VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Creative Producers and Gender Relations: A Field Analysis of Two Grassroots Music Scenes

This dissertation uses a comparative case study of two grassroots music scenes—the folk music and heavy metal scenes in Toronto—to examine gender relations among cultural producers. I collect data using semi-structured interviews with 63 field actors, 70 instances of participant-observation, and discourse analysis of key public texts. Building on Bourdieu’s field theory, I argue that gender organizes fields of cultural production, including (1) the field’s economy of symbolic capital (2) the connection between field and habitus and (3) the spaces where musicians develop the embodied cultural capital required for music careers. The first paper shows that field organization impacts the extent to which field members’ gendered dispositions produce symbolic capital, or reputation. Two features of cultural fields shape whether symbolic capital is gendered: the degree to which symbolic capital is institutionalized, and the level of symbolic boundary-drawing in the field. The metal field’s low institutionalization of symbolic capital and high boundaries foreground gender as a basis of symbolic capital, while the folk field’s high institutionalization of symbolic capital and low boundary-drawing reduce the extent to which gender matters. The second paper situates gender as central to relationship between field and habitus. Participants in the metal field develop a metalhead habitus that privileges gendered practices centered on individual dominance and status competition, while the folkie habitus encourages gendered practices centered on caring, emotionality, and community-building. These gendered habitus support different working conventions: volunteer-based non-profit organizations in folk, and individual entrepreneurship in metal. The gendered habitus also supports different stylistic conventions: guitar virtuosity in the metal field, and participatory music-making in folk. The third paper finds gendered access to the learning spaces where musicians develop performance capital, a form of embodied cultural capital denoting the instrumental and interpersonal skills required to perform music. Folk’s learning spaces are largely public and do not require social networks for access, while heavy metal’s learning spaces are private and centered on male-dominated friendship networks from which women are often excluded. These different learning spaces creates gendered patterns of access to the embodied cultural capital required to develop a music career.

Keywords: Cultural and symbolic capital
Cultural valuation
Fields of cultural production
Gender and creative careers
Gender and habitus
Gender and organizations
Advisor: Cranford, Cynthia
Energy Expenditure in the Opera Singer in Rehearsal and Performance

Energy expenditure in professional classical opera singers is a field of study that has remained untouched until now. The purpose of this dissertation is to discover the most appropriate and accurate manner of assessing the number of calories a professional classical opera singer burns in the course of an aria, both in rehearsal and performance. Methods were developed for laboratory (Phase 1) and field testing of energy expenditure in six subjects during the rehearsal (Phase 2) and performance (Phase 3) of a staged opera aria. In Phase 1, a sub maximal VO2 treadmill test was administered using indirect calorimetry (gas exchange information using a Moxus Metabolic Cart). Additionally, heart rate information (using a Polar heart rate monitor and receiver) and perceived exertion information (using the Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion, or RPE) were collected. In the field, heart rate information was collected during the rehearsal and performance of the staged opera aria (Phases 2 and 3). Both rehearsal and performance were video recorded to track movement. Using the heart rate information and the Borg RPE information from the field testing, and the gas exchange information from the laboratory testing, reasonable estimations were made regarding the number of calories burned during the rehearsal and performance of a staged opera aria. For the six subjects, the average length of the staged aria was 2:50 minutes. The average heart rate for rehearsal (Phase 2) was 128 bpm, and average energy expenditure during this phase was 22.5 calories. The average heart rate for performance (Phase 3) was 138 bpm, and average energy expenditure during this phase was 28.5 calories. Further estimations were made for the approximate energy expenditure of a classical opera singer performing an entire role.

Keywords: energy expenditure
heart rate
indirect calorimetry
professional opera singers
submaximal VO2 test
Advisor: Edwards, Darryl
Retrofit of Soft Storey Buildings Using Gapped Inclined Brace Systems

Although a soft storey mechanism is generally undesirable for the seismic response of building structures, it could provide potential benefits due to the isolating effect it produces. This thesis proposes a retrofit strategy for buildings that are expected to develop soft storey mechanisms, taking advantage of the positive aspects of the soft storey response while mitigating the negative ones. After a review of traditional considerations that are made for soft storey structures, the work starts by comparing the behaviour of an RC frame building with two infill configurations; in the first configuration, it is assumed that masonry infills are distributed over all storeys uniformly, while in the next step and in order to consider soft storey effects, it is assumed that masonry infills are not present at the ground storey. Results of incremental dynamic analyses indicate that structures with uniform infill are less likely to collapse. However, if the displacement demands at the first level of soft storeys could be sustained, their overall performance would be significantly improved. Following this initial study, a gapped inclined brace (GIB) system is proposed with the aim of significantly reducing the likelihood of collapse whilst ensuring that the seismic damage concentrates at this single level, protecting the rest of the structure located above. The GIB system achieves these aims by reducing P-Delta effects at the first floor of soft storey buildings without significantly increasing their lateral resistance. The mechanics of the proposed system are defined and a systematic design procedure is explained and illustrated. The theoretical relations that are derived for GIB systems are verified through numerical analyses. Results of cyclic static and incremental dynamic analyses demonstrate that the overall seismic performance of soft storey buildings retrofitted using a GIB system is greatly improved, indicating that the GIB system produces an efficient and intelligent soft storey mechanism at the first level of such buildings, which provides several advantages over conventional approaches. The last part of the thesis discusses various uncertainties that remain about the potential of GIB systems, including the best likely connection details for GIB systems, which should be investigated as part of future research.

Advisor: Christopoulos, Constantin
Sullivan, Tim
Towards Meaningful Work: A Preliminary Understanding of Career Paralysis

This qualitative study aimed to explore the, as of yet, little understood phenomenon of career paralysis. Career paralysis is a new term adopted by the researcher to represent the increasingly common experience among adults today of wanting to make a career change toward something more meaningful but, for several reasons, being unable to actually make a change. The goal of this research was to develop a preliminary working model of career paralysis through an in-depth exploration of peopleâ s in-situ experience of the phenomenon. Eight females and five males, ranging in age from 26 to 41, participated in the study. Participants self-identified with a range of ethnocultural backgrounds and a range of professional backgrounds. Conducted within a phenomenological framework, open-ended semi-structured interviews were completed with each participant and interview transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Participants wanted to make a career change both from a desire for more meaningful work and from a desire to escape variables of job dissatisfaction. At the core of their lived experience of career paralysis, participants described an underlying knowledge or truth that change was needed that was in direct conflict with a deep sense of stuckness regarding the possibility of career change. This conflict of career paralysis was revealed to affect participantsâ lives across many dimensions of experiencing. Participants described both external and important internal barriers, which hindered their interest, motivation, and efforts toward change. The implications of the findings for theory are discussed and include the importance of meaning in career, and the role of inertia variables in adult career decision-making. In addition, the findings of the study gave rise to the two-part Emergent Model of Career Paralysis. The model describes both the maintenance of career paralysis through an examination of the relationships between barriers to career change, and describes the various dimensions of being within the experience as related by participants. The model may serve as a preliminary guide for practice and points to a need for thorough assessment of individuals experiencing career paralysis and integrative treatment with special focus on meaning and inertia factors. Finally, directions for future research are proposed.

Advisor: Chen, Charles
Brain Uptake and Metabolism of Eicosapentaenoic Acid in Rodents

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) are currently being investigated as a potential therapy in mood disorders including depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. Clinical trials that used relatively pure EPA were more effective in alleviating depressive symptoms compared to relatively pure DHA supplementations. However, this poses a potential paradox as EPA levels in the brain are 250 to 300-fold lower than DHA, a finding consistent across mammals. The large difference in brain EPA and DHA levels may be explained by either selective differences in their uptake or metabolism upon entry into the brain. Based on the literature, EPA and DHA can passively diffuse across the blood-brain barrier at similar rate suggesting that the uptake of n-3 PUFA into the brain is non-selective. Therefore, I hypothesize that the difference between EPA and DHA concentrations might be explained by metabolic differences which are yet to be elucidated. First, we characterized the difference in EPA and DHA β-oxidation via in situ cerebral perfusion. We found that EPA was 2.5-fold more readily β-oxidized than DHA. Upon in vivo kinetic modeling in the rat, we observed a 3-fold lower esterification and 154-fold lower recycling of EPA in brain phospholipids as compared to DHA. This corresponded to a 7-fold increase in EPA loss from brain phospholipids compared to DHA in the rat brain. Moreover, upon inhibiting mitochondrial fatty acid β-oxidation, we observed a further reduction in EPA recycling and increased EPA elongation to n-3 docosapentaenoic acid (n-3 DPA) suggesting multiple redundant pathways are present to maintain low levels of EPA in the brain. In conclusion, the low levels of EPA in brain phospholipids, as compared to DHA, are maintained by increased β-oxidation, decreased esterification, increased conversion to n-3 DPA, decreased recycling and increased loss.

Keywords: Beta-oxidation
Eicosapentaenoic acid
Fatty acid metabolism
Fatty acid uptake
Kinetic modeling
Advisor: Bazinet, Richard P
Chemical Genetic Interrogation of Strigolactone Receptors in Arabidopsis thaliana and Striga hermonthica

Strigolactones are a class of terpenoid plant hormones that regulate various areas of plant growth and development. They are best known as suppressors of axillary growth, but have also been implicated in areas as diverse as leaf shape, hypocotyl length, and seed germination. However, parasitic plants of the genera Striga, Orobanche, and Phelipanche have evolved to use strigolactones released from host plant roots as a cue for germination and parasitism. Because these parasitic plants cause billion-dollar yield losses in the developing world each year, considerable research efforts have been dedicated towards understanding the mechanism of strigolactone perception. The alpha/beta hydrolase HTL is the receptor for strigolactones in the seed. HTL interacts with effector proteins to elicit a strigolactone response. HTL-dependent signaling leads to increased germination and reduced hypocotyl length. We decided to use a chemical genetic approach to both probe HTLs while also developing Striga control technologies. Separately, we screened approximately 4000 compounds from a chemical library to identify small molecules that could be agonists and antagonists for Arabidopsis thaliana HTL. We were able to show that many of the compounds we isolated from the chemical screen were able to directly bind to HTL, and their action was specific to strigolactone signaling. These compounds were also able to stimulate Striga hermonthica germination, showing they have promise as leads for Striga control technology development. In order to identify new genes involved in strigolactone signaling, we screened a collection of overexpression lines for the ability to resist the effects of an HTL antagonist on germination. We found that the overexpression of the splicing factor U2AF35B was sufficient to suppress the effect of an antagonist on germination, and could partially suppress phenotypes associated with loss-of-function alleles of HTL. This suggests that U2AF35B plays a role in strigolactone signaling at or downstream of HTL.

Keywords: Arabidopsis genetics
Chemical biology
Chemical genetics
Chemical screening
Parasitic plants
Plant hormones
Advisor: McCourt, Peter
Neural Substrates of Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson’s disease is characterized by selective degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, the presence of Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites containing alpha synuclein ag-gregates in such neurons, and neuroinflammation mediated by the activation of microglia and astrocytes. These pathological changes collectively contribute to the cardinal motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease such as resting tremor, bradykinesia, rigidity, and postural instability. In ad-dition, dysfunction of non-dopaminergic neurons such as serotonergic, noradrenergic, and cho-linergic neurons, the Lewy pathology, and neuroinflammation outside of the nigro-striatal re-gions are thought to play a major role in non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease such as psychiat¬ric problems, cognitive dysfunction including dementia, autonomic symptoms, and rap-id-eye movement sleep disorder. Therefore, Parkinson’s disease is a multisystem disease, affect-ing diffuse area of brain and producing various symptoms. Current trends toward use of data driven analytic methods can facilitate to expand our knowledge about Parkinson’s disease be-yond the classic basal ganglia motor model and DA dysfunction. The general aim of this thesis is to investigate a whole brain in vivo to further understand the complex neural substrates of the disease using multimodal neuroimaging tools and techniques. This thesis has shed light on the cortical and subcortical structural and functional brain changes underpinning for the clinical manifestations in Parkinson’s disease. Changes in gray and white matter as well as functional changes were evident using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Gray matter and functional changes occurred in the frontal cortex while white matter changes occurred more diffuse area of the brain including bilateral frontal and temporal regions and left parietal and occipital regions as well as subcortical white matter tracts. These changes were also associated with motor and cog-nitive dysfunction, suggesting that structural MRI and diffusion tensor imaging as well as resting functional MRI may be promising as in vivo biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease. Our investiga-tion of neuroinflammation using Positron Emission Tomography and an improved second gener-ation radioligand did not find any changes in the striatum of patients with Parkinson’s disease. However, demonstrated gray matter, white matter, and functional changes warrant further inves-tigations of neuroinflammation in extra-striatal and white matter regions.

Keywords: Cognition
Motor
MRI
Neuroinflammation
Parkinson's disease
PET
Advisor: Strafella, Antonio P
Families Building Nations, or Nations Building on Families? An Exploration of How African Caribbean Immigrants (Re) Construct Family in the Context of Immigration and Oppression in Canada

This study retrospectively explores the experiences of separation and reunification of African Caribbean immigrant families and how they rebuild their families in the context of immigration and oppression in Canada. Experiences of multiple separations and prolonged reunification have been expected and commonplace for many Caribbean families who have immigrated to Canada since the 1960s. There is a gap in social work knowledge about the experiences of African Caribbean immigrant families in Canada, and this lack is particularly important in light of the frequency of these families’ contact and conflict with institutions such as child welfare agencies, the educational system, and the criminal justice system; these are social institutions where social work has an instrumental role. The study sample consisted of 27 participants, including 25 who identified as African Caribbean women and men, and two who were not African Caribbean-identified. This qualitative study used a decolonizing critical constructionist grounded theory methodology, with data collected through semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups. The major themes that emerged from the study include “Cast Out,” “Keeping Up,” and “Child Rearing.” Together, these themes point to the specific realities and complexities involved in the impact of multiple separations and extended reunification on African Caribbean immigrant families. For social work, the findings offer important contextual knowledge about African Caribbean immigrant families that may help to inform transformative policies and practices. Additionally, the findings aim to contribute towards depathologizing and decolonizing understandings of the historical and contemporary social conditions and subsequent life choices and chances of African Caribbean immigrant families in Canada.

Keywords: African Caribbean
Decolonizing
Family Separation
Immigration
Advisor: Williams, Charmaine C.
Cardiac Rehabilitation Programs and their Core Components for Coronary Heart Disease: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis

Background Although earlier reviews establish that patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) respond well to cardiac rehabilitation (CR), the comparative effectiveness of different CR programs or their individual core components of CR have not been evaluated. Methods A systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the core components of CR (nutritional counseling (NC), risk factor modification (RFM), psychosocial management (PM), patient education (PE), and exercise training (ET)) was undertaken. The core components were evaluated individually and as part of broader CR treatment categories (“exercise-only” CR programs, “comprehensive” CR programs, and “secondary prevention programs without exercise”). Published RCTs were identified from database inception dates (Medline, Medline In-Process, the Cochrane database, Embase, CINAHL, Sci-Expanded, PsychINFO, the Web of Science) to July 2014. Endpoints included measures of mortality (all-cause and CV) and morbidity (myocardial infarction (MI), revascularization, and hospitalization). Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% credible intervals (CrIs) were used as summary measures. iii Findings 136 trials (50,054 participants) and 169 trials (62,149 participants) were included for the NMAs of the overall CR treatment strategies and for the core components of CR respectively. “Exercise-only” and “comprehensive” CR programs significantly reduced the hazards of all-cause mortality, CV mortality, total MI, fatal MI, non-fatal MI, revascularization, total and CV hospitalization by 25-54% when compared to usual care, and significantly reduced the hazard of all-cause mortality by 23%-26% when compared to “secondary prevention programs without exercise”. “Secondary prevention programs without exercise” significantly reduced the hazards of all-cause and CV mortality, total MI, non-fatal MI, all-cause and CV hospitalization by 20%-43% when compared to usual care. The core component of PM significantly reduced the hazards of all-cause mortality, all-cause and CV hospitalization by 31%, 33% and 50% respectively. RFM and PE significantly reduced the hazards of total MI and all-cause hospitalization by 37% and 23% respectively. Interpretation These findings confirm the central role of CR in patients with CHD, emphasize the central role of exercise training in CR, elevate the role of other key CR core components, especially psychosocial management, and establish the superiority of exercise-based CR programs to “secondary prevention programs without exercise”.

Keywords: Cardiac Rehabilitation
Core Components
Coronary Heart Disease
Exercise
Network Meta-Analysis
Non-Exercise
Advisor: Krahn, Murray
Weather, Climate (Change) and Zoo Visitation: A Case Study of the Toronto Zoo (Ontario, Canada)

The statistical relationship between weather, climate and zoo visitation was determined and the impact of projected climate change was assessed, based on a case study of the Toronto Zoo (Ontario, Canada). This research was conducted in three independent study stages. The first study determined the weather sensitivity and temperature thresholds associated with visitation to the zoo, based on a statistical analysis of historical data. Temperature was found to be the most influential weather variable, positively affecting daily zoo visitation; however, when temperatures exceeded 26 째C in the shoulder season or 28 째C in the peak season, negative effects on visitation were observed. The second study used a modelling approach to assess the impact of projected climate change on future visitation to the zoo. The output from a series of seasonal multivariate regression models suggests that annual visitation to the zoo will likely increase over the course of the 21st century due to projected climate change. The main increases in visitation were projected during the shoulder seasons, with some potential losses during the peak season, especially if warming exceeds 3.5 째C. The third study used a multi-year temporal climate analogue approach to explore zoo visitor responses to seasonal climatic anomalies and reassess the impacts of projected climate change on zoo visitation. When anomalously warm winters and springs occurred within the historical record, total zoo visitation in those seasons increased significantly. Conversely, when anomalously warm summers occurred, visitation decreased significantly. Temperature anomalies in the autumn season did not result in any significant differences in visitation. Zoo visitation was determined to be highly weather sensitive, with both the modelling and analogue approaches suggesting that projected climate change will have significant but disparate impacts on visitation across the seasons, demonstrating both opportunities and threats for zoo managers and city planners.

Keywords: Biometeorology
Climate Change Impacts
Temporal Climate Analogue
Tourism Climatology
Urban Outdoor Tourism
Zoo Attendance
Advisor: Gough, William A