VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Full Day Kindergarten Classroom in Ontario: Exploring Play-based Learning Approach and Its Implications for Child Development

Children have the right to fulfill and expand on all their potentials and desires to learn. In 2010, the Ontario Ministry of Education introduced Full-Day Kindergarten (FDK) in Ontario and aimed at providing quality Kindergarten programs for children. The implementation of FDK is expected to be implemented in all public schools by 2015/16. The literature and research on early years education affirms that children benefit from quality early years educational programs as they are important in developing neurons in the brain before the age of six. This qualitative study focuses on understanding early years' educational philosophies and examining teachers' perspectives on FDK teaching and learning practices. The case studies are informed by the narratives of eight Kindergarten teachers through data collected from interviews, observation, classroom visits, and artifacts. The most significant findings of the study are that quality FDK teaching and learning practices are based on the following features: (a) learning through play-based, inquiry-based and experiential-based exploration; (b) making the educational experiences child-centred and authentic; (c) building on childrens' past experiences, nurturing self-expression and identity; (d) strengthening relationships and connections; and (e) creating stimulating environments, both indoor and outdoor, for children's learning and development. Teachers' perspectives and specific FDK classroom practices are described, analyzed and discussed. Theory informed practice and practice informed theory, as models were developed and designed during this research journey. The theoretical framework served as a holistic lens and was instrumental in examining FDK practices in each case study. The Integrated Child Development Model was created, later modified and named the Early Years Education Model (EYE Model). The EYE Model identified important aspects of quality FDK and named developmental domains. The models served as a tools and conceptual frameworks in evaluating and analyzing classroom practice. Research implications that resulted from this study included improving class size, providing more teacher training, and greater opportunities for quality and varied play experiences were identified as essential moving forward. The Kindergarten years lay a strong foundation for success in future schooling and looking closer at teaching and learning practices in the Kindergarten classroom brings awareness to best practices.

Keywords: Child Development
Early Years Education
Full Day Kindergarten
Ontario FDK
Play-based Learning
Teaching Practices
Advisor: Njoki, Wane
Partisan Manipulation of the Democratic Process and the Comparative Law of Democracy

This dissertation argues for institutionally focused judicial oversight of the law of democracy in order to minimize partisan manipulation of the democratic process. Elected representatives have incentives to distort for partisan gain campaign finance, political party funding, electoral boundaries, and the other rules shaping democratic political competition. While representatives are elected to act in the best interests of voters, they can entrench themselves and reduce their electoral accountability by altering the rules that structure elections and democratic politics. In other words, political representation is beset by a principal-agent problem. I trace the implications of the principal-agent problem for judicial review of the comparative law of democracy. I argue that leading accounts of judicial review of the law of democracy have failed to account for the presence of electoral management bodies (EMBs), such as election commissions and redistricting commissions, and the role played by majoritarian constitutional structures. If the goal is to reduce partisan self-dealing then judicial oversight must be institutionally sensitive, because the risk of partisan self-dealing varies depending on the type and characteristics of the institution whose actions are under review. I argue that courts should show different degrees of deference based on the risk that the institution is likely to have distorted the democratic process. EMBs are likely to be independent and impartial and the risk of partisan self-dealing by these institutions is therefore reduced. To the extent that they are independent and impartial, then these institutions are entitled to deference. Courts must be aware, however, of the variation in institutional design of EMBs, which range from independent and impartial to partisan and captured. Where the EMB has been captured by partisan interests, then deference is not warranted. Where it is the decisions of legislatures and not EMBs that are under review, then courts should engage in vigilant oversight because of the incentives elected representatives possess to manipulate the democratic process. I develop doctrine to aid courts in limiting partisan self-dealing and assessing the proper degree of deference to grant, including a test to assess the independence and impartiality of EMBs. Where legislative action is under scrutiny, I argue that motive-based judicial review is a way forward for courts to prevent partisan self-dealing. The majoritarian democracies of Canada, Australia, India, and the United States are considered in depth in order to make these claims.

Keywords: Comparative Law
Election Law
Electoral Management Bodies
Judicial Review
Law of Democracy
Partisanship
Advisor: Sujit, Choudhry
Recovering the Classic: Twelfth-Century Latin Epic and the Virgilian Tradition

This dissertation considers how ancient and medieval commentaries on the Aeneid can give us new insights into four twelfth-century Latin epics--the Ylias by Joseph of Exeter, the Alexandreis by Walter of Ch창tillon, the Anticlaudianus by Alan of Lille, and the Architrenius by John of Hauville. Virgil's influence on twelfth-century Latin epic is generally thought to be limited to verbal echoes and occasional narrative episodes, but evidence is presented that more global influences have been overlooked because ancient and medieval interpretations of the Aeneid, as preserved by the commentaries, were often radically different from modern readings of the Aeneid. By explaining how to interpret the Aeneid, these commentaries directly influenced the way in which twelfth-century Latin epic imitated the Aeneid. At the same time, these Aeneid commentaries allow us a greater awareness of the generic expectations held by the original readers of twelfth-century Latin epic. Thus, this dissertation contributes to our understanding of ancient and medieval perceptions of the Aeneid while exploring the importance of commentaries in shaping poetic composition, imitation, and reading. The first chapter presents evidence that the allegorical interpretation of the Aeneid, as presented by Servius, Fulgentius, and Bernard Silvestris, served as an important structural model for the plots of the Anticlaudianus and the Architrenius. The second chapter examines how the twelfth-century understanding of history and myth in the Aeneid influenced the Alexandreis and the Ylias. The final chapter explores how these medieval epics respond to the twelfth-century ethical reading of the Aeneid and suggests possible links to modern `pessimistic' interpretations of the Aeneid, building on the work done by Craig Kallendorf in The Other Virgil and Richard Thomas in Virgil and the Augustan Reception.

Keywords: Aeneid
Alexandreis
Anticlaudianus
Architrenius
Vergil
Ylias
Advisor: David, Townsend
Carbenes in Ruthenium Based Olefin Metathesis Catalysts and Stabilization of Low Coordinate Boron Species

Since their discovery, carbenes have been widely used as organocatalysts and as superb ligands for transition metal-based catalysts. They have also, more recently, been shown to stabilize reactive and low-valent main group systems. Catalytic olefin metathesis has proven to be a powerful tool in various chemical fields. Research in this area has received considerable attention specifically with the development of new catalysts. The vast majority of catalysts developed, thus far, have been modifications to the Grubbs catalyst architecture. The research presented herein focuses on the development of a new route for the synthesis of new olefin metathesis catalysts and testing their activity. A new method of preparing ruthenium alkylidene complexes starting with bis-carbene RuHCl species and alkenyl sulfides is developed. This provides a route to bis-mixed carbene ruthenium alkylidene complexes with a hemilabile tridentate carbene and conveniently installs both an alkylidene fragment and a thiolate in one step. The resulting Ru-alkylidene are either inactive or minimally active for the standard metathesis tests. The species generated by the addition of one equivalent of BCl3, however, show improved activity for RCM, ROMP and CM either at room temperature or at slightly elevated temperatures. Halide exchange for these systems results in enhanced metathesis activity for the standard tests where catalytic olefin metathesis was observed at room temperature. Cyclic (alkylamino)carbenes are utilized to stabilize iminoboryl moieties which have only been previously stabilized in the coordination sphere of transition metals. Some of the species are also shown to undergo [2+2] cycloaddition with CO2. CAACs are also used for the synthesis of a boron derivative, which is isoelectronic with singlet carbenes, namely a borylene. This species is shown to react with CO and H2, but in contrast with carbenes, it acts as an electrophile and therefore mimics the behavior of metals.

Advisor: Douglas, W Stephan
Building Conditional Safety "Brick by Brick": Conceptualizing Safety among Women who Experience Intimate Partner Violence

Empirical evidence and practice wisdom indicates women simultaneously endure and resist intimate partner violence (IPV) in an effort to protect themselves - to be safe. But what does it mean to be safe? Contemporary discourses and interventions often position physical safety, and reducing the threat of future harm, to be the primary goal of women's help-seeking behaviour, and by extension, the primary feature of what it means to be safe. However, there is no evidence indicating the elimination or minimization of direct physical harm is the primary feature of feeling safe. The purpose of this study was to examine 1) women's conceptualizations of safety and 2) how safety was achieved, in order to theorize about the broader construct of safety. Underpinned by intersectional and feminist theories, and guided by grounded theory methodology, 14 semi-structured interviews were conducted with women who self-identified as experiencing IPV. Analysis revealed women who experience IPV conceptualized safety in complicated, complex, and conditional ways. A key finding of this study revealed the notion of safety goes beyond the direct, embodied harms inherent in many abusive relationships. A broader formulation of safety emerged suggesting the concept spans economic, physical, emotional, psychological, and social domains. Building conditional safety across these various domains contributed to a variety of possible safety dispositions ranging from provisional safety to considerable safety. Data suggested women feel safest when they have power to make decisions; access to information about IPV; time and space to heal; housing and economic self-sufficiency; access to unconditional support; and most importantly no ongoing experience of IPV. While working to eliminate the impacts and consequences of IPV should certainly remain at the core of social work prevention and intervention strategies, the dynamic and ever-changing sense of safety women experience over the course of an abusive relationship must be more fully considered in future practice with survivors.

Keywords: help-seeking
intimate partner violence
resistance
safety
survivor-informed practice
Advisor: Ramona, Alaggia
A Defense of Reductive Physicalism

In this dissertation, I defend reductive physicalism, according to which (in particular) mental properties are type-identical to physical properties. I use a burden of proof strategy to defend the position, established by appealing to scientific practice, methodological considerations, and analogies between higher-level properties and paradigm cases of reduction. This strategy allows various non-reductive and anti-physicalist positions to be explored in the context of arguments presented in their favour.Non-reductive physicalists argue that some higher-level properties are not type-identical to any physical properties. Perhaps the principal argument along these lines is the Multiple Realizability Argument, while a common reductivist reply appeals to the Disjunctive Strategy. I establish a framework for understanding this dialectic that reveals the logical space available to non-reductive physicalists, allowing me to make comprehensive rejoinders to the best available responses to the Disjunctive Strategy. For example, according to a recent, powers-based response, a higher-level property instance has a proper subset of the causal powers of its realizer on the occasion, making the higher-level property instance ontologically distinct and causally autonomous from its realizer. Using my framework, I argue that the higher-level property is not token-distinct from its realizer. Furthermore, even if it were, its supposed causal autonomy is just a special case of the counterfactual stability of disjunctions.Anti-physicalists argue that some propertiesspecifically phenomenal propertiesare over and above physical properties, as per some strong form of property dualism. The main anti-physicalist arguments are the Knowledge and Conceivability Arguments. I argue that, perhaps surprisingly, these arguments actually exclude popular versions of strong emergentism (those according to which phenomenal properties are lawfully, downwardly causal), or at least render them less plausible than physicalist counterparts.Strong emergentism therefore relies mostly on its bare empirical possibility for support, which makes it resistant to

Keywords: Mental properties
Non-reductive physicalism
Phenomenal properties
Reductive physicalism
Strong emergentism
Type-identity physicalism
Advisor: Jessica, M Wilson
Mitigating Model Error in CO Emission Estimation

Atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) is the product of incomplete combustion as wellas the oxidation of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere. Since it exerts a significant impacton the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere via reaction with the hydroxyl radical (OH),several studies have attempted to quantify CO emissions using a top-down or inversemodeling approach. Recent studies have shown, however, that there are significant uncertaintiesin emissions estimated using this approach, due to the assumption that thechemical transport model used in the inversion is perfect or unbiased.In this thesis, I will study two different approaches to mitigating the impact of modelbiases on estimated CO emissions using the GEOS-Chem inversion system and CO retrievalsfrom the Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT) satellite instrument.First, the feasibility of using the weak constraint four-dimensional variational(4D-Var) approach to mitigate the impact of model errors on estimated CO emissions isexamined in detail using synthetic retrievals in a series of controled Observations SystemSimulations Experiments (OSSEs) using synthetic MOPITT CO retrievals as wellas inversion experiments using real MOPITT retrievals.Afterwards, improving the chemical sink by constraining the precursors of OH by assimilatingsatellite retrievals of ozone and NO2 is examined. The influence of estimatedCO emissions to the joint assimilation of retrievals of different trace gases is examined,as well as the additional impact of using different a priori biomass burning emission inventories. The results presented in this thesis provide a detailed study of these two differentmodel error mitigation approaches, and demonstrate the pitfalls as well as the potentialutility of both approaches in estimating and mitigating model errors. In particular, thisthesis contains the first study of weak constraint 4D-Var in the context of chemical sourceinversions.

Advisor: Dylan, Jones
Enhanced Vertical Fuel Continuity in Forests Defoliated by Spruce Budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana Clem.) Promotes the Transition of a Surface Fire into a Crown Fire

Evidence exists for a link between spruce budworm defoliation and large-scale forest fires. However, the underlying mechanisms of the spruce budworm-wildfire interaction have yet to be adequately explained. A driving factor for the occurrence of crown fires is the vertical distribution of fuels. Therefore I first describe the vertical fuel restructuring that took place during sustained, aerially-mapped spruce budworm defoliation in boreal mixedwood forest of northern Ontario and then investigate stand breakdown and surface fuel accumulation during and after a period of defoliation. Forest structural data were then modeled using Van Wagner's (1977) conditions for the start and spread of crown fire and the Fire Behaviour Prediction (FBP) system as well as in the Crown Fire Initiation and Spread (CFIS) simulator to develop an estimate of the associated changes in the probability of a surface fire crowning (PSC) after different lengths of defoliation. Vertical fuel continuity increased with years of continuous defoliation, with the highest measured occurring after sixteen years. The PSC due to stand breakdown and surface fuel accumulation increased with successive years of defoliation, and in the years following the end of defoliation, as mapped by the Forest Insect and Disease Survey (FIDS). Likewise, in the simulator, higher continuity and surface fuel loads were associated with increased PSC. This investigation unites past research into the interaction between spruce budworm and fire and provides a common framework for future study. Once refined for the range of variations in climate and forest characteristics in Ontario, it may provide a useful tool for the assessment of fire hazard from the FIDS defoliation maps. This in turn could ultimately lead to improved organization and deployment of fire detection and initial attack resources and a more effective management of large fires.

Keywords: crown fire
defoliation
forest fire
spruce budworm
surface fire
vertical fuel continuity
Advisor: Sandy, Smith
Ritual Poetics in the Plays of Sophocles

This dissertation seeks to analyze the ritual content of the Sophoclean corpus using ritual poetics, which offers an approach to the interpretation of poetic texts based on the predictable structure and communicative properties that ritual and poetry share. In particular, drawing on the ritual theories of Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner, as well as the dramatic theory of Aristotle, I suggest that ritual and dramatic narrative function in an analogous way in Sophocles because both advance according to a predictable progression that facilitates a change of status expressed through community membership. Due to this analogy, any deviations from the expected on the level of ritual have implications for the way in which the audience experience the plot. Sophocles, relying on his audience's ritual competence, incorporates three kinds of discernable ritual mistakes in his plays: problems of ritual conflation, ritual repetition and ritual status. On the basis of the analogy between ritual and narrative, these ritual mistakes influence the audience's dramatic perceptions and expectations.In the Ajax, I explore ritual conflation, showing how scenes that confuse two distinct rituals contribute to the ambivalent characterization of the protagonist, while the conflation of rituals across the play generates competing expectations about the progression of the plot. The Electra illustrates Sophocles' use of ritual repetition. In this play, the normal repetitious nature of ritual is skewed as corruptions of the ritual process consistently demand further rituals, rendering the sequence of ritual and dramatic action potentially infinite. The Philoctetes demonstrates that, even when a ritual is performed correctly, problems with the status of ritual participants can invalidate the rite, creating a productive dissonance between the failed ritual effect of the action and its nonetheless powerful dramatic effect. Finally, the Oedipus at Colonus, through the unifying motif of supplication, incorporates all three kinds of ritual mistakes to both describe and effect Oedipus' movement toward and ultimate acceptance among the Eumenides. My investigation sheds new light on Sophocles' dramatic technique and, especially, offers a new way of approaching the problem of dramatic closure in the ambiguous endings of his plays.

Keywords: Athens
Ritual
Ritual Poetics
Sophocles
Theatre
Tragedy
Advisor: Victoria, Wohl
Evaluation of Drug-Induced Liver Injury in an In Vitro Oxidative Stress Inflammation System

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a major concern in clinical studies as well as in post-marketing surveillance of drugs. Previous evidence suggests that drug exposure during periods of inflammation can increase an individual's susceptibility to toxicity. Inflammation caused by infections or endotoxins markedly activates NADPH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate) oxidase that generates superoxide radicals by transferring electrons from NADPH. In the phagosome, superoxide radicals spontaneously form hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and other reactive oxygen species (ROS). Neutrophils or Kupffer cells also release myeloperoxidase on activation. The aim of this study was to develop and validate an in vitro oxidative stress inflammation model to identify compounds that may increase hepatotoxicity during inflammation. Toxic pathways were also investigated using the "Accelerated Cytotoxicity Mechanism Screening" techniques. When a non-toxic H2O2 generating system (glucose/glucose oxidase) with peroxidase or Iron(II) [Fe(II)] (to simulate in vivo inflammation) was added to freshly isolated rat hepatocytes prior to the addition of the investigated drug, drug-induced cytotoxicity and ROS formation were increased. This was reversed by 6-N-propyl-2-thiouracil (a peroxidase inhibitor) or desferoxamine (an Fe(II) chelator), respectively. Flutamide, nilutamide, nimesulide, methotrexate, and 6-mercaptopurine were found to form pro-oxidant radicals leading to oxidative stress and mitochondrial injury whereas azathioprine did not form any radicals with this inflammation system. Electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometry spin trapping studies of 6-mercaptopurine metabolism by HRP (horseradish peroxidase)/H2O2 was also investigated. Two radicals were trapped using DMPO (5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide) which were previously reported as purine-6-thiyl and superoxide radicals. This oxidative stress inflammation system mimics the respiratory burst (release of H2O2) and release of myeloperoxidase by neutrophils or other immune cells (using horseradish peroxidase) or mimics the Fenton reaction, which could occur in vivo as immune cells also release Fe(II) during inflammation. TEMPOL (4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-oxyl), a known ROS scavenger and a superoxide dismutase mimetic, and several antioxidants, including DPPD (N,N'-diphenyl-p-phenylenediamine), mesna (2-mercaptoethanesulfonate), Trolox (6-hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchroman-2-carboxylic acid), and resveratrol (3,5,4'-trihydroxy-trans-stilbene) were also tested to determine their effect on drug-induced oxidative stress with or without the inflammation system. This system may provide a more robust in vitro pre-clinical tool for screening of drugs for potential hepatotoxicity associated with inflammation.

Keywords: Drug-induced liver injury
Inflammation
In vitro toxicology
Oxidative stress
Advisor: Peter, J O'Brien