VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The (D)evolution and Neoliberal Restructuring of Social Housing in Canada: A Comparative Study of Municipal and Provincial Governance in Toronto, ON and Vancouver, BC

Neoliberal policies have been widely adopted and implemented in capitalist societies. Canada is no exception, as neoliberal strategy is evident at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. Examples of this can be found in Canadian social housing, among other areas of policy. Since the 1990s the ways in which social housing is managed and funded have changed significantly. Through devolution the federal government’s role has decreased considerably, resulting in increased responsibilities for provinces and municipalities. While most provinces now manage social housing portfolios, Ontario is the only province to subsequently devolve its responsibility to the municipal level. Given reduced levels of government funding, providers are increasingly challenged to find new and innovative ways to assist in the delivery of social housing. The purpose of this research is to examine how varying levels of devolution influence neoliberalization processes at the local level, and determine if a greater degree of downloading is linked to a more intensified withdrawal of direct state involvement and increased private sector participation. This is achieved through an in-depth comparison of Toronto and Vancouver, two of Canada’s largest cities. The results highlight how neoliberal policies are experienced differently across time and space, the complexity of policy devolution, and consider the role of local path dependencies in social housing provision. Additionally, by presenting detailed accounts of the devolution process, the introduction of new ‘affordable housing’ programs, and the expiry of federal operating agreements, this study provides a comprehensive, critical and updated review of Canada’s evolving social housing system.

Keywords: Affordable housing
Devolution
Neoliberalism
Social housing
Advisor: Walks, Alan
Leslie, Deborah
Parallel Proofs for Parallel Programs

This dissertation addresses the problem of automated reasoning about multi-threaded programs. Multi-threaded programs are notoriously prone to error, making them an attractive target for formal methods which can be used to \emph{guarantee} that programs satisfy desirable properties. \emph{Automated} formal methods lift the burden of reasoning about concurrency from software developers onto the shoulders of machines. However, concurrency raises some significant algorithmic challenges for formal methods, particularly in reasoning about complex interactions between threads. This dissertation aims to tame this problem by developing \emph{parallel} logical foundations for multi-threaded programs. Classical approaches to reasoning about multi-threaded programs are based on developing clever ways to reason about them as if they were sequential. There are two prototypical examples of this approach: the \emph{interleaving model} and the \emph{thread-modular model}. In the interleaving model, a multi-threaded program is \emph{compiled} into a sequential program that interleaves the behaviour of all threads, after which we may reason about the program using classical techniques for sequential programs. In the thread-modular model, we reason about each thread independently as a sequential program, subject to side-conditions that enforce that the reasoning about each thread is robust under interference from the others. This dissertation takes a different tack: rather than devise a way to apply sequential reasoning to multi-threaded programs, we develop foundations for reasoning about parallelism directly. On these foundations, we build static analysis and software model checking algorithms for verifying and refuting properties of multi-threaded programs. We show that direct and explicit representation of parallelism enables tractable and precise automated reasoning.

Keywords: Concurrency
Formal methods
Program analysis
Programming languages
Software verification
Advisor: Farzan, Azadeh
A Novel Sensory System for the 3D Surface Profiling of Small Complex Objects

Structured-light (SL) techniques are noncontact approaches for measuring 3D complex objects in various applications including robotics, manufacturing and reverse engineering. An SL system is based on a triangulation configuration between the object of interest, a projector and one or more cameras. The 3D surface profile of the object is obtained from the deformation of light patterns projected onto the object. The performance of SL systems is determined by the hardware components, their triangulation configuration and the patterns used. This thesis focuses on developing, implementing and evaluating SL systems for measuring small (0.5 â 100 mm) complex objects. The contributions of this thesis are: 1) a design methodology for determining the optimal triangulation configuration to reduce reconstruction errors, and to maximize unique pixel-to-pixel correspondences and coverage of the measurement volume, 2) a design methodology for optimizing the pattern sequence to minimize random noise in 3D reconstruction, 3) design methodologies for SL system for micro-scale measurements using image focus fusion to increase the effective measurement volume, and 4) a novel calibration procedure for SL systems using robust regression models with the lowest predictive errors. Experiments are conducted with a variety of micro-scale objects to validate the effectiveness of the proposed methodologies for designing SL systems for micro-scale measurements.

Keywords: 3D measurements
3D sensor
Fringe analysis
Sinusoidal phase shifting
Structured light
Surface profile
Advisor: Nejat, Goldie
Accelerating Decarboxylation Reactions through the Formation of Bicarbonate

Enzyme-catalyzed decarboxylation reactions are often many orders of magnitude faster than the corresponding uncatalyzed processes. In both cases, these reactions are typically represented as the unimolecular decomposition of a carboxylate to a carbanion and CO2. Attempts to understand the catalytic proficiency of decarboxylases generally focus on enzymatic factors that would stabilize the produced carbanion and ignore the released CO2. However, earlier studies have shown that decarboxylation is slowed by internal return of the CO2-carbanion pair. This thesis illustrates how both aqueous and enzymatic decarboxylation reactions can be accelerated by producing alternatives to CO2 that decrease the extent of reversion. This work was initiated by the unexpected observation of general base catalysis in the decarboxylation of mandelylthiamin (MTh), an accurate model of the pre-decarboxylation intermediate formed on benzoylformate decarboxylase (BFDC). This catalysis is inconsistent with the direct production of CO2 from the carboxylate. Instead, detailed kinetic analysis suggests a mechanism involving hydration of the carboxylate and subsequent base-catalyzed decomposition to produce HCO3-. Computational analysis of a model decarboxylation illustrates that this hydrolytic mechanism avoids the issue of internal return. This is consistent with HCO3- being less electrophilic and more water-soluble than CO2 as these properties would facilitate the separation of the carbanion-HCO3- pair. Kinetic and computational studies were also performed with numerous structural analogues of MTh. The results indicate that the hydrolytic mechanism is facilitated by an intramolecular hydrogen bond to the carboxylate of MTh. This interaction reduces the electron density on the carboxylate carbon and promotes hydration. A serine residue (S26) in BFDC is proposed to prevent internal return by trapping the nascent CO2 as a carbonate monoester. We hypothesized that an active site water could act as a surrogate nucleophile in BFDC mutants lacking S26. This would be analogous to the hydrolytic decarboxylation of MTh, resulting in the production of HCO3- upon carbon-carbon bond cleavage. Using a coupled assay with carbonic anhydrase, a number of BFDC variants were determined to release CO2. This indicates that either CO2 is produced in these decarboxylation reactions or that bicarbonate is converted to CO2 prior to its release from the active site.

Advisor: Kluger, Ronald H
Heat Transfer in Metal Foam Heat Exchanger at High Temperature

Heat transfer though open-cell metal foam is experimentally studied for heat exchanger and heat shield applications at high temperatures (~750°C). Nickel foam sheets with pore densities of 10 and 40 pores per linear inch (PPI), have been used to make the heat exchangers and heat shields by using thermal spray coating to deposit an Inconel skin on a foam core. Heat transfer measurements were performed on a test rig capable of generating hot gas up to 1000°C. The heat exchangers were tested by exposing their outer surface to combustion gases at a temperature of 550°C and 750°C while being cooled by air flowing through them at room temperature at velocities up to 5( m)⁄s. The temperature rise of the air, the surface temperature of the heat exchangers and the air temperature inside the heat exchanger were measured. The volumetric heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number were calculated for different velocities. The heat transfer performance of the 40PPI sample brazed with the foil is found to be the most efficient. Pressure drop measurements were also performed for 10 and 40PPI metal foam. Thermographic measurements were done on 40PPI foam heat exchangers using a high temperature infrared camera. A high power electric heater was used to produce hot air at 300°C that passed over the foam heat exchanger while the cooling air was blown through it. Heat shields were made by depositing porous skins on metal foam and it was observed that a small amount of coolant leaking through the pores notably reduces the heat transfer from the hot gases. An analytical model was developed based assuming local thermal non-equilibrium that accounts for the temperature difference between soild and fluid phase. The experimental results are found to be in good agreement with the predicted values of the model.

Keywords: Heat Shield
Heat Tarnsfer Coefficient
Heat Transfer
High Temperature
Metal Foam
Porous Media
Advisor: Chandra, Sanjeev
Mostaghimi, Javad
Dynamic Route Guidance Algorithms for Robust Roadway Networks

This Thesis focuses on developing robust dynamic route guidance algorithms to reduce traffic congestion in roadway networks. While recurring traffic congestion is normally the focus in planning and investment decisions, almost half of traffic congestion is caused by non-recurring traffic disturbances, primarily caused by incidents, vehicle breakdowns, extreme weather events, etc. In order to reduce traffic congestion, we focus on the problem of understanding the effect of traffic disturbances and reducing their impact on roadway networks. We introduce a systematic framework for defining the context of robustness based on the severity, frequency and predictability of traffic disturbances and for developing a robust design for roadway networks based on network design goals. We also present methods to speed up traffic assignment algorithms through compiler optimizations and parallelism, to efficiently measure the effect of traffic disturbances, and enable real-time ITS applications including dynamic route guidance systems. Next, we introduce a hybrid metric for measuring robustness in a roadway network by extending the shortest-path betweenness metric from network science, and augmenting it with links weights based on dynamic traffic flow metrics. Finally, we implement a robust dynamic traffic assignment algorithm for roadway networks based on this metric and test it on a large-scale calibrated network model for the Greater Toronto Area. Performance results show that the robust traffic assignment algorithm reduces vehicle travel times compared to existing traffic assignment algorithms, with and without the presence of disturbances in the form of traffic incidents. This makes a strong case for traffic planners and operators to use robust dynamic route guidance systems within actual implementations of real-time ITS strategies to help proactively alleviate traffic congestion due to disturbances.

Keywords: Criticality
Network Science
Reliability
Robustness
Traffic Assignment
Traffic Simulator
Advisor: Leon-Garcia, Alberto
A Neural Network Approach to Efficient Valuation of Large VA Portfolios

Variable annuity (VA) products expose insurance companies to considerable risk because of the guarantees they provide to buyers of these products. Managing and hedging the risks associated with VA products requires intraday valuation of key risk metrics for these products. The complex structure of VA products and computational complexity of their accurate evaluation has compelled insurance companies to adopt Monte Carlo (MC) simulations to value their large portfolios of VA products. Because the MC simulations are computationally demanding, especially for intraday valuations, insurance companies need more efficient valuation techniques. Existing academic methodologies focus on fair valuation of a single VA contract, exploiting ideas in option theory and regression. In most cases, the computational complexity of these methods surpasses the computational requirements of MC simulations. Recently, a framework based on Kriging has been proposed that can significantly decrease the computational complexity of MC simulation. Kriging methods are an important class of spatial interpolation techniques. In this thesis, we study the performance of prominent traditional spatial interpolation techniques. Our study shows that traditional interpolation techniques require the definition of a distance function that can significantly impact their accuracy. Moreover, none of the traditional spatial interpolation techniques provide all of the key properties of accuracy, efficiency, and granularity. Therefore, in this thesis, we present a neural network approach for the spatial interpolation framework that affords an efficient way to find an effective distance function. The proposed approach is accurate, efficient, and provides an accurate granular view of the input portfolio. Our numerical experiments illustrate the superiority of the performance of the proposed neural network approach in estimation of the delta value and also the solvency capital requirement for large portfolios of VA products compared to the traditional spatial interpolation schemes and MC simulations.

Keywords: Monte Carlo Simulation
Neural Network
Portfolio Valuation
Solvency Capital Requirement
Variable Annuity
Advisor: Jackson, Kenneth R.
The Biology of Spondyloarthritis: Studies of the Host Immune Response in Experimental Chlamydia Infection and in Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis.

Spondyloarthritis (SpA) refers to a family of related inflammatory diseases affecting axial and peripheral joints. Reactive arthritis (ReA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) are both subsets of SpA. Despite the important role of HLA-B27 in conferring risk for SpA, a multitude of environmental and other genetic factors contribute to these diseases. This thesis contains two distinct halves that examine unique aspects of the SpA family of disease. The general aim of this thesis is to better understand host immunity in the context of the SpA family of diseases. The first half, comprised of Chapters 1-5, examines immune alterations in patients with AS. The second half, comprised of Chapters 6-9, examines how macrophages control host immunity to the ReA-associated bacteria, Chlamydia. Each half contains a comprehensive literature review in addition to peer-reviewed, primary scientific publications. The thesis is tied off by chapter 10, which provides future directions and conclusions. AS, the most common subset of SpA and the subset with the strongest HLA-B27 link, typically affects males in young adulthood. The TNF-inhibitors (TNFi) have proven to be effective at controlling the symptoms of AS but are not curative. Genetic and immunological studies have implicated the Th17 axis of inflammation in the pathogenesis of AS. The first half of this thesis discusses potential non-canonical roles of HLA-B27, documents an abnormal expansion of T cells associated with prolonged TNFi use, details a male sex bias in the Th17-axis, and examines the role of novel factors in driving the Th17-axis in AS patients. ReA is triggered by a prior infection with bacteria such as Chlamydia. How Chlamydia infection causes sequelae like ReA is unknown as the basic biology of host-pathogen interactions is not well understood. The second half of this thesis dissects the interaction of Chlamydia with the host immune system, focusing on the specific role of the macrophage in murine models of infection. In conclusion, a better understanding of environmental and genetic factors that contribute to the chronic inflammation of SpA will aid in understanding and treating these common, disabling diseases.

Keywords: ankylosing spondylitis
chlamydia
Advisor: Inman, Robert D
Functional Neuroimaging of Recovery from Focal Ischemic Stroke

Ischemic stroke is the leading global cause of healthy life-years-lost, yet, physiotherapy remains the only means to improve long-term outcome in the vast majority of patients. The absence of more effective interventions in the subacute stage reflects uncertainty surrounding the mechanisms that govern recovery. The present work investigated endogenous neurovascular adaptation, as well as the delayed neurogliovascular unit modulation via GABAA antagonism and cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) inhibition. Longitudinal functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), intracranial array electrophysiology, Montoya Staircase testing, and immunofluorescence were employed to examine subacute functional and structural changes in the peri-infarct zone in a rodent model of focal ischemia. In the absence of treatment, early subacute stage was characterized by a persistent skilled reaching deficit and stable lesion volume. Peri-infarct resting perfusion and vascular reactivity to hypercapnia were elevated a week post stroke, while the peri-lesional neuronal network was silenced and somatotopy abolished. By 21 days post-stroke, peri-lesional blood flow resolved to the contra-lesional level, but peri-lesional vascular reactivity remained elevated. Concomitantly, neuronal response amplitudes increased with distance from the necrotic core, suggesting functional remodelling of the lesion periphery, buttressed by increased spontaneous activity. The peri-infarct showed increased vascular density, neuronal loss, and astrocytic activation, while microglia and macrophage recruitment was widespread. GABAA antagonism resulted in progressive improvement in skilled reaching performance and a decrease in stroke volume, while COX-1 inhibition preserved peri-lesional hyperperfusion, increased neuronal survival and decreased microglia and macrophage recruitment. Combined, these studies provide evidence of highly dynamic functional changes in the peri-infarct zone weeks following ischemic injury, suggesting an extended temporal window for therapeutic interventions. Delayed pharmacological modulation of GABAA or COX-1 activity may exert multiple beneficial effects on neurogliovascular function and hence may be promising treatment targets in the subacute stage of stroke.

Keywords: Animal Model
Arterial Spin Labelling
Chronic
Multi-modal imaging
Stroke
Treatment
Advisor: Stefanovic, Bojana
Stanisz, Greg J
The Role of FGFR3 in Skeletal Repair

Fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) mutations cause skeletal dysplasias with disparate phenotypes. Gain-of-function mutations are characterized by disproportionate short stature, whereas loss-of-function mutations are characterized by tall stature. FGFR3 is a known negative regulator of chondrocyte proliferation yet we observed that individuals with achondroplasia showed enhanced intramembranous bone regeneration during limb lengthening surgery, thus we hypothesized that FGFR3 mutations affect osteoblast differentiation, in addition to chondrocyte differentiation, and thus impact fracture repair. Investigating bone fracture repair in genetically modified Fgfr3+/- mice we showed, firstly, that FGFR3 acts as a switch between intramembranous and endochondral ossification leading to abnormal bone healing with impaired structural integrity. Secondly, we found that in controlled in-vitro assays FGFR3 regulates number, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of murine bone marrow SSCs. Thirdly we showed that bone marrow transplantation can be used to control the osteoblast response to fracture in-vivo, and osteoblast differentiation in-vitro, such that WT bone marrow transplant has the ability to rescue abnormal fracture repair in native Fgfr3+/- mice, and conversely Fgfr3+/- bone marrow transplantation disturbs fracture repair in WT mice. Our results demonstrate that FGFR3 is critical in coordinating the repair of bone. Modulation of FGFR3 signaling using bone marrow related therapies, may offer the ability to enhance the proliferation and differentiation of skeletal progenitor cells for osteogenesis in limb reconstruction therapy and also to direct progenitor cells towards particular bone regenerative pathways, which has enormous appeal for treating common musculoskeletal disorders such as fracture repair.

Keywords: FGFR3
Fracture
Haematopoietic
Mesenchymal
Osteoblast
Advisor: Alman, Benjamin
From Seminar to Lecture to MOOC: Scripting and Orchestration at Scale

This dissertation investigates the design of large online courses from the pedagogical perspective of knowledge communities. Much of the learning sciences literature has concerned itself with groups of up to 20-30 students, but in universities, courses of several hundred to more than a thousand students are common. At the same time, new models for life-long and informal learning, such as Massive Open Online Courses, are emerging. Amidst this growing enthusiasm for innovation around technology and design in teaching, there is a need for theoretically grounded innovations and rigorous research around practical models that support new approaches to learning. One recent model, known as Knowledge Community and Inquiry (KCI), engages students in the co-construction of a community knowledge base, with a commonly held understanding of the collective nature of their learning, and then provides a sequence of scaffolded inquiry activities where students make use of the knowledge base as a resource. Inspired by this approach to designing courses, the research began with a redesign of an in-service teacher education course, which increased in size from 25 to 75 students. This redesign was carefully analyzed, and design principles extracted. iiThe second step was the design of a Massive Open Online Course for several thousand in-service teachers on technology and inquiry, in collaboration with an affiliated secondary school. A number of innovative design ideas were necessary to accommodate the large number of users, the much larger diversity in terms of background, interest, and engagement among MOOC learners, and the opportunities provided by the platform. The resulting design encompasses a 6- week long curriculum script, and a number of overlapping micro-scripts supported by a custom- written platform that integrated with the EdX platform in a seamless manner. This thesis presents the course structure, including connection to disciplinary principles, its affordances for community and collaboration and its support of individual differentiated learning and collective epistemology. It offers design principles for scripting and orchestrating collective inquiry designs for MOOCS and higher education courses.

Keywords: KCI
MOOC
orchestration
scale
scripting
Advisor: Slotta, Jim D