VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Ultrasound echoes from targeted contrast agents

The first contrast agents studied are submicron liquid perfluorocarbon particles. Their production is described and their ultrasound scattering at high-frequencies (>20 MHz) is demonstrated to be linear and Rayleigh in nature. The enhancement in the reflection of surfaces covered with these particles at different surface densities is then measured. It is shown to correspond well to a model that sums the contribution of each scatterer while taking diffraction into account. Experiments with glass beads further confirm the summation model. It is shown experimentally that, when several layers of particles are present, interference between these different layers is an important factor which has to be considered in the model. The reflection goes through several maxima and minima, which can be demonstrated on layers of glass beads and spherical cancer cells accumulated on a surface. It is shown that further complexity, such as multiple scattering, is added when strong scatterers such as gaseous contrast agents are bound on surfaces. These different models and measurements can help to optimize the use of targeted contrast agents in ultrasound imaging and to understand further the appearance of layered tissue on ultrasound images. Targeted contrast agents allow molecular imaging in-vivo by binding to endothelial cell surfaces expressing molecular biomarkers of disease and enhancing their contrast in ultrasound images. The ultrasound echo from targeted contrast agents is poorly understood because it is not only affected by their acoustical properties, but also by their surface densities and spatial distribution. The goal of this thesis is to develop models to predict the contrast enhancement obtainable from different types of targeted agents. The concepts developed are also generalized to the ultrasound reflection of all spherical particles forming layers to mimick the echo formation from a complex tissue.
The Cuntz semigroup as a classification functor for C*-algebras

The classification of C*-algebras with K-theoretic invariants has recently been found to have approximately homogeneous (All) counterexamples. These counterexamples were demonstrated to not be isomorphic through the use of the Cuntz semigroup. Moreover, a property in the Cuntz semigroup (called "almost unperforation") has been found to correspond with the "slow dimension growth" property which constitutes something of a best guess at what might identify which C*-algebras can be classified K-theoretically. The theory of the Cuntz semigroup still being rather limited, this thesis sets out to put the Cuntz semigroup in a framework where it respects inductive limits. More specfically, a natural category for the Cuntz semigroup is defined, the operation of taking the Cuntz semigroup of a C*-algebras is shown to be a functor from the category of C*-algebras to this new category, and this functor is shown to respect inductive limits. A few properties of this new category are also proven. Additionally, a subsemigroup of the Cuntz semigroup is taken for commutative algebras, and those commutative algebras for which this subsemigroup is the entire Cuntz semigroup are identified.
A case study of three organizations' plans to facilitate the adoption, diffusion, and infusion of computer technology in the workplace

This study investigates the processes involved in the introduction of computer technology in the workplace. It examines the extent to which the designer considers end users' needs in the design process in integrating computer technology in the workplace. To investigate this phenomenon, 17 participants representing three organizations were interviewed. These respondents were part of teams responsible for the implementation of computer technology. A case study method was used in which multiple sites were examined to gain insights from those responsible for the adoption of computer technology. Data were gathered using semi-structured interview questions. The researcher conducted the interviews. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim for analysis. Analysis of the data shows that the participants used a variety of approaches to make decisions concerning computer technology adoption in the workplace. The organizations' structure, culture, and management style, and the wider social and national culture influenced how computer technology was adopted, diffused and infused within the workplace. While the organizations investigated in this study were highly hierarchical, a flattened organizational structure was present when decisions about computer technology were made. An open, participatory, democratic management style favoring collaboration and teamwork was chiefly used. The management, including upper management and the Information Technology management, and the employees worked together to facilitate the various processes. The utilization of a user-participatory approach to decision making reflected a socio-technical approach to computer technology adoption, diffusion, and infusion. The organizations with a greater network of support approached the adoption and diffusion processes in a formalized way. The culture of the organization also affects the organization structure and the management style used during the acquisition of computer technology. The utilization of a user-participatory approach to decision making improves how the employees feel about the organization, and in turn the culture has an effect on the diffusion and infusion of computer technology. A “Social Interactive Approach to the Implementation of Computer Technology” is recommended to practitioners in the field of computer technology adoption, diffusion and infusion. This is a holistic and flexible approach that utilizes both the social architectures of the organization, as well as the wider social framework in which the user and the organization are situated.

Keywords: Organizational behavior
Employees, Effect of technological innovations on
Technological innovations, Employee participation
Associations, institutions, etc, Automation
Computers, Social aspects
Chameleons, chimeras and shape-shifters: The production of neoliberal government in Ontario

Drawing on data from a sixteen-month ethnography of Queen's Park, the provincial legislature of Ontario, this study analyses and critiques the evolving production of neoliberal government. The work of real social actors, primarily political workers and politicians, and their active ideological and material creation of government, is central to my focus on the neoliberal project of the Liberal government in Ontario. After charting the historical trajectory of neoliberalism internationally and in Canada, with a particular emphasis on the Third Way approach, I centre on the development of neoliberal political culture and restructuring in Ontario. Then provide an in-depth analysis of the production of the Liberal government, focusing on social and fiscal policies and policy-making, hegemonic gender and class politics, and political communications and spin. I conclude that, at one level, the Liberal chimera fused certain progressive practices and language with neoliberal policies and rhetoric. At the same time, significant and dangerous initiatives that interlocked the public and for-profit sector conceptually and materially were pursued. Thus, a more camouflaged form of deep neoliberal integration was produced.
The cardiac homeodomain transcription factor Irx5 is required to maintain the mouse transmural ventricular repolarization gradient

Ventricular repolarization relies on a transmural gradient of potassium currents. In many species, this electrical heterogeneity is established by the gradient of the fast, transient outward K+ current (I to, f) that is significantly higher in epicardial myocardium than endocardial myocardium. It is not known how this gradient is established in the heart. Here it is shown that in mice lacking the homeodomain containing transcription factor Irx5, the cardiac transmural repolarization gradient is abolished, resulting in altered ECG patterns and increased susceptibility to arrhythmias. Loss of Irx5 also results in a selective increase of the major cardiac repolarization current, Ito, f, in endocardial myocardium due to increased Kv4.2 gene and protein expression. Irx5 is expressed in the myocardium, in an endocardial-to-epicardial gradient and can directly act on the Kv4.2 promoter, but requires additional cofactors to counter its activation. Thus, an inverse gradient of Irx5 is required to maintain the cardiac repolarization gradient.
KIF14: From genomic gain to cancer prognosis

This work provides the first evidence of KIF14's role in cancer, with an expression profile suggesting it as a promising therapeutic target. The genomic, expression, functional and clinical evidence indicates that KIF14 is a novel oncogene in multiple cancers. I investigated the clinical relevance of KIF14 overexpression in 99 breast tumors and 129 non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). KIF14 expression increased with breast cancer grade, and predicted both disease-free and overall survival in univariate analyses. In NSCLC, KIF14 expression increased with poorer differentiation, associated with aneuploidy, and was an independent predictor of disease-free survival in multivariate analyses. Knockdown of KIF14 decreased proliferation and soft agar colony formation ability of H1299 NSCLC cells; overexpression increased colony-forming ability. Retinoblastoma is initiated by mutation of both alleles of the RB1 tumor suppressor gene. However, further events are necessary for cancer development. Genomic copy number gains, notably 1q gained in 53% of retinoblastoma, suggest the location of oncogenes that confer a selective advantage on tumor cells. Gain of 1q is also a hallmark of other cancers. I hypothesized that a common minimal region of gain (MRG) exists at 1q in retinoblastoma and breast cancer, and that candidate oncogene(s) lie in this region. I therefore sought to narrow the MRG, and characterize potential oncogenes at the genetic, expression, functional and clinical levels. Using quantitative multiplex PCR, I narrowed the MRG to 3.06 Mbp at 1q31.3--q32.1 in breast cancer cell lines and retinoblastoma. Of 12 genes in this region, only KIF14 showed overexpression in tumor cells versus normal tissue. KIF14 is a mitotic kinesin, essential for spindle midbody formation and cytokinesis. KIF14 was also highly expressed in medulloblastoma cell lines, normal fetal tissues, mitotic cells, primary lung tumors, and SV40 large T antigen-induced murine retinoblastoma. The KIF14 locus was gained in 56% of retinoblastoma, 50% of breast cancer cell lines, and 58% of hepatocellular carcinoma, and was highly amplified in one retinoblastoma. Gain of KIF14 was used to detect presence and clearance of metastatic retinoblastoma from bone marrow. When compared with other cytogenetic events, 1q gain is likely an early occurrence in retinoblastoma pathogenesis.
Young offenders and social skills training

This study examined social skills deficits in young offenders in social skills training (SST) programs and those who are not in SST programs to determine whether the system meets the social needs of this population. The process through which young offenders receive SST was also examined. Analysis of social skills in 36 young offenders receiving SST and 32 young offenders not receiving SST found no significant group differences, indicating that placement in SST was not based on an objective assessment of needs. Interviews with services providers and probation officers indicate that no formal referral process exists and that young offenders are merely assigned to SST based on the availability of space at the custody facility. Results are discussed with respect to the need for individualized assessments to develop interventions that best meet young offenders' social needs. Implications for the study's findings and directions for future research are also discussed.

Keywords: Juvenile delinquents
Juvenile delinquents, Services for
Social skills, Study and teaching
Speaking with the body: adolescent girls' dieting narratives

This qualitative inquiry of six adolescent girls' experiences of dieting is based on repeated, intensive, and unstructured interviews from which I construct experiential stories utilizing a feminist narrative approach. The current literature on restricted eating relies largely on attitudinal surveys, and has failed to address how adolescent girls themselves articulate in their own language and emotional intensity the fear, angst, and loathing of living in a "too fat" body. Through the construction of dense narratives that detail each 16-year-old participant's complex storying of her weight insecurities, I offer readers the opportunity to relate empathically to the "hell world" of striving to be thin when they negotiate culturally unwanted pubertal weight gain. Weight gain is mediated through gender, race, and class as girls negotiate rigid appearance norms in a "prickly" society where "looks are everything" and identity is particularly malleable during adolescence. Participants described taking hold of their weight to navigate the predicament of puberty and other stressors in a context where they were vulnerable to the "sticking power" of negative body-based comments. An analysis across the narratives suggests that the predicament of puberty arises when girls seek the power and autonomy they associate with becoming an adult woman, but reject the weight gain that signifies a variety of losses and disappointments. Dieting is experienced initially as a deliverer from the predicament of puberty, but ends up dictating behaviours that entrap them in moderate to extreme disciplinary practices. While patterns of food restriction vary in intensity, they are particularly problematic during adolescence because of the detrimental health consequences during this critical growth period. Furthermore, dieting is not only ineffective in reducing weight, but actually precipitates weight gain over the long term, and is a significant risk factor for the development of eating disorders. As such, adolescent dieting is a growing public health problem yet viewed by adolescents as a solution to the predicament of puberty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Mechanisms of transcript regulation in the early Drosophila embryo: degradation, localization and translational regulation

In Drosophila, maternally inherited transcripts control early embryonic development. A subset of these transcripts is specifically degraded, coincident with passage through the midblastula transition (MBT). At this point, genetic control of development passes to zygotically synthesized products. This thesis describes an analysis of RNA stability, localization, and translational control in the early embryo. In Chapter 2, I show that there are two independent degradation pathways that function to eliminate transcripts by the MBT; one is maternally inherited, and the other is zygotically activated. Transcripts that are targeted for degradation by the maternal machinery contain one or more cis -acting degradation elements. Furthermore, transcripts may be protected from degradation in a specific region of the embryo, which is one method of achieving transcript localization. In Chapter 3, I analyze the cis-requirements for RNA degradation by both the maternal and zygotic machineries. A novel in vitro degradation system has been developed in our laboratory to facilitate this analysis. Both the 5′ cap and the 3′ poly(A) tail are required for degradation. In Chapter 4, I provide an analysis of the relationship between translation and degradation. I propose that a labile degradation factor is translated upon egg activation, and is continuously synthesized during transcript degradation. Another factor must be transcribed and translated in order to activate the zygotic degradation machinery, which occurs approximately 2 hours after fertilization. Identification and characterization of the degradation machinery represents the next critical step in studying RNA stability in the Drosophila embryo.
Is There Such a Thing as a Language? An Examination of Donald Davidson's "A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs"

This thesis is an examination and partial defense of Donald Davidson's claim in "A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs" that there is no such thing as a language (as conceived by certain linguists and philosophers). In chapter 1, I argue that there is a common view of language in circulation in which it is regarded as an entity independent of the speaker's communicative-intentions and beliefs about what her words mean. Certain externalist theories put forward by Hilary Putnam, Tyler Burge, and Saul Kripke as well as the conventionalist theories endorsed by David Lewis and Michael Dummett are attempts to explain how it is that the supposed gap between a speaker and this common, public language is bridged. In chapter 2, I argue that by rejecting this idea of a language we are able to shrink this supposed gap between a speaker and meaning. Following Davidson, I reject the idea that conventions play any necessary role in a theory of communication and meaning. I also argue that the debates between Davidson and these externalists revolve around their reliance on the notion of a common public language. A weaker form of externalism is suggested in which we can maintain our allegiance to the theory that external and social factors in part individuate the meanings of words and sentences, without at the same time having to give an account of how we stand related to this common public language. In chapter 3, I defend Davidson's argument against claims that he has mischaracterized both what interpretation actually consists in and the psychological status of a theory of meaning. In chapter 4, I compare Davidson's recent account of meaning with the work of Paul Grice. Despite the seeming convergence of their views, the Gricean theory fails to recognize the autonomy of meaning, to provide an extensional semantics, and to present a non-circular account of the relation between thought and language. In chapter 5, I show that Davidson is not contradicting his earlier views about language by presenting evidence that his no-language thesis is a natural consequence of the views of his earliest essays. I also consider Noam Chomsky's recent no-language thesis and compare it with Davidson's. Some experimental results from developmental psychology are presented that in part corroborate Davidson's emphasis on the role of triangulaton and communication-intentions and show where Chomsky and Davidson part ways.
The nutritional status of a population of young children undergoing dental rehabilitation for severe early childhood caries

Purpose. To describe the nutritional status of young children (N = 56) with Severe Early Childhood Caries (S-ECC) before and after oral rehabilitation. Methods. Subjects were children with S-ECC having dental treatment in a hospital under general anaesthesia. Anthropometric measurements of height, weight, triceps skinfolds (TSF), and arm muscle circumference were taken pre-treatment and 90-days post-treatment. Blood tests for haemoglobin, serum ferritin and serum albumin were performed pre-treatment only. Data were compared with reference values. Results. Comparing Waterlow's classifications of malnutrition, 66% were ideal body weight and 33% either malnourished or overweight/obese. One-quarter was in the 10th percentile for TSF. Blood values showed evidence of protein and/or iron deficiency; 80% having low ferritin and haemoglobin. There were no observable changes in the anthropometric measurements 90-days after oral rehabilitation. Conclusion. The children with S-ECC show evidence of malnutrition, particularly iron deficiency. S-ECC can be considered a risk marker for undernutrition in young children.
Career mobility among immigrant registered nurses in Canada: Experiences of Caribbean women

Since the late 1950s, the Canadian nursing workforce especially during periods of nursing shortage has added to its numbers through immigration. Changes in immigration laws since the 1960s have opened doors for increased numbers of immigrants from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean coming to work in Canada. This qualitative research study investigated the experiences of immigrant women from the Caribbean who are registered nurses (RNs) in Canada. There has been no previously published studies that documented experiences of immigrant women of colour related to career mobility in nursing. A convenience sample of 14 women from the Caribbean, who migrated to Canada between the 1960s and the early 1990s, was recruited for the study. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews, using a semi-structured interview guide. Demographic data were also obtained using a questionnaire that elicited written responses. The analysis of data demonstrated that participants encountered significant barriers in navigating their careers as RNs. These barriers appeared to be related to systemic practices that influenced the regulation of nursing, as well as relationships in work environments. In spite of their experiences in encountering many barriers, participants had developed individual strategies of resistance, and moved forward in their careers in nursing. The study proposes antiracism strategies to create equitable status and rewards for immigrant and minority groups in nursing, as well as for the profession as a whole. The conceptual framework for the research drew from a synthesis of concepts from several bodies of literature; the most significant included critical feminist theories and antiracism discursive frameworks. Foucault's methods contributed to an analysis of the links between power, knowledge and resistance. Among the themes that contributed to an integrated conceptual framework for this research were history, identity, representation, marginalization, power, knowledge, agency and resistance. The research questions were: What factors create barriers or act as facilitators to career mobility among immigrant women of color who are RNs in Canada? How were their lived experiences as RNs mediated through race, gender and class?

Keywords: Nurses, Black, Social conditions
Nurses, Black, Canada
Women immigrants, Social conditions
Women immigrants, Canada
Antilleans, Social conditions
Antilleans, Canada
Evaluation of an integrated membrane process for water reuse: Microbial control, DBP formation and nitrate

The quality of reuse water produced by an integrated MBR-RO (membrane bioreactor and reverse osmosis) system was examined in terms of microbial control, disinfection by-products (DBPs) and nitrate. This study demonstrated that high quality water could be produced from municipal wastewater using an integrated MBR-RO system. The reuse water meets drinking water standards for trihalomethanes (THM), haloacetic acids (HAA), chlorite, total coliform, viruses, and nitrate/nitrite. The reuse water also meets California Title 22 water reuse regulations for non-potable applications including irrigation, and cooling, and could be used in groundwater recharge applications. In addition, the reuse water may be a suitable supplement for a drinking water supply.