VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The origin of rice-infecting populations of Magnaporthe oryzae

The main goal of this study was to identify the origin of rice-infecting populations of Magnaporthe grisea. Although M. grisea has been reported from a wide range of host species, most of which are grasses, it appears to be composed of host-specific populations. For phylogenetic studies within M. grisea, ten polymorphic loci, located on five chromosomes, were identified: actin, BAC6, beta-tubulin, calmodulin, CH7-BAC7, CH7-BAC9, chitin synthase 1, translation elongation factor 1 alpha, M. grisea hydrophobin-like protein, and a nitrogen regulatory protein. The Magnaporthe species responsible for rice-blast was delimited from within the M. grisea complex and described in the first phase of this thesis project. A new biological species, M. oryzae, was segregated from M. grisea based on phylogenetic analysis of data from three loci (actin, beta-tubulin and calmodulin) and fertility testing. The newly described species, M. oryzae, causes rice blast and gray leaf spot of other grasses, while M. grisea causes gray leaf spot of Digitaria spp. In order to identify the origin of rice-infecting populations, phylogenetic analysis of M. oryzae was performed on a sample of 497 isolates. This sample consisted of isolates both from culture collections and from contemporary population samples. When data from all ten loci were combined in a single analysis, thirty-seven distinct haplotypes were identified within M. oryzae. Sequential phylogenetic analyses, using data from all ten loci with parsimony, distance, and Bayesian approaches, resolved both patterns of recombination and clonality in M. oryzae. The relationships among isolates from wheat, rice, Setaria spp. Leersia hexandra and Panicum repens were predominantly tree-like, consistent with a lack of recombination, while relationships among isolates from other hosts were reticulate, indicating a history of genetic exchange and recombination. All phylogenies support a single origin for the globally distributed M. oryzae lineage responsible for rice blast. The direction of host-shifts in M. oryzae was resolved by rooting a network for the closely related haplotypes from rice and other grass hosts. The rice-infecting population originated as a result of a single host-shift from Setaria spp. Rice was also a source for at least two additional host-shifts to the common rice-field weeds, L. hexandra and P. repens.
Generating, controlling and time-resolving ultrafast photocurrents in GaAs

Three different types of ultrafast photocurrents (rectification, shift, and injection) are observed in GaAs at 300 K and temporal information is obtained using the associated emitted THz radiation. Using a simple description of the current evolution and a Green function formalism for THz propagation calculations, the current dynamics is studied via the temporal profile of the emitted THz. Second-order one-colour rectification and shift currents are produced using 150 fs pulses at wavelengths of 1.55 μm and 0.775 μm respectively. At the same low pump intensity, 100 MWcm −2, the shift current density is 570 times larger than the rectification current density. At high pump intensity and a correspondingly high carrier density (>1017cm−3), the shift current is affected both by space-charge screening and short carrier dephasing times and is in phase quadrature with the rectification current. For a pump intensity of 500 MWcm−2, a maximum shift current density of 60 kAcm−2 is inferred. Coherently-controlled two-colour injection photocurrent is generated via quantum interference of one- and two-photon absorption in low-temperature-grown and semi-insulating GaAs at 300 K. Optical pulses with temporal widths of approximately 125 fs, at wavelengths of 1.55 μm ([special characters omitted]) and 0.775 μm ([special characters omitted]), yield phase-controllable, near-single cycle 4 THz radiation. The bandwidth of this radiation is limited by the optical pump pulse bandwidths. A maximum current density of approximately 60 kAcm−2 is produced at intensities [special characters omitted] = 300 MW/cm2 and [special characters omitted] = 3 GW/cm2. A non-monotonic behaviour of the measured injection current magnitude as a function of the [special characters omitted] beam fluence is observed and explained in terms of the increasing importance of space-charge screening. The screening leads to a current reversal and eventually a decrease in current density with increasing [special characters omitted] beam fluence. At carrier densities close to 1018cm −3, current relaxation times of the order of less than 110 fs are inferred from the time-resolved current profiles and are attributed to phonon scattering and carrier-carrier scattering between carriers of different effective masses.
The time evolution of the density of states in tritiated hydrogenated amorphous silicon

Tritiated hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H:T) thin films were deposited on crystalline silicon and high resistivity glass substrates. The time evolution of the density of defect states in these films was studied using the Constant Photocurrent Method (CPM) and Isothermal Capacitance Transient Spectroscopy (ICTS). The ICTS results revealed that, following thermal annealing, the concentration of positively charged dangling bonds (D+) decreased over a period of 300 hours from 5·1018 cm-3 to 1017 cm-3. The CPM results showed that the concentration of negatively charged dangling bonds (D-) increased over the same period of time from 5·1017 cm-3 to 1020 cm-3. The D+ and D- concentrations were exponential functions of time but the rate was different than that of tritium decay. At the same time, the Urbach energy was found to decrease with time, from 120 meV to 60 meV. The decrease in the Urbach energy suggests a conversion of weak bonds, in the valence band tail, into dangling bonds. A dynamic defect pool model was developed for a-Si:H:T, and the simulation results agreed with the experimental data for D+ and D -. The change in the D+ and D- concentrations was found to be, in main measure, the result of capture of the beta produced electrons in dangling bonds and weak bonds, with steady state achieved through the development of a balance between carrier generation and carrier capture processes. The dynamic defect pool model was used to predict the evolution of neutral dangling bonds (D0) with time. The results were found to be in agreement with previously reported Electron Spin Resonance data. The dynamic defect pool model was also used to predict the evolution of photoluminescence and of dark conductivity in a-Si:H:T. The results were found to agree with previously reported experimental data.
Beyond provision: a comparative analysis of two long-term refugee education systems (India, Lebanon)

For over 50 years, there have been Tibetans and Palestinians living in countries they do not call home; they are the dispersed, the dislocated, and the exiled. This study focuses on these two refugee groups. It addresses these two refugee populations in two of their hosting nations: Tibetan refugees in India, and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. The aim is to gaze beyond the initial emergency phase and into the realities of such refugee camp 'education systems' and the outcomes of such systems vis-a-vis host nation and international aid community response to the long-term nature of these camps. This paper is an assessment of the quality and effectiveness of the education systems of the Tibetan and Palestinian refugees in their respective host countries of India and Lebanon. In bringing attention to these two refugee situations, the intent is to shed light on an often-overlooked aspect of the refugee education experience: the long-term nature of many refugee situations.

Keywords: Refugees, Tibetan, Education
Refugees, Tibetan, India
Refugees, Palestinian Arab, Education
Comparative education
Caffeine, genetic variation and risk of myocardial infarction

Epidemiological studies examining the association between coffee and myocardial infarction (MI) remain inconclusive. Coffee is a major source of caffeine and has been implicated in the development of cardiovascular diseases. Caffeine is metabolized by cytochrome P450 (CYP)1A2, and the physiological effects of caffeine are mediated through blockade of adenosine receptors. A genetic polymorphism in CYP1A2 ( -163C>A) decreases enzyme inducibility resulting in slow caffeine metabolism, and a polymorphism in ADORA2A (1083C>T) is associated with caffeine-induced anxiety. The overall objective of this research was to determine whether genetic differences in caffeine metabolism and sensitivity modify the association between coffee consumption and risk of MI. The hypothesis was that individuals with a genotype associated with slow caffeine metabolism or altered sensitivity to caffeine are at increased risk of MI associated with coffee consumption. Cases with a first non-fatal MI and population-based controls living in Costa Rica, matched for age, sex and area of residence were genotyped by RFLP-PCR. Caffeinated coffee consumption and smoking status was determined by questionnaire. Since CYP1A2 also activates mutagens that may lead to DNA damage contributing to heart disease, our initial study was to examine whether CYPIA2 genotype was associated with risk of MI. The low inducibility CYP1A2 genotype was associated with an increased risk of MI, regardless of smoking status, suggesting that a substrate of CYP1A2 that is detoxified rather than activated may play a role in heart disease. This led us to examine the role CYP1A2 may play in the association between coffee consumption and risk of MI. Coffee consumption was associated with an increased risk of MI only among those with the low inducibility CYP1A2 genotype, corresponding to slow caffeine metabolism, suggesting that caffeine plays a major role in this association. Although ADORA2A genotype did not modify the association between coffee consumption and risk of MI, individuals with the ADORA2A genotype associated with caffeine-induced anxiety were found to limit their caffeine intake. The results from this investigation suggest that genetic variation in caffeine metabolism modifies the risk of MI associated with coffee consumption, and genetic variation in caffeine sensitivity affects caffeine consumption behavior.
Women's experiences of loss of voice and sense of self

A qualitative, life history approach was taken to explore women's experiences of loss of voice and silence, and the effects of these experiences on psychological health and well-being. Eight women between the ages of 22--46 who identified with loss of voice and silence as being a central theme in their lives participated in in-depth interviews. A qualitative theme analysis revealed that the experience of loss of voice and silence in the lives of these women was associated with four overarching silencing contexts. These were contexts that involved experiences related to gender inequity, experiences of trauma and abuse, experiences of not "fitting in", and experiences in which individuals were treated as not being worthy of power and agency within their own lives. With respect to the effects on psychological health and well-being, another set of four overarching themes emerged which included living with a devalued sense of self, living with a disrupted sense of self, ongoing experiences of self-silencing in relationships, and non-verbal modes of expression such as eating disturbances and depression. In addition to these findings, a few participants shared experiences related to the recovery of voice. In this regard, three overarching themes emerged which are described as a connection to one's experiences of loss of voice and silence, motivation and action taken in the pursuit of voice and connection to self, and supportive contexts and actions that help encourage recovery of, connection to, and expression of voice. The results of this study suggest the importance of examining the impact of multiple social contexts on the development of voice and the relationship of voice to well-being. The results can also guide the development of facilitative contexts to the development of voice.

Keywords: Self-esteem in women
Expression
Identity (Philosophical concept)
Self-realization in women
The transformative nature of culture-based literacy provision in native literacy programs

This thesis examines the transformative nature of culture-based literacy provision in Native literacy programs in Ontario through a qualitative study employing both Indigenous research methodologies and a phenomenological analysis of participant interviews. Through open-ended interviews with Native literacy practitioners I explore what happens when culture and cultural teachings become a starting point for learning and skills building in the literacy program and how this kind of learning approach/environment may be transformative not only for Native adult learners but also for the Native literacy practitioner. Findings include: the importance of community, how self-awareness is a pre-cursor to self-determination, the value of being both a teacher and a learner, and the part Indigenous knowledge plays in the learning and healing journey of the literacy learner. This thesis offers examples of successful approaches to culture-based literacy provision that help Native adult learners to reclaim their cultural identity and reach their educational goals.
Evaluation of a cultural competence educational intervention

This thesis presents the results of an intervention evaluation study in which 76 registered nurses (RNs) who worked in Public Health Nursing, participated in a cultural competence educational intervention to increase their level of cultural competence. In this study, Campinha-Bacote's model of cultural competence (1998, 2002) guided the design of the educational intervention. The model was comprised of five constructs: Cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skill, cultural encounter and cultural desire, which constituted the components of the intervention. ...

Keywords: Nursing, Education
Education, Bilingual
Multicultural education
Understanding the labyrinth as transformative site, symbol, and technology: an arts-informed inquiry

This research project focuses on understandings drawn from existing literature on the historical, mythological, and mathematical labyrinth, the accounts of individual seekers and practitioners, and the author's personal experience from five years as labyrinth "keeper" in an urban parish church in Canada. Three personal essays document this involvement with the labyrinth from the dramatic first encounter, through intellectual quest and personal pilgrimage, to responsibility for installation and maintenance as public sacred art in a host community. The inquiry includes an extensive literature review of the historical site and the many avenues of approach to understanding the interaction between place, identity, and learning that occurs in the labyrinth. Grounded in hermeneutic aesthetics and the methods of auto-ethnography, phenomenology and arts-based research, the inquiry investigates the connection between this ancient, mathematically significant site, the experience of reflective engagement with it, and contemporary interpretations of pilgrimage conceptualised as intentional seeking in the developmental process of self. Implications for education lie both in the labyrinth's symbolic function as a public art form demarcating and validating ritual space for care of the self, and in its capacity to activate the incubation of individual and collective imagination, bring about shifts in perception, restore personal equilibrium and perspective, and access tacit knowledge and inner wisdom. The medieval designers intended that users experience the characteristic sense of integrated consciousness and heightened imaginative function, a heritage that is to be welcomed at this historical juncture. The unicursal labyrinth was first inlayed in the pavement of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres in France in 1200 CE, coincident with the flowering of the School of Chartres, where the Ars Liberales curriculum formalised dialectic inquiry, technologies of the imagination, and recursive spiritual development. Reclaimed in recent years for walking meditation, the labyrinth functions, in the context of post-structural, holistic and aesthetic education, as a site of experiential learning and a technology for guiding the imagination into transformative patterns of thought. Its image symbolizes the order-versus-confusion binary characteristic of the integrative processes of personal development.

Keywords: Labyrinths
Labyrinths, Religious aspects
Helping hands, wounding words: an analysis of the negative construction of women who self-injure

This thesis examines the literature that contributes to the knowledge-base and thinking of professionals regarding self-injury and those who self-injure. It highlights the lack of research into the attitudes and perceptions of First Contact Professionals towards self-injury, as well as the negative reactions to women who self-injure, as a gap in the current literature. Texts based in the medical model were compared to texts from other perspectives, with a view to ways in which the portrayal of woman who self-injure may be negatively constructed. In addition, five First Contact Professionals were interviewed about their perceptions of self-injury. Connections between themes in the literature analysis and the interviews, such as the lack of adequate training, the absence of constructive settings in which to discuss issues concerning self-injury, and the association of guilt with the act of self-injury, were discussed.

Keywords: Self-mutilation
Medical personnel, Attitudes
Medical personnel and patient
Women, Diseases
Creative movement: a powerful strategy to teach science

Creative movement as a strategy that may be useful for teaching science to middle school students is examined in depth. The literature background is investigated in several areas that relate to creative movement including drama, active learning, kinesthetic learning, semiotics, learning through play, social interaction, creative movement, and physical education. A qualitative study is undertaken in which six grade seven students were taught two units surrounding the particle theory through movement. Results indicated two major outcomes for teaching science through movement. (1) Learning of science knowledge was increased and (2) student attitudes towards science were improved. Results suggested that creative movement was an effective strategy for teaching science to middle school students. Possible reasons that were revealed include: active learning, higher levels of engagement, social interaction, problem solving, effective group work, positive effects of movement on the brain, movement highlighting relevance, and accessing the affective domain through fun while learning.

Keywords: Science, Study and teaching (Elementary)
Play
Alternative education
Drama in education
Teaching
Reading images: visual and critical literary strategies as methods of meaning construction

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two visual and critical literacy strategies in helping students in the junior grades (grades 4, 5 and 6) develop their comprehension of visuals. Teacher knowledge and use of visual and critical literacy strategies in the classroom was examined as a starting point in developing a teacher training in-service that focused on developing students' visual and critical literacy skills. Seven teachers from Grade 4 to Grade 6 participated in the study. Through the use of qualitative research methods the impact of the study was assessed on teacher responses in interviews and logbook entries as well as analysis of student work samples. The results revealed limited knowledge and use of visual and critical literacy strategies in the classroom at the beginning of the study. The results also suggest that once the strategies were taught to students, their understanding and use of the strategies in their written and oral responses improved. However, the change was not uniform with both strategies. Recommendations are made for implementing the strategies in the future.

Keywords: Visual literacy, Study and teaching (Elementary)
Critical thinking, Study and teaching (Elementary)
Pictures as information resources
Reading comprehension
Head-driven probabilistic parsing for word lattices

This thesis presents the first application of the state-of-the-art head-driven statistical parsing model of Collins (1999) as a simultaneous language model and parser for large-vocabulary speech recognition. The model is adapted to an online left to right chart-parser for word lattices, integrating acoustic, N-gram, and parser probabilities. The parser uses structural and lexical dependencies not considered by N-gram models, conditioning recognition on more linguistically-grounded relationships. By preferring paths through the word lattice for which a probable parse exists, word error rate can be reduced and important syntactic and semantic relationships can be determined in a single step process. New forms of heuristic search and pruning are employed to improve efficiency. Experiments on the Wall Street Journal treebank and lattice corpora show word error rates competitive with the standard N-gram language model while extracting additional structural information useful for speech understanding.
Vulnerability and assets in urban poverty: bringing together participatory methods and a sustainable livelihoods framework

The central aim of this study is to contribute to a fuller understanding of poverty by bringing together an analysis of the structural and institutional contexts in which poverty exists with an understanding of the everyday livelihood strategies used by households who are poor. This study goes beyond conventional income poverty measures by bringing together a sustainable livelihoods framework and participatory poverty assessment methods. Both of these approaches, primarily used in non-Western rural and urban settings, have been applied in a Canadian urban setting with low income households who use the emergency services of Project SHARE in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The sustainable livelihoods framework pays particular attention to structural and institutional issues which impact on livelihoods, drawing on the concepts of assets and vulnerability. The importance of assets in the lives of households is explored through in-depth structured interviews with 44 households who use Project SHARE's services. Assets are defined broadly to include household relations, health education, labour (including income), housing (including durable goods) and social networks. The extent of commoditization of public services and the coping strategies pursued by households are also examined. Participatory methods in the study of poverty invite those living in difficult circumstances to participate in an analysis of their own livelihood situation. A participatory poverty assessment has been facilitated with a small group of women who are members of the food co-op at Project SHARE. The Participatory Poverty Assessment explores issues of well-being, assets, the role of institutions, coping strategies and a community action plan. The contribution of both the exploration of assets and the Participatory Poverty Assessment are brought together in a discussion of livelihoods including issues of well-being, gender, social solidarity, capabilities and functionings, and the power of institutions. The combination of a sustainable livelihoods framework and a participatory poverty assessment has demonstrated the importance of non-material needs, uncovered unmet needs, demonstrated the importance of social relationships in sustaining livelihoods, added to an understanding of poverty as an inseparable interaction between means and ends, and demonstrated how the institution of welfare administration shapes and constrains the possibilities for livelihood well-being.