VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The maintenance of sex by parasites in the Phoxinus (Pisces: Cyprinidae) species complex

Species that reproduce asexually provide opportunities to study the evolutionary forces acting on sexuality. This thesis is a collection of studies that investigate the ecology of asexual and sexual Phoxinus (Pisces: Cyprinidae). Chapter one explains the reasons why the existence of sex is commonly viewed as a paradox and reviews the postulated benefits of sex that could solve the paradox. Chapter two makes the case that, since asexual and sexual Phoxinus are equivalent in fecundity, distribution, and habitat use, using these species to contrast the consequences of asexual and sexual reproduction is justified. Chapter three describes the seasonal variation in infection by an ectoparasite (Gyrodactylus) that commonly infects both asexual and sexual Phoxinus. Chapter four compares the intensity of infection by Gyrodactylus on asexual and sexual Phoxinus and shows that, as predicted by the Red Queen hypothesis, wherever asexual and sexual Phoxinus coexist, the asexual species harbours more parasites.
Jesus, the American advertising man: Bruce Barton, "The Man Nobody Knows", and faith in consumer capitalism

How are religion and consumer capitalism articulated with one another, and was this relationship formed? This thesis examines that question by using the writing and advertising of Bruce Barton (1886--1967), and the popular response to it, as a case study. Barton was one of the founders of modern advertising, the second "B" in BBDO, the most famous figure of 1920s Madison Avenue, and a very popular religious writer. The Man Nobody Knows re-tells the story of Jesus as the first great advertiser, and the founder of modern advertising. More importantly, the book reconfigures the relationship between faith and business; it re-values consumer desire as consistent with Jesus' message of "abundant life". By means of this text, and even more importantly, through a close examination of the hundreds of letters that contemporary readers wrote to Barton, I show the ways in which the new consumer world was re-shaping the way that people experienced and lived their faith in the midst of "unsettled times". Barton became "The Man Everybody Knows", as he was referred to in the 1920s, primarily because of his "explosive" book, The Man Nobody Knows (1925). This book was Barton's advertisement for an attractive, liveable Gospel for the emergent world of American consumer capitalism. The book was a runaway success in the U.S., selling a quarter of a million copies in eighteen months, and a further half-million copies in the following four years. The relationship between consumer capitalism and Protestant Christianity was by no means one-sided, however. Like Barton, most of the founders of modern advertising were sons of the manse, and this prepared them for their own trade. As I show through a close examination of Barton's advertising campaign for General Motors, Protestant Christianity exerted a decisive influence on the development of consumer capitalism, and in particular, on advertising, its' most important institution. Advertising, like preaching, promises redemption; through advertising, as an allegorical form, products become connected with the transcendent. The thesis builds a theoretical framework for analysing religion in consumer capitalism.
Small steps and quiet circles: student transformations through the enactment of resilience processes

The general question guiding this research is: how do students experience social and emotional transformations when they change from being seen as at risk by schools to being engaged with, and academically successful, in them? The following specific questions are addressed in this study. What influences contribute to risk? What are the influences that enhance the processes of resiliency? What sense(s) of engagement contribute to academic achievement for students who are seen as at risk? What changes occur when students shift from being academically at risk to being academically successful? What personal and social transformations are involved in this process?Conclusions and recommendations can be broadly categorized as issues related to school personnel, curriculum, and institutional structures, calling on administrators to recruit, hire, support and promote teachers who demonstrate care for all students by focusing on students' strengths rather than deficits, respecting all students and their families, and having high expectations for students both academically and socially. From a critical perspective this study examines the experiences of students as they make the transition from being marginalized from or designated by the educational system, and by themselves as at-risk of not graduating from high school, to becoming engaged with and academically successful within it. The personal identity transformations, which are the focus of this research are primarily social and emotional in nature and entail a redefinition of the students by themselves, their peer groups, families, teachers and administrators. At the center of these transformations are relationships between and among individuals and groups. For this study I interview nine adults who had graduated from either university transitional programs or college to university articulation programs in order to understand how students who have experienced both academic success and failure make sense of their lived experiences and concurrent personal transformations. Interviewees are able to identify facets of educational systems which support and which hinder their feelings of inclusion, validation and levels of academic success and to articulate personal and social changes that they have experienced and the support personnel and systems which engendered their academic accomplishments.

Keywords: Academic achievement
Minority students, Social conditions
Student adjustment
Resilience (Personality trait)
Youth with social disabilities, Social conditions
The safety of atypical antipsychotics in pregnancy

Three studies were conducted. (1) A retrospective review of the Motherisk Clinic appointments determined that there was an increase in the proportion of appointments for antipsychotics each year since the introduction of atypicals. (2) A pilot intervention study examining the feasibility of counselling women on antipsychotics to take 5mg folic acid while planning their pregnancies determined that high dose folate may not be required by all women, although counselling appeared to be successful. (3) A prospective, observational study comparing women taking atypical antipsychotics to women with non-teratognic exposures was conducted, determining if gestational exposure increased the risk for major malformations. 105 exposed pregnancies (39 olanzapine, 40 risperidone, 24 quetiapine, 6 clozapine---some had multiple exposures), resulted in 78 live births, 10 spontaneous abortions, 4 stillbirths, 3 ectopic and 10 terminations (1 major malformation---pregnancy terminated). These preliminary data suggest that atypical antipsychotics are not major teratogens.
Genetic analysis of stem vascular development and fiber length properties in Arabidopsis thaliana

Secondary vascular development (i.e. wood formation) is responsible for the production of economically important plant products such as wood and fibers. It has recently been demonstrated that the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana can be used to identify genes involved in regulating secondary vascular development. This thesis describes three projects linked by the common goal of understanding the genetic control of primary and secondary vascular development and fiber length properties in Arabidopsis stems. Chapter 1 describes a screen of Arabidopsis mutant genotypes for altered stem vascular development. Chapter 2 describes a screen of enhancer trap insertion lines for green fluorescent protein reporter expression in primary and secondary vascular tissues. Chapter 3 describes an analysis of fiber length properties in Arabidopsis mutants and the preparation of mapping populations from crosses between Arabidopsis accessions which will be useful for future fiber property quantitative trait loci studies.
Treatment behaviour of male batterers: An exploration of counsellor reports

The current study explores the content of final progress reports written by counsellors of a batterer intervention program; specifically, the nature and frequency of counsellor documented in-treatment behaviours are explored. Results indicated that counsellors frequently reported on client attendance, accountability, and treatment engagement. Other treatment behaviours, however, were reported with moderate to minimal frequency, with some key behaviours never receiving mention. When accountability and treatment engagement were isolated as predictors of success, it was found that approximately 20% of clients were considered unsuccessful by counsellors at the completion of the batterer program. Success in Intervention Phase I was found to predict success in Intervention Phase II for unsuccessful- and successful-rated clients, but not for mixed-rated clients. Results also indicate that client motivation, but not working alliance score or individual-level characteristics, predict final counsellor-rated success. Research and clinical implications are discussed in the context of the current findings.

Keywords: Abusive men, Behavior modification
Abusive men, Counseling of
Counselors
Effects of lingual nerve damage on orofacial nociceptive reflexes

Purpose. Determine the effects of noxious mechanical stimulation (NMS) on four craniofacial sites by examining reflexively evoked orofacial EMG activity and to assess the effects of acute lingual nerve (LN) transection on these NMS-evoked reflexes. Methods. Orofacial reflexes in 31 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats divided into Control, SHAM and Transection groups were acutely evaluated under halothane-anaesthesia. NMS was delivered via a calibrated forceps to four specific craniofacial sites. EMG responses were evaluated using mechanical activation thresholds (MAT), area under the curve (AUC) and response durations (DUR). Results/conclusions. A nociceptive orofacial reflex exhibiting high MAT and co-activation of jaw-opening/closing and tongue muscles consistent with prior nociceptive chemical irritant studies was developed. Acute central sensitization can be induced by surgery and transection of the LN. NMS-evoked nociceptive orofacial reflexes may be useful in assessing small fiber nociceptive afferent input, which in turn may be useful in evaluating dysaesthesia and peripheral nerve damage. Acknowledgements. Supported by CIHR MOP-43905 and the Canadian Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons (CAOMS) foundation for continuing research grant.
Education and HIV

In the face of the increasing impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Namibia, much has been done within the educational sector to work towards mitigating the growing infection rate. The LifeSkills course has been developed and implemented in order to educate youth in the public school system about the virus and equip them with the necessary psycho-social skills to assist in reducing the risk of becoming infected. Research literature, however, indicates that teachers are reluctant to teach the course. In this study, research was undertaken to understand the knowledge, attitudes, and concerns of the University of Namibia's third year Bachelor of Education students about the teaching of HIV and, in particular, the LifeSkills course. Findings indicate a gap in knowledge about HIV-related issues and the LifeSkills course, in particular. Moreover, many students indicated reluctance and a lack of self-efficacy to properly implement HIV education.

Keywords: AIDS (Disease), Study and teaching (Elementary)
AIDS (Disease), Namibia
Student teachers, Attitudes
Student teachers, Namibia
Teachers, Training of
Teachers, Namibia
The unfaithful muse: Intimacy and ethics in autobiographical fiction

In the fraught love triangle involving authors, their intimates, and their readers, intimates can feet betrayed when they believe themselves to have become the "material" for fiction. How did such feelings come to be so common? The first chapter of this study explores the development of biographical interest in fiction from antiquity to the twentieth century, observing that literary texts have long played with the boundary between fact and fantasy, and that autobiography and the novel evolved dialectically in relation to one another. The second chapter attends to more recent trends with regard to privacy, confession, and literature, arguing that the poetics of impersonality articulated by the New Critics facilitated the advent of confessional poetry directly rather than antagonistically. Also crucial to biographical readings of fiction has been the growth of a matrix of media that generates and exploits controversies over fiction's ethics and referentiality. The third chapter focuses on readers' autobiographical desire: i.e., a desire to read fiction as based in the lives of its authors, who are both ubiquitous in paratexts and, in another sense, radically absent from their fiction. The fourth chapter inaugurates a focus on the relationship between authors and intimates. In cases when fiction is seen to be offensively based on reality, often the texts in question do not challenge intimacy so much as expose pre-existing fault-lines in relationships. The fifth chapter examines a wide range of techniques that authors use in order to protect their intimates' sensitivities, not least the writing of metafiction, which can both air loved ones' perspectives and also further appropriate their voices. The sixth chapter considers intimates' responses to putatively offensive fiction, arguing that such efforts inevitably exacerbate the alienation and public exposure that have been anathema to intimates in the first place. Moreover, as the final chapter argues, they must deal with authors' self-identifications as rebels who defy conventional norms of privacy and reticence. The conclusion imagines the possibility of an alternative poetics in which fiction is not divisive but rather revises and revitalizes intimacy.
Survey of hospital library managers' attitudes toward volunteers in Ontario hospital libraries

The purpose of the research was to learn more about the contribution of volunteers in hospital libraries and increase our understanding of the issues and challenges related to volunteers. An anonymous, self-report 38-item questionnaire was mailed to 89 Ontario hospital library managers. Findings revealed that volunteers were used in the majority of Ontario hospital libraries. Hospital library managers hold diverse attitudes toward volunteer use. Managers viewed volunteers positively regarding helping with the workload and providing assistance with routine clerical tasks. Volunteers were viewed negatively regarding staff time needed for supervision and training of volunteers. Volunteers were more likely to be used in libraries where managers believed the library staffing was inadequate and were less likely to be used in unionized libraries. A key difference between activities performed exclusively by hospital library volunteers and those performed exclusively by public library volunteers is the complexity of tasks undertaken by hospital library volunteers.

Keywords: Hospital libraries, Ontario
Volunteer workers in hospitals, Ontario
Librarians, Attitudes
Librarians, Ontario
The effects of aging on adult hippocampal neurogenesis in rats

This study investigated age-related changes in hippocampal neurogenesis, as well as possible associations between new hippocampal cells and learning and memory impairment during aging. 38-day and 12-month old, male Sprague-Dawley rats were injected with 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) in order to label cells dividing in the dentate gyrus, and to follow their fates. Examined at eight time points following injection, aging rats showed a 90% decrease in proliferating cells, but similar proportions of surviving, differentiating, and maturing neurons relative to young. These results indicate that hippocampal neurogenesis, although it occurs on a drastically reduced scale relative to young levels, continues to proceed normally in aging rats. Further, spatial learning following the birth of new granule cells did not appear to directly affect or correlate with cell survival in aging rats. Decreased proliferation will not inevitably lead to deficits in learning, but the new hippocampal cells may be important for long-term memory formation.
Calling the shots: the influence of organized medicine on policymaking in Ontario and California, 1969-2000

The decision by the Ontario and California governments in the 1960s to establish government-sponsored programs of medical care insurance challenged the traditional guild model of medicine that entailed private, solo or small group practice, negotiated payment between physicians and patients on a fee-for-service basis and professional licensing and discipline. This dissertation addresses the question of why physicians have retained more of their policymaking influence under the public health insurance model in Ontario than under the managed care approach of California. It explains the differences in the degree of influence of the medical associations on policymaking by focusing on the importance of interests and institutions (including previous policies) as independent variables. It highlights the ways that these factors alter the structure of opportunities that exist for interest groups to successfully promote their political agendas. Ontario and California were chosen as sites for the comparison because, although they have significant social and cultural similarities, they have developed dissimilar government/society relationships and capacities for state intervention that have affected their health policy outcomes. The central argument of the dissertation is that in Ontario the early decision to establish a governmental health insurance program and the use of policy instruments like the federal spending power and the Canada Health Act helped the state to maintain a relatively stable concertation relationship with the medical profession. The Ontario government and organized medicine have cooperated in long term policy deliberations that have enabled physicians to preserve much of their autonomy and political influence, although they have a lower mean net income than California physicians. In the United States, such devices as the separation of powers and federalism have made it difficult to establish a universal system of publicly funded health care. The dispersal of authority between many state actors and antitrust regulations that prevent physicians from engaging in collective bargaining have led to the development of a pluralist policy network in the California health sector. They have weakened physicians' corporate, clinical, economic and organizational autonomy and dominance by fragmenting their interests in a predominantly managed care environment.
Patterns and causes of life history variation in lake trout, Salvelinus namaycush

Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) exhibit substantial life history variation across their range, but considerable local variation also occurs. Life history traits play a critical role in shaping population dynamics. As such, the observed life history variation makes it difficult to build conservation and management models. Populations should respond to varied environmental conditions by selecting the most favourable combination of life history traits. However, life history traits may alter as a result of phenotypic plasticity and/or genetic response to environmental conditions. This thesis examines the degree and mechanisms behind life history variation in lake trout. Variability is examined over the species range and within small geographic areas. Results indicate a strong association between enviromnental and lake trout life history variability. In particular, climate variables such as net thermal input and winter length and severity are correlated with a number of lake trout life history characteristics across the range. Lake morphology was associated with asymptotic sizes of lake trout, and shows contrasting associations with longevity and size at maturity in northern versus southern ranges. On a local scale, divergence in life history traits represented a combination of plastic responses and genetic adaptations to local conditions. The majority of life history traits examined in this thesis appeared to have a genetic basis; however stunted populations showed a plastic response to lack of forage fish. Yet, not all stunted populations within a region showed similar adaptive responses in early life history characteristics and we propose that the different responses may be predator mediated. Finally, the phenotypic divergence in life history traits among populations introduced from a common source approximately a century ago exhibited rapid plastic and genetic responses to novel environments. This thesis identifies that both plastic and genetic responses are common in lake trout, that these responses can occur quite rapidly, and that a significant number of environmental variables need to be considered before we can predict life history variation. These findings may be even more critical as populations continue to face stresses from climate change, overexploitation, habitat destruction, and introduced species.
Substance use counsellors' experiences working with mandated clients

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study is to explore substance use counsellors' experiences working with clients mandated by the criminal justice or child protection system to attend counselling for substance use issues. Ten counsellors and one probation officer were interviewed. Three themes emerge from the counsellors' narratives: (1) "Navigating Through the System to the Client," which describes the challenges in navigating relationships with the referral system at large, the referral agent and the client (2) "Mandated to Counselling, Not Recovery," which describes working with varying levels of client motivation and unpredictable recovery patterns (3) "Working Through the Challenges and Sustaining Personal Commitment," which describes sustaining commitment and job-satisfaction through communicative professional relationships, and maintaining objectivity with regard to client progress. Recommendations for further research into coercion and counselling, training in various models for substance use counselling, and cooperative practice between referral agents, clients and counsellors are provided.