VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
High-efficiency paper additives based on enzyme recognition functions

Conventional “effective” retention aid systems cause everything to stick to everything else. There is no control of distribution over materials onto fibers. The fundamental problem is that retention aid adsorption is not selective. The goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of selective wet-end additives based on highly selective enzyme binding characteristics. In this research, cellulase was immobilized onto clay/kaolinite through a crosslinking process. Based on the results obtained, cellulase can be immobilized onto the kaolinite. Although only small amount of cellulase is attached on the surface, the cellulase-treated kaolinite gave better retention and stronger attachment to the cellulosic fibers than untreated kaolinite. This improvement is caused by the fact that cellulase recognizes cellulose in the fibers and the decrease of the negative charge of the kaolinite. The immobilization process reduces the negative charge of kaolinite by compressing the double layer of the particle.
Screening-level human health risk assessment: development and application of a multimedia urban risk model

A screening-level human health risk assessment model, MUM-FAMrisk, was developed to quantify risk of adverse human health effects, with the aim of supporting environmental decision-making. MUM-FAMrisk is comprised of exposure assessment and risk characterization components and can assess cancer and non-cancer risk from exposure to organic contaminants and metals for seven human life stages. Model flexibility allows for a combination of modelled and measured model input data. MUM-FAMrisk is used as a baseline scenario to compare six international approaches to screening-level risk assessment, which serves to highlight variability between exposure and risk estimates. Model features and utility are demonstrated in its application to mobile and area sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada.
On the isomorphism problem of p-endomorphisms

Let X = (X, [special characters omitted], μ, T) be a measure-preserving system on a Lebesgue probability space. Given a fixed probability vector p = ( p1,…,ps), we say that X = (X, [special characters omitted], μ, T) is a p-endomorphism if T is s-to-1 a.e. and the conditional probabilities of the preimages are precisely the components of p. Two measure-preserving systems X = (X, [special characters omitted], μ, T) and Y = (Y, [special characters omitted], ν, S) are isomorphic if there exist a measure-preserving bijective map [special characters omitted] : X → Y such that [special characters omitted]T = S[special characters omitted] a.e. This thesis considers the isomorphism problem of p-endomorphisms, generalizing the work of Hoffman and Rudolph [H,R] which treats the case when p is a uniform probability vector, i.e. p = (1/ p,…,1/p). In particular, we generalize the tvwB criterion introduced in Hoffman and Rudolph to prove two results. The first result is Theorem 2.4.1, which generalizes the main theorem in [H,R] to p-endomorphisms. We paraphrase this as follows: Theorem 2.4.1. Let X = (X, [special characters omitted], μ, T), be a p-endomorphism . Then X = (X, [special characters omitted], μ, T) is one-sided Bernoulli if and only if X = (X, [special characters omitted], μ, T) is tvwB. We give two proofs of this result. The first follows Ornstein's classical proof of his famous theorem that two shifts of equal entropy are isomorphic, and a second proof which follows the joinings proof as given in [H,R]. As a corollary of the joinings proof, we show that there are uncountably many automorphisms of the one-sided Bernoulli shift B+ (p) unless the components of p are pairwise distinct. We also give examples of tvwB p-endomorphisms such as mixing one-sided Markov shifts and a generalization of the [T, Id] transformation. The second main result is Theorem 5.1.1, which in view of Theorem 2.4.1, reduces to the statement that for any two tvwB finite group extensions of one-sided Bernoulli shifts, there is an isomorphism between them in a stronger sense than that asserted in Theorem 2.4.1. Specifically, we have the following theorem in Chapter 5 which we paraphrase as follows: Theorem 5.1.1 ′. Let G be a finite group. For any two tvwB G-extensions of the one-sided shift B+(p), there is an isomorphism which preserves the Bernoulli factor algebra and maps fibres over points in the factor to other such fibres by group rotations.
The solubility of magnesium sulfate in mixed-electrolyte solutions

Magnesium chloride is difficult to remove from hydrometallurgical nickel laterite processes economically. However, magnesium precipitation as MgSO4H2O from a concentrated chloride solution with simultaneous regeneration of HCl offers advantages over conventional pyrohydrolysis. In this work, OLI System's Mixed Solvent Electrolyte model was updated and used to predict the solubility of MgSO4H 2O in mixed sulphate-chloride solutions. Predictions reproduced experimental trends at temperatures between 65 and 105C, HCl concentrations up to 2.3 molkg-1, FeCl3 concentrations of 1.0 molkg-1, and MgCl2 concentrations up to 4.8 molkg-1. Model results matched experimental results with an average absolute relative deviation of 10.8% and an average absolute deviation of +/- 0.09 molkg-1. The validated model was used to determine magnesium sulphate hydrate phase stability regions and MgSO4H2O solubility in various chloride solutions. Model results can be used to optimize the Anglo Research Nickel Process flowsheet with respect to acid consumption and magnesium impurity control.
The role of protein kinase B (PKB/Akt) in T lymphocyte development, function, and survival

T lymphocytes require survival signals to maintain their viability. Understanding the molecular mechanisms that control T cell viability is important since deregulated cell survival has been shown to contribute to the development of several diseases including autoimmunity and cancer. This thesis examines the role of the serine/threonine kinase protein kinase B (PKBα/Akt1) in the regulation of T cell survival in vitro and in vivo. The first study in this thesis employed transgenic mice expressing an active form of PKB (gag-PKB) in the T cell lineage to examine the effect of PKB signaling on the survival of developing thymocytes and mature T cells. The expression of gag-PKB conferred a survival advantage to both mature and immature T cells in response to various apoptotic stimuli, and specifically promoted the survival of thymocytes during developmental processes in the thymus. A second study in the thesis examined the role of PKB in the control of T cell deletion mediated by Fas, a major regulator of T cell apoptosis and general immune homeostasis. It was discovered that the T cell costimulatory molecule CD28 was required to protect CD4+ T cells from apoptosis induced by Fas, and that functional activation of phosphatidylinositol 3 ′-kinase (PI3K) and PKB downstream of CD28 was required to prevent Fas-induced death. Additional experiments established that PKB mediates its anti-apoptotic effects in this model largely through activation of the NF-κB signaling pathway. The final study of the thesis examined the impact of gag-PKB expression upon homeostatic regulation of the immune system. Expression of gag-PKB promoted the development of a lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by the accumulation of activated lymphocytes and the development of systemic inflammatory autoimmune disease. Using gene-targeted mice, it was determined that CD28 is required for the development of this disorder. Collectively these studies establish PKB as a key regulator of T cell apoptosis, define PKB as a central figure in an anti-apoptotic signaling arm downstream of CD28, and identify NF-κB as a mediator of anti-apoptotic PKB activity in T cells. Moreover, these studies establish PKB as a novel initiator of autoimmune disease that promotes lymphoid hyperplasia, inflammation and autoimmunity in vivo.
Effect of implanted microencapsulated xenogeneic cells on the recipient immune system

Remarkably, all such co-implants suppressed splenocyte proliferation at 10 days post-implant, though this effect disappeared by 60 days. In contrast, the antibody response was equal to or greater than that for a skin graft alone at both timepoints. Th1/2 polarization did not explain these observations, since it did not correlate with suppression of splenocyte proliferation, but rather depended on mode of xenogeneic cell delivery. Microencapsulation has potential clinical application for islet transplantation. To better understand the ongoing destructive host response, I examined whether the adaptive immune system recognised encapsulated xenogeneic cells, and how immune responses interacted with implanted biomaterials. The influence of Th1/2 bias did not explain the observed suppression. Encapsulated xenogeneic cells elicited a consistent Th2 response, unencapsulated cells elicited a mixed response, and skin xenografts showed an initial Th2 response that transformed to a Th1 response by 60 days based on antibody isotypes and cytokines. These novel effects of biomaterials have wide relevance: most tissue-engineered constructs contain biomaterials and will elicit immune responses, so suppressions mediated by biomaterials merits further examination and should affect future design approaches. I then monitored host immune responses to skin xenografts accompanied by one of three co-implants: encapsulated xenogeneic cells; unprotected cells accompanied by the encapsulation biomaterials; and encapsulation-biomaterials without cells. Encapsulation did not prevent a strong host antibody response (day 10 and day 60). Splenocyte proliferation in vitro did not differ whether primed by implanted, encapsulated cells, or unencapsulated cells (60 days). Thus, capsule membranes did not prevent indirect recognition of shed antigens. However, splenocyte proliferation to these cell/biomaterial implants was delayed compared to skin xenografts: after 10 days implantation, proliferation was dramatically lower than to skin grafts, though the difference disappeared by 60 days. This transient T-cell suppression was unexpected, since encapsulated cell viability was already compromised by 10 days. Mice were implanted intraperitoneally with encapsulated and unencapsulated xenogeneic cells, and the responses were compared with xenografted skin (positive control). Splenocyte proliferation upon re-challenge in vitro, antibody titre in serum, and Th1/2 polarisation (by IL-4 and IFN-gamma in splenocyte challenge supernatants and IgGl and IgG2a antibody isotypes in serum) were measured.
Business coaching for team leadership development

This study explores coaching leaders of teams from the perspectives of business coaches. The conceptual framework integrated the stages of learning with the coaching stages to examine their interrelationships. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight business coaches located from coaching websites. Their responses were analyzed qualitatively by coding the data to identify major themes and their features. There is not a clear delineation between the interactive stages of learning and the coaching stages. Coaching interventions focus on continuous improvement by taking the cyclic coaching stages to more complex levels to facilitate awareness and build competencies, as the developmental learning stages evolve at deeper levels. The value of coaching is its ability to facilitate learning by expanding awareness and shifting performance to higher levels while achieving goals that are linked to organizational benefits. Business coaches model a process for their clients to adopt a coaching leadership style within their organizations.

Keywords: Executive coaching
Teams in the workplace
Leadership, Study and teaching
Changing practice through collaborative study groups: teachers' impressions of an urban board intervention program

Education has seen a shift from traditional forms of professional development focusing on teachers as individuals to alternative approaches focusing on teachers as a collective. Such programs are job-embedded and collaborative, and may be more effective in changing teacher practice than traditional programs as they foster on-going cooperation, dialogue, mentoring, coaching, reflection, and learning. This thesis explores teacher impressions of the Middle Years Adolescent Literacy Project, an initiative that takes a collective approach to professional development. At its core is the creation and sustenance of collaborative study groups.

Keywords: Teachers, Training of
Teachers, Ontario
Teachers, Attitudes
Teachers, Ontario
Educational change, Ontario
Human rights working for women

In this thesis, the author focuses on women's rights to equality with men in the field of employment. The relevant international human rights norms are interpreted in the context of the gender inequality, specifically the gender pay gap, of a particular State---the United Kingdom. From this, practical norms and standards are derived to enable the Government of that State to meet its international obligations. The same technique may be applied to establish international human rights standards for any State. Considerable analysis follows of the discrimination laws in the United Kingdom, the extent and causes of the gender pay gap in employment and aspects of the tax and welfare system which compound women's relative disadvantage. This analysis provides sufficient understanding of the context from which the content of "all appropriate measures" can be appreciated. "All appropriate measures" are proposed in the final chapter that would be in accordance with the requirements of international human rights laws regarding gender equality in employment. International human rights law has been criticised for its failure to fully and adequately address the concerns of women. Even those provisions that do seem to bear upon women's rights have been criticised as too vague to provide any tangible standards. This thesis will show instead that international human rights law can be applied to provide relevant guiding norms for State Parties with respect to women's rights. The thesis begins with consideration of the international human rights norms as they bear upon women in employment. The main reference is to the work of the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. However, the work of other human rights treaty bodies and the International Labour Organisation is also relevant. This provides the basis from which to consider how the United Kingdom can "respect," "protect" and "assist and fulfil" these rights.

Keywords: Woman rights
Women, Legal status, laws, etc
Human rights, Ecuador
Algorithms for rational vaccine design

Design of an HIV vaccine has proven to be a difficult challenge. Vaccines designed by the traditional approach based on using a single weakened virus or a portion of a virus have not provided sufficient protection. The large variability of the HIV virus population is believed to be the main cause of failure for the vaccine candidates. In this thesis, I introduce an immunologically motivated vaccine score which accounts for the variability of the target HIV population. The exact optimization of this score is an NP-hard problem. I introduce algorithms, both approximate methods are approximate and exact, for designing a high scoring vaccine. The approximate methods are based on expectation maximization methods and use approximate probabilistic inference. The exact method is based on a branch-and-cut method for the asymmetric orienteering problem. The score and the algorithms for maximizing the score are validated both in-silico and in-vitro. In-silico comparisons are made to other methods aimed at overcoming HIV variability. The in-vitro Elispot experiments demonstrate an expected protection in sim; 90% of infections.
Development of an oral health outcome measure for children aged 6 to 14 years

The impact that oral and orofacial conditions have on the well-being of children has not been studied as no adequate measure is available. The research was undertaken to design the Child Oral Health Quality of Life Questionnaire (COHQoL) to assess the oral-health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) of 6–14-year-old children and their families. It was planned to consist of a Parental Perceptions Questionnaire (PPQ), a Family Impact Scale (FIS), and Child Perceptions Questionnaires for 6–7- (CPQ6–7); 8–10- (CPQ8–10), and 11–14-year-olds (CPQ 11–14). This thesis reports on the development of the PPQ and the CPQ11–14 and testing of their discriminative properties. It also explores the adequacy of parents as information providers in paediatric health outcome research by examining the relationship between the PPQ and the CPQ11–14 reports and the extent, nature and predictors of “Don't know” responses given by parents. The PPQ and the CPQ11–14 were constructed according to the process derived from the theory of measurement and scale development. Preliminary item pools were developed through reviews of relevant literature and interviews with health professionals (n = 17), parents (n = 33) and children (n = 11). The items rated the most frequent and bothersome by parents (n = 208) and children (n = 83) were selected for the questionnaires. Construct validity testing involved 231 parents and 123 children, of whom 79 and 65 provided data for the assessment of test-retest reliability of the respective questionnaires. Both questionnaires demonstrated satisfactory validity and reliability. There were no systematic differences between mothers and their children at the group level. However, there was a substantial disagreement at the individual level and some parents exhibited limited knowledge, particularly with respect to emotional and social consequences. Therefore, the studies indicated that data should be obtained from children whenever this is possible and that parents should be used as classic ‘proxies’ only when children are unable to report on their OHRQoL. As the PPQ and the CPQ11–14 have been tested on clinical child populations, their validity and reliability have to be demonstrated in non-clinical settings for their use in surveys of general child populations. Their application in intervention studies requires that their evaluative properties (longitudinal construct validity and responsiveness) are established.
Neutrophil function in refractory aggressive periodontitis

Results. PMNs from patients with RAP displayed significantly increased PMA-induced oxygen radical production compared to those from the HC and CP patients. PMN's from RAP patients also displayed increased phagocytosis compared to those from the CP group. Background. This study examined neutrophil respiratory burst and phagocytic activity in a unique population of patients diagnosed with refractory aggressive periodontitis (RAP). Conclusions. The findings demonstrate a larger receptor independent respiratory burst and higher phagocytotic activity in PMNs derived from patients with RAP, when compared to PMNs derived from successfully treated CP patients and periodontally HC. Method. Peripheral blood PMNs were obtained from 12 RAP patients, 10 patients with successfully treated Chronic Periodontitis (CP) and 13 periodontally healthy controls (HC) and were loaded with dihydrorhodamine 123 (DHR) and stimulated with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA). Phagocytosis via the complement and Fcgamma-receptors was also assessed.
The impact of chorioamnionitis and maternal betamethasone treatment on glucocorticoid metabolism in preterm human placenta

In this study we hypothesized that betamethasone treatment and chorioamnionitis would affect the bioavailability of placental glucocorticoids. Betamethasone treatment did not have any effect on GRT, GRalpha, 11beta HSD-1 and -2 expression or 11beta HSD-2 activity. In cases of chorioamnionitis where mothers had received betamethasone treatment, the expression of the placental 32 kDa 11beta HSD-1 protein was increased. In cases of chorioamnionitis regardless of betamethasone treatment, placental 11beta HSD-2 expression and activity were significantly decreased. In the placental samples tested, the expression of GRT and GRalpha remained constant. Therefore there could be an increase in placental glucocorticoids in cases of chorioamnionitis due to a decrease in placental cortisol metabolism and an increase in cortisol bioformation. We also determined that the regulation of the 11beta HSD isozymes was affected by pro-inflammatory cytokines. JEG-3 11beta HSD-1 32 kDa band expression was increased with IL-1beta and TNF-alpha, while 11beta HSD-2 expression was unaffected.
Dunamis in Book IX of Aristotle's Metaphysics: the sphere of motion and the sphere of being

This thesis provides a detailed analysis of chapters one to eight of the ninth book of Aristotle's Metaphysics; a book which has received little scholarly attention even though it includes Aristotle's only extended treatment of potentiality and actuality. The first task of this thesis is to provide an account of Aristotle's theory of powers; that is, of his treatment in this book of duna d12; m3iv as principles of motion and change. I argue that the scope of this sense of du d12;na miv is much broader than is generally acknowledged such that it covers not only both rational and nonrational duna d12; m3iv, but also duna d12; m3iv for incomplete motions like building and complete motions like seeing. Moreover, I argue that the best way to understand the existence of duna d12; m3iv is not through dispositional analyses but by taking duna d12; m3iv to be one in number with but different in essence from categorical features of being such as hot and cold and the arts. These claims, while important in their own right for our understanding of Aristotle's theory of powers are also important insofar as they contribute to our understanding of the ultimate point of the book which is an examination of being according to actuality and potentiality. The second task of the thesis is to show that book nine of the Metaphysics contains a sustained argument rather than several disconnected discussions as many suppose. I argue the second task of the thesis is to show that book nine of the Metaphysics contains a sustained argument rather than several disconnected discussions as many suppose. I argue that the main point of the book is to distinguish perishable from imperishable substances by drawing a division between things that exist potentially and things that exist actually. Making sense of Aristotle's claim that perishable things exist potentially, in particular, finding a way to construe this claim that does not conflict with his insistence that being is not a univocal predicate, requires that we begin with his treatment of du d12;na miv as a principle of motion and draw on the set of distinctions Aristotle develops throughout the course of the book as he transforms the notion of du d12;na miv from its use within the sphere of motion and change to its use within the sphere of being.
Integrated congestion evaluation and quantification: ICEQ

This thesis describes an improved methodology for evaluating and quantifying congestion as it affects travellers, facilities, and regions. The methodology is termed Integrated Congestion Evaluation and Quantification (ICEQ) .ICEQ is a software tool based on a proposed Toronto Congestion Index (TCI) that integrates different data sources and travel modes. The TCI is a 'threshold' congestion level or the congestion that a percentage of users will experience. The methodology is simple to apply and the result is easy to understand. A TCI of 2.0 means travel time is twice as long; a threshold of 20% indicates that 20% of travellers will experience this level or worse. ICEQ programs were written to apply the TCI to Intelligent Transportation Systems data. Large data files from Toronto area facilities were processed. Results demonstrate the applicability of ICEQ across different data sources, modes, and the effectiveness in accurately capturing congestion severity and reliability.