VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Repairing the Web: Spiderwoman's Children Staging the New Human Being

This dissertation documents and interrogates the process of Storyweaving, which has been authored and developed by Spiderwoman Theater, the longest running Native theatre company in North America and the longest running feminist collective in the world. Storyweaving is a distinct process that governs the dramaturgical structure and performed transmission of this company’s play texts on the contemporary stage. However, Storyweaving predates written history. It has been (and remains) specific to tribal storytellers across this continent. The reclamation, then, of this aesthetic legacy by contemporary Native storytellers is a crucial act of recovery, which imagines and architects a functional framework for a Poetics of Decolonization that may be adopted and adapted by tribal artists from myriad nations to create works (on the page and stage) that will effect the healing, transformation and survivance of their communities. Chapter One examines the early personal and professional histories of the Miguel sisters who are Spiderwoman’s founders. Through an exploration of their socio-economic positioning, their difficult home life, the racialized narratives by which they were defined outside the home and their artistic development within these impossible conditions, this chapter unpacks instances of personal and familial resistance to the forces of colonization and reveals the seamless weave that so inextricably binds art and life. Chapter Two documents the early history of Spiderwoman Theater and offers a processual analysis of its transformation from a multi-racial, feminist collective to an American Indian theatre troupe, charting the personal decolonization of the Miguel sisters and the intersection of this very personal transformation with the politically (re)vital(izing) creation of a decolonizing aesthetic. Chapter Three engages with this aesthetic to clearly demonstrate how it works within and through the living bodies who utilize it in the rehearsal studio. Next, I examine Spiderwoman’s published texts to reveal the ways in which the Storyweaving process has shaped the affects of these works on the artists and their audiences. Finally, Chapter Five names and evaluates the benefits of Spiderwoman’s legacy and estimates its future benefits as Spiderwoman’s heirs take up its process and adapt it to meet the needs of their communities.

Keywords: Spiderwoman Theater
Storyweaving
Aboriginal Theatre
Poetics of Decolonization
Indigenous Knowledge
Actors' Process
Indigenous Story-work
Organic Dramaturgy
Advisor: Sperdakos, Paula
Remixing Relationality: 'Other/ed' Sonic Modernities of our Present

Far from simply playing music, the turntable has, in recent decades, been transformed into a musical instrument. Those that play these new instruments, called Turntablists, alter existing sounds to produce new sonic arrangements, exceeding the assumed use value of the turntable. The turntable’s transformation from record player to instrument captures one of the ways in which Afrosonic sound making activities refuse to conform to existing paradigms of music making in the western world. Throughout the African diaspora, it has been the musics from various regions and nations that continually capture the attention of the world’s music connoisseurs. This dissertation examines the ways in which careful consideration of the sonic innovations in Afrodiasporic cultures produce alternative paradigms through which we might analyze contemporary life. The following chapters interrogate turntablism, remix culture and hip hop music as subtexts that elaborate a foundational narrative of Afrodiasporic life. These subtexts are used as tools to examine the various ethnoscapes of Black Canadian life, official multiculturalism and notions of home within the African diaspora in Canada. The dominant narrative of the African diaspora explored in this work, housed within the sonic, elaborates a relational conception of freedom and modernity born out of the particularities of Afrodiasporic life in the west. In this sonic narrative, participation becomes the key index by which freedom is understood, embodied and enacted. Consequently, a notion of relationality, deeply indebted to the Afrodiasporic experience, is utilized throughout this dissertation to access a conception of the human that lay outside of western Europe’s enlightenment definition.

Keywords: Afrodiasporic
Black Canada
Advisor: Walcott, Rinaldo
Folate Absorption Across the Colon and the Modulation of Bacterial Folate Synthesis by Diet

While assessment of folate requirements has been based only on dietary intakes, folate produced by the colonic microflora can exceed amounts consumed in food. Bacterially synthesized folate is absorbed across the rat and piglet colon. In vitro studies suggest, but direct evidence is lacking that folate is absorbed across the intact human colon. If indeed folate is absorbed, the amount synthesized may be susceptible to manipulation by fibre and prebiotics intake. We therefore performed two studies to investigate folate absorption across the colon. To confirm absorption across the intact human colon, in our first study, 684 nmol (320 µg) 13C5-glutamyl-[6S]-5-formyltetrahydrofolate was infused into the cecum of six adults and blood samples were collected. Tandem mass spectrometry confirmed folate absorption across the colon by appearance in plasma of 13C5-[6S]-5-methyltetrahydrofolate, at a rate of 0.6±0.2 nmol/h versus 7±1.2 nmol/h after intravenous injection of 172 nmol 13C5-5-formyltetrahydrofolate. Since bifidobacteria are potent folate producers, in our second study we evaluated the influence of bifidogenic oligosaccharides on colonic folate production and host folate status, using a piglet animal model. Piglets (n=12) were randomly assigned a milk-based formula with 5g/L inulin + 5g/L galactooligosaccharides, or 5g/L maltodextrin (control). After 28 days, the weights of colon contents (178 %) and colon tissue (37.9 %) of piglets fed oligosaccharides were greater than controls (P=0.0003, P=0.0044, respectively). The bacterial load and folate contents in the colons of piglets fed oligosaccharides were greater than controls (P=0.0022, P=0.0218, respectively). Body weights, blood folate status and liver and kidney folate concentrations did not differ. In conclusion, folate is absorbed across the human colon. Supplementation of the piglet diet with 5g/L inulin and 5g/L galactooligosaccharides increased the amounts of microbial folate, and the weights of colon tissue and contents, but folate concentrations in colon contents, blood and organs were not affected.

Keywords: folate colon absorption
bacterial folate synthesis
Advisor: O'Connor, Deborah Louise
Iraq and the Assyrian Unimagining: Illuminating Scaled Suffering and a Hierarchy of Genocide from Simele to Anfal

The 1933 genocidal attacks on Assyrians in the Simele region defined the birth of the nascent Iraqi nation and identity. Iraq has ever been in the spotlight of ethnic and cultural strife, especially concerning Sunni-Shia animosity, and more recently in dealing with the Kurdish people and Iraqi Kurdistan. In most cases, however, the Assyrians are completely neglected from scholarship concerning Iraq and its peoples. This work reinserts the Assyrian people into the fabric of Iraq and discusses the violent and non-violent suppression of Assyrian identity and culture through genocide, cultural genocide, and ethnic cleansing. Three fundamental factors emerge from this reinsertion with respect to Iraq and genocide. First, this approach introduces an often-neglected element in Iraqi studies: the inclusion of minorities, or micro-minorities, within the existing discourse on Iraqi studies. Second, it contributes to genocide studies by examining the impact of the non-physical, or cultural, aspect of genocide. Further, it discusses the importance of the Assyrian case in Iraq for understanding Iraqi history, and serves as a case in point of scaling suffering and for understanding how and why a hierarchy of genocide exists.

Keywords: Iraq
Assyrians
Genocide
Syriac
Minorities
Ethnic Cleansing
Nationalism
Nation-Building
Kurds
Aramaic
Anfal
Simele
Advisor: Harrak, Amir
Sulfate Resistance and Properties of Portland-limestone Cements

Portland-limestone cements (PLC) have been used in practice for a considerable period of time in several countries. In 2008, the CSA A3000 cements committee approved the addition of a new class of cement with up to 15% interground limestone. The CSA A23.1 concrete committee also approved the use of PLC in concrete in 2009. However, to date, due to uncertainty about the performance of Portland-limestone cements in sulfate environments, their use has not been allowed in sulfate exposures. In this study, the sulfate resistance of five different Portland-limestone cements and their combinations with various amounts of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) were examined. Besides the standard tests performed at 23 °C, a modified version of the ASTM C1012 test was developed in this study (adopted in 2010 as CSA A3004-B) and used to investigate the possibility of thaumasite form of sulfate attack at 5 °C. It was found for tests conducted at 23 °C that while 100% cement mixes deteriorated in sulfate exposure due to conventional sulfate attack, partially replacing the Portland cements and Portland-limestone cements with 30% or 50% slag was effective in making the mixes highly sulfate-resistant. In sulfate exposure at 5 °C, all of the 100% cement mortar bars failed the test and had completely disintegrated due to the formation of thaumasite. Partially replacing cement with 30% slag was effective in controlling the deterioration at 5 °C only for Portland cements and not Portland-limestone cements. However, all the combinations of the cements with 50% slag were resistant to the thaumasite form of sulfate attack. In a parallel study, the hydration of Portland-limestone cements and the relationship between strength and porosity of mortar samples were examined. The results of hydration studies revealed that the limestone portion of Portland-limestone cements reacts with the alumina phases and produces carboaluminates, which contributes to the strength. As the limestone content of the cement increased, the shift in the optimum level of SCM providing maximum strength and minimum porosity was attributed to the availability of more alumina, which allowed more limestone to participate in the hydration reactions, forming additional carboaluminate hydrates.

Keywords: Portland-Limestone cements
Sulfate Resistance
Thaumasite
Hydration
Advisor: Hooton, Robert Douglas
Characterization of Baf60c in Mouse Heart Development

BAF (BRG1/Brm Associating Factors) complexes are ATP-dependent chromatin-remodeling complexes highly conserved from yeast to mammal. In mammals, the existence of tissue-specific BAF factors and their essential roles in the developmental processes suggest that they offer another layer of gene regulation control for mammalian development. Baf60c is one of the three Baf60s in the mouse. It expresses in the embryonic heart from E7.5 and later throughout the myocardium. To elucidate the role of Baf60c in mouse heart development, I constructed a Baf60c conditional knockout mouse line and characterize the Baf60c deletion phenotypes. Baf60c null embryonic hearts are hypoplastic and show abnormal contraction function and cardiomyocyte structural defects. Transcriptome analyses have identified gene groups critical for metabolism and contraction force generation. Deletion of Baf60c in myocardium at later development stages with Myh6::Cre results in severely dilated chambers, affecting the health and mortality. Echocardiography and electroncardiography have detected contraction and conduction defects in adult Baf60c myocardium deletion mice. Baf60c knockout cardiomyocyte also has disarrayed sarcomere. To elucidate the molecular mechanism by which Baf60c regulates cardiac gene expression, I detected the direct association of Baf60c with cardiac transcription factors Tbx5, Nkx2.5 and Myocardin. The transcription factor association domain is mapped to the N-terminal of Baf60c. To isolate the protein factors associated with Baf60c in vivo, I constructed a knock-in mouseline expressing epitope-tagged Baf60c. Expression of the tagged Baf60c was confirmed in ES cell differentiated cardiomyocyte and transgenic mice and its association with the other BAF complex members was also detected. In summary, my work has shown that the cardiac specific chromatin-remodeling factor Baf60c is an essential regulator for both embryonic heart and postnatal heart development. It may function through association with the cardiac transcription factors.

Advisor: Rossant, Janet
Bruneau, Benoit
The Challenge of Web Design Guidelines: Investigating Issues of Awareness, Interpretation, and Efficacy

Guidelines focusing on web interface design allow for the dissemination of complex and multidisciplinary research to communities of practice. Motivated by the desire to better understand how research evidence canbe shared with the web design community, this dissertation investigates the role guidelines play in the design process, the attitudes designers hold regarding guidelines, and whether evidence based guidelines can be consistently interpreted by designers. Guidelines are a potential means to address the knowledge gap between research and practice, yet we do not have a clear understanding of the relationship between research evidence, guideline sets and web design practitioners. In order to better understand how design guidelines are used by designers in the practice of web interface design, four sequential studies were designed; the application of a guideline subset to a design project by 16 students, the assessment of ten health information websites by eight designers using a guideline subset, a web based survey of 116 designers, and interviews with 20 designers. The studies reveal that guideline use is dependent on the perceived trustworthiness of the guideline, its source and the alignment between guideline advice and designer experience. The first two studies found that guidelines are inconsistently interpreted. One third of the guidelines used in the second study were interpreted differently by participants, an inconsistency which represents a critical problem in guideline use. Findings showed no difference in the characteristics of guidelines which were consistently interpreted and those for which interpretation was the most inconsistent. Further, research evidence was not a factor in guideline use, less than half the designers are aware of evidence-based guideline sets, and guidelines are predominantly used as memory aids. Ultimately alternatives to guidelines, such as checklists or pattern libraries, may yield the best results in our efforts to share research knowledge with communities of practice.

Keywords: Guideline
Design
Advisor: Cherry, Joan
The Effects of Cultural and Economic Capital on both Formal and Informal Learning for the Workplace

The aim of the thesis was to explore the magnitude of inequity in accessibility to initial formal education, continuing adult education, and work-related informal learning for the workplace. The two main issues that the thesis attempted to determine is whether social background characteristics that affect initial educational attainment continue to influence participation in adult education and work-related informal learning. More specifically, this research focused on three main questions: First, to what extent does parents’ social background influence educational attainment levels for Canadians from different generations? Second, to what extent does parents’ social background influencing participation in adult education for their offspring beyond the effects of an individual’s own social background? And, third, to what extent does parents' social background have on their offspring’s participation in informal learning for the workplace beyond the effects of an individual's own social class background? A secondary data quantitative analysis was carried out on the data collected in the 2004 Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL) survey. Both crosstab analysis and structural equation analysis were used to obtain an overview of inequities in participation in formal education and informal learning and to test the applicability of Bourdieu’s social reproduction theory. Overall, the findings of this thesis indicate that social reproduction occurs not only through the formal education system, but also through the adult education system. More specifically, parents’ education continues to be a good predictor of the level of education attained by offspring. Moreover, one’s level of education continued to be a predictor of participation in adult education. Social reproduction was not present for work-related informal learning. In fact, those from low incomes were more likely to engage in informal learning than those from high incomes. These findings indicate that despite level of cultural and economic capital, the majority of Canadians engage in a learning activity. It is apparent that structures that are present in our formal education system continue to advantage students with high cultural and economic capital; however, work-related informal learning is accessible to all.

Keywords: education
adult education
informal learning
self directed learning
social class
Bourdieu
Social Reproduction Theory
continued education
post secondary education
Advisor: Livingstone, David W.
Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis and Memory Enhancement

Hippocampal neurogenesis continues throughout life in mammals. These adult-generated dentate granule cells (DGCs) are generally believed to contribute to hippocampal memory processing and are generated at varying rates in response to neuronal network activity. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) allows clinicians to influence brain activity for therapeutic purposes and raises the possibility of targeted modulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis. It has recently been shown that DBS may ameliorate cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and while underlying mechanisms are unknown, one possibility is activity-dependent regulation of hippocampal neurogenesis. To this end, whether or not adult-generated DGCs can assume functional roles of developmentally-generated neurons, and stimulation-induced enhanced neurogenesis can benefit memory function in the normal and diseased brain, warrant study. First, we examined separate cohorts of developmentally- and adult-generated DGCs in intact mice and demonstrated similar rates of activation during hippocampus-dependent spatial memory processing, suggesting functional equivalence. Second, we examined the neurogenic and cognitive effects of targeted entorhinal cortex (EC) stimulation in mice using parameters analogous to clinical high frequency DBS. Stimulation increased the generation of DGCs. Moreover, stimulation-induced neurons were functionally recruited by hippocampal spatial memory processing in a cell age-dependent fashion that is consistent with DGC maturation. Importantly, stimulation facilitated spatial memory in the same maturation-dependent manner, and not when stimulation-induced promotion of adult neurogenesis was blocked, suggesting a causal relationship. Finally, we are in the process of testing whether similar stimulation facilitates spatial memory in a transgenic (Tg) disease model of AD that exhibits amyloid neuropathology and cognitive impairment. Preliminary results suggest stimulation promotes neurogenesis and rescues impaired spatial memory in Tg animals. When considered in the context of promising clinical results, this body of work suggests stimulation-induced neurogenesis could provide a novel therapeutic modality in settings where functional hippocampal regenerative therapy is desirable.

Keywords: neurogenesis
memory
hippocampus
deep brain stimulation
dentate gyrus
adult hippocampal neurogenesis
granule cell
learning
Advisor: Lozano, Andres M.
Terrible Crimes and Wicked Pleasures: Witches in the Art of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Early modern representations of witchcraft have been the subject of considerable recent scholarship; however, three significant aspects of the corpus have not received sufficient attention and are treated independently here for the first time. This dissertation will examine how witchcraft imagery invited discourse concerning the reality of magic and witchcraft and suggested connections to contemporary issues through the themes of the witch’s violent autonomy, bestial passions, and unnatural interactions with the demonic and the dead. These three themes address specific features of the multifaceted identity of the witch and participate in a larger discussion that questioned the nature of humanity. Analysis of each issue reveals a complex, ambiguous, and often radically open treatment of the subject that necessitates a revision of how witchcraft imagery from this period is understood. Each understudied aspect of witchcraft imagery is explored through a series of case studies that have not appeared together until now. Previously unexamined artworks with inventive content are introduced and canonical pictures are examined from new perspectives. These images were created in the principal artistic centers, the Italian city-states, the German provinces, and the Low Countries, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when the controversy over witchcraft was at its peak. Although they are few in number, these highly innovative images are the most effective and illuminating means by which to access these themes. These works of art provide valuable insights into important issues that troubled early modern society. Chapter 1 reveals how witchcraft imagery produced in the Low Countries is concerned with the witch’s violent rejection of the social bonds and practices upon which the community depends for survival. Chapter 2 examines how the figure of the witch was used to explore concerns about the delineation and transgression of the human-animal boundary. Chapter 3 exposes an interest in the physical possibility of witchcraft; artists questioned the ability of witches and demons to manipulate the material world. Issues include the witches’ capacity to reanimate dead bodies and create monstrous creatures. Together these images demonstrate active and meaningful engagement with the theories, beliefs, and practices associated with witchcraft.

Keywords: Witchcraft
Witches
Baroque Art
Renaissance Art
Sixteenth Century
Seventeenth Century
Violence
Transgression
Subversion
Identity
Painting
Prints
Autonomy
Bestial Passions
Demons
Death
Demonology
Magic
Advisor: Kavaler, Matt