VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Profile of Neuronal Excitability in Epilepsy and Seizure
Keywords: epilepsy
optogenetics
propagation
seizure
two photon imaging

Seizures are classically described as an epiphenomenon of neuronal hyperexcitabil- ity and hypersynchronicity across brain regions. However, studies of the neurophysi- ological events during the propagation of seizure have revealed a complex transition from a strongly inhibited state of the seizure penumbra to an intensely excitatory state within the seizure core. To better understand the neurobiological mechanisms involved in seizure propagation, it is necessary to characterise a profile of excitability in the seizure penumbra. In this thesis, I used calcium imaging and optogenetics to functionally profile the activation of inhibition relative to seizure propagation in an acute model of focal-onset epilepsy in vivo. First, I find that the activation of in- hibitory neurons during seizure propagation is highly-local to the seizure wavefront. Then, I describe a novel approach of measuring neuronal excitability by combining calcium imaging and optogenetics (all-optical interrogation). This uniquely allows me to perform real-time, in vivo investigations of excitability of neurons distal to the focal-epileptic site. In the acutely epileptic state, the brain becomes susceptible to large synchronous inputs, but in fact single-cell excitability is maintained at baseline levels. During seizure propagation, there is hypoexcitability of neurons only near the seizure wavefront, and not at the larger scale in the seizure penumbra. These experiments provide the first direct, in vivo evidence of the precise spatial scale over which single-cell neuronal excitability evolves during seizure propagation. These re- sults suggest a refined model of seizure propagation based on local inhibition, which advances upon the previous model based on widescale inhibition during seizure.
Canadian Chinese Graduate Student Occupational Therapist Professional Identities
Keywords: Chinese
Culture
graduate students
occupational therapy
Professional identities
Student occupational therapists

Occupational therapy (OT) as a field in China and Hong Kong is very different from Western countries like Canada. Not only is the field itself growing at a different pace but the cultural understanding of the role of OT practice also differs. This thesis explores the experiences of five Chinese graduate occupational therapy students, at the halfway point of their Master of OT (M.Sc.OT) programs in Ontario. Specifically, the influences of culture on their understanding of coursework, theories, interactions with peers, faculty, and clients are explored to understand how culture influences their professional identities as student occupational therapists. Seidman’s (2013) three-interview approach is utilized to gather rich data from participants through three separate interviews. Results reveal program and cultural factors that influence participants’ professional identities as student occupational therapists. Program factors include the geographical location of the university, the programs’ teaching philosophy, professional development and mentorship, placement requirements, catchment areas, and unique placement experiences. Cultural factors include the student’s Chinese values and views on health, disability and independence, relationship with preceptors and professors, and the understanding of the scope of occupational therapy. Overall, students had some conflicting views on OT theories which are predominantly westernized, difficulties relating to peers who are not Chinese, and conflicting views on building rapport with professors and preceptors during placements. There were not clear differences between participants from Hong Kong and China related to how long participants had lived in Canada before starting the M.Sc.OT. Despite these conflicting views and challenges, participants are optimistic about their future job prospects. Program level implications include the continued efforts of faculty and educators to incorporate culturally diverse information into case studies, tailoring mentorship programs, and increasing representation of Chinese students, faculty, and preceptors into the program. Research implications include the need for both quantitative and qualitative research studies with a larger population to further understand the cultural influences on graduate Chinese occupational therapy students.
Genetic and Epigenetic Factors Influencing Population Variability of Allele-Specific Expression
Keywords: aging
allele-specific-expression
environment
genetic regulation
population genetics

There is a longstanding investigation in human genetics surrounding how individuals with the same genotype display highly variable phenotypes. The impact of gene expression variability is critical for phenotypic variation. Allele-specific expression (ASE) is the preferential expression of one haplotype in an individual. While ASE is associated with several phenotypes and diseases, it remains unknown what genomic and epigenetic factors contribute to variability in ASE. This thesis explores factors contributing to ASE variation, characterized into three categories: population demographics, environment, and age. First, I revealed how population demographics, through effective population size, impact ASE at two levels: i) across populations based on evolutionary histories, and ii) across the genome through recombination and its interaction with natural selection. I demonstrated that recombination rate modulates ASE genome wide, and that loci in regions of high recombination are most efficient at adjusting ASE to protect from harmful mutations. I also demonstrated that genetic ancestry, based on population histories such as recent bottlenecks, contribute to the strength of ASE regulation. Next, I demonstrated that environmental modifiers contribute to ASE regulation, both on a geographic scale, in addition to extrinsic lifestyle factors. I determined differences between French-Canadian individuals based on their local environment, for those whose geographic location is different from their genetic ancestry. I explored medication usage as an extrinsic factor and demonstrated that certain medications are significantly associated with increases in overall levels of ASE. I also detected genes that have significantly different levels of ASE in medicated responders versus non-responders. Lastly, I demonstrated that ASE increases with age in cell types involved in adaptive immunity. I showed that healthy agers have larger increases in ASE as they age, specifically in genes involved in immune response. I also demonstrated that decreases in ASE are associated with cardiometabolic traits such as hypertension and type 2 diabetes. This thesis demonstrates genetic and epigenetic factors contributing to ASE variability, in healthy and disease contexts. My research uncovers scenarios where ASE can act as a protective mechanism, which may be playing a role in healthy aging, and opens the potential for utilizing ASE methodologies in precision medicine approaches for chronic diseases.
Encoded Bodies: An Analysis of Women of the Hispanic Caribbean Diaspora Performing Identity
Keywords: Caribbean
diaspora
latina
migration
performance
theatre

The body houses knowledge of lived experiences and functions as an apparatus of storytelling. As women have long been associated in Western culture with the body, this study discusses performances that consider the concrete daily and quotidian experience as reference points. This project explores the representations of ciswomen that inhabit the Hispanic Caribbean diaspora and have had contact with North America who discuss what it means to create, to live and to survive in a culture with hierarchical understandings of identity. I inquire the ways they use their bodies to re/animate and re/insert stories into the collective consciousness, stories ranging from diaspora and migration, abuses of power by regimes and/or governments, racial hierarchies, and simply everyday life. This thesis features works from: María I. Fornés, Alina Troyano, Josefina Báez, Elizabeth Ovalle, Carmen Rivera, Coco Fusco, and Carmen Peláez and considers the following questions: 1) What is performance? 2) How does the body communicate? 3) What are the advantages and disadvantages of an ephemeral medium? 4) What is the role of the audience in these scripted enactments? Targeting liminality, identity, and community, I inquire how performance interacts with the hybrid space of its subjects, exploring embodied language and its contributions to the textual significance of lived experiences of dramatists who belong to countries with distinct colonial histories. I probe the mechanisms which performance uses to shape, parody or interrogate societal norms with examples of opposing subjectivity. This investigation discovers how these texts represent and create community by analyzing the role of the spectator, family, and the wider collective of which these productions are in dialogue. As orality has existed in the Caribbean as a form of intelligence creating countercultures, I outline how these performances and the bodies of these artists exist in direct opposition to homogenous and monolithic understandings of identity. Although they perform fictionalized and constructed narratives, the dramatists of this study often represent autobiographical accounts and thus their body has often lived through the script. The analysis of these narratives is crucial as everyday lived conditions of diaspora and exile are often perceived as unworthy of research.
Essays in Climate Change and Financial Economics
Keywords: climate finance
climate risk
financial stability
financial system
investors
risk management

This thesis contains three papers on how the financial market adjusts to information changes.As economic damages from hurricanes rise due to climate change, banks will need to invest internally to update their risk management framework. Chapter 1 tests whether financial distress affects a bank’s ability to adapt to emerging risks. Distressed banks are 6 percentage points more likely to accept loans exposed to hurricane risk and charge 65 basis points less for risky loans. This increase in risk taking is likely due to an under-investment in assessing hurricane risk, since results are stronger for financially constrained banks. Results are unlikely due to moral hazard, since distressed banks reduce exposure to conventional risks, such as borrower income risk. Financial distress affects a bank’s ability to adapt to emerging risks. Chapter 2 studies the dynamic effect of investors responding to climate risk, using environmental lawsuits as a litigation risk shock. Investors are aware of climate litigation risk and share prices immediately drop by 2% for defendants and 6% for competitors in the same industry. ESG investors exit firms that are exposed to litigation risk and sell approximately 55,000 shares of competitor firms. The net effect of this investor turnover results in a decrease in environmentally-themed shareholder proposals by around 2% for defendants and 1% for competitors. Overall, an increase in climate risk exposure within an industry decreases public environmental engagement. Finally, Chapter 3, based off joint work with Peter Cziraki, Jasmin Gider and Jordi Mondria, studies the dynamics of local investors’ information advantage using local newspaper closures and the trades of local and nonlocal investors. Following the closure of a newspaper, investors are 10 percentage points less likely than nonlocals to trade the shares of firms in the same zip-code, and reduce the share of their local holdings by 8 percentage points. Local investors also make lower risk-adjusted returns on their stock purchases and sales up to 6 months following a local newspaper closure. Our results suggest that local journalism is an important source of local investors’ information advantage, and, therefore, the home bias phenomenon.
A Musical Chemistry: The Collaboration Between the Pianist/Composer Heather Schmidt and the Cellist Shauna Rolston
Keywords: Cello and Piano Duo Music
Cello Music
Cello Music of 21st Century
Heather Schmidt
Music and Collaboration
Shauna Rolston

Abstract This dissertation consists of an in-depth study of the relationship between the cellist, Shauna Rolston (b. 1967), and the composer and pianist, Heather Schmidt (b. 1974). The heart of the thesis consists of four case studies of works by Schmidt that were written for Rolston: Concerto for cello and orchestra (1998), a three-movement work for cello and orchestra. Rolston premiered and recorded this work. Icicles of Fire, a two-movement piece for cello and piano (2003) that was written for a tour of Iceland by Schmidt and Rolston. This piece was recorded by them on the CD Icicles of Fire (2013), which features three works for cello and piano by Schmidt. Synchronicity for cello and piano was composed in 2007 on commission for the Redstar Films documentary Synchronicity. This 2008 performance film features Rolston and Schmidt and was made for the television network BRAVO. stone leaf shell skin is a work for three dancers, synthesizer, and cello (2014). This composition was created for Peggy Baker Dance Projects and was premiered by Rolston. Schmidt and Rolston worked together closely on these pieces and brought the imagery of their shared interpretations to life. Interviews with Schmidt and Rolston clarify their biography, the role of the performer and the composer in bringing new works to life, and the nature of their collaboration and relationship.
The Application of Cell Fusion to Engineer Clinically Relevant Cells for Therapy
Keywords: cell fusion
cell therapy
pluripotent stem cell

Cell fusion plays a central role in tissue development and regeneration at every stage of human life. By combining properties from multiple cells together, cell fusion alters cell fate, developmental potential, and self-renewal capacity. Manipulating cell fusion to create new cells in vitro has led to seminal breakthroughs in research including the generation of hybridomas and somatic cell reprogramming. We hypothesize that cell fusion can be harnessed to generate hybrid cells with clinical potential. To investigate this novel application of cell fusion, we studied hybrid cells derived from fusion of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). We designed a new “one-way” fusion selection strategy that expands a small repertoire of existing methods of selection. Using this strategy, we showed that mouse PSCs spontaneously fused into hybrid cells that remained phenotypically and functionally pluripotent. Mouse hybrid PSCs demonstrated remarkable chromosomal stability, remaining tetraploid after extensive time in culture. Human hybrid PSCs were effectively isolated with the addition of polyethylene glycol. Despite exhibiting some loss of chromosomes after long-term culture, human hybrid cells could differentiate efficiently into clinically relevant cell types in vitro. Here, we show that we can reliably derive stem cell lines that are a hybrid of two cells and retain the clinical potential of PSCs. Building on these findings, we explored the use of cell fusion to combine or transfer desired genetic modifications from parental cells into human hybrid cells. Specifically, we demonstrated that human hybrid cells inherited a functional FailSafe kill-switch system that allows us to eliminate cells that may become cancerous. As chromosomal stability has been linked to cancer, inheritance of FailSafe is crucial for the safety of hybrid cell-derived therapies. To expand the clinical relevance of this cell fusion application, we demonstrated that hybrid cells inherit and maintain expression of an anti-VEGF biologic that has shown efficacy in treating age-related macular degeneration. In the future, cell fusion could be used to combine other engineered genetic modifications and endogenous properties to create new cells for clinical applications.
(Social) Pooling in Service, Capacity, and Demand
Keywords: Bundle
Demand Estimation
Fairness
Network Games
potty parity
Sharing Economy

This manuscript examines three operational problems in pooling resources and productions in distinct contexts. Firstly, we delve into pooling restroom units as a response to the prevalent issue of potty imparity. The inequitable restroom access has mainly affected women and LGBTQ+ people in recent years. The proposal of converting gender-segregated restrooms into all-unisex restrooms might seem convincing due to the pooling of resources, ensuring fairness by having everyone wait in the same line. However, through an analytical framework that considers factors like wait time, users' gender identities, safety concerns in how users choose which restroom to join, and various fairness criteria, including totalitarian efficiency, Rawlsian, and distributive fairness, we illustrate that this intuition does not hold. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a more efficient and equitable solution involves converting some men's restrooms into unisex facilities, combining all three types of restrooms. This showcases that a certain level of flexibility outperforms a fully flexible system. Secondly, we investigate the decentralized pooling of resources within a social network inspired by platforms that facilitate sharing items like leftover food and idle tools. These platforms have recently gained popularity because it is perceived that they can reduce waste by allowing people to rely on borrowing items from their sharing network rather than owning all items. We construct a model of newsvendors over a social network to explore this concept. Newsvendors have limited information about the network structure and only know their number of connections, i.e., degree. We model sharing activity among newsvendors based on the amount and frequency of exchanging leftover items after they satisfy their own demand. We define two types of social networks: acquaintance networks and friendship networks. Our analysis showcases the degree of free-riding among newsvendors based on their network degree for these two types of social networks. Additionally, we examine the impact of sharing network expansion on these platforms. Interestingly, we show that as the sharing network becomes more connected, the overall stocking levels of newsvendors increase in a friendship network for certain types of products. Lastly, we tackle the demand estimation challenge using sales data from companies selling product bundles. Classic methods without considering the bundle promotion, such as customer choice models, can not solve this problem because they assume customer valuation independence. Our study employs a utility model for customer choices and aims to identify a joint demand distribution that optimally aligns with sales data. The Expectation-Maximization algorithm is employed to recover the estimation parameters. We demonstrate the conditions under which the problem is identifiable and establish the algorithm's convergence rate. We then assess the algorithm's effectiveness using a JD.com dataset, highlighting the efficacy of our approach.
Coagulation/Flocculation-Ultrafiltration Optimization in Drinking Water Treatment
Keywords: Coagulation
Floc
Flocculation
Fouling
Membranes
Ultrafiltration

Coagulation/flocculation is applied prior to ultrafiltration (UF) to reduce fouling and increase natural organic matter (NOM) removal. A lack of knowledge exists regarding the selection of optimal conditions to satisfy these treatment objectives. The present research includes three studies which provide guidance for the design and operation of coagulation/flocculation-UF by: i) development of a bench-scale approach for process evaluation, ii) elucidating impacts of coagulation mechanisms and coagulation/flocculation configurations on UF performance, and iii) evaluating the retention of microplastics (MPs) and release by cleaning during coagulation/flocculation-UF treatment. Bench-scale continuous-flow systems allow evaluation of coagulation/flocculation-UF over consecutive permeation cycles, but require high flowrates to achieve hydraulic retention times (HRTs) typical of full-scale rapid mixing. To reduce flowrates, the present research evaluated a typical 2 min HRT vs. 20 min in terms of impacts on particle properties and UF performance; 20 min represents HRTs previously considered during bench-scale investigations. Increases in particle size/concentration and reduced UF fouling resistance at a 20 min HRT, suggest that HRTs equivalent to those typically applied during full-scale rapid mixing must be considered during bench-scale studies in order to produce results relevant to full-scale. In the subsequent study, previous knowledge regarding alum dosages and pH values which promote specific coagulation mechanisms was utilized as a framework to select coagulation conditions applied during coagulation/flocculation-UF. In cases where fouling control is required, conditions that promote adsorption destabilization are optimal, whereas in cases where NOM removal is required, conditions that promote sweep are optimal. Inclusion of flocculation (vs. coagulation alone) increased NOM removal while reducing irreversible fouling resistance, despite increased NOM retention by the membrane. In the final study, when compared to raw water, alum addition increased hydraulically irreversible accumulation of MPs on the membrane from 50% to 80% of those present in UF feed water. Chemical cleaning released 20% to 60% of MPs which had accumulated on the membrane during previous permeation cycles. While positive correlations were observed between the release of MPs and foulants, the release of MPs was consistently lower. Accumulation of MPs on the membrane may increase UF fouling over extended operating periods.