VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Separate Estates: A Case Study Analysis of Competency Assessment Processes among Clinicians in a Canadian Academic Hospital

This study examined competence and competency assessment of regulated health professionals (RHPs) through a case study approach that utilized the Boyatzis model of effective performance. In order to explore how competency assessment was enacted and understood, and how RHPs perceived and experienced competency assessment in a large Canadian academic hospital, the study used three sources of data: key informant interviews (n=19), focus group interviews (n=32), and a review of organizational documents. Participants included RHPs, managers, directors, executives, and other non-health participants, such as human resources professionals. Data were analyzed inductively using Braun and Clark’s (2006) theoretical thematic analysis, and deductively using Hsieh and Shannon’s (2005) directed content analysis, all in NVivo Version 11 for Windows. Data revealed the absence of common language for competence across the hospital’s RHP participants. Participants referred to regulatory concepts and competency frameworks when asked to define and describe competence or competency assessment in the hospital setting. At the same time, a strong organizational rhetoric around excellence was evident, as was frequent commentary on incompetence. There was little discussion on RHPs who fell between excellence and incompetence. When describing organizational competency assessment processes, participants were equivocal about what was assessed and whether this assessment focused on organizational values or practice competencies. Fundamental differences in competency assessment processes exist for unionized RHP employees, non-unionized RHP employees and appointed physicians who were not employees, creating a situation of “separate estates”. These estates made interprofessional collaboration difficult by reinforcing uniprofessional perspectives, preventing organizational level discussions of competence and limiting the organization’s ability to harmonize processes across RHPs. Competence did not feature as a prominent concern for most participants who expressed the view that as long as the individual remained in good standing with their regulatory body, competency was not a matter of organizational concern. Recommendations call for healthcare organizations to implement best practice approaches to competency assessment across all RHPs; to establish congruence between organizational and regulatory assessments of competence; and to align assessment language between healthcare workplaces and regulatory bodies in order to facilitate meaningful discussions concerning competence in the practice setting and address the issue of “separate estates”.

Keywords: Boyatzis model of effective performance
competence
competency assessment
interprofessional collaboration
professional dynamics
qualitative case study
Advisor: Nelson, Sioban
Career Learning and Adaptability among Professional Immigrants in the Context of Retraining

This qualitative study used grounded theory methods to better understand the ways in which professional immigrants learn and adapt in their careers within the context of career retraining. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 84 participants (50 males and 34 females). The results of the data analysis revealed three overarching themes: learning about self (learning about one’s personality, career preferences and interests), learning about work environment (learning about regulations, expectations and work culture in Canada), and marketing self within current context (networking, developing a competitive resume, learning interview skills). These overarching themes interacted bi-directionally with one other, and with social interconnectedness and expanding self. Social interconnectedness refers to the finding that participants received valuable information from others in their community, and expanding self reflects changes in identity and thinking patterns. Learning about work environment and learning about self directly affected the process by which participants lost and regained a sense of confidence and competence (rediscovering self). Knowing self (knowing one’s strengths, interests, and skills) helped participants effectively market themselves to employers. Finally, willingness to start over was central to participants’ career development journey in Canada. This theme reflected participants’ openness to retrain, begin with an entry-level position, take responsibility for desired changes, and make necessary compromises. A new model has been developed based on these results: The Learning and Adaptability Model of Career after Relocation. These results inform policy making for government-sponsored support programs for immigrants and are important for helping professionals who work with professional immigrants and others who are adjusting to a new career environment. Suggestions for future research on career learning and adaptability for professional immigrants are presented.

Keywords: adaptability
career development
immigrant
learning
professional immigrants
retraining
Advisor: Chen, Charles P
The Properties and Functional Significance of Error-related Electromyographic Activity over the Corrugator Supercilii for the Study of Error Monitoring, Error Awareness, and Race

The ability to monitor and adjust for errors in performance is critical for navigating work and social life in the modern world. This thesis investigated the functional significance and psychometric properties of a new psychophysiological measure that may be important for research on error monitoring: error-related electromyographic activity over the corrugator supercilii muscle (cEMG). In line with open science principles, this thesis makes all data available online, reports its studies and analyses in chronological order, and completely discloses the history and reasoning behind its methodological decisions. Study 1 showed that in a common error monitoring task, cEMG was not correlated with the error-related negativity (ERN), an early neural signal related to negative affect and adaptive processing, but was positively correlated with the error positivity (Pe), a later neural signal that tracks orienting and error awareness. Study 2 investigated the psychometric properties of cEMG and found that 14 error trials were necessary to obtain a stable and reliable signal. Study 3 used a modified error awareness task to directly examine cEMG’s relationship to error awareness, the race of stimuli, and the motivation to respond without racial prejudice. It found that (1) the late component of cEMG was sensitive to error awareness but the early component was not, (2) cEMG was unexpectedly not correlated with the Pe, and (3) cEMG was not related to variation in either the race of stimuli or the motivation to respond without prejudice. Together, this thesis shows the potential for cEMG to be used as a reliable measure of error awareness but highlights the complexities of the signal’s measurement and the need for more basic studies to evaluate its function and structure. This thesis also illustrates the challenges and importance of applying open science principles in psychological research following the replication crisis.

Keywords: affect
corrugator
effort
emotion
ERN
error monitoring
Advisor: Inzlicht, Michael
Length of Elements in a Minkowski Basis for an Order in a Number Field (or a ring of integers of a number field)

Suppose K is a number field of degree n, and R is an order in K with discriminant D. If K has r real embeddings and s pairs of complex embeddings (r + 2s = n) then we can look at R as a lattice in Rr × Cs. We call the length of elements of R their Euclidean length in Rr × Cs and denote it by |.|. Let v1 = 1, v2,..., vn be a Minkowski basis for R. We are interested in the asymptotic lengths of these vi's for a family of orders with arbitrarily large disriminant D. By the theory of Minkowski bases we have that 1 ≤ |v2| ≤ ... ≤ |vn| and ∏ni=1 |vi| ~ |D|½ and by Bhargava, et. al., (2013), we also know that |vn| << |D|1/n. We say a family of orders have Minkowski type δ2,..., δn if each members of the family have a Minkowski basis of the form v1 = 1, v2,..., vn with |vi| ~ |D|δi for each i, where D is the (arbitrarily large) discriminant. In the thesis, we are interested in possible Minkowski types. The first question is: Can we find sufficient and necessary bounds on some {\bf rational} numbers δ2,..., δn such that there is a family of orders in number fields having Minkowski type δ2,..., δn? We already know some necessary conditions: δ2 ≤ ... ≤ δn and δ2+...+\δn = ½ by Minkowski basis theory, and δn ≤ 1/n by Bhargava, et. al., (2013). We prove that bounds of the form δk << δi + δj for each i + j = k + 1 are sufficient bounds, and if K has no non trivial subfield, some of these bounds are actually necessary. In particular, for n = 3, 4, 5, 6, we prove that all these bounds are necessary. The second question is: For some fixed δ2,...δn, "how many" orders in number fields have Minkowski type δ2,...,δn. We will make sense of what we mean by "how many" using the Delone-Faddeev correspondence (n = 3), and the correspondence of Bhargava (n = 4, 5). Using these correspondences and counting, we are also able to give a sieving argument to count those orders that are maximal (and therefore are ring of integers of number fields).

Keywords: Bhargava's Correspondence
Delone-Fadeeve Correspondence
Lattice
Minkowski Basis
Number Theory
Orders in Number Fields
Advisor: Tsimerman, Jacob
A Case Study of Teaching Styles at One Ontario College

The purpose of this case study was to explore, describe, and compare the teaching styles practiced by faculty members at Loyalist College (permission to name received) with those articulated in college documents, and espoused by academic deans and faculty. This exploratory descriptive study focused on the practiced teaching styles as self-reported by participating faculty at Loyalist College, compared to the formally espoused approach to teaching adult learners at this College. Furthermore, this research identified trends of practiced teaching styles of participating faculty regarding their demographic profile, educational philosophy, and level of participation in professional development activities. To explore, describe, analyze and compare the approach to teaching adult learners at Loyalist College, a mixed method design was utilized through college document analysis, the use of interviews and Conti’s (1982) Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS) survey. The quantitative data identified that participating faculty at Loyalist College scored an overall teacher-centred practice, but upon deeper analysis, scores indicated a commitment to a practice that is closer to both teacher and learner-centred. The qualitative data analysis identified that college documents, academic deans and participating faculty espouse more of a learner-centred compared to teacher-centred approach to teaching adult learners at Loyalist College. Comparatively, in ranking of scores, an increased teacher-centred practice was the most popular teaching style (n=15); a very strong learner-centred practice was next (n=8); four faculty identified a very strong teacher-centred teaching style and the same number identified an increased learner-centred approach; finally, one faculty identified an extreme learner-centred approach and one faculty identified an eclectic practice. No faculty at Loyalist College identified an extreme teacher-centred practice. Although the majority of participating faculty were teacher-centred, the scores also indicated a commitment to learner-centred practices. Twenty (60.6%) of participating faculty scored within one standard deviation. Although the findings of this research are not generalizable, they may have implications for practice, policy and further research to incorporate best practices in teaching adult learners at Loyalist College and possibly even the Ontario College system.

Keywords: Adult Learning
Learner-centred
Teacher-centred
Teaching Styles
Advisor: Janzen, Katharine
Quantum Information Approaches to Quantum Gravity

In this thesis we apply techniques from quantum information theory to study quantum gravity within the framework of the anti-de Sitter / conformal field theory correspondence (AdS/CFT). A great deal of interest has arisen around how quantum information ideas in CFT translate to geometric features of the quantum gravitational theory in AdS. Through AdS/CFT, progress has been made in understanding the structure of entanglement in quantum field theories, and in how gravitational physics can emerge from these structures. However, this understanding is far from complete and will require the development of new tools to quantify correlations in CFT. This thesis presents refinements of a duality between operator product expansion (OPE) blocks in the CFT, giving the contribution of a conformal family to the OPE, and geodesic integrated fields in AdS which are diffeomorphism invariant quantities. This duality was originally discovered in the maximally symmetric setting of pure AdS dual to the CFT ground state. In less symmetric states the duality must be modified. Working with excited states within AdS3/CFT2, this thesis shows how the OPE block decomposes into more fine-grained CFT observables that are dual to AdS fields integrated over non-minimal geodesics. These constructions are presented for several classes of asymptotically AdS spacetimes. Additionally, this thesis contains results on the dynamics of entanglement measures for general quantum systems, not necessarily confined to quantum gravity. The quantification of quantum correlations is the main objective of quantum information theory, and it is crucial to understand how they are generated dynamically. Results are presented for the family of quantum Renyi entropies and entanglement negativity. Renyi entropies are studied for general dynamics by imposing special initial conditions. Around pure, separable initial states, all Renyi entropies grow with the same timescale at leading, and next-to-leading order. For negativity, mathematical tools are developed for the differentiation of non-analytic matrix functions with respect to constrained arguments. These tools are used to construct analytic expressions for derivatives of negativity. We establish bounds on the rate of change of state distinguishability under arbitrary dynamics, and the rate of entanglement growth for closed systems.

Keywords: AdS/CFT
High Energy Physics
Quantum Entanglement
Quantum Gravity
Quantum Information Theory
String Theory
Advisor: Peet, A.W.
Ambiguous Endings: A Feminist Sociological Approach to Women’s Stories of Discontinuing Medical Fertility Treatment in Canada

This dissertation problematizes the dominant cultural view that assisted reproductive technologies (ART), such as in vitro fertilization and intrauterine insemination, are highly successful medical treatments that produce ‘miracle babies’. I preface this study by outlining the landscape of fertility clinics and ART legislation in Canada, emphasizing the murkiness of Canada’s data on ART use and efficacy. I then use a post-structural feminist theoretical lens to focus on women’s experiences of discontinuing medical fertility treatment in Canada. I interviewed 22 women who received various forms of fertility treatment in Canada and who were at various stages in relation to treatment (e.g. on a temporary break from treatment, left treatment indefinitely, had yet to decide whether to initiate treatment after a diagnosis). Using a sociological form of narrative analysis, I analyzed these stories and co-constructed eight narrative themes. Through these eight narrative themes, I demonstrate two things: first, that there are multifaceted ways in which women engage these technologies and ultimately leave, and secondly, that there are implicit gendered power relations at work within the fertility clinic that may make it more difficult for women to leave treatment when it is financially, emotionally, and physically beneficial for them to do so. I highlight the stories of these women and their differing life circumstances, including women across a broad age range (approximately 25 to 50 years of age), two women in self-identified queer relationships, and women with varying degrees of financial security, to elucidate the ambiguous character of ending treatment-- an experience that is often marginalized in the public-facing view of fertility treatment as a highly positive scientific innovation. Out of my interpretations I make eight recommendations for health providers, stakeholders and policymakers to improve fertility care in Canada and to make the experience of medical fertility treatment less physically, emotionally and financially distressing for users.

Keywords: assisted reproductive technology
feminist theory
fertility
narrative inquiry
qualitative research
women's health
Advisor: Webster, Fiona
The Politics of Foreign Borrowing in Middle Income Countries

Middle Income Countries (MICs) can use either official development finance or private markets when borrowing abroad. Each of these options provide different benefits and costs. How do MICs decide which option to prioritize? Why do MIC borrowing preferences vary? This study develops and tests a theory of partisan external borrowing preferences in MICs. Controlling for global and national economic conditions, right governments are more likely to use official financing while left governments are more likely to use private financing. The only time this is not the case is when there is an exceptionally large deficit, forcing the MIC to use creditors they would not otherwise. Fractioned regression and panel data models test the argument quantitatively, while four country case studies of Thailand, South Africa, Botswana, and Peru trace and illustrate the causal process. Explaining why borrowing preferences systematically vary across MICs has policy and theoretical implications with respect to debt sustainability, policy autonomy, and international financial relations in developing countries. Politically constrained borrowing also signals that transparency is essential for effective debt management in finance ministries.

Keywords: Comparative Political Economy
Development
International Development
International Political Economy
Public Debt
Advisor: Manger, Mark
Pauly, Louis
Transmedial Ghosts: Paranormal Investigation from Photography to YouTube

Paranormal investigation has been a narrative preoccupation within horror films for quite some time, yet the context of the 21st century and the rise of digitization have raised renewed questions concerning the evidentiary status of audio-visual technologies and their capacity for revelation. In exploring the ways in which paranormal investigation has figured within contemporary horror, this dissertation argues that the inherent ghostly qualities of film, television, video, and the Internet are exploited in diverse ways, figuring the medium itself as a spectral conduit. This spectrality manifests itself differently from medium to medium, highlighting unique articulations of haunting across media. As such, paranormal investigation in contemporary horror situates the ghost as a transmedial figure, one that exhibits unique medium-specific degrees of haunting depending upon its mode of visualization. In presenting differing instantiations of haunting within distinct media forms, paranormal investigation presents us with a composite image of current understandings of the ontology of the ghost as well as a reflexive analysis of the revelatory role of contemporary media. This investigative enterprise betrays a desire to visualize the imperceptible, an epistephilic drive to bring the supernatural within the bounds of knowledge. At the same time, paranormal investigation demonstrates a persistent investment in media as compensatory vision, in their ability to access and document that which escapes our perceptive capabilities.

Keywords: Film Theory
Ghosts
Haunting
Horror Film
Intermediality
Spectrality
Advisor: Keil, Charlie
Empowering Children Through a Global Education Reading Program

This 19-year global education curriculum project was conducted by a Canadian researcher in solidarity with a Tanzanian women’s rights activist who requested assistance with her campaign to end the continued illegal practice of female circumcision in her village. Years of fundraising, researching and planning resulted in filling a primary school with multicultural children’s literature to be used in a daily global reading program from grades one to seven. During the seven years of teacher training and curriculum implementation workshops in Tanzania involving global education and holistic education principles, the teachers expressed their shock over the unprecedented openness and critical thinking of their students. The students developed a keen awareness of social justice issues through their daily reading and book talks. By the upper grades, the male and female students articulated their stance against female circumcision without controversy, as though it was common knowledge that this was an illegal and unacceptable practice. Additionally, the students scored top results on their graduating national exams. The intent of the project was not to improve standardized testing results of the most disadvantaged, rural students and HIV orphans. This was a positive side-effect of the transformative powers of storytelling in the lives of children who are now better equipped to think critically about illegal, harmful cultural practices.

Keywords: Female Circumcision
Global Education
Holistic Education
Multicultural Children's Literature
Reading Program
Tanzania
Advisor: McDougall, Doug
Generation of a New Model for RB1-deficient Pineoblastoma and Lysosome-based Therapy

Pineoblastoma is a WHO IV tumour of the pineal gland affecting primarily children. Five-year overall survival (OS) is 54%, and this level significantly drops to 15% in children ≤ 5 years old. Thus, there is an urgent need to understand the biology of pineoblastoma and identify therapeutic targets to improve OS and quality of life. Germline mutations in RB1 have been implicated in the etiology of pineoblastoma. Patients with familial retinoblastoma, which carry RB1-germline mutation, develop pineoblastoma, termed “trilateral retinoblastoma”. Here, I used a WAP-Cre transgenic line to inactivate murine Rb and p53 in the pineal gland, and showed that WAP-Cre:Rbflox/flox:p53flox/flox and WAP-Cre:Rbflox/flox:p53LSLR270H/flox mice develop pineoblastoma with 100% penetrance. These tumours readily metastasized to leptomeningeal surfaces of brain and spinal cord. Rb/p53-deficient pineoblastomas exhibited features of human pineoblastoma including pleomorphic nuclei, scant cytoplasm and rosettes structures. Furthermore, transcriptome analysis revealed that Rb/p53-deficient pineoblastomas clustered close to human pineoblastoma. In silico drug screens using Connectivity map drug perturbation signatures identified several cationic amphiphilic drugs including nortriptyline as top candidate drugs against Rb/p53-deficient pineoblastomas. Nortriptyline suppressed tumour growth in vitro and in vivo, and synergized with gemcitabine, an anti-neoplastic drug currently used in clinics to effectively kill pineoblastoma in preclinical models. Nortriptyline induced lysosomal membrane permeability leading to secretion of cathepsin B into cytosol and inhibition of autophagic flux. This study describes novel mouse models that spontaneously form pineoblastoma and identifies nortriptyline as a potential new therapeutic for patients with pineoblastoma.

Keywords: Mouse model
p53
Pineoblastoma
Rb
Advisor: Zacksenhaus, Eldad