VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Portuguese-Canadians and academic underachievement, a community-based participatory research project

For decades, Portuguese-Canadian children in Toronto have been underachieving in disproportionate numbers. Yet, little scholarly attention has been focussed on this group. Existing educational studies have been limited to school practices. They have not examined the larger-world social, cultural, political and economic context in which Portuguese-Canadians, live, nor its influence on their education. These have also failed to seek out the opinions of Luso-Canadians or ground their findings on existing research on minority underachievement. The present study utilized a participatory-research, community-development approach to describe the important issues which are affecting Luso-Canadians. Comprising a first-ever, nation-wide needs assessment of Luso-Canadians, this 3-year project was entirely developed, realized and disseminated by community members. Data was collected from the 1991 census, 18 focus groups were conducted across Canada by local volunteers and a 14-page survey was distributed to community associations, churches and media. The results showed that Luso-Canadians have substantially lower education and average income levels than other immigrants. Participants identified education issues as having greatest importance for their community, particularly the lack of English or French, the academic underachievement of youth and a lack of participation in job retraining. They also described the ways in which the Portuguese in Canada are educationally, economically, socially, culturally and politically marginalized and detailed how these limitations contribute to the underachievement problem. Finally, they discussed the roles of community, parental and mainstream attitudes in perpetuating these issues. Ultimately, a picture has emerged of a community which is facing the twin prospects of ' social reproduction'--where disproportionate numbers of young people are entering the marginalized socioeconomic roles of their parents--and ' cultural annihilation', in the smaller and more remote communities, due to language loss. This study also illustrated how the prevailing theory of minority underachievement John Ogbu's "Cultural-Ecological Theory of School Performance," (Caste Theory) fails to account for the academic difficulties of Portuguese-Canadians. These are best explained by the ideas of Paulo Freire, which describe the dynamics between dominant and subordinate societal groups. The pedagogical implications of adopting a "Freireian" approach to underachievement might shift the focus of educational strategies from simply decrying educational barriers to developing the capacity of Luso-Canadians to recognize and overcome their "limit-situations."
Dante nel cinema dal muto al digitale

"From 1911 to 1914 the industry developed with astounding rapidity. The film [ ... ] grew in length. But the most sensational pictures now began to come from Europe and had considerable influence on the American producers". Paul Rotha wrote these words in 1929, the same year that sound was added to the moving image. Starting from this context, I have tried to establish the role that Dante Alighieri and 'La Divina Commedia' played in the story. Searching through film archives and old, almost untouched, press clippings, in American and Italian libraries, I have focused on a cluster of Dantean films, produced in Milan and near Rome. First and foremost, is the 'Inferno' by Milano Films, which premiered in Naples, on March 1st, 1911. It was applauded for months and months in the United States (and in Europe) and circulated until 1925. A 'Purgatory ' by Helios Film, based in Velletri (Rome), and a 'Paradise ' by Psiche Films, in Albano Laziale (Rome), completed a Dantean trilogy which triumphed in the world. Because not even Italian experts appear always fully aware of the significant influence that Dante had on their film industry--and, most likely, on some American productions--I have tried to assemble as much evidence as possible about the "enabling" energies of Dante's "producerly" text on films of those early years. I have found conspicuous evidence of how, in turn, those films were "enablers" for film production in the following decades. From the 1911 "silent" 'Inferno', to the 1998 "digital" 'What Dreams May Come', Dante has always been present in the world of the moving image--including television and videocassettes--albeit in different guises: powerful "national bard", comically degraded jester, edifying teacher of moral values and even inspirer of "maestri" like Pasolini and Fellini. The core of my thesis deals with material that has only very recently received any substantial attention. Much more work needs to be done in this area. Because of this, my thesis at times reads like a "work in progress", or even like a "mystery story" constrained (often with difficulty), within the conventions of scholarly writing.
pH homeostasis of the Golgi complex and endoplasmic reticulum

Very little is understood about the ionic composition of the two major compartments of the secretory pathway, the Golgi complex and the endoplasmic reticulum. This has been largely due to the relative inaccessibility of these compartments to exogenous probes, as the favoured direction of flow of membrane and fluid phase components in the secretory system is in the exocytic direction. The main objective of this thesis was to generate a better understanding of the determinants of acid-base regulation in the secretory pathway of the mammalian cell with additional focus on the intracellular role of cystic fibrosis in regulating organellar pH. To begin with, the methods required for the non-invasive and continuous measurement of the luminal pH of the Golgi and endoplasmic reticulum were developed using fluorescently labeled bacterial toxins which could traffic retrogradely through the secretory pathway. The Golgi complex was found to be a mildly acidic organelle acidified primarily by the vacuolar ATPase. In contrast, the ER was neutral and had a high permeability to protons (and/or equivalents) which demonstrated the indirect regulation of pH ER by plasmalemmal acid-base transporters. The "defective acidification theory" was unsupported by measurements made of Golgi pH of mouse pancreatic and salivary epithelium taken from normal and CFTR-null mice as no significant differences were seen within the matched pairs. The harnessing of bacterial toxins for the study of ionic homeostasis has produced and will continue to produce important insights into the regulation of organellar pH.
Victims or vandals, teachers' perceptions of confrontational defiant, oppositional students

This thesis is an account of the experiences of eight elementary school teachers and their perceptions of their own practice in working with students who display behaviour that interferes with their ability to teach. Pre and post self-report measures are compared between the treatment group (N = 8), after experiencing a ten week (once-per-week) Victimless Teaching (VT) treatment program, and a comparison group (N = 24) who did not receive the treatment. The VT program uses both attributional training and classroom management skills as its foundation. A qualitative component was used to gain additional data about the effect the VT program had on the treatment group immediately following the training, and one year later. There was a significant influence of the VT program on the teachers' self-efficacy ratings. Interview data confirmed and expanded the nature of this influence through the teachers' testimony. The implication of the program for inservice and preservice teacher training is discussed in the context of the study's limitations.
Francesco Algarotti and Francesco Milizia, architectural and dramatic theorists of the Italian Enlightenment

In the early part of the eighteenth century, in Venice, Carlo Lodoli, a scholar-priest, established an early argument for functionalism in art with his call for a general reform of the architectural design practices of his day. There has been much debate, in light of the French hegemony in theories of art during the period, as to the originality of Lodoli's concepts. Among Lodoli's many disciples stand two, Francesco Algarotti (1712–64) and Francesco Milizia (1725–98), both of whom became famous for their interpretations and applications of Lodoli's functionalist approach in a number of treatises published throughout the middle of the century. The similarities in, and far-reaching success of their treatises, argues for the existence and importance of a school of thought that can be considered representative of the Italian Enlightenment. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the ways in which Algarotti and Milizia applied a new functionalist artistic criticism to what they perceived as one of their society's oldest and most important institutions: the theatre. Both men viewed the representational qualities inherent in the arts as something vital to the well-being of society and, in their respective treatises, Saggio sopra l'opera in musica (1755) and Del Teatro (1772), they brought their architecturally conceived sense of order to bear on analyses of the theatre as a physical space and as an event. This thesis analyzes Algarotti's and Milizia's dissection of the theatre event and their creation of rules meant to guide the process of design and production thereby returning the practice of theatre to its original function of creating utility and pleasure.
Laboring women, a historical, sociological, and comparative analysis of Afro-Caribbean women's economic roles in three islands

This study investigates aspects of the economic history of working, peasant, and lower-middle class Afro-Caribbean women in three Anglophone islands over two centuries, from the late eighteenth century to the late twentieth century, with a substantive focus on the last century (approximately 1890-1990). The islands, Jamaica, Barbados and Dominica, represent variations of "plantation colony." The investigation deploys a concept of women's "re/productive status," referring to their role combination across the spheres of family-reproduction and goods-production, and uses the establishment of the historical origins of this status during slavery as a springboard from which to examine the evolution of non-elite women's post-emancipation economic roles. This examination focuses on changing occupational and employment patterns with respect to structural and intergenerational mobility and peripheral-capitalist development. Family and schooling, as the most significant correlates of goods-production, employment and occupation, provide a secondary focus for the dissertation. From the vantage-point of its integrated perspective, the study also contributes to a critical reading of several scholarly works on Caribbean economy and society. The expository technique of the dissertation is based on a mix of historical narrative and historical sociology, produced from an analysis of primary and secondary sources.
A reliability model for systems undergoing remanufacture

Remanufacture offers significant economic and ecological advantages over other end-of-life options. There exists a need for integrating remanufacturing considerations with traditional design assessments in order to make better tradeoffs between complex sets of design objectives. In this context, the evaluation of life cycle cost for systems undergoing remanufacture is the objective of this thesis. A novel repairable-system reliability model that allows system modifications is developed to describe systems undergoing remanufacture. Explicit expressions of the relationships between remanufacture and life cycle cost are obtained based on the indices of the reliability model. The stochastic behavior of the reliability model is investigated to facilitate life-cycle cost estimation. It is proven theoretically that the replacement process with system modifications reaches steady state, behaving like a Homogeneous Poisson Process with a constant hazard rate. Explicit expressions for the reliability indices at steady state are obtained. Computer simulation is proposed in this thesis as a tool to predict the replacement-process settling time early at the design stage in order to investigate the relationship between this settling time and factors that affect it, i.e., the failure density function and the repair policy. An approximate representation of the settling time function is obtained by non-linear regression analysis. The reliability model is modified to accommodate population size changes in the replacement process. The effects of two types of disturbances, pulse or continuous, on the replacement rate behavior are studied. A real-life example is presented for analysis of part population replacement process under continuous disturbance. It is noted that, although a simulation using the reliability model proposed in this thesis may not yield the exact replacement rate at one specific time, the error bound on this estimation is acceptable. Conclusions of this work and recommendations for future work are discussed at the end of the thesis.
Continuous UV irradiation process for producing low-creep polyethylene

The effect of processing variables on continuous uv irradiation cross-linking of polyethylene, (and to a much lesser extent, polystyrene) was investigated. The process included extrusion, melt drawing for orientation, and finally uv irradiation. Benzophenone (BP) was used as a photoinitiator and triallyl cyanurate (TAC) as a cross-linking agent. Creep reduction in the final product was the performance property of interest. Three specific objectives were accomplished: development and assessment of experimental techniques needed for the investigation; assessment of the effect of processing variables on unoriented polymer rod where flexural creep reduction is desired; and assessment of the effect of processing variables on oriented polymer wire where tensile creep reduction is desired. The experimental techniques developed and assessed included: continuous uv irradiation; methods of measuring gel content, cross-link density and additive concentration; extrusion for additive incorporation; methods for both flexural and tensile creep measurement. A factorial experiment was used to screen irradiation variables. Unoriented polymer rods were extruded and irradiated. These included rods of polyethylene and polystyrene. The above mentioned experimental techniques were applied with the flexural creep performance property being a primary interest. Extruded, oriented and uv irradiated polyethylene wire was examined using the above mentioned experimental techniques. Five different types of high density polyethylene were included. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
A phenomenology of dramatic dialogue

The purpose of this thesis is to formulate a theory of dramatic dialogue, not as an object whose meaning is self-contained in the text and whose identity as speech event is found in its material structure, but as an object that reaches out of the text towards an extra-textual semantic fulfillment as the subjectively lived experience of the perceiver under whose gaze it unfolds. I discuss the fundamental structure of that experience as an intentional implication of the textual form of dialogue. To this effect I make use of phenomenology both as a method for eliminating all possible obstacles to intelligibility, and as a philosophy of the essence of all immanently experienced phenomena. Accordingly, my thesis has three sections: (a) a critique of theories of dialogue based on the premise of semantic autonomy from the perceiver (especially, but not exclusively, semiotic and structuralist theories), (b) a phenomenology of dramatic dialogue in the semantic field of the act of reading, (c) a phenomenology of dramatic dialogue as constituted by a spectator in the theatre.
The dopamine D1C receptor, expansion and origin of the dopamine D1 receptor family

Dopamine D1 receptors are implicated in several neuronal processes including motivation, reward, cognition and working memory. To date, two D1-like receptors that activate the same second messenger system, the D1/D1A and D5/D1B receptors, have been isolated from mammals. The heterogeneity of dopamine D1 receptor-mediated events, however, may not be completely reconciled by the presence of only two dopamine D1-like receptors, as biochemical, behavioural and pharmacological data have alluded to the existence of other putative subtypes. This work provides direct molecular evidence for the existence of at least three distinct D1-like receptor genes, termed D1A, D1B and D1C, from a number of nonmammalian vertebrate species. These were classified on the basis of phylogenetic, molecular, pharmacological, and functional criteria. While all three subtypes stimulated the ac cumulation of cAMP in expressed cells, D1A, D1B and D1C receptor chimeras in which the highly divergent carboxyl termini were interchanged revealed a modulatory influence of this domain in determining functional responsiveness. The evolutionary emergence and expansion of the D1-like receptor gene family were further investigated from representatives of early diverging phyla. The isolation of an adenylyl-cyclase activating dopamine receptor from Drosophila melanogaster with poor affinity for classical D1-like benzazepine agents indicates that high affinity benzazepine pharmacology arose after the separation of vertebrates and invertebrates. The characterization of a D1-like receptor from amphioxus, a cephalochordate and sister species to vertebrates, indicates that the gene duplication event leading to D1-like diversity occurred with the appearance of early vertebrates. These studies have provided insight into the molecular phylogenetic history and diversity of the dopamine D1-like receptor family. More importantly, the cloning of the D1C receptor lends strong support to the contention that additional D1-like receptor gene products 0may be present in mammals which allow for the expression of the full spectrum of dopamine D1-like receptor mediated events.
The association between breast cancer and exposure to chemicals capable of altering the metabolism of 17ß-estradiol

ß17-Estradiol is metabolized into 2-methoxyestrone (2-ME), a weak estrogen, by cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2) and estriol, a potent estrogen, by CYP3A4. Increasing the production of 2-ME and decreasing estriol production can decrease total estrogen. Metabolite production can be manipulated by altering the activity of the cytochrome P450 enzymes. Caffeine, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and indole-3-carbinol can induce CYP1A2 while naringenin can inhibit CYP3A4. This study investigated these exposures individually and in pairs to assess whether they would be protective for breast cancer. The effect of these exposures was also measured separately for tumors with estrogen and progesterone receptors and those without these receptors. 747 breast cancer cases were compared with 743 population controls from the Ontario component of the Enhanced Cancer Surveillance Project. These exposures were not found to be protective for breast cancer either individually or in pairs and there was no significant protection in tumors with estrogen and progesterone receptors.
Class encounters of the third kind, bridging the gap between the knowledge of academic insiders and academic outsiders about our universities, in the era of the de-class-ification of Western academic knowledge

Traditionally, one of the implicit, central, functions of Western universities has been that of social-class maintenance. In general, Western university students came from middle-class backgrounds and, when they left university, assumed middle-class roles within society. At present, in keeping with the ongoing shift towards a postmodern ethos within Western society, including within Western universities, it seems likely that many, I if not most, Western university students no longer subscribe to traditional, substantialist, conceptions of social class (such as Marx's theory of social class), let alone subscribe to traditional middle-class views. Nevertheless, the notion that those who attend university necessarily either possess in advance, or acquire in the course of their university educations, such views apparently is still quite prevalent today among those who are not familiar with the philosophical changes that have been occurring within our universities in recent decades--including even among those who themselves are likely to possess postmodern perspectives. Based on my own experience, this gap in knowledge may have serious adverse effects on the relations of present-day Western university students and recent graduates who possess postmodern perspectives with others, including even members of their own families. This work is designed to help bridge this gap, with the hope of remedying some of these adverse effects. The work comprises two major interwoven elements. The first of these elements is an overview of changes that have occurred within our universities in recent decades, beginning in the Sixties, focusing on the increased diversification of the Western academic "Family" during this period and associated philosophical change, especially at the underlying structural level. Three groups are singled out as having made the most significant contribution to this philosophical change: feminists, members of visible minorities, and mid-career students. The second of these elements is letters addressed to members of my own family, focusing on my experiences as a university student from a "working-class" background at the dawn of the postmodern era.