VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
A Pilot Trial of a Coaching Intervention Designed to Increase Women's Attendance at Cardiac Rehabilitation Intake

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to be the leading cause of death of Canadian women and while treatment for CVD has improved dramatically, women typically fare worse than men with regards to morbidity following cardiac event. Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is well established as a key intervention in the treatment of coronary artery disease and has been shown to be effective in both men and women. CR remains largely underutilized, especially in women who comprise only 12 – 24% of contemporary CR programs, even though the prevalence of CVD in men and women is similar. The objectives of this pilot trial were to test the feasibility of all procedures, specifically to determine: 1) an estimate of patient recruitment rates, 2) acceptability and feasibility of the intervention and 3) barriers to CR attendance and resources required. Additionally, exploratory research questions were used to determine the effects of telephone coaching on women’s attendance at CR intake appointment, self-efficacy for cardiac exercise and self-efficacy to attend CR. A RCT design enrolled women with CVD referred for CR at a single site in Ontario. Patients were randomized, stratified for age, to either a usual care group or an intervention group. Participants allocated to usual care received a referral to CR. In addition to usual care, women assigned to the intervention group received individualized telephone coaching, designed to support self-management prior to CR intake. Eighty-three patients were approached and 70 consented to participate (usual care n = 36, intervention n = 34). Participants in the intervention group were significantly more likely to attend CR intake (p = 0.048). Participants were highly satisfied with their coaching experience; they found the information provided to be helpful with goal setting, action planning and assisted them in their interactions with their health care providers. Barriers to attendance identified included transportation, health concerns, timing and lack of physician endorsement. Most common resources identified included problem solving support, assistance with communication with physicians and information concerning CR. The evidence obtained from this pilot trial suggests that a telephone coaching intervention designed to enhance self-management is feasible and may improve attendance at CR intake for women following hospital discharge with a cardiac event.

Keywords: Cardiac Rehabilitation
Women
Self-management support
Coaching
Advisor: Doran, Diane
Fabrication, Modelling and Application of Conductive Polymer Composites

Electroactive polymers (EAP) are an emerging branch of smart materials that possess the capability to change shape in the presence of an electric field. Opportunities for the advancement of knowledge were identified in the branch of EAP consisting of inherently electrically conductive polymers. This dissertation explores methods by which the unique properties of composite materials having conductive polymers as a constituent may be exploited. Chapter 3 describes the blending of polyaniline with conventional thermoplastics. Processing these polyblends into foams yielded a porous conductive material. The effect of blend composition and processing parameters on the resulting porous morphology and electrical conductivity was investigated. These findings represent the first systematic study of porous conductive polymer blends. In Chapter 4, multilayer electroactive polymer actuators consisting of polypyrrole films electropolymerized on a passive polymer membrane core were harnessed as actuators. The membrane is vital in the transport of ionic species and largely dictates the stiffness of the layered configuration. The impact of the mechanical properties of the membrane on the actuation response of polypyrrole-based trilayer bending actuators was investigated. Candidate materials with distinct morphologies were identified and their mechanical properties were evaluated. These results indicated that polyvinylidene difluoride membranes were superior to the other candidates. An electrochemical synthesis procedure was proposed, and the design of a novel polymerization vessel was reported. These facilities were utilized to prepare actuators under a variety of synthesis conditions to investigate the impact of conductive polymer morphology on the electromechanical response. Characterization techniques were implemented to quantitatively assess physical and electrochemical properties of the layered composite. Chapter 5 proposes a new unified multiphysics model that captures the electroactive actuation response inherent to conductive polymer trilayer actuators. The main contribution of this investigation was the proposal and development of a new hybrid model that unifies concepts from charge transport and electrochemomechanical models. The output of the proposed model was compared with published data and shown to be accurate to within 10%. Finally, Chapter 6 demonstrated the application of these materials for use as precision mirror positioners in adaptive optical systems.

Keywords: Conductive polymers
Polypyrrole
Electroactive polymers
Polyaniline
Advisor: Naguib, Hani E.
The "State Islam" Nexus: Islam and the State in Indonesia and Malaysia 1982-2008

My thesis argues that in 1982-2008, “state Islam” created a pluralistic Indonesia and an anti-pluralistic Malaysia. The rubric of “state Islam” is a political alliance of secular politicians, religious bureaucrats, and Islamic socio-religious organizations. During these twenty-five years, state policy in Indonesia repressed Islam through the political marginalization of the formal and informal institutions of Muslim piety and practice. On the other hand, state policy in Malaysia accommodated Islam through promoting similar institutions. The rise of Islamic political and cultural consciousness in 1979 had triggered leadership transition and elite factionalism in 1982 in Malaysia and in 1989 in Indonesia, during which a new Islamic-centric force of entrepreneurs drove policy change. From 1982 to 2008, Indonesia and Malaysia created new state religious bureaucracies that regulated Islam, persecuted minority Islamic sects, and curbed the political autonomy of socio-religious organizations embedded in Islam. Chapter 1 constitutes a literature review and outlines my argument and key variables, while Chapter 2 provides the historical context of Islam in pre and post-independence Indonesia and Malaysia. The next chapter takes us to Indonesia in 1982-1994, when the Suharto government embarked on its institutional repression of Islam. Chapter 4 demonstrates how in 1982-1994 the Mahathir government in Malaysia launched its parallel institutional accommodation of Islam. Returning to Indonesia, Chapter 5 shows how Suharto’s institutional repression from the late 1990s directly created the conditions for a pluralist Indonesia today. Chapter 6 examines how the Mahathir government, previously locked in a close relationship with Islam through institutional accommodation in the late 1990s to early 2000s, produced a contemporary Malaysia resolutely hostile to political and socio-cultural pluralism. The final chapter explores the concept of unintended consequences and suggests comparative and cross-regional implications for my findings.

Keywords: Indonesia
Malaysia
Islam
Advisor: Bertrand, Jacques
Toward an Optical Brain-computer Interface based on Consciously-modulated Prefrontal Hemodynamic Activity

Brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies allow users to control external devices through brain activity alone, circumventing the somatic nervous system and the need for overt physical movement. BCIs may potentially benefit individuals with severe neuromuscular disorders who experience significant, and often total, loss of voluntary muscle control (e.g. amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, brainstem stroke). Though a majority of BCI research to date has focused on electroencephalography (EEG) for brain signal acquisition, recently researchers have noted the potential of an optical imaging technology called near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for BCI applications. This thesis investigates the feasibility of a practical, online optical BCI based on conscious modulation of prefrontal cortex activity through the performance of different cognitive tasks, specifically mental arithmetic (MA) and mental singing (MS). The thesis comprises five studies, each representing a step toward the realization of a practical optical BCI. The first study demonstrates the feasibility of a two-choice synchronized optical BCI based on intentional control states corresponding to MA and MS. The second study explores a more user-friendly alternative - a two-choice system-paced BCI supporting a single intentional control state (either MA or MS) and a natural baseline, or "no-control (NC)", state. The third study investigates the feasibility of a three-choice system-paced BCI supporting both MA and MS, as well as the NC state. The fourth study examines the consistency with which the relevant mental states can be differentiated over multiple sessions. The first four studies involve healthy adult participants; in the final study, the feasibility of optical BCI use by a user with Duchenne muscular dystrophy is explored. In the first study, MA and MS were classified with an average accuracy of 77.2% (n=10), while in the second, MA and MS were differentiated individually from the NC state with average accuracies of 71.2% and 62.7%, respectively (n=7). In the third study, an average accuracy of 62.5% was obtained for the MA vs. MS vs. NC problem (n=4). The fourth study demonstrated that the ability to classify mental states (specifically MA vs. NC) remains consistent across multiple sessions (p=0.67), but that there is intersession variability in the spatiotemporal characteristics that best discriminate the states. In the final study, a two-session average accuracy of 71.1% was achieved in the MA vs. NC classification problem for the participant with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Keywords: Near-infrared spectroscopy
Brain-computer interface
Advisor: Chau, Tom
Characterization and Inhibition of the Dimer Interface in Bacterial Small Multidrug Resistance Proteins

As one of the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, bacteria use several families of membrane-embedded α-helical transporters to remove cytotoxic molecules from the cell. The small multidrug resistance protein family (SMR) is one such group of drug transporters that because of their relative small size [ca. 110 residues with four transmembrane (TM) helices] must form at the minimum dimers to efflux drugs. We have used the SMR homologue Hsmr from Halobacterium salinarum to investigate the oligomerization properties of the protein family at TM helix 4. We produced point mutations along the length of the TM4 helix in the full length Hsmr protein and assayed their dimerization and functional properties via SDS-PAGE and bacterial cell growth assays. We found that Hsmr forms functionally dependent dimers via an evolutionarily conserved 90GLxLIxxGV98 small residue heptad repeat. Upon investigation of the large hydrophobic residues in this motif by substituting each large residue to Ile, Leu, Met, Phe, and Val, we determined that Hsmr efflux function relies on an optimal level of dimerization. While some substitutions led to either decreased or increased dimer and substrate-binding strength, several Ile94 and Val98 mutants were equal to wild type dimerization levels but were nonfunctional, leading to the hypothesis of a mechanistic role at TM4 in addition to the locus of dimerization. The functionally sensitive TM4 dimer represents a potential target for SMR inhibition using a synthetic TM4 peptide mimetic. Using exponential decay measurements from a real-time cellular efflux assay, we observed the efflux decay constant was decreased by up to ~60% after treatment with the TM4 peptide inhibitor compared to control peptide treatments. Our results suggest that this approach could conceivably be used to design hydrophobic peptides for disruption of key TM-TM interactions of membrane proteins, and represent a valuable route to the discovery of new therapeutics.

Keywords: small multidrug resistance proteins
bacterial multidrug efflux
antibiotic resistance
membrane protein oligomerization
peptide inhibition
protein folding
Advisor: Deber, Charles M.
Who Can We Trust with Our Money?: Accountability as an Ideological Frame in Canada

While accountability measures are designed and promoted to increase trust among members of society in Canada, this study finds that accountability practices actually reduce trust and flexibility among people. This dissertation interrogates the concept of accountability as value-free and in the public interest in Canada. Using institutional ethnography as an approach to research, this study traces how accountability as a concept is defined through a set of performances described in texts that trickle down from the federal to the municipal level in Ontario. In particular, I examine how residents’ groups providing social services with a small grant from an Ontario municipality are required to go to great lengths to perform accountability according to dominant texts. This study overlays a mapping of the textual organization of accountability with the theories of civility and governmentality to demonstrate how white, middle-class, neoliberal values pervade decision-making about the allocation of public funds. The data demonstrate that while government accountability measures are designed with elected officials and government workers in mind, the practice of accountability gets enforced through the least socially powerful members of society, defined through racialized, gendered, and class distinctions. I conclude that while changes to reporting mechanisms could render the lives of more residents visible, ultimately the dominant focus on rules rather than relationships in Canada undermines real trust, and thus is the most vital site for change.

Keywords: accountability
institutional ethnography
civility
Advisor: Ng, Roxana
Basis Functions With Divergence Constraints for the Finite Element Method

Maxwell's equations are a system of partial differential equations of vector fields. Imposing the constitutive relations for material properties yields equations for the curl and divergence of the electric and magnetic fields. The curl and divergence equations must be solved simultaneously, which is not the same as solving three separate scalar problems in each component of the vector field. This thesis describes a new method for solving partial differential equations of vector fields using the finite element method. New basis functions are used to solve the curl equation while allowing the divergence to be set as a constraint. The basis functions are defined on a mesh of bricks and the method is applicable for geometries that conform to a Cartesian coordinate system. The basis functions are a combination of cubic Hermite splines and second order Lagrange interpolation polynomials. The method yields a linearly independent set of constraints for the divergence, which is modelled to second order accuracy within each brick. Mesh refinement is accomplished by dividing selected bricks into 2 × 2 × 2 smaller bricks of equal size. The change in the node pattern at an interface where mesh refinement occurs necessitates a modified implementation of the divergence constraints as well as additional constraints for hanging nodes. The mesh can be refined to an arbitrary number of levels. The basis functions can exactly model the discontinuity in the normal component of the field at a planar interface. The method is modified to solve problems with singularities at material boundaries that form 90° edges and corners. The primary test problem of the new basis functions is to obtain the resonant frequencies and fields of three-dimensional cavities. The new basis functions can resolve physical solutions and non-physical, spurious modes. The eigenvalues obtained with the new method are in good agreement with exact solutions and experimental values in cases where they exist. There is also good agreement with results from second-order edge elements that are obtained with the software package HFSS. Finally, the method is modified to solve problems in cylindrical coordinates provided the domain does not contain the coordinate axis.

Keywords: finite element method
computational electromagnetics
basis functions
spurious modes
resonant cavity
Advisor: Dawson, Francis P.
STEPS TO PARNASSUS: The Effects of Guided Practice On Junior and Intermediate School Musicians

Practicing is an ineluctable component in the pursuit of achieving musical goals. This is particularly true in the Western model of music education that is, for the most part, characterized by private lessons or ensemble rehearsals that typically occur only once each week. How dependent is the motivation to learn music on effective practicing? Novices often abandon music education simply because “it’s too hard.” Is the frustration the result of a lack of success due to ineffective practicing? Effective practicing evolves naturally with increased musical knowledge and expertise. Overall, a musician’s development towards effective practicing may be described as the acquisition of a metacognitive awareness of one’s own learning and hence a more active participation in that learning that is characterized by self-regulatory behaviours. This research asks if guided practice at an early age might prove a catalyst in the development of effective practicing which naturally occurs with musical expertise. Over the course of an academic school year, 13 novice musicians engaged in guided practice sessions with the researcher. The participants were private piano students and young band members. Data gathered through interviews, questionnaires and video recordings of lessons and practice sessions at the musicians’ homes were analyzed within the theoretical framework of self-regulation. Data were also analyzed according to a self-system theoretical framework of expectancy-value theory, self-determination theory, attribution theory, and goal orientation. Evidence from the data suggests an increase in cognitive and metacognitive processes that characterize self-regulated learning. Musicians also indicate an increase in motivation to engage in practicing as well as greater self-efficacy in addressing musical challenges. Effective pedagogical approaches for guided practice are discussed as are implications for music education. Suggestions are made for further research.

Keywords: music education
practicing
metacognition
self-regulated learning
practice pedagogy
motivation
Advisor: Dolloff, Lori-Anne
Stably Non-stable C*-algebras with no Bounded Trace

A well-known theorem of Blackadar and Handelman states that every unital stably finite C*-algebra has a bounded quasitrace. Rather strong generalizations of stable finiteness to the non-unital case can be obtained by either requiring the multiplier algebra to be stably finite, or alternatively requiring it to be at least stably not properly infinite. My thesis deals with the question whether the Blackadar-Handelman result can be extended to the non-unital case with respect to these generalizations of stable finiteness. For suitably well-behaved C*-algebras there is a positive result, but none of the non-unital versions holds in full generality. Two examples of C*-algebras are constructed. The first one is a non-unital, stably commutative C*-algebra A that contradicts the weakest possible generalization of the Blackadar-Handelman theorem: The multiplier algebras of all matrix algebras over A are finite, while A has no bounded quasitrace. The second example is a non-unital, simple C*-algebra B that is stably non-stable, i.e. no matrix algebra over B is a stable C*-algebra. In fact, the multiplier algebras over all matrix algebras of this C*-algebra are not properly infinite. Moreover, the C*-algebra B has no bounded quasitrace and therefore gives a simple counterexample to a possible generalization of the Blackadar-Handelman theorem.

Keywords: Operator algebras
C*-algebra
Classification
Traces
Advisor: Elliott, George Arthur
Protein Recovery from Secondary Paper Sludge and Its Potential Use as Wood Adhesive

Secondary sludge is an essential part of biosolids produced through the waste treatment plant of paper mills. Globally paper mills generate around 3.0 million ton of biosolids and in the absence of beneficial applications, the handling and disposal of this residual biomass poses a serious environmental and economic proposition. Secondary paper sludges were investigated in this work for recovery of proteins and their use as wood adhesive. After identifying extracellular polymeric substances as adhesion pre-cursors through analytical techniques, studies were carried out to optimize protein recovery from SS and its comprehensive characterization. A modified physicochemical protocol was developed to recover protein from secondary sludge in substantial quantities. The combined effect of French press and sonication techniques followed by alkali treatment resulted in significant improvement of 44% in the yield of solubilized protein compared to chemical methods. The characterization studies confirmed the presence of common amino acids in recovered sludge protein in significant quantities and heavy metal concentration was reduced after recovery process. The sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis revealed the presence of both low and high molecular weight protein fractions in recovered sludge protein. After establishing the proof-of-concept in the use of recovered sludge protein as wood adhesive, the bonding mechanism of protein adhesives with cellulose substrate was further elucidated in a complementary protein-modification study involving soy protein isolate and its glycinin fractions. The results of this study validated the prevailing bonding theories by proving that surface wetting, protein structure, and type of wood play important role in determining final adhesive strength. Recovered sludge protein was also investigated for its compatibility to formulate hybrid adhesive blends with formaldehyde and bio-based polymers. Apart from chemical cross-linking, the synergy of adhesive blends was evaluated through classical rule-of-mixture. The findings of this study warrants further investigation concerning other potential uses of recovered sludge protein, especially as food supplements and economic implications.

Keywords: Recycling
Secondary sludge
Protein recovery
Residual biomass
Biorefinery
Adhesion mechanism
Advisor: Sain, Mohini