VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Combat, Memory and Remembrance in Confederation Era Canada: The Hidden History of the Battle of Ridgeway, June 2, 1866

On June 1, 1866, one thousand heavily-armed Irish-American Fenian insurgents invaded Upper Canada across the Niagara River from Buffalo, NY. The next day near the town of Ridgeway, 800 Fenians battled with 850 Canadian volunteer soldiers, including a small company of 28 University of Toronto students who ended up taking the brunt of the attack. The Battle of Ridgeway (or Lime Ridge or Limestone Ridge) ended with a disastrous rout of the Canadians who in their panicked retreat left their dead and wounded on the field. It was the last major incursion into Canada, the last battle in Ontario and the first modern one fought by Canadians, led in the field exclusively by Canadian officers, and significantly fought in Canada. The Fenian Raid mobilized some 22,000 volunteer troops and resulted in the suspension of habeas corpus in the colonial Province of Canada by its Attorney General and Minister of Militia John A. Macdonald, but the battle which climaxed this crisis is only prominent by its obscurity in Canadian historiography. Almost everything known and cited about Ridgeway springs from the same sources—four books and pamphlets—three of them published in the summer of 1866 immediately after the event and the remaining one in 1910. This dissertation argues that the history of the battle was distorted and falsified by these sources and by two military board of inquiries staged to explicitly cover up the extent of the disaster. This study investigates the relationship between the inquiries and the contemporary author-historians of two of the sources: Alexander Somerville, an investigative journalist in Hamilton, Ontario, a recent immigrant from Britain with a controversial history; and George T. Denison III, a prominent young Toronto attorney, a commander of a troop of volunteer cavalry, a former Confederate secret service agent, author-commentator on Canada’s military policy and presiding judge on both boards of inquiry. This study describes the process by which Ridgeway’s history was hidden and falsified and its possible scope and significance in Canadian historiography. New archival and published sources are identified, assessed and assembled for a newly restored and authenticated micro-narrative of the battle.

Keywords: Fenian Raids Canada 1866
Battle of Ridgeway 1866
Militia Canada
Battle of Fort Erie 1866
Advisor: Bothwell, Robert
Tigers and Crosses: The Transcultural Dynamics of Spanish-Guaraní Relations in the Río de la Plata: 1516-1580

This is a study of the early colonial period of the Río de la Plata from first contact in 1516 to the emergence of a predominantly mestizo population in Asunción by 1580. The central focus of the study is the period from 1537, when Spaniards founded Asunción in the territories of the Guaraní-speaking Carios, until the establishment of the encomienda, a colonial labour system, in 1556. Through a close reading of archival documents and chronicles, the study presents a narrative history of the transcultural dynamics of Spanish-Guaraní relations, including the convergence of kinship and alliances, cacique and conquistador rivalries, competing spiritual beliefs of shamanism and Catholicism, and the role of castaways, lenguas (interpreters) indigenous women, priests, and mestizos as intermediaries. How these transcultural dynamics were dominated by indigenous norms until 1556, and how they shaped the cultural, social, and spiritual dimensions of mestizaje (racial mixing) are analysed. The study covers key moments in the conquest and early colonial period. These include Sebastián Caboto’s exploration of the Río de la Plata from 1527 to 1529; Pedro de Mendoza’s armada to the Río de la Plata in 1535 that led to the founding of Asunción in 1537 and the first governorship of Domingo Martínez de Irala from 1539 to 1542; the rule of Asunción by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca as adelantado from 1542 to 1544; and Domingo Martínez de Irala’s second governorship of the region from 1544 to 1556. An in-depth examination of the establishment of the encomienda is undertaken to consider how cultural identification, social status, and ethnic distinctions were reconfigured between the Cario and other Guaraní-speaking groups, the Spanish, and mestizos after 1556. The study concludes with an analysis of the Oberá Rebellion of 1579-80 as an example of how kinship and warrior norms, Christianity, and shamanistic practices converged in indigenous resistance to colonial rule.

Keywords: Colonial Rio de la Plata
mestizaje
encomienda
colonial Paraguay
Advisor: Mills, Kenneth
The Ground of Empowerment: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Vision of Africa's Past

Scholars have examined many aspects of W. E. B. Du Bois’s project of empowering oppressed peoples in the United States and around the world. However they have treated in only a fragmentary way one of the principal strategies that he used to counter hegemonic ideologies of African and African American inferiority. That strategy was to turn to the evidence of history. Here I argue that Du Bois, alerted by Franz Boas to Africans’ historical attainments, confronted claims made by European Americans that Africans and a fortiori African Americans lacked any achievement independent of European or other foreign influence. Du Bois linked African Americans to Africa and laid out repeatedly and in detail a narrative of autonomous African historical accomplishment. I demonstrate that his approach to the history of Africa constituted a radical departure from the treatment of Africa presented by scholars located in the mainstream of contemporary anglophone academic thought. I argue that while his vision of Africa’s history did not effect any significant shift in scholarly orthodoxy, it played a crucial role, at a grave juncture in race relations in the United States, in helping to equip young African Americans with the psychological resources necessary to challenge white supremacist systems. I contend that his vision of African civilizational achievement situates him in a tradition of ideological struggle waged by African Americans from the 1800s through the twenty-first century and that in regard to utilizing Africa’s past as the ground of empowerment the relationship of his approach with that of Afrocentrist scholars is marked by both disjunctures and continuities.

Advisor: Halpern, Rick
A User Innovation Theory of the Numerus Clausus

Limitations on the customizability of property rights (the numerus clausus principle) are a puzzling feature of the common law conception of property. An economic rationale, built upon 1) the pivotal role that rules of exclusion play in fostering user innovation, and 2) the role that psychological ownership plays in preventing recontracting around governance rules, is offered to explain the modern persistence of the doctrine. Application of the numerus clausus principle limits the proliferation of governance rules in the economy (governance), replacing them with rules of exclusion (exclusion). Exclusion unifies rights of use and possession in assets, while governance separates, to a greater or lesser degree, possession from use rights. Full user, sale and the policy against restraints on alienation are the paradigmatic examples of exclusion; while governance is exemplified by servitudes and contractually-burdened assets. Exclusion plays a critical role in user innovation because it allows the possessors of assets to unilaterally seek out new uses of those assets. Whenever the law replaces governance with exclusion, user innovation is more likely to occur because the possessors of assets can apply their unique, rival and nontransferable human capital inputs to tangible assets, generating outputs (the new uses) that move resources to their higher-value uses. This is how all innovation, both high-tech and low-tech, occurs. In addition to negatively impacting user innovation, governance hinders recontracting because both possession and legal entitlements (rights of use in an asset) give rise to feelings of psychological ownership, and individuals will not recontract over uses that they feel they already ‘own’. The user innovation theory’s focus on search, innovation and human capital explains why the numerus clausus principle remains most robust in the areas of personal and intellectual property (where users generate a significant amount of innovation), and why it has been somewhat attenuated in the area of real property (where we restrict search in order to facilitate coordination of land uses). It also explains why the law enforces the principle even when the cost of providing notice of governance rules is low.

Keywords: property rights
innovation
Advisor: Chapman, Bruce
Initiating and Sustaining Emotional Abuse in the Coach-athlete Relationship: Athletes&rsquo;, Parents&rsquo;, and Coaches&rsquo; Reflections

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the process by which emotional abuse occurs and is often sustained in sport, and to examine athletes’, parents’, and coaches’ reflections on emotional abuse in the coach-athlete relationship. The methodological approach used for the study was a constructivist and symbolic interactionist approach to grounded theory. Methods were established that were consistent with the iterative nature of grounded theory. In total, 18 retired elite athletes, 16 parents of retired elite athletes, and nine elite coaches participated in the study. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant, and data were coded using open, axial, and selective coding techniques. Athlete data were interpreted to suggest a sequence of stages by which emotionally abusive coach-athlete relations developed and were sustained over time. Furthermore, the perceived impact of emotionally abusive coaching practices on motivation, self-confidence, commitment, and achievement outcomes in sport were discussed. Parent data were interpreted to suggest that parents are socialized into the culture of elite sport and can become silent bystanders to their children’s experiences of emotional abuse. Coaches’ reflections about the reasons for choosing to use emotionally abusive behaviours in the coach-athlete relationship were interpreted to suggest two distinct origins for the use of this behaviour. Additionally, perceived reasons for abandoning emotionally abusive coaching techniques were reported by the coaches. Finally, based on the collective reflections of the athletes, parents, and coaches, an ecological transactional model of vulnerability to emotional abuse in the coach-athlete relationship is proposed. Several implications of the study findings are discussed and questions are posed for future research.

Keywords: emotional abuse
sport
Advisor: Kerr, Gretchen
The Role of Whole-body Vibration in the Prevention of Postmenopausal Osteoporosis

Whole-body vibration (WBV) was recently introduced as a potential modality for strengthening bones, and this thesis was set out to investigate whether it plays a role in the prevention of postmenopausal bone loss. First, effects of WBV on bone mineral density (BMD) were systematically evaluated in previous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in postmenopausal women. Second, a RCT of 202 postmenopausal women with primary osteopenia not on bone medications was conducted to investigate the effects of WBV at 0.3g and 90 Hz versus 0.3g and 30 Hz versus controls on various bone outcomes, as measured by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA), high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT), and quantitative ultrasound (QUS). In the systematic evaluation of previous RCTs, statistically significant increase in areal BMD (aBMD) at the hip was found in postmenopausal women receiving WBV versus controls, but the effect was small and may have been due to study bias. Also, WBV was not found to influence aBMD at the lumbar spine or volumetric BMD (vBMD) at the distal tibia in the systematic evaluation. In the RCT conducted in this thesis, no statistically significant effects of WBV were found on aBMD at the femoral neck, total hip or lumbar spine, as measured by DXA, or on vBMD or bone structure parameters at the distal tibia or distal radius, as measured by HR-pQCT. Further in this RCT, a statistically significant decrease was observed in QUS attenuation at the calcaneus in women receiving 90 Hz or 30 Hz WBV compared to controls. This may have been due to heel bone or soft tissue damage, although the effect was small and may not be clinically important. In conclusion, this investigation of postmenopausal women did not find clinically relevant benefits of WBV on osteoporotic-prone skeletal sites, including the hip, spine, tibia or radius, while potentially harmful effects on heel bone and/or soft tissue was observed in response to WBV. Thus based on this thesis, WBV is currently not recommended for the prevention of bone loss in community-dwelling postmenopausal women with primary osteopenia.

Keywords: whole-body vibration
postmenopausal bone loss
Advisor: Cheung, Angela M.
The Role of Prostaglandin H Synthase (PHS) Bioactivation and Nuclear Factor Erythroid 2-related Factor 2 (Nrf2)-Mediated Protection in Endogenous and Methamphetamine-initiated Neurotoxicity

Endogenous brain compounds and xenobiotics, including the neurotoxins such as the amphetamine analogs 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA,Ecstasy), methamphetamine (METH, Speed) and methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA, active metabolite of MDMA), may be bioactivated by prostaglandin H synthase (PHS) to free radicals that generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). In the absence of adequate antioxidant or repair mechanisms, ROS oxidize macromolecules such as DNA, protein and lipids, which can lead to toxicity. In vitro, we evaluated bioactivation using both purified ovine PHS-1 and cultured cells stably overexpressing either human PHS-1 or hPHS-2 isozymes. We found the neurotransmitter dopamine, its precursors and some metabolites, as well as METH and MDA, can be bioactivated by ovine and/or human PHS in an isozyme-dependent fashion that generates ROS, which oxidize DNA and protein and increase toxicity. This process is blocked by both the PHS inhibitor acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) and the ROS detoxifying enzyme catalase. Our data are the first to reveal isozyme-dependent bioactivation by PHS as a potential mechanism for enhanced susceptibility to both exogenous and endogenous neurotoxins, the latter of which may be particularly important in aging. METH-initiated ROS can also activate redox-sensitive transcription factors such as nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), which is involved in the induction of an array of protective mechanisms in both adult and fetal brain. Using Nrf2 knockout mice, we showed Nrf2 has a novel neuroprotective role in METH-initiated oxidative stress, neurotoxicity and functional deficits in both fetal development and adulthood, especially with multiple exposures allowing time for the induction of neuroprotective mechanisms. Our studies are the first to show that Nrf2 afforded protection against both motor coordination deficits and olfactory deficits caused by METH in utero and in adults, suggesting that deficiencies in Nrf2 activation constitute a risk factor for ROS-mediated neurotoxicity in the fetus and adult.

Keywords: cyclooxygenase
Nrf2
prostaglandin H synthase
oxidative stress
methamphetamine
neurotoxicity
fetal toxicity
in utero exposure
Advisor: Wells, Peter G.
The Mystical Dimension of Michelangelo's Writings

This dissertation examines the spiritual poetry of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) in light of three distinct but related contexts: Italian Evangelism of the Catholic Reformation, the Italian lauda tradition, and Renaissance Augustinianism. After reviewing the reception and critical history of Michelangelo’s poetry, chapter one presents the anthropological approach of the present study as an effective means of illuminating the poet’s spiritual verses by considering what they may have meant – collectively and individually – to the poet himself. Chapter two analyzes Michelangelo’s lyrics inspired by Vittoria Colonna with respect to the Spirituali of the Ecclesia viterbiensis in general and to the Beneficio di Cristo and personal letters of Vittoria Colonna in particular. It shows that the portrayal of Vittoria Colonna in this poetry as an instrument of grace effecting Michelangelo’s spiritual refashioning, rebirth, and renewal reflects a theology of the Holy Spirit that was dear to the Italian Evangelical community and central to their self-perception. The third chapter presents the Italian lauda tradition and its mystical verses addressing Christ and the Holy Spirit as an inspiration for Michelangelo who, in a later spiritual sonnet, borrowed directly from one of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s laude. This chapter shows how Michelangelo’s verse is informed by a long, popular Christian tradition in the vernacular. The discussion in chapter four centres on Dante’s Commedia and on the Augustinian allegoreses that permeate Landino’s Comento to the grand epic. These two works, it is argued, constitute sources as important as Petrarch’s Canzoniere for Michelangelo’s Augustinian vision of a mystico-moral ascent through conversion. This dissertation concludes that for Michelangelo poetry became an instrument of spiritual devotion. His mystical verses reveal a Catholic intellectual versant in Italian rhetoric of the Catholic Reformation and a poet inspired by Paul, Augustine, and the Italian lauda tradition.

Keywords: Michelangelo
Poetry
Italian Evangelism
Catholic Reformation
Lauda
Renaissance Augustinianisn
Vittoria Colonna
Dante
Cristoforo Landino
Divine Comedy
Augustine
St. Paul
Neoplatonism
Mysticism
Advisor: Eisenbichler, Konrad
Identifying and Quantifying Dynamic Risk Factors for Coronary Artery Disease in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), a prototypic multi-organ autoimmune disease, is associated with a dramatically increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) manifesting as angina, myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death. Traditional cardiac risk factors such as hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, measured at baseline in accordance with the Framingham model, only partially account for the increased risk of CAD in SLE. In this thesis, I have shown that blood pressure (BP), lipids and novel risk factors such as the inflammatory marker high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), take a dynamic course in SLE, with more than half of the variance in serial measurements over time occurring within rather than between individuals. This variability is due to changes in disease activity, treatment, accrual of other cardiac risk factors, and complications such as infection. I have demonstrated that by capturing cumulative exposure over time, ‘summary measures’ such as arithmetic mean and time-adjusted mean (AM) are better able to quantify CAD risk in patients with SLE than single-point-in-time measurements of risk factors. By incorporating ‘summary measures’ such as mean and AM into time-dependent covariate survival analysis models, I was able to quantify the magnitude of increase in CAD risk associated with increments in systolic and diastolic BP, and to demonstrate and quantify the association between several lipids / lipoproteins and CAD risk in SLE. Using this methodology, I was also able to demonstrate that despite marked variability over time, ‘summary measures’ of hsCRP are independently predictive of CAD risk among patients with SLE, highlighting the pivotal role of inflammation in atherosclerosis. Furthermore, I was able to determine lipid and hsCRP ‘cut-points’ that will aid clinicians in identifying a subgroup of patients with SLE who are at significantly increased cardiac risk.

Keywords: Risk factors
Coronary artery disease
Systemic lupus erythematosus
Advisor: Urowitz, Murray B.
Gladman, Dafna D.
Fork Configuration Damper (FCDs) for Enhanced Dynamic Performance of High-rise Buildings

The dynamic behaviour of high-rise buildings has become a critical design consideration as buildings are built taller and more slender. Large wind vibrations cause an increase in the lateral wind loads, but more importantly, they can be perceived by building occupants creating levels of discomfort ranging from minor annoyance to severe motion sickness. The current techniques to address these issues include stiffening the lateral load resisting system, reducing the number of stories, or incorporating a vibration absorber at the top of the building. All of which have consequences on the overall project cost. The dynamic response of high-rise buildings is highly dependent on damping. Full-scale measurements of high-rise buildings have shown that the inherent damping decreases with height and recent in-situ measurements have shown that the majority of buildings over 250 meters have levels of damping less than 1% of critical. Studies have shown that small increases in the inherent damping can lead to vast improvement in dynamic response. A new damping system, the viscoelastic (VE) Fork Configuration Damper (FCD), has been developed at the University of Toronto to address these design challenges. The proposed FCDs are introduced in lieu of coupling beams in reinforced concrete (RC) coupled wall buildings and take advantage of the large shear deformations at these locations when the building is subjected to lateral loads. An experimental study was conducted on 5 small-scale VE dampers to characterize the VE material behaviour and 6 full-scale FCD samples in an RC coupled wall configuration (one designed for areas where low to moderate ductility is required and one with built-in ductile structural “fuse” for areas where high ductility is required). The VE material tests exhibited stable hysteretic behaviour under expected high-rise loading conditions and the full-scale tests validated the overall system performance based on the kinematic behaviour of coupled walls, wall anchorage and VE material behaviour. Analytical models were developed that capture the VE material behaviour and the FCD system performance well. An 85-storey high-rise building was studied analytically to validate the design approach and to highlight the improvements in building response resulting from the addition of FCDs.

Keywords: dampers
skyscraper
high-rise
concrete
viscoelastic
vibrations
wind
seismic
earthquake
hurricane
coupled
walls
shear
coupling beams
fork configuration damper (FCD)
Advisor: Christopoulos, Constantin