VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
School-to-work transition, blending education and training through continuous improvement and team learning

This study is a participant observation study of a school-based demonstration school-to-work project developed and implemented by a team of teachers in an Ontario, Canada high school. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted during the implementation of the project when the people involved in the process were simultaneously developing, implementing, reviewing and refining their implementation process. The study also attempted to demonstrate the contextual realities of a school as a workplace and the innovativeness and creativeness which exists among a staff who embark on a cross-curricular, school-wide task. The data suggest the existence of a shared desire among all study participants to make connections between curriculum areas, develop outcomes, and to improve continuously. The data explicitly describe the lack of coordination and continuity of policy within and between levels of government within the school-to-work framework. Education falls within the jurisdiction of provincial, not Education falls within the jurisdiction of provincial, not federal, government. The data revealed how, in spite of governmental policy uncertainty, those in a school where they were supported by the administration, created a project team to implement and develop an innovative, relevant, activity-based applied curriculum. The extent of the creativeness demonstrated by the implementation team and its shared commitment to develop an initiative within a school-to-work framework suggests the existence of a stable, supportive external political environment. This was not the case. The project implementation team was successful because of individual expertise they shared to reach a common goal. Transformative followership is a term which evolved in this study from illustrations of front-line workers who are given the responsibility to innovate and are supported unconditionally when they do. There are unlimited possibilities for teacher innovation in schools if all levels of government and their administrations were able to provide consistent, coordinated and continuous support to policy and project initiatives.
An investigation of the characteristics of an airship fin

An investigation into the behaviour of an airship fin was conducted. This required the construction of a model based on the American Airships Corporation A60+. Flow visualization and force measurement experiments were carried out. These revealed the existence of two flow regimes in which the fin operated. The first was a normal attached flow case, while the second was a vortex flow case. As a result of the vortex flow, the operating range of the fin extends past thirty degrees angle of attack. Also investigated was the behaviour of the centre of pressure, and how it varied with angle of attack and rudder position.
Probabilistic eigenspace object recognition in the presence of occlusion

Eigenspace approaches to object recognition have achieved impressive results in constrained environments. In general, however, these techniques tend to be brittle, as they are not naturally robust to changes in object scale, affine object transformations in an image, object occlusion, or background clutter. In this thesis, we present a novel approach to handling occlusions and background clutter when using an eigenspace approach to object recognition. The method presented involves an intuitive probabilistic formulation that exploits local information intrinsic to the eigenspace model. In addition, we explore the usefulness of enforcing local image constraints during fitting. A general, efficient, intrinsically parallel, search procedure is proposed that uses the framework. Experimental results indicate that the technique can reliably handle much higher degrees of occlusion, in comparison to previous techniques.
Self-identity across cultures, a comparison of Canada and Japan

This study focuses on cultural differences in self-identity and its expression. Self-identity is the awareness of one's own personhood and the qualities that constitute it. University students in Canada and Japan endorsed categorical responses to questions about their experience of self, such as whether their self-identity varies across contexts, is expressed in their behaviour, and the desirability of this expression. Japanese were more likely than Canadians to report experiencing relative variability in their beliefs about themselves across situations. However, Japanese were no different from Canadians in reporting that they strive to express their self-identity in behaviour and that they experience frustration when unable to do so. Japanese and Canadians also reported highly similar profiles in self-identity expression across activity domains (e.g., when alone, being with close friends). Implications for what is universal and what is culture-specific in the experience of personal identity is discussed.
Non-protein sulfhydryl expression and relationship to hypoxic microenvironments in cervical carcinomas

The non-protein sulfhydryl (NPSH) glutathione has been associated with increased tumor resistance to therapy by mechanisms that include conjugation and excretion of cytostatic agents, direct and indirect scavenging of reactive oxygen species and maintenance of the intracellular redox state. Tumor hypoxia, caused by aberrant structure and function of the tumor vasculature, is also associated with therapy-resistant and biologically aggressive malignant disease. Oxidative stress, commonly found in regions of intermittent hypoxia, has been implicated in regulation of glutathione metabolism, thus linking increased NPSH levels to tumor hypoxia. Therefore, the objective of the work presented was to characterize NPSH expression and the relationship to tumor hypoxia in cervical carcinoma using multiparameter fluorescence microscopy and advanced image analysis techniques. The expression of NPSH glutathione and cysteine was studied in frozen sections from cervical carcinomas using a highly sensitive HPLC assay and semi-quantitative fluorescence microscopy. The major findings of this study were (i) the presence of milimolar cysteine concentrations in some tumors, (ii) lack of association of glutathione and cysteine concentrations in individual tumors and (iii) intertumoral heterogeneity in glutathione and cysteine levels was higher than the intratumoral heterogeneity. The spatial relationship between tumor hypoxia and NPSH levels was assessed in cervical carcinoma xenografts using multiparameter fluorescence microscopy and image analysis. Higher NPSH levels were found in hypoxic regions of ME180 and SiHa xenografts, consistent with our previous findings. Treatment with buthionine sulfoximine, a specific inhibitor of ã-glutamylcysteine synthetase, resulted in depletion of NPSH levels preferentially in hypoxic regions. This finding suggests that overexpression of ã-glutamylcysteine synthetase is the likely mechanism responsible for elevated NPSH levels in hypoxic regions of ME180 and SiHa xenografts. In the following study, image analysis methods and algorithms were developed for spatial characterization of tumor hypoxia. Distances from blood vessels were mapped and used for classification of tumor hypoxia as intermittent and chronic. NPSH levels were significantly higher in areas of intermittent than in areas of chronic hypoxia or in better oxygenated tumor regions. This finding is consistent with ischemia-reperfusion and oxidative stress in regions of intermittent hypoxia leading to overexpression of ã-glutamylcysteine synthetase and elevation of NPSH levels.
The effect of logic block granularity on deep-submicron FPGA performance and density

The architecture of an FPGA has a significant effect on area and delay. In deep-submicron designs, the interconnect resistance and capacitance accounts for the majority of the circuit delay. In the first part of this thesis, we perform a detailed study of the FPGA logic block architecture to determine the impact of logic block functionality on performance and density. In particular, in the context of lookup table (LUT), cluster-based island style FPGAs we look at the effect of LUT size and cluster size (number of LUTs per cluster) on the speed and logic density of an FPGA. The second part of this thesis explores the area and delay properties of a hardwired logic block architecture. This involves a new packing algorithm.
The effect of vigabatrin treatment on contrast sensitivity in a pediatric population

Visual field constriction occurs in 30-40% of adults taking the anti-epileptic drug vigabatrin. An objective contrast sensitivity measure was used to investigate visual function in children taking vigabatrin. Twenty-nine children who had been prescribed vigabatrin were divided into 2 groups based on the association between abnormal ERG 30 Hz flicker amplitude and visual field constriction in adults. Subjects watched a contrast alternating sinusoidal grating stimulus. To derive spatial frequency and contrast sensitivity thresholds, visual evoked potential (VEP) amplitudes were extrapolated to zero voltage. There was a high spatial frequency loss in children taking vigabatrin, with no difference between vigabatrin groups. 21% of children taking vigabatrin had a reduction in their peak contrast sensitivity scores and were significantly younger in age at time of initial treatment with vigabatrin. These contrast sensitivity changes were not associated with the 30 Hz flicker measure. Visual dysfunction was found in some children on vigabatrin, which may not be associated with abnormal 30 Hz flicker amplitudes.
Interference suppression techniques for multi-rate CDMA communication systems

This thesis is concerned with interference suppression in multi-rate Code-division multiple-access (CDMA) communication systems. Specifically, the following problems within the area of CDMA communication systems have been addressed: interference suppression through chip waveform design, interference reduction through new diversity techniques for users having low mobility by exploiting inherent channel diversity and joint spatial-temporal interference suppression; all with the ultimate goal to increase the system capacity. First, we examine interference issues in the multi-rate CDMA communication systems. We minimize the interference by designing different chip waveforms for different data rate users. A general chip waveform design framework is formulated. It is shown that it is better to separate different data rate users in spectrum if their quality of service requirements are quite different. Next, we propose a new receiver structure targeting those users having low mobility but whose channels have small dispersion in frequency. We show that even a very small delay spread can be exploited to achieve significant gain in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio. Then we consider joint spatial and temporal interference suppression through an adaptive antenna array. We show that adaptive spatial and temporal correlation control between different users can give us higher system capacity. Sub-optimal algorithms with low complexity are proposed and analyzed. We show that the proposed algorithms reduce the transmit power significantly, therefore, greatly increase the system capacity. Finally, we examine the role of the adaptive antenna array in the multi-rate CDMA communication systems. We show that if we perform beamforming for different data rate users, most of the achieved gain is due to the high data rate users if the total power of the high data rate users is much higher than that of the low rate users. Thus, significant computational savings can be achieved but with near optimum transmit power.
Part A. Intrazeolite organometallic kinetics, Part B. Ligand effects on the structures of Rh¦6(CO)¦1¦4LL clusters

'Part A': 'Intrazeolite organometallic kinetics': ('A') 'anchoring and decarbonylation studies of Mo'(CO)'6' ' in the Ã-cages of dehydrated Na56Y zeolite'. (' B') 'Temperature dependence of substitution of Mo'(' CO')'6' 'with chemisorbed PMe 3 in the Ã-cages dehydrated Na56Y zeolite'. Quantitative and detailed kinetic studies are reported of thermal reactions of Mo(CO)6 encapsulated in the Ã-cages of a Na56Y zeolite host. 'Part B: Ligand effects on the structures of Rh6'(' CO')'14LL clusters'. The structures of four bidentate derivatives, LL, three Rh6(CO)14(LL) derivatives with LL = Ph2P(NC5H4), 6-2, PPh2CH2CH=CH2, dppm, dppe and one Rh 6(CO)10(LL)3 derivative with LL = dppm are described and trends in structural ligand effects discussed and compared to the trends observed in nine monodentate Rh6(CO)15L derivatives, with L = P(OPh)3, P(4-XC6H4)3 (X = CF3, Cl, F, OMe), P(nBu)3, Me 2SO, MeCN and C8H14. The crystal and molecular structure Rh6(CO)14(Ph2P(NC5H 4)), 6-2, has been determined by single crystal X-ray crystallography. Redeterminations of Rh6(CO)16, 6-1, [Rh 6N(CO)15]-, 6-3, and [RhCl 2(CO)2]-, 6-4, have also been performed and included to provide data of improved accuracy for the parent cluster, the cluster with interstitial nitrogen and a monomer, to compare with those previously obtained. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
The architecture of Epano Englianos, Greece

The Bronze Age palace situated on the Epano Englianos ridge in the southwestern Peloponnese, Greece, was discovered in 1939 and systematically excavated from 1952 to 1966. The excavator of the site, Carl Blegen, believed that the palace was destroyed by fire about 1450 BCE. Preservation of the architecture of the palace is remarkable--the lower courses of many of its walls still stand, some of which still retain colorful frescoes, and the majority of its plaster floors remain intact. When the excavation results were published in 1966 the architecture had not been studied in great detail. Line drawings supplemented with a few state plans graphically documented the walls and other built structures, and building techniques were briefly summarized in the text. Stone-by-stone measured state plans and elevations of the all of the palace's extant remains were completed in 1998. This dissertation presents the first comprehensive study of the architecture and, in particular, it details construction materials, methods and chronology. Chapter I provides the groundwork for the study with a review of the original excavations, the site and its buildings. It is followed by a discussion of previous scholarship on the architecture of the palace. Chapter II examines construction materials and Chapter III discusses foundations and methods of construction. The palace preserves the only extant orthostate walls in mainland, Mycenaean architecture. The use of half-timbering in many of the palace's walls, which is thought to be typical of Mycenaean architecture, is brought into question because of the significant lack of evidence for wooden members in the walls at the time of the palace's destruction. Instead, a new building system that consists of rubble in a matrix of strong mortar is proposed. Chapter IV outlines the history of masonry at the palace and its relationship to Minoan masonry. It also presents a chronological framework for the architectural development on the hilltop.
Public health nurses' community development practice with women in high-risk environments

This dissertation contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex community development practice of public health nurses working with women in high-risk environments. It explicates how the economic and sociopolitical context of the health care setting posed barriers for the nurses' practice and how they negotiated these constraints. Through a feminist, ethnographic inquiry (over a 14 month period) that included interviews (30), participant observation (76 hours), document analysis, and personal reflective journalling, the practice knowledge of 13 public health nurses was articulated. Three meta themes emerged from the data. 'Being in Community' characterized the nurses' practice of community development as a multidimensional concept rooted in a philosophy and process of empowerment for social justice and health. They valued their practice as a unique and essential beginning step with marginalised women, "starting where the women are", and progressing from personal empowerment, to a group of women, to a community of women and community empowerment. Regardless of an individual, group, or community focus, the values and ways of practising were more similar than different. Building trusting relationships, establishing connections with community resources, and measuring progress were core factors in the nurses' community development model. Praxis and an extensive repertoire of roles, strategies, and complex contextual and relational knowledge were needed to negotiate uncertain partnerships and to catalyse significant transitions for the women. 'The Contested Terrain: Social Construction of Public Health Nursing ' highlighted constraints on the nurses' autonomy and practice by larger organizational processes and the nurses' everyday work environment. Ethical conflict, moral distress, job dissatisfaction, and increased invisibility in community development work were significant consequences. 'Creating Space for Possibility' reflected the factors that influenced the nurses' evolving community development consciousness and their strategies for sustaining meaning and negotiating barriers for themselves and for the marginalised women. This study establishes public health nurses' unique contribution to community development and to primary health care. It confirms the need for critical and feminist, ethnographic research to uncover the impact of economic and sociopolitical factors on public health nursing practice and policy and practice changes that decrease health damaging conditions for disadvantaged women.
Guided control of intelligent virtual puppets

Controlling the motion of virtual characters with many degrees of freedom can be difficult and time consuming. For some applications, complete control over all joints at every time step is not necessary and actually hinders the creative process. However, endowing the character with autonomous behaviour and decision-making capabilities completely absolves the user of clearly specifying his intentions. In many circumstances the ideal level of control allows the user to specify motion in terms of high-level tasks with timing and stylistic parameters. The user is not encumbered by low-level details, while retaining complete control over the motion's semantic interpretation. This relatively unexplored level of motion specification is termed "guided control", and is the focus of our work. We present the issues and results encountered from implementing a prototype animation system with guided control of a virtual puppet.
Story retelling and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

'Objective'. Investigate story-retelling in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) using the Strong Narrative Assessment Procedure (SNAP). 'Method'. (1) Investigated effect of stimulant medication on story-retelling in ADHD children. (2) Examined normal development of story-retelling in children. (3) Investigated story-retelling in children, with and without ADHD. 'Results'. (1) Stimulant medication had specific effects on story grammar in the retold stories of ADHD children. (2) Developmental differences in story structure were found; sex difference found in inferential comprehension; SNAP stimulus stories are not equivalent. (3) ADHD children included less story grammar components in their stories, which were shorter and contained less units of information; the ADHD children also made more ambiguous reference story-retelling errors compared to normal controls. Comprehension performance did not differ between the ADHD and control groups. 'Conclusion'. ADHD children are impaired in story-retelling. The SNAP is a limited, but useful assessment tool to elicit and analyze children's retold stories.
Mixing buffers and pass transistors in FPGA routing architecture

FPGAs have become one of the most popular implementation media for digital circuits. Compared to regular full-fabricated integrated circuits, FPGAs have a huge time-to-market advantage. This is because FPGAs can be programmed in seconds versus regular ICs take months to fabricate. However, circuits implemented in FPGAs are typically three times slower than those implemented in regular full-fabricated ICs and about one-tenth of the density of circuits implemented in full-fabricated ICs. Most of the speed and area penalty is due to programmable routing resources contained in the FPGA. Therefore, the design of a good routing architecture is crucial to achieve system performance and density. In this thesis, we focus on the design of the inter-cluster routing topology. Previous inter-cluster routing topology prevents buffered routing tracks from connecting to pass transistor routing tracks. We present a new inter-cluster routing topology which allows liberal switching between buffered and pass transistor routing tracks. We show that one version of the new architecture results in 10% faster critical path delay yet requires same area as previous architectures.
Predicting death in burn patients

'Objective'. To validate the FLAME (F_atality by L_ongevity, A_PACHE II score and M_easured E_xtent of burn) score for outcome prediction in burn patients. 'Design'. Multi-centre prospective study. 'Setting'. Five Canadian burn centres: Hamilton (ON), St. John (NB), Toronto (ON), Vancouver (BC), and Windsor (ON). 'Patients'. 527 adult burn patients (1997-1998). 'Outcome'. Hospital mortality. 'Results'. The typical patient was a man (69%) with mean age of 44 years, mean body area burned of 17%, and mean hospital stay of 19 days. There were 76 deaths (14%). The FLAME score was the simplest logistic model with strong agreement between observed and predicted deaths (ROC area = 0.96). Using 2 x 2 classification table with 0.5 predicted risk of death, patients were correctly classified 94% of the time. Sensitivity: 68%, specificity: 98%, and positive likelihood ratio: 34 were found. 'Conclusion'. The FLAME score is a valid mortality predictive tool for burn patients.
Efficiency in the Canadian insurance industry, a data evelopment analysis approach

The objective of this work is to provide an alternative means to measure the productive efficiency of insurers in the property and casualty, P&C, insurance industry. Currently, there are several indicators used to measure insurer performance. However, there are several limitations associated with these indicators. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used to measure the relative efficiency of each insurer by comparing it to a similar "best practice" insurer. One of the strengths of DEA is its ability to handle multiple input and output scenarios, as is the case in the insurance industry. Two models are developed to capture selected business processes of 120 insurers in the P&C industry. Average pure technical and scale inefficiencies in the industry are determined respectively, as 0.87 and 0.90 based on the operational performance of insurers. In terms of the investment performance of insurers, average technical efficiency scores under variable and constant returns to scale assumptions are determined respectively, as 1.93 and 2.22. The results of this research suggest that variable returns to scale exist in the industry. Insurers, grouped according to specific characteristics, are analyzed in an attempt to determine factors that may affect efficiency.