VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Relationship between the Processes of Action-related Language Comprehension and Upper- and Lower-limb Movements

Processes of action-language comprehension and actions performed by the limbs have been traditionally regarded as separate entities. However, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that there is a dynamic multi-directional interaction among processes of language, perception, and limb action. One challenge in drawing firm conclusions about these interactions is that results of more recent studies show discrepant results and a lack of replications. The purpose of the research reported in this dissertation was to investigate the hypothesized bidirectional links between action-related language comprehension and both upper- and lower-limb movements. The first three experiments examined the influence of limb-specific language comprehension on limb movement initiation by assessing response times in a semantic decision-making task involving limb-specific nouns and verbs. Limb word-response compatibility effects were found for limb-specific nouns and verbs with both hand and foot effectors. The second set of three experiments evaluated the influence of limb action preparation on the comprehension of action-related language. Participants pre-planned a grasping or a pointing action to words related to object characteristics that were congruent or incongruent with the planned action in a semantic go/no-go task. Preparation of upper-limb pointing movements were found to facilitate the processing of location-related words. The final experiment investigated the influence of limb movement execution on limb-specific language comprehension. Participants completed a dual-task paradigm in which they performed a rhythmic motor task while presented with body-related or non-body-related words. There was no effect of the type of rhythmic task on the processing of hand- and foot-related words and there were no performance trade-offs between RTs and tapping performance. The main conclusions drawn from this set of studies is that there is: 1) evidence for a strong directional influence of limb-specific language comprehension on limb movement; and 2) weak evidence for a directional influence of limb movement systems on language comprehension systems. The findings of this dissertation highlight that there is some evidence for an interconnected network between language comprehension and motor systems, but there seems to be a stronger directional influence in one direction, namely from language comprehension systems to limb actions.

Keywords: Embodiment
Language comprehension
Motor Control
Advisor: Welsh, Timothy
Data Here and There: Studying Web Archives Research Infrastructures in Danish and Canadian Settings

Web archives collections are an important site for preserving digital cultural heritage, capturing online resources and the underlying data of web pages and websites over time. This dissertation explores the data practices involved in the curation and scholarly uses of archived web data, and the emerging humanities research infrastructures that support this work. I focus on how data are created by and interact with multiple, varied, conflicting and often opaque systems from collection through to analysis and visualization, involving a range of actors and systems. Through interviews and observations in two settings centred on emerging research infrastructures from national libraries and academic libraries, I explore how web archiving processes involve technical systems that impose or manipulate data structures, as well as policies, legal restrictions, and a range of decisions and interpretations of the data made by the people involved in curation practices. My analysis is guided by the approach of infrastructure studies towards describing, documenting and contextualizing archived web data at varying scales and through their sociotechnical relationships. By studying these settings ethnographically, I seek to understand how data produced here are different from data produced there; in spite of the use of similar technologies and standard formats of data, I reveal how the particular contexts of these research infrastructures serve to shape the data found in each. I highlight the role of categories and classifications both in the construction of digital materials and the design and tailoring of computational systems. Ultimately, I argue that one cannot study, describe, or otherwise work critically with data without also understanding the classification systems and infrastructures through which data categories are developed and applied. It is in fact these categories of data that determine judgments and decision-making, and impact movement and legibility between systems and contexts; digital curation practices are in essence categorical work. I conclude by highlighting contributions to digital curation theory and practice and new directions for emerging work in critical data studies to consider how data categories are compatible or incompatible, and the complex sociotechnical relationships between categories, meanings and uses in data-centered algorithmic systems.

Keywords: Data
Infrastructure studies
Web archives
Advisor: Keilty, Patrick
Relationships Between Student Characteristics, Academic Advising and College Student Success

This dissertation is about the student success problem: institutional retention rates have remained low for decades and clear evidence about why and how to support more students to persist and graduate is elusive. In Canada, and within Ontario Colleges specifically, there is a dearth of research on this topic. Performance-based funding and the global pandemic has increased the need to improve these outcomes. The three studies that comprise this dissertation investigate the relationships between the characteristics of students at the time they enter college, participation in academic advising, and student success. In the first study, an integrated literature review method was used to analyze two decades of peer-reviewed research related to five constructs – program fit, career clarity, academic self-efficacy, educational commitment, and friend and family support – and the relationships with both advising and student success. Results showed positive relationships. New working definitions for each construct were developed. The second and third studies used a unique administrative dataset from Mohawk College. In the second study, a series of factor analyses identified three latent variables – Career and Program Clarity, Friend and Family Support, and Positive Academic Attitudes – within the Mohawk College student entrance survey. The latent variable measurement model was used as the foundation of a structural equation model (SEM) as part of the third study to analyze the relationships between the latent variables, advising participation, and student success. The SEM did not produce an acceptable fit or find any significant relationships. The concluding chapter used an integrated discussion method to summarize the overall findings. The contributions to the literature include an example of unique methods; new findings related to student success; and evidence of the practical use of college administrative data. Seven implications and next steps for researchers, practitioners and leaders are identified: improving institutional data collection practices; more focused evaluation of academic advising; purposeful outreach to students who do not engage early in admissions or transition processes; continued efforts to work with students to (re)define student success; new investments in research infrastructure; stronger emphasis on good research methods; and new campus commitments to relationship rich education.

Keywords: Academic Advising
Community College
Factor Analysis
Post-Secondary Education
Structural Equation Modelling
Student Success
Advisor: Childs, Ruth
Listening to Land as Teacher in Early Childhood Education

This research responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action (2015) to develop “culturally appropriate early childhood education for Aboriginal families” by bringing together Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and educators to share their perspectives on land-based pedagogies for young children. This qualitative research is based on a ‘Circle Teaching’ shared by Ojibwe Traditional Teacher and Gokoomis (Grandmother) Jacque(line) Lavallee from Shawanaga First Nation in relationship to an Indigenous Knowledge Bundle that she calls a ‘Memory Teaching Bundle’. Since Spring 2019, this ‘Memory Teaching Bundle’ has been cared for and practiced cyclically through Seasonal Ceremonies led by Gokoomis (Grandmother) and her Oshkaabewis (Ceremonial Helper and Messenger) along Gaabikanang Ziibi (Humber River) in Tkaronto (Toronto) in collaboration with a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators and community organizations committed to land-based early childhood education.

Keywords: early years
Indigenous Knowledge
land-based pedagogy
Ojibwe Circle Teachings
Traditional Knowledge
Truth and Reconciliation
Advisor: Stewart, Suzanne
Negotiating Feminism: Campus Sexual Violence and the Politics of Settlement

Negotiating Feminism traces the reflection of the feminist “sex wars” in contemporary debates about campus sexual violence reform in Canada and the United States – what Emily Bazelon has called the “return of the sex wars” on college and university campuses. Negotiating Feminism focuses on one issue in the return of the sex wars – the role of interests-based, consensual dispute resolution processes, including mediation and restorative justice, in changing the conditions that foster campus sexual violence on the ground. The political polarization of the return of the sex wars has prevented some colleges and universities from engaging with policy models that challenge the primacy of campus adjudication and other rights-based options. Complainants of campus sexual violence should be empowered to access any form of dispute resolution under law, whether rights-based or interests-based, that accords with their personal conception of justice. Empowering complainants in this way does not mean that colleges and universities should be willfully blind to the reality of substantive inequality that campus adjudication is intended to address. Yet acknowledging this reality should not require colleges and universities to essentialize about the nature of women’s injury or overdetermine the role of gendered power imbalances in producing the content of women’s interests in resolving their complaints otherwise. Feminist law and policymakers should negotiate between these competing imperatives and come together by instituting what Negotiating Feminism calls the “plural process” model of campus sexual violence reform. The plural process model recognizes that both rights-based and interests-based options can promote substantive equality for women and other historically marginalized groups – and it seeks to bring about that change.

Keywords: Alternative Dispute Resolution
Campus Sexual Violence
Mediation
Negotiation
Restorative Justice
Sexual Assault
Advisor: Cossman, Brenda
Stern, Simon
The effects of molecular structures and reactant temperatures on soot formation in a coflow laminar flame

The objective of the present study is to explore the effects of aromatic hydrocarbons and reactant temperatures on soot formation in a coflow diffusion flame. The study is motivated by the observation that soot formation is influenced by the flame boundary and ambient conditions, i.e. fuel species, pressure, temperature, etc. The effects of aromatic hydrocarbons and reactant temperatures have not been widely covered by current fundamental studies. With the help of experimental and numerical tools, the present study will extend our understanding of soot formation under various conditions. The effects of molecular structures of alkylbenzenes on soot formation in a coflow laminar flame are presented in Chapters 3, 4, and 5 of Part I. It is shown that 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene has a greater sooting tendency than n-propylbenzene because the former forms polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) through efficient radical recombination whereas the latter forms PAHs via the sequential Hydrogen-Abstraction-C2H2-Addition (HACA) mechanism. The importance of both mechanisms was highlighted by assessing the effect of naphthalene addition to both 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene and n-propylbenzene. It is found that naphthalene addition affects n-propylbenzene more than 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, suggesting that the effect is fuel-type dependent. Furthermore, the role of alkylbenzenes in a jet fuel surrogate on soot formation was also assessed and it is found that their roles are moderate. The effects of elevated reactant temperatures on soot formation in a coflow laminar flame are presented in Chapters 6, 7, and 8 of Part II. Experimental studies show increasing the reactant temperature promotes soot aggregation and soot surface growth. It also yields curved nanostructures that decelerate soot surface growth. In addition, the modeling study shows the promotion of soot formation is likely due to early fuel pyrolysis that promotes PAH formation. The increase in PAH production also signifies the importance of the PAH adsorption mechanism. Finally, the temperature dependence of alkylbenzenes was explored. It is found that alkylbenzenes are less sensitive to the change in reactant temperature than alkanes and alkenes. This may be attributed to differences in their pathways for PAH formation.

Keywords: Alkylbenzenes
Combustion
Emission
High temperature
laser-induced incandescence
Soot formation
Advisor: Thomson, Murray J
Sir Syed (1817-1898) and Science: Popularization in Nineteenth Century India

On 9 January 1864, 109 men joined the newly formed Scientific Society in Ghazipur, India. Its founder, Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1817–1898), and his engagement with various scientific disciplines is the subject of my dissertation. This work takes a notable figure in South Asia and re-examines him in his historical setting. Drawing on a wealth of published and archival material in several languages, I argue that Sayyid Ahmad’s activities between 1837 and 1876 fall under the category of science popularization. These themes are under-examined because of his image as a Muslim reformer in India. I use him as a template to show how scientific knowledge was transformed in India from multiple perspectives. This includes case studies ranging from translations of Persian sources that describe how to build mathematical compasses into Urdu, to debates in other parts of the world that shaped the conversations in India. I also show that Sayyid Ahmad’s engagement with science education and popularization draws in several groups, such as the intellectual elite at Delhi College and members of the Asiatic Society. The dissertation is split into five chapters, each dealing with a different part of Sayyid Ahmad’s activities and publications. The first chapter examines Urdu translations of Persian sources by Sayyid Ahmad. The second chapter deals with the field of archeology and Sayyid Ahmad’s contributions to the first report of the Archeological Survey of India (1862–1865). The third chapter explores Sayyid Ahmad’s bilingual Bible commentary and the scientific beliefs, such as the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun, scattered through the publication. The fourth chapter examines his Scientific Society. Given the importance of Aligarh Muslim University (est. 1875), which was called Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College until 1920, the significance of his Scientific Society is often overlooked. The final chapter explores Sayyid Ahmad’s visit to London in 1869–70 and his return to India. Overall, this thesis aims to write Sayyid Ahmad into the existing historiographical discussions within nineteenth century history of science. This lens offers a fresh account of a well-known figure in a new historiographical setting.

Keywords: British India
Islam
nineteenth century
popularization of science
Sir Syed
Advisor: Lightman, Bernard
Individualizing Ovarian Cancer Surveillance: Discovery and Validation of Serological Personalized Biomarkers of Recurrence Using Multiplex Proteomics Technologies

In Canada, ovarian cancer is the third most common female reproductive cancer and the leading cause of deaths among gynecological cancers. Although remission is observed in most ovarian cancer patients after first-line treatment, >80% of advanced cases see recurrence with a median survival of 12-24 months from the time of recurrence. The classical ovarian cancer biomarker, CA125, is controversial for monitoring recurrence as initiating second-line therapy sooner based on CA125 does not impact survival. Furthermore, CA125 is non-elevated at diagnosis in 10-20% of advanced ovarian cancer cases in general, leaving this population with no widely used biomarkers for surveillance. Patients being monitored with CA125 also have a 10-40% chance of CA125 being non-elevated at recurrence. With increasing selection of immunotherapies and precision medicines, novel personalized ovarian cancer biomarkers could help individualize the surveillance process. Due to tumour heterogeneity, we hypothesize that quantifying the unique array of tumour-derived serological proteins with advanced proteomics methods could identify personalized marker signatures that sensitively detect relapse. We first assessed the technical potential of two multiplex proteomics technologies for detecting proteins that may correlate to tumour burden in cancer patients. For our subsequent discovery study, we employed the proximity extension assay (PEA) to simultaneously measure 1,104 proteins in 120 longitudinal serum samples (30 ovarian cancer patients). We identified 23 candidate personalized markers (plus CA125 and FDA-approved marker HE4), in which personalized combinations was informative of recurrence in more patients (92%) compared to clinical CA125 (68%) and HE4 (32%) alone. For our ensuing validation study, we used PEAs to concurrently measure 644 proteins (includes 21 previously identified candidates plus CA125 and HE4) in 234 independent, longitudinal serum samples (39 ovarian cancer patients). The 21 candidates were each informative of recurrence in 3-35% of patients. Patient-centric analysis of all 644 proteins generated a refined panel of 33 personalized tumour markers, which includes 18 validated candidates from our discovery study. Along with HE4, the 34-marker panel offered higher sensitivity (91%) by identifying personalized marker signatures of recurrence compared to clinical CA125 (59%) and HE4 (26%) alone. Our findings show that personalized tumour markers may offer the best lens into the rich heterogeneity of ovarian tumours compared to a single marker alone. Developing a panel of personalized markers for tracking custom signatures of tumour burden in each patient may offer excellent sensitivity for detecting recurrence early and aid in prompt clinical referral to imaging and subsequent treatment interventions.

Keywords: Biomarkers
Multiplex technologies
Ovarian cancer
Personalized medicine
Proteomics
Tumour markers
Advisor: Diamandis, Eleftherios P
Kulasingam, Vathany
Circulating Pro-vascular Progenitor Cell Content in Type 2 Diabetes

The chronic inflammation and oxidative stress associated with established type 2 diabetes (T2D) remains a major proponent of ischemic cardiovascular complications. Importantly, the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment plagued by hyperglycemia and oxidative stress hinders pro-vascular progenitor cells from self-renewing and undergoing pro-vascular cell differentiation through a process called “regenerative cell exhaustion”. This phenotype ultimately reduces progenitor cells’ ability to migrate to areas of ischemia and aid in the process of revascularization. Using multi-parametric flow cytometry, we hypothesized that this cellular phenotype, characterized by reduced migration and pro-angiogenic progenitor cell content, could be detected within the peripheral blood of individuals with established T2D. Patients with T2D displayed increased pro-inflammatory granulocyte precursors and reduced circulating progenitor cells with a pro-angiogenic phenotype. This translational work may create the foundation for diagnostic tests that monitor the capacity for revascularization and the efficacy of cellular therapies through a minimally invasive procedure.

Keywords: Aldehyde Dehydrogenase
Diabetes
Inflammation
Ischemia
Progenitor Cells
Revascularization
Advisor: Verma, Subodh
Rethinking the Assessment of Hyperbilirubinemia in Preterm Infants

Preterm infants born at 240/7 to 356/7 weeks’ gestation are at greater risk of developing acute bilirubin encephalopathy (ABE) and chronic bilirubin encephalopathy (CBE). However, guidelines for the assessment of hyperbilirubinemia are consensus-based, and systematically derived pre-treatment total serum bilirubin (TSB) percentiles are lacking for preterm infants. Preterm infants who undergo repeat TSB testing are subjected to greater stress, pain, and risk of anemia. To address the aforementioned issues, two multi-site retrospective (Study 1 and 2), and one multi-site prospective (Study 3), cohort studies were conducted at three neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in Ontario. Study 1 generated pre-treatment TSB percentile levels among infants born at 290/7 to 356/7 weeks’ gestation, using quantile regression. Study 2 generated pre-phototherapy TSB percentiles levels at 24 hours of age among infants born at 240/7 to 286/7 weeks’ gestation and contrasted those pre-phototherapy TSB percentiles with existing consensus-based thresholds produced by Maisels. Study 3 investigated the agreement between transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB) and TSB measurements among preterm infants born at 240/7 to 356/7 weeks, overall, by receipt of phototherapy, by anatomical site of measurement and by self-reported maternal ethnicity. Study 1 produced hour-specific pre-treatment TSB levels at the 40th, 75th and 95th percentiles, with corresponding curves by gestational week at birth. Study 2 observed considerably higher statistically derived pre-phototherapy TSB percentile levels at 24 hours of age at the 75th and 95th percentile than Maisels’ consensus-based TSB thresholds. Study 3 observed higher agreement between TcB and TSB values among preterm infants born at 330/7 to 356/7 weeks’ gestation, prior to phototherapy, whether measured at the forehead or sternum. TcB-TSB agreement was not impacted by ethnicity. The results of this thesis provide new information about bilirubin measurement in preterm infants. Experts and health policy makers may choose to use these data to inform evidence-based guidelines in the assessment (and management) of hyperbilirubinemia in preterm infants.

Keywords: bilirubin
hyperbilirubinemia
jaundice
neonatology
quantile regression
Advisor: Sgro, Michael D
Ray, Joel G