VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Colouring outside the lines, transformative experiences of creativity and teacher self(ves)

This research assisted six secondary school teachers in transforming professional practice in self-designing ways through an arts-based examination of their experiences of creativity and teacher self(ves). We are Eleanor, Martha, Jesse, Marie, George Jeffrey and Margie. Broader purposes include school, system and teacher education reform. Heuristic phenomenology furnished me with a methodological and conceptual foundation that was scientifically rigorous; at the same time highlighting the creative process, honouring creative imagination, and encouraging arts-based ways of knowing and representation. Through heuristic self-inquiry, I reflected on how my experiences of school as a student had silenced my creativity (represented by "Little Margie") in favour of conformity, and how these experiences had shaped my teaching practice. My heuristic self-inquiry also led me to choices about the theoretical framework for this inquiry, emphasizing personal construct theory, transformative teacher education, art as experience, and art as encounter. The research process enabled me to begin "colouring outside the lines" of restraining traditions in teaching and research. The main component of the research design was three in-depth focused interviews: the first centred on a repertory grid and learning conversation exploring initial self-perceptions of teacher self(ves); the second centred on implicit beliefs and personal experiences of creativity; the third centred on revisiting the initial repertory grid and creativity. I present each co-researcher's experience of teacher transformation as a trilogy. Co-researchers remain identifiable throughout the research. To contextualize my research findings, I have added an interpretative section. Two essential structures of transformative experience emerged: (1) Encountering "the tyranny of the should"; and (2) Encountering the creative being and the real self ('creative'self). I found that the role of teacher places powerful demands on the 'creative'selves, of all six co-researchers. Paradoxically, 'creative'selves were reclaimed only after identifying personal "shoulds" that interfered with expression of self in teaching. Through my search, I reclaimed "Little Margie."
Sympathy in man and nature

I explicate and compare the accounts of sympathy found in the writings of David Hume, David Hartley, and Adam Smith, particularly with respect to their historical and doctrinal relations with earlier conceptions of sympathy. I argue that Humean "anatomical" sympathy bears some interesting relations to the concept of sympathy current in eighteenth-century Scottish medicine, most notably in the works of Hume's Edinburgh contemporary Robert Whytt. I briefly outline the history of medical sympathy from Hippocrates and Galen through Thomas Willis at Oxford and Hermann Boerhaave at Leiden, whose students dominated early eighteenth-century Edinburgh medicine. Hartley, himself a physician, also made reference to medical sympathy, but was more interested in what I call "millenarian" sympathy, a conception of sympathy as the progressive psychological coalescence of all human consciousness, the result of which is self-annihilation. The roots of millenarian sympathy, I suggest, may be traced to such works as Plotinus' 'Enneads' and Robert Fludd's 'Philosophia Moysaica'. Adam Smith, in contrast, took a "theatrical" view of sympathy that owed much to the sentimentalist celebration of man's "good nature" that had arisen in response to the perceived cynicism of Hobbes and Mandeville. Having established some possible historical bases of the three authors' conceptions of sympathy, I analyze the function that sympathy plays in each of their moral theories. In Hume's case, this involves a significant revision of the received view--I attempt to show that Hume's view of sympathy was not inspired by sentimentalism so much as by the need to fill an important epistemological gap in his moral theory. I argue that this emphasis was in keeping with that found in a number of less celebrated writers whom Hume is known to have admired: Abbé Dubos, Lévesque de Pouilly, and Lord Shaftesbury. The dissertation includes discussions of sympathy as it appears in works by such figures as Aristotle, Pliny, Porta, Digby, Samuel Butler, Paul Chamberlen, Thomas Browne, Mersenne, Malebranche, Burke, and Stewart, as well as several examples of sentimentalist poetry composed on Smithian and Hartleyan themes.
Complex interactions between skeletal muscle ryanodine receptor and dihydropyridine receptor proteins

Excitation-contraction coupling refers to the linkage between depolarization of the sarcolemma and muscle contraction which is manifested through the interaction between the Ca2+ release channel (ryanodine receptor) of skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum and the L-type Ca2+ channel on the sarcolemma (dihydropyridine receptor). Attempts to express a functional recombinant Ca2+ release channel in HEK 293 cells and to characterize the single channel properties of the channel in a planar lipid bilayer provided the starting point for the studies presented in this thesis. The recombinant channel was demonstrated to have conductance, kinetics of opening, current-voltage relationship, Ca2+ permeability, and modulation by physiological ligands identical to those of the native rabbit skeletal muscle Ca 2+ release channel. Understanding of the complex interactions between the Ca2+ release channel and the L-type Ca2+ channel that result in excitation-contraction coupling required the identification of sites in the ryanodine receptor which interact with sites in the dihydropyridine receptor. To locate these sites of interaction, the amino acid sequences that form links between domains II and III (II-III loop) and domains III and IV (III-IV loop) of the dihydropyridine receptor were fused to glutathione S-transferase or poly His-peptide and used as protein affinity columns for binding of fragments of the ryanodine receptor synthesized by 'in vitro ' transcription and translation and labeled with [35S]-methionine. A 37 amino acid sequence in the ryanodine receptor, Arg1076-Asp 1112, was shown to interact with the amino acids linking the dihydropyridine receptor II-III loop and to form part of a linear sequence that interacts with the dihydropyridine receptor III-IV loop. Thus, dihydropyridine receptor II-III and III-IV loops interact with a contiguous sequence on RyR1 which could participate in both opening and closing of the Ca 2+ release channel.
Alloy decomposition and surface instabilities in thin films

We theoretically and numerically study the growth of thin alloy layers by slow deposition techniques. We propose microscopic and mesoscopic descriptions of the phenomena, from which composition modulations in the thin film emerge, coupled with surface undulations. We obtain excellent agreement between these two approaches and are able to predict analytically the wavelength of the modulation as a function of the deposition rate and the temperature, which is confirmed numerically. The important non-equilibrium nature of the growth process is shown to lead to the experimentally observed structures, the patterning of the film for device applications is discussed, and we calculate scattering functions that can be compared with experiments. We explore the effects of stress and strain on the composition modulations in lattice-matched films, when phase separation is the driving force for the composition inhomogeneities. It is found that the lamellar structures seen without elastic effects can become dynamically unstable to the formation of hexagonal structures, due to long-ranged elastic interactions. The hexagonal order is found to consist of elastically undeformed droplets of the hard component in an elastically deformed matrix of the soft component. The wavelength of the composition modulation is calculated numerically and is always smaller than the wavelength in the absence of elastic effects. We also discuss the effects of crystal anisotropy in our system. The stability of mismatched alloy layers is studied with emphasis on the non-equilibrium nature of the growth and the coupling between the surface morphology and the film composition. We consider static and growing films at temperatures and mean compositions inside and outside of the phase diagram miscibility gap. Stability diagram are presented in terms of the mismatch between the film and the substrate and the growth velocity. It is shown that the experimentally observed difference in stability between tensile and compressed films is due to composition-dependent elastic moduli.
Teratogenic and molecular methods for the study of mouse gastrulation and neurulation

Although gene homology is expected between Xenopus, Drosophila and mouse, it is likely that mouse specific pathways exist. The aim of my thesis is to characterize genes and pathways that are specific to gastrulation and neurulation in the mouse. Two approaches were carried out. Using lithium treated 2-cell mouse embryos I was able to generate axial defects similar to that observed with lithium treated frog embryos. This lead me to investigate the interaction of lithium with GSK and ß-catenin and their role in mouse dorso-anterior development. Five days after treatment with lithium, a spectrum of defects were observed consistent with alterations in the developmental capacity of the mesoderm. The lag period makes it unlikely that lithium is affecting maternal mRNAs and proteins the same way that is observed in Xenopus. Therefore the most parsimonious explanation for my results is that alterations of the body plan, even in an embryo lacking localized maternal axial determinants, occurs because of changes mediated through alterations to the chromatin. Therefore a role for chromatin structure as a primary regulatory factor in development is implicated. A second approach using a differential screen with normal day 8.5 and mesoderm deficient embryo derived probes, led to the isolation of the D2 cyclin gene. Expression studies suggest a role in neural induction and a dependency on mesoderm. Expression in the neuroectoderm. at day 7 expands as the underlying mesoderm forms, followed by expression in the metacephalon at day 11. Using PCR methods with mouse mutants deficient for mesoderm, we were able to verify that D2 cyclin expression is dependent on the formation of mesoderm during gastrulation. Gene expression requires that chromatin adopts an open conformation. These changes are dependent on an increase in cell cycle length, which is regulated by cyclins and their partner kinases. This study demonstrates that cyclin regulation is important for cell differentiation.
Star formation history of the universe

The evolution of the comoving luminosity density at ultraviolet wavelengths is, effectively, a measure of the history of star formation in the Universe. Similarly, the infrared luminosity density is an indicator of the existent stellar mass. The evolution of the comoving luminosity density can, therefore, be used to reconstruct the history of star formation in the Universe. A measurement of the luminosity density can be obtained by integrating the galaxy luminosity function. Using the novel technique of photometric redshifts, the galaxy luminosity function is determined over the redshift range <math> <f> 0&lsim;z<4</f> </math>. Brightening is seen in both the luminosity function and the luminosity density out to 'z' &ap; 3; this is followed by a decline in both at 'z' > 3. Since dust shrouds star-forming regions, the amount of dust must be determined in order to accurately measure the amount of star formation at high redshifts. Broadband spectral energy distributions of 'z' > 2 galaxies are combined with spectral synthesis models to show that high-'z' galaxies (Lyman break objects) are shrouded in enough dust to attenuate their ultraviolet fluxes--and, hence, star formation rates--by a factor of more than 10. It is also found that these high-'z' objects are unlikely to be direct progenitors of present-day massive galaxies. A color selection technique is used to identify candidates for ultra-luminous ' z' <math> <f> &gsim;</f> </math> 5 galaxies. If indeed at high-'z', then these "' g'-band drop-outs" have extremely high star formation rates (<math> <f> &gsim;</f> </math> 50-1500 <math> <f> <rm>M<inf>&odot;</inf></rm><rm>yr<sup>-1</sup></rm></f> </math>) and produce comoving luminosity densities comparable to those observed at the present epoch. These objects may represent the formative stages of present-day massive galaxies. The above luminosity density and attenuation measurements, together with other data, are used to construct a qualitatively robust picture in which star formation peaked at <math> <f> t&ap;0.2t<inf>o</inf></f> </math> and declined more or less exponentially ever since. While qualitatively this picture is robust, different combinations of IMF, amount of high-' z' dust, and underlying cosmology result in scenarios of cosmic star formation which are 'quantitatively' different from each other.
Indicators of land use in the plant communities of a Mexican cloud forest

The following study explored variations in cloud forest vegetation in the buffer zones of a protected area in northeastern Mexico. A vegetation survey was performed along a distance gradient from human settlements with the objective of identifying changes in plant structure and composition that may serve as indicators of chronic anthropogenic disturbance for use as ecological monitoring tools. Using comparative, univariate and multivariate techniques, the response of the vegetation was examined. Differences in plant species composition and structure were evident. At the plot level, variations in species composition and structure were primarily explained by human related disturbance variables including the distance from 'ejidos' and the level of domestic animal dung. Several species were conspicuous in either their presence or absence from sites close to human settlements including: ' Liquidambar styraciflua & Eugenia capuli' and 'Hoffmannia strigillosa & Chameaedorea radicalis', respectively. These species are the best candidate indicators for use as ecological monitoring tools.
The effects of short-term localized changes on the decline of tuberculosis mortality in Gibraltar, 1860--1967

This thesis examines the decline of tuberculosis mortality in Gibraltar from 1860 to 1967, and the historical processes that influenced the decline, using time-series analysis and life-table methods. The time-series analysis showed that the decline of tuberculosis mortality in Gibraltar occurred due to localised, short-term changes. Box-Jenkins (ARIMA) analysis shows that the decline of tuberculosis mortality in Gibraltar from 1860 to 1967 was predicated on short-term local conditions operating to influence yearly mortality rates, and that the decline was not due to the natural cycle of the disease. Cross-correlation functions indicate that the decline of tuberculosis mortality in Gibraltar was closely related to the overall mortality decline before 1900, but deviated after 1900. The high correlation between overall mortality and tuberculosis mortality before 1900 is due to the predominance of water-borne disease during that period, which reduced resistance to tuberculosis. Life-table techniques showed that the impact of tuberculosis on life expectancy changed correspondingly before and after 1900. Explanations for the decline of tuberculosis mortality of Gibraltar were sought in its epidemiological, sanitary, housing and socio-medical history. Examination of the historical circumstances of the decline of tuberculosis mortality in Gibraltar showed that before 1900, the decline of tuberculosis mortality could be attributed to successive improvements in sanitation and water supply, although there were no direct efforts at reducing tuberculosis mortality. After 1900, the predominant factor influencing the decline in tuberculosis mortality was a reduction of crowding.
Efficient indexing and retrieval of colour image data using a vector-based approach

Colour is the most important low-level feature which is used to build image indices, for retrieval of images from a database. Specifically, the colour histogram remains the most popular method for building such indices, due primarily to its simplicity and fast computation. It has many drawbacks and limitations, however, which degrade its effectiveness. In this thesis, a new framework is proposed for indexing and retrieving images by colour, using representative RGB colour vectors and a perceptually-tuned vector angular-based measure of colour similarity. The feature extraction and indexing stage incorporates a new recursive HSV-based segmentation scheme which identifies pixels based on perceptual prominence and classifies them as 'bright chromatic, chromatic, black' and 'white'. For each of these classes, hue histogram thresholding is performed, while taking into consideration the multi-modal nature of the saturation histogram. Post-processing operations follow the segmentation to arrive at an accurate low-level representation of the colour image. The average colour of all the extracted regions we then stored in an index, along with the added information of colour categorization, number of regions, and colour amount. For the retrieval process, a new technique is proposed using a ' multidimensional query distance space', whose dimension is determined by the number of query colours. All images which exhibit similarity to the query colours occupy a position in this space and it is this position, and its relation to the origin and the 'equidistant line', that determines the overall similarity and ranking of a given image to a colour query. The concept proves to be quite flexible in how queries can be structured, allowing any number of query colours, query-by-example, and also effectively allows the exclusion of a specific colour in a query. An exclusion colour adds an additional component to the 'multidimensional query distance space' which affects the overall position of a given image in the space. Through extensive testing, it is shown that the proposed colour image retrieval scheme and measure exhibit very high performance in terms of retrieval rate, precision, and recall, especially over common colour histogram techniques and IBM's QBIC system. This was established through Human Query Sets obtained from 25 human volunteers. These sets of images represent the retrieval results containing images judged by humans to best fit a specified query and are used to analyze and compare the retrieval results of the system. Furthermore, the proposed scheme and measure exhibit high resistance to gamma nonlinearity. Retrieval results show that the retrieval rate is the highest over a wider range of gamma nonlinearity values than all other vector measures investigated, and also colour histogram techniques.
Experimental studies of harmonic generation from solid-density plasmas produced by picosecond ultra-intense laser pulses

In this thesis, an experimental investigation of harmonic generation from high-intensity laser-plasma interactions is presented. Harmonic experiments performed on the 1-terawatt FCM-CPA laser system at the University of Toronto, and on the 10-terawatt T3 laser system at the University of Michigan, are described. Using the FCM-CPA laser, various aspects of second harmonic generation were investigated systematically, with a focus on the effect of preformed plasma on harmonic generation. Experiments comparing harmonics generated by high-contrast pulses and by pulses containing weak prepulses show that the preformed plasma causes spatial and spectral breakup of harmonics and diffuses harmonic emission into large solid angles. On the T3 laser system, mid-order harmonic generation from various solid materials was studied and both odd and even harmonics up to the 7th were observed. Important features of harmonic generation, i.e., the laser-polarization dependence and the angular distribution of harmonic emission, were characterized. Pump-probe experiments were carried out as well on both laser systems by adding a controlled prepulse, which demonstrated a strong dependence of harmonic production efficiency on the gradient of preformed plasma. We also describe what we believe to be the first observation of regular satellite features accompanying the mid-order harmonics. Their dependence on target materials and on laser intensity was measured, and possible physical explanations are discussed. Besides, the development of the Toronto FCM-CPA laser system is summarized. Its original design and unique features are described in detail.
The holy Reich, religious dimensions of Nazi ideology, 1919-1945

This dissertation explores the religious views of the leadership of the Nazi movement. It combines archival source materials with theories of ideology and secularization to evaluate the ways in which members of the Nazi elite inscribed their movement with religious meaning. This study demonstrates that many leading Nazis, contrary to the scholarly consensus, considered themselves Christian or understood their movement within a Christian frame of reference. Often employing the concept of "positive Christianity," these Nazis suggested that the contours of their ideology were predicated on a Christian understanding of Germany's ills and their cure. A program usually regarded as secular in conception--the creation of a cross-class "peoples' community" embracing antisemitism, anti-marxism. and anti-liberalism--was for these Nazis understood in explicitly Christian terms. Far from viewing their movement as a substitute religion, positive Christians believed they were defending a faith menaced by the forces of moral and physical degeneracy. This study also unveils a struggle over religious identities in the movement. In this contest, "positive Christians" waged a struggle against the party's "paganists." The paganists were determined to create a new religion that would move its spiritual center from Jerusalem or Rome to Germany, and would introduce new objects of worship to the Volk. However, even as these paganists professed a rejection of Christianity and its dogmas, they esteemed Jesus as someone whose personal "struggle" against the Jews served as inspiration for their own struggle. Paganists cast Luther as both a great national hero and religious reformer, whose struggle against Rome inspired their religious battles. Convinced that they had successfully outlined a new religious belief system, paganists frequently salvaged key aspects of Christian belief for their new, un-Christian faith. Lastly, this dissertation examines key social and political dimensions of Christianity in Germany between 1919 and 1945. It maps out the rise of a particular variety of religion, "positive Christianity," and its dissipation. It reveals the contested nature of religious meaning in Nazism--a contest that spanned nearly the entire period of the party's history--and reveals how this influenced larger contests within the movement about ideology. It demonstrates that while the Nazi party as a whole became increasingly hostile to church institutions, this hostility was not always synonymous with an attack on Christianity.