This thesis documents the development of a novel nonlinear controller for servo pneumatic actuators that give good reference tracking at low speed motion, where friction has strong effect to the system behaviors. The design of the nonlinear controller presented in this thesis is based on the formalism of Lyapunov stability theory. The controller is constructed through a dynamical adaptive backstepping-sliding mode control algorithm. The conventional Lyapunov-based control algorithm is often limited by the order of the dynamical system; however, the backstepping design concept allows the control algorithm to be extended to higher order dynamical systems. In addition, the friction is estimated on-line via the Lyapunov-based adaptive laws embedded in the controller; meanwhile, the sliding mode control provides high robustness to the system parameter uncertainties. The simulation results clearly demonstrating the improved system performance (i.e., fast response and the reduced tracking error) are presented. Finally, the integration of the controller with a Lyapunov-based pressure observer reduces the state feedback of the servo pneumatic actuator model to only the piston displacement.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is an adult-onset, progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease. Pathologically, it is characterized by a loss of motor neurons in the spinal cord, brain stem and motor cortex leading to progressive muscle weakness, atrophy, and death. ALS presents as both a sporadic (SALS) and familial (FALS) illness. Interestingly, over 100 mutations of the CuZn-Superoxide Dismutase (SOD1) gene have been reported to be dominantly inherited in ALS families. SOD1 is a 17KD protein that contains one copper and one zinc atom. The known function of this enzyme is to convert superoxide to oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. It was first thought that the toxicity of different SOD1 mutants linked to ALS resulted from decreased free-radical scavenging activity. However, studies show that mutant SOD1 enzymes cause motor neuron degeneration via a gain of harmful properties. The nature of the gain-of-toxic function in mutant SOD1 is not clear. Recent studies suggest that SOD1 itself is a target of oxidative stress. Human SOD1 has four cysteine residues, Cys6, Cys57, Cys111, and Cys146. An internal disulfide bond exists between Cys57 and Cys146. This disulfide bond is highly conserved in SOD1, making the protein considerably strong, while the remaining two cysteine residues are free and prone to post-translational modifications. Here we show that free cysteine residues in SOD1 are available to be modified by mal PEG (Maleimide polyethylene glycol) and AMS, and that this modification decreases with disease progression. Our data suggests that cysteine residues in SOD1 are post-translationally modified and may play a significant role in the development of the disease.

An important part of repair processes activated by vascular injury is the recruitment of vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC) from the existing contractile coat. Phenotypic modulation of SMCs enables these cells to proliferate and migrate into the vessel intima. Despite its importance in vessel repair, this plasticity of SMCs can also promote both the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis as well as neointimal formation following revascularization- induced injury. Vascular growth factors are major contributors to the migratory and proliferative responses to injury. IGF-1 is one such growth factor that elicits a response via its receptor, the IGF-1R, a classical tyrosine kinase receptor. However, it has been suggested that the IGF-1R may also be coupled to a heterotrimeric G protein and can thus initiate cellular responses via this alternate pathway. The objective of this study was to investigate the structural aspects of IGR-1R coupling to a heterotrimeric G protein in SMCs, as well as the contribution of this pathway to the cellular responses. In a porcine primary SMC culture model, IGF-1R co-precipitated with both the α- and β-subunits of a G protein, with the latter demonstrating activation dependent precipitation. The specific Gα class activated by IGF-1R was Gαi, in a manner that was independent of the activity of the tyrosine kinase. Both Gαi1 and Gαi2 directly interacted with the receptor. Gβγ mediated the activation of MAPK and its inhibition was sufficient to attenuate both the proliferation and migration of SMCs in vitro. In contrast, the contribution of Gαi was related to regulation of protein translation and histone modification. The data supports the conclusion that IGF-1 regulates the phenotype of vascular SMCs at least partially via a non-classical G protein-coupled receptor. Investigation into the individual subunits of the G protein complex led to the elucidation of a model in which both components play an integral role in the IGF-1 response, independent of the receptor tyrosine kinase activity. In one case, an interplay of specific Gαi-subunits leads to modulation of the VSMC translational and transcriptional responses, while in the other, release of the Gβγ-subunit activated the MAPK response in a manner that significantly contributes to both the migration and proliferation of SMCs.

Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory (1975) has long been the dominant cultural study of Great War Literature. Because Canadian literary critics, such as Evelyn Cobley and Dagmar Novak, rely on Fussell’s text as a model when they write about Great War texts, they either eliminate a variety of interesting texts, or severely distort and misread a narrow range of texts to make them fit Fussell’s ironic, anti-war ideology. This study aims to recuperate and reevaluate a number of Canadian Great War texts by examining a wider ideological range of texts than Fussell or his followers allow. In Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War (1997), cultural historian Jonathan Vance offers a viable antithesis to Fussell in his method and conclusions. This present study, focused on eight Canadian combatant narratives written between 1917-1939, develops and expands Vance’s argument from the vantage point of literary criticism. The first chapter examines four canonical European anti-war texts, delineating their characteristic features and ideological positions. Chapter 2 shows how the extreme ends of the spectrum of literary responses to the war in Canadian combatant writing distort the truth and are equally unsatisfying. Chapter 3 examines three Canadian narratives located in the middle ground between jingoistic romances and cynical anti-war texts, focusing on their social inclusivity and balance—features which allow for a more multifaceted representation of the Great War. Chapters 4 and 5 offer close readings of two of the best Canadian combatant narratives, Will Bird’s memoir And We Go On, and Philip Child’s novel God’s Sparrows, showing not only how both texts confirm and illustrate the characteristics of more inclusive, balanced war texts, but also how they evoke and affirm the fact of historical and social continuity.

Service composition is a process by which the services offered by devices may be combined to produce new, more complex services. In a pervasive computing environment where many devices exist and offer services, it is particularly desirable to fully automate this composition so end users do not need to be technically sophisticated. Earlier work done by Pourreza introduced a system to do fully automated service composition and to rank the services so produced by order of expected usefulness to the end user(s). My thesis research extends the work done by Pourreza in two ways. First, and most importantly, it adds support for services that have associated Quality of Service (QoS) characteristics. This allows me to ensure that I only generate composite services that are compatible in terms of the provided and required QoS characteristics of their component services. Further, it allows me to rank the generated composite services based on how well they meet the desired QoS preferences of users. Second, I extend Pourreza’s work by adding support for compositions involving services from outside a persistent computing environment (e.g. those provided via available Internet or 3G network access). I have built a prototype for the system to illustrate feasibility and to assess the overhead of supporting QoS in composition. I have also developed a regression model (based on collected user input regarding QoS preferences for services) that can be used to effectively rank compositions based on QoS for a variety of persistent environments. My results show that my approach is both feasible and effective.

My thesis examines how the contemporary restorative justice movement frames itself in educational, informational and training films, in an attempt to broaden its appeal and advance its acceptance and implementation, particularly within a culture of crime control where retribution and punishment are hegemonic. I examine contemporary restorative justice, first through an acknowledgement of its varied and diverse roots as well as through its entrenchment within the dominantly punitive criminal justice system. Contemporary restorative justice is often referred to as a social movement, and as such it maintains a capacity to reshape the current discursive terrain and transform criminal justice culture. Snow and Benford (1986, 1988) assert that social movements disrupt hegemonic discourses and practices through frame alignment tasks (diagnostic, prognostic and motivational framing) and frame alignment processes (bridging, amplification, extension and transformation). I examine how the contemporary restorative justice movement utilizes these tasks and processes in information, educational and training films, in its effort to advance an alternative perspective of criminal justice.

Co-management of fisheries in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR) began with the establishment of the Fisheries Joint Management Committee (FJMC) in 1986, one of the provisions of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement (IFA) signed in 1984. The agreement between the Inuvialuit and the Canadian Government with regards to renewable resource management was arranged as a collaborative management process that included knowledge and insight from both sides. This thesis uses the case of beluga entrapment in the Husky Lakes, NWT, to explore how co-management between the Tuktoyaktuk Hunter and Trapper Committee (HTC) and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has changed through time in structure and process, and to determine what impacts co-management has had on Inuvialuit involvement in management. Additionally, the linkage between co-management and adaptive capacity at the local level is analyzed in order to better understand how Inuvialuit involvement in fisheries management can have beneficial impacts on cultural preservation, youth education, and employment. This study employed the use of mixed qualitative and quantitative methods within a participatory approach, which aimed at including the community of Tuktoyaktuk in every step of the research process. Qualitative methods included informal discussions, semi-directed interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. Community research partners were also essential in accessing information and interviews. The quantitative method used in this study was the use of questionnaires for Social Network Analysis (SNA) in attempting to describe the changes in the management network over time.

In Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, a transnational tourist town located on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, masculinities are expressed and embodied in multiple ways as a result of particular interactions that take place at the convergence of the global and the local. This thesis interrogates the masculine performances of Western tourist men in the context of a hierarchy of desirability complexly located at the intersections of sexuality, tourism, and globalization. Specifically, I argue that tourist men construct their masculinities in contestational and oppositional ways to those of local Caribbean men - constructions mediated through their homosocial encounters with men (both local Caribbean and foreign men), as well as their heterosexual intimate relationships with local women – in order to increase their statuses as more sexually desirable subjects in Puerto Viejo’s sexual landscape.

Background: In breast cancer patients, the administration of Trastuzumab and Doxorubicin is associated with an increased risk of cardiotoxicity. The aim of the study was to determine if the antioxidant probucol would be useful in attenuating this drug induced cardiotoxicity. Methods: In an acute murine model of chemotherapy induced cardiomyopathy, wild-type C57Bl/6 mice received one of the following regimens: (1) control; (2) doxorubicin; (3) trastuzumab; (4) dox+trastuzumab; (5) probucol; (6) probucol +dox; (7) probucol+trastuzumab; (8) probucol+dox+trastuzumab. Serial murine echocardiography with tissue Doppler imaging was performed daily. Histological and biochemical studies were conducted at day 10 of the experiment. Results: Mice treated with prophylactic probucol demonstrated minimal cardiotoxicity compared with those treated with doxorubicin+trastuzumab. Survival rate was only 27% at day 3 of the experiment in the doxorubicin+trastuzumab group compared to 82% of mice receiving probucol+ doxorubicin+trastuzumab. Survival, apoptosis and histological remodeling were preserved in mice prophylactically treated with probucol following the administration of trastuzumab+doxorubicin. Conclusion: The synergistic cardiotoxicity of trastuzumab plus doxorubicin is attenuated by the antioxidant probucol.

This thesis contributes to critical theoretical interpretation of Sophocles' Antigone. Analyzing texts by Kelly Oliver, Jacques Lacan, and Judith Butler, the thesis demonstrates how the work of these writers re-installs oppositional binarism, the form of thought that undergirds the hierarchical structure of Western metaphysics as exemplified in the dialectical philosophy of G. W. F. Hegel. Focusing on texts by Carol Jacobs, Martin Heidegger, and Jacques Derrida, the thesis analyzes the performative effect of Antigone, as sister figure, in the graphics of these works. Employing a deconstructive and performative critical approach, the thesis explores the theoretical productivity of a "sororal" graphics, that, dispersing and subverting binarism, opens the texts and their interpretation to alterity. The thesis demonstrates how critical reading of the performativity of Antigone as sister figure implicates ethicological discussion on justice in relation to family, genre/gender, classification, and inheritance.