VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Biochemical characterization of TGÃ1, a plant heterotrimeric G-protein Ã subunit homologue

A cDNA encoding an $\alpha$ subunit homologue of a heterotrimeric G-protein in tomato (TGA1) was overexpressed in Escherichia coli as a GST fusion protein and purified by glutathione affinity. The molecular weight of the purified protein (TG$\alpha$1), after thrombin proteolysis to release the GST fragment, was 45 kDa. Assays using ($\gamma$-$\sp{32}$P) -GTP determined the $K\sb{cat}$ value of GTP hydrolysis (0.075-0.125 min$\sp{-1}$) while no hydrolysis was detected when ($\gamma$-$\sp{32}$P) -ATP was used as an alternative nucleotide. A conserved glutamine residue in position 223 was shown to regulate GTP hydrolysis by the enzyme. A point mutation in Q223 $\to$ L resulted in a GTPase-deficient enzyme, capable of binding GTP but with an extremely slow rate of hydrolysis. Polyclonal antibodies were raised using TG$\alpha$1 as an antigen and used for its subcellular localization. Immunoblot analysis using the affinity-purified anti-TG$\alpha$1 antibody detected a 45 kDa protein most abundantly in the plasma membrane and endoplasmic reticulum. The stimulation of the plasma membrane H$\sp+$-ATPase in response to mastoparan was inhibited by the use of synthetic peptides corresponding to the C-terminus of TG$\alpha$1. This suggests the coupling of TG$\alpha$1 to a seven-transmembrane spanning receptor in plants with its C-terminus as a receptor-G-protein contact. An immunologically-based interactive cloning screen identified an interaction between TG$\alpha$1 and a DnaJ-like protein. This interaction may represent a role for TG$\alpha$1 in regulation of polypeptide translocation into the ER; a mechanism for its processing and targeting; or a mechanism for its stabilization under stress responses.
The experiences of women academics in Kenya

This study focuses on the daily lived experiences of academic women in Kenya. The purpose is to examine how formal education has enabled academic women to question their situations, to challenge and organize collectively for a better life for themselves and for other women and to make important decisions concerning their career and families. This study is based on seven months' interviewing and observation of twenty-four academic women in five Kenyan national universities. In-depth interviews were conducted, tape recorded, transcribed and coded with analytical categories emerging from the data. The study was conducted qualitatively utilizing aspects of the ethnographic approach. For the sake of confidentiality, pseudonyms were used for the respondents. My findings indicate that although the academic women I interviewed are a part of the tiny Kenyan elite, their lives are marked with glaring contradictions. Possession of a higher education and a high status career leads to many social and personal gains, but these very gains cause social and personal pain. The women experience marital strain, denial of affiliative needs, socio-cultural strain and excessive demands from their relatives on account of their being thought to be overeducated, too independent and uncontrollable. At the university, their careers lag behind those of their male colleagues. The women are excluded from male academic networks, and they lack mentors, sponsors and critical resources such as time and finances for accelerating their academic careers. Divisions between and among women and a strong culture of fear prevent the academic women from collectivizing their voices with those of the grassroots women for the purpose of their own empowerment. The academic women in this study are not passive victims. As I listened and observed them, I was deeply moved by their courage, strength and determination to succeed in spite of all odds. On the basis of a clear understanding of their situations they adopted various strategies to cope with or change their situations. While some of the academic women overtly resisted the status quo, others did so in very covert ways. In their varied approaches, the women were optimistic that gender relations can and must be changed.
Mental practice and goal-setting as transfer of training strategies, their influence on self-efficacy and task performance of team leaders in an organizational setting

A field experiment examined the effects of mental practice and goal setting, as post-training interventions, on both the transfer of newly learned communication skills and self-efficacy. Forty-one employees of a large Canadian pulp and paper mill participated in a one-day training program on communication skills after which they were randomly assigned to one of four transfer of training conditions, namely control group, goal setting, mental practice, and mental practice and goal setting. The participants in the three treatment conditions attended four one-hour transfer sessions while the control group was instructed to do their best to apply the skills they had been taught. An ANCOVA, six months later, showed that self-efficacy at the end of the transfer intervention was significantly higher for the participants who engaged in mental practice than for those who did not. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that the participants' imagery skills moderated the effect of mental practice on self-efficacy. Task knowledge prior to mental practice did not moderate the relationship between mental practice and self-efficacy. Paired t-tests revealed that the trainees in the mental practice conditions had significantly better communication behavior than those in the goal setting and control conditions.
Channel morphology and riffle-poll sequences in natural reaches of an urbanized alluvial system, the East Don River, Toronto, Ontario

Assessment of channel morphology of "natural" reaches on the East Don River was performed. Three reaches were evaluated (Cummer's Mill, German Mills and Pamona Mills) which are each approximately 1 km in length. Each site is located on a different sub-basin of the Don River watershed. The primary objective of the assessment was to determine the equilibrium status of the reaches with the main focus on riffle-pool sequences. This was achieved through analysis of flow and climate data on the East Don River from 1946 to 1992 and air photograph interpretation from 1972 to 1995. This information was combined with a field analysis of floodplain stratigraphy, grain size distribution on riffles and pools, and a three-dimensional longitudinal survey of riffle-pool sequences. The data were compared with a series of well-established river regime relationships to determine if the Don River sites are characteristic of other natural fluvial systems. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Tolerating latency in software distributed shared memory systems through non-binding prefetching

A key obstacle to achieving high performance on software distributed shared memory (DSM) systems is their high memory latencies. Software-controlled prefetching tolerates memory latency by overlapping computation with communication. This thesis proposes and evaluates an implementation of software-controlled non-binding prefetching on a software DSM called TreadMarks. With programmer-inserted prefetching, all of our applications achieve better performance. The overall speedup ranges from 4% to 29%. In addition, we observe that the performance of compiler-inserted prefetching matches that of programmer-inserted prefetching in a few cases. We also investigate prefetching with runtime information. Although using dynamic information to issue prefetches can overcome some of the limitations of statically inserted prefetches, the overheads of this approach often more than offset any gain in memory performance. Finally, we evaluate the combined effects of prefetching and multithreading on application performance. In several cases, the combined approach outperforms either technique alone, but the overall results are mixed.
A preliminary evaluation of a synthetic vision system for helicopter search and rescue operations

The University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), in conjunction with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), conducted a preliminary study to investigate the effect of a synthetic vision system on pilot performance and situational awareness in helicopter operations. The study involved two helicopter test pilots. The task was to perform five Aeronautical Design Standard-33D maneuvers using a fiber-optic helmet-mounted display (FOHMD) in a six degree-of-freedom Bell 205 helicopter simulator and a modified Bell 205 helicopter. Cooper-Harper handling qualities ratings for each maneuver were collected, as well as visual cue ratings for the FOHMD. This thesis describes the experiments conducted in 1997. Both UTIAS and NRC flight test results were obtained and analyzed. It was found that the handling qualities were significantly degraded when the FOHMD was employed in the helicopter. Similar handling qualities ratings were observed in the simulator and the helicopter. This indicates that the UTIAS simulator is a valid model for the planned research activities on synthetic vision systems. In addition, systems deficiencies in the two test platforms were identified and software/hardware modifications were suggested.
Relationships among health, stress, coping, and quality of life for women with fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain condition which impacts the biopsychosocial systems of an individual. This study examined the relationships among socio-demographics, mental and physical health, stress, coping, and quality of life for women with FM. The theoretical foundations were Lazarus and Folkman's theory of stress, appraisal, and coping and the Centre for Health Promotion's quality of life framework. Two quality of life models (the QOLP and QOLS) were tested to determine the extent to which quality of life was a function of the major study variables. Results indicate that women with FM experience marginal quality of life. Mental and physical health were significant in both quality of life models evaluated. Employment status, in the QOLS, and problem-focused coping, in the QOLP, were also significantly associated with quality of life. Stress and emotion-focused coping were non-significant for either quality of life model. Recommendations for future research and clinical applications are discussed.
Clinical investigations of a metabolic effects of high fiber foods in relation to prostate cancer

The aim was to investigate the effects of soluble and insoluble fiber in a mixed diet and lignans in flaxseed on serum prostate specific antigen (PSA). Compared to high insoluble fiber diets, high soluble fiber diets significantly reduced serum PSA by 0.07 $\pm$ 0.03 ng/ml (p = 0.035) in healthy men but did not affect the serum levels of steroid sex hormones. Fecal lithocholic acid output was increased (40 $\pm$ 10 mg/day, p = 0.001) and was positively correlated with the decrease in serum PSA (r = 0.57, p = 0.035). Furthermore, the high fiber diets resulted in changes in total fatty acids that were related to serum PSA, although there was no significant difference in total fatty acid concentrations between the diets. Flaxseed supplementation reduced the rate of rise in PSA in men with prostate cancer, although non-significantly. Serum lycopene and thiol concentrations were lower on flaxseed without reaching statistical significance, despite no change in lycopene intake.
Reductions of indicator organisms in raw sludge during biological solubilization of metals

The presence of toxic metals and pathogenic microorganisms in municipal sludges are two limiting factors for its reuse in agriculture. The present study was designed to examine the effects of bacterial leaching of municipal raw sludge on the survival of pathogenic microorganisms during the process. Experimental results from batch reactors and a continuous pilot plant reactor showed significant reductions in indicator organism counts. Typical results included 87 to 98% reductions in total heterotrophic counts, 5 log reductions in total coliforms, 5 to 6 log reductions in fecal coliforms and 3 log reductions in fecal streptococci counts. These results were dependent upon a number of parameters, including the reactor pH, temperature, hydraulic retention time and sludge type. Experiments also showed, that a sterile 1 mL pipette transfer yielded higher MPN total coliform counts than the standard 3 loop transfer in the analysis of bioleached sludge.
Mixed media, intention and contrariety in Blake's art

This dissertation examines William Blake's use of artistic media and his metaphorical representations of those media in his poetry, prose, and visual art. Blake's images of media have generally been considered to have rather monological meanings, but I argue that he destabilizes their moral associations so that they fluctuate between positive and negative possibilities. I contend that the ambiguity of these images allegorizes Blake's ambivalence about artistic intention itself. While his work often manifests a vehement desire to communicate vital intentions, it also reveals uncertainty about the potential of such intentions to reach beyond the artist's imagination. This uncertainty is also operative in larger ontological and metaphysical dimensions of Blake's art, because his idea of intention is implicated in the oppositional phenomenon of "contrariety," which is related to his theories of the "contraries" in his poems. For Blake, intention itself is contrary, which means that every intention necessarily invokes its opposite. Blake cultivates these contrary associations not in order to stymy interpretation, but rather to avoid Urizenic monologism and to create a kind of representation which is open to the imperatives of oppositional thinking. Contrariety generates semantic excess, which requires Blake's readers to undertake extraordinarily active forms of interpretation. Each of the four chapters examines a specific medium in Blake's work and tries to demonstrate how this medium embodies contrary intentional trajectories. Chapter One studies Blake's language, giving particular attention to his use of emphasis and his invocations of the prophetic voice. Chapter Two looks at Blake's theory and practice of linearism, showing how his lines embody the contrary functions of limitation and transgression. Chapter Three examines Blake's mirror metaphors and the mirror-effects of his graphic media, arguing that he alternates between a distortive Platonic mirror and a divine reflective surface which contains perfect representations. Chapter Four focuses on Blake's images of mechanism and his use of mechanical processes in his graphic media, arguing that he portrays technology as both an aid to human agency and a hindrance to it. Each of these chapters shows how Blake's contrariety of intention creates excess, which moves beyond the limits of system.
Change and continuity, the development of tune repertoire for congregational singing in the united church of canada, 1925-1975

This dissertation presents, in two volumes, a study of the development of tune repertoire for congregational singing in the United Church of Canada during the first 50 years after church union in 1925, as found in the hymn, psalm and song resources published for or by the Church during this period. Volume 1 discusses this repertoire and places it within its historical and cultural context. The state of the repertoire in 1925, subsequent changes to the repertoire throughout the period, and the influence the publications of this period have had on the Church after 1975, are all addressed. Many elements affected the development of the repertoire during these years: the musical preferences of the people involved in compiling the published resources; cultural and technological change; regional concerns and needs in a geographically and culturally disparate church; the gap between high-church and low-church musical taste; and the compromises necessary in attempting to merge different denominational traditions, both at the time of union and in the later union negotiations with the Anglican Church in Canada. Volume 2 contains two computer database printouts, one organized by tune incipit and the other by textcode, of the contents of the hymn, psalm and song collections issued for or by the United Church and its parent denominations, the Methodist Church in Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and the Congregational Union of Canada, from 1881, the date of the first united Canadian Presbyterian and Methodist tune collections, to 1997, the date of the supplement to the United Church's new hymn resource, Voices united (1996). This database, which was prepared by the author using a modification of the system devised by Nicholas Temperley for the production of the Hymn tune index, therefore provides the publication history of every tune and text in the official United Church repertoire during this larger timespan, as a companion reference to Volume 1 and as a separate resource for future scholarly use.
The high temperature thermodynamics of the Ni-Co-S and Fe-Co-S ternary systems

The metal saturation line and tie-lines in the nickel-cobalt-sulphur ternary system have been determined between 1273 and 1573 K. Those for the iron-cobalt-sulphur ternary system have also been determined between 1473 and 1623 K. The experiments were conducted by equilibrating the liquid sulphide phase with the metallic alloy phase. The liquid sulphide phase was sampled and chemically analyzed. The alloy phase was analyzed by an electron microprobe. It was found that the metal saturation line data available in the literature for the iron-cobalt-sulphur system were very different from the results of this study. To measure the partial pressure of sulphur in these two ternary systems, a gas equilibrium technique was used. A gas mixture of H2S/H 2 was used to fix the partial pressure of sulphur. The partial pressures of sulphur in the nickel-cobalt-sulphur ternary system were measured at 1373, 1473 and 1573 K, while in the iron-cobalt sulphur system, they were measured at 1473, 1548 and 1623 K. The attainment of equilibrium was evaluated by several techniques. The iso-activity contours for Ni, Fe, and Co were determined by application of the Gibbs Duhem equation using Schuhmann's method for ternary systems. The cobalt activity coefficients in dilute solutions of cobalt in the nickel-cobalt-sulphur system were determined. It was found that these systems had a negative deviation from Raoult's law and up to about 0.02 mole fraction of cobalt the activity coefficient of cobalt was constant. The cobalt activities in the iron-cobalt-sulphur ternary system were also determined. At 1548 and 1623 K, cobalt behaved in an ideal manner up to approximately 0.02 mole fraction, above which it exhibited a positive deviation from ideality. At 1473 K, up to approximately 0.05 mole fraction, the activity coefficient of cobalt was constant. From the experimental data, the partial heats of solution for nickel, iron, cobalt, and sulphur were calculated. The integral heats of solution for the Ni-Co-S and the Fe-Co-S ternary systems were determined.
Robertson Davies's innovative use of the trilogy form in his fiction

As the Salterton, Deptford and the Cornish trilogies and the incomplete fourth (with two novels published) represent Robertson Davies's entire body of fictional work, this study of his innovative use of the trilogy form focuses on him as a writer of trilogies rather than simply as a novelist. The Thesis examines his development as a writer of trilogies; his creativity or inventiveness with the form; and the rhetoric and artistry with which he unites each of his trilogies. An important part of its argument is that for reasons that not even Davies understood fully, he needed the form of trilogy to express his vision. The thesis also argues that Davies made an original contribution to the form or subgenre of the trilogy. Because the novel sequence has not been sufficiently recognized as a distinctive genre, and also because critical studies have been less than definitive, the introduction provides both a brief survey of the rise and development of the English novel sequence, illustrated with work of Anthony Trollope, Joyce Cary, Lawrence Durrell and Evelyn Waugh, and an explanation of the cause of the problems in the critical studies. Two theoretical approaches to the novel sequence are examined to offer a better understanding of the ultimately indefinable nature of the sequence form and of the paradoxical coexistence of unity in the sequence and autonomy in the individual novels. Chapter 2 explores Davies's notion of the novel sequence and the evolution of his three completed trilogies. The contrast between his critical treatment of other sequences and of his own confirms that he tries intentionally to create linked novels in his own way. The ensuing three chapters examine his varying ways of building each trilogy structure and his experimentation with various narrative elements and techniques, and illustrate different intertextual effects achieved and the differences between one structure and another. The conclusion highlights the unique features of each trilogy, summarizes his main achievement as a trilogy novelist, and offers an explanation of why he has been fond of the trilogy form and has used it constantly.
O word of fear, imaginary cuckoldry in Shakespeare's plays

The spectre of cuckoldry is invoked in many of Shakespeare's plays, yet few contain unfaithful wives. This suggests that the author attributed sexual mistrust to masculine insecurity rather than to feminine infidelity. The "cuckoldry anxiety" inculcated by Renaissance cultural practices produced men who were quarrelsome, self-obsessed, and reliant on approbation from lovers and peers--traits similar to symptoms of what self psychologist Heinz Kohut calls the "narcissistic personality disorder": a hypersensitivity to slights, a solipsistic view of the environment, and a heavy reliance on others to function as selfobjects ("objects" [i.e., people] who are experienced as part of the subject's self). If an afflicted individual perceives his lover to be unfaithful and his peers to be unsympathetic, then the loss of these sustaining selfobjects precipitates an extreme responses akin to what Kohut calls "narcissistic rage"--an anger prompted by injured pride and fuelled by the hope of revenge. In Chapter One, I outline current critical thinking about Shakespearean cuckoldry anxiety. In Chapter Two, I outline basic tenets of self psychology and inroads it has made into literary criticism. In Chapter Three, I discuss Jaques's Seven Ages of Man speech in the context of social history, paying particular attention to the foundational stages of life, infancy and childhood. In Chapters Four through Six, I examine the cuckoldry anxiety of young, unmarried lovers in 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors', and ' Love's Labour's Lost'. In Chapters Seven through Nine, I chart the experiences of jealous soldiers in 'Much Ado About Nothing, Troilus and Cressida' and 'Cymbeline'. In Chapters Ten through Twelve, I will investigate older, more established characters for whom private jealousy hampers the administration of public justice in 'Othello, The Merry Wives of Windsor' and 'The Winter's Tale'. And in my Conclusion, I compare the related anxieties of the very old and the very young as depicted in the baiting of Falstaff by the children of Windsor. These plays present striking analogues to self-psychology, as they map out complex worlds of interdependent identities, the insecure foundations of which are shaken by sudden isolation from selfobjects.