VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Delivery of Pharmaceutical Health Care in Nunavut, Canada: Language, Culture and Policy

Pharmaceuticals are an essential component of modern health care as their therapeutic properties are often required to achieve optimal health outcomes. The pharmaceutical market is also a significant contributor to health care expenditures, with global sales exceeding US$300 billion and expenditures predicted to increase. These global factors necessitate the development of pharmaceutical policies that are adaptive to local contexts and address the complexities of purchasing, distribution, prescribing and administration practices that best suit the needs of local populations. Through multi-method research, my doctoral thesis explores three areas of pharmacy health care in Nunavut, Canada: policy and practice, discordance in health models, and language translation. First, this research examines the pharmacy policy currently serving remote communities in Nunavut, a territory affected by weather-related access issues, scarce human resources and complex financial allocations. Current policies are often in conflict with patient-centred care and result in significant pharmaceutical waste. Revised policies may better support health providers, and address distribution issues to optimize financial expenditures. Second, pharmaceutical health care is part of biomedicine, which offers sharp contrast to the more holistic Inuit wellness model. In Nunavut, although the majority of inhabitants are Inuit, biomedical health care is delivered primarily by Qallunaat (non-Inuit) health providers. This research uses a comparative framework to contrast these two health models to explain how multiple levels of cultural discordance layered with postcolonial inequalities may influence patient-provider relationships and patient adherence to pharmacotherapy. Third, this research considers language discordance in pharmacy health care in Nunavut, where pharmacy services are delivered in English to predominantly Inuit language speaking patients. Pharmacy language discordance can result in adverse drug events and serious patient harm. This situation is currently in transition as language legislation in Nunavut will soon require pharmacy services to be available in Inuit languages and efforts are underway to standardize Inuit-language pharmaceutical terminology. Together, these three issues influence the quality of pharmacy health care in Nunavut and this thesis contributes to a greater understanding of issues which hold the potential to direct future endeavours towards the optimization of pharmacy health care in Nunavut.

Keywords: Circumpolar
Indigenous
Inuit
Language Translation
Pharmaceutical Policy
Pharmacy Health Care
Advisor: Schillaci, Michael A
Group Decision Making and Preference Learning on Social Networks

This thesis focuses on exploiting the dynamics and correlations of preferences over social networks for developing efficient group decision making systems. One of the main challenges in any group decision problem is learning the individual preferences upon which decisions are based. It is the position of this thesis that social networks---by capturing preference correlations across individuals induced by social interactions---provide a natural and informative platform for preference learning. By mathematical modelling of preference dynamics and correlations over social networks, we focus on developing efficient algorithms for group decision making and recommendations, with less required user data, and lower cognitive and communication burden. We introduce empathetic frameworks in which individuals derive utility based on both their own intrinsic preferences (or happiness) and empathetic preferences, determined by the satisfaction of their acquaintances. After theoretically analysing this framework, we develop a scalable algorithm for group recommendation, and empirically demonstrate its performance. To capture the correlation of preference rankings on social networks, we introduce a network formation model called ranking networks in which the similarity of two individuals' rankings determines the chance they are connected to each other. After a thorough theoretical analysis, we use a special instance that we call preference-oriented social networks, for group decision making when faced with missing preferences. We develop algorithms to predict unknown individual preferences given known preferences of others in the social network and to make effective group decisions with partial preferences. Our empirical results demonstrate that incorporating social ties can significantly improve predictions and group decision making.

Keywords: Group Decision Making
Preference Learning
Recommendation
Social Choice
Social Networks
Advisor: Boutilier, Craig
Photo-thermal Nanosystems for Diseased Cell Treatment

The prevalence of cancer and infectious disease demands for development of more effective treatment technologies. Current standard chemo- and radiotherapy for cancer offer only relative therapeutic efficacy at the cost of significant side-effects. On the other hand, resistance of microbes to current antibiotics has raised serious concern in public health sectors such as hospitals. Thermal therapy is an alternative technique that employs high temperatures to treat diseased cells via direct and indirect heat effects. Owing to its nature, this technique can offer enhanced therapeutic efficacy in local diseased regions via either mono- or combinatorial platforms and very minimal side-effects. However, existing bulk heating systems are limited in providing selective and controlled temperature rise in the desired region at tissue/cellular scales. This compromises the therapeutic efficacy of the treatment and increases the risk of off-target heating in healthy tissues. In this thesis, we propose the use of heat-generating nanoparticles to precisely target heat into small regions and study how they can be applied in cancer and bacteria treatment. Our model nanoparticle system generates heat by light stimulation. Different nanosystems based on this particle are developed and their thermal effects on therapeutic distribution are explored at tumor tissue and cellular scales. In addition, the thermal effect of these nanoparticles is utilized to overcome microbial resistance. By mechanistic understanding of nanoparticle thermal effects at different length scales, this research helps to rationalize proper design and development of heat- generating nanomedicine for cancer and microbial treatments.

Keywords: Antibacterial
Cancer therapy
Nanohyperthemia
Nanomedicine
Nanosystems
Photo-thermal
Advisor: Chan, Warren C.W.
Numerical and Experimental Study of the Arc Fluctuations in a DC Plasma Torch

When the arc voltage fluctuates inside the torch, the velocity and temperature are subject to fluctuation, creating fluctuating temperature and velocity profiles at the torch outlet. This means that the particles experience different conditions, preventing uniform particle acceleration, heating, and melting, that can reduce the coating quality. Comprehensive three-dimensional unsteady state models of DC argon and argon-hydrogen plasma torches were developed. The arc root attachment point was calculated based on matching experimental voltage fluctuations with arc length estimations from steady state models. Unsteady state results show velocity at torch outlet can fluctuate by up to 30%. The fluctuating velocity and temperature profiles were used to study the plasma jet and particle heating, because a steady state model of a plasma jet cannot predict particle heating. It was demonstrated that the unsteady model could accurately predict both particle temperature and velocity. The comprehensive simulation model that was built in this research was also used to conduct a new study on a Blue torch, a new design of conventional plasma torches, the plasma gas is composed of argon, carbon dioxide, and methane. The results of these simulations show that shrinking the length of the blue torch results in better torch efficiency. The temperature and velocity fluctuations at torch outlet is less than the ones observed in conventional torches, due to the nature of plasma mixture, and the longer chamber. The present study is one of the first research works that studies the effect of arc fluctuations on Turbulence Kinetic Energy (TKE) production. The results show that arc fluctuations, and thus velocity fluctuations at torch outlet, have a considerable effect on TKE. This study presents a structured framework for modeling the plasma torch. The simulation model is well developed, and produces results that are in good agreement with both electrical and thermal empirical. The results help us get a better understanding of plasma torch, plasma jet stream, and particle heating, which leads to a more clear and accurate image of plasma torch performance.

Advisor: Mostaghimi, Javad
The Role of Fatigue in Osteoarthritis and its Potential Overlap with Pain and Depression

Background: Although not routinely assessed, individuals with osteoarthritis (OA) have identified fatigue as a key concern and research priority. Current conceptualizations of fatigue include multiple types, with physical and mental components. Pain and depression are two of the strongest fatigue predictors; however there are challenges to disentangling these symptoms. Purpose: To better understand the role of fatigue in OA, considering the potential of multiple types of fatigue and examining whether fatigue is a construct distinct from pain and depression. Methods: Two surveys, one-year apart, were administered via telephone interviews to an established population-based cohort (n =806) of older adults (64+ years) with hip and knee OA in two regions of Ontario, Canada. Descriptive analyses examined the amount of fatigue experienced and its variation across socio-demographics, health status variables and levels of pain and depression. Confirmatory factors analyses (CFA) were conducted to examine whether fatigue, pain and depression represent separate constructs. Results: Findings from descriptive analyses indicated that participants experienced notable general fatigue, although scores for specific types of fatigue were very low especially for mental fatigue. Fatigue intensity increased over time and was greater in women, older participants and those with less education. Fatigue was higher with increasing levels of co-morbidity, especially with reporting fibromyalgia, as well as levels of pain and depression. CFA models suggested that although related, fatigue did not overlap with either pain or depression. Evidence that there are two types of OA pain (“Pain on Activity”, “Pain at Rest”) was found; the latter of these overlapped with somatic depression symptoms, particularly restless sleep. A new variable (“Disturbed Rest”), created to account for this overlap, correlated moderately with pain on activity and related differently to depression and fatigue. Conclusion: Findings suggest individuals with OA experience a salient amount of general fatigue, and this is a construct distinct from both pain and depression. Pain experienced at rest and restless sleep were also found to form a unique construct, distinct from pain due to activity. Further research is warranted to examine similarities and differences in the characteristics of these symptoms in OA, as well as their impacts on disability.

Keywords: depression
fatigue
osteoarthritis
pain
Advisor: Badley, Elizabeth M
Examining the Role of the Insular Cortex in Addiction-relevant Behaviours

INTRODUCTION: Recently recognized as a critical brain region underlying the neurocircuitry of addiction, the body of evidence supporting the role of the insular cortex across multiple aspects of addiction is growing rapidly. Understanding the complex role of the insular cortex is crucial to moving forward with the development of therapeutics targeting this brain region for substance-related and addictive disorders. OBJECTIVES: The current series of experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of modulating activity in two insular subregions, through the use of multiple modalities (chemical lesions, pharmacological inactivation or electrical stimulation), on behaviours relevant to addictive disorders, including drug self-administration, reinstatement, and decision-making. METHODS: In the first series of experiments, we investigated the effects of chemical lesions or transient pharmacological inactivation of two distinct subregions of the insular cortex, the rostral agranular (RAIC) vs. caudal granular (CGIC), on the acquisition or performance of choice behaviour in the Rat Gambling Task (rGT). In the next series of experiments, we examined the effects of pharmacological inactivation of the RAIC on nicotine self-administration under a fixed ratio-5 (FR-5) schedule of reinforcement and the reinstatement of nicotine-seeking induced by nicotine-associated cues. Finally, we examined the effects of electrical modulation of the insular region on nicotine self-administration under both FR-5 and progressive ratio schedules of reinforcement and the reinstatement of nicotine-seeking by cues and nicotine priming injections. RESULTS: Lesions of the RAIC, but not CGIC, resulted in higher preference for options which produced lower reward amounts with higher reward consistency while inactivation of the RAIC, but not CGIC, shifted previously acquired preferences towards those same low reward/high consistency options. Inactivation of the RAIC attenuated nicotine self-administration and cue-induced reinstatement. Finally, electrical modulation functionally inactivated the insular region, resulting in attenuated nicotine self-administration, under FR-5 and progressive ratios, and of cue- and priming-induced reinstatement. CONCLUSIONS: This work demonstrates involvement of the RAIC, but not CGIC, in cognitive aspects of addictive disorders, such as gambling-relevant behaviours. Yet both regions were demonstrated to be implicated in substance-based addictive disorders. Thus, therapeutics using electrical modulation to target the CGIC may be preferable for substance dependence, with limited cognitive side effects.

Advisor: Le Foll, Bernard
An Institutional Ethnographic Investigation of College Professors' Experiences Constructing Course Outlines

Institutional ethnography is the ontology and methodology that supports this investigation into the problematic of college teachers, officially known as professors, having more and more of their teaching energy being devoted to supporting the interests of market economics rather than the interests of students, college teachers, society, and the environment. I take the standpoint of college teachers and use interviews from college teachers who were about to use course outlines for the first time along with my own insider perspective as the entry point into an investigation of the social relations involved with college course outline work. I place my informants' experiences of teaching without course outlines in analytical contrast to the general way that another college orchestrates college teachers' work through the course outline construct. I do this by producing an extended Turner-style (2003) mapping of the local and extra-local web-like textual power that mediates college teachers' work at one particular community college. I argue that there are four nesting layers to the ruling relations power over college teachers' work with students. The first layer emphasizes the ideological work that college employees do to support global-finance capital. The second describes the managerial work done to set up the operational/production planning of teacher, course, class, and course outline work. The third reveals how faculty members are complicit in doing textual work to set up their own ruling. The fourth identifies the performance work that faculty members do to execute the textual rules of their prescriptive course outline commodity work. Additionally, I used a textual and discourse analysis of four union negotiation-related documents to reveal the way that texts interlock concepts from one to another to shrink teachers' professional autonomy. I find market economic ruling relations power embedded in a web of texts, work sequences, and work discourse connected to college course outlines. This power has the effect of deskilling college professors by both increasing the supervision and standardization of their work and decreasing opportunities for academic freedom. My textual mapping identifies places where opportunities for effective teaching and learning had been deleted and could be reclaimed.

Keywords: college teachers
course outlines
institutional ethnography
market economics
social relations
textual power
Advisor: Jamie-Lynn Magnusson
Genes Underlying Social Influence on D. melanogaster Clocks

Social influence on an individual is found in many species. The mediation of such effects is based on communication, involving the generation, receipt, and integration of signals that modulate an organism's behaviour. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has played a significant role in understanding the mechanisms underlying social influences. One emerging theme is that an individual's circadian system is highly responsive to the social surroundings and could mediate such influence. Yet a systematic search for genes underlying social cues that affect an individual's internal state, has been hampered by the lack of a reliable and robust `social screen'. In this study, the known aspects of social influence were assimilated to create an assay which monitors circadian gene expression in a focal fly when interacting with a partner (stimulus fly). The stimulus fly was either wild-type, or harbored an unknown (forward genetics) or known (reverse genetics) mutation. Deviations in the circadian signal of the focal fly were used to identify novel genes in the stimulus fly that underlie social interactions. Through the forward genetic approach, 2552 chemically mutagenized lines were established, of which 10 novel mutations affected social interactions. Through the reverse genetic approach, several candidate genes altered social interactions, one of which is homologous to a mammalian limbic associated membrane gene. This limbic-homologue and an EMS mutant were further characterized to identify potential pathways through which social effects are manifested. Along with altered locomotor activity, both displayed significantly altered hydrocarbon profiles. This suggests that social influence likely operates through multiple pathways, including olfaction and the clock system. Despite the assay being conducted in a light-dark environment, phase shifts, changes in expression levels, and/or changes in the rhythmicity index were all detected. This suggests that social effect on the circadian system is a potent modulator, even when operating within the confines of a much stronger Zeitgebers such as light. The implications of the assay and collected data were discussed. A model framework through which the mechanisms of social interactions can be further studied was also synthesized.

Keywords: Behaviour
Cell and Molecular
Circadian
Clocks
Genetics
Social
Advisor: Levine, Joel D
The Founding Act of the People: Democratic Theory and the Problem of Founding

How does democracy get off the ground? Is it possible to begin democratically where there is no democracy before? What is the significance of founding moments, if any, for the project of constitutional democracy? This dissertation explores the problem of founding from the standpoint of its relation to democratic theory. The central claim is that a democratic constitution is not only supposed to set up the institutions of self-government, but it is also supposed to be made, as much as possible, democratically. In other words, how the constitution is made is as significant as what it prescribes. I offer two arguments in support of this claim. The first one is a normative argument about the meaning of popular sovereignty. Under contemporary conditions of diversity and pluralism, constitutional claims of popular sovereignty would have little purchase unless they have a strong foothold in what citizens themselves have to say in their own voices on the form and principles of their own political organization. Secondly, I also draw attention to the role of founding moments in setting the course of democratic politics over time. In this register, the basic idea is that how we begin (or begin anew) makes a difference in our future prospects. The effects of founding as a crucial historical experience are woven --both for better and for worse-- into the very fabric of the political community, lingering in its institutions, practices and identity.

Keywords: Constituent power
Constitutional democracy
Constitution-making
Founding
Paradox of founding
Popular sovereignty
Advisor: Beiner, Ronald
Dysphagia Following Endotracheal Intubation: Frequency, Risk Factors and Characteristics

Oropharyngeal dysphagia following endotracheal intubation occurs frequently, however, both the incidence and associated risk factors vary across the literature. This dissertation is comprised of three studies that investigate the frequency, associated risk factors and characteristics of post-extubation dysphagia along with the relation between intubation duration and swallowing outcomes with a focus on CV surgery. First, we conducted a systematic review in order to determine dysphagia frequency according to patient diagnoses and the association between dysphagia and intubation time. We conducted searches using fourteen electronic databases along with manual searching of journals and grey literature. Our critical appraisal utilized the Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment and GRADE tools. Our second study assessed dysphagia frequencies according to four intubation duration strata on consecutive patients following CV surgery: I (

Keywords: adult
cardiovascular surgery
deglutition
dysphagia
endotracheal intubation
extubation
Advisor: Martino, Rosemary
Structural and Biochemical Characterization of the Mammalian Glycosyltransferases, N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase II and Protein O-fucosyltransferase 1

Glycosyltransferases are the enzymes responsible for the biosynthesis of glycans. Each of these enzymes catalyzes the transfer of a sugar moiety from a donor molecule to a specific acceptor substrate. This study focuses on determination of the X-ray crystallographic structures of two mammalian glycosyltransferases with emphasis on understanding the structural basis for the recognition of their acceptor substrates. This effort yielded the X-ray crystal structures of the enzymes N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase II (GnT II) and protein O-fucosyltransferase 1 (POFUT1) in complexes with their substrates. This study also saw technical innovations, notably the use of the piggyBac transposon for establishing stable mammalian cell cultures for protein expression.

Advisor: Rini, James M