VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Cell surface characterization of neural stem cells and brain tumour stem cells

The cell surface marker CD133 has been used to identify and isolate brain tumour stem cells (BTSCs) from primary tumour specimens. While CD133 enriches for BTSCs, it does not definitively purify. This body of work summarizes our results of using FACS-based purification strategies to subdivide and purify CD133+ BTSCs. We have investigated the use of various cell surface markers for their ability to enrich for neural stem cells (NSCs) from mouse embryonic forebrain and human foetal central nervous system (CNS) tissues. We demonstrate that CD15 and CD44 can be used in conjunction to enrich for a highly proliferative, neurosphere-initiating subset of cells from the embryonic mouse forebrain. Furthermore, we demonstrate that CD15 can be used to further enrich CD133+ human foetal CNS-derived cells. Analysis of human brain tumour specimens demonstrates that these markers can subdivide the CD133+ fraction of BTSCs and warrants their use as potential markers for purification.
The protection of indigenous and tribal culture in developing countries

This thesis examines the role copyright law can play in the protection, promotion and preservation of expressions of folklore in developing countries. Studying two alternative modes of protection; copyright and 'sui generis ' legislation, I conclude that while the latter is more accommodating of non-economic interests, copyright is better suited to promoting the economic interests of rights-holders, especially in the context of globalization. Given the extreme socio-economic marginalization of indigenous and tribal communities in developing countries, copyright can help communities exploit the economic potential of some aspects of folklore, if they so choose. Denying copyright in folklore, even failing to expressly recognize expressions of folklore as copyrightable, could place indigenous communities and/or artists at a serious disadvantage in the global market for cultural products. This does not preclude governments from implementing 'sui generis' regimes within their countries that specifically address indigenous and tribal communities' non-economic interests in expressions of folklore more effectively. (p. II).

Keywords: Copyright, Developing countries
Indigenous peoples, Legal status, laws, etc
Indigenous peoples, Developing countries
Cultural property, Protection
Cultural property, Developing countries
Folklore, Developing countries
Establishing a physical fitness screening protocol for Correctional Officer applicants in accord with the Supreme Court of Canada's Meiorin Decision on bona fide occupational requirements

Pre-employment physical abilities tests (PEPATs) have been utilized in physically demanding safety-related occupations for over three decades. In 1999, the Supreme Court of Canada's Meiorin Decision imposed definitive requirements for a PEPAT to qualify as a bona fide occupational requirement (BFOR). This led to the suspension of the existing PEPAT in Correctional Officer (CO) applicants. A National BFOR Consensus Forum established a template for the development, validation and evaluation of BFORs. The purpose of the present research was to develop a PEPAT for CO applicants to conform to the template of the BFOR Forum and comply with the Meiorin requirements. A physical demands analysis (PDA) involving 190 incumbent COs provided a rank-ordered list of the most important, most physically demanding and frequently occurring tasks encountered on the job by COs. A physiological characterization while these tasks were being performed by safe and efficient incumbent female COs, confirmed their high physical demands (VO 2 = 39.5 ± 4.3 ml·kg -1 ·min -1, HR = 177+11 bpm) and provided the criterion-based forces and aerobic fitness to control and restrain inmates (Wrist Hold = 71±14 kg, Arm Restraint/Retraction = 82±18 kg, Push/Pull =101±15 kg). The "Fitness Screening Protocol for Correctional Officer Applicants" (FIT CO) incorporated the on-the-job tasks from the PDA and the criterion forces. A physiological assessment and the ratings of subject matter experts confirmed the high validity of the FIT CO . Test-retest reliability (ICC = .997) was also demonstrated to be very high. FIT CO performance standards were established from the completion times of safe and efficient incumbent female COs. Although the FIT CO had no adverse impact on the pass rates of incumbent female COs, it was found that it could have an adverse impact on female CO applicants . This necessitated a consideration of accommodation. A training program was therefore undertaken with 40 general population females which resulted in an increased FIT CO pass rate from 32.5% to 82.5 %. This demonstrated that physical training provided the accommodation necessary to ameliorate any potential adverse impact. The FIT CO conforms to the BFOR Forum template and complies with the Meiorin requirements to qualify as a BFOR.

Keywords: Medicine, Industrial
Physiology
Improving the area efficiency of heterogeneous FPGAs with shadow clusters

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) serve the microchip market for designs that need to be created quickly, in small volume, or that need to be updated in the field. FPGAs have not taken over the market for large capacity, high-volume Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) since the FPGA cost is too high. This cost is mainly due to the large area gap between FPGAs and ASICs. One approach to improve the area efficiency of FPGAs is with the inclusion of hard "specific" circuits on the FPGA fabric. These circuits can implement functionality in designs in less silicon area, at a faster speed, and with less power consumption compared to implementing the same functionality in the programmable elements of an FPGA. Common examples include hard multipliers and hard memories. The fundamental question in FPGA architecture research is determining which hard circuits to include on an FPGA. Every included hard circuit needs to be used and provide a benefit to the range of designs mapped to FPGAs. In this work, we seek to improve the utilization of hard circuits on FPGAS to make these devices more area efficient. To do this we develop an architecture concept called "shadow clusters" that combines the programmable aspect of an FPGA with a hard circuit such that a hard circuit and its routing resources can always be used. In the best case we measured, it improves the FPGA area efficiency by 12.5%. We combine shadow clusters with less popular hard circuits, such as a crossbar, that haven't been included on industrial FPGAs because designs in the target market do not sufficiently target these hard circuits to justify their inclusion. Shadow clusters significantly change the area impact of these hard circuits making these FPGAs more area efficient and more likely to be included on industrial FPGAs. We also explore the algorithms in the flow that maps designs to FPGAs with hard circuits. The goal is to efficiently map designs to FPGAs with hard circuits and to maximize their utilization where these algorithms are designed to flexibly and efficiently target a wide range of hard circuits on FPGAs.
Optimal structural topology design for multiple load cases with stress constraints

The present research deals with structural topology optimization for multiple load cases. The problem is approached from a min-max perspective by applying the Kreisselmeier-Steinhauser function to the objectives corresponding to the individual load cases. It is shown that this method can be used to obtain results that are superior to those generated using other approaches. The study also investigates the plausibility of constraining the maximum local stress for multiple load cases using a single constraint defined as the Kreisselmeier-Steinhauser aggregate of the local stress values for a given load case. Results indicate that this formulation can be effective when used alone as well as in combination with stiffness constraints. Lastly, a new, two-phase algorithm for mesh-refinement is introduced. When used in combination with nine-node Lagrange elements, this refinement strategy can produce smooth, well-defined topologies and reduce hinges with minimal computational expense.

Keywords: Structural optimization
Topology
Towards a knowledge base for the preparation of urban and inner-city teachers: a social justice approach

“Towards a knowledge base for the preparation of urban and inner-city teachers: A social justice approach” was a study founded on the premise that such a knowledge base could be articulated and taught, and that concerns for social justice should be at its core. The primary research question for this study was: What do teachers need to know, and be able to do, in order to be effective in urban and inner-city settings? In addition, there were three underlying sub-questions: Is teaching in cities different than teaching in suburban or rural areas? Should teacher education programs be contextualized? and Is the knowledge base for urban and inner-city teaching distinct? Praxis research is the broad research program within which the study is situated and the research design can best be described as interpretive case study. The collective knowledge of the participants related to the preparation of teachers for the children in their communities was the unit of analysis for the purpose of theory building. In an effort to conceptualize a social justice approach to teacher preparation, multiple social justice theories and key themes found in the work of Michel Foucault, Stuart Hall, Nancy Fraser and Iris Marion Young were explored, resulting in a theoretical framework that identifies social justice as representation and recognition of difference. Data were collected from fifty-two individuals who live and work within urban and inner-city communities in Southern Ontario in Canada, and Western New York in the United States. Participants included school administrators, pre- and in-service teachers, paraeducators, parents and community agency workers. Their knowledge, ideas, opinions and beliefs about teaching students from primarily low socio-economic status groups with diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds are represented in the findings. This dissertation articulates the types of knowledge, skill and teacher characteristics that a social justice approach to teacher preparation could help develop in teacher candidates, and by extension, makes recommendations for how teacher training and the work of teacher educators might be changed to support the learning process.

Keywords: Education, Urban
Children with social disabilities, Education
Teachers of children with social disabilities
Children of minorities, Education
Ecological interface design for petrochemical process control: integrating task- and system-based approaches

Abnormal events in petrochemical plants cost the industry billions of dollars annually. In part, these events are difficult to deal with because current interfaces do not adequately inform operators about the state of the process. Ecological human-machine interfaces use a system-based analysis to identify higher-level process functions that should be presented in the operator interface. Several laboratory simulator studies have shown that, in comparison with contemporary interfaces, ecological interfaces can lead to faster fault detection, more accurate root-cause diagnosis, and more effective control responses. However, ecological interfaces differ from more traditional human centered interfaces that use a task-based analysis to inform the design process. In this dissertation, the first ecological interface for an industrial system to integrate both system- and task-based information was designed and implemented. A second ecological interface was created, drawing exclusively from the traditional system-based analyses. The process of integrating the two types of analyses and using them to inform the designs is discussed. Professional operators used the novel interfaces in an industrial petrochemical process simulator to monitor for, diagnose, and respond to several types of process events. Operators using the traditional ecological interfaces completed trials more quickly and executed fewer control actions than their counterparts using current process displays. Operators using the integrated (task- and system-based) ecological interface also showed these benefits, and in addition, showed improved fault diagnoses and better performance scores. The implications and opportunities for introducing ecological interfaces into industrial control rooms are discussed.
Gender, class and ethnicity in the organization of neighbourhood and nation: the role of Toronto's settlement houses in the formation of the Canadian state, 1902 to 1914

This thesis explores the development of Toronto's settlement movement from the turn of the century to the advent of World War One. The movement in Toronto originally evolved out of the desire of some citizens, most of whom were well educated young women, to help improve the lives of the poor. Settlement organizers and their staffs wanted to reconnect the ‘masses’ with the ‘classes,’ and to (re)create a cooperative community in which individuals worked to benefit their neighbours and to develop themselves. The movement was founded on the belief that charity only sustained and perhaps even augmented inter-class fears and misunderstandings. Far better, settlement workers maintained, for educated middle-class women and men to help the poor and the immigrant by offering leadership, practical services, and inspiring models—in short, by providing what were considered to be the tools of self-help in the early twentieth century. Settlement work was focused on citizenship training. Through their clubs and classes, and through the services they extended to their neighbourhoods, settlement workers sought to inculcate their clientele with democratic ideals and the norms of class and gender relations in a capitalist state. But the settlements were also intent on implanting within the middle class an ideal of cooperative citizenship, which demanded that those who possessed wealth and education should act, in a very personal way, as leaders in their communities. The essence of the movement was a belief in the interdependence of all members of a community. The thesis argues that Toronto's settlement movement influenced the formation of the Canadian state in two important ways: it helped to create prototypical approaches to poverty and to the assimilation of non-Anglo-Celtic immigrants - many of which were later institutionalized within the state system; and it provided both settlement workers and their clients with the opportunity to modify relations of class, gender and ethnicity. Through these means settlement workers, benefactors and clients contributed to Canadian state formation at both the institutional and the ideological levels. Ultimately, the thesis presents Toronto's settlement house movement as a crucible for a developing ideology of citizenship.

Keywords: Social settlements, History
Social settlements, Ontario
Working class, Education
Working class, Ontario
Immigrants, Education
Immigrants, Ontario
Community organization, History
Community organization, Ontario
Women in community organization, History
Women in community organization, Ontario
Design of photoisomerizable amino acids and their incorporation into biological peptides and enzymes

This thesis describes the development and design of photoisomerizable peptides and proteins. Enzymes containing photoisomerizable amino acids or peptide segments could be used to study cellular processes, control or modify enzymatic cascade systems, or switch substrate specificity in a catalytic system. A family of photoisomerizable amino acids based on the photochromophore azobenzene were synthesized: phenylazophenylalanine (PAP), phenylazo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-3-isoquinolinecarboxylic acid (PATIC), p-carboxy-phenylazophenylalanine (CPAP), and p-carboxyphenylazo-C-ethylamide phenylalanine (CPAPea). The amino acids were designed with N-alpha-fluoroxymethyl (Fmoc) protection to facilitate Fmoc-based solid phase synthesis. The photoisomerizable S'-peptides were used to develop photo-regulated RNase S analogues. We performed kinetic analyses of RNase S analogues containing PAP in positions 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 13, PATIC in position 11, and CPAP in positions 2 and 11. For an enzyme containing a single photoisomerizable residue, the maximum extent of photo-conversion (approximately 96% trans 14% cis for the dark-adapted system and 10% trans/90% cis under irradiated conditions) sets a limit on the maximum change in initial rate of sim;25-fold, if the cis form is the more active isomer, and sim;10-fold if the trans form is more active. The results suggest that photoisomerization could substantially alter enzyme kinetic constants, but that a different approach might be required for realizing maximal photo-control in such systems. Photoisomerizable residues were incorporated into a number of polypeptide sequences including the RNase S-peptide sequence (S'-peptides), a peptide with strong helical propensity (the DAJ1 peptide), and a peptide based on a mini-protein motif (the BBAzo peptide). The properties of the photoisomerizable residues (PAP, PATIC, CPAP, and CPAPea) were characterized following incorporation into polypeptide sequences to determine physical properties of the residues in an aqueous environment. Structural investigations were carried out on photoisomerizable peptides using circular dichroism spectroscopy, molecular modeling and two dimensional NMR. The effect of photoisomerization on the helix content of modified S-peptides and the DAJ1 peptide were analyzed and changes in structural stability were studied in the photoisomerizable BBAzo peptide.
Time to treatment for new rheumatoid arthritis patients in a major metropolitan city

Objectives. To determine the percentage of RA patients that are treated with DMARDs within 3 months of symptom onset, where the delays occur and contributing factors. Methods. A retrospective cohort study in which RA patients participated in a telephone survey and chart review. The percentage of patients treated within 3 months of symptoms was determined along with median times for delay. Factors contributing to delay were explored. Results: 204 patients were included. 22.6% (95% CI 16.8%, 28.3%) received DMARDs within 3 months of symptoms. The median time from to DMARD was 6.4 months (IQR 3.3, 12.0). Higher baseline SJCs (OR=1.07, 95%CI 1.02, 1.12) resulted in earlier care. Conclusion. Fewer than 25% of RA patients were treated within 3 months of symptoms. Identification of inflammatory arthritis and referral to rheumatologists are the key factors in timely care. Further research is needed to identify the main reasons for delays to rheumatologist.
Entangled modernities: feminism, Islamization and citizenship in a transnational locale women and the Pakistan nation-state

This thesis undertakes a feminist deconstructive reading of the discourses of state-sponsored Islamization and the feminist response to it in an attempt to answer the question: What does it “mean” to be a “woman” and a “citizen” in Pakistan at this juncture? Going beyond the ontological and universalist liberal debates usually evoked by this question, I examine how social and political contexts are discursively constituted to both obfuscate and enable the possibilities of subject-production. Noting that citizenship and human rights have become the major demands of activists in Pakistan, I seek to map how contemporary configurations of local and global entail the assertion of particularly problematic notions of citizenship and rights. Theoretically, the thesis is an attempt to locate feminist and Islamist discourses of citizenship and human rights in Pakistan within the conditions of transnationality and diaspora as explicated by postcolonial scholars who have differently broadened these terms to include not just population movements, migrant labour and settlement but also global financial, political and cultural relations. Neither a social history of Islamization nor of the “women's movement” in Pakistan, this thesis attempts to investigate a wide range of practices that are divided into the political, legal, economic and social spheres and their intrication with transnational relations of power. It therefore draws from a variety of theoretical perspectives including feminist theory, poststructuralism, critical cultural studies, Marxist theory and Foucault's ideas of power and governmentality, in order to question the notions of the public and private, politics and culture that are entangled with the issues of citizenship in Pakistan. By contextualizing both Islamization and oppositional discourses within the historical, economic and social context of national politics, and global economic and political conditions, I attempt to bring into conceptual scrutiny a fundamentally different “problem-space” in which issues relating to women, Islam and democracy are staged in Pakistan and to problematize the demands this places on critical theory.

Keywords: Women, Social conditions
Women, Pakistan
Women, Social aspects
Women, Pakistan
Women, Social aspects
Feminism, Religious aspects
Muslim women, Pakistan
Women, Legal statues, laws, etc. (Islam)
Women, Pakistan
The relationships among perceptions of healthcare quality culture, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment among teaching hospital nurses

Objective. This study investigates the relationships among perceptions of healthcare quality culture, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment among teaching hospital nurses. Design. Secondary data analysis. Methods. Primary data were collected from staff nurses by mail surveys in four Toronto, Canada teaching hospitals (n = 1327). Healthcare quality culture was measured using the 6 subscales of the Quality in Action instrument developed at the University of Toronto. Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment Scales were adapted from existing measures. Results and major findings. All of the Quality in Action scales were significantly and positively correlated with Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment. Management Style had the largest correlations. Conclusion. The results suggest that perceptions of healthcare quality culture are related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment among nurses. Management Style is particularly important in this relationship and hospital managers need to understand how their activities may affect nurses' evaluations of their jobs.