VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Effects of Single-tree Selection Harvesting on Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (Pheucticus leudovicianus) in a Predominantly Forested Landscape

Single-tree selection harvesting is frequently used in the tolerant hardwood forests of North America but relatively little is known about how this silvicultural system affects wildlife, including many avian species. I investigated Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus leudovicianus) habitat use, survival, and nestling provisioning behaviour in twelve hardwood stands in Algonquin Provincial Park which had been harvested by single-tree selection 0-5, 16-20, 21-25, and > 50 years previously. Density, pairing success, and the number of fledglings per successful nest were all significantly lower in the > 50 years post-harvest stands than in at least one other post-harvest treatment. Density and pairing success were significantly higher in the 16-20 year post-harvest stands than in other treatments. Neither nest nor fledgling survival differed significantly among post-harvest treatments, but all stands were population sinks except those cut 16-20 years previously. Nests that were initiated earlier in the season and built in areas with higher basal area were more likely to survive, whereas fledgling survival increased with days since fledging. Nest sites had higher cover from regenerative growth, saplings, and understory, and lower basal area than random locations. During their first week out of the nest, fledglings used locations with significantly higher cover from regenerative growth, saplings, small shrubs, and raspberry and elderberry bushes than were present at random locations. Habitat characteristics at nest and fledgling locations were significantly different, and estimates of nest and fledgling survival were not correlated among harvested stands. Nests attended by after-second-year (ASY) males were initiated significantly earlier, and territory density and productivity were significantly higher for ASY males than for second-year (SY) males. Nestling provisioning rates, male contribution to nestling provisioning and nest attendance, and mean nestling weights at the time of fledging were also significantly higher at nests attended by ASY males than at nests with SY males. This study found that single-tree selection did not have significant negative effects on Rose-breasted Grosbeaks breeding in a predominantly forested landscape, but like many other species of birds, experienced breeders were more successful than less experienced breeders were.

Keywords: Forestry and Wildlife
Advisor: Malcolm, Jay R.
Development of the Fetoplacental Vascular Tree in Mice During Normal and Growth Restricted Pregnancies

The geometry of an organ’s vascular system determines the blood flow distribution to tissues for exchange of gas and nutrients by determining its vascular resistance. The importance of vascular geometry is evident in the placenta, where insufficient fetoplacental vascularity elevates vascular resistance thereby impairing perfusion, leading to one of the most common and severe pregnancy complications, intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). The mouse is becoming a widely used model for human placental development due to the increasing availability of mouse models thought to have a placental defect. Vascular geometry can now be imaged and quantified using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and results used to estimate resistance to blood flow. This thesis first describes the implementation of contrast agent perfusion and micro-CT imaging of the mouse fetoplacental vasculature throughout late gestation. Application of a vascular segmentation technique is then described and evaluated for quantification of the arterial fetoplacental tree. Normal fetoplacental vascular development in late gestation is described for two common mouse strains, CD1 and C57Bl6 (B6). In B6 placentas, both late gestational capillary growth and thinning of the interhaemal membrane were blunted relative to CD1. Analysis of CD1 and B6 tree geometry revealed a constant number of arterial segments throughout late gestation in both strains but expansion of arterial diameters in B6 only, resulting in decreased B6 arterial resistance and shear stress in late gestation. Strain dependence shows the importance of genetics in fetoplacental vascular development. Quantification of the arterial tree in a mouse model of maternal pre-pregnancy exposure to chemicals commonly found in cigarettes revealed an increase in vascular tortuousity and a reduced number of arteriole sized vessels. This led to an increase in vascular resistance and a predicted decrease in blood flow, which could contribute to the observed reduction in fetal weights. In future studies, the methods described herein can be used in phenotyping numerous mouse models which currently are suspected to have a placental vascular defect.

Keywords: placenta
vasculature
fetoplacental
mouse
intrauterine growth restriction
pregnancy
micro-computed tomography
imaging
automated vascular segmentation
hemodynamics
mouse strains
arterial tree
Advisor: Sled, John G.
Sounding the Past: Canadian Opera as Historical Narrative

The intriguing parallels between musical and literary forms have long been a focus of musicological inquiry, particularly in recent debates concerning music’s narrative properties. However, parallels between musical and historical forms and processes remain under-examined. Indeed, while historically-based operas continue to be prominent in the repertoire, there has been little if any attempt to interrogate how the unique structural, temporal, and narrative dimensions of the operatic form might render a representation of the past that is unique in comparison to those in other modes. This dissertation takes up this issue, and probes it on musical and aesthetic levels, asking the following questions: Given recent inquiries into history’s creative nature in historiography, what kind of historical account does opera represent? What elements of historical experience, knowledge, or memory are accessed in these works? How do music’s temporal, dramatic, and narrative dimensions interact with what we presume to be the objective realm of history? And most importantly: Can these works be seriously considered historiographical in any sense? In this dissertation, I investigate these questions with a focus on Canadian historically-based opera specifically. Applying a hermeneutical approach that connects current threads in musicology, narrative theory, theory of the sublime, film theory, and philosophy of history, I define and theorize the powerful discourse that music contributes to Canadian historiography in six of Canada’s most prominent historically-based operas: Harry Somers and Mavor Moore’s Louis Riel (1967); Harry Somers and James Reaney’s Serinette (1991); John Estacio and John Murrell’s Filumena (2005) and Frobisher (2007); and Istvan Anhalt’s Winthrop (1986) and La Tourangelle (1975). The conclusions of this study are, however, not limited to this repertoire. Rather they are applicable to the canon of historically-based works as a whole, and speak directly to some of the most critical and current aesthetic issues in musicology and historiography. As an art form that reopens the space between past and present by reaffirming history’s subjective and temporal nature, and by exploring the ephemerality it shares with living memory, opera validates itself as a truly distinct historiographical mode.

Keywords: music
musicology
Canadian history
opera
historiography
narrative
Advisor: Lee, Sherry
Elliott, Robin
Timpani: New Suggestions for Excerpt Practice Based on a Survey of Literature

This dissertation examines and critiques timpani instruction literature with a focus on timpani technique. It begins with an historical account of the origins of modern timpani. What follows is a look at the development of technique through documented timpani instruction beginning with Johann Ernst Altenburg’s treatise from 1795. Based on material examined in a literature survey of instructional texts from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, an examination of basic timpani technique and symphonic repertoire is presented in relation to discussions with four professional timpanists. Ian Bernard (Former Principal Timpanist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra), Tom Greenleaves (Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra), Brian Jones (Dallas Symphony Orchestra) and Benedickt Leithner (Deutsche Oper Berlin) all comment on timpani instruction literature, discuss ways it could be enhanced, and share their opinions on technique. Conclusions are drawn challenging the efficacy of timpani instructional literature with particular emphasis on lacunae. In a brief appendix, selected material from violin and trumpet literature is discussed in relation to timpani literature. A second appendix offers new suggestions for technical development related to orchestral timpani parts.

Keywords: Music
Timpani
Advisor: Hartenberger, Russell
Brownell, John
Kinematic Optimization in Birds, Bats and Ornithopters

Birds and bats employ a variety of advanced wing motions in the efficient production of thrust. The purpose of this thesis is to quantify the benefit of these advanced wing motions, determine the optimal theoretical wing kinematics for a given flight condition, and to develop a methodology for applying the results in the optimal design of flapping-wing aircraft (ornithopters). To this end, a medium-fidelity, combined aero-structural model has been developed that is capable of simulating the advanced kinematics seen in bird flight, as well as the highly non-linear structural deformations typical of high-aspect ratio wings. Five unique methods of thrust production observed in natural species have been isolated, quantified and thoroughly investigated for their dependence on Reynolds number, airfoil selection, frequency, amplitude and relative phasing. A gradient-based optimization algorithm has been employed to determined the wing kinematics that result in the minimum required power for a generalized aircraft or species in any given flight condition. In addition to the theoretical work, with the help of an extended team, the methodology was applied to the design and construction of the world's first successful human-powered ornithopter. The Snowbird Human-Powered Ornithopter, is used as an example aircraft to show how additional design constraints can pose limits on the optimal kinematics. The results show significant trends that give insight into the kinematic operation of natural species. The general result is that additional complexity, whether it be larger twisting deformations or advanced wing-folding mechanisms, allows for the possibility of more efficient flight. At its theoretical optimum, the efficiency of flapping-wings exceeds that of current rotors and propellers, although these efficiencies are quite difficult to achieve in practice.

Keywords: Ornithopter
Unsteady aerodynamics
Aeroelasticity
Bird
Bat
Flapping wing flight
Optimization
Kinematics
Vortex panel method
Non-linear finite element
Propulsive efficiency
Advisor: DeLaurier, James D.
Effects of Natural Genetic Variation in the foraging Gene on Learning and Memory Phenotypes in the Fruit Fly Drosophila melanogaster

This thesis examines how natural variation in the foraging gene (for) of Drosophila melanogaster influences several learning and memory phenotypes in adult flies. These studies are undertaken using aversive olfactory associative conditioning paradigms. Novel approaches to standard Pavlovian conditioning paradigms are used in order to test hypotheses that were formulated based on what is known concerning movement- and feeding-related behaviour in the rover (forR) and sitter (fors) variants of for. The results show that natural variation in for, which is thought to have been under balancing selection in the wild, influences adult learning and memory traits appreciably. More specifically, forR flies, who are exposed to greater environmental heterogeneity than sitters, display retroactive interference. As might be expected from their foraging behaviour, rover responses are biased towards more recent learning events. Additionally, results indicate that individual performance in a learning task was affected by allelic variation in for and through pharmacological manipulations of PKG activity levels. Interestingly, in fors, but not forR, the acquisition of information was facilitated by social interaction (i.e. being in a group). In forR, but not in fors, the type of social interaction (being with other forR or with other fors) affected learning and memory. Also, naive individual forR flies tended to follow groups of conditioned fors but not groups of conditioned forR. In several other chapters, the thesis explores recent issues in behaviour genetics. In particular, the following concepts are explored: 1) the fruit fly as model for ecological and evolutionary studies; 2) cGMP-dependent protein kinase as a modifier of behaviour in disparate species; and 3) conservation of gene function in behaviour.

Keywords: Behaviour
Genetics
Advisor: Sokolowski, Marla B.
Social Change in World Politics: Secondary Rules and Institutional Politics

This study fills what has long been recognized as a major gap in the field of International Relations (IR): an account of when and how change occurs in the structure of the international system. Attempts to create social change, to create or to alter intersubjectivity, are relatively common; the crucial question is why some attempts succeed while most fail. I argue that social change is itself a rule-governed social activity, which I term institutional politics, and that attempts to create social change are more likely to succeed if they are pursued in a manner consistent with what H.L.A. Hart called secondary rules, or rules about rules. This central hypothesis is investigated in three cases: the emergence of great power management following the Napoleonic war, attempts to ban war as an instrument of state policy in the inter-war period,and the period of institutional contestation instigated by the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. Available evidence in all three cases provides strong overall support for the central hypothesis and for the other core expectations of my theory. In addition to achieving important descriptive and explanatory advances with respect to the dynamics and morphology of the international system, the study makes significant contributions to the constructivist literature in IR; namely, it suggests a basis on which to improve conceptual consolidation and comparability, and it moves beyond a primary focus on norm promoters to include explicit theorization of the evaluative acts of their audiences. The most important policy implication of the study is the need for explicit renovation of the contemporary international system’s stock of secondary rules, to counter a decline in their legitimacy among a much more heterogenous set of members.

Keywords: International Relations
Constructivism
International Institutions
International Law
Diplomacy
Advisor: Welch, David A.
Canada Reaching Out? A Study of Collaboration between Canada and the Emerging Economies in Health Biotechnology

This dissertation discusses research on Canada’s collaboration with emerging economies, specifically Brazil and India, in the field of health biotechnology. In recent years Canada has shown interest in engaging with emerging economies including Brazil and India in S&T fields. However, little is known about the levels and characteristics of such collaboration. Without greater understanding of this phenomenon it is difficult to inform public policy on how to best encourage collaboration. In this dissertation, the levels of Canada-emerging economies research and entrepreneurial collaboration are gauged. The motivations driving Canada-emerging economies research as well as entrepreneurial collaboration, its challenges and outcomes are examined. The roles of wider institutional actors – funding agencies, intellectual property experts, regulators, etc – in both Canada and the two emerging economies that support international collaboration are analyzed. The research reveals that north-south collaboration in health biotechnology has the potential to lead to a wide range of scientific and commercial benefits for both partners. They include access to expertise, technologies, biodiversity, as well as increasing potential to publish in high impact journals. The benefits are mutual. Northern academics and entrepreneurs are not necessarily in a dominant position in the partnerships, thus contradicting stereotypical notions of partners in north-south relationships. The systems of innovation conceptual framework is useful to uncover how institutions in both the north and the south shape S&T collaboration, and also to develop multi-pronged policy approaches to promote such partnerships and mitigate risks. The framework enables moving away from a donor-recipient, linear model of S&T interactions between the north and the south, and towards conceptualizing north-south collaboration as complex interplay of two innovation systems.

Keywords: systems of innovation
north-south collaboration
research capacity
Advisor: Thorsteinsdottir, Halla
Orthography-induced Transfer in the Production of Novice Adult English-speaking Learners of Spanish

This study provides a thorough examination of the role of orthography in promoting first language-based phonological transfer. Specifically, it analyzes the role of auditory-orthographic condition, type of grapheme-to-phoneme correspondence and aspects of phonological memory on shaping transfer. Although, there has been previous work on the role of orthography in the acquisition of second language phonology, not much is known about the factors that shape orthography-induced transfer. In addition, the role of orthography remains to be formalized in the future models of the acquisition of second language phonology. In this experiment, data was elicited via a primary Spanish-based picture-naming task and a secondary Farsi-based non-word repetition phonological memory task. In the picture-naming task, participants were divided into four groups and assigned to four conditions, three with different degrees of exposure to orthography and one auditory condition. The data based on the productions of 40 novice adult English-speaking learners of Spanish, reveal a robust effect of orthography on phonological transfer leading to non-target-like productions at the very beginning stages of second language acquisition. There is also strong evidence that individual grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences differ in the extent to which they trigger phonological transfer. In addition, the findings show that while the presence of orthography at learning or at production induces transfer, the presence of orthography at learning has a stronger effect. The results also indicate some effect for the different aspects of phonological memory, namely, primacy and repetition effects. However, there was no correlation between individual phonological memory and the quantity of transfer. Based on the findings, I argue that when a shared grapheme corresponds to two different phonemes in the learners’ first language and the second language, the less salient the acoustic/phonetic difference between the target language and the first language phonemes, the higher the probability of first language transfer. I also argue for an effect of first language grapheme-to-phoneme frequency on transfer, suggesting that when there is variability in the realization of a particular grapheme in the first language, transfer will be based on the most frequent first language realization. Moreover, based on the findings in this study and previous research on the effect of orthography on second language production, I propose that exposure to orthography may interfere with the establishment of second language phonological categories.

Keywords: language
acquisition
Spanish
orthography
phonology
Advisor: Colantoni, Laura
Between Activism and Restraint: Institutional Legitimacy, Strategic Decision Making and the Supreme Court of Canada

Over the last couple of decades or so, comparative public law scholars have been reporting a dramatic increase in the power and influence of judicial institutions worldwide. One obvious effect of this “judicialization of politics” is to highlight legitimacy concerns associated with the exercise of judicial power. Indeed, how do courts attain and retain their legitimacy particularly in the context of their increasing political relevance? To answer this question I develop a novel theory of strategic legitimacy cultivation. The theory is developed through an application of the institutionalist branch of the rational choice theory which suggests that institutional structures, rules, and imperatives provide behavioural incentives and disincentives for relevant actors who respond by acting strategically in order to attain favourable outcomes. The theory shows that courts cultivate legitimacy by exhibiting strategic sensitivities to factors operating in the external, political environment. In particular, legitimacy cultivation requires courts to devise decisions that are sensitive to the state of public opinion, that avoid overt clashes and entanglements with key political actors, that do not overextend the outreach of judicial activism, and that employ politically sensitive jurisprudence. The theory is tested in the context of the Supreme Court of Canada through a mixed-method research design that combines a quantitative analysis of a large number of cases, case-study approaches, and cross-policy comparisons. One of the central findings of the dissertation is that understanding judicial institutions and judicial policymaking influence requires taking close accounts of external contexts within which courts operate.

Keywords: Supreme Court of Canada
Charter of Rights and Freedoms
institutional legitimacy
legitimacy
strategic behaviour
jurisprudence
public law
judicial politics
constitutional litigation
legislative-judicial relations
judicial review
political institutions
legal institutions
judicialization of politics
Advisor: Hirschl, Ran