VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Decision methodology for site owners for the remediation of contaminated sites

An economically-based decision methodology has been developed for helping the owner of a contaminated site select the preferred combination of remedial action and site use. The bask concept behind the methodology is quite simple: identify the preferred combination that maximizes the owner's net benefits, which consists of site use benefits, less the costs of remediation and expected liability. The challenge and contribution of this research was merging existing concepts, techniques and expert opinion from a diverse range of disciplines, such as property appraisal, hydrogeology, health assessment and economics into a coherent, comprehensive and practical methodology. The need to develop more comprehensive and rational decision methodologies has recently been brought to the forefront as many municipalities grapple with brownfields redevelopment. The research investigates how to assess in economic terms the owner's three main objectives of: (1) maximizing site use benefits; (2) minimizing cleanup costs; and (3) minimizing liability, and these assessments are affected by conflicting interests from different stakeholders, alternative site uses, and uncertainties. Unlike many existing decision approaches, the proposed methodology is not based solely on achieving regulatory compliance or fulfilling a predetermined site use. The research also provides guidance on how to acquire and interpret information needed to estimate the owner's objectives. To facilitate this, new concepts and approaches were developed. For example, "principal liability conditions" are used to identify circumstances in which liability may arise. Liability itself is then defined in terms of contaminant exposure information, health-response data, and other less tangible factors, such as whether or not liability can be legally proven. Many diverse factors are explicitly acknowledged and then integrated into a single framework for decision making in order to identify the preferred site use/remedial action combination. To demonstrate how the methodology can be applied, the research presents an illustrative example that considers a single hydrocarbon contaminant, several site remediation techniques, such as pump and treat and containment, and several alternative site uses, such as residential and industrial. Lastly, the research expands on how uncertainty can arise, and demonstrates how it can be incorporated via a two-step process: first, using an extreme case analysis, and second, through a probabilistic analysis that uses probability distributions for the owner's benefits, costs and liability.
Digital radiography by laser-scanned readout of amorphous selenium

A theoretical model is presented of a method to acquire digital radiographs using photoconductively activated switches (PASs) formed at the interface of amorphous selenium (a photoconductor) and glass. It is shown that the method would be suitable for both radiography and fluoroscopy if the assumption is made that the bulk photoconductive properties of amorphous selenium hold at the interface. In order to test this assumption experimental measurements of lateral photoconductivity at an amorphous-selenium (a-Se) glass interface were performed with 442 nm laser pulses ranging from 1 [mu]s to several ms duration. It was found that surface photoconductivity is weaker and shorter lived than that in a-Se bulk time of flight (BTOF) measurements. The surface photoconductivity can be explained by supposing that the electrons and holes thermally diffuse to the surface where they are trapped. A theory of surface photoconductivity is developed and numerically solved, giving general agreement with experiment.
Cell concentration and drug penetration, implications for the reversal of multidrug resistance in solid tumours

Mechanisms of drug resistance may be influenced strongly by a solid tumour microenvironment, and this thesis evaluates effects of that environment on drug penetration through tissue and on reversal of drug resistance due to P-glycoprotein (P-gp). Reversal of P-gp has been evaluated mainly in dilute tissue culture (10 5-106 cells/ml), whereas solid tumours contain ~10 9 cells/ml, and thus contain a high concentration of P-gp molecules. Therefore, the efficacy of P-gp reversal agents at different cell concentrations was assessed and was found to decrease at higher cell concentration. This result suggests one mechanism which may contribute to the failure to observe reversal of multidrug resistance in solid tumours. To be effective against solid tumours, drugs must penetrate tissue to reach all viable tumour cells. Studies using spheroids have suggested that poor penetration of anti-cancer drugs through solid tissue may limit the effectiveness of chemotherapy. Using the novel multicellular layer method, the penetration of 4 anti-cancer drugs was assessed quantitatively. Penetration of doxorubicin and mitoxantrone was very limited (<10% of the rate of penetration through the cell-free control). Penetration of methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil was more rapid (~30-50% of the rate of penetration through the cell-free control). Strategies to improve the penetration of anti-cancer drugs through solid tissue have considerable potential to improve the outcome of chemotherapy. Expression of P-gp might be expected to influence the penetration of drugs through tissue. Using multicellular layers the relationship between expression of P-gp by constituent cells and the penetration of P-gp substrates was examined. Penetration of substrates was greater through multicellular layers formed from P-gp overexpressing cell lines as compared to wild-type cells. The addition of P-gp reversal agents results in decreased penetration of these substrates through multicellular layers with P-gp overexpression. The administration of P-gp reversal agents might, then, increase sensitivity of perivascular tumour cells, but decrease penetration of P-gp substrates to more distal cells. The effects described in this thesis have characterised some of the problems associated with drug resistance and its reversal in solid tumours. Understanding these mechanisms is important as a first step in devising methods to overcome them.
Gene therapy for canine mucopolysaccharidosis type I

Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) gene transfer is being developed as a treatment for genetic disease. This thesis evaluated the therapeutic potential of HSC gene therapy in a canine model of MPS I which results from a deficiency of <math> <f> <g>a</g></f> </math>-L-iduronidase. The first experiment demonstrated the maintenance of 5-10% (87/1220) of hematopoietic progenitors (CFU) and <math> <f> <=</f> </math>1% of leukocytes provirus positive for 2 years post-infusion in normal recipients. Specific antibodies against culture media components were detected but did not abrogate engraftment with potentially therapeutic levels of provirally marked cells. To evaluate the therapeutic potential of HSC gene therapy, marrow from 5 MPS I dogs was transduced with iduronidase containing recombinant retroviruses. Following adoptive transfer into autologous unconditioned recipients, proviral DNA was detected in 2-10% CFU (51/1288) and <math> <f> <=</f> </math>1% of leukocytes for 1-3 years post-infusion. However, proviral iduronidase expression was not detected in any dog and all dogs had continued disease progression. Humoral and cellular immune responses against iduronidase protein and autologous cells expressing iduronidase were identified, which possibly abrogated the therapeutic benefits of gene therapy. To evaluate gene therapy in the absence of confounding anti-transgene immune responses, iduronidase transduced MPS I marrow cells were adoptively transferred into fetal pups. 17 fetal pups were injected with iduronidase transduced MPS I marrow cells. Nine normal and 3 MPS I fetal recipients survived and proviral DNA was detected in 2-12% (76/1790) CFU and <math> <f> ~</f> </math>1% of leukocytes for l year. Proviral iduronidase activity was detected in 1.5% (6/404) CFU but not mature leukocytes from MPS I pups. Specific humoral immune responses against iduronidase were not detected in MPS recipients, even after boosting with iduronidase transduced marrow cells, consistent with the induction of tolerance to iduronidase in these pups. All MPS I dogs died at 8-10 months with no evidence for disease amelioration. These results show that iduronidase transduced progenitors can engraft in adult, juvenile and fetal recipients, and contribute to hematopoiesis in normal and MPS I dogs. However, the therapeutic potential of HSC gene transfer in canine MPS I appears to be limited by poor maintenance of proviral iduronidase expression and low levels of genetically corrected circulating leukocytes.
Representing and reasoning about costs using enterprise models and ABC

The well accepted Activity-Based Costing (ABC) Principle includes the assignment of costs to activities based on their use of resources, and the assignment of costs to end products and services based on their use of activities. Since ABC assigns costs to activities based on their use of resources, the logical formulation of ABC must be premised upon the existence of some given or identifiable unit resource cost that must be associated with each resource required by an activity. Notwithstanding this obvious rationale for unit resource cost being absolutely essential for ABC, there has been little or no development in the field of ABC to solve two fundamental problems relevant to ABC: (i) ' What unit resource costs are associated with a resource'? (ii) ' How does one deduce unit resource costs so that direct, indirect and overhead costs are accounted for within the costs of a resource'? The solving of these two fundamental problems relevant to ABC is the central focus of this research. Though centered within the cost domain, this research presents a holistic solution by crossing over several fields which, in themselves, are expansive and highly specialized areas. More specifically, the perspectives integrated are from the fields of: (a) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence for the development of knowledge-based information systems and the deductive reasoning of solutions in a distributed agent environment; (b) "New Industrial Engineering" that applies the capabilities of information technology to analyze, engineer and re-engineer business processes on an enterprise wide basis; (c) Strategic Cost Management that seeks accurate and consistent solutions for product and service costs to formulate strategies for competitive advantages. First, based upon real cost related problems put forth as common sense queries posed by industrial partners, this research presents the analysis and design of a Cost Ontology for Enterprise Modelling that identifies and reasons with Resource Cost Units of a resource. A Formalization of ABC and a Micro-theory of ABC are established based upon the Cost Ontology. Secondly, it develops the Principle of Resource Probing, the Principle of Activity Probing, a Formalization of Overheads, and a Micro-theory of Resource Cost Units that collectively form a Theory of Resource Cost Units. This theory establishes the framework of axioms and concepts that enables one to deduce costs with ABC so that direct, indirect and overhead costs are included in the Resource Cost Units. The theories and developments of this research are tested for practical applicability by finding solutions to real world scenarios as presented by corporate partners - deHavilland Inc. (Bombardier, Canada) and BBP Steel (Broken Hill Proprietary, Australia) for purposes of strategic cost management.
Fairy fictions, white women as helping professionals

The education and practice of the social service provider is shaped through an historical context that is deeply racialized. A number of pedagogical tools have attempted to provide the educator and learner of the social services with ways of addressing both personal identifications and professional practices. However, such pedagogical tools have not sufficiently addressed how deeply invested the identity of the white social service provider is in these historical and social constructions. This research employs both an historical stance as well as a psychoanalytic analysis in order to investigate the processes by which white female helping professionals are inscribed into a representation and discourse of respectability, into the nation Canada, and as social subjects within imperialism. This research has been conducted through open-ended interviews with fifteen white women who were being educated, or were already practicing, as private psychotherapists subsequent to previous work in more community based social service agencies. This shift from a more public site of helping to a more private one illustrates a significant hierarchy that occurs between women in the helping professions. The fifteen women's narratives illustrate this shift through ongoing discursive conflicts between (1) their desire to be seen as innocent and kind helping professionals, and (2) their desire to disrupt their own experiences of marginality and subordination through the acquisition of these new psychotherapeutic skills, and (3) the access they gain to the more respectable setting of the private psychotherapy office in the context of other helping professions. The method of analysis includes a discourse analysis that assumes language to be productive of social relations regarding race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability and other marginal identifications. The identifications that emerge throughout the women's narratives depend on personal and professional negotiations in a way that marks the presence of whiteness. In this way, the management of whiteness as one component of their identification threads throughout the narratives and reflects a desire for respectability and status in the context of the helping professions. The thesis raises crucial questions about the education of the public and the private social service professional. As the thesis illustrates, how these women can be seen as 'white women' and become professional 'helpers' depends on a historically regulated desire for resistance against dominant frames yet is also marked by a desire for innocence within their participation in relations of power. This thesis suggests that the education of the social service provider must include an historical analysis of race in order to provide a more solid resistance to deeply embedded imperial frames.
The false traitor, Louis Riel in Canadian literature

The nineteenth-century Métis leader Louis Riel has emerged as one of the most popular—and elusive—figures in Canadian culture. Since his hanging for treason in 1885, the self-declared David of the New World has been depicted by Canadian novelists, poets, and playwrights variously as a traitor to Confederation; a French-Canadian and Catholic martyr; a bloodthirsty rebel; a pan-American liberator; a pawn of shadowy white forces; a Prairie political maverick; a First Nations hero; an alienated intellectual; a victim of Western industrial progress; and even a Father of Confederation. The primary objective of this thesis is to investigate how a historical figure, someone who supposedly existed in space and time, could be portrayed in such contradictory ways. Especially in light of the fact that most aesthetic representations of Riel bear little resemblance not only to one another but also to their ostensible model, it is suggested that those works are only nominally about the Métis leader himself. That is, they reveal less about the politician-mystic than they do about their authors and the society to which they belong.

Keywords: Riel Rebellion, 1885 in literature
Canadian literature
History and criticism
Riel, Rébellion de, 1885 dans la littérature
Littérature canadienne
Histoire et critique
A search for a new charged heavy vextor boson decaying to a [mu nu] pair

A search has been performed for a new charged heavy vector boson produced in pp collisions at <math> <f> <rad><rcd>s</rcd></rad>=<hsp sp="0.265">1.8</f> </math> TeV and upon observing no significant excess, limits on the cross section times branching fractions, <math> <f> <g>s</g>&parl0;p<ovl>p<hsp sp="0.167"></ovl><hsp sp="0.167">[right arrow] <hsp sp="0.167">W<sup>'</sup>&parr0;<hsp sp="0.167">¤ <hsp sp="0.167"><sc>B&parl0;<it>W<sup>'</sup></it>[right arrow] <hsp sp="0.167"><g>m</g><g>n</g>&parr0;</sc></f> </math> are set at 95% confidence level. Assuming that this new boson has standard model strength couplings, this search excludes a 'W' ' boson with mass less than 660 GeV/'c' 2 at 95% confidence level.
Human bone growth in vitro

The successful development of methods for culturing human osteogenic cells is of considerable interest and importance to the bone biology, biomaterials and tissue engineering fields. This is the first study that has described the development of a morphologically identifiable bone matrix made by human bone marrow stromal cells, in both primary and first passage cultures. Using scanning and transmission electron microscopy this bone matrix was shown to comprise of an interfacial afibrillar matrix which, in the rat has been identified as the in vitro equivalent of the cement line matrix found at bone remodeling sites. Above this cement line matrix a collagenous bone matrix was assembled, in which osteocalcin, a key marker for mature osteogenic cells, was incorporated. Finally the development of osteocytic cells and the normal mineralization of the collagen matrix illustrated the maturation of this bone tissue. Having developed a system for culturing expanded human stromal cell populations it is our hope to utilize this system for the examination of 3-dimensional scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications.
La estetica innovadora de la ultima narrativa de Max Aub

The narrative works of Spanish author Max Aub indicate two clearly differentiated tendencies: on the one hand the narration of events to which the author himself was a witness, on the other, the writing of imaginary fiction. This thesis focuses on four novels that exemplify the best innovative works of this author: ' Campo de los almendros', 'Luis Álvarez Petreña ', 'Jusep Torres Campalans' and 'Juego de cartas '. Insofar as the majority of existing critical commentary about Max Aub studies his work from the perspective of the historicity of the production or the historical context of the text, this study contrasts the critical mainstream by focusing on the text as it relates to the contemporary reader. This reading of the text changes the critical approach and in doing so, provides new insight into these works. The contemporary reader is immersed in the aesthetic of postmodern art, reading Max Aub novels with this new perspective reveals numerous commonalities with many literary techniques considered postmodern, such as the use of parody, metafiction and self-reflexivity. Furthermore, the most important feature shared by Aub's novels and postmodern works are the frequent transgressions between fiction and reality. This study provides a new forum for critical dialogue about the narrative of Max Aub, having shown that his novels do provide significant challenges to the contemporary reader.
Phylogeny of the Ichthyosauria (Amniota: Reptilia) with special reference to Triassic forms

The interrelationships among Triassic ichthyosaurs have been poorly understood due to the lack of knowledge regarding their basic osteologies, especially that of the earliest forms from the Spathian (Lower Triassic). These earliest ichthyosaurs represent relatively new additions to our knowledge, most of them having been found during the last 25 years. Reexaminations of ' Utatsusaurus, Grippia, Chaohusaurus' (Early Triassic), 'Parvinatator ' (Early or Middle Triassic), and of 'Mixosaurus' (Middle Triassic), reveals many previously unrecognized features of the skull, dentition, and forefin. This new knowledge, together with preliminary examinations of other Triassic ichthyosaurs, enables a comprehensive comparison among Triassic ichthyosaurs, for the first time. A phylogenetic hypothesis for Triassic ichthyosaurs is proposed, based on cladistic analyses of osteological characters, again for the first time. The monophyly of the Order Ichthyosauria, which was previously never questioned although never explicitly stated, is established based on at least nine characters that unambiguously define the basal node of the Order. Early Triassic ichthyosaurs (including 'Parvinatator') form the stem group of the Ichthyosauria, while all others form a crown-group clade, the Euichthyosauria. This taxon is further divided into two large clades, the Shastasauriformes and Ichthyosauriformes. The former includes 'Cymbospondylus' and 'Shastasaurus ' and their most recent common ancestor, while the latter comprises the Mixosauroidea and Ichthyosauroidea, and their most recent common ancestor. ' Toretocnemus' and 'Californosaurus', which have long been considered as shastasaurids, are shown to be ichthyosauroids. ' Cymbospondylus' and 'Ichthyosaurus', as previously designated, appeared paraphyletic on the cladogram, therefore two new generic names are proposed to solve the problem. 'Omphalosaurus' is considered non-ichthyosaurian, because none of the ichthyosaurian synapomorphies are known for this genus, while it shows several sauropterygian features. The taxonomy of 'Pessopteryx ' should be reconsidered. Tectonic deformation has remarkably distorted the original morphologies of some of the specimens studied, namely all specimens of 'Parvinatator ' and some specimens of Utatsusaurus. A method is devised to retrodeform the images of these specimens, using a personal computer. This method is unique for incorporating matrix algebra, thus simplifying the calculation process, while enabling the statistical selection of best solution.