VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Giving Money versus Giving Time: The Effect of Moral Compensation on Evaluation of Transgressions

After committing a moral transgression, people are more willing to give their own money and time—two very valuable resources—for prosocial causes, as a way to compensate. But can the method of compensation influence the way individuals evaluate their own transgressions? Rather than distinguishing between money and time, research in the moral regulation literature has often treated the two as interchangeable resources. However, based on prior research showing that money and time have distinct psychological meanings, the present research shows that the method of compensation can differentially influence individuals’ evaluations of their own past misdeeds. Drawing upon the theoretical framework of moral credits and credentials, I posit that donating money allows individuals to feel as if they are accruing moral credits by which they can “pay off” any moral debts incurred through transgressing. In contrast, I posit that volunteering time allows individuals to establish moral credentials, which are specific to the domain of the charity and are not transferrable to unrelated transgressions. Across multiple experiments, I demonstrate that, following a transgression, individuals who compensate with money (versus time), by giving to an unrelated charitable cause, feel less guilty about their past misdeed and perceive the behavior to be less immoral. Conversely, when the charitable cause is related to the transgression, compensating with time or money both reduce guilt and other negative evaluations associated with the transgression similarly. These results have important implications for understanding how people regulate their moral emotions and behaviors.

Keywords: Charitable giving
Money
Moral regulation
Time
Advisor: Aggarwal, Pankaj
Using an Integrated Decision-making Framework to Identify Factors Associated with Receipt of a Fertility Consultation by Canadian Female Cancer Patients

Backgrounds: Infertility is often a distressing consequence of cancer treatment for young women who have a desire for motherhood but have not yet completed their family at the time of cancer diagnosis. Guided by the Integrated Fertility Preservation Decision-Making Framework developed in my comprehensive paper, the overarching goal of this study is to identify the factors associated with young Canadian female cancer patients having a fertility discussion with their oncologists and receiving fertility preservation services prior to commencing cancer treatment. Methods: A total of 188 young women who received a cancer diagnosis between the ages of 18 and 39 were recruited from cancer organizations, survivor networks, and digital media. Data were collected from September 2012 to June 2013 using an anonymous online survey. Results: Although the survey participants were young women in their prime childbearing years when they received their cancer diagnosis, one quarter (n=45, 23.9%) did not recall having a fertility discussion with their oncologists. Of the three quarters who had a fertility discussion (n=143, 76.1%), discussions were equally initiated by oncologists (n=71) and patients (n=72). Of the 49 women (26%) who consulted a fertility specialist to discuss their cryopreservation options, 17 underwent a fertility preservation procedure to preserve unfertilized oocytes and/or embryos; this represents only 9% of the full sample. Cancer patients who had a high degree of fertility concern at the time of cancer diagnosis had increased odds of receiving fertility services at all three decision points. The findings suggest that not only was the proactive behavior of oncologists in initiating a fertility discussion important, the qualities of the discussion were equally critical in supporting patients in their decision-making process. Conclusions: Fertility preservation in oncology is an emerging area that requires partnerships involving health providers in the areas of both oncology and reproductive medicine. This study provides insight into the process that Canadian female cancer patients use to make their fertility preservation decisions in a stressful time-pressured situation. It also explores the validity of the newly developed decision-making framework and identifies significant factors associated with the receipt of fertility consultations.

Keywords: Assisted reproduction
Cancer
Female cancer patients
Fertility
Fertility preservation
Oncology
Advisor: Esme, Fuller-Thomson
Understanding Soot Particle Growth Chemistry and Particle Sizing Using a Novel Soot Growth and Formation Model

Research efforts are focused on advancing soot modeling in laminar flames using a detailed sectional aerosol dynamic model, toward an end goal of developing a robust model applicable to a wide range of conditions. The effects of the soot coalescence process on soot particle diameter predictions are studied. Two coalescence models based on different merging mechanisms are implemented into the soot model. The models are applied to a laminar ethylene/air diffusion flame, and comparisons are made with experimental data to validate the models. The implementation of coalescence models significantly improves the agreement of prediction of particle diameters with the experimental data. A comprehensive study follows in which a function for surface reactivity of soot particles is developed to have a single model able to predict soot in many coflow ethylene/air flames. This study investigates how the surface reactivity of soot particles varies with particle thermal age. The surface reactivity function is applied to coflow diffusion flames with varying fuel/air ratios and fuel dilution, and to partially premixed coflow flames for a range of equivalence ratios. Comparisons are made with experimental data to validate the model. Good agreement is seen between numerical predictions and experimental measurements for soot volume fraction on the annular regions of the flames. The final part of this thesis explores the role of PAH-soot modeling on burner stabilized stagnation premixed flames and a coflow diffusion flame. Two chemical mechanisms are employed to model both flames. It is found that one of the mechanisms gives more accurate description of the PAH chemistry in premixed flames while the other improves the agreement of soot predictions in diffusion flames and the results and conclusion are drastically effected by the choice of PAH mechanism. An equilibrium based condensation efficiency model is developed and combined with a reversible nucleation model to predict soot formation in both premixed and nonpremixed flames. Compared to the measured data, soot PSDs are reasonably well predicted. Effects of different soot formation processes on PSD predictions are characterized. In the diffusion flame, employing a reversible nucleation model leads to a shift in onset of soot formation.

Keywords: Laminar Premixed and Diffusion Flames
Soot Coalescence
Soot Condensation
Soot Formation Modeling
Soot Nucleation
Soot Surface Growth
Advisor: Thomson, Murray J
Dworkin, Seth B
Modelling and Circuit Design for STT-MRAM

This thesis presents three research contributions in the areas of modelling, circuit-level design, and device-level design of spin-transfer-torque magnetoresistive random access memory (STT-MRAM). Accurate modelling of Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ) is critical for design of STT-MRAM and spin-logic circuits such as spin flip flops. This thesis reviews several static and dynamic models for the MTJ and compares them against a proposed model in Verilog-A model. The proposed model is used in simulating the proposed circuits and devices in the latter part of this thesis. In circuit level, we propose adding an STT-MRAM to a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) cell to produce an MRAM-backed-SRAM cell for nonvolatile Field- Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The proposed cell reduces the time to reconfigure the FPGA following power-down, and enables fast wake-ups and power-gating. With the proposed restore operation, data is recalled with no error even in the presence of mismatch. Simulation results confirm that data can be stored in the proposed cell in 80ns and restored in less than 1ns. At device level, a multi-level cell (MLC) for STT-MRAM is proposed using biaxial Magnetic Tunnel Junction (MTJ). The proposed cell consists of 1Transistor-1MTJ (1T-1MTJ) with biaxial magnetic layer to store two bits per cell. Using the four stable states of the biaxial layer, the proposed cell allows 2 bits to be stored per cell without voltage headroom limitations. Current pulses with different amplitudes are applied dur- ing write operation to switch the magnetization vector to the corresponding region. This avoids multi-step write operations required for previously proposed multi-level cells using uniaxial MTJs. On average, the simulated write speed of the proposed cell is 33% faster than that of previous work, and the proposed cell consumes 8% less power. Also, both current sensing and voltage sensing are considered for the biaxial MTJ. We show that the current sensing provides equal sense margins for comparisons with different references.

Advisor: Sheikholeslami, Ali
Defining the Mode of Medulloblastoma Growth using the Ptch1 Heterozygous Mouse Model

Single cancers can be comprised of highly heterogeneous cell populations. In brain tumours, including the malignant pediatric brain tumour medulloblastoma, how the distinct cell types that comprise a tumour contribute to growth and relapse are unclear. Transplantation of human and mouse medulloblastomas have prospectively identified cells with the cardinal stem cell properties of self-renewal and differentiation capacity, but the identity, biology and relevance of these cells in primary tumours are unknown. Here, using Ptch1 heterozygous mice irradiated at birth, I define the cellular mechanism of mouse medulloblastoma growth. Kinetic studies using thymidine analogues showed that rare, Sox2+ cells are relatively quiescent compared to the common, proliferating progenitors expressing Doublecortin (DCX) that differentiate into post-mitotic NeuN+ cells. Transplantation and lineage tracing experiments show that Sox2+ cells act as medulloblastoma stem cells: self-renewing and differentiating to drive growth in transplants and primary tumours. Lineage tracing revealed that tumours grow as a caricature of a neurogenic system. Investigating cell-type specific drug responses revealed that Sox2+ cells are selected for by anti-mitotic and Shh pathway-targeted therapies, creating a reservoir for relapse. Accordingly, high expression of a Sox2+ cell gene signature and high frequencies of Sox2+ cells in human tumours predict poor prognosis. Sox2-expressing primary medulloblastoma cultures were screened in serum free conditions in vitro to identify compounds that inhibit Sox2+ medulloblastoma cell growth. The aureolic acid mithramycin triggered Sox2+ cell apoptosis in vitro, blocked self-renewal and extended Ptch1+/- mouse survival in vivo, and completely prevented tumour regrowth in transplantation experiments. Therefore, targeting self-renewal in medulloblastoma by disrupting the stem cell hierarchy may be of therapeutic benefit. These findings confirm the hierarchical growth paradigm described for medulloblastoma based on transplantation experiments, define the biology of tumours’ constituent cell types and identify a novel approach to prolong medulloblastoma remission by targeting self-renewing cells.

Keywords: Cancer
Cancer stem cells
Medulloblastoma
Quiescence
Sox2
Stem cells
Advisor: Dirks, Peter B
Quantile Inference and Change Point Test under Time Series Non-stationarity

Recently, the non-stationary time series data attracts increased attention from researchers. The main goal of the thesis is to develop the methodologies for quantile inference and change point test under time series non-stationarity. The first part of the thesis considers the simultaneous or functional inference of time-varying quantile curves for a class of non-stationary and long memory time series. New uniform Bahadur representations and Gaussian approximation schemes are established for a wide class of non-stationary and long memory linear processes. Furthermore, an asymptotic distributional theory is developed for the maxima of a class of non-stationary long memory Gaussian processes. With the latter theoretical results, simultaneous confidence bands for the above mentioned quantile curves with asymptotically correct coverage probabilities are constructed. The second part of the thesis considers quantile structural change testing for linear models with random designs and a wide class of non-stationary regressors and errors. New uniform Bahadur representations are established with nearly optimal approximation rates. Two cusum-type test statistics, one based on the regression coefficients and the other based on the gradient vectors are considered. Two of the most frequently used change point testing procedures, pivotalization and independent wild bootstrap, are shown to be inconsistent for non-stationary time series quantile regression. In this paper, simple bootstrap methods are proposed and are proved to be consistent for regression quantile structural change detection under both abrupt and smooth non-stationarity and temporal dependence. Our bootstrap procedures are shown to have certain asymptotically optimal properties in terms of accuracy and power. Our methodology is applied to the USA real GDP series, and asymmetry of structural changes in different quantiles are found.

Keywords: Change Point Test
Long Memory
Non-stationary Time Series
Quantile Regression
Simultaneous Confidence Band
Advisor: Zhou, Zhou
Prudentius of Troyes (d. 861) and the Reception of the Patristic Tradition in the Carolingian Era

This study concerns Prudentius, bishop of Troyes (861), a court scholar, historian, and pastor of the ninth century, whose extant corpus, though relatively extensive, remains unstudied. Born in Spain in the decades following the Frankish conquest of the Spanish march, Prudentius had been recruited to the Carolingian court under Louis the Pious, where he served as a palace chaplain for a twenty year period, before his eventual elevation to the see of Troyes in the 840s. With a career that moved from the frontier to the imperial court center, then back to the local world of the diocese and environment of cathedral libraries, sacred shrines, and local care of souls, the biography of Prudentius provides a frame for synthesis of several prevailing currents in the cultural history of the Carolingian era. His personal connections make him a rare link between the generation of the architects of the Carolingian reforms (Theodulf and Alcuin) and their students (Rabanus Maurus, Prudentius himself) and the great period of fruition of which the work of John Scottus Eriugena is the most widely recogized example. His involvement in the mid-century theological controversy over the doctrine of predestination illustrates the techniques and methods, as well as the concerns and preoccupations, of Carolingian era scholars engaged in the consolidation and interpretation of patristic opinion, particularly, that of Augustine.

Keywords: Patristic
Prudentius of Troyes
Troyes
Advisor: Everett, Nicholas
Ethiopian Manuscript Culture: Practices and Contexts

The Ethiopian tradition of manuscript production, despite being the longest-lived in the Christian world, is one of the most understudied. This dissertation, based in part upon a series of field reviews conducted with scribes and manuscript craftsmen in the Ethiopian highlands between 2007 and 2011, presents information from those interviews and contextualizes it in relation to other published sources in order to describe the Ethiopian tradition in its own terms before transitioning to selected conclusions about how scholars of foreign manuscript traditions might use the Ethiopian tradition to inform their approaches to historical practices. This work is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the research approach followed in the dissertation. Chapter 2 analyzes what is known about the contexts of manuscript production in Ethiopia, with a special emphasis on interrogating the lack of surviving books from the earliest periods of Ethiopian bookmaking. Chapter 3 describes the practices of parchmenters in the Ethiopian tradition and documents their tools. Chapter 4 describes the work habits of scribes including the cutting of pens, preparation of quires, and the situation of writing. Chapter 5 relates methods and recipes for the making of inks. Chapter 6 covers the processes and tools of the book binder and decorator and includes a more complete inventory of known decorator’s tools than other studies. Chapter 7 transitions away from describing the Ethiopian tradition and focuses on what scholars of foreign manuscript traditions can learn from ethnographic parallels with documented practices. The Ethiopian tradition is continuous since at least late Antiquity, and serves as an important source for analogies to those who wish to better understand vanished historical practices.

Keywords: books
crafts
Ethiopia
ethnoarchaeology
manuscripts
scribes
Advisor: Gervers, Michael
Information Infrastructures in the Museum: Documenting, Digitizing, and Practising Ethnographic Objects in the Smithsonian’s Department of Anthropology

This dissertation investigates how documentation, categorization, and computerization affect our understanding of Indigenous cultural heritage. Perceived as authoritative documentation, museum catalogs fundamentally shape the relationship between ethnographic knowledge and cultural heritage. By examining the seemingly mundane internal mechanisms of museum work at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), this dissertation constructs an understanding of catalogs as information practices. Using the concept of “information infrastructure,” I probe the heterogeneous assemblage of material technologies and work practices that impinge upon the documentation of ethnographic objects. To compose this history of documentation, I undertook archival research, completed staff interviews, and conducted object biographies. Several theoretical models provide the framework for understanding the meaning inherent in these work practices and information systems. First, material culture knowledge is historical and arises out of epistemological standpoints that change through time. Second, the ways in which practices and technologies become embedded in the construction of object catalogs has ethical consequences. These are particularly acute when seen in the context of the repatriation of ethnographic collections to communities of origin, and I illuminate this relationship through a detailed analysis of a repatriated collection from Hoonah, Alaska. Third, the emergent and generative nature of information infrastructures comes into focus within this research. Modes of cataloging cultural objects are performed and become part of an ethnographic information infrastructure. Material technologies and epistemologies of ethnographic object description therefore mediate museum knowledges of Indigenous cultures. The construction of information infrastructures shape not merely how objects are described and documented, but also how they are exhibited and displayed, and how they contribute to public knowledge. This dissertation addresses the cultural, social, and political nature of these systems, an area of increasing research focus. Within the context of museum studies, it provides the theoretical grounding necessary to dismantle colonial rhetoric.

Keywords: catalogs
classification
digtization
infrastructure
museums
Advisor: Krmpotich, Cara
Rhodium and Palladium Catalyzed Organic Transformations in the Synthesis of Small Heterocyclic Compounds

This thesis describes new applications of rhodium and palladium catalyzed asymmetric ring-opening of strained alkenes, and subsequently, the use of rhodium and palladium catalysts in the development of multimetal-catalyzed domino reactions. The contents are divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 describes two projects in the field of asymmetric ring-opening (ARO). The first project reports the functionalization of enantioenriched ARO products through diastereoselective Friedel-crafts alkylation to obtain aryltetracyclic products. Both cis and trans products can be obtained with moderate to high regio-, diastereo- and enantioselectivities. The second project details ongoing work on the development of an enantioselective Rh-catalyzed cascade reaction, where cycloisomerization of an o-alkynylphenol affords a new vinyl-rhodium species that can undergo ARO with meso oxabicyclic alkenes. Chapter 2 describes the development of a one-pot synthesis of chiral dihydrobenzofurans which combines Rh-catalyzed ARO and Pd-catalyzed C-O cross-coupling in a one-pot reaction sequence. The product can be obtained in high yield and enantioselectivity without isolation of intermediates. Chapter 3 describes the first successful enantioselective multimetal-catalyzed domino reaction, which features Rh/chiral diene catalyzed hydroarylation of vinylpyridines, followed by Pd/phosphine catalyzed C-O cross-coupling to afford enantioenriched aza-dibenzoxepine products. Current work on developing an enantioselective Ru/Pd catalyzed reaction to access oxindoles with a quaternary stereocentre is also disclosed. Chapter 4 describes the first report of a three component, three catalyst (3C-3C) domino reaction that furnishes aza-dibenzazepines. Two routes are disclosed to access these highly functionalized heterocyclic compounds from different building blocks. A 1H NMR spectroscopy study highlights the time-resolution strategy involved in this Rh/Pd-catalyzed domino reaction.

Advisor: Lautens, Mark
Teaching Music with Keyboard Improvisation: A Pedagogical Journey Involving Four Older Adults

The life expectancy of individuals has risen in the twentieth-century, due largely to improvements in health, technology, and nutrition. Accordingly, the older adult population has been increasing rapidly and, as a result, there is a need for greater attention and emphasis to be placed on their wellbeing. Research has shown that the older adult population is interested in music learning programs where they may be given the opportunity to actively create music in group settings. However, music programs have traditionally been based on notation and reading, and this approach may not be optimal for a student entering a music learning program later in life. This research study began as an exploration of how music instruction with improvisation may impact the wellbeing, enjoyment, and confidence levels of older adults. Four older adults between the ages of 83 and 90 participated in a music learning program involving a basic curriculum and improvisation over a period of three months. Qualitative data was collected in the form of audiovisual materials, individual interviews, and through focus group sessions. Quantitative data was gathered using pre and post-test surveys to examine differences in quality of life, musical aptitude, and mood. The researcher kept a personal journal including observations of the class and reflections on the videotapes to construct a personal narrative on her experiences in a reflective approach. At the end of the study, participants showed higher levels of confidence, and demonstrated improvement in musical and improvisational achievement. Further, their levels of enjoyment during music lessons were reported at their post-study individual interviews. The results suggest that a music curriculum involving improvisation may be an effective way for older adults to engage in spontaneous creativity while enhancing their musical learning experience.

Advisor: Koga, Midori
Bartel, Lee R