VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Health as

Theoretically informed by the regulation school perspective and using a form of discourse analysis framed as an ideological critique, this thesis makes two general arguments. The first and most general is that the popularization of social capital theory is integral to the formulation of an emergently hegemonic discourse of communitarian liberalism that, I argue, is characteristic of a new mode of regulation. The second, and somewhat more specific, argument is that the adoption of social capital into the discourse of population health produces models of health disparities that run with the grain of communitarian liberalism. I argue that the political discourse of communitarian liberalism displaces a critical 'vertical' analysis of inequality as the outcome of dynamic relations of power and structurally determined differential access to resources. It offers instead, I suggest, a 'horizontal' analysis that posits inequality as static hierarchy and that focuses on behavioural aspects of 'exclusion': 'welfare dependency', the putative erosion of civic spirit, political disengagement, epidemic cynicism, and declining levels of trust and reciprocity, at the level of the individual. Social capital provides a timely idiom through which to articulate this horizontal problematic as a new politics of 'common-sense'. I argue that social capital theory in population health gestures toward a stance that invokes the category of the social as a means of enabling more sophisticated and putatively sociological forms of analysis and explanatory models (I call this the 'left wing effect'). The endeavour is ultimately characterized, I argue, by a failure to engage with the complex interrelated contingencies of social settings---a failure rooted in the reductive epistemological orientation (the 'abstract empiricism') of epidemiology and quantitative sociology---offering instead a handful of ahistorical and ostensibly universal proxies. Ultimately, I conclude, population health models deploying the concept of social capital tend to develop explanatory narratives that are congruent with communitarian liberal discourse and which foreground characterizations of the social determinants of health in terms of an individualized (psychosocial) problematic of exclusion (for which the antidote is a sort of moral reengagement in and through virtuous civil communities) rather than critical structural or systemic characterizations.
A study of the cyclical nature of prime minister-press gallery relations 1963-1988

This paper explores the relationship between the prime minister and the media in Canada. In particular, it attempts to determine whether modern-day relations between the prime minister and the Canadian news media are characterized by recurring stages or vary, in some fundamental way, with each new prime minister. The basis for the paper is a U.S. study by Michael Grossman and Martha Kumar, in which the authors concluded that there were three distinct phases during a four-year term: an “alliance” phase; a “competitive” phase; and a period of “detachment”. The argument presented in this paper is that Grossman and Kumar's analysis can be applied to Canada, and that the same general cycle of coverage exists in Canadian politics. The first chapter focuses on Lester Pearson; the second chapter examines Pierre Trudeau's initial term in office, from 1968 to 1972, while the third chapter looks at Brian Mulroney.
K-space ranking for improved fat saturation in breast MRI

A major limitation to achieving fast imaging with breast MRI is the necessity of a fat suppression process, since the lipid signal appears bright in MRI and may otherwise be misidentified as a lesion. The goal of this document is to thoroughly discuss current methods of fat suppression, and to investigate a means to reduce scan time while still achieving effective reduction in fat signal. A method is proposed by which a specific fat suppression technique, fat saturation, is applied less frequently to save time. Within the capacity of this method, the variable parameters are investigated and optimized in an attempt to produce images with the least fat contamination in the shortest period of time. This technique is demonstrated in phantoms and in-vivo, and compared with other fat suppression techniques upon which it has advanced.
Paleomagnetism, geochemistry, and U-Pb geochronology of Proterozoic Mafic intrustions in the high Arctic: Relevance to the Nares Strait problem

The paleomagnetism, geochemistry, and geochronology of mafic intrusions in Arctic Canada and Greenland were investigated with the primary purpose of resolving the Nares Strait Problem, a controversy regarding the location of a plate boundary between Greenland and North America and the relative displacement between the two plates. E/W-trending dykes in Arctic Canada and northwest Greenland have an age of 721+/-2 Ma and are associated with the Franklin magmatic event. Their geochemistry is comparable and the mean paleopole for the Canadian dykes (5.8°N, 188°E, N=12, A95=9.9°) is broadly similar to that of the Greenlandic dykes (8.8°N, 178.7°E, N=10, A95=7.2°) indicating that they are of the same swarm, but that of the Canadian dykes is offset from that of the Greenland dykes by a direction and magnitude consistent with a sim;200 km displacement along a fault beneath Nares Strait in accordance with other lines of evidence such as dyke distribution and age boundaries in the bedrock The paleopole from the Canadian dykes is significantly different (p=0.05) from that of Franklin rocks elsewhere, suggesting rapid plate motion over the duration of magmatism. Also associated with Franklin magmatism are the N/S-trending Clarence Head dyke swarm, dated at 715+/-1 Ma, and the Thule sills, dated for the first time, at 712+/-2 Ma. Two Clarence Head dykes have been chemically remagnetized, likely as a result of fluids expelled by the Ellesmerian Orogeny. Three dykes of the Melville Bugt dyke swarm were sampled, one dated at 1622+/-4 Ma. The measured pole (6.1°N, 267.7°E, dp=2.36°, dm=3.76°) indicates that Laurentia and Baltica drifted separately at this time. Though the Melville Bugt swarm's extension was not found in Canada, a possible candidate, a dyke at Dundas Harbour, was dated at 1337+/-2 Ma, a previously unknown age of dyke emplacement in North America, with a VGP of 12.1°S, 250.8°E, dp=6.7°, dm=13.4°. This study includes the first analysis of the effects of alpha recoil in baddeleyite, which could have a strong influence on analyses of very small crystals. The effect is apparently not as significant in baddeleyite as in zircon, as the higher density of baddeleyite's crystal lattice may restrict recoil distances.
Long-time dynamics of Korteweg-de Vries solitary waves over a variable bottom

We study the dynamics of solitons of KdV-type equations arising in the theory of shallow water waves propagating over channels with variable bottom. Under a rescaling, these waves satisfy the variable bottom generalized Korteweg-de Vries (bKdV) equation part;tu = - part;x(62x u + f(u) - b(t, x)u) with f = u2 and b related to the varying channel depth. The main result of the thesis is concerned with solitary wave dynamics of the bKdV with f a general nonlinearity (modulo some constraints) and b a small, bounded and slowly varying function. We prove that under suitable conditions on b and f, the bKdV is globally well-posed. With the knowledge that solutions exist, we study the long time behaviour of solutions with initial conditions close to a stable, b = 0 solitary wave. We prove that for long time intervals, such solutions have the form of a solitary wave, whose centre and scale evolve according to a certain dynamcal law involving the function b(t, x), plus an H 1(R)-small fluctuation. As motivation, we also describe how the bKdV equation appears in the field of water waves.
Consumer and environmental factors influencing benefits and risks of fish consumption

Fish consumers change the nutrient and contaminant concentrations in fish through cooking and freezing, yet these factors have rarely been considered in risk-benefit assessments of fish consumption. This thesis presented concentrations of perfluorinated compounds and lipids in the muscle tissues of 25 commercial fish and seafood species, and examined the role of consumer practices (cooking, frozen storage) on affecting these concentrations. Baking fish for 15min at 325°F resulted in complete removal of perfluorinated compound residues in fish muscle tissue. 80 to 95% declines in total lipid concentrations occurred in five of eight fish species after one week of frozen storage in original store packaging at -20°C. Changes in lipid class proportions were observed during the freezing period; differential loss of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) occurred. Fish should be consumed fresh (unfrozen) for maximal retention of lipids, such as beneficial PUFAs.
Statistical parsing with context-free filtering grammar

Statistical parsers that simultaneously generate both phrase-structure and lexical dependency trees have been limited in two important ways: the detection of non-projective dependencies has not been integrated with other parsing decisions, or the constraints between phrase-structure and dependency structure have been overly strict. I develop context-free filtering grammar as a generalization of the more restrictive lexicalized factored parsing model, and I develop for the new grammar formalism a scoring model to resolve parsing ambiguities. I demonstrate the flexibility of the new model by implementing a, statistical parser for German, a freer-word-order language exhibiting a mixture of context-free and non-projective behaviours.
Exploring the social and risk networks of male and female injection drug users in Toronto

Background. Injection drug users (IDUs) are at increased risk for contracting bloodborne infections. Individually focussed interventions have led to risk reductions but do not recognize that risk occurs within relationships. Network based interventions may add to harm reduction strategies that prevent the transmission of blood borne infections. To be able to develop effective interventions requires knowledge about IDUs' networks and the impact of networks on behaviour. Conclusions. While network-based prevention strategies may provide an additional level of harm reduction for injection drug users, programs should consider the differential impact of networks on male and female injection drug users and take these differences into consideration when designing effective strategies. Methods. A convenience sample of 150 IDU (75 males and 75 females) from the city of Toronto was interviewed in 2004. Participants were recruited through a number of sources and from across the city in an effort to include a diverse cross section. Respondents were asked a series of questions about themselves, their drug use and their risk behaviours. Drug, sex and support networks were elicited and questions about each contact were asked. Analyses at the participant level were logistic regression models that adjusted for confounding variables. Analysis at the level of the dyad involved hierarchical models that adjusted for data dependencies using generalized estimating equations with repeated measures corrections. Analyses were gender-stratified. Results. The analysis of network characteristics showed significant associations with risk participation, however male and female IDUs were not affected in the same way by their networks. While female IDUs rates of reporting participation in risk behaviours were affected by the inclusion of supportive, close drug relationships, male injectors seem to be most affected by the number of drug contacts that they had, their participation in the drug economy and their own levels of drug use. This suggests that women who inject drugs may be more readily influenced by their networks than male injectors. Objective. This thesis will describe the gender differences in the associations between egocentric network characteristics (size, multiplexity (relationship overlap), 'closeness') and injection risk behaviours (receptive needle sharing, sharing of injection paraphernalia and syringe mediated sharing).
Picking up the pieces: Examining the long term effects of family separation on Pinay migrant mothers and adult daughters

The Philippines is considered one of the largest organized exporters of human labour in the world. Currently, the outflow of migrant workers from the Philippines to over 190 countries across the globe has left over nine million children without parents. This means that over nine million children have personally experienced the trauma of family separation. To understand the devastating long-term consequences of separation on Filipino families, I take as my case study three Pinay mothers who have migrated to Canada under the Foreign Domestic Movement and their adult daughters. The key purpose of this thesis is to open up a deeper discussion around family separation and reunification amongst Pinays who have settled in Canada. It is intended to push the boundaries of what we may already know or think we know about Filipina women in Canada, thereby establishing a more nuanced and heterogeneous understanding of Pinay lives.

Keywords: Filipinos, Family relationships
Filipinos, Family relationships
Filipinos, Canada
Filipinos, Attitudes
Filipinos, Canada
Separation (Psychology)
Mothers and daughters
Emigration and immigration, Psychological aspects
Adult children
Inter-generic genomic library transfer into Arabidopsis thaliana identifies a NAC gene involved in cell expansion

Molecular screens in Arabidopsis thaliana have typically relied on the limits of genetic variation found within this species. Here I report a novel trans-generic screen designed to identify loci that cause obvious morphological effects when transferred into A. thaliana. A genomic library was created from Sisymbrium officinale and a shotgun transformation approach was used to move these fragments into A. thaliana. Six mutants were isolated from this screen. Phenotypes include upcurled leaves, a thick stem, or early flowering. Of the six lines identified, one, exhibiting a short internode phenotype, was characterized further. Confocal imaging shows that reduced cell expansion in the internodes accounts for most of the phenotype. The transferred genomic fragment contains a NAC transcription factor homologous to ANAC003, ANAC004, and ANAC005 from A. thaliana. Future work on this line will give insight into the molecular biology of cell expansion and the evolution of NAC transcription factors.
A case study of the university training programme - Non-commissioned members of the Royal Military College of Canada

This is a case study of a professional development programme in the form of an adult education university programme at the Royal Military College (RMC) of Canada. The participants of the study are members or former members of the University Training Plan Non Commissioned Members (UTPNCM) or are university professors or administrators of RMC. The University Training Plan for Non Commissioned Members is an unique education programme. It allows Non Commissioned Members (NCM) of the Canadian Forces (CF) to attain a university degree and upon graduation gain a Queen's Commission in the CF at the rank of junior officer. The thesis also reviews the field of Adult Education and the philosophical basis for the independent study of adult students. Andragogy (Knowles, 1980) and adult learning principles (Macheracher, 2004) are discussed as they relate to the adult students of the UTPNCM. The thesis study explores the participants' perceptions of their experience of being adult students while remaining full time members of the CF. The academic duties of the adult students together with the military requirements of the programme were explored in the effects that these had as barriers to the success of the individuals in the programme. The Cross (1981) Barriers to Education Model was employed to describe the dispositional, situational and institutional barriers faced by the UTPNCM students as they experienced the various demands of the programme. The possibility of the UTPNCM programme as a Transformative Learning experience as described by Mezirow (1991) was discussed and the role of Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR) in the programme was reviewed. The participants were asked to describe their own experiences within the programme and they highlighted areas of concern in their interviews, which were the primary investigating tool of the case study. Participants discussed the pressure of the demand of being adult students on their various family units; the challenges of participating in the programme under the Four Pillar Model of curriculum at RMC; and the demands of Second Language Training (SLT) at RMC.
An ethic of care in relation to leadership style and women heads of independent girls' schools in Canada

I speculated at the outset of this research that the Human Resource frame would be most consistent with leadership practice guided by an ethic of care. The findings, however, indicate that while all the participants were caring in their practice as defined by Shogan, they were divided almost equally in their dominant use of the Human Resource and Structural frames. A further analysis of the care and leadership data, however, revealed that, without exception, those who resolved dilemmas using direct care also favoured the Human Resource leadership frame. Those who used dutiful care, sometimes equated with an ethic of justice, favoured the Structural frame. While the pattern of findings is provocative, this is a very small sample that does not allow for generalizations beyond this group. A meaningful next step would be a more in-depth look at the ethical practice of one or more women heads of school. The purpose of this study was to document the experiences of ten women heads of independent girls' schools in Canada for evidence of an ethic of care, as defined by Shogan (1988), as they reflected on how they resolved dilemmas. It is inquiry undertaken from the standpoint of women, and was designed to add to the limited knowledge base that addresses the feminine strand of relational leadership. An ethic of care is a fundamental attribute of the feminine strand of relational leadership. The selection of women, as the participants for this research, is based on a body of empirical research which suggests that women often cite reasons associated with an ethic of care or relations in support of their moral positions. While there is much to suggest that the context of independent girls' schools would be supportive of an ethic of care, there is also research that suggests that there are broader pressures or contradictions within a culture or context that create a paradox for women who may want to practice an ethic of care. Bolman and Deal's (1992) typology of leadership provided the framework needed to take into consideration the impact on practice of the independent school context.

Keywords: Educational leadership, Canada
Private schools, Canada
Women, Education
Women, Canada
Caring
Women school principals, Attitudes
Women school principals, Canada
Recognizing change: a program for the reform of the taxation of the third sector in Canada

This paper argues that Canadian tax law should be reformed in order to encourage engagement by the third sector in the political arena, both domestically and internationally, and, specifically, that: (1) the deduction for contributions to third sector organizations should be limited to the deduction that is allowed, if any, for contributions to political parties; (2) any government funding for services provided by third sector organizations should be transparent; and (3) the income tax exemption should be available to third sector organizations engaged in non-partisan political activities, both domestically and internationally; but (4) income from directly-conducted business activities of third sector organizations should (as in the United States, but not as proposed in the U.K.) be taxed.

Keywords: Charitable uses, trusts, and foundations, Taxation
Charitable uses, trusts, and foundations, Canada
Taxation, Law and legislation
Taxation, Canada
The wrong shoe and other misfits: fiction writing as reflexive inquiry within a private girls school

Writing fiction is a relentless reflexive process that demands an immediate saturated experience of language and context. My thesis focuses on fiction writing as a form of research practice. I emphasize the significance of fiction writing as an act of inquiry and not merely a form of representation. I examine possible philosophical frameworks for recommending fiction as an ethically sound, embodied form of inquiry. The thesis is comprised of three distinct parts. The first recounts the research journey and lists possible criteria for evaluating the work. I outline the process of character development and appraise various strategies for embedding both thematic and personal narratives in a plot-structured fiction. Revisioned concepts such as rigor, authenticity, and empathy are analyzed through the lens of arts-informed inquiry. The second part of the thesis is a novel entitled The gravy chronicles. The story features a researcher in pursuit of a critical methodology in her encounter with a private girls' school. She witnesses the silencing of dissenting teacher voices within the conservative school culture, and pursues forms of artful resistance towards the regulative regimes of truth and tradition. The novel examines research delusions of self-enclosure and community coherence and the traps of reciprocal (mis)recognition in educational inquiry. Issues around sameness and asymmetry in the intersubjective construction of self, other, and community are shown to be operating on multiple levels within the narrative. Questions of outsider privilege and ethical alterity are addressed through plot and narrative technique. The third part of the thesis offers a detailed reflection on narrative technique and the nature of aesthetic judgement, relating these to hermeneutic issues of language and interpretation. The role of authorship and personal signature is juxtaposed against the politics of anonymity and supposed neutrality. Writing and performative language are seen to mediate the construction of community and the experience of alienation within the school context.
Towards understanding the functions of the GroEL and ClpX chaperone systems in Escherichia coli

Molecular chaperones are proteins that assist in folding, refolding, disaggregation, or degradation of other proteins in the cell. This thesis includes studies of two bacterial chaperones, GroEL, which mediates protein folding, and ClpX, which mediates protein unfolding and directs proteins for degradation by ClpP. GroEL has previously been implicated in the refolding of the multisubunit bacterial RNA polymerase (RNAP). I found that GroEL was not essential for the refolding of the alpha and o subunits of RNAP. Previous studies have indicated that the N-terminal Zinc Binding Domain (ZBD) of ClpX is involved in substrate recognition. Using degradation assays and competition studies, I found that the ZBD of ClpX is important for recognizing a certain set of substrates. Placement of an N-terminal tag on ClpX results in cleavage of that tag in the presence of ClpP and ATP. This suggests that a conformational change takes place in ClpX involving the ZBD.