VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
New Mathematical Tools in Reach Control Theory

Reach control theory is an approach to satisfying complex control objectives on a constrained state space. It relies on triangulating the state space into simplices, and devising a separate controller on each simplex to satisfy the control specifications. A fundamental element of reach control theory is the Reach Control Problem (RCP). The goal of the RCP is to drive system trajectories of an affine control system on a simplex to leave this simplex through a predetermined facet. This thesis discusses a number of issues pertaining to reach control theory and the RCP. Its central part is a discussion of the solvability of the RCP. We identify strong necessary conditions for the solvability of the RCP by affine feedback and continuous state feedback, and provide elegant characterizations of these conditions using methods from linear algebra and algebraic topology. Additionally, using the theory of positive systems, Z-matrices, and graph theory, we obtain several new interpretations of the currently known set of necessary and sufficient conditions for the solvability of the RCP by affine feedback. The thesis also provides a rigorous foundation for the notion of exiting a simplex through a facet, and discusses uniqueness and existence of trajectories in reach control with discontinuous feedback. Finally, building on previous results, the thesis includes novel applications of reach control theory to parallel parking and adaptive cruise control. These applications serve to motivate new directions of theoretical research in reach control.

Keywords: Affine systems
Constrained control
Feedback control
Reach control
Switched systems
Topological obstruction
Advisor: Broucke, Mireille E
Sexual Narcissism and Social Comparisons in the Domain of Sexuality

The current investigation shows that people in romantic relationships compare their sex lives to the sex lives of other people and that these comparisons influence sexual and relationship satisfaction. Specifically, I show that those who are high in sexual narcissism, people who have a grandiose sense of their sexual self, and a lack of empathy for their sexual partners (Widman McNulty, 2010), are more reactive than those who are lower in sexual narcissism to sexual comparisons to superior relationships because they feel that unfavourable sexual comparisons suggest that their partner is not good enough for them. In Study 1, I found that those high in sexual narcissism were more likely to recall downward sexual comparisons, which boosted their sexual and relationship satisfaction. In Study 2, I found that those high in sexual narcissism reported that they would be more bothered by upward sexual comparisons, which in turn predicted lower sexual and relationship satisfaction. In Studies 3 and 4, I showed that those high in sexual narcissism felt less sexual and relationship satisfaction after an upward sexual comparison, compared to those low in sexual narcissism. In Studies 5 and 6, I showed that sexual narcissists were more bothered by upward comparisons due to concerns about the partner being inferior. In Study 7, I found that those high in sexual narcissism make marginally more downward sexual comparisons, which predicts higher daily sexual and relationship satisfaction. Collectively, the current findings suggest that people do make comparisons in a variety of sexual domains in their day-to-day lives, and that these comparisons have predictable consequences for sexual and relationship satisfaction. Further, this research suggest that sexual narcissism is an important individual difference variable in determining how people make and respond to sexual comparisons in the context of their relationships.

Keywords: Narcissism
Romantic Relationships
Sexuality
Social Comparisons
Advisor: Impett, Emily A
Modelling and Optimal Control of Production Systems Subject to Condition Monitoring

Modern manufacturing aims at reduction of inventories and safety stocks and, simultaneously, it is important to avoid shortages caused by production systems' failures. The economic manufacturing quantity (EMQ) models have been developed to address these objectives. Most previous research in the joint optimization of production and maintenance policies considered only the machine age or usage time, and do not incorporate condition monitoring (CM) information for decision making. This research presents new models for the joint optimization of CBM and lot sizing, depending on the nature of the collected data through CM, whether it is fully or partially observable. The former case is incorporated in the EMQ problem using proportional hazards model. The hazard rate of the machine is monitored at the end of each production run. When it exceeds the critical level, then preventive maintenance is performed. The corrective maintenance is carried out upon failure. The PH model is extended to multi-unit systems, where one unit is the core part of the system, subject to CM, and only age information of the second unit is available. The other units are adjusted or replaced when the system is maintained. The objective is to find an optimal opportunistic maintenance policy minimizing the long-run expected average cost per unit time. The joint optimization of EMQ and CBM is investigated for a partially observable deteriorating system subject to random failure using Bayesian control techniques. The posterior probability that the process operates in the unhealthy condition is updated at the end of each production run. When this statistic crosses the control limit, then full inspection is performed followed possibly by preventive maintenance. The objective is to find the optimal production and maintenance policy minimizing the long-run expected average cost. To get new insights into the value of CBM programs, we extend the model considering a two-unit series system to a more complex system. We also develop an optimal production and maintenance policy considering stochastic demand and introducing the safety stock. The optimization problem is formulated in the semi-Markov decision process framework and Markov renewal theory. The methodologies are illustrated with numerical examples using simulated and real data.

Advisor: Makis, Viliam
ESSAYS IN ADVERTISING MESSAGES, MASS MEDIA, AND PRODUCT POSITIONING

In my dissertation, I apply emerging big data methodologies to measure the effects of advertising content and detect potential product segments. First, I explore whether advertising messages can change the topics reported in mass media. Specifically, I examine whether Dove’s real beauty campaign increased the incidence of real-beauty-related topics in newspapers. Using a topic model, I segment beauty-related topics and identify topics related to real beauty. The number of sentences labeled as real beauty topics increases during the campaign. While the Dove campaign’s significant impact on real beauty topics around the time of the campaign holds even in newspapers without Unilever ads, the impact is larger in newspapers containing Unilever ads. Overall, this evidence is consistent with both a mass media’s public service role and an advertiser pressure influencing mass media content. In my next study, joint work with Avi Goldfarb and Trevor Snider, I introduce a method for identifying potentially related products using topological data analysis (TDA). From both simulated and real consumer purchase data, I show that “loopy segments” in TDA can connect regionally separated local products through national products, while standard clustering methods such as hierarchical clustering cannot. Lastly, I test whether comparative advertising reposition rival brands closer together. Using Google Trends’ aggregate consumer search data, I analyze Samsung’s U.S. television comparative advertising campaign against Apple’s iPhone. I count co-occurrence of searches for brand pairs (e.g. Samsung Apple) and their brand-product attributes (e.g. Samsung screen, Apple Screen), to respectively map brand and product space. I find that advertised rival brands become closer together in both brand and product spaces but not significant in product space. My results suggest that a lower share brand may benefit from comparative advertising against a market leader by forcing itself to be more considered alongside a market leader when consumers search brands.

Keywords: Advertising Message
Comparative Advertising
Consumer Search
Social-issue Advertising
Topic Model
Topological Data Analysis
Advisor: Goldfarb, Avi
Palladium and Rhodium-Catalyzed Reactions for the Synthesis of γ, γ-Disubstituted Cyclohexenones and of some Trifluoromethylated Molecules

This thesis describes new applications of palladium and rhodium catalysis directed toward the synthesis of γ,γ-disubstituted cyclohexenones and of some trifluoromethylated molecules. The contents are divided in three chapters. Chapter 1 describes the development of a palladium-catalyzed α-arylation protocol applied to cyclic vinylogous esters to yield products that can be transformed in a one pot process to γ-alkyl, γ-aryl disubstituted cyclohexenones. The reaction was found to be generally high-yielding and displayed a broad scope with respect to both coupling partners. Chapter 2 describes a new class of redox isomerization of allylic alcohols that proceeds by desymmetrization of cyclohexa-2,5-dienols. The γ,γ-disubstituted cyclohexenone products were formed in high yield and the reaction was found to tolerate different functional groups. Mechanistic studies were performed and revealed some details about the course of the reaction, a formal 1,3-hydride shift. Chapter 3 contains two methods based on the palladium or rhodium-catalyzed addition of organoboron reagents to carbon-carbon or carbon-oxygen double bonds, applied to the synthesis of some trifluoromethylated molecules. In the first part, the palladium-catalyzed enantioselective addition of arylboroxines to trifluoromethylacetaldimines (or their N,O-acetals) is detailed. This process yields α-(trifluoromethyl)arylmethylamines which are useful building blocks in medicinal chemistry. The second part chronicles the development of a rhodium-catalyzed domino reaction for the enantioselective synthesis of a new class of small rings: (trifluoromethyl)cyclobutanols bearing an exocyclic double bond.

Keywords: arylation
boronic acids
fluorine
isomerization
palladium
rhodium
Advisor: Lautens, Mark
Contexts of Exit and the Mental Health and Economic Incorporation of Migrants in Canada

My dissertation explores the impact of contexts of exit on the mental health and economic incorporation of migrants living in Canada, with a specific emphasis on the impact of armed conflicts and human rights violations in countries of origin. The first paper in my dissertation explores the impact of armed conflict according to varying defining characteristics such as severity of the conflict and intra- vs. inter-state focus and finds that migrants from countries with severe intrastate conflict have worse mental health than migrants from countries with no to minor armed conflict and the native-born. The impact of armed conflicts differs by gender, with women experiencing more depressive symptoms and men experiencing more anxiety symptoms. The second paper shows that the impact of armed conflicts is similar to, but does not replace, the impact of human rights violations in countries of origin. The impact of human rights violations is not more pronounced in situations of armed conflicts, and on its own, human rights violations have essentially similar long-term impact on the mental health of migrants as armed conflicts. Each of the first two papers demonstrates that armed conflicts and human rights violations in countries of origin often provoke multiple stressful life events and conditions during the life span that can have cumulative mental health consequences for migrants. The last paper in my dissertation explores the employment and occupational status of migrants from armed conflict countries. It finds that in spite of their high levels of education in Canada, migrants from armed conflict countries experience more difficulties in finding employment, particularly in the early years after migration, and in general achieve lower levels of occupational status, given their education, relative to other migrants and the native-born. When migrants come from countries in conflict, there appears to be an additional discount applied to their job market options after migration. Specifically, education completed prior to migration translates less often into employment success in this group.

Advisor: Wheaton, Blair
Landolt, Patricia
Network Improvement and Evaluation in Datacenters and Chip-Multiprocessors

Datacenters are vitally important in the information era in which we currently live. Datacenters are the key enabler of cloud computing, and host many important applications including web service and machine learning. To deliver superior application performance, it is imperative to carefully design and optimize networks in datacenters. we improve the network design in datacenters at two granularities. At the high level, we optimize datacenter networks to better handle collective communication and network failures. At a lower level, we propose sampled approaches to enable fast and accurate evaluation for Network-on-Chips (NoCs) that are widely used in Chip-Multiprocessors (CMPs). Current datacenters rely on IP multicast and TCP incast to support collective communication, or one-to-many and many-to-one traffic. However, they struggle to meet the latency, throughput and scalability requirements posed by modern datacenters. We present McLink and rMcLink, an efficient and scalable collective communication solution. In McLink, we distribute multicast packets in a table-free, tree-based manner. rMcLink aggregates incast packets on-the-fly as they travel towards their destination, reducing network bandwidth consumed by incast traffic. Our simulation results show that McLink reduces multicast packet delay by 16%, and rMcLink improves incast TCP flow finish time by 82%. Datacenter networks are subject to failures. In this work, we design a fault-tolerant routing protocol, GatewayPath. We propose a graph-partitioning based algorithm to forward packets around failures. It also allows further optimization to be applied towards shortest path or load balance. Our evaluation shows that GatewayPath improves convergence time by more than 80%; meanwhile the packet delay is on par with that of a traditional link-state fault-tolerant routing protocol. For CMPs used in datacenter servers, full system simulations are widely used to evaluate their performance. Full system simulations are accurate but prohibitively slow, limiting the range and depth of design space exploration. We focus on accelerating NoC simulation via the use of sampling techniques. We propose NoCLabs and NoCPoint, two sampling methodologies utilizing statistical sampling theory and traffic phase behavior, respectively. Experimental results show that NoCLabs and NoCPoint estimate NoC performance with an average error of 7% while achieving one order of magnitude speedup.

Keywords: Chip-multiprocessor
Collective communication
Datacenter
Fault-tolerance
Network
Simulation
Advisor: Enright Jerger, Natalie
Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Suicidal Behaviours among Children and Adolescents: The Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Bullying Victimization

This three-paper dissertation examined non-suicidal self-injury among children and adolescents referred to community and inpatient mental health settings in Ontario, and the association between suicidal behaviours and referral for mental health services among children involved in the child welfare system in Ontario. The first paper examined the effect of adverse childhood experiences on non-suicidal self-injury. The results of this paper indicated that children and adolescents who were physically abused had 49% higher odds of engaging in non-suicidal self-injury and children and adolescents who were sexually abused had 60% higher odds of engaging in non-suicidal self-injury, when compared to their non-abused counterparts. The second paper examined the effect of bullying victimization on non-suicidal self-injury and the mediating effect of depressive symptoms on the relationship between bullying victimization and non-suicidal self-injury among adolescents. The results indicated that the effect of bullying victimization on non-suicidal self-injury was partially mediated by depressive symptoms after adjusting for the effect of demographic characteristics, number of childhood abuse, social support, and mental health diagnoses. The third paper examined the association between suicidal behaviours and referral for mental health services among children involved in the Child Welfare System in Ontario. Data for this paper were obtained from the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect 2013. Results indicated that children who expressed suicidal thoughts had more than twice the odds of being referred for mental health services and children who engaged in self-harm behaviour had 44% higher odds of being referred for mental health services. Assessment procedures for indicators of mental health, particularly among children and adolescents with a history of maltreatment, should also take into account non-suicidal self-injury. The dissertation concludes by summarizing the results and implications for social work and childrenâ s mental health research.

Keywords: adverse childhood experiences
bullying victimization
child abuse and neglect
mental health services
non-suicidal self-injury
referral
Advisor: Fallon, Barbara
Functional Consequences of Mammalian-Specific Alternative Splicing Events in RNA Binding Proteins

Alternative splicing (AS) greatly increases transcriptome diversity by allowing individual transcripts to be processed into multiple mature RNAs. Advances in RNA sequencing technology have revealed that transcripts from nearly all multi-exon genes in vertebrates are subject to AS, and that patterns of AS change during development and in response to environmental stimuli and disease. Transcriptomic analyses of diverse vertebrate species have provided global insight into AS evolution, revealing an expanded role for this process in mammals and showing that AS patterns have diverged more rapidly than changes in gene expression. While these studies uncovered an extensive number of species- and lineage-specific splice variants, the molecular function of these isoforms and their contribution to phenotypic change remain largely unexplored. In this thesis, I describe a detailed investigation of the functional consequences of splice isoform evolution in multiple RNA binding proteins. I show that mammalian-specific skipping of exon 9 in the PTBP1 splicing factor alters its regulatory activity, and engineered skipping of the orthologous exon in chicken is sufficient to induce a large number of mammalian-like changes in the transcriptome. The inclusion of this exon is regulated during neurogenesis, and significantly impacts the kinetics of activation of neural-specific splicing programs. Subsequent analysis of all mammalian-specific AS events revealed that they are enriched among glycine- and tyrosine-rich, intrinsically disordered protein domains. Such exons affect nearly all members of the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) A and D protein family members, which have diverse functions in RNA biology. At the transcript level, their regulation requires formation of long-range, intramolecular, mammalian-specific RNA duplexes. At the protein level, their inclusion facilitates higher-order hnRNP assemblies on substrate pre-mRNAs that are required for regulation of target AS events. Together, my thesis work demonstrates how splice isoform evolution in RNA binding proteins can expand the regulatory capabilities of mammalian cells, and reveals how these changes can influence evolution of developmental processes.

Keywords: Alternative splicing
Bioinformatics
Evolution
hnRNPs
PTBP1
RNA splicing
Advisor: Blencowe, Benjamin J
"The Chiaroscuro Technique in the Works of W. G. Sebald"

Abstract W. G. Sebald’s writing has often been observed to have a unique quality, a “Sebald effect”. But what is this effect? In asking about it, I was struck by the fact that, even though chiaroscuro (Italian for light and dark) is widely used in the visual arts an appreciated by many due to its mysterious quality, it is also present in Sebald’s work. Yet, it is ignored by all the literary criticism on him. Because of this discrepancy, in my dissertation I explore this artistic technique which is a key concept in creating a peculiar atmosphere because personal and historical aspects are illuminated or hidden in a similar fashion as those in a chiaroscuro composition. In fact, the latter is not only an effect of the visual arts but also of prose. In the same way as the Dutch master, Rembrandt, Sebald has placed black and white in conversation while adjusting the shades of grey to the desired density for form, texture and substance. In my thesis I argue that a deeper meaning behind this technique is not produced by a strong black and white distinction, but by observing how one gradually blends with the other. This blend gives the composition a symbolic quality as it allows the artist to set up patters of both showing and hiding and makes any symbolism of light/white and dark/black complex. The viewer is, thus, compelled to look in-between those tonal shades to find the deeper meaning behind the work. Since the Dutch painter was important to the German author he stands as a significant model for all his oeuvre. In my dissertation I begin by explaining chiaroscuro in art, then I show how it can be applied to photography. After that, I analyze chiaroscuro in Sebald’s photographs, then in his prose. In conclusion, I argue that it is this technique which holds the fabric of his works intact through an invisible thread and gives his prose “a Sebald effect.” With this study I have given an analytical theory for future research and have contributed to the larger body of literature scholarship.

Keywords: Black and White Photography
Chiaroscuro
European History of Destruction
Holocaust
Rembrandt/Paintings
World Wars
Advisor: Noyes, John K.