VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Retail Food Environment in Relation to Socio-economic Characteristics, Weight Status and Diabetes

The food environment is drawing increasing attention as an important population-level determinant of diet, obesity and related health outcomes. Using retail food data sourced from a commercial database, we examined several dimensions of the local retail food environment in relation to area socio-economic characteristics, and weight status and diabetes risk among adult residents of three urban regions in southern Ontario. The first study showed that local access to different types of food retail was patterned by level of neighbourhood material deprivation. More deprived neighbourhoods generally provided better access to stores and restaurants of all types, including those selling more or less healthful foods. These patterns were partially explained by urban form factors. Relative access to unhealthy food retailers (as a proportion of all outlets) showed little variation by level of neighbourhood material deprivation. In the second study, we found that measures of absolute and relative availability of different types of restaurants (volume and proportion) within walking distance of residential areas had differential effects on the weight status of local residents. We also identified a novel interaction between absolute and relative restaurant measures, whereby exposure to a higher proportion of fast-food relative to all restaurants was directly related to excess weight, particularly in areas with high volumes of fast-food restaurants (e.g. odds ratio for obesity=2.55 in areas with 5+ fast-food restaurants, 95% confidence interval: 1.55-4.17, across the interquartile range). The third study showed a similar synergistic effect between absolute and relative dimensions of fast-food restaurant exposure in relation to the development of diabetes. Among younger adults (20-65 years), a greater proportion of fast-food restaurants was directly associated with incident diabetes after adjustment for individual- and area-level covariates, but only in areas with high volumes of fast-food outlets (hazard ratio=1.79, 95% confidence interval: 1.03-3.12, across the interquartile range). No significant associations were observed in areas with low volumes of fast food or among older adults. This dissertation contributes to a better understanding of how different aspects of the retail food environment relate to health, which may help to guide the design of programs and policies to create healthier and more equitable food environments.

Advisor: Glazier, Richard H
Booth, Gillian L
Kafka: A Blueprint of Desire

Desire in Kafka has been variously theorized, through the works of Freud, Lacan, Girard, Deleuze, and others. Yet there appears to have been, up to now, no inverse attempt: to extract from within his literature a theoretical model of desire. This dissertation fills this gap in scholarship and reveals Kafka as a great theoretician of desire. Since Kafka never wrote such a theory, my objective becomes to lift its blueprint from within his texts and to formulate an account of desire these works generate. I do so by tracing the author’s incessant experimentation with desire on a handful of key texts between 1912 and 1922. Within these works, desire appears as pure Verkehr, a force that tends towards the subject’s self-realization. His letters, novels and stories, as I demonstrate, entail a series of literary experiments that test the potency of written texts on the one hand and human bodies on the other to be employed as vehicles for desire—as means for this Verkehr towards becoming. In Briefe an Felice and Der Prozess Kafka takes up the former, exploring the possibility of liberating the symbolic self from the body through writing, by passing off written documents as a legitimate proxy of one’s identity. Unconvinced by the results, Kafka reverses the hierarchy of writing over corporeality as a mode of self-realization, shifting the site of desire from text to body in attempts to write (In der Strafkolonie), read (Ein Landarzt), and stage (Ein Hungerküstler) bodies as narrative texts. But this counter experiment reaffirms the supposition of duality between the corporeal and the symbolic selves as alternative modes of self-realization, so that desire remains thwarted by the limitations of the chosen medium. It is in his late novel-project, Das Schloß, that Kafka successfully dismantles this opposition and arrives at a more nuanced understanding of desire as a free multi-directional force of self-becoming. Kafka’s evolving conceptualization of desire has direct implications for the increasingly open narrative structure of his late writings: As the flow of desire ceases to be determined by the choice of a single vehicle (written texts or human bodies) and by its limitations, so too the Schloß-novel escapes the narrow parameters of a linear text and itself becomes multi-directional, culminating in a new literary form: a hypertext.

Keywords: desire
hypertext
Kafka
Advisor: Zilcosky, John
The Constructive Role of Spatial Context in Event Memory

Episodic memory and spatial memory are two types of memory that have long been associated with the hippocampus, but the mechanism underlying their joint reliance on the hippocampus is debated. Some have proposed that mentally constructing scenes underlies episodic memory, serving as the foundation for remembered and imagined events. In this dissertation, I present four experimental studies testing questions relating to how spatial context affects, and may underlie, episodic memory, in terms of brain and behaviour. Chapter 2 describes a study in which more familiar contexts elicited more detailed and vivid memories of both scenes and events in young and older adults. The effect of context was comparable across age groups, despite the expected memory decline in older adults, suggesting that spatial context has a pervasive effect on episodic memory throughout the lifespan. Chapter 3 presents a study in which we found that participants spontaneously assigned spatial contexts to events where none was specified, suggesting that it is very difficult to vividly imagine and remember an episode devoid of spatial context. In Chapter 4, we found that individuals with memory loss relating to medial temporal lobe damage showed parallel impairments in memory for scenes and episodes, while retaining preserved schematic spatial memory. In a case of more posterior temporal/parietal damage, we found impairments in scene memory and more subtle deficits in episodic memory. These findings suggest that while the medial temporal lobe is crucial for both episodic and scene memory, other regions also contribute to scene memory and may serve as inputs to the hippocampal memory system. In Chapter 5, we examined the neural representation of imagined events using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Multivariate pattern analyses revealed that the largest network of neural areas represented information about the location of events, as compared to people or objects. These findings demonstrate how the location of an event plays a role in determining the neural representation of memories throughout networks associated with scene and event memory. Together, these studies demonstrate how spatial context affects the behavioural and neural characteristics of episodic memory and imagination, relating to theories of episodic memory and hippocampal function.

Keywords: Cognitive Neuroscience
Episodic Memory
Hippocampus
Imagination
Memory
Spatial Memory
Advisor: Moscovitch, Morris
Disasters, Settlements and the Homeland: Vietnamese American Experiences of White Supremacy in New Orleans

Vietnamese Americans in New Orleans became well-known as â a community with miraclesâ after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Arriving in the United States after the Vietnam War (1975), these Vietnamese refugees learned to adapt to life in Louisiana. After more than 35 years living in the country of settlement, Vietnamese Americans have developed experiences of living with African Americans, the majority population in New Orleans. By engaging in the discussion of the white supremacy ideology, the dissertation points out that Vietnamese Americans in New Orleans are not only victims of both overt and covert racial discriminatory acts, but they are also complicit in it. While they suffer from the minority status in American society, they buy into the racial hierarchy of white supremacy that denigrates low-income African Americans. From the analysis of not only their everyday life experiences but also the aftermath of disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina and BP Oil spill in 2010, the dissertation shows the politics of race in New Orleans as well as in the United States. Vietnamese Americansâ conformity to white supremacy also confirms that the United States has not been color-blind. The last chapter displays the linkages of the Vietnamese Americans in New Orleans with their home villages in Vietnam as well as the government of Vietnam. Engaging in a global perspective in which the nation-state has tried to embrace its overseas population as an essential part of the country, the chapter examines the effectiveness of the deterritorialization policy of the Vietnamese government on Vietnamese Americans. It also shows that while the deterritorialization policy failed to achieve its missions, it unexpectedly became a key factor that renewed the diasporic dimension of Vietnamese Americans. In addition, when fighting against the intrusion of the communist agenda into their diasporic community, Vietnamese American community leaders strategically employed the freedom in American politics to legalize and implement their local anticommunist agenda. In this process, while the diasporic moments were reinforced, the white supremacy remained intact.

Keywords: Asian American
Diaspora
Disaster
Transnationalism
Vietnamese American
White Supremacy
Advisor: Luong, Hy
Questioning Particles: A Cross-Linguistic Approach to Quebec French Polar Interrogatives

This thesis examines the syntactic properties of the polar interrogative particle tu in Quebec French. Its goals are to better understand the role of tu in the grammar of Quebec French and to contribute to the study of interrogative particles in general. Three questions are posed which are intended to serve as a guide through the discussion: (i) whether tu is indeed an interrogative particle (or merely a variant of French complex inversion, its source construction), (ii) whether tu is “adapting” to the grammar of Quebec French or vice versa, and (iii) to what extent interrogative particles “retain” properties from their diachronic source element. Interrogative particles are typically either clause-initial or clause-final (Bencini 2003, Dryer 2005b, among others), and often originate from a negative or a disjunctive morpheme. However, tu is clause-internal and it developed from a subject clitic. Yet, it is argued that tu shares properties with interrogative particles in unrelated languages, which it does not share with its source construction. I claim that tu is indeed an interrogative particle, and I conclude that it is “adapting” to the grammar of Quebec French to some extent, for instance in keeping its postverbal position, but that the grammar of Quebec French is also “adapting” to it to some extent, in that the particle is acquiring interrogative particle properties such as an incompatibility with wh-elements and negation. I propose an analysis which reflects this tension, where tu heads a syncretic projection with both C°- and I°-features. The third question is discussed briefly, though answering it will have to await future work. It is predicted that an interrogative particle will develop within a given grammar only if it can occupy a C°-position in the syntactic tree.

Keywords: Interrogative particles
Negative interrogatives
Quebec French
Yes/no questions
Advisor: Roberge, Yves
Moral and Ethical Leadership: One Principal's Beliefs and Practices

Abstract Over the past twenty-five years, there has been an increasing body of literature exploring the principal and the teacher as moral agents. Along with a focus on the moral dimensions of teaching and administration, there has been growing emphasis on the ethical nature of schools. This research study considers how one elementary school leader resolves moral and ethical issues and challenges in her daily practice; it further explores the extent of her awareness of such issues and challenges as being moral and ethical in nature. The primary research question is: How does one elementary school principal conceptualize her work in moral terms and engage in ethical practices? The secondary research question is: In what ways does one elementary school principal believe her previous professional experiences and prior life experiences have made her more aware of the moral and ethical dimensions of her role and influenced the way she conceptualizes and deals with ethical situations in her practice? This study is a rich portrayal of who the principal is as a school leader and how she understands the ethical components of her practice as she strives to cultivate an ethical school. Components of her practice that are explored include fostering relationships, encouraging dialogue, formulating decisions that make reference to ethical virtues and moral values, and providing support for purposeful learning. Other dimensions include nurturing a climate of respect and trust, building awareness of the moral implications of words and actions, and fostering a safe and caring community within the school. The principalâ s resolve to conduct her work in an ethical manner is uncovered in a complex array of encounters and interactions with participants in the course of her daily practice.

Keywords: ethics
leadership
morals
principal
school
virtues
Advisor: Campbell, Elizabeth C
The Like Button: A Way to Explore Social Interaction in Threaded Discourse

Recent studies have begun to explore alternative ways to support social interaction in threaded discourse. This dissertation extends this research by exploring how a Like button, much like Facebookâ s, can provide students with a low-cost mechanism to interact with each otherâ s discussion posts. I explore how this ubiquitous social media tool was integrated into an experimental academic online learning environment, Pepper, to support student discussion from multiple perspectives. The research suggests that the Like button was adopted in threaded discourse as an indirect speech act, the meaning of which varies because of how it is used by students. There are four studies that explore how the Like button was used by students enrolled in graduate-level online discussion-based courses at a leading Canadian institute of education. Both quantitative and qualitative data were used to explore student interactivity to better understand the role of the Like button as a social scaffold in threaded discourse. Social constructivism and speech act theory were used as frameworks for the project. Collectively, the findings suggest that the Like button in threaded discourse was an effective social interaction tool used by students to engage in a shared learning experience. Recommendations to expand the Like button into additional low-cost social and learning scaffolds and to provide environment users with integrated support on the availability and function of these tools is provided. The findings of my research act as a starting point for integrating more low-cost mechanisms into threaded discourse by providing thought-provoking ways of integrating and adapting ubiquitous social media tools in academic environments.

Keywords: Like button
online discussion
online learning
online learning environment design
social interaction
threaded discourse
Advisor: Hewitt, Jim
How does the organizational culture of two teachersâ unions working in one community influence their relationship with district school boards, union members and the public?

Abstract Organizational culture: we often hear about an organizationâ s culture - either positive or negative, and sometimes identify an organizations success or failure to that culture. But what is organizational culture? How is it created and sustained? What factors contribute most significantly to its development? This research is a result of my interest in the variations in organizational culture that I experienced while working in Canadian secondary schools, where different teacher unions represented teaching staffs. As a result of these experiences I wondered, could each unionâ s organizational culture be the reason for the differences in approach that the unions assume when interacting with school boards, their membership and the public? As a result of this research, my original contribution to knowledge is the identification of five factors that contribute significantly to the creation and maintenance of strong organizational culture. These include: The ability of an organization to develop, articulate and implement a set of a few core non-negotiable values, which provide a framework for all of their work; an organizationâ s use of a shared language; a personal system of clear and concise communications that flows directly from the leadership team through to the membership; the presence of trusting relationships within the organization; strong organizational memory fostered by the sharing of stories. This study focused on two teacher unions who represented teachers in one community in Ontario. The research was conducted through a case study of each organization, which included 8 interviews and a review of documents, over a 4-month time frame. This work is important to union executives, educators, administrators, and policy makers who function in unionized environments. But, ultimately, the objective of educational research is to determine those processes and practices that help to create effective schools in order to support the educational needs of all students. It is my hope that this research can further the development of collaborative union and district school board organizational cultures so that together they place student achievement at the forefront of their agendas.

Keywords: Catholic Education
District School Board
Organizational Culture
Public Education
Secondary School Teachers
Teacher Union
Advisor: Bascia, Nina
Parallel Radiofrequency Transmission for the Reduction of Heating in Deep Brain Stimulation Leads at 3T

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is increasingly used to treat a variety of brain diseases by sending electrical impulses to deep brain nuclei through long, electrically conductive leads. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patients pre- and post-implantation is desirable to target and position the implant, to evaluate possible side-effects and to examine DBS patients who have other health conditions. Although MRI is the preferred modality for pre-operative planning, MRI post-implantation is limited due to the risk of high local power deposition, and therefore tissue heating, at the tip of the lead. The localized power deposition arises from currents induced in the leads caused by coupling with the radiofrequency (RF) transmission field during imaging. In this thesis, parallel RF transmission (pTx) is used to tailor the RF electric field to suppress coupling effects. Three pTx coil configurations with 2-elements, 4-elements, and 8-elements, respectively, were investigated. Optimal input voltages to minimize coupling, while maintaining RF magnetic field homogeneity, were determined using a Nelder-Mead optimization algorithm. Resulting electric and magnetic fields were compared to that of a 16-rung birdcage coil. Experimental validation was performed with a custom-built 4-element pTx coil. Three cases were investigated to develop and evaluate this technique. First, a Proof-of-Concept study was performed to investigate the case of a simple, uniform cylindrical phantom with a straight, perfectly conducting wire. Second, a heterogeneous subject with bilateral, curved implanted wires was investigated. Finally, the third case investigated realistic patient lead-trajectories obtained from intra-operative CT scans. In all three cases, specific absorption rate (SAR), a metric used to quantify power deposition which results in heating, was reduced by over 90%. Maximal reduction in SAR was obtained with the 8-element pTx coil. Magnetic field homogeneity was comparable to the birdcage coil for the 4- and 8-element pTx configurations. Although further research is required before clinical implementation, these initial results suggest that the concept of optimizing pTx to reduce DBS heating effects holds considerable promise.

Keywords: Deep Brain Stimulation
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Parallel Radiofrequency Transmit
Advisor: Graham, Simon J
Living Leadership: Exploring the Leadership Values and Practices of Independent-School Principals in Ontario

The relationship between what leaders do and what they believe is a topic of increasing interest in educational administration. Despite the considerable work already done, gaps in knowledge about leadership practices and values still exist, especially with regard to independent schools. This study explored how seven independent-school principals in Ontario, Canada, understood and talked about their leadership practices and values. It also investigated alignments and tensions between the practices and values espoused by the principals and those of their schools. Data were derived from 60-90 minute interviews, consisting of both semi-structured and open-ended questions, conducted twice with each principal. Previous experiences were found to be influential on the principalsâ actions and beliefs. Variety and confusion were noted in their remarks about values, and connections were drawn between their knowledge of their schoolsâ values, their thoughts on value alignment, and their roles in shaping their schoolsâ value statements. Values figured prominently in their practice, and tensions between values and practices arose from some of the elements that define independent schools. Using a variety of rhetorical strategies, the principals revealed complexities and paradoxes inherent in their roles. This report adds to the limited knowledge base concerning independent-school leadership in Canada, builds on existing research into leadership practices and values, addresses the need to know more about the contexts in which leadership is practised, and contributes to the conversation about leadership preparation and succession planning. Implications for practice include a greater emphasis on reflective practice, stronger support networks, and values-based training for independent-school leaders. Recommendations for further research include exploring the motivations behind leadership values, the language of leadership in different settings, and the values and practices of other constituents in independent schools.

Keywords: Canada
independent schools
leadership
practices
principal
values
Advisor: Campbell, Carol