VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Extended Hand Attributes for Touch Input, Touch Output and Touchless Interaction

As newer computing devices vary in their screen size and proximity to the user, they limit old and enable new affordances. However, our interactions still rely on a limited set of our anatomical capabilities which do not take advantage of these new affordances and usage scenarios. This thesis investigates how to use three different hand attributes, distinct fingers, the hand tactile sense, and hand dexterity, for novel interactions. We investigate these three attributes for three different device scenarios respectively - touch input for small touchscreen devices, touch output for wrist wearables, and touchless interactions for distant, large displays. With distinct fingers, we investigate how it can be used to solve the problem of limited input space in small touchscreens interactions and enable novel interfaces. With the hand tactile sense, we investigate how the persistent skin contact of wearable devices can be utilized to move the use of haptics beyond simple vibrations and make them a more central component of interaction. With hand dexterity, we investigate how it can solve the problems inherent in semaphoric and manipulative in-air gestures. Overall, we describe six investigations pertaining to these areas which show how the extended hand attributes can make existing tasks more efficient, make existing devices more expressive, and make novel interfaces possible.

Keywords: Finger Identification
Haptic
Human-Computer Interaction
Mid-air
Wearable
Wrist
Advisor: Balakrishnan, Ravin
"The Wearisome Spectacle of Immortal Sin": an Affect History of the Libidinisation of Desire in Mediterranean Antiquity

Historians of sexualities in Mediterranean Antiquity have labored in the last four decades to give narrative life to neglected stories of bodies and effaced sexual-object choice desires. But only too recently scholarship began giving due attention to that sphere of sexuality we address as the emotional and came to terms that emotions are inter-subjective as much as they are intra-subjective phenomena, circulating between bodies and signs, affecting socialities on ways of doing affects. This thesis addresses the rise of that problematic Michel Foucault termed the “libidinisation of sex,” the transition of a moral problematization of sex centred on issues of power, status and the gender of who “penetrates” in the Greco-Roman context, to a new relation of self to desire mediated in the solitariness of one’s conscience in Christianity. I propose we look at this new problematic of sex through a history of the desiderative as emotionality, a perspective altogether absent in Foucault. In this heuristic move what is being challenged is the very idea that emotions (desire) naturally move from inside to out, that they just reside in individuals. Rather, emotions and affects enact the very Subject who is supposed to possess feelings. The Greco-Roman archive of physicians and moralists and most of Christian Antiquity took desire to be one of the Greek emotions (πάθη). Certain of these soul-guidance cultures proposed that there were better and healthier ways of performing desire. My second main challenge to hitherto histories of the “desiring man” is to look at these philosophical cultures of emotions as groupings that surrounded the emotional with strategies of power. Because emotions are bound to how power forms people as Subjects, they have been the target since Antiquity of relations of mentorship and technologies of domination. I investigate here the psychagogy sociality of emotions and map out how this tradition of emotion self-care is transformed in early Judaism and Christianity into a form of government of Self and others that aimed the invigilation of the conscious, but also the less conscious moods, and into the déraison of the desiderative in bodies.

Keywords: Desiring man
Emotions
Government of Self and Others
History of Affects
History of Sexuality
Advisor: Kloppenborg, John S.
Orbital Resonances and GPU Acceleration of Binary Black Hole Inspiral Simulations

Numerical relativity, the direct numerical integration of the Einstein field equations, is now a mature subfield of computational physics, playing a critical role in the generation of signal templates for comparison with data from ground-based gravitational wave detectors. The application of numerical relativity techniques to new problems is at present complicated by long wallclock times and intricate code. In this thesis we lay groundwork to improve this situation by presenting a GPU port of the numerical relativity code SpEC. Our port keeps code maintenance feasible by relying on various layers of automation, and achieves high performance across a variety of GPUs. We secondly introduce a C++ software package, TLoops, which allows numerical manipulation of tensors using single-line C++ source-code expressions resembling familiar tensor calculus notation. These expressions may be compiled and executed immediately, but also can be used to automatically generate equivalent GPU or low-level CPU code, which then executes in their place. The GPU code in particular achieves near-peak performance. Finally, we present simulations of eccentric binary black holes. We develop new methods to extract the fundamental frequencies of these systems. Using these frequencies we identify when these binaries pass through coordinate resonances, at which points high mass-ratio inspirals can experience short-timescale phase-dependent deviations from smooth inspiral called "kicks". We find no evidence for such kicks at comparable mass-ratio.

Keywords: Binary black holes
Black holes
CUDA
General relativity
GPU
Numerical relativity
Advisor: Pfeiffer, Harald P.
STANDARDIZATION OF A CEREBROVASCULAR STRESS TEST USING CARBON DIOXIDE AND BOLD-MRI FOR CLINICAL APPLICATION

This thesis presents a standardized cerebrovascular stress test that provides new knowledge of cerebrovascular physiology and shows promise in aiding in clinical decision making to the benefit of patients with cerebrovascular disease. Cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) is defined as the change in the cerebral blood flow (CBF) response divided by the change in vasoactive stimulus. CVR can be measured using carbon dioxide (CO2) as a stimulus and Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signal, measured with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), representing the CBF response. This testing technique successfully identifies functional impairment due to a hemodynamically significant stenosis in a major brain blood vessel, and indicates an enhanced risk of stroke and dementia. While its utility is currently limited to a research setting, this test has the potential to inform the clinical management of patients with cerebrovascular disease. However, progress in transitioning this CVR stress test to a clinically useful utility requires, first, the development of an understanding of the physiological implications of CBF redistribution within the brain during a vasoactive stimulation. Then, through standardization of the vasoactive stimulus and CBF measurement, development of new tools to enable the compatibility of test results between and within subjects. The main objective of this thesis was to transform CVR testing, using CO2 and BOLD MRI, into a standardized, clinically-useful brain stress test. This work describes experiments that provide a detailed understanding of the pathophysiology of CBF, and uses this knowledge to develop several methodologies for standardizing and increasing the sensitivity of a CVR stress test, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Findings include: a) Steal physiology is highly dependent on the absolute magnitude of the vasoactive stimulus. b) Assembling standardized CVR tests into an atlas allows for individual subject’s CVR data to be scored voxel-by-voxel, relative to the normal range. (c) Generation of an atlas containing normal test-retest CVR range enables the assessment of CVR in a single subject over time. d) Standardized CVR tests are highly sensitive to the net hemodynamic impairment in patients with carotid stenosis, and such impairment is not reliably predictable from the degree of stenosis alone.

Keywords: BOLD MRI
carbon dioxide
cerebral blood flow
cerebrovascular reactivity
stroke
Advisor: Fisher, Joseph
Mikulis, David
Clostridium difficile Toxins: Entry and Uptake

Clostridium difficile is a major nosocomial pathogen that causes hospital-acquired and antibiotic-associated diarrhea through the actions of two related exotoxins (TcdA and TcdB) on the host. They are large, multi-domain toxins that enter cells by receptor-mediated endocytosis. Upon acidification, embedded hydrophobic segments within the translocation domain insert into the endosomal membrane to form a transmembrane pore, via which toxic enzymatic domain is thought to insert and translocate into the cytosol to target small GTPases within the host. Our understanding of the cell surface receptors and the mechanisms of pore formation and translocation of these toxins has been limited for many years by a lack of any structural information for the translocation domain. This thesis focuses on identification and elucidation of key determinants of pore formation within the central ~1000 amino acid translocation domain and on receptor binding. Through a systematic perturbation of conserved sites within the predicted 172-residue hydrophobic region of the translocation domain, we identified crucial residues for pore-formation and uncovered unexpected similarities to the diphtheria toxin translocation domain, in terms of hydrophobicity patterning and the identity of key pore-forming residues, leading us to propose a “double-dagger” model of membrane insertion. The high-resolution structure for TcdA in the pre-pore conformation further revealed a novel way of packing hydrophobic segments for C. difficile toxins, in which the majority of the translocation domain served as the scaffold for the hydrophobic region, which was splayed around it, rather than being buried inside the protein. Additionally, our systematic screen also led to the unexpected identification of a small region at the junction of the translocation domain and the C-terminal combined repetitive oligopeptides (CROP) that was important for function. We discovered that this region was the elusive binding site for one of the TcdB receptors, Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycan 4 (CSPG4). Using a series of truncations, we showed that TcdB required only three short CROP repeats for CSPG4 binding, resolving some contradictory data regarding the role of CROP domain in the field. Overall, the results of these studies provide mechanistic insights into structure and mechanism of entry and uptake for C. difficile toxins.

Keywords: bacterial toxin
Clostridium difficile
receptor binding
TcdA
TcdB
translocation
Advisor: Melnyk, Roman A
Reconciling Cabinet Secrecy with the Rule of Law

This dissertation explores the tension between government openness and secrecy. It focuses on Cabinet secrecy, that is, the doctrine protecting the confidentiality of the collective decision-making process at the top of the executive branch in Westminster jurisdictions. I argue that Cabinet secrecy is crucial to the proper functioning of the system of responsible government as it fosters the candour of ministerial discussions, protects the efficiency of the decision-making process, and enables Ministers to remain united in public notwithstanding any disagreement they may have in private. Yet, excessive secrecy can hamper government accountability by depriving citizens, parliamentarians and judges of the information needed to hold public officials responsible for their decisions and actions. An important question is who should have the final authority over the disclosure of Cabinet secrets when a dispute arises, the Government or the Courts? Under the common law, Courts in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada (at the provincial level) asserted the authority to review and overrule Cabinet immunity claims to prevent abuses of power. In Canada, at the federal level, by the enactment of sections 39 of the Canada Evidence Act and 69 of the Access to Information Act, Parliament deprived the Courts of the power to inspect and order the disclosure of Cabinet secrets. An examination of the relevant cases shows that the absence of meaningful judicial review has led to an overbroad application of Cabinet immunity by public officials. Based on David Dyzenhaus’ theory of law as justification, I argue that the statutory regime offends the rule of law and the Canadian Constitution because it violates the requirements of procedural fairness (the right to an independent and impartial decision-maker and the right to reasons) and the separation of powers principle (the Courts’ authority to control the admissibility of evidence and the legality of executive action). Then, in the light of the best practices in Westminster jurisdictions, I make policy recommendations with the objective of reconciling Cabinet secrecy with the rule of law, especially by narrowing the scope of Cabinet immunity and ensuring that such claims are subject to meaningful oversight and review.

Keywords: Access to information
Cabinet immunity
Cabinet secrecy
Public interest immunity
Rule of Law
Separation of powers
Advisor: Roach, Kent
Scaling Gaussian Processes

We explore ways to scale Gaussian processes (GP) to large datasets. Two methods with different theoretical and practical motivations are proposed. The first method solves the open problem of efficient discrete inducing set selection in the context of inducing point based approximation to full GPs. When inducing points need to be chosen from the training set, the proposed method is the only principled approach to date for joint tuning of inducing set and GP hyperparameters while scaling linearly in the number of training set size during learning. Empirically it achieves a trade-off between speed and accuracy that is comparable to other state-of-arts inducing point GP methods. The second method is a novel framework for building flexible probabilistic prediction models based on GPs that is simple to parallelize and highly scalable. Referred to as transductive fusion, this second approach learns separate GP experts whose predictions are combined in ways that depend on test point locations. A number of new models are proposed in this new framework. Learning and inference in these new models are straightforwardly parallel, and predictive accuracy is shown to be satisfactory empirically.

Keywords: Gaussian processes
information fusion
kernel machine
machine learning
optimization
Advisor: Fleet, David J.
Hertzmann, Aaron
Investigating the Contribution of Hyperpolarization-Activated Mixed Cation Channels to the Role of Oriens-Lacunosum/Moleculare Interneurons in Oscillatory Activity of the Hippocampus Using Computational Modelling

The hippocampus is a brain structure implicated in memory formation and spatial navigation. Understanding the structure and function of the hippocampal system is important in developing an understanding of its functioning in behaviour and neurological disease. Inhibitory interneurons in the hippocampus serve a primary role in the generation of hippocampal network rhythms which have been linked to behaviour. One type of interneuron in the hippocampal CA1 region is the oriens-lacunosum/moleculare (O-LM) cell, which forms inhibitory synapses onto local pyramidal cells. O-LM cells express hyperpolarization-activated mixed cation currents (Ih) that contribute to cellular excitability and action potential generation. Although experimental investigations have implicated Ih in the activity of O-LM cells in hippocampal activity, it is currently unknown how Ih interacts with other voltage-gated channels and synaptic inputs to shape O-LM cell output. In this thesis, I develop and use computational models of O-LM cells that are constrained by experimental recordings to study how expression and distribution of Ih allows O-LM cells to be recruited in hippocampal networks. I first find that varying dendritic distributions of Ih in O-LM cell models can equally capture electrophysiological output of O-LM cells, so long as the total membrane current due to Ih is conserved. I then show that somatic or dendritic distributions of Ih can tune O-LM cell models to participate in different network rhythms expressed in hippocampus that have been implicated in either mnemonic or emotional behaviour. Finally, I develop a new set of multi-compartment models of O-LM cells using recently acquired experimental data. These models lead to a prediction of dendritic Ih expression in the set of O-LM cells from which the recordings were obtained. My work thus represents a link in the chain of elucidating how cellular electrophysiological properties of inhibitory interneurons allow them to perform their roles in hippocampal activity.

Keywords: Computational Modelling
Dendrites
HCN
Hippocampus
Interneurons
Theoretical Neuroscience
Advisor: Skinner, Frances K.
Experimental and Numerical Studies on the Soot Formation of Liquid Fuel Relevant Compounds

In the present thesis, fundamental experimental and numerical studies are performed for the soot formation of liquid fuel relevant compounds. The thesis is composed of four research studies. The first develops an improved data analysis approach for the combined laser extinction and two-angle elastic light scattering diagnostics to relate the various measured optical cross sections to soot aggregate properties. Compared to previously reported studies, the proposed approach can be applied to a wider range of soot sources by removing the assumption made to scattering regime or moment ratio of aggregate size distribution. The second study investigates the effects of n-propylbenzene addition to n-dodecane on soot formation and aggregate structure in a laminar coflow diffusion flame using the combined laser extinction and two-angle elastic light scattering method. It is shown that the relative importance of soot inception and surface growth affected by n-propylbenzene addition is different along the flame wing and centerline, with the aromatic fuel chemistry effect being stronger along the centerline. The third study extends the investigation on the same issue using a numerical model. The simulation results show that mixing n-propylbenzene into the liquid fuel mixture accelerates soot inception, and increases soot surface growth per unit surface area by PAH addition, while soot surface growth per unit surface area by HACA is shown to decrease modestly with n-propylbenzene addition. The fourth and final study investigates the soot formation from jet fuel in a laminar coflow diffusion flame using both numerical and experimental methods. The results demonstrate the robustness of the soot model to changes of fuel and also show that the HyChem model (i.e., lumped fuel breakdown approach, Xu et al., 2017) can be used to predict soot formation from real jet fuel combustion in laminar coflow diffusion flames by adding a PAH growth scheme to the model.

Advisor: Thomson, Murray J
Perspectives on Incorporating Health Promotion into Post-Secondary Violin Studio Lessons: A Multi-Phase Qualitative Study

This research explores how health promotion education can be incorporated into post-secondary violin studio lessons, and how students respond to such an integration. The research questions guiding the study are: 1) What comprises ideal health promotion education in the post-secondary violin studio; and 2) What are students’ perceptions and experiences with lessons that incorporate this health promotion education? A multiphase qualitative design was employed to include the voices of various key players, including instructors, health practitioners, and students. The first phase consisted of interviews and lesson observations with four post-secondary violin studio instructors. The second phase comprised interviews with five health practitioners who work with injured violinists: an osteopath, massage therapist, chiropractor, physiotherapist, and physician. From these two phases, five Health Promotion Concepts were devised, comprising: warm-ups/cool-downs; anatomy education; body awareness; effective practising techniques; and a psychological component comprising mindfulness and strategies for addressing performance anxiety. The third phase involved six post-secondary violin students in a practical exploration of the Health Promotion Concepts, by means of eight, one-hour private lessons with the researcher, initial and follow-up assessments, and a follow-up interview to discuss the students’ experiences with the Health Promotion Concepts. Three overriding themes emerged across all phases: 1) A clash of values; 2) Learning is a process; and 3) Health promotion education is empowering. The recommendations made by instructors and health practitioners, combined with the reported benefits experienced by student participants, indicate that health promotion education can be an empowering and productive addition to studio music lessons. In order for these concepts to be adopted more widely, instructors need access to relevant knowledge and skills, and music education institutions must change policies and curricula to prioritise the health and wellbeing of students.

Keywords: Health Promotion
Music
Pedagogy
Violin
Advisor: Bartel, Lee
Design and Use of Tree-Based Argument Graphs for Reducing Energy Consumption

Decisions that individuals make, in aggregate, have a large impact on global energy consumption -- a major contributor to climate change -- and the science shows it is in humanity's best interest to cut back on our energy use. The literature shows that informing and educating individuals about the impacts of their decisions can result in long-term reductions in energy use while introducing other forms of motivation such as financial incentives can fail. I show a method of presenting/visualizing information that I call a tree-based argument graph (T-BAG) is an effective enabler of rational decision-making by reducing the impact of cognitive biases. With the use of a controlled experiment, I demonstrate that T-BAGs can counteract biases that hinder rational thought. Furthermore, I present Inflo and InfloGraphic, two T-BAG tools, as proofs-of-concept which enabled me to explore barriers to adoption of T-BAGs. In this thesis, I not only show how T-BAGs can reduce biases in the decision-making process, I develop a foundation for a collaborative platform that enables users to create a shared executable knowledge base.

Advisor: Easterbrook, Steve M