VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Monitoring structural changes in cells and tissues with high frequency ultrasound signal statistics

It has been demonstrated that high frequency ultrasound (HFUS) backscatter is sensitive to the changes that occur in cells during cell death. The changes that can occur to both cell and tissue structure make the use of HFUS backscatter in vivo more difficult. Envelope statistics analysis of HFUS data can provide further information on scatterer properties and structural changes within the cells. The statistics of HFUS backscatter signals were examined by fitting several theoretical distributions. It was demonstrated that the fit parameters of the Generalized Gamma distribution can be related to effective scatterer cross section and number density for cells in suspension. These parameters also showed sensitivity to structural changes occurring in cells during cell death in vitro, with high sensitivity to changes within as few as 2.5% of the cells. It was further demonstrated that the technique can be applied in vivo to monitor the response of implanted tumours to chemotherapy.
Search for signals mediating the depolarization-induced increase in glucose uptake and GLUT4 translocation in muscle and muscle cell

Muscle contraction is initiated by membrane depolarization, and this can be induced with an isotonic, high potassium solution (K+ depolarization). Conventional/novel protein kinase C (c/nPKC) has previously been implicated in K+ depolarization-mediated gain in surface glucose transporter-4 (GLUT4). Here, PKC participation in mediating this effect of K+ depolarization was examined in L6 GLUT4myc cells. K + depolarization increased c/nPKC phosphorylation (2.5 d 0.4-fold basal). PMA, a PKC activator increased surface GLUT4myc by 1.5 +/- 0.1-fold basal with no further increase in cells co-stimulated with K+ (1.8 +/- 0.2-fold basal), suggesting these two stimuli share a common pathway. While isoform-specific c/nPKC inhibitors did not diminish surface GLUT4myc increase caused by K+ depolarization, PKCdelta/theta inhibition abolished the PMA effect. These findings suggest that although these two stimuli appear to share a common pathway to increase surface GLUT4myc, PMA engages PKCdelta/theta whereas K+ depolarization likely utilizes a c/nPKC-independent pathway to achieve this outcome.
Ground station infrastructure and embedded systems design enabling the CanX-2, -3, -4 and -5 Nanosatellite missions

This thesis focus is the software and hardware computing resources needed to enable the CanX-2, -3, -4 and -5 Nanosatellite missions. To begin, an overview of the ground station infrastructure is given. Detailed descriptions of the Terminal Node Controller (TNC) and antenna rotator control system, two key parts of this infrastructure are presented. Their interaction with the remainder of the ground station provides a picture of how the entire control system works together to enable tracking and communication with each spacecraft. From there, a description of the spacecraft onboard computing system is given. The focus is primarily on the description of the flight software for CanX-2 including its Bootloaders, operating system (CANOE) and application threads needed for particular activities. How this flight software evolves into that for the GNB missions (CanX-3,-4,-5) is the final major topic of this thesis.
Nurses of Influence: a paradigm of leadership

In the increasingly commercial world of health care delivery, senior nurse administrators are challenged to promote the patient care agenda and endorse the often conflicting corporate mandate of health care organizations in which they work. For many, their position in the patriarchal administrative hierarchy of these organizations depends upon adopting the dominant organizational culture. However, there are some who resist abandoning a deeply rooted nursing identity. They successfully create a caring counter-culture within the organization. From this location, these nurses, who I refer to as 'Nurses of Influence', advance the patient care agenda and also champion the caring contribution of nursing within that agenda. Throughout my study, I became more conscious of the history of exclusionary practices that compromise the true application of holistic caring within the nursing discipline itself. As a result, my research took a turn toward critical feminism and incorporated a commentary on the inclusionary ethno-racial mentoring practices of Nurses of Influence that seek to nurture future nursing leaders of diverse ethnicity and racial backgrounds. The purpose of this study was to explore the situated lived experiences of a small sample of Nurses of Influence using qualitative methods to analyze how they weave nursing's caring culture into their administrative practice. My research suggests that they navigate oppressive androcentric organizational power structures creating what I call a feminist counter-culture that embodies nursing's caring perspective. From early in their careers, they promote connectiveness, reciprocal respect, and empowerment of self and others. They develop inclusive structures, such as mentoring networks, that represent nursing's holistic philosophy as well as promote the use of power amongst their nursing colleagues. Key informants in my study attribute Nurses of Influence with a significant degree of credibility grounded in their many years of clinical practice and the attainment of advanced theoretical nursing knowledge. This credibility facilitates the active participation of Nurses of Influence in various political arenas in order to cultivate nursing's caring counter-culture that is so often devalued by the dominant health care system.

Keywords: Nurse administrators, Ontario
Leadership in women, Ontario
The voice of self-control: The inner voice as the operation phase of self-control

To examine the idea that the inner voice might be involved in self-control we conducted two experiments. In both, participants were divided into verbal shadowing, beat shadowing, and white noise groups. In Experiment 1, participants completed three self-control measures--a flanker task, a handgrip task, and difficult mazes--while shadowing. We predicted that verbal shadowers would have the least self-control because their inner voice was occupied. Results for flanker performance provided some support for this hypothesis, while the other tasks did not. In Experiment 2 we examined whether self-control expertise might be a moderator of this phenomenon. Participants completed a priming task designed to index expertise and then finished a healthy food choice task and a studying task while shadowing. It was hypothesized that for experts verbal shadowing would not impair self-control performance, while for novices it would. These predictions were not supported by the results.
Changing professional perspectives: co-constructing stories about an elementary school principal and a teacher educator's personal experience across decades

This narrative inquiry takes place over four years in Hong Kong and focuses on how an elementary school principal's professional perspectives are shaped by personal experiences over a few decades. Personal and professional stories are co-constructed by re-examining the personal experiences between the participant and the researcher through participation in the context of school and community. The researcher begins the inquiry with an experienced principal, a personal friend for over 20 years, who devotes his professional life to the school and the community. Long-term participant observation in the school and community context, and intensive ongoing discussion and sharing between the participant and the researcher, lead the researcher to use “peeling the onion” and “kaleidoscope” as metaphors to describe this inquiry. Besides the participant and the researcher, other people volunteer to participate in the inquiry. Stories and anecdotes are shared and co-constructed by the people in the community. Their participation brings the researcher to see the inquiry as a “parade.” Stories told are regarded as different lenses, helping the researcher and participant to understand and analyze their professional development. Through sharing and reflection, people involved in the inquiry develop new meanings of and perspectives on their own learning and education. At the end of inquiry, the participant and the researcher see the inquiry as a rejuvenating process which will take them on new paths in their future professional development. Through this inquiry, the researcher demonstrates how narrative reveals sources of knowledge about teaching and teacher development. The powers generated by narrative in this inquiry are emancipation, mutual benefit, empowerment, evolvement, and rejuvenation, which allow teachers to grow and change their personal and professional perspectives in a world of rapid globalization. Since little narrative study has been done in a Chinese cultural setting like Hong Kong, this thesis offers a distinctive uniqueness.

Keywords: Elementary school principals, Professional relationships
Elementary school principals, China
Elementary school principals, Attitudes
Elementary school principals, China
Teacher-principal relationships, China
Community and school, China
Experiential learning
Self-perception
Aspect-oriented development from ground up and aspect-oriented model-driven architectures

In this thesis, we develop a set of principles to guide the development of software based on aspects from ground up. This is manifest in a set of principles collectively referred to as AODI - Aspect-oriented Design and Implementation. Furthermore, we develop a methodology to realize Model-driven Architecture. In particular, we focus on realizing model transformation at the implementation level. This is manifest in the APIC - the Aspect-oriented Programming interpreted Communication approach to address the challenges faced by the Model Driven Architecture in its transformation step. We quantitatively evaluate the AODI principles through comparing an object-oriented, aspect-unaware design and implementation with an implementation following our principles. We demonstrate the effectiveness of APIC on two real-world case studies developed according to MDA principles. Our evaluation demonstrates that both systems developed according to APIC fulfill all promises of the Model Driven Architecture process.
Examination of the nutritional contribution of meals provided in community food programs serving homeless people in Toronto

Growing numbers of homeless people in Canadian cites have prompted a proliferation of ad hoc community programs that provide for basic needs, like food. The purpose of this study is to examine the nutritional contribution of meals provided by a sample of 18 food programs that served homeless individuals in Toronto. An evaluation of energy and nutrient contents of meals served using estimated energy requirements (EERs) and estimated average requirements (EARs), respectively, showed that they did not meet people's daily needs. While enlarging the meals improved nutrient profiles, most meals still remained insufficient to meet some micronutrient requirements. This led to the development of a meal planning guide to achieve nutrient adequacy using foods served in the 18 programs. An exploration of the determinants of meal provisioning using quantitative and qualitative methods suggested that multiple factors could limit improvements to the nutritional contribution of meals served in food programs.
Link analysis ranking

The plethora of Link Analysis Ranking algorithms generates the necessity for a formal way to evaluate their properties and compare their behavior. We introduce a theoretical framework for the study of Link Analysis Ranking algorithms, and we define specific properties of the algorithms within this framework. Using these properties we are able to provide an axiomatic characterization of the INDEGREE algorithm that ranks pages according the number of in-coming links. The explosive growth and the widespread accessibility of the Web has led to surge of research activity in the area of information retrieval on the World Wide Web. Ranking has always been an important component of any information retrieval system. In the case of Web search its importance becomes critical. Due to the size of the Web, it is imperative to have ranking functions that capture the user needs. To this end the Web offers a rich context of information which is expressed through the hyperlinks. In this thesis we investigate, theoretically and experimentally, the application of Link Analysis to ranking on the Web. Building upon the framework of hubs and authorities [57], we propose new families of Link Analysis Ranking algorithms. Some of the algorithms we define no longer enjoy the linearity property of the previous algorithms. As a result, it is harder to analyze them, or even prove that they actually converge. However, for a special case of the families we consider, we are able to prove that it will converge, and we provide a complete characterization of the combinatorial properties of the stationary authority weights it produces. We conclude the thesis with an extensive experimental evaluation of Link Analysis Ranking. We test the algorithms over multiple queries, and we use user feedback to determine their quality. Our experiments reveal some of the limitations of Link Analysis Ranking. Specifically, it appears that for most algorithms, the nodes and the structures in the graph that they favor, do not correspond to the most relevant pages in the collection. These observations offer a new insight into the mechanics of the algorithms, and we believe that they will lead to improved algorithm design, and better input graphs for the algorithms.
Collaborative competitive relationships within an integrated public sector network

A phenomenon of recent times has been the increased complexity of society's problems and the need for organizations to work together to find solutions while in competition with each other for scarce resources. This has created the need to better understand how organizations can best collaborate under such conditions. A qualitative study was conducted. In all, twenty-one participants were purposefully selected through snowball sampling and interviewed. These were individuals who represented their organizations in an interorganizational effort to address mutual benefits or common interests through a process of information exchange and resource sharing. The nature of interorganizational relationships was determined by each participant verbalizing the contents and meanings of the contacts of his/her organization with other organizations within the action set. Results revealed that organizations that control vital resources to the operations of others are in a position to control the actions of others. They also revealed that social relationships developed through organizational interaction with the environment both facilitate and constrain organizational action. Most notably, organizations in relationships of dependency with the government can use social capital to access social networks in their communities to build countervailing power to change a relationship of compliance to one of collaboration. In addition, results reveled that collaboration is most likely to occur when organizations perceive their actions toward goal attainment to facilitate each other's goals and less likely to occur if there is a lack of perceived interdependence, a lack of shared ideology, and a lack of trust. This study's findings reveal the importance of forging social networks to gain leverage over constraining dependencies in resource dependence relationships. This study examines collaborative relationships in an action set of five national non-government AIDS organizations (NGOs) competing for funds, and having Health Canada as their main funder. The aim of the study was to better understand how social relationships embedded in the organizational environment shape interorganizational collaboration in relationships of dependency and what conditions support such organizational behavior. Resource dependence theory was used as the conceptual schema for explaining organizational behavior observed under conditions of resource scarcity, interdependence, and uncertainty, as these are key variables in relationship building among these organizations.
Molecular mechanisms of LPS detection by human alveolar epithelial cells

Introduction. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is thought to be one of the major inciters of the acute inflammatory response that can lead to acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). While it is generally understood that alveolar epithelial cells are hyporesponsive to LPS stimulation, the reasons thereof are controversial. It has been shown that pathogenic challenge can render them responsive to LPS. Thus it is important to understand how the cells sense the presence of LPS and how they respond to LPS stimulation. Methods. Whole cells and lysates of an alveolar epithelial cell line (A549) were assayed using real-time PCR, Western blotting and flow cytometry for expression of LPS receptor complex molecules. IL-8 release, IL-8 promoter activist, and actin depolymerization were used as readouts for LPS stimulation. Cell viability was tested using the XTT assay. Conclusions. Contrary to many published reports, we showed that human alveolar epithelial cells can indeed respond to LPS stimulation. Although the mechanisms and players involved are not yet clear, the potential involvement of non-classical LPS receptors opens up opportunities for specific modulation of the epithelial response to LPS in the lung. Results. LPS stimulated small amounts of IL-8 release from A549 cells, which was increased in the presence of CD14. LPS stimulation also led to increased gene expression and actin depolymerization. Surprisingly, prolonged LPS stimulation at high concentrations induced cell death. This was not a caspase-mediated cell death; instead, cathepsin B may be the major player.
A sketch based two-dimensional animation system using dynamic motion hierarchies

This thesis presents a sketch-based system for authoring 2D animations. We propose an interface that combines fluidity with a high degree of functionality. The interface eschews implicit gestural input and is instead menu driven off a single closed stroke (squiggle) and streamlined for fluid sketching. We explore a design philosophy where a dynamic hierarchy of motion clips is built over an unstructured set of objects opposed to the common practice of defining unstructured animation curves for a static hierarchy of objects. Clips define motion within the timeframe of their parent and present an alternative for capturing hierarchical motion. The evident lack of an object hierarchy for articulated characters is addressed successfully using deformable object connectors. The system supports both keyframe and performance based animation of objects and motion clips allowing animation to be rapidly specified through a stylus input device, and further refined through keyframing.
Towards the systematic assessment and design of adaptive user interfaces

Adaptive user interfaces have been suggested as an alternative to help users deal with information overload and the complexity of software. However, experimental studies have questioned their effectiveness, while the introduction of adaptation techniques in commercial applications has had limited success. The negative past experience has caused skepticism among researchers in Human-Computer Interaction, as adaptive behaviour has been linked to poor designs, that have violated well-established usability principles. Several researchers have suggested that adaptable user interfaces, which are interfaces adapted by the user rather than the system itself, should be considered as a better alternative. This dissertation explores the design space of adaptation techniques in a range of user interfaces, identifies tradeoffs between adaptive and adaptable user interfaces and makes recommendations about their design and evaluation. In particular, it examines three different types of interfaces: hypermedia systems, lists, and hierarchical drop-down menus. New adaptation techniques are proposed for each interface. We explore both techniques that assist navigation and visual search, and techniques that facilitate movement and selection. We address limitations of existing techniques by exploring designs that merge automation with user control. The proposed designs are extensively evaluated. Specifically, the dissertation documents a total of seven user studies. Through our evaluation work, we explore the role of adaptation accuracy as a measure of the quality of automatic inference and decision-making, and evaluate its effect on the success of adaptation techniques. This allows us to investigate strengths and limitations of the techniques that we propose and come up with recommendations about the design and evaluation of adaptive user interfaces. Overall, the dissertation has three major contributions: (1) the introduction of designs of hypermedia systems that combine automation and direct user manipulation; (2) the systematic treatment of accuracy as a way to assess the effectiveness of adaptation techniques; and (3) the systematic design and evaluation of bubbling menus, a new design of adaptive and adaptable menus.
Structural and functional studies to determine the argininosuccinate lyase/fumarase C superfamily catalytic mechanism

The argininosuccinate lyase (ASL)/fumarase C superfamily consists of ASL/delta2-crystallin, adenylosuccinate lyase (ADL), fumarase C, aspartase, and 3-carboxy-cis-cis-muconate lactonizing enzyme. The enzymes are characterized by three regions of highly conserved amino acid residues, a mainly alpha-helical fold, and catalysis of substrates containing a fumarate moiety via a general acid-base mechanism. Although a common catalytic mechanism is proposed for the enzymes, this suggestion is not supported by the findings in the literature. This thesis describes structural and functional studies of ASL/delta2-crystallin and ADL, with the aim of better understanding the similar reactions catalyzed by the ASL/fumarase C superfamily enzymes. Duck delta1- and delta2-crystallin (ddeltac1 and ddeltac2, respectively) are used to study the ASL reaction mechanism. While ddeltac2 exhibits ASL activity, ddeltac1 is catalytically inactive and is hypothesized to have lost its ability to bind substrate due to amino acid substitutions in two loop regions compared to ddeltac2. However, a ddeltac1-double loop mutant (DLM) with these residues changed to those of ddeltac2 remains inactive, and isothermal titration calorimetry experiments confirm that ddeltac1 and the DLM are unable to bind substrate. In fact, recovery of ASL activity in the DLM requires an additional M9W mutation, suggesting that the conformationally flexible N-terminal arm (residues 1-15) plays some role in catalysis. The structure of a DLM-sulfate complex provides further evidence that catalysis in ASL/delta2-crystallin involves conformational changes of the highly conserved C3 loop and domain 3. In this context, the N-terminal arm is proposed to play a role in properly positioning residues of these regions for substrate binding and/or catalysis. The structure determinations of mutant-substrate and -product complexes of E. coli ADL have allowed the precise identification of substrate binding and catalytic residues in ADL. The C3 loop is 'closed' over the active site in both structures, similar to that observed in ddeltac1. This provides the first evidence that this conformational movement is required for catalysis in ADL, and by extension other superfamily members. The ADL and ASL/delta2-crystallin catalytic mechanisms are re-examined in light of these results, and our current understanding of the ASL/fumarase C superfamily catalytic mechanism is discussed.