VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
On the burden of proof in ordinary argumentation

In this thesis I argue that we need a philosophical approach to the subject of the burden of proof as it applies to cases of ordinary argumentation. I submit that the burden of proof is a conditional obligation to provide supporting grounds for an assertive speech act involving a constative, or fact stating or denying assertion, that a speaker incurs automatically when he performs an assertive speech act competently. I argue that this conditional obligation (to be ready, willing, and able to discharge the burden of proof) can be converted into an actual obligation to discharge the burden of proof by a hearer who has the power to impose a request for supporting grounds on any speaker who has placed himself in a position of probative liability by competently performing an assertive speech act in accordance with certain constitutive rules. This actual obligation is a duty that needs to be discharged 'ceteris paribus'. I also maintain that this ceteris paribus condition involves issues that cannot be sorted out 'a priori' by a systematic or theory oriented approach to the subject of the burden of proof. As a result, a rhetorical approach with its dedicated pursuit of context specific knowledge with which to analyse particular cases of argument seems to be the best complement to a speech act oriented approach to this subject. This thesis ends by advocating a mixed methodological approach that sees speech act theory as contributing to a systematic approach to the subject of the burden of proof as viewed from a general perspective and rhetorical theory as providing the impetus for incorporating the context specific knowledge needed to make an informed judgement about how the burden of proof ought to function in certain particular cases of argumentation. Consequently, this thesis presents itself as a modest proposal for an approach or outlook to the subject of the burden of proof for those who wish to take a philosophical approach to making such judgements.
Determinants of host susceptibility to coxsackieviral myocarditis

Viral myocarditis is an important cause of heart failure and dilated cardiomyopathy. Group B coxsackieviruses (CVBs) are commonly identified as the infectious agent responsible for acute myocarditis. This thesis examined the role of the T cell, the coxsackie-adenovirus receptor (CAR), and downstream signal transduction pathways in host susceptibility to CVB3 myocarditis. The first study, using gene-targeted T cell knockout mice, demonstrated that both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells contribute to the pathogenesis of myocarditis. The severity of myocardial damage and associated mortality depended upon the predominant T cell subset available to respond to CVB3 infection. Distinct cytokine patterns were found to be one mechanism by which CD4 + and CD8+ T cell subsets influence the pathogenesis of the disease. In the second study, it was hypothesized that the extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs), which are stimulated following T cell receptor (TCR) engagement and Lck activation, influence host susceptibility to CVB3 infection and disease. In Jurkat T cells the ERK1/2 cascade is rapidly activated in an Lck-dependent manner at the time of initial virus-host cell interaction. Moreover, inhibition of the ERK1/2 cascade attenuates CVB3 replication in both T cells and cardiomyocytes. Myocarditis-susceptible A/J mice infected with CVB3 showed exuberant activation of the ERK1/2 signalling pathway. In contrast, activation was weaker and transient in C57BL/6 mice, which are resistant to myocarditis. The ERK1/2 signalling cascade is triggered by CVB3 infection and correlated with severity of viral myocarditis. The third study explored the viral receptor as a determinant of myocarditis susceptibility. CAR expression was highest in the hearts of myocarditis-susceptible A/J mice, which were found to have high cardiac CVB3 titres following infection. A truncated CAR isoform was identified, which bound virus, but did not mediate productive infection. Tissue abundance of CAR and differential expression of receptor isoforms may determine myocarditis susceptibility. Thus, the initial virus-receptor interaction, the T cell response, cytokine activation, and downstream signal transduction pathways in both the T lymphocyte and the heart, appear to affect host cell function and viral replication, influencing host susceptibility to myocarditis.
Characterization of the gastro-entero-pancreatic system of osteoglossomorpha, an immunohistochemical, immunocytochemical, and molecular study

The principal objectives of this study were twofold: first, to compare the distribution and structure of the GEP system of the osteoglossomorphs with that of the other teleosts and with vertebrates in general; second, to examine the possibility of using the primary structure of the GEP system peptides in a phylogenetic analysis. To fulfill these objectives several approaches were used, including histology, immunohisto- and immunocytochemistry, and molecular cloning. The results indicated that an islet organ (endocrine pancreas) with diffusely scattered islets consists of four cell types (A, B, D and F); there are two D-cell subtypes. Endocrine cells which produce some of the same peptides as the islet cells were also observed within the intestinal epithelia; some variation occurs among the species. For example, insulin was detected in cells within the intestinal and stomach epithelia of 'Pantodon bucholzi ', and infrequently in the intestinal epithelia of 'Osteoglossum bicirrhosum' and 'Gnathonemus petersii', but not in the other species. In the molecular biology studies, preproinsulin and the preprosomatostatin sequences were deduced from the corresponding cDNA sequences and were used in the phylogenetic analysis. The phylogenetic analysis of the preproinsulin sequences confirmed the monophyletic grouping of the osteoglossomorphs, and also indicated that the osteoglossomorphs are not the most basal living teleosts as previously thought, but may be more generalized teleosts. In addition, the phylogenetic analysis showed the elephantnose to be closely related to the feather fin knife fish, and the arawana to be closely related to the butterfly fish. These data are consistent with previous reports (Lauder and Liem 1983; Li and Wilson 1996). The intragroup relationship was confirmed by phylogenetic analysis using sequences of cDNA of preprosomatostatin. These results indicated that the primary structure of the GEP system peptides is useful for inferring phylogenetic analysis to some extent, but also that the sequence analysis of more than one peptide should be considered in such analyses. This study suggests that there is a generalized position of the GEP system in comparison with that of the other teleosts.
Development of microcellular foam sheet extrusion systems

This thesis describes a continuous extrusion process for manufacturing low-density, microcellular polystyrene foam sheets using carbon dioxide as a blowing agent. Microcellular polymer foams are characterized by a cell density greater than 10$\sp9$ cells/cm$\sp3$ and a cell size on the order of 10 $\mu$m. To date, most research on the continuous processing of microcellular polymer foams has focused on nucleation and cell growth phenomena. Little work has been done on their shaping aspect. Two extrusion systems; namely, a single-screw extrusion system and a tandem extrusion system with two die designs were used in this research. The systems were designed and analyzed based on an axiomatic design framework. Detailed design and construction of their components, which include an extruder screw for the second extruder, dies, a diffusion enhancing device, a heat exchanger, a cooling mandrel, and a take-up roll system, were carried out subsequently. Critical experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the systems. PS foam sheets with a cell density in the range of 10$\sp9$ to 10$\sp{10}$ cells/cm$\sp3,$ a controlled volume expansion ratio in the range of 2.1 to 17.9, and a uniform sheet thickness were successfully obtained from the designed tandem foam extrusion system.
Resource allocation schemes for high speed wireless access networks

The focus of this thesis is to efficiently allocate the radio resources in novel ways to achieve performance benefits in CDMA systems through proper channel access control techniques. The capacity of the integrated services with different data rates and quality of service requirements is analyzed. It is first shown that the system performance deteriorates when voice and high data rate services are integrated. To improve the system performance, a channel access control technique for delay insensitive high data rate traffic is proposed. Resource allocation and scheduling schemes are proposed and studied for a system with only high data rate Internet users. The scheduling schemes exploit the packet mode transmission to achieve better performance in the time-slotted systems where rates are allocated according to the channel conditions. These schemes are compared in terms of throughput and delay, and also fairness in the allocated data rates. It is shown that the overall system performance is severely affected by the adverse channel conditions seen by a few users. To improve the system performance, a technique is proposed that identifies and delays the transmission for such users until the conditions improve. A time reuse cluster size of three cells is considered to minimize the interference. When the cluster size is larger than one cell, the transmission from neighboring base stations must be coordinated. To efficiently reuse the time, algorithms are developed for best-effort and real-time services. A dynamic time share allocation algorithm is proposed and studied that can uniquely coordinate the transmission time for high data rate Internet users in time reuse clusters larger than one cell. A time slot assignment scheme is also proposed and studied for real-time high data rate services. It efficiently packs and dynamically allocates the time slots so that the call blocking probability is lower than various fixed and dynamic schemes in all traffic conditions.
Holocaust on trial?, the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial 1963-1965 in historical perspective

This dissertation concerns the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial of twenty former Auschwitz perpetrators that took place between December 1963 and August 1965. With specific emphasis on the trial's origins in 1958, the pre-trial investigative phase, and the results of the trial, I argue that the trial had a paradoxical result. On one hand, I contend that the limitations of the penal code and procedure became obstacles to the public prosecution office's extraordinary effort to put the entire "Auschwitz complex" on trial. I demonstrate this through an examination of the West German criminal justice system. On the other hand, I maintain that the Auschwitz trial was a turning point in West Germany's confrontation with the past and has resonance in German post-war exploration of the Holocaust. The use of the legal system to publicly confront the crimes of the Third Reich was an important step in Germany's reconstruction after the war and represents a break with past war crimes proceedings, especially the Nuremberg trials. There was enormous national and international press coverage; in West Germany each court day was covered by all the major newspapers despite the prohibition of cameras in the courtroom. The result of this was that for the first time, the German public learned about Auschwitz, and intensive historical research on the Holocaust began. However, the law created a distorted emphasis in which the sole focus of press coverage and serious judicial punishment (life in prison) were the "excess-perpetrators" who had acted individually and sadistically. The Auschwitz trial was virtually unexamined for over thirty years because the trial files and tapes were under protective security and could not be viewed by the public until 1995. There is no monograph on the trial in either German or English. This trial is the largest and most representative of all trials that took place in Germany according to the West German criminal code after the governments decision not to try former Nazis under the war crimes law of the International Military Tribunal as established at Nuremberg.
The making of difference in international law, interpretation, identity and participation in the discourse of self-determination

This thesis takes a narrow question--whether the right of self-determination of peoples in international law includes a right of secession--and uses it to open a window onto the broader problem posed by cultural and gender difference for the interpretation of international law. The thesis does not seek to determine whether a right of secession exists. Rather, it investigates the importance of this question as a place, perhaps without equal, where international law has had to contend with the challenge of diversity for interpretation. To illuminate this importance of self-determination, the thesis analyses its interpretation as the expression of a changing relationship between interpretation, identity and participation in international law. By approaching the international legal literature in this way, Part I of the thesis offers a richer and more precise understanding of the current scholarly controversy over a right to secede. In similarly enhancing the understanding of the precedents that figure in the controversy, Parts II and III enrich the history of the interpretation of self-determination. The judgments, arbitral decisions and other authoritative texts of self-determination assume importance less as stepping stones in the development of the right and more as successive encounters with marginalized groups, from nomadic desert peoples to indigenous women. In presenting an alternative account of self-determination as a series of challenges from the margins, Parts II and III introduce and develop the critiques of cultural and gender biases, respectively, that emerged in these challenges. At the same time, Parts II and III suggest that international law and international institutions have responded to these cultural and gender critiques, if in 'ad hoc' and partial fashion. The response is most visible in the interpretation of the "self" and the right of self-determination. But Parts II and III also explore the possibility of a deeper change in interpretation, one shaped by the values of identity and participation.
Exploring gender-related issues in mobile crisis programs through a feminist theoretical framework

The current investigation analyzed gender differences among a cohort of clients who accessed the services provided by two Ontario mobile crisis programs and was guided by a feminist theoretical framework. Gender differences were examined in terms of client characteristics, mental health functioning, process of care, and outcome of care. The study was part of a one-year evaluation that took place at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre (SWCHSC) and reports on data collected between March 15, 1999 and August 31, 1999. Data was collected retrospectively through a chart review of clinical record forms and progress notes completed by mobile crisis workers during their initial visit with clients. The results of the study found that women and men differed on a number of important factors. Specifically, women were older, were more likely to be married, and were less likely to be referred to the mobile crisis programs by a family member than their male peers. In addition, women were more likely to report having been diagnosed with an affective disorder while men were more likely to report having been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Other significant gender differences showed that women were more likely than men to report suicide intentionality and were less likely to have had contact with a psychiatrist and to be referred to case management services. Finally, even after controlling for the effects of other variables, affective disorders were shown to be more common in female than male clients by a factor about two. The implications of these findings, particularly as they relate to the sensitivity of mobile crisis programs to gender issues and women's mental health needs, are discussed and recommendations for policy and practice are provided. Limitations and strengths of the study and directions for future research are also presented.
Horses in the similes of the Iliad, a case study

In this project I have selected a body of similes with a unified subject, the horse, for study. The method and presuppositions of my study have been drawn from recent oral poetic theory, working largely from the notion of traditional referentiality. Chapter 1 lays out the state of the question in Homeric scholarship and provides an account of the method of this project. Chapter 2, in keeping with the notion of traditional referentiality, investigates the economic and semantic function of the horse in Archaic Greek culture. Chapters 3 to 5 examine the four appearances of horse similes in the 'Iliad'; each draws upon a different feature of the horse's traditional meaning and demonstrates that the four similes serve the purpose of redirecting our interpretation of the narrative into paths that the narrative does not explicitly demand that we take. Chapter 3 examines the similes for Achilleus and then Achilleus and Hektor at 'Iliad' 22.21 ff. and 22.162 ff.; it argues that these similes use the horse's traditional associations with funerals to transform Achilleus' pursuit of Hektor around Troy's walls into a race at funeral games, thereby enacting the funeral games for Patroklos. Chapter 4 discusses the similes for Paris and Hector at 'Iliad' 6.506 ff. and 15.263 ff. to show that the horse's traditional value as a luxury animal redeems Paris and Hector as proper Iliadic heroes at moments when their heroic status has been undermined. Chapter 5 examines the simile at 15.679 ff. comparing Aias to a man driving horses across the plain to show that this simile recharacterizes Aias, traditionally a great static defensive warrior, as a marshaller of men through the idea of control of the great heroic animal, the horse.
The development and application of methods for the study of multi-domain protein structure by solution NMR

In multi-domain proteins, changes in the relative arrangement of domains are involved in a wide range of protein functions, such as ligand binding and catalysis. NMR has the potential to characterize these conformational states under solution conditions. However, multi-domain proteins tend to be large (i.e. >25 kDa), leading to rapid decay of the NMR signal. Furthermore, nOe distance restraints within inter-domain regions are often not sufficient to accurately determine the relative arrangement of domains. To address the size limitations associated with the unfavorable relaxation properties of large proteins, a selective isotope labeling approach was developed. In this strategy, 15N, 13C, 2H-labeled protein selectively protonated at the methyl positions of Leu and Val is produced by supplementation of 13C, 2H-glucose, 15NH4Cl, D2O bacterial growth media with [3- 2H], 13C Ã-ketoisovalerate. High levels of protonation (~90%) were obtained for the methyl groups of both Leu and Val, while 13CH2D and 13CHD2 isotopomers were not produced. Leu methyl group labeling is enhanced over previous methods that utilize Val as the labeling agent. The relative domain orientations of two different multi-domain proteins were studied using dipolar couplings measured in weakly aligning solutions in combination with x-ray crystal structures. The solution conformation of maltodextrin binding protein in complex with ß-cyclodextrin was analyzed with 1356 measured dipolar couplings. Our domain orientation protocol showed that the solution conformation is closed by 11° ± 1° with respect to the corresponding x-ray structure. The solution conformation of lysozyme was similarly analyzed with dipolar couplings measured in more than one aligning medium (49-133 couplings per medium). In an aqueous environment, WT* lysozyme (C54T/C97A, which has structure and activity identical to wild-type) is also different from the corresponding crystal structure, in this case by 17° ± 4° opening. Conversely, the inter-domain disulfide-bonded lysozyme T21C/T142C, is 11° ± 4° more closed in solution than the analogous crystal structure. The conformations obtained with the domain orientation protocol illustrate the importance of utilizing the more natural environment of aqueous solutions to characterize the average orientation of weakly interacting domains within multi-domain proteins.
Serial recall and recognition in short-term memory tasks, interactions with test expectancy in the pre-cued post-cued paradigm

Recently, process models have been proposed to account for memory performance in serial recall and recognition tasks. Explanations of serial recall and recognition in the models are based on assumptions of how item and order information are encoded and retrieved in a single memory system. To date, the data used to constrain encoding assumptions of item and order information have come from experiments in which subjects are always pre-cued for either serial recall or recognition. Because pre-cued subjects are informed of the type of test before list presentation, they can use knowledge of the ensuing test to define what characteristics of the study list are relevant for encoding. Thus, there is a tacit, but crucial, assumption in the models that encoding is independent of expectation for the kind of test received. Because the models depend on encoding assumptions to predict serial position effects, it is necessary to empirically test whether expecting, for example, serial recall will have any affect on recognition performance (and vice versa). A series of experiments was conducted in which subjects were led to expect either a serial recall test or a recognition test, but received the other test instead. The results showed that encoding of order information is dependent on whether subjects expected a serial recall test. For recognition, subjects expecting serial recall produced higher accuracy but longer latencies compared to subjects expecting recognition. The discrepancy between accuracy and latency for subjects expecting serial recall is inconsistent with explanations of recognition based on a direct mapping of encoded strength to familiarity. To account for these findings, a revision of one model, TODAM, was proposed. Another model, OSCAR was shown to be incompatible with both the serial recall and recognition data. The results support two main conclusions. First, contrary to the independent encoding assumption, the encoding of item and order information is dependent on task expectation. Second, the effect of test expectancy occurs at both the encoding and retrieval stages as opposed to only affecting the encoding stage.
The effects of physicochemical properties of secondary sludge on settling models

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between the physicochemical properties of secondary sludge and the zone (k 1 and n1) and compression settling (k2 and n 2) constants in a dynamic zone and compression settling model. Twelve samples of return activated sludge and effluent were obtained from 4 pulp and paper plants, 4 municipal plants and a pilot scale membrane bioreactor plant. The measurements consisted of model constants, surface charge, metals (Fe, Al, Ca, Ma, Na and K), effluent suspended solids (ESS), sludge volume index (SVI) and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), which included proteins, carbohydrates, uronics and humics. Strong correlations were found between k1 and EPS protein, ratios of protein to other EPS constituents and total EPS. Moderate correlations were found between k2 and magnesium. Surface charge was neither correlated with SVI nor with any of the compression settling constants but was moderately correlated with k1.