VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Ideological Freelancers The Politics of Legal Profession on Defense of and Offense against Authoritarianism
Keywords: authoritarianism
democratization
Hong Kong
judicial politics
legal profession
Taiwan

This dissertation studies the politics of the legal profession in political regime change from and to authoritarianism. To theorize the dynamics between the legal profession and power in democratization and political retrocession, I ask two questions: What is the role of the legal professions in the advancement and retreat of authoritarianism? What is the driving factor, the mechanisms and the consequences of the legal professions’ political mobilization? This project uses Taiwan and Hong Kong at the turn of the 21st century as two cases of study. These two jurisdictions invariably experienced fundamental power reconfigurations at the turn of the century, yet their politics drastically diverged in that Taiwan democratized but Hong Kong illiberalized. In both cases, legal professions - lawyers, judges and prosecutors - have stepped into the spotlight in various political arenas, on streets and in legislatures. I argue: the legal profession is a they, not an it. They are driven by normative commitments but serve instrumental roles to resist, dismantle, or facilitate authoritarian power in political transition. Specifically, the politically active legal practitioners exhibit two principal roles, on defense and offense, which encompass categorically different goals, strategies, rhetoric and intra-professional dynamics. Shaped by an exogenous political shock, they embody heterogeneous but not necessarily liberal commitments. The divergent political developments in Hong Kong and Taiwan lead to the defensive and assertive mobilization of the bar and bench. When authoritarian rule retreated, as in Taiwan, legal professionals were given the space to take assertive political actions to structure constitutional debates and crusade in a decade-long policy-making to substantiate a variety of normative commitments. Conversely in Hong Kong, when authoritarian rule advanced, the liberal lawyers mobilized to play the defensive roles, safeguarding judicial autonomy in parliament and in professional organizations. Moving onto a transnational perspective, this dissertation also notes how lawyers respond to the expansion of Chinese market. While economic integration moves across borders, jurisdictional boundary still matters as lawyers are agentic actors shaping policies that change or sustain the markets and hence the social structure of the bar.
Surrogate Model Assisted Nested Simulation with Applications to Variable Annuity Portfolio Valuation and Hedging
Keywords: Balanced Sampling
Dynamic Hedging
Nested Simulation
Spline Regression
Surrogate Modelling
Variable Annuity Portfolio

Variable annuities (VAs) are equity-linked annuities with embedded investment guarantees. Their long-term security and tax deferred features have made them one of the major insurance products in the world. Nowadays, many insurance companies are managing large VA portfolios that contain hundreds of thousands policies. Since most of the VA contributions are invested in the equity market, the insurance companies are exposed to significant market risks and risk managing the VA liabilities has become the central task. In practice, the stochastic-on-stochastic nested simulation is commonly used for VA portfolio valuation and risk management. The path-dependency of the embedded guarantees and the non-homogeneity of the VA policies make the nested simulation algorithm extremely complex and time-consuming to run. As a result, timely managing the portfolio risks becomes a major challenge to the insurance companies. The complexity of the nested simulation algorithm depends directly on three components: the number of policies, the number of outer-loop simulation, and the number of inner-loop simulation. In this thesis, we incorporate the idea of surrogate modelling to the nested simulation algorithm such that all of the input dimensions are reduced. The surrogate models act as proxies to approximate the input/output relationships. Since only a few input points are needed in order to identify the surrogate models, the simulation time could be shortened significantly. The key feature of the proposed algorithm is that the methodologies for selecting the inputs are theoretically justifiable from the statistical properties of the surrogate models. As a result, a robust performance can be ensured for the proposed algorithm in different context. Specifically, we introduce a model-assisted estimation framework with balanced sampling to reduce the number of policies, and a spline regression framework with scenario clustering to reduce the number of outer-/inner-loops. The proposed algorithm is applied to perform various valuations for large synthetic VA portfolios such as calculating the predictive liability distribution, the portfolio Greeks, and the regulatory capital requirement with dynamic hedging. The efficiency and the robustness of the algorithm are demonstrated through numerical studies on a number of uniform/non-uniform large synthetic VA portfolios and economics models.
The Fanconi Anaemia Group M (FANCM) Protein and its Binding Partner FAAP24 Modulate ALT Telomere Maintenance in Human Cells
Keywords: Alternative legethining of telomeres
FAAP24
FANCM
Fanconi anaemis
Telomere maintenance
Telomeres

Telomeres are repetitive DNA sequences located at the ends of linear eukaryotic chromosomes. Malignant cells maintain their telomere length and their immortality by two mechanisms. The less studied mechanism is Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT), an opportunistic homologous recombination-based pathway that takes advantage of replication stress and uses Break Induced Replication (BIR) to maintain telomere lengths. Many DNA replication, repair, and recombination proteins are implicated in ALT, including several proteins defective in the chromosome instability syndrome Fanconi anemia (FA). We investigated the possible involvement of two FA pathway proteins in ALT: FANCM and its binding partner FAAP24. FANCM and FAAP24 form a heterocomplex, bind DNA, and facilitate recovery of stalled replication forks. We find depletion of either protein in human ALT cell lines leads to a hyper-ALT state, an exaggeration of the ALT phenotype marked by elongation of telomere ends as well as increases in extrachromosomal telomeric DNA (ECTR) content and fragile telomeres. The increase in ECTR content is due to increased ECTR numbers not their length. Increases in fragile telomeres suggested the loss of either FANCM or FAAP24 enhances replication problems despite increased telomeric DNA synthesis. We further explore the effects of FANCM and FAAP24 on ALT through co-depletion experiments with BLM and polymerase δ, two proteins involved in BIR. We found that the excess elongation of telomeres and increased ECTR DNA synthesis seen in FANCM- or FAAP24 ALT-depleted cells is dependent on BLM and pol δ. Using our novel Halo-FISH protocol, we found that depletion of BLM or pol δ could suppress the excess number of ECTR DNAs and chromosomal telomere length that are seen in FANCM and FAAP24 co-depleted ALT cells. We conclude that FA pathway proteins restrain ALT and suppress the hyper-ALT phenotype by limiting BLM/polδ-dependent BIR-driven telomere synthesis. We propose that FANCM and FAAP24 act to rescue stalled replication forks and disrupts D-loop formation during BIR initiation so as to to limit BLM/polδ-dependent BIR-driven telomere synthesis. Our findings support recent BIR-based models for ALT telomere synthesis while adding additional details as to the crucial role of replication fork collapse in ALT.
Circles and Rivets: Cosmology and Teleology in Plato's Theory of the Soul
Keywords: Ancient philosophy
Body
Plato
Soul
Teleology
Timaeus

I propose a novel account of the soul in Plato’s philosophy as an entity that has surface, depth, location, extension, and is capable of contact and resistance. I take as my starting point Plato’s claim that the soul is the source of motion in the world and argue that while the soul has many characteristics normally associated with bodies, it is not a body. The distinguishing mark of the corporeal is visibility, and the soul is not visible. I show that we can see the spatial understanding of the soul most clearly in the Timaeus’ account of the soul’s creation. The soul is composed of eight circles. They are fashioned from incorporeal and corporeal varieties of Being, Sameness, and Difference. That the soul is half-corporeal and half-incorporeal allows it to interact with bodies in the way it needs to, but also relate to intelligible, incorporeal entities as a knower of them, which allows the soul to be the source of specifically orderly motion. Next, I take up an important consequence of the soul being in contact with bodies: it is vulnerable to them. Our soul is always in danger from bodily forces, and the body is the cause of all psychic disorders. I defend a new translation of a crucial sentence at Timaeus 86b that has been widely misunderstood. Nevertheless, the body is useful for the soul. The gods showed their resourcefulness when they made our bodies: they used the body’s inevitable imperfections to serve the goal of improving our souls. This is at the heart of what I call the instrumental relationship between the soul and body. I conclude by examining Plato’s theory of reincarnation. The theory functions as a natural-philosophical explanation of how non-human animals came into existence, which was required for the perfection of the cosmos. I argue that there is a trend, exemplified in the Timaeus and Laws, away from seeing reincarnation as a punishment for the individual soul and more towards thinking of it as useful for the perfection of the cosmos.
Controlled Organization of Cell Fates in Spatially Confined Stem Cell Populations
Keywords: gastrulation
high throughput
image analysis
micropattern
stem cells
symmetry breaking

During embryonic development, cells divide and differentiate over space and time as instructed by their environment to create complex, functionally diverse tissues. Our understanding of the underlying orchestrating rules is incomplete, but recent studies have started to reveal how to instruct cultured pluripotent cell populations to undergo similar developmental-like organizational events. Here, we induce spatially polarized cell fate organization in micropatterned colonies, previously only reported for non-adherent or locally induced cell populations. Underlying this discovery was the augmentation of our micropatterning high-throughput platform through the development of analytical frameworks to automate the quantification of heterogeneous cell responses. These developments enabled rapid hypotheses generation and testing, which enabled new insights into the underlying biology of how and when cell fate organization occurs. Specifically, we developed analytical frameworks to accurately identify colonies of cells within an image and localization of positively expressing regions within these, which enabled automatic quantification of spatial fate organization. We show that when mouse pluripotent stem cells are differentiated on micropatterns towards gastrulation-like fates, their normally symmetrical spatial organization of cell fates can be modified by changing the micropattern diameter and cell density. By differentiating cells at low to medium density on circular micropatterns of 200-300 um in diameter, we induce polarized organization of primitive streak-like and anterior epiblast-like cells, reminiscent of how these populations are localized during development. We study the emergence of this organization using live imaging and found that polarization occurs largely due to reorganization within the colony post-induction. Overall, our results show that system size, both in terms of colony geometry and cell number at the time of differentiation, is critical for polarized cell fate organization. We hypothesize that this could indicate a need for developmentally relevant system sizes in polarization of micropatterned colonies, and that it might be driven by initial heterogeneities in colony morphology or cell fate distribution, or minor fluctuation that are allowed to amplify and perturb a homogeneous state. These insights on how to control and quantify fate organization in cell populations can advance both our understanding of developmental processes and how to create complex tissues with regenerative engineering.
Linguistic Asymmetries, Relative Deprivation, Discrimination, Cosmopolitanism, and Localism Among Official Language Minorities: Three Studies on the Anglo-Quebecer and Franco-Ontarian Communities
Keywords: cosmopolitanism
identities
minorities
official languages
participation
survey methods

This dissertation comprises three studies on the Anglo-Quebecer and Franco-Ontarian communities using original survey data collected in 2017. The first study assesses Canada’s two official languages with updated census data, then compares how their status is perceived. Evidence reveals that, while Canadian society is becoming increasingly multilingual, and while English and French are both losing ground as mother tongues and languages used most often at home, both are not equally used at work. English is making progress in the province of Québec as a language of work, whereas French is only rarely used by workers outside the province of Québec and is becoming increasingly marginal in the province of Ontario. A group comparison shows that Franco-Ontarians are much more likely than Anglo-Quebecers to judge that the language of the outgroup (or the language of the majority group) is “useful”. Conversely, Anglo-Quebecers are much more likely than Franco-Ontarians to judge that their own language, or the language of the ingroup, is “useful”. The second study finds that there is evidence of a state of relative deprivation among Anglo-Quebecers respondents. The latter judge that their group is at a disadvantage in comparison with francophones and consider their minority group to be the victim of discrimination in the province of Québec. Updated census data on family income of the majority and minority groups reveal that Anglophones are over-represented in the lower income brackets and under-represented in the middle categories, thus challenging conventional wisdom about Anglophones being a wealthy class of citizens in Québec. Predictive models show that, contrary to expectations, the higher the state of relative deprivation and perceived discrimination, the lower the likelihood of being an organizational activist. The third study compares the strength of local, provincial, federal, and global affiliations of Anglo-Quebecers and Franco-Ontarians and examines whether organizational engagement is a determinant of belonging. Results reveal that organizational activists among both minority groups are less likely to identify as cosmopolitan than rank-and-file members and more likely to identify with other, more local types of affiliation. As a whole, the dissertation highlights the relevance of language in understanding Canadian politics.
Cow’s Milk Fat and Child Growth, Development and Nutrition
Keywords: milk
obesity
paediatrics

Background: Health Canada and the Canadian Paediatric Society suggest that children over age 2 years transition from whole (3.25%) to reduced fat (0.1-2%) milk in effort to lower dietary fat intake and reduce the risk of overweight and obesity. However, observational studies have demonstrated that higher milk fat intake is associated with lower child adiposity. The optimal milk fat for child growth, development and nutrition is unknown. Objectives: 1) Determine the relationship between milk fat and child adiposity among existing literature, 2) Understand parent and physician perspectives about milk fat for children, 3) Evaluate the relationship between milk fat and child zBMI among children aged 9 months-8 years in the TARGet Kids! cohort, and 4) Design and launch a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to determine the effect of recommendations for whole vs. reduced fat milk on zBMI among children aged 2-4 years. Methods: 1) A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted, 2) A qualitative study which sought to understand current practice, attitudes and preferences about milk fat for children aged 2-5 years, 3) A prospective cohort study was conducted using linear mixed effects models, and 4) A RCT protocol (Cow’s Milk Fat Obesity pRevention Trial or CoMFORT) was developed to be embedded in TARGet Kids!. Results: Among 20,897 children aged 9 months-18 years, those who consumed whole milk had 0.61 (95% CI 0.52-0.72, p
CD301/CLEC10 Expression and its Role in IL-4 driven Multinucleated Giant Cell Formation
Keywords: Cell fusion
Foreign body giant cell
Interleukin-4
Multinucleated giant cell
Osteoclast

Multinucleated giant cells (MGCs) are prominent in foreign body granulomas, infectious and inflammatory processes, auto-immune, neoplastic, and genetic disorders but the molecular determinants that specify the formation and function of these cells are not defined. By tandem tag spectrometry we identified a differentially upregulated protein, C-type lectin domain family 10 member (CLEC10; CD301), which was strongly upregulated in human and mouse macrophages undergoing IL-4-induced MGC formation. CD301-positive MGCs were identified in human biopsy specimens of inflammatory lesions. Function-inhibiting CD301 antibodies or CRISPR/Cas9 deletion of the two mouse CD301 genes inhibited IL-4-induced binding of N-Acetylgalactosamine-coated beads by 4-fold and reduced MGC formation by 2.3- fold (p
Best Practices, Trendy Urbanists, and Hybrid Policy Mobilities in the Laboratory for the City in Mexico City
Keywords: innovation laboratories
Mexico City
policy mobilities
sustainability
urban equity

In this thesis I explore the referencing of mobility and urban sustainability best practices by decision makers who are working within the asymmetrical institutional power dynamics of Mexico City’s government. Specifically, I use the Laboratory for the City to emphasize the assumed equitable outcomes of best practices by decisions makers versus their actual outcomes during and following implementation. I conceptualize the Laboratory for the City, designed to translate transnational best practices to Mexico City to foster urban livability, as representative of how the policy making process can be inadvertently skewed to favor the values of the already privileged. I pay special attention to the race and class of the Laboratory for the City’s employees to illustrate how privilege manifests itself through connections to transnational knowledge networks that celebrate best practices as local solutions to urban sustainability issues. I argue that best practices are given preference in neighborhoods ripe for economic development and, when implemented in economically marginalized neighborhoods, tend to reflect the needs and values of decision makers. I conclude that the ad hoc adoption of best practices within Mexico City is perpetuating an established history of elite-based decision making by inflating the urbanism desires of the already privileged. I call for equity to be conceptualized based on the local context as opposed to within the transnational knowledge networks influencing the global urbanism agenda.
An Exploration of the Experiences of Post-secondary Education for Ontario’s Multi-barriered Female Mature Students
Keywords: Capabilities approach
College
Intersectionality
Life history
Mature students
Second Career

This study explores the experiences of multi-barriered mature students in Ontario’s colleges, specifically female students that have been out of school for at least 10 years attending post-secondary education (PSE) through the Government of Ontario’s Second Career program. Having qualified for the Second Career program means, by definition, these women have recently been laid off, have low socio-economic status, and for most, this is their first time attending PSE in Canada. Informed by the intersectionality and capabilities approach frameworks, the study considers the multiple and complex dimensions of marginalization, as well as the real opportunities and freedoms the participants have in pursuing the lives they find reason to value. Through a series of in-depth interviews with 12 students, using a life history methodology, this study investigates the following research questions: how do mature students embodying various marginalities experience PSE and how do they understand the difficulties they encounter? This study also inquires why the students think they are facing the stated difficulties, how they have come to make sense of them, and how they have been coping with or managing the difficulties. Findings show that most had positive memories of their earlier schooling experiences. The participants viewed the opportunity to begin PSE as ‘a way out’ of their current situations by enhancing their capabilities for education and work. The participants also reported feelings of great anxiety and fear about entering PSE. Some of the difficulties they experienced in PSE were low English proficiency skills; an age gap; and being time poor. Some attributed the difficulties they faced as being signs of personal failure, while others saw barriers embedded in the systems. Support from family, friends, and other mature student peers, and finding their own ways to cope were described as important in helping to overcome the difficulties or to at least ‘get by.’ Two sub-groups of participants are identified, with very different needs, suggesting that a one-size-fits-all model of supporting multi-barriered mature students is not appropriate. Based on the findings, recommendations for future research, PSE institutions, and policy and government are provided.
Understanding Minds: Essays on Social Cognition
Keywords: epistemology
mind
perception
social cognition

We know a lot about one another. Our suite of capacities and strategies for understanding one another— ‘social cognition’—is remarkable. This dissertation is a detailed investigation of social cognition. I argue that we perceive agency, but not mental states, and that attention to perception-based mental state attribution surprisingly constrains the epistemology of perception. Then I argue that theorists of social cognition have been too focused on behavior, and that social cognition has essential cognitive functions beyond behavior prediction and explanation. Finally, I argue that the personal–subpersonal distinction is constructed by social cognition. The boundaries of a person are determined by our social intelligence.