VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Understanding Oxygen Photochemistry in CO2-dominated Atmospheres

The motivation for this work is the weak level of confidence in forecasting the temperature profile for the Martian atmosphere over the aerobraking region. This limitation comes mainly because of a misrepresentation of the atomic oxygen distribution in atmospheric models, which is a result of lack of measurements. One effective way to observe atomic oxygen and temperature remotely in the 50 to 100 km altitude region is through airglow measurements. The first part of the thesis involves the development of an airglow model to simulate four O2 emissions: the Herzberg I, Herzberg II, and Chamberlain band systems, as well as the Infrared Atmospheric emission at 1.27 um. The model predictions are compared with available observations from both the Mars and Venus atmospheres to exploit the consistency in the photochemistry of these two CO2-dominated atmospheres. Using composition from 3-D global circulation models of the Mars and Venus atmospheres, simulations are performed with realistic dynamical variations. Previous studies used 1-D photochemical models only. Hence, this novel approach allows in-depth investigation of the influence of dynamics and circulation on the airglow behaviour. A sensitivity study is conducted to understand the impact of the different photochemical parameters available in the literature and to recommend a set of parameters to be used in future model predictions. This approach also provides an understanding of the impact of atmospheric conditions, like temperature, dust load, water concentrations, etc., on the vertical structure of the emissions. A retrieval algorithm is also developed to perform a partial inversion of the recorded signal to extract the NO airglow emission in the Mars atmosphere from the SPICAM instrument. The method is tested with one year of stellar occultation measurements and validated with observations from SPICAM in a limb-viewing geometry and with airglow model predictions. This work identified and quantified, for the first time, localised variations in the NO nightglow, providing insights into the factors influencing the distribution of the oxygen species other than the general circulation and the photochemistry. The method proved to be a useful tool to build a climatology of the NO emission in the Mars atmosphere.

Keywords: airglow
modeling
oxygen
nitric oxide
Mars
Venus
atmosphere
photochemistry
Advisor: Strong, Kimberly
Our Health Counts - Unmasking Health and Social Disparities among Urban Aboriginal People in Ontario

In Canada, accessible and culturally relevant population health data for urban First Nations, Métis and Inuit people are almost non-existent. There is a need for Aboriginal community centric research and data systems, specifically in the area of mental health and substance misuse. The goal of this research was to address these knowledge gaps. The three linked studies being presented were nested in the Our Health Counts (OHC) project, a multi-partnership study aimed at developing a baseline population health database for urban Aboriginal people living in Ontario. In the first study, concept mapping was used to engage urban Aboriginal stakeholders from three culturally diverse communities in identifying health priorities. After completing brainstorming, sorting and rating, and map interpretation sessions, three unique community specific maps emerged. Map clusters and their ratings reflected First Nations, Inuit, and Métis understandings of health. Concept mapping encouraged community participation and informed the development of three health assessment surveys. The second study generated a representative sample of First Nations adults and children living in Hamilton, Ontario by utilizing Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS), a modified chain-referral sampling approach. Population estimates were generated for household and personal income, mobility, over-crowding and food availability. Results revealed striking disparities in social determinants of health between First Nations and the general population. The third study used the RDS generated sample to examine mental health and substance misuse among First Nations adults living in Hamilton. Prevalence estimates were generated for diagnosis and treatment of a mental illness, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicide, alcohol and substance misuse, and access to emotional supports. Findings indicated that First Nations adults living in Hamilton experience a disproportionate burden of mental health and substance misuse challenges. The three linked studies make innovative contributions to Aboriginal health research. Results clearly exemplify the effective application of community-based research methods that are grounded in local knowledge and built on existing community strengths and capacities. Representative population health data for urban First Nations will contribute to current deficiencies in health information; will shape policy and programming priorities as well as future research directions, particularly with respect to health and social disparities among this population.

Keywords: Aboriginal
First Nations
Inuit
Métis
urban
social determinants of health
Advisor: O'Campo, Patricia
La Théorie de la disposition rhétorique: sa formulation dans les textes classiques, sa réapparition dans les arts poétiques de la Renaissance française et son influence sur la composition des Sonnets pour Hélène (1578) de Pierre de Ronsard.

La rhétorique d’un recueil de pièces amoureuses relève de la rhétorique délibérative dans la mesure où l’amoureux tente de convaincre l’aimée d’agir dans le sens qu’il voudrait; de la rhétorique judiciaire lorsque l’amoureux s’adresse au lecteur et lui demande de juger de la situation où il se trouve; et de la rhétorique épidictique lorsqu’il y a louange ou blâme de l’aimée. De plus, étant donné que la poésie agit très directement sur le lecteur, le poète de la Renaissance a trouvé une forte correspondance entre les objectifs esthétiques de la poésie et les trois offices oratoires : plaire, émouvoir et instruire. La redécouverte des textes classiques d’Aristote, de Cicéron, et de Quintilien allait renforcer ces moments de croisement et permettre aux poètes de la Renaissance française de redéfinir leur rôle et celui de leur poésie. En principe, il s’agissait de libérer leurs œuvres poétiques de toutes les contraintes esthétiques et stylistiques valorisées au Moyen Age en composant leurs propres traités théoriques. En réalité, il s’agissait de renouveler l’esthétique poétique en préconisant l’importance de la pratique de l’imitation créatrice, c’est-à-dire, l’invention en lisant les anciens, et l’élocution en les imitant. L’imitation ne se limitait pourtant pas au niveau lexical. Elle s’accomplissait à l’intérieur d’une théorie rhétorique classique où la disposition, la seconde démarche consécutive de la rhétorique offrait à l’orateur des principes organisateurs qui s’appliquaient à la composition en vers. L’objet de cette thèse est donc de cerner une problématique que les poètes de la Renaissance ont dû confronter: comment structurer l’œuvre poétique. Dans un premier temps, en examinant la formulation de la théorie de la disposition classique et sa réapparition dans les arts poétiques de la Renaissance (1540-1560), cette étude établira que les règles de la rhétorique discursive qui régissent la composition et l’organisation du discours oratoire s’attachent facilement, au seizième siècle, à la composition poétique. Dans un deuxième temps, en analysant l’emplacement et l’enchaînement des pièces amoureuses dans les Sonnets pour Hélène (1578), ce travail de recherche examinera la façon dont ces mêmes principes organisateurs rhétoriques se font sentir dans le discours poétique amoureux.

Keywords: Renaissance
poetry
Pierre de Ronsard
Sonnets pour Hélène
poetic theory
composition
disposition
arrangement
rhetorical theory
classical rhetoric
Advisor: McClelland, John
On Improving the Performance of Mobile Applications using the Cloud

As a more efficient means of supplying computing resources in the form of a utility, cloud computing platforms have been increasingly used to meet the insatiable demand from mobile applications. The research problems we study in this thesis are in the general research area of mobile cloud computing, as we seek to design and implement new algorithms and protocols that straddle the boundary between mobile applications and cloud computing systems, so that their performance can be jointly optimized to provide the best possible user experience, yet operating within the constraints of available resources and operational costs. From the perspective of mobile applications, we show that interactive applications have the need to stream multi-touch gestures among multiple users. Tailored to the nature of multi-touch gesture streams, we propose a new protocol that uses inter-session network coding to reduce the gesture recognizing delays. Towards supporting mobile applications using the cloud resources, we believe that multi-party video conferencing service can benefit from the inter-datacenter networks in the cloud. We apply intra-session network coding to design a new protocol to maximize the total throughput of all conferencing sessions in the cloud, subject to a latency constraint imposed by the nature of video conferencing. Our real-world experiments have shown that the inter-datacenter networks help to achieve substantially improved throughput, with very similar delays compared to traditional peer-to-peer solutions. From the perspective of cloud service providers, we study the challenges involved when resource utilization is to be maximized and when operational costs are to be minimized. To maximize resource utilization, we propose a virtual machine (VM) migration algorithm based on Nash bargaining solutions. To minimize operational costs, we present optimal routing and flow assignment algorithms for the inter-datacenter traffic, with and without store-and-forward capabilities in intermediate datacenters. With efficient and cost-effective utilization of resources in the cloud, and by designing new protocols that are applicable to both mobile applications and cloud computing systems, achieving an optimized level of user experience with interactive mobile applications will become a reality.

Keywords: Mobile Applications
Cloud Computing
Advisor: Li, Baochun
Adaptive Sensing Strategies for Opportunistic Spectrum Access

To meet the ever increasing spectrum demand, developing a mechanism for dynamic spectrum access seems inevitable. Spectrum sensing enables cognitive radios (CRs) to identify and use frequency bands (channels) that are not being used by primary users (PUs) at a particular place and time. However, sensing errors and limited sensing resources, such as sensing hardware and sensing time, introduce significant technical challenges to the development of such an ideal capability. Adaptive sensing strategies allow the sensing resources to be spent on more promising primary channels. This is achieved by exploiting past sensing outcomes of one secondary user (SU), or, as proposed in this research, multiple spatially distributed SUs. We propose adaptive sensing strategies for three different scenarios. First, we assume that a SU sequentially senses a number of primary channels to find the first available channel. We propose a two-stage spectrum detection strategy that allows the spectrum detector to quickly detect and skip though most of busy channels and spend most of its time on channels that are more likely to be idle. Second, we consider the case where multiple SUs jointly try to locate idle channels within a given sensing time, which itself is divided into a number of sensing slots. We propose a cooperative spectrum search strategy that specifies the channel to be sensed by each SU in each slot in such a way to maximize the expected number of identified idle channels. Third, we consider a primary network that operates in a synchronous time-framed fashion. We assume that the occupancy state of each primary channel over different time frames follows a discrete-time Markov process. We propose a cooperative sensing strategy that decides which channel should be sensed by which SU in each frame. The goal is to maximize a utility function that accounts for both the number of detected idle channel-frames and the number of miss-detected busy channel-frames. We present analytical and numerical results to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed sensing strategies in increasing identified time-frequency spectrum opportunities and/or reducing interference with licensed systems.

Keywords: Wireless Communications
Signal Processing
Cognitive Radio
Spectrum Sensing
Advisor: Plataniotis, Konstantinos N.
Pasupathy, Pas S.
The Cost of Failure in Ontario's Public Secondary Schools

Large bodies of empirical evidence show that policies and practices that support failure in schools does little to improve student outcomes, yet course failure remains widespread in secondary schools. Further, there is a growing body of evidence indicating these policies and practices are costly in fiscal terms. This study builds on this body of evidence to ask the question: how much money does course failure in secondary schools cost the Ontario public education system annually? Borrowing from Levin & McEwan’s resource cost modelling approach, the study calculates the volume of course failure across all secondary schools in the province and establishes estimates of the annual cost of secondary course failure taking into account some factors known to be systematically related. This work aims to better understand the costs of providing public secondary school education in order to make more effective use of resources. In the 2008–09 school year 7.9% of course registrations in Ontario secondary schools resulted in failure. Fail rates are greater for students who receive special services and vary considerably by subject area. The annual cost is estimated to be $472 million.

Keywords: Failure, education, cost,
Advisor: Levin, Ben
From Perseveration to Flexibility: Reflection and the Down-regulation of Conflict Detection Underlying Executive Function Development

Introduction. Executive function refers to the top-down neurocognitive processes involved in flexible, goal-oriented behavior. A number of studies have shown positive effects of EF training. The overall aim of these studies was to explore the neurocognitive processes that support the development of EF by understanding how EF training works and what the active ingredients are. Particular interest was in isolating the role of reflection in EF training to understand its top-down affect on ACC-mediated conflict detection. Method. In Exp. 1 the neural markers of EF were explored by comparing ERPs of preschoolers who passed the DCCS and preschoolers who failed. Exp. 2 represents an attempt to replicate the key findings of Kloo & Perner, (2003, Exp. 2) that reflection training improves preschoolers’ performance on the DCCS and demonstrates far transfer. A shortened version of the training protocol was also tested (Exp. 3). In Exp. 4, the neural correlates of reflection training in preschoolers were explored by examining changes in the neural marker of EF found in Exp. 1. Results. In Exp. 1, the N2 amplitude was smaller (less negative) for children who passed the DCCS and were able to efficiently resolve the conflict in the stimuli than for children who failed and were unable to resolve the conflict. Exp. 2 replicated the findings of Kloo & Perner, (2003, Exp. 2) even using a brief (15 min) intervention targeting reflection (Exp. 3). In Exp. 4, one brief session of reflection training made children who initially failed the DCCS look like children who initially passed at both the behavioral and neural level (reduced N2 amplitude). Conclusion. Results suggest that reflective processing facilitates the development of EF in young children by teaching them to notice conflict, reflect on it, and formulate rules for resolving it, resulting in the down-regulation of ACC-mediated conflict detection.

Keywords: Executive Function Training
Neurocognitive Mechanisms
Dimensional Change Card Sort
Advisor: Zelazo, Philip D.
Improvements to the Design and Use of Post-tensioned Self-centering Energy-dissipative (SCED) Braces

The self-centering energy dissipative (SCED) brace is an innovative cross-bracing system that eliminates residual building deformations after seismic events and prevents the progressive drifting that other inelastic systems are prone to experience under long-duration ground motions. This research improves upon the design and use of SCED braces through three large-scale experimental studies and an associated numerical building model study. The first experimental study increased the strength capacity of SCED braces and refined the design procedure through the design and testing of a new high-capacity full-scale SCED brace. This brace exhibited full self-centering behaviour and did not show significant degradation of response after multiple earthquake loadings. The second experimental study extended the elongation capacity of SCED braces through the design and testing of a new telescoping SCED (T-SCED) brace that provided self-centering behaviour over a deformation range that was two times the range that was achieved by the original SCED bracing system. It exhibited full self-centering in a single storey full-scale frame that was laterally deformed to 4% of its storey height. The third experimental study confirmed the dynamic behaviour of a multi-storey SCED-frame in different seismic environments and confirmed the ability of computer models of differing complexity to accurately predict the seismic response. To achieve these goals, a three-storey SCED-braced frame was designed, constructed, and tested on a shake table. Lastly, a numerical six-storey SCED-braced building model was constructed. This model used realistic brace properties that were determined using a new software tool that simulates the full detailed mechanics of SCED and T-SCED braces. The building model showed that initial SCED brace stiffness does not have a significant effect on SCED frame behaviour, that T-SCEDs generally perform better than traditional SCEDs, and that the addition of viscous dampers in parallel with SCED braces can significantly reduce drifts and accelerations while only causing a small increase in the base shear.

Keywords: Structures
Earthquake Engineering
Passive Damping
Self-Centering Systems
Advisor: Christopoulos, Constantin
How Teachers use Structure-based Learning in their Practice: A Case Study of Question Structure

A major thrust in assessment reform is the instructional use of assessment (Ministry, 2010). Assessment for learning (AFL) has, however, proven challenging for teachers to implement (Brookhart, 2004; Swaffield, 2011; Tierney, 2006). Researchers have called for studies of classrooms that show how AFL works in practice (Bennett, 2011; Shepard, 2000). This study gathers images of practice from classrooms where teachers have been implementing a structure-based approach called Question Structure. Although a key premise of AFL is that assessment can be used instructionally to support learning, Question Structure’s constructivist-information-processing approach is rooted in educational measurement traditions usually juxtaposed to AFL theory and practice (Broadfoot & Black, 2004). Images of practice were drawn from classroom observation, teaching artifacts, and interviews from teachers who had been implementing the system for three to six years in three Ontario school boards. Data were analyzed through sub-questions emerging from the literature and through grounded theory. The study found that Question Structure supported AFL principles and practices. It also supported a Tylerian, backwards-design approach to program design, but not to excess. Technical revisions tended to evolve into significant change in practice, including program reconceptualization and increased focus on students’ learning. The structure-based approach functioned in a variety of ways, for example to support task clarification, (re)reading and comprehension of text, writing process, open-ended collaborative work, and student-generated questions. Teachers were able to clarify the meaning of ‘structure,’ to distinguish structures from instructional and cognitive strategies, and to use universal structures and strategies as subject-specific pedagogy in Language Arts/English. The role of the technical interest and implications for professional learning are also discussed.

Keywords: assessment for learning
structure-based learning
subject pedagogy
task clarification
informational writing
professional learning
teacher practice
taxonomy
strategy instruction
constructivist information processing
reading comprehension
instructional design
teacher change
learning strategies
Advisor: Cameron, Linda
Characterization of Host Protective Immunity against Influenza Infection in Ferrets and Mice

Influenza virus infects the human population worldwide and causes acute respiratory disease. Currently, the primary strategy for preventing influenza is seasonal vaccination which is capable of providing protection in most populations. However, seasonal vaccines are less efficacious to immunize the elderly and poorly induce cross-protective immunity against the reassorted pandemic virus in the recipients. Neuraminidase (NA) inhibitors have also been widely utilized to limit disease outcome. The currently used NA inhibitors, nonetheless, generate the drug-resistant progeny viruses; moreover, they are unable to directly target the host immune responses which cause immunopathology in severe cases. Therefore, new strategies that provide more effective immunogenicity, cross-protection and therapies against influenza infection must be developed. In this thesis, the adjuvanticity of CpG oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN), type I interferon (IFN) and Complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA) when coadministered with seasonal influenza vaccines in ferrets is presented. It has been found that the adjuvanted vaccines are efficacious to induce neutralizing antibody responses. Several common and distinguished signaling pathways leading to dendritic cell (DC) maturation and B cell activation have been discovered from their adjuvanticity. Furthermore, it was determined that seasonal H1N1 prior infection more effectively induces cross-protection against the newly emerged 2009 pandemic H1N1 (H1N1pdm) virus in ferrets and mice than the seasonal vaccines. The prior infection-induced cross-reactive but non-neutralizing antibodies are capable of providing substantial protection in the H1N1pdm infected mice when CD8 T cells are absent. Lastly, function of different vaccine adjuvants for controlling H1N1pdm infection in mice has been investigated. Unlike other adjuvants, CFA is capable of protecting the mice from infection through enhancement of Treg cell suppressive molecules galectin-1 and CTLA-4 which downregulated DC costimulation and effector T cell responses. Overall, this thesis has provided novel mechanistic insights for developing protective strategies against influenza infection.

Keywords: Influenza virus, adjuvant, vaccine, prior infection, cross-protection, nonneutralizing antibody, Toll-like receptor, TLR agonist, immunopathology, T regulatory cell, immune suppression
Advisor: Kelvin, David J.