VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Accelerating bridge building between intertwined paths: legal governance of the delivery and financing of health care services in the context of crown-aboriginal relationships in Canada
Keywords: Medical care, Law and legislation
Medical care, Canada
Health facilities, Finance
Health facilities, Canada
Indians of North America, Health and hygiene
Indians of North America, Canada

Health care governance in the context of Crown-Aboriginal relationships in Canada is often dysfunctional and individuals continue to suffer unconscionable harms as a result. I argue that emerging tripartite agreements between Aboriginal nations and the federal and provincial governments have the potential to ameliorate this situation if they are conducive to the integrated pursuit of reconciliation between the Crown and Aboriginal peoples and protection of individual rights in publicly financed health care. Judicial supervision can ensure that individual rights/health are not compromised during the reform process, while potentially accelerating the negotiation and implementation of tripartite arrangements that are effective and sustainable, which I argue requires: (1) integration of health policy planning responsibility; (2) consistency with Aboriginal rights to self-government; and (3) a recognition of the on-going relevance of legal accountability mechanisms as between (a) the Crown and Aboriginal peoples and (b) institutions responsible for health care policy and Aboriginal citizens.
CanX-2 and generic nanosatellite bus mission operations, simulation and testing
Keywords: Aerospace engineering

The focus of this thesis is the system level design and testing of the CanX-2 and Generic Nanosatellite Bus (GNB) satellites at the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL). Specific focus was placed on the design of the CanX-2 on-orbit operations plan and implementation of the plan in actual on-orbit commissioning and operations of the mission. Detailed analysis of CanX-2 on-orbit operations is provided with emphasis placed on the main CanX-2 mission goals, such as attitude determination and control and the nanosatellite propulsion system. Thermal Vacuum testing for CanX-2 is described in detail along with the results obtained explained. Component level testing of GNB components that will be used on future SFL and the results of testing are detailed. Additionally mission level simulations were designed for the CanX-4/-5 formation flying mission. Detail is given on the GPS aspect of the CanX-4/-5 mission and how GPS position locks affect the entire mission.
Perceptions of the General English Proficiency Test and its washback: a case study at two Taiwan technological institutes
Keywords: Educational tests and measurements, Taiwan
School management and organization, Taiwan
English language, Study and teaching (Higher)
English language, Taiwan

Results indicated that the GEPT had a minute or no impact on teaching at both schools, except for courses at School B which were germane to the school's GEPT policy. Although the GEPT generated various degrees of washback on English learning at both schools, there was an absence of long-term systematic preparation for the test. A handful of students prepared for the GEPT two months before the test, whereas some students had no preparation whatsoever. Some teachers believed that the GEPT was valid and reliable, whereas others had neutral or negative perspectives on these issues. Participating students believed that the GEPT had gained public credibility. However, they still pointed out several issues and problems with the test. This case study research investigated stakeholders' perceptions of the Taiwanese General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) as well as its washback on schools' policies, teaching, and English learning. The research sites were the applied foreign language departments of a university of technology (School A) and an institute of technology (School B). The latter required day-division students to pass the first stage of the GEPT intermediate level or the school-administered make-up examination, whereas the former did not prescribe any GEPT requirement. In each department, I reviewed its records and interviewed the department chair, 2 to 3 teachers, 14 to 15 students, and 3 parents or spouse of 3 participating students. I also observed one of the courses taught by each interviewed teacher as well as the self-study center 2 hours weekly for 8 selected weeks out of one semester. One exception was a GEPT Preparation course at School B which I observed for a whole semester. The results of the study indicate that the existing theories or models do not fully explain the washback of tests on learning. I therefore propose a new, tentative washback model of students' learning to delineate this subject. Moreover, although results seemed to discourage using the GEPT as a degree requirement or other gate-keeping purposes, I suggest several guidelines for those schools which, out of some considerations, have to adopt the GEPT for these high-stakes purposes.
Characterizing the origin and long-range transport behavior of persistent organic pollutants in the North American atmospheric environment using passive samplers
Keywords: Persistent pollutants, Canada
Air sampling apparatus

Monitoring is recognized as an essential tool for identifying status and spatial and temporal trends of persistent organic pollutant (POPs) in the atmosphere. To investigate the origin and long-range transport behavior of POPs in air, a novel passive air sampler (PAS) was developed based on the polystyrene/divinylbenzene co-polymeric resin XAD. The PAS was characterized by sorption measurements of chlorobenzenes onto XAD at various temperatures, wind tunnel experiments and computer simulations of the uptake kinetics, and field calibration experiments under Arctic and temperate conditions. The performance of this PAS was evaluated by comparing PAS-derived concentrations with those measured by conventional HiVol samplers. These studies demonstrated the usefulness of XAD-based PAS for atmospheric POP monitoring. A PAS network was established across North America, consisting of 40 stations covering 72 degrees of latitude (10° to 82°N) from the Arctic to Costa Rica and 72 degrees of longitude (53° to 125°W) from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island. Four of these stations constituted an altitudinal transect in the southern Canadian Rocky Mountains, covering an elevational range of more than 1500m. Annually averaged air concentrations of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were determined in 2000/2001 at these stations, as was the enantiomeric composition of chiral OCPs. The distribution patterns of the POPs were found to depend on their physical-chemical properties, their emission history, and the environmental conditions. Evidence for global fractionation along latitude and altitude was observed. Multivariate statistical analysis allowed for a better understanding of the observed composition patterns of PCBs and PBDEs. Estimation of the long range transport potential of OCPs, empirically from network concentrations, and theoretically from model calculations yielded a comparable classification. In order to have consistent input data for these model simulations, a complete set of partitioning properties (aqueous solubility, octanol-water partition coefficient, vapor pressure, Henry's law constant, octanol-air partition coefficient) for fourteen OCPs was derived by compiling, evaluating, selecting, and adjusting all measured values reported in the literature. Large scale PAS networks are suitable for monitoring compliance with, and effectiveness of, regulatory control measures, and for establishing experimentally the atmospheric long-range transport behavior of POPs.
The legal supervisory mechanism of Chinese listed companies
Keywords: Government business enterprises, Law and legislation
Government business enterprises, China
Government business enterprises, State supervision
Government business enterprises, China

As a still-transitioning business system, China's publicly listed companies are experiencing a significantly adjusting stage. In 2001, a series of exposed stock frauds relating profits manipulation triggered the impending issue to reform corporate governance in the Chinese listed companies. This thesis attempts to review one aspect of this issue---the supervisory mechanism for the publicly held companies in the Chinese context. It mainly addresses the current situations and improvements concerning the certain legal supervisory mechanism. This paper first gives a brief retrospect on the related theories, China's unique institutional settings and relating practices at present, then it examines both the internal and external supervisory mechanism for China's listed companies, at last it analyzes and evaluates the above-mentioned disciplinary mechanism from the perspective of comparative studies and some appropriate institutional choices.
Holism, 'whole' personality, and disintegration: a case study of the impact of homeloss on Kurdish families displaced from Kirkuk
Keywords: Kurdish diaspora
Kurds, Migrations
Internally displaced persons, Iraq
Holistic education

Grounded in the perspective of Dynamic Anthropology, which studies human beings through their expression, psycho-physiologically indivisible from life experience, the present study locates the case of homeloss of a Kurdish family displaced from Kirkuk within the theoretical framework of Mimodrama, introduced/explicated in Chapter Two and developed throughout the present thesis. Within this theoretical framework, human development and learning are understood as an outcome of the dynamic multileveled inner/outer interactions between the intussuscepted impact of (the) event(s) in the visceral memory of the human being and the subsequent conscious expression of that memory in performance. Holistic learning and development are viewed as contingent on an unimpeded balance of visceral impressions and their expressions in performance. Whenever the balance of expressions and expressions is impeded, the holistic authentic self-development and learning are disrupted, ultimately leading to (self- ) colonizing development, which culminates in ethnostress: the disruption of the 'whole' personality and its eventual disintegration.
Vegetation and sea-level history of a mangrove swamp at Levera Pond, Grenada
Keywords: Mangrove ecology, Grenada

Grenada is a tropical, mountainous island in the Caribbean (12°1', 61°4'). Levera, a national park on the northeast coast, has a brackish pond (3 m deep, 0.5 km2) and mangrove swamp, sheltered by a beach barrier. Rhizophora fringes the pond and tidal inlet, followed by an Avicennia zone, mixed mangrove zone, and Hippomane zone. Surface pollen samples reflect local vegetation, but Rhizophora and Conocarpus are over-represented, while Avicennia and Laguncularia are under-represented. Sediment lithology, pollen, and macrofossil analysis indicate that the mangrove swamp was formerly a bay. Two sediment cores (445 cm long) have a basal horizon of marine shelly sand, overlain by Rhizophora peat, mixed mangrove peat, and then clay. A sharp contact between shelly sand and Rhizophora peat indicates a sudden decrease in energy of deposition. Approximately 2300 years ago, formation of a beach barrier and accumulation of sediments caused the mangrove swamp to prograde into the bay. The succession from Rhizophora peat to mixed mangrove peat indicates a progressive drying of the swamp. In historic times, forest clearance and agriculture have increased erosion, causing deposition of clay. Pollen from weeds and Hippomane increase, while Conocarpus declines.
Spirituality in education to work transitions: synergy of mind, body and soul
Keywords: School-to-work transition, Psychological aspects
Spiritual life
Minority students, Attitudes
Students, Attitudes

This work gave consideration to how spirit injury affects dominant and minority students' outlooks of the education to work transition and to further an understanding of the role of spirituality in this life stage. Maintaining that spirituality is fundamental for individuals' development, the project revealed how valued spiritual development and a sense of interconnectedness enables young adults to relocate from education into the world of employment while making informed life choices. The interrelations of spiritual and emotional development gave breadth and importance to outlooks as both spirituality and spirit injury are closely tied to the manifest perceptions held by students. Utilizing a sample of various Canadian cultural groups aided an exploration of the pivotal function played by different forms of spiritual expression and how spirit injury leads to a sense of disconnection. The work incorporated spirituality as a pervasive, meaningful and universal energy defined religiously and non-religiously. The interview process revealed the role of spiritual development in confidence building and consideration was given to the relationships shared between minority and dominant students' perspectives with respect to spirit injury, education and work. The nuances that exist across cultures produced clarity toward appreciating how spirituality informs the critical intermediary stage and further, what happens when spiritual development is not fostered at the educational level and how spirit injury may ultimately affect work paths and lifelong goals.
An inquiry into the use of stories about scientists from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds in broadening grade one students' images of science and scientists
Keywords: Science, Study and teaching (Elementary)
Scientists
School children, Attitudes
Storytelling
Early childhood education, Activity programs

Students' "images of science" (Driver, Leach, Millar Scott, 1996) and their images of scientists are widely accepted as important aspects of their scientific literacy (National Research Council, 1996) and have important implications for how they learn and engage with science in a classroom context (Hofer, 2001). While numerous studies have documented primary (grades 1 to 3) students' stereotypic images of scientists as sexist, racist, asocial, few have examined instructional strategies effective in broadening these views. Studies (Solomon, Duveen Scott, 1994; Tao, 2003) involving intermediate and senior students have suggested that science stories can help students develop more authentic views of the nature of science. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how stories about scientists from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds (i.e., physical ability, gender, ethnicity), presented over a 15-week period, influence grade one students' images of science and scientists. Data sources included: pre and post audiotaped interviews, draw-a-scientist-test (Chambers, 1983), participant observation and student work. Results indicated that while students' stereotypic images of scientists were not eliminated, students acquired additional images more inclusive of less dominant socio-cultural backgrounds. Gains were noted in students' images of the purpose of science, the nature of scientific work and the social nature of scientific work. Less positive results involving student resistance to non-stereotypic images of scientists and a loss of interest in becoming a scientist highlight the complexity of using stories about scientists with primary students. The implications of these findings for research and classroom practice are discussed.
Math engagement, perceptions, and performance across high school and post-secondary education
Keywords: Sex differences in education
Mathematics, Study and teaching (Secondary)
Science, Study and teaching (Secondary)
Mathematics, Study and teaching (Higher)
Science, Study and teaching (Higher)
Performance anxiety
Academic achievement

The effects of an educational intervention intended to enhance the performance, persistence, and engagement of high school girls in mathematics and science was investigated in a series of three studies. The intervention consisted of all-girls classroom instruction in math and science during grades 9 and 10. The all-girls courses were carried out in the context of a public co-educational high school (and the girls in the special program took the balance of their coursework in co-educational classrooms). The 474 subjects in this longitudinal investigation included 57 girls in the intervention group, 172 girls in the regular co-educational program, and 245 boys in the co-ed program. In all three studies, a range of pre-existing achievement, background, and psychological characteristics were used for screening and/or as covariates to ensure comparability of the groups. Study 1 examined the effects of the intervention at the high school level. There were significant program effects found for math and science achievement, and for science enrolment as well as for perceived math competence and effort expended on math. However, girls in the intervention maintained high levels of math anxiety. In Study 2, when these outcomes were examined at the post-secondary level, there were no longer any notable achievement or math attitude differences associated with the program. Study 3 used individual growth curve modeling to examine how math achievement and perceived math competence changed over the course of high school and post-secondary education. Change was found to be non-linear for both constructs (with math achievement starting high, dipping, and then recovering; and with perceived competence doing the opposite). The all-girl intervention appeared to act as a protective mechanism by not allowing the temporary decline in achievement experienced by both co-ed boys and co-ed girls.
Orientation towards 'clerical work': institutional ethnographic study of immigrant women's experiences and employment-related services
Keywords: Women immigrants, Ontario
Sexual division of labor, Ontario
Chinese, Ontario
Labor supply, Ontario
Chinese, Cultural assimilation
Chinese, Ontario
Women immigrants, Employment
Women immigrants, Ontario
Women immigrants, Education
Women immigrants, Ontario
Occupational training, Ontario
English language, Study and teaching
Vocational guidance, Ontario
Educational change, Ontario
Sex role in the work environment, Ontario
Women immigrants, Social conditions
Women immigrants, Ontario
Wages, Effect of education on
Wages, Ontario
Women clerks, Ontario
Chinese language, Social aspects
Chinese language, Ontario

Despite their educational and professional backgrounds, many highly educated Chinese immigrant women in Toronto decided to enter or re-enter the host labour market at the clerical level. Engaged in this problematic, I probe into the social processes regulating women's choice of clerical work as a 'natural'. The first social process involves the women's perception of their language proficiency, skill levels and suitable occupations in Canada, which is formed and transformed at the converging force of their gendered division of family responsibilities and their gendered and racialized experiences in the host labour market. The second social process pertains to the institutional practices of training and employment services that the women stumbled into. I argue that the service organization is dismissive of gender and racial issues facing immigrant women and contributes to channeling immigrant women to the clerical sector, reinforcing the gendered and racialized segmentation of the labour market.
Mentors' experiences in schools
Keywords: Mentoring
Mentoring in education, Methodology
Mentoring in education, Evaluation
Master teachers, Attitudes

This study addressed the following two-part research question: Does participating in a mentoring programme affect mentors' attitudes and beliefs about mentoring, and their reported mentoring behaviours? And if it does, in what way(s) do(es) such experiences affect the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of these people? In accomplishing this, the study presents descriptions of five mentors' attitudes and beliefs about mentoring, and mentoring behaviours, as seen and told through their own eyes while participating in a school-based mentoring programme. Accordingly, the mentors were interviewed at the beginning of the mentoring process and at the end of the mentoring process. This before-and-after format allows for the assessment of possible effects that the mentors' experiences in the programme might have in modifying their mentoring attitudes, beliefs and behaviours, such that where changes are observed, these changes could be attributable to their involvement in the mentoring programme. After completing the interviews with the mentors, one additional interview was conducted with the mentoring programme co-ordinator about his experiences in running the programme and working with the mentors. The interview was included for the purpose of providing a comprehensive perspective of the programme. All of the participants were retired individuals, with male and female, white and non-white, and first-time and experienced mentors and the mentoring programme co-ordinator comprising the group participating in the study. The findings suggest that the mentors' experiences influenced their mentoring attitudes, beliefs and behaviours, particularly for the first-time mentors. Experienced mentors displayed more stability in their responses between the two interview times. Both similarities and dissimilarities emerged among the participants. The findings are discussed in the dissertation with plausible explanations also presented. This study's contribution to the mentoring field is threefold: (1) it examines the mentor-protege relationship from the mentor's perspective; (2) it documents the mentoring attitudes, beliefs and experiences of older adults; and (3) it clarifies the role of mentoring within the educational setting. Thus, the study has important implications for programme planners and education officials concerned with improving current mentoring programmes or developing new mentoring initiatives that involve older adults serving as mentors in schools. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Continuous microfluidic reactors for polymer particles
Keywords: Polymer engineering
Materials science

In this thesis, we present a versatile new method for preparing highly monodisperse droplets, polymer particles, double emulsions, and self-assemblies of droplets in continuous microfluidic reactors. Recently, microfluidic systems are significantly being used in many areas of chemistry and biotechnology to achieve improved performance. Microfluidics provides the ability to automate highly repetitive laboratory tasks by replacing huge cumbersome equipment with miniaturized and integrated systems, and it enables the handling of small amounts, e.g., from microliters to femtoliters of fluids, reactants and products. These methods have the following useful features: (1) the generation of extremely monodisperse droplets, (2) the generation and control of both the shape and the size of the droplets, (3) the use of a wide variety of materials, including: gels, monomers, polymers, copolymers, and polymers doped with functional additives, (4) a possibility of in situ solidification of the droplets by means of photopolymerization and/or thermopolymerization, and (5) the ability to scale up the production of large quantities of particles. We focus on the effect of the properties of the disperse and continuous phases on the emulsification process, the effect of the polymerization rate on the production of high-quality particles, the role of the material and geometry of the microfluidic device in droplet formation, and the synthesis of particles with different shapes and compositions.