VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Seeing Through Rose-colored Glasses? A Within- and Cross-cultural Investigation of Evaluative Bias and Well-being
Keywords: culture
evaluative bias
multimethod
personality
positive self-perception
well-being

Cross-cultural research on well-being often focuses on the influence of socio-ecological factors on well-being. National accounts of well-being suggest that modern nations – wealthier, and well-educated nations –are happier than less developed nations. In the current thesis, I examined whether cultural factors influence individuals’ preferences towards self-evaluation, and whether (cross-) cultural differences in positive evaluative bias influence well-being. Given the cultural emphasis on positivity and high self-esteem in North America, I expected European Canadians, compared to Asian Canadians and Asians, to show overly positive biases in ratings of personality and in predictions of their abilities and behaviors. In Study 1, participants were asked to bring a close friend (either a same- or cross-ethnic friend) to the laboratory, and asked to provide self- and informant-ratings of well-being and personality. An improved personality model of positive bias was introduced to disentangle biases from actual personality using self- and informant-ratings of personality. European Canadians compared to Asian Canadians showed higher well-being and higher positive evaluative bias of the self and close other. Importantly, cultural differences in positive evaluative bias mediated cultural differences in self-reported well-being. In Study 2, I used a novel behavioral approach based on signal detection theory to explore positive bias across three cultural groups: European Canadians, Asian Canadians and Koreans. Individuals were asked to bet on their success in ten independent tasks, and then asked to perform the tasks. Comparisons of individuals’ betting behaviors and actual performances served as measures of positive bias. Interestingly, no cross-cultural differences were observed in positive bias in predictions of abilities and behaviors. Taken together, this work highlights the influence of positive bias in well-being ratings, supporting the idea that cultural factors influence individuals’ perception tendencies. Yet, my work suggests that European North Americans are not merely blinded by rose-colored dreams. Cultural norms have less influence on individuals’ self-evaluation depending on the context.
Energy Monitoring and Targeting as Diagnosis: Applying Work Analysis to Adapt a Statistical Change Detection Strategy using Representation Aiding
Keywords: cognitive engineering
energy management
experiment
human factors
monitoring and targeting
representation aiding

Energy Monitoring and Targeting is a well-established business process that develops information about utility energy consumption in a business or institution. While M has persisted as a worthwhile energy conservation support activity, it has not been widely adopted. This dissertation explains M challenges in terms of diagnosing and controlling energy consumption, informed by a naturalistic field study of M work. A Cognitive Work Analysis of M identifies structures that diagnosis can search, information flows un-supported in canonical support tools, and opportunities to extend the most popular tool for M Cumulative Sum of Residuals (CUSUM) charts. A design application outlines how CUSUM charts were augmented with a more contemporary statistical change detection strategy, Recursive Parameter Estimates, modified to better suit the M task using Representation Aiding principles. The design was experimentally evaluated in a controlled M synthetic task, and was shown to significantly improve diagnosis performance.
Early-adolescent Experiences of Physical Activity: A Sociology of Childhood Approach
Keywords: early-adolescents
education
participation
physical activity
sociology
sociology of childhood
Daily Physical Activity
DPA

Participation in physical activity is the most significant contributor to health and can bring joy, community and psychological well-being. Low rates of physical activity participation are causing national and international alarm. Only 7 per cent of Canadian children and youth receive adequate amounts and intensity of physical activity. Attrition occurs over adolescence, and childhood and adolescent participation influences lifelong participation. Utilizing feminist and sociology of childhood frameworks, this mixed method study explored the physical activity (PA) experiences of 25 middle school students. Findings include that these early adolescents were more active than national averages, that they enjoyed and valued physical activity, that their PA experiences were significantly impacted by their environment, and that they themselves knew what they wanted and what worked for positive participation experiences. School structures, facilities, programming and personnel, the built environment, friends and family were the most significant influences on participation experience. The author concludes that: 1) some populations of young people in some geographic circumstances are more engaged in physical activity and have a more positive attitude than often assumed; 2) researchers, program developers and, most importantly, policy makers concerned with physical activity participation, attrition, and public health must recognize that structures impose sedentaryism, and that individuals’ sense of responsibility for their own health behaviours alone is inadequate in creating an active population; 3) young people have authentic, credible knowledge and their observations, experiences and voice hold key insights to their own sustainable or increased participation in physical activities; and 4) young people need to be listened to and included as participants in the design of the structures that create the social, physical and educational environments in which they learn and live. Recommendations for policy, programming and future research are presented.
In-vivo Biomarkers for Detection of Early Diabetic Retinopathy Using Aqueous Humor Cytokines and Functional Retinal Imaging Techniques
Keywords: Angiogenesis
Biomarkers
Diabetes Type 2
Diabetic Retinopathy
Microvasculature
Retina

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of blindness in working age adults worldwide. Prior to the onset of clinical DR, alterations in retinal hemodynamics have been reported. However, the underlying pathogenesis for retinal hemodynamic dysfunction remains unknown. Retinal hemodynamic disturbance reflects the complex diabetes-induced pathologic alteration that occurs in the diabetic retina and these pathogenic changes are likely reflected in the aqueous humor (AH). Using multiplex bead analysis, we determined the levels of ET-1, VEGF, Ang-2, FGFs, IL-8, PlGF, TGF-β1 and TGF-β2, which have been proposed to be centrally involved in the progression of DR, in patients with early retinal hemodynamic disturbances. The purpose is to identify important cytokines that are associated with retinal hemodynamic abnormalities and impaired vascular reactivity response during early DR. We compared AH cytokines levels between non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and control groups. We also evaluated total retinal blood flow (TRBF) using the Fourier Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (FD-OCT). Additionally, we measured retinal vascular reactivity response using the bidirectional laser velocimetry and a standardized isocapnic hyperoxic provocation method. We determined the relationships between AH cytokines, retinal blood flow and vascular reactivity responses in each group. We found significantly increased angiogenic cytokines (ET-1, Ang-2, PlGF, TGF-β1 and TGFβ-2) and reduced FGF-1 levels in the NPDR group compared to the control group. The presence of pro-angiogenic cytokines indicates progression of ischemia, which is consistent with the reduced TRBF observed in the NPDR group compared to the control. Although not directly correlated, the vasoconstrictory effects of ET-1 are also consistent with lower TRBF found in early DR. FGF-1 levels are significantly positively associated with TRBF and VR response in patients NPDR. In the absence of retinal ischemia, we show that early diabetes-induced alterations influences AH composition as well as retinal hemodynamics and arteriolar vascular function, and may be concomitant with respect to their development. Although further work is required to determine the pathogenic mechanism of FGF-1, our study points to the important and novel role of FGF-1 in mediating impairments in TRBF and retinal VR during early DR.
Prioritizing Climate Action for Low-carbon Growth in Cities
Keywords: budget
climate action plan
greenhouse gas emissions
greenhouse gas inventory
marginal abatement cost
Toronto

Cities play a vital role in the global economy, which necessitates incremental progress towards low-carbon growth to serve their long-term needs and remain competitive locally and collectively. Urban energy consumption makes the climate challenge more pronounced in cities, where simultaneously, the opportunities for mitigation are prevalent. From a climate governance perspective, this thesis examines the prioritization of climate action to meet greenhouse gas emission targets that come at a cost to cities and their residents. The thesis presents four papers that together structure climate action by developing tools to support cities in decarbonizing their economic growth. A three-pronged approach to climate action is developed to integrate key city documents: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories, Climate Action Plans, and Budgets, and a review of practices and advancements in progressive cities are presented. Greenhouse gas inventories are the starting point of cities’ climate action, which are analyzed comparatively as they apply to community, corporate and upstream emissions, with examples from New York, Shanghai and Paris. Surprisingly not typically linked to inventories, climate action plans are strategic documents defining ambitious initiatives to reduce emissions. A methodology to compile mitigation measures suggested in climate policies and programs in a city, and that of higher orders of government is established, and their cost-effectiveness and abatement potential is calculated and illustrated in the form of a marginal abatement cost (MAC) curve. A case study of prioritizing mitigation measures in the energy supply, buildings, transportation and waste sectors is demonstrated for Toronto’s climate targets, drawing implications for the city’s 2020 and 2050 outlook. To integrate budgets with inventories and action plans, the METRO model is designed for cities to forecast greenhouse gas emissions and evaluate city budgets and business and household incomes relative to climate mitigation priorities. Applying the model to Toronto, the methodology of the METRO model is demonstrated to show that climate commitments have a quantitative dimension and an economic reality. Prioritized climate action positions cities for timely mitigation efforts, where knowledge sharing among cities is paramount to achieving low-carbon growth.
In Search of Reference: The Case of the Russian Adjectival Intensifier 'samyj'
Keywords: intensifiers
reference
self
structure of DP
syntax

This dissertation is a multilayered exploration of the structure of the Determiner Phrase (DP) and the nature of reference in natural language. At the most basic empirical level, it is a case study of the intensifying adjective samyj ‘self’ in Russian. This phenomenon is understudied and is usually taken to be subsumed under the more general study of modification by emphatic pronouns, such as himself in English or sam in Russian. The general outcome of this case study is that intensification by samyj and sam are two di↵erent phenomena in Russian and analyzing samyj in terms of sam misses important generalizations about the structure and functioning of DPs. Three main constructions are examined,inwhichsamyj isusedwith(a)demonstratives(Dem+samyj),(b)pronouns (Pron+samyj ), and (c) gradable properties to form superlatives (self -superlatives). At the higher theoretical level, this work contributes to three domains of syntax: (i) the structure of DP, (ii) DPs as phases, and (iii) non-sentential constructions. (i) Using constructions with samyj, I argue that many cases of apparent polysemy may be explained by the merge position of a lexical item (a ‘chameleon’ e↵ect). I also show that the distribution of samyj provides support for and a way to refine the topological view of the left-periphery of DP. (ii) I present a novel observation about samyj and use it to argue that samyj is a modifier of a DP-internal propositional node - ⌃P. I also show that samyj provides evidence for re-defining the notion of phases. (iii) I show that Pron+samyj is a hybrid fragment answer as it combines the derivation of a fragment answer to wh-questions with properties specific to polarity particles like yes and no. Finally, on the semantic side, I propose that the main contribution of samyj is to add a secondary assertion of the form X = Y. This proposal explains many properties of samyj, such as the incompatibility of samyj with negation and the impossibility of using pronouns modified by samyj in argument positions.
Policy Choices of the Post-Soviet States Regarding Foreign Direct Investment in the Key Sectors of their Economies: the Experience of Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine
Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
Kazakhstan
policy choices
Russia
Ukraine

Why did some post-Soviet states open up their key economic sectors to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) while others did not? This dissertation argues that the levels of FDI were a result of conscious policy choices rather than ability or inability of the post-Soviet states to create positive investment climate. It explains why Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine made different policy choices regarding FDI into their oil and gas, and metallurgy and mining sectors despite similar sectoral composition of their economies and common past as part of the Soviet Union. I argue that these policy choices were political. The state officials made their policy choices under the influence of two main factors. The first factor was whether or not they believed they could develop a sector exclusively through the use of national resources, with the help of domestic state and private actors. The state of the sector's development during the Soviet era heavily influenced this perception. After the collapse of the USSR, all sectors across all republics needed capital and technologies to maintain production, yet needed them to a different extent. The second factor influencing FDI policy choices was the strategy of power maintenance that political regimes chose and, more specifically, the different political roles they ascribed to different sectors. Sectors with their assets became highly material forms of power that were used by the regimes toward attainment of these three goals.
Reactive Balance Control after Stroke: Towards Enhanced Clinical Understanding and Assessment
Keywords: Assessment
Balance
Postural Control
Stroke

Safe and independent mobility is a primary rehabilitation goal for those with stroke, of which balance control is a key determinant. The risk of falls post-stroke is high and fall rates rise dramatically soon after discharge from the hospital. Previous research has revealed the essential role that reactive balance control, specifically the capacity to initiate and execute a rapid step, has in preventing falls. Of concern, reactive balance control is not routinely assessed within physical therapy practice. Challenges to clinical assessment may include a lack of available methods that are safe, standardized and able to quantify and characterize balance responses. Therefore, this dissertation aimed to advance understanding of reactive stepping after stroke to inform and guide clinical assessment practices. The present findings affirmed that reactive stepping post-stroke is a significant problem not clearly revealed by commonly-used clinical measures that focus on voluntary control, thereby, supporting the need to develop targeted assessments of reactive balance control. Further, the findings revealed the potential for clinical uptake of alternate approaches, specifically the lean-and-release method, to assess reactive stepping among those in early stages of stroke rehabilitation. When paired with kinetic measurement technology, such approaches were able to quantify and reveal determinants of temporal dyscontrol of both the paretic and nonparetic lower-limbs, known to be associated with falls after stroke. Further work is warranted to evolve the lean-and-release assessment towards a more useful clinical tool, suitable for widespread clinical uptake.
Consultation, Conflict, and Collaborative Federalism: Canada-Ontario Immigration Relations, 1970-2005
Keywords: federal-provincial-municipal cooperation
History of Canadian immigration policy
immigration and settlement - Ontario
immigration federalism
intergovernmental relations

The provision of immigrant settlement services has long been recognized in the social science literature as essential to the economic, social, and political integration of immigrants to Canada. The 1976 Immigration Act, enacted in 1978, was a catalyst for increased provincial involvement in immigration, a jurisdiction shared between the two governments, yet largely managed by the Canadian federal government. The new Act initiated a flurry of bilateral federal-provincial cooperation accords on immigrant settlement throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Yet, the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement (COIA), signed in November 2005, was the last of ten bilateral immigration accords to be signed in Canada. While other Canadian provinces successfully leveraged their jurisdictional capacity in immigrant settlement through the successful negotiation of bilateral immigration agreements with the federal government, the finalization of a Canada-Ontario agreement on immigration and settlement remained in bureaucratic and political impasse for decades despite Ontario’s position as the province receiving the largest proportion of immigrants to Canada. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the process by which Ontario’s first intergovernmental immigration agreement, decades in the making, was successfully concluded in 2005. Drawing on archival government documents, extensive interviews, and multiple interdisciplinary analyses, this dissertation traces the trajectory of Canada-Ontario-municipal intergovernmental negotiations in the shared jurisdiction of immigration and settlement from 1970-2005 to show how these intergovernmental relations evolved against a dynamic backdrop of demographic shifts, changing international norms, bureaucratic restructuring, and broader political agendas and economic interests. The dissertation demonstrates that while the negotiation of the 2005 Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement marked a new leaf in intergovernmental cooperation, the Canada-Ontario immigration relationship remains wrought with complexity. Ontario’s unique approach to immigration consultation, continued disputes over devolution and federal spending power in the province, and fluid federal-provincial-municipal jurisdictional boundaries continue to pose a challenge to existing theories of collaborative federalism and multilevel governance.
Social Structuration in Tibetan Society: Education, Society and Religious Life
Keywords: Education
Philosophy
Social change
Spiritual Society
Structuration
Tibetan Society

Social structure is a core concept in the field of sociology, and Anthony Giddens has extended this concept to structuration theory. This theory has multiple applications, but has never been used to analyze the structure of Tibetan society. Tibetan social structuration is an under-researched area. The lack of basic sociological understanding of Tibetan society is due to insufficient study on the question of why neither Tibetan monastic education nor the state school system have produced Tibetan sociologists and social theory able to identify the social problems in contemporary Tibetan society. This study aims to construct a theory of Tibetan sociology and, emerging from this, a preliminary Tibetan sociology of education, that sets Giddens’s theory of structuration in dialogue with Je TsongKhapa’s philosophy. Through a process of dialectical co-construction, it links Tibetan analytic approaches with international sociological perspectives. The resulting synthesis helps us to analyze social structuration in a spiritual society and how the two types of Tibetan society—oral and literate society—are situated in this dynamic context. The study extends structuration theory to several sub-divisions including personal life and education, analyzes the social relations of political and spiritual authority, and compares the two thinkers’ ontological approaches to conventional and ultimate reality. It also applies Giddens’s theory to the social tensions and realities resulting from Je TsongKhapa’s dramatic religious restructuration of Tibetan society. Education is the force of social change. Yet the uneasy co-existence of three distinct forms of education in Tibetan society—monastic, oral and state school education—challenges the practice and potential of social transformation. The study analyzes these forms of education in relation to Tibetan social structuration and argues that the current distinctions between oral and literate society need to be narrowed, that village culture and agency need to be empowered, and that the strengths of each form of education need to converge in the mutual aim of a new educational approach that is socio-culturally relevant and also critically attuned to the realities of modernization and globalization. It is hoped that this study will contribute to reinforcing Tibetan social structure and the long-term sustainability of Tibetan society and culture.
DIF Analyses between Groups when Group Size and Ability Distributions Differ
Keywords: Bootstrap
DIF
Mantel-Haenszel

Students with Learning Disabilities face numerous challenges in learning and in demonstrating their knowledge and skills. These students in theory should perform as well as other students on standardized achievement tests. However, some test items may require students to have skills or knowledge that are not the focus of the test (e.g., some math test items may require strong reading skills); students without these other skills or knowledge may not be able to demonstrate the skills and knowledge that are the intended focus of the test. Testing programs use Differential Item Functioning (DIF) analyses to identify items that may be biased in this way against some students. Differences in group size and in ability distributions may affect the accuracy of these types of analyses. In these conditions, a common DIF approach used is the Mantel-Haenszel procedure. When sample size is very large, subsampling is recommended to mediate the known sample size restrictions. This simulation study investigates the use of a bootstrap method with contingency table based DIF analyses for large samples of groups with differing size and proficiency distributions, contrasting this approach with the current recommendations in the literature. It explores the use of the bootstrap for uniform dichotomous items with the Mantel-Haenszel procedure, nonuniform dichotomous items with the Breslow-Day statistic, and polytomous items with the Differential Step Functioning procedures. The results show that this resampling method provides benefit for nonuniform dichotomous items when sample size is very large and uniform dichotomous and polytomous items when sample size is smaller.