VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Teacher and school variables associated with the academic and social outcomes of students with special needs in general education classrooms

Participants were 31 teachers, 584 students, and six principals from four schools in one large suburban Canadian school board. Student outcomes of academic self-concept and peer acceptance were measured with pencil-and-paper tasks, and teachers' ratings of students' academic progress were used as a proxy measure of academic achievement. Classroom observations were conducted as measures of effective teaching behaviors and teacher interviews were conducted as measures of teachers' attitudes and beliefs about their roles and responsibilities in meeting the educational needs of students who are designated as having special needs. Teachers' and principals' attitudes and beliefs about inclusion, as well as classroom teachers' sense of personal teaching efficacy, were also surveyed with questionnaires. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationships among a set of student, teacher, and school variables that have been shown to influence the effectiveness of including students with special needs in general education classrooms. The present study extends on the work of P.J. Stanovich and Jordan (2000; 2002) who have developed a feedback model for describing how such variables interact with each other to facilitate positive academic and social outcomes for students in inclusive classrooms. Therefore, P.J. Stanovich and Jordan's feedback model of effective inclusion was used as a framework for exploring the relations among the student, teacher, and school variables in the present study. Significant positive relationships were demonstrated among students' levels of academic self-concept, peer-acceptance, and academic progress. Students with special needs had significantly lower levels of academic self-concept and were socially accepted significantly less than their peers who were typically achieving. Effective teaching behaviors were a significant predictor of students' academic progress. Teachers' attitudes and beliefs about inclusion were a significant predictor of students' academic self-concept. Personal teaching efficacy was a significant predictor of teachers' attitudes and beliefs about inclusion. Implications focus on the influence that teachers have on student outcomes, particularly as teachers who demonstrated more effective teaching practices tended to have students who made more academic progress through the course of a school year than their less effective counterparts.

Keywords: Academic achievement, Ontario
Inclusive education, Ontario
Special education, Ontario
Socialization, Ontario
Special education teachers, Ontario
The role of harmonicity and location cues in auditory scene analysis

The roles of harmonicity and location in segregating concurrent auditory events were investigated using event-related potentials. Participants responded to sounds composed of multiple harmonics in a free-field environment. The third harmonic could be in tune or mistuned from an integer-multiple of the fundamental. Additionally, the third harmonic could be presented from the same or different location as the remaining harmonics. The ability to detect the mistuned harmonic as a separate sound was associated with a biphasic negative-positive potential. The early negative wave showed no effects of mistuning in the active listening condition but was modulated by the location cue when the stimuli contained near-threshold mistuning. The positive waveform increased in amplitude with increasing mistuning, but showed no effects of sound source location. The results suggest that spatial location plays a secondary role to frequency composition when segregating simultaneous auditory events, and is employed primarily when frequency cues are ambiguous.
A taxonomic distribution, phylogenetic, and expression analysis of alternative oxidase and plastoquinol terminal oxidase

The primary literature indicated that AOX is limited to a select few eukaryotic lineages, namely plants, fungi, and protists, while PTOX appears limited to green algae and higher plants. I have tested these hypotheses using a bioinformatics approach by conducting sequence similarity searches of molecular databases to identify novel AOX and PTOX sequences and examining the taxonomic distribution of AOX and PTOX in nature. Both AOX and PTOX sequences were recovered in groups of organisms where they had not been identified previously. AOX was found for the first time in prokaryotes, animals, and a number of other organisms while PTOX was found in a large number of prokaryotes (namely cyanobacteria) and eukaryotes capable of oxygenic photosynthesis. This work demonstrates that AOX and PTOX have a broad taxonomic distribution and has led to the development of a hypothesis on the origin and evolutionary history of these proteins. Alternative oxidase (AOX) is a mitochondrial inner membrane protein present in plants that introduces a branch point in the electron transport chain (ETC). AOX bypasses two of the three sites of proton translocation from the matrix to the intermembrane space and therefore impacts the energetic efficiency of respiration. Given the apparently wasteful nature of AOX in terms of energy conservation, effort has been put toward understanding the function of this pathway. Plastoquinol terminal oxidase (PTOX) is a related protein found in chloroplasts that creates a branched photosynthetic ETC. Several organisms newly identified as containing these proteins, such as Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas), the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, and the cyanobacterium Anabaena variabilis, were selected for further experimental work that aimed to verify the presence and expression of AOX and/or PTOX via PCR, RT-PCR, and Northern blots.
From practice to teachingn: the experiences of new nurse educators

Based on the results of this study, suggestions are made regarding support that might help new nursing teachers to effectively use their knowledge of clinical practice in their teaching and to ease their way as they move from practice to teaching. Further research into the way in which novice teachers reflect and research on new teachers that includes participant observation are called for. North America faces a shortage of nurses and a coexisting shortage of teachers of nursing, problems with enormous implications for the health care system. The literature in nursing education has called for the development of strategies to attract more nurses to teaching and for appropriate preparation for those entering the field of nursing education. Currently, many nurses are hired to teach based on their extensive clinical backgrounds and do not feel prepared to take on the role of nurse educator. This qualitative study focused on the experiences of eight nurses, all but one of whom were hired part-time, who were making the transition from clinical practice to teaching. The purpose of the study was to learn what these novice educators believed they brought with them from nursing practice that would facilitate their transition to teaching, what their experiences were like, and whether through the course of their first teaching semester these novices were able to draw on their nursing to facilitate their transition to nursing education. Study results show that each of the eight beginning teachers made the transition to teaching relatively smoothly in terms of settling in to their new roles in new institutions, learning to teach, and actually teaching. The theme that emerged from the data was use of self through three frames: past life experiences, caring as nurses, and nursing knowledge and experience. Novice teachers experienced difficulty with their roles when they did not experience being cared for as teachers, and when they perceived their practical knowledge to be lacking.

Keywords: Nursing schools, Faculty
Nursing schools, Ontario
Nursing, Study and teaching
Nursing, Ontario
First year teachers, Ontario
The role of microtubules in endothelial cell adaptation to shear stress

Shear stress, the fictional force of blood flow, affects the structure of blood vessels, for example, an increase in flow leads to an increase in vessel diameter. Cellular remodeling also occurs in the endothelium; the monolayer of cells that line the inner surface of the vessel wall and are constantly in contact with the blood. In straight areas of vessels where flow is laminar the endothelial cells are elongated but at curves and bifurcations flow is complex. Alterations in blood flow cause the endothelium to morphologically adapt by remodeling the cell-cell and cell-substrate adhesions, and the cytoskeleton. This thesis examined the role of microtubules, a component of the cytoskeleton, in adaptations of vascular endothelium to shear stress. In sheared endothelial cultures, the cells become elongated and aligned in the direction of flow and are polarized. The adhesion complexes and cytoskeleton are reorganized, but how this process occurs is unknown. My results demonstrate that shear stress-induced polarization of the endothelium is via a tightly controlled process that is regulated by microtubule dynamics and the enzyme GSK-3beta. Furthermore, the actin cytoskeleton and the motor protein, kinesin, are critical for endothelial cells to change shape. Microfilaments guide dynamic microtubules to the poles of the cells, and kinesin, associated with stable microtubules, transports intracellular proteins to the cell cortex. Understanding the process of how endothelial cells adapt to alterations in blood flow, will provide important insights into both endothelial cell biology and the general control of cell motility.
The daily shuffle: moving children and staff in childcare centers and the balance between ratio regulations and childcare quality

Non-programmatic movement was lower in centres with highly trained staff, higher staff wages, positive caregiver-child interactions, and higher scores on items measuring the caregiving environment. Movement was not related to adult:child ratios. This study examines the incidence of child and staff non-programmatic movement in childcare centers and its relation to childcare quality. Non-programmatic movement refers to transitions of children and staff within childcare centers that are not part of scheduled activities but are instead driven by other factors such as the need to adhere to required ratios. Non-programmatic movement of staff and children was measured using a sign-in/out procedure implemented over a 10-day period in 122 childcare centers. In addition, center directors and staff reported the frequency of staff temporary moves. Movement of children was highest at the beginning and the end of the day with an additional peak over mid-afternoon (2--4pm). Staff non-programmatic movement was highest over lunch-time (12--2pm).

Keywords: Child care services
Day care centers, Administration
Children, Institutional care
Writing, translating, and reading the disciplined subject in late Meiji Japan

The aim of this thesis will be to trace certain changes in the grammatical and narrative structure of the written Japanese language as well as the emergence of a particular mode of reading as these were evidenced in and around the Japanese novel—the shōsetsu—over the latter half of the Meiji era (1868–1912). What these changes and this emergence lead to was a kind of self-regulating and self-propelling fusion of points of view with the dominant point-of-view within certain shōsetsu-texts which directed the subjectivity of the Japanese reading subject in a direction that was in line with the demands of the new type of power—disciplinary—that was by the last decade of the Meiji era clearly the predominant form of power governing Japanese society. That which was created in both cases was an illusion that reinforced perceptions of subjectivity (the self) and objectivity (natural and social) and led to the advent of a perpetually self-reaffirming subject that was unprecedentedly self-disciplined and self-governed. Through this subject that enormous end-effect of the new form of power called the Meiji State was helped into existence and subsequently sustained, not the least of which ways via the imaginings of a new type of community—the nation of Japan (kokka)—by a new type of community member—the national citizen (kokumin ). In the end, there is no question of determinism here, for the resultant illusions produced by linguistic structure and conventions of reading could be dispelled through altering the very same strengthened perceptions of subjectivity and objectivity mentioned above. The fact that the subject exists as a nexus of discourses and not as a discourse delineates the frontiers of the potential resistance. Any other discourse that promotes any other mode of reading is potentially subversive of the disciplinary effects that arise from the particular grammatical and narrative structure and the particular mode of reading which will be examined in this dissertation. If not, then the sharpened identity with the point-of-view of the author/protagonist, who like the reader is produced within the socially sayable/readable, merely promotes a self-affirmation, a self-reaffirmation, and so a kind of increased disciplining and governing of the self.
L'épreuve de la jalousie: une étude discursive et topique de trois textes à caractère épistolaire de Claude Crebillon

L'ambiguïté de l'œuvre de Crébillon entraîne une épreuve tripartite : celle du personnage manipulé qui interprète difficilement ce qui lui arrive, celle de l'auteur qui élabore des récits où le familier et le singulier se confondent; et celle du lecteur appelé continuellement à faire un travail de déchiffrement de situations et d'énoncés équivoques. L'étude de la jalousie dans trois romans épistolaires, Lettres de la marquise (1732), Les Heureux Orphelins (1754) et Les Lettres athéniennes (1771) servira à illustrer l'émergence de la figure du libertin. Cette forme littéraire convient particulièrement bien à une étude de la jalousie crébillonienne, puisqu'elle montre plus que les autres textes de l'auteur la hiérarchie qui existe entre la jalousie amoureuse et la jalousie d'amour-propre. En outre, la jalousie constitue souvent la majeure partie de l'intrigue dans ces romans. Pour mener cette étude, nous abordons l'analyse de la jalousie par la voie d'une analyse discursive (Partie 1). Le discours de la jalousie chez Crébillon se répartit entre un registre authentique (le plus souvent celui de la femme amoureuse) et un registre de mauvaise foi (celui du libertin), mais on voit que la division n'est pas aussi nette qu'elle ne paraît à première vue. Ensuite, au niveau d'une analyse topique, le clivage se manifeste par un jeu entre des topoi conventionnels (qui répondent à l'attente du lecteur) et des topoi innovateurs (qui établissent une nouvelle façon de raconter un récit libertin) (Deuxième Partie). Notre approche est double: au niveau concret, l'importance de la situation d'énonciation, les circonstances de communication qui donnent une signification à un énoncé, selon D. Maingueneau et la notion bakhtinienne du dialogisme des mots ont servi de cadre pour notre étude discursive. L'analyse topique déplace la focalisation du particulier au plus général, selon l'approche de la SATOR (Société d'Analyse de la Topique dans les Œuvres Romanesques). Les multiples aspects de cette analyse s'entrelacent pour nous aider à comprendre l'importance de la jalousie chez Crébillon, la position de l'auteur vis-à-vis de cette passion liée au bonheur, et la place de Claude Crébillon dans la lignée du roman dit “libertin”.
Evaluation of the Hospital for Sick Children's Electronic Patient Chart system

Objective. The evaluation of the Hospital for Sick Children's Electronic Patient Chart (EPC) system was conducted to determine user satisfaction and perceptions, realized benefits, and the impact on physician practice and patient care. Methods. Clinical user surveys (18), semi-structured interviews (10), and analysis of chart viewing statistics. Results. In general clinical users are satisfied with the system. Four months post-implementation, the use of EPC had increased by over 300%, physicians increased the percentage of charts viewed for returning patients, and the number of hard copy chart requests decreased by 43%. The identified clinical issues included workstation locations, log-in security, and searching through charts. The Release of Information staff is also satisfied with the system but Health Records coding staff is not as EPC slows down their work. Conclusion. Although the EPC system has realized many benefits, the evaluation recommendations should be used to improve the EPC system and future implementations.
Script girls and automatic women: A feminist film poetics

This feminist film poetics explores the centrality of film in experimental writing by feminist writers and the insurgence of poetry in films by feminist filmmakers. Focused on the iconic presence of the female body and face, these texts rewrite misogynist grand narratives, excavating them for feminist agency, represented by a crasis of poetic speech and prophetic vision, as in Christa Wolf's Cassandra. These figures emerge as self-aware and self-theorising, embodying texts that I refer to as "auteurepoetics," the writing of the creative self, drawing on H.D.'s Helen, who reads her identity in the (cinematic) writing on the wall. Opposed to autobiography and psychoanalysis, artists such as Anne Carson, Nicole Brossard and Sally Potter critique the elision of female identity into representation, drawing on the resistant strategies of Gertrude Stein and Virginia Woolf, while also revising them, as Potter updates Woolf's fear of film in adapting Orlando. I term the constant movement between modernism and postmodernism the paramodern, which constitutes a recognition of politicised formal experimentation in work of postmodern writers such as Brossard and Abigail Child, as well as H.D., whose involvement in film was marginalised. Arguing for a crucial continuity between minor and mainstream feminist work, I trace these developments with reference, in each chapter, to Buffy the Vampire Slayer's uncanny feminism. Arguing that all the writers and filmmakers I examine are themselves theorists, and drawing on theorists Kaja Silverman, Vivian Sobchack, Rosalind Krauss, and Donna Haraway, I construct a "paramodernist politics" of the speculative present, in which these artists engage with the uncanny (which erupts as both the erotic and the popular) to suggest a theory of female difference and desire, from the mirror doubles of Maya Deren to Carson's monstrous Nudes to Angela Carter's cyborgic transwomen. Excessive bodies mark the imbrication of film and poetry in both mediums, as in the surprisingly poetic feminist uses of pornography in the mainstream with which I conclude. The "pornopoetics" of Fiona Banner, Dodie Bellamy and Jane Campion read back into my study's insistent concern with visualising female desire by facing, rather than ignoring, patriarchy's revenants.
The Region of Peel Commercial Travel Survey: Mailout-mailback survey design and preliminary analysis

The Region of Peel Commercial Travel Survey was conducted so that a better understanding of urban freight in the Greater Golden Horseshoe could be achieved. To do this, a comprehensive literature review that outlines the major decision makers, the state of the art in freight modelling, and previous freight surveys was used to guide the design of a mailout-mailback survey. The survey consists of two parts, a shipper survey that gathers information on the establishment and inbound and outbound shipments and a driver survey that collects stop information and tour characteristics. The preliminary analysis is the first step in the development of an agent-based microsimulation model that is essential for comprehensive policy analysis including emissions.
High-resolution measurements of thermal diffusivity of water-alcohol mixtures using a photopyroelectric thermal-wave cavity

A sensitive ultrahigh-resolution thermal-wave cavity technique for thermal diffusivity measurements of a series of water-alcohol mixtures in the entire range of concentrations including the very low end is introduced. A new design of the cavity measurement cell with fixed dimensions, operating in a frequency scan mode eliminates instrumental errors and substantially improves the precision and accuracy of the measurements, allowing measurements of a series of water mixtures. Thermal diffusivities of water-methanol and water-ethanol mixtures were measured with two techniques: conventional single-pulse photopyroelectric frequency scans and the common-mode-rejection demodulation dual-pulse scheme. A theoretical model describing conduction and radiation heat transfer in the cavity was developed. The model predictions and the frequency-scan experimental data were compared, showing excellent agreement. The fitted thermal diffusivity and effective emissivity versus concentration results of the mixtures were compared to literature theoretical and experimental data. The frequency-scan measurements showed the capability to distinguish between water-alcohol mixtures having a 0.5% v/v difference in concentration. The common-mode-rejection demodulation method improved this result up to the level of 0.2% by volume, which is the highest thermophysical resolution of water-methanol and water-ethanol mixtures reported to date, to our best knowledge. The ultra-high sensitivity of the method can be especially useful in environmental applications, specifically in real-time water pollution monitoring.
The design and development of a propulsion system for the CanX-2 and CanX-4/-5 nanosatellite missions

At the University of Toronto's Space Flight Laboratory, two satellites, CanX-4 and CanX-5, are currently in development for the purpose of demonstrating autonomous formation flying using nanosatellite buses. The use of a nanosatellite bus offers a cost-effective means to investigate the possibility of future satellite missions involving multiple spacecraft that together act as a single mission spacecraft for coordinated observations, in situ measurements, or virtual instrumentation. In order for formation flying to take place, a novel cold-gas propulsion system called the Canadian Nanosatellite Advanced Propulsion System (CNAPS), is also being developed to provide the thrust needed for formation maintenance and augmentation. The technologies and design schemes used in CNAPS stem from the Nanosatellite Propulsion System (NANOPS), which was built as a technology demonstrator on the CanX-2 nanosatellite. While NANOPS is a key payload on CanX-2, several other key enabling technologies are being tested in an attempt to mitigate risk and improve the reliability of the critical components intended for the CanX-4/-5 mission such as a GPS receiver and antenna, attitude control system, and CMOS imaging system. The details of the design and testing as well as recommendations for further development for both NANOPS and CNAPS are discussed.

Keywords: Nanosatellites, Propulsion systems
Nanosatellites, Canada