VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Socio-ecological Ramifications of Boom Crops: Examining the Impacts of Oil Palm Expansion upon Food System Vulnerability in the Lachuá Ecoregion, Guatemala

Integration of contract farmers into oil palm production schemes has been advocated as a strategy for spurring rural development and improving food security in the global South. In Guatemala, oil palm contract farming has been promoted through a contentions government program, which has led to rapid expansion of the crop in the country’s northern lowlands, including the Lachuá Ecoregion where this study is set. In this thesis, the socio-ecological food systems framework is used to demonstrate ways in which oil palm expansion has altered food system vulnerability and adaptation capacity in an oil-palm dominated community in the Lachuá Ecoregion, as compared to a neighbouring community with minimal oil palm presence and prevalent staple maize farming. Effects of oil palm on local land transactions, employment, and household income are examined in relation to cross-scalar dynamics of self-provisioning and market-provisioning of food. Ecological variables including the conditions of forests, water, and soil nutrient cycling are also considered as they lead to changes in local food access and consumption patterns, notably the reduced consumption of fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs. This study challenges the official narrative that smallholder oil palm cultivation catalyses rural development, improves food security, and deters peasant land sales. Results indicate that oil palm expansion has accelerated land sales and put pressure on subsistence farming, while providing limited benefits to the host community – namely non-inclusive and precarious jobs. At the same time, it exacerbated many existing food system vulnerabilities, such as degraded soils and shrinking forest resources, and introduced new ones, including increased exposure to global commodity shocks. The study concludes that, in the absence of profound efforts to address the underlying causes of food system vulnerability, the promotion of cash crops like oil palm will exacerbate inequalities in food access and weaken the food system overall.

Advisor: Isakson, Ryan
Segmentation Models for Arts Public Relations: Finding an Audience for Opera

How are non-profit boutique opera companies with limited operational budgets targeting and engaging with their publics? This question must be answered if these opera companies are to maintain relevance against an evolving landscape of financial instability, numerous entertainment options, and varied communication techniques. My starting point is that establishing strong connections between non-profit boutique opera companies and their current and potential audiences is essential, to both artistic and financial longevity. Segmentation can provide a successful tool for public relations practice, by targeting these audiences and tailoring communications and engagement activities accordingly. The research I undertook explores the possible use of segmentation by non-profit boutique opera companies in their public relations activities: first in a general discussion of segmentation, public relations and marketing, as related to non-profit arts organizations, and in particular non-profit boutique opera companies, then in a discussion about how Ontario’s and Canada’s population engages with the arts. I also explore the existing non-profit boutique opera company scene in Toronto. Based on a qualitative field study with non-profit boutique opera companies located in Toronto, I document their means of communication in reaching out to their current and potential audiences, and the issues and successes met. I also document planning schedules, mission statements and personal involvement. Drawing from these findings and my literature review, I present an overview analysis and outline potential administrative and audience-building strategies for non-profit boutique opera companies. Findings from the qualitative study indicate that the non-profit boutique opera companies use segmentation in an informal way to reach out to various identified audiences. Personal relationships and the use of advocates become important to maintaining their core and specific audiences. Imaginative ways are deployed to reach out to new audiences. Their reaching out to audiences is at the centre of a web of activities where administrative and personal dynamics enter into play so that these non-profit boutique opera companies can survive. The findings provide rich and detailed data on how these non-profit boutique opera companies navigate their landscapes so that their artistic creativity can be appreciated by audiences.

Keywords: Arts Public Relations
Audience Building
Boutique Opera
Opera
Qualitative Research
Segmentation
Advisor: Edwards, Darryl
Blindness in V Acts: Disability Studies as Critical Creative Inquiry

This dissertation engages the cultural meanings and movements of blindness from a dramaturgically inflected form of critical creative inquiry. It addresses how blindness is lived in the particular contexts of its appearance — in offices of ophthalmology and psychiatry, in classrooms of higher education, in accessibility service offices, on the street and at home. My dissertation reveals the performative enactment of blindness that is lived in the public as well as in the private corners of the self, that orients to blindness as a necessary and creative feature of the sensorium, and that demonstrates how blindness is a form of perception. Influenced by narrative inquiry, this work introduces methodological twists from theatre and drama while drawing from theorists such as Erving Goffman, Rod Michalko, and Tanya Titchkosky. This dissertation takes the form of a play and is written in five acts as a way to explicate the everyday life of blindness, its being and its feel, its ontology. Each act represents a stage, a context, upon which the everyday life of blindness is performed. The narrative follows the life of Erin, a young and recently blind woman. The first three acts dramatize how Erin’s blindness is conceived of and understood in medicine, education and the street. The fourth act turns to the self, exploring the philosophical question of blindness as an identity. The first four acts end with a “Theoretical Intermission” where blind studies is exemplified in relation to disability studies and phenomenology, again, with a dramaturgical twist. The fifth and final act is written as a separate, but related, one act play dramatizing the precarious life of blindness. This dissertation contributes to the fields of blind and disability studies, education, cultural studies, interpretive sociology and phenomenology as well as theatre, drama and performance studies by releasing a poetics of the eyes. This dissertation cultivates the possibility of an interpretative relation to both blindness and sight by employing a unique methodology that privileges blind eyes in knowledge production on the stage of everyday life.

Keywords: Blindness
Disability
Narrative
Performance
Phenomenology
Sensorium
Advisor: Titchkosky, Tanya
Modeling and Characterization of Motor Vehicle Collisions: Analytical, Numerical and Experimental Investigations

The increasing number of fatalities and injuries in motor vehicle accidents highlights the importance of studying occupants’ response during collisions; specifically, the head and neck due to their vulnerability. In this research program, we study the occupant kinematic response and kinetic behavior during frontal, rear and lateral motor vehicle collisions. In view of its severity and commonality, rear-end collisions leading to whiplash, have been given additional attention. The work, which is conducted analytically, numerically and experimentally, is divided into four integrated sections. First, an analytical multibody dynamics model (MBD) of the head and the neck was developed to determine the head response during simulated frontal, lateral and rear impacts. Second, extensive nonlinear dynamic finite element (FE) simulations were carried out to study the occupant response in the aforementioned impact scenarios using detailed vehicle and occupant numerical models. Third, a novel head-neck prototype was developed to experimentally validate the newly developed MBD and FE models. Fourth, a novel shock absorber was developed using foam-filled frusta. The FE simulations were extended to examine a number of safety strategies, involving seat belt, head restraint, airbag and shock absorber on the occupant response during rear-end collisions. The outcomes of this work provide greater understanding of occupants’ neck injury mechanism in vehicle collisions. Our results further reveal that in frontal impacts, the capsular ligament (CL) and the interspinous ligament (ISL) are vulnerable to injury, while in lateral collisions, the highest ligament elongation was reported for the CL, exceeding a stipulated injury threshold. In rear-end collisions, the anterior longitudinal ligament was at risk of injury, as well as the ISL and the CL during neck flexion. Our work reveals that the frontal airbag plays an important role in preventing excessive neck flexion in rear impact, and that the newly proposed shock absorber can lead to improved occupant safety. Additionally, it further shows that the experimentally developed head-neck 3D printed prototype response is in good agreement with the MBD and FE predictions. The prototype can be used as the core for developing head-neck models in future anthropomorphic test dummies.

Keywords: Collision
Crashworthiness
Injury
Motor vehicle
Multibody Dynamics
Advisor: Meguid, Shaker A
Integrated Experimental and Bioinformatics Approach to Investigate Metabolic Channelling

Metabolic channelling refers to the phenomenon where metabolic intermediates are directed between enzymatic active sites without release into the bulk cytosol. While disparate computational and experimental studies have initiated characterization of metabolic channelling, there is a lack of comprehensive studies to fully evaluate the extent of channelling in nature. In addition, experimental techniques to engineer metabolic channelling have yielded inconsistent results which highlight the need to better understand channelling. In this thesis, I leverage a combined bioinformatics and experimental approach in order to understand the extent of channelling in nature and explore the use of a compartment system to engineer channelling. A list of enzyme pairs predicted to benefit from metabolic channelling was generated by leveraging several publicly available data sources, and compared with protein interaction and gene fusion datasets to validate predictions. The minimal overlap for channelling predictions led to additional exploration to better understand what factors are important in driving channelling. Based on phylogenetic analysis of gene fusions and visualizations of the prediction list in the context of the global metabolic network, fusions were typically found in non-essential metabolic pathways while enzymes in the prediction list were enriched at convergence points of multiple metabolic pathways. In conjunction with the bioinformatics approach, I explored the use of the bacteriophage HK97 capsid as a compartment system for the introduction of channelling between enzyme pairs of interest. I was able to target enzymes of interest into an assembled capsid within E. coli through fusion with a C-terminal targeting sequence. Encapsulated enzymes were found to be active, albeit at a reduced activity level in comparison to similar quantities of unencapsulated enzyme. Multiple enzymes could also successfully targeted into the capsid, with different enzymes being encapsulated at varying efficiencies. Charge appeared to be one of the factors that affected targeting levels, as altering the charge of the capsid interior was found to affect both targeting efficiency and enzymatic activity. An additional application identified for the HK97 capsid was to protect encapsulated enzymes, as a targeted glycoside hydrolase was successfully protected from precipitation at elevated temperatures in comparison to its unencapsulated form.

Keywords: Metabolic Channeling
Viral Capsid
Advisor: Parkinson, John
Bat Ecology and Its Consequences for Zoonoses

Bats (Order Chiroptera) are important reservoirs for viral pathogens, a number of which cause high impact zoonotic diseases that infect humans and livestock. This thesis examines some of the ways in which the unique ecology of this group contributes to the maintenance, transmission, and spillover of these viral pathogens. Chapter 1 is an introduction to this thesis. In Chapter 2, I explore how habitat use of bats is altered in an urban landscape, where risk of disease transmission may be increased. My next two chapters make comparisons among many species of bats to understand how host traits drive patterns of viral richness. In Chapter 3 I use a phylogenetic comparative approach to reanalyze a previously published dataset using updated methods and new phylogenetic information. In Chapter 4, I use machine learning to build a model that highlights the species’ traits important for predicting patterns of viral diversity in 750 species of bats. I then use my resulting model to make predictions about species of bats that may be undetected carriers of viruses to inform future disease surveillance work. Chapter 5 is a brief conclusion where I sum up my research and highlight future directions. By considering broad patterns of species ecology and interactions at the human wildlife interface, all told, this work examines some of the ways in which the diverse ecology of bats influences their capacity to act as viral reservoirs.

Keywords: bats
reservoir species
zoonotic disease
Advisor: Mideo, Nicole
Ratcliffe, John M.
Post-conflict Infrastructure Rehabilitation

The International Community’s rehabilitation paradigm for post-conflict regions has persisted since its inception for post-World War II Europe, though has yet to repeat that initial success. The nature of the post-conflict environment is different, challenging the assumptions upon which the paradigm rests. The Paris Declaration 2005 called for greater alignment of reconstruction projects with local needs, and more recent demands for greater accountability of humanitarian agencies working in post-conflict areas reflects increased frustration with this lack of success. However, the consistent challenge for all stakeholders has been a lack of common reference and the projection of assumed essential services models that can rarely adapt to local nuances. This thesis represents an investigation of the rehabilitation paradigm, explores what successful delivery looks like and how to inform its practicable attainment. Above all, any change to the existing paradigm must be readily adoptable by practitioners and this largely defines the scope of this conceptual work. It frames the nature of the rehabilitation requirements and the role of infrastructure, proposing an outcomes-based system of project measurement and a Common Operating Picture (COP) that are built on a near-real time stand-off recognition of the existing natural, built and human situation. The COP is dynamic, responsive to change, providing an auditable evidence-based common reference for all stakeholders to understand the existing situation and evaluate proposed policies and projects effects. This includes the re-discovery of long-established practices such as intelligent resourcing, as well as proposing Beneficial Capability and a unifying purpose for post-conflict infrastructure around the physical, mental and social wellbeing of the local population. Five critical components of a post-conflict rehabilitation implementation framework are proposed for improved alignment and outcomes: common reference for all stakeholders, a unifying purpose of local population health, intelligent resourcing, beneficial capability, and a system of systems view of the relationship between infrastructure and society. These will assist the infrastructure engineer in the planning and delivery of infrastructure projects, concluding that the process of project implementation is as important as its substance.

Keywords: common reference
conflict
infrastructure
reconstruction
rehabilitation
Advisor: Karney, Bryan W
Analytic Spaces and their Tukey Types

In this Thesis, we study topologies on countable sets from the perspective of Tukey reductions of their neighbourhood filters. It turns out that is closely related to the already established theory of definable (and in particular analytic) topologies on countable sets. The connection is, in fact, natural as the neighbourhood filters of points in such spaces are typical examples of directed sets for which Tukey theory was introduced some eighty years ago. What is interesting here is that the abstract Tukey reduction of a neighbourhood filter Fx of a point to standard directed sets like or ℓ1 imposes that Fx must be analytic. We develop a theory that examines the Tukey types of analytic topologies and compare it with the theory of sequential convergence in arbitrary countable topological spaces either using forcing extensions or axioms such as, for example, the Open Graph Axiom. It turns out that in certain classes of countable analytic groups we can classify all possible Tukey types of the corresponding neighbourhood filters of identities. For example, we show that if G is a countable analytic k-group then 1 = {0}, and are the only possible Tukey types of the neighbourhood filter F G e . This will give us also new metrization criteria for such groups. We also show that the study of definable topologies on countable index sets has natural analogues in the study of arbitrary topologies on countable sets in certain forcing extensions.

Keywords: Analytic topological spaces
Metrizable topological groups
Sequential convergence
Tukey types of neighbourhood filters
Advisor: Todorcevic, Stevo
From Smartphone Apps to In-person Data Collection: Modern and Cost-effective Multimodal Travel Data Collection for Evidence-based Planning

Evidence-based transportation planning and decision-making relies on accurate data and analysis. In the Toronto context, the main source of data on the movement of individuals within the region is the Transportation Tomorrow Survey (TTS). The TTS, conducted every 5 years since 1986, is a large-scale household travel diary survey that relies on self-reporting of travel by telephone and, as of 2011, web. While a high-quality source of data overall, the TTS has well-documented limitations with respect to the incomplete recording of walk and bike trips, or active transportation (AT). The TTS also suffers from other issues related to the reliance on self-reporting travel surveys more broadly, such as systematic under-reporting of discretionary travel, proxy report bias and declining response rates. This thesis explores the significance of not properly recording AT and other travel episodes, and presents solutions to cost-effectively collect multimodal travel data using a variety of methods. The thesis primarily describes a series of data collection projects undertaken from 2014 to 2017, each of which examines possible improvements to travel diary generation. Smartphone location logging apps and trace processing are explored first, where an assessment of the state of the art and 2 public-facing data collection projects were carried out. These led to an app template and app design guidelines being produced. Potential improvements to web survey questionnaire design and open data distribution mechanisms are then looked at, demonstrating potential value in terms of heightened relevance of the collected data and increased use. Finally, an in-person tablet data collection effort was carried out, demonstrating the feasibility of collecting data by combining door-to-door recruitment with internet-enabled tablets and a web survey. Methodological improvements and process-oriented lessons learned throughout are described, as are implications of alternative data collection methods for more accurately representing the demand for travel, active or otherwise.

Keywords: Active Transportation
Data collection
Evidence-based planning
Smartphone apps
Transportation Tomorrow Survey
Travel diary
Advisor: Miller, Eric J
Randomized Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trials Testing Gemfibrozil for Smoking Cessation and Melatonin for Alcohol-related Sleeping Problems

Substance use disorder (SUD) is not a temporary condition but it is a chronic and relapsing disorder that leads to serious health risks. SUD is considered a pathological behavior, affecting the reward circuit and stress system, and these impairments can last for a longer period even after detoxification and abstinence. The motivation behind exploring new therapeutic options for different kind of SUDs and their complications is the limited success of the available treatments. For instance, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved medications for Tobacco use disorder (TUD) increase abstinence rates; however, relapse remains the most likely outcome, with success rates of only 20-30% at 1 year post-treatment follow up. The other motivation for exploring new therapeutics is the harmful side effects caused by current medications; for instance, the use of benzodiazepine receptor agonists, to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD)-sleep disorder, which are known to be addictive. This thesis focuses on two randomized clinical trials (RCTs) exploring the effect of two therapeutic options one for TUD using lab paradigms for nicotine craving and reinforcement and a brief quit attempt. The other RCT is exploring the effect of melatonin for sleep problems in AUD subjects for four weeks of treatments monitoring iii sleep quality versus placebo. The result of the 1st clinical trial showed no significant effect of gemfibrozil versus placebo on TUD lab indices. The 2nd clinical trial showed a time effect on sleep scores that were significantly enhanced after 4 weeks of treatment. However, no drug effect was observed. In conclusion, it is highly recommended to conduct more RCTs in the fields of SUD in order to obtain better success rates with fewer side effects.

Keywords: alcohol use disorder
gemfibrozil
melatonin
sleep
smoking cessation
Advisor: Le Foll, Bernard