VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Characterizing the Role of Neural Dynamics in the Treatment of Depression

Selecting an appropriate treatment for patients with depression is challenging for several reasons. There is no clear understanding on (i) the pathophysiology of depression, (ii) heterogeneity in depression, and (iii) targets for successful treatment outcome. As such, although treatments for depression are effective, their average efficacy seems to be poor. It is widely accepted that seizures induced in the brain are highly effective for severe, treatment-resistant cases of depression. Seizures are also known to impact the dynamics of neural activity. Based on this knowledge, we investigated whether treatments for depression impact neural dynamics for therapeutic efficacy. We also evaluated whether measures of neural dynamics can predict response. Seizure therapy (electroconvulsive therapy and magnetic seizure therapy) and pharmacotherapy (escitalopram) were studied. It is hypothesized that modulations of neural dynamics in several frequencies, timescales, regions and networks, previously shown to be affected in depression, are associated with therapeutic outcome. These modulations are also hypothesized to be distinct from modulations associated with non-response. In this work, measures of neural dynamics were derived from power spectral density analysis, multiscale entropy analysis and microstate analysis of resting-state, eyes-closed EEG data. Results suggest that successful seizure therapy potentially impacts several characteristics of neural dynamics for therapeutic efficacy. In responders of seizure therapy, modulation of neural dynamics was observed in regions (posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, occipital pole) and networks (salience, fronto-parietal) previously known to be impaired in depression. In responders of escitalopram, modulation of neural dynamics was observed after 2 weeks into the 8-week course of escitalopram treatment. These changes were observed in regions known to be impaired in depression (posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, posterior cingulate cortex) but not within networks. In non-responders of escitalopram, an early modulation of neural dynamics (i.e., baseline to 2 weeks) was observed. Finally, using measures of neural dynamics, prediction of response to escitalopram achieved an accuracy of 83.2%. Knowledge from this work will guide the development of antidepressant response prediction tools and potentially improve treatment efficacy in depression.

Keywords: Depression
Electroconvulsive Therapy
Electroencephalography
Escitalopram
Magnetic Seizure Therapy
Predicting Treatment Response
Advisor: Farzan, Faranak
Wong, Willy
Hybrid Bioactive Nanoparticles for Modulation of Tumor Microenvironment and Enhancing Radiation and Chemotherapy Efficacy

Tumor microenvironment (TME) abnormalities are recognized as the main obstacle in treating solid tumors and are responsible for the failures in cancer therapies via promoting tumor cell growth, invasion, resistance to radiation and chemotherapy (CT), and escape from immune surveillance. To tackle interplay of multiple TME factors, our team has previously designed novel hybrid manganese dioxide nanoparticles (MDNPs) with the high reactivity and specificity toward H2O2 for the simultaneous and sustained production of O2 and regulation of pH to modulate the TME. Here, we propose a new multimodal strategy by utilizing MDNPs to remodel the TME, suppress drug and radiation resistance factors, reverse immunosuppressive conditions, and enhance treatment efficacy. Results from this thesis reveal the high potential of MDNPs in quenching reactive oxygen species (ROS) (e.g. H2O2), decreasing HIF1α, and lowering hypoxia level in the tumor. In comparison to radiation therapy (RT) alone, the combination of MDNPs and RT promoted cell death and decreased cancer cell proliferation in tumor-bearing animals. Survival studies not only resulted in significant increase in median survival time for breast and prostate tumor-bearing animals treated with the combination MDNPs + RT, but also achieved curative III treatment. It was further observed that MDNPs could modulate TME, reflected in downregulation of drug resistance factors and enhanced cellular uptake and anti-cancer activity of doxorubicin (DOX). The combination therapy with MDNPs and DOX also stimulated adaptive antitumor immunity and decreased immunosuppression, resulting up to 60% complete tumor regression in breast tumor-bearing mice. The high in vivo tolerability and stability of the nanoparticles, the simplicity of administration and effectiveness of the MDNPs on CT and RT are key elements that will make this system highly translational. Such results suggest that the new multimodal combination therapies are a simple yet powerful approach to treat solid tumors. Further, it was shown that the polymer-lipid nanoparticle (PLN) formulation developed by our team has a transformable behaviour in physiological condition, enabling higher intracellular uptake in vitro and intratumoral accumulation and penetration in-vivo of DOX when compared to liposomal or free solution of DOX. The findings in this thesis verify that transformable PLN system offers a unique platform and a novel approach for more effective drug transportation to the tumor.

Keywords: Breast and prostate cancer
Chemotherapy
nanoparticles
Radiation therapy
Tumor hypoxia
Tumor Microenvironment
Advisor: Wu, Xiao Yu (Shirley)
Transgressive Nature. Beyond the Frame: Images of Vegetal Nature Across the Arts in Northern Renaissance Europe

Nature became a significant object of attention in the early modern era. Images of plant life changed significantly in the arts and architecture of Northern Europe near the beginning of the sixteenth century. Representations of branches, vines, and other botanical material become more prominent, proliferating in every medium. As designs based on nature became a field for creative innovation, botanical material sometimes transgresses the role of marginal ornament, and natural settings appear in new contexts. Other studies tend to either disregard plant ornament or they argue that landscape became a central subject in northern art but connect its origins and impetus to sources in ancient Rome and early modern Italy. Rather than seeking connections with Italy, this study demonstrates the impact of other factors, arguing that the changes in representing trees and plants reflect cultural shifts, including changes in knowledge production and religious thought. A consideration of the factors that concerned vernacular culture, as well as humanists, provides insights that deepen our understanding of early modern art. Nature could serve as a representational strategy to visualize these concerns. The broad and contradictory significances that natural imagery carried made it an ideal vehicle to express the concerns of northern European culture in a time of religious reform. Nature's polyvalency may suggest alternate points of view, enabling the work as a whole to participate in current themes of discourse and debate. This project examines the inventive uses of plant imagery, and demonstrates the impact of its cultural contexts. The geographical context is from the Alsace to the Czech Republic, the Low Countries, and especially the German-speaking lands. Some works were produced by renowned artists, while others are little known in North America. This study addresses the roles nature played in early modern visual culture, in ways not yet addressed by other scholars.

Keywords: Astwerk
early modern
forest
frame
nature
vernacular
Advisor: Kavaler, Ethan Matt
A Different Shade of Grey: Intimacies of Older Filipino Gay Men in Canada

This dissertation is a qualitative study, which examined the experiences of intimacy of the older Filipino gay men in Canada. These group of men identify as bakla, which is the Filipino term for queer or non-normative gender and sexual identity, practices, and performances. I specifically investigated how older bakla engage and express their intimacies with the three significant groups of people in their lives, namely, their sexual partner, their family or bloodrelated kin, and their friends. The purpose of such inquiry was to understand the relationship dynamics that older bakla have with these three groups. Such significant figures are the potential sources of social and emotional support of the older bakla. Intersectionality theory from a queer diasporic–feminist gerontological lens informed the study that takes into account the social location of the informants in terms of sexuality and gender, race, diaspora, age, and class. In this study, I used both participant observations and in-depth interviews as the main methods of data collection. These methods were informed by a culturally-grounded approach, called kuwento, a Filipino version of storytelling. This type of storytelling allowed the informants of the study to articulate their experiences in a manner that was comfortable, accessible, and convenient for them. Using grounded theory for data analysis, older bakla revealed a different experience of iii intimacy with their significant others. A story of difference exists, because they do not necessarily resonate to the dominant stories of aging. Their stories of intimacies offer critique of the norms and dominant discourses of identity. As well, older bakla’s intimacies illuminate their sense of agency in negotiating the norms of gender, sexuality, ageing, class, diaspora, and race that have marginalized and oppressed their beings and subjectivities. In the conclusion, I discuss how their intimacies with significant others, which are conditioned by uncertainty, impact their well-being and ageing bodies and how these informed critical social work education and practice. This study offers important contributions to the field of gerontological social work, sexuality and queer studies, migration and transnationalism, and anti-oppressive epistemologies.

Keywords: ageing
bakla
Filipino
older adults
queer
Advisor: Tsang, Ka Tat
The “Metes and Bounds” of Manhood: Gender, Property, and Violence in Early Modern England

This dissertation explores the relationship between masculinity and domestic space in early modern England. It argues that property and the body were symbolically linked, and hegemonic masculinity was contingent upon the ability to protect and control both. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw the emergence of strict legal, spatial, and sensory boundaries around property, as men began to more clearly demarcate what they possessed. But migration, urban development, and shared resources made the creation and enforcement of property boundaries difficult. In London, increased migration from within the British Isles and immigration from Europe led to unprecedented population growth, and these demographic changes were associated with overcrowding, poverty, and disease. In the congested city, Londoners lived cheek by jowl, and overlapping living spaces were a source of tension between neighbours. Similar anxieties existed in rural areas surrounding London, where neighbours fought over the enclosure of common land and access to declining natural resources, like animals and timber. Shared and adjoining properties created conflict between neighbours, resulting in physical and verbal altercations that were litigated in the Court of Star Chamber. Gender historians have challenged the supposedly strict dichotomy of separate, gendered spheres, demonstrating how women traversed the boundaries between public and private while still maintaining links with the domestic space of the home. Less attention has been paid to the ways that men also navigated these spaces. By the seventeenth century, ideal masculinity was modeled through patriarchal authority over the boundaries around property and around the bodies of those who dwelled within.

Keywords: early modern
gender
masculinity
property
space
violence
Advisor: Mori, Jennifer
Oscar Wilde and His Legacy: British Commercial Comedy 1892-1930

Oscar Wilde’s successful 1890s works were something new within Victorian comedy. He reinvents a theatrical comedy tradition dominated by a combination of farce and French-inspired well-made plays, creating more psychologically complex characters than the usual stage types, repeatedly adjusting or blending comic forms to disrupt audience expectations, and emphasizing forgiveness and reconciliation over revenge or poetic justice. This dissertation considers how Wilde’s unique approach to comic writing is both reflected and adapted in plays from 1900-1930 by St. John Hankin, Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward, revealing shifts in what it means to behave badly when values are rapidly changing. The analysis considers how these plays were affected by contemporary conditions of theatrical production, which are often neglected in scholarship on the plays as texts. The first chapter considers Wilde’s shrewd assessment of the consequences of courtship practices and the double standard beneath a veneer of manners and cleverness in Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance and An Ideal Husband. The work continues with an examination of The Importance of Being Earnest, particularly its connections to Wilde’s stories for children, the form of farce and recent scholarship about play. The third chapter considers how Hankin reworks comic expectations in a Wildean way to build layered characters, accurately portray their actions, and provide satisfactory, unconventional endings through plays such as The Return of the Prodigal and The Charity That Began at Home. In the fourth chapter, the connections between Wilde and several of Maugham’s better known comedies is examined, as Maugham continues Wilde’s witty discussion of the place of women, the requirements for a good marriage, and the effects of too much leisure time. This work concludes by contemplating the influence of Wilde’s comedies on early plays by Coward, revealing how his characters reject not only etiquette and decorum, but the need for any manners at all.

Keywords: Noel Coward
Oscar Wilde
Somerset Maugham
St. John Hankin
Advisor: Switzky, Lawrence
The Molecular Evolution of Rhodopsin in Marine-derived and other Freshwater Fishes

Visual system evolution can be influenced by the spectral properties of light available in the environment. Variation in the dim-light specialized visual pigment rhodopsin is thought to result in functional shifts that optimize its sensitivity in relation to ambient spectral environments. Marine and freshwater environments have been shown to be characterized by different spectral properties and might be expected to place the spectral sensitivity of rhodopsin under different selection pressures. In Chapter two, I show that the rate ratio of non- synonymous to synonymous substitutions is significantly elevated in the rhodopsin gene of a South American clade of freshwater anchovies with marine ancestry. This signature of positive selection is not observed in the rhodopsin gene of the marine sister clade or in non-visual genes. In Chapter three I functionally characterize the effects of positively selected substitutions occurring on another independent invasion of freshwater made by ancestrally marine croakers. In vitro spectroscopic assays on ancestrally resurrected rhodopsin pigments reveal a red-shift in peak spectral sensitivity along the transitional branch, consistent with the wavelengths of light illuminating freshwater environments. Kinetics assays reveal that freshwater croaker rhodopsin might also possess more efficient dark adaptation. In Chapter four I use a comparative approach to show that substitutions with similar functional effects occur convergently during marine to freshwater transitions, but only in deeper-dwelling lineages. In Chapter five I investigate the molecular evolution of rhodopsin in Gymnotiformes, a clade of freshwater fishes with an alternative sensory modality specialized for dim-light environments. Rhodopsin is highly conserved in this clade, but bouts of positive selection are observed in association with ecological transitions, indicating that dim-light vision remains an important sensory modality in these freshwater fishes. Altogether, these studies show that shifts in selection pressures and substitutions that alter the functional properties of rhodopsin are frequently observed during ecological transitions into and within freshwater environments, as long as species inhabit depths where the attenuation of light is non-negligible. Furthermore, this thesis expands our understanding of the effects of ecology on visual evolution and its influence on the structural and functional properties of rhodopsin.

Keywords: Adaptation
Genetics
Ichthyology
Positive selection
Rhodopsin
Visual evolution
Advisor: Chang, Belinda SW
Lovejoy, Nathan R
Provincial Cults during the Eighteenth Dynasty: A Dialectical Relationship between Royal Patronage and Non-royal Votive Activity

This dissertation examines the dialectical relationship between royal patronage and non-royal votive activity associated with provincial cults in Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty (1550-1295 BC). The study focuses on the sites of Mendes, Abydos, Elkab, Elephantine, and Sai Island, which represent a range of geographical regions from the Delta to Nubia. By analyzing architecture, material culture, pictorial evidence, and inscriptional data, this thesis incorporates an integrative approach to Egyptian history. The results of this research demonstrate that the sacred landscapes of Eighteenth Dynasty provincial towns delineated by royal cult institutions (provincial cult temples, peripteral temples, and ka chapels) and festival processional routes enabled royal and non-royal individuals to partake in mutual interactions. Royal involvement in provincial cults solidified economic, administrative, and political ties throughout Egypt and allowed the king to benefit from perpetuating the cults of local deities by appeasing the gods that could grant him favor. A significant development in royal temple construction indicates that this activity was both influenced by local aspects of divine cults and further enriched the built environment of sacred landscapes. At the same time, non-royal individuals could display their social status and devotion to their local deities by participating in festival celebrations and by leaving physical traces of their activity. This dissertation proves that traditionally assumed binary oppositions, or contrasts, between center and periphery, residence versus province, and state versus private religious systems can be moderated through careful analysis of the integration of material remnants of royal and non-royal votive activity acting within specific historical and geographical settings.

Keywords: Agency Theory
Core-Periphery Relations
Egyptian Archaeology
Provincial Temple Cults
Sacred Landscapes
Votive Offerings
Advisor: Pouls Wegner, Mary-Ann
Praxis and Critique: On Fugitive Politics

Through dialectical reflection upon the predicament of fugitive political praxis – forms of political action or claim making compelled to resist or give expression to political wrongs via the very mediums and contexts that sustain their imperceptibility and uninhabitability – this dissertation engages simultaneously in an immanent critique of the ‘primacy of [decentered/ fugitive] praxis’ and the development of a critical theory of fugitive politics. The ‘primacy of praxis’ names a constellation of contemporary political thinking that has discovered, out of both the ruins of sovereign or autonomous subjectivity (‘the decentering of the subject’) and the impasses of Critical Theory, novel forms of (fugitive) political possibility. The challenge of the dissertation is to salvage the promise of fugitive praxis from the antinomous theoretical architecture that falsifies it by inflating its plurality, agonism and indeterminacy into the status of ontological, affirmative or axiomatic givens. To raise the question of the inhabitability of fugitive politics is to ask after the particular social and political conditions that variably obstruct or facilitate responsiveness to the fragile claims of fugitive politics. Thinking both with and against Adorno – using his own philosophical insights to exceed his philosophy’s particular, historically sedimented limitations – the dissertation aims to rethink the interpretation of fugitive praxis in the historical present by salvaging his critical conception of mediation. Critical political interpretation, I will argue, neither affirms the resistant or heterogeneous power of (de-centered) praxis, nor discloses its impossibility within the mediating context of the historical present. On the contrary, it proceeds through micrological ambivalence to elucidate political praxis it where it emerges – in triumphant and transient flashes as well as in its disappointing, constrained and damaged forms – neither to celebrate nor mourn, but to disclose the conditionality of praxis and so to dis-close concrete insight as to how different form of praxis and different forms of political institutions might be realized.

Keywords: Adorno
Critical Theory
Critique
Political Theory
Praxis
Ranciere
Advisor: Kohn, Margaret
To the Water’s Edge of Empire: Domestic Class Struggle, White Merchant Sailors, and the Emerging U.S. Imperial System, 1872-1924

This dissertation examines the process through which the lines between foreign and domestic and nation and empire were established and re-established within the emerging U.S. imperial system between the 1870s and 1920s. It was a fluid process, perpetually in motion. I argue that white working people were both central to and on the front lines of this process, most of all merchant sailors. They were the ones most affected by these boundaries. Sailors who labored in the foreign maritime trade crossed these invisible boundaries every time they went to work. In short, the relationship between nation and empire and foreign and domestic was a labor question. By examining the connection between domestic class struggle and U.S. imperial expansion this dissertation will also reveal the vital role that organized labor—the principle institution through which the white working classes made their voices heard and their influence felt—played in this process and will challenge organized labor’s apparent anti-imperial orientation. With that in mind, the boundaries between nation and empire as well as foreign and domestic emerged through domestic or metropolitan class struggle —ebbing and flowing with the changing power dynamics between capital and labor—though largely expressed through the discourse of racial exclusion. Immigration restriction, therefore, emerged as labor’s primary means of exercising influence over U.S. imperial expansion. While the public and all three branches of government fiercely debated the now famous question of whether the constitution followed the flag. The question most pertinent to America’s labor leaders and the white working class they claimed to speak for was rather: does exclusion follow the flag? They would accept American imperial expansion so long as they were protected from the peoples and practices of the emerging U.S. empire. By demanding protection from certain parts of the U.S. imperial system they were implicitly endorsing the concept of empire by insisting on a privileged and protected position within an emerging imperial hierarchy. When all is said and done, though white working people were far from the principle beneficiaries of U.S. imperial expansion, they were nonetheless important and complicit players in its execution.

Keywords: Gilded Age and Progressive Era History
History of Capitalism
Immigration History
Maritime History
U.S. Empire
Working-Class History
Advisor: Halpern, Rick