VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Performing Portraiture: Picturing the Upper-class English Woman in an Age of Change, 1890-1914

This dissertation examines the use of portraiture by upper-class women of Britain in the period 1890—1914 as a means to redefine gender and class perception and to reposition aristocratic women as nostalgic emblems of a stable past and as symbols of a modern future. Through a range of portraiture practices, upper-class women promoted themselves as a new model for a continuing upper class that fulfilled a necessary social function in the altered circumstances of the new century. The period 1890—1914 was an era of change that challenged the existing social structure in Britain, destabilizing the hereditary entitlement of the ruling class and questioning the continuing role and relevance of the upper class. In the same period, changes in the technology of print and photography meant that, for the first time, there was the ability to disseminate portrait images through mass media on an economical basis, leading to a proliferation of illustrated journals and magazines. These circumstances provided an opportunity for upper-class women to reimagine the social and political potential of portraiture. My analysis examines different forms of media through intensive case studies arguing a progression from a traditional static image to a fluid interdisciplinary performative portraiture practice. In the first chapter I consider the aristocratic practice of pencil portrait drawings as a symbol of past values. In the second chapter I address the new technology of halftone images and the consequent desire for new forms of portrait images for publication. I argue that upper-class women seized this opportunity to transform the aesthetic of portraiture and to translate a new form of public persona into a platform for political involvement. In the third chapter I consider the advent of the snapshot photograph and the resulting change to ideas of privacy and awareness of forms of self-presentation. Finally, in the fourth chapter I look at the matrix of the upper-class woman, fashion, and the theatre through the perspective of portraiture as a performative practice facilitating the transformation of the upper-class woman into a new type of style celebrity that formed the basis for the celebrity culture of contemporary society.

Keywords: Edwardian
England
Female
Portraiture
Upper class
Advisor: Syme, Alison
Application of Child Growth Standards to Children Born Preterm in Epidemiologic Research: A Comparison of Methods and Implications for Inferences

Background: Growth standards are important tools used to evaluate a child’s growth relative to the expected norm. The most widely used growth standards, the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards (WHO-GS), are based on a cohort of term-born children (births ≥37 weeks gestational age [GA]) and are not directly applicable to preterm-born children (births

Advisor: Cole, Donald C
Zlotkin, Stanley H
Poetry and the Pursuit of Consensus in Renaissance England

Despite resistance from historians and literary critics, two narratives continue to hold sway in many accounts of the Protestant state’s rise in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. The first, associated with recusant and high Tory nostalgia for a hierarchical Middle Ages, sees the Reformation as the moment when “a rich and comforting consciousness of communal identity” passed away and something more like modern pluralism began to emerge. The second, associated with equally influential Whig narratives of liberation and progress, reverses that story and sees the Reformation in more salutary terms, as the moment when the individual first broke free from the church and became a significant actor on the world stage. This study tells a different story. It looks at the way several writers, including Skelton, Tyndale, Spenser, and Milton, responded to one of their period’s most pressing issues—sectarianism—by positing an “aesthetic community” that binds citizens together not with external laws and institutions, but with a deeper, more internal form of authority that reconciles liberty with community. For these writers, the broad cultural changes brought about by the Reformation, changes that centered on tensions that emerged throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries between the institutional authorities of the church and state, on the one hand, and the individual conscience, on the other, required the deployment of new forms of authority that could unite an increasingly divided populace. Chapters consider Skelton’s invocation of his divinely inspired authority as a poet as a way to defend the Catholic consensus fidelium; Tyndale’s fantasy of a spontaneous, affective consensus that would unite the commonwealth in love; Spenser’s moderate vision of a “provisional” consensus that would acknowledge the fictional nature of all common norms; and Milton’s aesthetics of liberty, which aims to reconcile his countervailing desires for liberty and belonging. The result is not only a prehistory of eighteenth-century aesthetics, particularly as it relates to what Terry Eagleton has called “a dream of reconciliation – of individuals woven into intimate unity with no detriment to their specificity,” but also an account of some of England’s earliest responses to the quintessentially modern problem of pluralism.

Keywords: Aesthetics
Consensus
Humanism
Pluralism
Protestantism
Reformation
Advisor: Stevens, Paul
Elucidating B Cell Tolerance Defects in Lupus-prone Mice

Systemic lupus erythematosus is a chronic autoimmune disease that impacts multiple tissues through the production of pathogenic anti-nuclear autoantibodies and inflammatory immune complexes. Mouse models that develop lupus-like disease due to the presence of specific lupus susceptibility loci or candidate genes have proven incredibly useful in elucidating how these genetic factors contribute to the complex pathogenesis of SLE. Additionally, the use of immunoglobulin transgenic and knock-in mouse models in conjunction with these lupus-prone strains enables interrogation of the defects in B cell tolerance mechanisms and signalling pathways that lead to SLE development. This thesis examined the impact of genetic loci from the lupus-prone New Zealand Black chromosome 1 congenic strains and of the lupus candidate gene BLK on the maintenance of B cell tolerance and the development of autoimmunity in the context of a nuclear antigen-specific B cell repertoire. It was found that NZB c1 congenic mice with an anergic, ssDNA-specific B cell repertoire had a severely attenuated capacity to breach tolerance to nuclear antigen due to impaired development of Tfh cells relative to the generation of Tfr cells. It was also demonstrated that the autoreactivity of a nuclear antigen-specific B cell repertoire is largely determined by the specificity of the B cell immunoglobulin heavy chain, as B cells from c1 congenic mice with the DNA-specific 3H9 heavy chain were appropriately regulated by B cell tolerance mechanisms in the periphery. Finally, examination of how BLK impacts autoimmunity in the context of nuclear antigen specificity revealed that loss of this molecule enhances both central and peripheral B cell tolerance to anti-DNA B cells. Together, these results underscore the resilience of tolerance mechanisms in the regulation of nuclear antigen-specific B cells and reinforces the concept that the development of profound autoimmunity requires concurrent defects in multiple components of the immune system.

Keywords: autoimmunity
B-cell
DNA
lupus
murine
tolerance
Advisor: Wither, Joan E
Development of a Novel Truncated-correlation Photothermal Coherence Tomography for Non-invasive Biothermophotonic and Non-destructive Materials Imaging

Truncated-Correlation Photothermal Coherence Tomography (TC-PCT) is the most successful class of diffusion-wave methodologies to-date providing 3-D subsurface visualization. To extend depth range and axial and lateral resolution, a novel imaging system with improved instrumentation, and an optimized reconstruction algorithm over the conventional TC-PCT technique is developed in this PhD project. The enhanced TC-PCT system was then used for biomedical and non-destructive testing applications. First, we reported visualization of subsurface defects in a steel sample. The results demonstrate defect detection at the depth range of ∼4 mm in a steel sample, which exhibits dynamic range improvement by a factor of 2.6 compared to the conventional TC-PCT, the Lock-in Thermography and Thermal Wave radar. Lateral resolution in the steel sample was measured to be ∼ 31 μm. Second, we used the system to investigate the possibility of non-destructive imaging of an art object to identify features that often are invisible areas of vulnerability and damage. The enhanced TC-PCT modality identified all the defects such as empty holes, a hole filled with stucco, delaminations and natural features such as a wood knot and wood grain in different layers of the sample. The system was then used for biomedical applications, three of which are early demineralization in tooth sample, early detection of tumor in mice, and structural imaging of mouse brain. First, we introduced dental enhanced TC-PCT imaging with a current subsurface depth profilometric capability of ~ 3.8 mm. Second, the enhanced TC-PCT modality was presented for early in-vivo tumor detection and tested in imaging nude mice thighs. Precise measurement of the size and shape of the detected tumor was validated following histological analysis. Third, enhanced TC-PCT was developed for brain imaging and was successfully exhibited structures of the brain such as brain lobes, blood vessel, olfactory bulbs, and cerebellum.

Keywords: Art Defectoscopy
Biomedical Imaging
Dental Imaging
Non-Destructive Testing
Optical Imaging
Thermal imaging
Advisor: Mandelis, Andreas
Understanding the Experiences of Individuals in Midlife Living with Anorexia Nervosa: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study

Understanding the Experiences of Individuals in Midlife Living with Anorexia Nervosa: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study Doctor of Philosophy, June 2019 Leslie Ann McCallum Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work University of Toronto Background Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a complex, life-threatening mental illness with high comorbidity rates. This disorder has one of the worst prognoses of all mental illnesses, with a mortality rate of 10.5%. It affects people of varying socioeconomic statuses, cultures, sexes, genders, and ages. There is no universally effective treatment for adults living with AN. Despite the high percentage of individuals who continue to live with AN for decades, there is limited understanding of what it means to be in midlife living with a disorder that is more commonly noted to occur among adolescents and young adults. The purpose of this dissertation research was to build understanding of the experiences of adults in midlife (40 to 65 years of age) living with AN to inform clinical practice and support for this population. Methods A qualitative study design was chosen using constructivist grounded theory methodology. This dissertation research was conducted in accordance with the ethics protocol approved by the Health Sciences Research Ethics Board of the University of Toronto. Nineteen individuals in midlife (40 to 65 years of age) living with AN participated in individual, in-depth interviews to explore their experiences of living with AN in midlife. Results Four main findings emerged from this study. First, based on comparing narratives of participants’ accounts of their experiences of living with AN in midlife and as young adults, important differences exist between living with AN in midlife versus when one is younger. Second, based this sample and their retrospective accounts, complex trauma is common among individuals in midlife living with AN. Third, midlife can act as a barrier to seeking treatment and/or facilitate disengaging from treatment. Fourth, shifts occur in midlife that can act as catalysts to fully engaging in recovery. Implications Findings from this dissertation research provide a framework for understanding the unique qualities and experiences of individuals in midlife living with AN, and their capacity for treatment engagement. Honouring the added challenges that come with midlife, as well as harnessing qualities developed in midlife, will help this older age group move forward with their recovery journey.

Keywords: Anorexia nervosa
Grounded theory
Midlife
Advisor: Alaggia, Ramona
Becoming Saints: Coptic Orthodox Monasticism, Exemplarity, Negotiating Christian Virtue

Based on 13 months of transnational ethnographic fieldwork between Egypt, Southern California, and Toronto, this dissertation examines questions around exemplarity, morality, and the cultivation of virtue among Coptic Orthodox Christians. Specifically, this thesis investigates the relationship between Coptic monks and the wider Coptic community. Many Copts view monasticism as a morally exemplary way of life. The monk as one who has forsaken all social ties and lives in the desert is regarded as one who has attained the highest form of virtue. This view results in different levels of engagement with monastic practice and competing voices for what it means to be a Coptic Christian. As will be demonstrated through ethnographic details, there is a gap between the ideals of the Coptic monastic imaginary and the lived reality of negotiating Christian virtue for monks and laity alike. Furthermore, this dissertation unpacks the ways in which Coptic monasticism is (re-)imagined and (re-)produced in North America and how Coptic subjectivity is (re-)negotiated in relation to Egypt and the Mother Church.

Keywords: Anthropology of Ethics
Diaspora
Exemplarity
Orthodox Monasticism
Transnationalism
Advisor: Daswani, Girish
Coleman, Simon
Chaperone Systems in Model Organisms

Molecular chaperones are typically promiscuous interacting proteins that function globally in the cell for quality control and maintenance of protein homeostasis. They are highly conserved across all organisms. A comprehensive view of their cellular function was obtained through a systematic global integrative network approach. We deciphered interactions involving all core chaperones of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our analysis revealed the presence of a large chaperone functional supercomplex encompassing Hsp40, Hsp70, Hsp90, AAA+, CCT, and small Hsps, that is central to the topology of the proteome network. Chaperone interactor properties demonstrate preferential protein domains and folds such as the WD40 repeat domain. We further found that many chaperones interact with proteins that form condensates under stress conditions. This expanded view of the chaperone network in the cell clearly demonstrates the distinction between chaperones having broad versus narrow substrate specificities. From an extensive genomic analysis in bacteria we demonstrate the conservation of the close proximity of the tig gene, coding for the ribosome-associated chaperone trigger factor (TF), and the genes coding for the ClpXP proteolytic complex suggesting a possible functional association between the protein folding and the protein degradation systems. The effect of TF on ClpXP-dependent degradation varied depending on the nature of the substrate. For a class of substrates, TF increased the degradation rate. The ClpXP-dependent degradation was enhanced for the λ phage replication protein λO, the master regulator of stationary phase RpoS, and SsrA-tagged proteins by TF in vitro and in vivo. Globally, it is estimated that TF enhances the degradation of about subset of newly synthesized E. coli proteins. Through extensive biochemical and structural analyses, it was found that TF interacts through multiple sites with the ClpX oligomer in a highly dynamic fashion. TF binds the ATPase-domain of ClpX and consequently promotes the movement of the protruding N-terminal zinc binding domain (ZBD) of the chaperone towards the ClpP cylinder. With this movement, TF enhances the degradation of ZBD-bound substrates. These results reveal a novel function of TF as a ClpXP adaptor protein and highlight its broad substrate specificity. This chaperone-protease cooperation constitutes a novel aspect of cellular protein homeostasis.

Keywords: Chaperones
Homeostasis
Proteins
Proteomics
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Systems Biology
Advisor: Houry, Walid A
Characterization of Slam-mediated Surface Lipoprotein Translocation across the Bacterial Outer Membrane

Surfaces of many Gram-negative bacteria are decorated by peripheral membrane proteins that are anchored in the membrane by a lipid group, commonly referred to as surface lipoproteins or SLPs. SLPs play key role in nutrient acquisition, immune evasion and have been proposed as excellent vaccine antigens. Previously our lab had shown that the proper display of host transferrin binding SLP TbpB in Neisseria meningitidis required an outer membrane protein called Slam. The aim of the present study was to investigate the role Slam plays in SLP biogenesis. Using bioinformatic analysis, we show that Slams are present in a number of Gram-negative bacteria. Putative Slam genes are often found adjacent to their putative SLP substrates. In N. meningitidis, we discovered two Slam paralogs, Slam1 and Slam2, that are specific for SLPs TbpB and HpuA respectively. All putative Slam-dependent SLPs contain a C-terminal 8-stranded soluble barrel domain. The last two strands of the SLP were found to be essential for TbpB translocation and the C-terminal 8-stranded barrel domain mediated Slam specificity. Using GST-fused TbpB, we showed that the Slam-dependent translocation occurs from the C-terminus to the N-terminus. To investigate Slam mechanism, we developed an in vitro translocation system. Upon the addition of the periplasmic chaperone LolA, SLPs can be released from spheroplasts into the supernatant. We discovered that Slam containing proteoliposomes can successfully translocate spheroplast released SLPs into the liposomal lumen. Addition of other outer membrane factors such as the Bam complex did not increase the efficiency of SLP insertion and Slam12 retained their specificity in the assay. Interestingly, Slam1 proteoliposomes were also able to translocate purified unfolded TbpB into the lumen. Collectively, these findings show that Slams are both necessary and sufficient for the translocation of SLPs across the outer membrane, indicating that they act as translocons.

Keywords: Gram negative bacteria
In vitro reconstitution
Outer membrane
Outer membrane proteins
Protein translocon
Surface lipoproteins
Advisor: Moraes, Trevor F
Investigating the Neural Circuits that Control Cataplexy

In this thesis I explored a long-standing hypothesis that the paralysis occurring during REM sleep and cataplexy share a common neural mechanism. Cataplexy, a debilitating symptom of narcolepsy, is the abrupt onset of skeletal muscle paralysis during wakefulness. Under normal conditions, neurons of the sublaterodorsal tegmental region have been shown to be active during REM sleep and either activate GABA/glycine neurons of the ventral medulla or inhibitory interneurons in the spinal cord which in turn silences motoneurons and results in REM sleep muscle paralysis. The mechanism mediating the paralysis of cataplexy has not been fully characterized but is hypothesized to result from the abnormal activation of SLD neurons during wakefulness. First, I investigated if activation of all cells in the SLD nucleus could trigger cataplexy in wildtype (hypocretin-intact) mice and narcoleptic (hypocretin knockout) mice. Next, I investigated if glutamatergic, VGLUT2-expressing, neurons of the SLD were the cellular phenotype responsible for triggering cataplexy in wildtype and narcoleptic mice models. This final investigation required the development of a new hypocretin knockout mouse line (hypocretin -/- , VGLUT2-Cre mice). This new model is scientifically important as it provides an innovative toolkit for neuroscientists to examine the role of glutamatergic cell populations throughout the brain of mice with a narcolepsy phenotype. Several major conclusions can be drawn from my results: 1. Cataplexy and REM sleep share a common neural mechanism that generates muscle paralysis. Activation of the SLD nucleus triggered cataplexy in wild type mice. This is a significant finding as it is the first time that cataplexy has been triggered in wildtype mice. Similarly, narcoleptic mice experienced an increase in the number of cataplexy episodes after activation of the SLD nucleus. 2. Activation of VGLUT2-SLD neurons in VGLUT2-Cre (hypocretin intact) mouse results in overall muscle weakness during wakefulness but does not trigger cataplexy episodes. 3. The VGLUT2-expressing SLD neurons are a component of the neural circuit that triggers cataplexy. Activation of the VGLUT2-SLD neurons in hypocretin knockout mice resulted in increased number of cataplexy attacks without altering the duration of the episode.

Keywords: cataplexy
muscle tone
narcolepsy
REM sleep
subcoeruelus
sublaterodorsal tegmentum
Advisor: Peever, John H
Interaction of Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin-7 Ion Channels with N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor GluN2B Subunits and its Implication in Stroke

Ischemic stroke is one of the leading causes of neurological disability and mortality worldwide. It places a huge burden on the health care system. However, the pathological mechanisms of ischemic stroke are not fully understood and few effective therapies are currently available. We have previously reported two key signaling pathways involved in calcium-mediated oxidative stress during ischemic neuronal death. The first is the formation of nitric oxide, which is facilitated by the coupling of the ionotropic, N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptors (NMDARs), to neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) by the intermediary postsynaptic density 95 protein (PSD-95). The second is the formation of reactive species mediated by the transient receptor potential cation channel, subfamily M, member 7 (TRPM7). Previously our lab has shown that another TRPM family member TRPM2 can influence NMDAR expression in neurons to modulate excitability and vulnerability to ischemic insults. Therefore in the current study we investigated whether TRPM7 and NMDARs, the two key signaling pathways of ischemic injury, also interact in neurons. Here we show that TRPM7 channels and NMDARs are not only expressed in the same neurons, but co-associate directly, largely through interactions of TRPM7 with GluN2B NMDAR subunits. This was demonstrated by membrane fractionation and co-immunoprecipitation (co-IP) analyses from rat brain tissue and from HEK293 cells that co-expressed TRPM7 and NMDARs, and then validated with bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assays that demonstrated the preferential association of TRPM7 channels with GluN2B over GluN1 subunits of NMDARs. Furthermore, NMDAR and TRPM7 are also functionally interconnected because inhibiting TRPM7 channels also inhibited NMDA-mediated excitotoxicity in neurons. This is the first demonstration that TRPM7 and NMDAR channels, two key modulators of ischemic cell death, co-associate in the same protein complex in neurons and are capable of a direct interaction. These findings provide mechanistic insights into the cross talk between these important signaling pathways of anoxic cell death.

Advisor: Tymianski, Michael