VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Peace Education: Imag(e)(in)ing a Future in the Aporea of the University
Keywords: Philosophy of Education
Peace Education
Post Foundations
Post critical philosophy
Post critical pedagogy
Deconstruction
Subjectivity
trans-subjectivity
Peace
Education

The field of peace education presently remains undertheorized suffusing praxis and pedagogy as foundation within the edifices of dissembling postModernity marked within the Institute of Rationality. (Re)imag(e)(in)ing critical pedagogy in a peace education-to-come, enjoins readers/writers along a putative journey through the violence of metaphysics in the fundamental question of difference bridging chiastic ethico-philososphical terrain, reconceptualizing pedagogical endeavour in ethicus obligatus to the other towards a renewing peace literacy within academe. Peace education can reconstitute the force of community on planes of difference unfolding socialis aequitus and peace, reframing the nature of our being, self and other as the appositional realm of separation/connection. The opening of peace, as concept, ethos, through critical pedagogy in/by the fashioning of discursive forms acknowledging the semio-theoretical chain constructing human social relationality proffers a solid theoretical foundation for the field of peace education, re-tracing difference across socio-ethno-politico-historical structures. Central tenets of the evolving field of peace education are reconfigured in deontological proposition through deconstruction as precursorial project in reason affording performative discourse transversing the transcendental signified, peace, in another idiom eclipsing spatio-temporal illusion, affording diachronous affirmation and revelation in a crucial luminous snapshot within the post-conflict setting of Northern Ireland concerning fundamental matters of peace and education. Peace education as constituent element of contemporary peace knowledges and principal arena for education for peace within the unconditional university is fundamentally challenged in a commitment to peace literacy to adduce and address all interwoven questions of difference, justice, peace, and education within academe. A new beginning compels another reading in presence honouring the other and Other in ethico-philosophico-pedagogy radically questioning our individual and collective rationality in relation to understandings of human social relationality and the transperformative tenets of peace education in difference through différance, cathecting presence anew while (re)configuring academe primarily concerned with difference, peace, and social justice as discursis unfolding impossibility. Consequently, the order of phallogocentricism and its sponsoring patriarchal institution that would sublimate a discourse on/of difference in substitution, as the same irrupts in the fissure another perspectivity opening through presence, presence in meaning, presence in spatiality, presence in temporality in the impossibility of the limit.
Controlled Sequential Delivery of Two Growth Factors for the Stimulation of Endogenous Brain Repair after Stroke
Keywords: Drug Delivery
Endogenous Brain Regeneration

Stroke is a leading cause of disability in the world, for which there currently is no effective treatment. One potential method for treating stroke is to stimulate the endogenous neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of adult brain to replace the tissue lost during stroke. Two growth factors that have shown promise in eliciting functional repair in rodent models of stroke are epidermal growth factor (EGF) and erythropoietin (EPO). However, there is a significant challenge in delivering protein drugs in a minimally invasive yet effective manner. In this thesis, a minimally invasive polymer-based system is developed to control the sequential release of EGF followed by EPO. This system comprises of a hyaluronan-methylcellulose (HAMC) hydrogel and two types of polymeric particles, and is applied epicortically to deliver EGF and EPO to stroke-injured mouse brains in a minimally invasive manner. In this thesis, the following are demonstrated: 1) The ability of therapeutics delivered locally to reach the target site after delivery is crucial for the success of local delivery strategies. PEG-modification leads to enhanced penetration distance of EGF. 2) When delivered epicortically to the stroke-injured mouse brain using HAMC, PEG-EGF penetrates further into the brain compared to unmodified EGF. Both EGF and PEG-EGF stimulated NSPC proliferation in the SVZ, but the extent of stimulation is greater when PEG-EGF is delivered compared to unmodified EGF. 3) The transport of EPO is similar in the uninjured and the stroke-injured brain following epicortical delivery from HAMC. EPO delivered epicortically from HAMC is able to reach the SVZ and can enhance neurogenesis in the stroke-injured brain. 4) A composite delivery system is engineered where PEG-EGF and EPO are individually encapsulated in different polymeric particles, and the particles are embedded in the HAMC hydrogel matrix. Stroke-injured animals that receive composite-mediated growth factor treatments ultimately achieve repair comparable to that achieved using a conventional catheter/osmotic minipump infusion system, without causing tissue damage associated with insertion of the infusion system into the brain.
Scheduling Policies in Service Networks
Keywords: Scheduling Policies
Service Networks

In this thesis, we study different scheduling policies in service networks. In Chapter 2, we consider two service level (SL) measures in a two-server tandem queue system: the average sojourn time and the probability of long waits. We demonstrate that a family of Threshold Based Policies (TBP) can reduce the probability of long waits while maintaining sojourn times that are only slightly higher than those of a non-idling policy. In Chapter 3, we present a case study for improving the operations of a healthcare provider that has an open-shop queueing network. We propose an effective implementation of Dynamic Scheduling Policies (DSPs) and a generalized TBP to improve the SL in an open-shop queueing networks. Using a simulation model we demonstrate that an open-shop queueing network can be managed in a systematic fashion to deliver improved SL. In Chapter 4, we study the waiting time distribution of two different priority classes in an M/M/c queue with different service times. For the c=2 case, we provide closed form expression of the Generating Function (GF) of the number of low-priority jobs in the system, which can lead to the waiting time distribution. For c>2 case, we present an efficient numerical algorithm for deriving this GF. We discuss several insights gained from numerical results. Both Chapter 2 and 3 were supervised by Professors Opher Baron, Oded Berman, and Dmitry Krass. Chapter 4 was supervised by Professors Opher Baron and Alan Scheller-Wolf.
Applications of Adjoint Modelling in Chemical Composition: Studies of Tropospheric Ozone at Middle and High Northern Latitudes
Keywords: atmospheric science
chemical composition
adjoint model
data assimilation

Ozone is integral to tropospheric chemistry, and understanding the processes controlling its distribution is important in climate and air pollution contexts. The GEOS-Chem global chemical transport model and its adjoint are used to interpret the impacts of midlatitude precursor emissions and atmospheric transport on the tropospheric ozone distribution at middle and high northern latitudes. In the Arctic, the model reproduces seasonal cycles of peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and ozone measured at the surface, and observed ozone abundances in the summer free troposphere. Source attribution analysis suggests that local photochemical production, ≤ 0.25 ppbv/day, driven by PAN decomposition accounts for more than 50% of ozone in the summertime Arctic boundary layer. In the mid-troposphere, photochemical production accounts for 30-40% of ozone, while ozone transported from midlatitudes contributes 25-35%. Adjoint sensitivity studies link summertime ozone production to anthropogenic, biomass burning, soil, and lightning emissions between 50N-70N. Over Alert, Nunavut, the sensitivity of mid-tropospheric ozone to lightning emissions sometimes exceeds that to anthropogenic emissions. Over the eastern U.S., numerous models overestimate ozone in the summertime boundary layer. An inversion analysis, using the GEOS-Chem four-dimensional variational data assimilation system, optimizes emissions of NOx and isoprene. Inversion results suggest the model bias cannot be explained by discrepancies in these precursor emissions. A separate inversion optimizes rates of key chemical reactions including ozone deposition rates, which are parameterized and particularly uncertain. The inversion suggests a factor of 2-3 increase in deposition rates in the northeastern U.S., decreasing the ozone bias from 17.5 ppbv to 6.0 ppbv. This analysis, however, is sensitive to the model boundary layer mixing scheme. Several inversion analyses are conducted to estimate lightning NOx emissions over North America in August 2006, using ozonesonde data. The high-resolution nested version of GEOS-Chem is used to better capture variability in the ozonesonde data. The analyses suggest North American lightning NOx totals between 0.076-0.204 Tg N. A major challenge is that the vertical distribution of the lightning source is not optimized, but the results suggest a bias in the vertical distribution. Reliably optimizing the three-dimensional distribution of lightning NOx emissions requires more information than the ozonesonde dataset contains.
The Role and Regulation of the Exchange Factor GEF-H1 in Tubular Cells
Keywords: Rho GTPases
Tumour Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF)
Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors
GEF-H1
Cytoskeletal remodelling
Hyperosmotic stress

The Rho family small GTPases are key regulators of the cytoskeleton, through which they impact and control many vital cellular functions, including growth, vesicle trafficking, intercellular junctions, transepithelial transport, migration, and gene transcription. Activation of Rho GTPases is induced by Guanine Nucleotide Exchange Factors (GEFs). We have previously shown that Tumour Necrosis Factor-α (TNF), plasma membrane depolarization, and immunosuppressive drugs activate RhoA through a specific exchange factor, GEF-H1. However, the question of whether other stimuli, such as hyperosmolarity, that activate RhoA, act through GEF-H1 and whether GEF-H1 activates other RhoGTPases was not known. The overall objective of this research project has been to gain insights into the complex mechanism through which the Rho GTPases, Rac and RhoA, are regulated in tubular cells. Specifically, we wished to explore the role and pathway-specific regulation of GEF-H1 in hyperosmotic stress- and TNF-induced signalling in tubular cells. In order to accomplish our goals, we optimized and used affinity precipitation assays to detect GEF-H1 activation (RhoA(G17A) and Rac(G15A)). We found that 1) GEF-H1 is activated by hyperosmotic stress and mediates the hyperosmolarity-induced RhoA activation, as well as nuclear translocation of the Myocardin-Related Transcription Factor (MRTF); 2) TNF induces activation of both Rac and RhoA through GEF-H1, but via different mechanisms. Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR)- and Extracellular signal Regulated Kinase (ERK)-dependent phosphorylation at the Thr678 site of GEF-H1 is a prerequisite for RhoA activation only, while both Rac and RhoA activation require GEF-H1 phosphorylation on Ser885. Interestingly, Rac is required for TNF-induced RhoA activation. Together these findings highlight a role for GEF-H1 as an osmosensitive molecule that regulates cellular reprogramming through MRTF. Importantly, we have also uncovered a novel mechanism explaining hierarchical activation of Rac and RhoA by TNF. Such a mechanism could be key in coordinating GEF function and fine-tuning Rac and RhoA activation.
Children's Acquisition of Values within the Fmily: Domains of Socialization Assessed with Autobiographical Narratives
Keywords: value acquisition
narratives

The transmission and internalization of values are the primary processes that occur during socialization. A recent approach integrates existing theories and research findings into a comprehensive model of socialization. According to the domains of socialization approach, there is no general principle governing socialization but rather it occurs in different domains of caregiver-child interactions. Grusec and Davidov (2010) outlined five socialization domains, which involve controlling children’s behaviour by external means (control domain), protecting children from harm and relieving their distress (protection domain), teaching children information or skills outside of the discipline or distress setting (guided-learning domain), managing children’s environment to increase desirable role models (group participation domain), and accommodating each other’s wishes (mutual reciprocity domain). Previous work demonstrated the utility of the domains of socialization approach for the study and understanding of value acquisition (Vinik, Johnston, Grusec, & Farrell, 2013). The present study expanded on this work by focusing on processes within the family. A modified narrative methodology was used to explore aspects of the value acquisition process. Autobiographical narratives of 294 emerging adults about a time they learned an important value from a caregiver were analyzed. The sample included participants from four ethnic backgrounds. Findings provided further support for the usefulness of the domains of socialization approach to the study of value development, as events recalled in narratives were categorized into all domains but reciprocity. Values learned in the control domain were most frequently reported but were associated with the lowest levels of internalization. The highest level of value internalization was found to occur in the group participation domain, drawing attention to the importance of observing the behaviour of others. Socialization domains were associated with particular types of lesson content. The guided learning and group participation domains were associated with more positive and less negative emotional valence compared to the other domains. In turn, absence of negative valence was significantly related to better confidence in accuracy of memory reported in narratives, indicative of quality of information processing and learning. Most effects were not moderated by demographic variables providing support to the universal applicability of the domains of socialization approach.
Seeing What Remains: On the Enigma of the Look Between Mourning and Melancholia
Keywords: psychoanalysis
history of philosophy
ruin studies
memory
remembrance
forgetting
look
gaze
trauma
Walter Benjamin
Sigmund Freud

Walter Benjamin, in Thesis IX of his “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” wrote of the angel of history looking back at the past from the now-time of the present moment, at the historical wreckage, a single catastrophe as it were, piling in front of its feet, as it gets pulled forward facing back into the temporality of the future and the space of modernity’s violent excesses, heralded by the promise of apparent progress. As the title to my dissertation suggests, my study begins, following the angel’s look, with these three words, seeing what remains, and as such it is structured around the very nature of this arresting “look back” and that which is being regarded, the ruins, or the remains and remainders that exist after, and in the aftermath of, traumatic loss. Working with and across a variety of mediums, I conduct a series of exegetical studies of recent “texts” – literary, photographic, and cinematic – within which, I argue, this look back figures as central to the concern of how we might understand the simultaneous existence of the forces of remembrance and forgetting, and of mourning and melancholia in memory-work. The various “texts” within which I explore this look back are Anne Michaels’s novel Fugitive Pieces, the photographic series titled Library of Dust by David Maisel, the movies Hiroshima, mon amour by Marguerite Duras and Alain Resnais and Amour by Michael Haneke. I situate my exploration of the enigmatic nature of the look back in these different textual scenes alongside Sigmund Freud’s critical work on transference and transference love and Kaja Silverman’s rigorous expansion of the psychoanalytic objective of the “cure by love.” Here, it is my intention, as such, to work toward and expand on my thesis that this look, of the angel (or the materialist historian or the artist as witness), is a look of redemptive love, both against erasure and against the possibility of invisibility, “to awaken the dead” as it were, so as to address the loss inscribed in historical experiences with catastrophic temporality and to thereby redeem the ethical from within the scene of trauma.
A Novel Reciprocal Regulatory Circuit Between Caspase-8 and c-Src
Keywords: Survival
Apoptosis
Caspase-8
c-Src

Apoptosis and cell survival are two seemingly opposing fate-determining processes that are regulated by distinct and complex signaling pathways. Caspase-8, an apical caspase, plays a pivotal regulatory role in initiating apoptosis. c-Src, a prototypical member of the Src family kinases (SFKs), regulates a myriad of cellular processes including cell mitogenesis, proliferation, growth and migration. Although the regulation of caspase-8 by c-Src has been suggested, the reciprocal regulation of these two seemingly opposing signaling molecules, caspase-8 and c-Src, has never been explored. To study this reciprocal regulation, we asked three questions. (1) Can active caspase-8 negatively regulate c-Src activity to allow the propagation of apoptosis? (2) Can c-Src negatively regulate caspase-8 activity to prevent the propagation of apoptosis? (3) Can caspase-8, when its enzymatic activity is inhibited, further promote c-Src activity to allow the propagation of cell survival? To address these questions, we first investigated the effect of active caspase-8 on the activation and activity of c-Src. We discovered that active caspase-8 inhibited c-Src activation and some of its downstream effectors. Next, we investigated whether c-Src could tyrosine phosphorylate caspase-8. We discovered that c-Src could phosphorylate caspase-8 at multiple tyrosine sites. We then examined whether tyrosine phosphorylated caspase-8 prevents apoptosis. We found that phosphorylation of caspase-8 at Y465 prevented its cleavage, and activity towards activating caspase-3 and towards causing cell morphological changes associated with apoptosis. Finally, we studied whether tyrosine phosphorylation of caspase-8 could further promote the activation of c-Src. We showed that phosphorylation of caspase-8 at both Y465 and Y397 resulted in the activation of c-Src and extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (Erk1/2). In conclusion, this work demonstrated the reciprocal regulation of two opposing signaling molecules, caspase-8 and c-Src. These results also suggest an elegant mechanism for a cell to commit efficiently and rapidly to a fate-determining process, either apoptosis or survival, by further suppression of the opposing signaling pathway.
Nonlinear Optical Properties of Carotenoid and Chlorophyll Harmonophores
Keywords: third harmonic generation
labels
carotenoid
chlorophyll

Information regarding the structure and function of living tissues and cells is instrumental to the advancement of cell biology and biophysics. Nonlinear optical microscopy can provide such information, but only certain biological structures generate nonlinear optical signals. Therefore, structural specificity can be achieved by introducing labels for nonlinear optical microscopy. Few studies exist in the literature about labels that facilitate harmonic generation, coined "harmonophores". This thesis consists of the first major investigation of harmonophores for third harmonic generation (THG) microscopy. Carotenoids and chlorophylls were investigated as potential harmonophores. Their nonlinear optical properties were studied by the THG ratio technique. In addition, a tunable refractometer was built in order to determine their second hyperpolarizability (γ). At 830 nm excitation wavelength, carotenoids and chlorophylls were found to have large negative γ values however, at 1028 nm, the sign of γ reversed for carotenoids and remained negative for chlorophylls. Consequently, at 1028 nm wavelength, THG signal is canceled with mixtures of carotenoids and chlorophylls. Furthermore, when such molecules are covalently bonded as dyads or interact within photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes, it is found that additive effects with the γ values still play a role, however, the overall γ value is also influenced by the intra-pigment and inter-pigment interaction. The nonlinear optical properties of aggregates containing chlorophylls and carotenoids were the target of subsequent investigations. Carotenoid aggregates were imaged with polarization-dependent second harmonic generation and THG microscopy. Both techniques revealed crystallographic information pertaining to H and J aggregates and β-carotene crystalline aggregates found in orange carrot. In order to demonstrate THG enhancement due to labeling, cultured cells were labeled with carotenoid incorporated liposomes. In addition, Drosophila melanogaster larvae muscle as well as keratin structures in the hair cortex were labeled with β-carotene. Polarization-dependent THG studies may be particularly useful in understanding the structural organization that occurs within biological structures containing carotenoids and chlorophylls such as photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes and carotenoid aggregates in plants and alga. Further, artificial labeling with carotenoids and chlorophylls may be useful in clinical applications since they are nontoxic, nutritionally valuable, and they can aid in visualizing structural changes in cellular components.