VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Social Conservatives and the Boundary of Politics in Canada and the United States
Keywords: Conservatism
Party Politics
Social Issues
Canadian Politics
American Politics

This dissertation investigates social conservative activism in the American Republican Party and in four parties of the Canadian right: the Progressive Conservative Party, Reform Party, Canadian Alliance Party, and Conservative Party of Canada. While issues like gay and lesbian rights and abortion became politically contentious in both countries during the late 1960s, American social conservatives emerged earlier than their Canadian counterparts and enjoyed considerably more success. Understanding this contrast explains an important part of the difference between Canadian and American politics and explicates a key aspect of modern conservatism in North America. The argument developed here focuses on different norms about the boundary of politics held in right-wing parties in the two countries. Norms are embedded components of institutions that codify the “logic of appropriateness” for actors within a given institution (March and Olsen 1989, 160) and both construct and regulate the identities of political actors (Katzentstein 1996). The recognition of norms has been an important development in organizational theory, but one that has never been applied to modern office-seeking parties (Ware 1996, Berman 1998). Qualitative case studies establish that many Republicans understood both sexuality and appeals to religion as politically legitimate throughout the period under investigation. In Canada, alternatively, Progressive Conservatives saw such questions as being inappropriate grounds for political activity. This norm restricted social conservative mobilization in the party. It was only when the Reform Party upset both the institutions and ideology of Canadian conservatism that social conservatives began to gain prominence in Canadian politics. Since then, the success of Canadian social conservatives has been limited by Canada’s political culture and institutions but they are now, as their American counterparts have long been, consistently recognized by other Canadian conservatives as partners in the conservative coalition.
Fermions and Bosons on an Atom Chip
Keywords: ultra-cold atoms
Bose-Einstein condensates
degenerate Fermi gases
quantum degenerate gases of neutral atoms
sympathetic cooling
radio-frequency double-well potentials
matter wave interference
atom chips
laser cooling
magnetic trapping
quantum atom optics
quantum statistics

Ultra-cold dilute gases of neutral atoms are attractive candidates for creating controlled mesoscopic quantum systems. In particular, quantum degenerate gases of bosonic and fermionic atoms can be used to model the correlated many-body behaviour of Bose and Fermi condensed matter systems, and to study matter wave interference and coherence. This thesis describes the experimental realization and manipulation of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of 87Rb and degenerate Fermi gases (DFGs) of 40K using static and dynamic magnetic atom chip traps. Atom chips are versatile modern tools used to manipulate atomic gases. The chips consist of micrometre-scale conductors supported by a planar insulating substrate, and can be used to create confining potentials for neutral atoms tens or hundreds of micrometres from the chip surface. We demonstrate for the first time that a DFG can be produced via sympathetic cooling with a BEC using a simple single-vacuum-chamber apparatus. The large 40K-87Rb collision rate afforded by the strongly confining atom chip potential permits rapid cooling of 40K to quantum degeneracy via sympathetic cooling with 87Rb. By studying 40K-87Rb cross-thermalization as a function of temperature, we observe the Ramsauer-Townsend reduction in the 40K-87Rb elastic scattering cross-section. We achieve DFG temperatures as low as T = 0.1TF , and observe Fermi pressure in the time-of-flight expansion of the gas. This thesis also describes the radio-frequency (RF) manipulation of trapped atoms to create dressed state double-well potentials for BEC and DFG.We demonstrate for the first time that RF-dressed potentials are species-selective, permitting the formation of simultaneous 87Rb double-well and 40K single-well potentials using a 40K-87Rb mixture. We also develop tools to measure fluctuations of the relative atom number and relative phase of a dynamically split 87Rb BEC. In particular, we observe atom number fluctuations at the shot-noise level using time-of-flight absorption imaging. These measurement tools lay the foundation for future investigations of number squeezing and matter wave coherence in BEC and DFG systems.
Methods and Motion in Paediatric fMRI
Keywords: functional magnetic resonance imaging
methodology
brain development
paediatric

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) enables non-invasive investigation of the neural functions with excellent spatial resolution. Although fMRI has primarily been developed in young adult populations, its use is becoming widespread in paediatrics. However, there are many differences, both behavioural and physical, between adults and children requiring adjustments to imaging and analysis methodology to optimise the results in children. This thesis examines fMRI analysis methodology to improve the detection of developmental changes in the brain. The work uses an emotional and familiar face paradigm that elicits strong BOLD fMRI responses in the fusiform, a region that is still developing across childhood. This face paradigm also enables the comparison of the fusiform responses to the primary visual cortex to link to extensive results in the literature. Thirty five 4-8 year old children and fourteen adults (18-30 years old) were scanned. To address the concern of anatomical size differences between the brains of adults and children, the anatomical variability of the fusiform was measured and the validity of stereotaxic transformation into an adult template was confirmed for the children. To investigate the effect of threshold settings between the adults and children, individual subject analyses of the peak activation location, estimated signal percent change and noise values were calculated using the general linear model (GLM). Similar functional peak locations between individuals were quantitatively selected using a novel application of the activation likelihood estimation (ALE). Also, several different preprocessing steps were evaluated for their ability to correct for the increased motion frequently seen in children, in a quantitative framework (NPAIRS) using canonical variates analysis (CVA), a data driven multivariate model as well as the standard univariate GLM. Functional differences between the adults and the children were identified in the fusiform by applying these optimised procedures. The results of this thesis demonstrate that thresholding and preprocessing pipelines must be made in a group-specific fashion. These methods can also be extended to elderly populations, enabling the investigation of the complete ageing spectrum with fMRI.
Modelling the Mind: Conceptual Blending and Modernist Narratives
Keywords: Modernist Narratives
Cognitive Approaches
Rhetorical Approaches
Conceptual Blending
Reading

This thesis offers a new approach to mind modelling in modernist narratives. Taking Nietzsche’s work as exemplary of modernist ideas about cognition’s relational basis, I argue that conceptual blending theory, a particularly cogent model of a fundamental cognitive process, has roots in modernism. I read inscriptions of relational cognition in modernist narratives as “conceptual blends” that invite cognitive mobility as a central facet of reader response. These blends, which integrate conceptual domains, invite similarity-seeing and difference-seeing, exposing the reader to new conceptual content and new cognitive styles; she is thus better able to negotiate the reading-related complexities of modernist narrative’s formal innovations and the real-world complexities of modernity’s local and global upheavals. Chapter One considers blending’s interrelated rhetorical motivations and cognitive effects in Chiang Yee’s Silent Traveller narratives: bringing together English and Chinese domains, Chiang’s blends defamiliarize his readers’ culturally entrenched assumptions, invite collaborative reading strategies, and thus equip his readers for relating flexibly to a newly globalized world. Moving away from blends in a text’s narration, Chapter Two focuses on blends as textual structuring principles. I read Virginia Woolf’s The Waves as a thinking mind with fundamentally relational cognitive processes; I consider the mobile cognitive operations we perform reading about a text’s mind thinking and thinking along with it. Chapters Three and Four cross the nebulous text-peritext border to examine blends in modernist prefaces. Chapter Three focuses on blends in Joseph Conrad’s and Henry James’s prefaces, relating them, through the reading strategies they invite, to the narratives they accompany. Chapter Four considers allographic prefaces to Arthur Morrison’s Tales of Mean Streets and two of Chiang’s narratives: blends in these prefaces invite the cognitive mobility necessary for reconceptualizing both allographic preface-text and East-West relations. All four chapters treat the modernist narrative text as a textual system whose blends, often interacting and borderless, signal reciprocal, mutually permeable relations among its textual levels. Dialogic relations also underwrite the interaction between these blends and blends the reader performs when engaging with them. Modernist narratives model (bear inscriptions of) cognition’s relational processes in order to model (shape) the reader’s mind.
Modulation of the M2 Muscarinic Cholinergic Receptor by Cholesterol
Keywords: GPCR
Cholesterol
Cooperativity
Muscarinic
Oligomers

M2 muscarinic receptor extracted from Sf9 cells in cholate-NaCl differs from that extracted from porcine sarcolemmal membranes. Whereas the latter has been shown to exhibit non-competitive effects in the binding of N-methylscopolamine (NMS) and quinuclidinylbenzilate (QNB), which can be explained in terms of cooperativity within a receptor that is at least tetravalent, binding to the former is essentially competitive. Levels of cholesterol in Sf9 membranes were only 5% of those in sarcolemmal membranes and were increased to about 100% by means of cholesterol-methyl-β-cyclodextrin. M2 receptors extracted from CHL-treated Sf9 membranes resembled those from heart; that is, cholesterol induced a pronounced heterogeneity detected in the binding of both radioligands, including a shortfall in the apparent capacity for [3H]NMS, and there were marked discrepancies in the apparent affinity of NMS as estimated directly and via the inhibition of [3H]QNB. The data can be described quantitatively in terms of cooperative effects among six or more interacting sites, apparently within an oligomer. Cholesterol also was found to increase the affinity of the receptor for NMS and QNB, and the effect was examined for its possible relationship to the known interconversion of cardiac muscarinic receptors between an agonist-specific (R*) and an antagonist-specific (R) state. Cholesterol and N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) were compared for their effect on the affinity of NMS, QNB and four muscarinic agonists, and the data were assessed in terms of an explicit mechanistic model for a receptor that interconverts spontaneously between two states. The data can be described equally well by an effect of cholesterol on either the distribution of receptors between R and R* or the affinity of all ligands for both states, with an accompanying effect of NEM on either the affinity or the distribution between states, respectively. Since NEM is known from other data to favor R* over R, cholesterol appears to increase affinity per se. Cholesterol therefore is a determinant of affinity and cooperativity in the binding of orthosteric ligands to the M2 receptor. Both effects are observed in solution and therefore appear to arise from a direct interaction between the lipid and the receptor.
Compatibility of X-ray Tubes with Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scanners for Aortic Valve Replacement
Keywords: multimodality imaging
percutaneous interventions
x-ray imaging
magnetic fields
x-ray tube
magnetic resonance imaging
aortic valve replacement
interventional cardiology

Aortic stenosis is the most common acquired heart valve condition. Open-heart surgical aortic valve replacement is an effective treatment for patients who receive it. However, approximately one-third of patients who require this treatment do not receive it due to the risks associated with the surgery. Percutaneous aortic valve replacement (PAVR) is a minimally invasive technique that can replace the aortic valve of patients contraindicated for open-heart surgery. Although PAVR is now entering clinical practice, a closed bore hybrid x-ray/MRI (CBXMR) imaging system is under development to improve the safety and efficacy of PAVR. This system will harness the complementary strengths of x-ray imaging (surgical tool/vascular imaging) and MRI (cardiac soft tissue contrast) to deploy a bioprosthesis in the aortic annulus. An x-ray C-arm will be placed about 1 m from the entrance of the MRI scanner to facilitate smooth intermodality patient transfer during the procedure. The performance of a rotating-anode x-ray tube in the magnetic fringe field of a 1.5 T MRI scanner was investigated. A rotating-anode x-ray tube provides the fluoroscopy and angiography needed for PAVR. The magnetic fringe field can affect the ability of the x-ray tube to dissipate heat. It was shown that the fringe field perpendicular to the anode rotation axis can reduce anode rotation frequency. These effects can limit the maximum permissible power that can be safely dissipated on the anode track during a single exposure. In the fringe field strengths at the C-arm position (4-5 mT), anode rotation frequency only decreased by about 1%, which will have negligible impact on tube heat loadability. The fringe field can cause a field of view shift. The field of view shifted by approximately 3 mm, which can be corrected by active magnetic shielding and further collimation. An active magnetic shielding system was constructed that can correct focal spot deflection. These results are facilitating the construction of a prototype CBXMR system, the goal of which is to improve success rates for PAVR procedures.
When Everything Matters: Comparing the Experiences of First Nations and Non-Aboriginal Children Removed from their Families in Nova Scotia from 2003 to 2005
Keywords: First Nations
Child Welfare
Social Science Theory

The Canadian Incidence Study on Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (Trocme, 2001) found that structural factors such as poverty, poor housing and substance misuse contribute to the over-representation of First Nations children in child welfare care and yet there is very little information on the experiences of First Nations and Non-Aboriginal children after they are placed in care. The When Everything Matters study tracks First Nations and Non-Aboriginal chlidren removed from their families between 2003-2005 in Nova Scotia to the time of reunification or to the time of data collection if the child remained in care. The characteristics of children and their families are compared to the primary aims of child welfare services provided to children and their families. Results indicate that poor families living in poor housing are graphically over-represented among all families who have their children removed. Poverty-related services were not provided to families in proportion to its occurrence. Caregiver incapacity related to substance misuse was most often cited as the primary reason for removal and although substance misuse services were provided there is a need for further child welfare training, policy and services in this area given the scope of the problem presenting in both First Nations and Non-Aboriginal families. Study findings are nested in a new bi-cultural theoretical framework founded in First Nations ontology and physic's theory of everything called the breath of life theory. Implications for theoretical development as well as child welfare research, policy and practice are discussed.
L'Asymétrie entre L'Acquisition des Clitiques Sujets/Objets chez les Enfants francophones et L'Optionalité dans la Grammaire Enfantine
Keywords: first language
acquisition
clitics
French
asymmetry

In light of recent theoretical and methodological developments in the areas of French morphosyntax and child acquisition, the present dissertation reconsiders the asymmetry reported in previous studies of the acquisition of subject and object clitics in French-speaking children. Our reanalysis allows us to address two important questions in the domain of acquisition, namely optionality in the child’s grammar and the role of input in development. By means of an exhaustive analysis of child and adult production, our research illustrates that adults produce several subject/object asymmetries, and we propose that the asymmetry reported for children is attributable to properties of the target language and not to the acquisition process. Beyond these conclusions, our research reveals a significant asymmetry during the course of acquisition, namely that the subject clitic reaches the target grammar faster than the object clitic. This asymmetry, which we qualify as rhythmic, is caused by a prolonged optionality of the object clitic. However, our study shows that this optionality is not generalized. Until roughly 3 years of age, object and subject clitics show a parallel development in spontaneous speech: they are optional. After this period (around 3 years), their production reaches the levels observed in adults. In contrast, some studies in elicited production have shown that object clitics are still optional beyond 3 years. These contradictory results lead us to propose that there are two types of optionality: spontaneous and induced. We explore possible sources of these phenomena and propose that the status of pronouns as clitic elements plays a role in spontaneous optionality. As for the induced optionality, we propose that it is attributable to variation in the input and the child’s tendency to regularize it. Overall, our results allow us to redefine the asymmetry, to propose that optionality is a multifactorial phenomenon, and to illustrate the role of input in the optionality exhibited by French children for this domain.
Cellular Components of Naturally Varying Behaviours in the Fruit Fly, Drosophila melanogaster
Keywords: Behavior genetics
foraging
PKG
learning and memory
natural variations
lipid metabolism
neurogenetics

It is now well accepted, through the use of mutational studies, that genes influence behavioural variation. However, we have little knowledge of the cellular and neuronal mechanisms underlying the effects of specific genes. This thesis broadens our understanding of the neurogenetic underpinnings of naturally occurring differences in behaviour using the genetically tractable model organism Drosophila melanogaster. The thesis focuses on allelic variation at the foraging (for) gene which influences both larval and adult behaviour. In particular, for’s cellular/neural contributions to food-related behaviours and learning and memory is investigated. In the first study, we map FOR protein distribution patterns in the adult brain and use this knowledge to demonstrate a neural-specific function for the for gene in adult food-related behaviour. In the second study we demonstrate a novel role for for in the regulation of naturally existing differences in fly learning and memory in the mushroom bodies of the fly brain. In the third study, I explore FOR distribution patterns in larval tissues. I show that FOR is expressed both in neural and non-neural tissues suggesting a distributed function for FOR in food-related behaviours in the larva. In the last study, I describe naturally existing differences in fat metabolism in the Drosophila larva fat storage tissue. FOR is expressed in the fat storage tissue and may regulate lipid packaging, a trait linked to foraging. In general, my thesis is a cellular and neurogenetic analysis of natural variation in behavioural and physiological traits of D. melanogaster. The functions of FOR in food-related behaviours, nutrient physiology and cognition are conserved across taxa. The findings of this thesis should provide a framework to understand these phenomena in a wide range of organisms.
The de novo Prediction of Functionally Significant Sequence Motifs in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Keywords: arabidopsis
transcription
cis elements
regulatory sequences
c-terminus
bioinformatics
genomics
microarray
motif
abiotic stress
tissue-specific
transcription factor binding site

This thesis performs de novo predictions for functionally significant sequence motifs in the Arabidopsis genome under two separate contexts. Each study applies the use of genomic positional information, statistical over-representation and several biologically contextual filters to maximize the visibility of biological signal in prediction results. Numerous literature supported motifs are prevalent in the results of both studies and a number of novel motif patterns possess a strong potential for in planta significance. The first study examines the statistical over-representation of C-terminal tripeptides as a means for identifying eukaryotic conserved protein targetting signatures. Comparative genomics is applied to the analysis of tripeptide frequencies in the C-terminus of 7 eukaryotic proteomes. While biological signal is maximized through the filtering of both simple sequences and homologous sequences present across protein families. The second study introduces a methodology for the effective prediction of transcription factor binding sites in Arabidopsis. A collection of motif prediction algorithms and a novel enumerative strategy are applied to the prediction of cis-acting regulatory elements within the promoters of genes found coexpressed within distinct tissues and under specific abiotic stress treatments. Overall, the analysis identifies 4 known motifs in expected contexts, 5 known motifs in novel contexts and 7 novel motifs with a high potential for biological function.