VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
An investigation of adult male sexual offenders' state-of-mind regarding childhood attachment and its relationship to victim choice

The attachment experiences of sexual offenders have been regarded as significant by researchers and clinicians attempting to explain the etiology of sexual offending behaviour. The goals of this study were: (1) to investigate sexual offenders' state-of-mind regarding childhood attachment and to compare these patterns to a sample of nonsexual offenders and to documented patterns of the general population, (2) to investigate potential differences in state-of-mind regarding attachment among subtypes of sexual offenders in order to gain insight into differential developmental patterns in typology, (3) to investigate the influence of attachment phenomenon such as abandonment, loss, and abuse, and (4) to investigate the relationship between state-of-mind regarding attachment and emotional congruence with children. Interview participants were 61 sexual offenders (extrafamilial child molesters, incest offenders, and rapists) and 40 nonsexual offenders (violent and nonviolent) recruited on a voluntary basis from the federal and provincial offender population. A structured, semi-clinical interview methodology, the Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1996) was administered and the corresponding coding protocol (Main & Goldwyn, 1998) was utilized. The Child Identification Scale—Revised (Wilson, 1999) was used as a measure of emotional congruence with children. Results indicated that the majority of sexual offenders had an insecure state-of-mind regarding attachment. This was a marked difference from normative samples. Although insecurity of attachment was common to all groups of offenders and, therefore, likely to be a general vulnerability factor, there were important differences between groups in regard to the type of insecurity. Most notable were the child molesters, who were much more likely to be Preoccupied in their state-of-mind regarding attachment. Rapists, violent offenders, and, to a lesser degree, incest offenders were more likely to have a Dismissing state-of-mind. Although still most likely to be Dismissing, nonviolent offenders were more likely than the other groups to have a Secure state-of-mind regarding attachment. Abusive and disruptive childhood environments were common to all offender groups. There was no relationship between state-of-mind regarding attachment and emotional congruence with children. From a clinical perspective, this study demonstrates the importance of assessing state-of-mind regarding attachment, as treatment goals are likely to vary as a function of this factor.

Keywords: Sex offenders, Psychological aspects
Child sexual abuse
Child molesters
Children, Crimes against
Sex crimes
People with mental disabilities, Sexual behavior
Sexual abuse victims, Psychological aspects
Influence of feature-based attentional mechanisms in object perception

Feature-based attention helps in perceiving 'low-level' visual features. We examined feature-based attention by probing perception of contour-defined loops (experiments 1 and 2) and motion-defined loops (experiment 3), using a dual-task design. Perception was measured in two conditions: (a) attend to contour-defined loops, or (b) attend to motion-defined loops. Two primary target loops appeared and coinciding with one of them, was either a congruent or incongruent loop in the unattended visual field. Perceptual thresholds were determined using two-interval forced-choice target detection by adding different orientational noise. Perception of the secondary task was better when concurrently presented with a congruent loop. Our results provide evidence for contribution of feature-based attention in object perception. This effect is eliminated when detection of the primary task was made easy. We conducted additional experiments to control for alternative explanations, and conclude our effects cannot be accounted for by symmetry, size of attentional spotlight or processing time.
Fathers' prioritization of needs within the father-child relationship: development and validation of the balance of needs measure (BONM)

The current study reports the development and psychometric properties of three measures designed to evaluate men's prioritization of needs within the father-child relationship. Two versions of a self-report measure, varying only in response format, were designed to tap four areas of need commonly present in father-child relationships: personal needs; image/self-esteem needs; emotional needs in terms of comfort and emotional needs in terms of respect, admiration, and self-aggrandizement. An interview measure was also developed. Data from a sample of 35 fathers supported the internal consistency, test-retest reliability and discriminant validity of the self-report measures. The construct and concurrent validity of the measures, however, varied according to the scale under examination. Interview ratings of men's ability to balance needs, but not the self-report BONM, differentiated between men at risk and not at risk for abuse. Research implications are discussed in light of the current findings.

Keywords: Fathers, Attitudes
Child abuse, Prevention
Father and child
Abusive men, Attitudes
Geomorphic evolution of a floodplain point bar on the lower Thames River, southern Ontario: Channel stability and archaeological implications

Vertical accretion is a common style of alluvial sedimentation in low-energy, cohesive-bank systems. Superficial evidence for point bar development and avulsion on a meandering, single-thread reach of the lower Thames River, Ontario, suggests the past operation of a broader range of processes. Archaeological site distribution, erosion data, hydrological records, topography, sediment coring and ground-penetrating radar are used to investigate channel adjustment and floodplain formation. Results at one channel bend below a glaciofluvial scarp show both lateral and vertical accretion occurring within the floodplain. Basal deposits in the most distal of three cores, 280 m from the channel, yielded the date 9060 +/- 90 BP (TO-9988). The morphology and chronology of floodplain changes favour the idea that archaeological sites that post-date 5000 BP are preserved there. Channel and floodplain activity associated with Nipissing-era base level rise and later Holocene higher precipitation might have removed or buried earlier sites.
Investigation of the neurocognitive specialization of episodic memory processes within the frontal lobes and beyond

A fundamental thrust of cognitive neuroscience has been to identify the nature of neurocognitive specialization within the brain. In the study of episodic memory (EM), there has been considerable debate about the nature of this specialization, particularly within the prefrontal cortex (PFC). While some have proposed process-specific lateralization of EM functions within the PFC (e.g., the hemispheric encoding/retrieval asymmetry (HERA) model), opponents have argued for content-specific lateralization (e.g., verbal vs. non-verbal content), or specialization that does not adhere to any pattern of lateralization. The current study used a novel continuous face-recognition paradigm and mixed block/event-related functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (mixed-fMRI) to investigate the nature of neurocognitive specialization of EM processes, with a particular focus on the PFC. First, a subsequent recognition analysis of encoding processes revealed exclusively left lateralized PFC activation associated with successful vs. failed recognition. Further, increased emotional processing and fusiform face area (FFA) activation supported successful encoding. Second, a mixed-fMRI analysis identified sustained state-related activation (i.e., retrieval mode) during the EM retrieval task in the right frontopolar PFC and right lateral temporal cortex. Sustained deactivation of a number of primary and ventral extrastriate visual processing regions including the FFA was hypothesized to reflect a "sustained neural priming" effect. Third, EM retrieval processes were investigated using event-related analysis, contrasting levels of confidence and true vs. false recognition across various response-types. The results indicated that pre-retrieval vs. post-retrieval item-related processing was preferentially lateralized within the left vs. right PFC respectively. Further, dissociable posterior brain regions appeared to be involved in EM processing in three different ways: (1) representation of information at the implicit level, (2) representation of information at the explicit level, and (3) introspective processes. Based on the integration of a comprehensive review of the neuroimaging literature and the results of these analyses, a novel hypothesis of process-specific neurocognitive specialization of EM processes was proposed: the lateralization of input/output networks (LION) hypothesis. This model may account for the apparent discrepancies in the literature concerning the role of PFC in episodic retrieval.
The attentional repulsional effect distorts perceived shape

The attentional repulsion effect (ARE) is a spatial consequence of allocating attention. Previous research has shown that peripheral cues produce a shift in the perceived location of a vernier stimulus in the direction opposite the peripheral cue. The ARE is therefore known to affect dorsal stream processing; the influence on the ventral stream, however, is unknown. The present study examines whether object-based ventral steam processing is affected by the ARE. By providing participants with four target choices to base their responses, an ARE is revealed, inducing misperceptions of the diamond-shaped target. Allocating attention with central gaze cues, however, does not elicit an ARE. These findings illustrate that when attention is oriented by peripheral cues, a significant ARE is found. This is consistent with the notion that the ARE originates early in perceptual processing, prior to the separation of the ventral and dorsal streams.
Building a shared understanding: How occupational therapists evaluate a client's readiness to return to work following acquired brain injury

The goal of this exploratory study was to understand how occupational therapists evaluate clients' work readiness following acquired brain injury (ABI). Ten occupational therapists with expertise in vocational and ABI rehabilitation were interviewed, and the data were analyzed using grounded theory method. The analysis resulted in a provisional theory and model of Building a Shared Understanding of Work Readiness, which describe the processes relevant to the evaluation of work readiness. These processes include drawing upon diverse sources of information and perspectives, assessing occupational capacity, understanding occupational potential, enabling a shared understanding of work readiness, and transforming the work readiness question. The findings suggest work readiness is a contextualized process requiring evaluation at the work participation level requiring the building of a shared understanding between the client and stakeholders from health, work-place, and disability management contexts. The model provides clinicians with a provisional framework to guide work evaluation practices following ABI.
Equity for new Canadians: considering cultural worldviews in adult education

This study explores the construction of cultural worldviews of a group of 8 adult immigrants in Montreal. Combining the methods of critical ethnography and case study, I explore the nature of the experiences of the research participants in specific contexts of adult education and in integration generally. After observing three adult education English as a second language classrooms, I conducted a series of five monthly interviews with 8 volunteer research participants from various geographical and linguistic origins. The participants explain what aspects of their identity are influenced by historical, temporal, and cultural factors, and what aspects change under the fluid, evolving circumstances of integration. Of particular interest is the intersection of personal situations and external structures which are beyond the control of the individuals. My specific focus in this study is how micro-level, personal factors interplay with macro-level, structural factors in the life experiences of new Canadians. My interest in the construction of cultural worldviews fits into a broader context of providing equal opportunities to new Canadians through adult education. Recent immigrants are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed than Canadian-born citizens, and earn significantly less. One of the goals of this critical ethnographic work is to provide insights into how adult education programs might more effectively encourage young adult immigrants to successfully reach their educational and personal goals. I provide specific suggestions for immigration and education programs and policies, and more general recommendations of changing assimilationist ideology at deep structural levels. The major findings of the thesis add to theories of social constructivism by emphasizing the significance of considering differences regarding historical, political, economic and cultural environments on the cultural worldviews of new Canadians.

Keywords: Language and culture
Educational equalization, Canada
Minorities, Education (Adult)
Minorities, Canada
Language policy, Canada
Adult education, Canada
Education and state, Canada
St Croix (Original composition, Electric croixssant)

In fall of 2005 I was fortunate enough to cross the Atlantic, at near the same age as my grandfather was on his journey, for a much lighter task, that of a residency at the Centre for the Creation of Music Iannis Xenakis (CCMIX) in Paris, France, to realise the electronic component of this piece. At the CCMIX, a MAX/MSP instrument, dubbed the Electric Croixssant, was built to execute the live electronics. The Canadian warship HMCS St Croix was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean in 1943, one of the first allied casualties caused by a new 'acoustic' torpedo. Most of the crew, including George Frederick Parnell, my grandfather, were killed. This work is dedicated to him. The role of the live electronics is essentially a spatial extension of the percussion in the beginning and middle of the work, and an extension of the trombone in the end of the work. I wanted the electronics to be clear and concise---like a contributing member of the ensemble, rather than a featured soloist. I also wanted to avoid overuse of the large array of digital signal processing techniques available, focusing only on a small number of transformative processes, limited to pitch shifting, pitch bending, and spacialization. In the spirit of Iannis Xenakis, the electronics are programmed stochastically at several levels with the same parameters that I used to create the acoustic score. The most significant parameter shared between the composition and the architecture of the Electric Croixssant is the use of prime numbers. These enigmatic numbers play an important role in the compositional fabric of the work, influencing rhythm, pitch, and aesthetic choices throughout. These numbers also play an important role in the programming of the Electric Croixssant, particularly in the stochastic processes that occur which choose the timing (rhythm), location (spacialization), density, and duration of musical events. The musician performing the electronic croixssant receives a standard part like any other instrumentalist, and is called upon to make defining artistic choices, making each performance musical and consistent, yet unique. Such is the strength of using live electronics as opposed to pre-realized electronics.
On some aspects of likelihood methods with applications in biostatistics

We consider four different problems: (1) interval estimation using higher-order approximations, in the setting of binomial variables, (2) first order matching priors for a scalar parameter, from an approximate perspective, (3) likelihood methods needed for the analysis of case-control studies, in Bayesian as well as frequentist frameworks, and (4) the study of the approximate ancillarity implicit in the tangent vectors approach (Fraser 1988) to conditional inference. For a binomial proportion we examine the confidence intervals obtained from the inversion of the higher order Barndorff-Nielsen's r* type approximations. We show that r* in the logit parameterization yields quantiles which agree to Cornish-Fisher quantiles to order O(n−3/2), while another version of r* in the usual parameterization yields same quantiles as Jeffreys' counterparts to the same order, n being the sample size. For the setting of two binomial variables we study the same type of properties for confidence intervals for the log odds ratio parameter, with emphasis on the intervals derived from r* in the canonical parameterization and a Bayesian version of r* needed for approximate Bayesian inference. With respect to matching priors for a scalar component of interest, Peers (1965) and Tibshirani (1989) showed that there is a family of first order matching priors obtained as solutions to a first-order partial differential equation. In this work we show that, when used in a third order approximation to the marginal posterior survivor function, the Peers-Tibshirani class of matching priors is essentially unique. For case-control and cohort studies a common objective is inference for the log odds ratio parameter. Prentice & Pyke (1979) showed the equivalence of these two models with respect to the profile likelihood. Our work extends this equivalence with respect to the Cox-Reid adjusted profile likelihood - an adjusted version of the profile likelihood with properties closer to a "true" likelihood than the profile likelihood. From a Bayesian point of view, we prove the equivalence of the marginal posterior from the two models for a larger class of priors, and show the prior found by Seaman & Richardson (2004) is unique, when the model parameters are a priori independent. In the context of the tangent vectors approach our work concerns the study of the surface defined by the tangent directions V( y0; [special characters omitted](y0)) = ∂y/∂[special characters omitted] at the data point y0; that is the surface which at data point y0 has tangent vectors V(y0; [special characters omitted](y0)). We show that for the scalar parameter case, this is a well-defined surface which corresponds to a second order approximate ancillary, a(y), having the observed value a(y0).
Degree-completion opportunities for ontario college students: a framework for understanding and facilitating college university collaboration: a college perspective

This descriptive, qualitative study examines the contextual, institutional, and leadership factors that influence collaboration between colleges and universities and explores what might be done to facilitate the development of collaborative programs between the colleges and universities in Ontario. Using a collaborative model identified by Couture, Delong and Wideman (1999), this study focused on degree-completion programs as the only type of college university collaborative program that builds on a previously earned community college diploma, does not have university entrance requirements and is common to both the Colleges' of Applied Arts and Technology collaborations with universities inside and outside of the province. Individuals within the Ontario community college system who had been involved in developing degree-completion programs with Canadian universities were interviewed. It is their personal “stories” about their collaborative experiences with universities and a review of the literature on leadership that provided the basis for this research. The study found leadership to be an important factor in college university collaboration and reinforced the need for “missionaries” on both sides. Successful collaboration seemed to have more to do with the leadership skills and abilities of the individuals involved in the process and their desire to create a more seamless system of education that provides students with ongoing opportunities including pursuing degree credentials, than it had to do with formalized management responsibilities or policies within the institutions. A better understanding of college university collaboration in Ontario puts government officials and postsecondary leaders alike, including administrators and educators, in a stronger position to positively impact future college university collaborative efforts in this province.

Keywords: Educational leadership
Education, Higher, Administration
Organizational change, Management
Universities and colleges, Administration
College graduates
The practice of dharmic livelihood: a heuristic study of the transformative experience of integrating work on the self (inner work) and work in the world (outer work)

This integral, qualitative, heuristic study depicts the essence of the transformative practice of integrating work on the Self (inner work) and work in the world (outer work), as experienced by the author (primary researcher) and five co-researchers. The work weaves together: (1) disparate literatures of: social and cultural history, organization and human systems development, career and adult development, education and transformative learning theory, transpersonal psychology, spirituality and evolution; (2) the self-experience and insight of the author; (3) and the experience and insight of the co-researchers as derived from in-depth interviews (dialogue sessions), personal journals, poetry, drawings and other art forms. The transformative experience portrayed in this work is called the “Practice of Dharmic Livelihood” because it is found to involve engagement in the continuous unfolding and conscious expression of our deep inner truth (our dharma); and to be the means by which we, as humans, will continue to fulfil ourselves and our co-creative work role in the evolutionary development of the cosmos. The lived experience is explicated as conscious involvement in an infinite, spiralling flow, entailing realization of successive states of “Formation,” “Fruition,” “Differentiation,” “Creation,” and “Integration” (transcendence), evoked by an inner/outer dialogue in a constant state of creative disequilibrium. The individual, inner/outer dialogue and cyclical, developmental flow are depicted as both mirrored in and in dialogue with the collective. Awakening, critically analyzing and creatively responding to this multi-level, inner/outer dynamic is found to be what compels us to spiral, with increasing depth, through transformative cycles. The findings are synthesized in a multi-dimensional process model of transformation. Concepts of human work/livelihood are reconceptualized and extended to levels of consciousness not usually considered in Western thinking. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Keywords: Moral development
Free will and determinism
Peace of mind