VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Synthesizing the corrective feedback literature: challenges for meta-analyses

Recently, the role of corrective feedback (CF) in second language acquisition has received increased attention. While the general consensus is that CF contributes positively to L2 learning, questions remain as to whether CF is useful for L2 development (Truscott, 1996). Although narrative reviews of the L2 CF literature exist (e.g., Nicholas, Lightbown & Spada, 2000; Truscott, 1999), no empirical meta-analysis of studies investigating the effectiveness of CF for L2 learning has been undertaken. The purpose of this thesis was to carry out such a meta-analysis, and 55 studies were selected for synthesis. As the analysis progressed, however, it became apparent that methodological and reporting flaws in the studies prevent meta-analysis of this literature. This thesis describes the process of the meta-analysis and the problems encountered. Issues related to research methodology and reporting are discussed. The implications of this study highlight the need for higher research standards in this domain.

Keywords: Language and languages, Study and teaching
Feedback (Psychology)
Meta-analysis
Interviewing the mothers of invention: A qualitative analysis of women theatre practitioners in Toronto

This thesis analyzes theatre's function as a workplace and the ways in which a specific group of twenty-five women operate within this institutional environment. Through the use of qualitative research tools and Dorothy Smith's approach to institutional ethnography as an investigative methodology, this study questions what it means for women to work in Toronto theatre, and examines the social, political and economic conditions that enable and/or hinder women's ability to gain access to employment. The Introduction lays the groundwork for the study by (anonymously) introducing the women involved, discussing the analytic procedure, and laying out the organization of the thesis. Chapter 2 outlines the basic critical theories and methods used in the body of the analysis, and addresses issues surrounding materialist feminism, feminist standpoint theory, feminist ethnography and qualitative interview and research techniques. Chapter 3 looks at the concept of theatre as an institution and investigates institutional practices and ideologies via various models of theatre organization. Chapter 4 studies the importance of the culture of institutionalized theatre education by focusing specifically on the studying of theatre or drama in a university context; unearthing some of the institutional ideologies behind learning; and comparing some of the liberal contexts in which this particular group of women have studied to the engendered practices they have encountered. Chapter 5 examines the intersection of history, institution and women's theatre practice in Toronto between the late 1960s and the mid-1990s as it has been influenced by Rina Fraticelli's The Status of Women in Canadian Theatre, primarily in reference to Red Light and Nightwood Theatres. In using the infrastructure of these two theatres as case studies it references specific elaborated examples of women artistic directors, freelance directors and playwrights in alternative and feminist theatre. Chapter 6 bridges the worlds of motherhood and theatre practice by exploring the concepts of "motherwork" and maternal identity and the ways in which they interact with theatre. The Conclusion calls for a rethinking of the notion of work in theatre to one that is more generous in form and makes a number of suggestions toward improving women's status in Canadian theatre.
Social and temperamental antecedents of young children's maladaptive social information processing in the development of internalizing and externalizing tendencies

Children's maladaptive social information processing (SIP)---including attributing hostile intentions to others and planning aggressive versus passive responses---has been shown to predict both externalizing (disruptive/aggressive) and internalizing (anxious/withdrawn) tendencies in children. But the predictors of maladaptive SIP have not been well established, and the contribution of SIP to maladaptive behaviour beyond the role of its predictors is unclear. Longitudinal data spanning the first six years of life for 910 families from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care were analyzed with two aims. The first aim was to examine developmental antecedents (temperament, family income, and maternal education, depression, and harshness) of maladaptive SIP in young children. Children of less educated mothers were more likely to report hostile attributions and to generate more aggressive responses, but this effect was mediated by maternal harsh parenting. Infant temperament variables, including reactivity (distress to novelty) and surgency (approach and impulsivity), were poor predictors of SIP. The second aim of the present study was to establish the role of SIP in the development of internalizing and externalizing tendencies. Externalizing tendencies were amplified in high-surgency children who also constructed aggressive responses. Externalizing tendencies were attenuated for children who consistently reported only accidental attributions of cause---rather than any hostile attributions of intent---during a preschool SIP assessment (28% of the sample). Likewise, teacher-reported internalizing tendencies were attenuated for children who attributed only accidental causes as preschoolers. Yet, for children high in temperamental reactivity, reporting only accidental attributions of cause was predictive of greater maternal-reported internalizing tendencies, whereas reporting hostile attributions of intent were predictive of fewer internalizing tendencies. The results highlight the need to examine the interactive effect of temperamental risk and children's social information processing on internalizing and externalizing tendencies in early childhood. Further research that examines the normative and pathological development of children's understanding of people's intentions and motivations is also needed, as is research on the role of maternal education and parenting in this development. Implications for prevention of childhood adjustment problems are presented.

Keywords: Human information processing in children
Problem children
Internalization
Aggressiveness in children
Quantifying the distance traveled aerobically and anaerobically during a soccer practice

Monitoring training loads of practices is important for the development of players in field based sports. Current monitoring methods use absolute measurements and do not provide information specific to each individual. The purpose of this study was to create a model (the Oxygen Deficit Model) based tool to facilitate measurement of individual's energy expenditures during soccer practices. University soccer players (N=11) performed three running speed tests to establish a critical velocity curve. Velocities of each player were monitored during soccer practices using Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. GPS measures of velocity were validated against direct measures. Velocities were input into the Oxygen Deficit Model to determine the distance traveled due to aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. The model indicated that 80 to 95% of energy during drills was expended aerobically. The model produces realistic estimates of energy expenditure and can be used in team sports requiring high intensity interval exercise.
Ranking by consensus using one-sided DEA

This set of weights have been shown to represent the consensus opinion of the very candidates being evaluated, with the understanding that the candidates were free to selfishly select weights, with full knowledge of all other candidate's criteria scores, so as to make themselves appear as attractive as possible in the respective selection problem setting. The interpretation and implication of this common set of weights is explored and recommendations for extending the methodology in practice are made. The extension of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) developed in this thesis presents a new approach for calculating a common set of weights for use in the scoring and ranking of alternatives in a project selection problem setting. In contrast to the traditional approach where expert opinion is interpreted to derive weights for aggregating individual criterion scores of an alternative, a new development is introduced to derive these weights from empirical data, based on a set of new One-Sided DEA (OSD) models and a new Ranking by Consensus (RC) methodology. The RC methodology was applied to four relevant problems: (1) Power Plant site selection, (2) Shortlisting Research Grant Proposals for a large Government Granting Agency, (3) Capital City site selection and (4) Two-dimensional simulated data for illustration. The results offer new insights into the possibilities of novel tools which can be helpful in the decision making process by providing a mathematical ranking of alternatives based on a common set of weights.
The hidden curriculum: syntax in anglo-saxon Latin teaching

The Anglo-Saxons were pioneers in the study of Latin as a foreign language, yet they learned Latin without the help of a systematic account of Latin syntax. In this study, I examine early medieval grammatical treatises for evidence of how Anglo-Saxon Latin learners might have acquired the tools necessary to understand the structure of Latin. In studying syntactical doctrine in the early medieval grammatical curriculum, I strive to redress the bias of recent scholarship that has focused largely on lexical and morphological aspects of the Anglo-Saxons' teaching of Latin. In my Introduction, I survey the accounts of grammar that were most widely available in early Anglo-Saxon England, Donatus's Ars minor and Ars maior, Priscian's Ars de nomine, pronomine, et verbo, and Book 1 of Isidore's Eytmologiae. I consider what syntactical doctrine they do contain, and I suggest what the gaps are between the doctrine available in these works and the skills needed for mastery of Latin. In Part I, “Evidence from the Metrical Treatises,” I focus on Aldhelm's De metris and De pedum regulis and Bede's De arte metrica. I argue that these accounts of Latin meter offer ways of understanding language as formally patterned, and also reveal that Anglo-Saxons had a working concept of semantic completeness. In Part II, “Bede on Rhetoric and Usage,” I consider Bede's handbook of rhetorical figures, De schematibus et tropis, and his handbook of Latin usage, De orthographia. I argue that the rhetorical figures gave early medieval students their most extensive arsenal of tools for negotiating continuous Latin text. The De orthographia itself conveys a significant amount of Latin syntax, and it demonstrates that even more syntactical doctrine must have been in common use in Anglo-Saxon schools. In Part III, “Carolingian Developments and Later Anglo-Saxon England,” I suggest ways in which texts newly available in the Carolingian period would have given students additional tools for understanding the structures of Latin. I survey work currently under way on ninth- and tenth-century curricular developments, and suggest several avenues of further research into the Anglo-Saxon reception of those developments.
"Fifty-two easy steps to great health": representations of health in English-Canadian women's magazines

In this dissertation I examine representations of health in Chatelaine, Canadian Living and Homemaker's magazines published between 1997 and 2000 to understand how these "handbooks on femininity" define health issues for their readers. I argue that by examining health articles discursively, the rules, patterns and structures which create and privilege certain definitions and meanings over others can be scrutinized to identify the social meanings about women and health created by the magazines. However, I also assert that this dissertation is a critical reading of texts within a specified historical/social context with an understanding that the subjectivities and forms of governance constituted in the discourse are taken up by individuals with various degrees of acceptance, negotiation and resistance. I found that women's magazines fulfilled their self-defined service mission by continually asserting their expertise and authority in health matters and their role in educating women about the latest health information. Reflecting and reinforcing the discourse of healthism, the articles consistently present health as an important individual responsibility and a moral imperative, to be pursued through continual self-assessment and acquisition of information, and by practicing the "prescriptions for healthy living" provided by the magazines. This discourse creates an 'entrepreneurial' subject position for women, meaning one's identity as a rational health-seeking subject is an on-going project requiring particular forms of self-discipline and self-surveillance. The moral goodness of healthist subjects is further reinforced through depictions of irrational, unhealthy others who lack the valued qualities of self-control and personal determination---women who risk illness, disability and disease through their failure to engage in the healthist prescriptions provided by the magazines. These women are portrayed as requiring further education and encouragement in health matters, and are viewed as irresponsible citizens for failing to follow healthist dictates. These representations of health also silenced a number of important issues including recognition of the structural determinants of health and the work of feminist/political groups. Also, women's magazines assume a shared "woman's experience" reinforcing dominant/ideal notions of femininity which fail to address the diversity of women's experiences and the complexity of women's lives.

Keywords: Women's periodicals, Social aspects
Women's periodicals, Canada
Health in mass media
Health education of women, Social aspects
Health education of women, Canada
Valeurs et pratiques langagières dans la nouvelle èconomie: une étude de cas

Cette recherche examine la valeur des variétés linguistiques et des pratiques langagières d'une minorité linguistique dans un centre d'appels. À l'ère de la technologie et de la mondialisation, de nouveaux secteurs économiques sont en émergence, tels que le secteur des services et de l'information. Ces milieux de travail entraînent une revalorisation des compétences bilingues et multilingues. Pour une minorité franco-ontarienne, cela signifie l'accès au marché de l'emploi en raison de son bilinguisme. Toutefois, ces secteurs supposent de nouvelles conditions de travail qui entraînent des conséquences pour les employés bilingues. Malgré le fait que leur bilinguisme est valorisé lors du recrutement, les employés bilingues connaissent des conditions de travail exigeantes en comparaison avec les employés unilingues anglophones. Par exemple, les candidats bilingues doivent être capables d'utiliser leur bilinguisme de façon normée. Cette norme signifie ne pas produire d'anglicismes et d'alternances de code, ce qui représente un défi pour les francophones de la communauté vivant dans un milieu anglophone. De plus, les employés bilingues doivent répondre aux nouveaux critères de standardisation linguistique lors des conversations avec les clients. Ces derniers ne reçoivent toutefois pas de formation linguistique ou de soutien en français qui pourraient les aider à améliorer leurs compétences afin de répondre aux critères de la standardisation. Ensuite, les employés bilingues travaillent souvent sans pauses en raison de la demande de main-d'œuvre pour les appels bilingues. Enfin, les employés bilingues demeurent aux échelons inférieurs de la compagnie, c'est-à-dire aux services à la clientèle, en raison de la demande de bilinguisme à ce niveau. Ils voient donc diminuer leur chance d'avancement, à moins d'utiliser l'anglais. Les membres de la communauté francophone voient les nouveaux secteurs comme une chance de reproduction linguistique et culturelle de la communauté. Le centre d'appels n'apporte toutefois que des faux-semblants. Les employés bilingues possèdent peu de raisons d'acquérir ou d'améliorer leurs compétences en français puisque les avantages diminuent dès l'entrée en fonction dans le centre d'appels. Les secteurs de la nouvelle économie supposent donc de conditions sociales et économiques difficiles pour les francophones de la communauté qui voient leurs variétés linguistiques dévalorisées et leur chance de mobilité sociale diminuée.

Keywords: Linguistics
Language and languages
French language, Study and teaching
French language, Ontario
Bilingualism, Ontario
French-Canadians, Education
French-Canadians, Ontario
French-Canadians, Cultural assimilation
Cranial evaluation and revision of Varanops brevirostris (Eupelycosauria: Varanopidae) with discussion on varanopid morphology and relationships

A large, well-preserved specimen of Varanops brevirostris preserving the first articulated manus, partial pes, and one of the most complete varanopid mandibles is described, and allows the first comprehensive evaluation of cranial morphology for the genus. Revision of V. brevirostris supports previous specific diagnoses, and provides additional autapomorphies including loss of the postorbital boss; a smooth transition between the dorsal and lateral surfaces of the postorbital; hypertrophied basipterygoid processes; presence of deep, elongate lateral neural spine excavations; posterior dorsal vertebrae with dorsally tapered neural spines; and a deep groove, proximal to femoral fourth trochanter. A revised phylogenetic analysis, including the first stratocladistic analysis of a Paleozoic basal synapsid clade, places V. brevirostris as the sister-taxon to a Varanodon-Watongia clade. A stratocladistic method provides a different means with which to assess varanopid relationships by incorporating a stratigraphic character into the analysis. This approach recovers the same topology among varanodontines and an alternate topology between the mycterosaurines and Elliotsniithia longiceps that supports a previous analysis.
The Ritual of Valva-Sulmona (Lucca, Biblioteca Statale 1781): A twelfth-century collection of ordines in Beneventan script. A diplomatic edition with introductory study, emphasising pastoral concerns

Medieval liturgical manuscripts of regional or local churches in the Latin west testify to an extensive variety of ritual celebration from one local use to another before the movement towards liturgical uniformity which marked the advent of the printing press and the work of the Council of Trent. Such documents provide both an insight into the sources of what later became the standard liturgy of the Roman Rite, and a glimpse into the life of worship experienced by the local communities which gave shape to, and in turn were shaped by, these very rituals. The collection of ordines and Masses now contained in Lucca, Biblioteca Statale 1781 includes rites ranging from baptism through penance, pastoral care of the sick and dying, to vigils and Masses for the deceased. Written in Beneventan script near Valva-Sulmona in the Abruzzi, this presbyteral handbook of ordines also includes a preparation for the celebration of Mass and vesting prayers for the priest. Litanies, processions, chants, a passion narrative, and even a collection of penitential canons enhance the usefulness of the book while providing a particularly rich array of liturgical ceremony. This dissertation presents a diplomatic edition of the Ritual of Valva-Sulmona, an hitherto unstudied liturgical book. Biblical and liturgical sources, cited in the apparatus beneath each item, afford the reader access to the euchological influences at work on the prayer texts. Chief among these influences was the Romano-Germanic Pontifical of the tenth century, a hybrid of Roman and Gallicanised ceremonies compiled in Mainz and introduced into Rome in the late tenth century. The edition is preceded by an introductory study which treats the cultural context and significance of the Ritual. The study touches on the historical development of the Ritual as a liturgical book, and traces likewise the history of the region of Valva and Sulmona from antiquity until the thirteenth century. The identification of some of the saints invoked in the litanies of the RVS provides clues not only to the localisation but also to the dating of the manuscript. Both a codicological description of the book and an examination of its palaeographical features suggest the influence of the Benedictine network dominant in southern Italy and headquartered at Montecassino. Finally, the study presents a detailed description of the contents of the manuscript, with due reference to the historical development of each of the rites contained therein.
A randomised controlled trial of infant flow continuous positive airway pressure versus nasopharyngeal continuous positive airway pressure in the extubation of infants [less then a equal]1250 grams

Objective. To compare the effectiveness of Infant Flow CPAP (IF-CPAP) and nasopharyngeal CPAP (NP-CPAP) in facilitating extubation of infants ≤1250 grams. Design. A two centre, nonblinded, randomised controlled trial. Setting. Two tertiary Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Canada. Patients. Ventilated infants with a birth weight of ≤1250 grams and extubated to CPAP. Outcome measure. The outcome was success or failure of the primary extubation. Successful extubation was defined as remaining extubated for ≥7 days. Results. Of 140 infants who were eligible for the study, 94 infants were enrolled and randomised. Their mean gestational age was 26.2 weeks and their mean birth weight was 852 grams. Being extubated with IF-CPAP was advantageous as 31/48 infants allocated to IF-CPAP and 18/46 infants allocated to NP-CPAP were extubated successfully (χ2, p = 0.014). Conclusion. CPAP with IF-CPAP is superior to NP-CPAP in facilitating extubation in infants ≤1250 grams birthweight.
Age and interference in visuospatial working memory

Two experiments considered the possibility that age differences in VSWM span are due, in part, to older adults' susceptibility to interference. Older and younger participants were tested under conditions of either high or low interference, using two different displays; computerized versions of a 3 x 3 matrix, and the standard Corsi block task (CBT). We found that age differences in VSWM estimates were reduced in the low-interference condition. An additional finding was that males outperformed females, but only among young adults, and only in the CBT condition. A third experiment comparing the two displays replicated these gender findings. Our results suggest that: (1) Older adults' VSWM can be improved by reducing the amount of interference. (2) Typical WM span tasks may have a number of opposing components that differentially affect younger and older adults. (3) Gender differences in VSWM span appear to be task specific, and may decrease with age.
Two stage evaluation of bank branch efficiency using data envelopment analysis

This research presents a new two stage DEA model for evaluating the efficiency of a bank branch network in multiple dimensions. The first stage involves separate DEA analyses using three different branch performance models—productivity, profitability, and intermediation. Then, a new concept of using the results of these initial models in the second stage is done to provide a measure of overall efficiency and to allow the individual ranking of the branches. The top branches, identified by the second stage rankings, can then be used as benchmarks by management for the creation of “templates” for what new branches should be modeled after. This two stage model is then applied to a major Canadian bank's national retail branch network with the results presented to the bank's senior management. The economic effects of market size and geographical region and their effects on branch performance are also examined.