VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
A scalable bioprocess for generating embyronic stem cell derived cardiomyocytes

Cell transplantation is emerging as a promising new approach to replace scarred, non-functional myocardium in a diseased heart. At least 5--10 x 108 donor cardiomyocytes would be required for this therapy. We have developed a scalable bioprocess that can generate relatively pure cardiomyocyte cultures from differentiating mouse ES cells containing approximately 3 x 106 cardiomyocytes per 250 mL stirred suspension flask. Implementation of a bioreactor system that enables medium perfusion and direct monitoring and control of culture parameters, allowed us to investigate the effect of oxygen on in vitro cardiomyocyte development. We have data from one bioreactor run that shows, after 14 days of differentiation, a markedly higher cardiomyocyte yield under hypoxic conditions. We believe that oxygen is a bioprocess parameter that can be optimized to increase cardiomyocyte yield from differentiating ES cells.
Circles of inclusion: Aboriginal world views in social work education

The purpose of conducting this study was to explore the thoughts, experiences and feelings of Aboriginal students within social work education, based on the findings of a literature review on the topic of Aboriginal content within social work education. Students were invited to participate because nothing in the literature indicated that their input had ever been sought as a means of bringing Aboriginal world views into social work education. The research project was conducted at three geographical sites in Ontario using the Aboriginal research methodology of storytelling circles. Study participants came from backgrounds of wonderful diversity in terms of age, Nations, personal family circumstances and work as helpers within their communities. Students supported the five themes as presented to them from the literature written by Aboriginal social work educators and practitioners. Participants were consistent in their assertion that Aboriginal world views must be incorporated into social work education for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students, and in their emphasis that this must include a specific focus on decolonization. Study participants contributed several creative and insightful suggestions on how to integrate these themes into the academy. Despite their often painful stories about their survival within oppressive, Eurocentric academies, they expressed kindness, generosity of spirit and hope for the future of social work with Aboriginal peoples. In so doing, they have identified significant points for journeying forward, which can be taken up by both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal social work educators. Lastly, participants emphasized throughout the project that we must also turn our attention to the inclusive education of children in order to truly decolonize Canadian society. From this research project, I conclude that multiple ways of knowing must occur according to the terms of all participants and not only through conditions and decisions made by the dominant group within social work education. Inclusive education is about representation. My future work within the academy aims to move beyond critique to an exploration of the legitimacy of Aboriginal paradigms within educational frameworks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Shrine and fantasy: A Zizekian approach to the problem of Yasukuni

The problem of Yasukuni has become the focal point of political unrest in East Asia. But why has it become a place of contention? Using Slavoj Zizek's concepts of ideological fantasy and fantasy as a political category, this thesis seeks to explain how the shrine became a subject of fantasy and how this ideological fantasy is actually maintaining an ideology connecting nation, shrine and emperor. Following Zizek's four aspects of the construction of the subject, we can trace the history of the shrine from its erection at the dawn of the Meiji Restoration to the allied occupation which marks the breaking point of the state's ideological power over the shrine. By looking at Yasukuni Shrine as a fantasmatic construct upholding the desire for community and the relationship of nation and imperial emperor, we can see that it is the fantasy itself that has produced the problem of Yasukuni.
Transformative learning and informal environmental education: the case of community gardens

Gardeners who developed or coordinated a community garden had a higher level of participation, were more knowledgeable about environmental issues and had stronger beliefs in the impact of their actions than gardeners who participated as members. Educational programs can play an important role in raising awareness, fostering social and environmental change, encouraging leadership skills and nurturing transformative learning.Community gardening has great potential to transform participants' views of environmental, social and economic systems. This study explored the learning experiences of adult gardeners in Toronto. Some of the most significant learning outcomes were recognizing the worth of others and questioning assumptions of the dominant worldview. As participants reflected on their relationship with others, they develop more inclusive attitudes and practices. In some cases, the practice of organic agriculture helped gardeners to become more critical of conventional agriculture and to establish a closer connection with nature.

Keywords: Education, Urban
Gardening, Social aspects
Outdoor education
Attitude change
Community gardens, Social aspects
Land use, Urban
Environmental education
Urban agriculture
Genomic exploration of cardiovascular -enriched gene expression

While much progress has been made in recent years to elucidate the complex molecular basis of the human cardiovascular system, the task is far from complete. High-throughput cardiovascular expressed sequence tag (EST) sequencing projects have identified in silico numerous key and potential regulators in development and in disease states and have generated a repository of cardiovascular-enriched clones. This has provided an important first step in characterizing cardiovascular gene expression profiles, and is particularly useful in categorizing genes with similar functions. As an example, genes involved in DNA replication and apoptosis were identified and tabulated to visualize in silico expression across different cardiovascular cDNA libraries sequenced in-house. To develop a suitable platform for in vitro gene expression profiling using these libraries, a first-generation cardiovascular-based cDNA microarray, was constructed and analyzed. Taking samples of tissue derived from human dilated cardiomyopathy as a model of cardiovascular disease, the microarray—termed “CardioChip”—was used to identify over 100 transcripts differentially-regulated in heart failure, including genes encoding sarcomeric, cytoskeletal, calcium regulatory proteins, as well as several uncharacterized, cardiovascular-enriched ESTs. Exploration of cardiovascular-enriched gene expression was extended to the human genome. Furthering new insight obtained from the Human Genome Project, a survey of chromosomal gene assignment revealed numerous five megabase windows, particularly on chromosomes 17 and 19, containing higher proportions of cardiovascular-expressed genes than the genome-wide average, revealing potentially focused areas of cardiovascular gene control. Taken together, these genomic analyses provide new insight into the expression and regulation of the “cardiovascular transcriptome,” and reinforce the utility of large-scale profiling of tissue-specific systems.
Microscopic operational analysis of HOV lane options for three major expressways in Toronto

High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes have been implemented in North American cities to address soaring congestion problems. Over the past few years, The Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) has been considering preferential treatment of HOVs to improve mobility in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Accurate estimation of travel time differentials between HOV lanes and the adjacent general-purpose (GP) lanes is important in projecting the potential mode shift from single-occupancy vehicles (SOV) to HOVs. Such accurate estimation requires the use of traffic micro-simulation. In this research, Paramics, a professional microscopic traffic simulation suite, has been employed to develop an HOV lane treatment plan for three freeways in Toronto based on a comparative operational analysis of the base case and HOV lane scenarios. Speed and delay for different vehicle categories were used to measure the effectiveness of HOV lane scenario. Details and results of the analyses are presented in this research.
Minority coping: the role of interpersonal resiliency factors in gay men's experience of minority stress and depression

Recent research has found significantly elevated rates of depression amongst gay men stemming from their experience of minority stress. However, despite this increased prevalence, most gay men are not depressed. The factors that protect gay men who do not develop mental health issues despite living in a homonegative context remain largely unknown. The present study sought to explore this gap and investigated how the interpersonal factors of adult attachment orientation and perceived social support moderated gay men's experience of minority stress and consequential depressive symptoms. One hundred eighty gay men completed Internet-based questionnaires assessing their experience of minority stress (i.e., homonegative event experiences, internalized homonegativity, stigma consciousness, and identity concealment/emotional inhibition) and current depressive symptoms. Regression analyses revealed internalized homonegativity and homonegative event experiences are significant predictors of depressive symptoms. Participants were also asked about their adult attachment experiences and their perceptions of their social support. Regression analyses suggested lower attachment anxiety, perceived overall support, and perceived friend support reduce gay men's experience of internalized homonegativity. In addition, lower attachment anxiety, and perceived friend and partner support protect gay men from developing depression stemming from experience of homonegative events, whereas perceived family support protects gay men from developing depression stemming from internalized homonegativity. Lower attachment avoidance protects gay men from developing depression stemming from both minority stressors. Taken together, the findings support the contention that, in various ways, interpersonal factors such as adult attachment orientation and perceived social support provide gay men resiliency while living in a homonegative context. The potential resiliency factor mechanisms, clinical implications, and limitations and potential future direction of this research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)
Hippocampal neurogenesis and spatial memory: postnatal neurogenesis in yellow-pine chipmunks and eastern grey squirrels

Postnatal neurogenesis in wild mammals may play an essential role in spatial memory. I compared two species that differ in their reliance on memory for where food is stored for future consumption. Yellow-pine chipmunks use a single cache to store winter food, whereas eastern grey squirrels use multiple storage sites. In chipmunks, the density of newborn cells in the dentate gyrus was negatively related to the plasma corticosterone concentration, and densities of newborn and young neurons were negatively related to the neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio. No such relationships were found in squirrels. I suggest that the independence in squirrels of cell densities and indicators of condition is an adaptation that prevents decreases in neurogenesis. As compared to chipmunks, squirrels had three times the density of newborn cells in the dentate gyrus, but did not differ in density of young neurons. I discuss four explanations to account for this inconsistency.
The multiple performances of identity through hip-hop culture: Relevance for Black youth in the Canadian context

The purpose of this study was to explore how African-Canadian youth who participate in hip-hop culture abstract meaning from its broad range of geographical and ideological contexts. This research employed McCracken's (1998) Long Interview Method to interview 8 self-identified Black youth, divided equally amongst gender. The aim of this research was to find parallels between the experiences of African-Canadian users of hip-hop culture, and the larger body of research on African-American youth. The narratives generated from this study overlapped with the literature, indicating that hip-hop was a meaningful source of cultural information that could be used in multiple ways ranging from pedagogy, self-reflection, to various forms of self-identification. Particularly relevant was the finding that respondents used hip-hop culture to identify transnationally with the African Diaspora. Hip-hop's important cultural influence on African-Canadian youth holds great potential for the integration of hip-hop into service provision for Black youth in social work practice.
The politics of letters: Jose Marti's revolutionary discourse (Cuba)

Marti's life and work exemplify the intellectual activist whose contribution to human progress is founded on the principle that self-development, freedom, justice, and dignity for everyone are achievable through historical transformation. His writings occupy a central place in the "literature of combat" in the new political and economic era that emerged in the final decades of the 1800s. They place him alongside radical revolutionary thinkers for whom humanism is the necessary foundation of the political and social consciousness required to transform nations into independent and just societies, and for whom also moral progress is as important an indicator of national development as material accumulation and technological growth. Marti's humanism is the foundation of his revolutionary activism. His commitment to human progress and nation-building generates his creative impulse and forges an integral link between writing and his other political activities. The transformative spirit of Marti's creativity and aesthetic will brings together the activist and the inner poet and gives form to distinctive texts that challenge literary boundaries and mark significant contributions in the struggle to create, legitimize and establish authentic, original literature in Spanish America. It is exemplified in El presidio politico en Cuba, his revolutionary oratory and "Nuestra America." Marti's revolutionary discourse incorporates the link between the aesthetic and political dimensions of America's transformation and brings the poet's creativity and aesthetic will together with the political purpose and ethical appeal imposed by the realities of history and the activist's place in it. It is a discourse of inclusion that recognizes the marginalized sectors and integrates them into the march of human progress. Marti's emancipatory poetics combines factual information and poetic expression in the poeticized prose, figurative language and proliferation of images that characterize his style. In the politics of letters, Marti excels in the employment of the rhetorical arts to inspire leaders, mobilize the people, and convey truth in the service of the nation through the rational appeal of facts and arguments strengthened by the power of the schemes and tropes of poetic language to speak to people's souls and intellects and move their passions.
Linking water quality and hydraulics in distribution systems through a transient one-dimensional multi-component corrosion model

This research addresses water quality issues in water distribution systems in general, and more specifically, pipe corrosion which can entail many adverse effects including reduction of hydraulic capacity, compromised structural integrity of conduits and water quality deterioration. Yet, for all its familiarity, corrosion is a complex phenomenon due to the inter-dependent set of reactions that can take place at the pipe wall with chemicals in the bulk water. The principle objective of this study is to extend the existing, but basic, 1-D corrosion-water quality model and to explore the impact of various chemical species on the formation of ferrous and ferric ions during transient conditions. In addition, the associated formation of various iron precipitates is numerically explored. Each chemical species is tracked using the ADRE which is coupled with a hydraulic model. The numerical outcome of the model is compared with the results of the existing model, with both exhibiting good agreement.
BlogScope: Spatio-temporal analysis of the Blogosphere

In this thesis, we describe the system by highlighting its information analysis capabilities as opposed to traditional keyword searches. Efficient algorithms for burst identification, correlation discovery, and mining interesting keywords are developed to support various features of the system. We address the problem of aggregating ranked lists as a subproblem in our analysis process. Probabilistic and deterministic algorithms are developed for list aggregation in presence of hierarchies. We describe these algorithms in detail and provide experimental evaluation. We present BlogScope (www.blogscope.net), a system that analyzes the Blogosphere1. BlogScope is an information discovery and text analysis system. It's features include spatio-temporal analysis of blogs, automatic identification of interesting time events as information bursts, generation of topic summaries in form of keyword correlations and burst synopsis, and enhanced ranking functions for improved query answer relevance. 1Blogosphere is the collective term encompassing all weblogs as a community.
Effect of transformational leadership behaviour on teachers' citizenship behaviour

Thriving for student achievement and school improvement is a limitless effort. No matter how hard teachers, parents, school administrators and policy makers work, there is always room for improvement and since it is regarding children's education, any improvement is important. Aside from changing educational policies and pedagogical improvements, commitment of teachers is crucial for the success of these initiatives. One of the indicators of such involvement is teachers' willingness to devote extra effort for school improvement or organization citizenship behaviour (OCB). Teachers' OCB is affected by many factors such as the leadership behaviour of principals that enhance trust. This study investigated the relationship between trust-enhancing leadership behaviours of principals and OCB of teachers. Data for this study was provided by a survey carried out in 9 U.S. states with 3160 teachers. Results showed that there is a moderate relation between level of teachers' civic virtue and principals' trust-enhancing transformational behaviours.
On the Pythagoreanism of modern physics

Unsympathetic to abstracta, contemporary empiricists have attempted to purge physics of mathematical concepts. But the 'science without numbers' project gradually waned and nowadays many philosophers would agree that mathematics is indispensable to physics. However, even those most sensitive to the importance of mathematics rarely endeavor to further challenge empiricism by examining the question whether mathematics can play even more substantial roles in science, in addition to the seemingly indispensable descriptive and derivational roles. This dissertation is an attempt to argue for an affirmative answer to this question. I first outline and examine a 'Pythagorean' tendency in the 20th century fundamental physics, namely to construct and develop physical theories primarily on the basis of mathematical or formal considerations. Then I spell out the epistemological implications of this Pythagorean idea for the concepts of scientific prediction and scientific explanation. In the first two chapters I investigate some of the greatest physicists' views on the role of mathematics in theory construction and theory discovery. I scrutinize a recent version of Wigner's puzzle, claiming that mathematics was unreasonably effective in leading to the discovery of several fundamental laws of quantum mechanics. Although I criticize the anti-naturalist (or "anthropocentric") conclusions of this neo-Wignerian argument, I maintain that the involvement of mathematics in constructing theories has important epistemological consequences consisting in reframing the concepts of prediction and explanation. In chapter 4 I examine the role of group theory in reframing scientific explanation. More precisely, I investigate the doctrine that explanation is unification, the motivation for carrying out this analysis being the prominent role of mathematics in theory unification. I conclude by pointing out an important consequence of this role, that a distinction should be drawn between two kinds of understanding provided by modern physics, causal understanding and mathematical-structural understanding. In chapter 3 I explore the effectiveness of group theory in the emergence of a new type of predictive strategy in particle physics. I identify the novel methodological features of this type of prediction, showing how the traditional conception of scientific prediction fails to capture them.
The cardiovascular and 'systemic' effects of hyperoxia in the newborn

Piglets exposed to hyperoxia experienced significant reductions in contractility, systolic blood pressure and mean arterial blood pressure. In contrast heart rate was shown to significantly increase. LV SOD and GPx activities were both significantly reduced. RV SOD activity was significantly increased while significant reductions were seen in RV GPx activity after 5 hours of hyperoxia. LV MDA 4HNE levels were significantly increased, while only MDA levels in the RV were shown to be elevated in piglets exposed to hyperoxia. An unexpected, rapid and sustained hyperglycemic response was seen throughout the 5 hour hyperoxic ventilatory period. A significant 2-fold elevation in plasma glucagon and a 3-fold elevation in insulin levels occurred, despite no significant changes in plasma epinephrine. Total GLUT1 and GLUT4 content were significantly reduced in skeletal muscle in piglets exposed to hyperoxia. Newborn children can be exposed to high oxygen levels (hyperoxia) for hours to days during their surgical and/or medical management. These patients also often have poor myocardial function and hemodynamics. Hyperoxia has toxic effects depending on the degree and duration of the exposure. Whether hyperoxia compromises myocardial function and hemodynamics in the newborn in the absence of any confounding variables remains essentially unexplored. Piglets were anesthetized, intubated and ventilated to normoxia. Once normal blood gases were confirmed, animals were randomly allocated to either 5 hours of normoxia or hyperoxia. Oxygen, blood glucose, plasma glucagon, insulin and epinephrine levels, myocardial functional and hemodynamic assessments were made. Left and right ventricular (LV RV) biopsies were taken for measurements of antioxidant enzyme activities (Superoxide Dismutase-SOD, Glutathione Peroxidase-GPx and Catalase-CAT) as well as for malondialdehyde (MDA) and 4-Hydroxynonenal (4HNE) as indicators of oxygen free radical-mediated membrane injury. Total GLUT1 and GLUT4 content in cardiac and skeletal muscle was also measured using Western Blotting analysis. In the newborn, hyperoxia triggers oxygen free radical-mediated membrane injury together with an inability of the newborn heart to provide an adequate antioxidant enzyme defense while impairing myocardial function and hemodynamics. In addition, significant elevations in glucagon and reductions in total skeletal muscle GLUT1 and GLUT4 content all contributed to the hyperoxia-induced hyperglycemia.