VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Time, place, suburbia: landscape and meaning in the St. Croix Valley

In the St. Croix Valley, the eastern hinterlands of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, neotraditional subdivisions, rural clusters, large-lot rural sprawl, and tourist-oriented small town main streets are proliferating, often in reaction against what are seen as characterless modernist suburbs. These places are investigated as representative of a “new fringe,” one characterized by fragmentation, confusion, and contradictions in the landscape. Building on the foundations of humanistic geography, an ethnographic sense of place is employed, along with interviews and the analysis of documents and plans, to uncover the meanings of this new fringe. Specific landscapes are analyzed and themes of authenticity and placelessness emerge from the data. The postmodernist landscapes of the new fringe present us with a kind of placelessness, ironically one based on a superficial emphasis on geographic difference in the landscape. Criteria of authenticity, long used by geographers in the study of landscapes, become increasingly irrelevant in landscapes that idealize the act of symbolizing more than the content of any such symbols. At the same time, when we incorporate culture into our analysis, we are forced to interpret these same landscapes as authentic in that they are honest reflections of culture. The landscapes of the new fringe, which, despite attempts to capture qualities of rurality (in rural clusters, for example) or urbanity (in New Urbanism, for example), generally fail to present an experience that is anything other than suburban, and so can be interpreted as a kind of suburbanization of the suburbs. In contradiction to traditional classification schemes in human geography, which rely on land use, social, or architectural criteria when modeling spatial processes, meaning ought to be incorporated into our models of metropolitan areas. The landscapes of the St. Croix valley and the dominance of suburbia as a cultural signifier suggest the need to retheorize the relationship between landscape and culture. This analysis draws on theories from the philosophy of science which suggest the importance of assigning agency to the material landscape itself when we account for landscape change in the St. Croix Valley and when we account for suburbanization more generally.
Errorless social skills training for children with antisocial behaviour

This research project evaluated the use of a graduated, non-coercive, and success-focused approach to social skills training, Errorless Social Skills Training (ESST), with children exhibiting school-based antisocial behaviour. A multiple baseline across groups design was used to evaluate treatment effects. Following a baseline period during which children were observed in an unstructured play situation, ESST was implemented with 8 children, in two groups f 4, during supported play sessions. The current study included 2 representative children, one from each group, who demonstrated severe problem behaviour during baseline. Results indicated improvement in socially appropriate behaviour and reductions of antisocial behaviour during and following treatment. These effects were maintained over a 1-month follow-up period. ESST may provide a non-coercive and success-focused alternative to traditional forms of social skills training to reduce aberrant behaviour while promoting child cooperation and adequate social interactions.

Keywords: Problem children
Behavior disorders in children, Treatment
Social skills, Study and teaching
Child psychopathology
Munazza's story: understanding science teaching and conceptions of the nature of science in Pakistan through a life history study

In this study I have described and tried to comprehend how a female science teacher understands her practice. Additionally, I have developed some understanding of her understanding of the nature of science. While teaching science, a teacher projects messages about the nature of science that can be captured by observations and interviews. Furthermore, the manner is which a teacher conceptualizes science for teaching, at least in part, depends on personal life experiences. Hence, I have used the life history method to understand Munazza's practice. Munazza is a young female science teacher working in a private, co-educational school for children from middle income families in Karachi, Pakistan. Her stories are central to the study, and I have represented them using a number of narrative devices. I have woven in my own stories too, to illustrate my perspective as a researcher. The data includes 13 life history interviews and many informal conversations with Munazza, observations of science teaching in classes seven and eight, and interviews with other science teachers and administrative staff of the school. Munazza's personal biography and experiences of school and undergraduate courses has influenced the way she teaches. It has also influenced the way she does not teach. She was not inspired by her science teachers, so she has tried not to teach the way she was taught science. Contextual factors, her conception of preparation for teaching as preparation for subject content and the tension that she faces in balancing care and control in her classroom are some factors that influence her teaching. Munazza believes that science is a stable, superior and value-free way of knowing. In trying to understand the natural world, observations come first, which give reliable information about the world leading inductively to a “theory”. Hence, she relies a great deal on demonstrations in the class where students “see” for themselves and abstract the scientific concept from the activity. I believe this inquiry is significant because it has led to a better understanding of a science teacher's practice and her conceptions of the nature of science in a school in Pakistan. Moreover, the study has utilized research methods that advocates a more equitable researcher-researched relationship.

Keywords: Science, Study and teaching
Science, Pakistan
Science, Study and teaching
Science teachers, Pakistan
Cognitive learning
Experiential learning
Experiential world inventory
On-chip broadband tuner design for cable modem and digital CATV

The primary goal of this thesis is to research the systems and the circuits required to implement a cable modem tuner on a CMOS chip. A new double-conversion, low-IF architecture, which implements a tuner on a chip, is presented in this thesis. In this receiver, a low-power, area-efficient digital filter is used to achieve 60dB adjacent channel rejection. A new, adaptive, analog-digital image-reject (IR) technique that improves the image-rejection ratio (IRR) to 59dB is also used. Therefore, high-Q, off chip SAW filters are not required for signal selection and image rejection. The analog blocks of the proposed analog-digital IR solution are implemented on a 0.18mum CMOS chip. The required digital blocks are implemented on a nonintegrated field programmable gate array (FPGA) chip. The performance of the fabricated chip is measured, including IRR, voltage gain (Gv), noise figure (NF), and 3rd-order input intercept point (IIP3). The measurement results verify that the fabricated chip meets or exceeds the requirements of a cable modem receiver. The fabricated chip consumes 75mW from a 1.8V supply and occupies 2.25mm2 of silicon area. In the context of image rejection, two new IR solutions for quadrature receivers are proposed. The first one is an analog-digital, adaptive IR solution that detects the mismatches in the digital domain and corrects the phase and the amplitude mismatches in the analog and the digital domains respectively. Measurements show that this IR solution improves the IRR for a single tone and a 16PAM signal to 59dB and 57dB respectively. The second IR solution is a fully digital, decision-based, adaptive technique for QAM receivers. The technique uses the received symbols and their decisions to generate two simple error signals that are proportional to the mismatches. These error signals are used to correct the mismatches in the digital domain. Simulations show that an IRR of 59dB is achieved for a 256QAM signal.
Strategies and successes in influencing education policy change: a case study of the Tanzanian Education Network (TEN/MET)

Civil society networks have emerged as potentially important actors in the education policy of Southern countries since the new millennium. This thesis explores the Tanzanian Education Network's (TEN/MET) ability to successfully impact education policies and policy structures in Tanzania. It documents key examples of the network's policy influence in education. Drawing on civil society network and social movement theorists, the thesis explores both intra-network and relational strategies TEN/MET used to affect change. Three stand out among them: the leveraging of a common voice, the iterative use of complementary and contentious relations in the domestic sphere, and the leveraging of international pressure to affect change domestically, also known as boomerang strategy.
An evaluation of healing in critical sized rabbit calvarial defects using modified bone substitutes

Limitations of autogenous bone have led to the development of bone substitutes. This study evaluated whether the use of LactosorbRTM and/or calcium phosphate cements as carriers for these osteoinductive materials would allow for bone regenerative. This investigation attempted to address the issues of providing immediate protection of the brain while at the same time allowing for progressive filling of the defect with bone using two strategies. The combination of Lactosorb RTM and DBM putty demonstrated defect closure identical to the autogenous bone control group. These results suggest that these novel combinations of bone regenerative substitutes have the ability to replace our dependence on autogenous bone grafting. Thirty rabbits were divided into 3 groups. Group 1 had autogenous bone placed in one defect while the other defect remained unfilled. Group 2 had one defect filled with DBM putty and the other remained empty while a Lactosorb RTM covered both defects. Group 3 had MimixRTM, a calcium phosphate cement, placed in one defect while the other was filled with CPC/BMP.
General visual and visual-orthographic skills in learning to read Chinese characters

Chinese orthography consists of visually complex characters, which leads to the belief that visual processing is important. This study examined the extent to which general visual and visual-orthographic skills predicted children's. Chinese character reading in China and Canada. Participants were 122 children in China and 93 children in Canada from kindergarten to Grade 2. General visual skills were measured with three subtests of the Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills (TVPS)-Revised (Gardner, 1996). Visual-orthographic skills were measured by three visual-orthographic (VO) experimental tasks. Children were also tested on character reading, rapid digit naming, phonological awareness and phonological strategy use. The study showed children in China outperformed their Canadian counterparts in visual-orthographic processing, but not in general visual processing. Compared with general visual skills, visual-orthographic skills were a better predictor of Chinese character reading. Further, the importance of visual skills in predicting character reading decreased from kindergarten to Grade 2.

Keywords: Chinese characters
Visual perception
Visual perception in children, China
Visual perception in children, Canada
Chinese language, Study and teaching (Primary)
Chinese language, China
Chinese language, Study and teaching (Primary)
Chinese language, Canada
Reading (Primary), China
Reading (Primary), Canada
"Who am I becoming?" Self-concept and the phases of engulfment in individuals with first episode schizophrenia

Young adults recovering from a first episode of schizophrenia (FES) are vulnerable to negative changes in self-concept as they incorporate mental illness into their identity. Engulfment theory describes the impact of illness on self-concept as a three-phase process. This secondary analysis assessed differences in self-concept across the three phases of engulfment in 45 individuals hospitalized for FES. Overall self-concept scores and personal, academic/work and physical subscale self-concept scores differed significantly between early and late phases, but not in the middle phase. Education and social activity were significantly and negatively correlated with engulfment scores; and volunteer activity was significantly and positively associated with overall self-concept, suggesting that education, social activity and volunteering may act as protective factors. Relatively low self-concept scores compared to normative data suggest that FES may have a dramatic impact on self-concept or that individuals may possess a diminished sense of self prior to the onset of illness.
Surface tension of pulmonary surfactant systems

Pulmonary surfactant facilitates respiration by reducing the surface tension in the alveoli. To study the surface activity of pulmonary surfactant films under physiologically relevant conditions, several experimental methods were developed to measure surfactant film interfacial tension with Axisymmetric Drop Shape Analysis (ADSA). Using a pendant drop method, the film formation of a therapeutic pulmonary surfactant, Bovine Lipid Extract Surfactant (BLES), was studied as a function of surfactant bulk concentration. It was found that the rate of surfactant film formation is strongly dependent on its bulk concentration. The addition of dextran, poly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) and poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) in low concentration BLES significantly increases its rate of film formation. The effect of these polymeric additives is dependent on both polymer concentration and molecular weight, and can be explained by the depletion-attraction mechanism. For each polymer of a given molecular weight, there is an optimum concentration at which the effect of the polymer is the most significant. Inhibition of BLES by bovine serum albumin was investigated. In the presence of albumin, the surface activity of BLES is significantly hindered. Albumin competes with BLES during film formation, causing high film surface tension and reduced film stability. By promoting surfactant adsorption, the polymeric additives prevent surfactant inhibition by albumin. Using a captive bubble method, a surfactant film stability study was performed as functions of compression ratio, compression rate and surfactant bulk concentration. When the compression ratio is relatively low (i.e.
Disruption of glycogen synthase kinase-3[Beta] in mice

GSK-3 is a serine/threonine protein kinase that acts as a negative component in the Wnt pathway which is important for embryonic development and cell fate determination. GSK-3 also participates in the PKB pathway that regulates glycogen/protein synthesis, and apoptosis prevention. Highly conserved GSK-3 homologues have been identified in all the eukaryotic species examined. In mammals, GSK-3α and GSK-3β have been found. Insight into the physiological functions of GSK-3 has emerged from genetic analysis in Drosophila, Xenopus, Dictyostelium, and yeast in which GSK-3 is involved in many developmental and cell fate determination processes. To investigate the functions of GSK-3β in mammals, GSK-3β knockout mice are generated. Characterization of GSK-3β−/− mice indicates that disruption of GSK-3β causes embryonic lethality due to hepatocyte apoptosis, a phenotype similar to mice lacking genes involved in the activation of NF-κB. GSK-3β−/− embryos can be rescued by inhibition of TNFα using an anti-TNFα antibody. Rescue of embryonic lethality of GSK-3β−/− mice by inactivation of TNFR1 further suggests that hepatocyte apoptosis in GSK-3β−/− embryos is caused by TNFα toxicity, which is prevented by NF-KB-mediated anti-apoptosic actions of TNFα during normal liver development. Consistent with this, GSK-3β −/− EF cells are hypersensitive to TNFα-induced apoptosis and show reduced NF-κB function. Lithium treatment which inhibits GSK-3 sensitizes wild type EF cells to TNFα and inhibits transactivation of NF-κB. Early steps to NF-κB activation are unaffected by GSK-3β disruption, indicating that GSK-3β is required in a critical later step which is important for the nuclear activity of the NF-κB complex. Ubiquitous and equal expression of GSK-3α and GSK-3β during mice embryonic development indicates that prevention of TNFα-induced apoptosis through activation of NF-κB is a unique function of GSK-3β that GSK-3α can't rescue. Failure to observe any Wnt type embryonic developmental phenotypes in GSK-3β−/− embryos is likely due to functional redundancy between GSK-3α and GSK-3β. This can be explained by the fact that disruption of GSK-3β doesn't cause enough increase in β-catenin levels to significantly disturb the Wnt signalling in both GSK-3β−/− ES cells and embryos.
Grain size effect on monotonic and cyclic deformation responses of electroformed copper with ultrafine and nano sized twins

Refining of grain sizes is one of the most powerful tools for achieving enhanced properties and performance in polycrystalline metallic materials. It has been found that, by reducing the grain size to ultrafine and nano ranges, the strength of the materials can be significantly enhanced. However, interpretation of the influence of the grain size on the mechanical behaviour of this kind of materials is still in its infancy. Especially, as the grain size falls in these regions, conventional dislocation model is subjected to contradictory experimental results. A wide spread of the applications of these materials is hindered due to the lack of validated models. To develop the present understanding, a novel energy approach is attempted, in which deformation process was treated as an energetic process. This energy approach is experimentally tested and theoretically investigated. The experimental investigation includes mechanical response characterization and microstructure investigation. It was found that, with decreasing grain size, the static deformation mechanism appears to transform from lower hardening stage to higher stage. Similarly, the cyclic deformation mode also exhibits corresponding characteristics shifting. Such transitions are attributed to the material's internal energy increases with the decrease of the grain size, leading to the following conclusions: (1) A novel view on cyclic hardening, cyclic softening and cyclic creep in relation to the strain energy of the material is synthesized, based on which a microstructure evolution law is derived. (2) Quantitative grading of grain size is enabled for the first time. According to the presented grading method, the size of the ultrafine grain is equal to the critical grain size at which the energetic transition condition from Stage III hardening to Stage IV hardening is satisfied. (3) An original interpretation of the physical meaning for Hall-Petch constant is provided. The Hall-Petch slope constant is found to be proportional to grain boundary surface energy. Hence, as the grain boundary type of materials is changed to low energy boundaries, a decrease in the constant could be predicted.
Making the invisible/visible: creating a discourse on black queer youth

This thesis investigates the formation of black Canadian queer youth identity by drawing on narratives of five self-identified black queer youth, who are members of the Black Queer Youth initiative (BQY) a social and recreational group, funded and housed by the queer youth organization Supporting Our Youth (SOY). I examine what black queer youth identity means to BQY members and how they strategize and negotiate their multiple identities within the context of coming out and sites of socialization such as: families, faiths, schools and the internet. I also explore how the social space of BQY provides a context for identity development of it members. I suggest the complex and shifting positions which black queer youth occupy provides us with a way of thinking about how they make sense of their identities.

Keywords: Gay youth, Ontario
Homophobia, Ontario
Identity (Psychology) in youth, Ontario
Youth, Black, Ontario
Racism, Ontario
CSP-PLANa closer look at planing as a CSP

In this thesis we examine the approach of encoding planning problems as CSPs more closely. First we present a simple CSP encoding for planning problems and then a set of transformations that can be used to eliminate variables and add new constraints to the encoding. We show that our transformations uncover additional structure in the planning problem that subsumes the structure uncovered by GRAPHPLAN planning graphs. We solve the CSP encoded planning problem by using standard CSP algorithms. Empirical evidence is presented to validate the effectiveness of this approach to solving planning problems, and to show that even a prototype implementation is more effective than standard GRAPHPLAN. Our prototype is even competitive with far more optimized planning graph based implementations. We also demonstrate that this approach can be more easily lifted to more complex types of planning than can planning graphs. In particular, we show that the approach can be easily extended to planning with resources.
Sensorimotor function in persons who stutter: evidence for a kinesthetic deficit

Stuttering is a significant communication disorder that appears to involve an oral sensorimotor deficit. The purpose of the current research was to assess sensorimotor control processes in persons who stutter (PWS), in particular whether PWS show a deficiency in oral kinesthesia. Because intact kinesthesia is essential for movement control, a kinesthetic deficit could contribute to the aberrant speech movement coordination observed in stuttering. Previous research has suggested that PWS demonstrate poorer oral kinesthetic resolution (De Nil & Abbs, 1991). The studies reported herein are an extension of this previous research to more complex oral movements. In the first study, subjects were required to make accurate jaw-opening movements to a spatial target. In the non-visual condition, where accuracy is largely dependent on kinesthesia, the movements of the PWS were significantly less accurate and more variable than those of control subjects. In the second experiment, masseter tendon vibration was applied on a randomized basis during the same accuracy-oriented jaw movement task. Both the stuttering and control groups showed a movement undershoot effect in the tendon vibration condition, which conforms to numerous studies of limb kinesthesia, and indicates that kinesthesia contributes to the control of jaw movements. In the last experiment, kinesthetic control over a multi-articulatory oral movement task was investigated by instructing subjects to initiate phonation as their jaw-opening movement passed through a spatial target. Control speakers showed accurate and consistent coordination of phonation onset with respect to jaw amplitude, while the PWS showed significantly higher error and variability. The cumulative findings indicate that PWS are less effective than nonstuttering speakers in using kinesthesia for oral movement control. While task novelty, attention, or efferent deficiencies may have influenced performance, a kinesthetic interpretation of the present results is not excluded. A multi-factorial framework for stuttering is proposed that recognizes the potential influence of cognitive, linguistic, and developmental factors on stuttering, but prominent weighting is placed on anomalous sensorimotor control. Based on the present findings, it is argued that theoretical models and empirical research should recognize the important role of oral sensorimotor mechanisms in the etiology, development, and remediation of stuttering.