VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Processes of cultural change: ceramics and interaction across the Middle to Late Woodland transition in south-central Ontario
Keywords: Iroquoian Indians, Ontario, Southern
Indian pottery, Ontario, Southern
Indians of North America, Ontario, Southern

The archaeology of the Rice Lake-Trent River Region in south-central Ontario provides a case study for the investigation of processes of cultural change involving social interaction. A synthesis of previous archaeological research indicates that the period encompassing the Middle to Late Woodland transition and Iroquoian origins is poorly known in this region. It nonetheless represents a time during which significant cultural changes were taking place. The processes of cultural change are explored by contrasting the migration and in situ development hypotheses for Iroquoian origins while incorporating the central role of social interaction. Analysis of data obtained through excavations at the Spillsbury Bay and Log Cabin Point Sites provides new information concerning the nature of Middle and early Late Woodland occupations in the region. The ceramic assemblages from these two sites are placed within the wider context of the regional scale in combination with previously excavated collections. Expectations for ceramic patterning derived from the cultural change scenarios are then evaluated against this regional database. This assessment is facilitated through the use of two statistical techniques: frequency distributions and correspondence analysis. The results clearly demonstrate both continuity and patterned change within the region. In addition to supporting the in situ hypothesis, analysis of the ceramic assemblages enables the establishment of a regional ceramic sequence. This sequence consists of three temporal phases of the Point Peninsula Tradition: Trent, Rice Lake, and Sandbanks; followed by the Early Ontario Iroquois Stage of the Ontario Iroquois Tradition. Interregional comparisons between Sandbanks ceramics and those of the contemporary Princess Point Complex in southwestern Ontario provide a broader perspective on the nature of the Middle to Late Woodland transition in the Northeast.
Coming to know: an inquiry into cultural, familial and personal habitus
Keywords: Families
Social classes
Success

In this thesis, I embark on a personal journey through habitus, contemplating the effects of class, specifically, on success: is habitus enabling or restrictive? Can habitus evolve or is it static? What tensions arise when habitus does evolve? If, as most, we come to appreciate habitus as the 'fish does water' what of the 'fish out of water', when one's habitus is no longer familiar or can be taken for granted? Through the use of tableaux stories, I wish to offer a contextualized analysis of the evolution of habitus--with class as the dominant affector--within a tri-generational arc. I employ a hybrid methodology, using narrative and life history, to trouble the influence of habitus on the participants.
Genetic risk and phenotypic variation in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Keywords: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Genetic aspects
Phenotype

Genetic factors play a major role in the etiology of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), as is evident from family, twin and adoption studies. Molecular genetic research has implicated a number of genes as risk factors for ADHD. Despite solid evidence the mode of genetic transmission has been elusive. The difficulty in identifying genes for ADHD may be, at least in part, a reflection of the complex relationship between the causative genes underlying the disorder and their phenotypic expression at the behavioural level. Objective: The immediate goal of this thesis was to investigate specific behavioural traits and potential cognitive endophenotypes in relation to three candidate genes of ADHD; the dopamine transporter (DAT1), dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4), and synaptosomal-associated protein of 25 kDa (SNAP-25). Rather than relying on ADHD as categorical diagnosis of affected or unaffected, inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity are investigated independently as continuous traits to determine the relationship with the specific genetic risks for ADHD. Different informants were investigated independently by evaluating symptoms reported by parents and by teachers across the two behavioural dimensions. Inhibitory control and working memory were evaluated to determine the relationship with the genetic risks and argued as potential cognitive endophenotypes. Results: The 4-repeat allele of the 48 bp repeat located in the third exon of DRD4 was linked with lower parent-reported symptom scores of inattention. No significant results were found for teacher reported behaviours. Better inhibitory control was linked with the 4-repeat allele. Inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity as reported by parent, by not teacher, were linked with a risk haplotype of DAT1. No relationship was found between inhibitory control and DAT1. SNAP-25 was linked with higher ratings of both inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity. No relationship with deficits in verbal working memory was found for any of the genes investigated. In contrast, better working memory was linked with DAT1. Conclusions: The relationship between behavioural and cognitive traits showed variation across the candidate genes investigated, as was broadly predicted. Differentiation of the relationship of traits across genetic risk factors was evident for behavioural dimensions and for informant. The study findings support inhibitory control as a genetically informative endophenotype for ADHD. Overall, these results highlight the potential of quantitative approaches for the elucidation of genetic traits, and underlying genes, in ADHD.
Discourses of contradiction: Politicizing the 'Beneviolence' of racism
Keywords: Racism, Political aspects
Racism in popular culture

In great contradiction, political and corporate institutions often reproduce the same racism they purport to be dismantling. The dedication to maintaining a 'politically correct' public perception held by many 'progressive' institutions compromise the acknowledgment of accountability and need for drastic reforms. Political denials of systemic racism create contradictory discourses that disguise and justify institutional racism's function--Beneviolence--enabling devices of racism to be extremely effective while simultaneously invisible. Utilizing discussion of racialized subjectivity in conjunction with theorization on biopolitical racism, this thesis will examine the nature of these contradictions as they appear in popular discourses. Critically examining the historic and contemporary relevance of contradictory racist discourses in current events, news media and film, this project will deconstruct racism as a political device with severely criminalizing and destructive consequences.
How rural directors facilitate change through integrated school-linked services for students at risk
Keywords: Problem children, Education
Educational leadership
School-linked human services
School improvement programs, Planning
Educational planning

Rural education provides unique opportunities for directors of education. The rural environment also poses numerous challenges. One challenge for directors is to deal purposefully with the increasing numbers of students who are at risk in rural school divisions. This research investigates the leadership practices and strategies used by rural directors of education in effecting change in the rural communities in which they work by exploring the implementation of a specific government policy (The Integrated School-Linked Policy , Saskatchewan Education Training and Employment, 1994) intended to support students at risk. In implementing the policy, the directors function as facilitative leaders. Facilitative leaders effect change for students at risk by initiating processes rather than by dictating change through directives. These processes, the functions, of facilitative leadership, engage and empower others by facilitating communication, educating, and by enabling educators to build relationships and find resources.
Coming home as resistance: an anti-colonial process
Keywords: Indians of North America, Colonization
Indians of North America, Canada
Racism, Canada
Decolonization, Canada

I seek to reveal how processes of racialization in Canadian society perpetuate and sustain colonialism and relations of domination and subordination between Indigenous Peoples and dominant society. The theoretical and methodological frameworks that I employ allow me to actively engage in the anti-colonial process. They empower me to reaffirm my location and my identity as a woman of Indigenous ancestry in academia and also within dominant Canadian society. I discuss representation, identity, culture and spirituality, and offer examples of how these concepts have served as colonial tools, while also seeking possibilities for refraining these concepts towards decolonization. I highlight the importance of sovereignty and self-determination for Indigenous Peoples, reflected in the concepts of "claiming voice" and "coming home". This research project is a journey in anti-colonial thought, which I hope may contribute to an on-going dialogue of decolonization for and by Indigenous Peoples throughout the Americas.
L1 in the L2 classroom: framing Brazilian teacher beliefs and practices
Keywords: English language, Study and teaching
English language, Study and teaching
English language, Brazil
English teachers, Attitudes
English teachers, Brazil
Native language and education, Brazil

While many Brazilian English as a foreign language schools prohibit or restrict first language use, research points to the benefits of both teachers and students using the first language as an effective tool in the second language learning process. This study explores the issue of why teachers include or exclude the first language in the adult English as a foreign language classroom. This study investigates non-native English-speaking teacher beliefs and practices regarding first language use and ultimately makes connections between teacher belief formation, pedagogical practice and the market demand surrounding first language/target language use. Two private EFL schools in Northeastern Brazil provide the sites for this triangulation mixed-methods research. Findings include a comprehensive list of reasons teachers include/exclude the first language, a list of main factors contributing to teacher beliefs on first language use, and an asymmetrical power relationship between non-native English-speaking teachers with experience abroad and those without.
Cross-body lead, counterbody motion: political and poetic notes towards a sociology of globalization, nation-building and transcultural performativity in Toronto salsa
Keywords: Salsa (Dance), Political aspects
Latin Americans, Social conditions
Latin Americans, Ontario
Racism, Ontario

This thesis takes up some of the kinds of identifications and articulations (re/made) possible in the context of latinidad given a certain visibility in the overdeterminations/and openings of contemporary globalization of 'popular culture'. The terrain I have articulated for the purpose of entering the social relations is the discursive field of 'salsa' in terms of a suggested transcoding of deferred, signifying and refiguring transcultural performativities involving 'latinidad' as emergent transborder reassemblage grafting new roots onto old, and nurturing ancient deeply rooted traditions like wildfire in glocalized expressions of Salsatropolis as seen especially in Toronto, Canada. In terms of refiguring latinidad as a signifying history, the thesis takes up the metaphor of mobilization and mobility suggested by salsa as a beginning point to address: (1) the continuing erasure and suppression of latinidad despite selective incorporation of latin(o) music and language into anglo-majoritarian everyday commercial life; (2) the ongoing vitality of latinidad alongside coloniality in late capitalism, and of latinidad as commercialized embodiment of the asymmetrical relations of cultural reassemblage; (3) the need for histories of complexity capable of minorizing the terms of majoritarian erasures, distortions, misreadings, obsessive-compulsive overdeterminations; the ability to suggest the importance of a displaced authorization of the historical text, and of reading practices sympathetic to dynamic histories of resistance with both/neither concrete and/nor uncoded effects; (4) the articulation of majoritarian histories with the contingencies of subsuming privilege; (5) the significance of majoritarian subjects occupying minoritarian discursive spaces. The thesis arises from a commitment to calling into question the majoritarian discourse granting legitimacy to a Future-seeking filiation invested with logics of entitlement surrendering latino peoples in an exaggerated myth of undignified presence or absence from a history of significance. Following Guattari (1995), the thesis meanwhile conjugates signifying assemblages with other discursive strategies or lignes errantes (de Certeau, 1984, p. xviii) from the decentred centres made historical margins, including asignifying, presignifying, countersignifying and postsignifying modalities.
Assessment of discrimination skills in individuals with autism: validity of the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA)
Keywords: Autistic children
Autism in children
Child psychiatry
Child psychopathology
Developmental disabilities

The Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities (ABLA) is a reliable and valid measure of discrimination skills in individuals with Developmental Disabilities (DD), but there are several gaps in the few studies that have attempted to extend its use to individuals with Autism and accompanying mental retardation. The study was designed (a) to determine whether ABLA performance is indicative of real world learning and (b) to examine whether the ABLA has clinical value beyond current assessment practices. Each experimental task had six discrimination levels designed to be analogous to the ABLA. One set of tasks used materials that were virtually identical to the ABLA (differing by colour), while the other used common everyday materials. ABLA Performance was compared to performance on these tasks delivered as static probes, and as dynamic teaching tasks. The ABLA accurately predicted learning (95% agreement) on virtually identical tasks, but was less accurate at predicting everyday discrimination skill learning (78%) than static baseline probes (89%), and took significantly longer to administer. Performance on the ABLA did not predict skill acquisition on everyday tasks, in this sample with autism, to the degree that it has for individuals with DD. Further, the hierarchy of task difficulty of everyday skills was consistent with the disordered development that is characteristic of Autism. The lack of generalization of skills across materials was related to differences in task difficulty and stimulus overselectivity. A hierarchical multiple regression procedure was used to test a model of everyday discrimination skill learning with: chronological age, mental age, adaptive skill level, communication ability, severity of autism, and ABLA level as predictors. Chronological age, mental age, and adaptive behaviour accounted for 50% of the variance in the model. The ABLA contributed a small portion (6%) of unique variance over and above the standardized psychological assessment protocol. Overall, the ABLA does not appear to contribute meaningful information not already provided by a thorough developmental and diagnostic assessment. This, combined with the lack of generalization of performance to everyday discrimination tasks, suggests that the ABLA (in its present form) is not an adequate measure of discrimination skills for individuals with Autism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Infant responses to symmetrical and asymmetrical looming pathways
Keywords: Visual perception in infants
Space perception in children

When objects approach an observer, they can result in either a collision (e.g., a hit) or a non-collision (e.g., a miss). Such objects can also travel on different paths of approach. On a symmetrical path, an object starts in front of the observer but on an asymmetrical path, it starts from either the left or the right. This study examined the eye blink response of 4- to 5-month-old infants' to determine if they perceive collision from non-collision on different paths of approach. The results indicated that objects on a collision path led to more blinking than those on a non-collision path, symmetrical paths produced greater blinking responses than asymmetrical paths, and asymmetrical paths where the object crossed in front of the observer's line of sight produced more blinking than those that did not. These findings suggest that type of contact, and path of approach influence infant's perception of collision.
Experiential learning as an enabler to improving conflict management in a work team
Keywords: Experiential learning
Conflict management
Interpersonal relations
Conflict (Psychology)
Teams in the workplace

This qualitative study explores how an experiential learning program can affect the ability of a work team to effectively manage conflict. The researcher followed the team over a nine-month period to develop an understanding of what it is like to surface conflict, and what can help enable effective conflict management. The team was a semi self-directed work group in a large manufacturing company. The team was observed before, during, and after two experiential training sessions. These sessions were highly participative and focused on improving the team's conflict management ability. In addition, each member was interviewed twice during the study period. The experiential program enhanced the team's ability to deal with conflict effectively, and also enabled the team's development. By moving through the experiential learning cycle to develop consciousness and then competence, team members built both a better understanding of conflict and an improved ability to manage it effectively.
Pain in children with spina bifida: the associations with locus of control, depression, and quality of life
Keywords: Pain in children
Spina bifida
Children with disabilities, Psychology
Locus of control
Child psychology
Depression in children
Adolescent psychology

The primary aim of this study was to investigate the frequency, intensity, location, and duration of pain in children with spina bifida and to examine the congruence between child report and parent proxy report of pain. The secondary aim was to investigate the associations amongst pain, locus of control, depression, and quality of life in children with spina bifida. Participants were sixty-eight children between the ages of 8 and 19 years and their parents attending the Spina Bifida Clinic at the Bloorview MacMillan Children's Centre. Children completed self-report measures of pain intensity and location, locus of control, depression, and quality of life. Children were also interviewed about their pain experiences (i.e., frequency and duration) and their coping strategies. Parents completed proxy reports of pain intensity and location and quality of life, and a self-report measure of depression. The results indicated that children in this study reported frequent and intense pain at multiple locations. Specifically, 56% of the children reported experiencing pain once a week or more often. More frequent pain was associated with more intense levels of current and worst pain. Overall, parents were reliable at reporting only their children's severe pain; however, parents of young children (8-12 years) significantly underestimated pain intensity. Parent proxy reports and child reports of quality of life were significantly different, with parents reporting considerably poorer quality of life than their children. In a regression analysis of children's reports of quality of life, a combination of factors, such as child depressive symptomatology, parent proxy reports of quality of life, and frequency of pain accounted for fifty-two percent of the variance. In conclusion, children with spina bifida, especially young children, are at risk for under-recognized and under-treated pain, which may significantly impact their long-term psychological adjustment and quality of life. Future efforts are needed to educate parents and health care professionals about the nature and prevalence of pain, and to develop pain prevention and management programs for children with spina bifida. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
The effects of perceived workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation on the mentoring relationships of gay and lesbian protégés
Keywords: Personnel management
Dissertations, Academic, Canada

The effect of perceived workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (hereafter perceived workplace discrimination) on mentoring relationships of gay and lesbian proteges was examined in a sample of 479 employed gay men and lesbians in Canada and the United States. I predicted that the likelihood of a gay or lesbian employee having an informal mentor would be inversely related to the level of perceived workplace discrimination, that gay or lesbian employees in mentoring relationships with gay or lesbian mentors would report receiving more psychosocial support than gay or lesbian employees in mentoring relationships with heterosexual mentors, and that there would be an interaction between the sexual orientation of the mentor and the level of perceived workplace discrimination on the amount of psychosocial support reported by gay and lesbian proteges. Perceived workplace discrimination was proposed to weaken the psychosocial support in mentoring relationships that are heterogeneous with respect to sexual orientation (gay or lesbian proteges with heterosexual mentors) and to strengthen the psychosocial support in mentoring relationships that are homogeneous with respect to sexual orientation (gay or lesbian proteges with gay or lesbian mentors). Post hoc analysis revealed an interaction between nationality and perceived workplace discrimination on the amount of psychosocial support received by the gay and lesbian proteges with proteges in the United States reporting less psychosocial support when perceived workplace discrimination was higher and proteges in Canada reporting more psychosocial support when perceived workplace discrimination was higher. As predicted, perceived workplace discrimination was found to be a barrier for gay men and lesbians to obtaining an informal mentor. Contrary to predictions, the amount of psychosocial support did not vary based on the sexual orientation of the mentor. Contrary to predictions, there was no interaction between the sexual orientation of the mentor and perceived workplace discrimination on the amount of psychosocial support reported by gay and lesbian proteges.