VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Correlates of Well-Being Following Anti-LGBT Trauma or Discrimination

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals continue to experience anti-LGBT trauma and discrimination. However, relatively little is known about the well-being of these individuals despite experiencing anti-LGBT events. Using multiple regression and mediation analyses, this study assessed the correlates and mediators of the following positive psychology character strengths, including coping styles, authenticity of LGBT identity, level of belonging to the LGBT community, perceived levels of available emotional social support, the degree of centrality of an anti-LGBT event to identity, and disclosure and concealment of sexual orientation or gender identity to determine levels of overall well-being. This study also measured the severity of the anti-LGBT event and overall distress. Participants, recruited online, included 168 LGBT-identified individuals who reported having experienced anti-LGBT trauma or discrimination based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Problem-focused coping and emotional support were positive correlates of well-being. Avoidant coping, distress, and centrality were negative correlates of well-being. Further, higher levels of problem-focused coping, lower levels of overall distress, and higher levels of perceived availability of emotional support were all found to be significant partial mediators of the relationship between the centrality of the anti-LGBT event to identity and overall well-being. These findings suggest that by helping individuals (1) gain a greater sense of control over their lives, (2) reconceptualise the anti-LGBT event as less central to their narrative, and (3) create meaning, that mental health providers may help to increase overall well-being of LGBT individuals following anti-LGBT events.

Keywords: anti-LGBT
Centrality
Hate Crimes
LGBT
Well-Being
Advisor: Gillis, J. Roy
The Brain-basis of Large-scale Learning Processes in Schizophrenia

Learning impairments are common in schizophrenia and relate to functional outcome. This thesis explored the brain-basis of learning in schizophrenia in spatial and temporal domains as it unfolded across two fMRI sessions. During fMRI scanning, healthy controls and participants with schizophrenia completed a lexicon-learning task and a comparative reaction-time task. Using multivariate analytic approaches, the thesis used three vantage points on the fMRI-BOLD signal to characterize the brain-learning relationships. Using reaction-time tasks bookending the learning tasks on both scanning days, Study 1 examined task-independent linear changes in the BOLD signal that could potentially interfere with accurate interpretation in fMRI learning studies. It showed that these effects are stronger in schizophrenia in brain areas associated with cognitive control, default mode networks, perceptual and semantic processing. Results suggested that some of the ‘hyperactivation’ attributed to learning processes in the practice-related literature is better attributed to task-independent effects associated with impaired modulation of the BOLD signal during task switching. Study 2 used a brain-behaviour analysis to examine BOLD activity related to learning-success. With practice, controls shifted between early and late learning processes with a switch between early frontotemporal engagement to later subcortically-focused engagement. Persons with schizophrenia failed to show this same pattern; they were differentiated by level of engagement with perceptual processing regions and an overall suggestion of prolonged, early-learning brain processes. Whole-brain functional connectivity patterns related to learning accuracy showed between-groups similarities, differences and a group-by-time interaction in study 3. While again the controls showed two patterns capturing early and late learning, the pattern for the schizophrenia group spanned both days and did not vary with learning stage. Strong differences in schizophrenia included over-connected intra-cerebellar regions, under-connected frontal-cerebellar regions, over-connected sensorimotor-thalamus connection and under-connected prefrontal-thalamus regions. These patterns mirror many resting-state findings in the extant literature, but here we showed how this dysconnectivity pattern impacted directly on learning performance. Together, these three studies showed how learning in schizophrenia is associated with different large-scale interactions that emerge in different spatial and temporal brain-behaviour distributions. The thesis showed how an overall pattern of brain inflexibility underlies learning challenges in schizophrenia.

Keywords: fMRI
functional connectivity
learning
multivariate statistics
neuroimaging
schizophrenia
Advisor: McIntosh, Anthony Randal
How Performance Appraisals Shape Leadership: A Multiple-Case Study of Canadian University Deans’ Reappointments

Organizations tend to rely on performance appraisals to ensure that individual performance is improved and aligned with organizational goals. However, research suggests that these processes can be diverted from their intended use to further political agendas. In Canadian universities, deans undergo processes similar to performance appraisals when seeking reappointment. Reappointments take place near the end of deans’ first terms in office and determine whether deans are afforded a second term. They are high stakes for deans and their faculties. Yet, despite their importance, decanal reappointments have, thus far, never been the object of empirical research. This dissertation addresses this gap by examining how thirteen reappointed and one non- reappointed Canadian university deans experience and make sense of their reappointments. The study relies on the cross-analysis of these fourteen cases. A conceptual framework combining organizational politics, leadership, and organizational socialization theories guides its analyses. Of interest, the findings reveal that deans experienced their reappointments as political arenas. Political behaviour was pervasive, took on varying shapes, and came from different sources. Despite this politicization, reappointed deans experiences were generally positive, except in the cases of challenged, unsuccessful, or abandoned reappointments. In these instances, experiences were negative and suggest unjustifiable levels of duress. Also, deans understood their reappointments as measuring support or popularity. The analysis suggests that reappointments measured opposition, using it as a proxy for popularity and support. As well, reappointments were, in some instances, sources of strength for deans and their faculties, as they allowed for reflection and rallying. Finally, deans viewed their reappointments as mostly satisfactory, though they nonetheless considered them improvable, in particular with regards to resources involved, representativeness, criteria, and alignment with other evaluations. With regards to the link between the evaluation of performance and managers’ leadership, this study found that reappointments played but a mild role in shaping deans’ leadership. Nonetheless, reappointments shaped the deanship iteratively, by ensuring that deans deemed unfit were prevented from having a lasting impact on their faculties.

Keywords: Deans
HIgher Education
Leadership
Performance Appraisals
Reappointments
Advisor: Bascia, Nina
Effects of Explicit Instruction and Corrective Feedback on the Acquisition of the French Accentual Phrase by Native Speakers of English

It is now well recognized that second language (L2) instruction and corrective feedback (CF) have significant positive effects on the acquisition of L2 pronunciation (e.g., Saito, 2012; Derwing Munro, 2015; Lee, Jang Plonsky, 2015; Thomson Derwing, 2015). The objective of the present dissertation is to further our understanding of the effects of explicit instruction and CF via the study of the acquisition of the French Accentual Phrase (AP), a primary unit of prosodic organization, by native speakers of English. To this end, two inter-related experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 involved ten English-speaking learners of French who completed word recognition and delayed elicited imitation tasks that assessed their accuracy in the perception and production of APs, respectively. In perception, these learners showed limited accuracy with respect to the increased pitch and duration that cue AP-final syllables in French. In production, they produced too many, insufficiently large APs, and were non-target-like in the phonetic realization of the final LH* rise that signals the final full syllable of this prosodic unit. Experiment 2 then examined whether an instructional treatment that targeted the difficulties identified in Experiment 1 could increase learners’ accuracy in perception and production. Eight English-speaking learners of French were provided with six hours of explicit instruction and CF. Gains in perception and production accuracy were assessed using a pre-/post-test design involving the same tasks as in Experiment 1. While the treatment did not lead to gains in perceptual accuracy with the final LH* rise, there was significant improvement in learners’ production of appropriately sized APs and of the final LH* rise. In summary, this dissertation contributes to the growing literature on L2 pronunciation instruction via the study of a previously unstudied prosodic structure in a relatively understudied target language, French, and demonstrates the potential benefits of explicit instruction including CF on L2 phonological and phonetic development.

Keywords: Acquisition
French
Instruction
Prosody
Second Language
Advisor: Steele, Jeffrey
Global Economic Management in “Embryo”: The IMF, the US, China, and the Indebted World, 1963-1976

Alternatives to the US dollar, the existing international order, and nationalism as a leading organizing principle were all germinated between 1963 and 1976. This dissertation argues that the creation of the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights (SDR), the Sino-American rapprochement, and Asian regional impulses converged to incubate an embryonic “world interest.” This development was predicated on a more negotiable yet nervous nationalism, which occasionally conceptualized national interest as separate and above national sovereignty, defined more by achieving global outcomes than autonomy. A “world interest,” residing in Washington figures (exemplified, for example, by Treasury Secretary George Shultz), who had an interest in “global management” possibilities, helped construct alternatives to nationalism and the dollar-driven order. The vigour of enthusiasm of national independence, the patchwork nature of the international order (evidenced by China’s alienation from the global mainstream, e.g.), and the absence of a catastrophic crisis explain why nationalism endured—although new vulnerabilities surfaced. The 1st and 2nd Amendments to the IMF’s Articles of Agreement in 1969 and 1978 respectively each concerning the SDR, the supranational impulse of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the rise of sovereign debt all weakened nationalism and represented possible future disruptive factors for nationalism and US pre-eminence. The search for an alternative to nationalism and the dollar yielded six “new world order” visions. The first vision was inherent in the US goal of encouraging greater global management to lessen pressure on the dollar, US responsibilities in Asia, and to tackle global challenges while preserving US superpower status. The second vision was the IMF’s objective of evolving into a world central bank, capable of issuing a global currency—the SDR. The third vision was Singapore’s and ASEAN’s call for an Asian Common Market. The fourth vision was China’s move toward superpower status. The United Nations served as a venue for the final two visions: one was radically aimed at creating a more equitable economic order, led by the global south; the other was characterized by a strengthened UN, inclusive of China, able to better manage global challenges—led by environmental destruction and monetary stability.

Keywords: Asia
China
IMF
Special Drawing Right
United States
U.S. dollar
Advisor: Pruessen, Ronald W.
An Exploration of Support Needs of Family Caregivers of Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury: A Qualitative Study

There is a gap in evidence with respect to the specific support needs of family caregivers of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). The objectives of this thesis include determining: 1) the perceived facilitators and barriers to undertaking and sustaining the caregiving role; 2) the types of support needed by individuals with SCI, and the factors related to the need for more support; 3) the skills needed by SCI family caregivers to enhance competency in caregiving; and 4) how caregivers and care recipients negotiate changes within the relationship post-SCI. This research used a qualitative descriptive approach with an exploratory design. Thirty-four interviews (19 individuals with SCI, 15 family caregivers) were conducted. In the first paper, the following four facilitators to caregiving were identified: access to community support services, positive coping in relationship, social support, and mastery of caregiving roles. Conversely, the following six barriers to caregiving were identified: lack of access to community resources, lack of knowledge about resources and formal training, fragmented continuity of care, negative coping in relationship, role strain, and caregiver injury or illness. In the second paper, the following types of support needed by individuals with SCI were identified: practical, emotional and advocacy. The following factors associated with the need for more support were also identified: a higher level of injury, greater frequency of secondary health conditions and age of the care recipient. In the third paper, twenty-nine SCI family caregiving skills were identified and grouped into six caregiving processes signifying the multiple dimensions of the SCI caregiving role. In the final paper, the following four factors that challenged relationship stability were identified: protective behaviours, asymmetrical dependency, loss of sex and intimacy, and difficulty adapting. Also, the following four strategies used by care recipients and caregivers to maintain/re-build their relationships were identified: interdependence, shifting commonalities, adding creativity into routine, and creating a new normal. These findings could serve to facilitate prospective planning of sustainable support for family caregivers as well as improve the health outcomes of individuals with SCI.

Keywords: family caregiving
health services research
qualitative
spinal cord injury
Advisor: Jaglal, Susan B
The Development of a New and Improved Hurricane Scale for the North Atlantic

The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale (SSHS) was developed in 1969 by Herbert Saffir and Bob Simpson and introduced to the public in 1973. Saffir developed the initial scale when he realized there was no simple scale for describing the effects of hurricanes. He devised a 1-5 scale based on the wind speeds of a storm and the expected damage to structures. Simpson collaborated and added on storm surge and pressure (NOAA, 2006a). The National Hurricane Center (NHC) eliminated the components of pressure and storm surge in 2009, transforming it into a pure wind scale known as the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale (SSHWS). According to the NHC dropping all requirements except wind was to “help reduce public confusion about the impacts associated with the various hurricane categories as well as to provide a more scientifically defensible scale” (Schott et al. 2012). The SSHS has been criticized for many years due to the fact that the scale does not take into consideration rain amounts, forward speed, and size of a tropical cyclone, to name a few critical missing parameters. Recent hurricanes such as Hurricane Harvey (2017) that stalled over the Texas and Louisiana coastlines for several days and contributed to historic flooding, damage, and significant loss of life, show that a change needs to be made in the SSHWS. Classifying a tropical cyclone’s strength solely on the maximum wind speeds does not give an accurate representation of the true intensity and threats associated with a storm. In order for a tropical cyclone to be classified more accurately a new hurricane scale is proposed. This thesis examines existing components found in the original SSHS (wind, barometric pressure, and storm surge) as well as new potential elements that will measure an approaching tropical cyclone: size, precipitation, forward speed, and extratropical transition. A new and improved hurricane scale known as the Masson – Gough Hurricane Scale is proposed and assessed, using past tropical cyclones as well as piloting it on a recent hurricane season, 2017. This research is needed for the purpose of more accurate forecasting and for the benefit of public awareness, safety, management, and preparedness.

Keywords: climate
hurricane
hurricane scale
meteorology
north atlantic
tropical cyclone
Advisor: Gough, William A
Room-Temperature Bose-Einstein Condensation of Exciton-Polaritons in Photonic Crystal Architectures

Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) is a remarkable manifestation of quantum mechani- cal behaviour where a macroscopic number of particles occupy a single particle ground state. Typical realizations of BEC occur at temperatures close to absolute zero. In this thesis, we propose a route towards full thermal equilibirum, room-temperature BEC of “half-light” - “half-matter” quasiparticles known as exciton-polaritons. Our proposed strategy uses three-dimensional photonic crystals to form the optical resonator; this leads to long lived confined optical modes. These long lived confined optical modes allow the condensates to reach full thermal equilibrium. Photonic crystal resonators ensure that the light-matter coupling strengths are significantly stronger than in conventional archi- tectures; this leads to BEC formation at higher temperatures. A central quantity in our work is the (lower) exciton-polariton dispersion depth. The dispersion depth is an energy scale that governs the limit on the critical temperature. Strategies for increasing the dispersion depth to facilitate room-temperature BEC will be discussed. We first examine exciton-polariton BEC in optical resonators composed of slanted pore photonic crystals. We consider InGaAs/InP quantum wells embedded in the res- onator to allow for light emission at a wavelength of approximately 1300 nm. In esti- mating the critical temperature, we ensure the use of modest exciton-polariton densities to avoid the saturation of the exciton resonance. Using three quantum wells, our study reveals that exciton-polariton BEC occurs for temperatures above 300 K and that our results are robust to both photonic and electronic disorder. Next, we investigate exciton-polariton BEC in optical resonators composed of wood- pile photonic crystals. We treat GaAs/AlAs quantum wells embedded in resonator to allow for the emission of light with a wavelength of approximately 750 nm. Due to the x-y symmetry of the woodpile photonic crystal, the exciton-polariton ground state exhibits a two-fold polarization degeneracy. We show that symmetry breaking lifts the degeneracy of the ground state and results in larger critical temperatures and higher condensate fractions, in comparison to a symmetrical woodpile structure. Our results show that for three quantum wells and a moderate exciton-polariton density that a BEC can be obtained at temperatures over 300 K; this condensate is robust to disorder.

Keywords: Bose-Einstein Condensation
Exciton-Polaritons
Photonic Band Gap
Photonic Crystals
Quantum Wells
Room-Temperature
Advisor: John, Sajeev
Spatially Modulated Dose Optimization and Performance Limitations with Robust Targeting Performance for Preclinical Irradiation

The flexibility and sophistication of modern external beam radiotherapy treatment planning and delivery methods have advanced techniques to improve the therapeutic ratio. Contemporary dose optimization and calculation algorithms facilitate radiotherapy plans which closely conform the three-dimensional dose distribution to the target, with beam shaping devices and image guided field targeting ensuring the rigor and accuracy of treatment delivery. In general, such advances outpaced the technical ability of preclinical systems to faithfully reproduce the clinical capabilities at the scale required for robust small animal or radiobiological investigations. Evidence for sophisticated, and potentially efficacious, new clinical treatment strategies could not always be gathered from preclinical data owing to the improbability of rigorously scaling the proposed technique to the fidelity required for small animal studies. Within the past decade, several groups have developed dedicated small animal irradiator platforms to redress this imbalance. Such systems are commonly based on on-board computed tomography (CT) approaches to facilitate visualization and radiation targeting with interchangeable collimators incorporating field sizes on the millimeter scale. The integration of these capabilities has laid the foundation for precisely modulating and accurately targeting radiation dose for intricate preclinical studies, but algorithms and methods to do so remain in their infancy. In this thesis, we advance techniques to robustly optimize and accurately deliver spatially varying dose distributions for small animal or radiobiological research. An optimization framework based on empirically measured dose kernel measurements is first developed. The native targeting uncertainty of the microirradiator is then rigorously quantified and an online method to ensure high performance targeting accuracy for all radiation field sizes is demonstrated. Finally, it is proven that the underlying spatial frequency content of a dose kernel fundamentally limits the achievable degree of spatial modulation. This result is refined to define a lower bound in the minimization of a dose optimization objective function and provide a direct, analytic method to estimate the result of such an optimization. The combined results demonstrate that the optimization of complex dose distributions can be quickly estimated, iteratively refined, and automatically delivered with millimetre scale modulation at an accuracy of a tenth of a millimetre.

Advisor: Jaffray, David A
Lindsay, Patricia E