VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Accounting for Unpredictability in Autonomous Driving Behaviour

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) need to behave like humans when interacting with them.We define unpredictability of surrounding drivers as a measure to take into account for trajectory planning and use Maximum Entropy Inverse Reinforcement Learning (IRL) to demonstrate that incorporating unpredictability into a lane change reward function provides insights on human driving behaviour. We first evaluate the IRL algorithm on a Linear Quadratic Regulator proof of concept. Then we use the IRL algorithm to model reward functions for conducting a lane change maneuver in a highway setting. We investigate whether the unpredictability of surrounding traffic will have an effect on the behaviour of the lane changing car by learning two reward functions from human data, a baseline reward function and a reward function that incorporates unpredictability. Our evaluation confirms that incorporating unpredictability results in modest improvements in explaining the behaviour of human drivers and can result in human-like AVs.

Keywords: Autonomous Vehicles
Behavior Models
Inverse Optimal Control
Inverse Reinforcement Learning
Motion Planning
Self-driving Cars
Advisor: Schoellig, Angela
Structural Design, Analysis, and Validation of Next Generation Small Satellite Platforms

The rapid development of small satellite technologies and the lowering cost of launch services have spurred the next generation of satellites allowing more organizations access to space. The Space Flight Laboratory is positioned on the frontier of the New Space market with their advanced and versatile microsatellite platforms. Specifically, the flight proven DEFIANT platform and the new SPARTAN platform will push the envelope of small satellites in low Earth orbit. This thesis will explore the development of the structural subsystem for the new SPARTAN platform and the NorSat-4 spacecraft using a modified DEFIANT platform. The entire process to create a robust spacecraft structure is presented starting with the design and layout of the structural components. The structure is then assessed through a series of finite element analyses to verify the structural requirements. Lastly, the verification of the physical spacecraft structure is performed through a series of vibration tests.

Keywords: Aerospace
Engineering
Finite Element Analysis
Satellite
Spacecraft
Structural Analysis
Advisor: Zee, Robert E
Gender Relations and the Politics of Addressing Gender-based Violence in Canada: Exploring the Role of Institutions, Interests, and Ideas

This thesis explores the factors that constrain or facilitate the creation of effective policies for addressing gender-based violence in Canada. Specifically, it examines how government structures, international agreements, and conditions such as global pandemics, influence state responses to violence against women. The analysis combines 3-I framework – which is used in political science to analyze the role of institutions, ideologies, and interest in policy development – with feminist theories and critical discourse analysis. The findings reveal that Canada’s system of governance facilitates policies that (re)produce gendered power differentials, a dynamic which constrains effective policymaking for addressing gender-based violence at the federal, provincial, and institutional levels. The thesis supports post-liberal transnational feminist perspectives that call for community-based local approaches to gender-based violence as opposed to state-based approaches. Furthermore, the research design used in this study underscores the transformative potential of feminist political analysis to the fields of violence prevention and public health.

Advisor: Todorova, Miglena
Meaningfulness of Effort: Scale Construction and Validation

Effort is often viewed as costly but recently our understanding of effort has shifted to allow for its rewarding aspects. The current studies seek to explore effort as a source of meaning in peoples’ lives. Using established methodologies, I developed and tested a scale measuring the meaningfulness of effort across five samples. This scale captures people that obtain meaning purely from their own efforts. Through a combination of comparing structural equation models and regression models, the Meaningfulness of Effort Scale was shown to be distinct from measures such as trait industriousness and conscientiousness. Results indicate that people high in meaningfulness of effort enjoy benefits in both their general and work life, such as psychological well-being and workplace satisfaction. They also achieve higher status jobs and report higher levels of income. Further, people higher in this trait find effortful tasks to be more meaningful and they perform better on cognitive tasks.

Keywords: Meaning
Mental effort
Personality traits
Scale construction
Advisor: Inzlicht, Michael
Neck Muscle Vibration and Visual Background Information Influence Separate Processes of Goal-Directed Aiming Movements

When performing reaching movements towards a target, humans utilize sensory stimuli arising from the body and the environment. Manipulating proprioceptive cues (e.g., neck muscle vibration; Roll et al., 1991) and manipulating visual background cues (e.g., dots on the aiming board; Coello Magne, 2000) have both been independently shown to influence endpoint position during target aiming. The current study investigated the separate and combined contributions of neck proprioception and visual background cues on the control and performance of upper-limb pointing movements. Overall, posterior neck muscle vibration yielded closer movement endpoints and lower height during limb trajectories, while background information also yielded closer movement endpoints but with less mediolateral deviation during limb trajectories. Significant interactions between Vibration and Background were not found during limb trajectory analyses which may suggest that neck proprioception and visual background information are independently used across the separate phases of online control (Elliott et al., 2010).

Keywords: Motor Control
Neck Muscle Vibration
Neck Proprioception
Sensorimotor Processes
Upper-Limb Pointing
Visual Context Information
Advisor: Tremblay, Luc
From Hospital to Home: Providers’ Experiences of Collaboration when Facilitating Care Transitions across Palliative Care Settings

Research shows that many patients with advanced illness prefer to receive care and die in their homes; therefore, transitions from acute care to community settings are common. However, while many studies have examined the patient and caregiver experience of this transition process, few studies have focused on the provider’s perspective. This qualitative study explored interprofessional and interorganizational collaboration among providers when transitioning patients from hospital to home in the context of palliative care. Four themes were elucidated that reflect providers’ experiences of collaboration within and across palliative care settings. Key barriers include a perceived lack of formalized leadership roles and having continuously changing inpatient providers involved during discharge planning, inconsistent communication during patient handovers, and insufficient system-level infrastructure to support information sharing across settings. The findings of this study reveal several opportunities at the organizational and broader health system levels to better assist providers in supporting these types of transitions.

Keywords: collaboration
palliative care
patient discharge
qualitative research
transitional care
Advisor: Dainty, Katie N
Isenberg, Sarina R
Comparison of the Epidemiology, Disease Characteristics, Treatment, Outcomes, and Late Effects of Osteosarcoma and Ewing Sarcoma in Adolescents and Young Adults, treated in Ontario Pediatric versus Adult Cancer Centres: An IMPACT Cohort Study

Background: Location of cancer therapy (LOC) may impact outcomes in adolescents and young adults (AYA) with osteosarcoma or Ewing sarcoma. Objectives: To compare differences in demographics, disease/treatment characteristics, survival and late effects in a population-based cohort of AYA with bone tumours treated in pediatric versus adult centres. Methods: We used administrative health databases to identify Ontario AYA (15 - 21 years old) diagnosed with osteosarcoma or Ewing sarcoma between 1992 - 2012. We compared patients by LOC using appropriate statistical methods. Results: 137 patients were diagnosed with osteosarcoma (47 pediatric, 90 adult) and 84 with Ewing sarcoma (38 pediatric, 46 adult). Pediatric centres had higher clinical trial enrolment rates and cumulative chemotherapy doses. Five-year event-free and overall survival rates were 47% and 58% in osteosarcoma and 43% and 56% in Ewing sarcoma. LOC did not impact survival. Conclusion: Outcomes in osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma did not differ by LOC

Keywords: Adolescent and young adult
Event-free survival
Ewing sarcoma
Locus of care
Osteosarcoma
Population-based cohort
Advisor: Nathan, Paul C
Polarized Light Microscopy for Quantitative Stromal Analysis and Improving Biomarker Objectivity

There has recently been an increased research focus on the development of prognostic and predictive biomarkers for various types of cancer, and it has been shown that the tumour microenvironment may offer a significant source of this prognostic and predictive information. One component of the tumour microenvironment, the collagenous stroma, is of significant interest due to its complex interactions with the tumour itself. The tumour-stroma ratio is one particular biomarker based on the collagenous stroma: a simple estimation of the amount of tumour tissue compared to the amount of stromal tissue in particular regions of interest, it has been validated as a prognostic indicator in several types of cancer. Despite its potential prognostic utility, it has yet to be taken up into the clinic, largely due to its subjectivity and lack of standardized methodology. This thesis represents an effort to address these challenges using polarized light microscopy. A study using a novel polarized light imaging methodology to quantitatively assess the tumour-stroma ratio is presented herein, as is an extension to this published work which seeks to improve upon the results. Overall, this thesis serves as a promising start which will allow for future research and development of the tumour-stroma ratio, and may eventually allow it to be taken up into the clinic.

Advisor: Vitkin, Alex
Defects in Autophagy are Implicated in a Mecp2-mutant Mouse Model of Rett Syndrome

Rett syndrome (RTT) is a rare neuro-metabolic disorder, with most cases caused by de novo mutations in the X-linked gene methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MECP2). Although several metabolic pathways have been implicated in RTT pathology, much of the underlying biology behind the disorder remains unknown. Interestingly, perturbations in the autophagy pathway, which has not been well studied in RTT, are consistent with many of the metabolic features of RTT pathogenesis. I found multiple lines of evidence for impaired autophagy in Mecp2-mutant mice, in vivo and in mouse embryonic fibroblasts. Systemically, autophagy is elevated prior to outward metabolic phenotypes, but is defective following aberrant lipid accumulation. Together, these results show that autophagy is abnormal in Mecp2-mutant mice and suggest that certain autophagic cargo are affected more than others. My findings highlight the similarities RTT has to other neurological and metabolic disorders with autophagic defects, providing exciting new insight.

Keywords: Autophagy
MECP2
Mouse model
Rett syndrome
Advisor: Justice, Monica J
Call Me Habibi: Performing Partial Identity in Queer Lebanese Immigrants in Canada

The split of self that arises from existing as both a queer person in the Middle East and an immigrant in the West culminates in a constant partial identity performance. No spectator can ever fully witness or understand the complete identity of the performer; assimilation becomes a permanently imperative severing of identity. Drawing upon Alameddine’s Koolaids, a 1998 semi- autoethnographic novel which speaks of growing up queer during the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war and the immigration to the United States during the AIDS crisis, and engaging with my own life experiences of growing up queer in Lebanon during the Israeli- Hezbollah conflicts and civil unrest of the 1990s and 2000s before immigrating to Canada post- 9/11, this hybrid thesis examines the inner workings of performing cleaved identity and the effects it has on the performer.

Advisor: Schotzko, Nikki T.
The Cost-effectiveness of Early Physical Medicine Rehabilitation (PM) Consultation for Trauma Patients in a Level 1 Trauma Centre in Canada

BACKGROUND: Physical Medicine Rehabilitation (PM) consultation at Level 1 trauma centres improves clinical outcomes in major trauma patients. Cost-effectiveness evaluation of this intervention is lacking, but important for healthcare payers. PURPOSE: Assess incremental cost for providing PM consultation, per quality adjusted life year (QALY), from single public health payer perspective. METHODS: Probabilistic Markov model incorporating clinical trial data, administrative data and published literature to estimate incremental cost and effect over a life-time horizon. RESULTS: For major trauma sustained at age 18, incremental cost of providing PM consultation was $5,297. Incremental effect was 0.18 QALY. The incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER) was $29,428/QALY. Incremental effect increases with increased age, decreasing the ICER to $16,150/QALY for trauma sustained at age 75. CONCLUSIONS: PM consultation is associated with increased cost and increased QALY. Across all age groups, the ICER falls below a $50,000/QALY threshold, indicating PM consultation is likely a cost-effective intervention.

Keywords: Cost-Effectiveness
Health Technology Assessment
Physiatry
Physical Medicine Rehabilitation
Trauma
Advisor: Sander, Beate
Microscopic Model-based Reinforcement Learning Approaches for Traffic Signal Control and Coordination

Many recent advances in traffic signal control have been proposed using reinforcement learning, most of which undertake the model-free approach. Model-free methods of learning the value function under a specified dynamics, can often fail to differentiate the value updates from the underlying dynamics, making these methods require substantial experiential data to achieve generalization. In contrast, approaches that optimize agent actions w.r.t. a learned dynamics model inherently avoid this tight coupling of dynamics and value, allowing for much faster adaptation as traffic demand profiles change. For this work on single intersection control, we specifically adopt this latter model-based approach that learns microscopic traffic dynamics models and then applies tree-search techniques to optimize control actions. We include performance and generalization evaluation alongside analysis of these methods, and demonstrate that our approach generalizes to a diverse set of traffic demands whereas the model-free approach performs suboptimally in conditions unseen during training.

Keywords: model based
model free
reinforcement learning
traffic signal control
Advisor: Sanner, Scott
Abdulhai, Baher
Characterizing Spatiotemporal Trends of Meteorological Extremes in Southern Ontario, Canada

Extreme meteorological conditions are changing in the twentieth century, with potentially severe environmental implications. We explored the changes in these extreme conditions and found seasonal signatures in extreme monthly values of air and dew point temperature and low relative humidity, spatial signatures in those of wind speed and high relative humidity, and no distinct patterns in those of precipitation from 1950–2020 in southern Ontario using the Mann–Kendall trend test and Theil–Sen estimator. We found a minimal role of four large-scale phenomena—Arctic Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation, El Niño–Southern Oscillation, and Pacific Decadal Oscillation—in the temporal trends using Bayesian Generalized Extreme Value and Poisson regression models. Warming temperature extremes in the colder months imply changes in ecological phenology. Our findings also suggest that there are fewer extreme cold conditions in colder months and more intense plant water loss and thermal discomfort in warmer months.

Keywords: Bayesian inference
climate change
extreme value theory
meteorological extremes
teleconnections
Advisor: Arhonditsis, George
Design of Decentralized Robot Architecture and Sim-to-real Transfer Pipeline For Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Rough Terrain Navigation

Robots that autonomously navigate real-world 3D cluttered environments need to safely traverse terrain with abrupt changes in surface normal and elevation. This thesis presents a decentralized robot architecture for navigation and a novel sim-to-real pipeline for learning real-world navigation in simulation using deep reinforcement learning. The decentralized robot architecture design avoids the requirement of a powerful central server and improves the robustness of the processes against hardware and software failures by isolating the computing units. A set of experiments were conducted to demonstrate the robustness of the architecture's mapping system against challenging environmental conditions. The sim-to-real pipeline uses deep reinforcement learning to learn a navigation policy from data collected in simulation. It incorporated a combination of sim-to-real strategies to address the reality gap that uniquely exists for 3D navigation problems. A set of real-world experiments demonstrated that the pipeline successfully transferred the learned navigation policy into the real world.

Keywords: Autonomous Agents
Deep Learning for Robotics and Automation
Search and Rescue Robots
Advisor: Nejat, Goldie
Risk-aware Financial Portfolio Management with Distributional Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient

In this research, we will explore a risk-aware distributional Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) based reinforcement learning algorithm to tackle the classic financial portfolio management problem. The objective of our research is to discover a general approach for real-world financial portfolio management that incorporates continuous state and action space, controllable portfolio diversification and investment risk-awareness. The state-of-art distributional reinforcement learning algorithm is employed in our research along with the DDPG algorithm. We chose the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) as the feature extractor and studied the effect of explicitly introducing the correlation matrix to the feature extraction process. We managed to control the diversification level of the portfolio by applying temperature control over Softmax and produced a risk-averse reinforcement learning agent through a utility-based risk control practice. Extensive experimental results show that our approach leads to a diversified and risk-averse investment strategy that outperforms an equal-weighted strategy consistently and demonstrates great generalizability.

Keywords: DDPG
Distributional RL
Portfolio Management
Reinforcement Learning
Risk Management
Advisor: Lee, Chi-Guhn
Lawryshyn, Yuri
A Comparative Study of Methods Integrating Genetic Association Summary Statistics and Variant Functional Annotation Scores

Functional annotations can potentially increase the power of genome-wide association study (GWAS) by prioritizing variants according to their biological function. The recent FINDOR meth-od (Kichaev et al., 2019) leveraged a set of 75 annotations into GWAS, which detected 13%-20% more loci than GWAS alone for 27 selected complex traits. Here we consider the more convenient meta-functional scores such as CADD and Eigen, and we broadly examine the GWAS summary statistics of 1,132 phenotypes from the UK Biobank using the weighted p-value approach (Geno-vese et al., 2006) and sFDR method (Sun et al., 2006). The median ([Q1,Q3]) new discovery was 0 ([0,2]) by FINDOR, 0 ([0,1]) by weighted p-value and 0 ([0,0]) by sFDR across all the 1,132 traits examined. Overall, our study suggests more in-formative functional meta-scores or new data integration methods are needed to further improve the power of GWAS by leveraging functional annotations.

Advisor: Sun, Lei
Espin-Garcia, Osvaldo
Differential Toxicity and Chemical Composition of PM2.5 Emissions from Varying Wood Burning Conditions

The contribution of residential wood burning to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been reported to be as high as 42% in North American urban areas during the heating season. Wood burning PM2.5 can be carcinogenic and cause oxidative stress via generation of reactive oxygen species (known as oxidative potential, OP). This study analyzed the toxicity of PM2.5 from wood combustion and pyrolysis by varying fuel, ventilation, and oxygen availability. The wood was burned in a tube furnace coupled with online CO/CO2 measurements, followed by PM2.5 offline organic carbon/elemental carbon and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses. The toxicity was measured via the dithiothreitol assay (OPDTT) and the benzo[a]pyrene equivalent (BaPeq). Oxygen deprivation increased the OPDTT and BaPeq for most species. Enhanced ventilation conditions caused the highest OPDTT and lowest BaPeq values. Negative correlations were found between OPDTT and some phenolic compounds. The results presented inform best practices to limit health impacts. La contribución de la combustión de madera residencial a las partículas suspendidas menores a 2.5 micras (PM2.5) se ha reportado tan alta como 42% en áreas urbanas de América del Norte, especialmente durante la temporada de frío. La quema de madera emite PM2.5 que puede causar efectos nocivos a la salud como carcinogenicidad o estrés oxidativo a través de la generación de especies reactivas de oxígeno (lo que se conoce como potencial oxidativo, OP). Este estudio analizó la toxicidad de PM2.5 de la combustión y pirólisis de madera variando el combustible, la ventilación y la disponibilidad de oxígeno. La madera se quemó en un horno tubular con mediciones de CO / CO2 en tiempo real, seguido del análisis de las partículas por medio de espectrometría de masas, cromatografía de gases y carbono orgánico / elemental. La toxicidad se midió mediante el ensayo de ditiotreitol (OPDTT) y el equivalente de benzopireno (BaPeq). Se encontró que la deficiencia de oxígeno aumenta el OPDTT para todas las especies de madera y el BaPeq para la mayoría de las especies. La ventilación en exceso dio como resultado el OPDTT más alto y el BaPeq más bajo. Se encontraron correlaciones negativas moderadas y fuertes entre el OPDTT y algunos compuestos fenólicos. Los resultados presentados informan mejores prácticas de quema de madera con objetivo de limitar los impactos sobre la salud.

Keywords: biomass
burning conditions
indoor air quality
PAHs
toxicology
woodsmoke
Advisor: Chan, Arthur W.H.
Evans, Greg J.
Genetic Modifiers of Caffeine and Maximal Exercise in Male Athletes

The effect of caffeine on maximal exercise is unclear and may differ depending on an individual’s genetics. The goal of this study was to determine whether caffeine influences maximal exercise on the handgrip (kg), vertical jump (cm) or Wingate (peak power [Watts, W], average power [Watts, W], fatigue index [%]), and if 14 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with caffeine response, modify caffeine’s effects. There was no main effect of caffeine on maximal exercise, and no modifying effect of the 14 SNPs associated with caffeine response on all performance outcomes. Athletes may want to reconsider their use of caffeine prior to a single bout of maximal exercise as caffeine and genetic variability in caffeine metabolism or response did not influence performance in this exercise modality.

Advisor: El-Sohemy, Ahmed