VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The effect of water content on Knudsen diffusion in unconsolidated porous media

The Knudsen diffusion coefficient was measured at intermediate to high levels of water saturation for two types of porous media: silica flour, which consists of silt-sized particles, and a fine to medium silica sand. The Knudsen diffusion coefficient for the silica flour increased from 1.0 * 10-1 cm2/s to 4.4 * 10-3 cm2/s as the water saturation decreased from 82% to 54% The Knudsen diffusion coefficients for silica flour were smaller than those measured for more permeable porous media in previous studies, as expected. A comparison between the experimental Knudsen diffusion coefficients and predicted values of the corresponding effective binary diffusion coefficients indicated that diffusion in the silica flour at high saturations (>64%) would occur in the transition regime between Knudsen diffusion and molecular diffusion. Results for silica sand also indicated that Knudsen diffusion could be significant at a water saturation near 80%.
The construction of community in two ethno-culturally diverse educational settings, one Catholic and one public

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the construction of community in two ethno-culturally diverse educational settings: one Catholic and one public. A qualitative approach was employed using a combination of structured interviews with selected members from each school and general observations as the basis for data collection. The schools were examined to see in what ways their organizational structures, curriculum, pedagogical practices, evaluation methods and the peri-curriculum exhibited characteristics associated with Tonnies' community of place, friendship and mind and with the neo-liberal, communitarian and critical socio-political perspectives used in this analysis. Although both schools faced similar challenges and employed similar means of promoting community-building, the effects of their actions did not always result in similar outcomes. The experience of these two secondary schools illustrates that perhaps no "ideal" or pure neo-liberal, communitarian or critical community may exist, but instead, secondary schools may exhibit different aspects of these types of communities in varying degrees. As a result, each school creates its own unique type of community. Evidence from both schools reveals that in diverse educational settings, a critical community of mind may be the most effective and socially just community for arousing a spirit of association, as well as for preparing students and teachers to live and work in a highly competitive, diverse and sophisticated society. However, a critical community of mind challenges current practices and proposed reforms by broadening the purpose of schooling such that it expands people's minds about the human experience, develops critical thinking and engages students in the larger questions of the day.
Displacement and self-representation, theorizing contemporary Canadian biotexts

This study focuses on Canadian writers who choose to frame their questions about cultural difference and national belonging within the context of writing about their own lives and their own personal experiences of displacement. Its particular emphasis is on texts like Michael Ondaatje's 'Running in the Family', Daphne Marlatt's 'Ghost Works', Roy Kiyooka's 'Mothertalk', and Fred Wah's 'Diamond Grill ' that use a range of innovative textual strategies as a way of actively working through these questions, rather than merely seeking to reflect or represent them. Although all four writers deal explicitly with minority subjectivity and its representation within a Canadian literary context, it is their self-consciousness about how to parlay this material into textual form that initially sets them apart as a group. The first chapter looks at where the term "biotext" comes from and how, as a language "event," it is related to the contestatory long poem written in Canada in the 1960s and '70s. This chapter suggests that authors of the biotext combine aspects of autobiography with a commitment to a process poetics in order to negotiate what Stuart Hall calls the practice of "cultural recovery." Chapter 2 examines how, by beginning to tease out the various layers of his own displaced self, Ondaatje sets out a number of the challenges that the other three works actively take up. Chapter 3 shows how Marlatt's growing awareness of her own gendered self adds to her feelings of displacement and alienation from language as she documents her travels throughout 'Ghost Works'. The subject of Chapter 4, Roy Kiyooka's 'Mothertalk', exemplifies, from yet another angle, the complexities of writing cultural memory and exploring self-representation because of the ways the same life stories get filtered through different sets of lenses. Chapter 5 explores how by claiming the space of the hyphen, Wah rejects both the delimiting claims of the ethnic as well as the claims of the nation. The final chapter suggests that these biotexts facilitate an illuminating examination of the complex relationships between language, place, and self, and the multiple ways that these relationships are manifested in textual form.
A qualitative analysis of how experts use and interpret the Kinetic School Drawing technique

Three expert clinicians were interviewed about their Kinetic School Drawing (KSD) interpretation methods. A sample KSD picture was given to the experts and three non-experts to analyze. Variation in the experts' analyses and differences in the experts and non-experts interpretation methods were seen. Similar picture elements are analyzed by the experts. They look at interpersonal relationships, detail, picture style, and age appropriate drawing behaviour. Pictures are also analyzed globally. Data concerning the processes involved in generating and substantiating picture hypotheses was also uncovered. Results of this study indicate that the process of interpretation used by the experts are multi-faceted, and dynamic. Current empirical studies and interpretation guidelines do not adequately address this procedure. Non-expert usage of this tool is cautioned. Training and supervision are required in order to achieve competent and accurate use of this procedure.
Adenovirus-p53 Gene Therapy in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Xenografts

Overexpression of the tumor suppressor protein p53 with an adenoviral vector carrying the 'p53' gene (Ad-'p53') has been used successfully in other reports as an anticancer therapeutic ' in vitro' and following intratumoral injection 'in vivo'. Further, this therapeutic strategy has been combined with radiation in animal tumor models, with resultant enhanced radiosensitivity observed. We were interested in examining the impact of Ad-'p53' on the radiocurability of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Several techniques were used in this thesis to examine the 'in vivo' transduction efficiency achieved following intratumoral injection of an adenoviral vector carrying the 'lacZ' gene (Ad-ß-gal). NPC tumor cross-sections and tumor whole mounts were stained with the ß-gal substrate X-Gal, and some tumors were stained with the fluorescent ß-gal substrate FDG. The results and limitations determined for each technique will be discussed. As well, data from therapeutic experiments combining Ad-'p53' and ionizing radiation in NPC xenografts will be presented.
Effects of Na§+ channel blockers on functional neurological recovery and tissue preservation after experimental spinal cord injury

'Introduction'. Cellular toxicity and the degeneration of myelinated axons following traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) have been associated with increased intracellular sodium via persistent activation of voltage-sensitive Na+ channels. Attenuation of acute secondary SCI pathophysiology and functional deficits has been demonstrated with therapeutic blockers of these channels; however, their effects on long-term recovery remain unclear. 'Methods'. To determine the effectiveness of Na + channel blockers on long-term tissue sparing and functional neurological recovery after traumatic SCI, adult rats were randomly and blindly assigned to receive a single intraperitoneal injection of either riluzole (5 mg/kg); phenytoin (30 mg/kg); CNS5546A, a novel pharmacological compound with sodium channel blocking capabilities (15 mg/kg); or vehicle (2-HPßCD) as a control (5 mg/kg), 15 minutes after a 53g clip compression SCI at C7/T1. Clinical neurological recovery of motor behavior was assessed 1 week post-injury and weekly thereafter for 6 weeks, with the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan expanded locomotor rating scale (BBB) and inclined plane (IP) techniques. Seven weeks post-injury, digital morphometry of the lesion and quantitation of neurons in the midbrain and brainstem retrogradely labeled by fluorogold were used to assess the preservation of residual tissue and integrity of descending axons, respectively. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Optimal designs for the detection of drug interaction

Methods of statistical inference are developed which can be used to test the hypothesis of dose additivity at a specified dose combination, given that one has access to binary dose-response data collected from an experiment where two drugs are administered in varying doses to a group of subjects. The distributional properties of the estimate of the interaction parameter in a bivariate logistic dose-response model are also investigated, via simulation studies. Using the principles of optimal design theory for nonlinear dose-response models, design measures are constructed which minimize various criteria related to the precision with which one can quantify the degree of interaction between two drugs. Given that one is allowed to choose from dose combinations such that the associated probability of response under the hypothesis of dose additivity is equal to a given constant, the associated optimal design measures have three support points; these designs may also be implemented for the purpose of conducting nonparametric tests for synergy at specified dose combinations. Given that one is allowed to choose from dose combinations located within a general two-dimensional dose space, the associated optimal design measures are typically constructed using iterative procedures. Bayesian and minimax approaches to optimal design construction are also considered, and methods are proposed by which one can construct designs which are robust to possible misspecifications of the initial estimates of the parameters in the associated dose-response model.
Mechanical properties of fiber reinforced concrete with ACM applications

This thesis presents an experimental study of the mechanical response of various types of fiber reinforced concrete, tested under triaxial compression and bending. The objective was to characterize the constitutive properties of these materials, with respect to fiber type and content, load path, condition at testing, and size. A total of 256 tests were performed, on specimens made of concrete with the following fiber types and contents (volumetric ratio): steel micro-fibers 1% and 2%, mix of steel micro-fibers and steel fibers 1% and 2%, polypropylene fibers 1.5% and 4%, and mix of steel micro-fibers and polypropylene fibers 2.5% and 5%. Triaxial stresses were applied either by hydraulic pressure, or by means of passive confinement, which was provided by means of carbon fiber wraps. The results were used to quantify the influences induced by the various fiber components, and provide insight on the effectiveness of confinement provided by carbon fiber wraps.
Plato's jurisprudence, the goals of wise legislation in Plato's Laws

This dissertation provides a new interpretation of Plato's teaching concerning the goals of wise legislation in the first three books of the 'Laws. ' Moreover, it argues that this teaching shows that the early modern critique of classical political philosophy is not so decisive as it is commonly believed to be. For it provides the authentic interpretation, which is also a qualification, of the allegedly utopian classical thesis that virtue is the proper goal of political life. According to it, politics at its best cannot promote genuine human virtue, but merely a kind of crude approximation of it; and efforts to promote this must be combined with and to some extent compromised by the pursuit of other reasonable political goals, e.g., civil peace and national security. Finally, the dissertation argues that this part of the ' Laws' helps clarify the theoretical foundations of classical political philosophy. It contends that in order to supply a truly scientific foundation for its account of human life and the world, classical political philosophy attempted to prove the unreality of divine revelation. And it finds in the first part of the 'Laws' an indication of how it attempted to do so: namely, by demonstrating that the belief in revelation rests on an unnatural condition, on a lack of clarity about moral political subjects. The dissertation does not settle the question of whether or not it succeeded, nor the question of how the Biblical revelations affect its results. But it suggests that Plato's approach to the problem of revelation is superior to that of the philosophers of the Enlightenment.
A cross-sectional study of the efficacy of a supervised excerise program in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis

The Prevention and Rehabilitation of Osteoporosis Program (PRO) was introduced at The Rehabilitation Institute of Toronto (RIT) in 1983. The present study consisted of an evaluation of the RIT program based on a 5-year follow-up of 89 patients that were enrolled in the program. Potential differences in clinical outcomes were examined in a group of patients who attended a supervised (n = 42) program compared to a group who chose to exercise on their own (n = 49). Both groups were similar at study entry, in BMD measurements of the lumbar spine and femoral neck (Hosp. 73.6 $\pm$ 11.8, 74.0 $\pm$ 12, Home 74.7 $\pm$ 10.4, 74.0 $\pm$ 8.4). Both groups were able to stabilize BMD in the lumbar spine and femoral neck over the course of the five-year follow-up. Both groups had a reduction in the incidence of fracture. This study adds weight to the call for post-menopausal women to engage in exercise.
Flibanserin, a mixed 5-HT¦1¦A agonist /5-HT¦2¦A antagonist, decreases palatable food intake in operant and non-operant feeding paradigms in rats

The present research examined the effects of flibanserin, a serotonin (5-HT)1A agonist and 5-HT2A antagonist, in operant and non-operant models of sucrose feeding in rats. Five days of intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections of filbanserin 5 mg/kg produced a significant reduction in the free-intake of sucrose. In operant experiments where rats were required to lever press for sucrose on a progressive ratio schedule, acute flibanserin 15 mg/kg, as well as acute and repeated (13-day) fluoxetine 10 mg/kg, produced a significant reduction in the break point for sucrose reinforcement. Neither flibanserin 5 mg/kg nor fluoxetine 10 mg/kg produced profound effects on locomotor activity. The finding of decreased sucrose intake with flibanserin is consistent with the widely accepted view that enhanced serotonin neurotransmission causes a reduction in food intake and, given flibanserin's mechanism of action, provides preliminary evidence that post-synaptic 5-HT1A receptors are involved in mediating this hypophagic effect.
Racialized bodies, the social construction of black identities in popular cinema

This thesis is a qualitative study of the social construction of black identities in contemporary popular cinema, specifically the hood genre. Through the use of content analysis, this project critical interrogates representations of blackness in the hood genre as an essentialized construct. Within the master narrative of this genre, the inner city, drugs, gang culture, maleness and compulsive heterosexuality are the defining signifiers of blackness. This thesis implicates the hood genre as a pedagogical, discursive and ideological site where racialized identities are reproduced and regulated. Furthermore, this project crisscrosses a wide range of theoretical disciplines and critical pedagogical practices, which includes Sociology, Cultural Studies, Integrative Anti-racism, Feminist, Queer studies and Post Modernism. At the same time it is also interested in transformation, through critical pedagogy. By exploring issues and questions of representation and re-representation within the genre of third/independent cinema, this project attempts to rupture common-sensical notions of blackness through the production of counter narratives.
The design and evaluation of a two-handed drawing program

This thesis describes the design of a two-handed drawing program, T4, which explores the extent to which a range of two-handed techniques can provide an alternative to the traditional graphical user interface. T4 builds upon the foundation laid by the T3 system (Kurtenbach, Fitzmaurice, Baudel, Buxton 1997), which enumerated three design goals for this interface paradigm: keep the users' attention on their work, maximise screen used for artwork, and increase the quality of input. We describe the integration of a range of techniques, new and old, that aim to fulfil these goals. We also conduct a user study, which suggests that these techniques are readily learnable, integrate smoothly, and provide a viable alternative to traditional techniques. In particular, we find the digital-tape, A-Line, and Graffiti techniques to be compelling possibilities. The other techniques (keypad, slicing, ' Ligne Claire', and a selecting Magic Lens) show substantial benefits, but could benefit from further research. To conclude, we present a possible improvement to the Toolglass, which addresses user feedback, called the 'On-Demand Toolglass'.
Least-squares electromagnetic analysis of thin dielectrics using surface equivalence

In this thesis, the motivation was to study the applicability and test the limits of analytical formulations using surface equivalence, in dealing with the scattering problem of a thin dielectric slab of finite extent. In this application of the surface equivalence principle, the unknowns, equivalent surface electric and magnetic currents, are established using the method of moments. Described herein, in order to solve for the unknowns, are four new numerical techniques called LSM, CLSM, CLSM+RCA and CWLSM+RCA, employed to deal with the radar cross section (RCS) of electromagnetic wave scattering from thin dielectric slabs, for different thicknesses in three dimensions. The designations, LSM, CLSM, CLSM+RCA and CWLSM+RCA stand for least squares method, constrained least squares method, constrained least squares method plus ring current approximation and constrained weighted least squares method plus ring current approximation, respectively. The least squares method is utilized in the new numerical techniques, providing a better solution in the null region of the RCS than the combined field integral equation (CFIE). The new numerical techniques employ surface distributions of equivalent currents, thus in principle requiring less computer memory than those employing volume distributions of current density. Moreover, there is no need to worry about how nearly perfect should be the absorbing boundary condition (ABC) that is used in the finite difference time domain technique (FDTD). Further, in this work, the importance of the equivalent surface currents flowing on the edge of a thin slab (which are referred to as 'ring currents') has been identified. The new techniques also show fast convergence for the particularly challenging case of edge-on wave incidence, even when the slab is as thin as 0.001 [lambda]0 ([lambda]0 is wavelength in free space). In particular, the CLSM+RCA and CWLSM+RCA analyses have been validated by experiments for the case of backward RCS, these experiments showing good agreement with the analyses. For edge-on incidence, the bistatic RCS predicted by CLSM+RCA is also compared with a simulation from a simple approximation: the simulation shows qualitative similarity to CLSM+RCA, but the quantitative differences of up to 10 dB indicate that use of the new methods can be significantly beneficial.
Influence of TIMP-1 on cellular adhesion and maintenance of genomic fidelity

Extracellular proteolysis plays a major role in regulating various cellular processes. Imbalance between metalloproteinases (MMPs) and the tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) can affect extracellular proteolysis and facilitate tumorigenesis. Using a series of transfected fibroblast lines, up- or down-regulated for TIMP-1, we tested whether TIMP-1 affected two aspects of cellular processes: (1) cell adhesion and (2) maintenance of genomic stability. Reduced TIMP-1 levels resulted in a more compact morphology and conversely elevated TIMP-1 levels led to the formation of loose monolayered colonies. When TIMP-1 down-regulated line LA1 was treated with recombinant or synthetic MMP inhibitor, cellular adhesion was re-established to a level comparable to the parental line. Furthermore, LA1 cells had reduced adhesions at focal contacts and cadherin-mediated cell-cell junctions. The adhesive properties were restored upon treatment with the MMP inhibitor. However, TIMP-1 reduction in vitro did not affect the maintenance of genetic integrity. The normal and TIMP-1 down-regulated lines showed no difference in the frequency of gene amplification and microsatellite mutations.
An examination of the barriers to articulation agreements between colleges and universities in Ontario

This descriptive qualitative study examines the current barriers to articulation agreements between colleges and universities in Ontario. Interviews were conducted with Presidents and Vice-Presidents, Academic at all colleges and universities in the province, as well as with Deans at some colleges and universities in areas selected to represent the entire province. A six-question open-ended survey was conducted by telephone interview by the researcher. Analysis of the data revealed that there are 21 themes of barriers, the most obvious being attitudes; 14 themes of reasons for the barriers, the most obvious being the monopoly status of Ontario Universities; and 17 themes of responses for what needs to occur to prompt change of the current situation, with government policy and funding incentive the most obvious themes. Respondents also discussed the types of agreements currently in place and the process by which those agreements were negotiated. Finally, summative comments were provided by the respondents. From these results it was concluded that there are perceived barriers, as well as actual barriers to articulation agreements; that people operate under the perceived barriers; that the proximity of colleges and universities does not appear to influence articulation agreements, and that some government intervention is necessary to encourage progress. The barriers which were identified in the study, the reasons for the barriers and suggestions for change, as well as conclusions and implications are examined in this study.