VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Using Differential Item Functioning to Investigate the Impact of Reading Proficiency on Science Achievement
Keywords: Differential item functioning
dimensionality analysis
reading proficiency
science test

The most recent Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing emphasize the importance of maximizing the validity and reliability of an instrument by establishing its lack of measurement bias. This is often done through dimensionality analysis to ascertain the unidimensionality of the measured construct and through differential item functioning (DIF) to investigate whether a nuisance dimension may influence the items purported to measure a unidimensional trait. In this study, a combination of exploratory and confirmatory dimensionality analyses were used to guide a combination of exploratory and confirmatory DIF, differential bundle functioning (DBF) and crossing-DIF analyses to examine whether students' performance on a science assessment was adversely affected by reading comprehension as a nuisance dimension. DIMTEST was used to analyze the dimensionality of a test, whereas the standardization approach with SIBTEST was used to study differential item functioning. The analyses compared three language groups of interest in the Canadian context: French Minority, French Majority, and English students to examine whether groups of students with the same or with different levels of reading ability perform differently on science items and on science items with high reading demands. Using data from a sample of 32,000 Grade 8 students who wrote the 2013 Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP), the DIMTEST results on the science component suggested weak multidimensionality with the secondary dimension related to reading comprehension. The DIF analyses flagged many items advantaging the reference and focal groups in almost an equivalent proportion. When analyzing bundles of items related to specific aspects of the test specifications, the large number of significant paired comparisons was an indication of DIF cancellation and amplification which in most cases disadvantaged the English language students. The study demonstrated that a systematic approach to investigate dimensionality and DIF can contribute to the creation of a strong body of evidence supporting the fairness, equity, validity and reliability of inferences drawn from a test.
Understanding Supportive Employment and Job Training in Canadian Social Purpose Enterprises: Drawing from Theories of Social Support
Keywords: Employment
Nonprofit
Social purpose enterprise
Social support

This thesis contains three papers that examine the socially supportive experiences of working at social purpose enterprises across Canada. The first paper presents a mixed-methods study exploring the range of work-centered social supports that can be part of the social purpose enterprise experience. From the perspective of managers and supervisors of these organizations, it explores the potential influence of these supports on the work outcomes and overall wellbeing of participants who often face significant and multiple barriers to employment. From the perspective of employees and job training participants, the second paper quantitatively examines the influences of practical and emotional social support on changes in participants' personal and vocational wellbeing during their time at the social purpose enterprises. Through participants' own personal accounts, the final paper explores the nature and meaning of their experiences of social support, both as provider and recipient of support. Findings from all three studies point to the importance of matching social support to the needs and goals of the employees and training participants, as well as the relevance of how people perceive their experiences of being supported in determining whether they actually benefit from the support. Presenting social purpose enterprises as vehicles for mobilizing social support through alternative work arrangements draws attention to the number of vulnerabilities faced by people most socially and economically excluded, of which employment is but one area requiring attention. This research contributes to a growing body of literature that demonstrates the holistic way these organizations can address issues of long-term employment exclusion as well as individual and community wellbeing more broadly.
Arc Minute
Keywords: Classical
Contemporary
Fractal
Music
Orchestral
Symphonic

In astronomy, an arc minute is an angular measurement equal to 1/21600 of a circle. Arc Minute is a composition for orchestra (2 flutes, oboe, English horn, 2 clarinets in Bb, 2 bassoons, 4 Horns in F, 2 trumpets in C, percussion, piano and strings) of approximately eleven minutes in duration. It explores rhythmic and melodic fractals. The composition is largely monothematic, only occasionally deviating from a four-note motif and its various permutations. With a few exceptions, at least the contour of the motif and its inversion are strictly adhered to. Arc Minute also gives emphasis to establishing musical continuities through timbral manipulation. It takes advantage of timbral commonalities among the various instruments in the orchestra - especially percussion - and attempts to make their individual timbres organically evolve into each other. Additionally, the composition uses microtonal detuning that is anchored on a harp tuned to A4 = 428Hz. Careful attention is paid to use this instrument, along with some other ones capable of producing microtones, separately from the rest of the orchestra, as an echo reminiscent of the Doppler effect. This allows for unusual sonorities evoking imagery of phenomena extrinsic to music.
The Diverse Geographies of Jewishness: Exploring the Intersections between Race, Religion, and Citizenship among Israeli Migrants in Toronto
Keywords: Citizenship
Diaspora
Israel
Migration
Race
Religion

In this dissertation, I explore how Jewish migrants who have relocated from Israel, but who are now living in the Greater Toronto Area understand, negotiate and perform their identities, belongings, and citizenship upon migration, both individually and collectively. Working from a series of forty-eight interviews and a set of participant observations at public events, I discuss how the discourses and material realities of life in Israel and in Toronto inform their attachments, identities, and claims of belonging. I illustrate the ways in which their hybrid and transnational identities, attachments, and claims of belonging challenge Euro-Zionism's homogenizing project - opening up potential for new revitalized spaces for conversations about Israel/Palestine. The empirical chapters in this study focus on the themes of diaspora, whiteness, and citizenship in an attempt to foreground the multi-dimensional and diverse nature of Jewish identity and Jewish multiculturality and multiraciality in Canada (and in Israel). Theoretically, this opens up opportunities to consider scaffolding that describes the complex multiplicity within cultures. Case studies are used to address the formation and re-formation of racial, religious, and national identities after migration, providing theoretical insights into the complex relations of multiple local racial formations to global racial formations, both historically and in the contemporary period, and their interconnectivity with other axes of difference, such as religion. In particular, I emphasize the intersection of racial formation and religious identity by foregrounding the immense diversity of Jewish identities, cultures, and racial connections. Doing so, I begin to map previously unexplored intersections between Jewish studies and critical theories of race in order to illuminate spaces for potential critical geographical analyses of these fields. This study, therefore, opens up new questions not only for future research on the "Israeli diaspora" , but also for studies of race, religion, migration, and urban space in social and cultural geography.
A Population Based Perspective of Children and Youth with Acquired Brain Injury in Ontario, Canada
Keywords: Brain Injury
Brain Tumours
Health Services
International Classification of Diseases
Pediatrics

Acquired brain injury (ABI) includes traumatic (TBI) and non-traumatic brain injury (nTBI). It is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide and can negatively affect the long-term development of children and youth living with an ABI. The objective of this thesis was to address current gaps in pediatric ABI research by (1) establishing the foundation for efforts to reach an appropriate case definition for pediatric TBI; (2) addressing the paucity of information on the health service use of children and youth with nTBI; and (3) expanding current knowledge on children and youth with a brain tumour by including data on individuals with metastatic and non-malignant brain tumours. Population based healthcare administrative data from Ontario, Canada, were used and children and youth with an ABI were identified using International Classification of Diseases Version 10 codes. Results showed that the number and rate, healthcare use, and intentional and mechanism of injury differed significantly when including/excluding 'unspecified injury to the head' diagnostic codes in the case definition for TBI, providing evidence for the importance of accurately interpreting current findings for the TBI population in reference to the case definition. Data also showed that although the rate of nTBI episodes of care was not as high as the rates reported for the TBI population, the health service use among the nTBI population was just as high as the TBI population. This suggests that the pediatric nTBI population puts an increased burden and demand on the healthcare system with currently little data to direct resources and planning. Finally, despite higher rates of malignant brain tumour episodes of care, patients with benign and unspecified brain tumours also use acute care and post-acute care services, indicating that current estimates for brain tumour and associated healthcare use are underestimates. This thesis provided a comprehensive update on children and youth with ABI from a population based perspective that has implications for policy and decision-making, health services planning, and resource allocation for ABI.
Mammalian Cardiovascular Patterning as Determined by Hemodynamic Forces and Blood Vessel Genetics
Keywords: Cardiovascular Development
Developmental Biology
Dll4
Endoglin
Mlc2a
Optical Projection Tomography

Cardiovascular development is a process that involves the timing of multiple molecular events, and numerous subtle three-dimensional conformational changes. Traditional developmental biology techniques have provided large quantities of information as to how these complex organ systems develop. However, the major drawback of the majority of current developmental biological imaging is that they are two-dimensional in nature. It is now well recognized that circulation of blood is required for normal patterning and remodeling of blood vessels. Normal blood vessel formation is dependent upon a complex network of signaling pathways, and genetic mutations in these pathways leads to impaired vascular development, heart failure, and lethality. As such, it is not surprising that mutant mice with aberrant cardiovascular patterning are so common, since normal development requires proper coordination between three systems: the heart, the blood, and the vasculature. This thesis describes the implementation of a three-dimensional imaging technique, optical projection tomography (OPT), in conjunction with a computer-based registration algorithm to statistically analyze developmental differences in groups of wild-type mouse embryos. Embryos that differ by only a few hours' gestational time are shown to have developmental differences in blood vessel formation and heart development progression that can be discerned. This thesis describes how we analyzed mouse models of cardiovascular perturbation by OPT to detect morphological differences in embryonic development in both qualitative and quantitative ways. Both a blood vessel specific mutation and a cardiac specific mutation were analyzed, providing evidence that developmental defects of these types can be quantified. Finally, we describe the implementation of OPT imaging to identify statistically significant phenotypes from three different mouse models of cardiovascular perturbation across a range of developmental time points. Image registration methods, combined with intensity- and deformation-based analyses are described and utilized to fully characterize myosin light chain 2a (Mlc2a), delta-like ligand 4 (Dll4), and Endoglin (Eng) mutant mouse embryos. We show that Eng mutant embryos are statistically similar to the Mlc2a phenotype, confirming that these mouse mutants suffer from a primary cardiac developmental defect. Thus, a loss of hemodynamic force caused by defective pumping of the heart is the primary developmental defect affecting these mice.
Understanding the Role of Potassium and its Transport Systems in Streptococcus mutans
Keywords: biofilm
potassium
Streptococcus mutans
transformation

Streptococcus mutans is a cariogenic bacterium found in the human dental plaque biofilm. Amongst its various attributes, the ability to metabolize a variety of dietary sugars to produce acid, resistance to pH stress by activating an acid tolerance response, ability to produce sticky glucan polymers and the ability to naturally take up genetic material are important properties of S. mutans. One way bacteria withstand external environmental stress is by accumulating intracellular potassium. In the genome of S. mutans, four putative potassium transport systems were identified, namely, the Trk1 (trkB/trk/pacL) system, Trk2 (trkA/trkH) system, GlnQHMP, and Kch (SMU_1848). The hypothesis of this study was that S. mutans transports potassium using specific transport systems, and relies on K+ homeostasis for regulation of its multiple physiological and virulence attributes. To investigate the role of these systems, strains with deletions of each system were constructed. The most profound effects on the growth, pH tolerance, genetic transformation and biofilm formation were observed when the Trk2 system was absent compared to wild type UA159 and trk1-, glnQHMP- or kch deficient strains. Furthermore, deletion of the Trk2 transport system resulted in reduced intracellular potassium accumulation. To confirm the role of Trk2 as a potassium uptake system, this system was cloned, expressed and functionally characterized in the Escherichia coli TK2420 mutant strain lacking constitutive potassium uptake systems. Collectively, this study identified Trk2 as the key potassium transport system in S. mutans, and demonstrated its importance and the role of potassium homeostasis with regard to biofilm formation, stress tolerance, growth and genetic transformation. This work constitutes the first characterization of the Trk systems in oral streptococci.
"Acts of Resistance": Reclaiming Native Womanhood in Canadian Aboriginal Theatre.
Keywords: Culture jamming
Native theatre in Canada
Representations of Aboriginal women
Storytelling
Survivance
Theatrical violence

This study investigates the representation of Aboriginal womanhood in Aboriginal women’s theatre in Canada. Using five core case studies to explore Indigenous women’s self-representation, I demonstrate how Native theatre engages in acts of resistance that promote the decolonization of Aboriginal womanhood. Drawing on concepts of Aboriginal storytelling, I attempt to weave the connections between the personal story and the collective history to demonstrate how these plays use theatrical presence to rebuke historical and contemporary absences of Native women. Each play does this by taking aim at political policies, stereotypes in popular culture, and sexual violence, which all sustain negative constructions of Native womanhood. Chapter one establishes the context(s) in which these plays exist and explores a history of legislation and policies that contributes to the negative representations of Aboriginal women. Chapters two and three demonstrate how Native women's theatre confronts stereotypes of Aboriginality and deconstructs them as a form of personal and collective healing. Chapter two explores how culture jamming and humour are used to disrupt the re-circulation of stereotypes in order to challenge the cultural currency stereotypes maintain in film, television, and other medias. In chapter three I explore the connection between the stereotypes and sexualized violence. I identify strategies used to represent violence, specifically around concepts of “presence” and “absence.” The function of violence in these plays is not one of (re)victimization, but one that evokes concepts of testimony, witnessing, and storytelling. It will also deal with the problematic perceived trajectory of healing and identity formation through violence in some of the plays. Chapter four looks to the relationship between identity and community and signals how a return to “home” and community can help rebuild positive Indigenous identities and becomes the final act of resistance. Chapter five examines the relationship between storytelling (in the theatre), history, and witnessing trauma. It proposes that Native storytelling, especially in the theatre, is an act of survivance that challenges historical absences. Finally, in chapter six, I look forward to the transnational applications of my research and gesture to Indigenous eco-theatre as one avenue that promotes the decolonization of Indigenous peoples globally.
Development of a Lead-free Piezoelectric (K,Na)NbO3 Thin Film Deposited on Nickel-based Electrodes
Keywords: Micro actuator
Nanomanipulation
Piezoelectric
Piezoelectric fan
Thin film
Tungsten nano-tips

It is desirable to replace noble metals used as electrode materials for piezoelectric thin film with base metals. This will reduce the piezoelectric thin film fabrication cost. A nickel−based layer in conjunction with other protective layers is proposed as a bottom electrode for lead−free piezoelectric KNN thin film. The obtained results do not indicate the oxidation of the nickel−based bottom electrode after the deposition of KNN at 600 °C for 10 hours in the presence of oxygen and/or after annealing the sample at 400 °C for an hour in air. The fabricated KNN thin film was fully characterized in this work. The effective piezoelectric coefficients d33 and d31 were estimated to be 37 pm/V and 17.2 pm/V, respectively, at 100 kV/cm. The piezoelectric properties of the fabricated KNN/Ni/Ti/SiO2/Si are affected by the crystal orientation of the KNN layer, which was preferentially oriented in the (110) direction. Optimization of the deposition parameters of the fabricated KNN/Ni/Ti/SiO2/Si film is expected to further enhance the piezoelectric properties. Two novel systems utilizing the developed KNN piezoelectric thin film are proposed and their performance simulated based on the achieved KNN thin film parameters. The first is a precision automated nanomanipulation system using an AFM as a sensor and piezo−actuated manipulators. Real−time feedback of the particle being manipulated can be achieved using the proposed system. The length of the manipulators needs to be at least 2 mm to be incorporated with a commercial AFM system. To fabricate the required manipulators, a three−step electrochemical etching technique was developed. Tungsten tips combining well−defined conical shape, a length as large as 2 mm, and sharpness with a radius of curvature of around 20 nm were fabricated using the proposed technique. By depositing the KNN thin film on the fabricated manipulator, nanomanipulators with out−of−plane actuation can be produced. Ultrasonic piezoelectric fan array, the second system, is proposed for GPU cooling applications. The developed KNN thin film is proposed as the piezo layer in the piezo fan structure. The novel solution can offer large air flow rate and low power consumption. Since the operating frequency is beyond the human audible frequencies, non−audible noise fans are expected by using the proposed ultrasonic piezo fan system. Moreover, fabrication of these ultrasonic piezo fans can be part of the GPU fabrication process itself.
Motivational Interviewing, Therapist Fidelity and Treatment Outcomes Among Adolescents with Concurrent Disorders
Keywords: Adolescent
Concurrent Disorders
Motivational Interviewing

Addressing motivational issues has been considered an important target in treatment among adolescents with concurrent disorders (CD). The client-centered, collaborative and non-confrontational approach of MI, make it a particularly useful approach with adolescents. MI has been shown to be effective at increasing commitment to change and enhance treatment engagement among adolescents. To date, there have been limited studies to examine the effectiveness of MI as a pre-treatment intervention among adolescents with CDs. The purpose of the study was to address this need for research and to understand which specific MI interventions are essential for facilitating client change among adolescent CDs. The current study was a pilot sub-project from a larger study examining the feasibility and effectiveness of a single MI session as a pre-treatment intervention among adolescents with CDs. Thirty-two adolescent males and females attended a brief MI intervention session prior to participating in a group treatment program. The goals of this study were to: (1) examine the efficacy of a brief MI intervention among adolescents with CDs; (2) develop a better understanding of the important elements of the intervention that influence outcomes, specifically examining treatment effects at the level of therapist behaviours. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that following the MI session, adolescents would report greater motivation, specifically taking greater steps and actions to changing their alcohol use. Contrary to our predictions, no significant changes emerged in readiness to change alcohol use, drug use or problems following the brief MI intervention. The relationship between MI fidelity and treatment engagement (i.e., number of DBT sessions attended) was significant. Specifically, the greater the percent of MI adherent statements made by the practitioner, the greater the treatment engagement by the adolescent (i.e., attendance in group treatment). Although other MI fidelity dimensions such as percent complex reflections, percent open questions, reflection-to-question ratio and Global Spirit were not significantly associated with treatment engagement individually, the combined use of these MI fidelity dimensions had a significant effect at increasing adolescent treatment engagement. These results add to the literature which has suggested the strength of the intervention lies in the integration of the skills and MI spirit and that the 'whole is greater than the sum of its parts.' The findings from the current pilot study demonstrate the effectiveness of MI as a pre-treatment intervention for adolescents with CDs and provide essential information for therapist training and supervision. Future studies could examine the efficacy of brief MI interventions using a randomized control study design.