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Building the Science Behind the Design and Development of Nutrition-Focused Behavioural Interventions Adjunct to Metabolic Bariatric Surgery
Get PDFThis thesis aims to explore the basic behavioural science guiding the design and development of nutrition-focused behavioural interventions adjunct to metabolic bariatric surgery (MBS). It comprises three systematic reviews to; 1) evaluate the quality of intervention reporting; 2) identify the potentially active content of interventions; and 3) explore perceived barriers and enablers to modifying post-operative dietary behaviours.
In Study one, the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist was applied to evaluate the completeness of intervention reporting. In Study two, intervention materials were coded using the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy version 1 (BCTTv1). In addition to descriptive methods, effect size calculations were used to assess the impact of the interventions on weight outcomes. In Study three, data reporting barriers and enablers to modifying diet after MBS were analysed using the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF). Barriers/enablers were mapped to BCTs to identify potential intervention strategies.
Among the 22 included interventions, none of them completely reported all intervention descriptors in the TIDieR checklist, with an average of 6.6/12 items being fully reported. The areas where reporting required improvement were; providing adequate details of the materials and procedures of the interventions; intervention personalisation; and modifications during the study. Common BCTs reported in interventions included: Instruction on how to perform a behaviour; Self-monitoring of behaviour; Goal setting (behaviour); Problem solving; Social support (unspecified); and Action planning. The BCTs that were only found in the most efficacious interventions (Monitoring of behaviour by others without feedback and Information about antecedents) were not among the most frequent techniques. Key factors influencing post-operative dietary behaviour change were in the categories of Environmental Context and Resources; Behavioural Regulation; Emotions; Beliefs about Consequences; and Social Influences. Potential strategies (BCTs) to support postoperative dietary behaviour change are in line with our findings in study two.
The poor quality of intervention reporting in the current literature limits the potential for evidence synthesis across studies. Addressing barriers to post-operative dietary change, ensuring transparent intervention reporting through behavioural science tools, and frameworks will contribute to the development of interventions that not only engage and mobilise patients towards positive behaviour change but also produce replicable evidence to inform clinical practice
A Queer Archiviology: HIV and AIDS Media, Queer Genealogies and Expansive Possibilities in the New York State Council on the Arts Electronic Media and Film Memory Archive
No full textThe New York State Council on the Arts has been a fundamental fixture of public arts funding in the United States since its inception in 1960. Despite a contentious homophobic and anti-Leftist suspicion of public arts funding, the Council provided financial support to emerging queer artists and enabled access to breakthrough media tools for independent media production after the cultural paradigm shift of the Stonewall rebellion. This support, specifically through the NYSCA’s Electronic Media and Film program, would prove crucial to queer storytelling and AIDS activist media during the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s. An archival collection of the NYSCA program is now held in institutions across New York State as the NYSCA Electronic Media and Film Memory Archive. Although the purpose of the Memory Archive is to preserve the records and identity of the NYSCA’s EMF program in a study collection, the Council’s ardent support of openly queer media art and AIDS activism is obscured by organizational issues such as multiple institutional repositories and suffers from a paucity of institutional history. Reading the materials of the Memory Archive for the presence of queer media from gay liberation through the AIDS crisis requires confronting the absence of meaningful institutional address of queerness and HIV and AIDS, despite support for revolutionary media activism and storytelling across the agency. To combat this archival malformation, I propose a ‘queer archiviology’: a method that allows for the necessary movement between practical and conceptual applications to create generative queer genealogical potential in existing institutional archives. This hybridity is achieved through the prioritization of both grassroots archival methods and professional practices in the embodied realm of the queer researcher-archivist, enabling lateral archival extensions that push against discrete divisions between archival collections to instead pursue queer kinship. These familial resemblances between objects, texts and traces of the queer world-making and AIDS activist art supported by the NYSCA are established across and in between institutions. This method is invoked as an expansive genealogical mapping project in the contemporary moment as a continuing intervention in the existing collections of the Memory Archive
Personalized Visual Dubbing through Virtual Dubber and Full Head Reenactment
Get PDFVisual dubbing aims to modify facial expressions to "lip-sync" a new audio track. While person-generic talking head generation methods have made significant progress in expressive lip synchronization across arbitrary identities, they usually lack person-specific details and fail to generate high-quality results. On the other hand, person-specific approaches enable realistic identity preservation and high lip-sync quality but require extensive training, limiting their adaptability in real-world applications.
Our method combines the strengths of both approaches to generate balanced results in lip synchronization and visual quality while achieving training efficiency. To this end, our pipeline incorporates a virtual dubber, a person-generic talking head, as an intermediate representation. This simplifies identity swapping, enhances efficiency, and improves both visual quality and expression accuracy.
Key innovations include full-head identity swapping and reenactment, eliminating artifacts such as the double chin effect while ensuring temporal stability. Through extensive quantitative and qualitative evaluations, we demonstrate that our approach achieves a superior balance between lip-sync accuracy and realistic facial reenactment.
Furthermore, we validate the robustness of our method with experiments in challenging real-world scenarios, including tilted head poses and facial occlusions. Notably, our pipeline operates effectively with short video clips, emphasizing its efficiency and practicality
Data-Driven Methods for the Safety and Security of Constrained Cyber-Physical Systems
Get PDFCyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are typically defined as physical systems that are integrated with computational and communication capabilities, offering the potential to significantly enhance traditional engineering systems in terms of efficiency, reliability, and performance. However, these enhanced features also introduce potential vulnerabilities to cyber-attacks, as evidenced by the various types of attacks reported against CPSs. Over the past decade, numerous control solutions have been proposed to detect these attacks and mitigate their impact on CPSs. Most of the proposed solutions are based on the assumption of precise a priori knowledge of the system’s dynamical model. However, acquiring an accurate mathematical model can be challenging, particularly when the system’s behavior is affected by unknown or uncertain factors, such as disturbances. Consequently, recent efforts have focused on developing data-driven control approaches to safeguard the safety of constrained CPSs against cyber-attacks.
In this thesis, the safety and security problems in constrained Cyber-Physical Systems using data-driven methods are addressed. In the first part of this thesis, we propose an active detection mechanism using the concept of dimensionality reduction, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and optimal reconstruction for the detection of intelligent and coordinated cyber-attacks. In particular, we design a novel attack detection strategy based on a time-varying (random) encoding mechanism, which encodes the sensor measurements into a random latent space and prevents the attacker from accessing some part of the information.
In the second part of this thesis, we first introduce a data-driven method for computing backward reachable sets and Set-Theoretic Model Predictive Control (ST-MPC) tailored for constrained control systems, subject state, and control input constraints. Then, we use the developed data-driven ST-MPC along with data-driven backward and forward reachability concepts to design data-driven detection and mitigation control architectures aimed at preserving the safety and tracking performance of constrained CPSs against cyber attacks. In particular, in the first architecture, a data-driven anomaly detector based on the forward one-step evolution of the system is designed to detect the presence of attacks on the measurement channel. Moreover, on the plant’s side, a data-driven safety verification module is designed to assess whether the received control input ensures a safe evolution of the plant. If necessary, it replaces the networked controller with a local data-driven, set-theoretic model predictive controller, which aims to maintain the plant’s trajectory within a predefined safe configuration until normal operation is restored following the attack. In the second architecture, we extend the first solution in order to minimize whenever possible, the tracking performance loss of constrained CPSs in the presence of cyber attacks on the measurement channel. For this purpose, an add-on tracking supervisor module is designed which operates in an open-loop fashion in case of unreliable measurements. Moreover, on the plant side, the safety verification module is enhanced to consider multiple safety equilibrium points which allows to reduce the tracking performance loss in the presence of cyber-attacks on the actuation channel
Effect of Water Vapor and Hydrogen Exposure on Tribological Performance of Inconel 718 for Next-Generation Gas Turbine Engine
No full textNickel-based superalloys (i.e., 718) are widely used in the aerospace industry because of their exceptional mechanical and chemical stability at high temperatures. With recent advances in sustainable aviation, there is growing interest in investigating their compatibility with hydrogen combustion and water vapor in gas turbine engines. In this study, the tribological behavior of Inconel 718 was investigated under dry and water vapor conditions at various temperatures. In addition, the friction and wear behavior of hydrogen exposed Inconel 718 was studied at room temperature (RT ~25°C). Reciprocating ball on flat type tribometer was used to perform friction tests on Inconel 718 against aluminum oxide and Inconel 718 counter surfaces in the absence or presence of water vapor at room and elevated temperatures. However, only the Inconel 718 counterball was used for the dry sliding test for hydrogen-exposed samples. The results showed that water vapor caused a reduction in friction and wear at room and elevated temperatures of 450oC against the aluminum oxide counterball when compared to tests conducted under dry conditions. The low friction and wear in water vapor was attributed to the formation of an aluminum trihydroxide (bayerite—Al(OH)3) tribofilm. On the other hand, Inconel 718 against Inconel 718 showed higher wear in the presence of water vapor at RT compared to that in dry conditions. Conversely, water vapor decreased wear at HT compared to HT dry (where RT is ~25°% and HT is 450°C). Higher wear was attributed to the lack of sufficient lubricious oxide film formation on the wear tracks for Inconel 718 against Inconel 718 at HT. On the other hand, similar tribological behavior (i.e. friction and wear) was observed for the hydrogen-exposed and unexposed Inconel 718 at room temperature ambient conditions
Markers of regional subcutaneous adipose tissue (dys)function in childhood-onset versus adult-onset obesity before and after weight loss
Get PDFPeople with childhood-onset obesity have greater risk of type 2 diabetes than people with adult-onset obesity. However, we do not understand the mechanisms contributing to this disease risk discrepancy or whether these mechanisms can be reversed. A decline in subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) function (i.e., the ability to safely store lipids and regulate adipokine production) is linked to type 2 diabetes and may therefore vary by age of obesity onset. This dissertation aimed to compare markers of regional SAT (dys)function between people with childhood-onset and adult-onset obesity.
Original article 1 investigated the longstanding yet controversial notion that SAT is hyperplastic (has many small adipocytes) in childhood-onset obesity and hypertrophic (has fewer large adipocytes) in adult-onset obesity. This notion held true only for abdominal SAT in females. The degree of abdominal SAT hypertrophy or hyperplasia was unaffected by age of obesity onset in males. In contrast, femoral SAT was hypertrophic in both males and females with childhood-onset obesity compared to their counterparts with adult-onset obesity.
Original articles 2 & 3 examined preadipocyte DNA damage (γH2AX), senescence markers (p53 and p21), and SAT immune cell profiles in females with childhood-onset and adult-onset obesity, both before and after moderate (~10%) weight loss. Compared to females with adult-onset obesity, those with childhood-onset obesity had a greater proportion of preadipocytes with DNA damage and senescence markers in abdominal and femoral SAT, but a slightly lower proportion of M1-like ‘pro-inflammatory’ macrophages in abdominal SAT. The proportions of M1-like macrophages in femoral SAT and M2-like ‘anti-inflammatory’ macrophages, CD3+CD4+ T cells, and CD3+CD8+ T cells in abdominal and femoral SAT did not differ between groups. After weight loss, preadipocyte DNA damage declined in both females with childhood-onset and adult-onset obesity. Other changes, however, occurred only in females with adult-onset obesity: the intensity of p21 in p53+p21+ femoral preadipocytes and the proportion of M1-like macrophages in abdominal SAT decreased, while the proportion of CD3+CD4+ T cells in abdominal and femoral SAT increased.
Recognizing the differences in markers of SAT (dys)function between people with childhood-onset and adult-onset obesity may help guide the development of tailored treatment strategies
What Drives Insect Herbivory Patterns in A Sugar Maple Temperate Forest? Bottom-Up and Top-Down Pressures on Insect Defoliators Within and Between Maple Trees
Get PDFInsect herbivory plays a vital role in forest ecosystems, structuring trophic webs and maintaining biodiversity. While dramatic insect outbreaks often dominate attention, low intensity but persistent background herbivory also contributes to ecological processes. This thesis investigates the ecological drivers of background insect herbivory in sugar maple-dominated forests, focusing on within-tree variations, between-tree diversity, and trophic interactions.
Using the "green world" hypothesis as a framework, this study examines how bottom-up and top-down forces shape herbivore populations. Bottom-up pressures from leaf physical traits varied with vertical stratification and light gradients: sunlit canopy leaves exhibited higher thickness, lower specific leaf area (SLA), and lower water content with less herbivory damage, whereas shaded understory leaves showed lower thickness, higher SLA and greater water content with increased herbivory damage. Paradoxically, feeding bioassays revealed that a local lepidopteran herbivore preferred sun-exposed leaves over shaded leaves and had a better performance on sun-exposed leaves. These findings underscore the complex interplay between leaf traits and herbivore behavior, indicating that physical defenses alone cannot fully explain observed patterns of herbivory.
Top-down forces, including predation and parasitism, were further studied. Predation rates varied across vertical gradients but not between saplings under different light conditions, with arthropods dominating shaded understories and birds in sunlit canopies. While higher bird predation may contribute to reduced herbivory in the sun canopy, limited parasitoids data prevented robust conclusions about vertical variation of natural enemies. These spatially variable top-down pressures on herbivore populations deserves further attention.
Comparisons between sugar maple and black maple (Acer nigrum) revealed key differences in leaf traits, like tougher leaves and denser trichomes in black maples, but no difference in herbivore communities. This suggests that despite notable trait differences, insect herbivores did not distinguish between the two tree species, likely reflecting their close evolutionary relationship.
By integrating within-tree and between-tree variations with trophic interactions, this thesis provides a comprehensive view of insect herbivory regulation in sugar maple forests. These results refine our understanding of the green world hypothesis by highlighting how spatial variation in plant traits and predator communities shapes herbivore populations. This insight enhances ecological theory and informs forest management strategies
Newcomers’ Motivation Profiles: A Review and Longitudinal Investigation
Get PDFAnchored in a comprehensive literature review of previous person-centered research focused on work motivation profiles, the present study seeks to validate a series of theoretical scenarios likely to drive employees’ motivational orientation at work. Relying on a longitudinal study of 865 Canadian employees who started their job within the last six months, we assess the relevance of these profiles among newcomers, as well as their within-sample (generalizability over time) and within-person (profile membership and transitions) stability over a time interval of six months. To assess the construct validity of these profiles, we finally assessed their associations with need supportive and need thwarting work conditions (predictors) and a series of outcomes related to employees’ work functioning (turnover intention, emotional exhaustion, job engagement, and performance). Our results revealed five distinct profiles (Weakly Motivated Value-Driven, Self-Determined Value-Driven, Weakly Motivated/Amotivated, Strongly Motivated, and Self-Determined Hedonist) which were mainly consistent with some of the proposed scenarios. We also found that participants reporting more need supportive behaviors were more likely to belong to the Strongly Motivated and Self-Determined Hedonist profiles, while those reporting more need thwarting behaviors were more likely to belong to the Weakly Motivated Value-Driven, Self-Determined Value-Driven, and Weakly Motivated/Amotivated profiles. Finally, whereas more self-determined profiles tended to report more adaptive outcomes (i.e., lower levels of emotional exhaustion and turnover intention, and higher levels of job engagement and performance), results also revealed unexpectedly high levels of emotional exhaustion and turnover intention among the Strongly Motivated profile
Traduire A Pillow Book de Suzanne Buffam : transferts des compétences de la traduction pragmatique à la « spécialisation » littéraire
Get PDFLe présent mémoire a pour point de départ la traduction d’un livre de poésie intitulé A Pillow Book écrit par Suzanne Buffam (publié chez Anansi) et décrit le parcours d’une traductrice qui après de nombreuses années de pratique de la traduction pragmatique se lance le défi de la traduction littéraire. Une des particularités de A Pillow Book étant qu’il s’inspire d’une œuvre japonaise du Xe siècle, The Pillow Book, de Sei Shônagon (traduit du en anglais par Ivan Morris), la première posture explorée a été celle du pastiche. Cette posture ayant mené à un cul-de-sac traductionnel, elle a été abandonnée au profit de l’empathie rationnelle. Cette dernière a permis à la traductrice d’opérer un transfert de ses compétences en traduction pragmatique vers la « spécialisation littéraire ». Les aspects pratiques de ces transferts sont décrits par des exemples tirés de la traduction à proprement parler. La deuxième partie du mémoire est composée de la traduction du texte intégral de l’œuvre, intitulée, en français : Les Notes de chevet de Suzanne Buffam : Un livre sur les oreillers
Retrieving the information stored in the donated organ may cause the patient’s personality to change after the transplant operation
No full textThe results of some scientific research show that organ transplantation, especially heart transplantation, causes changes in the patient’s personality and even memory. These changes can be due to the recovery of information stored in the donor’s molecules and cells. In fact, as in the orchestrated objective reduction model, information in the form of polarization or spin of molecules, electrons, and photons is stored in microtubules due to the connection between the brain and the heart through blood vessels and nerves, and waves. A copy of the information is stored in molecules and heart cells and possibly through the induction of polarization and spin in some hexagonal or pentagonal molecules of DNA structure