a C-H functionalization of the unactivated pyrazole moiety; a previously undescribed event for this heterocycle. Such a methodology circumvents prior activation of the azole and provides a novel route for the functionalization of the core unit. We have shown that a variety of substitution patterns on both the pyrazole moiety and the arene are tolerated in the reaction and a large number of annulated pyrazoles easily produced.
Investigation of the molecular alterations in synchronous breast cancer using array and chromosomal comparative genomic hybridization

Studying multiple tumors in the same patient provides a valuable opportunity to identify genetic markers specific to the tumors while controlling for patient specific genetic background changes. Using chromosomal and array comparative genomic hybridization, the genetic alterations of 23 synchronous breast cancers from 10 patients at both the gene and chromosomal level were examined. JAK1 was found to be amplified in 100% of our cases. MYC, MAP3K12, TIMP2 and TIMP3 were amplified respectively in 78%, 69.6%, 48% and 48% whereas ATM was deleted in 74% of the cases. The prominent chromosomal alterations were gain of 1q, 3p, 4q, 8q and loss of 11q, 12q, 16q and 17p. Our CGH data revealed that synchronous tumours in a given patient, despite their similar genomic alterations, had unique genomic profiles. This bears potential therapeutic implications in designing clinical treatment for patients with synchronous breast cancer.
Techniques for reducing the misprediction recovery latency in out-of-order processors

Most high performance processors speculatively execute instructions following conditional branches. When speculation fails, performance is lost while the processor recovers from the mispredicted instructions. This thesis proposes "Turbo-ROB" and "BranchTap", two techniques that improve performance by speeding up this process. BranchTap is an adaptive speculation control strategy that temporarily throttles speculation when speculating more is likely to deteriorate performance by increasing the recovery latency. Turbo-ROB reduces the amount of work that is necessary to recover from most mispredictions. Our techniques work with existing conventional recovery mechanisms. We demonstrate their utility with just a reorder buffer or with global checkpoints. Turbo-ROB and BranchTap improve average performance of a 512-entry window processor with a reorder buffer by 11.8% and 7.9% respectively. Combined, the two techniques improve average performance by 14.3%.
Infrastructure development in emerging economies: An examination of public-private participation in the roads sector in Lagos State

The dilapidated state of physical infrastructure in most emerging economies is a source of concern not only to these economies but also the global community. The failure of state owned enterprises involved in the provision of such services has been identified as a major factor amongst others. The concern for rapid infrastructure development has thus witnessed the emergence of various private infrastructure development models to assist the government in meeting its infrastructure challenge. This thesis examines the extant regulatory and institutional regime for private participation in the road sector in Lagos State, Nigeria. The paper considers the successful experience of concession programmes in countries like the United Kingdom, State of Victoria, Australia, Chile and South Africa. Further, the paper discusses the unsuccessful experience of the Mexican Concession program in making recommendations for appropriate regulatory and institutional frameworks for implementing a successful concession program in the road sector.

Keywords: Road construction industry, Law and legislation
Road construction industry, Nigeria
Infrastructure (Economics), Nigeria
Public investments, Nigeria
Public-private sector cooperation, Nigeria
Interactive reasoning in intentional requirements engineering

I* and in general goal model evaluation is used to help a requirements analyst build a system that better achieves certain qualities by providing means of evaluating each alternative design. In this work, we improve the evaluation process of i* by (i) providing new types of analysis and reasoning in the evaluation process and (ii) providing automated support for existing and the newly introduced analysis use case profiles. The proposed framework enables the requirements analyst to navigate through alternative solutions that when propagated would satisfy certain high level goals of the organization; also the analyst can specify preferences at different levels from basic desires to multiagent preferences and ask the framework to return the most preferred solutions first. The framework also produces deterministic partial solutions resulting from analyst's inputs by running cautious queries over the logical model corresponding to the goal model.
How I learned to read German und so weiter: triangulating perspectives of a grammar translation approach to foreign language reading

This thesis seeks to explore and understand the foreign language pedagogy, grammar-translation, as an educational experience . Conducted at a Canadian university, the study involved 33 undergraduate and graduate students registered in a 12-week Reading German course. Throughout this period, the researcher, himself a member of the class, kept a language-learning diary in which he recorded his thoughts in relation to what and how he was learning. In addition, at the end of the course, he conducted semi-structured interviews with nine of his peers to better understand how they had engaged in and coped with the German language-learning process. The data collected from both the diary and interviews was analyzed using the qualitative research software, N5Â®. Such an analysis permitted the identification of common themes across diary entries and interview transcripts which, in turn, served as the basis for developing a theoretical model reflective of the classroom language-learning situation in question.

Keywords: Language and languages, Study and teaching
Languages, Modern
Language acquisition, Foreign speakers