VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Accountability in Children's Development Organizations

This study investigates the use of five broad accountability mechanisms by gathering the perceptions of charities involved in the Canadian effort to reduce under-5 mortality abroad. While annual deaths in children under the age of 5 declined from an estimate of over 24.0 million in 1960 to under 8.0 million in 2010, mortality reduction goals have been established and missed for decades. As worldwide economies worsen, the amount of funds available for development assistance can be expected to decrease. This study seeks to determine if having accountability mechanisms is perceived to improve organizational behaviour, results and/or reduce costs. It uses a mixed methods approach including: a literature review to gain an understanding of accountability, effectiveness, development and under-5 mortality; key informant interviews to gain an understanding of funders, charities and development; a survey to gather the information required to answer the research questions; and a multiple-case study to gain a better appreciation of how accountability is used and to gather evidence of survey responses. The study investigates: which accountability mechanisms charities have, why they have them and the associated accountability holders; standards body memberships; the relationship between accountability mechanisms and various organizational characteristics; and the perceived effects of accountability mechanisms on organizational behaviour, results and costs. The survey finds that: charities say that they adopt accountability mechanisms because it is a good management practice that is perceived to improve organizational behaviour and results while not incurring costs in excess of the benefits; charities are more likely to adopt accountability mechanisms due to internal pressures than external pressures; the use of accountability mechanisms increases with organization size; and there is a greater difference in use of accountability mechanisms between small and large charities than there is between medium and large charities. The multiple-case study confirms the survey results. This study fills a gap in the literature by providing a Canadian perspective on the use of accountability mechanisms and the relationships amongst them and their perceived effects on organizational behaviour, results and costs. As economic burdens increase, increased accountability may lead to improved results even with fewer dollars.

Keywords: accountability
NGO
charity
ender-5 mortality
under-five mortality
governance
Advisor: Deber, Raisa Berlin
Controlling the Properties of 2D Chiral Fermions and Local Moments in Graphene

The primary subject of this thesis is graphene and how the rudimentary attributes of its charge carriers, and local moments on its surface, can be directly manipulated and controlled with electrostatic potentials. We first consider bilayer graphene subject to a spatially varying electrostatic potential that forms two neighbouring regions with opposite interlayer bias. Along the boundary, 1D chiral `kink' states emerge. We find that these 1D modes behave as a strongly interacting Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid whose properties can be tuned via an external gate. Next, we consider superlattices in bilayer graphene. Superlattices are seen to have a more dramatic effect on bilayer graphene than monolayer graphene because the quasiparticles are changed in a fundamental way; the dispersion goes from a quadratic band touching point to linearly dispersing Dirac cones. We illustrate that a 1D superlattice of either the chemical potential or an interlayer bias generates multiple anisotropic Dirac cones. General arguments delineate how certain symmetries protect the Dirac points. We then map the Hamiltonian of an interlayer bias superlattice onto a coupled chain model comprised of `topological' edge modes. We then discuss the relevance of spatially varying potentials to recent transport measurements. This is followed by another study that considers the effect of a magnetic field on graphene superlattices. We show that magnetotransport measurements in a weak perpendicular (orbital) magnetic field probe the number of emergent Dirac points and reveal further details about the dispersion. In the case of bilayer graphene, we also discuss the properties of kink states in an applied magnetic field. We then consider the implications of these results with regards to scanning tunnelling spectroscopy, valley filtering, and impurity induced breakdown of the quantum Hall effect. Finally, we investigate local moment formation of adatoms on bilayer graphene using an Anderson impurity model. We construct various phase diagrams and discuss their many unusual features. We identify regions where the local moments can be turned on or off by applying a external electric fields. Finally, we compute the RKKY interaction between local moments and show how it too can be controlled with electric fields.

Keywords: graphene
physics
dirac fermions
topological
quantum hall
local moments
bilayer graphene
Luttinger Liquid
Advisor: Paramekanti, Arun
System Performance Analysis Considering Human-related Factors

All individuals are unique in their characteristics. As such, their positive and negative contributions to system performance differ. In any system that is not fully automated, the effect of the human participants has to be considered when one is interested in the performance optimization of the system. Humans are intelligent, adaptive, and learn over time. At the same time, humans are error-prone. Therefore, in situations where human and hardware have to interact and complement each other, the system faces advantages and disadvantages from the role the humans play. It is this role and its effect on performance that is the focus of this dissertation. When analyzing the role of people, one can focus on providing resources to enable the human participants to produce more. Alternatively, one can strive to ensure the occurrence of less frequent and impactful errors. The focus of the analysis in this dissertation is the latter. Our analysis can be categorized into two parts. In the first part of our analysis, we consider a short term planning horizon and focus directly on failure risk analysis. What can be done about the risk stemming from the human participant? Any proactive steps that can be taken will have the advantage of reducing risk, but will also have a cost associated with it. We develop a cost-benefit analysis to enable a decision-maker to choose the optimal course of action for revenue maximization. We proceed to use this model to calculate the minimum acceptable level of risk, and the associated skill level, to ensure system profitability. The models developed are applied to a case study that comes from a manufacturing company in Ontario, Canada. In the second part of our analysis, we consider a longer planning horizon and are focused on output maximization. Human learning, and its effect on output, is considered. In the first model we develop, we use learning curves and production forecasting models to optimally assign operators, in order to maximize system output. In the second model we develop, we perform a failure risk analysis in combination with learning curves, to forecast the total production of operators. Similar to the first part of our analysis, we apply the output maximization models to the aforementioned case study to better demonstrate the concepts.

Keywords: performance analysis
human-related factors
learning
failure risk analysis
Advisor: Jardine, Andrew K. S.
Asymmetric Synthesis of Lactones and Lactams: Rhodium Catalysis in the Hydroacylation of Ketones and the Hydrogenation of Cyclic Dehydropeptides

Organic synthesis allows access complex materials in the context of fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and natural products, but many contemporary methods are wasteful – the focus is on the target rather than the process. Stoichiometric reagents, protecting groups, and multi-step processes are often involved to synthesize moieties such as chiral lactones and lactams, which are prevalent in biologically-relevant molecules like antibiotics (for example, the macrolides, typified by erythromycin) and cyclic peptides (such as cyclosporin and gramicidin). We have developed a rhodium-catalyzed lactonization of prochiral keto-aldehydes to access chiral lactones in a mild and atom-economical fashion, and a synthesis of cyclic peptides from achiral dehydropeptides using asymmetric rhodium-catalyzed hydrogenation to set the chirality in the peptide. In this fashion, we avoid using expensive and wasteful activating agents, protecting groups, and a host of other drawbacks endemic in lactonizations and peptide synthesis. This dissertation details: 1) the development of asymmetric rhodium-catalyzed hydroacylation, elucidation of the mechanism of this transformation through experimental and theoretical analyses, and the synthesis of chiral benzoxazecinones using this method, and 2) the synthesis of prochiral linear dehydropeptides, efficient cyclization of these molecules, and asymmetric reduction of multiple enamides in a highly enantio- and diastereoselective manner to access cyclic peptides.

Keywords: Catalysis
Synthesis
Advisor: Dong, Vy Maria
A Scalable, Parallel Approach for Multi-point, High-fidelity Aerostructural Optimization of Aircraft Configurations

This thesis presents new tools and techniques developed to address the challenging problem of high-fidelity aerostructural optimization with respect to large numbers of design variables. A new mesh-movement scheme is developed that is both computationally efficient and sufficiently robust to accommodate large geometric design changes and aerostructural deformations. A fully coupled Newton-Krylov method is presented that accelerates the convergence of aerostructural systems and provides a 20% performance improvement over the traditional nonlinear block Gauss-Seidel approach and can handle more flexible structures. A coupled adjoint method is used that efficiently computes derivatives for a gradient-based optimization algorithm. The implementation uses only machine accurate derivative techniques and is verified to yield fully consistent derivatives by comparing against the complex step method. The fully-coupled large-scale coupled adjoint solution method is shown to have 30% better performance than the segregated approach. The parallel scalability of the coupled adjoint technique is demonstrated on an Euler Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model with more than 80 million state variables coupled to a detailed structural finite-element model of the wing with more than 1 million degrees of freedom. Multi-point high-fidelity aerostructural optimizations of a long-range wide-body, transonic transport aircraft configuration are performed using the developed techniques. The aerostructural analysis employs Euler CFD with a 2 million cell mesh and a structural finite element model with 300000 DOF. Two design optimization problems are solved: one where takeoff gross weight is minimized, and another where fuel burn is minimized. Each optimization uses a multi-point formulation with 5 cruise conditions and 2 maneuver conditions. The optimization problems have 476 design variables are optimal results are obtained within 36 hours of wall time using 435 processors. The TOGW minimization results in a 4.2% reduction in TOGW with a 6.6% fuel burn reduction, while the fuel burn optimization resulted in a 11.2% fuel burn reduction with no change to the takeoff gross weight.

Keywords: Multidisciplinary Optimization
Aircraft Design
CFD
CSM
Advisor: Joaquim, Martins
Stories of Racialized Internationally Trained Post-secondary Educators Re-entering their Professions

This research project investigates the job search experiences of racialized internationally trained educators seeking to re-enter their professions in Canada. Previous studies have made extensive headway in understanding the job-search experiences of racialized immigrants. Specifically, some studies have demonstrated that racism is endemic to the Canadian labour-market, while others have concluded that work experience and credentials obtained in some countries are systematically undervalued in the Canadian labour-market. Further, studies have demonstrated that factors such as non English sounding names and accents can greatly limit some individuals’ job opportunities. Despite this widespread consensus, narrative accounts of job search experiences are almost entirely absent from present research. Hence, in distinction from the quantitative methods of the majority of recent studies of the subject, this work relies on the narratives of racialized immigrant educators for its principal empirical evidence. The counter narratives assembled in this work provide a unique and unprecedented insight into the experience of racialized immigrant educators in the Canadian job-market. Through interviews with racialized immigrant educators from various educational, racial and political backgrounds, this study seeks to explore the challenges that are faced by some racialized immigrants in Canada. The results of this study confirm the consensus in the existing literature, but also demonstrate that discrimination against racialized immigrants has often been greatly under-stated. The narratives suggest that racialized immigrant educators experience significant discrimination during the job search process and in Canadian society in general. Further, this study reveals the extent to which the discrimination faced by racialized Canadian immigrants is not the result of single factors—such as race, accent, non English names and culture—but is rather the cumulative and overlapping result of multiple factors of discrimination. The consequences of this discrimination lead to alienation from Canadian society, family breakdown, disenchantment, loss of self-worth and identity. Subsequently the effects can extend from one immigrant generation to the next. These results are mostly unheard and unexplored in existing literature and dominant discourse.

Keywords: Racialized Immigrants
Internationally Trained Immigrants
Advisor: Joshee, Reva
Understanding the Impact of Model Errors on the Inverse Modeling of MOPITT CO Observations

Atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) is a product of incomplete combustion and a byproduct of the oxidation of hydrocarbons. It plays a key role in controlling the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere since it is the main sink for the hydroxyl radical (OH), the primary tropospheric oxidant. As a result of its lifetime, CO is a useful tracer of long-range transport in models. However, estimates of the regional sources of CO are uncertain. Inverse modeling has become a widely used approach for better quantifying the sources, but a fundamental assumption in these inversions, which is typically not valid, is that the observations and models are unbiased. In this thesis, the GEOS-Chem model and observations of CO from the Measurement Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument are employed to study the impact of systematic model errors on inversion analyses of CO. The impact of the treatment of biogenic non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), aggregation errors, and discrepancies in the meteorological fields and OH distribution on the CO source estimates are examined. The influence of vertical transport errors on the source estimates is assessed using newly available MOPITT version 5 (V5) retrievals in a comparative inversion analysis employing surface level, profile, and column data. To quantify the potential impact of discrepancies in long-range transport on the source estimates, a high-resolution, regional inversion over North America, with optimized lateral boundary conditions, was conducted and compared with the results of a global inversion. The influence of the spatial-temporal distribution of the observations on the source estimates was also assessed through a comparison of the inversion analyses of MOPITT data and aircraft data from the Intercontinental Transport Experiment – North America, Phase A (INTEX-A) aircraft campaign. The results presented in the thesis provide a more comprehensive understanding of the potential impact of system model errors on inversion analyses of CO. This work also represents the first inverse modeling analysis of the MOPITT v5 retrievals. The results demonstrate the potential utility of these new data for characterizing vertical transport errors in models and they reveal that the new data can provide reliable constraints in regional CO source estimates.

Keywords: inverse modeling
MOPITT CO observation
Advisor: Jones, Dylan
Portfolio Selection by Second Order Stochastic Dominance based on the Risk Aversion Degree of Investors

Second order stochastic dominance is an optimal rule for portfolio selection of risk averse investors when we only know that the investors' utility function is increasing concave. The main advantage of SSD is that it makes no assumptions regarding the return distributions of investment assets and has been proven to lead to utility maximization for the class of increasing concave utility functions. A number of different SSD models have emerged in the literature for portfolio selection based on SSD. However, current SSD models produce the same SSD efficient portfolio for all risk averse investors, regardless of their risk aversion degree. In this thesis, we have developed a new SSD efficiency model, SSD-DP, which unlike existing SSD efficiency models in the literature, provides an SSD efficient portfolio as a function of investors' risk aversion degrees. The SSD-DP model is based on the linear programming technique and finds an SSD efficient portfolio by minimizing the dual power transform (DP) of a weighted portfolio of assets for a given risk aversion degree. We show that the optimal portfolio of the proposed model is SSD efficient, i.e. it is not dominated by SSD by any other portfolio, and, through empirical studies of historical data, we show that the method is a promising tool for constructing trading strategies.

Keywords: Portfolio Selection
Risk Aversion Degree
Advisor: Lawryshyn, Yuri Andrew
Perceptions, Pedagogies, and Practices: Teacher Perspectives of Student Engagement in Grade 9 Applied Mathematics Classrooms

This study investigates the teaching practices that three Grade 9 Applied Mathematics teachers use to increase student engagement and enhance student learning. Specifically, the study examines the factors within social and academic domains that teachers used to increase student engagement. Qualitative data were collected in the form of teacher interviews, classroom observations and teacher journals. The evidence from the study shows that all three teachers were cognizant of attributes of their early adolescent learners as the teachers sought to increase student engagement in their Grade 9 Applied Mathematics classes. Six major findings as suggested by the case studies can be summarized as follows: (1) developing student self-confidence is a critical component of increasing student engagement for early adolescent learners; (2) teachers may focus on one domain more than the other as a result of their personal comfort with that domain; (3) domains for student engagement and the factors found within these domains are not independent; (4) the Ontario Ministry of Education’s TIPS4RM resource is an effective way to increase student engagement; (5) technology is also an effective and relevant way to increase student engagement; and (6) the use of a framework for student achievement may support teachers efforts to increase student engagement. Implications from this study suggest that teachers should consider a variety of factors to increase student engagement in the Grade 9 Applied Mathematics class. Teachers can consider characteristics of their early adolescent learners, and factors for social and academic engagement. Teachers will favour approaches that parallel their personality and values and efforts in one factor may support another factor of student engagement. Suggestions for areas of further research are included at the end of the study.

Keywords: Mathematics education
Student engagement
Teacher practices
Teacher beliefs
At-risk students
Adolescent students
Secondary education
Advisor: McDougall, Douglas Emerson
Collective Bodies and Collective Change: Blindness, Pilgrimage, Motherhood and Miracles in Twentieth Century Mexican Literature

“Collective Bodies and Collective Change: Blindness, Pilgrimage, Motherhood and Miracles in Twentieth Century Mexican Literature” examines Mexican literature from 1940 to 1980. It analyzes representations of collective bodies and suggests that these bodies illustrate oppression and resistance in their historical context, which coincides with the beginning of a period of massive modernization in Mexico. I aim to develop a reading that interprets this imagery of collectives, unusual bodies, and blindness as more than symbols of oppression. By examining this imagery alongside representations of pilgrimage, alternative modes of motherhood, and experiences such as miracles that figuratively connect bodies, I propose that these images challenge their historical context, and can be read as a gesture towards resistance. Novels and short stories by José Revueltas, Juan Rulfo, Rosario Castellanos and Vicente Leñero present collectives, blindness and unusual bodies. My reading of their works connects these textual bodies to oppression within their historical context, in particular, by the government, intellectuals, the medical system, the Catholic Church, family structure, the landholding system, and the land’s heat, wind and drought. These representations de-individualize characters, and, as such, destroy the ideal of the modern subject who would effect change through individual agency. Thus, when I argue that these same bodies act as a metaphorical collective subject whose actions, such as mass murder, and participation in religious revival and radical political movements, can point out social change, they challenge the ideal of an individual subject. By reflecting on the connection between literature that represents unusual bodies, a historical situation of oppression, and the potential for resistance, this analysis of literary texts provides a lens through which we can examine the stories’ historical context and ideas of individual and collective agency.

Keywords: Mexican Literature
Latin American Literature
Mexican History
Twentieth Century
Body
Gender
Disability Studies
Advisor: Antebi, Susan