VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The American Hope-Dream: Implications for Democracy and Public Education
Keywords: American Dream
Caring
Democratic Processes
Hope
Inclusion
Public Education

Current crisis and pessimism enshroud the state of democracy and public education. This dissertation interrogates how representative philosophers, beginning with Plato, have conceptualized hope. The early philosophers considered also include Spinoza, Hume, Descartes and Kant. From the more recent past, I investigate Hannah Arendt, Ernst Bloch, John Dewey, and Jane Addams. Contemporary philosophers with the hope canon are also canvassed for insights on democratic hope and education relevant to democracy and public education, including Bernstein,Boler, Bredo, Calhoun, Freire, Garrison, Green, Kompridis, Koopman, Seigfried and Westbrook. The philosophical history is rooted in what is termed in this dissertation “The American hope- dream,” referring to the historic American Dream as a national aspiration of exemplary ethico-moral leadership to the world, especially with reference to its distinctive form of governance. The thesis investigates the dynamics of hope that accompanied the settlement, evolution of the new nation, and the emergent interlinking spirit of independence, democracy, and education of the new nation. It analyses key values germane to hope, such as freedom and equality, which surfaced within the context of governance, education and social justice. There is special attention to the work of American Pragmatism, and the work of John Dewey and Jane Addams. Their orientation to the need for philosophically relating democracy and education to one another is addressed. My project probes their ethical and epistemological insights with a view to appropriating relevancies for the 21st Century Arguments are advanced for important epistemic connections of hope in promoting imagination and creative thinking, and investigate the role of hope in the radical social reforms of Addams with special attention to inclusivity, care and equality. The thesis references tragic hope, and the failures of leaders, past and present, to realize many of the promising ideals of the American Dream. In sum, the dissertation interrogates the American Dream, with focus on democracy and public education, with shards of past, present and prospects undergoing philosophical analysis to justify hope as an initiating, nurturing force for political and educational renewal.
Strategies for Enhancing Education Governance and Management in Egypt: International Organizations’ Perspectives
Keywords: Education Governance
Education Management
International Organizations
Leadership
Participation
Partnership

With the aim of realizing a better understanding of the governance and management of the pre-university education sector in Egypt, this study explores perspectives of twelve officials working for international organizations. It presents genuine, authentic and valuable contributions and inputs from highly experienced and well-qualified professionals, fills a gap in the knowledge and provides perspectives that are difficult to obtain from official reports as there is a tendency in official reporting to avoid criticizing national contexts, national education sectors, their leaders and performance in a direct way. Utilizing the qualitative method and gathering its data from semi-structured interviews, the study identifies governance weaknesses that affect negatively the education sector and its performance and defines governance strengths that can be built on and maximized. The ultimate goal of this study is to reach applicable strategies that may be of assistance to the Egyptian Government and Ministry of Education to enhance education governance and management as an entry point to reform the whole pre-university sector and improve its performance.
Cell Topology Change by the Physical Engagement of Neighboring Cytoskeletal Networks
Keywords: Actin
Drosophila
embryo cleavage
Myosin
Syncytium

Cell topology changes are often associated with neighboring zones of distinct actin cytoskeletal networks and regulators, such as lamellipodium and lamella in migratory cells, branched and unbranched actin networks at cell-cell contacts, and concentric rings of Rho family GTPases during wound healing. Neighboring networks can cooperate, antagonize and interconvert through both physical and chemical mechanisms, but how these interactions modulate overall cell shape remains unclear. My research examined the metaphase furrowing mechanism of the syncytial Drosophila embryo. Prior to furrowing, an actin cap, consisting of Sponge (Spg, a Rac GEF), SCAR/WAVE, and Arp2/3, forms on top of each nucleus. Each cap is encircled by actomyosin borders, enriched with Rho signaling effectors (Rok, myosin, Dia, anillin, and anillin-recruited septins). Each network has only been studied individually. To understand their dynamics together, I first tracked them in the live embryos. Strikingly, the cap networks expand, meet the segregated actomyosin borders, and then bend downward to coat the nascent furrows. Concomitantly, the myosin borders become restricted to the furrow base. These observations let us hypothesize both networks antagonize each other through physical interaction. Indeed, increasing or decreasing myosin contractility resulted in restricted or enhanced actin cap growth, respectively, indicating myosin borders restrict and organize the expanding caps. Inversely, the cap growth physically pushed the actomyosin borders, displacing mesoscale structures into the furrows. Their physical contact not only refines the organization of each network but also induces buckling of the embryo cortex for metaphase furrowing. Buckling of the actin caps appears to be sufficient for forming the compartments, but normally these domains also swell through the contraction of the neighboring actomyosin borders. Overall, my thesis outlines mechanisms to explain how the physical interplay between mutually exclusive actin domains patterns the cortex and drives cell topology change. These mechanisms could be broadly applicable to systems involving the formation of a small compartment from a bigger cell.
Structural Neuroimaging in Anorexia Nervosa: Cortical Surface Architecture and White Matter Microstructure in Acute and Remitted Patients, their Unaffected Sisters, and Unrelated Healthy Controls
Keywords: Anorexia Nervosa
Cortical Surface Architecture
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Eating Disorders
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
White Matter Microstructure

Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a heritable psychiatric disorder characterized by starvation and emaciation. Although AN is widely considered a brain-based disease, its neuroanatomical correlates are poorly understood. As such, we aim to characterize cortical surface architecture and white matter microstructure in acute and remitted patients (acAN, recAN), their unaffected sisters (sibAN), and unrelated healthy controls (HC). Methods: Neuroimaging and assessment data was collected from 84 women (24 acAN, 24 recAN, 12 sibAN, 24 HC). T1/diffusion-weighted MRI data was acquired on a 3T GE scanner with 60 gradient directions, and it was processed with Freesurfer and FSL pipelines. Group differences in vertex/voxel-wise cortical thickness (CT), cortical surface area (CSA), local gyrification index (LGI), fractional anisotropy (FA), and mean diffusivity (MD) were tested with separate univariate analyses of covariance. Relationships among vertex/voxel-wise CT, CSA, FA, and MD and empirical measures of clinical and cognitive impairment were tested with separate linear regressions. Results: We detected significant group differences in CT in frontal and temporal regions (acAN
Orientation to Teaching as a Lifelong Career in Sub Saharan Africa – A Tanzanian Case Study
Keywords: Teacher characteristics
Teacher commitment
Teacher compensation
Teacher condition
Teacher recruitment
Teacher retention

Many developing countries in Sub Saharan Africa are facing mounting pressure to seek effective and efficient approaches to recruiting, preparing, supporting, and retaining committed teachers in the education sector. This research project explores recruitment, and retention factors that may influence a commitment to teaching of secondary school teachers in rural Tanzania. This study draws on a framework developed by Sher (1993) of three factors that affect the commitment and retention of teachers working in rural schools: teachers’ characteristics, conditions and compensation. Data included semi-structured interviews with 16 secondary school teachers from four secondary schools and a focus group interview with retired teachers from the Geita district in Tanzania. The interviews and focus group explored teachers’ commitment to teaching, and their perceptions of recruitment and retention factors that influence commitment to the teaching career. The findings show that participants believe highly committed teachers identify with educational goals and values, demonstrate positive job performance behavior and a desire to maintain membership within the education sector. The findings also confirm the influence teachers’ characteristics, working and living conditions, and compensation on teacher commitment, recruitment and retention. In addition, the societal status and image of teachers emerges as an important factor. This study discusses implications for education practices and policies that develop and support teachers’ commitment in the rural context.
Avrahm Galper’s Influence on Clarinet Pedagogy
Keywords: Avrahm Galper
Canadian
clarinet
pedagogy
teaching
woodwind

The purpose of this study is to explore the pedagogical method and approach of clarinetist Avrahm Galper (1921-2004), the former principal clarinetist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and author of clarinet method and study books. Galper was an esteemed pedagogue with numerous students who are members of professional orchestras, faculty members at distinguished institutions across Canada and the United States of America, and innovators in the music field. This study strives to answer this question: How has Avrahm Galper influenced and contributed to the field of clarinet pedagogy as a teacher? An examination of his teaching provides insight on the impact private instructors can have on students as individuals and on his impact on the clarinet community. This is a case study of the individual practice of a significant figure in the development of music education in Canada. The study includes an overview of Avrahm Galper’s pedagogical methods based on his own published materials in conjunction with the interviews with his students. A literature review of standard clarinet repertoire and pedagogical materials provides the foundation to this study. Through the transcription and analysis of semi-structured interviews, the documentation reveals the unique personal relationship between teacher and student. Nine former students were interviewed for this study. Interviewees represented students who studied with Galper over the span of four decades from the 1960s to the 2000s, thus providing an overview of Avrahm Galper’s teaching career. At the core of Avrahm Galper’s teaching philosophy was the need to develop and maintain a strong foundation stemming from the mastery of the low register of the clarinet. Significant attributes of Avrahm Galper’s teaching include his concern for the development of the whole person in his students, his adherence to core principles of pedagogy with flexibility within structure to best respond to the needs of the students, and the fact that Galper was constantly learning, evolving as a teacher, and adapting his approach to teaching. Galper’s students have been deeply influenced by their time with him and have adapted aspects of Galper’s teaching in their own teaching.
Molecular and Nanoscale Strategies for Enhanced Biosensing
Keywords: Biosensor
Electrochemistry
Electrode
Nanostructure
Photodetector
Protein Detection

As personalized medicine advances, the need continues to grow for new sensors in applications ranging from clinical diagnostics to therapeutic development. Biosensors are powerful tools and their evolution will play an important role in healthcare by enabling the detection of specific analytes that are clinically significant. The central aim of this thesis is to formulate new sensing strategies to detect clinically relevant biomolecules in a sensitive and specific manner. Many target analytes are present at extremely low concentrations while remaining relevant. The utility of a biosensor is limited by its sensitivity; but also, as we investigate herein, its ability to maintain its function in a heterogeneous environment. Here, we develop a novel sensing method for low concentration analysis of soluble signaling factors by coupling DNA hybridization engineering and antibody-capturing chemistry with an electrochemical-based reporting method. This technique – when combined with a chip-based approach – allows for both sensitive and rapid detection. Through the use of nanostructured electrodes, we showcase our technologies in applications that include protein quantification and low-level light detection. We design a device that analyzes multiple small signaling proteins in stem cell cultures with 10 pg·mL-1 sensitivity and validate our results by comparing them to the gold standard enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, with more suitable integration capability and in-line monitoring along with smaller sample sizes and decreased process times. This platform is improved by further developing a reusable, multiplexed one-step assay and sensor, simplifying and speeding up the steps required to obtain readout. Finally, we report on nanogap-separated fractal electrodes as a method for the formation of nanoscale features, exhibited by the fabrication of quantum dot photodetectors with nearly a one hundredfold improvement in performance over that of conventional devices. Overall, these strategies present important steps toward the development of more sensitive and faster sensors. By demonstrating low concentration analysis in complex environments and unprecedented performance with novel methods, we forge a pathway to more cost-effective and powerful sensing.
Correlates of Well-Being Following Anti-LGBT Trauma or Discrimination
Keywords: anti-LGBT
Centrality
Hate Crimes
LGBT
Well-Being

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals continue to experience anti-LGBT trauma and discrimination. However, relatively little is known about the well-being of these individuals despite experiencing anti-LGBT events. Using multiple regression and mediation analyses, this study assessed the correlates and mediators of the following positive psychology character strengths, including coping styles, authenticity of LGBT identity, level of belonging to the LGBT community, perceived levels of available emotional social support, the degree of centrality of an anti-LGBT event to identity, and disclosure and concealment of sexual orientation or gender identity to determine levels of overall well-being. This study also measured the severity of the anti-LGBT event and overall distress. Participants, recruited online, included 168 LGBT-identified individuals who reported having experienced anti-LGBT trauma or discrimination based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Problem-focused coping and emotional support were positive correlates of well-being. Avoidant coping, distress, and centrality were negative correlates of well-being. Further, higher levels of problem-focused coping, lower levels of overall distress, and higher levels of perceived availability of emotional support were all found to be significant partial mediators of the relationship between the centrality of the anti-LGBT event to identity and overall well-being. These findings suggest that by helping individuals (1) gain a greater sense of control over their lives, (2) reconceptualise the anti-LGBT event as less central to their narrative, and (3) create meaning, that mental health providers may help to increase overall well-being of LGBT individuals following anti-LGBT events.
The Brain-basis of Large-scale Learning Processes in Schizophrenia
Keywords: fMRI
functional connectivity
learning
multivariate statistics
neuroimaging
schizophrenia

Learning impairments are common in schizophrenia and relate to functional outcome. This thesis explored the brain-basis of learning in schizophrenia in spatial and temporal domains as it unfolded across two fMRI sessions. During fMRI scanning, healthy controls and participants with schizophrenia completed a lexicon-learning task and a comparative reaction-time task. Using multivariate analytic approaches, the thesis used three vantage points on the fMRI-BOLD signal to characterize the brain-learning relationships. Using reaction-time tasks bookending the learning tasks on both scanning days, Study 1 examined task-independent linear changes in the BOLD signal that could potentially interfere with accurate interpretation in fMRI learning studies. It showed that these effects are stronger in schizophrenia in brain areas associated with cognitive control, default mode networks, perceptual and semantic processing. Results suggested that some of the ‘hyperactivation’ attributed to learning processes in the practice-related literature is better attributed to task-independent effects associated with impaired modulation of the BOLD signal during task switching. Study 2 used a brain-behaviour analysis to examine BOLD activity related to learning-success. With practice, controls shifted between early and late learning processes with a switch between early frontotemporal engagement to later subcortically-focused engagement. Persons with schizophrenia failed to show this same pattern; they were differentiated by level of engagement with perceptual processing regions and an overall suggestion of prolonged, early-learning brain processes. Whole-brain functional connectivity patterns related to learning accuracy showed between-groups similarities, differences and a group-by-time interaction in study 3. While again the controls showed two patterns capturing early and late learning, the pattern for the schizophrenia group spanned both days and did not vary with learning stage. Strong differences in schizophrenia included over-connected intra-cerebellar regions, under-connected frontal-cerebellar regions, over-connected sensorimotor-thalamus connection and under-connected prefrontal-thalamus regions. These patterns mirror many resting-state findings in the extant literature, but here we showed how this dysconnectivity pattern impacted directly on learning performance. Together, these three studies showed how learning in schizophrenia is associated with different large-scale interactions that emerge in different spatial and temporal brain-behaviour distributions. The thesis showed how an overall pattern of brain inflexibility underlies learning challenges in schizophrenia.
How Performance Appraisals Shape Leadership: A Multiple-Case Study of Canadian University Deans’ Reappointments
Keywords: Deans
HIgher Education
Leadership
Performance Appraisals
Reappointments

Organizations tend to rely on performance appraisals to ensure that individual performance is improved and aligned with organizational goals. However, research suggests that these processes can be diverted from their intended use to further political agendas. In Canadian universities, deans undergo processes similar to performance appraisals when seeking reappointment. Reappointments take place near the end of deans’ first terms in office and determine whether deans are afforded a second term. They are high stakes for deans and their faculties. Yet, despite their importance, decanal reappointments have, thus far, never been the object of empirical research. This dissertation addresses this gap by examining how thirteen reappointed and one non- reappointed Canadian university deans experience and make sense of their reappointments. The study relies on the cross-analysis of these fourteen cases. A conceptual framework combining organizational politics, leadership, and organizational socialization theories guides its analyses. Of interest, the findings reveal that deans experienced their reappointments as political arenas. Political behaviour was pervasive, took on varying shapes, and came from different sources. Despite this politicization, reappointed deans experiences were generally positive, except in the cases of challenged, unsuccessful, or abandoned reappointments. In these instances, experiences were negative and suggest unjustifiable levels of duress. Also, deans understood their reappointments as measuring support or popularity. The analysis suggests that reappointments measured opposition, using it as a proxy for popularity and support. As well, reappointments were, in some instances, sources of strength for deans and their faculties, as they allowed for reflection and rallying. Finally, deans viewed their reappointments as mostly satisfactory, though they nonetheless considered them improvable, in particular with regards to resources involved, representativeness, criteria, and alignment with other evaluations. With regards to the link between the evaluation of performance and managers’ leadership, this study found that reappointments played but a mild role in shaping deans’ leadership. Nonetheless, reappointments shaped the deanship iteratively, by ensuring that deans deemed unfit were prevented from having a lasting impact on their faculties.
Effects of Explicit Instruction and Corrective Feedback on the Acquisition of the French Accentual Phrase by Native Speakers of English
Keywords: Acquisition
French
Instruction
Prosody
Second Language

It is now well recognized that second language (L2) instruction and corrective feedback (CF) have significant positive effects on the acquisition of L2 pronunciation (e.g., Saito, 2012; Derwing Munro, 2015; Lee, Jang Plonsky, 2015; Thomson Derwing, 2015). The objective of the present dissertation is to further our understanding of the effects of explicit instruction and CF via the study of the acquisition of the French Accentual Phrase (AP), a primary unit of prosodic organization, by native speakers of English. To this end, two inter-related experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 involved ten English-speaking learners of French who completed word recognition and delayed elicited imitation tasks that assessed their accuracy in the perception and production of APs, respectively. In perception, these learners showed limited accuracy with respect to the increased pitch and duration that cue AP-final syllables in French. In production, they produced too many, insufficiently large APs, and were non-target-like in the phonetic realization of the final LH* rise that signals the final full syllable of this prosodic unit. Experiment 2 then examined whether an instructional treatment that targeted the difficulties identified in Experiment 1 could increase learners’ accuracy in perception and production. Eight English-speaking learners of French were provided with six hours of explicit instruction and CF. Gains in perception and production accuracy were assessed using a pre-/post-test design involving the same tasks as in Experiment 1. While the treatment did not lead to gains in perceptual accuracy with the final LH* rise, there was significant improvement in learners’ production of appropriately sized APs and of the final LH* rise. In summary, this dissertation contributes to the growing literature on L2 pronunciation instruction via the study of a previously unstudied prosodic structure in a relatively understudied target language, French, and demonstrates the potential benefits of explicit instruction including CF on L2 phonological and phonetic development.