VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Judgments and Perceptions Of Blame: The Impact Of Benevolent Sexism And Rape Type On Attributions Of Responsibility In Sexual Assault
Keywords: sexual assault
jury decision-making

Observers’ attributions of culpability in sexual assault cases have been studied in the context of psycholegal variables to explain how they come to their conclusions. Most research has revealed that there are differences between stranger and acquaintance rape, where victims of the latter are more likely to be blamed (Allgeier & Allgeier, 1995; Bridges & McGrail, 1989; Littleton, 2001; Mynatt & Allgeier, 1990; Scronce & Corcoran, 1995; Schuller & Klippenstine, 2004; Tetreault & Barnett, 1987). However, the work has been largely limited to examining rape myth acceptance and gender differences of observers. The present study addressed these limitations. The goals of this study were: (1) to examine judgments of perpetrator responsibility, (2) to examine the relationship between benevolent sexism and victim blame in an acquaintance rape, (3) to examine as to how benevolent sexism influences assailant blame, and (4) to examine differences between males and females on a sexism measure in relation to attribution of blame. This research utilized a community sample. Several groups of measures were utilized, including sexual assault vignettes with a questionnaire that assessed perceptions of sexual assault. Also administered were measures that assessed for social desirability, benevolent sexism, the preference for unequal relationships, and demographics. Two studies were conducted. The first one was a pilot study, which gathered qualitative and descriptive data for a measure designed specifically for this research. Participants (n= 20) reported that the measure was simple to read, understand and complete. The second study (200 participants) focused on the goals outlined and obtained reliability and principal components analysis information. Findings from study 2 revealed no significant differences between men and women in attribution of responsibility. However, assailant-victim relationship, and the presence of alcohol were statistically significant for blame. Although men scored higher on benevolent sexism in general, women obtained high scores when assailant-victim relationship and the presence of alcohol in the scenarios were taken into account. Similar to previous research (Abrams, Viki, Masser, & Bohner, 2003; Viki & Abrams, 2002; Viki, Masser, & Abrams, 2004), benevolent sexism was found to act as a moderator. Implications from results from this study were also discussed.
Social Construction of Health Inequities: A Critical Ethnography on Day Labourers in Japan
Keywords: health inequities
social determinants of health
critical ethnography
precarious employment
Japan
social inequalities

Although evidence of health inequities abound, why people in lower socio-economic classes have poorer health has not been sufficiently explored. The purpose of this study is to examine day labourers’ pathways to health inequities in a segregated, urban district in Japan. Critical ethnography was employed to investigate day labourers’ social environments and cultural behaviours in order to reveal the ways that social inequalities embedded in mainstream society and the day labourers’ sub-culture produce and sustain day labourers’ disadvantages, leading them into poorer health than the average population. Data were collected through observations of day labourer’s daily activities, events within the district and their interactions with social workers at a hospital. In addition, interviews were conducted with 16 day labourers and 11 professionals and advocates. The study found several components in the pathways to health inequities of day labourers. First, certain people in Japan are ostracized from the social, economic and political mainstream due to an inability to enact traditional Japanese labour practices. Commonly such exclusions make men become day labourers to survive. In a day labourer district, they are exposed to further social inequalities embedded in the work system and their living circumstance. Living and working as a member of the day labour community, they develop collective strategies in order to survive and preserve their social identities as day labourers. However, such strategies do not provide people with opportunities to lead healthy lives. The study also identified several social determinants of health for day labourers, including: 1) employment, 2) working conditions, 3) temporary living, 4) housing quality, 5) social networks and support, 6) marginalized neighbourhood, 7) access to health care, and 8) gender. The findings contribute to a better understanding of social construction of health inequities, which provides insight on the impact of precarious work in the Japanese society at large. Implications of these findings for public health policy and practice are also discussed.
Development Of High Throughput Epigenomic Profiling Technologies And Their Application To Twin Based DNA Methylation Studies
Keywords: epigenetic
heritability
twin
technique

Epigenetic studies hold the promise of addressing some of the fundamental questions of human biology including development, cell differentiation, and the aetiological mechanisms of complex disease. Over the last years, several new large scale high throughput technologies have been developed to allow genome wide profiling of epigenetic signals such as DNA methylation and histone modifications. Two of such technologies were developed in our laboratory enabling a genome wide microarray based profiling of DNA methylation signatures and a high throughput method for the site specific interrogation of the density of methylated cytosine. Using these techniques, we identified a DNA methylation difference in the 3’UTR of the DLX1 gene with potentially functional implications to discordance in risk taking behavior in a single pair of MZ twins. We modeled a power analysis on the effect size of the detected difference and determined that approximately 6~25 discordant twin pairs will be adequate to yield 80% power across the entire 12 K CpG island microarray platform using our epigenomic microarray profiling technique. We performed a DNA methylome analysis of MZ twins in white blood cells (WBC), buccal epithelial cells, and gut (rectum) biopsies (N=57 pairs in total) using 12K CpG island microarrays providing the basis for the first annotation of epigenetic metastability of ~6,000 unique genomic regions in MZ twins. We performed a classical twin study on DNA methylation differences in WBC and buccal epithelial cells from 39 pairs of MZ twins to 40 pairs of DZ twins. DZ co-twins exhibited significantly higher epigenetic difference compared to the MZ co-twins in buccal cells (p=1.2x10-294). While such higher epigenetic discordance in DZ twins can result from DNA sequence differences, our in silico SNP analyses and comparison of methylomes in inbred vs. outbred mice favour the hypothesis that this is due to epigenomic differences in the zygotes. This study suggests that molecular mechanisms of heritability may not be limited to DNA sequence differences.
Effect of De-icer and Anti-icer Chemicals on the Durability, Microstructure, and Properties of Cement-based Materials
Keywords: cement
concrete
durability
chemical attack
oxychlorides
de-icers
anti-icers
calcium chloride
magnesium chloride
sodium chloride
potassium acetate
calcium magnesium acetate
salt scaling
freezing and thawing

A comprehensive study was conducted on the effects of de-icer and anti-icer chemicals on cement-based materials. Portland cement mortars and concretes were exposed to over 16 chloride-based and non-chloride-based generic and commercial products and changes in cement-based material properties were measured. Deleterious chemical actions of several types of these products on cement-based materials were observed, departing from the well-known position that attributes the concrete damage from such salts mainly to physical actions under freezing and thawing exposure. Independent of freezing and thawing exposure, mortars and concretes exposed to concentrated calcium chloride and magnesium chloride solutions were found to undergo severe deterioration whereas those exposed to sodium chloride did not. The mechanisms of deterioration are complex with factors such as concentration, temperature, and availability of calcium hydroxide playing important roles. It was found that the formation of calcium oxychloride of the form 3Ca(OH)2.CaCl2.12H2O, and the 3- and 5-form magnesium oxychloride, 3Mg(OH)2.MgCl2.8H2O and 5Mg(OH)2.MgCl2.8H2O, were the main causes for the severe deterioration, and to a lesser extent brucite, gypsum, and magnesium silicate hydrate (M-S-H). The instability of these oxychloride compounds when subjected to conditions normally encountered in sample preparation is suggested as the reason why field investigations have failed to relate distressed concrete to chemical attack by such de-icer and anti-icer chemicals. Concentrated solutions of calcium magnesium acetate were also found to be harmful to cement-based materials by dissolution of calcium hydroxide and formation of calcium acetate hydrate, whereas low concentrated solutions tended to cause slow deterioration by magnesium attack forming brucite, gypsum, and M-S-H. Potassium acetate chemicals did not cause significant deterioration in mortars when these products were diluted (25% by mass), but undiluted products (50% by mass) caused considerable distress in concrete specimens. The combined effect of chemical attack impairing concrete mechanical properties and subsequent salt scaling damage was proposed as the most likely mechanisms of field deterioration.
Causes and Consequences of Genomic Instability in Prostatic Carcinogenesis
Keywords: Prostate Cancer
Genomic Instability
FISH
Telomere

The evolution of prostate cancer from normal epithelium via the preneoplastic lesion of high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia to invasive carcinoma is characterised by a number of particular genomic abnormalities that are predominantly generated in the preneoplastic phase. Whilst there are numerous candidates for the cause of these alterations, telomere dysfunction is thought to be a major contributor. Telomeres are the terminal ends of human chromosomes, and when dysfunctional can lead to break-fusion-bridge cycles and multi-polar mitoses that generate numerical and structural chromosomal instability. The results presented reinforce the association of telomere dysfunction with the generation of certain markers of genomic instability such as abnormalities of the arms of chromosome 8. Furthermore, this work clarifies that the TMPRSSS2-ERG aberrations are not telomere related phenomena and are associated with a genomic deletion in a proportion of cases. Similarly, the PTEN microdeletions did not appear to have an association with telomere attrition. A previously unrecognised association between the telomere length in various types of prostatic epithelia and adjacent stroma is defined, suggesting evidence of a micro-environmental field effect in the generation of prostatic neoplasia. Finally, when examined retrospectively, it appears that telomere attrition, both in the HPIN epithelium and the stroma has independent prognostic value in the diagnosis of prostate cancer after a previous diagnosis of HPIN. Taken together, the research presented suggests important avenues for further research to determine the nature of barriers to the evolution of prostatic carcinogenesis such as oncogene- and telomere-induced senescence that may be exploited for therapeutic gain. These understandings may also help tailor management for prostate cancer such as risk stratification for men with HPIN and the use of targeted agents such as AKT inhibitors and telomerase inhibitors. In more advanced disease, translational application of this work has enabled a clinical trial of cytarabine in the treatment of metastatic hormone refractory prostate cancer.
Free-Space Metamaterial Superlenses Using Transmission-line Techniques
Keywords: Electromagnetic
Metamaterial
Microwave
Lens

Free-space imaging with a resolution beyond that dictated by the classical diffraction limit may be achieved with a `Veselago-Pendry' superlens made from a metamaterial possessing a number of specific properties, including a negative refractive index (NRI). Although a planar NRI transmission-line (NRI-TL) metamaterial based on the periodic lumped loading of a host TL network has successfully verified the phenomenon of superlensing in a 2D microstrip environment, a true Veselago-Pendry superlens capable of interacting with and manipulating fields in free space remained elusive, largely due to the difficulty of meeting its stringent design constraints and also to the problem of realizing a full 3D isotropic, polarization-independent structure. This work presents the first experimental verification of free-space Veselago-Pendry superlensing using a new class of volumetric metamaterials based on 2D NRI-TL layers that, although polarization-specific, may be easily constructed using available lithographic techniques to interact with free-space sources. An equivalent-circuit model is developed to enable accurate design of the metamaterial's dispersion and transmission characteristics, including those associated with Veselago-Pendry superlensing, and is validated using full-wave simulations. First, a volumetric NRI-TL metamaterial employing fully printed loading elements is fabricated to verify the salient properties of a free-space metamaterial-slab lens. This lens demonstrates diffraction-limited focusing at X-band and, thus, affirms theoretical results that suggest that electrically thick and lossy metamaterials are unable to perform superlensing. Thereafter, a volumetric NRI-TL metamaterial based on discrete lumped elements is designed to meet the conditions of the Veselago-Pendry superlens at 2.40GHz, and experimentally demonstrates a resolution ability over three times better than that afforded by the classical diffraction limit. A microwave superlens designed in this fashion can be particularly useful for illumination and discrimination of closely spaced buried objects over practical distances by way of back-scattering, for example, in tumour or landmine detection, or for targeted irradiation over electrically small regions in tomography or hyperthermia applications. Possible optical implementations of the volumetric topology are also suggested, and finally, a fully isotropic, polarization-independent 3D metamaterial structure related to the volumetric NRI-TL structure is proposed.
Abortable and Query-abortable Types and Their Efficient Implementation
Keywords: shared memory
memory contention
universal constructions
abortable types
query-abortable types
obstruction-freedom
inc&read counter
non-triviality
composability

We introduce abortable and query-abortable object types intended for implementation in asynchronous shared-memory systems with low contention. Implementations of such types behave like ordinary objects when accessed sequentially, but may abort operations when accessed concurrently. An aborted operation may or may not take effect, i.e., cause a state transition, and it returns no indication of which possibility occurred. Since this uncertainty can be problematic, a query-abortable type supports a QUERY operation that each process can use to determine its last non-QUERY operation on the object that caused a state transition, and the response associated with this state transition. Our research is closely related to obstruction-free implementations (introduced by Herlihy, Luchangco and Moir) and responsive obstruction-free implementations (introduced by Attiya, Guerraoui and Kouznetsov). Like abortable and query-abortable types, these implementations may exhibit degraded behaviour in the face of contention. We show that abortable registers--registers strictly weaker than safe registers--can be used to obtain obstruction-free and responsive obstruction-free implementations for any type. We present universal constructions for abortable and query-abortable types that are novel and efficient in the number of registers used. Specifically, they are based on a simple timestamping mechanism for detecting concurrent executions, and, in systems with n processes, use only n abortable registers or only O(n^2) single-reader, single-writer abortable registers. The timestamping mechanism we introduce is based on the inc&read counter type and appears to be interesting in its own right. As a generalization, we study the k-inc&read counter types, for k>0. We also identify a potential problem with correctness properties based on step contention: with such properties, the composition of correct object implementations may result in an implementation that is not correct. In other words, implementations defined in terms of step contention are not always composable. To avoid this problem, we introduce a property based on interval contention, namely non-triviality, to define the correct behaviour of abortable and query-abortable object implementations.
Behaviour in a Canadian Multi-payer, Multi-provider Health Care Market: The Case of the Physiotherapy Market in Ontario
Keywords: health care market
public/private
not-for-profit
for-profit
foreign investment
physiotherapy
regulated health professionals

This is a study of several contentious issues in Canadian health policy involving the interaction of public and private payers and for-profit (FP) and not-for-profit (NFP) providers; the influence of health professionals on market structure; and the role of foreign investment. A case study was used, the Ontario physiotherapy market in 2003-2005, with its complex mix of payers and providers and foreign investment opportunities. Key market features were: fragmented but substantial payer influence, effective though uncoordinated cost control across payers, constrained labour supply, and fragmented patient referral sources. These features increased the complexity of providers’ interactions with patients and payers, reducing standardization and therefore favouring local, professional-owned small business FP providers (FP/s) for ambulatory care. NFP Hospitals’ market share declined. The findings generally confirmed expected behavioural differences between FP and NFP providers but expected differences between investor-owned FP providers (FP/c) and FP/s providers were not generally found. FP/s dominated the market, and FP/c providers appeared to mimic FP/s market behaviours, competing in local sub-markets. With no single or dominant payer, cost control difficulties were expected, but all 11 payer categories (public and private) used various cost control mechanisms, resulting in significant collective but uncoordinated influence. Generally, no payer alone supported a provider’s operations. The dominant labour suppliers, regulated physiotherapists, were scarce and exerted significant pressure, affecting market structure by asserting individual preferences and professional interests. FP/s dominance resulted, supported by the traditional patient referral source, physicians in small practices. Very little foreign investment was found despite little protection for domestic providers under NAFTA. In sum, this study showed FP and NFP provider stereotypes are subject to payer pressure: FP/c organizations can adapt by mimicking FP/s, and payers can modify NFPs’ assumed community orientation. Labour shortages and historical referral patterns can make individual professionals and their preferences more influential than their collective profession without diminishing the importance of professional interests. The degree and structure of payer control can make a market unattractive to foreign investors. Finally, this market – neither a planned or standard market – had a service provision pattern more broadly influenced by professionalism and practitioner interests than policies or prices.
Networking in Everyday Life
Keywords: Network analysis
Media use

Contemporary networking in Canada, like most of the developed world, involves significant use of media to maintain relationships. This is not the use of media for faraway alters where in person contact is difficult, but media use within the very fabric of everyday life alongside in person contact. Past debates about the effects of new media have frequently focused on a medium's potential for social isolation. These debates have resulted in ambiguous, muted or contradictory findings. So instead of suggesting another response to the issue of social isolation, this thesis reorients the focus towards a different question: under what conditions are alters accessible and how does multiple media use affect this accessibility? Rather than suggest that new media simply offer "more" social accessibility, I contend that they complicate social accessibility by offering individuals increasingly differentiated ways to habitually maintain contact with each other. The result of this differentiation is that while individuals might be able to maintain contact with more alters (or at least just as many) in the abstract sense, they end up maintaining contact with the most accessible alters rather than alters with whom one has the strongest ties. This is the conundrum of multiple media use: how is it that each individual medium offers increased convenience but the sum total of media use makes life less convenient, more planned and more complicated? I suggest it is because media use cuts across longstanding social norms of public and private spaces (or public and private time) without offering a coherent normative framework as a substitute. Instead, individuals are differentially accessible via each medium. Moreover, this accessibility is related more to emergent personal habits than to tie strength. Data for this study comes from 350 random-sample surveys and 86 follow-up social network-oriented interviews in East York, a former borough on the east side of downtown Toronto, Canada. The data were collected in 2005, before the widespread adoption of social networking software, but after the widespread adoption of cellular telephones, instant messaging services and email.