VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Exploring Social Inclusion from the Perspectives of Children in an Inclusive Recreation Program

Children with disabilities continue to have fewer opportunities to experience social inclusion compared to children without disabilities. Having children with and without disabilities participate in integrated recreation programs is one strategy assumed to promote inclusion during childhood. However, what social inclusion means and how it is facilitated in recreation settings is not fully known. Furthermore, it is unclear whether such recreation programs have an influence on any aspect of inclusion outside of the program. Drawing on the perspectives of children with and without disabilities who participated in the same inclusive recreation program, this study aimed to explore: (a) how social inclusion is perceived and experienced; (b) how social inclusion is fostered and promoted, and; (c) whether the program influenced their thoughts or perspectives outside the program. This study adopted a generic qualitative methodology. Seventeen children with and without disabilities who were registered for the same inclusive program were recruited. Each child participated in two semi-structured interviews; one during the program and one four to six weeks after the program. Additionally, three, two-hour observations were conducted while each participant was involved in the program’s activities. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyze interview and observation data. This study revealed children’s unique perspectives and experiences of social inclusion in an inclusive recreation setting. From the perspectives of children, social inclusion has three main dimensions; contextual, intrapersonal and interpersonal. Each dimension contained two key aspects of social inclusion that were important to children. This study showed how these aspects of social inclusion can be promoted using specific inclusive strategies, identified by children with and without disabilities, to enable integrated recreation program to be more inclusive. Finally, this study showed that participation in inclusive recreation has an impact on children without disabilities’ attitudes toward people with disabilities generally, which may facilitate a reduction in societal stigma over time. This study helps clinicians, scientists, program developers and policy makers to consider how meaningful inclusion experiences can be facilitated by policy reform, research and service delivery.

Keywords: children
disability
integration
qualitative methods
recreation
rehabilitation
Advisor: Cameron, Debra
King, Gillian
Identities and Catalytic Functionalities of Reactive Hydrogen Species during Hydrogen Addition and Oxygen Removal Reactions of Carboxylic Acids, Carbonyls, and Phenols at Transition Metal-solvent Interfaces

At transition metal and protic solvent interfaces, H-adatoms (H*) derived from H2 (10-60 bar) dissociative adsorption, and protons (H+) derived from either H* ionization or solvent self-ionization are catalytically reactive H species. These H species participate in or assist with hydrodeoxygenation of phenolics and carbonyls to produce alkanes and alkanols; yet their specific identities and catalytic functions remain unclear. This thesis interrogates the origin, chemical identities, and electronic charge of reactive H species and connects these properties to their catalytic roles within the complex reaction network. These roles depend on the solvent and reactant identity and lead to rate equations that depend on the number of catalytically active sites during the hydrodeoxygenation of C3-C6 carbonyls, acetic acid, and phenols on Ru, Pt, and Pd clusters in protic solvents. Across all three catalytic systems of carbonyl hydrogenation, acetic acid hydrodeoxygenation, and phenolic hydrodeoxygenation, H+ and H* both play their respective roles as intermediates in the overall catalytic system. It is proposed that H+, derived from H* ionization, adds onto the carbonyl oxygen followed by H* addition onto the carbonyl carbon, thus leading to C=O hydrogenation. Proton transfer steps cause the rate constants to increase as the proton affinity of the carbonyl group increases or as the solvent dielectric permittivity increases. Acetic acid undergoes rate limiting C-O bond rupture on a vacant Ru site to form a surface acyl group. The acyl undergoes H* and H+ addition to form a valuable ethanol product. The selectivity of ethanol is found to increase with H* and H+ concentrations that are in turn determined by the square root of the H2 pressure and acetic acid concentration, respectively. Quasi-equilibrated H* addition to the aromatic ring of guaiacol leads to the formation of partially saturated enol intermediates. H+ from the solvent catalyzes the tautomerization of the partially saturated enol, leading to the formation of its keto tautomer that either undergoes C-OCH3 bond cleavage or another H* addition to form hydrodeoxygenation or hydrogenation products.

Keywords: Heterogeneous catalysis
Hydrogenation
Isotopic labeling
Kinetic measurements
Solvent effect
Transition metal
Advisor: Chin, Ya-Huei (Cathy)
Mathematics, Structuralism, and the Promise of Realism: A study of the ontological and epistemological implications of mathematical representation in the physical sciences

Realists often suggest that scientific knowledge is grounded in the mathematical representation of nature (e.g. Stein, 1989; Worrall, 1989; Ladyman, 1998; Cao, 2003; Ladyman and Ross, 2009; and French, 2014). However, it is important to clarify what it is about mathematics that allows it to accurately represent the physical world. This is one of the principal challenges at the foundation of the philosophy of science. It not only concerns the nature of scientific knowledge, but also the methodology of physical inquiry and the nature of physical reality. In this dissertation, I present a study of the methodological, epistemological, and ontological constraints implicit in the application of mathematics in the physical sciences. In the introduction, I provide an account of the problem of mathematical representation and a brief summary of the history of structuralism in the philosophy of science. In the second chapter, I offer a critique of the structural realist's account of the mathematical content of scientific theory in order to highlight the holistic nature of mathematical representation in the physical sciences. In the third chapter, I present an account of the constraints implicit in the use of mathematics in physical theory. In the fourth chapter, I outline the presuppositions of the `mapping' account of mathematical representation and provide a critique of the supposed conformity that must exist between mathematics and nature in order to support the structuralist conception of mathematical representation. In the fifth chapter, I address a number of challenges that concern the grounding of natural law in the mathematical concepts of symmetry and invariance and the viability of a scientific realism based in this mathematical conception of natural law. Throughout, I critically re-examine the nature of modern mathematical physics and the viability of the recent turn toward structuralism in the philosophy of science. I conclude with a discussion of possible avenues for further research that might help address some of these concerns. Through a discussion of the problems inherent in the application of mathematics in the physical sciences, this dissertation brings renewed attention to the constitutive role that mathematics plays in modern physical theory, and provides a novel perspective on how issues of scientific representation should be conceived in the philosophy of science.

Keywords: Mathematical Representation
Philosophy of Physics
Scientific Realism
Structuralism
Advisor: Berkovitz, Joseph
Allogeneic Double Negative T cell Therapy as a Novel Treatment for AML Patients

Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (allo-BMT) is a potentially curative treatment for high-risk leukemia patients. However, a high disease relapse rate caused by residual disease and an associated toxicity such as graft-vs.-host disease (GvHD) remain as major issues that hamper recipients' survival. Many forms of immunosuppressants to control GvHD increase the risk of disease relapse, and therefore, there is an unmet need for a treatment that can target chemotherapy-resistant blasts with low off-tumor toxicity. Approaches to prevent GvHD while maintaining or enhancing graft-versus-leukemia (GvL) are the ‘Holy Grail’ for allo-BMT patients. CD3+ CD4- CD8- double negative T cell (DNT) is an unconventional mature T cell subset found in periphery. In this thesis, I have developed a method to expand therapeutically-relevant numbers of clinical-grade DNTs obtained from healthy donors (HDs) and extensively characterized them. I demonstrated that ex vivo expanded HD-DNTs target an array of leukemic cell lines and primary AML cells including chemotherapy-resistant patient samples in vitro and significantly reduce the leukemia load in patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models. Unlike CD4+ and CD8+ conventional T (Tconv) cells, DNTs do not attack normal allogeneic cells and normal xenogeneic tissues in vitro and in xenograft models. Further, potentials of using allogeneic DNTs as an off-the-shelf adoptive cell therapy have been demonstrated herein, including resistance to host-versus-graft (HvG) rejection and lack of GvHD-inducing activities. Interestingly, allogeneic DNTs effectively suppressed proliferation of Tconv cells and prevented priming of CD8+ T cells against allogeneic antigens, and infusion of DNTs with human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) into mice suppressed xenogeneic GvHD caused by Tconv cells. Notably, co-infusion of DNTs and PBMC into leukemia-bearing recipient eradicated the disease while suppressing tissue damage caused by Tconv cells. Collectively, in this thesis, I have developed a novel form of a cellular therapy for leukemia patients that has potentials to be used as an off-the-shelf treatment as a monotherapy or as a follow-up therapy to allo-BMT.

Keywords: acute myeloid leukemia
adoptive T cell therapy
Double negative T cell
T cell
Advisor: Zhang, Li
The Politics of Passing: Disabled and Mad Students’ Experiences of Disclosure in Higher Education

This dissertation explores disabled and mad students experiences of disclosure in higher education from a Deleuzian new materialist perspective. This theoretical orientation conceptualized students’ movements through the university as rhizomatic, and included passing, moving into the middle, and coming out. The author argues that these movements create an affective politics within the university that can change and rearrange the university in meaningful ways for individuals with embodied differences. The author organizes the relationship between students and the university using la paperson’s (2017) idea that there are two competing machinic-desires operating within higher education. In this thesis, these desires are defined as eugenic and crip. Eugenic desires operate within the university and construct assemblages with eugenic ends and are operationalized by the disclosure process. Crip desires, on the other hand are a passional understanding of disability and madness as multiplicity (rather than a binary) that can build the university anew. Crip desires are constituted by disabled and mad students and create assemblages that deterritorialize the university. The impact of disclosure was made clear by the 17 disabled and mad participants who shared stories of disclosure’s affective violence (when registering as a “student with a disability,” or disclosing to faculty or staff, and petitioning a grade or a course). The author argues that disclosure produces violence in higher education because it reduces embodied differences to biomedical and psychiatric explanations – often limiting disability/madness from becoming anything other. However, there are other ways that students speak about disability and move in-between identities that allow for a different understanding of disability and madness to emerge. When students come out-crip, they story difference rather than disclose disability, and therefore, create new conditions for how access might be arranged. The author argues that a more complex understanding of students’ movements and actions as rhizomatic reveals that they are engaged in micropolitical work with identity that can create small and slow cracks in the university. In asking participants to imagine a different university, this project engages in a thinking-resistance that works towards actualizing different conditions for learning in higher education.

Keywords: crip
disability
mad
new materialism
post-qualitative
students
Advisor: Yoshida, Karen K
The Relationship Between Calcite Mass and Coccolith Morphology in the Coccolithophore Family Noelaerhabdaceae

Anthropogenic CO2 emissions into the atmosphere are taken up by the ocean, leading to a decrease in pH and CaCO3 saturation state in a process called ocean acidification. Ocean acidification is thought to affect several marine calcifying groups, including the coccolithophores. Field studies on potential changes in coccolithophore calcification due to ocean acidification often rely on the coccolith as a proxy for calcification. Such research, however, is limited by researchers applying different approaches for estimating coccolith mass with little knowledge on how the different approaches relate to each other. Furthermore, several studies rely on flawed methodology to estimate coccolith mass from its interference colours produced under polarized light. In this thesis, a published method for estimating coccolith mass under circular polarized light (the CPR-method) was revised. These revisions addressed several important limitations with the CPR-method by rendering a revised and accurate Michel-Lévy chart, developing a colour management routine applicable to oil objectives, and using polymer films of known and low (~30nm) retardation for calibration to reduce polarization aberrations. After these limitations were addressed, coccoliths could be measured with unprecedented accuracy (±0:007 μm for thickness and ±~15-20% for mass). The CPR-method was then applied to plankton samples collected near the Canary Islands in January and September 1997. Relative abundance, coccolith thickness, and coccolith mass of different morphotypes of the coccolithophore species Emiliania huxleyi were evaluated, and the study revealed that "overcalcified" Type A coccoliths in September were lighter and thinner than "normally calcified" Type A coccoliths in January, and the thickness difference between Type A and Group B coccoliths was furthermore highly variable between samples. This result has important implications for several studies which have used E. huxleyi morphotypes as a proxy for coccolithophore calcification. The CPR-method was also applied to E. huxleyi and Gephyrocapsa oceanica strains cultured under different salinity conditions to evaluate the relationship between coccolith length and thickness. The study found that coccolith length and thickness were not related in E. huxleyi, and caution is therefore needed before using the ks model to estimate coccolith mass from length.

Keywords: Calcite production
Coccolithophores
Full field retardation estimation
Michel-Lévy chart
Ocean acidification
Polarized light microscopy
Advisor: Bollmann, Jörg
Analysis of Apical Vesicle Trafficking in Drosophila Photoreceptor Cells

Vesicle trafficking is an essential process required for a multitude of cell behaviors, including cell signaling and membrane polarization. Problems in vesicle trafficking have been linked to many human diseases. I investigated the mechanisms of vesicle trafficking of apical proteins in Drosophila photoreceptor cells (PRCs). Individual ommatidia in the Drosophila compound eye house 8 PRCs that surround a matrix filled lumen, called the interrhabdomeral space (IRS). My goal was to further clarify the mechanisms that control vesicle trafficking of apical proteins including the photopigment Rhodopsin1 (Rh1), which localizes to the rhabdomere, the apical determinant Crumbs (Crb), which is enriched at the stalk membrane, and the proteoglycan Eyes shut (Eys), which is secreted into the IRS. Rh1, Crb, and Eys are critical for proper PRC development, and are linked to retinal degenerative disease in humans and flies. Therefore, in addition to furthering our understanding of polarized trafficking in a model epithelial cell, my research has implications for understanding human retinal diseases. I performed RNAi and dominant-negative-based genetic screens to assess the function of 240 trafficking-related genes in apical trafficking of Rh1, Crb, and Eys. I identified 28 attractive candidates and further analyzed 5. I found that (i) the Arf GEF protein Sec71 is required for biosynthetic traffic of both apical and basolateral proteins, that (ii) the exocyst complex and the motor protein dynein promote the secretion of Eys and Rh1, and that (iii) the syntaxin Avalanche is involved in the endocytosis of Rh1, Crb, and Eys. In addition, I executed an in depth analysis of the small GTPase Rab19, which has not been characterized to date. Using CRISPR/Cas9 I produced a Rab19 null mutant that caused light-dependent PRC degeneration. My data suggest that degeneration is due to cytoplasmic accumulation of Rh1 in PRCs following light exposure as a result of a defect in Rh1 recycling.

Keywords: Crumbs
Drosophila
Eyes shut
Photoreceptor cells
Polarized protein trafficking
Rhodopsin
Advisor: Tepass, Ulrich
A Decolonial Analysis of Student Success in Nigerian Secondary Schools

Through a mixed-methods research approach, this thesis investigates how Nigerian secondary schools are preparing Nigerian youth for decolonial social leadership. Specifically, the main research question is: To what extent are Nigerian secondary school students prepared to engage in and contribute to the political, economic, and cultural development of their communities without reproducing coloniality? This question was investigated by: critically analyzing Nigeria’s education policy documents, conducting surveys with 768 students across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria, and interviewing 30 of the surveyed students. The data show that the Nigerian secondary school system is not preparing students for decolonial social leadership. Specifically, students are being educated through a banking education model that measures their success through socially disconnected high stakes examinations. The study shows that the education system: violates poorer students, especially vulnerable female students, perpetuates oppressive social understandings amongst students, reproduces oppressive social hierarchies, and divides students along class and ethnic lines. Also, students are educated in a way that intellectually estranges them from: their immediate social environments, the diverse social issues in their communities and their contested communal social histories. Put together, coloniality is being reproduced in the schooling experiences of students in seven distinct ways. To position Nigeria’s education system towards developing a new generation of decolonial-inclusive leaders, the thesis argues for a complete system overhaul guided by a decolonial theoretical lens. Specifically, the thesis recommends a shift from its current Eurocentric, adult centered and managerial orientation towards a multi-centric, student-centered and decolonial approach to schooling. This recommended approach involves reduced high stakes examinations and the adoption of communal/formative forms of assessment, the use of a trans-disciplinary curriculum, privileging problem-based teaching and learning methods, and a commitment to nurturing the unique passion/talents of every Nigerian student.

Keywords: Colonial Schooling in Contemporary Africa
Colonial Schooling in Contemporary Nigeria
Education and Development in Africa
Student Experiences in Nigeria
Student Success in Nigeria
Youth Education in Nigeria
Advisor: Portelli, John P
Biochemical and Biophysical Analyses of the DNA Packaging Protein Machine the Bacteriophage HK97

Packaging of DNA into the phage head requires the action of a terminase complex, which is comprised of a small terminase (TerS in HK97) subunit and a large terminase subunit (TerL in HK97). TerS binds the phage DNA and regulates the activity of TerL. TerL possesses nuclease and ATPase activities needed to generate a genome-length unit of phage DNA from a DNA concatemer and to translocate the mature DNA into the phage head. In the bacteriophage HK97, an HNH endonuclease, gp74, is also involved in phage head packaging. HNH endonucleases are proteins which bind and digest DNA in the presence of divalent metal cofactors. Gp74 enhances the activity of the terminase enzymes toward the phage DNA substrate, and this activity is dependent on an intact HNH motif. Mutation of the metal binding residue in the HNH motif abrogates the gp74-mediated enhancement of terminase function and inhibits phage formation. Work in this thesis addresses the molecular mechanism by which gp74 enhances terminase activity. Using NMR spectroscopy, I have shown that gp74 possesses a helical insertion in its HNH motif that affects its metal binding capability. Further, I have shown that the helical insert is involved in gp74-mediated enhancement of DNA digestion by the terminase enzymes. Finally, the helical insert is also necessary for phage formation. The biochemical experiments examining how wild type and gp74 mutants affect terminase functions required purified samples of the individual terminase subunits. Thus, part of this thesis also describes methods I developed to purify HK97 terminase proteins such that they are soluble in solution and functional. My studies involving gp74, TerS, and TerL have enhanced our understanding regarding the molecular basis by which cofactors (e.g. gp74) regulate the activities of terminases that are needed for DNA packaging and phage maturation.

Keywords: Bacteriophage
HK97
NMR
Protein Purification
Structural Biology
terminase
Advisor: Kanelis, Voula