VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Outcomes and Prospects for Collaboration in Two Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Forest Management Negotiations in Ontario

Successful intercultural natural resource management collaboration is challenged by divergent worldviews and power disparities. Studies of non-intercultural collaboration efforts demonstrate that good outcomes emerge when procedural conditions are met, such as fostering open and high-quality deliberations, use of interest-based bargaining techniques and collective definition of the scope of the process. The applicability of these procedural conditions to intercultural collaboration efforts, such as negotiations between Aboriginal people, government resource managers and sustainable forest license holders, has not been explored. The aim of this thesis is to examine the outcomes and factors influencing two intercultural collaborations in the northeast region of Ontario. Semi-structured interviews with collaboration participants, negotiation meeting minutes and draft agreements are used as data sources. Following a general inductive coding approach and using QSR NVivo 2, the analysis of outcomes in both cases highlights improvements in relationships, increased understanding among the parties and the gradual definition of the scope of the negotiation. The findings also demonstrate that several barriers, including a lack of clear policy and legislative framework for collaboration and different definitions of the problem discourage intercultural collaboration. In one negotiation process, frequent and high quality deliberations, using an interest-based negotiation approach, and efforts to mutually define the scope of the negotiation prior to substantive negotiation do not overcome these systemic barriers to collaboration. However, in another negotiation process, the social and relational characteristics of the community and participants do contribute to the parties recognizing their interdependence, focusing on shared goals and undertaking joint action. This research demonstrates that the development of shared goals and acknowledgement of divergent problem definitions are more important to intercultural collaboration success than the development of improved relationships and establishing a mutually acceptable scope prior to collaboration. In the absence of a supportive legislative basis for the distribution of forest decision-making authority and responsibilities, this understanding of how Aboriginal, government and forest industry participants can collaborate is useful for developing more effective and equitable intercultural collaboration.

Keywords: collaborative natural resource management
intercultural collaboration
forest management
Aboriginal
Aboriginal-state relations
forest conflict
worldview
cross-cultural negotiation
negotiation
consensus building evaluation
Advisor: Kant, Shashi
Self-compassion and Recovery from Sexual Assault

Despite concerted efforts to eradicate violence against women and challenge victim-blaming attitudes towards survivors of sexual assault, women continue to be sexually victimized and encounter negative and accusatory reactions by family, friends, and society at large. For many survivors, the consequences are internalizing blame and feelings of shame, which has been shown to be related to increased psychological distress, self-destructive coping mechanisms, depression, generalized anxiety, and post-traumatic stress (Arata, 1999; Davis &amp; Breslau, 1994; Feiring, Taska, &amp; Lewis, 2002; Frazier, 1990, 2000; Frazier &amp; Schauben, 1994; Wyatt et al., 1990). New research in the area of self-compassion suggests that this way of self-relating can counter shame (Gilbert, 2005) and serve as a resiliency factor for coping with daily stressors (Leary, Tate, Adams, Allen, &amp; Hancock, 2007) and contribute to well-being (Neff, 2003a). No study has yet empirically evaluated self-compassion among survivors of trauma, nor more specifically, victims of sexual assault. The present study investigated the relationships between self-compassion and various indicators of psychological health that have been associated with posttrauma adjustment. One hundred and forty-one women in North America who experienced a sexual assault in the past 5 years (aged 18 to 61, M age = 27 years) completed measures assessing trauma history (sexual trauma history, childhood trauma and stressful life experiences), posttrauma adjustment (psychological distress, negative posttraumatic cognitions, and shame), self-compassion, self-criticism, and life satisfaction. The results of the study showed that self-compassion was significantly negatively related to psychological distress, negative posttraumatic cognitions, shame and self-criticism, and was positively related to life satisfaction. Hierarchical linear regressions revealed that when controlling for earlier childhood trauma and other stressful life experiences, self-compassion was a strong and significant predictor, explaining between 19 to 42% of the variance in psychological distress, negative posttraumatic cognitions, shame, and self-criticism. Comparing groups based on severity of sexual assault revealed that women who experienced attempted rape reported significantly higher levels of self-criticism compared with women who experienced sexual coercion. These findings bolster recent studies that equate self-compassion with psychological resilience. The negative relationships revealed between self-compassion and measures reflecting posttrauma adjustment and self-criticism, along with the positive association with life satisfaction clearly demonstrate validity in the pursuit of self-compassion as an important psychological construct that may help women recover from sexual trauma.

Keywords: self-compassion
sexual assault
trauma
mindfulness
Advisor: Stermac, Lana
A Conceptual Analysis of Canadian Palliative Care Ethics

Introduction: In the palliative care literature there has been debate over the occurrence and the desirability of the rationalization of palliative care. The discussion is based mostly on opinion, anecdote and argument. Little discussion is based on research, or is specific to Canada. Considering this question of rationalization, this thesis asks whether Canadian palliative care ethics has changed, and if so in what regard. Methods: Discourse analysis was used to evaluate texts and interviews from early and late Canadian palliative care. Based on expression, influence and comprehensiveness, two key texts were identified from each of the early and late periods of palliative care. Ten interviews were conducted with Canadian palliative care pioneers practicing across these periods. These interviews were semi-structured, and were based on the background literature and the textual analysis. Results: Analysis of the textual data led to the descriptive themes of person, profession and well-being. These themes, when compared across the early and late periods, generated three themes of process. Analysis of the interview data generated three similar themes of process. The themes of process from the textual and interview data were similar enough to generate three overall themes of process – routinization, medicalization, and professionalization.

Keywords: palliative care
ethics
medical sociology
Advisor: Upshur, Ross
Robertson, Ann
I Heal, We Heal: A Qualitative Study of Black Canadian Women's Experiences of Depression and Coping

The psychological literature on mental health has shown that oppressions such as racism, sexism and classism can be extremely stressful. Thus individuals' identities, such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status, and the oppression these can lead to have clinical implications. The current research sought to investigate the intersection of Black Canadian women's identities and how it contributes to their unique experience of depression and coping. The aim of this study was to identify significant experiences of depression and coping of this population in order to develop a theory of healing.

Advisor: Moodley, Roy
Virginity and Representation in the Greek Novel and Early Greek Poetry

The question asked by this thesis is twofold: first, what is the relevance and purpose of the generic prominence of the motif of παρθενία in the Greek novels of the first centuries A.D., and secondly, what is the broader significance of female virginity in ancient Greek literature. In order to answer this double question, the first part of the thesis examines in detail a number of literary texts from Early Greek Literature in which the theme of παρθενία is a central concern. Thus, a close reading of Homer’s Odyssey reveals the crucial role played by παρθενία in mapping imaginary spaces such as Scheria. A close reading of Sappho sheds light on the sense of continuation that exists between a girl’s premarital stage and her wedding and marriage, which will prompt a definition of Greek marriage as “the symbolic preservation of παρθενία.” In contrast, by focusing on unsuccessful, distorted weddings and marriages, Greek tragedy nonetheless upholds the necessity of a smooth, unbroken transition between virginity and the wedded state in order that a successful marriage be possible. The chapter on Aeschylus’ Suppliants focuses on the incomprehensibility of the concept of παρθενία from a non-Greek point of view, that of the pre-Greek daughters of Danaus and their suitors. The second half of the thesis moves forward five centuries and examines the generic relevance of παρθενία in the Greek novels. Most of these novels (including fragments) are interested in this theme, which appears to be associated with the double affiliation of the novels to fictional literature (generically in verse) and referential literature (generically in prose). Moreover, these novels stress the continuity between the premarital stage and marriage, as the discordant accounts of Lycaenion and the main narrator at the end of Longus’ novel about the effect of the wedding on the παρθένος imply. The final chapters devoted to Longus, Achilles Tatius, and Heliodorus highlight the complex connections between the virginity of the female protagonist, the descriptions of nature or created objects, the interest in the text as artifact and the auctorial distancing.

Keywords: parthenia
ancient novel
Advisor: Mason, Hugh
Aspectual Scope and Contrast in English and Japanese

This thesis presents a feature-based approach to aspect. I argue that both viewpoint aspect and lexical aspect are generated from the presence of functional properties that operate at three levels of syntactic structure: lexical, predicate, and clausal. The same aspectual feature has a different effect on the aspectual properties of the clause as a whole depending on the level at which it is active and the contrasts in which it participates. I illustrate this for English and Japanese, showing that a small number of syntactic features can capture the differences and similarities between the aspectual systems. I propose that aspect in English is determined by two functional heads: AspQ, which encodes quantity (i.e., telicity), and AspA, which encodes atomicity (i.e., punctuality). AspQ may either be a root modifier, lexically encoding quantity, or head a separate functional projection within the vP system, where it is licensed by a quantized argument. AspA may also be a root modifier, lexically encoding atomicity; it may also appear in the inflectional domain, where it encodes clausal non-atomicity (i.e., imperfective aspect). I propose that Japanese is like English in that AspA may be active at the root level; however, it differs from English in that AspA may also be active at the vP level, where it encodes the fact that the predicate is represented as a single unit. Japanese also differs from English in that it does not make use of the feature AspQ, meaning that Japanese has no quantity distinction, and makes use of the feature State, which heads a functional projection where light verbs such as iru &lsquo;be&rsquo; are merged. Thus, the differences in the aspectual systems of English and Japanese are attributed to a few features that are active at different levels of syntactic structure.

Keywords: linguistics
aspect
Japanese
syntax
Advisor: Cowper, Elizabeth
A Model of Information Sampling using Visual Occlusion

Three stages of research were carried out to investigate the use of the self-paced visual occlusion technique, and to model visual information sampling. Stage 1. A low-fidelity driving simulator study was carried out to investigate the effect of glance duration, a key parameter of the self-paced occlusion technique, on occlusion times. Results from this experiment, paired with analysis of data available from an on-road driving study, found an asymptotic relationship between the two variables. This finding has practical implications for establishing the appropriate glance duration in experimental studies that use self-paced visual occlusion. Stage 2. A model of visual information sampling was proposed, which incorporates elements of uncertainty development, subjective thresholds, and an awareness of past and current states of the system during occlusion. Using this modelling framework, average information sampling behaviour in occlusion studies can be analysed via mean occlusion times, and moment-by-moment responses to system output can be analysed via individual occlusion times. Analysis using the on-road driving data found that experienced drivers demonstrated a more complex and dynamic sampling strategy than inexperienced drivers. Stage 3. Findings from Stage 2 led to a simple monitoring experiment that investigated whether human operators are in fact capable of predicting system output when temporarily occluded. The platform was designed such that the dynamics of the system naturally facilitated predictions without making the monitoring task trivial. Results showed that participants were able to take predictive information into account in their sampling decisions, in addition to using the content of the information they observed from each visual sample.

Keywords: Visual occlusion
Information Processing
Visual Sampling
Uncertainty
Advisor: Milgram, Paul
Exploring Matter-wave Dynamics with a Bose-Einstein Condensate

Bose-Einstein condensates of dilute gases provide a rich and versatile platform to study both single-particle and many-body quantum phenomena. This thesis describes several experiments using a Bose-Einstein condensate of Rb-87 as a model system to study novel matter-wave effects that traditionally arise in vastly different systems, yet are difficult to access. We study the scattering of a particle from a repulsive potential barrier in the non-asymptotic regime, for which the collision dynamics are on-going. Using a Bose-Einstein condensate interacting with a sharp repulsive potential, two distinct transient scattering effects are observed: one due to the momentary deceleration of particles atop the barrier, and one due to the abrupt discontinuity in phase written on the wavepacket in position-space, akin to quantum reflection. Both effects lead to a redistribution of momenta, resulting in a rich interference pattern that may be used to reconstruct the single-particle wavefunction. In a second experiment, we study the response of a particle in a periodic potential to an applied force. By abruptly applying an external force to a Bose-Einstein condensate in a one-dimensional optical lattice, we show that the initial response of a particle in a periodic potential is in fact characterized by the bare mass, and only over timescales long compared to that of interband dynamics is the usual effective mass an appropriate description. This breakdown of the effective mass description on fast timescales is difficult to observe in traditional solid state systems due to their large bandgaps and fast timescale of interband dynamics. Both these experiments make use of the condensate's long coherence length, and the ability to shape and modulate the external potential on timescales fast compared to the particle dynamics, allowing for observation of novel matter-wave effects.

Keywords: Bose-Einstein condensation
Optical lattices
Particle scattering
Quantum mechanics
Advisor: Steinberg, Aephraim
Fathers to a Fatherless Nation: From Abjection to Legacy in Spanish and Catalan Autobiographies after Franco

This dissertation examines the figure of the father in autobiographies published in Spain after the death of the Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco, in 1975. It analyzes how four well-known Spanish authors born in Barcelona, Carlos Barral, Juan Goytisolo, Clara Janés, and Terenci Moix, portray the figure of the father in their memoirs. I consider first and foremost the authors’ depiction of the biological father. Nonetheless, I read this father in relation to the political figurehead of Franco, who was portrayed by many as father to the Spanish nation. The four authors either blame their fathers for being an authoritarian figure in the shadow of the dictator or present him as an absent but alternative model to the singular vision of the patriarchal household promoted by the regime. I argue that these four writers question Franco’s paternity and foster other conceptions of fatherhood in the newly democratic Spain. This dissertation addresses several interrelated questions: To what extent do real fathers collapse and step away from the ever-present figure of the Spanish dictator as a censoring father? How do father figures influence one’s own gender subjectivity and what is the relationship between fathers and the transformation of gender models during the Spanish transition to democracy? In which ways are fathers central in the construction of selfhood in autobiographical writings in general and in post-Franco Spain in particular? The close reading of these four writers illuminates the strong bonds between father figures, autobiographical writing and Oedipal narratives in the literary scene of the Spanish Transition and more broadly in the three decades following Franco’s death. Drawing from psychoanalysis, feminism and theory on autobiography, I analyze how the language, space, body, and death of the father are essential to the construction of an autobiographical self. I also contend that the reading of these authors’ melancholic state after the death of their fathers offers a new way of understanding the politics of mourning in Spain. These authors’ considerations of the figure of the father illustrate divergent attempts to deal with desired and undesired legacies of Franco’s dictatorship and, in this sense, this dissertation establishes a dialogue with current debates about memory, generational replacement, and the politics of inheritance and legacy in Spain.

Keywords: Literature
Spanish
Catalan
Autobiography
Advisor: Davidson, Robert A.
Errorless Classroom Management for Students with Severe Conduct Problems: A Staff-training Approach

Proactive classroom management involves teacher use of a range of positive interaction and intervention strategies for managing student behaviour in the classroom. This approach to classroom management has been shown to positively influence student academic achievement, behaviour, and social-emotional well-being, as well as teacher job satisfaction, stress levels, and turnover rate. Unfortunately, teachers often receive minimal training in such strategies, leading them to use more reactive forms of classroom management as a means of controlling problematic student behaviour. Given that reactive procedures can have many unintended negative side effects, there is a need for in-service provision of additional teacher training in proactive approaches, especially in classrooms where student problem behaviours are rampant. The present study was designed to address this need by examining the effectiveness of Errorless Classroom Management (ECM), a proactive classroom management program that builds student tolerance to classroom challenges by teaching them four keystone skills: compliance, social skills, on-task behaviour, and communication. We provided ECM training to two staff members (one teacher and one educational assistant) who were working in a special education classroom for students demonstrating extremely high levels of severe antisocial behaviour. The goal of this in-service training program was to alter staff members’ classroom management practices in order to engender covariant improvements in student behaviour. Using time-series observations, we examined staff and student behaviour before and after ECM training. We also investigated the social validity of treatment effects through the use of staff-report questionnaires. Data revealed that staff members effectively reduced their use of reactive strategies following training but were inconsistent in their application of proactive strategies. In turn, student problem behaviour markedly declined following training; however, improvements on other student outcome measures were not consistently observed. Moreover, variability in staff members’ satisfaction ratings and stress scores suggest a modest overall level of social validity. These findings provide early support for the ECM training program as a socially acceptable form of intervention. These results also suggest that it is possible to effect change in student behaviour by training staff members in positive forms of classroom management.

Keywords: Classroom Management
Conduct Problems
Advisor: Ducharme, Joseph
Investigation of Structure-function and Signal Transduction of Plant Cyclic Nucleotide-gated Ion Channels

Cyclic nucleotide-gated channels (CNGCs) are non-selective cation channels that were first identified in vertebrate photosensory and olfactory neurons. Although the physiological roles and biophysical properties of animal CNGCs have been well studied, much less is known about these channels in plants. The Arabidopsis genome encodes twenty putative CNGC subunits that are postulated to form channel complexes that mediate various physiological processes involving abiotic and biotic stress responses, ion homeostasis and development. The identification of Arabidopsis autoimmune CNGC mutants, such as defense no death class (dnd1 and dnd2), and the constitutive expressor of pathogenesis related genes 22 (cpr22) implicate AtCNGC2, 4, 11 and 12 in plant immunity. Here, I present a comprehensive study of the molecular mechanisms involved in CNGC-mediated signaling pathways with emphasis on pathogen defense. Previously, a forward genetics approach aimed to identify suppressor mutants of the rare gain-of-function autoimmune mutant, cpr22, identified key residues that are important for CNGC subunit interactions and channel function. First, I present a structure-function analysis of one of these suppressor mutants (S58) that revealed a key residue in the cyclic nucleotide binding domain involved in the stable regulation of CNGCs. Second, I present a new suppressor screen using AtCNGC2 T-DNA knockout mutants that specifically aimed to identify novel downstream components of CNGC-mediated pathogen defense signaling. In this screen, I successfully isolated and characterized the novel Arabidopsis mutant, repressor of defense no death 1 (rdd1), and expanded this study to demonstrate its involvement in AtCNGC2 and AtCNGC4-mediated signal transduction. Additionally, I demonstrated for the first time, the physical interaction of AtCNGC2 and AtCNGC4 subunits in planta. The findings presented in this thesis broaden our current knowledge of CNGCs in plants, and provide a new foundation for future elucidation of the structure-function relationships and signal transduction mediated by these channels.

Keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana
cyclic nucleotide gated channels
plant immunity
plant disease resistance
plant pathogen resistance
CNGC
calcium signaling
bimolecular fluorescence complementation
ion channel
signal transduction
calcium
map based cloning
plant autoimmune mutant
plant lesion mimic mutant
calmodulin
floral transition
rdd1
cpr22
dnd1
dnd2
CNGC11
CNGC12
CNGC2
CNGC4
suppressor screen
Advisor: Yoshioka, Keiko