VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Agentic ambiguity and the politics of privilege: recognition versus re-evaluation of privilege in social justice education

This project deconstructs the concept of privilege by reviewing two approaches--recognition and re-evaluation --to deploying the concept in critical educational theory and practice. While the former approach intends to reveal the hidden and denied structural mechanisms working to secure and maintain privilege, the latter one aims at re-evaluating the notion of privilege itself, understanding it not only through what is gained by its perpetuation, but also by what is lost. I argue that the concept of privilege as used in ordinary language and much discursive inquiry is misleading, such that even those actively working to subvert domination end up reproducing those very structures through their use of the term. I urge that dismantling privilege requires its re-evaluation in addition to its recognition. Reconceiving privilege provides social justice educators with fruitful ways to engage resistant students in the project of personal and social transformation.

Keywords: Elite (Social sciences)
Social justice, Study and teaching
Phenotypic characterization of a human endothelial progenitor cell population isolated through non-contact suspension culture conditions

The use of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) for the management and treatment of cardiovascular and related disease represents an important emerging area of cell therapy. However, the disparity of published isolation techniques and EPC phenotypes severely impairs the progression of this field. The novel, non-contact, suspension-based culture methods developed in this work allow for the consistent isolation of a population expressing an endothelial-related phenotype, including: CD14low, KDRlow, CD34 +/-, CD31low, CD45+, CD133-, CD146low, CD106-, acLDL+, UEA-1 +. These cells may represent a transitional state between 'early' and 'late' EPCs, as defined in current literature. CD31+/KDR + cells were isolated at a frequency of 1 in 4000. TNF-alpha was used to increase the expression of CD11b and CD18 on monocytes and neutrophils. With the addition of TNF- to the stirred-suspension culture, up-regulation adhesion receptors was seen, suggesting that this system can be used as a tool to control the phenotypic identity of the EPC.
The role of p16(INK4A) in SMAD signalling

Individuals carrying germline mutations in the CDKN2A gene have an increased risk of developing cutaneous melanoma. The CDKN2A gene encodes the cell cycle inhibitor p16INK4A, which binds and inhibits the cell cycle kinases CDK4 and CDK6. Recently it was reported that CDK4 also phosphorylates SMAD3, implying that p16 INK4A may also regulate SMAD3 signalling. Since p16INK4A inhibits CDK4, I hypothesized that p16INK4A should prevent CDK4 from phosphorylating SMAD3 and that melanoma-associated p16INK4A mutants lose this function. Using a series of reporter-based assays and quantitative PCR, I have demonstrated that p16INK4A can affect one SMAD3 signalling target, c-myc. In addition, several melanoma-associated p16 INK4A mutants do not affect c-myc mRNA expression in a melanoma cell line. These results are important because they may link melanoma to SMAD signalling---a well-established cancer-related pathway. Moreover, this work may also lead to alternate drug targets relevant for treatment of melanoma and other p16INK4A relevant malignancies.
Motion simulation of flexible aircraft

This thesis investigates new methods for improving the motion simulation of flexible aircraft. In particular, this thesis concentrates on improving the accuracy of flexible aircraft motion simulation by splitting motion signals into their oscillating and non-oscillating components. The non-oscillating component of the motion signals is processed through the conventional motion drive algorithm (MDA), while the oscillating component of the motion signals bypass the MDA and the distortions it causes. Five different methods for separating the motion signals are investigated. Each method is implemented for a Rockwell B1 Bomber flexible aircraft model, and the UTIAS Classical Motion Drive Algorithm with CW2 coefficients. A recommended method for processing motion signals for flexible aircraft is given.
A cross-cultural exploration of personal identity: Eastern and Western differences in identity content, change, valence, and uniqueness

Personal identity refers to knowledge of one's most important positive and negative attributes (i.e., strengths and weaknesses). The present study examined Eastern and Western cultural differences in four aspects of identity: the content of its attributes, its perceived changeability over time, the value or emphasis placed on positive and negative attributes, and the estimated uniqueness of those qualities. Hypotheses were generated from the cultural psychology literature on individualism-collectivism and where possible, from Self-Determination Theory, and were tested on cross-cultural samples of Chinese, Japanese, American, and Canadian undergraduate students. The identity content findings indicated that East Asians tended to report attributes associated with a lack of autonomy as their weaknesses, whereas North Americans tended to report attributes associated with a lack of relatedness as their weaknesses. North Americans were also more likely to report relatedness attributes as their strengths, compared to East Asians. This pattern supported a Self-Determination Theory perspective which argues that there are basic psychological needs for relatedness and autonomy; and because collectivistic cultures and individualistic cultures tend to prioritize one need at the expense of the other, identities are formed such that they incorporate an awareness of unmet psychological needs. Concerning identity change, East Asians reported that their positive attributes were more changeable than North Americans, consistent with an Eastern emphasis on the experience of change. However, contrary to prediction, East Asians were not more likely than North Americans to put effort into cultivating and improving their attributes. Concerning valence, East Asians valued their positive qualities less and their negative qualities more, compared to North Americans. This pattern was consistent with an Eastern emphasis on self-criticism rather than self-enhancement. Lastly, concerning uniqueness, East Asians tended to estimate their attributes as being less prevalent among their peers, relative to North Americans. This pattern was inconsistent with the hypothesis that Westerners value uniqueness more than Easterners.
The impact of globalization on firms and workers

My dissertation studies the impact of globalization on firms and workers. In chapter 1, I examine how import competition affects multi-product firms utilizing the concept of 'core competency'. I find that: (i) a rise in imports of core product lead the firm to divest the peripheral products and refocus to the core, and (ii) the stronger the complementarities that a peripheral product shares with the core (as measured by the extent of joint sales, joint procurement and joint production), the less likely is the peripheral product to be divested in response to import competition. In chapter 2, I link unaffiliated cross-border service data and matched March Current Population Survey data to estimate the impact of service offshoring and inshoring on earnings changes, probability of switching industry and probability of switching occupation for U.S. workers, especially for highly-educated workers and skilled white-collar workers. I find statistically significant evidence that U.S. workers are more likely to switch industries (occupations) as their industry (occupation) exposure to service offshoring to low-wage countries increases. I also find statistically significant evidence that earnings growth increases and probability of occupation switch decreases as U.S. exports more services to low-wage countries. However, both the costs of offshoring and the benefits of inshoring are economically small. In chapter 3, I investigate the impact of low-wage import competition on worker reallocation within U.S. manufacturing industries. By using a matched panel of workers drawn from consecutive monthly Current Population Surveys during 1992-2001, I examine how low-wage imports affect job insecurity and instability and how various cohorts of workers respond to import shocks differently. I find that the probability of unemployment as well as industry switch and occupation switch are positively associated with industry exposure to imports sourced from low-wage countries for the U.S. manufacturing workforce. In addition, I find that the costs of low-wage import competition are borne primarily by high-school dropouts or unskilled blue-collar workers.
Editing digital models using physical materials

Many digital approaches to 3D object modeling and deformation are based on sketch and sculpt metaphors due to the widespread use of traditional media in conceptual design. In this research we explore the actual use of physical materials like clay in digital modeling. Users physically sculpt clay proxies of digital models, where the clay is used as a "3D shape cursor" to control the shape of a region of the model. The region can take on the absolute shape of the clay, be deformed relative to a prior clay shape or be virtually stamped back into the clay for subsequent uses. We use a motion capture system as an interface for users to interact with physical proxies of models and a 3D scanner to capture the changing clay surfaces. The differences between successive point-cloud scans are used to define and edit corresponding regions on the surface of the model.
Studies of the notch signaling pathway using transgenic mouse models

The Notch signaling pathway is a cell communication pathway essential for formation of multiple systems during mammalian development. Aberrant Notch signaling is associated with a variety of human diseases. Functional studies of Notch in mice have been limited because both the absence and overexpression of Notch results in embryonic lethality. To investigate the effects of Notch signaling in vivo, three lines of Notch transgenic mice have been created that have a floxed beta-geo/stop signal between a strong promoter and the constitutively active intracellular domain of Nothch1 (IC-Notch1). IC-Notch1 can be activated after the introduction of Cre recombinase and its expression is detected through a co-expressed EGFP or hPLAP. Double transgenic IC-Notch1/pCX-Cre embryos in which IC-Notch1 expression was globally activated died at E9.5 with lack of neural tube closure, disrupted vasculature and irregular somites, demonstrating that expression of IC-Notch1 can be effectively activated by Cre recombinase. Endothelial/hematopoietic specific expression of IC-Notch1 in double transgenic IC-Notch1/Tie2-Cre embryos induced embryonic lethality at E9.5 with defects in vascular development, but did not affect primitive hematopoiesis. The Snail repressor, a mediator of endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition, was upregulated by IC-Notch1 expression in embryonic heart. To avoid the embryonic lethality, inducible IC-Notch1 expression in adult mice was achieved by crossing IC-Notch1 mice with a Cre transgene under the tetracycline operator controlled Cre (tet-O-Cre) and tetracycline transactivator under the control of Tie2 promoter (Tie2-tTA). Using this system, IC-Notch1/tet-O-Cre/Tie2-tTA mice survived embryonic development when maintained on tetracycline. After withdrawing tetracycline post-natally, expression of IC-Notch1 was detected in endothelial and hematopoietic cells by immunostaining of the GFP reporter. The IC-Notch1 expressing females were less fertile with lack of mature follicles. Matrigel plug assay showed that IC-Notch1 expression in adult mice inhibited bFGF-induced, but not VEGF induced neovascularization. In addition, 50% of transgenic mice with IC-Notch1 expression developed enlarged hematopoietic organs. Immunohistochemistry showed extensive T cell infiltration in various organs. Thus, constitutive active Notch signaling inhibited angiogenesis and induced T cell hyperproliferation in adults. This study provided a series of mouse models and valuable insights to design therapies for vessel related diseases and T cell lymphoma.
Hostile takeovers in China?: so different a picture

The United States of America has developed a dozen of theories, in particular, the managerial discipline theory, on the takeovers and hostile takeovers and conducted lots of empirical analyzes. However, theses theories and empirical evidence often cannot explain the takeovers and hostile takeovers in China, which could be demonstrated by three typical hostile takeover cases in China. High concentrated ownership structure and split securities market in China could be two of the main causes. Furthermore, the comparisons of take-over legislations amongst China, Canada and the United States of America could examine if the current Chinese take-over legislation could govern the issues of takeovers and hostile takeovers and what China could learn from Canada and the United States of America.

Keywords: Consolidation and merger of corporations, China
Antitrust law, China
Monopolies, China
Modelling of unbonded post-tensioned concrete beams critical in shear

An attempt is made to analyze unbonded post-tensioned beams using numerical modelling based on the finite element method. A bond stress-slip model is formulated for use with two-node bond link elements to represent friction losses in unbonded tendons arising from profile curvature and tendon wobble. The formulation is incorporated into the two dimensional nonlinear finite element program VecTor2, to model a series of shear-critical concrete beams post-tensioned using unbonded tendons. The results from the analyses have demonstrated an ability to accurately simulate load deflection response, load capacity and variation of tendon forces, along with a good agreement of the crack patterns and failure mode. It is shown that neglecting friction effects in these beams has a minor influence on the computed response, while ignoring the increase of tendon forces during loading has a significant impact. The shear strengths predicted by the North American code provisions are generally over-conservative.
Incremental diagnosis in digital VLSI circuits

Today's complex VLSI design and manufacturing environment demands an efficient and scalable approach to fault and design error diagnosis. This thesis proposes an incremental methodology for multiple fault/error diagnosis. This simulation-based approach is simple to implement, scalable in resolution and efficient in performance. A general incremental algorithm is devised along with theorems and heuristics that prune the diagnosis space. Three fault diagnosis and one design error diagnosis algorithms are developed using the general algorithm as a template. Fault models are used to diagnose stuck-at and transition faults, and to rectify design errors. For open-interconnect fault, a model-free algorithm is developed to capture possibly faulty paths, along with a novel heuristic to prune the search space. Experiments conducted on ISCAS'85 and ISCAS'89 benchmark circuits confirm the efficiency of the proposed incremental approach. The diagnostic resolution is also shown to scale well with increasing number of faults/errors.
Development and evaluation of methods for predicting protein levels from tandem mass spectrometry data

This work addresses a central problem of Proteomics: estimating the amounts of each of the thousands of proteins in a cell culture or tissue sample. Although laboratory methods involving isotopes have been developed for this problem, we seek a simpler approach, one that uses more-straightforward laboratory procedures. Specifically, our aim is to use data-mining techniques to infer protein levels from the relatively cheap and abundant data available from high-throughput tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). In this thesis, we develop and evaluate several techniques for tackling this problem. Specifically, we develop and evaluate different statistical models of MS/MS data. In addition, to evaluate their biological relevance, we test each method on three real-world datasets generated by MS/MS experiments performed on various tissue samples taken from Mouse.
The Soh1 (Med31) subunit of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae mediator complex

Soh1(Med31), a human Mediator complex subunit, is also a component of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Mediator complex, which serves as a transcriptional coactivator for RNA polymerase II in eukaryotes. In this thesis, I show by chromatin immunoprecipitation(ChIP) that Soh1(Med31) is recruited to the galactose-induced GAL1-10 promoter region. SOH1(MED31) and the genes encoding Mediator head module subunits Srb2(Med20) and Srb5(Med18), in addition to Spt3 from the SAGA complex, display similar patterns of synthetic genetic interactions with other genes involved in transcription. Hierarchical clustering of non-essential Mediator subunit genes according to their degree of similarity in synthetic genetic interactions and effects on gene expression in microarray experiments predicts that Soh1(Med31) is a component of the head module of Mediator. However, affinity purification of TAP-tagged Soh1(Med31) and Srb4(Med17) with IgG antibody in conjunction with urea-mediated dissociation of Mediator subunits and western blot analysis suggests that Soh1(Med31) is not a Mediator head domain subunit.
A publish/subscribe system model supporting uncertainties

In the publish/subscribe paradigm, information providers disseminate publications to all consumers who have expressed interest by registering subscriptions. This paradigm has found wide-spread applications, ranging from selective information dissemination to network management. However, all existing publish/subscribe systems cannot capture uncertainty inherent to the information in either subscriptions or publications. In many situations, exact knowledge of either specific subscriptions or publications is not available. Moreover, especially in selective information dissemination applications, it is often more appropriate for a user to formulate her search requests or information offers in less precise terms, rather than defining a sharp limit. To address this problem, this thesis proposes a new publish/subscribe model based on possibility theory and fuzzy set theory to process uncertainties for both subscriptions and publications. Furthermore, an approximate publish/subscribe matching problem is defined and algorithms for solving it are developed and evaluated.
Vibration data modeling and design of multivariate EWMA chart for CBM

A stochastic model was developed determining the optimal policy for monitoring and planned preventive maintenance in a manufacturing process. Specifically, this model integrates the multivariate Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) chart and preventative maintenance to minimize the total costs associated with monitoring and maintenance by jointly optimizing the inspection and maintenance policies. The objective is to determine the interval between samples, the control limit, and the multivariate EWMA exponential weight minimizing the expected average cost per unit time. This model can be applied to the other situation when there is a typical warning state. This study focuses on the cross study of multivariate control chart and condition-based maintenance, which have been extensively studied in isolation but limitedly in an integrated way. Specifically, the multivariate statistical process control charts method is applied to condition based maintenance. My research efforts are divided between analyzing vibration datasets for failure diagnosis and developing a new stochastic model for optimization of maintenance policies. The main tasks of the failure diagnosis in the rotating machinery are to detect the incipient failure and identify the failure mode or pattern. A novel failure diagnosis scheme for gearboxes was proposed. I used a combination of multivariate time series modeling, dynamic principal component analysis method, and multivariate control chart to implement failure diagnosis. The research results are very appealing in three aspects: First, it provides the whole picture of teeth health condition in one single analysis. Second, it not only reduces the probability of false alarms but also improves the reliability by distinguishing the real alarm pattern from the false alarm pattern. Third, the failure mode of adjacent teeth fracture can be identified by visual inspection from the graph.
Transforming growth factor-beta regulates in vitro heart valve repair by activated valve interstitial cells

Heart valve interstitial cells (VICs) undergo a response to valve injury and disease that is characterized by the expression of alpha-SMA but is not well understood. Since TGF-beta has been implicated in experimental and human tissue repair, we test the hypothesis that TGF-beta regulates VIC activation and the associated cell responses that occur in the stages of valve repair. We use a well characterized wound model created by mechanical denudation of a confluent monolayer of VICs to study repair at 24 hours post-wounding. VIC activation is demonstrated by immunofluorescent localization of alpha-SMA, and alpha-SMA mRNA is quantified by real-time PCR. Proliferation and apoptosis is quantified by bromo-deoxyuridine and TUNEL, respectively. Repair is quantified by measuring extension of VICs into the wound. TGF-beta expression is shown by immunofluorescent localization of intracellular TGF-beta. Compared to non-wounded monolayers, VICs at the wound edge show prominent alpha-SMA staining, increased alpha-SMA mRNA content, elongation into the wound with stress fibers, proliferation and apoptosis. VICs at the wound edge show increased TGF-beta and pSmad2/3 staining with co-expression of alpha-SMA. Addition of TGF-beta neutralizing antibody at wounding decreases VIC activation, alpha-SMA mRNA content, proliferation, apoptosis, extent of wound closure and stress fibers. Conversely, addition of exogenous TGF-beta at wounding increases VIC activation, proliferation, wound closure and stress fibers. Thus, wounding activates VICs and TGF-beta signaling modulates VIC response to injury.
Loligomers: Design of de novo peptide-based intracellular vehicles

Defined branched peptides (loligomer) incorporating cytoplasmic translocation signals, nuclear localization sequences and fluorescent probes were designed and synthesized to demonstrate the feasibility and simplicity of creating novel classes of intracellular vehicles. Loligomers containing all the above signals were rapidly internalized by Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and accumulated in their nucleus. At 4°C, the interaction of peptide constructs with CHO cells was limited to membrane association. Endocytosis occurred at higher temperatures. Cell membrane binding and cytoplasmic accumulation of loligomers did not appear to be saturable events, supporting the concept that these constructs enter cells by adsorptive endocytosis. Inhibitors of ATP synthesis only weakly affected cytoplasmic import but abolished nuclear uptake. The peptide signals guided both cytoplasmic and nuclear localization events. The properties exhibited by loligomers suggest a strategy for the facile design of “guided” classes of intracellular agents.