VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Patients' Perceptions of the Primary Care Characteristics in a Model of Interprofessional Patient-centred Collaboration between Chiropractors and Physicians
Keywords: patient-centred care
patient satisfaction
outcome assessment
interprofessional relations
chirpractic
primary care

Background: Considerable attention has been paid to evaluating the roles and relationships of professionals participating in team-based or collaborative practice; however, less attention has been paid to exploring the patients’ views and impact of such practice despite claims of it being patient-centred. Objectives: To examine the relationship between patient and provider characteristics and patients’ ratings of measures of quality of care and integration, and to explore the patient views of care delivered in a patient-centred collaborative study involving chiropractors and physicians. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Method: A mixed methods sequential approach with a quantitative priority was used in data analysis. Quantitative data were collected from 2597 patients participating in a collaborative study involving chiropractors and physicians and 530 patients attending chiropractors not involved in collaborative care. All participants presented with musculoskeletal pain. The Primary Care Assessment Survey (PCAS) was modified and scores from six of its scales were used to assess attributes of quality patient-centred care between the two study groups. Qualitative transcript-based data from six purposefully selected focus groups was analyzed using an interpretivist approach. Results: The revised PCAS demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties. Patients in both study groups received quality, patient-centred care. Patients’ reporting being completely satisfied and feeling improved by their care was positively associated with rating chiropractors as high performers on all scales. Survey findings were confirmed in focus groups of study patients. Patients appreciated positive interpersonal interactions, sharing in the treatment decision-making process, having a choice in provider and treatment, and the provision of holistic care. Patients perceived that collaboration between chiropractors and physicians varied, favouring those who were co-located. Patients with chronic or co-morbid conditions desired greater involvement in their care. Patients felt sharing of clinical information was more important than co-location as facilitating coordination and integration of collaborative care. Conclusion: The study suggests that patients suffering from musculoskeletal pain benefit from interprofessional collaborative care that includes improved access to and choice of providers and treatment options, as well as enhanced interprofessional communication and coordination of care.
Relationships among Span, Time Allocation, and Leadership of First-line Managers and Nurse and Team Outcomes
Keywords: nurse managers
leadership
span of control
timing study
supervision satisfaction
teamwork

Comparisons of raw span (i.e., number of staff who report directly to a manager) within and across organizations can misrepresent managerial capacity to support staff because managers may not allocate the same amount of time to staff contact. The purpose was to examine the influence of alternative measures of managerial span on nurse satisfaction with manager’s supervision and on multidisciplinary teamwork. The alternative measures were (a) raw span as a measure of reporting structure and (b) time in staff contact as a measure of closeness of contact by the manager. The main effects of the alternative measures, leadership, hours of operation, and other covariates on outcomes were examined. The interaction effects of the alternative measures with leadership and hours of operation were investigated. The study framework was based on Open System Theory and the boundary spanning functions of managers. A descriptive, correlational design was used to collect survey and administrative data from employees, managers, and organizations. Managerial time allocation data were collected through self-logging and validated through observation. Acute care hospitals were selected through purposive sampling. For supervision satisfaction, the final sample size was 31 first-line managers and 558 nurses. For teamwork, the final sample size was 30 first-line managers and 754 staff. The Leadership Practices Inventory, the Satisfaction with my Supervisor Scale, and the Relational Coordination Scale were used. Hierarchical linear modeling was the main type of analysis conducted. Raw span interacted with leadership and hours of operation to explain supervision satisfaction. Teamwork was explained by leadership, clinical support roles, hours of operation, total areas, and non-direct reports, but not by raw span or time in staff contact. Large acute care hospitals can improve satisfaction with supervision and teamwork by modifying first-line management positions.
Agency and Institutional Transformation: The Emergence of a New Corporate Governance Model
Keywords: Corporate Governance
Institutional Theory
Institutional Change
Agency Theory
Stewardship Theory

This research examines institutional transformation of the board of directors in Canada to a collaborative model in which the board, in addition to its monitoring function, provides a service role by acting as a sounding board to management and providing advice and counsel to management on strategic issues. This thesis also examines how director search, likely initiated by the ‘Enron’ scandals, led to some boards adopting a new model of practice that directors deemed more efficacious and possessing legitimacy, bringing together the old and the new institutionalism in institutional change processes. Legitimacy was drawn from guidance from a professional association for directors that outlined how boards could become strategic asset to the firm that was consistent with a stewardship model of governance that saw boards collaborative with management. It is also argued in this thesis that following the Enron scandal, directors searched for a model of practice that would be more efficacious such that their fears of liability were reduced. In searching for and adopting a new model of practice, the collaborative board, it is also argued that adoption requires coupling to the technical core (enacted), as opposed to symbolic, if it is to be effective. This research studies directors and senior management of public firms of the TSX Composite by way of survey methods. The findings provide support that the board is evolving in Canada to a new collaborative model and that the model of practice appears to be enacted (coupled) as opposed to symbolic (decoupled). Further, the results did not find that collaborative boards are impaired in their monitoring function and support is found that the board’s monitoring role may actually be enhanced. These results are discussed as well as future research directions and limitations of the study.
L'Acadie Postnationale: Producing Franco-Canadian Identity in the Globalized Economy
Keywords: linguistic minorities
state
globalization

Language is at the center of much debate in l’Acadie, a Francophone community in what has always been a peripheral region of, first, European Empires, and next, the North American market. Now, mobilizing neoliberal ideologies, Acadian community leaders and the Canadian federal government are striving to develop the global commodification of Acadian culture, through arts and tourism, as a way to ensure the reproduction of Acadian identity in a global economy. The Acadian art scene, first institutionalized as a space for the protection of Acadian culture and the French language by community organizations and the State, has long been a privileged space for the production and reproduction of nationalist understandings of Acadian culture. The commodification of culture is a site of ideological tensions on questions of nationalism as, simultaneously, increased urbanization and the democratization of the media is challenging the nationalist understanding of Acadian identity, as artists and community organizations claim a space of multilingualism in their work. In this presentation, I will draw on data I collected in a multisited ethnography, to show how the push for commodification is a source of tension for the Acadian community. I track ideologies of language from the government decision-making to the production and circulation of Acadian art, to analyze the tensions Acadian artists and community organizers experience as they try to enter or maintain themselves in the global economy, through the use of web-based media, alterglobalizing networks or government and private sponsorships. I will show how the institutionalization of languages as homogeneous is constraining the field of Acadian art, as actors are deploying diverse strategies to participate within or critique the existing networks.
Artwork/Streetlives, Street-involved Youth in Thunder Bay: A Community-based, Arts-informed Inquiry
Keywords: HIV
Aboriginal
Indigenous
Street-Involved
Thunder Bay
Harm Reduction
Street drugs
Decriminalization
Sex Work
Drug Use

Artwork / Streetlives is a community-based, arts-informed, research project which addresses harm reduction amongst street youth in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Nine street-involved participant researchers (supported by a team of researchers and community organizations) used art making and storytelling as ways of understanding the risks specific to street-involved youth in Thunder Bay. Due to the heterogeneous nature of the participant researcher group and a majority of Aboriginal research participants, a novel approach was used to create principles of research collaboration, in pursuit of the principles of ownership, control, access and possession for ethical research with Aboriginal peoples. The participant researchers found that their most common experience was their vulnerability to governmental social services and law enforcement personnel and policies. They further agreed that the risk of losing their children to child protection services is a source of increased vulnerability and a barrier to accessing treatment. They all agreed that the process of art making was fruitful and were surprised by the clarity and evocative nature of their artwork, finding that meeting weekly to do art is gratifying and therapeutic. They were interested to discover that the art they created, just by telling their stories, contained strong prevention messages they would have been influenced by as younger people. As such the participants want to continue making art, and showing their work, particularly to young people, social service providers, and law enforcement officers, who they think are in the best position to learn from it. This project is building capacity in the community (by teaching artmaking, group work, organizing, critical thinking, and presentation skills), is contributing to scholarship, and significantly and positively impacting the lives of the participant researchers. This work is represented in traditional academic prose and as collaborative fiction.
Fretboard Harmony for University Study: Method and Historical Context
Keywords: Music
Guitar

Fretboard harmony is essential in any thorough approach to the education of classical guitarists yet no effective method or materials for teaching a course in fretboard harmony is currently available. This dissertation aims to remedy this state of affairs by providing a method book intended for use in an upper-level undergraduate course. The design of the method book is informed by the study of historical documents and by the examination of recent theory and keyboard harmony texts. In Chapter I, materials from the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical guitar traditions are examined to assess the historical conception and use of the guitar as an harmonic instrument. These include Matteis’ The False Consonances of Music, Sor’s Méthode pour la guitare and Horetzky’s Preludes, Cadences and Modulations. Having established some historical context, the dissertation proceeds in Chapter II to examine theory and keyboard harmony texts to determine if there is a consensus on the ordering of presentation of concepts. The type of exercises given and their deployment are also assessed. The fretboard harmony method which emerges from these studies adapts this information to the particular exigencies and constraints of the guitar, resulting in a text which is intended for use in a full-year, upper-level undergraduate course. It comprises Chapter III and consists of a progressive arrangement of over 250 exercises along with written instruction. It begins with fretboard orientation and proceeds through single-note exercises, intervals, triads, chords, chord function and chord progression and modulation. The derivation of barre chords and “common” or “familiar” chords is explicated through a systematic method of chord formulation. Melody harmonization and figured bass realization are employed as pedagogical tools and are objectives in themselves in learning to actualize harmony on the fretboard. The harmonic scope of the method is confined to the vocabulary of the common-practice period. The use of secondary dominants, Augmented and Neapolitan 6th chords are final goals. Chapter IV is a conclusion of the study with a discussion of potential areas of future research.
A World More Intimate: Exploring the Role of Mobile Phones in Maintaining and Extending Social Networks
Keywords: mobile phones
cell phones
social networks
youth
relationships
loneliness
constitutive entanglement

While there are exemplary studies on the relationships between social networks and media such as television and the Internet, less is known about the social network consequences of mobile phone use during life-stage transitions. This study investigates the roles that mobile phones play in supporting the relationships of young people as they transition to and through their first-year of university in Toronto, Canada. Focussing on information practices during a transition that tests the resilience of support networks, this study queried the extent to which mobile phones play a role in keeping relationships intact, enabling students to maintain a sense of social cohesion and belonging. Data were collected from November 2007 to September 2008 through a longitudinal research design. Socio-technical concepts and network analysis techniques were applied to analyze the ways in which mobile communication is embedded in the everyday social life of young people aged 17-34. Set within the culturally-specific context of urban Canada, the data provided substantial evidence that mobile phones foster social cohesion within intimate relations but provide a more tenuous platform from which to nurture new relationships. First-year undergraduates have integrated the mobile phone into the way they engage with their social networks to a considerable degree, with commuter students experiencing additional tensions in negotiating relationships from home and on-campus. Findings showed that mobile phones were the devices of choice to mitigate feelings of loneliness, with deleterious consequences for the development of new relationships. Furthermore, the mobile phone was a key contributor to a rising sense of empowerment and autonomy for young adults as they negotiated identity transformations during their rite of passage into adulthood. Issues of trust and reciprocity in forming new relationships were mediated through a continuum of social media of which the mobile phone was the most intimate. Evidence of continuous access to social networks has broader implications for how mechanisms for coping with being alone and disconnection are acquired in this generation. Finally, observations of ritualistic interaction practices involving mobile phones may be theorized as small-scale evidence of larger societal shifts from collective constructs of community to that of networked individuals.
The Language of Real Life: Self-possession in the Poetry of Paul Celan, T. S. Eliot, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Paul Valéry
Keywords: poetry
modernism
Marx, Karl
Heidegger, Martin
enowning
Ereignis
materialism
phenomenology
appropriation
dwelling
Celan, Paul
Eliot, T. S.
Rilke, Rainer Maria
Valéry, Paul
property relations

In his “Letter on Humanism,” Martin Heidegger conveys the importance he attributes to poetry when he states: “Language is the house of being” (“Letter” 239). In response to his early Jesuit education, he developed a secular alternative to theology with his existential phenomenology. Theology, poetry, and phenomenology share the basic concern of explaining the foundations of being. For Heidegger, ownership characterizes being in a fundamental way; in Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning), he establishes the “Ereignis” (“event of appropriation”) as the foundation of being. Ownership lies at the core of being in his thinking following Being and Time. Yet his philosophy ignores the material circumstances of ownership. By way of a materialist critique of Heidegger’s Idealist phenomenology, I expose how property-relations are encoded in the modern poetry and philosophy of dwelling with the question: who owns the house of being? The answer lies in “self-possession,” which represents historical subjectivity as the struggle for the means of production. Paul Celan, T. S. Eliot, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Paul Valéry are all poets who address the relationship between being and ownership in expressing what Marx and Engels call the “language of real life” in The German Ideology (26). In 1927, Eliot converted to Anglicanism and found solace in the realm of faith; by opting for the theology of dispossession, he surrendered his historical subjectivity. Rilke thought that he could find refuge from the marketplace in aesthetic beauty and pure philosophy but eventually disabused himself of his illusion. Similarly, Valéry sought refuge in the space of thought; basing reality in the mind, he forsook the social realm as the site of contestation for gaining ownership over being. As a poet who distinguished himself from the Idealism of his predecessors, Celan developed a structure of dialogue based upon shared exchange on common ground. A materialist approach to the poetry and philosophy of dwelling exposes property-relations as the foundation of the house of being.
The Canadian Wheat Board and the Creative Re-constitution of the Canada-UK Wheat Trade: Wheat and Bread in Food Regime History
Keywords: political economy
agriculture and food
Canada
food regimes
Canadian Wheat Board
genetically engineered crops

This dissertation traces the historical transformation of the Canada-UK commodity chain for wheat-bread as a lens on processes of local and global change in agrofood relations. During the 1990s, the Canadian Wheat Board (Canada’s monopoly wheat seller) and Warburtons, a British bakery, pioneered an innovative identity-preserved sourcing relationship that ties contracted prairie farmers to consumers of premium bread in the UK. Emblematic of the increasing importance of quality claims, traceability, and private standards in the reorganization of agrifood supply chains, I argue that the changes of the 1990s cannot be understood outside of historical legacies giving shape to unique institutions for regulating agrofood relations on the Canadian prairies and in the UK food sector. I trace the rise, fall, and re-invention of the Canada-UK commodity chain across successive food regimes, examining the changing significance of wheat- bread, inter-state relations between Canada, the UK, and the US, and public and private forms of agrofood regulation over time. In particular, I focus on the way in which changing food regime relations transformed the CWB, understood as the nexus of institutions tying prairie farmers into global circuits of accumulation. When in the 1990s, the CWB and Warburtons responded to structural crises in their respective industries by re-inventing the Canada-UK wheat trade, the result was significant organizational and industry change. On the prairies, the CWB has shown how – contrary to expectations -- centralized marketing and quality control may help prairie farmers adapt to the demands of end-users in the emerging ‘economy of qualities’. In the UK, Warburtons has led the ‘premiumisation’ of the bread sector, traditionally defined by consumer taste for cheap bread, over the last 15 years. The significance of the shift towards quality chains in the wheat-bread sector is analyzed in light of conflicts over the proposed introduction of genetically engineered (GE) wheat to the Canadian prairies.
Bone Graphs: Medial Abstraction for Shape Parsing and Object Recognition
Keywords: Shape Matching

The recognition of 3-D objects from their silhouettes demands a shape representation which is invariant to minor changes in viewpoint and articulation. This invariance can be achieved by parsing a silhouette into parts and relationships that are stable across similar object views. Medial descriptions, such as skeletons and shock graphs, attempt to decompose a shape into parts, but suffer from instabilities that lead to similar shapes being represented by dissimilar part sets. We propose a novel shape parsing approach based on identifying and regularizing the ligature structure of a given medial axis. The result of this process is a bone graph, a new medial shape abstraction that captures a more intuitive notion of an object’s parts than a skeleton or a shock graph, and offers improved stability and within-class deformation invariance over the shock graph. The bone graph, unlike the shock graph, has attributed edges that specify how and where two medial parts meet. We propose a novel shape matching framework that exploits this relational information by formulating the problem as an inexact directed acyclic graph matching, and extending a leading bipartite graph-based matching framework introduced for matching shock graphs. In addition to accommodating the relational information, our new framework is better able to enforce hierarchical and sibling constraints between nodes, resulting in a more general and more powerful matching framework. We evaluate our matching framework with respect to a competing shock graph matching framework, and show that for the task of view-based object categorization, our matching framework applied to bone graphs outperforms the competing framework. Moreover, our matching framework applied to shock graphs also outperforms the competing shock graph matching algorithm, demonstrating the generality and improved performance of our matching algorithm.