VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Residential Ventilation: A Review of Established Systems and a Laboratory Investigation of the Fine Wire Heat Recovery Ventilator

The fine wire HRV is a novel concept for decentralized residential ventilation heat recovery using thin copper wires to transfer sensible energy between supply and exhaust airstreams. The HRV can be incorporated into the building envelope, in effect creating a "breathing wall" ideally suited to demand controlled ventilation.Performance testing conducted in the laboratory indicates that fan electricity consumption was as low as 1.1 W per L/s, while sensible heat recovery efficiency was as high as 82%. Overall, the fine wire HRV is comparable to the top 5% of HRVs available in North America. When used in conjunction with demand controlled ventilation, the modeled ventilation heating load was reduced by 61% and the total heating load was reduced by 17%. Fan electricity consumption was also reduced by 61%, corresponding to a reduction in household electricity use of roughly 5%. Additional modeling and field installations are recommended.

Keywords: air quality
DCV
decentralized
fine wire
heat recovery
ventilation
Advisor: Pressnail, D Kim
Study of Turbulent Swirl-stabilized Non-premixed Ethylene Flames in a Model Combustor

The study of turbulent swirl-stabilized non-premixed flames in a model combustor is needed to improve the understanding of flow characteristics and soot production in aero-engines. Laser-induced incandescence and particle image velocimetry have been utilized to characterize the sooting structure and flow field in a gas turbine model combustor. Three air flow rates were used during experiments: 12.38 kg/h, 13.14 kg/h, and 14.00 kg/h. The fuel flow rate was held constant at 0.19 kg/h of ethylene. Point-wise laser-induced incandescence measurements were taken at 130 measurement locations across the burner cross-section. Results show that soot is rarely present at the measurement location. The region of maximum soot has a hollow-cone shape emanating from the fuel nozzle. Particle image velocimetry measurements captured the velocity vector field of the combustor cross-section. Results reveal an inner and an outer recirculation zone, along with a hollow cone-shaped volume of high velocity and turbulence.

Keywords: Combustion
Laser-Induced Incandescence
Particle Image Velocimetry
Soot
Turbulence
Advisor: Gulder, L. Omer
Reduced Order Surrogate Modelling (ROSM) of High Dimensional Deterministic Simulations

Often, computationally expensive engineering simulations can prohibit the engineering design process. As a result, designers may turn to a less computationally demanding approximate, or surrogate, model to facilitate their design process. However, owing to the

Keywords: dimensionality reduction
high dimensional data
kernel principal component analysis
linear principal component analysis
reduced order model
surrogate modelling
Advisor: Nair, B Prasanth
Studies into the Reactivity of Frustrated Lewis Pairs Containing N-N Bases with Hydrogen

Frustrated Lewis Pairs (FLPs) typically consist of main-group Lewis acids and bases, and can be used to affect a variety of small molecule activations. Modulation of the base's identity is of high interest in our group as this affords the reduction of systems with varying electronic properties. Such manipulations, for example, have led to the development of reductions of N-heterocycles, anilines, olefins and C=N bonds. In certain cases, such as hydroaminations, catalytic reduction was possible. Herein, studies into a novel FLP system containing diazo (N=N) or hydrazine (N-N)-type bases are presented. Such systems were shown to be effective in activating dihydrogen, resulting in the hydrogenolysis of the diazene bond. The implications that these observations have on the development of catalytic systems as well as their broader applications toward their reactivity with other small molecules will be discussed.

Keywords: Azobenzene
Frustrated Lewis Pairs
Hydrazine
Hydrogen
Advisor: Stephan, W Douglas
Investigating the Fundamental Parameters of Cake Filtration using a Gravity Column Device

A column device equipped with an imaging system was used to estimate the permeability of filter mesh, and the porosity and permeability of filter cakes formed by the filtration of wastewater. Synthetic wastewater samples containing polyethylene microspheres with mono-sized and bi-modal size distributions prepared and the effect of particle size and its distribution on filter cake permeability and porosity were investigated. Using actual wastewater samples, changes in filter cake porosity and permeability during the gravity drainage process were investigated. Based on the initial slope of the drainage curve, the filter mesh permeability was estimated. A mathematical model was developed based on Darcy's law to predict the drainage rate and the height of wastewater during the column filtration process with an average error of less than 7%. Experimental drainage data collected for various water column heights suggest that cake compressibility may play a role in the drainage of wastewater.

Keywords: Cake Filtration
Gravity Filtration
Permeability
Porosity
Wastewater filtration
Advisor: Farnood, Ramin
Characterizing the Community Dynamics of the Leaf Microbiome

The phyllosphere microbiome of seasonal plants is influenced by biological, environmental and ecological factors. To explore the influence of these factors simultaneously and to determine the forces that drive community composition, we sampled leaf communities from common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), soybean (Glycine max) and Canola (Brassica napus), planted at three different locations at the Koffler Scientific Reserve, over the course of a growing season. Temporal changes had the most significant affect on the community, regardless of host species or location. Precipitation had the most dramatic effect on the Canola microbiome, while soybean and bean communities followed a more predictable pattern of development throughout the summer and were only minimally affected by rainfall. Leaf communities at the beginning of the season were strongly influenced by soil communities. As time passed, the leaf communities differentiated from the soil, becoming less diverse and containing a greater proportion of leaf-adapted and leaf-specific taxa.

Keywords: Agriculture
Microbiome
Phyllosphere
Advisor: Guttman, S David
Artificial Amino Acids Racemase: Stereoselective Deuteration of Amino Acids

An efficient catalytic system is developed for racemization of amino acids. The system consists of a biphasic mixture of water and chloroform. The zwitterionic amino acid in the water layer is catalytically transported to the chloroform layer with a chiral guanidine base. The amino acid salt is then reversibly converted to an imino acid salt with an aldehyde. The guanidine base then racemizes the imino acid salt. The racemized amino acid is released to the water layer upon hydrolysis. The catalytic system is highly efficient at neutral pH and ambient temperature. In addition, similar to racemases in nature, an equilibrium `overshoot' is observed in D2O when the amino acid and the base have the same configurations. Thus L-alanine gives enantiomeric excess of deuterated D-alanine (20% ee) when S form of the chiral guanidine. The catalytic system can be used to perform crystallization induced diastereomer transformation (CIDT) of amino acids.

Advisor: Chin, Jik
Voice and Silence of the Subaltern: Rural Women in the Public Culture of Post-Socialist China

This study examines rural women's self-narrations about their sufferings in post-socialist China both in the official media and in the documentary films. The central question this study asks is whether it is possible for the post-socialist subaltern, such as rural women, to speak. The thesis first demonstrates how the official media efface the voices of rural women by constructing a unified discourse on suzhi or quality development in the post-socialist era. This is followed by an analysis of rural women's writings on their struggles with the official rhetoric channeled through TV documentary programs in the official media. This works concludes with a discussion of the possibility for rural women to speak via the medium of new documentary films. Known as "alternative archives," new documentary films examined rural women's articulations, which in turn can be seen as forms of talking back to the suzhi development discourse.

Keywords: documentary films
gender politics
migrant laborers
rural women
subaltern
suzhi discourse
Advisor: Meng, Yue
Characterizing the Affective Responses to an Acute Bout of Moderate-intensity Exercise in People with Schizophrenia

This study characterized the basic affective - feelings of pleasure and arousal - responses to exercise using the Circumplex Model of Affect within the schizophrenia population. Affect during exercise was also examined as a correlate of future physical activity (PA) participation. A randomized, repeated measures, crossover design compared affect before, during, after, and 10 minutes after a bout of moderate-intensity exercise on a treadmill versus passive sitting. Twenty-one participants enrolled in the study; 17 were included in the final analyses. A 2(task) x 4(time) within-participant repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for time, F(3,45)=6.38, p=.001, for pleasure. No other significant differences emerged. Contrary to hypotheses, exercise did not significantly alter affect, and affect during exercise was unrelated to PA participation. Future research should examine the relationship between acute affective responses to different intensities of exercise, and why affect during exercise is unrelated to PA participation in this population.

Advisor: Arbour-Nicitopoulos, Kelly P
Endothelial Progenitor Cells for Rotator Cuff Healing

The avascular environment at the tendon-bone interface is a major concern for rotator cuff healing, contributing to the high re-tear rate. We hypothesized that better tendon-bone healing would occur with transplantation of endothelial progenitor cells, a population of angiogenic cells, during rotator cuff repair in rats. The surgical procedure involved a unilateral detachment and repair of the supraspinatus tendon in a syngeneic population of Fischer 344 rats. The EPC group received one 106 EPCs and the Fibrin (negative control) group received none. Biomechanical and histological analyses were performed at two, four, and six weeks post mortem. At 6 weeks, there was a statistically significant difference in the tendon attachment strength. While no significant difference was found in histology, the EPC groups showed a trend of increased vascularity. The EPCs provide improvements in tendon-bone attachment 6 weeks after the repair. However, such biomechanical improvement was not detectable via conventional histological methods.

Keywords: Bone-tendon interface
Endothelial progenitor cell
Fibrocartilage
Rotator cuff tendon
Supraspinatus tendon
Advisor: Schemitsch, H Emil
Effect of Fear Memory Recall on Interpretation Bias in Rodents

Emotions influence interpretation of information. This psychological phenomenon is called interpretation bias. Although rodent studies have established negative interpretation biases due to chronic stressors, the effect of fear memory recall on interpretation bias is still unclear. Therefore, the goal of this study was to investigate the effect of fear memory recall on interpretation bias. We trained mice in a novel visual-based touchscreen paradigm to associate presentation of a large square with a large reward, and small square with a small reward. We then acutely activated a fearful memory through presentation of a tone previously paired with a foot-shock. We tested the effect of acute fear memory recall on following interpretation bias through a paradigm where mice associate ambiguous sized squares with either expectation of a large or small reward. Recall of fear memory did not induce an interpretation bias, but reduced overall motivation and reduced speed to interpret ambiguous stimuli.

Keywords: Bias
Fear
Interpretation
Memory
Rodent
Touchscreen
Advisor: Josselyn, Sheena
Mineral Trioxide Aggregate/Ferric Sulfate Pulpotomy for Vital Primary Incisors: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Purpose: To compare clinical and radiographic outcomes and survival of mineral trioxide aggregate/ferric sulfate (MTA/FS) pulpotomy and root canal therapy (RCT) in carious vital primary maxillary incisors.Methods: Asymptomatic carious vital primary incisors with pulp exposure in healthy children aged 18 to 46 months were allocated randomly to receive MTA/FS pulpotomy or RCT. Clinical and radiographic post-treatment assessments occurred at 6-month intervals for up to 40 months. Two disinterested raters classified each incisor into one of the following radiographic outcomes: N=incisor without pathologic change; Po=pathologic change present, follow-up recommended; Px=pathologic change present, extract.Results: Eighteen-month outcomes demonstrated no statistical difference in clinical or radiographic outcomes for MTA/FS pulpotomy and RCT incisors (P>.05). Survival analysis demonstrated no statistically significant difference in survival for MTA/FS pulpotomy and RCT incisors (P>.05) over a 6 to 40 month follow-up interval. Conclusions: MTA/FS pulpotomy is an effective treatment for carious vital primary incisors.

Keywords: incisors
MTA
primary
pulpotomy
teeth
Advisor: Judd, L Peter
Population Dynamics Approach for Resource Allocation Problems

Resource allocation management has become a challenging problem in many aspects all around the world and can be more complicated by high production costs and scarcity of the resources. In this thesis, a water distribution system (WDS), as an example of resource distribution problems, has been investigated. To achieve an adequate level of service to satisfy the demands, the flow of water should be controlled. Here, we utilize a novel game-theoretic approach along with a convex-optimization-based controller to keep the WDS under control. The feedback interconnection of the WDS and controllers reaches an asymptotically stable equilibrium point where its stability analysis uses passivity concepts and the Lyapunov stability theorem for the closed-loop system. Furthermore, an improvement has been made to controllers to make the system robust to reject a certain type of disturbance and to converge to desired equilibrium points in the presence of disturbances.

Keywords: Evolutionary Dynamics
Game Theory
Optimization
Passivity
Population Games
Water distribution systems
Advisor: Pavel, Lacra
Exploring Family Perceptions of Weight and Health: A Qualitative Case Study with Parents and Kids

All youth are susceptible to weight-related issues. Little is known about how families navigate weight perception and communication. A multiple case study was conducted with five families to explore parent and child perceptions of health and weight, as well as communication within the home and environment. A within-case analysis identified each family's facilitators and barriers to weight and health, perceptions of weight and health status, and health and weight management. Main themes from the across-case analysis included (i) communication and (ii) parenting/role-modelling. Based on the findings from this study, the importance of considering the family context, identifying the way parents and children communicate with each other and others about health and weight, and the influence of varying types of parenting practices cannot be understated. Taken together, it is clear that parents play a critical role in raising children to be physically healthy and to have positive attitudes about weight.

Keywords: communication
health management
parenting
role-modelling
weight management
weight talk
Advisor: Sabiston, M Catherine
High-fidelity Aerodynamic Shape Optimization with High-order Spatial Discretization

A gradient-based optimization procedure for use with aerodynamic optimization has been developed to make use of high-order analysis. Second-, third-, and fourth-order summation-by-parts operators are used with boundary conditions enforced by simultaneous approximation terms to improve stability. The optimizer has been extensively verified and validated. A matrix-vector product technique is introduced which circumvents the large memory requirements of storing the high-order flux Jacobian matrix. Viscous optimization in two and three dimensions has shown direct benefits to high-order analysis within optimization; accurate analysis can lead to an improved design and is more likely to meet nonlinear constraints when re-evaluated on a very fine mesh. The number of design iterations appears to be unaffected by the order of accuracy. In several cases it has been shown that the third-order method costs nearly the same as the second-order method on a given grid, giving improved accuracy for almost no additional CPU cost.

Keywords: aerodynamic shape optimization
computational fluid dynamics
discrete adjoint
high-order
optimization
summation-by-parts operators
Advisor: Zingg, W David
HDRchitecture: Real-Time Quantigraphic High Dynamic Range (HDR) Imaging on Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) for WearCam (Wearable Camera)

An important feature of wearable camera systems is that they must work in awide variety of situations under a wide range of lighting conditions. This is truewhether they are used to take pictures, or record video, or even to perform objectrecognition. For these cameras to be used as a real-time seeing aid, we need toproduce High Dynamic Range (HDR) videos at a high frame rate.With the advance of technology in the Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)industry, the increasing number of successful implementations of real-time imagingsystems makes FPGA an attractive platform for prototyping HDR video systemfor wearable computers. In this thesis, an scalable and adaptable frameworkis implemented on FPGA for real-time quantigraphic HDR imaging, for solvingthe camera dynamic range limitation. Most of the implementing issues found inthe essential stages of a typical HDR imaging flow are addressed in detail.

Keywords: Camera
FPGA
HDR
High Dynamic Range
Quantigraphic
Wearable
Advisor: Mann, Steve
Effect of Feedstock Moisture Content on Biomass Boiler Operation

Burning feedstock with high and constantly varying moisture contents is a challenge in the operation of the stoker-grate type biomass boiler in pulp and paper mills. A fundamental two part study was performed to systematically investigate the effect of moisture content on the combustion behaviour of woody biomass. The first part involved a thermogravimetric combustor controlled at different temperatures, and the second part involved collecting and analyzing operating data of 3 biomass boilers. The laboratory results show that combustion occurs through three stages: time-to-ignition, volatile burning, and char burning and samples containing 40% moisture ignite and burn readily at 800°C, but they take longer to ignite at lower temperatures and do not ignite at 400°C. For the field studies, the moisture content of the feedstock was back calculated by a material and energy balance. The relationship between moisture content and the other operating data was studied. The results suggest that changes in moisture content mainly affect the lower furnace temperature and excess O2.

Keywords: Biomass Boiler
Combustion
Moisture Content
Pulp and Paper
Advisor: Tran, Honghi
Towards Organoboron-mediated Functionalization of Erythromycin A and Synthesis of its Aglycon

Many natural products, including antibiotics, are structurally complex and contain a wide variety of functional groups. As a consequence, the selective functionalization of these molecules often requires the use of inefficient protecting group strategies. Inspired by this obstacle, our group recently developed a borinic acid-catalyzed method to regioselectively functionalize the equatorial position of cis-vicinal diols in carbohydrates with limited use of protecting groups.The work presented in this thesis describes progress made towards selective functionalization of the cis-vicinal diol present in the macrolide antibiotic erythromycin A. This was attempted using the boronic and borinic acid-mediated methodologies developed previously in our group. Finally, a semisynthesis of erythronolide A was carried out with the goal of using our methodology to prepare novel analogues for biological evaluation.

Keywords: antibiotics
borinic
boronic
catalysis
erythromycin
erythronolide
Advisor: Taylor, S Mark
Structural Features in Heat Transfer Modeling of PEM Fuel Cell Materials

In this thesis, the impact of incorporating high resolution structural features into the thermal modeling of the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell gas diffusion layer (GDL) and microporous layer (MPL) is studied. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used to image the surfaces of untreated Toray GDL fibres, and the nano-sized particles within Sigracet MPL. The validity of the GDL smooth fibre assumption commonly employed in literature is studied using a thermal resistance network approach. The MPL, which has been found to show structural variability between manufacturers, was also analyzed using AFM to obtain distributions for the particle size and filling radius. The equivalent thermal resistance between MPL particles was computed using the Gauss-Seidel iterative method, and was found to be sensitive to the particle separation distance and filling radius. Finally, unit-cell analysis is presented as a methodology for incorporating MPL nano-features into modeling of the MPL bulk regions.

Keywords: Atomic Force Microscopy
Energy
Modeling
Nanoscale
PEM Fuel Cell
Thermal Resistance
Advisor: Bazylak, Aimy
Pediatric Population Reference Value Distributions for Cancer Biomarkers: A CALIPER Study of Healthy Community Children

As part of CALIPER program, a national research initiative aimed at closing the gaps in pediatric reference intervals, I sought to develop a database of covariate-stratified reference intervals in children for 11 circulating tumor markers in accordance with CLSI C28-A3 guidelines. Healthy children from birth to 18 years were recruited to participate in CALIPER and serum samples from 400-700 subjects were analyzed on the Abbott Architect ci4100 TM. Significant fluctuations in biomarker concentrations by age and/or gender were observed in 10 of 11 biomarkers. Age partitioning was required for CA 15-3, CA 125, CA 19-9, CEA, SCC, ProGRP, Total Free PSA, HE4 and AFP, and gender partitioning was required for CA 125, CA 19-9, Total Free PSA. The establishment of these reference intervals will aid in harnessing the full potential of tumor markers in a pediatric population and in research aimed at determining the clinical value of these markers.

Keywords: Pediatric
Reference Intervals
Tumor Markers
Advisor: Adeli, Khosrow
Mechanical and Embedded Systems Design for Generic Nanosatellite Bus Spacecraft

The adaptation of the University of Toronto Space Flight Laboratory Generic Nanosatellite Bus (GNB) mechanical design to Earth-observation and communications applications is investigated. The ability of this bus to expand the capabilities of low-cost nanosatellites by accommodating large pre-deployed payload appendages, such as antennas, is demonstrated. In addition, the operational architecture of a cold-gas nanosatellite propulsion system, enabling small satellite constellations and formation flying, is described. Component testing of this system has validated compliance with subsystem requirements. Lastly, the design and development of a multi-mission embedded systems generic firmware is described. This firmware consolidates common and critical software functionality, greatly reducing both the risk and cost of developing software for new embedded systems. The firmware has been designed for a distributed-node microcontroller bus architecture in general, and the Nanosatellite for Earth Monitoring and Observation (NEMO) bus and Generic Nanosatellite Bus in particular.

Keywords: CanX-45
CNAPS
Cold-gas
Firmware
Nanosatellite
Propulsion
Advisor: Zee, E Robert