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Access status: Open Access ,
Women’s Empowerment and Health: The Development Potential of Conditional Cash Transfers in Latin America
(2026-04) Figueiredo, Luana Portilho
Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes have become the dominant social policy instrument for poverty reduction in Latin America, premised on the belief that targeting mothers as recipients of cash transfers will simultaneously alleviate poverty and improve child welfare. Drawing on a comparative analytical literature review of three of the region's CCT programmes – Bolsa Família in Brazil, Prospera in Mexico, and Juntos in Peru – this thesis evaluates their effects on women's empowerment and health through a Gender and Development (GAD) framework, grounded in Sen's development as freedom and Kabeer's empowerment approach. It argues that CCTs produce real but limited gains, particularly through a Women in Development (WID) logic that positions women primarily as caregivers and conduits of human capital investment. The programmes intensify rather than redistribute the unpaid care burden, address practical gender needs while leaving strategic ones intact, and operate without engaging the intersecting racial, colonial, and geographic hierarchies that structure the poverty of their most marginalized beneficiaries. CCTs, on their own, are insufficient instruments for gender-transformative development, and calls for a social protection design that treats women's freedom as the measure of success.
Access status: Embargo ,
High-Resolution Molecular Analyses Reveal Non-additive Impacts of Chronic Warming and Nitrogen Addition on Soil-Derived Dissolved Organic Matter
(American Chemical Society (ACS), 2026-07-03) San Román, Atzín X.; Chen, Guoping; Ronda, Kiera; Muratore, Thomas; Knorr, Melissa A.; Frey, Serita D.; Wang, Junjian; Simpson, Andre J.; Simpson, Myrna J.
Dissolved organic matter (DOM) plays a central role in soil carbon (C) cycling as the most mobile and reactive C fraction in forests, regulating microbial metabolism, nutrient availability, and C export. However, molecular-level DOM responses to environmental stressors such as warming and nitrogen (N) deposition remain poorly constrained, particularly under their combined influence. Thus, we investigated how 14 years of soil warming, N-addition, and combined heat + N influence soil-derived DOM quantity and chemistry. Using solution-state NMR spectroscopy and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, we resolved DOM composition across molecular size, biochemical class, mobility and oxidation state. While DOM quantity remained unchanged, warming enhanced microbial processing and oxidative transformation, yielding DOM enriched in oxidized, structurally complex compounds, whereas N-addition suppressed decomposition, limiting the release of plant-derived biopolymers and shifting DOM toward more microbial-derived constituents. Heat + N produced the most compositionally diverse DOM, with molecular shifts more closely resembling warming-induced responses, indicating that temperature-driven decomposition dominates under interacting stressors. These results demonstrate that chronic warming and N-addition influence C cycling through distinct, yet non-additive molecular pathways not captured by single-factor studies. This underscores the necessity of multifactor experiments to accurately capture current and future ecosystem responses to interacting environmental stressors.
Access status: Open Access ,
Polarization of Fast Radio Bursts as a Probe of Their Origins, Environments, and Foregrounds
(2025-11) Pandhi, Ayush; Gaensler, Bryan M.; Astronomy and Astrophysics
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are micro- to millisecond-duration radio transients, and mostly originate from galaxies at cosmological distances. The unique polarization properties of these enigmatic transients present an opportunity for significant progress along two avenues: (i) uncovering the elusive origins of FRBs by understanding their progenitors and emission, and (ii) leveraging the propagation effects imprinted in FRB signals to probe properties of intervening structures (e.g., the FRB environment, host galaxy, intergalactic medium, and the Milky Way). These two goals are connected, as a better understanding of foregrounds can improve constraints on FRB environments, and vice versa. With over 4000 FRBs discovered and next-generation radio telescopes on the horizon, we are starting to understand FRBs on a population level, which also lets us better contextualize outlier sources. In this thesis, I undertake a comprehensive analysis to determine the typical polarization properties of FRBs and to develop methodologies that probe magnetized FRB environments and Galactic foregrounds. First, I conduct the largest analysis of polarized FRB sources to date. I determine the typical polarization properties of non-repeating FRBs and compare them to repeaters, finding marginal evidence that repeating FRBs originate from more highly magnetized environments. I also find that non-repeating FRBs show negligible depolarization, which has been observed in some repeaters and attributed to dense circumburst environments. Next, I pioneer a statistical technique to map the Galactic magnetic field along the line of sight, <B||>, using the FRB population in conjunction with polarimetric radio galaxy observations. Using simulated data, I project that creating a robust model of the Galactic <B||> will be possible in the near future with ∼104 FRBs. Finally, I undertake polarimetric observations with the Very Large Array to generate dense grids of Faraday rotation measures (RMs) of radio galaxies surrounding FRB sky positions. With these RM grids, I create interpolated maps of small-scale fluctuations in the Galactic RM and thereby accurately constrain RM contributions from the FRB host galaxies. This result shows that previous studies may have incorrectly interpreted the host galaxy RM for ~30% of known polarized FRB sources.
Access status: Open Access ,
Donde Vivimos: Exploring housing and health among Spanish-speaking newcomers from Latin America in Toronto
(2026) Widener, Michael; Perez Brumer, Amaya; Castro Arteaga, Mariangela; Apedaile, Dorothy; Wiltshire, Vanessa; Lahaie Luna, Marianne; Lopez Hernandez, Allison; Ramos, Duberlis; Carrillo, Luis; Delia Cruz, Carmen; Sanchez Villa, David; Morales-Naudon, David; Correa, Marcela
The Donde Vivimos project explored the urgent housing and health needs of Latine newcomers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). This report highlights the acute and intersecting challenges faced by Latine newcomers and more established migrants, while also offering evidence to support equity- focused policy change rooted in justice, inclusion, and community accountability. These findings contribute to broader conversations about migration, housing justice, and its connections to health and well-being in Canada. Our analysis of area-level census data, survey responses (308 participants), and interviews (31 participants) reveal that Latine newcomers and more established migrants are disproportionately concentrated in neighbourhoods marked by poverty, housing instability, and limited access to transit, jobs, and nutritious food. These patterns, shaped by systemic racism, socio- economic stratification, and restrictive immigration policies, are well-documented in academic literature, pointing to the broader structural forces at play. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of participants were in core housing need, living in places that were unaffordable, overcrowded, or in disrepair, with challenges most acute among those with non-permanent status, limited English, and LGBTQ+ identities. Many reported eviction (23%), “hidden” homelessness (51%), or shelter/street homelessness (16%), often within their first year in Canada. Participants described unsafe shelters, repeated displacement, and prolonged instability, linking housing precarity to poor self-rated health and barriers to care, especially in emergency and mental health services. Food insecurity was also widespread, with overcrowded and unstable housing limiting access to kitchens and storage, forcing reliance on low-nutrient, pre-packaged foods and contributing to stress, poor diet quality, and diminished well-being. Together, these findings underscore housing as a fundamental social determinant of health and highlight the urgent need for structural interventions that allow newcomers not only to settle in Canada but to thrive. Why this matters: While this study centres Latine migrants, the findings speak to systemic failures within Toronto’s housing system that affect many low-income and racialized residents. Latine newcomers’ experiences reveal the early and concentrated impacts of a worsening crisis, offering critical insight into how housing precarity and health inequities are unfolding for marginalized communities. The path forward: To ensure that where Latine migrants live supports their wellbeing, we call for policies that are inclusive, culturally responsive, and grounded in community expertise. Our recommendations focus on: - Strengthening navigation supports for housing; - Enforcing tenant protections and housing standards; - Improving oversight and equity in shelters; - Recognizing food and housing as basic rights; and - Collecting better data to make Latine communities visible in policy and services. Together, these actions can advance housing justice, improve wellbeing, and build more equitable futures for Latine newcomers and all Torontonians.
Access status: Open Access ,
Dissecting the Functions of lncRNA Genes Transcribed From tRNA Gene Loci
(2025-06) Ahmed, Sameen; Maass, Philipp G; Molecular Genetics
The human genome is pervasively transcribed, yet only 2% of its three billion base pairs are associated with protein-coding exons. As a relatively new class of RNA, the functions of the ~20,000 annotated long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) genes remain poorly understood. Here, I dissect the functions of lncRNA genes transcribed from transfer RNA (tRNA) gene loci. This investigation began when I identified the lncRNA LINC00324, which spans a cluster of four tRNA genes, during the in vitro differentiation of primary human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) into chondrocytes. When I deleted the entire LINC00324 genomic locus in chondrocytes, collagens were downregulated at the RNA and protein level. One of the tRNAs at the LINC00324 locus is tRNA-Gly-TCC-3-1, and the corresponding Gly codon, GGA, is enriched in the downregulated mRNAs and proteins. Collagens, which are composed of glycine repeats, are especially affected. Since these results implicated LINC00324 as a functional gene in chondrogenesis, in Chapter 3 I went on to search for LINC00324-like genes in the genome, and identified 70 tRNA-overlapping lncRNA genes, which I define as ‘tRNA-Overlapping LncRNAs’ (tROLs). Deletions of four tROLs result in changes in the expression of codon-biased genes, where downregulated genes are enriched in codons corresponding to tRNAs overlapping disrupted tROLs. However, tROL lncRNA expression is controlled independently of the overlapping tRNA loci. Remarkably, tROL loci are located in gene-dense regions and interact extensively in trans between chromosomes. The tROL deletions result in the upregulation of significantly overlapping subsets of genes in the vicinity of tROL loci. Taken together, the results suggest that tROL loci coalesce and are dependent on each other’s transcription to repress surrounding genes in trans. To further understand the mechanism of tROL function, in Chapter 4, I attempted to disentangle the function of the LINC00324 tRNAs with the lncRNA’s transcription and transcript in the observed phenotype using several CRISPR-based approaches in HEK-293 cells. PolyA transcriptional termination at different genomic positions and Cas7-11 knockdown of the LINC00324 lncRNA transcript show moderate effects on translation. My investigation thus sheds light on a unique role for tROLs as a regulatory bridge between the non-coding and coding genomes.