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On Lock-Free Data Structures for Dynamic Sets and Their Amortized Step Complexities
Get PDFLock-free data structures may be accessed and updated by multiple processes without the use of locks. This thesis considers the design of new and efficient lock-free data structures for dynamic sets, supporting Insert, Delete, and Search operations. Lock-free data structures can be difficult to analyze because operations may run forever. In an amortized analysis of these data structures, we consider the number of steps taken in an execution consisting of a sequence operations, rather than an individual operation. Depending on how the steps of processes are interleaved, there are many ways that these sequences of operations can be performed. This work considers both upper bounds on the amortized step complexity of particular data structures and lower bounds on the amortized step complexity of classes of data structures.
Our first main result modifies an existing lock-free balanced binary search tree, called a chromatic tree, so that it has good amortized step complexity. The analysis is the first to be performed on a balanced binary search tree.
We next show a lower bound on the amortized step complexity for a large class of lock-free data structures for dynamic sets. The lower bound applies to many lock-free data structures such as linked lists and search trees, including the chromatic tree. This shows that, under certain conditions, the asymptotic amortized step complexity of many known lock-free data structures have matching upper and lower bounds.
Finally, we introduce new algorithmic techniques and use them to implement a lock-free binary trie. It has O(1) worst-case step complexity for Search operations, and additionally supports Min, Max, Predecessor, and Successor operations with good amortized step complexity.Ph.D
Exploring the relationship between CHD1 and MYC in cancer and development
Get PDFPhenotype arises from genotype as a result of gene expression during embryonic development. Transcription is a tightly regulated phenomenon in biology and can be tuned to different levels depending on the cellular and environmental state. To allow for optimal transcription, a permissive chromatin landscape is necessary. One essential modulator of this open chromatin organization in mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) is the chromatin remodeler Chd1. Genomic binding of Chd1 overlaps with the activating histone mark H3K4me3, the transcription factor c-Myc (Myc), and RNA Polymerase II. Chd1 controls transcriptional output in part by nucleosome eviction, allowing for optimal RNA Polymerase activity. One transcription factor often associated with maintaining physiological levels of transcription is Myc, an oncogene commonly activated in various types of human cancer. As such, I hypothesize that Chd1 may play a key role in Myc-driven cancer. In Chapter 2, I explore this epistatic interaction in a model of human breast cancer. I found that the knockdown of CHD1 suppresses tumorigenesis in a MYC-driven breast cancer model. Through RNA-sequencing and ATAC-sequencing, I determined that the anti-tumour effects of CHD1 knockdown were attributable to p53 activation. This leads to the disruption of the cell cycle and increased nucleolar stress. This work provides evidence that CHD1 may be a promising therapeutic target in MYC-driven breast cancer. In Chapter 3, I investigate the role of Chd1 using a Myc- driven murine blood cancer model. In this study, Myc-activation drives an increase in white blood cell populations in the hematopoietic compartment that is rescued by the genetic deletion of Chd1. Taken together, this work indicates that CHD1 and MYC genetically interact in the regulation of transcription and that CHD1 may be a promising target in at least breast cancer and even beyond.Ph.D
A Deep Dive into the Special Education Resource Teacher’s Experiences of School-Based Psychological Consultation Across Virtual and In-Person Settings: A Case Study
Get PDFThis qualitative case study delves into the lived experiences of veteran Special Education/Resource Teachers (SERTs) during consultations with school psychologists, exploring both their perceptions of beneficial and challenging elements. Drawing on in-depth participant interview responses and phenomenological framework, the study identifies three overarching themes: Connection, Communication, and Leadership Through Hardship. Connection emphasizes the need for school psychologists to build genuine relationships with the school community, fostering trust and empathy by acknowledging the realities of educators’ daily lives. Communication highlights the value of clear, realistic recommendations and open dialogue, while addressing the perception of hierarchical dynamics. Leadership Through Hardship captures the dual role of SERTs as intermediaries and advocates, shedding light on the emotional and professional toll of managing these responsibilities amid heavy workloads and resource constraints. The findings highlight the importance of fostering genuine, in-person connections, embracing collaborative communication, and validating the complex challenges faced by SERTs. By addressing these areas, school psychologists can strengthen partnerships with educators, enhance consultation effectiveness, and ultimately improve outcomes for students and school communities.Ed.D
A Novel ATRIP Mutation Detected in an Iranian Family with Familial Clustering of Breast Cancer: A Case Report
Get PDF<b>Purpose:</b> ATRIP (ATR-interacting protein) is a critical partner of ATR (ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related). The ATR-ATRIP heterodimer plays an essential role in initiating homologous recombination repair (HRR) during replication stress and inducing double-stranded DNA breaks following unresolved stalled replication forks. Our team recently identified <i>ATRIP</i> as a novel breast cancer susceptibility gene candidate through whole-exome sequencing (WES) of familial breast cancer patients and healthy controls from the Polish founder population, with subsequent validation in both Polish and British cohorts. In the present study, we report for the first time the detection of a novel deleterious mutation in <i>ATRIP</i> among several members of an Iranian family with clustering of breast cancer who were negative for mutations in the already known breast cancer risk genes. <b>Methods:</b> Six family members underwent germline DNA testing by WES, following initial negative results from multigene panel testing. Candidate variants were confirmed by Sanger sequencing and assessed according to ACMG guidelines. <b>Results:</b> We detected a novel <i>ATRIP</i> frameshift mutation (NM_130384.3:c.1033delC) in four of six family members that were tested, including two individuals affected with breast cancer. No pathogenic variants were found in other known cancer susceptibility genes. <b>Conclusions:</b> This is the first report of a deleterious <i>ATRIP</i> mutation in an Iranian family with familial breast cancer, suggesting a potential role of <i>ATRIP</i> in hereditary breast cancer. Further studies are required to confirm the role of ATRIP in breast cancer susceptibility, refine risk assessment, and evaluate potential personalized therapeutic strategies. In the interim, genetic counseling for ATRIP mutation carriers should proceed with caution, given current limitations in clinical interpretation
The Kopeck Press: Popular Journalism in Revolutionary Russia, 1908–1918
No full textThis book explores the rich history of Russia’s penny press, highlighting the dynamic relationship between readers and journalists in shaping a democratic political culture leading up to the 1917 Revolution.
The Imperial Russian penny press was a vast network of newspapers sold for a single kopeck per issue. Emerging in cities and towns across the empire between the 1905 Revolution and the onset of the First World War, these sensational tabloids quickly became the Russian Empire’s most popular periodical genre. They appealed to a mass audience of poor and less-literate readers with their low prices and accessible language. The Kopeck Press presents a comprehensive study of this phenomenon, examining its role both as a media genre and its significance as a vital forum for lower class political culture. Drawing on over seventy kopeck newspapers from thirty locations, Felix Cowan analyses these publications as a dialogic genre, emphasizing the interaction between journalists and readers. The book highlights how sensationalism was strategically used to advance the political goals of progressive journalists, editors, and publishers. As a genre of political media, the kopeck press revealed a moderate reformist current in Russian politics, aimed at democratizing the empire and empowering marginalized groups, significantly contributing to the political and cultural foundations of the Russian Revolution. The Kopeck Press sheds light on the crucial role of popular media in shaping public discourse and mobilizing political change in early twentieth-century Russia.This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Resistance training as a context for body image development in women: An integrated theoretical and empirical perspective
Get PDFIn this dissertation, the associations among resistance training, body image, and body-related self-conscious emotions in women were examined, with a focus on the psychological mechanisms through which resistance training may support body image development. Across three studies, quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches were employed to explore these relationships in young adult women aged 18 to 40 years. Study 1 (N = 400) tested an integrated and theoretically informed model linking engagement in resistance training with body appreciation, functionality appreciation, physical self-perceptions (e.g., perceived strength, confidence in physical abilities), and body-related self-conscious emotions (shame, guilt, embarrassment, envy, authentic and hubristic pride). The path model findings generally supported the hypothesized associations, indicating that greater resistance training engagement was associated with higher positive body image and physical self-perceptions, and these positive indicators were associated with lower levels of negative self-conscious emotions and higher levels of pride. While informative, this study did not explore different types and modalities of resistance training. Study 2 (N = 153) was designed as a mixed methods study to examine differences in women’s body image experiences across four resistance training modalities: Bodybuilding, Strength Sports, CrossFit, and General Health. Quantitative results indicated that all groups reported higher positive than negative body image. While no statistically significant group differences emerged after correcting for multiple comparisons, descriptive patterns from both quantitative and qualitative data suggested that Strength Sports participants reported more negative body image than other groups. Qualitative findings revealed that resistance training can foster functionality appreciation, physical empowerment, and body confidence, while also presenting challenges such as appearance pressures, social comparison, and internalized performance standards. To extend these analyses and identify the contextual and psychological mechanisms associated with resistance training environments, a critical realist framework and focus group methodology was used in study 3 (N = 22) to explore how resistance training environments support or hinder women’s body image. Through mechanism mapping, five contextual features were linked to key mechanisms of change: inclusive social modeling, beginner-friendly instruction, low-surveillance space design, process-oriented training climates, and counter-messaging to gendered body ideals. These features activated mechanisms including increased self-efficacy, reduced body-related self-consciousness, functionality appreciation, authentic pride, and social belonging. Collectively, findings from this program of research advance theoretical and practical understanding of how women’s resistance training can foster more empowered relationships with the body and inform the development of resistance training-based interventions and coaching practices that prioritize psychological well-being.Ph.D
The Niyyah of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Muslim Women’s Self-Identification, Activism, and Mentorship in Career Navigation at Canadian Universities
Get PDFMy research examines the lived experiences of 13 self-identified Muslim women engaged in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) work within Canadian universities as faculty, student services, and EDI employees. A gap in the Higher Education literature is addressed by centering previously ignored religious identity and intention of university staff in their work . The Islamic concept of niyyah (Islamic intention or sensibility) frames analysis of participant identity which includes race and other self-identified intersectional identities. Situational Analysis was used to map participants’ complex navigation and negotiation of their everyday work and careers. Utilizing a dialogical and reflexive method, as the researcher, I also identify as a visible Muslim woman, and I interweave personal reflections into the analysis. Ultimately, I explore how participants contribute to knowledge production and institutional change, which I have termed niyyahfication, a parallel with decolonization in anti-racism. The intersectional identities of participants include strong educational backgrounds, experiences with immigration, varying expressions of faith, and early encounters with racialization, often linked to choosing to wear hijab. A niyyah-driven approach to EDI work highlights strategic language use and differing institutional roles between faculty and other staff. While participants critique institutional EDI efforts as often superficial and burdensome, findings demonstrate their successful performance of EDI as niyyah, specifically engaging Islamic concepts of resistance and self-preservation. The socio-political landscape of my research is marked by rising Islamophobia, anti-Muslim racism and overall Othering, with visibly identifying Muslim women often facing discrimination. Thus, the research calls for greater recognition of the role of religious identity within EDI and proposes niyyah and niyyahfication as innovative theoretical tools for maintaining their commitment to social justice as a form of decolonizing praxis. This offers a nuanced understanding of how Muslim women, their mentors, and solidarity in the Muslim community contribute to meaningful change within academia despite systemic barriers.Ph.D
Brokering Global Trade: Relational Work and Identity Formation of Chinese Muslim Translators in Yiwu
Get PDFThis dissertation investigates the economic practices and identity formation of Hui Muslims who work as translators in the small-commodity trade economy connecting China and the Middle East. This dissertation theorizes the brokerage work performed by these translators to illustrate the on-the-ground operation and impact of the South-South trade economy. Meanwhile, it makes theoretical contributions by advancing a relational work perspective on economic brokers and a transnational analysis of the interplay between ethnicity and economy in China.This research draws on three months of ethnographic fieldwork in the Chinese trading hub Yiwu, combining participant observation, document analysis, and in-depth interviews with 50 participants. Using Viviana Zelizer’s (2012) theory of relational work, I analyze how Hui translators emerge and operate as brokers in a global marketplace characterized by weak formal regulation and intense competition, and how this brokerage work, in turn, shapes their self-identities, social status positioning and emotional lives.
This research contributes to the relational work perspective on economic brokers in two main ways. First, relational work theorists conceptualize agency as individuals’ creative capacity to resolve emergent moral and relational dilemmas, rather than as bounded rationality. This dissertation extends this discussion into underexamined areas. It explores how brokers negotiate the morality of resistance strategies against power asymmetries in the labor process, and how they perform emotional and meaning-making work to enforce contracts and resolve conflicts between exchange partners in the absence of formal regulatory interventions. Second, it expands scholarship on the relationship between social status and relational work, showing how characteristics such as ethnicity, gender, class, and nationality shape the type of relational formations translators enter and the ways in which they create relational matches. Meanwhile, translators negotiate and reconstruct their self-positioning within social status hierarchies through their economic practices as brokers in a transnational market.
The dissertation also advances a Global China perspective on ethnicity and economy. It demonstrates how the relational labor of ethnic minority actors sustains China’s global market operations, and how transnational economic engagement transforms the ways ethnic minority actors construct ethnic identity and status positioning within and beyond China.Ph.D
Essays on Misallocation and Macroeconomic Development
Get PDFThis dissertation explores firm dynamics, misallocation, and macroeconomic development in a developing context through three self-contained chapters. Each highlights how distortions shape productivity and output gaps between developed and developing economies. All chapters rely on rich microdata from Colombian manufacturing firms. This dataset spans several decades and includes detailed longitudinal information on employment, output, capital, investment, and innovation inputs and outcomes. It covers all firms with more than 10 employees in Colombia’s manufacturing sector, offering a rare opportunity to study firm dynamics with depth and precision in a developing country context.
Chapter 1, Innovation in the Presence of Distortions, examines how market distortions influence R&D allocation and productivity. I find that more productive firms are more likely to innovate, but also face higher distortions, which may dampen their full innovation potential. I develop and calibrate a dynamic model where firms invest in R&D while facing heterogeneous distortions. Reducing the correlation between distortions and productivity to U.S. levels increases aggregate TFP by 60%, with one-fourth of the gains driven by dynamic forces such as improved selection and better-targeted R&D. These gains arise from a reallocation of innovation toward more productive firms, even as overall innovation rates remain flat. Reducing the correlation is more effective than eliminating distortions altogether, underscoring the importance of distortion structure over level.
Chapter 2, Job Creation in Colombia vs. the U.S., joint with Marcela Eslava and John Haltiwanger, shows that weaker “up-or-out” dynamics in Colombia explain the dominance of small production units and slower life cycle growth. Micro and young establishments in Colombia exhibit weaker upward, downward, and exit dynamics, leading to a larger share of small, older firms in employment and highlighting a shortage of high-growth entrepreneurship.
Chapter 3, Market Liberalization and Capital Misallocation, quantifies the roles of adjustment costs, uncertainty, and distortions in driving capital misallocation. Using Colombian data, I show that distortions account for the bulk of misallocation. I then apply this framework to assess how these sources evolved following a major market liberalization reform. The results indicate that distortions linked to fundamentals declined, while firm-specific distortions became more prominent.Ph.D
The impact and patterns of played behavior in Gender Diverse players through binary gendered Avatars
Get PDFVideo games have historically allowed players to create and play with digital characters that traditionally fit within the heteronormative binary, male and female. As non-binary folk play these games, there is a disconnect between the options available and players’ own identities, leaving them unable to match or recreate non-binary expression within games, and create an avatar, a self-representation in-game. This study explores this disconnect from the perspective of non-binary and genderqueer (GQ) game players that identify outside the binary. Through semi-structured “show-and-tell” interviews with players and design analysis of in-game character creation systems of games selected and enjoyed by the players, I demonstrate how games reassert the hegemonic gender binary through their designs, creating a tension between the player and the game that limits the imagined possibility to the player, enforcing a distance between the relationship the player can have with their avatar, due to the difference in the gendering between their digital and physical bodies. As such, non-binary players report finding workarounds and alternatives that allow them to create something that walks a line of tolerable disconnect, just enough to allow them to fully enjoy the games they play through their digital bodies and use games as a tool for gender exploration andexpression. The thesis concludes with a discussion of broader implications, with a focus on
recommendations for game developers to incorporate gender diversity into their character creation
systems and games, building on a recent trend advanced by blockbuster games like Baldur’s Gate
3.M.I.S