VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Regenerating Political Animals
Keywords: Buffon
French Revolution
Natural Science
Palingenesis
Regeneration
Rousseau

Regenerating Political Animals situates the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789) and the French Revolution in the theological natural science and political theory of the eighteenth century. Beginning with a “counter-revolutionary” account of the philosophy of this period—which situated the “return to nature” and assertion of natural right in atheistic and materialist philosophy—this thesis argues that the more influential and dominant account of “nature” in this period was one which asserted the uniqueness of the human being through the “spirituality of his soul,” and his capacity to perfect and regenerate himself through regenerating his moral and political conditions. Rooted in the natural theology of Georges-Louis LeClerc Comte de Buffon and Charles Bonnet, the “perfectible” human being also served as the Archimedean point of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s philosophy. These three thinkers are the focal points of the thesis, which culminates in the argument that what was born in Revolutionary France was a “new man” —l’homme régénéré—and a new conception of human nature that still courses through our contemporary conception of human rights, and of the human being. Rights are still grounded in a natural theology that has faith that a future possible world will better accord with nature; and we, as regenerative political animals, are the self-regenerative agents of the transformation of the world.
Race, Empire and Inherited Histories: Readings of Kafka, Schnitzler and Heyse
Keywords: Biopolitics
Colonialism
Gender Studies
German Cultural History
Race
South Asia

My dissertation examines the discourses of empire during the shift from aesthetic to biopolitical ways of reading race, which influenced nineteenth and twentieth century German language writings. Seemingly disparate novellas from Paul Heyse and Arthur Schnitzler and a short story from Franz Kafka serve to illustrate how race was locally defined through the narrative of inherited histories in the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. â Inherited historiesâ is a term which privileges heredity, race and kinship networks as sites to study empire during a period when national and linguistic terms of defining bodies were different. In collocation, the first historical exploration of German and Austrian family business networks in colonial Ceylon and an autobiography from John George Hagenbeck show how views on race were globally ordered through colonialism but also blurred in order to accommodate trade. Additional materials such as postcards, photographs and stagings of ethnographic exhibits further inform the unstable constructions of race in the through kinship networks and heredity. There are three key contributions this dissertation makes to race, sexuality and colonial studies. The first section shows how the German and Austro-Hungarian Empire did not require formal colonies, comparable to the British or French regimes, to own businesses in colonial Ceylon. Transimperial family business connections were preferred for sharing resources, infrastructure, and labour as Ceylonese-German impresario Hagenbeck recounts in his writings. When he assembled, managed and travelled with his South Asian ethnographic exhibitions to various European cities, Hagenbeck took great care to play the role of white German citizen, hiding his racialized identity and revealing how race defined global mobility. The second section discusses what kinds of racial and sexual anxieties began to surface as ethnographic exhibitions moved through the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. The presence of a racialized child in Vienna provokes fears about European and African sexuality whereas the plight of an unwed mother and son residing in Munich uncovers black family genealogies in European cities going back to the global slave trade. Comparing literary texts in both empires exposes contradictions in racial discourse and a need for nuance readings of racial vocabulary and transnational history. The third section demonstrates how the German Empire utilized alcohol, a lucrative consumer commodity, as a way to influence the behavior of labourers at home and in the colonies. Returning to the site of Hagenbeckâ s South Asian ethnographic exhibitions illustrates how performers, made drunk and put on exhibit, shaped perceptions of racialized people.
A Developmental Cascade Model of Neurocognitive Functioning: Risk, Resilience, and Implications for Children's Mental Health
Keywords: biomedical risk
cumulative risk
Developmental cascade
Executive function
protective influences
Theory of mind

Theory of Mind (ToM) and executive functioning (EF) are two neurocognitive abilities that develop rapidly over the preschool period. ToM and EF are highly interrelated, both behaviourally and neurologically, and are predictive of a host of psychosocial outcomes across the lifespan. This dissertation delineates a developmental cascade model of ToM and EF in which key social-cognitive skills in the second year of life are examined as precursors to ToM and EF through their impact on children's nascent language skills. Further, both cumulative social disadvantage and biomedical risk are investigated as risk factors that increase vulnerability to cognitive morbidity over the early years. Finally, it is suggested that these social and biomedical risks are non-deterministic, and that positive postnatal socialization experiences with caregivers may protect children against their deleterious influence. The implications for prevention and intervention will be discussed with the overarching suggestion that early programming may help to mitigate the negative cascading effects of poor early adaptation on later psychosocial health and development.
The Utility of Measuring Disability, Functioning and Other Factors when Assessing Mental Health in both the General Population and a Patient Population that Seeks Treatment at a Psychiatric Emergency Department
Keywords: Disability
Emergency medicine
Functioning
Mental Health
Psychological distress

The social, economic and health burdens of mental and behavioural disorders are large, and although treatment rates for such disorders are low, the use of emergency departments for mental and behavioural disorders is high. Accordingly, this thesis compares the use of disability, functioning, non-specific psychological distress and diagnosis to characterize mental and behavioural disorders. Furthermore, this thesis examines if predisposing and levels of mental illness factors are correlated to baseline and subsequent emergency department visits. The general population surveys of the 2011, 2012 and 2013 Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Monitors were used as a general population sample of Ontario adults. Data from patients were obtained by time-based sampling from August 2011 to February 2012 in the emergency department of CAMH (a psychiatric hospital that provides services to adults); the CAMH emergency department database was used to track subsequent emergency department visits. Disability and functioning were measured using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule, and non-specific psychological distress was measured using the General Health Questionnaire. Data from the CAMH Monitors indicated that although disability, functioning and non-specific psychological distress are correlated (except for people with somatic illnesses), all such measures are needed to accurately describe mental health. Among patients in the psychiatric emergency department, differences in disability and functioning were not significant across diagnoses; however, a substantial heterogeneity in disability and functioning was observed within diagnoses. Furthermore, using data from patients in the psychiatric emergency department, we observed that the number of previous visits, the WHODAS scores, and employment status were predictors of psychiatric emergency department recidivism. Based on the results of this study, it is clear that measures of disability, functioning and non-specific psychological distress may be needed to adequately describe the mental health of the general population. Furthermore, in psychiatric as well as in general hospital emergency departments, data on disability and functioning and on the number of previous visits if collected in addition to diagnosis data for patients with mental and behavioural disorders could lead to more effective triaging of these patients, alignment with the appropriate intensity of resources, and prediction of recidivism.
First Winter
Keywords: Orchestra
Symphonic Poem
Tone Poem

Thesis (orchestral composition) Duration: 9 minutes Instrumentation: 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, 2 percussion, harp, strings ABSTRACT The concept of this single-movement, 9-minute, tone poem is essentially the dichotomy of ‘nature’ and ‘humankind’, placed in the context of the age when the very first humans set foot on an untouched Canadian landscape, more than 12,000 years ago. The music does not seek to be programmatic, culturally or historically-specific in any way. Nor is the dichotomy of nature and humankind presented as an adversarial one. Rather, the music aims to explore the various emotions that any human being might feel upon first discovering a new landscape, and eventually when having to mesh with this landscape. These might well include feelings of mystery, awe, trepidation, and excitement, to name a few. There are three main sections to this piece. The first (until b.41) primarily aims to evoke an untouched natural, wintery landscape. The proto-melody, that begins at b.41 and develops quickly, signals the first motivations of humankind. The 4-chord chorale at b.141 heralds the final section, which signals the first dawn of spring, and a general sense of optimism. There are a select few deliberate examples of tone-painting: bars 29-32 depict a tree branch collapsing under the weight of accumulating snow, and bars 102-121 are inspired by birds in flight. At the very end, there remains the dichotomy of nature’s constancy and humankind’s footprint. This particular piece marks a stark departure from my usual compositional style, which is typically explicit in its explorations of the boundaries between cultures, and between composition and improvisation. The purpose of this thesis has been to set aside my usual preoccupations with rhythm and melody to explore instead a more textural world of shifting colours and emotions, where rhythmic material is organic as opposed to constructed, and melodic material is - at most - fragmented.
Strategies for Investigating Intrathymic Human T-Cell Development Using Humanized Mouse Models
Keywords: Gene Therapy
Hematopoietic Stem Cell
Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Immunodeficient Mouse Models
T-Cell Development
T-Cell Progenitors

T-cells play a critical role in mediating antigen-specific and long-term adaptive immunity against viral and bacterial pathogens. The thymus provides a highly specialized microenvironment for the generation of T-cells. T-cell immunodeficiency, or T-lymphopenia, can result from perturbations to the thymic microenvironment due to aging or irradiation required for cancer treatment, or from infections that directly target T-cells. Previous work by our group supports the co-transplant of in vitro-generated T-cell progenitors (proT-cells) for accelerating long-term hematopoietic stem cell (HSC)-derived T-cell reconstitution during periods of T-lymphopenia after HSC transplantation. However, an understanding of the mechanisms underlying proT mediated effects within the thymus, as well as systems for the generation of clinically scalable numbers of proT-cells, remain to be fully elucidated. I revealed a potential mechanism by which receptor activator of NF-ÎşB (RANKL)-expressing proT-cells reorganize the stromal cell compartment within the thymus of NOD/SCID/Îłcnull (NSG), creating chemokine-rich niches that likely favor the recruitment of HSC-derived progenitors. Given that proT-cells have important implications for T-cell regeneration during periods of lymphopenia, I established a scalable differentiation system, which enabled >250-fold expansion of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs), for generation of increased quantities of proT-cells from a single HSPC donor. Both CD34+CD7+ and CD34-CD7+ proT-cells were generated using this strategy and while both subsets had thymus-engrafting capabilities, CD34+CD7+ cells exhibited higher thymic reconstitution. Building on the ability to manipulate HSPCs ex vivo, I also gene-modified HSPCs to express a secreted HIV entry inhibitor, soluble CD4 (sCD4). When tested in vivo, NSG hosts supported multi-lineage differentiation of human gene-modified HSPCs. Upon infection with HIV, I observed that humanized mice capable of secreting sCD4 demonstrated a reduction in viral load over time compared to control humanized mice. Taken together, this work demonstrates how large quantities of in vitro-generated proT-cells can be generated from ex vivo manipulated HSPCs for intrathymic repair and immunotherapeutic application.
A Pragmatic, Existentialist Approach to the Scientific Realism Debate
Keywords: History of Electrodynamics
Meta-Epistemology
Pragmatism
Scientific Realism
van Fraassen
Voluntarism

The debate between scientific realists and anti-realist empiricists is often treated as a question about whose position is true, or rationally preferable per se. This debate is widely considered to have been argued to a stalemate. I suggest we accept this stalemate and instead investigate when and whether scientific realism or anti-realist empiricism is more useful, and thereby rationally preferable, for certain individuals. I develop a methodological framework for doing this, then put it to use by investigating the practical benefits for working scientists of adopting one view over the other. This investigation is historical rather than philosophical, and therefore empirical rather than theoretical, focused around a case study of the way philosophical commitments influenced the scientific practice of late 19th c. electrodynamics researchers in positive and negative ways.
Influencing Behaviour to Improve Diabetes Self-Management: The Design and Evaluation of Mobile Health Applications
Keywords: Behaviour Change
Chronic Disease
Diabetes
Evaluation
Mobile Applications
Technology

The global increase in the prevalence of diabetes along with the cost associated with complications is challenging traditional approaches to healthcare delivery. While the pervasiveness of mobile phones has resulted in a consumer-driven market for diabetes-focused mobile health applications (apps), the majority of these apps are not evidence-based or rigorously evaluated. The main objectives of this research were to design, develop and evaluate, a consumer-focused, behavioural app for the self-management of diabetes. Following a knowledge translation framework, existing evidence around behaviour change theory, diabetes self-management, and mHealth was reviewed, and informed the conceptualization of the app features. The app was developed following user-centered design principles, where iterative feedback was obtained from patients throughout the process. The resulting intervention, bant2, was a consumer-focused app for the self-management of type 2 diabetes, focused on the contextualization of blood glucose readings with personalized lifestyle behaviours. While a 12-month randomized controlled trial (RCT) was designed to evaluate the impact of bant2 on clinical outcomes, findings from recent studies led to reconsider both the intervention the evaluation approach. The bant RCT (n=96) and
Operations Management of Crowdsourcing and Crowd Behavior
Keywords: Bundling theory
Crowdsourcing contest
Queueing theory
Strategic behavior
Subscription service
Tournament theory

This thesis studies problems in operations management about how to manage crowd behavior. In the first chapter, we investigate the crowdsourcing contest. In a crowdsourcing contest, innovation is outsourced by a firm to an open crowd that compete in generating innovative solutions. Since the projects typically consist of multiple attributes, we consider two alternative mechanisms. One is a simultaneous contest, where the best solution is chosen from the aggregate solutions simultaneously submitted by all contestants. The other is multiple sequential sub-contests, with each dedicated to one attribute and the contestants asked to build upon the best work in progress from previous sub-contests. The comparison of the expected \emph{best} performances in the two contests depends on the project's characteristics. In the second chapter, we study the revenue sharing policy in the subscription platform. Subscription providers such as Spotify, Netflix and OneGo (an all-you-can-fly subscription service provider) crowdsource products/services from many vendors and bundle them for the price of one. The collected subscription fees for the bundle then are allocated according to the realized contributions by each crowdsourced product. However, this allocation scheme may create incentive incompatibility for vendors, given their options of not joining the bundle. We examine the incentive compatibility of different parties under various bundling strategies. In the third chapter, we study the customer behavior with an online reservation system. Online reservation system allows customers to join a queue and virtually wait for service before arriving on site. For example, some platforms have been designed to collect the information of restaurants and show the real-time congestion levels (e.g., Nowait). We consider a model in which customers must travel from their location to the service area and incur a travelling cost. When customers intend to book service online, they are informed about their positions in the queue at the time of booking, so that they make their decision whether to join the queue taking into account both their travelling time and expected waiting time. With those customer behaviors, the optimal policy of a firm heavily relies on the conditions of the travelling and benefit of the service.
Revealing Phylogenetic Relationships and CRISPR-Cas Functionality in Legionella pneumophila using Next Generation Sequencing
Keywords: comparative genomics
CRISPR-Cas
Legionella
mobile genetic elements
next-generation sequencing

Legionella pneumophila is a Gram-negative intracellular pathogen of diverse protozoan hosts in the aquatic environment. The generalist evolutionary strategy enables the bacterium to also replicate within human macrophages and cause Legionnaires' disease. The environmental challenges that shape L. pneumophila evolution, however, had not been well characterized. In my first data chapter, I employed next generation sequencing approaches to reveal the evolutionary relationships of L. pneumophila isolates. Two laboratory lineages were domesticated from the clinical strain collected during the eponymous 1976 Philadelphia outbreak of Legionnaires' disease. Through whole genome sequencing, I reconstructed the phylogenies of these commonly used laboratory strains and showed that certain laboratory manipulations would render both desired and unexpected mutations. Next, I characterized the genomes of a 2005 Toronto outbreak strain and several local strains of a similar genotype. Using comparative genomics and plasmid transformation, I demonstrated for the first time an active genome defense role of CRISPR-Cas systems in L. pneumophila. CRISPR-Cas is known as an adaptive immune system in prokaryotes against mobile genetic elements. Using CRISPR-Cas as a window into the environmental challenges to the bacterium, I revealed that L. pneumophila employs multiple distinct CRISPR-Cas systems to protect against a recurrent invasive DNA termed LME-1. To combat the mutational escape of mobile genetic elements, CRISPR-Cas can rapidly renew its immunological arsenal by acquiring secondary spacers through a priming process. In my last data chapter, using deep sequencing approaches I characterized the molecular patterns of primed spacer acquisition in L. pneumophila type I-C CRISPR-Cas. My examination of spacer dynamics suggested a close interplay between CRISPR-Cas interference and adaptation machineries under priming. Taken together, my thesis provided insights into L. pneumophila adaptations in the laboratory and to the environmental life style that involves generalist parasitism and extensive horizontal gene transfers.
The Role of Environmental Cues in Gamma-Delta T-Cell Lineage Choice and Functional Programming
Keywords: cytokines
gamma delta t cell
IL-17
regenerative medicine
t cell development
t cells

The thymic landscape provides an array of spatially and temporally controlled cues that guide the development of functionally distinct effector immune cells. This thesis focuses on how signals downstream of the T cell receptor (TCR), Notch and critical cytokine receptors, dictate lineage choice between αβ and γδ T cells and, furthermore, can combine to play a role in programming γδ T cell effector function. The signal strength hypothesis posits that the quantity of the signal downstream of the TCR can direct lineage choice through the variable accumulation of inhibitor of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) binding 3 (Id3) proteins downstream of the TCR-induced ERK (extracellular signal-regulated kinase)- early growth response (Egr) pathway. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the differentiation outcome of Rag2-/- (Recombination-activating gene) DN3 (double negative 3) progenitors transduced to co-express both TCR and γδ TCRs, followed by co-culture with cells expressing a weak or strong binding γδ TCR ligand in the presence or absence of Notch ligands. In the presence of Notch and weak γδ ligands, a percentage of progenitors expressing only the γδ TCR matured towards the CD4+ CD8+ double positive (DP) stage of T cell development. Importantly, progenitors co-expressing TCR and γδ TCR cultured under the same conditions developed towards the γδ lineage as a result of higher accumulation of Id3 downstream of each of the two receptors, hence lending further support for the signal strength hypothesis. With this in mind, we set out to describe the role of these and other signals necessary for the development of functional γδ T cell subsets as defined by differential cytokine production. To this end, Rag2-/- DN3 progenitors were transduced with a transgenic KN6 γδ TCR, and co-cultured on various stromal cells engineered to express Notch, KN6 TCR ligands and supplemented with combinations of cytokines, such as IL-1β (Interluekin-1 β), IL-7, IL-21 and IL-23. Our results showed that specific combinations of these signals are required to program IFN-γ (Interferon-γ), IL-17, and IL-22 producing KN6 γδ T cell subsets. More specifically, I established that weak but not absent TCR-ligand interactions are required for γδ17 development, and Notch enables the survival of γδ T cells in an apparent inflammatory milieu. This was shown to be relevant in the fetal thymus as blockade of IL-1β, IL-21 and IL-23 in hanging drop cultures resulted in the absence of γδ17 cells. This work provides a framework for the integration of signals downstream of the Notch, TCR, and cytokine receptors as they lead to the development of γδ T cell functional subsets that can play a fundamental role in regulating health and disease.