VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Anonymous Musicae artis disciplina: A Critical Edition

Although Musicae artis disciplina (hereafter Musica) has long been associated with the same Italian musico-theorectical tradition that gave birth to the anonymous Dialogus and the writings of Guido of Arezzo, the treatise itself has received little scholarly attention. Perhaps this is due to the lack of a strong textual basis for the treatise; so far, the only published edition of Musica is found in Martin Gerbert’s Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica, which dates from 1784. This dissertation stands as the first complete critical edition of Musicae artis disciplina. In order to contextualize the treatise, two introductory chapters represent a thorough investigation of Musica’s theories and its rightful place in music theory of the Middle Ages. The first chapter considers notions of pitch, intervals, melodic shape, and musical grammar, as outlined in Musicae artis disciplina. I then situate the treatise within the Italian musico-theoretical school of the early eleventh century by examining the similarities in content, orientation, musical citation, and terminology, and by considering the manuscript tradition of the anonymous Dialogus, the writings of Guido of Arezzo, and Musicae artis disciplina. Contrary to current theories regarding Musica’s origin, I argue that the treatise was likely written in the mid-eleventh century, after the Dialogus and treatises of Guido of Arezzo. The third chapter features an analysis of Musica’s textual tradition, complete with a stemma textuum. Musica survives today in six known medieval manuscripts (five of which contain the complete text of the treatise) and in Gerbert’s edition, which was based on a manuscript that is no longer extant. Each of these sources is examined in detail, and a full codicological description is provided for each manuscript. An examination of common and separative errors in each witness is then used as the basis for a stemma textuum; although the lines of affiliation are somewhat indistinct due to high levels on contamination, I contend that these witnesses fall into two families, both of which stem from a single source that is no longer extant. The dissertation concludes with a complete critical edition of Musicae artis disciplina.

Keywords: Medieval music theory
Latin textual criticism
Advisor: Haines, John
Practical Ontologies: Requirements, Design and Applications to Semantic Integration and Knowledge Discovery

Due to their role in describing the semantics of information, knowledge representations, from formal ontologies to informal representations such as folksonomies, are becoming increasingly important in facilitating the exchange of information, as well as the semantic integration of information systems and knowledge discovery in a large number of areas, from e-commerce to bioinformatics. In this thesis we present several studies related to the development and application of knowledge representations, in the form of practical ontologies. In Chapter 2, we examine representational challenges and requirements for describing practical domain knowledge. We present representational requirements we collected by surveying current and potential ontology users, discuss current approaches to codifying knowledge and give formal representation solutions to some of the issues we identified. In Chapter 3 we introduce a practical ontology for representing data exchanges, discuss its relationship with existing standards and its role in facilitating the interoperability between information producing and consuming services. We also consider the problem of assessing similarity between ontological concepts and propose three novel measures of similarity, detailed in Chapter 4. Two of our proposals estimate semantic similarity between concepts in the same ontology, while the third measures similarity between concepts belonging to different ontologies. In Chapters 5 and 6 we discuss applications of our similarity measures. Specifically, in Chapter 5 we present a method for discovering mappings between different bio-ontologies and discuss the results of a quality assessment performed by two expert biologists on the top mappings identified by our method. In Chapter 6 we detail an integrative method for discovering gene associations: the Gene Association Predictor (GAP) and present the results of assessing the predictions made by GAP using a multi-pronged approach: (1) overlap with datasets of known, experimentally derived, gene associations, (2) comparison with other prediction services, and (3) manual curation of scientific literature.

Keywords: knowledge representation
ontologies
Advisor: Jurisica, Igor
Concussion in Youth Ice Hockey Players: Approaches to Identification, Assessment and Management

Despite the numerous benefits of sport participation, involvement in ice hockey can expose youth to an increased risk of injury, including concussions. With over 500,000 youth registered to play hockey in Canada in 2011-2012 and concussion being one of the most common injuries in the sport, many youth are at risk. The combination of symptoms following a concussion can greatly influence one's ability to safely engage in meaningful activities (e.g., sport, school etc.). Despite the popularity of ice hockey amongst Canadian youth, the risk of concussion within this population and the implications for functional performance, to date, little research has been conducted specific to concussion in youth ice hockey players. This thesis is comprised of three studies and one commentary focused on the identification, assessment and management of concussion in youth ice hockey players. The first study identifies the player and game characteristics associated with head impacts of greater severity and frequency within female youth ice hockey players. The second and third studies respectively assess the influence of concussion on the strength and cognitive performance of youth ice hockey players. These studies use novel approaches to understanding the influence of concussion on the physical and cognitive abilities of youth athletes and act as a foundation to further develop more accurate indices of readiness to return to play following a concussive event. Finally, a commentary on the use of occupational therapy to assist in the management of concussion and the promotion of improved outcomes both inside and outside of the sport context for youth is presented. Overall, the direction of this research is to minimize concussion-related impairment within youth athletes, more specifically youth ice hockey players, and act as a preliminary evidence base for future study and the development of youth specific post-concussion rehabilitation treatment protocols.

Keywords: concussion
sport
Advisor: Keightley, Michelle
Devleopmnet of Distriubted Nueral Sysetms for Readnig in Heatlhy and Brian-Injrued Chlidren (If you can read this, you have a well-developed whole word reading system. It should read Development of Distributed Neural Systems for Reading in Healthy and Brain-Injured Children)

Printed words can be read by decoding, which involves mapping the visual form to its auditory counterpart before meaning is accessed, or directly, by linking meaning to the word form as a whole. Clinical cases and neuroimaging studies have suggested separate, yet interacting, neural pathways may underlie these strategies to reading. Children developing expertise in reading may show a concomitant decrease in reliance on posterior phonological systems supporting decoding as well as an increase in specialization of visual systems. However, the functional organization of these neural systems is not well understood, particularly in light of the fact that reading is a cultural invention too recent to have evolved dedicated brain mechanisms. In the present thesis, we manipulated word frequency and spelling-to-sound consistencies to favor one or the other reading strategy in young readers aged 7-10. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recordings demonstrate that more proficient young readers use inferior frontal regions rather than dorsal inferior parietal and temporal phonological regions during the direct reading strategy, whereas the opposite brain activity pattern supports the less efficient decoding strategy. Moreover, both left and right fusiform gyri participate in functional networks supporting both reading strategies by interacting with left inferior parietal regions during direct reading and inferior frontal and bilateral ventral occipital areas during decoding; however, left fusiform gyrus appears to show a relative specialization for direct reading. Further investigation of the fusiform gyri reveals more dissociable patterns of activity for words versus non-lexical stimuli in young readers compared to adults, suggesting an increase in specialization of visual systems. We argue that this reflects increased local processing and decreased distributed network processing associated with earlier stages of development. Finally, the capacity of functional neural regions to increase their ability to connect to other regions within the reading network may be important for recovery in young readers with pre- or perinatally acquired focal lesions.

Keywords: reading
fMRI
development
stroke
neural networks
partial least squares
cognitive neuroscience
Advisor: McIntosh, Anthony Randal
Breastfeeding Practices of Inuit Canadians

Background: Inuit populations are less likely to breastfeed than other Canadians and are disproportionately affected by many conditions which breastfeeding is protective against. No population-based research has explored the determinants of breastfeeding initiation and exclusive breastfeeding to six months, as recommended by Health Canada, in this population. Objective: The aim of this research is to examine the prevalence of breastfeeding initiation and exclusive breastfeeding to six months among Canadian Inuit and to identify factors that are associated with both breastfeeding practices. Methods: Data for this research come primarily from two cross-sectional population-based surveys: the Nunavut Inuit Child Health Survey and the IPY Inuit Health Survey. Possible determinants of breastfeeding practices include household, maternal, infant and community characteristics as well as engagement in traditional lifestyle. Logistic regression procedures (i.e. multiple logistic regression; multinomial logistic regression; hierarchal logistic regression) were used to model the determinants of breastfeeding initiation and exclusive breastfeeding as recommended. Results: The prevalence of breastfeeding initiation was 67% (95% CI: 62.8-72.4) in the entire sample and 76% (95% CI: 70.6-82.1) in children raised by their biological mother. Twenty-three percent of Inuit Canadians practiced exclusive breastfeeding as recommended (95% CI: 16.2-29.3). Among children being raised by their biological mother, infants of low birth weight and whose mothers smoked during pregnancy were less likely to begin breastfeeding (OR: 0.16, 95%CI: 0.10-0.27; OR: 0.34, 95%CI: 0.19-0.61, respectively), while infants in crowded households were more likely to begin breastfeeding (OR=2.01, 95%CI: 1.39-2.94). Families currently receiving income support were less likely to stop exclusive breastfeeding their infant before 5.5 months (OR≤1month=0.39, 95%CI: 0.14-1.05; OR1-<5.5 months=0.34, 95%CI: 0.13-0.85). There was no relationship between classes of traditional lifestyle and either breastfeeding initiation or exclusive breastfeeding as recommended. Conclusions: These data suggest substantial room for improving breastfeeding practices of Inuit Canadians, which may provide downstream health benefits to Inuit children. Increasing exclusive breastfeeding to six months will require targeted interventions.

Keywords: Inuit
Breastfeeding
Advisor: Young, Kue
The Evolution of Host Specificity and Virulence in the Plant Pathogen Pseudomonas syringae

The Pseudomonas syringae species complex comprises dozens of plant pathogenic strains with highly specific interactions with diverse host species and cultivars. My thesis research examines multiple stages of P. syringae’s coevolutionary interactions, from the earliest events involved in specialization to a novel host through to an assessment of the origin and evolution of the latest pandemic of this destructive infectious disease on Actinidia (kiwifruit) spp. The serial passaging of a strain of P. syringae on a novel host resulted in the appearance of an evolved line exhibiting higher growth on the novel host than the ancestor. The earliest steps towards host specialization were mutations in genes implicated in motility, exopolysaccharide production, and biofilm formation. The growth of this evolved line was compromised on its original host, suggesting there is a cost to specialization. The role of pathoadaptive variation as both a determinant of host specificity and the outcome of an arms race dynamic between P. syringae and its plant hosts was then investigated in order to develop a predictive method for the identification of novel innate immunity triggers. Plant hosts are more likely to evolve recognition to ‘core’ pathogen proteins under negative selection for the maintenance of essential functions, while repeated exposure to host defenses imposes strong selective pressure for elicitor diversification to avoid host recognition. Selected candidate elicitors were identified by screening a selection of plant pathogen genomes for these contrasting signatures of selection. Candidates were validated by testing their induction of Arabidopsis thaliana innate immunity. I conclude my thesis with an investigation into the origin and evolution of a recently emerged pandemic strain of P. syringae pv. actinidiae (Pan). Comparative genomic analyses of over 20 newly sequenced Pan strains revealed the outbreak strains form a distinct clade separate from Asian and Italian strains isolated prior to 2008. Outbreak-specific genes are frequently clustered together or with type 3 secreted effectors in mobile elements. Some outbreak-specific genes appear to have been acquired from vascular and woody pathogens, representing genes potentially involved in Pan’s ability to infect and spread through the woody tissues and vasculature of the kiwifruit vine.

Keywords: Comparative Genomics
Plant-Microbe Interactions
Host Pathogen Coevolution
Advisor: Guttman, David S
Out of Focus: Exploring Practitioners' Understanding of Child Sexual Abuse Images on the Internet

Children made the subjects of sexual abuse images online have been abused offline and in addition, images of their abuse have been distributed online - images that cannot be retrieved and that circulate on the Internet indefinitely. There is a lack of knowledge regarding practitioners&rsquo; understanding of child sexual abuse images online and the effects of such images on the child victims. This study represents one of the first explorations of how practitioners working in child sexual abuse (CSA) understand online CSA images and the effects of these images, and how practitioners integrate their understanding into assessment and treatment approaches. Employing a Grounded Theory methodology, 14 practitioners from Ontario, Canada were recruited using theoretical sampling to participate in in-depth interviews to explore their understanding of online CSA images and how this understanding influenced their clinical practice. Themes that emerged indicated that the participants differed in how they conceptualized what constituted online CSA images, and that they held varying levels or degrees of concern regarding the effects on the child. Factors identified as influencing practitioners&rsquo; conceptualizations included whether practitioners viewed online CSA images as: 1) the same as conventional CSA; 2) different from conventional CSA and not as serious; 3) different from conventional CSA and as serious. The core category &lsquo;Out of Focus&rsquo; signifies that most practitioners did not have a clear understanding of CSA images online nor were they sure about how to respond to online CSA images particularly the therapeutic issues associated with the permanence of the online images. The phenomenon of CSA images online presents new daunting challenges for practitioners working in this area. The study findings affirmed the high priority need for training that addresses factors which influence how practitioners understand and respond to CSA images online. Awareness and understanding of the phenomenon of CSA images online is essential for the development of accurate assessments and effective approaches to treatment. Findings of this study affirmed that further research exploring the potential effects of the images on the child is of vital importance. These findings are discussed as they relate to critical considerations for social work practice concerning children made the subjects of CSA images online.

Keywords: child sexual abuse
Internet
images
cyberspace
Advisor: Alaggia, Ramona
Folding Spaces and Porous Bodies: Sound and Sight in Bruce Nauman's Oeuvre

This dissertation is tuned to the sonic procedures, sculptures, installations and drawings created by American artist Bruce Nauman (b.1941) from 1965 to the present. Probing the move from making sense to making sensual-sense in the interstice between sight and audition, my study traces and contextualizes Nauman’s works in relation to the modernist hegemony of the visual and its contemporary interruption by sound. From sculpting ears or making his body a sonoric instrument producing soundscapes in the gallery space, to composing theatrical cacophonies for the visitor to occupy, Nauman’s oeuvre marks a history of sound art cultivated within the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1960s. This historical unfolding links new relations between music and the plastic arts and is induced by experimental and electroacoustic music, such as the work of Arnold Schoenberg, Pierre Schaeffer, John Cage, Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, and the innovations of such Minimalist composers as Steve Reich, La Monte Yonge, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass. My study contends that Nauman’s use of sound challenges both the production of art and its reception profoundly. By importing sound into the realm of vision, Nauman questions the praxis of making sense under the assumed superiority of sight. No longer mute, sonic objects abrogate the hierarchy of the senses and mark the move from the spatio-temporal settings of passive spectatorship to the medial topologies of the sensuous perceiving body. Reckoned as “arguably the most internationally influential figure of his generation of Americans” by MoMA curator Robert Storr in 1995, Nauman’s work anticipates the move to the multisensual practices of Augmented Reality and New Media. By contrasting the tight, almost synonymous relations between knowing, thinking, seeing and appearing with the turn to the sonorous and the tactile, my study places Nauman’s sonic objects within the tense relation between philosophical ideas of perception entrenched in systems of signification and logic and those that pertain to the superiority of the senses.

Keywords: Bruce Nauman
sound
Advisor: Cheetham, Mark A.
From Visual Learner to Visual Teacher and Beyond: Pedagogical Considerations on the Role of Children in Vittorio De Sica's Neorealism

This dissertation will examine the role of children in Vittorio De Sica’s films I bambini ci guardano (1944), Sciuscià (1946), and Ladri di biciclette (1948). The strength of their function, as shall be outlined, lies in their expansive field of vision which allows them to take on great responsibilities. Those they come to affect, through what they see, are not limited to the characters with whom they come into contact. They become a source of identification for the neorealist spectator. Thus, the child will be shown as a symbol for the redefinition of what constitutes the male agency - a term which is already on unstable ground during the postwar years. What he lacks in virility and active potency, the child makes up for in insight and intuitiveness until those qualities elevate him to the heights of focal protagonist and moral compass. In support of this stance, the dissertation will employ the teachings of Gilles Deleuze in Cinema 1: The Movement Image and Cinema 2: The Time-Image, books which champion Neorealism for its ability to suspend the spectator’s need for decisive action to occur in film and for giving prominence to propelling reflection. The impetus to select De Sica over other neorealists was crafted by the weight and presence of young characters in his films who were neither heroic nor crusaders for social change. They were, simply, children. What they represented, what their gazes revealed willingly and instinctively, were the basic facets of human existence: warmth, kindness, regret, guilt, and, above all, love. With the realization that within children there exists great humanity, the adults around them begin to question their own behaviour. Thus, the child, despite his restricted physical action, also takes on the role of teacher. How far the child’s pedagogical abilities can take him are also explored in a different, but relevant setting: the classroom. This dissertation, then, comes full circle when it aims to highlight the influence of the child on yet another spectator: the student-cinephile.

Keywords: Cinema
Pedagogy
Children
Children in Neorealism
De Sica
Advisor: Lettieri, Michael
Le Corps vêtu (et dévêtu) dans l’œuvre de Baudelaire et de Sue: Une approche diachronique.

Cette thèse examine la problématique de l’existence du lien généalogique et thématique entre la littérature populaire et la haute littérature au XIXe siècle. À cette fin, nous nous penchons sur la représentation du dandy, de la prostituée et du pauvre dans la mise en scène des Mystères de Paris d’Eugène Sue et dans l’œuvre poétique et journalistique de Charles Baudelaire. Puisque ces trois figures occupent les marges de la société, la façon dont elles sont représentées permet de déterminer ce qu’elles représentent pour le centre. De surcroît, dans une optique pleinement foucaldienne, la construction des excentriques dit beaucoup sur la perception et la construction du centre par lui-même. Le domaine littéraire en pleine mutation économique et la marginalisation (pour ne pas parler de la paupérisation) de l’écrivain rendent ces figures marginales encore plus parlantes grâce à une lecture allégorique de leur mise en scène. Le rapprochement de ces deux écrivains s’est avéré très productif dans la mesure où nous avons non seulement décelé des liens discursifs rattachant le feuilletoniste au poète, mais notre investigation a également illuminé les dispositifs en jeu entre le texte littéraire et son contexte historique. Pour notre analyse, nous avons dû nous pencher sur plusieurs textes historiques et idéologiques afin de situer nos deux auteurs vis-à-vis des discours dominants : nous avons eu recours aux journaux de mode, à certains discours tenus au Sénat, à la correspondance des lecteurs de Sue, à plusieurs textes « sociologiques », « ethnographiques » et « panoramiques » de l’époque, ainsi qu’à d’autres mises en scène littéraires. Nous avons fait le pari qu’en confrontant ces divers discours à ceux émanant des textes que nous avons privilégiés, il y aurait des résonances et des dissonances particulières qui nous aideraient à déterminer si la répétition des figures privilégiées par nos deux auteurs signale également d’autres analogies et isomorphismes pertinents. Effectivement, nous avons pu découvrir, grâce aux outils de la narratologie, une généalogie provenant des changements dans le statut de l’écrivain et de la littérature.

Keywords: Charles Baudelaire, Eugène Sue, French literature and journalism, fashion, dandy, prostitute, the poor, nineteenth-century France
Advisor: Michelucci, Pascal