VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Effect of Multiple-choice Testing on Memory Retention – Cue-target Symmetry

This thesis investigated the testing effect, which is the tendency of testing to enhance learning and memory retention. Specifically, the thesis examines the extent to which test-induced retention benefits extend to the questions as well as the answers; are these benefits symmetrical? The results in the laboratory experiment (Experiment 1) demonstrated that the symmetry in retention benefits is highly dependent on the accuracy in the initial test. For the items students answered correctly in the initial test, the retention benefit was found to be symmetrical across the questions and answers supporting the retrieval hypothesis of the testing effect. However, for initially incorrect items, the retention performance was substantially better for the questions than the answers suggesting an asymmetrical effect from testing, a result that is also consistent with the retrieval hypothesis. These results were replicated using educationally-relevant materials with a delay up to five and a half months in two hybrid studies combining actual classroom experiences with controlled assessments in the laboratory (Experiment 2A & 2B). A series of follow-up studies were conducted to examine the difference in retention performance of the questions and the answers for the initial incorrect items. Particularly, the experiments focused on investigating various factors that might contribute to or eliminate the difference in retention performance, including prior study (Experiment 3), verification feedback (Experiment 4A & 4B) and answer feedback (Experiment 5). The thesis also touched upon various issues related to the temporal dimension of the testing effect. The previous notion that testing slows down forgetting rate is not supported by the data. Instead, testing seems to provide a short-term insulation against immediate forgetting, but then memory for the tested materials decays in the same way as the non-tested materials.

Keywords: testing effect
retrieval practice
multiple-choice test
memory retention
Advisor: Joordens, Steve
Mahjonging Together: Distribution, Financial Capacity, and Activities of Asian Nonprofit Organizations in Canada

Using a nationwide database of nonprofit organizations, this thesis examines the impact of the socio-spatial environment and resource dependency on the development of ethnic organizations among four East Asian communities (Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese) across Canadian cities. The thesis makes an original contribution to the theoretical understanding of ethnic communities by evaluating the different perspectives for understanding three related but distinct properties of ethnic organizations (1) distribution – the number of organizations in a given city; (2) financial capacity – total revenue of the organization; and (3) cross-border activities – location and type of activities pursued outside of Canada. The findings suggest that organizations develop more in response to social need rather than group resource, and that the number of organizations is greater in cities where levels of residential concentration are high. The analysis shows that group characteristics such as income and size of enclave do not predict higher revenue among nonprofits. Rather, the effect of government funding is the most consistent predictor of financial capacity across all groups. Overall, the results highlight the importance of inter-group dynamics for institutional development, with traditional predictors such as group resource playing a lesser role. In regards to their activities, the results show that organizations of recent immigrant groups do not necessarily operate programs back home as some groups have more programs in places outside their home country. Additionally, source of funding and religion play a role in determining the location of cross-border activities. These findings challenge the current perspective on transnational linkages as ethnic organizations have the power to mediate group interests away from the host-home nexus. Together, the research offers a novel empirical approach to examine how groups organize at the community level and provides an alternative perspective in the understanding of integration, social cohesion and sense of belonging in multicultural societies.

Keywords: ethnic community
nonprofit organizations
transnationalism
Asian Canadian
Advisor: Fong, Eric
The Welfare State and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Women’s Health Dynamics: A Comparative Study of Four OECD Countries

While it is known that social policies influence the organization of employment and family life, this knowledge is rarely used to understand women's health. The current study uses feminist welfare state theory to examine socioeconomic inequalities in women's health dynamics in countries differing by the extent to which their social policies encourage male breadwinning and female caring/homemaking. The pathways underlying these inequalities are also investigated. Socioeconomic inequalities in health are hypothesized to be largest in strong male-breadwinner states (Britain/Germany), smallest in weak male-breadwinner welfare states (Denmark), and intermediate in modified male-breadwinner states (France). Further, family and income will explain more of health inequalities in strong and modified versus weak male-breadwinner regimes. The analysis uses longitudinal data from the European Community Household Panel (1994-2001) for working-aged women from Britain (n=2,193), Germany (n=2,421), France (n=2,400) and Denmark (n=1,412). The effects of socioeconomic position (measured by education) on self-rated health trajectories are examined using Latent Growth Curve Models; model estimates iii are compared cross-nationally using z-scores. Pathways linking education to health are identified by determining how much employment status, family roles and household income attenuate health inequalities in each country. The analyses are repeated for a sub-sample of mothers of young children—a group for whom policies surrounding the integration of employment and family are critical. Low education predicts worse initial health in all countries, but not faster health decline. Against expectations, education-based inequalities in health are largest in weak male-breadwinner states, but income explains virtually none of that inequality. By contrast, income has a larger explanatory role in regimes where women's unpaid caregiving is encouraged. Employment status is a relatively important mediator of the education-health relationship in all policy contexts, while family roles are not. Restricting the analysis to mothers reveals a much smaller education gradient in health in Denmark, providing evidence that weak male-breadwinner states are most effective at reducing health inequalities among mothers, relative to all women. Feminist welfare state theory better predicts cross-national differences in pathways underlying socioeconomic inequalities in health than the magnitude of inequalities, and may be most useful for understanding the health of mothers with young children.

Keywords: comparative
feminist welfare state theory
education level
Advisor: McDonough, Peggy
Worts, Diana
Representations of Antonín Dvořák: A Study of his Music through the Lens of Late Nineteenth-century Czech Criticism

Commenting on Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904), music critic Václav Juda Novotný declared in 1881 that “a Czech composer has to write, first and foremost, for a Czech audience.” Scholars have given considerable attention to Dvořák’s reception abroad and have shown that his path to success on foreign stages, particularly in Vienna, was not always direct. The composer’s reception in the Czech lands during the late nineteenth century was no less complicated – shaped by various cultural and political factors, as the Czechs sought to assert themselves in the fight for the nationalist cause, while remaining under Habsburg rule. Drawing on the wealth of newspaper and journal articles that were printed in the Czech press at this time, the dissertation places Dvořák’s music into its Czech context. The topic is explored by way of three case studies that deal with Dvořák’s contributions to choral, operatic, and symphonic genres. Each of the works examined came at a significant moment in Dvořák’s career in the Czech lands. The performance in 1873 of the choral cantata Hymnus: Heirs of the White Mountain marked Dvořák’s professional debut; with the 1878 production of the comic opera The Cunning Peasant, Dvořák celebrated his first major triumph on the coveted Czech operatic stage; and the Prague premiere in 1881 of his first widely recognized symphony, the D major, Op. 60, proved to be crucial in defining Dvořák’s role in the concert hall. These case studies reveal that Dvořák’s treatment in the Czech press varied depending on the unique traditions of these genres and their differing status within Czech musical culture. The project highlights the complex relationships and interactions among critics, audiences, and composers. In the politically-charged climate of fin-de-siècle Bohemia, Czech critics took ownership of Dvořák and enlisted his music to advance their own agendas. Dvořák, in turn, was keenly aware of and often catered to public tastes and critical expectations. Intertwining various realms of contextual inquiry, including nationalist rhetoric, contemporary critical discourses, and the musical repertories that were cultivated in the Czech lands, the dissertation draws attention to the multiple agents at play in Dvořák’s nineteenth-century Czech reception.

Keywords: Dvořák
Reception
Czech music
Criticism
Advisor: Clark, Caryl
McClelland, Ryan
"Creating Tone": The Relationship Between Beethoven's Piano Sonority and Evolving Instrument Designs, 1800-1810

The concept of “creating tone” indicates the relationship that Beethoven wanted with his main instrument, the fortepiano, and symbolizes his desire for expression when performing on the instrument. The story of Beethoven’s evolving pianistic writing unfolds in tandem with his changing instrument preferences; there is a constant feedback loop between innovations in piano construction and his piano music. This study investigates how Beethoven “created” his own tone when faced with the new Erard and Streicher instrument models in the first decade of the nineteenth century. The first chapter outlines the context of Beethoven’s involvement with contemporary instruments up to the early nineteenth century. His progressive tendencies in relation to the Stein vs. Walter actions and his interest in the English school of playing demonstrate this perspective. His eventual purchase of an Erard instrument in 1803 is an example of his desire to be on the forefront of instrument building developments in his time. The influence of Beethoven’s Erard piano on his pianistic output is assessed in chapter two by examining several compositions written during this period that reflect characteristics of French pianism and instrument building. Many of Beethoven’s pianistic innovations can be understood in the context of this new model. Pianistic devices include the use of register as a compositional dimension; vocal melodic style; textural innovations to enhance the Harmonie of the instrument, such as the tremolo effect; and the use of multiple, colourful pedals. The link between Beethoven and the instruments of the Streicher firm is the subject of the third chapter. The resultant merging of Viennese, English, and French features in piano construction led to the creation of an instrument that was reported as fully “orchestral” in sonority. Pianistic devices of this period include the return to a rapid “Viennese” touch; sustained lyricism; and, in concerto writing, scoring for the piano as an equal to the orchestra. Many of the musical elements that we embrace as characteristically Beethovenian may have their origin in these organologically-inspired pianistic effects.

Keywords: Beethoven
piano
sonority
fortepiano
Erard
Streicher
Advisor: Clark, Caryl
Northern, Central, Diversified, Specialized: The Archaeology of Fishing Adaptations in the Gulf of Georgia (Salish Sea), British Columbia

The Coast Salish subsistence economy has been characterized by local fishing adaptations to regional ecological variability (Mitchell 1971a.) This dissertation explores the temporal depth of these adaptations in the traditional territory of the Coast Salish, the Gulf of Georgia. Many researchers have used this, Donald Mitchell’s (1971a), model to develop theories of regional cultural development. Many of these interpretations present social complexity or social inequality – a hallmark of Northwest Coast social complexity – as having developed more or less in lock-step with the specialized fishing adaptation described among the Central Coast Salish, around the Fraser River. The temporal depth of this adaptation and the “Diversified” fishing adaptations described among the Northern and Southern Coast Salish, as well as their developmental relationship, are not well understood. In exploring this problem, this study evaluates whether or not the ecological ethnographic model is representative of the archaeology of these cultural subareas. A gap in the regional dataset which corresponds with a large portion of Mitchell’s (1971a) “Northern Diversified” fishing subarea has largely presented a previous study of this type. Recently excavated sites in traditional shíshálh territory provide artifact and archaeofaunal data that fill in this gap. These data are analyzed along with existing data from the Northern subarea and from the Central Gulf of Georgia (River and Straits Fishing subareas). The results of this study significantly broaden our understanding of prehistoric Coast Salish socioeconomic diversity, and test the assumed salmon specialization on the Fraser River and its primacy the development of regional ethnographic characteristics, especially pronounced social inequality. The results also shed light on the prehistoric importance of herring, a decreasingly overlooked resource in Northwest Coast archaeological studies, and advocate for the use of fine mesh recovery for quantifying the relative importance of fish species.

Keywords: Coast Salish
Gulf of Georgia
Fishing
Prehistory
Advisor: Coupland, Gary
Concerto for Tar and Orchestra

The great challenge that exists in cross-cultural composition is finding commonalities of intonation, style, formality, and instrumentation. In the case of creating a composition for Persian tar and symphony orchestra, a number of challenges emerge. The goal of this composition is to find compatible musical elements between Persian and western music. The most difficult challenge of composing in this genre is finding compatible musical modes to generate optimum intonation. For this piece, the western pitch of Bb is used to help the intonation and tonal production of the tar. My approach to style involves a sensitive application using elements of classical Persian style and formality known as dãstgãh composition. Generally, Persian music places strong emphasis on improvisation, non-repetitive scalar melodies, variation of melodic and rhythmic material, tasteful ornamentation, and creating an inspiring musical atmosphere. Often music is composed with a story, poem or song in the mind of the performer. Typically, the instrumentation is very small and intimate, consisting of a tar performer, accompanied by a musician playing a daff (a Persian frame drum much like an Irish bodhran). I have composed a work that features many of the above characteristics. The Concerto for Tar and Orchestra encompasses many salient features found in Persian classical music, while also providing symphonic orchestration that adds complimentary western musical elements. Most of the instrumentation of the work adheres to standard orchestral instrumentation. I have included some Persian hand-drums to the orchestration (a tombak and a dohol) to play alongside standard symphonic percussion to add a more cross-cultural quality to the orchestration. The concerto also owes its inspiration to the story “Umar and the Harpist”, which is found in Jellaludin Rumi’s revered, masterful literary work entitled the Masnavi. I used the imagery found in this story to generate much of the dramatic contrast contained in the concerto. In the end, a composition has emerged which brings two distinct classical music traditions together in an effective cross-cultural form of expression.

Keywords: concerto
tar
cross-cultural
Persian
fusion
orchestral
musical score
thesis
Canadian
Advisor: Rapoport, Alexander
Surface Breakup of A Liquid Jet Injected Into A Gaseous Crossflow

The normal injection of a liquid jet into a gaseous crossflow has many engineering applications. In this thesis, detailed numerical simulations based on the level set method are employed to understand the physical mechanism underlying the jet ``surface breakup''. The numerical observations reveal the existence of hydrodynamic instabilities on the jet periphery. The temporal growth of such azimuthal instabilities leads to the formation of interface corrugations, which are eventually sheared off of the jet surface as sheet-like structures. The sheets finally undergo disintegration into ligaments and drops during the surface breakup process. Temporal linear stability analyses are employed to understand the nature of these instabilities. To facilitate the analysis, analytical solutions for the flow fields of the jet and the crossflow are derived. We identify the ``shear instability'' as the primary destabilization mechanism in the flow. This inherently inviscid mechanism opposes the previously suggested mechanism of surface breakup (known as ``boundary layer stripping''), which is based on a viscous interpretation. The influence of the jet-to-crossflow density ratio on the flow stability are also studied. The findings show that a higher density jet leads to higher wavenumber instabilities on the jet surface and thereby subsequent smaller drops and ligaments. The stability characteristics of the most amplified modes (i.e., the wavenumber and corresponding growth rate) obtained from stability analyses and numerical simulations are in good agreement. The stability results of the jet also show that the density may have a non-monotonic stabilizing/destabilizing effect on the flow stability. To investigate such effect, the concept of wave resonance are employed to physically interpret the inviscid instability mechanism in two-phase flows with sharp interfaces and linear velocity profiles. We demonstrate that neutrally stable waves are formed due to the density jump in the flow, in addition to the well-known vorticity (Rayleigh) waves. Under certain conditions, such neutral waves are capable of resonating and generating unstable modes. The resonance of different pairs of neutral waves, therefore, results in either stabilizing or destabilizing effect of density variation. We predict similar reasoning behind the density behavior in the jet in crossflow configuration with smoothly varying velocity and density profiles.

Keywords: shear layer instability
two-phase flows
liquid jet
atomization
large eddy simulations
Advisor: Ashgriz, Nasser
Karney, Bryan William
Authentic Connectivity: A Pedagogue's Loving Responsibility

I learned to authentically connect by observing the pedagogues who mentored me. My lived experience with them inspired me to base my pedagogical approach on the constructs of community and engagement that youth dismantled by displaying increasing disengagement, which transferred into disaffected relationships. This reflexive/narrative autoethnography investigates the problematic phenomenon affecting youth: the loss of authentic connectivity. I critically examine my professional journey with pre-digital, digital, and post-digital university students by analysing our common, cultural context, thereby interpreting my behaviour, thoughts, and experiences in relation to them. Hermeneutic phenomenology’s framework deepens the inquiry, as it involves a broader cultural, political, and social understanding to uncover deeper meaning in changing behaviours by reflecting on what is the lived experience of authentic connectivity for youth. My comprehensive research evidences that youth’s technological addiction has influenced rapid brain evolution, and exploded their visual and multimodal skills. Neuroscience has broadly concluded that the new forms of learning technology offers are changing the way the brain processes information. I suggest that youth are experiencing a biological conflict, the brain’s rapid evolution overwhelming more slowly evolving physical responses, effectively interfering with the flow of affective information that requires hemispheric transfer. Neither moving beyond the premise of intelligence as being predominantly brain-based, nor acknowledging the cooperative role our bodily intelligence plays, as the latter is embedded in our lived experience, the greater understanding of the whole of learning, and its ally, authentic connectivity, cannot be achieved. I submit that moving beyond the absoluteness of a purely scientific approach to the brain, and integrating both human and cognitive sciences are key in moving toward a more holistic, autonomous learning pedagogy, so to layer our understanding of the ‘person process’, that which includes whole thinking and whole being. To counter the affective devolution, which is detrimental not only to learning, but to being a well-adjusted person, this paper proposes a foundational shift in teacher training curriculum design by suggesting tools that foster an observational pedagogy, which seeks to teach those navigational skills that support higher-level analytical processes that can counteract the excessive reactions that impede learning, and teaching.

Keywords: authentic connectivity, bodily intelligence, elemental bridges, hemispheric transfer, biological conflict, interstitial thinking, affective idendity, emotion regulation, bridge thinking
observational pedagogy, flattened affect, pre-digital, digital and post-digital university students
Advisor: Cameron, Linda