VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
"Go Manfully": Masculine Self-Fashioning in Late Medieval Dominican Sources

In a world where men often demonstrated their masculine identity through violent action and sexual expression, how did the Dominican friar, forbidden to physically fight and committed to chastity, reconcile his sense of being a man with his vocational prerogatives? Often raised outside the convent and inculcated in lay understandings of maleness, the friar then entered a world of preachers, whose vocation required both commitment to conventual life, which emphasized separation from the world, and extensive involvement with lay society through pastoral work. This dissertation looks at how these two seemingly disparate behavioral codes--lay definitions of masculine behavior and religious ideals--found expression in the corporate identity of the Dominican Order from 1220-1350. In the process of defining the Order's vocational goals, behavioral ideals, and overall function in late medieval society, the early Dominican writers simultaneously created behavioral ideals for men that reflected those defining laymen as men. By comparing the values, behavioral norms, and ideology presented in the Order's important nascent texts with the secular ideals of masculinity described in anthropological studies, gender theory, late medieval literature, rhetorical sources, medical theory, legal records, letters, art, and religious traditions, this study explores the porous boundary between societal expectations for laymen and vocational models for Dominican friars during the Order's formative period. Viewed through the gendered habitus of late medieval society, the Dominican Constitutions, hagiographic texts, liturgical settings, preaching manuals, and encyclical letters collectively showed friars how to simultaneously function as a Dominicans and as men, while providing a valuable window into the relationship between religion and masculinity in the late medieval period.

Keywords: Dominicans
Identity
Masculinity
Advisor: Goering, Joseph
Meyerson, Mark
Feminine In/Auspiciousness in Indian Literature in English

In this thesis I seek to theorize the complex and shifting meanings of `auspiciousness' and especially `inauspiciousness' in twentieth and twenty-first century Indian literature in English. Anthropological scholarship on the subject demonstrates that these concepts are closely associated with, as Veena Das puts it, "events involving life and future" on the one hand and "events involving death and the termination of a future" on the other (144). At the same time, through the concept of Shakti, in/auspiciousness is closely tied to the feminine and to `feminine' people. This means that certain people are associated with the creation and furtherance of life while others are tied to death, disease, and catastrophe. While many scholars have discussed the crucial role played by the `auspicious' wife (and by the `inauspicious' widow) in the construction of Indian nationalism, previous to my own work scholars of literature had not yet carried out any sustained interrogation of auspiciousness and inauspiciousness as they operated in literary texts. By doing so in this project, I was able to trace how, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, certain highly influential novelists instrumentalize a widow's destructive inauspiciousness to smash open the social world and to inaugurate a bourgeois Indian modernity. In the process, though, these authors rationalize, domesticate, and modernize auspiciousness and, to some extent, inauspiciousness. By making widow characters directly and individually responsible for negative events, these authors efface the ways in which these characters are always already inauspicious (i.e. they efface a more traditional, ontological understanding of a widow's inauspiciousness). Inspired by a tremendously insightful article by M.S.S. Pandian on the subject of caste, I argue that these novels continue the exclusion of widows into modernity while relegating the true reasons for their exclusion to a traditional past (outside the new national culture). This has the effect of silencing these characters -denying them an accurate vocabulary with which to speak of their exclusion - and also of squashing and containing the danger attached to them as ontologically inauspicious. In order to counter this powerful containment, I argue, novelists writing in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries multiply the vocabularies they use to represent these inauspicious figures. These authors reinvent mythic and/or popular motifs, blurring the `traditional' with the `modern'. They layer stories told primarily in the realist mode with myth, folktale, the gothic, and the grotesque to question the nature of the `real'. And, ultimately, they reinvest their inauspicious characters with power -the power to destroy things, to break down the social order, and, therefore, sometimes, to reinvent themselves and others.

Keywords: auspiicious
hijra
inauspicious
India
realism
widow
Advisor: Kanaganayakam, Chelva
Behind the Greens: Understanding Golf Course Landscapes in Canada, 1873-1945

Between 1873 and 1945, the golf course emerged as a distinct landscape category in Canada. During this transformative period of golf development, the course, as a landscape, revealed particular human and human/non-human interactions. To explore these associations, the term `golfscape' signals the course's literal and ideological construction as simultaneously a playing field and manifestation of nature. Gendered sport identities existed within these golfscapes and reinforced class-based and racialized relationships as well as Anglo-Canadian and Canadian/American connections. Traditional British golfing canon collided with the cultural and environmental realities of Canada to create a unique social and physical space. An examination of private, public, and resort course locations across the country illustrates how clubs positioned and promoted their playing fields within an urbanizing and diversifying country. For example, golfscape game and aesthetic features prompted private and public interests to integrate golf into nature tourism within Canada's national parks during this time. Clubs, however, were held to certain appearance and playability standards, whether in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains or in the rural-urban fringe that fueled product experimentation and creation. Trends towards professionalism and expertise as well as recognition of the diversity of the country's climates and geographies created room for golf architects and agricultural scientists to position themselves as authorities with the power to experiment and disseminate knowledge and practices to the wider culture. Consequently, a North American-focused golf industry touted their products as scientifically tested and catered to local needs. An analysis of golfscape development, therefore, not only promotes a deeper understanding of the connections among culture, environments, and technology but also contributes a different vantage point from which to study the intersecting forces that shaped life in Canada during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Keywords: Culture
Environment
Golf
History
Landscape
Nature
Advisor: MacDowell, Laurel
Debating Iranians: The Discursive Practice of Munazirah and the Making of Modern Iran

Iranian modernity has chiefly been examined in the context of a dialectical antagonism between "traditionalists" and "modernists." Following this binaristic approach, early demands for reform within the country have often been (de)historicized as a theatre of national "awakening" resulting from the toils of secular intellectuals in overcoming the resistance of traditional reactionaries, a confrontation between two purportedly well-defined and mutually-exclusive camps. Such reductionist dialectics has generally overwritten the dialogic narrative of Iranian modernity, a conflicted dialogue misrepresented as a conflicting dialectic. Historical evidence suggests that in fact the heated debate over the definition of being modern and the limits of modernization was often conducted on the universally acknowledged premise of the simultaneity and commensurability of Islam with modern civilization. This defining feature of Iranian modernity has been silenced in scholarship that views modernity as the dialectic, and diametric, opposition of the old and the new. The genre that recorded the dialogue of rival discourses, the munazirah (debate or disputation), draws on a long-standing tradition in classical and religious literature. However, in the modern era the munazirah gradually transformed from a polemic between the mentor and the disciple, the wise and the haughty, to a debate between competing discourses which engaged in opposing, informing, appropriating, and complementing each other. Beyond its narrative manifestation in the form of treatises, the discursive practice of the munazirah was also present in social practices, official policies, intellectual endeavours, and cultural expressions. In each of these articulations, rival discourses had to vie for legitimacy, often with the shared but ambiguous sentiment that there is no fundamental difference between east-Islam and west-civilization. The binaries so central to the contemporary studies of modern Iranian history disintegrate into overlapping hybrids when put in historical perspective. The munazirah is the account of modern Iranian histories.

Keywords: constitutional revolution
dialogism
Iranian modernity
modern Iranian history
modern Iranian literature
munazirah
Advisor: Tavakoli-Targhi, Mohamad
Characterization of the Gumby Protein, the First Linear Ubiquitin Specific Deubiquitinating Enzyme with Roles in Modulating Wnt Signalling and Angiogenesis

In a forward genetic screen, our lab identified the recessive gumby point mutation, which caused facial nerve and vascular patterning defects, and mid-gestational lethality. We have mapped the causative mutation to a single point mutation in the uncharacterized gene Fam105b, which is now referred to as Gumby or OTULIN. This mutation converts a conserved tryptophan residue at position 96 to an arginine. To complement phenotypic analysis of Gumby mouse mutants being conducted in our lab, I chose to evaluate the molecular roles of Gumby as the subject of my thesis work. In collaboration with Dr. Anne-Claude Gingras' lab, I have identified Gumby-interacting proteins by affinity purification coupled to mass spectrometry. One of these protein interactors, HOIP (also known as RNF31) was of particular interest as it is the catalytic subunit of the linear ubiquitin assembly complex (LUBAC), which generates atypical ubiquitin polymers through the starting methionine opposed to internal lysine residues. We have since discovered that Gumby interacts with HOIP via its N-terminal and that Gumby is the first linear specific deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB). We showed that the antagonistic regulation of ubiquitin chains is important for the regulation of TNF/NF-κB and canonical Wnt signalling and that canonical Wnt signaling is reduced in GumbyW96R/W96R embryos. I have also obtained preliminary data indicates a role for Gumby in the regulation of the non-canonical Wnt/planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway, suggesting that components of the PCP pathway may also be regulated by linear ubiquitination by the opposing activity of LUBAC and Gumby. Precise modulation of these pathways is important for embryonic development and the understanding of Gumby function, including substrate protein identification, may help to further our understanding of embryonic development and diseases in which the patterning of the neuronal and vascular systems are disrupted.

Keywords: Angiogenesis
Forward genetics
LUBAC
OTULIN
Ubiquitin
Wnt Signalling
Advisor: Cordes, Sabine P
Motor Aspects of the Emergence of Oral Gestures for Speech: A Dynamic Approach

Emergence approaches to speech acquisition consider speech development as a dynamic process in which the body's actions play a crucial role in the acquisition of phonological knowledge. This assumption is rooted in the hypothesis that the phylogenetic origin of speech lies in oral behaviors for feeding (e.g., smacking, chewing, and sucking). This dissertation investigates motor aspects of emergent speech from a dynamic systems approach in real-time, developmental time and across motor systems. Specifically, it examines contrasting predictions from Articulatory Phonology and Frame-then-Content theory regarding articulator control in early babbling. Infants aged 6 and 8 months were presented with an audiovisual presentation of an adult model producing lip smacks and tongue smacks. The 8-month-old infants exhibited more lip gestures than tongue gestures following adult lip smacks and more tongue gestures than lip gestures following adult tongue-tip smacks. This finding implies that 8-month-old infants are capable of producing goal-directed oral gestures by matching the articulatory organ of an adult model, which is consistent with predictions from Articulatory Phonology. The 6-month-old infants provided no evidence of significant differential responding. Instead, they showed bouts of complex oral movements involving lips and tongue, which resembled ingestive behaviors. This developmental pattern seems homologous with the development of lip smacking in monkeys, supporting the contention that speech developed from rhythmic facial expressions in phylogeny. Besides oral responses, the infants also showed manual responses to the oral gesture presentations. Compared to a baseline condition, infants increased their rate of rhythmic oral and manual (hand and arm) movements during the presentation of rhythmic oral gestures, with older infants exhibiting a higher rate of rhythmic movement events than younger infants. The findings strengthen claims of linkage between the motor systems underlying rhythmic oral and manual behavior in infancy. Overall, the results contribute to the advancement of theory on speech production and offer new directions for the investigation of precursors of speech.

Keywords: articulatory
babbling
imitation
infants
phonology
speech development
Advisor: Van Lieshout, Pascal H. H. M.
Policy-making Dynamics and Emergent Technology: the Evolution of Biofuel Policy in the United States, Germany, and the European Union

This dissertation advances our understanding of two phenomena that are crucial to studies of public policy: policy-making dynamics, understood as distinct modes of interpersonal interactions between specialized policy actors; and shifts from one policy-making dynamic to another. It proposes a typological theory for explaining different policy-making dynamics (problem-hooking, consensus-keeping, adversarialism, and problem-solving) and the changes therein. This theory development endeavour builds on a detailed account of the evolution of biofuel policy in the United-States, Germany and the European Union over a very long period of time (1906 to early 2014). It proposes a typological theory demonstrating the constitutive role of causal and normative beliefs mobilized in subsystems and the causal role of pathways processes enabling changes from one dynamic to another.

Advisor: Skogstad, Grace
The Relationship of Alcohol Dependence to Monoamine Oxidase A

Background: Alcohol dependence (AD) is a substance abuse disorder characterized by compulsive alcohol seeking and intake, combined with a negative emotional state during withdrawal. AD is also associated with markers of apoptosis and/or oxidative stress across multiple organs. Monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) is an important enzyme that participates in the cellular response to oxidative stress, and is elevated during major depressive episodes, somewhat more robustly in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). It is unknown whether MAO-A levels are abnormal in AD. The current studies examine whether: i) MAO-A level is elevated in the PFC and ACC in AD in humans. ii) Chronic harman exposure, a MAO-A inhibitor found in alcoholic beverages, upregulates MAO-A in the PFC and ACC of rodents. iii) Chronic alcohol exposure upregulates MAO-A in the PFC and ACC of rodents. Methods: i) Sixteen participants with AD underwent [11C]-harmine positron emission tomography to determine MAO-A distribution volume (VT), an index of MAO-A level. ii) Rats were treated with harman for 21 days (0, 2, 5, 15 mg/kg/day) via osmotic minipump. MAO-A protein and activity levels, measured with Western blot and a spectrophotometric assay respectively, were assessed immediately and after 8-hour withdrawal. iii) Rats were exposed to alcohol vapor for 8 weeks, 17 hours per day. MAO-A protein/activity levels were assessed immediately and after 24-hour, 4-day, and 21-day withdrawal. Results: i) MAO-A VT was significantly greater in all brain regions analyzed in AD. ii) MAO-A protein/activity levels were not altered by harman administration. iii) MAO-A protein/activity levels were elevated in the PFC and ACC after 24-hour withdrawal from alcohol exposure. There were no changes at any other timepoints. Conclusion: These findings identify elevated MAO-A level as a new pathological marker present in AD that is therapeutically targetable through direct inhibition. MAO-A protein/activity levels were not changed by harman administration, suggesting chronic MAO-A inhibition does not alter MAO-A level. The human PET findings, measured in early withdrawal from alcohol dependence, were replicated in the rodent model of chronic alcohol exposure in the PFC and ACC, suggesting that alcohol exposure likely led to elevated MAO-A in AD.

Keywords: alcohol dependence
monoamine oxidase A
Advisor: Meyer, Jeffrey H
Kish, Stephen J
In Principio: The Origins of the Glossa ordinaria on Genesis 1-3

This thesis traces the twelfth-century origins and development of the Glossa ordinaria on Genesis from the evidence of sixteen early manuscripts, focusing on the creation narrative (Genesis 1-3). The Glossa ordinaria on the Bible, a product of the twelfth-century School of Laon, was one of the most influential texts of the High Middle Ages. The Glossa on the creation narrative compiled excerpts from Genesis commentaries and Hexameral literature, explaining the scriptural basis for doctrines such as the creation of the world ex nihilo and Original Sin, and exploring the relationship between the Genesis account, Plato's Timaeus, and Aristotelian natural philosophy. The first chapter observes the manuscripts for themselves: it describes their physical characteristics and argues that the textual development of the Glossa ordinaria on Genesis depended upon mid-twelfth-century innovations in formatting and layout. The second and third chapters study the history of the two distinct versions of the text. The second chapter compares the earlier version--the Glossa primitiva-- to an anonymous Genesis commentary found in London, Lambeth Palace Library, 349, and argues that the two commentaries are built on a shared source, likely a lecture aid used in a classroom. The third chapter studies the relationship between the Glossa primitiva and the later Glossa ordinaria, arguing that they represent two stages in a process by which classroom notes were transformed into an encyclopedic reference. The fourth chapter focuses on the content of the texts: it looks at the exegetical principles and theological questions treated in the Glossa ordinaria to show that its compilers read the creation account with a hermeneutic that challenges a simplistic division between literal and allegorical readings. It concludes by observing that this, combined with the narrative structure of the gloss format, gave twelfth-century exegetes more scope for cosmological inquiry than did other contemporary genres, such as sentence collections. The thesis is supported by two appendices: one containing manuscript descriptions, the second a transcription of the Glossa ordinaria on Genesis 1-3.

Keywords: Biblical exegesis
Genesis
Glossa ordinaria
Hexameron
Medieval theology
prescholastic
Advisor: AndrĂŠe, Alexander
Characterization and Modeling of C19MC Amplified/LIN28 Immunopositive Pediatric CNS Primitive Neuroectodermal Brain Tumours

Malignant brain tumours are the leading cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality in children, and represent a poorly characterized, genetically diverse class of tumours for which diagnosis relies primarily on morphologic features. Central nervous system-primitive neuroectodermal tumours (CNS-PNET), which are histologically very similar to medulloblastoma (MB), clinically present as considerably more aggressive tumours that respond poorly to conventional treatment. Amplification of the oncogenic C19MC miRNA cluster and LIN28 over-expression have been linked to a highly aggressive subgroup of CNS-PNETs arising in very young children. This subgroup, called Group 1 CNS-PNETs, is also associated with a variant Embryonal Tumour with Abundant Neuropil and True Rosettes (ETANTR) histology and a primitive neural gene signature. In this study, we set out to characterize the specificity of C19MC and LIN28 as diagnostic markers, as well as examine clinical and pathological properties of Group 1 CNS-PNETs. We examined prevalence of these markers in 450 malignant pediatric brain tumours, finding that C19MC amplification was restricted to a subgroup of CNS-PNETs, whereas LIN28 immunopositivity was identified in a range of tumour types, most frequently in ATRT and high-grade gliomas. Importantly, we identified these markers in CNS-PNETs with a range of histologic groups, including ETANTR, medulloepithelioma, ependymoblastoma, and CNS-PNET with or without divergent/ependymal differentiation. Gene expression and methylation profiles distinctly segregated these tumours from other CNS-PNETs, regardless of location of CNS origin or histology, indicating these tumours represent a distinct molecular and diagnostic entity. Furthermore, we established the only cell lines of C19MC amplified/LIN28+ CNS-PNETs, which we then used to identify and validate novel targeted therapeutics for these tumours, including inhibitors of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling. Additionally, the in vitro and in vivo transforming activity of C19MC microRNAs remain poorly understood, and there are currently no murine models of CNS-PNETs. We therefore examined transforming properties of the 5 most highly expressed C19MC miRNAs and examined their in vivo tumourigenic potential using the RCAS-Nestin-tv/a system of post-natal transgenesis in an attempt to make a murine model of this aggressive disease.

Keywords: Brain Tumour
C19MC
CNS-PNET
LIN28
Advisor: Huang, Annie
Rutka, Jim