VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
A Study of Fraudulent Migratory Marriages in Canada and India

This thesis focuses on Fraudulent migratory marriages by discussing two paradigms of such marriages, the Abandoned Brides Problem in India and the Fraudulent Immigration Marriages or Marriages of Convenience in Canada. It highlights some of the socio-economic and legal problems that may arise in these migratory marriages and explores the various legal solutions proposed as solutions to them. The solutions offered in these two instances require changes in two different areas of law, the first being Private International Law and the second Immigration Law.

Keywords: Fraudulent Immigration Marriages
Advisor: Cossman, Brenda
Performance of Full-rate Full-diversity Space-time Codes Under Quantization and Channel Estimation Error

In this work, we investigate the performance of full-rate full-diversity space-time codes (FRFD-STCs) under practical conditions. In this thesis, we first discuss the performance of FRFD-STCs in the moderate SNR region. We also compare FRFD-STCs with spatial multiplexing, using the same transmission rate, for both un-coded and coded systems. The results show that spatial multiplexing is as good as FRFD-STCs with channel coding. Secondly, we investigate the issue of quantization, i.e. the effect of the quantization error in the space-time encoding matrix. Our analysis and results show that the performance loss is negligible. Finally, we propose two receiver structures in the presence of imperfect channel state information (CSI). The two receivers use the VEM module as the channel estimator and MIMO detector respectively. Both receivers are of low complexity, and have better performance than the methods proposed previously.

Keywords: FRFD
STC
VEM
Advisor: Lim, Teng Joon
The BMPRII Tail Domain Modulates the Magnitude of BMP7 Signalling

BMPRII, a BMP type II receptor, plays an important role in regulating diverse biological events. BMPRII contains a long carboxyl tail domain, which is highly conserved among vertebrate species. The tail domain has been shown to regulate cytoskeleton remodeling, whereas the function in regulating canonical BMP signalling is not well studied. Here, I show that the BMPRII tail domain reduces the magnitude of BMP7-induced pSmad1 activation in the early stage, which also changes the magnitude of BMP target gene expression. Furthermore, my data also suggest that the BMPRII tail not only modulates BMP7-induced Smad1 carboxyl terminal phosphorylation, but also inhibits endogenous BMP signalling under overexpression conditions. Finally, BMP7 promotes Neuro2a neurite extension and I demonstrate that knockdown of BMPRII affects BMP7 induced neurite outgrowth. Altogether, these studies demonstrate that the BMPRII tail may play a role in regulating responsiveness to BMP7, and thereby modulates BMP7 dependent neurite extension in neuronal cells.

Keywords: BMPRII
Bone morphogenetic protein
Advisor: Attisano, Liliana
High Frequency Trading in a Regime-switching Model

One of the most famous problem of finding optimal weight to maximize an agent's expected terminal utility in finance literature is Merton's optimal portfolio problem. Classic solution to this problem is given by stochastic Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman Equation where we briefly review it in chapter 1. Similar idea has found many applications in other finance literatures and we will focus on its application to the high-frequency trading using limit orders in this thesis. In [1], major analysis using the constant volatility arithmetic Brownian motion stock price model with exponential utility function is described. We re-analyze the solution of HJB equation in this case using different asymptotic expansion. And then, we extend the model to the regime-switching volatility model to capture the status of market more accurately.

Keywords: High Frequency
Regime Switching
Advisor: Jaimungal, Sebastian
Cognitive Variability in High-functioning Individuals & its Implications for the Practice of Clinical Neuropsychology

Knowledge of the literature pertaining to patterns of performance in normal individuals is essential if we are to understand intraindividual variability in neurocognitive test performance in neuropsychiatric disorders. Twenty-five healthy individuals with a high-level of education were evaluated on a short neuropsychological battery which spanned several cognitive domains. ---Results indicated that cognitive abilities are not equally distributed within a sample of healthy, high-level functioning individuals. This may be of interest to neuropsychologists who might base clinical inference about the presence of cerebral dysfunction, at least in part, on marked variation in a patient’s level of cognitive test performance. The practice of deductive reasoning in clinical neuropsychology may be prone to false-positive conclusions about cognitive functioning in neuropsychiatric disorders where base-rates of cognitive impairments are low and pre-existing educational achievements are high.

Keywords: cognitive variability
high-functioning
intraindividual variability
clinical neuropsychology
Advisor: Zakzanis, Konstantine
Metric Optimized Gating for Fetal Cardiac MRI

Phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI) can provide a complement to echocardiography for the evaluation of the fetal heart. Cardiac imaging typically requires gating with peripheral hardware; however, a gating signal is not readily available in utero. In this thesis, I present a technique for reconstructing time-resolved fetal phase-contrast MRI in spite of this limitation. Metric Optimized Gating (MOG) involves acquiring data without gating and retrospectively determining the proper reconstruction by optimizing an image metric, and the research in this thesis describes the theory, implementation, and evaluation of this technique. In particular, results from an experiment with a pulsatile flow phantom, an adult volunteer study, in vivo application in the fetal population, and numerical simulations are presented for validation. MOG enables imaging with conventional PC-MRI sequences in the absence of a gating signal, permitting flow measurements in the great vessels in utero.

Keywords: fetal
MRI
imaging
blood flow
post-processing
gating
image metric
phase contrast
Advisor: Macgowan, Christopher K.
Epigenetic Basis for Heterogeneity in VCAM-1 Gene Expression Patterns in Cytokine Activated Vascular Endothelium

Vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) is a cytokine-activated protein present on endothelial cells (ECs). Our laboratory has provided evidence that DNA methylation, a mark associated with gene silencing, is fundamental for regulating VCAM-1 expression. First, we showed that RNA polymerase II, preferentially associates with VCAM-1 hypomethylated alleles. This finding was confirmed using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) to sort populations of cytokine-activated ECs with high vs. low cell surface VCAM-1 expression. We found that ECs with high VCAM-1 expression were hypomethylated at the promoter. We then went on to show that populations of cells generated from single ECs exhibit differential VCAM-1 methylation from one another, and from the original founder population. Intriguingly, our data shows that VCAM-1 mRNA levels differ between the clones, and correlate with the observed differences in DNA methylation. Taken together, this data provides exciting evidence that DNA methylation is important in the regulation of VCAM-1 gene expression.

Keywords: Pathology
Biology
Vascular Endothelium
Epigenetics
VCAM-1
Advisor: Marsden, Philip A.
Quantization Techniques in Linearly Precoded Multiuser MIMO System with Limited Feedback

Multi-user wireless systems with multiple antennas can drastically increase the capac- ity while maintaining the quality of service requirements. The best performance of these systems is obtained at the presence of instantaneous channel knowledge. Since uplink-downlink channel reciprocity does not hold in frequency division duplex and broadband time division duplex systems, efficient channel quantization becomes important. This thesis focuses on different quantization techniques in a linearly precoded multi-user wireless system. Our work provides three major contributions. First, we come up with an end-to-end transceiver design, incorporating precoder, receive combining and feedback policy, that works well at low feedback overhead. Second, we provide optimal bit allocation across the gain and shape of a complex vector to reduce the quantization error and investigate its effect in the multiuser wireless system. Third, we design an adaptive differential quantizer that reduces feedback overhead by utilizing temporal correlation of the channels in a time varying scenario.

Keywords: MIMO Broadcast Channel
Linear Precoding
Channel Quantization
Bit Allocation
Advisor: Adve, Raviraj
Factors Influencing the Formation and Development of Microalgal Biofilms

Differences in biofilm formation between Scenedesmus obliquus and Chlorella vulgaris were examined, as well as the effects of substrate properties. Species selection and species control had significant effects. In non-sterile conditions, C. vulgaris shifted from planktonic (23.7% attachment) to sessile (79.8% attachment) growth, and formed films of higher average thickness (52 ± 19 µm) than in sterile conditions (7 ± 6 µm). By contrast, S. obliquus attained similar thicknesses (54 ± 31 µm and 53 ± 38 µm) in both sterile and non-sterile conditions. The effect of substrate properties was minimal. Both species grew films of similar thickness (~ 30 µm for S. obliquus, <10 µm for C. vulgaris) on materials ranging from hydrophilic (glass) to hydrophobic (polytetrafluoroethylene). Micropatterning the surface also had little effect on film formation. The results indicate that species selection and species control are more important that substrate properties in the development of microalgal biofilms.

Keywords: Microalgae
Biofilm
Photobioreactor
adhesion
Advisor: Allen, D. Grant
A Transient Model for Lead Pipe Corrosion in Water Supply Systems

This thesis focuses on lead related drinking water quality issues in general and on hydraulic transient induced lead pipe corrosion events in water distribution systems in particular. Corrosion is a complex phenomenon, and particularly in water distribution systems, when its already challenging electro-chemical processes are influenced by numerous other physical and chemical factors. Lead pipe corrosion can itself be influenced by both the hydraulic transients and water chemistry events. To understand the relationship among hydraulic, chemical and material processes, an existing numerical 1-D transient-corrosion model for iron-pipe based systems is modified and extended to apply for systems having lead-pipes connected in series. The coupled hydraulic transient and advection-dispersion-reaction model with improved data handling facilities is applied for analyzing the transient induced lead pipe corrosion behaviors in the system for a range of options and establishes interrelationships among the parameters.

Keywords: Transient-corrosion
Water supply systems
Numerical modeling
Lead pipe
Advisor: Karney, Bryan William
Domain Boundaries are Essential for the Solubility of Nucleotide Binding Domains of ABC Transporters

SUR2A is a member of the ABC transporter superfamily. SUR2A mediated regulation of KATP channels is essential as mutations in the nucleotide binding domains (NBDs) of SUR2A are associated with cardiovascular disorders. Studies of eukaryotic NBDs, such as SUR2A, are hindered by low solubility of the isolated domain. We hypothesized that the solubility of heterologously expressed SUR2A NBDs depends on the definition of the domain boundaries. Boundaries were initially predicted using a combination of a structure-based sequence alignment and homology modeling, and subsequently verified by testing the solubility of five SUR2A NBD1 constructs with different N- or C-terminal boundaries. The boundaries of SUR2A NBD1 essential for solubility were identified. CD and NMR data indicate that SUR2A NBD1 is folded. Our method may be applied as a general method for developing suitable constructs of other NBDs of ABC proteins such as SUR isoforms, SUR2B and SUR2C, and the vacuolar transporter, Ycf1p.

Keywords: Biochemistry
NMR
ABC Transporters
Nucleotide Binding Domain
Sulfonylurea Receptors
KATP channels
Advisor: Kanelis, Voula
Fabrication and Characterization of New Passive and Active Polymer Gels with Tailored Properties

In this thesis, three different types of polymer-based gels are fabricated and characterized for passive and active applications. Silica aerogel is a 3D mesoporous solid material that can be used for thermal insulation or in the biomedical industry. In this thesis, silica aerogel is cross- linked with diisocyanate to improve its strength and flexibility, which greatly opens up the range of applications. Then, soft polymer gel with tissue equivalent characteristics is fabricated to mimic the spin-lattice (T1) and spin-spin (T2) relaxation times for the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) phantom of a liver with lesions. This study demonstrates a relationship between the composition of a gelling agent, and T1 and T2 modifiers on its dielectric, mechanical and imaging properties. Finally, an ionic electroactive polymer (EAP) that can be actuated on an electric field is fabricated, and its swelling and bending behaviours on design parameters are closely examined.

Keywords: Silica Aerogel
Polymer
MRI
Electroactive Polymer
T1, T2
Mechanical Properties
Phantom
Actuation
Advisor: Naguib, Hani E.
Reconciling Family and Freedom: Hegel and Contemporary Laws of Parental Authority

The law assigns to parents primary responsibility for their children and invests them with significant powers and discretion to discharge their duties. The considerable deference the law affords parents can appear to undermine important social and political values like equality, tolerance and social stability. The aim of this thesis is provide a rational account of why parents are invested with legal responsibility and authority over their children, and why the law limits state scrutiny of parental choice. To do so, I develop Hegel’s legal and political philosophy in order to show the family to be a necessary part of a system of institutions that constitute human freedom. As such, Hegel’s thought provides grounds to affirm the family, and broad scope of parental authority, even though the family constrains efforts to achieve equality of opportunity and can propagate intolerant and idiosyncratic values to subsequent generations.

Keywords: Family Law
Legal Theory
Advisor: Brudner, Alan
Evaluation of an In situ formed Bioabsorbable Membrane and Hyperbaric Oxygen on Bone Regeneration using Alloplastic Bone Substitutes in Critical Sized Rabbit Calvarial Defects

The aim of this study was to test the application of an in situ–formed synthetic polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a biodegradable membrane with a variety of graft materials and hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) for enhanced bone regeneration. Critical-sized rabbit calvarial defects were created in bilateral parietal bones. Group 1 served as a control with unfilled defects, Group 2 had defects filled with morcelized autogenous bone, and Group 3 had defects filled with biphasic calcium phosphate. One defect was protected PEG membrane and half the animals were subjected to HBOT treatment. The unsupported membrane didn’t produce the desired bone regeneration in the unfilled and bone grafted groups. HBO didn't ameliorate the bone grafted or ceramic filled defects over the 6-week time period. Caution is recommended with the membrane over unsupported defects. Future assessments with HBO should be completed at the 12-week time point.

Keywords: Membrane
Bone graft
Hyperbaric Oxygen
Advisor: Sandor, George K. B.
Calcium-sensitive Mmechanisms in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Cycle Progression as Targets for Therapy

Increased intracellular calcium (Ca2+) is required for vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation through mechanisms that are not well-known. Preventing calmodulin (CaM)-cyclin E interaction with a synthetic peptide inhibits VSMC proliferation in a cyclin E-dependent manner, without increasing de-differentiation or cell death, or affecting re-endothelialization or collagen deposition. Moreover, in situ Ca2+-sensitive phosphorylation and degradation of the cell cycle inhibitor p27Kip1 (p27) in VSMC is specific to G1 and dependent on camodulin kinase-II (CaMK-II) and the proteasome, but not MEK. Lastly, IQGAP1 binding to CaM increases during G1 with no change in total IQGAP1 expression across the cell cycle. Therefore, we determined the clinical potential of an established mechanism (CaM/cyclin E), the existence of a putative mechanism (CaMK-II/p27), and a target novel mechanism (CaM-IQGAP1). Characterization of calcium-sensitive mechanisms of VSMC cycle control could form the basis for new drug-eluting stent agents that have increased selectivity for rapidly dividing VSMC.

Keywords: Calcium
Cell Cycle
Vascular smooth muscle cell
Advisor: Husain, Mansoor
Joint Buffering and Rate Control for Video Streaming over Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

The integration of heterogeneous access networks is becoming a possible feature of 4G wireless networks. It is challenging to deliver the multimedia services over such integrated networks because of the discrepancy in the bandwidth of different networks. This thesis presents an adaptive approach that combines source rate adaptation and buffering to achieve high quality VBR video streaming with less quality variation over an integrated two-tier network. Statistical information of the residence time in each network or localization information are utilized to anticipate the handoff occurrence. The performance of this approach is analyzed under the CBR case using a Markov reward model. Simulation under the CBR and VBR cases is conducted for different types of network models. The results are compared with a dynamic programming algorithm as well as other naive or intuitive algorithms, and proved to be promising.

Keywords: Video Streaming
Heterogeneous Wireless Networks
Rate Adaptation
Buffering
Advisor: Liang, Ben
Improving Chinese Expenditure Incentive Programs for Venture Capital Investment: A Comparative Study of Government Expenditure Supporting Policies of Venture Capital Investment in the United States, Canada and China

This thesis will discuss the role of government in venture capital market and illustrate the national difference of that through a comparative study of government expenditure supporting policies of venture capital investment in the USA, Canada and China. Firstly, the prototype programs designed by Small Business Administration (SBA) of the United States and Canadian policies by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) will be discussed. Secondly, the current Chinese government expenditure supporting policies will then be studied in the context of the Chinese venture capital market’s unique political, economical and legislative background. Ultimately, potential improvements in the future expenditure incentive programs in China will be explored.

Keywords: Venture Capital Investment
Venture Capital Financing
Government Expenditure Incentive VC Programs
Government Expenditure Supporting VC Policies
Comparative Study
United States, Canada, China
Advisor: Ho, Betty
Characterization of the Interactome of BTB Domains

The BTB domain is a well-conserved protein-protein interaction motif. There are 43 BTB-ZF transcription factors in the human proteome. Many of these transcription factors play crucial roles in cancer and developmental processes. The purpose of this project is to identify lists of interactors of the BTB domains of six BTB-ZF proteins with high confidence using a mass spectrometry based approach. The BTB domains BCL6, PLZF, Kaiso, LRF, FAZF, and Miz1 were studied. This study was able to identify 142 putative interactors. The list of putative interactor proteins participates in a wide array of biological functions. Selected putative interactors of the BCL6BTB were also validated using biochemical techniques. In conclusion, this project was able to provide an analysis of the protein-protein interactions mediated by the BTB domains of six BTB-ZF transcription factors. The information generated is valuable to guide future functional and structural studies of the BTB domains.

Keywords: Proteomics
Protein Interaction
Advisor: Privé, Gilbert G.
Development of an Anti-collision and Navigation System for Powered Wheelchairs

Powered wheelchairs offer a means of independent mobility for older adults who are unable to walk and cannot propel a manual wheelchair. Unfortunately, cognitively impaired older adults may be denied this means of independent mobility. There is concern that these adults are unable to drive a powered wheelchair safely or properly. Intelligent wheelchairs offer an approach to address this problem. This research outlines the development and evaluation of an Intelligent Wheelchair System (IWS) that is proposed to make powered wheelchairs safer and easier to use for cognitively impaired older adults. The IWS has anti-collision and navigation functions. Hardware results show a 1000% increase in computational speed compared to the previous IWS. Clinical results with dementia patients show that the IWS has the potential to increase safety by reducing frontal collisions, and by promoting safe completion of movement tasks. Usability of the system may be an issue.

Keywords: assistive technology
rehabilitation engineering
powered wheelchair
computer vision
cognitive impairment
older adults
intelligent wheelchair
Advisor: Mihailidis, Alex
Relay Selection and Max-min Resource Allocation in OFDM-based cooperative Networks

This thesis considers resource allocation to achieve the max-min fairness in a selection-based OFDM network wherein source nodes are assisted by fixed relays. Transmission strategy selection, relay assignment, and power allocation at the sources and relays are considered crucial in architecture design of such networks. However, this is a combinatorial problem with exponential complexity. In this thesis, we investigate two relaying scenarios, i.e., subcarrier-based and block-based relaying. In subcarrier-based relaying, all subcarriers are assumed to be independent transmissions while relays use decode-and-forward protocol. However, in addition to the synchronization problems caused, it is likely impractical for a relay to only decode a subset of subcarriers. This motivates a search for practical block-based schemes. We also propose a simple, decentralized, block-based relaying scheme. Simulation results using the COST-231 channel model reveals that this scheme has a close-to-optimal performance while offering computational benefits.

Advisor: Adve, Raviraj
Proportionality as a Remedial Principle: A Framework for Suspended Declarations of Invalidity in Canadian Constitutional Law

The aim of this thesis is to provide an analytic framework for the governance of suspended declarations of invalidity in Canadian constitutional law. A suspended declaration is a remedial device by which a court strikes down a constitutionally invalid law, but suspends the effect of its order such that the law retains force for a temporary period. While introduced to Canadian law under circumstances of exigency, suspended declarations have grown to be used liberally by the courts, and the principles that previously confined them have been abandoned. As a result, constitutional rights have sometimes been suspended without just basis. I propose a means to reverse this trend: by adopting proportionality, a core feature of the analytic method used to adjudicate limitations on Charter rights, as a remedial principle guiding the use of suspended declarations. I review the jurisprudence of South Africa’s Constitutional Court to illustrate the merits of this approach.

Keywords: Canadian Constitutional Law
Constitutional Law Canada
South African Constitutional Law
Constitutional Law South Africa
Constitutional Remedies
Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Suspended declarations of invalidity
Temporary Validity
Proportionality
Advisor: Roach, Kent