VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Self-gravity: Individuals Struggle to Change their Perceived Personality in a First Impression
Keywords: Accuracy
Big Five personality traits
Personality states
Person perception

People are motivated to change aspects of their personality traits and psychological research seems to document its regular occurrence. Nevertheless, most research has focused on whether people self-report that their personality traits have changed. Personality change is more than self-determined, however: People hope that changes to their personality are visible to others as well. Across seven studies, I therefore investigated whether people’s attempts to change their Big Five personality in a first impression are successful, focusing especially on extraversion. My work demonstrates that (i) individuals’ personality traits remain robustly visible in a first impression regardless of attempts to change, (ii) acting experience does not improve this ability, (iii) individuals’ traits can affect their evaluations more strongly than their attempts to change, and (iv) people attempting to change their personality in a first impression are largely unaware of how others truly judge them. This work therefore suggests that people struggle to control how their traits are perceived by others in a first impression.
An Olfactory Memory Circuit
Keywords: AON
Engram
Episodic
Hippocampus
Memory
Olfaction

Episodic memory is defined simply as memory for what happened, when, and where. The hippocampus mediates episodic memory and represents contextual information using the parameters of space and time, including where an event unfolded and the sequential order of related events. Episodic recollections are characterized by rich multisensory details, yet the mechanisms underlying the reinstatement of these non-spatiotemporal aspects of experience are unknown. In this thesis, we identified direct, topographically organized hippocampal projections to a poorly understood ring-like structure known as the anterior olfactory nucleus (AON). We demonstrated that manipulation of the hippocampal-AON pathway can influence odour perception and odour-guided behaviours. Selective inhibition of hippocampal-AON projections impaired mice in their ability to recognize odours associated with the spatial and/or temporal aspects of their environment. We also revealed that AON activity is generated by coincident olfactory and contextual inputs arriving from the olfactory bulb and hippocampus, respectively. Thus, we hypothesized that the AON acts as the physical repository for populations of neurons representing previously encountered odours within the context in which they occurred. The precise pattern of activity produced by the AON therefore composes the olfactory memory trace, or “odour engram”. To this end, we used a tamoxifen-inducible Cre recombinase system to control the timing of gene expression in the AON. In combination with chemo- and optogenetic tools, we manipulated tagged AON neuronal populations in a carefully designed set of behavioural paradigms. We found that AON activity is necessary and sufficient for driving the behavioural expression of specific odour memories, thereby establishing the AON as the long-term storage site for contextually-based odour engrams. This thesis represents the first demonstration of the neural substrate of odour memory in vertebrates, satisfying all criteria used for defining an engram. The ease and suitability of using olfaction will undoubtedly position the hippocampal-AON pathway as an ideal circuit model for investigating fundamental mnemonic and cognitive principles. Indeed, this model can become particularly important in translational research that may yet lead to the development of therapeutic targets for disorders of memory, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Investigating the Pervasiveness of Social Class Cues in the Face
Keywords: face perception
first impressions
social class
social cognition

Previous research demonstrates the visibility of social class from the face, as cued by differences in resting facial affect in neutral faces and differences in attractiveness in dating profile photos. This research, however, operationalized social class using only one measure: income. Social class standing consists of various related facets in addition to income, however, including education, occupational prestige, and subjective social class. It therefore remains unknown whether accurate perceptions of social class are specific to income, or whether the face reflects social class more generally. To address this gap, I tested the visibility of social class in two stimulus sets, standardized photos of Canadian undergraduates and yearbook photos of Icelandic secondary school graduates, each of which defined social class somewhat differently. Previous work on the visibility of social class from the face furthermore focused only on whether perceivers could distinguish those of higher class from those of lower class, leaving unclear whether greater nuance in social class standing might be detectable from the face. To explore this question, I used more detailed measures of targets’ social class and asked perceivers to make judgments along multi-point scales. Extant work moreover only demonstrates the visibility of social class background, but other research on predictive judgments from the face (e.g., career success) suggests that the face may hold hints of future class standing—I tested this possibility here. Finally, the current work tested whether the facial cues to social class were consistent across economic context, photo type, and time. My findings indicate that facial appearance reflects the underlying construct of social class (rather than just certain facets of class) and does so in a graded manner, with different degrees of social class standing discernable from the face. Across both stimulus sets, greater Positivity (affect and warmth) and Attractiveness (attractiveness, competence, and health) cued higher background social class standing, suggesting that social class impacts appearance similarly across economic contexts. The cues to future social class diverged from this, however. Overall, this work provides a clearer idea of the relationship between social class standing and facial appearance.
Redifferentiated Human Osteoarthritic Chondrocytes for Articular Cartilage Tissue Engineering and Repair
Keywords: Chondrocyte
Endoglin
Human
Osteoarthritis
Redifferentiate
Transforming Growth Factor Beta

When chondrocytes are passaged, they lose their phenotype and the ability to form hyaline articular cartilage (AC) in a process termed dedifferentiation, limiting their clinical applications. Transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) is known to differentiate human progenitor cells to chondrocytes by upregulating chondrogenic genes. Therefore, we tested if TGFβ could redifferentiate passaged human chondrocytes and restore their ability to form AC. Here we show for the first time that when passaged chondrocytes are cultured in the presence of TGFβ3, hyaline- like cartilaginous tissues self-assemble and develop a superficial zone. In addition, we demonstrate that chondrocytes isolated from AC with advanced osteoarthritis (OA) can form cartilaginous tissues of similar quality to that of chondrocytes derived from moderate OA. This is significant as literature suggests that chondrocytes from advanced OA may have an impaired capacity to form tissues. We further demonstrated that high levels of endoglin (a TGFβ co-receptor known to enhance signaling) may be required for chondrogenesis by human chondrocytes. This is a novel finding and suggests that for clinical applications cells expressing high levels of endoglin may enhance cartilage repair. Finally, redifferentiated chondrocytes were tested for their capacity to form hyaline-like cartilage in vivo in a rabbit osteochondral defect model; however, the use of these cells resulted in collagen type 2-containing granulation tissue and did not enhance repair when compared to dedifferentiated chondrocytes. Implanting an osteochondral-like tissue construct which resemble native AC may be a better alternative. Studies are ongoing to elucidate methods to generate tissue constructs containing hyaline cartilage, mineralized cartilage, and bone.
The Interactive Effects of Phenotype and Environment on Dispersal
Keywords: density dependence
dispersal
metapopulation
Notonecta undulata
parasitism
phenotype-by-environment interactions

Dispersal is the movement of organisms between habitat patches that creates the potential for gene flow. This movement of individuals and their genes across space impacts the dynamics of metapopulations and metacommunities. For example, dispersal influences the risk of metapopulation extinction, and affects the coexistence of species with competitors, predators, and parasites. Dispersal therefore influences local and regional species richness and community composition. Dispersal is a complex behaviour characterized by high levels of variation between patches and among individuals. The central question of my dissertation is, what produces this variation? I addressed this using three approaches: quantitative review, theoretical modeling, and empirical investigations. In chapter 2, I conducted a meta-analysis of body size-dependent dispersal. I found that size had a positive effect on dispersal distance, but its average effect on emigration and immigration did not differ from zero. However, there were high levels of heterogeneity in this effect within each stage of dispersal. In chapter 3, I developed an individual based model of how dispersal evolves to respond to both body condition and population density. I found that dispersal evolved to be a positive threshold function of density, and the value of this threshold depended on condition. In chapters 4-6, I used the backswimmer, Notonecta undulata, as a model empirical system to explore the effects of phenotype and the environment on dispersal. In chapter 4, I conducted a mark-release-recapture study which found that dispersal probability was determined by the interaction between population density, body mass, and sex. In chapter 5, I conducted an experiment which demonstrated that habitat conditions experienced during development have carryover effects on dispersal in later life stages. Finally, in chapter 6, I investigated the effects of parasites on dispersal. I found that risk of parasitism induced dispersal in healthy backswimmers, but infected backswimmers had low dispersal ability. This impacted dispersal in natural environments: parasites eliminated density dependence in backswimmer dispersal. My thesis provides novel information about how dispersal is influenced by phenotype, the environment, and their interaction. These results alter our understanding of the consequences of dispersal for biological processes, including the spatial distribution of biodiversity.
Shared Reality or Shared Illusions? Evaluating Moral Impressions
Keywords: Accuracy
Moral Judgement
Personality

Moral impressions are some of the most consequential opinions people have about themselves and others. Morality is at the core of identity (Strohminger Nichols, 2014), and drives many interpersonal interactions such as cooperation (Delgado, Frank, Phelps, 2005) and affiliation (Bukowski Sippola, 1998). Yet, little is known about the extent to which these moral impressions are grounded in reality or if they are only held as idiosyncratic impressions. The current investigation evaluated how people see their own and other’s moral character, if these moral impressions are shared, and if a shared understanding of moral character is adaptive. First, I developed and tested a measurement model for assessing self- and other-impressions of morality which removes a global evaluative bias from moral impressions (Studies 1 and 2). Second, I evaluated if self- and other-impressions are grounded in a shared social reality (i.e. self-other agreement and inter-judge consensus) and/or grounded in observable behavior (Study 3). Third, I evaluated if sharing a social reality for moral impressions has interpersonal consequences for the self (Study 4). This work sheds light on the extent to which morality is in the eye of the beholder and the adaptiveness of holding shared moral impressions. Additionally, this work has implications for the assessment of moral character and the adaptiveness of self-knowledge.
The Molecular Landmarks of Tumour Evolution and Hypoxia Across Cancers
Keywords: Cancer
Evolution
Hypoxia
Microenvironment
Pan-cancer
Prostate

Large genomic studies of cancer have mostly focused on characterizing the mutational profiles of tumours and discovering their driver mutations. How these tumours evolved prior to diagnosis within their unique and evolving microenvironments remains understudied. For example, dynamic gradients of oxygen diffusion and consumption can lead to sub-regions of hypoxia (low oxygen). These exist in approximately half of all solid tumours. Despite being an adverse (and targetable) prognostic feature in multiple cancer types, the genomic correlates of hypoxia in large cohorts of primary tumours have not been described. Further, the nature of the selective pressures applied by hypoxia and its influence on tumour evolution has not been assessed. To address these gaps, I first reconstructed the phylogenies of 293 localized prostate cancers and showed that specific genes, including MTOR, NKX3-1 and RB1, are biased to be mutated early or late during prostate cancer evolution. The evolutionary history of these cancers also affects how they respond to future treatment: patients with low-risk monoclonal tumours rarely relapse after primary treatment (7%) while patients with high-risk polyclonal tumours frequently relapse (61%). I next measured hypoxia using multiple mRNA-based signatures in 548 patients with localized prostate cancer. Hypoxia is associated with specific alterations in prostate cancer driver genes. Hypoxia-associated copy-number alterations are biased to occur early during tumour evolution, consistent with hypoxia being an early selective event. To translate these findings into a biomarker, I integrated hypoxia data with genomic, pathological and evolutionary information to stratify clinically-similar patients into distinct prognostic groups. Finally, I expanded our framework to assess the molecular and evolutionary landmarks of hypoxia across cancers: I quantified hypoxia across a diverse set of 10,808 tumours spanning 27 cancer types. Numerous alterations are enriched or depleted in hypoxic tumours and hypoxia applies a selective pressure early in the life history of tumours across cancers. I further found the first example of the joint influence of a genomic alteration and hypoxia in guiding evolutionary trajectories across cancers. Overall, hypoxic tumours have distinct mutational landscapes and the aggressiveness of cancers is driven by the interplay of the tumour microenvironment, evolution and its mutational profile.
Morita Equivalence and Generalized Kähler Geometry
Keywords: Generalized Kähler geometry
Morita equivalence
Poisson geometry
Symplectic groupoid

Generalized Kähler (GK) geometry is a generalization of Kähler geometry, which arises in the study of supersymmetric sigma models in physics. In this thesis, we solve the problem of determining the underlying degrees of freedom for the class of GK structures of symplectic type. This is achieved by giving a reformulation of the geometry whereby it is represented by a pair of holomorphic Poisson structures, a holomorphic symplectic Morita equivalence relating them, and a Lagrangian brane inside of the Morita equivalence. We apply this reformulation to solve the longstanding problem of representing the metric of a GK structure in terms of a real-valued potential function. This generalizes the situation in Kähler geometry, where the metric can be expressed in terms of the partial derivatives of a function. This result relies on the fact that the metric of a GK structure corresponds to a Lagrangian brane, which can be represented via the method of generating functions. We then apply this result to give new constructions of GK structures, including examples on toric surfaces. Next, we study the Picard group of a holomorphic Poisson structure, and explore its relationship to GK geometry. We then apply our results to the deformation theory of GK structures, and explain how a GK metric can be deformed by flowing the Lagrangian brane along a Hamiltonian vector field. Finally, we prove a normal form result, which says that locally, a GK structure of symplectic type is determined by a holomorphic Poisson structure and a time-dependent real-valued function, via a Hamiltonian flow construction.
Investigating the Maintenance of Desmoid Tumors beyond Beta-catenin
Keywords: beta-catenin
desmoid
fibromatosis
stroma
tumour

Despite substantial advances in the genomic characterization of neoplasia, effective therapy of many diseases remains elusive. Beyond genomic alterations, several signalling processes maintain the neoplastic phenotype including active protein kinases that increase proliferation, gene expression programs that maintain a neoplastic identity, and stroma-derived factors that influence tumor cell behavior. Determination of the signalling pathways involved in disease maintenance have allowed for the identification of effective therapeutic strategies in some common diseases. However, the treatment of rare diseases has seen little development because of lack of patient material and poor characterization of such material. Desmoid tumors are rare soft-tissue neoplasms with unpredictable clinical behavior that consist of mesenchymal fibroblast-like cells initiated by mutations stabilizing beta-catenin. Here we hypothesized that additional pathways are dysregulated in desmoid tumors and identifying these, and their regulators, will identify putative therapeutic targets. We integrated information from compound library screens of protein kinase inhibitors, gene expression datasets to establish a predictive molecular signature, as well as clonal approaches to identify factors contributing to the neoplastic phenotype. We found that PDGFRB signalling, microRNA-29 and glucocorticoids, and stroma-derived factors and STAT6 signalling, are all factors regulating cellular proliferation in desmoid tumors. We also describe clonal expansion techniques and identify surface markers of mutant and non-mutant cells to address intratumor heterogeneity. These findings improve our current understanding of the signalling processes that maintain desmoid tumor growth and identify several promising targets for therapy. Moreover, the methods we describe here will improve the characterization of existing and future samples and help explain the unpredictability that has been a feature of this disease.
The Nature and Extent of Catholic Political Action in Postsecular Societies
Keywords: Liberalism
Personalism
Ratzinger
Theologico-Political

Confronted with the crises of liberal democracy and institutional religion, this work argues that Catholic political action, seen as a tradition of thought rather than as a dogmatic religion, understands the tensions between the individual and the community, immanence and transcendence, and faith and reason through the notion of the dignity of the person, which constitutes an alternative to the “individual” of liberalism. The introduction discusses the crises of liberal democracy and of the Catholic church and explains the reach and limits of this work. The first chapter analyzes the notion of “political theology,” suggesting that, while the theologico-political is an inescapable dimension of human existence, a Christian political theology, understood as the attempt to make the earthly city resemble the heavenly one, thus immanentizing what is originally transcendental, must be rejected. The second chapter argues that secularity implies not the end of religion but a transformation of religious belief wherein religion becomes one among many alternative answers to the problem of existence. The third chapter studies the political implications of the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic church and focuses on two reactions to the council that ended up immanentizing the notion of the “kingdom of God.” The fourth chapter introduces the Catholic idea of the person as an alternative to the liberal individual and situates Catholic political action at the local level. The fifth chapter portrays Catholic political action as a tradition of thought and studies its most important contributions for contemporary political thought.
Predictors of Violence, Traumatic Stress, and Burnout in Sex Work
Keywords: burnout
prostitution
sex work
stigma
trauma
violence

This dissertation reports and discusses the findings of an online survey of 339 sex workers in Canada and the United States concerning their experiences of traumatic stress, burnout, and violence by clients, their working conditions and environment, and their perceptions and experiences of their clients. The survey was designed to collect data on the prevalence of harm and distress among sex workers across the various contexts and locations in which sex work is bought, as well as on how harm and distress in sex work relate to client behaviours and characteristics, structural factors such as sex work stigma and racial or ethnic identity, and protective factors such as working conditions and social cohesion. The 339 sex workers surveyed reported very high levels of traumatic stress, with at least half the respondents reporting levels of traumatic stress consistent with a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. Respondents also reported a very high prevalence of violent clients, as nearly half of the clients were reported to be violent. The prevalence of violence by clients was somewhat lower, with half of respondents experiencing violence occasionally and 25% of respondents reporting violence as a rare occurrence. Burnout levels among the surveyed workers were also high; half the sample reported levels of burnout above the accepted threshold for detecting burnt-out workers. A higher prevalence of clients perceived as adhering to hegemonic masculinity norms significantly predicted higher levels of traumatic stress as well as a higher prevalence of violent clients. Also, a higher prevalence of clients motivated by their inability to access non-commercial sex due to a physical or mental disability or lack of social skills significantly predicted higher levels of violence by clients and higher prevalence of violent clients. More control over working conditions significantly predicted lower levels of traumatic stress, and higher levels of social cohesion significantly predicted lower levels of burnout. Sex work stigma significantly predicted variation in the prevalence of violence by clients, prevalence of violent clients, levels of traumatic stress, and levels of burnout in the surveyed sex workers.