VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis and Adverse Events: A Canadian Perspective

BACKGROUND: Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) surgery is the most common reason for elective pediatric orthopaedic surgery. Minimization of adverse events is an important goal. Institute of Medicine (IOM) outlined 6 facets of healthcare quality improvement within the acronym STEEEP. Two of these facets, Safety and Timeliness for AIS surgery in Canada, are examined in this thesis. METHODS: A three - part study, using clinical records at the largest Canadian pediatric hospital and CIHI national administrative data, determined i) the relationship between surgical wait times and rates of adverse events, along with determination of an empirically derived access target, ii) accuracy of ICD-10 coding of surgical AIS cases along with an optimal search strategy to identify surgical AIS cases, and iii) the volume – outcome relationships for scoliosis surgery using hierarchical and conventional single level multi-variate regression analysis. RESULTS: Access target of 3 months minimized the adverse events related to waiting. Optimal search strategy for AIS surgical cases using ICD-10 coding required combination of codes as each code in isolation was inaccurate due to limitations in coding definitions. There was no significant volume – outcome relationship using appropriate modeling strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Ensuring timeliness of surgical treatment of less than 3 months is important in surgical cases of AIS given the potential for curve progression in higher risk individuals who are skeletally immature with large magnitude curves at time of surgical consent. At the administrative database level, knowledge of coding accuracy and optimal search strategies are needed to capture a complete cohort for analysis. In AIS, several ICD-10 codes need to be combined. AIS surgery cases captured through this optimal search strategy, revealed no significant volume-outcome relationships with appropriate modeling. Based on these results, minimum volume thresholds and regionalization of care for AIS surgery does not appear to be justified. However, a larger sample size was needed to determine whether there was a clinically significant difference in wound infection and blood transfusion rates. Furthermore, clinical variables, not part of an administrative database such as curve pattern were not included.

Keywords: adolescent idiopathic scoliosis
adverse event
wait time
icd-10
hierarchical modeling
MAWT
Advisor: Wright, James G.
Communal Relations in İzmir/Smyrna, 1826-1864: As Seen Through The Prism of Greek-Turkish Relations

This dissertation examines the level of social and cultural interaction between the Greek and Turkish communities of İzmir and the impact of the centralizing Ottoman reforms on the society of İzmir during the age of the Ottoman modernization. It focuses on the years between 1826 and 1864 that marked a turning point in the administrative history of the Ottoman Empire. Analyzing this subject requires understanding the social-cultural and economic dynamics of İzmir that played a crucial role in the formation of the social fabric of the city. Ottoman-Turkish archival material and to some extent Greek newspapers of the time are used as primary sources. The sources discussed in this dissertation demonstrate that the central authority attempted to re-integrate İzmir into its administrative and political structure in accordance with the centralizing or repressive Tanzimat reforms. However, Tanzimat reforms did not disturb the social cohesion of İzmir, which the city produced over the centuries with its local character and some peculiar dynamics. The evidence also indicates that the Empire did not aim to mold social relations in İzmir, instead benefited from city’s already existing social-cultural and economic situation, which was well suited to its modernization program. This study attempts to write a social and cultural history of İzmir, by considering the ethno-religious policies of the Ottoman state in the given period and questioning Ottoman modernity through the prism of the Greek-Turkish communal relations. Much of the conventional Turkish and Greek historiography of the post WWI years has analyzed 19th century İzmir's history in terms of two “conflicting nations.” While Turkish historiography has focused on the ethnic homogeneity of Turks and its history, modern Greek historiography has stressed the suppression of the Ottoman Greeks under the Ottoman rule. Such approaches have engendered the commonly used categories of Greek versus Turkish or Muslim versus non-Muslim. Approaching İzmir as an organic whole, instead of dividing the city according to ethno-religious criterion, this dissertation tries to uncover the dynamics of coexistence and communal relations, which marked the life of the city for centuries, but was brought to an abrupt end as a result of the modern nation state formations.

Keywords: İzmir
Smyrna
Advisor: Aksan, Virginia
A Local Twisted Trace Formula and Twisted Orthogonality Relations

Around 1990, Arthur proved a local (ordinary) trace formula for real or p-adic connected reductive groups. The local trace formula is a powerful tool in the local harmonic analysis of reductive groups. One of the aims of this thesis is to establish a local twisted trace formula for certain non-connected reductive groups, which is a twisted version of Arthur’s local trace formula. As an application of the local twisted trace formula, we will prove some twisted orthogonality relations, which are generalizations of Arthur’s results about orthogonality relations for tempered elliptic characters. To establish these relations, we will also give a classification of twisted elliptic representations.

Keywords: Trace Formula
Orthogonality Relations
Twisted Reductive Groups
Elliptic Representations
Advisor: Arthur, James
Standing Ring Blowup Solutions for the Cubic Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation

The cubic focusing nonlinear Schrodinger equation is a canonical model equation that arises in physics and engineering, particularly in nonlinear optics and plasma physics. Cubic NLS is an accessible venue to refine techniques for more general nonlinear partial differential equations. In this thesis, it is shown there exist solutions to the focusing cubic nonlinear Schrodinger equation in three dimensions that blowup on a circle, in the sense of L2-norm concentration on a ring, bounded H1-norm outside any surrounding toroid, and growth of the global H1-norm with the log-log rate. Analogous behaviour occurs in higher dimensions. That is, there exists data for which the corresponding evolution by the cubic nonlinear Schrodinger equation explodes on a set of co-dimension two. To simplify the exposition, the proof is presented in dimension three, with remarks to indicate the adaptations in higher dimension.

Keywords: Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation
Blowup and Singularity Formation
Advisor: Colliander, James
Géo/Graphies: La Poétique de l’Espace (Post)Colonial dans le Roman Sénégalais et Mauricien au Féminin

Notre thèse a pour objet les écritures poétiques émanant et traitant de l’espace postcolonial (les géo/graphies). Elle vise à analyser la dynamique reliant le logos et le topos, à savoir le texte littéraire et les lieux dont et d’où il parle. Nos recherches doctorales convoquent l’espace comme vecteur herméneutique donnant accès au texte et s’interroge, ce faisant, sur sa fonction signifiante, ses qualités en tant que catégorie d’écriture et de lecture. Notre dessein est de démontrer que l’espace n’est pas seulement le site anodin sur lequel s’inscrit l’intrigue mais qu’il s’impose comme enjeu diégétique et substance génératrice du récit même. À partir d’un corpus de quatre romans - Soupir d’Ananda Devi, Le Silence des Chagos de Shenaz Patel, Douceurs du bercail d’Aminata Sow Fall et Riwan ou le chemin de sable de Ken Bugul -, nous démontrerons, dans un premier temps, que les représentations spatiales dans le texte littéraire rendent « lisibles » l’organisation de la société référentielle et les relations de pouvoir existantes. Dans un deuxième temps, nous étudierons la façon dont les géo/graphies abordées retravaillent les espaces dits réels à travers l’imaginaire et le verbe. Dans un troisième temps, seront divulguées les relations entre l’espace et le texte se manifestant autant dans le langage et la structure du roman que par sa narration et son genre. Enfin, pour comparer et formaliser nos résultats, nous nous proposons d’identifier les chronotopes desquels procèdent les univers fictifs de notre corpus. Ces noyaux organisateurs mettront en lumière le pouvoir démiurgique des textes littéraires à l’étude. Ces derniers érodent les modèles spatiaux et sociaux référentiels tout en faisant émerger des espaces autres. Dans cette perspective, les romans du corpus produisent non seulement de nouvelles « géographies imaginaires » qui se veulent des métadiscours critiques sur la société mais participent également à une refiguration (discursive) du monde.

Keywords: Francopone Literature, géocritique, space, gender, postcolonialism
Advisor: Tcheuyap, Alexie
Role of GluR2-N-Cadherin Interaction in the Regulation of Hippocampal Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor-dependent Long-term Depression

Excitatory synaptic transmission and plasticity mediated by glutamate receptors are important for many brain functions, including learning and memory. Various molecular and cellular models have been established to study multiple forms of synaptic plasticity that coexist in the hippocampal CA1 region. Metabotropic glutamate receptor-dependent long-term depression (mGluR-dependent LTD) is a form of long lasting synaptic plasticity thought to play critical roles in diverse physiological and pathological processes. The GluR2 subunit of AMPA receptors has been a focus of neuroscience research over the last decade due to its important roles in endocytic trafficking and Ca2+ permeation in many forms of activity-dependent synaptic plasticity and homeostatic plasticity. However, the underlying mechanisms of mGluR-dependent LTD and the possible involvement of GluR2 in this form of plasticity remain unknown. In this project, I utilized GluR2 knockout (KO) mice and tested the requirement of GluR2 in multiple forms of hippocampal synaptic plasticity at different developmental stages. The results showed that although GluR2 is dispensable for long lasting synaptic plasticity in juvenile mice, it is essential for the expression of mGluR-dependent LTD in adult animals. Next, I examined the involvement of a number of GluR2-specific functions in mGluR-dependent LTD and found that GluR2 N-terminal interaction with the cell adhesion molecule N-cadherin is a key process required for GluR2 to regulate the expression of mGluR-dependent LTD. Furthermore, using a combination of approaches including electrophysiology, biochemical assays, and virus-mediated expression of several mutant GluR2 constructs, I identified a signaling cascade involving N-cadherin/β-catenin complex, Rac1 Rho GTPase, LIM-kinase 1 and cofilin, through which GluR2 exerts its effect on actin regulation and mGluR-dependent LTD. Importantly, the impaired LTD in GluR2 KO mice can be fully rescued by manipulating GluR2-N-cadherin N-terminus interaction or cofilin-mediated actin reorganization. Lastly, I showed that this signaling cascade also plays a critical role in the regulation of dendritic spine plasticity during mGluR-dependent LTD. Together, these results reveal a novel signaling process by which GluR2 regulates long lasting synaptic plasticity and provide insights into how functional and structural plasticity are coordinated in the mammalian central nervous system.

Keywords: Synaptic plasticity
GluR2
Advisor: Jia, Zhengping
Essays on the Economics of Public Health

This dissertation considers the economics of public health in the context of respiratory disease, a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. The pervasive nature of respiratory illness represents a significant reduction to health and longevity, but private actions to prevent illness may not consider the full-scale benefit of societal health improvement. In this thesis, I consider two determinants of respiratory illness: (1) the spread of influenza disease and (2) air pollution. In both cases, public policy aims to attenuate the effects of these factors by incentivizing or mandating preventative action. Because such interventions come at a cost, it is important to consider the magnitude of benefits associated with these actions. I consider each determinant in turn. First, I provide causal evidence on the health and economic consequences of an ongoing broad-scope vaccination program. The Ontario Influenza Immunization Campaign expanded the scope of vaccine coverage leading to a 20-percent increase in vaccination. Using the timing of this campaign and exogenous variation in vaccine quality, I link higher vaccination rates to decreases in lost-work-time, hospitalization, and death. Results indicate that, when vaccine quality is high, the program leads to higher gains for Ontario relative to other provinces and in short, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Second, I provide evidence of the impact of air pollution on respiratory health. Recent changes in standards for air pollution are highly contentious and represent stringent constraints on economic activity. Evidence from this dissertation directly informs this debate. By linking daily pollution to hospital admissions for municipalities across Ontario, I study the impact of air pollution at levels below those historically considered. Results indicate that particulate matter has a significant effect on respiratory health of children but that ozone and carbon monoxide have little effect on respiratory hospitalizations for all age groups.

Keywords: influenza
immunization
air quality
respiratory health
Advisor: Benjamin, Dwayne
Stabile, Mark
Imaging and Genetics Investigations in Schizophrenia and Aging: A Focus on White Matter

Schizophrenia has long been considered a disorder of impaired brain connectivity, and such disconnectivity might be due to disruption of white matter tracts that connect brain regions. This thesis investigates the oligodendrocyte/myelin/white matter pathway in schizophrenia in vivo, and also considers aging effects, as similar substrates are affected during the healthy aging process. In study one, association of oligodendrocyte/myelin genes is examined with schizophrenia, and in study two association of a myelin gene is examined with basic MRI volumetric phenotypes. Then, in study three, diffusion tensor tractography, a technique that can visualize and measure white matter is applied, and is shown to be reliable in healthy controls and schizophrenia patients using a novel clustering segmentation method. In study four, this method is then used to examine interaction of schizophrenia and aging with respect to white matter, where fronto-temporal disconnectivity is demonstrated in younger chronic schizophrenia patients, but not in elderly community dwelling schizophrenia patients compared to age-matched controls. In study five, relationships among age, white matter tract integrity, and cognitive decline in healthy aging are demonstrated using diffusion tensor tractography and structural equation modeling. Genetics and neuroimaging are then combined using the intermediate phenotype approach in study six to demonstrate a key role for the BDNF gene across adult life in healthy aging. In these individuals, the BDNF val66met variant influenced neural structures and cognitive functions in a pathological aging risk pattern. Finally, in study seven, complex relationships are then demonstrated among oligodendrocyte gene variants, white matter tract integrity and cognitive performance in both healthy controls and schizophrenia patients. The combination of genetics and neuroimaging can parse out heterogeneity of disease phenotypes, and characterize the effects of gene variants on at-risk neural structures and cognitive functions in healthy and disease populations.

Keywords: imaging
genetics
schizophrenia
aging
Advisor: Kennedy, James
Death in American Letters

This dissertation examines American attitudes towards death from the colonial era to the end of the nineteenth century. I begin with a close analysis of the thanatology of the Congregational church in New England, before demonstrating the lasting influence of Puritan thought on three later writers: Jonathan Edwards, Henry David Thoreau and Stephen Crane. In contrast to purely cultural studies of mortality in America (including those by Phillipe Ariès, David Stannard and Michael Steiner), my investigation discusses the philosophical difficulties that obstruct any attempt to speak about death. Building on Jacques Derrida’s work in Aporias (1993), I identify three logical impasses that interrupt Puritan writing on mortality: the indeterminacy, singularity and finality of death. While Edwards, Thoreau and Crane write in different circumstances and diverse genres, I argue that they are sensitive to these same three aporias when they discuss death. In this regard, they resist a broader post-Puritan tendency (in both scientific and sentimental texts) to minimize the uncertainties surrounding human mortality and approach death as a universal (rather than radically singular) phenomenon. While my study situates each of its authors in the cultural and intellectual contexts in which they worked, it also challenges the notion that it is possible to write a history of death. Speaking strictly, mankind’s relationship to death can never change. It is always, in fact, a non-relation. The very idea of death destabilizes our most fundamental historical and literary assumptions. Accordingly, my second chapter uses a deconstruction of Edwards’ theory of revivalism to argue that the New-England awakenings of the eighteenth century expressed the converts’ desire to renounce responsibility for their souls, rather than accept it. In my third chapter, I argue that those writings in which Thoreau registers what might seem to be a nihilistic fascination with dead and decaying bodies in fact express a sentimental desire for a peaceful death. Chapter four reads Stephen Crane’s poetry, fiction and journalism in the context of his Calvinist heritage, breaking down the distinction between his textual play with the concept of death and the Puritans’ “serious” attempts to come to terms with mortality.

Keywords: Death
Puritans
Thoreau, Henry David
Edwards, Jonathan
Mather, Cotton
Norton, John
Cotton, John
Crane, Stephen
Derrida, Jacques
Brown, John
Religion
Thanatology
Advisor: Downes, Paul
Seeing Like a Racial State: the Census and the Politics of Race in the United States, Great Britain and Canada

This thesis compares the political development of racial categories employed by the United States, Canada and Great Britain on their national censuses, particularly focusing on the enumeration of mixed-race individuals in the late 20th century. Though literature on race and the U.S. census often stresses the causal influence of social mobilization, this analysis reveals that the common explanations for the development of racial classifications such as interest group mobilization, demography and civil rights legislation are not viable in comparative context. To explore and explain how the racial state sees, this thesis conceptualizes race as a system of power relations and develops a framework of the schematic state, which operates concurrently as both an actor responsible for putting the underlying organizational pattern of race into place, solidifying a particular set of racial meanings, and implementing a scheme for the racial configuration of society, and an arena in which policy alternatives are contested and where the state itself participates among other actors. This characterization demonstrates that the schematizing impetus of the census is not an exemplar of a dichotomous relationship between an all-powerful state and powerless racial subjects; instead, the power and meaning of race exist well beyond the control of the fragmented and sometimes contradictory schematic state, from the transnational realm to the level of the group or individual. Contrary to the majority of the literature on race, this thesis demonstrates that state institutions do not act for purely domestic reasons; rather, institutions mediate between national nuances and transnational ideas about race that exist in excess of national boundaries. Thus, while the decision to count mixed-race can be explained by a crystallization of transnational ideational trends that are mediated by national politics, the domestic arena of policy making – or the policy network itself – emerges as a key factor that determines the method of multiracial enumeration. However, these domestic political and policy outcomes are not contained by borders. Once a policy is in place, it has the potential to reinforce domestic policy and contribute to the global discourse of race itself – and in its travels among these levels of abstraction, race transforms.

Keywords: census
race
mixed-race
racial categories
Advisor: Nedelsky, Jennifer
Moral Performance, Shared Humanness, and the Interrelatedness of Self and Other: A Study of Hannah Arendt's Post-Eichmann Work

This thesis is a critical discussion of political thinker Hannah Arendt’s moral thought, as developed in her works from EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM onwards. Arendt, I argue, sought to respond to the moral challenge she saw posed by the phenomenon of banal evildoing, as revealed in Nazi Germany. Banal evildoers are agents who, under circumstances in which their ordinary moral triggers and guides (conscience, moral habits and norms, the behavior of their peers, etc.) are subverted, commit evil despite having no evil intent. Such subversion of ordinary moral voices would appear to absolve these agents from moral responsibility for their acts, which led most commentators to reject claims to such subversion by Nazi collaborators. Arendt, who sees the phenomenon of banal evildoing as factually substantiated, set out to show that such agents possessed other mental capacities (namely, critical and speculative thinking, reflective judging, and free willing), more appropriate for moral decision-making, on which they could have relied even under Nazi conditions. It is for their disregard of such capacities that banal evildoers can be held morally responsible. In this thesis I critically engage with this Arendtian argument. I show how the Nazi subversion of German agents’ ordinary moral voices was achieved. I then exegetically explicate Arendt’s (unfinished) analysis of the above mental capacities and of their moral role. I then argue for the addition of the capacities of empathetic perception and practical wisdom to this understanding of moral performance. In the course of this analysis I show that in responding to this challenge, Arendt develops a powerful argument regarding the moral dangers of overreliance on mental shortcuts in decision-making, a strong argument regarding the interconnectedness between morality and humanness, and implicitly, a novel conception of selfhood that sees otherness as interrelated and interconnected with selfhood, such that concern for others is part of what constitutes, and therefore is inscribed into, care for the self. I end by critically assessing the applicability of Arendt’s moral analysis to more ordinary decisional circumstances than those of Nazi Germany, and the insight this analysis points to regarding the relationship between moral and political decision-making.

Keywords: Arendt
Moral Theory
Political Theory
Moral Performance
Moral Decisions
Nazi Collaborators
Eichmann
Moral Judgment
Moral Reflection
Moral Action
Free Will
Autonomy
Ricoeur
Bauman
Selfhood
Otherness
Empathy
Practical Wisdom
Humanness
Shared Responsibility
Moral Responsibility
Morality and Politics
Vetlesen
Advisor: Beiner, Ronald