VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
A Critical Re-imagining of French-Language Teacher Learning and Professional Identities

As an official bilingual country, Canada depends on French as a Second Language (FSL) teachers to promote bilingualism. However, FSL programs suffer from what I call ‘FSL teacher flight’: FSL teachers who enter the profession do not remain in it, they either leave or transition out of teaching French. FSL teachers report feeling disenfranchised, marginalized and isolated in their practice (Macfarlane Hart, 2002; E. M. Richards, 2002). One way to address these issues is to offer FSL teachers the opportunity to participate in Computer-supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) networks (Hollins-Alexander, 2013; Kitsantas Dabbagh, 2010; Kreijns Kirschner, 2004). These blended (i.e., online and face-to-face) professional learning networks, based on the principles of learning as a social and transformational process, make teachers agents of their professional learning and help them negotiate the complexity of their practice, and develop their professional identity and well-being through shared discursive practices. This longitudinal multiple case study is a unique in-depth look into the professional learning and identity formation of two core French teachers over the course of four years (2011-2015). The data consist of 40 monthly two-hour group meeting discussions video recorded during a full release-day for site-based research, over 150 posts and essays shared in an online forum, open-ended survey responses and extensive field notes. Findings reveal that FSL teachers use a wide range of complex and interrelated discursive practices to help them negotiate their professional learning and identity formation. Their research inquiries were highly contextualized, based on their local needs. They also reported that the learning experience in the CSCL network helped them feel supported and engage in their practice in new and creative ways. The re-professionalization (Kooy, 2015) of FSL teachers’ practice through their learning experiences reveals the potential contribution of this study to address the issue of FSL teacher retention. The study provides a much-needed deeper understanding of what happens when FSL teachers actively participate in professional learning networks. It also re-imagining the narratives around FSL teachers so as to provide a model for long-term FSL teacher learning that promotes collaborative professionalism (Fullan Hargreaves, 2016) and teacher well-being.

Keywords: computer-supported collaborative learning
Core French
French as a second language
positioning analysis
professional identities
teacher learning
Advisor: Kooy, Mary
Socioeconomic Status, Stress Exposure, and Psychological Well-Being: Complexities in the Stress Process

Decades of research has established an inverse association between socioeconomic position and psychological distress. Within medical sociology, the stress process model represents a dominant framework for investigating mechanisms that generate emotional inequality. Central to the stress process perspective is the observation that exposure to social stress is fundamentally rooted in social statuses and the social roles individuals occupy in their daily lives. Historically, research guided by the stress process paradigm has demonstrated that disparities in psychological distress arise to a substantial degree from inequalities in stress exposure—individuals placed lower in the socioeconomic hierarchy, for instance, are exposed to higher levels of cumulative and operant life stress, and this translates into mental health disadvantages. This dissertation moves beyond existing research by identifying circumstances under which socioeconomic patterns in mental health do not conform to what is commonly predicted by traditional hypotheses, and also provides theoretical insights and empirical evidence about the dynamics that generate pockets of complexity in social stress research. Three major findings emerge. First, I present evidence that time-stable differences between individuals introduce a nontrivial amount of spuriousness in the association between income-related variables and mental health. This raises questions about the independent effect of current income dynamics over and above, for example, the array of disadvantages that individuals may face at more distal stages in the life course. Second, I demonstrate the ways that SES modifies the concurrent experience of job stressors and resources. My findings highlight conditions under which lower status workers are shielded from the effects of stressors, but also the ways that resources may actually leave higher status individuals more vulnerable to the effects of stress exposure. Third, I identify a subgroup of professionals for which a status-health paradox is observed—higher status workers experience poorer mental health relative to their lower status peers—and this can be explained by the stressors of higher status in this particular profession. Each study can be considered an independent project, but taken together they represent an overarching contribution to sociological understandings of the interplay between SES, stress exposure, and mental health.

Keywords: mental health
socioeconomic status
stress exposure
Advisor: Schieman, Scott
Computational Models For Domain-Peptide Mediated Protein-Protein Interactions

Peptide recognition module (PRM) mediated protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are critical for better understanding the relationship between genomes and networks. High-throughput experimental screens, such as phage display, can be used to identify their binding motifs for use in computationally predicting high confidence PPIs with binding site information. Computational approaches for predicting protein interactions are either limited by their inability to predict peptide recognition module mediated interactions or do not consider many known constraints governing these interactions. A novel ensemble method for predicting in vivo SH3 domain-peptide mediated PPIs in S. cerevisae and H. sapiens using phage display data is presented. As with similar methods, this method uses position weight matrix models of protein linear motif preference in combination with a range of evidence sources related to binding site and cellular constraints on protein interactions. The novelty of this approach is the large number of evidence sources used and the method of combination of peptide based and protein pair based evidence sources. A novel semi-supervised training framework is used to train peptide and protein Gaussian naïve Bayes models using both labeled and unlabeled datasets. Research into the different evidence sources led to the development of state-of-the-art algorithms for predicting PPIs using semantic similarity in the Gene Ontology (GO), gene or protein expression, and network topology. A novel method to compute semantic similarity between GO terms annotated to proteins in interaction datasets which considers the unequal depths of the ontology is developed (TCSS). Most PPI prediction methods rely on observations from a single gene expression profile (GEP) to predict novel interactions. Correlation coefficients from multiple GEPs are combined into a single model to improve PPI prediction. Protein expression is proposed as a new evidence source for predicting PPIs. A machine learning model is developed for predicting high confidence PPIs using graph descriptors, such as edge density, transitivity, and mutual clustering coefficient of known interaction networks (NTOP). All the algorithms developed during this research are open source and freely available for community use.

Advisor: Bader, Gary D
The Role of the Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase Family in the Bone Marrow Niche

Proper host defense is dependent on the constant supply of a variety of different innate and adaptive immune cells, all of which originate from multipotent hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). HSCs can differentiate into all immune lineages, as well as self-renew to sustain themselves throughout life. Fate decisions of HSCs are largely directed by extracellular signals received in their specialized microenvironment: the bone marrow niche. The metalloproteinases are a family of extracellular proteases responsible for degrading components of the extracellular matrix, as well as clipping and shedding growth factors, cytokines and their receptors, impacting signaling within tissues. The four mammalian tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMP1-4) inhibit metalloproteinase activity. The TIMP-metalloproteinase axis is therefore uniquely positioned to impact both structural and molecular aspects of tissue niches. However, functional redundancy within the TIMP family exists due to overlapping expression patterns and shared proteinase targets. This thesis investigates the effects of completely unleashed metalloproteinase activity on hematopoiesis, using mice genetically deficient in all four TIMP family members (“TIMPless” mice). In Chapter 2, we survey immune cells and organs in TIMPless mice, uncovering a specific B cell developmental defect. In Chapter 3, we identify striking structural deformities in the bone marrow vasculature of TIMPless mice, as well as deficiencies in osteoblasts and perivascular cells. We identify molecular alterations in the TIMP-deficient bone marrow niche, including a deficit in VEGF and mislocalization in CXCL12. Finally, Appendix I describes a robust method to co-culture developing B cells with primary bone marrow-derived stromal cells, indicating the strength of TIMP-deficient stroma in supporting B lymphopoiesis in vitro. Overall, this thesis provides new evidence for essential in vivo activities of metalloproteinases and TIMPs in hematopoiesis, stimulating the need to continue studying the impact of these critical enzymes in stem cell niches.

Keywords: B cell
Bone Marrow
Development
Hematopoiesis
Metalloproteinase
TIMP
Advisor: Khokha, Rama
Maghrebis in Marseille: North African Immigration and French Social Welfare in the Late Colonial and Postcolonial Eras

This dissertation examines how French officials, welfare specialists, and social service providers in the city of Marseille responded to North African immigration during the period roughly between 1945 and 1975. It traces the origins of the project they launched in late colonial Marseille, initially under the auspices of a specialized welfare network for Muslim North African clients, to “integrate” Muslims from the Maghreb region of North African (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia) into French society, and follows this project as it continued into the postcolonial era. The central goal of this integrationist project, conducted through services such as welcome centres, professional job training courses, socio-educative family assistance programs, and social housing, was to guide Maghrebis to replace their supposedly inferior and backward customs and habits with the “Western” ways of living followed by France’s majority ethnic population. Using a wide array of research material from several archives in France, including government documents, official reports and correspondence, and the records of Marseille welfare specialists and social service providers, this dissertation compares the ideas, strategies, and practices that informed the project to integrate Muslim North Africans in Marseille during the late colonial era and decolonization to those that shaped this project after decolonization. Special focus in this comparison is given to unpacking the complex issues of continuity and change related to the attitudes and actions of welfare specialists and providers in areas such as shantytown clearance, social housing development, and family and youth integration. Attention is also given to the lived experiences of the city’s North African immigrant population, including how the Muslim North African clients of integrationist action sociale initiatives viewed, responded to, and even shaped the kinds of social aid they received. What an examination of these issues shows is that, throughout the period in question, French officials, welfare specialists, and social service providers in Marseille remained fixated on the presence of Maghrebis as a “problem” that required their special attention and assistance.

Keywords: Immigration
Integration
Maghrebis
Marseille
Social Welfare
Advisor: Jennings, Eric T
Construction of a Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Vaccine from Cynomolgus Macaque Cytomegalovirus

The current HIV pandemic has killed more than 35 million people since 1985, and infects a further 30 million globally. Vaccines based on herpesvirus vectors, in particular cytomegalovirus, generate unique, robust immune responses that may overcome many of the typical obstacles to an effective preventative HIV vaccine. Recent studies using a cytomegalovirus based vaccine in the rhesus macaque monkey model have protected close to half of all vaccinated monkeys from SIV, but questions remain as to the mechanism of protection and whether similar results will be seen in humans against HIV. These questions may be answerable through the use of the cynomolgus macaque monkey model, and a minimally passaged cytomegalovirus vector that more closely resembles human cytomegalovirus. To this end a novel cytomegalovirus was isolated from a Mauritian cynomolgus macaque monkey. This virus was sequenced in full and phylogenetically characterized alongside other primate cytomegaloviruses and their hosts. To generate a vaccine construct the newly isolated and minimally passaged cynomolgus macaque cytomegalovirus was first cloned as a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) to facilitate the preservation of the virus without further accumulation of attenuations from in vitro passaging. After sequencing the BAC, and comparison of the growth kinetics of the viruses derived from the BAC to determine if there was an observed in vitro loss of fitness, the BAC was used to construct a vaccine against SIV. This new cynomolgus macaque cytomegalovirus based SIV vaccine for use in cynomolgus macaques retains wildtype growth kinetics in vitro. It is the first cytomegalovirus based SIV vaccine for use in the cynomolgus macaque model and the first cytomegalovirus used in vaccine studies that purposely has been generated with a focus on retention of viral fitness. This is a valuable molecular tool that will permit the further understanding of herpesviruses as vaccine vectors and their potential application in humans.

Keywords: CMV
Cynomolgus Macaque
Cytomegalovirus
HIV
SIV
Vaccine
Advisor: MacDonald, Kelly S
Brain CYP2D Metabolism of Opioids Impacts Brain Levels, Analgesia, and Tolerance

Cytochrome P450 2D (CYP2D) is a subfamily of enzymes expressed in both liver and brain that metabolizes clinically used drugs, neurotoxins, and endogenous neurochemicals. Opioid analgesics are metabolized by CYP2D to more potent analgesic metabolites, and variation in this metabolism may alter opioid response. While human CYP2D expression in the liver is primarily regulated by genetics, brain CYP2D activity may be altered by genetics, environmental inducers, and hormonal regulation. Smokers have higher brain, but not liver, CYP2D and nicotine induces rat brain, but not liver, CYP2D. This thesis investigated the impact of altering rat brain CYP2D activity in vivo on the brain metabolism of opioids and resulting analgesia. Rats were administered opioids and analgesia was measured; drug levels were assessed in brain and plasma after sacrifice, or in brain in vivo by microdialysis. Rat brain CYP2D was inhibited by intracerebroventricular injection of a CYP2D mechanism-based inhibitor or induced by seven-day subcutaneous nicotine treatment. We found that rat brain CYP2D activation of codeine to morphine mediates acute codeine analgesia; inhibiting brain CYP2D decreased, and inducing brain CYP2D increased, brain morphine from codeine and resulting codeine analgesia. In a rat model of codeine analgesic tolerance, inducing brain CYP2D increased acute analgesia and the rate of analgesic tolerance, producing a greater absolute decrease in analgesia per codeine dose. Administering higher doses of codeine similarly increased acute analgesia and the rate of tolerance. The rate of tolerance correlated to acute analgesia indicating that brain CYP2D influenced codeine tolerance by altering acute analgesic-response. Lastly, we found that rat brain CYP2D metabolism of oxycodone to oxymorphone decreased acute oxycodone analgesia; inhibiting brain CYP2D increased brain oxycodone levels and resulting analgesia, while inducing brain CYP2D increased brain oxymorphone levels but decreased oxycodone analgesia. This thesis demonstrated an impact of rat brain CYP2D on acute codeine and oxycodone induced analgesia, as well as the rate of codeine analgesic tolerance. Variation in human brain CYP2D metabolism may be a clinically relevant source of variation in opioid response. Novel approaches to understanding interindividual differences in opioid analgesia and adverse effects remain critical for improving opioid efficacy and mitigating abuse.

Keywords: Analgesia
Brain
Cytochrome P450
Metabolism
Nicotine
Opioid
Advisor: Tyndale, Rachel F
Ethnic Variation in Prediabetes Incidence and Outcomes among Immigrants and Long-Term Residents

Type 2 diabetes is rapidly increasing worldwide, particularly in low and middle-income countries. In Canada, the estimated prevalence of diabetes is projected to increase from 9.3% to 12.1% by 2025. Previous studies have shown that some ethnoracial populations of non-European descent have a higher risk of developing diabetes, however, evidence on the onset of prediabetes across different ethnoracial groups in Canada is not available. Although, 5-10% of people with prediabetes convert to diabetes, there is no knowledge on the risk of conversion to diabetes among immigrants of different ethnic origins in Canada. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to investigate the epidemiology of prediabetes within an immigrant cohort across different ethnicities, compared with long-term Canadian residents to inform future research and policy. The main findings from this thesis conclude that: 1) Ethnicity is an important risk factor for the development of prediabetes and its progression to diabetes 2) Non-European populations, especially, people of South Asian, Sub-Saharan African and Caribbean, and South-East Asians at young ages have an elevated risk of developing prediabetes, in comparison to Western Europeans 3) Generally, South Asians, Sub-Saharan African and Caribbeans, and West Asian and Arabs, have a nearly twofold risk of converting to diabetes relative to Western Europeans 4) Relative to Western Europeans, the incidence of prediabetes and its conversion to diabetes was elevated for both women and men of non-European descents 5) Neighbourhood walkability amplified the effects of ethnicity such that non-European populations living in low walkability neighbourhoods had an increased risk of prediabetes, but those living in high walkability neighbourhoods did not. This was particularly evident among West Asian and Arabs, and Latin Americans. These findings highlight the need for population health interventions that will address the rapidly rising rates of prediabetes and conversion to diabetes among immigrant populations of different ethnicities. Future research and policy steps may involve establishing age/ethnic specific cut offs for diabetes screening and monitoring prediabetes risk within health care settings; designing diabetes prevention programs tailored to high risk groups and tackling upstream determinants such as neighbourhood designs that promote healthier lifestyles and support the prevention of diabetes.

Keywords: diabetes
epidemiology
ethnicity
immigrant
prediabetes
social determinants of health
Advisor: Booth, Gillian L
Student Decision-Making in the Classroom: An Examination of Existing Theories and a Model for Mainstream Implementation

Authors such as Bill Glasser, A. S. Neill, and John Holt have critiqued the compulsory nature of secondary schools and the inherent structure imposed on them by educational authorities. This structure limits student opportunities to make decisions regarding their own learning. This thesis examines the concept of student decision-making and its effect on student learning in educational environments. It argues for inclusion of more student-centred decision-making opportunities as part of a democratic education model. The thesis analyzes different educational theories and models that grant students, to varying extents, chances to make decisions about their own learning. The thesis presents an alternative to the current system: a model that questions imposed structures and places the student at the centre of the decision-making process, while asking educators to consider their roles as facilitators. The thesis begins by summarizing the prescribed Ontario Ministry of Education requirements, followed by an examination of the concept of decision-making itself, beginning with philosophical justifications through analysis of the works of authors such as Gutmann, Levinson, and Brighouse. Next, the thesis examines certain theories of education in order to give context for the proposed model. The existing theories selected range from liberal conceptions to critical pedagogy to “unschooling”; each theory is analyzed and discussed with respect to how student decision-making is supported. The next two chapters focus specifically on existing educational models where student decision-making is recognized through specific methods and strategies. Models include Glasser’s Choice Theory, the Montessori School method, self-determination theory, the Sudbury Valley School, and Summerhill School—the latter two affording students numerous decision-making opportunities in explicit and widespread ways. The thesis concludes with the proposed model, referred to as the Student Decision-Making Model, which could be implemented in Ontario high school classrooms, with considerations made regarding if and how changes to Ministry structure are needed. The model recognizes the student as the central character in the school decision-making process and is illustrated with an exemplar known as the Time Use Exemplar. The model’s combined focus on student choice and Ministry regulation allows it to reach the maximum number of students.

Keywords: Autonomy
Decision-Making
Education
Advisor: Portelli, John P