VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Indulgences and Solidarity in Late Medieval England
Keywords: england
hospitals
indulgences
parishes
poverty
ransom

Medieval indulgences have long had a troubled public image, grounded in centuries of confessional discord. Were they simply a crass form of medieval religious commercialism and a spiritual fraud, as the reforming archbishop Cranmer charged in his 1543 appeal to raise funds for Henry VIII's contributions against the Turks? Or were they perceived and used in a different manner? In his influential work, Indulgences in Late Medieval England: Passports to Paradise, R.N. Swanson offered fresh arguments for the centrality and popularity of indulgences in the devotional landscape of medieval England, and thoroughly documented the doctrinal development and administrative apparatus that grew up around indulgences. How they functioned within the English social and devotional landscape, particularly at the local level, is the focus of this thesis. Through an investigation of published episcopal registers, my thesis explores the social impact of indulgences at the diocesan level by examining the context, aims, and social make up of the beneficiaries, as well as the spiritual and social expectations of the granting bishops. It first explores personal indulgences given to benefit individuals, specifically the deserving poor and ransomed captives, before examining indulgences given to local institutions, particularly hospitals and parishes. Throughout this study, I show that both lay people and bishops used indulgences to build, reinforce or maintain solidarity and social bonds between diverse groups. Bishops used indulgences for indigent individuals to promote solidarity and support for the deserving poor. Ransomed English captives used indulgences to seek communal assistance to purchase their freedom. Hospitals used indulgences to draw the healthy and wealthy of society to the geographic and social peripheries where the sick and the leprous lay, calling for support and solidarity. Finally, parishes used indulgences as a means to smooth over parochial divisions and to encourage greater unity among parishioners, both living and dead. In sum, I demonstrate that, in the years prior to the Reformation, the function of indulgences was multivalent and played an important, unifying role in local communities: they offered spiritual gain as well as social benefits that redounded beyond the mutuality they represented and effected between benefactor and beneficiary.
The Catholic-Christian Masking of César Franck and Alternative Erotic Readings of his Piano Quintet, Violin Sonata, and Prelude, Chorale and Fugue
Keywords: catholic
cortot
debussy
d'indy
erotic
Franck

César Franck (1822-1890) is, for many, a problematic composer. He was born a Belgian, naturalized a Frenchman, but is often cited as an example (musically) of the Germanic. In the wake of this supposed identity crisis one particular identity has stuck: that of the Pater Seraphicus, composer of music imbued with deep Catholic-Christian piety. Those largely responsible for this identity are Vincent d'Indy and Alfred Cortot. However, as outlined in chapter 1, there are many problems with this interpretation, especially when one looks closely at Franck's music, which is filled with musical markers of the erotic. Chapter 2 explores some procedures associated with eroticism, focusing on sources directly associated with Franck, namely Wagner, Liszt, and Debussy.Subsequent chapters develop new interpretations of Franck's music, starting with the Piano Quintet (1880). Chapter 3 explores its explosively dramatic first movement, whose second theme awakens a latent, subversive eroticism, which is ultimately punished and crushed by the destructive forces of the first theme. Cortot's spiritual interpretative incentives were most famously and influentially pronounced in reference to the Prelude, Chorale and Fugue (1884), which is discussed in the fourth chapter. The frequently-cited paradigm in this work of an incorruptible diatonicism's adjacency and resistance to its decadent sibling chromaticism is shown to be problematic, and the Chorale theme of this work is viewed instead to be a possible erotic symbol. Additionally, a parallel is traced between the work's structural plan and the trajectory-towards-climax paradigm so beloved of Wagner. Chapter 5 explores the Violin Sonata (1886), a work whose first half is pregnant with erotically-symbolic impulses. Here possible cross-pollinations with Debussy are considered, including consonant use of "voluptuous" sonorities (such as the dominant ninth chord) and sinuous melodic commingling which may depict, respectively, erotic languor or activity. Chapter 6 summarizes these arguments and suggests implications in performance as well as directions for further research, including alternative analyses of Franck's other works as well as those of other composers. This chapter concludes with a brief consideration of other aesthetics which may similarly entangle religious piety with eroticism.
Evaluating the Use of Monocytes with a Degradable Polyurethane for Vascular Tissue Regeneration
Keywords: biomaterials
bioreactor
monocyte
polyurethane
protein adsorption
tissue engineering

Monocytes are one of the first cell types present following the implantation of a biomaterial or tissue engineered construct. Depending on the monocyte activation state supported by the biomaterial, monocytes and their derived macrophages (MDMs) can act as positive contributors to tissue regeneration and wound healing, or conversely promote a chronic inflammatory response that leads to fibrous encapsulation and implant rejection. A degradable polar hydrophobic ionic polyurethane (D-PHI) has been shown to reduce pro-inflammatory monocyte/macrophage response compared to tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS), a substrate routinely used for in vitro culture of cells, as well as poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA), a standard synthetic biodegradable biomaterial in the tissue engineering field. D-PHI has also shown properties suitable for use in a vascular tissue engineering context. In order to understand the mechanism through which D-PHI attenuates pro-inflammatory monocyte response, this thesis investigated the ability of D-PHI to modulate interactions with adsorbed serum proteins and the properties of D-PHI that were important for this activity. D-PHI was shown to regulate protein adsorption in a manner that produced divergent monocyte responses compared to TCPS and PLGA when coated with the serum proteins á2-macroglobulin or immunoglobulin G (IgG). In the case of IgG, D-PHI was shown to reduce pro-inflammatory binding site exposure as a function of the material's polar, hydrophobic, and ionic character. Due to the favourable monocyte activation state supported by D-PHI, and the importance of monocytes/macrophages in regulating the response of tissue-specific cell types in vivo, the ability of a D-PHI-stimulated monocyte/macrophage activation state to contribute to modulating the response of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) in a vascular tissue engineering context was investigated. D-PHI-stimulated monocytes promoted VSMC growth and migration through biomolecule release. Coupling monocyte-VSMC co-culture with biomechanical strain further enhanced these effects, while also promoting extracellular matrix deposition (collagen I, collagen III, and elastin) and enhancing the mechanical properties of VSMC-monocyte seeded tissue constructs. This thesis identifies the use of biomaterials with immunomodulatory capacity to harness the stimulatory potential of MDMs and contribute to tissue engineering strategies in vitro. This latter work in turn has contributed to identifying aspects of biomaterial design that can contribute to supporting desirable monocyte-biomaterial interactions that can facilitate this process.
Security Issues of Quantum Cryptographic Systems with Imperfect Detectors
Keywords: Cryptography
Detectors
QKD
Quantum
Single-photon
SNSPD

The laws of quantum physics can be used to secure communications between two distant parties in a scheme called quantum key distribution (QKD), even against a technologically unlimited eavesdropper. While the theoretical security of QKD has been proved rigorously, current implementations of QKD are generally insecure. In particular, mathematical models of devices, such as detectors, do not accurately describe their real-life behaviour. Such seemingly insignificant discrepancies can compromise the security of the entire scheme, especially as novel detector technologies are being developed with little regard for potential vulnerabilities.In this thesis, we study how detector imperfections can impact the security of QKD and how to overcome such technological limitations. We first analyze the security of a high-speed QKD system with finite detector dead time tau. We show that the previously reported sifting approaches are not guaranteed to be secure in this regime. More specifically, Eve can induce a basis-dependent detection efficiency at the receiver's end. Modified key sifting schemes that are basis-independent, and thus secure in the presence of dead time and an active eavesdropper, are discussed and compared. It is shown that the maximum key generation rate is 1/(2tau) for passive basis selection, and 1/tau for active basis selection. The security analysis is also extended to the decoy state BB84 protocol.We then study a relatively new type of single-photon detector called the superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD), and discover some unexpected behaviour. We report an afterpulsing effect present when the SNSPD is operated in the high bias current regime. In our standard set-up, the afterpulsing is most likely to occur at around 180 ns following a detection event, for both real counts and dark counts. We characterize the afterpulsing behaviour and speculate that it is not due to the SNSPD itself but rather the associated read-out circuit. We also report and examine a short-lived enhancement of detection efficiency during the recovery of the SNSPD, as well as a longer dead time than previously thought. These findings should be of interest not only to the QKD community but also researchers using SNSPDs in other applications.
Oxidative Stress - a Key Player in Periodontal Disease
Keywords: Genomics
Gingivitis
Neutrophils
Oxidative Stress
Periodontitis
Proteomics

Background: The biological oxidative state reflects the net balance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and antioxidants (AO). An increase in ROS levels will result in oxidative stress, which has been linked to aging as well as pathologic conditions, including inflammatory, degenerative, and multi-organ diseases.Periodontal disease is an inflammatory disease regulated in part by oxidative states in periodontal tissues. In its most common form, chronic periodontitis (CP) is an inflammatory disease initiated by subgingival biofilms, which induce a local immune response, host-mediated tissue destruction and unresolved inflammation. The well-documented heterogeneity of such immune responses among patients with CP is, in part, attributed to neutrophil functional alterations including generation of oxidative stress.Goals: To investigate the factors affecting oxidative stress in oral neutrophils and their role in periodontal tissue destruction. I hypothesize that oral neutrophils in chronic periodontitis (CP) have a pro-oxidative phenotype. This phenotype presents as hyperactive oral neutrophils, which contribute to oxidative stress and tissue destruction during CP.Results: Increase in cytoprotective proteins, including AO, was demonstrated in an experimental gingivitis model, suggesting that the regulation of physiologic oxidative state has a role in preventing clinical attachment loss (CAL). Increased oral neutrophil ROS production was associated with severeiiiperiodontal tissue damage (CAL) in CP patients whose disease was resistant to treatment (refractory disease). Gene expression microarray completed in both oral and peripheral blood neutrophils revealed that oral neutrophils in CP patients present with a deficient oxidative stress response, which is mediated by the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) pathway. The role of the Nrf2 pathway in neutrophil function and periodontal tissue destruction was then further investigated in a murine periodontal disease model. Nrf2 null mice have a hyperactive neutrophil phenotype when activated. Furthermore, Nrf2 null mice have more severe bone loss and increased ROS-mediated damage compared to control mice in response to ligature-induced periodontitis.Conclusions: Nrf2 down-regulation in oral neutrophils is associated with more severe periodontal tissue destruction. Reduced production of AO by neutrophils in the context of increased recruitment in the periodontium aggravates tissue destruction. It can therefore be concluded that reduced AO production by oral neutrophils in un-resolved periodontal inflammation may contribute to increased severity of CP through local oxidative stress.
In Search of an Effective Method of Measuring Aboriginal Children's Speech and Language Development
Keywords: assessment
children
First Nations

The present study examines the effectiveness of the Fluharty Preschool Speech and Language Screening Test - Second Edition (FPSLST-2) as a speech and language measure for First Nations children. In the literature (Gould, 2008b; Klenowski, 2009; Pearce Williams, 2013; Peltier, 2009) and in practice, questions have been raised about whether any standardized speech language assessment is effective in measuring skills of First Nations children. The effectiveness of speech and language standardized tests was investigated by comparing test performance of two groups within the Rainy River District in Ontario, Canada: First Nations (FN) and Non-First Nations (NFN) children in the Rainy River District School Board (RRDSB) over a three year period (2009-2011). The study's target population included 429 Senior Kindergarten (SK) children comprised of 314 NFN children and 115 FN children from 11 elementary schools. There were overall differences in scoring patterns, with NFN children performing significantly better than FN children. A Mantel-Haenszel Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analysis provided a detailed picture of how individual items functioned psychometrically in the two groups. This analysis found six phonology items showing small and moderate amounts of uniform and non-uniform DIF and one language item showing a moderate level of non-uniform DIF. Review of these items by the Native Language and Curriculum Coordinator of the RRDSB suggested explanations for the difference in performance. In particular, items with the sounds /fl,v/ on the Articulation subtest exhibited a moderate level of uniform DIF in favour of the NFN group because the sounds f, l, r, and v do not exist in the Ojibwe language spoken in the Rainy River District. In addition, because the Ojibwe language is comprised of 80% verbs, it is reasonable to expect DIF for items describing verbs, which was noted; however, the DIF detected was non-uniform. Suggestions are provided for how the assessment's content as well as the administration and scoring might be adapted to better evaluate the speech and language development of FN children in the Rainy River District.
Commercialization, Collaboration and Conflict of Interest: An Institutional Work Analysis of Academic Entrepreneurship in Canada
Keywords: Academic Entrepreneurship
Bioethics
Conflict of Interest
Institutional Work
Mixed-Methods Research
Research Policy

Recent health research and innovation policies have encouraged academic biomedical scientists to engage research commercialization and collaborations with the health products industry. These activities of `academic entrepreneurship' have been valued for their ability to produce social, economic, and health impacts. However, these initiatives have also been met with concern for their potential to create conflicts of interest. This study examines how publicly-funded academic biomedical scientists in Canada value the activities of academic entrepreneurship and manage conflict of interest concerns. Drawing on neo-institutional theories, this research explores the institutional logic of entrepreneurial science, and the micro-level negotiations of `institutional work' conducted by academic entrepreneurs in legitimizing entrepreneurial initiatives. This mixed-methods study draws from a national survey of publicly-funded biomedical researchers (n = 1,618), and in-depth interviews with 24 academic entrepreneurs and 14 trainees. Analyses indicate that the institutional logic of entrepreneurial science tends to be positioned as distinct to academic science, though this logic is heterogeneous. Exploring entrepreneurial scientists' institutional work in valuing and navigating entrepreneurial activities, normative value is generated in these activities through proposals of their contributions to scientific processes and downstream clinical and societal impacts. Entrepreneurial scientists simultaneously claim adherence to academic norms, and use these to legitimize their entrepreneurial engagements. In navigating entrepreneurial activities, entrepreneurial scientists engage in strategies to maintain academic activities alongside entrepreneurial ones, and claim to avoid conflicts of interest. In an environment of overall skepticism and uncertainty about academic entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial scientists engage in institutional work processes of change-through-maintenance, where appeals to the maintenance of academic norms serve to legitimize entrepreneurial activities. As entrepreneurial initiatives proceed in academic biomedical science and are legitimized by entrepreneurial scientists, this study calls for a need to scrutinize and regulate these initiatives, especially as potential conflicts of interest and their impacts tend to be obfuscated.
Nuclear PTEN Controls DNA Repair and Sensitivity to Genotoxic Stress
Keywords: Cancer
DNA damage
PTEN
tumor suppressor

Loss of function of the phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) tumor suppressor is frequently found in many human malignancies. PTEN antagonizes the Phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway by dephosphorylating the 3 position of phosphatidylinositol (3,4,5)-trisphosphate [PtdIns(3,4,5)P3] (PIP3). PIP3 serves as a second messenger whose levels in the plasma membrane are elevated following cell stimulation with growth factors, mediated by the activity of PI3Ks. Proteins containing pleckstrin homology (PH) domains physically interact with PIP3, bringing them into close proximity with other PH domain-containing proteins and facilitating further functional interactions that serve to propagate the membranous signal. Although the cytoplasmic role of PTEN in antagonizing PI3K signaling has been well studied, PTEN also resides in the nucleus, where its function remains poorly understood. Here, I demonstrate that SUMOylation (SUMO) of PTEN controls its nuclear localization. Consistent with its restricted cytoplasmic localization, a SUMO-deficient PTEN mutant is fully competent for regulating PI3K signaling. Upon exposure to genotoxic stress, SUMO-PTEN is rapidly excluded from the nucleus in an ATM-dependent manner, identifying a connection between these two major tumor suppressors. Further, ATM phosphorylated PTEN on threonine 398, and a PTEN mutant that cannot be phosphorylated at this position (PTEN T398A) resist nuclear exclusion following genotoxic stress. Judging by various readouts of the DNA damage response, cells lacking nuclear PTEN are hypersensitive to DNA damage and display impaired homologous recombination-mediated repair of double-strand DNA breaks. Moreover, unlike cells with Wt PTEN, PTEN-deficient cells are susceptible to killing by a combination of genotoxic stress and a small molecule inhibitor of PI3K both in vitro and in vivo. The synergistc effect of genotoxic stress and PI3K inhibition on PTEN-null cells is dependent on the simultaneous inhibition of both p110alpha and p110beta isoform. Further in vivo studies revealed that effective inhibition of PI3K pathway can be achieved with a discontinuous administration schedule in order to reduce the adverse effects associated with this treatment. My findings have considerable implications for individualizing therapy for patients with PTEN-deficient tumors.
Sex and Influence: The Gendered Nature of Canadian Political Culture During The Aberdeen Years, 1893-1898
Keywords: Canadian Political Culture
Canadian Political History
Canadian Social History
Gender
History
Women's Studies

This dissertation investigates the links between social and political life in Canada at the close of the nineteenth century through an exploration of the lived experience of four very different political wives. Building upon the important work of historians such as Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall, who successfully argued that women played key, if informal, roles in the world of nineteenth century politics and society, it generates new perspectives on the role of women and their influence on Canadian political culture. Drawing on personal letters, journals, newspaper articles and columns, as well as on memoirs, reminiscences, autobiographies, biographies and popular histories, this micro-historical study adds to our understanding of the subtle, varied and idiosyncratic ways that patriarchy and liberalism made an impact on the gendered experience of their everyday lives. If these political wives played an important role in the political life of late nineteenth century Canada, politics also played an important role in the creation of the synergistic friendships that developed among these women, friendships that in turn encouraged and directed their political activity. As this dissertation will argue, the ideology of separate spheres both enhanced and constrained the ability of these women to influence political culture, not by breaking down the boundaries of gender hierarchy but by working within them, reverencing separate spheres ideology and by sometimes astutely maneuvering accepted gender paradigms to achieve a measure of political influenceThe dissertation begins with an overview of the emblematic ceremonial representation of gender and politics, provides a detailed examination of the micro-politics of social and married life to argue that women played a significant part in the construction andconsolidation of political culture in late nineteenth century Canada