VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Exploring the Development of Coach-Parent Relationships in Organized Competitive Youth Team Sports

The purpose of this dissertation was to gain a better understanding of coach-parent relationships in organized competitive youth team sports. Two studies are presented in this dissertation to support this aim. Study 1 was a qualitative inquiry of parents’ and coaches’ perceptions of factors that affect coach-parent relationships in competitive youth sports, and involved semi-structured interviews with 41 participants: 21 coaches (5 females and 16 males, 22-64 years of age), and 20 parents (6 females and 14 males, 40-63 years of age). The results demonstrated that coaches and parents had similar views regarding the nature of a healthy coach- parent relationship, and that the coach-parent relationship could be influenced by factors that are related to coaches and parents’ behaviours and their interpersonal interactions. Parents’ socioeconomic status and occupation, coaches’ age and gender, and the perceived professionalization of youth sport appeared to influence the coach-parent relationship. Participants’ descriptions of their experiences revealed an imbalanced power dynamic among parents, coaches, and athletes, with parents and athletes having less power than coaches. Study 2 was a grounded theory of the developmental trajectory of the coach-parent relationship in organized competitive youth team sports, and consisted of semi-structured interviews with 20 participants: 10 coaches (2 females and 8 males, 26-50 years of age), and 10 parents (9 females and 1 male, 40-57 years of age). The results indicated that the relationship between parents and coaches develops through three stages: a) ‘Introduction and Discovery’, b) ‘Curiosity, Doubt, or Stability’, and c) ‘Engagement or Separation’. In addition, the results highlighted the role of parents, coaches, athletes, and sport administrators in development of this relationship, and brought to attention the influence of culture and generational differences among parents on the coach-parent relationship. Together, the studies presented in this dissertation provide a more comprehensive understanding of coach-parent interactions in organized competitive youth team sports, and build the foundation for future research and interventions designed to enhance the quality of coach-parent relationships in various contexts.

Keywords: Coach-Parent Relationship
Coaching
Competitive Youth Sports
Grounded Theory
Qualitative Research
Sport Psychology
Advisor: Tamminen, Katherine KT
Targeting Rhodoquinone and Anaerobic Metabolism in C. elegans for Anthelmintic Drug Discovery

Parasitic helminth infections affect ¼ of the world and result in thousands of deaths every year as well as economic losses in agriculture. This is in part due to increasing anthelmintic resistance, thus fuelling a need for the discovery of novel anthelmintics. My thesis project aimed to identify new anthelmintics targeting the unique metabolic pathways used by parasites during host infection. They survive these low oxygen environments by using rhodoquinone (RQ), an alternative electron carrier in an anaerobic form of the electron transport chain. These RQ-related pathways are absent in parasitic hosts, making it an ideal drug target. Furthermore, these pathways are functional in C. elegans, providing us with a model system to explore these specialized pathways. My work aided in establishing methods to use C. elegans to dissect parasite metabolism and identify new drugs. To do this, we prevent oxidative phosphorylation through treatment with potassium cyanide (KCN) and monitor worm movement using an image-based assay developed in the lab. We found worms can survive treatment with potassium KCN for 15 hours and a major contributor to this survival is the use of RQ-dependent metabolic pathways. My work helped characterize the requirement of kynu-1 and the kynurenine pathway in RQ biosynthesis in C. elegans, providing the first defined synthesis pathway for this molecule in a eukaryotic organism. Kynu-1 mutants do not recover after prolonged exposure to KCN, suggesting RQ is required for surviving this treatment. Using this assay, I developed a screening platform for RQ-dependent pathway inhibitors. I then tested this platform with the Spectrum library which is composed of clinically approved drugs and natural products. Through this research I found a list of 155 drugs which have the potential to be repurposed as anthelmintics specially targeting RQ-dependent metabolic pathways. By targeting such a crucial aspect of parasitic survival during host infection we hope to provide relief to the global health burden of soil-transmitted helminths.

Advisor: Fraser, Andrew G
Investigating Causal Relations between EEG Features and Working Memory

Working memory is essential to perform higher-order complex cognitive tasks. A deficit in working memory yields difficulties in performing daily activities and it is an indicator of cognitive decline. Thus, extensive research has focused on approaches to improve working memory. Among these approaches non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) has been widely explored. However, the efficiency and reliability of NIBS across studies have not been well established. One reason could be intervening the improper neurophysiological mechanisms of working memory across individuals. Ultimately, for an optimum NIBS, it is essential to target personalized neurophysiological mechanisms that have causal relations to performance. Therefore, the overall objective of my thesis is to use electroencephalography (EEG) signals that recorded while performing N-back working memory task to determine novel neurophysiological targets for NIBS for improving performance.In the first study, we assessed the relative roles of three EEG markers that represent distinct neurophysiological mechanisms of working memory. We investigated the roles of theta-gamma coupling (TGC) representing ordering of information, alpha event-related de-synchronization (ERD) representing interference inhibition, and theta event-related synchronization (ERS) representing cognitive control in preforming N-back. The results of this study demonstrate that TGC could be a potential target for NIBS as it shows an association with N-back performance independent of other EEG markers in both younger and older healthy adults. In the second study, to identify potential targets for personalized NIBS, we used a machine learning-based approach to identify individual-specific neurophysiological correlates of N-back performance. We identified distinct EEG markers, including ERD and ERS from various oscillations and brain regions that predict performance at the individual level. In the third study, to further optimize the targets for personalized NIBS, we used a graphical causal model to identify individual-specific neurophysiological features that cause the performance. The results of this study suggest that entraining gamma oscillations using multiple electrodes over the temporal cortex to generate more causal gamma oscillations and not necessarily increasing the power of these oscillations could result in more effective NIBS outcomes and improvement in N-back performance. Taken together, our findings provide novel targets for personalized NIBS to improve working memory performance and cognition.

Keywords: Causality
Classification
Electroencephalography
Machine Learning
Working Memory
Advisor: Rajji, Tarek K
Measurement of Associated Production of Higgs Bosons Decaying to Pairs of W Bosons with the ATLAS Detector at the Large Hadron Collider

This thesis describes the measurement of Higgs boson production in association with a vector boson, WH/ZH, using the H->WW*->lvlv and H->WW*->lvqq decay channels, where l is an electron or a muon. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data at centre-of-mass energy 13 TeV delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded by the ATLAS detector between 2015 and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb^-1. The analysis is performed in several channels across 2-, 3-, and 4-lepton final states and utilizes a diverse set of multivariate techniques for signal extraction. The WH and ZH production cross sections times the H->WW* branching ratio are measured to be 0.13+0.08/-0.07(stat.)+0.05/-0.04(sys.) pb and 0.31+0.09/-0.08(stat.)+/-0.03(sys.) pb, respectively, in agreement with the Standard Model expectations.

Keywords: Higgs boson physics
High-energy physics
Advisor: Orr, Robert S
Resource-Efficient Real-Time Polarization Compensation for MDI-QKD

Quantum key distribution is information-theoretically secure and a promising candidate for security against quantum computers. However, experimental implementations might deviate from assumptions made in the security proofs and leave the system vulnerable. Measurement device-independent QKD (MDI-QKD) scheme closes all the loopholes on the detection side, which is the most susceptible part of QKD. Therefore, the state preparation part of QKD systems becomes the only source of imperfections that needs to be considered in the security proofs of MDI-QKD. We examine our polarization encoding module and how imperfection in its components can affect state preparation. Our experiment demonstrates the feasibility of generating a secure key with imperfect states prepared by off-the-shelf devices. Another practical challenge that we address in implementing fibre-based MDI-QKD is polarization compensation. Polarization variations due to temperature fluctuations and fibre birefringence are inevitable and require polarization stabilization. Before this work, polarization compensation schemes for QKD either reduced the key sharing cycle or required extra equipment, making them less scalable or commercially viable and preventing the wide adaptation of polarization encoding. We propose and implement a novel polarization compensation scheme in the MDI-QKD systems that avoids the abovementioned drawbacks by using part of discarded detections. Our scheme evaluates the polarization drift in real-time based on single measurements corresponding to decoy intensities. We successfully implemented this active polarization compensation for four hours over 40 km of buffered fibre spool without thermal insulation or vibrational isolation. This thesis is a decisive step toward making polarization encoding MDI-QKD practical and secure, paving the way to realizing a polarization encoding MDI-QKD network. Future networks could be hybrid (ground and satellite links), and polarization encoding is a suitable candidate if an efficient stabilization scheme for fibre links is present. To this aim, our novel compensation scheme solely relies on recycling detections and retains a simple structure for a user node so that expanding the network could be feasible in terms of cost and practicality. Also, it does not reduce the key-sharing cycle, which is essential in networks where the detection system is shared, and each user has limited access time.

Keywords: Fibre-based QKD
Polarization encoding
Polarization stabilization
Quantum communication
Quantum cryptography
Quantum key distribution
Advisor: Lo, Hoi-Kwong
Qian, Li
Drinking in the Sea of Passion: Social Distinction, Public Sentiment, and Chinese Identity, 1680s-1930s

This dissertation delves into the significance of public drinking in late imperial Chinese society and its impact on the values and behavior of educated elites. Using a wide range of primary sources, including legal archives, memorials, cookbooks, literati anthologies, and poetry, I explore the different class-, status-, and gender-based perspectives on alcohol consumption and production. The dissertation specifically focuses on the growth of commercial drinking establishments during the Qing period and argues that the formation of public sentiments and identities was a bottom-up process, which created intricate links of interaction between Chinese elites and commoners. It thus challenges the conventional notion that late imperial popular culture was overwhelmingly based on Confucian scholars’ moral-political values by highlighting the transformative effects of public drinking on elite sensibility, sociability, and knowledge formation. Through five chapters, I examine the ways in which drinking habits and behavior of Chinese commoners influenced the moral-legal propriety, masculinity, femininity, social distinction, and sensibility of scholar-elites. Ultimately, this study reveals the important role of public drinking in shaping Chinese society and culture between the late imperial and Republican periods.

Keywords: alcohol
culinary infrastructure
jiu
literati scholars
popular culture
Qing dynasty
Advisor: Chen, Li
Delineating the Interaction between Liposomes and the Tumour Microenvironment

Cancer nanomedicine offers promising characteristics such as protecting small molecules from early degradation, reducing systemic toxicity and prolonging blood circulation to increase drug accumulation in the tumour. The majority of clinically-approved anti-cancer nanomedicines are lipid-based nanoparticles. Studies have used animal survival graphs and tumour growth curves to identify potential candidates, but it is not obvious which cells within the tumour microenvironment contribute towards their therapeutic effect. The incomplete understanding of lipid nanoparticle behaviour at the cellular-level may have contributed towards the limited number of nanotherapeutic translations into the clinic. In my thesis, I focus on two aspects of nano-bio interaction to better understand how liposomes interact within the tumour microenvironment. First, I conducted an in-depth investigation into how a therapeutic lipid nanoparticle affects the cytodistribution within the tumour microenvironment. This revealed intrinsic properties unique to lipid nanoparticles and the cell types it predominantly impacted. Flow cytometry revealed that Doxil, a liposomal formulation of Doxorubicin, preferentially killed cancer cells, macrophages and neutrophils within a breast cancer tumour model. Immunofluorescent imaging of apoptotic cells, pharmacokinetic study and uptake and cell viability experiments further supported the findings to explain the delay exhibited by Doxil-treated tumours. By identifying cells predominantly killed by Doxil, we can better explain how and why liposomes uniquely cause a tumour growth delay and may guide the design of future nanocarriers against those predominant cell types and prolong the therapeutic effect. Second, I developed a simple tag for the three-dimensional (3D) mapping of liposomes in intact tissues. Prior to this tag, it was not possible to image liposomes in optically-cleared tissues because the typical processing step of rendering tissues transparent removed lipids. This will provide a means to visualize where liposomes distribute, how stable they are and how fast they degrade in vivo within a tumour using 3D imaging. Knowledge established from this thesis has the potential to optimize the design and selection of future formulations to obtain a longer and more responsive therapeutic effect.

Keywords: 3D Imaging
Drug delivery
Liposomes
Nanoparticles
Tumour Microenvironment
Advisor: Chan, Warren WC
Managing Tensions in Equitable Disciplinary Teaching

As representatives of a discipline and gatekeepers to disciplinary communities, faculty have a powerful role in defining what disciplines are and who has access. In exposing students to disciplinary conventions, instructors may present disciplinary norms as inflexible, which may limit access or make disciplines feel unwelcoming. Students may be faced with reconciling their culture’s ways of knowing with disciplinary ways of knowing, and instructors may face conflicts between preparing students for disciplinary expectations and providing an equitable classroom open to non-dominant ways of knowing and communicating. This multiple case study investigates how faculty think about disciplinary norms and equitable pedagogies, whether tensions arise in their disciplinary teaching, and how they manage those tensions. Findings indicate that tensions created opportunities for reflection and led to changes in teaching indicative of double-loop learning. Departmental tensions suggest a paradigm shift in Earth Science teaching pedagogy, and institutional tensions suggest that the university is undergoing organizational learning. This study also indicates that tensions occurred at multiple levels (individual, departmental, discipline, and institution/university) which has implications for challenges in making learning environments more equitable. Existing and potential approaches for addressing these challenges are discussed.

Keywords: Curriculum design
Disciplinary teaching
Earth Sciences
Equitable teaching
Instructor learning
Multiple case study
Advisor: Childs, Ruth
Child-appealing Marketing on Food and Beverage Product Packaging: Evidence to Inform Regulatory Development, Implementation and Monitoring in Canada

Child-appealing marketing for unhealthy foods and beverages is prolific globally and is contributing to the development of poor dietary habits among children. Canadian attempts to establish federally-mandated marketing restrictions have been unsuccessful to date. Therefore, comprehensive evidence to monitor the marketing landscape and support policy development was needed during the period of this thesis research. In Studies 1 and 2, the effectiveness of Canadian Nutrient Profiling Models (NPMs) developed for purposes related to marketing (i.e., the Canadian Advertising Initiative’s NPM and Health Canada’s proposed NPM) were evaluated. Results demonstrated their stringency in identifying foods and beverages of poor nutritional quality, however, their effectiveness was limited by the breadth of scope of marketing instances/food products they were applied to (i.e., child-appealing marketing/products). Study 3 found significant heterogeneity in how researchers have defined and evaluated “child-appeal” in the literature, which was synthesized into a thematically-categorized inventory of marketing techniques to inform the development of future research methodologies. The Child-Appealing Packaging (CAP) tool was developed for this purpose (Study 4) and was found to be valid to assess the presence, type, and power of child-appealing marketing using core and broad marketing techniques that children (5-12 years) reported to find pertinent. Study 5 evaluated packaged foods using the CAP tool, and found that powerfully marketed, unhealthy, child-appealing products were prevalent in the Canadian food supply, and that these products were often of poorer nutritional composition and more likely to exceed Health Canada’s NPM thresholds than non-child-appealing products. Taken together, the five studies presented in this thesis highlight the necessity of continued broad monitoring of the food marketing landscape in Canada and the need for comprehensive marketing restrictions. Collectively, this research identifies key aspects of the regulatory approach, namely the criteria for 1) identifying child-appealing marketing and 2) the types of foods that are “unhealthy”, both of which will be critical to ensuring policy effectiveness and best protecting children from harmful marketing practices.

Advisor: L'Abbé, Mary
Determinants of Anishinabeck Infant and Early Childhood Growth Trajectories in Sandy Lake, Ontario

Indigenous ways of knowing and being often focus on the health and wellbeing of future generations. Therefore, the health implications for children of First Nations women, who experience a disproportionate prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) compared to non-First Nations women living in Canada, are a priority. Infants born to women with GDM are more likely to have high birthweights, which may influence growth trajectories throughout childhood. Infant nutrition is a priority within this context, where breastfeeding can mitigate cardiometabolic disease risk. Therefore, as part of the Sandy Lake Health and Diabetes Research Project (SLHDP), a community-based research project with Sandy Lake First Nation, we collected longitudinal height and weight data for infants and children under 6 years of age and maternal and child health factors using questionnaires. With these data we characterized growth trajectories over the first 6 years of life and explored associations between early life factors and growth patterns. We also conducted a scoping review of the qualitative literature, and interviews with caregivers in Sandy Lake, to understand infant feeding experiences of Indigenous caregivers. Weight-for-age (WAZ), height-for-age (HAZ), and BMI-for-age (BAZ) z-scores were calculated using the World Health Organization (WHO) reference data and plotted using generalized additive models, which demonstrated that Sandy Lake infants and children had z-scores above the WHO reference population. Generalized estimating equations and logistic regression revealed a possible role for high birthweight, caregiver BMI, cigarettes in the home, alcohol consumption during pregnancy, and GDM in subsequent growth patterns. Results of the scoping review and the 26 interviews with 32 caregivers in Sandy Lake emphasized a variety of socioecological factors impacting infant feeding experiences with family and culture playing significant roles. In conclusion, this study is one of the first on Turtle Island (North America) to characterize First Nations infant and child growth and to consider related health and social factors. We identified that infant nutrition is impacted by a variety of factors, highlighting a need for systemic changes that address issues of inadequate income, food and water insecurity, and a lack of cultural safety.

Keywords: Breastfeeding
Growth
Indigenous Health
Infant Feeding
Nutrition
Advisor: Hanley, Anthony
Galloway, Tracey