VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Claiming a place in polis and empire, the significance of imperial cults and connections among associations, synagogues and Christian groups in Roman Asia (c. 27 BCE--138 CE)

This study is concerned with assessing and comparing the place of small, unofficial social-religious groups, including associations, synagogues and Christian assemblies, within the framework of the 'polis' under Roman rule. More specifically, it focuses on the significance of imperial cults, honours, and connections for the external relations and internal life of these groups in the Roman province of Asia, concentrating primarily on the period from Augustus to Hadrian. In the process the study sheds light on Christian literature pertinent to Asia Minor, including I Peter, John's Apocalypse, the Pastoral epistles, Ignatius' epistles, the 'Martyrdom of Polycarp', and the 'Acts of Paul'. The central argument is that associations in Roman Asia, including some Jewish and Christian groups, could in varying ways participate within certain areas of life in the 'polis' under Roman rule, including involvements in imperial cults, honours and connections. Associations were not, as often assumed, subversive groups in consistent tension with ' polis' and empire. Comparing the concrete imperial-related practices of diverse associations with those of diverse Jewish and Christian groups draws attention to both similarities and differences in group-society relations. This aids us in locating these groups within the social and cultural framework of the 'polis' in Roman Asia. Moreover, the manner in which Jewish and Christian groups are often categorized as sects in conflict with society acts as a hindrance to perceiving the more complex spectrum of possibilities in group-society relations. Overall, this study utilizes inscriptional evidence in order to compare actual associations with Jewish and Christian groups, rather than merely theorizing in a vacuum when it comes to understanding the relationships between Jewish and Christian groups and various dimensions of society and culture.
Development of a tunable laser based Bragg grating demodulation system

A novel Bragg grating demodulation system based on the use of a tunable gain-coupled distributed feedback (GC-DFB) semiconductor laser is developed and demonstrated. The laser, donated by Nortel Technologies, is packaged and characterized, including wavelength tuning, power curve and temperature dependence characteristics. A current driver is developed to precisely ramp the injection current of the tunable laser given selectable user inputs. Several data acquisition programs are written to facilitate the different system modalities, and are combined into a final, all-encompassing product. The system is demonstrated to demodulate Bragg grating signals with a resolution of ${\pm}0.8\ \mu\varepsilon$ over a strain range of 6070 $\mu\varepsilon$. Demodulation of wavelength division multiplexed and parallel multiplexed signals is demonstrated, for both static and dynamic signals. A hybrid serial/parallel multiplexed is demonstrated to simultaneously demodulate 12 separate Bragg grating signals. A tradeoff between system measurement range and measurement bandwidth is discussed. An estimate of the theoretical maximum number of channels simultaneously addressable by the system is presented. Demodulation of pultruded Bragg grating sensors is presented. Suggestions for future systems are given.
Optometry admission interviews, a case study of participant expectations and experiences

The use of an admission interview by healthcare professional programs is widespread, yet the predictive ability of this selection tool has been found to be low due, in part, to the presence of numerous design flaws. This study of a Canadian optometry program at the University of Waterloo (UW) examined its admission interview from the perspective of its participants: the interviewers and the applicants. A survey was developed through a literature review, a series of research interviews, and a pilot test. The survey collected demographic information and participant perceptions relating to the purpose of and the candidate qualities assessed by: an ideal optometry admission committee, an ideal optometry interview, and the UW interview. Questions were also posed about the future of the UW interview. The questionnaire was sent in 1996 to all interviewed candidates (157) and all interviewers (23). The response rate was 71.7%. Principal component analysis was performed to reduce the data into thematic components. Independent and paired t-tests were used to compare the components. Applicants and interviewers shared a common vision of the ideal interviews purpose and content. The importance of this finding was discussed in terms of a symbolic interactionist approach. That is, through social interaction, these participants had attached a common meaning to admission interviews. Applicants and interviewers held significantly different views of the UW interviews purpose and content. Their experiences with the UW interview were also significantly different than their expectations of an ideal interview. Applicants judged their interview experience based largely on the interviewers' behavior while interviewers had the benefit of knowing more about the program's admission process. The greatest perceived difference between the UW interview and the ideal interview regarded clarifying candidate information. The inability of the UW interview to provide this function in the presence of a strong desire to do so was interpreted as a major determinant in creating a crisis of confidence in the UW interview. This descriptive study provides an approach for the program's administrators to re-evaluate the interviews purpose and content and offers an explanation for the interviews longevity.
That we may glorify Him in our bodies, William of St. Thierry's views of the human body

The following dissertation explores the nature of the human body and its role in Christian life according to the twelfth-century monk, William of St. Thierry. William took a leading role in the ecclesiastical reforming movement of the twelfth century. Twelfth-century reformers sought a simpler form of life than the one practiced by the Benedictine Order. They established new orders designed to promote austerity and freedom from the social entanglements in which the Benedictines had become involved. Reformers also popularized the Ciceronian idea that the effect of a life of virtue was discernible in the beauty and elegant carriage of the human body. This bodily composure was perceived to echo the harmony of the original creation (as described in Genesis) in which no conflict between "spiritual" and "corporeal" desires distorted human spiritual equilibrium. Reformers expressed awareness that the body revealed in dramatic, "charismatic," fashion the transformation of the person. Adriaan Bredero has explored how William's reform style reflected his decision to persevere with his life in the Benedictine Order rather than to leave it for the Cistercian Order founded by his friend, Bernard of Clairvaux. Prior to Bredero's work, William's role in twelfth-century reform had largely been uncritically assimilated to that of Bernard. In addition to exploring the new ground of William's promotion of the charismatic quality of the human body, this dissertation also expands our knowledge of William's approach to reform, thereby broadening our knowledge of the diversity of the twelfth-century reform movement. Like Bernard, William perceived the body to reveal the reordering of the human person by grace. William emphasized more strongly than him that harmony between body and soul could be restored during the present life. William expressed bodily perfusion by grace as only one manifestation of a cosmic pattern of God's presence within material being. He argues, for instance, that God changes Himself into the Eucharistic bread in order that He might insinuate Himself into the bodies of the host's recipients. William also differs in using the evidence of twelfth-century medical sources to show that the body and soul were created for a life together. William wrote much more extensively than Bernard about the body's heightened ability to perceive spiritual realities corporeally, i.e. to "sense" bodily the holiness of other individuals in the community. He also proposed that sensitive devotion to Christ could enrich interior life. In many ways, therefore, William made the body central to spiritual life and expressed a notion that the person is body as well as soul.
Scheduling and resource allocation in broadband multimedia wireless local area networks

Two main topics of research in modern computer networks are the development of new wireless architectures and technologies, and the addition of new multimedia services. These two topics have converged in the design of multimedia Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). The synthesis of wireless and multimedia networks has opened new problem areas in transmission scheduling and resource allocation. Techniques suitable for wireless telephony are unsuitable for a multimedia environment, and techniques for wired multimedia networks are not immediately applicable to a wireless medium. The problems of transmission scheduling and resource allocation are explored in three areas: Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA), hybrid TDMA/Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), and multicellular TDMA environments. The problem of scheduling is explored in TDMA networks through Distributed Fair Queueing (DFQ), a centralized scheduling protocol. The necessary concepts of Fair Queueing are reviewed, and the resource allocation problem for multimedia services is addressed. The DFQ architecture is then introduced, and the problems due to physical and error control overhead are studied. Behaviour of a mix of multimedia services is simulated to determine average system performance. The problems of Quality-of-Service (QoS) delivery in hybrid TDMA/Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) are addressed by introducing differential power control for QoS preservation. The optimal power levels are determined in order to maximize the capacity of the network. Two scheduling methodologies are introduced, differing in efficiency and complexity. Finally, the problem of channel allocation in an unlicensed, distributed-architecture environment is explored through a simple interference avoidance protocol named Active Channel Avoidance (ACA). The ACA protocol attempts to minimize interference between unrelated networks in an environment while allowing communication between cells of multicellular networks. The performance of simple network models under ACA is calculated, in order to estimate performance for real-world networks and provide a theoretical framework for further refinement.
Design and layout of a computational field programmable architecture

Field Programmable Devices (FPDs) are a very popular medium for implementing digital circuits. They offer many positive features such as re-programmability, low design manufacturing cost and fast time to market. Compute intensive applications used in signal and data processing are often implemented in FPDs. A primary reason for this is that FPDs are well suited to extracting the parallelism that often exists in these applications. FPDs are not ideally suited to this task, however, as they cannot efficiently realize common arithmetic structures such as adders, subtracters and multipliers. We have designed and implemented a custom layout for a Field Programmable Architecture that is targeted to compute intensive applications. The architecture, called the CFA, is intended to offer efficient realizations of the arithmetic structures commonly found in compute intensive applications. Preliminary results from our detailed area model show that our architecture is on average 3-4 times more area efficient than conventional FPD architectures on a set of arithmetic circuits.
Comparative study of the structural, chemical and physical properties of activated sludge floc from different full-scale wastewater treatment systems

To better understand bioflocculation and the role of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) on sludge properties, a comparative study with respect to the EPS composition, floc size and density, and ultra-structure of the floc matrix has been conducted. Four full-scale activated sludge systems treating domestic sewage, poultry processing wastes, petroleum refinery wastes and potato processing wastes were studied. The systems studied represent a range of configurations and effluents treated. The sludge properties during both functional and dysfunctional periods in one treatment system were also studied. In addition, the relation between sludge settling and EPS composition was investigated. Protein was found to be the dominant component in the extracted EPS followed by carbohydrate, DNA and acidic polysaccharide regardless of the types of wastewater and operating conditions. These four components formed a more or less constant percentage composition in the organic matrix with 77-81% protein, 11-15% carbohydrate, 4-9% DNA and 3-5% acidic polysaccharide. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Ink and liberty: Newspaper ownership concentration and freedom of the press under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees "everyone" the right to freedom of the press. The Canadian daily newspaper industry, however, is controlled by a small group of extremely powerful owners, whose control is concentrated to unprecedented levels. For much of the last half of this century, concerned voices have been asserting that this concentration threatens to diminish the vibrancy and diversity of the press, endangering the legitimacy of our democratic systems. This thesis asks whether legislated limits on the concentration of newspaper ownership would be consistent with the Charter's guarantee of freedom of the press, and concludes that it would. Emphasizing the intrinsic link between democracy and the functions of a free press, they proposes a scheme of legislation which protects and promotes a full, open, and accurate community of information and opinion, while checking the potential abuses flowing from excessive concentration of ownership.
An analysis of strategic planning practices at Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology

In the 1990s, Ontario's community colleges were faced with shifting legislative priorities, deteriorating funding and escalating demand. Many colleges adopted strategic planning techniques as a means of addressing their turbulent environments. This study combined the survey and case study method to analyse strategic planning practices employed at Ontario colleges in the context of organizational theory and the strategic planning literature. It focused on the relationship between internal factors such as size, structure and organizational culture, and environmental factors such as catchment area characteristics, government policy and applicant demand. Reviews of published college strategic plans, key informant interviews and a province-wide survey of college registrars identified that about half of Ontario's 25 community colleges were utilizing strategic planning principles as described in the literature. Three colleges were subsequently selected for in-depth research. On-site case study research at the host colleges included interviews with stakeholders involved in the process, observations of planning events and reviews of relevant documents and records. A high degree of data convergence was obtained across sources and respondent groups. Strategic planning at the colleges was characterized by limited amounts of formal environmental scanning, high levels of stakeholder involvement, low levels of conflict and an emphasis on value articulation, mission statements and broad strategic directions. External factors including catchment area characteristics, community linkages, learner profiles and competition shaped the outcomes of strategic plans. Internal factors such as organizational size and structure, process maturity and organizational culture and climate impacted on the planning processes. Government policy had a major constraining effect on the strategic options available to the colleges. All three colleges exhibited effective strategic planning processes, based on assessments of environmental relevance, stakeholder commitment and linkages to decision making. This is a particularly interesting finding in view of the fact that the three host colleges represented very different combinations of the four major institutional governance models described in the literature (bureaucracy, political federation, collegium and organized anarchy). No single governance approach appears best for strategic planning. Rather, the findings suggest that the match between planning process characteristics and organizational culture is the most significant factor in planning success.
Anglo-China, Chinese people and British rule in Hong Kong, 1841-1870

This thesis explores the relationship between colonial government and Chinese population during the troubled early decades of British rule in Hong Kong. During these years the government sought to carve a prosperous colony out of a region undergoing severe social and political crisis in conditions that contained multiple contradictions. Having acquired Hong Kong through war, the British failed initially either to find the co-operative local elites necessary to help them maintain order or to attract the wealthy Chinese merchants vital to the colony's success. Growing regional disorder in the 1850s brought to the colony substantial Chinese merchants, who established Hong Kong's viability. At the same time, rapid population increase, political tensions and rampant crime imposed severe strains on a government already notorious for incompetence and corruption. Administrators proclaimed 'equal laws' and liberal rule: yet they faced both a growing, migratory, often resistant Chinese population and a colonial community clamouring for controls on the Chinese masses. Increasingly, they transformed English methods of government into a discriminatory system of repressive controls and rough justice: prompted by successive emergencies, these measures were rationalized by what colonists explained as the dangerous, 'fluctuating', 'criminal' character of the colony's Chinese population. When, in the 1860s and 1870s, the government eventually cultivated an alliance with a settled and influential Chinese elite, it retained these measures as mechanisms for protecting the interests of both Europeans and, increasingly, the Chinese bourgeoisie. Most recent scholarship on early Hong Kong has focused on the later nineteenth century and on the dynamics within Chinese society, a traditionally neglected field. This thesis seeks to supplement that scholarship with an intensive study of Hong Kong's early, formative decades. It stresses the importance of the colonial relationship in Hong Kong's historical experience and argues for the centrality of the criminal law within that relationship. It attempts both to disturb the assumptions of traditional histories that, after some initial difficulties, British rule developed in a benevolent, progressive manner and to challenge the prevailing paradigm that these early decades were a period in which the government intervened little in the lives of Hong Kong's Chinese population.
A profile of three integrated-day Italian Heritage/International Language classes with a focus on students, final grade, classroom treatment and teacher/pedagogical issues

Eighty Italian Heritage/International Language students in three integrated extended-day classes completed questionnaires on language use and language attitude. Responses from these questionnaires indicate that there is a significant number of non-Italian language background students in these classes, making it a second language classroom comprised of Italian background students with varying L1 exposure and non-Italian language background students who are pure beginners. With regard specifically to Italian language background students, results suggest that there is an intergenerational deterioration of Italian language use with friends and siblings and consequently it is the Heritage/International Languages Program that keeps the language alive for these students within the community. Italian language background students also demonstrate a keen awareness of Italian dialects (or the home/community language) being perceived as not "real" Italian when compared to Standard Italian. Both Italian and non-Italian language background students demonstrated positive attitudes towards Italian and being taught Italian in this program. When final grade was analyzed, it was found that language background did not influence it. However, the Italian class that students were attending did influence final grade. Observations of classroom treatment underscore concerns for the need of a Italian Heritage/International Language curriculum that reflects a more communicative approach to language. When surveyed, the three teachers of these classes confirmed that the pedagogical challenges of teaching in this program should be reevaluated and that curriculum, materials and professional development meet the changing dynamics of the program.
Dissociations of egocentric and allocentric spatial memory, evidence from aging

An exploration of the animal neuropsychological, and cognitive literature suggests that there are separate representations dealing with egocentric and allocentric space. Egocentric representations reference object location to an individuals body coordinates, while allocentric representations reference location relative to other coordinates. The dissociation of these representational systems has been found in nonmemory and memory paradigms, with the strongest evidence for dissociations found for memory in animal and patient, and human infant populations. There has been some suggestion that egocentric spatial memory is spared in aging, while allocentric spatial memory declines. To overcome the difficulty of unmatched task complexity in earlier studies, we measured egocentric and allocentric spatial recall of young and elderly subjects in eight experiments, using paradigm that attempted to match task complexity as closely as possible between the two types of tasks. Paradigms included of landmarks, configurations, and routes, in order to provide converging evidence for our expected dissociation. We also included two nonmemory tasks in a separate experiment to determine if the pattern of dissociation was common to all egocentric and allocentric tasks. Our results showed that older adults tended to perform poorly in allocentric tasks that involved recall of object locations, but performed well on such egocentric tasks relative to young adults. There were some exceptions to the overall pattern of results, but these were found to be limited to nonrecall measures, and in one recall experiment in which the results could be explained by context effects. The finding of declines in allocentric spatial recall across tasks suggests that these tests tap into a common system which is likely to be centred in the hippocampus, with connections to frontal and parietal areas subserving nonmemory task components. An alternative explanation in terms of changes in egocentric and allocentric processing with age is also presented, the differences between task performance being due to the amount of elaborative encoding required by the tasks. Directions for future research suggest applications to patient populations and use of neuroimaging to clarify neural correlates of our recall tasks.