VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Resveratrol; Does it have a cardiovascular protective function? [Resveratrol: A potential cardiovascular protective role]

Background. Cardiovascular disease, specifically atherosclerosis along with its etiologic factors such as diet-induced obesity, is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in North America. Resveratrol a compound of the polyphenol family has shown a wide range of biological potential benefits. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of resveratrol treatment on atherosclerosis and diet-induced obesity in vitro and in vivo models. Materials and methods. Resveratrol dietary supplementation was studied in a low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) knockdown mouse model of atherosclerosis. Murine 3T3-L1 progenitor adipocytes cell cultures, treated and untreated (Control) with resveratrol before the induction of differentiation and the effects on adipogenesis and insulin signaling was investigated. PPARgamma and PI3K signaling pathways were examined to assess the effects of resveratrol treatment. Novel targets were identified using microarray analysis. Results. Resveratrol treatment successfully reduced the differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells in vitro. Furthermore, resveratrol reduced the atherosclerotic aortic index and inhibited diet-induced obesity. Significant reductions in the PI3K pathway and also downregulation of Complement C3, acylation stimulating protein (ASP) and adipsin, which play important roles in differentiation and lipolysis were observed. Discussion. In this study, we demonstrate that resveratrol can reduce atherosclerosis and its complicating factor, diet-induced obesity, through impairing the PPARg and C/EBPs pathway. Resveratrol is able to diminish the PI3K pathway by down regulating complement C3 and adipsin gene expression. The potential therapeutic benefits of this compound may be immense in their scope and effects on general health.
Decision-making using a performance-based life-cycle cost tool for fibre-reinforced polymer repairs

To evaluate fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) technology for the bridge rehabilitation industry, this research investigates the cost-effectiveness of externally-bonded FRP sheets as a repair option for circular reinforced-concrete bridge piers. Wrapping with FRP sheets, and a variation that includes prior patching, are compared against traditional repair techniques including shotcreting, patching, and concrete and steel jacketing. An evaluation of five existing computer applications (Life-365, BridgeLCC, CORRODE, PRVAL and COSBEN), and an assessment of bridge management systems and life-cycle cost analysis models offer insight toward the development of MORE FRP (Management Of REpair with Fibre-Reinforced Polymers), a decision-support tool using life-cycle cost analysis and performance prediction. Rehabilitation scenarios are analyzed in a Replacement and Service Life Extension Models. Unique to MORE FRP is the recommendation of optimum rehabilitation scenarios through a decision-making process that furnishes practical decision-making criteria to owners, engineers, and managers.
Dietary carbohydrate, glycemic index, glycemic load, and the risk of prostate cancer

Hypothesis. A diet with high dietary GL or a high overall GI is associated with increased risk of prostate cancer. Methods. A nested case-control study within the Canadian Study of Diet Lifestyle and Health (CSDLH). We examined the association of GI, GL and carbohydrate intake with prostate cancer risk among 673 prostate cancer cases and a random sample of 1290 controls selected from the CSDLH. Diet was assessed by food frequency questionnaire. Results. We observed no association of overall GI, GL and carbohydrate intake with the risk of prostate cancer. The multivariate Odds Ratio (OR) for the highest quartile versus the lowest quartile were 0.94 (95% CI=0.66-1.32) for GL, 0.89 (95% CI=0.66-1.20) for overall GI and 1.04 (95% CI=0.61-1.78) for daily carbohydrate intake. Conclusion. Findings from this thesis do not support the hypothesis that a diet with high dietary GL or high overall GI is associated with increased risk of prostate cancer.
Elucidating gene dynamics in Escherichia coli: Theoretical and practical approaches

Recent developments in molecular biology have made it feasible to carry out experimental verification of mathematical models for biochemical processes, offering the eventual prospect of creating a detailed, validated picture of gene expression. This thesis is the composition of three separate projects that work towards achieving this goal. (1) As a persistent difficulty in creating an encompassing genomic model is the incompleteness of the kinetic information available, a new method is presented in filling missing parameters using an approach conceptually analogous to mean-field approaches in statistical mechanics. (2) To ensure accuracy comparing gene expression in Escherichia coli cells using fluorescent reporter proteins to those predicted in simulations, the number of reporter proteins sequestered in inclusion bodies has been investigated to offer a correction between studies. (3) In effort to decrease simulation time for Escherichia coli genomic networks, the validity of the genome on effective RNA polymerases concentrations has been investigated.
Paper museums: Collecting and consumerism in seventeenth-century prose (Francis Bacon, John Evelyn, Henry Oldenburg, Robert Hooke)

My thesis investigates the ways in which the impulse to possess the new and the unfamiliar found expression in seventeenth-century prose. Focusing on the critical relationship between the Scientific Revolution and early discourses of consumerism, I trace the connections between empirical forms of inquiry and the emerging taste for novelty. My major authors are Francis Bacon, John Evelyn, Henry Oldenburg, and Robert Hooke. I argue that, in the seventeenth century, the model of the museum was translated into a variety of textual forms, literary and nonliterary; these include herbaria, epistolary networks, periodicals, and natural history writings. Examining the methods by which individuals and institutions ascribe meanings to objects, I situate the works of my authors within the broader contexts of consumerism, material culture, and the history of science. My research illuminates the critical function of seventeenth-century encyclopedic texts in linking collecting with other early modern discourses of control.
Public lives, personal diaries: Medieval Japanese women's nikki

Women's nikki, or diaries, of the early medieval period of Japan reveal an uneasy relationship with their more popular literary ancestors of the Heian period. This thesis seeks to place these texts within the context of their times in order to understand the silence surrounding the lives and feelings of the authors, the focus on duties and responsibilities, and the interest they show in literary production itself. It argues that medieval women's nikki attempt to reconcile an inherited expressive tradition with a social context that discourage private content. The contradiction between the nikki genre as shaped in the Heian period and the uses to which female authors in the Kamakura period put this form, gives insight into genre as a living subject and exposes the ways in which it shapes, and is shaped by, authorship.
La toile magique: student-artists exploring cultures, school experience and transformation

Two groups of high school students, 12 rural, Grade Nine Aboriginal and 12 urban, non-Aboriginal, engaged in an extra-curricular, intercultural arts-based project. One year after the inter-school arts-based project I meet, individually, nine urban and rural student-artists and their two teachers. The student-artists each told stories of self-discovery and of their place in school, their new found awareness of the natural environment, and significant awakenings and realizations about their and the other's culture. The different locational contexts, and the multiple perspectives on similar school and cultural experiences merge to reveal the powerful and pervasive influence of formal schooling. Self-discovery, building relationships and a sense of community emerge in this qualitative, arts-informed research. Through poetic transcriptions, student narratives and poetry I explore processes and unearth the transformative possibilities of holistic, non-formal learning experiences. The transformational possibilities and realizations that emerged from this singular experience may, indeed, prove to be lasting.

Keywords: Art, Study and teaching
Critical pedagogy
Indians of North America, Education
Indians of North America, Canada
Educational change
Education, Canada
Education, Philosophy
Teaching
Reflections on homeschooling, mothering, and social change: the life history of Wendy Priesnitz

This is the life history of Wendy Priesnitz, a Canadian pioneer in the home education movement, a social activist, and well known writer. It is her contribution to alternative education that brought me to her. The topic of home education became the flame to illuminate Wendy's life as an activist--a woman who challenges the status quo in education, parenting, and traditional work places.
Biophysical and gas transfer properties of lung surfactant and polymer-enhanced lung surfactant films

Lung surfactant is a complex mixture of approximately 90% lipids and 10% proteins. It lines a thin film on the air-water interface of alveoli and plays a crucial role in maintaining the normal respiratory mechanics by reducing the alveolar surface tension to near-zero values. Deficiency or dysfunction of lung surfactant causes respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), one of the major contributors to neonatal morbidity and mortality in industrialized countries. Exogenous surfactant replacement therapy has been used as a standard therapeutic intervention for patients with RDS. Different formulations, either synthetic or natural surfactants extracted from mammalian lungs, have been developed as surfactant substitutions. A focal point in these developments is the use of certain water-soluble polymers (e.g., polyethylene glycol (PEG)) as additives to therapeutic surfactants to enhance their surface activity and resistance to various inhibitory substances, such as blood proteins and meconium. The clinical applications of lung surfactant entail the in vitro assessment of its biophysical properties, i.e., properties related to highly dynamic and very low surface tensions. Accuracy, versatility, and simplicity of Axisymmetric Drop Shape Analysis (ADSA) facilitate lung surfactant related studies. This dissertation systematically studies the biophysical and gas transfer properties of lung surfactant and polymer-enhanced lung surfactant films using ADSA. Main contributions fall into the following four headings: (1) Development of ADSA-Captive bubble (ADSA-CB) for studying lung surfactant-polymer systems. (2) Development of a methodology capable of simultaneously measuring surface tension and interfacial gas transfer, which allows the study of gas permeability of compressed lung surfactant films, even at very low surface tensions. This study provides direct evidence that the surfactant lining layer of alveoli may play a role in pulmonary gas exchange. (3) Study of the effect of environmental humidity on surface activity of lung surfactant films. This study necessitates careful humidity control in all in vitro assessment of lung surfactant. (4) A cationic natural polymer, chitosan, is tested as a novel lung surfactant additive. This study suggests that chitosan may be a more effective polymeric additive than the nonionic polymers tested so far. These findings have strong implications for the development of new formulations for surfactant replacement therapy.
Use of diatom algae as biological indicators for assessing and monitoring water quality of the rivers in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada

Diatom and environmental data collected from the rivers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) were analyzed using various multivariate ordination and weighted averaging methods. A regional calibration set was based on the 280 samples collected from 42 sites of the Humber River on a monthly basis over a one-year period. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) showed that the first two axes were correlated with specific conductivity and temperature, suggesting that both spatial and temporal patterns were important. Specific conductivity was the most important variable and a diatom inference model was developed for this variable using the simple weighted average method with inverse de-shrinking. Subsequently, diatoms from five selected sites each belonging to one of five different land use categories and sampled over a 12-month period, were analyzed for temporal variations. Each land use site supported different diatom species, some of which further showed different seasonal changes. More polluted sites exhibited more distinct seasonal patterns, while less polluted sites showed less pronounced seasonal variability. For sites where seasonal variation was pronounced, distinct differentiation was found between winter and spring samples and summer and fall samples. Therefore it can be recommended to sample more than once per year, or to develop different diatom indices depending on the season. Despite the high seasonal variation in some sites, differences in overall diatom assemblages between more polluted and less polluted sites remained distinct, indicating that diatoms can be used as a powerful biomonitoring tool. The influence of substratum type on diatom composition and abundances was also tested by comparing pairs of rock and sand samples collected from 73 monitoring stations along six watersheds of the GTA. Results show that rocks and sand samples support similar diatom assemblages, with comparable species richness and diversity as well as growth forms. Correspondence Analysis (CA) did not show any separation between diatom assemblages from the two substrata, and CCA showed that the two assemblages not only have similar patterns in diatom distribution but are also controlled by the same environmental variables, suggesting that in river stretches where a preferred substratum is not present, the second choice substratum can be used.
Revisiting the invisible college: a case study of the intellectual structure and social process of singularity theory research in mathematics

This study revisits the invisible college concept in order to respond to Lievrouw's (1990) question about whether it is a structure of scholarship measurable from outside elements (i.e., published documents) or a social process rooted in informal communication behaviours, perceivable only to the researchers who carry out these behaviours. Focusing on the Singularity Theory community in Mathematics, the combined research techniques of Author Co-Citation Analysis, Social Network Analysis, and Ethnography of Communication are used show that an invisible college constitutes both elements identified by Lievrouw. An invisible college is defined and observed as a multidimensional phenomenon where three factors---the subject specialty, the scientist/scholars as social actors, and the information use environment (IUE)---play interrelated roles in its orientation and growth.
Genotypic/phenotypic analysis of endothelial progenitor cells in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension and hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia

Introduction. Idiopathic pulmonary artenal hypertension (IPAH) and hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) result from mutations TGF-beta superfamily receptors. Circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) have been shown to play an important role in vascular homeostasis and repair. Mutations in TGF-beta receptors may result in EPC dysfunction and alter their reparative potential. Methods. EPCs were isolated from controls, patients with IPAH (genotype unknown), familial PAH (FPAH, known BMPRII mutations) and HHT. Quantification of circulating EPC levels was performed immediately following isolation, remaining cells were assayed following a 7-day differential culture for phenotypic and functional abnormalities. Results. A significant increase in circulating cells with the capacity to develop into EPCs was found in all patient groups, whereas, a significant decrease in differentiation capacity was observed in EPCs following differential culture. Functional assays demonstrated increased apoptotic rates in EPCs derived from IPAH and FPAH patients, while EPCs derived from HHT patients demonstrated impaired gene expression. Conclusions. EPCs, derived from patients vascular diseases associated with TGF-beta mutations, demonstrated abnormalities in function and phenotype suggestive of reduced endothelial differentiation and impaired regenerative capacity.
Incorporating expert knowledge in the estimation of parameters of the proportional hazards model

The Proportional Hazards Model (PHM) has been applied widely in reliability and many other fields since the 1980s. To be effective, a PHM with time dependent covariates needs a lot of statistical data in a proper format. However, in reality, part or most of such data might not be available. This fact signifies the need for incorporation of other sources of knowledge and information such as experts' opinion when estimating the parameters of a PHM. Most of the current knowledge elicitation techniques usually take a lot of time and require the experts in the industry to be familiar with probability and statistics concepts and thus these techniques appear confusing and uninteresting to the experts. The main objective of this research is to establish a methodology that can utilize experts' knowledge and use it along with statistical data to estimate the parameters of a PHM without requiring the experts to be familiar with common concepts in probability and statistics. The main contributions of this research are:Second, a new knowledge elicitation protocol is developed in this thesis. In this new protocol, the answers to the questions result in a set of inequalities which in turn define a feasible space for the parameters of the PHM. By sampling from the feasible space an empirical prior distribution can be estimated. Therefore we can sample directly from the prior distribution of the parameters without imposing any parametric format on it. This method reflects the knowledge of experts in a better way compared to many conventional methods. First, the knowledge elicitation process developed in this research is easy to understand for people in industry because it is based on case analyses and comparisons. It is not difficult for an expert to compare different machine conditions in terms of probability of having a failure. The methodology developed in this thesis has been applied in a few experiments and in one real industrial case and has shown promising results. Third, a posterior distribution can be obtained directly from samples of prior distribution and likelihood of the statistical data using Bayes' rule. This minimizes approximation in the process.
Compensation of delta-sigma modulators: stabilization, signal restoration and integrated circuits

We propose novel architectures and techniques for the stabilization of continuous-time delta-sigma modulators, the on-line restoration of corrupted oversampled data, and the implementation of high speed delta-sigma modulators in complementary metal-oxide semiconductor integrated circuit technology. Specifically, the contributions of this work are threefold: (1) A novel architecture for the stabilization of continuous-time delta-sigma modulators of arbitrary order is proposed. The approach features a guarantee of stability under certain assumptions and accommodates quantizers incorporating any number of levels and dithering. An estimation method to predict long-term SNR performance of the stabilized delta-sigma modulator is provided. We show that first-order noise-shaping can be achieved. (2) New measures for the management of instability in delta-sigma modulation are proposed. Digital state estimation techniques based on observer theory adapted to delta-sigma modulation are developed and simulated. Restorative algorithms suitable for multiplier-free digital implementation are also provided and simulated. Significant SNR recoveries are shown to be possible. (3) A compensated fifth-order single-bit continuous-time delta-sigma modulator integrated circuit for analog-to-digital conversion is designed, laid-out, fabricated (in a 0.35-micron CMOS technology) and tested. The basic operation of our soft-resetting technique is demonstrated in steady-state. Nominal performance of 56-dB SNDR and 51-dB DR in a signal bandwidth from 100–500 kHz is achieved. The presence of a non-ideal do offset is discussed and a possible remedy is proposed. The main purpose of the IC is for demonstrating that advanced switching control techniques can be implemented in a practical fashion. The chip does not represent a contribution to the state-of-the-art in nominal SNDR and DR modulator performance.
Development of a bio-lab-on-a-chip simulation (BLOCS) software based on graphical user interface

In the lab-on-a-chip research community, a simulation software package designed specifically for lab-on-a-chip analysis is highly desired. The objective of this thesis is to develop a graphical user interface-based software, BLOCS 1.0, using the existing BLOCS finite element code as the numerical simulation module. BLOCS 1.0 can provide a more convenient way to model 2D/3D transport phenomena of electroosmotic driven flow in lab-on-a-chip devices. The mesh import module generalizes the program by dealing with any type of channel geometry. Interactive input approach makes complex simulation configuration simple and quick. Various visualization tools and data export functions allow the user to easily display and process solutions. Three simulation applications presented in Chapter 5 demonstrate that BLOCS 1.0 is a powerful and user-friendly tool to help end users who do not have computational fluid dynamics skills to simulate and optimize lab-on-a-chip processes quickly and efficiently.
DDVERK90: a user-friendly implementation of an effective DDE solver

Delay differential equations(DDEs) provide powerful and rich mathematical models that have been proven to be useful in simulating some real life problems. The current publicly available DDE solvers are either very formidable to use (especially for new users) or designed to support only selected classes of problems. In this thesis we have developed a new Fortran 90 DDE solver DDVERK90 that aims to combine the effectiveness of the Fortran 77 DDE solver DDVERK and the user-friendliness of the MATLAB ODE solvers. We have added the capability of embedded event location to facilitate many tasks that arise in applications. We have also introduced a new approach for classifying DDE problems that helps users to write driver programs to solve their problem very quickly. They do this by comparing their problem to other previously solved example problems in the same class and using the corresponding 'template' driver as a guide.