VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Yoruba Indigenous Knowledges in the African Diaspora: Knowledge, Power and the Politics of Indigenous Spirituality

This study investigates how Yoruba migrants make meaning of Yoruba Indigenous knowledges in the African Diaspora, specifically within the geopolitical space of dominant Canadian culture. This research is informed by the lived experiences of 16 Africans of Yoruba descent now living in Toronto, Canada, and explores how these first and second generation migrants construct the spiritual and linguistic dimensions of Yoruba Indigenous identities in their everyday lives. While Canada is often imagined as a sanctuary for progressive politics, it nonetheless is also a hegemonic space where inequities continue to shape the social engagements of everyday life. Hence, this dissertation situates the historical and contemporary realities of colonialism and imperialism, by beginning with the premise that people in diasporic Yoruba communities are continuously affected by the complicated interplay of various forms of oppression such as racism, and inequities based on language, gender and religion. This study is situated within a socio–historical and cosmological context to effectively examine colonialism’s impact on Yoruba Indigenous knowledges. Yet, inversely, this study also involves discussion of how these knowledges are utilized as decolonizing tools of navigation, subversion and resistance. The central focus of this research is the articulation of colonial oppression and how it has reconfigured Yoruba Indigenous identities even within a purportedly ‘multicultural’ space. First, the historical dis/continuities of the Yoruba language in Yorubaland are investigated. This strand of the research considers British colonization, and more specifically, the Church Missionary Society’s (CMS) efforts at translating the Bible into Yoruba as pivotal in the colonial project. What kinds of categories does missionary education create that differ from pre-colonial categories of Yoruba Indigenous identity? How are these new identities shaped along lines of race and gender? In other words, what happens when Yoruba cosmology encounters colonialism? The second strand of this research investigates how these historical colonialisms have set the framework for enduring contemporary colonialisms that continue to fracture Yoruba Indigenous knowledges. This dissertation offers insights relevant to diversity and equitable pedagogy through careful consideration of the complicated strategies used by participants in their negotiations of Yoruba identities within a context of social inequity and colonialism.

Keywords: Sociology of Education
Ethnic and Racial Studies
Philosophy of Religion
Spirituality
Indigenous Studies
African Diaspora - Canada
Biblical Studies
Gender Studies
Advisor: Dei, George Jerry Sefa
Phase-matching Second-order Optical Nonlinear Interactions using Bragg Reflection Waveguides: A Platform for Integrated Parametric Devices

Bragg reflection waveguides (BRW) or one-dimensional photonic bandgap structures have been demonstrated for phase-matching chi(2) nonlinearities in AlxGa1-xAs. The method exploits strong modal dispersion of a Bragg mode and total internal reflection modes co-propagating inside the waveguide. It is shown that phase-matching is attained among the lowest order modes of interacting harmonics, which allows maximizing the utilization of harmonics powers for nonlinear interactions. As our first demonstration, we report second-harmonic generation (SHG) of a 2-ps telecommunication pump in a 2.4 mm long slab BRW. The conversion efficiency is estimated as 2.0 %/W.cm^2 with a generated SH power of 729 nW. This efficiency has been considerably improved by introducing lateral confinement of optical modes in ridge structures. Characterizations denote that efficiency of SHG in ridge BRWs can increase by over an order of magnitude in comparison to that of the slab device. Also, we report continuous-wave SHG in BRWs. Using a telecommunication pump with a power of 98 mW, the continuous-wave SH power of 23 nW is measured in a 2.0 mm long device. Significant enhancements of chi(2) interactions is obtained in the modified design of matching-layer enhanced BRW (ML-BRW). For the first time, we report type-II SHG in ML-BRW, where the second-harmonic power of 60 µW is measured for a pump power of 3.3 mW in a 2.2 mm long sample. Also, we demonstrate the existence of type-0 SHG, where both pump and SH signal have an identical TM polarization state. It is shown that the efficiency of the type-0 process is comparable to type-I and type-II processes with the phase-matching wavelengths of all three interactions lying within a spectral window as small as 17 nm. ML-BRW is further reported for sum-frequency and difference-frequency generations. For applications requiring high pump power, a generalized ML-BRW design is proposed and demonstrated. The proposed structure offsets the destructive effects of third-order nonlinearities on chi(2) processes when high power harmonics are involved. This is carried out through incorporation of larger bandgap materials by using high aluminum content AlxGa1-xAs layers without undermining the nonlinear conversion efficiency. Theoretical investigations of BRWs as integrated sources of photon-pairs with frequency correlation properties are discussed. It is shown that the versatile dispersion properties in BRWs enables generation of telecommunication anti-correlated photon-pairs with bandwidth tunablity between 1 nm and 450 nm.

Keywords: Bragg reflection waveguides
BRWs
Nonlinear optics
Optical frequency mixing
Phase-matching
Second-harmonic generation
Sum-frequency generation
Difference-frequency generation
Integrated parametric devices
Optical nonlinearities in compound semiconductors
Advisor: Helmy, Amr S.
The Role of Sensitivity Derivatives in Sensorimotor Learning

To learn effectively, an adaptive controller needs to know its sensitivity derivatives — the variables that quantify how system performance depends on the commands from the controller. In the case of biological sensorimotor control, no one has explained how those derivatives themselves might be learned, and some authors suggest they aren’t learned at all but are known innately. Here I show that this knowledge can’t be solely innate, given the adaptive flexibility of neural systems. And I show how it could be learned, using forms of information transport that are available in the brain, by a mechanism I call implicit supervision. I show that implicit supervision explains a wide range of otherwise-puzzling facts about motor learning. It explains how we can cope with conditions that reverse the signs of sensitivity derivatives, e.g. nerve or muscle transpositions, reversing goggles, or tasks like drilling teeth seen in a mirror. It also explains why it is harder to recover from reversals than from other alterations such as magnifying, minifying or displacing goggles. A further prediction of the theory of implicit supervision, in its simplest form, is that each control system — say for gaze stabilization, or saccades, or reaching — has one single, all-purpose estimate of its sensitivity derivatives for all parts of the motion. When that estimate is revised, it should affect all stages of the task. For instance, when you learn to move to mirror-reversed targets then your adapted estimate of e/u should reverse not only your initial aiming but also your online course adjustments: when the target jumps in mid-movement, your path adjustment should be appropriately reversed. Here I put subjects through many trials with jumping targets, and show that, given enough practice, they do learn to reverse their course adjustments, and therefore both initial aiming and later adjustments are governed by revisable estimates of sensitivity derivatives. And I argue that all the available data, from my own experiments and earlier ones, are compatible with a single, adaptable, all-purpose estimate of these derivatives, as in the simplest form of implicit supervision.

Keywords: Sensorimotor
Learning
Neuroscience
Control
Advisor: Tweed, Douglas
The Impact of Dual Credit on College Access and Participation: An Ontario Cae Study

The purpose of the study is to better understand the extent to which dual credit contributes to increased access and participation in college. As an initiative to facilitate the transition from high school to college for many students, dual credit has grown in scale and popularity in Ontario in recent years. By giving participating students credit towards both secondary school and college, dual credit is seen as a particularly effective mechanism in assisting disengaged students and groups under-represented in postsecondary education achieve success in high school and college. Still at an early stage of implementation in Ontario, little formal research has been conducted to explore the elements contributing to the program’s success and the benefits and outcomes for participants. Through the use of mixed methods of research, the study explores from a case study perspective the experience of dual credit at a single Ontario college in collaboration with its local partner school boards. Research methods include examination of student grades, policy and program documentation; student and parent surveys; and interviews with staff involved in planning and delivery. The analysis is informed by conceptual frameworks of student change allowing for consideration of a broad range of variables. Results of the study revealed that dual credit was deemed to be a success by students, parents and staff involved with the programs. Dual credit was viewed as particularly effective in terms of academic benefits and creating a greater awareness of college, contributing to student confidence and leading to increased likelihood of college participation. Dual credit participants were found to be primarily middle achievers academically, tended to perform better in dual credit courses than in high school, and obtained slightly higher grades than college peers in the same courses. Given the program delivery models studied, it was concluded that middle achievers were likely to benefit most. The study also concluded that student characteristics including pre-existing confidence and motivation should be considered an important element of success along with program elements and institutional factors. As an innovative program demonstrating positive results, more research should be done to assist in developing dual credit further.

Keywords: dual credit
high school to college
Advisor: Lang, Daniel W.
Transient Electromagnetic Modelling and Imaging of Thin Resistive Structures: Applications for Gas Hydrate Assessment

Gas hydrates are a solid, ice-like mixture of water and low molecular weight hydrocarbons. They are found under the permafrost and to a far greater extent under the ocean, usually at water depths greater than 300m. Hydrates are a potential energy resource, a possible factor in climate change, and a geohazard. For these reasons, it is critical that gas hydrate deposits are quantitatively assessed so that their concentrations, locations and distributions may be established. Due to their ice-like nature, hydrates are electrically insulating. Consequently, a method which remotely detects changes in seafloor electrical conductivity, such as marine controlled source electromagnetics (CSEM), is a useful geophysical tool for marine gas hydrate exploration. Hydrates are geometrically complex structures. Advanced electromagnetic modelling and imaging techniques are crucial for proper survey design and data interpretation. I develop a method to model thin resistive structures in conductive host media which may be useful in building approximate geological models of gas hydrate deposits using arrangements of multiple, bent sheets. I also investigate the possibility of interpreting diffusive electromagnetic data using seismic imaging techniques. To be processed in this way, such data must first be transformed into its non-diffusive, seismic-like counterpart. I examine such a transform from both an analytical and a numerical point of view, focusing on methods to overcome inherent numerical instabilities. This is the first step to applying seismic processing techniques to CSEM data to rapidly and efficiently image resistive gas hydrate structures. The University of Toronto marine electromagnetics group has deployed a permanent marine CSEM array offshore Vancouver Island, in the framework of the NEPTUNE Canada cabled observatory, for the purposes of monitoring gas hydrate deposits. In this thesis I also propose and examine a new CSEM survey technique for gas hydrate which would make use of the stationary seafloor transmitter already on the seafloor, along with a cabled receiver array, towed from a ship. I furthermore develop a modelling algorithm to examine the electromagnetic effects of conductive borehole casings which have been proposed to be placed in the vicinity of this permanent marine CSEM array, and make preliminary recommendations about their locations.

Keywords: Marine electromagnetics
Gas hydrate
Electromagnetic theory
Modelling
Imaging
Geophysics
Advisor: Edwards, Richard Nigel
When the Injured Nurse Returns to Work: An Institutional Ethnography

Nursing is a high risk profession for injury. A Canadian survey reports many nurses are in poor physical and emotional health; they sustain more musculoskeletal and violence related injuries than other occupational groups. In Ontario, an injury management approach called Early Return to Work (RTW) requires injured workers, including nurses, to go back to work before full recovery. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board cite this approach as beneficial to both the employer and employee. This study uses an institutional ethnographic approach to examine critically the RTW process from the standpoint of injured registered nurses. Through interviews and mapping activities with nurses, other health professionals and managers, a rendering of the social organization of hospital injury management emerges. The findings suggest that the implementation of RTW is complicated and difficult for nurses, their families and hospital employers. Injured nurses engage in significant amounts of domestic, rehabilitation and accommodation work in order to participate in the RTW process. When the returning nurse is unable to engage in full duties hospital operations become disorganized. Collective agreements and human resources procedures limit the participation of injured nurses in creative and/or new roles that could utilize their knowledge and skills. As a result, nurses are assigned to duties, which hamper them from returning to their pre-injury positions and cause their employment with the hospital to be reconsidered. The unsuccessful return of injured nurses to employment is counter to provincial retention initiatives, which seek to sustain an adequate cadre of nurses ready and able to care for the increasing health care needs of an aging population. Sites of change which could support and promote the successful return of these injured workers to nursing work are identified in this study.

Keywords: nurse
injured worker
institutional ethnography
return to work
occupational health
mapping
Advisor: Nelson, Sioban
The Concept of Home Care Nursing Workload: Analysis and Significance

The concept of home care nursing workload has not been widely studied and no evidence was found that an analysis of the concept had been undertaken. Consequently, there was a knowledge gap regarding the definition and attributes for the concept of home care nursing workload as it is currently experienced. To address that gap, a descriptive, three-phase, mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) study was conducted. In Phase One, Rodgers’ (2000) evolutionary method was used to analyze the concept of home care nursing workload based on the empirical literature. Phase Two was situated within the naturalistic inquiry paradigm and involved observation of ten home care registered nurses during their visits to 61 patients. In Phase three a questionnaire was administered to validate the draft definition and attributes for the concept of home care nursing workload. It was completed by 88 home care nursing experts from clinical practice, education, management and research. Qualitative findings were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively using SPSS. Data triangulation was used extensively within and between the study phases. Of 14 attributes in the phase three draft concept definition, respondents assigned the highest level of relevance to the attribute of cognitive effort and the lowest to physical effort. The final definition contained 20 attributes and includes the following excerpt: “Home care nursing workload is the totality of the cognitive, emotional and physical effort home care nurses expend to meet the expectations of all stakeholders in providing holistic, outcome directed and patient/family focused care within the context of a short or long-term therapeutic relationship.” Respondents reported high levels of agreement with the accuracy and completeness of the definition and the majority indicated the definition would be useful or very useful in their day-to-day work. The comprehensive concept exemplar that emerged from the study includes each of the identified attributes. The study findings provided evidence of the complexity and challenge inherent in quantitatively measuring home care nursing workload. Accordingly, implications of the findings are shared for the management and monitoring of workload and associated outcomes, as well as for nursing practice, education and research.

Keywords: home care
nursing workload
concept analysis
workload measurement
concept exemplar
Evolutionary concept analysis
mixed methods study
naturalistic inquiry
Advisor: Howell, Doris
Sensor Noise and Ecological Interface Design: Effects of Noise Magnitude on Operators’ Performance and Control Strategies

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the effects of the presence and magnitude of sensor noise on operators’ performance and control strategies using an Ecological Interface Design (EID) interface and a Single-Sensor Single-Indicator (SSSI) interface. To assist in the study of this topic, concepts from sensor technology, cognitive psychology, and cognitive engineering were utilized. Three studies were conducted using different types of sensor noise perturbations with DURESS III, a representative thermal-hydraulic process simulation: 1) global random increases in sensor noise magnitude, 2) global gradual increases in sensor noise magnitude, and 3) local gradual increases in sensor noise magnitude. Three displays (P, P+S, and P+F) were used in the studies, motivated by different interface design principles. There were four main findings. First, the EID condition performed significantly better than the SSSI conditions when sensor noise was set to an industry average level. Second, the robustness of the EID interface was compromised by global and large increases in sensor noise magnitude, but no more than the SSSI interface. Third, increasing the magnitude of sensor noise in selected low-level sensors had an impact on the performance and control stability of the EID condition, but no more than the SSSI condition. Fourth, in all three studies, the introduction of uncertainty in the form of sensor noise to both EID and SSSI interfaces forced participants to explore different control strategies. A number of contributions resulted from this research. First, this was the first set of studies to use the DURESS III microworld to investigate the impact of sensor noise on performance and control strategies. Second, this is the first piece of research to empirically assess the impact of different sensor noise magnitudes on the robustness of an EID interface. Third, this dissertation was the first to empirically investigate issues related to increases in sensor noise magnitude to local low-level sensors and their derivations to emergent features. Fourth, these studies constitute the first investigation of changes in control strategies in the context of increases in sensor noise magnitude. The findings are believed to be important for the applicability of EID in industrial settings.

Keywords: human
factors
engineering
sensor
noise
ecological
interface
display
control
strategy
Advisor: Vicente, Kim J.
Supporting New School Leaders: The Benefits of Online Peer Communities

Although school leaders receive coursework and some practicum experience, there are gaps in their preparation that can only be filled on the job. Because the decisions made by new educational leaders are of great consequence to themselves and their school communities, an important goal should be the sharing of knowledge and support amongst a community of peers. This work reviews the challenges facing new administrators, critically reviews the training of educational administrators in Ontario, and recommends an in-service community method to supplement the support received by new administrators in their first several years. This document begins with an examination of relevant research literature in leadership development, online communities, the nature of expertise, and technology-enhanced learning with technology. One outcome of this review is a set of “knowledge dimensions” that are important to the development of leadership expertise. The dissertation then examines a three year journey of an online community of educational administrators who share in their journey toward expertise. The e-mails from the community were analyzed according to their function within the community and their relevant domain content. Of particular interest was the question of how such e-mail exchanges allowed members to develop in all five dimensions of school leadership knowledge. A coding of e-mail threads revealed that all dimensions of leadership knowledge were represented in the content, and that the quality of e-mails improved in both content as well as knowledge building practices over the three years. The growth of the community as a whole and of individual members is examined through a set of individual case studies. Finally, the dissertation closes with a discussion of the future of this community, as well as the prospects that such an approach could be applied more widely in support of new school leaders.

Keywords: computer based communities
leadership development
peer learning
peer communities
Advisor: Slotta, James D.