VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Ambulatory Clinic Scheduling

In this thesis we seek to fully explore the ambulatory clinic scheduling problem (CSP) and study the creation of ambulatory clinic schedules using mathematical models. We describe our experiences developing ambulatory clinic schedules for three healthcare facilities including the challenges we faced, lessons learned, and value provided to our partner organizations. Based on our experiences we identify and model the key elements of the CSP, providing a general model for future use. To solve our general clinic scheduling model we identify the problem in literature with the structure most similar to the CSP and consider solution approaches that may be adapted for the CSP. We adapt a solution approach for the multi-resource generalized assignment problem to the CSP based on insight gained through our practical experience. Our adaptations improve the solution approachâ s performance on the CSP. This thesis will establish the clinic scheduling problem as an important healthcare operations problem alongside other popular and well-studied healthcare scheduling problems such as personnel and operating room scheduling.

Keywords: clinic scheduling
healthcare
integer programming
Advisor: Chan, Timothy CY
Carter, Michael W
Pulang Kampung (Returning Home): Curcuits of Mobility from a Chinese Town in Indonesia

This dissertation explains some common cultural logics underpinning widespread mobility out of Singkawang, West Kalimantan, a majority Chinese Indonesian town in Indonesian Borneo. I focus on the primary domestic and international migrations taking place, and describe the concepts used to make sense of these sojourns. I study the mobilities of this Hakka Chinese Indonesian population in a context of current post-Suharto era politics, as well as the “diasporic” status of this community in relation to the discourses and developments of “rising China” and overseas Chinese transnationalism. Members of this community are influenced by these broader trends as they draw from their unique cultural resources in order to chart pathways into both real and imagined futures of prosperity. In Singkawang, the mobilities of the Chinese community are framed in terms of economic necessity and social mobility, which are talked about using the language of “becoming one’s own boss” and “looking for a better life”. These aspirations are constructed as the most important life goals, to the extent that other occupational possibilities become practically unimaginable. Private business ownership has become a hegemonic aspiration and is best understood not merely as a form of livelihood, but also as a kind of quintessential adulthood subjectivity intimately linked to one’s ability to attain social status within the community. Some people entertain fantasies of becoming cosmopolitan transnational citizens, but experience practical limitations in transforming these fantasies into realities overseas. In relation to these limitations, and in relation to the powerful draw of home (Ind. kampung halaman), sojourns ultimately reinforce a connection to the city of Singkawang. The desire to return is as strong as the compulsion to leave, because of strong affective bonds with the hometown. This dissertation describes the process by which people make and remake themselves in relation to space and place in a context of mobility. I argue that migrants must continually reevaluate their concepts of home and away, by coming to terms with the fact that the ways they have changed as people during the migration process have also changed the contents of their categorizations of home and away.

Keywords: Chinese Indonesians
Home
Indonesia
Mobility
Transnationalism
West Kalimantan
Advisor: Barker, Joshua
Li, Tania
Intra-Cardiac Ultrasound Ablation And Treatment Monitoring

Cardiac ablation procedures in the ventricles of the heart have been a difficult challenge for electrophysiologists. The current procedural workflow of these procedures uses radio frequency ablation under X-ray guidance with little to no treatment monitoring. The current challenges associated with this minimally invasive procedure can be separated into three categories. The first challenge is that the current image guidance technique, X-ray, offers poor soft tissue contrast and deposits radiation dose into the patient and interventionalist. As a second challenge, treatment monitoring techniques are limited for cardiac ablation therapies. Current treatment monitoring includes temperature and force sensors. Lastly, radio frequency ablation does not have the ability to cause deep tissue or clinically relevant lesions in the ventricles. To address these challenges, an interventional MRI surgical platform for cardiac ablation therapies has been developed. This platform entails the use of therapeutic ultrasound, a treatment modality that has the potential to create clinically relevant lesions in the ventricles. The interventional MRI surgical platform will address the three specific challenges mentioned above. This begins with the development of MRI-compatible steerable ultrasonic catheters. Secondly, an MRI-based form of treatment monitoring has been developed that allows temperature information to be obtained from intra-cardiac radio frequency receivers. Lastly, a fully ultrasound method to both treat and acquire real-time ultrasound signals for treatment monitoring provides additional treatment monitoring information. Future work for this project is largely based on the additional safety and regulation compliance experiments needed to transition this work from a pre-clinical environment to a small-scale patient clinical trial. In addition, there are several MRI and ultrasound-based methods that could enhance the current treatment monitoring.

Keywords: Ablation
Cardiac
Catheters
MRI
Treatment Monitoring
Ultrasound
Advisor: Hynynen, Kullervo
The Atmospheric Response to Arctic Sea Ice Loss in the Coupled Climate System

Arctic sea ice loss is expected to have a large impact on the atmosphere, both in the Arctic and potentially outside the Arctic, through changing the atmospheric circulation. In this thesis, the impact of sea ice loss in the climate system is studied using multi-century coupled Earth system model simulations that include dynamical coupling between oceans, atmosphere, and sea ice. In these simulations, sea ice is artificially melted by reducing its albedo. This framework allows for adequate sampling of the isolated impacts of sea ice loss when potentially important ocean feedbacks are included. It is shown that in response to sea ice loss, the atmospheric circulation response is weak compared with internal variability. There is a large reduction in temperature variability on all timescales over the Arctic Ocean. Smaller magnitude reductions in variability are also seen in mid-latitude temperature, sea level pressure and mid-tropospheric geopotential height. The impacts of sea ice loss are isolated from the impacts of warming at low-latitudes in the sea ice albedo forced simulations and simulations forced by projected greenhouse-dominated radiative forcing using a pattern scaling method. It is found that many of the wintertime atmospheric circulation responses that occur in response to sea ice loss are opposed and at least partially cancelled out by the impacts of low-latitude warming. However, both sea ice loss and low-latitude surface warming act in concert to reduce subseasonal temperature variability throughout the mid and high latitudes. Finally, the cause of the previously documented amplified response to sea ice loss in the coupled climate system is investigated. Atmospheric general circulation modelling (AGCM) experiments are performed that show that ocean warming in the mid-to-high latitudes induced by sea ice loss amplifies the atmospheric circulation response. The impact of the ocean warming that occurs in regions away from the sea ice loss region is similar in magnitude and structure to the impacts of sea ice loss itself, indicating modelling experiments that do not include ocean feedbacks will underestimate the response.

Advisor: Kushner, Paul J
EFL Teaching in University Classrooms in Saudi Arabia: A Case Study of Instructors and Curriculum and Implementation for Language Learning

Literature has extensively documented the traditional conceptions of viewing teaching, learning, curriculum and implementation and recommends changing these traditional views for better teaching and learning outcomes. However; still some teachers view curriculum as a rigid document, learning as static, unalterable, and measurable by tests and teaching as transmitting knowledge and teachers as transmitter of prescribed knowledge. This thesis presents a case study of nine EFL instructors explaining the ways participating English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructors understand and implement the foundation year EFL university curriculum in Saudi Arabia and how their understanding impacts their implementation and language learning. This case study explains the factors affecting studentsâ learning through the eyes of the participating EFL instructors, the ways these EFL instructors re-imagine teaching and learning in the EFL curriculum at university, and the support needed for EFL instructors that would facilitate improved English teaching and learning. The rigid, hierarchical educational system and its effects on EFL in the foundation year as a result of its top-down organization, fixed curriculum, limited time, and poor outcomes were highlighted as factors that contribute to EFL teaching, learning, curriculum and implementation at university. The findings reveal that policy and power, voice and choice, culture, motivation, teacher learning, and resources are major factors that need reconsideration for improved EFL teaching and learning. One of the emerging considerations from this research is that participating EFL instructors need to rethink traditional, conventional conceptions of EFL curriculum, teaching, and learning at the university level in Saudi Arabia for improved teaching and learning outcomes.

Keywords: case study
curriculum implementation
EFL taeching
language learning
Saudi Arabia
university classrooms
Advisor: Kooy, Mary
Whole-genome Based Investigation of Streptococcus pneumoniae Infections

Streptococcus pneumoniae is a common resident of the human throat, yet is also a major cause of community-acquired pneumonia, septicemia, meningitis and otitis media. In recent years, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has been extensively used in research laboratories to study infectious pathogens. However, to date, the application of WGS in clinical laboratories is limited, especially for S. pneumoniae-associated diseases. We hypothesize that variations between the genome sequence of pneumococcal isolates can be used to monitor epidemiological spread and to reveal unique traits that define clinical disease outcome. In this thesis, I used WGS in a public health laboratory setting for rapid prediction of multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) and antimicrobial resistance, establishing good sensitivity and specificity in this context. I also used WGS to delineate outbreaks of pneumococcal diseases caused by 12F that occurred in Manitoba, Canada, which was the first reported use of WGS for tracing a pneumococcal epidemic. Through genomic comparisons of Canadian and U.S.A. 12F isolates, I was able to pinpoint the source of the outbreak, and monitor transmission and evolution of an emerging 12F outbreak strain. Finally, I performed a large-scale genome comparison of pneumococcal isolates associated with different clinical manifestations to gain insight into genomic landscape of S. pneumoniae, with a goal to reveal genetic differences between strains with a propensity to cause different types of disease. From this work, I have identified a handful of candidate genes that tend to differentiate pathogenic versus commensal strains When considered together, this thesis demonstrates the power of WGS in clinical epidemiology. Once routinely applied, WGS will allow high resolution mapping of epidemics, helpful predictions of antimicrobial resistance, and the presence of factors indicating a predisposition to cause different types of pneumococcal disease. When given the rapid turnaround of state-of-the-art sequencers, this will provide a profound benefit for clinical care and public health interventions against this incessant pathogen.

Advisor: Mazzulli, Tony
Owen, Scott-Gray
Growing Past Ourselves: Toward a Pedagogy of Change through the Evolutionary Epistemology and Developmental Teleology of Charles Sanders Peirce

Charles Sanders Peirce defends an approach to thought in which mind and inquiry are subject to ongoing evolution through the process of interpreting signs. This dissertation examines one often-overlooked element of Peirceâ s semiotics, the role of evolutionary chance, in the growth and development of ideas. Further, it contrasts his evolutionary approach with the computational framework that is common in educational representations of learning used today. The Ontario Ministry of Education promotes "student-centred" teaching strategies, which are said to be tailored to the needs of diverse students. One such popular approach, Differentiated Instruction (DI), derives at least part of its understanding of intellectual diversity from Howard Gardnerâ s intelligence framework, Multiple Intelligence (MI) theory. MI theory suggests that intelligence is segmented into several distinct and universal computational modalities. However, studies in evolutionary biology support Peirceâ s more reflexive principles that intelligence does not reside in the brain as MI theory suggests, but is a process that occurs through the interrelation between an organism and its environment. This suggests that intelligence is highly individualized and subject to ongoing change and evolution. A challenge is presented that intelligence is more personal and less universal than the MI account allows, and further points to the limitation of certain kinds of research questions to account for the interconnectivity and individualism of ongoing evolution. In suggesting an inquiry framework in which ongoing evolution is acknowledged, I turn to the work of Charles Sanders Peirce. Specifically, I look at his conception of the role of chance to defend an epistemology and teleology wherein living beings are not seen as growing along a fixed trajectory but pursue ends that change as they do. In light of this alternative evolutionary framework, teachers and researchers may change their role from one of mere stewardship, carrying students from one stage of understanding to the next in predetermined paths, to one of celebration, where student growth is fostered tentatively and in anticipation of new forms of knowledge that may be encountered in the classroom.

Keywords: Charles Sanders Peirce
epistemology
evo devo
philosophy of evolution
theory of mind
transactionalism
Advisor: Bredo, Eric
Ecological Aspects of Sexual Dimorphism

Sexual dimorphism represents a striking source of diversity in nature. This thesis focuses on empirically testing and conceptually unifying some of the non-exclusive adaptive causes of sexual dimorphism. I emphasize divergence in traits such as body size, habitat, and feeding morphology, because these â ecologicalâ sexual dimorphisms are: 1) ubiquitous, 2) beg explanations invoking alternative (to sexual selection) models of sexual dimorphism and 3) might play an important role in the structure of ecological communities and the dynamics of evolutionary radiations. In Chapters 2-4, I set out exploring the natural history of sexual divergence in a salamander, the newt. This work, and past studies indicates significant ecological sexual dimorphism in newts and suggests a possible role for at least some direct ecological causal component of dimorphism. I propose a framework for demonstrating an ecological cause of sexual dimorphism, via character displacement between the sexes, and marshal the first direct evidence in support of this hypothesis using microevolutionary field experiments. In Chapter 5, I expand this program to examine how competition-driven disruptive selection, ecological sexual dimorphism and speciation interact during the early stages of adaptive radiation in newts. These analyses suggests clade-wide character displacement between the sexes, and that evolution of ecological sexual dimorphism may play a key role in niche divergence among nascent species In the final two chapters, I examine the evolution of sexual dimorphism across Amphibians. First, using patterns of among-clade variation in allometry of male and female size, I show that much of the variation in sexual dimorphism in amphibians may be due to higher rates of size evolution in females than males. Finally, I show that the evolution of sexual dimorphism is and has been a key driver of amphibian diversification by increasing speciation rates and reducing extinction. These results suggest the novel hypothesis that sexual dimorphism may promote diversification by allowing lineages to exploit sex-specific ecological opportunity. The general conclusions of this thesis are that sexual dimorphism can have significant ecological impact and even direct ecological causes, and contra traditional views, the evolution of sexual dimorphism in ecologically important traits can have important positive impacts on adaptation and diversification.

Advisor: Rowe, Locke
Taking It To The Streets: A Comparative Analysis Of Violent Victimization, The Victim-Offender Overlap, And The Victim-Fear Relationship Among School And Street-Involved Youth In Toronto

Research on violent victimization among youth has received a considerable amount of academic attention in recent years; however, this research has typically been conducted separately for conventional populations of school-based youth and at-risk populations of street-involved youth. Although it is generally assumed that the rates of violent victimization are higher among the street-involved youth, to date, research has yet to undertake a comprehensive and comparative analysis of these two populations. Without this research, the presumed differences between these two populations will remain untested, and an analysis of how the mechanisms operate similarly and differently between these two populations will remain largely unexplored. This dissertation project addresses this gap in the literature by undertaking a comparative analysis of violent victimization, the victim-offender overlap, and the victim-fear relationship among a comparable sample of school-based youth and street-involved youth. In general, the findings from this dissertation reveal that the street-involved youth are violently victimized at much greater rates than the school-based youth, and these differences cannot be explained away by the social-situational factors that are more abundant among the street-involved youth. While the factors predicting the victim-offender overlap appear to follow a similar pattern for both the school and street youth, the dangerous social context of life on the streets creates an environment where violence and victimization frequently co-occur. These high rates of violent victimization do not directly translate into a higher level of fearfulness of crime, however, as the street-involved youth report being less fearful on average than do the school-based youth. These results suggest that fearlessness may be a learned adaptation among the street-involved youth to survive life on the streets.

Keywords: comparative research
street youth
violent victimization
Advisor: Tanner, Julian
Dissecting the Genetics and Function of CD5+ B and invariant NKT cells using Congenic Lupus-Prone Mouse Strains

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex multisystem autoimmune disorder characterized by the production of antibodies to nuclear antigens. Congenic strains derived from lupus-prone mice have been extremely useful in determining the pathogenesis of this condition. These mice, which harbor selected genetic elements containing susceptibility loci, can be used to identify key pathways and immune networks involved in disease initiation and progression. Alternatively, these same models can be used to identify the role of suppressive regulatory cells involved in preventing disease. In this thesis, the role and function of CD5+ and invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) innate lymphocytes were investigated in the suppression of disease in New Zealand Black lupus-prone congenic mice. Through adoptive transfer and knockout experiments, CD5+ B cells, but not iNKT cells, were shown to suppress autoimmunity by inhibiting the frequencies of proinflammatory T cell subsets. As these CD5+ B cells secreted IL-10, which has been shown previously to suppress disease, the role of this cytokine was further investigated through knockout experiments that highlighted its critical role in maintaining CD5+ B, iNKT, and Natural Killer cell homeostasis. Finally, the immunogenetic basis of impaired iNKT cell function in the congenic mouse strains was investigated, revealing a critical role for Ly108 in iNKT cell development and function. Collectively, these findings highlight the role of CD5+ B cells and iNKT cells in SLE pathogenesis and demonstrate the power of congenic animals to dissect the genetic basis of disease.

Keywords: Autoimmunity
B1a
B cells
Congenics
NKT
NZB
Advisor: Wither, Joan E
On the Range of the Random Walk Bridge on the Regular Tree

Consider a nearest neighbour random walk Xn on the d-regular tree Td, where d ≥ 3, conditioned on Xn = X0. This is known as the random walk bridge. We derive Gaussianlike tail bounds for the return probabilities of the random walk bridge on the scale of n1/2. This contrasts with the case of the unconditioned random walk, where Gaussian-like tail bounds exists on the scale of n. We introduce the notion of the infinite bridge, which is known to arise as the distributional limit of the random walk bridge. We also establish some preliminary facts about the infinite bridge. By showing that the Brownian Continuum Random Tree (BCRT) is characterized by its random self-similarity property, we prove that the range of the random walk bridge converges in distribution to the BCRT when rescaled by Cn–1/2 for an appropriate constant C.

Keywords: Probability
Random walks
Tree
Advisor: Virรกg, Bรกlint