VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Assessing stakeholders' perspectives on the status and impact of educational partnerships in the high school Co-op and Enterprise Education programs in Newfoundland and Labrador

The involvement of an extended community has become an expected part of promoting learning within Canadian schools. School boards, professional and government departments have encouraged increased input from parents, students, teachers, and community members in the learning process. Since the late 1980s, many educational reformers have favoured the strengthening of the linkage and the broader sharing of responsibilities between educators and the community at large. The pervasiveness of partnerships as a method of reforming education may lead one to assume that a high degree of clarity surrounds the approach, and that a great deal of thought has gone into establishing these partnerships, given the extent to which educational reformers have embraced this idea in Canada. Although many educators and governmental officials promote educational partnerships, the opponents of such partnerships are equally audible. These critics of educational partnerships paint a very picture. This research study examines the attitudes and opinions of students, teachers and private sector members who participated in the Coop and Enterprise Education partnerships at the high school level in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The study compared the Coop and Enterprise Education partner's responses by conducting a survey to examine their attitudes, practices of shared decision making, the impact reported and their recommendations for future activities. In general all the participants support these activities and report that these partnerships have a positive impact on the teaching of these courses, on students, and on the communities. When comparing the two partnership programs, it was noted that the participants in the enterprise education courses provide significantly more positive responses towards their partnerships compared to the partners associated with the coop program. The results of this study are examined using a broad framework of the contextual, technical, structural and human factors which impinge on the two school-private sector partnerships. The study has implications for the further refinement of the Coop and Enterprise Education partnerships in high schools.
Print mottle of wood-containing paper, the effect of fines and formation

The spatial unevenness of print density, print mottle, is due to the small-scale variation in the ink transfer and in the ink penetration depth. Print mottle is affected by both paper properties and printing conditions, and is a principle factor affecting the printability of paper. The objectives of this study were to develop a sensitive method to describe print mottle, to conduct a fundamental study of the effects of paper properties on print mottle of wood-containing paper, and to develop a model to predict the print mottle tendency of paper. The principle pulp used in the study was thermomechanical pulp and the printing method used was an IGT proof printer to simulate offset printing. A texture analysis method, based on the spatial gray level dependence method (SGLD), was developed and used to evaluate the structural characteristics of both the mass density map and the print density map of handsheets, dynamic former sheets and machine made paper. Texture features of homogeneity, contrast and correlation, combined with the coefficient of variation (CV) gave a complete description of the uniformity. Structural variation and print density variation due to changes in orientation, wire marks and uneven mixing were identified by the texture analysis method. Four types of sheets: handsheets, dynamic former sheets, pilot machine sheets and commercial newsprint were used to determine the effects of paper structure on print density. The fines content level of the handsheets and dynamic former sheets were controlled to 0%, 20%, 30% and 40%. Formation was varied by changing the settling times, i.e. the time before drainage. While the fibre orientations in the dynamic former sheets were changed by varying the jet/wire ratios. Print mottle was affected by the fines content level, as well as the fines distribution, and by the formation level. The handsheet results indicated the importance of not only the absolute amount of fines, but also the uniform distribution of fines on print mottle. The study on oriented samples showed that sheets with 30% fines gave the best printing results, and the structure of these sheets was close to that of commercial newsprint. The principle print mottle factor in wood-containing paper was shown to be the uniformity of ink penetration, a conclusion supported by a pointwise study of the dependence of the local print density, mass density and ink amount for newsprint sample. A model was developed based on a two-layered Kubelka-Munk model to relate print density variations to other variations. The model is able to predict the experimental observations such as a 30% fines content in sheets made with a dynamic former is an optimal fines level for offset printing.
Estrategias espaciales de descentramiento en textos catalanes contemporáneos, 1975-1996

The aim of the present study is to establish that decentralization in post-Franco Catalan visual and verbal texts is achieved through an aesthetic of space, where many voices and many forces interact. Focusing on the novels of Carme Riera and Ana María Moix as well as the paintings of Antoni Tàpies and Montserrat Gudiol, I explain how this conception of space challenges and rejects structural, cultural and ideological conventions. Renaissance perspective provides a way of organizing the physical world based on the scale and proportion on the flat, two-dimensional surface of a painting. Tàpies ignores the classical paradigm and creates depth through the roughness and opaqueness of his matter paintings. Gudiol's paintings are rooted in visual likeness, but this mirror image is subverted via a lyrical space that introduces incoherences, omissions, absences, and transgressions. Classical standards emphasize literature as temporal. Riera's novel, Una primavera per a Domenico Guarini, and Moix's novel, Vals negro, dissolve causative and chronological order, turning the text into a spatial act. In both texts, simultaneity, repetition, digression, introspection, and description stop the narrative flow, promoting a static space where meaning is found, not at the level of the particulars, but at an abstract level of the structure. Social space perpetuates the unequal cultural and ideological power structures. These power structures emerge in verbal and visual texts, where we see woman continually losing her materiality. Gudiol's painting, and Moix's and Riera's novels, expose the dematerialization of the female body, while re-inserting her corporeality through an ex-centric space. This space, full of dynamic metamorphoses and multiple dichotomies, rearticulates relationships of power, redefines stereotypes, and reintroduces a feminine field of vision. Spatial ex-centricity promoted by the texts of Gudiol, Moix, Riera, and Tàpies break with the universal ideals of masculine narrative: logic, harmony, linearity, literality, centrality, and closure, allowing a re-establishment of pre-verbal space, full of maternal traces, that introduces a feminine voice.
Investigating a memory-based account of negative priming, support for selection-feature mismatch

Negative priming is defined as a delay in responding to a stimulus that was recently ignored. To study negative priming, the typical paradigm involves presenting two sequential displays: a prime display followed by a probe display. For each, participants are normally asked to select a target and to ignore a distractor. When the target item on the probe was previously the distractor on the prime, responding is slowed relative to when neither the target nor the distractor was repeated. This delay is used as an index of the processing of unattended information. Experiments 1A-3B tested whether ignoring distractors on the prime display is a necessary condition for negative priming. The effect of requiring participants to attend to distractors was investigated. When participants were asked to select the name of the larger animal in a word pair--requiring deep processing of the distractor--the standard negative priming effect was quadrupled. Negative priming not only persisted for attended distractors, it actually was enhanced. Further, this inflated effect was not due solely to increased latencies in the novel referent size-selection task because neither decreasing base response times in other referent size-selection tasks nor increasing base response times in typical colour-selection tasks substantially affected the respective negative priming scores. These findings challenge the basic assumption that negative priming arises because the repeated item was first ignored on the prime. The second aim was to differentiate competing explanations of negative priming, using both the typical colour-selection procedure and the referent size-selection task. In Experiments 4-6, negative priming only occurred when the repeated item mismatched from the prime to the probe in terms of the feature used as the basis for selection. When the repeated item was congruent on the selection dimension across successive displays, positive priming resulted. This pattern of results occurred whether the repeated item was the distractor or the target on the prime, further dismissing the notion that negative priming results from previously ignoring an item. These findings strongly support the selection-feature mismatch account of negative priming and refute both the distractor inhibition and the episodic retrieval explanations.
Temps, mode et aspect, les creoles des Caraibes a base lexicale française

This thesis examines tense, mood and aspect (TMA) in French-based Caribbean creoles. The goal of the research is to identify certain problems and ambiguities in the verbal systems of these languages in order to contribute to the field of creolistics as well as to accepted TMA theories. Categorizing these notions is challenging since the traditional divisions are rather arbitrary and the semantic fields to which TMA refer overlap considerably. Nevertheless, the thesis begins by defining tense, mood and aspect as notions that refer to a point on the temporal dimension. Tense situates the event in time; aspect characterizes the internal structure of the event; mood describes the reality of the event. The particular TMA system found in French-based creoles is a distinctive feature of these creole languages and their verbal systems give priority to aspectual and modal differences. These languages have little morphological inflection; tense, mood and aspect are thus expressed by free morphemes that are preposed to invariable verbal forms. This thesis sheds light on the ambiguity of TMA categories and analyzes the manifestations of these notions. Through an examination of the nature of preverbal morphemes, we learn that the value of these particles is often but that French-based Caribbean creoles are not homogeneous languages. The thesis has a largely synchronic approach to its comparison of various creoles. Although TMA notions are universal, the results of this study verify that the character of temporal, modal and aspectual functioning is distinct to the languages in question. Despite certain surface similarities, the thesis confirms the existence of several independent creole verbal systems which are specific to each individual language.
The testing and modification of a full-scale ornithopter

A full-scale piloted ornithopter has been designed and built at The University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies. Taxi tests of this aircraft have been ongoing since 1996. These tests have identified areas for improvement to the aircraft. The taxi tests of 1997 and 1998 are discussed, along with the analysis and modifications during that period. Special attention has been given to data collected from an onboard data acquisition system. Strain gauges have been used to record the loads on the wings, which have agreed reasonably well with the analytical predictions. Potentiometers have been used to record the pilot's control inputs. Reducing this data has helped determine potential takeoff strategies, in particular the stabilator angle that should be used. An important result of the testing has been to shorten the nose gear of the aircraft to reduce the average life during the takeoff run. Other modifications have been primarily structural because of the loads imposed on the airframe during the high-speed taxi tests. As a result of these modifications, and employing the correct takeoff strategy, the aircraft reached takeoff speed on November 8, 1998. A crow hop was attempted, but a damaged nose gear prevented the aircraft from achieving sustained flight.
Aging, Chronic Illness and Self-Concept, a Study of Older Women with Osteoporosis

The increasing likelihood of chronic illness with aging requires that attention be given to the social aspects of aging and chronic illness. A focus on women's aging and health is essential because in later years women outnumber men, women have higher rates of nonfatal chronic illnesses and live longer with these conditions than men, and women have more chronic health problems than men. The overall purpose of this dissertation is to consider the relationships between the meanings of aging and chronic illness and the self-concept of women using an interpretive sociological approach. The self is regarded as a basic concept for the understanding of the dynamic relationship between the individual and society. How individuals negotiate experiences and events in their lives depends on the content, organization and functioning of their self-concepts. The self-concept integrates individuals' experiences across time providing continuity and meaning to these experiences. While the meanings of either aging or chronic illness may be related to one's self-concept, the coming together or coalescence of these two events may alter the relationships among the conceptions of aging. and chronic illness and the sense of self. Using Rosenberg's conceptualization of self-concept (1979), an in-depth interview and a self-administered questionnaire were designed and data collected from twenty-eight women with osteoporosis. Three types of self-concepts emerged from the data: the competent self, the contradictory self and the ineffectual self. When the meanings of aging and chronic illness were examined, five themes emerged in each area. Through analysis of the self-concept processes of self-esteem and self-consistency, a reciprocal relationship was found between self-concept and the meanings of aging and chronic illness. A comprehensive description of the three types of self-concept is presented highlighting this reciprocal relationship and including discussion of the strategies used to enhance, protect and maintain self-concept despite the changes brought on by aging and chronic illness.
Characterization of two surface proteins expressed throughout the life of a B cell, AA4.1 and CD45

B cell development occurs through discrete developmental stages that are associated with the expression of a variety of cell surface molecules. In this thesis, I describe two cell surface molecules, AA4.1 and CD45, that are expressed from the earliest stages of B cell development. Using CD45 exon 6-deficient mice, I have demonstrated that in the absence of the B220 isoform of CD45, B cell development is blocked at the transition from the immature to the mature B cell stage. Previous work had demonstrated that B cells from CD45 exon 6-deficient mice are unable to proliferate upon BCR aggregation. I have attempted to discern the biochemical mechanism responsible for this deficiency. Important downstream signaling pathways such as the induction of tyrosine phosphorylation of CD79ß, PLCã2, and activation of the MAP kinase, ERK2, are unaffected by the lack of CD45 expression. The one pathway that appears affected by the lack of CD45 is the induction of calcium influx. While BCR aggregation results in the release of calcium from intracellular stores, calcium influx is abrogated in B cells from CD45-/- mice. These results suggest a novel biochemical pathway, i.e. calcium influx, mediated by CD45 in B cells. The influx of extracellular calcium may also play a role in the selection of B cells into the mature B cell pool. Previous reports had suggested that the AA4.1 determinant is lost upon B cell maturation. I have demonstrated that the AA4.1 determinant is expressed at high levels on developing B cells in the bone marrow, and decreases to low levels upon B cell maturation. I demonstrate for the first time that mature peripheral B cells, express the AA4.1 determinant on their surfaces at low levels. The expression decreases upon stimulation of mature B cells with stimuli that mimic T-dependent responses. In contrast, T-independent stimuli, such as LPS, result in increased AA4.1 expression levels. Finally, I have identified for the first time the protein recognized by AA4.1 as a 115-130 kD glycoprotein, rich in O-linked sugars. The protein does not exist in a covalent-linked complex.
Learning responsivity/responsibility, reading the literature of historical witness

This dissertation examines what might constitute a responsive/responsible practice of reading and teaching contemporary North American literature that bears witness to historical events of trauma, violence, and persecution. This question is specifically posed through a critical study of three witness narratives: Joy Kogawa's 'Obasan', Leslie Silko's 'Ceremony', and Paule Marshall's 'Praisesong for the Widow'. The dissertation introduces the assertion that these narratives are constituted within the social form and framework of an ethical address to readers to 'learn from' the protagonists' remembrances and 'Bildung'. Drawing predominantly upon contemporary psychoanalytic work and the writings of philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, it maintains that this ethical address requires readers to break with conventional epistemological and ontological frameworks for comprehending the testimonial suffering of others. It subsequently examines the implications of such a radical learning ethic for pedagogical reading theory and practice. This examination is further developed through a critique of educational/ethical presumptions underlying various literary and pedagogical readings of the above three witness narratives. The dissertation concludes with the consideration of how teachers might then productively introduce these narratives, as well as other witness literature, into high school, college, or university English or Social Studies/History classes.
Genetic interactions among components of the messenger RNA biogenesis machinery in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The overall goal of this thesis was to characterize mutations in the zinc-binding domain (ZBD) of the largest subunit (Rpo21p) of yeast RNA polymerase II and then use these mutations to find new genetic interactions with other components of the messenger RNA biogenesis machinery. The first data chapter demonstrates that the zinc stoichiometry of RNA polymerase II (RNAP II) is 7; consistent with the number of zinc-binding motifs present in the enzyme. Mutations in the Rpo21p-ZBD reduced RNAP II activity without visibly altering association of subunits required for this activity. The second data chapter describes the use of an Rpo21p-ZBD mutant in a synthetic-lethal screen designed to identify other components of the transcriptional machinery. Two mutant genes were identified; an allele of 'SRB5' (a known component of the RNAP II holoenzyme) and an allele of 'GCR3 ' (a factor that had previously been implicated in the expression of glycolytic genes). No evidence was found to suggest that Gcr3p is a component of the holoenzyme; its effect on 'in vitro' transcription appeared to be marginal and possibly indirect. Gcr3p was identified (by another group) as the largest subunit of the nuclear cap-binding complex and was shown to play a role in efficient splicing. The allele of 'GCR3' identified in this synthetic-lethal screen also had an effect on 'in vitro' splicing. I hypothesize that this defect, coupled with the transcriptional defect conferred by the zinc-binding domain mutation is sufficient to explain the synthetic-lethality observed between the two. The third data chapter describes an attempt to determine if Srb5p also plays a role in splicing. Extracts of the mutant 'SRB5' strain were deficient in splicing activity. This effect was likely an indirect one, possibly mediated by the effect of the 'SRB5' mutant allele on the gene expression of one or more splicing factors. Extracts made from Rpo21p-ZBD mutants also were reduced in splicing activity raising the possibility that splicing activity is sensitive to defects in components of the transcriptional machinery.
Lateral mode frequency locking in semiconductor lasers

Frequency locking between the lateral modes of semiconductor lasers is investigated. This frequency locking leads to the phenomenon of beam-steering which is detrimental to fiber-pump telecommunication applications but potentially useful in the context of optical switching and free-space optical interconnects. The experimental component of this thesis consists of (a) making the first direct observation of higher order modes in these lasers, (b) explaining the mechanism behind hysteresis in the far-field intensity shifts and (c) analyzing radio-frequency modulations in the output intensity to extract all the relevant information about the interaction between the lateral modes. Theoretical models were developed to explain the beam-steering phenomenon for linear coupling and nonlinear coupling associated with carrier population modulations. The work on linear coupling between the modes indicates that small asymmetries lead to significant regions of beam-steering. The dynamics associated with carrier modulation induced nonlinear coupling is sensitive to the carrier diffusion length. Regions of competitive behavior, frequency locking and chaos were identified with the nonlinear coupling model.