VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Derivation and Characterization of Bone Cells from Human Umbilical Cord Blood and Harakiri Deficient Mice
Keywords: bone cells
harakiri
osteoblast
osteoclast

There is a growing need for bone cells to be used in the generation and repair of bone tissues that have become destroyed as a result of disease (e.g. osteoporosis), injuries and genetic deficiencies. Human umbilical cord blood has been a source of cells that is being investigated for its ability to generate cells for repair of various tissues including bone, which is the focus of this investigation. Similarly cord blood can also be used as a source of progenitors for osteoclasts that might be used for management of other diseases of bone characterized by defects in these cells (e.g. osteopetrosis). Moreover, there are few reliable in vitro models for human osteoclasts and so the ability to develop a cell model for human osteoclasts will also permit more meaningful studies on regulation of these cells than possible in the past. One of the setbacks suffered by researchers in designing therapeutic uses for stem cells is that in laboratory animals tumours can arise from these transplanted and pleuripotential cells. This suggests that stem cells might also have a dysregulated apoptosis pathway, which is critically important to understand before the safe use of stem cells can be assured. In order to increase our understanding of apoptosis in bone cells in particular, studies were done to try to understand the role of harakiri, a pro-apoptotic gene, in the development of osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Therefore, this series of study had two main foci; the development of human bone cells, particularly osteoclasts and osteoblasts, from human umbilical cord blood, and to understand further the mechanisms regulating apoptosis in bone cells. This study showed that osteoblasts could not be derived easily from human cord blood cells while it was possible to generate fully functional osteoclasts, which demonstrated unique properties. Studies done on harakiri deficient mice showed that absence of this gene caused an increase in osteoblast formation and a decrease in osteoclast formation. These findings can be exploited when considering the development of pharmacological agents that might be used in the future to modulate osteoclast cell development, function, and apoptosis.
A Novel gene overexpression plasmid library and its application in mapping genetic networks by systematic dosage suppression
Keywords: genetics
genomics
budding yeast

Increasing gene dosage provides a powerful means of probing gene function, as it tends to cause a gain-of-function effect due to increased gene activity. In the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, systematic gene overexpression studies have shown that in wild-type cells, overexpression of a small subset of genes results in an overt phenotype. However, examining the effects of gene overexpression in sensitized cells containing mutations in known genes is a powerful means for identifying functionally relevant genetic interactions. When a query mutant phenotype is rescued by gene overexpression, the genetic interaction is termed dosage suppression. I comprehensively investigated dosage suppression genetic interactions in yeast using three approaches. First, using one of two novel plasmid libraries cloned by two colleagues and myself, I systematically performed dosage suppression screens and identified over 130 novel dosage suppression genetic interactions for more than 25 essential yeast genes. The plasmid libraries, called the molecular barcoded yeast ORF (MoBY-ORF) 1.0 and 2.0, are designed to streamline dosage analysis by being compatible with high-throughput genomics technologies that can monitor plasmid representation, including barcode microarrays and next-generation sequencing methods. Second, I describe a detailed analysis of the novel dosage suppression interactions, as well as of literature-curated interactions, and show that the gene pairs exhibiting dosage suppression are often functionally related and can overlap with physical as well as negative genetic interactions. Third, I performed a systematic categorization of dosage suppression genetic interactions in yeast and show that the majority of the dosage suppression interactions can be assigned to one of four general mechanistic classifications. With this comprehensive analysis, I conclude that systematically identifying dosage suppression genetic interactions will allow for their integration into other genetic and physical interaction networks and should provide new insight into the global wiring diagram of the cell.
Economic Evaluation of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Stable Coronary Artery Disease: Studies in Utilities and Decision Modeling
Keywords: coronary artery disease
stable angina
economic evaluation
cost-effectivenesss
utilities
quality of life
medical therapy
angioplasty
percutaneous coronary intervention
meta-analysis
mapping algorithm
bayesian

The initial treatment options for patients with stable coronary artery disease include optimal medical therapy alone, or coronary revascularization with optimal medical therapy. The most common revascularization modality is percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with either bare metal stents (BMS) or drug-eluting stents (DES). PCI is believed to reduce recurrent angina and thereby decrease the need for additional procedures compared to optimal medical therapy alone. It remains unclear if these benefits are sufficient to offset the increased costs and small increase in adverse events associated with PCI. The objectives of this thesis were to determine the degree of angina relief afforded by PCI and develop a tool to provide contemporary estimates of the impact of angina on quality of life. In addition, we sought to develop a comprehensive state-transition model, calibrated to real world costs and outcomes to compare the cost-effectiveness of initial medical therapy versus PCI with either BMS or DES in patients with stable coronary artery disease. ii We performed a systematic search and meta-analysis of the published literature. Although PCI was associated with an overall benefit on angina relief (odds ratio [OR] 1.69; 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.24-2.30), this benefit was largely attenuated in contemporary studies (OR 1.13; 95% CI 0.76-1.68). Our meta-regression analysis suggests that this observation was related to greater use of evidence-based medications in more recent trials. Using simple linear regression, we were able to create a mapping tool that could accurately estimate utility weights from data on the Seattle Angina Question, the most common descriptive quality of life instrument used in the cardiovascular literature. In our economic evaluation, we found that an initial strategy of PCI with a BMS was cost- effective compared to medical therapy, with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of $13,271 per quality adjusted life year gained. In contrast, DES had a greater cost and lower survival than BMS and was therefore a dominated strategy.
The Good Doctor in Medical Education 1910-2010: A Critical Discourse Analysis
Keywords: medical education
critical discourse analysis

Ideas of what constitutes a good doctor underlie decisions about medical student selection, as well as curriculum design and the structure of medical education at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels of training. Factors at play include knowledge paradigms (what does a good doctor need to know), identity paradigms (who can become a good doctor) and notions about the relationship of doctors to society (the social responsibility or social accountability of the good doctor). As with any social phenomenon, constructs of the good doctor are historically derived and socially negotiated. Ideas about the good doctor tend to be considered as ‘truths’ in any era, with little attention to or understanding of the assumptions that underpin any particular formulation. In this thesis, I explore and dissect the dominant constructs of the good doctor in North American medical education between 1910 and 2010. Drawing upon Foucauldian critical discourse analysis, I focus particular attention on discursive shifts in the conception of the good doctor over the past century. This analysis reveals a series of discursive shifts in the framing of the good doctor in medical education between 1910-2010. Abraham Flexner promoted the construct of the good doctor as a scientist physician who was also a man of character. In the post-Flexnerian transformation of medical education, science became curricular content while the discourse of character remained. In the late 1950s a sudden discursive shift occurred, from the character of the good doctor to characteristics. With this shift, the student was dissected as an object of study. Further discursive shifts incorporated discourses of performance and production into constructs of the good doctor as roles-competent. This research explores the implications and consequences of these various discursive framings of the good doctor.
Figures de la « patience » dans la modernité : la recherche proustienne entre l'errance de Bouvard et Pécuchet et le parti pris pongien
Keywords: patience
modernité
figure
ascétisme
littérature et philosophie
Ponge
Proust
Flaubert

Cette étude porte sur la représentation de la « patience » – considérée comme un mode d’être dans le temps et face à l’Autre à la fois actif et passif – dans quelques œuvres modernes, notamment les écrits philosophiques de Friedrich Nietzsche, les romans Bouvard et Pécuchet et La tentation de saint Antoine de Gustave Flaubert, À la recherche du temps perdu de Marcel Proust et la poésie de Francis Ponge. Dans le premier chapitre, nous nous référons à la pensée de Nietzsche pour bien décrire le contexte moderne qui fait que la vertu de la patience est aussi pertinente à la fin du XIXe siècle et pendant le XXe siècle qu’elle ne l’était pour des penseurs de l’Antiquité gréco-romaine comme Épicure et Sénèque. Dans des œuvres comme La généalogie de la morale et Par-delà bien et mal, Nietzsche montre que ce qu’on considère comme la vertu de la patience se réduit souvent à une simple incapacité d’agir et que les temps modernes exigent un autre type de vertu, une patience renouvelée et affirmative. Dans le deuxième chapitre, nous analysons les thèmes de l’accompagnement et du dévouement dans deux romans flaubertiens afin de déterminer dans quelle mesure il est nécessaire de se retirer du monde et de ses rythmes pour pouvoir se consacrer à quelque chose qui transcende l’individu et ses désirs particuliers. Nous continuons cette réflexion dans le chapitre sur le roman proustien, où l’on peut suivre la trajectoire d’un héros-narrateur impatient d’être aimé et de remplir sa vocation en devenant écrivain. Notre examen de différentes formes de la patience est complétée par une critique du rapport problématique du poète (Ponge) et des objets de ses poèmes, en particulier les animaux qu’il sacrifie au nom de son art. Un schéma fondamental se dessine à travers toutes ces œuvres et les figures de la patience qu’elles véhiculent : le sujet humain, désireux de se rapprocher de l’Autre, sait que, pour ce faire, il faut le laisser être, mais il a aussi besoin de s’affirmer soi-même, d’où une certaine aporie. La patience se révèle comme une réponse possible à ce problème.
"Red 'Teaspoons of Charity': Zhenotdel, Russian Women, and the Communist Party, 1919-1930."
Keywords: Women and Communism - Soviet Union - History
Women in politics - Soviet Union - History
Soviet Union- Social Groups and Policy- 1920s
Zhenotdel

After the Bolshevik assumption of power in 1917, the arguably much more difficult task of creating a revolutionary society began. In 1919, to ensure Russian women supported the Communist party, the Zhenotdel, or women’s department, was established. Its aim was propagating the Communist party’s message through local branches attached to party committees at every level of the hierarchy. This dissertation is an analysis of the Communist party’s Zhenotdel in Petrograd/ Leningrad during the 1920s. Most Western Zhenotdel histories were written in the pre-archival era, and this is the first study to extensively utilize material in the former Leningrad party archive, TsGAIPD SPb. Both the quality and quantity of Zhenotdel fonds is superior at St.Peterburg’s TsGAIPD SPb than Moscow’s RGASPI. While most scholars have used Moscow-centric journals like "Kommunistka", "Krest’ianka" and "Rabotnitsa", this study has thoroughly utilized the Leningrad Zhenotdel journal "Rabotnitsa i krest’ianka" and a rich and extensive collection of Zhenotdel questionnaires. Women’s speeches from Zhenotdel conferences, as well as factory and field reports, have also been folded into the dissertation’s five chapters on: organizational issues, the unemployed, housewives and prostitutes, peasants, and workers. Fundamentally, this dissertation argues that how Zhenotdel functioned at the local level revealed that the organization as a whole was riven with multiple and conflicting tensions. Zhenotdel was unworkable. Zhenotdel’s broad goals were impeded because activists lacked financial and jurisdictional autonomy, faced party ambivalence and hostility, and operated largely with volunteers. Paradoxically, these volunteer delegates were “interns,” yet they were expected to model exemplary behaviour. With limited resources, delegates were also expected to fulfil an ever-expanding list of tasks. In addition, Zhenotdel’s extensive use of unpaid housewife delegates in the 1920s anticipated the wife-activist movement of voluntary social service work in the middle to late 1930s. There were competing visions for NEP society, and Zhenotdel officials were largely unable to negotiate the importance of their organization to other party and state organizations. Overall, this suggests that although the political revolution was successful in the 1920s, there were profound limits to the social and cultural revolution in this era.
Men of Strong Opinions: Identity, Self-Representation, and the Performance of Neurosurgery, 1919-1950
Keywords: history of medicine
professional identity

This thesis explores the ways in which American and Canadian neurosurgeons fashioned their professional identity in the period between 1919 and 1950. This dissertation is an exploration of the ways in which American and Canadian neurosurgeons fashioned their professional identity in the formative period of the specialty’s history. Part I argues that an ethos of elitism and exclusionism structured the cultural landscape of the specialty and was reflected in the membership policy of the Society of Neurological Surgeons and the Harvey Cushing Society, which screened for certain moral and professional values. The meetings of the societies opened with surgical performances designed to encourage particular technical practices, to negotiate and standardize procedures, and to demonstrate the prowess of the neurosurgeon. In theatrical performances at these meetings the neurosurgeons also created a distinctive type of masculinity, which was inflected with a feminine resonance. Part II outlines the extraordinary professional success of the neurosurgeons in the 1930s and 1940s when they assumed leadership of neurological institutes. Wilder Penfield’s effort to build such an institute in Montreal led him to challenge the authority of clinical neurologists by claiming therapeutic superiority and by engineering a public debate about the future of these related specialties. Jurisdictional disputes between neurosurgeons and neurologists played out in animated rhetorical performances at the meetings of professional societies and illustrate the divergent ways in which these specialists envisioned medical specialization. Neurosurgeons cleaved neurology along therapeutic lines, while neurologists, attempting to regain conditions lost to neurosurgeons and psychiatrists, sought authority over all organic and functional disorders. Part III charts the neurosurgeons’ growing authority in popular culture. Although popular representations testify to an increasing glamorization of brain surgeons over the first half of the twentieth century, these narratives reveal culturally contingent tensions. The ideal cure for brain tumors was portrayed as medical, not surgical, while the public expressed an ambivalent reaction to the violence to both body and mind that brain surgery appeared to threaten.
Examining Parental Socioeconomic Status and Neighbourhood Quality As Contextual Correlates Of Differential Parenting Within Families
Keywords: Differential Parenting
Neighbourhood Quality
Socioeconomic Status (SES)
Multilevel Modelling

Although several studies have demonstrated that differential parenting has a negative impact on the children exposed to it, only a small number of studies have attempted to understand why differential parenting occurs within families. The goal of the present study was to examine the contextual correlates of differential parenting. Specifically, the association between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and differential parenting and the association between objective and subjective indices of neighbourhood quality and differential parenting were investigated. Data were collected as part of the Kids, Families, and Places (KFP) study and analyzed using multilevel modeling. Six hundred and fifty families provided data on 881 children. Five hundred and ninety nine families included a father in the home. Close to seventy five percent of children included in the sample were less than six years of age. Differential parenting was assessed separately for mothers and fathers and across positive and negative parenting outcomes. The findings revealed that parental SES was significantly associated with differential parenting for three of four parenting outcomes. For mothers, SES was negatively associated with differential positivity and negativity. For fathers, SES was negatively associated with differential positivity but not negativity. The objective quality of neighbourhoods in which families resided (i.e., measured as a composite score that combined census tract data on neighbourhood disadvantage and interviewer observations of neighbourhood physical and social disorder) was positively associated with maternal differential negativity; however, this association was also moderated by mothers’ subjective perceptions of their neighbourhoods (i.e., measured using maternal reports of neighbourhood collective efficacy). In other words, when mothers perceived their neighbourhoods to be highly cohesive and supportive, exposure to objectively unfavourable neighbourhood conditions was less strongly associated with differential negativity. Objective neighbourhood quality was not associated with the other three differential parenting outcomes of interest. These findings highlight the important relationship that exists between contextual influences both within and outside of the immediate family and differential parenting. Moreover, they speak to the importance of including both mothers and fathers in studies of differential parenting. The merits of using multilevel modelling to investigate differential parenting and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Ideologically Informed: A Policy Archaeology of Special Education in Ontario, 1965-1980
Keywords: special education
policy
policy archaeology

Waves of education reform in Ontario since the 1960s have resulted in widespread changes to curriculum, governance, and policy directives. Despite these continual reforms the structures and the practices of special education have changed very little since the early twentieth century. This dissertation looks at special education policy historically (1965-1980) in Ontario and offers an explanation for this resistance to change. Policy archaeology is developed in this study to map policy texts backwards through time and to interpret the meaning of policy discourses in these texts. The discourses produced by various policy actors are interpreted within the historical context to illuminate the ideologically informed beliefs of society about children with disabilities and their education. The ideologies of conservatism, liberalism, and scientific rationalism continue to construct the identities of children with disabilities as deviant from “normal” children. These differences are scientifically measured and quantified by medical and psychological professionals. The hierarchical organization of schooling sorts students into homogeneous groups according to ability. The constructed identities and segregated placements marginalize children with disabilities from the opportunities available to children in the regular classroom. Ideologies are stable and enduring and contribute to the stability of beliefs about special education in spite of extensive and continuous reforms in other areas of education. This dissertation builds on the earlier theories of the policy web (Joshee & Johnson, 2005). The large policy web of special education is composed of individual webs of meaning that represent the condensation symbols of disability, education, professionalism, management, and equality in particular ways that support the marginalization of children with disabilities. These webs are internally cohesive and related to each other by shared discourses. These interconnections give the web an intricate, irregular design but also give the web strength. Based on Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of capital, the members of the Ontario Association for Children with Learning Disabilities, and its members as individuals, held high forms of capital that were used as power. This association shaped policy discourses in particular ways that influenced beliefs about learning disabilities, acquired resources for children with learning disabilities, and reproduced privilege for the association.
MEMS and Robotics-based Manipulation and Characterization of Micro and Nanomaterials
Keywords: MEMS
Nanomanipulation

Advances in the synthesis of micrometer and nanometer-sized materials have resulted in a range of novel materials having unique properties. Characterizing those materials is important for understanding their properties and exploring their applications. Physically manipulating those materials is important for constructing devices. This thesis develops tools and techniques for the manipulation and characterization of micro and nanomaterials. A microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microgripper is developed to pick and place micro-objects, achieving high repeatability, accuracy, and speed. The adhesion forces at the microscale are overcome by actively releasing the adhered micro-object from the microgripper. A microrobotic system is built based on this microgripper and realizes automated pick-and-place of microspheres to form patterns. To characterize the electrical properties of one-dimensional nanomaterials, a nanorobotic system is developed to control four nanomanipulators for automated four-point probe measurement of individual nanowires inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM). SEM is used as a vision sensor to realize visual servo control and contact detection. To characterize the electromechanical properties of individual nanowires, a MEMS device is designed and fabricated that is capable of simultaneous tensile testing and current-voltage measurement of a nanowire specimen. A nanomanipulation procedure is developed to transfer a single nanowire from its growth substrate to the MEMS device in SEM. The piezoresistive properties of silicon nanowires are characterized. A nanomanipulation system is developed that is capable of being mounted onto and demounted from the SEM specimen stage without opening the high-vacuum chamber. The system architecture allows the nanomanipulators to be transferred through the SEM load-lock. This advance facilitates the replacement of end-effectors and circumvents chamber contamination due to venting.