VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
“Nosotros no comemos caña”: Defence of Territory and Agrarian Change in the Polochic Valley, Guatemala

Since the turn of the 21st century, the establishment and subsequent expansion of three (agro)extractive industries – sugarcane, oil palm, and nickel mining – in the Polochic valley lowlands of northern Guatemala has reduced local indigenous Q’eqchi’ campesino (peasant) communities’ access to farmland. Over the years, campesino groups and their allies have engaged in various forms of political contestation in “defence of territory”. In 2015, Chabil Utzaj, the sugarcane company, ceased operations following a second mass occupation of its plantations. As a result, over 800 campesino households now each have access to around 3.5 ha of farmland. In this dissertation, I employ an extended livelihoods approach consisting of archival research, oral histories, key informant interviews, and household surveys grounded in agrarian political economy to explore how the struggle for defence of territory has contested this latest wave of territorialisation driven by (agro)extractive industries and affected the trajectory of agrarian change in the Polochic valley lowlands. First, I find that while the struggle has produced remarkable achievements of immense intrinsic value to campesinos, household incomes remain, on average, well below national and international poverty lines. Campesino households with access to land by and large provide cheap labour, cheap wage goods, and cheap commodities (including environmental services) that sustain the national plantation-based agro-export industry and related global circuits of accumulation. The campesino struggle thus ultimately co-produced a pattern of uneven development characterised by functional dualism. Second, I argue that campesinos and their allies made effective use of available political opportunities, both toeing the line of “acceptable” politics and strategically transgressing its boundaries when necessary, to contest the reterritorialisation process under way. However, the nature of Guatemala’s elite-dominated political spaces limits the scope of the transformation that can be achieved. While campesinos were able to contest property relations and liberate much-needed spaces of social reproduction, the broader structures that shape labour regimes, income distribution, and social reproduction have remained largely intact. The long-term goal of sustainable agrarian change will remain conditional on a radical transformation of power relations and political spaces within Guatemala – a transformation that would require rethinking the scope of territorial struggles.

Keywords: critical agrarian studies
development studies
land grabbing
land reform
political economy
territorialisation
Advisor: Isakson, Ryan
Prudham, Scott
Developing a Direct Neuronal Reprogramming Strategy to Improve Motor Function in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

An estimated 3,000 Canadians suffer from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a disease associated with the degeneration of upper motor neurons in deep cortical layers and lower motor neurons in the spinal cord. In both human patients and rodent models, there is evidence for a dying-forward model in which brain pathology precedes spinal cord motor neuron loss. There are no curative strategies for ALS, with current drugs (Riluzole, Edaravone) extending a patient’s life-expectancy only 2-3 months. During my thesis project, I investigated the potential of direct neuronal reprogramming in vivo as a potential therapeutic strategy to replace lost upper motor neurons and delay disease progression. My hypothesis was that astrocyte-to-neuron lineage conversion would replace lost neurons and delay disease progression in a mouse model of ALS. To test this hypothesis, I first demonstrated that a mutated version of the proneural gene Ascl1, containing six serine-to-alanine (SA) phosphosite mutations (Ascl1SA6), was more efficient than Ascl1 at converting motor cortex astrocytes to induced neurons (iNeurons) in vivo. I also found that a short version of the glial fibrillary acid promoter (GFAP) had increased astrocyte specificity compared to a longer GFAP promoter, and that adeno-associated virus with capsid 5 (AAV5) was better than AAV8 at targeting astrocytes (Chapter 2). Next, I used spatial transcriptomics to create a molecular map of neuronal reprogramming in vivo. Here, I identified the gene regulatory networks associated with neuronal lineage conversion and identified Zbtb18 and Id2 as critical hub transcription factors that are also turned on during in vitro neuronal reprogramming (Chapter 3). Finally, I expressed Ascl1SA6 in motor cortex astrocytes in hSOD1G93A mice, a model of ALS, and demonstrated that this therapeutic approach could increase lifespan and improve motor behaviour compared to a control vector in male and to a lesser extent female mice (Chapter 4). Given the promising therapeutic impact of Ascl1SA6 astrocyte-to-neuron lineage conversion in hSOD1G93A mice, in vivo neuronal reprogramming has potential to become a novel therapeutic strategy for ALS.

Keywords: ALS
Gene therapy
Neuronal reprogramming
Proneural genes
Advisor: Schuurmans, Carol
The Evaluation of Bundled Care for Patients with Congestive Heart Failure and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Bundled care, also known as the Integrated Funding Model initiative, was implemented by the Ontario Ministry of Health for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure (CHF). The intervention focused on integrating acute and home care for up to 60 days post-discharge. This thesis generated evidence with three studies to inform health care administrators’ and policymakers’ decisions to scale, spread, or redesign bundled care for patients with COPD and CHF. The first study applied machine learning (ML) approaches to predict 90-day unplanned readmission or death in patients with CHF and compared their performance with a commonly used regression model called the LACE+ index. Overall, the ML models showed modest model discrimination. The gradient boosting machine model had the best discrimination with an Area Under the Receiver Operating Curve (AUROC) of 0.700, which was marginally better than the logistic regression model (AUROC: 0.695) and moderately better than the LACE+ index (AUROC: 0.648). The second study conducted an effectiveness and cost-effectiveness evaluation of the bundled care program among patients hospitalized for COPD and CHF within a 24-month follow-up. In patients with COPD, bundled care was associated with a decrease in the risk of death and an increase in unplanned readmission, but no difference in the risk of emergency department visits within 24 months. In patients with CHF, there were no differences in these outcomes. Participation in the program was cost-effective for both conditions and resulted in significant cost savings in patients with CHF but not significant in COPD. The third study examined bundled care’s level of intervention fidelity for patients with COPD and CHF, and whether it was associated with unplanned readmission within 12 months of follow-up. This analysis suggests that while in aggregate, the intervention fidelity of bundled care for patients with COPD and CHF was not associated with readmission within a 12-month follow-up, specific intervention components were associated with reduced readmission. As healthcare leaders and administrators seek to improve patient outcomes as they transition from hospital to home, evidence from this thesis can inform decision-making regarding the implementation of bundled care in Ontario.

Keywords: Bundled Care
Chronic Disease Management
Chronic obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Congestive Heart Failure
Integrated Care
Readmission
Advisor: Wodchis, Walter P
Time-varying Intensity of Mechanical Ventilation and Outcomes of Patients with Acute Respiratory Failure

Background: Mortality in acute respiratory failure remains high despite treatment with lung-protective mechanical ventilation. Strategies focusing on limiting driving pressure (∆P) during mechanical ventilation have been proposed to mitigate ventilator-associated lung injury and to further reduce mortality. However, the effectiveness of such sustained interventions in terms of patient-important outcomes remains unclear. Methods: The association between daily dynamic ∆P and ICU mortality was measured using Bayesian joint models in mechanically ventilated patients recorded in the Toronto Intensive Care Observational Registry. In addition, the causal effects of sustained interventions on static or dynamic ∆P on ventilator mortality compared to usual care were estimated under full adherence using the parametric g-formula. Using data from the COVID-19 Critical Care Consortium registry, the treatment effectiveness of extracorporeal life support (ECMO) – a rescue therapy to maintain gas exchange while minimizing exposure to higher intensities of mechanical ventilation – was investigated using marginal structural models with inverse probability weighting in patients with COVID-19-related, acute respiratory failure. Results: Each daily increment in dynamic ∆P was associated with a significant increase in the hazard of death. Ventilator mortality (95% CI) of patients with acute respiratory failure would have been reduced by 0.6% (95% CI: 0.3% to 1.2%) or 1.9% (95% CI: 1.7% to 2.2%) had either daily static or dynamic ∆P been limited ≤ 15 cmH2O, compared to usual care where tidal volumes and plateau pressures were already controlled (risk ratio 0.90, 95% CI 0.89 to 0.92). Secondary analyses showed that early and sustained interventions on ∆P were more effective than brief or later limitations. For patients with COVID-19-related acute respiratory failure, ECMO therapy reduced mortality by 7.1% (8.2% to 6.1%) compared to conventional mechanical ventilation (risk ratio 0.78, 95% CI 0.75 to 0.82). ECMO therapy was most effective if provided early during mechanical ventilation to patients with age < 65 years and PaO2/FiO2 < 80 mmHg or with static ∆P > 15 cmH2O. Conclusion: Early and sustained interventions to limit exposure to higher intensities of mechanical ventilation represent a promising strategy to reduce mortality of patients with acute respiratory failure and should be investigated in future clinical trials.

Advisor: Fan, Eddy
Evaluating the Acoustic Performance of Multi-unit Residential Buildings and the Associated Effects of Noise Exposure on Occupants' Comfort

Exposure to noise can cause annoyance, disturbance of daily activities and increase the risk of adverse health issues. Despite these recognized risks, exposure to high levels of noise is increasing due to population growth and urbanization. Occupants who live in multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) are at an increased risk because, in addition to outdoor noise, they can be exposed to noise from various indoor sources, such as neighbours, elevators, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, which can increase occupants’ overall noise exposure. Compared to single-family homes, MURB occupants also have very limited noise mitigation strategies available to them which can worsen their perception of their acoustic environment. To enhance current knowledge on acoustic comfort in MURBs, surveys and field measurements of sound insulation and outdoor noise levels were used in this dissertation to examine the effects of noise on occupants and explore acoustic and non-acoustic factors that affect occupants’ perception of noise. The results showed that indoor noise from neighbours and HVAC systems, and outdoor noise from traffic and construction are the most problematic noise sources. The analysis identified annoyance, effects on work performance at home and sleep disturbance as key effects of noise. However, there was a weak correlation between measured acoustic conditions and reported annoyance levels. Occupants in buildings with low indoor noise levels (LAeq,24h = 35.7–36.8 dB) expressed higher outdoor noise annoyance levels than those with LAeq,24h above 40 dB. Similarly, occupants in a building with a high impact sound insulation level (AIIC 62) had similar impact noise annoyance levels to those in buildings with AIIC 31–32. Exposure to outdoor noise was identified as an important factor that can provide a masking effect to indoor noise and reduce reported annoyance due to indoor noise. The effects of outdoor noise however depend on suite location. The results also showed that AIIC correlates better with the perceived effect on work performance compared to annoyance level. The finding suggests that disturbance of work and other activities can be used as additional metrics to assess the relationship between acoustic comfort and sound insulation.

Keywords: Acoustic comfort
Airborne noise
Environmental noise
Impact noise
Noise annoyance
Advisor: Touchie, Marianne
O'Brien, William
Rethinking Emotions: A Phenomenological, Photo-Elicitation Study of Individuals Living with Cancer

The dominant discourse on emotions constructs them as irrational, psychological states. This perspective is rooted in Western philosophy, which tends to assume that the body is an unfeeling, material object, separate from and governed by the mind. The field of oncology is also rooted in this philosophy in that it predominantly characterizes distressing emotions as cognitive disturbances that require mitigation and prioritizes cognitive reflections upon inner feelings as a means to access, identify, and measure distressing emotions. However, I argue that this narrow focus produces a limited and sterile account of emotional experiences that is detached from how they are felt and lived.In contrast to the Cartesian mind-body dualism, I apply a synthesis of Merleau-Ponty’s reconceptualization of perception, and Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical notion of habitus to the phenomenon of emotions, to generate an alternative conceptualization of emotions that captures the full complexity of their experience and expression. I do so through an analysis of findings drawn from a qualitative, arts-based photo-elicitation study in which I explore in depth the experience and expression of emotions, of 10 individuals living with cancer. Based on my analysis I argue that emotions are inextricably interwoven in the fabric of our relationships and constitute an embodied way of knowing that can bring into being new possibilities for one’s growth and development in the experience of illness. There is a particularly transformative aspect to emotions in that they can move us to express ourselves differently and in so doing, mobilize new ways of relating to ourselves, the world, and others. My research not only enriches the discourse on emotions in the context of cancer, but also informs the broader scholarship on emotions by bringing in the body in a way that respects the existential immediacy of the body, without rendering the socio-cultural world peripheral. Recognizing the interrelationship between emotions, the body, and society opens new possibilities for understanding how emotions might reflect and reinforce the productive and materializing effects of caring relations and health care practices, but also how they might serve to reimagine them in more humanistic ways.

Keywords: Arts-Based Research
Cancer
Emotion
Habitus
Perception
Phenomenology
Advisor: Kontos, Pia C
Exploiting Structure to Mitigate Risk in Real-world Financial Control Problems

Many researchers have been applying a variety of machine learning tools to a variety of financial control problems. Reinforcement learning would seem to be the most appropriate tool for portfolio management and related problems which involve interaction between an agent and an environment but the applications of this tool have been limited. We studied the challenges for the application of reinforcement learning to real world problems and developed solutions for these challenges. Along the way, we developed a theoretical framework for understanding the performance of reinforcement learning for time series data which incorporates concepts from operations research. We found that incorporating prior knowledge as structure in the reinforcement learning algorithm improves performance. Our research identified four different ways of incorporating structure from the real world into control algorithms. One of the most important challenges for financial control problems is optimizing the trade off between risk and return. We formulated risk as structure in our reinforcement learning framework to encourage the learning algorithms to meet a risk goal or to balance risk and return. Adding financial structure helped improve learning leading to more reliable and sample efficient algorithms with reduced variance, and better performance in terms of total return. This real-world reinforcement learning framework deals with portfolio management from the perspective of a portfolio manager at an institution with a local point of view and a local understanding of risk. The collective behavior of many institutions gives rise to global risks that cannot be evaluated or mitigated by individual institutions, so a global viewpoint of risk is required. We extended our investigation of risk to include global risk management and developed a computational systemic risk environment to model the interaction between institutions and simulate cascade failures in financial networks. To control cascade failures in financial networks, we developed a two-stage network optimization algorithm using quantum partitioning and showed that the algorithm successfully delays cascade failures. The cost function for this algorithm incorporates features related to the structure of the financial network and leads to partitions that tend to confine contagion within their boundaries.

Keywords: Financial Engineering
Machine Learning
Portfolio Management
Quantum Computing
Reinforcement Learning
Systemic Risk
Advisor: Lee, Chi-Guhn
‘We vote for good things’: The moral economy of voting in South Africa, 2009-2019

South Africa has witnessed the emergence of electoral competitiveness between 2009-2019 as the dominance of the African National Congress (ANC) began to decline. During this time there was an increase in both abstention and opposition party support, making it a fruitful time to interrogate how voters make the decisions which ultimately determine the trajectory of democracy - supporting the ruling party, abstaining, or voting for the opposition. In contrast to the dominant explanations of ‘rational’ economic voting in political science and neopatrimonialism in the African context, this study finds that voters evaluate their options based upon both strategic and affective considerations. Voters assess the likelihood that political parties will provide them with material benefits but are also influenced by party loyalty and perceptions about the credibility of parties in promoting the ‘just’ distribution of public goods. Amid declining ANC loyalty and corruption scandals, abstention was the dominant trend among voters who did not see any opposition parties as viable alternatives. Both voters and local activists wanted to support parties which showed a commitment to do ‘good things’ in their policy-orientations and actions, so opposition parties were most successful among young people when they appeared to be a credible and efficacious voice for the ideas and frustrations of their generation. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) gained members and supporters with its populist political style, purporting to represent the interests of Black youth, mineworkers, and informal settlements. This strategy of opposition party building was effective where it could establish ideological and affective linkages among local activists who, in turn, could enhance the party’s reputation for contributing to the public ‘good’. In a context of vast inequality, urbanization, and single-party dominance, appropriating local struggles was a cost-effective strategy of opposition party building because it gave them a presence in the communities they claim to represent. Political ideas were packaged with a political style that projected efficacy, helping to recruit young people and build a partisan identity for those who felt excluded from the economic policies and political career pathways controlled by the ANC.

Keywords: Economic Freedom Fighters
Moral economy
Political behaviour
Political Parties
Populism
South Africa
Advisor: Handley, Antoinette
Ionic Liquid Mediated Synthesis of Starch Maleates and their Application in Biodegradable Polymer Composites

Highly substituted starch maleate-based biodegradable polymer composites are desirable for applications, such as in food packaging films and water purification adsorbents, especially when product recycling is not desired due to contamination concerns. The conventional synthesis method for obtaining highly substituted starch maleates involves the usage of non-recyclable organic solvent and catalyst which makes the process less sustainable. In this thesis, recyclable imidazolium chloride-based ionic liquids (ILs) were applied as a solvent/catalyst system to develop highly substituted starch maleates for their applications in biodegradable composites. It was found that the amylose-rich starches yielded starch maleates with a higher degree of maleic anhydride substitution (DStitration: 1.17, DSNMR≈0.07) than amylopectin-rich starches. By replacing the [C4mim]+ cation in ILs with shorter allyl groups, such as [Amim]+, the extent of interactions between the amylose-rich starch and maleic anhydride could be further increased, providing starch maleate with even higher DS (DStitration: 1.2, DSNMR: 0.1). The obtained maleates were then used to fabricate epoxidized soybean oil and polylactic acid composite films for packaging fatty foods. This novel composite film achieved a 3-fold increase in ductility with only a 14% decrease in tensile strength compared to those of pure PLA film. Besides, the composite film fully degraded in compost within 4 weeks, while only 20wt% of pure PLA film degraded under the same composting conditions. Moreover, the high-DS starch maleates were combined with calcium alginate to make biodegradable composite adsorbents for the removal of methylene blue dye in contaminated water. The novel composite could adsorb methylene blue up to 60.54+3.71 mg/g (corresponding to an initial methylene blue concentration of 170 mg/L, a standard concentration typically found in effluents sourced from the textile sector). The composite adsorbent was also capable of adsorbing and desorbing methylene blue (80% efficiency at 4th regeneration cycle), as well as degradation in saline water at the rate of 8.55 wt.%/day at 37°C, thereby showing promise for avoiding secondary pollution at the end of the product usage. Overall, this thesis study demonstrated that recyclable ILs are highly attractive for synthesizing high-DS starch maleates to develop a variety of biodegradable polymer composites for consumer and industrial usage.

Advisor: Yan, Ning