VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Microsimulating Residential Mobility and Location Choice Processes within an Integrated Land Use and Transportation Modelling System

This research investigates motivational and procedural aspects of households’ long-term decisions of residential locations. The main goal of the research is to develop microbehavioural models of location processes in order to implement this critical land use component within a microsimulation-based model of Integrated Land Use, Transportation and Environment (ILUTE). The research takes a disaggregate and longitudinal approach to develop the models, which is consistent with the real-world decision-making process of households concerning their movements from one residence to another over time. It identifies two sequential model components to represent households’ relocation behaviour: (1) a model of household residential mobility that determines whether a household decides to become active in the housing market, and (2) a (re) location choice model. Both components are empirically investigated using retrospective surveys of housing careers. For the residential mobility decision, the research tests continuous-time hazard duration models and discrete-time panel logit models, and attempts to capture heterogeneity effects due to repeated choices within both modelling techniques. A discrete-time random parameter model is selected for implementation within ILUTE since it incorporates time-varying covariates. Assuming a sequential decision process, this mobility decision model is linked to the (re) location choice model that establishes preference orderings for each active household for a given set of dwelling units that it considers to relocate within the housing market. A unique feature of the (re) location model developed in this research is that it incorporates reference dependence that explicitly recognizes the role of the status quo and captures asymmetric responses towards gains and losses in making location choice decisions. The research then estimates an asking price model, which is used to generate base prices for active dwellings to interact with active households through a market clearing process within a microsimulation environment. A multilevel model that simultaneously accounts for both temporal and spatial heterogeneity is developed in this research using multi-period property transaction data. Finally, this research simulates evolution of households’ location choices for a twenty-year period (1986-2006) and compares the results against observed location patterns.

Keywords: Transportation
Urban modelling
Advisor: Miller, Eric
Interactions of Cancer Stem Cells and Tumor Vasculature

In recent years, research in the area of cancer stem cells has spiked tremendously. Numerous investigators have found that several types of cancers contain a subpopulation of tumor cells that display many defining characteristics of normal tissue stem cells, including multipotent differentiation potential, long-term self-renewal capacity, and expression of molecular markers of stemness. Most importantly, these cancer stem cells (CSCs) have very high tumor initiating potential, a finding that has led to the development of the cancer stem cell model for tumor progression. This model suggests that tumors are organized in a developmental hierarchy (similar to healthy tissue), with long-term tumor progression being driven by self-renewing CSCs at the top of the hierarchy. The CSC model represents a significant shift in our understanding of tumor progression, and as such, it may be possible to expand our knowledge of other aspects of tumor biology by re-examining them in the context of the CSC model. My work focuses on investigating interactions between CSCs and the tumor vasculature. Previous work has demonstrated heterogeneity in the proangiogenic potential of cells in a tumor. Considering the possibility that angiogenesis may be driven by specific subsets of tumor cells, I investigated the contribution of the CSC fraction to tumor angiogenesis. Comparing tumors with low or high CSC fractions, I have found that CSCs contribute to tumor vascular development through promotion of endothelial cell activity and recruitment of bone marrow-derived proangiogenic cells, mediated in part by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and stromal-derived factor 1 (SDF1). Since some tissue stem cells are known to reside in a vascular niche, I investigated the possibility that CSCs may also be supported by blood vessels in the tumor microenvironment, and that consequently CSCs may be targeted by disruption of tumor vasculature with antiangiogenic therapy. By testing multiple antiangiogenic therapeutic strategies, I have found that antiangiogenic therapy sensitizes CSCs to the effects of cytotoxic chemotherapy. Taken together, my work demonstrates a bi-directional relationship in which CSCs promote tumor vascular development, and tumor vasculature supports and protects CSCs. This work has implications for our understanding of CSC biology, tumor angiogenesis and antiangiogenic therapy, and provides insight into strategies for targeting the critical CSC population.

Keywords: cancer stem cell
angiogenesis
Advisor: Kerbel, Robert S.
The Identity Myth: Constructing the Face in Technologies of Citizenship

Over the last century, images of faces have become integral components of many institutional identification systems. A driver’s licence, a passport and often even a health care card, all usually feature prominently images representing the face of their bearer as part of the mechanism for linking real-world bodies to institutional records. Increasingly the production, distribution and inspection of these documents is becoming computer-mediated. As photo ID documents become ‘enhanced’ by computerization, the design challenges and compromises become increasingly coded in the hierarchy of gazes aimed at individual faces and their technologically mediated surrogates. In Western visual culture, representations of faces have been incorporated into identity documents since the 15th century when Renaissance portraits were first used to visually and legally establish the social and institutional positions of particular individuals. However, it was not until the 20th century that official identity documents and infrastructures began to include photographic representations of individual faces. This work explores photo ID documents within the context of “the face,”—a theoretical model for understanding relationships of power coded using representations of particular human faces as tokens of identity. “The face” is a product of mythology for linking ideas of stable identity with images of particular human beings. This thesis extends the panoptic model of the body and contributes to the understanding of changes posed by computerization to the norms of constructing institutional identity and interaction based on surrogates of faces. The exploration is guided by four key research questions: What is “the face”? How does it work? What are its origins (or mythologies)? And how is “the face” being transformed through digitization? To address these questions this thesis weaves ideas from theorists including Foucault, Deleuze and Lyon to explore the rise of “the face” as a strategy for governing, sorting, and classifying members of constituent populations. The work re-examines the techno-political value of captured faces as identity data and by tracing the cultural and techno-political genealogies tying faces to ideas of stable institutional identities this thesis demonstrates face-based identity practices are being improvised and reconfigured by computerization and why these practices are significant for understanding the changing norms of interaction between individuals and institutions.

Keywords: Face Recognition, biometrics, identity, identification, facialization
Advisor: Clement, Andrew
Ionizing Radiation Exposure and Risk of Gastrointestinal Cancer: A Study of the Ontario Uranium Miners

Rationale/Objective: Excess lung cancer risks associated with exposure to inhaled radon decay products among uranium miners has well been established. Although ingestion is also a potentially important route of exposure, the relationship between ingested radon decay products and gastrointestinal cancer risks are not well examined. The objective of this study is to determine the relationship between exposure to radon decay products and the incidence and mortality of gastrointestinal (esophagus, stomach, and colorectal) cancer among men employed as uranium miners in Ontario. Secondly, to determine whether the duration of exposure (dose rate), years since last exposure and age at first exposure modify these associations. Methods: A cohort of miners who had ever worked in an Ontario uranium mine between 1954 and 1996 was created using the Mining Master File and the National Dose Registry. Cumulative radon exposures measured in Working Level Months (WLM) were previously estimated for each miner. Cancer diagnoses (1964-2004) and cancer deaths (1954-2004) occurring in Ontario were determined by probabilistic record linkage with the Ontario Cancer Registry. To calculate person-years at risk, non-cancer deaths were also ascertained from the Ontario mortality file for the period between 1954 and 2004. Poisson regression methods for grouped data were used to estimate the relative risks (RR) and 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) by exposure level. Results/Conclusions: The final cohort consisted of 28,273 Ontario uranium miners. By the end of 2004, 34 miners had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer, 86 with stomach cancer, and 359 with colorectal cancer. There were 40 deaths due to esophageal cancer, 69 from stomach cancer, and 176 from colorectal cancer. When comparing the highest cumulative exposure category (>40 WLM) to the referent group (0 WLM), significant increases in both stomach (RRIncidence= 2.30, 95% CI;1.02-5.17 and RRMortality=2.90, 95% CI;1.11-7.63) and colorectal cancers (RRIncidence =1.56, 95% CI;1.07-2.27 and RRMortality =1.74, 95% CI;1.01-2.99) after adjusting for age at risk and period effects. However, no relationships were observed for esophageal cancer. Suggestive evidence of modifying effects of these associations by duration of employment (dose rate) and years since last exposure for colorectal cancer was also observed.

Keywords: Epidemiology
Uranium Miners
Cancer
Ionizing Radiation
Esophageal
Stomach
Colorectal
Advisor: Marrett, Loraine
"Is she forbidden or permitted?" (bSanhedrin 82a): A Legal Study of Intermarriage in Classical Jewish Sources

This legal comparative study explores the nature and development of rabbinic thought on intermarriage. One could hardly phrase the query that lies at the heart of this work better than the Talmud itself: "Is she forbidden or permitted?" (bSanhedrin 82a). This challenge, posed to Moses as part of an exegetical exploration of the problem of intermarriage, asks so much more than whether an Israelite might marry a Gentile. It points to conflicts between biblical law and narrative, biblical and rabbinic law, as well as incompatibilities within rabbinic halakhah. The issues of status, national identity and gender loom large as the various legal and narrative sources on intermarriage are set on an hermeneutic collision course. In this way many rabbinic sources display a deep understanding of the complexity inherent to any discussion of intermarriage in rabbinic tradition. Considering intermarriage as a construct that lies at the intersection between identity and marital rules, we begin this study of rabbinic legal systems with an analysis of the notion of intramarriage and Jewish identity in halakhah as expressed through the system of the asarah yuchasin (ten lineages). Discussion of various systems dealing with intermarriage follows, including qiddushin (Jewish betrothal/marriage) and the status of the offspring of intermarriage, the concept of the qahal (congregation of God), the arayot (levitical incest laws) as well as the individual legal rules related to marriage and sexual relations between Jews and Gentiles. The role of narrative in the representation of case law and rabbinic engagement with these legal systems forms an integral part of our analysis of the law. The overall conclusion of the dissertation is that rabbinic approaches to intermarriage were characterized by multiplicity and diversity. Rabbinic tradition engaged with the issue of intermarriage through a wide variety of often unrelated and incompatible legal systems. Furthermore, it is apparent that conflicting attitudes towards the interpretation and implementation of these rules are represented in both tannaitic (c. 70-200 C.E.) and amoraic sources (c. 200-500 C.E.), such that several key problems related to intermarriage in early rabbinic tradition remain unresolved.

Keywords: Intermarriage
Rabbinics
Jewish Law
Judaism
Advisor: Meacham, Tirzah
Planning, Design and Scheduling of Flex-route Transit Service

The rapid expansion of low-density suburban areas in North America has led to new travel patterns that require transit services to be more flexible. Flex-Route transit service, which combines fixed-route transit service with elements of demand-responsive transit service, has emerged as a viable transit option to address the travel needs of the residents of these areas. Existing literature in this field, however, is limited and lacks any comprehensive analysis of Flex-Route planning, design and scheduling. This research aims at exploring Flex-Route transit service to provide detailed guidelines for the planning and design of the service, as well as developing a new scheduling system for this type of unique service. Accordingly, the objectives of this research are: assessing the practicality of Flex-Route transit service in serving low-density suburban areas; identifying essential Flex-Route planning steps and design parameters; determining the feasibility and cost of replacing fixed-route transit with Flex-Route service; and developing a Flex-Route-specific dynamic scheduling system that relies on recent developments in computer and communication technologies. In this regard, we develop an analytical model that addresses several design parameters and provide a detailed analysis that includes, among other parameters, finding optimal values for Flex-Route service area and slack time. Furthermore, the analytical model includes a feasibility and cost analysis that estimates the cost incurred by several stakeholders if Flex-Route service is chosen to replace fixed-route service. The core of the scheduling system is a new developed algorithm – the Constrained-Insertion Algorithm- that exploits the powerful search techniques of Constraint Programming. The scheduling system can handle the daily operations of Flex-Route transit services; it accepts daily (or dynamic) inputs and, in minimal time, produces very cost-effective and reliable schedules. Moreover, the scheduling system has the ability to be used as simulation tool to allow transit operators to assess the feasibility and performance of proposed Flex-Route transit services before implementation. The applicability of the analytical model as well as the performance of the scheduling system were subsequently evaluated and validated through process that included testing on a case study in the City of Oakville, Canada.

Keywords: Flex-Route Transit Service
Transit Scheduling
Constraint Programming
Advisor: Shalaby, Amer Saïd
Oral Health Related Quality of Life Outcomes of Orthodontics in Children

Contemporary conceptual models of health emphasize the importance of patient-based outcomes and recognize the complexity involved in their assessment. Various health conditions, personal, social, and environmental factors, are all thought to contribute to individual’s quality of life. However, the impact of orthodontic treatment on Oral Health-related Quality of Life (OH-QOL) outcomes in children has not yet been systematically studied. Hence, this research was planned to assess the effect orthodontic treatment has on pediatric OH-QOL outcomes. Further, the important moderational role of children’s psychological assets on OH-QOL reports is explored. Following completion of a preliminary study to confirm the psychometric properties of the Child Perception Questionnaire (CPQl1-14), the current two-phase study was undertaken. This consisted of a cross-sectional study examining the relationship among Self-Esteem (SE), malocclusion, and OH-QOL, and a longitudinal study examining the influence of orthodontics and children’s Psychological Wellbeing (PWB) on OH-QOL reports. This PhD dissertation is presented in the “Publishable Style”. The journals which hold the copyrights for the papers published from this thesis have given permission for the reproduction of the text and figures for this dissertation. The preliminary data confirmed that the CPQ11-14 is sensitive to change when used with children receiving orthodontic treatment. Our cross-sectional findings indicated that the impact of malocclusion on OH-QOL is substantial in children with low SE and identified SE as a salient determinant of OH-QOL in children seeking orthodontic treatment. Longitudinal data, on the other hand, detected significant improvement of OH-QOL outcomes after orthodontic treatment. As postulated, these improvements were most evident for the social and emotional domains of OH-QOL. However, covariate analysis emphasized the important role psychological factors play in moderating OH-QOL reports, as children with better PWB were more likely to report better OH-QOL regardless of their orthodontic treatment status. These results substantiate the validity of contemporary models of patient-based outcomes linking biological, personal, social, and environmental factors. Researchers and clinicians are encouraged to adopt this forward thinking approach when dealing with children with oro-facial conditions. Further studies with larger samples and longer follow-ups would be of value to expand on these findings.

Keywords: quality of life
oral health related quality of life
health related quality of life
oral impacts on daily performance
psychosocial outcomes
psychological wellbeing
social wellbeing
emotional wellbeing
wellbeing
self esteem
child perception
patient reported outcomes
orthodontic treatment
orthodontics
malocclusion
dental aesthetics
dental aesthetic index
oral health
prospective study
longitudinal evaluation
adolescents
children
Advisor: Locker, David
Tompson, Bryan
Streiner, David
Adolescents' Disclosure and Advice-seeking Behavior About Peer Dilemmas: Characteristics, Maternal Parenting Predictors, and Adolescent Social Outcomes

The goals of this study were 1) to examine the features of adolescents’ disclosure and advice-seeking behavior about peer dilemmas; and 2) to examine the maternal parenting predictors of disclosure and advice-seeking behavior and the adolescent social correlates of these behaviors. Further, this study sought to examine adolescent advice-seeking as a potential mediator of the relations between maternal parenting characteristics and adolescent social outcomes (friendship quality and interpersonal competence). One hundred and one mother-child dyads were assessed when the children were approximately 10-12 years of age (M = 11.0) and 74 were re-assessed when the children were approximately 12-14 years of age (M = 12.8). Mothers provided reports of their parenting characteristics at Time 1 and Time 2, while adolescents provided reports of their disclosure at Time 1, and disclosure, advice-seeking, personality and social outcomes at Time 2. Results showed the adolescents disclosed and sought advice from their mothers moderately often across a variety of situations involving their close friends. The reasons adolescents chose to disclose, not disclose, and seek advice were discussed. Regression analyses showed that neither mothers’ positive nor their negative parenting characteristics were predictors of adolescent disclosure. Mothers’ positive parenting characteristics (including perspective-taking, warmth and positive responsiveness to children’s negative emotions) did significantly predict adolescent advice-seeking, for girls but not boys, after controlling for adolescent personality and maternal interpersonal competence. With respect to adolescent social outcomes, adolescent advice-seeking was significantly related to friendship quality, but not interpersonal competence, after controlling for adolescent personality and disclosure. There was no evidence for the role of advice-seeking as a mediator of the relations between parenting and adolescent social outcomes. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the importance of determining the conditions that encourage adolescents to seek advice from their parents when they encounter difficult situations involving their friends, and the value parental advice has for adolescent social success.

Keywords: parenting
adolescence
Advisor: Grusec, Joan
Characterization of Quantum States of Light

I present a series of experimental and theoretical advances in the field of quantum state estimation. Techniques for measuring the quantum state of light that were originally developed for distinguishable photons fail when the particles are indistinguishable. I develop new methods for handling indistinguishability in quantum state estimation. The technique I present provides the first complete description of states of experimentally indistinguishable photons. It allows me to derive the number of parameters needed to describe an arbitrary state and to quantify distinguishability. I demonstrate its use by applying it to the measurement of the quantum polarization state of two and three-photon systems. State characterization is optimal when no redundant information is collected about the state of the system. I present the results of the first optimal characterization of the polarization state of a two-photon system. I show an improved estimation power over the previous state of the art. I also show how the optimal measurements lead to a new description of the quantum state in terms of a discrete Wigner function. It is often desirable to describe the quantum state of a system in terms of properties that are not themselves quantum-mechanical observables. This usually requires a full characterization of the state followed by a calculation of the properties from the parameters characterizing the state. I apply a technique that allows such properties to be determined directly, without a full characterization of the state. This allows one such property, the purity, to be determined in a single measurement, regardless of the size of the system, while the conventional method of determining purity requires a number of measurements that scales exponentially with the system size.

Keywords: Quantum optics
Quantum state tomography
Quantum state estimation
Quantum indistinguishability
Advisor: Steinberg, Aephraim
Measurement of the Top Quark Pair Production Cross-section in the Dilepton Channel using Lepton plus Track Selection and Identified b-jets

Using 1.0 fb^{-1} of data collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) from Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron, we measure the top-antitop production cross-section in events with two leptons, significant missing transverse energy, and at least jets, at least one of which is identified as a b-jet. As the Run II dataset grows, more stringent tests of Standard Model predictions for the top quark sector are becoming possible. The dilepton channel, where both top quarks decay t-> W b ->l nu b, is of particular interest due to its high purity. Use of an isolated track as the second lepton significantly increases the dilepton acceptance, at the price of some increase in background, particularly from W + jets events where one of the jets is identified as a lepton. To control the increase in background we add to the event selection the requirement that at least one of the jets be identified as a b-jet, reducing the background contribution from all sources. Assuming a branching ratio of BR(W->l nu) = 10.8% and a top mass of m_top = 175 GeV/c^{2} the measured cross-section is sigma = (10.5 +/- 1.8 stat. +/- 0.8 syst. +/- 0.6 lumi.) pb.

Keywords: Top
Quark
Cross-section
Dilepton
b-jets
CDF
Advisor: Savard, Pierre