VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
On the development of an improved lift-constrained aerodynamic optimization algorithm
Keywords: Aerofoils
Lift (Aerodynamics)
Drag (Aerodynamics)
Mathematical optimization

An improved algorithm is presented for performing lift-constrained aerodynamic optimization. The angle of attack is set in the flow solution stage, ensuring the desired lift coefficient is achieved. Changes to the flow solver are carried through to the adjoint calculation of the gradient. For this project, the drag coefficient is the objective function, but the algorithm could easily be extended to other lift-constrained optimization problems. Work on normalizing objective functions for multi-point optimization ensures that the weight given to each design point is independent of the initial objective function value, and that the thickness constraints have the same meaning for all design points. Several design cases are examined. One case is of particular interest, a multipoint optimization with eighteen design points, which is compared to optimized airfoils for each individual design point, to examine the benefits of morphing airfoils for a realistic design case.
Alien to law: premises promises of extra
Keywords: Extraterrestrial beings
Life on other planets
Plurality of worlds

This thesis addresses speculative legal theory about extraterrestrial intelligent (ETI) life. I introduce the relevant questions and themes through my own intuitions and by assessing two criticisms of such theory (Chapter One). I next turn to a close-reading of two First World attempts at ETI legal theory (Chapters Two Three). After reviewing their efforts and uses of colonial history and science/technology, I examine the relationship and potential communities of law and science through the examples of the International Geophysical Year and the Bogota Declaration (Chapter Four). Working through the deficits of ETI theory against the backdrop of the Cold War, I also point to fragmentation in Third World approaches. In order to overcome these deficits, I present alternative approaches suggested by a Fourth World perspective and indigenous legal theories and traditions (Chapter Five). This thesis concludes with a brief discussion on the pitfalls of this type of speculation.
The constitutional legitimacy and illegitimacy of the Assisted Human Reproduction Act
Keywords: Human reproduction, Law and legislation
Constitutional law, Canada
Criminal law, Canada

Parliament's reliance on its criminal law power to intervene in the field of new reproductive technologies raises several division-of-powers questions. Neither theoretical rationales nor jurisprudential principles can justify the extensive recourse to criminal law undertaken by the federal Parliament. The expansion of the scope of this power endangers federalism because it annihilates the balance between the two orders of legislative power, allowing Parliament to legislate in exclusive provincial matters. Parliament fails to respect the principle that criminal law must be used with restraint and only when fundamental values are seriously at risk; the Act imposes criminal sanctions for minor threats, undermining the efficacy of criminal law as a mean of social control. Also, the delegation of regulatory power to the executive branch of the government is questionable, along with the validity of the equivalency agreement mechanism that confers to Parliament the authority to overlook valid provincial legislations.
Multi-camera benchmark localization for mobile robot networks
Keywords: Robots, Control systems
Mobile robots

To this end, the feasibility of a low-cost initial benchmark localization system to perform video tracking and surface projection is investigated. Different target detection, acquisition and tracking algorithms are proposed, investigated, implemented and tested. Alternate systems are suggested and analyzed, and the optimal system is chosen. A system simulator is constructed to model arbitrary surfaces and vehicles, and a calibration routine is devised. Testing is done to determine the accuracy and robustness of the chosen system. Finally, the physical hardware implementation is presented, along with component lists, schedule, and estimated costs. Proper performance analysis of mobile robot motion controllers requires benchmark systems to measure robot position and orientation. Ongoing efforts to construct a simulated Martian environment for exploratory mobile robot testing require a robust, real-time, flexible benchmark localization system to be implemented in the MarsDome facility at low cost.
Transformative learning and informal environmental education: the case of community gardens
Keywords: Education, Urban
Gardening, Social aspects
Outdoor education
Attitude change
Community gardens, Social aspects
Land use, Urban
Environmental education
Urban agriculture

Gardeners who developed or coordinated a community garden had a higher level of participation, were more knowledgeable about environmental issues and had stronger beliefs in the impact of their actions than gardeners who participated as members. Educational programs can play an important role in raising awareness, fostering social and environmental change, encouraging leadership skills and nurturing transformative learning.Community gardening has great potential to transform participants' views of environmental, social and economic systems. This study explored the learning experiences of adult gardeners in Toronto. Some of the most significant learning outcomes were recognizing the worth of others and questioning assumptions of the dominant worldview. As participants reflected on their relationship with others, they develop more inclusive attitudes and practices. In some cases, the practice of organic agriculture helped gardeners to become more critical of conventional agriculture and to establish a closer connection with nature.
The relation between reading and writing development in english and esl students
Keywords: English language, Study and teaching (Elementary)
English language, Study and teaching (Elementary)
Reading
Writing
Reading comprehension

Surprisingly little is known about similarities and differences in how reading and writing skills develop. Most attempts to examine the relation between reading and writing development have used few measures at a single point in time with small samples of children. The current study explored the relation between the lower (decoding and spelling) and higher levels (reading comprehension and story construction) of reading and writing development for students in Grades 3 and 5/6, and also explored many underlying cognitive and language processes that are predictive of reading and writing achievement. In addition, the present study addressed these issues as they relate to students for whom English is either their first (ENG) or second (ESL) language. A series of ANCOVAs revealed few significant differences between ENG and ESL students on reading, writing and cognitive measures; however, significant differences were found on oral language proficiency (OLP) measures in favor of ENG students. Multiple sequential regression was undertaken to investigate the underlying cognitive and language processes that predict reading and writing development. The cognitive ability composite predicted the most variance in lower-level decoding and spelling skills, and the OLP composite predicted the most variance in the higher-level reading comprehension and story construction skills. These results have significant implications for assessment and programming, particularly for ESL students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Government treatment of stem cell research: Bringing it out of the shadows of assisted human reproductive technologies
Keywords: Stem cells, Research
Stem cells, Canada
Reproductive technology, Canada

Government treatment of stem cell research has primarily confined the parameters of discussion and consideration of stem cell research to its relationship with assisted human reproductive technologies. This failure to treat the medical benefits of stem cell research as a separate subject has negatively impacted the comprehensiveness of debate on the subject. This approach may explain the inadequate attention that has been given to the following issues: differences in treatment between assisted human reproductive technologies and stem cell research; the prohibition on cloning; ambiguities in implementation of the legislative provisions; consent issues; the treatment of chimaeras; the role of the Canadian researcher in the scientific community; and considerations raised by technologies developed in other countries. My main contention is that stein cell research deserves to be addressed as a separate subject from assisted human reproductive technologies in addition to its current government treatment.
Dimensions of lexical proficiency in writing summaries for an English as a foreign language test
Keywords: English language, Study and teaching
Vocabulary
Abstracts
English language, Written English

This study investigated how different dimensions of English lexical proficiency contributed to the processes and quality of English summary writing among 68 Japanese undergraduate EFL (English as a foreign language) students. I assessed individually their English summary writing performance with two different writing topics in respect to four dimensions of their English lexical proficiency (vocabulary size, depth of vocabulary knowledge, word-definition ability, and lexical diversity in writing), English reading comprehension, communicative English abilities, and lexical knowledge and writing ability in Japanese. I conducted stimulated-recall interviews with each student immediately after the two summary writing tasks then identified the types of metacognitive strategies the students reported using. I analyzed their summaries from four perspectives: overall quality, inclusion of key ideas, uses of source information, and the extent of copying from the source text. I further conducted textual analyses of 10 more and less effective summaries in terms of lexical repetition links and topical structures. Discriminant analysis revealed that the difference between two groups of students with different English abilities (n = 33 for each group) was more strongly associated with their productive English abilities (summary writing performance, degree of verbatim copying, and word-definition ability) than with their receptive abilities (choosing key ideas, reading comprehension, receptive English vocabulary knowledge). Partial correlation and ordinal regression analyses showed that the two strongest predictors of the students' English summary writing performance were their reading comprehension and word-definition ability. More effective writers tended to be more aware of the macro-structure of their summaries while summarizing, transformed and paraphrased source texts more often, and borrowed source sentences less frequently than did less effective writers. Based on these results, I emphasize the significance of writing aspects of summarizing for these EFL students, and discuss how their uses of metalinguistic knowledge about words created coherence in their summaries. I suggest implications for second-language writing instruction, theories of vocabulary knowledge and use, and English education in EFL contexts such as Japan.
Good for the boy and the nation: military drill and the Cadet Movement in Ontario public schools, 1865-1911
Keywords: Military cadets, History
Military cadets, Ontario
Military education, History
Military education, Ontario
Student activities, History
Student activities, Ontario

The thesis traces military training for boys in the public schools of Ontario from the mid-1860s to 1912. Examined were the events and forces which shaped the popular belief that such training was an economical and practical solution to Canada's unprepared militia force. The physical, mental and moral benefits associated with military training were hailed as preparing boys to transverse the difficult period of adolescence. The discipline inherent in drill was seen as fostering the development of the muscular Christian, a revered late-Victorian ideal. The inclusion of military drill in the Ontario school curriculum, and the establishment of cadet companies in educational institutions, were the result of the persistent efforts of a number of influential individuals and organizations. Esteemed educators Egerton Ryerson and James L. Hughes, as well as prominent politicians such as George W. Ross, Frederick Borden, and Sam Hughes were in the vanguard of military enthusiasts, clerics, businessmen, and social reformers who perceived such training to be instilling commendable traits in the nation's youth. During the Edwardian era, provincial and federal governments worked together to include military drill and cadet training in Ontario schools, despite protests from pacifist groups, and rural Ontarians, who decried such training of children as militaristic. At that time Canadians were aware of the trends in British education. Throughout the last half of the nineteenth century, the spectre of invasion haunted many Britons, who feared that the younger generation lacked the physical stamina and “pluck” to defend British soil against the great armies of success of the Boys' Brigade which swept the British Isles in the 1880s, and which reached Canada in the early 1890s, was seen as evidence that military training was good for a boy's body and soul. By 1912, with the Strathcona Trust firmly entrenched in the provinces of Canada, and with Minister of Militia Frederick Borden passing on the legacy of military training for boys to Col. Sam. Hughes, the drill sergeant seemed poised at the entrance of most Ontario schools. In reality, rural schools remained largely outside the national scheme due to large number of young and inexperienced female teachers. Indeed, the extent to which military training was implemented in individual classrooms across the province awaits further research.
Direct effect and WTO decisions: An economic perspective
Keywords: Dispute resolution (Law)

This thesis comprises an economic analysis of direct effect within the dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The main argument is that direct effect should substitute mutual threats of defection (retaliation). My aim is to show that direct effect is the only instrument that can successfully address the problem of non-compliance with WTO rules and rulings. The absence of a strong enforcement mechanism within the WTO allows its developed members to free ride on the system. Although compliance with WTO rulings is extremely important for developing countries, none of the proposals made to improve the system are likely to succeed, because they are all based on a bilateral enforcement mechanism (retaliation). Direct effect could solve the problem. Nothwithstanding legal and political barriers, I will present an economic model of direct effect suitable for the WTO, which includes arguments to convince developed countries to aquiesce to it.
Sensibility in practice: Studies in an emergent literary mode, 1740--1748
Keywords: English literature
Comparative literature

This thesis examines the literature of three authors who were widely read in Britain during the 1740s, at the advent of what Northrop Frye defined as "An Age of Sensibility." This work-which comprises moral and medical treatises, poetry, a novel, and popular essays---defined itself by a subtle yet unmistakable linking of imaginative experience with certain emotional states, effectively idealizing specific codes of conduct. Sensibility is generally and rightly regarded as the literary expression of new philosophical paradigms, but by examining the early works of David Hume, a celebrated poem titled The Art of Preserving Health by the physician John Armstrong, and Samuel Richardson's tragic novel Clarissa, this thesis argues that the emergence of sensibility also challenged readers to examine the moral meaning of their aesthetic experience. Each of these authors suggested not only that emotions were necessary for cultivating moral feelings, but each also implied that the key to such cultivation lay in the modeling of the very emotions that they sought to arouse. Hume's manner of emotional modeling was the most speculative, presenting his own "philosophical melancholy and delirium" while teaching that powerful aesthetic experiences reveal certain moral problems; Armstrong was the most descriptive, using the classical georgic to depict the knowing physician as a feeling patient, thereby challenging his Newtonian colleagues to recognize that emotional self-consciousness can prevent disease; and Richardson was the most evocative, writing, revising, and "restoring" his vast novel to draw his readers so completely into the feelings of his characters that they would emerge from their reading in the manner of the reformed rake John Belford, purged of vice and devoted to virtue. Each of these authors also described their ideal readers in their works, which assumed a certain readiness among the reading public to respond positively to their techniques. Recent approaches have defined eighteenth-century sensibility as replies to learned paradigms, or as stylistic innovations designed to mirror emotional states. This thesis focuses instead on the authors' intellectual and stylistic background, as well as their professional ambitions, to argue that literary sensibility originated as an aesthetic instrument of moral as well as philosophical concerns.
Teacher knowledge, beliefs and practices of classroom assessment: from the perspective of five elementary teachers
Keywords: Classroom management
Educational tests and measurements
Ability, Testing
Education, Evaluation
Teacher-student relationships

Classroom assessment has long been a hotly debated issue. Despite the advances in this area in the past few years, it remains quite unclear and poorly understood. The findings of this study are particularly timely and useful. Five elementary teachers nominated as exemplary assessors were studied using case study methodology. The study revealed that these teachers regarded assessment and learning as inseparable, a view that is consistent with much of the empirical work in this field. This led to the creation of a hybrid word, ‘assesslearnment’ to denote the intricate relationship between assessment and learning. The perceptions of assesslearnment held by the teachers are categorized into six groups: (i) assesslearnment is integral to teaching; (ii) students have a role and responsibility in assesslearnment; (iii) teachers have a role and responsibility to model assesslearnment; (iv) classroom environment has an impact on assesslearnment; (v) assesslearnment redefines the teacher's scope of practice; and (vi) assesslearnment promotes understanding of the Big Picture. The interplay between these six perceptions led to the development of a dynamic 3-D model which represents a shift from a summative assessment paradigm to more balanced paradigm that includes both summative and formative.
A comparison of teachers' perceptions and students' self-perceptions of reading ability at the grade four, five and six level
Keywords: Reading (Elementary)
Self-perception in children
School children, Rating of
Reading teachers

This study investigated the relationship between teachers' perceptions and students' self-perceptions of reading ability. Changes in the relationship according to grade and gender were also examined. This study focused on 127 grade four to six students attending one Junior Public School in the Toronto District School Board. Criteria developed by the participating teachers established their perceptions of the students' reading abilities and the Reader Self-Perception Scale (RSPS) determined the students' self-perceptions. The statistical analysis of Kendall's tau-b was used to determine relationships in the data. A significant relationship was found between reading abilities as determined by the classroom teachers and the students' perceptions of their abilities to read as determined by the RSPS. Some significance was found in the relationship between gender and students' versus teachers' perceptions of reading ability. The fact all student participants displayed reluctance to indicate reading skills superior to their peers is cause for further investigation.
Understanding tort law's distinct treatment of pure economic loss
Keywords: Torts, Economic aspects
Damages

The distinct treatment that the law reserves for pure economic loss emerges from the law's requirement, as revealed in the origins and historical evolution of the common law duty of care, that claimants under the law of torts demonstrate injury to a right, grounded in a proprietary interest. Thus principles indigenous to the law of torts afford jurists a means of understanding and governing recovery for pure economic loss; they engage dual proprietary justifications which offer principled justifications for recovery where the plaintiff has suffered injury to a “direct” (that is, corporeal or tangible) proprietary interest or, by reason of having reasonably and detrimentally relied on another's undertaking or assumption of responsibility, an “indirect” proprietary interest attaching to another's autonomy. The mutual coherence and unifying conception of tort liability of these dual abstract concepts becomes apparent in their concrete application to generalized classes of pure economic loss cases.
Investigating online engagement and community among preservice mathematics teachers
Keywords: Mathematics teachers
Mathematics teachers, Training of
Internet in education
Mathematics, Study and teaching (Elementary)
Computer conferencing

Online discourse environments are increasingly popular both in distance education contexts (Hiltz & Wellman, 1997; Rovai, 2001) and as adjuncts to face-to-face learning (Duffy, Dueber & Hawley, 1998). For many participants such contexts are experienced as positive, community supported learning opportunities, but this is not the case for everyone. This study has elaborated the concept of online engagement and its relation to community through analyses of patterns of engagement and disengagement in one particular learning context, that of preservice, math-anxious elementary candidates enrolled in a two-year preservice program. Program supports for the self-declared math-anxious participants (N = 20 from a total cohort of 57) included small group math investigations and participation in an online learning environment. This study offers a unique perspective on online participation by providing a longitudinal picture of levels of engagement and an analysis of the link to instructional goals, as well as indicators of offline patterns of engagement and disengagement. Results suggest that the online context provided most learning support for participants who had had successful social and subject-related experiences in the program. Those with fewer successful face-to-face experiences, who espoused an ability-based notion of subject matter, and who felt less able to contribute substantively, participated less online. Additionally, for those participants who contributed both most and least (10 of the 20), their patterns of online engagement were established early and changed little over the course of the two years. From these results online engagement was conceptualized as requiring both epistemic agency and identity within the community. The implications of these results for the notion of community and the design of preservice programs and online learning environments are discussed.