VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The impact of environmental variables on bank branch performance in a merger

A two-stage estimation procedure is employed to evaluate branch efficiency before and after the merger of a large Canadian Bank and Trust company. In the first stage, Data Envelopment Analysis is used to evaluate the operational efficiency of the branch networks for the two pre-merger firms and the network of merged firms. The second stage employs limited dependent variable regression techniques to relate these efficiency scores to the demographic characteristics of the customer base and the environmental characteristics of the branch location. Bootstrap algorithms were used to calculate statistical inference about the regression coefficients. The results indicate that overall, efficiency gains were achieved as a result of the merger. The post-merger branch network experienced a convergence and increase in efficiency scores. Furthermore, environmental characteristics such as market type, age, and education level of the customer base helped to explain both the variations between efficiency scores, as well as the relative change in efficiency post-merger.
Diamines in catalysis and in biological systems

Symmetrical and non-symmetrical 1,2-diamines (vicinal diamines) were prepared using diaza-Cope re-arrangement. It was shown that formation of resonance assisted hydrogen bonds is the thermodynamic driving force of the reaction. Symmetrical diamines were then used to prepare a series of pyridinebisimidazolines (analogs of PYBOX) in excellent yield. It was shown that preparation of non-symmetrical diamines is facilitated by initial isolation of imidazolidine intermediate whose stability is influenced by solvent effects and electronic substituent effects. Using linear Hammett correlation, it was determined that the imidazolidine form is stabilized by electron withdrawing groups (p=-0.81).
Identification and initial characterization of carbonic anhydrase deletion mutants of Arabidopsis

Carbonic anhydrase (CA; 4.2.1.1) is a zinc metalloenzyme that catalyzes the reversible hydration of CO2 to bicarbonate. Three families of CA, designated alpha, beta, and gamma, have been identified based on sequence comparisons. All three of these families are represented in the Arabidopsis genome, analysis of which has revealed that as many as 14 putative CA isoforms exist, 6 of these are members of the alpha family, 5 of the beta family and 3 of the gamma family. The purpose of this investigation was to initiate a functional genomics approach to the study of Arabidopsis CAs. This was accomplished by the identification of T-DNA insertion mutants in the putative CAs, the initial characterization of one of these mutants, beta-CA2, and the use of bioinformatics tools to predict the sequence conservation, phylogenetic relationship and subcellular locations of the putative Arabidopsis CAs.
Holocene paleoenvironmental changes inferred from diatom assemblages in Kusawa Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada

Diatom community composition and primary production in Kusawa Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada, over the Holocene were assessed and related to inferred environmental variables in order to determine the factors responsible for influencing species assemblages in a large, deep, sub-Arctic lake. The Kusawa Lake record was dominated by planktonic species with Cyclotella ocellata and Cyclotella pseudostelligera showing the highest abundances throughout the record. Holocene temperature changes as inferred from pollen data, ice core data, and oxygen isotope values, were found to influence changes in diatom community composition and were positively related to primary production. The peaks in diatom primary production and species diversity observed in the Kusawa Lake record indicate that the end of the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) occurred around 7,000 cal. BP in the southwest Yukon region.
Anger in Dominican and Franciscan pastoral and homiletic literature before 1350

This dissertation explains the approach of Franciscan and Dominican Latin pastoral manuals and homiletic resources when dealing with the sin of anger and places it within the context of medieval moral teaching about the emotion. The introduction briefly surveys the historiography of the emotions and current approaches to the study of emotion and justifies a method for investigating prescriptive teachings about anger using mendicant pastoral sources. Chapter one explains the generally negative Classical, biblical, patristic and ascetic traditions about anger from which the mendicant compilers drew. Chapter two treats the scholastic synthesis of Christian and Aristotelian psychologies of emotion and anger by Thomas Aquinas which presents a more positive view of the passion than did the ascetic tradition. Chapter three considers the treatment of anger within confessors' manuals that digested canon law and theology. Compilers drew upon scholastic theology, particularly that of Thomas, in order to determine mortal forms of spiritual sins such as anger. Chapters four, five, and six examine discourses on anger within hortatory and homiletic manuals, namely treatises on the vices and virtues, compendia of theology, collections of distinctiones and exempla, and model sermons. These practical manuals hearken back to ascetic tradition by encouraging the avoidance of anger as a noxious vice rather than promoting a moderated passion. Avoiding scholastic abstractions, compilers use a variety of rhetorical strategies to exort the faithful and appeal especially to their self-interest on a variety of levels thereby turning the self-asserting impulse of anger against itself.
Kv1.3 and erg K+ channels in microglia: regulation by tyrosine phosphorylation

Identifying the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the functional plasticity of microglia is critical for understanding the role of microglia in neurodegenerative processes in the brain. In an effort to establish potential roles for voltage-gated K+ (Kv) channels in microglia activation, I used the molecular and electrophysiological approaches to study Kv channel function and physiology. Protein tyrosine phosphorylation represents one of the early biochemical events that regulate cellular signaling. While numerous intracellular and surface-expressed proteins undergo tyrosine phosphorylation following microglia stimulation, for many proteins including ion channels, growth factor receptors and cytosolic signaling molecules, the effect of phosphorylation on protein function remains poorly defined. The potential involvement of protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) and phosphatases (PTPs) in regulating microglia cellular function is just beginning to unfold. In this thesis, the primary objective was to study the effects of tyrosine phosphorylation on two microglia Kv channels, Kv1.3 and erg. My results from electrophysiological, pharmacological, functional, transfection and molecular/biochemical studies yielded evidence that an endogenous PTK, src, differentially modulates Kv1.3 and erg and that an endogenous PTP, SHP-1, influences the basal level of channel tyrosine phosphorylation. The current attributed to erg was reduced by PTK inhibitors but enhanced by src-activating peptides. In contrast, the current attributed to Kv1.3 was downregulated by src activation. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments revealed signaling complexes comprised of r-erg1, src and SHP-1 proteins on one hand, and Kv1.3, src and PSD-95 on the other, suggesting that the modulation of erg and Kv1.3 currents by src is facilitated by the formation of stable signaling complexes. The presence of SHP-1-binding sequence in erg1 carboxy terminus, termed immunoreceptor tyrosine-based inhibitory motif, may explain the electrophysiological and biochemical properties of erg channels during SHP-1 over-expression. Taken together, my results show that specific protein-protein interactions and co-assembly of signaling molecules and channels in distinct macromolecular complexes, facilitate tyrosine phosphorylation of Kv channels and thus modulate the contribution of Kv channels to microglia cellular functions, including proliferation. Such channel-enzyme interaction may represent a prominent mechanism underlying brain immunomodulation, and provides a neuroprotective target for controlling CNS injury mediated by an overactive host immune cell, the microglia.
The design and implementation of a Java virtual machine on a cluster of workstations

We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) on a cluster of workstations, which supports shared memory in software. More specifically, we first extend the Jupiter JVM infrastructure to support multithreading on Symmetric Multiprocessors (SMPs). We then extend this multithreaded Jupiter to deal with memory consistency, private memory allocation, and the limitations on the use of some resources on a 16-processor cluster of PCs interconnected by a Myrinet network; which supports Shared Virtual Memory and a pthreads interface. Our experimental evaluation is performed using standard benchmarks. On a 4-processor SMP, it indicates that the performance of the multithreaded version of Jupiter is midway between a naive and a state-of-the-art implementations of a Java interpreter. Our evaluation on the cluster demonstrates that good speedup is obtained.
Phonetic similarity, syllabification and phonotactic constraints in the acquisition of a second language contrast

This thesis examines the acquisition of the English lax-tense contrast in front vowels (/i/-/I/, /eI/-/epsilon/) by adult Catalan learners of English as a second language. The English lax-tense distinction is based on differences in tongue position, duration and phonotactic distribution, where lax vowels are restricted to closed syllables. Importantly, Catalan has a similar vowel height distinction (/i/, /e/, /epsilon/), but no duration contrast or phonotactic restrictions for vowels. Further, English, but not Catalan, has ambisyllabic consonants. These specific differences raise the following two questions: How do second language learners acquire a novel segmental contrast, and how does the acquisition of nonsegmental information interact with the acquisition of segmental structure? These questions are addressed in a series of perception, production and psycholinguistic experiments. The perceptual similarity of English and Catalan vowels is assessed to predict relative success in vowel acquisition. Results from perception and production experiments illustrate that perceived similarity alone does not predict the likelihood of accurate perception and production. Specifically, duration, a non-L1 feature, was used to establish a contrast for a vowel that had no close match in Catalan. This in turn influenced the cues used in the categorization of the other vowel in the pair despite having a near identical match in the L1. Further, differences in L1 and L2 cue weighting for highly similar vowels may affect perception accuracy. These findings demonstrate that factors such as relative weighting of phonetic cues and the need to establish oppositions must be taken into account when predicting success in acquisition. The role of nonsegmental information is investigated using syllable manipulation and picture matching tasks. Catalan learners of English demonstrate knowledge of English vowel phonotactics. However, use of this constraint is limited by interference from L1 syllabification, which in turn may affect production ability. Additional evidence for the interaction of segmental and nonsegmental structure in L2 acquisition comes from correlated results across experiments. Taken together, the findings underscore the need to regard vowels as members of a contrastive system rather than individually acquired categories and to consider nonsegmental information in the acquisition of L2 phonological structure.
Fuzzy functions with support vector machines

This thesis applies a new fuzzy system-modeling framework to identify the "Fuzzy Functions" determined by Support Vector Machines (SVM). The proposed model is structurally different from other Fuzzy Rule Base and Fuzzy Regression methods. SVM is applied to determine the Support Vectors for each fuzzy cluster obtained with an execution of Fuzzy C-Means Clustering (FCM) method. Original input variables, joint membership values of the input/output variables obtained from FCM together with their transformations and logistic transformations of non-scalar original input variables form a new augmented set of input variables to predict the output of the system model. The proposed "Fuzzy Functions" with SVM is determined for two datasets: an industrial and a financial. With these two datasets, Fuzzy Functions determined with Least Square Estimation (LSE) and a single function determined with classical SVM and LSE approaches are identified and their results are compared to the model results from proposed approach.
Women's abortion experiences in context

The purpose of this study was to explore women's subjective abortion experiences and the ways in which these experiences interacted with socio-cultural aspects of their lives. The present study used in-depth interviewing to investigate these experiences among fifteen women between ages 19 and 32, representing diverse social and cultural backgrounds within a month of their first trimester abortion. Participants took part in one open-ended semi-structured interview. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes. The constant comparison approach was used to arrive at core categories, central to women's subjective experiences of abortion. These categories were then examined in relation to women's social context regarding gender, socioeconomic status, and ethno-cultural group membership. A core dimension, which emerged in the qualitative analysis, labelled the Disowning-Owning Continuum, was found to affect and shape multiple aspects of women's abortion experiences. The Disowning-Owning Continuum refers to the extent to which women described accepting, expressing, and acting in accordance with their feelings about the abortion experience. Each pole of the continuum, Disowning and Owning, was comprised of five key-themes: Voice; Emotions; Cognitive Frame; Sense of Worth; and Hopes and Dreams, and the way in which women disowned or owned their abortion experiences was expressed according to these key-themes. The social context of women's abortion experiences, which they described through three main themes: Gender, Ethno-Cultural Context and Socio-Economic Context, significantly impacted the Disowning-Owning Continuum. When women described disowning their abortion experiences, they frequently denied the social context, which ultimately increased their own sense of self-blame and individual responsibility. In contrast, when women articulated experiences of Owning, they placed greater emphasis on the social context of their abortions, and the relevance and centrality of such factors. This research may be useful for counsellors, health care professionals, as well as the larger community to increase public awareness and devise useful ways to combat stigma and promote greater understanding and empathy with respect to women's reproductive choices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Effects of age and reproduction on the stress axis of wild female meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus)

The stress axis is a key homeostatic system crucial to every mammal's survival. Thus, it is important to investigate if it deteriorates with age and how this occurs. Since energy is limited in the natural world, organisms must trade-off investments between reproduction and somatic maintenance. When reproduction is initiated, resources are diverted from somatic maintenance into reproduction. My objective was to examine the effects of age and reproduction on the stress axis. I predicted that the stress axis (a key system promoting somatic maintenance) should be negatively affected by reproduction, not by age, and should show decreases in glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) mRNA and an increase in corticosterone (CORT) levels, as indicated by laboratory studies in aging rodents. My findings revealed that GR mRNA, MR mRNA and CORT levels increased as a function of reproductive and was unaffected by age.
The other archives: the archival value of photographs of anonymous people

Photographs of anonymous people are found in all manner of archival repositories. Because they lack identifying text, these records are at risk of being devalued and ignored. This thesis examines this class of document and argues that these photographs should not be disregarded but rather should be given attention by archivists so that they can be found and made useful. By defining archival value as the interaction between the viewing subject and the photographic object, photographs of anonymous people are seen to have a possibility of value. In order to identify potentially valuable records, a macro-appraisal strategy for personal photographs is outlined. This strategy focuses on the three key functions of photographs: documentation, memory formation, and identity formation. Methods of archival description for photographs of anonymous people are then discussed, emphasising the necessity of text for the discovery of these documents, while acknowledging the inherent dangers of interpretation.
'Hop heads' and 'hypes': drug use, regulation and resistance in Canada, 1920-1961

This dissertation is a social and cultural history of drug users and their regulators, including narcotic officials, doctors, police officers and social workers. It draws on and contributes to gender and working class history, medical and legal history and the history of the welfare state. Three main questions underlay the project: (1) What happened to drug users when certain types of drug use became a criminal activity? (2) How did the state, and other social actors, implement control over consumption? (3) How did drug users themselves respond to regulation by others and how did they regulate themselves? Since my goal is to demonstrate the effects of criminalization on the lives of users, I have focused on drugs which were controlled under the Opium and Narcotic Drug Act, including opium, morphine, heroin, cocaine and cannabis. Unlike much work of the work on moral regulation, which focuses on only one moral agent, I examine multiple sites and types of regulation. I have paid careful attention to the impact of regulation on the lives of targeted individuals, to the motivations and techniques of the regulators and to the interactions among drug users, regulators and the state. The history of drug use gets to the heart of how bodies and subjectivities are constructed by individuals, by others, and by the state. By examining one of the most intensively regulated groups in society, we can better understand the operation of state and other types of power in the mid-20th century. Drug users were an extremely stigmatized group and their treatment raises serious questions about inequality, how and why it is reified and perpetuated and how it can be corrected. Finally, as a group extensively targeted by the criminal justice system, the treatment of drug users forces us to ask important questions about the operation of the criminal justice system and normative notions of justice, equality and fairness.

Keywords: Drug abuse, Canada
Drug addiction, Canada
Narcotics addicts, Canada
Drug control, Canada
Automatic detection of revealing cutting planes in three-dimensional datasets

Cutting planes are useful tools for visualizing the interior of three-dimensional datasets. Placing cutting planes through datasets to produce informative visualizations has traditionally been a manual task. A technique is presented for automatically determining informative placements of cutting planes for viewing volumetric data. This technique is optimized for practical run-time performance and evolved to demonstrate the automatic selection of multiple cutting planes and even the automatic creation of fly-through animations.
The role of platelet-derived growth factor-BB signaling in glycosaminoglycan formation in fetal lung cells

Elucidation and genetic determination of the signal transduction pathway(s) that results in platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF-BB)-induced glycosaminoglycan (GAG) synthesis as well as protection from apoptosis were undertaken. Over-expression of a soluble PDGF β-receptor as well as a mutated form of the β-receptor, unable to bind PI-3K, diminished GAG synthesis in fetal lung fibroblasts subsequent to PDGF-BB stimulation. Treatment with the PI-3K inhibitor, wortmannin or expression of dominant-negative PI-3K abrogated Akt activity and GAG synthesis. Furthermore, expression of dominant-negative Akt (Akt-AAA) abrogated endogenous Akt activity, Rab3D phosphorylation and GAG synthesis whereas expression of constituitively activated Akt (Akt-DD) stimulated Rab3D phosphorylation and GAG synthesis in the absence of PDGF-BB. Over-expression of wild-type PTEN inhibited Akt activity and concomitantly attenuated GAG synthesis in fibroblasts stimulated with PDGF-BB. These data suggest that Akt is an integral protein involved in PDGF-BB-mediated GAG regulation in fetal lung fibroblasts. As the Akt pathway has been implicated in cell survival mechanisms, it was investigated whether the pathway regulating GAG secretion was anti-apoptotic. Transfection of constituitively-active Akt into fetal lung fibroblasts lead to an increase in GAG secretion, without PDGF-BB stimulation, that safeguarded the cells from apoptosis. Separate cultures of lung fibroblasts were treated with xyloside, a proteoglycan substitute, or with topologically applied GAGs. Application of xyloside or the sulfated GAGs, chondroitin sulfate or heparan sulfate, resulted in an increase in GAG secretion, diminished apoptosis as well as an increase in BAD phosphorylation and diminished caspase cleavage, all of which are indicative of an anti-apoptotic response. PDGF-BB also increased p42 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), although it was determined not to be a component of the GAG pathway. However, MAPK is an enzyme that, together with Akt, phosphorylates and sequesters BAD. Overexpression of a dominant-negative PDGFβ-receptor, lacking the cytoplasmic signaling domain, or a dominant-negative PDGFβ-receptor, with cytoplasmic tyrosines mutated to phenylalanine, abrogated p42MAPK activity suggestive that PDGF-BB mediated activation of p42MAPK requires the PDGFβ-receptor but is independent of its tyrosine phosphorylation. The data contained herein are demonstrative of a concerted and pleiotropic response initiated by the GAG signal transduction pathway as a means to ensure appropriate fetal lung development.