VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Conceptualizing religion and spirituality in secular schools: a qualitative study of Alberta schooling
Keywords: de-colonization
spirituality
education

Over most of the 20th Century, many educational systems around the world became increasingly secular, notably with lessening involvement of religious institutions. However, what it means to offer secular education to an increasingly diverse student population is emerging as a contemporary international educational issue. The face of immigration, the rights of Aboriginals, and increasingly diverse and individual forms of religiosity and spirituality have implications for secular education today. This qualitative study of Alberta schooling provides an example of a setting that underwent a high degree of secularization in the 1960's-1980's. A litigious but interpretive boundary exists for the extent educationists were to engage students in thinking about religion and spirituality. Yet, teachers operated with a high degree of autonomy. With these contextual factors as a backdrop, this study explored how a hierarchical sample of Alberta policy-makers, administrators, and teachers conceptualized religion and spirituality for secular secondary schools. Results show that Alberta Education conceptualized space for the conservative religious and Aboriginal communities, but not mainstream students. The students operated in a 'leave your faith at the door' secular model, curriculum was rationalized, and the function of schooling was perceived as preparing students for work. Findings show that principals and teachers challenged the lack of space for mainstream students to engage in the concepts of religion and spirituality. They argued the secular model disadvantaged mainstream students in exercising their right to religious freedom and developing religious literacy and sensitivity skills and it also prevented non-religious students from gaining access to religious/spiritual concepts and tools to facilitate wellbeing and resiliency.
A 2'-alkynylnucleotide strategy for site-directed spin labelling of DNA
Keywords: chemistry
nucleic acids
nitroxyl
EPR
nitroxide
spin labelling
DNA
organic chemistry

This thesis describes the synthesis of derivatives of 2'-ethynyl-2'-deoxynucleosides, and their conversion into phosphoramidite building blocks for DNA synthesis. Herein is also outlined the preparation of azide-bearing nitroxyl radicals. After site-selective incorporation of 2'-alkynylnucleosides into DNA using a standard solid-supported phosphoramidite protocol, the modified oligonucleotides were spin labelled with the azide-bearing nitroxyl spin labels via the Cu(I)-catalysed azide-alkyne [3+2] Huisgen cycloaddition (CuAAC or 'click' reaction). The destabilising effect of the spin labelling was determined by UV denaturation studies and circular dichroism, and the spin labelled DNA was investigated by EPR spectroscopy. It was found that this novel site-directed spin labelling strategy afforded conformationally restricted systems, and that the structure of the spin label exerts a significant influence on the results.
Differentiation and magmatism on the HED parent body
Keywords: Experimental Petrology
HED
Asteroid
Petrology

The Howardite-Eucrite-Diogenite (HED) meteorites are a suite of basalts, cumulates and breccias which originate from one di↵erentiated parent body, and are linked to the asteroid Vesta. The HEDs are petrologically diverse with a range of major, minor and trace element compositions. Early crystallisation ages are recorded and so the HEDs provide us with a unique snapshot into the early solar system. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the petrogenesis of the eucrites and diogenites by addressing two questions. What is the Bulk Silicate Vesta (BSV) composition? What differentiation and magmatic processes have occurred? Putative BSV compositions were derived from the geochemistry of the meteorites and geophysical observations of Vesta. Series of one-atmosphere experiments and thermodynamic models investigated the BSV phase relations. Olivine crystallised at &Tilde;1625 °C, followed by orthopyroxene at &Tilde;1350 °C and feldspar at &Tilde;1125 °C. Low-Ca pyroxene-melt partition coefficients for the minor and trace elements were measured. The compatibility of the REEs and HFSEs in low- Ca pyroxene increased by a factor of three, as temperature decreased from 1300-1125 °C and calcium content increased from Wo0.5-Wo8. These partition coefficients were combined with the observed phase relations to perform geochemical trace element calculations of differentiation and magmatic processes. My results suggest that BSV had an Mg#(100&ast;(Mg/(Mg+Fe2+)) between 75-80, &GT;43 wt. % SiO2, 2.5× CI refractory lithophile elements, 0.5 wt. % MnO and 0.75 wt. % Cr2O3. A three stage model for Vesta's evolution is suggested. Firstly, extensive if not global partial melting of BSV. Then, equilibrium crystallisation of the mantle and fractional crystallisation of mantle-derived melts produced diogenitic cumulates and eucrite liquids, accounting for the range in major and trace element abundances. The re-equilibration of trapped melt in cumulates is also thought to have occurred. Finally, crustal anatexis produced the range in trace element fractionations seen.
The wellbeing of adolescents during the primary-secondary school transition
Keywords: wellbeing
adolescents
primary-secondary
school
transition

The transition to secondary school can represent a significant life event for many adolescents and can adversely affect their psychological adjustment and wellbeing. Little is known about how adjustment to this transition can be facilitated for young people. The review paper critically evaluated the evidence-base for school transition programmes that target pupil's mental wellbeing. A keyword search of abstract databases was conducted and 20 studies were evaluated. The majority of studies could not conclude that their intervention improved mental wellbeing to a statistically significant level, and numerous methodological limitations weaken the existing evidence-base. However, the most promising areas of research pertain to intervening with the parents and teachers of adolescents experiencing school transition. Further research should investigate this further.
The empirical paper employed a qualitative methodology to examine how adolescents make sense of and create meaning from their experience of going to boarding school, and to explore what can be done to facilitate this adjustment. Ten female and male adolescents were interviewed in their second year of attending boarding school. The interviews, analysed using lnterpretative Phenomenological Analysis, yielded three superordinate themes: 1) 'Home is where the heart is', which captures adolescents experiences of homesickness, the stronger relationships formed with their family, and the development of new attachment figures with their house matron and peers, 2) 'Living in a bubble', which reflects a feeling of being constrained at boarding school and an awareness of it being a hierarchical environment, and 3) 'Gaining familiarity with the place and just being me' as adolescents appeared to positively adjust over time. Results are discussed in terms of attachment, coping and adjustment theories and models of psychosocial development. Clinical and organisational implications for professionals working in boarding schools, as well as suggestions for future research arc discussed.
Structural and functional characterization of reconstituted alpha − amino − 3 − hydroxy − 5 − methyl − 4 − isoxazole propionic acid receptors
Keywords: Glutamate receptors
reconstitution
atomic force microscopy
bilayer recordings

This thesis describes a novel reconstitution of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid receptors (AMPARs) for the purposes of structural characterization by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and functional characterization by electrical recordings of lipid bilayers.
AMPARs are glutamate gated ion channels, ubiquitous in the vertebrate central nervous system where they mediate fast excitatory neurotransmission. In a healthy brain, AMPARs are involved in memory formation and learning and their dysfunction has been related to numerous neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, schizophrenia and many others.
AMPARs were reconstituted at high and low densities. Densely reconstituted samples contained &GT;100 receptors per μm2, a value comparable to the AMPAR density at synapses. This allowed, for the first time, the imaging of full length tetrameric AMPARs in native-like conditions and with clearly assigned domains: the extracellular domains extended 14 nm above the membrane in agreement with electron microscopy (EM) and X-ray crystallography data. Lipid-protein interactions were studied in samples with low protein density with the receptors showing preference for lipids in the liquid crystalline phase. The activity of the reconstituted receptors was confirmed through single-channel recordings.
This is the first case in which an AMPAR has been reconstituted and given (a) single-channel recordings with (b) physiologically plausible conductance levels and (c) pharmacological and no-protein controls and (d) structure. As a result, previously reported biochemistry and EM are now for the first time available in concert with AFM and single-channel recordings for a purified AMPAR of known composition.
Cardiac stem cell therapy for heart failure
Keywords: cardiovascular disease
stem cell
tissue engineering

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death worldwide and becomes increasingly prevalent in the elderly population. Independent of etiopathogenesis, heart failure (HF) is the final common stage of numerous heart diseases. Cardiac stem cell (CSC) therapy has emerged as a promising cell-based strategy for treatment of HF. However, cell replacement is not able to fully restore a structurally damaged myocardium in advanced and end-stage HF. The objective of this project was to test the following hypotheses: that a bioengineered heart extracellular matrix (ECM) with preserved intact geometric structure could be generated using decellularization by coronary perfusion; and that autologous CSCs, to repopulate this ECM, could be isolated and expanded from the adult heart, with the caveat that autologous CSCs are depleted and impaired by both aging and chronic dilated cardiomyopathy. This will help to develop a possible therapeutic approach for advanced HF, using a combination of CSCs and engineering technique. Resident CSCs were isolated from explant-derived cells (EDCs) and expanded into cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs) via cardiosphere formation. The CDCs expressed CSC markers (c-kit and Sca-1), pluripotent markers (Oct3/4 and Sox2), and the cardiac lineage-committed marker (Nkx2.5), and showed clonal expansion, self-renewal, and cardiomyogenic potential in vitro. In tissue engineering experiments, CDCs survived and proliferated within biomaterial alginate scaffolds for up to 7 weeks. An engineered bioartificial ECM scaffold was successfully produced from a whole rat heart using retrograde coronary perfusion and possessed an intact 3D architecture with functionally perfusable vascular network. Compared with ventricles, cultures derived from atria produced significantly higher number of c-kit+ and Sca-1+ CSCs (c-kit: 13% vs. 3.4%; Sca-1: 82% vs. 53%, respectively) and exhibited greater clonogenic and proliferative capacity. CDCs could be grown from young and aged mice, but the yield of CSCs significantly declined with age, as did cell migration and differentiation potential. In comparison to wild-type mice, atrial-CDCs from dystrophic mice showed no significant differences in CSC subpopulations and characteristics, despite confirmation of cardiac dysfunction using MRI. In conclusion, CDCs could be considered to be a viable cell candidate for cardiac therapy and may be used to treat HF at various stages, in combination with myocardial tissue engineering.
Biological transport networks
Keywords: Fungi
transport networks
advection-diffusion

Cord-forming fungi form extensive networks that continuously adapt to maintain an efficient transport system, and we can photograph their growth, digitize the network structure, and measure the movement of radio-tracers. Mycelial networks are more accessible than the transport networks of other multicellular organisms, but there are many open questions concerning the coordination of growth and transport within fungal networks. As osmotically driven water uptake is often distal from the growing margin, and aqueous fluids are effectively incompressible, we propose that growth induces mass flows across the mycelium, towards the growing regions. We imaged the temporal evolution of networks formed by Phanerochaete velutina, and at each stage calculated the unique set of currents that account for the observed changes in cord volume, while minimizing the work required to overcome viscous drag. Predicted speeds were in reasonable agreement with experimental data, and cords that were predicted to carry large currents were significantly more likely to increase in size than cords with small currents.
We have also developed an efficient method for calculating the exact quantity of resource in each part of an arbitrary network, where the resource is lost or delivered out of the network at a given rate, while being subject to advection and diffusion. This method enabled us to model the spatial distribution of resource that emerges as a fungal network grows over time, and we found good empirical agreement between our model and experimental data gathered using radio-labelled tracers. Our results suggest that in well insulated fungal networks, growth-induced mass flow is sufficient to account for long distance transport. We conclude that active transport mechanisms may only be required at the very end of the transport pathway, near the growing tips. We also developed a simple model of glucose delivery through vascular networks, which indicates that increasing the number of blood vessels in a region can actually decrease the total rate of glucose delivery.
Magnetic resonance studies of proteins and model systems
Keywords: electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR)
cytochrome P450
electron spin resonance (ESR)
chemically induced dynamic nuclear polarization (CIDNP)
double electron-electron resonance (DEER), ESR of metal centres

This thesis discusses, employs and develops further applications of both Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) methodology in the study of a variety of biological systems.
Chemically Induced Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (CIDNP) is used to study the surface accessibility of Tryptophan and Tyrosine residues in the Equine Lysozyme-Oleic Acid complex (ELOA). It is believed that these amino acids may play a vital role in the interaction of this partially structured complex with cell walls leading to the apoptosis of the cell.
Double Electron-Electron Resonance (DEER) is an EPR technique that can be used to study the distance and, in some cases, the orientation between two paramagnetic centres on a nano-meter length scale. Attaching spin labels, such as Methane Thiosulphonate Spin Label (MTSL), to proteins, or by using spin active cofactors in proteins as innate spin labels, allows the measurement of distances within proteins or their complexes. In this thesis, model copper systems were initially studied in order to gain a better understanding of the orientational information obtainable from such spectra. The methodology developed from this project was applied to the protein−protein complexes of ferredoxin reductase−ferredoxin and ferredoxin−P450, three proteins that form a vital electron transport chain, leading to the catalytic hydroxylation of many small molecules. The structure of the docked P450−ferredoxin complex is the first experimentally determined structure of its type and thus is of considerable biochemical interest.
As part of the structural determination of the ferredoxin complexes, it was necessary to measure the relative orientation of the g-matrix with respect to the molecular structure. This was achieved using a combination of orientationally selective proton Electron Nuclear Double Resonance (ENDOR) and HYperfine Sublevel CORrElation (HYSCORE) spectroscopy.
The expansion of the DEER technique to measure an ever-increasing variety of systems has shown the limitations of the pulse sequences most frequently employed at present, particularly in relation to the measurement of many of the metal centres, which could be used as innate spin probes in protein systems. Methodological work has also been undertaken to examine possible solutions to circumvent some of these problems, namely low modulation depths and fast relaxation times. This has resulted in the development of two modifications to the existing techniques: Dead-time free three-pulse DEER and Repeated Excitations IN DEER (REINDEER). These techniques have been used to study of both synthetic model systems and also spin labelled proteins.
Colourings of random graphs
Keywords: Graph colouring
Probabilistic combinatorics
Chromatic number
Random graph process
Equitable chromatic number
Rainbow connectivity
Random graphs

We study graph parameters arising from different types of colourings of random graphs, defined broadly as an assignment of colours to either the vertices or the edges of a graph.
The chromatic number X(G) of a graph is the minimum number of colours required for a vertex colouring where no two adjacent vertices are coloured the same. Determining the chromatic number is one of the classic challenges in random graph theory. In Chapter 3, we give new upper and lower bounds for the chromatic number of the dense random graph 𝒢(n,p)) where p ∈ (0,1) is constant. These bounds are the first to match up to an additive term of order o(1) in the denominator, and in particular, they determine the average colour class size in an optimal colouring up to an additive term of order o(1).
In Chapter 4, we study a related graph parameter called the equitable chromatic number. This is defined as the minimum number of colours needed for a vertex colouring where no two adjacent vertices are coloured the same and, additionally, all colour classes are as equal in size as possible. We prove one point concentration of the equitable chromatic number of the dense random graph 𝒢(n,m) with m = pn(n-1)/2, p &LT; 1-1/e2 constant, on a subsequence of the integers. We also show that whp, the dense random graph 𝒢(n,p) allows an almost equitable colouring with a near optimal number of colours.
We call an edge colouring of a graph G a rainbow colouring if every pair of vertices is joined by a rainbow path, which is a path where no colour is repeated. The least number of colours where this is possible is called the rainbow connection number rc(G). Since its introduction in 2008 as a new way to quantify how well connected a given graph is, the rainbow connection number has attracted the attention of a great number of researchers. For any graph G, rc(G)≥diam(G), where diam(G) denotes the diameter. In Chapter 5, we will see that in the random graph G(n,p), rainbow connection number 2 is essentially equivalent to diameter 2. More specifically, we consider G &Tilde; 𝒢(n,p) close to the diameter 2 threshold and show that whp rc(G) = diam(G) ∈ {2,3}. Furthermore, we show that in the random graph process, whp the hitting times of diameter 2 and of rainbow connection number 2 coincide.
In Chapter 6, we investigate sharp thresholds for the property rc(G)≤=r where r is a fixed integer. The results of Chapter 6 imply that for r=2, the properties rc(G)≤=2 and diam(G)≤=2 share the same sharp threshold. For r≥3, the situation seems quite different. We propose an alternative threshold and prove that this is an upper bound for the sharp threshold for rc(G)≤=r where r≥3.
Investigating past and present continental earthquakes with high-resolution optical imagery
Keywords: Continental Earthquakes
Optical Imagery
High Resolution
Active Tectonics
Faulting

Over the past few decades, remote sensing has emerged as a powerful tool for studying active faulting in continental regions. However, the commonly used remote sensing techniques, including radar interferometry, visual inspection of imagery, and image matching, cannot measure three-dimensional (3D) surface displacements in earthquakes, limiting our ability to investigate faulting. The improvement of very high-resolution (VHR) optical imaging systems (stereo in particular) in recent years has made it possible for earth scientists to measure 3D surface deformation remotely. In this thesis, I contribute to assessing the capability of VHR optical imagery, by determining earthquake deformation from four different types of earthquakes (different in sense of slip and date of the event). In the case of the 2010 Mw 7.2 El Mayor-Cucapah, Mexico earthquake, I show that digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from Pleiades stereo imagery are comparable to light detection and ranging (LiDAR) surveys, and differencing pre- and post-earthquake DEMs can measure 3D displacements, which will be very useful for studying future earthquakes. For the 2013 Mw 7.7 Balochistan, Pakistan earthquake, I determine the vertical motion from a post-earthquake Pleiades DEM and find constant fault kinematics throughout the Late Quaternary. This study has resolved a current controversy of the Balochistan earthquake, in which it has been argued that kinematics of the Hoshab fault switches between strike-slip and dip-slip. Applying historical aerial, KH-9 Hexagon spy satellite, SPOT-2 and modern SPOT-6 images to the 1978 Mw 7.3 Tabas-e-Golshan earthquake, I measure the coseismic and postseismic displacements, and show that the Tabas fold system in eastern Iran may exhibit characteristic slip behaviour. Combining Pleiades imagery, fieldwork and geological dating techniques, I determine slip in the 1556 Huaxian earthquake in China and the recurrence interval for similar events. These examples demonstrate the usefulness of high-resolution optical imagery in investigating past and present earthquakes.
Phenomenology and the self's measure: studies in subjectivity
Keywords: self
god
Michel Henry
Kierkegaard
phenomenology

The philosophical tradition has long understood subjectivity solely in reference to the self's place within the world and the powers of intentional transcendence which open it. Nowhere is this presupposition more apparent than in the thought of Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty. Despite the precise differences among their respective philosophies of transcendence, each understands the self as little else than that which opens the exteriority of a world and is thereby exhausted and determined by it. Against this prevailing assumption that the self is a 'being-in-the-world', I contend that the essence of subjectivity instead consists in the unworldly interiority of life’s affective self-revelation. The studies that follow accordingly investigate five related aspects of subjectivity: the irreducibility of the self's individuality to society; the blow of vanity that reveals this inwardness; the resultant life that marshals and in turn deploys it; the power of the work of art to express it; and finally the promise of immortality that sustains it.