VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Emergence, Development and Survival of Four Lesbian and Gay Archives
Keywords: archival studies
community archives
gay rights movement
lesbian feminism
LGBTQ history
social movement theory

Lesbian and gay archives, particularly those established within the context of the homophile, gay liberation, and lesbian feminist movements, serve as social movement organizations (SMOs). That is, they are organizational and administrative members of activist communities that acquire, manage, and share resources for the purpose of collective action for social change. Archives are nevertheless absent from literature on social movements and social movement theory. This project was designed to expand on current research in the fields of archival studies, social movement studies, and sexuality studies to better understand the experiences of lesbian and gay archives. A multiple case study was conducted at four community grown archives: The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, The June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, and the Lesbian Herstory Archives. Site visits took place over six months in 2013 and 2014, during which time interviews were conducted with 33 community archivists, volunteers, and community partners. In addition, more than 20,000 pages of organizational records related to the founding and development of these archives were reviewed. By tracing the emergence, development, and resource struggles of four lesbian and gay archives, this dissertation shows how these organizations have been shaped by broader movement goals, local geographies, socio-political structures, and the particular interests and energies of those who have nurtured their collections over the years. I examine how these archives have sustained themselves over time. Discussions with community archivists, volunteers, and community partners have generally confirmed that the four archives that inform this study are SMOs, but have also raised important questions about the sustainability of archives established by and for social movements. The dissertation tells a history of each archives and comments on the common challenges that they have faced over the past forty-plus years. Engagements between these archives and their local academic institutions are also explored, as are their continuing relationships with the communities they serve. By tracing the emergence and development of these organizations, this project uncovers representational politics, institutional pluralism, generational divides, shifting national politics, interpersonal relations, and challenges with sustainability, both financial and otherwise.
Three Essays on Legal Issues Impacting the Employment Relationship in Canada
Keywords: bad faith dismissals or terminations
content analysis
empirical legal studies
freedom of association
grievance arbitration
labour and employment law

The first of three papers helps resolve the substantial debate about the impact of Honda v. Keays, a 2008 Supreme Court of Canada decision modifying the principles for compensating employees for improper employer conduct during dismissal (called “moral damages”). I performed content analysis on all relevant Canadian cases in the four years after Honda and an equivalent period before Honda and then used a tobit model to test legal scholars’ and lawyers’ predictions. I find that moral damages are less probable after Honda. Furthermore, the size of awards is smaller in those cases where moral damages are granted, partly because certain levels of employer misconduct now produce lower damages. However, I also find that, since Honda, high levels of mental distress are compensated more richly. The second paper is motivated by the absence of recent studies that investigate delay in grievance arbitration, despite increasing concerns being voiced about the issue. I performed content analysis on a random sample of about 400 Ontario arbitration awards, and then used a proportional hazards model to examine the extent of delay and its determinants. Consistent with common perception, the results suggest that delay has become a worse problem over the past two decades. I find that certain legalistic factors and the expanded jurisdiction of arbitrators over specific types of issues are associated with delay. The results also show that certain dispute resolution procedures are related to decreased delay, and this suggests some practical solutions. Prompted by a recent series of Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) decisions on freedom of association (FOA) in the labour context, the third paper critically examines the Canadian jurisprudence. The state of this law in Canada has been roundly criticized by various prominent labour law academics. This paper relies on Sheldon Leader’s theory of FOA to argue that the SCC should have interpreted s. 2(d) of the Charter as protecting collective bargaining and striking as independent rights, rather than as rights necessary for the realization of the FOA. Having done so would have yielded jurisprudence that was more consistent and coherent.
Prodigals in Love: Narrating Gay Identity and Collectivity on the Early Internet in China
Keywords: China
formation
homosexuality
identity
internet
literature

This dissertation concerns itself with the eruption of a large number of gay narratives on the Chinese internet in its first decade. There are two central arguments. First, the composing and sharing of narratives online played the role of a social movement that led to the formation of gay identity and collectivity in a society where open challenges to the authorities were minimal. Four factors, 1) the primacy of the internet, 2) the vernacular as an avenue of creativity and interpretation, 3) the transitional experience of the generation of the internet, and 4) the evolution of gay narratives, catalyzed by the internet, enhanced, amplified, and interacted with each other in a highly complicated and accelerated dynamic, engendered a virtual gay social movement. Second, many online gay narratives fall into what I term "prodigal romance," which depicts gay love as parent-obligated sons in love with each other, weaving in violent conflicts between desire and duty in its indigenous context. The prodigal part of this model invokes the archetype of the Chinese prodigal, who can only return home having excelled and with the triumph of his journey. The romantic part imbues love between men with the power of shaping and transforming the self and the weight of anchoring an identity. The result is often the parting of the two lovers, with one returning home a good son to his duty and another continuing as a gay orphan, wandering in pursuit of his desire. The latter is a new desiring subject who chooses to integrate his desire as a core of his identity; and he is the figure bearing the purpose of the movement.
Living Inventions: Genetically Modified Organisms and the Canadian Patent System, 1976-2004
Keywords: Genetically Modified Organisms
History of Biotechnology
History of Patents -- Canada
Science Policy

Living Inventions: Genetically Modified Organisms and the Canadian Patent System, 1976-2004 Rebecca Moore Doctor of Philosophy Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology University of Toronto 2015 Abstract This dissertation tells the history of the interaction between the Canadian patent system and conceptions of the organism. Although organisms have been modified by humans for millennia, their entry into the patent system demanded they be understood as human inventions in accordance with the requirements of the Patent Act. It was not enough for an organism to simply be modified by humans; instead, the modified organism had to be seen as designed and controlled by a human inventor. I explore how the organism became conceived as a living invention during the patent process. The result is a contemporary history that sheds light on Canada's current, convoluted approach to the patenting of organisms, where "lower" organisms are patentable in their entirety and "higher" organisms are not, yet patents on pieces of "higher" organisms (i.e., patents on genes contained within an organism) give the inventor control over the whole organism. This dissertation is organized around two questions: 1) How was the organism described in the Canadian patent system? 2) Why was the organism described in this way? These questions are explored through a close analysis of four key patent applications filed with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, beginning in 1976, and their subsequent journey through the Canadian judicial system. I argue that in order to answer these questions, these cases must be understood in the context of the nexus between the molecularization of biology, government and corporate investment in biotechnology, and the nature of legal protection provided by the state. It is only at this nexus that one can explain why whole, modified organisms found their way into the patent system in the first place while also illuminating how - as a consequence of their entry into the patent system - organisms were described.
American Architecture and the Promise of Modernization in Postwar Turkey
Keywords: Americanization
Cold War
Cultural Transfer
Domestic Architecture
Post-War Turkish Architecture
Technical Assistance

This dissertation examines the Turkish reception of American architectural culture in the post-World War II period, with particular focus on the manner and geographical scope of the transfer of American architecture overseas in the wake of the Marshall Plan. I analyze the vehicles for the transmission of American architecture, including professional publications, exhibitions, technical assistance missions, scholarly exchanges, and projects constructed with US funds. In order to account for the circulation of American architectural ideals in postwar Turkey, I also draw on new research on popular culture and examine films, women's and family magazines, travelogues, and newly-emerging consumption habits that were effective in transmitting and disseminating ideas about the American way of life. My main concern is to show how in the context of Turkey's modernization efforts during the 1950s Turkish architecture looked to, reinterpreted, and even contested American architecture, planning ideals and building technologies. To this end, this dissertation delineates three different instances of cultural interaction between Turkey and the United States, which highlight the diffusion of American architectural ideals to Turkish architectural scene: the construction of the Istanbul Hilton Hotel as the centerpiece for Turkey's attempt to increase its share of the growing international travel market; the US contribution to the Izmir International Trade Fair where American domestic design and consumer goods were put on display; and the establishment of a school of architecture and planning in the Turkish capital Ankara with the assistance of American experts. I argue that American architecture cannot simply be viewed as serving to advance US political and economic interests in Turkey. American buildings, planning ideals, and notions of domestic modernity helped channel Turkey's pursuit of modernization and progress which was concentrated in three major areas: the development of international tourism, the creation of a consumer economy and the establishment of institutions of higher education.
MRI-compatibility enhancements to USM performance for interventional devices in MR environments
Keywords: Force Sensor
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
MRI Compatible
MRI Safe
Surgical Robotics
Ultrasonic Motor

The safe performance of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided robot-assisted interventions requires full control and high precision of assistive devices and tools. Because many currently available tools are not MRI-compatible, the characterization of existing tools and development of new ones are necessary. The behaviour of an ultrasonic motor (USM), the most common MRI-safe actuator, in a high-field (3T) MRI scanner was investigated. To characterize the axial force generated by the USM, a generic MRI-compatible force sensor (MCFS) was developed. USM effects on MCFS performance were examined under various sensor load and motion states while the scanner was on and off. The effects of the USM on MR images were investigated. The shift in the resonance frequency of water protons induced by the USM was measured. Image artifacts caused by the USM were classified. Geometric distortions on images and degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio were assessed. Compensation methods to reduce image artifacts were developed. To ascertain the potential risks of USM and the degree of MRI compatibility, the displacement force and deflection torque generated by the scanner on the USM were characterized. The effect of temperature increase caused by the scanner was also evaluated. Temperature increase causing degradation of USM output characteristics, can be reduced by the use of the developed USM case. In conclusion, the MCFS can precisely operate in the vicinity of USMs and in a high-field scanner. This research shows that it is not necessary to keep the USMs at a distance from the MR scanner to address compatibility issues. Furthermore, this thesis demonstrates that the use of compensation methods to reduce image artifacts and the recommended use of silicon carbide to reduce temperature increase due the magnetic field enhance the USMâ s compatibility and lead to safe, accurate, and reliable operation of the USM in high field MRI.
Explaining Multiculturalism's Survival: Electoral Outcomes, Policy Design, and Veto Players
Keywords: Comparative Politics
Electoral Outcomes
Multiculturalism
Policy Design
Public Policy
Veto Players

Multiculturalism, by which I mean the recognition and accommodation of cultural minorities borne out of individual and familial immigration, is a political project of the old political left, one that is logically inconsistent with the ideological positions of the political right. Due to this inconsistency, we should therefore expect multiculturalism to retreat following an ideological shift to the right in national level politics. However, this study shows that this does not always happen: sometimes multiculturalism survives an ideological shift to the right. This study argues that the likelihood of multiculturalism surviving an ideological shift to the right in national level politics is affected by electoral outcomes, by policy design and by the actions of critical veto players. More precisely, it argues that multiculturalism is more likely to survive an ideological shift to the right in national level politics when (1) parties of the political right secure enough votes in national level elections to govern but not to decide unilaterally (i.e. when they fail to form a minimum winning coalition), (2) failing that, when multiculturalism policies have been written into formal rules, have multiple stakeholders, or are ‘locked-in’ and therefore immune to the vagaries of electoral competition and (3) if multiculturalism policies are either de-institutionalized, have a single stakeholder, or are ‘open’ to re-examination, when critical veto players intercede to maintain the status quo despite strong partisan opposition to multiculturalism. Ironically, when the fate of multiculturalism rests in the hands of veto players their decisions to maintain the status quo seems to have little if anything to do with a genuine belief in the recognition and accommodation of cultural minorities. This study’s hypothesis of multiculturalism’s survival is developed through a step-by-step comparison of recent policy developments in three immigrant-receiving countries: Canada, Britain, and the United States. These countries share three things in common. Firstly, they were all part of a vanguard of immigrant receiving countries that turned towards multiculturalism during the latter half of the 20th century. Secondly, they have each recently experienced an ideological shift to the right in national level politics resulting from the electoral victories of center-right political parties. Thirdly, each of these cases demonstrates that multiculturalism has survived, albeit to varying degrees and in different ways, following an ideological shift to the right in national level politics. Due to these similarities, we can control for a stimulus that should have, all things being equal, entailed multiculturalism’s retreat across the three cases and, in so doing, identify the factors that provide the basis for a plausible explanation of multiculturalism’s survival.
Tumour-suppressive and -promoting functions of Sufu in Sonic Hedgehog subgroup of medulloblastoma
Keywords: brain cancer
ChIP-Seq
Gli
hedgehog signaling
Medulloblastoma
Sufu

Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant childhood brain tumor. Approximately 30% of MBs arise due to aberrant activity of the Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signaling pathway. In SHH MBs, GLI proteins, particularly the major transcriptional activator GLI2, are highly expressed. In 60% of human SHH MBs, mutations in transmembrane signaling proteins PTCH1 and SMO are believed to unleash GLI activity. The exact roles of the intracellular GLI regulator SUFU in MB tumorigenesis remain poorly understood. SUFU mutations are identified in ~30% of infant SHH MBs which represent the most difficult-to-treat subgroup, because radiation and non-specific chemotherapy are both extremely harmful to infants and young children. Limited progress to date is due to the lack of faithful preclinical models and a poor molecular understanding of infant SHH MB. Strikingly, despite the Gli-inhibitory functions of Sufu, I found that loss of Sufu alone is insufficient to drive MB tumorigenesis in mice due to unsustained Gli activity. I showed that Sufu and Spop, an adaptor of E3 ubiquitin ligase, play central roles in suppressing MB tumorigenesis in mice through regulation of Gli2 protein stability. Using genetic mutants of Sufu and Spop, I established a novel preclinical mouse model of infant SHH MB with aggressive early-onset tumour formation. Through ChIP-Seq and RNA-Seq analyses, I identified more than 800 putative direct transcriptional targets of Gli2 in the Sufu;Spop infant MB mouse model, representing the first comprehensive dataset of Gli2 target genes. This study provides important insight to the molecular understanding of the transcriptional events underlying SHH MB tumorigenesis and reveals potential new therapeutic targets. I also found that loss of Sufu in Ptch1/Smo MB models leads to significantly prolonged survival, reduced Gli2 protein, and low overall pathway activity. Thus, Sufu acts positively to promote MB formation in Ptch1/Smo MB models, and represents a potential therapeutic target for MBs harboring PTCH1/SMO mutations.
Microfluidic Platforms for Cell Encapsulation in Biomimetic Hydrogels
Keywords: 2D arrays
Extracellular matrix
Hydrogel
Microfluidics
Multicellular cancer spheroids
Nanofibrillar gel

This thesis aims at studies of cell encapsulation and growth in hydrogel materials used as artificial extracellular matrices using microfluidic platforms. In the first project, I proposed and developed a method to overcome the challenge in the generation of microgels from highly viscous polymer solutions. I explored the application of the ‘‘direct injection’’ method for the preparation of microgels by adding a highly concentrated polymer solution or a gelling agent directly to the precursor droplets flowing through microchannels. I show that, the direct injection method can be used for microgel preparation from concentrated polymer solutions. The application of this method expands the range of polymers used for MF generation of microgels. In the second project, I describe the preparation of temperature-responsive nanofibrillar hydrogels from rod-shaped cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) functionalized with a copolymer of N-isopropylacrylamide and N,N′-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate. The composition of the copolymer was tuned to achieve gelation of the suspension of copolymer-functionalized CNCs at 37 °C in cell culture medium and gel dissociation upon cooling it to room temperature. The mechanical properties and the structure of the hydrogel were controlled by changing copolymer composition and the CNC-to-copolymer mass ratio. The thermoreversible gels were used for the encapsulation and culture of fibroblasts and T cells and showed low cytotoxicity. In the third project, I developed a microfluidic platform for the generation of two-dimensional (2D) arrays of micrometer-size cell-laden hydrogel modules (HMs) for cell encapsulation and culture. Fibroblast cells (NIH 3T3) and non-adherent T cells (EL4) encapsulated in HMs showed high viability and proliferation. The platform was used for real-time studies of the effect of spatial constraints and structural and mechanical properties of HMs on cell growth, both on the level of individual cells. In the fourth project, I developed a microfluidic platform to generate 2D arrays of multicellular cancer spheroids (MCSs) in hydrogels formed by chemically modified hyaluronic acid (HA). I analyzed the properties of MCSs encapsulated in HA hydrogels, discussed important factors to consider in their preparation and showed potential advantages of the MF platform for fundamental studies in cancer cell biology and drug screening. This work requires further optimization and development.
Delineating Transforming Mechanisms of the C19MC OncomiR Cluster in Embryonal Brain Tumours
Keywords: Brain tumours
C19MC
Cell cycle
Epigenetics
LIN28
Neural differentiation

Central nervous system-primitive neuroectodermal tumours (CNS-PNET) represent a distinctly aggressive and clinically heterogeneous class of embryonal brain tumours with poorly understood biology. Previously, our lab discovered that a highly aggressive CNS-PNET subgroup (Group 1/C19MC-altered) is distinguished by C19MC amplification/TTYH1-C19MC gene fusions and high expression of the RNA binding protein, LIN28. Together with prior observations that C19MC alters human neural stem cell growth phenotypes, these findings suggest C19MC as a critical modulator of neural differentiation. However, the molecular mechanisms by which C19MC OncomiRs alter neural differentiation and mediate transformation are unclear. My thesis project investigated the hypothesis that the C19MC OncomiR cluster drives tumourigenesis by inhibiting critical neural differentiation pathways to promote multipotent cell states. My studies demonstrate that C19MC OncomiRs enhance cell cycle progression and neural proliferation through additive inhibitory effects on cell cycle checkpoint regulators p21, p27 and RBL2. Furthermore, my studies show C19MC upregulates the de novo DNA methyltransferase DNMT3B via inhibition of RBL2, leading to distinct methylation signatures. Most significantly, my studies discovered a novel hybrid super-enhancer resulting from TTYH1-C19MC fusion that powerfully drives a C19MC/LIN28 feedback circuit to regulate expression of DNMT3A and DNMT3B and promote a primitive-neural epigenetic state. Collectively, my results point to C19MC and LIN28 as major oncogenic drivers in Group 1/C19MC-altered embryonal brain tumours.