VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The effects of habitat loss on the savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis) of La Perouse Bay, Manitoba

Heavy grazing by lesser snow geese (Chen caerulescens caerulescens) in the coastal salt marshes of La Perouse Bay (Manitoba) has caused a shift from shrub-grassland habitat to barren patches (exposed mineral sediments and associated plant species), which has been linked to a decline in savannah sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) nesting densities. To determine the effects of this shift at a local scale, I monitored male territories for mating and fledging success, and compared these values to historic data. I measured various aspects of each territory and ran statistical tests to determine if any were correlated with reproductive success (measured by mating/fledging success). Positive correlations were found with the presence of graminoids, and medium-sized shrubs with graminoid ground cover, within a territory. Territories with larger patches of shrubs also had positive correlations with reproductive success. The territory's perimeter/area ratio and the presence of barren habitat had negative correlations with reproductive success.
The generalized negative-refractive-index transmission-line and its applications

The generalized negative-refractive-index transmission-line (NRI-TL) is presented. The generalized NRI-TL is a further development of the traditional NRI-TL and features two left-handed and two right-handed passbands. Thus, the generalized NRI-TL is well suited for making multi-band microwave passive components and antennas. Relevant background information on the traditional NRI-TL is given. The development of the generalized NRI-TL from the traditional NRI-TL is explained. An explanation of the mechanism of operation of the generalized NRI-TL is given and conditions are shown on how to close the corresponding stopbands that normally appear between bands at two frequencies. Several applications that harness the unique properties of the generalized NRI-TL are demonstrated; such applications include a quad-band quarter-wavelength matching circuit and a dual-band bandpass filter. Complete design procedures are presented as well.
Magazines of mortality: a cultural history of the obituary in eighteenth-century London (England)

The eighteenth century was a formative period in the obituary's development. Whereas today we distinguish between a death notice and an obituary, this has not always been the case. This thesis is an examination of obituaries, commemorative biography, letters to the editor and other discussions about the characters of the dead published in London newspapers and periodicals from 1700 to 1795. Its main purpose is to offer an account of the development of the obituary from its original function as a death notice and advertisement to its later use as a body of biography that held particular didactic significance for the middling orders "outside politics."As the private characters of men assumed more significance in mediating political debate in the 1780s and 1790s, more coverage was devoted to women in obituaries. It was in their private roles as mothers and wives, however, that women received the most praise, for it was these characters that affirmed the feeling natures and public reputations of their husbands. The political significance attached to one's private sensibilities led to some published criticism about the intrusive nature of obituaries, underscoring their profound influence in judgements of character. The didactic efficacy of obituaries, in part, was the result of commercial considerations of newspaper and periodical editors who used the non-political miscellany, of which deaths were a part, to attract a readership that ensured their papers' success. Obituaries as death notices published information about death and money as it was the private nature of these subjects that made them relevant and meaningful to all Britons. In the late eighteenth century, obituaries as biographical tributes became more sentimental expressions of family grief and affection; it was the private characters of men as husbands and fathers that served as public tests of their civic virtue. All men, regardless of their status, were held accountable to these standards of private conduct. While this kind of commemorative writing supported the editorial strategies of men such as James Perry and John Nichols who sought to raise the obituary above the political, religious and social animosities that divided their readers, it also provided a means by which contributors could advertise their political and sectarian ambitions, creating inherent tensions in the reading and writing of obituaries.
The peasant intellectual Jia Pingwa: an historico-literary analysis of his life and early works

The writer Jia Pingwa has gone through a metamorphosis, from writing simple stories along party lines to writing mature novels for the Chinese people and himself as an intellectual. For over thirty years Jia has written poetry, essays, short stories, travel notes, historical chronicles, novellas, novels as well as one non-fiction book on history. This dissertation examines his early works and places them within an historical perspective in order to understand this contemporary Chinese writer growing up under the political constraints within the People's Republic of China. Also, eleven early short stories by Jia Pingwa are translated, analyzed and critiqued in order to understand his personal reason for writing and to understand his literary contribution to the field of contemporary Chinese literature. Finally, his writings are examined from a national and international perspective in order to evaluate Jia's place in the field of world literature.
The role of alternative splicing in non-muscle aspects of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked recessive disorder associated primarily with progressive skeletal muscle degeneration. In skeletal muscle the DMD gene product, dystrophin, is thought be responsible for maintaining membrane integrity, but the role of dystrophin outside of skeletal muscle is not clear. Individuals afflicted with DMD may display a number of secondary phenotypes, including an abnormal electroretinogram (ERG), cognitive deficiencies and profuse intraoperative bleeding. Determining the role of dystrophin in these systems is complicated by the existence of multiple DMD promoter and splice isoforms. The primary aim of the work presented here is to define the role of the dystrophin associated protein complex in these non-muscle phenotypes and to explore the functional significance of the associated exon 78 alternative splicing. The primary dystrophin protein isoform thought to contribute to the ERG in mice is Dp71. Chapter III of this work describes a regulatory region of the DMD gene that acts as a functional promoter for Dp71, designated Dp71 pro. Mice expressing GFP under control of Dp71 pro illustrate that this region is functionally similar to the endogenous Dp71 promoter. By expanding the composition of the dystrophin associated protein complex, and defining the role of the individual dystrophin splice isoforms, this work provides insight into a molecular basis for the abnormal retina physiology in patients lacking dystrophin. The electroretinogram of DMD patients is commonly marked by a significantly reduced b-wave. The two channel proteins, AQP4 and Kir4.1, are ideally suited to play a fundamental role in the generation of the ERG b-wave, and results presented here in Chapter II demonstrate that both are profoundly mislocalized in the retina of dystrophin null mice. Further, these results indicate that alpha-syntrophin likely recruits the Kir4.1 channel into the dystrophin complex in the retina. Dp71pro is used in the generation of the mdx-71D mouse model, which expresses a single dystrophin isoform, Dp71-DCT. Examination of this mouse reveals that the Dp71-DCT protein is correctly localized in the retina, and can restore the targetted localization of dystrophin associated proteins. Furthermore, mdx-71D mice display significant restoration of the ERG, demonstrating functional competence of the Dp71-DCT dystrophin isoform in this system. Finally, platelets derived from a dystrophin null mouse model were examined for the adhesion defects postulated to be responsible for the intraoperative bleeding diathesis phenotype of DMD patients. No such abnormality was observed in an assay designed to closely mimic physiological conditions.
Occurrence and fate of perfluoroalkyl contaminants in the abiotic environment

The observation of PFCs in the Canadian Arctic environment confirmed that long-range transport of FTOHs and FSAs is occurring. PFSAs, PFSAs and known PFC precursor degradation products were observed in water and sediment of three arctic lakes and atmospheric particles. Evidence also indicated that small-scale local contamination of PFCs has occurred in the Arctic. Vapour pressures measurements of the fluorinated telomer alcohols (FTOHs) confirmed the volatile nature of this class of PFCs. Comparison of measured values with physical property estimation models indicated that the unique geometry of PFCs is important in understanding the environmental fate of these contaminants. Given the ubiquitous nature of perfluoroalkyl contaminants (PFCs) in wildlife and humans, the goal of this research was to investigate the occurrence and fate of PFCs in the abiotic environment, with particular emphasis on the North American atmosphere, Lake Ontario and the Canadian Arctic. Spatial and historical trends of PFSAs and PFSAs in Lake Ontario sediment were determined. Historical profiles correlated well with available production data of PFCs. A mass budget indicated that the largest sources of PFSAs and PFSAs to Lake Ontario were inflow from the Niagara River and other tributaries, while outflow via the St Lawrence River and sedimentation were important loss processes. This research indicates that direct sources contribute to the environmental burden of PFCs, and also provides evidence that indirect sources, such as the atmospheric transport of FTOHs and FSAs to remote regions and subsequent degradation to PFSAs and PFSAs, are also important. Air sampling campaigns established that FTOHs and polyfluorinated sulfonamides (FSAs), precursors of perfluorosulfonates (PFSAs) and perfluorocarboxylates (PFSAs), are widely distributed in the North American atmosphere, including the Canadian Arctic. Larger concentrations were identified near possible point sources and long-term temporal trends (2002-2005) from samples collected in Toronto Ontario indicated that atmospheric concentrations of FTOHs and FSAs were constant throughout the sampling period.
Mediation as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism in international joint ventures

International Joint Ventures are said to be vital to business. Despite a seemingly unbroken string of International Joint Venture success-stories, figures reveal that they are often disappointing enterprises that have a far shorter life-expectancy than originally anticipated. On the other hand, Mediation is a highly popular but in commercial circumstances seldom used Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanism that—in theory—seems perfect to solve disputes among partners of International Joint Ventures. This paper first focuses on International Joint Ventures and their stunning underperformance. Second, possible remedies for solving disputes within International Joint Ventures are analyzed. Mediation as an Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanism is thereby the centre of attention. Finally, some examples of possible Mediation Clauses are given. The thesis comes to the conclusion that the partners in International Joint Ventures would gain from including formalized Mediation Clauses in their agreements and that many or at least some of the performance problems of these highly regarded legal entities could effectively be solved.

Keywords: Joint ventures
Dispute resolution (Law)
Mediation
Satisfaction factors reported by health care workers engaged in computer -based learning

This study explored the variables affecting satisfaction with computer-based learning for health care workers. The individual differences and their relationship to satisfaction that were explored included readiness for self-directed learning, computer anxiety, prior experience with computers, motivation, metacognition and cognitive style. Satisfaction was examined from the flow perspective, a perspective that focuses on active involvement and intrinsic enjoyment. A correlational research design was used and structural equation modeling was employed to verify the reliability of variable indicators and establish relationships among the variables. Three hospital sites and 185 participants took part in the study. Participants represented a cross section of occupational groups and ages consistent with participating hospital demographics. Although gender had no effect on satisfaction, other demographic variables such as position did have an effect. Those participants working in Service and Clerical roles reported higher levels of satisfaction than their clinical colleagues. Study results also showed that satisfaction with computer-based learning is connected with the degree of control learners perceive they have, and the extent to which they are challenged when using a program. In addition, as shown in the correlational analysis and structural equation model, and of great significance in understanding satisfaction, are the attitudinal characteristics of the adult learner. The structural model showed conclusively that self-direction was linked to lower computer anxiety and motivational facets such as intrinsic goal orientation, computing self-concept, and, unexpectedly, metacognitive self-regulation, were associated with less anxiety and higher satisfaction. These findings confirm the importance for organizations to assess and address learner needs and differences in the design and administration of computer-based learning programs.

Keywords: Computer-assisted instruction
Education, Data processing
Programmed instruction
Educational technology
First measurement of the W boson mass with CDF in Run 2

This thesis describes a first measurement of the W Boson mass through the decay into a muon and a neutrino in Run 2 of the Tevatron. The W Bosons are produced in proton-antiproton collisions at a center of mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The data sample used for this analysis corresponds to 200 pb-1 recorded by the upgraded Collider Detector at Fermilab. The most important quantity in this measurement is the momentum of the muon measured in a magnetic spectrometer which is calibrated using the two quarkonium resonances J/Psi and Upsilon(1S). Systematic uncertainties arise from the modeling of the recoil when the W Boson is produced, the momentum calibration, the modeling of W Boson production and decay dynamics and backgrounds. The result is: MW = 80408 +/- 50(stat.) +/- 57(syst.) MeV/ c2.
Aboriginal voices and the politics of representation in Canadian introductory sociology textbooks

In this study 77 Canadian introductory sociology textbooks ranging in date from 1961 to 2002 are analysed for the way that they present Aboriginal peoples. This analysis is informed by critical theorists such as Michel Foucault, Dorothy Smith, Jean Baudrillard and Linda Tuhiwai Smith, as well as by the writings of a good number of Aboriginal writers. In the thesis, special focus is placed on three subjects: the sociological myth of culturally determined Inuit elder suicide; the potlatch and the 1990 Oka confrontation. In this work it is argued that as the discipline of sociology developed in Canada, the writers/editors of these introductory sociology textbooks denied Aboriginal voice in the production of knowledge in these texts. In so doing, they portrayed Aboriginal peoples in limited, often distorted ways.

Keywords: Indians of North America, Canada
Racism in textbooks, Canada
Indigenous peoples, Study and teaching
Indigenous peoples, Canada
Women teachers' authority: holding the line, or in the line of fire?

The idea that teachers ought to control their students and be controlled by their supervisors still permeates elementary school culture. Women teachers who use their authority to teach "against the grain" (Cochran-Smith, 1991; Simon, 1992) may be subject to negative behaviour from students and others. This study explored teachers' authority through interviews and observations of five women teachers in two elementary schools in Ontario. It found that students complied with most teachers' requests and student resistance was most often viewed as problematic. Boys and girls sometimes resisted in different ways, and teachers did not often engage to find out why students resisted. This study found that teachers were concerned about lack of consultation by administrators. Participants' attempts to raise issues through dialogue with administration provoked conflict and resistance. These findings suggest that teaching teachers to engage constructively with conflict might increase the possibilities in teaching for democratic citizenship.

Keywords: Women teachers, Ontario
Elementary school teachers, Ontario
Authority
Teacher-principal relationships
Teacher-student relationships
Advanced treatment methods for the removal of endocrine-disrupting compounds from municipal wastewater

The removal of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) from municipal wastewater by conventional and advanced wastewater treatment methods was investigated. Effluent from a membrane bioreactor (MBR), on average, contained lower EDC concentrations than a conventional (activated sludge) treatment plant receiving the same influent wastewater. MBR effluent was also disinfected to meet California State Guidelines (Title 22) for water reuse using chlorine, chloramines, chlorine dioxide and UV. Disinfection was not shown to impact EDC concentrations except for Bisphenol A (95% removal). MBR effluent was also treated using a bench-scale RO membrane system. The RO reduced all EDCs monitored, except BPA, to non-detectable levels (
Does the Canadian Emergency Department Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS) correlate with admission to hospital from the emergency department?

Emergency departments (EDs) play an important role in health care delivery, with 4 million visits annually in Ontario. The Canadian Emergency Department Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS) is a new triage tool which is used as a measure of patient acuity and is proposed to relate to ED outcome. Its attributes in Canada are not well described. Using one year of data from a community ED in Ontario, the proportion and characteristics of patients in each triage level, the relationship between CTAS level and admission to hospital, and factors associated with admission from multivariable modeling were described. Using univariate analysis, CTAS level, age, arrival by ambulance (EMS), lower socioeconomic status, and diagnosis were associated with admission. In the multivariable model for admission, age, sex, EMS, income, diagnosis, weekend and night visit, and CTAS were significant. In conclusion, increased acuity, as defined by CTAS level correlates significantly with admission to hospital.
The will to accountability: Reforming education through standardized literacy testing (Ontario)

I utilize analytic concepts of governmentality (Foucault, 1991a) and methodological approaches of genealogy (Foucault, 1984a) and critical ethnography (Britzman, 2000; Tamboukou Ball, 2003) to attend to the following questions: How has accountability become a rationality for reforming education, and how is it operationalized through the technologies of the OSSLT? How are those who inhabit schools governed---organized, classified, or normalized---by the arrangements, processes, and performances of the OSSLT? How are subjectivities produced under the conditions of this reform, and how do individuals come to understand or 'know' themselves and others in the terms of the test?This study explores how accountability policy has operated discursively to shape the understandings, practices, and social relations of public education in Ontario over the past decade. Specifically, it examines the lived effects of accountability reform by focusing on the school-level practices of the large-scale, standardized Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT). Through an analysis of Ontario policy documents, I examine how the notion of accountability emerged intertextually, how it was solidified in a certain problem-solution formulation, and how it ascended as a rationality for education in Ontario. I detail the ways in which the abstract concept of accountability was realized through multifarious technologies for assembling and implementing Ontario's program for literacy testing. Through a micro-narrative account of how accountability 'worked' in one urban high school, I then focus on the effects of the reform. I show how the OSSLT installed a knowledge-practice cycle of preparation and remediation where certain performances were enacted and certain modes of subjectification were introduced. I argue that subjectivities were both made available and 'made up' through the work of accountability, and I trace how students, teachers, and administrators found it possible, or not, to think and talk about themselves and others in the terms and categories that were provided by the OSSLT. Finally, I argue that the work of the self on the self and others (Foucault, 1988, 1990) involved complicated ways of becoming and 'being' and produced paradoxical inclusion/exclusion effects (Popkewitz, 1998) that contribute to the uneven and inequitable conditions of Ontario's school system.
Corrosion of coated pipelines with cathodic protection

In this work, fundamental models were constructed to investigate corrosion of pipelines. Four cases were studied: (1) corrosion with oxygen alone, carbon dioxide alone, and oxygen and carbon dioxide together on bare pipe, (2) corrosion with cathodic protection (CP) on bare pipe, (3) corrosion with a defective coating, and (4) corrosion with coating and CP together. For the case of bare pipe corrosion with oxygen alone, the oxidation of the corrosion product, ferrous ion, in the solution boundary layer was found to decrease the corrosion rate of iron, by up to 13.9%, a value that is independent of oxygen pressure, boundary layer thickness, pH and temperature. The neglect of the effect of ferrous ion oxidation on the iron corrosion rate results in an overestimate of the corrosion rate. For bare pipe corrosion under a solution boundary layer with dissolved carbon dioxide, the corrosion rate of steel is greater than the rate in hydrochloric acid at the same pH. When carbon dioxide is present with oxygen, at a fixed oxygen partial pressure, carbon dioxide has nearly no effect on the corrosion rate at low partial pressures but increases the corrosion rate at higher pressures. This result reconciles a historical conflict on the effect of carbon dioxide on corrosion. In a thin, narrow channel crevice between the pipe surface and the coating, corrosion can be caused by oxygen diffusion through a holiday in the coating when the imposed CP is insufficient. The oxygen concentration gradient within the crevice then will induce an internal current flow. Compared to normal corrosion, the effect of this internal current flow is to reduce the rate of corrosion near the holiday and to increase it away from the holiday. A higher solution resistivity or smaller crevice length increases the corrosion rate near the holiday. As the crevice becomes long and oxygen permeability in the coating becomes considerable with coating deterioration, oxygen diffusion through the coating may significantly increase the corrosion rate within the crevice, where imposed CP was found to be ineffective.