VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Attachment style, anxiety sensitivity and personality in the prediction of panic attacks: response to a symptom-provocation test
Keywords: Panic disorders
Agoraphobia
Attachment behavior
Anxiety sensitivity
Panic attacks

Anxiety Sensitivity (AS), the fear of anxiety-related sensations, is a suggested vulnerability factor in the development of Panic Disorder (PD). Individual differences in attachment security and personality have also been implicated in the expression of PD. The current study explored the relative contributions of AS, attachment and personality in the prediction of panic history and response to symptom provocation. Questionnaire data were collected from 339 undergraduates to assess history of panic symptomatology. Sixty-two individuals with no history of panic disorder were then invited to participate in a standard panic symptom induction procedure. Consistent with previous research, AS was a positive predictor of symptom severity and agoraphobic avoidance. Insecure attachment was a small but significant predictor of symptom severity and avoidance in individuals with a history of panic attacks. Contrary to previous reports, personality was the only significant predictor of response to symptom induction. Implications of these results for panic in non-clinical populations are discussed.
Inventing the Sri Lankans: Construction of ethnic identity by immigrants to Ontario
Keywords: Ethnology, Study and teaching

This exploratory sociological study on identity construction of Sri Lankan immigrants and their Canadian born children living in Ontario addresses three main questions: (1) the content and the nature of ethnic identification; (2) the significant differences between the observed identity types and the original Sri Lankan identity types of Sinhalese, Tamil and Burghers; and (3) the significant differences between the Canadian-born Sri Lankans and the immigrant Sri Lankans with regard to observed bases of identification.
Chinese-English bilinguals' theory-of-mind development
Keywords: Bilingualism in children
Children of immigrants, Language
Children of immigrants, Ontario
Philosophy of mind in children
Chinese language, Ontario

Results from Multivariate Analysis of Covariance showed that bilinguals are more advanced in their cognitive as well as theory-of-mind development after the effects of 3 covariates (age, verbal and nonverbal abilities) were taken into account. Further analysis with Hierarchical Multiple Linear Regressions suggested that bilinguals' advantage in theory-of-mind development mostly hinges on their advantage in cognitive development (e.g., inhibitory control, reasoning, and metalinguistic awareness). Educational implications as well as suggestions for further studies were also discussed. This study investigated Chinese-English bilinguals' theory-of-mind development. It draws on the literatures of two related areas of research of young children's development: children's theory of mind and childhood bilingualism. The present study planned to verify the following statement: Bilinguals are more advanced in their cognitive as well as theory-of-mind development. The aim was achieved by comparing 31 balanced bilingual preschoolers' and 29 monolingual preschoolers' performance on 3 cognitive tasks and 4 theory-of-mind tasks. The 3 cognitive tasks employed included 1 reasoning task (Dimensional Change Card Sort Task) and 2 metalinguistic awareness tasks (Moving Word Task and Synonym Production Task).
Narratives of ethnic identity: experiences of first-generation Chinese Canadian students
Keywords: Chinese, Ontario
Chinese, Ethnic identity
Chinese, Ontario
Women immigrants, Ontario
Children of immigrants, Ontario

Participant observations and interviews with students, teachers, parents, and other members of the Bay Street School community were conducted over a period of three and a half years. This research is embedded in ongoing related work examining diversity and culture in the Bay Street School context. Fieldnotes written following school visits were transcribed and filed into an archival system. This work is derived from Connelly and Clandinin's work on narrative inquiry. My autobiography as a first generation Chinese Canadian provided an important framework for this study. Children of Chinese immigrant families may experience a sometimes confusing mix of influences. My research is aimed at examining their ethnic identity in a school context. I conducted a long-term narrative inquiry of the experiences of first generation Chinese Canadian students in their classroom and elementary school context to examine ethnic identity in relation to Chinese customs, English and Chinese language proficiency, physical appearance, and length of residence in Canada. I also explored the "harmonies and tensions" (Clandinin Connelly, 2002) of the inclusion of culturally sensitive curriculum events on the Bay Street School landscape. A narrative approach contributes to an understanding of the role of schooling in shaping a sense of ethnic identity and the complexities of multicultural education. Through detailed examination of selected school events, such as the Chinese Ribbon Dance and the Boyne River field trip, teacher and student experiences revealed complexities that were not initially apparent. Curriculum development and implementation involve the intersection of teacher, student, and parent beliefs, and may evolve in ways not anticipated because individual experiences shape interpretation of curriculum events in very different ways. Through these analyses, I was able to show the extent to which ethnic identity may change over time and take on different characteristics in different situations. This study suggests possibilities for a pre-service Teacher Education curriculum for diversity.
Reconciliation and balance: resolving conflicts between Charter rights and aboriginal and treaty rights within the Canadian constitutional framework
Keywords: Indians of North America, Legal status, laws, etc
Indians of North America, Canada
Indigenous peoples, Legal status, laws, etc
Indigenous peoples, Canada
Indigenous peoples, Government relations
Indigenous peoples, Canada
Constitutional law, Canada

Although s. 25 of the Constitution Act 1982, contemplates conflicts between Charter rights and Aboriginal and treaty rights, it is unclear how such conflicts should be resolved. In this thesis, I have extrapolated legal principles from other constitutional contexts, in which there has been greater case law development, to develop an appropriate framework to address such conflicts. Principles relevant to resolving such conflicts are the protection of minorities, substantive equality and the reconciliation of pre-existing Aboriginal societies with Crown sovereignty. These principles are extrapolated from the context of conflicting Charter rights, conflicting group right and Charter right, and from the purpose of s. 35 Aboriginal and treaty rights. Other relevant constitutional principles are that rights are not absolute and there is no hierarchy of rights. A two-step framework is developed incorporating these principles to resolve conflicting Charter and s. 35 rights.
'Hop heads' and 'hypes': drug use, regulation and resistance in Canada, 1920-1961
Keywords: Drug abuse, Canada
Drug addiction, Canada
Narcotics addicts, Canada
Drug control, Canada

This dissertation is a social and cultural history of drug users and their regulators, including narcotic officials, doctors, police officers and social workers. It draws on and contributes to gender and working class history, medical and legal history and the history of the welfare state. Three main questions underlay the project: (1) What happened to drug users when certain types of drug use became a criminal activity? (2) How did the state, and other social actors, implement control over consumption? (3) How did drug users themselves respond to regulation by others and how did they regulate themselves? Since my goal is to demonstrate the effects of criminalization on the lives of users, I have focused on drugs which were controlled under the Opium and Narcotic Drug Act, including opium, morphine, heroin, cocaine and cannabis. Unlike much work of the work on moral regulation, which focuses on only one moral agent, I examine multiple sites and types of regulation. I have paid careful attention to the impact of regulation on the lives of targeted individuals, to the motivations and techniques of the regulators and to the interactions among drug users, regulators and the state. The history of drug use gets to the heart of how bodies and subjectivities are constructed by individuals, by others, and by the state. By examining one of the most intensively regulated groups in society, we can better understand the operation of state and other types of power in the mid-20th century. Drug users were an extremely stigmatized group and their treatment raises serious questions about inequality, how and why it is reified and perpetuated and how it can be corrected. Finally, as a group extensively targeted by the criminal justice system, the treatment of drug users forces us to ask important questions about the operation of the criminal justice system and normative notions of justice, equality and fairness.
The campaign for Holocaust education in Toronto: An oral history
Keywords: Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), Study and teaching
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), Ontario

Holocaust education was included by the Toronto Board of Education (TBE) in 1982 as part of its curriculum for public school students, almost forty years after the end of World War Two. This thesis traces the development of Holocaust education and memory in Toronto and Canada, illustrating that its inclusion in the TBE was delayed not only because Holocaust memory itself was delayed in Canada, but also because of systematic factors in the nature of education in Canada and Toronto. How and why the Holocaust was eventually included is discussed, with a specific study of how the members of the Education Subcommittee of the Holocaust Remembrance Committee of the Canadian Jewish Congress worked to promote Holocaust education in Toronto.
Partnership, community and the young entrepreneur: Exploring educational partnerships in Canada
Keywords: Business and education, Political aspects
Business and education, Canada
Education and state, Canada
Entrepreneurship, Canada

This thesis explores how educational partnerships operate as technologies of governance. In doing so, it builds upon existing critical literature on partnership by using the concept of neoliberal governmentality to generate new questions for critical inquiry. The project is centred on partnership in Canada, but draws upon international research in order to situate Canadian trends within their global context. It asks how partnership has come to circulate as a new truth in education, both in Canada and abroad, and explores the effects of this discourse. It does so by engaging theoretically with the existing literature, and by analyzing how one Canadian partnership is constructed in discourse.
Historic Space: A transformative model of history education
Keywords: Concept mapping
Concepts in adolescence
Transformative learning

This thesis presents the findings of the critical cognitive activity Historic Space as a transformative instructional strategy in high school history education. Drawing on transnational feminist theory, poststructuralist deconstruction, and current work on historical consciousness, a small sample of upper-level high school students from a variety of Toronto high schools completed two interviews based on conceptual learning strategies, such as Concept Formation and Concept Mapping. The purpose of this research was to see if students were able to think about history conceptually and spatially, and if they could, would learning history in this manner make it easier for them to talk about social injustice. The results of this thesis are promising and show that history education can have transformative potential if students are presented with instructional strategies that build their confidence and give them opportunities to make their own conclusions about contentious subject matter.
A study of "piercing the corporate veil" in Chinese new company law and its legal practice in China
Keywords: Corporation law, China
Stockholders, Legal status, laws, etc
Stockholders, China
Corporate debt, Law and legislation
Corporate debt, China

In modern company law, the concepts of a separate corporate personality and Limited liability protect shareholders from being liable for unlimited company's debts. This function of modern company law encourages the development of capital economy, however, it also poses a risk of abuse of the granted rights. Most modern company law systems have created the doctrine of "piercing the corporate veil" to avoid this risk of abuse. China formally established the doctrine of "piercing the corporate veil" in Chinese new company law in 2006. This ended the uncertain status of the application of veil-piercing doctrine in Chinese law. This thesis explores the development of the doctrine of "piercing the corporate veil" in Chinese company law and aims to highlight why it is significant to legalize the veil-piercing doctrine in Chinese new company law. The thesis also studies the expressed regulation of the doctrine of "piercing the corporate veil" in Chinese new company law and its current legal practice in China. Accepting the significance of legalizing the doctrine in new law, the thesis critiques the ambiguous scopes or narrow provisions of this new doctrine in legal practice; and also makes some proposals on this issue. The thesis concludes that it is desirable to find a feasible scope of application for the veil-piercing doctrine in China.
Culture and identity and success in school: educating African Canadian youth
Keywords: Academic achievement, Canada
Blacks, Education
Blacks, Canada
Racism, Canada
Discrimination in education, Canada
Blacks, Race identity
Educational anthropology

This thesis examines the role of cultural identity in the education of minority students in the Ontario school system and how cultural identity impacts their scholastic success. The study focuses on the examination of the vast body of existing literature on cultural identity and the education of minority students within the Euro-American school system. It explores and identifies ways in which a strong cultural identity can enhance the learning outcomes for minority students. Educational research has shown that cultural identity plays a significant role in students' learning and academic achievement and that minority students who have strong cultural ties develop a strong sense of self and that these ties are important assets as they navigate their way through the Euro-American school system. The study has given major consideration to the relationship between language, culture and identity and success in school; it examines the effects of factors such as colonization on the identity of a large segment of students considered "minority" with a legacy of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade; the dominant culture; power, knowledge hegemonism/Eurocentrism on a global level as well as factors of the more immediate personal level of the home environment and theories and ideologies surrounding school; it examines an alternative approach to education and suggests strategies for enhancing the learning outcomes for minority students---i.e., the specified "some."
Procedural obligations and substantive outcomes: the structure and role of international commitments to conduct environmental impact assessments
Keywords: Environmental impact analysis, Law and legislation

This study addresses, in the context of international environmental governance, the structure and role of a set of institutionalized decision-making arrangements commonly referred to as environmental impact assessment (EIA). The central idea that animates EIA is that decisions affecting the environment are best made through comprehensive evaluation of predicted environmental impacts and through the creation of an open, participatory and information rich decision-making environment. EIA commitments do not impose specific environmental standards on decision-makers nor do they require a proponent to mitigate the identified environmental impacts of a proposed activity. However, the inclusion of EIA commitments in international instruments is premised on the ability of EIA processes to bring about substantive outcomes that reflect international environmental norms. In light of tension between process and substance that inheres in international EIA commitments, the objective of this study is to assess whether EIA, as a method of implementing international environmental norms, is acommitments may structure scientific, political and normative considerations so as to influence domestic decisions affecting the international environment. It is argued that international EIA commitments incorporate many of the features of international and transnational governance structures identified by process-oriented legal scholars as contributing to state compliance with international law. Like process-oriented compliance explanations, EIAs rely on the projection of international norms into processes that are transparent, participatory, discursive, contextual and normative to produce outcomes that are consistent with prevailing norms in a self-regulatory manner. Flowing from this analysis, this study identifies two complementary roles that EIAs play in international environmental governance structures. Firstly, EIAs perform a broad interest co-ordination function by requiring source states to notify and consult with affected states and affected persons where there is a likelihood of international environmental impacts. Secondly, EIAs provide opportunities for persuasion and interest transformation of government agencies through repeated interactions where norms are raised and considered in the context of specific project approvals. In this manner, international EIA commitments, which require domestic decision-makers to account for international environmental norms, can produce policy outcomes that are broadly reflective of the goals of international environmental law.
Assessing and enhancing learning outcomes in an architectural context: meaning equivalence methodology versus traditional formats of testing
Keywords: Educational tests and measurements
Architecture, Study and teaching

Current methods used for the assessment of learning are plagued with problems and often do not reveal the depth of comprehension of learned material (Kintsch, 1998). The development of the Meaning Equivalence (ME) methodology (Shafrir, 1999; Sigel, 1993, 1999), based on research highlighting the importance of multiple representations to learning, has been driven by the current lack of valid and reliable means for assessing deep conceptual understanding. This study described an evaluative implementation of the ME methodology, within the context of Architecture, as a tool for assessing and enhancing students' learning outcomes relative to traditional assessment formats such as multiple-choice and essay. Findings substantiate the efficacy of the ME measure for objectively assessing and enhancing deep comprehension and transfer of skills relative to traditional formats. Further, this study identified patterns, which suggest that the processing and interpretation of meaning may be dependent upon the modality used to represent conceptual content, for instance, text or image-based. The study included 160 university students in an undergraduate program in the department of Architecture at an Ontario university. Students were given traditional formatted and ME formatted tests after each of five historical periods covered during the course. Students' performance was compared on all methods of assessment to evaluate their relative potential for assessing a learner's deep comprehension as opposed to superficial learning.
Contribution of working memory to the social comprehension deficits in children with nonverbal learning disabilities
Keywords: Nonverbal learning disabilities
Learning disabled children
Social intelligence
Social skills in children
Short-term memory

This study examined the social-emotional problems, social comprehension difficulties, and associated memory abilities, particularly working memory (WM), of 19 children with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities (NLD), as compared to a control group (n = 24). Children with NLD had more social-emotional problems overall, particularly Social, Internalizing, and Externalizing problems, as rated by parents. For the comprehension task, children were asked to verify the veracity of comprehension questions involving facts and inferences about social and matched general vignettes that were read aloud to them. Children with NLD were slower to respond to social and general comprehension questions of all types. The difference between a slower rate of responding to social inferencing versus general inferencing questions was greater for children with NLD than for controls, suggesting a relative weakness with social inferencing that was specific to children with NLD. Children with NLD also showed a greater relative weakness in their accuracy of social versus general inferencing. In terms of memory, children with NLD were poorer than controls on most memory measures. Within the NLD profile, however, verbal memory was a relative strength, compared to visual-spatial memory, and most verbal memory measures fell within the Average range. A different pattern of associations was found between memory and comprehension for the two groups; verbal memory abilities were significantly correlated with social and general comprehension measures for the control group only. Conversely, visual-spatial memory abilities were significantly correlated more often with social comprehension measures for children with NLD. Hierarchical regressions supported this dissociation; verbal WM was important for social and general comprehension in the control group only, while visual-spatial WM made a significant contribution to social comprehension latency for the group with NLD, when verbal WM was already taken into account. Children with NLD may be using their WM resources inefficiently or in a manner that is qualitatively different than that of typical children, and may be relying on their weaker visual-spatial memory abilities while neglecting or underutilizing their relatively stronger verbal memory abilities. Implications for better understanding and accommodating children with NLD at home and school are discussed.