VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Interwoven Texts: The Cartularies of Angoumois
Keywords: Angoumois
cartulary
Charente
medieval church
medieval France
memory

Studies of medieval Angoumois have relied extensively on the local ecclesiastical cartularies produced in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Ignoring when the cartularies were compiled and their original function, scholars have largely taken their content at face value. This has led to numerous errors of fact and interpretation. This dissertation rectifies the gap in scholarship by analyzing the ecclesiastical cartularies of Angoumois as integral works, as well as particular documents within them. Their production is placed into context within a history of the ecclesiastical institutions of the diocese of Angoulême and its environs. Recent research on cartularies in other regions has demonstrated that they were not just created for preservation and organization, but this thesis provides new insight into their purpose. Four cartularies form the core of this study. The cartulary of the cathedral church of Angoulême was started soon after the bishop of Angoulême died in exile during the papal schism of the 1130s; charters signed as originals were later added, demonstrating its use as a symbol of stabilization. The monastery of Saint-Cybard’s cartulary, created after it regained its independence from Saint-Jean-d’Angély in 1161, was a memorial object that was manipulated to fit the monks’ conception of their history. The cartulary of the abbey of Saint-Amant-de-Boixe, produced just after the institution was placed under Saint-Géraud d’Aurillac in 1197, shows the vehemence with which the monks had fought against subservience and served as a reminder of their past independence. Bishop Robert’s cartulary may have been started in 1259 to help him address a conflict with the count of Angoulême and was then used as a personal and practical book. Crises, therefore, often provided the impetus for the creation of Angoumois’ cartularies. After their initial compilation, they continued to be useful by acting as symbolic objects and practical tools that could vary greatly depending on the community that produced them. Because the content of a cartulary was malleable, it is essential to understand both the events that caused them to be written and their purpose in order to use the documents within them to study the region’s history.
Simulating one-dimensional physics with stationary dark polaritons
Keywords: polaritons
quantum optics
quantum simulations

In recent years, the development of various platforms for quantum simulation made it possible to study many-body systems under controlled conditions. Of particular interest are one-dimensional systems, known to exhibit some unique properties compared to their higher-dimensional counterparts. One of the current promising platforms for simulations of one-dimensional systems are Rydberg dark polaritons, quasiparticles of a photon-matter hybrid character emerging in the context of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) coupled with Rydberg atoms. These polaritons are long-lived (owing to the properties of EIT) and inherit interaction properties from the huge polarizability of Rydberg atoms, both attractive features in the context of simulations. We herein construct an experimental proposal for realizing one-dimensional physics through Rydberg dark polaritons. By using a stationary-light scheme, a sequence of steps allows a laser pulse incident on a transversally trapped gas of Rydberg atoms to yield a stationary pulse of weakly interacting polaritons. Within the stationarity regime, the lasers are further tuned to adjust the interaction effective one-dimensional scattering length through a Feshbach-like resonance to create a Tonks-Girardeau-type gas of polaritons. Signatures of non-trivial correlations can then experimentally probed by retrieving the photons through a subsequent adjustment of the laser strengths. Realizing this proposal would be a landmark achievement in the fields of many-body simulations and Rydberg physics.
Neural mechanisms of goal-directed decision strategies under shifting contexts
Keywords: Computation
Context
EEG
fMRI
Goal
Strategy

Adaptive behaviour in the world necessitates integrating relevant information from immediately encountered cues, as well as information conferred by the environment in which cues are embedded, to inform decision processes. Within the scope of value-based choice, these sources of information are relevant to the trade-off between goals to acquire gains and goals to prevent losses. Here I ask how individuals balance and integrate these sources of information to inform appropriate goals and correspondingly adaptive behavioural strategies across shifting contextual demands. I present evidence, across four experiments, supporting a hierarchical organization between the information given by contexts and by immediate cues. An experimental framework that separates the contributions of these sources of information is used to probe the dissociated processing of higher-order contextual features across neural systems. Computational and neural mechanisms describe the interaction between contexts and cues, in which these sources of information are supported by tonic and phasic neural signatures but integrated across time to shape adaptive responses congruent with external demands. I further probe demands on contextual processes by showing that individuals exploit contextual information when the information provided by cues is impoverished, and that contextual influence on behaviour is strengthened given temporal affordances. Importantly, I highlight the role of neural interactions both in space and across hierarchical levels that support these processes.
The Effect of Embryonic Alcohol Exposure on Brain Function and Behavior in Zebrafish Strains
Keywords: Apoptosis
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Neurochemistry
Neuronal Proteins
Social Behavior
Zebrafish

The biological mechanisms that underlie fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) are complex and poorly understood. This thesis aims to investigate potential underlying mechanisms of FASD by using zebrafish as a model organism. The research question asked is how does embryonic alcohol exposure alter brain function and behavior in different zebrafish strains? My first experiment explored the influence of environmental factors salinity and olfactory cues on zebrafish behavior. This was conducted to reduce experimental error variation and create more sensitive behavioral paradigms. My second experiment focused on characterizing the development of shoaling behavior and correlated neurochemicals in the absence of embryonic alcohol in order to establish baseline behavior. Next, I examined the effect of embryonic alcohol exposure on neurochemicals dopamine, serotonin and their metabolites and found embryonic alcohol to disrupt the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems in the developing fish; as well I discovered these effects to be strain- dependent. I found that the specific development time point, concentration and short duration of alcohol exposure used in my experiments do not alter amino acid neurotransmitters glutamate, glycine, aspartate, taurine and GABA. Lastly, I have investigated apoptosis and have adapted the labeling TUNEL assay, for zebrafish. I found that mild alcohol exposure during development results in an increase in apoptosis and that these early responses result in long-lasting changes in neuronal markers and number of cells in specific brain areas. I included results on multiple strains of zebrafish in some of my studies. Strain differences will facilitate the discovery of molecular mechanisms underlying changes in alcohol-related genes and will also allow researchers to choose the more appropriate strain for drug or mutation screening all of which will facilitate a better understanding of FASD.
Impact of Matching Funds: Help or Hindrance
Keywords: Fundraising
Higher Education Finance
Matching Programs
Philanthropy
Public Policy and the Third Sector
Trilateral Relationships

In the absence of sufficient public resources or market opportunities to increase tuition fees to implement or augment necessary or desired initiatives, one tool often employed is philanthropy, usually by universities themselves but sometimes in association with government. This study explores the impact of matching funds on philanthropy through, first, a survey of alumni donors to matching programs at the University of Toronto between the years of 1995-2005, a period during which the government had in place a matching program. Subsequently, interviews and focus-group sessions augmented the survey results. Typically, philanthropy and, in particular, matching programs are seen and studied as bilateral relationships between donors and institutions. Institutions set priorities for raising funds and approach donors whom they believe will be receptive to their “cause.” Donors, who may be solicited simultaneously by other institutions to support either the same or different causes, respond or not depending on their wherewithal and particular interests. The object of this study is a trilateral approach to fundraising that involves the government as well as institutions and donors. This raises questions about how donors respond to agency relationships and the triangular inter-relationships between the state, the academy, and the philanthropic market in raising funds in the public interest as well as institutional interests. It is in this context that Salamon speaks about “the third sector” and Burton Clark describes the “triangle” paradigm for which he is well known. The ambivalence of many respondent donors indicates that, in Clark’s terms, there is a limit in the degree to which the state-market leg of the triangle can be tightened or otherwise manipulated to advance public policy goals. Even when the state seeks to motivate charitable giving by influencing the state-market leg, the institutional performance as represented by the university-market leg still makes a powerful difference. Some key findings from this study, are these. Donors seemed unconcerned or even unaware about some of the conditions attached to the government’s matching program. Some donors were motivated favourably by the “cause” (scholarship support) but less so by the match. In other words, “cause” and “match” are not synonymous.
Maps of Risk and Value: A GIS-based Assessment of Cultural Landscape Vulnerability in the Kugmallit Bay Region.
Keywords: Arctic Archaeology
Cultural Landscapes
Grounded Visualization
Heritage Value
Inuvialuit Heritage
Vulnerability Modelling

This dissertation is an overview of research which was undertaken to better understand the impacts of climate change on culturally significant locations of the Kugmallit Bay area, in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region and Northwest Territories. Geographic Information System (GIS) methods of ‘grounded visualization’ were employed as a means of assessing numerous factors and combinations of factors related to the vulnerability of culturally significant locations. Vulnerability is conceptualized here as a product of the combined factors of risk and value, which were reviewed in an exploratory manner over multiple rounds of data collection, analysis, reflection and review. The iterative methods of grounded visualization yielded insights and generated further research questions related to the vulnerability of culturally significant locations. GIS methods have long been used in archaeological research, but with a greater focus on quantitative research applications. This has led many to relegate the powerful visualization capabilities of GIS to the dissemination of results at the end of the research process. However, the capacity of grounded visualization methods to combine qualitative and quantitative information at the analytical level is a powerful and seldom exercised aspect of GIS methods. This application of grounded visualization methods to archaeological research is a first, and their use in the management of threatened places of cultural significance shows great potential. Their capacity to negotiate the various subjectivities inherent to expressions of value by maintaining contextually important details in the research process makes them a perfect fit for use in value-centred management initiatives. Heritage value was applied in this project by adopting a ‘cultural landscape’ approach to heritage management. Cultural landscape perspectives promoted the diversity of stakeholder perspectives and the subjective nature of landscape valuations as essential factors in the vulnerability assessment process. Employing a cultural landscape framework in this research allowed the iterative review process to be tailored to aspects of landscape value which extend beyond, yet often interrelate with the material remains of the past which are often the focus of archaeological research. The results of this project have demonstrated the utility of GIS-facilitated grounded visualization methods to the value-based management of cultural landscapes.
Epigenetic Studies of Complex Human Disorders and Aging
Keywords: bipolar disorder
complex disorders
dna modification
epigenetics
genetics

Aging is a major risk factor for nearly all human illnesses. Several of these have a strong genetic and familial basis, but do not manifest until much later in life. Numerous studies have highlighted the potential of epigenetic studies to help quantify pathological and normal hallmarks of the aging process. In this dissertation, we investigated the role of DNA modification in bipolar disorder and found epigenetic deviations from biological age in individuals with a history of extreme suicidal behaviour. We then studied the simple genetic trait of lactase non-persistence (commonly known as lactose intolerance), the age-related reduction of lactase enzyme production that manifests after weaning in most but not all individuals, as a model to help understand how genotype influences age-related outcomes, and the role that DNA modification plays in mediating this process. Inherited genetic variants near the lactase gene are highly-associated with lactase persistence, the sustained activation of this gene into adulthood that is exhibited by about 30% of all humans. By performing high-resolution DNA modification profiling at the lactase gene, we found that both the age-related decline in levels of the lactase gene and its escape in persistent individuals occur as a function of genotype-dependent accumulation of epigenetic modifications; thus, possessing a given variant confers a certain “epigenetic aging trajectory”. Further, we identified that the segment-specific expression of the lactase gene in a homogenous population of epithelial cells in mouse small intestine is dependent upon DNA modification differences. The insights from these efforts have the potential to reshape the dogma which has to this point comprised solely of genetic factors, and to lay the foundation for standardized comprehensive modelling of the role of aging in human health and disease beyond simple genetic association.
Investigating the Therapeutic Potential of L-asparaginase in Myeloid Leukemia
Keywords: Leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a malignant disease of the bone marrow that results in the proliferation and accumulation of dysfunctional myeloid cells and the disruption of the normal hematopoietic process. The high rate of relapse and diversity of the disease at the genetic and epigenetic level make AML a difficult disease to treat. Given the relatively poor long term outcome of patients, alternative therapeutic strategies need to be investigated either by repositioning existing drugs or identifying new targets. L-asparaginase, a component of standard acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) treatment, is an enzyme that degrades extracellular asparagine and glutamine. Interestingly, a growing body of evidence has demonstrated cancer metabolism is a distinctive trait that can be targeted by reducing nutrient availability. Therefore it is plausible that cancer metabolism will be affected by L-asparaginase treatment, in addition to the well-established protein synthesis inhibition mechanism. The findings from this study indicate that L-asparaginase elicits classical responses of amino acid deprivation in myeloid cells at both transcriptional and translational levels. In addition, pathway analysis using data from microarray and Multidimensional Protein Identification Technology (MudPIT) show metabolic pathways are indeed affected by treatment. Based on these results, I investigated the metabolic effects of L-asparaginase in myeloid cells further by observing changes to the cellular processes involving asparagine and/or glutamine participation. The results show that L-asparaginase exerts cytotoxic effects on the majority of AML cells tested and that glutamine removal, not asparagine, is responsible for these effects. The anticancer activity of L-asparaginase is pleiotropic in nature and its effects can be seen to affect multiple cellular processes. Intracellular levels of asparagine, glutamine, fumarate, and succinate decreased as a result of L-asparaginase treatment; this was accompanied by development of oxidative stress and inhibition of mitochondrial respiration in the myeloid cells. Data from experiments using 13C-labeled nutrients demonstrated that AML cells utilize glutamine to a significantly higher degree than asparagine, supporting the notion that targeting metabolism by glutamine depletion in AML is a viable option. This study reveals novel therapeutic opportunities in AML, and L-asparaginase has the potential as a metabolic drug to be repositioned for AML therapy.
Party-n-Play and Gay and Bisexual Men: Critical Discourse Analysis Study
Keywords: Chemsex
Critical Discourse Analysis
Gay and Bisexual Men
HIV
Party-n-Play
PNP

Party-n-Play (PNP) is a social practice of gay and bisexual men, which refers to sex that occurs under the influence of drugs. This dissertation approached this social practice from a socio-linguistic perspective by examining the discourses of gay and bisexual men who PNP. The dissertation investigated: 1) how discourses on HIV and pleasure influence the sexual practices of gay and bisexual men who PNP, 2) how gay and bisexual men who PNP make sense of the various forms of social exclusion, stigma, and resilience in their lives, and 3) the role that online information and communication technologies play in the lives of gay and bisexual men who PNP. The study utilized a critical discourse analysis methodology and was conceptualized using critical theory and Foucaldian frameworks of biopolitics and governmentality. In-depth 1-hour interviews were conducted between October 2016 and January 2017, with 44 gay, bisexual, queer, and Two-Spirit men who were living in Toronto, and who used drugs (crystal methamphetamine, GHB, cocaine, ketamine, MDMA/ecstasy, poppers) before or during sex with another man. Recruitment took place through social media, online ads, and flyers distributed through community-based organizations. The findings from this dissertation indicated that HIV discourses have a powerful influence on the normalization of condomless anal intercourse among many study participants. However, HIV treatment optimism has not translated into a unifying disposition among all study participants. The findings also demonstrated that gay and bisexual men knowingly give in to their pleasures with awareness of the HIV risks associated with PNP. Furthermore, the dissertation findings revealed that while social exclusion and stigma were perpetuated through multiple discourses of gay and bisexual men who PNP, these men also evoked resilience discourses, and described social bonds, friendships, and relations of care in their PNP networks. Finally, this dissertation identified that PNP as a subculture provided a set of shared discourses, social languages, values, and ideologies for a diverse group of gay and bisexual men who were connected to this subculture through online information and communication technologies. This dissertation provided recommendations with regard to HIV prevention and culturally sensitive interventions for this population.
The Missing Link in the History of Quranic Commentary: The Ottoman Period and the Quranic Commentary of Ebussuud/Abū al-Su‛ūd al-‛Imādī (d. 1574 CE) Irshād al-‛aql al-salīm ilā mazāyā al-Kitāb al-Karīm
Keywords: Abu al-Su'ud al-Imadi
Ebussuud
Irshad al-aql al-salim
Ottoman Quranic studies
Ottoman tafsir legacy
the missing link

ABSTRACT Ottoman legacy of Quranic commentary is highly understudied, if not entirely neglected, in the Muslim and Western scholarship alike. The current study is two-pronged in orientation: in part one, we have striven to explore the current situation in the history and historiography of Quranic commentary and attempted to underline and identify some of the misconceptions and clichés with which the current research is imbued. This first part is complemented, in separate appendix, with a historical study of a verifiable output of Quranic commentaries authored by Ottoman scholars and/or composed during the Ottoman era and under their suzerainty. We have also surveyed Ottoman exegetical attempts and medieval studies undertaken by the Ottomans and associated with the history and historiography of Muslim exegetical studies, all for the purpose of presenting some identifiable features of Ottoman exegetical mindset. The second part of this study focuses on a particular Quranic commentary that was authored by an eminent Ottoman scholar and man of state, namely the Irshād al-‛aql al-salīm ilā mazāyā al-Kitāb al-Karīm [Guiding the sound mind to the distinguishing features of the Noble Book] of Ebussuud/Abū al-Su‛ūd al-‛Imādī (d. 1574). Our primary goal is to present a case study of a famous Ottoman exegetical work and pave the way for further studies of other Ottoman exegetical outputs in order to contribute to forming a comprehensive view on the Ottoman trajectory of Quranic commentary. Ebussuud’s commentary led us to determine the exegetical artery of knowledge to which the Ottomans viewed themselves heir. Though the Ottoman efforts in Quranic exegesis can broadly be categorized as reason and linguistic-based efforts, the presence of tradition-based approaches cannot be dismissed as negligible. The study of Irshād thus allows us to analyze a sample of how the tradition and reason-based approaches can be synthesized. Dynastic presence and political orientations are also more glaringly manifested in Ottoman scholarly and exegetical efforts. Irshād is also significant in terms of assessing the history of variant Quranic readings and represents a post-classical exegetical work by virtue of which we are better able to demonstrate how the field was still being contested between the exegetes and the specialists in Quranic readings. Ebussuud’s Quranic commentary furthermore is a study of previous exegetical corpus and it provides exceptional research tools for us to evaluate and assess other exegetical works. Irshād is a work of verification that aimed to determine concise exegetical implications of a given Quranic expression and winnow out innumerous propositions with which the previous exegetical corpus is teemed.