VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Variational theory for two-fluid hydrodynamic modes in trapped Fermi gases
Keywords: Condensed matter, Physics
Atoms

Strongly interacting two-component Fermi gases have become a powerful tool for studying many-body physics. The interactions between the components can be varied widely, allowing the full crossover from BCS to BEC superfluids to be explored. In the strong interaction region at unitarity, the behaviour of the system becomes independent of microscopic details of the interaction. Hence, these Fermi gases can be used as a testing ground for microscopic theories of strongly-interacting Fermi matter. We propose that the out-of-phase two-fluid modes can be excited and measured in a two-photon Bragg scattering experiment, which measures the density response function. We investigate the structure of the two-fluid density response function at unitarity within our variational approach. The out-of-phase modes are found to have appreciable weight at intermediate temperatures in the superfluid phase and should be observable in Bragg scattering experiments. In this thesis, we study the Landau two-fluid hydrodynamic modes of a trapped Fermi gas superfluid, including the "out-of-phase" oscillations of the superfluid and normal fluid components. These modes are the analogue of second sound in superfluid 4He, and have so far not been observed in trapped Fermi gas superfluids. An important part of this thesis is the development of a new variational method of solving the two-fluid equations for gases confined in a harmonic trap. The solution of the resulting algebraic equations for the two-fluid mode frequencies requires detailed knowledge of the local thermodynamic quantities in a trap. In contrast to "classical" BCS and BEC superfluids such as 3He and 4He, both fermionic and bosonic thermal excitations contribute significantly to the thermodynamics close to unitarity. The fact that these excitations are coupled at finite temperatures means that one cannot write down simple expressions for thermodynamic quantities in terms of the spectrum of these excitations. Our calculations of thermodynamic quantities involve essentially ab initio calculations based on the microscopic theory developed by Nozieres and Schmitt-Rink, applied to a nonuniform trapped gas using a local density approximation.
Impact of life events and difficulties on the mental health of Chinese immigrant women
Keywords: Life change events, Psychological aspects
Chinese, Mental health
Chinese, Ontario
Depression in women, Ontario
Women immigrants, Mental health
Women immigrants, Ontario

Over the last decade Chinese migrants have constituted the largest ethno-cultural group to arrive in Canada, with the highest concentration among business people and skilled workers. Research, both theoretical and policy-driven, has not kept pace with this rapidly expanding population. Moreover, the experiences of women are often obscured by broad-stroke statistics reflective of the principal migrants only, the majority of whom tend to be men. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the life events and difficulties in Chinese women's lives inhere to the immigration process and the sources of social support which contribute to mental health and well-being. To this end a six-month follow-up study, utilizing a semi-structured interview protocol and standardized questionnaires, was conducted with a group of Chinese women who had migrated with their romantic partners in the past decade. Analyses are based on a sample of 43 middle-class women from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan over two time points within a half year interval. All of the women and all of their partners experienced major downward mobility in Canada. Correspondingly, the most frequent negative life event was employment-related and the most frequent difficulty was the financial strain of living below the poverty line, factors which significantly predicted symptoms of psychological distress and negative affect among these women. Social support in the form of dyadic functioning between the women and their partners and relationship harmony within the women's broader interpersonal network had neither a main effect on psychological distress and affect nor a buffer effect on the relationship between life events and difficulties and the mental health outcome measures. A construct, "belief in common fate" was developed from interviews with the women and refers to an unfailing devotion to the traditional Confucian ideal of the marital union without regard for external contingencies or individual needs. Analyses revealed that women who did not believe in common fate reported more positive affect and fewer symptoms of psychological distress, particularly in the face of adverse life circumstances. Results are discussed in light of a social-cognitive model of psychological distress. The findings of this study have implications for immigration and settlement policy and directions for future research are suggested.
Culture, hidden curriculum and political economy: exploring a college general arts program
Keywords: Community college students, Social conditions
Community colleges, Curricula
Postsecondary education, Political aspects

This thesis explores the hidden curriculum of a community college general arts program. The literature review component of this research establishes a conceptual framework rooted in Marxian Conflict oriented sociological analysis. I review a number US based ethnographies of community colleges to establish a theoretical framework to be employed throughout the thesis. The qualitative findings of the ethnographies are coupled with US data. This US data is compared with recent Ontario statistics to establish a background for my interview research results. I conducted a series of interviews with a number of faculty and students from a general arts program in Ontario. The results of these interviews find a number of distinct similarities with the US ethnographies. There is evidence to suggest a correspondence between the curriculum of the program, and the social relations of the lower sectors of the workplace.
La construction sociale de l'él`eve en difficulté: émergence et cristallisation des processus menant `a l'identification des él`eves en difficulté `a l'école élémentaire de langue franðcaise en Ontario
Keywords: Exceptional children, Identification
Exceptional children, Ontario
Exceptional children, Social conditions
Exceptional children, Ontario
Special education, Ontario
French-Canadians, Education (Elementary)
French-Canadians, Ontario

Cette these s'attache a demontrer que le secteur de l'enfance en difficulte est le fruit d'une construction sociale au sens de Berger et Luckmann (1989), que nous analysons a travers l'examen des processus sociaux menant a l'identification des eleves consideres en difficulte a l'ecole elementaire de langue francaise en Ontario. Cette question du reperage de l'enfance jugee en difficulte est examinee dans une orientation theorique issue du constructivisme sociologique qui fait des acteurs, des processus et des interactions sociales les producteurs de structures. Sur la base d'observations menees en salle de classe, d'entrevues aupres d'enseignant(e)s titulaires, de specialistes, de directions d'ecoles et de parents obtenues lors d'une enquete qualitative de type ethnographique menee dans deux ecoles durant trois annees, nous documentons, d'une part, la part jouee par le personnel enseignant, dans l'histoire de la production sociale de l'enfance en difficulte. A savoir, par quel travail d'interpretation subjective (ou de construction symbolique), les acteurs scolaires donnent naissance a l'eleve en difficulte subjective et a travers quelles pratiques sociales (ou construction materielle) l'eleve en difficulte s'objectivise. Nous re-construisons, d'autre part, en retracant les trajectoires scolaires de sept eleves juges en difficulte suivis durant trois annees, le processus qui conduit a l'identification de ces eleves. Une modelisation du processus d'identification permettra de restituer les phases d'emergence, de consolidation et de cristallisation qui jalonnent l'experience scolaire de ces sept eleves. Nous demontrons, en "ouvrant la boite noire", que le processus d'identification des eleves s'instaure dans une construction au jour le jour en interaction et qu'il prend differentes formes liees a des facteurs aleatoires et cumulatifs dans un travail de reinterpretation. Nous verrons, finalement qu' "on ne nait pas en difficulte mais qu'on le devient", selon l'expression adaptee de Simone de Beauvoir.
Women sharing strength for all generations: Aboriginal birth knowledge new media creation
Keywords: Childbirth
Indians of North America, Medicine
Indians of North America, Ontario
Indian women healers, Ontario
Midwives, Ontario
Midwifery, Ontario

This thesis explores the subject of Aboriginal birth knowledge from Wasauksing First Nation in Ontario. The intent is to document and generate positive representations of traditional birth knowledge in response to processes of colonization, which in the past have worked to silence them. Three Wasauksing mothers share their understandings of traditional birth knowledge and where the origins of their knowledges lie. A brief historical examination of Aboriginal birth knowledge and experience, and its relationship to colonization and colonial education are presented as part of a literature review. A short video documentary accompanies the thesis to best capture and convey the oral tradition and make the research findings more accessible for community members that might not otherwise engage with this discourse. The author approaches the work from her own personal standpoint: that of a Native woman from Wasauksing First Nation seeking information about her identity as a new mother.
Thermo-oxidation as a means of tritium recovery from DIII-D and JET carbon codeposits
Keywords: Aerospace engineering

This thesis continues studies on thermo-oxidation as a method for the removal of tokamak codeposits. Oxidation conditions were extended to pressures 79kPa and temperatures 673 K. Codeposit specimens with a variety of compositions, densities and thicknesses were taken from DIII-D and JET. It was confirmed that increasing the temperature and pressure improves the effectiveness of codeposit removal as measured by the initial D removal rate and by the final D content after prolonged oxidation. The removal effectiveness is much more sensitive to changes in temperature than to changes in pressure. Of particular importance, the initial D removal rates were found to increase linearly with increasing inherent D content independent of Be content, ranging from 0-60% Be/(Be+C), and thickness, ranging from 10-270 mum. The total amount of D removed does not appear to be affected by thickness or beryllium content of the JET codeposits. In contrast, the DIII-D codeposits show the D removal efficiency decreasing with increasing inherent boron content.
Parallel implicit Newton-Krylov-Schwarz method for predicting compressible turbomachinery flows
Keywords: Fluid dynamics, Mathematical models
Compressibility, Mathematical models
Turbomachines, Fluid dynamics

A parallel Newton-Krylov-Schwarz (NKS) algorithm is presented for solving two-dimensional steady compressible flows in turbomachinery. The spatial discretization of the governing equations is carried out on multiblock quadrilateral mesh using an upwind finite-volume formulation with limited linear reconstruction and Riemann-solver-based flux functions. A matrix-free inexact Newton method is used to solve the system of nonlinear equations arising from the finite-volume discretization procedure and a preconditioned GMRES method is used to solve the resulting linear system of equations. A Schwarz global preconditioner is used in conjunction with block incomplete LU (BILU) preconditioners based on the Jacobian of the first-order scheme for the mesh sub-domains. The preconditioning and multiblock mesh structure allow efficient and scalable parallel implementation of the implicit algorithm. Numerical results are described for several flow cases, demonstrating both the effectiveness of the algorithm and parallel implementation. Influences of the global and local preconditioning are also investigated and discussed.
Elucidating the neuroprotective role of teneurin C-terminal associated peptide (TCAP)-1
Keywords: Neurosciences

The physiology of neuroprotection includes the mechanisms and strategies utilized to guard against neuronal injury or degeneration in the central nervous system (CNS). Degenerative disorders may be generally classified as either acute, such as stroke or nervous system injury/trauma or chronic such as Parkinson's (PD) or Alzheimer's (AD) The goal of neuroprotection is to limit neuronal dysfunction and death after such injury and attempt to maintain the highest possible integrity of cellular interactions in the brain resulting in undisturbed neural function. There is a wide range of agents currently under investigation and some can potentially be used in more than one disorder, as many of the underlying mechanisms of damage to neural tissues, in both acute disorders and in chronic neurodegenerative diseases, are similar. These agents include: free radical trappers/scavengers, anti-excitotoxic agents, apoptosis/programmed cell death (PCD) inhibitors, anti-inflammatory agents, and neurotrophic factors. The objective of this research is to characterize a novel family of neuroprotective peptides, teneurin C-terminal associated peptide (TCAP), and to elucidate their protective mechanism.
Envisioning doctoral music education for 21st century Thailand
Keywords: Music, Instruction and study

Doctoral music education plays a key role in the preparation of scholarship in music teaching and learning, and in training teachers of future music educators who will be responsible for the growth of music education in the nation. Representing the highest academic degree in music offered in higher education, the doctoral degree is a degree for music educators who hope to be employed in teaching positions in colleges and universities. Due to the shortage of music educators, the paucity of graduate music programs in Thailand, and the lack of music teacher education research, there are several challenges for those who become involved in the preparation of doctoral students, to train them to practise at high levels in the Thai context. This pressing need provided the thrust for this research project. A study eliciting the opinions of graduate music educators was designed to emphasize and support the need for implementation of doctoral programs and preparation of training courses for future music teacher educators in Thailand. It aims to illuminate beliefs, recommendations, and perspectives on Thai doctoral music education programs, which should be developed as independently as possible from institutional and political constraints which sometimes influence curriculum decisions. The research was carried out during the fall of 2006 and the winter of 2007. Semi-structured in-depth face-to-face interviews with twenty-one full-time Thai music professors, who hold doctoral degrees in music, provided the richness of data collected. Through a grounded theory qualitative research approach, the salient categories of information supported by the interview transcriptions, emerged and provided answers to the central research question of the study. The findings of this research project, based on individual professional experiences, professional knowledge, social context, and institutional context of participants, include the discovery and articulation of a body of knowledge, perspectives, suggestions, and visions concerning doctoral music education programs. This research will assist us in envisioning the curriculum of doctoral education in music education for 21st century Thailand and will inform the practice of doctoral educators to prepare future music teacher educators to be responsive to the richness of Thai society.
Shareholder liability for undercapitalization: from a shareholder responsibility and creditor protection perspective
Keywords: Stockholders, Legal status, laws, etc
Stockholders, North America
Debtor and creditor, North America
Debtor and creditor, Germany
Stockholders, Legal status, laws, etc
Stockholders, Germany

This thesis deals with the question whether shareholders should be held liable for creditor default due to undercapitalization. Different approaches have been adopted in North America and Germany. I will introduce both approaches and develop a solution according to which shareholders should be held liable as a general proposition. This general proposition is limited by distinguishing between voluntary and involuntary creditors as well as responsible and non-responsible shareholders. In my paper I will set out more detailed some criteria required to hold shareholders liable for the undercapitalization and I will consider the practical concerns resulting from my approach, i.e. uncertainty arising from the process of determination of undercapitalization.
Uprooting national narratives: representations of the forest industry in Port Alberni, British Columbia
Keywords: Indigenous peoples, British Columbia
Indigenous peoples, Legal status, laws, etc
Indigenous peoples, Canada
Whites, Race identity
Whites, British Columbia
Multiculturalism, History
Multiculturalism, Canada
Forest policy, Canada
Indians of North America, Cultural assimilation
Indians of North America, British Columbia

This work is an analysis of three representations of the forest industry in Port Alberni, British Columbia. I contend that these different representations—a radio broadcast, a museum and a site of heritage tourism—rely upon a dominant national narrative of Canada as a white settler space, a narrative that is racialized and gendered, but which often passes as the ‘truth’ about the nation. Through a discursive analysis of the three sites, I aim to reveal how this process occurs. The white settler narrative, I argue, is problematic from an environmental, anti-racist and anti-oppressive perspective, because of its embedded celebration of colonialism and forest devastation, its racism and its sexism. The project of unpacking the white settler narrative and revealing its oppressive nature helps to disrupt the notion that it is a ‘true’ story about Canada, and creates space for alternative narratives to emerge.
Investigating French immersion teacher needs and collegial support through online collaboration: A case study
Keywords: French language, Study and teaching
French language, Canada
French teachers, Canada
Computer conferencing in education, Canada
French teachers, Social networks
French teachers, Canada

This study documents the use of online collaboration as a support tool for ten French immersion teachers. Surveys completed by the participants provided comprehensive information on their backgrounds. Included in this were descriptions of some of the linguistic, pedagogic, social, and emotional challenges these teachers face in their everyday work settings, as well as ways in which they were receiving support. Participants then engaged in three months of online collaboration with each other using an online virtual community as a form of support. A post-collaborative survey was completed which provided feedback on the project. The benefits of online collaboration were clear, and many participants suggested it continue in an enlarged, more permanent form. While findings from this small sample cannot be generalized to the larger population, I would strongly recommend that school boards consider similar forms of online collaboration as an effective way to support French immersion teachers.
An empirical analysis of oil gas futures and options
Keywords: Finance
Dissertations, Academic, Canada

This thesis investigates the pricing performance of option pricing models derived from the options' underlying asset(s)' empirical time-series for a sample of oil gas futures options and a sample of crack spread options traded at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) in 2004 and 2005. In Chapter 2, we study the univariate time-series properties of the light sweet crude oil, New York Harbor no. 2 heating oil, New York Harbor unleaded gasoline, and Henry Hub natural gas futures contracts using price, trading volume and open interest data for the contracts expiring between 1995 and 2005. We show that the futures returns can be modeled with a nonlinear asymmetric GARCH (NGARCH) process augmented with two types of maturity effects, the Samuelson effect and contract switching effects related to hedging rollover. We use this augmented GARCH time-series process to build our GARCH option pricing model, which can be solved for prices using primal Monte Carlo simulation techniques, and find that it yields lower pricing errors than both a GARCH option pricing model without maturity effects and a constant volatility model. In Chapter 3, we examine the joint time-series dynamics of the two pairs of futures prices underlying the NYMEX crack spread options, that is the New York Harbor no. 2 heating oil/light sweet crude oil and New York Harbor unleaded gasoline/light sweet crude oil pairs. We show that these pairs of commodities are co-integrated and have time-varying volatility that can be modeled as a bivariate NGARCH process with maturity effects as identified for each asset's univariate time-series process in Chapter 2. We build our pricing model, which can also be solved for option prices using primal Monte Carlo simulation techniques, from the empirical co-integrated bivariate GARCH time-series process of these pairs of assets and find evidence in support of the inclusion of maturity effects and co-integration for pricing. Our simulation study of the bivariate GARCH option pricing model with and without co-integration shows that the co-integrated bivariate LARCH model with maturity effects is less sensitive to input and parameter values than the corresponding bivariate GARCH model without co-integration.
Legal and economic institutions for private sector growth in post-conflict economies
Keywords: Economic development
Civil war
Rule of law

Modern technology has brought the benefits of rapid international flow of information, trade, capital and people, promising prosperity for the great majority. A by-product threatening this prosperity is the rapid spread of conflicts across the globe. Economic decline increases the risk of internal conflict. Many prosperous states have adopted relatively open markets and democratic systems of government. While the benefits of embracing a market economy are well recognized, countries devastated by civil war have often had little success in adopting market systems and establishing the rule of law necessary for democratic governments to function. This study examines the role of a country's legal and economic institutions in assisting private sector growth in post-conflict economies. Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda are taken as case studies to show that poverty reduction policies, good governance and the rule of law are key components for achieving economic prosperity and peace through private sector growth.