VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Climatic and behavioural influences on postcranial robusticity among holocene foragers
Keywords: Hunting and gathering societies
Physical anthropology
Human skeleton
Morphology (Animals)
Anthropometry

Postcranial morphology is commonly used as the basis for interpreting human behavioral and environmental adaptations in the past. Recent evidence suggests that diaphyseal morphology may be subject to climatic influences; further, there may be a selective gradient in which distal elements are subject to tighter climatic and biomechanical constraints than proximal elements are. Hence, the influence of climate and behaviour may differ throughout the skeleton. This dissertation compares the postcranial robusticity of four groups of foragers, to elucidate behavioral and climatic (quantified using effective temperature) influences on diaphyseal morphology. Foraging groups include early historic Andaman Islanders (n = 32), Later Stone Age southern Africans (n = 83), archaic foragers from southern Ontario (n = 15) and late prehistoric Tierra del Fuegians (n = 34). Diaphyseal cross-sectional geometry is quantified for the clavicles, humeri and ulnae bilaterally, and femora and tibiae unilaterally. Body size standardized geometric properties are compared using analysis of covariance and canonical variates analysis. Climatic influences on skeletal robusticity are strong at some skeletal sites, especially the subtrochanteric femur location. The midshaft femoral shape and robusticity of the femur are strongly correlated with terrestrial mobility, among male and female sub-samples. In the upper body, diaphyseal strengths are strongly correlated with marine mobility. There is no correspondence between upper body bilateral asymmetry and material technology, but males have higher levels of asymmetry than females in all groups. Overall, diaphyseal robusticity corresponds with patterns of terrestrial and marine mobility. The positive relationship between robusticity and habitual behaviour is strongest in the distal limb elements. Thus, there is less disparity between observed morphological variability and functional adaptation in the distal elements. This dissertation demonstrates that it is possible to partition climatic and behavioural influences on the skeleton. It is therefore possible to interpret habitual activity of foragers from diaphyseal robusticity.
Language learner narratives: bridges to SLA literature and SLA pedagogy
Keywords: Second language acquisition
Language and languages, Study and teaching
English language, Study and teaching

What is second language acquisition (SLA) like from the learner's point of view? In this study, I analysed the experiences of SLA as described by a particular group of learners: 30 individuals who authored language narratives--published accounts of their own experiences of living in a new language (in most cases, English) and a new culture. These accounts, 12 full-length autobiographies and 18 essays, were not limited to language-related events, but it was to these events that I attended in my analysis. After identifying 6 principal themes that recurred across the narratives, I reviewed selected theoretical and research literature on SLA and 5 course textbooks used in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) education programs to determine whether or not the issues/themes named by the learners/narrativists were represented. Finally, I conducted focus group interviews with 6 experienced ESL teachers and asked them to consider pedagogical implications of these 6 themes. I located attention to some of these themes in the selection of SLA literature that I reviewed, but often the nature of that attention was different from the perspectives of the learners. The 5 course textbooks included limited references to the 6 principal issues I had identified. I found that the experienced ESL teachers were reflecting on a number of these issues for the first time. They considered some of the issues to be beyond the mandate of classroom teachers, while other issues had clear pedagogical implications. The teachers agreed that learner perspectives generated from language learner narratives were valuable sources of professional development for both prospective teachers and experienced teachers, and that these perspectives would also be useful as prompts for discussion in ESL classrooms. Three research questions prompted this study. The information gathered from the first question determined the focus for questions 2 and 3. (1) How do the individuals who author these language learner narratives represent their SLA? (2) How do the learners' representations of SLA correspond to SLA literature? (3) How do experienced teachers of English as a second language (ESL) relate to these learners' representations of SLA?
La divulgation obligatoire des informations sociales par les commissions des valeurs mobilieres
Keywords: Social responsibility of business
Disclosure of information, Law and legislation

La responsabilite sociale des entreprises a souvent ete au coeur des debats academiques. Et pourtant, peu d'attention a ete porte a la necessite pour les commissions des valeurs mobilieres de requerir de l'information sociale de la part des entreprises publiques. Dans cette these, l'auteur demontre que la divulgation de ce type d'information ne devrait pas etre obligatoire. Le marche des informations sociales permet de fournir aux investisseurs ce qu'ils desirent. Cependant, differentes failles du marche menent a un niveau socialement sous-optimal de divulgation, qui devrait malgre tout etre moins prononce qu'en ce qui concerne les informations financieres. Il n'en resulte pas en corollaire qu'un regime de divulgation obligatoire soit une panacee. En fait, l'auteur argumente que non seulement un tel regime est conteste quant a l'information financiere, mais qu'il s'avererait davantage problematique en ce qui concerne l'information sociale.
Anti-racist feminist theory and women of colour in the graduate classroom
Keywords: Racism
Feminism
Minority women, Social conditions
Women in education, Social aspects
Universities and colleges, Sociological aspects

Taking an anti-racist feminist theoretical approach, this thesis looks at the operation of power dynamics within the graduate Women's Studies classroom, and specifically how they contribute to silence for women of Colour students in the space of the Canadian university classroom. Throughout this study I rely on secondary sources (i.e. published articles and books) as a means of gathering information. First, the theoretical concept of ‘race’ and its influence on academia is explored. This is followed by working through the three feminist epistemologies of feminist empiricism, feminist standpoint theory, and feminist postmodern theory, along with an indigenous/decolonizing methodology in order to arrive at a clearer understanding of how the histories of each have influenced the intersectional approach of anti-racist feminist theory. Next this thesis addresses how power dynamics in the form of silence may be experienced by women of Colour students within the classroom. I conclude with some suggestions for how a more inclusive classroom for women of Colour students may be achieved. The general scope of this thesis is to reveal how ‘race’ and racism within academia, specifically within a Canadian university classroom environment, continue to play an important role in how women of Colour students are situated within it.
African indigenous knowledges and education: implications for youth of African descent and Black focused schools in Toronto
Keywords: Students, Black, Social conditions
Students, Black, Ontario
Racism in education, Ontario
Education, Africa
Ethnoscience
Afrocentrism

From the point of view of contemporary education in Toronto, Ontario, some of the common dilemmas within the system---drop-out rates, violence, class size, teacher accountability, and lack of minority teachers/personnel---are appraised to determine their impact on students of African heritage. This thesis identifies the problems or gaps inherent in the assumption of academic success as the only true measure of success, highlights those aspects of indigenous education and knowledges that may be applicable in filling the gaps caused by this assumption and consequent practices, and proposes that a union of the two systems is not only necessary but possible through incorporating elements of African indigenous education into the current system's practices, policies and curricula. This study examines traditional African indigenous knowledges and educational practices for the purposes of determining their relevance to and applicability in Black-focused schools in Toronto, Ontario. Literature-based, the study examines the writings of Afrocentrists---Cheikh Anta Diop, Molefi Asante, George Dei, Annette Henry and others---as integral to its exploration. In discussing traditional African education, I probe two indigenous African societies---Kenya in East Africa and Nigeria in West Africa. Equally critical as aids to understanding African indigenous knowledges are the works of Jomo Kenyatta wherein are detailed the pre-colonial education system of the Gikuyu peoples of Kenya, and those of Babs Fufunwa in relation to Nigeria. Also examined is knowledge transmission in the Nile Valley (Ancient Egypt and Nubia) to investigate how ancient Egypt is connected to other indigenous African societies through commonalities in educational practices and beliefs. The impact of colonialism and colonial education on these cultures and the consequent destruction of their traditional educational systems also comprise salient aspects of this study.
Symphonic Stalinism: Claiming Russian musical classics for the new Soviet listener, 1932-1953
Keywords: Music

The thesis attempts to reconstruct from the materials published at the time the socialist realist discourse about music as it developed in Stalin's Soviet Union between 1932 and 1953. To mitigate the danger of reification inherent in outlining the content (and the method) of this discourse, the thesis also investigates how its multiple levels interacted, and how the different functions it served helped to shape it. Moreover, the study pays a close attention to how the balance between the different components of the discourse kept shifting throughout the period covered, with different concepts valorized at different times ...
Getting to yes on our terms: venture capital financial contracts in action during periods of limited liquidity
Keywords: Venture capital, Law and legislation
Contracts
Stockholders, Legal status, laws, etc
Corporate governance

This paper examines venture capital financial contracts in action, with a view to supplementing current research in four ways. First, it highlights the social fabric of firm assembly, and the ways in which financial contracts respond to its unique corporate governance DNA. Second, it exposes the nature in which such bargains entrench the opportunism risks associated with such preferred claimants controlling the firm's exit strategy. Third, it evaluates the role that such contracts actually play in the determination of corporate strategies at key inflection points in the startup's development. Finally, this paper suggests the importance of legal systems in providing stakeholders with a voice in this continuing governance "conversation" in the venture-backed firm. In each case, this paper uses an analysis of a modest sample of startup firms, each of which were financed prior to the collapse of the technology bubble in 2001, in order to support its suggested conclusions.
For whose kingdom?: Canadian Baptists and the evangelization of immigrants and refugees 1880 to 1945
Keywords: Baptists, Canada
Refugees, Religious aspects

This study of Canadian Baptists focuses on their attitudes and actions to matters of immigration and refugee policy during the formative years of nationhood in Canada from 1880 to 1945. This thesis seeks to round out the portrait of Baptists in Canada already begun by J. Brian Scott, Brent Reilly, Walter Ellis, John Grant, Philip Griffin-Alwood and Stuart Ivison, the pioneer among Baptist historians. At the same time the work seeks to fill in some of the historiographical gaps in terms of “denominational approaches” to immigration issues by augmenting the studies of Cumbo/Semple/Airhart (Methodists), Eraser (Presbyterians), Perin (French-speaking Catholics), and McGowan (English speaking Catholics). Baptist history and theology played a significant role in shaping the denominational attitudes and actions towards immigrants during these years. Inspired by a sense of religious duty, millennialism, fear of Roman Catholicism and a growing sense of national and civic duty, Baptists met the challenge of immigration with a range of attitudes and programmes that sought to assimilate the “foreign element” in Canada or prevent their admission into the country altogether. Baptists were as much drawn into schemes of Christianization and Canadianization as their Protestant counterparts, seeking to mould the nation into “His Dominion.” This vision of Canada was shared by both liberal and fundamentalist Baptists and was only seriously questioned in the 1930s, when a Baptist intellectual, Watson Kirkconnell, began to question the moral fortitude of assimilationist and protectionist policies and in their stead bestowed the virtues of ethnic pluralism as the father of multiculturalism in Canada.
Mothering the nation: the Hadassah organization's social welfare project in the Yishuv and Israel, 1912--1960
Keywords: Jews, History
Jews, Israel
Jewish women, Charities
Zionism, United States
Jews, History
Jews, Palestine
Jewish women, Societies and clubs

In the pre-state era before Israel's establishment in 1948, when most Zionist organizations concentrated on political lobbying and land development to advance the Zionist cause, Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, adopted a radically different---and at the time, controversial---strategy: it sought to improve living conditions in the Yishuv (Jewish community of Palestine) through providing hands-on social services to the local population. Beginning with setting up a nursing station in Palestine in 1913, Hadassah methodically laid the groundwork for the medical and social welfare systems of the future Jewish state. This thesis argues that Hadassah's early work in Palestine is best understood as an offshoot of the maternalist politics and "child-saving" agenda of the Progressive reform movement in the United States. Hadassah tied the maternalist agenda to the Zionist goal of a Jewish state by formulating a distinct ideology called here "Zionist maternalism." The core of Zionist maternalism was the idea that Jewish women had a specific responsibility for social welfare in the Yishuv. This study demonstrates that, through their participation in Hadassah, American Jewish women played a decisive role in the development of the social welfare infrastructure which made Israeli statehood possible in 1948. Ultimately, Hadassah took a leading role in shaping the political culture of Israel as a social welfare state. Hadassah's formidable contribution to the Zionist statebuilding project is assessed through an examination of the American field-tested projects which Hadassah transplanted to the Yishuv: pasteurized milk depots, maternal education, health care and health education in the schools, school lunches, nutrition education, organized playgrounds, model flats and domestic science education. The analysis of archival materials, including publicity brochures, newsletters and correspondence shows how Hadassah set up and administered these projects, and also how, through a carefully crafted publicity campaign, the organization persuaded many American Jewish women to support its innovative social welfare agenda. Hadassah's vital role in supporting the Youth Aliyah child rescue and education program from 1935 through the 1950s is also assessed in the context of the American organization's maternalist ideology and social welfare mandate.
Gandhi's praxis: Ideas for non-violent social transformation
Keywords: Nonviolence
Social change
Ahiṃsā

This thesis examines M. K. Gandhi's ideas for non-violent social transformation through a lens of praxis. It does this by first demonstrating the colonial arrogant perception embedded in the political and social structures of his time, and Gandhi's response to it. It then moves to an exegetical examination of three philosophical concepts that are key to Gandhi's thought, namely ahimsa (non-violence), satyagraha (Truth-force), and sarvodaya (uplift of all). Presenting Gandhi's thought in-depth allows for a discussion of one way that applying liberal moral rationality can generate misreading Gandhi's ideas. Central to this argument is the claim that the persistent salience of the individual within liberal moral rationality, particularly with respect to the concepts of objectivity and autonomy, tends to obscure to the point of undermining Gandhi's emphasis, in moral deliberations, on adopting the perspective of the 'individual embedded in community'.
Spacecraft testing and operations and ground station development
Keywords: Aerospace engineering

The Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment (CanX) focuses on small space missions involving technology demonstrations and scientific experimentation. The CanX-2 mission was designed to evaluate novel technologies and perform valuable scientific experiments. NTS was designed to demonstrate key elements of COM DEV space-born AIS detection technology. Both CanX-2 and NTS were launched in April 2008. The Generic Nanosatellite Bus (GNB) is a multi-mission design that is adaptable to a variety of payload designs. Developing GNB missions include a stellar photometry mission, BRITE, autonomous formation flying mission, CanX-4 5 and space-based AIS mission, AISSat-1. This thesis will discuss spacecraft-level environmental testing performed on CanX-2 and on-orbit commissioning and operations of the CanX-2 and NTS spacecraft. Further discussion will focus on ground station software development including automated multi-spacecraft operations adaptable for current and future missions.
Embedded system software development for a single-gimbaled control moment gyroscope and the vibration damping of a clamped-free cantilevered beam
Keywords: Damping (Mechanics)
Embedded computer systems, Programming
Gyroscopic instruments
Vibration

This thesis provides the details of microprocessor software design for a single-gimbaled control moment gyroscope (SGCMG). This paper shall describe various control methods for using the SGCMG in conjunction with a collocated angular velocity sensor for active vibration damping of a clamped-free cantilevered beam. This actuator/sensor pair shall provide robust control using a strictly positive real negative feedback. Asymptotic stability is possible using a direct feedback of the beam tip angular velocity rate with a constant gain. A simple modification to the proportional law allows the final gimbal angle bias to vanish asymptotically. This property becomes desirable for CMGs with limited gimbal travel. An automated method is developed for continuously monitoring vibration and damping of flexible beams that may be implemented in practice. The various concepts were implemented into a SGCMG hardware known as the GyroDamper. The control methods are supported by experimental results.
From inventors to predators: Have brand firms crossed the line by marketing authorized generics
Keywords: Generic drugs, Law and legislation
Patent infringement
Consumer protection, Law and legislation

"Authorized generics" (AGs) is the code name for the practice whereby the innovator companies create or licence their own generic version of the drug by sticking a generic label on the product instead of a brand label. This practice may have the effect of keeping generic drug manufacturers out of the market, resulting in increased drug prices to the consumers. The crux of this debate is handling the intersection of the patent rights and consumer rights (competition regulation). I take the approach that a patent right can be limited in favour of consumer protection so long as that limitation will not substantially affect the incentive to innovate. I consider the issue of AGs in the framework of three anti-competitive acts: collusion, predatory pricing, and unfair competition/abuse of dominance. I conclude that AGs are anti-competitive and their entry times can be limited while maintaining the necessary incentives for innovators to innovate.
Intimate business: woman-midwife relationships in Ontario, Canada
Keywords: Midwives, Ontario
Pregnant women, Ontario
Childbirth, Social aspects
Childbirth, Ontario

Both parturient women and midwives appear to want both intimacy and business, the personal and professional, in their relationships with one another; however, on balance, for women, the scales are slightly more tipped towards intimacy and for midwives, towards business. In 1994, with the passing of the Midwifery Act, Ontario midwives began to practise as autonomous, regulated health professionals with their own college of midwives. One of the principal goals of the Ontario midwifery model is the development of a relationship between the birthing woman and midwife. This research explores the meaning of this relationship drawing upon the insights of over 80 women and midwives, as expressed in focus groups and in-depth interviews. For many midwives, the support of communities of women, friends, family, midwives or medical colleagues is crucial for the effective care of birthing women, their own loved ones and themselves. Midwives recognize the need to balance their working and personal lives. Although childbearing women experience the woman-midwife relationship in diverse ways, most of them highly value this connection and indicate that a positive rapport supports the care they receive. Women want sensitive and competent care with midwives they respect and like. Women project onto midwives relationship roles that they need or come to desire: for example, friend, sister, mother, auntie, conjugal partner, teacher, or professional. For some women the relationship is primarily a contractual one, with mutual responsibilities. For others, the relationship acts as a catalyst in their growth and empowerment. Midwives, for their part, want meaningful relationships that support women and make their work worthwhile and enjoyable. They wish for the holistic well-being of women and their babies, and delight in seeing women develop confidence in their abilities to birth, parent, question authority and make decisions about their care. A close correspondence between a woman's values and those of her midwife appears to be a strong connecting force. When this synergy is absent, it is a greater challenge for midwives to establish a relationship, and their ability to support women's choices can be affected.