title: Cognitive consequences of expressive suppression : effects of sex and emotional valence

subject: Emotions Memory

abstract:
The present research was designed to examine whether sex and/or emotional
valence pl aya  role in the cognitive consequences (e.g., memory) of  expressive
suppression. Seventy-two (36 male and 36 female) undergraduates were randomly
assigned to either a control or  expressive suppression condition, and were asked to watch
silent film clips intended to elicit amusement and disgust. While watching each film,
participants listened to sixteen nonemotional words. After each film, participants were
asked to answer questions about wha t  they had seen in the film (visual memory), to recall
as many words as they could (auditory recall memory), and to select from a list any
words that they had heard during the previous film clip (auditory recognition memory).
With regard to the effects of  expressive suppression on visual memory, results
indicated a 3-way interaction between condition, sex and film emotion: Men performed
more poorly than women on the visual memory test after watching both the amusing and
disgusting films in the control condition, and when watching the amusing film in the
expressive suppression condition. However, men in the expressive suppression condition
performed better than women after watching the disgusting film.  In terms of  the effects of
expressive suppression on auditory memory (recognition and recall), a condition x film
emotion interaction indicated that there was no difference in auditory memory for the
expressive suppression and control conditions when watching the amusing film, but that
the expressive suppression group showed poorer auditory memory than the control group
for words presented during the disgusting film. Moreover, a ma in effect of  sex on
auditory memory suggested that men recalled and recognized more words than women
across conditions. Taken together, these findings suggest that both sex and the emotional valence of
films may influence the effects of  expressive suppression on memory. Results will be
discussed in the context of  previous literature concerning the effects of  expressive
suppression on cognition.


title: The effects of thermal stress on glucoregulation during exercise in participants with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

subject:
Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus
Glucoregulation
Exercise
Thermal Stress

abstract: Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) is an autoimmune disease that destroys pancreatic beta cells, affecting glucose homeostasis. In T1DM, glucoregulation and carbohydrate oxidation may be altered in different ambient temperatures; however, current literature has yet to explore these mechanisms. This study examines the effects of 30 minutes of exercise at 65% VO2max in 5ºC, 20ºC and 35ºC in individuals with T1DM. No significant differences were observed for blood glucose across the 3 conditions (p = 0.442), but significance was found for core temperature, heat storage, and sweat rate (p < 0.01). Blood glucose was also shown to vary greatly between individuals among conditions. The mechanisms behind the differences in blood glucose may be due to the lack of significant glucagon production among conditions. These findings suggest that T1DM individuals may exercise submaximally for 30 minutes in different ambient temperatures without significant differences in glucoregulation.


title: “Weathering a Hidden Storm”: An Application of Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health, and Health Services Use for Those with Diagnosable Anxiety Disorder

subject: Behavioral Model of Health, mental health, anxiety disorders, Canadian Community Health Survey 1.2: Mental Health and Well-being

abstract:
Abstract:
Research has primarily focused on depression and mood disorders, but little research has been devoted to an examination of mental health services use amongst those with diagnosable anxiety disorder (Wittchen et al., 2002; Bergeron et al., 2005).  This study examined the possible predicting factors for mental health services utilization amongst those with identifiable anxiety disorder in the Canadian population.  The methods used for this study was the application of Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Services Use, where predisposing, need and enabling characteristics were regressed on the dependent variable of mental health services use.  This study used the Canadian Community Health Survey (cycle 1.2: Mental Health and Well-Being) in a secondary data analysis.  Several multiple logistics models predicted the likelihood to seek and use mental health services.  Predisposing characteristics of gender and age, Enabling characteristics of education and geographical location, and those with co-occurring mood disorders were at the greatest increased likelihood to seek and use mental health services.


title: TIME COURSE OF SIGNALING PROCESSES INVOLVED WITH EXTRACELLULAR OSMOTIC - INDUCED GLUCOSE UPTAKE IN MAMMALIAN SKELETAL MUSCLE

subject: Glucose Signaling Osmosis

abstract: Extracellular hyper-osmotic (HYPER) stress increases glucose uptake to defend cell volume, when compared to iso-osmotic (ISO) conditions in skeletal muscle.  The purpose of this study was to determine a time course for changes in common signaling proteins involved in glucose uptake during acute hyper-osmotic stress in isolated mammalian skeletal muscle.  Rat extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles were excised and incubated in a media formulated to mimic ISO (290 ± 10 mmol/kg) or HYPER (400 ± 10 mmol/kg) extracellular condition (Sigma Media-199).  Signaling mechanisms were investigated by determining the phosphorylation states of Akt, AMPK, AS160, cPKC and ERK after 30, 45 and 60 minutes of incubation.  AS160 was found to be significantly more phosphorylated in HYPER conditions compared to ISO after 30 minutes (p<0.01).  It is speculated that AS160 phosphorylation increases glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4) content at the cell surface thereby facilitating an increase in glucose uptake under hyper-osmotic stress.


title: Mediating Influence of Physical Fitness on the Relationship between Academic Performance and Motor Proficiency

subject:
motor proficiency
academic performance
physical fitness

abstract:
We explored the potential mediating influence of physical fitness on the relationship between academic performance and motor proficiency in children.
1864 students (F:926, M:938, age 11.91 (SD:0.34). Academic achievement was derived from an average of standardized tests of reading, writing, and math. The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Performance (short-form) determined motor proficiency. Fitness (peak oxygen uptake) was established with the Léger 20-m Shuttle Run Test.
OLS regression identified several significant predictors of academic performance. After controlling for age (p=0.0135), gender (p<0.0001), and parental education (p<0.0001), motor proficiency (p<0.0001), was significant. After adding physical fitness (p=0.0030) to the model the effect of motor proficiency remained significant however the point estimate was reduced from 0.0034 (p<0.0001) to 0.0026 (p<0.0001).
These results suggest that physical fitness plays a mediating role on the relationship between academic performance and motor proficiency although both aerobic fitness and motor proficiency have independent roles.


title: The Moderating Effects of Appearance Commentary on the Relationship Between Weight Status and Physical Activity Participation in Female College Students

subject:
Appearance Commentary
Physical Activity
Weight
Women
Moderation

abstract: When looked at individually, overweight status and a higher frequency of negative appearance commentary (AC) are associated with lower physical activity (PA) levels. However, the combined effect has yet to be examined. The purpose of this study was to examine if the frequency of AC moderated the relationship between weight status and PA in college-aged females. No significant differences in PA levels (F(1,99)=2.41, p=.12) were found between the Never Overweight and Previously/Presently Overweight groups. Significant correlations existed for both negative AC (r=-.30, p=.00) and positive AC (r=.20, p=.05) with PA participation. AC did not significantly moderate the relationship between weight status and PA (F(2,95)=.65, p=.52, R2 adjusted=.13) as the interaction term did not account for any additional increase in variance (ΔR2=.01). Overall, AC frequency does not moderate the relationship between weight status and PA; other predictor variables should be explored.


title: A Pragmatic Approach to Ethical Inquiry on Transhuman Athletes and Gene Doping in Sport

subject: Gene Doping, Performance-Enhancement, Pragmatic Ethics

abstract: Gene doping is the most recent addition to the list of banned practices formulated by the World Anti-doping Agency. It is a subset of doping that utilizes the technology involved in gene therapy. The latter is still in the experimental phase but has the potential to be used as a type of medical treatment involving alterations of a patient‘s genes. I apply a pragmatic form of ethical inquiry to evaluate the application of this medical innovation in the context of sport for performance-enhancement purposes and how it will affect sport, the individual, society and humanity at large. I analyze the probable ethical implications that will emerge from such procedures in terms of values that lie at the heart of the major arguments offered by scholars on both affirmative and opposing sides of the debate on gene doping, namely fairness, autonomy and the conception of what it means to be human.


title: THE INFLUENCE OF LENGTH CHANGE SPEED AND DIRECTION ON DYNAMIC FUNCTION POTENTIATION IN FAST MOUSE MUSCLE

subject: myosin phosphorylation concentric eccentric

abstract: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the potentiation of dynamic function was dependent upon both length change speed and direction. Mouse EDL was cycled in vitro (25º C) about optimal length (Lo) with constant peak strain (± 2.5% Lo) at 1.5, 3.3 and 6.9 Hz before and after a conditioning stimulus.  A single pulse was applied during shortening or lengthening and peak dynamic (concentric or eccentric) forces were assessed at Lo.  Stimulation increased peak concentric force at all frequencies (range: 19 ± 1 to 30 ± 2%) but this increase was proportional to shortening speed, as were the related changes to concentric work/power (range: -15 ± 1 to 39 ± 1 %). In contrast, stimulation did not increase eccentric force, work or power at any frequency. Thus, results reveal a unique hysteresis like effect for the potentiation of dynamic output wherein concentric and eccentric forces increase and decrease, respectively, with work cycle frequency.


title: The Role of Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Kinase-4 in Post-Exercise Glycogen Recovery

subject:
pyruvate dehydrogenase
glycogen
exercise recovery
PDK4

abstract: The pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) complex regulates the oxidation of carbohydrates in mammals. Decreased activation of PDH following exhaustive exercise may aid the resynthesis of glycogen through increased activity of PDH kinase-4 (PDK4), one of four kinases that decrease the activity of the PDH complex. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of PDK4 in post-exercise glycogen resynthesis. Wild-type (WT) and PDK4-knockout (PDK4-KO mice) were exercised to exhaustion and were sampled at rest (Rest), at exercise exhaustion (Exh), and after two-hours post-exercise (Rec). Differences in feeding post-exercise led to the addition of a PDK4-KO group, pair-fed (PF) with WT mice. Glycogen fully recovered in all Rec groups in muscle however remained low in the PF group in liver. Flux through PDH was elevated in PDK4-KO muscle with feeding and low in the PF group in both tissues. This suggests PDK4 may fine-tune flux through PDH during exercise recovery.


title: Human Resource Training and National Sport Organization Managers: Examining the Impact of Training on Individual and Organizational Performance

subject:
Human Resource Training
National Sport Organizations
Individual Performance
Organizational Performance
Continual Workforce Development

abstract: Within sport, a tremendous amount of effort is committed to the on-the-field performance of athletes and coaches, neglecting the off-the-field performance and development of sport managers. This study examines the impact of human resource training on the performance of five Canadian national sport organizations (NSO) and their managers (N=22). Data were collected on three outcome variables (learning, individual performance, organizational performance) and three mediating variables (motivation to transfer, training design, organizational climate) at three time measures (pre-training, post-training1, post-training2). Results indicate that training improves the learning and individual performance of sport managers, as well as the organizational performance of NSOs. Varying relationships were found at each of the three time measures, demonstrating that a progression to training-related performance change exists, while providing support for three levels of analysis (individual, organizational, systemic). Implications and future research directions are discussed and highlight the need for on-going training opportunities for Canadian sport managers.


title: Sport-Specific Arbitration in Canada: A Qualitative Investigation of Four Athletes' Perceptions of the Fairness of the Process

subject:
SDRCC
Procedural Justice
Sport-Specific Arbitration
Arbitration

abstract: This thesis explored Canadian high performance Athletes' perceptions of the fairness of the SDRCC sport-specific arbitral process. Leventhal’s (1980) model of procedural justice judgment was found to be an effective tool for exploring Athletes’ perceptions of the fairness of the process. Five of his six procedural justice antecedents: consistency, bias suppression, accuracy of information, representativeness, and ethicality influenced the Athletes’ perceptions of the fairness of the process. Emergent data also revealed that the Athletes’ perceptions of fairness were also influenced by three contextual factors and an additional antecedent of procedural justice. Efficiency of the process, inherent power imbalance between Athletes and NSOs, and the measurable effect of the process on personal and professional relationships differentiate sport-specific arbitration from most other processes of allocation. The data also indicated that the opportunity to voice one’s case was also an important determinant of the Athletes’ perceptions of the fairness of the process.


title: A Psychosocial Approach to Understanding Causality Assessment in Early Phase Oncology Clinical Trials: A Phenomenological Study

subject: Psychosocial Oncology Causality Decision-Making Phenomenology

abstract:
Research Question: What are the psychosocial factors that affect causality
assessment in early phase oncology clinical trials?
Methods: Thirty-two qualitative interviews were explicated with the aid of
“Naturalistic Decision Making”. Data explication consisted of phenomenological
reduction, delineating and clustering meaning units, forming themes, and
creating a composite summary. Participants were members of the National
Cancer Institute of Canada’s Clinical Trial Group Investigative New Drug
committee.
Results: The process of assigning causality is extremely subjective and full of
uncertainty. Physicians had no formal training, nor a tool to assist them with this
process. Physicians were apprehensive about their decisions and felt pressure
from their patients, as well as the pharmaceutical companies sponsoring the trial.
Conclusions: There are many problem areas when attributing causality, all of
which have serious consequences, but clinicians used a variety of methods to
cope with these problem areas.


title: The Relationship between athlete motivation, strategies used to cope with stress and affective outcomes in Canadian University athletes

subject: Self Determination Theory

subject: Cognitive Motivational Relational Theory

subject: Sport

subject: Coping

abstract:
Motivation to perform and coping with stress during performance are key factors in
determining numerous outcomes of sporting performance. However, less evidence is
in place assessing their relationship. The aim of this investigation was to assess the
relationship between athlete motivation and the coping strategies used to deal with
stress during their sporting performance, as well as the relationship between
motivation and affect and coping and affect. One hundred and forty five university
athletes completed questionnaires. Regressions revealed that two of the three self
determined levels of motivation, identified and integrated regulation, predicted
increased task-oriented coping strategies. Two of the three non-self determined levels
of motivation, amotivation and external regulation, significantly predicted
disengagement-oriented coping. Additionally, intrinsic motivation and task-oriented
coping predicted increase positive affect. Increased disengagement-oriented coping
predicted decreased positive affect. Disengagement-oriented coping significantly
predicted increased negative affect. These findings increase understanding of
motivations role in predicting athletes coping.


title: THE PREVALENCE AND PREDICTION OF PULMONARY FIBROSIS IN AN

subject: asbestosis asbestos prediction prevalence

abstract:
This thesis describes an ancillary project to the Early Diagnosis of Mesothelioma and
Lung Cancer in Prior Asbestos Workers study and was conducted to determine the
effects of asbestos exposure, pulmonary function and cigarette smoking in the prediction
of pulmonary fibrosis. 613 workers who were occupationally exposed to asbestos for an
average of 25.9 (SD=14.69) years were sampled from Sarnia, Ontario. A structured
questionnaire was administered during a face-to-face interview along with a low-dose
computed tomography (LDCT) of the thorax. Of them, 65 workers (10.7%, 95%CI
8.12—12.24) had LDCT-detected pulmonary fibrosis. The model predicting fibrosis
included the variables age, smoking (dichotomized), post FVC % splines and post-
FEV1% splines. This model had a receiver operator characteristic area under the curve
of 0.738. The calibration of the model was evaluated with R statistical program and the
bootstrap optimism-corrected calibration slope was 0.692. Thus, our model demonstrated
moderate predictive performance.


title: A Study of One Living School Partnership

subject:
partnerships
Gray's Model of collaboration
evaluation
educational partners

abstract:
Abstract
The purpose of this paper was to explore the ways one partnership evaluated its partners and relationships using Gray‟s model of collaboration (2000). The model consists of five approaches that are made up of: problem-focused, relational, cognitive, structural, and political. These approaches were tested at one „Living School‟ partnership that was constituted by a school, a public health department, the City‟s Park and Recreation Department, commercial enterprises, and organizations from the non-profit sector. Eight pre-arranged interviews were conducted using conversational interview technique, with three additional interviews on-site.
The results of the research revealed that based on Gray‟s five approaches, this one Living School partnership was found to be successful. Consistent with partnership research, trust, social capital and structure were found to be key ingredients, as well as new themes of leadership, role clarity, and a shared vision were also found to be vital.


title: Health-Enhancing Physical Activity and Well-Being: Is it How Often, How Long, or How Much Effort that Matters? A Test of Basic Psychological Needs Theory

subject: health-enhancing physical activity, well-being, Basic Psychological Needs Theory

abstract:
The primary objectives of the present study were 1) to examine the relationship between
health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA) and well-being across the previous day and 2) to examine the role of basic psychological need satisfaction as a potential mediator of the HEPA – well-being relationship. Participants (N = 203) were a convenience sample of undergraduate students with data collected cross sectionally. HEPA was generally associated with well-being (r‟s ranged from .18 to .62). Multiple mediation analyses supported psychological need satisfaction as mechanisms underpinning the HEPA – well- being relationship. Subsequent analyses demonstrated that effort put forth in HEPA activities, as opposed to frequency or duration, uniquely predicted well-being. The role of effort was further highlighted in the multiple mediation analyses. As such future research may wish to investigate the utility of a HEPA program that facilitates effortful engagement and fulfillment of basic psychological needs.


title: Hoosiers on the Hardwood: A Critical Examination of Indiana Basketball Culture and its Effect on Identity Formation

subject:
whiteness
subjectivity
critical race theory
nation-state
physical culture

abstract: The purpose of this research was to examine the nexus at which Indiana basketball and the state’s ‘hoosier’ identity meet. More specifically, this thesis interrogates the romanticization of this sporting culture for its pedagogical role in the creation of twenty-first century ‘hoosier’ bodies. Adopting a theoretical orientation rooted in critical race theory, I argue that Indiana’s basketball culture represents a normalized / normalizing structure underneath which Otherness is reified to produce hypervisible “different” outsiders (‘non-hoosiers’), and invisible “disciplined” insiders (i.e. ‘hoosiers’). Utilizing data gleaned over a two-month period spent conducting fieldwork in the “hoosier state” (document analysis, unstructured interviewing, and participant observation), I specifically tailor my analysis to uncover people’s understanding, negotiation, and performance of this regional and national subject position. From this point of inquiry, authentic ‘hoosierness’ comes to be represented, known, practiced, and felt in relation to hierarchies of power that privilege white, hypermasculine, rural, and conservative bodies.


title: Evolution of architectural floor plans

subject: Architecture -- Designs and plans

abstract:
Layout  planning is  a  process  of sizing  and  placing  rooms  (e.g.  in  a  house)
while  a t t empt ing  to  optimize  various  criteria.  Often  the r e   are  conflicting
c r i t e r i a  such  as  construction  cost,  minimizing the   distance  between  r e l a t ed
activities,  and meeting the   area  requirements  for  these  activities.  The  process  of layout  planning  ha s   mostly  been  done  by  hand,   wi th  a  handful   of
a t t empt s  to  automa t e  the  process.  Thi s  thesis  explores  some  of these  pa s t
a t t empt s   and  describes  several  new  techniques  for  automa t ing  the   layout
planning process  using evolutionary computation.  These techniques  a r e  inspired by the  existing methods, while  adding some of the i r  own innovations.
Additional experimenLs are done to t e s t  the  possibility  of allowing polygonal
exteriors wi th  rectilinear interior  walls.  Several  multi-objective  approaches
are  used to  evaluate  and  compare  fitness.  The  evolutionary  r epr e s ent a t ion
and requirements specification used provide great flexibility in problem scope
and depth and is worthy of considering in future layout and design a t t empt s .
The   system  outlined  in  thi s   thesis  is  capable  of  evolving  a  variety  of  floor
plans  conforming  to  functional  and  geometric  specifications.  Many  of the
resulting  plans look  reasonable  even when  compared to  a  professional  floor
plan.  Additionally polygonal and multi-floor buildings were  also  generated.


title: Electronic, magnetic and thermal properties of Pb₂₋x AxCrO₅ (A = K or La)

subject:
X-rays -- Diffraction
Calorimetry

abstract:
Lead chromium oxide is a photoconductive dielectric material tha t  has great  potential
of being  used  as  a  room  temperature   photodetector.  In this  research,  we  made  ceramic pellets of this compound as well  as potassium doped compound Pb2-xKxCr05,
where  x=O,  0.05,  0.125.  We  also  investigate the  properties  of the  lanthanum  doped
sample  whose  chemical  formula  is  Pb1.85Lao.15Cr05'  The   electronic,  magnetic  and thermal properties of  these  materials  have  been  studied.  Magnetization  measurements  of the   Pb2Cr05  sample  indicate  a  transition  at   about   310  K,  while  for  the  lanthanum  doped  sample  the   transition  temperature   is  at   about   295  K  indicating
a  paramagnetic  behavior.  However,  the  potassium  doped  samples  are   showing  the
transition  from  paramagnetic state   to  diamagnetic  state at different  temperatures
for  different  amounts  of  potassium  atoms  present  in  the   sample.  We  have  studied
resistivity  as  a  function  of temperature  in  different  gas  environments  from  300  K to
900  K.  The   resistivity  measurement  of the   parent  sample indicates  a  conducting to
insulating  transition  at   about   300  K  and  upon  increasing  the  temperature further,
above  450  K  the   sample  becomes  an  ionic  conductor.  As  temperature increases  a
decrease in resistance is observed in the  lanthanum/potassium doped samples.  Using
Differential  Scanning  Calorimetry  experiment  an endothermic  peak  is  observed for
the Pb2Cr05 and lanthanum/potassium doped samples at about 285 K.


title: Intellectual property rights and the campaign for access to essential medicines : the advocacy role assumed by Médecins Sans Frontières

subject:
Médecins sans frontières (Association)
Medical ethics
Medical care

abstract:
Non-governmental organizations and transnational networks have been increasingly
successful a t  gaining influence within issue areas traditionally controlled by the state.  In many
instances, non-state actors have been instrumental in forcing issues onto the global agenda, have
aided in the development or  transformation of  global regimes, and have participated in securing
state compliance for the adoption of  new international norms.
This paper argues that, consistent with social constructivist theory, ideas are important in
influencing state preferences and change may be possible when certain factors are present.  I f
non-state actors can influence states, it is meaningful to understand how this happens.
This paper focuses on a campaign led by Medecins Sans Frontieres that began in the late
1990s to acquire affordable medicines for patients in developing states that could not afford
patented drugs.  The campaign reached a measure of  success in that member states of  the World
Trade Organization re-negotiated contested terms and meanings within the trade agreement for
intellectual property rights and allowed concessions that would benefit lower income states.
What factors contributed to the success of  the campaign?  And what were the most important
factors - the issue, the actors or  the mechanisms used?


title: The influence of emotional body posture on adults' and 8-year-olds' perception facial expressions

subject:
Body language
Posture
Facial expression

abstract:
The present set of  experiments was designed to investigate the development of  children's
sensitivity of  facial expressions observed within emotional contexts.  Past research
investigating both adults' and children's perception of  facial expressions has been limited
primarily to the presentation of  isolated faces. During daily social interactions, however,
facial expressions are encountered within contexts conveying emotions (e.g., background
scenes, body postures, gestures). Recently, research has shown that adults' perception of
facial expressions is influenced by these contexts. When emotional faces are shown in
incongruent contexts (e.g., when an angry face is presented in a context depicting fear)
adults' accuracy decreases and their reaction times increase (e.g., Meeren et  a1.  2005). To
examine the influence of  emotional body postures on children's perception of  facial
expressions, in each of  the experiments in the current study adults and 8-year-old children
made two-alternative forced choice decisions about facial expressions presented in
congruent (e.g., a face displayed sadness on a body displaying sadness) and incongruent
(e.g., a face displaying fear on a body displaying sadness) contexts. Consistent with
previous studies, a congruency effect (better performance on congruent than incongruent
trials) was found for both adults and 8-year-olds when the emotions displayed by the face
and body were similar to each other (e.g., fear and sad, Experiment l a ) ;  the influence of
context was greater for 8-year-olds than adults for these similar expressions. To further
investigate why the congruency effect was larger for children than adults in Experiment
1 a, Experiment 1 b was conducted to examine if  increased task difficulty would increase
the magnitude of  adults' congruency effects.  Adults were presented with subtle facial
and despite successfully increasing task difficulty the magnitude of  the. congruency effect did not increase suggesting that the difference between children's and adults' congruency
effects in Experiment l a  cannot be explained by 8-year-olds finding the task difficult.  In
contrast, congruency effects were not found when the expressions displayed by the face
and body were dissimilar (e.g., sad and happy, see Experiment 2). The results of  the
current set of  studies are examined with respect to the Dimensional theory and the
Emotional Seed model and the developmental timeline of  children's sensitivity to facial
expressions.
A secondary aim of  the series of  studies was to examine one possible mechanism
underlying congruency effe cts-holistic  processing. To examine the influence of  holistic
processing, participants completed both aligned trials and misaligned trials in which the
faces were detached from the body (designed to disrupt holistic processing). Based on the
principles of  holistic face processing we predicted that participants would benefit from
misalignment of  the face and body stimuli on incongruent trials but not on congruent
trials. Collectively, our results provide some evidence that both adults and children may
process emotional faces and bodies holistically. Consistent with the pattern of  results for
congruency effects, the magnitude of  the effect of  misalignment varied with the similarity
between emotions. Future research is required to further investigate whether or  not facial
expressions and emotions conveyed by the body are perceived holistically.


title: Nietzsche's children : a physiological analysis of the scholar's task

subject: Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900.

subject: Scholars

subject: Philosophers

abstract:
Throughout Nietzsche's writings we find discussions of the proper  relationship of  the scholar/scientist to
the philosopher, wi th the scholar of ten being presented in a derogatory light. In this thesis, I examine
Nietzsche's por t rai t  of  the scholar through the lens of  his physiological or  clinical perspective as
articulated by Dr. Daniel R.  Ahern in his monograph entitled Nietzsche as Cultural Physician. My aim in
doing so is to grasp the affirmative, creative aspect of  this seemingly destructive polemic against
scholars. I begin wi th a detailed discussion of  Nietzsche's por t rai t  of the scholar in Beyond Good and Evil.
This includes an explication of  Ahern's position, followed by an application of  the diagnostic perspective
to Nietzsche's discussion of  the objective type, the skeptic, and the critic. I then look at how the
characteristics of  all three types are present in the Nietzschean 'free spirit.' I also discuss the
physiological basis of  esotericism in Nietzsche's work, as well as Nietzsche's revaluation of  the scholarly
vi r tue known as Red/ichkeit (or  'honesty'). I conclude wi th comments on the free spirit's relationship to
the future.


title: The new blockbuster film sequel : changing cultural and economic conditions within the film industry

subject: Culture in motion pictures.

subject: Motion pictures -- Social aspects -- United States.

subject: Motion picture industry -- Economic aspects -- United States

abstract:
Film sequels are a pervasive part of  film consumption practices and have become an important
part of  the decision making process for Hollywood studios and producers. This thesis indicates
that sequels are not homogenous groups of  films, as they are often considered, but offer a variety
of  story construction and utilize a variety of  production methods. Three types of  blockbuster
sequel sets are identified and discussed in this thesis. The Traditional Blockbuster Sequel Set, as
exemplified by Back to the Future (1985,  1989, 1990) films, is the most conventional type of
sequel set and capitalizes on the winning formula of  the first film in the franchise. The MultiMedia Sequel Set, such as The Matrix (1999,2003)  trilogy, allows the user/viewer to experience
and consume the story as well as the world of  the film through many different media. The Lord
a/ the  Rings (2001, 2002, 2003) set of  films is an illustration of  The Saga Sequel Set where plot
lines are continuous over the entire franchise thus allowing the viewer to see the entire set as a
unified work. The thesis also demonstrates how the blockbuster sequel sets, such as the Pirates
a/ the  Caribbean (2003, 2006, 2007) franchise, restructure the production process of  the
Hollywood film industry.


title: Honey proteins and their interaction with polyphenols

subject:
Honey
Proteins -- Analysis

abstract:
This  project  aimed  to determine the  protein  prof i les  and  concent rat ion  in  honeys,  ef fect
of  storage  condi t ions  on  the  protein  content   and  the  interact ion  between  proteins  and
polyphenols.   Thi r teen  honeys  f rom  di f ferent   botanical  or igins  were  analyzed  for   thei r
protein  prof i les  using  SDS-PAGE,  protein  concent rat ion  and  phenol ic  content ,   using the
Pierce  Protein  Assay  and  Fol in-Ciocal teau  methods,   respectively.  Protein-polyphenol
interact ions were analyzed  by a combinat ion of  the ext ract ion of  honeys wi th solvents  of
di f ferent   polar i t ies  fol lowed  by  LCjMS  analysis  of   the  obtained  f ract ions.   Results
demonst rated  a  di f ferent   protein  content   in  the  tested  honeys,  wi th  buckwheat   honey
possessing  the  highest   protein  concent rat ion.   We  have  shown  that   the  reduct ion  of
proteins  dur ing  honey  storage  was  caused,  partially,  by  the  protein  complexat ion  wi th
phenolics.  The  LCjMS  analysis  of  the  peak  elut ing  at  retent ion  t ime  of   10  to  14  min
demonst rated  that   these  phenolics  included  f lavonoids  such  as  Pinobanksin,
Pinobanksin acetate, Apigenin,   Kaemferol and  Myricetin and  also cinnamic acid.


title: Elucidation of the components involved in the antioxidant activity of honey

subject:
Honey
Antioxidants
Food -- Biotechnology

abstract:
Canadian honeys were analyzed for sugar concentration, honey colour, total
phenolic content, the level of  brown pigments, and antioxidant activity in order to
elucidate the main components involved in the antioxidant activity of  honey. By
employing size-exclusion chromatography in combination with activity-guided
fractionation, it was demonstrated that the antioxidant components are of  high molecular
weight (HMW), brown in colour and absorb at both 280nm and 450nm. The presence of
brown HMW antioxidant components prompted an investigation on the influence of  heattreatment on the Maillard reaction and the formation of  melanoid ins. Heat-treatment of
honey resulted in an increase in the level of  phenolics in the melanoidin fractions which
correlated with an increase in antioxidant activity. The preliminary results of  this study
suggest for the first time that honey melanoidins underlie the antioxidant activity of
unheated and heat-treated honey, and that phenolic constituents are involved in the
melanoidin structure and are likely incorporated by covalent or non-covalent interaction.


title: Development of thermally stable versions of the Burgess Reagent : approaches to the chemoenzymatic total synthesis of morphine

subject:
Organic compounds -- Synthesis
Morphine -- Synthesis.

abstract:
The present studies describe our recent work on expanding the use of  the Burgess
reagent and its reaction with oxiranes. Several new variants of  the Burgess reagent and its
chiral auxiliary version were evaluated for their thermal stability by NMR spectroscopy.
Three  new versions  of  the  reagent were  synthesized and their stability was  determined.
The  reactivity of  all  five  Burgess  reagents  was  compared in a  dehydration reaction and
reactions with epoxides and diols.
Progress toward a chemoenzymatic synthesis of  morphine is  also included in this
report.  The  synthesis  began  with  the  whole  cell  oxidation  of   bromobenzene  by
Escherichia coli JMI09(pDTG601). The preparation of  several precursors  for a key step
involving the lohnson-Claisen rearrangement and progress toward the total synthesis are
described.


title: Emancipatory pedagogies in a grade 11 social studies classroom

contributor: Department of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies in Education

subject:
Transformative learning
Discrimination in education
Educational equalization
Social sciences

abstract:
This study aimed to uncover the incorporation of  transformative pedagogies into
the social studies curriculum. This educational approach aims to educate students about a
variety of  forms of  oppression based on race, gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity, and
culture, through the use of  dialogue to uncover the students' understanding and personal
experience with these concepts. This study examined the impact of  discussing these
topics in a grade 11  class of  22 White students (of  various cultural, ethnic, and religious
backgrounds). The teacher, Kelvin, and two of  his students were interviewed and his
class was observed on four occasions over a 2-week period.
Based on the data I collected, I argue that a range of  emancipatory teaching
approaches should be used in critical classroom discourse.  These different approaches
emphasize the importance of  critical thinking, the ability to recognize and combat
oppression, the understanding and respect of  different cultures, and the ability to
recognize the impact of  gender and sexuality on the past and present. These are life skills
that extend beyond the curriculum (Freire, 1970; Giroux,  1988; hooks, 1994).
This study fills a theory to practice gap in the research literature on transformative
practice within Canadian contexts. The findings are important for several reasons. Firstly,
they illustrated how the teacher's ideology and personal history affect hislher teaching
and learning philosophies and approach to teaching. This has implications for the overall
classroom environment, what students learn, and how teachers are trained. Secondly, this
study provided a glimpse of  what transformative pedagogy could look like from a
pragmatic standpoint and demonstrated the complexity of  using these multiple
approaches in the classroom.


title: Investigation of motivation strategies used by school teachers for workplace engagement

subject:
Motivation in education
Classroom management
Teaching

abstract:
The purpose of  this study was to explore the strategies that elementary school
teachers use to be  engaged in their work. Participation was solicited from a random
sample of  schools stratified by location (i.e., urban, inner city, and rural) of  a large
school board. The study used an anonymous quantitative/qualitative questionnaire. The
survey tool was based upon Kahn's (1990) psychological engagement framework, which
presents the foundation of  availability of  self, meaningfulness of  work, and safety while
at work.
Forty-one surveys were analyzed descriptively including a subgroup of  self-rated
highly engaged teachers. Teachers tended to  favour physical and emotional strategies
compared to cognitive type strategies, with the exception of  the highly engaged
subgroup. The theme of  preferred strategies reflected a setting outside the
school/workplace, that is, a preference for horne based strategies.
The study's main contribution highlights the teachers' sense of  importance for
physical and emotional health in a profession that is heavily focused in the cognitive
domain. This may influence administrative and teacher discourse regarding workplace
engagement with strategies to help reduce stress and to maintain and increase teacher
engagement.


title: Behavioural and neural correlates of emotion recognition as a function of psychopathic personality traits

subject:
Personality disorders
Visual perception
Recognition (Psychology)

abstract:
Psychopathy is associated with well-known characteristics such as a lack of
empathy and impulsive behaviour, but it has also been associated with impaired
recognition of  emotional facial expressions. The use of  event-related potentials (ERPs) to
examine this phenomenon could shed light on the specific time course and neural
activation associated with emotion recognition processes as they relate to psychopathic
traits. In the current study we examined the PI ,  N170, and vertex positive potential (VPP)
ERP components and behavioural performance with respect to  scores on the Self-Report
Psychopathy (SRP-III) questionnaire. Thirty undergraduates completed two tasks, the
first of  which required the recognition and categorization of  affective face stimuli under
varying presentation conditions. Happy, angry or fearful faces were presented under with
attention directed to the mouth, nose or eye region and varied stimulus exposure duration
(30, 75, or 150 ms). We found that behavioural performance to be  unrelated to
psychopathic personality traits in all conditions, but there was a trend for the Nl70 to
peak later in response to fearful and happy facial expressions for individuals high in
psychopathic traits. However, the amplitude of  the VPP was significantly negatively
associated with psychopathic traits, but only in response to stimuli presented under a
nose-level fixation.  Finally, psychopathic traits were found to be associated with longer
N170 latencies in response to stimuli presented under the 30 ms exposure duration.
In the second task, participants were required to inhibit processing of  irrelevant
affective and scrambled face distractors while categorizing unrelated word stimuli as
living or nonliving. Psychopathic traits were hypothesized to be positively associated
with behavioural performance, as it was proposed that individuals high in psychopathic traits would be less likely to automatically attend to task-irrelevant affective distractors,
facilitating word categorization. Thus, decreased interference would be  reflected in
smaller N170 components, indicating less neural activity associated with processing of
distractor faces. We found that overall performance decreased in the presence of  angry
and fearful distractor faces as psychopathic traits increased. In addition, the amplitude of
the N170 decreased and the latency increased in response to affective distractor faces for
individuals with higher levels of  psychopathic traits.
Although we  failed to find the predicted behavioural deficit in emotion
recognition in Task 1 and facilitation effect in Task 2, the findings of  increased N170 and
VPP latencies in response to emotional faces are consistent wi th the proposition that
abnormal emotion recognition processes may in fact be  inherent to psychopathy as a
continuous personality trait.


title: The convergence of psychopathy, self-rated vulnerability, and other-rated vulnerability

subject:
Victims of crimes
Body language
Personality disorders

abstract:
Previous research has found that victims of  crime tend to exhibit asynchronous
movement (e.g. Grayson &  Stein,  1981), and the fact that victims display different body
language suggests that they may be  sending inadvertent signals to their own vulnerability (e.g.
Murzynski &  Degelman, 1996).  Body language has also be en linked with s e l f  identification as a
victim (Wheeler et aI., 2009), and self-identification has be en found to act as a proxy for more
severe victimization (Baumer, 2002) and greater fear of  crime (Greenberg & Beach, 2004). The
first prediction in the present study, then, was that self-perceived vulnerability would be
correlated with body language, while number of  previous victimizations mayor  may not show
the same relationship.  Findings from the present study indicate that self-perceived vulnerability
exhibits a positive correlation with the body language cues that approaches significance r (10) =
.45,p =.07, one-tailed. Different types of  victimization, however, were not  significantly
correlated with these cues.  A second goal of  the study was to examine the relationship between
psychopathic traits and accuracy in judgments of  vulnerability.  Seventy male participants rated
the vulnerability of  12 female targets filmed walking down a hallway who had provided selfratings of  vulnerability. Individuals scoring higher on Factor 2 and total psychopathy were
significantly less discrepant from target self-rat~ngs of  vulnerability, r (64) =  - .39,p < .001; r
(64) =  - .29,p >.01, respectively.  The final purpose of  this study was to determine which body
language cues were mos t  salient to raters when making judgments of  vulnerability.  Participants
rated the apparent vulnerability of  a target in 7 video clips portraying each body language cue in
isolation and a natural walk. Results of  repeated measures analyses indicate that the videos rated
as most vulnerable to victimization were those displaying low energy and l a ck of  synchrony,
followed by wide stride, short stride, and stiffknees, while the video displaying ne ck stiffness did not  receive significantly different ratings from the mode l ' s  natural walk. Replication with a
larger sample size is necessary to increase confidence in findings and implications.


title: The structure of arabidopsis NPR1 : its function as a salicylic acid receptor and a metal-binding protein

subject:
Arabidopsis -- Molecular aspects.
Metalloproteins

abstract:
The  Arabidopsis NPRI  protein  regulates  systemic  acquired  resistance  dependent  on
salicylic acid.  Analyses by plant two-hybrid analysis in  vivo  and  pull-down assays in
vitro  showed  that  the  BTB/POZ  domain  of  NPRI  at  the  N-terminus  serves  as  an
autoinhibitory  domain  to  negate  the  function  of  the  transactivation  domain  at  the
C-terminus through  direct  binding  of  these two  domains.  I t  was  also  shown  that the
binding  of  the  BTB/POZ  domain  to  the  C-terminus  of  NPRI  was  abolished  by  SA
treatment,  suggesting  that  SA  could  interfere  directly  with  this  binding.  By  gel
filtration,  it  was  demonstrated that  SA affects the  conformation  of  full-length  NPRl ,
confirming the  role  of  NPRI  as  an  SA  receptor.  Gel  filtration  analysis also  indicated
that  NPRI  could  be  converted  from  an  oligomer  to  a  dimer  with  SA  treatment.
Furthermore,  one N-terminal deletion ~513 has been  shown to act as a metal-binding
protein  and  its  two  Cys-521  and  Cys-529  are  important  for  binding  to  Ni
2
+  by
pull-down assays.


title: Study of new yeast strains as novel starter cultures for Riesling icewine production

subject:
Wine and wine making
Fermentation
Riesling (Wine)

abstract:
Icewine  is  a  sweet  dessert  wine  fermented  from  the  juice  of  grapes  naturally
frozen  on  the  vine.  The  production  of   Icewine  faces  many  challenges  such  as
sluggish  fermentation,  which  often  yields  wines  with  low  ethanol,  and  an
accumulation  of  high concentration  of  volatile  acidity,  mainly in the  form  of  acetic
acid.  This  project  investigated three  new  yeast  strains  as  novel  starter  cultures  for
Icewine  fermentation with particular emphasis on  reducing acetic acid production:  a
naturally occurring strain of  S.  bayanus/S.  pastorianus isolated from  Icewine grapes,
and two hybrids between S.  cerevisiae and S.  bayanus, AWRI  1571  and AWRI  1572.
These  strains  were  evaluated  for  sugar  consumption  patterns  and  metabolic
production  of   ethanol,  glycerol  and  acetic  acid,  and  were  compared  to  the
performance of a  standard commercial wine yeast KI-VI116.  The ITS  rONA region
of  the  two  A WRI  crosses  was  also  analyzed  during  fermentations  to  assess  their
genomic  stability.  Icewine  fermentations  were  performed  in  sterile  filtered juice,  in
the  absence of  indigenous microflora, and also in  unfiltered juice in  order to mirror
commercial wine making practices.
The  hybrid A WRI  1572 was  found to  be  a  promising candidate as a  novel  starter
culture for  Icewine production. I t  produced  10.3 % v/v  of  ethanol in sterile Riesling
Icewine  fermentations  and  11.2  %  v/v  in  the  unfiltered  ones  within  a  reasonable
fermentation time (39 days).  Its acetic acid production per gram sugar consumed was
approximately  30%  lower  in  comparison  with  commercial  wine  yeast  K I -V 1116
under  both  sterile  filtered  and  unfiltered  fermentations.  The  natural  isolate  S. bayanus/S. pastorianus and AWRI  1571  did not appear to be suitable for commercial
Icewine production.  They reached the target ethanol concentration of  approximately
10 % v/v in 39 day fermentations and also produced less acetic acid as a function of
both  time  and  sugar  consumed  in  sterile  fermentations  compared  to  KI-V1116.
However,  in  unfiltered  fermentations,  both  of  them  failed  to  produce  the  target
concentration  of  ethanol  and  accumulated  high  concentration  of  acetic  acid.  Both
A WRI  crosses displayed higher loss  of  or  reduced copies in  ITS  rDNA region  from
the S.  bayanus parent compared to the S.  cerevisiae parent;  however, these  genomic
losses could not be  related to the metabolic profile.


title: Developmental differences in locomotor responsiveness to amphetamine in rats

subject:
Amphetamines -- Physiological effect.
Animal behavior
Drug abuse
Youth -- Drug use

abstract:
The developmental remodelling of  motivational systems that underlie drug
dependence and addiction may account for the greater frequency and severity of  drug
abuse in adolescence compared to adulthood. Recent advances in animal models have
begun to identify the morphological and the molecular factors that are being remodelled,
but little is known about the culmination of  these factors in altered sensitivity to
psycho stimulant drugs, like amphetamine, in adolescence. Amphetamine induces potent
locomotor activating effects in rodents through increased dopamine release in the
mesocorticolimbic dopamine system, which makes locomotor activity a useful
behavioural marker of  age differences in amphetamine sensitivity. The aim of  the thesis
was to investigate the neural basis for age differences in amphetamine sensitivity with a
focus on the nucleus accumbens and the medial prefrontal cortex, which initiate and
regulate amphetamine-induced locomotor activity, respectively.
In study 1,  I found pre- and post- pubertal adolescent rats to be less active (i.e.,
hypoactive) than adults to a first injection of  0.5, but not of  1.5, mg/kg of  intraperitonealy
(i.p.) administered amphetamine. Although initially hypoactive, only adolescent rats
exhibited an increase in activity to a second injection of  amphetamine given 24 h later,
indicating that adolescents may be  more sensitive to the rapid changes in amphetamineinduced plasticity than adults. Given that the locomotor activating effects of
amphetamine are initiated in the nucleus accumbens, age differences in response to direct
injections of  amphetamine into this brain region were investigated in study 2. In contrast
to i.p. injections, adolescents were more active than adults when amphetamine was given directly into the nucleus accumbens, indicating that hypo activity may be  attributed to the
development of  regulatory regions outside of  the accumbens.
The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is a key regulator of  the locomotor
activating effects of  amphetamine that undergoes extensive remodelling in adolescence.
In study 3, I found that an i.p. injection of  1.5, and not of  0.5, mg/kg of  amphetamine
resulted in a high expression of  c-fos,  a marker of  neural activation, in the pre limbic
mPFC only in pre-pubertal adolescent rats. This finding suggests that the ability of
adolescent rats to overcome hypo activity at the 1.5 mg/kg dose may involve greater
activation of  the prelimbic mPFC compared to adulthood. In support of  this hypothesis, I
found that pharmacological inhibition of  prelimbic D 1 dopamine receptors disrupted the
locomotor activating effects of  the 1.5 mg/kg dose of  amphetamine to a greater extent in
adolescent than in adult rats. In addition, the stimulation of  prelimbic D 1 dopamine
receptors potentiated locomotor activity at the 0.5 mg/kg dose of  amphetamine only in
adolescent rats, indicating that the prelimbic D1  dopamine receptors are involved in
overcoming locomotor hypoactivity during adolescence.
Given my finding that the locomotor activating effects of  amphetamine rely on
slightly different mechanisms in adolescence than in adulthood, study 4 was designed to
determine whether the lasting consequences of  drug use would also differ with age. A
short period of  pre-treatment with 0.5 mg/kg of  amphetamine in adolescence, but  not in
adulthood, resulted in heightened sensitivity to an injection of  amphetamine given 30
days after the start of  the procedure, when adolescent rats had reached adulthood. The
finding of  an age-specific increase in amphetamine sensitivity is consistent with evidence
for increased risk for addiction when drug use is initiated in adolescence compared to adulthood in people (Merline et aI., 2002), and with the hypothesis that adolescence is a
sensitive period of  development.


title: Intracellular antioxidant and DNA repair enzymes as correlates of stress resistance and longevity in vertebrates

subject:
DNA repair
Longevity

abstract:
In  animals,  both  stress  resistance  and  longevity  appear  to  be  influenced  by the
insulin/insulin-like  growth  factor-l  signaling  (lIS)  pathway,  the  basic  organization  of
which  is  highly  conserved  from  invertebrates  to  vertebrates.  Reduced  lIS  or  genetic
disruption of  the lIS pathway leads to the activation of  forkhead box transcription factors,
which  is  thought  to  upregulate  the  expression  of   genes  involved  in  enhancing  stress
resistance,  including perhaps  key  antioxidant enzymes  as  well  as  DNA repair enzymes.
Enhanced  antioxidant  and  DNA  repair  capacities  may  underlie  the  enhanced  cellular
stress  resistance  observed  in  long-lived  animals,  however  little  data  is  available that
directly supports this idea.  I used three. experimental approaches to test the association of
intracellular  antioxidant  and  DNA  base  excision  repair  (BER)  capacities  with  stress
resistance  and  longevity:  (1)  a  comparison  of  multiple  vertebrate  endotherm species  of
varying  body masses  and  longevities;  (2)  a  comparison  of  long-lived  Snell  dwarf mice
and their normallittermates; and (3)  a comparison of  hypometabolic animals undergoing
hibernation  or estivation with their active counterparts.  The  activities  of  the  five  major
intracellular  antioxidant  enzymes  as  well  as  the  two  rate-limiting  enzymes  in  the  BER
pathway,  apurininc/apyrimidinic  (AP)  endonuclease  and  polymerase  ~,  were  measured.
These  measurements  were  performed  in  one  or  more  of  the  following:  (1)  cultured
dermal  fibroblasts;  (2)  brain tissue;  (3)  heart tissue;  (4)  liver tissue.  My results indicate
that  antioxidant  enzymes  are  not  universally  upregulated  in  association  with  enhanced
stress  resistance  and  longevity.  I  also  did  not  find  that  BER  enzyme  activity  was
positively  correlated  with  longevity,  in  an  inter-species  context,  though  there  was
evidence  for  enhanced  BER  in  long-lived  Snell  dwarf mice.  Thus,  while  there  were instances in which enhanced antioxidant and BER enzyme activities were associated with
increased  stress  resistance  and/or longevity, this  was  not universally the case, indicating
that  other mechanisms  must be involved.  These  results  suggest the  need to  re-examine
existing  'oxidative  stress'  hypotheses  of  longevity  and  probe  further  into  the  molecular
physiology of  longevity to discover its mechanistic basis.


title: Elucidation of odour-potent compounds and sensory profiles of Vidal blanc and Riesling icewines from the Niagara Peninsula : effect of harvest date and crop level

subject: Grapes -- Biotechnology

subject: Wine and wine making -- Environmental aspects

subject: Viticulture -- Niagara Escarpment.

abstract:
I t  was hypothesized that the freeze/thaw cycles endured by icewine grapes would
change their chemical composition, resulting in unique chemical fingerprint and sensory
properties, and would be  affected by harvest date (HD) and crop level (CL). The
objectives were:  1) to identify odour-active compounds using gas chromatographic and
sensory analysis; 2) to determine the effect of  CL and HD on these compounds; 3) to
determine the icewine sensory profiles; 4) to correlate analytical and sensory results for
an overall icewine profile.
CharmAnalysis™ determined the Top 15  odour-potent compounds in Vidal and
Riesling icewine and table wines; 24 and 23  compounds, respectively.  The majority of
the compounds had the highest concentrations in the icewines compared to table wines.
These compounds were used as the foundation for assessing differences in icewine
chemical profiles from different HD and CL.
Vidal and Riesling icewine were made from grapes picked at different HD; HI :
19 December; H2:  29 December; H3:  18 January; H4:  11  February (Vidal only).  HI
wines differed from H3  and H4 wines in both Vidal and Riesling for aroma compounds
and sensory profiles.  -
Three·CL [control (fully cropped), cluster thin at fruit set to one basal
cluster/shoot (TFS), and cluster thin at veraison to one basal cluster/shoot (TV)] were
evaluated for Riesling and Vidal cultivars over two seasons. Vidal icewines had the
highest concentration of  aroma compounds in the control and TV icewines in 2003 and in
TFS icewines in 2004.  In Riesling, most aroma compounds had the highest concentration
in the TV icewines and the lowest concentration in the TFS wine for both  years.  The thinned treatments were associated with almost all of  the sensory attributes in both
cultivars, both years.
HD and CL affected the chemical variables, aroma compounds and sensory
properties of  Vidal and Riesling icewines and freeze/thaw events changed their sensory
profile.  The most odour-potent compounds were p-damascenone, cis-rose oxide, 1-
octen-3-ol, 4-vinylguaiacol, ethyl octanoate, and ethyl hexanoate.  The role of  Pdamascenone as  a marker compound for icewine requires further investigation. This
research provides a strong foundation for the understanding the odour-active volatiles and
sensory profiles important to icewine.


title: Astringency and other oral sensations : biological sources of individual variation and association with food and beverage behaviour

subject:
Astringents
Taste
Food -- Sensory evaluation
Food habits -- Psychological aspects

abstract:
Orosensory  perception  strongly  influences liking  and  consumption  of   foods  and
beverages.  This  thesis  examines  the  influence  of   biological  sources  of  individual
variation on the perception of  prototypical orosensory stimuli,  food liking, self-reported
alcohol  liking  and  consumption,  and  indices  of  health.  Two  orosensory  indices  were
examined:  propylthiouracil  (PROP)  responsiveness,  a  genetically-mediated  index  of
individual  variation  associated  with  enhanced  responsiveness  to  orosensory  stimuli
often expressed as  PROP taster status (PTS); and thermal taster status (TTS), a recently
reported index of  orosensory responsiveness.  Taster status in PTS  and/or TTS  confers
greater  responsiveness  to  most  orosensory  stimuli.  Gender,  age,  ethnicity,  and
fungiform  papillae  (FP)  density were not associated with orosensory responsiveness to
tastants, an astringent, and a flavour.  Unlike PROP responsiveness, FP  density was not
associated  with  TTS.  Both  PROP  responsiveness  and  TTS  were  associated  with
increased responsiveness to  orosensory stimuli, including temperature and astringency.
For PROP, this  association did not hold when stimuli were presented at cold or warm
temperatures,  which  are  ecologically  valid  since  most  foods  and  beverages  are  not
consumed at ambient temperature. Thermal tasters  (TTs), who perceive 'phantom' taste
sensations  with  lingual  thermal  stimulation,  were  more  responsive  to  stimuli  at  both
temperatures  than  thermal  non-tasters  (TnTs).  While  PTS,  TIS,   and  gender  affected
self-reported  liking  and  consumption  of  some  alcoholic  beverages,  gender  associated
with  the  greatest  number  of  beverage types  and  consumption  parameters,  with  males
generally liking and consuming alcoholic beverages more than females. Age and gender
were  the  best  predictors  of  alcoholic  beverageAiking  and  consumption.  As  expected, ..
liking of  bitter and fatty foods and cream was inversely related to PROP responsiveness.
TTS  did  not  associate  with  body mass  index  or waist  circumference,  and  contrary to
previous studies, neither did PROP responsiveness. Taken together, TnTs' greater liking
of  cooked  fruits  and  vegetables  and  high  alcohol,  and  astringent  alcoholic  beverages
than  TTs  suggests  differences  between  TTS  groups  may  be  driven  by  perceived
temperature and texture. Neither an interaction between PTS and TTS nor a TTS  effect
on  PROP  responsiveness  was  observed,  suggesting  these  two  indices  of  individual
variation exert their influences on orosensory perception independently.


title: The light and dark sides of perfectionism : implications for health and well-being

subject:
Perfectionism (Personality trait)
Well-being

abstract:
The  present work presents two studies that examined the association of  perfectionism,
operationally defined by Hewi t t  and Fl e t t ' s  (1991) multidimensional mode l  of  perfectionism,
with health and subjective well-being (SWB). The  underlying question of  this research was
whether perfectionism could be  beneficial as well as detrimental to health and well-being, as this
is one  of  the  mos t  highly debated questions in the  current literature. In samples of  relatively
healthy university students (n = 538) and community adults suffering from various chronic
illnesses (n = 772), results from Study One  indicated that socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP)
is directly associated wi th poor e r  he a l th and well-being. Results further showed f rom a personcentered perspective that there is a l a rge  group of  individuals wi th high levels of  SPP and that i t
is indeed these individuals who reported the  poorest health and lowe s t  levels of  well-being.
Other-oriented perfectionism was found to be  unrelated to health and SWB. Findings revealed
that when perfectionism is self-imposed (i.e., self-oriented perfectionism; SOP), i t  is neither
healthy nor  unhealthy in an absolute sense. From the  variable-centered perspective, this
conclusion was supported by the  f a c t  tha t  SOP was associated wi th both positive (e.g., be t t e r
mental health and highe r  levels of  SWB in the student sample), and nega t ive  correlates (e.g.,
higher levels of  negative affect, stress, and neuroticism in both samples). Evidence f rom the
chronically-ill sample further substantiated this conclusion by showing that there may be  an
optimal level of  SOP, because mode r a t e  levels of  SOP we r e  found to be  associated with be t t e r
health and highe r  levels of  SWB, whereas levels tha t  we r e  too low or  too high we r e  found to be
associated with poor e r  health and lowe r  levels of  SWB. Findings f rom the person-centered
approach we r e  particularly informative, in that they not  only demonstrated tha t  unique profiles of


title: Sarcolemmal lipid analysis from mechanically skinned rat muscle fibres.

subject:
membrane
phospholipid
fatty acid

abstract:
Membrane lipid composition, which includes phospholipid (PL) headgroup, and fatty
acid (FA) saturation, has been shown to affect cellular function. The sarcolemma (SL)
membrane is integral to skeletal muscle function and health. Previous studies assessing
SL lipid composition are limited as they have 1) restricted analysis to a PL level and
neglected FA composition and 2) relied on aggressive membrane isolation procedures
resulting in t-tubule and sarcoplasmic reticulum contamination and unknown levels of
nuclear and mitochondrial contamination. Thus, to overcome these limitations, this study
assessed a method of individually skinned skeletal muscle fibres as an alternative to
analyze complete sarcolemmal membrane lipid composition. The major findings of this
study were 1) complete SL lipid composition can be obtained 2) the SL had higher
sphingomyelin content than previous studies and 3) the SL membrane had minimal
nuclear and mitochondrial contamination and was void of contamination from
sarcoplasmic reticulum and t-tubules.


title: Leadership and its impact on the success of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council funded collaborative research projects

subject:
Social sciences -- Research
Humanities -- Research
Educational leadership

abstract:
This dissertation investigates the practice of  leadership in collaboratively designed
and funded research in a university setting. More specifically, this  research explores  the
meaning of  leadership as  experienced by researchers  who were,  or  still are,  engaged
on Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded collaborative
research projects  in a university setting.
This qualitative study (Gay & Airasian, 2003) is situated within a social constructivist paradigm (Kezar, Carducci, & Contreras-McGavin, 2006) and involves an analysis of  the responses from 12 researchers who answered 11questions related to my overarching research question: What is the impact of  leadership on university based collaborative research projects funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council based on the experiences of researchers involved? The data that emerged supported and enhanced the existing literature related to leadership and collaborative groups in academia. The type of preferred leadership that emerged as a result of  this research seemed to indicate that the type of  leader that appeared to be optimal in this context might be described as a functional collaborative expert.


title: A Temporal Analysis of Emotions in Girls' Secondary School Physical Education Games and Fitness Classes

subject: Physical education, females, emotions

abstract: Female enthusiasm towards engaging in physical education (PE) significantly decreases with age as it provides females with positive and negative emotional experiences. This study examined emotions within four grade nine female PE soccer and fitness classes (N = 67). Emotional patterns were studied over time and across two units of instruction and in relation to student grades. A mixed-method approach was utilized assessing the state emotions of shame, enjoyment, anxiety, and social physique anxiety (SPA). Results revealed unsatisfactory internal consistency for shame and thus it was removed. Statistical analysis revealed no significant changes in emotions over time, whereas qualitative analysis found that state emotions were inconsistent. Statistical analysis indicated that students in the fitness classes reported significantly higher levels of anxiety and SPA on the final class (p < .01). Qualitative analysis signaled different origins and themes of students‟ emotions. No predictive relationship between emotion and students‟ grade was found.


title: The acute effects of systemic cytokines on peripheral nerve function in humans

subject: NCV, Cytokine, SCI,

abstract: Cytokines have been shown to cause a reduction in nerve conduction when examined using animal models. Such effects, if shown in humans, could result in detrimental effects to physical function during periods heightened systemic cytokine concentrations. The study investigated the acute effects of cytokines on nerve conduction velocity (NCV) and functional measures. Measures were taken under both basal and elevated cytokine concentrations to determine any corresponding changes to NCV. A significant positive correlation was found between the cytokine IL-6 and NCV at 2 hours post-exercise (r=0.606, p=0.048). A significant negative correlation was found between IL-1ra and NCV at 24 hours post-exercise (r=-0.652, p=0.021). A significant positive correlation was also found between IL-1ra and endurance at 1 hour post-exercise (r=0.643, p=0.033). As such, it would seem that IL-6 may potentially act to enhance nerve function while other cytokines such as IL-1ra may have negative effects and reduce NCV.


title: Retrospective on the Experience of Parental Pressure and Support by Male Participants that Withdrew from Competitive Youth Hockey: A Phenomenological Investigation

subject:
support
pressure
competitive youth hockey
phenomenology
commitment

abstract:
The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of parental pressure and support for males who withdrew from competitive youth hockey. A phenomenological approach was used to explore this phenomenon and develop meaning from the participants' experiences. Data for this study was collected by conducting one in-depth interview with each of the seven participants. Fourteen themes emerged as a result of the data analysis. These themes were grouped into three clusters: (1) Description of parental involvement: “I want them to be there and help me”;
(2) Perceived impacts of parental involvement: “I felt like he actually cared”; and (3) Impact of parental involvement on commitment: “I kind of miss hockey now”. The descriptions provided by the participants in this study, and the themes that emerged, offer insight into what it is like for young males to experience parental involvement in competitive youth hockey.


title: The role of education in building individual human capital : How do professionals look at it?

subject:
Education -- Economic aspects
Universities and colleges
Postsecondary education

abstract:
This study followed a qualitative research approach to investigate how welleducated professionals see the role of formal education in building human capital.
Individuals need to understand the relationship between education and their human
capital to justify the time and money they invested to get their education. Colleges and
universities need to know the value of their output, to better value and promote the
process of knowledge production and transmission and help the general public appreciate
their work more. While the importance of a good education is a key factor in the success
of learners, this study revealed the power of social capital in making this success a
reality. It may not be enough for an individual to acquire good education to guarantee a
better future. The power of social connections can be the main determinant in one’s
wellbeing. This study shows that it is important to address students’ life outside school
beside the importance of a classroom education.


title: Automatic Structure Generation using Genetic Programming and Fractal Geometry

subject:
Aesthetics
3D models
Genetic programming
L-systems
Multi-objective evaluation

abstract:
Three dimensional model design is a well-known and studied  field, with numerous real-world
applications. However, the manual construction of these models can often be time-consuming to the
average user, despite the advantages o ffered through computational advances. This thesis presents
an approach to the design of 3D structures using evolutionary computation and L-systems, which
involves the automated production of such designs using a strict set of fitness functions. These
functions focus on the geometric properties of the models produced, as well as their quantifiable
aesthetic value - a topic which has not been widely investigated with respect to 3D models. New
extensions to existing aesthetic measures are discussed and implemented in the presented system in
order to produce designs which are visually pleasing. The system itself facilitates the construction of
models requiring minimal user initialization and no user-based feedback throughout the evolutionary
cycle. The genetic programming evolved models are shown to satisfy multiple criteria, conveying a
relationship between their assigned aesthetic value and their perceived aesthetic value. Exploration
into the applicability and e ffectiveness of a multi-objective approach to the problem is also presented,
with a focus on both performance and visual results. Although subjective, these results o er insight
into future applications and study in the fi eld of computational aesthetics and automated structure
design.


title: Protein Turnover in Rat Skeletal Muscle During In Vitro Hypo-Osmotic Stress

subject:
cell swelling
protein turnover
skeletal muscle
metabolism
hydration

abstract: Hypo-osmolality influences tissue metabolism, but research on protein turnover in skeletal muscle is limited. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of hypo-osmotic stress on protein turnover in rat skeletal muscle. We hypothesized increased protein synthesis and reduced degradation following hypo-osmotic exposure. EDL muscles (n=8/group) were incubated in iso-osmotic (290 Osm/kg) or hypo-osmotic (190 Osm/kg) modified medium 199 (95% O2, 5% CO2, pH 7.4, 30±2 °C) for 60 min, followed by 75 min incubations with L-U[14C]phenylalanine or cycloheximide to determine protein synthesis and degradation. Immunoblotting was performed to assess signalling pathways involved. Phenylalanine uptake and incorporation were increased by 199% and 169% respectively in HYPO from ISO (p < 0.05). This was supported by elevated phosphorylation of mTOR Ser2448 (+12.5%) and increased Thr389 phosphorylation on p70s6 kinase (+23.6%) (p < 0.05). Hypo-osmotic stress increased protein synthesis and potentially amino acid uptake. Future studies should examine the upstream mechanisms involved.


title: Sex Talk: A Multiple Case Study to Explore and Understand Parent-Child Sexual Health Communication in Chinese Immigrant Families

subject: sexual health, parent-child communication, Chinese immigrants, acculturation, parenting, personality differences, communicative differences

abstract: Parent-child sexual health communication can be beneficial. Many factors affect such communication in Chinese immigrant families. This qualitative study explored the influences of acculturation, parenting, and parental participation in the Raising Sexually Healthy Children Program (RSHC) on such communication. With a hermeneutic framework, the purpose was to develop understanding based on the topic, context, and researcher interpretations. Twelve interviews elicited data from six parent-child dyads, three from the RSHC. Analysis involved coding processes; data were compared repeatedly and organized into themes. Perceived personality differences between generations were confounded with cultural communicative differences. Parents used implicitness observed in Chinese culture to establish "open" communication; children expected explicitness observed in Western culture. Post- RSHC, parents perceived themselves as more open to talking about sex; children did not perceive such parental changes. Future research should include joint interviews and longitudinal program evaluation. Future practice should focus on cross-cultural communication and involving children in RSHC.


title: Locating home : the diverse experiences of recent newcomer youth and first generation youth within Ontario's education system

subject: Acculturation

subject: Emigration and immigration -- Psychological aspects

subject: Children of immigrants -- Education -- Canada

subject: Immigrants -- Education -- Canada

abstract:
This study has found that youth who or whose parents had left their home country for
fear-based reasons were less involved within their school and wider community than
youth who left or whose parents left for reasons concerning their social mobility. Many
existing studies focus on the challenges newcomer youth experience within the education
system (see Anisef, Brown, Phythian, & Sweet, 2010), however through the use of
qualitative methodologies this study expanded on the current literature by further
examining why it is some youth are successful in overcoming such challenges, while
others are not. This study supported what has been demonstrated in the literature
regarding challenges faced by newcomer youth and resources to address such challenges.
Despite challenges experienced within the education system, youth planned to complete
secondary school and attend a postsecondary institution. However, not all youth
anticipated remaining in Canada upon completion of their education, with youth or youth
whose parents left their home country for fear-based reasons frequently discussing the
possibility of returning to their or their parents' home country. Thus, perhaps these youth
were less involved within their school, as their goal was not necessarily to establish or
maintain connections within their community as they may have viewed residing in
Canada as temporary. This finding has important implications, as there are benefits to
involvement in extracurricular activities, which may assist youth in overcoming
challenges encountered within the education system. Therefore, it would seem that youth
who had or whose parents had left their home country for reasons concerning their social
mobility may have be at an advantage within the education system with respect to their
involvement in school. Perhaps then this differential involvement may at least partially
explain why it is some newcomer youth are able to overcome challenges they experience
in the education system, while others are not. Both policy and theoretical implications are
discussed.


title: Academic advising, eh : a profile of undergraduate academic advising at Ontario universities

subject: Counseling in higher education -- Ontario.

subject: College student development programs -- Ontario

abstract:
Despite its importance to postsecondary students' success, there is little known
about academic advisement in Canada. Academic advising can be a very intensive and
demanding job, yet it is not well understood what duties or student populations of
advising make it so. On a practical level, this study sought to learn more about academic
advisement in Ontario universities and provide a general overview of who advisors are
and what they do. This study also investigated academic advising duties and time
allocation for these responsibilities in an attempt to relate theory to practice incorporating
Vilfredo Pareto's theoretical underpinnings to confirm or negate the applicability of the
Pareto Principle in relationship to time utilization by advisors. Essentially this study
sought to discover which students require the greatest advisement time and effort, and
how advisors could apply these findings to their work.
Academic advising professionals in Ontario universities were asked to complete a
researcher-designed electronic survey. Quantitative data from the responses were
analyzed to describe generalized features of academic advising at Ontario universities.
Discussion and implications for practice will prompt advisors and institutions using the
results of this study to measure themselves against a provincial assessment. Advisors'
awareness of time allocation to different student groups can help focus attention where
new strategies are needed to maximize time and efforts. This study found that caseload
and time spent with student populations were proportional. Regular undergraduate
students accounted for the greatest amount of caseload and time followed by working
with students struggling academically. This study highlights the need for further
evaluation, education, and research in academic advising in Canadian higher education.


title: Aboriginal women in education : Honouring our experiences a vision of access to and success within the university

subject:
Indians of North America
Native women -- Education -- Canada

abstract:
This thesis explores Aboriginal women's access to and success within universities
through an examination of Aboriginal women's educational narratives, along with input
from key service providers from both the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community.
Implemented through the Wildfire Research Method, participants engaged in a consensusbased
vision of accessible education that honours the spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and
physical elements necessary for the success of Aboriginal women in university. This study
positions Aboriginal women as agents of social change by allowing them to define their
own needs and offer viable solutions to those needs. Further, it connects service providers
from the many disconnected sectors that implicate Aboriginal women's education access.
The realities of Aboriginal women are contextualized through historical, sociocultural, and
political analyses, revealing the need for a decolonizing educational approach. This fosters
a shift away from a deficit model toward a cultural and linguistic assets based approach
that emphasizes the need for strong cultural identity formation. Participants revealed
academic, cultural, and linguistic barriers and offered clear educational specifications for
responsive and culturally relevant programming that will assist Aboriginal women in
developing and maintaining strong cultural identities. Findings reveal the need for
curriculum that focuses on decolonizing and reclaiming Aboriginal women's identities,
and program outcomes that encourage balance between two worldviews-traditional and
academic-through the application of cultural traditions to modern contexts, along with
programming that responds to the immediate needs of Aboriginal women such as
childcare, housing, and funding, and provide an opportunity for universities and educators
to engage in responsive and culturally grounded educational approaches.


title: Regulation of Protein Turnover during Hyper-osmotic Stress in Skeletal Muscle

subject:
osmotic
stress
skeletal muscle
protein turnover

abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of hyper-osmotic stress on
protein turnover in skeletal muscle tissue using an established in-vitro model. Rat
EDL muscles were incubated in either hyper-osmotic (400 ± 10 Osm) or isoosmotic
(290 ± 10 Osm) custom-modified media (Gibco). L-[14C]-U-phenylalanine
(n=8) and cycloheximide (n=8) were used to quantify protein synthesis and
degradation, respectively. Western blotting analyses was performed to determine
the activation of protein synthesis and degradation pathways. During hyperosmotic
stress, protein degradation increased (p<0.05), while protein synthesis
was decreased (p<0.05) as compared to the iso-osmotic condition. The decline in
protein synthesis was accompanied by a decrease (p<0.05) in p70s6 kinase
phosphorylation, while the increase in protein degradation was associated with
an increase (p<0.05) in autolyzed calpain. Therefore, hyper-osmotic extracellular
stress results in an intracellular catabolic environment in mammalian skeletal
muscle tissue.


title: A Foucauldian Analysis of Power and Representation in an Attempt to Run a Photovoice Project with Youth

subject: Foucauldian analysis, photovoice, power, representation, decolonizing youth work

abstract: This project evolved out of a search for ways to conduct research on “others” in a way that does not exploit, stigmatize or misrepresent their experience. This thesis is an ethnographic study in leisure research and youth work and an experiment in running a photovoice project. Photovoice is a participatory visual method that embodies the emancipatory ideal of empowering others through self-representation. The literature on photovoice lacks a comprehensive discussion on the complexity of power and representation. Postmodern theorists have proposed that participatory methods are not benign and that initiatives are acts of power in themselves that produce effects (Cook & Kothari, 2001). A Foucauldian analysis of power is used to deconstruct the researcher’s practice and reflect on why and how youth are “engaged”. This project seeks to embrace the principle of working “with” others, but also work from a postmodern perspective that acknowledges power and representation as ongoing problems.


title: The Salmon Algorithm - A New Population Based Search Metaheuristic

subject:
combinatorial optimization
coding theory
search metaheuristics

abstract:
This thesis introduces the Salmon Algorithm, a search meta-heuristic which can be used for a variety of combinatorial optimization problems. This algorithm is loosely based on the path finding behaviour of salmon swimming upstream to spawn. There are a number of tunable parameters in the algorithm, so experiments were conducted to find the optimum parameter settings for different search spaces.

The algorithm was tested on one instance of the Traveling Salesman Problem and found to have superior performance to an Ant Colony Algorithm and a Genetic Algorithm. It was then tested on three coding theory problems - optimal edit codes, optimal Hamming distance codes, and optimal covering codes. The algorithm produced improvements on the best known values for five of six of the test cases using edit codes. It matched the best known results on four out of seven of the Hamming codes as well as three out of three of the covering codes. The results suggest the Salmon Algorithm is competitive with established guided random search techniques, and may be superior in some search spaces.


title: School Directors’ Perspectives of Physical  Education in El Salvador: A Qualitative Case Study

subject:
Humanistic Physical Education
Violence Prevention
Violence Prevention

abstract: Youth violence is El Salvador’s most imperative social, economic and health problem today. In an attempt to contribute to youth violence prevention in the country, humanistic physical education has been implemented within schools. Using case study methodology, this study examines twelve Salvadoran school directors’ perspectives of physical education and physical education as a mean of youth violence prevention. School directors’ perceive multiple benefits of physical education including those related to student’s social and emotional health. School directors recognize physical education as a means of reducing violence because it keeps youth busy and provides an outlet to release stress. Results are discussed in relation to long-term violence prevention literature. Results suggest that it would be beneficial for school directors to understand the theory and goals behind humanistic physical education in their schools. Research maintains the continuation of research in the field of humanistic physical education in relation to youth violence prevention.


title: Effects of Proactive and Retroactive Augmented Information on Physiological Responses in Learning a Novel Motor Skill

subject: Cognitive Effort

subject: Heart Rate Variability

subject: Motor Learning

subject: Proactive/ Retroactive Augmented Information

abstract: Previous research has demonstrated superior learning by participants presented with augmented task information retroactively versus proactively (Patterson & Lee, 2008; 2010). Theoretical explanations of these findings are related to the cognitive effort invested by participants during motor skill acquisition. The present study extended previous research by utilizing the physiological index, power spectral analysis of heart rate variability, previously shown to be sensitive to the degree of cognitive effort invested during the performance of a motor task (e.g., increase cognitive effort results in increased LF/HF ratio). Participants were required to learn 18 different key-pressing sequences. As expected, the proactive condition demonstrated superior RS during acquisition, with the retroactive condition demonstrating superior RS during retention. Measures of LF/HF ratio indicated the retroactive participants were investing significantly less cognitive effort in the retention period compared to the proactive participants (p< .05) as a function of learning.


title: Reading Instruction and Instructors’ Perceptions of Learners’ Needs in LINC Level 1-3 Classes

subject: reading

subject: literacy

subject: English as a second Language

subject: newcomers and refugees

abstract: This study investigates instructors’ perceptions of reading instruction and difficulties among Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) Level 1-3 learners.  Statistics Canada reports that 60% of immigrants possess inadequate literacy skills.  Newcomers are placed in classes using the Canadian Language Benchmarks but large, mixed-level classes create little opportunity for individualized instruction, leading some clients to demonstrate little change in their reading benchmarks.  Data were collected (via demographic questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, teaching plans, and field study notes) to create a case study of five LINC instructors’ perceptions of why some clients do not progress through the LINC reading levels as expected and how their previous experiences relate to those within the LINC program.  Qualitative analyses of the data revealed three primary themes: client/instructor background and classroom needs, reading, strategies, methods and challenges, and assessment expectations and progress, each containing a number of subthemes.  A comparison between the themes and literature demonstrated six areas for discussion: (a) some clients, specifically refugees, require more time to progress to higher benchmarks; (b) clients’ level of prior education can be indicative of their literacy skills; (c) clients with literacy needs should be separated and placed into literacy-specific classes; (d) evidence-based approaches to reading instruction were not always evident in participants’ responses, demonstrating a lack of knowledge about these approaches; (e) first language literacy influences second language reading acquisition through a transfer of skills; and (f) collaboration in the classroom supports learning by extending clients’ capabilities.  These points form the basis of recommendations about how reading instruction might be improved for such clients.


title: Using a Bayesian model for bankruptcy prediction : a comparative approach

subject:
Bayesian statistical decision theory
Business forecasting
Bankruptcy -- United States

abstract:
The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the choice of cut-off points,
sampling procedures, and the business cycle on the accuracy of bankruptcy prediction
models. Misclassification can result in erroneous predictions leading to prohibitive costs
to firms, investors and the economy. To test the impact of the choice of cut-off points and
sampling procedures, three bankruptcy prediction models are assessed- Bayesian, Hazard
and Mixed Logit. A salient feature of the study is that the analysis includes both
parametric and nonparametric bankruptcy prediction models. A sample of firms from
Lynn M. LoPucki Bankruptcy Research Database in the U. S. was used to evaluate the
relative performance of the three models. The choice of a cut-off point and sampling
procedures were found to affect the rankings of the various models. In general, the results
indicate that the empirical cut-off point estimated from the training sample resulted in the
lowest misclassification costs for all three models. Although the Hazard and Mixed Logit
models resulted in lower costs of misclassification in the randomly selected samples, the
Mixed Logit model did not perform as well across varying business-cycles. In general,
the Hazard model has the highest predictive power. However, the higher predictive power
of the Bayesian model, when the ratio of the cost of Type I errors to the cost of Type II
errors is high, is relatively consistent across all sampling methods. Such an advantage of
the Bayesian model may make it more attractive in the current economic environment.
This study extends recent research comparing the performance of bankruptcy prediction
models by identifying under what conditions a model performs better. It also allays a
range of user groups, including auditors, shareholders, employees, suppliers, rating
agencies, and creditors' concerns with respect to assessing failure risk.


title: A stochastic dynamic programming approach for pricing options on stock-index futures

subject: Stocks

subject: Stocks -- Rate of return

subject: Commodity exchanges -- Illinois -- Chicago

subject: Stochastic programming

abstract:
The aim of this thesis is to price options on equity index futures with an application to
standard options on S&P 500 futures traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Our
methodology is based on stochastic dynamic programming, which can accommodate
European as well as American options. The model accommodates dividends from the
underlying asset. It also captures the optimal exercise strategy and the fair value of the
option. This approach is an alternative to available numerical pricing methods such as
binomial trees, finite differences, and ad-hoc numerical approximation techniques. Our
numerical and empirical investigations demonstrate convergence, robustness, and
efficiency. We use this methodology to value exchange-listed options. The European
option premiums thus obtained are compared to Black's closed-form formula. They are
accurate to four digits. The American option premiums also have a similar level of
accuracy compared to premiums obtained using finite differences and binomial trees with
a large number of time steps. The proposed model accounts for deterministic, seasonally
varying dividend yield. In pricing futures options, we discover that what matters is the
sum of the dividend yields over the life of the futures contract and not their distribution.


title: The von Neumann Minimax Theorem and its relatives and a study of externality in on-line auctions

subject: Game theory

subject: Auctions

subject: Advertising -- Computer network resources

abstract:
This work consists of a theoretical part and an experimental one. The first part
provides a simple treatment of the celebrated von Neumann minimax theorem as
formulated by Nikaid6 and Sion. It also discusses its relationships with fundamental
theorems of convex analysis.
The second part is about externality in sponsored search auctions. It shows that in
these auctions, advertisers have externality effects on each other which influence their
bidding behavior. It proposes Hal R.Varian model and shows how adding externality
to this model will affect its properties. In order to have a better understanding of
the interaction among advertisers in on-line auctions, it studies the structure of the
Google advertisements networ.k and shows that it is a small-world scale-free network.


title: Socially Constructed Environmental Issues and Sport: A Content Analysis of Ski Resort Environmental Communications

subject:
Skiing
Environment
Communication
Ski Area Citizens' Coalition
Sustainable Slopes Program

abstract: Due to the impact of sport on the natural environment (UN, 2010), it is important to examine the interplay between environmental issues and sport (Hums, 2010, Mallen & Chard, 2011; Nauright & Pope, 2009; Ziegler, 2007). This research content analyzed 82 ski resort environmental communications (SRECs). These communications were rated for their prominence, breadth, and depth using the delineation of environmental issues provided by the Sustainable Slopes Program (SSP) Charter. This data was compared to the resorts’ degree of environmentally responsible action as rated by the Ski Area Citizens’ Coalition (SACC). An adaptation of Hudson and Miller's (2005) model was then used to classify the ski resorts as inactive, reactive, exploitive, or proactive in their environmental activities. Recommendations have been made for standardization and transparency in environmental disclosures and an environmental management system to aid ski resorts in moving from ad hoc processes to a systematic and comprehensive framework for improving environmental performance.


title: Liquidity, institutional ownership and regulation fair disclosure

subject: Liquidity (Economics)

subject: Corporations -- Finance

subject: Investments

subject: Financial statements -- Auditing -- Standards

abstract:
There is a body of academic literature addressing two issues of importance for leveling the
playing field for all classes of investors: 1) the impact of institutional investors on liquidity; and
2) the impact of Regulation Fair Disclosure on institutional investors and liquidity. Our study
addresses both issues with the purpose of attaining a better understanding and explanation of this
relationship. We classify institutional ownership according to Bushee's (1998, 2001)
methodology; transient institutions, dedicated institutions and quasi-indexers. Our results indicate
that while transient institutions and quasi-indexers have a positive impact on liquidity, dedicated
institutional ownership is negatively associated with liquidity. This result is consistent with prior
theoretical studies. We also find that the effectiveness ofthe Regulation Fair Disclosure in
improving liquidity is limited to firms with higher transient institutional ownership, whereas
quasi-indexed institutions have not been significantly affected by the regulations. In fact, the
liquidity of firms is lower for firms with higher dedicated institutional holdings, which is
evidence of the "chilling effect".