VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Aluminum Doped Zinc Oxide Thin Film for Organic Photovoltaics

Aluminum Doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) produced by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering is thought to be the prospective replacement of the de facto standard indium tin oxide (ITO) anode in organic solar cells. In order to achieve a proper resistivity and transmittance of AZO thin film compared to ITO, a systematic study was done to optimize the sputtering conditions. In this work, two primary parameters: target-substrate distance and sputtering power, were optimized, and a optimized film thickness was determined. A poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) bulk-heterojunction organic solar cell was fabricated based on the optimized parameters and the power conversion efficiency reached 0.83%. A theoretical analysis is given to explain the optimization process. This work provides a clear pathway to substitute AZO for ITO in organic solar cells for future mass production.

Keywords: Aluminum Doped Zinc Oxide
Photovoltaics
Advisor: Lu, Zhenghong
Nanocrystalline Metal Enabled Conductors for Enhanced Strength-to-weight Aerospace Electrical Wiring

High strength-to-weight nanocrystalline alloy enabled conductor (NEC) prototypes were successfully developed by reinforcing an oxygen-free copper core material with electrodeposited cobalt phosphorus (CoP) coatings. A rule of mixtures approach was utilized to design the NEC prototypes to meet materials performance indices. Three unique NEC prototypes were produced with CoP coatings composed of alternating nanocrystalline (11 nm) and coarse-grained layers. The tensile properties were dependant on the coating microstructures, with tensile strengths of 1000 MPa, 970 MPa, and 900 MPa, respectively, and corresponding tensile elongations of 4.6%, 6.1%, and 10%, respectively. The electrical conductivity of the NEC prototypes was ~58 %IACS (resistivity of ~2.96 µΩ-cm). The rule of mixtures approach effectively predicted the tensile strength and conductivity. The NEC samples were significantly stronger than the incumbent high-strength aerospace conductor material, Be-Cu alloy CS95, which exhibits a tensile strength of only 655 MPa and conductivity of 63 %IACS.

Keywords: Nanocrystalline
Strength-to-Weight
Aerospace
Conductors
Electrodeposition
Composite
Wire
Advisor: Erb, Uwe
Critical Factors Involved in Intestinal Chylomicron Assembly

Assembly of intestinal chylomicron particles (lipid-protein complexes) is the fundamental mechanism by which we absorb dietary fat. Two intestinal lipid transporters, Cluster of Differentiation 36 (CD36) and fatty acid-binding protein 1 (FABP1), have been shown to play a role in lipid absorption, however, it remains unclear how knockdown of these proteins bleads to aberrant intestinal chylomicron secretion. In an enterocyte-like cell culture model, Caco-2 cells, we hypothesized that knockdown of CD36 or FABP1 using short-hairpin RNA interference techniques would impair triacylglycerol (TG) and apolipoprotein B (apoB) secretion. Surprisingly, knockdown of these lipid transporters lead to an increase in TG and apoB secretion that was associated with an increase in fatty acid synthase and fatty acid transport protein 4 (FATP4) protein levels. De novo fatty acid synthesis was slightly increased in CD36-, but not FABP1-knockdown Caco-2 cells. This study highlights the importance of fatty acid targeting in regulating chylomicron production.

Keywords: apolipoprotein B
lipids
CD36
FABP1
Advisor: Adeli, Khosrow
Engaging in the Politics of Contemporary City Planning: The Case of 629 Eastern Avenue, Toronto

This research examines a contemporary planning case in Toronto where tensions between policy visions and planning practices contribute to our understanding of neoliberal urbanism. Media, policy and interview discourses contribute to developing the nexus between neoliberal urbanism, creative class theory and gentrification in the case of 629 Eastern Avenue. The amalgamation of Toronto’s municipalities in 1998 resulting from the “Common Sense Revolution”, and the ‘creative turn’ in the 2000s are identified as two key evolutionary stages in Toronto’s neoliberal urbanism. The City’s contradictory positions as “grassroots” organizers, market actors and market regulators reveals their interventionist role in this case. The analytical imperative presented by this case study to expose the contradictory and contingent nature of ‘actually existing neoliberalism’ (Brenner & Theodore, 2002) leads to challenging our very understanding of neoliberalism in the context of contemporary urban planning practices.

Keywords: urban planning
neoliberal urbanism
creative class
gentrification
Advisor: Rankin, Katharine
Site-specific Facilitation or Inhibition of Dopamine-reward by Viral Transfection of M5 Muscarinic Receptors in the Tegmentum of M5 Knockout Mice

Knockdown of the M5 acetylcholine muscarinic receptor in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) reduces brain-stimulation reward sensitivity in rats. Knockout (KO) of the M5 receptor in mice reduces morphine-induced dopamine efflux, locomotion, conditionedplace- preference, and mating-induced 30-110 kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs). The GFP-labeled M5 receptor gene was transfected using a Herpes simplex virus either into the VTA or 0.2-0.7 mm posterior in the medial tegmentum (MT) of male M5 KO mice. HSV-M5-GFP transfection in VTA fully restored mating-induced USVs and augmented morphine-induced locomotion and stereotypy consistent with activation of DA neurons by M5 receptors. HSV-M5-GFP transfection sites in the MT inhibited USVs and morphine-induced locomotion presumably through inhibition of DA neurons. Putative transfection of M5 in GABA neurons of the rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg) or 5HT neurons of the median raphe (mR) may explain this inhibition. Therefore, HSV-M5- GFP transfection in the VTA enhances DA-mediated behaviours while MT transfections inhibits these behaviours.

Keywords: M5
muscarinic
knockout
VTA
RMTg
USV
HSV
DA
Advisor: Yeomans, John S.
Development of the Diabetes Complication Surveillance System (DCSS)

Information technology [IT] that enables electronic access to patient health records has been widely recognized as a promising means to improve the quality of care for patients with chronic diseases, and reduce health care costs through better health information delivery and encouragement of self-management. IT applied to assist chronic disease management is inadequately studied in Canadian health care settings. This thesis describes the development and modest pilot implementation of an electronic tool, the Diabetes Complication Surveillance System [DCSS]. The DCSS was conceived as a self-monitoring tool that facilitates regular checks on conditions of diabetes patients, including acute and long-term complications. The DCSS is relatively unusual, as it facilitates glycemic control and also allows patients to address the long-term complications of diabetes. The development of the DCSS involved literature reviews and consultations with clinician experts. Questionnaire results from the pilot provided positive feedback.

Keywords: Electronic Health Record
Healthcare
Diabetes Complication
Surveillance
Advisor: Donnelly, Sandra
Berta, Whitney B.
Cross-substrate Advertisement: Building Overlay Networks for Heterogeneous Environments

Self-organizing overlay networks have emerged as a powerful paradigm for providing network services. While most approaches assume that overlay networks are built over a single substrate network, generally, the Internet, this thesis addresses the construction of overlay networks over multiple substrate networks. We present the design, implementation and evaluation of Cross-Substrate Advertisement (CSA) mechanisms for overlay networks over multiple heterogeneous substrate networks. A key difficulty arises from the more complex address bindings, since a single logical identifier is bound to multiple substrate addresses. We present mechanisms for exchanging information on address bindings and evaluate their effectiveness. The CSA mechanisms have been implemented in the HyperCast overlay protocol architecture, and have been evaluated in measurement experiments on an Emulab testbed. The experiments show that our CSA methods are effective in disseminating address information in large networks and are robust in the presence of network disruptions.

Keywords: Network Architecture
Overlay Network
Heterogeneity
Self-organization
Addressing
Network Protocol
Advisor: rg, Liebeherr Jö
FDTD Characterization of Antenna-channel Interactions via Macromodeling

Modeling of radio wave propagation is indispensable for the design and analysis of wireless communication systems. The use of the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method for wireless channel modeling has gained significant popularity due its ability to extract wideband responses from a single simulation. FDTD-based techniques, despite providing accurate channel characterizations, have often employed point sources in their studies, mainly due to the large amounts of resources required for modeling fine geometrical details or features inherent in antennas into a discrete spatial domain. The underlying influences of the antenna on wave propagation have thus been disregarded. This work presents a possible approach for the efficient space-time analysis of antennas by deducing FDTD-compatible macromodels that completely encapsulate the electromagnetic behaviour of antennas and then incorporating them into a standard FDTD formulation for modeling their interactions with a general environment.

Keywords: Electromagnetics
FDTD method
Antenna macromodels
Reciprocity theorem
Advisor: Sarris, Costas D.
Electromagnetic Characterization of Cemented Paste Backfill in the Field and Laboratory

Cemented Paste Backfill (CPB) is a relatively new backfilling technology for which a better understanding of binder hydration is required. This research uses electromagnetic (EM) wave-based techniques to non-destructively study a CPB consisting of tailings, sand, process water and binder (90% blast-furnace slag; 10% Portland cement). EM experiments were performed using a broadband network analyzer (20 MHz to 1.3 GHz) in the lab and capacitance probes (70 MHz) in the lab and field. Results showed that the EM properties are sensitive to curing time, operating frequency and specimen composition including binder content. The volumetric water content interpreted from dielectric permittivity varied little with curing. Temporal variations in electrical conductivity reflected the different stages of hydration. Laboratory results aided interpretation of field data and showed that a reduction in binder content from 4.5% to 2.2% delays setting of CPB from 0.5 days to over 2 days, which has important implications for mine design.

Keywords: Cemented Paste Backfill
electromagnetic waves
dielectric permittivity
electrical conductivity
capacitance probes
ECH2O-TE
Advisor: Grabinsky, Murray
Information in the Home Office: An Ethnographic Study of Space, Content, Management, and Use

Many Library and Information Science (LIS) scholars have long articulated the importance of physical and social settings—the environment—when examining how individuals acquire, store, organize, maintain, dispose of, and use information in one of their home or work lives. Yet, few have raised the question of how these information practices are altered and affected in home office spaces, fused living and working environments that lie at the intersection of the personal and the professional. This thesis resulted from an exploratory, ethnographic research study centred upon describing and analyzing the habits of information management and information use that characterize home office settings—specifically, professional home offices that each serve as their user’s only workplace. It argues that the professional home office differs from both traditional professional offices in corporate or institutional settings and from personal home offices used for non-professional tasks and pursuits. The professional home offices of four printing company account managers provided the field from which data was gathered, collected by way of guided tours, diagramming, photography, interviews, and observation. Findings suggest that information practices in professional home offices are a continual negotiation between the two spheres of household and organization, but that this will not necessarily imply a compromise of one for the other.

Keywords: ethnography
information science
home office
information management
information use
information seeking
Advisor: Hartel, Jenna
Activation of Chloride Channels with the Anti-parasitic Agent Ivermectin Induces Membrane Hyperpolarization and Cell Death in Leukemia Cells

FDA-approved drugs with previously unrecognized anti-cancer activity could be rapidly repurposed for this new indication. We compiled a library of such off-patent drugs to screen four leukemia cell lines and identified the anti-parasitic agent ivermectin that induced cell death at low micromolar concentrations. In cell death and clonogenic growth assays, low micromolar concentration of ivermectin significantly reduced viability of leukemia cell lines and patient samples compared to normal peripheral blood stem cells. In xenograft mouse models of leukemia, ivermectin decreased tumor volume and weight by up to 72% when compared to control without observable toxicity at pharmacologically achievable dosage. In this study, we further demonstrate that ivermectin activates chloride channels in leukemia cells leading to membrane hyperpolarization and increased reactive oxygen species generation. In addition, it demonstrated synergistic interaction when used in combination with Daunorubicin and Cytarabine. Therefore, this study highlights a potential new therapeutic strategy in repurposing ivermectin for the treatment of AML.

Keywords: Leukemia
Ivermectin
Advisor: Schimmer, Aaron D.
An Integrated Framework for Coupling Traffic and Wireless Network Simulations

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) include a wide range of applications that aim to use state-of-the-art communication and information technologies to enhance and control the flow of traffic. The ability to communicate with cars while travelling on the road is crucial to the success of these systems and thus requires careful studying. This research aims to study the feasibility of deploying wireless communication networks that are capable of collecting data from cars as well as providing them with information about the current traffic situation. We present a platform that integrates a microscopic traffic simulation, Paramics, and a communication network simulator, Omnet++. The integration of both simulators is a key solution to several research problems both on the communications side and on the transportation side. The combined simulator will allow designing and testing ITS Applications, which rely on communication between vehicles, before they are implemented on the streets.

Keywords: Intelligent Transportation
Vehicular networks
Simulation
wireless communication
Advisor: Abdulhai, Baher
El-Darieby, Mohamed
The Design Of Compact Planar Antennas For Laptop Applications Based On Metamaterial Concepts

Two laptop antennas are presented using two different designs based on metamaterials. The first design consists of planar monopole loaded with an electric-LC resonator (ELC). This novel topology allows for the realization of a multi-band antenna by using the ELC to add multiple resonances. This structure is analyzed using full-wave simulations. A circuit model is also developed to gain further understanding. This technique is then used to design a Wi-Fi antenna. The second design uses a modified double-tuned matching network to create a single-band match for a planar monopole antenna. The matching network is implemented using a complementary-split-ring-resonator (CSRR). The design is once again analyzed using full-wave simulations and a circuit model is also developed. This technique is then applied to design a WiMax antenna. Both the Wi-Fi and WiMax antennas are fabricated and show good agreement between the simulated and measured results.

Keywords: Antennas
Metamaterials
Advisor: Eleftheriades, George V.
Analysis and Design of W-Band Phase Shifters

This thesis describes 80−94GHz and 70−77GHz interpolating phase shifters and the corresponding transmitter and receiver ICs, fabricated in 65-nm CMOS and SiGe BiCMOS technologies, respectively. Lumped inductors and transformers are employed to realize small-form factor 90 degree hybrids as needed in high density phased arrays. The CMOS transmitter exhibits absolute phase and amplitude errors of 4 degrees and 4dB, respectively, at 90GHz, when the phase is varied from 0 degrees to 360 degrees in steps of 22.5 degrees. The absolute phase error in the SiGe BiCMOS receiver is less than 5 degrees, with a maximum gain imbalance below 3dB at 74GHz. The peak gain and power consumption are 3.8dB and 142mW from 1.2V supply for the CMOS transmitter, and 17dB and 128mW from 1.5V and 2.5V supplies for the SiGe BiCMOS receiver.

Keywords: phase shifters
Advisor: Voinigescu, Sorin
Development and Utilization of Shear Mode Acoustic Wave Biosensors for the Detection of Ovarian Cancer

Recent proteome studies have discovered the presence of heat shock protein 10 (HSP-10) as an immunosuppressant in ovarian cancer patients. Due to the severity of ovarian cancer, the development of highly sensitive techniques for the early detection of this cancer is well in demand. In this manuscript, the thickness shear mode (TSM) acoustic wave biosensor will be used for the real-time and label-free detection of HSP-10 in buffer. The TSM sensitivity for HSP-10 is evaluated based on resonance frequency shifts generated by the biosensor. A nucleic acid aptamer, which is specifically engineered by in vitro selection to target HSP-10, is employed as the biosensing element of the biosensor. Alkylthiol-based self-assembling monolayers (SAMs), composed of various linker/diluent molar ratios, are used to immobilize the aptamer onto gold-coated piezoelectric quartz substrates. The TSM biosensing properties for avidin-biotin interactions are also evaluated in order to assess the biosensor response to HSP-10 protein-aptamer interaction.

Keywords: analytical
chemistry
Advisor: Thompson, Michael
Building a Bridge: A Case Study of Teaching for Transfer of Writing Skills among Japanese-English Bilingual Students

In this study ten Grade 2-3 Japanese-English bilingual students wrote compositions on the same topic in Japanese and English. The students received an intervention designed to help them improve their Japanese writing, and were asked again to write in English after that. The compositions in Japanese and English before and after the intervention were compared and examined in terms of fluency, lexical complexity, grammatical complexity and accuracy, and using holistic measures. The results showed that the fluency, lexical complexity and theme statement of the compositions were highly related across languages before the intervention. Also the intervention was observed to exert a positive effect on lexical complexity and the use of metaphor, but negatively on accuracy. All the patterns found in the quantitavie data were investigated qualitatively. The thesis concludes with practical suggestions for parents and educators of bilingual students about how to support them trnasfer their knowledge across langauges.

Keywords: biliteracy
transfer
Japanese-English bilinguals
writing
Advisor: Cummins, James
Nakajima, Kazuko
Social Capital and the Health Services Utilization of Immigrants in Canada

Social capital can be defined as a resource found in the relationships between individuals and within the community that facilitates access to resources. Social capital may have an effect on health services utilization. Few studies have explored the impact of social capital on the propensity and frequency of general practitioner visits for immigrants. The relationship between social capital and health services use by immigrants was analyzed using a dataset consisting of socio-demographic data from the 2002 Canadian Community Health Survey linked to physician claims from the Ontario Health Insurance Program for fiscal year 2006. The results suggested that the community belonging aspect of individual social capital was associated with a decrease in the number of GP visits for immigrants. Thus, community services may substitute for formal health care for immigrants.

Keywords: Social capital
Health services utilization
Immigrants
Advisor: Laporte, Audrey
Population Differentiation, Historical Demography and Evolutionary Relationships Among Widespread Common Chaffinch Populations (Fringilla coelebs ssp.)

Widespread species that occupy continents and oceanic islands provide an excellent opportunity to study evolutionary forces responsible for population divergence. Here, I use multilocus coalescent based population genetic and phylogenetic methods to infer the evolutionary history of the common chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), a widespread Palearctic passerine species. My results showed strong population structure between Atlantic islands. However, the two European subspecies can be considered one panmictic population based on gene flow estimates. My investigation of effects of sampling on concatenated and Bayesian estimation of species tree (BEST) methods demonstrated that concatenation is more sensitive to sampling than BEST. Furthermore, concatenation can provide incorrect evolutionary relationships with high confidence when sample size is small. In conclusion, my results suggest European ancestry for the common chaffinch and Atlantic islands appear to have been colonized sequentially from north to south via Azores.

Keywords: coalescent theory
population structure
colonization
demographic history
Bayesian methods
incomplete lineage sorting
species trees
Advisor: Baker, Allan J.
Lateralization of Inter-implant Timing and Level Differences in Children Who Use Bilateral Cochlear Implants

Cochlear implants provide hearing to people who are deaf, by electrically stimulating the auditory nerve. Children with a single cochlear implant suffer deficiencies inherent to unilateral hearing, including inability to locate sounds. A second cochlear implant may improve sound localization, which normally requires interpretation of differences in sound intensity and time of arrival between two ears. Currently, it is unknown whether these cues are available to children who were provided with a second cochlear implant after a period of using one implant alone. We asked whether such children could interpret inter-implant level and timing cues. Results indicated that children using two cochlear implants detected level cues but had difficulty interpreting timing cues. Further, children rarely reported that sounds were perceived to come from the middle. Children receiving bilateral cochlear implants sequentially do not process bilateral auditory cues normally but can use inter-implant level cues to make judgments about where sound is coming from.

Keywords: Auditory brainstem
Binaural processing
Advisor: Gordon, Karen A.