VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Wavelength measurement systems for Bragg fiber optic sensors based on quantum well electroabsorption photodetectors

Wavelength measurement systems based on the use of quantum well electroabsorption photodetectors (QWEPs) are investigated for applications in Bragg fiber optic sensing. A prototype QWEP based wavelength measurement system was developed with a bandwidth limited resolution of ±3.62 pm/&check;Hz and a measurement range of 90 nm. Power independence was demonstrated for input signal levels of less than 10 nW, although resolution is slightly compromised at these low light levels. The system was used to demodulate a 1553.5 nm Bragg fiber optic sensor with a strain resolution of ±3.02 [mu][epsilon]/&check;Hz. A first principles theoretical model for the wavelength and bias voltage dependent responsivity of a QWEP was developed to facilitate the optimized design of QWEPs for various applications. This body of theory includes substantial novel contributions to the modeling of excitons and excitonic absorption peaks in quantum well structures and the modeling of field distributions in multiple quantum well p-i-n diodes. Custom QWEPs were designed and fabricated, and an optoelectronics characterization facility was developed to allow these devices to be packaged and characterized. Novel characterization techniques were developed to facilitate measurement of quantum well structure dimensions by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and measurement of electrical and doping characteristics of mesa QWEPs based on capacitance versus voltage (CV) measurements. Comparison of experiment and theory for the custom QWEPs verified the proposed theory, but also revealed an unforseen gain phenomenon in the devices. This gain phenomenon was successfully identified as being photoconductive in nature, the first observation of such gain in a p-i-n photodetector. A novel extended theory of photoconductivity has been developed which successfully describes these experimentally observed gains. The significance of QWEP based wavelength monitoring and of the theoretical contributions of this work are discussed. Suggestions for future research related to Bragg fiber optic sensing, wavelength measurement systems, and quantum well electroabsorption photodetectors are given.
Effect of combination I¦K¦1 and I¦K¦r blockade on defibrillation and cardiac refractoriness in the isolated Langendorff rabbit heart model

Selective blockade of the inward rectifier potassium (K +) channel, IKl, by barium, and of the rapidly activating delayed rectifier potassium channel, IKr, by d,l-sotalol, have been shown to reduce the defibrillation threshold (DFT) and prolong repolarization. This thesis hypothesized that combination IKl and IKr channel blockade produces dose-dependent additive, or even synergistic, effects on DFT and ventricular refractoriness. IKl block by barium and IKr block by d,l-sotalol, alone and in combination, were examined with respect to DFT and the following indices of refractoriness: ventricular effective refractory period (VERP), monophasic action potential duration at 90% repolarization (MAPD90), and ventricular fibrillation cycle length (VFCL) in Langendorff-perfused rabbit hearts. Combination IKl and IKr blockade did not produce additive class III effects on DFT or cardiac refractoriness. Drug-induced changes in passive membrane properties, or channel kinetics may be important determinants of DFT in this model.
Sperm competition and alternative mating tactics in bluegill sunfish

Sperm competition is one of the most active areas of research in mating systems and behavioural ecology. This thesis examines sperm competition in the context of the alternative male mating tactics in bluegill sunfish (' Lepomis macrochirus'), and contains two chapters. Chapter one examines the fertilization success of alternative mating tactics under sperm competition, and tests the hypothesis that sneaks win under sperm competition, as predicted by the Sneak-Guard model. Using microsatellite DNA fingerprinting, statistical models, and behavioural measures in the field, I provide the first confirmation of this prediction. Chapter two examines the sperm investment strategies and mechanisms by which sneaks win. I identify differences between the male mating tactics in their investment in gonads, sperm characteristics, ejaculate sperm density, and competitiveness. Overall, this thesis provides a measure of fertilization success under sperm competition and an explanation as to how this success can be obtained.
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie, the Wilde colonial boy, social and political subversion in Oscar Wilde's fairy tales

Wilde used 'The Happy Prince and Other Tales' and ' A House of Pomegranates' to scrutinize the literary, moral and political assumptions that underpinned nineteenth-century morality and politics, especially as they affected marginalized people both in Britain and in the colonies, During his Oxford years, Wilde played down his Irishness, but his observations and experiences during his North American lecture tour seem to have reminded him of his socialist/Irish Nationalist heritage, and caused him to re-examine his literary agenda in relation to English society and values. Wilde's satirical strategy develops gradually from gentle parody of society's foibles in "The Happy Prince" and "The Nightingale and the Rose," to a serious interrogation of patriarchal and imperial practices in "The Young King" and "The Star Child." In the later tales, he examines how both the fairy tale and the Bible had been enlisted to promote values that sustained nineteenth-century English systems of control. His early letters, reviews and essays demonstrate that he recognized the power of popular fiction, especially the fairy tale, as moral propaganda. Consequently, he chose that genre to represent his revisionist ideas, and gradually devised more sophisticated methods to suit the complexities of the issues he was addressing. Wilde's agenda becomes more focused, and his strategies more subtle, as he discovers the extent to which both fairy tales and the Bible have been used by the Establishment as controlling agents. As post-colonial writers reclaim their history and identity through ironic mimicry of the perceptions and discourse of the oppressor, Wilde, by echoing the language and content of the King James Bible, authenticates his own point of view and reclaims those parts of biblical teaching that have been ignored or altered to preserve the moral and social status quo. Through the two sets of fairy tales, Wilde exposes the abuses of the marginalized in society by the systems of control, and the ways in which apparently innocuous children's literature and even the Bible itself can be exploited to serve those systems.
Schooling the working-class subject, the production of working-class identities through bourgeois discourse

While there has been much attention devoted to examining the working class in the academic literature on schooling, very little attention has been paid to the 'practices and politics of representing the working class. ' In this thesis, I explore a range of representations of social class. I argue that these representations are central features of the production of class difference and that they are effects and products of ideals and desires embedded in bourgeois discourses of meritocracy, rationalism and objectivity. One of the main goals of the thesis is to pay attention to whose desires are being represented in discourses and representations about the working class and to challenge the assumption that knowledge is a universal truth that applies to everyone in the same way. A key problem that is explored is locating and defining what is "normal" in relations of oppressive power. The idea of the bourgeois gaze is used to deconstruct the ways in which knowledge has been constructed about the working class through various education discourses. The thesis reviews new discourses of learning that have emerged as part of a general economic restructuring. I draw from a variety of sources, including life history interviews of adult workers in the industrial and service sectors in Ontario, workplace aptitude testing practices, recent workplace training literature, academic studies on social class and difference, as well as my own involvement in workplace training endeavours. I examine how it is that these discourses fail to recognize the worker as "knower" or as a producer of knowledge and I demonstrate how these discourses transfer normative liberal ideals about knowledge onto the working-class subject. I suggest that the very notion of "learning" is a moral discourse that regulates how working-class people are positioned discursively in relation to schooling and to the workplace. I situate the findings as part of a process of objectification and "othering" and examine their roots in the development of liberal democratic governance. I suggest that the construction of workers as ignorant, or incompetent is rooted in the development of modern capitalist society and in notions of rationality. I conclude that the discursive production of class difference is an important part of bourgeois identity formation and of broader forms of social inequity.
Soil carbon dynamics in a nitrogen-enriched grassland

Soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics were investigated in a grassland where 13 years of N fertilization shifted vegetation from C4 to C 3 species. The fraction of organic matter (OM) input retained in the soil ranged from 17 to 28%, and was unaffected by litter quality (C:N ratio). Isotopic composition ([delta]13C) of soil ranged from -19.7 to -24.9&permil;; there was no isotopic fractionation during formation of SOC from plant inputs. [delta]13C of active and slow SOC pools described by the CENTURY model ([delta]13C active and [delta]13Cslow, respectively) were estimated from soil incubation [delta]13Cslow was strongly correlated to [delta]13C of OM inputs during 13 years. The size of the active pool ranged from 1.9 to 13.6% of total SOC and was related to plant growth and species diversity. [delta]13C active, did not reflect [delta]13C of recent OM inputs. Any interpretation of [delta]13Cactive, must consider the plant and physical conditions when sampling occurred.
Lost bodies and wild imaginations, expressing the forbidden tales of childhood sexual abuse through artful inquiry

This is a true story with lies. A collection of fragments. A blurring of the boundaries separating the imaginary and the real to get closer to the experience of telling about childhood sexual abuse through art. This is a fictional tale spun from the imaginary realm, held within theory, while engaging in a collaborative relationship with art, story and lived experience. This is an exploration of what it's like to tell about childhood sexual abuse through artistic enterprise. Touching a touchy topic. It is also a deliberation on the process of telling. And an actual telling by Rowan, a reluctant storyteller. You will, dear reader, encounter angels with terrible truths to tell. They are persistent. They return from the shadows, the world of the dispossessed and repressed. You will meet many. The angelic and crafty Hermes. Zane, a one-winged artist, with a story to tell of her travels to the shadow region. Four Art Angels, artists who have wrestled with telling, in some way, through their craft. This is a reclamation of wild imaginations as an inspired source of knowledge by a renegade thesis creatrix. Boxes are busted. This will be of interest to: other renegades engaged in deconstructing and reconstructing knowledge through artful collaborations; other arts-based researchers; people who have experienced trauma and violence; researchers and artists who are attempting to represent childhood sexual abuse and other forms of violence; psychotherapists and others who want to understand the experience of telling, through the arts, about the sexual violations of a child. This is a testimony to lives lost and lives reclaimed, to the power of the imagination to return our histories to us and return these histories to their rightful place in the world.
Japanese social influences on academic high school students' attitudes toward long-term English learning

Focusing on Japanese high school students at university preparatory high schools, this thesis examined Japanese social influences on the students' attitudes toward long-term English learning and on gender differences in this attitudinal variable. Drawing its theoretical framework from Gardner's socioeducational model, this study presupposed the relation between Japanese social milieu and Japanese students' attitudes toward long-term English learning. In order to interpret the quantitative data of this study from the Japanese social perspective, this study used not only its own data obtained from the research participants but also other extant data from related previous studies. This study found that students' interest in learning about the outside world and communicating with people in English and their perceptions about studying English as a main school subject influence their attitudes toward long-term English learning. In contrast to this finding, students' self-reported academic English grade and their self-rated English skills were found to have little influence on their attitudes toward long-term English learning. This study demonstrated that these findings are embedded in the Japanese university preparatory high school context in which English education places undue emphasis on entrance examinations and results in the underdevelopment of students' English communicative skills, as perceived by both the students and teachers. Regarding gender differences, female students were found to be more positive toward their current and future English learning. It was argued that Japanese women's marginalized status in the society and related social elements such as the femininity of English professions in Japan are likely to cause women's positive attitudes toward English learning. This study verified that the focus on the relationship between social milieu and language attitudes can generate a new understanding of research findings on L2 attitudes. In order to concretely make evident the strength of this study with its context-based perspective, it was demonstrated that what Chihara and Oller (1978), a classic study on Japanese students' attitudes toward English, failed to explain about some of their major findings could be explained with an understanding of the Japanese context for students' English learning at school.
Questions of safety in the feminist classroom

This thesis examines diverse views regarding the construction and facilitation of a "safe" classroom atmosphere, commonly interpreted as supportive and nonconfrontational, in graduate level classrooms that consciously adopt a feminist perspective. Drawing on the interview responses of ten women students and professors, heard against a growing body of literature in feminist pedagogy, the research problematizes existing understandings of the dynamics of feminist classrooms. Two models of classroom safety which emerged from the interviews are presented, and the consequences of these models for students' and professors' experiences in higher education are considered. Finally, a third model which may better reflect the needs and interests of a greater range of individuals is proposed.
A case study of five Hindu temples in southern Ontario

The focus of this study is five Hindu temples situated in the Greater Metro area of Toronto in Southern Ontario. The goal of the study was to document the histories of each of the temples and to compare them to each other; and to gather data on the activities of the temples in the categories of: temple administration, temple plan, congregation, rituals and festivals, deities worshipped, sacral space, and links with the larger community. This data was then analysed to determine continuity and discontinuity with traditional Hinduism as described in the 'Dharmasastra'. As it is commonly assumed that religious practices change due to immigration this study attempted to concretely prove or disprove this hypothesis by observing the religious practices using a sample from the Hindu communities of Southern Ontario. Information was gathered through observation of temple rituals, personal interviews and literature produced by the temples.
Global education, an alternative program of study for progressive learning

The purpose of this thesis is to create a global education course to be infused into the Ontario Curriculum for grade eleven. It has become apparent to me that school curriculum needs to change. Our present system is based on nineteenth century, linear thinking. It is time to transform this paradigm. This thesis serves as a rationale for transformative learning, and a framework for a new global education program. I have called this new program, Global Perspectives for Science (GPS) and is comprised of two units. The first deals with the present state of the world. Students are presented with resources and participate in activities that draw attention to some pressing world issues. The second unit provides hope for students who may have been discouraged by the issues presented in the first unit. The activities throughout the GPS curriculum encourage student development, empowerment, and provide opportunities for fostering global perspectives.
Empathy and rationality in ethics

The purpose of this dissertation is to present a new ethical theory, ethical empathism. Before introducing that view, it is necessary to assess the prospects of another, contrary outlook: anthropocentrism. The object is to construct the most convincing possible version of human-centredness in ethics. The idea of arguing that humans are, by and large, beings of greater value than nonhumans is explored. This idea, although more plausible than other anthropocentric views, is rejected as unempathetic, however, since it does not allow one simply to identify with conscious beings as they are, regardless of capacities for rationality, language use, etc. It is important to identify with beings (and their good), for a conscious point of view is a central reality of conscious beings, from which we transact all our lives, and find all of our quality of life. Seeking to identify with others is also the best way that we have of getting a sense of that key reality. Such a reality cannot be ignored. We also cannot neglect the possibility of risking harm to others by assuming any kind of reductive outlook. Reductionistic views include denying that animals have minds, and also that moral agents are free. Ethical empathy and the associated concern of anti-oppression also have implications as to which normative theories are acceptable. It is argued that ethical empathy is crucial for identifying fundamental flaws in diverse views such as Kant's theory of ethics, contractariansim, natural law, and deep ecology. Utilitarianism is found to be the most formidable of opposing normative views, although its view of the good is found to be less than fully empathetic. Ethical empathy is also a rich source of possible moral guidance. Implications are discussed for specific moral problems concerning humans and nonhumans. Also, an understanding is sought as to how to confront genuine ethical dilemmas.
Children's understanding of the opaque and transparent uses of language

A developmental study of children's sensitivity to opaque contexts is reported. Sentences are considered opaque if the substitution of a term with a co-referential term can change the truth of the sentence (e.g., "John thinks that Venus is the Morning Stay"). Opaque contexts often involve propositional attitude verbs such as 'know' and 'think'. Sensitivity to opacity requires understanding that a referent can be represented in different ways, and that the specific description that is used is important. Two studies were conducted investigating children's ability to deal with opacity. In the first, 4- to 8-year-olds were given a variety of opacity tasks (referential, linguistic and intentional), false belief tasks, digit span, and vocabulary measures. The results of the first study indicated that children were more successful on opaque contexts with action referents than those with object referents. The results also demonstrated that children find referential opacity easier than linguistic opacity, and both easier than intentional opacity. Nonetheless, performance across the three types of opacity was related even when age, vocabulary and digit span were statistically controlled, supporting the view that there is an underlying commonality for the three contexts. The second study examined whether performance on referentially opaque contexts could be predicted by metarepresentational ability and metalinguistic awareness. Metarepresentational ability was measured using false belief tasks and metalinguistic ability was measured using tasks requiring children to compare and evaluate statements containing referring expressions. In this second study, 5- to 7-year-olds were given opacity (referential and quotational), false belief, metalinguistic awareness, digit span, and vocabulary measures. Hierarchical regressions indicated that even after the variability from children's age, vocabulary scores and digit span performance is taken into account, metarepresentational ability and metalinguistic awareness still significantly, and independently, explained some of the remaining variability in performance on referential opacity tasks. These results are taken as support for the view that both metarepresentational ability and metalinguistic awareness are necessary in order to deal with referentially opaque contexts. These studies are of interest to anyone concerned with: (1) children's understanding of the representational nature of language; and (2) the necessary abilities for sensitivity to opaque contexts.
MIBlet approach to virtual private network management, design, applications and implementation

In this thesis, we first provide an overview of different virtual private network (VPN) types, and describe the various domains involved in a VPN environment. We then present a network management architecture which allows for customized control and management of VPNs. This architecture is based on the virtual network (VN) concept introduced as a generalization of the VPN for supporting multi-level virtualization of network resources. The MIBlet concept is introduced as a practical toot for effectively developing and implementing this network management architecture. We then proceed with a description of how the proposed architecture can support different existing techniques for integration of ATM and IP. The capabilities of the architecture are demonstrated in this thesis through several applications, including VN-based performance monitoring, self-regulating congestion control, and multimedia streams management. Finally, we describe our prototype architecture implemented through the use of SNMP, Java, and Web technologies.