VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Characterization of Szego-milled Hemp Fibers

Hemp, one of the fast-growing plants with strong, durable fibers is being used for industrial applications, including papermaking, as a biodegradable reinforcing material for plastics as well as in construction. A series of tests has been conducted grinding hemp with the SM-220 Szego Mill equipped with three helically grooved, 30 cm long rollers with 8*8 or 4*4 mm grooves. A range of flow rates and rotational speeds has been covered in both dry and wet operation to determine the best processing conditions for various potential applications of refined hemp fibers. Particle size distributions and power consumption have been measured. Fiber length and diameter measurements allow an evaluation of fiber aspect ratio. For dry grinding, these are relatively low, typically in the 6-10 range. Wet grinding generally favors higher aspect ratios due to reduced fiber cutting and greater clearing action in the mill. Measured values are in the 60-80 range

Keywords: Szegomill
Hemp fiber
grinding
Advisor: Trass, Olev
Sain, Mohini
What Do Patients Want to Know? Determining the Information Needs of Patients Undergoing Lumbar Microdiscectomy

Background: No spine-specific educational tool has been developed using input from all relevant stakeholders, including patients. Purpose: The objective of this study was to determine the information needs of lumbar microdiscectomy patients. Methods: Qualitative methods with thematic analysis was used. Focus groups were conducted with: 1) preoperative microdiscectomy patients; 2) postoperative microdiscectomy patients; 3) spine surgeons; 4) spine fellows; 5) orthopaedic surgery residents; 6) anesthesiologists; 7) surgeons’ administrative assistants; and, 8) preoperative assessment team. Results: Major information needs were related to: anesthesia, surgical procedure details and postoperative course. Patients desire information on postoperative course much more than surgeons perceive. Desired attributes of information tools as well as patient factors that influence the extent of information shared by surgeons were determined. Information resources should be given to patients as soon as they are deemed surgical candidates. Conclusions: Microdiscectomy patients desire more information than currently provided to them – in particular postoperative-related information.

Keywords: Spine surgery
Patient education tools
Microdiscectomy
Surgical information needs
Advisor: Palda, Valerie
Gaseous Species Measurements of Alternative Jet Fuels in Sooting Laminar Coflow Diffusion Flames

The gaseous species concentration of Jet A-1, GTL, CTL and a blend of 80 vol.% GTL and 20 vol.% hexanol jet fuels in laminar coflow diffusion flames have been measured and studied. These species are carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, oxygen, methane, ethane, ethylene, propylene, and acetylene. Benzene and propyne concentrations were also detected in CTL flames. 1-Butene has been quantified for the blend of GTL and hexanol flame. The detailed experimental setup has been described and results from different flames are compared. The CO is produced in a same amount in all the flames. The CTL flame had the largest and GTL/hexanol flame had lowest CO2 concentrations. The results indicate that GTL and GTL hexanol blend flames produce similar concentrations for all the measured hydrocarbon species and have the highest concentration among all the jet fuels. The experimental results from Jet A-1 fuel are also compared with numerical studies by Saffaripour et al.

Keywords: Gas Chromatography
Combustion
Alternative Jet Fuels
Diffusion Flame
Coflow
Experimental Study
Advisor: Thomson, Murray J.
Functional Redundancy and Expression Divergence among Gene Duplicates in Yeast

My research mainly focused on the functional redundancy and expression divergence of gene duplicates to address currently unsolved problems. Herein, we employed a method based on GO terms to measure functional overlap between paralogs. We established that functional similarity between duplicate genes is the key determinant of their backup capacity. Later, we also investigated expression divergence. Recent studies suggest that only a small proportion of expression variation can be explained by transcriptional variation between paralogs. Here, the contribution from diverged TF-regulations was re-examined and differential promoter chromatin status was also found as an important contributor to expression divergence. To better understand the role of gene duplication in great detail, a case study was performed on the yeast chaperone system, which includes many gene duplicates. Taken together, this study sheds light on the roles of redundancy and divergence in long-term retention of gene duplicates.

Keywords: gene duplication
Advisor: Zhang, Zhaolei
Profit Optimization under Risk in Cognitive Radio Networks

Radio spectrum is scarce in wireless communication. While there is an increasing demand for spectrum due to the substantial growth of wireless communication systems, extensive measurements observe that conventional static spectrum allocation policies introduce significant inefficiency in spectrum utilization. To achieve higher spectrum efficiency, cognitive radio networks have emerged as a revolutionary technology by allowing unlicensed (secondary) users to utilize licensed bands opportunistically without harming licensed (primary) users. In this thesis, we seek to design a new framework that addresses three important issues in cognitive radio networks simultaneously: protection of primary users, incentives for primary networks to share their spectrum and the performance guarantee for secondary users. Leveraging the idea of Value at Risk from economics, in our solution, primary networks maximize their profits by charging secondary users for opportunistic spectrum access, while in the meantime secondary users impose utility constraints to manage the risks and guarantee performance probabilistically.

Keywords: cognitive radio networks
economics
value at risk
profit
Advisor: Li, Baochun
Liang, Ben
VLSI Implementation of Lattice Reduction for MIMO Wireless Communication Systems

Lattice-Reduction has become a popular way of improving the performance of MIMO detectors. However, developing an efficient high-throughput VLSI implementation of LR has been a major challenge in the literature. This thesis proposes a hardware-optimized version of the popular LLL algorithm that reduces its complexity by 70% and achieves a fixed runtime while maintaining ML diversity. The proposed algorithm is implemented for 4x4 MIMO systems and uses a novel pipelined architecture that achieves a fixed low processing latency of 40 cycles, resulting in a fixed throughput that is independent of the channel correlation. The proposed LR core, fabricated in 0.13um CMOS, is the first fabricated and tested LR ASIC implementation in the literature. Test results show that the LR core achieves a maximum clock rate of 204 MHz, yielding a throughput of 510 Mbps, thus satisfying the aggressive throughput requirements of emerging 4G wireless standards, such as IEEE-802.16m and LTE-Advanced.

Keywords: MIMO Systems
Lattice Reduction
VLSI Implementation
Wireless Communication
Advisor: Gulak, P. Glenn
Cardiovascular Response to Dynamic Functional Electrical Stimulation during Head-up Tilt

Orthostatic hypotension (OH) is a prevalent condition among individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). After an injury, OH often reduces the benefit of neurorehabilitation and also prolongs periods of inactivity that lead to secondary complications. This study investigated whether the cardiovascular response to head-up tilting can be improved using functional electrical stimulation (FES) and rhythmic passive movements of the lower extremities. Participants with high thoracic and cervical SCI were recruited. While the participants were tilted head-up to 70 degrees, four conditions were applied in a random sequence: 1) no intervention, 2) rhythmic passive leg movements, 3) isometric FES, and 4) a combination of FES and passive leg movements. The measured cardiovascular parameters indicated that a combination of FES and passive leg movements induced the most desirable response to head-up tilting. The proposed intervention will enable more individuals with SCI to participate in beneficial neurorehabilitation that uses a novel tilt table.

Keywords: Spinal cord injury
Orthostatic hypotension
Rehabilitation engineering
Functional electrical stimulation
Advisor: Popovic, Milos R.
Gaze Strategies and Audiovisual Speech Enhancement

Quantitative relationships were established between speech intelligibility and gaze patterns when subjects listened to sentences spoken by a single talker at different auditory SNRs while viewing one or more talkers. When the auditory SNR was reduced and subjects moved their eyes freely, the main gaze strategy involved looking closer to the mouth. The natural tendency to move closer to the mouth was found to be consistent with a gaze strategy that helps subjects improve their speech intelligibility in environments that include multiple talkers. With a single talker and a fixed point of gaze, subjects' speech intelligibility was found to be optimal for fixations that were distributed within 10 degrees of the center of the mouth. Lower performance was observed at larger eccentricities, and this decrease in performance was investigated by mapping the reduced acuity in the peripheral region to various levels of spatial degradation.

Keywords: audiovisual speech enhancement
gaze strategies
speech intelligibility
Advisor: Wong, Willy
Cognitive Access and Resource Allocation in Autonomous Femtocell Networks

Femto access points (FAP) are low-power cellular base stations that are designed to be autonomously deployed by customers indoors. Due to spectral scarcity, FAPs are expected to share spectrum with underlying macrocells. Closed access refers to the strategy where only Owners of the FAP are allowed access; whereas the FAP is open to everyone under Open access. Challenges such as dead zones or excessive signaling arise when implementing these two access strategies. Cognitive ac¬¬cess control is a hybrid approach that would have the FAP first senses the environment, prioritizes different classes of users, and then reserves a portion of femtocell radio resource for Owners while distributing the remaining to Visitors. Simulation results have shown that by utilizing the proposed Cognitive access control and reserve resource dynamically with the surrounding environment, both Macro-user and Owner throughputs will improve over the macrocell-only baseline, as well as both Closed and Open access strategies.

Keywords: co-channel femtocells
autonomous networks
resource management
admission control
cognitive access
Advisor: Sousa, Elvino Silveira
Management of Colorectal Liver Metastases in Older Patients: a Decision Analysis

BACKGROUND: The incidence of liver metastases from colorectal cancer (CLM) is on the rise. Older cancer patients are frequently subject to under-treatment. METHODS: A Markov decision model was built to examine the effect on life expectancy (LE) and quality-adjusted life expectancy (QALE) of four strategies – best supportive care (BSC), systemic chemotherapy (SC), radiofrequency ablation (RFA), and hepatic resection (HR). The model was designed to account for both age and comorbidities. RESULTS: In the base case analysis, BSC, SC, RFA, and HR yielded LEs of 11.9, 23.1, 34.8, and 37.0 months, respectively, and QALEs of 7.8, 13.2, 22.0, and 25.0 months, respectively. Model results were sensitive to several variables including age, comorbidity status, and length of model simulation. CONCLUSION: Hepatic resection may be the optimal treatment strategy for healthy older patients with CLM. Treatment decisions in older cancer patients should be individualized and account for patient age, comorbidities, and values.

Keywords: surgical oncology
geriatric
Advisor: Law, Calvin
Rod-like Properties of Small Single Cones: Transmutated Photoreceptors of Garter Snakes (Thamnophis proximus)

While nocturnal basal snakes have rod-dominant retinae, diurnal garter snakes have all-cone retinae. Previous work from the Chang lab identified three visual pigments expressed in the photoreceptors of Thamnophis proximus: SWS1, LWS and RH1. I further characterized T. proximus photoreceptors using electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, and in vitro protein expression. T. proximus have four types of morphological cones: double cones, large single cones, small single cones, and very small single cones. Some small single cones have rod-like features, such as rod-like outer-segment membranes and a lack of micro-droplets. Immunohistochemistry showed that rod-specific transducin is expressed in some T. proximus photoreceptors. In vitro expression of T. proximus RH1 produced a functional rhodopsin with λmax at 485nm, which corresponds to microspectrophotometry measurement from some small single cones. Current results suggest that small single cones of T. proximus may have evolved from ancestral rods, and secondarily acquired a cone-like morphology as adaptation to diurnality.

Keywords: rhodopsin
photoreceptor
snake
garter snake
electron miscroscopy
in vitro expression
Advisor: Chang, Belinda
Towards a Normative Basis of the Doctrine of Consideration

This paper reviews both the law and the theoretical accounts of the doctrine of consideration with a view to look for a normative, consistent and public basis of it. The thesis argues that such a basis can only be found by justifying it as what it is instead of considering it as a proxy for something else. The most promising justificatory account of the doctrine should look at its main features and try to make sense of them in consistency, instead of putting up assumption before analysis.

Keywords: consideration legal formalism normative basis
Advisor: Benson, Peter
An Investigation into Focused Ultrasound Thrombolysis

In this thesis focused ultrasound thrombolysis was investigated in vitro and in vivo. At high intensities it was demonstrated that clot breakdown only arises under the presence of inertial cavitation for longer pulse lengths, consistent with observations at significantly shorter pulse durations, and that the majority of clot debris is sub-capillary in size. Evidence of flow restoration was demonstrated in vivo by partially restoring flow to an occluded rabbit femoral artery. At slightly lower intensities it was observed that steady- state clot displacements scale linearly with power for clots treated with focused ultrasound pulses, and in some cases can reach magnitudes up to several hundred microns. It was demonstrated that the shear strain exerted on the clot by a focused ultrasound pulse scale with power, which may be implicated in enhancing drug permeation for studies in combination with lytic agents.

Keywords: Ultrasound
Thrombolysis
Advisor: Goertz, David
Design and Development of an Apparatus to Study Aviation Jet Fuel Thermal Stability

A single tube flow heat exchanger was designed and built to thermally stress Jet A-1 with air-saturated and deoxygenated levels of dissolved oxygen over a range of fuel temperatures, pressures, and flow rates. Liquid samples of thermally degraded Jet A-1 were analyzed using various physical and optical methods to determine which methods were sensitive enough to measure compositional changes in thermally degraded liquid fuel and to correlate these changes to the measured amount of deposits produced. Temperature programmed oxidation (TPO) was shown to be successful in measuring deposit quantity and structure, while UV-visible absorption and UV-visible fluorescence were sensitive enough to quickly measure the relative population growth of large aromatic compounds that lead to deposit formation in thermally stressed Jet A-1.

Keywords: Thermal Stability
Jet Fuel
Advisor: Gulder, Omer L.
Neuropathology of Post-stroke Depression: Possible Role of Inflammatory Molecules and Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase

The study evaluated whether the activity of the indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase (IDO) enzyme is increased post-stroke and contributes to the development of post-stroke depression (PSD) via tryptophan (TRP) depletion and neurotoxic kynurenine (KYN) metabolite production. The activity of IDO was measured using the KYN/TRP ratio. Participants were assessed for depression severity using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Blood TRP, KYN, large neutral amino acids and cytokines were measured and compared. Fifty-four (mean age=69.9±15.2, male=52.7%, mean NIHSS=7.3±4.6) patients within 28.9±40.3 days of stroke were separated into two groups: non-depressed (n=38, CES-D=6.1±4.9) and those with significant depressive symptoms (n=16, CES-D=26.8±10.8). Higher mean KYN/TRP ratios were demonstrated in stroke patients with depressive symptoms (non-depressed=69.3±36.9 vs. depressive symptoms=78.3±42.0, F3,50=4.61, p=0.006) after controlling for LNAA (p=0.026) and hypertension (p=0.039). As the KYN/TRP ratio reflects decreased TRP and increased neurotoxic KYN metabolites, both mechanisms may play an etiological role in PSD.

Keywords: Stroke
Inflammation
Kynurenine
Kynurenine/Tryptophan ratio
Post-stroke depression
Advisor: Lanctôt, Krista
Herrmann, Nathan
The Relationship between Consistent Early Care and Brain Responses to Emotional Infant Stimuli in Recently Postpartum Mothers: An fMRI Study

There is a paucity of research examining the neurobiological functioning of new mothers who have experienced parental loss during development. The current study investigated the relationship between inconsistent (IC) versus consistent (CC) care and brain activity in regions that comprise a putative neurobiological model of mothering. Mothers were shown positive and negative pictures of their own and an unfamiliar infant. Through repeated measures ANOVAs, it was found that BOLD activity was greater for own infant in the nucleus accumbens (NAC) and amygdala (AMY) and that positive pictures elicited greater BOLD response in the NAC, AMY and anterior cingulate cortex. Interestingly, IC mothers show an even greater response own infant in the NAC and left hypothalamus (HYPO). In the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, IC mothers showed greater BOLD response to other infant. Thus, functioning of the maternal circuit, which includes areas strongly implicated in reward, may be altered by early experiences.

Keywords: Maternal behaviour
fMRI
Early life experiences
Infant faces
Advisor: Fleming, Alison S.
Impact of Water Quality on Solar Disinfection (SODIS): Investigating a Natural Coagulant Pretreatment on the Photoinactivation of Escherichia coli

Solar water disinfection (SODIS) is the process of treating microbiologically contaminated water in clear plastic bottles through exposure to sunlight. One of the major limiting factors of this treatment is source water quality. This work investigates the impact of organic matter and turbidity on SODIS efficiency. Organic matter was found to decrease bacterial inactivation to a much greater extent than the presence of inorganic particles. The ability of moringa oleifera seed emulsion to clarify source waters was investigated as a coagulation pretreatment. This coagulant is most effective in highly turbid, high humic content waters, and achieves up to 1-log bacterial removal. The combined moringa oleifera coagulation-SODIS treatment sequence was tested in highly coloured natural source water and was found to reduce the sunlight exposure time required by up to 2 hours. Treated water should be consumed immediately following the individual or combined treatments due to the potential for bacterial regrowth.

Keywords: solar disinfection
drinking water treatment
Escherichia coli
pretreatment
coagulation
Moringa oleifera
Advisor: Andrews, Susan
Age-related Changes to Attention and Working Memory: An Electrophysiological Study

The aim of this thesis was to help elucidate the mechanisms that underlie age-related decline in visual selective attention and working memory (WM). Older and younger adults completed a behavioural WM task, after which electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded as participants perform a localized attentional interference (LAI) task – competition/attentional interference was manipulated by systematically altering the distance between targets and distractors. Older adults showed impaired accuracy and reaction time on the WM and LAI tasks. Two event-related-potentials, indexing spatial attention (N2pc) and target processing (Ptc), displayed attenuated amplitude and increased latency in older adults. Thus, spatial selection, target enhancement and processing speed deficits may contribute to age-related attentional impairments. Furthermore, an unexpected component was found between the N2pc and Ptc in the older adult waveforms. Preliminary analyses suggest this may be the PD, implicated in distractor suppression, which may be differentially contributing to older and younger adults’ electrophysiology and attentional processing.

Keywords: Electroencephalogram (EEG)
event-related-potential
aging
attention
N2pc
Ptc
visual
vision
working memory
localized attentional interference
change-detection
inhibition
target enhancement
selective attention
spatial attention
visual short-term memory
processing speed
elderly
development
psychology
Advisor: Ferber, Susanne
The China Syndrome: Challenges for Addressing Climate Change in the 21st Century

Climate change is the greatest environmental international problem facing the world today. This paper begins with a review of the climate change regime to date showing the mistakes that were made leading to failure in Copenhagen. It looks at China’s unique position in the international community and concludes that a meaningful climate change solution is not possible without China’s participation. It examines the concepts of CBDR and fairness to determine whether it is fair for the world to demand China’s participation. It looks at characteristics which should be present in a fair climate change solution, and concludes with a brief look at international trade law to determine what alternatives would be available to a coalition of willing states to encourage China’s participation in a global solution or, in a worst case scenario, to form an effective solution without China’s willing participation.

Keywords: Climate Change
Common but Differentiated Responsibility
China
Fairness
International Environmental Law
Advisor: Brunnee, Jutta
A Comparative Constitutional Analysis of the Judicial Treatment of Torture Between Israel and the United States: Navigating the Contentious Issue of Legality vs Policy in National Security Matters

This comparative legal analysis evaluates the issue of terrorism and how it has been dealt with respectively by the United States and Israeli Supreme Courts. Since the events of 9/11, combating terrorism has become one of the primary concerns of the US government while it is a matter that has pervaded Israeli policy since its birth as a nation-state. The analysis is centered on examining how each state‘s Supreme Court has confronted the issue with the Israeli Supreme Court using a ―Business as Usual‖ model and the US taking an ―Emergency Powers‖ approach. It is argued that terrorism is an ongoing issue that cannot be justified as an emergency and the US Court would do better in adopting Israel‘s method of adjudication in these matters. It is also suggested that the US could learn from Israel‘s policy towards torture as the US policy has largely been cruel and unsuccessful.

Keywords: Terrorism
torture
national security
Supreme Court
Advisor: Weinrib, Lorraine