VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Rhetorical subversion in the English moral interlude

My focus of study is the popular English moral interlude and later related plays, from 'The Castle of Perseverance' (circa 1425) to the end of the Tudor period. I view these plays from, a perspective that centers on the use of rhetoric as a means of persuasion, and the ways in which that means of persuasion is placed in the service of good and evil ends--often simultaneously. The ambivalent and often hilarious words of a Vice figure are supposed to lure the audience into complicity with sin, and they do their job well in many moral plays and their later counterparts. The attraction of these characters goes beyond the entrapment of other characters and the audience. They often deliberately use rhetorical tropes and figures to further their own ends, and thereby undermine any notions of the inherent stability of language as a truth-bearing medium. The good characters, on the other hand, generally do not have enough of a dramatic presence to counteract the effects of the Vice figures upon the audience even though the static nature of the good characters is precisely what this moral drama tries to emphasize. The moral interlude communicates 'good' moral doctrine, but its dramatic structure would seem to make it a theatre of subversion. Although the relationship between the Vice and the audience has been a mainstay of studies of medieval and Tudor drama for a generation, the subversive nature and methodology of the Vice have not been examined in any detail. I make such an examination the basis of my study by tracking this figure from his appearance as Backbiter in 'The Castle of Perseverance' and the N-Town plays, through some of his manifestations in the Vices of 'Mankind', Nichol Newfangle from Fulwell's 'Like Will to Like', and Ambidexter from Preston's 'Cambises', to his role as Mephastophilis in Marlowe's 'Doctor Faustus', and culminating with an investigation of Shakespeare's Falstaff in' I Henry IV' and Iago in ' Othello'. I attempt to recover those aspects of performance that support rhetorical subversion in tandem with an examination of the plays as sites of eloquence.
Modeling of confined concrete

Constitutive models for confined concrete were investigated using the nonlinear finite element program SPARCS, in which the influence of lateral pressure in tied reinforced concrete (RC) columns subjected to monotonic axial compression is formulated in terms of three-dimensional stress states. A combination of ascending and descending branches of axial stress-axial strain relationships for confined concrete proposed by various authors were evaluated. The influence of variable Poisson's ratio, compression softening of concrete, and concrete cover spalling in the response of RC columns were also analyzed. Data from columns tested by various researchers was used to establish the validity of the procedures implemented in SPARCS. In general, good agreement with the experimental results was obtained.
Mechanical and physical changes associated with aging of cellulose fiber reinforced cement composites

The effects of lab-scale accelerated aging on three commercially produced cellulose fiber reinforced cement composites on changes in physical, mechanical and surface morphological properties have been investigated. Two different aging methods were used. A single panel, naturally aged for 5 years in a roofing material, was also assessed for properties. In the first aging method 36 cycles of water immersion, carbonation, and heating exposure were employed. In the second method 21 cycles of water immersion, heating and freeze-thaw exposure were used. The carbonation method was most effective in causing property changes, especially in intrinsic permeability and surface morphology. The freeze-thaw cycling method failed to induce significant aging effects and property changes even after 21 cycles, A localized surface layer weakening was detected following laboratory carbonation and in naturally aged samples as measured by an internal bond test. Carbonation appears to be more effective in simulating natural aging conditions.
An investigation of a simplified flat surface geometry of the SailRail air bearing system

A novel compliant air bearing is being developed for materials handling and low speed guided transportation systems. In a typical application the load being transported is carried on a 1.2m square platform; this platform is supported on two compliant elements, or runners, which move along shallow concave guideways, or rags. Currently the runners are 1m, long cylinders having an 115mm x 48mm section; the rails have a 152mm. radius and are 127mm. wide. Air for bearing action is introduced from supply manifolds integral with the underside of the rail through 0.52mm diameter nozzles which are spaced at 152mm intervals along the rail axis. With loads as high as 1500 kg the system can achieve effective coefficients of sliding friction as low as 0.1 percent with only modest air consumption. Although it is an externally pressurized compliant surface air bearing it has been developed on a trial-and-error basis and, as such, has controversial features. One is the construction of the runners which are currently made by winding cellulose fibre tissue onto a wooden core and then by enclosing the combination in a cover made from a 1mm thick plastic sheet. The present work is aimed at understanding of the rationale for this construction. Development of a simplified flat surface experimental model is described; its purpose is twofold: to allow simple characterization of tissue and cover properties, and to allow comparisons with the predictions of a simplified mathematical model. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Knotting it together, cultural production across difference

This thesis draws its inspiration from my history as a feminist cultural worker who has been engaged in collaborative ventures in the arts. In that work and in this thesis, I raise questions about collaboration and difference as spheres of struggle. I want to trouble notions of, and desires for, harmony as the goal and outcome of collaboration across difference. I argue for a consideration of how cultural production across difference is negotiated through contradictory, uncertain, and disputatious social relations. Difference is investigated as a matter of gendered and racialized discursive practices which shape how relations are sustained and constrained and which organize advantages and disadvantages for differently positioned subjects. I foreground the salience of race for understanding how difference shapes the possibilities, contestations, and unassimilabilities of collaborative cultural production. I also propose that collaboration across difference may be understood through practices of friendship which may make the risks and tensions of negotiating difference possible and worthwhile while simultaneously underlining fragile and fractious boundaries and the potentiality for ruptured relations. This investigation is explored through a feminist poststructuralist analysis of in-depth individual and group interviews with three women of one collaboration focussing on film production and with two women of another collaboration focussing on theatre production. The participants in this study produce critical, publicly recognized cultural work concerned with issues of representation. In their interview narratives, the women examine the possibilities, pleasures, boundaries, and limits of their collaborative relations. With the recognition that my research becomes an instance of collaboration across difference, I work with the complications of the practice of doing research. I surface the entanglements of the social relations of the research process, including my relational investments in the research participants. I draw from feminist and educational methodological theorizations to examine and embed ethical issues of responsibility in qualitative research and to problematize the social and power relations which accompany the knowledge-making practices of the research. The writing is produced as an engagement with the ethical and political dilemmas of representational and analytical practices and with the implications of developing narrative strategies for composing a research text.
Multi-age groupings in early childhood education, the affordances and opportunities of a multi-age child care model

The present study was designed as an exploratory field investigation of children's interactions in one multi-age and one conventional age-segregated early childhood education program. Detailed observations of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, in their naturalistic settings yielded 275 documented interactions which were coded and analyzed. Categories derived from existing observation instruments and the literature were developed to provide a framework in which to address what affordances and opportunities a multi-age child rare model may offer children when infants, toddlers, and preschoolers are grouped together in a program, as compared to children in age-segregated groupings. The study provides support for previous research that indicates that there are benefits for both younger and older children in multi-age groupings. The thesis concludes with the suggestion that multi-age child care models should be viewed as an acceptable option of group child care for families and their children.
The roles of the community-based Japanese as a Second Language classroom, the creation of the co-learning space to make a change

With the rapidly increasing number of foreign residents in Japan, community-based Japanese as a Second Language (JSL) classrooms have come to play an important role in offering them a space of gathering and learning. Acquiring the Japanese language is not always the ultimate aim of the learners to be in classrooms. They also come to find a safe place where they can gain self-esteem and life skills. In order to empower both tutors and learners, co-learning relationships have to be created between them. This can be realised if learners are the opportunity to share their experiences and be active participants of their own learning process. Learning from lived experiences through their own voices will help participants of JSL classrooms learn from each other. If there is a power imbalance between tutors and learners, learners will be burdened by the pressures to assimilate into the mainstream society. Tutors and learners can instead create a co-learning space where they can encourage each other to challenge the status quo and make the necessary steps toward realising a better society for all.
Studies of the incretins, glucagon-like peptide-1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide, and their receptors

GLP-1 (Glucagon-like peptide-1) and GIP (Glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide) are intestinal hormones that potentiate glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from pancreatic $\beta$ cells. GLP-1, in particular, is at the forefront of diabetes research due to its antidiabetogenic actions in Type 2 diabetics. Previous studies demonstrated that GLP-1R$-$/$-$ mice exhibit mild diabetes despite upregulation of GIP secretion and insulinotropic action. GLP-1R$-$/$-$ mice were found to have diminished pancreatic insulin protein and mRNA levels, which may explain in part, the inability of GIP to fully compensate for the absence of GLP-1 activity in these mice. An evolutionary approach was used to study the functional determinants of GLP-1. The biological activities of three novel Xenopus laevis GLP-1-like peptides with $\sim$70% amino acid identity to human GLP-1 were found to be similar to that of human GLP-1. Furthermore residues at positions 12 and 23 of the Xenopus peptides, corresponding to positions 19 and 29 of mammalian GLP-1 were identified as critical to peptide activity. Study of GIP/GLP-1 receptor chimeras localized an activation domain of a GIP/GLP-1 receptor to three residues at the amino-terminus of the first transmembrane domain.
Synthesis and investigation of some cationic and neutral ruthenium dihydrogen and hydride complexes

The reversible binding of dihydrogen gas on [Ru([eta]2-H 2)H(dppe)2]+ [X]-, where X- = BPh4, B(Arf)4, BF4, PF6 was investigated using 31P and 13C solid state NMR spectroscopy. X-ray crystal structure analysis of the new species [RuH(dppe)2]+ [BPh4] -, [Ru([eta]2-H2)H(dppe)2] + [B(Arf)4]- and [RuCl(dppe) 2]+ [B(Arf)4]- was carried out. As well a comparison of the structure of [RuH(dppe)2]+ [BPh4]- with that of [Ru([eta]2-H2)H(dppe) 2]+ [BPh4]- showed that minor structural changes occur upon loss of the dihydrogen ligand. The activation of X-H bonds, where X = Si, C, S and O, by reaction with Ru(OTf)(CN)(dppe)2 which contains a highly labile triflate ligand was studied. Many new cationic Ru(II) complexes were prepared and characterized. The X-ray crystal structure of [Ru(C&equiv;CPh)(CN)(dppe)2] + [OTf]- was determined. Finally, the catalyst precursor RuHCl(PPh3)3 was used to carry out various substitution reactions aimed at determining if the method developed to prepare RuHCl(PPh3)(R-BINAP) could be applied as a general method for the preparation of other complexes containing other chiral and non chiral chelating phosphines. These five coordinate complexes could then be further tested for their ability to act as catalysts in the hydrogenation of ketones and imines.
Generation of oxidative stress by the respiratory chain following treatment with DNA damaging agents

Cancer-associated molecular abnormalities are known to affect the activity of cellular signaling networks. The potential to target activated survival signaling pathways and antioxidant-redox regulation to improve treatment response in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is addressed in this thesis. An activated signaling profile distinguished cancer cells from morphologically normal duct cells in the adjacent normal pancreas as well as non-cancer pancreas surgical resections. A capacity of the PKB/Akt survival pathway to modulate gemcitabine sensitivity was examined using 'in vitro' and ' in vivo' experimental models. Inhibition of PI3K, the principle activator of PKB, or the suppression of total PKB enhanced gemcitabine cytotoxicity. However, a subset of cell lines displayed an inversion of gemcitabine sensitivity ' in vivo' as compared to 'in vitro,' suggesting that additional factors such as antioxidant-redox potential and tumor microenvironment influenced treatment response 'in vivo.' An oxidative stress mediated apoptosis was examined as an alternative therapy using sulforaphane (SFN). The compound was tested on two cell lines that demonstrated resistance to gemcitabine as well as in combination with PI3K inhibition. A lower redox potential in PANC-1 cells was associated with a higher SFN-induced cytotoxicity and tumor growth inhibition. In this thesis, pancreatic cancer was sub-classified based on bio-functional characteristics including transcript and protein levels as well as chemotherapy response. These results give insight into the pathogenesis as well as potential treatment strategies for pancreatic cancer., The generation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) and expression of the antioxidants glutathione and thioredoxin were examined in OCI/AML-2 cells following treatment with the DNA damaging agents cytosine arabinoside, etoposide and ã-radiation. A flow cytometry method was developed for the assessment of mitochondrial ROI and membrane potential in digitonin permeabilized cells under various respiratory conditions. Advantages of this new method are: (1) mitochondrial ROI and respiratory chain activity can be assessed at the single cell level; (2) ROI generation by non-mitochondrial sources are excluded. Cells were permeabilized and assessed for respiratory chain activity 24 hr post-treatment to the cytotoxic agents. Treated cells that were still capable of generating a mitochondrial membrane potential with the respiratory substrates (malate/glutamate, succinate), were observed to have higher ROI generation than untreated, control cells. Associated with the oxidative stress is the increased expression of glutathione and thioredoxin. Thioredoxin regulates redox sensitive protein sulphydryls that are associated with potentiating cell survival. Therefore, mitochondrial ROI generation appears to be involved with the induction of protective mechanisms, in addition to mediating cytotoxicity.
The history of H-Judaic, an Internet-based network for post-secondary Jewish studies

This thesis is a history of 'H-Judaic: The Jewish Studies Network'. H-Judaic is an Internet-based professional organization primarily for those involved in post-secondary Jewish Studies, including professors and instructors, graduate students, librarians, researchers, rabbis involved with post-secondary institutions and independent scholars. As of April 2000, H-Judaic was the largest professional organization in Jewish Studies, either Internet-based or not, with a membership of over 2200 people. Among its services are: a daily discussion forum (the H-Judaic listserv); a regular weekly newsletter with information on positions; conference announcements; calls-for-papers and other professional issues; a book review service; and a website. Although the vast majority of the members are located in the United States, every continent is represented, with significant cohorts from Israel, Canada and Australia. The main body of this thesis is a documentary history of the organization during its first decade of development. That history is situated within the context of a review of the field of Jewish Studies, and a review of listserv-based communication technology in post-secondary education. Finally, the history is complemented by a review of the important discourse trends that occurred among member of the organization during that period.
Lateral current injection s-laser with ion-implanted lateral heterobarriers

The topological degree of freedom of the lateral current injection (LCI) laser was explored for the first time. Various LCI s-laser devices having a raised-cosine lateral variation of the ridge waveguide were designed and fabricated in the <math> <f> <rm>GaAs/Al<inf><mit>x</mit></inf>Ga<inf>1-<mit>x</mit></inf> As/In<inf>0.1</inf>Ga<inf>0.9</inf>As</rm></f> </math> material system. Lateral heterobarriers and contacts were defined simultaneously through ion-implantation. The LCI s-laser concept was successfully proven: a device with a 200 [mu]m transition length and 2 [mu]m waveguide ridge width lased at 831 nm with a threshold of 6.1 mA at 100 K. Based on the insight gained in this work, a new fabrication technique is suggested in order to improve device performance. The pursuit of novel functional devices-for example, an LCI y-laser--which build on the discoveries made in this work is proposed.
Analysis of factors contributing to colonization of epidemic Canadian multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain CMRSA-1

Epidemic CMRSA-1 was subjected to phenotypic analyses to determine the activity of the accessory gene regulator locus ('agr'), and a CMRSA-1 phage display library was screened with relevant ligands to identify novel adhesion proteins. A comparison of 'agr' transcription and virulence factor expression revealed that the balance of virulence factor expression in the major 1B and 1E subtypes of CMRSA-1 favored the colonization phase of infection. Delayed induction of 'agr' was an inherent property of CMRSA-1E that could not be restored by exogenous inducers. Although CMRSA-1 possessed a unique 'agr' polymorphism, it was not manifested at the phenotypic level as a difference in induction or repression of ' agr'. Screening of the CMRSA-1 phage display library with biotinylated Fn (b-Fn) and keratinocyte extracellular matrix (ECM) identified both previously characterized and novel binding motifs in the FnBPA and FnBPB adhesins. Further screening with keratinocyte surface proteins and ECM identified Keratinocyte Adherence Protein (KAP), Keratinoctye Adhesion Factor (KAF) and Cap8B as putative adhesion proteins. KAP was homologous to known adhesion proteins of ' Streptococcus pyogenes' and 'S. pneumoniae', and was shown to bind b-Fn. Therefore, phage display allowed the identification of binding domains of putative CMRSA-1 adhesion proteins that have not previously been described in 'S. aureus'.
Patriotic leagues and the evolution of popular patriotism and imperialism in Great Britain, 1914-1932

This thesis studies the organisation, personnel, activities and publications of four patriotic and imperialist leagues: the National Service League, the Primrose League, the Victoria League and the League of the Empire. This thesis analyses the efforts of all four organisations to adjust to changes in British society brought about by the First World War. These changes include a more prominent place for the labour movement, the political enfranchisement of women, the rise of the Labour Party as an alternative party of government and growing public distaste for militarism. The central argument of this thesis is that the patriotic and imperialist leagues which remained best able to adapt to wartime changes were best able to survive in the post-war period. The disintegration of the National Service League during the First World War, despite its efforts to evolve, is contrasted with the successful adjustment of the Primrose League, the Victoria League and the League of the Empire. The temper of surviving movements was crucial. The dominant strand of the most successful pre-war patriotic and imperialist movements was often militaristic, acquisitive and relatively hostile to the concerns of the labour movement. Although politically conscious patriotic groups such as the Primrose League remained hostile to the labour movement and Labour Party, this hostility was balanced by major efforts by the other leagues to achieve greater political inclusivity. Common to all surviving post-war leagues was a focus on less divisive concerns such as education, hospitality and social activities. In many ways, the language of the more successful post-war patriotic and imperialist leagues became domesticated. Metaphors of family, home and kinship became increasingly prominent. This evolution is most evident in presentations of post-war programs by the Victoria League and the League of the Empire such as teacher exchange and imperial hospitality but is even present in the Primrose League's anti-Labour rhetoric. A greater awareness of the importance of women as citizens and supporters of Empire is much more notable in the post-war period than in the masculinised world of pre-war patriotic and imperialist organisations. In sum, this thesis establishes the continuity of patriotic and imperialist organisations which adapted themselves to the changes wrought by the First World War. It illustrates the important role British women played in ensuring the success of organised patriotic and imperial organisations in post-war Britain. Furthermore, it argues that such organisations, though reduced from their Edwardian heyday, maintained a vital presence in wartime and post-war British society. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)