VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
“A Foolish Adventure" in a Country that went Mad: Healing Psychosocial Suffering in Post-genocide Rwanda
Keywords: mental health
Rwanda
genocide
healing
suffering
trauma
program
intervention
community-based
narrative
psychosocial
culture
brokenness

Abstract There is a scarcity of programs addressing psychosocial suffering in post-genocide Rwanda. The locally-initiated models are understudied and lack legitimate support to strengthen their interventions. This study addresses this gap by exploring the Healing of Life Wounds (HLW) program and its context of implementation. HLW is a community-based program that was introduced in Rwanda in 1995 by a Rwandan, Dr. Simon Gasibirege, to facilitate mutual healing among members of the groups involved in the 1994 genocide. Using a critical ethnographic approach, a multi-method data set was obtained from two groups of participants from two separate organizations applying HLW model. One group of twenty-three community participants from one local association shared their experiences as they participated in HLW. The other group included seven experienced HLW facilitators who provided their perceptions about using HLW from an international organization operating in Rwanda. The data also included HLW documents and reflexive notes. Dialogic performance analysis was the overarching analytical approach of the different data sets. Data collection, analysis and interpretation were guided by principles of critical theories, indigenous methodologies and narrative inquiry. The findings indicate that healing psychosocial suffering in the post-conflict global South requires innovative approaches that critically address on-going psychosocial issues affecting the marginalized by giving them voice and working with them to integrate contextual healing techniques. This study suggests that healing psychosocial suffering through HLW is a consciousness-raising process by which participants gain voice, acquire new understanding of issues affecting them through the sharing of personal stories, and develop mutual support and humane identities. This development contributes to individual, group and community healing. Openness and willingness to share stories of brokenness in a trustful and supportive environment enhance HLW outcomes. The study contributes to theories of knowledge and healing practices in cross-cultural settings, and to critical interdisciplinary and transnational research.
Stereoselective Synthesis of Nitrogen Containing Compounds from Hydroxy Allylic Azides
Keywords: organic chemistry
azide chemistry
domino reaction
sigmatropic rearrangement
allylic azides

This thesis describes research conducted since September 2006 in Prof. Robert Batey’s laboratory. The thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter one presents a general introduction of domino reactions, sigmatropic rearrangements, and the allylic azide rearrangement. Several factors affecting the allylic azide rearrangement along with some respective examples are presented. Chapter two describes an efficient synthesis of azido unsaturated ester compounds using a microwave-assisted domino allylic azide / Johnson-Claisen rearrangement. The domino rearrangement reaction proceeds to give the azido ester compounds in good yield and excellent diastereoselectivity. The synthesis of vinyl epoxides and hydroxy allylic azides starting materials are also presented. In addition, other variants of Claisen rearrangements are briefly discussed. Chapter three describes a microwave-assisted domino allylic azide / Overman rearrangement process. The scope of the domino rearrangements, including an example involving an enantioenriched compound, is presented. The product of the domino rearrangements can be used as precursors to 1,2-vicinal diamines. Several functional group transformations and potential application of the product of the domino rearrangement are also described. Chapter four provides the synthesis of cis-2,5-disubstituted pyrrolidines from domino reduction / cyclization of γ-azido-α,β-unsaturated ketones. The overall process involves hydrogenation of the alkene and the azido group, followed by intramolecular cyclization and loss of H2O to form an imine, which is further reduced to give cis-2,5-disubstituted pyrrolidines. The reaction proceeds cleanly to give the products in high yield and with a very high diastereoselectivity ratio. In addition, the formation of pyrrolidinones via domino reduction / cyclication of γ-azido esters are also reported
Human B Cell Responses to Infection with Pathogenic and Commensal Neisseria Species
Keywords: neisseria
IgM memory
innate
B-1
commensal
CEACAM1
human
B cell
lactamica
gonorrhoeae
meningitidis

The Neisseria genus includes pathogens, Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ngo) and Neisseria meningitidis, as well as commensals. Ngo, the cause of gonorrhea, induces massive inflammation but a surprising lack of adaptive immune responses. We have observed that Ngo can inhibit both T cell activation and dendritic cell maturation through interaction with the host expressed co-inhibitory receptor carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 1 (CEACAM1). Therefore, I wondered whether B cells may also be affected in this manner. Herein, I examine primary human B cell responses to infection with Ngo, as well as the other Neisseria species. B cells infected with Ngo show no sign of inhibition, regardless of their ability to bind CEACAM1, instead responding to gonococci with robust activation and proliferation. There are distinct subsets of B cells found in the periphery and, intriguingly, the IgM memory B cell subset expand and produce polyreactive IgM in response to goncoccal infection. These cells are innate in function, producing low affinity, polyclonal IgM that is protective against bacterial and fungal dissemination. This effect was broadly specific for Neisseria sp., as B cell infection with all commensal Neisseria species examined induced innate B cell responses. Curiously, meningococcal strains avoid inducing the innate B cell responses, making it enticing to hypothesize that its avoidance of such an ancient immune response may contribute to its ability to cause disease in humans. Finally, I tested whether gonococcal Opa protein binding to CEACAM1 affects primary human B cell activation, and show that no inhibition was observed. This absence of co-inhibitory function of neisserial-bound CEACAM1 may reflect inherent differences between distinctive cell types. Combined, the results in this thesis contribute new insight regarding the poorly characterized human IgM memory B cells, as well as to the function of CEACAM1 in lymphocytes.
Contextualizing Value: Market Stories in Mid-Victorian Periodicals
Keywords: Victorian Literature

This dissertation examines the modes, means, and merit of the literary production of short stories in London periodicals between 1850 and 1870. Shorter forms were derided by contemporary critics, dismissed on the assumption that quantity equals quality, yet popular and respectable novelists, namely Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Elizabeth Gaskell and Margaret Oliphant, were writing and printing them. Navigating discourses about literature and writing to delineate and ascertain the implications of the contextual position of certain short stories, this study characterizes a previously unexamined genre, here called the Market Story. Defined by their relationship to a publishing industry that was actively creating a space for, demanding, and disseminating texts based on their potential to generate sales figures, draw attention to a particular organ, author, or publisher, or gather and hold a captive audience, Market Stories indicate their authors’ self-aware commentary on the relativity of literary and generic value, and ultimately constitute a discourse on value. Following an outline of the historical field in which market stories were produced, Chapter One reads Trollope’s six “Editor’s Tales” as intensely comic and interrogative of extant conceptions of cultural and literary value; Trollope glories in the exposure and dismantling of seemingly-reliable externality. Chapter Two considers “Somebody’s Luggage” as Dickens’s argument for the contrivance of literary genre insofar as it constructs an exaggerated system of exchanges whereby the short story generates unprecedented income. Chapter Three moves to Gaskell’s “Cranford Papers” to argue that their diligent tracing of the careful consumption of small wholes and cultivation of irregular habits constitutes an insistence on the plurality of appropriate models of consumption and value. Shifting the discussion from content to form, Gaskell’s text throws the shape of the market story into relief. Finally, Chapter Four considers Oliphant’s “Dinglefield Stories” as a figurative argument that generic and literary value is always inextricably contextualized. As literary works and cultural products, these stories embody the tensions between the utilitarian and the ‘purely’ artistic that underwrote much nineteenth-century discussion of art and culture, and these authors were unmistakably aware of the external conditions enabling and affecting the production and valuation of literary work.
Une race qui ne sait pas mourir: une analyse de la race dans plusieurs textes littéraires québécois
Keywords: Quebec Literature
Women's Studies
Critical Race Theory
Queer Theory
Gender Studies
Masculinities
The Durham Report
L’appel de la race, Lionel Groulx
Menaud, maître-draveur, Félix-Antoine Savard
Ashini, Yves Thériault
Speak White, Michèle Lalonde
Nègres blancs d’Amérique, Pierre Vallières
Comment faire l’amour avec un Nègre sans se fatiguer, Je suis un écrivain japonais, Dany Laferrière
Quatre mille marches, Ying Chen

Cette thèse présente une étude de la représentation de la race et son rôle dans la formation des discours littéraires et identitaires au Québec. À partir de la phrase célèbre de Félix-Antoine Savard, « une race qui ne sait pas mourir », jusqu’au roman de l’écrivain haïtien Dany Laferrière, Je suis un écrivain japonais, en passant par L’appel de la race de Lionel Groulx, sans oublier les propos sanglants de Michèle Lalonde dans Speak White et ceux de Pierre Vallières dans Nègres blancs d’Amérique, la littérature canadienne-française et québécoise est hantée par la question de la race. C’est précisément à cause de la présence persistante, souvent angoissante, du concept que je me propose d’en analyser les modalités discursives et les significations dans des textes écrits à divers moments clés entre 1839 et 2008: le rapport de Lord Durham (1839); L’appel de la race (1922) de Lionel Groulx; Menaud, maître-draveur (1937) de Félix-Antoine Savard; Ashini (1960) d’Yves Thériault; Speak White (1974) de Michèle Lalonde; Nègres blancs d’Amérique (1972) de Pierre Vallières; Comment faire l’amour avec un Nègre sans se fatiguer (1985) et Je suis un écrivain japonais (2008) de Dany Laferrière; et Quatre mille marches (2004) de Ying Chen. Pour ce faire, cette thèse se situe dans un cadre théorique interdisciplinaire qui intègre la théorie critique de la race, le féminisme et la théorie queer.
The History of International Food Safety Standards and the Codex alimentarius (1955-1995)
Keywords: food safety
standards
Codex alimentarius
World Health Organization
WHO
Food and Agriculture Organization
FAO
United Nations
European Economic Community
Codex europaeus
international public health
globalization
pesticide residues
food additives
microbial hygiene
International Commission for the Microbial Specifications for Foods
ICMSF

Following the Second World War, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) teamed up to construct an international Codex Alimentarius (or “food code”) in 1962. Inspired by the work of its European predecessor, the Codex Europaeus, these two UN agencies assembled teams of health professionals, government civil servants, medical and scientific experts to draft food standards. Once ratified, the standards were distributed to governments for voluntary adoption and implementation. By the mid-1990s, the World Trade Organization (WTO) identified the Codex as a key reference point for scientific food standards. The role of science within this highly political and economic organization poses interesting questions about the process of knowledge production and the scientific expertise underpinning the food standards. Standards were constructed and contested according to the Codex twin goals of: (1) protecting public health, and (2) facilitating trade. One recent criticism of Codex is that these two aims are opposed, or that one is given primacy over the other, which results in protectionism. Bearing these themes in mind, in this dissertation I examine the relationship between the scientific and the ‘social’ elements embodied by the Codex food standards since its inception after the Second World War. I argue that these attempts to reach scientific standards represent an example of coproduction– one in which the natural and social orders are produced alongside each other. What follows from this central claim is an attempt to characterize the pre-WTO years of the Codex through a case study approach. The narrative begins with a description of the predecessor regional group the Codex europaeus, and then proceeds to key areas affecting human health: 1) food additives, 2) food hygiene, and 3) pesticides residues.
Structural and Mechanistic Insights into RAF Kinase Regulation by the KSR/CNK/HYP Complex
Keywords: Protein Kinase
Signalling
Cancer
MAP kinase
RAF
KSR
RAS
ERK

The RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK pathway is the prototypical cellular signal transduction cascade and has been the focus of intense scrutiny over the last two decades. As a mitogenic pathway, its activation is a potent driver of cellular growth and survival, and its deregulation underlies many cancers. While RAS family GTPases have long been recognized as prolific human oncogenes, a landmark study in 2002 also established the RAF family kinase as a bona fide oncogene (Davies et al., 2002). Indeed, aberrant RAS-RAF signaling underlies nearly one-third of all human cancers (Wellbrock et al., 2004). Notably, mutations in RAF are found with astounding frequency in certain cancers (e.g. 70% of malignant melanomas) (Dhomen and Marais, 2007). These findings have identified intercepting aberrant RAF function as an ideal therapeutic target. RAF is a Ser/Thr protein kinase and its activity is strictly regulated by a core complex of at least three proteins, namely, KSR, CNK and HYP (Claperon and Therrien, 2007). The mechanism by which the KSR/CNK/HYP complex regulates RAF function remains enigmatic. In particular, the function of KSR in regulating RAF activity is highly controversial. The work described in this thesis was conducted with the aim of: i) understanding the interactions that underlie formation of the KSR/CNK/HYP complex, and ii) elucidating the mechanism by which the complex regulates RAF function. I have attempted to accomplish these aims using a combination of structural biology, biochemistry and cell biology approaches. I begin by presenting the structure of the SAM domain mediated interaction between CNK and HYP. I describe a model for how the CNK/HYP interaction in turn serves to recruit KSR to form the higher-order KSR/CNK/HYP complex. Subsequently, I describe the allosteric mechanism by which KSR controls RAF activation via the formation of specific side-to-side kinase domain heterodimers of KSR and RAF. Lastly, I describe a potential mechanism by which RAS directly mediates the attainment of the side-to-side dimer configuration of RAF through its own ability to form dimers. The acquisition of the side-to-side dimer configuration is essential for aberrant RAF signaling in cancers, suggesting future RAF inhibition strategies could be aimed at preventing dimer formation.
Gap Junctions and Stomatins Dictate Directional Movement in Caenorhabditis elegans
Keywords: Locomotion
Gap Junctions
Neural Circuits
C. elegans

How behaviors are generated by neural circuits is one of the central questions in neurobiology. Under standard culture conditions, Caenorhabditis elegans travel by propagating sinusoidal waves, moving primarily forward, punctuated by brief runs of backing. How these behaviors are generated and altered is not well understood. Using a combination of behavioral analyses and neuronal imaging, I reveal that an activity imbalance between cholinergic A- and B-motoneurons is the key determinant of directional locomotion. Furthermore, heterotypic gap junctions that couple command interneurons and motoneurons of the backward motor circuit, mediated by innexins UNC-7 in AVA and UNC-9 in A-motoneurons, respectively, establish the B>A activity pattern required for forward movement. Loss of this coupling results in both the hyperactivation of AVA backward interneurons revealing the unregulated, endogenous activity of A-motoneurons. With equal A-motoneuron activity levels as B-motoneurons, innexin mutant animals exhibit irregular body bending (kinking) instead of executing forward motion, as well as increased backing. Through a genetic screen, I identified two stomatin-like proteins as regulators of innexin UNC-9 activity that affect C. elegans’ directional movement. The loss of function of stomatin-like unc-1 leads to the same kinker phenotype as unc-7 or unc-9 mutants. Like UNC-9, UNC-1 functions primarily in the A-motoneurons to allow forward motion, suggesting that UNC-1 is required for effective UNC-7-UNC-9 coupling between AVA and A-motoneurons. Dominant mutations in UNC-1, and another stomatin-like protein STO-6, exhibit genetic interactions with these innexin mutants. These mutations partially restore the forward movement of unc-7 mutants, in an UNC-9-dependent manner, indicating that they regulate UNC-9 channel activity in motoneurons to re-establish the B>A-motoneuron activity pattern in the absence of heterotypic gap junctions between interneurons and motoneurons. These studies describe a role of gap junctions as regulators of circuit dynamics by establishing an imbalanced motoneuron activity pattern that favors forward motion, which can be modulated by upper layer inputs. This study also identifies stomatin-like regulators of innexin hemichannel and gap junction function. Future work will focus on understanding mechanisms through which these stomatins regulate the activity of specific innexin channels in C. elegans motoneurons, as well as their contribution to the dynamic output of the C. elegans motor circuit.
Le sublime dans les contes et nouvelles de Mérimée, Barbey d'Aurevilly et Villiers de l'Isle-Adam
Keywords: Sublime
Littérature française
XIXe siècle
Rhétorique
Poétique
Esthétique

Si le sublime occupe une place privilégiée au sein de la réflexion philosophique, esthétique et littéraire, rares sont les travaux qui y sont consacrés pour les œuvres de la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle. C’est pour tenter de pallier ce manque que cette thèse analyse le sublime dans les contes et nouvelles de Mérimée, Barbey d’Aurevilly et Villiers de l’Isle-Adam. En nous appuyant sur la réflexion du sublime amorcée par Longin et prolongée notamment par Burke, Kant, Schiller ou encore Hugo, il s’agit de définir son évolution et surtout sa spécificité en cette période de crise profonde, où le sublime apparaît comme une réponse à la conquête d’autonomie de la Littérature par rapport à la science et à la question de sa finalité. Dans un premier temps, la thèse aborde la question du sublime d’un point de vue rhétorique. Nous examinons ainsi la capacité du langage à exprimer et à représenter le sublime en oscillant entre une rhétorique de l’effet, fondée sur l’expressivité du langage dans la mise en scène des conteurs et l’organisation rhétorique de la narration, un questionnement sur le tragique et enfin une rhétorique de l’ineffable, puisque le sublime ressort à bien des égards d’un imprésentable. Dans un deuxième temps, le sublime est analysé en tant que poétique fondée sur un dispositif paroxystique et oxymorique. Enfin il est envisagé en tant que véritable acte esthétique où il tend à rejoindre le concept de sublimation et à se faire, notamment par une expérience du mal, le lieu non seulement d’une connaissance, d’une croyance, mais surtout d’une métamorphose profonde aussi bien de l’homme que de la littérature elle-même, qui y trouve un moyen de lutter contre les valeurs de la modernité tout en fondant une écriture résolument moderne.
An Ear for an Eye: Greek Tragedy on Radio
Keywords: radio
reception
form
drama
ancient
modern
audiences
adaptation
CBC
BBC

An Ear for an Eye: Greek Tragedy on Radio examines the dramaturgical principles involved in the adaptation of Greek tragedies for production as radio dramas by considering the classical dramatic form’s representational ability through purely oral means and the effects of dramaturgical interventions. The inherent orality of these tragedies and Aristotle’s suggested limitation of spectacle (opsis) appears to make them eminently suitable for radio, a medium in which the visual dimension of plays is relegated entirely to the imagination through the agency of sound. Utilizing productions from Canadian and British national radio (where classical adaptations are both culturally mandated and technically practical) from the height of radio’s golden age to the present, this study demonstrates how producers adapted to the unique formal properties of radio. The appendices include annotated, chronological lists of 154 CBC and BBC productions that were identified in the course of research, providing a significant resource for future investigators. The dissertation first examines the proximate forces which shaped radio dramaturgy and radio listeners. Situating the emergence of radio in the context of modernity, Chapter One elucidates how audiences responded to radio’s return to orality within a visually-oriented culture. Chapter Two then analyses the specific perceptual and imaginative activity of individuals, considering how audiences experience acoustic space. I describe how the audience’s central position in the reception of radio drama is integral to the completion of the dramatic frame of radio. The second part of this dissertation addresses radiophonic dramaturgy and issues in representation. In Chapter Three, the didactic and nationalistic impetus for the adaptation of classics as radio plays is considered and the principles of radio adaptation are outlined. The final two chapters examine the formal properties of productions in adaptation through case studies to illustrate where the play’s inherent orality allows for ease in adaptation or where greater dramaturgical intervention is required. Chapter Four examines the construction of dramatic figures, music and song, the use of paratheatrical materials, and narrative strategies for the representation of action, space, and time. Chapter Five examines productions where greater dramaturgical intervention and innovation is in evidence, including the manipulation of perspective (in the CBC’s 2001 Medea), the use of music to modernize setting (in the 1998 CBC-BBC co-production of The Trojan Women), the use of experimental montage (in the BBC’s 1976 Ag), the introduction of flashback sequences (in the CBC’s 1987 Antigone), and solutions to the problem of what I term “dramaturgical erasure” (the inadvertent removal of silent figures from the perspectival field).