VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Multilingualism in Japan's Language Policy: A Critical Sociological Analysis

In this dissertation, I investigate how English, Japanese, and other languages are positioned in Japan’s language policy and consider what implications the linguistic constellation has for multilingualism. As is the case in many other countries, globalization has urged Japan to implicate itself in global-scale interconnectedness. In a rather paradoxical way, however, globalization’s apparently unifying force has strengthened nationalism as a political scenario through which Japan tries to maintain its distinctiveness against such a global force. Furthermore, transnational flows of people, money, and goods have increased diversity inside and outside Japan. English, Japanese, and other languages are considered in Japan as a primary means to deal with these socio-political phenomena. While this might look like an expression of interest in linguistic diversity, it would be premature to conclude that Japan’s language policy is oriented towards ‘multilingualism’. Language policy can be viewed as (re-)organization of space through social practices performed at spatially different scales. More precisely, the nature of a language policy depends on what indexical meaning people assign to each language through their mediated action at both state and local levels. A ‘multilingual’ policy is a consequence of negotiation between the two levels in search for equal indexicalities of all languages. This means that the extent to which Japan’s language policy is recognized as promoting multilingualism depends on how indexicalities of English, Japanese, and other languages are ordered at the state and local levels. In this dissertation, therefore, I propose a sociology of Japan’s language policy with foci on (a) how English, Japanese, and other languages are represented at the state level, (b) how people recognize such state-painted representation at the local level, (c) if there are traces of state ideologies in the ways people on the ground look at those languages, and (d) if it is possible that people make changes to the representation by the state to serve their own purpose and send their own views back to the state to alter language policies. Through inquiry into these issues, finally I consider what is necessary for people to discuss how society should be shaped through language policy.

Keywords: Diversity
Globalization
Japan
Language Policy
Nationalism
Sociology
Advisor: Labrie, Normand
Beginning with Heidegger: Strauss, Rorty, Derrida, Dugin and the Philosophical Constitution of the Political

This dissertation examines how Leo Strauss, Richard Rorty, Jacques Derrida, and Alexander Dugin responded to Martin Heidegger’s inceptual thought when defining and relating philosophy and the political. The Introduction discusses the general concepts, motivations, and aims of the study. Chapter One provides a précis of Heidegger’s philosophy from The History of the Concept of Time to his middle-period writings. Chapter Two compares Strauss and Heidegger on the Idea of the Good in Plato. Chapter Three argues that Rorty is prevented from a philosophically serious reading of Heidegger by his a priori social-democratic commitments. Chapter Four distinguishes the spaces of Derridean and Heideggerian political philosophy. Chapter Five is an account of Dugin’s embrace and extension of Heidegger’s inceptual thought. The Conclusion analyses obstacles blocking access to Heidegger in political theory and argues for a new way forward.

Keywords: Derrida
Dugin
Heidegger
Political theory
Rorty
Strauss
Advisor: Marshall, Ruth
Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Study Neurometabolic and Neuroanatomical Alterations in Patients with Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental illness that places a large burden on patients, their families, and society-at-large. The glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia puts forth a compelling mechanism to characterize features of the illness. To this end, we explored the neurometabolic and neuroanatomical profiles of patients with schizophrenia using magnetic resonance imaging, with a particular focus on the glutamatergic system. First, we explored associative striatum neurometabolite levels using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) within a sample composed of antipsychotic-naïve patients experiencing their first-episode of psychosis (FEP) and age- and sex-matched healthy controls. The FEP group had elevated myo-inositol, choline, and glutamate levels compared to the healthy control group. Second, again within a sample of antipsychotic-naïve patients with FEP and age- and sex-matched healthy controls, we investigated whether elevated levels of glutamatergic neurometabolites within the precommissural dorsal caudate (PDC), as assessed by 1H-MRS, were related to measures of brain structure. In addition to widespread cortical thinning and suggestions of possible precommissural caudate volume (PCV) deficits within the patient group, a negative association between PDC glutamate+glutamine levels and PCV was found in the FEP group. Third, striatal neurometabolite levels were examined using 1H-MRS within a sample of patients with schizophrenia who had undergone long-term antipsychotic treatment and healthy controls. No group differences in neurometabolite levels were identified. Multiple study visits permitted a 1H-MRS reliability assessment. Taken together, the results from this body of work suggest elevated levels of striatal glutamatergic neurometabolites within the early, antipsychotic-naïve stages of schizophrenia, which are contrastingly shown to be comparable to those of healthy controls in the later, medicated stages of illness. Findings also provide evidence for glial activation that may resultantly disrupt glutamatergic tone, as well as a striatal excitotoxic mechanism that may account for some of the vast structural compromise that exists in patients with schizophrenia.

Keywords: Glutamate
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Psychosis
Schizophrenia
Striatum
Advisor: Graff-Guerrero, Ariel
Developmental and Expression Evolution in C3 and C4 Atriplex and their Hybrids

Maintaining global food security amidst climate change requires improved photosynthetic efficiency in C3 crops. Above 30°C, photosynthesis and yield are reduced 30-50% by photorespiration. The C4 photosynthetic pathway incorporates biochemical and structural features to minimize photorespiration by concentrating CO2 around Rubisco. Engineering C4 into C3 crops requires an understanding of the molecular and genetic control of C4 photosynthesis. I combined transcriptomic and developmental analyses to investigate the molecular control of leaf development in C3 Atriplex prostrata compared to A. rosea, a C4 species with Kranz anatomy. Plants with Kranz-type C4 photosynthesis have two photosynthetic cell types, mesophyll and bundle sheath. Mesophyll cells contain phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, the primary carbon fixation enzyme, whereas bundle sheath contains Rubisco and houses photosynthetic carbon reduction. I used C3 x C4 Atriplex F1 hybrids and allele-specific expression analysis to investigate the role of cis- and trans-regulatory effects on gene expression divergence. The majority (~80%) of expression divergence between C3 and C4 species arose from cis-only regulatory divergence, suggesting that numerous independent expression changes across the genome drove C4 photosynthesis evolution. For genes in the C4 pathway, expression divergence arose from cis-acting changes to individual genes, with little contribution from trans-changes. Genes of interest including regulators of plasmodesmata and chloroplast function did not have distinct patterns of regulatory divergence. Inheritance pattern analysis showed that misexpression was common in F1 hybrids and was supported by phenotypic evidence. I next performed comparative studies of C3 and C4 leaf development. I detected significant species*time interaction effects for a large proportion of genes, implying that evolutionary shifts in expression timing were widespread between these species. Cis-regulation was also implicated in many of these evolutionary shifts in expression timing. C4 Atriplex showed accelerated vascular tissue initiation and formation, supported by earlier expression decline of vascular tissue development and core cell cycle genes. Plasmodesmata-associated genes were differentially expressed between during secondary plasmodesmata formation. Mature leaves of F2 hybrids exhibited variation in biochemistry, leaf tissue patterning, and bundle sheath ultrastructure and would be suitable for future large-scale transcriptomic studies. Combined, these studies facilitated identification of the underlying genetics of C4 evolution and development.

Keywords: Atriplex
C4
evolution
gene expression
interspecific hybridization
photosynthesis
Advisor: Wright, Stephen I.
Stinchcombe, John
From adsorption to condensation: The Zeta adsorption isotherm approach

The Zeta Adsorption Isotherm is based on the hypothesis that molecules adsorb on a solid surface as a collection of molecular clusters. The theory is extended to the steady, thermal disequilibrium states where a vapour at a temperature T^V is exposed to a solid surface at a lower temperature, T^S, and the adsorption of the vapour on a homogenous solid surface is examined analytically and experimentally. The uv-visible interferometer technique is used to measure the amount of vapour adsorbed under these steady, thermal disequilibrium states and the results give a strong support to the predicted amount adsorbed. The Zeta Adsorption Isotherm which is based on the assumption of the existence of molecular clusters is applied to predict the subcooling required for the adsorbate to make a disorder-order phase transition. The theory was used along with the Gibbsian thermodynamics to develop a method for predicting the wetting condition on a vertically oriented silicon surface exposed to the heptane vapour in a gravitational field. The measurements indicate the larger amount of vapour is adsorbed at the lower potential energies. The wetting condition is taken to be reached when the adsorbed vapour is transformed into a liquid film. Further, the surface tension of solid-vapour interface and the solid-liquid interface are calculated, and the condition for drainage of the liquid from the Si surface is predicted. It is shown that when the surface tension of the solid-liquid interface is reduced to zero, gravity would cause the larger molecular clusters to drain down the surface. The experimental observations support this prediction. Finally, the proposed method is applied to toluene and octane and heptane vapours adsorbing on Si. Dropwise condensation is observed experimentally for toluene vapour while filmwise condensation is observed for the other two vapours. From the distribution of the clusters in the adsorbate, the conditions for the initiation of the liquid phase are predicted and the surface tensions are determined for these three systems of vapours. The results are compared, and the mechanism which determines the condensation mode of the vapour condensing on the Si surface is investigated.

Keywords: Adsorption
Dropwise condensation
Filmwise condensation
Gibbsian thermodynamics
Zeta adsorption isotherm
Advisor: Ward, Charles A.
Mastering the Body: From Experience to Discourse. Shamanic Healing in Urban Canada

This research is an ethnographic study of Jeannette McCullough’s shamanic circles in Toronto, Canada. This thesis situates her practice within the field of shamanic studies and investigates four aspects of the therapeutic process: the experience and intentions of the healer; the ritual action and therapeutic imageries of practitioners; the personal trajectories and therapeutic choices of participants; and the broader social concerns and politics that this form of healing reveals. The examination of the ritual’s efficacy exposes the ways in which technology addresses identity issues and challenges techniques of the body. More specifically, animal and ancestor embodiment, dismemberment, and transmutation are shamanic techniques that initiate participants to a range of perceptions that take place within a flexible ritual structure, and shelters the person from external sources of meaning. These experiences allow individuals to take distance from affliction by inducing healing as an autogenous process of transformation. Moreover, self-reflexive testimonies reveal how Toronto participants construct spirituality as a mode of resistance to a more conventional lifestyle, situated halfway between religion and atheism. These observations show participants’ desire to maintain positive social engagements while remaining in the fringe of society. In this sense, healing is a process that addresses tensions between private and public dimensions of daily life. In other words, during the ritual, participants learn to experience their bodies differently and to cultivate alternative identities, something that manifests outside of the ritual context where individuals perceive themselves as socially marginal. The analysis of the ritual’s efficacy and of participants’ testimonies suggest that Jeannette McCullough’s shamanic techniques efficaciously collapses the opposition between right and wrong bodies, revealing its power as a counter-discourse to heteronormativity — not by addressing gender issues per se — but by initiating the person to a mastery of the body: by broadening notions of kinship, and by teaching ways to resist the public, collective, and social aspects of the ritual. Finally, understanding urban Canadian shamanism as a counter-discourse to heteronormativity allows one to elaborate future research questions, concerning the various ways in which healing practices relate to forms of resistance to broader social issues produced by institutionalized sources of ideological control.

Keywords: Anthropology
Healing
Religion
Ritual
Shamanism
Spirituality
Advisor: O'Neill, Kevin
Bibeau, Gilles
Towards an Enriched Understanding of People Who Experience Problem Video Gaming

Introduction: Video game addiction, also known as problem video gaming, is making headlines across the globe. Yet, our understanding of this relatively new phenomenon is limited. The purpose of this thesis is to develop an enriched understanding of people who experience problem video gaming. Methods: Two studies and a synthesis paper were completed. 1) A quantitative secondary analysis of survey data to determine the prevalence and correlates to problem video gaming. 2) A qualitative study using interviews and activity logs to understand the lives of people who experience problem video gaming from their own perspectives. 3) A synthesis of the two studies to facilitate a new discourse that broadens our understanding of problem video gaming. Results: Descriptive statistics found that 11.6% of youth experience problem video gaming. Logistic regressions revealed that the strongest predictors of problem video gaming were: being male, scoring lower in mental health status, playing more hours per day, being a problem gambler, receiving less parental monitoring, scoring lower in school subjective social status, not living in the East region of Ontario, and not working outside of the home. People who experienced problem video gaming described playing video games as a meaningful and purposeful activity. A model that explains the push and pull influences on the amount of gaming is described. The synthesis of these results demonstrated that problem gaming behaviours are influenced by issues arising not only in the individual, but also in the interpersonal and environmental circumstances. Significance of Findings: This thesis fosters new insights into the complexity of problem video gaming by explicating the interactions between the individuals who experience this, their interpersonal influences, and their environments. Consequently, the findings point to the importance of interpersonal and/or environmental issues which may have resulted in a misrepresentation of some gamers as being “addicted”.

Keywords: addictive behavior
computer games
game addiction
gaming disorder
social ecology
video games
Advisor: Kirsh, Bonnie
Interwoven Texts: The Cartularies of Angoumois

Studies of medieval Angoumois have relied extensively on the local ecclesiastical cartularies produced in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Ignoring when the cartularies were compiled and their original function, scholars have largely taken their content at face value. This has led to numerous errors of fact and interpretation. This dissertation rectifies the gap in scholarship by analyzing the ecclesiastical cartularies of Angoumois as integral works, as well as particular documents within them. Their production is placed into context within a history of the ecclesiastical institutions of the diocese of Angoulême and its environs. Recent research on cartularies in other regions has demonstrated that they were not just created for preservation and organization, but this thesis provides new insight into their purpose. Four cartularies form the core of this study. The cartulary of the cathedral church of Angoulême was started soon after the bishop of Angoulême died in exile during the papal schism of the 1130s; charters signed as originals were later added, demonstrating its use as a symbol of stabilization. The monastery of Saint-Cybard’s cartulary, created after it regained its independence from Saint-Jean-d’Angély in 1161, was a memorial object that was manipulated to fit the monks’ conception of their history. The cartulary of the abbey of Saint-Amant-de-Boixe, produced just after the institution was placed under Saint-Géraud d’Aurillac in 1197, shows the vehemence with which the monks had fought against subservience and served as a reminder of their past independence. Bishop Robert’s cartulary may have been started in 1259 to help him address a conflict with the count of Angoulême and was then used as a personal and practical book. Crises, therefore, often provided the impetus for the creation of Angoumois’ cartularies. After their initial compilation, they continued to be useful by acting as symbolic objects and practical tools that could vary greatly depending on the community that produced them. Because the content of a cartulary was malleable, it is essential to understand both the events that caused them to be written and their purpose in order to use the documents within them to study the region’s history.

Keywords: Angoumois
cartulary
Charente
medieval church
medieval France
memory
Advisor: Cochelin, Isabelle
Goering, Joseph
Simulating one-dimensional physics with stationary dark polaritons

In recent years, the development of various platforms for quantum simulation made it possible to study many-body systems under controlled conditions. Of particular interest are one-dimensional systems, known to exhibit some unique properties compared to their higher-dimensional counterparts. One of the current promising platforms for simulations of one-dimensional systems are Rydberg dark polaritons, quasiparticles of a photon-matter hybrid character emerging in the context of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) coupled with Rydberg atoms. These polaritons are long-lived (owing to the properties of EIT) and inherit interaction properties from the huge polarizability of Rydberg atoms, both attractive features in the context of simulations. We herein construct an experimental proposal for realizing one-dimensional physics through Rydberg dark polaritons. By using a stationary-light scheme, a sequence of steps allows a laser pulse incident on a transversally trapped gas of Rydberg atoms to yield a stationary pulse of weakly interacting polaritons. Within the stationarity regime, the lasers are further tuned to adjust the interaction effective one-dimensional scattering length through a Feshbach-like resonance to create a Tonks-Girardeau-type gas of polaritons. Signatures of non-trivial correlations can then experimentally probed by retrieving the photons through a subsequent adjustment of the laser strengths. Realizing this proposal would be a landmark achievement in the fields of many-body simulations and Rydberg physics.

Keywords: polaritons
quantum optics
quantum simulations
Advisor: James, Daniel F. V.
Neural mechanisms of goal-directed decision strategies under shifting contexts

Adaptive behaviour in the world necessitates integrating relevant information from immediately encountered cues, as well as information conferred by the environment in which cues are embedded, to inform decision processes. Within the scope of value-based choice, these sources of information are relevant to the trade-off between goals to acquire gains and goals to prevent losses. Here I ask how individuals balance and integrate these sources of information to inform appropriate goals and correspondingly adaptive behavioural strategies across shifting contextual demands. I present evidence, across four experiments, supporting a hierarchical organization between the information given by contexts and by immediate cues. An experimental framework that separates the contributions of these sources of information is used to probe the dissociated processing of higher-order contextual features across neural systems. Computational and neural mechanisms describe the interaction between contexts and cues, in which these sources of information are supported by tonic and phasic neural signatures but integrated across time to shape adaptive responses congruent with external demands. I further probe demands on contextual processes by showing that individuals exploit contextual information when the information provided by cues is impoverished, and that contextual influence on behaviour is strengthened given temporal affordances. Importantly, I highlight the role of neural interactions both in space and across hierarchical levels that support these processes.

Keywords: Computation
Context
EEG
fMRI
Goal
Strategy
Advisor: Cunningham, William A