VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Feeling stressed? Emotions, stress, and the moderating role of physical activity in women treated for breast cancer
Keywords: breast cancer
emotions
experience sampling
multi-level modeling
physical activity
stress

Diagnosis and treatment for cancer may increase experiences of stress among breast cancer survivors (BCS) by sensitizing individuals to changes in body image. Body-related self- conscious emotions may be modifiable sources of such stress, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) may moderate this association. This study examined these associations using an experience sampling method. Twenty women provided measures of body-related emotions and psychological stress six times per day for seven days, and wore accelerometers to measure MVPA. Multilevel modeling was used to test for day-level time-varying predictors of psychological stress. Within-person daily variability in body-related guilt positively predicted within-person daily variability in stress. Body-related shame and pride were not significant predictors of stress and MVPA did not moderate the effect. The time by MVPA interaction with psychological stress was significant. Based on these results, body-related emotions and MVPA are important to target in interventions committed to reducing BCSâ experiences of psychological stress.
Harmonic-Constrained Optimal Power Flow
Keywords: FCM
harmonics
optimal power flow
optimization
SDP
VSC

Modern power systems incorporate renewable energy resources as distributed generation to reduce cost and improve reliability and efficiency. Power electronic converters are often utilized to couple renewable resources. However, power electronic devices create harmonic distortions, which cause power quality and device reliability issues. In this thesis, a new dispatch tool that promotes renewable energy while restricting harmonic distortions is developed. This tool combines system harmonic models with optimal power flow, and provides the optimal dispatch with limited harmonic distortions. Frequency coupling matrices are adopted as converter harmonic models. Relaxation is applied to transform the optimization problem to a semidefinite program, which can be effectively solved using a commercially available software. Numerical tests on two IEEE feeder networks verify the model and demonstrate that the system operator can reduce system harmonic distortions at small or zero additional generation cost by dispatching the renewable energy resources according to the new method.
Achieving Collaborative Advantage in Innovative Public-Private Partnerships: A Case Analysis of the Red Door Family Shelter Project
Keywords: Collaborative advantage
Public management
Public-private-community partnerships
Public-private partnerships
Urban planning

This research examines the ways in which collaborative advantage outcomes are successfully realized (or not) in innovative multi-sector partnerships between the public, private and third sectors. It builds upon existing research in both public-private partnerships and collaborative advantage by explicitly linking these two bodies of literature within an urban planning context. Document analyses and in-depth semi-structured interviews are used to examine how the theory of collaborative advantage can be applied to a unique case study â the Red Door Family Shelter partnership in Toronto, Ontario. By constructing an in-depth case study narrative of the formation of the Red Door partnership, this research examines how specific factors may contribute to the initial successful realization of collaborative advantage in a partnership context. These case study findings are then presented in the broader context of innovative multi-sector partnerships, with consideration given to the need to consider longer-term outcomes for these types of projects.
Farewell Manly Strength: Masculinity and the Politics of Emotion
Keywords: affect
crisis masculinity
emotion
gaslighting
post-truth

Masculine identity has been historically defined through invocations of various forms of negative emotions within the domain of psychoanalysis, psychology, gender studies and American history. By theorizing men and masculinity as seemingly perpetually in crisis, theorists of masculinities do a disservice to the members of our society who have historically been disenfranchised by the bearers of patriarchal privilege, regardless of how these men feel. This text explores the relationship between masculinity and emotion, urging readers to consider the ways patriarchy has modulated in response to the feminist movement using the concepts of crisis masculinity, post-truth politics and gaslighting.
Effects of multiple stressors on historical changes in the fish communities of the Credit River watershed
Keywords: Anthropogenic Stressors
Conservation
Fish
Historical Change

Watersheds in southern Ontario are of high conservation concern due to their diverse fish communities, productive environments, and threats from numerous anthropogenic stressors. The Credit River watershed, located west of the Greater Toronto Area, has 63 fish species and multiple stressors, including urbanization, climate change, and aquatic invasive species (AIS). This research examines fish community change in the Credit River watershed in relation to these multiple stressors. Historical fish datasets collected in the watershed from 1954 to present were analyzed to examine richness patterns and homogenization at the site and subwatershed levels. Richness and faunal homogenization increased at the site and subwatershed level over time. AIS and temperature were responsible for causing the most variation in the fish communities over time. The cumulative effects of AIS and temperature also caused increased variation in the communities over time.
A Geographic Investigation of a Critical Care Patient Transfer Network
Keywords: critical care
geographic information systems
medical transportation

The movement of critical care patients from areas of low treatment capacity to areas of specialized care has become a common practice, with over half a million critical care patients being transferred between hospitals every year in the USA. Despite the growing number of transfers and networks formed between hospitals, to-date there is a limited amount of evidence guiding this field, especially when it comes to best practices regarding the efficient use of helicopter resources without compromise to patient outcomes. While geography is central to devising a system that minimizes helicopter use and reduces any variation in patient outcomes, the spatial component of critical care transportation has been commonly overlooked within this body of research. In this thesis, a geographical approach is used to analyze a critical care transfer network centered around Maryland. It was found that the use of helicopters varies by hospital as a result of hospitals being located in varying proximity to the receiving facility. Patient outcomes were found to be even throughout the network.
Higher-Order Game Dynamics in Population Games and Reinforcement Learning
Keywords: Control Theory
Convex Analysis
Evolutionary Game Theory
Nonlinear Control
Population Games
Reinforcement Learning

Evolutionary game theory is a game-theoretic framework which attempts to describe the outcomes of competitive scenarios involving large populations of anonymous agents, also known as population games. A significant portion of evolutionary game theory is devoted to the study of evolutionary game dynamics. These game dynamics are often posed as first-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs) in continuous-time, and the equilibria of these ODEs can coincide with certain solution concept associated with a game. Research into the class of higher-order game dynamics presents an opportunity to potentially significantly enlarge the set of well-behaved game dynamics and may reveal many features of game dynamics that are not present in their first-order counterparts. We begin our design and analysis of higher-order game dynamics using a novel control-theoretic approach. The utility of such a control approach manifests itself in three major ways. First, by representing the learning rule as a state-space system, we provide a generalization to the class of higher-order game dynamics previously considered in the literature, most of which were studied with respect to very specific forms of learning rules. Secondly, we can design control laws through well-established control techniques that allow us to overcome non-convergence issues associated with certain types of higher-order game dynamics. Last but not least, we show that by posing reinforcement learning schemes as feedback control systems, we are able to leverage a host of powerful tools from convex analysis, monotone operator theory, and Lyapunov theory to systematically design higher-order game dynamics with guaranteed convergence in large classes of games.
In-Between Cultures: Becoming Latin American Canadian
Keywords: agency
critical spirituality
cultural identity
discourse
youth identity

Rooted in my own experiences and extending to phenomenological interviews with seven Latin American Canadian youth between the ages of 18 and 29 in the Greater Toronto Area, this thesis examines how the dominant educational and cultural narratives shape the heterogeneous ways in which they perceive themselves and others. Findings show that such narratives engender a sense of in-betweenness among Latin American Canadian youth that both inhibit and empower them in pursuing self-fulfillment. This study juxtaposes these findings to feminist pedagogies of “third space” and “critical spirituality” which have the ability to enhance the educational experiences of not just Latin American Canadian students but all participants in education. The overarching objective of this thesis, however, transcends the case study and explores the intersections between discourse, identity formation and agency, proposing critical spirituality as a practice enabling agency and as a transformational “punctum” that embraces the process of becoming over being.
The Curation of Difference, Diasporas in Archive: A Living Document Breathing Through Memory
Keywords: art
Canada
colonialism
memory
museum
Muslimah

This document is a dialogue of questions in the erasure of racialized Muslimah from the state-sanctioned institution, the Aga Khan Museum, settling on colonial Canada. Its framework is founded in an understanding of memory as having physical qualities, and material implications in its moment of recollection, museumization, and visualization. In juxtaposition to the critique of the Museum, and the colonial visual landscape of Canada more broadly, a public memoir through a collection of artwork, and a dialogue to follow. In it, three Muslimah-Canadian artists: Faduma Mohamed, Nasim Asgari, and Hiba Abdallah, which not only illuminate the variances of (mis)representation which claim a cultural production of knowledge in Canada, but also speak and curate themselves into existence, and thus enact resistance. This thesis is written to be a document of doing; an active public space which divests of whiteness, and the colonial inclination to erase, commodify, and barter bodies of difference in its presence.
Social Movement Theory and Transboundary Conservation in Eastern North America: A Case Study of the Algonquin to Adirondacks Collaborative
Keywords: Ecology
North America
Social Movement Theory
Transboundary Conservation

Conservation is currently undergoing a paradigm shift. Traditional, centralized approaches are becoming increasingly questioned for their inability to address the broad spatial and temporal problems that are characteristic of new large-scale understandings of ecology. Transboundary conservation models have been steadily gaining traction around the world as the more suitable alternative given their wholesale rejection of artificial, anthropogenic boundaries in favour of scales determined entirely by ecological processes. A case study approach was used to examine a proposed transboundary corridor from Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada to Adirondack Park in New York State, U.S.A. The central argument for this thesis, supported by insights from the projectâ s organizational trajectory and lackluster relationship with media outlets, is that conservation practitioners must foment social change themselves by aggressively pursuing dialogue with members of the public â rather than waiting for political opportunities to present themselves â if they are to gain support for transboundary conservation.
Measuring Post-Secondary Student Resilience Through the Child & Youth Resilience Measure and the Brief Resilience Scale
Keywords: Assessment
Mental health
Post-secondary
Resilience
Stress coping
Wellbeing

This thesis examines how the Child Youth Resilience Measure (CYRM-12) and the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) measure post-secondary student resilience as viewed by the University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada, which breaks down resilience into competence domains and adaptive resources. Cognitive interviews were conducted to assess item comprehension, with some items causing confusion with students. The two scales were administered in a survey instrument for a sample of 87 second- and third-year undergraduate students. Internal consistency reliability is high for both the CYRM-12 (Cronbachâ s alpha = .82) and the BRS (Cronbachâ s alpha = .83). Exploratory Factor Analysis yielded a 3-factor solution for the CYRM-12 representing family, friends and community, and a 1-factor solution for the BRS representing the ability to recover from stress. Scores from both scales indicate strengths in motivation and achievement orientation with more variability in familial relations and community belongingness. Limitations include a low response rate.
Minihumps: Characterizing a Coastal British Columbia Kokanee Population Recently Derived due to Anthropogenic Environmental Change
Keywords: environment
evolution
kokanee
residual
salmon
Sockeye

Sockeye Salmon have high levels of intraspecific diversity exhibiting multiple life histories and forms that allow it to make use of diverse and dynamic environments. Kokanee is the freshwater resident form of Sockeye Salmon. The Mini Hump Creek kokanee population, which inhabits a coastal lake in British Columbia, shares morphological features similar to the unique Black kokanee ecotype found in three populations from Japan and British Columbia. Unlike black kokanee, Mini Hump Creek kokanee spawn in shallow creeks. The evolution of the Mini Hump kokanee life history and morphological traits are potentially a response to environmental changes including water level changes and barriers to migration, which originated with logging and dam building in the 20th century. Genetic analysis using microsatellites confirms that the population clusters with other coastal kokanee in British Columbia, yet is genetically distinct from the coastal kokanee populations and is independent from other black kokanee populations.
Simultaneous Execution of Multiple Radar Tasks using OFDMA
Keywords: High Frequency Surface Wave Radar
Ocean Clutter
OFDM
OFDMA
Radar
Signal Processing

We develop the notion of orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) to enable a radar to execute multiple tasks simultaneously. OFDMA, like the betterknown orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) radar, encodes information on subcarriers in the frequency domain. However, in an OFDMA-based radar, the information can correspond to independent tasks to be executed simultaneously; of specific interest here, as proof of concept, is to partition the OFDMA subcarriers to detect two targets simultaneously. Designing a broadband OFDMA signal is an efficient and resourceful way to achieve this, since, as we propose, the frequency domain information for each subcarrier can correspond to each task. Applied to a high-frequency surface wave radar, in presence of a realistic ocean clutter, our results show that the OFDMA framework allows us to combine adaptive transmit beampatterns with task execution. We also develop a subcarrier allocation scheme to maximize the probability of detection.
To Conform or Innovate: Organizational Life Cycle of Independent Religious Schools in the Greater Toronto Area
Keywords: institutional entrepreneurship
institutional isomorphism
market innovation
organizational life cycle
private independent schools
religious faith-based

This thesis presents the argument that private religious schools in Toronto experience competing forces of isomorphism (from their status as schools in a highly institutionalized setting) and innovation (from their position as a business in an open market environment). Assuming multiple roles as a business, non-profit, and educational institution augments the pressure they experience and forces them to search for strategies to manage the additional strain caused by conflicting forces. This mixed methods study captures interview data from senior leadership in 20 independent religious schools in the Greater Toronto Area. Findings conclude that schools follow an S-curve on an Organizational Life Cycle, which measures a schoolâ s level of establishment or legitimacy. Furthermore, schools in the study faced competing forces (or logics) of education, religion, financial sustainability, and community. Through an institutional entrepreneurship approach, schools strategically selected their location, identity, leadership, policies, social networks and new practices to improve organizational longevity.
Monsters and Machines: Reframing Horror Video Games through Representations of Technology
Keywords: Horror
Ideology
Mediated
Representation
Technology
Video Games

Horror video games are an important site for technological examination. This thesis will explore the specific conjunction between the information medium of video game technology (within the game) and the cultural phenomenon of the representation of technology predicated in games. This thesis will discuss the nature of information dissemination mediated by technology, in relation to both monster and player, in horror video games. Using a qualitative methodological approach from Mia Consalvo and Nathan Dutton, combined with my contribution of understanding horror (power, networks, sensation), this thesis will discuss the perception technology encourages once inundated in horror games. Through this perspective, the significance of technology in horror games contributes to overarching Western cultural ideologies concerning the role of technology. Four games will be discussed as examples; these games will elucidate the relationship between technology, the monster, and the player as a mediated and carefully curated connection.
Assessment of Serum MicroRNA Biomarkers for Differentiating Between Indolent and Aggressive Prostate Cancer in Active Surveillance Patients
Keywords: active surveillance
biomarker
microRNA
non-invasive
prostate cancer

A significant portion prostate cancer (PCa) patients on active surveillance (AS) eventually reclassifies to a higher risk-status due to occult, aggressive tumours or rapid disease progression. Reclassified patients receive delayed treatment, while patients with indolent PCa are subjected to unnecessary and invasive AS procedures. We assessed nine candidate serum microRNAs in two AS cohorts for prediction of patient reclassification. A â 3-miR scoreâ (miR-223, -24, -374) was significant for predicting reclassification (training OR 2.271, 95% CI 1.499-4.939; validation OR 5.512, 95% CI 1.502-20.229) and was independent of clinical markers in multivariable models. A 3-miR score + prostate-specific antigen (PSA) cutoff derived from the training cohort achieved an excellent negative predictive value of 89% and specificity of 81% in the validation cohort. The 3-miR score may be used in concert with PSA as a non-invasive biomarker panel to identify patients who can be safely monitored with a less intensive AS protocol.
Examining Social Support among Elite Female Athletes and their Main Support Providers
Keywords: Elite Athlete
Female Athlete
Interviews
Qualitative
Social Support
Support Provision

Given the potential negative and positive outcomes associated with providing support, and the lack of research on the provision of support to elite female athletes, the purpose of this study was to explore the experience of providing and receiving support between five female Olympic athletes and their main support providers prior to, during, and after the Olympic Games. Five female Olympic athletes and each of their main support providers participated in one semi-structured interview. The results pertained to the purpose and types of support, the process of support provision, the outcomes of support, and the impact of organizational structures on support provision. The results of this study indicated that female Olympians rely heavily on their support provider for various types of support and suggested that while there are challenges associated with acting as an athleteâ s main support provider, there are benefits that can be derived from the provision of support.
Adiposity, Aerobic Fitness and Depressive Symptomology in Children at Risk for Obesity
Keywords: Adiposity
Children
Depression
Fitness

Elevated levels of adiposity in children have been tied to various pathologies including increased depressive symptomology. Aerobic fitness has been associated with reductions in adiposity and depressive symptomology and may moderate the association between these variables. This study examined this association. Five hundred and two children completed questionnaires on depressive symptoms, were tested for VO2 Peak , and underwent a DEXA scan to measure adiposity. Adiposity and aerobic fitness were tested as predictors of depressive symptomology while controlling for age, pubertal status and socioeconomic status. For boys, aerobic fitness but not adiposity was a significant correlate of depressive symptomology. The interaction between adiposity and aerobic fitness was significant. In girls, adiposity but not aerobic fitness was a significant correlate of depressive symptomology. The interaction between adiposity and aerobic fitness was not significant. These findings highlight sex-specific factors, which may inform targeted approaches to prevent and treat depressive symptoms in children.
Coaches' Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and the Coach-Athlete Relationship
Keywords: Coach-athlete relationship
Coaching
Emotion regulation
Emotions
Interpersonal emotion regulation
Sport

There is evidence to suggest that athletes use self-regulation and interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) strategies to improve performance and relationships (Tamminen Crocker, 2013); however, there is little research examining coaches’ use of IER and how this is connected to the coach-athlete relationship. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore coaches’ attempts to regulate their athletes’ emotions within the context of the coach-athlete relationship. Using a longitudinal multiple case study approach (Stake, 1995), participants included three cases each consisting of one male coach and two female athletes (total N = 9) from individual varsity sports. Coaches and athletes participated in individual interviews, a two-week audio diary period, and a follow-up interview. Athletes’ and coaches’ emotion regulation strategies were analyzed using Gross’ (1998) process model of emotion regulation: situation selection, situation modification, attention deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation. There were commonalities in the ways that participants perceived coaches used IER to regulate athletes’ emotions. With respect to the coach-athlete relationship (Jowett Meek, 2000), participants indicated that the quality of the relationship both influenced and was influenced by coaches’ attempts at IER with their athletes. A conceptual model outlining athletes’ emotions and emotion regulation, coaches’ IER, the coach-athlete relationship, and contextual factors was developed.