VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Among Friends: Cicero and the Epicureans

In my dissertation I explain Cicero's philosophical works through an analysis of his epistolary interactions and literary rivalries with Roman Epicureans. I argue that this historical and intellectual context reveals how Cicero's overt and consistent anti-Epicurean polemics constitute a fundamental organizing principle of his philosophical works; Epicureanism is the philosophical Other against which the dialogues define themselves. The first two chapters of my thesis reconstruct Cicero's social and friendship networks of Roman Epicureans and literary rivals; to that end I offer a series of prosopographical charts designed to replace the now dated Prosopography of Roman Epicureans by Catherine Castner. The second half of my thesis uses this background to explain the development and recurring polemical goals of Cicero's philosophical works. More specifically, the third chapter begins to build my larger claim that his epistolary interactions with Epicureans over the course of twenty years offered him the opportunity to hone his argumentative technique and experiment with various translations into Latin of Greek philosophical ideas. In my final two chapters I offer the first comprehensive reading of Cicero's exchange with Cassius in 46-45 BCE (Ad Fam. 15.16-19) and argue that these letters allow us to trace the development of individual arguments and polemical strategies in the dialogues of later that year, especially De Finibus I-II. My dissertation therefore stands at the intersection of literary, philosophical, and historical scholarship. I engage with and enrich recent work in Republican epistolary practice, the cultural politics of Ciceronian prefaces, the influence of Epicurean ideas on Latin poetry, and the renewed interest in Philodemus, Hellenistic philosophy, Roman Epicureanism, and Cicero as a philosopher.

Keywords: Ancient Philosophy
Cicero
Epicurus
Intellectual History
Late Republic
Letters
Advisor: Inwood, Brad
The Effect of Articulatory Constraints and Auditory Information on Patterns of Intrusions and Reductions.

This dissertation seeks to answer the question whether articulatory constraints and auditory information affect intrusion and reduction errors. These intrusions and reductions of articulatory movement result from a general tendency to stabilize movement coordination. Stabilisation of speech movement coordination is an autonomous self-organizing process. This process, however, can be affected by factors related to articulatory properties and auditory information. To assess how these factors affect movement coordination, three studies were performed. The first study examined differences in articulatory variability in the onsets of word pairs such as cop top and top top. To this end, different phonetic contexts and speaking rate were manipulated. As word pairs like top top are frequently used as control stimuli and word pairs like cop top as experimental stimuli, this study investigated how these two word pairs differ in movement control. The second study examined how constraints on individual articulators, manipulated by phonetic context, and speaking rate affected the number of intrusions and reductions. The third study investigated how these intrusions and reductions were influenced by the presence or absence of auditory information. Movements of the tongue tip, tongue dorsum and lower lip were recorded with electromagnetic articulography. The first study revealed that word pairs with alternating and identical onset consonants differ to such an extent that using identical onset word pairs as control stimuli is not recommended for future error studies. The second study revealed that articulatory constraints resulted in asymmetrical patterns of intrusions: compared to a high back vowel context, a low vowel context resulted in more intrusions in general. In addition, in a front vowel context, the tongue dorsum intruded more frequently than the tongue tip and lower lip. The third study showed that speakers made fewer intrusions without auditory information available than with auditory information available. The results, which are explained within the framework of Articulatory Phonology and Task Dynamics, support the notion that articulatory constraints and auditory information influence coupling strength and movement coordination as reflected in intrusion and reduction patterns.

Keywords: Articulatory Phonology
Auditory information
Intrusions
Reductions
Speech errors
Task Dynamics
Advisor: Van Lieshout, Pascal
The Development of Environmental Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy for the Study of Structure and Interactions in Complex Environmental Matrices

Elucidating environmental processes at the molecular level is key to understanding a range of larger processes including carbon sequestration and cycling, contaminant transport and fate, and agricultural productivity. Unfortunately, environmental matrices, such as soil, are highly complex, heterogeneous, and often contain multiple phases (liquids, gels and solids) making their analysis by conventional methods challenging. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is arguably one of the most powerful and versatile tools in modern science, with the potential to provide unprecedented levels information as to structures and molecular interactions in complex environmental matrices. Despite this potential NMR is not as widely applied in the environmental research as other fields such as medicine and organic chemistry, in part due to the lack of experimental approaches specifically developed for environmental analysis. This thesis aims to develop a series of fundamental NMR experimental approaches that can improve the reliability, efficiency and information gained from environmental samples. Specifically, it introduces a novel and efficient optimization approach for the determination of fundamental NMR parameters. Following this it develops on a novel approach based on supercooled water to help assign chemical structures in complex mixtures was developed. The method presented enhances intramolecular spatial interactions and uses the resulting spatial correlations to edit mixtures and expands the range of molecules that can be assigned in situ without physical separation of mixtures. Subsequently, it discusses the optimization of high-resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) for environmental samples and allows the transition from the study of static samples (solutions) to those containing more than one phase (liquids and gels). Ultimately while studying solutions and gels in situ is very important to study natural samples holistically in their native state. As such the ability to study all phases (liquids, gels and solids) at the same time is required. This necessitated the development of the comprehensive multiphase technology (CMP), which allows study of all bonds in all phases and is used to paint a molecular-level picture of an oil-contaminated soil along with the aforementioned improvements. The advances shown here in conjunction with CMP technology should prove invaluable in all future studies that require molecular-level information concerning any unaltered complex system.

Advisor: Simpson, Andre
Structure and Function Relationship of Syntaxin-1 in Neurotransmitter Release

Regulated exocytosis is a cellular process that requires the calcium-dependent fusion of vesicular membrane with the plasma membrane. This fusion is believed to be executed by a complex of three soluble N-ethylmaleimide sensitive factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE) proteins. Of these SNAREs, syntaxin-1, which is found in neurons and neuroendocrine cells, transitions between "open" and "closed" conformations and interacts with another essential protein, Munc18-1. Here, I investigate how different domains of syntaxin-1 contribute to the overall function and regulation of this protein, by utilizing both PC12 cells and C. elegans together with biochemical tools. First, I demonstrated that the expression of mammalian syntaxin-1A was sufficient to rescue the secretory defect in syntaxin-1 depleted PC12 cells and to restore the viability and development of the C. elegans unc-64 (syntaxin-1 ortholog) null mutant. In the subsequent mutagenesis studies, three domains of syntaxin-1A were examined: the N-peptide, the Habc domain, and the transmembrane region (TMR). I assessed the effects of mutations in these domains on the following properties and abilities of syntaxin-1A: protein folding and expression; intracellular localization and ability to support secretion in syntaxin-1 knockdown PC12 cells; interaction with Munc18-1; and ability to rescue the lethality of unc-64 null mutants. I found that the introduction of N-peptide mutations into "closed" syntaxin-1A did not strongly impair any of these properties and abilities. However, upon the conformational switch to an "open" state, the N-terminal mutations severely impaired all of the examined features except protein folding and expression. A series of deletions introduced into the Habc domain disrupted the correct folding of syntaxin-1A protein. Interestingly, the replacement of TMR with lipid anchors or the deletion of more than 3 residues in the C-terminal end of syntaxin-1A abolished the protein's ability to restore the viability and development of the unc-64 null mutant. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that syntaxin-1A's N-terminal peptide, in conjunction with the "closed" conformational state, is critical for its localization, while the Habc domain is essential for proper protein folding. Furthermore, the studies suggest that sufficient length of the TMR is required for syntaxin-1 function in vivo.

Advisor: Sugita, Shuzo
A Witness to Fitness: Contextualising Processes in Exercise Physiology

Sport and physical cultural practices have long been shaped by knowledge as to how the human body responds to physical (in)activity. The study of such mechanisms and responses at a physiological level is the preserve of exercise physiologists. However, relative to its impact on sport and physical culture exercise physiology has received only limited direct, sustained analysis from sociological researchers. As such, this study is based on 15 months of participant observation research in an exercise physiology laboratory as well as interviews with 53 people involved with exercise physiology research. In doing so it has worked to explicate and theorise the connection between our unlearned physiological functioning and the learned processes of both scientific research and physical cultural practices. It is important to emphasize that this study does not focus on the reliability or validity of exercise physiology knowledge or methodology. Instead, by drawing on a range of sociological concepts in dialogue with Elias' (1986) notion of the hinge and Ellul's (1964, 1980, 1990) theorising of technique, this research seeks to link the questions, answers, and styles of thought in exercise physiology to historical events as well as social and physiological processes. In doing so, this study demonstrates that contrary to critical analyses of scientific research, which charge "hard sciences" with producing de-contextualised knowledge, exercise physiology is thoroughly contextualised, albeit in specific and nuanced ways. In order to explicate how exercise physiology knowledge is contextualised an exploratory model of inscription, description, and prescription is presented. The analysis of exercise physiology praxis through inscription, description, and prescription processes draws attention to how and why exercise physiology produces particular and particularised contexts for the development and application of its knowledge.

Keywords: Exercise Physiology
Jacques Ellul
Laboratory Ethnography
Norbert Elias
Sociology of Science
Technique
Advisor: Atkinson, Michael F
Early Development of Dietary Supplements for Preventing Postpartum Depression

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) is the most common complication of childbearing with 13% prevalence. A dietary prevention strategy countering elevated monoamine oxidase-A (MAO-A) in early postpartum might be effective, since MAO-A is elevated by 43% early in postpartum, during healthy ranges of postpartum blues (PPB). Since greater severity of PPB increases risk for PPD, the aim of this thesis was to develop a widespread intervention based on tryptophan, tyrosine and blueberry extract. First we proposed to assess the effect of different components upon breast milk. Subsequently we aimed to develop a method to optimally quantify severity of PPB using the depressed mood induction procedure (MIP). At last, the ability of optimal doses of tryptophan, tyrosine and blueberry extract was investigated in reducing the intensity of PPB. Methods: 24 healthy breastfeeding women were randomly assigned to 2g, 5g, 10g tyrosine or no supplement, and 30 were randomly assigned to 2g, 4g tryptophan, 20g, 40g alpha-lactalbumin or no supplement. Four breast milk and seven blood samples were collected. For PPB quantification, 45 healthy women were recruited (23 vulnerable to sad mood and 22 non-vulnerable) and mood measures were completed before and after MIP. Finally, 26 healthy day-5 women were recruited into 2 groups: receiving dietary supplement (10g tyrosine, 2g tryptophan and blueberry extract/juice) or no supplement. Severity of PPB was measured before and after MIP. Results: Oral tyrosine, tryptophan and alpha-lactalbumin did not increase total tyrosine or tryptophan contents of breast milk (p=0.074 (trend to decrease), p=0.232 respectively) and plasma levels rose significantly (p

Keywords: Dietary Supplement
Monoamine Oxidase-A
Postpartum Depression
Prevention
Advisor: Meyer, Jeffrey H
Performing Queer Diasporas: Pelau MasQUEERade in the Toronto Pride Parade

Performing Queer Diasporas documents and critically examines the public performance of "Pelau MasQUEERade," an organized self-identified Caribbean queer diasporic group that includes non-Caribbean queers. Pelau MasQUEERade draws on the cultural and historical aesthetic of the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival and the Toronto Caribbean Carnival Parade, and brings its performance to the largely "white" queer space of the Toronto Pride Parade. I situate Pelau MasQUEERade in relation to the Toronto Pride Parade to investigate processes of racialization in queer spaces. My study challenges normative queer narratives about the Toronto Pride Parade that construct sexuality, citizenship and belonging as fundamentally de-racialized processes. I argue that the Toronto Pride Parade serves as an ostensible marker for white queer inclusion and belonging to the Canadian nation-state, placing queers of colour outside of the boundaries of belonging. I bring queer into conversation with diaspora to disrupt seemingly fixed boundaries of race and sexuality and to disturb the whiteness of the Toronto Pride Parade. My study utilizes an interdisciplinary framework. I draw on Caribbean, black/feminist queer diaspora scholarship to demonstrate how Pelau MasQUEERade emerges from a black diasporic tradition but simultaneously establishes itself as a queer of colour group. I further draw on theories of space and performance to illuminate how Pelau MasQUEERade offers alternative ways to re-imagine freedom, desire, and pleasure as a mode of survival. My study draws upon twenty semi-structured interviews with Pelau MasQUEERade participants and Toronto Pride organizers; two summers of ethnographic fieldwork; and an analysis of Internet, magazine and newspaper documents. There are three central aspects to my study: First, I examine how whiteness becomes normalized in Pride through the conflation of white with queer. This conflation enables queer claims for citizenship and belonging but excludes queers diasporics of colour. Second, I explore how Pelau MasQUEERade disturbs the whiteness of Pride by creating a mobile "queer diaspora" space. Third, I illustrate how queer diasporics of colour use performative practices to address exclusion and to create transformative spaces of belonging. Overall, my study illuminates how complex practices of belonging are imagined, spatially negotiated, embodied and articulated through Pelau MasQUEERade's performance.

Keywords: black queer diaspora
Caribbean
citizenship and belonging
gender and sexuality
performance and space
Pride parades and Canadian Nationalism
Advisor: Trotz, D. Alissa
Alexander, M. Jacqui
Advancing Comparative Effectiveness Research: Filling in the Gaps for Bisphosphonates

Drug approval regulations for market-entry often only require that medications be proven efficacious compared to placebo. This drug approval policy creates a gap in information for clinicians and policy makers to make informed decisions between treatment options. Comparative effectiveness research seeks to address these knowledge gaps, primarily through the use of administrative data and network meta-analysis (NMA). The use of bisphosphonates for the treatment of osteoporosis is representative of this problem. In Canada, there are currently four approved bisphosphonates indicated for the treatment of osteoporosis. This thesis is comprised of three unique projects contributing to comparative effectiveness research of bisphosphonate therapy. The projects address methodological gaps in the development and uses of the disease risk score (DRS), a confounder summary score, and clinical gaps in the comparative safety of bisphosphonates leveraging NMA methodology. The methodological findings of the thesis raise caution towards the standard practice of applying the DRS in situations where policy-induced bias is present, suggest the need for more consistent nomenclature for the DRS, and points to future areas for development of the DRS. The clinical findings of the thesis demonstrate little difference in serious adverse events between oral bisphosphonates. Future research should address questions related to the impact of comparative safety and adherence of bisphosphonates. Overall, this dissertation addresses important gaps in utilization and applications of the DRS, implications of policy-induced selection bias, and comparative safety and adherence of bisphosphonate therapy.

Keywords: Bisphosphonates
Comparative Effectiveness
Health Outcomes
Medications
Pharmacoepidemiology
Pharmacy
Advisor: Cadarette, Suzanne M.
Reclaiming Memory: The History and Legacy of Concentration Camps in Communist Bulgaria

In the immediate aftermath of 1989, following the collapse of the Eastern European communist regimes, it was revealed that communist Bulgaria had operated one of the most extensive and repressive forced-labor camp networks in the entire socialist bloc. In a country of 7 million people spread across 111,000 square kilometers, there were close to forty camp complexes where people were interned, often without trial during different stages of the communist regime. The camps were fully operational from late 1944 until 1962. Furthermore, the Bulgarian camp network was never completely dismantled and camps continued operating into the 1980s, albeit at a significantly diminished scale and with reduced visibility. In early 1990, news of the atrocities committed in the camps attracted the attention of local and foreign media, earning Bulgaria the rather sinister moniker "Little Siberia." The revelations of human rights abuses prompted post-communist Bulgarian governments to attempt various transitional justice initiatives aimed at overcoming the repressive legacy. To date, however, the history of the Bulgarian concentration camp system and its aftermath remain largely untold. This dissertation focuses on the camp system as a way of exploring the experience of political violence in Bulgaria during the communist era and the diverse post-communist forms of representing this experience. The study uses a wide variety of sources, including recently declassified archival material, private archival collections, oral history interviews, memoirs, unpublished manuscripts, films, and media investigations. More than thirty interviews were conducted with individuals impacted by the Bulgarian camp system, over twenty of which with camp survivors. Archival research was conducted in the collections of Bulgaria's Ministry of the Interior (AMVR) in Sofia, the Central State Archive (TsDA) in Sofia, the National Archives in London, UK, and the Open Society Archives in Budapest, Hungary.

Advisor: Viola, Lynne
Lahusen, Thomas
The Timing of Modifiable Environmental Exposures during Childhood Affects the Age of Asthma Development

Background: Childhood asthma is a multifactorial condition influenced by hereditary and modifiable environmental traits. Objective: I investigated longitudinal associations between childhood asthma development and three modifiable environmental exposures: maternal second-hand smoke exposure in pregnancy, neighborhood walkability, which captures community features that promote walking, and material deprivation, a comprehensive measure of socioeconomic status. Methods: In a population-based cohort of 5619 seven-year-old Toronto children, parents reported age of physician-diagnosed asthma development and maternal active and passive smoking in pregnancy. Administrative data housed at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences described the 1997-2003 Toronto birth cohorts (326 383 children). Home neighborhood walkability and deprivation quintiles were reported in validated indices and incident asthma was defined by time of entry into the validated Ontario Asthma Surveillance Information System (OASIS) database. The associations between incident asthma and the exposures were measured using Cox proportional and discrete-time hazard survival analysis. The associations between asthma visits and walkability or deprivation in each year of life were measured using Generalized Estimating Equations and generalized linear mixed models. Results: In the population-based cohort, 15.5% of children developed asthma. Children of non-smoking mothers with home second-hand smoke exposure during pregnancy were more likely to develop asthma (HR 1.34; 95% CI, 1.01-1.76). In the administrative data cohort, OASIS asthma criteria were met for 21% of children. Low birth neighborhood walkability (HR 1.11; 95% CI, 1.08-1.14) and high birth neighborhood deprivation (HR 1.11; 95% CI, 1.09-1.13) were associated with increased risk of incident asthma. These trends persisted for currently-symptomatic incident asthma, lifetime exposure to low walkability or high deprivation and healthcare visits for asthma in each year of life. Conclusions: Home second-hand smoke exposure for non-smoking mothers during pregnancy is associated with incident childhood asthma. Children living in neighborhoods with low walkability or high deprivation are also at increased risk of asthma.

Keywords: asthma
child
deprivation
incident
second-hand smoke
walkability
Advisor: To, Teresa
Dell, Sharon D