VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Sleep and Wake Disorders Following Traumatic Brain Injury: Impact on Recovery of Cognition and Communication
Keywords: Traumatic Brain Injury
Cognitive-communication disorders
Sleep and wake disorders
recovery
Mood
Sleep

Objective: To examine sleep and wake disorders following traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their impact on recovery of cognition, communication and mood. Research Design: This three-manuscript thesis comprises an introduction to sleep in the context of human function and development. It is followed by a systematic review of the literature pertaining to sleep and wake disorders following TBI, and then explores the relationship between sleep and arousal disturbance and functional recovery of cognitive-communication through a single case study, pre–post intervention. Finally, a larger study longitudinally explores the impact of treatment to optimize sleep and wakefulness on recovery of cognition, communication and mood through objective and subjective measures, pre-post intervention. The thesis concludes with a chapter that addresses the implications of findings for rehabilitation from the perspective of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), and a presentation of future research directions for the field Methods: The first manuscript involved a systematic review and rating of the quality of evidence. The second manuscript involved the evaluation of sleep and wakefulness by objective measures, and longitudinally by self-report through the Daily Cognitive-Communication and Sleep Profile (DCCASP, © Wiseman-Hakes 2008, see Appendix S). Cognitive-communication abilities were also measured by the DCCASP. The third manuscript utilized a single case series and cohort design to evaluate sleep and wakefulness, and to examine cognition, communication and mood at baseline and following optimization of sleep and wakefulness. Results: For Manuscript One, 43 articles were reviewed for levels and quality of evidence across 5 domains: epidemiology, pathophysiology, neuropsychological implications, intervention and paediatrics. In Manuscript Two, we showed that there was a statistically and functionally significant relationship between perceived quality of sleep and language processing, attention and memory, seen across the phases of the intervention. In Manuscript Three, we showed that there were statistically and functionally significant improvements across several domains of cognition, communication and mood in response to treatment. Conclusions: Sleep and wake disorders after TBI are pervasive, and can negatively impact rehabilitation and recovery. There is a need for systematic evaluation and intervention for these disorders in all persons with TBI.
Reformation and Revelry: The Practices and Politics of Dancing in Early Modern England, c.1550-c.1640
Keywords: history
early modern
dance
England
Renaissance
puritanism
Tudor
Stuart
British
drama
staging
cultural history
dancing
religion

This study examines the cultural and religious politics of dancing in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. Although theologically dance was considered morally neutral, as a physical, embodied practice, context determined whether each occurrence was deemed acceptable or immoral. Yet, judging and interpreting these contexts, and thus delineating the boundaries between appropriate and inappropriate behaviour, was contested and controversial. Advocates argued that dance enabled controlled, graceful movement and provided a harmless outlet for youthful energy. Opponents decried it as a vain, idle, and lascivious indulgence that led to illicit sexual liaisons, profanation of the sabbath, and eternal damnation. The first chapter introduces early dance fundamentals, describing steps, genres, and sources. The chapter also discusses venues in which people danced, times of day and seasons that were most popular, and demographic details for dancers in western England. Chapter 2 demonstrates how, by varying details of their performance, dancers could influence a dance’s appropriateness, as well as express aspects of identity, such as gender and social rank. Chapter 3 examines how clergymen and religious reformers addressed and tried to undermine pro-dance arguments through their treatment of biblical dance references in sermons and treatises. Chapters 4 and 5 feature case studies of parochial clergymen and lay persons whose opinions about dancing became flashpoints for local controversies. They explain why prosecutions for dancing were so sporadic and geographically scattered: dancing practices rarely entered the historical record unless a “perfect storm” of community tensions and personal antagonisms created irreconcilable differences that led to violence or court cases. The dissertation argues that a category, such as festive traditionalist, is needed to describe those who conformed to or embraced Protestant worship but who strongly resisted attempts to “reform” their behaviour outside of the church.
Social Support Networks for Literacy Engagement among Culturally Diverse Urban Adolescents
Keywords: Adolescent Literacy
Engagement
ESL
Ecological Systems Theory
Social Networks
Social Support

This thesis explores the influences of social networks and social support on the literacy engagement of 7 high school students from a multicultural, multilingual, and economically disadvantaged urban neighborhood in a large, diverse North American city. Specifically, this study describes (1) students’ social networks and social literacy interactions; (2) the types of social support the network relationships provide for participants’ literacy; and (3) the ways in which this socioliterate support might affect participants’ literacy engagement. Guided by Ecological Systems Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1992/2005), at three times during an 18-month period the 7 participants completed social network maps and interviews, checklists about their reading and writing choices, and retrospective interviews about their reading and writing practices on self-selected texts. These data were analyzed on the basis of Tardy’s (1985) typology of social support and the tripartite model of engagement proposed by Fredricks, Blumenfeld, and Paris (2004), then individual case reports were created for each participant. For cross-case analysis (Stake, 2006), the individual reports were compared across similar, predetermined themes. Two primary conclusions are supported by the data and analysis: These adolescents received varying amounts and types of socioliterate support from certain members of their social networks, particularly teachers and family members, and this support positively influenced their literacy engagement when they were facing difficult or uninteresting tasks. The study provides an understanding of the relationship between social support, motivation, and engagement in single literacy events, including proposed relationships between these three concepts, as well as perspectives on the role of technology in adolescent social network formation and on the sources from whom adolescents seek literacy-based social support. The study describes pedagogical spaces that can provide and activate such literacy support and suggests topics for future research relating to adolescent literacy, socioliterate networks and support, and literacy engagement.
Exploring Determinants of Registered Nurses' Trust in their Managers
Keywords: trust
nurses

A nurse-manager relationship plays a key role in a nurse’s practice environment. A nurse’s trust in one’s manager is the foundation for a supportive nurse-manager relationship and has crucial bearing upon the professional and personal lives of the nurse. However due to health care restructuring, nurses expressed little trust towards their leaders. To develop and implement strategies to help build healthy nurse-manager relationships, research is needed to more fully understand the factors that establish and enhance a nurse’s trust in one’s manager. This study tested a theoretical model that examined potential individual, managerial, relational and environmental attributes that impact a nurse’s degree of managerial trust. Employing a cross-sectional, descriptive design, a self-administered survey was completed by a random sample of 342 Registered Nurses employed in Ontario emergency departments. Structural equation modeling techniques tested and refined the hypothesized model. Final analysis showed adequate fit of data to theoretical model (χ 2 = 78.86, df = 20, SRMR = .02, CFI = .98, RMSEA = .09). In the final model, a manager’s perceived ability, benevolence, integrity and procedural justice had a strong, direct impact on managerial trust. Trust in one’s manager was indirectly influenced by procedural justice and ability as well as a manager’s facilitation of team work, communication accuracy, emotional availability and interaction frequency. Attributes of the individual RN, specifically job tenure and propensity to trust as well as self-determination, access to support and resources and span of control did not affect trust in one’s manager. Study findings suggest that creation and preservation of a nurse’s managerial trust is a complex process affected by manager’s competence and character as well as a fair decision-making process. Education programs that contribute to a manager’s ability, benevolence, integrity and procedural justice may help build and sustain nurses’ trust and healthy nurse-manager relationships.
Tattered Cloth Tells More: Women's Work and Museum Representation
Keywords: museum
women
work

The past two decades posed some challenges for the museum world. Questions about the production of meaning, museum relationships with community groups, and the politics of representation in exhibitions, occupy both museum practitioners and scholars. These questions are further related to the general issues that are at the forefront of contemporary society, which include problems of social inclusion, cultural diversity and social equity (Sandell, 2002; 2007). Most of the discussion has been framed around racial, ethnic and cultural communities and their access to and participation in museum programming. Gender relations and feminist issues have been largely overlooked (Conlan and Levin, 2010: 308). This study considers the representation of women’s work in museums. In particular, I examine portrayals of “culture” and “work” in women’s textile production. Museum literature has documented the subordination (or absence) of women and their work in exhibitions and the hegemonic, patriarchal approach within which they were represented (Porter, 1996; Levin, 2010). Using an ethnographic case study of a museum dedicated to textile collection, I suggest seeing this museum as a potential challenge to mainstream museums’ traditional approach and silence on the women’s work that has created most textiles on display. I examine the meanings that are produced in relation to the textiles, the organization and dissemination of these meanings through exhibitions and the ways in which the public (visitors and members) responds to these exhibitions. In order to explore these questions, Hall’s communication model (1993) was applied to trace the process of encoding and decoding meanings at the museum. My approach to meaning production is realized through observations of the museum’s committee meetings. The second stage is the circulation of meanings in exhibitions. I examine this through an analysis of exhibitions’ texts and docent tours. Decoding these meanings is realized through surveys of museum members and visitors together with short interviews. My findings suggest that initially, the museum offered some oppositional elements in exhibiting practices. However, a shift occurred towards a dominant, hegemonic view of museum work and re-effacing of women’s work with the departure of the founders.
South-South-North Research Partnerships: A Transformative Development Modality?
Keywords: Higher Education
Comparative and International Education

This thesis investigates development assistance programming in the research activities of higher education institutions by studying the case of the Norwegian Programme for Education, Research and Development (NUFU) and its activities in two sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations. In this thesis, North-South Research Partnerships (NSRPs) are conceptualized through the construction of an ideal-type based on the historical record of NSRP progrmaming. A conceptual framework and analytical tool are developed in order to present the dominant norms associated with mainstream North-South research programming over the past sixty years, as firmly embedded in exploitative core-periphery dynamics. The main research questions ask to what extent the NUFU model differs from other NSRP programs, including South-South collaborative opportunities, and to what extent the program creates spaces for endogenous research needs and priorities to take precedent over exogenous demands and targets. A qualitative investigation is used to gather data from textual analysis, participant observation and key informant interviews in order to investigate how the NUFU program establishes demand-driven programs in Southern universities while negotiating the Norwegian and global political economies. A case study of a single NUFU North-South-South project demonstrates how the program framework influences the construction of the partnership modality. The findings indicate that the North-South component of the model presents significant opportunities for demand-driven research, but that changing trends in Norway are placing pressure on the program and researchers. With regard to the South-South component, the study concludes that the modality is under-conceptualized, lacks clarity of purpose and has failed to generate sustainable collaboration within the SSA region. The implications of these findings for NSRP programming, the NUFU program in particular, are that historical asymmetries remain firmly entrenched; without a radical reconstitution of the economic and political relations between Northern and Southern states, the most powerful international actors, be they states, private entities or multilateral agencies, will continue to dominate and determine knowledge production capacities and outputs. The study concludes by suggesting opportunities for NSRP programs to augment their support of Southern universities and by reflecting on how ongoing changes in current geo-political configurations could open new spaces for alternative development trajectories.
A Comparative Study of the Shifting Nature of International Non-governmental Organization Global Education Programming in Canada and the United Kingdom
Keywords: Global Education
Citizen Engagement

International development non-governmental organizations (INGOs) in the United Kingdom and Canada have demonstrated a distinct withdrawal from education programming towards campaigns and fundraising. This study explores how the nature of INGO global education programming has shifted over time. The purpose of this research is to gain a better understanding of a) the place of INGO-produced global education within the context of international development and the field of global education, and b) what type of role (if any) INGOs have to play in future global education programming. The shifts in INGO global education over time are identified through a comparative historical analysis of the socio-political and funding conditions affecting INGO-produced global education programming in Canada and the UK including the embedded case studies of two sister organizations, Save the Children UK and Save the Children Canada. This study looks broadly at the fifty year history of INGO global education, then focuses on the current experiences of two INGOs that are representative of conditions of INGO dependency within their country contexts. A conceptual framework based on the work on the educational typologies of Askew and Carnell (1998) and the ethical positionings of Barnett and Weiss (2008) is used to analyze, evaluate, explore, and describe the global education programming mechanisms prioritized by INGOs. The trend of INGO global education programming as fundraising campaigns lacks the commitment to relationship building, and the acquisition of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are important for developing informed and capable constituencies who would understand systemic inequalities. This begs the question as to whether INGOs are satisfied with the short-term, socially regulatory outcome of fundraising when they have the potential to facilitate the dialogical, equitable relationships that can increase the possibilities for social transformation.
Diffeologies, Differential Spaces, and Symplectic Geometry
Keywords: diffeology
differential spaces
symplectic geometry
Lie groups
Hamiltonian group actions
subcartesian spaces

Diffeological and differential spaces are generalisations of smooth structures on manifolds. We show that the “intersection” of these two categories is isomorphic to Frölicher spaces, another generalisation of smooth structures. We then give examples of such spaces, as well as examples of diffeological and differential spaces that do not fall into this category. We apply the theory of diffeological spaces to differential forms on a geometric quotient of a compact Lie group. We show that the subcomplex of basic forms is isomorphic to the complex of diffeological forms on the geometric quotient. We apply this to symplectic quotients coming from a regular value of the momentum map, and show that diffeological forms on this quotient are isomorphic as a complex to Sjamaar differential forms. We also compare diffeological forms to those on orbifolds, and show that they are isomorphic complexes as well. We apply the theory of differential spaces to subcartesian spaces equipped with families of vector fields. We use this theory to show that smooth stratified spaces form a full subcategory of subcartesian spaces equipped with families of vector fields. We give families of vector fields that induce the orbit-type stratifications induced by a Lie group action, as well as the orbit-type stratifications induced by a Hamiltonian group action.
Development of Methods for Retrospective Ultrasound Transmit Focusing
Keywords: ultrasound
retrospective transmit focusing
wave propagation
attenuation
dispersion
apodized
focused
circular plane piston transducer

Single frame ultrasound B-mode image quality is largely governed by the ability to focus the ultrasound beam over a range in depths both in transmission and reception. By developing a comprehensive understanding of acoustic wave propagation two signal processing methods were identified for solving the transmission problem. We made use of both the impulse response using the classical point spread function (PSF) and the spatial sensitivity function (SSF) which describes the spatial distribution at a particular time. Using the angular spectrum method, an accurate analytical model was developed for the field distribution arising from a finite geometry, apodized and focused, plane piston transducer. While there is a thorough understanding of the radiated field arising from uniformly excited plane piston transducers, the focused equivalent (i.e., one that allows a continuous change in phase over the plane piston surface) is incomplete and assumes the Fresnel approximation. Our model addresses the effects of diffraction and evanescent waves without the use of the Fresnel approximation and is applicable at all near- and far-field locations in a lossless medium. The model was analyzed to identify new insights into wave propagation and compared with the Fresnel approximation and the spherically-focused, concave transducer. The piston transducer model was then extended to an attenuating and dispersive medium. After analysing existing models of power-law frequency dependent attenuation, a causal, spherical wave Green’s function was derived from the Navier-Stokes equation for a classical viscous medium. Modifications to the angular spectrum method were presented and used to analyze the radiated field of a focused, planar piston transducer. Finally, after presenting our signal processing strategy for improving imaging spatial resolution through minimization of the SSF, two signal processing methods were derived and analysed in simulation: a deconvolution technique to remove the effects of the ultrasound excitation wave and suppress additive noise from the received ultrasound signal, and a retrospective transmit focusing method that changed the response from a predefined transmit focus to an arbitrary transmit focal depth. Proof-of-concept simulations were presented using a variable number of scatterers and compared with the traditional matched filtering and envelope detection technique.
Oblivious and Non-oblivious Local Search for Combinatorial Optimization
Keywords: Approximation Algorithms
Local Search
Submodular Maximization
Independence Systems

Standard local search algorithms for combinatorial optimization problems repeatedly apply small changes to a current solution to improve the problem's given objective function. In contrast, non-oblivious local search algorithms are guided by an auxiliary potential function, which is distinct from the problem's objective. In this thesis, we compare the standard and non-oblivious approaches for a variety of problems, and derive new, improved non-oblivious local search algorithms for several problems in the area of constrained linear and monotone submodular maximization. First, we give a new, randomized approximation algorithm for maximizing a monotone submodular function subject to a matroid constraint. Our algorithm's approximation ratio matches both the known hardness of approximation bounds for the problem and the performance of the recent ``continuous greedy'' algorithm. Unlike the continuous greedy algorithm, our algorithm is straightforward and combinatorial. In the case that the monotone submodular function is a coverage function, we can obtain a further simplified, deterministic algorithm with improved running time. Moving beyond the case of single matroid constraints, we then consider general classes of set systems that capture problems that can be approximated well. While previous such classes have focused primarily on greedy algorithms, we give a new class that captures problems amenable to optimization by local search algorithms. We show that several combinatorial optimization problems can be placed in this class, and give a non-oblivious local search algorithm that delivers improved approximations for a variety of specific problems. In contrast, we show that standard local search algorithms give no improvement over known approximation results for these problems, even when allowed to search larger neighborhoods than their non-oblivious counterparts. Finally, we expand on these results by considering standard local search algorithms for constraint satisfaction problems. We develop conditions under which the approximation ratio of standard local search remains limited even for super-polynomial or exponential local neighborhoods. In the special case of MaxCut, we further show that a variety of techniques including random or greedy initialization, large neighborhoods, and best-improvement pivot rules cannot improve the approximation performance of standard local search.