VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Music cognition as musical culture, a philosophical investigation of cognitivist theory of music

In the field of cognitivist theory of music, the major philosophical thesis that has emerged is that music cognition is caused by a dedicated information processing system which manipulates musical symbolic codes. These codes are said to be neurally encoded, musically evaluable representations of an external musical reality that mediate cognitively between a knowing subject and a world of known musical objects. Cognitivist theory of music is premised on the formalist philosophical view that music consists of a set of aesthetic objects to be comprehended solely in terms of the audition and subsequent cognition of its tonal, rhythmic and structural properties. This thesis is a philosophical investigation and critique of cognitivist theory of music and its correlative theory of mental representation as cognitive mediators. Using Wilfrid Sellars' framework of the manifest and scientific images of "man" in the world, salient features of the aesthetic point of view are analyzed in order to bring out the irresolvable difficulties that have been inherited in cognitivist theory of music due to an adherence to a representationalist theory of the nature of mind. I argue that the difficulties inherent in the cognitivist "scientific-image" theory of music are compounded by an outmoded conception of science (and of causality in particular) which leads to a rejection of the person for a theory of the musical mind. I claim that cognitivist theory of music cannot ignore the priority of the manifest image of music as a continuing context for scientific theorizing. As a positive alternative to the representationalist notion of the cognitive mediator, I advance the beginnings of a theory which regards the musical mind as involving a direct, dynamic, cognitive interaction between persons as subjects and the familiar, "manifest-image" world of musical culture. This kind of interaction is an interpretive one which is conditioned by a socio-cultural set of concepts and practices, including those of scientific theorizing. It is within this context that a theory of the musical mind relevant to music education research must be set.

Keywords: Music
Psychological aspects
Cognition
Music
Philosophy and aesthetics
Musique
Aspect psychologique
Cognition
Musique
Philosophie et esthétique
The practice of strategic planning in Ontario colleges and universities

Higher education institutions in North America have recently become interested in more proactive approaches to planning in order to deal with the issues and challenges that are confronting them. This study focuses on the implementation of strategic planning as an approach to enhance an institution's ability to exploit existing opportunities and to avoid potential threats. The study examined four publicly supported higher education institutions in Ontario (two community colleges and two universities) to determine the extent to which they were practising "bona fide" strategic planning as presented in the literature. The research investigated the factors that led the subject institutions to undertake strategic planning, and the factors that facilitated and impeded the implementation of strategic planning. It looked also at the relationship between strategic planning on the one hand, and institutional mission, vision, and goals on the other hand. This study utilized a qualitative case study approach. The data gathering was through analysis of a survey questionnaire, structured interviews, and an examination of documents and records. Key findings were: (1) although all four institutions were involved in some form of planning, the manner in which one college and one university were practising strategic planning resembled the models presented in the literature while the other two institutions implemented their strategic planning in a manner quite different from the way strategic planning is highlighted in the literature; (2) improving the quality of teaching and research (in the case of universities), adapting to a changing environment, and coping with the financial restraints were the major reasons that led the subject institutions to undertake strategic planning; (3) key decision-makers' commitment to strategic planning, good communications with the campus community, harmonious relationship between faculty union and administration, accentuating the uniqueness of the institution, and linking the budget process with the strategic plan were the principal factors that facilitated the implementation of strategic planning; (4) preoccupation with certain themes of the strategic plan, tension and distrust between faculty and administration, and lack of environmental scanning were factors that impeded the implementation of strategic planning; and (5) all institutions developed a "vision of success", and three institutions developed a mission statement which was consistent wi th their vision statements. All four institutions developed goals designed to enable them realize their visions.
The role of the immune system in arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which is the most prevalent inflammatory joint disease, is characterized by synovitis, infiltration of inflammatory cells into the joints and degradation of articular cartilage. Although RA has been traditionally considered an autoimmune disease, there is increasing evidence supporting the role of non-antigen driven processes in the disease. Overproduction of cytokines and proteolytic enzymes leading to the destruction of cartilage extracellular matrix, is mostly due to activated synovial cells and infiltrating macrophages and neutrophils. The main focus of this research was to determine whether antigen driven lymphocyte activation is required for the induction and progression of inflammatory joint disease in animal models, and if so, whether it plays a major role in the disease process. First, we assessed whether lymphocyte stimulation with Mycoplasma arthritidis superantigen (MAS) by itself or in combination with degenerative joint damage induced by collagenase enzyme, would lead to the development of joint inflammation in BALB/c mice. MAS administered intraarticularly did not induce inflammatory joint disease. When administered intraperitoneally in naive mice or mice with collagenase induced arthritis, MAS led to the stimulation of peripheral lymphocytes in BALB/c mice but it did not significantly contribute to joint inflammation. Second, we compared inflammatory joint disease induced by intraarticular zymosan injections in severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice which lack B and T cells with that induced in the parent strain, CB17. We determined that some aspects of inflammatory joint disease, such as synovial hyperplasia, angiogenesis and loss of proteoglycans, can develop in the absence of B and T cells. Third, using SCID mice reconstituted with labelled human peripheral blood leukocytes (hu-SCID), we demonstrated that human cells are able to infiltrate into joints with zymosan induced inflammatory joint disease within 24 hours. This finding indicates that local events in the joint alone are important in triggering cell infiltration in absence of an antigen-driven process. This research supports the importance of non-antigen driven processes in the development of joint inflammation in animal models. Given findings from human RA, such as presence of mutations in synovial lining and identification of macrophages as a major source of cytokines in the joints, it is likely that similar processes are prominent in human disease.
Molecular evolution and phylogeography of common chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs)

Herein, I describe patterns of molecular evolution and evaluate the phylogeographic utility of several mitochondrial genes (cytochrome b, ATPase 6, NADH 5, tRNA$\sp{\rm Glu}$ and the control region) in common chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs), and employ sequences from these genes to infer historical and contemporary components of population divergence in this species. Rates of divergence do not vary significantly in many comparisons among genes although patterns of substitution differ, consistent with alternative regimes of selective constraint. Variation in composition and substitution bias defines a central, conserved region flanked by two hypervariable segments in the control region. Unexpectedly, the phylogenetic potential of combined protein-coding genes compares favourably with the control region at this depth in gene trees. The most strongly supported phylogeny obtained using these genes places continental European and north African subspecies of common chaffinch together as the sister group to a monophyletic clade containing Atlantic island subspecies. This suggests a single wave of colonization from the continent to the islands, and means that patterns of similarity among Atlantic island common chaffinches, such as short wings and long tarsi, are likely due to common ancestry rather than convergent evolution in a common environment. Control-region sequences reveal that different demographic forces have governed the subsequent evolution of common chaffinches in the separate island and continental environments. Strong population structure has developed over a time span of approximately 370,000 years among island archipelagos and among Canary islands. Combined with previous allozyme and morphometric analyses, a pattern of island evolution involving gradual divergence in small to moderate sized populations is supported. Directional selection is unnecessary to explain divergence patterns, although some control region substitutions may be 'nearly neutral'. Contrastingly, population-structure estimates are low among continental regions. This cannot be attributed to extensive gene flow because a negative linear relationship between geographic distance and migration rate was not found, and private alleles occur in each population. I conclude that these populations are not at equilibrium between migration, mutation and drift following a sequential northward range expansion from north Africa approximately 95,000 years ago, and that population structure is still developing on this background of shared ancestral polymorphisms.
Modeling and optimal control of deteriorating production processes

Most systems in the real world are subject to deterioration. Modeling and optimal control of deteriorating production processes such as tool wear and tool failure have been important research areas. When (1) the operating conditions of the deteriorating systems vary (deterministically or stochastically), or (2) the deteriorating processes are non-homogeneous (characterized by increasing mean and increasing variance), or (3) if we want to incorporate the information representing the operating conditions of the deteriorating systems from condition monitoring such as vibration signals into the model, the problem becomes more complicated. This thesis attempts to solve part of the above problems. It focuses on the study and modeling of cutting tool reliability, non-homogeneous tool wear process, cutting tool replacement decision making and operations sequencing when the cutting tools operate in either homogeneous or varying production conditions, and the reliability modeling of the load-sharing 1-out-of-2 systems (with arbitrary failure time distribution for each sub-system). The techniques of proportional hazard modeling and accelerated failure time modeling have been used to incorporate the covariates representing the operating conditions (both internal and external) into the reliability modeling. The random coefficient regression model is used to model the non-homogeneous tool wear process. For each model, we will attempt to provide complete information in solving the problem including detailed engineering background, model development, maximum likelihood estimation procedures for the unknown parameters, numerical procedures, and numerical examples.
The direct effects of Porphyromonas gingivalis 2561 on bone formation and mineral resorption in vitro

Porphyromonas gingivalis has been implicated in the pathogenesis of periodontal disease. I undertook this study to examine the effects of P. gingivalis 2561 an in vitro bone formation in the chick periosteal osteogenic (CPO) model. Compared with controls devoid of bacterial products, osteogenesis was inhibited significantly in cultures treated with either conditioned medium or extracts obtained from P. gingivalis. Varying amounts of inhibitory activity were observed, depending on the molecular size range of the extract, with very profound inhibitory effects observed in the $<$5 kDa range. Further characterization of the P. gingivalis extracts revealed that both proteinaceous and non-proteinaceous products, including lipopolysaccharide, were able to inhibit osteogenesis. P. gingivalis extract-mediated inhibition of osteogenesis in BO cultures was blocked by indomethacin implicating prostaglandins in the regulation of the bacterial effects. The bacterial extracts had either reversible or irreversible inhibitory effects on osteogenesis when added after differentiation or before/during differentiation of bone cells, respectively. The data suggest that periodontopathogens such as P. gingivalis might contribute to the bone loss in periodontal diseases not only by stimulating resorption but possibly by inhibiting bone formation directly. Since the process of bone formation in vivo does not occur in isolation but in combination with that of bone resorption, I next examined the simultaneous effects of P. gingivalis on both aspects of bone metabolism. This first required the development and validation of a co-culture model system that permitted communication between cells involved in individual processes of bone formation (osteoblasts) and resorption (osteoclasts), but that also facilitated quantification of the effects of an agent on each process individually. With regard to the effects of P. gingivalis on bone metabolism in co-culture, inhibition of osteogenesis was significantly less than in monoculture while mineral resorption was significantly increased. No direct effects of P. gingivalis on resorption were observed in mono-culture. These results suggest that P. gingivalis stimulation of osteoclastic mineral resorption may be regulated by osteoblasts. Taken together, the data show that extracts derived from P. gingivalis are capable of modulating bone formation and mineral resorption in vitro, which is consistent with their effects on the periodontium in vivo.
Language choice, an ethnographic study of the Nôhon-shugi ideology and language maintenance of Japanese immigrants in Brazil

The Kubo Commune was established in 1926 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, by Japanese immigrants. Approximately ninety members live together and use solely Japanese, the language of the first-generation immigrants, as the means of communication. The commune people do not mix their Japanese with Portuguese, the official language of Brazil. Children of the commune grow up with no knowledge of Portuguese until they reach the school age of seven. The Japanese language is a manifestation of their ideology, Nohon-shugi or "Agriculture-First Principle." This ideology teaches the understanding of, and living with, nature. Because of this ideology they choose to stay in agricultural cultivation areas and maintain a social boundary between Japanese-Brazilians and non-Japanese Brazilians. Although they have kept Japanese as their dominant language, their speech behaviour, especially that of women, is different from that of Japanese in Japan. The women's speech behaviour, called Arai Kotoba or the sincere speech style, is a representation of the Nohon-shugi ideology. Although men respect this ideology, they try to speak with the speech behaviour of Japanese in Japan. This is because the gender role of men is to protect the commune from outsiders. Thus, men imitate the speech behaviour of outsiders in order to keep up the appearance of the commune to outsiders who do not understand the significance of Arai Kotoba. This thesis contributes to theories of language choice in bi- or multi-lingual societies. In also explores language from the point of view of the complex, dynamic, conceptions of the speakers, that is, how speakers see themselves in relation to outsiders within the context of socio-economic and cultural power.
The cloning and molecular characterization of unc-40, a gene required for circumferential guidance of growth cones and migrating cells in caenorhabditis elegans

unc-40 is one of three genes that has major effects on cell and pioneer growth cone migrations along the dorsoventral axis in C. elegans. The goal of this project was to clone and molecularly characterize the unc-40 gene, in order to gain more insight into the molecules involved in directing neuronal growth cone migrations. The other two C. elegans genes with major effects on dorsoventral migrations have been cloned and characterized; unc-6 encodes a laminin-related path cue molecule required for guiding dorsal and ventral migrations on the epidermis and is expressed by the ventral epidermis; unc-5 encodes a transmembrane receptor of the IG superfamily required only for dorsal migrations and is expressed in cells and growth cones that migrate dorsally. unc-40 encodes a protein (UNC-40) that acts in concert with UNC-5 and UNC-6 to establish the dorsoventral directional polarity for cellular and pioneer growth cone migrations in C. elegans. This thesis presents the cloning and subsequent characterization of unc-40. The gene was cloned by rescue of the mutant phenotype through germline transformation. The data show that unc-40 encodes an integral membrane protein related in overall domain structure and amino acid sequence to the Drosophila Frazzled protein and the vertebrate DCC (deleted in colorectal cancer) and neogenin proteins. The expression pattern of UNC-40 was examined using a construct that expresses GFP (green fluorescent protein) under the control of the unc-40 promoter and a construct that expresses a GFP epitope-tagged UNC-40 protein. The cells expressing UNC-40 include all those whose migrations are affected by unc-40 mutations--including cells and growth cones that migrate ventrally (Hedgecock et al., 1990) and those that migrate dorsally. The data suggest that UNC-40 acts as a cell-autonomous transmembrane receptor that is involved in responding to the UNC-6 path cue. One attractive model is that UNC-40 guides cell and pioneer growth cone migrations on the epidermis of C. elegans toward ventral sources of UNC-6 by mediating chemoattractive responses to UNC-6. UNC-40 may also act in combination with the UNC-5 receptor for dorsal movements away from ventral sources of UNC-6 by mediating a chemorepulsive response to UNC-6. Most of the data presented in this thesis appears in Chan, S.S-Y., Zheng, H., Su, M.-W., Wilk, R., Killeen, M.T., Hedgecock, E.M., and Culotti, J.G., (1996). UNC-40, a C. elegans homolog of DCC (deleted in colorectal cancer), is required in motile cells responding to UNC-6 netrin cues. Cell 87, 187-195.
Cellular and molecular mechanisms of IGF-I hypersensitivity in polycythemia vera

We had previously shown that erythroid progenitor cells in PV are hypersensitive to IGF-I and that this effect occurs through the IGF-I receptor. It was my goal to shed light on the cellular and molecular mechanisms for this hypersensitivity. We immunoprecipitated the IGF-I receptor $\beta$ subunit from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNC) of PV patients and normals. In PV cells, in the absence of added ligand, basal tyrosine phosphorylation of the $\beta$ subunit was increased. In the presence of ligand, the receptor became phosphorylated earlier, to a greater degree, and at lower ligand concentrations. Then we determined the circulating levels of IGF-I and two of its binding proteins, IGFBP-3 and IGFBP-1, in PV patients and normals. Plasma IGFBP-1 in PV was elevated 4-fold. IGFBP-1 greatly increased the sensitivity of erythroid progenitor cells to IGF-I in culture as shown by a left shift in its dose-response curve; this enabled us to mimic one feature of the PV phenotype with normal cells. In PV, we found these cells to be hypersensitive to the combination of IGF-I and IGFBP-1. In both PV and normal, maximal erythroid burst formation occurred when the two were given in approximately equimolar concentrations. We next investigated receptor intrinsic events that could be responsible for IGF-I hypersensitivity. $\sp{125}$I-IGF-I binding studies performed on erythrocytes, glycophorin A$\sp+$ erythroid precursors, and PBMNC revealed that the number of binding sites and their affinity for ligand were not different in PV versus normal. We then examined the intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity (TKA) of the isolated IGF-I receptor. In the presence of sodium vanadate, an inhibitor of phosphatase activity, the TKA in PV was substantially increased. In conclusion, the IGF-I receptor in PV is hyperphosphorylated, hyperactive, and hypersensitive to ligand. This may be due to: (i) extracellular events that activate the receptor; (ii) a receptor intrinsic defect; or, (iii) an intracellular defect in elements involved in receptor desensitization. Therefore, a defect in either the IGF-I receptor or its signalling pathway as well as an increase in the circulating levels of a stimulator of erythropoiesis, IGFBP-1, may play a central role in the pathogenesis of PV.