VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
How Unpopular Musicians Live: Complex Leisure Careers in Toronto's Indie Scene

The phenomenon of independence in popular music offers a glimpse into the economic dimensions of musical creation and livelihoods. Such considerations have been absent in scholarship concerning musical learning and music education. Building upon extant research on popular music, this research seeks to further the growing presence of (un)popular music education emphasizing the reality that most musicians who engage in popular music are relatively unpopular. This narrative ethnographic research features the experiences and stories of 24 Toronto-based indie musicians. Data was collected via 17 semi-structured interviews between May and December of 2020. 13 interviews feature individual musicians, and four interviews were conducted with bands (11 musicians). The interviews were structured around open-ended questions that invited participants their musical histories and perspectives. A significant finding was the highly complex relationship between earning a living and pursuing a career creating original music, which one participant describes as a catch-22 due to the rising cost of living in Toronto. Further, the opaque gatekeeping processes of the music industry provide a deep contrast from the music scene, suggesting functional differences between the two despite significant overlap in their physical and social spaces. The analytical and theoretical framework for this research is based on extensions to Stebbins’ serious leisure perspective. The first is the expansion of possible activities to include fulfillment activities, entrepreneurial activities, ancillary activities, and casual activities; the second is the concept of a complex leisure career, containing multiple activities, which serves to better represent the complexity of indie musicians’ careers in creating original music; the third is the introduction of semi-professional devotee as a role to most respectfully and accurately represent the magnitude of musical activities (and complex leisure careers) in the participants’ lives. I conclude by discussing the implications of participants’ experiences on the field of music education. In considering the purpose of public music education, I suggest that school-based music education could better support the individual and collective interests of its students through the implementation of learning models based on serious leisure education, prioritizing students’ independence (of).

Keywords: indie
leisure
music education
popular music education
Toronto
Advisor: Niknafs, Nasim
Black Student Organizing on Indigenous Lands

Between Fall 2020 and Winter 2021, I conducted 30 interviews and 3 focus groups with Black student organizers at post-secondary institutions in Canada and the United States about their relationships to place and land, and how this shapes their organizing work. In the first section of this dissertation (chapters 3 and 4), I outline Black students’ theorizations of their post-secondary institutions and the unique challenges that emerge from organizing within and against universities. I theorize the contemporary university through the social relations and logics onset by settler colonialism and slavery and trace the breadth of contributions made by Black student organizing. In the second section (chapters 5 and 6), I illustrate rich and complicated relationships to place and land that my participants described using their chosen photographs, and I outline broad principles for land-centered Black student organizing that emerge from a collaborative concept map. Taken together, in this dissertation I elaborate upon the robustness of Black student organizing, the limitations and frustrations of organizing within and against universities, and the rich theorizations of land Black students embed into their organizing. By bringing land and place to the fore of my study, I de-center the university as the sole focus of Black student activism. Black students have organized in ways that demonstrate they are not invested in fixing the university or seeking repair through institutional solutions (Harney and Moten, 2013; Purnell, 2016; Kelley, 2016). For such Black organizers, their ambivalence towards the university as a site of social transformation does not discount harm-reduction or intermediary solutions to support Black students. However, they believe in a longer, liberatory project that transcends universities. I offer ‘land-centered’ to resist this implicit assumption and to highlight Black students’ abolitionist and decolonial desires. Thinking about their organizing as land-centered, rather than university-centered, honours the expansiveness of Black student organizing.

Keywords: Black geographies
critical university studies
land
place
social movements
student activism
Advisor: Tuck, Eve
Gabor Frames and Contact Geometry: From Models of the Primary Visual Cortex to Higher Dimensional Signal Analysis on Manifolds

This thesis has two objectives: first, to provide a model of the functional architecture of the primary visual cortex $(V_1)$ in terms of both geometry and signal analysis and second to provide a mathematical framework for signal analysis on certain classes of contact manifolds. It is organized in three main parts. \par Firstly, we introduce a model of the primary visual cortex $(V_1)$, which allows the compression and decomposition of a signal by a discrete family of orientation and position dependent receptive profiles. We show in particular that a specific framed sampling set and an associated Gabor system is determined by the Legendrian circle bundle structure of the $3$-manifold of contact elements on a surface (which models the $V_1-$cortex), together with the presence of an almost complex structure on the tangent bundle of the surface (which models the retinal surface). We identify a maximal area of the signal planes, determined by the retinal surface, that provides a finite number of receptive profiles, sufficient for good encoding and decoding. We consider the extension of this model for receptive fields dependent on position, orientation, frequency and phase. \par Moreover, we provide a construction of Gabor Frames that encode local linearizations of a signal detected on a curved smooth manifold of arbitrary dimension. In particular we use Gabor Filters that can detect higher-dimensional boundaries on the manifolds. We describe an application in configuration spaces in robotics with sharp constrains.The construction is a generalization of the geometric framework, developed for the study of the visual cortex. \par Finally, we present a general construction of Gabor analysis on manifolds with coorientable contact distribution, equipped with a Legendrian fibre bundle structure and an almost CR-Structure. This construction is suitable for studying the stability of Gabor frames under contact transformations of the manifold. We prove that Gabor frames with a specific class of window functions are stable under a certain class of contact transformations.

Keywords: Contact Geometry
Gabor Frames
Primary Visual Cortex
Advisor: Marcolli, Matilde
Khesin, Boris
Investigating Anti-cancer Signalling in the Meninges during Medulloblastoma Development

Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common solid malignant paediatric tumour. Sonic hedgehog signalling, which drives cerebellar development, also potentiates the formation of MB tumours (Shh-MB) from granule neuron progenitors (GNPs) in the external granular layer (EGL). Like many cancers, Shh-MB tumours accrue mutations in tumour drivers and suppressors to promote malignancy, which are necessary but not sufficient to the formation of tumours. Tumourigenesis is augmented by sustained activation of microenvironmental pathways that promote proliferation, but analysis of these pathways is hindered by the complexity of the tumour and its microenvironment. Deeper insight into the mechanism of Shh-MB has the potential to uncover novel pathways to target this tumor. In brain tumours, interactions between the meningeal microenvironment and tumourigenesis are understudied. During cerebellar development, canonical Wnt signalling mediated by Norrin/Frizzled4 (Fzd4) activation in meningeal endothelial cells is a potent inhibitor of preneoplasia and tumour progression in mouse models of Shh-MB. As a bridge between the meningeal microenvironment and cerebellar tumourigenesis, the discovery of Norrin regulated factors in cerebellar tumourigenesis will aid in the creation of new therapeutic strategies in Shh-MB. In this thesis, I developed a tractable method using 3DISCO tissue clearing with light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) to characterize cerebellar development and to identify and quantify preneoplastic changes associated with disruption Norrin/Frizzled4 signalling. I developed models for the quantification of PNL formation in Ptch+/− mice and EGL hyperplasia in Neurod2-SmoA1+/− mice, which led to the discovery that the anti-tumour effect of Norrin/Fzd4 signalling is restricted to the posterior region of the cerebellum and is characterized by defective GNP migration away from the EGL. Single cell transcriptome profiling and deep phenotyping of the meninges revealed that Norrin/Fzd4 signalling maintains the activation of meningeal macrophages (mMΦs), characterized by Lyve1 and CXCL4 expression, during the critical period for preneoplasia. mMΦ depletion during this critical period phenocopies the enhanced preneoplasia and tumourigenesis caused by Norrin loss. Moreover, CXCL4 mediates the anti-tumourigenic effect of mMΦs, as it antagonizes CXCL12/CXCR4 signaling in GNPs to reduce cell cycle progression and promote migration away from the pre-tumour niche. These findings prove that mMΦs are key mediators of chemokine-regulated anti-cancer cross talk between the stroma and pre-tumour cells in the control of Shh-MB initiation.

Keywords: Chemokine signalling
Medulloblastoma
Meningeal Macrophages
Norrin/Frizzled4 signalling
Preneoplasia
Tumour Microenvironment
Advisor: Wallace, Valerie A
Enslaved to Mammon: Money, Economy, and Enslavement in Ancient Christianity

The world in which Christianity emerged was a highly monetized empire built on forced and unfree labour. This study is the first to consider discourses around money and moneymaking in selected Christian texts of the Roman imperial world alongside a range of historical data for the production, use, and experience of money in Roman economies and the unequal social and power relations of enslavement that made those economies possible. It offers new data and contexts for understanding how ancient Christian money talk is rooted in the mass exploitation of enslaved and formerly enslaved people who were the principal historical actors and agents in Roman financial life across the premodern Mediterranean. The analysis reveals the extent to which human exchange relations and the exchange of human beings were deeply interconnected in ancient Christian discourse, while cultural and sociological approaches to money frame the study and raise key questions about what money meant in a historical context in which economies were built and run on the structural inequalities of enslavement.

Advisor: Bendlin, Andreas
Phenotyping and Latent Genetic Interaction Analysis using Quantile Regression

Linear regression is commonly used in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) with continuous outcomes and examines the conditional mean of a trait assuming normality. The real possibility of model misspecification and the scientific interest beyond the conditional mean makes quantile regression, which explores the conditional distribution of a quantitative trait without the assumption of normality, an attractive alternative framework, with application in genetics and genomics growing in recent years. In this thesis, I demonstrate the utility of quantile regression for genetic studies motivated by challenges identifying genetic contributions to variation in cystic fibrosis (CF) disease severity. We implemented quantile regression (1) to build a lung disease phenotype for Canadians with CF, to be used for genetic association studies; and (2) to develop a powerful and robust association test that leverages latent genetic interactions. For (1), I derived Canadian CF-specific forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) reference equations based on the Canadian CF registry which captures the clinical experience of the Canadian CF population. These CF-specific FEV1 reference equations were the building blocks of the lung disease phenotype in the analysis of genetic association of the Canadian CF Gene Modifier Study. For (2), I provide a review of association tests that leverage latent genetic interactions in the literature, namely joint location and scale tests which rely on a normality assumption, and perform simulation studies to investigate the methodological strengths and weaknesses. To address the limitations of existing methods identified via simulation, I propose a new joint location and scale test based on quantile regression (qJLS) that is free of distributional assumptions, thus applies to non-Gaussian traits. The qJLS is as powerful as the existing joint location and scale tests under Gaussian traits and is computationally efficient for GWAS. Simulation studies evaluated the properties of the qJLS and its performance compared to existing approaches. Application of the qJLS to a GWAS of CF lung disease in the Canadian CF Gene Modifier Study identified novel putatively contributing loci and demonstrates it as a powerful alternative to conventional genetic association tests, where interactions may contribute to a quantitative trait.

Advisor: Strug, Lisa J
Modeling Human Cerebellar Granule Neurogenesis and Mmedulloblastoma Genesis using Embryonic Hindbrain Neuroepithelial Stem Cells

Cerebellar granule neurons (CGNs) are the most abundant neurons in the human brain. Dysregulation of their development underlies movement disorders and medulloblastomas.It is suspected that these disorders arise in progenitor states of the CGN lineage, for which human models are lacking. Here, I have differentiated human hindbrain neuroepithelial stem (hbNES) cells to CGNs in vitro using soluble growth factors, recapitulating key progenitor states in the lineage. I show that hbNES cells are not lineage committed and retain rhombomere 1 (r1) regional identity. Upon differentiation, hbNES cells first transit through a rhombic lip (RL) progenitor state at day 7, demonstrating human specific sub-ventricular cell identities. This RL state is followed by an ATOH1+ CGN progenitor state at day 14. By the end of a 56-day differentiation procedure, I obtained functional neurons expressing CGN markers GABAARα6 and vGLUT2. I show that sonic hedgehog (SHH) promotes γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic lineage specification and is a positive regulator of CGN progenitor proliferation. In extending these results to model pediatric SHH medulloblastoma (SHH-MB), I show that common SHH-MB driver mutations confer hbNES cells with a proliferative advantage and, in rare cases, may cause chromothripsis. The work I present in this thesis establishes a new model for the study of CGN development and disease lineage in a human context.

Keywords: cerebellum
differentiation
granule neuron
medulloblastoma
neuroepithelial stem cells
sonic hedgehog
Advisor: Dirks, Peter B
The Interconnected Cosmos: A Study of Multi-Scale Correlations in the Late Universe

As the depth and breadth of cosmological observations grow, correlations between vastly different scales and structural morphologies are revealed in multi-wavelength brilliance. The interactions of light with baryonic matter guides us through the dark and interconnected cosmic web: stars shine in galaxies; energetic transients flare brightly and briefly; diffuse gas scatters primordial light and emits its own. These observations may reveal great new insights in fundamental physics, but to unlock their full capacity we need analysis techniques and simulations that properly treat the interconnected nature of the universe. In the first stage of this thesis, we develop a novel large-scale structure analysis technique for directional cross-correlation between galaxy and cosmic microwave background surveys. The method, which combines multi-scale galaxy field constraints with oriented stacking, is particularly suited to the analysis of hot gas in filaments and superclusters. We validate the method with simulations of the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect, studying the dependence of the extended thermal energy in superclusters to the background cosmology, late-time structure formation, and the gas modelling. Applications to Atacama Cosmology Telescope and Dark Energy Survey data show evidence for the correlated anisotropy between the large-scale thermal energy, galaxy, and overall mass distribution surrounding galaxy clusters. To better understand the origin of the tSZ signal, we analyze a suite of hydrodynamical simulations in the same manner, finding that a significant portion of the simulated signal originates beyond halos. In the second stage, we encode correlations between transient events and their host galaxies into simulations. We first apply an empirically-conditioned algorithm to synthetic galaxy data to predict likely Type~Ia supernovae. Using insights from the successes and failures of this approach, we proceed to develop a more complex framework for encoding transient-host correlations, culminating in a wide and deep simulation of light curves and associated hosts being used in preparation for the upcoming Rubin Observatory. This thesis expands our understanding of anisotropic large-scale structures and adds to the toolbox of survey simulations and analysis techniques, paving the way for a deeper understanding of the correlated universe.

Keywords: cosmic web
cosmology
host galaxies
intergalactic medium
superclusters
transients
Advisor: Bond, Dick
Hložek, Renée
Development of Nanocomposite Gels for Electrochemical Sensors and Energy Applications

The development of novel nanocomposite gels and their application in various fields has gained significant attention in recent years. This thesis is based on developing novel nanocomposite gels and exploiting their use in various applications such as electrochemical sensors and solar cells. Despite the immense success of glucose sensors, more work is necessary to ensure that electrochemical sensors have a widespread impact. The advancement of electrochemical sensors could help stop the spread of many infectious diseases and detect the early onset of various illnesses. Developing novel electrochemical sensors using nanocomposite gels can offer several advantages, such as high sensitivity, selectivity, and stability. In addition to the healthcare sector, the energy crisis is another significant issue that the world is facing today. The overreliance on fossil fuels has led to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in global warming and climate change. The development of novel renewable energy alternatives, such as solar cells, can help mitigate the energy crisis. Nanocomposite gels offer potential innovative solutions to help address some challenges in both the development of electrochemical sensors and solar cells. More specifically in this thesis, we will review the different nanocomposite gel materials and the fundamental concepts related to electrochemical sensors and solar cells (Chapter 1). Next, a hydrogel matrix with different shapes of silver nanoparticles was developed and demonstrated enhanced antibacterial and mechanical properties (Chapter 2). The development of electrochemical sensors for the simultaneous detection of various important analytes (up to 8 different biomolecules) using different nanocomposite gels was development (Chapter 3 and 4). Finally, the use of nanocomposite gels in photovoltaic devices was explored in this thesis. A hybrid solar cell was developed by encapsulating poly(m-aminobenzodioxol)-coated magnetic iron oxide nanorods and an inorganic dye complex within a hydrogel matrix. This unique design resulted in a power conversion efficiency of 6.08%. (Chapter 5). In addition, an electropolymerized polyaniline solar cell with a graphene oxide gel electrolyte was also developed and demonstrated a power conversion efficiency of 4.35% (Chapter 6). Finally in Chapter 7, concluding remarks are drawn, and future directions related to the subjects in this thesis are proposed.

Advisor: Kerman, Kagan k.k
In the Image of Bach: The Unaccompanied Violin Sonatas of Friedrich Wilhelm Rust

In this dissertation I examine unaccompanied violin music by the German composer Friedrich Wilhelm Rust (1739–1796), seeking to extract and contextualize information about his approaches to violin performance practices and pedagogy. Rust had very close biographical and geographic connections to the Bach family, and I argue that his two unaccompanied violin Sonatas of 1795 are structurally modelled upon J.S. Bach’s iconic 1720 Sei Solo for unaccompanied violin; I also demonstrate that Rust’s Sonatas were written with strong pedagogical intent. Collectively, these features position Rust and his works as a rare window into performance practices in circles directly tied to the Bach family. My research in these areas was conducted through careful biographical, archival, and performance study of works by Rust and his contemporaries and provides historical evidence for approaches to 18th century performance practice which have not yet been widely utilized within the historically informed performance movement. Chapters of the dissertation concern Rust’s biography, the state of unaccompanied violin music in the long 18th century, Rust’s numerous unusual works for unaccompanied violin, and a thorough examination of the performance practices made evident in original manuscripts of Rust’s Sonatas. The final result is not a performance guide to Rust’s Sonatas or Bach’s Sei Solo, but rather an invitation to reconsider current approaches to historically informed performance of the 18th century.

Keywords: baroque
classical
galant
solo violin
unaccompanied Bach
violin
Advisor: Elliott, Robin
Fewer, Mark