cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Magic in Theory, in Practice, and in Roman Law
Creators: name: Barnett, Morgan
Publisher: name: Brandeis University
Year: 2023

description: This thesis argues that there is a pattern of Roman elites manipulating anxieties about magic to maintain or increase their status, wealth, and power. Magic as a term and category is very dependent on the society and period in which its being studied. A modern definition distinguishes the practices as having supernatural power over natural forces outside of the normative religion. This creates a distinction between a prayer and an incantation, though this line sometimes becomes fuzzy. This thesis focuses on the relationship between magic and Roman law; where characters were put on trial and accusers attempt to fit the defendants to stereotypes of magicians. This explored through three case studies: The story of Cresimus, the trial of Marcus Scribonius Drusus Libo, and the trial of Apuleius. Each of the cases present a new way in which laws were manipulated marking a shift from early Republic to mid Imperial period. The first case follows the freedman named Cresimus, found in Pliny’s Natural History, who was charged with charming away his neighbors’ crops. This story demonstrates anxieties about crop yields in relation to social status and land distribution that result in fears of magic. The second follows the story of Drusus Libo, as written in Tacitus’ Annals, who was convicted of treasonous activities via magic. The case demonstrates how concerns about magic had become political through issues of regime stability and a want to increase personal wealth and political standing. The final case focuses on the trial of Apuleius, from his Apologia, who was charged with charming a wealthy widow into marrying him. This case explores issues regarding xenophobia, provincial wealth, gender politics, and how accusations of magic were used to resolve them.
Evaluation of genotype x environment interaction using yield and UAV-based vegetation index data from multi-environment trials in chickpea
Creators: name: Umani, Kingsley
name: Daba, Sintayehu
name: Piaskowski, Julia
name: McGee, Rebecca J.
name: Vandemark, George J.
name: Sankaran, Sindhuja
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2025
Subjects: subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Ecology
subject: Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Developmental Biology
subject: Plant Biology

description: Genotype-by-environment interaction (GEI) significantly impacts the success of plant breeding strategies in various crops including the cool-season annual crops such as chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). In this study, advanced trials of 15 spring chickpea genotypes were tested at three locations for multiple years in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), green NDVI (GNDVI), and soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) were extracted from unmanned aerial vehicle-based multispectral images at flowering and early pod development. The genotype, environment, and GEI effects on the vegetative indices were evaluated, and compared with those on yield. The G × E models evaluated were the additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and genotype-environment interaction (GGE) biplot. The associated metrics utilized in the study included AMMI stability value (ASV), and genotype stability index (GSI). There were significant genotype and environment effects (p < 0.001) for seed yield and vegetation indices. GEI effects were significant for seed yield, GNDVI at flowering, and SAVI at early pod development. The AMMI, GGE, ASV, and GSI analysis identified two genotypes (G10 and G12) as stable, high-performing genotypes based on seed yield, GNDVI at flowering and SAVI at early pod development data. The findings revealed that the vegetation indices can potentially be valuable, in addition to seed yield, to measure the genotypic performance and the GEI effects of chickpea cultivars. Such evaluation of the GEI effects on crop performance with additional metrics can enhance the variety selection process in the plant breeding programs.
Bringing Evil to Others: A Reexamination of Piracy Through Homeric Relationships
Creators: name: Martin, James
Publisher: name: Brandeis University
Year: 2017

description: The topic of piracy has been long debated by both Greek and modern readers of Homer. The scenes involving piratical acts, with only a few notable instances, seem to have little to no negative judgment on the pirates. This paper examines the scenes that involve piracy and address the reasons for the attitudes toward the pirates. Their actions and those of the Homeric heroes are often similar. Though the terms for pirates are not associated with heroes, the similarity in their behavior can allow us to interpret some of the actions of the Homeric heroes as also being piratical. The judgement of piracy within the epics should be understood primarily in terms of the targets of the raids, and not a judgment on the raiding itself. By examining when there seems to be a condemnation of piracy and who is being attacked at that time, a hierarchy of relationships is able to be made. This hierarchy helps us to understand how a Homeric warrior is expected to interact with those around him, and how he is able to treat people differently depending on what level of relationship he shares with them. This paper displays the categories of relationships and provides the scenes which reveal the conduct that is expected of the hero towards each group. The hierarchy of relationships is primarily focused on the topics of violence and acquisition of beauty, but is also able to illuminate additional interactions in which the relationship of the Homeric characters can be understood.
The Role of CaMKII and CASK-β in the Regulation of TH and Dopamine Synthesis
Creators: name: Serebrenik, Joyce
Publisher: name: Brandeis University
Year: 2019
Subjects: CaMKII
CASK
Tyrosine Hydroxylase
Drosophila
Dopamine
Regulation

description: Phosphorylation at Threonine 306 and Threonine 307 results in a constitutively inactive CaMKII. This phosphorylation has been shown to be stimulated by CASK-β in low Ca2+ levels and to require binding of CaMKII and CASK-β.1 The CaMKII point mutant T306,7S protein does not interact with CASK-β in vitro. In order to further understand CaMKII and CASK-β interactions, CaMKIIT306,7S and CASK-β null mutant fly lines were created in the Griffith Laboratory (Brandeis University, Waltham MA). CaMKIIT306,7S mutants showed reduced CaMKII activity, while CASK-β-Null mutants showed increased CaMKII activity. Both mutants exhibited locomotion impairments, and the CASK-β null mutant was shown to have reduced ability to release dopamine (DA).2 DA and Tyrosine Hydroxylase (TH), the rate-limiting enzyme in the DA synthetic pathway, were assessed in both mutants in order to further understand how CaMKII and CASK-β impact locomotion. Results indicated that mutation of T306 and T307 to serine downregulates both DA and TH levels. Loss of CASK-β produced an upregulation of DA and TH levels. Genetic rescue experiments done by expression of wild type CaMKII in DArgic neurons of the CaMKIIT306,7S mutants, led to a partial rescue of phenotypes, indicating that the T306,7S mutation is not a gain-of-function mutation. Genetic patterns of expression and molecular function of the CaMKIIT306,7S mutants were assessed through behavioral and mRNA expression assays. Homozygous flies displayed rescue of locomotor behaviors, and mRNA expression showed no significant differences to CaMKIIwt flies. Collectively, our studies support the idea that CASK-β regulates CaMKII through direct interactions, which allows CaMKII to regulate TH activity (either directly or indirectly) and thus affecting the biosynthesis of DA.
'A restraint of their debauchery': Poverty, power, and social policy in Augustan England, 1688-1723
Creators: name: Hitchcock, David
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: History, European.
subject: Sociology, Social Structure and Development.

description: "'A Restraint of Their Debauchery': Poverty, Power, and Social Policy in Augustan England, 1688-1723" examines the connections between ideas and definitions of poverty created by both elites and the poor, and social policy legislation and disbursement of relief. Specifically, Mackworth's failed 1704 omnibus reform bill, and Knatchbull's successful 1723 Workhouse Test Act are considered. Successive chapters are dedicated to historiography and methodology, the contemporary pamphlet debates over poverty, pauper self-definition in petitions to the state, and politics and policy during the early eighteenth century. Often this analysis focuses on individuals. Notable subjects include: John Locke, Matthew Hale, Bernard Mandeville, John Bellers, Daniel Defoe, Richard Cocks, Humphrey Mackworth, and Edward Knatchbull. Several observations about the character of contemporary perceptions of poverty are made, and their connection to the resulting legislative and published efforts is explained.
Gender differences in victims' reactions to burglary over time.
Creators: name: Quigley, Celia A.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1994
Subjects: subject: Psychology, Social.

description: The purpose of the present study is to examine men's and women's reactions to burglary over time. More specifically, the goal is to determine whether or not there is a gender difference in the extent to which reactions to a non-gender-specific crime, such as burglary, emerge and endure. In order to do so, 20 male and 20 female victims of burglary from the City of Ottawa were interviewed about their experiences with and their reactions to this criminal event. Both short- and long-term reactions were studied. Data were collected on two separate occasions from each subject; the first interview was scheduled at varying points in time after the burglary, thus making the data both longitudinal and cross-sectional in nature. With regards to victims' immediate reactions to burglary, the results are similar to those of previous studies in the area. Women are more likely to express feelings of shock, fear, and upset than their male counterparts. However, contrary to prior research, no gender differences were found with regards to feelings of anger in the immediate stages of victimization. A slight gender difference was found in the long-term effects of burglary on its victims, with women expressing greater numbers of adverse reactions, particularly emotional ones, for a longer period of time than men (up to 40 weeks following the event). Overall, the results of the present study indicate that burglary has much more long-ranging consequences for its victims than was originally believed. Although the scope of the present study does not allow for me to extrapolate these results to the general population, they do serve to indicate areas that should receive more attention in future research endeavours.
Surfaces and Corks in Knot Traces
Creators: name: Stine, Charles Ransome
Publisher: name: Brandeis University
Year: 2023
Subjects: cork
elliptic surface
exotic
knot surgery
low dimensional topology
shake-slice

description: We study the simplest class of smooth, geometrically simply-connected 4-manifolds: knot traces. Our goal is to understand which smooth structures they can support as topological manifolds, and the different ways in which surfaces can embed or fail to embed in them. We begin by studying the traces associated to shake-slice knots. We define a notion of 'complexity' for the generating spheres embedded in these traces, which is motivated by a similar phenomenon that occurs in 5-dimensional smooth h-cobordisms. We show that for each non-zero framing the minimum complexity of a smooth generating sphere in the trace of a shake slice knot can be arbitrarily high. Moreover, we give explicit upper and lower bounds on the complexity for infinite families of examples covering all non-zero framings.
description: We also consider exotic knot traces, which have been produced using Fintushel and Stern's knot-surgery construction. These examples atomize the construction: one can often view knot-surgery on a closed 4-manifold as knot-surgery on an embedded trace, and then study the surgered trace on its own. We explain how to find explicit embeddings of corks which undo knot surgery in any trace where the construction makes sense, modulo a parity condition which seems to have been overlooked in previous work on the topic. We obtain explicit embeddings of corks in odd degree Elliptic surfaces via this method which undo knot-surgery along a regular fiber using any companion knot. This provides a partial answer to a thirty year old question.
Immunogenicity of quadrivalent meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine in children during a mass immunization campaign.
Creators: name: King, W. James.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1995
Subjects: subject: Health Sciences, Public Health.

description: Objective. To determine, in healthy children, the immune response induced at one month and one year by the serogroup C antigen of a quadrivalent meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine ($Menomune\sp{\rm TM}$) A/C/Y/W-135), during a mass vaccination campaign. Participants. 6 month-19 year old volunteers recruited during a Public Health Department mass immunization campaign. Methods. Serum was obtained pre, one month, and one year post immunization and measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA) and bactericidal assay (BA) for the immune response to serogroup C N. meningitidis polysaccharide antigen. Throat cultures were analyzed for oropharyngeal colonization of N. meningitidis and N. lactamica. Results. Pre-vaccination, almost all children had a negligible amount of ACPS antibody against group C N. meningitidis, regardless of age. At one month post-vaccination, a significant response was demonstrated in children older than 6 months of age with regard to total ACPS antibody concentration and in children older than 18 months of age with respect to SBA titre. In children less than 18 months old, despite a significant rise in total ACPS antibody concentration, this measure was not associated with the SBA titre. At one year post-vaccination, children less than 5 years of age had a substantial decline in their total ACPS antibody response, while children greater than 18 months old maintained their SBA levels. Implications. During an outbreak of invasive meningococcal disease, quadrivalent meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine can induce a 'protective' immune response in children older than 18 months and may be beneficial for children as young as 6 months of age. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
РАЗРАБОТКА СОСТАВА ГАЗООБРАЗУЮЩЕЙ ЧАСТИ ПОКРЫТИЯ ЭЛЕКТРОДА ДЛЯ ФОРМИРОВАНИЯ КАЧЕСТВЕННОЙ ЛИТОЙ СТРУКТУРЫ СВАРНОГО ШВА
Creators: name: Косимов, Каримжон
name: Умаров, Абдурахимжан
name: Дилшодов, Оматбек
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024

description: В статье приведен анализ разработка состава газообразующей части покрытия электрода для формирования качественной литой структуры сварного шва.
The postexotic Arab: Orientalist dystopias in contemporary postcolonial fiction
Creators: name: Laouyene, Atef
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2008
Subjects: subject: Literature, Modern.
subject: Literature, Asian.
subject: Literature, African.
subject: Literature, Canadian (English).
subject: Literature, American.

description: This dissertation draws on modern theories of the exotic in order to critique racialized, consumer-oriented representations of Arabs. Such representations often betray an exoticist and neo-colonial discursive pattern in which things Arab figure essentially as an index for a threateningly attractive otherness. Reading the texts of Leila Sebbar's Sherazade (1982), Ann-Marie MacDonald's Fall on Your Knees (1996), Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh (1996), and Diana Abu-Jaber's Crescent (2003) and The Language of Baklava (2005), I argue that contemporary postcolonial fiction displays a patently self-conscious, self-parodic engagement with the constitutive paradoxes of the discourse of exoticism, especially when this discourse takes the Arab figure as its subject. I avail myself of "postexotic Arabness" as a tropological descriptor for such an engagement. Postexotic Arabness thus designates the creation of narrative dystopias that not only ironically recycle Orientalist configurations of things Arab but also implicate both authors and readers in an ultimately self-parodic re-assessment of the Arab exotic. The strategic exoticization of Arab otherness in these works, I argue, is also coterminous with a historically conscious critique of global consumer culture and unequal social relations of power.
Communities of practice: A way to support responses to public health issues
Creators: name: Elbrink, Sanne
Publisher: name: Swinburne
Year: 2024

description: Effective public health practices are vital to improving health and equity for all. While communities of practice are a promising tool to connect people, support learning, and accelerate action, more evidence is needed to optimise their design. This thesis developed, applied, and evaluated a novel co-design approach for communities of practice. The results demonstrated that knowledge sharing within and knowledge translation outside communities of practice generated outcomes that supported action on public health issues. The practical tools developed from this thesis can assist countries, organisations, and professionals in setting up effective communities of practice to improve their public health practices.
Enhancing Stability of DNA Origami Structures Through UV-Welding
Creators: name: Tang, Angela
Publisher: name: Brandeis University
Year: 2024

description: DNA origami is a nanoscale technique that folds single-stranded (ss) DNA backbone “scaffold” into predetermined shapes using synthetic DNA strands “staples”. These folded structures can be programmed to assemble into higher-order structures using complementary single-stranded on each side of the folded structures. However, the assembled structures through ssDNA hybridization are susceptible to changes in the environment; structures dis- assemble into individual subunits by heating or lowering salt concentration, hindering their utilities in applications like drug delivery or nanoelectronics. This thesis addresses this challenge through a method called “UV-welding,” which utilizes UV light to covalently bond thymine dimers, creating irreversible DNA origami assemblies. Through systematic experimentation, various DNA origami designs undergo UV-welding. By comparing the effects of UV welding on different origami architectures under varying conditions, we uncover the potential of enhancing the stability of assembly structures using UV-welding and gain insights into factors affecting the efficiency of UV-welding for future improvements.
The adaptability of experienced physical education teachers to a new curriculum: An interpretive understanding of facilitators and inhibitors
Creators: name: Bowins, Will
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Education, Physical.
subject: Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

description: Physical education (PE) teachers are expected to learn throughout their careers in order to effectively educate their students. However, researchers have stated that the methods used to ensure continuous learning amongst PE teachers are inadequate because they do not meet the needs of experienced teachers (Fullen & Stiegelbauer, 1991; Johns, 2003). Within such a context, the present study was motivated by the need to better understand the adaptation process for experienced PE teachers. Thus, the purpose of this study was to understand how experienced PE teachers perceived the process of adapting to a new curriculum. Using an interpretative approach, this study examined the facilitators and inhibitors that affected the adaptation process for PE teachers during the major 1999 Ontario curriculum change. Bechtel and O'Sullivan's (2007) study and Fullen, Bennett and Rolheiser-Bennett's (1990) conceptual framework were used to guide the interpretation of the facilitators and inhibitors experienced by the participants. Data were collected from ten experienced PE teachers from high schools in Ottawa, Ontario. Results spawned the categorization of the perceived facilitators and inhibitors into the Pyramid Model, comprised of four levels: the Personal Level, School Level, School Board Level, and the Upper Level. The specific effect of experience on the adaptation process appeared to mainly affect the confidence of the participants; and this increase in confidence was found to facilitate the adaptation process. Results from the study suggest a need for a bottom-up approach to curriculum design, whereby aspects from the Personal Level are taken into account during the planning and implementation phases of curricula. Furthermore, the results suggest that schools, school boards, and ministries should offer direction and resources, and should provide opportunities for support and collaboration to facilitate the adaptation process of experienced PE teachers to a new curriculum.
Molecular interaction of the endoplasmic reticulum resident chaperone BiP and the J-domain of the ERdj3 chaperone
Creators: name: Nguyen, Van Thanh
Publisher: name: Brandeis University
Year: 2023
Subjects: conformation
endoplasmic reticulum
FRET
Hsp40
Hsp70

description: Molecular chaperones play an essential role in protein quality control by stabilizing the non-native state of protein substrates, “clients,” to facilitate refolding, maturation, or degradation. Clients often interact with a coordinated system of chaperones; however, the molecular mechanisms of such interactions are not well-understood. An example is the transfer of clients between Hsp40/Hsp70 chaperones, in which Hsp40 promotes ATP hydrolysis by Hsp70 to allow for client transfer from Hsp40 to Hsp70. My thesis focuses on Hsp40/Hsp70 family members specific to the endoplasmic reticulum: ERdj3 (an Hsp40), and BiP (an Hsp70). More specifically, I am investigating and how BiP ATP hydrolysis promoted by the conserved J-domain (JD) of ERdj3 can facilitate client transfer to BiP.Fluorescence polarization (FP) measurements show that the JD can bind to the “ATP conformation” of BiP but not the “ADP-conformation” of BiP. ATPase measurements show that JD stimulates ATP hydrolysis by BiP. Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) measurements indicate that the binding of JD to BiP and subsequent ATP hydrolysis causes BiP to significantly populate a conformational intermediate. I develop a quantitative model explaining the influence of JD on BiP, which suggests a conceptual mechanism by which client transfer from ERdj3 to BiP occurs.
Testing the pair-wise network model: Does it accurately predict the dynamics of STIs on a network?
Creators: name: Enright, Nadine
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Health Sciences, Epidemiology.

description: Background. Mathematical models are an essential tool in infectious disease epidemiology. The most fundamental, and still widely used mathematical model for looking at infectious diseases, is the simple SIS (susceptible-infected-susceptible) compartmental model. However, this type of model does not integrate the local contact network of individuals making them inappropriate for studying sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Goal. To evaluate the accuracy of the pair-wise network model, proposed by Eames & Keeling (2002), which incorporates the sexual contact network. Results. Compared to observed data, the predictions of the pair-wise model were a much better fit to the prevalence of chlamydia than those of the traditional simple SIS model. Conclusions. The results demonstrate the critical role of the network structure in the spread of chlamydia and other STIs. If decision-makers continue to rely on the simple SIS model, they could underestimate the effectiveness of prevention and control strategies, actually hindering our efforts to eliminate chlamydia. Also, good quality data on the sexual network structure of the target population is necessary in order to make accurate and useful predictions.
Culture’s Influence on Attention to High and Low Arousal Positive Affect
Creators: name: Seat, Lauren
Publisher: name: Brandeis University
Year: 2010
Subjects: high-arousal positivity
eye-tracking
low-arousal positivity
ideal positive affect
Culture

description: Previous research has shown that there is a difference between ideal affect and actual affect. While ideal affect is more heavily influenced by cultural factors, actual affect is influenced more by temperamental factors. In the current cross-cultural study, high-arousal positivity (HAP) and low-arousal positivity (LAP) were studied to determine if Americans and Hong Kong Chinese have different preferences in ideal positive affect. Eye-tracking technology was used to determine if individuals attend more to pictures of their preferred ideal affect (either HAP or LAP). Additionally, self-reported ideal preference was recorded. It was hypothesized that gaze pattern and choice preference would vary by culture, with Americans preferring HAP and Hong Kong Chinese preferring LAP. Results show a main effect of culture, indicating that Hong Kong Chinese have longer fixation durations than Americans regardless of arousal level. There was also a significant difference in choice preference with Americans preferring HAP expressions significantly more than Hong Kong Chinese.
People Who Have: Hoarding disorder, ecopsychology, and poetry by prescription
Creators: name: Fiala, Rebecca
Publisher: name: University of Illinois Chicago
Year: 2025
Subjects: classificationCode: 33
subject: Built environment and design
classificationCode: 41
subject: Environmental sciences
classificationCode: 36
subject: Creative arts and writing
classificationCode: 38
subject: Economics
classificationCode: 52
subject: Psychology
subject: FOS: Psychology
classificationCode: 44
subject: Human society
classificationCode: 47
subject: Language, communication and culture
classificationCode: 42
subject: Health sciences
subject: FOS: Health sciences

description: Abstract: Although poetry is well suited to the task of improving insight and empathy and is commonly used for this purpose educational settings, it is underutilized clinically—perhaps most notably in the context of hoarding disorder, where patients may self-report finding personal motivation in aesthetics, creative problem-solving, and/or environmentalism. This poem is an introduction to the work of ecopsychology for patients who have hoarding disorder, providing an ecofriendly, low-cost, and accessible tool for use in language-based therapeutic intervention with practitioners who wish to offer personalized, arts-enriched care.
Bridging Symptom Profiles and Mechanisms: Emotional Conflict Regulation and Anxiety in TMS Studies
Creators: name: Frandsen, Summer Brianne
Publisher: name: Brandeis University
Year: 2026
Subjects: anxiety
emotion conflict regulation
emotion regulation
transcranial magnetic stimulation

description: Despite an emphasis on transdiagnostic mechanisms, translating these insights into treatments has been limited. Neuromodulation treatments allow for more direct translation between brain networks and clinical treatments. Brain stimulation to the recently proposed anxiosomatic network has been clinically successful in modulating anxiety-related symptoms in depression. To study the psychological mechanisms of this phenomenon, we tested the effect of stimulating this network on emotional conflict regulation, a proposed task-based measure of anxiety-related circuitry. We used two transcranial magnetic stimulation datasets (N = 56, N = 29) to test this hypothesis in patients with anxiety and depression. The overlap between patient stimulation sites and the anxiosomatic network predicted a component of emotional conflict regulation, emotional conflict resolution, in only one dataset. To understand these mixed findings, we tested two alternative hypotheses. First, we tested whether anxiety was related to emotional conflict regulation performance and found no significant correlation between the two. Second, we tested whether emotional conflict regulation could be selectively modulated by different stimulation targets, and found a consistent network that, when stimulated, led to selective changes in emotional conflict resolution. Based on our findings, we find that emotional conflict regulation was not consistently modified by stimulation of the anxiosomatic network, but emotional conflict resolution may still be responsive to network-targeted stimulation.
Sociology News, Fall 2022
Creators: name: Washington State University Department Of Sociology
Publisher: name: Washington State University
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology

description: Newsletter includes: Interview with Dylan Bugden, Boeing Distinguished Professor in Environmental Sociology; Letter from the DGS, Erik Johnson; Remembering Clayton Mosher (1961-2022); Alumni Spotlight: Christine Oakley; Introducing the New Grad Student Cohort; Publications, Awards, and Other Accomplishments
A comparison of methods in the presence of censored cost data under different censoring mechanisms
Creators: name: Chen, Li
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2005
Subjects: subject: Biology, Biostatistics.
subject: Health Sciences, Public Health.

description: Several approaches have recently been proposed in order to derive an accurate estimate of mean costs given censoring. The aim of this study was to compare methods for estimating mean costs given censoring across different censoring mechanisms and censoring levels. 736 "complete" cases from the CHART study were used to form a "complete" set where the mean cost was known. This "complete" cohort was used to generate simulated data sets. The accuracy of methods was measured by comparing the difference between estimates and the "true" cost. The Uncensored cases method, Cox's PH model and the Weighted method CHU consistently gave better estimates of mean costs across different censoring mechanisms and censoring levels. Estimates of mean costs from all methods deteriorated as the censoring level increased. The Uncensored cases method, Cox's PH model and the Weighted method CHU may be appropriate methods for estimating mean costs given censoring in short-term studies.
Activator, Mediator, and RNA Polymerase II dynamics during transcription activation
Creators: name: Zhou, Daniel H
Publisher: name: Brandeis University
Year: 2025
Subjects: activation
cooperativity
Mediator
single-molecule
synergy
Cellular biology
Transcription

description: It is long established that the presence of multiple binding sites for transcription activator proteins can synergistically stimulate RNA polymerase II (RNApII) transcription at a promoter. Multiple mechanisms for activator synergy that act at different stages in the transcription pathway have been proposed, but none are fully established. In this work, I investigated synergy at stages of activated RNApII transcription leading up to preinitiation complex (PIC) formation by using multi-wavelength colocalization single-molecule spectroscopy (“CoSMoS”). Experiments were performed in an in vitro budding yeast nuclear extract system and driven by the recombinant activator Gal4-VP16. In experiments that used combinations of labeled Gal4-VP16, Mediator (labeled on the core Med7 subunit), and RNApII (labeled on the Rpb1 subunit), we observed the binding and unbinding of the labeled proteins with individual surface-tethered template molecules in real-time. In Chapter 2, I show that association of the proteins with the template was hierarchical: essentially all Mediator binding required the presence of Gal4-VP16 on the DNA and similarly RNApII binding required the presence of Mediator. Mediator initial recruitment to DNA occurs via interaction with the UAS rather than the core promoter, consistent with the idea that forming an UAS-bound activator-tethered “pre-PIC” containing Mediator, RNApII, and one or more general transcription factors is a precursor to core promoter-bound PIC formation, at least at some RNApII promoters. We developed a new kinetic scheme to model association events; the derivation is expanded in Chapter 3.I also analyzed the fluorescence spot intensities in the CoSMoS images using the image physics-based Bayesian machine learning program Tapqir. This allowed us to quantitate the distributions of the numbers of activator and Mediator molecules per DNA. The number of activator dimers on a DNA was on average higher on DNAs where Mediator was detected then at equivalent timepoints on DNAs where Mediator was absent, suggesting that the presence of multiple activator proteins help the recruitment and/or stabilization of Mediator. This model is further supported by additional measurements showing that Mediator occupancy on DNA had a highly cooperative dependence on activator concentration, with a Hill coefficient = 4.39 [95% CI: 4.35, 4.43]. Simultaneous involvement of multiple activator molecules linking Mediator to DNA at the UAS is consistent with our quantitative data and could contribute to activator synergy. Taken together, our results offer insight into the real-time actions by which activator and Mediator regulate RNApII recruitment. We propose that multiple UAS-bound activators cooperatively recruit Mediator and RNApII sequentially to UAS, after which they are transferred to the core promoter for PIC assembly and initiation.
Spectral domain analysis and application of reflection and refraction phenomena in two-dimensional dielectric periodic structures
Creators: name: De Leon Arizpe, Israel
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2005
Subjects: subject: Engineering, Electronics and Electrical.

description: This thesis is intended to contribute to an analytical understanding of refraction and reflection phenomena of monochromatic electromagnetic fields at the interface between homogeneous media and two-dimensional PhCs by studying the k-space (Fourier domain) representation of the refracted and reflected fields. The goal is to provide physical explanations of distortion effects experienced by the fields when interacting with the periodic medium, and to evaluate quantitatively such effects through the analysis of the fields' angular spectra. The motivation for this investigation is the interesting reflection and refraction phenomena observed when light propagates across the interfaces between homogeneous dielectric regions and photonic crystals (PhCs), which is a situation often found in integrated optical systems. Such reflective and refractive phenomena play an important role in the operation of such systems. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
The Role of Perceived Vulnerability to Disease in Political Polarization on Climate Change
Creators: name: Anderson, Evan
Publisher: name: Brandeis University
Year: 2019
Subjects: political polarization
perceived vulnerability to disease
disgust
ingroup/outgroup
replication
Climate Change
Global Warming

description: The behavioral immune system (BIS) is a suite of psychological mechanisms that cause individuals to avoid encountering pathogens. The BIS has been linked to socially conservative attitudes, outgroup bias and conformity to social norms. The potential role of the BIS in political polarization has yet to be explored. The present research filled this gap by partially replicating and extending a study by Van Boven, Ehret, & Sherman (2018). Like those authors, we found that while most Republicans and Democrats alike accepted climate change science as fact, the political party ostensibly proposing a climate change policy can significantly influence level of support for implementing it – that is, an ingroup-outgroup effect. In addition, we examined the role of the BIS – measured by the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease scale (PVD; Duncan, Schaller, & Park, 2009) – in producing this effect, taking into account two other potential moderators: Belief in a Dangerous World (BDW; Altemeyer, 1988) and Need for Closure (NFC; Webster & Kruglanski, 1994; Roets & Van Hiel, 2011). In addition, we experimentally tested whether priming participants to think of their immunity to diseases would reduce the ingroup-outgroup effect on climate change policy support relative to controls. We were able to replicate Van Boven et al.’s (2018) findings. In addition, although we found that PVD predicted the ingroup-outgroup effect, it was in the opposite direction to that hypothesized; greater PVD was associated with stronger participant support for climate policies proposed by their political outgroup than their ingroup. This effect remained when BDW and NFC were controlled. Potential explanations for these unexpected findings are discussed.
Judicial review of parole ineligibility (Criminal Code section 745) and the views of the public.
Creators: name: Erb, Julie Belinda.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1996
Subjects: subject: Canadian Studies.

description: This thesis explores the highly controversial provision that gives life sentence prisoners the opportunity to apply for a reduction in their original periods of parole ineligibility. Section 745 (s.745) of the Criminal Code was created in 1976 when capital punishment was abolished and the penalty structure for the crime of homicide was revised. Recognizing that offenders convicted of first (and to a lesser extent) second degree murder would now spend considerable periods of time behind bars, legislators created a mechanism to allow for review of the changes that may take place in this new group of prisoners over the years. Critics contend that s.745 represents a loophole in the law and must be abolished. Advocates maintain that s.745 is part and parcel of the life sentence created in 1976 and should remain intact in its original form. At first glance it would appear that the public are opposed to s.745. Yet a paradox exists, namely, that it is members from the same communities where opposition abounds who are sitting on juries and granting reductions in parole ineligibility. The purpose of this thesis was to research the previously unexplored area of public opinion and s.745 in order to study the existence of this paradox. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Beside Sense: Phenomenography and Contemporary Poetry
Creators: name: Burkett, Matthew
Publisher: name: Brandeis University
Year: 2024

description: This work is concerned with the senses of contemporary poetry and what I'm calling phenomenography, which is a critical methodology based on philosophical phenomenology but centered on textuality and not dependent on phenomenology's tendency towards universalization of privileged viewpoints. Phenomenography considers the relationship between text and perceptual phenomena, whether as a hermeneutics, as a practice of reading, textual formalism, a form of expression, or the connections between life and text. Whereas phenomenological readings of literature may be normative with respect to what matters in terms of the constitution of identity or structure of consciousness, or else sometimes base readings with tendencies towards psychologisms or ad hominem interpretations of the literary, phenomenography concerns itself with the language being used as an open and non-hierarchical process of sense-determination. The four chapters of the dissertation chart a trajectory of issues in contemporary poetics. Chapter 1 deals with language poetry and examines the importance of the situation in finding meaning in innovative linguistic forms which may not always appear to be concerned with the conveying of sense. I argue that our language use often depends on our understanding of the situations in which we find ourselves, and we can use this differential situational awareness to help navigate the often abstract formalism of language poetry. Chapter 2 invokes what I call a "synthetic ontology" of the Work to better discuss the literary compositions of translators, ranging from straightforward translations to formally constrained and innovative translations. Considering the Work as something bound to both original author and translator allows us to understand the translation as a composition and, at times, as crafted interpretation or even criticism. Chapter 3 ventures through Rob Halpern's transgressive political-erotic poetics to discuss and develop the nuances of a kind of impossible sympathy within contemporary globalized capitalism that has rendered links in the sympathetic chain unreachable. Chapter 4 reads Rickey Laurentiis' Boy with Thorns through the lens of theoretical perspectives on strangeness that risks alienation while also staking out the potential of agency within a racist and violent society.
"Bodily compassion": Values and identity formation in the Salvation Army, 1880-1900.
Creators: name: Robinson, Barbara D.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1999
Subjects: subject: Religion, History of.

description: By the end of the nineteenth century, The Salvation Army, an offshoot of British Methodism, had become a respected feature on the Victorian cultural landscape. The fierce opposition the Army faced in its earliest days, for the manner in which it adapted forms of working class popular culture as a means of religious expression, and for its controversial use of women as preachers or "Hallelujah lasses," had been replaced by popular admiration for its philanthropic work among the poor and the socially marginalized. This thesis analyzes the course of this transition. Much of the rehabilitation of reputation can be attributed to the work of a second wave of women recruits who assumed less socially transgressive ministry roles as rescue workers or nurses in the Army's expanding network of social services. Informed by a "heroic" spirituality which emphasized social duty, self-sacrifice and moral influence, these "Social Officers" dramatically embodied an idealized late nineteenth-century behavioural ethos and won the movement admirers if not adherents. The Salvation Army's concerted commitment to a "principle of noncontroversy" broadened its cultural acceptability and invited some unusual alliances. This can be particularly demonstrated in the denomination's interaction with a range of Victorian health reform movements: hydropathy, homoeopathy and vegetarianism.
Study of oscillations in admission control algorithm for Web servers
Creators: name: Xu, Zhengdao
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 2003
Subjects: subject: Computer Science.

description: The work of this thesis is oriented towards solving the problem of system performance oscillations. We first establish the relationship between the number of users in the system and the average response time. Then we study a theoretical model of the oscillation of the number of users in the system. Then we propose a probabilistic approach to admission control where the probability of rejecting a new user increases as the load increases. Using the theoretical model, we prove that with a probabilistic approach, the oscillations will normally be suppressed, and the number of users in the system reaches a stable point. We also test the effect of different probability functions and the impact of different inter-observation time intervals on the oscillation by careful simulation experiment. Finally, the probabilistic approach is used to provide differentiated classes of service to different user groups. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Native American Programs News, 2020-2021
Creators: name: Washington State University Native American Programs
Publisher: name: Washington State University
Year: 2021
Subjects: Newsletters
Native North Americans

description: News items include: Indigenous Peoples Day 2020 Events; In Loving Memory of Dr. Raphael Marceaux Guillory–WSU Alumnus; WSU junior Ermia Butler brings awareness to Native American heritage.
Les revendications des organismes franco-ontariens en matières d'activités physiques et sportives face au gouvernement ontarien.
Creators: name: Dallaire, Christine
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1994
Subjects: subject: Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies.

description: La communauté franco-ontarienne est un groupe minoritaire qui lutte pour sa survie. Les organismes franco-ontariens, notamment ceux qui oeuvrent dans le champ social de l'activité physique et du sport, tentent de jouer un rôle important dans le processus de maintien de la communauté. Pour assurer le développement de la communauté, ces organismes recherchent un appui du gouvernement provinicial. Cette étude reprend les concepts des études portant sur les groupes minoritaires francophones du Canada, particulièrement ceux de Breton (1964, 1983, 1989), pour analyser le rapport entre les organismes provinciaux franco-ontariens et le gouvernement ontarien, tel qu'il se joue dans le champ des activités physiques et sportives. En effet, cette etude compare les revendications de la communauté franco-ontarienne dans le champ des activités physiques et sportives avec la politique du ministère du Tourisme et des Loisirs de l'Ontario, l'appareil gouvernemental responsable de ce champ d'action. Les résultats de l'analyse qualitative de documents et de textes d'entrevues devoilent que les organismes franco-ontariens suivent un projet sportif commun visant à affermir la complétude institutionnelle de la communauté francophone de l'Ontario. Ces organismes qui interviennent dans ce champ d'action politique des activités physiques et sportives ont deux types de demandes. En premier lieu, les organismes franco-ontariens veulent obtenir des services en français. En deuxième lieu, les organismes franco-ontariens veulent obtenir des ressources de la part du ministère afin d'assurer la prise en charge de la communauté. Par ailleurs, les résultats de l'analyse demontrent que le gouvernement ontarien a mis en place certains mécanismes pour tenir compte des intérêts de la communauté franco-ontarienne. Toutefois, les organismes franco-ontariens ne semblent pas profiter pleinement des outils gouvernementaux existants.
Explainer: What are the limits to charities advancing political causes?
Creators: name: Seibert, Krystian
name: O'Connell, Ann
Publisher: name: Swinburne
Year: 2024

description: The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission announced this week that Catch the Fire Ministries had lost its charitable status. This means it loses entitlements to various Commonwealth tax concessions and exemptions. Catch the Fire Ministries, which was registered as a charity advancing religion, is based in Melbourne’s outer-east and is led by Danny Nalliah. Nalliah is also the founder of the Rise Up Australia Party; he was its lead Victorian Senate candidate at the past two federal elections. The commission cannot disclose the details of its decision due to secrecy provisions. However, the loss of Catch the Fire’s charitable status appears to be due to its very close links to Rise Up Australia. Examples of this can be seen on Catch the Fire’s website. Posts call on church members to distribute Rise Up Australia’s promotional materials and donate to it. In news reports, Nalliah has admitted there were collections during church services to raise funds for the party.