VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Ideal Solutions for Societal Problems: A Comparison between Generations and Religious Groups

There is both agreement and disagreement between people of different generations and religions about handling societal problems in an ideal society. Nevertheless, thinking impartially from the framework of John Rawls’ veil of ignorance could potentially reduce these disagreements. In the present study, the older and younger generation from an Atheist, Buddhist, Christian or Islamic tradition were recruited to participate in a semi-structured interview. In the interview, the participants described how they would handle various problems in society behind the veil of ignorance. The participants’ responses were analyzed for theme comparisons. The younger generation was more supportive of progressive goals, and the older generation was less focused on traditional solutions to handle societal problems. Generally, there were consistencies between the themes mentioned from the participants of each religious affiliation and their respective religious traditions. The possible influence of the veil of ignorance will also be discussed.

Advisor: Ferrari, Michel
Effect of Skin Tone on the Confidence of WearOS Smartwatches

Smartwatch technology has the potential to make monitoring chronically ill people continuously without hampering their daily life easier. Physiological information e.g. heart rate can be collected and monitored remotely by smartwatches which can be useful in long term studies, monitoring chronic conditions, timely intervention. However, before we can use the smartwatch data for an error-sensitive clinical setting, we need to be sure about the reliability of the data, both in terms of quality and quantity. In this work, we investigate the effect of skin tone on the heart-rate reliability estimation of seven consumer-grade WearOS based smartwatches by collecting data from 18 individuals. We find that watches tend to report fewer high-confidence measurements for dark skin tones, despite no substantial difference in the actual error of heart rate reading. We also report a wide variation in the behavior of those watches even though they implement the same API for data collection.

Keywords: Data analytics
Health monitoring
Heart rate
PPG
Smartwatch
Advisor: Amza, Cristiana
de Lara, Eyal
Application of Nanoporous Gold to Gas Phase Sensing of Volatile Organic Compounds

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are a core component of many applications in modern society. While beneficial due to their various chemical properties, VOCs can pose significant challenges to work with due to their health risks and volatile nature. Existing VOC sensors are insufficient in meeting the sensing challenges posed by chemical and physical nature of VOCs, creating significant personal and societal health and safety risk. Nanoporous gold (NPG) sensors are an excellent candidate material in tackling these challenges. In this work the change in the electronic properties (electrical resistance and capacitance) are used to characterize changes in environmental volatile compounds. Leveraging changes in the impedance at different frequencies, classification and quantification of several model VOCs was achieved. Due to the complex nature of the responses, modern machine learning techniques were leveraged to achieve sensing tasks.

Advisor: Newman, Roger C
Supporting Students’ Well-being through Student Voice Initiatives: An Exploration of Well-being Teams in Ontario Secondary Schools

As mental health concerns among youth persist, there is a growing need for schools to better support students’ well-being and to also involve students in these efforts. Using a qualitative research design, this study explores student-led well-being teams across secondary schools in Ontario, Canada. Interviews were conducted with four students involved in their school’s well-being team in order to better understand their perceptions of their roles and experiences on these teams. This study’s conceptual framework was informed by the literature related to student voice and its connection to well-being. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), three superordinate themes were identified in this study: Independent/Dependent Nature of Roles, Integral to and Integrated in School Community, and Experiencing Growth. Overall, students described aspects of both positive and negative well-being as a result of their experiences, which demonstrates the importance of establishing certain conditions that allow for student voice and well-being to thrive.

Keywords: education policy
mental health
student leadership
student voice
well-being
Advisor: Childs, Ruth
Adhesion of Bio-inspired Micropillar Arrays

Bio-inspired micropillar arrays have found broad applications in everything from human skin adhesion to robotic gripping. However, their adhesion remains too low for many practical engineering uses. To improve upon their adhesion, their detachment dynamics are investigated both on a single contact level and on an array level with in situ observation. Adhesion experiments revealed a strong dependence on preload force and a size-scale effect where smaller samples had higher normalized adhesion. The introduction of mechanical divisions within a single sample led to a more random detachment and produced adhesion that was up to 25% greater. Experiments on single roughness features resulted in a significant drop in adhesion which is attributed to an uneven preload force distribution, leading to adhesive contributions from only a fraction of the sample. These fundamental understandings of micropillar adhesion dynamics can help enable the next generation of bio-inspired adhesives and guide micropillar array design.

Keywords: Adhesion
Bio-Inspired
Fibrillar
Micropillar
Advisor: Filleter, Tobin
Hatton, Benjamin
Evaluation of Energy Efficiency Measures in High-rise Buildings from a Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions Perspective

Due to its significant contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the building industry is taking action to fight climate change, developing measures for reducing the operational emissions of buildings. However, some of these well-intentioned measures can result in higher embodied emissions. Under certain conditions, this increase in embodied emissions can more than offset the reductions achieved during the building operational phase. This thesis evaluates the effectiveness of five passive energy efficiency measures to reduce GHG emissions from a life cycle perspective for high-rise residential buildings in Toronto, Canada. Decreasing the window-to-wall ratio was found to be the most effective measure to reduce total GHG emissions. Increasing the continuous insulation on walls and roofs with GHG intensive materials can increase total emissions. The thesis also compares the embodied GHG emissions of curtain walls and window walls finding no practical difference in embodied GHG emissions between the options studied.

Keywords: Building Envelope
Energy Efficiency Measures
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Life Cycle Assessment
Advisor: MacLean, Heather
McCabe, Brenda
Real-time Video Analytics at Scale: Design, Deployment and Evaluation

A key determinant of a video analytics application success lies in its ability to operate in a real-time fashion and must do so, regardless of the number of video streams the system needs to process. Hence, there is a need for a scalable and distributed video analytics system that can leverage the power of the cloud and thus successfully deliver on its promise. This work addresses this challenge by taking a bottom-up approach in defining the required system architecture and design for enabling large-scale execution of video analytics jobs in the cloud in a distributed and scalable fashion. The proposed system is designed by leveraging the existing open-source big data technologies and is deployed and evaluated to shed light on several intrinsic aspects of modern real-time video analytics applications.

Keywords: big data
cloud computing
data analytics
deep neural networks
video analytics
Advisor: Leon-Garcia, Alberto
Umbilical Cord Derivatives Abrogate Carrageenan-induced Inflammation

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) behave as sensors of inflammation, and can adopt an anti-inflammatory phenotype that is, in part, caused by MSC derivatives. In this study we created derivatives from whole human umbilical cord tissue (WC), the perivascular tissue of the cord (PJ), and a cell lysate (CL) produced from cultured MSCs from the PJ, and tested their ability to abrogate a carrageenan-induced inflammatory response in the mouse hind paw. Edema and levels of inflammatory cytokines were reduced after treatment with the derivative, even when diluted up to 100x of their original concentration, and they performed similarly to living MSCs and MSCs engineered to overexpress IL-10. Characterization with mass spectrometry revealed ~200 proteins in the PJ with a known immune response, and an in-vitro scratch assay displayed potential wound healing effects of the PJ through enhanced cell migration. Thus, the derivatives elicited an anti-inflammatory therapeutic benefit.

Keywords: carrageenan
inflammation
mesenchymal stromal cell
Advisor: Davies, John E
Investigating the Role of BRCA1 in the Regulation of Osteoprotegerin

Recent evidence has implicated receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB (RANK)-associated signaling in the pathogenesis of BRCA1-associated breast cancer. BRCA1 mutation carriers at high risk of developing breast cancer have lower circulating levels osteoprotegerin (OPG), the endogenous inhibitor of RANK signaling, compared to non-carriers. A preliminary study by our group found a significant inverse association between circulating blood OPG levels and BRCA-associated breast cancer risk. My thesis project aimed to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the systemic reductions in OPG levels in BRCA1 mutation carriers using cell models of BRCA1 knockdown. My data showed that in U2OS, a bone-derived cell line, BRCA1 knockdown did not alter OPG protein nor mRNA expression. Conversely, in an immortalized human mammary epithelial cell line, suppression of BRCA1 expression decreased OPG secretion and OPG transcript levels. In sum, my findings suggest that BRCA1 may have a mammary-specific role in modulating OPG secretion through a transcriptional mechanism.

Keywords: BRCA1
breast cancer
osteoprotgerin
Advisor: Kotsopoulos, Joanne
Salmena, Leonardo
AquaFly: A Tilt-rotor Vertical Take-off and Landing Aquatic Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

This thesis presents the development of a novel tilt-rotor aquatic unmanned aerial vehicle that can land and take-off from water surfaces with an innovative box tail design, named AquaFly. The box tail provides buoyancy and flotation stability for the vehicle on water surfaces while improving its flight stability in forward flight. Flight tests demonstrated successful autonomous and piloted water take-off and landing in the presence of wave and wind disturbances. A nonlinear hierarchical adaptive control framework is proposed. It is designed to cover all flight modes of AquaFly which include hovering, transition, and forward flight. The adaptive nature of the control framework allows compensation for modeling errors, uncertainties, and disturbances. Stability analyses are presented to show asymptotic tracking performance as well as the boundedness of all signals for the proposed control framework. Finally, simulation analyses are conducted and show control effectiveness for all flight modes.

Keywords: AquaUAV
Control
Tiltrotor
Transition
UAV
VTOL
Advisor: Liu, Hugh H.T.
Quantifying the Physiological Demands and Kinematic Activity in Elite Wheelchair Basketball

This study described the physiological and locomotor demands of elite wheelchair basketball. Players (n=12) had two data collection periods; (1) laboratory and field-based testing to determine peak physiological and locomotor responses, (2) in-game collection of oxygen consumption (VO2), heart rate (HR), and locomotor activity (Speed). Players averaged 31.3 ± 6.9 minutes of playing time, a VO2 of 32.4 ± 5.8 ml·kg-1·min-1 and spent the game at 85.8 ± 10.7 %VO2peak. Further, HRmean was 159.4 ± 14.6 bpm and they spent the game at 87.3% ± 8.1-1 -1 %HRpeak. Speedmean was 1.29 ± 0.15 m·s and players averaged a Speedpeak of 3.23 ± 0.35 m·s . There were no significant differences in VO2, %VO2peak, HRmean, %HRpeak, Velmean, or Velpeak (t- test, p > 0.05) between low and high classification players. The results from the present study demonstrate that wheelchair basketball requires intermittent efforts of high physiological demands for both low and high classification players.

Keywords: Applied Sport Physiology
Metabolic demands of Wheelchair Basketball
Paralympic Sport Physiology
Sport Science
Advisor: Thomas, Scott G
A Novel Platform for Hyperpolarized Carbon-13 MRI of the Heart

Heart failure, one of the leading causes of death in North America, has several metabolic alterations associated with its progression. However, the majority of these alterations are known only from preclinical studies or in vitro assessment. Hyperpolarized carbon-13 MRI is an emerging modality for metabolic imaging in vivo that can supplement the current body of knowledge. This thesis addresses areas of improvement in the hyperpolarized carbon-13 MRI cardiac methodology to optimize it for clinical translation. First, technological advancements such as a flexible quadrature transmit-receive coil and real-time accessory imaging platform were implemented, modernizing the protocol. Then, a method for rapid transmit field calibration during clinical scans was developed. This was required due to the flexible nature of the transmit-receive coil. This thesis ends with a presentation of the applications made possible by these developments, including a clinical trial that is currently actively recruiting heart failure patients.

Keywords: Carbon-13
Cardiac imaging
Heart failure
Hyperpolarization
Magnetic resonance imaging
MRI
Advisor: Cunningham, Charles H
The Physiological and Molecular Characterization of SIFamide and the SIFamide receptor in Rhodnius prolixus

SIFamides are a family of highly conserved arthropod neuropeptides. Largely studied in holometabolous insects, this peptide is mainly expressed in four medial neurons in the pars intercerebralis of the brain. Little is known about SIFamide’s role in hemimetabolous insects. Rhodnius prolixus is a blood-gorging hemimetabolous insect and a vector for human Chagas disease. In this study, the R.prolixus SIFamide (Rhopr-SIFa) transcript and receptor (RhorprSIFR) has been cloned and sequenced, and the distribution and function of Rhopr-SIFa, in relation to feeding, explored. Immunohistochemistry shows the characteristic four medial SIFamidergic cells. Projections from these cell bodies extend into the corpus cardiacum, suggesting for the first time in insects, that SIFamide may be a neurohormone. We also observed enhanced feeding behavior in insects injected with Rhopr-SIFa and decrease with RNAi mediated knockdown. This work suggests SIFamide may play an important function in controlling R. prolixus feeding behavior, as a central and peripheral neuromodulator/neurohormone.

Keywords: bloodmeal
immunohistochemistry
insect
neurohormone
SIFamide
Advisor: Lange, Angela
Associations between Serum Osteocalcin and Subjective Stress in People with Depression and Type II Diabetes

Low serum osteocalcin is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and osteocalcin (OCN) release from bone is associated with an acute stress response. Both T2DM and stress are associated with depression. Here, a depressive episode was not associated with OCN concentrations among people with T2DM; however, higher concentrations of carboxylated OCN (cOCN) were associated with higher perceived stress among participants with depression (r=0.546, p=0.013) and T2DM. Controlling for age, sex, body mass index, glycemic control (HbA1c), insulin resistance (homeostatic model), depression, and antidepressant use, carboxylated OCN was associated with perceived stress (F=9.602, p=0.003), and this relationship was stronger in those with depression (depression × cOCN interaction F=4.702, p=0.033). The results identify circulating OCN as a neuroendocrine marker associated with chronic stress among people with T2DM experiencing a depressive episode.

Keywords: Depression
Osteocalcin
Perceived Stress
Type 2 Diabetes
Advisor: Swardfager, Walter
TeamCare: An Interprofessional Team-based Primary Health Care Program for Patients with Complex Health and Social Needs

TeamCare encompasses several programs designed to improve access to team-based care for complex patients that have been implemented through Community Health Centres (CHCs) in Ontario. Two studies were conducted to determine whether TeamCare has reached its intended population of patients with complex health and social needs and evaluate its impact on patient health care utilization. The studies used electronic health record data from CHCs linked with administrative data for fiscal years 2013-2016. A modified Difference-in-differences approach was employed to analyze the impact of participation in TeamCare on emergency department, primary, and secondary care utilization. The results of the studies indicate that TeamCare reached its intended population but did not have a meaningful impact on the utilization of formal healthcare services for patients enrolled in 2015. The results of this study and continued research will inform efforts to expand access to interprofessional team-based primary care in Ontario.

Keywords: Health Care Utilization
Interprofessional
Primary Care
Program Evaluation
Team-Based Care
Advisor: Wodchis, Walter
Rudoler, David
The Relationship Between Physical Activity and Mental Health in Adults with Chronic Disabilities

Compromised mental health (MH) is a common secondary outcome for adults with disabilities. While physical activity (PA) has psychological benefits, PA levels remain low in adults with disabilities. Guided by self-determination theory and Lubans and colleagues’ PA-MH model, this thesis examined the PA-MH relationship in adults with disabilities (N = 100, Mage = 36.61). Three moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) modes [combined (p = .34, p = .01), strength (p = .36, p = .01), aerobic (p = .38, p = .01)] were positively correlated with MH. Autonomy, competence, and relatedness were positively correlated with MVPA and MH. Athletes reported significantly greater MVPA (t(98) = 6.31, p

Keywords: disability
ill-being
mental health
physical activity
well-being
Advisor: Arbour-Nicitopoulos, Kelly P.
Cascade Health Service use in Families of Children with Cardiomyopathy: Implications for Health Technology Assessment

Background: Cardiomyopathy (CMP) is a genetically heterogeneous disease of the myocardium. Clinical practice guidelines recommend cascade genetic testing and clinical screening to relatives of affected individuals, however health technology assessment (HTA) does not account for these cascade effects. Purpose: To report the pattern and costs of cascade health service use in relatives of children with CMP. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted among children with CMP who underwent genetic testing. A cost analysis of services offered to probands’ relatives was undertaken from the health care payer perspective. Results: Data were available for relatives of 53 probands. The mean cost of offered cascade health services was $1,173 per family. Multiple one-way sensitivity and scenario analyses were undertaken to address uncertainty. Conclusions: Quantifying cascade health services is essential to economic evaluation of emerging genetic technologies. Optimizing HTA methods for incorporating cascade effects will enhance economic evaluation of genomics for funding decisions.

Keywords: Cardiomyopathy
Cascade Effects
Child Health
Cost Analysis
Health Technology Assessment
Methodology
Advisor: Ungar, Wendy J.
Improving Decision Making in Empiric Antibiotic Selection (IDEAS)

Timely initiation of adequate antibiotics has been associated improved patient. However, selecting adequate empiric antibiotics is difficult due to increasing resistance rates and the competing desire to apply antimicrobial stewardship principles. We developed, implemented and evaluated two interventions to optimize empiric antibiotics using prospective audit and feedback. The interventions included providing suggestions to prescribers at two points in the empiric period: (1) prior to availability of any culture results, empiric therapy was altered to ensure concordance with prior cultures that have predictive relevance for future infection (2) when Gram-negative bacteremia was identified, previously derived and validated multivariable models were used to recommend the most narrow-spectrum adequate antibiotic. The first intervention improved time to concordant therapy, increased the proportion of patients receiving concordant empiric antibiotics, and reduced vancomycin use. The second intervention facilitated de-escalation of antibiotics and increased the proportion of patients receiving the narrowest adequate antibiotic at blood culture finalization.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance
antimicrobial stewardship
antimicrobials
clinical decision making
Advisor: Daneman, Nick
A Method for the Directed Evolution and Protein Engineering of Synthetic CRISPR-Cas9 Inhibitors

CRISPR-Cas9 is a powerful genome-editing tool in biotechnology and biomedical research. However, one concern around the use of this technology in clinical applications is the potential for off-target activity of Cas9 that could have deleterious effects. The discovery of anti-CRISPR (Acr) proteins, natural protein inhibitors of CRISPR-Cas systems, could provide a solution. The presence of Acrs in the context of CRISPR-Cas applications could provide temporal and spatial inhibition of CRISPR activity. One particular Acr of interest is AcrIIC1, which binds to the highly conserved HNH domain of various Cas9 orthologs, thus making it an ideal scaffold for generating a mutagenesis library. Thus, the goal of this project is to use directed evolution to develop a platform for the design of protein-based inhibitors against any desired Cas9 species. Insights from this project will be used to further understand CRISPR-Cas9 mechanisms, anti-CRISPR biology, and the evolutionary arms race between bacteria and bacteriophages.

Keywords: anti-CRISPR
CRISPR-Cas9
directed evolution
protein engineering
Advisor: Davidson, Alan R
Sidhu, Sachdev S
Electromagnetic Surface Treatments for Improving Ground Penetrating Radar

Autonomous vehicle development and research has recently become a focus many vehicle manufacturers with billions of dollars of investment in recent years. It is shaping the future of the transportation industry. An open problem facing autonomous vehicles surrounds the development of a robust suite of sensors that is able to safely and reliably operate in all weather and road conditions. This thesis investigates the potential of localizing ground penetrating radar as a piece of that sensor suite while simultaneously demonstrating an approach to constructing an LGPR's antenna array by incorporating an artificial magnetic conductor with a resistively loaded dipole. This antenna array has a reduced profile and improved gain performance compared to the current implementation. Such an improvement in gain and profile reduction will allow such a sensor to be more easily incorporated into a vehicle's design and provides a potential road-map to further reduce the size of such arrays.

Keywords: Artificial Magnetic Conductor
Ground Penetrating Radar
High Impedance Surface
Resistively Loaded Dipole
Tunable Surface
Advisor: Hum, Sean V