VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Dramatic arts and the postmodern

The focus of this paper is on the relation of postmodern thought to the practice of teaching drama, giving particular consideration to the work of Jean-François Lyotard, in 'The Postmodern Experience', and 'The Postmodern Explained', and the 'Philosophical Investigations' of Ludwig Wittgenstein. An analysis of these, through commentary around supporting texts on postmodern curriculum, the avant garde, the theatre and writing as they relate to the drama curriculum and its practice, constitute the initial chapters. Against this background, eight teachers of drama in the Ottawa-Carleton Board of Education were interviewed as a group and individually about their practice, and for evidence of an understanding of the effects of postmodernity. These teacher interviews took place in locations selected by the volunteers over a three month period in the spring of 1997. Each teacher has experience with classes of drama at the secondary level either in the classroom or in situations where adolescents are studying or practicing drama. They share a common background in that they all work for the same Board of Education. They share an uncommon background in that their Theatre experience is on the continuum from minimal to extensive and professional, and their training represents four different Colleges of Education. The approach is qualitative, consisting of the administration of a general informational questionnaire, followed by interviews. The latter were transcribed and analyzed with the assistance of NUD*ist, in terms of the teacher's statements regarding their practice of the teaching of Drama at the secondary level. In the main these practitioners work in a system characterized by Flax as modern. They do not appear to be influenced in a specific way either by notions of ordinary language, language games, or postmodern theory and thought. I am left with questions regarding the nature of the status of curricular thought in the area of drama, both Dramatic Arts and Theatre Arts. There is an open question as to whether they have a particular statable position on their approach to curriculum in general and the drama curriculum in particular. The areas of general, personal and curricular philosophy do not seem to receive much consideration at the teacher training level. With regard to teacher practice, it is necessary to reflect on the particular importance we place on beliefs about the nature of modern progressive thought and on how we might introduce, in a teacher training curriculum, emphasis on the variable nature of realities and language structures, after Lyotard and Wittgenstein. Drama by its nature is normatively located to help us, at once as students and practitioners, to examine the nature of the language world we construct around us through our observation, the ritual of enactment and "aspects of seeing." As reflected at least in the teaching of the arts, there are implications for instruction at Colleges of Education regarding an understanding of the nature of modern and postmodern thought.
Hepoxilin binding activity in the rat brain

Previous work from our laboratory has shown that hepoxilins have neuromodulatory actions in the rat brain and that specific hepoxilin binding activities exist in human neutrophils. In this study, we investigate the existence of hepoxilin-specific binding in rat brain homogenates using [3H]-(8R)-HxA3 Me, and the responsible protein. Specific binding was most abundant in the hippocampus and thalamus and the binding was time- and substrate-dependent with high affinity (Kd = 43.1 ± 6.7 nM and Bmax = 42.3 ± 7.3 pmol/mg of protein). Competitive binding was best observed with unlabeled HxA3, HxB3 and less with 11,12-EET. Binding studies of HxA3 with frozen sections and frozen homogenates using SDS-PAGE were inconclusive as a stronger signal was observed for nonspecific binding of the ligand. This unexpected observation may relate to the known instability of the hepoxilin binding protein in frozen tissues. Results with fresh homogenates of brain suggest the presence of hitherto uncharacterized HxA3 specific binding activity in rat brain.
Practical reason and the myth of the given

My thesis argues that the debate about the nature of practical reasoning is hindered by an erroneous distinction between theoretical and practical reasoning which, when redrawn, allows for a better account of the normative force of practical reasons. Typically, reasoning about action is taken to bear explanatory burdens which reasoning about belief is not. Rational constraints are thought to be categorically binding in theoretical reasoning, but only hypothetically binding in practical reasoning. Instrumentalists, who hold that reason's role in action is limited to the generation and evaluation of means to ends, ends set by something other than reason itself cannot appeal directly to reason's authority in the explanation of how reasons rationally compel action. Instead, they focus on the question of what motivates action. This focus obscures the more fundamental question, 'how are judgements, practical and theoretical, normatively binding?' It prejudices an analysis of practical reason by supposing it to involve normative commitments which theoretical reasoning doesn't. I outline Wilfrid Sellars's analysis of the normative commitments implicit in theoretical reasoning and apply its lessons to an analysis of practical reasoning. In Sellars's terminology, attempts to justify by appeals to non-normative facts employ "mongrel concepts," which illegitimately conflate the causal and normative orders of explanation. Using this concept as a gauge for evaluating accounts of theoretical and practical reasoning, I show how views that characterize reasons simultaneously as mental particulars, merely descriptively true of agents, and as general standards authorizing conduct, fail. I argue that both instrumentalist and Kantian accounts of practical reason invoke mongrel concepts. To focus on the deeper question of how reasons are binding, I redraw the distinction between practical and theoretical reason, showing that puzzles purportedly specific to moral reasoning are instead, puzzles for rationality itself. I argue that the normative authority of reasons is explained by their public character. The practice of giving and asking for reasons, and the inferences which reasons authorize within that practice, must be understood in intersubjective terms on pain of unintelligibility. According to intersubjectivism, what we have objective reason to do is a function of what good practical discourse would vindicate.
Analysis and modeling of piezoelectric transformers

This thesis presents an equivalent circuit model for a Rosen type piezoelectric transformer. Transmission line equations for various vibration modes with a clamped boundary condition on one end of each section are developed. The partial expansion theorem is used to convert the transmission line model into an equivalent circuit model. Losses are introduced in a post-processing step using the experimental value of mechanical quality factor. L'Hospitals rule is used to simplify the circuit near a desired resonance frequency. Experimental results confirm the existence of multimode resonance and anti-resonance behavior. The modeling methodology is then extended to multi-layered rectangular and circular geometries. The applicability of two DC-DC converter topologies in connection with a piezoelectric transformer i.e. Class-E and an Asymmetrical converter are discussed. Also, experiments on a three winding multi-layered device connected to an asymmetrical converter are performed. Results indicate that the third winding cannot be used to provide a feedback voltage since the voltage does not track the secondary output voltage.
Peptide dose, MHC affinity, and target self-antigen expression are critical for effective immunotherapy of nonobese diabetic mouse prediabetes

Cross-reactive T cells which recognize both, Tep69- and ABBOS-epitopes in the islet autoantigen, ICA69 and bovine serum albumin (BSA), are routinely generated during human and nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse prediabetes. Here we analyzed how systemic administration of these peptides affects progressive autoimmunity in adoptively transferred and cyclophosphamide-accelerated NOD mouse diabetes. Unexpectedly, high dose i.v. ABBOS prevented, while Tep69 exacerbated, disease in both models. Peptide effects required cognate recognition of the endogenous self-antigen. The affinity of ABBOS for NOD I-Ag7 was significantly higher than that of Tep69. This explained (1) the expansion of the ABBOS and Tep69 T cell pools following i.v. Tep69, (2) long term unresponsiveness of these cells after i.v. ABBOS, and (3) precipitation of disease after low dose i.v. ABBOS. ABBOS or ABBOS-analogs with even higher MHC-affinity may be candidates for experimental intervention strategies in human prediabetes, but the dose translation from NOD mice to humans requires caution.
Determinants of high affinity ligand binding to the group III metabotropic glutamate receptors

Metabotropic glutamate receptors (mG1uRs) comprise a family of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) that modulate fast excitatory transmission in the mammalian nervous system. The initial purpose of my study was to compare the ligand-binding selectivity profiles of the mGluR agonist [3H]L-AP4 and the novel radiolabeled antagonist [3H]CPPG at all eight rat mGluR subtypes expressed in transfected human embryonic kidney cells. My results indicate that at low nanomolar concentrations, [3H]L-AP4 labels mGluRs 4 and 8 while [3H]CPPG is selective for mGluR8. The ability of [3H]CPPG to label a single mGluR subtype demonstrates that this compound and its related phenylglycine derivatives are useful for studying ligand recognition differences among the highly homologous group III receptors. Another goal of my study was to investigate the possibility that mutation of a conserved amino acid residue in mGluR4 (R78A) promotes closure of this receptor. Subsequent experiments indicated that this mutation might instead interfere with receptor glycosylation.
Creating space for social group differences in our conceptions of the educated person

This dissertation formulates a stubborn logical and ethical problem, which it names "the same-but different conundrum," a problem that recently has often prevented the very possibility of positive effects from educational theorizing that takes sexual, racial and economic politics seriously. This formulation derives its cogency from methodical reliance upon Iris Marion Young's claims about social groups as criteria for evaluating the sensitivity of conceptions of the educated person to social group differences. In order to workout this "same-but-different conundrum," a conceptual scheme, that is, a typology for thinking about and accommodating social group differences is developed. This scheme identifies and conceptualizes two fundamental theoretical perspectives: the 'Kataphatic' and the 'Apophatic'. The former focuses on sameness, the latter on difference. By creating a theoretical arena in which both kinds of perspectives command careful critical attention in view of the other, this scheme provides a way out of the "same-but-different conundrum." Ultimately, utilizing this conceptual framework offers a means for constructing maximally inclusive conceptions of the educated person.
Impact on the psychometric properties of an objective structured clinical exam for third year pharmacy students, using first year students as standardized patients

Significant changes in the clinical context of health professional education and impressive research on the measurement of clinical competence support the Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) as the preferred means of performance-based assessment and standardized patients as an adjunct to current teaching and evaluation methods. While there is research to support the use of standardized actors (SPs) as patients, using students as patients and raters has been little studied across disciplines and not in pharmacy. This study investigated the impact of using first year pharmacy students as standardized patients. It examined psychometric properties of reliability and validity using junior student, SP and faculty raters to evaluate performance in a senior candidate OSCE. The major findings indicated that using junior students is reliable and valid and may provide financial and learning benefits to participants. Further inquiry into quantitative and qualitative questions appears warranted to capture valuable, generalizeable insights.
Methodological issues in the development and application of predictive rules to evaluate outcomes of coronary artery bypass graft surgery

Drawing on data from a well established clinical registry for tracking preoperative characteristics and postoperative outcomes of coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), this thesis explores several methodological and practical issues arising from the derivation, validation and application of clinical prediction rules. Among the uses of prediction rules for operative mortality following cardiac surgery is risk-adjusted outcomes profiling. We examined whether clinicians and managers should use an existing index without modification, recalibrate that index for their populations, or derive a new model with additional risk factors. This study illustrates that poorly calibrated risk algorithms can bias the calculation of risk-adjusted outcomes. We next demonstrated how a clinical prediction rule could be used to assist in the assessment of temporal trends in patient severity and operative mortality. In addition to providing a long-term perspective on outcome trends, this study also showed how a clinical prediction rule can be combined with contingency table analysis to document temporal shifts in risk profiles and outcomes. A further application of clinical prediction rules is decision-support for pre-operative patient counselling. The findings of this study highlight both the rationale for using predictive rules as a guide to decision-making, as well as the continuing challenges in persuading clinicians to use such rules. Two recurrent issues in the use of clinical prediction rules are the short time horizon of many studies and the costs of collecting data for longer-term follow-up studies. This study illustrates the feasibility of linking clinical and administrative data in the development of more sophisticated clinical prediction rules. The findings highlight the need to evaluate long-term, as well as short-term outcomes to evaluate the benefit of surgical revascularization and the utility of adding some measurement of outcomes other than mortality. In conclusion, drawing on data for CABG surgery, this thesis addresses several methodological and practical issues surrounding the development and application of predictive rules. We believe that these findings are generalizable to a wide range of medical diagnoses and surgical procedures where prediction rules can be used to enhance our insights into prognosis, as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of clinical interventions.
The glutamatergic system and lead toxicity

Although the molecular mechanisms by which lead (Pb) produces deleterious effects on cognitive function is not well established, alterations in the function of glutamatergic receptors in the developing brain have been implicated. This research examined the effect of glutamatergic agonists and antagonists in rats exposed to chronic postnatal Pb exposure on three behavioral tasks, seizure activity, the Morris water maze (MWM) and the social transmission of food preference (STFP). At the specific dose and duration of Pb exposure employed, the NMDA, but not the AMPA receptor system appears to be involved in seizure activity. In addition, MK-801 (0.1 mg/kg) appeared to be an effective therapeutic dose to reduce seizures. No main effect of Pb was observed in the MWM or the STFP tasks. This research would suggest that Pb may be interacting at the MK-801 site of the NMDA receptor.
Blowup phenomena for the vector nonlinear Schroedinger equation

We study various blowup phenomena associated with the vector nonlinear Schrödinger (VNLS) equation. This equation arises as a limiting case of the Zakharov system associated with plasma physics. It is characterized by a positive parameter Ã which is related to the mean thermal velocity of the electrons in the plasma. We are interested in studying solutions whose ' H'1-norm blows up in finite time. We show the existence of standing wave solutions by solving a constrained minimization problem using the method of concentration compactness. These standing waves are expressed in terms of ground state solutions of an associated elliptic boundary value problem. We numerically construct ground states in both two and three dimensions and analyze their structure. In the two dimensional case we establish numerically that the limiting profile of blowup solutions of the VNLS equation near the blowup point(s) is equal, up to rescaling, to the ground state. In the three dimensional case we determine the blowup rate as a function of Ã. We develop a new dynamic mesh refinement method to study time evolution problems which blow up at more than one point, and apply it to study solutions of the VNLS equation in which splitting of the profile occurs. Finally, we apply this new method to study the time dispersion NLS equation, a perturbation of the focusing NLS equation which arises in nonlinear optics.
Anaerobic biodegradation of mixtures of chlorinated solvents

The widespread contamination of groundwater with mixtures of chlorinated hydrocarbons poses a health threat and an obligation to the landowner to remediate this threat. Organic solvents such as tetrachloroethene (PCE) and carbon tetrachloride (CT) are frequently found on contaminated sites and as suspected carcinogens must be removed from the environment. The objective of this study was to determine the susceptibility of mixtures of PCE and CT to biological reductive dechlorination. Using microcosms and a continuous column the impact of CT degradation on the degradation of a PCE was examined. Using an ethanol/PCE enrichment culture the effect of CT and its degradation products, chloroform (CF) and dichloromethane (DCM), on the degradation of PCE was examined. In microcosms 5 mg/L CT totally inhibited the degradation of PCE. Full PCE degradation to cis-DCE did occur after the bottles were purged with nitrogen and PCE was applied in the absence of CT. In the column studies the addition of 0.5 mg/L CT totally suspended PCE degradation for 24 days. The biodegradation of organic solvents can be an effective way to eliminate possible human health threats, however extra care must be taken when dealing with mixtures of organic solvents. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Children's attitudes and social interactions towards peers with autism, process and outcomes of a peer mediated buddy program

A peer mediated buddy program was developed for children with autism in an elementary school. Forty peer helpers initially volunteered to participate in one week peer buddying which consisted of participants spending recess and lunch periods with children with autism (no 'formalized training'). This qualitative study is based on the twelve (n = 12) students who participated in a semi structured interview and who were involved in the second phase of the peer helper program which entailed more direct buddying (a peer initiated approach). The motivations, interests and profiles of these peer helpers who were more inclined to "help out" children with autism are also assessed. The follow-up component includes responses from parents and professionals belonging to 2 autism email groups about their experiences with peer buddy programs. Responses from these groups were compared to the findings obtained from this program to determine "best practices" for peer buddy programs which can be used in future settings.
The development of affective decision-making

The current study examined the development of affective decision-making (ADM) in preschool-age children. Forty 3- and 4-year-olds were administered a simplified version of Bechara et al.'s (1994) gambling task. The task consisted of two decks of cards, one of which provided higher wins on every trial but was disadvantageous overall (i.e., it provided even higher losses), and one of which provided lower wins on every trial but was advantageous overall. During the last 25 trials (out of 50), 3-year-olds made more disadvantageous choices (65.4%) than 4-year-olds (40.7%), and 3-year-olds made more such choices than would be expected by chance, whereas 4-year-olds made fewer. This age-related change in performance is discussed in relation to the growth of ventromedial prefrontal cortex during the 3- to 4-year-old period.
Molecular mechanisms involved in the acid tolerance response of Streptococcus mutans

The acid tolerance response (ATR) plays a major role in the acid adaptation process in 'Streptococcus mutans'. The ATR is an inducible molecular response mechanism activated when the bacterium encounters a moderate pH that enables the cells to tolerate further drops in pH. Differential display PCR (dd-PCR) was used to identify and clone genes that were activated when 'S. mutans' was exposed to moderate pH (5.0). One of the dd-PCR products had 67% identity to a 'uvrA'/UV repair excinuclease gene in 'Bacillus subtilus. UvrA' knockouts were constructed in 'S. mutans' by PCR-mediated mutagenesis and were shown to be sensitive to UV irradiation and pH (5.0) when compared to the wild-type. Acid-adapted 'S. mutans uvrA' mutants were more resistant to UV irradiation than unadapted cells, but were unable to survive exposure to a killing pH of 3.0. Here we suggest that 'uvrA ' is necessary for the repair of acid-induced DNA damage and is essential for the ATR in 'S. mutans'.
A murine model of B-cell lymphoma, manipulation of costimulatory and cytokine expression to generate effective immunotherapeutic cancer vaccines

Advances in fundamental immunological principles have fueled excitement in the area of cancer immunotherapy. Manipulation of molecules important in the recognition and activation of various effector cells within the immune system provides a strategy by which tumour cells may become more immunogenic. The proceeding research describes the development of a murine model for B-cell lymphoma using a non immunogenic, highly tumourigenic cell line, A20. Subcutaneous injection of live A20 cells results in tumour growth in 100% of inoculated syngeneic BALB/c mice. By introducing the costimulatory molecule, B7-1, and the cytokine interleukin-12 (IL-12), a potent whole-cell vaccine was generated, allowing for systemic protection against modified as well as parental tumour cells. Although interleukin-12 was effective in a vaccination model, only the B7-1/IL-12 combination was effective in preventing tumour growth in an established tumour model. ' In vitro' and 'in vivo' experiments show that the mechanism by which IL-12 or B7-1/IL-12 mediate anti-tumour immune responses are multifactorial. CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, as well as natural killer cells contribute to the observed anti-tumour immunity. The second modality used to generate an effective immune response is the manipulation of the level of expression of the costimulatory molecule B7-2. Although, the A20 cell line expresses MHC I, MHC II, and B7-2, the immune system is not activated effectively to generate anti-tumour immunity. The proceeding studies show that the level of expression of B7-2 is critical in the activation of anti-tumour responses. By increasing the level of B7-2 above a threshold, the A20 cell line becomes an immunogenic tumour capable of eliciting effective cytotoxic T cell as well as natural killer cell responses.