VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Effective teaching and adaptive instruction in core French: a case study of a grade 8 classroom in Ontario

The impetus for this study was provided by an on-going debate over the suitability of second language education for students who underperform in these programs and whether it is possible for teachers to effectively address these students' needs within the confines of the current conception of successful second language instruction in Ontario. Qualitative and quantitative observational techniques were used to identify and describe a Grade 8 core French teacher's use of pedagogical strategies that have been previously designated in research on learning disabilities, effective teaching, and/or second language education as helpful for facilitating student success. A series of semi-structured teacher interviews were conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the belief systems, contextual influences, and decision-making processes that impacted this teacher's pedagogy. In addition, a series of seven individual semi-structured student interviews were held in an effort to understand the students' perceptions and conceptions of their learning experience in core French. At the conclusion of the study, a focus group interview comprised of these seven students was organized to provide a forum for further exploration of issues that were raised during the individual interviews. Overall, the teacher participant in this study can be viewed as an effective educator of students with learning difficulties and other learning needs within the context of the core French classroom. The teacher was found to have created a classroom environment defined by characteristics of an effective inclusive classroom through her use of adaptation strategies and was respectful of the tenets of the approach to second language education mandated by the Ontario Ministry of Education. Results from the teacher and student interviews indicate a strong perception of the effectiveness of these strategies in facilitating student proficiency in the target language. Further, the teacher's apparent success in fostering student learning in spite of a wide range of individual learner needs is primarily attributable to her own skill in negotiating her pedagogical content knowledge and a strong belief in her ability to foster student achievement.

Keywords: French language, Study and teaching (Elementary)
Inclusive education, Ontario
Learning disabled children, Education
Learning disabled children, Ontario
Politics of truth: A critique of science and power with constant reference to Michel Foucault

In this thesis I draw on the work of Michel Foucault in an attempt to develop a critical approach to science, which I call "politics of truth," and then apply it to two cases, namely the scientific studies of left-handers and Icelanders. Politics of truth, as a critique, has two objectives: one modest, the other immodest. The modest objective is to find ways of resisting the power effects of a specific scientific research program, partly by becoming aware of the subjugating elements of scientific knowledge and what one can do to influence the dynamics of power and knowledge in that particular case. The immodest objective is not only to defend oneself but to change the very relations between us and the regime of truth---or even the regime of truth itself. Two cases of politics of truth focus on left-handers and Icelanders as subjects of science. A study of research on the longevity of left-handers reveals that left-handedness is not something obvious, it is not a clear and necessary category given by nature. I show that the production of knowledge about left-handers is incited by certain economic and political powers, and how that knowledge has given rise to confrontation and conflict. The second case is concerned with the scientific study of Icelanders, in the context of plans to establish a national database containing health data, genetic data and genealogical data. I show how Icelanders are turned into a "totally informative population" of research subjects, which can be constantly observed by science. I argue that by becoming aware of these power effects of science one is already beginning to resist them. I propose politics of truth both as a way of analyzing specific power-knowledge relations in the context of science, and as a way of resisting the power effects of particular scientific programs or projects. Politics of truth, as an analysis, asks what economic and political forces create need and demand for the particular knowledge under consideration, how the knowledge is produced, transmitted, diffused and consumed; and how it gives rise to a political debate or social confrontation.
An analysis of estrogen receptor alpha gene and protein expression in primary human breast cancers

Approximately one third of breast cancers do not express the estrogen receptor. Compared to ER-positive breast cancers, these cancers have a worse prognosis and limited treatment options. Genetic changes in the ER gene do not occur with a high enough frequency to explain the ER-negative phenotype. We postulated that the lack of ER protein may result from accelerated ER proteolysis that may be linked to estrogen-dependent ER transcriptional activation. We studied a large sample of 250 archival primary human breast tumors using standard and quantitative real time PCR methods. High quality RNA was extracted from primary tumors that have been cryopreserved for up to nine years. We investigated the relationship between ER mRNA expression and ER protein levels as obtained by cytosolic assays. All of the 200 ER-negative tumors expressed ER mRNA at levels that significantly overlapped those in ER-positive tumors, suggesting that post-transcriptional mechanisms may account the ER-negative phenotype.
Efficient and transparent dynamic content updates for mobile clients

We introduce a novel infrastructure supporting automatic updates for dynamic content browsing on mobile devices. We employ a pair of proxies, located on the mobile client and on a fully-connected edge server, to minimize the battery consumption caused by wireless data transfers to and from the mobile device. The client specifies her interest in changes to specific parts of pages by highlighting portions of already loaded web pages in her browser. The edge proxy aggregates updates as one batch to be sent to the client. Our approach is fully implemented using two wireless networking technologies, 802.11 and GPRS. Furthermore, we leverage SMS to implement and evaluate a hybrid approach. Our results show that our proxy system saves data transfers to and from the mobile device by an order of magnitude and battery consumption by up to a factor of 4.5, compared to the common client-initiated continuous polling approach.
Personal change and organizational passages: transitions from teaching to the vice-principalship in a reform climate

A promotion to vice-principal represents an important career milestone within the field of education. It signals an elevation in status, marks the culmination of years of teaching and preparation, and symbolizes the beginning of a new personal and professional journey. This study explored the trajectories of eight recently appointed secondary school vice-principals as they crossed the threshold between teaching and administration. It focused specifically on the nature of their transition, the factors that were significant in facilitating or hindering it, and the challenges, tensions and dilemmas they encountered in this process. A review of the psychological and sociological literature on change, transition and socialization was used to provide a perspective on the subjective and objective nature of the change and transition process, and a conceptual framework was derived to explore and understand these phenomena. Qualitative data was collected through the use of personal inquiry methods. These focused conversations created opportunities and space for the vice-principals to relate and reflect on their personal narratives of the internal and external trajectory across the professional landscape of administration. The findings suggest that the transition from teaching to administration is a complex developmental passage that disrupts the world of new vice-principals. Becoming a vice-principal involves changing physical locations, interacting with a wide range of constituents at the multiple levels of system arenas, and assuming different roles, responsibilities, behaviours and perspectives. The participants experienced additional challenges because of factors related to inadequate preparation for the role; a lack of training and support from their school district; competing expectations from multiple stakeholders; and the demands of the rapidly changing Ontario reform context. These changes triggered a paradoxical socio-emotional process that required letting go, holding on to, and reframing aspects of their former teaching orientations, values and identities. A visual metaphor of recurring epicycles is used to describe this iterative trajectory of change and transformation. This study recommends that ministry regulatory bodies, school districts, professional development providers and administrative professional associations co-ordinate efforts to address the problematic nature of this role and the long-range developmental needs of new administrators. It concludes with a discussion of the ways in which vice-principals' transitions can be facilitated at the personal, professional and organizational levels, and provides suggestions for future research.

Keywords: School administrators, Ontario
Career changes, Ontario
Educational change, Ontario
High schools, Administration
High schools, Ontario
High school teachers, Ontario
Electrophysiological correlates of response inhibition and error processing: the effects of strategic manipulation, feedback and traumatic brain injury

Three studies examined the executive functions of sustained attention, behavioral monitoring, response inhibition, and error processing and how these are affected by traumatic brain injury (TBI). All studies used a Go-Nogo task (1) that heavily taxes response-inhibition and monitoring with the use of an improbable Nogo stimulus and constant SOA, and (2) has been found to result in abnormally high error rates in TBI patients. Behavioural and event-related potential (ERP; recorded at 47 electrodes) measures were collected. First, the physiological processes in healthy, young adults were outlined. The predominant "rhythmic" response mode is controlled by the visual stimulus and time-estimation from the preceding response (negative frontal slow wave, FSW). The recognition of the Nogo stimulus is indicated by the posterior N225 that prompts response. The conscious recognition of this inhibition is represented by the fronto-central N300. These processes can be modulated by two feedback mechanisms that serve to "break" the rhythm: (1) monitoring of event-probabilities, P500, and (2) monitoring of errors, Ne/Pe complex. Next, the disordered processes in TBI patients were delineated. The TBI group made more errors than the Control group. The TBI group failed to show the response-related effect in the left frontal region, suggesting deficits in the conscious monitoring of response tendencies. The N300 on Correct Withhold trials was reduced or delayed in the TBI group. In addition, the Ne component (error-detection) was reduced in a group of relatively "acute" TBI patients, while the Pe component (post-detection error processing) was reduced in a group of chronic TBI patients. Finally, because errors can be predicted by RT speed-up, participants were given (a) strategic instructions to slow down, and (b) external feedback (FB) when RTs became to fast. Errors were reduced in the TBI group with strategic instructions and this improvement was maintained by the external FB. ERPs indicated enhanced processing of Speed-FB tones compared to baseline. The Go Response N300, associated with tonic inhibition across all trials, increased with improvements in performance. However, there were no changes in the FSW or the Ne/Pe with these improvements. Improved performance following TBI can be achieved by deliberate slowing facilitated through feedback. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Comprehending ambiguous words: Computational and empirical investigations

Understanding how humans derive the correct meaning of a semantically ambiguous word (e.g., [financial/river] BANK) is an important, unresolved issue. The goal of my thesis is to outline an explicit model which can account for this phenomenon. To this end, I first critically evaluate the past theoretical, behavioural, and computational literature and identify three critical components necessary for a successful account: representing the relatedness amongst meanings of ambiguous words, reconciling task differences based on settling trajectories, and using context to learn and access specific meanings of ambiguous words. I then propose a new account of semantic ambiguity which combines these components within a single framework. Finally, I present a connectionist simulation and a semantic categorization task aimed at validating the assumptions of my proposed account. The computational model does partially support my account, and the outcome of the semantic categorization task provides important insights for future investigations.
Analysis of radio frequency interference in digital subscriber line systems

A numerical method for the analysis of a non-uniform multi-conductor transmission-line structure consisting of a bundle of twisted-wire pairs (TWPs) excited by a plane-wave electromagnetic field is presented. The intended use of such numerical method is to evaluate the susceptibility of TWP bundles to radio frequency interference (RFI) in digital subscriber line (DSL) communication systems. In the past, crosstalk noise in TWP bundles has been successfully characterized by modeling TWPs as a cascade of short uniform transmission-line sections rotated continuously. The presented model is an extension of this approach capable of including the effects of RFI. Computed and measured results for a variety of TWP configurations of interest to DSL systems are presented. Furthermore, the presented numerical method is used to analyze the role that twisting non-uniformities play in the susceptibility analysis of TWPs.
The recycled fetus: ethics of waste and gift exchange in new reproductive technologies

The goal of this thesis is to expose and analyze the ethical problems of the proposed use of fetal ovarian tissue as a source of donor eggs for infertility treatment, from an embodied, feminist ethical perspective. Fetal ovarian tissue is taken from an aborted fetus and used to help another woman become pregnant. An ethical analysis of this use must begin by considering the construction of pregnancy in the powerful discourses of medicine and law. Medical discourse constructs pregnant women as fetal containers. Legal regulation of pregnant women normalizes and enforces this status. Medical discourse further constructs female reproduction as wasteful. Fetal tissue, and other reproductive tissues, are medically understood as waste. This classification makes their use, which this thesis argues is akin to recycling, appear ethically acceptable. The drive to recycle fetal ovarian tissue reflects a pervasive inability to accept loss in medical technoscience and modern Western culture. Recycling fetal ovarian tissue elevates the biological building blocks of life, or â€œlife itselfâ€ over individual lived lives. In a society which already devalues people based on social characteristics such as gender, race and class, the elevation of â€œlife itselfâ€ will further devalue these lived lives. Recycling has further implications: it destroys the work of memory and forgetting; it provides redemption for abortion thus confirming the success of the American anti-abortion movement in establishing it as a â€œbadâ€ act; and it helps medical technoscience, as a cultural system in itself, to manage the problem of death. Currently, human tissue donation is ethically acceptable only when it is given and received as a gift. This thesis argues that giving and the gift relationship do not transform the waste and recycling aspects of fetal ovarian tissue use into an ethical process; rather, they disguise this utilitarian approach to fetal ovarian tissue and women seeking abortions. Women's ethical work in remembering, forgetting and narrating abortion stories is lost in the drive to recycle fetal ovarian tissue. The recycled fetus is an unethical gift.

Keywords: Fetus, Legal status, laws, etc
Human reproductive technology, Moral and ethical aspects
Daily routines, parenting hassles, and social support: the role that early childhood services play in parents' and children's daily life

This study explored the impact of integrated services consisting of kindergarten, child care and family support programs on the daily lives of parents and their kindergarten-aged children. The quasi-experimental design compared the daily experiences of parents and children accessing integrated and traditional forms of kindergarten and child care services. Thirty-eight parents completed questionnaires and semi-structured interviews regarding daily routines, parenting daily hassles, social support networks, and views about early childhood services. Sixteen children participated in semi-structured interviews that assessed their views about their daily routines. Analyses indicated that service integration is associated with lower levels of daily parenting hassles, greater satisfaction with some forms of support, and greater levels of continuity in children's days. The results are discussed in relation to implications for practice, policy, and future research.

Keywords: Child care services, Ontario
School-linked human services, Ontario
Parenting
Children, Services for
Children, Ontario
Parents, Services for
Parents, Ontario
Assessing financial risk tolerance of portfolio investors using data envelopment analysis

The task of assigning investors to the right risk tolerance category and therefore, suggesting the most suitable investment portfolios to them, is an essential, and legally obligated part of the mutual fund providers' service. Although this problem is significant, not much have been done in the academic world to address the need. DEA is a non-parametric LP optimization technique, which is often used for measuring efficiency in services production units. What makes it appealing for risk tolerance assessment is its ability to handle multiple variables at the same time. Just like when it measures efficiency based on several inputs and outputs, it can measure risk tolerance based on several psychological questions, each of them representing one dimension of risk tolerance. This is the first time DEA has been used for evaluating a psychologically oriented dataset, and the results have been quite encouraging.
Efficient analysis, design and decoding of low-density parity-check codes

This dissertation presents new methods for the analysis, design and decoding of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. We start by studying the simplest class of decoders: the binary message-passing (BMP) decoders. We show that the optimum BMP decoder must satisfy certain symmetry and isotropy conditions, and prove that Gallager's Algorithm B is the optimum BMP algorithm. We use a generalization of extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) charts to formulate a linear program that leads to the design of highly efficient irregular LDPC codes for the BMP decoder. We extend this approach to the design of irregular LDPC codes for the additive white Gaussian noise channel. We introduce a "semi-Gaussian" approximation that very accurately predicts the behaviour of the decoder and permits code design over a wider range of rates and code parameters than in previous approaches. We then study the EXIT chart properties of the highest rate LDPC code which guarantees a certain convergence behaviour. We also introduce and analyze gear-shift decoding in which the decoder is permitted to select the decoding rule from among a predefined set. We show that this flexibility can give rise to significant reductions in decoding complexity. Finally, we show that binary LDPC codes can be combined with quadrature amplitude modulation to achieve near-capacity performance in a multitone system over frequency selective Gaussian channels.
The elegiac contradiction and the apocalyptic gesture: Christian and aboriginal forms of consolation in English Canadian first nations, and Métis literatures

In early English Canadian literature, consolations of Christian transcendence displaced what I shall call Aboriginal forms of immanence. However, writers in the late nineteenth century used Aboriginal forms to supplement a Romantic sense of a lost past, while writers in the twentieth century used them to compensate for the loss of the effectiveness of Christian consolations. Aboriginal forms remained supplemental until First Nations writers reinvigorated the primary effectiveness of their own traditions.

Keywords: Religion
Philosophy
Canadian literature
Indians of North America
Excellence in mathematics: teaching practices of four exemplary secondary school mathematics teachers

The teaching practices of four exemplary secondary school mathematics teachers are examined in the context of the current education reform in Ontario. This thesis examines the teachers' conceptions of mathematics and their affective, cognitive and managerial teaching behaviours. Although there has been some research investigating conceptions of mathematics and mathematics teaching practices at the elementary school level, research at the secondary school level appears to be limited. Qualitative methods are used to explore the teaching practices and the teachers' underlying conceptions of mathematics. Participants were interviewed and observed in their respective educational settings. The teachers' views on learning and teaching mathematics include teaching strategies, evidence of students' knowledge and skill in mathematics, ways of enhancing student performance, methods of dealing with barriers encountered in teaching mathematics and opportunities for professional development. Teachers gave students the opportunity to learn in a variety of ways: individually, co-operatively, with teacher direction and by hands-on experience. Teaching for understanding of mathematics was demonstrated by examples of problem solving involving the students' making connections with previously learned material in mathematics, integrating mathematics with other subject disciplines, making applications of mathematical concepts to practical, everyday examples, and by gaining further experience in the use of technology as a means of learning mathematical concepts. Variation in assessment and evaluation of student work was also supported. Positive personal relationships between student and teacher, as well as the challenge to develop their skills, further inspired the students and helped them gain confidence and achieve good results in mathematics.
Educational strategies for achieving a sodium restricted diet in patients with heart failure

Multidisciplinary heart failure (HF) clinics reduce hospital readmission and improve clinical outcomes. Nutrition education is a component of these programs, although its delivery methods are variable. We tested the effect of dietitian-delivered education for reducing sodium intake in ambulatory HF patients. We randomized patients to a nutrition counseling group, which included two counseling sessions with a dietitian (n=23), or to a usual care group which consisted of distribution of written education materials. Patients were prescribed a 2 gram sodium restricted diet and were followed for 3 months. Patients who received dietitian-delivered education significantly reduced sodium intake (2.80+/-0.30 to 2.14+/-0.23 g/day, p