VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Emotions in Emerging Readers: Results from Automatic Facial Expression Analyses
Keywords: Emotions
Narratives
Reading

Emotions significantly impact classroom experiences, as emotions can shape a student’s academic self-concept and achievement. In the early elementary years, learning to read is a highly salient objective for students. As a result, reading can elicit strong emotions that influence students’ enjoyment and perceived efficacy in reading. Previous research in reading has overlooked the effects of emotions. The majority of emotion research has focused on adolescent and undergraduate students and overlooked students in the early elementary years. The impact of emotions on students learning to read (i.e., emerging readers) has not been extensively studied. The work presented within this dissertation attempted to address this gap in the literature by examining how emotions affect scores on two different literacy tasks in a sample of emerging readers. In three separate studies, a computer-generated automatic facial expression coding software was used to measure individual emotions such as joy, anger, confusion and frustration. The first study examined students’ emotional reactions during a word recognition task and whether they affect word recognition scores. The results demonstrated that increases in the negative affective valence of a word were related to increases in anger and frustration. Further, increases in negative affective valence and increased confusion and anger were related to decreases in word recognition scores. The second study sought to examine how emotions affect scores on the various measures within a narrative storytelling task. The results demonstrated that confusion was related to decreases in complex sentences and evaluative devices. Additionally, frustration fully mediated the effects of confusion on complex sentences. Finally, the third study examined how emotions affect Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) strategies and narrative storytelling scores. The results demonstrated that frustration was related to decreases in narrative storytelling scores, joy was related to increases in monitoring strategies, frustration was related to decreases in planning strategies, and planning fully mediated the effect of frustration on narrative storytelling scores. Taken together, the results from these three studies provide a novel contribution to the current research in emotions and literacy development in emerging readers.
Saccadic Eye Movement Event-related Potentials and the Effects of Subsequent Phase-based Stimulation on Memory in Humans
Keywords: Corollary discharge
Deep brain stimulation
Human intracranial electroencephalography
Medial temporal lobe
Memory
Saccades

With the ageing population comes an increase in dementia and memory-related disorders. Investigations of memory formation can facilitate insights into more effective treatments for this growing problem. Deep brain stimulation (DBS), the delivery of electrical stimulation to modulate brain activity, presents an exciting opportunity to investigate mechanisms of memory formation and potentially alleviate memory loss. One critical question with regards to DBS is when and where to stimulate. Treatment for individuals with epilepsy who require resection surgery usually involves the implantation of electrodes in mesial temporal lobe structures (MTL), locations known to be involved in memory formation. This provides a unique opportunity for researchers, in a controlled setting, to record and stimulate the brain to investigate memory formation. Episodic memory, our recollection of personal experiences, can be tested through visual cues (presenting a stimulus and saccadic eye movements (SEM) during memory task). We used a model of how the brain can separate encoding and retrieval states to inspire our approach to try and optimize DBS timing delivery. Our objectives were to 1. Determine which visual stimulus is most relevant for timing stimulation, and 2. Determine the effects of such stimulation. In this thesis, we identified that eye movement in response to a visual stimulus is a more appropriate timing cue than image presentation. In fact, through work with single-unit activity, we found inhibition of activity during the SEM. Our results suggest the SEM in MTL results from an internally generated movement not previously probed in mnemonic structures. Finally, we were able to investigate the effects of contingent stimulation on the SEM. This stimulation resulted in memory impairment. By customizing stimulation delivery contingent on an individual’s timing of the electrophysiological response post saccade, we saw no difference in memory performance between stimulation and no stimulation We successfully established eye movements as an important timing mechanism in MTL structures. Furthermore, stimulation contingent on eye movements can modify memory. These contributions support the potential to look at eye movements as a window on stimulation for investigating, modifying, and hopefully improving memory formation.
Play Like a Champion, Post Like a Champion: Investigating Adolescent Female Identity and Social Media
Keywords: female athlete
feminism
gender
postfeminism
social media
sports media

This intersectional feminist research project critically explores the experiences and identity constructions of adolescent female athletes through social media. Specifically, this research project studies how adolescent female athletes use social media as a possible tool to confront and disrupt current media discourses of female athletes. Grounded in feminist sports media scholarship and intersectional fourth-wave feminism, I engaged in a qualitative virtual ethnography, conducting surveys, collecting and analyzing digital artifacts, and interviewing adolescent female athletes aged 13-18. Findings included four significant themes: 1) Creating Narratives on Social Media, 2) “Legitimate” Athletes and the Female/Athlete Paradox, 3) Gendered Spaces in Sports and Sports Media, and 4) Female Athleticism and Social Justice Participation. Overall, each participant discussed how their identity constructions on social media were intentional and deliberate. Results demonstrate that participants are extremely conscientious social media experts, questioning and working through ideas about where, how and what to post on social media, as they negotiate identities of female athletes. This work provides further insights into the gender inequities and discourses in Canada’s sports and sports media climate, and how these inequities are mediated through social media technologies. This work aims to contribute to the body of intersectional feminist sports media scholarship in ways that legitimize, value and hold true to girls’ experiences and understandings. The overall impact of these studies is significant because this research addresses the challenges of being an adolescent female athlete in the 21st century and how this phenomenon contributes to gender inequities in sports and sports media. Using existing literature and scholarship, I contextualize, expand, and consider the findings, explain theoretical and methodological considerations, and discuss future research projects stemming from this work.
Teaching and Learning for Historical Justice: A Comparative Case Study of Four Sites of History Education in Canada
Keywords: Difficult history
Historical injustice
History education
Memory
Settler colonialism
Social studies education

Recently, Canadian governments and public institutions have initiated a wide range of symbolic gestures and policy reforms aimed at reconciling historical injustices. Reforming history education to teach Canada’s difficult past has been a key priority in this movement, leading to curricular changes and the development of new resources across the country. This dissertation explores four case studies that consider history education’s role in making sense of past injustice and pursuing historical justice and redress in Canada. The four case studies include a curriculum reform process in British Columbia, two grade 9 social studies classrooms engaging with the difficult past, a university field school and bus tour, and a temporary exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum focused on a difficult history. Drawing on theories of settler colonialism, multidirectional memory, and historical consciousness, this comparative case study illustrates the relationship between teaching and learning difficult history amid a culture of redress in Canada. This dissertation argues that history education’s new roles and responsibilities for helping to right historical wrongs present specific challenges and opportunities for teachers and learners. In particular, this dissertation argues that issues of identity, group memory, and collective responsibility are all brought into focus when educators and learners engage the difficult past. This dissertation raises questions and makes suggestions about the possible roles and limitations for social studies and history education in pursuit of reconciliation and redress in post-conflict and settler colonial contexts.
Fate of Food Cooking Emissions in the Atmosphere
Keywords: Cooking emissions
Evaporation rates
Primary organic aerosol
Secondary organic aerosol
Volatile organic compounds

Food cooking emissions represent an important source of particulate matter in urban areas, contributing 10-35% of total organic aerosol. Cooking emissions also contribute significant levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as carbonyls which are important precursors to formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA). In this work, I use heated cooking oils as a model to investigate the reaction pathways that drive formation of VOCs and cooking organic aerosol (COA), and their evolution in physicochemical properties. I demonstrate that VOCs and primary COA emissions are driven by autoxidation reactions involving radical species, and the composition of cooking oils strongly influences the reaction mechanisms. Antioxidants, routinely employed in food industry to delay oil oxidation have complex effects on autoxidation reaction mechanisms. Furthermore, in this work, physicochemical properties and chemistry of COA are investigated. I demonstrate that evaporation of oxidized cooking oil particles is much slower than unoxidized oil particles, despite containing a higher fraction of volatile reaction products than unoxidized cooking oil particles. Additionally, a new analytical approach was developed to characterize the chemical composition of SOA. It is shown that SOA formed from cooking oil vapors undergo fragmentation reactions with increasing atmospheric oxidative aging. Moreover, detailed chemical speciation and total production of SOA from heated cooking oils are explained from aldehydes and its oxidation products which are significant contributors to VOCs from cooking emissions. Overall, knowledge about both oxidation pathways provide useful insights into the importance of fragmentation reactions during evolution of cooking emissions in the atmosphere.
Exploring Gene-environment Interactions in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Keywords: Autophagy
Inflammatory bowel disease
miR-142-3p
NOD2
Paneth cells
Vitamin D deficiency

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is family of complex conditions of the gastrointestinal tract. Pathogenesis of IBD remains unknown and is postulated to be multifactorial, including contributions from host genetics, environmental factors, the gut microbiome, and the immune response. This work explored environmental influences and gene-environment interactions in IBD. Vitamin D deficiency is an environmental factor involved in IBD pathogenesis. Although the mechanism remains unclear, previous studies suggest that a lack of vitamin D signaling causes a reduction in intestinal autophagy. A potential link between vitamin D deficiency and dysregulated autophagy is microRNA (miR)-142-3p, which suppresses autophagy. We found that vitamin D deficient mice had enhanced miR-142-3p expression in ileal tissues compared to control mice. Paneth cells of vitamin D deficient mice were morphologically abnormal and displayed evidence of an autophagy defect. These findings suggest that Paneth cells exhibit early markers of autophagy dysregulation within the intestinal epithelium in response to vitamin D deficiency and enhanced miR-142-3p expression. We demonstrated that treatment-naïve IBD patients with low vitamin D have increased miR-142-3p expression in colonic tissues procured from ‘involved’ areas of disease. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that insufficient vitamin D levels alter expression of autophagy-regulating miR-142-3p in intestinal tissues of mice and IBD patients, providing insight into the mechanisms by which vitamin D deficiency modulates IBD pathogenesis. We explored gene-environment interactions by evaluating the effects of vitamin D deficiency in mice that have an important IBD genetic risk variant, Nod2fs, which also disrupts autophagy. Interestingly, the combination of vitamin D deficiency and Nod2fs did not impact autophagy at baseline. However, upon microbial disturbances in the microbiome, the vitamin D deficient Nod2fs mice had pervasive autophagy defects. This is in line with the multi-hit model of IBD, which proposes that many insults converge to cause defects in the intestinal epithelium. In our gene-environment analyses, we also observed that the Nod2fs mutation led to reduced serum vitamin D, a novel interaction between an IBD genetic risk factor and environmental factor of interest. Through this work we were able to identify therapeutic targets of interest and contribute to the understanding of IBD pathogenesis.
Nanoscale Properties of Block Copolymers, Perovskites and Boron Nitride Obtained by Near-field Scanning Optical Microscopy in the Infrared
Keywords: Atomic force microscopy
Block copolymer
Nanoscience
Near-field microscopy
Perovskite
Phonon polariton

Several material types have been studied using coupled atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Infrared Spectroscopy techniques including scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) and peak force infrared microscopy (PFIR). First, the different structures formed by block copolymer thin films were studied using SNOM. With SNOM, local subsurface morphologies in block copolymer thin films were revealed. Second, the degradation of perovskites under high humidity and light soaking was monitored by PFIR, x-ray diffraction and time-of-flight secondary ions mass spectrometry. Lastly, phonon polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride were studied using SNOM. It was found that structures in the boron nitride can self-launch phonon polaritons. In addition, the effect of the adjacent layer of material on the phonon polaritons in the boron nitride was investigated.
An Intermedial Incision: Ana Mendieta's Moving Image Media
Keywords: Ana Mendieta
experimental film
film studies
film theory
intermedia

Ana Mendieta’s body of work has received attention and praise for contributions to performance art, sculpture, and earth-body art. This dissertation takes on a different aspect of Mendieta’s oeuvre, looking at moving image media as a central concern in her artistic process. Following methods from film and media theory that look to visual form as the production of thought, the dissertation focuses on formal elements of Mendieta’s films, producing close readings that make an argument for the centrality of mediation to her work and how this media-focus can change the way we think about Mendieta’s art as a whole. The dissertation focuses on three groups of questions that arise within Mendieta’s moving image-based work, dictating each chapter. The first questions arise from the abundance of figure-based expression in not only her paintings and performances, but also her films. How does Mendieta’s relationship to film change her abstract figure work that emerged from her early years studying painting? How does Mendieta’s addition of sound to her film X-Ray (1974) enhance the conversations about figure, identity, and mediation of such? The second group of questions concerns the mediatic iterations of truth and evidence that emerge from statements concerning violence and violence against women. I argue that Mendieta grapples, artistically, with crime scenes, public encounter, and the concept of justice as related to truth through a careful articulation of visual testimony. These questions unfold in her blood-work films including Blood Writing (1974) and Moffit Building Piece (1973). Lastly, the dissertation interrogates the way that an image of the cut emerges as an aesthetic gesture in Mendieta’s Sweating Blood (1974). This gesture alludes to a series of ideas including the erasure of the labor of editing or cutting, a job largely done by women. It also provokes the question about the role of violence in Mendieta’s work. Drawing together each chapter is Mendieta’s training in intermedia, which she completed at the University of Iowa. This intermedial practice, the dissertation affirms, informs Mendieta’s work to a degree much greater than previously explored.
Towards Strong Generalization from Few Examples
Keywords: few-shot learning
machine learning

Deep learning has recently driven remarkable progress in several applications, including image classification, speech recognition, autonomous driving, and creating agents that can beat human experts in challenging games. However, this success often relies on large amounts of labeled data. This is at a stark contrast with how humans learn: we are able to efficiently re-use previous knowledge or experience to expedite future learning, allowing to understand new concepts from only a handful of examples. Motivated by this discrepancy, we aim to improve upon machine learning models' ability to learn more flexibly, from fewer examples. We will discuss the early formulation of few-shot learning and argue that, despite instrumental for making initial research progress, it is overly simplistic, posing what we will refer to as `weak generalization' challenges. We argue that, to continue making progress and inspire the creation of models that can few-shot learn in the real world, we require benchmarks that examine stronger forms of generalization. To this end, we propose challenging few-shot learning tasks, including a contextual formulation, as well as a large-scale few-shot learning challenge across diverse datasets. We show that previous models suffer on these harder problems, leading us to propose novel approaches. Notably, we find that self-supervision is particularly well-suited for generalization to novel contexts. We also find that per-task model adaptation is important for generalization to diverse data distributions and propose an effective approach that achieves this. Finally, we put forth an inductive bias to learn a `template' that defines a wide array of models for strongly generalizing to previously-unseen datasets, leading to substantial performance gains over previous approaches, while also being more scalable and adaptable than previous solutions.
The Impacts of Climate Change on the Potential for a Northward Expansion of Agriculture in Ontario’s Great Clay Belt Region
Keywords: Agriculture
Climate change
Daily temperature
Impact
Precipitation
Projections

Climate change has widespread impacts on the agriculture sector, especially in northern latitudes where warming is amplified, and where ecosystems and traditional lifestyles are notably sensitive to the effects of warming. This may enable the northward expansion of agriculture in northern areas of Ontario, such as the Great Clay Belt (GCB) region. While the GCB region contains an abundance of productive and less expensive land, the historical trends and future agroclimatic conditions are underexplored. The first study of this thesis examined the historical trends of agroclimatic indices at seven locations within the GCB region during 1961-1990. First, how to best account for missing data in the historical record was found by imputing a daily gridded meteorological dataset. Using complete and reliable historical climate data, the trends implied a potentially more favourable climate for agriculture in the region as warming, with longer growing seasons and increases in heat accumulation, may result in the northward expansion of some crops. The second study explored the new growing conditions up to the year 2100 using climate models. Future projections indicated a warming trend using raw and bias-corrected/downscaled data for two emissions scenarios during the growing season. Bias-corrected/downscaled data was found to be more useful for impact analyses because it corrected for errors and showed better agreement with station observations compared to the raw output. The third study explored the challenges, opportunities and needs and priorities for expanding agriculture in the GCB region using climatological and socio-economic data. The results showed that the most significant barriers currently facing agricultural expansion is derived from socio-economic factors rather than from environmental factors. This thesis demonstrated that climate change presents significant opportunities for agricultural expansion in the GCB region. This suggests opportunities for economic development that may help ameliorate the disadvantages associated with rural and remote communities in northern Ontario. The challenge presented for the GCB region will be to ensure sustainable growth in the agriculture sector without compromising environmental quality, natural resources, and Indigenous autonomy. There is a need to develop adaptation strategies in response to the impacts of climate change on agriculture in the GCB region.