VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Facing the Glass Wall: The Effects of Perceived Characteristics of Career Boundaries on Immigrant Professional Identity Salience and Career Outcomes

The present study examines the effects of characteristics of perceived career boundaries (permeability, stability, legitimacy) on immigrant professionals’ subjective career outcomes in a longitudinal design. Based on social identity theory framework, I propose a model that examines how immigrant professionals’ perceptions of career boundaries influence two important areas for establishing a satisfying career and successful social integration in Canada: (1) perceptions of career-based success (career satisfaction and career anxiety) and (2) subjective well-being (life satisfaction and regret for immigrating to Canada). I further propose that perceptions of career boundaries act on subjective career outcomes through the quality of employment individuals obtained and the salience of immigrant professional identity. Perceived characteristics were assessed (N = 227) at Time 1, and measures of subjective career outcomes, employment quality, and immigrant professional identity salience were obtained (N = 101) at Time 2, six months later. In addition to the survey study, 12 immigrant professionals were interviewed for an in-depth understanding of the career experiences of immigrant professionals and immigrant professional identity salience. The longitudinal design of the study provides support for the temporal dimension of perceived characteristics; immigrant professionals’ initial perceptions about the career boundaries still predicted their beliefs about career-based success and subjective well-being six months later. Also, the findings provided some support for the mediating effects of employment quality and immigrant professional identity salience on the relationship between perceived characteristics and subjective career outcomes. This study sheds light on the relationship between the perceptions formed by immigrant professionals of the obstacles that they face in integrating into their new labour market, the employment decisions they take, and the impact this has on their sense of career and life well-being. It also reveals the way in which subjects invoke the intersectional identity of “immigrant professional” as a result of their experiences, and of the effect that this has on them. The findings can inform the practice of the various parties assisting the integration of immigrant professionals into the workforce, an ever-growing and not well-understood group of workers that populate many of today’s workplaces.

Keywords: career boundaries
immigrant
Advisor: Gunz, Hugh P.
Process Evaluation of the Evidence-based Practice Identification and Change Intervention to Improve Neonatal Pain Practices

Pain management in hospitalized infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit continues to be substandard despite the development and availability of evidence-based guidelines. The Evidence-based Practice Identification and Change (Lee et al., 2009) strategy is a multifaceted tailored intervention that has been used to promote evidence-based practice. However, the process of delivering the components of the intervention is not well understood and no valid measure for evaluating the fidelity of intervention implementation exists. The overall objective was to develop and determine the face validity, content validity, construct validity, feasibility, and clinical utility of the Process Evaluation Checklist. Three prospective studies were conducted. In Study 1, the face and content validity of the Process Evaluation Checklist was determined. In Study 2, the construct validity of the Process Evaluation Checklist was examined by assessing the fidelity of implementing the Evidence-based Practice Identification and Change intervention in a clinical setting. In Study 3, the feasibility and clinical utility of the Process Evaluation Checklist was determined. Overall, the face and content validity of the Process Evaluation Checklist was achieved. The intervention was implemented with high fidelity, supporting the construct validity of the measure. A Research Practice Council, with assistance from an external facilitator and internal facilitators, implemented multifaceted knowledge translation strategies in the form of constant reminders to improve sucrose administration practices. Post intervention admission orders were significantly more likely to include sucrose, and odds of being administered sucrose were 13 times greater compared to baseline. Beginning support was provided for the content and construct validity, feasibility, and clinical utility of the Process Evaluation Checklist for use with complex interventions. Using this measure to monitor intervention fidelity in different contexts and with different users over longer periods of time will provide additional support to the validity of the Process Evaluation Checklist.

Keywords: process evaluation, intervention fidelity, Evidence-Based Practice Identification and Change intervention, measurement, content validity, construct validity, knowledge translation, infants, pain
Advisor: Stevens, Bonnie
Interface Plasmon Polariton Waveguides and Sensors

Consider a nearest neighbour random walk Xn on the d-regular tree Td, where d ≥ 3, conditioned on Xn = X0. This is known as the random walk bridge. We derive Gaussianlike tail bounds for the return probabilities of the random walk bridge on the scale of n1/2. This contrasts with the case of the unconditioned random walk, where Gaussian-like tail bounds exists on the scale of n. We introduce the notion of the infinite bridge, which is known to arise as the distributional limit of the random walk bridge. We also establish some preliminary facts about the infinite bridge. By showing that the Brownian Continuum Random Tree (BCRT) is characterized by its random self-similarity property, we prove that the range of the random walk bridge converges in distribution to the BCRT when rescaled by Cn–1/2 for an appropriate constant C.

Keywords: Plasmonics
Optics
Microfluidic
Advisor: Aitchison, J. Stewart
Three-dimensional Immobilization of Proteins within Agarose Hydrogels using Two-photon Chemistry

Three-dimensional biomolecule patterned hydrogels provide cellular microenvironments that mimic in vivo conditions. We are particularly interested in the fabrication of materials to spatially control stem cell differentiation towards the creation of tissue analogues. To this end, we have designed a 3D protein patterning system where differentiation factors were immobilized within distinct volumes through two-photon chemistry, which provides 3D control since the excitation volume is limited to the focal point of the laser. Agarose hydrogels were modified with 6-bromo-7-hydroxy-coumarin (Bhc) protected amines or thiols, which upon two-photon excitation are deprotected in defined volumes yielding reactive amines or thiols. Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) was immobilized onto agarose-thiol-Bhc through either disulfide bond formation with agarose thiols or the physical interaction between human serum albumin (HSA) and the albumin binding domain (ABD). The use of biological binding pairs also provides mild immobilization conditions, minimizing the risk for bioactivity loss. Similarly, two differentiation factors for retinal stem progenitor cells were simultaneously immobilized: 1) ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF); and 2) N-terminal sonic hedgehog (SHH). Maleimide modified binding proteins, such as maleimide-streptavidin; react with exposed thiols, yielding 3D patterns of covalently immobilized streptavidin in agarose hydrogels. Growth factors are then introduced as fusion proteins with binding domains, such as biotin-CNTF, for complexation and thus 3D immobilization. By combining multiple binding systems with two-photon patterning, we were able to simultaneously 3D immobilize proteins towards the creation biomimetic hydrogels.

Keywords: 3D patterning
Protein immobilization
Advisor: Shoichet, Molly
Emergent Ordinaries at Walter Reed Army Medical Center: An Ethnography of Extra/Ordinary Encounter

Based on a year of ethnographic fieldwork, this dissertation explores the inextricable relationship of the ordinary and extraordinary which characterizes the lives of U.S. soldiers severely injured in Iraq and Afghanistan and rehabilitating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. in 2007-2008. Living among their fellows and families at Walter Reed, the precariousness which marks injured soldiers’ bodies and lives takes on a feeling of ordinariness. And though these injured soldiers and their families do not quite coalesce into a community, their shared experience of being in common with each other—of sharing Walter Reed’s particular and precarious ordinary—helps make life there bearable. Through a poetics of the extra/ordinary I explore how injured soldiers’ ordinariness bristles against inescapable invocations of patriotic sacrifice; the ways soldiers’ everyday movements are marked by being post-traumatic; and the reconfigurations of intimate social relations and masculinity such experiences occasion and out of which the possibilities and limits of a future life emerge. I show that in this moment of life—one which unfolds in a space saturated with narratives of heroic patriotic sacrifice and histories of war and the remaking of men—ordinariness becomes central to injured soldiers’ current experiences and also to the future selves and social configurations they are oriented towards. I demonstrate how injured soldiers’ lives are also always attached to something that exceeds the ordinary; that they are extra/ordinary. But I argue that such extra/ordinariness is an amplification of life’s less notable uncertainties; that all lives are extra/ordinary. Against the over-determining frames of heroism and trauma within which U.S. soldiers are figured, especially in post-9/11 America, I argue that injured U.S. soldiers’ experiences are neither simply knowable, nor unimaginable but recognizable as specifically tethered to, commensurable with, and distinguished from, more ‘ordinary’ others.

Keywords: Soldiers
United States
Violence
Medical Anthropology
War
Masculinity
Ordinary
War on Terror
Advisor: Sanders, Todd
Kalmar, Ivan
Thermal Stability of Nanocrystalline Copper for Potential Use in Printed Wiring Board Applicatoins

Copper is a widely used conductor in the manufacture of printed wiring boards (PWB). The trends in miniaturization of electronic devices create increasing challenges to all electronic industries. In particular PWB manufacturers face great challenges because the increasing demands in greater performance and device miniaturization pose enormous difficulties in manufacturing and product reliability. Nanocrystalline and ultrafine grain copper can potentially offer increased reliability and functionality of the PWB due to the increases in strength and achievable wiring density by reduction in grain size. The first part of this thesis is concerned with the synthesis and characterization of nanocrystalline and ultra-fine grain-sized copper for potential applications in the PWB industry. Nanocrystalline copper with different amounts of sulfur impurities (25- 230ppm) and grain sizes (31-49nm) were produced and their hardness, electrical resistivity and etchability were determined. To study the thermal stability of nanocrystalline copper, differential scanning calorimetry and isothermal heat treatments combined with electron microscopy techniques for microstructural analysis were used. Differential scanning calorimetry was chosen to continuously monitor the grain growth process in the temperature range from 40C to 400C. During isothermal annealing experiments samples were annealed at 23C, 100C and 300C to study various potential thermal issues for these materials in PWB applications such as the long-term room temperature thermal stability as well as for temperature excursions above the operation temperature and peak temperature exposure during the PWB manufacturing process. From all annealing experiments the various grain growth events and the overall stability of these materials were analyzed in terms of driving and dragging forces. Experimental evidence is presented which shows that the overall thermal stability, grain boundary character and texture evolution of copper is greatly related to changes in driving and dragging forces, which in turn, are strongly depended on parameters such as annealing temperature and time, total sulfur impurity content and the distribution of the impurities within the material. It was shown that a simple increase in the sulfur impurity level does not necessarily improve the thermal stability of nanocrystalline copper.

Keywords: thermal stability
nanocrystalline
Advisor: Erb, Uwe
The Role of PtdIns(4,5)P2 during Cytokinesis in Drosophila Spermatocytes

Cytokinesis, the final step of cell division, is characterized by formation of a cleavage furrow that ingresses to separate the cell into two daughter cells. This process requires rearrangement of the cytoskeleton and addition of membrane to the growing furrow. The phospholipid phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate [PtdIns(4,5)P2] has been implicated in regulating both actin dynamics and membrane trafficking and, thus, is uniquely poised to coordinate these different processes during cytokinesis. In this study, I show that PtdIns(4,5)P2 is involved in another aspect of cytokinesis: regulation of actomyosin contractility. Perturbing PtdIns(4,5)P2 levels in Drosophila spermatocytes caused constriction to fail and cleavage furrows to regress. Moreover, PtdIns(4,5)P2 hydrolysis is implicated in this process: inhibiting PLC or IP3R or chelating Ca2+ also caused defects in furrow ingression. In addition, I show that PLC and MLCK activities are required for myosin light chain phosphorylation and for proper myosin and actin localization to the cleavage furrow. Thus, I propose a model in which PtdIns(4,5)P2 hydrolysis-dependent Ca2+ release activates MLCK via Ca2+/calmodulin to maintain myosin filaments in the contractile ring and regulate cleavage furrow ingression. Furthermore, I show that PtdIns(4,5)P2 has a role in maintaining contractile ring components in the cleavage furrow that does not depend on PtdIns(4,5)P2 hydrolysis. I conclude that PtdIns(4,5)P2 regulates myosin contractility through a PLC-dependent pathway leading to myosin phosphorylation and is also involved in localizing contractile ring components to the furrow. Thus, PtdIns(4,5)P2 may coordinate signals leading to cytoskeleton rearrangement and actomyosin contractility during cytokinesis.

Keywords: PIP2
cytokinesis
phospholipid
cleavage
Advisor: Brill, Julie
Effects of Early Thyroid Hormone Deficiency on Autobiographical Memory and Hippocampal Structure and Function during Late Childhood and Early Adolescence

The hippocampus, which is a critical brain region for episodic autobiographical memory (AM), is particularly vulnerable to damage following periods of early thyroid hormone (TH) deficiency. Although numerous studies have examined AM performance in adult patients with hippocampal damage, no study has yet examined AM in children exposed to early TH deficiency, such as children with congenital hypothyroidism (CH) and offspring of women who were hypothyroid during pregnancy (HYPO). Given that both animal and human studies have shown that early TH deficiency results in significant hippocampal abnormalities and memory impairments, the purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the effects of early TH deficiency on AM and hippocampal structure and function during childhood. Study I examined AM performance in a large sample of typically developing children and adolescents in order to validate the use of the newly-developed Children’s Autobiographical Interview (CAI). In Study II, the CAI was used to investigate AM performance in children with early TH deficiency (i.e., CH and HYPO groups). Similar to the findings observed in adults with hippocampal damage, CH and HYPO groups both exhibited weaknesses in episodic AM, but not semantic AM, relative to controls. In addition, structural MRI revealed mild bilateral hippocampal volume reductions in HYPO, but not CH, which is consistent with animal models suggesting that early prenatal TH deficiency (i.e., HYPO) may be associated with greater abnormalities in hippocampal structure than postnatal TH deficiency (i.e., CH). Study III investigated children’s AM accuracy performance using a staged event and indicated that children with early TH deficiency had proportionally less accurate recollections of the staged event than controls. Importantly, smaller hippocampal volumes in both CH and HYPO groups predicted lower AM accuracy scores. Finally, in Study IV, functional MRI revealed that children with early TH deficiency exhibited abnormal (i.e., greater bilateral) hippocampal activation during episodic AM retrieval, but not during semantic AM retrieval, relative to controls, which may reflect neural compensation or may be a by-product of the degree of hippocampal damage. Overall, this dissertation provides critical new insight into the long-term effects of early TH deficiency on children’s AM performance and the hippocampus.

Keywords: Memory
Hippocampus
Thyroid
Childhood
Advisor: Rovet, Joanne
Leadership Supports for First-time Vice-principals: Coaching as a Form of Professional Learning

The purpose of this research was to learn about how coaching serves as a form of professional learning for newly-appointed vice-principals. This study is intended to add to our understanding of the ways in which coaching supports the professional learning of vice-principals in a context where their role is ill-defined and determined by their principal. A qualitative research approach was used which included personal interviews with fourteen first-time elementary vice-principals in five Ontario school districts. The study was based on the following research question: How does the coaching experience support the professional learning of first-time school administrators? The participants reported positive feelings about their coaching experiences. Specifically, they described that they appreciated the confidential and non-evaluative nature of the coaching relationship, that the focus was on their individual learning needs, and that the coaching provided opportunities to engage in reflective thinking. In terms of their learning, the participants reported that through coaching they built confidence, gained knowledge about both the managerial and leadership aspects of school leader roles, and that they learned about themselves and their own well-being in the process. Several challenges were reported. These included a desire for increased frequency of scheduled coaching sessions while maintaining a focus on learning during the sessions, and financial constraints for those who needed to be released from teaching responsibilities in order to participate in coaching. Based on their experiences, the participants described the vice-principal role as being determined by the principal, offering limited opportunity to exercise their own leadership, expecting them to follow decisions made by the principal, and serving to prepare them for the principalship. The thesis concludes that coaching for newly-appointed elementary vice-principals is a valuable experience because it serves as personalized professional learning that engages participants in reflective thought. The lack of clarity about the vice-principal role creates a situation where vice-principals understand their role principally through their experiences of it, not through research, policy, or training. As a result, each vice-principal has unique learning needs based on their experience of the role thus they benefit when their learning is personalized.

Keywords: leadership
vice-principal
coaching
professional learning
elementary
Advisor: Padro, Susan
Hippocampal Functioning in Adolescents with Congenital Hypothyroidism

Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is a pediatric endocrine disorder caused by an insufficiency of thyroid hormone. Despite treatment following newborn screening, CH is associated with persisting memory weaknesses. Given animal research has shown thyroid hormone plays a crucial role in the development of the hippocampus, a brain structure required for normal declarative memory, it is possible that altered hippocampally-dependent processes underlie the memory weakness associated with CH. Previous studies of individuals with CH have found reduced memory abilities and left hippocampal volumes but no study has thoroughly assessed memory abilities or how the hippocampus functions to support memory. Thus, the present study compared individuals with CH and typically developing adolescents using clinical memory tests and two associative memory tasks shown in adults to activate the hippocampus during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Results indicated groups did not differ in memory accuracy on clinical measures or either fMRI task. However, fMRI revealed hippocampal activation differed between the groups when performing the associative memory tasks. The first task utilized a visuospatial paired associates novelty detection paradigm to show the CH group increased activation relative to controls in left hippocampus and recruited right hippocampus when controls did not. Since previous research suggested the left hippocampus and verbal memory were more vulnerable to the effects of CH, the second task utilized a verbal paired associates paradigm to demonstrate that when making old and new judgments about associations versus items, the CH group increased activation relative to controls in left hippocampus. Further investigation revealed that when recognizing old associations versus items, the CH group had increased bilateral posterior hippocampal activation whereas controls showed increased activation in right anterior hippocampus, a distinction noted in previous research with this paradigm which suggests individuals with CH may retrieve associations in a less flexible manner than controls. In addition, worse memory performance and increased hippocampal activation, particularly on the left, was predicted by severity of hypothyroidism experienced early in life. In conclusion, these studies demonstrate that early thyroid hormone insufficiency associated with CH alters the functioning of the hippocampus and engenders use of compensatory mechanisms to support associative memory functions.

Keywords: memory
congenital hypothyroidism
functional imaging
hippocampus
Advisor: Rovet, Joanne