VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
FRAMEWORK FOR MANAGING INTEGRATION CHALLENGES OF PRODUCTION PLANNING AND CONTROL IN INTERNATIONAL CONSTRUCTION MEGA-PROJECTS

The public often associates mega-projects with poor performance due to delays and budget overruns. International mega-projects (IMPs) comprise multiple subprojects across widely spread areas, often with independent resources and individual plans. Such decentralization into clusters increases the integration planning and execution challenges. Changes to the schedule, budget, and scope, as well as poor design, are critical integration challenges within and across subprojects of mega-projects. International characteristics of project delivery compound additional complexity on integration aspects. It is essential for the production planning system in IMPs to be robust in addressing integration challenges to achieve necessary interface and realistic reporting. This study aimed to reveal the significance of operational gaps and resolve the integration challenges in IMPs. To achieve its goal, the study was divided to three phases. They are: 1) synthesize literature and practice with respect to production planning and control systems; 2) evaluate the performance of the production planning and control system at a mega-scale in a case study; 3) develop a framework to provide workable solutions to address the unique and complex integration challenges of IMPs. The Last Planner速 System (LPS速) was found to be an emerging production planning and control system with a promising potential. Fostered to complement, not to replace, the existing LPS速 model, the proposed IMPact framework is a roadmap aiming to improve the operations of IMPs, keeping them on track, and potentially replacing the negative image of IMPs with positive impressions. The validated framework provided a conceptual practical solution, based in LPS速, to address the challenges that project teams on IMPs have within and across subprojects. It is intended to be an adaptive system in an effort to improve delivery and performance of IMPs.

Keywords: Delphi
international mega projects
Last Planner System ( LPS )
Lean Construction
Nominal Group Technique (NGT)
Production Planning and Control
Advisor: McCabe, Brenda Y.
Modifications to Laboratory Test Methods to Evaluate the Beneficial Effects of Low-Alkali Binders on the Alkali-Silica Reaction

Since alkali-silica reaction (ASR) was identified in the 1940â s by Thomas Stanton, thousands of research papers have been published on identification and mitigation of the reaction. Laboratory test methods have been created, modified, and their results compared to the performance of concrete in the field. Current standardized test methods do not allow for testing of low-alkali cements, due to their storage conditions. This has been found to be a severe limitation on assessment of ASR mitigation options. The objective of this research is to adapt current standardized test methods (the concrete prism test and the accelerated mortar bar test) so they can detect the beneficial effects of low-alkali cementing systems, with or without supplementary cementing materials. The alkali leaching and the alkali boosting in the concrete prism test make it unable to evaluate concrete mixtures with low-alkali cement. The effect of cement alkali content and binder combination on the expansion and leaching was investigated, as well as ways to minimize the alkali leaching. Leaching from concrete prisms ranged from 25-50% but covering each prism with a plastic bag reduced the leaching to only about 10%, without reducing the expansion measured. By modifying the alkali boosting procedure, and with the use of improved storage conditions to minimize alkali leaching, it is possible to use the concrete prism test for evaluating the benefits of concrete mixtures made with low-alkali cements. The storage solution for the accelerated mortar bar test provides an abundance of alkali ions to cause ASR, making it unfit to evaluate low-alkali cement mixtures. Therefore, samples were also tested in a storage solution with alkalinity similar to the pore solution of the samples tested. Lowering the concentration of the storage solution to 0.7 times the alkali content of the cement used, greatly improves the correlation between the two test methods.

Keywords: Accelerated Mortar Bar Test
Alkali-Silica Reaction
Concrete
Concrete Prism Test
Laboratory Test Methods
Advisor: Hooton, R. Douglas
The Anaerobic Digestion of Organic Solid Wastes of Variable Composition

Abstract Every year in Canada approximately 8 million tonnes of organic solid waste is placed in landfills where it decomposes anaerobically over decades, produces large volumes of leachate requiring treatment, and releases 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions as CO2eq. Anaerobically digesting this waste prior to landfill would obviously be beneficial, but this is difficult to achieve because solid waste is a complex, heterogeneous and variable mixture, making any form of processing much more expensive than landfill. This thesis investigates the capabilities of a new approach to the anaerobic digestion of solid waste designed to overcome these obstacles. Most of the costly separation and pretreatment steps common in European anaerobic digesters are eliminated. The waste remains stationary, the leachate is recirculated through it, and the resulting digestate is aerobically cured. The biogas generated is recovered for the generation of electricity or the production of renewable natural gas. A laboratory scale system comprising six sequentially batch fed leach beds and an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor was constructed, and operated continuously for 616 days. The feedstock consisted of a mixture of cardboard, boxboard, newsprint, and fine paper, to which varying amounts of food waste were added (from 0% to 29% on a COD basis). The digester accommodated these and other changes without any signs of process upset or instability. It was found that the addition of food waste increased biogas production from the fibre mixture from 101 L.kg-1CODfibreadded to 330 L. kg-1CODfibreadded an increase of 225%. A substrate destruction efficiency of 65% (on a COD basis) and a methane yield of 225 L.kg-1 CODadded were achieved, at a solids retention time of 42 days. This performance was similar to that of a CSTR digesting similar wastes. A financial analysis showed that the technology can be competitive with landfill.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion
co-digestion
methane
solid waste
Advisor: Edwards, Elizabeth A.
Evaluating Stem Cell Transplantation in Novel Models of Bilateral Cervical Spinal Cord Injury

The majority of spinal cord injuries (SCI) occur at the cervical level, which results in significant impairment. Severity and neurologic level of injury are primary endpoints in clinical trials; however, showing level-dependence in experimental models has proven difficult. Stem cell transplantation for SCI has been explored in preclinical models; however, the specific mechanisms, such as remyelination, environmental modification or synaptic integration, are incompletely understood. Despite these knowledge gaps, stem cell transplantation for SCI has entered human clinical trials. We sought to establish level-dependent models of cervical SCI that could subsequently be used to examine efficacy and mechanism of neural precursor cell (NPC) transplantation. First, we examined whether ascending level of injury leads to progressive loss of tissue and specific neuron pools, causing worsening forelimb motor performance. We directly compared injury at the C5, C6, C7 and T7 vertebral levels caused by severe bilateral clip compression injury. Animals were assessed for 10 weeks post-injury with numerous (42) outcome measures of neuroanatomy, physiology, and sensorimotor function. The cervical enlargement (C5-T2) showed progressive ventral horn atrophy and loss of motor columns with ascending injury, resulting in progressive and reciprocal changes forelimb function and gait. Multivariate statistics revealed a robust dataset and allowed prediction of injury level with single-level discrimination using forelimb function, gait performance, and neuron counts. Injury at C5 and C6 were categorically distinct to other injuries. We then examined whether NPCs would ameliorate C6-level SCI and return function through remyelination and synaptic integration. Long-term survival of NPCs was evident to 16 weeks. Despite improving axonal conduction and close physical apposition to host motor neurons, NPC-derived cells did not form synapses with forelimb circuitry. Graft-derived cells deposited myelin around endogenous axons, causing reduced astrogliosis, preserved motor neuron pools, and improved motor function in a dose-dependent manner. Level-dependent models were generated using clip-compression SCI, with marked differences in forelimb performance and neuron atrophy. Transplantation of NPCs in the injured cervical spinal cord resulted in significantly improved tissue integrity and forelimb function, warranting further study in level-dependent preclinical cervical models to improve this treatment paradigm for clinical translation.

Keywords: Animal model
Cell transplantation
Functional recovery
Neural stem cell
Neurophysiology
Spinal cord injury
Advisor: Fehlings, Michael G
Networks of Mobility and Constraint: The Economic Integration of New Immigrants to Canada

Using data from the 2008 General Social Survey (GSS) of Canada, this dissertation extends the traditional immigration literature, while drawing on prominent issues in the network literature, by examining inequality in access to social capital, and the degree to which structural factors within Canadian immigrant social networks yield socio-economic returns and constraints. The dissertation consists of three thematically linked publishable papers. The first publishable paper (Chapter 2) compares sources of social capital including membership in voluntary organizations, comparing foreign-born and native-born. This paper highlights the reasons for the relative inadequacies of immigrant networks. Particularly for recent immigrants, factors include less time in Canada, lower rates of participation in voluntary organizations, a lack of Canadian educational qualifications, poor English/French linguistic skills, and ethnic/racial minority status. These factors contribute to embeddedness within smaller, more homogenous networks. The second publishable paper (Chapter 3) looks at the role of social networks on male immigrantsâ earnings because earnings determination differs for men and women. The paper finds that recent immigrant men have significantly lower earnings than their native-born counterparts in large part because immigrants have more close ties and fewer of the varied weak ties that are more useful in attaining employment upon arrival to Canada. The third publishable paper (Chapter 4) compares the economic returns from network resources between immigrant men and women across immigrant entry cohort. The paper finds that immigrant women have lower earnings than men and that the effect of each network characteristic on earnings significantly differs between immigrant men and women. The aim of this dissertation is to offer greater insight into the relationship between immigrantsâ social network characteristics and their earnings in Canada. There are several broad implications for this project. First, the research develops new theoretical insights concerning economic mobility within Canada, beyond race, language proficiency, and Canadian labour and work experience. Second, by recognizing the network characteristics associated with newcomer welfare, this study contributes to immigrant policy and research within Canada and elsewhere.

Advisor: Erickson, Bonnie
Fast and Scalable Physics-Based Electromigration Checking for Power Grids in Integrated Circuits

Electromigration (EM) is a key reliability concern in chip power/ ground (p/g) grids, which has been exacerbated by the high current levels and narrow metal lines in modern grids. EM checking is expensive due to the large sizes of modern p/g grids and is also inherently difficult due to the complex nature of the EM phenomenon. Traditional EM checking is based on empirical models, but better models are needed for accurate prediction due to the very small margins between the allowed failure rates (spec) and the failure rates at which the chips actually operate in the field. Thus, recent more accurate physics-based EM models have been proposed, which remain computationally expensive because they require solution of a system of partial differential equations (PDEs). In this work, we extend the existing physics-based models for EM in metal branches to track EM degradation in multi-branch interconnect trees and propose a fast and scalable methodology for power grid EM verification. We speed up our implementation by using filtering schemes (that focus the computation only on the most EM susceptible trees) and by developing optimized numerical methods to solve the PDE system arising out of the physics-based EM models. The lifetimes found using our physics-based approach are on average 2.35x longer than those based on a (calibrated) Blackâ s model, as extended to handle mesh power grids. With a runtime of only 10 minutes for a 4.1M node grid, our approach is extremely fast and should scale well for large integrated circuits.

Keywords: Electromigration
Partial Differential Equations
Power Grids in ICs
Probability
Reliability
Advisor: Najm, Farid N.
Lessons Learned from the Reactivity of Mandelylthiamin and Derivatives

Mandelylthiamin (MTh) is an accurate model of the pre-decarboxylation intermediate formed on benzoylformate decarboxylase (BFDC). In solution, it decarboxylates to the Breslow intermediate 108 times slower than on the enzyme. Earlier studies proposed that the Câ C bond-breaking step in the decarboxylation of MTh is highly reversible, and thus possibly impeding the overall reaction rate. More recently, it was observed that the decarboxylation of MTh could be more effective through formation of HCO3-, suggesting the enzyme could be applying a similar strategy to maximize its catalytic efficiency. This thesis investigates in detail the decarboxylation of MTh and related analogs in solution phase, and proposes possible enzymic strategies for catalysis. Research on MTh had suffered from a low yield synthesis and ineffective purification. The work in this thesis was made possible because lithium ions were discovered to greatly promote formation of the MTh ester and its analogs. Using the new synthetic methodology I could synthesize previously unattainable MTh variants. This thesis can be divided into three main sections: 1) the study of MTh analogs and other compounds to understand molecular features responsible for decarboxylation by formation of HCO3-. This was probed through observation of base catalysis and a solvent kinetic isotope effect (SKIE), which are indications of a decarboxylation by formation of HCO3-. Based on the collected results, it was concluded that a base catalyzed decarboxylation is a unique phenomenon. A coincidental outcome of this study was the discovery of intramolecular cyclization reactions of the Breslow intermediate. 2) the study of substituent effects on the decarboxylation of MTh to probe the nature of the BF-derived Breslow intermediate in solution and comparison of results to the enzymic decarboxylation. This revealed that certain enzymes likely enforce an unnatural geometry of the Breslow intermediate to achieve catalytic perfection. 3) the study of the fragmentation of the BF-derived Breslow intermediate from a radicalsâ formation perspective. This was done after recent reports that radicals are involved in related transformations. My results lead to a conclusion that radicals are unlikely to be involved, and instead a simple polar alternative that is consistent with experimental observations was proposed.

Keywords: Breslow
carbene
decarboxylation
mandelylthiamin
MTh
thiamin
Advisor: Kluger, Ronald
Frequency Domain Method for Resolution of Two Overlapping Ultrasonic Echoes

The ability to identify and resolve overlapping echoes is crucial to the enhancement of axial scan resolution in ultrasonic testing. Overlapping echoes are frequently encountered in the inspection of shallow and/or short cracks in Time-of-Flight Diffraction and normal incidence reflection inspection of near surface flaws. Dictionary-based parametric representation (DBPR) has been proposed as a powerful framework to separate overlapping echoes of different shapes. However, the large solution space in DBPR renders the optimization process difficult. We propose a new echo separation method named Trigonometric Echo Identification (TEI) that exploits the consistent frequency domain amplitude and phase relationships of two overlapping ultrasonic echoes to reduce the number of optimization parameters. In TEI, frequency amplitude profiles are entered as inputs and the corresponding set of frequency phase profiles are reconstructed as outputs. The optimality of the output phase profiles is then used as a metric to determine the accuracy of the trial amplitude inputs. By reconstructing the phase information instead of explicitly specifying the phase profiles, we can reduce the number of unknowns in the problem of identifying two overlapping ultrasonic echoes. Compared to DBPR, TEI can describe more complex ultrasonic echoes using the same number of optimization parameters. In addition, since the phase profiles are reconstructed using the acquired data, TEI would perform more reliably in the presence of noise. Simulation tests were conducted to assess the relative performance of TEI and DBPR. Echo parameters including center frequency, phase shift and relative amplitudes were systematically varied to yield different test configurations. The standard deviation of timing errors obtained from TEI were 50% lower compared to DBPR. The difference in algorithm performance is especially evident in low SNR signals and signals containing echoes of complex shapes. The TEI algorithm was also verified on experimental ultrasound testing data containing overlapping echoes. The echo arrival times extracted using TEI agree with the values obtained using geometric calculations.

Keywords: Frequency Domain
Non Destructive Testing
Signal Processing
Ultrasonics
Advisor: Sinclair, Anthony
Towards Measuring Hydrophobic Hydration at Small and Large Scales

The hydrophobic effect is well-known, ubiquitous, and of critical importance to difficult problems such as protein folding and molecular self-assembly. The effect, as understood today, arises not from any direct force, but rather emerges from the statistics of many such forces acting on a variety of molecules. We have in our possession advanced theories aiming to predict the statistical outcomes of such systems without exhaustive sampling or extensive parameterization. However, certain key predictions of these theories lack validation, and their generalization to systems of nonideal hydrophobes or to mixed solutions remains an open question. This thesis aims to describe these theories, analyze their predictions in the context of available experimental evidence, and add to that evidence. To this end, traditional tools such as contact angle measurements and vibrational spectroscopy will be employed in conjunction with single polymer pulling experiments and modern statistical analysis techniques. Machine learning methods will be examined as an avenue for increasing single molecule force spectroscopy throughput, with the specific goal of trackingrare events which might contain a large amount of information. Sum frequency generation data will be examined alongside solute-correlated Raman and infrared spectra, specifically for the investigation of aromatic hydrocarbons in the presence of protein-folding agents.

Keywords: AFM
Hydrophobic
Machine Learning
Multivariate Curve Resolution
Polymer Collapse
Surface Science
Advisor: Walker, Gilbert C
The Role of NLPR3 Inflammasome in Response to Thermal Injury and Sepsis

Although the induction of acute-phase inflammation after burn injury is essential, if prolonged it can induce increased risk of infection and sepsis. The NLRP3 inflammasome has established itself as an integral mediator of the acute phase response, however there is a current lack of understanding how it is involved in the inflammatory response after burn injury. In this study we investigated the role of the NLRP3 inflammasome in burn and septic patients and further aimed to determine if its components can be used to predict sepsis. In Chapter 2 we established the hyperinflammatory response in adult burn and septic burn patients. We also showed that there is increased NLRP3 inflammasome activation and expression in white adipose tissue (WAT) of burn patients and that its pro-inflammatory by-products increase with increasing injury severity. In Chapter 3, we studied the effect that NLRP3 knockout would have on survival and the immune response in rodents. Interestingly, knocking out NLRP3 inflammasome resulted in increased bacterial clearance and survival in rodents. However, it also induced greater acute responsiveness at the site of injury and WAT characterized by greater macrophage and neutrophil infiltration, ER stress, apoptosis/pyroptosis, and increased systemic inflammation. Differential effects were found in other organs with an overall faster return to baseline in inflammatory mediators. In septic burn patients, we found peaks in WAT NLRP3 gene expression occurring later than non-septic’s. Extending these findings in Chapter 4, we used the major source of NLRP3 inflammasome (macrophages) and its by-product (IL-1β) to generate the Septic Predictor Index to identify burn patients susceptible to sepsis. Patients with Index ratios greater than 0.5 had reduced macrophages proportions in WAT that were producing excess amounts of pro-inflammatory IL- 1β, and subsequently developed sepsis. Collectively, these results suggest that the NLRP3 inflammasome is a critical acute-phase mediator in septic burn patients and despite its utility to identify patient susceptible to sepsis, its mechanism is complex yet protective of sepsis development.

Keywords: Burn
Inflammasome
Inflammation
Sepsis
Advisor: Jeschke, Marc G