VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Spatial learning through exploration

The theoretical background for rat spatial geometry is reviewed and an investigation of rat spatial learning conducted. A series of 8 experiments using habituation and exploratory behaviour examined the spatial mechanisms by which rats encode the positions of objects within an environment devoid of orienting cues. It was found that rats encode the positions of objects within their environment relative to other intra-environment objects and that this is done by encoding distances and angles between objects. The geometric module failed to contribute to the ability of rats to detect changes in position of previously habituated objects.
The Northern Ireland Bill of Rights project: Overcoming division and maintaining peace

In 1998, after 30 years of sectarian conflict, the people of Northern Ireland embraced peace with the endorsement of the Belfast Agreement. This agreement, negotiated between politicians from Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, places human rights at the forefront of Northern Ireland's future by contemplating a local Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. This thesis examines several facets of the Northern Ireland Bill of Rights project, including procedural issues, the relationship of the Bill of Rights to the peace process and several substantive issues, such as communal rights, horizontal application and due process rights. In doing so, this paper highlights the important role a Bill of Rights can play in helping to establish peace in a divided society and the particular challenges that arise in drafting a Bill of Rights as part of a political settlement or peace process.
Parallel studies of in vitro native collagen fibrillogenesis: Cold start, warm start and dialysis assembly pathways revealed by atomic force microscopy

Collagen structures are involved in nearly every system and organ in the body. Astonishingly, when in vitro conditions are made to approximate physiological pH, temperature and ionic strength, the collagen monomer will undergo self-assembly to produce the same native fibrils found in vivo. Here, type I collagen fibrillogenesis is examined using the atomic force microscope in an attempt to resolve the long-standing debate regarding the mechanism by which collagen assembles. It is demonstrated that fibrillogenesis proceeds via hierarchical assembly through a series of intermediates rather than by simple nucleation and growth for all three commonly studied in vitro pathways: cold start, warm start and dialysis. In each case, early axial association into microfibrils is followed by lateral organization into mature fibrils. Furthermore, the first direct evidence is presented that the removal of telopeptide regions on the ends of the collagen monomer does not alter the mechanism of fibrillogenesis.
Development of antimicrobial polypeptide bioactive fluorinated surface modifiers for biofilm reduction

Previous studies have demonstrated the ability of bioactive fluorinated surface modifiers (BFSMs) to co-deliver bioactive groups to the surface of a polycarbonate polyurethane (PCNU). In order to address the problem of medical device infections, it was the objective of this study to design cationic antimicrobial peptide (CAP) BFSMs, and test their biofilm-reducing abilities against Streptococcus mutans and Staphylococcus epidermidis, due in part to the latter peptides ability to kill a broad range of microorganisms at low concentrations and in a rapid manner. Dansyl labelled (*) CAPs, Bac8c (NH2-GGGK*GRIWVIWRR-CONH2) and Bac020 (NH2-GGGK*GRRAAVVLIVIRR-CONH 2), were attached to BFSM precursor molecules, and were shown to enrich the surfaces of PCNU films using 2-photon confocal microscopy. A 96-well plate safranin-staining assay was preformed, and demonstrated that both CAP-BFSMs were able to significantly reduce biofilm formation in a medium-dependent manner. This work demonstrates the potential of this approach as a coating strategy for reducing biomaterial-related infections.
The development of a virtual rapid-prototyping method

Software code is embedded with data and tasks. Separating these has proven that it is possible to construct a tool (a conceptual design software application) capable of evaluating a design based on its reason for existence, its need. This fundamental principle is clearly explained, and is implemented through the creation of a particular software application. This application helped in the development of new mobile robots for Engineering Services Incorporated, which were focused on improved traction and manoeuverability performance. The software tool generated explicit models from numerous design iterations of two concepts, in record time. Each model included simulation-pertinent information which was embedded in an automated fashion, thereby eliminating the need for numerous laborious tasks. The analysis of the "Backpack-able Mobile Robot" validated this particular software tool, while the generalization of the process to construct it has been defined so that future conceptual design application tools can be created.
Shelters- the life within: the impact of emergency shelters on the mental health of single homeless women

This thesis examines how single homeless women experienced emergency shelters within the City of Toronto. In view of significant gaps in existing literature, the goal of this research was to reveal how the environment within emergency shelters affected participants' mental health and well-being. This was a phenomenological study that drew on twenty-four in-depth qualitative interviews with single homeless women. The findings indicated that women experienced power dynamics, distress and poor mental health while staying in emergency shelters. The women interviewed had many recommendations for changing the emergency shelter system in Toronto and ending homelessness. This study provides significant contributions to the homelessness and health literature and is useful for policy analysts, shelter operators and the social service sector. It is hoped that the experiences of participants will be a catalyst for reflection and change to improve the life conditions of single homeless women.
Sustainable water supply: Blackout water demand and demand management in the city of Toronto

The area wide power failure of August 14, 2003 that affected the northeastern United States and southern Ontario offers a unique opportunity to quantify and characterize blackout water demand. August is typically the month of maximum demand in the City of Toronto and Region of York and thus the time of the blackout can be assumed to constitute a worse case scenario. This thesis analyzes the performance of the City and Region's water supply network prior, during and after the blackout. Blackout demand multipliers are determined for the City and Region to use in their emergency planning. This thesis also calculates current demand patterns and examines them for evidence of change. Furthermore, current demands are used to test the predictive capability of the Toronto Daily Operation Water Demand Model developed by Sadiq (2003). Demand management is considered as a method of closing the gap between Toronto's supply and anticipated future demand. In addition to the analysis of demand, recommendations are summarized for the reconfiguration of SCADA systems to reduce the amount of effort required to compile, interpret and extrapolate demand data.
Towards reconciliation: a griever's narrative journey of love and loss

"Towards Reconciliation" is my personal grief journey that I experienced after my mother died from tongue cancer in November, 2003. It is an autobiographical narrative reflexive account in which I share and discuss some of the thoughts and feelings, such as depression, anger, and sorrow that I experienced after my mother's death. As I share and discuss these feelings I illustrate the non-linear process of my grief work. By "my grief work" I am referring to the Stages of Grief that needed to be explored and worked through, so that I could become reconciled with the loss of my mom. My grief journey is not meant to be a reflection or representation of other grievers' journeys. It is meant to contribute to the existing grief literature, to demonstrate the experience and the feelings associated with grief, and to demonstrate that healing and personal growth can arise out of grief work.
Care's ultimate limits: experiences and accounts of caring for a relative or friend who died of breast cancer

As patterns of cancer mortality continue to intersect with reallocations of work in the health sector, informal care for people dying of cancer is becoming an increasingly significant feature of social life in Canada. The experience of caring for someone who is dying is an area of relative silence in feminist analyses of informal care. This thesis outlines the imperatives of care generated in a palliative context, imperatives that are both felt at a personal level and linked to wider social structures and processes. The value assigned to closeness with the ill person can be seen to reflect cultural injunctions towards a ‘good death’ and to shape informal carers' perceptions of their labour. The implications of welfare retrenchment for the informal care sector is well established in the feminist literature. Yet few accounts consider the microsociological mechanisms that link informal carers' actions and accounts with conditions in social systems. In this thesis, carers' views of health professionals' work circumstances emerged as such a mechanism. Respondents' perceptions that health professionals were ‘run off their feet’ generally released professionals from routine care duties and from caring, in an affective sense, for patients. Informal carers were thus drawn into a range of activities whereby they both provided care and acted as bridges between patient needs and professional care. The belief that health professionals were ‘doing everything they could’ in conditions of constraint also tended to exonerate them from blame for the suffering that carers or ill people experienced, and thus to disarm complaints about health care. This analysis confirms, and extends into the institutional care sector, feminist accounts of the erosion of entitlement that accompanies current trends in western health systems. This thesis also augments collective understandings of the ethical complexities of qualitative research, offering an analysis of the ways vulnerability may be produced for research participants by the intersection of interview factors with particular discursive surrounds. This conceptualisation of the conditions of interviewee vulnerability prompts a revisioning of the power that researchers bring to and exercise in qualitative research interviews.
Four grade eleven students' attitudes toward schooling: a case study

Seeking student opinions about school is not a common practice when initiating school improvement. Existing studies researching student opinions typically focused on academic matters. This study focuses on students' perceptions of schooling beyond the academic scope. Through individual and group interviews, four grade eleven students shared their views about factors affecting their satisfaction. Giving students the opportunity to voice their opinions was instrumental in informing the philosophy behind this research. Students identified many factors affecting their satisfaction with the overall school experience. Of all the factors, the students expressed the strongest opinions about teachers. In addition, they argued the need for student input and power to change curriculum and policies of the school. This study suggests that teachers and administrators should seriously consider the voice of students in order to improve the school experience for all stakeholders.
Semi-blind interference suppression algorithm for a downlink MC-CDMA system that employs space time block code

A semi-blind interference suppression detector for the downlink Multi-Carrier CDMA (MC-CDMA) system that employs space time block code is proposed in this work. The detector attempts to reduce the Multiple-Access Interference (MAI) presented in the system. We first look at the training-based Least Squares (LS) algorithm and then we look at Constant Modulus Algorithm (CMA). Next, the semi-blind algorithm is developed based on the combination of LS and CMA. Simulation results show that a significant improvement is offered by the proposed semi-blind detector when compare with the LS algorithm and that the proposed semi-blind MC-CDMA system outperforms the DS-CDMA and OFDM system that use channel equalization and space diversity. This work can be applied to the downlink of the next generation wireless communication network which has a very high data rate.
The roles of self-regulation and coping in a preventative cognitive-behavioural intervention for school-age children at-risk for internalizing disorders

The present study investigated the effects of a preventative cognitive behavioural intervention targeting children at-risk for anxiety and depressive disorders. This study aimed to discern the effective ingredients of a cognitive behavioural approach by comparing the active intervention to an attention placebo control (activity group). This study was also designed to better understand relationships between self-regulation, coping skills, internalizing symptoms, and therapeutic change. Self-regulation was proposed as a potential moderator and enhanced coping as a potential mediator of intervention outcome. Participants included 66 children, aged 7 to 11 years (M = 9.02, SD = 1.18), with elevated anxious and depressive symptoms, and their parents. The participants were randomly assigned to either a cognitive behavioural intervention (CBT) or to an activity group of equal duration. Children completed assessments of their self-regulatory abilities, coping skills, and anxious and depressive symptoms. Likewise, their parents completed assessments of their children's self-regulatory abilities and their symptoms. Results indicated that CBT was not more effective than the activity group, with all children demonstrating significant improvements in their anxious and depressive symptoms. Without an intervention effect, the moderating and mediating roles of self-regulation and coping could not be investigated. However, the intervention did predict an increase in distraction coping skills. Discussion centres on possible reasons for the lack of an intervention effect. Furthemore, the importance of investigating the processes behind successful interventions, including both active and non-specific intervention factors, is considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Mothering the nation: the Hadassah organization's social welfare project in the Yishuv and Israel, 1912--1960

In the pre-state era before Israel's establishment in 1948, when most Zionist organizations concentrated on political lobbying and land development to advance the Zionist cause, Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, adopted a radically different---and at the time, controversial---strategy: it sought to improve living conditions in the Yishuv (Jewish community of Palestine) through providing hands-on social services to the local population. Beginning with setting up a nursing station in Palestine in 1913, Hadassah methodically laid the groundwork for the medical and social welfare systems of the future Jewish state. This thesis argues that Hadassah's early work in Palestine is best understood as an offshoot of the maternalist politics and "child-saving" agenda of the Progressive reform movement in the United States. Hadassah tied the maternalist agenda to the Zionist goal of a Jewish state by formulating a distinct ideology called here "Zionist maternalism." The core of Zionist maternalism was the idea that Jewish women had a specific responsibility for social welfare in the Yishuv. This study demonstrates that, through their participation in Hadassah, American Jewish women played a decisive role in the development of the social welfare infrastructure which made Israeli statehood possible in 1948. Ultimately, Hadassah took a leading role in shaping the political culture of Israel as a social welfare state. Hadassah's formidable contribution to the Zionist statebuilding project is assessed through an examination of the American field-tested projects which Hadassah transplanted to the Yishuv: pasteurized milk depots, maternal education, health care and health education in the schools, school lunches, nutrition education, organized playgrounds, model flats and domestic science education. The analysis of archival materials, including publicity brochures, newsletters and correspondence shows how Hadassah set up and administered these projects, and also how, through a carefully crafted publicity campaign, the organization persuaded many American Jewish women to support its innovative social welfare agenda. Hadassah's vital role in supporting the Youth Aliyah child rescue and education program from 1935 through the 1950s is also assessed in the context of the American organization's maternalist ideology and social welfare mandate.

Keywords: Jews, History
Jews, Israel
Jewish women, Charities
Zionism, United States
Jews, History
Jews, Palestine
Jewish women, Societies and clubs
Heterotopic bone formation around porous-surfaced bone-interfacing implants implanted into murine muscle pouch

Purpose. To determine whether bone formation can be induced in muscle pouch around porous-surfaced titanium alloy implants coated with native bovine or human BMPs in a carrier of Poloxamer F-127. Materials and methods. Implants were coated with native human or bovine BMPs and placed inside a gelatin capsule using a carrier of Poloxamer F-127. These implants were placed in the muscle of mice while the contralateral muscle served as a control without a carrier. Results. Bone induction was observed after 28 days in the human BMP group and to a lesser extent in the bovine BMP group. An in vitro assay for was able to predict a level of osteoinductive potential in the tested BMP batches. Discussion and conclusions. Localization of human BMPs either alone or in Poloxamer to the surface of sintered porous-surfaced dental implants is possible and results in heterotopic bone formation in the rodent muscle pouch model.
Development and characterization of porous shape memory polymers

A two part resin shape memory polymer (SMP) was fabricated. The batch foaming technique was used to create samples with varying porous structures and densities. The processing parameters of saturation pressure and foaming time were used to control the morphology. Samples with an approximate thickness of 2 mm and 1 mm were produced to study the relationship between the morphology of the SMP and the physical properties such as the shape memory effect (SME), strain and recovery force. Nanoparticles were added to the SMP with three different weight percents (0.5%, 1.0% and 2.0%) to improve the recovery force. The goal was to determine the weight reduction that can be achieved without significantly impacting the SME and recovery force. By optimizing the processing parameters it is possible to design an SMP to be used as an actuator that is lightweight, has a fast response time and strong recovery force.
Parent group perspectives on inclusive education in Ontario

Building on Skrtic (1991), this study examines views of disability-specific parent groups and civic parent groups on the nature of disability, special education and inclusive education in Ontario. It shows that, unlike disability parent group representatives, civic group representatives support a continuum of placements for students with disabilities rather than fully inclusive education. Members of civic groups tend to subscribe to a pathological-medical view of disability and believe in the necessity and benefits of the special education system to provide services and supports for students with disabilities. Civic group advocacy efforts focus not on transforming the system so that all students can learn together in the general classroom, but instead on improving the special education system. The lack of a common understanding of inclusive education between these two groups has led to what exists today: various civic and disability groups with disparate agendas, and a fragmentation of advocacy efforts.
Textually mediated responses to woman abuse in a hospital setting: transforming women's lived experience

The proposed study draws on the social ontology and methodology of institutional ethnography (IE) and feminist critiques of biomedicine and medicalization to explore how woman-abuse is transformed and rendered institutionally actionable according to textually mediated practices of hospital staff. Specifically, the research will: (1) determine and map how clinical practice is governed by policies and related texts; (2) investigate how practitioners invoke and modify these texts in practice; and, (3) explicate the ways and degree to which these text-based-practices organize and give medically and legally sanctioned meaning to woman abuse. Accordingly, and drawing on theory and techniques associated with EE, open-ended interviews with professionals working with a hospital's domestic violence programme will be carried out, as well as group interviews with relevant hospital committees, and a chart audit. Findings will be mapped, contrasted with findings from an earlier study, and considered in relation to sociological literature on medicalization and woman-abuse.
Role of cis-acting elements and trans-acting factors in the regulation of apolipoprotein B mRNA translation

A major complication of insulin resistant states such as type 2 diabetes is dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease. Insulin is an important regulator of the hepatic production of atherogenic lipoproteins containing apolipoprotein B (apoB). An important mode of regulation by insulin is translational control of apoB synthesis. In our studies, insulin was found to exert its effect through interactions with the apoB 5′ UTR which was vital for apoB translation. The 3′ UTR inhibited translation of the apoB mRNA. We detected the binding of protein complexes to the 5 ′ and 3′ UTRs. Five trans-acting factors were found to bind to the 3′ UTR and one trans-acting factor (110 kDa) directly and specifically interacted with the 5′ UTR. Insulin increased the binding of a 110 kDa protein to the 5 ′ UTR. We propose the existence of an insulin sensitive protein factor that binds to the apoB 5′ UTR and regulates its translation.
Gandhi's praxis: Ideas for non-violent social transformation

This thesis examines M. K. Gandhi's ideas for non-violent social transformation through a lens of praxis. It does this by first demonstrating the colonial arrogant perception embedded in the political and social structures of his time, and Gandhi's response to it. It then moves to an exegetical examination of three philosophical concepts that are key to Gandhi's thought, namely ahimsa (non-violence), satyagraha (Truth-force), and sarvodaya (uplift of all). Presenting Gandhi's thought in-depth allows for a discussion of one way that applying liberal moral rationality can generate misreading Gandhi's ideas. Central to this argument is the claim that the persistent salience of the individual within liberal moral rationality, particularly with respect to the concepts of objectivity and autonomy, tends to obscure to the point of undermining Gandhi's emphasis, in moral deliberations, on adopting the perspective of the 'individual embedded in community'.

Keywords: Nonviolence
Social change
Ahiṃsā